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Saturday,
August 2, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Kashmir not to be sidelined: Pervez Pak-Afghan border talks on Aug 12
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Powell agrees with PLO on fence issue Russia, China suggest talks to ban space arms
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| US plans tribunal to try Saddam New York, August 1 The USA has plans to create a special tribunal of Iraqi judges to try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity if he is captured, State Department officials and administration legal advisers were on Friday quoted as saying. “We’re looking for an Iraqi-led process to deal with these abuses,” a senior State Department official told the New York Times.
Bangladesh rejects joint patrol proposal New record for longest dance party
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Kashmir not to be sidelined: Pervez Islamabad, August 1 “Pakistan will not allow the Kashmir dispute to be sidelined, in its dialogue with India,” General Musharraf said in his address at the concluding session of the Pakistan ambassadors’ conference yesterday. “Kashmir is the core issue and therefore Pakistan would continue its efforts for a peaceful solution of the issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” APP news agency quoted General Musharraf as saying. Urging the Pakistani envoys to project the country as a “pivotal state” in the region engaged in the task of shaping a tolerant society, General Musharraf said Islamabad would continue to strive for a peaceful and stable neighbourhood aimed at creating an environment for collective development and prosperity. Pakistan enjoyed good relations with major powers and regions of the world, notably the USA, Europe, China, Japan, Russia, the ASEAN countries and the Muslim world and would work towards consolidating and expanding these ties, he said. Reminding the envoys the multi-faceted role they have to play, he told them to continue to articulate effectively Pakistan’s position on national security issues. The Pakistan President also called for a shift from traditional diplomacy to economic diplomacy. Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said Islamabad wanted a composite dialogue with New Delhi. “A lot of efforts at the Secretary-level talks and during the Musharraf-Vajpayee summit had already been made on the issues plaguing ties between the two countries,” he said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said, adding that the intent and the political will could lead to resolution of all problems between Pakistan and India. —
PTI |
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Pak-Afghan border talks on Aug 12 Islamabad, August 1 “The Afghans based their claim of alleged Pakistani intrusion using Russian maps that vary from the maps used by Pakistan and the USA,” a Pakistani official was quoted as saying by ‘Dawn’ daily. “The Afghans using Russian maps claim Pakistani forces to have intruded 12 km inside Afghanistan. This cannot be true. Even if there is an intrusion it could not possibly be more than a few metres. “Afghanistan being a successor to the state of Amir Abdur Rehman and we being successors to the British Empire are signatory to the November 1893 Durand Line Treaty. The Durand Line was drawn by the British and we are using the same British maps,” he said. To sort out the difference, the tripartite committee, which comprisesd military officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the USA, would meet this month, he said. Pakistan insisted that the technical committee used the watershed that served as the border between the two countries. The official claimed that the American military officials were in agreement with the Pakistani stand. Pakistan-Afghanistan forces had been involved in skirmishes in recent weeks after Kabul accused Islamabad of intruding into the Afghan territory in the Mohmand tribal region. Pakistani officials conceded that while the two neighbours were using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to work out the map coordinates with the help of satellites, there was disagreement on map coordinates. —
PTI |
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Powell agrees with PLO on fence issue Jerusalem, August 1 “The continued construction will make the implementation of the next phase of the road map very difficult,” Mr Powell told the daily. A day after Israel announced the completion of the first section of the barrier, which comprises a tall double fence and a length of concrete wall, Mr Powell said US President George W. Bush was concerned and supported the Palestinian view that it amounted to a new border. “The president is concerned by this issue because the fence is a fait accompli which determines the borders of a Palestinian state,” he stressed. The road map for peace — which was drafted by the USA, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — lays out steps for an end to the conflict and paves the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has called for an emergency meeting of the quartet — the UN, the USA, the EU and Russia — to discuss “the escalation in Israeli action” while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has brushed aside the proposal of setting a timetable. Addressing the senior leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in his Ramallah headquarters, Mr Arafat said there was an urgent need for the meeting. The meeting should “examine the Israeli escalation expressed through the lack of release of (Palestinian) prisoners, the continuation of the settlements, the refusal to withdraw from residential areas and the construction of the wall”, local media reported. —
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Russia, China suggest talks to ban space arms Geneva, August 1 The two powers delivered their plea at a session of the UN-backed Conference on Disarmament just over a year after tabling proposals for a pact, to be known as Paros, that have met with a cold reception from Washington. “Dire developments augur ill for the issue of Paros,’’ Chinese disarmament ambassador Hu Xiaodi told the 66-nation forum, declaring that efforts were under way to ‘’control and occupy outer space’’. “The risk of weaponisation of outer space is mounting,’’ he added, in remarks that sources close to his delegation said were aimed at the US National Missile Defence (NMD) system due to start up in September next year. —
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US plans tribunal to try Saddam New York, August 1 “We’re looking for an Iraqi-led process to deal with these abuses,” a senior State Department official told the New York Times. “It’s important that we bring ownership of these matters to the Iraqi people.” The official, on the condition of anonymity, said the administration had ruled out seeking a broad-based international tribunal or a United Nations-led effort to try Saddam Hussein. However, the official said, the Iraqis who would lead the court could seek assistance from other Arab countries or elsewhere. “But it will be up to them,” the official said. “The Iraqis will play the undisputed leadership role in this process.” —
PTI |
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Bangladesh rejects joint patrol proposal Dhaka, August 1 “Such exercise is not feasible,” prominent daily ‘The Daily Star’ quoted Foreign Minister Morshed Khan as saying. The rejection of the proposal came after over three months of presentation and only a day after the issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha. India proposed the joint patrol during the biennial meeting of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles
(BDR) in New Delhi in April and suggested that a modality should be worked out so that the border security personnel of both countries could jointly patrol to prevent smuggling, illegal immigration and other cross -border illegal activities. —
PTI |
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New
record for longest dance party Cleveland, August 1 It will be a few weeks before
the Guinness Book of Records confirms whether the record was broken,
event spokesman Peter Collins said yesterday. Guinness’ current mark
for the longest dance party was set in November 1999 by 56
participants in an event sponsored by MTV India. “I’m relieved
that it’s over and exhilarated that we broke the record,” said
Dick Hurwitz, the oldest dancer to make it to the end. “I’m 58
years’ old and I’m not sore a bit.” Hurwitz and others started
dancing at 5:10 am on Tuesday and reached 51 hours, one hour past the
1999 record of 50 hours, yesterday. — AP |
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