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| Saturday, January 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Estrada refuses to quit, seeks snap poll Kabila’s son declared new ruler Clinton bids adieu to Americans
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Emergency in blacked out California US snake judged
most beautiful
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Estrada refuses to quit, seeks snap poll MANILA, Jan 19 (Agencies) — Philippine President Joseph Estrada today clung to power and urged Congress to call for a snap election in May even as the military, the police and almost all his Cabinet members joined thousands of Filipinos demanding he step down. In an address broadcast over national television, the embattled 63-year-old former movie star vowed not to run in the special presidential poll and to relinquish his post to whoever would be elected. “I am saddened that we have reached this point,” he said. “In order to preserve the democracy and maintain peace in our country, I am asking Congress to call a snap presidential election together with congressional and local elections in May.” Estrada refused to resign, saying he still has “the support of a significant segment of our people”. “I do not think that the present polarisation can be healed by a new leader who will take over without an electoral mandate from our people,” he said. “A special presidential balloting will, moreover, give my successor the fresh start — and mandate — to heal our wounded nation and rebuild our floundering economy,” he added. Estrada’s hold on power crumbled today as key officials of his government, the military and the police abandoned him and threw their support for his constitutional successor — Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The defections were led by Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Gen Angelo Reyes, Defence Secretary Orlando Mercado and the heads of the Philippine army, navy and air force. Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim, Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, Economic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla, National Treasury chief Leonor Briones, Internal Revenue chief Dakila Fonacier and many of their undersecretaries also quit their posts. The heads and under-secretaries of the departments of public works and highways, tourism, education and agrarian reform soon followed. Philippine national police Director-General Panfilo Lacson, one of Estrada’s closest aides, also succumbed to the pressures and turned his back on the President. “There are other things in life that are more important than friendship,” Mercado told a news conference at Edsa Shrine, where hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered for the fourth consecutive day to demand Estrada’s resignation. “Our presence here is the manifestation for the need for change, no matter how painful it would be,” he added. The resignations dealt a big blow to Estrada’s bid to remain in power after his impeachment trial collapsed on Wednesday due to a Senate decision to suppress potentially damaging evidence against the chief executive. Vice-President Gloria Arroyo, in line to succeed Estrada, rejected the proposal and insisted she would run the country now that the President’s political career has been ruined by a scandal of money, mistresses and mansions. “The President has not only lost moral authority to govern, but now has no government,” Mr Arroyo said in a statement in which she referred to herself as the “new Commander-in-Chief.” Ms Arroyo has led an opposition campaign joined by hundreds of thousands, including unlikely allies from big business and left-wing Communist groups. Estrada, a former film star nicknamed “Erap” remains popular among millions of poor people whose cause he championed. Speaking on national television on a day of political intrigues, Estrada urged Congress to set elections for May, when Philipinos will fill half of the Senate seats and all of the House of Representatives. Experts questioned if this is constitutionally possible because the President and Vice-President had not quit. Other top Generals also joined a mammoth rally against the President gathered at a shrine which was the focus of the 1986 protests which toppled former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. “On behalf of your armed forces, the 130,000-strong members of the armed forces, we wish to announce that we are withdrawing our support to this government,” General Reyes said. He told a news conference that to start the healing process, “we are allowing President Estrada and members of his family to exit with dignity. Let us not be vindictive.” Tens of thousands of Filipinos have been gathering outside the suburban Manila religious shrine for three days calling on Estrada to resign, after his trial on serious charges of corruption all but collapsed. The resignations came as the culmination of months of protests which reached a peak when the impeached President’s trial was suspended on Wednesday and denounced by the prosecution as a charade. The heads of the navy and the air force joined the protesters and key members of Estrada’s cabinet, including the Finance Secretary and the Treasurer resigned from his
administration. But Central Bank Governor Raphael Buenaventura said he would not resign as he had a duty to provide financial stability. Earlier, there were minor clashes between protesters and supporters of Estrada, whose power base was among the country’s teeming poor. In his broadcast, Estrada reiterated his innocence, but said he would abide by the result of the Senate impeachment trial. He ordered his lawyers to open the bank records the senator-judges had voted 11-10 to suppress — a decision which brought the impeachment hearings to an abrupt halt and provoked four days of growing protests. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the shrine along Edsa highway, about 12 km from the presidential palace. Security around the palace in Manila had been tightened ahead of the protests. “We will not allow the anti-Estrada rallyists to surround Malacanang (the presidential palace),” the national police chief, Gen Panfilo Lacson, told reporters, but added that the police would not disperse the Edsa protesters. |
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Kabila’s son declared new ruler KINSHASA, Jan 19 (Reuters) — President Laurent Kabila’s death opened a new era for the Democratic Republic of Congo today, but with no end in sight to turmoil that has ruined the vast country at Africa’s heart. The government announced Kabila’s death and 30 days of national mourning yesterday, ending two days of speculation over whether he was still alive after being shot by one of his own soldiers at his Kinshasa palace. “He left to current and future generations the image of a committed patriot, a stubborn nationalist, an indomitable fighter and above all an exceptional leader,’’ said Information Minister Dominique Sakombi. His reserved, 31-year-old son Joseph met foreign diplomats after being appointed interim head of the state, but many questioned how firmly he held the power his father took from veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Laurent Kabila had been flown after the shooting to military ally Zimbabwe for medical treatment. Officials there and elsewhere said on Wednesday he was dead, but the government said he died at 10 a.m. yesterday. An official at the Information Ministry in Kinshasa, speaking before the official announcement, said his body would be brought back home on Sunday for burial on next Tuesday. Confirmation of Kabila’s death at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) was greeted with mixed feelings in Kinshasa. Some bars turned off their music and closed out of respect for the mourning. People headed home quietly to beat the 10 p.m. curfew. “It is regrettable that he ended his life in this way, but he did not achieve much compared to people’s expectations when he came to power,” commented telephone booth operator Kabongo Ilunga. The government announced on Wednesday that Major-General Joseph Kabila, who was already head of the army and stood beside his father in the rebellion that brought him to power, would take over running the government and armed forces. James Astill of the Guardian adds: The Democratic Republic of Congo finally dropped
the fiction and confirmed that he was killed by an assassin on Tuesday. The government in Kinshasa officially informed other African states that Mr Kabila had been murdered by one of his own military officers but gave no explanation why it had lied for two days about the President’s fate. Diplomats believe that the authorities wanted to ensure that the assassinated ruler’s son, Joseph Kabila, was firmly installed as Congo’s new leader before confirming the killing. Defence Minister Mover Mahachi said the assassinated President died on a flight to Zimbabwe after doctors were unable to save him in Kinshasa. Joseph Kabila, (31), who is head of land forces in the war against Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebels, was expected to broadcast a message last night to the Congolese people, who are the last to be told officially of the demise of their President. The message was also likely to be an appeal for support. The new leader commands little support among the Congolese people who generally did not like his father and are suspicious of the son’s relative youth and the manner of his coming to power. Neither is he particularly respected in the military he commands, as a result of both his lack of experience and his notorious brutality. Joseph Kabila presumably succeeded his father with the blessing of Zimbabwe and Angola, Congo’s two principal backers in the war. Rebels yesterday called on the new President to seize the opportunity presented by his father’s death to end the civil war. The main rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, pledged that it would not take military advantage of Laurent Kabila’s assassination but said it would keep fighting if the country’s new leader did not begin to implement the Lusaka peace accords his father had blocked. |
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Clinton bids adieu to Americans WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (PTI, UNI) — Dubbing his term in office as a period of “great American renewal,” President Bill Clinton bade adieu to the nation, making a passionate plea for racial harmony and bridging the gap between the world’s rich and poor. In his seven-minute farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office yesterday, two days before he leaves the world’s most powerful office, Mr Clinton said USA was rapidly changing demographically, with the non-White minorities likely to become a majority in the future. “The USA cannot lead the world unless at home we weave the threads of our coat of many colours into the fabric of one America. As we become more diverse, we must work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity,” he said at the end of his eight-year presidency. “In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation,” he said in the nationally televised speech. Wishing the next President success, Mr Clinton said: “Hillary, Chelsea and I join all Americans in wishing our very best to the next President, Mr George W. Bush, to his family and his administration in meeting these challenges.” He urged the incoming Bush administration to stay on the path set by him on fiscal discipline and continue to pay the national debt. Mr Clinton obviously took exception to the new administration’s proposals to pull out us troops from the Balkans and its emphasis on sweeping tax cuts as a panacea for economic growth. The President also listed a series of achievements of his administration on the economic front to counter President-elect’s harping on worrisome signs of economic slowdown. Reuters adds: Senator Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat and one of the elder statesmen of the Senate, had harsh words for Mr Clinton on the eve of his departure from office. “My judgement is this: He’s smart. He had great opportunities, great talents. He squandered his great opportunities,” Mr Byrd told
CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Asked about Mr Clinton’s legacy in a
CNN interview, Mr Bush was somewhat more diplomatic, although he also paid homage to the former’s political skills. “It’s hard to determine any living President’s legacy because all short-term history is so subjective. I would say he was a deft politician,” Mr Bush said. |
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Emergency in blacked out California CALIFORNIA has declared a state of emergency, with rolling blackouts spreading from north to south, shutting down parts of Silicon Valley, bringing traffic to a standstill in some towns and prompting pleas that people eat their evening meals by candlelight. Further blackouts were predicted over the weekend as Governor Gray Davis introduced desperate measures to stop one of the richest parts of the world descending into chaos. Hospital emergency rooms had to close in some areas and others had to switch to emergency generators. In Silicon Valley, firms like Apple and Hewlett Packard lost their power and in San Francisco, people were trapped in lifts, businesses closed early and - hardest of all for some Californians to countenance - bars and restaurants ran out of ice. Governor Davis, looking weary and shaken, finally declared a state of emergency on Wednesday night as it became clear that the long-predicted blackouts had arrived. The state, which has the richest square footage and is the 10th largest economy in the world, was saved from further darkness and embarrassment by Canada which supplied extra power at the 11th hour. Around half a million homes and businesses were affected in the first wave of blackouts but Californians were warned to expect more extensive outages over the next few days. Gas suppliers also warned that they might be unable to fulfil all consumer demands. While there was much joking about the fact that one of the most resource-rich areas on the globe should find itself in such a dilemma, the blackouts bring with them serious political and economic ramifications. Governor Davis signed an emergency proclamation which allows the state to spend money from the department of water resources to buy power. He took his action after being told that four out-of-state power plant owners had warned that they would bring bankruptcy proceedings against California’s two main utility companies, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison.
— The Guardian, London |
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US snake judged
most beautiful MOSCOW, Jan 19 (DPA) — It’s official — the world’s most beautiful snake is an American. So voted 2,000 of 7,000 judges in the first ever snake beauty contest which was held at the reptile zoo at Tula in Russia. The winner of the scaly “Miss World” event, a pink-eyed non-poisonous Californian royal albino, best symbolised the Chinese calendar’s 2001 year of the snake with its silver colouring, visitors to the zoo decided. In second place among contestants originating from 34 nations came a hot favourite from Russia: a deadly, 30-centimetre-long Caucasian viper which took 1,000 votes, Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported in Moscow on Thursday. |
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