The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	IAEA, Iran hold N-talks UN inspectors to push Iran on military site access Vienna, May 14 The UN nuclear watchdog signalled today it would press Iran for access to a military facility where it suspects the Islamic state has built a chamber for high-explosive tests that could serve a bid to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, which rejects Western accusations, has so far resisted requests by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit the extensive Parchin complex southeast of Tehran. The issue was expected to be raised during the Vienna meeting between Iran and the IAEA. An IAEA report last November found Iran had built a large containment vessel in 2000 at the site in which to conduct high-explosive tests that the U.N. agency said were "strong indicators of possible (nuclear) weapon development". "A building was constructed at that time around a large cylindrical object ... A large earth berm was subsequently constructed between the building containing the cylinder and a neighbouring building, indicating the probable use of high explosives in the chamber." The IAEA said it had obtained satellite images that were consistent with this information. The vessel was designed to contain the detonation of up to 70 kg of high explosives. Western diplomats say they suspect Iran may be cleaning the location to remove incriminating evidence before inspectors can go there. A US security institute said last week satellite imagery showed activity there which it said raised concern that Iran may be "washing" the building the IAEA wants to see. Iran's ambassador to the IAEA has previously dismissed such suspicions about Parchin as "childish" and "ridiculous". Herman Nackaerts, IAEA deputy director-general, said Iran must give his inspectors access to sites, information and people as he began the two-day meeting with Iranian officials on the country's disputed atomic activities. The talks in Vienna will test Iran's readiness to address UN inspectors' suspicions of military dimensions to its nuclear programme, ahead of high-stakes talks on the programme in Baghdad next week between Iran and six world powers. Two previous rounds of talks in Tehran this year with UN inspectors failed to make any notable progress, especially on their request to go to Parchin. "The aim ... is to reach agreement on an approach to resolve all outstanding issues with Iran," Nackaerts told reporters as he arrived at an Iranian diplomatic mission in a smart area of Vienna. "In particular, clarification of the possible military dimensions remains our priority ... It is important now that we can engage on the substance of these issues and that Iran let us have access to people, documents, information and sites." — Reuters
	23 Syrian soldiers killed Beirut, May 14 Fierce clashes between Syrian regime forces and armed rebels in the central city of Rastan today left at least 23 soldiers dead and dozens wounded, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based monitoring group said initial reports indicated that three troop carriers were destroyed in the clashes that began at dawn on the outskirts of the rebel-held city, located in Homs province. A lieutenant who had defected was also killed in the clashes. Regime forces launched an offensive on Rastan at the weekend but met with sharp resistance from rebels seeking the ouster of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. — AFP
	Madame Tussauds unveils Queen’s jubilee waxwork London, May 14 A new waxwork of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in full regalia was unveiled today at London’s Madame Tussauds museum in honour of the monarch’s diamond jubilee. A team of 20 worked for four months to produce the $241,000 model, dressed in a replica of the white silk, satin and lace dress and state crown the queen wears in her official diamond jubilee photographs. The new wax figure joins those of Prince William and his wife Catherine unveiled last month in a recreation of the moment when they announced their engagement, plus four other members of the royal family. “This is a warmer, softer queen. The last time we made a model of the queen was in 2001, so this is a new version and she’s slightly older,” a spokeswoman for Madame Tussauds said. The waxwork of the 86-year-old queen is the 23rd to be created by the museum, with the first made when she was just two years old. Large-scale celebrations to mark the queen’s 60 years on the throne kicked off at the weekend with a pageant of 550 horses and over 1,000 performers from around the world in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Celebrations will also include a festival of boats on the river Thames and the lighting of more than 2,000 beacons around the country during a four-day public holiday on June 2-5. — AFP
	Hina for opening of NATO supply routes Afzal Khan in Islamabad With the Pakistan Government apparently poised to allow resumption of NATO supplies, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said she personally believed that NATO supply routes through Pakistan, closed for some six months now, should be reopened. “The disruption of supplies is creating complications in the conduct of foreign policy,” Hina told newsmen in informal on board Prime Minister Gilani’s plane while returning from UK on Sunday night. The PM has convened two back-to-back meetings of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) on Tuesday and of the federal cabinet on Wednesday ostensibly to clinch the issue. The all important DCC that includes the top brass of the military besides senior ministers had halted transit facility for containers carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan. She said that it is in Pakistan’s interest to facilitate an international operation, while on the other she says that there are many friendly countries whose supplies are also blocked. The question of resumption of supplies has assumed added urgency ahead of the NATO summit convened by US President Barrack Obama in Chicago on May 20. Pakistan faces risk of missing all NATO events if it failed to attend the summit in Chicago.
	Pak civil, military leadership hold talks on ties with US Islamabad: Pakistan’s top civil and military leadership on Monday held a crucial meeting and discussed the country’s troubled relations with the US ahead of a key NATO summit in Chicago that is expected to make important decisions about the endgame in Afghanistan. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani chaired the meeting that was attended by Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar among others. The leadership discussed the regional security situation and reviewed Pakistan’s relations with the US and NATO in the light of recommendations framed by a joint sitting of Parliament for resetting the ties, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. — PTI
	Indian-origin landlords face crackdown in UK London, May 14 Britain has allocated £1.8 million as part of steps to crackdown on landlords, many of them of Indian-origin, who construct illegal extensions to their houses and rent them out to illegal immigrants at extortionate rates in parts of London and elsewhere. Considered hazardous with slum-like conditions, the extensions, called ‘beds in sheds’, have often been in the news for the large number of illegal immigrants who live in them in cramped conditions, particularly in areas such as Ealing, Hounslow and Slough. After forming a taskforce to deal with the situation earlier this month, Housing Minister Grant Shapps has allocated £1.8 million to councils in which such ‘renting’ takes place. The taskforce include officials of the UK Border Agency. Reports on the ‘beds in sheds’ have mostly identified the ‘tenants’ as Indian citizens who are in the country illegally, and turn to landlords of Indian origin with settled status to provide them shelter. In the process, such ‘tenants’ face exploitation and are unable to approach authorities due to their own illegal immigration status. Shapps promised “Criminal landlords trapping vulnerable people in ‘suburban shanty-towns’ will get the justice they deserve”, and said the fund would help “tackle the problem head-on and end this growing practice by ruthless landlords”. The councils identified are: Brent, Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Newham, Peterborough, Redbridge, Slough, and Southwark. — PTI
	israel agritech 2012 Focus on innovation in agricultural technology Bhanu P Lohumi In Tel Aviv May 14 The 18th edition of the international exhibition “Israel Agritech 2012” will showcase innovations in the field of agriculture. Technologies developed by Israel would focus on enhancing agricultural productivity through stimulation of innovation in agricultural technology and a general renewal of technologies to feed the world population, expected to increase from 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050. The three-day exhibition, preceded by a pre-conference seminar “Agrivest Summit” and two conferences on 20 years of India-Israel diplomatic relations and International CIPA Conference: Plasticulture for a green planet, will provide a platform for interaction between producers, researchers, distributors, farmers, administrators and others involved directly or indirectly with agriculture or water technology. The profile of exhibits of Israel Agritech 2012, beginning on May 15, includes advanced equipment and technologies, agro industry start-up, cost-saving production, ecological and environmental agro technologies, new plastic technologies in agriculture, renewable energy in agriculture, extension services and high-tech agricultural biotechnologies.