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| Monday,
December 18, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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USA to host separate Israeli, Palestinian talks Foreign policy to serve US interests: Bush Bush Time’s man of
the year 10 die ahead of Wahid’s visit |
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LTTE appeal on eve of peace talks India, Pak armies’
hotline reactivated Missile theft: Pak begins probe Prince William most popular royal Nawaz Sharif’s
animals auctioned Girl killed in a witchcraft ritual
OIC worried at PM’s statement
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USA to host separate Israeli, Palestinian talks GAZA CITY, Dec 17 (AFP, Reuters) — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today said that separate Israeli and Palestinian delegations would hold talks on the peace process with US officials in Washington in the coming days. “Two delegations will go to Washington in the next few days to examine with the US administration the ways of supporting and safeguarding the peace process and confirming what has already been concluded,” President Arafat told reporters here. Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said earlier that the Palestinian delegation would leave for Washington on Tuesday. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official declined to confirm or deny if a similar Israeli delegation would also be heading to the USA but said current contacts were aimed at verifying conditions for a resumption of negotiations. Abed Rabbo said he will lead the delegation that will also include leading Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and Gaza Strip security chief Mohammed Dahlan. “We will also consult with the new administration (of George W. Bush),” Abed Rabbo said. JERUSALEM: An explosion on Sunday killed a senior activist in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Movement in the West Bank, a Fatah official said, calling the blast an Israeli assassination. The official identified the dead man as Sameeh Mala’beh, 28, of the Qalandia refugee camp near Jerusalem. “We believe he was assassinated,” the official said. “Very late last night, he most probably was called to a place in the camp where he was assassinated with an explosive device he was given.” But the official added: “We don’t know exactly how it happened because he was alone, but his face and hands are burnt, mainly his face.” The Israeli Army, battling an 11-week-old Palestinian uprising, said it had no comment about the incident. Palestinians have accused Israel of killing individual Palestinian activists in pinpoint attacks they have described as assassinations. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians today near a Gaza Strip border crossing with Egypt, Palestinian witnesses and hospital sources said. Hospital sources in Rafah said Iyad Daoud, (27) and Ahmad al-Qassas, (38) were shot dead at the Salah al-Din Gate crossing. The deaths raised to 329 the number of people who have been killed in violence related to the 11-week Palestinian uprising. Three witnesses said the two men were killed when they tried to help another Palestinian who had been shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers near the border fence. Israel handed back the parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under the 1993 Oslo peace accords, but in Gaza it still controls border crossings and security at the airport. DUBAI (UNI): The current wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians has stirred the anger of Jordanians and calls are mounting in Jordan for abrogating or at least revising the peace treaty with the Jewish nation. The opposition to the peace treaty was at a low key in the last few years with protests being staged by political parties, trade unions and other organisations in Jordan. But now the issue has reached the Jordanian Parliament where some MPs are also speaking loudly against the treaty, in a development which has not been seen in the country since the conclusion of the agreement in 1994. |
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Foreign policy to serve US interests: Bush CRAWFORD, Dec 17 (AFP) — President-elect George W. Bush sketched out his foreign policy agenda here yesterday, saying it would be based on bipartisanship and close cooperation with allies to promote democracy and peace around the world. Bush outlined his priorities as he announced his choice for Secretary of State, retired Gen Colin Powell, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “America has unique power and unmatched influence, and we will use them in the service of democracy, spreading peace across the world and across the years,” Bush noted. It was Bush’s first major foreign policy address since he claimed the presidency on Wednesday after his Democratic rival conceded defeat following a 36-day feud over the bitterly contested presidential election. “Foreign policy in the coming years must serve our national interests in the world, while speaking for the highest of America’s ideas,” the Texas Governor said. “In word and deed, we must be clear and consistent and confident that our values are real, and we must be true to our friends.” On the West Asia, Bush said his administration would “defend American interests in the Persian Gulf and advance peace in the West Asia based, as any peace must be, on a secure Israel.” The US policy on the West Asia “will be based on the principle that we must always insure that Israel live in freedom and security and peace,” the Secretary of State-designate said. General Powell also said he favoured deploying a national missile defence system (NMD) despite criticism of the program by Russia, China and some European allies of the USA. Bush also vowed to work with US allies in Europe, in the Far East and around the world to extend the peace, to promote “a fully democratic western hemisphere bound together by free trade”. Condoleezza Rice, Chief Foreign Policy Adviser to Bush and his likely National Security Adviser, caused a stir among US-European allies last October, when she told the New York Times that the Bush administration would tell its NATO allies it would no longer participate in Balkans peacekeeping missions. The Bush campaign later assured European allies it would uphold US obligations. General Powell also said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s “failed regime” would not be around in a few years’ time. General Powell, who played a leading role in the US-led military campaign that booted Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991, noted that at the end of conflict, Baghdad had “agreed to the conditions that brought an end to the conflict, that they would fully account for all the weapons of mass destruction and other evil technologies that they were working on.” “They have not yet fulfilled those agreements, and my judgment is that sanctions in some form must be kept in place until they do so. We will work with our allies to re-energise the sanctions on regime,” he added. WASHINGTON: Newly-nominated Secretary of State Colin Powell has been promised an easy and swift confirmation by the US Senate, with a key Republican vowing to put his candidacy on a fast track. “The Foreign Relations Committee will move with haste to confirm General Powell, so that he is available to serve the President on his first day in office,” Committee Chairman Jesse Helms said in a written statement on Saturday. |
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Bush Time’s man of
the year NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) — Time magazine said today it had selected President-elect George W. Bush as its Person of the Year-2000, describing him as a symbol of a “conflicted” US electorate who may yet bridge the nation’s differences with his affable “big picture” approach to problems. Time Managing Editor Walter Isaacson wrote in a letter to the magazine’s readers that the time he had spent with both the Republican Bush and his defeated Democratic rival, Al Gore, had underscored just how different the two men are. In contrast to the detail-hungry Gore, Isaacson wrote: “Bush is impatient with distracting details, just as he is with the cedar undergrowth on his ranch, which he clears with a vengeance because it distracts his view of the big picture.” Time has often, but not always, chosen a President-elect as its Person of the Year — a widely-watched selection that typically generates year-end debate in the media. Neither John F. Kennedy nor Richard Nixon were named in the years they won. It was the historic showdown in Florida that sealed the choice, and the magazine’s editors decided before last week’s Supreme Court ruling gave the state to Bush that whoever prevailed would get the nod. “For 72 years,” Isaacson wrote, “that distinction has gone to the person who, for better or worse, most affected the news and personified what was important about the year.” “...By his narrow and contested victory, he became a symbol of an electorate that was not (as some have contended) deeply ideologically divided but was instead rather conflicted and ambivalent as it split the difference between the two parties,” he wrote. |
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10 die ahead of Wahid’s visit BANDA ACEH (Indonesia), Dec 17 (AFP) — At least 10 persons were killed in the strife-torn Indonesian province of Aceh ahead of a planned visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid, residents said today. A roadside coffee stall owner was killed in Kutabaro near here yesterday in a shooting some residents attribute to the security forces hunting rebels after an attack on security personnel the same day. A skirmish broke out between the troops and rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) not far from this city’s airport, where President Abdurrahman Wahid is scheduled to arrive for a one-day visit on Tuesday. There were no casualties, the police said. Five badly maimed bodies, all of them men, were found lined up on the side of the road in Blang Kubu of the Bireun district yesterday, spreading fear among the local population, a local journalist said. The identities of the victims, found some 11 km west of the district town of Bireun were unknown. Some of the bodies had gunshot wounds, the journalist said. The bodies of four other men were found in South Aceh, a local resident said by telephone from Tapaktuan. Two were found in a ravine in Alur Naga mountain near Tapaktuan. A skeleton was also found nearby but there was no indication regarding his identity. A man who had been missing from South Aceh’s Kluet Utara sub-district was found dead late on Friday near the Meukek television relay station in Alue Kliet, South Aceh. The body was naked but a separatist flag wound around his hip. |
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LTTE appeal on eve of peace talks COLOMBO, Dec 17 (UNI) — At a time when President Chandrika Kumaratunga is seeking financial assistance in Paris to tide over the shattered economy of Sri Lanka, the LTTE has appealed to the international community to persuade the government to abandon its policy of “no ceasefire before talks”. The Paris meet comes at a time when the Sri Lankan Government and the separatist Liberation Tigers have publicly pledged to start talks aimed at ending the 17-year old war with Norway as facilitator. Slamming the government for not abandoning “its notorious project of war for peace”, the Liberation Tigers statement is timely since the Norwegian-backed peace moves are most likely to figure in the Paris talks starting tomorrow. Virtually ruling out any peace talks amid ‘war conditions’, the LTTE said, “The history of our armed conflict has demonstrated the fact that peace talks without a stable ceasefire do not succeed. The Tigers were responding to remarks by Foreign Minister Lakhsman Kadirgamar on Tuesday that the government was prepared to start unconditional talks with the LTTE, while the war was on. Mr Kadirgamar had ruled out any ceasefire before talks. The LTTE statement issued last night, on the eve of the Paris aid meeting, said it was disappointed about Sri Lanka’s categorical rejection of a process of de-escalation of the armed conflict prior to peace talks, and reiterated that ‘genuine peace talks could not be held under conditions of war, violence and hostility’. Criticising the delayed response of the government to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakarans call for unconditional talks, the LTTE statement said the governments position contained ambiguities and contradictions. “Though the government proclaims its readiness for unconditional talks, it reiterates its previous pre-conditions of a limited time frame and a pre-conceived permanent solution to be worked out at the commencement of the talks.” “These conditions are unacceptable to the LTTE,” the statement said. “By refusing to de-escalate the war and by stipulating conditions for talks, the Kumaratunga government is making a deliberate attempt to scuttle the peace process. Therefore, we appeal to the international governments to use their good offices and persuade Sri Lanka to abandon its hardline militaristic position and to seek the path of peace and fair play to find a negotiated political settlement to the Tamil national question.” |
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India, Pak armies’
hotline reactivated ISLAMABAD, Dec 17 (UNI) — The hotline between the headquarters of Pakistani and Indian armies at the level of the Director-General of Military Operations has been reactivated. The headquarters in New Delhi and Rawalpindi were earlier connected with a hotline but later, it had become inoperative. However, the two countries have decided to reactivate the hotline to establish contacts any time in case of an emergency. It is learnt that Pakistan has decided to appoint a new Director-General of operations. Major-Gen Ashfaq Kiani is tipped for the post. The Indian High Commissioner, Mr V.K. Nambiar, who visited New Delhi to consult the Indian Government, is back in Islamabad and according to the “Daily Jang”, he will inform the foreign office about the Indian stand on tripartite talks on the Kashmir issue. Mr Nambiar is also expected to call on the Chief Executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf, shortly. |
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Missile theft: Pak begins probe ISLAMABAD, Dec 17 (UNI) — Intelligence and railway officials have begun a probe into the theft of three powerful missiles from a goods train parked at the Kotri Railway Station. Senior officials from military, police and various other agencies inspected parked trains, including the burgled one, at the railway station. The police registered a case of theft. The train was being escorted by four military guards, but when it reached Kotri in Sind on December 8 the lock of the coach carrying missiles, which were two feet long and weighed 45 kgs, was found broken. Army guards, who were alerted by railway workers, claim that they had seen the lock intact up to Bradabad station. The Railway Department has refused to accept the responsibility of protecting loaded military goods, saying that their loading and unloading had always been the duty of military. A military team is conducting a rigorous enquiry. This is the first time that military equipment have been stolen. |
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Prince William most popular royal LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) — Prince William is the most popular member of the British Royal family but Sophie, his uncle Prince Edward’s new wife, is the most useless, a poll of Britons published today found. The Mori poll for the News of the World newspaper asked interviewees to rate each member of the royal family from one (useless) to ten (outstanding). The most ineffective was Sophie Rhys-Jones, the Countess of Wessex, the newest member of the royal clan after marrying Prince Edward, Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son, in June, 1999. Her overall average score — based on the rating from all respondents divided by the total number quizzed — was 4.3 out of ten. The poll also found that 17 per cent of those asked thought she was useless (nought out of ten). Close behind in the unpopularity stakes was Prince Edward himself, averaging just 4.6, along with “Fergie” — Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, ex-wife of Prince Edward’s older brother Prince Andrew — who scored 4.4, and Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, whose average was 4.7. |
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Nawaz Sharif’s
animals auctioned ISLAMABAD, Dec 17 (PTI) — Seventeen pet animals, belonging to the family of Pakistan’s exiled ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, have been auctioned for Rs 3,78,000 at the Sharif City Complex in Lahore. Yesterday’s auction of Sharifs’ assets was the first since the family was exiled to Saudi Arabia following a “deal” between Nawaz Sharif and the military regime last week. The proceeds from the auction will go to Sharif’s family as the assets belonged to it, sources said today. The animals that were auctioned included buffaloes, cows, rams and a horse. Ninety bidders were present at the auction. |
Girl killed in a
witchcraft ritual
KATHMANDU, Dec 17 (AFP) — A seven-year-old girl has been killed in Nepal and her heart and liver cut out and given to another girl to eat in a bizarre witchcraft ritual meant to cure epilepsy. According to the Nepali language daily “Prabhatkalin” (Dawn), Puttaki Pathan disappeared from her village of Indrapur, in the district of Banke, southwest of Kathmandu on October 4. OIC worried at
PM’s statement DUBAI, Dec 17 (UNI) — The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has expressed concern over the recent statements of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the Ayodhya issue and appealed to the Indian Government to take steps for the reconstruction of Babri Masjid at the disputed site. In a statement, the OIC secretary general said: “The organisation has noted with deep concern the recent statements of the Indian leadership which encourages the construction of a temple at the site of the destroyed Babri mosque”.
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