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September 23, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Gore, Bush clash over oil prices WASHINGTON, Sept 22 — with high gas prices fuelling us voter unrest, vice- president al gore has urged president bill Clinton to tap into the nation’s emergency oil stocks to reduce costs at the pump and forestall a spike in heating oil expense with the onset of winter. Lanka army recaptures vast territory Window on Pakistan Residents flee Jolo after assault |
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Taliban capture another town Real IRA behind MI-6 attack? Arafat's yes to trade land with Israel Indonesia’s police chief shown the door Chhota Rajan
moved to undisclosed place NASA abandons
Pluto mission Iraq scores points in Security Council
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Gore, Bush clash over oil prices WASHINGTON, Sept 22
(AFP)— With high gas prices fuelling us voter unrest, vice- president al gore has urged president bill
Clinton to tap into the nation’s emergency oil stocks to reduce costs at the pump and forestall a spike in heating oil expense with the onset of winter. “In the face of rising prices for gasoline and home heating oil,
I support oil releases from our national strategic petroleum reserve,” or
SPR, which held some 570 million barrels of crude, he said yesterday. Meanwhile, us energy secretary bill
Richardson told lawmakers that Mr Clinton’s decision on whether to draw down the
SPR - for the only time apart from the 1991 gulf war - was “imminent,” but stressed that he “may decide not to.” Mr Gore’s republican rival,
Texas governor George w. Bush assailed the move, saying that the SPR
“should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security,” as his campaign warned doing so might make
Washington vulnerable to a supply cut by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. |
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Lanka army recaptures vast territory COLOMBO, Sept 22 (PTI) — After a five-month-long hold on the northern Jaffna, the 40,000-strong Sri Lankan army, which was on the verge of collapse in April this year in the face of LTTE’s counter-offensive, has finally turned the tables on the rebels by recapturing a vast territory, including the peninsula’s second biggest town, Chavakachcheri. By recapturing Chavakachcheri, an entry point to the densely populated Jaffna and surrounding small towns, the army made the airport and the harbour operational and provided a safe 15 km of buffer zone to defend Jaffna town. Brig. Karunaratne said the LTTE had now withdrawn about 15 km south of Chavakachcheri in order to defend the Elephant Pass area, a narrow mass of land connecting the main land with the peninsula. And, with elections around the corner, the government expected the army to recapture Elephant Pass. The Army’s confidence was reflected by the fact that this week it took a group of journalists to Palaly military airbase near Jaffna, which was virtually shut down in May this year due to heavy artillery fire from the LTTE from Chavakachcheri and Colombuthurai, the southern suburbs of Jaffna. “The airfield is much more secure as the LTTE has been pushed out of Chavakchcheri, making it more difficult for them to direct their artillery fire on runway,” army spokesman Brig Sanath Karunaratne said. Even the Kankesanthurai harbour, which was shut down due to heavy artillery fire from the LTTE, was now bustling with activity, with ships unloading the supplies to army and to over four lakh civilian population, he said. The fall of Jaffna appeared to be a foregone conclusion after the rebels managed to capture the southern fringes of Jaffna town. But a blunt message by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to the troops that she had no plans to withdraw the army left them with no option but to fight back. Chandrika followed her stern warning with important changes in the northern command by bringing in senior generals to head the beleaguered troops. However, a major offensive by the army on September 3 to push the rebels ahead of Colombuthurai defences of the LTTE proved to be a major disaster, with army loosing over 150 men. The rebels too suffered by loosing over 200 cadre. But within a few days, the LTTE resolve to hold on collapsed due to heavy ground and aerial bombardment from the army. The army soon captured Colombuthrai and
continued its advance on Chavakachcheri. The LTTE made two desperate attempts to recapture the town last week but of no avail. |
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Window on Pakistan Poverty in Pakistan is showing no sign of a decline. The high-sounding promises made by the military ruler have so far proved to be a rhetoric. His much-publicised schemes to stoke an economic revival have failed to produce the desired results. Job avenues are shrinking and prices are continuing to move upwards. Yet improving the economic profile of the country is not the first priority of the government. Its primary concern remains Kashmir, as reflected in the reports and commentaries carried in newspapers. It is, therefore, not surprising if it promotes the jehadi culture being sustained by drug money and foreign donations. But is this how a modern state is run? According to the Mahboob-ul-Haq Centre for Human Development, since 1981 — which means in the past two decades — the number of the poverty-stricken people in Pakistan has gone up more than four times. In the 1981, when the total population was over 84 million, those below the poverty line numbered 9.637 million. But in 1998 nearly 44 million of the total 130.58 million population acquired the shameful distinction. The military government cannot challenge the authenticity of the study as it has been done by an institution — set up in memory of an internationally known economist — which has earned worldwide respectability. The real tragedy, however, is that policy-makers in Pakistan try to hide the successive government's unpardonable failures. They explain it away by saying that this dismal picture has emerged after the implementation of the IMF-dictated structural adjustment programme. It is true that in many countries, specially those in Latin America and Africa, IMF-inspired policies have contributed to the concentration of wealth in a few hands and substantially increased the number of those in the poverty bracket. But blaming the IMF alone in the case of Pakistan will not be fair. There is a combination of factors, including, of course, the IMF conditionalities, responsible for the pitiable condition of one-third population of this country, as pointed out by The Nation in one of its September 9 editorials. In the newspaper's own words: "The sharp increase (in the number of the poor) has resulted due to a number of factors and these include a decline in economic growth and inequality in the distribution of national wealth. Bad governance during the military rule of Ziaul Haq and the subsequent civilian set-ups has also played a crucial role in the fast spread of poverty.... The politically motivated grandiose projects started under Mian Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto such as the Yellow Cab, The Motorway and the self-employment schemes failed to produce the results expected from them by their initiators." The government headed by Mr Sharif had claimed that a large number of industrial units would come up along the ambitious motorway, but this remained a mere dream. Independent power producers (IPPs) which appeared on the scene in the wake of the new economic policy too failed to boost industrialisation as expected. The reason was that the government had agreed to allow them to charge a high tariff for their power which most industrial units could not afford. The costly power supply forced some of the units to close down. This was a major policy failure of a previous regime but, strangely, the military government of the day is not pointing this out. One reason that comes to mind immediately is that the present regime too is following almost the same policy. The World Bank recently claimed that there is some improvement in the economic profile of Pakistan, as reported in Dawn of Karachi, owing to a macro-economic and structural adjustment programme launched under its guidance. But the truth is that there is little improvement in the economic condition of the common man. The country is faced with a serious balance of payments crisis and has sought the IMF help. Islamabad is expecting an immediate injection of $ 800 million from the IMF and debt rescheduling from the Paris and London Clubs set up by the world's rich nations to help sick economies of the Third World. It is believed that the arrangement may work as the necessary oxygen to enable the bed-ridden patient to start walking. But Pakistan's Kashmir obsession plus the sanctions imposed on it after the 1998 Chagai nuclear tests may render ineffective any medicine prescribed to restore its economic health. — Syed Nooruzzaman
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Residents flee Jolo after assault ZAMBOANGA (Philippines), Sept 22 (Reuters) — Hundreds of men, women and children, many in tears, arrived in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga by a naval ship today after fleeing a government assault on Jolo island. They embraced relatives, children running around their feet. Some appeared to be carrying their only possessions as they pushed their way down the bustling quay. All those Reuters spoke to said they were fleeing Jolo, 150 km to the southwest, because they were frightened by the armed forces’ week-long assault on the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang. “There were many people leaving Jolo because it’s scary. There was always shooting,” said Arcera Dizon. Asked about the violence, some said they had seen one or two bodies, apparently of civilians, brought to Jolo. One had seen four. Some said they had heard of civilian massacres, but none had seen the proof. The bandits are holding 17 hostages, four of them foreigners, in a five-month-long crisis which has proved a huge embarrassment for the government of President Joseph Estrada. The government says there have been no civilian casualties. Unconfirmed reports in local newspapers have put the civilian casualty toll in the hundreds. PARIS: Seif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a key figure in the release of western hostages in the Philippines, said in an interview on Friday that Tripoli had paid $ 6 million to Muslim rebels there. He told Figaro magazine that reports that his charity had earmarked up to $ 25 million for development projects in the southern Philippines in exchange for the hostage release were not correct. |
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Gunmen release hostages MOSCOW, Sept 22 (AFP) — Armed gunmen in the Russian seaside resort of Sochi released all their hostages and gave themselves up today, the local police said, but a top official said the whole incident appeared to be a sham. “The operation is over. The terrorists gave themselves up and the hostages have been freed,” said a spokesman for the Regional Interior Ministry, who asked not to be named. Four armed gunmen had been holding two hostages yesterday, according to the Russian official. Another captive was released overnight and a fourth had managed to escape yesterday. The abductors first demanded that the authorities hand over $ 30 million and release all Chechens held in Russian jails. But as the crisis dragged on, they demanded only arms and a helicopter, officials said. First Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kozlov said the security forces suspected the “abductors” and “hostages” had staged the crisis. As confusion continued to reign, the Interior Ministry spokesman said that prosecutors had opened a criminal case but that it would take another 24 hours to establish the identity and role of those involved. |
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Taliban capture another town KABUL, Sept 22 (AFP) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia today overran another district near the Tajikistan border after ousting rival forces from two key areas in the region, Taliban officials said. The Taliban captured the town of Dasht-i-Archi in northern Kunduz province after heavy overnight fighting, a Taliban information ministry official said. “According to our radio reports, the Dasht-i-Archi area was completely taken last night after heavy fighting,” the official requesting not to be identified said. “We also captured a good number of tanks and prisoners,” he said without giving details. The Afghan Islamic Press said the fighting was intense and initial reports said at least 13 persons died on both sides. The Taliban advance has also increased pressure on troops loyal to opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood in the nearby town of Imam Saheb, the Pakistan-based private news service said. There are reports that many opposition soldiers were fleeing towards the area along Amu Darya (Oxus river) which forms the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, it said without giving any source. The ruling militia seized Khwajaghar in Takhar province and the nearby town of Hazarbagh this week to consolidate their hold on the provincial capital of Taloqan, a key opposition bastion which fell on September 6. Khwajaghar, which also has an airfield, controls the opposition’s supply route from the Tajik border to their troops positioned to the east of Taloqan. UNITED NATIONS: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, accused of sheltering militant Osama bin Laden, said there was no proof that the Saudi-born national was engaged in terrorist activities. “We asked the world community to come forward with evidence. We do have courts in our country, but so far we have not seen any tangible evidence,” Abdur Rahman Zahid, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Muslim fundamentalist Taliban said yesterday. Zahid, who told a news conference that he would also press Taliban’s demand that it be accorded international recognition, said the movement continued to view Bin Laden as its guest. |
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Real IRA behind MI-6 attack? LONDON: Dissident Irish republicans are being blamed for a rocket launcher attack on the London headquarters of British counter intelligence service, MI6. The police is hunting for an active service unit of the real
IRA, which is opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process and was responsible for the August, 1998, bomb attack in Omagh that killed 29 persons. The group is believed to be behind this summer’s bomb attack on Hammersmith Bridge., London, and a device that failed to explode near a railway line in Ealing, west London. But the latest attack on one of the country’s most secure buildings represents an escalation in the campaign and has led to security being stepped up for next week’s Labour party conference in Brighton, on the south coast of England.. Metropolitan (London) police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry described the explosion as ``an audacious attack in one of the busiest parts of London’’. The London police (Met) said yesterday that a part of a rocket propelled grenade launcher was found near the MI6 building at Spring Gardens following a search of the area by the police and forensic experts. A police spokeswoman said it was not known if the launcher had been fired from the spot where it was found. ``The launcher is now being examined by experts. This will enable us to determine precisely what type of launcher it is ’’,she said. Mr Fry, head of the London police anti-terrorist squad, said the device was believed to have been fired at the building from a range of 200 to 500 metres. ``The sort of weapon that we believe to have been used in this attack is known to be in the hands of certain groups. Clearly they will be uppermost in our minds,’’ he said. "Certainly these devices are readily available in Yugoslavia, Russia and other previous Eastern bloc countries,’’
Mr Fry added. But he stressed he was keeping an open mind about who was behind the attack.
"Clearly we have to keep in mind the capabilities of dissident Irish groups. but at this stage we will not be ruling out any group who might see the secret intelligence service as a target." However, the real IRA is known to have acquired Soviet- designed rocket launchers from the former
Yugoslavia. Although the real IRA called a ceasefire in the aftermath of the Omagh tragedy, it was now known to be active again and the security services in Northern Ireland were on full alert against further attacks. Earlier, this month the group was suspected of a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary station at Armagh, and also fell under suspicion the previous day when two 80lb bombs were found at a military training camp at Magilligan, County Londonderry. The real IRA is the largest in a coalition of dissidents, which, security sources estimate, comprises 120 persons. Attacks, such
as the one on the MI6 building, although insignificant with regard to the damage it caused, are crucial to the renegade groups as they send a powerful message to terrorists , wavering between the political route to a united Ireland or a return to violence , that there is an alternative to the Good Friday agreement and that they have the ability to keep the war going. — The Guardian, London |
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Arafat's yes to trade
land with Israel JERUSALEM, Sept 22 (AP) — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has agreed to trade land with Israel to accommodate Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and proposes to deal with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon before those in other countries, an American Jewish leader, who met him, said. Israel and the Palestinians are waiting for the USA to decide whether to offer bridging proposals to break the deadlock in their negotiations, officials from both sides said yesterday. The talks are deadlocked over the control of holy sites in Jerusalem, though other key issues, including Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and borders, have not been resolved. Mr Arafat is committed to reaching an agreement, but “hasn’t decided on what to sign, when to sign,” said Mr Abraham Foxman, national Director of the Anti-Defamation League, an American-Jewish group, who met Mr Arafat on Wednesday. New ideas raised by Mr Arafat included solving the plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon first, because unlike in other countries, refugees in Lebanon are not allowed to work, Mr Foxman said. Mr Arafat also expressed willingness to trade territory to allow Israel to keep some of its settlements in the West Bank and to post an international peace force in the Jordan valley. |
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Indonesia’s
police chief shown the door JAKARTA, Sept 22 (AFP) — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said today he had sacked the national police chief because he had refused to arrest a son of former President Suharto and a Muslim leader he had linked to the recent bomb attacks in Jakarta. “I had ordered (the police) to question, even arrest (the suspects) but it was not obeyed. So I replaced the police chief,” Mr Wahid said, speaking after Friday prayers. On Monday, Mr Wahid dismissed police chief, Gen-Rusdiharjo, saying “the security situation requires the replacement.” Gen- Rusdiharjo’s sacking was blamed on his failure to solve or prevent the series of bombings, the last of which killed 10 people and injured 27 in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building. Mr Wahid apparently took the police by surprise after Friday prayers last week, when he announced he had ordered the arrest of Suharto’s youngest son, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, in connection with blasts. He said at the time there was “plenty of evidence” against the 37-year-old Tommy, a wealthy businessman. |
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Chhota Rajan
moved to undisclosed place
BANGKOK, Sept 22 (PTI) — underworld don Chhota Rajan, suspected to be the target of a recent attack by gunmen, has been moved to an undisclosed destination after an “unknown” Indian tried to visit him at the local hospital where he was being treated, media reports said. Rajan and the wife of an Indian jeweller, who was killed in the shooting incident last Friday here, were moved at the request of a relative identified as Rajesh Madan Sharma, who asked the police to step up security after “an unknown Indian tried to visit them,” the Bangkok Post daily said. The two, who suffered serious injuries, would be under 24-hour surveillance since four other suspects involved in the shooting were still at large, the newspaper quoting a senior police official said. |
NASA abandons
Pluto mission LONG BEACH (California), Sept 22 (AP) — NASA has stopped working on its planned mission to Pluto, indefinitely delaying a trip to the solar system’s only unexplored planet while engineers try to design a less expensive spacecraft. The delay of the Pluto-Kuiper Express resulted from spiralling costs in the Outer Planets Program, said Mr Ed Weiler, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s associate administrator for space science. The agency still is focusing on launching an orbiter to Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, in January 2006. Scientists believe that the moon might contain a subsurface ocean, a key ingredient to life. |
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Iraq scores points in Security Council UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) — With support from France and Russia, the Arab world and beyond, Iraq scored points in the UN Security Council in its militant campaign to get 10-year old UN sanctions abolished. While Jordan has requested UN permission to resume air service to Baghdad, France yesterday took the issue a step further, saying that passenger flights were not banned and one was leaving Paris today, whether or not the council approved. Its position immediately brought it into conflict with Britain. |
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