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N. Korea claims
nuclear status
Fragile truce takes hold in Gaza
India, Pak working on easing visa norms
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Pilgrims ransack Indian Haj Mission office
Hasina calls for reforms
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N. Korea claims
nuclear status
Beijing, December 18 Pyongyang also demanded that it should be provided with light-water reactors and stop-gap energy supplies if it has to renounce its nuclear programme. North Korea’s top delegate Kim Kye Gwan made the remarks in a keynote speech at an in-camera plenary session of the multilateral nuclear talks, which resumed here after a 13-month hiatus, diplomats attending the meet told reporters. Kim, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister, urged the USA to abandon its “hostile policy” toward Pyongyang as a condition for his country to give up its nuclear assets, a South Korean official said. US chief delegate Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Washington was prepared to promote the normalisation of ties with Pyongyang only if a complete and irreversible de- nuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula was achieved. Talking to the media after the talks, Hill said he told the North Korean envoy that his nation faced a crucial decision whether to continue its atomic programme after its first-ever nuclear test on October 9. He also hinted that the USA was running out of patience with the communist state. “We should be a little less patient and pick up the pace and work faster,” Hill said. Hill, on his arrival here on Sunday, had asked North Korea to get out of the nuclear business if it wanted “a future with us” and be a “member of the international community”. In its opening comments in the second phase of the fifth round of the six-way talks, also involving the USA, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, the North Korea proclaimed itself a nuclear power and said the negotiations should be arms reduction talks, according to a summary released by one of the delegations. Among its main demands were lifting of all UN sanctions and US financial restrictions. If its demands weren’t met, Pyongyang said it would increase its nuclear deterrent. “I would not raise any particular single point where we disagreed, they (the North Koreans) brought an assertion or argument that had many problems as a whole,” Japan’s envoy Kenichiro Sasae told reporters after the day’s proceedings. “There was no way we could accept that. “Earlier today, the six parties to the North Korean nuclear talks agreed to resolve the nuclear standoff in line with the principle of “action-to-action” as per a joint statement issued on September 19, 2005. They also reiterated their pledge to fulfil the commitments made in the September 19 statement, realise de-nuclearisation through dialogues and peaceful means, and achieve the normalisation of diplomatic ties between relevant countries as well as long-lasting peace in northeast Asia, Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese diplomats as saying. In the September agreement, the North Korea pledged to abandon its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees and aid. Chinese chief negotiator and Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said the joint statement gleaned the consensus of all parties, and was a “political declaration” for the goal of de-nuclearisation as well as a “guiding document”.
— PTI
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Fragile truce takes hold in Gaza
Gaza, December 18 It was unclear whether the truce would last as groups of heavily armed gunmen from both sides continued to roam the tense streets of the impoverished coastal strip. Fighting escalated after President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called on Saturday for fresh presidential and parliamentary elections, a move intended to break political deadlock with the Hamas government and lift Western sanctions on its administration. There were sporadic exchanges of fire overnight, including an incident in which two members of a Hamas-led police force were wounded, moments after the agreement was announced. Previous deals to end internal fighting this year have fallen apart. Forces loyal to Hamas and Fatah fought street and rooftop gunbattles across Gaza yesterday. At least three people were killed and 20 wounded. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on a drive to revive West Asia peace negotiations, arrived in Israel just before Hamas and Fatah announced the deal last night.
— Reuters
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India, Pak working on easing visa norms
Islamabad, December 18 “Pakistan and India at the moment are discussing the 1974 visa agreement. Similarly, the two countries are considering an agreement on tourism,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told a mediapersons here today. She, however, denied a media report that both sides planned to open counters in Pakistan’s Lahore city and India’s Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. “These are speculative reports,” she said. Asked whether an agreement on tourism and liberalisation of visa policies of both countries was possible during the two-day visit of Mr Mukherjee beginning January 13 or not, she said there were no “deadlines” to finalise these agreements. India has proposed liberalisation of the stringent visa agreement, reached between New Delhi and Islamabad in 1974, sometime back suggesting that both sides may do away with the point-to-point visa. Currently, the two countries issue visas for specified towns and that too only if the applicant provides a verifiable address of relatives and friends. Both India and Pakistan also do not have tourism visa facilities. Aslam also said both India and Pakistan currently prepared to meet the deadline of December 25 to release all prisoners whose nationalities had been identified and prison sentences completed.
— PTI
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Pilgrims ransack Indian Haj Mission office
Dubai, December 18 According to eyewitness accounts, over 2,000 pilgrims clashed with the mission staff yesterday, in the Indian Haj Mission office. They were dispersed after the intervention of the police. About 18,000 Indian pilgrims, who paid for category one accommodation, protested over their distant housing arrangements, while others complained about shortcomings in their lodgings. Meanwhile, the Indian Haj Consul, Dr Suhel Ajaz Khan, told The Saudi Gazette that the crisis occurred as there was a shortage of buildings near the Grand Mosque.
— UNI
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Hasina calls for reforms
Dhaka, December 18 Tens of thousands of activists of the “grand alliance” of 14 major parties and their like-minded supporters turned up at the capital where security was tightened in view of the scheduled demonstrations. Former PM Hasina vowed not to allow the holding of elections under the present schedule and called for a nationwide general strike on Thursday to push home her demands of ensuring fair elections. “No elections will be allowed under the present schedule. Elections will only be held after publishing the correct voters’ list under a new schedule,” she said. Keeping in mind the upcoming Hindu festival of Saraswati Puja falling January 23, the same day as that of the general election, the Bangladesh’s election commission shifted the polling day.
— PTI
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Quake kills 7 in Indonesia $10-m polonium killed ex-spy Stunt man in coma 
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