India team in Pakistan for poverty conference
ISLAMABAD, Apr 8 (Reuters): A high-level Indian delegation attended a regional meeting on poverty alleviation in the Pakistan capital today, but officials said there were no plans for bilateral talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India and Pakistan have massed around a million troops on their border in a tense military stand-off since a December attack on India's parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-backed militants.
The Indian team was led by Krishna Chandra pant who is the Indian government's pointman on peace talks with a range of groups in Kashmir.
He is also deputy chairman of India's planning commission, a key economic policy-setting body.
But a Pakistani finance ministry official said there were no plans for Pant to hold bilateral talks with finance minister Shaukat Aziz or other government officials on the sidelines of the meeting.
Pakistan's military ruler general Pervez Musharraf opened the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting of finance and planning ministers appealing for a renewed effort to fight poverty in the region.
"Our common story is that of missed opportunity," he said.
Some 520 million of South Asia's 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day, and the region is home to almost half the world's poor.
Half of South Asia's people are also illiterate while 10 million suffer from "avoidable disabilities" because of poor healthcare.
Gen Musharraf appealed for international help in "human resource development" but said it would help even more if the west would open its markets to products from the third world.
"That would lift tens of millions of our people out of the poverty trap," he said.
Gen Musharraf also asked for international help in tracking down and returning billions of dollars stolen by corrupt officials which he said now resided in western bank accounts.
"This is the blood of people in poor countries," he said.
"If this capital is brought back, we'd be out of our debt problems." Gen Musharraf made a passing reference to regional security but did not directly address the tension with India or the billions of dollars both countries spend on defence.
Officials do not expect much progress in resolving Pakistan-India tensions at the SAARC meeting, although there will be some personal contact between the two delegations.
Pant, Aziz and other delegates held an informal dinner last night, Pakistani officials said.
A spokesman for Pant also told reuters before leaving New Delhi that he would meet Pakistani leaders informally during a retreat which has been arranged at the end of the summit.
Last month, India sent information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj to the meeting of SAARC information ministers, the first visit by an Indian cabinet member to Pakistan since military ruler Gen Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup.
But the military stand-off or resumption of talks between the two nations were not discussed during the three-day meeting.
Gen Musharraf and Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee shook hands during the SAARC summit in Kathmandu in January.
But no headway was made in the resumption of stalled bilateral talks between the two countries.
Pakistan has called repeatedly for talks with India but new Delhi says it will talk only when it is convinced Islamabad is serious about ending what it calls "cross border terrorism".
SAARC also includes Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives.
Musharraf calls for international mechanisms to retrieve money ISLAMABAD,Apr 8(DPA) Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, today urged the international community to ensure the return of money that politicians have made through corruption.
"While we are pursuing the issues of drug-trafficking and the money made thereof, we must also find ways to deal with the money laundering.
We need to bring back this capital," General Musharraf told the 3rd ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Gen Musharraf, who deposed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in October 1999, accuses Sharif, and his predecessor Benazir Bhutto, of having "looted and plundered" national wealth.
In a nationally televised address last Friday, he also ruled out a return from exile of the two former prime ministers, saying they had been at the head of corruption and misrule, and stashed away billions of Dollars abroad.
"They don't have a role in Pakistani politics any more," Gen Musharraf declared in his address to the nation.
Both the exiled Sharif and Benazir Bhutto face a number of corruption cases in special accountability courts.
A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been chasing foreign bank accounts of former rulers - including those of Sharif and Bhutto - and pleading with West European governments to repatriate the money that it says belongs to the people of Pakistan.
Sharon says Arafat establishes "regime of terror" JERUSALEM, Apr 8 (Reuters) Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon today accused Palestinian president Yasser Arafat of establishing a "regime of terror" and leading "gangs of murderers" trying to drive out Israelis.
"Arafat has established a regime of terror in the territories under his control," Sharon said in a televised speech to the Israeli parliament that was interrupted repeatedly by Arab Israeli legislators who were then shouted down by other members of the assembly.
Sharon, speaking after a wave of suicide bombings that prompted Israel to launch a military offensive in the West Bank, held up documents which he said linked Arafat to the suicide attacks in an 18-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation.
"The gangs of murderers have a leader...And the aim is to force us out of here," he said.
"The one who sends them is the head of the Palestinian authority, Yasser Arafat." Arafat has denied such accusations in the past and has accused Sharon of using "terror tactics" as Israel tried to put down the Palestinian uprising.
Sharon says offensive goes on, seeks to meet Arabs JERUSALEM, Apr 8 (Reuters) Prime minister Ariel Sharon today said Israel's army would continue its offensive in the West Bank until it achieves its goals, but would try to finish it as soon as possible.
In a speech that lasted almost an hour in a stormy session of Israel's parliament, Sharon said he wanted to meet moderate Arab leaders to discuss West Asia peace efforts.
Sharon's comments signalled he was defying pressure by US president George W.
Bush to pull troops out of Palestinian cities without delay, although he said he had promised him he would try to end the 10-day-old offensive as soon as possible.
"These missions have not been completed and the army will continue to operate with as much speed as possible until they are completed," Sharon said.
"In my talks with president Bush and out of recognition of his sincere desire for peace in our region, I promised that we are making every effort to accelerate our military moves and to withdraw our forces from the places where our operations have ended." He said the offensive had been planned from the start as a temporary operation.
He said the aim was to dismantle a "terrorist infrastructure" behind a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks in an uprising against Israeli occupation.
Palestinians say Israel wants to dismantle the Palestinian authority and permanently reoccupy Palestinian cities.
Sharon told the Knesset, or parliament, that the military would return to buffer zones between Israel and the West Bank when the offensive eventually ends.
He gave no details.
Israel sent troops and tanks into Palestinian cities on March 29 after a suicide bombing that killed 27 people at the start of the Jewish passover holiday.
Sharon blamed Palestinian president Yasser Arafat for the surge of violence in the region.
"Arafat has established a regime of terror in the territories under his control," Sharon said in a televised speech that was interrupted repeatedly by Arab Israeli legislators who were then shouted down by other members of the assembly.
"The gangs of murderers have a leader...And the aim is to force us out of here," he said.
"The one who sends them is the head of the Palestinian authority, Yasser Arafat." Arafat has denied such accusations in the past, and has accused Sharon of using "terror tactics" as Israel tried to put down the Palestinian uprising.
Sharon did not say which Arab leaders he was ready to meet but said he would discuss such an initiative with US secretary of state Colin Powell, who visits the region later this week.
"I am willing to come to any place, with no condition, to speak peace," he said.
Israel has peace treaties only with two Arab states, Jordan and Egypt, although both countries have expressed anger at the Israeli offensive in the West Bank.
"This week Colin Powell will come to region.
I plan to discuss with him ways to end terror and advance the initiative I proposed," Sharon said.
Sri Lankan road to war-torn Jaffna due to open COLOMBO, Apr 8 (Reuters) The last section of a key road linking war-ravaged Jaffna Peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka was set to open today despite a last-minute dispute over who will control bus rights.
The opening of the A9, the scene of some of the worst fighting in the island's nearly two decade civil war, would allow civilians to move freely between areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government.
"As far as we know, it (the road opening) is going ahead," said Nils Lundin, spokesman for the Sri Lankan monitoring mission, the Norwegian-run group watching over a ceasefire the government and tigers signed last month.
The opening of the road was set out in the ceasefire agreement, but a dispute over bus routes over the weekend put it in doubt.
Local media reported the LTTE was demanding that it be able to run its own bus service through areas the rebels control, or have state-run buses pay a fee to do so.
The government had rejected this, saying buses should be allowed to run directly from the South to Jaffna, something unimaginable before the truce was signed.
"It will be open for all traffic.
Buses can travel in principle," said an official at the government's peace secretariat, which deals with the LTTE.
The opening of the road has been a long-time demand of Jaffna residents, allowing them to avoid either costly air travel or a time-consuming sea trip when leaving for elsewhere in the country.
About 64,000 people have died in nearly two decades of fighting as the LTTE battled for a separate Tamil state in the north and east.
The highway opening comes just before Velupillai Prabhakaran, the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tigers, meets the media for the first time in a decade to discuss the peace process.
The tigers have announced that Prabhakaran will hold a news conference on Wednesday, with several hundred journalists expected to make the drive to Kilinochchi, about 280 km (175 miles) North of Colombo.
He is expected to discuss the first direct peace talks between the tigers and government which are to begin in Thailand next month.
Powell departs on West Asia mission, Israel defiant WASHINGTON, Apr 8 (Reuters) Saying he might not return with a cease-fire deal, US Secretary of State Colin Powell left for a crucial peace-seeking mission to west Asia where Israel continued to defy US calls to end an offensive in Palestinian cities.
Powell was scheduled to meet leaders of several key Arab countries, European allies, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, and possibly Palestinian Yasser Arafat, to try to stop the bloodshed that has worsened in recent weeks with a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings and the Israeli campaign.
Appearing on news talk shows, yesterday Powell played down prospects for quick results from a trip that marks a policy shift after widespread criticism Washington was doing too little to check the escalating violence.
Powell said on NBC's "meet the press" he did not expect to leave with a peace treaty in hand, adding, "I'm not even sure I'll have a cease-fire in hand." On Fox news Sunday, Powell said he would "be absolutely delighted and very pleased if we are able to get a cease-fire in place in the not-too-distant future." "If we have brought the violence down, if we have started to create a dialogue again between the two sides, then my trip will have been worth the energy that I'm going to put into it and the effort we're going to put into it," he said.
Powell also said he had spoken early in the day with Sharon.
On Fox, he said he hoped the Israeli leader had taken Bush's "injunction very much to heart and will speed this up and start to withdraw, as president bush said, without delay.
And he means now." Bush told the Israeli prime minister in a telephone call on Saturday to pull back "without delay" from West Bank cities, warning the success of the peace mission was at stake.
Still, fighting continued and the Israeli army said on yesterday it had killed more than 30 armed Palestinians in close combat in the west bank city of Nablus.
Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, appearing on CBS "face the nation," said the administration understands Israel's military mobilisation cannot be reversed instantly.
But she said, "the important point is to begin now, without delay.
Not tomorrow, not when Secretary Powell gets to the region, but now." Rice said the "dynamic on the ground is terrible," and noted bush spoke on Thursday because he felt the situation was "at a tipping point, either of getting back on track for a peace accord or a spiral downward." Powell said his tour would include stops in Morocco, Egypt and Spain before going on to Jerusalem toward the week's end.
Powell said he would meet Arafat, who is confined to his compound by Israeli soldiers in the occupied city of Ramallah, "if circumstances permit." On CNN, he said access to Arafat, security and other issues would determine if he meets face to face with the Palestinian leader, but said they have had telephone conversations.
He also repeated that Arafat must do more to oppose the violence and call off the suicide bombing missions.
Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Muasher, who is speaking out about the conflict on behalf of Arab nations, said Israel must allow Powell to meet Arafat.
"It would be really absurd to meet with all the parties to the conflict without meeting with Yasser Arafat," Muasher said on CBS.
"We have to see a committed United States, not just to end the security situation, but to start the political process that would end in ending the occupation." On NBC, powell stressed that the administration believes Israel has a right to defend itself, but "the manner in which they have gone about defending themselves in this operation opens us up to new instabilities and new insecurities and new threats in the long term for Israel and for the region." "Significant documents" found in Afghanistan BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN, Apr 8 (Reuters): The US military today said "significant documents" and other items of intelligence value had been found in the site of the biggest battle of the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
A patrol of the US-led multinational force searching for remnants of the ousted Taliban and their al Qaeda allies in the area of last month's battle "discovered more items of intelligence value, to include a large amount of documents" yesterday, a US spokesman said.
"They are significant documents," Captain Steven O'Connor told a news conference at Bagram air base, just north of Kabul.
"They (soldiers) assessed them to be significant on site." He gave no details of the items or exactly where they were found in the Shahi Kot valley of eastern Afghanistan, where the multinational force says hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were killed during "operation anaconda".
O'Connor later told reporters there was "a difference between significant and exploitable", but did not elaborate.
He said there had been no contact with rebel fighters in the previous 24 hours, but would not speculate on the reasons for the lull in the action.
Yesterday's find came a day after US soldiers returning from a six-day mission around the Zawar Khili valley in the Southeast said they saw an elaborate network of caves fortified with steel ceilings and concrete floors.
The 101st airborne division teams also destroyed ammunition caches in the area near the Pakistan border and found some documents.
Their contents or potential value were not disclosed.
Coalition intelligence officials have said remaining pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have gone into a tactical pause as they plan a new series of guerilla-style attacks.
The United States blames the al Qaeda network for carrying out the devastating September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
The ultra-Islamic Taliban, which ruled most of Afghanistan for five years, became a coalition target for sheltering and supporting Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his fighters.
The fate of bin Laden is not known six months into the US-led campaign.
Doctors in Karachi on strike over killings KARACHI, Apr 8 (Reuters): Doctors in the Pakistani port city of Karachi today went on a one-day strike for the second time within a month to protest against the recent murders of their colleagues.
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) said it called Monday's strike at all hospitals in Karachi, but emergency care would continue.
The PMA says more than 70 doctors have been murdered in Karachi over the last 10 years, the majority suspected victims of sectarian strife between militants of the majority Sunni and minority Shi'ite sects of Islam which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past decade.
Police believe doctors are targeted by assassins because of their high profile jobs.
The doctors staged a similar strike on March 13.
"We are deeply worried about the safety of doctors.
They are the victims of targeted killings every other week," said PMA official Shershah Syed.
"A large number of doctors are migrating to other countries because of security problems.
We are observing a one-day strike so that the authorities can feel their responsibility," he said.
Witnesses said privately-owned clinics and hospitals in the volatile city were closed, while doctors were providing emergency services at state-owned hospitals.
"If it does not wake up now, the government will soon find the country deprived of doctors, particularly specialists," the PMA said in a statement.
Other targets of assassins in recent years have included lawyers and other professionals.
Few attackers are caught and there is normally no claim of responsibility for the killings.
Afghan defence minister survives assassination bid KABUL, Apr 8 (Reuters) Afghan defence minister Mohammad Fahim survived an assassination attempt in the eastern city of Jalalabad today, but four people were killed and 18 wounded, a defence ministry official said.
"He's safe and alive," the official told Reuters, describing the blast as an attempt to kill Fahim.
"The bomb was placed in a Kiosk in the centre of Jalalabad.
Four civilians were killed while eighteen have been wounded," the official told Reuters.
AI privatisation not to take place in near future: Shourie SINGAPORE, Apr 8 (UNI) The government will not divest equity in India's international carrier Air India in near future but would pump fresh funds into the airliner to improve its financial health, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie said here today.
Mega investments will be made to make the airlines attractive for joint ventures, Shourie said in reply to a question at a joint briefing with Singpore's minister for trade and industry George Yeo.
Shourie said the events following the September 11 terror attacks in the United States adversely affected the health of the global aviation industry, because of which the time was not oppportune to privatise Air India.
He regretted that Singapore International Airlines (SIA), which was at one point of time was interested in acquiring a stake in AI, had to pull out due to bureaucratic hurdles.
"It was a great opportunity missed," Shourie said.
The funds to be infused will help Air India acquire more aircraft and utilise the unused landing rights with several countries, Indian official sources said.
Replying to a question as to whether foreign investors would not be deterred by the slow pace of the privatisation programme in India, Shourie said the government had concluded 18 transactions over the past ten months and stake in 25 other companies will now be on offer.
"Some of this will be concluded within a month," he added.
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