|
|
Taliban refuse to ISLAMABAD, Feb 6 : Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement today said it would continue to give sanctuary to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, who Washington wants to put on trial for allegedly blowing up two U.S. embassies.....more Russian sees scope for MOSCOW, Feb 6: Russia is hopeful of cooperation with India in the serial production of Light Combat...more
Benazir claims she WASHINGTON, Feb 6: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that she intends to return.......more Lee’s lawyer accuses ALBUQUERQUE, Feb 6: The Chief Attorney for nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, whose high-profile secrets ......more |
|
Chinese
scientists study creepy crawly cure for AIDS HONG KONG, Feb 6: It’s one of the most notorious pests in the world. Hated for its ability.....more
Indonesia President JAKARTA, Feb 6: Indonesia’s floundering President Abdurrahman Wahid today appeared to......more Afghan Foreign ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The Afghan Foreign Minister today dismissed a report in a British daily that the ........more
Pak to invite PM DUBAI, Feb 6: Describing Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as a moderate who is surrounded by hawks.....more |
 |
 |
Taliban refuse to surrender Bin Laden ISLAMABAD, Feb 6 : Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement today said it would continue to give sanctuary to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, who Washington wants to put on trial for allegedly blowing up two U.S. embassies. Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, dismissed a report in the London Times yesterday that the Taliban might hand over Bin Laden in exchange for recognition as the Government of Afghanistan. "We have not given shelter to Osama Bin Laden so that we can make a deal to hand him over," Zaeef told a news conference. "Our policy is clear from the beginning and this policy still prevails." Tliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil said separately if it turned over Bin Laden, hostile governments would find another reason not to recognise his group as Afghanistan’s legal rulers. Bin laden, a dissident Saudi businessman, has been indicted for the 1998 bombing of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa and has been named as a possible suspect behind last year’s bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in Yemen. Four alleged Bin Laden associates went on trial Monday in Federal Court in New York for the embassy bombings. The United Nations has imposed a variety of political and economic sanctions on the Taleban — including an arms embargo — in an attempt to pressure the militant Islamic group into surrendering Bin Laden. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the only countries to recognise the Taleban as the Government of Afghanistan, despite the fact it holds more than 90 percent of the country. The United Nations continues to recognise the opposition who are isolated in the north of the country. (Reuters) |
|
Russian sees
scope for cooperation in LCA MOSCOW, Feb 6: Russia is hopeful of cooperation with India in the serial production of Light Combat Aircraft while accepting that New Delhi has proved indigenous technological prowess by its successful test flight last month. Senior officials of top Russian Aircraft Corporations ‘Sukhoi’ and ‘MiG’, before embarking on their visit to India for an international airshow said they see a wide scope for cooperation in developing the LCA. "The technology spin-off of the `Su-30 Mki’ multi-role fighter developed in association with Indian experts could be widely used in India’s LCA project, and we are ready for jointly working in this direction," director general of `Sukhoi’ Mikhail Pogosyan told PTI here before leaving for `Aero-India 2001' airshow at Yelahanska airbase near Bangalore. "LCA, which made its maiden flight last month, is a modern plane, and proves India’s capabilities, but requires the concentration of massive resources and skills before launching its serial production," Pogosyan said. Talking to the Indian press here, officials of the ‘MiG’ corporation also expressed their readiness to share ‘cutting edge’ technologies with India in developing LCA. Taking a trip down memory lane, deputy director general of MiG, Viktor Kozlov said, "it were we at `MiG’, who laid the foundation of India’s combat plane industry, when the production of `MiG-21' fighters was launched at Hal, Nasik under the Soviet license over three decades ago." "MiG would be seen in India as a natural partner in the LCA project," deputy chief designer Andrei Karasyov said. Pogosyan said that after the launching of `Su-30 Mki’ production at Hal, under the Russian license, the two countries could also move ahead with the joint development of a fifth generation fighter which requires the pooling of huge human, technological and financial resources. According to media reports here, Russia is already considering to pool the resources of ‘Sukhoi’ and ‘Mig’ corporations to develop it. At the air show in Bangalore, ‘Sukhoi’ will display the proto type of ‘Su-30 Mki’ with thrust-vectoring, while ‘MiG’ will display its carrier-based ‘MiG-29k’ fighter, to be deployed by the Indian navy after acquiring Kiev class aircraft carrier ‘Admiral Gorshkov’. "India and Russia could sign the deal for the purchase of 30 jets for the aircraft carrier in this year itself as negotiations on `Admiral Gorshkov’ could be completed by March", chief designer of `MiG 29k’ Nikolai Buntin said. The ‘MiG-29k’, to be dislayed during the airshow, flew over 3,500 km on its own. Its capabilities include air defence, submarine hunting and ground attack and has an effective range of 800-1100 kilometres without mid-air refuelling, Buntin said. The mutual mid-air refuelling is a unique feature of this fighter, he added. MiG Corporation which has almost completed its part of the ‘MiG-21 Bis’ upgradation project, is also going to offer the modernisation of the swing-wing MiG-27 fighters made by HAL under Russian license, MiG-29b of the Indian Air Force to the ‘MiG-29smt’ version with ground attack capability with the use of ‘smart’ and ‘fire and forget’ weapons. (PTI) |
|
Benazir claims she is ready to return to Pakistan WASHINGTON, Feb 6: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that she intends to return home from self-exile later this year to confront the military regime by assuming the leadership of a combined opposition. "I know I could be imprisoned or shuttled form courtroom to courtroom upon arrival in Pakistan. I am prepared to take that calculated political risk," The Washington Times daily quoted Bhutto as telling a group of Pakistanis and Americans here yesterday. Since the arrest and subsequent exile of deposed Premier and Pakistan Muslim League (PML) chief Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia and her own self-exile there is a "political vacuum" in Pakistan, she said. Bhutto said she was now ready to return to the country "sometime later this year" to assume the leadership of the united opposition of her Pakistan Peoples Party and PML, which have formed the alliance for the restoration of democracy. The alliance, she said, has "created a lot of pressure for me to return and lead the democratic opposition. I was surprised by support for my return" even among parties other than the PPP." She said her hopes for avoiding arrest and having her corruption conviction overturned have been buoyed by an article in the London Sunday Times newspaper, which reported that the judge and prosecutor of her trial collaborated with senior Government officials. (PTI) |
|
Lee’s lawyer accuses US of leaks to media ALBUQUERQUE, Feb 6: The Chief Attorney for nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, whose high-profile secrets case ended with a plea deal last year, has accused the US Government of leaking misinformation about him to the media. "We’re extremely disappointed that the Government is leaking information regarding Dr Lee’s cooperation," Los Angeles Attorney Mark Holscher, the leader of Lee’s defense team, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "Not only are the leaks false, but it is a violation of federal criminal law for anonymous Government officials to make such leaks," Holscher said. The Washington Post on Sunday quoted unnamed sources close to the investigations as saying the FBI and federal prosecutors were considering asking a court for more time to question Lee under oath. Lee underwent 60 hours of interrogation in November and December as part of a plea bargain that ended the Government’s court case against him last September. Holscher, responding to the post story, said he had not been contacted by federal prosecutors about any additional interrogation time. In its story, the Post quoted sources as saying lee’s answers during the interrogation raised new questions about his relationships with nuclear scientists from China and Taiwan. Amid media allegations of espionage for China, Lee was charged in late 1999 with illegally downloading US nuclear weapons designs at Los Alamos National Laboratory. But he was never charged with spying and US prosecutors later widened the list of states they alleged Lee may have contacted to include Taiwan, Australia and Switzerland. Under his agreement with prosecutors, Lee pleaded guilty to just one of the 59 felony charges against him. In return for the remainder of the charges being dropped, he agreed to tell the FBI what happened to seven missing computer tapes that they accused him of filling with secret data on nuclear weapons designs. Lee has said he destroyed the tapes but never publicly disclosed what happened to them. The Washington Post story quoted the unnamed sources as saying Lee had not yet provided a verifiable explanation of why he downloaded the data and what he did with the tapes. Holscher said the report was just the latest in "a pattern of leaks" by Government officials that may provide firepower for Lee’s federal lawsuit currently pending in Washington, DC. That lawsuit, filed by Lee and his wife, Sylvia, accuses the Justice and Energy Departments and other federal officials of violating the couple’s right to privacy by leaking negative and false information about Lee. "You can expect some of these issues will be raised in the privacy act lawsuit," Holscher said. The US Attorney’s office in Albuquerque declined to comment on the Washington Post report. Prosecutors can order lee to undergo a polygraph examination to verify the truthfulness of his statements under oath. They have not yet scheduled one. (REUTERS) |
|
Chinese scientists study creepy crawly cure for AIDS HONG KONG, Feb 6: It’s one of the most notorious pests in the world. Hated for its ability to survive, infest, proliferate and spread germs. But the dreaded cockroach could become humankind’s ally in the fight against AIDS. Scientists in China are studying the creepy crawly in a bid to develop new drugs including ones which will help aids sufferers, a report from China’s official news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday. Researchers at the medicinal faculty of Yunnan Dali Medical Academy claim to have extracted "three useful organic substances" from cockroaches. Further experiments at the Kunming Animals Research Institute showed one of these three organic substances was effective in resisting HIV - the virus which leads to AIDS. One of the researchers said although more clinical studies were needed, experiments so far had shown the cockroach substance to be about 10 per cent as effective as the drugs currently used to treat AIDS patients in the United States. Professor Li Shunan, head of the team which extracted the substances, first began studying the medical possibilities of the cockroach 14 years ago and has already developed a drug to heal skin wounds, the South China Morning Post reported. He told Xinhua his research was inspired by the practices of the Bai minority tribes in Yunnan province who have long used the cockroach to cure skin disease. (DPA) |
|
Indonesia President wins breather in impeachment push JAKARTA, Feb 6: Indonesia’s floundering President Abdurrahman Wahid today appeared to stave off a push to bring forward an impeachment hearing after the country’s two main parties rejected the move. Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) and the former ruling Golkar Party opposed calls for the top legislature to sit within eight weeks to consider impeachment instead of the four months mandated by the Constitution. The two control a majority of the Parliament and the 700-member People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), which comprises 500 members of Parliament and 200 regional representatives. "It is unnecessary to take moves outside the constitutional corridor, such as the attempt to hasten the MPR session," PDI-P deputy secretary-general Pramono Anung quoted Megawati telling party members, the official Antara news agency reported. Earlier, Parliamentary Speaker and Golkar chief Akbar Tandjung said Wahid’s legitimacy had been eroded by a parliamentary censure over two graft scandals, but any move to call a special MPR session to impeach him must follow the normal, lengthy constitutional process. Wahid has denied any wrongdoing over the two scandals —one of which involves the theft of 4.1 million from the state commodities regulator bulog, the other his acceptance of a 2 million aid donation from the sultan of brunei. Underscoring the risk of unrest across Indonesia, thousands of pro-Wahid protesters ransacked a Golkar office in the east Java port town of Banyuwangi and forced the port to close for a few hours. Banyuwangi links Java with the resort island of Bali. Police are on alert in the east Java capital, Surabaya, where several thousand Wahid supporters are due to rally on Wednesday. Hundreds of protesters also hit the streets of Jakarta on Tuesday, mainly calling for the disbanding of the Golkar Party, the political vehicle of disgraced former President Suharto. There were no clashes. Tandjung said Wahid’s formal response to the censure, which must be made within three months, would be crucial to his fate. "He must respond to the decision (the censure) from the Parliament, then everything will depend on his response," he told Reuters. "In terms of politics, his credibility has fallen. His legitimacy has also fallen. The legitimacy of the Government is now very low." The position taken by PDI-P and Golkar falls short of wholehearted support for the struggling President and in the volatile world of Indonesian politics an about face by one or both is far from impossible. MPR chief Amien Rais, who helped engineer Wahid’s surprise rise to power 15 months ago but is now spearheading the push to topple him, has been lobbying legislators to convene the MPR within eight weeks. Rais also played a prominent role in the wave of opposition that led to Suharto’s downfall in 1998. Wahid urges peace most public support for wahid has appeared in east java, heartland of the largest muslim organisation, the 40 million strong Nahdlatul Ulama, which he once led. Besides blocking the Banyuwangi port, which has since reopened, hundreds of people in nearby Situbondo town blocked streets with logs, residents said. (REUTERS) |
|
Afghan Foreign Minister dismisses report on Laden ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The Afghan Foreign Minister today dismissed a report in a British daily that the Taliban militia was ready to hand over indicted terrorist Osama Bin Laden in exchange for international recognition. Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that yesterday’s report in the times was a "total lie". "I have never said this to any reporter. There is no change in the Taliban’s policy on Osama," he told the private agency. "He can leave Afghanistan on his own if he wants but we will not expel him." The Times quoted the Foreign Minister as saying the ruling Islamic militia was ready to hand over Laden to a third country if it was given recognition as the country’s legitimate Government. The Taliban have consistently rejected making any such deals over Laden, a veteran of the 1979-89 Afghan war against the soviets and an honoured "guest" of the militia. Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire and self-declared enemy of America, is wanted in the United States for allegedly masterminding the two bombings of US Embassies in East Africa in 1998 which killed 224 people. The Islamist Taliban regime is not recognized by the international community and has been hit with UN sanctions after it refused and over Bin Laden and close alleged terrorist training camps. (AFP) |
|
Pak to invite PM DUBAI, Feb 6: Describing Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as a moderate who is surrounded by hawks, Pakistan military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has said he was prepared to invite the Indian Prime Minister to Islamabad in a bid to resolve the Kashmir issue. In an interview to Gulf News on the day Pakistan expressed solidarity with the Kashmiris, Gen Musharraf said "Mr Vajpayee is the only moderate and he is surrounded by hawks, so if we have to move in a substantial way, it can only be done in a dialogue between him and me". Striking a conciliatory note by stating that he was "absolutely willing" to invite Mr Vajpayee, he, however, added that "when one initiates such an act, one has to be very careful that the initiative is accepted". Asked if he would be just as willing to visit India, if invited, the Pakistani leader said "yes, certainly". He said the ice had been broken as a consequence of the recent telephonic conversation between him and Mr Vajpayee when the Prime Minister thanked him for sending relief supplies for the victims of the earthquake in Gujarat. "I hope it can lead to further movement towards initiation of dialogue". Gen Musharraf said he was encouraged by Mr Vajpayee’s recent statement in which he spoke about taking bold initiatives in Kashmir. "I see a change in the statements and attitudes of the leadership. I also see a change in the public attitude and the attitude of the media". He said if public opinion changed, the Indian Government would have more flexibility towards inititiating a dialogue. He reaffirmed that general elections in Pakistan would be held before the October 2002 deadline stipulated by the Supreme Court and there was no factor as yet which could cause a delay. He did not specify clearly whether the military would have a constitutional role in governance once democracy was restored, saying instead that his Government was looking into ways of restructuring the system. On whether he would have a role in governance once democracy was restored, Gen Musharraf said "we are looking into this aspect (of restructuring) and within this if I have a role to play, I will play it". (UNI) |
|
|
