News In Brief
Dawn.com, Islamabad
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, despite his scepticism about Pakistan’s role and the Taliban’s sincerity in reconciliation, has agreed to consider Islamabad’s proposal for reviving the stalled peace dialogue with the militant group.
Ghani will discuss our proposal with his allies,” a senior Pakistani official told Dawn about the discussions the Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security, Sartaj Aziz, had with the Afghan president on Friday.
Snowden attacks Russia’s rights curb
AFP, Oslo
Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Saturday criticised Russia — the country that has granted him asylum — calling its crackdown on human rights and online freedom “fundamentally wrong” and said he would prefer not to live in exile.
Snowden said Moscow’s restrictions on the web were “a mistake in policy” and “fundamentally wrong” as he accepted a Norwegian freedom of expression prize by videophone from Russia.
Guatemala voters choose new president
AP, Guatemala City
An uncomfortable challenge confronts Guatemala’s presidential candidates on Sunday: trying to win the votes of a nation that has put the last elected leader in court custody.
Most are old-guard candidates picked to run before energized prosecutors backed by a mass anti-corruption movement toppled the previous administration.
Replica of nuclear bomb on display in Moscow
AFP, Moscow
Eight metres long and weighing 25 tonnes, a replica of the so-called Tsar Bomb, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, has gone on display for the first time in Russia, in the midst of an ongoing standoff with the West over Ukraine.
Tested in 1961 by the Soviet Union, the hydrogen bomb — also known as the AN602 — instilled a mix of pride and fear in retired military pilot Nikolay Krylov as he looked at the replica housed at an exhibition centre near the Kremlin.
