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Tuesday,
August 26, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Indian team to visit Pak today for talks on air links Israel kills four Hamas militants
Maoists threaten to pull out of talks
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21 killed in Haiti plane crash Bangladesh Opposition leader shot dead Bollywood lacks in original ideas, says Kher
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Indian team to visit Pak today for talks on air links Islamabad, August 25 Indian High Commission officials here said a delegation of Indian officials, comprising civil aviation officials, would arrive here tomorrow evening to hold talks with Pakistani officials beginning August 27. The Indian delegation would be headed by Satendir Singh, Director-General, Indian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Other members include officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Indian Airlines, Air India and the Indian Airports Authority. Mr Vikram Misri, the Secretary Political of the Indian High Commission, would also take part in the talks. The Pakistani side at the talks would be headed by its Director-General, Civil Aviation Authority. Both India and Pakistan have already expressed their readiness to resume air links between Lahore and New Delhi and Karachi to Mumbai, which were suspended from January 2002 following the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament. However, lifting the ban on overflights remained a contentious issue. While severing air, rail and road links with Pakistan, India had also banned Pakistani flights over Indian skies to other destinations. Pakistan also reacted by taking a similar measure. As a result over 100 Indian flights to Europe and Far Eastern countries as well as dozens of Pakistan International flights (PIA) to South Asia and South East Asian countries had to be rerouted. Pakistan while agreeing for the resumption of direct air links, wanted civil aviation-level talks to seek guarantees that New Delhi would not resort to blanket ban on over flights, which according to Islamabad deeply affected the aviation business in contravention of the international civil aviation treaties. Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal had already made it clear that India would wait till the talks on the aviation issue was settled before it responded to Pakistan’s initiative to restore rail links, including the friendship train, ‘Samjhotha Express.’ Meanwhile, a day before the arrival of an Indian delegation here for talks on resuming air links and overflights, Pakistan today struck a discordant note by saying that it did not agree with the Indian stand of linking the resumption of flights with train service. India should not link the resumption of passenger train Samjhauta express with that of air links, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters. He was reacting to Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal’s remarks that “given Pakistan’s attitude towards overflights and the bus service, how can we proceed on the rail link?”. Though it is “good news” that the Indian official delegation is coming here to discuss the resumption of air links, “we are surprised to know about Mr Sibal’s comments”, Mr Massood said. However, Pakistan has expressed its readiness to resume rail links with India within 24 hours. “Pakistan Railways is in a position to dispatch the Samjhauta Express within 24 hours to India after receiving the green signal from the Foreign Office,” the Chairman of Pakistan Railways, Mr Khurshid Ahmed Khan, said yesterday.
— PTI |
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Israel kills four Hamas militants Jerusalem, August 25 As Israeli tanks continue their operation deep into Palestinian territory, Hamas’ military wing vowed revenge for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip last night, Israel Radio reported today. The fresh threats come close to Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s combined pledge to avenge last week’s assassination of top Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab. Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, approving the calls for vengeance, today said Israel would have to pay the price for yesterday’s “murder”. Israel, meanwhile, stood firm with its policy of renewing targeted assassinations, with Israeli Defence Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon saying that Israel views “all Hamas personnel as targets for pinpoint preventions.” Israeli defence sources said the principal target of yesterday’s attack was Ahmed Shatiwi, a senior member of Hamas’ military wing who served as the liaison between Hamas’ leadership in Gaza and its cells in the West Bank. A second target has been identified as Walid Alhumas, who chaired the Student Association at Gaza’s Islamic University. Justifying the attack, Tel Aviv said the targeted killing was aimed at preventing a double suicide attack that Hamas’ military wing had planned to carry out in the near future. As operations in the West Bank town of Nablus continue, Israel, on receiving specific terror warnings originating from the city, has imposed a full curfew. Meanwhile, a key US lawmaker yesterday told CNN that the military involvement by the USA and its NATO allies may be necessary to create stability between Israel and the Palestinians, local media reported.
— UNI |
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Maoists threaten to pull out of talks Kathmandu, August 25 “The Nepalese Government should be prepared to declare a constituent assembly unconditionally within three days or else the rebels will be forced to view it as a one-way declaration of breaking away from further peace talks,” chief Maoist negotiator Baburam Bhattarai said in a statement. The rebels’ ultimatum came after the Nepalese Government firmly ruled out agreeing for an assembly to redraft the constitution and asked them to first lay down their arms. “Unless the government agrees to our demand for the constituent assembly, there is no point in continuing the peace talks with the government,” he said. “We do not see any possibility on our part to compromise on our demand for constituent assembly elections as it is the only way to fulfil the people’s requirements and address the present political imbalance.” he said. The deputy rebel leader said the ongoing talks would cease automatically if the government declined to come up with its revised agenda by tomorrow. Mr Bhattarai also blamed the government for the current stalemate in the talks due to its regressive agenda. “The government’s attempt to institutionalise the feudal monarchy and the authoritarianism of the royal army and giving continuity to them through backing of foreign forces is the main cause for the present obstacle in the process,” he alleged. “We have asked the Maoists to lay down their arms first and then talk about electing a constuent assembly to redraft a new constitution,” Government’s negotiator Prakash Chandra Lohani said yesterday. He said the Maoists’ rigid stance during the third round of talks on holding a constituent assembly may be their “strategy to control state power through the use of gun.” No compromise could be made on multi-party democracy, constitutional monarchy, national integrity and independence as well as sovereignty of the people succumbing to the Maoist pressure, he said.
— PTI |
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Euphoria over dual citizenship evaporating, London, August 25 Barrister Bhasker Ghorpade said an Indian taking the British citizenship had to “bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors”, according to law. “Allegiance and protection are said to be correlative duties. It is the tie which binds the British citizens to the Crown and in return for the diplomatic protection by the Crown.” How could one owe allegiance to two countries at the same time?, he asked. According to reports, a parliamentary panel studying the draft dual citizenship bill appeared to be in two minds about the oath of allegiance clause following objection from a Committee on Indian Diaspora that had recommended dual citizenship. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had announced in January this year that global Indians settled in eight countries — the USA, Britain, Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Italy — would be granted dual citizenship after an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955. The Vajpayee Cabinet ratified the decision in May. Subsequently Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who heads the Home Ministry steering the bill, announced that the new law would be ready by the end of this year. An estimated 20 million Indians reside overseas. Courts in Britain have held “a British citizen beyond a shadow of doubt continues to owe allegiance to the British crown until he/she puts an end to the allegiance he owed by giving up the citizenship.”
— PTI |
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21 killed in Haiti plane crash Port-au-prince, August 25 The Czech-made twin-engine turboprop plane, operated by Tropical Airways, crashed into a sugarcane field yesterday afternoon and caught fire. According to local radio reports, the cause of the crash was a door on the aircraft that had not been shut properly and opened after takeoff. All 19 passengers and one of the pilots were Haitian nationals. The other pilot was from neighbouring Dominican Republic, in police said. Local television showed images of the destroyed plane and charred bodies. The police said the bodies were so badly burned it would be difficult to identify them. The plane was travelling from Haiti’s second largest city, located 260 km north of the Haitian capital, to Port-de-Paix, in the northwest. The Let 410 UVP-E is a twin-engined turboprop plane that flies at 4,250 metres altitude. Its maximum capacity is nineteen passengers.
— AFP |
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Bangladesh Opposition leader shot dead Dhaka, August 25 The police said lawyer Monjurul Imam, president of Khulna’s Awami League and a member of the party’s central advisory council, was shot at close range as he was leaving his home for a local court. “Another lawyer and the rickshawpuller were also injured when a hail of bullets hit them,” a resident said. He said the city was tense after the killing and the streets were deserted as the police was put on the alert. Imam, a party veteran, contested the last mayoral election in Khulna, but lost to the candidate from the arch-rival ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
— AFP |
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Bollywood lacks in original ideas, says Kher London, August 25 “Hindi films desperately require new writers with original ideas. There are a very few original writers. There is a bankruptcy of good original scripts in Hindi films and people are able to say that Hindi films merely copy Hollywood films,” Kher, who has acted in about 300 films said while replying to listeners’ questions in “Aapki Baat BBC ke Saath” programme last night. He pointed out that all blockbusters even in the past few years like “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun”, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” and “Dil Waale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” had all been based on original stories. “A lot of original work is being done in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam cinema, but Hindi cinema needs this. I hope new writers will bring fresh ideas,” Kher who is shooting in the UK for Gurinder Chaddha’s film “Bride and Prejudice”, based on Jane Austin’s famous novel “Pride and Prejudice”, said.
— PTI |
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