| More Burma inmates ’to be freed’ |
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Burma’s military junta says it will free more than 5,000 prisoners, in addition to nearly 4,000 it said last week would be released.
State media said the new releases would take the total number of prisoners freed or set to be released to 9,248.
Very few are political prisoners, but one man reportedly due to be freed is veteran dissident Win Tin.
Analysts said the announcements were partly designed to stem criticism of Burma ahead of a regional summit.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), which is meeting in Laos, does not discuss the internal affairs of member states.
But the organisation has come under mounting international pressure over Burma, and its lack of political reform.
A BBC correspondent in Bangkok says the military junta also wants to shore up its support inside Burma, in the wake of the ousting of former prime minister Khin Nyunt last month.
Reports of the extended amnesty came as authorities resumed the mass-release programme on Thursday, after a five-day hiatus.
A small group of inmates was freed from Burma’s largest jail, according to AFP.
The first release was announced last week, with the government saying it was lifting the sentences on 3,937 prisoners because they had been wrongly arrested by Burma’s intelligence services.
But only several hundred were believed to have been set free before Thursday.
Delay denied
In an interview with Reuters news agency on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu denied prisoner releases were trailing off.
He said the perceived slowness was due to transporting prisoners to Rangoon for processing from all over Burma, which is also known as Myanmar.
The minister added that authorities would come under both internal and Western pressure if they did not keep to their word.
Kyaw Thu also confirmed that among those set to be released was high-profile dissident Win Tin.
Win Tin is already on the list, he said.
Win Tin, 78, is a prize-winning journalist who was secretary of Burma’s opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) until 1989, when he was arrested on 4 July of that year on political grounds. He suffers from poor health.
He is also a close aide of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Dissidents freed
Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and there are no signs she will be released any time soon.
I don’t know when the house arrest will be lifted, Kyaw Thu told Reuters.
Those released from prison so far include about 20 political prisoners.
One of them is dissident Min Ko Naing, who was freed on Friday after being jailed 15 years ago for leading 1988 pro-democracy student protests crushed by the military.
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| Laura Thomas Band Plays D.C.’s Velvet Lounge - Nov 26, 2004 18:58 IST |
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The LT Band includes Laura on vocals and acoustic guitar, Julia Eve on drums, Chris Farrell on lead guitar, and Ben Lively on violin.
Laura’s music is characterized by her powerful and strikingly unique voice complementing folky, Latin-influenced acoustic strumming. Her music conveys diverse messages in tracks ranging from Slow, the passionate title track from her second self-produced CD, to Blind Trinity, a political allegory for the powerful oligarchy that is: Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. Laura Thomas’ travels are reflected in world music sounds, and her band infuses every song with an energetic funk-rock feel that renders her a one of-a-kind mixture of Ani Difranco, Michelle Branch, and Norah Jones.
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| Lords reform campaign launched - Nov 26, 2004 18:58 IST |
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Ex-Cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Ken Clarke are part of the cross-party plan for a draft bill to show a consensus can be reached on the thorny issue.
Ministers dropped plans for changing the Lords before the next election but promise to act early in a third term.
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| ’Stunning’ arms haul in Falluja - Nov 26, 2004 18:57 IST |
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The stunning finds included mortars, bomb-making equipment, grenades and rockets, officials said.
The biggest haul was made at a mosque complex in the east of the city.
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| Royal art collection goes on show - Nov 26, 2004 18:53 IST |
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Holbein to Hockney contains a selection of works from the Royal Collection, including drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
The collection, gathered by Britain’s monarchs over the centuries, is normally housed at Windsor Castle.
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| Midas Announces The Results of Its “Ramadan Orphanage Solidarity Campaign” - Nov 26, 2004 18:48 IST |
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The Midas “Ramadan Orphanage Solidarity Campaign” yielded positive results and exemplified the Jordanian Community’s strive to help the needy during the Holy month of Ramadan.
The results of the 5% of sales to the orphans in the “Adopt a Palestinian Orphan Program” and the “Orphan’s Future Program” were fruitful whereby 15 Palestinian orphans will benefit for an entire year and the remainder of the proceeds were donated to the “Orphan’s Future Program,” an initiative launched by Her Royal Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah’s call to support orphans, help improve their living standards, and play a role in securing a future for them after they leave the orphanages.
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| Private firms to tackle NHS waits - Nov 26, 2004 18:49 IST |
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Mr Kerr said he is looking to the private sector to provide additional capacity within the NHS.
He suggested private companies would be tied to long-term contracts but vowed the proposals would not lead to staff leaving the NHS to work privately.
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| Biometric Firm Takes Off With Safer Air Travel - Nov 26, 2004 18:43 IST |
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In airports on both sides of the Atlantic, BioWise is taking off as a leader in the provision of multi-biometric and multi-modal identification and authentication middleware for safer air travel.
Working with SITA and UNISYS, the BioWise system is in use in the US’ large-scale registered traveller’s pilot programme for internal flights. “In return for registering,” explains André Oeyen, Managing Director of BioWise, “they will be considered as trusted travellers and will be granted some privileges, allowing them to pass faster through the airport gate.” This is only once they are accepted into the programme, and have their smartcard with their biometric details authenticated at the BioWise kiosk. During registration travellers have both their index fingers and irises scanned and stored according to International Civil Aviation Organisation recommendations for biometric information storage, and have valid forms of identification checked by the police authorities.
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| ’Trade can resolve Kashmir issue’ - Nov 26, 2004 18:45 IST |
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Foreign Minister Natwar Singh was speaking a day after a visit by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
In Islamabad Mr Aziz has briefed top political and military officials on his talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Kashmir.
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| Scandal-Plagued Corporate World Scrambles to Comply with Reforms - Nov 26, 2004 18:40 IST |
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Scandals are rampant. No, not just in the gossip-infested worlds of Hollywood or politics. Scandals plague what was once perceived to be the bastion of conservatism—corporate America. However, the ugly underbelly of the corporate beast has now been exposed, revealing wrongdoing at some of the nation’s most prominent companies, ranging the corporate alphabet from Adelphia to Xerox. The countdown began Nov. 15. After that date, companies have 75 days following their financial year-end to comply with key Sarbanes-Oxley reforms. However, accountants struggling with this tough and costly task may soon be confessing they can’t, as more “creative” corporate bookkeeping is thrust into the limelight, leaving us to wonder if corporate executives have any common sense. One veteran of many boardrooms, Michael McFeeley, advocates injecting “common sense” into the business world and wrote a book, Common $ense Management, to explain in simple terms just how to go about doing that.
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| I’m not draconian, says Blunkett - Nov 26, 2004 18:41 IST |
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The government has been accused of trying to create a climate of fear through new law and order measures.
And there are fears plans to give police and civilian officers more powers go too far.
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| Emin film gets debut in home town - Nov 26, 2004 18:38 IST |
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Top Spot was shown to an invited audience at a hotel on Thursday in an event organised by BBC South East Today and attended by Emin.
Last week Emin withdrew the film from UK cinema release after it was given an 18 certificate by censors.
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| Portugal child sex trial begins - Nov 26, 2004 18:37 IST |
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The accused include a TV presenter, a former top diplomat, and a former director of the Casa Pia children’s home network.
Abuse at Casa Pia is said to have started in the mid-1970s, but was only discovered in 2002.
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| DUP ’not committed’ says Adams - Nov 26, 2004 18:35 IST |
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The Sinn Fein leader has been updating his party’s national executive (Ard Chomhairle) in Dublin on Thursday over the latest efforts to restore devolution.
The DUP will brief its executive on the ongoing efforts on Friday night.
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| Students put university on eBay - Nov 26, 2004 18:34 IST |
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The university wants to end degrees in music, chemistry and Italian.
On Wednesday night, the highest mock bid was £10m and the page had received more than 4,000 hits. The auction website removed the page on Thursday.
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| Rabbis clean up spicy soap advert - Nov 26, 2004 18:26 IST |
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The star of risque sitcom Sex and the City is known around the world for her glamorous gowns and chi-chi heels.
But conservative Jews were so offended by the bare flesh in a Lux soap advert that rabbis called for a mass boycott by the Orthodox community.
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| Greens call for supermarket code - Nov 26, 2004 18:24 IST |
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The party said that the big four supermarket chains were putting local farmers out of business.
Green MSPs want regulations put in place to help encourage local production and aid smaller retailers.
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| NI proposals ’ready for publishing’ - Nov 26, 2004 18:23 IST |
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Speaking after meeting Tony Blair at Downing Street, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said officials would provide the parties with written answers to their questions.
However, he added that the two governments could not go on clarifying their proposals forever.
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| GAO to Probe Vote Counting - Nov 26, 2004 18:21 IST |
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The Government Accountability Office said Tuesday it will investigate how the vote was counted in the Nov. 2 election, with an eye toward answering persistent questions about voting irregularities in many states, including Ohio and Florida, which were crucial to President Bush’s win.
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| Air Force Staff Sergeant Walter Campbell is one of Texas’ Hottest Comedians! - Nov 26, 2004 18:5 IST |
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San Antonio, TX (PRWEB) November 25, 2004 -- Walter Campbell, one of San Antonio funniest comedians will be the featured comedian at the Rivercenter Comedy Club downtown San Antonio, TX December 15th thru the 19th with Headliner Rick Gutierrez. Having recently opened for legendary comedian Sinbad at the Lila Cockrell Theater in October, Walter is exploding onto the comedy scene and taking no prisoners.
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| Cyber solutions for Las Vegas Weddings - Nov 26, 2004 18:1 IST |
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Las Vegas brides gained a new wedding planning resource in http://www.WhereBridesGo.com. This online retail storefront is now part of http://www.VegasWeddingGuide.com, a local online bridal information source in Las Vegas, NV.
WhereBridesGo.com features wedding favors, bridal accessories, wedding party gifts and designer wedding sets from national suppliers. In addition to reception and ceremony items, including invitations and programs, WhereBridesGo.com offers 24 hour secure online shopping with click and ship delivery.
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