UNITED NATIONS, Nov 7: Six countries, including India and Pakistan, have been elected to the UN budgetary committee while the US suffered a humiliating defeat to get re-elected to the body.

Besides India and Pakistan, the other countries elected yesterday to the body which makes recommendations to the general assembly are Britain, Costa Rica, Japan and Italy. .....more

These are complex issues and nobody expected there would be results in one meeting, he told reporters in Karachi.

Naturally it is an ongoing process as the points of view of both sides have come forward and there is hope of progress in next meetings, he said.

Pakistan yesterday rejected an Indian proposal for a ceasefire on the Siachen Glacier. (REUTERS)

Fatchett, who along with Foreign Ministers of Germany and Austria, would visit India for three days from November 11, said that they looked forward to "constructive discussions on a whole range of issues affecting European Union and India".

"This visit underlines the importance the British Government attaches to relations with India, which is one of our largest trading partners", Fatchett said in a statement.

The British Foreign Minister emphasised the importance of improving Indo-British trade and political ties, while recalling that with nearly three billion pound sterling investment, Britain was the largest cumulative investor in India.

This will be Fatchett’s second visit to India, after the one in June 1997, the Foreign Office statement said, adding he would be holding talks with a number of Indian Ministers and top officials. (PTI)

Laden, now in Afghanistan, will be captured and brought to justice for his role in blowing up US Embassies in Kenya, and Tanzania on August 7, CIA Deputy Director Gen. John Gordon said here.

He said Laden’s terrorist apparatus suffered setbacks since the bombings because of the arrest of several key operatives, including a senior members of group in Germany.

Any additional terrorist attacks planned by Laden’s group have been stopped and part of his network has been Disrupted, the Air Force General said.

Two years ago, we identified Osama Bin Laden as a key terrorist figure and set up a special unit to follow him. The efforts laid the groundwork that gave us the wherewithal to determine his central role within days of the Africa bombing.

But despite the commitment of these guys who literally wake up thinking about Osama Bin Laden, we could not predict the location and time of his attack. But this work has laid the foundation for his eventual capture — of that I am absolutely certain, Gen Gordon told a symposium here.

They has offered a reward of 5 million dollars for Laden’s capture, while Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has said it will protect him at any cost. (PTI)

Sharif in a sudden move, which surprised both he economic think tanks of the country as well as international donors who are in the process of negotiating a bail-out package for Pakistan, appointed his close lieutenant, Ishaq Dar, as the new Finance Minister and also changed almost the entire economic team of the country last evening.

Dar, a former accountant of Sharif’s family business group who was the Commerce Minister, replaces Dr Hafiz Pasha, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission who was acting as the Finance Minister for the last three months after Sartaj Aziz was shifted to the Foreign Ministry.

Earlier the Prime Minister also announced a new dollar bond scheme offering more incentives for the foreign currency account holders to transfer their money in the frozen accounts in these bonds as well as to attract overseas Pakistanis to bring foreign exchange into the country to refurbish its fast depleting foreign exchange reserves. (PTI)

The opposition demanded that Sharif be summoned before the Senate and asked to tender an unqualified apology for his utterances.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awami National Party expressed their deep concern at the reported statements of Prime Minister during public meetings in Malakan division in the frontier province recently.

PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, while moving a privilege motion against Prime Minister said, his utterances amounted to instigating the people to force and even use, violence to core the Senators to vote in favour of 15th constitutional amendment popularly known as Shariah Bill.

Senate (upper house of Pakistani Parliament) witnessed heated exchanges last evening and the opposition Senators expressed their apprehensions that their lives were in danger in wake of Sharif’s utterances at the meeting.

ANP Senator Zahid Khan even went to the extent of saying that he would ask his family and friends to hold Sharif responsible for his death if he was killed by some fanatics. (PTI)

| home | state | national | business | editorial | advertisement | sports |
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |