Friday, October 13, 2000,
 Chandigarh, India






THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
W O R L D

Palestinians lynch two Israelis
Arafat’s residential area bombarded
RAMALLAH, Oct 12  — Two members of a special Israeli undercover unit were lynched today by an angry Palestinian mob in the West Bank town of Ramallah, an AFP correspondent said.

Chandrika’s PA is single largest party
COLOMBO, Oct 12 — After the declaration of the final results, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) of Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga and its minority, allies, the EPDP and the NUA together have obtained enough seats to form a government. However, the decision of the SLMC will be crucial for the PA in forming the government.

Sharif’s wife put under house arrest
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12— The ruling military put the wife of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest and detained scores of his party faithful to stifle protests that were to be held today to mark the one-year anniversary of army rule in Pakistan.

India figures in Bush-Gore debate
WASHINGTON, Oct 12 —The second us presidential debate, in a series of three, between democratic candidate vice-president al gore and republican nominee texas governor George bush proved unexpectedly tame but the two rivals clashed sharply on foreign and domestic issues. 

Milosevic’s party in ferment
BELGRADE, Oct 12 — Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party has dumped its Secretary-General in a reshuffle, Tanjug news agency said today.

Albright to visit North Korea
TOKYO, Oct 12 — Japan today welcomed Washington’s decision to accept a North Korean invitation to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for a visit to the Communist state, the first by such a high ranking U.S. Official.



 

EARLIER STORIES
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Mob torches temple in Baluchistan
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 — Four Hindus have been arrested following alleged sacrilege of holy Quran that resulted in attacks on the houses of the minority community and setting ablaze of a temple by a mob led by Islamic clerics in Dalbandin town of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province yesterday, reports reaching here said today.

B’desh Oppn seeks early poll
DHAKA, Oct 12 — Begum Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of the main Opposition political party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and leader of the Opposition in the Bangladesh Parliament has demanded parliamentary elections early next year. She made this demand during her meeting with Bangladesh President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed on Tuesday evening at Bangabhaban, the President’s house .

Discovery launched at last
CAPE CANAVERAL, Oct 12 — Space shuttle Discovery roared off the launch pad yesterday on an ambitious construction mission to the International Space Station, marking the 100th launch of the US Shuttle programme.

Pension for overseas Pakistanis?
DUBAI, Oct 12 — The Pakistan Government has shelved a long-standing plan to give overseas Pakistanis the right to vote but is working on a pension scheme for them.

Pak order on chemical arms
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 — Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar has promulgated an ordinance prohibiting production, development, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.


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Palestinians lynch two Israelis
Arafat’s residential area bombarded

RAMALLAH, Oct 12 (AFP, Reuters) — Two members of a special Israeli undercover unit were lynched today by an angry Palestinian mob in the West Bank town of Ramallah, an AFP correspondent said.

Their bodies could be seen lying on the street after they were dragged from a Palestinian police station by the mob and killed.

Palestinian police confirmed that they were members of a special undercover unit whom they arrested in order to protect them from the crowd.

Israeli army sources said four soldiers had been arrested by the Palestinian police.

JERUSALEM: An Israeli Cabinet Minister said today that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was heading for war with Israel and peacemaking was dead.

“Arafat decided at some stage to choose the path of violence, the path of confrontation ... we are on a collision course. This is war,’’ Deputy Prime Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio.

“War — that’s what he wants,’’ said Ben-Eliezer, who had a 28-year military career before entering politics in the early 1980s.

“There is no diplomatic process today and the diplomatic process is dead,’’ he said, adding: “I suggest we organise for a situation of terror, for situations of attacks.’’

He appealed for creation of a “national emergency government’’ between Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s Left-Centre One Israel bloc and the rightist Likud Party to cope with a two-week-old wave of violence in which at least 94 people have been killed, all but five of them Arabs.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s frantic West peace efforts appear to have paid dividends with “breakthrough” plans for a meeting of top US, Israeli and Palestinian security officials soon.

According to UN spokesman Fred Eckhard, the Israeli and Palentinian leaders were given the green light for the tripartite security meeting in a bid to stem the continuing violence which claimed another three victims yesterday.

Two Palestinians were killed in separate clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank — one shot in the stomach with a live bullet, another in the heart.

Their deaths, along with a third Palestinian shot dead in the Gaza Strip, brought to 102 the number of dead since Israeli-Palestinian clashes broke out on September 28.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops fired rockets and sent in tanks near a Jewish settlement after two explosions.

MOSCOW (DPA): Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in televised remarks early today he perceived no decisive progress in diplomatic contacts to halt the recent violence in West Asia.

“It would be premature to speak of a breakthrough,’’ he said in an interview with ORT television after talks in Syria yesterday. The previous day he was in Israel.

Reports have said both Israel and the Palestinians agreed yesterday to a conference on security as proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The US television News Channel, CNN, said it might take place today.

“Without a doubt, some excellent variations to exit from the situation are taking shape,’’ said Mr Ivanov, who was to spend the day in Cyprus.
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Chandrika’s PA is single largest party

COLOMBO, Oct 12 (UNI) — After the declaration of the final results, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) of Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga and its minority, allies, the EPDP and the NUA together have obtained enough seats to form a government. However, the decision of the SLMC will be crucial for the PA in forming the government.

According to an official announcement, the PA obtained 107 seats while the UNP got 89.

SLMC leader and former minister Ashraff had almost decided to part company with the PA on the eve of the elections. But after his death in a helicopter crash, Mr Rauff Hakkem, who was elected core leader of the party, decided to continue relations with the PA, despite differences.

In this election the SLMC got four seats. The EDPD got four seats in Jaffna and an Independent supported by the party also won in Ampara.

The party needs 113 seats to form a government in the P25-member parliament. So with the support of the SLMC and the EDPD, the PA could very well cross the 113 mark.

However, political analysts said the EPDP and the SLMC were most likely to support the PA unless the UNP, which got 89 seats, comes with some unexpected bait to lure them into its camp.

The leftist JVP which has 10 seats and TULF with five seats are unlikely to be part of the PA-led coalition. The newly-formed Sihala Urumaya which secured one seats, is also unlikely to support, party sources said.

The JVP, which has for the first time got representation in parliament, has made it known that the party will not support either the PA or the UNP.

The All-Ceylon Tamil Congress, which got one, will likely support the UNP. But the PA can hope for the support of an Independent who won with the support of the EPPD.

Meanwhile, PA spokesman Sripathi Suryarachchi told PTI that it would shortly stake the claim to form the government as it had already reached an agreement enlisting the support of the NUA and the EPDP.

Under the agreement both the NUA and the EPDP would join the government led by present Prime Minister Rathanasiri Wickrama-nayake, he said.
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Sharif’s wife put under house arrest

ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (AP) — The ruling military put the wife of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest and detained scores of his party faithful to stifle protests that were to be held today to mark the one-year anniversary of army rule in Pakistan.

Mrs Kulsoom Sharif was arrested late yesterday and today her spokesman, Mr Rashid Latif said army soldiers and police had confined her to the home of a party official in the neighbouring Rawalpindi.

“They want to stop us from our right to a peaceful protest because they are afraid of the people,” said Mr Latif.

In eastern Punjab province, police and troops swept through Multan and Bahawalpur areas throughout the night, arresting about 65 workers of Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League.

Police officials in eastern Multan said most of the men arrested were members of the youth wing of Mr Sharif’s party and would be released either tomorrow or on Saturday.

They said the arrests were to prevent protests.

Last March, the military government had banned public protests and political meetings saying that it would destabilise the country and hamper army attempts to reform the economy, electoral process and clean up the endemic corruption.

But human rights groups in Pakistan and abroad have been sharply critical of the military’s approach, calling it heavy handed.Top

 

India figures in Bush-Gore debate

WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (PTI) —The second us presidential debate, in a series of three, between democratic candidate vice-president al gore and republican nominee texas governor George bush proved unexpectedly tame but the two rivals clashed sharply on foreign and domestic issues. Incidentally, India received a mention in the debate between the two white house rivals last night in Winston-Salem.

The only reference to India came when Mr bush said that the burden of cleaning up the environment should not be laid on the shoulders of the USA alone, and pointed out that the reason why the senate would not accept the kyoto protocol was that china and India were exempted.

On the tax-cuts front, Mr Bush would give tax cuts to rich and poor alike — all those who pay taxes —while Mr Gore would limit it to the lower brackets.

The two candidates differed on defence issues also.

Mr Bush gave the impression that he would spend more on defence, and he committed himself anew to national missile defence — a subject on which Mr Gore was silent.

Mr Bush would use the military to fight and win wars and not on “nation-building”. Mr Gore ignored the military aspect and praised Marshal Plan as a nation-building venture. He also vaguely supported US military intervention if genocide or ethnic cleansing ensue.

Just 27 days before the November 7 elections, the White House aspirants clashed sharply on foreign and domestic issues during their second presidential debate.

“I’m not so sure that the role of the United States is to go around the world and say ‘this is the way it's got to be,’” Mr Bush said.

Mr Gore presented a more expansive approach to the sole superpower role.

"Like it or not ....The United States is now the natural leader of the world. All these other countries are looking to us," Mr Gore said, adding, "Just because we cannot be involved everywhere, and shouldn’t be, doesn’t mean that we should shy away from going in anywhere."

In a rare flash of drama towards the close of the 90-minute debate, Mr Gore was confronted about his alleged “serial exaggerations” and apologised to the millions of television viewers.
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Milosevic’s party in ferment

BELGRADE, Oct 12 (AFP) — Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party has dumped its Secretary-General in a reshuffle, Tanjug news agency said today.

The Socialist Party (SPS) relieved Secretary-General Gorica Gajevic of her responsibilities at her own request and called an extraordinary party congress for November 25, the agency said.

She was replaced by Zoran Andjelkovic, the SPS representative in Kosovo. Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was named party Vice-President, Tanjug said.

Mr Milutinovic replaces Zoran Lilic, one of the founders of the SPS and former President, who resigned on the eve of September 24 presidential election, which Milosevic lost.

Since Milosevic’s subsequent ouster on October 4, the party hierarchy has been swamped with calls from party members for him to resign as party president.

The SPS also announced that it would stand alone in the Serbian elections, planned for December.

And the neo-Communist Yugoslav Left (JUL), founded by Milosevic’s wife, Mira Markovic, confirmed that it would also go it alone in the Serb elections, breaking traditional ties with the SPS.
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Albright to visit North Korea

TOKYO, Oct 12 (Reuters) — Japan today welcomed Washington’s decision to accept a North Korean invitation to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for a visit to the Communist state, the first by such a high ranking U.S. Official.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Ms Albright’s visit and meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il will help further ease tensions on the divided Korean peninsula, and have a positive effect on Japan-North Korea relations.

“It will have a good impact on the relations between Japan and North Korea. We welcome the decision,” Nakagawa told a regular news conference.

Ms Albright received the invitation from Kim’s deputy, Vice-Marshal Jo Myong-Rok, who has been visiting the USA since Tuesday, and announced her acceptance at a dinner hosted by Jo in Washington last night.

Nakagawa said improved ties between Washington and Pyongyang would lead to progress on thorny issues standing between Japan and North Korea.
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Mob torches temple in Baluchistan

ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (PTI) — Four Hindus have been arrested following alleged sacrilege of holy Quran that resulted in attacks on the houses of the minority community and setting ablaze of a temple by a mob led by Islamic clerics in Dalbandin town of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province yesterday, reports reaching here said today.

Security has been beefed up with the deployment of paramilitary forces in the affected areas where the situation was officially described as peaceful today with no reports of fresh violence.

Dalbandin police said Shaval Das, Chando Mal, Anand Lal and Sardar Dev Singh have been taken into custody.

Independent sources said a Hindu temple and at least nine houses of the community at a Hindu locality in the town were torched by a 5,000-strong mob when it came to know that four Hindus had distributed “parshad” wrapped in pages allegedly torn from the Quran.

The sources said the mob armed with batons sprinkled kerosene and torched the temple and the houses.Top

 

B’desh Oppn seeks early poll
From Atiqur Rahman
Tribune News Service

DHAKA, Oct 12 — Begum Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of the main Opposition political party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and leader of the Opposition in the Bangladesh Parliament has demanded parliamentary elections early next year. She made this demand during her meeting with Bangladesh President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed on Tuesday evening at Bangabhaban, the President’s house . She was accompanied by BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.

During her 75-minute meeting with the President she expressed concern over law and order situation. Party sources told this correspondent that she sought help of Mr Ahmed in nabbing miscreants involved in kidnapping her party leader of Laksmipur district last month. He was allegedly kidnapped by ruling party armed cadres of the area. His whereabouts are still not known and feared to have been killed. The President said that the situation could be improved with cooperation of all political parties.

The term of the present Parliament ends on July 13, 2001. The Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina will have to hand over power to a caretaker government headed by immediate past Chief Justice of Bangladesh to hold elections within 90 days. The parliamentary elections are likely to be held in September next year.

The Opposition four-party alliance led by the BNP does not want to allow the Awami League to complete its full term of five years nor allow arch rival Awami League to get the chance of spending new funds for development before the next poll. The funds will be available in the next budget that will be passed by the June 30 next year.

The alliance comprising the BNP, a faction of the Jatiya Party headed by ousted president H.M.Ershad, Jamait-e-Islami known for fundamentalist stands and another pro-Islamic political combine Islami Oikyo Jote, has launched street agitations demanding the resignation of the Awami League government.

Recently, the BNP and its allies threw a programme of agitation protesting security blockade of road preventing Ms Khaleda Zia to reach a flood affected area in southwestern Satkhira district. The BNP announced the programme of visit by the opposition leader which would have clashed with the scheduled visit by Prime Minister to the same area. The Opposition alleged that Khaleda Zia was prevented from distributing relief to the affected people. The ruling party in reply said that she could go later but returned to the capital. Though no official version was given, media reports said that the BNP changed the programme of Begum Zia just to create a confusion. 
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Discovery launched at last

CAPE CANAVERAL, Oct 12 (Reuters) — Space shuttle Discovery roared off the launch pad yesterday on an ambitious construction mission to the International Space Station, marking the 100th launch of the US Shuttle programme.

Discovery’s seven astronauts have a complex and difficult job ahead of them, adding two new segments to the $ 60 billion orbiting research outpost and conducting four spacewalks on consecutive days.

Rain and dark clouds moved away from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre about an hour before launch, ending a week of frustration for the launch team as bad weather and hardware surprises kept the orbiter grounded.

Veteran astronaut and shuttle commander Brian Duffy was at the controls as Discovery began its nine-minute climb to orbit. To his right was rookie shuttle pilot Pam Melroy — the third woman in nearly 20 years of shuttle history to take that seat.

In Discovery’s cargo bay were two new segments of the fledgling space station. The first is a new docking port to be used on future shuttle missions. The second is the base piece of an enormous array of solar-panelled “wings” that will eventually spread over the entire station.Top

 

Pension for overseas Pakistanis?

DUBAI, Oct 12 (UNI) — The Pakistan Government has shelved a long-standing plan to give overseas Pakistanis the right to vote but is working on a pension scheme for them.

The plan to give right to vote has been dropped to “avoid any division in the ranks of the Pakistanis abroad”, according to Pakistan Minister for Labour and Overseas Pakistanis Omer Asghar Khan.

Mr Khan said the proposal was examined at a recent meeting of the Pakistani Cabinet. It was eventually rejected on the ground that it could do more harm than good to the Pakistanis living abroad.

However, the government was seriously working on a pension scheme for the overseas Pakistanis. Top

 

Pak order on chemical arms

ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (PTI) — Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar has promulgated an ordinance prohibiting production, development, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.

The ordinance which extends to the whole of the country has come into force at once.

Under the ordinance, no person would be allowed to develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain a chemical weapon, they said.

Also no person can transfer, directly or indirectly, a chemical weapon to anyone, use a chemical weapon, engage in any military preparations to use a chemical weapon, assist, encourage or induce any other person to engage in any activity prohibited to a state party under the convention or use a riot control agent as a method of warfare.

The violator would be guilty of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to 25 years.
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WORLD BRIEFS

US sanctions on Cuba to be eased
WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 340-75 to loosen the nearly 40-year-old sanctions against Cuba and allow the USA to sell food and medicine to the Communist Caribbean island country. The legislation, which President Clinton has said he will sign despite his opinion that it does not go far enough, will next undergo a vote in the Senate. — DPA

700 evacuated from burning ferry
MANILA:
Hundreds of passengers were evacuated from a large Philippine inter-island ferry on Thursday after a fire broke out on board, officials said. All of the 700 passengers on board the ship, the super ferry 6, were safe and the fire was under control, officials of the shipping company said. — AP

Ruby rush in Vietnam village
HANOI:
A village in central Vietnam resembles a bomb site after more than 1,000 people rushed there to dig for fortunes following rumours of a major gemstone find, a newspaper reported. Dozens of people were killed in the mountain village of Chau Binh in Nghe, a province in the early 1990s when mines collapsed in a previous ruby rush, the newspaper said on Wednesday. — Reuters

Condom donation to help fight AIDS
TAIPEI: Taiwan plans to donate six million condoms to Liberia in answer to the World Health Organisation’s call to fight AIDS in Africa, a Foreign Ministry official has said. The condoms will be sent to Liberia by a Taiwan non-governmental organisation. Taiwan also plans to help Chad control and prevent the spread of AIDS. — DPA

13 slaughtered after family row
SHANGHAI:
A Chinese man, apparently infuriated by a family row, killed 13 persons, most of them relatives, before committing suicide, the Xinmin Evening News said. The man, identified only as Jia, went on the rampage during a seven-day national day holiday last week, killing his wife, two sons, his father — and mother-in-law, an aunt, his brother and sister-in-law and their son and daughter. — Reuters

Box to stop shoes smelling
LONDON:
A new shoebox promises to stop shoes from smelling by suffocating germs with nitric oxide gas, New Scientist Magazine has said. “The idea is that you’d put the trainers in the box and activate them every few weeks”, said Noel Benjamin, Professor of clinical pharmacology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, under whose supervision the device was developed by a student, Robin Gilbert.— Reuters

French adventurer makes history
SYDNEY: A French adventurer has made history long after his death following the discovery by an Australian linguist that he was probably the first white man ever to walk across Australia. Henri Gilbert’s recently translated diary reveals he completed the 4,800-km trek from Fremantle in the west to Brisbane in the east in 16 months, arriving without fanfare or reward in December, 1898. In all probably, it would have been forgotten by history, but for a chance discovery by a University of Queensland linguist, Dr Colin Dyer. — AFP
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