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| Russia’s commitment to curb proliferation transfers uncertain WASHINGTON, Aug 10: Russia’s "commitment, ability and willingness to curb proliferation-related......more India-China
trade BEIJING, Aug 10: Despite the global economic slowdown, India-China foreign trade has registered.....more Jiang
hopeful of doing NEW YORK, Aug 10: Chinese President Jiang Zemin says he is optimistic about Sino-US relations as .......more Kumaratunga
offers to COLOMBO, Aug 10: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has offered to give up her office .......more |
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Russia gives go ahead to US missile shield tests WASHINGTON, Aug 10: In a major development, Russia has given the go ahead to US for conducting missile shield tests provided Moscow is notified about them........more Bush to
allow limited WASHINGTON, Aug 10: President George Bush has decided to allow 250 million dollars federal funding for strictly limited research on stem cells in the already.......more Israeli
forces target JERUSALEM, Aug 10: In a hard-hitting retaliatory move to the suicide bombing in a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 19 people, Israel today rocketed Palestinian police headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah and seized Palestinian political centres.........more |
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Russia’s
commitment to curb proliferation WASHINGTON, Aug 10: Russia’s "commitment, ability and willingness to curb proliferation-related transfers remain uncertain," the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has said in its report to Congress claiming the country remains primary source of advanced conventional weapons to India and China. "Russia continues to be a major supplier of conventional arms. It is the primary source of advanced conventional weapons for India and China. It continues to supply advanced conventional weapons to Iran and Syria, and it has negotiated new contracts with Libya and Morth Korea," the global proliferation report covering the period upto first half of 2000, said. Despite overall improvements in Russia’s economy, the state-run defence and nuclear industries remained strapped for funds, even as Moscow looked to them for badly needed foreign exchange through exports. "We remain very concerned about the nonproliferation implications of such sales in several areas, monitoring Russian proliferation behaviour, therefore, will remain a very high priority," the CIA said. Russian entities, according to the report, continued to supply a variety of ballistic missile-related goods and technical know-how to countries such as India, China, Iran and Libya, it said. "Russia supplied India with material for its civilian nuclear programme during the reporting period," it said. "Russian President Vladimir Putin, in May, amended the presidential decree on nuclear exports to allow the export in exceptional cases of nuclear materials, technology and equipment to countries that do not have full-scope International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards such as India," the CIA said. During the first half of 2000, it said, Russian entities remained a significant source of dual-use biotechnology, chemicals, production technology and equipment for Iran. Russia’s export control bureaucracy was reorganised again as part of Putin’s broader Government reorganisation in May," the report said. (PTI) |
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India-China trade touches 1.79 billion dollars BEIJING, Aug 10: Despite the global economic slowdown, India-China foreign trade has registered an impressive 36.5 per cent growth in the first half of 2001 with Indian exports growing faster than imports. According to latest foreign trade figures, released by China’s general administration of customs, bilateral trade touched 1.79 billion US dollars during January-June, up 36.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year. India’s exports to China zoomed by 44.1 per cent to 912.48 million dollars. At the same time, Chinese exports to india reached 877.68 million dollars, up 29.3 per cent, providing India with a comfortable trade balance of 34.8 million dollars. "The trend is encouraging and we expect bilateral trade to cross the three billion dollar-mark easily this year," official sources said, while forecasting that the trade figure for 2001 may even touch nearly 3.5 billion dollars. Though India and China are the two largest and fastest developing countries, the sources noted that bilateral trade has not yet reached its potential. Factors like lack of direct air service, banking facilities and information about market conditions are hindering faster growth of bilateral trade. Officials are hopeful that India and China will engage in mutually beneficial cooperation in the economy and trade sector, especially in the wake of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji’s scheduled visit to India later this year. In 2000, India-China trade amounted to 2.91 billion dollars, with New Delhi being Beijing’s biggest trade partner in South Asia. (PTI) |
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Jiang hopeful of doing business with Bush NEW YORK, Aug 10: Chinese President Jiang Zemin says he is optimistic about Sino-US relations as he can feel from the voice of George W Bush that he could do business with the American President. "Both sides share a positive desire for a good relationship," Ziang said, dismissing as "routine background noise" the voices in the Bush administration calling for mobilising against at China threat. "We should try our best to find the common ground between us," he told The Washington Times newspaper in a rare interview published today. Jiang, who has not met bush and had only one single telephone conservation with him, said the US President’s visit to China in October would advance friendly ties. He gave no ground on major issues of contention between the two countries including Tibet, Taiwan and human rights. Suggesting that foreigners do not understand China’s goals and why it must adapt communist rule to changing society rather than scrap it altogether as many western prefer, he said "I lived for three-fourths of the last century and I can tell you with certainty: should China apply the parliamentary democracy of the western world, the only result will be that 1.2 billion Chinese people will not have enough food to eat. "The result will be great chaos, and should that happen, it will not be conducive to world peace and stability." He also warned that if a proposed US missile defence was perceived as negating China’s nuclear missiles, "we would keep an appropriate number of forces to meet our defence needs." Jiang said while his Government maintained indirect contact with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader had never fully accepted China’s conditions that Tibet would remain an inalienable part of China and that Beijing was its soverign Government. On Taiwan, he said China’s goal is peaceful reunification with the renegade province. But he made it clear that Tiawan’s formal status as part of China would never be up for negotiations. He said it was unrealistic to think of direct elections for provincial or national leaders, in part because 100 million of the country’s 1.26 billion people were illiterate. Jiang’s chief goal, the newspaper said, appeared to be to emphasize China’s desire for smoother relations as the new American presidency takes shape and as China looks toward playing host to the summer olympics in Beijing in 2008 and braces for major transitions in political leadership and the economy. Jiang defended the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, asserting that the group had "done great harm to people’s physical and mental health" and that no Government could sit idly in the face of such an "out- and-out cult." He justified recent arrests and trials of several Chinese-born scholars, some of them naturalized Americans or permanent residents of the US, saying they were "members of Taiwanese spy organ". (PTI) |
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Kumaratunga offers to quit, if
parties agree COLOMBO, Aug 10: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has offered to give up her office within 30 days, if all political parties can come to an agreement on ending country’s constitutional crisis. "I am prepared to give up the presidency in 30 days, if we can arrive at a workable solution to take this country forward and out of this morass of confusion and instability," Kumaratunga told a large delegation of business leaders at her residence last night. She said her efforts to get the main opposition United National Party to agree to a solution had not yielded results, but offered to convene the prorogued Parliament, if the opposition agreed on some measures to end the political impasse. Her offer to quit comes within days of the postponement of a referendum fixed for August 21 to October 18. The deferment, she explained, was to give time to the country’s squabbling parties to forge a consensus on sweeping constitutional changes she wanted. Sri Lanka is in the throes of a national crisis, with its Parliament shut down till September 7 by Kumaratunga, who has kicked off a debate on the need for a new constitution to solve the island’s manifold problems. She is seeking people’s mandate to replace the 1978 constitution, blaming it for all the woes bedevilling Sri Lanka, especially its provisions on executive presidency and electoral system of proportional representation. (PTI) |
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Russia gives go ahead to US missile shield tests WASHINGTON, Aug 10: In a major development, Russia has given the go ahead to US for conducting missile shield tests provided Moscow is notified about them. "Russia gave the US the go ahead yesterday to test a missile defence system, saying that testing alone would not violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) as long as Washington notifies Moscow before hand," the Washington Times said. Russia announced its decision at yesterday’s meeting here between top US experts and military leaders and General Yuri Baluyevsky, Deputy Chief of Russian General Staff, who was heading a 10-member delegation, it said. Also, Russia has no objection to the permanent base the US is setting up in Alaska to test rockets and other devices for a missile shield, it said. "Even one of the more provocative measures suggested by the Bush administration - a permanent base in Alaska to test rockets and other devices needed to build a missile shield -could be within ABM treaty limits," Baluyevsky was quoted as saying. Russia has been consistently opposed to the US plans for a missile defence shield. "Automatically, it would not mean violation of the treaty. Under the treaty, testing can be carried out, but only with notification," he told reporters at the Russian embassy here. Baluyevsky said the US gave no indication that it planned to either abrogate ABM treaty or change it. Baluyevsky said he doubted if it was possible to build an effective missile shield as technology has not advanced that far. "Today, the technical level does not allow us to assure 100 per cent efficiency of missile defence system. Even in very distant future, we will not be able to solve problem of providing 100 per cent effectiveness of the system." Reacting to July 14 missile test, in which a US missile shot down a dummy warhead over the pacific, he said, "there is no precise data which would show there was a direct hit of the payload against the dummy." His remarks came as Pentagon announced that it was on schedule to conduct another missile defence test in October and three more next year. The US is attempting to convince Russians that the proposed missile shield is not a threat to Russia or to world security but only intended to defend against launches by "rogue states" such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Bush has pledged to build a missile defence system even if it reqires a modification or abandonment of ABM treaty, which allowed each side to build missile defence only around its capital or a single military command centre. (PTI) |
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Bush to allow limited funding
for study on WASHINGTON, Aug 10: President George Bush has decided to allow 250 million dollars federal funding for strictly limited research on stem cells in the already existing 60 stem lines created by private sector. Stem cell research, which scientists say holds promise of curing many diseases now regarded as incurable, is highly controversial and Bush’s announcement during a televised address from Taxas last night came after agonizing over it for weeks. The research would be supervised by a special council on which there would be both scientists and ethicists. In reaching his decision, Bush took a middle course between the pope and other ethicists and anti-abortionists who are opposed to any kind of stem cell research because it involves destruction of the embryo, while scientists who want no restriction as they feel the research holds promise of medical breakthroughs. On the related issue of human cloning, Bush was uncompromising. "I strongly oppose human cloning, as do most Americans," he said. At the core of the issue was whether the Government should support research on stem cells removed from embryos that are left over from fertility treatments. Stem cells are created by removing an inner cell mass from a 5 to 7-day-old embryo. The procedure kills the embryo. Those in favour of research say that the embryo is not yet at a stage when it has life. Those oppose say that life begins at conception and killing the embryo is tantamount to killing a human being. By properly nurturing embryonic stem cells, experts believe they can grow new cells to restore ailing organs in chronically ill patients. For instance, new insulin-producing cells could be grown, perhaps to cure diabetes. In reaching his decision, Bush assured the nation that it was in keeping with his principle that "even the most noble ends do not justify any means." He also declared himself to be a strong supporter of science and technology to save life and conquer disease. "I have made this decision with great care and i pray it is the right one," said Bush about Hisllow Limited Research. "As I thought through this issue," he said, "I kept returning to two fundamental questions, first, are these embryos human life and, therefore, something precious to be protected? secondly, if they are going to be destroyed anyway, shouldn’t they be used for a greater good, for research that has the potential to save and improve other lives?" Stem cells, say experts, are capable of developing into any of the body’s organs but not into a complete human being. These cells form inside an embryo a few days after fertilization. Congress has banned Government money for stem cell research that destroys embryos. However, the Clinton administration ruled that such research could receive federal funding so long as private money financed the part of the process that actually destroyed the embryo-the extraction of the stem cells. Bush delayed such funding while he reviewed the policy. (PTI) |
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Israeli forces target East Jerusalem in retaliatory action JERUSALEM, Aug 10: In a hard-hitting retaliatory move to the suicide bombing in a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 19 people, Israel today rocketed Palestinian police headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah and seized Palestinian political centres in East Jerusalem. Israeli F-16 fighter jets fired three missiles at the Ramallah police station almost leveling the building which had been evacuated in anticipation of a retaliatory attack. Israeli forces also moved its tanks into the Gaza Strip and fired at several Palestinian security posts, Palestinians sources said. After seizing the orient house, unofficial headquarters for the PLO in East Jerusalem, Israel raised its flag on the building. It also arrested seven guards and closed nine other Palestinian offices. Israel said its raids were not aimed at killing people but were intended to prod the Palestinian authority to arrest suspected militants and honour its agreements with Israel. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accused Israel of carrying out a step by step plan of recapturing the Palestinian areas and warned that Israeli moves were a dangerous escalation of violence in the region. "The situation is very dangerous, against the Palestinian people and an escalation," he said during a tour of a police station in the West Bank town of Ramallah that was destroyed by the Israeli warplanes. Palestinian chief negotiator Saef Drakat alleged that Israel was inviting more bloodshed by triggering a cycle of violence and counter-violence. "The sight of the Israeli flag on the orient house will not be seen by the Palestinians other than major agression against their nation ... Against their aspirations, against their sovereignty," Erakat told CNN. Another Palestinian official said Israeli move to seize Pllestinian offices was an occupation and "we will resist it." Heart-rendering scenes were witnessed at a number of funerals that took place today for those killed in yesterday’s bombing. Among those killed in yesterday’s suicide bombing, claimed by the Islamic militant group Hamas, was a pregnant woman from the US. Also killed were five members of a family of Jewish immigrants from Holland. As part of its targeted liquidation policy, Israel is likely to attack Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and their supporters that the country perceives as threat to its security. Israel has presented Palestinians with a list of 120 men it wants arrested. "We prefer to arrest those who are waging terror against us. We prefer to arrest them and have detained over 1,000. But if we ca’nt and Palestinians wouldn’t, then we have no other choice but to defend ourselves," a senior army official said . (PTI) |
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| US talks tough on new round but indicates
some flexibility NEW DELHI, Aug 9: United States today did some tough talking with India asking it to support a new round of trade negotiations at the WTO even as it said it was willing to enter into a strategic dialogue with New Delhi and address some of its concerns. "Active and constructive participation in a new trading round would provide India with the opportunity to amplify its voice and help shape the rules of globalisation. Withdrawal will leave the field to others," US trade representative Robert B Zoellick told captains of the Indian industry. The sooner India supports new negotiations, the more influential it will be. A new round would be a ‘win-win’ for India, he said. Describing India as a major country and an emerging power he said, "we want to engage India in a strategic dialogue that encompasses the full range of global issues....We welcome a broader role for India and want to work closely with India to develop imaginative responses in such areas as counter-terrorism, nuclear non-poliferation, human rights and environmental protection". On difficulties being faced by India and other developing countries on implementing obligations of the earlier Uruguay Round he said, "US is working with other developed nations to address legitimate implementations concerns in coming months and has already offered adjustments. "We will also be willing to consider other concerns as part of a new negotiation. And we recognise need to provide aid and other financial support including through the world bank, to help developing countries build the capacity to take part in trade negotiations and to follow through on agreements", he said. Zoellick also indicated flexibility about possibility of special and differential treatment for developing countries as well as tariffs on certain products lines which were of a sensitive nature. He said US wanted to work to strengthen and deepen a vibrant trading and investment relationship with India. The announcement granting duty free to 42 Indian products yesterday was a step in that direction. Terming the perception among some in India that Uruguay Round had not brought any benefits as "false" he said, "India needs to honestly assess the very real benefits of the round". Zoellick said more and more countries were becoming agreeable to the launch of a new round and so India had to decide keeping in mind the actual ground position. Even China, which would be a WTO member by the year end was actively supporting launch of a new global trade round. Spelling out the benefits for India in supporting a new round Zoellick said India and US share a number of objectives for a new round. "We can promote more open trade in agriculture, reduced barriers for services and more manufacturing trade. We can work cooperatively to thwart efforts to employ labour and environmental concerns for protectionist purposes". The USTR said despite a decade of liberalisation, India’s tariff and regulatory barriers were high. "With further deregulation, privatisation, limited taxation and open trade india...Can overcome poverty, strengthen the country and sway the world". Zoellick said his visit to India was aimed at developing a better understanding and exploring areas of common interest to further Indo-US negotiations.((PTI) |
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