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April 18, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Fresh setback to Russia’s media baron Two 'free' journals fall like ninepins Moscow, April 17 Russia’s embattled media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky received a new blow on Tuesday when co-owners of his key political weekly, Itogi magazine, sacked all the editorial staff, just hours after closing a sister daily. Israel to occupy Gaza for months Musharraf bows to Sindhis’ pressure Cincinnati curfew goes |
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| BNP to take part in poll Dhaka, April 17 The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which was reluctant to pronounce any preparation of polls, has openly come out about its readiness to participate in the polls, whenever these are held. This has indicated the party’s shift from its rigid stand — first the ouster of the AL government and then only a decision on poll participation. Rebels kidnap 92 US
company workers 5 charges against Estrada dropped FMD forces UK nod to Bollywood map
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Fresh setback to Russia’s media
baron Moscow, April 17 A lawyer for the magazine’s dismissed Editor-in-Chief said Vladimir Biryukov, who runs and partially owns the Sem Dnei publishing house, had sent redundancy letters to the journalists, most of whom are loyal to Gusinsky. “On Biryukov’s orders, the editorial staff of the Itogi magazine is sacked ‘due to staff cuts’ and the publishing house stops producing the magazine with the old line-up,” lawyer Alexander Berezin told reporters. Sem Dnei prints Itogi, a joint publication with U.S. magazine Newsweek, the popular but loss-making liberal daily Sevodnya that was closed on Monday and two other magazines. Sem Dnei says Itogi turns a small profit and wants to keep it. The closures were the campaign by the country’s natural gas giant, Gazprom, a company partly owned by the government and chaired by an aide President Vladimir Putin, to gain control of Media-Most property. Over the weekend, Gazprom officials took control of NTV television. In a statement faxed to Reuters, it said several senior editors from Sevodnya had agreed to lead a new team at Itogi. Sergei Parkhomenko, Itogi’s outgoing editor-in-chief, said the shake-up was a replay of natural gas monopoly Gazprom’s seizure of Gusinsky’s star asset, NTV television, last week. He promised to launch another news magazine and invited the former Itogi staff to join him. NTV was by far the most influential source of information in Russia outside Kremlin control. Many of its staff left the company after a morning raid by Gazprom that installed a new management. The rebels now want to launch a new channel. Media-Most, parent company for Gusinsky’s media outlets, decried the latest developments as a Kremlin-inspired campaign to muzzle independent media in Russia and promised to fight on. “We will find ways to go on working, at least until and unless a strict dictatorship is established in Russia,” it said. Editors at another key part of Gusinsky’s crumbling empire, Ekho Moskvy radio, were also pessimistic about their station’s fate as an independent medium once millions of dollars of debts to Gazprom mature in three months. Gusinsky is in Spain fighting extradition to Russia on graft charges he denies. Judges are expected to hand down the verdict on whether the magnate should be sent to Russia on Wednesday. Mr Berezin quoted Gusinsky’s lawyers as saying they expected Gusinsky to be allowed to stay in Spain. The Kremlin denies any involvement in Gusinsky’s woes and says his problems are purely financial. Mikhail Berger, Sevodnya’s editor-in-chief, said that when the paper’s new majority owners pulled the plug on his newspaper, they had the Kremlin whispering in their ears. “The director and Gazprom achieved the political task set by the Kremlin and the Press Ministry in such an easy way,” Berger told newsmen. He said he and his journalists would try to resume publication but would first try to launch an Internet edition. But Biryukov, who denied being influenced in any way by Gazprom in his decision to shut Sevodnya, said the paper incurred a yearly loss of $3 million on his business. “As the director of the company I am concerned first of all about cash flow and profitability,” he told Interfax news agency. “I have always thought that unless we make the publication profitable it will have to go.”
Reuters |
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Israel to occupy Gaza for months Jerusalem, April 17 “We will remain in these places for as long as it takes — days, weeks, months,” Brig-Gen Yair Naveh, commander of the army’s Gaza Brigade, told reporters. Israeli troops moved into several Palestinian-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip overnight after five mortar bombs hit a town in southern Israel. Naveh said the aim of the Israeli army operation was to prevent such attacks. Earlier, the troops today seized Palestinian-controlled areas in the Gaza Strip and rocketed Palestinian security installations in retaliation for mortar fire on an Israeli town. A Palestinian was killed and 36 were hurt in the attack from the ground, air and sea — one of the most extensive Israeli military operations since the fall. Israeli troops also divided Gaza into three parts, barring north-south traffic in the crowded strip of more than one million Palestinians. The attack came in response to the firing of five mortar shells from Gaza at the Israeli Negev Desert down of Sderot, about 4 km from the Gaza Strip and about 8 km from a sheep farm owned by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Palestinians fired dozens of mortars on Israeli targets in recent weeks, mainly on Jewish settlements in Gaza. The attack on Sderot caused no damage or injuries, but was the first on an Israeli town and considered a major provocation by the Sharon government which has promised to restore a sense of security to Israelis. “This is unjustified and crosses the limit,” Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Israeli radio. A top Palestinian security official, Brig-Gen Abdel Razek Majaidah, denied Israeli accusations that the Palestinian authority was involved in the attacks. In response to the Israeli strike, Palestinian security officials cancelled participation in the US-sponsored security talks that were to have taken place last night. As part of the retaliation, Israeli troops seized Palestinian-controlled areas in the northern Gaza Strip, from which mortars were fired at Israeli targets, said the Israeli army spokesman, Brig-Gen Ron Kitrey. Army bulldozers also levelled farmland near the northern town of Beit Hanoun, from where the mortars were fired, Israeli officials said.
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Musharraf bows to Sindhis’ pressure GENERAL Pervez Musharraf’s government in Pakistan has at last succumbed to the pressure of Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), which had started an agitation in protest against water shortage and “injustice” to Sindh, say reports reaching here. Under an agreement between Punjab and Sindh, the former would not draw more than 5,000 cusecs of water and leave the rest for Sindh till April 25. According to this arrangement, the controversial Chashma Jhelum Link Canal will be closed and Punjab would allow water from Tarbela Dam for Sindh. The Punjab Government had earlier refused to entertain the Sindh government’s request for the supply of additional water from the Indus zone. It had been drawing water from the Indus through the Chashma Jhelum Link Canal to be operated only in the case of severe floods, perennial drawing water from the Indus through this canal left hardly any water for Sindh. The river has dried up on reaching Sindh destroying its marine life and agriculture. According to reports, Punjab would be compensated by extra water from the Mangla Dam in accordance with this new arrangement. The military decision came in the wake of reports of police brutalities on those who protested against water shortage. A long march which reached Karachi after 20 days from Bhit Shah was subjected to severe lathi charge and tear gas shelling. Many protesters, including women, were injured and about 100 arrested. The police also used force to prevent a hunger strike before the Karachi Press Club organised jointly by two erstwhile ethnic enemies, the MQM and JSQM. It is for the first time that both the groups have joined hands for a common cause. The MQM chief , Altaf Hussain in a statement condemned the arrests and oppression against the peaceful MQM and JSQM protesters. The JSQM Vice-Chairman, Shafi Mohd Karmani, pointed out that although Sindh had been contributing 70 per cent of the revenue to the exchequer, attempts were being made to deprive it of water and those who were demanding water were being brutally victimised. The Sindh Awami Tehrik Chairman, Rasool Bux Palijo, alleged that Sindh was being squeezed from all sides to make it accept the Kalabagh Dam as a fait accompli for meeting its water needs. He also warned the Pak rulers not to forget that in its 5000-year history, Sindh has never surrendered to any aggressor without a fight and this time too its people would rather die than to give up opposition to the project. |
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Cincinnati curfew goes Cincinnati, April 17 Two adults and two young girls were hit by non-lethal, bean-bag projectiles as the police attempted to disperse a crowd of peaceful demonstrators after the funeral on Saturday of the slain man, Timothy Thomas (19). One of the victims, 34-year-old high school teacher Christine Jones of Louisville, Kentucky, remained at a Louisville hospital yesterday for treatment of a bruised spleen, cracked rib and bruised lung. Less seriously injured were two girls, aged seven and 11, and a 50-year-old man, authorities said. The
FBI and the Cincinnati police internal affairs unit were pursuing separate investigations into the allegations involving the eight officers, officials said. Mr Cecil Thomas, Director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission and former president of the Cincinnati Black Police Officers’ Association, said he had witnessed the incident. Reuters “There was no reason whatsoever (for the shooting) — no provocation,” Thomas told
WCPO TV. He and other witnesses said the officers drove up, jumped out of four vehicles and started firing bean-bag shotguns without warning. They quickly drove away, witnesses said.
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BNP to take part in poll Dhaka, April 17 The National Standing Committee, the highest policy-making body of the BNP, after its three- day meeting which concluded on Sunday, came out with a statement that it was ready for the polls. The party’s Secretary-General made the shift in its stand known. The committee discussed only poll-related issues. The BNP has apparently fulfilled one of the three conditions for early polls put forward by the AL chief. One of the conditions was the BNP’s public assurance to participate in the polls. However, the liaison committee of the four-party alliance led by the BNP, in a recent meeting, reiterated its decision to go ahead with the enforcement of 72-hour shutdown programme beginning on April 23. |
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Rebels kidnap 92 US company workers Bogota, April 17 The oil workers were taken prisoners yesterday in the Arauca province, 500 km north-east of here, near the border with Venezuela, Lt-Col Ruben Dario Alzate Mora said. The identity of the rebel group has yet to be established, but the spokesperson said they were either the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s lagest guerrilla organisation or the National Liberation Army. “The 92 employees were riding in 18 vehicles when they were kidnapped by a group of guerrillas disguised as police officers,” the spokesman said. In Los Angeles, an Occidental Petroleum representative refused to confirm or deny the incident or say if US nationals were among the members of the group.
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5 charges against Estrada dropped Manila, April 17 “We will concentrate on plunder, which is the crux of the whole case,” Ombudsman Aniano Desierto told a news conference after filing a motion with a special anti-graft court to withdraw the five lesser graft charges. He said the charges that would be maintained were those of plunder, falsification of bank documents by illegally using an alias and perjury through wrongful declaration of assets. Under the plunder charge, Estrada is accused of taking advantage of his official position and influence to amass more than $ 80 million in illegal wealth through “a series of overt and criminal acts.” The plunder charge, referring to corruption amounting to about $ 1 million, is non-bailable and can be punished by death. Mr Desierto said the surprise move to withdraw the lesser corruption charges was to prevent “delaying tactics” by Estrada’s lawyers.
AFP |
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FMD forces UK nod to Bollywood map London, April 17 The newly published map hopes to draw rich Indian film buffs to picturesque British screen locations of latest Hindi film blockbusters. As hundreds of thousands of farm animals await slaughter and foreign tourists shun the lush green British countryside, tourism chiefs had been scratching their heads to come up with a new gimmick to revive their badly damaged multibillion-pound industry. And the answer might just lie in the Bollywood map, published by the British Tourist Authority, which aims to cash in on the 400 per cent increase in the number of Bollywood films shot in the UK. Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan grace the front cover of the map, which includes a range of destinations that have served as backdrops for recent Bollywood releases. They include English country homes such as Blenheim and Longleat, which featured in “Mohabbatein,” the Warner Village cinema complex outside Park Royal, London, that was used for the shooting of “Jaanam Samjha Karo,” as well as Loch Lomond, Dunure Castle and central Edinburgh city where “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” was filmed. When “Pyar, Ishq, Mohabbat” is released later this summer it will set new standards as the first Indian film to be shot entirely in the UK. The love story offers Scottish Highlands scenery and the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh as preferred substitutes to Indian locales like Shimla, Darjeeling and Gulmarg. If the tourist authority’s gamble pays off, the number of Indian visitors to the UK could register a 30 per cent increase, making the British Isles at least as attractive a destination as Switzerland. Last year, some 180,000 Indian tourists visited the UK, compared with 250,000 who went to Switzerland.
IANS |
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