W O R L D

Nepal elects its first vice-president
Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday elected Parmananda Jha of the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) as the first vice-president of the country. But the CA failed to elect the president as none of the candidates bagged majority votes in the election.

Pak to strengthen trade ties with India
Allows import of fuel, CNG buses
Commerce minister Ahmed Mukhtar has defended the new trade policy which according to some critics shows a marked tilt towards India.

India-Pak to expand ‘people-to-people contact’ for Kashmiris
Pakistan and India have agreed to expand ‘people-to-people contact for Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and worked out modalities for intra-Kashmir trade and a Muzaffarabad-Srinagar truck service.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: Women compete in a high-heel sprint in Moscow’s Red Square on Saturday. — Reuters

LTTE losing steam: Lankan
army chief
Colombo, July 19
Claiming that nearly two-thirds of the LTTE manpower and land area have been lost, Sri Lankan Army chief Sarath Fonseka has said the security forces were moving in swiftly in the war with the rebels, forcing them even to abandon their vehicles. “The LTTE has now lost nearly two thirds of its manpower and land area to the security forces...,” Fonseka told reporters.

Report: UK’s military secrets missing
London, July 19
Britain’s security may have been compromised after the authorities admitted that the military “secrets” stored in hundreds of laptops have gone missing. UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) admitted that more than 700 of its laptops have gone missing or been stolen in the last four years.

Nepal elects its first vice-president
Bishnu Budhathoki writes from Kathmandu

Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday elected Parmananda Jha of the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) as the first vice-president of the country. But the CA failed to elect the president as none of the candidates bagged majority votes in the election.

Meanwhile, the CA meeting that is going to take place on Saturday is expected to fix a new date for the presidential post run-off.

According to the CA secretariat, Jha, a former judge and an Indian origin Nepali citizen from Madhes, has secured 312 votes whereas his nearest rival from the CPN-Maoist Shanta Shrestha received 243 votes.

Jha was elected as the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML decided to support him by forging a new alliance with the MPRF.

Out of 594 voters, 578 exerted their franchises to elect the country’s president and vice-president whereas 16 others, including four CA members from Rastriya Prajatnatra Party-Nepal, were absent.

Immediately after being elected, Jha said he would discharge his responsibilities in a free and fair manner while formulating new Constitution and maintain national sovereignty, integrity and unity.

NC, UML, MPRF forges new alliance

As the CPN-Maoist, the largest party in the CA, abruptly decided to break its ties with the CPN-UML and MPRF rejecting their presidential and vice-presidential candidates respectively and proposed Ram Raja Prasad Singh as its presidential candidate, the UML and MPRF reached with the Nepali Congress (NC) seeking new alliance to move ahead against the Maoists.

On Saturday, leaders of the Congress, CPN-UML and MPRF held a meeting and reached a four-point understanding to defy the Maoist strategy to hold all presidential, vice-presidential and prime ministerial post.

As per the understanding reached, the UML and MPRF agreed to back the NC’s presidential candidate. In response, the UML and NC decided to support MPRF’s vice-presidential candidate.

Likewise, both the NC and MPRF have agreed to back the CPN-UML’s candidate to be proposed for the chairmanship of the CA.

Pak to strengthen trade ties with India
Allows import of fuel, CNG buses
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

India-Pak to expand ‘people-to-people contact’ for Kashmiris
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Pakistan and India have agreed to expand ‘people-to-people contact for Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and worked out modalities for intra-Kashmir trade and a Muzaffarabad-Srinagar truck service.

A joint statement issued at the conclusion of a meeting of the Pakistan-India working group on Cross-LoC, confidence-building measures (CBMs) here said talks were held in “a cordial and constructive atmosphere”.

Both sides discussed modalities for implementing the decisions taken by their foreign ministers in their meeting on May 21 and reviewed measures to ensure effective implementation of the existing (CBMs), it said. Sources in the Foreign Office and the Indian High Commission said a breakthrough had been achieved in the talks but an announcement about it would be made next week by the foreign secretaries of the two countries at their meeting in New Delhi.

“Both sides were very happy at the progress and made a lot of efforts for the success of the meeting,” they said.

The sources claimed that progress had been made on the CBMs proposed by Pakistan at a meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

The proposals include simplifying the procedure for issuing cross-LoC travel permits, increasing the frequency of the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service, launching a postal service between the two cities and expediting the cases of inadvertent crossings of the LoC.

The two sides discussed the list of items to be allowed to be traded through the truck service. They also deliberated on ways of consolidating the existing CBMs.

The Pakistani delegation was headed by Foreign Office director-general Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and the Indian side by external affairs joint secretary T.C.A Raghavan.

LTTE losing steam: Lankan army chief

Colombo, July 19
Claiming that nearly two-thirds of the LTTE manpower and land area have been lost, Sri Lankan Army chief Sarath Fonseka has said the security forces were moving in swiftly in the war with the rebels, forcing them even to abandon their vehicles.

“The LTTE has now lost nearly two thirds of its manpower and land area to the security forces...,” Fonseka told reporters.

“In the last one week, we recovered three LTTE vehicles. I don’t think the Army had ever recovered the LTTE vehicles in the past,” he said yesterday in Kandy, about 115 km from Colombo.

The Army commander made the remarks after paying homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic at the Sri Dalada Maligawa and visiting Buddhist religious leaders Malwatte and Asgiriya Prelates to receive their blessings. — PTI

Report: UK’s military secrets missing

London, July 19
Britain’s security may have been compromised after the authorities admitted that the military “secrets” stored in hundreds of laptops have gone missing.

UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) admitted that more than 700 of its laptops have gone missing or been stolen in the last four years. It said that 22 portable memory sticks containing classified information had been either stolen or lost this year, The Daily Telegraph reported today.

“It seems that this government simply cannot be trusted with keeping sensitive information safe. It is frightening to think that secret MoD information can be lost or stolen,” said Sarah Teather, a British lawmaker.

The British daily said that an independent review of the MoD's information security systems earlier this year warned that a “Facebook generation” of young officials had not learnt the disciplines of the Cold War and were often careless with sensitive data. — PTI

BRIEFLY

TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION: The debris of a bridge damaged by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Taichung, northeast Taiwan, on Saturday. Eighteen persons were killed and seven went missing in the typhoon that hit the area on Friday. — Reuters

Afghan photographer freed
KABUL: An Afghan journalist who contributes to The Associated Press was freed after his pictures and video footage of two women brazenly executed by the Taliban led intelligence officials to hold him for questioning for two days. Rahmatullah Naikzad confirmed that the authorities had released him on Friday, saying he was “fine” and that he had been let go in time to attend a family funeral. — AP