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Pak launches hunt for top Taliban militants
‘1971 defeat triggered Pak’s N-programme’
Last Titanic survivor dies |
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Deliberations on Nepal’s constitution begin
‘N Korea may test-fire missile soon’
Fire kills 36 miners
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Pak launches hunt for top Taliban militants
Islamabad, June 1 Days after capturing Mingora, the main city in Swat district, security forces continued their push into the nearby areas controlled by the Taliban and have surrounded Charbagh town, 20 km north of Swat's capital, where some top Taliban commanders are holed up. "Eighteen militants and two soldiers were killed in fighting in the past 24 hours in various areas of Swat and South Waziristan tribal region," an Army statement said. Thirteen militants were apprehended and four soldiers and as many civilians were injured in the fighting, it added. But the security forces are reported to be facing "stiff resistance" in operations to link up troops in Kabal and Sirsanai, the other main towns in Swat. "Security forces have encircled Charbagh town where some top Taliban commanders are holed up," the statement said.Charbagh has been described as a major Taliban stronghold after Peochar. Army has set up checkpoints in the towns of Khwazakhela and Manglawar, north and south of Charbagh to effectively cut off any supplies to the Taliban, military officials said. Security forces also entered Kalam, a strategic valley 90 km north of Mingora where militants commanders are suspected to have set up command structures to direct attacks against Army.The intensification of operations in Swat comes, amidst speculations that the Army after winding up campaign in Swat valley might launch offensive in the Waziristan district. Senior Pakistani defence and military officials have said that the five-week offensive to crack down on Taliban fighters in the northwest could end within days as only 10 to 15 per cent job remain to be done. — PTI
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‘1971 defeat triggered Pak’s N-programme’
Washington, June 1 “Pakistan’s nuclear energy programme dates back to the 1950s, but it was the loss of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in a bloody war with India that probably triggered a political decision in January 1972 (just one month later) to begin a secret nuclear weapons programme,” the report said. The report on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme was submitted to lawmakers last month by Congressional Research Service (CRS), a research wing of the US Congress, which regularly prepares reports for Congressmen. Meanwhile, China is providing assistance to Pakistan in developing its plutonium-based nuclear weapons programme, a Congressional report has told US lawmakers. Besides the conventional uranium-based nuclear weapons, said Pakistan has also pursued plutonium-based warheads since the 1990s and continues to produce plutonium for weapons, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in latest its report on the country’s nuclear programme. “Pakistan has received Chinese assistance for its plutonium programme,” said the report by CRS, the research wing of the Congress.
— PTI
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London, June 1 Dean was just nine weeks old when her family sold a pub they owned in London to travel on the maiden voyage of the passenger liner and begin a new life in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States, where her father Bertram hoped to open a tobacconist shop. Her father was one of the 1,517 people who died after the supposedly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic and sank. Dean, who was wrapped in a sack to protect her from the cold and lowered into a lifeboat, was the youngest of the 706 Titanic survivors. Her mother Georgetta and two-year-old brother Bertram also survived, dying in 1975 and 1992, respectively. Dean, who never married, said she had no memory of the disaster but was told of the event at the age of eight when her mother was about to remarry. In her 70s, she became a Titanic celebrity, appearing at conventions, exhibitions and in documentaries and other media about the ill-fated ship. The Titanic International Society said on its website that Dean passed away in her sleep early Sunday at a nursing home near Southampton. She was recently released from hospital after a bout with pneumonia. Last month the stars of the Hollywood blockbuster movie “Titanic” - Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and the film’s director James Cameron - donated $30,000 to support Dean in her last years after it was reported that she had resorted to selling her autograph to pay her nursing home bills. The 1997 drama “Titanic” made more than $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing film of all time in figures not adjusted for inflation. —
Reuters
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Deliberations on Nepal’s constitution begin
Just a year after Nepal was declared a federal democratic republic state, the Constituent Assembly (CA) has started deliberation on the preliminary draft and concept papers of the new constitution prepared by various thematic committees. On Sunday, for the first time, the full session of the assembly started deliberations on the preliminary concept paper furnished by the National Interest Preservation Committee (NIPC). The NIPC has proposed provisions of compulsory army training to 18-year olds or more, control of central government over international treaties and agreements and army commission for appointment and promotion of army personnel. Nepali Congress lawmaker Narayan Khadka and CPN-UML member Bhim Rawal raised their serious resentment against the idea of compulsory military training for youths. Khadka said it would provoke a civil war in the country, whereas UML member Rawal Rawal claimed that the compulsory military training was not necessary as the country had already re-entered an era of peace. However, Unified CPN (Maoist) lawmaker Khim Lal Devkota defended the provision saying that it would strengthen the national security by providing military training for all youths. In accordance with the CA Calendar of Events, the CA will have to deliberate on the preliminary drafts and concept papers of the new constitution to be furnished by the constitutional panels, and finalise it in next 55 days. Thereafter, the CA will reach out to people to collect public feedbacks on the draft and furnish them in the CA session for final endorsement so that President Ram Baran Yadav is able to promulgate the constitution by 27 May, 2010.
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‘N Korea may test-fire missile soon’
Seoul, June 1 North Korea last week unleashed provocations rarely seen since the 1950-53 Korean War with a nuclear test that put it closer to having a working atomic bomb, short-range missile tests and threats to attack the South. It also warned of further measures if the United Nations tries to punish it. In another move that could further stoke tensions, North Korea plans to hold a trial on Thursday for two U.S journalists it took into custody along its border with China several months ago after charging them with ‘hostile acts”. North Korea is preparing to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic (ICBM) missile with an estimated range of 4,000 km to 6,500 km (2,485 to 4,000 miles) from a west coast missile base, the daily JoongAng Ilbo cited South Korean intelligence sources as saying. “Preparations for the launch are likely to be completed in mid-June,” one intelligence source said. Train cars carrying a missile departed from the Pyongyang area about two weeks ago for a missile base on the North’s west coast, not far from its border with China, the sources said. North Korea in April fired a rocket from its east coast Musudan-ri missile range, which was widely seen as a disguised test of its long-range Taepodong-2 missile that violated UN resolutions banning it from ballistic missile launches.
—Reuters
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Speeding up their campaign to flush out Taliban from the Swat valley, Pakistani troops today encircled the key town of Charbagh and mounted a hunt for top militants in the mountains
The last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the “Titanic”, Millvina Dean, has died in a nursing home in England at the age of 97, the Titanic International Society said today.
Dean was just nine weeks old when her family sold a pub they owned in London to travel on the maiden voyage of the passenger liner and begin a new life in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States, where her father Bertram hoped to open a tobacconist shop.
