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Iran wants more time to study Russian proposal
Hamas invites factions for partnership
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Pitfalls in courting Chinese investment
Mesmerised by China’s miracle economy, the Indian Government seems to have fallen into the ‘‘hypnotic trap’’, wanting to emulate the Chinese economic model. However, New Delhi would do well to consider several pitfalls before gloating over the $ 18 billion Sino-Indian bilateral trade, growing at the rate of 20 per cent. 11 Maoists killed in clash
Call to boycott Manisha’s films
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Iran wants more time to study Russian proposal
Tehran, January 28 Moscow’s idea to enrich uranium outside Iran is seen as a way out of a growing crisis over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and has received cautious and conditional support from the United States and the European Union. “This proposal is under review,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. “We are seriously studying it. This proposal should be comprehensive, so it becomes a solution for the nuclear case. We need more time; we should continue the intensive talks until the IAEA meeting in March,” he said. Russia’s idea is that the sensitive nuclear fuel work — which could potentially be diverted to produce nuclear weapons — should be conducted outside the Islamic republic as a way of preventing Iran for acquiring bomb-making technology but also guaranteeing its access to nuclear energy. But the EU and US still want to see Iran referred to the UN Security Council when the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors holds an emergency meeting in Vienna on February 2. They also want Iran to return to a full suspension of other fuel cycle work — namely enrichment research which Iran restarted on January 10 and uranium conversion which was restarted last August. Russia has huge economic interest in Iran’s nuclear programme and is reluctant to call in the Security Council next week, preferring for the council to be merely “informed” of developments. But Mottaki warned that “referring or informing the case to the UN Security Council carries the same meaning for us”. This warning has already been spelled out as comprising of a resumption of industrial-scale enrichment and a halt in the application of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s additional protocol giving the IAEA more powers of inspection.
— AFP |
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Hamas invites factions for partnership
Syria, January 28 The Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal outlined three goals: Reform of the Palestinian authority, sustaining its resistance to Israel and "arranging the Palestinian home." The Hamas chief also obliquely refused to disarm. "As long as we are under occupation, resistance is our right," Mashaal said. Marshal said he was in contact with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We will reach a partnership formula, and we extend our hand to everyone," he said. No Palestinian faction would be sidelined, he added. Hamas won 75 seats of the 132-member Parliament in this week's election. Mashaal attacked US and Israeli opposition to the Hamas victory, saying, "The world raised the slogan of democracy and now it should respect the results of democracy." He declared Hamas' determination to reshape the Palestinian authority, coining the phrase: "Hamas succeeded in resistance and it will succeed in reforms."
— AFP |
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Pitfalls in courting Chinese investment
Mesmerised by China’s miracle economy, the Indian Government seems to have fallen into the ‘‘hypnotic trap’’, wanting to emulate the Chinese economic model. However, New Delhi would do well to consider several pitfalls before gloating over the $ 18 billion Sino-Indian bilateral trade, growing at the rate of 20 per cent.
Key sources told this correspondent today that going ahead full throttle in increasing bilateral trade volume without necessary checks and balances was fraught with national security risks, considering the Chinese favourite strategy of using its personnel for espionage. A brief review of Chinese high-technology intelligence operations in the USA and the Western Europe would reveal how intricate and convoluted the Chinese espionage art is. In the West, where the Intelligence has far more resources, manpower, technological expertise and freedom of action than their Indian counterparts, only the tip of Chinese espionage iceberg has been detected. All Chinese who go abroad for higher studies, work or even migrate, are given one moral task: if they send even one important information during their lifetime, they would have served the motherland. This is a very strong psychological premise for the Chinese, including expatriates. The “Committee of 100”, a powerful expatriate Chinese group in the USA, ensured the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage case in 2000/2001 attracted no conviction. Taking advantage of the close US-China partnership against the Soviet Union, Chinese scientists were able to access top secret US laboratories. Countries like France and Belgium have woken up to industrial espionage by Chinese students and employees. China creates its espionage platform in a number of ways, and the operational path can be very indirect. It has been established that the Clinton-Gore administration was subverted through a Chinese “Triad” group, and the channel of the Indonesian Lippo Group owned by the Raidy family who are of Chinese origin. The CIA claims to have established links between the Lippo Group and Chinese Intelligence. Now a look at Chinese and China-connected companies interested in India. China’s flagship telecommunication and information technology company, the Huawei Technology, is already in India. It wants to expand further and has tied up with India’s cutting-edge software technology companies. A good Internet search reveals interesting insights, which the company has not contested. From the military security angle, it was involved in upgrading Iraq’s military radar installation when Iraq was under international sanctions; it is involved in upgrading Pakistan’s communication system; it was sued by its US sectional partner, CISCO, for Intellectual Property theft; it is in charge of China’s high security communications, including VVIP communications, and more. Another Chinese telecommunication company, the ZTE, is involved in a top secret Chinese Information Warfare (IW) and Electronic Warfare (EW) project. ZTE has shown interest in India. Both companies have the expertise to embed bugs in systems, which can be remotely activated at will to cripple the entire network. Like Raidys’ Lippo Group, Hong Kong tycoon Li Kasheng’s Hutchison Whampoa Group is interested in specific seaport projects in India. Li Kasheng has made no secrets about his proximity to the highest level of Chinese leaders. His company is closely connected to the Chinese military intelligence, according to sources. Hutchison’s seaport operation as world’s leading expertise is in no doubt. Back to the past. Hutchinson’s crowning success was winning the operation contract at both ends of the Panama Canal in 1999. Despite strong opposition in the USA on security grounds, the Clinton administration awarded the contract to Hutchison. The Clinton administration had already been subverted through illegal fundings. The economically backward Panamanian government decorated Li Kasheng with one of the country’s highest honours. The Panama Canal is a major strategic naval waterway for the USA in case of an emergency in the Asia-Pacific Region, China’s domination area. The Pacific Century Cyberworks, a Hutchinson Group company, had tried to sell a telecommunication system to the Indian market a few years ago, which had a concealed window to route all communications to a hub in Hong Kong. This was done in spite of certification that the equipment was totally independent. China has replaced the USA as the number one destination for foreign investment. India has been a slow and cautious starter. Despite scathing criticism from sections of experts and media pundits, however, caution may turn out to be wise. China’s covert technological (including military technology) acquisition machinery was already in operation in the USA when, in 1993, President Jiang Zemin unveiled his top secret acquisition from Western Europe. Then, India was not on China’s radar screen. Today, it is. |
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11 Maoists killed in clash
Kathmandu, January 28 The attack at Hachuwagadi area of the district late last night by a joint team of the security forces, was in retaliation to a Maoist raid at a security base in the, they said. Eleven dead bodies of the rebels have been recovered after the attack, an army official said, adding, that a soldier and an armed police force man were also killed in the fighting. Five security personnel, who sustained injuries have been airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, the sources
said. — PTI |
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Call to boycott Manisha’s films
Kathmandu, January 28 Angry
activists from the eight student organisations affiliated to the pro-democracy parties burnt photographs of the actress in Damauli of Tanhu district and Pokhara of Kaski district and shouted slogans against the actress who is the daughter of Nepal’s Science and Technology Minister Prakash Koirala. The activists were upset with her for backing a mayoral candidate in her hometown Biratnagar and for giving an interview on Nepal Television and The Rising Nepal in support of monarchy and the King-announced Municipal polls.
— PTI |
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