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Friday,
August 1, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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West Asia road map runs into rough
weather India, Pakistan were close to
Kashmir solution, says Naik Zardari acquitted in suicide
cases A suspect is arrested by US troops after a failed
rocket-propelled grenade attack on an armoured vehicle
in Baghdad on Thursday. |
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Rockets fired
at troops Maoists ready
for talks Man skydives across English Channel
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West Asia road map runs into rough
weather
Jerusalem, July 31 Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Minister for Security Affairs Mohammed Dahlan failed to reach an agreement on the cities to be transferred under Palestinian control, Army Radio reported today. It said Mr Mofaz rejected Mr Dahlan’s plea to withdraw from Ramallah, where Yasser Arafat has been virtually imprisoned in his headquarters since December, 2001. Israel offered the Palestinians security control over Qalqilyah and Jericho but the Palestinian Authority remained adamant that Ramallah be included as one of the two cities. Palestinian sources have reportedly dubbed the Israeli offer of Jericho and Qalqilyah as “not serious”. The daily Ha’aretz quoted a security source as saying, “There is no crisis, but we haven’t reached an agreement yet.” Mr Dahlan also rejected the Israeli demand to disarm the terrorist organisations, despite Mofaz warning that failing to do so could lead to the collapse of the ceasefire, the report said. However, the two leaders agreed to meet again in the near future. The four-hour meeting, which took place in Neve Ilan, close to Jerusalem, came on the heels of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s promises to US President George W. Bush to hand over more territories to the Palestinians. Israel has reservations over transferring Ramallah to the Palestinians due to its symbolic significance as the residence of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. But a compromise may be expected between the two sides, with Israel possibly agreeing to a troop withdrawal from a third city instead. The script leading to the meeting went through a rough patch when Mr Dahlan rejected the Israeli demand to disarm the terrorist organisations before the meeting. “The terror infrastructure is an Israeli concept that is unacceptable to us,” he said. “We will not arrest activists and we will not confront them as long as the ceasefire is intact.” Mr Elias Zananiri, an associate of Mr Dahlan, told Army Radio that Israel must understand the “limits to the Palestinian Authority’s strength... there is no way for the PA to act against the infrastructure of Hamas or other groups in the West Bank.” Mr Mofaz on his part, hours before the meeting, ordered the Israel defence forces to prepare for a fresh outbreak of terrorism should the three-month truce not hold and should the PA fail to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. Mr Mofaz said if the Palestinian terror organisations were not dismantled, the security situation might well become worse than it had been prior to the June 4 Aqaba summit, local media reported. —
UNI |
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India, Pakistan were close to
Kashmir solution, says Naik Islamabad, July 31 The events took swift turns when a very important one-on-one meeting was held between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee during the latter’s historic bus visit to Lahore in February, 1999, the former High Commissioner to India told the Pakistan Observer newspaper in an interview. Though the Lahore Declaration had been inked, Mr Naik said this exclusive meeting alone set the ball rolling on the fast track. Both leaders committed to each other to break the deadlock on Kashmir and resolve the dispute — once and for all. They agreed to open a quiet channel on one agenda — Kashmir dispute — that has already hurt both countries in all spheres of life. It was further decided not to involve official machinery in the secret talks to avoid controversies, he said. A 10-month timeframe was decided for the permanent solution of Kashmir issue — before the advent of new millennium. He said Mr Sharif secretly nominated his Principal Secretary, late Anwar Zahid, for the proposed talks while Vajpayee selected a low profile close friend R.K. Misra, a journalist and a businessman to take on the task. On February 28, Mr Sharif rang up Mr Vajpayee informing him that he was ready to receive Mr Misra in Islamabad to initiate talks with Mr Zahid. They both met in Islamabad and talked on modalities of the dialogue. Mr Misra went back with some substance. However, Mr Zahid developed brain tumour and died after some time. Later Mr Naik was entrusted with the task. Mr Naik landed in New Delhi on March 25 and he and Mr Mishra started talks. The talks continued over the Kashmir issue for quite some time. Mr Misra again came here on April 19 but by that time Indians had smelled something wrong on Kargil hills, Mr Naik was quoted as saying. On May 5, first skirmish on Kargil had taken place. Mr Misra gave a message to Mr Niaz “Pakistan and India are one inch away from war. This time nuclear war cannot be ruled out”. The Indians again invited Mr Naik to meet Mr Vajpayee who said “Naik Jee how did we reach Kargil hills from Lahore”. Mr Naik replied “we will again go back to Lahore”. Mr Sharif’s plane also had a 10-minute technical stopover in New Delhi on way back to Pakistan after his visit to China in the heat of Kargil affair for meeting between Mr Sharif and Mr Vajpayee. But it could not be materialised, Mr Naik was quoted as saying by the daily. When questioned whether Kargil affair had affected peace process between India and Pakistan, Mr Naik evaded the question and said it could have better if such situation had not taken place. He said “the 9/11 event has opened a new window of opportunities for both the nations to sit together to resolve Kashmir dispute”. —
PTI |
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Zardari acquitted in suicide cases Islamabad, July 31 Zardari smiled with relief as Judicial Magistrate Syeda Perveen Shah yesterday delivered the order in Central Prison, on an application filed by his counsel Shahadat Awan. Shah observed that there was no possibility of the conviction of the accused as the prosecution agency itself had admitted that the case was false. The accused may be released forthwith if not required in any other case, the judge ordered. Zardari was arrested in 1996 after the dismissal of Benazir’s government by the then President Farooq Leghari. He was booked on May 19, 1999, by the Karachi police for attempting to commit suicide while in custody. His counsel said Zardari was subjected to torture during police custody and he received injuries on his tongue, adding the police concocted the entire story to escape the criminal liability of torturing an accused in custody. He alleged the case was an outcome of political victimisation, to demolish the image of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. State counsel Mohammed Ismail opposed the acquittal, saying that it was premature to allow the defence counsel’s application. Zardari is still facing trial in 14 cases. Earlier on July 9, the same magistrate had acquitted him in another case on attempt to commit suicide. —
PTI |
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Iraqis kill US soldier Baghdad, July 31 A military spokesman said the soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were attacked around 11:45 p.m. 0215 hrs IST today. The death brings to 51 the number of U.S. soldiers killed by attacks since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. In the last two weeks alone, 18 have been killed. —
Reuters |
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Rockets fired
at troops Quetta, July 31 The three rockets hit a deserted area on Tuesday close to the base near
Kohlu, a tribal town about 350 km east of Quetta, capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, said Mohammed Ramzan, a government official in
Kohlu. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Ramzan said tribesmen were to blame. —
AP
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Maoists ready
for talks Kathmandu, July 31 Top Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal issued a statement saying the rebels were ready to hold the third round of talks. Dahal asked the five-member team to hold the talks with the government for the negotiated settlement of the insurgency. Dahal said the government’s release of four Maoist leaders on Tuesday, one of Maoist conditions to restart talks, was “positive despite its failure to meet other demands”. He said the government should ensure the involvement of the political parties in the talks. The Maoists decision came as they had threatened not to hold any more talks unless restrictions were imposed on the army and senior rebel leaders were released by today.The government, which asked the rebels to begin talks within two weeks, responded by releasing four Maoist central committee members. —
PTI |
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Man skydives across English Channel London, July 31 Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a plane at 9,000 metres above Dover, England, wearing a specially constructed carbon wing and flew towards France before parachuting into hills above the port of Calais. “I made it which is great,’’ he told reporters on landing. “It’s pretty cold up there. I still can feel nothing,’’ said the self-styled “God of the Skies’’, who started parachuting as a teenager before taking up the extreme sport of BASE jumping. Setting off early in the morning to avoid commercial flights, Baumgartner used oxygen supplies during the 35-km flight to survive the rarefied air. His team estimates that he will have attained a top speed of over 200 kmph during the fall, which took only around 10 minutes. In contrast, Louis Bleriot took 37 minutes to make his ground breaking flight across the channel in 1909 and Matthew Webb took 22 hours to swim it for the first time in 1875. Baumgartner, 34, set world records for the highest and lowest parachute dives in 1999 with daredevil jumps from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro. —
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Sex is now joy for Church of England London, July 31 “The Church should joyfully and openly declare that human sexuality can be a matter of grace,’’ he said on issuing the report, which was reported in the British press yesterday. The Church should throw off its image as a prudish Victorian institution and celebrate the sexiness of Christianity, the report added. The commission, which took seven years to prepare the report, called Being Human, blamed the church for what it sees as the current unhealthy climate of sexual permissiveness. —
DPA |
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