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| Thursday, November 30, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Bush rebuffs Gore on
statewide recount plea Israeli House votes for fresh poll Prabhakaran’s initiative hailed Lockerbie trial |
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50th Miss World
contest today Papuan leader held Bangladesh may expel
Pak diplomat
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Bush rebuffs Gore on statewide recount plea washington,
Nov 29 (afp, Reuters) — the us presidential election remained mired in legal wrangling today after Democrat Al Gore’s yet another appeal for a statewide vote recount was rebuffed by Republican George W Bush, who forged ahead with transition plans. Gore fired off a new demand for a vote recount as Bush aides insisted that the contested White House race was over and legal guns for both sides clashed in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. In the first good news for the Democratic Vice-President since Bush was certified winner in Florida on Sunday, a circuit judge ordered Florida ballot boxes to be delivered under police guard to his court. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls said the ballots from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, as well as a voting machine, must arrive at his court by 5 p.m. on Friday (3.30 a.m.
IST). He scheduled a hearing for Saturday. Earlier, shrugging off polls suggesting the public may be tiring of the fight, Gore offered a way out of the legal morass, saying a quick and painless recount would resolve all disputes. “Seven days, starting tomorrow, for a full and accurate count of all the votes,” Gore said. Bush’s team turned Gore down flat. Speaking in Austin, Texas, where Bush pressed ahead with plans for his presidential transition, spokeswoman Karen Hughes charged: “Gore wants to go back and change the rules after the counting is over.” Texas Governor’s running mate, Richard Cheney, said he would concede the election, if he were in Gore’s shoes. Florida declared Bush the winner of its election by 537 votes on Sunday, with two hand recounts incomplete, giving the Texas Governor its 25 electoral votes and the keys to the White House. With the legal battle intensifying, Bush’s lawyers blasted a challenge by Gore’s lawyers to the disputed Florida vote. “We believe that the election contest is without legal substance,” senior Bush lawyer Barry Richard said in Tallahassee, where he is opposing Gore’s legal challenges to the vote tally. Circuit Judge Sauls, however, hearing the challenge to results in three counties, gave Gore a partial victory by ordering thousands of disputed ballots be brought to his court. He, however, refused a request that the ballots — about 10,000 from Miami-Dade and 3,300 from Palm Beach — be counted. Gore’s top lawyer David Boies maintained that the disputed ballots had to be counted as quickly as possible and told reporters after Sauls’ ruling that he would likely appeal it, asking for a hearing tomorrow to decide whether the ballots should be tallied. Last night, Bush’s lawyers urged the US Supreme Court to bring a “lawful, final and conclusive resolution’’ of the presidential election, while Democrat Al Gore’s legal team dismissed Mr Bush’s claims as “insubstantial.” Both sides submitted 50 pages of written arguments ahead of the historic high court hearing over the disputed Florida presidential election, a case which could help determine whether Mr Bush or Mr Gore wins the White House. Mr Bush’s lawyers urged the nation’s top court to set aside a ruling that extended Florida’s deadline for reporting hand-counted ballots in the state’s presidential vote, while Mr Gore’s lawyers said the decision should be upheld. Attorneys for the Vice-President, led by Harvard University law Professor Laurence Tribe, said the Florida Supreme Court acted with its authority under state law in its ruling. “This dispute over the Florida Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Florida election code is a state-law case that, despite its undoubted importance, does not belong in federal court,” he said. AUSTIN: Governor George W. Bush is “on track” in planning a new federal government, one that would include Democrats in key positions, his aides are suggesting. Still, continuing legal clouds are subduing some of Bush’s optimism. “We are now in uncharted waters,” Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said. “We’re in an unprecedented period where a presidential candidate is going to court essentially to try to contest and overturn the results of an election that has now been certified.” She told reporters during an afternoon briefing at campaign headquarters that Mr Bush continues to insist he not be called “president elect” because of the current court challenges by Democratic rival Al Gore. |
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Israeli House votes for fresh poll JERUSALEM, Nov 29 (DPA, Reuters) — Israel’s parliament voted by a large majority late yesterday to dissolve itself and hold fresh elections shortly after Prime Minister Ehud Barak surprised the Knesset by saying he was ready for new elections. Mr Barak’s announcement that he was not afraid of a new vote came after it became clear that the Opposition had gathered enough support to oust him over what it considers his botched handling of the past two months of Palestinian unrest. “You want elections? I’m ready for elections,’’ Mr Barak said, trying to steal the Opposition’s thunder before the Knesset vote. After four hours of heated debate, 66 to 79 representatives voted in favour of the five motions presented by the right-wing Likud party while three lawmakers voted against. Representatives from the government coalition abstained from the vote after Mr Barak’s speech. Although polls indicated a majority of Palestinians favour the peace process with the Palestinians, Mr Barak and his party are expected to lose an immediate vote to hard-liners Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon. Mr Barak said the date of new elections would be set in the next few days. Meanwhile, extreme right-wing Israelis have threatened the lives of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, Avraham Dichter, head of the Shin Bet internal security organisation has revealed. Israel Radio, which reported the security chief’s remarks on today, said there was no “pinpoint threat” to the lives of the two men, but the organisation was relating to the matter “with all gravity’’. Dichter also revealed that the Shin Bet had increased its surveillance of radical right-wing Israeli settlers to ensure that no underground organisation is being formed to attack Palestinians. The Israeli Ha’aretz daily reported, however, that Dichter told the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that he found no evidence of a rumoured right-wing Israeli underground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. RAMALLAH (West Bank):
Palestinian officials said on Tuesday that they hoped an early general election in Israel would pave the way to a change in Israeli policy towards the Palestinians. Some officials said they feared an election campaign could deal a new blow to peacemaking and increase Israeli-Palestinian tension, already high after two months of a Palestinian uprising in which more than 280 persons have been killed. GAZA:
Israeli soldiers yesterday shot and killed two Palestinians during continuing confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. In Gaza City, sources said Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy during confrontations at Karni commercial passage east of the city, adding that the boy was shot in the head. Palestinian medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said another 14-year-old Palestinian boy died of wounds he incurred three days earlier during confrontations with Israeli soldiers in Rafah town in southern Gaza. The source said Israeli tanks shot three missiles at armed Palestinians who opened fire at the Israeli soldiers on the borders between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. The medical sources said at least 13 persons were shot and injured during the confrontations in several areas in Gaza and the West Bank. Four were said to be in serious condition, including a 13-year-old boy who was clinically dead. Meanwhile, Israeli tanks fired heavily upon several Palestinian houses in Rafah, leaving 15 persons injured. Israel said the tanks opened fire after armed Palestinians opened fire on the Israeli soldiers. |
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Prabhakaran’s initiative hailed COLOMBO, Nov 29 (Reuters) — Sri Lanka’s state media today praised a speech by the leader of the Tamil separatists, saying that it was a major step toward starting a peace process to end nearly two decades of bitter ethnic strife. ‘‘It is thus apparent that a sizeable hurdle to the launching of peace negotiations has been removed,’’ the government-owned Daily News said in an editorial two days after LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran said he was willing to talk to the government without preconditions. ‘‘By not insisting on preconditions to the talks, the LTTE leader has effected a breakthrough of sorts in beginning negotiations because it was the position of the government that there would be no ceasefire prior to talks,’’ the editorial said. Prabhakaran, in an annual speech honouring rebels who have died fighting for a separate Tamil state in the North and East, dropped his previous conditions that there be a troop withdrawal and a ceasefire before talks. That has boosted the hopes for a negotiated end to the war which has claimed more than 61,000 lives since 1983. The newspaper also said there should be a positive response to LTTE’s call from the government. Although Prabhakaran said there were no preconditions, he did call for the lifting of an economic embargo on a rebel-held area in the North, saying that ‘‘it will create a better atmosphere for any talks’’. |
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Lockerbie
trial camp zeist
(the netherlands), Nov 29
(afp) — The Scottish judges hearing the Lockerbie bombing trial today turned down a plea from one of the two Libyan suspects, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, that he be acquitted for lack of evidence. Yesterday, Fhimah’s lawyer asked the court to throw out the case against his client, on the grounds that the evidence presented against him was purely circumstantial. “We have come to the view that having regard to certain entries in the accused’s diary, to his association with the first accused... and crucially to the evidence of Abdul Majid Giaka, we are unable to decide there is no case to answer,” presiding judge Lord Sutherland said. Fhimah and Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi are accused of planting a bomb on Pan Am flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, killing 270 persons. As per the evidence presented by prosecution, Fhimah was shown to have made entries in his diary reminding himself to acquire Air Malta luggage tags a few days before the attack. |
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LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) — The Miss World Contest will celebrate its 50th birthday tomorrow before a two billion television audience. Miss Venezuela is 6-1 favourite to capture the crown at London’s Millennium Dome. Miss India is closely challenging at 7-1 and the odds on Miss Spain have tumbled from 25-1 to 66-1. The pageant has been revamped for the 21st century. The pageant was founded in 1951 by impresario Eric Morley for the Festival of Britain. Enraged feminists had stormed the stage in the 1970s and pelted the host, comedian Bob Hope, with flour bombs. But many contestants of today are serious young women. Miss Costa Rica works as an industrial engineer. Miss India is studying to be a clinical psychologist. Miss Belarus is eager to push back the boundaries of maths theory. |
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Papuan leader held Jakarta, Nov 29 (dpa)
— Police in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Irian Jaya today arrested
Papuan independence leader Theys Hiyo Eulay for his alleged role in fomenting rebellion. Demyanus
Wakman, a legal activist in Jayapura, the capital of Irian Jaya, confirmed that
Theys will be put in detention after police named him as suspect in a rebellion case. "The police had already issued an arrest warrant which has been signed by
Theys as well as his defence lawyers,’’ Wakman told dpa
by telephone. Residents and legal activists said the situation in the province was tense. Separatist groups plan to stage protests there on
December 1 to mark what they claim was a declaration of independence from
Dutch colonial rule in 1961. Bangladesh
may expel Pak diplomat DHAKA, Nov 29 — Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad, reacting to the remarks made by Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner at a seminar on Monday, said that the diplomat’s remarks “were extremely provocative in nature and uncalled for”. He condemned such arrogant remarks. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has handed over a note verbale to Pakistani High Commissioner Iqbal Ahmed Khan who was summoned again on Tuesday. MOFA officials hinted to the media that they are awaiting response from Islamabad. The Prime Minister’s Office and MOFA officials are examining the possibility of expelling Mr Irfan Raza, Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan, a career diplomat, if he is not withdrawn by the Pakistan Government. |
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