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Taliban attack US base in Afghanistan
Murder case against Musharraf over Lal Masjid op
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Better ties with Delhi, Kabul a priority, says Sharif aide
Japan vows quick action to tide over Fukushima crisis
Germany tries 92-yr-old for Nazi war crime
To sway Syria vote, Russian MPs want to fly to Washington Brazil summons US ambassador over spying allegations
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Taliban attack US base in Afghanistan
Kabul, September 2 The Taliban claimed responsibility for the strike in the Torkham area. In a statement, Nato confirmed "a series of explosions"" in the area but said none of its personnel were killed. The military alliance does not release information on any of its troops who may have been wounded. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said several suicide bombers staged the attack, and that Afghan and US forces have been exchanging gunfire with the militants. He said Nato helicopters were flying over the base. The highway between Jalalabad city and Torkham, an important route for Nato supply trucks, has been closed, Abdulzai said. Militants on both sides of the Afghan border have frequently targeted the supply line, leading Nato to shift much of its supply delivery toward routes from Central Asian states instead of through Pakistan. In an emailed statement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgent group was behind Monday morning's attack, and claimed they had destroyed several tanks in the process, an assertion that could not be confirmed. The Taliban have escalated their attacks in recent weeks, a surge that comes as US-led foreign troops reduce their presence in Afghanistan ahead of a full withdrawal by the end of next year. — AP
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Murder case against Musharraf over Lal Masjid op
Islamabad, September 2 The case was filed on the directions of Justice Noorul Huque Qureshi of Islamabad High Court, who was annoyed at police's failure to comply with his earlier order in this regard. During the hearing of a petition filed against 70-year-old Musharraf by Haroon Rasheed, the son of the cleric, Qureshi said non-registration of the case despite his order amounted to contempt of court. The head of Aabpara police station, Qasim Niazi, was made to sit in the courtroom till the FIR was registered. Haroon Rasheed had asked the court to direct police to file a case against Musharraf for alleged involvement in the killing of his father and grandmother. Reacting to the verdict, Aasia Ishaque, the spokesperson of Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League party, said the former President will fight to prove his innocence. "Musharraf is not going to go away. We were expecting such a case. He will continue to fight the politically motivated case and prove his innocence," she said. The military operation against extremists holed up in the radical Lal Masjid, ordered by Musharraf's regime in July 2007, resulted in a bloody eight-day siege that killed nearly 100 people, including Pakistani troops and extremists. On Friday, the High Court summoned Niazi over his failure to comply with an court to look into whether a case could be registered against Musharraf. — PTI |
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Better ties with Delhi, Kabul a priority, says Sharif aide
Islamabad, September 2 At the core of Sharif’s initiatives is the belief that Pakistan’s economic revival is not possible until it has improved and tension-free relations with neighbouring countries, particularly India and Afghanistan, said Tariq Fatemi, the Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is a person who wants peace with India,” he said. Fatemi recalled that it was while Sharif was in power in 1999 that a breakthrough took place with the then BJP government in India. Pointing to the accident-prone history of Pakistan-India relations, Fatemi said in an interview with The Nation daily that Sharif’s view is that a degree of restraint and responsibility is needed on both sides to avoid any abrupt breakdown in ties. Fatemi, an former career diplomat, has been one of Sharif's advisers on foreign policy matters for nearly a decade now. “The PM wants economic ties to influence political ties. That trade, commerce and investment should be the primary themes for bilateral engagement...Without economic content, a relationship is hollow and subject to winds of change,” he said. — PTI |
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Japan vows quick action to tide over Fukushima crisis
Tokyo, September 2 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government "will step forward and implement all necessary policies" to deal with the flood of radioactive water from the plant, a legacy of the world's worst atomic disaster in a quarter century. The government will present a "comprehensive package of measures" on the water problem as soon as Tuesday, a senior official said. Tokyo's measures come amid proposals to create a government agency devoted to decommissioning the Fukushima plant and as some outside the government call for a break-up of the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T), or Tepco. — Reuters
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Germany tries 92-yr-old for Nazi war crime
Hagen (Germany), Sept 2 Bruins served as a member of the Sicherheitspolizei, or Security Police, in a unit looking for resistance fighters and Jews. No pleas are made in the German legal system, and Bruins made no statement today about the accusations against him. His attorney said Bruins would answer questions during the trial but not about the charges. "Our tactic will definitely be to keep silent with regard to the charges," attorney Klaus-Peter Kniffka said ahead of the trial. Despite his advanced age, Bruins was found medically fit to stand trial, though Kniffka said the stress of the proceedings against him has weakened him. — AP
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To sway
Syria vote, Russian MPs want to fly to Washington
Novo-Ogaryovo, September 2 Dismissing US accusations that the Syrian government had killed hundreds of its own people with poison gas as nothing but "talk", senior legislator Valentina Matviyenko said both chambers were ready to send delegations. Russia is one of the main allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has already blocked several Western-led resolutions in the UN Security Council to sanction him over his crackdown on a now 2-1/2-year-old uprising. "I think if we manage to establish a dialogue with our partners in the U.S. Congress, to exchange arguments, we could possibly better understand each other," Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council, told Putin at his residence near Moscow. "We hope that the US Congress will occupy a balanced position in the end and without strong arguments in place ... will not support the proposal on use of force in Syria," Matviyenko added. Obama said on Friday he would seek Congressional authorisation for punitive action against Assad after what Washington said was a sarin gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people. Putin rejected the US assertions hours later, saying on Saturday he was convinced the August 21 attack was staged by Assad's opponents to provoke military intervention. It was uncertain what sort of reception a Russian delegation would receive in the United States. Both countries passed legislation last year to punish the other for alleged human rights violations. Moscow has also defied Washington by granting temporary asylum to former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Syria asks UN to prevent attack Cairo: Syria has appealed to the United Nations to try to “prevent any aggression” against it, even as US President Barack Obama today lobbied with war-weary lawmakers to convince them for a limited military strike. “The Syrian government calls on the UN Secretary-General to assume his responsibilities... and to make efforts to prevent any aggression against Syria,” the state-run SANA news agency said, quoting a letter from Syria’s UN representative Bashar al-Jaafari. The letter also called on the UN to help seek a “peaceful political solution to the crisis” in Syria. Meanwhile, a senior Syrian minister was quoted as saying by BBC that any US military action against Syria would amount to “support for Al-Qaida and its affiliates.” “Any attack against Syria is support for Al-Qaida and its affiliates, whether Jabat al-Nusra or the state of Islam in Syria and Iraq,” Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said. Muqdad, who is considered to be highly influential within President Bashar al-Assad’s government, also warned that possible US intervention would deepen “hatred for the Americans” and destabilise the whole Middle East. The US has claimed 1,429 people were killed in the alleged chemical attacks carried out by the Assad regime in a Damascus suburb on August 21. Syria, however, has denied US charges, saying jihadists fighting with the rebels used the deadly weapons in an effort to turn global sentiments against it. Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough have made individual calls to members of Congress, a senior White House official said. The aggressive lobbying comes after a classified briefing was held on Capitol Hill late yesterday. Many lawmakers are said to be sceptical of the strike. — PTI Friends of Syria to meet on Sept 8 The core group of nations making up the Friends of Syria will meet on September 8 in Rome, a diplomatic source said on Monday. The meeting will most probably be attended by foreign ministers from the 11 countries making up the core group, the source said. Those countries include France, the United States, Britain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Prez Obama’s hesitation worries key US allies If President Barack Obama has disappointed Syrian rebels by deferring to Congress before bombing Damascus, he has also dismayed the United States' two main allies in the Middle East. Israel and Saudi Arabia have little love for each other but both are pressing their mutual friend in the White House to hit President Bashar al-Assad hard.
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Brazil summons US ambassador over spying allegations
Brasilia, September 2 US journalist Glenn Greenwald, a columnist who obtained secret files from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, told Globo television the agency snooped on communications of Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. A Brazilian foreign ministry spokesman said US Ambassador Thomas Shannon "was called to explain" claims made by Greenwald, based in Rio de Janeiro. — AFP
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Imran Khan’s party set to restore jihadi content in Pak textbooks Spanish govt prepares new abortion law Turkish envoy survives bomb attack in Iraq Tornado rips through eastern Japan |
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Tokyo, September 2
