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| Sunday, March 12, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Relief
in sanctions ‘minor concession’ 1,500
Americans to accompany Bill Presidential
race hots up Schoolboy
Putin tried to join KGB |
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| Gore, Bush record more wins WASHINGTON, March 11 — Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush edged even closer to being their parties’ presidential nominees yesterday, notching up more wins in primaries in Utah and Colorado. Voting
sought on law to decry Pak coup
Smokers
more prone to pneumococcal disease |
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Relief in sanctions ‘minor concession’ WASHINGTON, March 11 (PTI) — The United States of America has sought to downplay the decision to remove 51 Indian entities from the sanctions list saying it is only a “minor concession” and does not affect the thrust of post-Pokhran measures against India. The removal of sanctions from the entities, which would become effective once the list is published in the federal register, “represents only a minor concession”, a US commerce department press release said here yesterday. Even after the removal of the 51 entities, 150 others would still remain on the sanctions list, the release said. “The action is based on a consensus decision by the administration to more tightly focus the sanctions on Indian entities most directly involved in proliferation activities of concern,” it said, adding “US policy of denial for dual-use items controlled for nuclear and missile technology reasons to all Indian and Pakistani entities remains unchanged.” The decision to remove the entities was taken after the administration felt the list of nearly 300 units is too broad and requires refinement to include only those entities which make material contributions to weapons of mass destruction and missile programmes, the release said. The 51 entities being removed from the list are: Ambarnath Machine Tool Factory, Ambarnath Ordnance Factory, Aruvankadu Cordite Factory, Avadi Combine Engine Plant, Avadi Heavy Vehicle Factory. Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, Hardwar and Ranipet (only in these two cities is this entity removed from the list), Bhusawal Ordnance factory, Chandigarh Ordnance Cable Factory, Chandigarh Ordnance Parachute Factory. Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment, Cossipore Gun and Shell Factory, Defence Bio-Engineering and Electro-Medical Laboratory, Defence Food Research Laboratory, Defence Institute of Fire Research, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Defence Institute of Workstudy, Defence Research and Development Unit, Defence Research Laboratory, Defence Terrain Research Laboratory, Dehradun Opto-Electrics Factory, Dehradun Ordnance Factory, Dehu Road Ordnance Factory. Hazratpur Ordnance Equipment Factory, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Institute of Physics, Institute for Systems Studies and Analyses, Interuniversity Consortium of Dae Facilities, Jabalpur Gray Iron Foundry, Jabalpur Gun Carriage Factory. Kanpur Field Gun Factory, Kanpur Ordnance Parachute Factory, Kanpur Small Arms Factory, Khamaira Ordnance Factory, Kirkee Ammunition Factory, Mehta Research Institute of Maths and Mathphysics, Naval Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratory. Ordnance Factories Staff College, Ordnance Factories Training Institutes, Proof and Experimental Establishment, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Scientific Analysis Group, Shahjahanpur Ordnance Clothing Factory. Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research, Tiruchchirappalli Heavy Alloy
Penetrator Project, Titlalgarh Ammunition Plant,
Varangaon Ordnance Factory and the Variable Energy
Cyclotron Centre. |
1,500 Americans to accompany
Bill MORE than 1,500 Americans will accompany the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, on his five-day high profile visit to India beginning on March 19. Clinton’s own Jumbo 747, the US Air Force 1, is unlikely to carry more than 100 of his staff and security. The bigger part of the contingent will be the galaxy of business bigwigs. It is these people who could make a quantum change in trade and business in India. These are the folks who will mould the policies of the future American President’s towards India. A Jumbo jet or two full of business people arriving on the heals of the President is not an unreal guess. By far the largest group, coming from America, will consist of journalists and cameramen. The USA has six nationwide radio and television networks. The Columbia Broadcasting System, the National Broadcasting Company, the American Broadcasting Company, the Turner Broadcasting System, the Fox Network and the Public Broadcasting Service will be competing with each other for cornering more and more share of the lucrative American television market. Their total numbers may exceed the capacity of two Jumbo jets. They may not arrive in a bunch, but will be arriving before the Presidential jet touches down. BBC World Service and its sister services in Hindi, Urdu and Bengali will not like to lag behind. America’s leading newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times will try to cover every story in its fullest detail. Other newspapers like Newark Star Ledger, the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun will try to pool their resources and share their reporters. American media will use all its available satellite space in the Indian Ocean region, the Pacific and the Atlantic for multiple stage beaming of live stories to North America. The available space on the American satellites may still fall insufficient. The European and Indian satellites may also have to be pressed into service. This may jam the domestic and international telephone circuits in India. India’s own television networks operating in North America, including Sony, Zee, TV Asia and Asianet and Doordarshan International should also increase their news programming for this historic trip. A lot of Americans shall like to tune in to the Indian television channels for more information. In total, more than
1,500 Americans will accompany the American President on
his pilgrimage to the land of an ancient civilisation,
which contributes the largest and state of the art
computer programming manpower in America. This is a
five-day trip, long for an American Head of State. It may
result in a warm and pleasant relationship between the
largest and the most powerful democracies of the world. |
Presidential race hots up MOSCOW, March 11 (IPS) — Like an artist’s palate, the colours of Russia’s crucial presidential campaign are beginning to run. Election promises include the bizarre, such as gaining membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NATO, to the traditional of combating graft. However, analysts say, the campaign appears to be strong on rhetoric, but weak on issues concerning Russia’s development. Russia’s acting president, Mr Vladimir Putin, is widely regarded as a clear favourite and is enjoying the support of about 50 per cent of voters, according to most recent opinion polls. Mr Putin has stressed the need for the paternalistic hand of the state and has also called for the creation of a long-term strategy to help Russia overcome the crisis. Furthermore, in an unexpected twist of election campaigning on March 5, Mr Putin told the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, that Russia would join NATO one day if it was treated as an equal partner. The Communist Party leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, Mr Putin’s main election rival, called Mr Putin’s comments “naive and illiterate”. “There is no doubt that NATO’s policy is aimed against Russia, Mr Zyuganov said on March 6. “His actions do not
correspond to his statements,” Mr Yavlinsky, also a
presidential candidate, told Russian television. |
Schoolboy Putin tried to join KGB MOSCOW, March 11 (Reuters) — Russia’s acting President Vladimir Putin was so keen to be a spy he walked into the KGB’s local headquarters as a wide-eyed schoolboy to ask for a job. “Some old guy came out,” Mr Putin recalled in an extensive interview in yesterday’s edition of the newspaper Kommersant. “strange as it may sound, he listened to me straight-faced and said: ‘gratifying, of course, but there are couple of points.’” “Firstly, we don’t take volunteers,” the KGB man told the would-be agent. “Secondly, we pick people after they leave the military or graduate from university with a higher education.” “They clearly thought — he’s nothing but a schoolboy.” Yet Mr Putin was evidently not easily discouraged. He asked the man if the KBG preferred a particular subject. Law the man replied. Mr Putin said he got the message and studied law at his hometown university in Leningrad, now St Petersburg. Mr Putin told Kommersant he was recruited into the KGB in 1975 while at university but kept quiet about his schoolboy job-seeking visit. He subsequently spent 16 years in the KGB, five of them in then-East Germany. The interview was a foretaste of a book expected to be published next week. It covered Chechnya and Kremlin politics as well as Mr Putin’s KGB past and his own family history. Ex-KGB agent wears christening crucifix He told Kommersant he was secretly baptised as a baby and wears a christening crucifix his mother gave to him to have blessed when he visited the holy land a few years ago. “I put it on to avoid losing it,” he said. “I haven’t removed it since.” But Mr Putin said he had been a loyal KGB agent and Communist. “For better or worse, I was never a dissident,” he said. The two journalists who conducted the interview compiled the book — “Conversations with Vladimir Putin” — after six encounters lasting 24 hours in all. The book looks likely to be a fascinating read. The journalists, Natalya Gevorkyan and Andrei Kolyesnikov, said its aim was to shed light on a man few in Russia, let alone the west, knew about a year ago. Mr Boris Yeltsin made Mr
Putin Prime Minister last August and named him his
preferred successor as President. When Yeltsin resigned
on new year’s eve, Putin became acting President and
is widely expected to win the presidential election on
March 26. |
Gore, Bush record more wins WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) — Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush edged even closer to being their parties’ presidential nominees yesterday, notching up more wins in primaries in Utah and Colorado. Mr Gore and Mr Bush easily won in both western states in ballots that largely became irrelevant after Mr Bush and Mr Gore wrapped up the Republican and Democratic nominations on “super Tuesday.” In Colorado, Mr Bush won 64 per cent of the vote versus Arizona Sen. John Mccain’s 28 per cent, according to an unofficial count by CNN. Mccain dropped out of the race on Thursday after faring miserably on super Tuesday. In Utah, early returns showed Bush with 65 per cent of the vote, with talk show host Alan Keyes trailing him with 20 per cent and Mccain with 14 per cent, according to CNN. On the Democratic side in Colorado, Mr Gore beat former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley who ended his White House bid after he failed to win a single primary on Tuesday. Mr Gore led by 71 per cent to 24 per cent. In Utah, Mr Gore had 77 per cent versus Bradley’s 23 per cent with just 28 per cent of precincts reporting. “Tonight was a great victory, but let me tell you: you ain’t seen nothing yet. Our fight for the working families of this country has just begun,” Mr Gore said in a statement after the results yesterday’s vote were known. Republicans in Wyoming also held caucuses as part of the western or “big sky” primary that organisers had hoped would put the focus on western issues. Turnout was low in the region. A Wall Street journal poll of registered voters found Mr Gore leading Mr Bush 43-40 per cent for November’s presidential election, well within the survey’s margin of error. Mr Bush had led Mr Gore by 10 to 20 points for most of 1999. A time/CNN poll of registered voters also found the two contenders in a virtual tie. Mr Gore was ahead with 48 per cent versus 46 per cent for Mr Bush, with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. At the beginning of this year, Mr Bush was leading Mr Gore 56-39 per cent. With a tepid but definite promise of support from Bradley in his pocket, Mr Gore has embarked on the general election campaign with a fairly United Democratic Party behind him. He held afternoon and evening events in Albany, New York, and Minneapolis and was wasting no time in reaching out for centrist voters who had backed Mccain in the primaries. Mr Bush has a more difficult time rebuilding Republican bridges with Mccain, who offered good wishes but no endorsement when he pulled out of the race. Political sources said Mr Bush supporters, including Republican Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia, had begun talking to some of Mccain’s backers in Congress in an effort to effect a reconciliation. A Bush aide said the Governor was not taking part in the contacts at this point. “The Governor believes this is an issue which time will heal and he wants to give Senator Mccain time to reflect on his campaign and the future,” said the aide. At a lower level
however, the aide said, “Olive branches are breaking
out all over.” |
Voting sought on law to decry Pak coup WASHINGTON, March 11 (UNI) — A Democratic Congressman, Mr Frank Pallone, has urged the House of Representatives Speaker, Mr J Dennis Hastert, to arrange, as early as possible, a voting action on the pending legislation seeking to condemn the October 12 military coup d’etat in Pakistan. He made the demand in a letter to the speaker stressing early action on the measure. In his House speech, Mr Pallone hoped that President Bill Clinton’s upcoming trip to Pakistan would provide an opportunity for candid, productive discussions between the US President and the Pakistani ruling generals with regard to the need for Pakistan to change course in a number of vital areas. The New Jersey Congressman submitted for the congressional record an editorial from the New York Times of March 8, 2000, entitled “Troubled trip to Pakistan” which raised many of the same concerns that have been cited by Mr Pallone and other members of Congress. “It is important
that President Clinton express to Pakistani Gen Pervez
Musharraf that the United States is very concerned about
Pakistan’s role in fomenting instability in
Kashmir,” Mr Pallone said. |
Smokers more prone to pneumococcal disease BOSTON, March 11 (Reuters) — Smokers are four times more likely than the general population to fall ill to streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes meningitis, blood poisoning, pneumonia and ear infections, said a study in yesterday’s New England Journal of Medicine. The bacteria sends 5,00,000 Americans to the hospital each year, claimed over 40,000 lives, and was a leading killer of young children. Smokers were not the only ones vulnerable. The research found that people exposed to second-hand smoke for as little as an hour a day were two-and-a-half times more likely than people not exposed to develop one of the illnesses, known collectively as invasive pneumococcal disease. An adult vaccine against
the bacteria was available, but it was typically
recommended only for the elderly. |
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