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Hope for Indo-US N-deal yet
Thousands protest MP’s killing
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Talks with India a challenge for Havana spirit: Kasuri
Pak airports on terror alert
Longest-living US President
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Hope for Indo-US N-deal yet
The resignation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld following the defeat of the Republicans has created a window of opportunity for the Indo-US nuclear deal.
A Bill that seeks to amend US law and permit civilian nuclear cooperation with India awaits a Senate vote and President George Bush has made it clear that he wants the deal passed before the end of the year. As the Congress began its lame duck session on Monday, diplomatic analysts told The Tribune that the length of the session would determine the fate of the Bill. Mr Bush named Mr Robert Gates, a former Director of the CIA, as the successor of Mr Rumsfeld. The nomination will be cleared by the Congress. Mr Bush wants Mr Gates’ name approved before the new congressional session in January. Sources said this meant that the lame duck session would likely be extended This could also give the Senate more time to consider the nuclear Bill. Mr Bush also wants the Congress to approve the permanent normal trade relation status for Vietnam. The President will be in Hanoi in November to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit and wants to tout this achievement. Analysts say the Vietnam issue could take away crucial debate time from the India Bill. Democrats voted in support of the deal in the House in July and most of the party's Senators are expected to back it when it comes up for a vote in their chamber. They had initially attached some amendments to the Bill but have pared these down. “If President Bush decides to make the Bill a high priority during the lame duck session, I believe the Senate will pass it,” Ambassador Karl Inderfurth, a former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, said. If the process is not completed, the Bills will lapse when the Congress draws to a close. The process will then restart from scratch. Mr Michael Krepon, a critic of the nuclear deal, conceded that if the process had to restart next year “a majority in both Houses will still support the deal, but with reservations.” However, Republican sources are skeptical that the Democrats will give Mr Bush a policy triumph.
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Thousands protest MP’s killing
Colombo, November 13 Shouting ''Don't kill Tamils'' and waving banners that read ''Stop crimes against humanity'' and ''Shame'', some 3,500 supporters of the non-partisan National Anti-War Front accompanied the coffin of Tamil MP Nadarajah Raviraj, who was killed on Friday. He was the second high-profile member of the Tamil National Alliance, seen as the Tigers' political proxies in Parliament, murdered since December. His colleagues blamed government forces or their supporters. ''This is to show our sympathy. We should eliminate this kind of killing from society,'' said human rights activist Nimalka Fernando, dressed in traditional white of mourning, as the procession wound through central Colombo. Raviraj's killing comes after a series of deadly attacks that have killed more than an estimated 3,000 civilians, military personnel and Tiger fighters so far this year amid the worst violence since a now tattered 2002 truce. — Reuters
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1 killed, 61 hurt as Bangladesh Oppn takes to road
Dhaka, November 13 Life was hit in the country as thousands of Opposition party workers took out protest marches as part of a general strike which entered second day. Activists of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance blocked road, rail and waterways to press for electoral reforms and the resignation of Chief Justice M.A. Aziz. One person was killed and another critically injured after being hit by a police vehicle during clashes between protestors and security personnel in Kauran Bazar area of Dhaka. In another incident 60 persons were injured when four coaches of a passenger train derailed in north-western Myemensingh district after protestors removed the rail tracks, ATN TV reported. Dhaka was virtually cut off from the rest of the country with inter-district buses, ferries and trains remaining out of operation. President Iajuddin Ahmed and his caretaker government's council of advisers are scheduled
to meet again after their inconclusive talks last night. The Home Ministry had last night issued directives, saying that the government had decided to deploy the army. But late midnight it clarified that no such decision had been taken, but the army would be deployed if the situation so demanded.
— PTI
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Talks with India a challenge for Havana spirit: Kasuri
Islamabad, November 13 “We hope that as a result of this meeting we will build on the spirit of the Havana Declaration, see narrowing down of divergences and building on convergences,” he said, pointing out that it would be the first meeting after the September 16, 2006, joint declaration in which exchange of ‘useful ideas’ on the Jammu and Kashmir issue had publicly been acknowledged. He termed as “act of statesmanship” the decision by President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana to resume the disrupted dialogue process.
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Islamabad, November 13 The Dawn newspaper said two airports in Baluchistan province, at Quetta and Gwadar, were on "red alert," while the others were asked to increase vigilance following last week's suicide bombing at an army training base that killed 42 soldiers and an attack on a government militia convoy in which nine persons were killed near the border with Afghanistan. It wasn't clear when the alert was issued, and Pakistani aviation officials were not immediately available for comment. — AP
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Longest-living US President
SAN FRANCISCO: Gerald Ford, who turned 93 in July, became the longest-living US president edging past Ronald Reagan, who died two years ago. Ford, who was born on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, has been alive for 93 years and 121 days, one day more than Reagan, who died in June 2004. Ford, a former Michigan congressman and vice president, became US president on August 9, 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal.
— Reuters
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