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| Tuesday, August 29, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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TV tower blaze still rages Terms named for UK troops’ release USA grounds 3 kinds of aircraft Indian on ‘America’s Most Wanted’ South African hostage freed |
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| Suu Kyi in car for fifth day YANGON, Aug 28 — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi began a fifth cramped and uncomfortable day in her car, south of Yangon today in a roadside test of wills with Myanmar’s military rulers. Wahid’s loan scandals to be probed Togo PM resigns Taiwan party forms provisional republic govt Hizb threat to extend stir Riots in Australian refugee camp Film on Diana ‘sickens’ William
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TV tower blaze still rages MOSCOW, Aug 28 (Reuters, AFP, DPA) — Russian firefighters succeeded today in stopping flames spreading to the lower floors of the Ostankino television tower after a blaze raged for more than 14 hours, Moscow Echo radio reported. Rescue services said four people, three firemen and a lift operator, were missing, stuck in a lift and with their oxygen supplies probably exhausted. Some 250 firefighters with 40 fire engines and a helicopter were deployed around Ostankino, an instantly recognizable feature in today’s skyline, some 15 kilometres from the city centre. At 0700 IST, fire continued to ravage the telecommunications tower between the heights of 144 metres and 330 metres, Interfax news agency said, adding a thick pall of smoke rose above it. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin today said only an improved economy can help avoid future accidents like the one that struck Russia’s main television tower Ostankino from happening again. “This new emergency situation shows what state our most vital objects, and the country as a whole, is in,” Interfax quoted Mr Putin as saying. “We cannot fail to see behind this accident a broader problem, we cannot forget about the economy,” said Mr Putin. Firefighters had to manhandle the extinguishers through the narrow stairways to reach the flames, which broke out following short-circuiting, then spread downwards. Moscow’s Chief Firefighting Coordinator, Mr Leonid Kortshuk, said conditions were extremely difficult for his men. At one point a lift went crashing to the bottom of a shaft and two more got stuck — one trapping four people, the other trapping seven. While the seven were later freed, rescue efforts were continuing to locate and release the four. Another fire, meanwhile broke out in the tower’s lower reaches where the third lift crashed. That was tackled with water. All radio and television stations except the state RTR TV Channel and the semi-state ORT television went off the air. Mr Viktor Luschayev, deputy head of Moscow’s rescue service, told NTV Television there was no way of reaching those trapped in the building. “It’s impossible to get up there now. The temperature is very high, it has deformed the staircases,” he said. “The information on the people (in the lift) is contradictory.” “Witnesses said they saw four people — three firemen and a lift operator... I can only confirm there are two people there, a fireman and the girl operating the lift,” he added. The fire brigade earlier spoke of four people trapped. “We have never seen anything like this,” said Mr Mikhail Serikov, the head of one team of firefighters. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.” Three national television stations which use the tower as a relay station were forced off the air when the fire broke out yesterday. Transmissions to the regions were resumed by satellite later, but the majority of Moscow’s 10 million viewers who do not have cable woke up today to see white snow on their screens. Fire brigade spokesman Yevgeny Cherneshyov said firefighters were cutting burning cables, leading up and down internal shafts, in an effort to stop the flames spreading further. The police said the flames seen dramatically leaping into the night sky were from a fresh blaze at a height of around 260 metres. The fire, which broke out at 450 metres near the top of the world’s second-biggest such structure, had meanwhile eaten down into the tower to an altitude of 280 metres as fire crews desperately battled the flames with chemicals from extinguishers. |
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Terms named for UK troops’ release A
renegade West African militia demanded the release from prison of one of their leaders yesterday as the price for freeing 11 British soldiers and one Sierra Leonean being held hostage. The militia, known as the “West Side Boys,” set out their conditions in face-to-face talks with a team from the British Army and the Sierra Leone Government at a secret location near the capital, Freetown. The 11 soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment, members of a 90-strong contingent training and advising the Sierra Leone Army, disappeared on Friday afternoon, along with a colleague from the Sierra Leone Army, near Masiaka, about 60 miles east of Freetown. The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that they were being held hostage by the West Side militia, an ill-disciplined gang that was once part of the Sierra Leone army. He said the prisoner was known variously as Bomb Blast or General Papa. The militia members have also asked for food and medicine. The MoD insisted that it would not negotiate with “terrorists”. If the soldiers had been captured by the Revolutionary United Front there would have been serious concern for their safety. But the British government was hopeful that the “West Side Boys” would prove amenable to finding a peaceful solution. The 12 were captured on their way back from talks with the Jordanian contingent of the UN peacekeeping force. The area where they were taken, though a stronghold of the “West Side Boys”, had been classified as safe. — The Guardian, London |
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USA grounds 3 kinds of aircraft WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) — The US Marine Corps announced it had halted flights of three different types of aircraft, including its vaunted new MV-22 tilt-rotor troop helicopters, for safety inspections due to unrelated problems in each type. The corps said in a release that flights of all of its 11 current MV-22s, which take off and land like a helicopter but fly like a regular aircraft, had been suspended along with operations of its AH-1w “Cobra” attack helicopters and Big CH-53 transport helicopters. The extremely-unusual precautionary halt to flights by three different aircraft types was ordered late on Friday, the Marine Corps said. Big money is at stake in the future of the MV-22, made jointly by Boeing Co. and the Bell Helicopter unit of Textron Inc. An initial full-scale production decision is currently planned for later this year and the marine corps plans to eventually buy 360 MV-22s at a cost of about 44 million each. Cobras are made by Bell Textron and CH-53s by the Sikorsky Aircraft division of United Technologies Corp. The Marine Corps said flights of the MV-22 were suspended after one of the 11, which completed operational trials in July, made a precautionary landing on Thursday at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The decision to suspend operations of all 165 CH-53s, built to carry troops and heavy cargo, was based on preliminary findings of the crash of a navy MH-53e mine-sweeping helicopter off the coast of Corpus Christi, Texas, on Aug 10, the release said. Officials suspended AH-1w Cobra flight operations after it was discovered last week that some older rotor blades on the choppers might be susceptible to cracking. |
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Indian on ‘America’s Most Wanted’ An Indo-Canadian has earned the dubious distinction of being featured on ‘America’s Most Wanted’, a popular TV programme that reenacts unsolved crimes. The show is broadcast across North America. For 20 months now, Ninderjit Singh has been on the run, hiding from police who suspect that he is involved in the killing of an Indo-Canadian high school student in Vancouver, the California newspaper India-West reported. Twentyone-year-old Ninderjit, who also goes by the names Bira Singh and Ninderjit Soos, is wanted in connection with the slaying of 18-year-old Poonam Kaur Randhawa in January last year. The police believe he might be holed up somewhere in the Van Nuys area in southern California where he has a number of relatives. They said he fled Vancouver immediately after Poonam was shot, boarding a flight for Los Angeles. Ninderjit Singh, a construction worker, was romantically involved for some time with Poonam. He allegedly began stalking the girl when she tried breaking off the relationship. Poonam’s friends told the police after the killing that Ninderjit had been stalking her for two years. On the afternoon of January 26 last year, she was picked up by two men driving a red car and her body was found by a passerby within an hour in the same area. Her body was found among pieces of broken glass that looked like it had come from an automobile, the police said. — IANS |
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South African hostage freed JOLO (Philippines), Aug 28 (DPA) — The remaining South African hostage held for more than four months on a southern Philippine island was freed today by Islamic extremists in time to catch a plane out of the country with his wife and four other captives released ahead of him. Carel Strydom, a 36-year-old accountant, was released to a government emissary a day after his wife and four other hostages were freed by Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo island, Sulu province, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila. “I was very sad to leave the other hostages,” a heavily-bearded Strydom told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). “I am really overwhelmed with joy. I am excited to see my wife now.” Strydom would be flown aboard a citation jet out of Jolo to nearby Zamboanga city, where chief government negotiator Roberto Aventajado was waiting for him. Sources said a total of $ 5 million was paid to the rebels yesterday. Manila and Tripoli, which played a key role in efforts to end the 128-day hostage crisis, have denied any ransom payments. |
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Suu Kyi in car for fifth day YANGON, Aug 28 (Reuters) — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi began a fifth cramped and uncomfortable day in her car, south of Yangon today in a roadside test of wills with Myanmar’s military rulers. The 55-year-old Nobel laureate and more than 12 members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) were halted by the police on Thursday as they headed south of the capital in two vehicles. The journalists who tried to go to the scene of the stand-off were turned back by the security authorities at the jetty. The government insisted that Ms Suu Kyi was being provided with ample food and water, contrary to reports from some NLD members who said she was running short of supplies. |
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Wahid’s loan
scandals to be probed JAKARTA, Aug 28 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s disgruntled Parliament agreed today to launch probes into two loan scandals linked to President Abdurrahman Wahid a move likely to reignite political tension in the country. A majority of Parliament’s 500 members voted for the motion to launch the probes. The first scandal linked to the palace involves a theft of $ 4.1 million from the national food agency, Bulog, by persons claiming to be acting on Mr Wahid’s behalf. The other corcerns Mr Wahid’s acceptance of a $2 million personal donation from the Sultan of Brunei for humanitarian aid in Aceh province. Parliamentarians have been critical of Mr Wahid over his new Cabinet announced last week, accusing the Muslim cleric of intentionally marginalising the two biggest parties in the House and jeopardising relations with his powerful deputy. Lawmakers have still to decide whether to set up special committee to investigate the two affairs. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the largest party in Parliament, played down the threat the scandals pose to President Wahid. “To end the blasphemy against the President, we agree to launch an investigation,” said PDI-P leader Heri Achmadi. While most parliamentarians said the probe was not meant to attack the President, both scandals posed a threat to his ten-month-old administration. Under Indonesian law, if Parliament is able to prove Wahid acted illegally, it can call a special session of the nation’s highest legislative body to begin impeachment proceedings. |
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Togo PM
resigns LOME, Aug 28 (Reuters) — Togo’s Prime Minister Eugene Koffi Adoboli has resigned after a censure motion was passed against his government by the National Assembly last week. Government spokesman Koffi Panou said in a statement read on state radio late yesterday that Mr Adoboli had tendered his resignation yesterday to President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had accepted it, asking his government to complete all current business. The National Assembly censured Mr Adoboli on Thursday, disappointed by his government’s performance since he was appointed 15 months ago. The censure vote meant he was obliged to tender his resignation under the Constitution. Mr Eyadema will now name a new Prime Minister, who will form a
government. |
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Taiwan party
forms provisional republic govt TAIPEI, Aug 28 (DPA) — A small Taiwan political party, risking the fury of China, formed a provisional “Taiwan republic government” today and immediately applied to join the United Nations. Some 50 members of the Taiwan Independence Party (TAIP) attended the ceremony marking the launching of the provisional “Taiwan republic government” in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. The Taiwan Government did not immediately react to the move because the TAIP, which has only 2,000 members, has little political influence in Taiwan. |
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Hizb threat to extend stir ISLAMABAD, Aug 28 (PTI) — Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit today threatened to extend its armed stir to other parts of India till New Delhi agreed to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through tripartite talks involving Islamabad. “Hizb will continue its armed struggle against India and extend it to other parts of the country” till it agreed to involve Pakistan in the talks to resolve the Kashmir issue, the outfit said in a statement after a meeting of its central command council in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with its supreme commander Syed Salahuddin in the chair. The outfit also warned “those busy in sabotaging the freedom movement” against doing so. It said the Hizb would fully encounter the Indian government “campaign to harm popularity and organisational unity of the organisation. Besides military front, the Hizb would expedite its activities on diplomatic and political front as well”. |
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Riots in Australian
refugee camp ADELAIDE, Aug 28 (Reuters) — Police fired water cannon at up to 100 rioting Afghani and Iraqi asylum seekers today after days of unrest at Australia’s largest detention centre in the remote outback town of
Woomera. |
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Film on Diana ‘sickens’ William LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) Britain’s Prince William is sickened by a planned film about his late mother Princess Diana, featuring words she used to describe the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles, The Times reported today. The newspaper quoted unnamed friends of William as saying that he was sickened by plans by producers of “The Biographer” to have an actress read emotional passages from tapes his mother made for author Andrew Morton. Morton refused permission for the producers to use the actual tapes featuring Princess Diana’s voice, The Times said. The Princess secretly supplied several tapes for Morton as the basis for his book, “Diana, Her True Story’’, which detailed her unhappy marriage to heir-to-the-throne Charles and his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. |
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