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WASHINGTON: China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and
Bangladesh have been identified as among the worst violators of
refugees’ rights in a global survey released ahead of Friday’s
World Refugees Day. They joined Iraq, Kenya, Russia, Sudan and
Europe as the 10 worst places for refugees last year, according to
the World Refugee Survey 2008 released in Washington on Thursday.
The annual study also showed the total number of refugees growing to
14 million at the end of 2007, the largest it has been since 2001.
--AFP
SEOUL: South Korea’s embattled
President Lee Myung Bak was due Friday to replace his top aides to
give his new government a fresh start after weeks of mass protests
against a US beef import deal. The US and South Korea were
reportedly close to agreement on extra safeguards for the imports to
ease Koreans’ fears of mad cow disease. In further good news for
Lee after a testing month, truckers who crippled ports with a strike
against high fuel prices were going back to work.
--AFP
KATHMANDU: Police in Nepal on
Thursday detained more than 700 Tibetan exiles protesting outside
the Chinese embassy and formally arrested three top activists for
alleged anti-China activities, officials said. “We have rounded up
hundreds of Tibetan protesters. The number is over 700,” said
Nawaratna Poudel, a police officer outside the Chinese embassy in
Kathmandu—the scene of almost daily protests. “This is probably
the largest number of detentions in a single day so far,” he said.
--AFP
KABUL: At least ten civilians
were killed and another six injured in Afghanistan Friday morning
when a suicide bomber blew himself up near one NATO vehicle in
southern Afghan province of Helmand, local police said. The incident
took place at around 9 a.m. (GMT0430) when a suicide attacker coming
on foot suddenly exploded himself near a NATO vehicle that patrolled
outside a local bazaar in Gereshk district of Helmand province,
provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told Xinhua.
--Xinhua
JERUSALEM: Israel is ready to
make major concessions on the redrawing of its borders in an effort
to secure peace with Syria and the Palestinians, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview broadcast Thursday on BBC
Arabic Television. “There is no cause or reason to enter a war
with Syria,” Olmert said, adding that his government was
determined to continue efforts towards bridging the “historical
gap” between Israel and Syria through negotiations.
--Xinhua
WASHINGTON: A group of US
schoolgirls in the Massachusetts fishing town of Gloucester made a
pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together, a report said
Thursday. Time magazine reported that 17 girls at Gloucester High
School are expecting babies “more than four times the number of
pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year.” “Nearly
half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making
a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together,” Joseph
Sullivan, principal of the high school told Time.
--AFP
BEIJING: Asian and European
parliamentarians on Friday called on partners of the Asia-Europe
Parliamentary Partnership Meeting to promote dialogue and
cooperation in a bid to raise the influence of the bloc and benefit
the people on the two continents. Vu Viet Ngoan, vice chairman of
the Economic Committee of Vietnamese National Assembly said, “I
think it is very important for both continents to promote
parliamentary cooperation to further promote trade and investment by
playing their roles actively.”
--Xinhua
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon shrugged
off a Financial Times online report on Thursday stating that US
military authorities are unable to find hundreds of nuclear missile
components, arguing it is only a simple record-keeping woe. The US
air force has not located these registered components in its
inventories, according to a Pentagon report which, according to some
sources, puts the number of missing components at more than 1,000,
the FT reported. The Defense Department acknowledged having
inventory problems but without confirming problems with nuclear
components.
--AFP
KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia: A rebel
party in Malaysia’s ruling coalition Friday won the backing of
members to press ahead with its no-confidence vote against embattled
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. After a six-hour marathon
session, top leaders of the Sabah Progressive Party endorsed party
president Yong Teck Lee who on Wednesday called for the
no-confidence move against the premier. “Majority of the supreme
council members supported the motion of no confidence against the
prime minister,” Yong said.
--AFP
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