 | Perspective Volume X 
Sunday Oct 13, 2002
Perspective is a weekly features of unorthodox news reports from around the globe. Some of the reports serve to prove the point that we Nigerians are not as unique as we may be thinking. To put any news report in Perspective please send a note to
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Headlines
Crime-Fighting Super Granny Is a Fraud Back To TopATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek grandmother, dubbed "super granny" after claiming she had put two knife-wielding burglars to flight, turned out to be a fraud Monday when police said she had made up the tale to get her husband's attention.Maria Grepsiou, 66, became an instant heroine when she said Saturday that she had disarmed one man and stabbed him with his knife after he and an accomplice broke into her home near Serres in northern Greece. "There were no robbers, there was no burglary or stabbing," a Serres police official told reporters. "The woman had made it all up because she wanted to convince her husband to spend more time with her at home," he said. The Greek media hailed Grepsiou as a super granny after she gave them a graphic account of her encounter with two thugs wearing hoods. "I grabbed his arm, pulled the knife from him and stabbed him in the gut," she said. "The two men were forced to flee." But instead of blood, police found tomato sauce on her clothes. Grepsiou later confessed to having made the story up to attract the attention of her husband who was often away working on the farm or with friends at the local coffee shop. Grepsiou was charged with obstructing police work. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1548323
A Vietnamese Man Claims 14 Wives, 86 Children Back To TopHANOI (Reuters) - Keeping one family happy may be a challenge for most people but one Vietnamese man claims to have successfully juggled living with 14 wives and over 80 offspring.Local newspapers have been reporting on the feats of retired bricklayer Tran Viet Chu, born in 1927 in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. He said he was just unable to resist the ladies during his travels to far-flung construction sites. "Poor me, every time I see a voluptuously shaped woman I find no way to resist my sensitive feeling. I seem to have been born with this flirtatious tendency," Chu was quoted as telling the Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Public Security) newspaper. Local officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The newspaper reported Saturday that Chu bedded down with at least one woman everywhere he worked during his six decades of travels. He now lives with some members of his unusually large family in the central province of Quang Tri. The group manages to survive as each wife supports her children while Chu meets his own needs. While Chu admits he's lost count of the numerous branches of his family tree, he told the newspaper he has at least 14 wives. The article said that based on interviews with Chu and one of his sons, the former bricklayer has sired at least 86 children, one of whom died in the Vietnam war. It hasn't been easy to live with his fatal attraction, Chu acknowledged. "I know doing so harasses my wives, my children in many ways, but a million times I tried to break with the habits, a million times I failed." The paper said half of Chu's wives were either widows or divorced, a sign of his soft-hearted and compassionate character. But the article did not address a weightier issue -- how Chu has managed to accumulate a family of such scale. Polygamy is illegal in communist Vietnam, which also orders its 80 million population to have no more than two children per family. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1548232
Nurture over nature:lioness adopts fifth baby antelope rather than devour them Back To TopNAIROBI (Reuters) - It's nurture over nature for a lioness in Kenya who keeps choosing to dote on baby antelope rather than devour them.Kamuniak, a lioness in northern Kenya's Samburu National Park has adopted her fifth new-born oryx this year, a Kenya Wildlife Service warden told Reuters Monday. The oryx is a type of African antelope more likely to be viewed by lions as lunch than a little one to mother. Kamuniak, whose name means "the blessed one" in the local Samburu language, has been adopting oryxes since the start of the year. On each occasion she has tried to protect the calves from other predators and even allowed their natural mothers to come and feed them. But eventually the calves escape with the help of their natural mothers, are rescued by park wardens or in one case made into a snack by a male lion while Kamuniak napped. The wardens think Kamuniak's adoption of the little calf nicknamed Naisimari ("Taken by Force") took place at the weekend after they saw the two together Monday morning. "She must have adopted her yesterday because they are in harmony," Samburu warden Gabriel Lepariyo said. Naisimari's natural mother has been seen following her offspring and its unlikely surrogate parent at a distance. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1548348
Man Dies in His Own Booby-Trapped House Back To TopBRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian man died of a gunshot wound after setting booby-traps throughout his house using hunting rifles and explosives, to police and local news reports said Sunday.The 80-year-old former chemical engineer had apparently set the traps to prevent his children from entering the house after a family dispute in the town of Aiseau-Presles near Charleroi, south of Brussels, the local Belga news agency said. Police, who had worked from before dawn searching and dismantling the traps, had yet to determine whether the man died from self-inflicted wounds or one of his own traps, it said. "(The traps are in) the whole house," a police officer told the RTBF television network. "It's very, very dangerous." They were set to go off with the opening of a door or some other makeshift trigger, the officer said. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1542423
A tenant did not pay rent but it was his pet pig that got evicted Back To TopMONTREAL (Reuters) - A tenant in a Montreal apartment building hasn't paid his rent since July but it was his pet pig that got him in trouble.Edgar, the pig, made too much noise and was probably too dirty, the neighbors said, and Quebec's Real Estate Board agreed, ordering Jean-Francois Labrosse to get rid of Edgar by Sunday, Montreal newspapers reported. Labrosse, who's in his thirties, told reporters his Vietnamese pig is both cleaner and more intelligent than dogs, and noted that Edgar was very nervous ahead of Thursday's hearing. "He cried out because he felt it. Pigs are very sensitive. I think he knew something was going on." The board ruled that Labrosse must not keep an animal in his apartment but may bring over his mother's dog for visits sometimes. Labrosse said he had invited his landlord for dinner to make peace. He did not reveal what was on the menu. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1542389
A 2 yr old took Ecstacy in London Nightclub Back To TopLONDON (AP) — The 2-year-old daughter of actors Jude Law and Sadie Frost swallowed part of an ecstasy tablet at a party and was rushed to hospital, police said yesterday.The girl, Iris, swallowed the pill during a children's party she attended Saturday with her mother at a club called Soho House, a popular spot in London's West End which had been used the night before as a bar and nightclub, police said. Frost realized the girl had something in her mouth and managed to remove half the pill before the child could swallow it, then called an ambulance, said Scotland Yard spokesman Nick Jordan. The toddler was kept in hospital overnight and released Sunday morning. Jordan said tests showed the pill was ecstasy, a drug popular at nightclubs. Police said there was no issue of neglect and they had no plans to take action against the parents. Law was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley and has also starred in A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Road to Perdition. Frost gave birth last month to a son, her fourth child and the couple's third together. Jordan said Frost and Law were free to consider suing Soho House, adding that the police bureau that licenses clubs was investigating the presence of an illegal drug there. Soho House said it would co-operate fully with the police. "It is made clear to all our members in the club's rules and regulations that drugs will not be tolerated on the premises," said a club official. Source:http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename= thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c= Article&cid=1026146146706&call_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854&call_pagepath=News/World&col=968350060724
Tit For Tat: Riyadh 'to fingerprint US visitors' Back To TopUS diplomats say Saudi Arabia is set to impose tit-for-tat immigration procedures on American citizens following the tightening of security checks on some visitors to the United States.The US embassy in Riyadh has advised Americans that they may be subjected to fingerprinting as part of the visa and entry process, and may be given visas that are shorter in duration and more expensive. An embassy statement to US expatriates quoted by news agencies said the new measures were "in response to the introduction at US ports of entry... of the National Security Entry Exit Registration System". The American system, which came into force a week ago, requires visitors from countries deemed to pose a threat of anti-US terrorism - including Saudi Arabia - to register with the government and be photographed and fingerprinted. Visitors who have been to these countries and do not provide a satisfactory explanation to US immigration officials are also required to register. There has been no announcement about the new measures from the Saudi Government and the US embassy has declined to comment on its statement. Under Washington's new regime, visitors who conform to an undisclosed set of criteria can be deemed to pose a heightened threat to US security. Unveiling the measures in July, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the criteria would apply to nearly all visitors from countries listed by the US State Department as "state sponsors of terrorism" - including Libya, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria. The security threat list was later expanded to include men from Saudi Arabia, from where 15 of the 19 alleged perpetrators of the 11 September attacks originated. Both Riyadh and Washington maintain that bilateral relations are as solid as they were before 11 September 2001, but correspondents say the new US visa measures - plus Washington's orientation in the Arab-Israel conflict and its threat to attack Iraq - have undermined non-governmental ties. About 30,000 Americans are thought to reside in Saudi Arabia, which is Washington's main ally in the Gulf. Hundreds of Saudi and other Arab and Muslim students are reported to have been unable to start the current academic year in the US after being denied entry into the country. Malaysia and Pakistan have reacted angrily to new American regulations, saying they are "unfair" and likely to fuel prejudice against Muslims. Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2310273.stm
Police arrest party-goers in Iran Back To TopIranian police have arrested dozens of party-goers in Tehran and charged them with mingling with the opposite sex and dancing, according to newspaper reports.The conservative Jam-e Jam daily said 120 people were arrested at three private gatherings in wealthy districts of the capital. Another newspaper, Abrar, said 88 young people had been arrested and punished with prison sentences, flogging and fines. Under laws implemented after Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, unrelated women and men are not allowed to dance together or come into physical contact. However, correspondents say Western-style parties are frequently held in private homes in Tehran's wealthiest areas. In this case, Abrar reported that those detained - said to be aged between 18 and 21 - were celebrating their entrance to university. They were caught dancing, the newspaper said. It added that police had found alcohol at the parties. Last week a well-known Iranian actress was taken to court for kissing a director on the forehead and shaking his hand in public during a film awards ceremony. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1519150
US Navy Charged Over $200,000 to Government Credit Card for Prostitutes Back To TopUS Navy sailors have allegedly spent more than $200,000 on prostitutes, gambling and baseball games in a two-year spree of fraudulent spending on government credit cards.A report for senators raises fresh concerns about the credit cards which have been at the centre of spectacular fraud claims in the past. According to details obtained by AP news agency, sailors splashed out on prostitutes at brothels, jewellery, gambling and attending New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers games. The brothel payments were disguised as restaurant and bar bills, according to the General Accounting Office. From October 2000 to March 2002, an investigation by the GAO found 1,180 navy transactions for personal items totalling $206,700. Spending included: $13,250 at two Nevada brothels $20,800 at two jewellery stores $28,700 at three adult clubs $34,250 on gambling $38,300 on cruises Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2310445.stm
US Seeking Oil and Military Ties Just Off Nigerian Shore Back To TopA high-ranking US official met leaders of the tiny West African nation of Sao Tome and Principe on Tuesday to discuss oil and military ties. The Portuguese news agency Lusa reports that the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Walther Kansteiner, met President Fradique de Menezes and Prime Minister Maria das Neves.The assistant secretary told the leaders US companies were interested in searching for oil off the coasts of the two-island nation. Correspondents say the visit underscores America's interest in West Africa's increasingly important oil region. Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2311599.stm Editor's Note: If you are feeling increasingly uncomfortable about the Oil Wealth of West Africa, you are not alone. Without the oil, West Africa has a lot in common with the Middle East."
Morocco's miracle mule Back To TopA mule has given birth to a male foal in a hamlet deep in rural Morocco. No big deal, you may think, but in fact the birth was a minor scientific miracle.A mule is the hybrid of a horse and a donkey and should be sterile - except in this instance. There have only been two substantiated cases of a mule giving birth in the past quarter century: one in China in 1988 and the other also in Morocco in 1984. Since 1527, (when records began on the issue) there have only been a total of 60 reported cases of mules giving birth. "The occurrence is so historically rare that the Romans had a saying Cum mula peperit, meaning 'when a mule foals', the equivalent of our 'once in a very blue moon'," explained Dr Gigi Kay, a horse vet with the charity the Society for Protection of Animals in North Africa, who has visited the mother and son. The mule's aged owner, a farming woman whose face is covered in traditional local tattoos, did not realise the mule was pregnant and rode her 20 kilometres to market the day before the birth. Dr Kay is running blood tests on both the mother and the foal. She said the science defied belief. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62, so a mule is left with 63, an uneven number which cannot divide into chromosome pairs. This should make a mule unable to reproduce. The Moroccan foal looks a bit like a baby donkey and a bit like a baby mule - but not exactly like either. Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2290491.stm
Pre Taliban Order Rapidly Returning to Afghanistan Back To TopMazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan -- Forces loyal to Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum forced hundreds of ethnic Pashtuns from villages in northern Afghanistan during factional fighting, an aid worker and a rival faction said yesterday.The Afghan aid worker, who did not want to be identified, said 180 families were forced out of four villages in the Pir Naqshi area by the forces. Some of the women said they had been raped by his men and had their homes looted. Gen. Dostum, who is deputy defence minister in the Afghan government, was unavailable to respond to the allegations and two of his deputy commanders refused to comment. Source:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory /TGAM/20021008/UREPON-3/International/ international/internationalBriefsHeadline_temp/2/2/9/
US Soldiers Narrowly Avoided Bloodbath in Kabul Presidential Palace Back To TopOn September 30 just after 8:00 am, one of Kabul’s top generals, Bismillah Khan, commander of the city's garrison and a deputy to the defense minister, arrived at the Presidential Palace to meet one of the former king's advisers. The general and his bodyguard glided past an Afghan army checkpoint at the visitors’ gate only to be stopped forty yards later by U.S. soldiers assigned to protect Karzai.The Americans wanted to search the car and the general, but Khan refused. When the U.S. soldiers attempted to physically remove him from the car, fifteen Kandahari mujahedin (bodyguards for the former king) cocked their weapons and took aim at the Special Forces. The other Afghan government troops followed. "It was one of those times when you realize a minute is actually sixty seconds, and that can be an awfully long time," Hayatullah Diani, a royalist official, told TIME. "I thought they were going to start killing each other." Before the scene turned bloody, members of Karzai's office appeared and negotiations began. Khan was released and the Afghan troops lowered their weapons. What had flared in just seconds was over in minutes. Had violence erupted the consequences would have been catastrophic, ripping open divisions within the new government and unsettling allegiances with factions already feeling sidelined in the new order. The near miss also demonstrates just how delicate a balance the U.S. faces in Afghanistan between appearing as a force of safety for some and source of agitation to so many others. Source:http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,362214,00.html?cnn=yes
A bank robber planned his getaway in style, ordering a limousine Back To TopLASALLE, Illinois -- A suspected bank robber apparently planned his getaway in style, ordering a limousine to pick him up from his hotel. Unfortunately for the thief, his driver turned out to be a retired police officer.John Pope, 39, was arrested September 24 after the driver, Don Madsen, tipped off police that he had a suspicious passenger in the car. Madsen later got a call on his cell phone from one of his former colleagues warning him that the passenger was suspected in a bank robbery earlier that day. Witnesses say Pope entered the First Midwest Bank branch in Moline, brandished a gun and demanded money from a teller. He made off with an undisclosed amount of money, police say. Pope had paid Madsen $335 in cash to drive him to Chicago, but Madsen used cryptic language to indicate his location and state police troopers found him at a local truck stop, where they arrested Pope. Pope is being held in Rock Island County jail on armed robbery charges. No further court dates have been set, according to the county clerk. Source:http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/10/04/ctv.stupid.crimes/index.html#1
Man Plans to Marry Woman Serving Time for Ripping Off His Testicles Back To TopNASHVILLE, Tennessee-- Call him what you will, but Dennis Ross is one forgiving fellow.Ross, 44, who had one of his testicles ripped off by his girlfriend in an attack last year, says he has reconciled with her and plans to marry the woman once she is released from jail. Aretha Oneal, 38, was sentenced to 81 days in prison last week after pleading guilty to assaulting Ross as he slept in his bed on June 16, 2001, according to the Davidson County district attorney's office. Authorities said the couple got into an argument after Ross returned home following a sexual encounter with another woman. Ross, a backhoe driver, had his testicle successfully reattached at a local hospital and decided against pressing charges, reportedly saying "[Aretha is] my heart, my soul, and that's my better half." But the district attorney's office learned about the incident three months later after Oneal called to report an argument. Oneal was charged under a Tennessee law that requires charges be filed when there is evidence of domestic violence. Source:http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/10/04/ctv.stupid.crimes/index.html#2
What Older Women Want, Men Can't Deliver? Back To TopCHICAGO (Reuters) - Many older women still want to have sex, but they might find their men cannot oblige.So says a global survey of 27,780 adults aged 40 to 80 from 30 countries that found aging women become sexually dysfunctional at about half the rate of men. "To the extent that women are (sexually active), they may be facing men who have problems," said lead researcher Edward Laumann, a University of Chicago sociologist due to present some of his findings at a Vancouver, British Columbia, conference on Thursday. The survey found that 31 percent of middle-aged and older women lacked interest in sex, 22 percent were unable to achieve orgasm, 21 percent did not find sex pleasurable, 20 percent had trouble lubricating, and 14 percent experienced pain with sex. Among men, about 20 percent suffered from erectile dysfunction, which increased to nearly half by age 80, according to the survey, which was funded by Pfizer, Inc., the maker of the impotence treatment Viagra. Among the health problems common to older people associated with sexual dysfunction were diabetes and hypertension, especially in men. But psychological factors, especially depression, diminished interest in sex after 40. In the United States, two-thirds of men aged 70 or older have a companion who is a potential sex partner, while less than one-third of women do because of women's longer life spans and divorce patterns. Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1565052
France to Slap 93 Pct 'Supertax' on Porn Films Back To TopPARIS (Reuters) - The French government will hike taxes on profits from sexually explicit films to 93 percent as part of an anti-pornography drive by ruling conservatives.This was one of several proposals to fight pornography to emerge from the center-right majority elected in June. Several deputies want to ban X-rated films from television, but others in the conservative ranks oppose this as censorship. "Our aim is to make this sector financially unattractive," right-wing parliament deputy Charles de Courson told Le Figaro daily on Friday after parliament's finance committee agreed his initiative would be applied from January 1 next year. Courson said the measure would raise to 60 percent from 33 percent a special tax already levied on profits from the production, distribution or showing of any French-made film deemed pornographic or an incitement to violence. Once added to France's standard 33 percent tax on all corporate profits, French porn film-makers will be left with a mere seven percent of their profits net of tax. "We want to destroy their profitability to discourage further investments," Courson said. Imported porn will not be spared either. If a separate measure is agreed in negotiations continuing this week for the 2003 budget, full-length foreign productions will face a tax of 91,470 euros ($90,390), with half that for short films. Emboldened by their landslide victory in June elections, many conservatives believe the time is ripe to take aim at France's tradition of cultural permissiveness. France's TV watchdog CSA, headed by right-winger Dominique Baudis, has called for the government to ban the X-rated films that have been shown on late-night subscription television channels for years. A decision is expected from next week. The Interior Ministry is also studying a possible ban on the new novel "Rose Bonbon," which has gained notoriety for its graphic portrait of a pedophile murderer. Human rights groups and bastions of France's liberal tradition such as the influential Le Monde daily have cried foul, saying ruling conservatives under President Jacques Chirac are on a repressive moral crusade. But Courson noted the new porn film "supertax" gained the backing of opposition left-wingers in a vote at an overnight sitting which ended early Thursday. "Both right and left are in agreement. The left's position on this issue has changed a lot," he added. ($1=1.012 Euro) Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1564929
Muslim Faces Dismissal for Praying Back To TopSYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian Muslim faces dismissal from his job for taking 10 minutes off work to pray.The Australian Industrial Relations Commission said on Thursday it had received a complaint from Lebanese Australian Kamal El-Masri against his Internet industry employers over a threat to fire him if he continued to pray during work hours. Unions and Islamic community representatives said they were astonished by the Sydney firm's attitude to El-Masri's religious beliefs, under which he must pray to Allah five times a day -- two of those times falling within normal work hours. "We are extremely disappointed that the company would begrudge an employee 10 minutes to connect with God," said Keysar Trad, spokesman for the Lebanese Muslim Association in Sydney. "(Workers take time off to)smoke cigarettes or have a chat with each other or take the required 10 minute break to have a stretch every hour after working on a computer." The Industrial Relations Commission decided Thursday to give Internet service providers Total Peripheral Group (TPG), and the Australian Services Union, representing El-Masri, until October 14 to negotiate before it arbitrates, a spokesman said. No one was immediately available to comment at the company, a receptionist said. In comments published by Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph, TPG general manager Julie Jules said: "I'm the last person to be a racialist. "I just can't have people taking breaks whenever they want. We run a business here." Australian Muslims were reluctant to connect the case to rising anti-Muslim sentiment since last year's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by Islamic militants. The union movement said El-Masri had offered to make up the time lost by working an extra 10 minutes at the end of the day. "This appears a case of outright religious discrimination," New South Wales Labor Council secretary John Robertson said in a statement. "We hear a lot about employers demanding flexibility but it works both ways." Source:http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1559088
A Japanese spotted his wife in pornographic video Back To TopA man watching a pornographic video in Japan reportedly got a shock when he spotted his wife in it. The Asahi Shimbun reported that two people have been arrested after it is alleged they secretly filmed the man's wife at a public bathhouse.A 41-year-old man and 33-year-old woman have been arrested on charges of illegal entry after they posed as customers at the bathhouse, the newspaper said. The Asahi said the woman suspect is alleged to have hidden a camera in her towel in order to film women in the changing room. The husband of one of the filmed women, whom the report did not name, saw the video at a local shop. The newspaper said the two suspects allegedly began shooting videos in public changing rooms in the Osaka area in western Japan two years ago. The male suspect is accused of selling the videos to wholesalers for up to 80,000 yen ($644) each, the paper reported. Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2319411.stm
Lemon Juice Kills Sperm and HIV Back To TopCANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australian scientists believe they have rediscovered an effective use for lemon juice -- as a contraceptive and also a killer of the AIDS virus.Reproductive physiologist Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne's obstetrics department, said a few drops of lemon juice can be a cheap, easy-to-use solution to protect women from both HIV and pregnancy. The juice should be squeezed onto a piece of sponge or cotton wool and placed into the vagina before sex, he said. "We can show in the lab that lemon juice is very effective in immobilizing human sperm and also very effective in killing HIV," Short told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television in a science program. He said lime juice, which has similar acid levels, can also be used, with both fruits often freely available in poor countries where contraception is hard to come by. Short said laboratory tests found not only does lemon juice kill sperm, it also kills the AIDS virus itself. Source:http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/10/10/offbeat.lemon.sex.reut/index.html
Toilet Paper Novels Coming to a Store Near You Back To TopFRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) -- Germans who like to read on the toilet no longer need to take newspapers in with them, but can instead turn to novels and poems printed onto toilet paper, a German publisher says."We want our books to be used. That's our philosophy," said Georges Hemmerstoffer, head of the Klo-Verlag, which publishes the toilet paper literature. About half of all people liked to read on the toilet, he said Wednesday. Poems by German literary giants Heinrich Heine and Christian Morgenstern, as well as tales and detective stories could be found on the toilet rolls, Hemmerstoffer told Reuters at the Frankfurt book fair. Each text was printed several times on one roll, so that readers actually could use the paper and still leave behind some reading material for the next toilet visitor. http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/10/offbeat.tp.reading.reut/index.html
America Helping Pakistani Islamic Revolution Back To TopISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistanis voting in the first election since a 1999 coup dealt a sharp blow to President Pervez Musharraf's supporters and handed unprecedented power to hard-line Islamic parties that revile Western ways.The coalition of religious parties, the United Action Front, swept to a surprising victory in the rugged Northwest Frontier, along the border with Afghanistan, and stands poised to form the first Islamic provincial government in Pakistan's history. The coalition could also be a partner in the government in Baluchistan, another province bordering Afghanistan. Religious leaders in Baluchistan are already making speeches promising to banish American soldiers from Pakistani soil, and claim they will enforce strict Islamic laws. ``We will bring an Islamic revolution to Pakistan,'' Qazi Hussain Ahmed, vice president of the religious coalition, told about 3,000 male supporters Friday in Nowshehra, 30 miles from the frontier city of Peshawar. ``Our target is to implement an Islamic system in the whole country, and the Northwest Frontier Province is the first step in this regard.'' Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, and his country was once one of only three to support the hard-line Taliban regime in Afghanistan. But he turned against the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States and at Washington's urging moved to crack down on Islamic groups seeking to wrest control of Kashmir from rival India. For American soldiers in Pakistan, the election results announced Friday could make the already dangerous job of hunting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in the rugged border regions even more so. Kindred spirits of Afghanistan's defeated Taliban, Pakistan's religious leaders have called for the ouster of U.S. troops, and vowed to clean up what they call obscenity on television and in book stores. Their success is a repudiation of Musharraf and his promises to clamp down on extremism. The results likely were fueled by the general's efforts to keep more traditional rivals on the sidelines of the vote. Source:http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Elections.html | ||||||