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| Thursday, July 27, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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UNP to block Lanka
devolution Bill
95 die in tribal
clash
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| New Fiji government today SUVA, July 26 — Fiji went another day without an effective government today, as a decision on naming a new line-up was postponed for a second time, local radio reported. China flushes Britain’s
WC claim China urges India,
Pak to hold talks
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UNP to block Lanka devolution Bill COLOMBO, July 26 (PTI) — Talks on Sri Lanka’s draft new constitution, which envisages the devolution of powers to the Tamil-dominated North and East, have reached a stalemate with the main opposition United National Party (UNP) saying that it will not support the draft in
Parliament. UNP spokesman Karunasena Koduthawakku said yesterday that the party had decided not to support the new constitution as a “majority of the country has refused the reforms and if it is implemented the country would rise against it.” The party would not support its ratification during the term of this Parliament, which ends on August 24, he said. The government-controlled media, disclosed more details about the alleged links between the LTTE and a Tamil shipping magnate, Mr Charles Gnanakoon, whom UNP leader Rani Wickramasinghe met in Singapore last month. Mr Wickramasinghe walked out of the crucial talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga on the new constitution, alleging that the police was investigating his links with the LTTE. Mr Gnanakoon’s family was well connected with the LTTE and his brother ran a pro-LTTE telephone news service in the USA before the LTTE was banned in 1998, it said. Sinahalese Buddhist monks are also opposed to the draft constitution. The government announced last week that it would present the draft constitution for ratification on August 3. Meanwhile, with the military situation in northern Jaffna stabilising, the Sri Lankan Government has recalled two senior Army Generals from the area, media reports said. They have been replaced with the commander in-charge of operations in the rebel-held northern Vanni region, the island newspaper reported. Major-Gen Janaka Perera, the overall operations commander in the North, has been recalled to take over as the Chief of Staff of the Army while the Security Forces Commander in Jaffna, Major-Gen Sarath Fonseka, has been asked to take over the Vanni command, it said. General Perera will take over from the outgoing Army Chief of Staff, Major Gen Lionel Balagalle, who is tipped to succeed the present over- all Army Commander, Lieut-Gen Srilala Weerasurya, after the latter retires.
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Concorde’s reputation nosedives PARIS, July 26 (DPA) — Fast, sleek and, most important, safe. For decades, the Concorde has been accorded the attributes that were heaped on the Titanic before its fateful maiden cruise. The only jet aircraft in the history of aviation never to have had a serious accident, the Concorde suffered a serious blow to its reputation when a plane belonging to Air France crashed yesterday afternoon near here, killing all 109 aboard and four persons on the ground. Witnesses reported that one of the plane’s engines had burst into flames shortly after take-off, just before 5 p.m. The plane had reached an altitude of 50 metres, and its pilot was apparently attempting to return to the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of here, when the plane went down. “The plane was completely in flames,” said the owner of a hotel adjacent to the crash site. “I thought that it would land on my desk.” According to Air France CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the plane had been completely overhauled on July 21. What went wrong? A fire in the engine of a Concorde presents more problems than in other planes, since two engines work in tandem on its delta-shaped wing and the fire can easily spread from one to the other. Without propulsion, the Concorde can still be steered, but only if it is flying at sufficient speed. Should the craft lose speed, the pilot only has one chance of escaping a disaster: a controlled crash landing. However, since a Concorde carries as much fuel as a jumbo jet, an emergency landing always presents the risks of a fire or explosion. Concorde pilots are considered the elite among the world’s commercial flyers and receive the most thorough training available in the industry. And the planes receive the same special treatment from mechanics chosen to keep them in flying order. As a result, the Concorde has been a favourite of business travellers and jet-setters since its first commercial flight, on January 21, 1976. Flying at 2,150 km an hour, more than twice the speed of sound, it manages the trip from here to New York, where the doomed plane was heading, in a little more than three-and-a-half hours. Tickets for the flight are accordingly expensive, costing up to 50,000 francs (about $ 7,100) for a round-trip ticket. The distribution of its seats reflects a specific social structure. The first two rows are reserved for VIPs. Especially desired are seats 1A and 1B, which are never distributed in advance and often given to a media star, a politician or a particularly loyal businessman. To maintain the Concorde’s reputation, Air France and British Airways, the only airlines to fly the plane, often organise special media events. Ironically, the first problems with the aircraft were uncovered just a day before the fatal crash, when British Airways took one of its seven Concordes out of service because of small rips in its wings. As a result of the crash, the airline is now considering the future of its Concorde fleet. Yesterday’s crash of the Air France Concorde has only one precedent. On June 3, 1973, a Russian supersonic plane, nicknamed the Concordski, because it was an almost perfect copy of the Concorde, crashed at an air show in front of over 2,00,000 spectators. All eight members of its crew were killed. The site of that crash? Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris. 95 die in tribal
clash KAMPALA, July 26 (Reuters) — Battles among heavily-armed herders over cattle have left 95 people dead in a remote corner of northeastern Uganda, the army said today. Army spokesman Major Phinehas Katirima said warriors from two rival groups within the Karimojong tribe, Jie and Dodoth, fought over their cattle at the weekend. “When Jie attacked Dodoth, 15 of the latter tribe were killed, and in a counter-attack by Dodoth as they pursued them to try to recover their cattle, 80 Jie warriors were killed,” Mr Katirima told Reuters. |
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Concorde flights
resumed LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) — British Airways (BA) said it would resume Concorde flights between London and New York today, voicing full confidence in its fleet despite the horrific crash
of a sister plane in Paris. The first flight was the regular 3.00 p.m. (IST) departure to New York from London’s Heathrow Airport. BA suspended Concorde flights yesterday after an Air France Concorde crashed near Paris with the loss of 113 lives. |
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Barak blames Arafat for failure of talks FREDERICK (Maryland), July 26 (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said he had done all he could to reach a comprehensive peace accord with the Palestinians and blamed Yasser Arafat for the failure of the Camp David summit. “Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was afraid to make historical decisions to put an end to the conflict,” Mr Barak told reporters here yesterday at a hotel near the presidential retreat where he and Mr Arafat had been secluded with US President Bill Clinton. “Arafat’s positions on Jerusalem caused the collapse of the summit,” he charged. Mr Barak, who appeared gloomy and exhausted, said Israel had made far-reaching proposals to the Palestinians on all issues, including east Jerusalem, the key stumbling block in the negotiations. “During the course of the summit various ideas were raised including the expansion of Jerusalem to include areas like Maale Adumim, Givat Zeev and Gush Etzion in exchange for granting Palestinian sovereignty over a number of areas within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem,” said Mr Barak. “But since there is no agreement, these ideas are null and void,” he added. Mr Barak had previously refused to grant the Palestinians sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem, which he often described as Israel’s undivided capital. But he acknowledged for the first time yesterday that he was ready to accord Palestinians full sovereignty over some areas within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem if they agreed to the annexation of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. TYRE (Lebanon): Thousands of Palestinian refugees today demonstrated in south Lebanon on Wednesday in anger at the failure of the Camp David summit to achieve their return home. Protesters in Rashidiyeh camp on the edge of Tyre demanded that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat stick to the September 13 deadline he has set for declaring a Palestinian state. “We want to go back to Palestine. We do not want to be settled or compensated”, the marchers chanted. They were led by gunmen with AK-47 machineguns and carried replicas of Jerusalem and pictures of Arafat. Arafat’s supporters also demonstrated in Ain el-Hilweh camp outside Sidon. They burned tyres and US and Israeli flags and demanded the resumption of the Intifadah, the seven-year uprising that forced Israel to seek a compromise with the Palestinians. WASHINGTON: The Palestinian leadership stands ready to carry on peace negotiations with Israel despite the failure of the Camp David summit, a senior Palestinian official has said here. “We’re ready to continue negotiating,” Ahmed Qorei, head of the Palestinian delegation to final status talks with Israel, told a press conference at a Washington hotel yesterday. He described the 15-day summit at Camp David as a “real battle.” He was speaking hours after President Bill Clinton acknowledged that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had been unable to bridge their differences, notably over the future status of East Jerusalem. Both Israeli and Palestinian negotiators must reflect on the progress made during the failed Camp David Mideast peace talks, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in her first statement after the talks ended on Tuesday. “They did make progress,” she emphasised. “Unfortunately ... It wasn’t possible to reach an agreement at this time.” “Nevertheless both leaders agreed that after a period of reflection and assessment the negotiating process will continue,” Ms Albright said. Both sides adopted tough stances in negotiations over issues, “that had been previously off-limits,” Ms Albright said.
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SUVA, July 26 (AFP) — Fiji went another day without an effective government today, as a decision on naming a new line-up was postponed for a second time, local radio reported. President Josefa Iloilo had been expected today to name an interim government, which would rule for two years ahead of the restoration of democracy. Radio FM 96, quoting an official from Government House, said a cabinet line-up had been produced but that it would not be released today. Banker Laisenia Qarase, already serving as interim Prime Minister, is likely to be confirmed in the role despite the opposition of George Speight, who led the May coup against Fiji’s elected government. Mr Qarase last week named a cabinet and was about to have them sworn in when Speight, at the last minute, threatened civil war. The ceremony was called off, but sources here say the new cabinet will be largely the same as last week’s. Reuters: A new government and possibly a new Prime Minister in racially split Fiji will be named on Thursday after a series of last-minute meetings aimed at ending a 10-week political crisis, a presidential aide said on Wednesday. Presidential Secretary Joe Browne had hoped a government would be named on Wednesday after meetings between President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, rebel leader George Speight and Fiji’s military. But he later told Reuters that the naming of the government had been pushed back to Thursday to allow for more last-minute talks between the three sides in the dispute. Mr Browne gave no indication of who would head the government. Independent radio FM 96 and website www.fijilive.com said the new government would be sworn in on Friday with Qarase at its head but neither quoted officials nor provided sources. “The new interim cabinet line-up, endorsed by Ratu Josefa, will again be headed by Laisenia Qarase as Prime Minister,” the website said.
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China flushes Britain’s
WC claim BEIJING, July 26 (Reuters) — China has flushed Britain’s claim to have invented the water closet down the pan with the discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet complete with running water, a stone seat and a comfortable armrest. Archaeologists found the antique latrine in the tomb of a king of the western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 24 AD), who believed his soul would need to enjoy human life after death, the official Xinhua news agency said today. “This top-grade stool is the earliest of its kind ever discovered in the world, meaning that the Chinese used the world’s earliest water closet which is quite like what we are using today,” Xinhua quoted the archaeologists’ report as saying. The invention of the flush toilet is widely attributed to London plumber Thomas Crapper, who patented a U-bend siphoning system for flushing the pan in the late 19th century, and who also installed toilets for Queen Victoria. |
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China urges India, Pak to hold talks ISLAMABAD, July 26 (Reuters, PTI) — Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan has urged Pakistan and India to resolve their differences through dialogue and avoid any use of force, APP news agency reported yesterday. “Dialogue and only dialogue provides the only right path to appropriate resolutions of all outstanding problems. And use of force will lead nowhere,” Mr Tang told reporters at the end of a three-day visit yesterday to traditional ally Pakistan. Mr Tang, who met Indian leaders last weekend, said he had told officials in New Delhi that relations between India and Pakistan had a direct bearing on peace and stability in South Asia. LONDON: India and Pakistan should reduce their security forces on the Kashmir border, stop exchange of fire and allow Kashmiri people free movement on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) to create a conducive atmosphere for peace talks, Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front (Europe zone) said today. Meanwhile, Pakistan has stepped up deployment of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) to spot gaps in India’s defences along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, news magazine Jane’s Weekly has said. Quoting Indian Army sources, the weekly in its latest issue said several UAV signatures had been detected by radar along the LoC in Tangdhar, Palanwla, Sunderbani, Gurez and Kel sectors since May when the snow-bound Pir Panjal mountain passes became negotiable from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. They estimate that 1,500 to 2,000 armed insurgents, mainly Pakistanis and Afghans from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Al Badr and Lashkar-e-Toiba militant groups, were waiting in Kotli, Muzzafarabad and Minimarg to cross over into Kashmir. According to the report, India said it was unable to spot the Pakistani incursions as its Israeli aircraft searcher UAVs were unable to fly higher than 11,000 ft. |
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