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Deal commits regular US fuel supply to India: Sen
Taliban set new deadline to free Korean hostages
Kim Kyong-Ja (right), mother of a woman kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, cries during a news conference which was called to give a statement signed by all family members in
Seongnam, south of Seoul on Tuesday. — AFP photo |
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Magsaysay Award for Indian scribe 18 militants killed in Pak
Aziz denies Musharraf-Benazir meeting
Govt de-freezes Benazir’s accounts
Pakistani held with Rs 10m in Nepal
Give us Dawood, US to Pak
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Deal commits regular US fuel supply to India: Sen
The 123 Agreement commits the United States to ensuring continuous fuel supply to India, according to Ambassador Ronen Sen, India's envoy in the United States.
Sen told The Tribune that India has been given "clear-cut assurances on fuel supplies. The agreement of March 2006 will be fully reflected in the 123 Agreement." Asked if the U.S. had committed to working with its other allies to ensure a continued fuel supply to India if the U.S. cuts off its own supply, Sen said, "That is very clear. It's also in the March 2 agreement." The text of the 123 Agreement will be simultaneously released in New Delhi and Washington within a couple of days. The 123 Agreement gets its name from a section of a U.S. Act that governs U.S. nuclear agreements with other countries. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns told reporters on Friday an assurance given by President Bush to Prime Minster Manmohan Singh in March last year on helping to achieve a continuity of fuel supply had been built into the 123 Agreement. But, he added, "When you write an agreement the way we have, and when you have legions of lawyers on both sides of the table, you also build in protection, both sides do, to meet your legal obligations. And so if there's ever any reason for the United States to have to invoke the right-of-return, we could certainly do so." The 123 Agreement makes no mention of the word "testing," a contentious sticking point in negotiations between India and the United States on civilian nuclear cooperation. The United States and India simultaneously announced on Friday that they had reached an agreement after two years and two days on intense negotiations. By the end of these discussions only two issues continued to vex negotiators - India's insistence to retain the right to test nuclear weapons, and a corresponding American legal requirement to exercise a "right to return" if this test takes place; and India's demand for prior rights to reprocess spent U.S.-origin nuclear fuel. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a source told The Tribune, "The U.S.-India understanding is that if India does test, it will provide a specific explanation for the circumstances that have led it to test, and that will factor into the president's evaluation of whether stopping nuclear cooperation better promotes U.S. foreign policy and national security goals, or are the latter better advanced by 'waiving' the requirement of terminating cooperation, i.e. permitting nuclear cooperation to continue despite the Indian test." Analysts told The Tribune India has retained its right to test a nuclear device, however, they asserted it is highly unlikely that this test will be conducted. India has committed to a unilateral moratorium on testing. Burns said the U.S. had retained the "right to return" if India tests a nuclear device. On this the 123 Agreement respects U.S. law that the U.S. cease nuclear cooperation in the event of a nuclear test. However, the Hyde Act, enabling legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December, gives the U.S. president the authority to waive such a condition.
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Taliban set new deadline to free Korean hostages
Ghazni
(Afghanistan), July 31 The Taliban want the government to free at least eight prisoners in Afghan jails, a demand government negotiators have rejected. "If our demands are not met by tomorrow, we will start killing the rest of the prisoners," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. The bullet-riddled body of the second hostage was found overnight in Ghazni, about 140 km south of Kabul. "It was the body of a South Korean. There were bullet wounds on the body," Ghazni police chief Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP. An AFP correspondent, who saw the corpse said, it had been dumped at the side of the road and had four or five bullet holes to the body and head. The South Korean foreign ministry identified the victim as Shim Sung-Min, reported to be 29 years of age. "The government cannot help feeling outrage and strongly denounces the ruthless killing by the kidnappers' group," ministry’s spokesman Cho Hee-Yong said in Seoul. "The government makes it clear that it will surely hold accountable, those responsible for the sacrifice of our citizen," added presidential spokesman Choen Ho-Seon. The body of Bae Hyung-kyu, a 42-year-old pastor was found in the same area on Wednesday last week.
— AFP
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Magsaysay Award for Indian scribe
Manila, July 31 Also chosen for this year’s awards was Chen
Guangcheng, a blind Chinese activist, Jovito Salonga, a former Phillipine Senate president who fought the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, for government service; Kim Sun-Tae, a blind Christian pastor for public service; Mahabir Pun, who helped connect rural villages in Nepal to the Internet, for community service; Tang
Xiyang, an environmentalist for peace and international understanding; and Chung To, a banker for emergent leadership.
— UNI
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Miranshah, July 31 The fighting broke out after militants tried to attack security forces in Khawaja Wali village, near Miranshah, North Waziristan’s main town. The latest clashes in North Waziristan, known as a hotbed of support for al Qaeda-linked fighters, came a day after seven persons were killed in militant attacks. — Reuters
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Aziz denies Musharraf-Benazir meeting
"There was no meeting and no deal", Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told angry ruling party lawmakers demanding details of the Musharraf-Benazir meeting in Abu Dhabi. President's spokesman Maj- Gen Raashid Qureshi, however, responding to media speculations confirmed only "indirect contacts" with the PPP in Abu Dhabi, saying such contacts "have existed between the presidency and political parties, including the PPP for a long time." He said in Abu Dhabi , "the focus of these contacts was the fight against militancy, extremism, terrorism and holding of free and fair general election." He, however, rejected reports of any meeting or any such request made to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif during the President's visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Qureshi's press statement referred to recent statements by Nawaz and Shahbaz that they would never talk to Musharraf. On a day of hectic political activity, Musharraf met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and later PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi to brief them about Abu Dhabi interaction with Bhutto. They later met about 60 lawmakers who asked angry questions calling for a detailed briefing about the reported deal with Bhutto. At one stage, nearly 20 MPs rose and started shouting that media reports about the deal and government's discreet silence was undermining the PML's image and morale of the party cadre. Aziz said he would not say much except that there was no meeting nor any deal was struck. Chaudhry Shujaat cautioned the MPs not to be impatient and assured them that their interests would be protected. Chaudhry Shujaat said he had proposed that the government should increase its contacts with other parties as well. Musharraf agreed to the suggestion, but told the PML president to ensure that everyone in the ruling party should be tightlipped about the deal until it was finally clinched. The President avoided any direct meeting with ruling party lawmakers and asked Aziz and Shujaat to assuage their ruffled nerves. Informed sources told The Tribune that Musharraf wanted to keep his arrangements with Bhutto under wraps fearing the disclosures might embarrass her and trigger a backlash within the PPP that may derail the entire exercise. While her party leaders are stunned and avoiding public appearance, the PPP chairperson has come under severe attack across the political spectrum, lawyers and civil society forums. She is being accused of having betrayed a spectacular popular upsurge in the wake of judicial crisis to prop Musharraf's tottering image for some self-serving objectives. The statements by President's spokesman and Aziz have partly cleared, albeit bit by bit, the fog engulfing the Abu Dhabi episode. If Qureshi's words are taken at their face value, Musharraf and Benazir spoke through an intermediary in what is being likened to "proximity dialogue" on Afghanistan in Geneva in 1980s. One report says that they finally came face to face at the dinner hosted in Abu Dhabi Palace.
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Govt de-freezes Benazir’s accounts
Islamabad, July 31 The channel said Bhutto’s bank accounts were restored 15 days ago to demonstrate government’s sincerity in reaching an understanding with Bhutto. This move preceded the Musharraf-Benazir meeting in Abu Dhabi. The channel said not all of Bhutto’s assets and accounts have been restored. It, however, said the government had not restored all of Bhutto’s bank accounts and the remaining accounts would be restored after a final deal between the two sides. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar contested government claims that any account has been defrozen. He said some of the accounts were frozen by a court in 1998 and the government had no authority to defreeze them except through a court order.
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Pakistani held with Rs 10m in Nepal
The Nepal police apprehended a Pakistani national and recovered over Rs 10 million (Indian currency) from him at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
According to SSP Dhak Bahadur Karki, chief at the airport, Abdul Wahib, who arrived from Karachi via a PIA flight, was arrested at the entry point along with the money. “He was trying to smuggle the money, comprising notes in Rs 500 and Rs 10,000 denominations, concealed inside around 100 packets of soap,” he said. The Indian currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations are considered illegal in Nepal market. The notes might be counterfeit, Karki said, citing the previous record of Wahib and preliminary investigation into the seizure. Wahib’s passport showed that he had repeatedly visited Kathmandu in the past as well. Following the incident, the Indian Embassy in Nepal contacted the airport security post and urged the latter to carry out an extensive investigation into such smuggling cases in Nepal.
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Give us Dawood, US to Pak
Islamabad, July 31 The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have sought assistance from Pakistan's interior ministry, the Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to hunt down Dawood in the Islamic
nation, The News quoted the sources. — PTI
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Ghazni
(Afghanistan), July 31
