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| Monday, April 24, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Rebels’
hideout stormed: 25 dead Blast
at Harare daily Indian’s
unique store in London HC
ruling in Mujib case |
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| Awami League loses byelection DHAKA, April 23 — The four-year-old government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suffered a setback when her Awami League lost a prestigious by-election, officials said today. DiCaprio’s chat with
Clinton cut to 2 min ‘Judas’
dies in Easter play
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Protest against Elian’s seizure: 290 held WASHINGTON, April 23 (PTI) — Hours after the shipwrecked Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was reunited with his father following a dramatic raid at his Miami relatives home by US federal agents, President Bill Clinton justified the use of force, saying the government had no alternative. In Havana, Cuban President Fidel Castro hailed the reunification of the six-year-old boy with his fatther saying it signified “a day of truce.” “I would say that today is a day of truce, perhaps the only one in the course of these 41 years of confrontation with the USA,” Mr Castro told a crowd of 40,000 persons attending an officially-sponsored demonstration in Havana. Mr Clinton said he supported Attorney-General Janet Reno’s decision to order a federal raid to seize the six-year-old from the home of his Miami relatives. “I believed that it was the right thing to do. She made the decision, she managed this, but I fully support what she did,” Mr Clinton told reporters outside the White House yesterday. In Miami, about 290 protesters were taken into custody today as riot police with batons and shields tried to quell the the rioting demonstrators in Little Havana. Yesterday’s pre-dawn raid to rescue Elian had triggered angry demonstrations with some protesters setting fire to dumpsters, uprooting street signs and overturing cement beches. Cuban Americans, angry over the forcible removal of Elian from his relatives home, demonstrated outside the Cuban mission and the United Nations headquarters in New York. Elian was reunited with his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez yesterday after federal agents snatched him at gun point from the home of his Miami relatives in a dramatic pre-dawn raid. He was later bundled into a government plane which took him to his father waiting at the Andrew air base near Washington. In a related development, Mr Gonzales, reunited with his son Elian, would keep his pledge to stay in the USA pending the outcome of a court appeal by the boy’s Miami relatives, his attorney said. “Let me be clear.Juan Gonzalez had made a commitment to remain in the USA during this appeal, and he will live up to that commitment,” attorney Greg Craig said yesterday. The boy’s father arrived in Washington two weeks ago from Cuba to regain custody of his son. The Miami relatives who have been Earing for Elian alnce November have gone to court in an effort to prevent the boy’s return to Cuba. An appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia, is to hold hearings starting May 11 to consider whether an asylum request, filed on behalf of Elian by his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami, should have been accepted by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service. AFP adds: US Vice-President Al Gore has refused to endorse the clinton administration’s decision to forcibly remove Elian from the home of his Miami relatives. “I believe this issue should have been handled through family court and with the family coming together,” Mr Gore said yesterday in a statement hour after armed federal agents seized Elian and took him to Washington DC to be reunited with his father. Ms Reno said earlier
that the Justice Department had no choice but to launch
the raid after Elian’s Miami relatives rejected all
efforts to arrange a voluntary transfer of the boy to his
father, Mr Gonzalez. |
Rebels’ hideout stormed: 25 dead ZAMBOANGA (Philippines), April 23 (DPA) — At least three soldiers and 25 Muslim extremist rebels were today killed as the military pressed with a massive assault on the guerrillas’ jungle hideout to try to free 27 hostages in southern Philippines. The Abu Sayyaf group said two male hostages were slightly wounded in the fighting as ground troops pounded its main camp on Mount Punoh Mahajid in the hinterlands of Sumisip town, Basilan province, 915 km south of Manila. At least three MG-520 helicopter gunships also shelled satellite camps of Abu Sayyaf, 2 km away from the main hideout, where the hostages are being held, said Major-Gen Diomedio Villanueva, chief of the armed forces’ southern command. Gen Villanueva said there would be no let-up in the assault, which started yesterday, three days after the Abu Sayyaf beheaded two male captives in an act they described as a birthday gift to President Joseph Estrada, who turned 63 last week. Mr Abu Ahmad Salayuddin, a spokesman for Abu Sayyaf group said female and child captives were safe and hiding in shallow trenches or foxholes. But five male hostages have been confined in cages that are vulnerable to crossfire. Basilan provincial spokesman Hader Glang said at least 20 Abu Sayyaf rebels were seized and executed by pro-government militiamen in separate incidents in the towns of Sumisip, Lantawan, Maluso and Isabela. Earlier, about 1,500 soldiers, backed by artillery, rocket-firing helicopter gunships and navy gunboats, were taking part in the rescue operation in a thickly forested mountain on Basilan, 900 km south of Manila, the military said. Fighting was taking place on the lower slopes of Mount Punu Mahabje, 4 km from the main camp of the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, were the hostages, mainly schoolchildren, were being held. Abu Sayyaf’s group is fighting for an Islamic state in the south of this largely Roman Catholic country. The military launched the attack three days after Abu Sayyaf said it had beheaded two of their 29 hostages, both male teachers, and threatened to kill more of the captives, including a Roman Catholic priest. The reported beheading
occurred after the government rejected as unreasonable
several Abu Sayyaf demands, including the release of
three Islamic militants held in the USA. |
Blast at Harare daily HARARE (Zimbabwe), April 23 (AP) — An explosion shook the offices of Zimbabwe’s only independent newspaper, shattering its windows. The police was terming it as a bomb attack. No one was hurt in the explosion that took place on Saturday near the entrance to the building that houses The Daily News, caused little damage. No one was inside the building at the time, the police said. Reuters adds: Zimbabwean war veterans armed with guns and clubs invaded a white-owned farm today, taking the farm manager hostage and trapping two young women inside the farmhouse. The farm in the Mvurwi area, 100 km north of capital Harare, was invaded by 200 self-styled veterans today. A member of a local farm support group told Reuters by telephone. “The two girls are in the house and...The farm manager is outside in the custody of these people,’’ the spokesman said. He identified the farm manager as Duncan Hamilton of the Forresters farm, a 22,000 hectare operation privately owned by an Austrian family. The identities of the two young women were not known. In another incident on Sunday, up to 200 club-wielding veterans invaded the Lynton farm in the Marondera district, 100 km east of Harare, demanding food and accommodation. Most of the squatters moved on after negotiations between the farmer and a local veterans’ leader. Invaders have killed
four persons, injured scores and burned buildings since
the occupation began nine weeks ago, saying they are
reclaiming land taken from them under British colonial
rule. |
Indian’s unique store in London LONDON, April 23 (PTI) — A young Indian entrepreneur has launched a unique and innovative concept store in London, making it a hub of international fashion for Asian designers. Basically, my idea is to make the innovative store — RCKC — situated on Ealing Road in Wembly, a designers’ hub where Asian designers, particularly from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan can display their designs,” 31-year old entrepreneur, Amit Rashtogi told newsmen last night. “I am trying to promote designers from Asia” he said and wondered “Why can’t we be fashion leaders in the world?” Rastogi said Indian fashion had made a mark in Britain and even Indian retailers had come of age, adding the heritage of the Indian fabric was widely accepted in Britain by all communities. Ram Chandra Krishan Chandra (RCKC) is the oldest and most reputed name in saris in India, he said. Esablished in 1905, hitherto, the group used to export garments to the USA and UK, but as part of its expansion programme, it decided to set up its store in London, he said. He said several well
known departmental stores like Selfridges and Harrods in
London had approached the group asking it to display its
selected products in their departmental stores |
HC ruling in Mujib case DHAKA, April 23 (AFP) — A second Bangladeshi High Court Bench today refused to confirm death sentences handed down to key figures for the murder of the nation’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in the country’s 1975 military coup, court officials said. The two-Judge Bench,
comprising Mr Justice M.M. Rahul Amin and Mr Justice
Abdul Matin, declined to hear the high-profile case and
returned it to the Chief Justice, the officials said,
without giving further details. |
Awami League loses byelection DHAKA, April 23 (DPA) — The four-year-old government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suffered a setback when her Awami League lost a prestigious by-election, officials said today. The Election Commission declared Independent candidate Raihanul Huq victorious by a margin of about two to one in the northern Rajshahi district constituency. Voting was marred by clashes between supporters of rival candidates which left nine persons injured, witnesses said. The police rescued the government candidate who was attacked at a polling station. At least six persons were arrested for the attack. The main Opposition
Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the fundamentalist
Jamaat-i-Islami boycotted polling and called a general
strike in the district, claiming the government
influenced the vote. |
DiCaprio’s chat with Clinton cut to 2 min NEW YORK, April 23 (AP) — After all the fuss, Leonardo DiCaprio’s debut in a news role was a bit part. The actor’s 20-minute chat in the White House with President Bill Clinton about global warming was edited down to two minutes on ABC’s today special, “Planet Earth 2000.” Dicaprio was seen asking the President three questions. The interview prompted a flood of criticism from people — including some within ABC News — who wondered why the hunky “Titanic” star was being sent to do a journalist’s job. Not only was DiCaprio
playing the role of a reporter, he was playing the role
of a reporter with a conflict of interest. He’s
chairman of the Earth Day 2000 celebration committee and
approached ABC with the idea of a special on global
warming. |
‘Judas’ dies in Easter play ROME, April 23 (Reuters) — A 23-year-old Italian man died during an Easter re-enactment of Christ’s passion, probably because the noose he was wearing in the role of Judas Iscariot was too tight, the police said today. Watched by his parents, Renato Di Paolo had taken part in a re-enactment of the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, in Camerata Nuova on Saturday night. Di Paolo jumped from a
height of about 30 cm and lay immobile on the ground with
a noose around his neck while the play continued. |
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