|
|
|
|
|
US, Australia ink defence pact
Uranium sale to India |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Syrian army defectors raid intelligence complex
|
|
US, Australia ink defence pact
Canberra, November 16 China, already worried the United States is caging it in, immediately questioned whether strengthening military alliances would help the region when economic woes put a premium on cooperation. "With my visit to the region, I am making it clear that the United States is stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific region," Obama told a joint news conference with Gillard in Canberra. From next year, US troops and aircraft will operate out of the tropical city of Darwin, only 820 km from Indonesia, able to respond quickly to any humanitarian and security issues in Southeast Asia, where disputes over sovereignty of the South China Sea are causing rising tensions. "It is appropriate for us to make sure...that the security architecture for the region is updated for the 21st century and this initiative is going to allow us to do that," Obama said. He stressed that it was not an attempt to isolate China which is concerned that Washington is trying to encircle it with bases in Japan and South Korea and now troops in Australia. "The notion that we fear China is mistaken. The notion that we are looking to exclude China is mistaken," he said, adding China was not being excluded from the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) on trade. "We welcome a rising, peaceful China." But China's rising power means it must take on greater responsibilities to ensure free trade and security in the region, he added. "It's important for them to play by the rules of the road and, in fact, help underwrite the rules that have allowed so much remarkable economic progress," he said.
— Reuters
|
|
Uranium sale to India
Melbourne, November 16 "India is a big player and the Australia-India relationship is one that should be cultivated," Obama said in his apparent support to Gillard's u-turn yesterday in which she expressed the country's interest to sell uranium to India. In a lighter vein, US President, who arrived in the country today, said, "I will watch with interest what’s determined" as he refuted today's report that his administration had influenced Gillard's decision. 'The Australian' daily had reported that Gillard had moved to lift the ban this week in a bid to strengthen the relation with the fast growing economic powerhouse and "there was some speculation that it was at the urging of the US."
— PTI
|
|
Monti embarks on mission to save Italy
Rome, November 16 The former European commissioner said his new team would focus “on coordinated initiatives for economic growth and development,” as he announced he had formally accepted the nomination to replace Silvio Berlusconi. Monti said he would outline his economic programme on Thursday with intense pressure from financial markets and international leaders to act speedily to implement reforms. The new government will go to a confidence vote in parliament on Thursday. “We have had many signals of encouragement from our European partners and the international community. I believe all this will translate into... a calming of the market difficulties concerning our country,” he said. Corrado Passera, chief executive of Italy’s biggest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo, will also head up a reinforced economic development and transport and infrastructure ministry charged with boosting the anaemic growth rate. Like Monti, the 56-year-old Passera is an alumnus of Milan’s prestigious Bocconi University, the training ground for Italy’s financial elite. As he scrambled to put together his cabinet this week, Monti sought to build consensus around the idea that Italians will have to make “sacrifices” to exit the debt crisis and has called for “economic, social and civil growth.” He has won endorsements from all of Italy’s main political forces but he faces a major challenge in steering a course through a fractious political world, with particularly intense sniping from Berlusconi’s allies.
— AFP
|
|
End night raids before Afghan deal, Karzai tells US
Kabul, November 16 Night raids, which foreign troops say are one of their most effective weapons in the fight against insurgents, are a major cause of friction between Karzai and his Western backers. The Afghan leader has said repeatedly he wants them stopped. "We want a strategic partnership but with specific conditions: our national integrity, no night raids, no house searches," Karzai told a meeting of around 2,000 Afghan political and community leaders in Kabul. The strategic partnership agreement, still under discussion between Washington and Kabul, will govern American involvement in Afghanistan after the deadline for the exit of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. Afghanistan is also negotiating similar agreements with Britain, France, Australia and the European Union, Karzai said. Karzai was speaking on the first day of a four-day meeting, known as a loya jirga, or grand assembly. The jirga is consultative rather than legislative, but it is discussing some of the most sensitive subjects in Afghanistan: the scope of a US military presence after 2014 and the idea of peace talks with the Taliban. The Taliban, who say they will not engage in peace talks until all foreign troops have left Afghanistan, have dismissed the meeting as a ploy to rubber-stamp what they see as foreign interference.
— Reuters
|
|
|
Syrian army defectors raid intelligence complex
Damascus, November 16 Arab foreign ministers, who were also to hold talks with their Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, were due to discuss the implementation of a raft of sanctions adopted against Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Saturday, including its suspension from the Arab League. The early morning raid on the air force intelligence base just outside Damascus was among the most spectacular carried out by the growing number of deserters from Assad’s largely conscript armed forces who have refused orders to open fire on civilian protesters. “The Free Army struck with rockets and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) the headquarters of air force intelligence which is located at the entrance of Damascus,” an activist network, said in a statement. — AFP
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
