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Pakistan rules out extradition treaty with India
Cooperation with India not to hit US-Pak
ties: Rumsfeld Brajesh leaves China after border talks Canadian intelligence withheld information in Kanishka case Jaitley asks Israel to talk peace |
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Travel agent dupes Indians in Australia 13 Maoists killed in Nepal
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Pakistan rules out extradition treaty with India
Islamabad, January 14 Saleh, who last week said in an interview to a local daily that Pakistan would shortly invite Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to discuss among other things a “structured dialogue” to work out an extradition treaty between the two countries, told reporters yesterday that no such treaty was on the cards. “Such discussions cannot be undertaken in a matter of few days,” he said without making any reference to his own interview to the local daily ‘The News’ on January 8. Hayat’s interview created ripples in the Pakistan Foreign Office here. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan on Monday virtually denied that the Pakistan Government was planning to invite Advani. Khan said no decision had been taken to invite Advani and no invitation had been extended to him. Hayat, a former Benazir Bhutto loyalist, who later defected to join Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali government, said Pakistan had extradition treaties with other countries, but there was no immediate chance of working out such a pact with India. He said the recent India-Pakistan peace process was just a beginning. “We have to move step by step for improvement of relations and restoration of trust,” he said. |
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Cooperation with India not to hit US-Pak Washington, January 14 “We have, in my view, excellent relationships with India and Pakistan,” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a press conference here yesterday in reply to a question on whether increased Indo-US cooperation in civilian nuclear activities, space programmes and high technology trade would have an impact on US-Pak relations. “Your question is about India, I don’t believe that it will affect our relationships with Pakistan,” he said. “Our relationship with India is political, it’s economic and it’s military. And we have increased military cooperation during the past three years between the USA and India.” “It has been moving apace, and we feel good about it. There are a variety of technical things that they or we may be interested at any given time, and they are being worked at the appropriate levels.” “But I think it’s a good, healthy relationship.” Mr Rumsfeld also said “the evolving relationship between India and Pakistan is a most encouraging thing.” In an important milestone in bilateral ties, India and the USA yesterday agreed to expand cooperation in civilian nuclear activities, civilian space programmes and high technology trade as also to enhance dialogue on missile defence, which, they said, would deepen friendship and increase stability in Asia and beyond.
— PTI |
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Brajesh leaves China after border talks
Beijing, January 14 Mr Mishra, designated as India’s special representative on the India-China boundary issue, had several rounds of negotiations over the past two days with his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo. The talks were held in a “friendly and constructive atmosphere,” an Indian Embassy statement said here. “The special representatives agreed to meet in New Delhi again on mutually acceptable dates to be decided through diplomatic channels,” it said without going into the details of the parleys and other meetings Mr Mishra had. China’s official Xinhua news agency described the Sino-Indian border issue as “a complicated historical problem.” Mr Mishra, accompanied by senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs, declined to speak to the press prior to his departure. Officials cited it as an understanding reached between Beijing and New Delhi under which the details of the talks between the two special representatives would be kept secret.
— PTI |
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Canadian intelligence withheld information Vancouver, January 14 Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent William Laurie was required to stop talking to a woman friend of accused Ajaib Singh Bagri in 1987 because she was “only providing criminal information, not intelligence information,” British Columbia Supreme Court heard yesterday. Criminal investigations were the responsibility of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), not the spy agency. However, the CSIS did not pass on the information to the RCMP until 1990, after the police came across an abbreviated reference to the information during an internal review of the Air India investigation, the Globe and Mail reported. One of the strongest pieces of evidence in the prosecution’s case against Bagri came from interviews conducted by Laurie in September and October 1987. The woman cannot be identified by the media under court order. The woman told Laurie that Bagri had asked to borrow her car on the evening before the Air India disaster to take luggage to the airport. Bagri allegedly said the baggage was going on a trip, but he was not, and he would return the car. Laurie believed the information was extremely important but he had difficulty persuading senior CSIS officials at the agency’s Ottawa headquarters to pass the information to the RCMP, said defence lawyer Michael Code, reading reports and memos of CSIS and RCMP officials. CSIS officials did not tell the RCMP because they felt the information would not prove the offence. Previous evidence at the Air India trial showed that the CSIS shared only part of the story with the RCMP. The CSIS told the police in 1987 that an unidentified CSIS source had said “Bagri tried to borrow a car. The CSIS told the RCMP that the source could not recall if baggage was mentioned, the court heard.
— PTI |
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Jaitley asks Israel to talk peace with neighbours Jerusalem, January 14 “Only dialogue has the power to resolve disputes,” he said at an Israel-India Chamber of Commerce reception last night to honour five outstanding Indian and Israeli promoters of bilateral commercial ties for 2003. Stressing the importance of India’s decision to restart peace talks with Pakistan, Mr Jaitley advised Israel “to adopt the same policy” towards Palestinians and its other neighbours. The Indian minister is on a three-day visit here with a five-member delegation. Impressed by his meetings with seven Israeli company CEOs, Mr Jaitley said “I am overwhelmed by the enthusiasm for India among Israeli business people. In the 10 years since diplomatic ties, relations have leaped forward on all fronts and are expanding at a fast pace. “There are several areas in which Indian expertise enables cooperation and other areas in which India and Israel are competitors. But the two countries complement each other and we can look forward to continuing and steady expansion.” Mr Jaitley hoped the Indo-Israel business ties would double over the next year and by fivefold in the years to come. “India attaches great importance to its ties with Israel. The opportunities for business in India are huge. I hope relations will grow and I hope and pray for peace in the (West Asia) region,” he said. During Mr Jaitley’s visit, India and Israel will draft agreements on a bilateral industrial research and development fund and standards in medical equipment and telecommunications, Indian sources said last night at the end of their first working session of the annual joint economic committee.
— PTI |
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Travel agent dupes Indians in Australia Sydney, January 14 According to the people who booked their tickets with the travel and tours company whose licence was terminated by the Office of Fair Trading, the travel agency duped them of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Though the company’s licence was cancelled, the authorities had failed to shut down the shop, they claimed. Esther Choudhary, a teacher, who was planning to visit her husband in New Delhi, said she had made bookings with several travel agents, but was wait-listed with each one of them. When she was referred to the company in suburban Campsie, the 28-year-old Pakistani director of the firm said “it will be done”. According to the teacher, she was given a receipt for the amount she gave him on which the agent wrote “no charges for changes of travel dates”. After a few days, Esther said she got a call from the agent that the tickets were confirmed and “I should come and give the rest of the money”. “When my cousin, who was travelling with us, went to pay the remaining amount, he even gave a further discount. He only charged Australian $ 1600 per ticket instead of $ 2000,” she said. However, on December 19, when Esther went to collect the ticket she found a large number of others from the subcontinent waiting there for air tickets that would never come.
— PTI |
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13 Maoists killed in Nepal Kathmandu, January 14 The ministry said four rebels were killed in the Barne area of Jhapa district and the Ghuseni area in Kavre district when they tried to breach a security cordon. In separate encounters with security forces, one Maoist each was killed at the Arkhawang area in Gulmi district, the Rambhorbhata area in Parsa, the Chaurase area in Surkhet, the Chaumala area in Salyan and the Nirga area in Dang districts, it said. A cop was killed when three cops and armed Maoists travelling in a bus exchanged fire in Janakpurdham Municipality yesterday, police sources said.
— PTI |
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