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| Tuesday, October 31, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Barak still working on emergency govt 5 Palestinians die in clashes JERUSALEM, Oct 30 — Prime Minister Ehud Barak appealed to Israeli politicians today to put aside petty politics, just hours before a session of Parliament at which he was expected to face stormy criticism. USA backs Kosovo’s freedom SC judge killed in ETA bomb blast |
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Permanent stay in
space from today CAPE CANAVERAL, Oct 30 — If all goes well, today will be the last day for mankind as a strictly terrestrial species. Man will take up permanent residency in space, a dream for a generation of space sojourners and the stuff of science fiction for even longer. 2 sisters killed to save honour N. Irish pact faces turmoil Gore rallies support in
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| Peru mobilises army
to check rebellion LIMA, Oct 30 — The Peruvian army mobilised troops in the far south of the country to suppress a revolt by a Lieutenant Colonel and around 50 soldiers, who took control of a copper mine, army sources said. Russia bids farewell to Kursk sailors EU, Russia to develop strategic partnership
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Barak still working on
emergency govt JERUSALEM, Oct 30 (Reuters, AFP) — Prime Minister Ehud Barak appealed to Israeli politicians today to put aside petty politics, just hours before a session of Parliament at which he was expected to face stormy criticism. Mr Barak’s office said in a statement that he was pushing ahead with efforts to forge an emergency coalition government to tackle a wave of clashes with the Palestinians, despite a failure to agree terms with the main opposition, Likud party. “The Prime Minister added that he is acting to widen the government as the emergency situation demands that we all put aside our petty politics,’’ the statement said. It said Mr Barak was ready to resume talks with the Palestinians if the violence stopped and they carried out the terms of an agreement to end violence which was reached in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh two weeks ago. Mr Barak has lost his majority in parliament following criticism of his handling of the peace process and hopes a “national emergency government” would increase his chances of surviving any no-confidence vote called in Parliament. An Israeli army officer was wounded during an explosion and a gunbattle in the mostly Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip early this morning, an army spokeswoman said. She said the officer was wounded in the blast beside an Israeli army patrol. The incident occurred near the Palestinian-ruled town of Rafah adjacent to the Israeli-Egyptian border. The incident began when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the patrol, she said. The Israelis returned fire and the explosion took place, lightly wounding the officer. At least 146 people have been killed in more than a month of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Palestinians demand an end to Israel’s continued occupation of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to reports reaching here, a Palestinian died hours after being shot during clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Jenin. Bilal Jamal Abu Salah, 20, was the fifth Palestinian to pass away yesterday. Meanwhile, Israel said today that it would hold Syria, the main power in Lebanon, responsible for any attacks on Israel from Lebanon by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla group. Meanwhile, an Israeli guard shot at close range in Arab East Jerusalem by a gunman, believed to be a Palestinian, died of his wounds and a second remained in serious condition, a hospital official said. Hadassah hospital Director Zvi Stern told Israel’s Channel One television: “One was killed and one was seriously wounded.’’ The police said a youth shot the guards at a branch of the Israeli National Insurance Institute (NII) before fleeing. A police spokesman said the shooting was apparently carried out by a Palestinian with a nationalist motive. The incident took place in the midst of the second month of fierce West Bank and Gaza unrest which Palestinians call the Al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising), named after Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. Palestinians said a man had been stabbed and was found in an Israeli-controlled area adjacent to the Jewish settlement of Cilo. They found the body between Gilo and the Aida Palestinian refugee camp near the West Bank village of Beit Jala. BEIRUT (DPA): Lebanon today called for a German mediation in efforts to obtain the release of four Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas. Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri said after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Beirut would welcome a German mediation to seek the release of “the Israeli soldiers who were captured on Lebanese soil in exchange for the Lebanese prisoners and others still held in Israeli jails’’. Hezbollah guerrillas on October 7 captured the three Israeli soldiers in the area of Shebaa on the border with Israel. A week later the group said it also captured an Israeli army colonel. Asked if Germany was willing to mediate, Mr Berri said: “I sensed a German willingness (to take over) such a role, but such a stance will not be announced openly.” |
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USA backs Kosovo’s freedom The USA is ready to break ranks with its NATO partners by conceding for the first time that Kosovo can become independent from Serbia. The shift in policy, discussed in secret talks this month between US special envoy Richard Holbrooke and American diplomats in the Balkans, will anger other NATO members and risks creating a rift with Russia, which retains close ties with Serbia. The change of direction emerged in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, as votes were being counted yesterday after the province’s first democratic election. The three big Kosovan Albanian parties all stood on a pro-independence platform. The Kosovan Serbs almost unanimously boycotted the election. NATO and the UN Security Council have maintained that, in spite of the NATO-led war last year that forced Serbian troops out of the province, Kosovo should remain a sovereign part of Yugoslavia. British officials recently ruled out independence as an option, claiming further fragmentation in the Balkans would increase instability and that a state as small as Kosovo would be unsustainable. A UN Security Council resolution, 1244, passed in June last year at the end of the war, reaffirmed “the commitment of all member-states to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’’. But a senior US source in Pristina, who had spent the previous week with Mr Holbrooke, for the first time disputed the widely held interpretation of the resolution. He said that 1244 “explicitly recognises the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia but it does not mean Kosovo cannot be independent’’. US government lawyers have spent the past few weeks looking at the resolution in detail and concluded it did not rule out independence. The US source agreed that independence was fast becoming a reality on the ground because almost half the Kosovan Serbs had left the province and the Kosovo Albanians were setting up their own judicial and political system. Acknowledging that a few Kosovo Albanians were prepared to consider even a loose federation with Belgrade, he said: “Kosovo will not be pushed back into Serbia.’’ The USA is unlikely to go public on its policy switch in the near future to avoid undermining Yugoslavia’s new democratically elected President, Vojislav Kostunica. The loss of Kosovo, which is an important historical symbol for Serbia, would inflame Serbian nationalist hardliners. The US source ruled out partition, in which the northern part of the province, which is predominantly populated by Serbs, would join Serbia while the rest of the country, mainly Kosovo Albanians, would enter into a Greater Albania. He said: “We did not carry out an air campaign to validate this kind of ethnic cleansing.’’ He hoped the Kosovo Serbs and Albanians could reach an accommodation. “They will never be friends sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya but they will learn to live with one another.’’ — The Guardian, London |
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SC judge killed in ETA bomb blast MADRID, Oct 30 (Reuters) — A car bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group, ETA, killed a Spanish Supreme Court judge, his driver and his bodyguard today in what should be ETA’s bloodiest attack since it ended a truce last year. The explosion tore through Arturo Soria district of Madrid during the morning rush hour, setting fire to a passenger bus, destroying dozens of cars and ripping down the facades of buildings. “It’s like a scene out of Dante’s Inferno”, an emergency services spokesman said. Among the dead was Judge Jose Francisco Querol, a 69-year-old magistrate responsible for military hearings at the Supreme Court, a court source said. The judge, his driver and bodyguard were burnt to death in their car, the state radio said. At least one person, the driver of the municipal bus that was stopped near the scene of the blast, was seriously injured, officials said. Twenty-two others were also reported hurt. The most serious of the injured were rushed to local hospitals while those with less severe wounds were treated at the scene at a makeshift field hospital. |
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Permanent stay in space from today CAPE CANAVERAL, Oct 30 (Reuters) — If all goes well, today will be the last day for mankind as a strictly terrestrial species. Man will take up permanent residency in space, a dream for a generation of space sojourners and the stuff of science fiction for even longer. At the Russian-owned cosmodrome near Baikonur, Kazakhstan, three astronauts — Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov and their American commander, Bill Shepherd — are in final preparations for their launch on Tuesday to the International Space Station, in orbit some 230 miles (368 km) above earth. They will arrive aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, not a US space shuttle as other crews have. And unlike previous visitors, they will not leave after a week. Their stay is supposed to last about four months, longer if NASA’s ambitious launch schedule slips. In the end, they will be swapped for another crew — this one with two Americans and a Russian commander — who will arrive on a space shuttle. Other “Expedition Crews” will follow, rotating one after another until the $60 billion station is finished, sometime in 2006 or later. After that, the crews will get larger, the stays perhaps longer. The station is designed to last at least 10 years, but could last 25 or more, and then be replaced by a newer, bigger station. Expeditions to the moon or Mars may be launched from there. The challenges to permanency begin soon after the Soyuz makes its robotic docking on Thursday. Shepherd and his crew will have just enough oxygen to keep them alive two days. They will not be able to cook their food or flush the toilet. The air conditioner will not work. |
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2 sisters killed to save honour MURIDKE (Pakistan), Oct 30 (AP) — With an older cousin at his side, 15-year-old Asif Ali Hussain took a small axe and slashed the throats of his two sleeping sisters. The sisters were killed earlier this month in their rural Punjab home in Pakistan because they were seen talking with boys other than their relatives, according to both their brother and father. Hussein, who was interviewed last week in jail, said his sisters, Firdous, 21, and Najma, 20, had dishonoured the family by publicly talking with men other than their relatives. “When my sisters were sleeping in their room, I attacked them with my cousin. We were carrying axes and we used these weapons to cut their necks,” he said in an interview with the Associate Press from his jail cell in Sheikhupura, about 40 km from the Punjab capital of Lahore. “The killing of two morally corrupt sisters was better to be done sooner than later,” he said. Although both boys are in police custody, neither has so far been charged. Sheikhupura police chief Saud Aziz said the case was under investigation. |
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N. Irish pact faces turmoil BELFAST, Oct 30 (Reuters) — Northern Ireland’s shaky peace process plunged back into turmoil amid fury from Roman Catholic parties over heightened Protestant pressure for IRA disarmament. Protestant leader David Trimble appeared on a collision course with pro-Irish Catholic partners who described his barring of Republican ministers from an all-Ireland ministerial council as provocative and a recipe for disaster last evening. Trimble’s action — aimed at penalising the ministers for the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) failure to shed its weaponry — helped him win a crucial vote to keep alive his coalition with Roman Catholic Republicans. Guerrilla truces are holding in the troubled province. But in an echo of violence that used to haunt Northern Ireland a man was shot dead in a Protestant zone in Belfast late on Saturday. The police said it had not yet established a motive. Trimble accused Republicans of welching on an undertaking to disarm under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace accord. “Failing to keep your word is not a cost-free option. I gave them plenty of warning about this, publicly and privately. So, no excuses please from Sinn Fein,’’ he said on BBC Television. Trimble, leader of the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), said he was “not walking away’’ from power sharing. He told the BBC he wanted “devolution’’ — provincial home-rule under British sovereignty — and disarmament by the province’s guerrilla groups. “But we are also saying to Republicans that you can’t do nothing and get away with it”, he said . Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political ally, on Saturday branded Trimble’s sanction ‘’a recipe for disaster’’ and a key Catholic moderate, Seamus Mallon, criticised it as a provocation. Ireland’s Foreign Minister Brian Cowen voiced concern, but Britain’s Northern Ireland’s Secretary Peter Mandelson urged Catholic parties not to overreact. Trimble imposed the sanction on Sinn Fein in a formula that won support in the UUP and kept the fragile cross-community coalition alive for the time being. |
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Gore rallies support in Michigan MUSKEGON, (Mich), Oct 30 (Reuters) — A crowd of more than 15,000 turned out in downtown Muskegon, Michigan, late last night to cheer Democrat Al Gore in the home stretch of the 2000 White House race. “Are you ready to win on November 7?” The Vice-President asked, drawing sustained cheers and applause from the largely union gathering. With nine days to go before the election day, Mr Gore travelled by bus yesterday across much of Michigan, where polls show the Vice-President and Republican foe George W. Bush running neck and neck. “This race is dead even,” Mr Gore said. “Michigan may very well be the deciding state in determining the direction of our country in the future.” “Are you with me?” He asked, drawing more cheers. |
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Peru mobilises army to check rebellion LIMA, Oct 30 (AFP) — The Peruvian army mobilised troops in the far south of the country to suppress a revolt by a Lieutenant Colonel and around 50 soldiers, who took control of a copper mine, army sources said. The leader of the rebel soldiers, Lt-Col Ollanta Humala Tasso, declared in a statement broadcast by several radio stations that President Alberto Fujimori was no longer a legitimate ruler. Calling on other members of the military to join his revolt, Humala Tasso also denounced Fujimori’s former secret police chief Vladimiro Montesino. The changes made by the President to the top command of the army, the navy and the air force on Saturday had not eliminated Montesino’s influence, the rebel officer said. An army helicopter and trucks carrying troops left the towns of Tacna and Arequipa in pursuit of the rebel soldiers. Military sources in the Capital said there was no reliable information regarding to the whereabouts of Humala Tasso and nearly 50 soldiers accompanying him. He was known to have left Toquepala with a bus belonging to the company which controls the mine, and with three mine employees and Humala Tasso’s Commanding Officer Gen Oscar Bardales as hostages, the army sources said. Around 100 persons gathered in two peaceful demonstrations in the Capital to express support for the rebel officer. |
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Russia bids farewell to Kursk sailors MURMANSK (Russia), Oct 30 (Reuters) — Russians yesterday bid a final farewell to the 118 sailors lost aboard the nuclear submarine Kursk, united in sorrow more than two months after the vessel sank in the Arctic Barents Sea. Four armoured cars carried the bodies of four unidentified sailors, raised from the Kursk by divers during the past week, to Courage Square in the centre of the Northern Fleet’s base at Severomorsk. News that several more bodies had been brought up on Sunday from the submarine, lying 100 metres down on the sea bed, deepened the drama of the memorial ceremony attended by several hundred people. London (ANI): Divers have retrieved eight more bodies from the Kursk submarine taking the total number to 12. Divers bored a hole in compartment adjacent to the rearmost ninth section of the submarine and pulled out the bodies from there.
EU, Russia to develop strategic partnership PARIS, Oct 30 (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders today vowed at a Paris summit to develop their strategic partnership and agreed that the conflict in Chechnya should be resolved politically. In a joint statement, Mr Putin and French counterpart Jacques Chirac — whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency — stressed their “shared commitment to European security and stability” and their commitment to boost Russia’s “strategic partnership” with the rest of Europe. The leaders said in a statement that Russia and the EU planned to work together “to promote cooperation in dealing with crises and boost consultations on defense and security issues”. They also broached the sensitive issue of Moscow’s crackdown in Chechnya and agreed on the need to find a political solution to the conflict in the rebel Caucasus republic. “We believe that the stand taken by Mr Chirac and the European Union is the only possible stand, because putting an end to inter-ethnic and inter-regional conflicts can only be reached politically,” Mr Putin said. Mr Prodi hailed the statement, saying: “For the first time in a joint text, there is a clear commitment in favour of a political solution in Chechnya.” “We don’t want to relive the division of our continent and the cold war,” said Mr Chirac, whose country has been highly critical of Moscow’s crackdown in rebel Chechnya.
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Five Ahmadis shot dead LAHORE, Oct 30 (Reuters) — Gunmen opened fire at a prayer meeting of the banned Ahmadia sect of Islam in Pakistan’s central province of Punjab today, killing five persons and injuring 12, the police said. They said the four unidentified armed men opened fire at the early morning prayer meeting at Qila Kalarwalla village near the border town of Sialkot, about 130 km north-east of
Lahore.
Lanka violence COLOMBO, Oct 30 (UNI) — Five Lankan soldiers and four terrorists were among 11 persons killed in sporadic clashes between security personnel and Tamil Liberation Tigers in the embattled North and East regions.
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