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| Wednesday, December 20, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Netanyahu pulls out of
PM’s race ‘Rs 5
trillion paid for Sharif’s release’
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| A slap
for Bush A front against executions OPPONENTS of the death penalty opened a political front against the next US president, George W Bush, yesterday by presenting the United Nations with a petition of 2.7m signatures from 146 countries. ‘Only
unconditional’ talks with LTTE Ban on
rallies not relaxed Bahrain
to restore Parliament 3
ministers quit, PM shuffles govt My unborn son has
‘frozen twin’: Dion UN
withdraws staff from Afghanistan Judge
rules man should lose leg
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Netanyahu pulls out
of PM’s race JERUSALEM, Dec 19 (Reuters, AFP) — Mr Benjamin Netanyahu today pulled out of the race to lead Israel, leaving former General Ariel Sharon the main challenger to Prime Minister Ehud Barak in an election that will set the course of West Asia peacemaking. Meanwhile, Nobel Peace laureate Shimon Peres (77) broke the silence on his political aspirations, saying that he was weighing public appeals to pose an independent challenge to both Mr Sharon and Mr Barak, his successor as the head of Israel’s Labour Party. The political drama overshadowed the US bid to revive peace moves in Washington, where Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were expected to meet US mediators today. Mr Netanyahu, the 51-year-old former Likud Party Prime Minister, withdrew from the Prime Ministerial contest scheduled for February 6 after Parliament rejected his demand for simultaneous parliamentary elections. Mr Barak, having lost his parliamentary majority and under pressure in the face of failed peace moves and a nearly 12-week-old Palestinian uprising, resigned last week, necessitating the election. Mr Aviv Bushinsky, a close aide to Mr Netanyahu, said: “He says he is withdrawing from the contest for both the Likud and the Prime Minister.” He further said Sharon, Mr Netanyahu’s successor as Likud chairman, was the only candidate. Israel’s Parliament dealt what proved to be a fatal blow to Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing candidature early today, rejecting a bill calling for its dissolution and a general election. With Mr Netanyahu stepping out of the race, military radio said Mr Ariel Sharon, the burly 72-year-old former General, will be leading his party in to a head-to-head contest with Barak in a special election to be held on February 6. The nationalistic Sharon is blamed by the Palestinians for sparking the 12-week-old wave of deadly unrest with his controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims. More than 340 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in the uprising. Netanyahu was barred under existing election law from contesting the leadership race because he is not a sitting MP. UNITED NATIONS : The Palestinian demand for a UN observer force in the West Bank and Gaza was defeated in the Security Council when the USA, Russia and other key countries abstained, arguing it could jeopardise the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Palestinian supporters on the 15-member council demanded a vote yesterday, knowing in advance that they faced an almost certain defeat or a US veto. Behind-the-scenes efforts to persuade the Palestinians to ditch the resolution and agree to a non-binding press statement supporting an end to the violence and the new round of peace talks failed. In the end, the USA did not have to exercise its veto rights because the resolution failed to muster the minimum nine “yes” votes in the council. Only eight council members supported the resolution — Bangladesh, China, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mali, Namibia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Seven council members abstained — Argentina, the UK, Canada, France, the Netherlands Russia and the USA. With Israeli and Palestinian negotiators heading to Washington for a new round of peace talks starting today, the USA and other key council members said the timing was wrong to vote for a UN force. “There’s no point in driving the car into a brick wall just because it makes a nice noise,” said UK’s UN Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock. The Palestinians said they called for a Security Council vote yesterday before they even knew about the negotiations. Asked before the vote whether he was prepared for defeat as well as victory, Al-Kidwa said: “We have to face realities, don’t we?” |
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‘Rs 5 trillion paid for Sharif’s release’ ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (PTI) — As the mystery shrouding the “sudden release” of deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif by military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf continued, the Pakistan Muslim Leauge (PML) has claimed that Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries paid five trillion Pakistani rupees for his safe “passage” to the Gulf country. “Five trillion (Pakistani) rupees have been paid by Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries as economic assistance to secure the release of Mr Sharif,” acting President of the PML Javed Hashmi told mediapersons in Peshawar yesterday. He asked the military regime to make public the details of the deal made with Mr Sharif. Mr Hashmi claimed that the military government was under tremendous pressure from the Muslim states and leaders to release Mr Sharif. He also dispelled rumours about a split in the PML. Asked about the possibility of Mr Sharif’s return to the country, Mr Hashmi said: “The party’s central committee will soon take a decision on the matter.” Meanwhile, stung by public criticism over presidential pardon and subsequent exile of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and some ofhis relatives to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan’s Chief Executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf, has assured no such pardon or exile would be given to anybody in future. General Musharraf told newspersons in Jacobbabad in Sindh yesterday that he had no plans to release any more political prisoners (as he did in the case of Mr Sharif), when asked if former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s jailed husband Asif Zardari would also receive similar treatment. |
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washington, Dec 19
(afp)— Members of the
US electoral college met around the country and confirmed the election of Mr George W. Bush as President,
US television networks reported. Votes were cast yesterday by appointed electors in open sessions — many of them broadcast live on television — in state capitals and the federal capital. Results were sealed and sent to Washington where they will be officially confirmed in January. As expected, Mr Bush obtained 271 votes, one more than the required 270 vote majority. Mr Gore was the likely recipient of the remaining 267 of the total 538 votes. Yesterday’s electoral college results will be officially confirmed on January 6, when the President of the Senate — who happens to be Mr Gore, in his capacity as the us Vice-President — counts the electors’ votes before both chambers of the Congress. Following a complex federal system dating to the end of the 18th century, Americans do not vote directly for President when they go to the polls. They vote for electors who later meet and vote for the candidate who carries their state. In Maine and Nebraska — the two exceptions — electors are awarded in proportion to popular vote results. In Tallahassee, the Florida state capital, Mr Bush’s brother Florida Governor Jeb Bush had the honour of beginning the voting for his brother at noon. Normally, the meeting of the electoral college is a mere formality, not meriting media attention. But this year, after one of the most hotly contested presidential elections in us history, the voting was more than symbolic. Although it was not expected, as electors are generally pledged to their party’s candidate, if three had switched their votes this year, the presidency would have gone to Mr Gore. So-called “faithless” electors have changed their votes on seven occasions since 1948. Although 26 states plus the district of Columbia bind their electors to vote a certain way, it is unclear whether those laws are enforceable. Groups favouring direct elections bombarded electors with e-mails, calls and letters encouraging them to break ranks and vote for Mr Gore, who won the popular vote by more than 3,00,000 votes. But Mr Gore said publicly that he would not accept electoral votes that were pledged to Mr Bush. And Republicans were confident their electors would remain loyal. |
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A slap for Bush OPPONENTS of the death penalty opened a political front against the next US president, George W Bush, yesterday by presenting the United Nations with a petition of 2.7m signatures from 146 countries. A coalition of intellectuals, entertainers and religious and human rights groups said the petition marked a stepping-up of the campaign for a moratorium on capital punishment. The petition was handed to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in New York, but its focus was on Mr Bush, who has approved more executions than any other US governor in modern times during his tenure in Texas. The objective is to exploit America’s growing fear that innocent people are ending up on death row. The Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio, an independent Roman Catholic group which promotes peace in Africa and the Balkans, organised the petition. It said the death penalty dehumanised the world by putting vengeance first. The signatories include the Dalai Lama; Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid; Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey; writer Umberto Eco; film director Roberto Benigni; and the World Methodist Council president Frances Alguire. Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book “Dead Man Walking”, told Mr Annan that the petition was aimed at the estimated 90 countries where capital punishment was legal. Executions are common in China, Iraq, Turkey, India, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. More than 660 people have been executed in the US since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1976. It is supported by two out of three Americans. As Texas governor, Mr Bush backed a law to shorten delays between convictions and executions, blocked a Bill to ban the execution of people with learning disabilities, and presided over the first execution of a woman since the civil war. Overseeing more than 150 deaths did his popularity no harm. — The Guardian, London |
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‘Only unconditional’ talks with LTTE colombo,
Dec 19 (uni)—The Sri Lankan President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, has told the international community that her government was prepared for talks with the ltte “if it does not impose any preconditions”. “There is a ray of opportunity, more hope for reaching a solution. Our doors are always open for negotitions with the ltte’’. ‘’But we will not entertain any conditions imposed by the ltte,’’ she told the sri Lanka Development Forum, in Paris yesterday. Since Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim met ltte leader Veluppillai Prabhakatran in the Wanni jungles on November 1 and conveyed the ltte’s readiness to talk with the government, the country is euphoric about the impending return of peace to the troubled island nation. This is for the first time after the Norwegian-ltte talks that the Sri Lankan President has addressed an internationl gathering on the peace process. The President’s assertion is clearly a step to persuade the donor countries to provide funds to her government. Sri Lanka is expecting increased financial asssitance from these countries to tide over the economy by shattered decades-old ethnic war. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is planning to establish a new volunteer force under a plan to wind down the country’s dragging Tamil separatist war, a state-run daily reported here yesterday. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was quoted as saying in the government’s Dinamina Sinhalese language daily that the new force would be charged with ending “Tiger terrorism” within three years. |
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islamabad,
Dec 19 (pti) — Pakistan’s military regime has said it has no plans to relax the ban on political parties for holding protest rallies and demonstrations and warned that those who violate it would be
strictly dealt with, media reports said today. “The government has no plan to give concession to the political parties in organising protests, demonstrations and rallies on the streets,” Frontier Post said, quoting Interior Ministry sources. “The government reaffirmed, after a high-level meeting held at the Interior Ministry, that no one from the political parties will be allowed to protest on streets,” the newspaper said. The military regime has also directed the provinces to deal strictly with those who hold demonstrations or rallies without prior permission from the local administration. The Political Parties Act, 1976, was amended by military regime early this year, imposing a complete ban on outdoor activity of the political parties. |
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MANAMA, Dec 19 (AFP) — The Gulf Arab state of Bahrain took a step towards democracy today, with a high-level committee approving a plan to restore a directly elected Parliament suspended 25 years ago and form a constitutional monarchy. The committee, appointed by Bahrain’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Issaal-Khalifa, approved the national charter as part of a modernisation programme aimed at adapting to the country’s “principles, foundations and values,” the official GNA agency reported. “We have made our first steps on the road to democracy,” declared a committee member, Mr Ibrahim Beshmi, after the charter was adopted. The committee assigned to examine the changes, presided over by Justice Minister Sheikh Abdallah Ben Khaled al-Khalifa, had been meeting overnight and “unanimously approved” the project before it is submitted for final approval on Saturday by the Emir, the agency said. |
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3 ministers quit, PM shuffles govt SYDNEY, Dec 19 (Reuters) — The Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, announced a major reshuffle of his conservative government’s front bench after the resignation of three senior ministers ahead of elections due in late 2001. In the most high-profile change, industrial relations reformer Peter Reith — once seen as a possible contender for prime ministership — will take over from long-serving John Moore in the key portfolio of defence. Senator Amanda Vanstone will replace Jocelyn Newman, who quit the welfare portfolio of family and community services to return to the back bench. And Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Minister John Herron would step down, with Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock taking on his responsibilities. Mr Howard said Junior Minister Tony Abbott would take over Mr Reith’s Industrial Relations Portfolio. |
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My unborn son has
‘frozen twin’: Dion MONTREAL, Dec 19 (Reuters) — French Canadian pop diva Celine Dion said in a televised interview that she had a second fertilised embryo stored at a New York fertility clinic and hoped one day to give her soon-to-be-born son a “twin.” In a 90-minute interview in French on Quebec’s TVA television network on Sunday, the 32-year-old star said she expected to deliver her son on Valentine’s Day. She also said another egg was fertilised and kept at a New York clinic, where it was frozen five days after conception. The unborn baby and the other embryo were conceived with manager and husband Rene Angelil through in vitro fertilisation. “It is called a laboratory twin. Technically, it is a twin. It does not mean they are identical twins but they were conceived at the same time,” Dion said in the interview at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, with Quebec broadcaster Michel Jasmin. Dion’s interview was her first since she took a three-year sabbatical from her career to have a child. |
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UN withdraws staff from Afghanistan KABUL, Dec 19 (AFP) — The UN has withdrawn all foreign staff from Afghanistan amid concern over potentially violent protests against tough new sanctions likely to be announced this week, officials said today. he last six senior UN officials in the country were seen leaving the rocket-scarred airport here early today on their way to neighbouring Pakistan. Their departure comes amid expectations that the Security Council will adopt a resolution slapping broader sanctions against the ruling Taliban militia for their alleged support of terrorism. |
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Judge rules man
should lose leg ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (DPA) — A Pakistani judge has ordered that the leg of a man be amputated for causing his victim to lose a leg, reports said today. However, if doctors decide against the amputation for some reason the convict, Akhtar Rana, should pay the victim, Khalid Javed, about $ 2,300 in compensation, Judge Shaukat Ali Khan ruled, according to the newspaper Jang. Rana was also ordered to be imprisoned for 10 years for shooting Javed in the legs. One leg had to be amputated while the other was maimed, the newspaper said. |
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