W O R L D

‘N-deal won’t affect IPI project’

Tehran, November 2 Drawing a parallel between the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and the IPI gas pipeline, external affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the basic imperative of both was to secure energy as he invited Iranian investment in India, particularly in oil and gas sectors.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee speaks to journalists as he attends a news conference with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran on Sunday. — Reuters

Scotland Yard for hiring Gurkhas as crime fighters
London, November 2
British police plans to urge the government to grant Gurkhas right to remain in the country as they can help the metropolitan police in its efforts to tackle the increasing cases of crime.

V.K. Krishna Menon award for CJI 
London, November 2
Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has received the first V.K. Krishna Menon Award for his fearless fight against corruption in the judicial system and for espousing social causes.

Pak PM seeks global help to stop US strikes
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has urged the world to help stop American and NATO missile strikes inside Pakistan, saying these are counter-productive in the war on terror.

Pak senate session to debate bailout plan
Senate chairman Mohammadmian Soomro has summoned a session of the senate on November 10, on a requisition by the PML-Q seeking a debate on Pakistan’s impending decision to contract a bailout plan with the IMF and non-implementation of the resolution adopted in the joint sitting of the parliament on the war on terror.

Suicide bomber kills 8 Pak soldiers
Islamabad, November 2
At least eight Pakistani soldiers were killed and five others were injured today when a suicide car bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a paramilitary camp in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Voting for Prez, American style
Washington, November 2
It is often an overlooked fact that when Americans enter the privacy of the polling booth on November 4, they will not actually be directly voting for the next President of the United States.

B’desh military chief assures UN Secy-Gen of fair polls
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he received assurances on Sunday from Bangladesh’s military leadership that they would not intervene in politics after the upcoming polls on December 18.

‘N-deal won’t affect IPI project’

Tehran, November 2
Drawing a parallel between the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and the IPI gas pipeline, external affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the basic imperative of both was to secure energy as he invited Iranian investment in India, particularly in oil and gas sectors.

Outlining the contours of “new” India’s foreign policy in the current “international matrix” with particular focus on ties with Iran, he said the relations between the two nations with civilisational linkages needed to be looked at “afresh”.

He talked about the challenges like terrorism and climate change facing Asia and stressed the importance of close ties between India and Iran for stability of the region.

Addressing a seminar on ‘India and Iran: Ancient civilisations and modern nations’ here, Mukherjee underlined that New Delhi’s foreign policy would remain independent and guided by the interests of its own people even while it strengthened ties with the US, Russia, China or any emerging economies of Asia, Latin America and Africa.

“We are working on a realisation that an economy that is growing at 8 to 9 per cent would require investments, energy, resources and technology at an hitherto unprecedented scale,” he told a gathering of Iranian intellectuals and policymakers.

Referring to the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said the sharp rise in fuel prices and the country’s huge energy needs for next 20-25 years had made New Delhi to conclude that “there is no alternative but to develop nuclear energy” as 50 per cent of its energy requirements are met by coal and fossil fuels.

“The basic imperative of the India-US civil nuclear agreement is the same as which binds us to the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline; our energy needs are too large to be met from any one single source,” he said.

Scotland Yard for hiring Gurkhas as crime fighters

London, November 2
British police plans to urge the government to grant Gurkhas right to remain in the country as they can help the metropolitan police in its efforts to tackle the increasing cases of crime.

Chief superintendent Kevin Hurley will tell Home Office officials and MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday that agreeing to offer thousands of Gurkhas settlement in the UK will provide invaluable resources to them, the Observer said.

“Gurkhas will make exceptional members of the police service. Many are multilingual from the Indian subcontinent, highly motivated, loyal and an excellent way of diversifying our workforce,” he said.

Senior commanders believe that Nepalese Gurkhas, who have served with distinction in the British Army, would make ideal police officers and their discipline, strength and fearlessness would prove crucial to combat the burgeoning threat of violent crime.

The High Court in the past month had ordered the British government to recognise a debt of honour to the men by reconsidering its refusal to allow more than 2,000 of them permission to live in Britain because they retired before July 1997. — PTI

V.K. Krishna Menon award for CJI 

London, November 2
Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has received the first V.K. Krishna Menon Award for his fearless fight against corruption in the judicial system and for espousing social causes.

Receiving the award from Maneck Dalal, OBE, chairman of the V.K. Krishna Menon Foundation at a packed auditorium here last evening, Justice Balakrishnan said: “I feel deeply humbled and privileged to receive the honour.” The Chief Justice was awarded for his extraordinary contributions for upliftment of values of social justice, tirelessly fighting corruption in the judicial system and maintaining cordial relations with the world-wide judiciary.

Justice Balakrishnan said the first time he met Menon was in 1964, when he came to Maharaja College in Ernakulam to deliver a lecture.

When someone in the audience questioned him how a poor country like India could become a force to reckon with, Menon shot back saying “India is not poor. People of India are poor.” Justice Balakrishnan said Krishna Menon, who came to study in the UK, was the moving force in England for achieving India’s independence and galvanised the support of Britishers who were in favour of India’s independence.

“Menon was one of the best lawyers India has ever produced,” Balakrishnan said and cited the case when he went to argue against the then Kerala Chief Minister E.M.S. Namboodiripad in a contempt of court case and won.

“I will ever grateful for the honour and I will uphold the great values attached to V.K. Krishna Menon,” he added. — PTI

Pak PM seeks global help to stop US strikes
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has urged the world to help stop American and NATO missile strikes inside Pakistan, saying these are counter-productive in the war on terror.

“We are a nuclear power but will not demonstrate any irresponsible attitude,” he told a press conference after returning from his visit to Turkey. However, he made it clear that the territorial integrity would be maintained at any cost.

Gilani said he would raise the issue in a meeting with the US ambassador, adding that Afghan President Hamid Karzai would also take the matter up with the NATO. He said in Istanbul that he had told world leaders during the World Economic Forum that Pakistan was committed to fighting terrorism.

“The whole world is thinking of helping Pakistan in the present economic crisis. They have great feelings for Pakistan. A stable Pakistan is in the interest of the whole world,” he said.

To a question, Gilani said the new US president would have to improve ties with Pakistan. He said the government was trying to isolate Taliban from reconcilable elements in the tribal areas.

Gilani said Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani would soon visit Turkey “to enhance co-operation between the two countries in the defence sector". Pakistan and Turkey had agreed to boost mutual trade from $700 million to $1 billion, he added.

He said a decision on whether Pakistan should borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be made ‘in national interest’, adding that the government would not consider new taxes on the agriculture sector. “We will take only those steps in the prevailing financial crisis which are in national interest,” said Gilani.

Pak senate session to debate bailout plan
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Senate chairman Mohammadmian Soomro has summoned a session of the senate on November 10, on a requisition by the PML-Q seeking a debate on Pakistan’s impending decision to contract a bailout plan with the IMF and non-implementation of the resolution adopted in the joint sitting of the parliament on the war on terror.

PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, while talking to reporters here on Sunday, said his party was opposed to accepting harsh conditionality of the IMF which would further aggravate people’s sufferings. He feared the government had already accepted the terms of IMF credit.

Elahi said his party would not merge with any other faction or party and would keep its separate identity in the opposition. He had prepared an extensive plan to reorganise the party at gross roots level by visiting every district. He described a “handful” of turncoats of forming ‘forward bloc’ and insisted that by and large the party was intact.

Suicide bomber kills 8 Pak soldiers

Islamabad, November 2
At least eight Pakistani soldiers were killed and five others were injured today when a suicide car bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a paramilitary camp in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The attacker struck at Zalai check post, located 20-km west of South Waziristan Agency’s main town Wana, at 9.30 am, an official of the local political administration said. — PTI

Voting for Prez, American style

Washington, November 2
It is often an overlooked fact that when Americans enter the privacy of the polling booth on November 4, they will not actually be directly voting for the next President of the United States.

Instead, in a peculiar quirk of the US political system, they will choose a slate of state officials or party leaders known as electors, either Democrat or Republican, who will make up the Electoral College.

These 538 representatives will then meet in their state capitals on December 15 to elect the next occupant of the White House, based on whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain won the most votes in their states.

“To be honest, I think a lot of Americans don’t really understand it either,’ said Chris Dreibelbis, communications director at the Reform Institute, asked to explain the complex, unique American system which dates back to the 1800s.

Each of the 50 US states, plus the nation's capital Washington DC, has a minimum of three Electoral College votes, but those with the largest populations have the most.

To win the November 4 election, either candidate has to win 270 Electoral College votes or more. California is the largest state with 55 Electoral College votes, followed by Texas with 34.

The candidate who wins the popular vote in the state wins all its Electoral College votes, except in Maine and Nebraska, which use a tiered system.

That's why swing states such as Ohio with 20 Electoral College votes, or Pennsylvania with 21 can prove such rich pickings for candidates needing to bump up their tallies.

It's also why a candidate can win the popular vote, but lose the White House, as happened in 2000 when Democrat Al Gore lost in Florida, and its then 25 Electoral College votes tipped Republican George W. Bush to victory. — AFP 

B’desh military chief assures UN Secy-Gen of fair polls
Ashfaq Wares Khan writes from Dhaka

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he received assurances on Sunday from Bangladesh’s military leadership that they would not intervene in politics after the upcoming polls on December 18.

The UN chief met both civilian and military leaders of the military-backed caretaker government during his trip here as part the four-nation tour.

“They (military) will not interfere or intervene in any political process - this is what I was assured from the military leadership,” said Ban at a press conference in Dhaka.

His arrival comes amid growing uncertainty among political parties that the elections, postponed for two years, may not go ahead due to a deadlock in negotiations between the parties and the interim administration. 

With the military administering the country under the ongoing state of emergency, politicians and experts have expressed fears of a military takeover if the country descends into chaos surrounding the upcoming parliamentary polls.

Ban encouraged greater dialogue between the government and political parties to avoid a return to political violence that marked pre-election violence in late 2006.

“This is an election of Bangladeshi people. I hope this will be solved through the authorities and the political parties,” he said.

He also told reporters that the UN would send a high-profile team to assess the credibility of election preparations.