W O R L D

Sick war hysteria, says Pakistan
Islamabad, January 9
Pakistan today dismissed as “sick war hysteria” India’s Agni missile test and did not rule out a tit-for-tat test firing if necessary. “India’s missile test is nothing but sick war hysteria,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told reporters reacting to the test firing of a short-range Agni missile by India early this morning. GLOBAL MONITOR

Pak missiles ‘can hit’ major Indian cities
Islamabad, January 9
All major Indian cities are now within the striking range of Pakistani missiles with the induction of its indigenously developed Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Ghauri System, says Islamabad.

Musharraf may be forced out, says Pak scribe
Washington, January 9
President Pervez Musharraf is playing a little game with the Indians, knowing fully well that if he stops the support to Pakistanis inside Kashmir, the whole Kashmir movement will promptly die down. The General can’t afford it since there is a lot of popular and military backing for the mission.

GLOBAL MONITOR

PAK TIT-BITS

Actress Brittany Murphy, star of the romantic comedy film “Just Married,” poses at the film’s premiere in Hollywood on Wednesday.
— Reuters

Chinese workers escape a fire at an eyeglass factory in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday. At least two workers were killed and six injured in the fire at the factory that had its fire exits and windows locked. — Reuters

Lanka, LTTE agree on key issues
Nakorn Pathom (Thailand), January 9
The Lanka Government and the Tamil Tigers have agreed on several key issues, including the resettlement of Tamil refugees in the war-torn Jaffna and a package for the reconstruction and development of the peninsula besides, committing themselves for the protection of human rights.

India, Israel discuss bilateral matters
Jerusalem, January 9
India and Israel have held discussions on bilateral, regional and multi-lateral issues and agreed to combat the menace of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

‘Adventure’ writer plans to quit
New York, January 9
After three decades of spinning tales about lost ships and sunken treasures, Clive Cussler, author of best-selling adventure books “Raise The Titanic” and “Night Probe!”, plans to quit.

Sick war hysteria, says Pakistan

Islamabad, January 9
Pakistan today dismissed as “sick war hysteria” India’s Agni missile test and did not rule out a tit-for-tat test firing if necessary.

“India’s missile test is nothing but sick war hysteria,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told reporters reacting to the test firing of a short-range Agni missile by India early this morning.

“Such a test will not enable India to establish its supremacy in the region,” he said.

Canada, meanwhile, urged India to scrap its plans to test a range of missiles over the next few days.

The proposed tests, which India announced yesterday would include a shorter-range version of its Agni nuclear-capable missile.

Britain regretted India’s decision to test-launch Agni, that saying it would sends wrong signals in the region and beyond. Agencies

Pak missiles ‘can hit’ major Indian cities

Islamabad, January 9
All major Indian cities are now within the striking range of Pakistani missiles with the induction of its indigenously developed Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Ghauri System, says Islamabad. “This is a warning to our enemy that there will be consequences for them as well (in case a war breaks out),” a Pak defence expert was quoted by The News daily as saying.

Pakistan’s missiles can hit all major Indian cities reducing India’s advantage of a strategic depth vis-a-vis Pakistan, the expert said.

The defence expert here said that with the system becoming fully operational, the strategic balance in the subcontinent has been placed in favour of Pakistan. UNI

Musharraf may be forced out, says Pak scribe
Judith Smelser

Washington, January 9
President Pervez Musharraf is playing a little game with the Indians, knowing fully well that if he stops the support to Pakistanis inside Kashmir, the whole Kashmir movement will promptly die down. The General can’t afford it since there is a lot of popular and military backing for the mission.

This is what Shaheen Sehbai said in an exclusive interview with ANI. His personal history is pretty interesting. Last spring, he resigned as Editor of The News because of what he called was government pressure. But Sehbai’s departure from the newspaper was far from the end of his journalistic career. He moved to the USA because he feared government persecution, and soon started an online news magazine called the South Asia Tribune, which has published many items unflattering to the Pakistan government. Sehbai faced government pressure once again.

Musharraf himself spoke out against the South Asia Tribune in a speech to community leaders in New York in September. And the next month, the Pakistani government placed an advertisement in all Pakistani newspapers warning the country’s Press against quoting articles from SAT. But the attempt, according to Sehbai, backfired.

Sehbai is afraid to return home as long as Musharraf is in power. But he says Musharraf may be out of office before too long. He elaborated: “Peacefully, no, but I think there might be a situation where he may be forced to do. How soon, I can’t say, but things are brewing up because people are not happy in the political side, and are also not happy within the army. So if that continues to grow, I don’t know how soon, but he’ll have to be forced out, not step down.”

Another military coup?

“Could be a military coup, could be probably some politicians get-together and try to, through parliament, might try ... the judiciary might get-together, and all of them may get-together. Anything can happen, but most likely a military coup, yes.”

He says no matter who is nominally in charge of the country, the military will always have its finger on Pakistan’s nuclear button.

It’s anybody’s mind that even if we have an elected political government, it will always be the army which will be in control of the nuclear buttons.

The most hated news item, according to him, was a “list of generals that we published who had grabbed land in the name of defending the borders. They had grabbed — and they’re still getting those lands — under a 30-40-year-old law which says that the lands bordering the Indian border should be given to the military because they’ll be able to defend it better than others. And the generals take it and then they sell it.” ANI

Lanka, LTTE agree on key issues

Nakorn Pathom (Thailand), January 9
The Lanka Government and the Tamil Tigers have agreed on several key issues, including the resettlement of Tamil refugees in the war-torn Jaffna and a package for the reconstruction and development of the peninsula besides, committing themselves for the protection of human rights.

As the fourth round of Norwegian-brokered talks between the warring groups ended in this Thai holiday resort today, both sides expressed satisfaction over the “forward momentum” of the peace process and “committed to work together” to bring peace to the strife-ridden island nation.

Downplaying minor differences on the issue dealing with security during the course of resettlement of people, the negotiators said they moved step by step, discussing thread-by-thread the issues of importance.

The most important achievement of the current talks is the finalisation of a detailed action plan for the resettlement of lakhs of people in Jaffna. UNI

India, Israel discuss bilateral matters

Jerusalem, January 9
India and Israel have held discussions on bilateral, regional and multi-lateral issues and agreed to combat the menace of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

As part of the annual Foreign Ministry consultations between the two countries, the Indian side headed by R.M. Abhayankar, Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, met with its Israeli counterpart headed by Zvi Gabay, Deputy Director General for Asia and the Pacific of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The discussions included updates on bilateral regional and multi-lateral issues as well as ways to further enhance bilateral relations on diversified areas such as trade, agriculture, economy and technical cooperation, cultural exchanges, science and technology and to keep people-to-people contacts”, a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting last evening said.

Abhayankar also called on Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who explained the situation in the Middle East. PTI

‘Adventure’ writer plans to quit

New York, January 9
After three decades of spinning tales about lost ships and sunken treasures, Clive Cussler, author of best-selling adventure books “Raise The Titanic” and “Night Probe!”, plans to quit.

In New York recently to promote his latest book, a non-fiction account of his search for and exploration of underwater wrecks titled “The Sea Hunters II”, 71-year-old Cussler said that after his next novel he would stop writing. “The imagination is still working, but the drive is just gone”, Cussler said in an interview. Reuters

GLOBAL MONITOR

South Korean trainer Kim Mi-jung and her monkey Conan play guitars during a monkey school show in Seoul on Thursday. The show, which demonstrates how the monkeys are trained to imitate their trainers, will run until February 4. — Reuters

GERMAN WOMAN LOVE DARK RED UNDERWEAR
FRANKFURT: Dark red turned out to be the trendy colour for female underwear during the festive season in Germany. The Frankfurt-based specialist textile magazine, TextilWirtschaft, reported high retail sales of red underwear before Christmas. Especially in demand was black underwear with red trimmings, the magazine said. Underwear with lace borders and decorations was, however, as much in demand as in other Christmas seasons. DPA

A NAPPING JUDGE?
JAKARTA: Indonesian judges have been caught napping while others have been accused of chatting on their handphones during court procedures, a field study on judiciary conduct revealed on Thursday. According to a survey carried out by the University of Indonesia Law School, which observed the conduct of judges at the South Jakarta District Court last October, nine presiding judges were caught sleeping on the job while five others were spotted talking on their handphones during trial procedures, said The Jakarta Post. DPA

PAK TIT-BITS

THREE AL-QAIDA SUSPECTS HELD
KARACHI: The Pakistani police working with the FBI arrested three suspected Al-Qaida operatives after a shoot out on the outskirts of the southern city of Karachi early on Thursday, the police said. The men were arrested after throwing a grenade at security forces, but no officers were hurt. One suspect apparently escaped. The identity of the suspects was not immediately clear. AP

USA AWAITS PAK'S REPLY ON ENVOY
WASHINGTON: Washington is awaiting Islamabad’s reply to its request for lifting diplomatic immunity of Pakistan’s United Nations envoy Munir Akram, to prosecute him for allegedly assaulting a woman. “What we do in these cases is to ask the foreign government, when there is a possibility of a criminal proceeding, to waive the diplomatic immunity of the person, and we pursue that,” a State Department spokesman said here. PTI