 |
|
|
NRI drug kingpin to be deported to US
Fearing hung House, Mush to meet leaders after polls
Bhutto Killing |
|
|
Bush happy for Burns’ role US President George W. Bush is “pleased” that Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns will continue to play a role in pushing the US-India nuclear deal toward the finish line, the White House said on Friday. Blasts mar Nepal poll campaign
|
|
NRI drug kingpin to be deported to US
Toronto, January 19 His decade-long legal battle to stop deportation ended on Thursday when the Canadian supreme court quashed his plea against a lower court order to extradite him to the USA. A known gangster, Cheema is also said to be involved in some of the nearly 100 gang-related killings of Indo-Canadian youth in the Vancouver area during the past 12 years. Cheema, who was out on a bail of $4 million, surrendered to the authorities and is likely to be handed over to the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) soon. The DEA argued for his extradition on the grounds that he headed Canadian operations of a drug cartel involved in smuggling narcotics into the USA. The Americans said he was involved in an attempt to smuggle in heroin worth $4 million and 4,000 kg of hashish from Pakistan in 1998. In exchange, a Colombian cartel was to supply Cheema with 800 kg of cocaine possibly to be brought into Canada. The smuggling operation was unearthed in 1998 when Cheema’s men took delivery of the consignment from a Pakistani named Mohammed Yusuf Khan. Khan was acting as a delivery boy for the supplier who happened to be retired Pakistani army Major Mohamed
Shafiq. — IANS
|
|
Fearing hung House, Mush to meet leaders after polls
General elections will be held as scheduled on February 18 in a free and fair manner, no national government will be formed before elections and the Chief Election Commissioner will not be removed, President Pervez Musharraf told a select group of Pakistani editors here.
Musharraf said he plans to meet politicians after the elections, which are expected to throw up a hung parliament creating the need for formation of a national government. Currently there are no plans to meet former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, who will be in London when he reached there on Sunday, Musharraf said adding that he would, however, meet his friend Brig. Niaz Ahmed. Niaz met Shahbaz Sharif in Islamabad triggering speculations that Musharraf is contemplating formation of a government of national consensus being demanded by Nawaz Sharif. He again rejected allegations he was involved in any way in former premier Benazir’s assassination. He asked the people to wait for the result of investigations being conducted with the help of Scotland Yard. The president said that he was determined to use the army and paramilitary forces before, during and after the polls to ensure law and order. The president dilated at length on the three crises facing Pakistan at this “turbulent time”: the crisis of the transition to democracy, terrorism and extremism and the crisis of the economy if the first two crises could not be contained and resolved. He referred to the erroneous perception and image of Pakistan in the world and exhorted the domestic media to help in restoring balance to the debate. He explained how, given the successful establishment of a National Command Authority and failsafe procedures that had been independently developed by the Pakistani nuclear establishment, there was no technical possibility at all of Pakistan’s nukes or any fissile material falling into the wrong hands or of any accidental detonation of such weapons.
Zardari supports consensus govt
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that all decisions in the party would are be taken by consensus and no individual, including he himself, will be able to impose his will on the others. The interview with Indian-American journalist and writer Kavita Chibber that has been published on the interviewer’s blog, Zardari said that even if his party won a two-thirds majority in the next parliament, he would support the formation of a national consensus government.
|
|
Bhutto Killing Islamabad, January 19 Shah, who hails from Karachi, told investigators that he was part of a squad of five suicide bombers sent by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud to assassinate Bhutto in Rawalpindi, the sources said. Shah said two of the attackers, Akram and Bilal, were to target Bhutto first. If they failed, the other three were to carry out the operation. He said Bilal killed Bhutto by shooting her and detonating an explosive vest as she was leaving an election rally on December 27. The blast killed nearly 30 others and wounded dozens more. The whereabouts of the two other members of the suicide squad are unknown, the sources said. — PTI
|
|
|
N-Deal
US President George W. Bush is “pleased” that Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns will continue to play a role in pushing the US-India nuclear deal toward the finish line, the White House said on Friday.
Burns has been the Bush administration’s point person in crucial negotiations over the nuclear deal since it was conceived on the White House lawn in July 2005. The White House noted that in his current role as the No. 3 diplomat at the State Department, Burns “has been at the forefront on key foreign policy issues for this Administration, including leading the P5+1 discussions on Iran, the US-Israel Strategic Dialogue and negotiations on the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India.” Burns’ departure from the scene would be seen as a blow to the nuclear deal primarily because of the rapport he’s built with the Indian negotiators and his involvement in the process, the White House said. The nuclear agreement lost a key supporter last year when Illinois Republican Congressman Henry Hyde, the former chairman of the House International Relations Committee, died in November. Hyde was considered a key architect of the agreement and the nuclear cooperation Bill, when passed, was named in his honour - “Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006.”
|
|
Blasts mar Nepal poll campaign
At a time when the ruling Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) in Nepal is hell-bent to hold Constituent Assembly (CA) election slated for April 10 in peaceful manner, various armed groups operating in the country specially in southern region have intensified their violent activities to thwart the election that would determine the fate of the 239-year-old Shah Dynasty.
Armed groups detonated at least two bombs in Biratnagar in the last 24 hours with an aim to disrupt the mass rally jointly organised by the SPA to expedite the election campaign, which is considered as a key step to restore lasting peace and democracy in the country. They exploded a bomb last night and another this afternoon soon after the joint assembly was over. However, no human casualty is reported. The Madhesi Tiger group has owned responsibility for the
incident.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
