|
DHRAMSHALA, India: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama
came in for tough criticism Monday from prominent radical exiles
demanding a review of his nonviolent campaign for autonomy within
China. The leader of the pro-independence Tibetan Youth Congress
publicly criticized the Dalai Lama’s refusal to call for a boycott
of the Beijing Olympic Games and urged protests in the Himalayan
region to continue. “Human-rights issues inside Tibet have
deteriorated. It’s evident that they do not deserve the
Olympics,” Tsewang Rigzin told reporters.
-- AFP
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new parliament met on
Monday, setting the stage for a showdown between key US ally
President Pervez Musharraf and a coalition government that
immediately vowed to take him on. Slain ex-prime minister Benazir
Bhutto’s party will lead the coalition after winning the most
seats in elections in February, with the grouping of former premier
Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in 1999, as junior partner.
-- AFP
PARIS: Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing party
suffered losses in French local elections Sunday, poll projections
showed, in what the opposition Socialists called a “punishment
vote” for the reforming president. The vote, the first major test
of Sarkozy’s popularity since he defeated the Socialist Segelone
Royal in May, was seen as a referendum on the achievements of a
president whose opinion poll ratings have plummeted. The Socialists
won cities across the country including Strasbourg, Toulouse and the
right-wing bastions of Amiens, Caen and Reims after the final round
of the vote, projections by Ipsos-Dell and TNS Sofres said.
-- AFP
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s presidential election
frontrunner vowed Monday to press for closer ties with China despite
the unrest in Tibet, brushing off concerns that the violence could
swing the vote against him. “Taiwan is not Tibet,” Ma Ying-jeou
said, defending his plans to negotiate a peace agreement with China
and forge closer trade links if he is elected in Saturday’s vote.
Analysts say the violence in the Himalayan region may persuade some
swing voters to switch to the ruling Democratic Progressive
Party’s candidate Frank Hsieh.
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: US astronauts prepared to again
venture outside the International Space Station Monday to finish
assembling a Canadian mechanical maintenance robot named Dexter.
Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Robert Behnken will spend most
of the day “camping out” in the station’s “Quest Airlock”
to purge nitrogen from their bodies before they begin the third
spacewalk of the mission that will begin at 7:23 p.m. (2323 GMT).
-- AFP
SRINAGAR, India: A top Pakistani militant
commander, an Indian army officer and a soldier were killed in a
fierce gun battle in northern revolt-hit Kashmir, the army said
Monday. The fighting erupted late Sunday near the town of Sopore,
about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Indian Kashmir’s summer
capital Srinagar, after Indian troops received a tip-off, army
spokesman Anil Mathur told Agence France-Presse.
-- AFP
BAGHDAD: US Vice-President Dick Cheney swept
into Baghdad on an unannounced visit Monday, looking to highlight
security gains and promote elusive political progress days before
the war enters its sixth year. Cheney was expected to meet with the
top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US
ambassador here, Ryan Crocker, as well as hold talks with Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi political figures.
-- AFP
COLOMBO: At least 31 Tamil Tiger rebels and two
security personnel were killed in weekend clashes in Sri Lanka’s
north, the defense ministry said Monday. Security forces battled the
rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the districts of
Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna, leaving 17 rebels dead on Saturday and
another 14 dead on Sunday, the ministry said.
-- AFP
|
