W O R L D

Burns confident of Congress support
N-deal with India
The Bush administration is confident that by early 2006 it will be in a position to urge members of the US Congress to amend laws and allow a historic civilian nuclear deal with India to materialise.

4 Americans charged with terror plot
Washington, October 19
A Pakistani and four Americans have been charged with plotting terror attacks on military facilities and synagogues in the USA, prosecutors said. Their trial will start on October 24 in a California court.

Indian relief goods reach Pakistan
Lahore, October 19
Noted human rights activist Nirmala Desh Pande and members of Parliament AR Shaheen and Hannan Mollah arrived in Pakistan along with relief material for the victims of the devastating October 8 earthquake.

Lahore-Amritsar bus talks put off   An elderly earthquake victim breaks down in tears as Yasin Malik, Chairman of the Jammu Kahsmir Liberation Front (JKLF), comforts him in a Rawalpindi hospital on Wednesday. — Reuters

Listen to music to stay slim
Vancouver, October 19
Listening to music during physical activity may be the key to motivating people who dislike exercise, new research suggests. US scientists reported their findings from a study of overweight and obese women to a conference on obesity today.

Burns confident of Congress support
N-deal with India
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

The Bush administration is confident that by early 2006 it will be in a position to urge members of the US Congress to amend laws and allow a historic civilian nuclear deal with India to materialise.

R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, will travel to New Delhi later this week to work out a plan with Indian officials to separate the India’s civil and military nuclear programmes, a prerequisite to the agreement.

“Once that plan has been clearly enunciated and once it has been committed to by the Indian government and we begin to see its implementation, it will be a short time before the U.S. Congress enacts the necessary legislative changes to bring this into being, and that will be a welcome moment, indeed,” he said at the Asia Society.

Mr Burns said that by the time President George W. Bush visits India in early 2006 “both of our countries will have met our commitments in this landmark agreement and we will see it come to fruition.”

However, he noted, some “serious and very complex steps — in our case legislative and in India’s case to separate civilian and military facilities that will require months of work,” need to be taken before the Administration can approach members of Congress.

India has pledged to segregate its civil and military nuclear sectors and develop an appropriate safeguards regime. “This is a necessary step to implement our agreement. By demonstrating our ability to follow through on our commitments, we gain the confidence to embark on even more ambitious projects in the future,” Mr Burns said.

Mr Burns delivered his speech on the eve of attending a meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna where he will urge member states to approve the nuclear deal with India. The third-most senior State Department official said the Bush administration was committed to working with the Nuclear Suppliers Group “to enable full peaceful civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India.” The deal has the support of International Atomic Energy Agency as well as Britain, France, and Russia.

Besides working out details with Indian officials of a time table for implementation of commitments made by New Delhi and Washington, Mr Burns is also expected to urge his Indian hosts to continue supporting US opposition to Iran’s nuclear programme.

He held up India’s recent vote to find Iran in non-compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency standards as a “dramatic example” of New Delhi’s stand on the issue. The vote was an indicator of where India stood on the “critical effort to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability,” he said.

4 Americans charged with terror plot
Anwar Iqbal
By arrangement with The Dawn

Washington, October 19
A Pakistani and four Americans have been charged with plotting terror attacks on military facilities and synagogues in the USA, prosecutors said. Their trial will start on October 24 in a California court.

Levar Haley Washington (25), Gregory Vernon Patterson (21), Hammad Riaz Samana (21) and Kevin James (29) have been accused of conspiring to wage war against the US government through terrorism, kill armed service members and murder foreign officials.

All but Samana, a Pakistani national, are American-born and Muslim converts.

Prosecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Samana at the behest of James -— an inmate at the California State Prison, Sacramento — who allegedly founded the radical group Jamiyyat ul-Islam-us-Saheeh.

Washington converted to Islam while imprisoned at the same facility for a robbery conviction.

The police uncovered the alleged plot in July while investigating a string of gas station robberies. They found what they believe was a target listing that included three California National Guard facilities, the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles and several synagogues.

James’ public defender, Robert Carlin, has previously said his client was “surprised and shocked” to learn that the government believes he orchestrated a terror plot.

Patterson’s attorney, Winston McKesson, had said his client “has been a productive citizen his entire life.”

Indian relief goods reach Pakistan

Lahore, October 19
Noted human rights activist Nirmala Desh Pande and members of Parliament AR Shaheen and Hannan Mollah arrived in Pakistan along with relief material for the victims of the devastating October 8 earthquake.

They were received at the Wagah border by Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign’s central president Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed and other activists yesterday, the Daily Times reported.

Addressing a news conference at the Lahore Press Club, the MPs expressed solidarity with the people of Pakistan and said, “Indians and Pakistanis were together in facing this terrible calamity.”

They urged the governments of the two countries to relax visa norms and allow Indians access to the affected areas so that they could help with relief efforts.

Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed underlined the need for coordinated rescue and relief operations. He thanked the Indian community and the delegates for their generosity in helping Pakistanis in their time of need. The delegation is on a two-day visit to help with relief operations.

Meanwhile, the third Indian train carrying 182 tonnes of relief goods for the quake-hit people of the PoK and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) arrived in Lahore yesterday.

Dr Ramesh Chandra, press counselor at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, received the train and handed over the relief goods to Punjab Relief Commission Director General Irfan Elahi.

The third consignment contained 9.5 tonnes of plastic sheet, 100 tonnes of fortified biscuits, 10 tonnes of medicines, 36 tonnes of water proof tents (250 tents) and 26 tonnes of blankets (8,565 blankets).

Though it was the final relief consignment from India, Dr Chandra said that India was ready to do everything possible on humanitarian grounds. — UNI

Lahore-Amritsar bus talks put off

Islamabad, October 19
India and Pakistan have decided to postpone the talks on the Lahore-Amritsar bus service, which were to be held on October 25-26 here, Foreign Ministry sources said today.

The decision came in wake of the devastating October 8 earthquake as the entire state machinery is busy in relief work, the sources added.

The new dates for the talks will be announced later. — UNI

Listen to music to stay slim

Vancouver, October 19
Listening to music during physical activity may be the key to motivating people who dislike exercise, new research suggests.

US scientists reported their findings from a study of overweight and obese women to a conference on obesity today. The research showed that patients who were given a portable CD player to listen to music while walking lost more weight and body fat than the group who walked without music.

The group with CD players also followed the exercise programme more faithfully, while fewer of them dropped out of the programme, said psychology professor Christopher Capuano, of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey.

“Walking to music seemed to really motivate the women in our study to get out there,” he told the annual meeting of NAASO, The Obesity Society, in Vancouver, in western Canada.

Carpuano’s group studied 41 women during a 24-week programme of dieting, walking exercise three times each week, and weekly group meetings.

Carpuano noted that one of the biggest problems with long-term weight control programmes was the dropout rate and music may prompt participants to stick with their regime. — AFP