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| Friday, May 19, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Ethiopia scores major victory 80 UN hostages released 4 die in Philippines blasts Killer heroin from Pak Pope under pressure to quit Taiwan cabinet resigns |
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| Posh Spice is underweight LONDON, May 18 — Doctors have told Victoria Beckham — Posh Spice she is underweight by a stone and-a-half (10 kg) and urged her to gain weight.
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Ethiopia scores major victory MEREB-SETIT FRONT, Eritrea, May 18 (Reuters) — More than 200,000 Eritreans are fleeing a strategic area in the west of the country captured by Ethiopian troops, a senior Eritrean Government official said today. Ethiopia scored a major victory in its border war with Eritrea on Wednesday by seizing the strategic town of Barentu and taking full control of the western battle front. Eritrea insists it made a strategic withdrawal, but presidential adviser Yemane Gebremeskel admitted hundreds of thousands of people were now leaving the area. “The town of Barentu was evacuated prior to the withdrawal of the army,’’ he said. “According to our relief organisation... over 2,00,000 people from the Barentu area are heading east.’’ Barentu, about 70 km inside Eritrea, had served as a major command centre and supply route for Eritrea’s army on the western Badme front of the two-year-old border war. Ethiopian forces launched a huge offensive last Friday and targeted Barentu in their drive to recapture territory they say has been occupied by Eritrea since May, 1998, when a border dispute and trade policy differences exploded into war. “Losing Barentu is losing the whole western part of Eritrea,’’ Ethiopian government spokesman Haile Kiros said. Kiros said the main objective was to secure the Barentu area and deploy troops and equipment eastwards to two other war fronts where Eritrean forces still occupy disputed territory. “We will keep enough troops here to defend the area and others will move to liberate the rest of our occupied territory,’’ he said. The war has horrified Western governments who have pledged millions of dollars to help the two countries avert famine. The UN Security Council yesterday imposed an arms embargo against the two countries for a year, but diplomats in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi said the weapons ban would have little effect. “Both sides have spent the past two years beefing up their armies,’’ one diplomat said. “They have enough weapons to last for at least a year anyway.’’. Another diplomat said the embargo would be hard to enforce and Eritrea, with its Red Sea coastline, would find it easier to break the sanctions than landlocked Ethiopia. Ethiopia insists it was a victim of Eritrean aggression at the start of the war and blames the failure of all peace initiatives on Eritrean intransigence and the UN’s refusal to take sides. “This is the wrong embargo imposed against the victim. Treating the victim and the aggressor equally is unacceptable,’’ Haile said. The U.S.-initiated measure yesterday would bar the sale or supply of weapons and related equipment to the two combatants as well as any military-technical assistance until the two countries agree to a peace pact ending their two-year-old conflict. The ban would lapse after 12 months unless there is a ‘’peaceful definitive settlement of the conflict’’ but can be renewed if no progress is made. The United States and Britain initially wanted a total arms embargo on both countries, which would only be lifted when a final peace agreement has been signed. But they compromised with Russia and France, who argued for time limits. |
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80 UN hostages released FREETOWN, May 18 (Reuters) While the capture of Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh has led to widespread relief in the West African country and abroad, the U.N. Said rebels had since freed 80 of its peacekeepers with 270 still held hostage. The latest releases appeared to allay United Nations concerns that Sankoh’s arrest yesterday had complicated negotiations for the freedom of the rest of the hostages, but regional analysts cautioned that the rebels retained ample bargaining power with their remaining captives. The USA and Britain, the former colonial power which has sent paratroopers and a naval force to help buttress the more than 9,000-strong United Nations Peacekeeping Force, welcomed Sankoh’s arrest. A U.N. Spokesman in the Sierra Leone capital said the 80 freed hostages had arrived in the Liberian border town of Foya, where an earlier batch of about 140 U.N. Soldiers were released on Sunday. About 500 had originally been seized in early May. The spokesman said about 270 peacekeepers and military observers now remained hostage with Sankoh’s rebel forces. Sankoh, whom U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan holds personally responsible for the breakdown of the 1999 Lome Agreement that ended Sierra Leone’s eight-year civil war, was flown by helicopter to the airport after being seized, stripped naked and handed over by Sierra Leone officials. He was being treated for an unspecified injury. Ex-soldier Mustafa Kamara, nicknamed Scorpion, said he arrested Sankoh at Wilberforce village hill near U.N. And government headquarters early yesterday after he had asked for directions to the Nigerian embassy, saying he wanted to give himself up. As diplomatic efforts continued to free the remaining U.N. Hostages, British paratroopers were involved in a gun battle near Freetown’s international airport. U.N. and Sierra Leone troops also clashed with rebels in a separate incident further north. A motley army of pro-government soldiers and militia fighters pushed north yesterday. Loyalist commanders told Reuters that their advance met with no resistance as they pushed as far as Magbelli bridge over the Rokel river. The bridge is half way along the highway from the strategic crossroads town of Masiaka, about 50 miles (80 km) from the capital Freetown, to Rogberi Junction. Meanwhile, the second of the three airlifts of 450 Indian peacekeeping force personnel to trouble-torn Sierra Leone was carried out today by Canada. A CC-150 Polaris and Canadian airforce personnel of transport
squadron based in Trenton, flew into Delhi yesterday for the airlift. The first airlift of 150 soldiers and officers was made by the Canadian on May 14 and the last will be taken out on May 21-22. India has announced that 1500 soldiers would be sent to Sierra Leone as reinforcement for the UNAMSIL. |
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4 die in Philippines blasts JOLO (Philippines), May 18 (Reuters) — Four persons were killed and more than 50 wounded today in explosions in the southern Philippines where muslim rebels are holding 21 mostly foreign hostages, the police and witnesses said. It was not immediately known if the explosions were related to the surge in Islamic militancy in the South of this largely catholic country. Fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, two Filipinos and one Lebanese in hills above Jolo town, where two of the three explosions occurred. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts which occurred while government negotiators were preparing for the start of formal talks with the kidnappers. The rebels were reported to have demanded a ransom of $ 2 million for the release of an ailing German housewife among their captives but negotiators rejected the demand, saying the Philippines and the hostages’ governments were unanimous in adopting a no-ransom policy. Negotiators earlier said they were hopeful the talks would start today but later said they might not be held until tomorrow or Saturday. The police and witnesses said three persons died and 24 were wounded when two grenades were thrown in a public market in Jolo town on the mainly Muslim island of Jolo, 960 km South of the capital Manila. In nearby Zamboanga, a predominantly Christian city, one person was killed and 30 wounded when a bomb exploded in a restaurant just across the street from a police station, the police said. The explosions occurred around 3 p.m. (0700 gmt). The police said they could not immediately ascertain if the attacks were coordinated. Libyan envoy Rajab Azzarouk, who is helping Manila in the hostage talks, told reporters negotiations with the Abu Sayyaf would “probably start tomorrow or after tomorrow’’. Azzarouk disclaimed knowledge of any ransom demand by the rebels, saying: “I have no idea whatsoever.’’ Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said yesterday in Beijing, where he is accompanying President Joseph Estrada on a visit to China, that the rebels had demanded a $ 2 million ransom for the ailing German woman Renate Wallert. Siazon said the authorities had rejected the rebels’ demand and insisted on a “package deal’’ for all captives. |
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Killer heroin from Pak LONDON, May 18 IANS — Heroin, suspected to have originated in Pakistan, that killed 11 addicts in Scotland is likely to have been laced with anthrax, a deadly virus meant for use in biological warfare, investigators say. The presence of anthrax was determined by scientists in Scotland as the most likely cause of the deaths following detailed post-mortem examinations of two of the victims. Scientists said anthrax poisoning has been noticed among cattle in Afghanistan and the northern areas of Pakistan where the killer heroin is suspected to have originated. The police are now conducting investigations to determine how the deadly anthrax virus came to contaminate the heroin. The Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research in Glasgow has found traces of anthrax only in two of the five victims tested. Some doctors say the results could have been diluted because the victims had been given heavy antibiotics before they were tested. The laboratory is now conducting further tests. But there is no doubt that the heroin used by the addicts had been poisoned. Police has been asked to investigate the source of the heroin and see at what stage it could have been poisoned. Eleven addicts around Glasgow, eight of them women in their 20s and 30s, have died as a result of poisoning from heroin injections. The heroin was injected into the muscle area around the groin. It immediately caused abscesses and death came within hours. Fifteen other affected addicts are fighting for their lives. The injections led to the creation of a lesion, a sudden rise in the count of white blood cells, leaking fluids around the heart and lungs and sudden release of fluids in other tissues, doctors said. Doctors had found similar symptoms in the death of a Norwegian addict in Oslo in April. Examination of the body had revealed traces of anthrax. Phil Hanna, an expert on anthrax at the University of Michigan, told the New Scientist magazine that “nothing else” but anthrax could have caused the death of the Norwegian and the others in Scotland. Anthrax has been extracted as a virus for biological warfare but it has its origins in a virus released by dead animals. That virus is said to abound in the region in Pakistan and Afghanistan where poppy is grown for heroin. Doctors are expected to give a final report on the anthrax contamination soon. But new fears have been raised that at least one consignment of killer heroin is on the streets of Europe. |
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Pope under pressure to quit ROME: The crowning moment of an extraordinary reign may turn sour today when Pope John Paul II’s 80th birthday is expected to trigger the fiercest clamour yet for his resignation. As thousands of priests celebrate his birthday at a mass in St Peter’s Square in Rome, leading theologians and clerics have warned that the Pope’s ailing health is allowing rightwing bureaucrats in the Vatican administration - the curia - to seize control. They claim that John Paul’s focus on big events, such as visiting the holy land, mask a faltering grip on day-to-day power. The Pope’s own words can be cited in support of their view; four years ago he reaffirmed rules excluding cardinals over 80 from conclaves to elect a pontiff, saying: “The reason for this provision is the desire not to add to the weight of such venerable age the further burden of responsibility for choosing the one who has to lead Christ’s flock.” The Pope’s mental health remains sound but Parkinson’s disease and the legacy of five major operations have left him with slurred speech, stooped and trembling. Traditional low-key papal birthday celebrations will be cast aside to make today’s mass a highlight of the Vatican’s holy year, or jubilee. Polish countrymen will sing the traditional birthday song Sto Lat (May you live 100 years) and the Vatican and Poland have also issued commemorative stamps showing the mature pope in profile. Vatican sources say the Pope now wants to retire to a Polish monastery, but believes that God wants him to continue his reign and that his suffering offers a model for the faithful. Vittorio Messori, who collaborated on John Paul’s best-selling 1994 book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, said he believes that the Pope is torn. “For some time, he has been asking God which is better, to keep bearing his cross or — for his own good and the good of the church — to lay it down,” he said. Praising his leadership, columnists from La Repubblica and La Stampa have urged John Paul to complete his 22-year reign by pulling off one final “revolutionary” surprise-resignation. According to church law, a Pope can resign but he has to do so freely and, since he is supreme pontiff, no one has to accept his resignation. The last to do so was willingly was Celestine V, who stepped down in 1294. Gregory XII abdicated reluctantly in 1415. Cardinal Franz Konig, the former Archbishop of Vienna, said that curia bureaucrats were hoarding power, causing the Pope “considerable suffering”. He also hinted that John Paul was a prisoner in the Vatican. Even the Catholic News Service has reported Vatican sources saying that a Pope who becomes so ill that he cannot speak could resign to create a smooth succession. One date often floated is Easter 2001, when the jubilee ends. Liberals, many of whom are hoping the next Pope will be more progressive, say he should retire for the church’s good. “I think it would be healthy for the Church to be open to the idea that a Pope could retire. I don’t think it should be mandatory, but possible,” said Frances Kissling, president of the American dissident group Catholics for a Free Choice. —
The Guardian |
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Taiwan cabinet resigns TAIPEI, May 18 (Reuters) — Taiwan’s Cabinet resigned en masse today, two days before the new administration takes office in the island’s first democratic transfer of power. “It is the time to wrap up the past and hand over the heavy administrative burden to the next Cabinet,’’ Premier Vincent Siew told the outgoing Cabinet. |
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Posh Spice is underweight LONDON, May 18 (DPA) — Doctors have told Victoria Beckham — Posh Spice she is underweight by a stone and-a-half (10 kg) and urged her to gain weight. Victoria told Heat magazine, published yesterday, that she cried when she saw pictures of herself which showed her dramatic weight loss after she gave birth to son Brooklyn 14 months ago. Victoria (26) who is married to Manchester United and England football star David Beckham, told Heat she was driven to despair by rumours that she was anorexic. The celebrity now weighs seven-and-a-half stone, and doctors told her weight loss could be the result of giving birth. “They just said it’s something that can happen after a baby. It happened to my mum. But I was upset about how I looked. I’d never looked like that before, Posh Spice said. Victoria said she ate three regular meals a day, and had snacks, often going for the “healthy option”, and also Chinese and Indian takeaway meals. She said she wanted to concentrate on making a film rather than a solo album during time out from the Spice Girls. |
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