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Jyoti basu is dead

Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Indo US Diplomacy Tale of MASS Destruction


Indo US Diplomacy Tale  of MASS Destruction

Home ministry warns of terror attacks


Troubled galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 323

Plash Biswas
 
Pl Vissit:
 
 
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik talks with media in Islamabad, 07 Aug 2009

Deadly Gunfire Reported Between Pakistan's Taliban Rivals

Interior minister says at least one Taliban commander may have been killed in shooting that erupted during meeting to decide successor to leader Baitullah Mehsud

General view of court room where dozens of opposition activists, protesters stood trial in Tehran, 08 Aug 2009 (photo released by Fars News Agency)

Iran Tries Second Group of Election Protesters

Defendants include French lecturer, top Iranian reformists, journalists

Sonia Sotomayor (L) completes oath administered by Chief Justice John Roberts to become Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice, in Washington, 08 Aug 2009

Sotomayor Sworn in as First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice

Sonia Sotomayor is third woman justice, and first justice appointed by President Barack Obama

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, after their meeting in Durban, South Africa, 08 Aug 2009

South African President Zuma, US Secretary of State Clinton Meet in Durban  Audio Clip Available

Following meeting, secretary of state said US, South Africa plan to enhance their cooperation bi-laterally and beyond


Miss India Ekta Chowdhry arrives to downtown Nassau, Bahamas.
Photo Gallery

Second swine flu death, 53-yr-old woman dies in Mumbai

Swine flu claimed the country's second life--a 53-year-old woman
here--five days after a 14-year-old Pune girl succumbed to th...

We can't allow citizens to go hungry, PM tells states

PM Manmohan Singh said that the Centre has adequate foodgrains
and would not hesitate to take strong measures and intervene ...

Google admits 'mistake' of wrong depiction of AP's areas

Search engine Google admitted its 'mistake' of wrong depiction of
certain areas of Arunachal Pradesh as parts of China and said... Uttarakhand: 12 killed in cloud burst26/11 probe: Pak accuses India of being 'non-serious'Baitullah alive, in hiding as part of 'war strategy': Pak TalibanIndia, Russia close to final testing of air-launched BrahMos
  More

 

Terror being the key word of the Zionist triiblis Global Post Modern Zionist Manusmriti Apartheid Order of US Corporate Imperialism, INDO US Relation Chemistry is made of and with War Against Terror as CIA and MOSSAD have taken over Internal Security and Desi Illuminati, the India INCs have taken over the Government. It is BLOODLESS Revolution to DESTINE DEATH and Destruction for the Aboriginal Indigenous and Minority Communities  in India, the eighty five percent of the Population ENSLAVED permanently under Manusmriti rule!


On the other hand, US Intersests are defended as Government of India plans a VIETNAM in US style against the Aboriginal population in isolated Landscapes brnading the TRIBALS as Maoists and using STATE POWER as KILLING Agent. AFPSA continues INFINITE. Terror acts implemented for ETHNIC Cleansing. Now attacking Gunship Helicopters have to be used in Rebel areas including Lalgarh!


Meanwhile, Indo-US bilateral trade would be doubled in the next five years from USD 44 billion, a senior US Diplomat said . US has identified education, science and technology, power, retail, food processing and agriculture among the key areas of investment and improvement,Andrew T.Simkin, Consul General, U S Consulate General, Chennai, told reporters here.

Asked about the economic slowdown, he said the US had felt the major impact and trade between India and US had come down drastically as a result of global recession.

Allaying fears over US outsourcing to India, he said time and again US had made it clear that it wanted to continue its good relations with countries like India and it stood for free trade.

Moreover, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during her recent visit to India, had reiterated the stand and extended full cooperation in various fields, including combating terrorism,he said.

Simkin was here in connection with a road show on Engineering Service Outsourcing-Opportunities and Challengers, organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and Southern India Engineering Manufacturers Association.

 

 

Rothschild , the Notorious ILLUMINATI Family of Zionism associated by Mossad and CIA has taken over Indian Economy as well as Polity.

 

A shadow Government of Illuminati led by Montek Singh Ahluwalia works as Government of India Incorporation along with Shashi Tharur, Nilekani, Sunil Mitra and Sam Pitroda.

 

 The GOI exposed with Political faces led by Dr Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee, Mamatya Banerjee, Kamal Nath, Murali Deora, Kapil Sibal does the Parliamentary Manipulation only and the Governance as well as Policy Making are VESTED in the shadow government.

 

Chidambaram has nothing to do for Internal Security. War against Terror, Nato, Pentagon, CIA and Mossad do acomplish the task of Internal Security branding the Majority of Indigenous, Aboriginal, Minority Communities Terrorist or Extremist in the best interst of United states of America and the Tri IBLIS Order of Zionism, Aparteid and Manusmriti Post Modern.

 

 US Weapon and war Economy gets the LIFE Saving Drugs from the Resources and the Revenues of Indian nature and nature associated Masses UNARMED and SELECTED for Mass Destruction!

 

And this is DEFINED as the Top Most Priority of Indo US Diplomacy and Relationship!

 

 India is not worried about the "brain drain" as its universities and colleges are producing "enough number" of brilliant students to serve the country, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said on Saturday.

Amid reports that scores of Indian students were among those duped in a massive education scam in Australia, India today said it will be "ruthless" with the rogue education agents who take gullible youths for a ride.

The Indian government will go after unscrupulous education agents in the country as part of its effort to control the student crisis, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told a press conference here.

"We will be ruthless" with the fake agents who paint a rosy picture and take gullible students for a ride, Krishna, who is on a five-day visit here, said when asked what measures the Indian government will be taking to tackle the issue.

 

 

 

Fighting erupts between Taliban rivals-Pakistan govt

Sat Aug 8, 2009 12:58pm EDT
 

 

[-] Text [+]

Featured Broker sponsored link

* Taliban were meeting to pick successor to Baitullah Mehsud

* Reports one or both rivals may have died in shooting
(adds Taliban official saying government fabricated reports)

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The Pakistani government has received reports that shooting broke out between two rivals for the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban, and one of them may have been killed, the interior minister said on Saturday.

Pakistani news channels were carrying unconfirmed reports that Hakimullah Mehsud, one of the movement's most powerful commanders, had been killed at a shura, or council meeting, held to decide who would succeed slain leader Baitullah Mehsud.

"The infighting was between Wali-ur-Rehman and Hakimullah Mehsud," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters. "We have information that one of them has been killed. Who was killed we will be able to say later after confirming."

A Taliban official in South Waziristan, where the meeting took place, told Reuters the government had fabricated reports of fighting between the different factions.

Noor Said, who had been a deputy spokesman under Baitullah, said: "There was no fighting in the shura. Both Wali-ur-Rehman and Hakimullah are safe and sound."

Western governments with troops in Afghanistan are watching to see if any new Pakistani Taliban leader would shift focus from fighting the Pakistani government and put the movement's weight behind the Afghan insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.

An intelligence officer in South Waziristan said he had reports that Hakimullah Mehsud died in the shooting after heated exchanges between the rivals at the meeting held around 4:30 p.m.(1030 GMT).

"According to reports Wali-ur-Rehman fired and killed Hakimullah Mehsud," the official said.

State-run Pakistan Television (PTV) said there were reports that both leaders might have been killed in a shoot-out.

The shura was called in Taliban-controlled territory in Waziristan, a northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.



DRONE ATTACK

Earlier in the day Hakimullah Mehsud had telephoned journalists to deny that Baitullah Mehsud had been killed in a missile strike by U.S. drone aircraft on Wednesday.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday the government was "pretty certain" that Mehsud perished in the missile blitz on Wednesday that also killed his second wife, a brother, seven bodyguards and destroyed his car.

Some analysts had anticipated the Pakistani Taliban's leadership would be split over who should become the next chief and the denial aimed to buy time until a new leader was chosen.

Hakimullah, who controls fighters in the Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber tribal regions, is regarded as one of the leading contenders to replace Baitullah Mehsud, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head.

Wali-ur-Rehman is another shura member and a former spokesman for Baitullah.

Qureshi had anticipated the death of Mehsud would leave a void in the Taliban movement that could lead to divisions.

"With him gone, I think there is going to be an internal struggle and disarray in their ranks, I think it will set in demobilisation. It is a great success for the forces that are fighting extremism and terrorism in Pakistan," Qureshi told BBC radio late on Friday. (Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Robert Woodward)

 

 

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Most Popular on Reuters

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http://in.reuters.com/
Authorities in eastern India are distributing free radio sets to lower-caste villagers so that they can listen to music and news after a hard day's work and improve their awareness, officials said on Wednesday.

India's forests are absorbing about 10 percent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) every year, the environment minister said on Tuesday.Things are not looking good on the monsoon front in India. The Metrological department has said that the country is facing a rainfall shortfall of 25 per cent, six per cent more than it was last week.

Pakistan said Thursday that evidence given by India failed to build a case for the arrest of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of a Pakistan-based group blamed for the Mumbai attacks, a stance certain to stoke anger in India.

President Barack Obama's spokesman said on Thursday that US policy toward North Korea was unchanged in the wake of former President Bill Clinton's trip to Pyongyang.

Standard Chartered Bank is in ongoing discussions to buy assets in India and China, a senior executive at the Asia-focussed bank said on Tuesday.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is confident India's cricket authorities will eventually comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency's "whereabouts" rule, its chief executive Haroon Lorgat has said.

The number of deaths from H1N1 flu in England jumped by nine to 36 in the last week, but the number of new cases "decreased significantly" with no evidence the virus is mutating, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said on Thursday.

Russian investigators are probing the illegal sale of four fuselages of MiG-31 interceptor fighter jets that were sold off for as little as $5 (2.98 pounds), although worth $3.7 million each, RIA news agency said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has launched a global search for 13 suspects in last November's attack on Mumbai, the international police network Interpol said on Thursday.Reuter reports.

France-based Interpol said a global alert issued from Islamabad asked member countries to assist in locating the fugitives and immediately report any leads to Pakistan, which would seek their extradition if any are arrested.


The Interpol statement did not name the suspects.


"The authorities in Pakistan are to be commended for making full use of Interpol's global network and tools," said Ronald Noble, secretary-general of Interpol, in the statement.


"This demonstrates their commitment to allowing all of Interpol's 187 member countries to benefit from and help with the investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks."


Pakistan has put on trial five militants accused of involvement in the attack in which 166 people were killed and released photographs of 13 other suspects who have not yet been detained.

But India, which broke off peace talks with Pakistan following the attacks blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, has complained that Islamabad is not moving fast enough in pursuing those responsible.

 

Government
Foreign Relations
Post-Clinton visit, the key issues (August 06, 2009)
Pakistan has a ball (August 05, 2009)
Call for closer ties between UK, India (August 04, 2009)
End-use monitoring pact, a 'generic formulation': PM (July 30, 2009)
Russia drops plan to ban Indian seafood (July 30, 2009)
China threatens to ban Indian food products (July 28, 2009)
India, Papua New Guinea keen on boosting ties (July 25, 2009)
Sell-out at Sharm-el-Sheikh (July 23, 2009)
India, US agree to end-use monitoring (July 22, 2009)
India says no to legally binding emission reduction targets (July 20, 2009)
She came, she saw, she conquered (July 19, 2009)
Hillary Clinton arriving today on 3-day visit (July 17, 2009)
Nothing new in G-8 stand (July 15, 2009)
New govts must use trade to resolve India-Pakistan problems (July 14, 2009)
Perils of renewed dialogue with Pakistan (June 25, 2009)
EU slams US on its remote gambling, betting laws (June 14, 2009)
To Sri Lanka (May 23, 2009)
Nepal on the boil again (May 14, 2009)
Washington's China focus may impact Indo-US ties: Blackwill (May 06, 2009)
Af-Pak strategy: Logistic nightmare (May 02, 2009)
'Swiss will have to examine request for data release' (April 19, 2009)
Russia offers India role in uranium centre project (April 15, 2009)
China's new assertiveness (April 10, 2009)
'China, India should work jointly in the interest of developing nations' (April 08, 2009)
G-20 is about exchanging power for money (April 03, 2009)
Nuclear issues — Face-off with Obama Administration (April 02, 2009)
Japan offers Rs 7,159-cr soft loan (March 28, 2009)
US consular operations commence in Hyderabad (March 25, 2009)
India, China set up machinery to sort out trade irritants (March 20, 2009)
Chile hopes to double trade with India in five years (March 18, 2009)
'India, China should work together to combat crisis' (March 06, 2009)
US consulate office in Hyderabad (March 05, 2009)
W. Africa's Benin sees India as economic growth centre (March 05, 2009)
Russia amends decree to facilitate nuclear exports (February 22, 2009)
India and China — Who will grab the gas? (February 21, 2009)
Hindi Chini Buy-Buy (February 20, 2009)
The A. Q. Khan network (February 19, 2009)
Bangalore to have Swiss Consul office (February 14, 2009)
Blowing hot cold on Pakistan (February 13, 2009)
Bangalore to have Swiss Consul office soon (February 13, 2009)
'France willing to reprocess uranium for India' (January 31, 2009)
Engaging China (January 30, 2009)
India's commitment to Africa total, says Pranab (January 20, 2009)
Expectations from the Obama administration (January 16, 2009)
Is India heading for a diplomatic quagmire on Mumbai carnage? (January 08, 2009)
Impact on trade with Pakistan (January 05, 2009)
India, Malaysia ink pact on employment of workers (January 04, 2009)
India, Iran have Asian Clearing Union option for transactions (January 02, 2009)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/cgi-bin/bl.pl?mainclass=27&subclass=098
 
 

India, China resume border talks amid rising tension

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Reuters

Posted: Aug 07, 2009 at 1439 hrs IST
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Narayanan Dai Bingguo
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India, China pledge to deepen ties for '...China objected to ADB funds for Arunacha...India-China PM hotline in a month

New Delhi India and China began talks on Friday to resolve their long simmering border dispute, but hopes of any progress are expected to grind against a recent spike in geopolitical tensions as well as muscle flexing along the border.

India's National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo resumed the talks after a year's gap, focusing on narrowing down differences along their Himalayan border. Twelve rounds of talks have been held before.

The two are also expected to talk the language of partnership, highlighted by a burgeoning trade and a common position on climate change and global trade talks.

Yet, traditional mistrust since a bloody 1962 war and sparring in recent months over what New Delhi says is China's interference in India's strategic matters could cloud the talks.

"The outlook of this round (of talks) is certainly not good," said New Delhi-based strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney.

"The atmosphere has deteriorated in the recent months, plus there's been escalation of tensions along the Himalayan border."

Feathers were ruffled two months ago when China objected to a $60 million Asian Development Bank loan for a project in Arunachal Pradesh that is claimed by Beijing.

India officials say China also tried to block its efforts to get the United Nations to designate a Pakistan-based militant leader a terrorist, as well as privately lobbied against a nuclear deal between India and the United States last year.

Of late, Chinese patrolling of the 3,500-km (2,200-mile) border, particularly along Arunachal Pradesh has also been markedly assertive, Indian officials said.

All this, some analysts said, was largely consistent with Chinese policy towards India, but New Delhi saw it as an increasing assertiveness as part of Beijing's overall "Rising China" strategy.

In response, India began to modernise its border roads and moved a squadron of Su-30 strike aircraft close to the border. Arunachal governor J.J. Singh, said in June up to 30,000 new troops would be deployed in the area.

The reaction in Chinese official media has been strong. An editorial in the Global Times said China would never compromise on the border dispute and asked India to consider if it could afford the consequences of a conflict with China.

"The Chinese government is trying to say that the public opinion in China is in favour of a more assertive stand towards India," B. Raman, former head of India's spy agency, said.

Others say it is a warning from China that India must back down from its military posturing.

That said, China may not want to escalate the border dispute now, given that it already has so much on its plate: from dealing with its restive Xinjiang region to fleshing out its relations with the United States and winning a bigger global role.

So after 28 years of negotiations, there appears little hope of a breakthrough -- the two sides have never even agreed on a military line separating the two armies.

"They wouldn't want to open too many fronts. So I expect status quo to be maintained in the talks," said Bhaskar Roy, a China expert.

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/India-China-resume-border-talks-amid-rising-tension/499323/

 

 

 



 

Crisis won't upset US dominance

6 Aug 2009, 2225 hrs IST, T T RAM MOHAN,ET Bureau

For all talk of the dollar losing its primacy, no alternative is in sight. Present crisis underscored the attractiveness of $. Is it right time to take plunge? I Will mkts rally?


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Joint operations in Lalgarh wasn't very successful, says West ...

Economic Times - ‎1 hour ago‎

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Three get death for Gateway, Zaveri Bazar blasts

Times of India - ‎10 minutes ago‎

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Strike hits banking operations

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Business Standard - Reuters - Wall Street Journal
BOM:532814 - NSE:INDIANB.BL - NSE:INDIANB
Fibre2fashion.com

Rs 2546-cr subsidy for textile sector in 3 days

Business Standard - ‎20 minutes ago‎
The government today said the textile industry would get Rs 2546 crore as subsidy under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) within three days, which will help the capital-starved industry clear its dues remaining up to June 30,2009.
Govt to release Rs 2546-cr subsidy for textiles in three days: Maran Hindu Business Line
Government to release Rs.2500 crore for textile sector Sify
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Sunil Jain: Ambani vs Ambani

Business Standard - ‎42 minutes ago‎
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) agreed to sell Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL) 80 mmscmd of gas from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin for 17 years at $2.34 per mmbtu - for its Dadri power plant.
What next for RIL-RNRL gas war? NDTV.com
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हिंदी में
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Indian students in Australia: Krishna happy with safety steps

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India's rain shortfall rises

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Hiroshima Day: Citizens oppose nuclear energy and nuclear weapons

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Economy

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Monsoon deficit 64 pct in critical crop week Thursday, 6 Aug 2009

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Monsoon rains were barely a third of normal in the past seven days, dipping for the second straight week at a crucial period for oilseeds and sugarcane, and raising concerns of rising food prices.  Full Article

 
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Ahluwalia: rising food prices a concern Thursday, 6 Aug 2009 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Rising food prices are a matter of concern, but the country has comfortable food stocks to deal with any difficult situation, India's plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Thursday.  Full Article  

Photo
Govt releases 25.46 bln rupees for textile fund Thursday, 6 Aug 2009 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government has released 25.46 billion rupees of subsidies to textile firms to upgrade their technology, the textile minister said on Thursday.  Full Article  

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White House's Romer: inflation not a worry now

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House Economic Adviser Christina Romer said on Thursday that there appeared to be no reason for concern about a flare-up in inflation.  Full Article  

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http://in.reuters.com/money/economy

 

Home ministry warns of terror attacks

The home ministry official said there has been a rise in infiltration by terrorists from across the border in the past few months


Liz Mathew

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New Delhi: The home ministry has warned that the Lashkar-e-Taiba may carry out terror attacks in New Delhi, Kolkata or Hyderabad ahead of Independence Day.

"It's a matter of concern," said a home ministry official, who declined to be named.

I-Day alert: A 13 September photo of a bomb blast site in New Delhi. In view of the latest threat, advisories have been sent to three states. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint

I-Day alert: A 13 September photo of a bomb blast site in New Delhi. In view of the latest threat, advisories have been sent to three states. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint

The ministry has sent advisories to the states based on intelligence inputs.

The official also said there has been a rise in infiltration by terrorists from across the border in the past few months. "We do not see any indication that Pakistan has... reined in terror elements," the bureaucrat said.

Separately, the home ministry is planning a new policy aimed at stopping the growing incidence of Maoist-related violence across the country. "The strategy will be finalized after the internal security meeting on 17 August, which will be attended by chief ministers and senior police officers," the official said. The chief ministers of the seven states hit by such violence will hold a separate meeting the same day to discuss the issue.

The Central government is considering many proposals, including adding more security forces, upgrading technology and providing armoured vehicles and mine detectors, besides air support to tackle the Naxalite menace.

The official, however, clarified that air support would be used only to carry out reconnaissance operations, evacuation and to move the security forces.




US underplays differences with India over climate change


Seeking to underplay differences with India over climate change, the US says it is "encouraging" that both countries are committed to do whatever they can to reach an agreement on a new UN climate treaty at Copenhagen.

 

"Well, I don't think so," Philip J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, told reporters Monday when asked how sharp differences between India and US on the climate change issue would impact the strategic ties between them.

"I mean, obviously, there are differing points of view. They did come up in the event that the secretary (of state Hillary Clinton) had over the weekend," he said referring to Indian Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh's assertion Sunday that India can't accept legally binding greenhouse emission targets.

"I don't think they were necessarily as sharp as perhaps some of the reporting would have suggested. You know, this is a subject of ongoing negotiations," Crowley said.

"I think what is encouraging is that both the United States and India are committed to do whatever they can to reach a successful agreement in Copenhagen later this year," he said. "But obviously negotiations are ongoing, but I think the secretary felt it was a constructive conversation."

At the same time, Crowley also reiterated the US stand that to successfully address the challenge of climate change "meaningful steps" would have to be taken "both by developed countries, like the United States, and emerging countries, like India and China".

"But obviously, as we've made clear … the US and other developed countries have a special responsibility because up until now we have in fact generated many of the greenhouse gases that have brought us to where we are."

"But we also recognize, going forward, that something like 80 percent of the greenhouse gases that will be emitted in the future will come from countries like India and China," Crowley said.

So "ultimately, for us to successfully address the challenge of climate change in the world, you have to have meaningful steps done both by developed countries, like the United States, and emerging countries, like India and China."


http://blog.taragana.com/n/us-underplays-differences-with-india-over-climate-change-115500/

Cementing a New Indo-US Era


19 July 2009
Hillary Clinton's debut visit to India, as Secretary of State, reflects the importance New Delhi has acquired in Washington's scheme of things in the region.

 

And, moreover, when seen through the prism of bilateralism, it seems the United States has taken an exception in dealing with Pakistan and India on an equal footing. Thus, Clinton's visit to India by ignoring an air dash to Islamabad, which has long been a convention of dignitaries from the Western capitals, speaks volumes about the leap forward in their bilateral relations. The Indo-US nuclear deal, which ended a three-decade ban on the sale of civilian nuclear technology to India, stands out as a symbol of a new engagement as both countries form a new strategic understanding in world affairs.

Apart from the feel-good factor that Indo-US diplomacy has been experiencing since the days of the Bush administration, there is a long and lengthy list of commonalities they share. Their mutual concern over terrorism, resolve to work out an understanding on climate change and non-proliferation, an accord to boost trade on 
a preferential basis, collaboration in the fields of science and technology, and last but not the 
least, dealing with China are issues that will keep them engaged.

Secretary Clinton started her visit with a highly symbolic and significant prayer ceremony at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel, which was a theatre of November 11 terrorist attacks last year.

The ceremony, perhaps, reflected not only the resolve to fight terrorism but also to stand shoulder to shoulder with the victims. As rightly stated by her, instances such as Mumbai and, the recent, blasts in Jakarta keep reminding that the war against terrorism is far from over. It also underscores the need for a collective strategy to defeat an enemy, which is not only stateless but faceless as well.

However bilateral the agenda may be, Secretary Clinton cannot avoid discussing Pakistan. The visit, coincidentally, comes at a time when India and Pakistan have agreed to resume the dialogue process after a freeze of seven months. It is hoped Clinton assures both India and Pakistan that a regime of peace is indispensable, and to attain such an objective Washington's unconditional help will be forthcoming. At the same time, the US needs to see to it that de-escalation of tension between Islamabad and New Delhi acts as a contributory factor in focusing on the threat of terror on Pakistan's western frontier bordering Afghanistan. And that cannot be possible until, and unless, the thorny issues between both the countries are resolved for good — an 
aspect that will put to test Washington's bipartisan approach.

The visit is likely to go a long way in building new trade and security relations in an era of economic recession and chaos. A successful understanding between the world's single largest economy, the US, struggling under a staggering $1trillion budget deficit, and a booming India, which to a great extent has come out unscratched from the ongoing recession can help turn around regional dynamics. Yet, the unconquered domains of poverty, hunger, disease, disarmament and an unbalanced developmental pattern are issues which both the great democracies have to address to ensure a prosperous future. The long-term agenda is thus fraught with challenges and concerns.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/editorial/2009/July/editorial_July37.xml&section=editorial&col=

Nuke deal's first gains reach India


Aabshar H Quazi, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Kota, July 16, 2009
First Published: 01:12 IST(16/7/2009)
Last Updated: 01:44 IST(16/7/2009)

The Indo-US nuclear deal produced its first tangible results with consignments of nuclear fuel from France, Russia and Kazakhstan arriving at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) site in Rawatbhata on Wednesday. Until the deal, such exports to India were barred by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Site director, C.P. Jhamb, said that 472 bundles of nuclear fuel had arrived from the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad. The complex is converting 300 tons of imported raw uranium fuel, called yellowcake, into fuel bundles. These fuel bundles will be used to power up the second RAPS power unit, shutdown since June 2008 for lack of fuel.

There were 472 fuel bundles in this first consignment. In a few weeks, said Jamb, enough imported fuel would arrive to allow the reactor to start production. "A total of 3,672 imported nuclear fuel bundles will be required to start power generation at second unit."

Since RAPS is a safeguarded facility, inspection officials from the IAEA will arrive after a week just before the bundles are loaded into the second unit.

The second unit can generate 200 MW of electricity.

Jamb said further fuel shipments expected in September would be used to power the fifth and sixth RAPS reactors, both presently under construction.

The last nuclear fuel import was in 2005 when the Bush administration agreed to a one-off shipment for the Tarapore reactor. The fuel was flown in from Russia.  

The inability to import nuclear fuel has been a key reason India's nuclear power plants have run at as little as 60 per cent of their installed capacity, says the World Nuclear Organisation. India had been denied such fuel, as well as imported nuclear technology, because of its refusal to sign the NPT which would have req-uired it to give up its nuclear weapons arsenal.

The Indo-US nuclear deal, in a nutshell, allowed India to keep its nuclear weapons as well as access international nuclear fuel and technology. The deal took five years of negotiations. It also generated controversy around the world. The Bush administration was accused of breaking the NPT and the international nonproliferation system for a narrow strategic interest in India. The Manmohan Singh government was accused in India of compromising India's strategic nuclear independence. The deal was technically completed in June last year when, after days of tense diplomacy, the Nuclear Suppliers Group — the multilateral body which enforces the NPT-derived nuclear sanctions and technology bans —voted to give India an exemption from the NPT.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=0ea87371-3e29-49c3-a51a-a0bded3c2a16&Headline=Nuclear-deal-s-first-gains-reach-India


Supreme Court should holiday less, work more

To deal with the piling backlog of cases, the Supreme Court and high court judges must cut down holidays and put in longer hours at work, said a body that advises the government on law and judicial reforms. Nagendar Sharma reports. How hard they work
2003 Mumbai blasts case
3 get death for Mumbai bombings that killed 56
Ten days after it convicted three persons of killing 56 people and injuring over 250 in blasts at three places in 2003, the special POTA court on Thursday pronounced the punishment: "To be hanged by their neck till they are dead." Listen to podcast audio
Now, Buta's role under scanner in Bihar; probe ordered
The NSCS chairman Buta Singh seems to be in fresh trouble with the Bihar government ordering a high-level probe into allotment of Rs 900 crore projects for construction of embankment along Bagmati River to an "undeserving" firm.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/HomePage/HomePage.aspx


South Korea, India to sign bilateral trade agreement


South Korea will sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India Friday to increase bilateral economic cooperation,


a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday. ( Watch )

The signing ceremony will take place with the visiting Indian commerce minister in Seoul Friday morning, the ministry official said, finishing a three-year-long negotiating session to boost trade between the two countries.

"We expect the CEPA to be a catalyst to further boost our business ties with India," said Choi Gyung Rim, policy director of South Korean foreign ministry.

The South Korean foreign ministry official said he expects the agreement to become effective sometime around next January after Seoul gets final approval from the South Korean National Assembly by the end of October.

India already got final approval June 2 from its cabinet for the agreement with South Korea, the ministry director said.

The CEPA is similar to a free trade agreement (FTA), with a comprehensive coverage of trade in goods and services and investments, as well as intellectual property rights.

Under the CEPA, India will eliminate duties on 75 per cent of products imported from South Korea on a custom-value basis during the eight years after the CEPA becomes effective. South Korea will remove duties on 93 per cent of products from India during the same period.

Although the tariff-removal rate is slower than the provision under most other free trade agreements, the deal with India is still expected to boost bilateral trade by up to $3.3 billion, up from the 2008 total of $15.6 billion, the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy forecast.

The agreement is forecast to benefit South Korean shipment of auto parts, while it benefits Indian service sector and service workers to work for South Korean companies.

The CEPA enables the duty-free export of 108 items that are made in the jointly-operated industrial park of Kaesong in North Korea.

Both countries agreed to set aside the farm and forestry sector as a "low-level" of market opening to protect vulnerable farmers and forestry operators.

"Among 1,466 duty items of farm and fishery items, we excluded 714 items from the CEPA coverage. Excluded items are rice, pork, chicken and most tropical fruit items," the ministry director said.



INTERVIEW - Govt seeks foreign funds role in roads


By Surojit Gupta and Tony Munroe

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India wants foreign investors to fund as much as half of the $20 billion a year it has earmarked for road building, Transport Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday.

Building roads has become a priority for the new Congress-led government as it aims to generate demand across the country, and Nath's appointment is seen by analysts as an attempt to push that agenda harder.

Road construction activity in the previous Congress administration got mired in bureaucratic hurdles and funding delays.

"We are looking at all funds. We are looking at sovereign wealth funds. We are looking at private equity. We are looking at pension funds," Nath said in an interview at his residence, a day after India's new budget plan included a 23 percent increase in funding for national highways.

Nath also said the government might consider raising taxes on petrol and diesel to pay for road building.

"We may examine increasing the petrol and the diesel cess we have," he said. "At a later stage we will examine it."

Nath said he planned to meet with investors from Europe, the United States and Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore, in the next two or three months to discuss which financing platforms would be most effective.

"In the next year the investment is close to $10 billion from overseas," he said, adding that his ministry wanted foreign funds to account for half or slightly less than half of road investment in coming years.  Continued...


 
MISSED CHANCES
- Some Indian leaders could deal with the US more maturely
Diplomacy - K.P. Nayar

What does it say about managing India's relations with the United States of America when the petroleum minister, Murli Deora, brags on the day the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, arrives in New Delhi that the country will not succumb to any pressure from Washington on seeing through the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project? If any other cabinet minister had said this, the boast would have been credible. But Deora?

When Deora was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002, Capitol Hill witnessed the unusual spectacle of Congressmen falling over each other on the floor of the House of Representatives to congratulate, on the record, his election from Maharashtra. No other Indian politician has ever been similarly hailed on the floor of the US Congress. During the Bush administration, when the United Progressive Alliance government anchored its vision of India-US relations on downgrading other multilateral relationships, India was the only country that chose not to send its head of government for the summit meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. At that time, Deora was hand-picked by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to represent him at the SCO. It is an open secret in Washington that Singh's choice of Deora was more of a message to the Bush administration than to the SCO summit, where the petroleum minister was headed.

In the pre-Hugo-Chavez-Evo-Morales era in Latin America, it was to reliable supporters of the Deora kind that the US historically turned to when Washington wanted to change governments in banana republics and was looking for leaders to head States refashioned in the flavour of the White House.

On occasion, to be fair, the Manmohan Singh government, for its part, has used Deora to its advantage. When the nuclear deal was going through a rough patch on Capitol Hill, with its US opponents determined to pass what were then known as 'killer amendments' to its enabling legislation, it was after the petroleum minister's visit to Washington and his powwows at the Hay Adams Hotel near the White House that several senators and members of the House of Representatives fell in line and supported India.

It is also a matter of record that the ministry of petroleum and natural gas was the only Union ministry that mounted a sensible public campaign to sell the deal to doubters and opponents among the Indian public. The copy of the advertisements that Deora ordered to be run in dailies across the country made out a logical and convincing case for going ahead with the nuclear deal in the interest of energy security. But why create discord over the controversial India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline at the precise moment when Clinton was arriving in New Delhi on what was essentially a goodwill visit? Especially when everyone knows that pipeline will remain a pipe dream long after Deora, now 72, has probably left the government and even public life.

Like the broadside against the US by the environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, on the same day, like the late president K.R. Narayanan's ill-timed words against the US in the Rashtrapati Bhavan banquet speech to honour then president Bill Clinton in 2000, Deora's conduct was symptomatic of a lack of maturity and self-confidence that dogs India's political leaders in their dealings with the world's only remaining superpower.

If the Clinton trip had been differently handled on Raisina Hill, the seat of authority in New Delhi, it would have equalled, or even surpassed, the atmospherics during the visits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. That would have set the tone for what the prime minister wants to achieve in Washington in November in the next stage of India-US relations. Instead, what has been created in Washington are lingering controversies, some bad blood and a partial return to the mistrust and suspicions, especially at the bureaucratic level, of the kind that dogged Indo-US relations throughout the Cold War era.

Symptomatic of this undercurrent was a shocking statement in an interview last week by India's best friend in the Senate, John Cornyn — who is none other than a founder and Republican co-chair of the Senate India Caucus — that the US is "not just fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are fighting — we have graver threats and great threats than… from a rising India, with increased exercise of their military power". Cornyn quickly apologized and corrected himself, but that cannot wish away the feelings that prompted even a friendly senator to tell what was really at the back of his mind about India.

The new ambassador, Meera Shankar, has now been left to deal with the fallout of a visit that could have been handled better. Shankar made an impressive beginning last week when she mobilized a quarter of the entire Senate for an event on Capitol Hill that coincided with the reorganization of the Senate India Caucus in the new US Congress.

Like Senator Cornyn, in an unguarded moment, Hillary Clinton expressed her innermost thoughts when she met Ramilaben Rohit, the president of the Self Employed Women's Association, in Mumbai. Ramilaben was recently elected to lead the association by its 1.1 million members. "You are lucky to have been elected president. I didn't have the same luck," Clinton told Ramilaben, whom she addressed as 'Madam President'. And she meant it. Clinton had once imagined that she would repeat her 1995 visit to India as first lady, this time returning as US president. But fate willed otherwise, and she was recalling her life's unrealized ambition when she envied the Gujarati woman's success in their brief conversation.

The Indian government failed to understand what Ramilaben, a farm-worker from Anand, Shantaben Parmar, a vegetable vendor from Ahmedabad, Fulkuvabra Jadeja, an embroidery worker from Kutch, and other SEWA members did. These women called her "Hillaryben" and taught her to wear a traditional Indian dupatta. The US secretary of state was much more comfortable with the women of SEWA, the students she interacted with and the corporate leaders in Mumbai who fawned on her than with the politicians she later met in New Delhi.

There were plenty of opportunities in New Delhi for the government to have dealt with her visit differently. There were three women in South Block, for instance, each of whom played an important part during Clinton's stay in the capital. Clinton was received in New Delhi on arrival by two women, Gayatri Kumar, South Block's point person for the US, and Meera Shankar, the ambassador in Washington. Nirupama Rao had not yet taken charge as foreign secretary, but she was designated as officer on special duty so that she could be part of the official delegation talking to Clinton and her team.

India's government does not know how to use its assets. Much could have been made of this all-women team on the Indian side in spinning to the US media about the gender-glass ceiling being broken during the Clinton visit. That was the kind of projection the secretary of state was looking for back in the US. That would have taken India much further in bargaining with the US than the lecture by India's environment minister and the posturing by the country's petroleum minister.

One person who made the most of the opportunities offered by Clinton's visit was the low-profile, soft-spoken defence minister, A.K. Antony. He managed to solve a problem that has been a thorn on his side from the day he took charge of the defence ministry: the issue of end-use verification of military purchases from the US. He also laid the groundwork for private-sector defence production in India with US collaboration by timing a series of revelations in Parliament, on the day Clinton arrived in New Delhi, about the pathetic state of the country's indigenous defence production. In the end, Clinton may look back and thank Antony for what he quietly did for the next big phase of the India-US engagement in the coming years.


http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090805/jsp/opinion/story_11319146.jsp


Clinton threatens Eritrea action

Hillary Clinton in Nairobi
Mrs Clinton earlier laid a wreath for the victims of the 1998 embassy attacks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that the US will "take action" against Eritrea if it does not stop supporting militants in Somalia.

She said after talks with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, that Eritrea's actions were "unacceptable".

She also said the US would expand support for Somalia's unity government.

Eritrea denies supporting Somalia's al-Shabab militants, who are trying to overthrow Somalia's government.

Al-Shabab is growing in strength and 250,000 Somalis have fled their homes in fighting between militants and government forces over the past three months.

Wreath-laying

Mrs Clinton was holding the talks with the UN-backed Somali leader, a moderate Islamist, on the second day of her African tour.

Certainly if al-Shabab were to obtain a haven in Somalia which could then attract al-Qaeda and other terrorist actions, it would be a threat to the United States
Hillary Clinton
US secretary of state

Meeting Somalia's al-Shabab
Q&A: Somalia's conflict
In pictures: Somali refugee city

At a joint news conference with him after the meeting, she said: "It is long past time for Eritrea to cease and desist its support of al-Shabab and to start being a productive rather than a destabilising neighbour.

"We are making it very clear that their actions are unacceptable. We intend to take action if they do not cease."

She added: "There is also no doubt that al-Shabab wants to obtain control of Somalia to use it as a base from which to influence and even infiltrate surrounding countries and launch attacks against countries far and near."

Mrs Clinton said if al-Shabab obtained a haven in Somalia "it would be a threat to the United States".

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Hillary Clinton spoke about Somalia at the University of Nairobi

The US has ruled out sending its forces to fight insurgents in Somalia.

But the AFP news agency quoted a state department official as saying on Thursday that the US supply of arms and ammunition to Somalia would be doubled from 40 tonnes to 80.

Eritrean officials have repeatedly denied supporting al-Shabab, calling the allegations a "fabrication" of US intelligence.

Several Somali Islamist groups operated from Eritrea after being ousted from the capital, Mogadishu, when Ethiopian troops entered Somalia in 2006.

Before the talks on Thursday, Mrs Clinton honoured the victims of the August 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in a wreath-laying ceremony in Nairobi.

More than 220 people were killed and 5,000 injured in the first major attack by al-Qaeda on US targets.

AP news agency quoted her as saying that the embassy site was a reminder of "the continuing threat of terrorism, which respects no boundaries, no race, ethnicity or religion, but is aimed at disrupting and denying the opportunity of people to make their own decisions and to lead their own lives".

Map

There are reports that al-Shabab - the Somali Islamist group which favours strict Islamic law and is accused of links to al-Qaeda - is gaining support from militants around the world.

Earlier this week, police in Australia arrested several men, charging them with planning suicide attacks on a base in Sydney and saying they were linked to al-Shabab.

The BBC's Will Ross in Nairobi says President Ahmed needs all the support he can get. Pro-government forces are only in control of a small section of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Our correspondent points out it is far too dangerous for the American secretary of state to venture into Somalia, as the fighting continues.

Kenya violence

Somalia's foreign minister told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Washington's support for his government was a "golden opportunity".

"It is absolutely clear that the people of Somalia are tired... sick and tired of war, sick and tired of chaos," he said.

CLINTON'S AFRICAN TOUR
Kenya
South Africa
Nigeria
Angola
Liberia
Democratic Republic of Congo
Cape Verde

Send us your comments

The US admits it has supplied pro-government forces in Somalia with over 40 tonnes of weapons and ammunition this year, and another delivery of weapons is predicted, says our correspondent.

But there are growing fears that the Horn of Africa country - which has been without an effective central government since 1991 - risks becoming a haven for terrorists.

On Wednesday, Mrs Clinton held talks in Nairobi with Kenya's president and prime minister.

America's top diplomat described as "disappointing" Kenya's failure to investigate a bout of violence that left at least 1,300 people dead after the disputed December 2007 presidential election.

Addressing African leaders at Wednesday's economic summit, Mrs Clinton said the continent had "enormous potential for progress".

But she stressed that harnessing that potential would require democracy and good governance.

During her 11-day trip Mrs Clinton will also visit South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape Verde.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8186781.stm

Bank pumps extra £50bn into economy

3 hours 33 mins ago

Press Assoc.

The Bank of England has warned that the banking sector could hamper recovery from the recession as it pumped an extra £50 billion into the flagging economy. Skip related content

The surprise move - taking efforts to boost the money supply to £175 billion - appeared to pour cold water on rising hopes that the UK will bounce back quickly from recession.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which left interest rates at a 0.5% record low, saw some hopeful signs but flagged up lower lending levels - with banks making more profits on the loans they are making.

The committee warned: "The need for banks to continue repairing their balance sheets is likely to restrict the availability of credit, and past falls in asset prices and high levels of debt may weigh on spending."

Its decision comes after £6 billion in combined profits from HSBC and Barclays on Monday, but losses of £4 billion and £724 million respectively from Lloyds Banking Group and the nationalised Northern Rock.

Figures also showed a £14.7 billion fall in loans to businesses between April and June - raising questions over the effectiveness of the Bank's quantitative easing strategy.

IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said: "Bank lending to businesses remains very weak and spreads on bank loans are elevated, which is a serious threat to recovery prospects."

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable added: "As financial institutions continue to hoard money, quantitative easing has not yet fed through to the rest of the economy. It's vital that it does."

Thursday's move confounded speculation before the MPC's meeting that QE - buying up assets with newly-created money - could be paused amid encouraging signs from industry as well as rising house prices.

This week has seen better than expected output figures from manufacturing and services firms, an 18% rise in new construction orders and an increase in new car sales for the first time since April last year. But the committee said the recession "appears to be deeper than previously thought".



U.S. fuel sanctions to hurt Iran, a boon for traders


By Simon Webb and Chris Baldwin - Analysis

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions against suppliers of fuel to Iran would drive up the price the Islamic Republic has to pay for imports and provide a big money-making opportunity for oil traders able to flout the measures.

Sanctions busting has proved lucrative in the past for the less scrupulous in the opaque world of oil trade and could do so again if new measures seek to limit sales into Iran.

"Oil flows are really determined by market forces rather than politics and that's the bottom line," said analyst Raja Kiwan of PFC Energy. "Politics can be an obstacle, but can't block the flow."

Iran is the world's fifth-largest crude exporter but its refineries lack the capacity to meet domestic fuel demand so it imports up to 40 percent of its gasoline supplies. The U.S. and its allies may target those imports if Tehran refuses to enter talks over its nuclear program.

The West suspects Iran aims to make nuclear bombs, while Tehran insists it needs fuel for power plants.

The measures would disrupt supply patterns, stop some suppliers and force Iran to pay more for sellers to run the risk, analysts and traders said.

"Sanctions just make it more expensive and uncomfortable," said Al Troner, managing director of Asia Pacific Energy Consulting. "That's what you saw with South Africa and to some extent Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The flow would continue but players would take on substantial financial and political risk."

Higher import costs would impact the budget, which could hurt President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Government subsidies make Iran's gasoline among the cheapest in the world. If imports cost more, more of the budget would be spent on those subsidies, leaving less cash to finance Ahmadinejad's populist programs.

So even if the oil flow continues, sanctions may have the impact that the U.S. and its allies want.

Neta Crawford, a professor of political science at Boston University who studied the effect of oil sanctions against apartheid in South Africa, said even leaky sanctions there strained the economy and fractured the elites' hold on society.

"Sanctions deny them their resource, force them to pay a premium for that resource, and then the cost of evading the embargo just means they don't have the resources to do whatever it was they initially wanted to do," Crawford said.

"Everything they do to evade sanctions becomes a huge tax. It creates these huge grey and black market economies, and people who wouldn't have been empowered become empowered by making a whole lot of money."

OPPORTUNITY?

Some of the best-known names in the oil trade have made big money from supplying into countries under sanctions.

Billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, a pioneer of crude oil trading and founder of the commodities trading giant that become Glencore, was pardoned by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2001 after 17 years as a fugitive to avoid prosecution on counts including alleged illegal oil trading with Iran. U.S. politicians said he also illegally traded oil with Iraq, Libya, Cuba and South Africa.  Continued...


Obama's problems with North Korea were caused, not solved, by Clinton

The new President is having to address his predecessor's toxic legacy

 

By Con Coughlin
Published: 7:48PM BST 06 Aug 2009

The image of two American women weeping with relief, after being spared 12 years of hard labour in North Korea, led to a tempting conclusion: that even in the darkest recesses of the world's most reviled regimes, the Obama effect is starting to take hold. From the moment he came to office just over six months ago, the new US president has sought to undertake a fundamental rebranding of America's international image. Gone is the Bush administration's Manichean view that divided the world between good countries (those that supported Washington's War on Terror) and evil ones (those that didn't).

Obama sees the world in a different light. He is not much concerned whether governments like or dislike America, or agree or disagree with his policies. So long as they are prepared to conduct relations with Washington on the basis of mutual respect, and without intimidation, he is happy to extend the hand of friendship, whether the recipients are unreconstructed Marxists, military dictators or Islamist fundamentalists.

 

Related Articles

We have seen Obama work his magic in Latin America, where his offer of a "new beginning" with Cuba took some of the sting out of the rhetoric of such prominent America-haters as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. The new approach has also paid dividends with Russia, which has toned down the militarism that characterised the final years of the Bush administration and is even assisting the Nato-led mission to pacify Afghanistan, rather than impeding it.

More dramatically, Obama's offer to conduct direct negotiations with Iran for the first time in 30 years has had a deeply destabilising effect on the ruling elite. This week's reappointment of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to serve a second four-year term suggests that the regime has put the pro-reform genie back in its bottle for now. But the fact that prominent Iranians – including two former presidents – boycotted the ceremony shows that many remain deeply dissatisfied about the way the country is run, particularly with regard to Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme.

Now it appears that even North Korea, the world's most secretive regime, is susceptible to Obama's charm. Bill Clinton might claim that he was acting independently of the White House in travelling to North Korea to seek the journalists' freedom, just as the North Koreans insisted that their decision to waive the 12-year prison sentences was unrelated to the stalled negotiations over their nuclear weapons programme. Both claims are disingenuous, to say the least. Quite apart from the fact that Clinton is a former Democratic president whose wife is the current Secretary of State, he is also the architect of Washington's policy of engagement with Pyongyang to resolve the nuclear stand-off.

Indeed, many of Clinton's detractors argue that the former president's failure to take a stronger line with the North Koreans during the early stages of the negotiations in the 1990s is responsible for the current crisis. Far from resolving the delicate issue of Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, Clinton's disinclination to play hardball resulted in North Korea becoming a nuclear power.

The real legacy of Clinton's policy is that, since Obama entered office, North Korea has tested a nuclear device, fired a long-range missile capable of hitting the US and unnerved American allies in the region by launching multiple short-range missiles. Earlier in the summer, Obama's national security advisers were so unnerved by Pyongyang's bellicose antics that they ordered Patriot anti-missile defence batteries to be set up on Hawaii. In addition, North Korea has become one of the world's leading nuclear proliferators, sharing its technology with other rogue states.

No wonder, then, that Clinton jumped at the chance to fly to Pyongyang, ostensibly to free the two journalists, but in reality to try to put a stop to the nuclear nightmare his ineffectual negotiating tactics of the 1990s have created. The fact that he met with both Kim Jong-il, the regime's reclusive leader, and Kim Kye-gwan, the chief nuclear negotiator, suggests that the significance of his presence in Pyongyang was not lost on the North Korean leadership, which is under intense pressure to resume the stalled six-nation talks over the future of its nuclear programme.

During the past 10 years, the dominant feature of the West's attempts to coax the North Koreans into scaling down their nuclear ambitions has been Pyongyang's ability to force a number of concessions without making any of their own. The Clinton administration handed over millions of dollars in aid, food, oil and even a nuclear reactor in the hope of persuading the North Koreans to ditch their military programme. They simply took the aid and carried on with nuclear development regardless, so that by 2006 they were able to detonate a device.

Whether Clinton's latest dramatic intervention will persuade Pyongyang to engage in a serious disarmament dialogue, is unclear. But if the North Koreans persist with their defiance of the West, Obama will need to do a lot more than simply extend the hand of friendship.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/concoughlin/5985069/Obamas-problems-with-North-Korea-were-caused-not-solved-by-Clinton.html

Clinton: It is a 'great regret' the US is not in International Criminal Court

Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, signals shift by the US in favour of the International Criminal Court

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, attends a press conference at the US Embassy in Nairobi.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, attends a press conference at the US embassy in Nairobi. Photograph: Khalil Senosi/AP

Hillary Clinton today signalled a significant shift by the US in favour of the International Criminal Court, the world body that pursues war criminals but which was strenuously opposed by the Bush administration.

In the most public expression of support yet from the Obama administration, Secretary of State Clinton expressed regret that the US has not yet joined the ICC.

The court, set up in 2002, has pursued dictators, mainly from Africa, who are alleged to have been engaged in genocide and other war crimes.

Supporters, including the UK government, which is a member, have long advocated the US joining, saying this would immensely strengthen the body.

But George Bush blocked American membership, expressing fears that US officials could be open to arrest for alleged war crimes. The Pentagon at the time was concerned that US soldiers might end up in the in court in The Hague.

The US at present is not only not a member but government officials are theoretically banned from having any engagement with the body whatsoever.

Clinton, speaking at a public meeting in Kenya, the first leg of her Africa tour, said: "This is a great regret that we are not a signatory. I think we could have worked out some of the challenges that are raised concerning our membership. But that has not yet come to pass."

Bill Clinton, in December 2000, just before leaving office, signed up to the ICC. But Bush two years later announced that the US would not be joining and a bill ratifying membership failed to get through Congress.

The Obama administration is stuffed full of supporters of the ICC both in the White House and the state department. But there are others in the administration who advocate caution, saying that the president can afford not to rush membership and should wait to see how the ICC evolves.

Noah Weisbord, who teaches law at Duke University and who worked in the Hague with the ICC's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, today expressed scepticism about whether the US would sign up within the next four years, but he said the US can help the ICC in ways that are more important than ratification. This included help in gathering evidence and in isolating diplomatically leaders accused of war crimes as a precursor to bringing them to justice.

"Hilary Clinton's comment that she regrets that the US is not yet a signatory to the ICC is intriguing. I think it marks an important moment in the courtship between the US and the ICC. Not only has she voiced an aspiration, but she has explicitly stated that the US has been cooperating with the ICC," Weisbord, who supports the ICC, said.

Barack Obama backed the ICC decision earlier this year to issue an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in connection with the mass killings in Darfur.

Clinton yesterday criticised African leaders who continued to support Bashir instead of helping to bring him to justice. She said the US supported the charges against Bashir as an effort to end impunity and considered the ICC indictments against him as a clear message that his behaviour was outside accepted bounds.
The British government was coy today about reacting to Clinton's comments, though privately hoping it signalled a shift. A Foreign Office spokesperson issued a short statement, without referring to the US: "The UK played a leading role in the negotiations and drafting of the Rome statute [which set up the ICC]. We believed then, and continue to do so, that the principles of the statute can help bring an end to the culture of impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community."

During his election campaign, Obama's foreign policy advisers said he would on taking office consult with US military commanders and examine the track record of the court before reaching a decision. But the advisers also said that membership would be difficult while the US was still in Iraq and Guantánamo remained open.

Supporters of the ICC say the US is losing out by not being a member, citing discussion underway at present on adding another crime to the ICC's list, the crime of aggression, and this is being shaped without US participation. A vote by members on the new crime is scheduled for May next year in Uganda.

One hundred and ten states have so far ratified the Rome statute. Those who have not signed, apart from the US, include Russia, China and Israel.

Although the Bush administration frequently cited Pentagon concerns, US lawyers report that there appears to be a shift there too, with some senior military figures now viewing the court as a useful tool rather than a threat.

One of the most prestigious international legal bodies in the US, the American Society of International Law, published a report in March from its own task force that unanimously recommended the Obama administration officially engage with the ICC and give serious consideration to joining the court.

About the International Criminal Court

The ICC was set up in 2002 to ensure individuals engaged in genocide, war crimes and other atrocities would no longer escape with impunity.

Temporary ad hoc courts have been established in the past to deal with Nazi war crimes and more recently with ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and genocide in Rwanda. But the international court is a permanent one and is based in The Hague.

The creation of the ICC had long been lobbied for by human rights campaigners after watching a host of atrocities created round the world without any action being taken.
Its powers were not retrospective and it has only be able to tackle crimes alleged to have been committed after 1 July 2002.

So far the ICC has investigated or started the process of prosecution into crimes in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan. With regard to the latter, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, over the mass killings in Darfur. But the limitations of the ICC have been exposed, with Bashir able to travel freely round Africa without being arrested.

The prosecutor can decide when to intervene, or can react to complaints against a state or individual or a request from the UN security council.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/06/us-international-criminal-court

 

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