 |
| Tuesday, September 12, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
Involve Pak in talks on Kashmir: China BEIJING, Sept 11 — While ruling out a role for itself as a mediator, China hopes that India could also involve Pakistan as well as the international community to peacefully resolve the Kashmir issue. Offensive to secure Jaffna: toll 119 Astronauts walk in space
|
|
| Democrats’ win hollow
in Hong Kong poll HONG KONG, Sept 11 — The democrats have won the largest number of directly elected seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election, but their victory was blunted by a poor turnout and growing voter disillusionment, officials said today. Gunmen raid isle: 3 Malaysians missing ‘We have given peace a chance’ Whites to be minority in UK |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Suu Kyi ‘internal traitor’ YANGON, Sept 11 — Myanmar stepped up its litany against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the USA today, saying “internal traitors” are collaborating with a new breed of colonisers to destabilise the country. 
|
|
Involve Pak in talks on Kashmir: China BEIJING, Sept 11 (PTI) — While ruling out a role for itself as a mediator, China hopes that India could also involve Pakistan as well as the international community to peacefully resolve the Kashmir issue. “The Pakistani side has already said that they are willing to talk about any issue. May be, the Indian side could also include the Pakistani side in the talks,” Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wang Yi said while commenting on the recent talks between India and the Hizbul Mujahideen which excluded Pakistan. Expounding China’s stand on the Kashmir issue, Wang noted that the Kashmir issue has long stalemated. “So, I think the only way out is the peaceful settlement with help from the international community,” he said, indicating a possible change in Beijing’s stand. India has ruled out third party involvement in the resolution of the issue. China’s official media has come out with a series of articles recently, saying that the Kashmir issue involves three parties: India, the Kashmiri people and Pakistan. “What is more important right now is that the two sides should find a way to work it out. As a neighbour to India and Pakistan, China will only make positive efforts to help you and not to the contrary,” Wang said. “As neighbour to both India and Pakistan, China’s position is very clear: we wish the two sides could sit down and talk so that this issue could be worked out through peaceful means,” Wang said. “China does not wish to be the mediator between the two countries, nor I think does India wish to have any third party to get involved as a mediator,” he said. “But we do wish to see that you two sides could sit down and have talks. I believe the peaceful settlement of this issue will not only reduce tension there which will do good not only to the two countries, but also to the development of South Asia,” he said. Commenting on China’s stand on terrorism, Wang said that as a principle, the Chinese side stands firmly against any form of international terrorism. He also acknowledged that the security of China is also under threat from ‘three forces’ — religious extremist, ethnic separatist and international terrorism. Wang pointed out to China’s efforts to combat international terrorism through the ‘Shanghai five’ grouping which includes China, Russia and three other central Asian nations. “One of the important components is to find a way that the five countries could join hands to cope with the ‘three forces.’ We are also working with the international community to fight international terrorism,” he said. Referring to the international convention against terrorism drafted by India, Wang said China was willing to participate in discussions on the draft. “From our principle, standing against international terrorism, we are willing to participate in discussions on the draft. We hope that consensus could be reached among all the parties through negotiations and consultations,” the Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister said. At the same time, he said that while fighting against international terrorism, some basic principles governing international relations should be adhered to such as the non-interference in each others’ internal affairs and respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Regarding the inclusion of terrorism as a subject to be discussed by the two sides during a planned bilateral security dialogue, Wang said China was open to new additions. |
|
Offensive to secure Jaffna: toll 119 COLOMBO, Sept 11 (UNI) — As many as 119 people, including 29 security personnel, were killed and a large number were injured in yet another offensive by Sri Lankan troops aimed to ensure the safety of Jaffna town before the next parliamentary elections. A military spokesman, Brig S.G. Karunaratne, said the operation began at 6.15 a.m. yesterday and completed by 10 a.m. during which approximately 3 sq. km area was brought under the new defence line closer to Navathkul, near Jaffna. He said 17 soldiers were killed and 58 army men, including four officers, were injured in Jaffna while 12 more security personnel were killed in eastern Trincomalee and Batticaloa in different encounters. The LTTE suffered heavy casualties and the ground troops estimate the figure to be more than 90 with a large number of injured. At least 15 terrorists were killed in separate encounters in eastern districts, he added. He stated the artillery and air force had effectively neutralised LTTE mortar and gun positions. The air force engaged targets and destroyed four enemy boats in a close proximity to Arivali East. The navy also effectively prevented Sea Tiger reinforcements via the Jaffna lagoon. He said yesterday’s operation was aimed at expansion of security control in Colombuthurai, parts of which were seized during “Operation Rivikirana’’ launched earlier this month. The spokesman said troops killed 23 rebels trapped in the newly-captured area yesterday. Besides, ground troops said another 25 Tamil Tigers were killed in clashes, taking the LTTE death toll to an estimated 75. Twelve soldiers were killed and 62 others injured during the operation, he said. Sri Lanka’s army last week had lost more than 150 soldiers while the LTTE suffered 200 fatalities. More than 1000 people were injured on both sides. |
|
Astronauts walk in space CAPE CANAVERAL, Sept 11 (AP) — an American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut floated out of space shuttle Atlantis early today and lugged cables up the side of the towering international space station. Edward Lu and Yuri Malenchenko paired up for the gruelling climb, to lay cable and install a boom for a navigation unit on the 42-metre station. They carried the bundled cables on their backs, along with the boom and all their tools. The spacewalkers planned to venture 33 metres from Atlantis’ cargo bay, where the space station had been anchored for the past one day. That’s more than twice as far as the top of the Hubble Space Telescope, where other astronauts have worked. The spacewalk official inside Mission Control, Mike Hess, said it would be like working on the 11th storey of a 13-storey building. The spacewalkers were to be tethered to the structure the whole time, with mini jetpacks on their suits for added safety. Atlantis linked up with the station as the spacecraft soared nearly 370 km above Kazakstan yesterday, ending a two-day chase complicated slightly by a failed navigation device aboard the shuttle. “It was really great to see that the station has changed since the last time we were there in May,” said flight director Mark Ferring. He was referring to the July arrival of the long-delayed Russian control module Zvezda. “The assembly is starting to pick up speed, and it’s very exciting for us to see,” he added. The crew was unable to get an air sample from the station because of bad equipment. But
NASA said that would not prevent the seven astronauts and cosmonauts from entering the complex as planned on Tuesday to deliver thousands of kilograms of supplies for the first residents, due in November. Another surprise was a jammed panel on one of Zvezda’s
solar wings. The panel did not unfold following launch of the module, and Mission Control had the astronauts survey it from inside with camera. Spacewalkers may be asked to fix it on a future mission. For this morning’s outing, Lu and Malenchenko got a lift some 12 metres up the space station, via the shuttle robot arm. Then they were on their own, ascending hand over hand like rock climbers. The hike up Mount Space Station was slow going and filled with obstacles: jutting antennas and docking targets. The two men needed to scale Zvezda in order to erect a 1.95-metre boom for a compass. By measuring Earth’s magnetic field, the compass, called a magnetometer, enables the space station to know which way it is pointed. Russia installed the magnetometer too close to Zvezda’s metal hull. As a result, its measurements are inaccurate.
NASA had asked from the start that the magnetometer be equipped with a pop-out pole, but the Russian space program declined because of a lack of money, Hess said. The spacewalkers also had to string nine power, data and television cables between Zvezda and the Russian module Zarya. |
|
Democrats’ win hollow in Hong Kong poll HONG KONG, Sept 11 (DPA) — The democrats have won the largest number of directly elected seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election, but their victory was blunted by a poor turnout and growing voter disillusionment, officials said today. The territory’s Democratic Party won nine of the 24 directly elected seats while their main rivals, the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, won seven. But only 43 per cent of the 3.09 million eligible voters bothered to vote yesterday in the second legislature election since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997, 10 per cent fewer voters than in the 1998 poll. Despite winning the largest number of directly elected seats, the Democratic Party will wield little power as a further 30 seats are chosen by select business interest groups and another six by a pro-Beijing election committee. The split voting system gives the Democratic Party a total of 12 of the 60 seats in the legislature while the Democratic Alliance has 11 and the pro-business Liberal Party eight. The low turnout — which even chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa admitted was disappointing — followed a series of political scandals and mounting public frustration at the perceived “toothless” nature of the legislature. The most colourful moment in the vote-counting came when a long-haired political agitator, who only four months ago was jailed for disrupting legislature proceedings, succeeded in garnering more than 18,000 votes. Elsewhere, a democratic alliance candidate embroiled in a political storm after admitting leaking confidential documents obtained in his role as a legislator to clients of his public relations firm, still managed to win a seat by winning more than 60,000 votes. Hong Kong is ruled by an executive administration headed by Beijing-appointed Tung and the credibility of the legislature — whose numbers are rigged in favour of pro-China interests and whose views are often overruled by the government — has slipped steadily over the past two years. Political commentator Michael Degolyer commented after today’s count that the voter apathy reflected the need for a stronger political framework for the territory. “This gives a lot of weight to the arguments that people want the Legislative Council to work and not to be a watchdog that barks all the time and does nothing more,” he said. The popularity of Tung, who is expected to stand for a second term as chief executive in 2002, has dipped in recent months amid discontent over his autocratic style and allegations of cronyism. |
|
Gunmen raid isle: 3 Malaysians missing KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 (AP) — The Malaysian police searched today for three persons who may have been kidnapped by four gunmen who stormed an island resort in Borneo, robbed it and fled in a speedboat towards the southern Philippines, authorities said. The attack occurred on Pandanan island last night. The police was trying to determine if the unidentified gunmen had captured the Malaysians, Mr Sulaiman Junaidi, police chief in Semporna town, told AP in a telephone interview. Pandanan is a half-an-hour boat ride from Sipadan island where Abu Sayyaf, separatist rebels in the neighboring Philippines, had kidnapped 21 persons, including foreign tourists, four months ago and took them to Jolo island in the southern Philippines. Nearly all hostages have since been freed, but authorities feared that Abu Sayyaf rebels, who had received millions of dollars from hostage negotiators, might return to Malaysian waters. Authorities in Semporna, the coastal fishing town 23 km from Pandanan, said today that the missing Malaysians could have gone into hiding in a nearby forest when the attack occurred. There were no guests present at the resort during the assault, Mr Sulaiman said. The Malaysian authorities have pledged to beef up security in the waters surrounding Sipadan, but warned that intruders who are familiar with the territory could easily get away. During the attack at Pasir Dive resort on Pandanan, at least four men armed with M-16 rifles took the local staff by surprise and fired shots in the air. The gunmen held up the staff for about 10 minutes, The Star newspaper said in its online edition. |
|
‘We have given peace a chance’ JERUSALEM, Sept 11 (Reuters) — A Palestinian decision to delay declaring an independent state for at least two months has kept alive prospects of further peace talks with Israel. But nationalist pressures on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s domestic political woes and an approaching US presidential election means the shutters might slam shut soon on any window of opportunity. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said on Sunday that peace talks were now expected to resume with Israel on Tuesday and should last four to five weeks. There was no official Israeli word on negotiations. “We have decided to give peace a chance,” said Sakher Habash, a member of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) that decided at the end of a two-day session in Gaza to postpone an independence declaration at least until November 15. Israel welcomed the delay, attributing the decision to world pressure on Mr Arafat not to make a unilateral move that would draw
Israeli countermeasures and possibly lead to an eruption of violence. Mr Barak, due back in Israel on Monday from New York where US President Bill Clinton held separate, inconclusive talks with the Israeli leader and Mr Arafat, sounded downbeat about prospects for a final peace agreement. “It takes two to Tango,” he told US Jewish leaders in New York. “If there is no ripe partner on the other side, we will know it as well and we will know how to deploy ourselves for the alternatives.” Israeli and Palestinian officials also have voiced doubts about prospects for negotiating an agreement as the November US presidential elections draw nearer and Mr Clinton fades further from the political limelight. In Damascus, two radical Palestinian groups — The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — criticised the delay in announcing statehood. “Israel wants the establishment of an unarmed Palestinian state which is deprived of the right to sign any defensive deals with any of its Arab neighbouring countries in addition to the cancellation of Palestinian refugees’ rights to return to their homes,”
DFLP leader Nayef Hawatmeh said. |
|
Whites to be minority in UK LONDON, Sept 11 (DPA) — Whites will be an ethnic minority in Britain by the end of the century, analysis of official figures indicate on the basis of current fertility rates and levels of immigration, The Observer newspaper has reported. It would be the first time in history that a major indigenous population has voluntarily become a minority, rather than through war, famine or disease, the newspaper said yesterday. Whites will be a minority in London by 2010. In the early 1950s there were only a few tens of thousands of non-whites in Britain. By 1991 that had risen to 3 million — 6 per cent of the population. The population of ethnic minorities has been growing at between 2 and 4 per cent a year. NET immigration has been running at record levels, with 185,000 newcomers last year. New immigrants, who are on average younger than the population at large, have higher fertility rates, while the population of White British citizens is static. Their fertility rate is very low — at under 2 children per woman — and there is overall emigration of British citizens. |
|
Suu Kyi ‘internal traitor’ YANGON, Sept 11 (AP) —Myanmar stepped up its litany against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the USA today, saying “internal traitors” are collaborating with a new breed of colonisers to destabilise the country. The harsh attack was contained in an article, the latest in a series published in official newspapers since Suu Kyi openly confronted Myanmar’s military rulers last month in an effort to assert her political rights. “A country that failed to pay millions of its due to the United Nations continues to interfere in the affairs of the countries that (it does) not favour,” said the article. |
‘Cats’ closes after
18 years 16 killed in Java
train collision 54 postal staff
hospitalised Mudslide kills 10 in Italy Pope still wants
to visit Iraq Chileans gun
for Pinochet Quakes jolt
Japan island Car carrying drugs detained
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
