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Atomic body detects Khan’s contacts in 20 nations UK, Saudi missions reopen in Islamabad Bagri backed hijacking for
Khalistan: witness Russia, India to retrofit naval ships
Indian dishes for Israeli army |
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Atomic body detects Khan’s contacts in 20 nations
Jerusalem, July 8 Hinting at a broader involvement, the top nuclear cop said “this work could not be the work of Khan alone. The IAEA only learned about some of his activities 18 months ago when Khan’s contacts with Libya came to light. The Americans and others had, however, been tracking Pakistani’s contacts for some time before that”. Asked why the IAEA did not reveal the names of those countries that helped Iran in their nuclear acquisition efforts, El Baradei told the Israeli daily Ha’artez that the IAEA would need those countries cooperation in future. In view of the changed scenario when terror is getting more sophisticated and other countries could get nuclear weapons, El Baradei said the ordinary deterrence that worked in the past might not be effective any more and Israel must think about a different regional security concept. On a two-day visit to Israel at the invitation of Israel Atomic Energy Commission, the IAEA head, has said that he understands Israel’s security concerns where there is a “very strong sense of existential threat” and therefore he suggests the creation of a “nuclear free zone” in the Middle East. Earlier, summarising the purpose of his visit ElBaradei said he would try to impress upon the Israeli establishment to sign NPT and also declared that it would pass any information related to the spread of nuclear know-how to other countries. Commenting on IAEA’s inspections in countries working to develop nuclear know how, he said that it was still underway in Libya, which was due to hand over more documentation to IAEA inspectors and to respond to questions and provide various clarifications. Asked if Muammar Gadhafi’s decision to change his policies was the result of the war in Iraq, ElBaradei said the negotiations with Libya began before the Iraq war and that apparently, it was the economic situation in Iraq caused by sanctions that was most influential. On Egypt’s complete ignorance regarding Libya’s nuclear programme, the IAEA chief unhesitantly said “this was apparently an Egyptian intelligence failure”. Regarding Israel’s main worry that Iran would soon acquire the nuclear bomb, ElBaradei refused to accept the analysis that Iran was inevitably going to get the bomb, so efforts to prevent it were a lost cause. Describing the situation in Iran as complex, ElBaradei said it was in dialogue with European countries, but others also needed to join. This month there would be another meeting between the Iranians and Europeans, he said, and ways to create a package deal with Tehran would be found that would grant it various guarantees, and thus pursuade it.
— PTI |
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UK, Saudi missions reopen in Islamabad
Islamabad, July 8 The British High Commission was closed for three days, whereas the Saudi consulate Karachi shut yesterday for a few hours. “We had received a credible threat which had forced us to close the consulate yesterday. Today it has reopened,” Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asseri said. “Pakistani authorities have provided maximum protection.” There is a track record of threats against the USA and British diplomatic missions here, but this is the first threat against a Saudi mission reported in Pakistan, where radical groups, some linked to Al-Qaida, are enraged by President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the US war on terror. “I will not exclude Al-Qaida as Saudi security has been very successful against them... they may be looking for some soft target,” he said. Meantime, the British High Commission also reopened today, a day after the US Embassy went back to work following a security scare which forced the cancellation of Independence Day celebrations on Monday. The British and the US Embassies are in Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave, where tight security was further enhanced following the threats. In June 2002, 12 Pakistanis were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi. In March this year, the police discovered a van packed with explosives outside the consulate two days before a visit to Pakistan by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. In March 2002, five people, including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat, were killed in a suspected suicide bombing of a church inside Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave.
— Reuters |
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Bagri backed hijacking for Khalistan: witness
Vancouver, July 8 Gian Singh Kotli, a professional translator and a defence witness, had alleged that the prosecution had distorted Bagri’s speech, which was delivered in Punjabi, by failing to understand its context within the Sikh history and literature and repeatedly rejected the suggestion that the accused had urged the Sikhs to take revenge against all the Hindus. However, he conceded in the court that Bagri’s speech was teeming with rage, filled with violent images and called for revenge against Mrs Gandhi and the Government of India. He acknowledged that Bagri called for revenge 11 times while addressing a Sikh gathering at New York’s Madison Garden. Kotli agreed with prosecutor Richard Cairns that the accused called for destruction of Delhi and said traitors to Khalistan should be harmed. When asked whether Bagri was trying to “inflame passions and arouse national pride”, Kotli replied with a straight, “Yes”. Kotli, who was cross-examined for four days, told the court that he was confused by the questions of the prosecution lawyer and appeared flustered when forced to acknowledge mistakes in his translation. Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik are accused of killing 331 persons by planting bombs in two Air-India flights.
— PTI |
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Russia, India to retrofit naval ships Moscow, July 8 Russia’s state-run “Rosoboronexport” (ROE) corporation is to tie up with the Mumbai-based Krasny Marine Services Pvt Ltd to float the joint venture, which will provide the whole complex of repairs and upgradation services not only to the Indian Navy, but also to other navies where such ships are in service, according to ROE Director General Sergei Chemezov. The services will also be provided to the Soviet and Russian-origin naval ships and submarines. Managed and manned by retired naval officers and technocrats, Krasny Marine Services is the first company to be registered under the Government of India SEMFEX scheme floated in 1995 for the self-employment of ex-servicemen to provide dedicated services to the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. Seven blue chip companies of shipbuilding industry are also to be part of Indo-Russian joint venture and “exclusive, dependable and customised” service centre in India. Chemezev disclosed that Russia had also offered to set up a joint venture in India for the assembly of deadly ‘Msta-S’ self-propelled howitzers adapted to NATO standards and producing their ammunition.
— PTI |
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Indian dishes for Israeli army
Jerusalem, July 8 A household name in Israel, Reena has been dubbed by the local media as “the most successful Indian in Israel”, “our beautiful lady of Indian food” and “India’s unofficial cultural envoy to Israel”. Ecstatic with her latest success, Reena said, “It is like a dream come true for me. A whole generation of Israelis will grow on my chicken tikka”. Widely credited with introducing Indian culture in Israel, Reena and her husband, Vinod Pushkarna, have been awarded by the Israel-India Chamber of Commerce in recognition of the “goodwill engendered” by their efforts. Reena, however, reminisces that the going was not so easy when she started the business some two decades ago. “Unlike in America and England where it is easier to launch such a business due to the substantial presence of the Indian community, in Israel I had to start from the scratch. There were some persons who would make strange faces at the mention of Indian food then,” she said. But now, Reena’s face dons the boxes of packaged frozen Indian food as her business empire breaches Israeli territories extending out to other markets in the West. The Pushkarnas have purchased a food manufacturing plant outside of Kibbutz Alon, on the Israel-Lebanon border. — PTI |
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Pak defends scouts’ visit to J&K Islamabad, July 8 |
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Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who allegedly sold nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, had commercial contacts with at least 20 different countries and large companies, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei said here.
