The Telegraph, Calcutta, India
Close shave for top guns in war games
Oct. 16: A missile-launching system dropped from an Indian Air Force plane targeted at imaginary terrorists nearly wiped out two defence ministers, an ambassador and the country’s almost entire military top brass.
The anti-tank gun, fixed on a military vehicle, landed metres from defence minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov while they watched joint military exercises in western Rajasthan.
Ivanov’s family would have had its heart in its mouth as Russian television showed the missile system, parachuted from the aircraft, approaching the ground near the dais on which he was sitting with Mukherjee, Russian ambassador Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Indian army chief J.J. Singh and air chief marshal S.P. Tyagi.
Journalists and soldiers were shown on Russian TV running for cover but Ivanov, a former spy and close friend of President Vladimir Putin, and Mukherjee remained seated.
Ivanov, sporting sunglasses and a military cap, brushed off the incident and praised the IAF for such accuracy.
“Today an artillery system of India’s airborne forces landed right between two sand-dunes which is the ideal concealment from the enemy. So I raise my cap to Indian pilots,” Ivanov was quoted by Russian news agency Itar-Tass as saying.
“Nothing terrible happened, we all saw that and we all had sufficient time to react. Thank God we are not blind.”
Ivanov said the war games — called Exercise Indra — were as close as possible to actual combat conditions and that high-ranking officials usually do not sit on a dais during real fighting.
In a separate incident, two Russian parachutists almost collided in mid-air but no one was injured.
The Milan anti-tank missile launching system was dropped during “anti-terrorist” exercises at the Mahajan firing range.
Mounted on a Gypsy and tied to four parachutes, it changed course in strong wind and headed straight towards the dais.
An embarrassed air chief marshal later said he had sought a debriefing from the pilots who took part in the operation.
Ivanov, however, commended Tyagi for putting up a splendid show.
“I believe that everyone has performed tip-top today,” he said.
The army chief said the exercise was a simulation of an anti-terrorist operation and was meant to be as real as possible.
Russia was represented by the elite 76th Pskove division, which had gone into action in terrorism-hit Chechnya.
India sent the 50 Independent Para Brigade, an airborne division that reports to the army headquarters. The division took off from Agra and reached the target area in 35 to 40 minutes.
The war games involved four objectives, after dropping troops and equipment: capture landing ground, raid a fictitious terrorist training centre, annihilate the terrorists and evacuate the forces.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/frontpage/story_5363557.asp
Cricket telecast bids under legal scanner
LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI
Sydney, Oct.16: Two of the four bidders for the telecast rights to be awarded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India — Doordarshan and ESPN — appear to have met almost all the technical requirements of the tender.
According to The Telegraph’s sources in Mumbai, where the board’s marketing committee met this afternoon, “quite a few clarifications” are needed where the other bidders — Zee and Sony — are concerned.
The committee, therefore, decided to take the opinion of legal eagle Soli Sorabjee and board counsel Usha Nath Banerjee on all the bids before a select group (president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, Jagmohan Dalmiya and Inderjit Singh Bindra) meets once again.
The rights are to be for four years.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/nation/story_5363184.asp
Winter at door, Valley rises out of ruins
GAJINDER SINGH
A dog takes shelter in a tent during rain and snowfall at a quake-hit area in the Valley on Sunday. (PTI)
Uri, Oct. 16: Their spirits may be down, but they are not devastated.
As a relief-bearing helicopter whirrs through dangerous gorges and cliffs in fleeting rain and sometimes gale, quake-hit Kashmir flickers back to life.
“We have lost parents, wives and children. But life has to continue. We cannot sit here waiting for aid to arrive. With winter right at our doorsteps, we will have to begin taking care of ourselves or perish like the others in the cold,” said Akbar in Uravan, as he helped pull out a tent from the copter that touched down for a few minutes before taking off again in a cloud of dust for another quake-hit village.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/nation/story_5363480.asp
PM rues lost chance in relief
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
A child holds her brother as they wait for their mother to return with relief in Muzaffarabad on Sunday. (AFP)
New Delhi, Oct. 16: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh feels India and Pakistan have “lost” an opportunity to boost the peace process by allowing the quake tragedy and the relief work to get entangled in “status quoism”, well-placed sources in the government have said.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s televised address — in which he singled out Singh’s gesture of calling him to express grief over the quake and thanked him for promptly dispatching aid — was “small consolation”.
Musharraf’s address did not cloud India’s perception that Pakistan’s initial response was to reject its offer and if it did relent, it was because of the scale of the disaster.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/nation/story_5363482.asp
JUST IMPATIENT
- Can a jurisprudence of exasperation sustain the court’s authority?
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
The author is president, Centre for Policy Research
Cracking atmosphere
In a recent discussion of India’s judiciary, the topic veered around to the question: how would one assess the legacy of the judge, R.C. Lahoti, as chief justice? The usual considerations were offered. He has tried to make the Supreme Court receptive to outside ideas by encouraging judges to listen to experts from other fields. On the other hand, he has barely addressed the core problem of the judiciary: its complete lack of accountability and transparency. This is evident in the way transfers have been made, judges have been appointed, the inordinate delays in appointing chief justices or filling vacancies to the Supreme Court. The entire process remains inscrutable.
But what of his impact on jurisprudence? He catalysed some significant opinions that range from indefensible to potentially revolutionary. For instance, the court’s judgment upholding a Haryana government order that having more than two children should disqualify a candidate for running in local elections displayed neither constitutional sense or policy sagacity. In the Jharkhand affair, he overdid matters enough to raise concerns about trespassing on legislative prerogative. The decision on the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act also waded into choppy political waters. The decision in Inamdar to take Article 19 seriously was potentially liberating, but marred by some ad hoc observations. He certainly kept the Supreme Court interesting, but made both politicians and constitutional experts nervous. But other than recounting specific judgments, can one describe him as having a judicial philosophy?
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/opinion/story_5303862.asp
The Times Union
Ballots are far from cast
As the federal deadline for election upgrades nears, New York officials are deadlocked
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
First published: Sunday, October 16, 2005
Robert Witco, sporting a business suit, conservative tie and wing tips, fires into his sales pitch for replacing New York's old lever voting machines with elections equipment never before seen in America.
"We're so far ahead of our competition," says Witco, unveiling the LibertyVote machine he thinks every election district in New York could use.
In a spiel he has given countless times this year for elections officials across the state, Witco, 40, talks about the ease of using and storing his compact, computerized machine, the ability to scroll to English or Spanish, and soon, Mandarin, and the reasonable cost -- about $7,000 per unit.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=409409&category=CAPITOL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/16/2005
Packed dockets hinder justice
Watchdog group says Schenectady County needs 2nd county judge
By ANNE MILLER, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, October 16, 2005
Hector Pena Martinez deserved a break, if anyone did, his correction officers said. A model prisoner, his hands trembled as he waited and waited. Eventually, he broke into tears.
Pena Martinez, dressed neatly in jeans, an ironed white shirt and handcuffs, had grown nervous. As usual, the judge was late.
The Schenectady County courthouse is overwhelmed. The caseload is so heavy that a statewide watchdog group has singled out the county as desperately in need of another full-time county judge.
But most counties that long ago received new judges won't give them up, and new positions are created only by the state Legislature, which means politics and money have as much to do with new postings as rising populations or crime statistics.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=409405&category=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/16/2005
Cheap labor flows to Iraq
Halliburton unit is tapping pipeline of illicit workers for U.S. military jobs in war zone
By CAM SIMPSON and AAMER MADHANI, Chicago Tribune
First published: Sunday, October 16, 2005
American tax dollars and the wartime needs of the U.S. military are fueling an illicit pipeline of cheap foreign labor, mainly impoverished Asians who often deceived, exploited and put in harm's way in Iraq with little protection.
The United States has long condemned the practices that characterize this human trade as it operates elsewhere in the Middle East. Yet this very system is now part of the privatization of the American war effort and is central to the operations of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, the U.S. military's biggest private contractor in Iraq.
To document this system, the Chicago Tribune retraced the journey of 12 Nepalese men kidnapped last year from an unprotected convoy en route to an American military base in Iraq. The Tribune's reporting found that:
To maintain the flow of low-paid workers key to military support and reconstruction in Iraq, the U.S. military has allowed KBR to partner with subcontractors that hire laborers from Nepal and other countries that prohibit citizens from being deployed in Iraq. That means brokers recruiting such workers operate illicitly.
The U.S. military and KBR assume no responsibility for the recruitment, transportation or protection of foreign workers brought to the country. KBR leaves every aspect of hiring and deployment in the hands of its subcontractors. Those subcontractors often turn to job brokers dealing in menial laborers.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=409397&category=NATIONAL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/16/2005
Massive gatherings highlight the missing
Marches are reminders of many black men languishing in prison
By BREEA C. WILLINGHAM, Special to the Times Union
First published: Sunday, October 16, 2005
My brother wasn't at the Million Man March a decade ago, and he didn't go this year.
He's in prison for life.
My father wasn't at this year's Millions More Movement in Washington, D.C., the 10th anniversary commemoration of the Million Man March, either. He's serving a 45-year prison sentence.
My father and brother never came together with hundreds of thousands of other black men on Oct. 16, 1995, for a day of atonement. They never stood and pledged to love their families and respect the mother of their children.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=409372&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/16/2005
Pressing times
Lakeside Farms' old-fashioned cider will change with state mandate
By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, October 16, 2005
The oak beams tighten on the old cider press, squeezing juice out from between the slatted racks. A whirring combination of gears, belts and pulleys exerts 120 tons of pressure on the approximately 7,500 apples being turned into cider in this pressing at Lakeside Farms in Ballston Lake.
Built in the 1890s, the press is a remnant of a bygone era -- actually, an era that's nearly gone. It lives on under the watchful eye of Dick Pearce, owner of Lakeside Farms, as a proud example of old-fashioned ways.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=408753&category=LIFE&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/16/2005
Unique portraits give bottoms top billing
The Original Butt Sketch artists give subjects a different perspective
By KATE PERRY, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, October 16, 2005
TROY -- Never thought of framing a portrait of your butt?
Then you've never met Pjae Adams.
Under a festival tent at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Fall Fest Saturday, Adams turned behinds -- along with the heads, backs and legs above and beneath them -- into fine art.
The festival, an event open to the community, was held during this weekend's annual family weekend at the college.
A continuous line of people snaked toward the 29-year-old artist and her easel, which faced an ever-changing lineup of rear ends.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=409373&category=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/16/2005
Pakistan predicts sharp jump in quake toll
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 1:52 a.m., Monday, October 17, 2005
BALAKOT, Pakistan -- Pakistani officials predicted Sunday that many more thousands of dead would be found in earthquake-ravaged Kashmir as heavy rains in the Himalayan region drenched homeless survivors in mud and misery.
The latest estimate would raise the death toll from the magnitude-7.6 quake in the mountains of northern Pakistan and India to at least 54,000 -- a jump of more than 13,000 from the official count of known dead.
A spokesman for the prime minister of the region warned that the cold and wet could cause further deaths among the 2 million or so people believed to be homeless, although the rains receded early Monday, bringing hope that efforts could resume in force to bring aid to the stricken region.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=406817&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=10/16/2005
Sunnis appear to fall short in Iraq vote
By LEE KEATH, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:21 a.m., Monday, October 17, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's landmark constitution seemed assured of passage Sunday after initial results showed minority Sunni Arabs had fallen short in an effort to veto it at the polls. The apparent acceptance was a major step in the attempt to establish a democratic government that could lead to the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Opponents failed to secure the necessary two-thirds "no" vote in any three of Iraqi's 18 provinces, according to counts that local officials provided to The Associated Press. In the crucial central provinces with mixed ethnic and religious populations, enough Shiites and Kurds voted to stymie the Sunni bid to reject the constitution.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree setting Dec. 15 for Iraqis to vote again, this time to elect a new parliament. If the constitution indeed passed, the first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003 will install a new government by Dec. 31. If the charter has failed, the parliament will be temporary, tasked with drawing up a new draft on which to vote.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=199659&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=10/16/2005
Every D.C. scandal has its memory lapses
By PETE YOST, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:51 a.m., Monday, October 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Every Washington scandal has its moments of memory lapse, and the Valerie Plame affair is no exception. New York Times reporter Judith Miller says she told a federal grand jury she could not recall where she heard name of the covert CIA officer whose cover was blown, even though she jotted it down in her notebook.
The identities of those who disclosed Plame's name are vital pieces of evidence for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald as he tries to track down leakers in the Bush administration.
Miller wrote down "Valerie Flame."
"I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled," Miller said in a first-person account for her newspaper published Sunday.
Fitzgerald has been gathering evidence on conversations between vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Miller.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=407904&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=10/16/2005
New Zealand Herald
NZer faces jail in Britain after refusing to serve in Iraq
17.10.05 1.00pm
A New Zealander serving in the Royal Air Force faces jail in Britain for refusing to serve in Iraq, a war he thinks is illegal.
Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, is to be court-martialled for "refusing to obey a lawful command" after telling his commanding officer he would not return to Iraq.
He is the first British officer to face criminal charges for challenging the legality of the war, the Sunday Times reported.
Flt Lt Kendall-Smith is an RAF medical officer.
He was born in Australia, raised in New Zealand and has dual British-New Zealand citizenship.
He has been decorated for his service in Afghanistan and for two tours to Iraq.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10350664
Dead body, monkey intestines seized by border officials
17.10.05 4.00pm
Monkey intestines and an embalmed body are among items seized by New Zealand border officials, costing guilty travellers millions of dollars in fines.
The instant $200 fines have added more than $6 million to Crown coffers since being introduced in 2001 as the country's biosecurity authorities react to increasing pressure on New Zealand ports, a Christchurch daily newspaper reported today.
Biosecurity has been thrown into the spotlight in recent months as the country unwillingly becomes host to more exotic pests.
The latest invader, the didymo alga or "rock snot", has spread through pristine waterways, threatening New Zealand's reputation as a prime fishing destination.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10350661
Revealed: Blair's nuclear bombshell
17.10.05 1.00pm
Tony Blair is facing a political backlash over his decision to order a new generation of nuclear weapons to replace the ageing Trident fleet at a cost of billions of pounds.
Rebel Labour MPs will meet tomorrow to coordinate their fight against his plans, which seem set to provoke one of the biggest shows of opposition to Mr Blair from inside his own party since the start of the Iraq war.
Opposition to an updated version of Trident goes far beyond MPs who object to nuclear weapons on principle.
It includes senior figures in the military, who question whether this is the best way to spend a tight military budget.
A senior defence department source told the Independent that there was "a serious debate" going on "at all levels" over the long-term role of the armed forces and whether a nuclear deterrent was still needed.
The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is believed to have privately queried the huge cost.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350690
China's second manned spacecraft returns safely
17.10.05 11.00am
BEIJING - China's second manned spacecraft Shenzhou VI touched down successfully in Inner Mongolia today after orbiting the Earth for five days, state media said, as the country stepped up a gush of patriotic fanfare.
The two astronauts reported they had landed safely and were in good health after the space capsule touched down in the remote steppes of the northern Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua news agency said.
They completed 76 orbits of the Earth and travelled millions of kilometres since Wednesday morning's launch of the mission, which state media has already hailed as a breakthrough demonstrating China's emergence as a technological power.
"We're proud of Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, and we're even prouder of the motherland's constantly advancing aerospace programme," Xinhua news agency said in a commentary ahead of their return.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350680
ONE HAS TO WONDER ABOUT THIS HYSTERIA. IT HASN'T TAKEN THAT CHARACTER IN COUNTRIES ALREADY EFFECTED. A LITTLE PREMATURE IN THE FRENZY TO THE CULTURE OF FEAR.
Birdflu could kill 50,000 Britons Government expert warns
17.10.05 8.20am
LONDON - Britain is braced for a pandemic of birdflu which could result in at least 50,000 deaths throughout the country, says the government's chief medical officer Liam Donaldson.
His comments followed laboratory test results which showed the same deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu as that found in Turkey and Asia had infected ducks in Romania, confirming the virus had reached mainland Europe.
Donaldson said history suggested the bird flu virus could combine with a human flu virus and become easily transmissible.
"Once in a while, every 10 to 40 years, the flu virus mutates into a strain which we haven't got natural immunity to," he told BBC TV. He said a normal winter flu kills more than 12,000 people in Britain.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350660
Malawi food crisis worsens
17.10.05 8.20am
A worsening food crisis threatening millions of people in Malawi has prompted the President to plead for international aid and declare a state of disaster in the poor southern African nation.
President Bingu wa Mutharika said the crisis was threatening 5 million of the country's 11 million people, as drought has slashed the production of maize, a staple. High rates of HIV infection have also made many farmers too sick to tend crops.
Many in Malawi's opposition and civil society said the President's call for help was too late and accused him of ignoring earlier calls for a declaration of national disaster.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350578
Disgraced Russian businessman assassinated
17.10.05
By Andrew Osborn
A disgraced millionaire Russian businessman was executed along with his wife and daughter yesterday in a contract drive-by shooting just outside Moscow.
The body of Alexander Slesarev, 37, was found in his bullet-riddled Mercedes along with that of his wife, Natalya, and his daughter, Elizaveta, who was just 15.
His seven year-old niece, who was also in the car, was badly injured and was rushed to hospital while three men thought to be his bodyguards who were travelling in a separate jeep needed serious medical attention.
The murders were carried out clinically and professionally.
Police said a powerful Audi A-8 overtook the businessman's convoy on a road about 20 miles outside Moscow and that two gunmen began firing as they drew level.
The Audi was found soon afterwards having been burnt out.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350671
Deep sea fish face extinction from trawlers
17.10.05
By Severin Carrell
The deep ocean is one of the world's last great wildernesses. But not for long. Two kilometres below the surface, scores of rare and exotic species are being wiped out at a dramatic rate.
These unique species include the goblin shark, which boasts a unicorn-like horn, prickly sharks with humped backs and glowing eyes, vast single-celled organisms as large as footballs and tripod fish that stand on their fins.
In a letter passed to The Independent on Sunday, Britain's leading marine scientists have warned these species face extinction because of the global growth in deep-sea trawlers fishing for edible species such as the orange roughy, hoki and round-nosed grenadier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350581
Steady rain heaps misery on Kashmir quake survivors
17.10.05
By Robert Birsel
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - Steady rain heaped more misery on the survivors of the Kashmir earthquake yesterday as the more than one million made homeless spent another night exposed to the elements with only makeshift tents as shelter.
Military officials said the relief flights had been halted for most of the morning because of thunderstorms in Islamabad, where supplies were being loaded, despite improving weather in the earthquake zone.
Rain fell steadily through the night and Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director-general of meteorological services in the capital Islamabad, forecast showers would continue intermittently until Monday in the quake zone at the foot of the Himalayas, followed by a cold snap.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10350588
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Fine
-18.0°
Updated Monday 17 Oct 9:59PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
28 °F / -2 °C
Clear
Humidity:
86%
Dew Point:
25 °F / -4 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
29.63 in / 1003 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Clear -
(Above Ground Level)
end
