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News 88Figures released by the government of Argentina show there’s been a steep rise in levels of poverty reflecting the social cause of the economic crisis. The office dealing with economic statistics says nearly 60% of Argentines now live on or below the poverty line. Our correspondent in Buenos-Aires P.G. has more details. There’s one good thing about being poor in Argentina, as R.E. told me, you are not alone. Almost 6 out of 10 meet the government definition of living in poverty, that is they earn less than 625 pesos a month – a bit under 200 dollars – the amount an average family must find to meet their basic needs. And this is in a country that used to boast one of the world’s highest standards of living. (BBC February, 2003) News 89Police in Moscow have arrested a man who created an investment scheme which defrauded millions of Russians in the early 1990’s. The man Sergey Mavrodi, who launched the MMM Investment Fund, has been on the run since 1998. He used television advertising to persuade millions of Russians to put whatever sums they could in his MMM scheme, which collapsed in 1994. Analysts said it was a classic pyramid scheme in which no money was actually invested and old customers were paid off with new buyers’ money. (BBC February, 2003) News 90 Three separate inquires are opening in the United States into the loss of the space shuttle Columbia which disintegrated on Saturday killing its crew of seven. The US government is forming an independent commission. The American Space Agency NASA and the US Congress will also conduct inquires. Police and NASA staff are searching for debris across three American States including Texas above which Columbia fell apart. From there D.W. reports. Local officials received more than a thousand calls within a few hours. Hundreds of pieces of debris have been recovered including three large panels one the size of a car door. It's reported that officials have also recovered an astronaut’s helmet and several body parts. The debris is being logged and marked with satellite checking devices. Flowers have being laid alongside some of the wreckage turning the area into a makeshift memorial. (BBC February, 2003) News 91 NASA said the first indication of trouble was in the shuttle’s left wing, which had been hit by debris on lift-off. NASA said it was suspending shuttle missions until it understood the rude cause of the disaster. The Russian space authorities have offered help into the investigation of the Columbia disaster. They also said that the launch of a Russian cargo rocket to the international space station would go ahead today as planned. With America in mourning, countries around the world have been sending their condolences. Our Washington correspondent J.W. has more details. The President has taken telephone calls from a wide range of world leaders including the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the French President Jacques Chirac, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The initial sense of shock in America has been followed by intense speculations about what went wrong. Speculations centre at the moment on a piece of an isolating foam that was seen to hit Columbia’s left wing shortly after the launch in January. The foam had come away from the orbited external fuel tank. Some reports suggest that sensors on the left wing were the first to register a problem during the re-entry. (BBC February, 2003) News 92 Iraq says it will give a detailed response later today to the challenge made at the United Nations by the American Secretary of State Colin Powell. Mr. Powell said Iraq was still defying demands to disarm and produced a dossier of intelligence information to back his case including satellite photographs and phone intercepts. The initial Iraqi reaction was dismissive. In Baghdad a spokesman for President Saddam Hussein general A.H. said the speech should be mainly for the uninformed in order to justify committing an aggression on Iraq. Iraqi UN ambassador M Al D. said the American goal was to sell the idea of war without any moral or legal justification. Elsewhere there’s been a mixed reaction to the American stand. Britain gave strong backing but other members of the Security Council said the inspectors should be given more time. Syria questioned why Iraq was being threatened when it no longer occupied anyone else’s territory. (BBC February, 2003) News 93 Some European allies including Germany and France have expressed concern about the prospects of a new war. Meanwhile US military officials have announced yet another leaflet drop over southern Iraq. They say close to half a million leaflets were dropped this time including some calling on Iraqi civilians to avoid areas where troops congregate. The leaflets also stress coalition forces have no desires to harm the Iraqi people or to destroy their landmarks. (VOA February, 2003) News 94 The White House says it is prepared for any contingency in the stand-off with North Korea over the country’s nuclear weapons program. S.S. reports that the statement follows North Korea’s accusation that the Bush administration is preparing a surprise attack. Mr. Fleischer says Washington and those allies view North Korea’s actions as a setback to peaceful dialog. North Korean officials say they’ll retaliate against any attacks on its nuclear facilities. The warning comes a day after the North announced it has restarted the nuclear power plant that the Bush administration believes could be used to help build nuclear weapons. Mr. Fleischer says North Korea’s actions further isolate its people from the modern world and lead to a situation where people are starved and denied basic human rights. North Korea has warned that it is entitled to launch a pre-emptive strike against the United States if US forces in the Pacific are strengthened. The Bush administration says it’s continuing to pursue diplomacy in the matter. (VOA February, 2003) News 95 In Africa 30 million people are at risk of starvation or are facing severe food shortages. The crisis in Zimbabwe is of particular concern. 7.2 million Zimbabweans, over half the population, face serious food shortages and the risk of starvation. Although worsened by poor rainfall, Zimbabwe’s crisis arises from the policies and actions of the government of Zimbabwe. Political oppression and economic mismanagement have decimated agricultural production and ruined Zimbabwe’s economy. In the face of great human suffering, Zimbabwean officials often manipulate availability of scarce government food stock for political gains and personal ends. Other African nations facing serious food shortages include Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Swaziland. Ethiopia has over 14 million people at risk. A long-time hunger filled by war continues in Angola and Sudan. The United States is the world’s largest donor of food relief, making over 60% of the contributions to the United Nations World Food Programs’ emergency operations. The US made over 40% of the contributions to the programs Emergency Appeal for Africa in the year 2002. President George W. Bush has proposed spending more that one billion dollars in the next year to meet emergency food needs worldwide. Mr. Bush has also proposed a 200-million dollar famine fund to bring immediate assistance to regions facing starvation. Money from the fund would be available to purchase food supplies or to support food production. In the words of President Bush, we will encourage friends around the world to set up similar funds and leverage our combined resources to provide the most help to famine stricken lands. Thanks to the United States and other nations, a severe hunger crisis in Africa was recently averted. But Africa’s urgent need for food assistance will continue. As President Bush said, “To all our efforts to fight diseases and hunger we can spare people in many nations from untold suffering. Millions are facing rare infliction. But with our help they will not face it alone.” (VOA February, 2003) News 96 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is warning the United States against making war against Baghdad on its own arguing collective action under UN umbrella would have greater legitimacy and better odds of success. In an address marking the 310th anniversary of William and Mary College in the US State of Virginia Mr. Annan also stressed that force against the Iraqi should be used only as a last resort. (VOA February, 2003) News 97 Saturday in Rome Pope John Paul said efforts must be intensified to avert war in Iraq. His call for peace was the latest in a series made by the Pope, who has said in the past that war is always a defeat for humanity. S.C.F. has the story. The Pope said tensions and whims of war exist at present and that humanity is being tempted by hatred and violence. He added that the world must make every effort to avoid a war. He stressed that humanity must not resign itself to the inevitability of war. He called on everyone to take the path that leads to peace, dialog and hope. The Pope’s words came in an address to a peace group, the Roman Catholic community of Santa J, known for its efforts to broker peace in African nations. (VOA February, 2003) News 98 And now to New York, where the city is on heightened alert to possible terrorist attacks, correspondent J.B. is covering efforts there to make public places safe. New York City has been on a high level of alert since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But now that Washington has raised the national warning level to high alert, police in New York City are increasing their presence at landmarks: bridges and tunnels, the subway and other highly-populated areas. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters that while there has been no specific threat, the deadly attack on the World Trade Center proves that New York City is a potential target. As we learned so tragically on September, 11, New York’s role as capital of the world and its symbolic value as the center of American business will always make it a target for those who want to destroy our way of life. My message today to the people of the city of New York is simple: go about your lives as you normally would, and we will do everything in our power to protect you. Leave the worrying to the professionals and live your lives, otherwise the terrorists will win without doing anything. (VOA February, 2003) News 99 The President of Iran Mohammad Khatami has announced the discovery of deposits of uranium in the country for the first time. He says it’s planned to process and use it to fuel Iran’s nuclear power programme. Speaking on state television, President Khatami said uranium had been successfully extracted from two sites, and Iran was now ready to produce nuclear energy without outside help. (BBC February, 2003) News 100 A court in southern China has sentenced the United States-based dissident Wang Bingzhang to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of spying for Taiwan and leading a terrorist group. The sentence, one of the toughest made to any dissident in recent years, is the culmination of a most bizarre case. From Shanghai F.M. reports. Wang, he is 55, was convicted of spying for Taiwan since the 1980’s and organizing and leading a terrorist group. China says he and two other dissidents were rescued by Chinese police from kidnappers, who had left them tied up in a temple in G. province bordering Viet-Nam. But fellow pro-democracy activists, who’ve dismissed the sentence as unjust and shameful, say it was Chinese security agents themselves who abducted them in Viet-Nam, where he’d gone to try and meet Chinese labour activists. Mr. Wang’s conviction comes at a time when the Chinese government is increasingly worried about the potential for labour unrest as it faces the difficult task of reforming the country’s lumbering state industry. (BBC February, 2003) News 101 A team of scientists has published research in progress on ways to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids without the use of condoms. Our science correspondent A.L. has more details. With an effective HIV vaccine still many years away, scientists are trying to develop effective treatment to prevent the spread of the virus, particularly amongst women. Microbicide, which should be developed into gels, foam sponges or pessaries could be used by women before sexual intercourse, so avoiding the stigma which is often attached to using condoms. They work to stop the virus from getting near the vulnerable cells it infects and increasing body's defences. A team of scientists from the US and UK applied a microbicide gel which contained a human antibody in the uterus of macaque monkeys. The gel protected the macaques from infection with simian HIV for more than seven hours. (BBC February, 2003) News 102 The authorities in Congo (Brazzaville) say they suspect the Ebola virus may have caused the death of at least 38 people in the north of the country. Congolese authorities say they are concerned that the virus, which has already been detected in gorillas in the region, could spread. Little is known about Ebola, which causes its victims to die from internal bleeding. (BBC February, 2003) News 103 The President of Paraguay has survived an impeachment vote in the country’s Senate after his opponents failed to gather the 2/3 majority needed to oust him from office. The President Luis Gonzalez Macchi had been accused of misusing about 60 million dollars in state funds. He was also accused of employing a friend to carry out work for the Paraguayan Telephone Company. Mr. Gonzalez Macchi had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. (BBC February, 2003) News 104 Dolly the sheep, the first animal in the world to be cloned from an adult cell has died. The statement from the Scottish research institute which created her 6 years ago said she was put down after a veterinary examination showed that she had a progressive lung disease. Dolly’s birth has paved the way for the creation of hundreds of cloned sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, and one cat. And cloning techniques are now being used to study ageing in humans and how to combat cancer, heart disease, and many brain disorders. (BBC February, 2003) News 105 Police investigating the fire which killed more then 130 people on a South Korean underground railway say at least 6 staff members will be charged with negligent homicide. They say prosecutors will probably issue arrest warrants next week following the fire last Tuesday at the station in the city of Daegu. A seventh man with a history of mental illness has already been detained for allegedly starting the fire. (BBC February, 2003) News 106 A court in Morocco has jailed 3 Saudi nationals for 10 years after convicting them of taking part in an Al-Qaeda sabotage plot against Western targets. The three were arrested last May and accused of planning to sail a boat loaded with the explosives from Morocco into the Strait of Gibraltar to blow up American and British warships. The Saudis admitted that they’d been to Afghanistan but they denied any plot. (BBC February, 2003) News 107Devastating earthquake in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region has killed at least 259 people, injured 2000 others. Officials say Monday’s quake flattened thousands of homes, schools, and buildings in a predominantly Muslim area near China’s mountainous border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Powerful quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. Rescue crews and soldiers have been searching the rubble for survivors and bodies. And authorities expect the death toll to rise. (VOA February, 2003) News 108 The leaders from sports organisations and governments around the world are meeting in the Danish capital Copenhagen today to discuss the introduction of an international code to tackle the use of banned drugs in sport. The new anti-doping code would unify the fight against drugs across all sports in all countries. Here is our sports correspondent H.P. At the moment some sports federations have different sanctions for doping offenders while others are fearful of actions in civil courts. The world anti-doping code is designed to get rid of anomalies and provide a unified stance against drug cheats. The head of the agency D.C. accepts that the code isn’t perfect but could provide a major breakthrough. He admits that there are areas where agreement is not yet possible. The United States has resisted doping controls for its major professional sports: baseball, basketball, ice-hockey, and American football. And some federations are not happy with a two-year sanctions for a first offence. (BBC March, 2003) News 109 A day after scientists in Italy said that aspirin could help prevent cancers of mouth and throat, American research showed the drug could significantly help reduce the chances of people developing colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States . Scientists in New Hampshire and Chicago say their studies indicate that regular use of aspirin can reduce the risk of pre-cancer’s growths in the colon, which often lead to bowel cancer. (BBC March, 2003) News 110 Costa Rica has offered political asylum to one of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders Carlos Ortega, who sought refuge in its embassy in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Mr. Ortega, who was instrumental in organising a two-month long general strike against President Chavez, had been in hiding after being charged with treason and rebellion. Hundreds of opposition demonstrators gathered around the embassy to express their support for Mr. Ortega. The Venezuelan Interior Minister Luis Miquilena said the government would grant him safe passage out of the country. (BBC March, 2003) |