New Delhi, Sep.10 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Thursday put the onus of unveiling the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks on Pakistan.
While confirming that the foreign secretaries of the two countries – Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir – would be meeting in New York on the sidelines of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, Krishna ruled out having any meaningful dialogue with Islamabad till it took concrete steps to nail those responsible for last year’s terror strike.
Krishna also said that he would be meeting his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York.
He said Rao and Bashir would discuss the progress made on the investigation of the 26/11 attacks and prosecution of those arrested in connection with it.
“It is in our vital interest to normalize our relations with Pakistan. However, we are at a stage where it is for Pakistan to determine the kind of relationship that it wants to have with India,” Krishna told the Editors Guild in New Delhi.
“Clearly, the onus is on Pakistan to unveil the conspiracy,” he said, adding India had sought to “assist” them in that task by providing vital evidence.
He said Pakistan is safeguarding terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed and that the Indian Government was in no doubt that he was the brain behind the Mumbai terror attack.
Krishna underlined that terrorism would remain his focus when he meets Qureshi.
New Delhi maintains that it has given enough evidence to Islamabad for it to prosecute the 26/11 accused.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who is currently in the United States briefing the Obama administration about the steps New Delhi has taken so far vis-’-vis the 26/11 probe, has categorically stated that the Pakistan Government is holding up the trial of Saeed and other state actors. (ANI)
UPDATE 2-Boston Globe union offers to talk cost cuts
Newspaper Guild open to cost cutting talks
* Guild wants revenue-sharing agreement with Globe
(Adds report that Mort Zuckerman eyes Boston Globe)
NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) – A key Boston Globe union offered to negotiate cost cuts at the money-losing paper with parent company The New York Times Co (NYT.N) on Tuesday in return for more power at the paper and a share of its revenue.
The Boston Newspaper Guild is open to negotiating “immediate, significant labor cost savings measures” with the Times Co and the Globe management, it said in a statement.
The statement comes after the Globe reported that it is on track to lose $85 million this year and that the Times Co may close the paper if it cannot wrest cost cuts from the union and the paper immediately.
The Newspaper Guild would agree to the talks if the Times Co and the Globe negotiate a revenue-sharing agreement with the union, and if the union gets a bigger decision-making role at the paper.
“This is a period of tremendous challenge to the entire media industry, and sacrifices will once again be necessary to help ensure a stable future for the Globe,” the union statement said.
A New York Times Co spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.
The guild in its statement proposed to deal directly with a buyer for the Globe if the Times’ intent is to sell the paper.
It also said that there will be no changes in compensation or benefit levels provided by its contract unless the guild and management agree on labor costs. Any cuts would terminate at an agreed-upon date and be returned to previous levels, the guild added.
The guild also said negotiations should be conducted in public.
Separately, the Boston Herald reported that Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News and the magazine U.S. News and World Report, was a potential candidate to bid for the Globe.
Zuckerman was unavailable for comment. A Times spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
The Herald is owned by Patrick Purcell, who separately works for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NWSA.O) as the chief of the Ottaway chain of local newspapers owned by News Corp unit Dow Jones and Co.
Zuckerman’s New York Daily News is a rival daily tabloid paper to Murdoch’s New York Post. (Reporting by Robert MacMillan, editing by Matthew Lewis, Leslie Gevirtz)