 |
|
|
N-deal not before summer recess,
says Senate Chairman
Coventry man questioned
on Mumbai blasts
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Warrants issued for arrest of Benazir, Zardari
Pak says forget Kargil, Siachen and move ahead
Fresh tsunami fear sparks scramble in Java
Hearing on Air India bombing begins
|
|
N-deal not before summer recess,
says Senate Chairman
Washington, July 19 "No. I hope after that," Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Richard Lugar told reporters after his address to the Indian American Friendship Council, celebrating its 10th anniversary here. The Republican lawmaker said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has not scheduled a vote on the US-India deal. In the course of his address, Lugar stressed that while there are some in the State Department and the Indian Foreign Ministry who maintain that Congress changed the language of the agreement that was reached, the changes are "constructive" and hoped that even if they are "controversial", the leaders on the two sides will not delay. Earlier, in his brief remarks to the Friendship Council, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska also made the point that the civilian nuclear deal may not be taken up by the Senate before the August recess. "The civilian nuclear agreement presents a set of issues which are difficult for many in the Parliament in India to debate and certainly has been very difficult for members of our Senate and House of Representatives to resolve in part," he said. Lugar said, "We approached the issue in our Foreign Relations Committee deliberations very steadily and likewise in a manner in which I hope to bring about the widest majority of support that was possible on both the democratic and the Republican side." Meanwhile, Veteran groups in the USA have come out in support of the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal and urged the Congress to clear the legislation pending before it in this regard as the accord serves the future security of America. “We know what it means to defend America; therefore we offer our strong support for the nuclear initiative and we want to thank the Congress for taking up the pact and urge it to complete the work on the agreement,” the veteran groups said. The statement has been signed by several veteran groups like the Veterans of Foreign Reserve Officers Association, the Reserve Enlisted Association, the Korean War Veterans, the American Military Society, the Armed Forces Top Enlisted Association, the Gold Star Wives of America and the Retired Enlisted Association. The groups said America would be faced with new “future military challenges” that could come from potential threats from China, Iran and North Korea. “India, the world’s largest democracy and a growing military and economic force, can help American security interests in a way no other nations in the area can.
— PTI
|
|
Coventry man questioned
on Mumbai blasts
London, July 19 The 31-year-old taxi driver from East Midlands, Mohammed Ajmal Khan, is in jail on a nine-year sentence for raising funds and buying weapons for terror group Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT). “Khan was a leading figure in LeT and money he raised would have been used to buy arms and explosives of the type used in the Indian attacks,” Birmingham-based weekly Sunday Mercury reported quoting security services sources. “There is no evidence to suggest that he was directly involved but he will be of great intelligence value to the investigation because of his connections and influence,”
it said. Earlier this year, Khan was described at Snaresbrook Crown Court as a “high-ranking” LeT operative who had travelled the globe to acquire sophisticated weaponry and surveillance equipment. He was arrested in Coventry in March last year. The court had said Ajmal Khan was a “person of authority” in LeT. Besides being trained in Pakistan, he had “travelled widely in furtherance of terrorist aims but had made available funds for terror purposes from an unidentified but undeniably terrorist-related
source.” — PTI
|
|
Warrants issued for arrest of Benazir, Zardari
Islamabad, July 19 The court directed them to appear on September 7. A National Accountability Bureau official said the Pakistan People’s Party leaders were accused of filing false assets declaration before the Election Commission in 1993. As they were absent from the proceedings, the court, after hearing NAB senior prosecutor NAB Abdul Baseer Qureshi, ordered issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for both of them. The court ordered the authorities concerned to serve the notices through Interpol. The NAB in its petition said that Ms Bhutto and her husband had gathered immense wealth and property in foreign countries earned through illegal and corrupt means. The official said the accused had admitted the ownership of the properties in a Swiss court. Meanwhile, the PPP termed the issuance of the warrants an abuse of the judicial process by President Musharraf’s regime. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement that Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari had declared their assets before the returning officers in Larkana and Nawabshah, respectively, in 1993 and no objection was raised at that time. “If Ms Bhutto has mis-declared assets before the Election Commission, then it is for the chief election commissioner to give notice to her and not for the NAB,” he said.
|
|
Pak says forget Kargil, Siachen and move ahead
Islamabad, July 19 Complaining that it was being made a "convenient scapegoat", Pakistan today said that India's approach to the peace process appears to be that New Delhi was "doing a favour" by participating in it. But Islamabad wants the dialogue to be continued as more has been achieved during this peace process than in the past.
— PTI
|
|
Fresh tsunami fear sparks scramble in Java
Pangandaran (Indonesia), July 19 Rescuers pulled out bodies from the debris and aid trickled into worst-hit Pangandaran town while a search continued for about 275 people still missing after the tsunami smashed into a 300-km stretch of coast along southern Java. A light aftershock that shook Pangandaran beach sent some people running, while others headed inland on motorcycles and cars as rumours circulated of a fresh tsunami. Indonesian media questioned why there was no warning ahead of Monday's killer waves despite regional efforts to set up early alert systems after the massive Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The Jakarta Post said in an editorial the disaster agency had done ''nothing of note to increase people's preparedness for disasters''. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters the government would build an early warning system in Java and other areas in Indonesia in three years. Along the coastline, heavy equipment was deployed to help in the search for bodies left under the rubble when the waves rolled in after a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake. Government officials said as many as 54,000 people were displaced from wrecked fishing villages, farms and beach resorts, adding to the rehabilitation headache for authorities after an earthquake that killed more than 5,700 people in central Java less than two months earlier. More than a dozen corpses in yellow body bags lay in a makeshift morgue near the devastated Pangandaran beach, a popular tourist spot known for its black-sand shore and barbecue seafood.
— Reuters
|
|
Hearing on Air India bombing begins
Toronto, July 19
The Commission presided by retired Supreme Court judge Justice John Major, the head of the Commission looking into one of Canada’s worst disaster that claimed 329 lives, began the hearings on Tuesday to assess submissions from Malik and 19 others from the families of the victims. The only man convicted in the sensational case was Inderjit Singh Reyat on charges of manslaughter. Malik and Bagri were acquitted in a criminal trial last year. The families of victims will make a series of 15-minute oral submissions over the next two days, to testify about the impact the tragedy has had on them, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report said.
— PTI
|
| 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 | |
