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Friday,
July 26, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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PPP-PML
rift over ARD rally Powell may
not stay in Bush team
Space trip
changed Dennis Tito |
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269 killed
in Nepal landslips Kathmandu, July 25 At least 269 persons have died from landslides and floods triggered by incessant rains in Nepal in the past four days, officials in the affected areas said today. The hardest hit district was Makwanpur in the south of the kingdom, where about 150 persons had been killed since Sunday as their villages were swept away by floods, local authorities reached by telephone said.
USA fails
to block UN pact
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PPP-PML rift over ARD rally Karachi, July 25 Strongly opposing the postponement of the ARD meeting, the
PML (N) leaders warned that not only it would create a bad impression among public, but it would also damage the ARD politically. But the PPP (Sindh) President Nisar Khuhro said due to the intra-party elections of the PPP, there was no other way except to postpone the meeting. Not only that, the PPP also refused to bear the expenses of the public meeting. Meanwhile, the ARD Sindh has announced the public meeting to be held on Friday has been postponed because the administration has not given them permission. The central leaders’ meeting on July 27 was also postponed. The Sindh Home Secretary has brushed aside the impression that ARD was denied permission. Sources in ARD said the public meeting had to be deferred because of elections for various offices in PPP. The
PML (N)’s representatives and Mufti Ferozuddin Hazarvi pressed the PPP not to postpone the public meeting but PPP and PDP desired vice versa. Mr Khuhro told reporters at the Karachi Press Club that the central leadership would announce the new date of the public meeting when it meets in Karachi. “Then, we shall hold the public meeting in Nishtar Park at any cost,” he vowed. Meanwhile, a Pakistani court remanded in custody a fourth suspect in last month’s bomb attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi. Mohammad Ashraf, an activist of Al-Almi, an offshoot of the radical pro-Taliban Harkat-ul-Mujahideen organisation, was arrested by police on Wednesday night. Habib Ahmed, Assistant Advocate-General of Sindh, told reporters Ashraf had been remanded until Saturday, when he will appear in court again. Police this month arrested three people, including two leading members of Al-Almi, on suspicion of involvement in the car bomb attack on the consulate on June 14, which killed 12 people and seriously wounded more than 20. Two of the accused — Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Hanif, the head and deputy head of the organisation — confessed their involvement in both the consulate attack and the plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf. They said they had attempted to kill Musharraf late in April, but their car bomb failed to go off. They said their targets included U.S. interests in Pakistan, such as fast food chains MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
ANI, Reuters |
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Powell may not stay in Bush team New York, July 25 The daily said Powell’s deep differences with President George Bush and his attempt to preserve his point of view as well as his loyalty to the Republican administration are not just taxing for him and his job but have also led to reversing his position from one day to the next. This has been especially true on West Asia, on international covenants like the Kyoto accord on greenhouse gases as well as US funding of UN family planning programmes. “A string of internal policy differences and defeats — most recently in the Middle East and international family planning — have set off speculation from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom that Secretary Powell might not last through President Bush’s term. Tensions with the White House and Pentagon hawks that Powell has long sought to minimise are no longer possible to disguise,” said the daily in its Thursday issue. While the General has a popularity rating as high as Bush and more consistent, and has way more Washington experience than the President, Powell has sought to portray an undying loyalty to the President’s positions despite being opposed to a hawkish view toward Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and being pro-family planning and an internationalist. The article quotes so-called Powell’s associates and friends without naming them. While Powell has won some victories, more often, he has been forced to “pick up the pieces and go on,” said the Times, quoting friends. It also quotes Richard Holbrooke, the Clinton envoy to the UN and a South Asia buff. “Since the administration can no longer maintain that these aren’t major internal disagreements, they’ve decided they might as well try to contain them by saying that all administrations have disagreements,” Holbrooke said. Holbrooke gives Powell high praise for his efforts on the subcontinent and his influence on Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, the article noted. As one of the world’s most admired celebrities for more than a decade, with approval ratings that rival Bush’s, Powell has special status - and singular political value - in a Republican administration supposedly eager to demonstrate its commitment to compassionate conservatism, it said. But almost from the beginning, he has found himself at odds with many of his more hard-line colleagues and the President himself on the handling of foreign policy, whether over Bush’s rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming or the President’s lumping of Iran, Iraq and North Korea into a global “axis of evil,” the report said.
IANS, PTI |
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Space trip changed Dennis Tito London, July 25 “I came out of the space capsule to a large crowd of people; the press and Russian search-and-rescue teams were all cheering me on. It was even better when I flew home to Los Angeles. The mayor of LA boarded the plane to welcome me home. Friends and family were also there with `Welcome Home’ signs they had made. The first thing I wanted to do was go for sushi, which I had been craving during the training and flight, so I went to my favourite Sushi restaurant with my then-girlfriend, Dawn. “I broke up with Dawn shortly after I came back. It’s hard to say why exactly, but I was a different person. Coming back to earth was a major crossing point in my life. I had realised my life’s dream so I was ready to begin a second life. The main difference was that it gave me great confidence that I could cope with anything life threw at me. Now if my baggage is lost in the airport, it’s not the end of the world. Little things that would have made me miserable before just roll off me. A lot of the space training and flying is about relaxing and not letting little things bother you. I had to stay strapped in a foetal position in a small sardine can without being able to go to the rest room. Any astronaut I’ve spoken to since shares the feeling that you can put up with quite a lot after you’ve done that. “It’s a good thing I felt like that because returning to work was like going home after an earthquake, when everything in your house has fallen off the shelves and you have to clear up. The stockmarket had done so poorly while I was training and flying that there were a lot of challenges in my business. I’ve spent the past year putting the pieces back together. In a way, it was good because I needed something to focus on. My life could have been a great void, with a feeling of `been there, done that’, but I had no time to worry about it. “I wouldn’t go back and do it again. Nothing could top my experience and I relive it every day. If you hold your breath underwater in a swimming pool and relax to the point that your body goes into a sort of foetal position, that gives a good idea of what it’s like to be without gravity. I could see the curvature of the planet through the darkness of space. It’s mostly blue with patches of clouds. When we went over Africa, it was by far the most distinct landmass we saw; it’s a reddish colour with a lighter yellow hue where the Sahara desert is. The thing that struck me the most from space was how thin the atmosphere around the earth is. I care a lot more about the environment now than before I went to space, and I raise the issue in every speech I give about my flight. “I’d much rather be involved in supporting others to go, because I think space should be part of our culture here on earth. I’ve suggested that NASA resurrect the citizen-in-space programme, which was cancelled after the loss of the Challenger crew in 1986. We should send not only teachers, but people from all walks of life. I give my time to a company called Space Adventures, who helped me plan my trip, giving advice to other candidates who want to go. I may have settled back to a normal life in LA, but my chest stands out a little further and I have a smile on my face. The more people who can experience that, the better.”
The Guardian, London |
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269 killed in Nepal landslips Kathmandu, July 25 In the Kathmandu valley, 37 persons had died, officials in the capital said. Another 43 persons had been reported killed in the north-eastern district of Khotang, 17 in Chitwan in the south and 10 in the eastern district of Kavrepalanchowk, authorities said. Another 12 deaths were reported from flooding and landslides in other areas. Home ministry officials, however, put the toll at about 100 dead, 49 missing and 47 injured. They said 972 families from 19 of Nepal’s 75 districts had been affected by floods and landslides. The heavy rains had flooded the key highway linking Kathmandu with outlying districts and India. A home ministry official said the costs were expected to be in millions of rupees as the floods and landslides had damaged bridges, schools and other vital installations.
AFP |
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Bush backs Lanka peace
Washington, July 25 Mr Bush said here yesterday that he would send teams to Sri Lanka to assess how best to support the peace process and also to promote economic development. The government and Tamil Tiger rebels have been observing a cease-fire since February and expect to open peace talks next month. Mr Wickremesinghe was upbeat after his discussions. “President Bush and the US government has given us all the encouragement to go ahead with the political process to bring peace to Sri Lanka,” he said. Mr Wickremesinghe also met with Secretary of State Colin Powell and with World Bank officials. His visit is the first to Washington by a Sri Lankan leaders in 18 years. Mr Wickremesinghe told a news conference that the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA had changed the political climate in his country for the better.
AP |
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USA fails to block UN pact United Nations, 25 July The UN Economic and Social Council first defeated a potentially fatal US proposal to sidetrack the treaty. It then approved the pact by a vote of 35-8, with 10 abstentions, sending it on to the 189-member UN General Assembly, which will take it up later in the year. To take effect, the pact must then be signed and ratified by enough governments, with the required number set by the treaty, which has been drafted over 10 years.
Reuters |
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