 |
Saturday,
May 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Khatami files papers for presidential
race Musharraf to be President on Aug
14? India
poised to ‘test-launch ICBM’ |
|
|
20 killed in Afghanistan
blast Pope
faces ire in Greece
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Colombo under curfew McDonald’s in the soup over
fries Oppn confirms loss of
Bamiyan
|
|
Khatami files papers for presidential race Teheran, May 4 Ending months of suspense, the soft-spoken cleric registered his candidacy for the June 8 polls which he is widely expected to win. But he said the decision had been tough. “Personally, I would prefer to be somewhere else,” Khatami said after registering as a candidate for another four-year term. “I thought about whether I could be at the service of the country and the people by being president or by taking up another job,” Khatami told reporters. “But the reason I decided to run was that I saw the public call for my taking a second term and a person in my position has to give priority to the people’s desires,” he said. Conservative opposition has forced key allies to be removed from office, sympathetic newspapers to be shut down and fellow reformers to be jailed. Hardliners have also hampered Khatami’s drive to improve relations with the West. A leading moderate voice in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the 57-year-old cleric has often complained that he lacks the necessary powers to reform Iran. Wiping away tears, he said the decision to stand again had been a tough but he had bowed to pressure from political friends and foes alike who feared turmoil if he did not run again. “The elections will show whether the people want me or not and whatever the people want is final,” he said. With just two days left to a deadline for nominations, conservatives are struggling to find a serious challenger to him. What is important now is how many votes Khatami can garner at the polls. The popular mandate is one of the few weapons Khatami has in his political armoury against the powerful conservatives entrenched in the judiciary and the 12-man Guardian Council which has the power to veto laws. But with many among Iran’s youthful population disappointed at the setbacks, Khatami’s poor economic performance and the slow pace of reform, few expect him to match the huge 70 per cent support he gained when he swept to power in 1997. Those close to the president admit they may have overestimated the pace of change possible in the 22-year-old Islamic republic. State television, firmly in the hands of the conservatives, made no mention of Khatami’s announcement citing legal reasons. It simply said the total number of candidates now stood at 187. Nominations must now clear screening by the Guardian Council who check the suitability of candidates. The council is due to announce the results of its deliberations by May 18. Campaigning begins on May 19 and ends 24 hours before the polls open. The President filled in candidacy forms at the Interior Ministry election headquarters, signed them and handed them over to election officials, witnesses said. Khatami had complained the presidency lacked executive power after seeing a series of laws introduced by his government and overwhelmingly backed by Parliament vetoed by the conservative-dominated constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council.
Reuters |
|
Musharraf to be President on Aug 14? Islamabad, May 4 Top Pakistani officials have been holding talks for the past one week to find a legal and constitutional route to take General Musharraf from the Army House to the President’s House, Pakistan Observer today said, quoting highly placed official sources. The decision in this regard was taken at last week’s meeting at the Army House, which besides, General Musharraf was attended by the Director-General, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen Mahmood, the Director-General, Military Intelligence Lt-Gen Ehsan, CGS Lt-Gen Yousuf and eminent law expert and honorary chief adviser to the Chief Executive Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada. Following threadbare discussions, the meeting, which continued till late in the night, assigned Syed Pirzada to work out two or three alternative legal strategies that could lead General Musharraf to assume the office of the President of Pakistan in August after the installation of local governments, the paper said. The meeting also decided that General Musharraf while still remaining the Chief of Army Staff would also assume the office of the President. It was in this meeting that General Usmani was elected as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff without elevation to four stars. The General is in no way ready to cause any heartburn in the army ranks by giving arbitrary elevations. The main objective behind the move was to assign some of his duties to the seniormost officer while maintaining status quo otherwise, it said. Syed Pirzada is currently busy working out constitutional modalities. Barring some unforeseen change of mind, General Musharraf is likely to assume the office of the presidency on August 14, 2001, Pakistan Observer said. After taking over as the President, General Musharraf may restore Parliament where the breakaway group of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) led by Mian Azhar has emerged as one of the biggest group. The restored national and provincial assemblies are likely to ratify the elevation of General Musharraf to presidentship.
UNI |
|
India
poised to ‘test-launch ICBM’ Washington, May 4 Surya II’s range will eventually be extended to 20,000 km, the scientist said. Surya is based on a combination of liquid and solid propulsion technology, and is a variant of India’s Agni missiles, which have a range of over 2,000 km. Surya’s test-bed will be a single-stage liquid-fuel rocket based on cryogenic engine technology. The cryogenic upper stage project is slated for completion by the end of 2002, it said. Russia has a deal with India to supply seven cryrogenic engines from 1998 to 2002. The first engine was received in December 1998 for a satellite booster. The Surya missile project was begun in 1994, using cryogenic technology developed at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre Laboratories in Thiruvananthapuram and guidance technologies from the geo-stationary launch vehicle effort, the report said.
PTI |
|
20 killed in Afghanistan blast
Islamabad, May 4 The dead included an exiled Iranian Sunni scholar Moulavi Mohammad Musa. However, Afghanistan official news agency Bakhtar quoting preliminary reports said eight persons were killed. The Bakhtar quoted Herat Governor Mulla Khairullah Khairkhaa as saying that the bomb was aimed to kill Moulavi Mohammad Musa. He said an unidentified Iranian national, who was believed to have carried out the blast, was also killed. The bomb sparked off anti-Iranian protests. Angry mobs set the Iranian consulate building in Herat and five mosques of the minority Shiite community in the city on fire. Moulavi Musa reportedly fled from Iranian city of Mushhad after his mosque was burnt down in sectarian clashes.
PTI |
|
Pope faces ire in Greece Athens, May 4 The pontiff touched down at Athens’s new international airport in a special plane dubbed “Piazza dei Miracoli” — the Square of Miracles — on the first leg of a six-day journey through Greece, Syria and Malta. He was greeted with a traditional olive branch and children in traditional Greek clothes along with Greek Government officials and representatives of the country’s small Catholic Church. But his visit has aroused fierce opposition from the dominant Greek Orthodox Church, while leaving many ordinary people indifferent. Demonstrations were planned for later in the day. The Greek authorities had put on unprecedented security for the one-day visit — the first by a Pope since the Great Schism of 1054 divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches. Athens streets were deserted as the Pope arrived, although police were to be seen everywhere, a far cry from the thronging crowds that usually greet the pontiff. Only a few hundred people turned out to watch his motorcade on the 20-km (12-mile) stretch from the airport to the capital. For the Pope, who turns 81 this month, the trip is the realisation of a dream — a pilgrimage along the path taken by St Paul, the apostle who converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus. But conservative Orthodox believers have demonstrated for weeks against the arrival of the man they call the “arch-heretic” and who they blame for the schism and a variety of other ills, including the Inquisition. In an advance copy of a speech to be delivered to the Pope later on Friday, Greece’s Archbishop Christodoulos said “open wounds” remained from the Crusades. He attacked the pontiff for allegedly saying nothing about the plight of the divided island of Cyprus, The Pope was to meet Greek officials, visit a Catholic church and pray opposite the Acropolis on Arios Pagos hill, where Paul made his famous sermon to the “unknown god”. He will hold a relatively small Mass for a few thousand faithful in a basketball court tomorrow
morning. Reuters |
|
Colombo under curfew
Colombo, May 4 The authorities later announced that curfew would be in force in the entire Western province including capital Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts Trouble started near a mosque in central Mardana after Muslims tried to persuade shopkeepers to put up their shutters in protest against the attacks on some members of the community in Mawanella, about 80 km from here on May 2. Two people were killed and scores injured while several shops and buildings were set ablaze after the Muslims were attacked at Mawanella town on Tuesday. As the protesters called shop owners to down their shutters, the people from the majority community reportedly objected it. At some places, clashes occurred between the two groups while police tried to disperse them. The police said the curfew in the country’s western province aimed to help restore order and would keep people off the streets after disturbances broke out in several parts of the city. “The general public is hereby informed that a curfew has been imposed in the western province from 6 p.m. Today until 6 a.m. tomorrow,” the state radio said. Earlier, the police used teargas to disperse a crowd in the city’s central Mardana area after several cars were damaged by stone-throwing protesters who gathered following noon prayers at a mosque nearby. Traffic was snarled on several streets in the densely populated Kotahena district after clashes also broke out in other parts of northern Colombo. “We can confirm that incidents have been reported from several parts of the city,” an officer of Colombo’s Police Emergency Unit said. “The situation is under control, but the trouble is not over yet.” The demonstrations followed fighting between minority Muslims and the Sinhalese majority in the central town of Mawanella, 80 km east of Colombo, earlier this week that left at least two dead and much of the town in ruins. UNI, Reuters |
|
McDonald’s in the soup over
fries San Francisco, May 4 But McDonald’s, otherwise known as Golden Arches, has said it never claimed its French fries were suitable for consumption by vegetarians. Mr Bharti filed the complaint in King County Superior Court on Tuesday on behalf of three plaintiffs, alleging that McDonald’s engaged in deceptive and fraudulent business by “advertising their French fries were cooked in vegetable oil and made no mention that beef was added to its product,” the complaint said. Of the three plaintiffs, two are Hindus and vegetarians, and the third plaintiff is a vegetarian. Mr Bharti claims it is the first suit of its kind against McDonald’s in the USA. According to the complaint, “defendants are aware of the religious sentiments of Hindus, and in defiance of Hindu beliefs, sentiments and religious sanctity, they knowingly put beef products into the French fries.”
IANS |
|
Oppn confirms loss of Bamiyan Kabul, May 4 Forces of the opposition Muslim Shiite faction of Hezb-e-Wahdat retreated some 20 km from Bamiyan city towards the resistance-held Yakawlang district, Wahdat spokesman Ahmad Bahram said. Opposition forces withdrew from Dara-e-Shahidan region, the nearby Shebar-Two airstrip and Qarghana locations, he said. Brussels: Three Afghan women at European Parliament told tales of brutality, terror and death at the hands of the ruling Taliban in retribution for trying to educate their children and lead normal lives. Covered head-to-toe in the traditional chador and identified only by pseudonym, they met Parliament’s foreign affairs and women’s rights committees before addressing the Press with Parliament President Nicole Fontaine.
AFP |
|
Court win for Anwar men Kuala Lumpur, May 4 |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
