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| Saturday, August 26, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Gore leads in California, 3 other states UN set for summit diplomacy China ‘helping’ Pak with
new missile plant
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Pakistan alleges
trespass into diplomat’s house 37 die in Kenya mishap Suu Kyi stopped from
meeting supporters Reformist groups attack
Khatami’s brother Milosevic’s wife
in poll fray Wahid cedes new
role to Megawati Iraqi missile
plant located
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Pilot error suspected
in Gulf Air crash MANAMA, Aug 25 (AFP) — The needle of suspicion in the fatal crash of a Gulf Air Airbus A 320 pointed to the pilot’s error, as authorities kept silent on why the plane was on its third attempt to land when it went down off Bahrain, killing all 143 persons on board. State-run television in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, which is a part owner of the airline, said Wednesday’s accident was due to “human error and not due to technical malfunction.” “The pilot made an error during his first attempt to land, and one of the plane’s wings was perhaps damaged during the second attempt by hitting the water,” the state-run television said yesterday. On the third attempt, “it lost balance and plunged into the sea,” it concluded, citing “Civil Aviation experts.” Bahraini airport authorities, meanwhile, claimed the control tower did not ask the Gulf Air pilot about his two failed attempts to land and said he did not send any distress call. Bahrain, which has proclaimed three days of mourning, sprang to the defence of the airline and the airport authorities, while a Gulf Air official in Cairo said there was nothing wrong with the plane when it took off on its final flight after a routine check. Bahrain’s Civil Aviation Department also dismissed as “pure speculation” reports that one of the two engines of the Airbus was on fire before the crash. “It is too early to ascertain what caused the crash,” Gulf Air vice-president Ali Ahmadi said. “The investigation is on and it will be some time before the results are published,” he said. Yesterday, divers continued to bring up debris from the aircraft, which disintegrated when it hit the water on its final approach. A team from Airbus Industries arrived in Manama along with French accident investigation experts, and their US counterparts were on their way here. Gulf Air said it would analyse the findings of the black box recorders after the foreign experts arrived. “Many bodies have been identified and some of them have already been given to their families,” said Mr Abdel Rahman bin Rashid al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s director of Civil Aviation. Family members were not shown the bodies but were summoned to a Manama hotel to look at photographs of the dead. Grief-stricken relatives walled and screamed hysterically when a Gulf Air official called out the names of the dead passengers. |
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Gore leads in California, 3 other states SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (Reuters) — Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore has grabbed a commanding lead in California, while improving his standing against Republican rival George W. Bush in Michigan, New Jersey and Minnesota, according to polls. The public opinion surveys released yesterday provided fresh evidence that the Vice-President has enjoyed a bounce since the Democratic convention ended a week ago. They also suggested that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader might be diminishing as a threat to siphon support from Gore. The polls found that Gore led the Texas Governor by 13 percentage points in California, overtook Bush by 2 percentage points in Michigan and 8 percentage points in Minnesota, and padded his lead to 14 percentage points in New Jersey. The field poll in California found that Gore led Bush by 50 to 37 per cent among likely California voters, compared with 46 per cent to 35 per cent in June. Significantly, consumer activist Nader Saw his support fall from 7 to 4 per cent. Carrying California — the most populous state and the largest electoral prize — is crucial to Gore’s hopes in the November 7 election. The poll questioned 869 likely voters in California August 18-22, and had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. In an important midwestern state, Gore narrowly overtook Bush in Michigan, 44 to 42 per cent, in a Detroit free press survey of 600 likely voters conducted August 20-22. Gore had trailed by 8 percentage points after the Republican convention. Factoring in the margin of error of 4 percentage points, the race in Michigan was a statistical dead heat. The Michigan survey, conducted by EPIC/MRA, showed Gore shoring up his political base by gaining 13 percentage points among Democrats. The survey also showed that Gore and Bush were virtually even among independents. In the battleground state of New Jersey, a Quinnipiac university poll found that Gore widened his lead from 5 percentage points a month ago to 52 to 38 per cent. The margin of error for the poll, in which 802 New Jersey registered voters were questioned from August 18-22, was 3.5 percentage points. In Liberal-leaning Minnesota, Gore grabbed a lead of 48 to 40 per cent over Bush in a poll of 621 likely voters conducted by Mason-Dixon for the St Paul Pioneer Press and two broadcasters said. The poll also found Nader weakening in Minnesota, where Democrats also feared he could steal support from the Vice-President. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Minnesota has voted Democratic nine times in the past 10 presidential elections, but Bush had led Gore by 3 percentage points in a July poll. |
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UN set for summit diplomacy UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 — There will be summits galore for two weeks, beginning Monday, at the United Nations. And they are all being pronounced historic, and rightly so. First, over 1,000 religious leaders from all over the world will assemble on August 28, marking “a new era of collaboration between different religious communities and between the world’s political and spiritual leadership.” Even as they discuss for four days how to work with the United Nations in peace-making and peace-keeping efforts in a conflict-ridden world, the first-ever world summit of presiding officers of Parliaments will be inaugurated in the General Assembly Hall by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, on August 30. For three days, Speakers of national Parliaments throughout the world will seek to endow international cooperation with a parliamentary dimension. And then will come the climax with the most prestigious even the UN has ever witnessed. Beginning September 6, for three days, Heads of State or Government will meet for the largest-ever gathering of world leaders — the Millennium Summit — in a bid to tackle some of the most pressing problems facing the international community, including how to pull millions of people out of abject poverty, strengthen UN peace operations, protect the global environment and reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For these three summits, India will have a strong representation. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, will have a unique opportunity of inter acting with several important world leaders in bilateral summits during the millennium event. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mr Balayogi, the Deputy Speaker, Mr P.M. Sayeed, and a host of leading parliamentarians, representing various political parties, will be attending the summit of presiding officers of Parliaments. For Mrs Najma Heptullah, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, it will be a memorable moment to be cherished as she will have the privilege of presiding over the summit in her capacity as president of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) Council. According to Mrs Heptullah, Parliaments are uniquely placed to provide the UN with the political, human and financial support it needs to act effectively and to live up to its mandate. Religion has not been among the primary UN concerns, but as the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Kamalesh Sharma, points out, it was felt that because of the millennium context, the UN should be associated with the summit as an event important to all mankind. In his view, India’s presence at the summit is important because “India demonstrates the spiritual personality of mankind.” About 100 religious and spiritual leaders representing different faiths in India will be among 1,000 such leaders from more than 50 countries attending the summit. Two of the largest contingents are from Jewish and Islamic faiths. Among those expected to attend the religious summit from India are Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Dada J.P. Vaswani, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Pramukh Swami Narayan Swarup, Jagadguru Ramanandacharya, Swami Ramabhadracharya, Maulana Mohammad Tauseef Raza Khan, Dr Zeenat Shaukat Ali and Dewan Syed Zainnal. The summit is seen as an opportunity to engage the leaders in frank and meaningful discussions on how they can work together to increase understanding and reduce tensions among their communities. The summit is expected to establish an “advisory council” of religious leaders who might support UN conflict-prevention and resolution efforts. The only fly in the summit’s ointment is the failure of the UN to invite the Dalai Lama, apparently in its desire not to annoy China. “This compromises the integrity of the United Nations, and the credibility of the summit,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu (retd) of Capetown told the New York Times recently. “The Dalai Lama is the spiritual head of a major religion, and it just does not make sense that he has not been invited,” he said. |
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China ‘helping’ Pak with
new missile plant WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (PTI) — China is reportedly helping build a new missile plant in Pakistan and providing its key ally all assistance, including special steel, guidance system and technical aid, a US congressional committee has said. China has not only supplied Pakistan complete M-11 missiles but it is also “providing blueprints and equipment to Pakistan to build a plant for making missiles that would violate the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)”, the congressional research service said. According to the report prepared by Shirley A Kan of CRS’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Division, Pakistan’s Khushab Plutonium plant is reportedly generating weapons grade plutonium with China possibly providing some equipment for its secret heavy water production plant at that site. “While China has promised not to transfer missiles, it is reportedly helping Pakistan to achieve an indigenous missile capacity,” it noted. Former head of the CIA’s nonproliferation centre had said that China had delivered 34 M-11 missiles to Pakistan. “... sanctions were not imposed for transfer of complete M-11 missiles because the missiles remain in crates at Sargodha air base,” CRS said, adding that on September 9 last year the CIA publicly confirmed “Pakistan has M-11 short range ballistic missiles from China” which may have a nuclear role. According to the CRS, China and North Korea continue to provide assistance to Pakistan’s ballistic missile
programme. |
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Pakistan alleges
trespass into diplomat’s house ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (PTI) — A day after a Pakistani High Commission staffer in Delhi was expelled, Pakistan today alleged six persons trespassed into the residence of its diplomat in the Indian Capital. A statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said “At around 1100 hours today, six persons in civilian clothes forced their entry into the residence of the air adviser and carried out unauthorised search.” “The leader of the group introduced himself as Bindra, Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Central Bureau of Investigation,” it alleged. Pakistan lodged a protest against the alleged trespassing by summoning the Deputy High Commissioner of India to the Foreign Office here this evening, the statement said. It said the incident of trespass was a “breach” of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961 and of the code of conduct for treatment for diplomatic personnel in Pakistan and India signed by the two countries in 1992. |
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37 die in Kenya mishap NAIROBI, Aug 25 (Reuters) — At least 37 persons were killed and 19 injured when a bus plunged off a bridge and into a river in eastern Kenya, police said today. The death toll from yesterday night crash was expected to rise even higher as a rescue team searched for survivors and tried to recover the victims. Newspaper reports had said at least 45 persons had been killed in the crash. “We have reasonable fear that there could be some (more people) trapped under the ill-fated bus. A rescue team is on the scene,” police spokesman Dola Indidis said. The bus, with an official capacity of 65, was on way to the southern coastal city of Mombasa yesterday night when it ploughed off the bridge 50 km from the eastern town of Meru, a spot notorious for deadly accidents. |
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Suu Kyi stopped from
meeting supporters YANGON, Aug 25 (DPA) — The car of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s (Burma’s) leading Opposition figure, has been blocked from entering Dallah township by junta personnel, leading to a standoff with the regime, Opposition sources said today. National League for Democracy (NLD) Secretary-General Suu Kyi and party Vice-Chairman, Tin Oo crossed the Yangon river on a ferry in separate cars yesterday to try to visit followers in Dallah township, about 10 km south of Yangon (Rangoon). Although the authorities allowed the two NLD leaders to cross the river, their vehicles were stopped from entering Dallah, and a standoff ensued as the two refused to return to the capital, NLD sources said. The standoff between Suu Kyi and Myanmar police continued throughout today as well. In September 1998, Suu Kyi spent almost two weeks sitting in her car parked on a small bridge near Htaneabin township, about 20 km west of Yangon, after the military authorities refused to allow her to visit supporters outside the capital. The NLD won the May 1990 general election with a landslide victory but has been denied political power by the military regime that has ruled Myanmar since a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988. Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country’s independence hero Aung San, was kept under house arrest between 1989 to 1995 for criticising the regime. Although she was freed and is permitted to carry on limited political activities, her movements outside the capital have been restricted. |
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Reformist groups attack
Khatami’s brother DUBAI, Aug 25 (UNI) — for the first time, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s younger Brother Reza Khatami has come under serious attack from his own reformist supporters, who accuse him of abusing the
the President’s office. Newsreports from Teheran said a meeting of Iran’s largest political bloc earlier this week erupted into a fracas after the younger Khatami was charged with failing to
practise what he preaches. “Mr (Mohammed Reza) Khatami should not be mistaken. Don’t think you were given all these (top) management posts because of your merits. You are rather benefiting from being the President’s brother’’, reformist Lawmaker Akbar Alemi told the younger Khatami. Kuna said the incident was reported in the conservative daily “entekhab” as quoted by an unidentified legislator. Mr Alemi was protesting against Mr Reza Khatami’s recent appointment as director of the Majlis Research Centre, a powerful and influential political think tank. He pointed out that Mr Reza Khatami already held key posts, including
secertary generalship of the Islamic Iran Participation Front. According to Mr Alemi, the head of the research body must have at least 10 years academic
experience. |
Milosevic’s wife
in poll fray BELGRADE, Aug 25 (Reuters) — Mirjana
Markovic, the influential wife of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, is a candidate in next month’s election to the federal
Parliament. Markovic, leader of the neo-Communist Yugoslav Left (Jul) Party, heads a list of candidates from
Pozarevac, the couple’s home town in central Serbia. Jul and Milosevic’s Socialist Party have presented joint lists for the September 24 Parliament and presidential elections in
Yugoslavia. Milosevic is the two parties’ joint candidate for the post as President. Recent opinion polls suggest he is lagging behind Opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica a month before the elections. |
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Wahid cedes new
role to Megawati JAKARTA, Aug 25 (AFP) — indonesia’s beleaguered President ceded wide responsibilities to his deputy today after the two held peace talks to end a feud over the composition of a new Cabinet. Fears of a rift between President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri triggered a slide on nervous financial markets after the new 26-member line-up was announced on Wednesday. In a presidential decree, copies of which were released today, Mr Wahid gave Ms Megawati a formal role in formulating government policy and priorities. She will chair weekly Cabinet meetings, review the performance of ministers and set Cabinet agendas. She is authorised to appoint senior bureaucrats as well as top military and police officers with Mr Wahid’s approval, it said. |
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Iraqi missile
plant located BERLIN, Aug 25 (Reuters) — Germany’s BND secret service says that it had located a facility where Iraq is making ballistic missiles capable of carrying conventional explosives or chemical and biological weapons. “Our research shows that there is a factory there south-west of Baghdad,’’ a spokeswoman for the BND told newsmen today. The BND said that some 250 people were working at the Al Mamoun factory producing Ababil-100 short-range ballistic missiles. The rockets have a range of around 150 km or 95 miles, which means they do not violate UN restrictions imposed as part of the ceasefire that ended the Gulf War in 1991. “There is a real danger, that sooner or later Germany will be within range of these kind of weapons,’’ It was quoted saying in today’s Bild newspaper. |
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