Musharraf: quake aid helps terror fight
Pakistan’s efforts to fight terrorism will be helped by the emergency aid operation mounted by the U.S. and relief agencies for survivors of last month’s earthquake in the Kashmir region, President Pervez Musharraf said.
“It will lend more credibility and strength to our decision that we took of backing the United States and being with the United States” in the fight against terrorism, Musharraf said in an interview with NBC’s ‘Today’ program.
``The people would understand that joining the coalition, fighting against terrorism joining, supporting the United States against terrorism, were all correct decisions,’’ Musharraf said.
The U.S. has 24 military helicopters and more than 1,100 service personnel in Pakistan helping with an airlift of supplies to the mountainous region in northern Pakistan where more than 73,000 people were killed by the Oct. 8 quake.
The Pakistani army has been fighting insurgents linked to the al-Qaeda network and Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime in the northwestern tribal region since October 2003. Pakistan has arrested more than 600 suspected terrorists since it joined the U.S.-led war on terror after 9/11.
International aid agencies are trying to supply an estimated 3.3 million people left homeless before winter sets in the mountains. At least 100,000 people in remote regions have yet to receive aid and snow is already falling.
The U.S. government so far has contributed about $156 million in aid for relief and recovery efforts.(Bloomberg).
Asia battles bird flu
Vietnam slaughtered thousands of birds in its two largest cities on Tuesday, while other Asian nations boosted efforts to halt the spread of deadly avian flu.
China vowed to vaccinate its entire stock of 14 billion poultry against bird flu, with the government promising to help pay for the process.
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia and has killed more than 60 people in the region. Forty-two people have died in Vietnam.
The virus remains hard for people to catch, but experts fear it could mutate into a form which can be passed from person to person and trigger a pandemic in which millions could die.
Britain said it believed an outbreak of H5N1 in a quarantine center last month was introduced by birds imported from Taiwan.
Indonesia and Vietnam should be given more resources to help stamp out the spread of the virus, Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health, said, urging vaccination of poultry.
“Early detection is the first line of defense in defeating the virus but Indonesia and Vietnam, … were late in responding,” Vallat told Reuters. “They cannot manage this virus by just killing animals at this stage. It is too late. The solution is using vaccination.”
Migratory birds have carried the virus to eastern Europe and Kuwait and experts fear it will soon spread to Africa.(Reuters)
Iraq detainees ‘found starving’
Iraq’s government says it has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 detainees held by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.
The prisoners, many malnourished and some showing signs of torture, were found when US troops took control of an interior ministry building on Sunday.
The US raid followed repeated enquiries by the parents of a missing teenager.
Iraq’s prime minister has promised to find those responsible for any abuse. Most of those held were Sunnis.
The BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says the discovery will not come as a surprise to many Iraqis.
There have been persistent allegations of abuse by members of the Shia-dominated security forces, she says.
The head of Iraq’s largest Sunni political party said attempts to raise claims of torture in government detention centres had been rebuffed.
But Sunday’s discovery is hard evidence and officials believe it may be the tip of the iceberg.
Deputy interior minister Hussein Kamal, who saw some of the abuse victims personally, said: “I’ve never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad, this is the worst.
“I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies.”(BBC)
India seeks ‘real cuts’ in farm subsidies
India on Wednesday demanded “real cuts” in farm subsidies by the US for creating a level-playing field in multilateral trade, but Washington put the ball in the European Union’s court saying the successful outcome of the Hong Kong WTO ministerial next month depended to a large extent on whether EU comes up with an improved offer.
“What the US had proposed last month are not real cuts, it would still allow them to raise trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers. The real cuts would be when there is decline in the support provided by the US Treasury,” Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said at the Indo-US Economic Summit in New Delhi.
He said the contentious issues in agricultural trade in WTO also included differences in perception of what India and US consider as trade-distorting support and what is allowed under the Green Box, which is not distorting trade.
However, the US maintained that its proposal presented to the WTO on October 10 offered “real cuts” in subsidies and talks are stuck because of the “disappointing” offer from EU.
J B Penn, under secretary, US department of agriculture, said the level of ambition in the EU proposal falls much short of Doha mandate and its market access cuts did not fall between the US and the G-20 proposals.(Rediff)
Iran-India-Pakistan pipeline unaffected
International political developments are unlikely to hit the $7.2 billion Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline project, a senior Iranian gas industry official said.
Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company Roknoddin Javadi said both India and Pakistan are badly in need of Iranian gas because it is uneconomical for them to acquire energy supplies from sources other than Iran.
He rejected reports that Pakistan is likely to pull out of the project if economic sanctions were to be imposed on Iran.
‘‘Once talks (between Iran and Pakistan) become conclusive, trilateral negotiations will begin with India,’’ Iran Daily quoted Mr Javadi as saying.
Pakistan gas officials are holding talks on a structural framework agreement, pipeline routine, gas quality, delivery points and tariff from November 16-17 in Tehran.
They said Pakistan would receive 2.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas while India 3.1 bcfd through the pipeline having a diameter of around 56 inches.
Work on the mega project will start by the middle of 2007 and will be completed by 2010, the officials added.(UNI)
Pakistan’s efforts to fight terrorism will be helped by the emergency aid operation mounted by the U.S. and relief agencies for survivors of last month’s earthquake in the Kashmir region, President Pervez Musharraf said.
“It will lend more credibility and strength to our decision that we took of backing the United States and being with the United States” in the fight against terrorism, Musharraf said in an interview with NBC’s ‘Today’ program.
``The people would understand that joining the coalition, fighting against terrorism joining, supporting the United States against terrorism, were all correct decisions,’’ Musharraf said.
The U.S. has 24 military helicopters and more than 1,100 service personnel in Pakistan helping with an airlift of supplies to the mountainous region in northern Pakistan where more than 73,000 people were killed by the Oct. 8 quake.
The Pakistani army has been fighting insurgents linked to the al-Qaeda network and Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime in the northwestern tribal region since October 2003. Pakistan has arrested more than 600 suspected terrorists since it joined the U.S.-led war on terror after 9/11.
International aid agencies are trying to supply an estimated 3.3 million people left homeless before winter sets in the mountains. At least 100,000 people in remote regions have yet to receive aid and snow is already falling.
The U.S. government so far has contributed about $156 million in aid for relief and recovery efforts.(Bloomberg).
Asia battles bird flu
Vietnam slaughtered thousands of birds in its two largest cities on Tuesday, while other Asian nations boosted efforts to halt the spread of deadly avian flu.
China vowed to vaccinate its entire stock of 14 billion poultry against bird flu, with the government promising to help pay for the process.
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia and has killed more than 60 people in the region. Forty-two people have died in Vietnam.
The virus remains hard for people to catch, but experts fear it could mutate into a form which can be passed from person to person and trigger a pandemic in which millions could die.
Britain said it believed an outbreak of H5N1 in a quarantine center last month was introduced by birds imported from Taiwan.
Indonesia and Vietnam should be given more resources to help stamp out the spread of the virus, Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health, said, urging vaccination of poultry.
“Early detection is the first line of defense in defeating the virus but Indonesia and Vietnam, … were late in responding,” Vallat told Reuters. “They cannot manage this virus by just killing animals at this stage. It is too late. The solution is using vaccination.”
Migratory birds have carried the virus to eastern Europe and Kuwait and experts fear it will soon spread to Africa.(Reuters)
Iraq detainees ‘found starving’
Iraq’s government says it has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 detainees held by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.
The prisoners, many malnourished and some showing signs of torture, were found when US troops took control of an interior ministry building on Sunday.
The US raid followed repeated enquiries by the parents of a missing teenager.
Iraq’s prime minister has promised to find those responsible for any abuse. Most of those held were Sunnis.
The BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says the discovery will not come as a surprise to many Iraqis.
There have been persistent allegations of abuse by members of the Shia-dominated security forces, she says.
The head of Iraq’s largest Sunni political party said attempts to raise claims of torture in government detention centres had been rebuffed.
But Sunday’s discovery is hard evidence and officials believe it may be the tip of the iceberg.
Deputy interior minister Hussein Kamal, who saw some of the abuse victims personally, said: “I’ve never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad, this is the worst.
“I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies.”(BBC)
India seeks ‘real cuts’ in farm subsidies
India on Wednesday demanded “real cuts” in farm subsidies by the US for creating a level-playing field in multilateral trade, but Washington put the ball in the European Union’s court saying the successful outcome of the Hong Kong WTO ministerial next month depended to a large extent on whether EU comes up with an improved offer.
“What the US had proposed last month are not real cuts, it would still allow them to raise trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers. The real cuts would be when there is decline in the support provided by the US Treasury,” Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said at the Indo-US Economic Summit in New Delhi.
He said the contentious issues in agricultural trade in WTO also included differences in perception of what India and US consider as trade-distorting support and what is allowed under the Green Box, which is not distorting trade.
However, the US maintained that its proposal presented to the WTO on October 10 offered “real cuts” in subsidies and talks are stuck because of the “disappointing” offer from EU.
J B Penn, under secretary, US department of agriculture, said the level of ambition in the EU proposal falls much short of Doha mandate and its market access cuts did not fall between the US and the G-20 proposals.(Rediff)
Iran-India-Pakistan pipeline unaffected
International political developments are unlikely to hit the $7.2 billion Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline project, a senior Iranian gas industry official said.
Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company Roknoddin Javadi said both India and Pakistan are badly in need of Iranian gas because it is uneconomical for them to acquire energy supplies from sources other than Iran.
He rejected reports that Pakistan is likely to pull out of the project if economic sanctions were to be imposed on Iran.
‘‘Once talks (between Iran and Pakistan) become conclusive, trilateral negotiations will begin with India,’’ Iran Daily quoted Mr Javadi as saying.
Pakistan gas officials are holding talks on a structural framework agreement, pipeline routine, gas quality, delivery points and tariff from November 16-17 in Tehran.
They said Pakistan would receive 2.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas while India 3.1 bcfd through the pipeline having a diameter of around 56 inches.
Work on the mega project will start by the middle of 2007 and will be completed by 2010, the officials added.(UNI)
