Pakistan
Expanding Nuclear Sites: Report
by Arun Kumar
Pakistan has expanded two sites crucial to its nuclear programme
in an effort to boost the destructiveness of its nuclear arsenal as
feared by US officials, a US arms control institute said on the
basis of satellite photos. The commercial images reveal a major
expansion of a chemical plant complex near Dera Ghazi Khan that
produces uranium hexafluoride and uranium metal, materials used to
produce nuclear weapons, the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS) said Wednesday. Read On
Pakistan Must
Defeat Taliban, says Zardari
Pakistan must win the war
against the Taliban in the country's restive northwest, President
Asif Ali Zardari declared Wednesday, as the military announced it
had captured a key militant stronghold and the government sanctioned
Rs.8 billion for the 2.5 million refugees who have fled the
fighting. Read On
Japanese Economy Sees
Record 15.2% Contraction
The Japanese economy shrank
in the January-March quarter at an annualized rate of 15.2%, the
sharpest annualized drop ever recorded in the world's second-largest
economy, the govt said Wednesday. The data indicated the nation's
worst recession in the post-war era appeared to be more serious than
in other major economies such as the US or Europe.
Read On
Prabhakaran: The Man is Dead,
The Myth Destroyed by Mayank Chhaya
Velupillai Prabhakaran may
not have visualized his own macabre end as a mud-covered and
practically naked corpse on a makeshift stretcher, but that is how
it turned out to be. Despite the inherently cruel voyeurism of
officially publishing the pictures of his body, Sri Lanka had to do
so if only to prevent mythologies from being built around someone
whose childhood hero was 'Phantom: the ghost who walks'.
Read On
97
Dead in Indonesian Military Plane Crash
At least 97 people were killed when an Indonesian military plane
with more than 100 people on board crashed Wednesday into a
residential neighborhood in East Java province, the military said.
Read On
For
Iran's Students,
Election Choice is Between Bad, Worse
by Farshid Motahari
For many Iranian students,
the June 12 presidential election is not a choice between good and
bad, but bad and worse, with no prospects of real change even if a
new president is elected. The four candidates for the presidential
election are indeed all familiar faces, loyal to the 1979 Islamic
revolution and unlikely to bring any real change to the system.
Read On
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Astronauts Release Hubble Telescope
Back into Orbit
Pakistani Forces Evict Taliban
from Two Northwestern Towns
The Pakistani military Tuesday wrested two towns in the restive
northwest from the Taliban on a day President Asif Ali Zardari
asserted the entire country was united in the struggle against
terrorism. The military said Maidan in Lower Dir and Matta in Swat
had been cleared of militants and the civilians who had fled the
fighting could now return home. Read
On
US
Does Not Know Location of All Pakistan Nukes
by Arun Kumar
A top US official added fuel
to the row over reports that Pakistan may be using US military
assistance to expand its nuclear arsenal by saying Washington does
not know the location of all of Pakistan's atomic weapons.
Read On
Pakistan's ISI Uses Taliban
as a 'Strategic Hedge': US
Pakistan's intelligence
agency ISI keeps ties to the Taliban as a "strategic hedge" due to
uncertainty about the future outcome of the war in neighboring
Afghanistan, according to US Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Read On
Sri
Lankan President Announces End of Civil War, Prabhakaran's Body
Found
Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa Tuesday officially announced the end of the over
25-year-old civil war against Tamil rebels as the army's commander
said the body of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been
positively identified. Read On
Tamil
Diaspora Vows to Bring Sri Lanka
to its Knees by Gurmukh Singh
The end of the LTTE simply
marks the beginning of a new phase in their struggle for
independence, the Canadian Tamil Congress announced in Toronto
Monday.
Read On
