INTERNATIONAL 8 TUESDAY APRIL 3, 2007 CHINA DAILY ACROSSASIA Taliban: Suicide bombers are ready ISRAEL

Olmert’s summit call criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is only for the freedom of Afghanistan cluding children and two troops. Taliban’s Islamist government after drew fi re from across the Israeli Afghan government rejects militants’ from the enemies of Muslims.” After taking serious losses last its leadership refused to hand over political spectrum yesterday for Afghan defense ministry spokes- year confronting NATO forces in Osama bin Laden following the calling Arab nations to convene a threat as ‘psychological war’ tactic man Zahir Azimi dismissed Dadul- conventional pitched battles, the September 11 attacks on the United summit with the Jewish state to lah’s comments as psychological Taliban are retuning to traditional States. discuss a Saudi-drafted peace plan. housands of Taliban suicide Dadullah, the Taliban’s military tactics. guerrilla tactics, especially suicide The Afghan government says Tali- “I invite all the heads of the Arab bombers have been deployed head, said the Islamic guerrillas had “We have two types of war; face-to- bombings. ban’s elusive leader, Mullah Moham- states, including of course the Saudi across Afghanistan to at- the ability and the weapons to fi ght face war and psychological war. The The Taliban and their Islamic allies, mad Omar, and his senior aides live king whom I consider a very impor- tack Western troops and foreign troops for a long time. Taliban have suicide bombers, but including Al-Qaida, are mostly active in Pakistan, the key Taliban supporter tant leader, to hold talks with us,” the government, the group’s “We have sent thousands of Tali- there is no doubt that they are exag- in southern and eastern regions bor- until September 11. Olmert told a joint press conference militaryT chief said yesterday. ban suicide bombers to all Afghan gerating the numbers and use it as a dering Pakistan. Islamabad concedes rebels cross with German Chancellor Angela Following last year’s violence, the cities for attacks on foreign troops psychological tool,” he said. Close to 4,000 people, nearly a the border, but denies supporting Merkel in Jerusalem late on Sunday. worst since the Taliban’s ouster in and their Afghan puppets,” Dadul- Suicide attacks, copied from quarter of them civilians, but also the Taliban or that rebel leaders are But the call by the increasingly 2001, this year is regarded as the lah said. militants in Iraq, increased dra- including around 170 Western sol- on its territory. Dadullah said Omar unpopular premier drew jeers from crunch period both for the Taliban “And we will turn our motherland matically in 2006. On Sunday, a diers, hundreds of militants, Afghan and the Taliban leadership were in both left and right in Israel. and US-led Western troops. into the graveyard of the US forces suicide attack on an Afghan army troops and dozens of aid workers were Afghanistan. “Mr Olmert is in such a bad state Speaking by satellite phone from and their families should wait for convoy in the eastern province of killed in fi ghting last year. on the domestic political scene that an undisclosed location, Mullah their dead bodies. The Taliban’s war Laghman killed nine people, in- US-led forces overthrew the Agencies such an invitation is unlikely to score him many points,” said a com- mentator on army radio. CAMBODIA Zoo turns to $5m prize Ruling party wins landslide The Cambodian People’s Party won artifi cial may improve an overwhelming victory in local elec- tions at the weekend, maintaining its insemination leadership in fi rm grip on power in the poor South- east Asian nation, according to party Africa: Annan projections announced yesterday. as ‘porn’ fails Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling AFRICA party clinched control of more than THAILAND 98 percent of Cambodia’s com- A new $5 million prize for good munes in the country’s second local After panda porn failed to spark amor, leadership could spur African heads elections held Sunday, said Khieu Thai zoo authorities turned yesterday of state to govern better, said former Kanharith, the party’s spokesman. to artifi cial insemination in the hope United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who The National Election Committee is of impregnating their lone female will head the committee making the expected to release offi cial results giant panda. award. on April 24. Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo The Mo Ibrahim Prize, the world’s in northern Thailand inseminated Lin largest such award, would make Af- Largest drug materials raid Hui with semen from her cage-mate, rican rulers more conscious of their Cambodian police confi scated more Chuang Chuang, yesterday morning records on human rights and democ- than three tons of chemicals used and will repeat the procedure today. racy, said Annan, who stepped down to produce amphetamine-type The artifi cial insemination is a last as UN secretary-general at the end stimulants and arrested 18 people ditch effort to get Lin Hui pregnant, of last year. in the country’s largest seizure of after videos of pandas having sex “I think it will energize civil soci- drug-making materials, offi cials failed to entice Chuang Chuang into ety discussions and encourage the said yesterday. The chemicals were mating with his partner. leaders themselves to understand seized in a raid on Sunday on a “He just didn’t want to mate. He that there is some mechanism to farm located in a remote area about was looking at her as a friend,’’ said judge their performance,” he said 100 kilometers west of the capital Sophon Dummui, director-general in an interview in Geneva, where Phnom Penh, said police Lieutenant of Thai Zoo Organization of Thai- the award’s six-member selection General Luor Ramin, secretary- land which oversees the Chiang committee met for the fi rst time last general of the Cambodian National Mai Zoo. weekend. Authority for Combating Drugs. “We saw that Chuang Chuang Giant pandas Chuang Chuang, left, and Lin Hui in their cage at Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand, in 2003. AP Annan said poor governance was wasn’t mating with the female,’’ he a problem in much of his native con- SRI LANKA continued. “If we don’t do artifi cial in- dollars in tourist revenue. among the bear-like bamboo eaters. Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. tinent, which is the poorest region of semination, then maybe we couldn’t Since then, they have tried every- Thirty-four pandas were born by Giant pandas have a very low the world and suffers severe health Rebel blast on bus kills 16 have a baby this year. We think the thing from putting Chuang Chuang artificial insemination in 2006 in fertility rate because they are sexu- problems including high rates of HIV/ Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers bombed a artificial insemination is the best on a special diet to holding a mock China and 30 survived, both record ally inactive. Female pandas become AIDS, malaria and other diseases. civilian bus in island’s restive east option.’’ wedding before resorting to artifi cial numbers for the endangered species. pregnant only once a year and deliver “There are leaders in Africa who yesterday, killing 16 people, mostly Thailand rented 6-year-old insemination. Artifi cial insemination has also been two cubs at most each time. are doing well and there are others women and children during a Bud- Chuang Chuang and 5-year-old While the technique is being tried used at zoos in the United States. The fertility of captive giant pandas who are not doing so well, and per- dhist holiday, military offi cials said, Lin Hui from China for $250,000 on pandas for the fi rst time in Thai- The panda is one of the world’s is even lower, experts said. haps do not take the interests of their but the rebels denied involvement. in October 2003 for 10 years. They land, it has been used for more than 50 rarest animals, with about 1,590 liv- people to heart the way they should,” The government condemned what are expected to generate millions of years in China to trigger a baby boom ing in the wild in China, mostly in Agencies the 68-year-old Ghanaian said. it called a “cowardly terror” attack, Annan, a career diplomat, did not which took place in the eastern mention any African ruler by name. district of Ampara, taking the death “What is exciting is that civil toll from a rash of incidents over- society has become more engaged, night in the north and east to 33. Hillary’s presidential bid more active in pressing their leaders to respect democracy and to respect JAPAN human rights,” he said. raises record $26 million “You have a younger generation Slain Briton caught on camera of educated bright Africans whom I A 22-year-old British woman found hope would also go into politics and dead in a bathtub full of sand near UNITED STATES By comparison, Massachusetts Senator John maintain this pressure.” Tokyo last week was caught on a Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in The annual award, set up by Suda- cafe security camera minutes before New York Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clin- 2004, had $10.2 million in his campaign coffers nese businessman Mo Ibrahim, will police believe she was killed, Japa- ton has raised a record $26 million since announcing by the end of the fi rst quarter of 2003, the year go to former presidents and prime nese media said yesterday. her presidential candidacy in what is shaping up as before the 2004 elections, according to FEC ministers from sub-Saharan Africa Video pictures broadcast by the most expensive race in history, her campaign said fi gures. who left office in the three years Japanese television showed English on Sunday as it sought to steal a jump on rivals. Among other Democratic candidates in the 2008 prior and who showed exemplary teacher Lindsay Hawker dressed in Clinton, who entered the race in January, also race, Illinois Senator Barack Obama was expected leadership while in power. white and talking to a man media transferred $10 million left over from her Senate to report large fund-raising totals but his campaign Winners will get $5 million over 10 identifi ed as 28-year-old Tatsuya re-election run. That made for a total $36 million in did not release its numbers on Sunday. years and then $200,000 each year Ichihashi, whom police are seeking receipts for the three months to March 31, her staff Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware said on tel- for life, with another $200,000 annu- in connection with her death. said. That would be a record for the fi rst-quarter of evision his fi rst quarter fi gure was “not nearly as ally for “good causes” they espouse. Hawker and Ichihashi were then a non-election year. much” as Clinton’s. “I think we’re going to talk about By contrast, the Nobel Peace Prize, caught on another camera getting The deadline to report quarterly campaign-fi - somewhere around $3 million for this quarter.” Bi- which Annan won jointly with the UN into a taxi, apparently headed for nance fi gures to the Federal Election Commission den said on “Fox News Sunday”. in 2001, pays $1.5 million. his house. is April 15, and candidates are jockeying to cast Clinton’s campaign said $6 million of the total Annan said the award’s assess- their fund-raising clout in the best light as an early had been raised from grassroots efforts, including ments of African leaders’ successes in Ex-Red Army offi cer appeals test of their campaign’s success. $4.2 million on the Internet and $1.8 million from areas such as economic development, A former offi cer of the far-left Clinton’s campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, telemarketing. Campaign staffers said 50,000 do- peace and security, and the rule of law Japanese Red Army has appealed said the preliminary fi gure far exceeded a goal $15 nors from all 50 states gave money and 80 percent would help set a benchmark for other his life sentence handed down for million in the January-March period. of the contributions were $100 or less. rulers to be measured against. an attack on the French Embassy in “We are overwhelmed by the tremendous en- Anthony Corrado, government professor at Colby Other members of the panel, which The Hague and a hijacking, a court thusiasm and historic response this campaign has College in Maine, said even though most contribu- will announce the fi rst winner in Oc- offi cial said yesterday. received so far,” said Doyle said. “Going forward we tions came in small amounts, large contributions tober, include former Irish President Jun Nishikawa, 56, was found guilty are poised to continue this success and make even probably accounted for the bulk of Clinton’s funding. and UN High Commissioner for Hu- on Friday of involvement in the more history.” “Having 50,000 donors at this stage of the campaign man Rights Mary Robinson, former guerrillas’ 1974 embassy attack and Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards’ clearly shows the breadth of her fund-raising base,” Tanzanian Prime Minister Salim Sal- the hijacking of a Japan Airlines campaign said he had raised more than $14 million. he said. im, former Nigerian Finance Minister plane three years later. Deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince said the Edwards was probably buoyed in part by a surge Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finnish Three Red Army members stormed Edwards camp was not at all concerned that Clinton in Internet donations after his wife Elizabeth an- Hillary Rodham Clinton, of New York, talks President Martti Ahtisaari and former the French embassy in the Neth- had raised nearly twice as much. nounced the recurrence of her cancer, Corrado to participants at a roundtable discussion on Guinean Education Minister Aicha erlands in September 1974, taking “We are completely on track to have all the added. mortgages during a campaign stop at the Bah Diallo. the ambassador and 10 other staff money we need to be highly competitive in the Englewood Neighborhood Center in east Or- hostage to secure the release of mili- campaign,” Prince said. Agencies lando, Florida, on Saturday. AP Agencies tants in a French prison. During the 1977 hijacking, Nishikawa and four other commandos held passengers and crew hostage for seven days. TAJIKISTAN More children plea not enough to solve aging problem Avalanche kills mum, 7 children AUSTRALIA He said Australia was currently fall as a proportion of the popula- needed to ensure the population care to double to 7.3 percent of GDP A woman and her seven children enjoying a “demographic sweet tion, putting stress on the nation’s replaces itself. by 2047, while aged care costs would aged between 5 and 20 were killed The Australian government’s plea for spot” with the number of working health and aged care costs and “The fact is that the lower fertil- rise to 2.0 percent of GDP from 0.8 by an avalanche that came down on couples to have more children, with age people, or those between 15 to leading to lower economic growth ity rates of the 70s, 80s and 90s are percent in 2006/07. their house in eastern Tajikistan, “one for mum, one for dad and one for 64, higher than at any time in the per capita. still winding their way through the By 2047, government spending the government emergencies agency the country,” has helped slow the ag- past 40 years. Costello said in 2007, there were system. The large population bulge was expected to exceed revenue by said yesterday. ing of the nation’s population, Treas- But he warned that the numbers fi ve people of working age for every caused by the post-war baby boom about 3.5 percent of GDP, leading to Another avalanche killed a 17-year- urer Peter Costello said yesterday. were set to decline from 2010. person aged 65 or older, but by 2047, is moving through the population big budget defi cits. old teenager in a neighboring village But Australia still faced slowing The analysis, by a range of gov- there will be only 2.4 people of and heading towards retirement,” The government has targeted in the Jigartal district, 400 kilom- economic growth and a signifi cant ernment agencies, said the number working aged for everyone aged 65 he said. the ageing population by offering eters east of the capital Dushanbe, budget shortfall in 40 years due to of Australians aged 65 or older is set or more. The latest projections suggest gross $4,000 to the parents of every new- the agency said. Both avalanches the demographic impact of the aging to double by 2047 to 25 percent of Costello said progress was being domestic product (GDP) per person born child, by encouraging workers occurred on Sunday. Mountains cover population, Costello said. the population, while the number of made on increasing the birth rate, is set to increase by 1.6 percent on to stay in the workforce beyond the about 90 percent of this Central Asian “Demographic changes are still people aged 85 or more will triple to with women now having an average average over the next 40 years, com- usual retirement age of 65, and by nation’s territory, and avalanches are working against us,” Costello said in 5.6 percent of the population. of 1.8 children compared about 1.7 pared to 2.1 percent over the past 40 encouraging workplace flexibility common here in spring. an address to the National Press Club At the same time, the number of fi ve years ago. years. and productivity. as he released a government analysis on working-age Australians is set to But that meant Australia was still Costello said the ageing of the Agencies the impact of an aging population. increase only marginally, and will well below the 2.1 births per woman population will force the cost of health Agencies