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Panel for extending
Zimbabwe’s suspension Zimbabwe to quit Commonwealth India violating pacts: Pak Russia goes to the polls
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Israel considering plea for satellite images of J&K Palestinian factions accept conditional truce
Pak, Afghan troops exchange fire
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Panel for extending Zimbabwe’s suspension Abuja, December 7 “It now seems that they will come back at 3 pm (1400 GMT) to report that they will recommend the continuing suspension of Zimbabwe,” a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has asked Commonwealth leaders to find a method of enforcing compliance of the United Nations Security Council resolution for countries which sponsored, sheltered, funded and trained terrorists. Vajpayee, making an intervention on terrorism at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, emphasised the implementation of resolution 1373 of the UN Security Council and sought creation of an effective multilateral mechanism to detect and choke funds to terrorists and terror organisations. The Prime Minister, who was not able to stay for the entire duration of the summit, returns home tonight because of his preoccupation with Parliamentary work. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Foreign Secretary Shashank would attend the entire summit which concludes tomorrow. Terrorism was an important theme of the summit and that was the reason the Commonwealth Committee on Terrorism had been converted into a Standing Committee on Terrorism which could engage itself in capacity building to counter terrorism,an official spokesperson said. India is a member of the Standing Committee.
— Agencies |
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Zimbabwe to quit Commonwealth Masvingo, (Zimbabwe), December 7 The Commonwealth had been hijacked by racists interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, he said, but gave no indication of when the southern African country would withdraw from the club of mostly former British colonies. Speaking at the end of the ruling party’s annual two-day conference, President Mugabe said: “If we say we are doing this, we will do it. We never retreat.’’ In Nigeria, a Commonwealth summit haggled yesterday over whether to re-admit Zimbabwe, a row that has split the body along racial lines. The group suspended Zimbabwe last year, saying President Mugabe had rigged his re-election and harassed opponents. President Mugabe, (79) in power since Independence from Britain in 1980, also said he had no intention of retiring and attacked those he said were jostling for his office.
— Reuters |
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India violating pacts: Pak Islamabad, December 7 General Sultan said the erection of fencing by India altered the status of LoC. “No fencing construction will be done there and this erection of fence on the LoC alters the status of the LoC whereas Kashmir is a disputed territory,” he told BBC. “This fencing is a violation of bilateral and multilateral agreements.” Reports about fencing quoting Indian military officials from Jammu and Kashmir surprised the officials and embarrassed the government here. With the ceasefire successfully holding on, diplomatic sources here expressed surprise over the lack of discretion on the part of the Indian Army officials in making statements to the international media on the fencing issue. Meanwhile, Pakistan is “seriously considering” opening the Khokhrapar-Munabao border connecting its Sindh province with Rajasthan to re-establish rail and road links with India, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said, at a convocation of Aga Khan University in Karachi yesterday. He said the two countries would discuss the reopening of the Khokhrapar-Munabao land route.
— PTI |
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Russia goes to the polls Moscow, December 7 As the polling stretched over 11 times zones, President Vladimir Putin and his wife Ludmila were the early voters at the polling station situated in the Institute of Chemical Physics near Moscow State University. “We didn’t sleep most of the night because Vladimir’s beloved labrador gave birth to eight puppies,” Ms Ludmila told reporters when asked why the First Couple came so early for casting votes. The Putin, however, declined to disclose for whom he cast his votes, saying that “my sympathies are well known,” in an obvious reference to his recent interview where he expressed backing for pro-Kremlin United Russia party which was expected to make gains in the elections for the state Duma. Ex-president Boris Yeltsin also cast his vote at one of the Moscow polling booths. Asked for whom he cast his vote, he said: “For the young, who are having a hard time, but to whom the future belongs”, obviously referring to his sympathies for the Union of Rightist forces. In Russia’s far eastern parts where the voting began at 8 a.m. local time when it was still Saturday night in Moscow, the voter turnout is reported to be high to medium. In Chukotka, which borders the Alaska, average turnout was 60 per cent at the close. In Kamchatka, the turnout was 44.24 per cent while in the Koryak autonomous region 56.51 per cent voters had cast their ballots by the closing time. “The voter turnout throughout the country will not be less than the last elections in 1999, which was 62 per cent,” Chief Election Commissioner Alexander Veshnyakov said. He said that the CEC had online information about the pace of voting throughout the country spread over 11 time zones.’ “I can see that Moscow and St Petersburg are waking up,” he added. The elections come two days after a suicide bombing on a commuter train that killed 42 persons and injured scores in southern Russia, near war-torn Chechnya.
— PTI |
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Israel considering plea for satellite images of J&K Jerusalem, December 7 Sources here said that the request was one of the items in the package of defence procurements and security cooperation deals, that Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Defence Minister George Fernandes submitted to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his visit to New Delhi in September. India wants to buy pictures either delivered directly or via Israel in exchange for a fixed fee. The request would require a change in policy by the Israeli Ministry of Defence not to share pictures taken by Israel’s photoreconnaissance satellites with other countries either directly or indirectly. Performance data about Ofek 5 is said to be classified, but its pictures reportedly have a resolution of 50 cm. It was built by the Israel Aircraft Industries
(IAI) Mabat division and launched in the spring of 2002 from Israel’s Shavit satellite launcher. Israel is said to have so far avoided giving India a definite answer regarding leasing Ofek 5, but has informed New Delhi that it may use pictures taken by the Eros-B commercial photoreconnaissance satellite, scheduled for launch in late 2004.
— UNI |
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Palestinian factions accept conditional truce
Cairo, December 7 The factions’ final statement, issued after three days of truce talks in the Egyptian capital Cairo, did not refer to ending attacks on Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in occupied land. A ceasefire is key to ending three years of violence and implementing a US-backed ‘’road map’’ for peace that calls for Palestinian statehood by 2005. The Cairo communique, drafted by representatives of all 13 factions, blamed Israel for the failure of a previous unilateral truce declared by Palestinian factions which collapsed in August after two months. “The participants hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for the abortion of the initiative of suspending military attacks on June 29...The participants reiterate their conditional readiness to avoid attacking civilians,” said the communique. The Palestinian communique was a compromise between Muslim militant group Hamas, which has spearheaded suicide attacks, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah faction. Senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal said: “We have accepted a conditional halt to attacks on civilians without spelling out what these conditions are.” Palestinian have previously cited conditions such as Israel halting construction of Jewish settlements and a separation barrier in the West Bank, withdrawal from re-occupied Palestinian cities and lifting of siege on Palestinian areas. Hamas officials said the initiative, joined by four Damascus-based Muslim and radical groups, marked a shift in their position and aimed to give the Palestinian Authority a chance to end Palestinian suffering under occupation.
— Reuters  |
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India to emerge as regional power by 2015, says US report Washington, December 7 India’s size of its population — 1.2 billion by 2015- -and its technologically driven economic growth virtually dictate that India will be a rising regional power, it said. The report also points out that the international community will have to deal with the military, political and economic dimensions of the rise of China and India and the continued decline of Russia. There is a possibility that China, India and Russia may form “a de facto geo-strategic alliance in an attempt to counterbalance US and western influence,” the 59-paged unclassified document claims. The future being contemplated by intelligence officials is part of a long-ranging forecasting endeavour compiled in the National Intelligence Council 2015 Project which seeks to come up with a range of scenarios the world could face then. The council is made up of senior analysts who advise Director of Central Intelligence George J Tenet. The study was undertaken in consultation with a wide range of thinktanks and non-official experts. Among developing countries, India will remain in the forefront in developing information technology, led by a growing class of high-tech workers and entrepreneurs, the report concedes. “India’s relatively strong educational system, democracy and English language skills position it well to take advantage of gains related to information technology,” the projections reveal. “India will strengthen its role as a regional power, but many uncertainties about the effects of global trends on its society cast doubts on how far India will go. India faces growing extremes between wealth and poverty, a mixed picture on natural resources and problems with internal governance,” it warned. Despite rapid economic growth, more than half a billion Indians will remain in dire poverty. Harnessing technology to improve agriculture will be India’s main challenge in alleviating poverty in 2015, the report says. The widening gulf between the “have” and “have-not” regions and disagreements over the pace and nature of reforms will be a source of domestic strife. Rapidly growing, poorer northern states will continue to drain resources in subsidies and social welfare benefits, it says.
— PTI |
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Pak, Afghan troops exchange fire Islamabad, December 7 It wasn’t clear what triggered the shooting late Friday in the Mohmand region about 200 km northwest of Islamabad, a senior military official said on condition of anonymity. There were no casualties reported on the Pakistan side, he said. But Gen Mohammed Mustafa, head of border security forces in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, said one militiaman and a civilian were injured on its side of the border. Mustafa also claimed that five Pakistani soldiers were wounded.
— AP |
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Masvingo, (Zimbabwe), December 7
“Good-Bye Lenin!” wins award