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Chandrika steps up pressure Two die in Bali violence
Hearing on Suu Kyi’s house postponed Israel legalises five West Bank outposts |
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Butler’s book may be bestseller, royal family terrified
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Chandrika steps up
pressure on Norway
Colombo, October 27 Four days after asking Norway to replace retired Major-Gen Tryggve Tellefsen as head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s office issued a statement saying it should be done quickly. “In order to ensure a continued process of smooth monitoring of the CFA (ceasefire agreement), a speedy replacement of Major-Gen Tellefsen as head of the SLMM is all that is required,” the statement said. It also said Ms Kumaratunga, who disagrees with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s handling of the peace bid with the Tamil Tigers, had received a response from Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, saying he was looking into her request. It was Ms Kumaratunga’s most direct intervention in the peace process to end the island’s 20-year ethnic war that has killed 64,000 since her party lost power two years ago to her rival, Wickremesinghe. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, due to release a power-sharing proposal at the end of the week that should lead to renewed peace negotiations, have said feuding between the President and Prime Minister threatens the peace process. Ms Kumaratunga holds General Tellefsen responsible after a monitoring mission official may have leaked the location of a suspected rebel vessel smuggling arms into Sri Lanka, allowing it to escape. The incident last week is still under investigation. Her office said the incident “could have potentially jeopardised the lives of navy personnel and has compromised the national security of Sri Lanka”. General Tellefsen, who took over the Nordic monitoring team in March, has 60 persons overseeing the truce that has mostly kept the guns silent since it was signed in February, 2002.
— Reuters |
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Jakarta, October 27 Indonesia holds parliamentary and presidential elections in 2004 and many fear violence may mar the poll, in which around 145 million persons will directly choose the country’s president for the first time. The police said the fighting was between supporters of President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party Struggle (PDI-P) and the former ruling Golkar party. ‘’Two brothers died and four others suffered burns in the incident. All of them were Golkar cadres. The attackers were a group of people wearing the attributes of the PDI-P,’’ Bali police spokeswoman Pengasihan Gaut said by telephone from Bali’s provincial capital of Denpasar. The two parties are partners in the government coalition but are set to field separate candidates in the 2004 presidential election. The PDI-P holds one third of the seats in parliament while Golkar is a close second. Both are secular parties. Most other leading parties in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, are Islam-based. Megawati did not mention the violence when she launched a campaign for the 2004 elections on Monday, billing them as democratic events for all and a chance to improve the country’s image. The police spokeswoman in Bali said the situation in the northern Buleleng regency had cased after the violence in which a mob torched cars, motorcycles and Golkar booths. A senior PDI-P member said the violence was spontaneous. ‘’The incident stemmed from exchanges of insults between grassroots party cadres heating up the emotional situation there. It was not planned at all,’’ PDI-P secretary general Sutjipto said. Militants from the Al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah carried out recent bloody attacks on Christian villages in Indonesia to mark the one-year anniversary of the Bali bombings, a media report said on Monday. The Indonesian police, however, denied the report. Muslim gunmen killed 11 Christians two weeks ago in attacks in central Sulawesi province, which was wracked from 1999 to 2001 with religious violence that attracted militants from around Indonesia. Tempo weekly news magazine reported that Jemaah Islamiyah, the shadowy group blamed for last year’s October 12 Bali bombings, were behind the shootings. “It was for the anniversary for the Bali bombs,” an alleged senior member of the group told the magazine. — Reuters, AP
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Hearing on Suu Kyi’s house postponed
Bangkok, October 27 “We cannot seek her instructions, so we applied for a temporary suspension of the hearing. The Judge adjourned the hearing to December 26,” one of her lawyers said. Aung San Oo, an estranged elder brother living in the USA, has been fighting a protracted legal battle for the Yangon home, where Suu Kyi is now confined after surgery last month, which followed nearly three months in detention. Since her return to Myanmar in the late 1980s, the Nobel laureate has spent several lengthy periods under house arrest at the property, which occupies a large lakeside plot in the heart of an elite residential area. Suu Kyi (58), was detained at a secret location following a May 30 clash between her followers and pro-government supporters. She was later confined to her home following major surgery last month, but Myanmar had ignored Western sanctions and international calls for her full release. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won Myanmar’s last democratic elections in 1990, but was never been allowed to govern. The military, which had run Myanmar for most of the last 40 years, had locked up and harassed party leaders and closed many of its offices. Suu Kyi had directed her struggle for democracy from the residence and compound left by her mother Khin Kyi, widow of Myanmar independence hero General Aung San.
— Reuters |
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Israel legalises five West Bank outposts
Jerusalem, October 27 “We need to give the minimum services to these people who are on the ground, especially for security and education,” Ron Sheshner, senior adviser to Mofaz on settlements, told public radio. The radio said among the outposts that were set to be accorded “legal” status, several of them had earlier been dismantled by the army. In addition, the radio reported that parliament’s finance commission would release today some $ 29 million to build apartments in West Bank settlements. — AFP
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Butler’s book may be bestseller, royal family terrified
London, October 27 As stores began selling “A Royal Duty”, the butler-turned-author Paul Burrell welcomed a request to meet Princes William and Harry, vowing to give them “a piece of my mind”.
With an initial 95,000 copies on sale in Britain and 700,000 in the United States, the book’s most sensational revelation was that Diana predicted her own death in a car crash just 10 months before she died in a Paris road tunnel in 1997. It was also packed with personal letters and details around the famous infidelities of Diana and ex-husband Prince Charles, Britain’s heir-to-the-throne, before their break-up. “We cannot believe Paul, who was entrusted with so much, could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal,” the angry princes said at the weekend. They urged him to halt the revelations and meet them. Burrell responded positively, but said he, too, was hurt — by the boys’ failure to contact him when he was on trial a year ago for theft of Diana’s goods. The trial collapsed, unleashing a tide of embarrassing revelations for the House of Windsor. “They offered to see me and I said ‘yes please.’ I am very happy to sit in front of them and explain the process of writing this book and why I did it,” Burrell told BBC radio. “I think I would like to give them a piece of my mind and ask them ‘why did they personally not help me when I needed help at the worst point of my life?’ I tried desperately to contact them but there was no response,” he added. In another interview to be shown later today on BBC TV, Burrell said the princes need to “grow up and get on with it.” Despite being called “my rock” by the popular Diana during more than a decade’s service, Burrell has been vilified by sections of the British media for stirring old scandals. One friend of Diana called him a “vulture” raking over her bones. But Burrell insisted his book — expected to soar straight into the bestseller list — was an attempt to set the record straight about a misunderstood woman. “It is a loving tribute,’’ he said. “It’s an accurate portrayal of a life which I witnessed. This is part of my life, part of what I saw and heard. It doesn’t come any more real than that. The British public have a right to know.” The Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, has been severely embarrassed by the publication of his correspondence with Diana in the book, extracts of which were printed in recent days by the tabloid newspaper ‘The Daily Mirror’. “We do not approve of either of you having lovers,” Philip wrote in one letter to his daughter-in-law, referring to both her affairs and Charles’ relations with Camilla Parker Bowles. “I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind leaving you for Camilla,” he added. The royals are said by friends to be terrified that Burrell may shed more light on a lurking scandal over claims by a royal servant that he was raped. Burrell and Diana are said to have heard a tape detailing the allegation. But Burrell promised he would not go too far in telling royal secrets. “I know where the line is,” he said.
— Reuters
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Adnan Sami, “Kaante” get top nominations in USA Renowned Ghazal singer Pankaj Uddhas, who made many eyes moist amongst the Indian diaspora all over the world when he rendered “Chitthi aayee hai” more than a decade ago, will be the toast of the Annual Bollywood Awards to be presented in New Atlantic City in New Jersey later this week. The Fourth Annual Bollywood Music Awards, where the maestro is to receive the Special Achievement Award for his contribution to popularising Indian music overseas, will be held on November 1 at the Mark G Etess arena at the Trump Taj Mahal Resort in Atlantic City in New Jersey. Mr Kamal Dandona, founder of the Bollywood Music Awards, said in a communication from the USA that “Pankaj Udhas was among the first ghazal singers to gain widespread acceptance and fame and, thereby, paved the way for men and women of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds to enter the music world. He is a symbol of ghazal music and his music career has enveloped the globe and, therefore, is most deserving of the International Special Award.” The music of the Hindi films “Sur” and “Kaante”, the pop song “Tera chehra” by Adnan Sami and the re-mixed “Kaanta lagaa” by Shaswati have topped the nominations, Mr Dandona said. Awards are being given in five categories for Hindi film music and six categories for Indipop, apart from an award for the best music company category. Five nominations have been short-listed in each of the 12 categories, based on votes by the Indian diaspora in different countries. Artistes expected to perform include Sonu Nigam, Kumar Sanu, Hans Raj Hans, Sukhwinder Singh, Tanaaz Currrim, Pankaj Uddhas, Sunidhi Chauhan, Anamika, Sapna Mukherjee, Bombay Vikings, remix artiste Harry Anand, Ishtar from Alabina, Arrow (Alphonsus Cassell): King of Soca, Shefali, and Mahalaxmi Iyer. In addition, there will be performances by mimic artiste Sunil Pal, Indar Kanhai and the Maharani dancers and Maria Conchita Alonso, the Latin sensation from Hollywood. The other nominees for best album besides Adnan Sami are Alisha Chinoy (Alisha), Abhijeet (Tere bina), Euphoria (Teri gully), and Bombay Vikings (Woh chali). The best male pop artists, besides Adnan and Shaan, are Abhijeet, Nitin Bali (Baliwood) and Neeraj Shridhar (Woh chali). The best female pop artists besides Shashwati are Falguni Pathak (Yeh kisne jadoo kiya’), Alisha Chinoy, Anamika (Pyar hai) and Sunidhi Chauhan (Pyar ke sur). Nominees in the Bhangra category are Hans Raj Hans (Chorni), Jazzy B (Tera roop), Punjabi MC (Mundian to bach ke), Gurdas Mann (Panjiri) and Daler Mehndi (Maujaan laen do). The best Remixed Albums besides “Kaantaa Lagaa” are “Kaliyon Ka Chaman” by UMI 10 Harry Anand, “Return of Daddy” by DJ Aqueel, “Dance & Romance” by Bally Sagoo and “Baliwood” by Nitin Bali. The best Dance Video are “Mundiya to bach ke”, “Kaliyon Ka Chaman”, “Kaanta lagaa”, “Kabhi naheen”, and “Aaika Dajiba”.
— UNI |
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