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| September 15, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 10, 1426 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
India, Pakistan agree to continue peace dialogue NEW DELHI, Sept 15 (Reuters) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf issued a joint statement after a late night meeting on Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. "The two leaders reiterated their pledge not to let terrorism impede the peace process," said the statement read out by Musharraf in Singh's presence. "They expressed their commitment to ensure a peaceful settlement of all pending issues including Jammu and Kashmir to the satisfaction of both sides." In the televised address to the media, he added, "they agreed that possible options for a peaceful, negotiated settlement in this regard should continue to be pursued in a sincere spirit and purposeful manner". Television reports in India and Pakistan said Musharraf invited Singh to visit Pakistan and the invitation had been accepted.In the joint statement, India and Pakistan also welcomed the recent release of prisoners on both sides and agreed to continue this process on a "humanitarian basis". (First Posted @ 10:50 PST Updated @ 12:40 PST)
Iran offers to share nuclear technology with Islamic world
TEHRAN, Sept 15 (AFP) - Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday his country was ready to share its nuclear technology with other Islamic nations, the official news agency IRNA reported. "The Islamic Republic in no way seeks weapons of mass destruction and with respect to the needs of Islamic nations for nuclear technology, we are ready to transfer nuclear knowledge to these countries," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. Ahmadinejad's offer was made on the sidelines of a United Nations summit in New York during bilateral talks with the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. "Iranian scientists have mastered the fuel cycle and we have clearly decided to peacefully use this technology within the framework of the NPT (non-proliferation treaty), international laws and in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Ahamdinejad said. (Posted @ 16:15 PST)
Bush pulls China, Vietnam from drug-producer list WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush has pulled China and Vietnam from a US list of countries that are major transit points for, or producers of, illegal drugs, the White House said Thursday. "The president removed China and Vietnam from the list of major drug-transit or major illicit drug-producing countries," spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement.(Posted @ 23:58 PST)
Pakistan and Turkey resolve to enhance volume of trade in pace with their close political relations NEW YORK, Sept 15 (APP)- Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan called on President Pervez Musharraf at the UN Headquarters Thursday, during which review of bilateral, regional and international relations took place.(Posted @ 23:58 PST)
President meets Annan, discusses various issues before world body UNITED NATIONS, Sept 15 (APP)- President General Pervez Musharraf held a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the UN Headquarters Thursday. During the meeting, they discussed in details various issues before the world body pertaining to development, conflict resolution, and agenda before the 2005 UN World Summit, which concludes Friday. President Pervez Musharraf briefed Kofi Annan about situation in South Asia in the context of peace process with India for the resolution of disputes between the two countries, including Kashmir.(Posted @ 23:55 PST)
Indian PM vows no compromise with terror in Kashmir UNITED NATIONS, Sept 15 (AFP) - India will never compromise with cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told world leaders Thursday, a day after peace talks with rival neighbour Pakistan. In a speech at the UN summit in New York, Singh said India had faced incursions by Pakistan-based militants in the divided Kashmir region for years. "We shall never succumb to or compromise with terror, in Kashmir or elsewhere," Singh said.(Posted @ 23:55 PST)
PM for amicable settlement of NFC Award Islamabad, Sept 15 (PPI) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met the Provincial Finance Ministers and members of the National Finance commission Award at the Prime Minister's House here Thursday. He discussed with them the broad guidelines for an amicable settlement of the Award. The Prime Minister said that the Federal Government desires that the resources be distributed in equitable manner so that the pace of development is accelerated and the provinces have adequate resources at their disposal to meet developing and recurring needs. This the Prime Minister said has to be backed up by good governance and better implementation of development projects.(Posted @ 22:35 PST)
India send Zimbabwe reeling closer to defeat BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Sept 15 (AFP) - Hapless Zimbabwe were facing another embarrassing defeat after they slumped to 67-6 in their second innings of the first Test against India here on Thursday, still 208 runs short of making the visitors bat again. At stumps, at the Queen's Sports Club, they had just four wickets left after India, inspired by VVS Laxman and skipper Sourav Ganguly had piled up 554 in their first innings.(Updated @ 22:25 PST)
Indian fireworks inferno kills at least 32, injures 20 PATNA, India, Sept 15 (AFP) - At least 32 people including several children were killed Thursday when a blaze turned a firecracker factory in a village into an inferno, an official said.Thirty-two bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the factory in Khusropur village, 35 kilometers east of Patna, District Magistrate B. Rajendra said adding that "we expect to recover more bodies when we clear the debris," More than a hundred workers were busy making fireworks when the explosion occurred. A huge quantity of explosive materials, gas cylinders and powerful firecrackers was in the factory at the time and was reduced to ashes.(Posted @ 18:48 PST)
Indian troops martyr four more Kashmiri youth ISLAMABAD, Sep 14 (APP): In Occupied Kashmir, Indian troops, in their fresh acts of state terrorism, martyred four more Kashmiri youth, three of them in Shahpore area of Poonch and one in custody at Manchwa in Budgam. The custodial killing triggered protest demonstrations in the area, PTV reported. The high court bar association also held a protest demonstration at Lal Chowk in Srinagar against illegal arrest of liberation leaders and activists. The bar members marched to the U.N. military obsrvers'office and delivered a memorandum demanding immediate release of Dukhtaran-E-Millat chief Aasia Andrabi, Kashmiri youth Muhammad Afzal guru, and Sheikh Abdul Aziz who is detained in Tilhar Jail and is suffering from deteriorating health on account of subhuman treatment.(Posted @ 18:28 PST)
Eight killed in tribal violence in India's Assam GUWAHATI, India, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Heavily armed Kuki tribesmen stormed a village in Assam state , dragged members of the rival Karbi tribe out of their homes and shot eight of them dead, police said Thursday.The attackers also set fire to several huts. Assam is home to more than 200 tribes and ethnic groups and has been racked by tribal and separatist unrest for decades.(Posted @ 17:58 PST)
UK to deport 7 Algerians held as security threat LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - British authorities will deport seven Algerian men detained in dawn raids on Thursday because they are a threat to national security, officials said. A Home Office source said the seven had been accused of being involved in a 2002 plot to manufacture the deadly poison ricin.(Posted @ 17:40 PST)
Sri Lanka president vows to share power with Tamils to end bloodshed NEW YORK, Sept 15 (AFP) - Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga has pledged to turn her embattled republic into a federal state and share power with minority Tamils in a bid to end decades of ethnic bloodshed, despite a rebellion in her own party.The outgoing Sri Lankan president told the Asia Society in New York late Wednesday that her nation must change its unitary character and work towards helping Tamil Tiger rebels to join the political mainstream. "We need to transform the state so it is more inclusive -- equally reflecting the concerns of all communities. "My view and the view of overwhelming sections of Sri Lankan society is that this will involve transforming the state from a unitary one to one that is plural and federal in nature," she said.(Posted @ 17:34 PST)
Akram says England should apologise over 1992 reverse swing jibes KARACHI, Sept 15 (AFP) - Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram says England should apologise for accusing his team of cheating in 1992 when they used the reverse swing -- the same action which helped England win the Ashes. "England owe us an apology in a big way," Akram told AFP. "When we did the reverse swing against England in 1992, they were great moaners and groaners of the world, they termed it as cheating. And now when they achieved an Ashes win through reverse swing, it's an art." Akram, who has taken 414 Test and a world record of 502 one-day wickets in his career, said Pakistani bowlers should be given credit for inventing the reverse swing. "This art has spread only because of Pakistani bowlers," he said. "Imran Khan taught me how to reverse swing the ball, I told Younis and we mastered it," he said. He said Andrew Flintoff learnt a lot from him while they both played for Lancashire in the late 1990s. "He learnt how to hide the shine and he did that during the Ashes," he said.(Posted @ 17:28 PST)
Hollywood star director Robert Wise dead at 91 SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain, Sept 15 (AFP) - Robert Wise, director of top Hollywood musicals "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music", died overnight at his Los Angeles home, days after his 91st birthday, an official of the San Sebastian film festival said Thursday.The death of Wise cast a pall over the festival, which was scheduled to pay a special homage to the director who also made "Star Trek, the Motion Picture" and collaborated closely with Orson Welles.(Posted @ 17:22 PST)
23 killed as suicide bombers strike Baghdad anew BAGHDAD, Sept 15 (AFP) - Suicide bombers struck Baghdad for the second day Thursday, killing at least 23 people after a devastating string of similar attacks on Wednesday that left some 150 dead and several hundred wounded. At least 23 Iraqis were killed and several dozen people wounded, including two US soldiers, in four suicide car bombings Thursday, three of them in the predominantly Shiite southern district of Dura. Another nine people were killed in other attacks across the country including four policemen, and three Shiite pilgrims who were gunned down as they were walking from Baghdad to the holy city of Karbala. A Shiite imam was killed and three people wounded when a bomb blew up near the gate to the Rowdha Al-Wadi mosque in the main northern city of Mosul, police said. One civilian was killed and 16 wounded in south Baghdad when a bomb blasted a bus taking trade ministry employees to work. Three unidentified bullet-riddled bodies were also discovered in the north of the capital and the bodies of four men, kidnapped Wednesday on a highway near Latifiyah south of Baghdad were found near Al-Arkanderiyah further south.(Posted @ 17:10 PST)
Afghanistan to deploy 100,000 troops and police for key election KABUL, Sept 15 (AFP) - Afghanistan will deploy about 100,000 troops and police for this weekend's landmark elections, the interior minister said Thursday. They will be joined by around 30,000 troops from NATO and the US-led coalition. "Afghan forces responsible for the safety and security of the election are around 100,000," Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali told reporters.They included about 55,000 soldiers and 28,000 policemen as well as national intelligence and local militia forces. NATO and US-led forces will also provide aerial support in case of emergency and Afghan police quick reaction forces will be on standby. Sunday's parliamentary elections are the first in the war-ravaged country since 1969. They follow a presidential election in October last year won by Hamid Karzai.(Posted @ 16:50 PST)
Fire fighters battle major blaze at crude oil well in northeast India GUWAHATI, India, Sept 15 (AFP) - Hundreds of fire fighters Thursday battled to control a towering blaze which started Wednesday at a damaged oil well in northeast India sparked by natural gas escaping from the well head, officials said. "This could be the worst ever fire (in the state) with the blaze rising at least 35 to 40 feet," a spokesman said adding that the company had called in a team of Russian oil experts to control the blaze and plug the flow of oil. Assam has been in the grip of a separatist insurgency that has left more than 10,000 people dead since 1979 and rebels have attacked oil installations in the past.(Posted @ 16:40 PST)
Pakistan busts tribal region's biggest Al-Qaeda base MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Sept 15 (AFP) - Pakistan has busted the biggest Al-Qaeda base in its North Waziristan tribal zone and recovered huge caches of weapons, the military said Thursday.The militant den was in a madrassa (seminary) and a nearby compound owned by the son of a former minister of the hardline Taliban regime , Lt Gen Safdar Hussain said in Peshawar. He said the owner, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whom he described as a senior Al-Qaeda insurgent, had escaped after a tip off. "We have recovered 15 truckloads of ammunition and weapons from there and arms and ammunition are still being recovered," he said. General Safdar Hussain said the border between the countries had been sealed and 763 guard posts had been established on the Pakistani side. An overnight curfew had also been imposed and troops given orders to shoot on sight anyone found within five kilometres (three miles) of the border, he said.However Afghanistan had only set up 120 posts on the border, he said adding that "they need to do more to stop infiltration.(Posted @ 16:35 PST)
Three suspected Taliban killed in more pre-election Afghan violence KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept 15 (AFP) Three suspected Taliban militants were killed when dozens of the fighters raided a police post, a provincial governor said Thursday. (Posted @ 14:55 PST)
Israeli court rules West Bank barrier legal JERUSALEM, Sept 15 (Reuters) Israel's top court ruled on Thursday that the Jewish state had a right to build a barrier on occupied West Bank land only where the army had established security reasons for its construction, effectively rejecting a World Court ruling last year that the project was entirely illegal. Also the Supereme Court ordered the government on Thursday to reconsider the route of a part of its West Bank barrier “within a reasonable period” to minimise hardships to Palestinians living in the area. The order was made in response to a petition filed on behalf of the residents of five villages who said a planned section of the barrier, near the settlement of Alfei Menashe in the northern West Bank, would isolate them.(Posted @ 14:50 PST)
Rebels in Indonesia's Aceh start handing in weapons BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Sept 15 (Reuters) Former rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Indonesia's Aceh province began handing in their weapons to foreign monitors on Thursday under a landmark peace agreement that ended one of Asia's longest running conflicts.(Posted @ 1:00 PST)
North Korean nuclear arms talks deadlocked BEIJING, Sept 15 (Reuters) Negotiators from six countries tried again on Thursday to break a deadlock in talks designed to end North Korea's nuclear arms programme, but there was no sign of an early end to a nearly three-year-old crisis. Officials from the United States and North Korea, met for about 90 minutes, but no progress was reported. (Posted @ 1:00 PST)
Putin meets Musharraf UNITED NATIONS, Sept 14 (APP) President General Pervez Musharraf held a meeting with President Russian Federation Vladimir Putin Wednesday at the United Nations Headquarters. Matters of bilateral interest came up under discussion. Earlier, Gambian President Yahya AJJ Jammeh met President Musharraf.(Posted @ 10:45 PST)
Nepal rebels free 60 soldiers held after raid KATHMANDU, Sept 15 (Reuters) Nepal's Maoist rebels have freed 60 soldiers captured after a raid on an army base in August in the west of the embattled Himalayan kingdom, an official from a leading Nepali human rights group, INSEC, said without giving details.(Posted @ 10:35 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 23.42 points: KARACHI, September 15: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 7979.92 , up 23.42 points from Wednesday’s close. (Bureau Report) (Posted @ 14:40 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, September 15: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.06 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:40 PST)
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