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| Maina |
Posted
on 02-Apr-02 01:24 PM
Heavy security is in place across Nepal for the beginning of nation-wide school exams involving a quarter of a million students.
Maoists are protesting at the state of emergency
Thousands of security personnel have been deployed cross the country to ensure that the examinations are conducted peacefully.
Although fears of violence had subsided after the Maoist rebels called off a five-day general strike scheduled to begin today, the authorities said that they are not taking any chances.
The rebels are fighting to replace the constitutional monarchy with a communist republic.
So far, some 3,000 people have died in six years of fighting.
Strike protest
The decision to call off the strike came after widespread pressure on the rebels not to disrupt the school exams.
Considering the future of the students and requests from the intellectual community, guardians and friendly political forces, our party has decided to postpone the general strike
Rebel statement
Earlier, the Maoist rebels had threatened to disrupt the exams with a general strike which they had called to protest at the four-month-old state of emergency and the military operation against them.
The intensification of rebel attacks on government installations, including power stations, telephone towers and village council buildings, and a number of bomb explosions ahead of the strike, had increased the sense of fear among ordinary people.
However, the BBC's Sushil Sharma in Kathmandu says that this fear subsided considerably after the rebels were forced to defer the strike to a later date, although an air of uneasiness still persists.
Human rights charge
Meanwhile, the national human rights commission has accused the Maoist rebels of committing serious human rights abuses.
In its first annual report, the commission said that its appeal to stop the violence and killings has had no impact on the rebels.
The commission said that the government had also been responsible for abuses.
It complained that the government did not fully co-operate with the commission.
A state of emergency and military operation have been in place since last November to crush the Maoist rebels whom the authorities say are terrorists.
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| Maina |
Posted
on 02-Apr-02 01:32 PM
Pakistan: We Don't Need U.S. Help
April 2, 2002
Soldiers of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, drilling at Bagram Air Base (AP)
"I think doing that is not in the coalition's interest and not in Pakistan's interest."
Pervez Musharraf,
on suggestions U.S. troops come into Pakistan to help fight terrorism
(CBS) Pakistan's military president said Tuesday his government has turned over newly captured al Qaeda suspects to the United States, so there's no need for American forays across the border from Afghanistan.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on his first visit to Afghanistan, noted that 40 or 50 people were detained in the roundups last week in two Pakistani cities, Lahore and Faisalabad, both in Punjab province. He said the anti-terrorist sweep showed his forces can handle such operations on their own.
As he spoke, police in the Pakistani city of Lahore announced the arrests of another 16 people late Monday in a raid on a suspected al Qaeda hide-out. All came to Pakistan from Afghanistan illegally in recent months, said the police chief, Javed Noor.
Pakistan was one of the few nations to support Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers, but withdrew its backing after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, when the Taliban were blamed for sheltering chief suspect Osama bin Laden.
Musharraf and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai Tuesday described themselves as brothers, burying any lingering differences between them over Islamabad's past support for the ousted Taliban.
Musharraf pledged full support for Karzai and said Pakistan's sole aim now was to assist Afghanistan and join with it in stamping out terrorism.
"I have made it absolutely clear to my brother here that Pakistan has only one aim — to assist Afghanistan and to assist my brother sitting here and his government in doing whatever he wants to do in Afghanistan," Musharraf said.
"Our plan is his plan. We will assist him all the way on whatever he wants to do here."
Both Musharraf and Karzai said they did not know the whereabouts of bin Laden and could only guess if he was alive or dead. "He may be dead or alive, I don't know," Musharraf said, "But if you ask my view, maybe he's dead."
"I don't really know where bin Laden is," Karzai said.
American officials in Washington have said those arrested in Pakistan last week include Abu Zubaydah, identified as a top lieutenant in the terror group, although Musharraf said he couldn't confirm that with "100 percent surety."
Experts say the capture of Abu Zubaydah, al Qaeda's top surviving operational commander, is one of the most significant accomplishments in the U.S. war on terrorism. Pakistani authorities captured Zubaydah last Thursday. He was shot three times trying to escape but is expected to survive.
With the help of U.S. intelligence information, "it was Pakistani law enforcement agencies and Pakistani intelligence organizations that moved against them very successfully," Musharraf said at a joint news conference with Karzai.
Of suggestions that U.S. forces in the anti-terror coalition in Afghanistan join in such operations across the border in Pakistan, the general said, "I think doing that is not in the coalition's interest and not in Pakistan's interest."
Pakistan's hard-line Islamic groups rejected Tuesday Musharraf's plans to call a referendum to legitimize his military rule for five more years.
Leaders of six Islamic parties, also opposed to Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror and his crackdown on Islamic militants, vowed to mobilize public support against the planned referendum.
"We unanimously reject the presidential referendum as unconstitutional and we have decided to go to people to ask them to boycott it," Shah Ahmed Noorani, head of the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Committee (UAC), multi-party grouping, told a news conference.
Musharraf, who took power in a coup in October 1999, left the country's journalists in no doubt on Saturday he would hold a referendum, probably in early May.
Musharraf said he needed more time to push through the economic and political reforms to bring stability in the country.
©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this report.
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| Maina |
Posted
on 02-Apr-02 01:40 PM
Obesity Is Tax Deductible
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2002
(CBS/AP)
"Obesity is medically accepted to be a disease in its own right."
Internal Revenue Service
(AP) The cost of weight-loss programs that are part of the treatment for obesity are tax deductible, the Internal Revenue Service ruled Tuesday.
"Obesity is medically accepted to be a disease in its own right," the IRS said.
Taxpayers who participate in these programs for medically valid reasons will now be able to deduct amounts above 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income, similar to any other medical expense not covered by insurance or other reimbursement. A taxpayer's spouse and dependents would also be covered.
Still not deductible, however, are the costs of weight control programs intended "to improve the taxpayer's appearance, general health and sense of well-being."
Diet foods also are not be deductible, even though they are often an integral part of a weight control program under a physician's supervision. The IRS reasons that people have to pay for food whether or not they are trying to lose weight.
Fees, diet menus and literature and other costs would be deductible.
The IRS has previously permitted deductions for weight-loss programs recommended by a physician for treatment of a disease such as high blood pressure. But the agency has never specifically cited obesity itself as a disease.
The American Obesity Association estimates that 39 million Americans are obese, causing 300,000 unnecessary deaths in the United States each year.
The ruling applies not only to 2001 income tax returns - which are due April 15 in most of the country - but as far back as 1998. Taxpayers who want to take the deduction need only file an amended return for the tax year in question.
The IRS also recently included smoking cessation programs as deductible medical expenses, as are treatment and other costs for alcoholism.
By Curt Anderson
© MMII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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| Maina |
Posted
on 02-Apr-02 01:50 PM
Parliament approves Copyright Act 2058
The House of Representatives Tuesday unanimously approved the Copyright Act 2058, an announcement said. Minister for Culture and Tourism Bal Bahadur K.C. tabled a motion seeking the parliament's approval of the Act.
The amended act seeks to prevent piracy. nepalnews.com br April 2
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