Month: September 2009

Jerusalem, September 27: Israeli and Palestinian hikers are taking to the hills in the footsteps of their ancestors — deploying maps, holy texts and walking boots in the long-running battle for control of the Holy Land.

In Israel and the West Bank, bands of enthusiasts trek over the same paths mentioned in antiquity and past villages abandoned to wars. But Israeli and Palestinian hikers mostly emphasize their attachment to the land and ignore each other’s historical footprints.

United Nations, September 27: India on Sunday said it supports a world free of nuclear weapons, but maintained that any international accord to achieve this goal cannot be discriminatory.

“The international order cannot be discriminatory. States must fulfil the obligations they have undertaken,” External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly here.

“India attaches the highest priority to the goal of nuclear disarmament and has an impeccable non proliferation record,” he said.

United Nations, September 27: Iran’s sudden revelation of a formerly secret uranium enrichment plant brought more condemnation Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly, with the Netherlands calling Tehran’s presumed weapons program “a major challenge to international peace and security.”

Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak joined the chorus of outrage, rebuking “Iran’s continued defiance of its international obligations, including the Security Council’s demands to suspend its nuclear activities.”

Melbourne, September 27: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd have deplored the recent spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia, even as they took note of the “strong actions” taken by it to check the acts of violence.

Rudd met Singh at Pittsburg in the United States at the sidelines of the G-20 Summit, where they discussed recent attacks against Indian students studying in Australia. Rudd will travel to India in November and a spokesman said both Rudd and Singh looked forward to the visit.

New York, September 27: Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that his government is committed to establish a commission for investigating political killings that occurred during the struggle to overthrow the monarchy.

“The government is determined to establish a truth and reconciliation commission and a disappearance commission as a part of ensuring transitional justice and restoring social harmony and peace,” Nepal said during the opening session of the UN General Assembly yesterday.

United Nations, September 27: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged a ministerial meeting of southeast Asian nations late Saturday to take a tougher line with fellow member Myanmar in hopes its military junta will free political prisoners and hold fair elections.

Ban said it is in the best interest of the rest of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to lean on Myanmar to free political prisoners, including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Washington, September 27: President Barack Obama on Saturday resumed his push to overhaul the health care system, telling a Congressional Black Caucus conference that there comes a time when “the cup of endurance runs over.”

“We have been waiting for health reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. We’ve been waiting since the days of Harry Truman,” he said in remarks at the caucus foundation’s annual dinner. “We’ve been waiting since Johnson and Nixon and Clinton.”

“We cannot wait any longer,” Obama said.

Pittsburgh, September 27: The G20 inverted an apparently iron law of multilateral summitry — that the significance of a final statement is inversely related to its length — by turning in a bulky communiqué at the end of its summit here on Friday whose genuine heft is likely to be felt in the global economy for years to come.

Washington, September 27: Shocked by a series of terror arrests, American Muslims are joining hands in condemning any attacks against their country.

“Everyone here unequivocally condemns this,” Driss El-Akrich, a doctoral student in public administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield, told.

“For somebody to claim they are doing this in the name of Allah, they are betraying the values of the faith they are claiming to serve.”

A 29-year-old Muslim revert was arrested Wednesday in Illinois on charges of plotting attack against a courthouse in the state.

Kuala Lumpur, September 27: Followers of a religious cult in Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state wrapped the body of their dead cult leader in plastic and lay it in his home for 13 months while waiting for him to be resurrected, a news report said Sunday.

The leader of the “Benevolent Missionary Association,” Ching Chi Vui @ Ivan, was believed to have told his followers not to bury him if he were to die, because he would come back to life, the Sunday Star reported.

Ching, 37, claimed to be a prophet but the sect was extremely secretive and followers kept to themselves.