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US may sell Patriot missile systems to India
When Pervez escaped court martial Pak Oppn wants Pervez to go
Palestinian Parliament approves new Cabinet |
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15 killed in Tikrit car bomb attack
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US may sell Patriot missile systems to India
Washington, February 24 What is clear is that there is a growing consensus in Washington that the US should no longer be shy about selling India military equipment as part of a wider defence partnership that in turn is critical to a major new geopolitical relationship, according to a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “Supplying arms to New Delhi would be a dramatic change in US policy and certainly the most notable arms sale since the US lifted its nuclear embargo on India in 2001,” CSIS quoted an anonymous US analyst as saying. “For the United States, providing military technology and equipment would have the added benefit of allowing Washington to exert some degree of leverage over New Delhi,” it said. “By purchasing US hardware, India would be dependent on the United States for vital maintenance, support and upgradation programmes to keep the weapons operational.” The US may sell F-16s to both India and Pakistan and Patriot 2 to India, the report said. BEIJING: In an indirect reference to the possible sale of Patriot missile defence systems to India by the US, China on Thursday hoped that the activities of “relevant countries” would be conducive for maintenance of peace and stability in South Asia. “We have taken note of reports that certain country plans to sell anti-missile weapon systems to India,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said, without naming the United States. “We hope that the activities of relevant countries will be conducive for the maintenance of peace and stability in South Asia,” he told the media. Asked whether the sale of Patriot anti-missiles to India would result in a new arms race in South Asia, the spokesman said that a nuclear arms race in the region was not conducive to any party. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday played down reported defence deals between India and the United States, saying Pakistan would concentrate on strengthening its defence capabilities and acquire whatever equipment was needed for its armed forces. “We should stop worrying about what India is getting and concentrate on strengthening our own defence capabilities instead,” he said while talking to the leading newspaper colunmists, editors and senior journalists in Islamabad.
— PTI/UNI |
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When Pervez escaped court martial Islamabad, February 24 He also says his promotion as the Army Chief is next only to a “miracle” and he was lucky to escape death thrice. These and other details about General Musharraf are posted on his personal website www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk. “Having opted for the Army, while at the Pakistan Military Academy, I almost got thrown out for some disciplinary lapse. As a young Second Lieutenant, court martial proceedings were initiated against me for another disciplinary infringement. War with India broke out just in time to block the proceedings. “My subsequent war performance and a gallantry award finally saved me from the court martial,” says General Musharraf. — UNI
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Pak Oppn wants Pervez to go Islamabad, February 24 Sharp attacks came from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakistan Muslim League-N through points of order after the People’s Party parliamentarians questioned the legality of the session at the start of the lower house’s new parliamentary year without a mandatory presidential address to a joint sitting of Parliament. Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain switched off the mikes of two Opposition members to cut short their speeches against the President, sparking a token protest walkout by the entire Opposition that also briefly broke the quorum of the 342-seat House. However, he reserved his rulings on a PPP privilege motion and other points of order on the matter before the House began an Opposition-sought debate on the devastation caused by recent heavy rains and snowfalls across the country. Though the Opposition had planned to give the government some immediate dressing down over unrest in Balochistan, the matter was deferred for a day. PPP President Amin Fahim raised the latest rift in the Sindh Government that came into the open with Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim sacking his Revenue Minister Imtiaz Sheikh, and asked why the National Accountability Bureau was not taking notice of corruption charges the two ruling party figures were hurling at each other? Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi called the row a ‘‘political matter to be settled with the passage of time’’ and told the House that a prime ministerial inspection team would inquire into the issue. PPP’s Naveed Qamar was the first to use a point of order to challenge the session and followed up with a privilege motion that said the privilege of the House had been breached by what he called a violation of the Constitution by not calling a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate to start the new parliamentary year. But unlike some MMA and PML-N members, he and his party colleague Aitzaz Ahsan did not raise the question of General Musharraf holding both the presidency and the army chief's office. |
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Brain-damaged woman kept alive by US Judge Clearwater (Florida), February 24 In explaining his ruling extending the one-day stay he had issued on Tuesday, Pinellas County Circuit Judge George W. Greer said he needed two more days to consider fresh legal challenges raised by the woman's parents, including the possibility that she was misdiagnosed and that her husband, Michael Schiavo, was unfit to act as her guardian. Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, seek to have Michael Schiavo removed as his wife's guardian. Michael Schiavo wants to have his wife's feeding tube removed. If Greer decides the parents' claims have merit, he could extend the stay past 5 p.m. on Friday. Fifteen years ago, Schiavo suffered brain damage when a chemical imbalance stopped her heart and cut off the oxygen to her brain. Now 41, she can breathe on her own, but cannot eat or drink. According to expert medical testimony, she is in a ‘‘persistent vegetative state’’ with little chance of improvement. She left no living will, but her husband, a Clearwater nurse, has said that she told him she never wished to be kept alive through artificial means. In 2000, a Florida court agreed, and authorised the disconnection of the feeding tube. Her parents, however, have fought to keep the tube hooked up, contending their daughter’s condition could improve with therapy. The Schindlers, have in the past accused their son-in-law of mistreating their daughter, and say Michael Schiavo cannot be trusted to act in his wife’s best interest. By arrangement with the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service |
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Palestinian Parliament approves new Cabinet
Ramallah (West Bank), February 24 A total of 54 members of the legislative council voted in favour of the list dominated by technocrats, while 10 deputies voted against. There were four abstentions. Among the most notable appointments was the naming of Mr Nasser al-Qidwa, a former nephew of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and current representative to the United Nations, as Foreign Minister. He replaces Mr Nabil Shaath who was promoted Deputy Prime Minister and will also serve as Information Minister. Mr Mohammed Dahlan, the heavyweight former Security Minister, returns to high office as Civil Affairs Minister while Mr Nasr Yussuf, a former overall head of the security services, was appointed Interior Minister. However, at a meeting last night, the dominant Fatah faction’s leadership finally gave its seal of approval to the revised line-up, which meant that the vote was a formality.
— AFP |
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15 killed in Tikrit car bomb attack
Tikrit, February 24 Twenty cars were set ablaze after the massive blast, sending clouds of smoke into the sky. At least 10 charred bodies could be scene laying on the ground, splattered with pools of blood and bits of human flesh. The bomber drove a vehicle into a parking lot inside the police
building and detonated it. Several ambulances raced to the scene, ferrying casualties to a local hospital. Part of a force protecting Tikrit’s main hospital, where most of the casualties were brought, said 15 persons died and 22 were wounded. US troops sealed off the area
immediately after the blast, preventing people from entering. — AP |
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