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| India-UK relations at its peak -Lord Paul LONDON, Dec 28: Notwithstanding trade union protests over outsourcing of jobs to India, Indo-UK relations during 2003.....more Indo-US
ties reach WASHINGTON, Dec 28: Indo-US relations reached a new high in 2003 with Washington acknowledging that India is a.....more Las Vegas
officials LAS VEGAS, Dec 28: Las Vegas authorities said there was no specific terrorist threat against the city following a report that.....more Syrian
President expresses DAMASCUS, Dec 28: Syrian President Bashar Assad called his Iranian counterpart to express condolences to victims of a....more |
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Bush calls Bulgarian, Thai leaders on Iraq deaths CRAWFORD, TEXAS, Dec 28: President George W Bush telephoned the leaders of Bulgaria and Thailand to offer....more Israel
launches second JERUSALEM, Dec 28: Israel has launched its second commercial satellite from the Baikonur space station in Khazakstan......more New
Zealand scientist WELLINGTON, Dec 28: Scientists in New Zealand - one of the world’s most earthquake prone countries - have reassured......more ‘Voice
of tigers’ COLOMBO, Dec 28: The Tamil Tiger Rebels have decided to expand their broadcasting services ‘Voice of Tigers’ (VoT)....more |
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India-UK relations at its peak -Lord Paul LONDON, Dec 28: Notwithstanding trade union protests over outsourcing of jobs to India, Indo-UK relations during 2003 have been at the "peak", Lord Swraj Paul, NRI Industrialist and Ambassador for Overseas British Business said today. "India-British relations at this point of time are at the peak and more could be done. More effort can produce better result for the benefit of both countries," Lord Paul said on the eve of his fortnight-long visit to Sri Lanka and India commencing on Tuesday. He said the India-UK round table, co-chaired by him and India’s Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission K C Pant, had contributed a great deal for bringing about a change in the atmosphere. "Trade is increasing. More and more Indian companies are coming into Britain and they are well respected and well received. This is an opportunity for India to be able to use entrepreneurial and technological success in Britain as a window to the whole world," Lord Paul, Chancellor of the Wolverhamton University, said. "British companies themselves are thinking India as a natural source of supply for them because Indian suppliers know British market and their expectations. "There is a great deal of effort being made in combining research and development between the two countries and the Indo-British agreement on science and technology signed during Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visit to India is going from strength to strength." British Minister for Industry and the regions, Jacqui Smith told the House of Commons recently that protectionism is not the right repsonse to off-shoring by companies. Lord Paul, accompanied by Lady Aruna Paul, would leave for Chennai on Tuesday. He will speak at a luncheon hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) at hotel park Sheraton on Friday. Lord Paul will be in Sri Lanka for six days from January 3 mainly as the Ambassador for Overseas British Business. He is scheduled to meet a number of ministers including Prof G L Peiris, Minister of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion, Jayalath Jayawardane, Minister of Rehabilitation and re-Construction, Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Lord Paul will return to Chennai on January 8 and proceed to Kolkata to co-chair the seventh meeting of the India-UK round table commencing the next day. At the three-day round table, the main subject of discussion would be post-Cancun multilateral trading system: The way forward and the fight against terrorism. UK’s delegation will include Michael Arthur, UK High Commissioner to India, Sir David Goodall and Sir Rob Young, both former High Commissioners to India, Prof Judith Brown, Professor of Commonwealth Studies, Oxford University, Patrick French, author, Carey Oppenheim, senior Adviser to the British Prime Minister, Sir Mark Tully, freelance writer and journalist, and David Robert, managing director, British Gas (eastern hemisphere). (PTI) |
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Indo-US ties reach new high in 2003 WASHINGTON, Dec 28: Indo-US relations reached a new high in 2003 with Washington acknowledging that India is a rising power both regionally and globally while reciprocating Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s sentiment that the two countries are "natural allies." The US realised that India has come a long way from the early years when it depended on it for meeting a chronic food shortage, needed American economic aid on a large scale and was unable to export manufactures that could compete globally. All that has changed but the complaint now is that India is taking away American jobs through outsourcing in information technology. Strategically, great weight is attached to India as a factor of stability in Asia. However, though the US is prepared at times to recognise India’s fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorists as part of the global war against terrorism, washington decided it needed both New Delhi and Islamabad for its foreign policy in south Asia. The US does not also want to choose between them even if President Pervez Musharraf does not carry out his promise to end cross-border terrorism against India. Washington has concluded that the way to defuse Indo-Pak tensions even if their mutual problems remain intractable, is through continued dialogue. Throughout the year, Indian leaders continued to complain that US is adopting "double standards" on terrorism, condemning it when the perpetrators or those who harbour the terrorists were in the middle east but not when the culprit is Pakistan. Indo-Pakistan problems continue to bedevil India’s relations with the United States. Though the US states publicly that its policies towards India and Pakistan are framed independently and not in terms of a ‘zero sum game’, in practice it looks back to see the impact on Pakistan when it does anything for India. Normally, the sharp differences on trade issues between India and Pakistan that gave a serious setback to the Doha round for freer trade, would have led to acrimony between New Delhi and Washington. This time, both took their differences in stride without wrecking the overall relationship. In keeping with the progress in bilateral relations, the restrictions on export of dual use items to India have slowly begun to fall. At year end, senior officials on both sides were discussing high-tech export issues and, hopefully, more restrictions would be removed in the new year. On the nuclear issue, US policy makers still swear by the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, a discriminatory treaty which gives a licence to the five permanent members of the security council - US, Britain, France, China and Russia - to continue to possess nuclear weapons while keeping out India and others. However, the broad positive relationship between India and the US is evident in the way the two countries are together in an effort to promote democracy worldwide, in increasing joint military exercises and the cooperation between the two navies. The common strategic interests of India and the US was brought out dramatically in 2003 in their cooperation to defeat Maoists in Nepal and their peace efforts in Sri Lanka. The US also accepts India’s historic links with Afghanistan and central Asia though the Pakistanis are unhappy about it, having helped set up the Taliban regime which was supposed to give Islamabad "strategic depth." Meanwhile, an important link between the world’s largest and most powerful democracies is being forged by the highly talented Indian community in US, whose numbers have reached nearly two million. The Indian community in the US has the largest percentage of millionaires and professionals including doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs, particularly in the Silicon Valley. There is every indication that the second generation of Indian Americans is equally hard-working and talented. (PTI) |
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Las Vegas officials reject claim that city was terror target LAS VEGAS, Dec 28: Las Vegas authorities said there was no specific terrorist threat against the city following a report that Air France flights from Paris to Los Angeles grounded this week may have been part of a hijacking plot intended to crash the planes in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Unidentified US officials were quoted by the Washington Post Friday as saying they might have stopped a terrorist strike similar to the September 11, 2001, attacks when the Air France flights were cancelled Wednesday and Thursday. The unnamed officials said they believed the Al-Qaeda terrorist network planned to target the desert gambling Centre or another city along the flight path. "There is no specific information to corroborate the information in the Washington Post story," special agent Todd Palmer, spokesman for the Las Vegas office of the FBI, is quoted by the Las Vegas sun as saying. "There are no specific threats against Las Vegas." Nevada Homeland Security Director Jerry Bussell said the report was based on "false assumptions". He added that if there had been a threat and it was not released to the public, "it would be the highest level of incompetence". The newspaper said at its website Saturday that the Los Angeles times reported Thursday that Los Angeles was the target of the Air France flights. (DPA) |
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Syrian President expresses
sympathy for DAMASCUS, Dec 28: Syrian President Bashar Assad called his Iranian counterpart to express condolences to victims of a devastating earthquake that struck southeastern Iran Friday and his hope that aid swiftly reach the injured, Syria’s official news agency said. Assad said Syria intended to stand alongside the Iranian people as they work to get past the terrible disaster. The 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck the city of Bam early Friday. Estimates of the number of dead and injured vary. Iranian Interior Minister abdolvahed Mussavi said Saturday the number could exceed 20,000. Tens of thousands of people were injured. Syrian aid of about 40 tons left Damascus airport on Saturday en route to Iran, Sana said. Syrian Health Minister Iyad Shatti is quoted by Sana as saying the aid includes 40 boxes of medical equipment and 5 tons of children’s food, along with drinking water and other medicines. Shatti added that a medical team also left for Iran to help treat injured people. (DPA) |
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Bush calls Bulgarian, Thai leaders on Iraq deaths CRAWFORD, TEXAS, Dec 28: President George W Bush telephoned the leaders of Bulgaria and Thailand to offer condolences over soldiers killed in attacks in southern Iraq, a White House Spokesman said. Bush, who is spending the post-Christmas and new year’s day holidays at his ranch here, called the Prime Ministers of the two countries yesterday after four Bulgarian troops and two Thai soldiers were killed in Kerbala, Spokesman Jimmy Orr said. The commander of the multinational force in the region, Gen. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, said the attackers used four suicide car bombs, mortars and machine guns against two bases and the town council building. Hospital officials in Kerbala said at least seven Iraqi civilians and police were also killed. The attacks wounded 37 soldiers including five Americans, and at least 80 Iraqis, US military authorities and local hospitals said. (AGENCIES) |
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Israel launches second commercial satellite JERUSALEM, Dec 28: Israel has launched its second commercial satellite from the Baikonur space station in Khazakstan. Israel’s Amos-2 telecommunications satellite lifted off just before midnight yesterday atop Russian Soyuz launch vehicle. The satellite has been produced by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) at a cost of 150 million dollars and is owned by Israeli company spacecom, a joint venture between IAI and three partners. Amos-2 is capable of television and radio broadcasting to Europe and west Asia. According to spacecom CEO David Pollack, 70 per cent of the satellite’s capacity has already been sold to Israeli and European cable television companies. The company also hopes to tap opportunities in Iraq and its neighbourhood by selling its capacity to the American Government, US commercial firms and the United Nations in view of their presence in Iraq. Only seven other nations in the world have the capability of developing and producing communication satellites. The Amos-2 is to serve as supplement to its sister satellite, Amos-1, launched in 1996. Israel has also built and launched the Ofek-5 spy satellite. Four other Israeli satellites launched have been decommissioned. The satellite is to have final separation from the four-stage rocket about seven hours after liftoff. It will be in an elliptical orbit and over the next 10 days technicians will use booster engines to bring it out to a 36,000 Km circular orbit, which will maintain it in a stationary position enabling it to focus on the west Asia, central Europe, and, unlike the Amos-1, the east coast of the United States. The Amos-2 is expected to be in service until at least 2014, IAI officials said. Spacecom is now embarking on production of the Amos-3. (UNI) |
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New Zealand scientist calms earthquake fears WELLINGTON, Dec 28: Scientists in New Zealand - one of the world’s most earthquake prone countries - have reassured people worried about a major shake following major tremors in Iran, California, central America and China recently. Mark Chadwick, of the institute of geological and nuclear sciences, told radio New Zealand today that earthquakes measuring between 6 and 6.9 on the richter scale like those recently in the news occurred on average 134 times a year, or once every two or three days. He said the recent earthquakes had been particularly damaging causing loss of life because they were shallow and near large populations where the construction of dwellings may not be very strong. (DPA) |
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‘Voice of tigers’ radio service to be expanded to east COLOMBO, Dec 28: The Tamil Tiger Rebels have decided to expand their broadcasting services ‘Voice of Tigers’ (VoT) to the eastern province and resume their television services ‘Nidharshanam’, which were suspended some 13 years ago after Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) bombed the station in Jaffna. VoT head Tamilanpan alias Javaan has said that the broadcasting services of the vot would be expanded from the main radio station in Kilinochchi by setting up two more ‘relay stations’ in the uncleared areas of Batticaloa, reports in the local media said. The then clandestine vot was formalized early this year when the LTTE obtained the licence from the United National Front (UNF) Government to expand and upgrade its radio station in Kilinochchi with the import of a set of sophisticated radio transmitting equipment. Issuing the license to the LTTE to operate and maintain a private FM radio transmission, the Government said that it should be viewed in the context of the positive developments towards a permanent peace in the country as it represent an important step in the transformation of the LTTE into a political grouping within the ‘mainstream’ of the Sri Lankan political system. Since then the LTTE’s radio service has been covering Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mullaitivu areas. The Colombo-based weekly ‘The Sunday Times,’ quoting a spokesman for Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) said that such expansion would need approval not only from the TRC but also from Defence and Mass Communication Ministries. The two ministries and the TRC are now under the purview of the President after she took over three ministries on November 4. (UNI) |
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Expect good news on Iran hostages says official TEHRAN, Dec 28: An Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman said today he hoped to give good news within hours about three kidnapped European cyclists, the official Irna news agency reported. "I hope to be able to give you good news within hours," Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying. (AGENCIES) Thai PM says no plans to pull troops out of Iraq BANGKOK, Dec 28: Thailand has no plans to withdraw its medical and engineering troops from Iraq after two Thai soldiers were killed in suicide bomb attacks the previous day, the Prime Minister said today. Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters Thailand’s 433 troops in Iraq would continue their humanitarian work while the military assessed the security situation. "As of today, there is no change in our presence there as the morale of our troops remains high. Our second contingent is due to be there to replace the first batch that will complete its assignment in March," Thaksin said. The two Thais were among six coalition soldiers and at least seven Iraqis killed during guerrilla attacks in the southern Iraqi town of Kerbala on Saturday. The attacks in a town holy to Shi’ite Muslims also wounded 37 soldiers including five Americans, and at least 80 Iraqis, US military officials and local hospitals said. Thaksin said President George W Bush telephoned him to offer his condolences. (AGENCIES) Hong Kong police launch massive hunt for arsonist HONG KONG, Dec 28: Police continued their search today for an arsonist who firebombed a factory in an industrial area in Cheung Sha Wan, injuring 11 men, police said. Nine of the victims were in critical condition in Princess Margaret hospital, doctors said. A police spokesman said the arsonist entered a leather factory on the seventh floor of an industrial building in Lai Chi Kok on Saturday night and poured inflammable liquid on the floor. He then set it ablaze, causing an explosion and fire. The victims, aged 46 to 71, were having dinner and playing Mahjong at the time. The motive for the attack is being investigated. (DPA) Poland-us set January for Iraq reconstruction talks WARSAW, Dec 27: Poland’s involvement in Iraq’s reconstruction will feature in top-level polish-US talks in Washington next month, polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has said. "Issues relating to polish investment projects in Iraq will be among the matters raised during my political consultations with President George W Bush," Kwasniewski said in an interview broadcast by polish public television TVP1. There were two conditions for investment projects: Security in Iraq and well-prepared polish projects. He was speaking hours after the biggest guerrilla attack on polish-led multi-national forces, in which six coalition soldiers and seven Iraqis were killed. Earlier yesterday, Poland’s national economic chamber said some 1,600 polish firms were hoping to take part in Iraq’s post-war reconstruction. They include Poland’s petroleum giant Pkn Orlen, the opto fibre-optic firm and Bumar, which has offered the future Iraqi Army 500 million worth of military hardware. (AGENCIES) |
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