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| Friday,
November 3, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Palestine, Israel
announce truce Soyuz docks with
ISS Suharto’s son to be jailed
today Gore, Bush attack each other’s base |
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Humble hero cares for
sick, dead UN okays N-test
ban timetable Reyat may not face
murder charges
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Palestine, Israel
announce truce JERUSALEM, Nov 2 (Reuters) — Israel and the Palestinians said today they had agreed on steps to end their bloodiest clashes in years. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s office issued a dramatic pre-dawn announcement saying former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had clinched an accord during a late-night, two-hour meeting in Gaza city. Mr Barak’s office in a statement said a two-hour meeting between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres had yielded an agreement to implement a US-brokered ceasefire, forged at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last month. “An understanding was reached between Israel and the Palestinian authority on a series of steps on the basis of the Sharm understanding that were due to lead to the renewal of security cooperation and a halt to the violence and incitement,” Mr Barak’s office said in the statement. “The two leaders will call on the forces and their own sides - anyone in the field - to stop, ceasefire and reduce the violence, return home and stop the incitement,” Gilead Sher, head of Barak’s office, told Israeli Army Radio. A statement read on Palestinian radio and television by Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called on Palestinians to protest only peacefully in their struggle with Israel for an independent state. “The Palestinian leadership calls on our people...just to demonstrate within the context of popular demonstrations and stick to peaceful means in its just struggle to obtain our firm, national and legitimate rights,” Abed Rabbo said. Four hours before the joint announcement was due, Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli troops had shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a stone-throwing protest in the West Bank village of Hizma. Another Palestinian died of a gunshot wound in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said, raising to 165 the number of people killed in five weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Almost all of the dead have been Palestinians. Israel’s army spokesman, Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey, said troops had received orders to withdraw tanks and lift closures on Palestinian cities. “The appropriate orders have been given — not only to shoot...but also to withdraw the heavy armour and lift the closures around Palestinian communities,” he told Army radio. The army said Israeli and Palestinian commanders were already meeting in the West Bank. Witnesses said Israel had withdrawn tanks from positions at the flashpoint Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip and from the entrance to the West Bank town of Ramallah. Journalists at another Gaza troublespot, the Netzarim Junction, said Palestinian police tried to stop young protesters from throwing stones at an Israeli army outpost and had loaded many of the youths onto trucks to take them from the area. The United States of America, the main West Asia peace broker, said it had been informed of the understanding by both sides. “It’s a welcome development and we’ll be looking for full compliance by both sides,’’ White House National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Hours earlier, Israel’s cabinet drew up a battle plan to crack down on the Palestinians after three of its soldiers died in gunfights yesterday. It was the country’s heaviest one-day casualty toll of the unrest. Six Palestinians were also killed in Wednesday’s battles. A senior Palestinian official said a commission of inquiry into the violence would be arranged with the USA within two days as well as arrangements to resume peace talks. A terse Barak statement said the sides had agreed to implement a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, forged in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last month. “An understanding was reached between Israel and the Palestinian authority on a series of steps on the basis of the Sharm understanding that are due to lead to the renewal of security cooperation and a halt to the violence and incitement.’’ Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said Arafat and Barak were both expected in the USA next week. He told army radio they would not meet each other, but U.S. President Bill Clinton might seize the opportunity to try to revive peace moves suspended by Barak over the violence. In Gaza, the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, responsible for suicide attacks in Israel that have killed scores of people, said it would not honour the agreement. |
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Soyuz docks with ISS KOROLEV (Russia), Nov 2 (AFP) — An American and two Russians onboard a Soyuz spacecraft today docked with the International Space Station (ISS) bringing to life a ground-breaking 21st century space exploration programme. The Soyuz spacecraft carrying US astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts, Sergei Krikalyov and Yury Gidzenko, docked with the Zvezda module at 2.51 p.m. (IST), officials at Russian Mission Control said. The three-man crew, who will live on the ISS for four months, orbiting in space between 460 km and 381 km above the earth, are the first astronauts to take up residence on the floating space laboratory. The successful docking maneouvre met with a burst of applause and smiles among top officials at the Russian space flight control centre outside Moscow who had gathered to witness the historic mission’s arrival at the ISS. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we have made a start,” the head of manned flights at the Russian Space Agency, Mikhail Sinelchikov, told newsmen. The three wives of the crew, sitting together, were visibly nervous as mission control gave the countdown: “Five metres to go, four metres ...” before announcing that Soyuz had reached the ISS. A huge screen in a central hall of the space flight control centre in Korolev showed live pictures of the approach and docking. “I am happy and excited,” Betty Shepherd told AFP. Gidzenko’s wife Olga added: “I feel happy and proud for my husband.” After opening the hatches between Soyuz and the ISS, the crew will make their way to the station. Shepherd, Krikalyov and Gidzenko blasted off on Tuesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After years of delay caused by the cash crunch in Russia’s once-proud space programme, the astronauts’ arrival marks a major step forward in the ambitious 16-nation scheme to build a permanent outpost in space. Zvezda, which means star in Russian, will be the living and working quarters for the three-man crew. The other two existing modules on the ISS are Russian-built Zarya and the US-made Unity. The crew’s top priority was to make the station liveable, connecting the solar electricity and oxygen generating equipment, and checking all its systems and computers. When completed in 2006, the $ 60 to 100 billion space station will be the largest man-made structure in space, more than 100 metres long and weighing 450 tonnes, visible from earth. Expected to be in service until at least 2013, it will allow scientists to study the effects of prolonged space life on the human body, thus helping prepare future flights to Mars. The three astronauts will be replaced by a new crew, returning to earth in a US shuttle on February 24. |
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Suharto’s son to be jailed today JAKARTA, Nov 2 (DPA) — The son of former Indonesian President, Mr Suharto, today ignored summons to surrender himself to district prosecutors to begin serving an 18-month prison term for corruption. Mr Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, 38, a flamboyant business magnate, who came to symbolise the excesses of his father’s corrupt regime, has yet to serve a day in jail. Meanwhile President Abdurrahman Wahid signed a decree rejecting a pardon plea of Suharto’s youngest son over a graft conviction and officials said he could be jailed tomorrow. Officials said the decree rejecting Tommy’s request would be sent to the South Jakarta Attorney-General’s office, which handled his initial case. “Our plan is to execute the sentence tomorrow afternoon...after Friday prayers,’’ Mr Antasari Azhar, head of the South Jakarta AG’s office, told newsmen. Tommy’s conviction marks the first for any member of Suharto’s family over graft. Tommy has remained free pending his pardon plea. He has remained free by a series of tricky legal manoeuvres in which he admitted his guilt and asked President Abdurrahman Wahid for a Pardon, and professed his innocence by motioning the supreme court to review its decision. Tommy Suharto was ordered to appear at 10 A.M. At the South Jakarta Prosecutors Office, but his attorneys said legally he was not required to begin serving his sentence.
“According to the law, no decision can be made on him until the pardon has been decided,” attorney Nudirman Munir said. “Also the South Jakarta district court has decided to postpone the decision on Tommy.’’ |
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Gore, Bush attack each other’s base WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore vesterdy stormed through battleground states as Reuters/MSNBC polls showed the Vice-President with some momentum in the key states of Pennsylvania and Michigan. The latest Reuters/MSNBC national tracking poll showed the Texas Governor with a three-point lead over the Vice President — a two-point gain for Mr Gore over the past 24 hours. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was drawing 5 per cent, but still hurting Mr Gore in several states that the Vice-President badly needs to win, including Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. But Mr Gore was making a headway in some other key states, including Florida, which many analysts believe Mr Bush needs to win to be elected President. Mr Gore led by seven points in that state, according to the Reuters/MSNBC tracking poll. Mr Gore also increased his lead in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which could be highly significant if the trend persists. He led by nine points in Michigan and by six in Pennsylvania. Control of the House of Representatives and the Senate was also at stake in Tuesday’s election. A Reuters estimate of the fight for the 270 votes in the electoral college needed to win the presidency found Mr Bush with 217, Mr Gore with 207 and 114 still too close to call. Meanwhile the Gore campaign launched a new TV ad touting the Vice-President’s experience, but his advisers appeared to have rejected for now a full frontal assault on Mr Bush’s qualifications to be President.
“He has the experience to be President — a life of service, from the army in Vietnam to the Senate, where he broke with his own party to support the Gulf War,” the Gore ad said. |
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Humble hero cares for
sick, dead KARACHI, Nov 2 — In Karachi, if a 73-year-old man in a tatty grey salwar-kameez stands in the street at rush hour with a bag asking for donations, hundreds rush to give him money. In a country where everyone has an enemy, his name commands universal respect. This is Abdul Sattar Edhi, one of the most venerated and trusted men in Pakistan. He doesn’t like to socialise or talk to the press and he hasn’t much time for politicians. At his headquarters in Mithadar, downtown Karachi, Edhi is on 24-hour emergency duty dealing with the dead and the needy. He was nominated for a Nobel prize but asked for his nomination to be withdrawn; he hates acclaim and eats stale bread every day to remind himself of what he sees as his duty — social welfare. If he starts to experience feelings of self-importance, he purges himself by clearing drains and blocked sewers. Edhi sleeps in a sparse bedroom below street level. Grilled windows high in the wall at pavement level are the only source of natural light. The most noticeable item is this hygienic room is a large refrigerator containing medicines for his dispensary. One of the vaccine courses — 14 injections to combat rabies — is not available anywhere else in Karachi. Above the dispensary is a maternity unit and next to Edhi’s bedroom is a partially-covered area. By one wall is a large slightly concave stone slab, bigger than a single bed, flanked by hose pipes and water taps. This is the morgue, where some of his most important work is done; where bodies are washed down and prepared for burial. In Pakistan, sectarian strife, political and social warring factions, poor health facilities and natural disasters, all claim countless dead. Many bodies are left to decompose or are thrown on the streets in black rubbish bags. If families recover their dead, burial is mostly delayed while relatives from far-flung areas gather, and rituals are performed. Some bodies will be left to rot if their caste is inappropriate. Edhi spends a lot of time recovering bodies. Once he retrieved a nine-day-old baby boy from a well. The summer heat had cooked the flesh. From the sea, he rescues drowned bodies which have become so bloated they cannot be washed or embalmed without bursting. These bodies need urgent burial, but often families still want to delay last rites. Edhi is relentless in his pursuit of the neglected. He runs dispensaries all over Pakistan, providing medical camps for natural disasters like the Hong Kong flu epidemic in 1957. In 1978, he placed teams in Peshawar and Karachi to help with the refugees from the Afghan War. Edhi’s inspiration was his mother. She told him, “For every paisa that you earn, give one to the poor.” When she fell fatally ill, there was no ambulance service to take her to hospital. Edhi then bought an old van to start transporting the sick and dying. When Edhi was 18, he set up his dispensary in Mithadar in an old cabin with a wooden table. He drove the van-ambulance himself, 24 hours a day. To raise money, he sold the skins of goats sacrificed at the Muslim Eid festivals to help pay for doctors and medicines. He built the Edhi Foundation, a non-discriminatory charity whose accounts are available for public scrutiny. Today, there is no place in Pakistan without an Edhi unit; 5,000 centres are connected by a modern communication system and more than 800 ambulances; there is also an air ambulance service and the Edhi Foundation now covers inter-hospital transfers and rapid transportation of blood plasma and vital organs. — Observer News Service |
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UN okays N-test ban timetable UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2 (Reuters) — Japan has been successful in getting a key UN panel to approve a timetable for a global nuclear test ban and move towards a treaty banning the production of fissile materials. The resolution, co-sponsored by Australia, was adopted by a vote of 144-1 with 12 abstentions yesterday by the General Assembly’s disarmament committee, which includes all UN members, thereby ensuring a final formal passage by the Assembly later this year. The sole “no” vote was from India, which exploded its own nuclear device, and objects to any document that allows the five nuclear power to continue maintaining atomic arms. Among those voting in favour were the USA and Britain. The other three recognised nuclear weapon states, Russia, France and China, abstained on the resolution along with Bhutan, Cuba, North Korea, Egypt, Israel, Mauritius, Monaco, Myanmar and Pakistan. Japanese Ambassador Seichiro Noboru said Tokyo had sent delegations to the 14 countries that had not signed the CTBT to get some movement towards ratification of the treaty.
The resolution also says the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament is to start negotiations immediately on a treaty to ban the production of fissile materials used in nuclear weapons. It reconfirms the treaty should be concluded within five years. |
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Reyat may not face murder charges TORONTO, Nov 2 (AFP) —One of the suspects in the 1985 Air India bombing, Inderjit Singh Reyat, may never face murder charges because of a technicality in international law, CBC Radio reported. On Friday, the police named Reyat, who is serving a 10-year prison term for an explosion at Tokyo’s Narita Airport which killed two, as an unindicted co-conspirator in the bombing of Air India flight 182, which exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard.
That led many to wonder why the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) did not press charges against Reyat along with two other Sikh men, who were charged with eight counts related to the Air India bombing and Tokyo explosion. |
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