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| Monday, August 14, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Palestinian state may be delayed: Mubarak CAIRO, Aug 13 — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said today that the Palestinians might postpone their declaration of an independent state and ruled out any Arab concessions over the status of Jerusalem. US jets bomb Iraqi ack-ack sites WASHINGTON, Aug 13 — US airplanes struck two anti-aircraft artillery sites in Iraq, the second night of bombing by Western aircraft, the Pentagon said. The bombing came in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries that fired at US and British planes on several occasions, the Pentagon said in a statement. New PM’s bid to win over Lanka monks Sirimavo was ‘forced’
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| Top stars for Clinton’s fund-raiser LOS ANGELES, Aug 13 — Stevie Wonder, Sugar Ray, John Travolta and Goldie Hawn will serenade and celebrate President Bill Clinton at a gala to raise at least $ 1 million for his wife’s US senate race.
A French judge has avoided making a ruling on the freedom of speech on the Internet, instead ordering experts to see if it was possible to bar French surfers from accessing online sales of Nazi memorabilia on the site of US based web portal, Yahoo. No let-up in Iran’s crackdown on press
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Palestinian state may be delayed: Mubarak CAIRO, Aug 13 (Reuters) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said today that the Palestinians might postpone their declaration of an independent state and ruled out any Arab concessions over the status of Jerusalem. Replying to questions by reporters after opening a research project near the north coast, Mr Mubarak said that any delay in the declaration of Palestinian statehood would be intended to avoid confrontation with Israel. Asked whether he thought the announcement of a Palestinian state would be delayed, Mr Mubarak said: ‘‘I cannot say that, but I think it may be postponed. We don’t like any clash between the two parties; we would like to find a solution’’. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the future independent state they have said they will declare it by September 13 with or without a peace deal with Israel. ‘‘Jerusalem is Arab land and no one can retreat on this issue,’’ Mr Mubarak told reporters near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 West Asia war and in a move not recognised internationally, regards all of Jerusalem as its ‘‘united and eternal capital’’. Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday Israelis and Palestinians would resume peace talks at the end of August in an effort to forge a final deal by mid-September and settle their differences over Jerusalem. Arab leaders reasserted Moslem claims to the city that is holy to three religions and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak forecast violence would erupt if Palestinian president Yasser Arafat gave any ground on the issue. “Any concession on Jerusalem will make the situation explode in an uncontrollable way and terrorism will surface again and find a strong excuse to be active again,’’ Mr Mubarak said in the weekly Rose el Youssef magazine. “I told (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak that this is the most dangerous and toughest phase of peace talks because it touches on religions and roots of religious beliefs,’’ he said. He understood from Mr Arafat that at Camp David Israel had offered the Palestinians only religious jurisdiction over Moslem holy sites in Jerusalem, with broader sovereignty going to Israel. He quoted Mr Arafat as saying: “No one in the Arab world or the Islamic countries dares to agree to such an offer’’ and added that Mr Arafat’s assessment was correct. “We cannot force (Mr Arafat) to agree to a decision that does not achieve the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people,’’ Mr Mubarak said. His views were echoed by Saudi Arabia and Iran after talks in Jeddah between Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Sadr and Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd and crown Prince Abdullah. The official Iranian news agency
Irna reported that Mr Sadr delivered a message from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, calling for a united Moslem stand over Jerusalem to ‘’counter the threats posed to the holy city’’. JERUSALEM, Aug 13 (DPA) — Israeli police reopened the Haram al-Sharif compound, or Temple Mount, in the old city of Jerusalem today, after the holy site was closed to visitors for four days due to tensions between
Jewish religious radicals and Palestinians. The decision to reopen the compound came after Israeli police had promised to re-allow the entry of tourists if the Muslim Waqf, the authority in charge of the mosques in the compound, allowed entry of Jews in small groups for prayer. |
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US jets bomb Iraqi ack-ack sites WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) — US airplanes struck two anti-aircraft artillery sites in Iraq, the second night of bombing by Western aircraft, the Pentagon said. The bombing came in response to Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries that fired at US and British planes on several occasions, the Pentagon said in a statement. The Pentagon said all planes returned safely and damage assessment was ongoing. Yesterday’s raid followed bombing by US and British planes on Friday night that Iraqi witnesses said had hit a civilian government warehouse in southern Iraq, killing two civilians and wounding 19. US and British planes patrol no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq set up after the 1991 Gulf war. The zones, which Baghdad does not recognise, were imposed to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shias in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi government forces. BAGHDAD: Iraq said today US and British planes bombed a train station in southern Iraq overnight, wounding a number of civilians in the second straight night of raids on the area. The resumption of western air strikes coincided with an escalation of tension in the Gulf after a series of Iraqi statements blasting Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for housing US and British forces that patrol a no-fly zone over southern Iraq. The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said the planes bombed the train station in the town of Samawa, 270 km south of Baghdad, wounding an undisclosed number of civilians and damaging nearby houses. “The US administration and its evil ally, Britain, in clear collaboration with the agent rulers of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, committed another crime ... in their efforts to hamper the victorious march of Iraq under the leadership of President Saddam Hussein,” INA said. |
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New PM’s bid to win over Lanka monks COLOMBO, Aug 13 (PTI) — In an attempt to win over the support of influential Buddhist monks for the controversial reforms Bill before this year’s general election, Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has said that he would try mediating between the government and the clergy. Wickramanayake, one of Chandrika’s staunch loyalists, who also enjoys a close rapport with top prelates of the Buddhist sects in the country, said yesterday in Kandy that the Constitution Bill, aimed at ending bloody ethnic war in the island, would be passed after close consultations with the heads of the Buddhist religious institutions. “We will seek the views of the Mahanayaka Theras on each and every paragraph, clause and lines of the draft constitution so that they could correct us, where we have gone wrong”, he told reporters after meeting the heads of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters, who had issued a stern warning to the MPs not to vote for the new Constitution earlier this week. One prelate even said that they had given a religious directive to President, Chandrika Kumaratunga not to press ahead with the Bill any longer. The Bill, which proposes to change the presidential system of governance to parliamentary democracy and offer broad autonomy to the Tamil dominated north-eastern province, was suspended indefinitely by Lankan Parliament after it failed to muster two-thirds majority. But undeterred by these threats, Kumaratunga in an interview to state television two days ago said she would continue to make an all-out attempt to get it ratified, either in this Parliament, before it was dissolved by August 24 or by next Parliament, which would be constituted after this year’s general election. She said if her Peoples Alliance was re-elected, she even contemplated converting the next Parliament into a Constituent Assembly in order to get the Bill ratified with or without opposition United National Party (UNP). The UNP has joined the monks in opposing the Bill even after it reached a broad agreement on several aspects of constitutional reforms, including the autonomy package to the Tamil
province. |
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Sirimavo was ‘forced’
to resign COLOMBO, Aug 13 (Reuters) — The infighting in Sri Lanka’s first political family resurfaced in public today when the son of former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike accused his sister of forcing their mother to step down. Mr Anura
Bandaranaike, a lawmaker of the main opposition United National Party, told the Sunday Times that his mother was not keen to step down, but elder sister President Chandrika Kumaratunga had removed her from the post. “My mother was planning to resign at the end of the election campaign. I met her twice after her resignation and I strongly feel that she was forced to leave,” Mr Anura Bandaranaike told the newspaper. “I am perplexed about the move. I don’t see any logic in it.” |
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Top stars for Clinton’s fund-raiser LOS ANGELES, Aug 13 (Reuters) — Stevie Wonder, Sugar Ray, John Travolta and Goldie Hawn will serenade and celebrate President Bill Clinton at a gala to raise at least $ 1 million for his wife’s US senate race. The gala is one of the most lavish parties and fund-raising events bringing together tinseltown’s beautiful people and Washington’s policy wonks ahead of the democratic convention that starts tomorrow and will crown Vice-President Al Gore the Democratic nominee on Thursday. Illustrating the tight embrace between Hollywood and Washington, two dozen cinema stars and musicians will gather in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of
Brentwood to pay tributes to the President and pour money into his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton’s political future. The event’s title — The “New York Senate 2000 Hollywood Gala Salute, Concert Tribute to the President” — suggests the blend of agendas as Mr Clinton basks in the waning limelight of his presidency and works to propel his wife into a senate seat from New York. The White House has denied Mr Clinton and his wife are stealing the spotlight from Mr Gore just when the Vice-President needs it most as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. Mr Gore lags Republican nominee Texas. Gov. George Bush by double-digits in most opinion polls. And Mrs Clinton’s campaign has sought to cast doubts on a New York Times report that the concert will raise as much as $ 4 million for her race against republican representative Rick Lazio, saying it expects only $ 1 million. But the math does not add up. Guests were asked to pony up $ 1,000 to nibble on appetisers of tempura shrimp, spago pizza and spicy tuna and to hear Paul Anka, Michael Bolton, Toni Braxton, Cher, Natalie Cole, Melissa Etheridge, Patti Labelle, Diana Ross, Sugar Ray and Stevie Wonder perform. They were asked to pay $ 25,000 a couple for a lobster dinner with the President, who will be toasted by Red Buttons, Michael Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Anjelica Huston, Jack Lemmon, Shirley Maclaine, Dylan McDermott, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Smits, Mary Steenbergen and Ted
Danson. |
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Red
Cross hostages released TBILISI, Aug 13 (Reuters) — Kidnappers released three Red Cross workers in ex-Soviet Georgia today, more than a week after they were taken hostage near the border with
Chechnya. Natascia Zullino from Italy, Sophia Prokofieff from France and their Georgian driver, Yuri
Durchiyev, looked tired but relieved after being freed early in the morning by the villagers who abducted them on August 4. The two women later today boarded a flight for Geneva, where they are due to rejoin their families, the ICRC said. |
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French court for bar on Yahoo Nazi display A French judge has avoided making a ruling on the freedom of speech on the Internet, instead ordering experts to see if it was possible to bar French surfers from accessing online sales of Nazi memorabilia on the site of US based web portal, Yahoo. Three human rights groups in Paris launched proceedings against Yahoo in April, saying it was breaking French law by hosting Internet auctions of Nazi paraphernalia including SS daggers, swastikas, propaganda films, photographs of death camp victims and replicas of Zyklon B gas canisters. The case raises the question of whether one country should have the authority to regulate the content of web sites in another country. Industry observers suggest the issue should be addressed at government level and not in court. In France, it is illegal to sell or exhibit anything that incites racial hatred. In a ruling, judge Jean-Jacques Gomez said Yahoo had offended the country’s “collective memory”. Saying the US pages in question “constituted an apology for Nazism and a contestation of Nazi crimes”, he ordered the company to block French users from them. Yahoo argues that this is technically impossible, but the judge ruled on Friday that over the next two months a team of French, American and European experts should look for a way to identify web users by origin, and filter French users from the site. The experts will present their findings on November 6. The judge rejected demands by the three anti-racist and Jewish organisations bringing the case, LICRA, UEJF and MRAP, that Yahoo be fined more than £ 100,000 ($ 150,000) for each day that the auction pages remained open to French surfers. He also rejected one of Yahoo’s main claims that the US-based site was outside the jurisdiction of the French court. Yahoo’s lawyer, Mr Christophe Pecnard, welcomed the decision to appoint international experts. “We will cooperate with the experts in order to see if any solution is possible,” he said. Yahoo said it had never allowed auctions on Nazi memorabilia to take place on its French portal, Yahoo.fr. The web portal added that it had taken the step of adding warnings, in French, to some pages of the site containing sensitive material, that alerted users that they risked breaking French law by viewing them. Although Yahoo’s French portal does not grant direct access to the Nazi web auctions, the US pages can be accessed with a few clicks of the mouse. The pages are protected in the USA under the constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech. — The Guardian, London AFP adds: Meanwhile, the cyber police of Saudi Arabia has blocked access to all clubs hosted by the Internet web portal Yahoo because it was unable to control their pornographic and political content, newspapers said today. “Access to all Yahoo clubs has been completely blocked,” Khalil Jedaan, head of security at the kingdom’s sole Internet provider, told Al-Iqtissadiya paper. “These clubs have gone beyond reasonable limits: not only are they propagating pornographic material but they are also defaming personalities,” Jedaan said. |
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No let-up in Iran’s crackdown on press TEHERAN, Aug 13 (Reuters) — Iran’s hardline press court has jailed an award-winning satirist on suspicion of slander, a close associate said today. Ebrahim Nabavi was sent to Teheran’s notorious Evin Prison yesterday after being interrogated by the special press court, the associate, a newspaper publisher, told Reuters. Meanwhile, it was announced that Ms Fatemeh Farahmandpour, publisher of the recently banned Gounagoun (variety) weekly, will be put on trial on Wednesday. She is currently free on a 50 million rials ($ 6,100) bail bond. The press court has also fined Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah, former publisher of the banned newspaper Azad, and stopped him from publishing, a newspaper said today. Another court in the northwestern city of Ardabil has banned the local weekly, Cheshmeh, for four months and fined its publisher for “insulting religious values”. The latest wave of clampdowns against reformist writers and newspaper editors started in late April when ‘supreme’ leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the independent press of being “bases of the enemy”. |
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