 |
|
Drop N-designs, take reactors, USA tells N. Korea
Musharraf an extraordinary man, says Rice
Pak ready to go extra mile for Kashmir solution: Kasuri
Lanka extends emergency
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Koizumi takes PM’s seat again
12 held for attack on Ahmadiyas
|
|
Drop N-designs, take reactors, USA tells N. Korea
Washington, September 21 “All we’re saying is if there’s going to be a discussion, not presuming what that discussion (on nuclear power reactor) will entail,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday. “If there’s going to be a discussion, it will only take place after North Korea has done all these things: eliminate its weapons programmes and its weapons, having that elimination dismantlement be verified, rejoining the NPT and complying with IAEA safeguards,” he said. “Once that’s done, and if people want to talk about civil nuclear programme and light-water reactors, then that would be the appropriate time to do it,” Ereli said. North Korea had at the six-nation talks in Beijing on Monday pledged to give up its nuclear weapons in return for energy and security guarantees but warned yesterday that the offer was conditional on US concessions. “They are telling us to give up everything, but there is nothing we should give up first,” North Korea’s envoy to the talks Kim Gye-gwan told mediapersons in Beijing, adding the US “can prove a change to its hostile policy against the DPRK by providing light-water reactors.” The North Korean Foreign Ministry also said in its statement that the US “should not even dream” it would dismantle its nuclear arsenal until Washington had provided the reactors. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met her Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing at the United Nations, where both agreed that the North Korean nuclear deal reached in Beijing was binding on the parties. “They both agreed that the agreement signed in Beijing by the six parties was the binding text for (the) parties, including on the question of light water reactors,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. “Both agreed that the next round of six-party talks should focus on issues related to the North’s dismantlement of its nuclear programmes and the verification of that dismantlement,” he added.
— PTI |
|
Musharraf an extraordinary man, says Rice
New York, September 21 Speaking to the Time Magazine Editorial Board on Tuesday, Rice listed the ways in which Pakistan had changed after 9/11, and that included the rapprochement between Islamabad and New Delhi. ‘‘Pakistan is an interesting case because, yes, it is not 100 per cent where we would like it to be in terms of democratic development or having rooted out extremism but if you look at where it was four years ago and where it is now, it is night and day," Rice said during an extended interview while she was attending the UN General Assembly sessions here. Looking at the trends in Pakistan, she noted, ‘‘...in this case, you have somebody who, I think, has made a principled decision to rid Pakistan of its extremist elements and of the extremism that started to grip that country when it became a transit point for jihadists at the time of the Afghan war.’’ She added that it was very close to destabilising the country and possibly leading to a ‘‘Talibanised Pakistan’’. Rice noted how disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was selling centrifuge technology to all kinds of people, a ring that had now been shut down. She also recalled how India and Pakistan were on the verge of war. ‘‘Four years ago, I will never forget Christmas 2001 on the phone with Colin Powell and Jack Straw (British Foreign Secretary), and David Manning (foreign policy adviser to Blair) trying to figure out who was going to visit from Great Britain or the US so that they wouldn’t go to war between India and Pakistan. ‘‘Now, you have an Indian-Pakistani rapprochement in large part because Musharraf has taken a stand against extremism. You know, it’s a very different picture and so I think he’s a remarkable figure and he’s making a difference.’’ Responding to a question on Pakistan not allowing US forces on its soil even to track down Osama bin-Laden, Rice countered the idea that Musharraf did not have the political will to catch the terrorist ring leader. It was difficult to catch Bin Laden because of the tough terrain, she contended.
— IANS |
|
Pak ready to go extra mile for Kashmir solution: Kasuri
United Nations, September 21 He underscored that “Pakistan, despite international legitimacy on its side, has proposed that this objective be achieved bilaterally by finding a peaceful solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute which meets the aspirations of the Kashmiri people at the same time is acceptable to both Pakistan and India.” “We have repeatedly urged that rigidity and coercion must give way to accommodation and flexibility — if indeed, we are to find a durable and peaceful solution to the problem,” Mr Kasuri said. Asserting that “Pakistan’s commitment to the peace process remains undiminished,” Mr Kasuri told the meting that “it is for this reason that President Musharraf has proposed the demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir and as a first step he has proposed that Indian troops should be withdrawn from the urban centres in Kashmir.” “This important CBM would not only raise the comfort level of the Kashmiri people but would provide a much-needed boost to the Pakistan-India peace process,” he added. Mr Kasuri said “Pakistan has always stressed upon the necessity of a meaningful, constructive and result-oriented dialogue for peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.” He noted that ‘‘the people of Kashmir, who have undergone untold sufferings and hardship over the years, undoubtedly deserve our sincere effort towards alleviating their misfortune. The epoch-making sacrifices rendered by the valiant Kashmir people, realistically speaking, have laid the foundation for the current Pakistan-India dialogue process.” Saying that “there has been progress on confidence building measures which have brought the temperature down in South Asia considerably,” Mr Kasuri, however, noted “only some progress has been made on Kashmir related CBMs such as observance of cease-fire along LOC, commencement of Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service and visit of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) delegation to Pakistan.” The meeting was attended by Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, Sardar Muhammad Anwar Khan, President, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman, All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
|
|
Colombo, September 21 The state of emergency gives government and police special powers to detain suspects and deploy troops if need be. The move comes as ties between the state and the Tigers are at their lowest ebb since a 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of civil war. Slain Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar’s killers are still at large. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deny any involvement — a denial analysts dismiss as a stock disclaimer. “The motion to extend the emergency powers was passed in parliament,’’ Speaker of the House W.J.M. Lokubandara told lawmakers. The month-long extension also comes as Sri Lanka heads into a November 17 presidential election, which will help set the course of the island’s future security and economic policies. Left-of-centre Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse is set to face off against his right-of-centre predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe in a November 17 vote seen too close to call. Mr Rajapakse, popular with the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, has aligned himself with hardline Marxists and monks who detest the Tigers, fervently opposes privatisation and has vowed to nurture local business to take on foreign competitors. The Marxists and the monks both want Mr Rajapakse to take a tough line in a bid to turn the truce into a permanent end to a civil war that killed over 64,000 people. They also want him to ditch plans to share tsunami aid with the Tigers, a demand that has angered the rebels. Sri Lanka’s main donors stepped into the fray on Monday, urging the government and the Tigers to preserve the truce and halt a rash of killings that culminated in Kadirgamar’s assassination amid a silent war the military and the rebels each blame on the other. Business leaders and investors are betting on a win by Wickremesinghe, who is perceived as more market friendly and more likely to reach a permanent peace deal with the Tigers. But many worry that Wickremesinghe is out of touch with the middle class and poor, who voted him out of power in 2004. — Reuters
|
|
Koizumi takes PM’s seat again
Tokyo, September 21 Koizumi, who took office in April 2001, was chosen by members of the 480-seat Lower House, where his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) took a commanding 296 seats in the September, 11 general election, ensuring he would remain Prime Minister. Koizumi called the election after rebels in his own party voted with the Opposition in the Upper House to kill Bills to privatise Japan Post, a financial services giant with $ 3 trillion in assets. He had cast the election as a referendum on postal privatisation, which he considers the core of his reform agenda. ‘’I have been promoting structural reform until now, and I want to put it on a solid track,’’ Koizumi told a news conference after the Lower House voted for him. “I want to enact the postal bills in this special session of Parliament,’’ he added.
— Reuters |
|
12 held for attack on Ahmadiyas
Jakarta, September 21 Hundreds of angry Muslims in West Java torched more than 30 houses on Monday and vandalised four mosques used by the Indonesian Ahmadiyah congregation, whose teachings differ from the Islam. ‘’We have questioned 48 persons, and 12 of them have now been declared suspects. They are held in prison,’’ said police spokesman Ariyanto Budihardjo. He said the police in Cianjur regency, about 100 km southeast of Jakarta, had tightened security to prevent further violence against the group. Local media have reported the attackers mostly came from the neighbourhood and a nearby Islamic boarding school. The attack was just the latest against Ahmadiya, which has been branded a heretical group by the Indonesian Ulema Council, the secular country’s highest Muslim authority that recently issued a fatwa, or edict, against it. — 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 | |
