Paris—The French
military Thursday dismissed as “baseless” a
British newspaper report that French troops died
in Afghanistan because Italy had failed to
inform them of a Taliban payoff deal. The Times
of London said 10 French soldiers were killed in
Sarobi district in August 2008 because they were
not told that Italy had been paying the Taliban
not to carry out attacks and failed to properly
assess risks.
Oslo—Three of
the five members of the Norwegian Nobel
Committee had objections to the Nobel Peace
Prize being awarded to US President Barack
Obama, the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang (VG)
reported Thursday. “VG has spoken to a number of
sources who confirmed the impression that a
majority of the Nobel committee, at first, had
not decided to give the peace prize to Barack
Obama,” the newspaper said. In a surprise move
last Friday, the Nobel committee attributed the
Nobel Peace Prize to Obama less than nine months
after he had taken office.
Dhaka—Bangladesh
proposes to augment its border guards with
younger men as part of sweeping reforms
following the February mutiny in which 74 people
were killed. Proposals readied for approval by
the cabinet include raising 15 new battalions
and 60 Border Outposts (BOPs) and reduction of
recruitment age from the present 23 years to
between 17 and 19 years. The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR),
which would be renamed Border Guard Bangladesh
with a new logo and a new uniform, also wants
its men to retire when they reach the age of 45.
Tripoli—The Libyan
government on Thursday released 88 members of
radical Islamist groups jailed for plotting to
topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi, the
country’s main charity said. “We congratulate
all advocates of human rights issues on the
release of 45 members of the Libyan Islamic
Fighting Group (LIFG) and 43 members of various
other Jihadist groups,” said the Human Rights
Association in a statement. The association is
part of the powerful Gaddafi Foundation which is
chaired by the Libyan leader’s son Saif al
Islam.
ATTEMPTS to control or reverse nuclear
proliferation come in two flavors: Either one
tries to control nuclear material (uranium,
centrifuges, superfast switches) or one tries to
control nuclear information (blueprints,
schematics, scientific expertise). For most of
the last half a century, the world has shunned
the material approach in favor of controlling
information. But information is extremely
difficult to contain, as is made clear by the
growing number of countries that have acquired
nuclear weapons in the decades since the United
States made the first atomic bomb, from the
Soviet Union in 1949 to North Korea in 2006.
