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Pakistan vows to improve nuclear capability
Musharraf wants peace process expedited
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Kadirgamar’s killing: 12 detained in Lanka
Carter’s grandson sentenced to house arrest
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Pakistan vows to improve nuclear capability
Islamabad, August 14 Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz hoisted the national flag at an indoor auditorium here due to security concerns. Without directly referring to India, he said in his speech that Pakistan would continue the process of improving its nuclear and missile capabilities to keep pace with the changing scenario in the neighbourhood, a day after Information Minister Sheikh Rashid stated that the country was on course to develop a 1000-km range missile. “The most recent example is successful test-firing of Babur cruise missile. It is a great responsibility to safeguard our independence. Pakistan today is a nuclear power and no one can cast an evil eye on our beloved country,” Aziz said. He said regional peace was directly linked to justice and fair play. “The solution of the burning issue of Kashmir is a must for durable peace in South Asia. Its resolution must reflect aspirations of the Kashmiri people.” On the occasion, President Pervez Musharraf said the nation should reject elements who want to drag Pakistan into darkness, referring to his campaign against extremism. “I appeal to the nation to reject the retrogressive elements politically and socially as they are opposed to progress,” he said. Information Minister Rashid told a public meeting in Rawalpindi last night that after the successful test of the Babur cruise missile, Pakistan was developing yet another missile with a range of 1000 km, local news agency “Online” reported. After the test-firing of the missile, Pakistan would further develop its missile capability, he said. In his address today, Aziz said Pakistan’s defence capability was a guarantee of peace and regional balance of power and all resources would be provided to strengthen this capability.
— PTI |
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Musharraf wants peace process expedited
London, August 14 “I see the sincerity of the Indian leadership. But if we can move faster towards a resolution of Kashmir, my hands will be stronger to deal with extremism,” he said in an interview to the Daily Telegraph on Saturday. “I have told the Indians we can only control extremists to a degree. But there will be nowhere for the extremists to go once there is a settlement on Kashmir,” the President said. Answering a question on the success he has achieved in dealing with extremists, he admitted that previously his hands were tied, either because of the 10-month-long confrontation with India in 2002 or the last general elections or political insecurities at home and abroad. “The situation is now far different from what I faced before,” he said. “Now I am much stronger.” After last month’s London bombings, as many as 800 militants had been arrested and 1,400 foreign students have been asked to leave the country, he added. President Musharraf said he had made it clear to the police and the ministries concerned that the government was deadly serious about a crackdown on those banned extremist groups who had re-emerged under a new name, the closure of publications propagating ‘‘hate’’, creating a new syllabus for madarssahs and their registration by December. The registration of 15,000 madarssahs was announced in January 2002, but barely a few hundred registered. “This time those madarssahs who don’t register by December will be shut down,” the President said. Accusations that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) still backed Taliban were false, he said. Its officers dealing with Afghanistan had been changed ‘‘two or three times’’ since 2001 and nobody was left from the old guard who might have ideological affiliations with Taliban, he said. “All this talk about the ISI being a government within a government is wrong. There is no government within a government. There is only one government.” Much of Taliban resistance was being generated from inside Afghanistan, he said but admitted that there were some Taliban elements clandestinely based in Pakistan, crossing the border. He accused extremist elements belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-i- Islam, a religio-political party that governs the two provinces bordering Afghanistan, of allowing Taliban to use sanctuaries inside Pakistan. |
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Kadirgamar’s killing: 12 detained in Lanka
Colombo, August 14 Soldiers and police personnel, armed with emergency powers, checked vehicles entering or leaving Colombo and conducted house-to-house searches to hunt down the assassins, but no formal arrests had been made so far. The authorities concerned confirmed that they had detained scores of people for questioning, including a Tamil couple who own the house of which Kadirgamar was shot. Investigators had found catridge casings of a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher and the remains of food in the house. “We are a long way from making any arrests but we have detained some people for questioning and they will be released as soon as their identities are established,” Deputy Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara said. “That is an ongoing process.” The tightly-guarded minister was killed by three bullets fired by snipers from the upper floor of a house opposite his private residence as he left his swimming pool. Military spokesman Daya Ratnayake said 12 persons were detained by the military overnight and handed over to the police, but added they were not directly linked with Kadirgamar’s assassination. Meanwhile, arrangements are complete for Kadirgamar’s state funeral tomorrow to be attended by representatives from several countries, including External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. White flags were raised in Colombo as a mark of respect for Kadirgamar, who had taken a hardline stance against LTTE and was active in outlawing the outfit from many countries, including the US and the UK. The government has sought public cooperation to track down the two snipers, suspected to be Tamil Tiger rebels, who got away after the Friday night killing with police believing that they are likely to be still holed up somewhere in the capital. President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a nationwide emergency shortly after the assassination giving the police and security forces wide powers of searching and detaining suspects for questioning. The LTTE is the prime suspect in Kadirgamar’s murder. But the rebels have denied a hand in the murder. Cabinet spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva yesterday dismissed the LTTE’s denial that they were involved saying the government would ask the international community to pressure the rebels to stop taking lives. The slaying has jeopardised a three-year-old truce between government forces and the guerrillas with diplomats and analysts fearing that the island would see a flare up of the ethnic warring that has claimed the lives of over 60,000 in three decades. — PTI
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Wellington, August 14 Lange, 63, a lawyer and pugnacious, witty former Methodist lay preacher, spent five turbulent years as New Zealand’s Labour Party Prime Minister from 1984. During his time in office, New Zealand underwent one of its most radical economic restructurings and made its name on the international stage for its anti-nuclear stance. “It is with sadness that we announce the passing of the Right Honourable David Lange,’’ his family said in a statement reported by the New Zealand Press Association. “Mr Lange died from the complications of renal failure with his close family by his side.’’ He had suffered serious health problems since 1995 and was taken to hospital in July where surgeons amputated his right leg below the knee after a complication of diabetes. In 2002, Lange was diagnosed with a rare incurable plasma disorder, amyloidosis, which causes a build-up of excess protein from bone marrow and damages the organs. The Labour government Lange led inherited a country in deep economic trouble after the long domination of conservative National Party leader Sir Robert Muldoon. Lange’s government, including Finance Minister Roger Douglas, architect of New Zealand’s free market economy, floated the New Zealand dollar, freed controls on interest rates, banking and foreign exchange, and turned government businesses into corporations. Anti-nuclear:
Lange leapt quickly to international prominence when his government banned all nuclear-powered ships and those carrying nuclear weapons from New Zealand ports, enraging the USA and leading to the country’s suspension from the regional security alliance with the USA and Australia,
ANZUS.
Lange also clashed with France after French agents bombed the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the environmental group Greenpeace, in Auckland harbour in 1985 as it prepared to sail to the French South Pacific nuclear testing area of Mururoa. Lange described the bombing as “a sordid act of state-backed terrorism’’. At 41, Lange was New Zealand’s second-youngest Prime Minister. He resigned from the top job in 1989 and retired at the 1996 general election to spend more time with his second wife and former speech writer Margaret Pope and their young daughter.
— Reuters |
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Carter’s grandson sentenced to house arrest
Fayetteville (Georgia), August 14 Jeremy Carter, 18, a resident of Peachtree City, was arrested in December after being caught inside the home of a former friend. The police said it found less than an one ounce of marijuana in his shoe and smelled alcohol on his breath. The victim did not want Carter to go to jail, which District Attorney Scott Ballard said “considerably” affected the outcome of the case. Carter’s burglary charge was reduced and he pleaded guilty to theft by taking, a misdemeanor. “If you are convicted of burglary here, you go to prison for three years,” Ballard said on Friday. Carter is the son of Annette and Jeff Carter, Jimmy Carter’s youngest son. Ballard said Carter would also perform 100 hours of community service and undergo drug counseling.
— AP |
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