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| Sunday, October 1, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Temple Mount violence ‘premeditated’ UNITED NATIONS, Sept 30 — The annual campaign to fill the temporary Security Council seats opening up this year has been jolted by a late and intensive effort by the USA to remove Sudan as the chosen African candidate and promote a rival instead. B’desh offers 1,000 troops for S. Leone ‘Peanuts’ comic strip turns 50 Gore, Bush tied in opinion poll |
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| Website-music Co battle hots up LOS ANGELES, Sept 30 — Internet music site MP3.com has launched a political e-mail campaign to bolster support for a Bill that would allow people to copy their music discs onto computers. Trudeau’s body lies
in state
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Temple Mount violence
‘premeditated’ JERUSALEM, Sept 30 (DPA) — The Palestinian Cabinet strongly condemned Israeli shootings as “premeditated murder” at Jerusalem’s contested old city and called for a general strike throughout the West Bank and Gaza for today. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat plans to make a last minute trip to Cairo today to consult Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the situation, said Cabinet Minister Nabil Shaath after the meeting in Ramallah in the West Bank. Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli police and more than 230 injured on Friday in the worst clashes in four years at Jerusalem’s holy city — known as Temple Mount by Jews and Haram al-Sharif by Muslims, media reports and the Palestinian Cabinet said. The USA appealed for “restraint” from further violence, which endangers ongoing fragile peace talks. The unrest erupted after traditional yesterday prayers in the Al Aqsa Mosque and in the Dome of the Rock, when hundreds of Palestinians stormed out and began throwing rocks at Israeli policemen. They also pelted Jews gathered to celebrate Jewish new year at the Wailing Wall at the foot of the Temple Mount. Palestinians began piling up stones on Thursday following protests about a visit by rightist Israeli politician Ariel Sharon on the Temple Mount, Israeli police sources said. Sharon’s visit has been criticised as provocative by Syria and elicited a mild rebuke from the US State Department. Sharon opposes any concessions to the Palestinians in Jerusalem and is one of the most hated and reviled figures in the Arab world. He resigned from leading Israel in 1983 when he was found responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon. The Palestinian Cabinet called the shootings “premeditated murder”. “We look at it very seriously and we have decided to take a number of measures to face a possible Israeli escalation”, said Abed Rabbo, a Cabinet member. “These developments undermine the peace process and warns that Israel has decided to cover the peace process with blood and replace it with confrontations”. Israelis and the Palestinians yesterday asked the USA on to mediate in a bid to save the peace process. Earlier this week, talks seemed to be on track after Arafat visited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at his home. The Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, telephoned Mr Arafat and Israeli acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami on Friday to urge restraint and calm in the volatile situation, said State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher. “We do urge Israelis and Palestinians to maintain calm, exercise restraint and above all to avoid actions that provoke tensions in this area”, Mr Boucher said. The State Department issued a travel advisory urging US citizens to be especially cautious when visiting Temple Mount and added the mild rebuke to Sharon. “We were quite concerned that the visit by Mr Sharon to this site risked causing tensions, as in fact it did”, Mr Boucher said. Israeli opposition politicians demanded an immediate end to talks with the Palestinians on a peace accord. There were fears the unrest could spread to other parts of East Jerusalem amid Israeli reports that a Palestinian radio station had broadcast an appeal for all Muslims to converge on the shrine to defend Al-Aqsa. But in the afternoon the situation was calmer. Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in other Arab suburbs and areas outside Jerusalem. The holy sites are a crucial hurdle in the ongoing peace talks. Israel says it will not give up sovereignty after its occupation in 1967, while Palestinians say they will not accept any peace solution that would not return Jerusalem, including the Al-Haram area, to their sovereignty. Elsewhere, a Palestinian policeman shot and killed an Israeli soldier and wounded another yesterday near the West Bank town of Kalkilya, Israel radio reported. PARIS: The European Union has said it was “extremely worried” by recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. The EU “strongly condemns the provocations and acts of violence which were committed,” on Thursday and yesterday, “and those committed during these past days in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank,” said a statement issued by the French EU presidency yesterday. |
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USA against Sudan on Council UNITED NATIONS, Sept 30 (AP) — The annual campaign to fill the temporary Security Council seats opening up this year has been jolted by a late and intensive effort by the
USA to remove Sudan as the chosen African candidate and promote a rival instead. The us intervention, which has been denounced by Sudan and questioned by other nations, has forced an unexpected vote for the African seat on October 10, when the General Assembly will select five new countries to join the Security Council for two-year terms. Only one of the seats will go to an African, and the
USA is trying to help line up support behind Mauritius, though Sudan had won the support of most Africans months ago and is considered the endorsed African candidate, diplomats say. “A superpower promoting a small country to contest another country against the will of the region is unprecedented,” Sudan’s un Ambassador, Elfatih Mohamed Ahmed Erwa, today said. “The permanent members should not get involved in such things.” Mauritius had indicated it wanted the African seat back in January, and Uganda has backed it. But western diplomats said Mauritius had clearly been emboldened to pursue the underdog bid by the US intervention — although it remains to be seen how much support the country will be able to command. The USA has made it clear it does not want to see Sudan on the Security Council, arguing that a country under un sanctions and considered by the us to be a sponsor of terrorism does not deserve such international recognition that a council seat confers. In a memo issued ahead of an Arab foreign ministers meeting last week, the us asked for Arab support in urging Sudan to postpone its candidacy. Sudan’s presence on the council would make it harder to discuss lifting sanctions when the matter comes before the council in November, us argued. The council imposed limited diplomatic sanctions on Sudan in 1996 to compel it to hand over the gunmen who tried to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Sudan never produced the suspects, but says various inquiries did not find them in the country. Several countries have backed Sudan’s bid to lift the sanctions. |
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B’desh offers 1,000 troops for S. Leone UNITED NATIONS, Sept 30 (IPS) — Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest nations, has offered sufficient troops to replace a large part of the Indian contingent pulling out of the beleaguered UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone. Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh told IPS that his country had formally offered two additional battalions of about 800-900 troops each to fill the vacuum left by the departing Indians. The proposed withdrawal of the Indian troops — numbering over 3,000 — created a virtual crisis in Sierra Leone as the UN last week began scrambling for new troops to prop up its peacekeeping mission in the West African nation. Currently, Bangladesh has nearly 800 troops with the UN mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). If Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepts the offer, Chowdhury said, the two additional Infantry battalions could bring the total number of Bangladesh troops in Sierra Leone to about 2,600 making it the second largest contingent after Nigeria. Since India decided to withdraw its troops about two weeks ago, Mr Annan has been appealing to members states for more soldiers. The Indian withdrawal was primarily blamed on the growing tension between the UNAMSIL Commander, Major-Gen Vijay Jetley of India and his deputy Brigadier General Mohammed Garba of Nigeria. But India’s official position is that the withdrawal is a routine rotation of its troops. The search for new troops also comes at a time when the UN Security Council has asked for an increase in troops in Sierra Leone, from 12,440 to an estimated 20,500. But this has been deferred until Mr Annan can find troops to replace the Indians. |
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‘Peanuts’ comic strip turns 50 WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (DAP) — The inimitable characters from “Peanuts’’ have warmed the hearts of readers worldwide. On Monday, the comic strip that gave birth to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock turns 50. Anniversary celebrations are planned around the globe with the largest scheduled for The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, where several giant Snoopy sculptures will be auctioned by Sotheby’s. Proceeds from the auction will be used to build a new sculpture featuring all of the “Peanuts’’ characters in a tribute to the comic strip creator Charles Schulz who died in February last. Schulz grew up in St Paul, Minnesota, and his first cartoon appeared in the St Paul Pioneer Press. More money will be raised when the television outlet QVC offers for sale 9,500 lithographs entitled “The Tribute’’ and drawn by Tom Everhart, the only artist ever authorised by Schulz to draw “Peanuts’’ characters. Peanuts made its humble debut on October 2, 1950, in seven US newspapers, where it went through several alterations before gaining runaway success in the 1960s with the maturation of the wisecracking dog Snoopy and his master Charlie Brown. The “Peanuts’’ characters went on to worldwide fame as the cast of slightly neurotic children struck a cord with millions. The comic strip was syndicated to more than 2,600 newspapers around the world, appeared in some 25 languages and reached an estimated audience of 355 million. The strip featured the always hapless Charlie Brown struggling to fly a kite or field a baseball team Snoopy’s antics as a beagle dreaming of greatness as a World War I flying ace, Lucy’s overbearing personality that led to her role as a nickel-a-time psychiatrist or Lucy’s love Schroeder, whose single focus was perfecting his Beethoven. Animated movies such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas’’ and “You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown’’ gained critical acclaim. “Peanuts’’ merchandise earned Schulz millions of dollars as people flocked to the simple yet profound themes captured by the child characters. The legacy will continue when the first-ever “Peanuts’’ interactive museum opens in New York city on October 7. The museum will feature all “Peanuts’’ characters in a theatre-like environment designed for children to play with them. |
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Gore, Bush tied in opinion poll WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) — Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W.Bush were locked in a dead heat in the U.S. Nov 7 presidential race, according to the latest Reuters/MSNBC daily tracking poll released today. The poll, conducted by John Zogby, surveyed 1,207 likely voters between Wednesday and Friday. It found the Vice-President and the Texas Governor both with 44 per cent of the vote. Bush had trailed by a single point in the poll published yesterday but the change was not statistically significant. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader had 3 per cent Loberatrian party hopeful Harry Browne polled 1 per cent as did the Reform Party’s Pat Buchanan. Seven per cent were undecided and the margin of error was plus or minus 3 per cent. Reuters and MSNBC will release a new poll every day until the election. The surveys are made up of a rolling daily sample of 400 likely voters each day to create a three-day sample of about 1,200. There is a narrowing of the gender gap in the electorate with Bush leading among men by 3 per centage points while Gore led among women by 5 points. Three weeks ago, there was a 32-point gender gap. |
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Website-music Co battle hots up LOS ANGELES, Sept 30 (DPA) — Internet music site MP3.com has launched a political e-mail campaign to bolster support for a Bill that would allow people to copy their music discs onto computers. The initiative taken yesterday, dubbed “The Million e-mail march”, is the latest twist in the battle between websites and music companies. MP3.com, this month was found liable for up to $ 250 million in copyright damages to the music industry for a service called mymp3.com which allowed users to download copies of music discs they owned and play them over the Internet. The e-mail campaign is designed to drum up support for legislation introduced earlier this week in the US Congress that would legalize such copies. “The goal is to inform politicians that there is a huge audience of CD owners and that this is an important issue too” said Michael Robertson, Chairman and Chief Executive of mp3.com. The campaign coincides with the hearing of an appeal filed by the music-sharing website Napster, which is due to ask a Federal Appeals Court in San Francisco on Monday to reverse a copyright-infringement ruling that would force the company to close down. Napster is a service that allows its users to swap music files online. Both Napster and its opponent, the Recording Industry Association of America, will be given 20 minutes to argue their case Monday morning before three appellate judges adjourn to consider a verdict. Legal
observers said they expected the case to go to the US Supreme Court. The association originally sued Napster in December, arguing that the Napster application had created a safe haven for Internet music piracy. Napster, which is being represented by star attorney David Boies argued that making copies of songs for non-commercial purposes is authorised by a 1984 law that allows owners of video recorders to record television shows for personal use. The Napster site was scheduled to go offline July 26 after a judge ruled that the company was likely to lose its copyright infringement case against the music industry’s top record labels. But two days before the deadline, a stay was granted, allowing the hugely popular website to stay open. The recording industry association said the music-sharing site has cut into music sales despite figures showing that the industry is selling record numbers of CDs. Napster argued that its technology increases interest in music and has been a significant contributor to the growth in sales. |
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Trudeau’s
body lies in state OTTAWA, Sept 30 (Reuters) — More than 10,000 Canadian are expected to pay their last respects to flamboyant former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau this weekend in the capital city as he lies in state inside the country’s Parliament, Canadian authorities said late yesterday. Trudeau, who made a profound mark on Canada for more than a generation, died of cancer on Thursday in his hometown of Montreal at the age 80. He was the Prime Minister from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Canadian flag will fly at half-staff from Nova Scotia to British Columbia throughout the weekend. The government has also created a web site (www.trudeau.gc.ca) to allow Canadians to send their condolences to Trudeau’s family. His coffin, which will be flown from Montreal, is expected to arrive in Ottawa accompanied by his two sons, Sacha and Justin, and his former wife Margaret. After 81 tolls from the Parliament’s bell,
Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife, Aline, will welcome the casket in Ottawa at the centre block of Parliament, where Trudeau is to lie in state in the Hall of Honour until late on Sunday night. |
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