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EU in crisis as summit on Constitution collapses He ruled with iron fist before ouster India offers ‘greater military assistance’ to Sri Lanka
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Bugging row turns sour; UK too accuses Pak of eavesdropping In a curious twist to Pak-UK bugging row, London has turned the table on Islamabad by alleging that an attempt was made to bug its High Commission here prior to a botched bid by a British intelligence agency to eavesdrop on the Pakistani mission in London. MMA’s no to Pervez as President The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a six- party alliance, yesterday categorically rejected any suggestion of support for Gen Pervez Musharraf to continue as Pakistan’s president.
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EU in crisis as summit on Constitution collapses
Brussels, December 14 A two-day summit in Brussels failed yesterday to resolve bitter disputes over how the EU should run its affairs after it expands to 25 countries in May, 2004. Intensive attempts by the EU’s Italian Presidency to broker a deal foundered on fierce demands by Poland and Spain to retain the generous voting rights they secured in the nice treaty three years ago. France and Germany, on the other side of the divide, also refused to budge on their demands for a Constitution that will allow an enlarged EU of 450 million people to work effectively. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi threw in the towel after failing to get a consensus on compromise proposals designed to unblock the voting rights row, describing the disagreement as “total”. But the maverick billionaire leader angrily rebuffed criticism that his high-stake negotiating style may have contributed to the debacle. “I think you really don’t know anything about the job of how to lead men,” Berlusconi retorted to a female Irish journalist who questioned his mediating tactics and penchant for off-colour jokes. At stake was a landmark treaty designed to get the EU’s institutions in shape for its most ambitious enlargement yet deep into eastern Europe on May 1. Delegations said the “big bang” enlargement itself was not at risk, but that failure to evolve new methods of decision-making would lead to paralysis in an EU of 25 and beyond. Following the collapse of the summit, talk revived of the EU’s six founding members — Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — going their own way in a “two-speed” EU. The mess now passes to Ireland, which replaces Italy in the EU hot seat next month. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said he would wait until March before reconvening the inter-governmental conference (IGC) on the Constitution. “I don’t think before March there will be any agreement. There’s not enough political will to find an agreement,” he said. EU leaders put a brave face on the setback. “To look at this in sort of apocalyptic terms is, I think, rather misguided,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. The Polish and Spanish leaders said they were still confident of reaching a deal on the Constitution. Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said he was hopeful for agreement “in the coming weeks and months”.
— AFP |
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He ruled with iron fist before ouster Baghdad, December 14 U.S. forces found Saddam, dirty and sporting a greying beard and hiding in a cellar on Saturday near his hometown of Tikrit. Until then he had been as elusive as Al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The United States launched the Iraq war with a March 20 air raid intended to kill Saddam, 66, and decapitate the Baathist state he had forged in blood, iron and oil money. But he escaped and disappeared from public view after U.S. forces stormed into Baghdad on April 9. From hiding, he kept up a flow of defiant taped messages, aired by Arab media, urging Iraqis to fight U.S.-led occupation forces. One passionate Saddam message surfaced after his sons Uday and Qusay were killed by U.S. forces on July 22. The United States justified its war by saying Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and had defied U.N. Security Council resolutions ordering him to disarm after his defeat in the 1991 Gulf war. Washington said he sponsored global terrorism. Troops occupying Iraq have yet to prove those charges, but many of the brutalities of his rule have been exposed, such as mass graves holding thousands of his murdered foes, especially rebellious Kurds and Shi’ite Muslims. After using his skills as a street fighter and conspirator to get his Baath party into power in a 1968 coup, Saddam built a terrifying grip on Iraq despite wars, uprisings, coup plots and assassination attempts. In pursuit of regional dominance, he launched two disastrous invasions. In 1980, he attacked Iran, setting off an eight-year war that took a vast human and financial toll. A decade later his troops occupied Kuwait, only to be expelled after seven months by a U.S.-led coalition in 1991. He was eventually demonised by Washington, even though the United States, along with the former Soviet Union and several European nations, had armed and supported Saddam in the 1980s as a bulwark against the Islamic revolution in Iran.
— Reuters |
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India offers ‘greater military assistance’ to Sri Lanka
Colombo, December 14 Gen Balagalle said the military assistance would include supply of transport helicopters to enhance armed forces airlift capability, rehabilitation of the airstrip at the strategically vital Palaly military base in Jaffna as well as various kinds of military training programmes, The Sunday Observer reported here today. During his four-day visit to India, Gen Balagalle held lengthy discussions with Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes as well as the heads of the three armed services. He also visited Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) on the Jammu and Kashmir borders. Mr Fernandes had said India was “ready to extend all necessary support for Sri Lanka’s urgent defence needs”. India has offered to provide transport planes as well, Gen Balagalle was quoted as saying. He, however, declined to give details of intelligence cooperation and other related subjects. Describing his visit to India as “successful”, Gen Balagalle observed that it had laid the foundation for improved Indo-Lanka defence ties.
— UNI |
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Dubai, December 14 Through good and cordial relations, three regional powers Iran, Pakistan and India could establish a joint regional market, Mr Rafsanjani said. He termed as “of prime importance” the good relations among the regional states, adding that this would tremendously contribute to the prosperity of the regional countries. Mr Sinha expressed pleasure over the developing relations between Tehran and New Delhi and said the economic relations between the two states need to reach an ideal level. Referring to the situation in the region, he said fortunately the tension between India and Pakistan had diminished, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported. Mr Rafsanjani said Tehran and New Delhi should not lose any opportunity to expand the bilateral ties as they have always had good historical, political, economic and cultural links. He also said both Iran and India have huge potentials that could be developed and used in the areas of transportation, private and public sectors, ports and industries. Earlier in the day, Mr Sinha met Iran’s judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and discussed the need for fighting terrorism.
— PTI |
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Bugging row turns sour; UK too accuses Pak of eavesdropping
Islamabad, December 14 As Pakistan pressed the UK hard to come clean on the botched attempt by its internal intelligence agency MI-5, a newspaper today reported that before the exposure of the alleged attempt of MI-5 the UK mission here found evidence that the office of its High Commissioner was bugged. About six months ago the British High Commissioner in Islamabad found a device hanging from the side of his desk. Not quite sure what it was, he sent it to his security staff who declared it to be a “bug”, Daily Times newspaper reported, quoting a “high-grade” western diplomatic source. The finger of suspicion pointed to the host government and after satisfying itself that this indeed was an attempt to bug the High Commissioner’s personal office, the British mission quietly lodged a formal protest with the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it said. To this day, the Pakistan Government has not come up with any response to the British protest. The Pakistan Government neither denied nor admitted the allegation, the report said. The British Government decided not to go public with the discovery as it did not wish to jeopardise its otherwise good relations with Pakistan, it said. But Britain reportedly decided to leak it now as Pakistan pressed it hard in public after reports published in the British media quoting confession of a part-time MI-5 operative about his attempts to plant bugs in the Pakistan High Commission. After the revelation hit the media, Pakistan lodged a protest while its top leadership, including president Pervez Musharraf, asked the British Government to end its silence and confirm or deny whether the operation took place.
— PTI |
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MMA’s no to Pervez as President
Karachi, December 14 Emphatically stating that the alliance would vote for the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) Bill if brought in Parliament, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Secretary-General of the MMA, was quoted by The News as saying there was a Categorical “no” to the vote of confidence to President Musharraf. He was talking to newsmen on his arrival at Hyderabad to condole the death of Islamic scholar Allama Ghulam Mustafa Qasmi. Urging the government to “bring the bill before it is too late,” Fazl said: “The MMA will vote for the Bill to solve the issue of a two-thirds majority required for it. But on our part there is a categorical ‘no’ to a vote of confidence for Musharraf.” Deploring the language used by Musharraf in his Thursday statement, he said such statements would only complicate matters for him (Musharraf). “We had held protests against the military government in the past; we will continue to protest as it was our democratic right, which no one can deprive us from,” he said.
— ANI |
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Baghdad, December 14
