Tubewells drying up as water table lowers

PESHAWAR: November 23, 2008- Water table is going down in Peshawar city and a number of tube-wells have dried up in various areas.

The city district government has appealed to the provincial and federal governments for taking urgent steps to bring the alarming situation under control, Daily Times learnt by conducting a survey. Peshawar city has about 150 tube-wells; out of which, 30 have dried up due to lowering of water table.

Dr Shahida Zakir of Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Peshawar said a large number of tube-wells, anthropogenic activities and growing population were key factors affecting water table in the city. More >>>

[Environmental challenges—such as land degradation, deforestation, climate change, and water scarcity and pollution—can threaten global, national, and human security. These factors can contribute to conflict or exacerbate other causes such as poverty, migration, and infectious diseases. However, managing environmental issues and natural resources can also build confidence and contribute to peace by facilitating cooperation across lines of tension. Wilson Center Editor]

Will Nuclear Disarmament Be on Obama's Agenda?

Thalif Deen Interviews Jacqueline Cabasso

UNITED NATIONS - As President-elect Barack Obama marshals his transition team before he takes office on Jan. 20, some of his political supporters are wondering how much of his campaign promises will receive priority during his first hundred days in the White House.

Jacqueline Cabasso at a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty preparatory committee meeting in Geneva in May 2008. (Credit:Steven Starr)

With a recession-hit U.S. economy ranking high on the domestic political agenda, he will also have to gradually deal with a slew of international issues, including climate change, multilateralism, human rights, free trade, weapons of mass destruction, and war and peace.

Will Obama, who was once quoted as saying that "America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons," place a higher priority on nuclear disarmament than previous U.S. administrations? More >>>

Official: UAE to work with IAEA in its peaceful nuclear program

ABU DHABI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said here Monday that his country will work directly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its peaceful nuclear program, the official Emirates News Agency reported.

The UAE will conform with IAEA's standards in evaluating and potentially developing a peaceful nuclear energy program, the country's permanent representative to the nuclear watchdog Hamad Ali Al Kaabi said at a meeting held by the think-tank Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. "The UAE hopes to develop any peaceful nuclear power capability in partnership with the governments and firms of responsible nations, and appropriate non-governmental organizations," he added.

According to studies by official UAE bodies, increasing demand for electricity in the UAE is fast outstripping the growth in supply, Kaabi said. Total electricity demand in the UAE is expected to rise from approximately 15,000 megawatts to 42,000 megawatts by 2020, he added. More >>>

Kabul 30 years ago, and Kabul today. Have We Learned Nothing?

November 22, 2008 - By Robert Fisk - "The Independent" -- -I sit on the rooftop of the old Central Hotel – pharaonic-decorated elevator, unspeakable apple juice, sublime green tea, and armed Tajik guards at the front door – and look out across the smoky red of the Kabul evening.

At night, the thump of American Sikorsky helicopters and the whisper of high-altitude F-18s invade my room. The United States of America is settling George Bush's scores with the "terrorists" trying to overthrow Hamid Karzai's corrupt government.

Now rewind almost 29 years, and I am on the balcony of the Intercontinental Hotel on the other side of this great, cold, fuggy city. Impeccable staff, frozen Polish beer in the bar, secret policemen in the front lobby, Russian troops parked in the forecourt. The Bala Hissar fort glimmers through the smoke. The kites – green seems a favourite colour – move beyond the trees. At night, the thump of Hind choppers and the whisper of high-altitude MiGs invade my room. The Soviet Union is settling Leonid Brezhnev's scores with the "terrorists" trying to overthrow Barbrak Karmal's corrupt government.

Thirty miles north, all those years ago, a Soviet general told us of the imminent victory over the "terrorists" in the mountains, imperialist "remnants" – the phrase Kabul communist radio always used – who were being supported by America and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. More >>>

My desire is to see a world free of nuclear weapons

Commentary by By Ban Ki-moon - November 22, 2008 - Weapons of mass destruction and disarmament form one of the gravest challenges facing the world. One of my priorities as UN secretary general is to promote global public goods and remedies to challenges that do not respect borders. A world free of nuclear weapons is a global public good of the highest order.

My interest in this subject stems partly from personal experience. My homeland, South Korea, has suffered the ravages of conventional war and faced threats from nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. But, of course, such threats are not unique to Asia. Despite a longstanding taboo against using nuclear weapons, disarmament remains only an aspiration. So, is a taboo merely on the use of such weapons sufficient?

States make the key decisions where nuclear weapons are concerned. But the UN has important roles to play. We provide a central forum in which states can agree on norms to serve their common interests. We analyze, educate, and advocate in the pursuit of agreed goals. More >>>

A rod for our backs

Nov 20th 2008 - Britain decides that climate change is too important to leave to the politicians “GIVE me chastity and continence, but not yet,” Saint Augustine besought God more than a millennium ago.

Those worried by global warming but unwilling to change their behaviour take a similar approach. Evidence of the damage that economic activity does to the planet is mounting, but given the cheapness and convenience of fossil fuels, the temptation to avoid tackling climate change for just another year (and another and another) is hard to resist. This is even truer as economic woes mount.

Britain’s government thinks it has a solution, and it is one that so far no other country has adopted. The approach is rather like that of a desperate dieter padlocking his pantry. If all goes according to plan, a climate-change bill will be passed next week that takes the power to set carbon-reduction goals away from politicians and enshrines them in law. A climate-change committee will recommend five-year carbon budgets for different parts of the economy, such as power generation, transport and manufacturing, with the ultimate goal of cutting emissions by 80% from their 1990 levels by the time 2050 rolls around. More >>>

Iran Has Enough Low-Level Uranium for Work on Bomb

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran has produced the minimum amount of low-enriched uranium needed to make a bomb if it was processed to weapons grade, a scenario that would first require the expulsion of UN inspectors, arms-control experts said.

``There is definitely cause for concern,'' Andreas Persbo, a senior researcher at the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Center, said by telephone today. ``Their uranium conversion operations are going quite well.''

The uranium is stored at the Natanz plant and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations that oversees adherence to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the current level of enrichment, the uranium could fuel a power station. The treaty prohibits further enrichment to weapons grade. Since March 2007, the IAEA has made 20 unannounced visits to Natanz, where it has remote surveillance equipment. More >>>

Orienting the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review: A Roadmap

There is an emerging bipartisan consensus that America’s current nuclear weapons posture imposes an unnecessary burden on U.S. efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism and curtail the spread of nuclear weapons, materials, and technology to additional nation-states.

It holds that the United States must retain a nuclear arsenal as a strategic deterrent, but should embrace the vision laid out by senior statesmen George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn of a world free of nuclear weapons in order to strengthen America’s ability to exercise global leadership in countering 21st century nuclear threats.

The Obama administration should use the congressionally mandated 2009–2010 Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, to realign nuclear policy, forces, and posture with these threats. This study makes the case for why a successful NPR should be among the Obama administration’s top priorities and provides a roadmap on how to structure and manage the review so that it achieves key policy objectives. It is not a study on nuclear weapons doctrine. More >>>

What to do with a vision of zero

The tantalising ideal of a world entirely free of nukes is hoving back into view. It’s a goal that disciplines minds, even if you never quite attain it


Nuclear disarmament
Nov 13th 2008: A WORLD without nuclear weapons is a vision as old as the nuclear age. The makers of the bombs that exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 fretted a lot about the ultimate consequences for mankind of their devilish ingenuity. Now anti-nuclear campaigners are hoping that “Yes, we can!” will do more for their cause than older slogans like “Ban the bomb!” ever did. For on the stump, Barack Obama, America’s president-elect, promised to make the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide a “central element” of America’s nuclear policy.

He will not be the first American president to dream of nuclear disarmament; that unlikely peacenik Ronald Reagan did so too in his day, to the consternation of allies at home and abroad. The reality, in any event, is not one that America can will on its own. Yet Mr Obama has tapped into a new seam of dissatisfaction with the world’s nuclear order. Might getting to zero soon be a less forlorn prospect? More >>>

Britain lifts India nuclear ban

November 10 2008 -The UK Government has announced the lifting of a ban on exporting sensitive nuclear technology to India. Firms had up until last month been banned from supplying equipment and material on the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) "trigger list" to India.

But the government says that items intended for civilian nuclear projects can now be exported. The NSG agreed in September to lift a ban that had denied India access to the international nuclear market.

Last month the US and India signed a civilian nuclear co-operation accord to end 34 years of US sanctions. Shortly before that, France - the world's second largest producer of nuclear energy after the US - signed an agreement with India which paved the way for the sale of French nuclear reactors to Delhi. More >>>

Iran slams Obama's tough language on nuclear arms

TEHRAN, Iran: November 8, 2008 - Iran criticized President-elect Barack Obama for the first time Saturday, saying the world needs more than cosmetic changes in American foreign policy.

The criticism from Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani followed Obama's comment Friday that it is "unacceptable" for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and there should be a concerted international effort to prevent it.

"Obama can understand that strategic changes in (American) policy are required, not just cosmetic changes," Larijani told state television.

"This is a step in the wrong direction," he added. "If Americans want to change their situation in the region, they need to send good signals."

Iran has denied allegations that its nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons. More >>>

What India wants from the new president

NEW DELHI: 6 Nov 2008, Barack Obama enters the White House riding the crest of history. The sense of promise —of restoring America's primacy in the world — will by and large be welcomed in India.

Certainly, in large parts of the world, Obama will be a welcome change after eight years of George Bush, whose efforts to change the world as he found it had some disastrous consequences.

Obama will be a breath of fresh air in almost every part of the world. And to the extent, there is a growing convergence between the two democracies. India can only hope to benefit from a rejuvenated US leadership. Why, then, is India keeping her fingers crossed? More >>>

To the victor the spoils — a world full of problems

November 5, 2008 - The problems that will confront the new president beyond the United States make a nonsense of the metaphor of an in-tray. That suggests bureaucratic neatness, a stack of problems waiting for attention that can be dispatched one after the other.

Instead, he will inherit a worldwide map of problems that demand more time, military commitment and money than America can possibly deploy. It is wrong to lay all of those problems at the door of George W. Bush. Many were there before his presidency – Iran, North Korea, the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, to name just three.

But it is still true that the new president will take on a challenge different in nature from recent predecessors. The US is engaged in two live wars, and Afghanistan is getting worse just as Iraq gets better. More than that, he takes over at a point when US leadership is questioned. In the US’s foreign policy, it has suffered the greatest blow since Vietnam to its reputation for military success and its claim to legitimacy. In economic policy, its recent decisions and even its principles of economic organisation have been challenged.

Around the world, people expect the new president to change this. The expectations are impossibly high.
More >>>

Nuclear deal with US no hurdle for importing Iranian gas: Pranab

TEHRAN: 3 Nov, 2008: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said in Tehran that India's nuclear deal with the United States will in no way adversely impact a project to import Iranian gas via Pakistan.

"There will be no impact of Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline," said Mukherjee to a joint press conference in Tehran along with Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance Shamsuddin Hoseyni.

"India's requirement of energy is quite substantial and we are to locate various sources including civil nuclear cooperation with countries like USA, France, Russia or any other country that is willing to cooperate with India in civil nuclear cooperation," said Mukherjee. More >>>

Louise Frechette Appointed to Advisory Board of International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

WATERLOO, CANADA, Oct 31, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Louise Frechette, Chair of the Centre for International Governance Innovation's Nuclear Energy Futures Project, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).

ICNND, established by the governments of Australia and Japan, aims to reinvigorate the global effort against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The Commission and its members are working to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by seeking to shape a global consensus in the lead up to the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

Mme. Frechette joins an eminent group of individuals who have agreed to serve on the ICNND Board, including Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State from 1973-1977, and Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from 1972-97 and current co-Chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. More >>>