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1 billion face starvation worldwide if India, Pakistan unleash nukes: study
More than a billion people around the world would face starvation if India and Pakistan unleash nuclear weapons — even if that war is regionally limited, a study released Tuesday warned.
That’s because the deadly and polluting weapons would cause major worldwide climate disruption that would dramatically drive down food production in China, the United States and other countries.
“The grim prospect of nuclear famine requires a fundamental change in our thinking about nuclear weapons,” said study author Dr. Ira Helfand of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
“The new evidence that even the relatively small nuclear arsenals of countries such as India and Pakistan could cause long lasting, global damage to the Earth’s ecosystems and threaten hundreds of millions of already malnourished people demands that action be taken,” Helfand said in a statement.
“The needless and preventable Read more…
China planning military base in Pakistan, Indian report says
China is planning a military base in Pakistan, India Today reported, citing “a secret report prepared by the government’s joint intelligence committee.”
According to the report:
China is keen to build military bases in FATA, or the Northern areas, while Pakistan wants to counterbalance Indian naval forces by having a naval base in Gwadar. But it does not spell out the exact location of these bases.
At a time when Pakistan-US relations are strained — chiefly over drone missile attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the covert Navy SEAL operation attack that took out Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil — China has made no secret of its interest in strengthening its own ties with the nuclear-armed nation.
Last Thursday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Beijing and vowed to Read more…
Pakistan’s breadbasket buckles under new flood pressures
One year after record floods left 21-million Pakistanis homeless, thousands living on the country’s southern fertile plains have seen their homes washed away for a second time — despite the spending of millions of dollars in aid to avert a fresh crisis.
Anwer Mirani is one of 20 000 people living in Sindh province’s Jamshoro district who have been made homeless again after heavy downpours and rainwater from the surrounding mountains swept their homes away.
“We had just begun to restore our houses when we had to leave again because of the floods,” said the 38-year-old construction worker, wearing a tatty shalwar kameez, the traditional garb of baggy trousers and long shirt.
He took his wife, parents and three children in a boat Read more…
Extreme 2010 Russian fires and Pakistan floods linked meteorologically
Floods covered at least 14,390 square miles (37,280 square km) of Pakistan between July 28 and September 16, 2010. For more information about this image, please visit this NASA Earth Observatory page Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory GREENBELT, Md. — Two of the most destructive natural disasters of 2010 were closely linked by a single meteorological event, even though they occurred 1,500 miles (2,414 km) apart and were of completely different natures, a new NASA study suggests.
The research finds that the same large-scale meteorological event — an abnormal Rossby wave — sparked extreme heat and persistent wildfires in Russia as well as unusual downstream wind patterns that shifted rainfall in the Indian monsoon region and fueled heavy flooding in Pakistan. Although the heat wave started before the floods, both events attained maximum strength at approximately the same time, the researchers found Read more…
Al-Qaeda number two killed in Pakistan: US
Al-Qaeda’s number two Atiyah abd al-Rahman has been killed in Pakistan, the United States said, claiming another “tremendous” blow to the group following the death of Osama bin Laden.News of Rahman’s demise comes as the US gears up to mark the 10th anniversary of Al-Qaeda’s most spectacular attack, on September 11, 2001 on landmarks in Washington and New York, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Rahman, a Libyan, was killed in the northwest tribal Waziristan area on August 22 after being heavily involved in directing operations for Al-Qaeda, a senior US official said, without divulging the circumstances of his death.
However, local officials in the region told AFP last week that a US drone strike on August 22 on a vehicle in North Waziristan killed at least four militants. It was not clear if the two incidents were connected.
The senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the death of Rahman would be deeply felt by Read more…
Pakistan Let China See U.S. ‘Stealth’ Chopper
Aug. 15 – Pakistan has allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples of a U.S. “stealth” helicopter that crashed during the operation in May which led to the death of former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
If the disclosure is substantiated, Pakistan’s move will further exacerbate the already fragile relationship between the two countries, which was seriously strained when the United States carried out a clandestine raid on May 2 to assassinate bin Laden in Abottabad, located some 30 miles northeast of Islamabad, without notifying Pakistani authorities.
“The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad,” a person in “intelligence circles” was quoted as saying.
When U.S. Navy SEALs raided the fortified mansion of “Terrorist No.1,” one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters crashed into the wall of the mansion due to a technical malfunction, according to officials. The Navy SEALs team tried to destroy the helicopter after the crash, but the tail section remained intact.
Chinese engineers were allowed to Read more…
Pakistan successfully launches communication satellite
XICHANG: Pakistan successfully launched into space its state-of-the-art PakSat-1R communication satellite here from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China`s Sichuan Province, late Thursday night.
A select group of senior Pakistani officials witnessed the Long March-3B rocket successfully carrying the communication satellite from the launch pad here with rounds of applause and jubilations visible on their faces.
Prominent among those present included Director General SPD Lt. General (Retd.) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pakistan`s Ambassador to China Masood Khan, Secretary Defence Lt. General (Retd) Syed Ather Ali and Chairman Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Major General Ahmed Bilal, besides senior officials from the Chinese government.
PakSat-1R, a geostationary and advanced communication satellite, has been Read more…
China To USA: ‘If You Mess With Pakistan You Will Be Messing With China’ – Webster Tarpley
Court Papers Suggest Pakistani Interest in Thermonuclear Weapon
The United States in federal court documents offered its first open suggestion that nuclear-armed Pakistan could be seeking to build a thermonuclear weapon, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Sunday (see GSN, July 7).
The Justice Department has charged a Chinese woman living in the United States with illegally exporting high-tech paint coatings that could aid Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development. As the ex-managing director of a Chinese branch of PPG Industries, Xun Wang is accused of shipping the material five years ago in direct disobedience of the Pittsburgh-based company and nonproliferation guidelines issued by the U.S. Commerce Department.
Pakistan holds nuclear arms outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and is a known past proliferator of sensitive technology and information through the black market operation once led by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. As such, the United States has placed a number of restrictions on the trade of sensitive goods with the South Asian nation.
The U.S. Justice Department questions in court filings whether the paint coating shipments could Read more…
Pakistan threatens to pull back troops after U.S. cuts aid
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan threatened Tuesday to pull back troops from the Afghan border in response to US aid cuts, defying American demands to open new fronts in the war on Al-Qaeda and escalating tensions with Washington.
“I think the next step is, the government or the armed forces will move the soldiers from the border areas,” Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the English-language Express 24/7 television.
“If at all things become difficult, we will just get our armed forces back.”
The United States confirmed Sunday that it had decided to withhold a third of its annual $2.7 billion security assistance to Islamabad, bringing relations to a new low after the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Cuts of $800 million reportedly include about $300 million used to reimburse Pakistan for some costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border, a hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
“We cannot afford to keep our military… it costs you extra amount of money when you are having soldiers in the mountains, so we will definitely use that tool,” Mukhtar said.
The military did not Read more…
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