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Maoists to join interim govt
Iran ready for unconditional talks
2 Indian enterprises
win Green Oscars
Poonch-Rawalkot bus service from June 20
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Pak to liberalise visas for Sikhs
Pakistan blocks Indo-Afghan trade
Pak may challenge Tharoor’s nomination
King of Everest still going strong
Adoor wins Crystal
40 rebels killed
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Maoists to join interim govt Kathmandu, June 16 “This is a historic decision and will move the country in a new direction,” 58-year-old Prachanda told a crowded press conference after the marathon parleys which lasted for over 10 hours. Home Minister Krishna Sitoula, who is also head of the government’s peace talks team, said, “We reached an eight-point understanding to get the country ahead of the current crisis.” As per the understanding, the Nepalese government is to dissolve Parliament and set up the interim government that would include the Maoists. Prachanda said he wanted the interim goverment in place within one month and elections to a constituent assembly by May, 2007, at the latest. “A new interim constitution will be prepared within three weeks and after that the new interim government will be formed,” he said. He also offered to dissolve Maoist administration in areas under their control once Parliament is dissolved. “We will dissolve the old Parliament, we will dissolve our governments, this is the main spirit of the decision taken at the meeting,” the Maoist chief said. Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, was accompanied by his wife, his deputy Baburam Bhattarai and chief Maoist peace negotiator Krishna Bahadur Mahara to the talks at the residence of 84-year-old Koirala.
— pti |
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Iran ready for unconditional talks
Almaty, June 16 "Negotiations must be without preconditions," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqshi said at a news conference. "Those posing conditions in advance want to have results in advance and in this case negotiations cannot be fair and non-discriminatory," Araqshi said. Iranian officials have made clear that the country is not prepared to stop enriching uranium as a precondition for entering talks with six world powers, including the United States, on a package of incentives aimed at encouraging Iran to forego highly sensitive nuclear work. The United States says Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear power program. Tehran denies the accusation, but insists that it has the same right as any country to develop its own nuclear power. "We are sure there are many positive points" in the package of incentives crafted by the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany. "But there remain a few things we do not understand," Araqshi said. "We regard the fact that various countries want to sit down at the negotiating table as positive. We are prepared to start negotiations," he added. Araqshi was in Almaty where Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to join more than a dozen other leaders for a regional summit. — AFP
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2 Indian enterprises win Green Oscars London, June 16 The organisations which have won the award include Appropriate Technology Institute (AARTI), Pune, for the design of a revolutionary biogas system that generates gas for cooking from food waste and other sugary and starchy material. The other is International Development Enterprises of India (IDEI) which has been behind the manufacture and distribution of 510,000 treadle pumps - a simple device that uses human power to pump water from wells, streams and lakes up onto the fields allowing farmers to grow crops all yearround. Besides, Vivekananda Kendra and Nardep, bagged thesecond prize of £10,000 for making a series of advances to biogas designs which generate gas for cooking and developed effective ways of using slurry as a powerful fertilizer using a combination of new and traditional techniques. Lord May of Oxford, a former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and former Head of the UK Office of Science and Technology presented the awards to Anand Karve of AARTI and Amitabha Sadangi, Executive Director of IDEI at a largely attended function at the Royal Geographical Society here lastnight.
— PTI
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Poonch-Rawalkot bus service from June 20
Islamabad, June 16 Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said India had suggested to have the inaugural run a day later than the initial plan of June 19 and Pakistan had accepted it. A senior Indian diplomat also said it had been agreed by both sides to begin the service from June 20. After talks in New Delhi on May 3, both sides had decided to start the bus service, which would be the second connecting the Kashmir regions, linking the Poonch sector of Jammu and Rawalkot in the POK. It was a long-standing demand from the locals of both sides as it drastically reduced the travel time to Jammu. Passengers travelling from and to Jammu by the Srinagar-Muzafarabad bus service, which had been operation for over a year now, had complained that they had to travel too long a distance. Like the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad service, the Poonch-Rawalkot bus, too, would be run with the unique arrangement where passengers did not need to have passports and visas but would travel with special permits issued after verification. — PTI
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Pak to liberalise visas for Sikhs
Islamabad, June 16 “The government would not only issue them liberal visas but also offer them all possible facilities during their stay in Pakistan,” Aziz said after inaugurating a seminar held in connection with the 400th death anniversary of Guru Arjun Dev in Lahore yesterday. Aziz said the teachings of Guru Nanak, which are based on love, peace and harmony, should be practised for the betterment of the people. The seminar on ‘Muslim-Sikh relations in historical perspective’ was organised by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. Aziz said both Pakistan and India are “important countries” in the region where “impeccable peace” must prevail, adding that Islamabad believed in solving “all disputes” through dialogue. — PTI
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Pakistan blocks Indo-Afghan trade
Islamabad, June 16 Afghanistan's Finance Minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Ahady told reporters here yesterday after attending the Pak-Afghan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) that Pakistan has not agreed to his request to permit transit facilities for Indian goods to Afghanistan. "If the transit was extended, then it would provide a relief to Afghanistan," Ahady was quoted in the media here as saying. Pakistan, on its part, maintained that it has permitted Afghanistan to route its exports to India through Wagah but declined requests from Afghanistan to permit Indian export through the same route. Currently, Afghanistan's exports to India via the Wagah border include dry fruits, asafoetida etc. New Delhi routes all its exports, including heavy machinery, to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port in Iran. Salman Shah, Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister on Finance who led the Pakistan delegation at the talks said the two sides agreed to initiate steps to work out a Preferential Trade Treaty as well as Free Trade Treaty. — PTI
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Pak may challenge Tharoor’s nomination
United Nations, June 16 Islamabad believes that New Delhi fielding a candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General clearly indicates that it has given up its bid for a permanent seat in the Security Council for lack of support, its Ambassador Munir Akram told reporters after India announced Tharoor’s nomination for the post.
— PTI
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King of Everest still going strong
Kathmandu, June 16 The wiry 46-year old with stooped shoulders is regarded as the king of all sherpas by climbers and peers alike, and last month he risked his life and wife's wrath to return to Everest's 8,848 metre summit. While news that he had again conquered the "death-zone" made him the toast of the town in Nepal's Thame, in Solukhumbu district in the foothills of the Himalayas, his worried wife wasn't joining in the celebrations. "When I said I had retired, it was not due to my physical condition, but due to family pressure," says Apa Sherpa, who announced he was quitting in 2003. "My wife did not know about this season's summit until I reached there. She was very angry," he adds, breaking into an infectious laugh. Despite his promise to quit, Apa was also back atop Everest in 2004 and 2005. His wife's fears are understandable on a mountain that has claimed more than 200 lives. Of 11 persons killed on the mountain's treacherous, thin-aired slopes. — AFP
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Adoor wins Crystal London, June 16 Instituted by the South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF), a London-based organisation that explores many splendoured cinema of South Asia beyond Bollywood, the award was presented last night to him by India's High Commissioner in London Kamalesh Sharma at the Nehru Centre in the presence of distinguished guests. The citation said: "Adoor, India's foremost filmmaker, has been chosen for the award for his entire body of work. "Adoor Gopalakrishnan's films right from “Swayamvaram” to “Nizhalkkuthu”, mirror the tumultuous decades of Kerala's evolution before and after Indian Independence. His cinema also reflects the progression of social change and documents the rise and fall of political ideologies in rural and urban Kerala. "But, on a deeper lever, his films are universal human documents that reflect upon human sensitivity and vulnerability and the simplicity as well as complexity of human behaviour," it said. Adoor also released a book, “A Door to Adoor” edited by Joshi and C.S Venkiteswaran with a foreword by Shyam
Benegal. — PTI
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40 rebels killed
Kabul, June 16 The "enemy fighters" were killed in a strike in a remote, mountainous rebel stronghold in southeastern Paktika province, on the border with Pakistan, the US-led force said late yesterday. The strike — which began Wednesday and ended yesterday — was part of Operation Mountain Thrust, the biggest push against militants since the fall of the Taliban government nearly five years ago, it said in a statement.
— AFP
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