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Modernising Security Apparatus
NAM Summit: India calls for end to violence
Karadzic in Netherlands
Failure of WTO Talks |
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Stricter UK immigration rules for students
Kaine Obama’s running mate?
Govt Formation
Kabul: Pak must act against militants
Pak scribe charged with child molestation in US
BBC fined £400,000 for misleading viewers
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Modernising Security Apparatus
Washington is looking to “modernise Pakistan’s security apparatus and military forces so that they can maintain security and stability in the country,” official APP news agency reported from Washington quoting a US spokesman. The state department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the US is “looking to assist Pakistan in modernising their educational system, build their healthcare system, improve government functions and build up their democratic institutions.”
Prime Minister Gilani, who met President George Bush in Washington on Monday, in an interview to the CNN had said insurgents in the FATA are better armed with sophisticated weapons than Pakistani forces. He also raised this subject in a meeting with Bush, who called upon Pakistan to do more to curb militancy and prevent the
Al-Qaida and Taliban’s infiltration into Afghanistan from the Pakistani side. During the interview,
Gilani, while referring to US threats of unilateral action inside Pakistan, said: “Americans are a little impatient. In the future I think we’ll have more cooperation on the intelligence side while we’ll do the job ourselves.” Gilani said he had told President Bush, when they met in Egypt, that the US should not take unilateral action on Pakistani territory. “It was for Pakistan to take such actions and it would need to be in possession of actionable intelligence to do that. It is our job because we are fighting the war for ourselves,” he added. When reminded that the US expects Pakistan to “do more” to fight terrorism, Gilani replied: “We both have to do more, not only us.”
‘Restore sacked judges’ The All-Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) has set August 31 as the deadline for the restoration of sacked judges and warned the coalition government of a countrywide strike on September 1 if the judges were not reinstated. “We give August 31 deadline to the government to meet our demands, including the restoration of deposed judges and resignation of President Pervez
Musharraf. Otherwise, we will hold a countrywide strike on September 1,” APDM convener Mehmood Khan Achakzai told a news conference here. Flanked by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf
(PTI) chief Imran Khan and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Liaqat Baloch, Achakzai read out his alliance’s 11-point demands urging the government to restore the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 situation. “We reject the proposed constitutional package and demand restoration of the Constitution to its October 1999 state,” he said and called for the end of military operations in Balochistan and the tribal areas. He said the role of the military and intelligence agencies in politics should be ended. The APDM convener said the military and intelligence agencies were creating hurdles in the restoration of sacked judges. He said the coalition partners in the government should honour their promise with the nation and restore sacked judges.
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NAM Summit: India calls for end to violence
Tehran, July 30 The committee was set up at the seventh NAM Summit in New Delhi 25 years ago. The minister said West Asia and the Gulf regions were of obvious importance to India, given the long civilizational links. “We continue to urge an end to the cycle of violence, ongoing blockade of Gaza, expansion of settlements and construction of the separation wall,” the minister said while expressing concern at the violence in the region. The external affairs minister, who is here to attend the 15th foreign ministerial meeting of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), called for concerned action against global terrorism by the international community, particularly the 118-nation NAM.
— UNI
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Karadzic in Netherlands
The Hague, July 30 The plane carrying Karadzic landed at Rotterdam airport. Karadzic faces two charges of genocide for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. Arrested last week after being on the run for 11 years, Karadzic was most recently living under an assumed name as a bearded, long-haired alternative healer. Earlier in Belgrade, he was escorted to the airport by masked officials from the Serbian secret service. A convoy of black jeeps took him from prison to the capital's airport. On Tuesday, some 10,000 hardline nationalists, many brought by bus from rural nationalist strongholds, showed their support for him in downtown Belgrade, chanting his name and holding up giant banners with his picture. Clashes broke out when youths linked to hooligan groups threw flares, stones and garbage cans at the riot police. Some 45 persons, most of them policemen, were wounded. Karadzic's delivery to The Hague is key to Serbia securing closer ties with the European Union and his arrest was seen as a clear pro-West signal by the new government sworn in earlier this month. Sending him to The Hague is expected by the government to defuse tension and stop further protests but also to unlock EU trade benefits. Karadzic's legal team had tried to delay his extradition by launching a cumbersome appeal procedure that threatened to drag on for several more days. But even they admitted they could only postpone, not stop his transfer. Relatives have said Karadzic is in good spirits and preparing for his defence.
— Reuters
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Failure of WTO Talks
Beijing, July 30 Xinhua, China’s official news agency, said the negotiations at World Trade Organisation (WTO) headquarters in Geneva collapsed because the US and the European Union were unwilling to scrap huge subsidies they pay to their farmers. But Japan upbraided China and India, as growing economic powers, for not shouldering greater responsibilities in the WTO. Indian industry officials said responsibility for the collapse should be shared jointly by the US, the European Union, India and Brazil. The talks collapsed yesterday over a proposal to help poor farmers deal with floods of imports. Xinhua said the root cause was that rich countries cared too much about their own interests and too little about those of developing nations. Not only Washington and Brussels were unwilling to face down their farm lobbies, but they put huge pressure on poor countries to slash tariffs on industrial imports and throw their financial services markets open to western banks and insurers. “This selfishness and short-sighted behaviour has directly caused the failure of this WTO ministerial meeting, which will have a number of serious consequences,” Xinhua said in a commentary. But the Japanese government said China was less sinned-against than sinning. “Frankly, I’d have to wonder whether China and India weighed their words and actions commensurate with their responsibility, and how much they considered the global economy, as they focused too much on their own interests,” chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.
— PTI
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Stricter UK immigration rules for students London, July 30 Official sources said the new system, known as “Tier 4”, will be more transparent and will simplify the existing immigration rules for genuine students and education providers. The new student visa system, under the Points Based System (PBS), will require colleges and universities to report about the international students who fail to attend courses after gaining student visas, they said. As per the new rules, universities and colleges will need to obtain a special license if they wish to recruit students from overseas. These arrangements, the sources said, will protect students from bogus colleges who attempt to abuse the system and exploit students. Under the new rules, students will need to be sponsored by a licensed education institution and obtain an identity card in advance, have a good academic track record and demonstrate they can financially support themselves. The students will also need to apply for a course that leads to an approved level of qualification. Higher education minister Bill Rammell said the government will "not tolerate the minority of individuals who seek to damage the quality of our education system through bogus colleges." "I welcome the education sectors' involvement in developing a structure that allows international students to benefit from the educational experience the UK offers, while giving them the opportunity to work in the country for two years following graduation," he said. — PTI
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Kaine Obama’s running mate?
Washington, July 30 Kaine, (50), said he had conversations with the Democratic senator about running as his vice-presidential nominee, the Washington Post reported. Kaine and Obama were in Washington yesterday but the former denied they had any "secret meetings" planned. Asked if he was being vetted, Kaine told a Washington radio station: "I have been on board with the campaign
since February 7 but I don't talk about my conversations.’’ One politician not considered as a leading runner for the VP slot is senator Hillary Clinton, Obama's defeated rival for the Democratic nomination, The Post and New York Times reported. The relatively inexperienced Obama, (46) must take several factors into account, including a potential VP's pedigree as an office-holder and his or her experience in national security.
— AFP
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Govt Formation
A day after the President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav invited the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to forge a political consensus and form a new government within a week, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda today called upon the President and discussed the process of government formation.
Prachanda, along with party spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara and leader Kiran Baidhya, met the President at the Rastrapati Bhawan in Sital Niwas and informed that they were preparing the groundwork to forge a political consensus and form a new government, under Maoist leadership, within the given timeframe. “CPN-Maoist will form a consensus government within a few days,” Mahara quoted Prachanda as saying to the President during the meeting. On Tuesday evening, Dr Yadav had invited the CPN, the largest party in the Constituent Assembly, to forge a political consensus to form the government, in accordance with Article 38 Clause (1) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007, within seven days. If they fail to forge a consensus among the 25 parties in the Constituent Assembly within the given timeframe, the President will have to ask the Constituent Assembly to take the initiative for electing the new prime minister.
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Kabul: Pak must act against militants
Kabul, July 30 Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have sharply deteriorated in recent months with Afghan officials repeatedly accusing Pakistani agents of secretly backing Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and foreign troops on Afghan soil. Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani sought to reassure Bush of his government’s commitment to secure the border with Afghanistan during a visit to Washington on Monday. “We talked about the need for us to make sure that the Afghan border is secure as best as possible,” Bush said. “We are very pleased to see the statement coming from Bush on expressing the need for increased Pakistani activity in the border areas so they stop cross-border infiltration,” Afghan presidential spokesperson Humayun Hamidzada said. — Reuters
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Pak scribe charged with child molestation in US
Islamabad, July 30 Zaidi, whose real name is Syed Haider Karar Zaidi, has previously worked for the state-run PTV. Zaidi claimed he had gone to Ohio to pursue his journalistic research on ‘Obstruction of Justice’, but had been framed.
— UNI
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BBC fined £400,000 for misleading viewers London, July 30 Ofcom imposed the fine, the largest it has ever handed the corporation, in relation to eight phone-in competitions on TV shows on Radio 1 and BBC6. In all the cases Ofcom found that viewers were duped by production staff who made up the names of winners or even posed as contestants themselves, The Telegraph reported. Its investigation also found that in some cases production teams encouraged listeners to enter competitions even though they had no chance of winning. The regulator said: “Overall, Ofcom found that the BBC failed to have adequate management oversight of its compliance and training procedures to ensure that the audiences were not misled.” — PTI
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