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Britain not pressurising India on troops for Iraq
-by Trevor Barnard

          London, June 16: Britain is not putting pressure on India to send troops to Iraq. Although the stabilisation of Iraq was raised during talks between Prime Minister Tony Blair and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani today, the question of troops was not raised. Blair highlighted the importance that Britain placed on India playing a major role in the process of stabilisation and reconstruction in Iraq, but it was stressed at a Press briefing after the meeting that there was no mention of the use of troops. Nor was the issue raised at a subsequent meeting between Advani and Home Secretary David Blunkett.

          The meeting with Blair, scheduled for 30 minutes went on for 47 minutes and was described as warm and congenial. The Prime Minister broke protocol to welcome his Indian guest at the steps of 10, Downing Street, and to bid him goodbye there - gestures normally reserved for ministers of equal rank or heads of state. And as it was a bright, sunny day, with the temperatures around 25 degrees, the talks were held in the garden.

          The issue of terrorism was prominent on the agenda. Advani told his host that since Prime Minister Vajpayee had taken the initiative two months ago of extending the hand of friendship towards Pakistan there had not been any appreciable reduction in cross-border terrorism. However, he reiterated India's willingness to enter into a dialogue with Pakistan on all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. Blair is reported to have expressed the hope that there would be an adequate response from Pakistan, and to have appreciated India's assessment that there could be no dialogue as long as cross-border terrorism continued. The Deputy Prime Minister's lunch-time talk with Home Secretary Blunkett was concerned with the related issue of co-operation in the field of counter-terrorism - co-operation which began on a bilateral basis long before September 11. Discussions dealt with a meeting of the Joint Working Group on Terrorism scheduled to be held in Delhi in September, and an agreement on handling asylum- seekers. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the Deputy Prime Minister will be the guest at a lunch hosted by his British counterpart, John Prescott, and he will also be meeting Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, Jack Straw.

Flurry of Indo-Pak exchange ahead of peace talks (Go To Top)

          Islamabad, June 16: A 12-member delegation of Indian parliamentarians is slated to visit Pakistan on Tuesday. During their 10-day long stay, the MPs belonging to different political parties from both the Houses will visit Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. The Indian MPs will hold interactive sessions with their Pakistani counterparts and senior officials to discuss the scope of the Indo-Pak peace initiatives. Meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Senate Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi are also on the cards, the News reported on Monday. Led by Rajya Sabha MP and noted journalist Kuldip Nayyar, the delegation will comprise of Rajya Sabha MPs Rajiv Shukla and Swaraj Kaushal, Lok Sabha MP (Congress) Renuka Chowdhary, besides a host of many other leaders from CPI-M, Samajwadi Party, Haryana Vikas Party, National Conference and the ruling BJP.

           The visit has been organised at the invitation of Pakistan-India Friendship Peoples Forum and Human Rights Organisation. It is widely seen as a goodwill gesture by India in response to the similar 7-day visit by Pakistani MPs early last month. Apart from the parliamentarians' visit, more than half a dozen delegations from Pakistan and India, representing different sectors, are likely to visit each other's country within a span of two weeks from now. The visits, symbolising the recent thaw in bilateral relations, are considered as a part of a roadmap being chalked out for PM-level talks between the two countries.

          Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain is currently in Bangalore to attend a two-day conference of regional bankers. Four days later, a three-member technical team of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation leaves for New Delhi to discuss resumption of the stalled bus service between the Indian capital and Lahore. Attempts are under way at both the ends to restore the bus service possibly by July 1. A Pakistani businessmen's delegation, which was earlier scheduled to leave for India on June 29 for expanding business and trade relations, has reportedly put off its visit so that it could travel by bus once the service is restored. Similarly, on June 27 a team of Indian Tea Association would arrive in Lahore to discuss scope of tea exports to the neighbouring country. Another Indian delegation of Ulema, led by Maulana Asad Madni, will visit Pakistan during the third week of this month.

Altaf for LoC as permanent border (Go To Top)

          Karachi, June 16: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has urged India and Pakistan to consider accepting the Line of Control as a permanent border. A handout issued by the MQM international secretariat on Sunday says that speaking to party workers during the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students' Organization, in London, Hussain called upon India and Pakistan to resolve their bilateral issues, including that of Kashmir, through negotiations and not through war. He said: "India and Pakistan must now decide that it is in the interest of both the countries to think about accepting the Line of Control as the solution to the Kashmir issue," reports Dawn. Hussain demanded that people at the helm of affairs should take immediate steps to open the Khokhrapar border with India "because millions of people from Sindh have to travel long distance through Wagah to meet their relatives in India". "The geo-political reality of Pakistan is that it is isolated in South Asia. In case of a problem, no country will come to our rescue."

North Korea exports missiles to Iran: Report (Go To Top)

          Seoul, June 16: North Korea has shipped missiles to Iran aboard cargo planes ever since a weapons-laden ship was intercepted en route to Yemen in December, a South Korean newspaper said Monday. The United States has spotted Iran's IL-76 cargo aircraft leaving North Korea's Sunan airport on six occasions since April, the newspaper said, quoting US and South Korean intelligence sources. Although the cargo was in containers, intelligence officials have concluded that the payload was disassembled Rodong missiles. The Rodong missile has a range of 1,300 km. Iran has been widely believed to have used North Korean technology in developing a medium-range ballistic missile test-fired in 1998. Iran and North Korea were included last year in an "axis of evil" with Iraq by US President George W. Bush, bent on spreading weapons of mass destruction.

          Iraq's journey to democracy will take time: US official Washington, June 16: US State Department Policy Planning Director Richard Haas said Monday that democratization of Iraq will take many years. Transition from dictatorship to democracy in Iraq could not be achieved within a single night, said Haas who is retiring this summer. An independent Iraq will emerge gradually and one could not predict the contours of democratic Iraq. However, he said it will not resemble the US Congress or the British Parliament, he added.

Laos PM aims to boost friendly ties (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, June 16: Visiting Prime Minister of Laos, Bounnhang Vorachit, was accorded ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Monday. On his week-long visit to India, Vorachit would hold talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and sign an agreement on cooperation in science and technology. After the ceremonial reception Vorachit told reporters his visit aimed to boost friendly relations between the two countries. "This (my visit) is a contribution to boosting the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries," Vorachit said. Vajpaye had paid a visit to Laos last year.

Ivanov welcomes India's peace initiative (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, June 16: Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Monday welcomed India's efforts to stabilise relations with Pakistan. "These initiatives and intentions taken by India to stabilise the situation seem to be sincere and we welcome this," said Ivanov. Ivanov after a day-long visit to Pakistan told a joint news conference with his Indian counterpart Yashwant Sinha that Moscow was pleased with progress nuclear rivals had made in easing tensions. "Russia supports these efforts in the principal importance for the continuation of this dialogue from both sides and that's why these efforts by Pakistan are important to cut and stop cross-border terrorism," he added.

Speaker hopeful of consensus soon on women's quota (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, June 16: Political parties inched closer to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures, but there was no complete unanimity on the issue. The proposed legislation has been hanging fire since 1999. Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi called an all-party meeting on Monday to break the deadlock. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Joshi said some progress had been made on the issue and hoped there would be consensus soon. "I am happy to state that we have come closer. It is not that a total unanimity has come in today's meeting, but leaders of different political parties expressed their views on the bill today and therefore it may be possible to arrive at a consensus opinion very soon," Joshi said after the meeting.

          Women across the country have been lobbying intensely for the Bill, which seeks to reserve one-third of seats for them in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures. Though a majority of political parties support the constitutional amendment Bill, the Samajwadi party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal oppose it in its present form. Senior leader of the Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh termed the proposed Bill as "undemocratic". "We are against the present form of the Bill because it is very dangerous and undemocratic," he said. The two parties favour a specific quota for other backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities within the proposed 33 per cent reservation for women. However, most other parties, including the Congress party, want the Bill to be passed immediately in its present form. "We are in favour of the passing of the Bill as it is. After the consensus if the government of India want amendment for the weaker sections to give the particular 33 percent, we have no objections. But we have to pass it in the coming session," said Yeeran Naidu, a senior leader of the Telugu Desam Party from Andhra Pradesh.

Mainpuri flares up after church set on fire (Go To Top)

          Mainpuri, June 16: The district magistrate of Mainpuri District and Superintendent of Police of the area had to be summoned when tension prevailed in village Nagala Mugaria. Apparently, a Christian missionary tried converting the Dalit villagers to Christianity which hurt the religious sentiments of the people leading to the burning down of a prayer house. A villager named Shivram, who had migrated to Delhi and converted to Christianity, has been implicated in the scandal. Apparently, he had started performing religious ceremonies in a prayer house in his village and some more families converted to Christianity. It is being alleged that it was on his instigation that four families in the area converted.

           The Hindus in the area opposed these conversions and burnt down the prayer house thereby stirring tensions in the district. But Shivram's wife and father have denied the allegations saying that they had not been instrumental in any of the conversions but could never refuse anybody who came to pray at the prayer house. Hari lal, Shivraj's father, said "10-15 years back Shivraj's wife was ill and nothing was working out but a prayer at a Church worked and she recuperated, from that time we developed faith in the religion. Nobody forced us to Christianity. We do organise religious talks and programmes but they are not aimed at conversion."

           But some of the local religious bodies perceive these practices as a missionary conspiracy to convert Dalits, and they even claim that at least eight families till now have converted to Christianity. But the Superintendent of Police, Mainpuri, Sushil Gupta, said, "We have not received any such information and the site which was burnt in no circumstances can be a religious one. Their worship place is their house only which is perfectly intact. For the sake of precaution we have deployed troops there so that any untoward incident can be averted. The investigation process is underway and very soon we would get to the roots of the incident". District Magistrate Dr Girish Pandey said, "We have sent a team to look into the case and we are not taking any chances so we have deployed policemen to keep the situation under control."

18 feared killed in Karimnagar mine mishap (Go To Top)

         Hyderabad, June 16: Eighteen miners were feared killed following sudden flooding of a coalmine in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh on Monday, police said. A senior police officer said the worst was feared as pumping of water from the mine would take at least 10 hours and there was no way to know the fate of the trapped miners immediately.