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Obama calls for one-third cut in US, Russia nuke weapons
US Prersident Barack Obama at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate
on Wednesday. — AFP
Global warming may cause ‘extreme droughts’ in India
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Karzai suspends talks with US over Taliban office row
Kabul, June 19
Afghan President Hamid Karzai today broke off crucial security talks with the United States, angry over the name given to a new Taliban office in Qatar that is meant to facilitate peace negotiations. The ongoing Afghan-US talks must reach an agreement if Washington is to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after a NATO combat mission ends next year. Karzai's decision to suspend the talks threatens to wreck US efforts to start a dialogue with the Taliban. The prospect of peace received a further reality-check today when the Taliban claimed an audacious overnight rocket attack that killed four US troops at the largest US-led military base in Afghanistan.
Rebels attack UN office in Somalia; 16 dead
Turkish Dy PM approves ‘standing man’ protest
Bribery trial of Finmeccanica ex-CEO opens
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Obama calls for one-third cut in US, Russia nuke weapons
Berlin, June 19 Addressing students and government officials at the historic Brandenburg Gate, which once divided East and West Germany, Obama said he had determined that the US could ensure its own and its allies security and maintain a credible deterrent "while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third". "We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe," Obama, currently on his first visit to Berlin as American President, said, calling for intensified efforts to limit their spread. "I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures," he said. Under the New Start treaty which the US signed with Russia in 2010, each side is allowed a maximum of 1,550 warheads and no more than 700 deployed launchers. The new limit on delivery systems is less than half the ceiling of 1,600 specified in the original Start treaty from 1991. Obama added that the US would also work alongside NATO allies to seek "bold reductions" in the use of tactical weapons in Europe, and would also seek to forge a new international framework for the use of peaceful nuclear power.
— PTI Iceland holds talks with Snowden aide
Iceland said on Wednesday it has held informal talks with an intermediary of US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden who reportedly wants to seek political asylum there."A representative of his has had some informal discussions with some employees of ministries," PM Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson said. |
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Global warming may cause ‘extreme droughts’ in India
Washington, June 19 The soaring temperatures will also drive regular food shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa. Shifting rain patterns in South Asia due to warming could leave some parts under water and others without enough water for power generation, irrigation, or drinking, the report said. “Events like the devastating Pakistan floods of 2010, which affected more than 20 million people, could become common place. More extreme droughts in large parts of India could lead to widespread food shortages and hardship,” the report said. Another impact of climate change could be degradation and loss of reefs in South East Asia possibly resulting in reduced fish stocks and coastal communities, while cities could be more vulnerable to increasingly violent storms, it said. The new report builds on a World Bank report released late last year, which concluded the world would warm by 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century if we did not take concerted action now. This new report looks at the likely impacts of present day, 2 degrees Celsius and 4 degrees Celsius warming on agricultural production, water resources, coastal ecosystems and cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.
— PTI …and flooding in Bangkok Much of Bangkok could flood within the next two decades if global warming stays on its current trajectory, as sea levels rise and cyclones intensify, the World Bank said in a new report. The flooding of 40 per cent of the Thai capital was just one of dozens of negative effects the Washington-based World Bank warned would happen if the world grew warmer by just 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), which it said is likely to occur in the next 20 to 30 years under a "business-as-usual" scenario. — Reuters
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Karzai suspends talks with US over Taliban office row
Kabul, June 19 The ongoing Afghan-US talks must reach an agreement if Washington is to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after a NATO combat mission ends next year. Karzai's decision to suspend the talks threatens to wreck US efforts to start a dialogue with the Taliban. The prospect of peace received a further reality-check today when the Taliban claimed an audacious overnight rocket attack that killed four US troops at the largest US-led military base in Afghanistan. Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said: "There is a contradiction between what the US government says and what it does regarding Afghanistan peace talks. "The president suspended the Bilateral Security Agreement talks with the US this morning." He said the row centred on the Taliban office using the title "Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan". That was the formal name of the Islamist movement's government from 1996 until it was toppled in 2001.
— AFP |
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Rebels attack UN office in Somalia; 16 dead
Mogadishu, June 19 The seven Al-Shabab militants were from what the militia called its martyrdom, or suicide, brigade. They all died in the assault, an official said, bringing the overall death toll to at least 16. The attack comes only six months after the United Nations expanded its presence in Mogadishu, where it had kept only a small operation because Islamic insurgents had controlled much of the capital until being pushed out in an offensive in 2011. The Al-Shabab said on its Twitter feed shortly after the 11.30 am attack began that its fighters "are now in control of the entire compound and the battle is still ongoing". African Union and Somali security forces responded and took control of the compound by 12.30 pm. The UN staff who sought refuge in the compound's secure bunker then were evacuated to the secure military base and airport complex across the street, said Ben Parker, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia. A UN official said he believed two UN personnel from Kenya and Somalia were also killed. — AP
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Turkish Dy PM approves ‘standing man’ protest
Ankara, June 19 Although the police dispersed pockets of protesters who set up barricades in two Turkish cities overnight, sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations have largely given way to a passive form of resistance, with people standing motionless. Hundreds of protesters stood still for hours on squares on main streets in several cities, mimicking a lone protester who started the trend in Istanbul's Taksim Square on Monday and has been dubbed the "Standing Man". In the first direct government comment on the new style of protest, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters that the standing protests are peaceful and "pleasing to the eye". He urged protesters, however, not to obstruct traffic and not to endanger their health. "This is not an act of violence," Arinc said. "We cannot condemn it." The police had dispersed hundreds of standing protesters late on Monday but are now allowing the protests to continue unhindered.
— AP |
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Bribery trial of Finmeccanica ex-CEO opens
Milan, June 19 Giuseppe Orsi, who resigned in February, faces charges of fraud and corruption in a case that has tarnished the international image of the state-controlled company and jeopardised the defense contractor’s attempts to expand into the lucrative Indian military market. Also on trial is Bruno Spagnolini, the former chief executive of AgustaWestland, the defence contractor’s helicopter division. — AP
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US House passes Bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy Amitav Ghosh longlisted for UK prize NASA to photograph Earth from Saturn Indian realtor fined £1 million in UK 3 Indians, Russian kidnapped from ship
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President Barack Obama today called for a one-third cut in the number of deployed US strategic nuclear warheads if Russia agrees to a similar reduction, reviving his goal to work towards a world without atomic weapons.
