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Anti-Taliban forces say ISLAMABAD, May 9: Afghanistan’s opposition said today they had pushed back the Taliban and captured a key gorge in the northern province of Takhar, near the Tajikistan border........more United
States to WASHINGTON, May 9: The pentagon announced a major reorganization of its space programmes, reflecting what officials said was a greater emphasis on space in future military strategy.......more Killing
of 2 Israeli TEKOA, (WEST BANK), May 9: Two Israeli teenagers from a Jewish settlement were found stoned to death in a cave today in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an escalation of Palestinian violence......more |
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China arrests US- BEIJING, May 9: Chinese police have arrested a U.S.-based Chinese businessman and kept him......more Expert
sees new United WASHINGTON, May 9: A Republican arms expert predicted that the Bush administration would resume nuclear weapons testing and would not make ......more Pak
court declares Jamat ISLAMABAD, May 9: Pakistan’s fundamentalist party Jamat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and three .........more US
lawmakers ready a bill WASHINGTON, May 9: Congress is about to stir up another sensitive issue in the strained............more |
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Anti-Taliban forces say capture key Afghan gorge ISLAMABAD, May 9: Afghanistan’s opposition said today they had pushed back the Taliban and captured a key gorge in the northern province of Takhar, near the Tajikistan border. Dr Abdullah, a spokesman for opposition forces led by Ahmad Shah Masood, told Reuters their forces seized Farkhar Gorge and some 30 adjacent posts. The gorge lies east of Takhar provincial capital, Taloqan, and is a key obstacle to any Taliban advance on the opposition capital of Faizabad. "We took it in heavy fighting this morning. Its capture is not an easy work," Abdullah said. Fierce fighting began in the area after Masood staged an attack against the Taliban positions early in the morning, he added. Abdullah described the opposition gains in Taloqan as of "high significance" since Masood’s loyalists were driven out of the area by the Taliban almost a year ago. Opposition spokesman, however, did not specify the number of casualties. The Taliban forces "suffered heavy death toll" in the latest fighting, which is the heaviest in a year. The latest round of fighting, which erupted at the end of last month, spread to various areas of northern Afghanistan. Both the warring factions appear to be focused on Takhar, which lies on a supply route of Masood forces from Tajikistan. Takhar area is also adjacent to Badakhshan province, the political heartland of opposition groups which the Taliban toppled in 1996. Abdullah said clashes continued in some southern districts of Balkh province, where Uzbek warlord general Abdur Rashid Dostum holds some isolated areas. "The Taliban are carrying out repeated air strikes to dislodge dostum from Zari and couple of other districts which he secured early this week," Abdullah said. Dostum draws support from his Uzbek ethnic group in northern Afghanistan. In Kabul, Taliban officials confirmed heavy fighting in the area but rejected any loss of territory. The hardline Islamic Taliban movement controls more than 90 percent of Afghanistan. Forces loyal to masood are believed to be last barrier in the way of the Taliban’s complete control of the war-shattered country. Around 700,000 Afghans have been displaced by relentless fighting, drought, famine, according to the United Nations. (REUTERS) |
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United States to strengthen military space programmes WASHINGTON, May 9: The pentagon announced a major reorganization of its space programmes, reflecting what officials said was a greater emphasis on space in future military strategy. Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the changes will enable the pentagon to counter new vulnerabilities of U.S. armed forces and civil society stemming from its dependence on space. "More than any other country, the United States relies on space for its security and well-being," Rumsfeld told reporters. "We depend on satellite services to our homes, schools, businesses and hospitals. "Satellites enable global communications, television broadcasts, weather forecasting, navigation of ships, planes, trucks, cars, synchronizing computers, communications and electric power grids." As for the military, he said, "satellites are also our worldwide eyes and ears". That dependence on space "makes us vulnerable to new challenges", Rumsfeld said. "It is only logical to conclude that we must be attentive to these vulnerabilities and pay careful attention to protecting and promoting our interest in space". Rumsfeld’s proposals outlined Tuesday concerned primarily bureaucratic changes within the pentagon. He said the proposals have "nothing to do" with deploying weapons in space. The idea was to "dissuade and deter" attacks by other nations against U.S. assets in space, Rumsfeld said. Senator Robert Smith, republican of new hampshire, hailed the reforms as necessary in the face of potential space-age dangers to U.S. security. "There are nations out there who are hostile to us," Smith said. "and they are in space. "They have such weapons as lasers, anti-satellite weapons and electromagnetic pulse weapons, and we have to be ready to recognize that threat". Some of the dangers to space systems can come from relatively "modest" sources, Rumsfeld said. He cited Indonesia’s ability to block transmissions from a Chinese satellite to its territory. The reforms, the first in a series of military overhauls expected to be announced this month, are drawn from recommendations of a commission on space chaired by Rumsfeld before he became President George W. Bush’s defence secretary in January. They include appointing a new four-star Air Force general to run Air Force programmes within the U.S. space command and making the Air Force the lead service in organizing, training and equipping space forces. Those tasks are currently split among the four branches of the armed forces. The pentagon would also receive more influence over the national reconnaissance office through coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency, Rumsfeld said. (DPA) |
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Killing of 2 Israeli youth raises tension TEKOA, (WEST BANK), May 9: Two Israeli teenagers from a Jewish settlement were found stoned to death in a cave today in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an escalation of Palestinian violence. An anonymous caller to Reuters claimed responsibility for the killings in the name of an Islamic militant group, saying they were to avenge the death of a four-month-old baby killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza on Monday and the killing of an Islamic Jihad militant on Saturday. But the call could not be authenticated. Hours earlier the United States, Israel’s closest ally, slammed plans by Sharon’s Government to put some 350 million dollars into shoring up the settlements which anger Palestinians and have fuelled their more than seven-month-old uprising. Police said they suspected Palestinians — perhaps thieves — had stoned the two 14-year-olds to death and dumped their bound bodies in a Judean Desert cave along a river bed near Tekoa settlement, 13 km (eight miles), South of Jerusalem. A settler security chief, Dov Weinstock, told Israel radio he believed the killers may have been thieves who, acting impulsively, killed the youths using what he called "natural weapons" such as stones. Tekoa residents said 100 goats had been stolen overnight. "We believe the murder was done for nationalistic reasons...We are investigating every possible angle," a police spokesman said. Army radio said the teenagers had gone hiking instead of to school in Jerusalem on Tuesday and a search party was arranged after they failed to return home. It said they might also have been stabbed. Saying he was "deeply shocked", Sharon called the killing "an additional escalation in terror activities and violence by the palestinians against innocent civilians". "The Prime Minister demands that the Palestinian authority immediately cease its terror activities and venomous incitement for murder against Israelis and Jews, which is being conducted in the official Palestinian media," Sharon said in a statement. Palestinians say Israel’s policy of settling the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands they want for a future state, has fuelled the uprising against Israeli occupation which erupted in late September in the vacuum of deadlocked peace negotiations. At least 408 Palestinians, 77 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in more than seven months of fighting. US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker questioned why Israel was allocating more money for settlements at this time. "This activity risks further inflaming the already volatile situation in the region and is provocative," he said. A spokesman for Sharon called the US statement unfair and said Israel was not building new settlements, but simply improving the infrastructure for those already on the ground and accommodating "natural growth" of their populations. Some 200,000 Jewish settlers live in the west bank and gaza strip, home to three million Palestinians. "This money is in no way provocative. What’s provocative about building a nursery because more babies are being born?" asked the Israeli spokesman, Raanan Gissin. The Israeli Army reported Palestinians fired two mortar bombs at a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip and anti-tank grenades at a Jewish settlement adjacent to Khan Younis in southern Gaza early today. Israeli commentators said Powell’s statement marked a turning point in what had been a honeymoon relationship between the administration of US President George W Bush and the Sharon Government. (REUTERS) |
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China arrests US-based Chinese businessman: Lawyer BEIJING, May 9: Chinese police have arrested a U.S.-based Chinese businessman and kept him incommunicado despite a potentially life-threatening medical condition, the man’s lawyer has said. The arrest, reported by Jerome Cohen, a prominent expert on Chinese law, is one of a string of detentions of U.S. residents and citizens by Chinese police that have helped sour relations between Washington and Beijing. Police detained Liu Yaping in inner Mongolia on March 8 initially on suspicion of committing commercial fraud but later in connection with "state secrets", said Cohen, a law Professor at New York University who has been retained by Liu’s family. "Today is the 61st day of his detention without access to anyone else except the hospitals to which he is taken on various occasions for emergency treatment," Cohen told reporters. "He was a healthy person when he went into detention." Liu was suffering from a potentially life-threatening brain aneurism, said Cohen, who has tried in vain to gain access to his client through local lawyers from inner Mongolia and Beijing. China has also detained four ethnic Chinese academics —two American citizens and two permanent U.S. residents —prompting the U.S. State Department to warn critics of Beijing they may risk detention in China. The detentions have added to tensions in China-U.S. ties over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and a collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter. China has formally charged one U.S. resident, Gao Zhan, with espionage and is investigating the other U.S. resident and one of the American citizens on suspicion of spying or leaking state secrets. (REUTERS) |
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Expert sees new United States nuclear tests WASHINGTON, May 9: A Republican arms expert predicted that the Bush administration would resume nuclear weapons testing and would not make the kind of deep cuts in nuclear weapons that some are advocating. Frank Gaffney, a former defence official and prominent conservative analyst, made the comments yesterday during a period when President George W. Bush has launched the most fundamental rethinking of U.S. nuclear strategy in decades. At a seminar on Russia sponsored by the Conservative Free Congress Foundation, Gaffney outlined what he said he thought — or at least hoped — the administration would put forward when its nuclear policy decision-making is completed. Teams of high-level u.S. Officials are in Europe and Asia this week to discuss Bush’s thinking with allies and other interested states, including Russia and China. "I hope the administration will be making clear to our friends in Russia that part and parcel of the nuclear forces we will retain will be the need to ensure they are modern, safe and reliable ... Toward that end, we’re going to have to resume on a limited basis underground testing of our nuclear arms," Gaffney said. The United States has not tested nuclear weapons since 1992, and China, Britain, France and Russia are publicly committed to a moratorium. But Gaffney told Reuters he believed Russia and China had "covertly tested." Efforts to legally codify an international halt in testing in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty have been stymied since the U.S. senate in 1999 voted against ratifying the pact. Bush opposes the treaty but has said he will maintain the testing moratorium. However, Gaffney said: "I think you’re going to find that (Bush’s) nuclear posture review is going to conclude that this (testing) has to be part of a revised approach." Bush has said he would reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to the "lowest possible number consistent with our national security." Some officials and experts say the administration is discussing cutting its arsenal from the current level of 7,000 strategic nuclear warheads to 1,500 warheads. But Gaffney predicted such drastic cuts ultimately "are not going to pass muster" and the final target will be no lower than 2,000-2,500 — the range former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed on for a proposed start-3 set of arms negotiations. An administration spokesman declined to comment on Gaffney’s remarks, saying the nuclear review is still under way. (REUTERS) |
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Pak court declares Jamat leaders absconders ISLAMABAD, May 9: Pakistan’s fundamentalist party Jamat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and three others have been proclaimed as absconders after the police failed to serve arrest warrants issued against them in connection with a case relating to rioting during Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s historic visit to Lahore in 1999. A Lahore Court declared Ahmad and his party’s Deputy leader Liaqat Baloch, Deputy Secretary-General Fareed Pricha and Information Secretary Amir Ul Azeem as absconders following their failure to appear before the court yesterday. The court had issued arrest warrants against them on April 30, virtually 26 months after they indulged in violence during Vajpayee’s visit. The case was registered against them on February 20, 1999, when the Jamat’s volunteers staged a demonstration against Vajpayee’s visit and attacked cars of some of the VVIPs. The fundamentalist party party has reacted strongly to the court’s directive saying it was part of the military Government’s strategy to intimidate party leaders who called for an end to the military regime. (PTI) |
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US lawmakers ready a bill meant to protect Tibet WASHINGTON, May 9: Congress is about to stir up another sensitive issue in the strained US-Chinese relationship with the introduction of a bill designed to protect Tibetan cultural and religious traditions, Congressional sources and advocates have said. Senators and Congressmen plan to announce the legislation today morning. It would also seek to promote dialogue on Tibet’s future between the exiled religious leader the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials. The international campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group, has called the bill the most comprehensive legislation on the region ever put before Congress. The move comes at the beginning of a nine-city US tour by the Dalai Lama. Sino-American ties have recently been frayed by the 11-day detention of an American spy plane crew, President George W. Bush’s outspoken vow to defend Taiwan if it is threatened by Beijing and his offer to sell arms to the island, which China considers a breakaway province. "The sponsors of this bill have crafted the most comprehensive tibet legislation ever to be considered by Congress," said Mary Beth Markey, director of Governmental relations for the international campaign for Tibet. "With this move, the U.S. Government is putting the force of law behind its long-standing interest in the welfare of the tibetan people and a negotiated solution for Tibet," she said. Bipartisan support Legislative sponsors include two California democrats, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and rep. Tom Lantos, as well as Sen. Craig Thomas of Wyoming and rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois, both Republicans. "The legislation provides a clear statement of U.S. intent to help preserve the identity of the Tibetan people and offers the United States tools for formulating and implementing Tibet-related policies and for cooperating with other members of the international community," a democratic spokesman said. He said that for five decades, China had focused on the economic integration and ethnic assimilation of Tibet. This has "undermined the sustainability of an independent tibetan economy and ... Threatened the cultural, social, religious and linguistic identity of the tibetan people," he said. The legislation, known as the Tibetan Policy Act, takes up such issues as political prisoners and U.N. consideration of tibet. Occasionally, the Dalai Lama or a representative has been barred from a U.N.-affiliated event, presumably because of objections by China. Advocacy groups said the bill would authorize the continuation of humanitarian assistance to Tibetan refugees, of scholarships and of other support for Tibetans. Specifies coordinator’s role It is also expected to codify the position of the special coordinator for Tibetan issues at the State Department, spelling out that official’s responsibility for promoting dialogue between the Government of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives, a spokesman for the international campaign for Tibet said. In addition, it is expected to establish guidelines for U.S. backing for potential development projects on the Tibetan plateau supported by International Financial Institutions and other international organizations. The Dalai Lama, the nobel peace prize-winning Buddhist monk who fled to India in 1959 after Tibet’s abortive uprising against Chinese rule, arrived in Minneapolis on Monday. He will visit U.S. Buddhist communities and publicize his campaign for "a process of peaceful negotiations with the Chinese leadership as a means to resolve the problem of Tibet." China’s suppression of Tibetan nationalism has made the fate of the Himalayan region a deeply emotive issue in the United States, where the Dalai Lama enjoys a kind of spiritual stardom, enhanced by the vocal support of hollywood personalities. His U.S. stops will include St. Paul, Minnesota Salt Lake city Portland, Oregon San Jose, California San Francisco Madison, Wisconsin and Los Angeles. He is due in Washington around May 22. (REUTERS) |
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