Tuesday, December 14, 1999
spotlighttoday's calendar
....... |
W O R L D | Tuesday, December 14, 1999 |
|
| weather spotlight today's calendar |
....... |
||
|
Sudan parliament
dissolved Pak developing two N-missiles |
 |
 Rescue workers use ropes to get to the wreckage of an ATP turboprop airplane which crashed on the mountains of the Azores island of Sao Jorge, on Sunday. — AP
|
|
New Pak policy on Kashmir Irish PM meets Belfast leaders Russians capture Grozny suburb TULF abandons Chandrika LTTE captures 3 army camps Barak may seal treaty with Syria |
|||||
 |
||||||
President declares emergency KHARTOUM, Dec 13 (Reuters) — The streets of Sudan’s capital were calm early today after President Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament in a move to thwart the legislation that would have reduced his powers. "It’s very quiet outside," a Khartoum resident said as the city awoke after yesterday’s surprise television announcement by the President, who took power in the 1989 military coup. The state television began its broadcast today with Koranic verses and quotations from Prophet Mohammad about the holy month of Ramadan. It then showed a short comedy entertainment programme, followed by prayer times for Ramadan. "This relates to a conflict between the President and the National Assembly," Deputy parliament Speaker Abdulaziz Shiddo told Reuters in Cairo on telephone. "If the President and parliament had acted in a cool way, in a quiet atmosphere, this could have been resolved. There was no need to escalate it to a state of emergency being announced." He said a dispute between Mr Bashir, who is the chairman of the ruling National Congress Party, and Mr Hassan Turabi, its powerful Secretary-General, had been brewing for weeks over constitutional amendments to trim presidential powers. Mr Turabi, speaker of parliament, is a wily ideologue who backed Mr Bashir’s coup and has been the main driving force behind efforts to turn Sudan into a stricter Islamic state. Mr Bashir, in decrees read on television, ordered a state of emergency for three months and said the general election authority would set a date for the new national assembly elections. An emergency order suspended some Articles of the 1998 constitution, introduced last year ostensibly to reinstate a multiparty system, but told provincial councils and governors to carry on working. Mr Shiddo said the parliament had been expected to pass a legislation tomorrow that would have removed the President’s role in choosing and dismissing provincial governors. Mr Bashir, whose government has been accused by the West of supporting terrorism, banned all political parties and declared Islamic rule when he seized power more than 10 years ago. Mr Bashir and the man whose government he toppled, Sadeq al-Mahdi of the northern-based, Umma Party, met in Djibouti on November 26 and agreed to hold talks on how to promote democracy and end 16 years of civil war in Africa’s biggest country. Two peace initiatives,
one involving Libya and Egypt, and the other a US-backed
forum of East African states, are under way to try to end
the conflict in the mainly Christian and animist South,
which has cost an estimated 1.5 million lives. |
Pak developing two N-missiles WASHINGTON, Dec13 (ANI) — Pakistan is developing two new nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles — Ghauri-III and Shaheen-II — in addition to its "unknown number" of such weapons, the US-based Heritage Foundations has claimed. The Heritage makes this claim on the basis of information gathered from US intelligence agencies. In its annual "US and Asia Statistical Handbook", it has also said Ghauri-I is a prototype of North Korean Rodong and Shaheen-I is "possibly M9 from the People’s Republic of China". After the M11, now the next issue against Pakistan, it seems, will be over M9 missiles. Besides, Pakistan has "an unknown number of nuclear-capable M-11 short-range missiles from China," it said. It gives Pakistan’s missile strength as follows: 18 HATF-I missiles, an unknown number of HATF-II short-range missiles; an unknown number of indigenously produced HATF-III short-range missiles; unknown number of nuclear-capable M-11s all short-range missiles; medium-range nuclear-capable Ghauri-I (tested in April 1998); medium-range Ghauri-II (tested in April 1999); intermediate range Ghauri-III under development, short-range Shaheen-I, and intermediate range nuclear-capable Shaheen-II (under development). The Heritage says that
Pakistan, though a long time US ally, has no security
alliance with the USA. But it has a friendship and
non-aggression treaty with China (1960) and
"extensive nuclear and missile cooperation"
with Beijing. |
New Pak policy on Kashmir ISLAMABAD, Dec 13 (PTI) — Pakistan’s military regime has adopted a new, five-point policy on Kashmir envisaging stepping up support to Kashmiri militants and not holding dialogue with India for the restoration of trade, economic and friendly relations till New Delhi agreed to "meaningful" and "result-oriented talks", newspaper reports said today. The policy, chalked out under the guidance of military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, was drafted after taking into confidence leaders of Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and in the light of a letter written reportedly by Hurriyat President Syed Ali Shah Gilani to the military ruler, Urdu daily Jung reported. The Kashmiri leadership of PoK not only expressed support to the new policy, but also criticised the Nawaz Sharif government for holding "meaningless dialogue" with India, it said. The Jung said, firstly Pakistan would not hold any dialogue with India for the restoration of trade, economic and friendly relations unless New Delhi agreed for "meaningful" and result-oriented" talks on Kashmir. Secondly, the PoK Kashmiri leadership would be given a free hand by the military regime to highlight the Kashmir issue at national and international levels the Jung said. Thirdly, the Pakistan junta would on its own utilise all possible ways to highlight the Kashmir issue at national and international levels, the report said. Fourthly, Pakistan would step up political, diplomatic and moral support for self-determination by Kashmiris, who would take decisions independently, it said. Lastly, Pakistan will not enter into any deal with India at any cost on the Kashmir issue and there will not be any "give-and-take" over it. The policy was
finalised, the report said, following a meeting with PoK
Kashmiri leaders, including PoK Prime Minister and
President of the All-Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference,
Sardar Abdul Qayyum, AJK Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Abdul
Rashid Turabi, AJK Muslim League chief Major (retd)
Mohammad Hayat, AJK Peoples Party chief Sardar Khalid
Ibrahim. |
Irish PM meets Belfast leaders ARMAGH (Northern Ireland), Dec 13 (Reuters) — Ireland’s Prime Minister took his entire Cabinet to the heart of British-ruled northern Ireland for a landmark meeting today with the province’s new coalition cabinet of Protestants and Catholics. The historic gathering in the ancient Cathedral city of Armagh helped to cement the fast-moving Northern Ireland peace process and usher in an era of harmony after nearly 80 years of partition. In a day rich in symbolism, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and the other ministers from north and south jointly launched a cross-border structure to promote Ireland-wide development from trade to tourism. The "North-South Ministerial Council" is among a range of political initiatives that have given fresh life to the watershed Good Friday 1998 peace accord after 20 months of paralysis. But there was one sour note. Two Northern Ireland ministers from the hardline Democratic Unionist Party refused to attend the inaugural council session. They said the council was pushing Northern Ireland into a united Ireland — the aim of their Republican foes. Ahern, looking forward to mutual cooperation, said at the weekend: "the important thing is that we get off the ground to a good start — that we start working side by side for the first time since partition". The crisis-plagued peace process has gathered steam despite angry claims last week by leaders of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army’s political ally, that British intelligence had "bugged" them. Britain’s former
Chief Northern Ireland Minister, Mo Mowlam, authorised
the secret bugging of a car used — but not owned
— by Sinn Fein chiefs Gerry Adams and Martin
McGuinness, the Sunday Telegraph reported, quoting
"security officials closely involved in the
operation’’. |
Russians capture Grozny suburb GROZNY, Dec 13 (Reuters) — Explosions shook the besieged Chechen capital today, where thousands of civilians are trapped, as Chechen fighters conceded the loss of a key military airport on the city’s eastern outskirts. Chechen fighters at positions in the south of the rebel region said clashes had taken place on Grozny’s outskirts. They confirmed reports in the Russian media that Russian troops had taken the Grozny suburb of Khankala, site of the military airport. Chechen fighters also said Russian forces had briefly raided Minutka district in central Grozny. This could not be confirmed. In Moscow, Russia’s state Duma passed resolutions offering amnesty to Chechen fighters who lay down their arms by February 1. "It is a very important document that you have adopted," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told the Duma after it passed the resolutions. "Even the rumour about the amnesty has forced many fighters to lay down their arms." International attention has focused on the plight of civilians in Grozny, where tens of thousands, mainly elderly and infirm, are thought to remain hiding in cellars from fighting. Grozny residents began moving through a new corridor out of the besieged Chechen capital, Russian news agencies said, while Russia’s Prime Minister played down a negotiated end to the conflict. RIA news agency said yesterday 70 Chechens turned up at the Russian end of a corridor southwest of Grozny, while Russian helicopters and planes dropped leaflets on the capital urging others to make their way out of the city to safety. Following universal condemnation in the west, the Russian army rowed back on an ultimatum for up to 50,000 Grozny civilians to leave the city by Saturday or become a fair target during a threatened all-out onslaught. The Russian military said Grozny had not been bombed for several days. Two corridors were now open for civilians to flee. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a television interview, said recent talks with envoys from Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov had made no progress as the President had not met Russian demands that the authorities release hostages and turn in radical warlords. If Mr Maskhadov was unwilling to do so "then he is fully associated with the bandits’’ and no talks were possible, Mr Putin told ORT public television. If he was unable to do so, he said, that would mean he had no control at all over his territory and could not be considered a worthy negotiating partner. "Then why do we need him at all as a negotiator?" Putin asked. "Is he the man with whom we can and should reach an agreement?" Mr Putin, whose popularity has soared during the Russian military drive into Chechnya, also said the Kremlin leadership was considering various options before moving in on Grozny. President Boris Yeltsin earlier reiterated Russia’s commitment to restore its control over the breakaway north Caucasus province, and Russia’s top judge said it was not for the west to lecture Russia on how to take care of the civilians. "Under the disguise
of calls for national and religious independence, they
(separatist rebels) have tried to revive mediaeval
savagery," Mr Yeltsin told a Kremlin reception
marking constitution day. "That is why our duty is
to restore law and order in Chechnya." |
TULF abandons Chandrika COLOMBO, Dec, 13 (UNI) — In a significant political development, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), one of the key supporter of the ruling Peoples’ Alliance (PA), has decided not to support Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga in next weeks’ presidential election as "Tamil people are disappointed and disillusioned during the last five years of her government." The central committee of the party, which met here yesterday, also unanimously decided that it could not support either the opposition United National Party (UNP) as Tamils had suffered a lot during its 17-year rule. "The Tamil people, who extended their utmost support to Mrs Kumaratunga during the last 1994 presidential election, were consequently disappointed and disillusioned’’,a party release said. Political observers say the decision of the TULF which has been supporting the government, though it is not an ally of the PA, may considerably tilt the balance as in the last election Mrs Kumaratunga had won with the support of the Tamils and other minorities. In fact, the
assassinated TULF leader Neelan Thiruchelvam was the
brain behind the much talked about devolution package
which she said passing it in parliament was the only
solution to the ethnic problem. |
LTTE captures 3 army camps COLOMBO, Dec 13 (UNI) — In an attack by Tamil militants near Elephant Pass in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, 36 persons, including 4 security personnel, were killed while 344 polling cards were taken away by a LTTE member after threatening the postman who was distributing them to the public. The operational headquarters of the Defence Ministry said during the confrontation yesterday in the general areas of Kadaikkadu and Allari, troops repulsed the enemy attempts causing heavy casualties. Reuters adds: LTTE
rebels said today they had captured three strategic
northern army camps. The LTTE’s clandestine radio
station, Voice of Tigers, said 38 rebels were killed
yesterday fighting for the bases, which are part of the
Elephant Pass complex. |
Quicker Canadian visa via Internet WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (PTI) — Tired of waiting to get an immigrant visa for Canada! Good news now for those who are qualified and want to settle down in Canada. Canadian government has decided to issue immigrant visas to educated and skilled foreigners in one minute — via Internet. The Wall Street Journal gave the internet address for Canadian immigration — http://cicnet.ci.gc.ca/ Tap the address on the net, then fill out a score card which is on the web. Add up the points awarded for age, education, language (English or French), occupation, experience and a few other things. A tally of 70 passes. Rule of thumb: If you are under 40, speak English or French and have some kind of degree, you are in. One of the immigrants, Amar Ellman, did just that. He counted his points seven years ago, passed, sent in a form and got back a visa. Straightforward, he says. He is now a production manager at a printing plant. The Canadian immigration procedure took him six months. The Wall Street Journal contrasted the one-minute procedure to know whether one can get a Canadian immigrant visa with the US procedure, that can take up to five years, even for skilled workers, who are in demand in the USA but has no relative in the states or who is not sponsored by a company. The USA with a population of over 250 million accepted 660,000 foreigners as permanent residents (green card holders who can get citizenship in five years normally but in three if the spouse is a citizen) in 1998. Of these, 476,000 had family ties. Just 77,000 others came in as employees — 40,000 fewer than in 1996 and half the limit set by law. Of the 77,000, half were spouses and children. Among working immigrants, said the paper, half were heavyweight academics, hot shot executives or celebrities. In other words, only about 14,000 came in exclusively because they were skilled or educated. Canada, with a population of 30 million, accepts proportionately more immigrants than any other country in the world — 200,000 a year. Of these, roughly 13 per cent are refugees, 30 per cent relatives and 55 per cent workers. Jobs are not guaranteed
but "the big advantage is that workers can know in a
minute if Canada will take them," the journal said. |
Barak may seal treaty with Syria JERUSALEM, Dec 13 (Reuters) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said today he hoped to present a peace treaty with Syria or the Palestinians to the nation within six months for a referendum. In a statement released
by his office, Mr Barak dismissed euphoric reports in the
Israeli media that it would take only weeks to forge a
peace deal with Damascus. |
| H |
|
||
| Clinton shuns canal handover WASHINGTON: Politics overrode statesmanship in keeping President Bill Clinton away from this week’s formal handover of the Panama Canal, a symbol of the emergence of the USA as a world power this century, analysts and historians have said. They said the White House shunned the event fearing Republicans could use the surrender of the canal as campaign ammunition against Vice-President Al Gore’s presidential bid next year. — Reuters Oil tanker mishap 2.2 m
centenarians Unhygienic
kitchens Grants announced |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
