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NEW DELHI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday
appealed to the world community to “please help” resolve the
crisis in his homeland that has been rocked by deadly anti-Chinese
protests. “We have no power except justice, truth, sincerity, that
is why I appeal to the world community to please help,” the
Buddhist icon told a news conference in the Indian capital, where he
was conducting meditation sessions. “I am here helpless, I just
pray,” said the exiled spiritual leader two weeks after protests
in the Himalayan region turned deadly, leading to calls for a
boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games. The Dalai Lama
reiterated that he wanted to open a dialogue with the Chinese
leadership to end the unrest in Tibet.
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: Hardliners in North Korea’s
powerful military may be resisting a US-led deal for the hardline
communist state to disband its nuclear weapons program, US experts
say. The military, the experts said, will be the most affceted by
any surrender of atomic arms by North Korea, which on Friday fired a
volley of missiles with a warning it might stop disabling its
nuclear arsenal as part of an agreed multilateral deal. Keith Luse,
a senior US Senate official, suggested in a report on his return
from a recent trip to Pyongyang that the North Korean military could
possibly unravel the aid-for-disarmament deal which the
administration of Kim Jong-il reached with the United States, China,
the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.
-- AFP
DILI: East Timor’s government on Saturday
appealed to 23 international donor countries for $33.5 million in
aid for the impoverished nation during a meeting here. “It is
critical for the government to receive continuous financial support
from the international community during this crucial 2008 transition
period,” Vice Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres said. “Some of
the funds would go to emergency aid to internally displaced peoples
and for food assistance.” East Timor has been rocked by troubles
in recent years. More than 100,000 people were estimated to have
fled their homes amid bloody unrest in 2006, while renegade soldiers
attacked President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao
in separate assaults last February. Gusmao was unscathed, but Ramos-Horta
was shot and spent weeks recovering in an Australian hospital.
-- AFP
BEIJING: The food safety watchdog in southern
Guangdong Province warned against tainted dairy products
manufactured by a Zhuhai dairy company after more than 100 children
were reported vomiting after drinking the milk, a Guangzhou-based
newspaper reported on Saturday. The provincial food safety agency
had sealed up 4,167 boxes of the milk suspected of contamination
while the manufacturer, Zhuhai Weiwei Daheng Dairy Company, recalled
another 2,706 boxes of such product. The government warned consumers
in five cities, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Foshan, Zhongshan and Guangzhou
against the risk of drinking 150-ml high-calcium milk, which was
packed on March 26. Some 75 children in a few day cares in both
Zhuhai and Jiangmen were reported sick after drinking the products
on Wednesday.
-- Xinhua
THE HAGUE: An Internet site said Saturday it had
removed anti-Islam film “Fitna” by far-right Dutch MP Geert
Wilders after receiving threats to its staff amid protests by Muslim
nations and the UN chief. The Britain-based Liveleak.com said it
pulled down the video, which can still be seen on other websites,
including youtube.com. The film was posted to the Internet on
Thursday. “Following threats to our staff of a very serious
nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the
British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our
staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove
‘Fitna’ from our servers,” the site said.
-- AFP
BAGHDAD: Clashes between Shiite gunmen and Iraqi
and US troops in Baghdad’s Sadr City have killed at least 75
people and wounded nearly 500 over the past four days, an Iraqi
health official said on Saturday. “Seventy-five people have been
killed and 498 wounded in clashes in Sadr City in the last four
days,” Qassim Mohammed, a spokesman for Baghdad health
directorate, told reporters Saturday. Mohammed also accused the US
forces of “creating obstacles” in transporting victims of the
violence outside Sadr City. “They are preventing even
international aid workers to help the wounded,” he said during a
visit to Sadr City’s Imam Ali hospital. Unrest erupted after Iraqi
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Shiite
fighters.
-- AFP
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania: US Democratic
presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday stepped up efforts to
wrest away his rival Hillary Clinton’s blue-collar base amid
heightening fears about the country’s sagging economy. Obama was
at the beginning of a six-day foray into Pennsylvania, a Clinton
stronghold, as Democratic Party angst mounted over fallout from
their fierce White House race. Democratic chief Howard Dean warned
both sides that whoever loses their testy battle must fall in line
behind the winner to unite the party. Top Obama backer Senator
Patrick Leahy said there was no way Clinton could win and she should
fold her effort and allow Obama to take on presumptive Republican
nominee John McCain.
-- AFP
NEW DELHI: A woman accused of being a witch was
tied to a tree and badly beaten by villagers in eastern India in an
incident broadcast on television. The attack came to light after
footage of the beating was aired late Friday. Villagers in Gumaria
located at the poverty-ridden state of Bihar accused Sunita Devi,
50, of practicing witchcraft, the United News of India said. The
television footage showed villagers, who said she brought misfortune
to their families, tying her up on Thursday and beating her despite
her cries of innocence. She was later paraded through the village.
Police intervened, arresting half of a dozen villagers, adding the
woman was expected to give evidence against her attackers.
-- AFP
BOGOTA: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on
Friday pressured FARC rebels to free hostages including the
Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt after his government offered what
amounted to a prisoner swap. “I am today calling on those holding
doctor Ingrid Betancourt and the other hostages to liberate them, to
make a big contribution to the country, to hear this cry from the
heart of the Colombians,” Uribe said. He promised an amnesty and
payment from a 100-million-dollar state fund to those who obeyed and
renounced their membership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), which Bogota has been fighting for four decades.
His words came one day after Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis
Carlos Restrepo, offered to release FARC rebels from prison if their
leftwing group freed Betancourt, who is gravely ill at 46 years of
age.
-- AFP
ROME: A total of 20 Italian buffalo farms have
been tested positive for raised dioxin levels, the country’s
health minister said Friday, as the country began recalling tainted
mozzarella from the market. Nevertheless, Singapore announced it was
joining Japan and South Korea in banning Italian mozzarella sales as
a precautionary measure until laboratory tests could “determine if
they have been contaminated with dioxin”. Rome’s decision to
withdraw the famous cheese from sale led the European Union to
conclude that no action to protect consumers was necessary, and
France quickly reversed a decision to pull imports of the cheese
from the shelves. The scare began last week when samples of
mozzarella from the Naples region, which is made from buffalo milk,
were found to have raised dioxin levels.
-- AFP
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