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Albright takes aim at SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 6: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has....more
India, Pak need WASHINGTON, Oct 6: India and Pakistan need to be pushed into....more Indian navy to get WASHINGTON, Oct 6: The Indian Navy plans to have...more |
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Lankan Govt
raises COLOMBO, Oct 6: Prospects of peace initiatives to end the ethnic war...more India expected to buy WASHINGTON, Oct 6: India is likely to buy British Aerospace Hawk......more East Timor’s spiritual
DILI (EAST TIMOR), Oct 6: East Timor spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo ....more
India, Pak should resolve WASHINGTON, Oct 6 : President Clinton intends to encourage India and.....more Afghan militia decrees PESHAWAR (PAKISTAN), Oct 6: Afghanistan’s Islamic militia chief Mulla Omar....more |
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Albright takes aim at ‘shortsighted’ legislators SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 6: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has opened a two-front war on lawmakers who opposed a nuclear test ban treaty and proposed massive cuts in the foreign policy budget. Albright called the legislators yesterday shortsighted and lacking in understanding of the issues. Albright said she did not believe the battle over the CTBT was over and vowed to fight for its passage against overwhelming opposition from conservative senators. She said it was a disgrace that more detailed hearings on the treaty had not been scheduled, though she declined to predict whether President Bill Clinton might shelve the pact, as has been offered by the Senate, to avoid its rejection. It is unprecedented that there haven’t been hearings in order to make decisions on complicated arms control regimes, Albright told AFP on her arrival here. It’s not the right way to do business. Given the importance of it, I think they (the Senate leadership) are shortchanging themselves and the American public by not allowing there to be a full-scope debate based on hearings. The Secretary said she still intended to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday in an effort to sway opponents but said without a more thorough approach, the effort might not serve the public interest. Still, she said she and other officials would pull out all the stops for CTBT ratification as more than 100 nations gathered in Vienna to try to jump-start approval amid the Senate’s offer to postpone consideration. (AFP) |
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India, Pak need to be pushed into signing CTBT: Rubin WASHINGTON, Oct 6: India and Pakistan need to be pushed into signing the CTBT and for the Clinton administration to have the credibility to make that push, the Senate has to ratify it, US State Department spokesman James Rubin has said. Stepping up the administration-orchestrated media offensive against the majority Republicans who have vowed to block the treaty, Rubin told reporters here yesterday that a vote against the CTBT would be a vote against US efforts to stop proliferation worldwide. Only a day before Rubin had said that India and Pakistan were moving fast towards signing the CTBT and that the US failure to ratify the treaty would send wrong signals to them. He had referred to National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra’s statement in New Delhi on October 3 that a consensus was building up in the country on the BJP’s stand on signing the CTBT and that the new Government would take concrete steps on this, as a very positive development. So, he said, anyone concerned about proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — in particular, nuclear weapons in India, in Pakistan or any other part of the world — should support the ratification of this treaty, and those who oppose it must understand the deep damage they will do to our ability to put pressure on Governments around the world to not come down the nuclear road. (PTI) |
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Indian navy to get advanced anti-ship system WASHINGTON, Oct 6: The Indian Navy plans to have its Soviet-built maritime patrol aircraft fitted with Russia’s most advanced anti-ship warfare system, the Sea Dragon, and its KA-28 helicopters with the fagot anti-warfare suite, the defense news reported. Russia’s chief arms trading firm, Rosvoorouzhenie, will sign a formal contract with the Indian Navy in autumn to have five of its TU-142 and IL-38 aircraft fitted with Sea Dragon suites, the weekly said quoting an official at the Scientific Research Institute of Systemic Equipment in St Petersburg. It quoted the official as saying that the company is likely to sign the contract within the next two months and begin fitting the suites next year. Negotiations have already reached final stage after a year-and-a-half of talks. We will eventually overhaul all of India’s IL-38 and TU-142’s, but the pending contract is for only five of these aircraft, the design official was quoted as saying. The official said his institute, the Scientific Research Institute of Systemic Equipment in St Petersburg, in Russia, is developing a variant of the fagot anti-ship warfare suite for the Indian Navy’s Russian-made KA-28 maritime helicopters though we are still far from reaching any deal on it. The weekly said the Indian Navy is also planning to acquire from Russia six TU-142 M aircraft and six more KA-31 helicopters, in addition to Sea Eagle Missiles, Uran Missiles and underwater launched club anti-ship missiles. (PTI) |
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Lankan Govt raises defence budget by 11.5 pc COLOMBO, Oct 6: Prospects of peace initiatives to end the ethnic war between the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE appeared dim on the eve of the new millennium, with the Government bracing itself for a prolonged war by proposing an 11.5 per cent hike in its defence budget. Estimates for the ‘millennium budget’ presented to the Parliament here yesterday said defence spending was set to increase from 47 billion Sri Lankan rupees in 1999 to 52.43 billion, (about 730 million US dollars) in 2000 due to huge expenses incurred in fighting the LTTE in the Northeast. The defence allocation has been hiked even though overall Government expenditure is expected to fall by Rs 48 billion. Government’s expenditure will be Rs 339 billion this year as compared to Rs 291 billion, last year, according to the budget projections. This would entail a drastic cut in subsidies and welfare schemes, analysts said here. The rise in defence spending comes close to a ‘combative’ speech by Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at the United Nations recently where he ruled out third party mediation. These steps send a clear signal that the Government is preparing for a ‘long haul’ war with the LTTE. Kadirgamar said the Government might invite a third facilitator to help arrange talks with the LTTE when the time is ripe for peace talks. Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) too concurs with the Government’s view that a ‘facilitator’ not a ‘mediator’ is required to conduct talks between the two warring sides. (PTI) |
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India expected to buy British Hawk trainers WASHINGTON, Oct 6: India is likely to buy British Aerospace Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers as well as procure technology from France for the manufacture of the Alpha Jet trainer to beef up the Air Force’s training capabilities, the defense news reported. India bid in August for 24 Hawks for immediate delivery, following it up with an order of 24 to be manufactured by the parent company and a further 44 to be assembled at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) plant at Bangalore, it said quoting unidentified sources. The total cost of the acquisition programme is around 1.5 billion dollars. It also said that India and France were negotiating for the transfer of technology for the French-made Alpha Jet Trainer (AJT) from the Paris-based dassault aviation to HAL. The Indian Air Force’s trainer fleet currently includes 24 BAE-748’s, 120 HJT-16’s, 56 Kiran MK II’s 20 HPT-32’s and 60 HT’s. This is inadequate for the Air Force’s current needs. This year the Air Force has lost some 20 aircraft due to accidents, and more than 85 pilots and nearly 190 aircraft since 1991, the weekly said. About 62 percent of the fighter aircraft accidents involved MiG-21 variants. (PTI) |
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East Timor’s spiritual leader Belo comes home DILI (EAST TIMOR), Oct 6: East Timor spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo arrived home Monday, a month after fleeing a bloody rampage by pro-Jakarta militias that destroyed the territory. Belo arrived from Darwin on a charter plane at Dili airport and was met by heavy security and a handful of priests and nuns. The Catholic Bishop of Dili said he hoped his return would encourage many frightened East Timorese hiding in caves and forests to return and start rebuilding their homes. "Why do they continue to live in the forest? this is not our life," Belo said before leaving. Accompanied by Portuguese diplomats, he was due to fly immediately to the second city of Baucau to meet the territory’s other bishop, Basilio Do Nascimento. (REUTERS) |
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India, Pak should resolve issues bilaterally:Clinton WASHINGTON, Oct 6 : President Clinton intends to encourage India and Pakistan to resolve their difference bilaterally by resuming their stalled talks. "Encouraging the resumption of Indo-Pakistani bilateral discussions has my personal attention, and I intend to pursue this when I visit the region within the next year," he said in reply to a letter of Democratic Congressman Gary I Ackerman, the Co-chairman of the influential Congressional caucus on India and Indians Americans. Mr Clinton said, "I was very pleased to see an easing of the fighting in Kashmir, but I remain extremely concerned about the continued confrontations between India and Pakistan. These clashes remind us of how important it is for India and Pakistan to resolve their bilateral problems and end over 50 years of enmity." He shared Congressman Ackerman’s views on the "importance of strengthening our economic relations with India and have long believed that our two countries should enjoy broader and more productive relations. The potential gains for both United States and India re enormous." He said his trip to the region would "seek to promote a deepening of our ties with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh." (UNI) |
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Afghan militia decrees reduction of poppy crop PESHAWAR (PAKISTAN), Oct 6: Afghanistan’s Islamic militia chief Mulla Omar has decreed that poppy growers in Taliban-ruled areas should substantially reduce their cultivation, according to Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). The verdict, broadcast yesterday by Taliban-run radio Shariat, warned severe punishment for the farmers who defied the orders from the reclusive leader of radical militia. Omar said Taliban administration, which controls more than two thirds of the war-ravaged nation, "is ready to cooperate with international anti-drug agencies for the complete elimination of poppy from Afghanistan provided they launch projects for the welfare of our farmers." A recent United Nations survey reported raw opium production in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan more than doubled in 1999, reaching a record 4,600 metric tonnes. United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) representative Bernard Frahi had said in Islamabad that in Afghanistan the area under poppy cultivation has increased by 43 per cent. Frahi said, "ninety-seven per cent of cultivation in 1999 occurred in Taliban-controlled areas." In 1998 a total of 64,000 hectares of land was under poppy cultivation in war-torn Afghanistan, rising to 91,000 hectares in 1999. "Afghanistan’s share in 1999 accounts for 75 per cent of global output, an increase of almost 25 per cent with respect to 1998," the survey pointed out. The ruling Taliban levy a 10 per cent tax on all crops including opium which suggests the militia considers its production as legitimate, Frahi said. Farmers in Afghanistan, impoverished by factional fighting, prefer opium over staple crops, wheat and rice, for its market value. A kilo of dry opium fetched 60 dollars per kilogram in 1998, according to the UN survey. Opium is processed into fine quality heroin at secretly-run laboratories inside Afghanistan and the bordering hinterlands of neighbouring Pakistan. (DPA) |
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