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Khan names Musharraf US budget proposes $15m for India Bush, Blair order probes into WMD claims Editorial: Why the Iraq war? Tamil
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Boy suspected of bird flu dies
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Khan names Musharraf Washington, February 3 Dr Khan has told investigators that General Musharraf, former premier Benazir Bhutto and former-army chiefs Mirza Aslam Beg and Jehangir Karamat were all involved in nuclear proliferation in addition to him and his colleagues, according to a friend of Dr Khan’s and a senior Pakistani investigator, the paper said. Dr Khan said he helped North Korea design and equip facilities for making weapons-grade uranium with the knowledge of senior military commanders, including General Musharraf, the unnamed investigator was quoted as saying. Dr Khan also told investigators that General Beg, the Army Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1991, was aware of assistance the scientist was providing to Iran’s nuclear programme and that the two other army chiefs, in addition to General Musharraf, knew and approved of his efforts on behalf of Pyongyang, he said. ISLAMABAD: The father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme smuggled out high-tech centrifuges used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and other equipment to Iran, Libya, North Korea and Malaysia through an international black market network, officials said on Tuesday. “In some cases, chartered planes were used to smuggle out centrifuge machines and other sophisticated equipment to these countries,” a senior government official said.
— PTI, AP |
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US budget proposes $15m for India Washington, February 3 The budget proposed $ 15 million to finance an education initiative in India for disadvantaged communities, implement water and power infrastructure reform activities, help reduce fiscal deficits in the states and develop a more effective disaster response system. For Pakistan, it proposed $ 300 million, figures released today by the Agency for International Development (AID), now part of the State Department, said. This includes $ 200 million for debt relief/budget support and $ 100 million for targeted social sector programmes such as education reform, expansion of basic health services for women and children, accountable and participatory democratic governance and expansion of economic opportunities. Afghanistan is set to receive $ 225 million to “bolster progress toward stability, prosperity and
democracy," AID said. The funds would be used to assist legislative elections and strengthen nascent democratic institutions, build basic infrastructure, pay salaries, create incentives for demobilisation and reintegration of militiamen and assist Afghan women and girls, the department said. Bush yesterday sent to Congress a 2.4 trillion budget which featured massive increases on military spending and a record $ 521 billion deficit.
— PTI |
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Bush, Blair order probes into WMD claims Washington, February 3 The report of the probe, which would also cover proliferation, would come out after the November presidential elections so that it would not become a political issue. Bush also met former Chief Weapons Inspector David Kay, who had exposed the claim that Saddam Hussein had massive quantities of weapons of mass destruction, over lunch at the White House. The White House also expressed continued confidence in CIA Director George Tenet. It was Tenet who had reportedly persuaded the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had large quantities of weapons of mass destruction. Later, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the unproven claim at the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, Mr Powell has said he does not know if he would have called for an invasion of Iraq if he had been told it had no stockpiles of banned weapons, The Washington Post reported today. Powell made public his doubts virtually a year to the day after he made the US case for war in a speech to the UN Security Council. But he insisted the U.S.A. was still right to launch the invasion last March.
LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair bowed to growing pressure on Tuesday and called an inquiry into apparently flawed intelligence about banned Iraqi weapons. “I think it is right...that we have a look at the intelligence that we received and whether it was accurate or not,” Blair told a senior parliamentary committee. Blair acknowledged that chief US weapons hunter David Kay, who quit his post last month, believed Iraq had no stockpiles of illicit weapons. “This is one of the reasons why I think we need a further inquiry,” the premier said. Until now, Blair has firmly resisted calls for an inquiry although no banned weapons have been found, months after Saddam Hussein was toppled. The government had insisted that evidence of biological and chemical weapons programmes could yet be found. Blair appeared to qualify his language to Parliament’s Liaison Committee, saying military action had been taken because Iraq was an unstable state with “WMD capability” that at some point in the future could have fallen into the hands of terror groups. Political sources said argument between the government and Britain’s main Opposition parties had raged over whether the inquiry would examine the political decisions taken to wage war, rather than focus exclusively on problems with the intelligence Blair’s team received.
— PTI, Reuters |
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Tamil groups to mourn Lanka’s freedom day Colombo, February 3 The pro-rebel tamilnet.com website said a civilian organisation in rebel-hed Wanni asked residents not to use the main A-9 highway tomorrow, Sri Lanka’s 56th anniversary of independence, as a sign of protest. There will be similar protest campaigns in other areas of the island’s east too where the rebels or their front organisations have issued a call for mourning, residents said. In the meantime, in a sharp contrast to previous years, the military this time is putting up its newly acquired tanks and multi-barrel rocket launchers on display. The hardware was paraded along the streets of Colombo today during dress rehearsals for tomorrow’s ceremony. This is the first time in six years the military is taking out its weaponry to be put on public display. The multi-barrel rocket launchers helped stall a major Tamil rebel push to overrun the northern town of Jaffna in May 2000. Tanks and heavy artillery guns were being paraded amid an uneasy truce with Tamil Tiger. The rebels have warned that the country could slip back to war unless the political leaders here ended their squabbling and resumed peace talks.
— PTI |
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Sharon promises pullout from Gaza Strip Jerusalem, February 3 Sharon, once considered the godfather of the settlement movement, said he had ordered plans to be drawn up for the evacuation of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip. “I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza,” he told the Haaretz daily yesterday. A close confidant, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the plan might be implemented as early as mid-year if talks with the Palestinians remained moribund and violence raged.
— Reuters |
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Boy suspected of bird flu dies Bangkok, February 3 Prapasit Taopramong died at a hospital in northeastern Khon Kaen province, and an autopsy and lab tests will determine whether the child died from avian influenza, said government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair. Thailand has confirmed three deaths due to the bird flu that is ravaging poultry stocks across Asia. The boy who died today is among 18 suspected bird flu cases in Thailand, 11 of whom have died. The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus strain has been confirmed in Indonesia, a government official said. HANOI: Eating thoroughly cooked chicken and eggs is safe and is unlikely to cause bird flu, the World Health Organisation and doctors said today. “Our feeling is that chicken and eggs, properly cooked, doesn’t seem to present a threat,” said Robert Dietz, spokesman for the UN agency in Hanoi.
— Agencies |
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Probe ordered into Janet baring case Washington, February 3 In the show during the Superbowl yesterday, entertainer Justin Timberlake tore a piece of Janet Jackson’s black leather bustier, exposing her right breast to the worldwide TV audience of 100 million. MTV, which produced the show expressed shock over what happened and CBS-TV, which aired it, apologised. Timberlake attributed the incident was unintentional and was caused by a “wardrobe malfunction.” Janet also apologised for the incident. “A decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my half-time show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it,” she said in a statement. But Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell said he had been “outraged” by the “classless, crass and deplorable stunt.” A media report today said long before the show, the audience was promised by the organisers that it would contain “shocking moments”. “Much of the 12-minute half time show clearly was sexually provocative” with cabaret dancers and explicit lyrics like ‘I’ll have you naked by the end of this song’, ‘the Washington Post’ reported.
— PTI |
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Skinhead band member held Prague, February 3 |
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In an embarrassment to the Bush Administration, which views President Pervez Musharraf as its best bet in the region against terrorism and proliferation of WMDs, top Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan has revealed that the military ruler himself was involved neck-deep in nuclear proliferation, the Washington Post reported quoting a senior Pakistani investigator.
Washington, February 3
North Korean talks from Feb 25