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India, Pak secys discuss Indo-Iran pipeline
India, Pak have new N-plants: US institute
Musharraf vows to curb terrorism
Pak offers to mediate on Iran nuclear issue
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Crime against Indians
on the rise
Pak hails spirit behind talks
One killed in stampede after bomb scare
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India, Pak secys discuss Indo-Iran pipeline
Islamabad, September 8 “We discussed a number of subjects, including legal, financial, technical and commercial issues relating to the project, and made good progress and understood each other’s positions. We are progressing very well,” Petroleum Secretary Sushil Chand Tripathy said here after the first round of the two-day talks with his Pakistani counterpart Ahmed Waqar. The Petroleum Secretary-level talks were taking place under the second round of the Joint Working Group meeting. “We are moving towards finalising the issues by the end of this year so that by December 31 we can have framework agreement among the three countries in support of the project and the project structure can be developed after which the consortium can take up the project and go to financial institutions and implement it,” Mr Tripathy said. He, however, said a trilateral set-up involving Iran also could take a while as legal and technical consultants have not been appointed. “We are in the process of selecting them. We have to study various other trans-national projects to determine the legal, technical and commercial and financial arrangements. That will take time. We are racing against time to be able to put it together by December 31,” he said. He said India and Pakistan developed convergence on working out a joint pricing structure to be proposed to Iran, which was quoting much higher prices.
— PTI |
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India, Pak have new N-plants: US institute
Washington, September 8 Its Deputy Director Corey Hinderstein made the claim at a briefing during which she also showed commercial satellite pictures of the buildings which she said housed the plants. She said she did not know the capacity of the Indian plant but the new Pakistani facility housed “well over 5,000 centrifuges”. President of the institute David Albright alleged that India bought parts for its centrifuges from the same companies in Europe and South Africa from which Pakistan obtained its parts. He further said Indian export controls were not strict and Indian companies in the programme could be selling parts to other countries while alleging that this has happened before when Indian companies sold dual use parts and precursors to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He opined that unless Indian export controls were made stricter, there would be limits to the extent to which the US could cooperate with India on nuclear
matters. — PTI |
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Musharraf vows to curb terrorism
Islamabad, September 8 “These efforts will continue till the final victory,” he said, while addressing the country’s premier National Security Council, which met here at the NSC Secretariat. Attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, services chiefs, ministers for foreign affairs, defence, interior and other members, the meeting reviewed internal security with a special focus on the ongoing “fight against terrorism”. The NSC discussed both short and long-term measures to curb extremist tendencies, including banning of militant organisations and not allowing them to operate under different names, action against publications spreading hate, madrassa (religious seminaries) reforms, improvement of their syllabi. Gen Musharraf had last month ordered a crackdown against religious seminaries and suspected extremists, which led to some 600 arrests in a countrywide operation, which the religious right, headed by Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal, vehemently condemned. He had also asked more than 11,000 seminaries to register with the government or face closure. Gen Musharraf underscored the need for addressing the root causes of terrorism and said the fight against this menace could not be won without addressing unresolved political disputes like Palestine in a just manner. Pakistan established its first diplomatic contact with Israel, whom it does not recognize, when their foreign ministers met in Istanbul last Thursday.
— UNI |
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Pak offers to mediate on Iran nuclear issue
Islamabad, September 8 He told reporters that Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani’s talks with him and with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for several hours covered “all aspects of our relationship” and US and European Union’s objections to Iran’s nuclear programme. “It was a very useful and fruitful exchange of views,” Mr Kasuri said about the talks without giving details while answering reporters’ questions after inaugurating a media centre of the South Asian Free Media Association non-governmental organisation in Islamabad. In an obvious reference to fears of possible use of force against Iran to deter it from pursuing its nuclear programme, Mr Kasuri said Pakistan had already suffered a lot from the consequences of 26 years of violence in neighbouring Afghanistan and “we don’t want that another brotherly country meet a similar situation and is subjected to violence”. “We are against the use of force and violence,” he said, and added that Pakistan wanted a peaceful settlement of the problem for which it could help the international community. Asked if Pakistan could mediate, he said: “We can only be a mediator or play the role of a facilitator if we are asked (by the parties). But whether we are asked or not we have a fundamental interest in peace on our borders.” Mr Kasuri said Mr Larijani, who is also the Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, thanked Pakistan for its role in the nuclear affair, particularly in talks with the EU and the US. He said Pakistan’s stand was that while every country must fulfil its treaty obligations, its rights under a treaty should also be protected, and that the same should apply to Iran, which is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that allows peaceful nuclear activities. Washington and the EU fear Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons, but Teheran says it only wants to produce nuclear energy. |
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India, China sign MoU on security
Beijing, September 8 Mr Wen welcomed Mr Patil, who is here on a five-day official visit, and said the high-level visit would further promote Sino-Indian relations. Describing his visit to India in April as a “successful” one, Mr
Wen, who met Mr Patil at the Great Hall of the People, said China attached high importance to good neighbourly relations with India. Earlier, Mr Patil held talks with Chinese State Councillor and Minister for Public Security Zhou Yongkang. The talks lasted nearly 90 minutes. The two ministers will discuss security issues and ways to forge closer cooperation in combating terrorism, official sources said prior to the talks. Besides terrorism, closer cooperation between the police of the two countries to tackle border crimes and holding regular exchanges to share expertise on law and order will be discussed between Mr Patil and Chinese leaders, the Chinese media reported.
— PTI |
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Crime against Indians on the rise
London, September 8 There were as many as 932 instances of such hate crimes against Indians, who are predominantly Hindus or Sikhs, as opposed to approximately 600 instances of faith-related hate crime against Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims, Mr Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General of the Forum said last evening. "As Asians we all look the same, and are equally vulnerable to any backlash," Mr Kallidai said. At the same time Hindu leaders noted that most of the hate crimes against the community were perpetrated through mistaken identity. "However, our greatest concern is that there is no official recognition yet of the vulnerability of Hindus and Sikhs," Kallidai said. During the special meeting organised by the Forum and the Metropolitan Police Hindu Association, he said the leaders voiced concern over lack of community infrastructure to prevent hate crimes and help the victims. "Even worse is the fact that there has been a very low level of Government engagement to understand what effect such a high level of hate crime is having on our confidence in the criminal justice system," he said.
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PTI |
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Pak hails spirit behind talks
Islamabad, September 8 “The most important thing is the spirit behind it,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri told reporters here yesterday, inaugurating the new office of the South Asian Free Media Association.
— PTI |
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One killed in stampede after bomb scare
Colombo, September 8 Fiftyseven others sustained minor injuries, with most getting hurt while trying to leave the aircraft.
— PTI |
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