Pakistan, India to turn Siachen into `mountain of peace'

     Islamabad: In the series of taking confidence building measures (CBMs), India and Pakistan have agreed to make Siachen a mountain of peace as suggested by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh recently. Besides, New Delhi agreed to withdraw its forces and station them at the pre-1984 position. India's move is considered as the biggest CBM, the Online News reported. Quoting informed sources, the Islamabad-based news agency reported that national security advisors of both the countries arrived at a mutual consensus in this regard in their recent backdoor diplomatic interaction. According to the report, the moves are intended at giving relief to troops of both the nations deployed at Siachen glaciers and reducing military expenditures currently being borne by two countries. The news agency also quoted the sources as saying that the Jammu- Sialkot bus service would be launched shortly, and an Indian team would visit Islamabad in August for talks with Pakistani officials for the purpose.

Mukhtar Mai will travel abroad soon: Kasuri (Go To Top)

     Islamabad: Mukhtar Mai, the tribal woman who was raped by 14 men in June 2002 and made national and international headlines after the incident was publicised, will be allowed to go abroad soon, said Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri. Rejecting media reports that President Pervez Musharraf had taken umbrage over the publicity surrounding Mai and had issued instructions to stop her from going abroad, Kasuri said that Musharraf's statement had been reported out of context. He told the Daily Times that he had always found Musharraf to be a great defender of women's rights and empowerment, and that he was just irritated about the issue being blown out of proportion. Kasuri said that Nelofar Bakhtiar, the adviser to the prime minister for women's development, had recently contacted Mai and told her that there was no restriction on her to travel abroad.

     Meanwhile, the Pakistan Foreign Office has declined to comment on reports of the Bush Administration intervening in the Mai case and asked the media and the non-government organisations, both Pakistani and foreign, to refrain from making statements on the issue, as the matter was sub-judice and will be taken up by the country's Supreme Court on June 27. "There is absolutely no pressure from the US to remove Mai's name from the ECL. Pakistan has always ndeavoured upholding women's rights and punishing the perpetrators of crimes against women," Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said. While raising no objection to her plans to go abroad, specifically to the United States, the Pakistan Government had said over the weekend that a close surveillance would be kept on Mai during her proposed trip. Last week, Islamabad accepted that it was facing international pressure to let a detained Mai travel outside Pakistan to narrate her experiences, Islamabad has said that it is prepared to hand over Mai's passport to her for a short period of time.

     However, chances are that the passport will not be handed back for five to eight weeks. Of course, the duration can change according to circumstances If she is allowed to go abroad, she will be kept under close surveillance by the government officials were quoted as saying. Mai was stopped from attending a conference in the USA to which she was invited by Amnesty International. Another international non-government organisation is going to invite her to the USA at the end of July. It may be recalled that in June 2002, 14 men from the dominant Mastoi tribe in Meerwala volunteered to rape Mai to settle a score after her 12-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor was seen walking with a Mastoi girl. The decision on retribution had been taken by a village court to preserve tribal honour. The jirga, or council of village elders, summoned Mai to apologise for her brother's sexual misdeed. When she apologised, they gang-raped her anyway. Mai was then paraded naked before hundreds of onlookers. Mai, an unmarried daughter from a low-caste family, fought back in the courts. Half a dozen men involved in her rape were punished, with two sentenced to death. But then, events began to take a sinister and depressing turn. A court in Lahore refused to extend a 90-day detention order and 12 of the 14 accused were ordered to be released. The case has gone into appeal, and is now expected to go to the Supreme Court on June 27. Mai has used her compensation money in the case to start two schools in her village. American sympathisers donated more than 73,000 dollars, which Mai used to set up a shelter for abused women and buy a van which is now used as an ambulance in the area. On the back of such a triumphant and defiant rehabilitation, she had decided to go to the US to publicise her schools and voluntary efforts.

Close Guantanamo prison or clean it up, suggests Clinton (Go To Top)

     London: Former US president Bill Clinton has called for closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison following reports abuse of suspected terrorists held there. He said that either the prison should be closed down or cleaned up. "It is time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused.......it should be closed down or cleaned up," the Financial Times quoted Clinton as saying in London. He added: "If we get a reputation for abusing people it puts our own soldiers much more at risk and second, if you rough up somebody bad enough, they'll eventually tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to stop doing it." Particularly after the alleged desecration of the Quran, the prison attracted international criticism over the fact that prisoners are held there indefinitely without trial. With Clinton's advice, the demand for the closure of the prison would further gain momentum, as similar suggestions have come from different sections of the US' society.

Sensex creates history, closes at all-time high of 7076 (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensex today created history and closed at an all-time high of 7,076.52. The 30-stock benchmark index leapfrogged by a whopping 91.97 points in a rally led by shares of Reliance Industries, ONGC and Cipla. After scaling to a new, all-time intra-day high of 7,084 towards the fag-end, the Sensex finally ended at a new closing high of 7,076 - up 92 points or 1.32%. While 24 Sensex stocks advanced, six declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.76 crore amounting to Rs 956.42 crore, and declining shares clocked a volume of 15 lakh for Rs 97.07 crore. The market breadth, however, ended negative today. Out of 2,548 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,137 advanced, 1,337 declined and 74 remained unchanged. The amicable settlement between the Ambani brothers, onset of the monsoon, strong FII inflows, impressive economic fundamentals boosted the market sentiment in early trade. While pharma, bank scrips attracted significant buying interest, metals and Reliance group stocks also witnessed sustained buying.

Oil price jumps above $59 a barrel  (Go To Top)

     London: Amid speculations about possible energy shortages and lack of refining capacity and security concerns in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member Nigeria, world crude oil prices rose above 59 dollars per barrel for the first time today. In one month, prices have risen by 27 per cent in New York and 22 per cent in London. World crude prices have jumped by 40 per cent since the start of 2005. Meanwhile, OPEC, the largest exporter of crude oil has assured that it could hike output by 500,000 barrels per day if prices stay high until the end of the week. "If the prices continue to the end of this week at the same level, I will start consulting my colleagues to release the 500,000 barrels per day that I was authorised to release," said, OPEC president Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah.

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