 |
Sunday,
August 24, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Annan for UN-mandated force in Iraq
21 killed in rocket explosion Russian chopper crash: 20 bodies found
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
India adopting coercive means, alleges Pak Pak cable operators to observe strike for Indian channels US lawmakers hold talks with Pak leaders
|
|
Annan for UN-mandated force in Iraq New York, August 23 Mr Annan, however, warned that the USA and Britain were not willing to share the command of such a force and predicted that it would be difficult for the UN Security Council to draft and pass a mandate for the new multinational force. “If that (power-sharing) does not happen, I think it is going to be very difficult to get a second resolution that will satisfy everybody,” Mr Annan said after meeting US Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in New York. Currently, the USA with 139,000 troops in Iraq, is the occupying power whose representative, Mr Paul Bremer, is running the country with a hand-picked 25-member Governing Council. The United Nations is confined to providing humanitarian assistance, with no real responsibility in the political and economic reconstruction. The bombing on Tuesday on the UN compound in Baghdad, which killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than 20 other UN personnel, has prompted the USA to now call for the United Nations to share the burden of the reconstruction but without it sharing the power. Mr Annan said there was a need to “internationalise” the operation in Iraq, including sharing the command and burden. Mr Annan yesterday met Mr Straw, who proposed a strengthening of the role of coalition forces, the Iraqi Governing Council and the United Nations in Iraq. Both Mr Straw and Mr Powell, who met Mr Annan on Thursday, preferred keeping the leadership role in Iraq with their coalition forces. Mr Annan also met Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, whose country is also a partner in the coalition. “It’s a question of strengthening the work of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the Governing Council and, at the same time, improving and broadening the authority of the UN,” Mr Straw told reporters. Mr Straw said discussions were under way to reach a consensus on the new resolution, acknowledging that the 15-nation Security Council was divided and most of its members had opposed the war in Iraq. In Baghdad, UN officials yesterday held a ceremony before the repatriation of Vieira de Mello’s body to his native land, Brazil. He is survived by his wife and two sons. Meanwhile, the Non-aligned Movement has called on the United Nations to continue its current role in Iraq, saying the terrorist attack on the UN compound in Baghdad cannot break global support for the Iraqi people. The 116-nation movement, which opposed the US-led war in Iraq, conveyed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan “sincere condolences and deepest sympathies to the victims, bereaved families and other affected individuals as a result of the attack”. — DPA Annan names envoy to Iraq UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named Ramiro Lopes da Silva, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, to be his interim special representative to Iraq, diplomats said. Lopes da Silva, who is Portuguese, succeeds Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in Tuesday’s suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. Lopes da Silva (54) was injured in Tuesday’s bombing but not seriously.
— Reuters |
|
21 killed in rocket explosion Brasilia, August 23 The blast yesterday at the remote base in northeastern Brazil killed mostly civilian technicians and destroyed two research satellites, Defence Minster Jose Veigas Filho said. Some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, he said. “The launching pad collapsed and the technicians were working there, so everything indicates they died,” Veigas said. “There is no hope that there were survivors.” “We have recovered more bodies and now know of 21 dead. We don’t expect the number of dead will increase further,” said Air Force spokesman Lt Ricardo Olanda. At least 20 people were injured — most were flown to a hospital in neighbouring Sao Luis de Maranhao, Veigas said. The explosion occurred after one of the four main motors of the rocket was ignited. The blast came as technicians were putting the finishing touches on a rocket that would make Brazil the first Latin American nation to put a satellite in space on its own.
— AP |
|
Russian
chopper crash: 20 bodies found Moscow, August 23 The helicopter carried 17 passengers and three crew members. Twenty bodies have been found at the site of the crash, according to a RIA Novosti report. Mr Korotkin and a group of officials from the prosecutor’s office have returned from the accident site. Three bodies which have been identified are of Governor of Sakhalin region Igor Farkhutdinov, his aide Yuri Shuvalov, and Public Relations Office chief in Sakhalin administration Dmitri Donskoi.
— UNI |
|
India adopting coercive means, alleges Pak Islamabad, August 23 In the letters addressed to the UN General Assembly and Security Council presidents, Pakistan’s Permanent Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram said: “So far, there is no talk about talks, no roadmap and no signpost for moving towards a genuine process for peace and security in South Asia.” Calling upon the international community to urge India to agree for the resumption of a composite dialogue, he said, “A bilateral dialogue is not a favour which either country would bestow on the other.” “India’s demand that Pakistan make unilateral concessions to its position is designed to frustrate not facilitate a dialogue. India’s aversion to talks, is premised on seeking concessions from Pakistan unilaterally through coercive means.” Mr Akram said, “A delay in opening such a dialogue is bound to strengthen the positions of extremists and complicate the search for acceptable mutual solutions to outstanding issues. These trends may accentuate in view of the ascendancy of militant Hindu extremist sentiments within the Indian polity now being manifested in the pre-electoral play in India.” Claiming that Pakistan’s approach was guided by “a sense of responsibility and a desire to lower tensions and prevent conflict,” he said, “Pakistan is also prepared to discuss and evolve confidence-building measures with India, both political and military, in the conventional and nuclear fields.” Mr Akram later told reporters in UN yesterday that the letter was meant to make Pakistan’s position clear ahead of the debate on international peace and security expected during the UN General Assembly session next month. He said Pakistan advanced several proposals to address the Kashmir issue, including a ceasefire which he said “can be achieved immediately if both governments were to issue instructions to their forces along the LoC to halt fire.”
— PTI |
|
Pak cable operators to observe strike for Indian channels Islamabad, August 23 The Pakistan Cable Operators Association (PCOA) said the transmission of all foreign channels would be stopped till August 30 and during the period, only the PTV channels would be shown. The decision has been taken in protest against the government regulatory body, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) decision not to lift the ban on the Indian channels on cable TV despite the thaw in relations with India, it said. PEMRA had appealed to PCOA to desist from the strike move, contending that the ban on the Indian channels was necessary to help the Pakistan Government and private channels to stabilise themselves. But the cable operators feel it will only help in improving the native channels as there will be a healthy competition. Arguing that there was a huge demand for Indian channels, the chairman of Punjab chapter of PCOA, Malik Furgan Ghias, said the need must be met because these were purely entertainment channels not engaging in any kind of propaganda. Pakistan’s cable operators, numbering around 970 cater to about 4.2 million subscribers, amounting to more than 25 million viewers. In the past two years, the screening of Indian channels has been stopped many times as tension mounted between the two countries after the attack on the Indian Parliament building. The cable operators say that their business has been badly affected due to the ban on the Indian channels like Star Plus as their subscribers were not satisfied with new breed of Pak private channels like ARY and Geo. PCOA officials said a lot of the viewers were not even willing to subscribe to the service if they did not show the Indian channels.
— PTI |
|
US lawmakers hold talks with Pak leaders Islamabad, August 23 The delegation, led by one-time presidential candidate and ranking member of the US Senate Commerce Committee Arizona Republican John McCain, includes two representatives and three senators. Pakistan is a key ally of the USA in its war on terror, providing at least three airbases for US-led troops hunting Al-Qaida in Afghanistan and capturing some 500 Al-Qaida suspects on its own soil. “The US lawmakers also held a breakfast meeting with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz,” ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. The meeting covered the full range of Pakistan-US relations with the Pakistani leaders urging greater support for Pakistan in the US legislature.
— AFP |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
