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Foreign accounts of two Pak
Leave cross-border terror talk, says Musharraf Iraq didn’t have WMDs before war,
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US soldier killed in Iraq 16 Indian fishermen nabbed in Pak
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Foreign accounts of two Pak N-scientists traced
Islamabad, January 25 The foreign bank accounts in which the proceeds from the transfer of some nuclear technology to Iran have been deposited were traced back to at least two senior nuclear scientists, unnamed officials were quoted as saying by the local daily ‘The News’ today. These accounts were being operated through a Dubai-based bank, which has already provided the required information to the Pakistani authorities. “It is an open-and-shut case. Their foreign bank accounts swelled by millions of dollars as the sensitive information and some hardware reached Iran,” one official said. For investigation and security reasons, the government sources have not revealed the names of the scientists involved in the deal. Yesterday the same newspaper hinted at Dr Khan and his close associate Dr M. Farooq. The government has also instructed all ministries and departments not to invite Dr Khan to any official function, the newspaper said. The decision to allow Dr Khan to continue as an Adviser to the Prime Minister on Scientific Affairs would be taken by President Pervez Musharraf who returned from Davos today after attending the World Economic Forum. The Iranian authorities have already confirmed that the foreign bank accounts were being controlled by Pakistani nuclear scientists, the paper said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US Government also had the full details of the financial transactions that took place between Pakistani scientists and Iranians, it added. It was also discovered that one of the Dubai-based undercover companies used by Pakistan’s premier nuclear installation, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), to procure equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars was being operated by a close relative of a top nuclear scientist. Pakistani investigators have also unearthed that the same nuclear scientist held tens of millions of dollars worth of direct and indirect financial and real estate holdings in Pakistan and abroad, mostly in Dubai, the paper said. In view of the allegations against Dr Khan, the government has also put off its decision to decorate his wife with one of the highest civil awards of Pakistan. According to the newspaper, the investigators have reconstructed the last 15 years’ activities of Dr Khan through sustained interrogation of his Principal Staff Officer Major (Retd) Islamul Haq, his closest confidants Dr Nazir Ahmad, and Brigadiers Sajawal and Tajwar, who were in-charge of procurement and security of the KRL. Meanwhile, the Pakistani authorities released a nuclear scientist after he was cleared in the ongoing investigation into the alleged leaks of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, a minister said. Saeed Mansoor Ahmad has been cleared and he has returned home, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP yesterday.
— PTI, AFP |
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Leave cross-border terror talk, says Musharraf Washington, January 25 “We always say what is happening in Kashmir is a struggle for freedom—but let us leave that behind. Whenever anyone asks me now, while rapprochement with India is going on, (I say) let’s not talk of crossborder terrorism, let’s leave that behind and focus on the future,” he told the Washington Post from Davos, Switzerland. “We have been playing this blame game in the past but let’s leave it in the past,” he said. Gen Musharraf said that he had never said anywhere that “we need to have a Kashmir agreement before anything else.” “I have always maintained that we should move simultaneously on all issues. The problem before was that Kashmir was never included.” “Now there is a change. For the first time, the joint statement (issued by India and Pakistan in Islamabad) recognises Kashmir is a dispute to be resolved. It recognises that Pakistan is a party to the dispute. So, this is the source of my optimism.” Asked to clarify on Pakistan’s position on plebiscite in Kashmir, Gen Musharraf said, “No unilateral action can be taken. I have been saying that we must go beyond stated positions and show flexibility. “But it can’t be done unilaterally by Pakistan. So, there is reciprocity involved.” Asked how he would persuade India that he would not allow Pakistani territory to be used by “Jihadi” groups to cross the Line of Control, Gen Musharraf said: “I never said we crossed the Line of Control ...let’s close this chapter.” He also noted that after his meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, confidence-building measures were going on. “The two foreign offices are interacting to decide on the venue, the date and the level of the contact.”
— PTI |
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Iraq didn’t have WMDs before war, says Powell
Washington, January 25 However, Mr Powell, who had argued vehemently in the UN Security Council before the war that force had to be used to strip Iraq of WMDs, blamed the intelligence community for his statement. Mr Powell made the admission aboard his plane after visiting Tbilisi (Georgia) to attend the inauguration of the new President Mikhail Saakashvili. One day after David Kay, the outgoing Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq, said he believes Saddam Hussein had not stockpiled unconventional weapons for years, Mr Powell told reporters that his February 5 argument last year before the council was based on “what the intelligence community believed was credible”. “What is the open question,” said Mr Powell, “is how many stocks they had, if any, and if they had any, where did they go? And if they didn’t have any, then why wasn’t that known before hand?” Giving other reasons for going to war, Mr Powell said the Bush Administration was not simply troubled by the conviction that Iraq possessed unconventional weapons and development programmes, but also that Hussein had refused to answer UN questions about his government’s activities on the subject. “We were not only saying we thought they had them,” Mr Powell said, “but we had questions that needed to be answered. What was it? 500 tons, 100 tons or cartons? Was it so many liters of anthrax, ten times that amount, or nothing? What we demanded of Iraq was that they account for all of this and they prove the negative of our hypothesis.”
— PTI |
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Indonesia confirms bird flu outbreak
Jakarta, January 25 “It’s been confirmed avian influenza exists, but no human cases so far,” Animal Health Director Tri Satya Putri Naipospos told reporters. Indonesia had previously insisted it was free of the influenza and blamed the deaths of thousands of chickens in parts of East Java and Bali in the past three months on Newcastle disease, a virus that is harmless to humans and does not affect the safety of poultry meat. BANGKOK: Thailand brought in troops and prisoners on Sunday to kill millions of chickens in the hope of stopping the spread of highly contagious bird flu, which has jumped to humans in Vietnam and Thailand. With most ordinary folk too scared to go anywhere near chickens, 400 soldiers were deployed in Suphan Buri province northwest of Bangkok, Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchop told reporters. One hundred prisoners were also brought in. DHAKA: A mysterious disease has killed at least 12 people in Bangladesh and made many more sick and health experts said today they were sending samples to the USA for analysis. Health authorities declined to comment on whether the sickness could be the bird flu that has broken out in several other parts of Asia, but a livestock official said there had been no reports of sick chickens. ‘‘It is too early to comment on whether it is bird flu while the matter is still under investigation,’’ said Abdul Faiz, a professor of medicine at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The disease has affected people in villages in Faridpur district, 150 km north of the capital, Dhaka. Patients, most of them young boys, suffer from high fever, headache and vomiting before becoming unconscious. Some also suffered from diarrhoea, doctors said.
— Reuters |
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Opportunity probe lands on Mars Pasadena California, January 25 The agency said the probe had successfully made contact with controllers on Earth after landing at 9.05 pm at 8.35 IST in an area of the planet known as the Meridiani Planum. The Meridium Planum is a zone of grey hematite, an iron oxide. Scientists plan to use the robot’s instruments to determine whether the grey hematite layer comes from sediments of a former ocean, from volcanic deposits altered by hot water or from other ancient environmental conditions.
— AFP |
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Tikrit, January 25 Insurgents fired the rocket propelled grenade at the Bradley in Baiji town, piercing the driver’s compartment and critically wounding the soldier, said Major Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division. She said the soldier was evacuated to a military hospital where he died today.
— AP |
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16 Indian fishermen nabbed in Pak Karachi, January 25 The Maritime Security Agency arrested the Indians and seized their three boats yesterday, about 120 km east of Karachi, Pakistan’s main port, said Maqsood Khan, a local police official.
— AP |
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Washington, January 25
In a candid admission, US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the pre-war Iraq may not have possessed the weapons of mass destruction.
However, Mr Powell, who had argued vehemently in the UN Security Council before the war that force had to be used to strip Iraq of
WMDs, blamed the intelligence community for his statement.
