Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bill Clinton in NKorea seeking reporters' release

SEOUL, South Korea -North Korea welcomed former President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang with flowers and hearty handshakes Tuesday as he arrived in the communist nation on a surprise mission to bring home two jailed American journalists.
Clinton landed in the North Korean capital in an unmarked jet. On arrival he shook hands with Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Kwan and the deputy speaker of parliament. Footage from the television news agency APTN showed Clinton bowing and smiling as a young girl presented him with flowers.
The unusually warm exchange between officials from communist North Korea and the ex-leader of a wartime foe comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over the regime's nuclear program. In recent months, North Korea has abandoned a disarmament pact, launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test and test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Clinton was making his first trip to North Korea in hopes of securing the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March.
But the visit could reap rewards beyond the women's release, with Clinton and North Korean officials broaching the nuclear impasse, diplomatic relations and other long-standing issues between Washington and Pyongyang, analysts said. Kim, the vice foreign minister, also serves as North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator.
"This is a very potentially rewarding trip. Not only is it likely to resolve the case of the two American journalists detained in North Korea for many months, but it could be a very significant opening and breaking this downward cycle of tension and recrimination between the U.S. and North Korea," Mike Chinoy, author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis," said in Beijing.
North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, of sneaking into the country illegally in March and engaging in "hostile acts," and the nation's top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labor. The U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, but officials were believed to be working behind the scenes to negotiate their release.
Clinton's administration had relatively good relations with Pyongyang, and both he and Gore, his vice president, had been named as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling. Also mentioned was New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who in the 1990s traveled twice to North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans.
However, the decision to send Clinton, whose wife is now secretary of state, was kept quiet.
A senior U.S. official confirmed to reporters traveling to Africa with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the former president was in North Korea to secure the journalists' release, but said the White House would not comment until the mission was complete.
"While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton's mission."
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency announced Clinton's visit with a brief dispatch but did not say who he would be meeting during his trip.
There was speculation Clinton might see leader Kim Jong Il, who analysts say is eager to smooth over relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.
Kim, 67, reportedly is in ill health, suffering a stroke a year ago on top of chronic diabetes and heart disease. He rules the impoverished communist nation of 24 million with absolute authority, but has not publicly named the next leader. He is believed, however, to be grooming his third son, 26-year-old Jong Un, to take over.
Internal stability is key to a smooth transition, and establishing relations with Washington would be one way to rule out a threat from a superpower that has 28,500 troops stationed just on the other side of the border with South Korea, analysts said. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
Releasing the journalists would be a face-saving segue into talks, analysts said.
"When you're dealing with Kim Jong Il in North Korea, his word has been, may still be, law. And so it is actually possible to sit down and have a significant conversation that could change the current trajectory of U.S.-North Korean relations," said Jim Walsh, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
During a nuclear standoff with North Korean in 1994, former President Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang and met with leader Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's late father. That visit, during Clinton's presidency, led to a breakthrough accord months later.
The last high-ranking U.S. official to meet with Kim Jong Il was Madeleine Albright, Clinton's secretary of state, who visited Pyongyang in 2000 at a time of warming relations. Ties turned frosty when George W. Bush took office in 2001.
Since President Barack Obama took office, Pyongyang has expressed interest in one-on-one negotiations with Washington. The latest provocations were seen in part as a way to draw a concerned U.S. into bilateral talks.
Washington says it is willing to hold such talks with the North, but only within the framework of international disarmament negotiations in place since 2003. Those talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States. North Korea has said it will never return to the six-nation disarmament process.
Lee and Ling were captured in North Korea's far northeast in the midst of the nuclear standoff. They had traveled to the border region in China to report on women and children defectors from North Korea.
Their families and U.S. officials have pushed for their release, noting that Ling has a medical condition and that Lee has a 4-year-old daughter.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has urged North Korea to grant them amnesty, saying the women were remorseful and their families anguished.
"We are still very distressed by the absence of Laura and Euna but remain hopeful that a positive resolution can be reached," TV journalist Lisa Ling, Ling's older sister, told the Committee to Protect Journalists in July.

Rocket attack on Afghan capital


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uspected Taliban militants have fired a series of rockets into the Afghan capital, Kabul, as security fears mount ahead of elections due this month.

Police say nine rockets fell on the city overnight. Two people were injured but there were no deaths.

In the southern province of Zabul a suicide bomber killed five people, most of them civilians, police said.

Insurgent attacks have increased in the run-up to presidential and provincial elections due on 20 August.

A bomb attack in the western city of Herat on Monday killed at least 12 people and injured more than 20.

'Very loud'

The rocket attacks on Kabul began in the early hours of the morning.
The BBC's David Loyn in Kabul says the rockets fell across the city, suggesting this may have been a co-ordinated attack from more than one firing position.

Afghan intelligence sources say the main firing point was to the north of the city.

Most of the missiles fell onto empty ground, but one exploded near a senior Afghan general's house in the diplomatic area, close to the US and British embassies, as well as to Nato headquarters.

The explosions were followed by several bursts of rifle fire in the centre of the city.

"It was very loud, just as we were praying," said Kabul resident Ismail Khan.

Another eyewitness Abdul Wali Zai said since the attacks took place early in the morning when the streets were empty, there had been no casualties.

Our correspondent says Kabul residents will have been reminded of the civil war of the early 1990s, when much of the south of the city was reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of people were killed in continuing salvoes of indiscriminate rocket fire.

Until now the Taliban have not been able to mount sustained attacks of this sort since they fell in 2001.

The latest attack shows both their increased strength and their capacity to change their tactics to put pressure on international forces in the run-up to the vote, our correspondent says.

'Sabotage'

Kabul's deputy police chief, Mohammad Khalil Dastyar, blamed Taliban fighters.

"They're just trying to sabotage and create tension in Kabul," he told the Associated Press news agency.

The Kabul attacks come a day after the attack in Herat targeted a police convoy, killing and wounding both police and civilians.

On Tuesday, police in Zabul province said a suicide attacker walked up to an intelligence agency vehicle in a busy market and blew himself.

An intelligence official and four civilians were killed, police said.

Last week the Taliban explicitly threatened to disrupt the elections.

Tens of thousands of foreign and Afghan forces have been deployed to try to ensure security for the vote.

Indian police accused of abuses


Police in India are guilty of widespread human rights violations, including beatings, torture and illegal killings, a new report alleges.

The US-based group Human Rights Watch says India's policing system facilitates and even encourages abuses.

It says there has been little change in attitudes, training or equipment since the police was formed in colonial times with the aim to control the population.

It says the government must take major steps to overhaul a failing system.

There was no immediate response from the Indian authorities.

'Shocking'

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Delhi says the catalogue of abuses by India's police detailed in this report is long and shocking - arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture to force confessions, even the cold-blooded gunning down of innocent people.

"[M]y hands and legs were tied; a wooden stick was passed through my legs. They started beating me badly on the legs with lathis [batons] and kicking me," the report quoted a fruit vendor in the city of Varanasi as saying.

"They beat me until I was crying and shouting for help. When I was almost fainting, they stopped the beating... Then they turned me upside down... They poured water from a plastic jug into my mouth and nose, and I fainted," he said.

Human Rights Watch spent a year investigating claims of human rights violations to compile the 118-page report, entitled "Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police".

It says the report is based on interviews with more than 80 police officers of varying ranks, 60 victims of police abuses and numerous discussions with experts and civil society activists.

The report says that "abysmal conditions for police officers contribute to violations".

Ill-equipped and under pressure to fight crime, police officers often take the law into their own hands, it says.

"Low-ranking officers often work in difficult conditions. They are required to be on-call 24 hours a day, every day. Instead of shifts, many work long hours, sometimes living in tents or filthy barracks at the police station.

"Many are separated from their families for long stretches of time. They often lack necessary equipment, including vehicles, mobile phones, investigative tools and even paper on which to record complaints and make notes."

Human Rights Watch says that as India has modernised fast, its police have been left behind.

"India is modernising rapidly, but the police continue to use their old methods: abuse and threats," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"It's time for the government to stop talking about reform and fix the system."

The authorities require a major overhaul - otherwise the beatings, torture and illegal killings will continue to stain India's democracy, the report adds.

Manipur simmers over fake encounter


It's the second day of the 48-hour bandh across Manipur against fake killings in the state.

Agitators are demanding the resignation of Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh. Photographs published in Tehelka of the killing of a former PLA cadre in front of several people contradicted the police version and the CM's clarification in the assembly, which sparked off the agitation.

PTI adds: Normal life was on Monday disrupted in Manipur due to a 48-hour general strike called by a social organisation in protest against the killing of a youth in an alleged fake encounter.

Markets, shops and business establishments remained closed in the state due to the strike called by Apunb Lup (A L) which began from midnight last.

Transport services between Manipur and neighbouring states and within the state were also affected.

Attendance in government offices was almost nil, official sources said.

Reports from the districts said the strike also affected several parts of both hill and valley districts.

While official sources maintain the youth identified as Sanjit (27) was a militant and killed in an encounter with police commandos on July 23 last at Imphal market complex, the social organisation claimed that he was innocent and killed in a fake encounter.

The state witnessed mass agitation after pictures of the encounter were published in a Delhi-based news magazine.

Condemning the alleged fake encounter, an apex body of social organisations United Committee Manipur and several other outfits in separate statements have demanded resignation of Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh for what they termed as "indulging in state terrorism".

They have also threatened to launch a series of agitations if "fake encounters" were not stopped immediately in Manipur.

Several social organisations strongly condemned the killing of Sanjit in the July 23 "fake encounter" in which a woman was killed and five others were injured.

Apex body of social organisations United Committee Manipur and several other organisations in separate statements demanded resignation of Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh for, what they termed as'indulging in state terrorism' and threatened to launch series of agitations if 'fake encounters' were not stopped immediately in Manipur.

Gay couple: Happy together but home alone


S
urekha and Neeru were school students when they met in Chandigarh eight years ago.

Last month they eloped and got married in Haridwar. However, when they returned, the families disowned them.

"We got married in Haridwar. Now we live in a rented flat," says Surekha.

"We won't leave each other. We will try and be together forever. Our families have said we have to separate to be with them. But we are happy together," says Neeru Verma.

Neeru had lost her parents at an early age and was brought up by her elder brother who feels ashamed of their relationship.

"This is wrong. The High Court's decision is also not right. They should have discussed it with us. We are not ready to accept them," says Rohit Verma, Neeru's brother.

The battle at the court might be won. But the battle for gay rights in our homes will take many more years to find closure.

Late diagnosis led to H1N1 death: Health minister


What led to India's first swine flu death? Could it have been easily avoided? Or was it due to serious lapses on the part of the hospital that treated her? It's now clear that there were a series of serious lapses that led to the death of the 14-year-old girl in Pune.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad says late diagnosis was the main reason. He says crucial time was lost because she was initially wrongly diagnosed as suffering from pneumonia.

A fatal lapse seems to be that the test done on the girl by a private hospital turned out to be negative. But a second test done by the NICD turned out to be positive but by that time it was too late.

The victim was admitted in a private hospital on July 27. She was shifted to ICU and put on ventilator on July 29. The Pune schoolgirl tested positive for swine flu on July 31.

It must be noted that as many as 16 students are undergoing treatment for swine flu in Pune.

Currently, India has 129 swine flu patients while around 422 patients have already recovered.

Merely four days ago, the Union Health Ministry had issued relaxed guidelines to states to deal with the virus. As per the relaxed guideline, the ministry said that the patients must be isolated at home itself instead of being hospitalised unless the case is chronic.

The ministry had also said that there was no need to shut schools that report swine flu cases. In fact, the ministry had even asked the states to phase out screening of passengers at airports gradually.

Another guideline issued was that the suspect cases should first be taken to the family doctor; not directly quarantined in a government hospital.

India's first swine flu death


The parents, friends and relatives of a 14-year-old girl in Pune are angry. A 9th standard student of a school in Pune, she was the first casualty of swine flu in the country. Her parents allege that Jahangir Hospital where she was admitted initially as a case of pneumonia had kept them in the dark.

The girl showed symptoms of the flu on July 21 but got better soon after and started attending school. Then again, five days later, the fever was back and far worse. She had to be admitted to the ICU.

"I have lost my child; it shouldn't happen to anyone else. The government should take strict action against this," said Sajid Osman Shaikh, her father.

But this girl's death has exposed the lack of coordination between government agencies. Pune's health authorities who were so far monitoring the swine cases in Pune's schools
were totally in the dark about one case being treated at one of Pune's prime hospital, until the news of her death was confirmed and that too from Delhi.

"I was informed about the case only after the incident, even my health officials were not informed," said Mahesh Zagade, municipal commissioner, Pune.

Jahangir hospital, whose primary responsibility was to refer the matter to the specially created swine flu hospital in Pune did not bother to inform the Pune health authorities who were found napping when the news of the girl's death broke.

"We had informed the state health authorities and we were in touch with them," put forth Dr Prasad Mulgikar, from Jahangir Hospital, Pune.

Shockingly the Jahangir Hospital had asked another top private hospital to conduct a test of swine flu on the girl which turned out to be negative. Perhaps not knowing that swine flu tests are conducted only at the Pune's National Institute of Virology and NICD at Delhi - a lapse which cost the girl her life.

Meanwhile her shocked school has declared a holiday on Tuesday to condole the death of their student. Her parents are contemplating legal action against the hospital for what they say was a series of grave lapses.

I'll give up my life if asked to resign: Buta Singh


Aday after Congress termed him as a constitutional functionary rather than a party functionary, NCSC chairman Buta Singh said on Tuesday that he was capable of defending his case and does not need any support from the party.

Describing himself a saviour of Dalits, Singh claimed he has served the community throughout his life and threatened that he would "give up his life if he was asked to resign".

"I do not think I need support of party (Congress) to defend my case. I am capable of it (defending) because I am with the truth," he told reporters in New Delhi.

The CBI had, last week, arrested Singh's son in Mumbai on charges of demanding a bribe of Rs one crore from Nashik-based contractor Rama Rao Patil to close a case pending before the NCSC against him.

"I have saved lives of poor Dalits. And for my entire life since I have been in politics, I kept on raising the issues of SCs and STs in Parliament and outside Parliament. I will not leave the work I have done throughout my life. And for this if anyone ask me to resign, I will not resign, I will give up my life," he added.

"I have served Dalits and extreme Dalits. And in doing that, I caught one very big anti-Dalit and an enemy of Dalit. Enemies of Dalits have now come together with Rama Rao Patil to finish me," he charged.

To a question whether he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Singh said, "Why do you ask me such questions? Why should I meet anyone in this matter? Should I beg? Everybody knows about my past. I am working that is also known."

Maya's memorial budget versus drought relief


Mayawati has already spent Rs 10,000 crore on a dozen Dalit memorials and hundreds of statues across the state capital.

As Uttar Pradesh reels under a severe drought, she asked for another Rs 450 crore to beautify the memorials.

Compare this with the mere Rs 250 crore she released for the 47 drought-hit districts.

Expectedly, the Assembly came to a halt over this issue.

''Uttar Pradesh is facing a severe drought. People are starving. At a time like this, her request for Rs 450 crore to spruce up memorials is a slap in the face of the poor,'' said Pramod Tewari, Leader, Congress Legislature Party.

''We want a CBI probe into the funds spent on erecting memorials, statues, and elephant symbols. The state budget has been misused and public funds have been looted,'' put forth Pramod Tewari, Leader, Congress Legislature Party.

So what if these memorials don't put food on the table of UP's poorest section - the Dalits? Mayawati knows that for them, the symbolism of these structures is more important and that explains her continuing shameless expenditure on these memorials.

Rida's family to sue hospital


T
he devastated family of 14-year-old Rida Shaikh, who died of swine flu on Monday, have accused the Jehangir Hospital, where she was being treated, of misleading them.

They say they were not even informed that Rida was being tested for swine flu. The family will now file a case against the hospital.

Meanwhile, as an immediate response to what seems to be a heightened threat, the Maharashtra government has invoked the Epidemics Control Act.

This allows the government to forcibly admit suspected patients to government hospitals. It also allows the government to act against hospitals and clinics, which do not report suspected cases.

The Maharashtra government has now asked Pune's Ruby Clinic for an explanation as to why it conducted a swine flu test on the victim because only government hospitals are authorised to test for swine flu.

Ruby Clinic had tested the victim for swine flu and the test had come negative. The victim was referred to Ruby Clinic by Jehangir Hospital for tests.

What went wrong?

The 14-year-old Rida started having symptoms of a sore-throat, runny nose and headache on July 21 for which she consulted a private doctor.


She felt better and then went to school on the July 23 just two days later. But she got fever again on the July 25 and consulted another private doctor.

She was admitted to a private nursing home on July 27. Her condition worsened and she was shifted to ICU. On the July 29 she was put on ventilator.

Rida tested positive for swine flu on the July 31. Just a day before that she was put on the anti-swine flu medication but by then it was too late.

The death of the 14-year-old seems to have set a chain of alarm scores of people who came into close contact with Rida. They are complaining of respiratory infections.

Three doctors and a nurse of the Jehangir Hospital where Rida was being treated have been quarantined with respiratory problems. They've been put on medication.

Eighty-five hospital contacts, 31 others including 11 family contacts have also been put on medication.