2/29/00
- Pak forces
resort to heavy firing along LoC
- President
Wahid flies to East Timor
- Taiwan
readies anti-ship cruise missile
- US 'will
pay high price' for military intervention
2/28/00
- Artillery
duel in Kashmir
- Troops
'on alert' in Kashmir
2/26/00
- Reformists
win firm control of Iranian parliament
2/25/00
- US Indians'
word of advice to Clinton
- National security
to be reviewed
- US may
send top-level support team
- Shipping
firms offered Gurkhas for protection
2/23/00
- Sect
member 'dies after force-feeding'
- Pacific
nation seeks sanctuary for 10,500 as waters rise
- Red
Cross appeal for Mongolia
- Cell
phone services transform Bangladesh villages
JAMMU: An Army jawan was killed in
Palanwala area of Chamb sector, while
heavy firing and shelling took place
between Pakistani and Indian troops
in Jhanghar, Uri and Tanghdar sectors
along the Line of Control in Jammu
and Kashmir since Sunday night,
defence sources said here on Monday.
The sources said a jawan injured
in firing by Pakistani troops on Sunday
evening died.
Pakistani troops, they said, rained
shells in Jhanghar and Laam area in
Noushera sector since Sunday evening
forcing the Indian troops to
retaliate effectively. However,
no loss of life was reported on the Indian
side, they said.
Pakistani troops had attacked an
Indian post in the area earlier on Monday
killing eight Indian soldiers. During
the retaliatory fire Pakistani
troops had also suffered heavy casualties
and fled back along with bodies
of their soldiers.
Reports from northwest Kashmir said
heavy firing and shelling between the
two sides also took place in Uri
and Tangdhar areas during the past 24
hours, the sources said.
Meanwhile, militants late on Sunday
night opened indiscriminate fire on a
Hindu locality on the periphery
of Harni village in Mendhar tehsil of
Poonch and killed four persons,
the Army reported on Monday.
Three of the victims - a woman, her
daughter and son - belonged to one
family, while the fourth, a woman,
was their neighbour.
On July 1, last year, nine members
of the minority community had been
massacred in the adjoining village
of Ari in the same district.
The massacre was on Sunday was condemned
by members in the legislative
assembly who said during zero hour
that special measures should be taken
to protect minority pockets in militancy-
prone areas of the state. Ruling
National Conference members, however,
said that no attempt should be made
to give a communal colour to the
incident.
Opposition members, belonging to
the BJP, Congress, Panthers Party and JD
(U), however, staged a walkout shouting
anti-Pakistan slogans.
India says there has been another intense
exchange of artillery fire between Indian and
Pakistani troops across the line dividing
Kashmir.
Indian military officials in Srinagar said at least
one Indian soldier was killed in the exchanges,
which began on Sunday night and continued
on Monday along the southern, northern and
north-western zones of the demarcation line.
There has been no word from Pakistan on the
fighting.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Tension is said to have increased along
ceasefire line
Indian forces were reported to be on
high alert on Monday as firing
continued along the Line of Control
between Indian and
Pakistani-adminstered Kashmir.
All India Radio quoted
an Indian army
spokesman as saying
the situation was
"volatile."
In a separate incident, three women
and a child have been killed by
suspected militants in the Jammu
region.
Police said the attack took place in
Poonch district, and that three male
members of the family are still
missing.
A big search operation has been
launched to find the killers.
Poonch town observed a general
strike in protest at the attack.
Pakistani 'raid'
On Sunday, India said seven of its
soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn
attack by Pakistani troops who raided
a military post in Indian-administered
Kashmir.
Major-General PPS
Bindra said the
soldiers were
killed in a raid at
0430 (local time)
across the Line of
Control (LoC) on a
listening post in
the Naushera
sector, which is
surrounded on
three sides by
Pakistani army
positions.
General Bindra said the bodies of six
men had been recovered by army
reinforcements who had moved into
Naushera.
The military said that the body of the
seventh man could have been
dragged away across the LoC by the
Pakistani raiding party.
Pakistan has denied any involvement.
Clashes
There have been almost daily clashes
in Kashmir between Indian and
Pakistani troops, in what
correspondents describe as
heightened tension in the area.
Last week, Pakistan accused Indian
soldiers of crossing the ceasefire line
and killing 14 civilians in
Pakistan-administered Kashmir. India
strongly denied this.
Independent reports from the area
are rare - a UN monitoring group
operates on the Pakistani side, but
its investigations remain secret.
Sunday's clash would be the third in
the same part of Kashmir in the past
five weeks.
India said it killed 16 Pakistani
soldiers and lost two of its own in a
cross-border attack on 22 January.
Delhi said four more of its soldiers
were killed in another attack by
Pakistani forces on 17 February.
India and Pakistan have fought three
wars since their independence in
1947, two of them over control of
Kashmir.
Taiwan
readies anti-ship
cruise missile
Taiwan has fixed technical glitches that have stalled the
development of an anti-ship cruise missile that can
counter China's advanced Russian-made weaponry,
Taiwan newspapers reported yesterday.
The military's Chunghshan Institute of Science and
Technology had solved problems involving the casing
and size of the Hsiungfeng, or Brave Wind, III missile,
the United Daily News said.
The Hsiungfeng III was tested once last year, when
officials discovered that its guidance and high-pressure
power systems were faulty, the newspaper said, quoting
military authorities.
-top-
US
'will pay high price'
for military intervention
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The commander of US forces in the Pacific met
mainland military leaders yesterday as Beijing warned
Washington it would pay a high price for any military
intervention over Taiwan.
Admiral Dennis Blair arrived in Beijing late on Sunday
for two days of talks at a time when tension over
Taiwan is at boiling point after Beijing's ultimatum to
enter dialogue or face invasion.
The threat in a new policy paper last week provoked an
outcry from US lawmakers, defiance from Taiwan and a
firm warning to Beijing from the White House to stop
the sabre-rattling.
US officials said the admiral's visit was planned long
before Beijing released its Taiwan White Paper, but
added that the issue of cross-strait tension would be
discussed in his talks.
The US Embassy and Chinese officials refused all
comment on Admiral Blair's visit, and mainland military
officers accompanying the admiral to his Beijing hotel
yesterday scuffled with waiting photographers and
ripped out their films.
The heightened cross-strait tension comes ahead of the
March 18 Taiwan presidential elections, and analysts
see Beijing's threats as an attempt to intimidate
candidates and voters.
Yesterday, the People's Liberation Army Daily
published an article saying Beijing had the military
strength to launch a damaging counter-attack if
Washington intervened militarily.
"If they get involved, the American policy-makers will
have to consider the great pressure they will shoulder
and the high costs they will pay," said Professor Zhu
Chengdu, deputy director of the army university's
institute of strategic studies.
The President wants to rebuild ties
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid is
flying to East Timor for his first visit since it
voted for independence last August.
The president will hold talks with political and
religious leaders there, as well as laying the
foundation stone for an official Indonesian
office in the capital, Dili.
It is hoped the visit will start
a process of reconciliation,
following last year's violence
involving pro-Jakarta militias
and members of the
Indonesian armed forces.
Before leaving for East Timor, the President
promised to provide whatever assistance he
could to help rebuild the territory.
Much of it now lies in
ruins after the massive
outbreak of killings and
arson which
accompanied the vote
for independence.
Militia gangs backed by
the Indonesian armed
forces have been held
responsible for the
violence.
In reality, though,
there is little practical assistance that
Indonesia can provide. Instead, reconstruction
is now in the hands of the United Nations.
After visiting Dili, Mr Wahid is expected to fly
on to West Timor, where tens of thousands of
refugees from the east are still living in
makeshift camps.
Independence leader, José Ramos Horta, has
appealed to the President to control militia
gangs which are still active in the camps.
Job for Kissinger
Before his departure, Mr Wahid appointed
former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
as his political adviser.
Calling himself a
'patriotic American', Mr
Kissinger said he would
gladly assist in the
south-east Asian
nation's transition to
democracy.
He said he would be
consulting Mr Wahid at
least once a year on
political and social
policy.
The appointment appears to be a gesture
aimed at boosting international confidence in
Indonesia's reform program. But critics say
that the US is too pro-Indonesian.
There are allegations that, before Indonesia's
bloody invasion of East Timor in 1975, Mr
Kissinger visited Jakarta and gave the
then-president Suharto tacit approval for the
attack.
Cabinet reshuffle
Also on Monday, the Indonesian armed forces
announced a reshuffle of almost 50 senior and
mid-ranking officers.
The changes are expected to strengthen Mr
Wahid's plans to reform the military and to
weaken the influence of the former armed
forces commander, General Wiranto.
But this was not the sweeping reshuffle of the
military that some had expected.
A number of officers appointed to top positions
by the former military commander, General
Wiranto, kept their jobs.
-top-
Copyright © 2000 Nando
Media
Copyright © 2000 Associated
Press
By AFSHIN VALINEJAD
TEHRAN, Iran (February 26, 2000 6:54
a.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com) - Reformists
gained firm
control of Iran's parliament after
the final election
tally announced Saturday gave them
a near-sweep
of the crucial Tehran district -
a big victory for
supporters of the political and
social changes
pushed by the nation's moderate
president.
With the results, hard-liners were
ousted from
control of the 290-seat parliament,
or Majlis, for
the first time since the 1979 Islamic
revolution
brought the clergy to power.
Reformists won 170 seats, hard-liners
and
conservatives 45 and independents
10; 65 seats
would be decided in run-offs in
April, the official
Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The reformists, led by Mohamadreza
Khatami,
younger brother of the president,
won 29 of the 30
seats in the capital. Former President
Hashemi
Rafsanjani, once considered a moderate
but
increasingly identified as a conservative,
secured
the 30th seat.
Even Rafsanjani's victory was considered
a blow to
conservatives and to his own political
future - he
won just 25.58 percent of the vote,
barely
surpassing the 25 percent minimum
needed to avoid
a run-off. He placed last on the
list of candidates
to secure a Tehran seat.
Although beaten in the elections,
the hard-liners
still wield power through key institutions
such as
the Guardians Council, which must
approve all
legislation. But reformists say
they are confident
that hard-liners will not want to
use those powers
to block legislation and risk angering
a majority of
Iranians.
Jamileh Kadivar, a popular columnist
who is the
sister of jailed dissident Mohsen
Kadivar, gained the
second-highest number of votes.
Alireza Nouri, who
has called for a national referendum
to decide
whether to open a dialogue with
the United States,
came in third. Nouri's brother,
Abdollah, is another
prominent dissident.
Tehran results from the Feb. 18 election
were the
last to come in because they had
to be recounted,
Interior Ministry officials said.
About 3 million people
voted in the capital.
Rafsanjani was backed by conservatives
but also
by one reformist party. However,
most voters saw
him as having moved firmly into
the hard-line camp.
He was the first leader after the
1979 revolution to
reach out to his neighbors and to
the West,
believing that Iran needed outside
help to rebuild
after a ruinous war with Iraq.
But in a Friday prayer sermon, Rafsanjani
spoke out
against the United States.
Addressing a crowd of thousands of
Tehran
University students chanting "Death
to America,"
he criticized a U.S. Senate bill
passed Thursday
which allows for sanctions on countries
helping Iran
with its weapons program.
"On the one hand they express willingness
to have
relations with Iran, and on the
other they pass
laws which seek to punish countries
helping Iran
with its weapons program," said
Rafsanjani, who
heads a powerful advisory body.
It was the first comment on the bill
by an Iranian
official.
"The United States has to accept
that it has made
mistakes in the past with regard
to Iran and the
U.S. must return to us what is rightfully
ours and
prove their good will if they want
to have a
dialogue with Tehran," he said.
Khatami, who heads the most influential
reformist
movement, the Islamic Iran Participation
Front, also
has said that Iran wants U.S. actions
and not just
words.
His brother, President Mohammad Khatami,
who
came to power in 1997, has encouraged
increased
people-to-people contact with the
United States
but has stopped short of calling
for talks.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright renewed an offer to talk
directly to Iran
about U.S. concerns with Iranian
policies -
including accusations that it sponsors
terrorism, is
trying to sabotage Middle East peacemaking
and
seeks to amass an arsenal of weapons
of mass
destruction.
The United States froze Iranian assets
valued at
$12 billion in 1979 after the overthrow
of the
U.S.-backed shah and the capture
of U.S.
hostages.
PIRACY
Shipping
firms offered
Gurkhas for protection
REUTERS in Sydney
A UK firm is offering shipping companies the services of
up to 300 former British Army Gurkhas to combat
piracy, particularly in Asia.
Anglo Marine Overseas Services Ltd has written to
shipping firms offering "anti-piracy embarkation teams"
of up to eight Gurkhas.
One letter received by Australia's Western Bulk
Carriers states the primary mission of the Gurkhas is to
deter piracy, but a "secondary mission is to manage the
event should deterrence fail against a determined
boarding party".
"These men are available at reasonable rates of pay and
average 16 years' British military experience," the letter
said.
The London-based company said two Japanese firms
were negotiating the possible use of Gurkhas, but
stressed they would be unarmed.
"What we are offering is not an armed unit," the general
manager of Anglo Marine, Captain Sal Irfan, said.
He said the Japanese shipping firms, which he would not
name but said operated small 25,000-tonne bulk
carriers through Indonesian waters, had sought an
armed force.
"We explained we do not do that type of work,"
Captain Irfan said. "We advised them against it. In a
situation like that, putting arms on board will make the
situation worse."
He said Gurkhas were martial arts experts and could
repel pirates in hand-to-hand combat.
Gurkhas were already stationed on casino vessels and
ferries operating out of Hong Kong, he said. "We have
an establishment in Hong Kong which is already
providing guards or protection to casino vessels and
ferry boats."
The International Maritime Bureau said it had not heard
of Anglo Marine Overseas Services, but had heard of
other firms offering anti-piracy mercenaries.
-top-
US
may send top-level
support team
REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS in Washington
The Clinton administration is considering sending a
high-level team to China to bolster congressional
support for a landmark trade agreement, US Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman said.
"I don't think any final decision has been made yet," Mr
Glickman said after a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
The delegation could include Mr Glickman, Commerce
Secretary William Daley and congressmen, he said.
But Mr Glickman added his voice to warnings that
Beijing's recent threat to attack Taiwan if the two
countries did not soon begin reunification talks could
make it more difficult to win approval of the China trade
deal.
"If they engage in extremely bellicose talk, it makes life a
lot more difficult to get this approved in the Congress,"
he said.
Under the terms of a deal with the US to join the World
Trade Organisation, China has agreed to slash tariffs
and lower other import barriers in areas ranging from
agriculture to telecommunications. In return, Congress
must approve permanent Normal Trade Relations
(NTR). That favourable market access status is
currently subject to annual review.
Earlier this month China's ambassador to the US, Li
Zhoaxing, invited Mr Glickman to visit Beijing. Mr
Glickman accepted, but said on Wednesday he was still
working with the rest of the administration on the details.
Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers stressed that
the administration continued to believe it was
"enormously in our commercial interests" for China to
win permanent NTR as well as gaining WTO
membership.
"I am very hopeful that the national interests will prevail
and we will see China's admission to the WTO this
year," he said.
Another senior official, White House economic adviser
Gene Sperling, said China had assured the US it would
not stand in the way of Taiwan's WTO entry.
"I have personally been in meetings with top-ranking
Chinese officials where they have made it clear that
once they are into the WTO, they will not in any way
object to the accession of Taiwan . . . and we have no
reason to think otherwise," he said.
Mr Sperling reiterated the US rejection of any Chinese
use of force against Taiwan but said China's entry into
the WTO made sense.
"We believe that . . . the situation, whatever we think, is
likely to be better in the future with China as part of the
global community and a constructive member," he said.
"We're confident that the more people know about the
China WTO agreement that we negotiated in November
the more that they will support it," said Mr Sperling.
He said the US would lose the benefits of
market-opening agreements it won from China if the US
Congress rejected the deal and US businesses would
watch as competitors marched into China's growing
Internet, service and other markets.
"Under any interpretation, for the United States
Congress to reject permanent NTR with China would
be a significant self-inflicted wound on our economic
competitiveness," he said.
-top-
NEW DELHI, FEB. 24. The Government
has decided to order a thorough review
of the national security set-up
in its entirety in the backdrop of the
Subrahmanyam Committee report which
was tabled in the Lok Sabha today. The
review will be undertaken by an
``appropriate body.''
The K. Subrahmanyam Committee, set
up in July last, has focussed attention
on ``preventing the recurrence of
Kargil-like episodes''. The shortcomings
and failures in the intelligence
set-up, which led to the intrusion, have
been analysed. Events which led
to the intrusion have also been
reconstructed.
The three-member committee concluded
that the intrusion by Pakistan in
Kargil, which is likely to have
begun in February 1999, took the entire
Indian security establishment by
surprise. The former Pakistani Prime
Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, was
``at least aware'' of the broad thrust of
the Kargil plan when he welcomed
the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari
Vajpayee, in Lahore.
While analysing the collective failure
in Kargil, the committee has made
key recommendations to revamp the
national intelligence apparatus. The
panel says the country's ``surveillance
capability'', particularly through
satellite imagery, is grossly inadequate.
It advocates the examination of
setting up a ``national surveillance
command'' for handling satellite
surveillance.
Remotely-Piloted Vehicles (RPVs),
which are unmanned, can play an
``extremely useful'' role in surveillance
and need to be deployed in
high-altitude areas also. With night-fighting
acquiring greater
prominence, these RPVs should be
equipped with thermal imaging sensors.
While paying special attention to
the importance of electronic
intelligence, the panel recommends
that a new organisation, on lines of
the National Security Agency (NSA)
of the United States, could be set up.
The role of the Joint Intelligence
Committee (JIC) as a single
coordinating hub for inputs received
from the military and civilian
agencies, needs to reexamined.
-top-
WASHINGTON: A small but influential
delegation of Indian Americans under
the aegis of the Indian-American
Leadership Forum is to be briefed at the
White House on the upcoming visit
to South Asia by President Clinton where
it is expected to make a persuasive
pitch for making expanded business and
commercial ties the fundamental
focus of the State visit rather than the
perennial bureaucratic staples -
non-proliferation, terrorism and
Pakistan.
About 20 Indian Americans who will
be at the White House on Thursday -
among them current and past presidents
of Indian- American organisations
representing the hotel industry,
physicians, information technology and
others - will not be in dissonance
with current administration thinking.
This was reflected in the remarks
made by Pentagon's chief spokesman
Kenneth Bacon, who said the primary
focus of the visit would be ``economic
development.''
The members of the group who are
expected to be briefed by Clinton's
special advisor Bruce Riedel, Don
Camp, a director, and where others like
state department's assistant secretary
for South Asian affairs Karl
Inderfurth may be present, will
present a jointly signed memorandum. The
Times of India has learnt that the
memo suggests that the emphasis be
given on issues that embody the
``natural synergy'' between the two
countries and add emphasis on those
issues that have created a ``political
wedge'' in the past. It refers to
the fact that India is ``constantly
threatened by Islamic terrorism''
at ``one end of the border'' and ``an
expansionist communist dictatorship
on another'' and calls on Washington
to ``understand and respect India's
sovereign right to determine the
methods and levels of its national
security.''
It says an American presidential
visit after two decades should have a
deeper resonance than focusing ``narrowly
on nuclear proliferation'' and
that the Indian American community
firmly believes that a genuine emphasis
on trade and investment holds the
key to a better Indo-US relationship.
And by following this strategic
framework, the US can help ``unleash the
inherent synergy between the US
and Indian economies thus reaping gigantic
rewards for both countries for decades
to come.''
Among those invited for the briefing
are Swadesh Chatterjee, president of
the Indian American Forum for political
education, Kanwal S Rekhi,
founder-president of Tie Enterprises,
Bakulesh Patel, chairman of the
hotels association, Shekhar Tiwari,
a prominent leader of the community,
Krishna Srinivasa, former president
of IAFPE, Kumar Barve, delegate at the
Maryland legislature, Kishan Agrawall,
of the physicians association,
Sudhir Parikh and Mohan Shah, chairman
of the New York-based Appletree
Group.
It is unclear how many Indian Americans
will actually accompany the
presidential entourage since the
White House is still in the throes of
tying up many loose ends. A well
informed source said it was now like a
``chaotic orchestra without a Zubin
Mehta's baton to conduct it''.
Decisions on a likely Pakistani
stopover, the precise component of the
business entourage will emerge by
the end of this week. A source told this
newspaper that chief operating officers,
CEOs and vice-presidents of
leading American corporations have
busy schedules and would need a precise
answer by the weekend. As many as
60 of them are likely to accompany the
President.
The exact presidential itinerary
in India has gone through myriad
transformations: the latest schedule
apparently includes stopovers in
Jaipur and Kanpur - the latter to
enable Clinton to get his honorary
doctorate from IIT Kanpur. But it
is the Pakistani halt that has fuelled
intense speculation despite fears
for the President's security in that
country - nine Senators led by the
influential Senate minority leader Tom
Daschle - have in a joint letter
beseeched Clinton not to ignore Pakistan.
The Indian Americans - whose ``political
evolution'' and their
newly-acquired skills in navigating
in political Washington have been a
subject of admiring articles in
the mainstream American press - have
unerringly focused on business and
commercial ties while stressing that it
is time the Clinton administration
finally made some ``real decisions'' on
easing the strangulating sanctions
imposed on India.
They realise all this talk of ``natural
synergy'' between the two
countries and a determined push
to broaden economic ties will prove
meaningless unless Washington now
takes decisive measures in lifting the
sanctions.
-top-
Copyright © 2000 Nando
Media
Copyright © 2000 Associated
Press
By FARID HOSSAIN
JOLARPAR, Bangladesh (February 22,
2000 4:20
p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com)
- Sitting outside
her mud-walled hut, Jamirunnesa
dials her Nokia cell
phone to find out about the latest
poultry prices.
Monir Chowdhury, a neighbor, arrives
panting to
take a long distance call from his
brother working in
Malaysia. Later, village doctor
Tofazzal Hossain
comes to use the phone to arrange
an appointment
with a specialist in the city for
one of his patients.
Jamirunnesa runs a mobile phone service,
the only
phone for the 5,000 people in the
farming village of
Jolarpar, 20 miles north of Dhaka,
the capital.
She bought it a year ago with help
from a bank
that makes small loans to poor women
to start
home-based businesses - an example
of the
"microcredit" projects discussed
at a conference
last week in Washington.
Besides serving her neighbors for
a fee, the phone
helps the 38-year-old mother of
four earn a profit
from the poultry farm she runs.
"There are buyers who want to cheat
me. But they
can't because I've got the phone,
which comes in
handy to know at what rate the chickens
are
selling in the markets," Jamirunnesa
says, waving
her handset.
In Bangladesh, even ordinary telephones
are still a
luxury. Less than 1 percent of the
125 million
people have a phone of any kind.
The country's
100,000 mobile phones are usually
for the urban
rich.
Jamirunnesa, who like many Bangladeshis
uses only
one name, bought the phone with
a loan of 18,000
takas ($360) from Grameen Bank,
which specializes
in helping the poor get a start
in business.
Grameen Bank, established in 1976
by Muhammad
Yunus, then a university economics
teacher, is the
pioneer of microcredit as a way
of building the
economies of developing nations.
Since its
founding, it has lent $2 billion
to 2.3 million
Bangladeshis, most of them poor
rural women.
GrameenPhone, the bank's telecommunications
subsidiary, is one of four commercial
cellular phone
companies in Bangladesh, but the
only one to
extend its service to the mostly
illiterate
countryside.
It draws the operators of its public
phone service
from borrowers who already have
established good
credit and demonstrated business
talent.
"A telephone is no longer a luxury
for villagers," said
Mehbub Chowdhury, who heads the
marketing of
the mobile phones. "It's a tool
for economic
growth."
Jamirunnesa, who has had almost no
formal
education, averages a monthly profit
of $50 from
the phone service - twice Bangladesh's
per capita
income.
When she took her first loan 10 years
ago, her
family could not afford three meals
a day, a
situation faced by about half of
all Bangladeshis.
She used the money to buy a cow and
quickly
repaid the loan by selling milk.
Then three years
ago, she borrowed $200 to start
a poultry farm.
Now, with the additional revenue
from the phone
business, she has acquired a piece
of farm land,
bought two electric fans for her
hut, and is banking
some of her earnings.
"Ten years ago, we had lost all hopes.
Today, I find
life worth living," says Jamirunnesa,
wearing one of
several new cotton saris in her
wardrobe.
Since the first village mobile phone
was introduced
in 1997, GrameenPhone has set up
phone-service
operators in 1,114 villages and
plans to reach an
additional 886 villages this year.
The company conducts a one-day training
course
for the operator. The only condition
is that at least
one family member must recognize
the English
alphabet used on the phone dial.
By giving the franchise to poor women,
the service
also has a social impact by challenging
the
traditional control of wealthier
landowners over
rural economies and politics.
"There are some rich people who come
to us
demanding that they be given a cell
phone," said
Abdus Sabir, a Grameen Bank official
who heads the
operation in Jamirunnesa's region.
"We tell them,
'The phone is exclusively for the
poor, not for the
rich."'
The Red Cross has appealed for
emergency aid for Mongolia, where
half a million cattle have been killed
by unusually severe winter weather.
The International Red Cross said
thirty thousand livestock farmers
were in urgent need of assistance
after losing their herds, and it
appealed for half a million dollars to
provide food and clothing.
Pastures have been covered in deep
slow for several months in parts of
Mongolia after winter struck early.
From the newsroom of the BBC World
Service
Sect
member 'dies after
force-feeding'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A hunger-striking Falun Gong member died after
force-feeding by authorities damaged his windpipe and
infected his lungs, a human rights group said yesterday.
Liu Xuguo, a Falun Gong practitioner from the eastern
province of Shandong, went on hunger strike over the
Lunar New Year holiday, which began on February 5,
to protest against his imprisonment in a labour camp, the
Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic
Movement in China said.
The Hong Kong-based group said Liu fainted after
nearly a week without food. Police took him to a
hospital where, working with medical staff, they stuffed
a plastic pipe down his throat to force-feed him, the
group said.
Their actions seriously injured Liu's windpipe and
infected his lungs, the centre said, and he died on
February 11.
An official at the labour camp in Shandong's Jining city
where the rights group said Liu had been held denied
the report.
"This did not happen," he said.
The Information Centre said Liu, a 29-year-old
technician at a fertiliser factory, was detained after going
to Beijing in October to protest.
Thousands of practitioners have demonstrated in Beijing
against the Government's ban on Falun Gong and have
been detained in recent months.
Before the Lunar New Year, Liu was sentenced to
three years in a labour camp - a punishment police can
hand down without trial, the centre said.
Beijing banned Falun Gong in July as a menace to
society and a threat to the Communist Party's rule.
-top-
TUVALU
Pacific nation seeks
sanctuary for 10,500 as
waters rise
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR in Wellington
The Prime Minister of the tiny Pacific island nation of
Tuvalu, which is threatened with being overcome by the
sea because of global warming, has appealed to New
Zealand to offer sanctuary to its 10,500 people.
"Tuvaluans are seeking a place that they can
permanently migrate to, should the high tides eventually
make our home uninhabitable," Prime Minister Ionatana
Ionatana was quoted as saying yesterday by the
Wellington-based Dominion newspaper.
A record spring tide of 3.2 metres above sea level
flooded roads and lapped at the doors of seaside homes
on Tuvalu's main island of Funafuti at the weekend.
Nowhere in Tuvalu, which is made up of nine low-lying
coral atolls with a total land area of 26 square km, is
more than four metres above sea level.
Mr Ionatana said he was appealing to Fiji, Australia and
New Zealand to offer homes to the people of Tuvalu,
which was part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice
Islands until it became independent in 1978.
"Fiji is relaxing its policy, bending its law, to allow for
Tuvaluans to stay permanently with relatives," he said.
"I am expecting New Zealand to do a lot more because
Australia has not been forthcoming."
The plight of Tuvalu and Kiribati, another island group
to its north also threatened by rising sea levels, has
attracted the attention of UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, who told a special session of the General
Assembly in September both had "trouble in paradise".