The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Twin boost: Romney wins key Arizona, Michigan primaries Washington, February 29 Consolidating his front-runner status, Mitt Romney has won two crucial Republican primaries against Rick Santorum in Arizona and Michigan ahead of the March 6 'Super Tuesday' contests in the keenly-fought US Presidential nomination race within the party. With 99 per cent of Michigan's precincts reporting, former Massachusetts Governor Romney had secured 41 per cent against Santorum's 38 per cent. In Arizona, with 88 per cent of precincts reporting, 64-year-old Romney had bagged 47 per cent against Santorum's 27 per cent. Romney needed to win both states, but especially Michigan, his native state, to assert his ability to overcome the conservative challenge posed by former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum. "I stand ready to lead our party to victory and our nation back to prosperity," Romney told a jubilant crowd of supporters. "It's a critical time in America. We didn't win by a lot, but we won by enough. And that's all that counts," Romney said. A Santorum victory in Michigan would have raised questions about how strong a candidate Romney is within his own party. Now all eyes are on Super Tuesday, March 6, when primaries are scheduled in about 10 states. A major victory next week would almost seal Romney's nomination, experts say. Romney has so far won contests in six states -- New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada, Maine, Michigan and Arizona -- in the race to secure Republican nomination for the November Presidential polls. "This is a decisive moment, I believe this is a time that requires real leadership in our country. Times are tough. We need leaders who will live with integrity, who have the courage to tell the truth, and have the experience to get our economy back on track. That's the kind of leader I aspire to be; that's the kind of leader I will be if I'm President of the United States," he said. Running close second to Romney in Michigan, Santorum called it a sign of success.— PTI
	Army will decide if IAEA can visit Parchin: Iran Tehran, February 29 It is up to Iran's military to decide whether UN nuclear inspectors can visit a site they want to see as part of their investigation of Iranian nuclear activities, a senior Iranian official said today. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that it had requested access to the Parchin military facility during high-level talks in Tehran earlier this month, but that the Iranian side had not granted it. The IAEA had hoped that Iran would start addressing its mounting concerns about possible military links to the Iranian nuclear programme but made no progress in its talks. Iran rejects Western accusations that it is secretly trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability and says it wants nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes, notably electricity generation and medical uses. The official IRNA news agency quoted Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, as saying IAEA inspectors could visit the country's nuclear sites "whenever they want". But "Whether or not IAEA inspectors can visit Parchin will be a decision for the country's military officials," he said, adding that his organisation was under no obligation "to show them anywhere they ask to visit in the country". The IAEA's request to visit Parchin, a military complex southeast of Tehran, followed a report the Vienna-based agency issued in November suggesting Iran had pursued military nuclear technology. This helped precipitate the latest round of US and EU sanctions on Iran. The report said the IAEA had information that Iran had built a large containment chamber at the Parchin complex to conduct high-explosives tests. There were "strong indicators of possible weapon development," the agency said. — Reuters
	Asteroid may bombard Earth in 2040 Washington, February 29 Scientists have identified an asteroid, which has a one in 625 chance of hitting Earth on February 5, 2040. The width of the space rock, called 2011 AG5, is 460 feet. The United Nations Action Team on near-Earth object has started their discussions on how to divert the asteroid, amid fears that the probability of a collision could increase over the next few years. While the object has the potential to wipe out millions of lives if it landed on a city, it is far smaller than the nine-mile wide asteroid, which is believed to have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the Telegraph reported. Till now, scientists have only been able to observe half of 2011 AG5's orbit, and are hoping to acquire more information about the asteroid's path between 2013 and 2016, when it will be feasible to monitor it from the ground. This will enable them to decide if action needs to be taken to attempt to change the course of the object. — ANI
	US dumped remains of some 9/11 victims in landfill Washington, February 29 Partial remains of some victims of the September 11 attacks were dumped in a landfill, the Pentagon has revealed for the first time, issuing a report that exposed years of bungling at the US military's most important mortuary. The portions of remains that ended up at a landfill came from the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and from a hijacked airliner that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on 9/11, according to the report by an independent panel. The revelation yesterday came from a review of the troubled mortuary at the Dover Air Force Base, which has been blamed for mishandling the remains of some troops killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The details about the 9/11 remains were mentioned only in passing in the report, which focused on how to fix management problems at the troubled mortuary. Any remains related to 9/11 carry a special significance for Americans and the White House promptly issued a statement, saying the Pentagon was taking steps to ensure such mistakes "never happen again". "We are deeply concerned about reports that in 2001, some unidentified portions of remains from the 9/11 attacks were disposed of in a landfill, and about the unacceptable handling of remains at Dover," the White House said. — AFP
	Tanks mass at Homs as US makes bid at UN Damascus, February 29 Elite troops backed by tanks massed round the Syrian protest city of Homs today as Washington worked on a UN Security Council draft resolution demanding humanitarian access to trapped civilians. China said it backed sending international aid as diplomats said the new text being drawn up by Washington focused on getting relief into cities under assault in a bid to avoid a third set of vetoes from Beijing and Moscow. Washington said it opposed sending weapons to opponents of President Bashar al-Assad for fear that the Al-Qaida was exploiting the more than 11-month uprising against his regime after key US ally Saudi Arabia voiced strong support for arming the rebels. Regime forces kept up their pounding of rebel neighbourhoods in Homs -- under assault for 26 days -- as efforts to bring wounded French journalist Edith Bouvier to safety intensified after her British colleague Paul Conroy was successfully smuggled out to Lebanon. Activists on the ground in Syria's third-largest city said elite troops of the Fourth Armoured Division under the command of Assad's brother Maher had taken up position with their armour around the rebel stronghold of Baba Amr. — AFP
	Pak nod to Interpol notice for Musharraf Islamabad, February 29 Pakistan's Interior Ministry has given its approval for the process of obtaining a Red Corner Notice from Interpol for the arrest of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said. The Interior Ministry's approval has been sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which is working on the matter, Malik told reporters last night. He said he was hopeful the FIA would implement the ministry's directive in the next few days. — PTI
	4G Spectrum auction this year: Sibal Barcelona, February 29 India is looking at holding Spectrum auctions for the fourth generation (4G) mobile services by the end of this year, besides finalising plans to sell off radio waves for the 2G services, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said. "By the end of the year, we are actually going to auction 4G (Spectrum). That is what our intent is. We have enough Spectrum now to share with everybody," he said at the India Day function organised by his ministry at the Mobile World Congress here. Sibal said the government would have enough radio waves for all operators after it is released from the defence services as well as the cancellation of 122 2G licences by the Supreme Court in the 2G Spectrum allocation case. Sibal added that the government does not want to put all the Spectrum for auction in one go but the final decision will depend heavily on the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). “In fact, we don't think that we are going to put all the Spectrum for auction. But that depends on what TRAI chairman Sarma does for us. The idea is that we should come up with enough Spectrum to get reasonable price for ourselves,” he said. The minister said that government will auction 2G Spectrum as well that which will be vacated by the cancellation of licences following the Supreme Court order. "We will auction the Spectrum. When that auction will take place is something that we have to work out. The procedure is laborious," he said. — PTI
	N Korea agrees to stop nuke tests, will get food aid Washinghton, February 29 North Korea agreed on Wednesday to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and to allow nuclear inspectors to visit its Yongbyon nuclear complex to verify the moratorium has been enforced. The breakthrough, announced simultaneously by the US state department and North Korea's official news agency, paves the way for a resumption of six-party disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang and follows talks between US and North Korean diplomats in Beijing last week. The state department said that in return the United States was ready to go ahead with a proposed 240,000 metric-tonne food aid package requested by North Korea and that more aid could be agreed to based on continued need. It also appears to mark a significant policy shift by North Korea's reclusive leadership following the death in December of veteran leader Kim Jong-il, although analysts cautioned that Pyongyang has backtracked repeatedly on past deals. "The DPRK, upon request by the US and with a view to maintaining positive atmosphere for the DPRK-US high-level talks, agreed to a moratorium on nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activity at Yongbyon and allow the IAEA to monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment while productive dialogues continue," North Korea's official KCNA news agency said. North Korea is known formally as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "Today's announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction," secretary of state Hillary Clinton told a congressional panel today. — Reuters