ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (AFP)
Amnesty International Tuesday said hundreds of women are killed in the name of honour in Pakistan every year, charging that the murderers are rarely brought to justice.
Millions of Pakistani women are caught in the web of �repressive social norms and traditions, often with the state authorities outright support, the London-based rights group said in its first investigative report into �honour crimes� against women in Pakistan.
Honour crimes are �justified in the name of tradition� in Pakistan, the report said but added the traditions themselves had become �distorted and corrupted to allow for widespread abuse.�
Women and girls are dying at the hands of their husbands, their fathers and brothers, while the authorities pay �lip service� to their obligations to protect them, the report said.
�The Pakistani authorities ignore honour crimes at the expense of women�s most fundamental human rights � the rights to life and freedom from torture and ill-treatment,� it said.
A woman in Pakistan faces death by shooting, burning or slaughter with axes � just for being suspected of having shamed her family in some way, it said.
She can be killed for having a supposed illicit relationship, for attempting to marry a man of her choice, or for divorcing an abusive husband.
Amnesty cited the April 6 killing of 29-year-old Samia Sarwar in her lawyer�s office in Lahore. The killing was openly carried out with her mother�s participation.
Samia was blamed for bringing disrepute for seeking divorce after 10 years of marital abuse. Her parents were so deeply shamed that they instigated her murder.
The Amnesty report quoting a witness said Samia�s mother walked away from the murder as though the woman slumped in her own blood was a stranger.
�The curve of honour killings has also risen parallel to womens increasing awareness and tentative assertion of their rights,� it said.
Despite ratifying the UN Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the government of Pakistan, has �systematically failed to prevent, investigate and punish honour killings,� Amnesty said.
It asked the government to �immediately� review the judicial practice and criminal laws, particularly those which allow men to �escape� criminal prosecution after murdering their female relatives.
Calling upon the authorities to investigate and prosecute all case of honour killings, Amnestysuggested launching of a wide-ranging and sustained public awareness programme.
By Alessandro RAIMONDI
LUGANO, September 27 (THE GLOBE)
Good news from the labour world in Switzerland. DFE, the Department of Finance and Economy, has just released datas, updated to May �99, indicating an improving trend for what concerns unemployed people.
On a national basis a little less than 100,000 persons are looking for a job, i.e. a very encouraging 2.7% which denotes the actual vitality of the economy of the Confederation.
The best results on the jobless side has been recorded by Canton Ticino, the Italian-speaking southern area of the country, that has improved its ranking passing from the 3rd to the 4th position.
Detailing such result, equivalent to the fourth drop of the number of unemployed citizens since the beginning of the year, DFE reports that the percentage of jobless in the Canton has lowered from April�s 4.2% to May�s 3.7%, corresponding to 5,219 people looking for a job. With this result Ticino�s unemployment has recessed to the 1991 level, the last good year before recession clouded Switzerland�s economic skyes.
In the last 12 months prior the released report, 3,223 Ticinesi have found an occupation, reducing of 38.2% the number of those registered at the Cantonal Bureau of Labour. Of course, seasonal opportunities have contributed to the encouraging outcome, 42.2%, but in a lesser degree than in the past, when that sort of relief accounted for as much as 53%! All this means that more persons than ever before have found a steady occupation rather than a seasonal job.
The sectors that have offered them such an opportunity are sales, engineering, mechanics and metallurgy, all traditional employment basins.
by Vyacheslav SOFRONOV
(�Rodina�)
As far as Ermak is concerned, scientists are not unanimous. More often he is considered to be originated from the Stroganovs� estates. Later he went to Volga and Don and became a Cossack. Another version is that Ermak had a noble Turkic origin�
Turks called people who left the Orda and had their own separate farms, Cossacks. Later this was the name of dangerous people, who earned their living by robbery. The term �Cossack� was born by Turkic people and this may be confirmed by different sources.
Nationality of Cossaks did not play any great role. Their style of life was the main thing. Ivan Grozny decided to attract the steppe people. In 1571 he sent messengers to the Don atamans. The tsar proposed them to serve for him, having recognised their military and political power.
In 1579 Stephan Batory, the Polish king headed the anti-Russian military campaign. Ivan IV rapidly gathered the home guard, including Cossack divisions. In 1581 Batory laid siege to Pskov. The Mogilyov commandant Stravinsky notified the king about the Russians coming to the town. He mentioned the names of Russian voevodes. �Vasily Yanov, the voevode of the Don Cossack and Ermak Timofeevich, the Cosack ataman� were in the end of the list. This happened in June 1581. In that time ataman Ermak was in the state service and the enemy knew him well.
Some investigators tried to decipher his name as the variation of Ermolai, Ermila and Germogen. But, first, a Christian�s name was never changed. Second, we know both his name, Vasily, and surname � Timofeevich. Moreover, we know his family name as well! In �The Siberian Chronicle� published in 1907, the family name of Vasily�s grandfather was mentioned � Alenin. If we collect everything together we have the following name: Vasily, a son of Timofei, Alenin Ermak Povolsky. This strikes!
September 28, 1967 - Walter Washington is sworn in as the U.S. commissioner of the District of Columbia, becoming the first African-American to head a major city government. Washington and his nine-member council were appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in an effort to provide the residents of Washington, D.C., who are not permitted to elect their own city officials, with a more representational government.
September 29, 1923 - Great Britain begins to govern the territory of Palestine under a mandate granted by the League of Nations, effectively ending 400 years of Turkish rule and over 1,300 years of Arabic rule. Britain seized Palestine from Turkey during World War I, capturing Jerusalem in 1917. Following the British takeover, a movement for the establishment of an independent Jewish state within the territory begins to mount, but the outbreak of World War II stalls the negotiations. By the war�s end, massive numbers of Jews have fled to Palestine, and with the expiration of the British mandate in 1946, the State of Israel is declared. The partition of Palestine is soon approved by a positive U.N. vote, and U.S. recognition comes within hours.
September 29, 1941 - The Babi Yar massacre of 33,771 Jewish men, women, and children begins near the city of Kiev, in the German-occupied Ukraine. Over a two-day period, the majority of Kiev�s Jewish residents are marched out of the city to Babi Yar, where they are systematically gunned down over the edge of a ravine by Nazi soldiers. Between 1941 and 1943, thousands of Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war are executed at the Babi Yar ravine in a similar manner.
September 29, 1982 - In Chicago, Illinois, people begin to die from cyanide poisoning, but the source of the poison remains a mystery for two days. Seven deaths later, authorities determine that someone bought or stole bottles of Tylenol, laced the popular acetaminophen painkiller with cyanide poison, and replaced the contaminated containers on store shelves around the city. A suspect for the murders is never found, but the tragedy leads to the introduction of safety seals on most consumer projects.
September 29, 1988 - Stacy Allison becomes the first American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world at over 29,000 feet high. Allison, a member of the Northwest American Everest Expedition, climbed the east Himalayan peak using the South Col route.
September 30, 1976 - California enacts the Natural Death Act of California, a law which permits physicians of terminally ill patients to withhold life-sustaining procedures under certain conditions. The act is the first example of right-to-die legislation in the United States.
From September 14 to October 14.
The Kosteyev State National Museum. The exhibition of private picture-galleries: �Gallery parade � �99�
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, and V. Eifert�s works, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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