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| Thursday, October 5, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Probe clashes before peace talks revival: Arafat PARIS, Oct 4 — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today said that he wanted guarantees of protection for his people and an inquiry into the causes of violence that has swept the West Bank and Gaza before he would agree to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Gore scores over Bush in debate: poll Milosevic orders
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| LTTE protection to UNP chief ? COLOMBO, Oct 4 — The LTTE has plans to intensify a campaign waged against candidates of all political parties other than the United National Party (UNP), state-run the Daily News reported. New Taiwan PM Russian Foreign Minister to visit Pak Putin’s popularity soars high Sex workers agree to change name
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Probe clashes before peace talks revival: Arafat PARIS, Oct 4 (AP) —Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today said that he wanted guarantees of protection for his people and an inquiry into the causes of violence that has swept the West Bank and Gaza before he would agree to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Mr Arafat told reporters after an hour-long meeting with French President Jacques Chirac that a trilateral meeting with us Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Mr Barak, that had been announced in Paris, was not certain. “The meeting (with Barak) will depend on the one I will have with Albright,” said Mr Arafat, adding that a trilateral meeting was not yet on the agenda. Asked what his conditions were, he said, “Protection and an international inquiry commission.” A senior Palestinian official has said an international inquiry into Israel’s actions would be a condition of reviving the peace talks. But Mr Barak’s office has said he “totally rejected the call for an international investigation.” Israel’s Justice Minister Yossi Beilin today told Israel Radio that Israel did not agree “to put our fate in the hands of the world.” Ms Albright, followed by Mr Barak, arrived at the us ambassador’s residence in Paris today to start the talks aimed at stopping six days of violence, that have left at least 58 people dead in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and Salvage the already-stalled West Asia peace process. She was to meet Arafat separately today. Chirac was also due to meet Barak. Mr Arafat thanked France for “the great efforts they are making to stop the massacre, the serious massacre, which is being perpetrated against the Palestinian people and to save the peace process.” The Palestinian leader said he planned to meet Chirac again later today. RAMALLAH (West Bank): Two armed Palestinians were killed in a gunbattle with Israeli forces near here early today as violence flared again ahead of a US-led bid to quell the bloodshed. Nine other Palestinians were injured during an exchange of fire in Beitunia, west of Ramallah, a Palestinian security official said. A total of 65 persons, most of them Palestinians, have been killed over the past six days in street battles and firefights that have swept through West Bank and Gaza Strip and spilled into Arab areas of northern Israel. The violence was triggered by the controversial visit on Thursday of Israeli right-wing leader Ariel Sharon to a hotly contested holy shrine in Jerusalem which Palestinians said defiled the third holiest site in Islam. Three Israeli military outposts in the Gaza Strip came under attack overnight, and clashes were reported in the West Bank this morning. JERUSALEM: Israel will set up an internal commission of inquiry into the recent clashes between the police and Israeli Arabs, the Prime Minister’s Office has announced, although it has rejected any international inquiry into the violence in West Bank and Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday had a meeting lasting three and a half hours with leaders of the Arab-Israeli community, including several MPs, a statement from his office said. He told them that he intended to set up a “team headed by an independent person to investigate and clarify recent events in a credible, responsible and direct fashion,” the statement said. He said he had directed the police to act with “maximum restraint” and called on the Arabs not to violate the law or attack law enforcers. |
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Gore scores over Bush in debate: poll BOSTON, Oct 4 (AP) — Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Gov George W. Bush clashed over tax cuts, prescription drug assistance and abortion in their first campaign debate of the autumn, in the closest White House contest in a generation. Combative from the outset, Gore said his rival’s tax plan would “spend more money on tax cuts for the wealthiest, 1 per cent than all of the new spending he proposes for education, health care, prescription drugs and national defense all combined.” But Bush, standing a few feet away on a debate stage at the University of Massachusetts, said Gore’s economic plan would offer relief only to the middle class. “Everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief,” he said. At the same time, he said it would produce “dramatically” bigger government with 200 “new or expanded programs” and 20,000 new bureaucrats. “It empowers Washington,” added the Republican Governor, who hastened to tell a national viewing audience he was from West Texas — not the nation’s capital. Over and over, he accused Gore, a Democrat, of “fuzzy math.” Jim Lehrer, a news anchor for PBS was moderator, operating under strict rules negotiated in advance by the Gore and Bush camps. It was, he said, at the outset, the first of three 90-minute debates between the two major party rivals — a format that excluded Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan, running as minor party candidates. In a reprise of his acceptance speech at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, Gore said it was important to stand up to the special interests, pharmaceutical companies among them. “Big drug companies support Governor Bush’s prescription drug proposal,” he said. “They oppose mine.” Bush made a sour face when he heard that, and in his next breath offered a swift rebuttal. “I’ve been standing up to big Hollywood and big trial lawyers,” he shot back, mentioning two groups that have lavished campaign donations on Gore and Democrats. WASHINGTON (Reuters): A flash CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll taken within an hour after the finish of the first campaign 2000 presidential debate favoured Democratic Vice-President Al Gore as the winner by 48 per cent to 41 per cent over Texas Republican Gov Bush. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus four points. Both candidates did well, according to the poll. Some 76 per cent of those polled thought Gore did an excellent or good job in the debate, while 70 per cent said the same for Bush. |
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Milosevic orders opponents’ arrest BELGRADE, Oct 4 (AP) — Escalating the Yugoslav crisis, President Slobodan Milosevic’s Government has ordered the arrest of opposition leaders who helped organise one of the strikes launched across the nation to drive him from power. The announcement by the Belgrade prosecutor yesterday followed a government statement warning of “special measures” against those responsible for the growing wave of strikes and blockades called to force Milosevic to accept defeat in September 24 elections. The moves raise fears that Milosevic may resort to the army and the police to hold on to power, despite rising calls at home and abroad for him to step down in favour of challenger Vojislav Kostunica. Nevertheless, the opposition showed no signs of backing down and has called on Yugoslavs to converge on Thursday on Belgrade for a final push to drive Milosevic from power. MOSCOW (DPA): Russia will not extradite Slobodan Milosevic to the West to face war crimes charges if the Yugoslav leader seeks asylum on its territory, a senior official in the Russian Parliament said today. Calls to this effect by the US State Department were “hypocrisy”, the head of the Duma committee for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters. Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Milosevic and his election rival Vojislav Kostunica hold talks in Moscow this week to prevent the escalating election battle erupting into full-fledged conflict. In an almost unanimously adopted declaration, the Duma called on Western states to stop pressuring the Yugoslav authorities to recognise a first-round win by Opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica over Milosevic, and lift economic sanctions imposed on Belgrade. This would enable Yugoslavia to assume “a worthy place” in the international community, the deputies said. Mr Putin, who is currently on an official tour of India, discussed the crisis by telephone with
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Itar-Tass reported. |
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Anniversary bash sans unity Chancellor BERLIN, Oct 4 — If ever there were a case of Hamlet without the Prince, then yesterday’s 10th anniversary celebrations of German reunification was it. Helmut Kohl, who as chancellor rammed the merger through with the power of his personality and conviction, was nowhere to be seen. After learning he had not been invited to speak, Mr Kohl said in August that he would be staying away from the main official event in the eastern city of Dresden, where President Jacques Chirac of France was guest of honour. Last night, a big concert was planned for Berlin where, earlier in the day, thousands had flocked to the Brandenburg Gate, some unfurling flags from Germany’s 16 states (left). In less than a year, the “reunification chancellor” has become an embarrassment, due mainly to revelations of his role in his party’s fundraising scandal. But he still has a powerful influence on German politics. And, in the run-up to yesterday’s festivities, he sparked an ill-tempered debate between the governing Social Democrats and his own Christian Democrats over who should get the credit for unification. As the former Chancellor recalled, the left was very uneasy about the whole project, President Johannes Rau, a Social Democrat and one of those attacked by Mr Kohl, tried yesterday to inject a note of magnanimity. “He is not taking part in our festivities today,” Mr Rau said. “But beyond all the current arguments I would like to stress that nothing can diminish Helmut Kohl’s contribution to German unification.” — The Guardian, London
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LTTE protection to UNP chief? COLOMBO, Oct 4 (UNI) — The LTTE has plans to intensify a campaign waged against candidates of all political parties other than the United National Party (UNP), state-run the Daily News reported. The warning comes in the wake of reports that LTTE leader Prabhakaran has given special instructions to all Tiger leaders in the eastern province to provide tight security to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe for the party election campaign. According to intelligence sources, the paper said the LTTE was especially targeting Muslim and Tamil candidates from the National Unity Alliance (NUA) and the People’s Alliance (PA). On Monday, 26 persons including an NUA Trincomalee district candidate were killed in Muttur when an LTTE suicide bomber rode into the meeting on a push cycle. “The LTTE’s aim is to disrupt the poll campaign of other parties, frighten Tamils and Muslims and force them to vote for the UNP’’ quoting a PA organiser, the paper said. Intelligence agencies have also stressed that the LTTE is the biggest perpetrator of election violence having killed at least 30 persons, including two candidates, since the nomination started a month ago. Meanwhile, international human rights watchdog Amnesty International and the European Union election monitors have condemned the LTTE for the suicide bombing. Amnesty said the killings were a “clear violation of international humanitarian law’’ and it had protested to the LTTE. |
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New Taiwan PM TAIPEI, Oct 4 (Reuters) — Taiwan President Chen Shui-Bian named confidant Chang Chun-Hsiung Premier today, replacing Tang Fei whose sudden resignation sparked a political storm and raised questions over the stability of the government. Mr Chang, (62), a veteran of the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), faces a hostile Parliament dominated by the main opposition Nationalist Party, which has been blocking attempts to introduce economic reforms. |
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Russian Foreign Minister to visit Pak ISLAMABAD, Oct 4 (PTI) — Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will visit Pakistan by the end of this year, media reports today said. As a continuation of recently initiated high-level contact between Pakistan and Russia, officials here attach great importance to Ivanov’s visit to boost Pak-Russian ties, the media reports quoted Pakistani officials as saying.
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Putin’s popularity soars high MOSCOW, Oct 4 (UNI) — while Russian President Vladimir Putin tours India, his popularity ratings back home continue to be high. According to the public opinion polls conducted by “all Russia centre for the study of public opinion’’ between March and September this year the percentage of Russians approving Putin’s work has not shown any noticeable shift. The numbers supporting him continue to swing between 69 and 65 per cent, the centres report said. |
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Sex workers agree to change name BUDAPEST, Oct 4 (AFP) — A Hungarian association of sex workers invited suggestions for a name after the Indian Ambassador here protested against the group calling itself Siva, a Hindu god. In a statement the association accepted the objections of the Ambassador and agreed to change the name. The body launched a competition to help them find a new one. Prostitutes only recently formed their own association to defend their interests. |
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