Paris, June 24: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday downplayed growing tensions with US President Barack Obama over Israeli settlements, saying it was just a spat between friends.
"We have an unbreakable bond of friendship with the US," Netanyahu said in Paris after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Even among best friends there can be differences."
The Israeli prime minister arrived in Paris after his scheduled Thursday meeting in Paris with Obama's Middle East special envoy George Mitchell was cancelled at the last minute, apparently over unresolved questions related to Israel's settlement construction.
As a sign of how relations between Jerusalem and Washington are fraying, both sides claimed they called off the meeting.
|
Brussels, June 24: Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade Wednesday criticised European Union (EU) policies towards Africa and said the continent was looking towards India and China for its economic needs, EuAsiaNews reported.
Addressing a press conference in Brussels Wednesday, the Senegalese president accused the EU of isolating Africa and raising barriers against "black Africa".
"We don't want the Mediterranean Union to serve as yet another obstacle or separate Europe from Africa. We have to react to this closing off everything from the Sahara to South Africa," he said referring to the Union which was formed last year to boost cooperation between the EU and North African countries bordering the Mediterranean.
|
Islamabad, June 24: Pakistan said Wednesday it would not hand over to India its citizens suspected of causing the 26/11 mayhem but would try them under its own laws.
"No Pakistani would be handed over to any other country including India," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Ahmed Khan said during the debate in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on the budget for fiscal 2009-10, Online news agency reported.
The enquiry into the carnage would be held in accordance with Pakistani laws in the light of the proof provided by India, he said, adding that this country's soil would not be permitted to be used for launching terrorist attacks.
|
Tehran, June 24: The best way to settle the dilemma over the controversial results of Iran's presidential elections would be formation of an independent committee, a statement released on opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi's website suggested Wednesday.
Moussavi, and millions of Iranians, accuse the government of fraud in the June 12 election that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory.
The election review and final decision on the result is constitutionally in the hands of the Guardian Council, but the impartiality of council is disputed by Moussavi and other opposition groups due to its strong support for Ahmadinejad.
The council consists of six clerics and six lawyers.
|
Singapore, June 24: The strategic northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, large parts of which China claims, hopes to raise a 5,000-strong "home and hearth" armed force to supplement the efforts of the Indian Army in guarding the state's 1,030-km-long international border, its governor says.
"It will be an indigenous force modelled after the Ladakh Scouts. It will be an advantage to the defence forces in case of emergencies," Governor J.J. Singh, a former Indian army chief, told IANS in an interview here.
"The battalion will be around 5,000-strong. The Ladakh Scouts had helped us immensely during the (1999) Kargil war (with Pakistan) and the proposed force will be of similar help," Singh said, adding that during war or war-like situations, the force can "help the army in understanding the local language, intricate nuances of geography and other details".
|
Kabul, June 24: Afghan troops killed 23 Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province, a senior military commander said Wednesday.
"Acting upon intelligence report, Afghan troops backed by the US-led Coalition forces pounded Taliban militants in Chinartook area, killing 23 rebels including their commander Mullah Ismael Kuchi," commander of Afghan Corps in the region General Shir Mohammad Zazi told Xinhua.
Taliban militants, who have vowed to intensify their activities this year in Afghanistan, have not made any comment so far.
-IANS
|
Washington/Tehran, June 24: In the four days since her murder on the streets of Tehran, Neda Agha Soltan has become the face of the anti-government movement in Iran.
The amateur video of Soltan collapsing on the street Saturday after being shot through the chest, her eyes hauntingly staring into the camera, has now been seen by millions across the world.
The 26-year-old philosophy student was believed to have stepped out of her car for fresh air on a street near demonstrations against the disputed June 12 presidential elections. Her music teacher was with her.
|
Islamabad, June 24: At least 45 militants were killed Tuesday in a US drone attack in one of the strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban, a media report said.
The incident took place when the militants gathered after a funeral in South Waziristan, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, Geo TV said.
-IANS
|
Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan), June 24: Two suspected US drone strikes killed at least 52 militants in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan, where the Pakistani military plans to launch offensive against the chief of local Taliban, intelligence officials said.v
The attacks came hours after a militant leader who had defected from Pakistani Taliban head Baitullah Mehsud was assassinated by an "infiltrator" in the adjoining district of North West Frontier Province.
A pilotless aircraft Tuesday fired three missiles on a hideout used regularly by Mehsud's fighters in South Waziristan, a security official said requesting anonymity.
"The missiles hit a Taliban markaz (centre) in the Makeen (area), killing at least seven Taliban," the official said. Four more militants were injured and two vehicles were destroyed in the strike.
|
Washington, June 24: US President Barack Obama Tuesday strongly rejected Iranian accusations of interfering in the election crisis and in some of his toughest language yet said he was "appalled and outraged" by the violent crackdown on protestors.
Obama dismissed as "patently false and absurd" Iranian suggestions that his administration was behind the protests, accusing Iranian officials of trying to avoid questions about the legitimacy of the election by blaming the US.
"The Iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future. Some in the Iranian government are trying to avoid that debate by accusing the United States and others outside of Iran of instigating protests over the elections," Obama said. "These accusations are patently false and absurd."
|
Washington, June 24: The US threw its support behind greener vehicles and electric cars Tuesday, approving $8 billion in loans to carmakers Ford Motor, Nissan and Tesla Motors.
The loans are the first to be granted from a $25-billion fund for more fuel-efficient technologies that was approved by Congress in 2006.
Ford, the only major US car company that has avoided bankruptcy this year, will get the bulk of the money. The Detroit-based firm will be loaned $5.9 billion to retool factories and produce some 13 more fuel-efficient models in the coming years, the US Energy Department said.
Japanese manufacturer Nissan will get $1.6 billion to help them build electric cars and batteries at a new plant in the US state of Tennessee.
|
Abuja, June 24: Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said around 30 percent of the issues discussed in the UN Security Council are related to Africa, and yet no country from that continent has a permanent seat in the grouping.
The Spanish leader made the remarks during a meeting with Nigerian President Umaru Yar Adua here Tuesday.
Zapatero said Nigeria contributes the most to UN peace missions and it has a "logical interest" in reforming the Security Council.
This was the first official visit by a Spanish prime minister to the African nation.
The officials of the two countries have also signed several bilateral pacts. Nigeria supplies 25 percent of Spain's oil and natural gas requirements.
|
Washington, June 24: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has proposed a five point agenda topped by "deepening of India-US nuclear cooperation" to take their bilateral relations to the next level.
"We want the US to engage India across fronts and not just business to business," FICCI president Harsh Pati Singhania said Tuesday proposing the leading Indian trade body's agenda at a seminar on "US-India relations: The Road Ahead" at the East-West Centre here.
While the United States was still India's biggest trading partner with their bilateral trade growing from $13.5 billion in 2001 to over $41 billion in 2008, China was fast catching up with a trade of $38.5 billion, showing a growth of about 1500 percent over the same period, he noted.
|
London, June 24: British Home Secretary Alan Johnson will join Hindu spiritual leader Swami Satyamitranand at the unveiling of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the city of Leicester in southeast England Friday, the local MP said Wednesday.
Keith Vaz, the longest-serving ethnic Indian MP in Britain, said the statue is to be placed in Belgrave Road - home to the city's thriving Indian business community.
The seven-foot statue, sitting on a five-foot plinth, will be only the second statue of India's independence hero in Britain. Large numbers of British Asians are expected to travel from all over Britain to attend the event in Leicester, a city known as Little India for its Indian-origin population of 280,000.
|
Tehran, June 23: Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi has met senior clergy and discussed the latest developments in the country, including the deaths of protestors during street demonstrations in Tehran, his website said Tuesday.
In the meeting which was held Monday, Moussavi discussed the alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election, people's right to follow up the issue, mass arrests and attacks on protestors which have led to the killings of "innocent people", the website said.
No further details were given.
Security has been tightened in Tehran since Monday, with several police and security forces as well as the voluntary Basij militia deployed throughout the Iranian capital.
|
Peshawar, June 23: Six people were killed and several others injured in a US drone attack Tuesday in the South Waziristan agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan, a media report said.
Quoting sources, Geo TV said US drones fired three missiles at a house in Ladha sub district, a stronghold of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
The attack comes five days after a drone strike near Wana, South Waziristan's largest town, killed at least nine Taliban militants.
The air strikes targeted a militant training facility and a house, an official said.
The Pakistani military, which had swung into South Waziristan last week, is now planning a full scale offensive against Mehsud, whose writ runs over much of the agency.
|
Islamabad, June 23: A militant leader, who openly challenged Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in north-western Pakistan Tuesday, media reports said.
Qari Zainuddin was fatally shot in his house in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, located near the lawless South Waziristan tribal district, the main stronghold of Mehsud.
Geo News television channel said the militant leader was killed allegedly by one of his supporters, who managed to escape after the incident.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination.
Zainuddin has recently accused Mehsud of pursuing a "foreign agenda" by waging an insurgency in his own country, and supported the military action against the warlord.
|
Washington, June 23: US President Barack Obama Monday signed legislation that forces new restrictions on US tobacco companies and gives the government broad new powers to regulate the industry.
Obama said the law, which was passed by both houses of Congress earlier this month, "represents change that's been decades in the making".
The new law bans fruit or sweet-flavoured cigarettes criticised for targeting children and bans label claims of "light" or "ultra-light" cigarettes, which anti-smoking advocates argue are no less harmful to one's health. The size of warning labels will also be increased.
|
