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Concorde declared not airworthy BA grounds all such aircraft LONDON, Aug 16 — Britain confirmed today that it was rescinding Concorde’s right to fly until the troubled supersonic jet could be proved to be safe. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was withdrawing the plane’s airworthiness certificate on the recommendation of investigators looking into the cause of the crash of an Air France Concorde that took 113 lives on July 25.

A British Airways' Concorde stands at the airline's engineering facility at London's Heathrow Airport, on Tuesday, after the airline suspended its Concorde operations in a move that could signal the end of supersonic passenger flights. The British Airways move came ahead of a decision by British and French accident experts, recommending that the aircraft's certificate of airworthiness should be suspended. — AP/PTI

Spotlight now shifts to Gore
WASHINGTON: For Bill Clinton, in the last few months of his eight-year presidency, the opening night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday provided an opportunity to highlight the achievements of his administration as well as to prop up Vice-President Al Gore as the voters’ choice to succeed him.

Left: Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy puts his arm around his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, as she waves to delegates on the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Mississippi delegate Balwant Singh cheers during the convention — Reuters/AP

Reunion opens fresh wounds
SEOUL, Aug 16 — The ongoing reunions of 200 families separated by the cold war division of Korea have opened some new wounds which have only deepened personal tragedies caused by 50 years of separation.

N. Korea selling  missiles to Pak
WASHINGTON, Aug 16 — North Korean Leader Kim Jong I has said his last month’s offer for scrapping the country’s missile programme in return for US help to launch its satellites was not made seriously and confirmed that Pyongyang was selling missiles to Pakistan, Iran and Syria.

Concorde declared not airworthy
BA grounds all such aircraft

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) —Britain confirmed today that it was rescinding Concorde’s right to fly until the troubled supersonic jet could be proved to be safe.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was withdrawing the plane’s airworthiness certificate on the recommendation of investigators looking into the cause of the crash of an Air France Concorde that took 113 lives on July 25.

The CAA said the investigation showed a tyre burst was the primary cause of the accident. It was asking Concorde’s manufacturers to recommend an action plan to ensure the aircraft’s safety, but could not say how long it would be before this would happen and the plane could fly again.

France was set to take the same steps today.

Britain’s move will keep the seven Concordes operated by British Airways on the ground until further notice. Air France stopped its flights immediately after the crash.

Simon Bowers of The Guardian adds: The grounding of all seven of British Airways’ Concorde aircraft has brought chaos to the luxury travel market and put the future of supersonic passenger flight into question, industry experts and former pilots said yesterday (Tuesday).

Jan Knott of Goodwood Travel, which charters Concorde flights, said his company had already been forced to rearrange flights. “We have 200 people who are going on a trip to Oslo on Sunday. Half were flying on Concorde and coming back on the QE2, and half were doing it the other way round,” he said.

The firm was hoping to use BA’s regular flights and said customers would be refunded the difference or given a full refund if they wanted to cancel tickets.

Kieran Daly, editor of the Internet magazine Air Transport Intelligence, emphasised the grounding was only temporary and compared the situation with that of the DC10 passenger jet, which had its licence withdrawn only to be reinstated after safety tests were carried out. “What the DC10 suffered from was a failure of public confidence following an accident, and this seems to be happening to Concorde,’’ he said.

“People see an accident and hear about other bits which have gone wrong and start to draw their own general conclusions not to fly with this plane.”

David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine, said: “This action is basically saying that this aircraft is not airworthy. They have decided that the craft’s safety record makes it too high a liability to say that this could not happen again.

“If modifications are possible, and needed, then the airline will have to decide whether it would be commercially viable to make them.”

Christopher Orlebar, a Concorde pilot from 1976 to 1986, suggested the grounding may have been a result of pressure from the USA, the source of much of Concorde’s trade.

Orlebar, author of “The Concorde Story”, said: “The withdrawal of the airworthiness certificate is very surprising. If, as seems to be the case, a piece of metal on the runway brought the plane down, then that kind of accident would have caused any aircraft to crash, not just the Concorde.’’

MPs representing constituencies around Heathrow Airport were angry the ban had not been enforced earlier.

Fresh round of West Asia peace talks

JERUSALEM, Aug 16 (AFP) — Israel today announced resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians ahead of a fresh US effort to clinch a deal that would bring an end to decades of bitter conflict.

Israel’s acting Foreign Minister and top peace negotiator, Mr Shlomo Ben Ami, said negotiations would resume in view of a looming September 13 deadline for a peace accord.

Asked if he would be meeting Palestinian negotiators, Mr Ben Ami told reporters: “We are resuming talks with the Palestinians and will be meeting a Palestinian team.”

A Palestinian official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed to AFP in Gaza city that talks would resume this evening.

Mr Ben Ami, who has been on a swing through Europe to sell Israel’s position on the peace talks, said yesterday that he hoped to reach a preliminary accord by early September to pave the way for a new summit. “It must not be a repeat of Camp David,” he added.

The summit broke down on July 25 after two weeks of intensive negotiations because of deep discord over control of Jerusalem.

US Middle East troubleshooter Dennis Ross is due in the region tomorrow to assess the prospects for another summit following the collapse of Camp David negotiations.

“He will be reviewing the situation in the region and meeting with the two parties to assess progress and developments since the Camp David summit,” a US embassy spokesman told AFP.

Mr Ross said the USA was willing to call a new summit only if Israeli and Palestinian leaders were ready to make historic concessions.

“President Clinton made it clear that he is prepared to get them together again if he is satisfied that there is a readiness to make decisions,” he said yesterday.

The US envoy had been due to arrive in the region on Sunday but brought forward his trip at the request of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

He is expected to hold four days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Asked about the prospects of a new summit, Mr Hassan Abdel Rahman, the PLO representative in Washington, said: “I think that President Clinton has learned the lesson that any future summit should be convened only to sign the peace agreement.”

He told Voice of Palestine radio, however, that he did not rule out a US-Palestinian meeting when leaders are in New York for the UN General Assembly Sesswn, which begins on September 6.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is due later today for talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, said an agreement could be reached soon if the Palestinians showed more flexibility. 

Spotlight now shifts to Gore
from A. Balu

WASHINGTON: For Bill Clinton, in the last few months of his eight-year presidency, the opening night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday provided an opportunity to highlight the achievements of his administration as well as to prop up Vice-President Al Gore as the voters’ choice to succeed him. He did use it with his customary aplomb and style to the delight of over 5000 delegates who wildly cheered him through his speech.

Democrats and their supporters are now waiting to see how far Mr Gore is able to exploit to his advantage the positive elements of the success story narrated by the President and to project himself as a leader capable of carrying the mantle and delivering the goods to the American people.

President Clinton called Mr Gore a “strong leader and a profoundly good man”, and said he and his running mate Joseph Lieberman would be “great leaders.” The merit certificate came towards the closing part of Mr Clinton’s speech, inviting the remark from ABC commentator George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton strategist, that “it took so long to talk about Vice-President Al”. Republicans commented that Clinton did nothing to help Gore close his leadership gap.

Mr Gore takes the podium on Thursday night at the closing session of the Convention to deliver his nomination acceptance speech. It will be a make or mar moment for the Vice-President whose lacklustre image with the American public is being continuously highlighted by the US media.

A new LA Times poll reveals voter doubts about Mr Gore’s leadership and widespread scepticism that he deserves credit for the strong economy. The poll suggests that at this time in the campaign, personal doubts about both Clinton and Gore are overweighing the traditional tendency of voters to reward the party in the White House for good times.

Democrats dismiss the significance of the current lead the republican nominee, Mr George W. Bush, enjoys and cite that in the 1988 presidential election, George Bush (the present nominee’s father), who was trailing behind the democrat candidate, Mr Michael Dukakis, emerged from the republican convention four points ahead and went on to win the election. “Gore needs a Bush-like resurrection,” USA Today said on Tuesday. “If he does not get it, democrats will have good reason to worry.”

ABC commentator Sam Donaldson said in his TV programme: “I don’t want to be harsh about it, but I think Al Gore’s problem is Al Gore in the sense that he has not, as the old saying goes, been able to make the sale on some of these very important matters: trust and his own man and leadership.”

Mr Gore, who is giving finishing touches to his acceptance speech, has indicated that he will seek to give voters “a clear, stark and specific” contrast between his party’s positions and those of the republican nominee. He hopes to establish as a confident leader in his own right, not just a “Vice-President” in the shadow of President Clinton.

A media report noted that President Clinton in his speech sought to embrace his would-be successor “without smothering him.”

The 2000 democratic national platform, the party’s election year statement of its agenda, being approved by the convention, reemphasises the shift President Clinton had given to the party from its liberal orthodoxy to the political centre. The statement highlights the largest expansion in the economy recorded in the last eight years.

President Clinton ended his passionate defence of his administration’s policies and told fellow Americans that America’s success was not “a matter of chance” but “a matter of choice.” He invoked President Truman’s words to urge voters:”If you want to live like a republican, you should vote for the democrats….This is a big election with great consequence…choose wisely.”

Predictably, President Clinton avoided any reference to the sex scandals that had dogged him during the second term of his presidency. Last week he had asked the voters not to let his sins be visited on Mr Gore.

The First Lady, Mrs Hillary Clinton, who preceded President Clinton, received rapturous response from the audience when she declared: “What an eight years it has been. We are a stronger, better country than we were in 1992” and credited the team of Mr Clinton and Mr Gore for the prosperity Americans enjoyed today.

Bush becomes first $ 100m candidate
from Martin Kettle in Los Angeles

GEORGE W. Bush has become the first $100 Million Man of American presidential elections, setting a fund-raising record unrivalled by Bill Clinton or Al Gore.

The Republican presidential nominee will formally report to the US Federal Elections Commission this month that by the end of July he had raised $95m for his election bid from individuals and political committees.

Mr Bush raised another $5m for legal expenses and in transfers, bringing the total over the $100m mark for the first time in US electoral history.

Until now, the record for one individual was held by Ross Perot, who raised $73m for his first presidential run on behalf of his Reform party in 1992. Almost all of that money came from Mr Perot’s own pocket.

Ironically, Mr Bush has to thank Mr Clinton for presiding over the economic prosperity that allowed more than 350,000 Republican donors to sign large cheques to the Bush campaign. Mr Clinton made that prosperity the centrepiece of his farewell speech to the Democratic convention in Los Angeles on Monday night.

Until he was nominated by his party at the start of this month, Mr Bush had financed his campaign through private donations, refusing to accept matching federal funds which would have placed a cap on the amount he could raise. By contrast, Mr Gore, his Democratic rival, took the federal money to top up his own funds.

Both men are now accepting full federal funds. Mr Bush has already received the cheque for $67.6m to which he is entitled as the duly nominated Republican contender. Mr Gore will be eligible for a similar cheque after he is officially nominated for the Democrats. The Reform party nominee, Pat Buchanan, is in line for $12.6m, based on Mr Perot’s performance in 1996.

Mr Clinton raised about $66m in his two presidential runs in 1992 and 1996, while Mr Gore has raised $34m, according to his most recent published accounts.

— The Guardian, London

UN nod for court to try RUF rebels

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 (IPS) — In its continuing efforts to strengthen the hand of the united nations against the rebel army in Sierra Leone, the security council has agreed to establish a ‘’special court’’ to try Sierra Leoneans accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Although the resolution does not specifically say so, it is clearly aimed at the rebel revolutionary united front (RUF) and its leader Foday Sankoh.

Ambassador Ibrahim Kamara of Sierra Leone called the resolution ‘’a very, very bold step considering the situation in our country ... It will allay the fears of most of our nationals that ... Our country will enjoy peace and justice very soon.’’

us ambassador Richard Holbrooke said, ‘’we hope that those people who have consistently violated all the rules of national and international behaviour, who have committed such gross violations of human rights will understand that the noose continues to tighten around them.’’ the united states was the main author of the resolution.

The ‘’special court’’ will be a blend of a national court and an international tribunal, such as those set up for Rwanda and Yugoslavia. The court will ‘’have personal jurisdiction over persons who bear the greatest responsibility’’ for committing ‘’crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, as well as crimes under relevant Sierra Leonean law.’’

The council on Monday requested that secretary-general Kofi Annan report back within 30 days on the details of the court. 

Reunion opens fresh wounds

SEOUL, Aug 16 (AFP) — The ongoing reunions of 200 families separated by the cold war division of Korea have opened some new wounds which have only deepened personal tragedies caused by 50 years of separation.

Ha Kyong, 76, who was among the 100 North Koreans reunited with relatives in Seoul, was stunned to find out for the first time that his 78-year-old wife whom he dreamed of seeing for the past 50 years had remarried.

‘‘Why isn’t your mother here?’’ he asked his 56-year-old son, Ha Mun-Ki.

‘‘She declined to come. She feels guilty as she had to remarry after you disappeared,’’ the son said.

The father was lost for words and his eyes filled with tears.

Ha lost contact with his family after the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 and believing he was dead his family set up an altar in his memory in 1969. Since then they have held traditional Confucian memorial services every year.

Most of the 100 North Koreans and 100 South Koreans selected to take part in the four-day meetings of relatives in Seoul and Pyongyang are frail and elderly, and there have been several heart-rending incidents during the reunions.

N. Korea selling  missiles to Pak

WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (PTI) — North Korean Leader Kim Jong I has said his last month’s offer for scrapping the country’s missile programme in return for US help to launch its satellites was not made seriously and confirmed that Pyongyang was selling missiles to Pakistan, Iran and Syria.

The offer to Russian President Vladimir Putin was made “laughingly”, Mr Kim told a visiting delegation of South Korean media executives.

Mr Kim said the idea, made public by Mr Putin, must have given the USA “a bad headache”, the executives told the newspersons after their meeting.

They added that Mr Kim mocked US fears of North Korea’s missile development efforts and said, “I made the missile problem.”

The North Korean leader also confirmed the long-held suspicion that his country was selling missiles to Pakistan, Syria and Iran, the executive said. He said he didn’t need to court big countries.

WORLD BRIEFS

Clinton names envoy for AIDS

WASHINGTON: The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, has said he had named Ms Sandra Thurman as the presidential envoy for AIDS cooperation. Ms Thurman, who will retain her current position as director of the White House office of national AIDS policy, will become the first US presidential envoy to deal exclusively with a global health issue. — Reuters

USA honours agents for Elian raid

GLYNCO (US): The US Government on Wednesday honoured 114 federal agents who snatched Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez in a predawn raid at the home of his Miami relatives in April, while a handful of Cuban exiles protested the ceremony in Miami. In Glynco, Georgia, immigration and naturalisation service commissioner Doris Meissner lauded the agents for staging “Operation Reunion’’ — a US government plan to reunite Elian with his father — successfully in the “emotionally charged atmosphere’’ of Miami’s little Havana. — Reuters

Four women die in brothel fire

JERUSALEM: Four women were burned to death on Tuesday morning when a fire broke out in a two-storeyed building in south Tel Aviv which the police suspected was a brothel, police and fire officials said. The police was investigating whether the fire had been started deliberately and was part of a wave of arson attacks against other suspected brothels in the city. — DPA

Divers find wrecks of 6 warships

ZAGREB: Italian divers have found the wrecks of six battleships from the two world wars on the bed of the Adriatic between the Croatian islands of Pag and Losinj, Croatia’s Hina news agency reported on Tuesday. The Austro-Hungarian ships, the Albanien and the Euterpe, were sunk by the Italian Navy in 1916 and 1918. They were found in a depth of 70 to 80 metres. — DPA

Six kids killed in crossfire

MEDELLIN (Colombia): Six schoolchildren hiking in the mountains died when they were apparently caught in a firefight between government troops and leftist rebels, authorities said. But an adult who was with the children said that troops opened fire on Tuesday without provocation and there were no guerrillas in the area. — AP

Co-pilot’s family sues CNN

CAIRO: The family of Egypt Air co-pilot Gami al-Battuti, who was at the controls of a Boeing 767 when it crashed into the Atlantic last year, is suing CNN and Newsweek for defamation, their lawyer has said. Lawyer Esmat Abdel Rahim told a press conference on Tuesday that he had filed a law suit with an Egyptian court against US television networks CNN and ABC along with US magazine Newsweek for slurring Battuti’s name. — AFP

PM to unveil Gandhi’s statue in USA

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is expected to unveil a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in washington during his visit there next month, Indian Embassy officials said here on Wednesday. The 8’8” high sculpture of Gandhi, cast in bronze, by Indian sculptor Gautam Pal, will sit on a 6” high raised granite paved platform. — PTI

Pilot, passengers killed in crash

LUMBER CITY: A twin-engine plane crashed in heavy fog in rural southeast Georgia, killing the pilot and both passengers. The six-seat Piper Pa-31 on Tuesday apparently was trying to land at a small airport about 144 km west of Savannah, said George Prellezo, regional director of the National Transportation Safety Board in Miami. — AP