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| Monday, September 18, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Masood group regains 10 hilltops ANP against mediation
on Kashmir US sub may have rammed into ‘Kursk’ Lanka army recaptures town near Jaffna |
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Blitz on Filipino rebels: 6 die India to support Israel in UN Order to disarm Suharto’s guards Russian jet lands at
Baghdad airport India asked to send
poll monitors London’s literary circles incestuous: Rushdie Gore-Bush debates from Oct 3 Kuwait warns Iraq Paula Yates
dead
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Peru’s iron man to quit after scam; opts out of poll LIMA, Sept 17 (DPA) — Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has announced he would resign from office and called for new elections following revelations of a bribery scandal involving one of his most trusted confidantes. He would not be a candidate in the elections, Mr Fujimori said late yesterday. Mr Fujimori’s resignation ends 10 years of iron rule that culminated this year in allegations of shady election practices and manipulated procedures for his reelection in May. Both the USA and neighbouring South American countries have been calling for a return of democratic principles to Peru. No date was set for the elections for Parliament and the presidency. Earlier yesterday, it was revealed that one of his closest supporters — the head of the secret police — was videotaped haggling with an opposition Member of Parliament about blackmail money. The official, Vladimiro Montesinos, was secretly filmed trying to lure the opposition activist into the government’s camp. Mr Fujimori said the secret police would be dissolved. In the capital city, opposition supporters cried “victory” and hooted their horns. The affair has further tainted the controversial Mr Fujimori, who has been under pressure from the United States and neighbouring states in South America for alleged manipulation of recent elections. He narrowly beat his opponent, Mr Alejandro Toledo. Since the election was so close in April, a run-off was held in May, but Mr Toledo withdrew because of continuing complaints about the impartiality of the election process. Mr Fujimori won a landslide victory in the run-off. Mr Fujimori’s unprecedented third term in office follows a decade of iron rule. Mr Toledo yesterday called for Mr Fujimori to resign and build an interim government. To protest yesterday’s revelations, the opposition party announced their withdrawal from discussions with the government over returning democratic rule to Peru. The Organisation of American States is overseeing the talks. Mr Montesinos offered himself up for questioning. But the main state prosecutor, Blanca Nelida Colan, is his close confidante and shut down a previous investigation into his alleged wrongdoings. Masood group regains 10 hilltops KABUL, Sept 17 (Reuters) — Afghan opposition forces today said they had seized 10 hilltops around the key northeastern town of Taloqan, which they lost to the ruling Taliban earlier this month. They said they were now in a position to threaten the town itself. In an early morning offensive, opposition fighters captured the hilltops that served as Taloqan’s security belt on its northern and eastern flanks, an opposition spokesman said. “We can now easily threaten and attack Taloqan if we can hold these positions”, Mohammad Habeel, spokesman for opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood, told Reuters by satellite telephone from the area. “The Taliban will be able to keep the town only if they take the hilltops back,” he said. There was no independent confirmation of Habeel’s report, which also said opposition fighters were positioned some 8 km from Taloqan and several Taliban attempts to recapture the hilltop posts had failed. The Taliban confirmed only an eruption of fresh fighting around Taloqan, a base whose loss on September 6 deprived Masood of his main route for fuel and military supplies from neighbouring Tajikistan. |
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US sub may have rammed into ‘Kursk’ MOSCOW, Sept 17 (AFP) — The Russian Defence Ministry said yesterday that the theory of a US submarine clashing with the ill-fated Kursk was strengthened by Washington’s refusal to allow a Russian inspection of two US submarines. US Defence Secretary William Cohen’s rejection of the request from his Russian counterpart Igor Sergeyev “only strengthened the case that the Kursk clashed with another underwater vessel,” the Defence Ministry told
Interfax. The US Toledo and Memophis and the British Splendid submarines were located in the Barents Sea at the time of the accident but have ruled out any collisions with their vessels. The US military, which believes the explosion originated inside the submarine, admitted that they had monitored the explosion and later provided Russia with a sonic report of the accident. However, Mr Cohen refused the inspection request explaining that “he did not think it was important or appropriate for the inspection to take place,” a Pentagon official told ITAR-TASS on condition of anonymity. “The Pentagon’s reply was predictable, though today’s level of relations between the two defence agencies led us to hope that Washington might have met us halfway,” an official told
Interfax. Russian investigations into two explosions which preceded the sinking of the Kursk during manoeuvres in the Barents Sea have suggested a number of possible scenarios. These include collision with another submarine or a world war two mine, an explosion on board or the impact from a missile fired from another vessel. A Russian mini-sub is to travel to the site of the accident next week and work to recover the bodies of the seamen is to start next month. A debate has been launched on whether to raise the submarine itself next year. Russian media drew attention after the disaster to the living conditions of impoverished families of submarine crews in a closed town near Murmansk. “First, we have to pay decent salaries instead of the miserable ones they get now,’’ Kursk regional Governor and former Russian Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi told
NTV. |
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Lanka army recaptures town near Jaffna COLOMBO, Sept 17 (PTI) — In a major turn around in balance of power in war-torn Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lankan army today recaptured Chavakachcheri town, located about 14 km south of Jaffna town, from the LTTE. Chavakachcheri, the lone urban centre held by the rebels in the northern peninsula, was captured after a three-hour operation in which four soldiers were killed and 46 others injured, an army release said here. It said as the operation was launched, troops noticed LTTE cadre deserting their bases, defence lines and fleeing to south. The fleeing rebels were engaged by artillery and ground attack aircraft. While one army officer and three soldiers were killed and three officers and 43 soldiers wounded in today’s offensive, The casualty figure on the rebel side could not be known. But the army said the LTTE suffered heavy casualties during the operations. Chavakachcheri would provide wider and broader depth to the defences of Jaffna town, which was precariously held by the troops after the rebels captured its
southern outskirts of Colombuthruai in their April-May offensive. In a series of operations during the past few weeks, army had pushed LTTE rebels from their defences at Colombuthurai and drove them towards Chavkachcheri. The capture of Chavkachcheri is of major military importance as over 145 troops were killed and another 900 injured in the
successive limited army operations since September three. The LTTE, according to the army, lost 392 of its men during the period. Today’s success would enable the army to recapture all important Elephant Pass garrison, located at the mouth of the peninsula, which had fallen to the LTTE in May this year. Army Spokesman Brig. Sanath Karunaratne said the town has a lot of strategic value as it provided access to rebels to three directions into the peninsula. Also it was located on the main highway connecting the peninsula to the main land, which would enable the army to attempt and move towards further south, he added. Russian jet lands at
Baghdad airport BAGHDAD, Sept 17 (AFP) — A Russian aircraft defying UN sanctions flew into Baghdad’s international airport today carrying senior oil executives. The Iraqi News Agency (INA) said 11 senior oil officials were aboard, led by the President of Russia’s Stroitransgaz company, Arngolt Bekker. “The flight shows that Russia rejects the air embargo imposed on Iraq without legal basis,” Bekker told INA. It was not clear if the plane had notified the UN Sanctions Committee about the flight. “The plane came directly from Moscow to Baghdad,” the agency added but gave no details about the type of aircraft or the airline. A Russian passenger jet became the first foreign flight to land at the airport two days after it was reopened on August 17, following a 10-year hiatus because of the embargo. It had brought an official delegation headed by Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Ruslan Tsalikov. Tsalikov said Moscow had “informed” the UN Sanctions Committee of the “flight, which has noble goals,” but that it had not “sought its
authorisation.” |
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Blitz on Filipino rebels: 6 die ZAMBOANGA (Philippines), Sept 17 (AFP) — Philippine soldiers killed six Muslim extremists and captured 20 others during an operation to rescue the group’s 22 remaining hostages, officials said today. They, however, stressed that none of the hostages had been injured during the operation against the Abu Sayyaf group on the southern island of Jolo. Ground commanders on the island told President Joseph Estrada that the operation, launched yesterday, would last up to a week. Estrada aides had expected the military blitz involving up to 4,000 soldiers to be over within a day or two. Defence Secretary Orlando Mercado said six Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed and 20 others captured, four of them with injuries, as they fled bombardment by government troops. Four government soldiers and a similar number of civilians were wounded in the fighting, which was reportedly outside the main population centres of Jolo, according to government accounts. Mr Mercado disputed newspaper reports that more than 200 civilians have been killed or wounded in the fighting. The government has sealed off the island, and imposed a media blackout preventing independent verification of reports. President Estrada, who flew to the southern city of Zamboanga this afternoon to confer with senior military officials in the south, directed the military to ensure safety of the hostages was given “paramount” importance. Armed forces chief of staff, Gen Angelo Reyes, told reporters after briefing Estrada that all the 22 remaining hostages were alive. Gen Reyes cited intelligence reports and the fact the fleeing extremists had not left behind any wounded or dead captives. “Reports about some of the hostages being dead or having been killed, in our assessment are rumours. We are exerting all efforts to have them verified and our efforts have shown us all these are false,” he said. None of the group’s captives — an American, two French journalists, three Malaysians and 16 Filipinos — have been rescued so far. The President told Brig Gen Narciso Abaya, the ground commander of the rescue operation, in a telephone conversation to specifically secure freedom of two French journalists among the hostages without putting their lives at risk. Worried about the safety of the pair, French President Jacques Chirac yesterday expressed his concern and disagreement to Estrada after the launch of the attack. An AFP reporter on the island said yesterday that a woman was killed and about a dozen other civilians were wounded by bullets or shell fragments in the initial military salvo. Eighteen other armed guerrillas were detained yesterday when they tried to flee Jolo by boat, Mr Mercado said. He said the government had yet to discuss a reported appeal by an Abu Sayyaf leader calling for a ceasefire so both sides could negotiate the release of the captives. ANP against mediation on Kashmir ISLAMABAD, Sept 17 (PTI) — Going against the country’s official line, Pakistan’s National Awami Party (ANP) today opposed third party mediation to resolve Kashmir issue and said Simla accord, ratified by Parliament, called for solving it through bilateral dialogue. “We believe it is in our best national interest to resolve our conflicts with neighbours peacefully through dialogue, and to have cordial ties with them, but their (military regime) view is different”, the ANP central president Asfandyar Wali Khan said in an apparent reference to military rulers’ advocacy of third party mediation for resolving the Kashmir issue. No political issue has ever been resolved militarily, he said, and asserted that the Kashmir issue was political in nature, Mr Khan said in an interview with local news agency NNI. During his address to the UN Millennium Summit on September 6, General Pervez Musharraf had sought the intervention of UN Security Council for resolution of the Kashmir issue. When his attention was drawn to the refusal of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from talks in the face of repeated invitations from Gen Musharraf, he said he urged Indian as well as Pakistani government to turn to dialogue.
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India to support Israel in UN JERUSALEM, Sept 17 (PTI) — India has described the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon as a brave and responsible step towards application of UN resolutions and pledged that New Delhi will make a new analysis of its voting pattern in the international fora, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. This was conveyed by Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to his Israeli counterpart Shlomo Ben Ami during a meeting between the two leaders at the United Nations earlier this week, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told PTI here. Mr Ben Ami said that during the
meeting the Indian Foreign Minister expressed “a deep understanding of the Israeli positions in the matter of Jerusalem and Palestinians, and a promise that good relations that exist between the two countries would now also be expressed in international forums,” Ma’ariv reported. During their meeting, Mr Ben Ami updated Mr Singh with the Israeli position and the developments in the peace process. Describing India as one of the most important players emerging in the international community, the official said given its historical ties with the Arab world and support of Palestinian cause, New Delhi could influence the Palestinians that any unilateral action would not serve the cause of peace process and that negotiations should go on unless a final settlement is agreed upon. The Palestinian Information Ministry said he hoped that New Delhi would use its influence over Tel Aviv to further the Palestinian cause. The official said strong Indo-Palestinian ties should also be translated into economic and cultural relations. |
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Order to disarm Suharto’s guards JAKARTA, Sept 17 (AP) — President Abdurrahman Wahid today instructed security forces to disarm ex-dictator Suharto’s bodyguards. “I ask the (national intelligence service), the military commander as well as police chief to disarm those non-military guards who are guarding the residence of Suharto,” said President Wahid, as cited by the official Antara news agency. Ever since his 32-year regime ended in 1998 amid massive pro-democracy protests, Suharto has lived quietly in a suburb of central Jakarta. The Suharto family compound, which has been a frequent target of violent student protesters, is believed to be defended by dozens of armed private guards. Wahid’s move raises the stakes in his confrontation with the former dictator, whose trial on charges of corruption and abuse of power opened two weeks ago. President Wahid and other officials of his reformist government have accused Suharto loyalists of being behind a string of unexplained bombings and other violent incidents that coincided with key moments in the case. Two days ago Wahid had urged the police to move against Suharto’s youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, widely known as Tommy, saying his arrest would prevent further terrorist attacks. Tommy was questioned yesterday, but the police said it had no evidence to detain him. Dili (East Timor):
Australian peacekeepers in East Timor exchanged gunfire with pro-Jakarta militia infiltrators near the border with Indonesian West Timor, a UN Military official today said. An Australian army spokesman in the southwest town of Suat said the clash occurred yesterday afternoon near Marko, 15 km north of Maliana, after an Australian patrol sighted several armed militiamen. |
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India asked to send
poll monitors BELGRADE, Sept 17 (PTI) — India is among the countries invited to send poll monitors by the Yugoslav Government to oversee crucial presidential and parliamentary elections that would decide the fate of President Slobodan Milosevic. Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic said only “friendly” countries that opposed “nato’s aggression and war in Yugoslavia” last year would be involved in the September 24 polls. “Observers will be invited from those parliaments in countries that condemned the aggression,” he said, adding that monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were not welcome since they “prepared the ground for
NATO aggression.” Russia, China and Mexico are other countries asked to send MPs and Election Commission officials. According to present indications about 100 poll monitors from about 40 countries will ensure a fair poll. |
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London’s literary circles incestuous: Rushdie LONDON, Sept 17 (PTI) — India-born writer Salman Rushdie has described London’s literary circles as “incestuous” and the city as “uninspiring”. Rushdie (53) who moved to the New York home of his girl friend, a model and now TV host, Padma Lakshmi, said he left London, his home since childhood, because he thought it was “bitchy and uninspiring,” The Observer newspaper reported today. He left his third wife Elizabeth and his two sons, aged four and 21, in the UK. Rushdie made the remarks against London and its literary circles in an interview published in New York Times daily, said The Observer. Rushdie, who faced an Islamic death threat over his controversial book The Satanic Verses, “talks with relish of his new life in
Manhattan”. He moved to New York earlier this year and has been given celebrity status there. “I think it speaks for itself that, for somebody who lived in England for as long as I did, relatively little of my work has dealt with it,” Rushdie said. But he praised New York’s “famous electricity” and said the city held more promise. Reaction over Rushdie’s remarks in Britain was sceptical. Critics said his ego had been deflated by the poor sales of his latest book. The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which received better reviews in the USA than in the UK. |
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Gore-Bush debates from Oct 3 WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) — Representatives for US Presidential candidates Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush yesterday agreed to three distinct formats for their upcoming debates, with the same moderator presiding over each face-off. In the first debate, to be held on October 3 at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, the candidates will stand at podiums in the conventional style, the Bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement. The moderator for this and the other two presidential debates will be public television’s Jim Lehrer, anchor of PBS’s “Newshour with Jim Lehrer” show. But in a break with tradition, in the Oct. 11 and Oct. 17 sessions, Mr Gore and Mr Bush will be seated at a table with Mr Lehrer in talk-show style. In the final debate, the format will be a town hall, with the audience allowed to ask the candidates questions, the commission said. Each debate will be 90 minutes long, and each will start at 9 P.M. Eastern time. |
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Kuwait warns Iraq KUWAIT CITY, Sept 17 (AFP) — Kuwait’s Defence Minister Sheikh Salem al-Sabah warned that Iraqi leaders will pay a “heavy price” if they commit a “military folly” against the Emirate, media quoted him today. “The Iraqi leadership will pay a heavy price this time if it commits a military folly against Kuwait,” Salem told Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. “Conditions now are radically different from 1990. We have taken all precautions against any attempt of treachery. Believers are not bitten twice from the same (snake’s) hole,” said Salem, quoting a proverb. Paula Yates
dead LONDON, Sept 17 (AFP) — British television personality Paula Yates, the ex-wife of Sir Bob Geldof and former lover of Australian pop star Michael Hutchence, has been found dead in suspicious circumstances at her London home, the police said today. Yates, 40, was found dead by an ambulance crew at her house in the fashionable west London area of Notting Hill at 3 p.m. IST. The police said it was treating the death as suspicious and a post-mortem examination had been ordered. Yates had been plagued by depression for which she has sought treatment on a number of occasions. The British press reported she had tried to hang herself in 1998 but a friend found her in time. |
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