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17 perish in Indonesia quake
Protests in Ukraine over presidential poll Composite dialogue with India to help resolve all issues: Aziz
Pak to take new steps to curb terror |
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Pak denies Khan’s N-design sales to Iran Islamabad, November 26 Pakistan today denied reports that the CIA had accused the disgraced Pakistan top nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan of having provided design of nuclear weapons to Iran, saying the allegation was writer’s own “creative insertions.”
Ismail Merchant honoured
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Jakarta, November 26 A series of aftershocks continued to rattle the coastal town of Nabire, 3,000 km north-east of Jakarta, hours after the morning quake that measured 6.4 on the Richter scale by the National Earthquake Centre. "We're still in panic," Jahron, a pilot who lives in Nabire, said. People were setting up tents outside their houses because they were afraid to be inside, he said. "Eleven persons have died, including three children, and 30 are now being treated at hospitals," Paminto, a coordinator at the Health Crisis Centre in Jayapura, the provincial capital to the east of Nabire, said on telephone. Lieut-Col Toto Surono, a Jakarta-based army official, said at least 65 persons were injured, although not all of them were taken to hospitals. Nabire airport had been closed due to damage, said Slamet Suyitno, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics agency in Jayapura. "Planes cannot land, even the smallest plane. The tower might be collapsed. The Indosat building and several churches collapsed," he said. Indosat (Indonesian Satellite Corp) is the country's second-largest telecommunications firm. The epicentre of the earthquake, which struck at 0755 hrs IST, was on land, some 17 km to the south of Nabire. The Hong Kong observatory and Geo-science Australia recorded the earthquake at 7.2 on the Richter scale.
— Reuters |
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Protests in Ukraine over presidential poll
Kiev, November 26 "The prime minister could not get into the government building today, and as a result he could not meet European ambassadors as planned," spokeswoman Anna German said. Mr Yanukovich had been due to meet with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!" chanted the crowd, many clad in the orange color of Opposition leader Yushchenko, as more and more people streamed to the 10-story government building in the centre of the capital. Crowds also blocked off the streets leading to the main and back door entrance to the presidential administration building and the whereabouts of President Leonid Kuchma were unclear. Thousands of supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko blockaded official buildings in a direct challenge to the Moscow-backed government's control of the country. They barred entry to the main offices of the government, parliament and presidency, sealing off approach roads to traffic by blocking them with buses. Meanwhile, Ukraine Parliament is to hold an emergency debate tomorrow on the crisis sparked by a disputed presidential election, a spokesman for the chamber's speaker said today. The EU and the United States said the elections fell short of internaitonal standards and called for a review of its conduct and outcome.
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Composite dialogue with India to help resolve all issues: Aziz Islamabad, November 26 “Pakistan believes that the composite dialogue with India will lead to resolution of all issues, including Kashmir, according to aspirations of Kashmiris”, he told the Federal Cabinet while briefing about his visit to India on talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders. Mr Aziz said Pakistan would go ahead with plans to lay gas pipeline from Iran, Qatar and Turkmenistan to meet its energy requirements for an expanding economy. Without directly referring to India linking the pipeline projects to granting most favoured nation (MFN), transit trade facilities and normalising trade relations, state run PTV quoted him as saying that Pakistan’s offer to India to participate in the project was based on the country’s “sincere commitment to establish relations for the promotion of co-operation in the field of energy.” The pipeline projects, specially that of Iran-India pipeline, which was also referred to as peace pipelines, figured prominently during this week’s visit by the Pakistan Prime Minister to India. India’s Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Ayiar, held comprehensive discussions with Mr Aziz on this issue and conveyed India’s stand that the pipeline project should a part of wider trade relations between the two counties. In his Cabinet meeting, Mr Aziz said Pakistan would welcome confidence-building measures from both sides for improving relations and reaffirmed Pakistan’s sincere commitment for the promotion of relations between the two countries. — PTI
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Pak to take new steps to curb terror
Islamabad, November 26 “The meeting chaired by President Pervez Musharraf has taken a number of very important new decisions to deal with terrorists, extremists and those involved in sectarianism with an iron hand,” Information Minister Rashid Ahmad said. The Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani did not attend the meeting in accordance with a decision of the leadership of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. According to informed sources, the General took serious note of the absence of Mr Durrani and said that officials concerned should have ensured that the Chief Minister attended the meeting. The Chief Minister of Sindh, Dr Arbab Rahim, and Secretary NSC Tariq Aziz are reported to have assured the President that Mr Durrani would attend the meeting. Sheikh Rashid told newsmen that the meeting did not take any decision on the issue of religious schools. “But those who are involved in terrorism and sectarian elements will be taken to task,” he said. He said the situation in Wana called for new measures against those terrorists who were refusing to surrender. The NSC meeting, the minister said, discussed the process of dialogue with India and was of the view that without a settlement of the Kashmir dispute, there could be no durable peace in the region. “The meeting expressed hopes that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s visit to India would help improve political and economic relations between the two countries,” he added. The Prime Minister briefed the meeting on his talks with Saarc leaders with particular reference to his visit to India. He described his interaction with the Indian President and the Prime Minister, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and leaders of the APHC as ‘positive’. Mr Aziz said that he had stressed upon the Indian leadership that lasting peace in the region was possible only with a just and durable resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir. Responding to a question, Sheikh Rashid said that the President was saddened by not finding the NWFP Chief Minister at the meeting and remarked that Opposition’s point of view could have been better presented in the NSC had Mr Durrani attended the meeting. Sheikh Rashid said he believed that Mr Durrani himself wanted to attend the meeting, but he could not go against the party line. The Information Minister denied that the NSC charter would be amended to provide more representation to the Opposition. The council, he said, was only an advisory body. He also denied that release of Asif Ali Zardari was a ‘political decision’ or the PPP was being allowed to form government in Sindh. He said the government had no plan to withdraw the SGS case against Mr Zardari. Asked if the government would now allow Ms Benazir Bhutto to return home, he said she would have to adopt the path that her husband had taken, to get clearance from courts. He told a reporter that the issue of the President’s uniform did not come up at the meeting. In reply to another question, he said the President had made a telephone call to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in sincerity with a view to removing bitterness. Answering a question, the Minister said Ms Sonia Gandhi was the head of the ruling Congress party and as such she could play a major role in resolving the Kashmir issue as had been stated by the President. |
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Pak denies Khan’s N-design sales to Iran
Islamabad, November 26 Referring to a report this week in US daily The New York Times, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said, “the writer of the report has spun a strange web, based on flimsy evidence, hearsay, and snippets of conversations.” “The CIA report does not mention any ‘designs for weapons or bomb making components,” he told reporters here, adding the mention of weapons and bomb making were the writer’s own creative insertions. Dr Khan said excerpt of the CIA report, as quoted by Times stated that “the Dr A.Q. Khan network provided Iran with designs for Pakistan’s older centrifuges, as well as designs for more advanced and efficient models, and components.” Unrelated statements attributed to unnamed officials or to former CIA Director George Tenet do not make up for the writer’s unsubstantiated claims about supply of a weapon’s design to Iran, he was quoted as saying by APP news agency.
— PTI |
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Novelist Arthur Hailey dies at 84
Nassau (Bahamas), November 26 Hailey died in his sleep on Wednesday a few hours after having dinner with two of his six children at his home in Lyford Cay on New Providence island, his wife, Sheila, said yesterday. She said doctors believe he had a stroke. "It is obviously a shock to wake up to, but it was peaceful," she said. "Arthur was a very humble man, but was delighted with the letters he used to get from readers praising his books. He was incredibly proud of them." The British-born writer's knack for turning the mundane into thrilling tales brought 11 books published in 40 countries and 38 languages, with 170 million copies in print. He used the nitty-gritty of bank procedures and hotel management as backdrops for page-turning plots, preferring real-life characters like managers and doctors to vampires and spies. "I don't think I really invented anybody," Hailey said in a 2001 interview with The Associated Press. "I have drawn on real life." Born on April 5, 1920, in
Luton, England, Hailey served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during the World War II, flying patrol fighters in the Middle East and transport planes in India. He left England in 1947 for Canada, where he later received citizenship (while retaining his British citizenship) and worked as a sales promotion manager for a tractor-trailer manufacturer in Toronto. He eventually quit to write television screenplays. The TV play 'Flight Into Danger' was based on Hailey's in-flight experience of imagining what it would be like to have to take the controls if the two pilots became incapacitated. His first novel, 'The Final Diagnosis,' was published in 1959 - about a hospital pathologist who causes an infant's death by mistake.
— AP |
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US forces find 15 bodies around Mosul
Mosul, November 26 ''We don't have any specifics on who they were or how they were killed at this point, it's all under investigation,'' said Captain Angela Bowman, spokeswoman for US forces in the north of Iraq. Thirteen bodies were found on the western side of the city, which straddles the Tigris river in the north of Iraq, on Thursday, and two more were found in Tal Afar, about 40 km west of Mosul, the spokeswoman said. Over the past two weeks, since Mosul erupted into violence on November 10-11 when insurgents overran police stations and attacked US military convoys, at least 30 bodies have been found in various parts of the city. Some were decapitated and dismembered, while others were shot in the head. Several of them were identified as members of the Iraqi National Guard or Iraqi army. Insurgents have been targeting Iraq's security forces in an effort to undermine attempts by US and Iraqi authorities to set up a dependable police force and other security branches. In the attacks launched on November 10, insurgents overran and then looted more than a dozen police stations in Mosul and then blew many of them up. At least 3,200 of Mosul's 4,000 police deserted without firing a shot in self-defence.
— Reuters |
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Ismail Merchant honoured
Shanghai, November 26 Merchant, who is currently camping in Shanghai, China’s largest city and the Communist nation’s commercial hub for his 47th film, ‘The White Countess,’ was presented the prestigious award as part of the ‘2004 LYCRA Channel Young In Style Fashion Award’, the glitziest fashion event in China. Merchant, who was bestowed the “International Recognition Award” at an internationally-televised event said he felt “great” being the first Indian to be honoured by China at an event attended by a gamut of stars of the Chinese-Hong Kong movie industry.
— PTI |
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