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Sunday,
August 31, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Russian
nuclear sub sinks, 2 dead Pak team
to visit India for talks on air links Pak
‘tapping’ other sources for F-16s Don’t
hold relations hostage to internal Window on
Pakistan |
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Teenager
held for creating virus New York, August 30 United States law enforcement officials have arrested an 18-year-old, who is suspected to have created a minor variation of MSBlast worm which hit hundreds of thousands of computers around the world.
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Russian nuclear sub sinks, 2 dead Moscow, August 30 The K-159 submarine sank at 4 am (0730 IST), at a depth of 170 metres near the Kildin island in the Barents Sea while on the way to ship-breaking plant in Polyarny town on the Arctic coast, Russian Navy spokesman Cdr Igor Dygalo said. So far one officer had been rescued and two dead bodies have been recovered from the sea but the fate of seven other naval officers is still not known, he said. In the heavy storm four pontoons supporting the decommissioned submarine got detached, making it sink. The submarine was decommissioned in 1989 and had no weapons on board, its reactor too had been shut down, Dygalo told NTV channel. On the orders of the Defence Minister, Russian Naval Chief Adm Vladimir Kuroyedov has rushed to Northern Fleet’s Severomonsk base, near Murmansk, to supervise rescue operations. Media reports here said Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in Sardinia for meetings with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, had been informed of the incident. Russia witnessed its worst nuclear submarine disaster in August, 2000, when its largest Kursk submarine sank following a series of blasts in the torpedo room in the course of wargames, killing all the 118 sailors on board. Russia has about 200
decommissioned submarines.
— PTI |
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Pak team to visit India for talks on air links Islamabad, August 30 Talking to newsmen in Karachi after giving away trophies to exporters at a function organised by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry last evening, he said they wanted restoration of air links. Early resumption of air links between India and Pakistan appeared a distant prospect with the two-day technical-level talks between the two countries on the issue failing to make any headway in Rawalpindi on Thursday. India had blamed Pakistan for the failure of the talks, saying an agreement could easily have been reached but this did not happen because of Pakistan’s “negative approach and its attempts to bring in extraneous issues”. The Indian side had reportedly refused Pakistan’s demand for guarantees against unilateral overflight bans, calling it an “extraneous issue”. However, according to the official statement issued after the two-day deliberations of the technical teams, the two sides had decided to meet again on a mutually convenient date.
— UNI |
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Pak ‘tapping’ other sources
for F-16s Islamabad, August 30 President Pervez Musharraf yesterday presided over a meeting which discussed purchase of defence equipment. All the three service chiefs, the Defence Secretary and other top military officers and bureaucrats were present, media reports said, quoting an official release. Though no official confirmation was forthcoming, Dawn today reported that the purchase of one squadron of Mirage 2005 from a West-Asian country and two squadrons of F-16 fighter jets from Belgium were discussed.
— UNI |
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Don’t hold relations hostage to internal Islamabad, August 30 “Pakistan has done all it could to stop violence and it was India’s turn to start negotiations,” Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told reporters last night. He said Pakistan had urged the international community to deploy neutral monitors to ascertain the allegations of infiltration, adding that “we cannot allow India to be the accuser, prosecutor, judge”. However, he maintained that Pakistan was even ready for talks tomorrow. Mr Kasuri also said Indian leaders should not hold Pakistan-India relations “hostage” to the internal Indian politics. “I hope Pakistan-India relations are not held hostage to Indian internal politics and Indian elections,” he said alleging that the comments were tied to Indian domestic politics and the forthcoming elections. Pointing that the difference in approach by Pakistan and Indian governments was evident from the “positive treatment” given to Indian parliamentarians by the Pakistan Government, he said the Indian lawmakers met President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Jafarullah Jamali. But the Pakistani delegation of Parliamentarians did not receive the same treatment. In his rejoinder to Mr Vajpayee’s statement, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said “the allegations levelled by the Indians on
Pakistan are far-fetched and lacked credibility.”
— PTI |
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Window on Pakistan The Legal Framework Order, through which Gen. Pervez Musharraf tried to legitimise his capture of the government, is proving to be an albatross around his neck. The more he wishes the political class to help him get out, the more he suffers its deadweight. First everyone except his chosen Prime Minister, Zaffarullah Jamali, was against retaining the LFO. The six-party Islamic combination, the MMA and the pro-democracy alliance of Benazir and Nawaz Shariff’s parties (ARD) were all dead set against it. Now some arm-twisting has helped the MMA to be a bit amenable, others are talking tough. But nevertheless, help has come from former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Addressing the Lahore “Press Club on the telephone, the lady waiting in the wings made an offer that “if Musharraf wanted a way out of the present crisis, he should give up “shadow boxing” and sit together with Jamali and Alliance for Restoration of Democracy chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan to find a solution. “The MMA could also be included in the discourse. We shall not support any government-MMA deal and endorse an agreement that is signed with the PPP or the ARD,” newspapers quoted her saying. Clearly Bhutto after getting convicted by a Swiss court is keen to render help to the General for some quid pro quo. Undeterred by Musharraf’s uncompromising stand on the status of the LFO and the possible consequences for the entire system in case it is withdrawn, the former Prime Minister said: “Musharraf needed indemnity and if the present Assembly could not serve the purpose then which Assembly would.” But Dawn did not find weight in President Musharraf’s assertion that once the LFO goes; Parliament and the provincial legislatures will automatically cease to exist. Clearly, Musharraf has been trying to blackmail Parliamentarians to put their stamp of approval on an order that gives total legitimacy to military takeover, fake referendum and all laws helping the military. Interestingly, the Opposition has not denounced or rejected the LFO as a whole. It objects to the palpably undemocratic components of the controversial document and is willing to have the agreed elements duly incorporated into the 1973 Constitution provided the document’s amending procedure, which remains wholly intact, is duly followed. This is not acceptable to Musharraf. Dawn also wrote: “The LFO has been a hotly contested issue from day one. As such no sanctity can be claimed to be attached to it in the eyes of the general public. It is, in any case, a little odd in our context to talk of the sanctity of arbitrarily drawn up documents when our basic document has been repeatedly defiled.” None of the constitutions under which Pakistan has been governed in the past 56 years — the 1935 act as adapted at independence, the 1956 Constitution, the 1962 Ayub Constitution and the much battered 1973 Constitution — provided for or allowed seizure of power by the army as a way of carrying on the country’s government. And yet Pakistan has experienced four military coups, if usurper Yahya’s takeover too is counted as one. So what kind of sanctity is Musharraf talking about? Dawn wrote: “Ultimately, therefore, the argument is not about technicalities, and to shroud it in technicalities will be seen as only an attempt to perpetuate military dominance of the country’s affairs. What events since October, 1999, have clearly demonstrated is that the swell of public opinion against continued interference with the country’s political process is rising in all the provinces.” Most of the newspapers like Nation, News International and Daily Times saw the situation taking dangerous turns. The question is will Musharraf and his crafted alliance accept this argument. |
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Teenager held for creating virus
New York, August 30 The youth was not the author of the virus but was responsible for taking the original blaster worm and changing it into a more sinister version known as the “B-variant.” The variation, officials said, created two files, one with Parson’s screen name and also added profane messages aimed at Microsoft and its Chairman Bill Gates. The blaster worm began spreading on August 11 and experts say it has attacked an estimated 120,000 computers within first 24 hours. It spread through a flaw in the Windows system about which the Microsoft had warned earlier. But when the worm struck, several corporate and home users who had not used the patch got affected. A few hours after he was arrested, Parson was produced in the Federal Court in Minnesota where he admitted to modifying the blaster worm and creating the variant, officials said adding that he had been placed under house arrest under the condition that he would not use Internet.
— PTI |
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