Angry pakistanis stage protest : AOL Video feed

Re_Acciona

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:44:19 -0500

Experience Re_ in a way you’ve never seen before. Re_ is an attitude. A call to action to begin the thousand actions we need to do together. And to do it now. http://re.acciona.com

South Asian Newsline Update

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:22:21 -0500

SAN-EPISODE # 2836 DATED 26 NOVEMBER 2008 WELCOME TO SOUTH ASIA NEWS LINE. I AM ARJUN CHAUDHURI WITH THE DAY’S NEWS….. THE TOP STORIES … HEADLINES PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTER ARRIVES IN NEW DELHI…. REITERATES RESOLVE TO IMPROVE BILATERAL TIES 500,000 INDIAN TEXTILE WORKERS MAY LOSE JOBS IN THE NEXT FIVE MONTHS AND……CYCLONE NISHA TO HIT SOUTHERN COAST OF INDIA TONIGHT… THOUSANDS EVACUATED PTC 1: NOW THE NEWS IN DETAIL…… NEW DELHI AND ISLAMABAD ARE SEEKING TO ADVANCE THEIR FOUR YEAR OLD PEACE PROCESS AS PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTER SHAH MAHMOOD QURESHI HOLD TALKS WITH HIS INDIAN COUNTERPART PRANAB MUKHERJEE IN NEW DELHI. VO1: Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi and Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee held discussions on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues including Kashmir. Earlier, on arriving in the capital, Qureshi said his visit will help bridge the trust deficit that exists between the two nations and aimed for more “confidence-building measures,” through sports and greater people to people contacts. UPSOUND/ SHAH MEHMOOD QURESHI Foreign Minister, Pakistan TRANSCRIPTION: We are here to build bridges, am here with the positive note. Indian (Cricket) Team is welcome to Pakistan, Indian are welcome to Pakistan, our doors are open and we want more people to people contact to enhance. VO3: The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have been seeking to improve ties since 2004, after they came close to fighting a fourth war the previous year. This is the first high-level meeting between the two sides since September this year when India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari met each other on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. PTC 2: BEFORE HIS DEPARTURE TO INDIA, QURESHI ALSO MET BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY DAVID MILIBAND IN ISLAMABAD. MILIBAND WHO ARRIVED FROM AFGHANISTAN WELCOMED THE "REFORMING ZEAL" OF PAKISTAN'S CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT AND SAID IT WAS TURNING THE COUNTRY INTO AN OUTWARD-LOOKING FORCE FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION. HE IS ALSO SCHEDULED TO MEET FORMER PRIME MINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF. SHARIF’S PARTY SAID THE TWO LEADERS ARE LIKELY TO DISCUSS THE PREVAILING POLITICAL SITUATION. A PARTY OFFICIAL SAID SHARIF IS LIKELY TO CONVEY HIS PARTY’S CONCERNS ABOUT THE CONTINUED VIOLATIONS OF PAKISTAN SOVEREIGNTY BY U.S. AND NATO FORCES IN NEIGHBORING AFGHANISTAN. PTC 3: THE PRESENT POWER CRISIS IS SLOWING THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF PAKISTAN AS IT IS LEADING TO THE CLOSURE OF SEVERAL INDUSTRIES IN THE COUNTRY, REELING UNDER HIGH INFLATION AND FALLING STOCKS… VO1: The utility companies grope in darkness as the demands exceed the supply. Pakistanis in the urban as well as rural areas have to bear with hours of load shedding as the deficit has now soared to over 40 percent. Rising input costs due to inadequate power supplies has slowed production and has resulted in closure of several industrial units. UPSOUND/ MOHAMMAD AMIR Businessman, Karachi TRANSLATION: We are very tired of load shedding. Out of 24 hours, there is no electricity for 20 hours. It is affecting our business severely. VO2: A quantum jump in electricity generation is needed to get out of the present mess. Officials say projects currently under construction would not begin production before 2010. UPSOUND/ GULFAM Worker, Karachi TRANSLATION: Our Minster for Power and Water says that there will be no load shedding from next year but I think from next year the problem will increase, there are projects going on which need power. They should start new plants. The money that they get from disinvesting public sector units, where did it all vanish? Who pocketed it? Nobody questions it because all our ministers are corrupt, one goes and the other comes. VO3: The slowing production has also affected exports and pushed up imports to a considerable extent. Crisis-hit Pakistan is presently importing food items apart from a host of non essential goods, thereby increasing the import bill which stood at $3.46 billion in October while exports were worth only $1.52 billion. PTC 4: THE BATTLE FOR KILINOCHCHI, THE SELF-DECLARED CAPITAL OF THE LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM OR LTTE IN SRI LANKA, HAS INTENSIFIED IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS SINCE THE ARMY SEIZED THE ENTIRE WESTERN COAST FROM THE REBELS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1993. VO1: The Sri Lankan defence spokesperson said the military would soon capture the city. He declined to say how far away soldiers are from the town, located 205 miles north of the capital Colombo, but did mention liberation of the city and its future. UPSOUND/ KEHELIYA RAMBUKWELLA Minsiter for Employment and Defence Spokesman TRANSLATION: At this moment I can say that we are consolidating positions on the outskirts of Kilinochchi and we are very close to chasing the LTTE away from Kilinochchi. VO2: Speculation intensified this week that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would announce the town's seizure on Thursday to upstage LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran's annual speech. Prabhakaran, who turned 54 on Wednesday, traditionally uses his Heroes' Day speech to rally backers, including those in the global Tamil diaspora who have helped fund the rebels for years. Since 1983, the Tigers have fought to create a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, many of whom have complained of discrimination by governments led by the Sinhalese ethnic majority. PTC 5: AIR TRAVEL IN INDIA IS LIKELY TO GET CHEAPER THIS HOLIDAY SEASON, AS THE GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO CUT TAXES LEVIED ON AVIATION TURBINE FUEL OR ATF. THE BILL IN THIS REGARD IS LIKELY TO BE INTRODUCED IN PARLIAMENT SOON. TOP PRIVATE CARRIER KINGFISHER AIRLINES SAID IT WOULD REDUCE FARES "ACROSS THE BOARD" AS SOON AS THE GOVERNMENT REDUCES FUEL PRICES. THE AMENDMENT WILL ENSURE THAT AIRLINES PAY A STANDARD TAX ON ATF THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY INSTEAD OF THE PRESENT STATE-SPECIFIC TAX. MEANWHILE, MOST AIRLINES HAVE ALSO WITHDRAWN THE TRANSACTION FEE ON AIR TICKETS. STATE OWNED AIR INDIA TOOK OFF WITH 12 PER CENT LOWER FARES ON WEDNESDAY AFTER IT SLASHED ITS FUEL SURCHARGE. PTC 6: FACED WITH CANCELLATION ESPECIALLY FROM THE U.S. AND EUROPEAN MARKETS, INDIA’S TEXTILE INDUSTRY, THE BIGGEST SOURCE OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE COUNTRY AFTER AGRICULTURE, IS SHOWING SIGNS OF FATIGUE. THE CAPACITY UTILIZATION OF THE SECTOR HAS DROPPED BY OVER 70 PERCENT. VO1: India’s $52 billion textile industry, hit by soaring raw material costs and expensive credit, are putting expansions on hold and cutting jobs as they brace for an export slowdown. In Tamil Nadu, where over 500,000 people are employed in the spinning industry, almost 200,000 workers have lost their jobs as several smaller units closed down. India’s commerce ministry has warned that the meltdown may trigger 500,000 job losses in the textile sector within the next five months. The overall export growth target would also be revised downward from around 25 per cent to only 10 per cent. The yarn manufacturing is also in disarray as Bangladesh and Middle East countries, which import raw material from India, have cut down on their demands. Half of the country’s entire textiles—from yarn to garments—are exported. UPSOUND/ SOUNDARAJAN Chairman, South India Small Spinners Association TRANSCRIPTION: Around fifty percent of our labour force lost their work and if this condition goes on for two or three more months ultimately…now itself almost ten percent of our small mills have been totally closed down. Ultimately it may lead to lots of mills getting closed in the coming months. VO2: India along with China and Pakistan are the major players in the global textile arena. Industry leaders lamented that while the other two countries have taken adequate measures to combat the receding demands, India is yet to adopt any. UPSOUND/ SRINIVASAN Chairman, South India Mills Association TRANSCRIPTION: When we compare these two countries with India, India is definitely at a disadvantage. Because we don't have any export benefits, in fact our existing benefits, which were prevalent in 2007, have been reduced in 2008. So, India would be at a disadvantage. VO3: The slowdown follows a steep appreciation of the rupee in 2007 that hurt the overseas earnings of an industry that makes up about 30 percent of the country’s exports earnings. As troubles pile up, the sector, which employs 40 million people across the country, may end this year on a mangled note. PTC 7: AT LEAST THIRTY EIGHT PEOPLE WERE KILLED AS HEAVY RAINS CONTINUE TO LASH INDIA’S SOUTHERN COAST. A HIGH ALERT HAS BEEN SOUNDED ON THE COASTAL AREAS AS CONTINUOUS DOWNPOUR ALONG WITH GUSTY WINDS WORSENED THE SITUATION IN TAMIL NADU… VO1: Normal life was disrupted in capital Chennai and the nearby districts as four days of rain brought life to a standstill in many areas. A Holiday has been declared in the schools and colleges and a number of trains have been cancelled because cyclonic winds blowing at 45 miles per hour has stalled traffic. UPSOUND/ MANNU Resident, Chennai TRANSCRIPTION: For last four days it has been raining heavily. Transport has become a big problem. We were caught in traffic for 3-4 hours. Walking on the roads has also become a trouble. VO2: The well-marked low-pressure area over north Sri Lanka and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal has concentrated into a depression and is expected to move in a north-westerly direction across the coastal Tamil Nadu near Vedaranyam further worsening the situation there. .The sea is very rough and the fishing boats have been advised not to venture out. UPSOUND/ RAMANAN Director, Metrological Department, Chennai TRANSCRIPTION: It is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm. It has been nicknamed as Nisha. This storm is expected to cross between Vedaranyam and Nagapattinam by tonight. Because of this storm, it had rained in most places of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. VO3: The heavy rains have destroyed the standing paddy crops in many areas and some 3500 people residing in low lying areas have been evacuated. Met officials predict that the situation is likely to worsen in the coming days as more areas are expected to receive heavy rainfall. PTC 8: AFTER AN UNSUCCESSFUL BID TO DO AN ART HOUSE FILM, BOLLYWOOD SHOWMAN SUBASH GHAI IS RULING THE BOX OFFICE ONCE AGAIN WITH HIS LATEST VENTURE ‘YUVRAAJ’… A STORY ABOUT LOVE, RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILY VALUES, THE FILM STRIKES A CHORD WITH THE AUDIENCE. VO1: Yuvraaj narrates the story of a family in Europe where the father creates wealth for his three sons, but discovers that they have lost family values. The brothers declare themselves as partners rather than siblings and play dangerous mind games with each other in their greed. The movie also taps the off screen chemistry of Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif paired together at a time when rumours of their drift are doing the rounds. UPSOUND/ SUBASH GHAI Director TRANSLATION: While Yuvraaj is the love story of a struggling musician played by Salman Khan. In this film actor's Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif are in love. They enter into a problem and then Salman Khan's character signs an agreement that he will be a billionaire in 40 days. VO2: To acquire large share of the family wealth, Salman has to go through an emotional roller coaster ride of joy and pain with his two estranged brothers played by Anil Kapoor and Zayed Khan. On meeting them, he realizes that they are two individuals who are completely opposite to each other, which makes his task all the more difficult. UPSOUND/ SALMAN KHAN Actor TRANSLATION: My character in this film is negative. I am frustrated, jealous, and angry at the whole world but later I realize that why is this so. But when I think about the reason I ask myself that what an 11-12 year boy would do when he is kicked out? VO3: The songs composed by A.R. Rehman are already topping the charts. The music is the binding factor in the film that brings together three different individuals together. CLOSING: WELL THAT’S THE WAY IT WAS IN SOUTH ASIA THIS EVENING… THE TOP STORIES ONCE AGAIN… PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTER ARRIVES IN NEW DELHI…. REITERATES RESOLVE TO IMPROVE BILATERAL TIES 500,000 INDIAN TEXTILE WORKERS MAY LOSE JOBS IN THE NEXT FIVE MONTHS AND ……CYCLONE NISHA TO HIT SOUTHERN COAST OF INDIA TONIGHT… THOUSANDS EVACUATED THAT’S ALL IN TONIGHT’S EDITION. WE WILL SEE YOU SAME TIME TOMORROW. GOOD NIGHT!

Talented jazz musician dies

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 06:26:41 -0500

Jazz fans and Canadians both home and abroad are mourning the death of Oscar Peterson, the virtuoso known globally as one of the most talented musicians ever to play jazz piano. Peterson died Sunday night at his home in Mississauga, Ont., from kidney failure. He was 82. "The world has lost the world's greatest jazz player," Hazel McCallion, mayor of Mississauga and Peterson's friend, told CBC News on Monday afternoon. Renowned for his speed and virtuosity as a pianist, Peterson - who was born in Montreal and later made Toronto his home - made hundreds of recordings in his career, even after a stroke in 1993 disabled his left hand. "What he was able to achieve [after his stroke], playing with half of what most other pianists had, he was still light years ahead of every one else," said jazz broadcaster Ross Porter. Liberal politician and former Ontario premier Bob Rae said he "worshipped" Peterson as a musician and a fan, and hailed the pianist for his achievements. "The young Oscar was without question the greatest piano player of his time ... the greatest piano player player of jazz," Rae said, praising Peterson for "the dexterity of his right hand, the stride, the power of his left." "As he got older, the depth of his humanity came out in his compositions," added Rae. Over the years, Peterson's recording and performing partners included such stars as Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Stan Getz. Some of Peterson's most legendary works came after he teamed up to form the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1953. The trio created such classic recordings as 1955's At Zardis, 1956's At the Stratford Shakespearean Festival and 1957's At Concertgebouw. Lived for music's 'moments of great beauty' He formed another classic piano-guitar-bass trio in the 1970s with guitarist Joe Pass and Danish-born bassist Niels Pedersen. Peterson revelled in the kind of improvisation he could perform with talented musicians, recalling in a 2005 interview how well he worked with his late friend Pedersen. "The minute we get to the sections where he's featured, I take no prisoners! I like to take liberties, and he's got to be right there to hear where I'm going. We still open doors in the improvisation for one another to develop." He also loved the competitive nature of this kind of jazz and the unexpected pleasures that could emerge in live performances. "There is always the chance for moments of great beauty to emerge," he said. Among the dozens of awards and acknowledgments over the decades, Peterson racked up eight Grammy Awards, including for Lifetime Achievement in 1997, received an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award in the same year and was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, its highest level. His autobiography, A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson, was written in collaboration with jazz journalist Richard Palmer. "He really put Montreal on the map of jazz," Tracy Biddle, whose late father Charles was a pioneering club owner in the city's jazz community and a close friend of Peterson's, said in an interview in Montreal. "I believe that on a grander scale, the impact he had on the black community and on the whole musical community was huge. "He broke out of Canada. He's one of the first people. We talk of C?line Dion, and Shania Twain, and Alanis Morissette and Bryan Adams. Oscar Peterson did what they did years ago as a black person. So what he's done is incredible." Early success Born in Montreal in Aug. 15, 1925, Peterson was the son of a Canadian National railroad porter. Though he started playing piano at age five, taught by his sister Daisy, Peterson credited his introduction to jazz to his older brother Fred, who died of tuberculosis at age 16. Oscar continued his studies under Paul de Marky, a Hungarian-born teacher who had studied with the famous Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt. Peterson said he learned how to use a piano to full potential from de Marky and from listening to jazz greats. "I never tried to sound like a trumpet or a clarinet," he once said an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "I was taught to respect it for what it was: a piano. And it spoke with a certain voice. And that was what I was determined to bring forward." At age 15, Peterson won first prize in a CBC radio talent show and was invited to play weekly on the Montreal station CKAC. He soon had other offers to play on radio. By 1942, Peterson was performing with one of Canada's leading big bands, the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. He came up against the colour bar early in his career, with some hotels threatening to prevent him from playing and radio hosts introducing him as "a coloured boy with amazing fingers." About this time, his father, Daniel Peterson, brought home a recording by Art Tatum, then considered the best jazz pianist of his day. Peterson later recalled how Tatum gave him a new pinnacle to aim for. "Of course I was just about flattened ... I swear, I didn't play piano for two months afterward, I was so intimidated," Peterson said. Later, Tatum came to regard Peterson as heir to his crown as the king of jazz pianists. Carnegie Hall In 1949, Peterson got another big break. The story goes that jazz promoter Norman Granz was in a taxi on the way to the airport in Montreal when he heard a live Peterson broadcast on the radio, and insisted the driver turn around and drive him to the club where the broadcast originated. Granz signed Peterson up for a gig at Carnegie Hall in New York with some of the biggest names in jazz. According to a report in Down Beat magazine, at Carnegie Hall Peterson "stopped the concert dead cold in its tracks." Granz became one of Peterson's closest friends and his manager. Peterson began to build international renown, touring in the 1950s with Jazz at the Philharmonic to Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and the Philippines. Birth of a legendary trio In 1953, Peterson formed the Oscar Peterson Trio, joining up with bassist Ray Brown, and then guitarist Herb Ellis. They became one of the hardest-working trios in jazz, touring the U.S. under Ganz's management. "When the group gets hot you take a lot of chances and pull a lot of things off when you play it live that you might not do before a microphone, " Brown recalled in a 1975 interview with CBC Radio. "When you have a group that operates five days a week in nightclubs...you had to be on your toes. [Oscar said] we want to be able to play any song and make it work." Peterson moved to Toronto in 1958 and kept a base in Canada throughout the rest of his career. A year later, he and several other musicians founded the Advanced School of Contemporary Music, a school to teach jazz, but it lasted only a few years. Peterson continued to perform throughout the world, even behind the Iron Curtain in Ljubljana, then part of Yugoslavia. As a composer, his best-known work is likely 1964's Canadiana Suite, each track of which was inspired by a different region. Peterson called it "my musical portrait of the Canada I love." He made the first of many solo recordings in the late 1960s and often played solo in the 1970s and 1980s. He also began voice recording in 1965 on With Respect to Nat. He composed film and television scores, winning a Genie film award for best film score in 1978, for The Silent Partner. Peterson built a recording studio in his Mississauga, Ont., home so that he could experiment with electronic keyboard and sound equipment. The struggle to overcome a stroke In 1993, while performing at the Blue Note club in New York, Peterson noticed a numbness in his left hand, and doctors diagnosed a stroke. Peterson was depressed by the loss of ability and stopped playing for two years. "The first day I sat at the piano with my therapist, I had tears in my eyes," he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But he said fellow musicians encouraged him to continue playing, initially with the right hand only and eventually with a slightly disabled left hand. Playing with a group was "the best therapy of all," he said. He continued to travel and perform, still packing in the audiences. His 80th birthday in 2006 was celebrated with a concert featuring Diana Krall and a new postage stamp honouring him. Peterson has received numerous citations for best jazz pianist from Contemporary Keyboard and Down Beat, was named an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France and named honorary chancellor at York University in Toronto. The pianist's life was showcased in two films, Oscar Peterson: Music in the Key of Oscar in 1995 and Oscar Peterson: The Life of a Legend in 1996. Over the years, Peterson has been a supporter of other Canadian artists and music students, including appearing in 2006 at a school in Mississauga named after him to hear a school concert. "It's very moving to work with them and to play with them," he told CBC Television at that appearance. "I want to say again I'm a softy for youngsters. I'm so glad to be here with them. " Peterson was married four times and had six children from his first and third marriages - Lyn, Sharon, Gay, Oscar Jr., Norman and Joel - and one daughter, Celine, with his fourth wife, Kelly. According to friends of the family, there will be a private funeral for Peterson, with a public memorial service to be held in the new year. With files from the Canadian Press

Typhoon Ketsana Continues Rampage

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:22:48 -0400

The death toll in Vietnam caused by Typhoon Ketsana has increased as the powerful storm forced mass evacuations. - At least 23 people in central Vietnam died on Tuesday as the typhoon struck the coast. The storm killed at least 240 people in the Philippines when it hit. - Ketsana, which made landfall Tuesday afternoon local time, battered Quang Nam province with winds up to 144 km/h. - The Vietnam deaths occurred in six provinces, with many being caused by falling trees and electrical lines, officials said. - More than 170,000 people were evacuated from Vietnam’s central coast as the storm approached, said disaster official Nguyen Van Vy. - Rains and heavy winds have knocked out electricity in the central provinces. - "There's a blackout across our entire province," said Truong Ngoc Nhi, vice-governor of Quang Ngai province, south of Danang. "Many streets are strewn with fallen trees and utility poles. It looks like a battlefield." - Vietnam Airlines has cancelled all flights to the tourist destinations of Danang and Hue. Philippine relief efforts continue - Aid agencies began mobilizing relief supplies to help people in the Philippines in the aftermath of Ketsana, which dumped more than a month's worth of rain on the Philippines in less than 24 hours, causing massive flooding. - Rescuers in the Philippines were continuing to search for bodies in the swollen rivers on Tuesday. - The National Disaster Co-ordinating Council said the homes of almost 1.9 million people were inundated by flood waters, with nearly 380,000 people brought to schools, churches and other evacuation centres. - Officials in the Philippines are calling for more international aid as two more storms brew just east of the island nation in the Pacific. - "We are trying our level best to provide basic necessities, but the potential for a more serious situation is there," said Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. "We cannot wait for that to happen."

Canada Fights Seal Ban

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:50:51 -0400

The European Union’s new ban on the import of seal products is an unfair trade restriction and Canada will launch a World Trade Organization challenge, Trade Minister Stockwell Day announced Monday. - The EU approved the ban at a meeting of foreign ministers Monday without debate. - "We are very disappointed with this ruling," Day said in Montreal. "We believe strongly this violates the World Trade Organization guidelines." - Canada's seal hunt is practised according to procedures established, in part, by an EU study done in 2006, Day said. - The seal hunt has been determined by veterinarians to be humane and follows the environmental rules of sustainability, Day said, adding that Canada should be exempt from this particular ban. - "It is in our view inappropriate that a trade decision is taken which is not based on science," Day said. - Canada will be requesting WTO consultations, which will last 60 days. If an agreement is not reached during the consultation process, Canada will launch an official appeal, which will result in a court ruling on the ban, Day said. - Canada's East Coast seal hunt is the largest of its kind in the world, with an average annual kill of about 300,000 harp seals. Canada exported about $2.5 million worth of seal products to EU countries in 2008. - The restrictions apply to all products and processed goods derived from seals, including fur, meat, oil blubber and even omega-3 pills made from seal oil. But the ban exempts products from traditional hunts carried out by Inuit in Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia. - The import ban in all 27 EU member countries is expected to take effect in October. 'Shortsighted and irresponsible' - The European rules still let Canada ship seal products through Europe but it bars the promotion of the products. - Mary Simon, president of the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, called the seal ban an "abomination," despite the exemption for traditional hunts. - "It directly attacks cultures, communities and livelihoods that represent a basic means of living for many here in Canada, using groundless accusations influenced by animal rights propaganda campaigns," Simon said. - The prohibition of the marketing of products from a sustainable and humane hunt is a violation of EU trade commitments, said Fisheries Minister Gail Shea. - The sealing industry is crucial to many small coastal communities and northern aboriginal people in Canada, Shea said. - "The European Union has taken shortsighted and irresponsible actions which will affect many Canadian livelihoods," she said. - Though many communities have been expecting the ban, it is still going to have a devastating impact on their way of lives, NDP fisheries critic Peter Stoffersaid. - "Why should their livelihood be destroyed because of falsehoods perpetrated by animal rights groups?" Stoffer said. - Îles de la Madeleine Mayor Joel Arseneau said the EU's decision is disappointing. - "I don't think politicians in Europe made a decision based on facts but on emotions," Arseneau said. - "There are other practices done all over the world, particularly in Europe, that are basically very, very similar ... [but] the images are not available. You don't go into slaughterhouses and film, and get that all on TV screens and in the media." Public pressure - EU spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said the ban has roots in huge public pressure in Europe. - "The legislation was proposed because we had received tens of thousands of letters from concerned European citizens about the way the seals were killed," Helfferich said. "We have always argued that the killing methods must be humane." - Shea said the EU seems to have "caved" to the pressure of interest groups whose motives she questioned, adding they are feeding misinformation to their supporters. - The groups are "still portraying the picture of the small white-coat baby seal on their website, which, of course, Canada has not hunted for more than two decades," she said. - She added that the issue has become a "cash cow" for the groups. - Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International Canada, said the attempt to question the motives of the groups is absurd. - "We as an organization ... have campaigned for five decades to bring about an end to the commercial seal hunt. We are in the business of putting ourselves out of business on this issue." - Meanwhile, the International Fund for Animal Welfare applauded the EU ban as a "significant victory." The organization has led a 40-year campaign to try to end Canada's commercial seal hunt. - "There is a wonderful sense of accomplishment today after years of hard work," said EU director Lesley O'Donnell. - Canada's fur industry expressed disappointment over the federal government's approach to lobbying EU politicians.

LTTE suicide bomber

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:07:01 -0500

Sri Lanka, Nov 28(ANI): From an unknown location in Sri lanka, The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on November 27, accused the international community of failing his rebel group. Meanwhile, an LTTE suicide bomber blew herself up near the office of a minority Tamil minister in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo on November 28th killing his personal secretary.

Violence continues in Kenya

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:36:04 -0500

Clashes between machete-wielding mobs erupted in western Kenya on Monday after dozens were killed in weekend violence that pushed the estimated death toll since last month's disputed presidential election to more than 800. - In the Rift Valley resort town of Naivasha, about 90 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, hundreds of people from rival tribes confronted one another on a main road. - The crowds retreated only when a handful of police between them fired live bullets into the air, the Associated Press reported. - The fighting began after President Mwai Kibaki's Dec. 27 re-election, which opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters say was rigged. International and local election observers have said there were significant problems with the vote. - The violence has featured battles between armed police and protesters in the western opposition heartland and in Nairobi's slums, as well as politically motivated clashes between rival ethnic groups. - Some 250,000 Kenyans have been forced from their homes out of fear of targeted attacks from tribes aligned with Odinga's Luo ethnic group and reprisal attacks from Kenya's influential Kikuyus. Kibaki is a Kikuyu, which prompted mobs to target the president's suspected supporters immediately after his Dec. 30 swearing-in ceremony. - At least 22 people were killed in Naivasha over the weekend, said district commissioner Katee Mwanza. Nineteen of them were Luos whom a gang of Kikuyus chased through a slum and trapped in a shanty that they set on fire, said police commander Grace Kakai. - The others were hacked to death with machetes, a local reporter told the Associated Press. - Similar clashes were reported in Nakuru, the regional capital of the Rift Valley, where an unnamed morgue worker said 55 bodies were counted Sunday after battles between tribes broke out earlier in the week. - National police commissioner Hussein Ali told reporters in Nairobi that police had arrested 159 people in Nakuru and Naivasha "for possession of crude weapons and for suspected involvement in the murders." He also said 95 people were arrested in Nairobi, but gave no details. - The deaths present new challenges to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who is in Nairobi attempting to mediate a solution to the political crisis. - Kibaki has said he is open to direct talks with Odinga, but that his position as president is not negotiable. Odinga says Kibaki must step down and only new elections will bring peace. With files from the Associated Press

Liberals Defection Rumours

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:38:35 -0400

Federal Liberals denied a report Tuesday that three of their party’s MPs were interested in crossing the floor to join the Tories. - Liberal MPs Ken Dryden and Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa that the talk was Conservative mischief and an attempt to sow dissension in the party. - A report in the Toronto Star on Tuesday cited an anonymous Conservative government official, who said the party had discussions with three Liberals in the last month about crossing the floor. - Ruby Dhalla, the MP for the Ontario riding of Brampton-Springdale, was one of the names mentioned in the story. - Asked by CBC News if she was defecting, Dhala responded: "No." - She also said no Tories contacted her about crossing the floor, and she had never thought about defecting. - The Conservatives hold 143 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons and would need 12 more MPs to form a majority government. - Adding three members from another party wouldn't give the Conservatives a majority, but it would be another public relations blow for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who has seen his party's popularity decline in recent months and faced criticism for his handling of the appointment of a Liberal candidate in Quebec. - Ignatieff praises loyalty after Coderre resignation - Ignatieff spoke to the party's Quebec wing on Sunday about the importance of party loyalty, just days after the resignation of Denis Coderre, his chief organizer in the province. - "I've been touched and reinvigorated by the loyalty not solely to grassroots, which you saw this morning, but also the loyalty of my caucus both in the Senate and House," he said. - Coderre over the party's nomination of former cabinet minister Martin Cauchon ahead of his preferred candidate, business executive Nathalie Le Prohon. - Ignatieff has also faced criticism for attempting to bring the government down through a no-confidence vote last week even as his party's approval in polls declined. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government survived the Liberal no-confidence motion with help from the NDP, averting an election. No-confidence vote defeated - The Liberal motion, supported by the Bloc Québécois, was defeated by a vote of 144 to 117 on Thursday after the NDP abstained. - The latest Strategic Counsel poll suggests the minority Conservatives have the backing of 41 per cent of respondents, while the Liberals have sunk to 28 per cent support. - Dryden said the polls would not change the Liberal strategy of voting against the Conservative government. - "We are using this time to set out the directions we believe matter and working on presenting that case to Canadians," he said.