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Powell asks Pervez to share nuclear probe results Musharraf
turned blind eye to Khan’s activities: report |
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Bird flu detected in USA
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USA renews travel warnings on Afghanistan USA probes sex assaults among troops in Iraq Mexican pensioners invade President’s ranch
Asian Jewel Award for NRI doctor
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Powell asks Pervez to share nuclear probe results Islamabad, February 8 President Musharraf on his part told Mr Powell that granting pardon to father of nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan was an internal matter of Pakistan and promised to take a decision on handing over details of the probe into the nuclear leak to other countries after the investigation is completed. Officials here said Mr Powell, during his lengthy conversation with President Musharraf last night, discussed with him the developments following public confession by Dr Khan last week that he was involved in transferring nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. “The conversation was very cordial and Mr Powell understood Pakistan’s point of view on nuclear scientists,” an official said. Appreciating the steps initiated by Pakistan, “Mr Powell demanded of President Musharraf to let the international community know about the details of the investigations conducted into the matter of involvement of Pakistan nuclear scientists and their associates in nuclear proliferation so that the network which is behind the transfer of technology to other countries could be eliminated fully,” newsagency ‘Online’ quoted officials as saying. Meanwhile, Pakistan daily ‘Dawn’ quoted officials as saying that Mr Powell would be arriving in Islamabad later this month on a four-day visit to discuss a host of issues, including, fallout of revelations by Dr Khan and to review the progress so far made in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. During his stay here, Mr Powell would hold meetings with President Musharraf and other senior officials, including head of the Strategic Planning Division, Lt-Gen Khalid Kidwai, who dealt with the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, it said. Mr Powell would discuss with the Pakistani authorities certain strategies to crackdown on Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar who are suspected to be still alive and hiding near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, it said. Some members of the American Association of Nuclear Scientists, who had earlier visited Pakistan after 9/11 and held extensive debriefing sessions with two Pakistani scientists, Bashiruddin Mehmood and Abdul Majeed to find if there was any truth in allegations that they had shared nuclear information with Al-Qaida outfit, may revisit Islamabad to probe the extent of the nuclear leakage. — PTI |
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Musharraf turned blind eye to Khan’s New York, February 8 President Musharraf had received reports of “serious problem” with Dr Khan right from the day he took over power in October 1999, his aides told the New York Times, adding at that time he lacked necessary proof to crack down on him. The early reports, they told the Times, involved financial improprieties, allegations of skimming from government contracts and awarding contracts to relatives for work at the government laboratory run by Dr Khan. But over the years, officials from the USA and elsewhere gathered more troubling evidence that Dr Khan was secretly exporting nuclear know-how to Iran, North Korea and Libya. However, everything changed when Iran was forced to allow international inspectors into its nuclear operations last year, and a European expert identified its centrifuge equipment as a Pakistani adaptation of a European design that Dr Khan had been accused of stealing in the 1970s. Then, in October, a ship was intercepted on its way to Libya, bearing centrifuge parts. They were traced back to a plant in Malaysia that did work for Dr Khan. As evidence mounted, the paper said the Pakistani government slowly began to back away from its years of denials, and the pressure on Dr Khan grew. The details of the confrontation with Dr Khan came from accounts provided by aides to Musharraf as well as a senior military official, the Times said. They provided an account that portrayed Musharraf as concerned about proliferation but fearful of a political backlash if he moved against Dr Khan. Last week, the long standoff ended with confrontation, confession and then a presidential pardon. That choreography, the paper said, was emblematic of the balancing act Musharraf has engaged in with a scientist lauded at home as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme but seen abroad as a dangerous merchant of
nuclear secrets. In March 2001, after intense American pressure, the paper said, President Musharraf removed Dr Khan as the head of the Dr Khan Research Laboratories. A day after Dr Khan’s forced retirement, he called a senior official to vent his frustration about politicians and newspapers that were accusing him of appeasing the West and embarrassing Khan. In 2002, the Times said, the USA tipped off Pakistan that the Khan Laboratories had traded nuclear technology for missile technology with North Korea. But the USA refused to criticise Pakistan publicly or even hint at imposing penalties. Over the past three months, 11 aides to Dr Khan have been detained for questioning and two of the country’s highest ranking Generals have begun a series of meetings with Dr Khan, senior Pakistani officials told the Times. A first meeting was held at Dr Khan’s house in December, at which he denied any wrongdoing to the two Generals, Lt-Gen Khalid Kidwai, head of the country’s Strategic Planning and Development Cell, or nuclear wing, and Lt-Gen Ehsan-ul-Haq, the head of Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani officials told the Times. Khan fought the inquiry, according to family friends of the scientist. He sent his daughter to London, allegedly with material showing that senior military officials approved of his activities, the paper quoted a friend of the Dr Khan family as saying and he also quietly encouraged families of his detained aides to protest the inquiry as humiliating to the scientists. But, the Times said quoting officials, slowly Khan cracked. As meetings with the two Generals continued Khan eventually admitted that he had shared technology with Iran, but said he had done so at the behest of two aides to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, both of whom are dead. He insisted that the equipment sent to Iran was antiquated and could not be used to make a nuclear bomb. During the meetings, a senior government official said, the Generals hinted to Khan that they feared he could be kidnapped by American and Israeli intelligence officials if he traveled abroad. The Generals also said Pakistan could not protect Khan’s daughter in London, the paper said. The breakthrough meeting, those officials said, came last Sunday. It began with a threat from the two Generals to expose Khan. They presented him with an intercepted letter he had written to Iranian officials urging them to dismantle equipment from Pakistan and to identify dead Pakistani officials as their contacts, senior officials said. ISLAMABAD: As international concern mounted over the public admission by top nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan that he leaked sensitive data to Iran, Libya and North Korea, Pakistan has said the pardon granted to him by President Pervez Musharraf was “conditional” and said security restrictions around him would continue. In the backdrop of observations by the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) and the telephonic conversation between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Musharraf, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told television networks here that Dr Khan had been given a conditional pardon, that he had helped in these investigations and would continue to cooperate. He said the strict security restrictions imposed on Dr Khan would continue, and his associates and those who have been investigated would not be allowed to resume their duties. He also stressed that care was being taken that their “illegal activities” did not resume. The small ring of individuals had been broken definitively, Dr Khan said, adding that “We will not permit any individual or individuals to endanger the safety and security of our nuclear programme.” He said investigations were not over and seven scientists and officials were still being questioned.
— PTI |
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N.Korea had nuke deal with Pak: report Tokyo, February 8 The deal was concluded in Pakistan during a month-long visit by a North Korean envoy, Hwang
Jang-Yop, former secretary in charge of international affairs at Korea’s all-powerful Workers Party, told the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper. The report comes after Pakistan’s top nuclear scientist A Q Khan, admitted leaking technology abroad after a probe into the sale of secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran. Hwang told the newspaper that Jon
Pyon-Ho, then the party’s secretary in charge of military industry, visited Pakistan for about a month in 1996 and signed the contract. Jon had previously consulted Hwang on the possibility of buying plutonium from Russia and other countries to “produce more nuclear weapons”, Hwang said. He reportedly told Hwang after the trip to Pakistan: “We don’t need plutonium from now on. We are set to make them with uranium-235 under an agreement with Pakistan.”
— AFP |
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Bird flu detected in USA Philadelphia/Bangkok, February 8 Twelve thousand chickens were slaughtered on Saturday morning at a Delaware farm after two birds tested positive on Friday for a strain of the H7 virus that state officials said does not transfer to humans. Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse said the H7 strain in the U.S. chickens differed from the strain in Asia. ‘’The virus that is in Asia is a mutation of H5,’’ Scuse said. The H7 strain found in Delaware was fatal to poultry and does not transmit to humans, he said. South Korea which is battling its own bird flu outbreak, reacted swiftly to reports of he discovery in Delaware, immediately halting imports of US poultry. News of the US outbreak came on the same day the Prime Minister of Thailand — one of the 10 Asian countries hardest hit by the epidemic — said he expected the last outbreak of the virus to be contained within days. “There is only one red zone, in Bangkok at Lat
Krabang. We hope to clear that within one or two days,’’ Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio address to the nation.
— Reuters |
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USA renews travel warnings on Afghanistan Washington, February 9 “There is an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate US citizens and non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers throughout the country”, it said. “The ability of the Afghan authorities to maintain order and ensure the security of citizens and visitors is limited. Remnants of the former Taliban regime and the terrorist Al-Qaida network, and other groups hostile to the government, remain active”, the State Department said. “US-led
military operations continue. Travel in all areas of Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, is unsafe due to military operations, landmines, banditry, armed rivalry among political and tribal groups, and the possibility of terrorist attacks, including attacks using vehicular or other bombs. The security environment remains volatile and unpredictable”, it said. There have been a number of attacks on international organisations, international aid workers, and foreign interests and nationals, including the killing of a United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) worker in Ghazni and
car bombing in front of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) compound in Kandahar, it said. The UN has temporarily evacuated its international staff from Kandahar, Jalalabad and Gardez and closed its office in Ghazni, the department said.
— PTI |
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USA probes sex assaults among troops in Iraq Washington, February 8 “Sexual assault will not be tolerated in the Department of Defence,” Mr Rumsfeld said in a memo, released by the Pentagon asking for a report and recommendations within 90 days. In the memo, Mr Rumsfeld said he was concerned “about recent reports regarding allegations of sexual assaults on service members deployed to Iraq and Kuwait.” The incidents involve US military personnel attacking one another, with most of the cases involving women being assaulted by men, according to a defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon said in the US Central Command region — which includes Iraq and Kuwait as well as the Horn of Africa, the entire Gulf region and Central Asia including Afghanistan — the American military had received reports in the past year of 88 cases of “sexual misconduct.”
— Reuters |
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Mexican pensioners invade President’s ranch Mexico, February 8 |
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Mars rover drills hole into rock San Francisco, February 8 The rover’s drill made a circular, 2.65 millimeter-deep hole in a rock nicknamed Adirondack by scientists, according to information on the mission’s Web site posted late on Friday. “When we saw virtually a complete circle, I was thrilled beyond anything I could have ever dreamed,” said Steve
Gorevan, who led the team a New York-based Honeybee Robotics, which designed the drill. “With the ... cutting parameters we set, I didn’t think it would cut this deep.” The onboard computers of the golf cart-sized rover malfunctioned shortly after it landed on January 3. On Wednesday, engineers erased and reformatted Spirit’s flash memory — used to store photographs for transmission — after it became overloaded. Spirit returned to full-time science on Thursday. — Reuters |
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Asian Jewel Award for NRI doctor London, February 8 Instituted by TSB-Lloyd Asian Jewel - 2004, the award was conferred on Dr Pande at a function in Manchester last night. Receiving the accolade Dr Pande said: “Britain is my home and I have received lot of affection, love, friendship and fellowship from all citizens of this country. It is my earnest desire to continue to serve them to the best of my ability in 2004 — Year of Faith in one City and beyond. Chairman of the Asian Jewel Awards, Khalid Darr lauded the contribution made by the Asian community.
— PTI |
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