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Obama delays strike as Syria agrees on Russian plan
Nine soldiers killed in Egypt suicide attacks
UK Cabinet split over
visa bond for Indians |
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4 more arrested for murder of writer Sushmita Banerjee ’84 riots case
ISI officers caught cheating in exam
9/11 — 12 years later Friends and family members gather at the 9/11 Memorial on the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on Wednesday. — AFP
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Special to the tribune Ashish K Sen in Washington DC US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night made the case for military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but said he had instructed the US Congress to delay a vote on the decision in order to give diplomacy a chance. In a prime time speech, Obama said Assad’s government had “gassed to death” more than 1,000 persons, including hundreds of children, in an attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21. “No one disputes that chemical weapons were used in Syria,” Obama said. “Moreover, we know the Assad regime was responsible.” United Nations inspectors who collected physical and biological samples from the scene of the attack will only be able to determine that chemicals were used, but not who used them, he said. Russia announced a plan this week that would put Syrian chemical weapons under international control to eventually be destroyed. Late on Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the Assad regime had agreed to the Russian plan. “We are ready to inform about the location of chemical weapons, halt the production of chemical weapons and show these objects to representatives of Russia, other states and the United Nations,” Muallem said. His statement was also the first public admission by the regime that it has stockpiles of chemical weapons. The Assad regime has also said that it would join the Chemical Weapons Convention. Obama described these diplomatic initiatives as “encouraging signs” and credited the US threat of the use of force. “It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments,” he added. “But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies.” Obama said he had asked congressional leaders to postpone a vote to authorise the use of force while his administration pursues a diplomatic path. In Congress, it was unlikely that Obama's war plan would have received the necessary support from lawmakers, at least in the House of Representatives. As part of diplomatic efforts to avert military action, Secretary of State John F Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Thursday, and Obama will discuss the Russian proposal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama said if the international community failed to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, the regime would see no reason to stop using these internationally-prohibited weapons. He warned that US troops could face the prospect of chemical warfare on the battlefield and that it could become easier for terrorists to get their hands on chemical weapons. Obama said the purpose of a military strike would be to degrade the Syrian regime’s ability to use chemical weapons. Most Americans do not favour US military involvement in Syria and Obama acknowledged this reluctance. “I know that after the terrible toll of Iraq and Afghanistan, the idea of any military action, no matter how limited, is not going to be popular,” he said. Obama ran through a list of questions he has received from members of the US Congress as well as the American public about US military action in Syria in response to the suspected use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. Will US military intervention in Syria eventually drag the US into another war? Obama said he would not put American boots on the ground in Syria, a military operation would not be open-ended like in Iraq or Afghanistan, and he would not pursue a prolonged air campaign like in Libya or Kosovo. “This will be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective: Deterring the use of chemical weapons, and degrading Assad’s capabilities,” he said. Critics of Obama’s plan note that it does not seek to remove Assad from power. Obama refuted suggestions from some members of the US Congress that such an operation would be a “pinprick.” “Let me make something clear: The United States military doesn’t do pinpricks,” he said. On the question of why the US should get involved in the first place, Obama said: “Al-Qaida will only draw strength in a more chaotic Syria if people there see that the world is doing nothing to prevent innocent civilians from being gassed to death.” Many have suggested that the US should not be the world’s policeman, the President said. He said his administration had, for the past two years, tried diplomacy and sanctions, but the Assad regime had gone ahead and gassed its people. “America is not the world’s policeman...But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act,” he added.
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Nine soldiers killed in Egypt suicide attacks
El-Arish (Egypt), Sep 11 One of the two bombings in the town of Rafah brought down a two-storey building housing the local branch of military intelligence, while the other struck an army checkpoint. The near-simultaneous attacks nudged the violence in the strategic Sinai Peninsula closer to a full-blown insurgency, compounding Egypt's woes at a time when the country is struggling to regain political stability and economic viability more than two years since longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising. The attacks also came less than a week after a suicide car bombing targeted the convoy of Egypt's Interior Minister, who is in charge of the police, shortly after he left his home in an eastern Cairo district. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for today's attack. Militants in Sinai, some with links to Al-Qaida, have been targeting Egyptian forces for months in the strategic peninsula bordering Gaza and Israel. — AP
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UK Cabinet split over
visa bond for Indians
London, September 11 UK business secretary Vince Cable, from the Liberal Democrat Party, today warned of the negative impact the yet-to-be-finalised scheme would have on relations with India. "The reaction to it from our friends in India and elsewhere, where we are trying to build up relations, was one of outrage," Cable told the BBC here today. "In government, I and Nick [Clegg - Lib Dem leader and UK Deputy Prime Minister] are arguing for the much more sensible and flexible approach to the bond," he said. The senior minister plans to urge his Tory colleague in the Cabinet, home secretary Theresa May, to reconsider the plans which had emerged back in June under which visitors from certain high-risk countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ghana and Nigeria will be required to deposit 3,000 pounds for a six-month visa, to be forfeited if they overstay in the UK. Indian ministerial circles had raised strong objections and sought full details on the application of the scheme, which is to be piloted from November. The scheme had initially been mooted by Clegg but Cable clarified that his party leader had a very different idea in mind. "What Nick Clegg actually proposed was that if somebody in the subcontinent, for example, is turned down for a visa, they could as an alternative come up with a bond. Had that proposal been accepted I think most people would not have seen a problem with it," Cable said. "It would actually have made it easier for people to come who have good reason to do so. But the way some of our colleagues in the coalition interpreted it was in a much more negative way, of saying that everyone who comes here should pay this very large bond," he explained. — PTI
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US court summons served on Sonia Gandhi in hospital
New York, September 11 The Night Shift Nursing Supervisor at the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital was handed a copy of the summons and complaint that Judge Cogan had directed to be given to Sonia. Meanwhile, Sonia returned to Delhi this morning from the US where she had gone for a routine medical check-up. A class action suit against Gandhi was filed by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) along with victims of the November 1984 under Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act. George Abraham, chairman of Indian National Overseas Congress USA, said: "Sikhs for Justice group is engaged in vexatious litigation for the sole purpose of harassing an individual with malicious intent." Ravi Batra, an eminent attorney who represents the Congress in the US said: "The law is a many splendored thing. It has within it the ability to harness all motions, all facts, and arrive at a just merit-driven result from dismissal at the pleadings stage to summary judgement dismissal to a jury's verdict. — PTI
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4 more arrested for murder of writer Sushmita Banerjee
Kabul/New Delhi, Sep 11 The four men — identified as Nawab, Ruzi Khan, Mohammad Rahim and Mir Hamza — were being questioned, the sources said. Afghan police said yesterday that they had arrested two militants of the Haqqani network for the murder of Banerjee, whose book about her dramatic escape from the Taliban was made into a Bollywood film.
— PTI |
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ISI officers caught cheating in exam
Islamabad, September 11 With the government lifting the ban on recruitment, the assessment exam held last week was "marred by so many blatant frauds that it has turned into a farce". Around 500 candidates were caught solving papers through internet browsing on mobile phones and 50 of them were identified as ISI/IB officers. — PTI |
UK Deputy Speaker Evans resigns after sex charges
Diplomatic post for Indian-American Charles praises Indian entrepreneurs One-third of food in world wasted: UN 33 killed in bombings at Iraq mosque
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US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night made the case for military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but said he had instructed the US Congress to delay a vote on the decision in order to give diplomacy a chance.
