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Crisis looms as Iran goes ahead with uranium conversion
Top militant offers conditional ceasefire
Resource crunch led to Osama bin
US-UN relations on collision course
61 pc Americans reject Bush on Iraq: Newsweek
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Aswat deported, held in UK
Japan PM loses postal reform vote
Notice to Pak over Gilgit
Indian-American comedy makes it to the top
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Crisis looms as Iran goes ahead with
Isfahan, (Iran), August 8 “Iran has resumed the conversion of uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the vice-president of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency Mohammad Saidi told reporters. The move, which risks seeing Iran hauled before the UN Security Council, comes after Iran rejected as “unacceptable” a package of EU proposals aimed at guaranteeing that it was not trying to build the bomb. Iran had insisted it would resume the process, which turns uranium ore into a feed gas for enrichment, despite numerous warnings from the United States and the Europeans. The EU, which has been negotiating with Iran for nine months, had already called for an emergency meeting tomorrow of the IAEA board during which an ultimatum demanding a commitment to suspend nuclear fuel work is expected. The crisis has escalated since Iran’s ultra-conservative President Mahmood Ahmadinejad took office last week, with the new leader today putting a fellow hardline in charge of the nuclear dossier. A government spokesman said Ali Larijani, a former boss of state-run media who has distinguished himself by his intransigency over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, would soon take up the post. Larijani replaces Hassan Rowhani, who has managed to maintain dialogue with the West through thick and thin over the last two years, and his appointment will worry some Western negotiators. Iran had agreed in November to suspend uranium conversion and enrichment while negotiations on its nuclear programme were under way with the EU-3 of Britain, France and Germany.
— AFP |
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Top militant offers conditional ceasefire
Islamabad, August 8 “The Muthahida Jehad Council
(MJC) will hold the ceasefire if the Indian Government is ready to declare Kashmir disputed territory, withdraw its troops, if it stops killing innocent
Kashmiris, releases all Kashmiri detainees and is ready for meaningful tripartite talks,” said
Salahuddin, who is also the chief of militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. The militant groups would declare ceasefire if the Indian Government agreed to the three proposals, he told a seminar organised by Pakistan wing of the Therik-e-Hurriyat headed by hardline Kashmiri leader Sayed Ali
Geelani. He said the dialogue process between India and Pakistan had not helped to resolve the Kashmir issue, adding a “strong” armed struggle was a major requisite for the success of militancy in Kashmir. Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the seminar “all proposals and steps to find a solution to (Kashmir) problem become meaningless, even the governments of Pakistan and India agree, if the Kashmiris do not accept these measures.”
— PTI |
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Resource crunch led to Osama bin Laden’s ‘escape’
New York, August 8 In his book ‘Jawbreaker’, Gary Berntsen, the CIA’s field commander for the agency’s team at Tora Bora, says he and other US commanders did know that Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaida and Taliban members. This contradicts the statement made by US President George Bush, during the election campaign for his second term, that field commanders did not know whether Laden was in the mountainous hideout on the border of Pakistan, according to Newsweek magazine. Berntsen says he had “definitive intelligence” that Laden was holed up at Tora Bora — intelligence operatives had tracked him — and he could have been caught, the report said. The CIA official flays Donald Rumsfeld’s Defence Department for not providing enough support to the CIA and the Pentagon’s own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora, Newsweek quotes Berntsen’s lawyer Roy Krieger as saying. However, Berntsen, would not divulge the book’s specifics, saying he was awaiting CIA clearance. Asked to comment on Berntsen’s remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM Commander General Tommy Franks.
— PTI |
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US-UN relations on collision course
United nations, August 8 The world body has been at the receiving end of a continuous stream of political invective from right-wing critics in the USA who accuse the organisation of inefficiency and mismanagement. A Bill passed by the US House of Representatives in June has threatened a partial cut-off of funds to the United Nations, although President Bush has vowed to veto it when it arrives in the White House. But Bush, endearing himself to right-wing neoconservatives in his corner, has named a vociferous critic of the world body, John Bolton, as US ambassador — a man who has publicly expressed his disdain for the United Nations and all what it stands for. On Friday, there were unconfirmed reports that the Bush administration is considering denying a visa to the new Iranian President, barring him from the UN summit next month. “I think you raise serious issues, very serious issues,” says Jim Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum, a New York-based think tank that closely tracks day-to-day political developments in the world body. According to Sen. Ted Kennedy, a member of the Opposition Democratic Party, the “devious manoeuvre” to appoint Bolton “further darkens the cloud over Bolton’s credibility at the United Nations.” A politically conservative right-winger, Bolton has been aggressive in his dealings with countries such as Iran and North Korea, and on issues such as arms control, nuclear non-proliferation and the United Nations itself. Perhaps the best — and most sarcastic — comment came from the editorial desk of the New York Times , which said last week: “If there’s a positive side to President Bush’s appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, it’s that as long as Mr Bolton is in New York, he will not be wrecking diplomatic havoc anywhere else.” “No one with such views has ever been named to this post before. It is like posting a militant atheist as ambassador to the Vatican! There is certainly some very negative symbolism involved. But will his presence change things dramatically? That is not clear,” Paul added. At the Washington end, the US House of Representatives has already passed a Bill to withhold half of the mandatory US dues to the United Nations — about 220 million dollars out of a total of 440 million dollars per year — if the world body did not comply with some 46 requirements laid down in the new legislation, including greater financial transparency and more oversight bodies. Meanwhile, the threat of another US-UN confrontation is looming on the political horizon. The Bush administration may deny a visa to the new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is expected to address the UN summit of world leaders on September 14-16. The USA has always maintained that it has a legitimate right to deny a visa (even if the person is on an official visit to the United Nations) if he or she is deemed a threat to the ‘‘national security’’ of the country. But UN spokesman Dujarric told reporters on Friday: “The host country agreement (between the United Nations and the USA) calls on the USA not to impose any impediment to the travel to the United Nations of any representative of a member state on official business.” Still, the former head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the late Yasser Arafat, was barred from coming to New York to address the General Assembly back in 1988. As a result, the General Assembly decided to convene in Geneva that year purely to listen to Arafat’s address. |
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61 pc Americans reject Bush on Iraq: Newsweek
Washington, August 8 Newsweek magazine, which conducted the poll, said on Saturday that it was Bush’s lowest approval on Iraq and the first below-40 per cent drop in his ratings. Only 34 per cent of those polled said they approved of Bush’s handling of Iraq. While 50 per cent said the USA was losing ground in its efforts to establish security and democracy in the country, only 40 per cent said the USA was making progress. A poll done by the magazine one month ago had shown that 41 per cent of Americans approved of Bush’s handling of Iraq while 54 per cent did not. While 26 per cent of those polled said they supported a large US military presence in Iraq for as long as it takes to achieve US goals there, 38 per cent said they would support keeping troops there less than a year.
— PTI |
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Aswat deported, held in UK
London, August 8 Haroon Rashid Aswat, a Briton of Gujarati origin, was arrested late last night following the receipt of a request by the USA for his extradition, Scotland Yard said in a statement here. Thirty-year-old Aswat, who hails from West Yorkshire, is suspected by the US of involvement in a plot to set up an Al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon. He will be questioned in Britain for his alleged role in last month’s deadly bomb attacks in Underground train stations and a bus in London which killed 56 persons. Aswat arrived at a Royal Air Force base in Northolt, west of London, in an unmarked Swiss-registered jet last night, Scotland Yard said. He was then taken to Paddington Green police station, it added. He was arrested by the Zambian authorities on 20 July after he entered that country on July 6. Meanwhile, the British police charged two more men with conspiracy to murder in connection with the botched July 21 London bombings in tube stations and a bus here. Muktar Ibrahim Said, suspected of trying to detonate a bomb on a bus in East London, and Ramzi Mohammad, accused of trying to blow up an Underground train at Oval station, have been charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to murder, the police said.
— PTI |
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Japan PM loses postal reform vote
Tokyo, August 8 The Bills were rejected in the Upper House of Parliament by a vote of 125 to 108. Media said 20 members of Koizumi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had voted against the legislation, the core of his economic reform platform. LDP Upper House heavyweight Toranosuke Katayama, who had backed the Bills, said Koizumi was now all but certain to call an election to Parliament’s powerful Lower House. “Given the Prime Minister’s thinking now, I think he will dissolve the Lower House. I think there’ll be general election,” Katayama said. |
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Notice to Pak over Gilgit
Islamabad, August 8 The petition has been filed for August 31, and the bench comprises Mr Muzzafar Ali and Mr Sahib Khan.
— ANI |
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Indian-American comedy makes it to the top
Washington, August 8 The $ 53-million movie, being distributed by Warner Brothers, is an adaptation of a 1980s television show about two good old boy cousins, their cousin and their thrilling escapades in their Dodge van, and how they outwit the cops in their attempt to save their family farm from a crooked politician. The 35-year-old Chandrasekhar, who was born on April 9, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois to physician parents — both immigrants from India, has so far directed three other comedies — Broken Lizard’s Club Dread, Super Troopers and Puddle Cruiser — and has appeared also as a guest star in the television series NYPD Blues. But “Dukes of Hazzard”, a perfect mix of action, adventure and comedy, has established Chandrasekhar as a very promising and competent director, according to film reviews and film industry news. Jay, whose complete name is Jayant Jambulingam Chandrasekhar, studied history and arts at Colgate University. He then went on to study performing arts and movies. The original television series, which ran from 1979-85 was set in present day and the story follows the adventures of “good old boy” cousins, Bo (Seann William Scott) and Luke (Johnny Knoxville) Duke, who with the help of their sexy cousin Daisy (Jessica Simpson) and moonshine running uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson), try and save the family farm from being destroyed by Hazzard County’s greedy and corrupt commissioner Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds). The film is rated PG-13.
— UNI |
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