 |
|
|
Hillary spells out US international agenda
Taliban ‘thinktank’ arrested in Pakistan
UN official shot dead in Peshawar
|
|
|
No anti-India activity on B’desh soil: PM
Iran Crash
|
|
Hillary spells out US international agenda
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a major foreign policy speech in Washington on Wednesday in which she pledged her commitment to "smart power" while acknowledging an international agenda that is "unforgiving."
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton noted that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflict in the South West Asia, ongoing threats of violent extremism and nuclear proliferation, global recession, climate change, hunger and disease, and a widening gap between rich and poor are all challenges that affect America's security and prosperity. "And all threaten global stability and progress." she said. In approaching these foreign policy challenges, she said, the US has to deal with the urgent, the important and the long-term all at once. She was confident that the Obama administration had the right strategy, the right priorities and the right policies. "We have the right President. And we have the American people, diverse, committed, involved and open to the future," she said. Defending the administration's willingness to talk with perceived foes of the US, she said this was not a sign of weakness to be exploited. "We will not hesitate to defend our friends, our interests and above all our people, vigorously and when necessary with the world's strongest military," she said. The speech came on the eve of Clinton's visit to India and Thailand. She described the US-India dialogue as the most wide-ranging that had ever been put on the table. She noted this dialogue had six pillars - foreign policy, strategic challenges, health and education, agriculture and the economy - and that everything was on the table for discussion. "We believe India has a tremendous opportunity and a growing responsibility... to play not just a regional role but a global one as well," she said, adding, "How they choose to define, that we will explore in-depth during the course of our discussion." She said the US would welcome Indian leadership on issues such as nonproliferation, its neighbourhood, lifting people out of poverty, climate change and clean energy. She acknowledged India and China's "understandable questions about what role they should be expected to play in any kind of new global climate change regime." Todd Stern, the Obama administration's special envoy for climate change, will be accompanying Clinton to India. While in India, Clinton expects to lay out a broad-based agenda for the bilateral relationship.
Discussing Afghanistan and Pakistan, Clinton said the US was committed to disrupting, dismantling, and ultimately defeating Al-Qaida and its extremist allies. Yet, she admitted, "Americans often ask as to why do we ask our young men and women to risk their lives in Afghanistan when Al-Qaida's leadership is in neighboring Pakistan?" She went on to answer that question, saying, "We and our allies fight in Afghanistan because the Taliban protects Al-Qaida and depends on it for support, sometimes, coordinating activities. In other words, to eliminate Al-Qaida, we must also fight the
Taliban." She acknowledged that not all those who fight with the Taliban believe in extremist policies. Clinton said the US and its allies in Afghanistan would welcome anyone supporting the Taliban who renounced that the Al Qaida, laid down their arms, and was willing to participate in the free and open society that was enshrined in the Afghan constitution. US President Obama was sending an additional 17,000 troops and 4,000 military trainers to Afghanistan to boost security ahead of the presidential elections in August. Clinton said success in Afghanistan depended on close cooperation from Pakistan. Noting that Pakistan is itself under intense pressure from extremist groups, she said trilateral cooperation among Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States has built confidence and yielded progress on a number of policy fronts. "Our national security as well as the future of Afghanistan depends on a stable, democratic, and economically viable Pakistan," she said, applauding the new Pakistani determination to deal with the militants.
|
|
Taliban ‘thinktank’ arrested in Pakistan
Master Riaz Kamboh, who was arrested by the law-enforcement agencies with injuries after a huge blast at his house in a village on the outskirts of Mian Channu on Monday, has reportedly revealed he had finalised a plan to attack Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his next visit to his hometown, Multan. Media reports quoting an investigator said Kamboh had links with the Taliban in the tribal areas and maintained a huge cache of arms and explosives, apparently for suicide bombing. “Kamboh, who is known as a one-man thinktank among the extremists, had been using his house to store explosives and weapons since 1999 and had also established a network of such depots in Sargodha, Okara and elsewhere in the southern Punjab", daily The News quoted the unnamed investigator. “Kamboh has been playing the role of a handler and facilitator and his house had been a control centre for all the recent terrorism acts in the Punjab,” he added. The police claimed that members of Kamboh’s network of terrorists, who had been apprehended since the Mian Channu blast, also included a most wanted person who fled Lal Masjid just before the operation was launched to purge the worship place of terrorists. “When the government had banned various extremist organisations after 9/11, Kamboh facilitated many members of such outfits to flee to Afghanistan as he had very good connections in the war-torn neighbouring country,” the investigator disclosed. The investigator said Kamboh was among the people who believed in the philosophy of the banned Egyptian organisation, Ikhwanul Muslimeen (Muslim brotherhood) and preached ‘jihad’ as obligatory against the pro-US and pro-West Muslims.
|
|
UN official shot dead in Peshawar
Islamabad, July 16 Zil-e-Usman, a Pakistani working for the UN High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR), was attacked by gunmen outside the agency's field office on the outskirts of the capital of North West Frontier Province. "It was a kidnapping attempt," UNHCR spokeswoman Amena Ali Kamal said. "They attacked him from different directions as he came out of our field office in Kacha Gari refugee camp and he was hit several times in the crossfire and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital." Kamal said the guard, from a private security firm, was also killed. Insurgents have targeted foreign diplomats and aid workers in Peshawar before, and last month carried out a suicide bomb attack that devastated the city's top hotel and killed at least nine persons, including two foreign UN workers. The UNHCR is one of the agencies at the forefront of relief efforts to help more than 2 million people displaced by fighting between security forces and Taliban insurgents in the Swat valley and other parts of the northwest. Many of the families staying at Kacha Gari hail from Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region, though the camp was originally established for Afghan refugees who had fled the conflict in their homeland. — Reuters
|
|
No anti-India activity on B’desh soil: PM
Sharm-el-Sheikh (Egypt), July 16 During the first meeting the two leaders had on the sideline of the NAM summit since Hasina returned to power in January this year and Singh assumed office for a second successive tenure, the Indian Prime Minister raised the issue of Bangladeshi territory being used by Indian insurgents. Hasina assured Singh that this would not be allowed.Hasina raised the issue of Tipaimukh hydro power project on Barak river in Manipur and Singh said India "is ready to look at creative solutions". He said a parliamentary delegation would be visiting India on July 28-29 to discuss the Tipaimukh project issue with Indian leaders, officials and experts. Singh spoke of widening and deepening bilateral cooperation at a pace Bangladesh was comfortable with.The two leaders congratulated each other on their parties' election victories. — PTI
|
|
Iran Crash
Tehran, July 16 The cause of the crash was still unknown, Iran’s state English-language Press TV said. The plane was on its way to neighbouring Armenia’s capital Yerevan when it came down after catching fire in mid-air and ploughing into a farmland for 16 minutes after departing Tehran. The Caspian Airlines plane exploded on impact and left only scattered bits of incinerated metal and fragments of the bodies of the 153 passengers — Reuters
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a major foreign policy speech in Washington on Wednesday in which she pledged her commitment to "smart power" while acknowledging an international agenda that is "unforgiving."
