VICE-PRESIDENT Dick Cheney on Thursday described the civilian nuclear deal with India as “one of the most important strategic foreign policy initiatives of our government,” and urged the U.S. Congress to enact legislation soon to make this deal possible.

Speaking at a meeting of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington, Mr. Cheney cautioned members of the Congress not to attempt to delay the process. “Given this agreement’s strategic importance, we must be sure that amendments or delays on the U.S. side do not risk wasting this critical opportunity,” he said.

The House International Relations Committee (HIRC) will mark up the nuclear legislation on Tuesday. Similar action is planned in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. Most mark-ups end with a vote to send the new version of the bill to the floor of the full Senate and House for final approval.

Mr Cheney said he and President George W. Bush were confident that this agreement would receive strong bipartisan support in Congress. So far just 10 senators and 40 members of the House of Representatives had supported the bills to enable the nuclear deal to go forward. There are currently 433 members of Congress.

Mr Cheney urged the heads of the India caucus in the Senate — Republican Senator John Cornyn and Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton — and in the House — Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democratic Representative Gary Ackerman — “to use their leadership role to help usher through a critical agreement that benefits both the United States and our friends in India.” Both Ms Clinton and Ms Ros-Lehtinen have not co-sponsored the bills that seek to exempt India from the U.S. Atomic Energy Act and enable nuclear cooperation; Mr Ackerman and Mr Cornyn have.

Mr. Cheney said he hoped Congress would “move quickly to enact legislation that enables our two nations to move forward on this important agreement without delay.”

Critics of the nuclear deal want to add amendments before the final bill proceeds to the full chambers of Congress. Speaking at an Arms Control Association meeting in Washington on June 20, Congressman Howard Berman, a California Democrat and member of congressional India Caucus and a senior member of the HIRC, said he had “serious concerns” about the deal.

Mr Berman said he was going to work with Illinois Republican Congressman Henry Hyde, the chairman of the HIRC, “to try and incorporate some revisions that could improve the bill. But to the extent that the final version doesn’t address some of my key concerns, I am planning to offer some amendments at the mark up.”

Asked whether all proposals, including his, would be considered at the mark up of the nuclear bill in the HIRC on June 27, Mr Berman said that would be up to Mr Hyde. “Around here, consensus is nice, but all that’s required is a majority,” he said.

Mr Cheney told the USIBC a strategic partnership required a new and realistic approach to nuclear energy. “The logic of the deal is straightforward,” he said, adding, under the agreement, America will support the development of civil nuclear power programmes inside India. And for its part, India will place its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

The Vice-President said there was no question that nuclear power is critical to meeting India’s energy needs. The initiative will also create new business opportunities for U.S. firms, which translates into new jobs for American workers, he said.

He noted that India would enter the international nonproliferation mainstream by separating its civil and military nuclear programme, adopting international safeguards, and conforming to international standards. “India will get safe and modern technology to help lift more than 500 million people from poverty, and it would be part of the international effort to combat nuclear terrorism,” he said, quoting IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.

In remarks aimed at allaying critics’ concerns, Mr Cheney said India will maintain a moratorium on nuclear testing and put in place “very strict measures to prevent the diversion of nuclear materials and technology.”

“By taking these steps, the agreement strengthens the international non-proliferation regime and plays a vital role in enhancing international security and stability,” he said.

“It is only right and sensible that we begin cooperating with India on civil nuclear programmes. A civil nuclear deal is plainly in the interests of both countries economically, environmentally and from the standpoint of our national security,” Mr Cheney said.

On a separate issue, the Vice-President urged India to remove its remaining restrictions on foreign direct investment, reduce tariffs on agricultural and industrial products and strengthen the protection for intellectual property rights. “India can also show the same reform-minded leadership by pressing for the conclusion of an ambitious agreement this year at the Doha Round,” he said.

Islamabad, Jun 23
India and Pakistan today failed to achieve a breakthrough in resolving a longstanding dispute over New Delhi's plans to build a barrage on the Wullar lake in Jammu and Kashmir.

At the end of the two-day talks Water Secretary J HariNarayan acknowledged that the stalemate continued.

"Expect a breakthrough when there is a perfect understanding between both sides," he said addressing the media along with his Pakistani counterpart Asfaq Mahmood.

Narayan was replying to a question why the two sides have not been able to break the deadlock despite 11 rounds of talks.

A joint statement issued after the talks said "the two sides exchanged views on the project and had better understanding of each other's views. They reaffirmed their commitment to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960."

"The two countries agreed to continue discussions during the next round of the composite dialogue with a view to resolving the issue in accordance with the provisions of the treaty," it said.

The Wullar barrage is one of the eight issues being discussed under the composite dialogue (CD) process between Pakistan and India.

The dispute over Wullar Barrage also known as Tulbul navigation project arose when Pakistan objected to India's proposal to build a barrage on the river Jhelum at the mouth of Wullar near Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir in 1984. — PTI

Geneva, June 23
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, taking aim at the US-led war on terrorism, reminded all states on Friday of their duty to ban torture and give all security detainees a fair trial.

In a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ms Arbour also voiced concern at the alleged existence of secret detention centres, saying they facilitate abusive treatment.

Although she mentioned no names, her remarks were clearly aimed at the USA and its allies in their "war on terror'" launched after the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 persons in 2001.

"It is vital that at all times governments anchor in law their response to terrorism," Ms Arbour told the 47-member state body ahead of the U.N.'s International Day in support of the victims of torture, being observed next Monday.

International human rights and humanitarian law imposed a series of constraints on all states "with no exception," said Ms Arbour, a lawyer who formerly served as U.N. war crimes prosecutor and a Canadian Supreme Court judge.

"These include the absolute ban on torture and the right to a fair trial,'' she said.

The USA Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Mr Warren Tichenor, immediately replied that the US policy was to treat Al-Qaida and the Taliban enemy combatants captured in the conflict "humanely."

"I would like to reiterate the US Government's absolute commitment to uphold our national and international obligations to eradicate torture and to prevent cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment worldwide,'' he added.

The USA is holding some 460 security detainees at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaida or the Taliban. Most have been held for years without charges.

President Bush said this week he wanted to shut the prison and return inmates to their home countries, but gave no time frame. — Reuters

Manila, June 23
A bomb killed six people at a crowded public market in the southern Philippines today in an attack the police said was aimed at a powerful provincial governor allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

One army officer, Colonel Felipe Tabas, said there were indications the bombing was carried out by Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of Muslim militants linked to Al Qaida.

But Andal Ampatuan, governor of Maguindanao province on the troubled island of Mindanao, dismissed that idea and said he suspected his attackers came from another group ''considered as an enemy of the state'', which he did not identify.

A spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said the country's largest Muslim rebel group was not responsible. The MILF has maintained a truce since 2003 and is holding regular Malaysian-brokered peace talks with the Philippine government.

''We're cooperating with the government to determine which group was behind the attack,'' Von al-Haj, head of the MILF ceasefire panel, told Reuters, adding the incident was isolated and would not affect peace talks.

Philippine security forces are also fighting communist rebels and Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent Muslim rebel group with ties to Jemaah Islamiah. — Reuters

London, June 23
People should not use mobile phones outdoors during thunderstorms because of the risk of being struck by lightning, doctors said.

They reported the case of a 15-year-old girl who was using her phone in a park when she was hit during a storm. Although she was revived, she suffered persistent health problems and was using a wheelchair a year after the accident.

“This rare phenomenon is a public health issue and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lightning strike injuries,” said Swinda Esprit, a doctor at Northwick Park Hospital in England.

Esprit and other doctors at the hospital added in a letter to the British Medical Journal that usually when someone is struck by lightning, the high resistance of the skin conducts the flash over the body in what is known as a flashover. But if a metal object, such as a phone, is in contact with the skin it disrupts the flashover and increases the odds of internal injuries and death.

The doctors added that three fatal cases of lightning striking people while using mobile phones had been reported in newspapers in China, South Korea and Malaysia.

“The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be used (or carried) outdoors during a thunderstorm,” Esprit added. — Reuters

London, June 23
Scientists have developed a hand-held magnetic device to treat migraine, a form of headache that is usually very intense.

The hairdryer size-electronic gadget, developed by the California-based migraine specialist firm 'Neuralieve', is placed at the back of the head and uses a gentle pulse to disrupt the "electrical storm" which is believed to lead to migraines, reported the online edition of the Daily Mail.

The Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation device has been tested by a team of scientists based at the Ohio State University Medical Centre.

It could be on sale in shops from autumn next year at a cost of 1,000 pounds with a further 15 pounds for each treatment. — IANS

Washington, June 23
The last few decades were the warmest on the earth in the past 400 years and may well have been warmer than any comparable period since the Middle Ages, US scientists reported.

In a separate study, climate experts blamed global warming for much of the hurricane-fueling rise in temperatures in North Atlantic last year, when there were a number of devastating hurricanes, including Katrina.

In a new report by the National Research Council yesterday, researchers said they were highly confident the mean global surface temperature was higher in the past 25 years than any comparable period during the previous four centuries.

They had less confidence the past quarter-century was hotter than any comparable period in the years from 900 to 1600, but found that plausible. For the years before 900, the scientists said they had very little confidence about what the earth’s mean surface temperatures were.

They did not dispute multiple measurements that showed the world warmed up by about 1 degree F over the course of the 20th century, a quick rise compared with previous centuries.