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Indo-US N-bill mired in ‘nasty politics’
Bush, Blair to discuss Iraq
Musharraf’s plan gets mixed response
No poll without Benazir, Sharif, says PPP
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In politics, good looks can help
AC bus shelters in Dubai
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Indo-US N-bill mired in ‘nasty politics’
A crucial conference session to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation bills on Wednesday got mired in what congressional sources called "nasty politics."
According to these sources, the Senate and House conferees were on the brink of shaping a final bill for President George W. Bush to sign into law when at around noon on Wednesday Illinois Republican Congressman Henry Hyde's office received instructions from House Majority Leader John Boehner to suspend work. Sources said Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, sought to attach to the India bill legislation unrelated to the nuclear deal. "The fact that he is engaging in this nasty politics makes the passage of the deal less likely," a source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. "When the Boehner blackmail is over they will be able to move ahead on the nuclear bill," the source added. Reuters quoted Kevin Smith, Mr. Boehner's spokesman, as saying the bill was not formally scheduled for a vote on Wednesday but would be put before Congress when Mr. Boehner and other leaders "have some sort of a resolution." Mr. Smith said he did not know what was holding up the legislation as lawmakers "are still working things out." But he insisted: "The House will complete action in the bill before we adjourn this week so we can send the bill to the president for his signature." A Republican congressional source explained the development saying, "members [of Congress] want to use [the nuclear bill] as a legislative vehicle to attach other legislation to, as we refer to it, the last train leaving the station." "The bill was ready to be filed when Boehner attached extraneous legislation - this is only done for must-pass legislation," the Republican source added, holding out hope for imminent passage of the nuclear bill. Despite the unexpected hurdle, congressional sources and analysts are optimistic the deal will go through before the congressional session draws to a close at the end of the week. On Wednesday night, sources said the conferees had signed off on the final language for the nuclear bill but it had yet to be filed with the rules committee. A Republican congressional source said members of Congress were "cutting deals on other bills tonight so we have to wait and see what happens overnight." The final bill may not be very different from the Senate and House bills, and sources indicated milder versions of some provisions opposed by both New Delhi and the Bush administration might be retained. Some members of the Congress are deeply concerned about India's ties to Iran and congressional sources said an Iran amendment was a key sticking point during the conference. The amendment, proposed by Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin and added to the Senate version of the nuclear bill last month, requires the President of the United States to determine that India is fully and actively participating in U.S. and international efforts to dissuade, sanction and contain Iran's nuclear programme consistent with United Nations Security Council resolutions. Another source said conferees would be "asking for a lot of trouble if the final bill is drastically altered." That would open them to charges of bad faith and neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want to feel that they have sold out, the source added. "A lot of the provisions that are causing problems do not have enforcement mechanisms. A lot of them are just symbolic," the source said. Some congressional sources were critical of the Bush administration's efforts to steer the bill, saying the administration's only interest was "political advantage" which it got on July 18, 2005, when Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed the agreement in Washington. At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the administration was working "very closely with members and their staff up on the Hill. It's one of the president's top priorities to get that through in this Congress, which comes to a conclusion in the not-too-distant future." New Delhi has indicated it will not accept any conditions on the final bill that violate the July 2005 agreement. Mr. McCormack said the Bush administration too stood by the agreement that it signed. But, he noted, "In our system there is the Congress; they have a say; they have a say in approving these kind of agreements that require a change in laws." "And I would just urge everybody involved to see what emerges from the Congress and view it in the context of what is the letter and the spirit of the agreement. And we're confident that this is an agreement that's going to be able to be implemented," he added.
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Bush, Blair to discuss Iraq
Washington, December 7 Blair has been under fire at home for his staunch support of Washington, while US voters were widely seen as repudiating Bush's approach in the November 7 elections in which his Republican Party lost control of the US Congress. The British leader's visit to the White House today comes as the Iraq Study Group advised Bush to begin withdrawing US combat forces from the violence-wracked country and to launch a diplomatic push that would include Iraq's neighbour Iran and Syria. ''We do not recommend a stay-the-course solution,'' said former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican who co-chaired the bipartisan commission with former Democratic Rep Lee Hamilton. ''In our opinion, that is no longer viable.'' Like the panel, Blair is expected to urge Bush to embrace a wider West Asia peace policy to help resolve the Iraq crisis in what White House spokesman Tony Snow predicted would be a ''very freewheeling'' conversation. ''And so I would be loath to make any predictions. But I'm certain that this report is going to come up, and I'm certain that some of the recommendations will come up,'' he said. When the 10-member group spoke with Blair last month, the Prime Minister was wrestling with similar issues to what the panel was considering. ''He (Blair) was dealing in many ways with precisely the same questions we were and with pretty much the same answers,'' said Lawrence Eagleburger, a secretary of state under former President George Bush, the current president's father. Leon Panetta, White House chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, said Blair had suggested the panel push for its recommendations to begin to be put in place by as early as January. ''The United States government has never moved that fast on anything,'' Eagleburger said during a joint interview with reporters. Bush and Blair also meet a day after the Senate confirmed Robert Gates as the new US defence secretary, replacing Donald Rumsfeld, who was a key architect of the war and a favourite target of its critics.
— Reuters
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Brokering Peace By arrangement with the Dawn
Muzaffarabad, December 7 “The president’s offer reflects his insight and sagacity and should not be misconstrued," he said, when asked by some reporters to comment on the president's offer which he made in an interview to India's NDTV. Sardar Attique said that Gen Musharraf was working with zeal and sincerity for peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue and the people of the divided region and their representatives and the international community agreed to his stand in this regard.“His policy has received international appreciation and lays a strong base for amicable and acceptable-to-all settlement of the lingering dispute,” he said. He said that India wanted to impose visa conditions on Kashmiris (for trans-LoC travelling) and created unnecessary hurdles in opening of crossing points along the dividing line, but since ours’ was the just stand it had to withdraw its conditions.Sardar Attique urged India to show moral courage and accept the ground realities regarding Kashmir, and create a violence free atmosphere to pave way for peaceful settlement of the issue. Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sardar Ejaz Afzal Khan condemned Gen Musharraf’s proposals and questioned his credentials to decide about the future of freedom-seeking Kashmiris. “Kashmiris are not sheep and goat which any herdsman can sell or dole out at his own will. They have been shedding blood for the past 59 years for freedom from India and not for the things which the military dictator has been consistently proposing to please India and America,” he said. He said Gen Musharraf was an employee of the government of Pakistan and instead of safeguarding the interests of others, he should do it for the country which was bearing huge expenditures on him from the poor taxpayers' money. He asked the people of occupied Kashmir not to lose heart in the wake of Gen Musharraf’s interview, “because neither the people of Pakistan nor its armed forces were behind the proposals.”
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No poll without Benazir, Sharif, says PPP
Islamabad, December 7 In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the PPP spokesman said that such an election would be a farce. He said that it would deny the people of Pakistan their democratic right to choose their representatives and perpetuate dictatorship through puppets who had been chosen to rig the elections. He said that the military dictatorship in Pakistan was threatening the unity and integrity of the country from tribal areas to Baluchistan and leading to the collapse of the national economy. He said that engineered elections without the participation of former prime ministers would only compound the political crisis that was threatening the federation. The spokesman said that to build a modern democratic Pakistan, it was essential to hold fair and free elections and provide a level-playing field for all political parties and leaders. He said that the dictatorship wanted to re-engineer the social and political landscape of the country, but the regime would not be allowed to do so. He said that Gen Zia-ul-Haq had also tried to oust the PPP from politics, but failed despite a reign of terror let loose against the people through torture, lashes and executions. The spokesman said that the PPP would not allow dictators to re-write terms of elections so as to keep the popular leadership out of the electoral contest.
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In politics, good looks can help
Canberra, December 7 But the research by economist Andrew Leigh, from the Australian National University, shows some of Australia’s most successful male politicians are rated among the ugliest and looks are less important once a politician becomes well known. “Beauty matters more for challengers than for incumbents. This suggests that looks affect first impressions. Once voters come to know a politician, their physical appearance does not matter as much,” Leigh said on Thursday. Leigh’s study analysed the results of Australia’s 2004 national election, with an independent group used to rate the looks of 286 candidates from photographs on election pamphlets handed to people when they arrive to vote. Voting is compulsory in Australia, allowing Leigh to compare average
voting results against the beauty rating of each candidate. — Reuters
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AC bus shelters in Dubai
Dubai, December 7 The first in the series of such facilities started operating recently, an official said. About 500 such bus shelters will be built across the Emirate in the coming months as part of the authority's plans to integrate the public transport system, he said. The shelters will be built at various locations in the emirate providing comfort especially as the temperatures soar in summer, he added.
— PTI
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