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Now, Iran hosts meet on N-disarmament
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Benazir may have paid price for seeking
better Indo-Pak ties
TV journalist among eight killed in blast
800 evacuated near Iceland volcano
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Now, Iran hosts meet on N-disarmament
Faced with threats of crippling UN sanctions, Iran is projecting the meet as an event to dispel western fears that it wants to build an atomic bomb and convey to the international community that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. In addition to Russia and China, both members of the UN Security Council, representatives from India and nearly 50 other countries are expected to attend the conference, dubbed Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None. Both Russia and China have resisted US-led efforts to impose new UN sanctions on Iran arguing that they would affect the common people at large and serve no purpose in dealing with the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear programme. They are insisting on further negotiations. China depends on oil and gas-rich Iran for 11 per cent of its energy needs and last year became Tehran's biggest trading partner. Although India has repeatedly stated that it does not want another nuclear weapons state in its neighbourhood, it has also opposed fresh sanctions against Iran. New Delhi's stand on the Iran issue was as recently as last Sunday conveyed unequivocally by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to President Obama at their meeting in Washington. The Iranians have appreciated the stand taken by New Delhi although they were cut up with India for voting against the Islamic Republic thrice in the past at the IAEA. From the Indian side, the conference in Iran will be attended by Indian Ambassador to Iran Sanjay Singh and a senior official of the External Affairs Ministry. Iran had also invited former President APJ Abdul Kalam to attend the meeting. He appreciated Iran's plan to organise the meet but expressed his inability to attend it due to prior commitments. In a statement released on the eve of the conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki asserted that Tehran was meeting all its international obligations under the IAEA norms while pursuing its nuclear energy programme. He said his country was approaching the upcoming NPT Review Conference also with a positive mind. ''The NPT was formed around three main pillars, namely nuclear disarmament, peaceful uses of nuclear energy and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. What happens to these three pillars,'' he asked. Mottaki contended that due to “unjust, self-centred, discriminative and selective approaches of the nuclear weapons states, the balance between three main objectives of the NPT had been totally defeated”. The US and some of its allies have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges, saying its nuclear programme was geared toward generating electricity, not bomb. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was quoted as saying in the Iranian media that that the Tehran conference would advocate genuine nuclear disarmament and call upon nuclear weapons states to disarm themselves before preaching to the world. “'Iran has no nuclear military agenda... our nuclear programme is aimed at meeting our civil nuclear energy requirements.”
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UN report: Mush govt failed to protect Bhutto
United Nations, April 16 The UN-appointed independent panel report also slammed the powerful ISI and the Pakistani police, saying they "deliberately failed" to properly probe 54-year-old Bhutto's murder which could have been averted. "Bhutto's assassination could have been prevented," said the much-awaited 65-page report by a three-member panel headed by Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz. The investigators stressed that besides passing on messages of the serious threats to Bhutto, no proactive measures were taken by the authorities to neutralise the danger. However, the report does not reveal who killed Bhutto. "The responsibility for Bhutto's security on the day of the assassination rested with the federal government, the government of Punjab and the Rawalpindi district police... none of these entities took the necessary measures to respond to the extraordinary fresh and urgent security risk that they knew she faced," Munoz said. "A range of government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Bhutto and second to investigate with vigour all those responsible for her murder not only in the execution of the attack but also in its conception, planning and financing," he said. The panel pointed out that Bhutto faced a threat from several sources, including the Al-Qaida, the Pakistani Taliban, other Jihadist groups and "so called establishment in Pakistan" that consisted of elements of military commanders, intelligence agency, allied political parties and business partners. Bhutto, the first woman to become the PM of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27, 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi. — PTI
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Benazir may have paid price for seeking
better Indo-Pak ties
A possible link between Benazir Bhutto’s “independent” position on improved relations with India with its implications for the Kashmir dispute, and her assassination has been drawn by a UN investigation made public today.
The brutal killing of the 54-year-old Bhutto could have been “prevented” but the then military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s government had failed to protect her despite serious threats, according to the report. Among the positions taken by Bhutto that “touched” the “establishment’s” concerns was “her independent position on the urgent need to improve relations with India, and its implications for the Kashmir dispute, which the military had regarded as its policy domain.” —
PTI
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TV journalist among eight killed in blast
Islamabad, April 16 The Shia man, identified as Arshad Zaidi, son of a prominent leader, was shot outside a bank and was shifted to the Civil Hospital who later died of wounds in hospital. A large number of Shia religious leaders, protesters, policemen, reporters and TV cameramen were outside the hospital when the suicide attacker detonated his explosives at around 10.15 am. Malik Arif, a cameraman for Samaa news channel, and two policemen were among the dead. A reporter for the channel said Arif's body was blown to pieces and his head severed. The reporter said he had also seen another severed head. Four policemen, including a DSP and four journalists, were among the injured, witnesses said. Geo TV reported that its reporter Salaman Asharf was also injured in the attack. — PTI
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800 evacuated near Iceland volcano
Reykjavik, April 16 The Iceland's Department of Civil Protection said the immediate area around the eruption in the southeast of the country was at risk of flash floods. The volcano sent up the huge cloud of ash that has brought air chaos. Police spokesman Vithir Reynisson said 800 persons had been moved, many for a second time in less than 24 hours. Hundreds had to flee the floods after the eruption started on Wednesday. The Civil Protection Department said there was an "imminent and immediate danger of flash floods. Reports confirm a large body of water emerging from under" the glacier. "The water is expected to breach the flood barriers," the department added. Ash plume from volcano still on
An Icelandic volcano is still spewing ash into the air in a massive plume that has disrupted air traffic across Europe and shows little sign of letting up, officials said today. One expert said the eruption could abate in the coming days, but a government spokesman said ash would keep drifting into the skies of Europe. The thick, dark brown ash cloud has shut down air traffic across northern Europe and restrictions remained in place in many areas. —
AFP
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Under mounting global pressure to abandon its controversial nuclear programme, Iran hosts a two-day international conference here on Saturday on nuclear disarmament in a move clearly aimed at countering the high-profile Nuclear Security Summit convened by US President Barack Obama in Washington earlier this week.