Egyptair crash: black box recovered
NEWPORT (Rhode Island) Nov 9 — The navy has recovered one of the “black boxes” from Egyptair flight 990, and was in the process of hauling it onto a ship early today, a source close to the investigation said.

Japan to use aid on CTBT
TOKYO, Nov 9 — Japan vowed on Tuesday to use its Official Development Assistance (ODA) to step-up pressure on nations to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

LTTE claim ‘exaggerated’
COLOMBO, Nov 9 — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has admitted that the Army lost control of some areas in the Wanni sector during the recent spate of confrontations with Tamil rebels.

Baptists chided for criticising Hinduism
WASHINGTON, Nov 9 — The White House has indirectly chided the southern Baptists who denounced the Hindu religion as “satan” worship, days before Divali and called for stepped up efforts by churches across Asia to evangelise them.

Ex-leaders gather to mark Berlin Wall’s fall

BERLIN, Nov 9 (Reuters) — Ten years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall took them by surprise, changing the face of their city and the world, Berliners danced throughout the German capital today to celebrate their regained unity.

The celebration mingled with reflections on the bitter realities of the reunification that followed the fall of the Wall and on a painful century in which November 9 has witnessed other, grimmer, episodes of Germany’s 20th century.

One East Berliner who will not be celebrating is Egon Krenz, East German Communist leader who ordered the border to be opened in a bid to stem popular demands for reform, lost an appeal on Monday and faces a lengthy jail term for his role in the shootings of would-be escapers before the Wall came down.

Tributes to Germany poured into Berlin from around the world for the peaceful revolution that brought the Berlin Wall down.

US President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac praised the Germans for their heroism during the heady days of November 1989.

“Today we celebrate one of history’s most remarkable triumphs of human freedom,” Mr Clinton said, calling it “one of the happiest and important days in the 20th century.”

President Chirac paid homage to the “heroes of November 9, 1989” for their “courage and their vision” in a letter to German President Johannes Rau.

“He conveyed his gratitude to the freedom fighters who, in knocking down the Wall, put an end to the shameful and absurd split that for so long marked our continent,” Chirac’s office said.

Sombre ceremonies will also mark the 61st anniversary of Kristallnacht — the night of broken glass — on November 9, 1938. Nazi Thugs killed at least 91 Jews and smashed synagogues and shops across the country in a foretaste of the holocaust.

At Checkpoint Charlie and other key points along the route of the Wall, bands will entertain crowds hoping to recapture the joy of that chilly night 10 years ago when Berliners east and west, ran laughing and weeping into each other’s arms after 28 years of forced separation.

On the formal side, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms whetted the popular pressure for change that forced Krenz’s hand, will address the German Parliament.

With US ex-President George Bush and West German ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, he will speak in the restored Reichstag, parliament’s new home which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder opened by taking government back to the old capital from its cold war exile in Bonn.

Mr Gorbachev is lionised here as well for allowing the two Germanys to unite just 11 months later.

He criticised the prosecutions, urging Germans to put their past behind them. Krenz has called it “victor’s justice”.

Except for a few short segments preserved as monuments, it is often difficult to discern today where the Wall stood. The gray concrete barrier once ran for 155 km (97 miles), splitting East from West Berlin and sealing off the western sector from surrounding East Germany.

Elections soon, says Musharraf’s envoy

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (PTI, DPA) — Pakistani military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf’s special envoy Yakub Khan has defended the recent coup overthrowing Premier Nawaz Sharif, saying that the country was in a “terrible mess” under Mr Sharif and assured that the military rule was “only temporary.”

The former Foreign Minister, deputed here last week to allay US fears on the post-coup situation in Pakistan, said the country was in a terrible mess as bribery was rampant with politicians freely undertaking illegal financial transactions and asserted that elections would be held as soon as possible.

“...the Prime Minister tried to subvert the army’s loyalty to the nation, subjecting it to political intrigue. The very moral fibre of the nation was damaged by the political leadership,” he said in an interview to The New York Times columnist William Safire.

“Is democracy an end in itself or a means to an end? What do you do when democracy leads ineluctably to chaos?” he asked. He said a group of non-political technocrats, appointed by General Musharraf, would root out corruption, revive rule of law and delegate power to local constituencies.

To a question whether there was something endemic in Pakistan that corrupted government and subverted civil society making a coup “necessary” almost every decade, he said: “Be patient with those to whom democracy does not come easily”.

“Each of our attempts to cure ourselves has failed. But we must continue to try, and it is in your (America’s) interest as a democracy to help us succeed,” he added.

Meanwhile, US President Bill Clinton has said he is “very concerned” about the military take-over in Pakistan and urged the new government in Islamabad to improve ties with India.

In brief remarks at the White House yesterday, Mr Clinton said the USA had indicated to the military government of General Musharraf that US-Pakistani ties would continue despite the coup.

Divali sparkle at central London
from Amar Chandel

LONDON: Divali has been celebrated with unusual gusto by the Indian community in England in recent years, as some kind of an assertion of its unique identity. Last year, residents of Southall locality in London, which looks more like Ludhiana or Jalandhar, had burst so many crackers that Heathrow international airport nearby had to be closed for a few hours fearing that ascending and descending aircraft might be hit by stray missiles. This year, the new development was that the celebrations spread to the central London areas as well. Buildings were illuminated and crackers burst almost the whole night to mark the festival.

The bursting of crackers had actually started several days before D-day. Interestingly, the “pucca sahibs”, too, joined the celebrations in a boisterous manner. One reason was that the festival happened to fall on a Sunday this time. And then, its coming close to Halloween made a difference.

Sunrise Radio, which caters to the Asian community, was saturated with advertisements about shops selling firecrackers. Leaflets were distributed in many areas detailing the new “reduced rates”.

The Indian High Commission building on Aldwych Road was tastefully lit. So was the Middlesex gurdwara and the Hare Krishna temple.

Billionaire Hindujas threw a big Divali party on November 3, where the guest list read like a who’s who of London. The chief guest was Prime Minister Tony Blair, who mingled with the community leaders in gay abandon. But the spotlight was stolen by his wife, Cherie, looking resplendent in an Indian dress.

The next day, Princess Anne attended a dinner in support of a charity to help destitute widows in India. This was the first time that the Princess had turned up at an Indian community event in Britain.

Princess Anne wished Indians in Britain and elsewhere a happy Divali. British Home Secretary Jack Straw also attended the charity event. And, like Blair, began his address wishing guests “Divali mubarak, saal mubarak.”

Another highlight was the impressive Ramlila display by schoolchildren of Indian origin at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The setting could not have been more impressive. There were long queues of those wanting to savour the spectacle. The dialogues in English but the dresses were strictly Hindustani.

Divali was also celebrated in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and Glasgow.

Incidentally, this was also the first time that Dasehra was celebrated publicly in Southall. Thousands joined the fair, where Indians rubbed shoulders with Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

There is more in store. Divali is likely to be declared a public holiday throughout England from next year. That will fulfil a long-standing demand of the million-strong Indian community.

Wahid offers Aceh referendum

MANILA, Nov 9 (Reuters) — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid today said he was in favour of holding a referendum in restive Aceh province on Jakarta’s rule there and was willing to accept the outcome.

“If we can hold a referendum in East Timor, then why not in Aceh”. He said at a news conference here during a state visit. “The consequences of a referendum, whatever the outcome, we will accept”, he declared.

Mr Wahid, however, said he was confident Aceh would choose to remain in Indonesia.

He said he was willing to offer Aceh total autonomy and 75 per cent of all revenues generated in the resource-rich province, leaving the rest for the central government. He was also willing to visit the province along with Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri to meet the leaders there.

At least half a million people came out on the streets of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, yesterday to demand a referendum on independence. It was the biggest separatist protest in Indonesian history.

Aceh, on the northernmost tip of Indonesia, has a long history of opposition to Jakarta’s rule starting from the Dutch colonial era. The separatist movement there has been fanned by the August referendum in East Timor, which voted for independence from Indonesia.

Egyptair crash: black box recovered

NEWPORT (Rhode Island) Nov 9 (AP) — The navy has recovered one of the “black boxes” from Egyptair flight 990, and was in the process of hauling it onto a ship early today, a source close to the investigation said.

It was not immediately known whether the black box was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder. It was expected to be flown to the National Transportation Safety Board lab in Washington as soon as possible for analysis.

A round-the-clock mission to recover the flight recorders of the plane that crashed on October 31 had relied on a gigantic 3,600-kg underwater robot to go where another monster robot has failed.

The black boxes are buried amid wreckage and silt some 270 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Investigators say that whenever a piece of wreckage is moved, sediment gets stirred up reducing visibility.

Japan to use aid on CTBT

TOKYO, Nov 9 (DPA) — Japan vowed on Tuesday to use its Official Development Assistance (ODA) to step-up pressure on nations to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

“In order to encourage the countries that have not yet ratified the CTBT, we intend to strengthen our overall diplomatic efforts besides making active use of ODA, including cooperation through ODA, to enhance monitoring techniques on the part of the countries concerned,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Sadaaki Numata said.

Japan will also send missions to press those countries to sign and ratify the treaty, which is yet to go into effect due to a lack of accession by some declared or potential nuclear nations, Mr Numata told a Tokyo press conference.

The comments follow the recent adoption of a Japan-sponsored UN resolution that demands the abolition of all nuclear weapons and calls for a new set of principles and objectives for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

LTTE claim ‘exaggerated’

COLOMBO, Nov 9 (UNI) — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has admitted that the Army lost control of some areas in the Wanni sector during the recent spate of confrontations with Tamil rebels.

She said she had constituted a court of inquiry to examine the causes of the loss after effecting certain changes in the top levels of the Army.

But the President said the media reported a misleading account of the recent incidents in Wanni.

Baptists chided for criticising Hinduism

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (PTI) — The White House has indirectly chided the southern Baptists who denounced the Hindu religion as “satan” worship, days before Divali and called for stepped up efforts by churches across Asia to evangelise them.

“You have all heard the President speak very passionately about the need for religious freedom and expression. I think the Pope has made important statements on the subject over the weekend in India and it is something that we should practise here at home too,” White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said at a press briefing yesterday.

The Baptists had dubbed the Hindu religion as “satan” worship, enraging Hindus across the USA and urged all Christians churches to convert them. Hindus elsewhere also took umbrage at their statements.

24 civilians killed
BOGOTA: At least 24 civilians were killed in a wave of violence by Marxist guerrillas and their right-wing paramilitary rivals in a war-torn region of southern Colombia rife with illegal drug plantations, the authorities have said. An ultra-right death squad, or paramilitary gang, was blamed for murdering at least 19 peasants in three attacks in and around the town of La Hormiga and neighbouring La Dorada, in the Putumayo province on Sunday, an Army spokesman said on Monday. — Reuters

40 buried alive
LIMA: A massive avalanche thundered into a remote Andean village, burying alive at least 40 Peruvians as they scrambled to flee a flood of earth and boulders that obliterated their mud-brick homes, witnesses have said. Apparently triggered by an underground build-up of water and gases, a hillside overlooking Sicsi exploded on Sunday, sending a sulphur-smelling smoke cloud high into the air and a mudslide, roaring as it gathered up trees and debris, into the village. — Reuters

Foreign nurses
LONDON: Britain’s Health Ministry has said it will urge hospitals to avoid hiring foreign nurses when there was a danger of a “brain drain” in their home countries, but denied reports it will bar them altogether. “There is no question of the NHS (National Health Service) banning overseas nurses from being recruited,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. — Reuters

Stars’ appeal
LONDON: British stars Joanna Lumley and Tom Conti appealed to the public on Tuesday to donate liberally to provide relief to victims of the recent devastating cyclone in Orissa.— PTI

Royal referendum
LONDON: Prince Charles on Monday denied that he wanted a referendum on the future of the monarchy in Britain. His spokeswoman rejected reports that the Prince was keen on seeing a vote on the royal family in the wake of the Australian referendum on Saturday. — DPA

New Guatemala President
GUATEMALA CITY: Right-wing opposition candidate Alfonso Portillo has declared that he won Guatemala’s presidential elections, though the preliminary ballot count does not give him the absolute majority necessary to avoid a run-off vote. Portillo, who has backing of former military dictator, Efrain Rios, obtained 47.9 per cent of the vote according to Monday’s preliminary count of 84 per cent of the ballots cast during Sunday’s elections. — IPS