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Mend ties with Pak to overtake China: Clinton
Attack on army HQ exposes extremist threat, says Clinton
Lahore HC directs EC to put off Nov 7 bypoll
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Kabul Bombing Nobel for Obama seen as reward for not being Bush: Experts
Soyuz back with space tourist
Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte smiles after his return in northern Kazakhstan on Sunday. — Reuters
Robots to clear dead satellites from orbit
Prachanda leaves for China
14 killed in Iraq car bomb attacks
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Mend ties with Pak to overtake China: Clinton
Chicago, October 11 “...if that one thing (improving ties with Pakistan) could be done by India, it would revolutionise the 21st century in ways no one can imagine,” Clinton said at the PAN-IIT conference here. “Try to find a way to keep making progress with the Pakistanis,” Clinton said. He stated this when asked by an audience member what India must do to become a superpower and gain more influence at the UN and G-20. “If you did not have to raise defence spending 20 per cent a year and these countries could be working together I think you will grow faster than China,” he said. Clinton said the idea that the Chinese are going to dominate the 21st century is not necessarily true. “It depends mostly what you do and if you can continue to plough money into the development of the poor and reduce inequalities in India.” Clinton, who has time and again volunteered to help India and Pakistan resolve the issue of Kashmir, suggested going for the IIT model as the model of the future “and not the standoffs of 1971 or the fights over Kashmir or whatever.” Acknowledging that it is “easier to say than to do,” Clinton said: “I know that especially after what happened in Mumbai. I watched the hotel room I always stay in burning, I know that but if that one thing could be done by India it would revolutionise the 21st century in ways no one can imagine.” Clinton argued that this would help reduce the nuclear threat the world faces as also the rush in all these countries to produce atomic weapons and it would indirectly reduce tensions in the Middle East. The same thing is true in Afghanistan, he noted. “Every time India does development work in Afghanistan, Pakistan thinks it is directed against it and vice versa but the truth is if the two countries could find a way to work together and do common projects there, it would stabilise Afghanistan and bring it into the 21st century,” Clinton said. “In an interdependent world it is a prescription for disaster when you can’t get away from your neighbour. You have to have a non-zero sum game where both sides can win,” he said. — PTI
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Attack on army HQ exposes extremist threat, says Clinton
London, October 11 Clinton, who arrived in London late yesterday as part of her five-day European tour, said the measures being taken to root out extremists in Pakistan were “very important”. The top US diplomat told reporters she had been briefed about the attack. She said she wanted to point out that the attacks shows threats to the Pakistani government and the fact that the civilian leadership, along with the military, are working to root out the extremists and prevent violence and direct assaults on the sovereignty of the state. — AFP
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Lahore HC directs EC to put off Nov 7 bypoll
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday directed the Election Commission to postpone the by-elections set for November 7 on four vacant assembly seats on one of which former premier Nawaz Sharif is a candidate.
The single bench court led by Justice Nisar Saqib accepted the Punjab government's plea that the law and order situation and threat of suicide attacks are major hurdles in holding peaceful polls. While the government cited Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani that intelligence agencies have reported that he and Nawaz Sharif would be target in assassination attempts by terrorists. The Lahore High Court verdict came on the day massive car bomb killed nearly 50 persons in Peshawar. Another suicide blast early this week killed eight persons in Islamabad's office of the UNDP. The High Court directed the Election Commission to issue new election schedule after consultation with Punjab government and other political parties. Sharif, who is currently in London, received a lot of flak from opponents for avoiding to contest election. "The lion (Sharif's election symbol) is being cowardly and running away from democratic process of election," said Salman Butt, a former MP from the right-wing Jamaat Islami who is challenging Sharif.
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Kabul Bombing
Islamabad, October 11 Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said though Islamabad had strongly condemned Thursday's "dastardly act of terrorism close to the Indian embassy in Kabul", Indian officials and media were blaming Pakistan for the attack. "Regrettably the Indian officials and media continue to make baseless insinuations against Pakistan. These have become impulsive reactions betraying a strange mindset," Basit said in a statement issued late last night. The attack near the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital was followed closely by "terrible terrorist attacks" in Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi that caused "huge loss of lives and injury to innocent persons", Basit said. "It is evident that terrorists are enemies of both the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said. "Instead of recrimination, India should opt for cooperation," he added. Referring to the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at Sharm el-Sheikh in July, Basit said India had then agreed that "terrorism is the main threat" to both countries. "Terrorism affects the whole region. Terrorism is a scourge that must be combated strongly. In our recent interaction with India in New York (in September), we had suggested a meeting of the Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism to discuss such cooperation," Basit said. In the second such attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, a Taliban suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden car outside the mission killing 17 people and injuring nearly 80, including three ITBP personnel. — PTI
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Nobel for Obama seen as reward for not being Bush: Experts Washington, October 11 The award was "a sigh of collective relief that George Bush is no longer here," The Washington Times quoted Aaron David Miller, an adviser on Middle East issues to six presidents, as saying. More than any concrete contribution Obama has made to world peace, the prize embodies "the international community's love affair" with a young, charismatic president who "listens, not lectures," he added. Obama tried to appear grounded in reality, explaining that after being awakened with news of the honor, he was immediately confronted with more immediate family concerns, including the news of his dog's birthday and a daughter's observation that they were on the cusp of a three-day weekend. "It's good to have kids to keep things in perspective," he chuckled. Despite some early speculation that perhaps the president would politely decline the honor, Obama sent an e-mail to supporters explaining his decision to accept it. "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many...transformative figures. But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honour specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes," he said, describing the award as "a call for all nations and all peoples to confront common challenges. After his embarrassment at the hands of the International Olympic Committee, which rejected Obama's personal pitch for Chicago as an Olympic host, the Nobel award represents a clear return to the prevailing narrative of Obama's campaign for the White House and the central theme of his early presidency - that he is attempting to "reset" relations with the rest of the world after an icy eight years under Bush. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Obama choice "sets the seal on America's return to the heart of all the world's peoples”. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed that the Nobel announcement represented a symbolic welcoming of the new American approach. "President Obama embodies the new spirit of dialogue and engagement on the world's biggest problems - climate change, nuclear disarmament and a wide range of peace and security challenges," he said. The president's political supporters welcomed such sentiments as a sign that Obama was delivering on his promise to rekindle relations between the United States and its top allies. Mark Salter, an author and longtime adviser to Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, called the decision "morally reprehensible." "No president's statecraft, whether you agree with its direction or not, can be expected to bear fruit in less than nine months. I think the morally correct and politically shrewd response from the White House would have been to refuse the honour," Salter said. The basis for the Nobel committee's decision was likely Obama's speech in Prague earlier this year, where he began to lay out his vision for eliminating nuclear arms. He is also working to beat an end-of-year deadline to write a new arms control agreement with Russia. "This award reflects a new international consensus that whatever stability nuclear arsenals may have provided during the Cold War is now outweighed by the growing risks of proliferation and nuclear terrorism and that the only way in the long term to eliminate the nuclear threat is to eliminate all nuclear weapons," said former ambassador Richard Burt, the chief US negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Denver talk-radio host Mike Rosen said: "It's obviously a slap in the face to George W Bush." John Bolton, who was the president’s envoy at the UN, said he found the president appropriately "gracious and modest" in the way he accepted the Nobel Prize. "They want to reward a particular kind of American - an American who thinks like Europeans do," he said. — ANI
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Soyuz back with space tourist
Moscow, October 11 The capsule, also carrying Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Michael
Barratt, landed in Kazakhstan's steppe at 1000 IST after travelling from the International Space Station
(ISS). "The team took the landing quite well, they are feeling fine," the space official commented as quoted by the RIA Novosti news
agency. Laliberte is the billionaire founder of the popular Cirque du Soleil and the seventh person in history to spend millions of dollars from a personal fortune to fly into space. The Canadian, who arrived at the ISS on October 2, could be the last space tourist for some time as seats will be limited aboard the Soyuz once NASA takes its long-serving shuttles out of service from 2010. The Cirque du
Soleil, which Laliberte founded in 1984, fuses acrobatics with music and has made him the world's 261st richest man with a fortune of $ 2.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine. —
AFP
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Robots to clear dead satellites from orbit
London, October 11 Experts have described the development by German scientists as a crucial step in preventing a disaster in the Earth's crowded orbit. Last year, it was reported that critical levels of debris circling the Earth were threatening astronauts' lives and future of the multibillion-pound satellite communications industry. But senior figures at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) have said that have been given the go-ahead to tackle a
crisis that will come to a head in the next five to 10 years as more orbiting objects run
out of fuel. Their robots will dock with failing satellites to carry out repairs or push them into "graveyard orbits" freeing vital space in geostationary orbit. This is the narrow band 22,000 miles above the Earth in which orbiting objects appear fixed at the same point. More than 200 dead satellites litter this orbit. Within 10 years that number could
increase fivefold, the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety has
warned. Klaus Landzettel, head of space robotics at DLR, said engineering advances, including the development of machines that can withstand temperatures ranging from -170 C to 200 C, meant that the German robots will be "ready to be used on any satellite, whether it's designed to be docked or not". — PTI
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Prachanda leaves for China
Former Nepalese Prime Minister and chairman of the United Communist Party of Nepal -Maoists (UCP-N) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, on Sunday left Kathmandu on a week-long visit to China triggering speculations in terms of its political implication both home and abroad. Former rebels’ supreme Prachanda flew to Beijing in company of his son Prakash and senior party leaders Mohan Baidhya Kiran and Krishna Bahadur Mahara. Chinese President Hu Jintao’s willingness to meet Prachanda and his delegation adds to the visit’s significance. The Maoists party’s foreign affairs department chief Mahara said, “We will decide whom all to meet once we are in Beijing.” But in an interview to a local daily on the eve of his departure, he praised China for its dignified behaviour towards Nepal by not meddling in its internal affairs. “We hope this visit will help consolidate ties between the CPN-M and the Communist Party of China and the two countries,” said Prachanda at the airport before leaving the Kathmandu. Analysts say this will also be an opportunity for Prachanda to explain to China his own vision of Nepal and Nepal-China relations. Chaos and predictable uncertainty in Nepal in days to come, and uncertainty about the political course that Maoists will trudge are worrying trends for Nepal’s giant neighbour in the north that is in a hurry to increase its role in Nepal. The foreign ministry has refused to give any comments on the trip. “We are not in the loop directly or indirectly about this trip. And we really do not know what would it mean for the country,” a senior official told Newsfront. “It looks like a party to party business,” he said, “our embassy in Beijing will be extending all cooperation if asked”. It appears that the visit to Beijing was finalised when Prachanda visited Hong Kong last month after he explained to the Chinese authorities about his party’s keenness to work with China.
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14 killed in Iraq car bomb attacks
Baghdad, October 11 “The latest police reports said a total of 14 persons were killed and 64 others injured, including policemen, in twin car bombings and a suicide car bomb attack outside a hospital in Ramadi,” an official requesting anonymity said. Two explosives-laden cars, parked in a garage outside the compound of the Anbar provincial council building, were detonated in quick succession, killing 12 persons and wounding 60 others, including policemen, the source said. In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated the explosives after police personnel at a checkpoint outside a city hospital tried to stop the car he was driving. Two policemen were killed and four others wounded in the blast, the official added. The government has meanwhile imposed a curfew in the city and additional security personnel were deployed on the streets to main law and order. The province was once a stronghold of the Al-Qaeda militants in the country. — IANS
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Moscow, October 11
