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Ireland peace deal in crisis Pak
accuses India of blocking trade concessions
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Korea rebuffs US offer Nepal
minister’s house bombed |
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Afghan militiamen surrenderKunduz, October 22 At least 600 Afghan militiamen have surrendered their weapons in the early phase of a nationwide demilitarisation programme, an official said today. Afghan militiamen wait to turn in their weapons at a military base in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. — Reuters photo 
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N. Ireland peace deal in crisis Belfast, October 22 The province’s main Protestant leader David Trimble was travelling to London for talks with British ministers a day after rejecting the Irish Republican Army’s biggest weapons move as too secretive. Trimble held a brief meeting with Gerry Adams, head of the IRA’s political ally Sinn Fein, last night, but analysts say the pair may find it hard going to bridge the gap. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish premier Bertie Ahern, who went to Belfast expecting to seal the most significant advance since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal, found themselves embarrassed and disappointed as the deal collapsed. "A day which was supposed to herald a breakthrough instead ended in a messy breakdown," political commentator David McKittrick wrote in today’s Independent. "It will all take some time to put right." Britain had set in train on orchestrated sequence of events by declaring that elections to Northern Ireland’s powersharing assembly would be held on November 26. Then the IRA issued a statement saying that a substantial cache of weapons that sustained its long and bloody campaign against the British rule had been "put beyond use". John de Chastelain, retired Canadian General charged with overseeing guerrilla disarmament, confirmed that the IRA had destroyed automatic rifles, explosives and other weapons.
— Reuters |
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Pak accuses India of blocking trade concessions Islamabad, October 22 India again "refused to finalise" the bilateral exchange of concessions despite Pakistan’s reiteration of the commitments given to the Indian delegation to conclude the exchange of preferences during the current session, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement. The fifth round of talks of the SAFTA Committee of Experts (COE) was held in Kathmandu from October 14 to 17. However, he said in the spirit of "constructive and meaningful regional engagement" Pakistan had agreed to meet the Indian side once again at the sixth round of the COE meeting of SAFTA to be held in Kathmandu next month to conclude the exchange of preferences under SAFTA. The Pakistan spokesman hoped that India by then would be in a position to conclude SAFTA negotiations without further delay. The statement, however, did not mention the number of trade concessions, Pakistan offered to India nor it gave details of the COE meeting between India and Pakistan, which was held a day ahead of the talks in Kathmandu. Claiming that Pakistan took part constructively in the talks with the Indian delegation, it said the COE meeting was able to make considerable progress on various provisions of the draft SAFTA framework agreement on which agreement could not be reached at previous meetings. The leftover draft text would be further discussed at the sixth SAFTA meeting scheduled to be held on November 30, December 1, it said.
— PTI |
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Pak support to terrorists key issue, says report Washington, October 22 “The importance of US policies toward South Asia is difficult to deny. Missile proliferation and their implications for South Asian security are worthy of careful monitoring in the future”, the Congressional Research Service, says in a 35-page report.
— PTI |
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Hindi song enlivens banquet for Kalam Khartoum, October 22 Shorn of the formalities of speech-making, the banquet held at the historic presidential palace, where British Governor Gordon was shot dead by Sudanese freedom fighter Mahdi in early last century, was enlivened with Sudanese folk music and the Hindi song by Hamid, who had his education at Nagpur and Jabalpur. He is employed with the taxation department of the Sudanese Government. “It is indeed a great honour to be singing at a banquet for the Indian President,” said Hamid. “I liked Indian music since my childhood and during my five years in India, it brought me still closer. Though it is only a hobby, I pursue it seriously,” he said. Hamid’s favourites are Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Mukesh and he practises hard to tone up his Hindi
pronunciation. He keeps up with the latest music though he still prefers the old songs for their
musical rhythm. Among actors, his favourites are Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Rekha. When told that Hema Malini had become a member of the Indian Parliament, Hamid’s eyes lit up as he felt that she was a talented actress who deserved the honour.
— PTI |
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Aboard Air Force One, October 22 North Korea has dismissed the US offer of multilateral security guarantees as laughable. "I guess they're trying to stand up to the five nations that are now uniting in convincing North Korea to disarm, and my only reaction is we'll continue to send a very clear message to the North Koreans," Bush said in Bali, Indonesia, before flying to Australia. Speaking with reporters later aboard Air Force One, Bush said the USA and its partners in the negotiations were "all willing to sign some sort of document — not a treaty — that says, 'We won't attack you.' But he needs to abandon his nuclear programme in a verifiable way." In a commentary published late on Tuesday, the Communist North's official KCNA news agency said Pyongyang wanted a bilateral treaty with the USA — a reference to its desire for a non-aggression pact Washington has ruled out. During a Bangkok summit of Asia-Pacific leaders that ended on Tuesday, Bush significantly shifted policy by saying he was sharing ideas on how to give North Korea security guarantees short of a non-aggression treaty. All 20 other summit leaders backed this stance. North Korea was not present because it is not a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. But it lost little time in shooting down the idea.
— Reuters |
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Nepal minister’s house bombed Kathmandu, October 22 A group of nearly 12 armed Maoists triggered a powerful bomb explosion at the ancestral house of Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sarvendra Nath Shukla in Rupandehi district, bordering India, last night and completely destroyed it, according to the Rupandehi district police. The minister and his family members were in Kathmandu at the time and no one was injured in the incident. In another incident, three security personnel were killed in an ambush by Maoists near the Dumkibas area of Nawalparasi district today. A few security personnel were injured and taken to Kathmandu for treatment. The Defence Ministry said at least eight Maoists were killed in Baglung, Nawalparasi, Rautahat and Kailali districts in the latest operations against the rebels.
— UNI |
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600 Afghan militiamen surrender Kunduz, October 22 The pilot phase of a UN-backed programme to strip one lakh combatants of their weapons and set them on the path to a new life is now in its third day in the northern city of Kunduz, 60 km from the Tajikistan border and 250 km from the capital Kabul. Since Monday, 620 militiamen serving under two local commanders handed in AK-47s, mortars, machineguns and anti-tank weapons. “We have collected 560 weapons from 620 soldiers,” Mr Paul Cruickshank, operations manager of the UN-backed Afghan New Beginnings Programmes told mediapersons at the weapons collection site. In front of the gate in a dusty yard strewn with disused tanks left over from past wars, another 170 uniformed militiamen queued up to hand over their weapons.
— AFP |
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Racist UK cops suspended London, October 22 A total of eight officers have been suspended from their jobs as a result of the BBC programme screened on Tuesday. Alan Green, deputy chief constable of the Greater Manchester police in northwest England, admitted that his force had “not done enough” to combat racism in its ranks.
— AFP |
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