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Thais vote despite Oppn protests
Prez poll campaign starts in Afghanistan
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Oppn rallies in Ukraine after EU, US vow support
Iran says serious about long-term N-deal
No plan to set up new air defence zone: China
Pak Taliban form panel for peace talks with govt
special to the tribune 12 Indian sailors missing as ship sinks off Yemen India against ‘unilateral’ interventions
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Thais vote despite Oppn protests
Bangkok, February 2 Despite anti-government protesters blocking voting at several places, officials said the exercise was relatively peaceful and 89.2 per cent of polling stations operated normally. Election Commission chairman Supachai Phucharoen said voting was reported from 83,813 of 93,532 stations. Unfazed by months of street protests aimed at forcing her to scrap the polls, beleaguered premier Yingluck Shinawatra was among the early voters. She cast her ballot in front of the media and TV channels said protesters were not present. At least nine persons were wounded on the eve of the disputed polls as explosions and gunshots rang out in Bangkok's Lak Si area when clashes erupted between pro-government "red shirts" and Opposition activists. The counting began immediately after the voting ended at 1.30 pm, but the Election Commission (EC) said the results would not be announced immediately. The EC has scheduled a further voting for February 23 after protesters disrupted advance voting last Sunday. Ballots in some southern areas are unlikely to happen for weeks, fuelling speculation that the election might push the country deeper into political turmoil. Officials said protesters disrupted polling in 127 of 375 constituencies nationwide, including 13 of Bangkok's 33 constituencies. Polling could not be held in at least three constituencies Bangkok, including Lak Si. In southern Thailand, a stronghold of the opposition Democrat Party, voting was cancelled in nine of 14 provinces. — PTI Thai PM picks wrong box to cast vote
Bangkok: Embattled Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra on Sunday almost lost her own vote when she picked the wrong box to cast her ballot. Yingluck, 46, arrived at the polling station near her house here and accidentally put it in the wrong box. |
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Prez poll campaign starts in Afghanistan
Kabul, February 2 Gunmen shot dead two members of former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah's team in the western city of Herat yesterday, dealing an early blow to hopes of a peaceful campaign as the country prepares for its first democratic transfer of power. The April 5 election is seen as a key test of the effectiveness of the 3,50,000-strong Afghan security forces as foreign troops prepare to exit the country, while the future of US troops in the country beyond 2014 is set to dominate the agenda. In the capital today thousands of people, mostly men, gathered in giant wedding halls where candidates delivered speeches and called on war-weary Afghans to vote for them. — AFP Abdullah for signing security pact with US
Kabul Afghanistan's presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has said the signing of a bilateral security agreement, which would allow about 10,000 US troops to be deployed in the country after NATO withdraws by December, was essential to safeguarding the country's future. |
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Oppn rallies in Ukraine after EU, US vow support
Kiev, February 2 Yanukovych and his ruling Regions Party have passed a law granting an amnesty to activists arrested in more than two months of protests. — AFP |
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Iran says serious about long-term N-deal
Munich, February 2 Mohamad Javad Zarif told a gathering of the world's top diplomats and security officials that his country and Western nations were at a "historical crossroads" and just beginning to build the trust necessary for a long-term agreement. "I think the opportunity is there, and I think we need to seize it," he said. The comments came after Zarif met one-on-one with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the conference today morning. Kerry reiterated to Zarif the importance of both sides negotiating in good faith, and of Iran abiding by its commitments, according to the State Department. Zarif described it as a "good meeting." Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency struck a deal November 11 granting UN inspectors wider access to Iran's nuclear facilities. The deal is parallel to an agreement reached with world powers November 24 in Geneva to have Iran halt its most sensitive uranium enrichment activities in return for an easing of Western sanctions over its nuclear programme. "That's an important beginning, it's not the end of the road," Zarif said of the two deals. "There are important questions and we are prepared to address them." IAEA director general Yukiya Amano said he could report that “practical measures are being implemented as planned” by Iran, and that there would be new negotiations over the next phase on
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No plan to set up new air defence zone: China
Beijing, February 2 "In a general view, the Chinese side has yet to feel any air security threat from the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries and is optimistic about its relations with the neighbouring countries and the general situation in the South China Sea region," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said. Hong dismissed the Japanese media reports that claimed China was preparing to announce a new defence zone in the area. — PTI |
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Pak Taliban form panel for peace talks with govt
Peshawar, February 2 Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the government's focal person for the troubled peace process, described the announcement by the Taliban as a "positive development". However, the Taliban need to explain the mandate and powers of their committee and how far the militants would follow decisions made by it, he said. — PTI Imran won’t act as negotiator for Taliban Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan declined the request of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to be their negotiator. He said the group should select their own representatives for the peace talks.
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special to the tribune As uncertainty continues to dog the future of US-India relations following the arrest, handcuffing and strip search of Devyani Khobragade in New York, a fresh historical perspective on those bilateral ties has been provided by newly released confidential British government documents. These documents from 33 years ago provide a sobering perspective on how and why ties between Washington and New Delhi sank to an all-time low until a major effort was made to revive them. The nadir in bilateral ties was undoubtedly the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when President Richard Nixon engaged in gunboat diplomacy by ordering the USS Enterprise and the US Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal. Recorded telephone conversations of Nixon and his then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger - subsequently made public - have the two men referring to Indians as "bastards" and "cowards". Those conversations took place on December 10, 1971 when Nixon also called Indira Gandhi a "bitch." He also asks Kissinger if the Chinese could be induced to make threatening moves, saying, "Could you tell the Chinese it would be very helpful if they could move some forces or threaten to move some forces?" Then he adds, "How about getting the French to sell some planes to the Pakistan?" It has been widely assumed that New Delhi's links with Washington started to steadily improve after 1971 and in particular after 1974 when Nixon was forced to resign the presidency after the Watergate scandal. But a confidential summary of talks drawn up by UK officials some 10 years later during British PM Margaret Thatcher's visit to India and only made public last month suggests the bitterness had far from faded. When the two prime ministers started their talks on April 15, 1981, Indira Gandhi started off by telling her guest how India had nothing against friendship between the US and Pakistan "but was worried about what form the relationship might take. "There was a feeling that it might be directed against India, though not intentionally or necessarily …Mrs Gandhi recalled that President Eisenhower had told the Pakistanis that arms supplied by the US were only to be used against the communists but these had eventually been used against India." Later that same day, according to the same confidential British documents, Mrs Gandhi is recorded as saying how in earlier days "her personal relations had been very good with more than one American President. "She had got on well with both President Kennedy and President Johnson. But there came a time when India had put a number of specific requests to the United States. In a year of serious drought, they had asked for wheat and been refused. The Russians had supplied it instead. Relations between the Indian government and President Nixon had never recovered from this. Similarly, the US had refused to help India establish a state steel industry. Here again the Soviet Union had been willing to assist. Finally, the Americans had refused their help during hostilities between India and Bangladesh" (presumably a misdirected reference to Pakistan). Ups and downs
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12 Indian sailors missing as ship sinks off Yemen
Aden, February 2 The cargo ship, registered in Hadramout, sank off the coastal City of Shehr, leaving 12 Indian sailors missing. According to a local government official, “merchant ship No. 1626 owned by a Yemeni businessman fell while transporting trade materials and commercial goods near Hadramout’s coast”. “We have sent rescue boats and asked coast guards in the area to help in the search for the missing Indian sailors,” he added. — IANS
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India against ‘unilateral’ interventions
Munich, February 2 “Unilateral (sometimes covert) interventions, as in Libya or Syria, have led to unexpected and dangerous outcomes,” said National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon while addressing the Munich Security Conference on Global Power and Regional Stability here yesterday. “We clearly need to improve, strengthen and use the processes and institutions of multilateral consultation and action available to the international community,” he said. In the last 50 years, Asia-Pacific countries have shown maturity and ability to manage conflicts despite major disputes and differences, he said. — PTI
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immigration system ‘completely backwards’: Jindal |
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