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| Sunday, February
11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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9 missing as sub collides with boat
Quattrocchi case UK ex-PM ‘backed’ passport plea |
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One dead in West Bank violence Taliban asked to close New York office
Austria rejects Putin’s deal Emperor Claudius was ‘poisoned’ EU seeks to end sex trafficking
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9 missing as sub collides with boat Tokyo, Feb 10 — The USA has apologised after a Japanese boat sank off Hawaii when it collided with a nuclear-powered us submarine, leaving nine persons missing, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said today. His Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda also said the apology could mean that the us side had acknowledged that the submarine
USS Greenville was responsible for the accident. The impact sank the 499-tonne training ship Ehime Maru from a fisheries high school in Uwajima, western Japan, yesterday, about 14 km south of Diamond Head, us and Japanese Coast Guard officials said. The landmark Diamond Head is located on the southern coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. “The us side has apologised and explained that it was doing its utmost in the search,” Mr Mori told reporters when he summoned a special risk management meeting on the accident. “Right now, we have to do everything possible to find the missing people,” he said after cutting short a golfing round and returning to his official residence. Four us naval and Coast Guard vessels and two us aircraft were searching the area for the missing, Japanese officials said. Thirtyfive persons were aboard the vessel, of whom 26 were rescued about an hour after the boat went down us Coast Guard officials said. Coast Guard spokeswoman Lauren Smith said 12 persons were taken to local hospitals for treatment. The extent of their injuries was unknown. Of the missing, four were students from the Uwajima Fisheries High School, two were teachers and three were professional crew members, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. The uss Greenville, based in Pearl Harbour north of Honolulu, appeared to have suffered no damage, said Commander Greg Smith, Director of Naval Media Operations at the Pentagon, who said there would be a full investigation into the incident. The Japanese boat was carrying 13 high school students, two teachers and 20 professional crew members who were trawling for Tuna when it met the accident, Japanese coast guard officials said. The submarine, which was on routine operations, “was surfacing when its stern apparently collided with a motor vessel,” Smith said. The cause of the collision was not known, but weather reports said winds at the time of the incident were between approximately around 40 and 50 kms per hour. The Ehime Maru left Misaki port in Miura at the mouth of Tokyo Bay on January 10 and was scheduled to return home March 23, reports said. Fukuda, Chief Cabinet Secretary, told a news conference that the Pentagon apologised to Japanese Ambassador in Washington Shunji Yanai over the accident.
— AFP |
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Quattrocchi case KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 —Lawyers of an Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, wanted in India in the 15-year-old Bofors arms scandal, today urged a court to quash his extradition from Malaysia, claiming that he was illegally arrested and no charges were filed against him. Mohamad Shafee Abdullah said his client, who has been living in Malaysia for several years, was detained in December without being told the reasons for his arrest. The lawyer said Quattrocchi was also denied his right to know the charges against him when he was brought to court last month to effect the extradition order, which was approved by the Home Ministry on the Indian Government’s request. “No charges have been preferred against the subject until today,” Mohamad Shafee said as the Italian sat in the dock. “This is a continuous illegality being committed on him.” Mohamad Shafee said Malaysian extradition laws clearly gave Quattrocchi the right to know the substance of charges he faced in India. The lawyer urged Sessions Court Judge Akhtar Tahir not to allow prosecutors to “achieve their mission by an illegal act.” Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, a senior federal prosecutor, argued that the framing of charges was not a prerequisite in arresting a person for extradition. “All laws with regard to this case has been complied,” he said. Judge Akhtar said he would rule on April 3 on whether to quash the extradition order or to consider its merits further.
— AP |
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UK ex-PM ‘backed’ passport plea LONDON, Feb 10 — A former British Prime Minister has openly said that he supported the passport application of NRI businessman Gopichand Hinduja, President of the Hinduja group of Industries. Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath spoke for the first time about his relationship with the Hindujas, confirming that he did support Mr Gopichand’s bid to secure the British passport, the Times newspaper reported today. “He (Hinduja) had been living in England for many years and was a very prominent businessman. There seemed every reason why, if he wanted to become British, he should be considered,” Mr Heath, who sponsored the application, told the daily. “Quite honestly, all I did was to be one of the people who signed the application,” he said. Mr Heath also sat on a £2-million-pound trust for which the Hindujas provided scholarships for Cambridge University students.
— PTI |
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One dead in West Bank violence RAMALLAH, Feb 10 — Violent clashes in the West Bank and Gaza strip between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians yesterday, including a gunfight, left one dead and 44 injured, after a night of some of the worst fighting in weeks. Ayman Abu Hula, 16, died at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City yesterday afternoon after being shot in the chest earlier in the day by Israeli soldiers at Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, hospital sources said. His death raises the toll for the four-month wave of violence to 397 — 331 Palestinians, one German, 13 Israeli Arabs and 52 other Israelis. Meanwhile, on a “day of rage” called for by a coalition of 13 Palestinian groups, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, Israeli soldiers shot at youths who threw stones at them after a protest march of some 1,500 people following afternoon prayers in Ramallah, witnesses and medical officials said. An intense gunfight between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers — who fired tank-mounted weapons — also erupted yesterday near an Israeli checkpoint in Ramallah for the first time there in six weeks. Twentyfour Palestinians were injured in Ramallah, including eight who were shot with live rounds, hospital officials said. WASHINGTON: The USA has said that the peace process in the Middle East would have to start all over again in consultation with the regional leaders even as Secretary of State Collin Powell announced that his first visit after assuming the office would be in this trouble torn region. Mr Powell, who at a press conference on Friday, announced that his first trip as Secretary of State abroad was to the Middle East said, he would participate in the celebrations of 10th anniversary of the Gulf war on February 26. |
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Taliban asked to close New York office WASHINGTON, Feb 10 — The USA has asked Afghanistans ruling Taliban to close its New York office in line with sanctions which punish the fundamentalist regime for harbouring Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. The order to this effect was conveyed to Taliban’s representative in the USA, Mr Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, by Mr Alan Eastham, Acting Secretary of State for South Asia, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. Mr Mujahid was told to comply with the sanctions yesterday during a State Department meeting when he met Mr Eastham to deliver a letter from the Taliban Foreign Minister to the US Government. “Among these steps is the requirement to close any Taliban office in the USA” said Mr Boucher.
— PTI |
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Austria rejects Putin’s deal VIENNA, Feb 10 — Austria has rebuffed an attempt by visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin to help dent Moscow’s $ 3.3-billion Soviet-era debt to Vienna in a jets-for-debt deal. Mr Putin wanted Russia to be considered for a defence procurement deal for the Austrian Air Force in which Vienna would buy a batch of Russian MiG-29 fighters at half the price and pay the remaining sum towards some of Russia’s historic debt. The Russian President was in Vienna on his first official trip to Austria, where he met Austrian President Thomas Klestil and Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel yesterday. Mr Putin’s Austrian visit was initially called to discuss economic questions, but the financial agenda has been overshadowed by Mr Putin’s attempts to persuade Austria not to give up its neutrality by joining NATO. After a meeting late yesterday in the Alpine town of Saint Christoph with Mr Schuessel, Vice-Chancellor and Freedom Party chief Susanne Riess-Passer, and Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Mr Putin reiterated his opposition to Vienna’s potential membership in the alliance. “NATO enlargement will lead to new degrees of separation” between the two countries, he told reporters. Mr Putin said the alliance was “created as a counterweight to the Soviet Union” and has “no longer a reason to exist” following the breakup of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, but conceded that “countries must decide their security policies on their own.” WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Colin Powell has maintained that the US plans for a national missile defence (NMD), despite widespread objections, were not “arrogant” and did not violate President George W. Bush’s pledge to conduct the foreign policy with humility. Mr Powell said vehement opposition to the shield from Russia and China and concerns about it from Washington’s European allies and Canada could be overcome without having to force allies to accept the US plans. “I don’t consider it as being an arrogant position or one where we are trying to force anything on the rest of the world,” Mr Powell told reporters. “We’re trying to convey the power of our position to the rest of the world and at the same time hear ... hear from our European allies, hear from China and Russia particularly, and see if we can convince them that there is a cooperative way to approach this that will benefit all of us,” he said. Russia and China have loudly complained that the controversial US NMD system is aimed at them instead of serving as protection from rogue states such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea as Washington claims. European nations fear the NMD would destroy the concept of deterrence and lead to a new arms race that threatens them. Former President Bill Clinton had deferred the decision whether to proceed with the development of the NMD, citing in part the opposition to it from various corners, but Mr Bush and his top aides have given it their full support, and vow to go ahead with the plans. |
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Emperor Claudius was ‘poisoned’ WASHINGTON, Feb 10 — Sometimes history is right. The Roman Emperor Claudius, who died suddenly in 54 AD at the age of 64, was probably given poisonous mushrooms by his fourth wife Agrippina, a doctor has concluded. Historical scuttlebutt holds that Agrippina, who was both the niece and the wife of Claudius, mixed poisonous mushrooms in his dinner on October 13, 54 AD. Dr William Valente, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland who took a fresh look at Claudius’s case nearly 2,000 years later, concurs. “The medical and historical evidence suggest that Claudius was given mushrooms that contain muscarine, a deadly toxin that attacks the nervous system, causing a wide range of agonising symptoms,” he said yesterday. Dr Valente had to diagnose the case based on just a few paragraphs of the known medical history as part of an annual event held by the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care Center in Baltimore and the University of Maryland. His findings were being presented as part of a conference. Most historians had agreed that Claudius, the Emperor who finally conquered at least part of Britain and who established colonies in North Africa, was the victim of foul play. “He died suddenly after a meal in which he’d been drinking heavily and stuffing himself,” Dr Philip Mackowiak, chief of medicine at the Baltimore Va Medical Center and one of the conference organisers, said in a telephone interview. “He was especially fond of mushrooms,” Dr Mackowiak added. |
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EU seeks to end sex trafficking STOCKHOLM, Feb 10 — The European Union has turned the spotlight on what it calls modern- day slavery, seeking tougher action against human traffickers and improved cooperation among member nations. EU Justice and Interior Ministers yesterday measures to help the poor people who throw their fate in the hands of traffickers — criminals feeding on victims’ hopes for a better future while turning them into prostitutes or forced labourers. “It is nothing other than a slave trade,” Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodstroem said ahead of the meeting. On a recent fact-finding mission to Bosnia, Mr Bodstroem said, he met one victim of human traffickers who had been sold no less than 18 times in prostitution circles. The 15-nation
EU currently estimates some 500,000 women and girls enter Europe as illegal immigrants every year. International crime syndicates have turned human trafficking into the fastest expanding part of their business, partly because of the lack of a legal framework to allow prosecutors to go after perpetrators. EU fact-finding missions have shown that each year hundreds of thousands of young women and children from Eastern Europe are lured by traffickers promising work in the eu. The European Union’s Executive Commission, determined to close off safe havens for traffickers, has put forward proposals aimed at harmonising how human trafficking, and child pornography are defined and the sanctions against them. There are currently big differences among eu member states on how they punish child sex crimes. In Denmark, for example, the serious sexual exploitation of children carries a maximum four year jail term, compared to 10 years in other eu states. Sweden, which currently holds the eu presidency, wants the bloc to take concrete decisions on the commission’s proposals by the summer. But it may be difficult to win unanimous agreement among all 15 partners on a common minimum sentence for a range of child sex crimes — from producing pornography to buying or possessing it. Failure to get agreement before July would pass the issue to the incoming EU presidency of Belgium, which is gearing up for the highly-charged trial of convicted child rapist Marc Dutroux.
— AP, Reuters |
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