Indo-Pak thaw: Powell for US-Russian efforts

Moscow, January 27
The USA today called for joint efforts with Russia to avert any conflict between India and Pakistan.

“We must work together to help India and Pakistan in avoiding conflicts,” visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, addressing a select group of Russian prominent persons at the American Ambassador’s Spaso House residence here.

As per a secret understanding reached in Washington in June 2002, Russia and the USA had agreed to adopt the Cold War formula for reconciling India and Pakistan, under which Moscow worked closely with New Delhi and Washington with Islamabad to reconcile the two countries, according to earlier media reports here.

Besides encouraging the Indo-Pak thaw, interaction in combating terrorism and space quest were identified by Powell as some of the fields where Moscow and Washington should work together.

Powell arrived in Moscow on Sunday night for patching differences with Russia over Iraq, US plans for shifting bases to new NATO members and to seek withdrawal of Russian military bases from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Yesterday, he had intensive exchange of views with President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov. — PTI

Russia deports 14 Indians

Moscow, January 27
Russia on Tuesday deported 14 Indians trying to reach Moscow via eastern Siberia on doubtful invitations from anonymous business companies in Moscow and St Petersburg. The Indians, who were deported today, arrived in Krasnoyarsk by a flight from Tashkent last week. None of the arrested, who spoke in Hindi and a couple of English words, could explain the reason for a detour to Moscow. They also could not explain what they were supposed to do in Moscow and St Petersburg. According to borderguards, criminal groups were trying to explore a new route for smuggling illegal immigrants to Russia. — UNI

Foreign travel of suspect Pak scientists banned

Islamabad, January 27
Pakistan today imposed a blanket ban on the foreign travel of scientists who are being interrogated in connection with the clandestine transfer of nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.

Army PRO Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said the names of these scientists had been included in the exit control list. He said the scientists would not be allowed to leave the country until investigations were completed.

Meanwhile, Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan said four scientists were being interrogated, besides three military officials, to determine their involvement in the transfer of technology to a third country.

Mr Khan said more than 6,000 scientists were involved in the country’s nuclear programme and there was no question of harassing them.

He denied the involvement of the government or the army in the transfer of the nuclear technology and said it was the handiwork of just a few individuals, whose role was being probed by the authorities.

The government had received credible leads from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding their role, he added.

The spokesman said Pakistan had maintained a strong control and command system since 1998 when it conducted nuclear tests.

“Pakistan has not proliferated, nor it will do so in future. Pakistan is a responsible nuclear weapons country,” he said. — UNI

Prosecutors try to get witness declared hostile

Vancouver, January 27
Prosecutors in the Air-India trial, fighting to have a key witness declared hostile, have said that a friend’s involvement in a mass murder is simply not something a person could forget.

“It defies logic,” Crow prosecutor Richard Cairns told British Columbia Supreme Court yesterday.

“A mass murderer reveals his guilt to her, then a mass murderer threatens her. Her coming to this conclusion is something she could never forget. It’s contrary to all our experience,” he said.

The woman told investigators in a fit of tears that prime accused Ajaib Singh Bagri came to her house late at night, hours before the bombings that killed 331 persons, and asked to borrow her car. She said he wanted to take bags to the airport and that only the bags would be making the trip.

Bagri would not explain, only saying what he was doing was very important and there was a chance he could get caught and that she would never see him again.

Bagri allegedly placed suitcases full of explosives on an Air-India plane in 1985. It exploded off the cost of Ireland killing all persons on board.

According to the woman, Bagri came back to her house shortly after the boming and said she was the only one who knew his secret, that she could get him in big trouble.

But she only told that to Canadian intelligence investigator Willy Laurie in 1987 on the condition that she would never have to testify and that she would remain anonymous. — PTI

WHO warning on bird flu

Hanoi, January 27
Millions of people around the world could die if the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Asia combines with another human influenza virus that is moving towards the region, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.

Dr Shigeru Omi, director of the UN health agency’s Western Pacific office, said there was a chance the two viruses could meet and mutate, triggering a global pandemic.

“In my judgement it is possible and so that’s why we have to work very hard today, not tomorrow, to contain this, to prevent that mutation at the molecular level happening,” he told reporters in Hanoi.

Omi added: “There is always potential that this kind of outbreak will result in serious global pandemic which will involve not just hundreds, but will kill millions of people globally if this mutation happens in the virus.”

Beijing: China today confirmed that the virulent bird flu virus has hit the country’s duck farms in southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, triggering a nation-wide alert against the deadly disease plaguing the Asia-Pacific region. “The latest death of ducks in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was caused by the bird flu virus, but no infections in human beings have been found so far,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted official sources as saying.

Right after the report of ducks dying in a farm in Dingdang town, Long’an county of Guangxi on Friday, the local government decimated 14,000 poultry three KM around the duck farm, and quarantined all poultry five KM around the duck farm, according to the law on animal epidemic prevention. The National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed, after testing on samples sent in by the local government, that the death was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus, the report said.

On January 25, China had banned poultry imports from Thailand and Cambodia following the outbreak of bird flu in those countries. China had earlier banned poultry products from Vietnam, South Korea and Japan to prevent the possible inflow of the disease.

Under a joint notice issued by the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Ministry of Agriculture, ordered the withdrawal or destruction of poultry products imported directly or indirectly from these countries.

China had also banned poultry products couriered to the country or carried by passengers.

TOKYO: Japan today banned the imports of chicken from Laos and Pakistan after the two nations confirmed outbreaks of bird flu.

“The ban is effective today,” said a spokesman at the agriculture ministry.

The move is largely a technicality as Japan did not import any chicken from the two nations in the year to March 2003, according to the ministry.

Tokyo has already banned poultry from Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Italy, and some parts of the USA, where bird flu outbreaks have been reported. — AFP

Pak’s doors open to Hurriyat

Islamabad, January 27
Pakistan on Tuesday said that it had no objection to Hurriyat leaders led by Maulana Abbas Ansari visiting the country. Asked about reports of India granting permission to the Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters here that doors of his country were always open for the Kashmiri leaders. — PTI

Indian-financed firms bombed

Kathmandu, January 27
Maoist rebels overnight detonated bombs at two Indian-financed firms in southern Nepal but caused little damage, an army source said on Tuesday. One bomb exploded at Dabur Nepal Limited, a popular herbal and forestry-based company, and the other at Surya Nepal Tobacco Company, both in Birgunj. Birgunj is a commercial town south of Kathmandu, just across the border from India’s northern railway head Raxaul. — AFP

2 bombs rock Iraq

Baghdad, January 27
A roadside bomb exploded next to a passing US military convoy, and a second bomb went off when reinforcements arrived, damaging vehicles and inflicting several casualties, witnesses said. The US military confirmed a “large explosion” and said there were possibly US and Iraqi civilian casualties. The attack occurred in Khaldiyah, 70 km west of Baghdad. The town is near Fallujah. — AP