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| Sunday, December 10, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Constitutional crisis in USA? WASHINGTON, Dec 9 — Mr Al Gore’s victory in Florida’s Supreme Court opens the way for intervention by Florida lawmakers and the US Congress to break the presidential poll deadlock and can spark a constitutional crisis, experts and politicians say. UK Sikh cop wins £ 150,000 in damages 10 killed in West Bank clashes EU leaders fret at French package British team aims for Mars Gunman kills 20 in Sudan |
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Constitutional crisis in USA? WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (AFP) — Mr Al Gore’s victory in Florida’s Supreme Court opens the way for intervention by Florida lawmakers and the US Congress to break the presidential poll deadlock and can spark a constitutional crisis, experts and politicians say. In yesterday’s 4-3 split decision, the court’s seven justices ordered the immediate recount of 9,000 votes from Miami-Dade County, and said other Florida counties must re-examine ballots where a vote was not recorded in the initial count. The court also ordered the inclusion of a net gain of 215 votes for Democrat Gore in Palm Beach County in a recount rejected by state officials and 168 votes in a partial recount in Miami-Dade County. That means Republican George W. Bush’s certified 537-vote lead in Florida’s disputed presidential contest has narrowed to a mere 154 votes. The Bush camp has appealed against the court ruling. “It’s a tremendous victory for Mr Gore and it’s also a disaster for the country,” said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at University of Virginia who thought Mr Gore was now likely to prevail. “Mr Gore is going to win the vote and that means that the Republican-dominated legislature of Florida now will feel justified in intervening on Mr Bush’s behalf which will send it to the Congress,” he added, warning that a constitutional crisis “is inevitable”. It is a view shared by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Wells whose scathing dissent of yesterday’s ruling argued that the pro-Gore move would result in “confusion and disorder.” “I have a deep and abiding concern that the prolonging of judicial process in this counting contest propels this country and this state into an unprecedented and unnecessary constitutional crisis,” Wells wrote. By next Tuesday, Florida must name its 25 representatives to the Electoral College that will choose the President. The state’s Republican-led legislature yesterday announced the 25 Bush supporters it would send to the US Electoral College if the legal wrangling continues past Tuesday’s deadline. This could mean two rival slates — one Democratic, one Republican — of Florida representatives to the Electoral College, which is to meet on December 18 to select the President. And the US Congress would then have to step in to choose between the two. “What this court has done is to create a constitutional crisis, “said Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, Chairman of the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee. “The law is very clear. Article 2, Section 1, of the Constitution says the state legislature has control over the election. What (the judges) have done is to take control of the election,” he added. Meanwhile, in yet another ruling that will affect the disputed vote count in Florida, a US judge has ordered that hundreds of rejected overseas absentee ballots be included in the tally of the November 7 presidential election. The ruling by US district court Judge Lacey Collier yesterday should result in a gain for Mr Bush, contrary to a decision earlier in the day by the Florida Supreme Court. Unofficial tallies show that 1,547 overseas absentee ballots, or 40 per cent of the total received in Florida, were declared invalid, notably because they were not dated, lacked a signature, or were not filed by registered voters. |
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Bush top lawyer a Democrat! TALLAHASSEE, Dec 9 (Reuters) — Mr Barry Richard, Mr George W. Bush’s chief litigator in the prolonged Florida election cliffhanger, is a registered Democrat and presumably no stranger to photo-finish races — he used to represent Florida’s Hialeah Park horse track. Mr Richard also needed a steel nerve on a roller-coaster day yesterday which first saw a win in court when two judges refused to throw out thousands of absentee ballots in two Republican-leaning counties —and then a devastating blow from the state’s Supreme Court, which revived Democrat Al Gore’s hopes of victory. Just hours before the Supreme Court ruling, Mr Richard, who has spent the last few days running from courtroom to courtroom in Tallahassee, said of the judges’ rulings on the absentee ballot cases in Seminole and Martin counties: “I’m very pleased with it.” Slender and elegantly-dressed with an abundant silvery mane, the 58-year-old Tallahassee lawyer is a former Deputy Attorney-General in Florida and advised the Texas Governor’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, in 1998 while he was Governor-elect. |
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UK Sikh cop wins
£ 150,000 in damages LONDON, Dec 9 — A former Sikh police sergeant based in London, who was wrongly accused of sending racist hate-mail to non-white officers, has won £ 150,000 in damages. London police sacked Sergeant Gurpal Virdi (41) and ordered that his house be searched after he was accused of sending hate-mail to non-white officers to incite them against their white bosses. The police claimed Virdi had delivered the hate-mail to himself and 13 non-white officers. Virdi, who is married and has three children, said he had been through hell following the police action against him. After being cleared of the charges by an employment tribunal on Friday, he said: “Never in the history of the police service has an officer gone through what my family and I had to endure. The police complaints’ authority and the Commissioner have so far taken no action against the officers involved in my case who were prepared to put me in prison for something I had not done. The worst thing is that some of them have been promoted.” The compensation came after the police issued an unconditional apology to Virdi. Deputy Commissioner Ian Blair wrote to him, saying; “We accept the findings that you were a victim of racial discrimination in the way that the investigation was conducted and therefore in your subsequent arrest and suspension, and the search of your home. The police accepts unconditionally the finding of the tribunal that you were innocent of the charges of producing and sending racist mail.” The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) supported Virdi in his case. After the award, Virdi said: “We have got to the truth of the matter and the award reflects that. No award can fully compensate you, as it is only money. I hope this sends a message to the Metropolitan Police, because it says it is learning lessons, but it is not. It has offered to reinstate me but I have got to wait until after the next tribunal until I decide.” Gurpal Virdi is not letting the police get away with the damages being paid to him. He is taking the police to another tribunal claiming that his employers dismissed him unfairly. The letters he was said to have written were initialled “National Frint” — a racist organisation within Britain. The messages asked the officers to leave the force. Virdi, a 16-year veteran of the police force, was sacked without evidence. He received £ 100,000 for “serious loss of reputation”, £ 25,000 for the “high-handed manner” in which the police dealt with him and the balance (£ 25,000) as interest. —
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10 killed in West Bank clashes JERUSALEM, Dec 9 (AFP)— one of the worst days of violence in more than 10 weeks of
Palestinian-Israeli violence saw 10 persons killed yesterday and the Israeli
army move to seal off west bank towns in controlled-controlled areas. And as the day drew to an end, there were more reports of exchanges of gunfire, and of
Israeli rockets and tank shells being fired at Palestinian
neighbourhoods. The move to blockade the "zone a" towns (under full control of the
Palestinian authority) was decided upon “following the escalation of shooting and violence over the last few days,” an army statement said. “With the exception of humanitarian cases, no entry or exit from "zone a" in the west bank will be authorised,” it added. "Zone a" is entirely under
Palestinian control." Zone b" is under Palestinian civilian and Israeli
military control, while "zone c" is under exclusive Israeli control. violence flared up again in the
Gaza strip yesterday, when the Israeli army fired rockets and shells at the
Palestinian area of Al-Makahen near the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif
in the south, a Palestinian source said. The Israeli fire came after a big explosion occurred on the road leading to
Gush Katif as a military jeep was going past, the source added. |
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EU leaders fret at French package NICE (France), Dec 9 (Reuters) — European Union leaders bristled today at a package of compromise proposals tabled by France in a bid to break the deadlocked EU reform talks. The draft document, put together by French EU officials overnight, drew a hostile response from leaders of both large and small EU nations. The 15-nation bloc is split over reforms crucial to changing the way the EU would function after it has doubled in size in future years to embrace former Communist East European nations. The reforms, the EU’s biggest internal overhaul since the 1991 Maastricht Treaty deal, centre on how far to extend majority voting and abandon national vetoes, how to adjust the weighting of votes among members and how to limit the size of the European Commission, the Brussels-based body that initiates EU policy. The draft was pieced together after summit host French President Jacques Chirac met leaders individually late yesterday to assess national reservations on proposed treaty revisions. Mr Chirac had hoped the compromise would offer everyone something, but several states gave the new paper short shrift. A seething Dutch Premier Wim Kok was reported to have said his reaction was unprintable, while another smaller country called the compromise “cynical”. Berlin had argued the draft should have increased voting weight in the EU as it has 20 million more people than any other nation. Under the draft, the smaller states, who have enjoyed disproportionately large voting weights for years, would be squeezed. Spain, pressing for parity with the four biggest states — Germany, France, Britain and Italy — would get 28 votes, against 30 each for the big four. According to the draft paper, the EU would make few advances on scrapping national vetoes on decision-making, but even that could be too much for Britain, which demands an absolute veto on all aspects of taxation and social security. Michael White and Ian Black of the Guardian add: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday night dug in his heels against 11th-hour concessions over the UK’s veto powers, as leaders negotiated into the small hours to break the deadlock threatening the historic enlargement of the European Union. After President Jacques Chirac, the Nice summit’s French host, cancelled a formal banquet to stage brief bilateral ‘‘confessional’’ meetings with all 14 of his colleagues, key players— including France — faced mounting pressure to blink and accept majority voting on treasured national policies. The UK was under particular pressure after Denmark’s decision to accept compromise wording on social security policy left Mr Blair and Mr Robin Cook alone in refusing to abandon its veto on this issue. London’s position was made harder by a ‘‘dirty tricks’’ row in which Foreign Office officials were accused of trying to manipulate the Danish media into criticising their government for accepting an allegedly ‘‘meaningless’’ compromise. In contrast to Denmark, Luxembourg and Ireland remained staunch on Friday night in resisting pressure to permit majority voting on certain tax issues — the thin end of an EU wedge, Whitehall fears. While proclaiming his passionate commitment to getting applicants such as Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary in quickly, Mr Blair signalled more flexibility than either France or Germany on the issue of re-weighting votes and more votes for the four big members. Diplomats said Chancellor Gerhard Schroder was likely in the end to accept that Germany would maintain parity with France, the UK and Italy, which is deeply important to Paris. In return, he will get a pledge that another reforming conference, an IGC in all but name, will start around 2004 to demarcate the limits of the EU’s central powers. That, Mr Blair also believes, would halt what the Tories call the endless march towards an EU ‘‘superstate’’. With an election looming and the Eurosceptic Conservatives breathing down his neck, Mr Blair insisted he would not abandon his six ‘‘red line’’ policy vetoes — notably on tax and social security. |
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British team aims for Mars LONDON, Dec 9 (DPA) —A British team is to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars in 2003 that will arrive just weeks ahead of a mission by
NASA, the US space agency, according to media reports. Beagle-2, the most ambitious British space mission ever, should bounce onto the Mars surface on December 26, 2003, Colin Pillinger, one of the men behind the project, said on Thursday. Pillinger said the team had secured backers, including the British Government and private investors, for much of the $ 43 million needed. Beagle-2, named after Charles Darwin’s ship, will be launched aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft from Baikanour in Kazakhstan in June, 2003. It weighs around 60 kg and is a stationary, solar-powered laboratory, designed to detect organic matter, water, minerals and evidence of long-extinct alien bacteria. John Bridges, a geologist with the team, said the most promising landing site was the Isidis basin, a plain to the north of the equator and east of Syrtis major, a dark feature that can be seen through a telescope. |
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Gunman kills 20 in Sudan CAIRO, Dec 9 (Reuters)— A gunman fired at random in a mosque near the
Sudanese capital Khartoum, killing at least 20 worshippers and wounding 40 in Omdurman before the police shot him dead,
Sudan's state television reported. Sudanese television yesterday said the attack had been carried out by a member of a
Muslim sect, Al-Takfir way Al-Hijra (renunciation and exile), who was shot dead by the police at the scene. It named him as
Abbas Baqir Abbas, from the village of Al-Dasis in Sudan’s
Al-Jazirah region. he had fired on the police officers trying to arrest him and they returned fire. |
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