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| Friday, December 1, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Republicans may call
Florida House session Ultras’ alliance for peace talks:
Lone Pak-Bangla ties at lowest
ebb Iraq ‘ready’ to resume
talks with UN Torture rampant in
Bangladesh: Amnesty |
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Lending money
a crime: court US senators oppose world criminal
court More leave for Finnish
dads
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Republicans may call
Florida House session THEIR tempers becoming increasingly frayed, Republican politicians in Florida took action yesterday to ensure that George W Bush becomes President regardless of what happens to the court challenges to his declared election. With the clock ticking louder every minute towards the December 12 deadline, Democrat lawyers are pinning their hopes on Florida’s judges and the US Supreme Court. About 14,000 disputed ballots are due to be delivered by the police tomorrow in a security van to the judge hearing the case in Tallahassee. The Democrats want these votes counted and included in the total. But state politicians have started to flex their muscle by hinting that, whatever the courts decide, they will direct Florida’s members of the Electoral College to cast their 25 votes for Bush. A Republican-controlled committee spent a second day yesterday discussing whether to short-circuit the process by calling a special session of the state Legislature to appoint the electors who will vote for Bush. The state Senate and Congress are both controlled by Republicans. Tearful voters from Palm Beach county told the committee of their horror on realising that they had voted for the rightwing Reform Party candidate, Pat Buchanan, instead of Al Gore because of the confusing ``butterfly ballot’’ used in the county. One by one they urged the committee to consider that many voters had been disenfranchised, and not act hastily by effectively appointing Bush. It was further evidence that the Florida election has by any standards been inefficient and chaotic, or possibly worse. Spectators cheered as angry voters berated the committee’s 14 members for considering giving the state electors the authority to vote for Bush. “I certainly hope we are not here simply because the Bush campaign needs a backup plan in the event our courts indeed require every vote in Florida to be counted,’’ the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Mr Tom Rossin, said, voicing the Gore camp’s fear that Bush is being bounced into the presidency by spin doctors and political operators. A member of the public, the Rev Richard Harris, told the committee: ``Listen to the voice of the people.’’ If they appointed electors to give Bush the presidency they would be behaving ``no better than thieves’’. War veterans expressed anger that recounts might not take place. ``Bush is trying to steal the election,’’ Harry Abramovitch said to cheers. The Republicans looked increasingly uncomfortable as more evidence emerged that thousands of Gore voters had not had their ballots counted. The dilemma facing the Florida politicians is that it is usual for the Governor to authenticate the state electors, and the governor is George Bush’s brother, Jeb. The question of alleged intimidation of African- American voters is also being raised. (The Guardian) CHICAGO (AFP): Tenacious to the last, the indefatigable Al Gore remains unwavering in pursuit of his claim to the White House, but polls show that some of his more faint-hearted supporters are abandoning the cause. A handful of polls suggest that in the court of public opinion, the Vice-President is losing, if not the argument, then the support of a weary public, battered by months of round-the-clock election coverage. “He should concede and spend the next four years doing things that make him look like a good choice for President in 2004 and let Governor Bush shoot himself in the foot,” said Deanna Braunstein. The 38-year-old actress and choreographer from Treasure Island, Florida, voted for the Vice-President on November 7. But with no end in sight to the election squabbling some 20-odd days later, Braunstein is one of a growing number of battle-weary Americans who would like Gore to throw in the towel — more as a matter of expediency than principle. The number of Americans who want Gore to call it quits has jumped 10 per cent to 56 per cent in a little over a week, according to a CNN/USA Today poll released on Tuesday. An ABC NEWS/Washington Post survey found that 60 per cent wanted Gore to put an end to the divisive election saga — with 26 per cent of those being Gore supporters. |
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Ultras’ alliance for peace talks: Lone ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (AP) — An alliance of Kashmiri separatist groups wants to respect ceasefire and open peace talks with India, senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone has said. He told the Associated Press in an interview this week that separatists should do as the political wing does and agree to open talks with India. “We are trying to reach a consensus with Mujahedeen (holy warriors). They should not act as an independent force, but follow the political leadership,” said Lone, who was in Pakistan to attend the wedding of his son to the daughter of JKLF leader Amanullah Khan. Rebel groups, represented by the United Jehad Council, are headquartered in Pakistan and have outright rejected the ceasefire offer. They have also vowed to step up their attacks against the Indian troops in Kashmir. Lone was critical of the disjointed response to India’s month-long ceasefire offer from the political and military wings of the secessionist movement. The political and military wings gave conflicting statement with the Hurriyat Conference praising it as a beginning and the rebels dismissing it outright as a propaganda ploy by New Delhi. “We should consult before making decision so that Kashmiris do not appear as a divided house,” Lone said. He said the separatist movement was indigenous, although there were Pakistanis fighting in Kashmir. Pakistanis would make up about 20 per cent of the militants fighting in Kashmir. While his political colleagues were ready to talks to India, Lone said Pakistan had to eventually be brought to the negotiation table and India had to move from the position that Kashmir was an integral part of its country. “Kashmiris would have no option other then to keep the pot boiling if New Delhi sticks to its stand that Kashmir is an integral part of India,” he said. |
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Pak-Bangla ties at lowest
ebb DHAKA, Nov 30 — While demonstrations are continuing against the ‘audacious’ remarks by Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Irfan Raza about Bangladesh’s liberation war, the government is awaiting a response from Pakistan. The Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad, told newsmen today at a press briefing. Answering a question whether the errant diplomat would be expelled by Bangladesh as has been demanded by various organisations. The minister said a decision in this regard was in the process of being taken. Foreign Secretary C.M. Shafi Shami was present at the press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed over a note verbale to the Pakistani High Commissioner Iqbal Ahmed Khan who was summoned again on Tuesday. The Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry officials were examining the possibility of expelling Irfan Raza, Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner a career diplomat, if he is not withdrawn by Pakistan Government. The English daily, The Bangladesh Observer, hinted today. Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal demonstrators were stopped by the police near a market and were not allowed to go near the Pakistan High Commission this morning. The demonstrators burnt the Pakistani flag and demanded immediate expulsion of the diplomat. The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal burnt a Pakistan flag during a demonstration protesting the remark by the Pakistani diplomat. The leaders termed the remark as audacious and derogatory to Bangladesh’s independence war. The demonstrators also demanded expulsion of the diplomat. With this development, relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan have dipped to its lowest ebb. The Chief Executive of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, is not happy with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. the reasons are many. Immediately after taking over last year by Musharraf, the Bangladesh Prime Minister remarked that removal of an elected democratic government in an undemocratic manner was not acceptable. Again after publication of the Justice Hamidoor Rahman Commission report on the 1971 war that led to independence of Bangladesh, the Pakistan Government was requested to provide a copy of the report. But it declined to oblige. |
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Iraq ‘ready’ to resume talks with UN MOSCOW, Nov 30 (AFP) — Baghdad is ready to re-open cooperation with the UN, Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said during a “difficult” final round of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Russian Foreign Ministry officials said. “Tariq Aziz confirmed that the Iraqi leadership is ready to resume the dialogue with the UN,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement shown on the state-owned RTR Television yesterday. The dialogue “may be expected to start early next year,” he said, adding that Russia contributed greatly to Iraq’s decision. UNITED NATIONS: Russia submitted a draft resolution to the Security Council calling for an end to the UN arms embargo imposed on Yugoslavia in March, 1998, to halt the repression in Kosovo. The draft resolution, which applies to all parts of Yugoslavia, including Kosovo itself, would maintain the embargo on sales of arms and military equipment not intended for the use of the Yugoslav Government. Russia has accused the UN administration in Kosovo of bias in favour of the ethnic Albanian majority which, it says, has carried out murderous acts of revenge against the few Serbs.
DHAKA, Nov 30 (Reuters) — Amnesty International has said scores of people died in Bangladesh every year from torture in custody and political violence. “Victims can be children, women, the elderly, political dissidents, criminal suspects, or innocent bystanders,” Amnesty said in a report released yesterday. It said “widespread and persistent torture” had been routinely ignored by the government and political parties. “Neither the governments nor the opposition parties past and present have shown serious determination to confront the practice and prevent it,” the report said. Abbas Faiz, an Amnesty researcher who helped prepare the report, said at least 136 persons were killed and nearly 4,000 injured in political violence between May and October. |
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Lending money
a crime: court DUBAI, Nov 30 (UNI) — In an interesting judgement, a Dubai court has ruled that those who lend money and charge interest are criminals but those who borrow money are not. The court’s ruling came in a case in which a group of persons had borrowed money from an Indian, who was charging them interest. The Dubai court of cessation, the Emirate’s highest court, ruled that since the law was aimed at preventing people from charging interest, the person breaking the law was the lender and not the borrower. Although the law made the charging of interest illegal and set out penalties, it did not specify which party — the creditor, the debtor or both — should be penalised, according to Gulf News. The cessation court reached its decision after legal arguments had been put forward in the case. The court also turned down an appeal made by the prosecution against the sentence of the appeal court which had acquitted the group that had borrowed money. |
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US senators oppose world criminal court UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 (PTI) — Efforts to bring the USA on board for the establishment of an International Criminal Court appeared to floundering with American Senators stepping up their campaign to stall it, arguing that it would become an institution for politically motivated prosecutions especially against the USA and Israel. Even as protagonist of the court, the establishment of which was approved in Rome in 1998, were trying to give the spin that Washington would ultimately become a party as more and more countries, including its closest allies ratify the treaty, Senate Republicans once again rejected it and made it clear they would work against it. Spokesman of the Republican-dominated US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Mark Thiessen travelled to the UN to make their opposition absolutely clear for the court which would be charged with trying cases of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. He repeated the American position that the court would be a threat to the USA’s sovereignty and brought a letter from nine Republicans and three Democrats expressing opposition to it. Among the signatories was Henry Kissinger. The court must be stopped, he said. India is among the countries that have not signed the treaty. In all 115 nations have signed and 23 have ratified it. Germany is expected to submit its papers of ratification soon. Ratification from 60 countries is needed for the court to be established. |
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More leave for Finnish
dads Praised by Cherie Blair earlier this year for the
"fine example’’ he set Tony, her husband and the British Prime Minister, when it came to taking time out for the birth of their baby, the family-friendly Prime Minister of Finland, Paavo Lipponen, is now proposing a big increase in the number of days of paid paternity leave for Finns. Under the Lipponen proposal, which the parliament in Helsinki is expected to approve, fathers of newborn babies would have more than double the time they currently get — a further 24 days of paid paternity leave added to the present 18 paid days, for a grand total of six weeks. Britain, by contrast, has no statutory paid paternity leave, so the Finnish initiative will widen what is already a big gap in this social provision for families. "If I can help advance this cause that I believe in — that men and women should share responsibility for children, so that the mother can have the opportunity to work or study and have free time — then that’s good,’’ Mr Lipponen told the Guardian. "This is a step forward in adjusting working life to family life.’’ Mr Lippenen was the first Finnish Government Minister to take time off when he and his wife, Paivi, had their first child, Emilia. In March this year, he again took a week-long break when their second daughter, Sofia, was born. According to reports, Finns, and by extension their state, take families seriously. Last year, some 40,000 fathers took two weeks off to be with their new babies, at an estimated cost to the state of some US$19m. Under Finnish law, women are entitled to 105 paid days of maternity leave, while fathers currently get 18 days. In addition, 158 paid days are available for the parents to share, though in practice it is usually the mother who uses these. Mr Lipponen’s new proposals mean that fathers would get 24 more paid days which could not be used by mothers. Finns have had paid paternity leave since the early 1980s. This contrasts with Britain, where it was only last year that the right to take paternity leave was introduced - and this was due to an EU directive.
30 die in Nigeria oil pipeline fire LAGOS, Nov 30 (Reuters) — A leaking oil products pipeline caught fire near Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos today, killing at least 30 persons, witnesses said.
The fire started at a beachhead near the fishing village of Ebute-Oko and spread rapidly along an oil leak, ravaging a cluster of huts and wooden houses, witnesses said.
‘‘I helped in removing 15 bodies’’, said boat owner Isaac Oke, who joined in the rescue effort. |
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