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| Friday, February
16, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Access to West Bank
blocked Clinton under federal investigation
Japanese want Marines to leave Estrada ‘still President’ Salvador quake
toll 274 |
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Pak to
freeze defence spending
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Access to West Bank blocked Tel Aviv, February 15 General Mofaz said the Palestinian Authority leadership, which hitherto had unrestricted access to Israel, would be among those affected. “This attack, which follows the escalation of violence provoked by the Palestinian Authority, has urged us to impose a blockade on the towns of Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and the Gaza Strip”, General Mofaz said yesterday at a news conference in Tel Aviv. Palestinian leaders “will no longer have the freedom of movement,” he said. “The Allenby Bridge crossing point to Jordan and the Rafah crossing point from the Gaza Strip to Egypt are also closed to Muslim pilgrims who want to go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia,” he added. The only Palestinian airport in the Gaza Strip will remain closed, and the Israeli navy will also impose a sea blockade on the Gaza shores, General Mofaz added. The authorisations recently given to some 16,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to return to their jobs in Israel have been cancelled. The Israeli authorities insisted yesterday on searching the car in which three Palestinian officials, including two ministers, were returning from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge. Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, Information Minister Yasser Abeb Rabbo and Preventive Security Chief for the Gaza Strip Mohammad Dahlan opposed the search. CAIRO: Six hundred Palestinian pilgrims were forced to travel to the northern Sinai airport of El Arish in Egypt in order to fly to Saudi Arabia, after Israel closed the Gaza Cit\y airport, Egyptian airport sources said. The Palestinian authorities chartered three planes to take the pilgrims from the El Arish airport to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or Haj, the source added. The Israeli authorities exceptionally authorised the group of 600 to cross the border at the Rafah crossing point for that purpose, the same source said. ANKARA: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat stopped short of condemning an attack in which at least eight Israelis died near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, but said he was against the use of violence. An Israeli official accused him of shedding “crocodile tears” over the deaths. A senior Palestinian official accompanying Mr Arafat condemned the killings, though he said it was not clear whether it was an accident or an attack. Asked about the incident, Mr Arafat said the information he had so far indicated that there had been a “road accident”. “Whatever the cause, we are against the use of violence and of course killing people,” he told a news conference. Jerusalem: Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during a gunbattle over night that erupted when he tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, the army said today. The incident occurred in an area of greenhouses belonging to the Kfar Darom Jewish settlement. Israelis Army Radio said the dead man wore a Palestinian police uniform. There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority.
AFP, Reuters |
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Clinton under federal investigation Washington, February 15 Mary Jo White, a U.S. attorney in New York and a Clinton appointee, is reportedly looking into whether Rich funnelled money to Clinton through campaign contributions and other donations made by his former wife, Denise, sources told the networks. “As I have said repeatedly, I made the decision to pardon Marc Rich based on what I thought was the right thing to do,” Clinton said in a statement. White — who was angry at Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, made just hours before Clinton left office on January 20 — has also called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI ) into the case. Denise Rich has donated more than $ 1.5 million to Clinton’s Democratic Party, the former President’s campaigns and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s senate campaign as well as $ 450,000 to the construction of Clinton’s presidential library. “Any suggestion that improper factors, including fund raising for the DNC (Democratic National Committee) or my library, had anything to do with the decision are absolutely false,’’ Clinton said. “I look forward to cooperating with any appropriate inquiry.’’ The news of the investigation came on the same day that a Senate committee began hearings into the pardons of Marc Rich and his partner Pincus Green, both commodities traders. Marc Rich now lives in Switzerland after 17 years spent as one of the most-wanted men in the USA. He was accused of $ 48 million in tax evasion, racketeering, wire fraud and oil trading in violation of an Iraqi trade embargo. Marc Rich and his lawyers, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn, argued for the pardon by saying the charges against the billionaire involved U.S. Energy regulations that were abolished by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. The Senate Judiciary Committee, however, heard that Clinton had bypassed correct procedures in pardoning the two men. This “raises the suggestion of something incriminating having happened’’, said Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican. He raised the possibility that Clinton could be called to testify and last week even suggested that Clinton could be impeached for his impropriety. An impeachment would bar Clinton from holding another executive or judicial office, according to some experts. |
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B’desh
legislator blamed for killings Dhaka, February 15 The first two days experienced violence. On
February 13, two opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activists, one rickshawpuller and a Dhaka metropolitan police cop were killed in a gunfight between ruling Awami League and the BNP activists when two processions were passing side by side. The opposition alliance then called for a strike in protest against the killings. With the death of one BNP activist yesterday evening in an explosion of crude bombs, the death toll rose to five. The last day of shutdown (today) passed off without any major incident anywhere in the country Stray incidents of setting ablaze a number of rickshaws and autorickshaws in Dhaka were however reported. Reports in the local print media show that in the southeastern port city of Chittagong the strike was observed in a “dull” manner. In other district two vehicles remained off road and educational institutions and shows were closed. Trains were running on schedule and domestic and international flights from all three international airports operated without hindrance. Inter-district buses and trucks plied at night. Meanwhile, a BNP activist has filed a case, blaming an Awami League legislator for the killings of four persons on February 13. Awami League MP Dr Iqbal, was leading the ruling party procession which clashed with the BNP marchers. Earlier, that police had filed a similar case against a central leader of the BNP. Pictures in several local dailies showed that from the Awami League procession gun toting persons were firing at their opponents. Various quarters, including the Dhaka University Teachers Association, condemned the act and columnists criticised the ruling party. They demanded that the legislator should be brought to book. Dr Iqbal claimed that his supporters were defending themselves from attacks y the BNP activists. Moreover, the authorities have removed the officer-in-charge of the police station where
the killings took place. The opposition alliance is planning to hold its sit-in-strike in front of the Bangladesh secretariat on Sunday next. The authority are likely to mobilise large number of police and paramilitary forces to block the entries to the secretariat. Political arena is likely to warm up temporarily Eid-ul Azha is nearing and there will be no agitation for the few days. The opposition alliance is demanding immediate resignation of the Awami League government of Ms Sheikh Hasina which they term as despotic. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while addressing a mammoth public meeting at Natore on February 13 urged the opposition to shun the path of agitation and to return to Parliament. The term of the Awami league government ends on July 13. The Awami League secured the largest number of parliament seas during the 1996 elections and with the support of the Jatiya Party formed the government. Now the Awami League has absolute majority in Parliament. |
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Japanese want Marines to leave Tokyo, February 15 In a unanimous resolution, the assembly in the town of Chatan, north of the Okinawan capital Naha, called for the resignation of Lieut-Gen Earl Hailston for describing senior Japanese officials in Okinawa as “nuts and wimps’’ in an internal e-mail message. “If the people at the top have that type of attitude towards the leaders of Okinawa, we realise that there is no way that the problems can be solved other than by the forces leaving,’’ said Mr Hisatoku Matsuda, a senior assembly official. The latest tensions in Okinawa come at an awkward time as Japan struggles with news that a US Nuclear submarine sank a Japanese trawler near Hawaii, leaving nine persons missing and presumed drowned. Both sides fear the submarine disaster could fuel Japanese resentment of US Military presence in Japan. General Hailston had used the offending phrase in an e-mail sent to 13 officers on the island to refer to officials’ handling of an incident in which a US Marine corporal lifted a highschool girl’s skirt to photograph her underwear. Washington: The commander of the navy’s Pacific Fleet told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he did not understand how the captain of “USS Greeneville” failed to realise the submarine was surfacing directly beneath a fishing trawler, the Washington, Post reported on Thursday. “He should have seen the ship,’’ Adm Thomas Fargo said, according to a participant in an hour-long closed-door briefing on Wednesday the Post reported. Admiral Fargo’s comments were the first time that a senior officer suggested that blame for the collision and sinking of the Ehime Maru might lie with the commander and crew of the Greeneville, according to the newspaper. Navy Lt Cmdr Scott Waddle, Captain of the submarine, has been relieved of duty and the Navy and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting separate investigations.
Reuters |
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Estrada ‘still President’ Manila, February 15 “There was no resignation letter,’’ leading counsel Rene Saguisag said. Mr Estrada, who was ousted in a ‘‘people power’’ revolt in January, filed a petition with the court on February 6, saying that he remained the constitutional head of state. The petition asked the court to declare his successor Gloria macapagal arroyo, as acting, rather than permanent, president. Ms Arroyo was sworn in as Mr Estrada's successor on January 20 after the supreme court declared the presidency vacant. Mr Estrada did not show up in court. The hearing is his last chance to stop investigation on charges of corruption, bribery and economic plunder — the last of which is punishable by death. His lawyers stopped short of challenging Ms Arroyo’s authority, saying that Mr Estrada was on leave and Ms Arroyo was in charge. When asked by judge Leonardo quisumbing, one of the 15 supreme court justices, which one the country should obey, Mr Saguisag answered, ‘‘The acting president. The other is on leave.’’ Arguing for Ms Arroyo, justice secretary hernando perez said Mr Estrada, whose impeachment trial on corruption charges collapsed last month, triggering the popular revolt, had been displaced ‘‘by a nationally and internationally recognised successor’’. “The former president had lost all power being rendered permanently incapable of exercising his executive functions....He had lost the support of the people,’’ he said. Mr Estrada’s lawyers went through the sequence of events on January 20, presenting the court with a letter written by Mr Estrada, saying that he was temporarily unable to discharge his duty. “There was clearly no vacancy,’’ Mr Saguisag said, adding that Mr Estrada left the presidential palace because he felt threatened by the thousands of protesters marching outside. “It was to avoid bloodshed,’’ he said. ‘‘No one wanted a filipino harmed.’’
Reuters |
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Salvador quake
toll 274 San Vicente (El Salvador), February 15 Tuesday’s quake, now measured at magnitude 6.6 by the US Geological Survey, which tracks earthquake data worldwide, hit El Salvador exactly a month after a stronger 7.6-magnitude quake that killed 827 and left more than a million homeless. Rescuers used picks, shovels, tractors and trucks to move rubble, hoping some of those trapped underground had survived. “Soldiers are looking for survivors with lanterns and torches in areas destroyed by the earthquake which don’t have electricity and where there is no access by road,” said Colonel Rigoberto Alas Santos, an army spokesman. Officials yesterday said both temblors were centered along the same fault as a devastating 1986 earthquake that left at least 1,400 dead and thousands injured. “El Salvador is being hit by a series of quakes with decreasing strength,” geologist Scott Baxter said. “We’ve determined that a fault near San Salvador was reactivated by the (January) quake.” The reactivated fault has sparked some 3,400 small and medium-intensity aftershocks since January 13.
AFP |
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Pak to
freeze defence spending Islamabad, February 15 The decision was taken by the Cabinet yesterday in line with the recommendations to cap all non-developmental expenditure made by the high-level Debt Reduction and Management Committee, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz was quoted as saying by The News. Pakistan last year allocated Rs 159 billion for defence, which amounted to 26.2 per cent of the total
revenue. PTI |
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