 |
|
Modi visa denial based on NHRC findings: USA
Back moderates, Pervez
appeals to voters
Ukraine cruise missiles
smuggled to Iran, China
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Qadeer Khan met Libyans during trips to Africa
Indian wins UN photography award
Wolfowitz vows no ‘regime change’
|
|
Modi visa denial based on NHRC findings: USA
Washington
on Friday said its decision to revoke Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s US visa was a response to findings by the India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that implicated Mr Modi’s government in the 2002 riots.
“The fact of the matter is that it was the Indians who investigated the riots and it was the Indian Government who determined that state institutions failed to act in a way that would prevent violence and would prevent religious persecution,” State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. “So this isn’t a matter of the USA saying something happened or something didn’t happen,” he said. “It’s a matter of the USA responding to a finding by the NHRC pointing to comprehensive failure on the part of the state government of Gujarat to control persistent violations of rights.” The US Embassy in New Delhi on Friday revoked
Mr Modi’s US visa on grounds of his complicity in violations of religious freedom. The US government’s decision has triggered a firestorm of emotion within the Indian-American community. While secular and minority groups hailed the decision as a “great victory for the rule of law,” angry members of the community gave vent to their fury in venomous web postings. The US decision followed a concerted effort by secular Indian-American organisations opposed to Mr Modi’s scheduled arrival in New York on March 20, and the introduction of legislation critical of Mr Modi in the US House of Representatives. A State Department source said the decision to revoke Mr Modi’s visa was taken prior to the introduction of the legislation this week by Congressman Joe Pitts, Pennsylvania Republican, and Congressman John Conyers, Michigan Democrat. The legislation condemned Mr Modi’s actions “condoning or inciting bigotry and intolerance against any religious group in India.” “This decision tells people still suffering in Gujarat that we believe they all deserve the right to equal treatment under the law and we’re willing to stand up to people who deny it to them. And it tells foreign leaders that we will not stand for religious persecution,” Mr Pitts said, who visited Gujarat in January 2004 and saw firsthand the devastation of the 2002 riots. The Indian-Muslim Council-USA, also welcomed the decision. Dr Shaik Ubaid, president of the IMC-USA, said, “It is a great victory for pluralism, justice and rule of law.” In an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Coalition Against Genocide — a grouping of over 35 associations representing NRIs, asked the Indian Government not to contest the US decision. It also urged Mr Singh to curtail the fund-raising activities in the US of “hate groups such as the one Mr Modi belongs to.” Meanwhile, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) has said its invitation to Mr Modi was not political but strictly business. It said the decision denied its members to invest in India. The organisers were expecting over 10,000 persons to attend the event and on Friday claimed an estimated loss of $100,000 due to the cancellation of Mr Modi’s visit. |
|
Back moderates, Pervez
appeals to voters
Bahawalpur, March 19 Addressing a huge public meeting at a local stadium here on Friday, the president said that the country required moderate and enlightened forces who could take the process of progress forward. “At this bright stage of economic turnaround, we need to keep up the momentum of socio-economic progress by effectively countering the forces of obscurantism and by extending support to enlightened and moderate leadership,” he emphasised. “We need to remove impediments in the way of our continued economic growth by discarding extremists — we have to promote moderation, unity and peace for taking Pakistan forward on the path to socio-economic development.” The people must act against those who misuse mosques for giving rise to extremist tendencies of hatred, discord and intolerance, the president said. Pakistan, General Musharraf told the gathering, did not exist in a vacuum but in an interdependent world in which it had to increase its trade and investment opportunities with other countries. The president said Pakistan’s economy had taken off, factories and mills were running with full capacity and opportunities for investment were being promoted vigorously. He said the government had adopted realistic policies which positively projected the country’s image internationally so much so that many foreign countries were consulting Pakistan on important issues. Further elaborating on the economic conditions, General Musharraf said that the country had done away with the need for foreign aid. The president said Pakistan had recently returned 280 million dollars foreign aid to the IMF with thanks. “Our policies are paying dividends as more and more foreign entrepreneurs are investing in a number of booming sectors, creating jobs,” he said. |
|
Ukraine cruise missiles
smuggled to Iran, China
Moscow, March 19 The apparent sale to Iran of 12 of the Soviet-era Kh55 cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,860 miles, probably will add to concerns in Washington, D.C., over alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons in Iran. Allegations of the sales first surfaced last month in comments by a Ukrainian legislator, but public confirmation by the new administration of President Viktor Yushchenko came only on Friday. Each missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead with a 200-kiloton yield at altitudes too low to be detected by radar, and their shipment has been portrayed as a significant leak of Soviet-era weapons technology. Yuri
Boychenko, an aide to Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, said in a telephone interview from Kiev, the capital, that sales had not involved the government of then-President Leonid D.
Kuchma. But Hrihory Omelchenko, the legislator who went public last month with allegations of the smuggling operation, charged Friday that, “It is ridiculous to say that they have no information about the involvement of high state officials.” “The deal, or actually two deals, were from the very beginning monitored by
Ukrspetsexport, the state-owned arms sale monopoly,” Omelchenko said in a telephone interview. “Kuchma was in the picture from the very beginning, and in other words he sanctioned the deals. Documents to that effect exist and they should be at the disposal of the general prosecutor’s
office.” Omelchenko said the missiles were shipped to China in 2000 and to Iran in 2001. If the missiles were made operational, they could strike Israel if launched from Iran and Japan if fired from China or its neighbour, North Korea. The Japanese government reportedly is worried that the six missiles allegedly shipped to China could have ended up in North Korea, which claims to possess nuclear weapons. China is a longtime nuclear power that possesses a variety of long-range missile types. — By arrangement with the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post |
|
|
US tells North Korea to return to talks
Tokyo, March 19 Rice, on her first tour of Asia since taking office, said North Korea could only realise its wishes for security assurances and aid if it ended its boycott of six-nation talks on its nuclear ambitions. “North Korea should return to the six-party talks immediately if it is serious about exploring the path forward that we and the other parties have proposed,” Ms Rice said in a speech at Sophia University in Tokyo. “This is where the North Korean Government can find the respect it desires and the assistance it needs if it is willing to make a strategic choice,” she said. North Korea last took part in the talks in June 2004 and in February announced a new suspension of dialogue, demanding Ms Rice apologised for calling the communist state an “outpost of tyranny.” — AFP
|
|
Qadeer Khan met Libyans during trips to Africa
Islamabad, March 19 On these trips, he was accompanied by his colleagues, including military officials and financiers. Mr Khan, three fellow nuclear scientists, three senior Pakistani army officials and two middlemen travelled together to Mali three times between 1998 and 2000, ostensibly to study the Islamic heritage of an ancient town on the banks of the Niger River, the sources said.
— Kyodo |
|
|
Indian wins UN photography award
United Nations, March 19 Competing among participants from nearly 170 countries, Senan’s portrait of ‘deer feeding on refuse and rubbish’ fetched her $20,000. More than 32,000 photographs were submitted under the theme “Focus on Your World” which also saw entries like Monica Alexandra Terrazas Galvan of Mexico, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said.
— PTI |
|
Wolfowitz vows no ‘regime change’
Paris, March 19 In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Mr Wolfowitz said — if confirmed in the post — he would come to the bank with an open mind and no political programme. He said the bank should make Africa a priority and persuade donor nations to be more generous. Referring to the controversy sparked by his nomination by President George W. Bush, Mr Wolfowitz said: “Many people speak without knowing me, or know me only through caricatures that are sometimes very inaccurate.
— Reuters |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
