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| Monday,
April 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Fresh clashes
besiege summit
Rebels kill
seven Burmese troops |
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It’s
a make or break vote Blast in
Israel kills two Another strike to force Hasina out First space
tourist |
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Stunning
lead for Koizumi 25 p.
c. cut in PAEC budget 48 die
in mine blast
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Fresh clashes besiege summit Quebec City, April 22 US President George W. Bush and 33 other leaders planned to issue a statement closing the three-day Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, vowing to form the world’s largest free trade zone and cement democracy in a region plagued by poverty. Anti-globalisation demonstrators, who claim free trade makes the poor hungrier, and masked anarchists, who relish a fight with the police, have overshadowed the summit — as they did similar events in recent years in Seattle and Prague. Clashes flared in Quebec’s lower town, just outside the city walls, with young activists smashing store windows and setting fires before being driven back by police firing tear gas. The police said about 253 persons were arrested — the biggest haul in three days of violence. Dozens of protesters and 46 police men were injured, including a policeman who was in serious condition after being hit on the head by a rock. The arrests during the night-time violence took the total number detained to 403, the police said. But the city was calm by daylight as President Bush and some other summit leaders attended a church service at Quebec’s Ursuline Chapel and the summit assembled for its final sessions. Tens of thousands of anti-globalisation demonstrators crowded into the picturesque French-Canadian city to protest peacefully and about 6,000 others constantly challenged the police at a perimeter fence erected to protect some of the world’s most powerful men. Throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and tear gas canisters fired by the police, demonstrators breached the 10-foot chain-link fence several times only to be beaten back by rubber bullets, water cannons and baton charges. “If they don’t stop, we won’t stop,” said a protester, who, protecting his mouth from the gut-wrenching gas with a yellow scarf, expected clashes to continue throughout Sunday. “Sure I’ll get arrested. But then I’ll be released,” the protester, said. Before the overnight violence, the police said they had arrested at least 150 persons. More than 30 police officers and scores of demonstrators have been injured in clashes only hundreds of yards from summit venues ringed by the fence. Most leaders hailed creating a free trade area from Canada to Chile by 2005 with a combined annual output of over $11 trillion. But some Latin American presidents called for greater efforts to help the poor feel economic progress. “You cannot have genuine democracy in a society where there is so much inequality of poverty, as happens in many areas of Latin America, including Mexico,” said Mexican President Vicente Fox. “We cannot allow ourselves to drift ... at the mercy of the whims of market forces.” To ward off would-be dictators in a region where several nations suffer political instability, the leaders agreed to throw out nations deemed undemocratic from future summits. Cuba, smarting at its exclusion from the summit, dismissed host nation Canada as a puppet of Washington’s “anti-Cuban” policy and said the violence on the streets showed that Ottawa was repressing the voice of people.
Reuters |
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Rebels kill seven Burmese troops Bangkok, April 22 Shan State Army guerrillas captured the Myanmar army outpost at Tuan, opposite the Thai town of Fang, some 700 km north of Bangkok, and seized about 170,000 methamphetamine tablets, the Thai sources said. Nearly 500 Thai villagers were evacuated from their homes in Fang after the clash due to fears of an upsurge in fighting between the Shan rebels and Myanmar forces, Thai authorities said. In another incident, two members of a Myanmar ethnic minority militia allied with the military government were killed on Sunday in an attack by unidentified rivals in the east Myanmar border town of Myawady, Thai military sources said. The DKBA and Myanmar government forces fight the autonomy-seeking Karen National Union (KNU) guerrilla army in that part of eastern Myanmar but the KNU had not claimed responsibility for the attack, the sources said. Thai military authorities closed the border crossing between the Thai town of Mae Sot, about 500 km (300 miles) northwest of Bangkok, and Myawady after the attack. The area of the attack is believed to be one of Myanmar’s main areas for producing illegal methamphetamines, which have been flooding Thailand in recent years. Thai military sources say the DKBA, formed by a KNU splinter faction in 1994 after a split in the Christian-led, anti-Yangon group, is involved in the drugs trade. In a related development, Thai authorities ordered a convoy of trucks trying to take power-generation equipment to the northeast Myanmar town of Tachilek to return to Bangkok, Thai media reported on Sunday. The authorities stopped the convoy crossing from the northern Thai town of Mae Sai into Tachilek last week because they believed the power equipment was bound for another Myanmar minority militia group blamed for large-scale drug production. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he had ordered the convoy of trucks carrying the equipment to return to Bangkok as Thai security forces believed most of the supplies were bound for the United Wa State Army (UWSA) militia group. The UWSA, which is allied with the Myanmar army, has been branded a major producer of heroin and methamphetamines by U.S. and Thai anti-narcotics agencies.
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It’s a make or break vote Podgorica, April 22 Polls forecast victory for the pro-independence ruling coalition led by President Milo Djukanovic over a leftist Opposition bloc dedicated to preserving links with Yugoslavia’s much bigger republic of Serbia. But whether he sallies ahead with a promised referendum on independence will depend on his margin of victory. People in the mountainous republic, which boasts a spectacular Adriatic coastline, lined up at polling stations well before the 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) start. About 30 percent of the 450,000 eligible had voted by 11:30 a.m., Montenegro’s electoral commission said. Polls were to close at 9 p.m. ( 7 p.m. GMT).
Reuters Nick Wood of The Guardian adds: President Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and its coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party, say they will call an independence referendum if they win. Such a move has been fiercely criticised by the international community, which says it would encourage separatist movements in neighbouring Bosnia and Kosovo and prompt further instability in the region. The contact group on the Balkans — the USA, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia — warned Montenegro earlier this week that it would cut off aid to Montenegro if it pursues the goal of independence. Montenegro and Serbia are the last two republics left inside present-day Yugoslavia, a state which once included Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia. Montenegro fought successfully for centuries to keep the Ottoman empire at bay, and its independence was formally recognised at the international Congress of Berlin in 1878. It was absorbed into Yugoslavia in 1918 at the end of World War I. The government coalition has presented independence as both ``inevitable’’ and a natural continuation of Montenegro’s development since 1998, the year in which it removed itself from federal Yugoslavians institutions in protest against the Milosevic regime’s policies. Since the feud, Montenegro has developed its own customs and banking systems — it has adopted the deutschmark as its own currency and abandoned the Yugoslav dinar. The government parties have boycotted all federal elections and none of their MPs has attended the federal parliament. The last remaining federal institution with any clout is the Yugoslav army. The Socialist Democratic Deputy Prime Minister, Dragisa Burzan, says Montenegro’s interests can no longer be served in a federation with its neighbour. “Montenegro would suffer very much, it would not have a direct approach to funds from foreign governments. We would be represented by a federal government which we cannot influence in any realistic way,’’ he said. Anti-independence parties say they will not take part in a referendum on secession. The People’s Party (NS) and Socialist People’s Party say they will win 40 per cent of the vote. “It’s very close. The main political battle will be after the election, because there will be no significant majority on either side,’’ said Dragan Soc, the president of the People’s Party. ``I expect high emotions to increase if Mr Djukanovic calls for a referendum without a real consensus.’’ In an ominous warning to Macedonia’s ethnic minorities Mr Soc said that Muslims and ethnic Albanians — who make up roughly a quarter of the population and are mostly expected to vote for independence candidates — to think carefully before making their decision. Peter Palmer, an analyst for the International Crisis Group in Podgorica said the international community’s fears were based on its failure to solve the Kosovo question. “The status of Kosovo is completely separate from the case of Montenegro which should not be held hostage to the case of Kosovo, and be made a scapegoat to the apparent lack of imagination by the international community in its policy towards Kosovo.” Threats to withdraw aid from Montenegro would make things worse, he said. |
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Blast in Israel kills two Jerusalem, April 22 There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, opposed to peace moves eith Israel, has vowed to carry out suicide attacks since the election in February of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. “We are talking apparently about a suicide bomber who arrived with explosives and blew himself up next to a bus stop,” Deputy Police Chief Shimon Buhbut told Israel Radio. “We are talking about another four or five wounded and two killed, one apparently the suicide bomber,” he said. Kfar Saba, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv, is near Israel’s border with the West Bank and has been a frequent target of Palestinian militant attacks. Ambulance workers said they had taken at least 13 persons to hospital. Israeli Opposition chief Yossi Sarid said he was considering putting off a meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat planned for later in the day in the wake of what he called a tragedy. Israelis and Palestinians held talks late last night aimed at easing tensions. Before the explosion, the death toll in nearly seven months of violence had reached at least 381 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 71 other Israelis. Meanwhile, Israel and the Palestinians pushed ahead with efforts to reduce violence, holding security talks despite a fresh Israeli incursion into Gaza. Security officials from both sides held late-night talks yesterday at Israel’s Erez checkpoint with Palestinian-ruled Gaza to examine the feasibility of coordinating operations to try to head off violence and provide a basis for resuming fractured peace talks. A statement issued by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after the three-hour meeting said a “good and serious” mood had prevailed, adding that the two sides “agreed upon long-term and ongoing security cooperation”. “It was decided to implement a series of steps which would bring about a cessation of the ongoing terror and violence and the continuation of the easing of civil and economic restrictions on the Palestinians,” the statement said. GAZA: A senior official in the Hamas group called on Sunday for Palestinian resistance to continue after the bomb blast. Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said: “The continuation of the Israeli occupation and Zionist aggression will be faced by resistance and it is the legitimate right of the Palestinians.” Hamas is opposed to peace moves with Israel and has vowed to carry out suicide attacks since the election in February of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Reuters |
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Another
strike to force Hasina out Dhaka, April 22 The alliance did not pay any heed to the demand of a joint body of the chambers of the country to end the strike and devise new ways of agitation without disturbing the industrial production, export of garments, tea, jute and jute products and shrimps etc. The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) has been authorised to meet the leaders of the ruling party and the Opposition to convince them on the plight of the business community. The last 72-hour-long strike ended on April 11. A 48-hour-long strike was enforced by the Opposition on April 1st and 2nd. Referring to violence during such strike in the past the Prime Minister Ms Sheikh Hasina, in her speech at a public meeting in Khulna, this morning urged the Opposition to wait for two more months and shun the politics of violence. She said they would step down on completion of their term on July 13. The Federation of Teachers Association staged a demonstration in the capital recently urging the Opposition to avoid strike, which was hampering classes at all educational institutions. Meanwhile, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), in a raid on Saturday, at a house in the old part of the city, recovered huge quantity of crude bombs and arrested five persons including a woman. They confessed in the court that the Opposition had engaged them for exploding the bombs. |
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First space tourist Moscow, April 22 The NASA was to be informed about the decision to allow Tito into space. The heads of the NASA and the Rosaviakosmos were scheduled to discuss yesterday if Tito, who hopes to become the first tourist to space, could take part in the mission. During a Rosaviakosmos press conference here yesterday, it was announced that the launch would take place at 11.37 local time from Baikonur cosmodrome on April 28, Novosti reports. The expedition will be commanded by Talgat Musabayev, while Yury Baturin will be the on-board engineer. The crew aims to replace the Soyuz-TM ship at the station, that has served as the emergency rescue pod for crew, with the new ship they will travel in. The crew will return in an older model of the same vessel specification, which docked with the station last November and is reaching the end of its technical resources. America was not very keen on his space odyssey, saying Tito was not well prepared, and might endanger the mission. However, Russian specialists insisted that he was prepared for such a flight. Besides, they feel Tito will not go to space “as a tailor’s dummy”, but will be a full-fledged crew member, handling communication systems.
UNI |
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Stunning lead for Koizumi Tokyo, April 22 “Koizumi to be elected as new party leader,” declared the Asahi Shimbun paper after the 59-year-old former Welfare Minister won seven Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) branch votes in a primary election. It gave him a total of 21 votes out of the first 27 ballots cast by the 141 LDP local chapters, allowing just three votes each to his contenders Shizuka Kamei and Ryutaro Hashimoto. The staggering support for Mr Koizumi dealt a heavy blow to former premier Hashimoto, 63, who was previously tipped as the front-runner. The fourth contender and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Taro Aso has still scored no points in the ballot counts. The new party President, who is to replace Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, will automatically become premier because of the LDP’s strength in Parliament. “I did not think I could win this much and emerge as number one,” Mr Koizumi told a television programme. “The simmering magma is coming to an explosion.” “I expect wavering people will step out” to switch their allegiance to back him, said Mr Koizumi, a long-time advocate of privatising the postal services system.
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25 p. c. cut in PAEC budget Islamabad, April 22 The proposed PAEC’s expenditure cuts included 10 per cent on its classified budget and 15 per cent of its open budget. “The 10 per cent cut on the classified budget meant for country’s nuclear and missile research programme, has reportedly been enforced during the third quarter of the current financial year. The reason is said to be the financial constraints the country is facing today”, they said. Also a 15 per cent cut would be affected on the PAEC’s general budget. This covered mostly the budget of 12 cancer hospitals being run by the PAEC, Finance Ministry officials told the newspaper, “The News”. PTI The sources also say that the cut in the PAEC’s budget is not the consequence of any external pressure. They said that the initiatives like slashing of the budget were the result of a weak resource position. The decision to affect the budget cuts for the nuclear programme followed reports that Pakistan and the USA prepared to resume talks on Pakistan’s nuclear programme next month in Washington to review the US sanctions against Pakistan.
PTI |
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48 die in mine blast Beijing, April 22 The official said the mine operator, Wu Xiudong, fled the scene shortly after the blast ripped through an underground shaft. The mine closed in November last year after failing to meet the safety standards. At the time of the blast it was operating illegally, they said.
AP |
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