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Koirala asks India to resume petro supply |
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Afghan foreign minister removed over refugee row
Caspian gas deal boosts Russia’s hold
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Musharraf rules out emergency
President Gen Pervez Musharraf has ruled out any emergency in the country in the current political scenario.
“There is no requirement nor any environment for taking such drastic step,”
Musharraf
said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of a power plant here. His remarks came just at time when country’s biggest city and economic hub was in grip of total lawlessness and violence that had claimed
many lives. “There is no need of declaration of emergency as the country is not passing through such conditions forcing to take such a hard decision,” he said. The President said he had fulfilled his constitutional obligation by sending reference against suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry while rising above personal relations and considerations and to meet demands of good governance and interests of
the state. He said Chaudhry should not politicise the presidential reference filed against him and instead wait for the court verdict. Musharraf said he holds the superior judiciary in high esteem and there
was no reason to take the issue to the streets. Those doing so must stop it. “Those who want to politicise the presidential reference will be prevented from doing so at any cost,” he added.
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Koirala asks India to resume petro supply
At a time when Nepal has been reeling under petroleum crisis for the last few days after the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) slashed the regular supply of petroleum products to Nepal by 40 per cent, Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Saturday urged Indian envoy to Nepal to take initiative for smooth supply.
While meeting with the Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee at Prime Minister’s Official residence in Baluwatar this morning, Koirala urged India to lift the supply curtail for “some time”, a source close to Koirala said. Koirala urged the Indian government to resume normal petroleum supply handing his assurance that a political understanding would be reached shortly following which a portion of Nepal’s outstanding dues with the IOC would be repaid. The IOC had decided to slash petroleum products supplies by 40 per cent to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) as the latter failed to furnish due payment of monthly import bills to IOC from Monday. The NOC owes nearly Rs 6 billion to IOC, and it has also not paid the monthly bills for the last month. During the meeting, Indian envoy Mukharjee told Koirala that he would convey his request to the Indian government immediately.
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Afghan foreign minister removed over refugee row
Kabul, May 12 Western-educated Spanta, one of the few technocrats, in President Hamid Karzai's government lost his position in a secret ballot in the lower house of the parliament. Out of the 217 lawmakers present, 141, voted against the minister who was appointed last year by Karzai. Iran has expelled nearly 50,000 Afghan refugees over the past month as part of a new campaign to repatriate Afghans living illegally in the country. Afghanistan has urged its neighbour to suspend the repatriations because the country lacked the resources to resettle them. The lower house of the parliament, which is made up of factional leaders, ex-communist officials, several former Taliban members and women rights activists, on Thursday voted against the refugees affairs minister Ustad Akbar. Spanta's removal also comes amid reports of a rift in recent weeks with Karzai over government policies and a planned reshuffle of the administration. Spanta was seen as opposing Karzai's proposal to reach out to the Taliban and other opposition leaders to end the ever growing violence the country is going through since the rebel group's ouster in 2001. He also opposed the offer of a blanket amnesty passed by the lower house for those who committed war crimes during the three decades of conflict of the country. Spanta however denied any differences with Karzai. — Reuters
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Caspian gas deal boosts Russia’s hold Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan), May 12 The new pipeline and an accompanying deal to upgrade existing Soviet-era infrastructure deliver a blow to US, European and Chinese hopes of prising the flow of Central Asian gas out of Russian hands. Although all three former Soviet republics sought to play down the diplomatic implications of the pipeline, it comes at a time of increased Western anxiety about Russia's use of its vast energy resources for political ends, a charge Moscow denies. The agreement was reached at a summit of the three states in the Turkmen Caspian port of Turkmenbashi. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the deal means “more supplies of energy resources to Europe and the world's markets”. In its first stage, the pipeline will deliver 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year by 2009-2010, Russian energy minister Viktor Khristenko told reporters. Including the infrastructure upgrade, deliveries to the Russian border will rise to 90 bcm. While Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said plans for a rival US-backed trans-Caspian pipeline that bypasses Russia had “not been completely dropped”, Khristenko said he believed there was now little chance of it going ahead. The three states issued joint declarations saying they would sign a treaty by September on building the new pipeline. Berdymukhamedov said Turkmenistan still had a long-term interest in diversifying pipelines and listed possible projects with Iran, China, Afghanistan, India, and the trans-Caspian. The country has not published independent audits of its gas reserves, and asked if Turkmenistan had enough gas for new pipelines to Iran, Afghanistan and China, he said: “Do not worry, there is enough.” Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said ahead of today's summit that a pipeline agreement would represent a major diplomatic victory for Putin. “I think the Americans are at the moment following Putin's visit to Central Asia with attention, envy and unhappiness,” he said. “If he is able to ensure Kazakh and Turkmen loyalty, then the question of alternatives for energy supply to Europe, which is already fairly murky, will just be put on hold.”— Reuters
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