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| Sunday, February
25, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Economics sanctions
against Iraq may ease Kuwait renews pact with
USA Navy begins Borneo
evacuation Peru Congress
charges Fujimori Roger Clinton asked for
pardons Mice with human
brain cells crafted LTTE breaks truce, kills 2
cops |
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Activists of Islamic group detained
Top
security job for Euroarmy critic Boat mishap:
USA to send envoy
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Economics sanctions
against Iraq may ease
He said the USA had got response from China to the complaint about Chinese installation of an optical fiber network to link Iraq’s anti-aircraft defences. “The Chinese responded to our inquiry. They said, “If this is the case, we will remedy the situation.” Recognising the existence of a common threat stemming from the growing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, (WMD) Mr Bush and Mr Blair said, “We are already working together in this area, and agree on the need for further substantial bilateral consultations as well as consultations with other allies”. “This will include a review of our common strategic assumptions so that they reflect the contemporary security setting and the growing threat from WMD-armed adversaries in regions of vital interest,” they said. “We need to obstruct and deter these new threats with a strategy that encompasses both offensive and defensive systems, continues nuclear arms reductions where possible, and strengthens the WMD and missile proliferation controls and counter-proliferation measures,” the Bush Blair duo said. They recognised the importance to work together for solutions to trade disputes which were in accordance with the rulings of the World Trade Organisation. Supporting the launch of a new round of global trade negotiations this year, they expressed their commitment to the removal of “unnecessary governmental barriers and impediments” to trans-Atlantic defence trade. Meanwhile, Tony Blair avoided endorsing the US national missile defense system, a top item on President George W. Bush’s national security agenda, indicating difference in approach between the two countries on the controversial issue. Addressing a joint press conference after their first meeting at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Blair said the allies must be consulted about the major defence concern. “We can find a way through this,” he added. Bush, however, sounded confident as he said he would be able to persuade skeptical allies to support a missile shield against ballistic missiles. Such a system “makes a lot of sense,” he said. The leaders did not go into the details of the missile defence plan at their meeting. But Bush endorsed the European idea of having a rapid reaction force for maintaining peace in the region. The USA had no objections to a separate military arm to help keep peace in Europe as long as that force was clearly secondary to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), Bush said. Earlier Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had expressed reservations about the European force, which would make use of NATO equipment and could be dispatched on missions that the USA did not endorse, or chose not to join.
PTI, IANS |
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Kuwait renews pact with USA Kuwait City, February 24 The agreement “has been automatically renewed for a similar (10-year) period, starting from the expiry date of the current pact,” Defence Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah told Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper. The pact was signed after the war in which a US-led coalition liberated Kuwait from seven months of Iraqi occupation. The pact was due to expire in the third quarter of this year. Kuwait also signed similar defence pacts with Britain and France, and defence cooperation agreements with Russia and China. Kuwait has repeatedly said it plans to renew the pacts. “There is a clause in the (US) pact that stipulates automatic renewal as long as no party informs the other of its intention not to renew, or to change some clauses,” Sheikh Jaber explained. “Regarding the pact with the USA, it has been renewed with the consent of both parties,” the minister said on the eve of the 10th anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation. AFP |
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Navy begins Borneo evacuation Sampit (Indonesia), February 24 Officials said the navy had dispatched another two vessels to pick up some 24,000 refugees holed up the Central Kalimantan river town of Sampit, centre of the violence between indigenous Dayaks and Madurese immigrants. Sampit was still tense this morning, Reuters photographer Beawiharta said from the town. Dayaks, once fearsome headhunters, were still roaming around in search of Madurese following a week of violence which witnesses and officials say has largely gone from fighting between the rival groups to one-sided Dayak attacks on Madurese. Most of the refugees are Madurese. “It is better that the Madurese leave. This area will be safe then,” said one local official, who declined to be identified. Local officials put the death toll at 163. Some victims have been beheaded and their heads paraded through the town. Others have been burnt to death. The violence underscores the volatility hobbling Indonesia and flared as embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid left for a lengthy trip to the Middle East and Africa this week, leaving behind a fragile country crying out for leadership. Hundreds have died in Indonesian Borneo provinces in the past two years in unrest between Dayaks and immigrants, mainly from the Madura island, which is off East Java.
Reuters |
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Peru Congress
charges Fujimori Lima (Peru), February 24 “Of course this paves the way to a criminal trial,” Mr Daniel Estrada, who headed a Congressional commission pressing for constitutional charges against Mr Fujimori, told Reuters yesterday. The Congress voted 37 to 24 with four abstentions to charge Mr Fujimori with abandoning office and dereliction of duty in the early hours yesterday. Because Mr Fujimori (1990-2000) was once President, any criminal charges must start out in the Congress. Now that the Congress has approved the charges, Mr Fujimori loses the five years of immunity enjoyed by ex-Presidents and a criminal prosecutor takes over. Mr Estrada said he expected the case to pass to a state attorney for a criminal case to be opened “in five days at the most.” Mr Fujimori was fired last November for being “morally unfit” to rule after he fled to Japan to escape a spiralling corruption crisis sparked by his fugitive ex-spy chief, Mr Vladimiro Montesinos. Mr Montesinos is on the run from a string of charges, including corruption, illicit drugs and arms deals and ordering death squads which Mr Jose Ugaz, the state attorney investigating the spy chief, says should be extended to include Mr Fujimori. Mr Ugaz has said it is inconceivable that Fujimori was unaware of what Mr Montesinos — who allegedly ran a mafia of corruption penetrating Peru’s courts, the Congress, military and media — was up to throughout a decade in power.
Reuters |
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Roger Clinton asked for pardons Los Angeles, February 24 In an interview with The Los Angeles Times posted on the paper’s website yesterday, Mr Roger Clinton said he was deeply disappointed when none of his friends’ names showed up on the pardon list even though he had left the list in a prominent place in the White House for his brother to see. “I cried about a couple of days, I was in an emotional funk. ... I didn’t get any money for any kind of pardons. ... Not only did I not get any money, but none of them got pardons,” he told the paper. At least one if not several Congressional committees are expected to delve into Mr Roger Clinton’s requests as well the $400,000 fee received by Hugh Rodham, the lawyer brother of former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, from the families of two men he represented who did receive clemency. One of the men was a convicted California cocaine dealer with a politically active father who had his 15-year sentence commuted by Mr Clinton to six years, the time he already served. Manhattan US Attorney Mary Jo White’s office has begun a criminal probe into the ex-President’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and his partner, Pincus Green, the most controversial of the actions Mr Clinton took on January 20, his last day in office.
Reuters
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Mice with human
brain cells crafted San Francisco, February 24 The research at California biotechnology company StemCells Inc. breaks new ground by demonstrating that human brain stem cells can be induced to grow within a mouse’s skull, scientists said yesterday. “We are not recreating a human brain. We’re really just trying to understand how these stem cells can function and how they can be used in the treatment of specific diseases,” said Ann Tsukamoto, vice-president of scientific operations at StemCells Inc. Irving Weissman, a Stanford University professor, involved in the two-year research project, said the next step could be to produce mice with brains made up almost entirely of human cells — although he said there would have to be a thorough ethical review before this step is taken. The California study involved isolating human stem cells in the laboratory and then introducing them into mice. As the mice matured, the human stem cells — “master cells” that can develop into any other type of cell — grew into a full range of specialised cells throughout each mouse brain.
Reuters
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LTTE breaks truce, kills 2 cops Colombo, February 24 The two policemen were killed when militants attacked Mutugala village, about 75 km from Batticaloa in the country’s east coast. However, according to a government official, the policemen were killed after they had tried to ambush the rebels. The LTTE announced on February 22 that it would extend the ceasefire by another month in a bid to push forward the peace process.
ANI |
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Activists of Islamic group detained Lahore, February 24 The police detained Sipah-i-Sahaba head Azam Tariq from the group’s headquarters in the Punjab provincial town of Jhang. “The crackdown was launched last night to preempt any unrest over group activist Haq Nawaz’s hanging,” a senior police officer said. The officer, who preferred anonymity, confirmed that the police conducted raids in Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faislabad, Multan and Bahawalpur. “So far about 200 persons have been detained in central Punjab,” he said.
AFP |
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Top
security job for Euroarmy critic London, February 24 The newspaper reports were in contrast to Mr Bush’s public pronouncements after meeting Mr Blair at Camp David in the USA yesterday, where he expressed support for a European rapid reaction force as long as it did not undermine NATO. Mr John Bolton is America’s most outspoken opponent of plans for a European army free of US influence and NATO control, said the Right-wing Sun tabloid. His appointment as Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security was announced hours before Mr Blair arrived in Washington on Thursday for his first talks with the new President, said the Daily
Mail. AFP
Washington, February 24 Adm William J. Fallon will also deliver a formal letter of apology from President George W. Bush for the disaster that left nine Japanese missing and presumed dead, the navy said in a statement yesterday. Fallon was due to arrive in Japan next week. Fallon will brief Japanese officials on the progress of investigations into the crash, including an official navy court of inquiry set to begin on March 5, the statement added. The boat “Ehime Maru” was carrying students from a Japanese high school on a fisheries training project.
Reuters
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