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Bush cuts short vacation as Katrina spreads devastation
Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks from today
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US Congress readies to consider N-deal with India
Elections in Pak in 2007: minister
A file
photograph of Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper with Princess Laurentien during her 115th birthday
on June 29 in Hoogeveen. The world's oldest person died in her sleep on Tuesday.
— AFP photo
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Bush cuts short vacation as Katrina spreads devastation
As the magnitude of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina started to dawn, President George W. Bush on Tuesday decided to cut short his vacation
and return to Washington. Mr Bush, who has in the past ignored criticism from opponents for holidaying while U.S. troops are dying in Iraq, will return to the White House on Wednesday, two days earlier than planned. Regardless of his aborted rest, the vacation is the longest any President has been away from Washington in decades. White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Tuesday called Katrina “one of the most devastating storms in our nation’s history.” Television footage from the regions that bore the brunt of the hurricane revealed scenes similar to a war zone. Mr McClellan called the destruction and loss of life “very sobering.” The death toll from the storm so far is estimated at 70 — mostly in Mississippi. Officials stressed that the number is uncertain and likely to be much higher. In neighboring Louisiana, rescue workers reported seeing bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans. “A lot of people lost their lives, and we still don’t have any idea [how many], because the focus continues to be on rescuing those who have survived,” Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco told reporters on Tuesday. In New Orleans, which lies beneath sea level, officials reported deteriorating conditions would necessitate the evacuation of thousands from shelters. The city was left with no power, no drinking water, dwindling food supplies, widespread looting, smoke rising on the horizon and the sounds of gunfire. At least one large building was ablaze Tuesday. Helicopters and boats are being used to reach people stranded on the rooftops of flooded neighbourhoods in the area. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN that at least 30 buildings had collapsed, but that no attempt had been made to determine the death toll. “There are bodies floating in some of the water,” Mr Nagin said. “The rescuers would basically push them aside as they were trying to save individuals.” Mr Nagin said that as of late Tuesday “a significant amount of water” was flowing into the bowl-shaped city and sections of the city now dry could be under 9 or 10 feet of water within hours. “The bowl is filling up,” he noted ominously. Even as the city’s residents struggled to cope with the extent of the devastation several incidents of looting, shooting and attempted carjackings were reported. Looters hurled rocks through windows of stores in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter and were seen walking away with armloads of merchandise. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported two major breaches in the levee system that protects New Orleans. Water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain was pouring into the downtown area from a levee breach, rising steadily throughout the day. Mr McClellan said the President would be visiting the hurricane-affected areas by the “latter part of the week.” Mr. Bush’s job approval rating has steadily declined over his management of the war in Iraq and rising petrol prices. Asked whether the decision to return to Washington was a symbolic one, Mr McClellan replied, “No, I disagree.” The spokesman said Mr. Bush wanted to be in Washington to “oversee the response efforts from there.” Earlier in the President’s vacation, White House officials dismissed calls for him to return to Washington and manage the war in Iraq from the White House saying the President was doing this from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Modern communications technology meant he could manage the nation just as well from his ranch as from the Oval Office, they had explained. On Tuesday, Mr McClellan sidestepped a question about what Mr. Bush was now unable to do in Crawford that he could do at the White House. “We’ll talk to you all later. We’ve got to go. Thank you,” the spokesman replied. |
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Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks from today
Islamabad, August 31 Ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf in New York, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan will review the progress made on the eight issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, mentioned in the composite dialogue framework. The two sides may also consider a changed format to carry forward the process to address all outstanding issues. Asserting that there has been “noticeable progress” in some of the issues discussed under the composite dialogue framework, Mr Saran had yesterday said in Delhi that “...perhaps, the composite dialogue will still need to be carried on in future as well, but perhaps, in somewhat of a changed format.” Besides reviewing the progress made on key issues like Jammu and Kashmir, peace and security, CBMs, Siachen and Sir Creek, they will also take stock of the relationship and outline the course to move forward the dialogue process. They were also expected to prepare the agenda and ground work for the Manmohan-Musharraf meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly annual session in New York next month. Officials from both the countries admit that the second round of the dialogue process, unlike the first, made some significant strides, especially on Kashmir. The meeting comes close on the heels of a decision by Home Secretaries of both the countries to release all fishermen and civilian prisoners who have completed their sentence. The second round of the dialogue process would formally end after talks between External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M. Kasuri scheduled to held here from October 3. The two secretaries would decide whether to take the dialogue process to the third round or reactivate the India-Pakistan Joint Ministerial Commission to discuss the same issues.
— PTI |
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US Congress readies to consider N-deal with India
Washington, August 31 Mr Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the agreement during latter’s visit to Washington last month. Before the technology can be shipped to India, Congress must approve an exception to, or change, the US law banning civilian nuclear cooperation with countries that have not submitted to full nuclear inspections. The administration will start pushing its case in earnest after lawmakers return from their summer break on September 6. Already, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sought support from Congressional leaders. Some legislators believe the deal would rewrite the rules on how the world exchanges nuclear supplies. India has refused to sign the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and some fear that the Bush plan could eventually allow rogue countries outside the NPT to build nuclear weapons programmes with imported civilian nuclear technology. Others call it a clever US strategy to help sate a thirst for energy in the world’s largest democracy while setting up nuclear safeguards. If China’s influence in Asia is counterbalanced by India’s new strength and prestige, they argue, so much the better. “At the end of the day, historians are going to judge this agreement primarily by whether or not it does provide a convenient pretext for other non-nuclear weapons states to become nuclear weapons states,” said Robert Hathaway, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Asia Program. Indian and White House officials are working on the deal’s specifics, and both sides have agreed to review their progress when Mr Bush visits India in the spring. While many lawmakers are undecided or are not making public their views yet, Sen. John Cornyn said he supports it. “It just makes enormous sense that the world’s largest democracy and the world’s oldest democracy get together and work together in pursuit of our common values,” said the Texas Republican. Cornyn chairs the bi-partisan India Caucus, which promotes Indian affairs in Congress.
— AP |
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Elections in Pak in 2007: minister
Islamabad, August 31 Affirming that General Pervez Musharraf will remain President till the next elections, he hoped that all the Opposition parties would participate in the elections, Pakistan Link reported. Talking to newspersons here yesterday, the Minister, while rejecting the charge that the government was conspiring against the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, hinted that there may be new political alliances before the next elections. Mr Rashid said that the Opposition was blaming the government of rigging out of their
frustration over tasting defeat in the local bodies elections. — UNI |
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World’s oldest person dies
Amsterdam, August 31 Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a former needlework teacher born on June 29, 1890, died in her sleep yesterday at a nursing home in the northern Dutch town of Hoogeveen. “In the past few weeks she became weaker but she was bright up until her last. She was ready to say goodbye,” Johan Beijering, director of the Westerkim Nursing Home, told Reuters. Also known as Hennie, the passionate soccer fan married a tax inspector in 1939 and was forced to sell her jewellery to buy food during the German occupation in World War II. She had no children and was widowed in 1959 after 20 years of marriage, but continued to live on her own in an apartment in Hoogeveen until she was 106. “I eat a herring every day and I drink a glass of orange juice every day for the vitamins,’’ the Ajax Amsterdam fan told journalists on her 114th birthday. Andel-Schipper decided in 1972 to donate her body to science and her body was taken to Groningen University yesterday for immediate tests to search for clues as to why she lived so long.
— Reuters |
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