Saudi Arabia offers Russia arms deal to curb Iran ties
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia has offered to award Russia lucrative arms contracts if the Kremlin curtails cooperation with Iran, a Russian newspaper said on Tuesday, but Moscow denied the offer was tied to relations with Tehran.
Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks on Monday that included the signing of a landmark deal on military cooperation.
A Russian government spokesman denied the deal was linked to Iran and said any attempt to tie cooperation with Riyadh to other issues was “not right and not proper”.
Kommersant, a respected Russian daily, said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal suggested Russia curtail cooperation with Iran at a Moscow meeting this February. The proposal was made in the name of King Abdullah, the paper said. It said Bandar, who heads Saudi Arabia’s National Security Council and is an influential former ambassador to Washington, fleshed out the proposal when he met Kremlin leaders this week.
“Military-technical cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia has an independent dimension,” the Russian government spokesman said by telephone.
“It is founded on mutual interest and to tie this dimension of cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia with any other questions is absolutely not right and not proper,” he said.
Observers say world and regional powers are involved in hard bargaining behind the scenes over Iran’s nuclear programme, with possible trade-offs involving arms sales and competition for influence in the world’s biggest oil producing region.
Oil prices are at record levels in dollar terms, driven in part by surging demand from emerging nations like China and by rising cash inflows into commodities from investors seeking to hedge against inflation and the weak dollar.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer and a close US ally, is wary of Iran’s ambitions and shares Western concerns that Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
Russia, which has tried to boost cooperation with Tehran, says there is no evidence Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon but Moscow fears a conflict in the region would stoke instability close to its southern borders.
Kommersant said Saudi Arabia was interested in buying 150 T-90 tanks, 160 helicopters and air-defence systems for more than $2.2 billion. Russia’s state arms exporter, seeking an inroad into a market that has been lucrative for Britain and other Western powers, declined to comment.
Bandar told Putin on Monday that ties with Moscow had become strategic and that he would propose the King’s ideas for the economic, military, energy and security fronts.
“The Kingdom’s policy is certainly always to diversify its sources of arms,” Bandar told Al Arabiya television.
Russia, with its rising oil income, has been trying to increase its influence in the Middle East. It had played a bigger role there before the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Russia is also developing its relations, its dialogue, with other countries in the region, including Iran,” Russia’s government spokesman said.
Moscow is helping Tehran build its first nuclear power station and Putin visited both Tehran and Riyadh last year.
Gold makes another record, hits Rs22,071
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
KARACHI: Gold once again broke all barriers on Tuesday and created a record high of Rs22,071 per 10 grams and yet remained under-cost compared to international markets leading to a cold local market and high selling in the UAE.
President All-Pakistan Supreme Council of Jewelers Association, Alhaj Haroon Rashid Chand said that the yellow metal had reached Rs25,750 per tola, which is a new record in Pakistan.
Chand recalled that gold had reached its highest of Rs20,657 per 10 grams and Rs24,100 per tola on March 17 in Pakistan when international yellow metal prices were US$1,032 an ounce four months earlier before creating new records over the past week.
He explained that the upward trend had resumed for the yellow metal following rupees further depreciating against US dollars and crude oil reaching fresh records per barrel.
He also informed that gold was being sold across the sea to Dubai markets in great amounts as the precious yellow metal was under cost in the local market by Rs580 compared to the Dubai bullion market.
Chand said that the trend of selling gold in UAE markets through smuggling or other illegal means, was adversely affecting Pakistan as the same gold was melted and then was reverted back to Pakistan at higher prices through the green channel. This, he added, led to a great imbalance in the country’s Balance of Trade.
He said that despite several appeals to the government to take note of the matter, it continued to remain ignored, while gold traders had also ceased to trust the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) as the official representative body, for it had also disappointed them.
The jewelers association’s president said that KCCI was now dominated by industrialists who looked after their own benefits and raised personal points in front of the government rather than equally representing the small traders, leading to disharmony amongst businessmen and traders and moreover, heavy losses to the gold traders.
Dealers at the Kharadar Sarafah bazaar informed that there was absolutely no purchasing in the markets across Pakistan and small traders feared the continuity of their businesses.
They explained that both investors and customers were opting for alternative solutions rather than buying gold. While investors had slowly ventured into other commodities and investments, gold markets remained deserted as customers looked the other way towards artificial jewelry.
Many jewelry traders said that they had been compelled to reduce their profit margins to keep gold jewelry within affordable rates, but now could not further reduce their ‘making charges’ as that would mean higher losses for them.
The international bullion market recorded an upward rise of $23 to $982 per ounce on Tuesday, against $959 an ounce a day earlier.
Gold gained for a fifth day after US financial shares fell to the lowest in a decade yesterday on speculation that a shortage of capital will cause some banks to collapse, Bloomberg reported.
Gold for immediate delivery rose $10.68, or 1.1 per cent, to $983.28 an ounce as of 12:46 pm in London. It earlier reached $985.16, the highest since March 17, the website further stated.
Oil plunges $9 to near $136 a barrel
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LONDON: Oil tumbled by more than $9 to near $136 a barrel in volatile trading on Tuesday on profit-taking driven by technical factors and as fears receded that a strike by Brazilian oil workers would hit supplies.
“This is largely profit-taking run amuck. There is no real hard news that you can tie this to. We have seen fundamentals weakening progressively month after month and the fall in the stock market calls our attention to that,” said Tim Evans of Citi Futures Perspective.
US crude at one point fell by an unprecedented $9.26 a barrel, the biggest percentage drop since December 2004, and by 1550 GMT, it was $5.90 down at $139.28 a barrel. London Brent crude fell $5.10 to $138.82.
Brazilian oil giant Petrobras said its output was back at full capacity and would remain so until the end of the five-day strike that started at midnight on Sunday. “The news that Brazil’s oil production is back at capacity despite a strike is negative for oil prices as crude earlier rallied on prospect of lower output from there,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading.
Also weighing on prices was the cut in OPEC’s forecast for global oil demand growth in 2008 for a fourth time this year. The 13-member oil exporters’ group, source of two in every five barrels of oil, said consumption would slow in 2009, signaling a more comfortable supply and demand balance.
Oil had also eased earlier in the session as Chevron said production had been restored at the 120,000-barrel per day Escravos pipeline in Nigeria, resolving one of the disruptions that have cut the African country’s supply.
20 Afghan militants killed
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
KABUL: Over 20 Taliban-linked militants were killed in separate clashes, one of them in an area of northeastern Afghanistan, where nine US soldier were killed at the weekend, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The police and administration chiefs of the district, where the US troops were attacked on Sunday, were meanwhile arrested on suspicion of cooperating with the militants, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.
Afghan soldiers had fought militants in Waant-Waygal district of eastern Nuristan province on Monday during an operation to seek out remaining militants after Sunday's attack, a ministry statement said. "Seven terrorists were killed and several were wounded. The terrorists left the bodies at the battlefield," it said.
US documents show Pakistan helped Taliban
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LONDON: The Pakistani government gave substantial military support to the Taliban in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks, sending arms and soldiers to fight alongside the militant Afghan movement, according to newly released US official documents.
Islamabad has acknowledged diplomatic and economic links with the Taliban but has denied direct military support. The US intelligence and State Department documents, released under the country's freedom of information act, show Washington believed otherwise. Among the documents acquired by the National Security Archive, an independent group pressing for government transparency, is a confidential memo sent in Nov 1996, from intelligence report from Islamabad to the Defence Intelligence Agency in Washington, describing how Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps was operating across the border.
"For Pakistan, a Taliban-based government in Kabul would be as good as it can get in Afghanistan," a State Department briefing paper, dated January 1997, said, adding: "Many Pakistanis claim they detest the Taliban brand of Islam, noting that it might infect Pakistan, but this apparently is a problem for another day."
"The documents illustrate that throughout the 1990's the ISI considered Islamic extremists to be foreign policy assets," Barbara Elias, a National Security Archive researcher, said. "But they succeeded ultimately in creating a Pakistani Taliban. Those years of fuelling insurgents created something that now directly threatens Islamabad."
No one was available for comment at the Pakistan embassy in London. Privately, Pakistani officials concede that the ISI was instrumental in turning the Taliban into an organised force before 2001, but claim that the committed Islamists in the ISI's ranks have been purged.
Those claims are being viewed increasingly critically in Washington, due to Islamabad's failure to uproot Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in tribal regions, like Waziristan.
Various factors led to economic crisis
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LAHORE: The current economic crisis in the country is due to a series of various factors including shrewd bureaucracy, incompetent economic managers and a private sector pleading its case on vested interests.
The News has found shrewd bureaucrats cashed in on the dire need of the government to generate higher revenues by suggesting a combination of measures some of which are prudent and some injurious to the economy in the long run.
Economists point out the imposition of withholding tax on electricity bills of over Rs20,000 or 0.3 per cent tax on cheques of over Rs25,000 would not hurt the documented sector.
They said real issues for the industry are the 68 per cent increase in gas rates for captive power plants and mode of distribution of research and development grant.
The R&D issue has been engineered by vested interests that want R&D slabs according to the quantum of exports.
This might benefit large exporters mostly from the basic textile sector in the short run; but marginalise the SME sector of textile, which would be detrimental to basic textiles as there would be no local user of yarn and fabric if the apparel sector caved in. The 68 per cent increase in gas tariff was a shrewd move by the bureaucracy that probably convinced the economic managers that its imposition could be withdrawn on protest by the industry and would create goodwill for the government.
This move in fact has made the industry suspicious of its designs as it would benefit exporters in competing economies where the government is keeping electricity and gas rates in check. The country’s economy in fact is passing through a difficult phase that requires the government to take every step after thorough consultation with all stakeholders.
The most unfortunate aspect of the current crisis is that there is no cohesion either between the private sector and the government or between different trade bodies.
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry is the representative body of all chambers of the country but it is operating in isolation. Some chambers of commerce and industry have joined hands to put forward their combined demands.
None of the chamber of commerce and industry has any credible research facility.
A premier chamber that collects macro-economic data of other countries and import-export profile of Pakistan with different nations considers it to be great research.
This data that most of the time is outdated and skewed is available in updated form with different departments of the government. The data required to be presented to the government should be subject-specific.
In case of exporting industries, the chambers and the relevant trade associations should have the profile of the competing industries and major players in that field.
The cost structure, efficiency, cost of doing business including the wages, input costs, utilities and government facilitations should be tabulated that should provide a clear insight to the government into the measures to be taken to bring Pakistan at par with the best.
The R&D should be impartial and advantages and disadvantages in each sector should be clearly defined.
The chambers and most of the trade bodies unfortunately do not provide the true picture about different sectors to the government. They present the research in such a way that highlights all negative aspects.
Metered parking being introduced in Lahore
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LAHORE
THE modern meter parking system, imported from France, will be installed at three places in the city during the next 17 weeks. The installation of the system will not only help provide better facility of parking to motorists but also help improve flow of the traffic.
DCO Lahore Sajjad Ahmad Bhutta disclosed this while addressing a press conference in his office on Tuesday.
He said the City District Government Lahore had provided Rs 36 million for the project. He said the system, to be provided by PARKEON, would be installed by PAKSET. The DCO said that, in the first phase, the system would be installed at three points including Liberty Market, MM Alam Road and Main Boulevard. Total sixteen units will be set up at these points with each covering about thirty vehicles. Later, the facility will be provided to the whole city. He said fee for parking would be charged through card. Control room will be set up in DCO office for monitoring the system.
PML-N ready to offer sacrifices for judges’
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LAHORE
PML-N Secretary General International Affairs Sheikh Kaiser Mehmood has said that his party can sacrifice thousands of ministries for the independence of judiciary.
Speaking at a function here on Tuesday, he said Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif were committed to fulfilling promises made with the nation and were ready to offer any sacrifice in the regard. He said the PML-N would never compromise on the reinstatement of judges, adding: “We have already sacrificed federal ministries and if required we will not hesitate from sacrificing the Punjab government.” He said the national interests were supreme for the PML-N and its leaders wanted to save the country and not the Punjab government.
“The Peoples’ support is with the party leadership and no conspiracy from the President House will succeed against it,” he said, adding that anybody who would put a hurdle in the way of deposed judges’ restoration would be considered a crony of President Pervez Musharraf. Sheikh Kaisar said the restoration of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was the dream of PPP Chairman Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and it was a duty of the part Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and every PPP Jiyala to materialise it. He said the reinstatement of deposed judges was essential for promotion of democracy in the country, adding that if the deposed judges were not restored, no one would dare challenge dictators in the future.
20 Rawalpindi cops suspended
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Rawalpindi: Nasir Khan Durrani, Regional Police Officer (RPO) Rawalpindi, has placed a Sub-Inspector, 3 Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 4 Head Constables and 13 Constables of Rawalpindi district under suspension and sent them to Police Lines for their involvement in illegal activities, RPO office said.
The RPO, Monday night got checked the sensitive duty through a DSP in the area of Police Stations City,
Ganjmandi, Pirwadhai, RA Bazaar, Westridge, Airport and Civil Lines and the officials detailed for duty were found absent.
Upon this the RPO placed them under suspension and directed SSP (Operation) to take departmental action against them.
Those who suspended are: SI Ghulam Ali, ASI Sajjad Ahmad, ASI Manzoor Hussain, ASI Muhammad Yar, Head Constable Muhammad Asif, HC Ghulam Murtaza, HC Muhammad Khan, HC Zaheer Ahmad, Constables Muhammad Asif, Waseem Gulzar, Zahid Sultan, Rasheed, Irfan, Muhammad Irfan, Abdul Hameed, Nasir, Sagheer Hussain, Waqar, Tanveer, Farhad Khan, Muhammad Iqbal.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/default.asp