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Pak accepts India's deadline on Kishenganga project
Pak to begin work on 2nd rail link today
Pak for including Kashmiris in talks
Aceh tsunami chief ‘shocked’at slow reconstruction
Moscow police arrest left-wing protesters
Palestinian militants, police open fire
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Brutalised 12-year-old rescued from husband
Gadget that promises to translate baby babbling
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Pak accepts India's deadline on Kishenganga project
Lahore, May 9 The Indian side was of the view that it needed some time to gather technical details of the project to address Pakistan’s concerns. Therefore, it said, the deadline must be ‘realistic’. But Pakistan insisted that the process should not be allowed to drag on and the two countries must agree on a cut-off date for finding a solution. On its part, Pakistan wanted a deadline in the month of May or June. They, however, agreed to a deadline of July 15. After the agreement, both sides took up the first of the six questions which Pakistan had raised in the previous meeting. Pakistan had formalized its objections into six questions — three on the design of the project, two on diversion of water and one on the power house – at the last meeting. The first question regarding the design of the project was taken up in the meeting and both sides put forward their viewpoints. The Indian side is reported to have said that it had come with a mandate to resolve all issues. It is ready to review the whole project if objections were found valid. The Pakistani side, totally convinced about the veracity of its objections, said the Indian sincerity would soon be tested. It may be mentioned that Pakistan had objected to the construction of the hydropower project on River Neelum, saying the diversion of river water to the Wullar Lake in held Kashmir would contravene provisions of the Indus Basin Treaty. The diversion will also reduce water flow into Pakistan by 27 per cent, which again is against the spirit of the treaty. The third objection by Pakistan is that it had already started the Neelum-Jehlum project and invested Rs71 million in preparatory works. Any construction on the Neelum river will affect its power generation capacity, which India cannot do under the treaty. India wanted to tunnel River Neelum water into Wullar Lake and construct a hydropower project there. The Pakistan delegation at the meeting is being led by the head of the Pakistan Commissioner of Indus Water, Syed Jamait Ali Shah, and the Indian side by D. K. Mehta. The talks will be held for two more days and the Indian team is scheduled to return home on Wednesday. |
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Pak to begin work on 2nd rail link today
Lahore, May 9 The track replacement would cost Rs1 billion, sources said, adding that the government had given the Pakistan Railways Rs 3.1 billion for the rehabilitation and upgradation of the Mirpurkhas-Khokhrapar rail link. The plan proposed extension of the rail track for another 10 km up to Monabao in Rajasthan so that a second Indo-Pakistan train service could be restored. All railway stations between Khokhrapar and Monabao would be renovated under the plan, besides the upgradation of the signal system and allied equipment. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has already directed the railways authorities to complete the track by year-end. The resumption of the Khokhrapar-Monabao rail link will reduce travel time between India and Pakistan to five hours. At present, people from Sindh have to travel via Lahore. |
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Pak for including Kashmiris in talks
Islamabad, May 9 “This is essential to find a durable solution acceptable to Pakistan, India and the Kashmiris,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told a press briefing here today. He denied any change in Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir, saying “we have a principled position on Kashmir — the issue should be resolved in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiris.” The inclusion of Kashmiris in the dialogue process would also be helpful in finding a lasting solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he said.
— UNI |
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Aceh tsunami chief ‘shocked’at slow reconstruction
Jakarta, May 9 Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, in the job for just over a week, said there was no sense of urgency in disbursing the $ 613 million earmarked in the government’s 2005 budget for tsunami rebuilding. He said the money had to come through the bureaucracy and get approval from Parliament, adding he did not expect it to be available until September. In the meantime, Kuntoro said his agency would rely on $2 billion pledged by big non-governmental agencies and the private sector to kickstart reconstruction in Aceh. Even here, much needed to be done before development funds began to be fully utilised. “It’s shocking. Very limited things have been done for the poor people,” Kuntoro told a group of foreign reporters in Jakarta after spending several days in Aceh to get a first-hand look at the monumental task he faces.
— Reuters |
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Moscow police arrest left-wing protesters
Moscow, May 9 “The arrests of the National Bolsheviks started at 9 am (local time) in the morning,” National Bolshevik (NBP) party spokesman Alexandre Averin told the radio. “The activists were arrested at the entry to the party buildings and in the subway by people wearing the insignia of the rapid reaction force of the special forces,” he said, adding they did not give a reason for the arrests. The leader of a young communist party group, Erguei Udaltsov, was also arrested at his home. |
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Palestinian militants, police open fire
Jenin, May 9 Most shots were fired in the air. Hospital officials said there were no injuries. Hundreds of residents rushed into the streets to try to separate the two sides. Mr Abbas has promised to rein in gunmen, but has said he would not use force. The tensions in Jenin, a stronghold of militants, began after leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Mohammad Abu Array refused to disarm before entering the local courthouse yesterday. He scuffled with the police outside the guardhouse and shots were fired in the air. Later, Al Aqsa gunmen seized a police cruiser, disarmed three officers inside and pumped the vehicle with bullets.
— AP |
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Brutalised 12-year-old rescued from husband
Lahore, May 9 A group of reporters had tipped off the police that a man named Allah Wasya, who had already contracted two marriages, was torturing the victim, identified as Asia. A police team raided Wasya's house in the Baggrian suburb and found Asia in a serious condition with injury marks all over her body. Wasya was arrested and Asia admitted to a hospital. Doctors said she had head injuries and fractures, The News reported on Monday. According to Asia, her father Markus divorced her mother Widdiya and subsequently remarried. One month ago, her father and brothers married her off without her consent to Wasya. The girl said a clergyman charged Rs 2,000 for drawing up the marriage contract. After the ceremony, she said, Wasaya took her home, where he would often torture her by administering electric shocks while drunk.
— IANS |
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Gadget that promises to translate baby babbling
Tokyo, May 9 Three years after a toymaker scored a smash hit with the “Bowlingual” gadget to interpret the warp and woof of a dog’s life, Japanese researchers may have an even bigger sensation — a translator for baby babbling. “We aim to develop a device to read babies’ feelings,” says Kazuyuki Shinohara, a neurobiology professor at the state-run Nagasaki University who leads the research team. The gadget could be a godsend in a country where a growing number of young persons find child-rearing too burdensome, although some experts are cautious about an almost science-fiction world where babies are understood with machines before they learn to talk. Shinohara’s group has been conducting experiments involving mothers and their babies by monitoring the infants’ cries, facial expressions and body temperature changes in a project backed by the government-subsidized Japan Science and Technology Agency.
— AFP |
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