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Foreigners must leave madarsaas, says Musharraf
USA okays initial F-16 shipment to Pakistan
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Surrender drama in London
UNICEF seeks more aid for Niger children
Astronomer claims discovery of planet
UNSC reform: China to vote against expansion
Korea N-talks enter uncharted territory
Being too tall can cost you your job!
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Foreigners must leave madarsaas, says Musharraf
Islamabad, July 30 The ban would also apply to holders of dual nationality. “An ordinance to this effect will be adopted in the next coming days as part of new rules requiring all seminaries to register with the government by the end of the year,” the President told foreign correspondents during a two-hour interaction here. He made it clear that Pakistan would not allow any foreigner or people holding dual nationality to run Madarsaas in the country. The President dispelled the impression that all Madarsaas were involved in negative activities, saying that these institutions could be the world’s biggest NGOs helping the poorest segment of society. “Don’t think they are all negative, this is not the reality,” he added. President Musharraf said it was unfortunate that in the West all Madarsaas were perceived to be negative. The president said no banned militant organisation would be allowed to resurface and work under a different name and added that those indulging in it would be tried in anti-terrorist courts. President Musharraf vowed to continue the ongoing crackdown on extremists, in which more than 600 suspected militants and leaders of banned organisations are reported to have been rounded up. “Till now there is no suspect arrested who is directly related to the London bombings,” Gen Musharraf said. “The investigation is going on. It’s a little premature to draw a conclusion. It’s a very tedious job.” Gen Musharraf also pledged to enforce a ban on anti-Western hate speeches made from mosques or through audio recordings. “We have to resolve the Palestinian dispute now — and regionally, the Kashmir dispute as well, I have no doubt in my mind on that — both are ripe for resolution — if we don’t do this, we will fail the region and the world,” he stated. Reiterating Islamabad’s unflinching commitment to stamping out terrorism, he said the government would continue to act against terror operatives with full force and eliminate them from Pakistani soil. |
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USA okays initial F-16 shipment to Pakistan
Washington, July 30 The decision to initially provide Pakistan, a war on terrorism ally, with two older but refurbished F-16s comes less than two weeks after President George W. Bush reversed long-standing U.S. policy by promising to help India, Pakistan’s nuclear rival, develop its civilian nuclear power sector. India had expressed concern to Washington about its proposed sale of F-16s to Pakistan. Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars and were on the brink of another in 2002. One congressional source said of the timing of the decision, “They (Bush Administration officials) didn’t want to start moving F-16s to Pakistan until after the Indian Prime Minister had come and gone.” Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks at the White House on July 18. Notifying Congress just before the start of the month-long August recess could also help “blunt any backlash among the friends of India in Congress, of which there are many,” the congressional source added. Key lawmakers were notified on Friday of the decision and administration officials made clear a larger sale of newer fighter planes to Pakistan was still in the works. The White House initially announced plans in March to sell F-16s to Pakistan but offered few details about the number of fighters and specifications. The sale had been blocked for 15 years to punish Pakistan for its nuclear weapons program. Administration officials said the policy change on the planes reflected Islamabad’s role helping the USA in the region after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Bush last year named Pakistan a major non-NATO ally, making it easier for the country to acquire U.S. arms. The single engine, multirole F-16 is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. Pakistan’s planned purchases would boost its fleet of about 32 F-16s acquired before the U.S. Congress cut off sales in 1990 over Islamabad’s nuclear program. |
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Surrender drama in London
TWO suspected terrorist bombers, their arms raised above their heads, surrender and surrounded by armed police, emerge half-naked onto the balcony of a block of flats in west London at the end of a short siege.
A few seconds earlier, armed police officers wearing gas masks had fired CS canisters into the flat in a housing association block in North Kensington. The men emerged shaking and clearly suffering from the effects of the gas and were ordered to strip by the police and arrested. The events in North Kensington were only part of a dramatic and fast-moving day, which ended with all four bombing suspects in custody eight days after the failed attempts to set off four bombs in London. That came two weeks after the July 7 bombings, which killed 52 persons as well as the four suicide bombers. The manhunt in the past week has been the most extensive and wide-ranging investigation ever conducted by the Metropolitan Police There were also reports last night that a fifth bomber — suspected of abandoning a partially exploded bomb on Little Wormwood Scrubs — was arrested in a raid in west London. Only hours after the North Kensington arrests, a third suspect was arrested in Rome. Italy’s Interior Minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, was quoted as saying that a man named as Hussain Osman, a Somali, was arrested in Rome, possibly at the home of his brother. Hussain, 27, is believed to have been the suspect who failed to detonate a bomb at Shepherd’s Bush station; a picture of him wearing a white vest and escaping on a bus was released by the police on Wednesday night. Police also raided a house in Stockwell, south London, where Hussain was believed to be living with his wife and three children. Police are already questioning Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, a Somalian suspected of being the man who attempted to explode a bomb at Warren Street. He was arrested in Birmingham after a tip-off on Wednesday. Yesterday’s developments came after police conducted two armed raids in mid-morning — one on a flat in the Tavistock Crescent area of Notting Hill and a mile to the west, on property in a block of housing association flats in Dalgarno Gardens, north Kensington. — By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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UNICEF seeks more aid for Niger children
United Nations, July 30 The appeal came yesterday as the United Nations warned that with hunger intensifying, Niger could face increasing deaths from communicable diseases. Thousands of children have already died, it said while almost doubling the number of people targeted for emergency food aid to 2.5 million. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that beyond communicable illnesses, cases of water and sanitation-related diseases, diarrhoea, cholera, tuberculosis and malaria were expected to rise as a result of the hunger crisis, due to the effects of drought and the worst infestation of crop-devour ing locusts in 15 years. A WHO assessment mission is currently underway and the agency plans to provide support to Niger’s health ministry in the areas of coordination, early detection of communicable diseases, and training of personnel to deal with malnutrition. — PTI |
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Astronomer claims discovery of planet
Los Angeles, July 30 “Get out your pens. Start re-writing textbooks today,” said Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy, announcing what he called “the 10th planet of the solar system,” one that is larger than Pluto. “It’s the farthest object ever discovered to orbit around the sun,” Brown said in a conference call of the planet that is covered in methane ice and lies nearly 15 billion kilometers (nine billion miles) from Earth. “I’d say it’s probably one and-a-half times the size of Pluto,” he said from CalTech, based in Pasadena, near Los Angeles, referring to what until now has been the most distant planet in earth’s solar system. Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, the celestial body tentatively called “2003-UB313” is the farthest known object in the solar system and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects. It is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet, Brown said.
— AFP |
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UNSC reform: China to vote against expansion
Beijing, July 30 “The Chinese side will vote against the expansion formula if forcible voting occurs at the UN General Assembly,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said here. Kong said China has always believed the framework resolution draft proposed by G-4 does not care about the interests of most developing countries, especially those of the small and medium-sized countries. “The forcible voting on the proposal will severely damage the solidarity of Africa, of Asia and among member states, and the long-term interests of the United Nations,” Kong was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency here. He stressed that it is the only right way to go through dmocratic consultation and make decisions upon extensive agreement to push forward the reform of the UN Security Council.
— PTI |
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Korea N-talks enter uncharted territory
Beijing, July 30 The main protagonists, the USA and North Korea, appear as entrenched as ever, diplomats say, with Pyongyang sticking to its demands for security guarantees and aid and Washington insisting the nuclear programmes be dismantled first. Still, the first round of talks in more than a year has seen an unprecedented level of contact between the US and North Korean sides, who have met for talks five times already this week after refusing to budge from scripted position statements in three previous rounds. ‘’I have the impression that the United States and North Korea have deepened their understanding of each other’s positions after hours and days of bilateral discussions,’’ a Japanese delegate said today. ‘’But I believe the two sides remain far apart,’’ he said. ‘’Our work to draft a joint document will get into full swing today,’’ he added. Earlier, the Japanese delegation had said the six parties would start drafting the joint statement today. Previous rounds have failed to secure a common position. US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said today: ‘’Seriously, we will have a lot of discussion about text to see if we can come to some agreement among the six.’’ — Reuters |
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Being too tall can cost you your job!
London, July 30 According to The Sun, National Air Traffic Services bosses withdrew their job offer when they found he had 38in legs that would not fit under their desks. After a safety assessment, Ben was told that cramming his legs under the work stations posed a “dangerous risk” to his health.
— ANI |
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