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Help put end to Ukraine unrest: UK to Russia
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Pak announces Rs 700-bn defence budget
Taliban video shows handover of US soldier
Assad wins third term as Syrian Prez
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Help put end to Ukraine unrest: UK to Russia
London, June 4 In some of its strongest comments on the subject yet, the British Foreign Office said it wasn’t credible for Russia to deny responsibility for events in eastern Ukraine. “We call upon Russia to use its influence to put an end to the instability. Russia has refused to condemn the illegal actions of armed groups that look to it for direction,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. “We have heard a torrent of disinformation and inflammatory statements (from Russia) that fuel unrest and create unfounded fears. We have seen a military build-up and manoeuvres on Ukraine’s borders designed to intimidate.” Britain said Russia’s annexation of Crimea had left Moscow isolated on the world stage. London had no wish to isolate Russia, the Foreign Office said, but it and others could not ignore attacks upon Ukraine's sovereignty. Britain’s intervention coincided with Ukrainian government forces pressing ahead with an offensive against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold rare face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in France at which he will urge Putin to help de-escalate the situation in Ukraine. The meeting, which Cameron requested, was originally scheduled for Friday but was brought forward by a day for technical reasons. Both men will be in France for the 70th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day landings in Normandy. Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister says the crisis over Ukraine has been provoked by Western efforts to pull the country into its sphere of influence as part of efforts to create a buffer zone around Russia. In a foreign policy speech on Wednesday, Sergey Lavrov criticised the West for ignoring Russia's interests.
Obama defends
Ukraine's new Prez
Warsaw: US President Barack Obama endorsed Ukraine’s president-elect Petro Poroshenko onWednesday, offering Kiev financial and security help and saying he was the right choice to lead the country through its stand-off with Moscow. He on Wednesday condemned Russia's "dark tactics" and bullying in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin hit back at American "aggression" as new venom deepened the worst US-Russia clash in decades. — Agencies
6 militants killed, 3 Ukrainian troops injured
Luhansk: Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine have taken two government bases in battles around Luhansk, seizing quantities of ammunition and explosives from a border guards post and taking another installation after National Guard forces ran out of ammunition. Officials said in a statement on Wednesday that six militants were killed and three Ukrainian servicemen were injured in 10 hours of fighting overnight at the National Guard base. — AP
Indians leave violence-hit Lugansk
Moscow: The second and final batch of 500 Indians, mostly students, are leaving violence-hit Lugansk to Kyiv on Wednesday even as the first group of 500 students has reached the Ukrainian capital en route to India. "Halfway home! Students from Lugansk region in Ukraine returning to India are now in Kyiv en route to homes in India," the spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi tweeted. — PTI |
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Underwater noise detected off India’s southern tip
Sydney, June 4 The researchers detected the mysterious noise, possibly that of an ocean impact, recorded by two undersea receivers in the Indian Ocean about the time the Malaysia Airlines plane ceased satellite transmissions and vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board. The researchers today released an audio recording of the underwater sound that they say could possibly be related to the final moments of the missing Boeing 777. “It's not even really a thump sort of a sound - it’s more of a dull oomph,” a senior marine science research fellow said. — PTI
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Karachi shut over MQM chief’s arrest
Karachi, June 4 As Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) supporters and workers continued to hold protests and sit-ins at vantage points in the city, the roads wore a deserted look. Most of the public transport remained off the roads and markets, petrol pumps and shopping centres were also shut down. The biggest sit-in by the MQM is being staged at the Numaish roundabout on the usually bustling M A Jinnah Road and last night members of the Sindh Assembly belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party also joined the protesters to express solidarity with them. Dr Farooq Sattar, a senior leader of the party, said the supporters and workers would not end the sit-in until they they hear Hussain’s voice. “They are concerned because they have spoken to their leader or heard from him they want to hear his voice,” he said. Hussain, 60, has lived in the UK since claiming asylum in the 1990s but has maintained a tight grip on Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. The MQM is the single largest party in Karachi and has since the late eighties dominated the city’s political landscape at the local and provincial level. MQM workers in other cities of Pakistan also staged protests against the arrest of the MQM chief with commercial activities also affected badly in many parts of interior Sindh including Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Nawabshah. All examinations scheduled for today have also been postponed. Chaos, panic and fear prevailed in Karachi since the news of Hussain’s arrest came yesterday from London and within minutes all commercial activities came to a halt despite the government announcing the federal budget the same day. — PTI
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Pak announces Rs 700-bn defence budget
The defence budget of Pakistan has been jacked up to Rs 700.2 billion for the 2014-15 fiscal from Rs 627.2 billion for the last fiscal year. However, the military had sought an increase of Rs 173 billion in defence spending for the coming fiscal year, insisting that the Pakistan military’s expenses are lowest in the region given the volatile security environment. The budget document presented before Parliament did not give a break up about the allocation of spendings among the three forces. Officials say, the Pakistani army gets 48 per cent, 20 per cent goes to air force and navy gets 10 per cent. Of the Rs 700.2 billion outlay, Rs 293.5 billion has been allocated for employees-related expenses, Rs 180.2 billion for operating expenses and Rs 152.8 billion for physical assets. In addition to this, the military will get Rs 165 billion under the contingent liability and Rs 85 billion under the Coalition Support Fund. It was revealed that in the past five years, the defence expenditure had been doubled from over Rs 350 billion in 2009-10 to Rs 700 billion this year.
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Taliban video shows handover of US soldier
Kabul, June 4 In the first publicly aired footage of Bergdahl's dramatic handover to the US military at the weekend, the clip shows Taliban cadres dotted on nearby hills armed with rocket launchers watching the transfer. The operation, from the moment the helicopter touched the ground amid a cloud of dust to take-off, was all over in a minute. "Do not panic," the militants shout as the Blackhawk lands in the barren valley deep in the Khost province, close to the border with Pakistan. Bergdahl, a US army sergeant, was released on Saturday in exchange for five senior insurgent leaders, who had been held in a US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since it opened in 2002. Before his rescue, Bergdahl is seen sitting in the rear seat of a 4-wheel-drive truck, blinking rapidly, apparently either dazed by the light or anxious about the events unfolding around him. A plane and helicopters are seen circling overhead as fighters chant "long live our mujahideen" and "long live the spiritual leader", referring to the Taliban's reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar. As the Blackhawk lands, two of the militants approach the helicopter, one carrying a white cloth crudely tied to a stick and the other leading Bergdahl by the hand. Three men walk from the American chopper. One is an interpreter, the Taliban's reporter says in the clip. One of Bergdahl’s escorts has his faced covered by a checkered scarf and in the cloud of dust thrown up by the Blackhawk, the tension is clear. One of the American team steps forward to shake their hands, keeping as wide a distance as possible as though worried the militants might blow themselves up. He quickly offers his right hand to one, his left hand to the other and simultaneously grabs Bergdahl by the arm. In the same movement, he sweeps his hand across to Bergdahl’s back. “We told them: if he is not in good health, please tell us. We tried to communicate with them through their interpreter, but they did not wait," the Taliban reporter says in the clip. — Reuters
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Assad wins third term as Syrian Prez
Beirut, June 4 Assad's foes had dismissed the election as a charade, saying the two relatively unknown challengers offered no real alternative and that no poll held in the midst of civil war could be considered credible. "I declare the victory of Dr Bashar Hafez al-Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election," Laham said in a televised address from his office in the Syrian Parliament. Syria's constitutional court earlier said that turnout in the election and an earlier round of voting for Syrian expatriates stood at 73 per cent. Syrian officials had described the predicted victory as vindication of Assad's three-year campaign against those fighting to oust him. Voting took place in government-controlled areas of Syria, but not in large parts of northern and eastern Syria held by rebels. — Reuters
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Britain on Wednesday accused Russia of fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine with “a torrent of disinformation” and called on Moscow to lean on pro-Russian separatists.
A dazed Bowe Bergdahl is led by two militants, one carrying a makeshift white flag on a stick, to a Blackhawk helicopter in eastern Afghanistan ending his five years' in captivity, a video released by the Taliban showed on Wednesday.
