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Wednesday,
September 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Chaudhry’s
FLP wins 10 seats; counting to end today |
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Lawmakers
urge Bush to lift sanctions on Pak Shakespeare’s hidden lesbians Egyptian desert to be
used for Mars tests
Fighting
erupts north of Kabul
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Last-ditch bid to save UN racism meeting Durban, September 4 The 15-member European Union, which has decided not to follow the US and Israeli action, is engaged in drafting the new text at the request of the host, South Africa. An informal group, chaired by South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, comprising the EU and other countries, including African and Arab nations, has been set up to draft the new text “acceptable to all delegations.” Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who is also the president of the 15-member European Union Council, said that the EU has mandated him to accept the proposal made by Mr Dlamini-Zuma “which consists in drafting a completely new text. The US decision to pull out of the talks has come in for sharp criticism from various countries with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan saying that Washington should have focused more on the conference’s main goals. “I consider it regrettable. The questions of racism, xenophobia and intolerance is something that all societies live in and should fight against,” he said. Mr Annan said: “I would have preferred that the USA was there to fight with others for the right solution, the right results and the right language.” Mr Dlamini-Zuma, who went on to open the daily plenary session, said to applause: “I think it is unfortunate that the two countries (USA and Israel) left, and I think in the long run they will be the losers.” Another issue that has created a great deal of debate is India’s caste system. More than 300 NGO activists from India have been campaigning for the past 10 days to get it included in the WCAR declaration. The NGO conference, which ended on Saturday, has already declared caste as a gross violation of human rights and demanded that strong affirmative action measures must be taken to overcome the caste system. But India’s minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah has rejected any suggestions that caste be included in the agenda of the conference. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said that “crucial negotiations and the West Asia conflict is continuing at the highest level and some progress has already been made.
PTI |
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Chaudhry’s FLP wins 10 seats; Suva, September 4 It has secured eight of the 19 Indian (reserved) seats and two open seats in rural western Fiji, where its power base lies. Commentators are already predicting a repeat of the Labour’s 1999 election performance, at least in areas with a large Indo-Fijian population, where it had scored a clean sweep over arch-rival National Federation Party (NFP). In spite of threats by ultra-nationalist indigenous Fijians groups of bloodshed if Chaudhry, ousted last year in a coup, is returned to power, there has been an even bigger swing towards Labour so far. All its candidates have won in the first count and led by 60-70 per cent margins under the alternate voting system. The party had won 37 seats in the 71-member House in 1999 and a repeat performance does not look inconceivable at this stage. The first to be counted was Lautoka city Indian (reserved) seat, won by Ganesh Chand, former Urban Affairs and Housing Minister in the Chaudhry Government. He garnered 72.52 per cent of the votes. But of his three opponents, NFP’s Faiaaz Ali was bitter. He said: “Indians have not learnt from the lessons of 1999.” Votes were still being counted for Chaudhry’s Ba Indian seat on Tuesday afternoon, but a landslide win is expected for the former Premier. Interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party is doing well in Fijian seats. It has won two of 23 seats at stake. In the interior and northern parts of Fiji, the ultra-nationalist indigenous Fijian party, Conservative Alliance (CA) is expected to do well. The party proposes to pardon coup leader George Speight and his associates if it comes to power. The voting pattern so far shows trends that are worrying some analysts. The two major ethnic groups, indigenous Fijian and ethnic Indian, are supporting extremely opposed parties, rather than the so-called moderate NFP, Fijian Association party and New Unity Labour Party. Whether this will be the trend in the open seats in urban-based areas will soon be known. In all, 46 are seats and 25 open ones, in which the one votes for candidates from any ethnic community. Counting is expected to be completed on Wednesday, after which the President is required to name a Prime Minister, choosing a candidate he feels enjoys the support and confidence of the majority of the House. An anti-Chaudhry alliance of ethnic Fijian political parties has already submitted a petition to the President saying Chaudhry should not be the next premier as he does not represent the indigenous population. They have warned of another revolt similar to the 1987 and 1999 coups by ethnic Fijians. Fijians comprise 54 per cent and Indo-Fijians 44 per cent of Fiji’s 800,000 population. But Chaudhry seems set to become Prime Minister, giving rise to concerns of more instability. “Get ready for another coup,” said an Indian student as results began trickling in and leaned in favour of Labour. Fiji’s leading newspaper, Fiji Times, has urged voters and political leaders Tuesday to be rational and accept the election outcome. “By the time the week is out, there will be more than a few unhappy people,” it said in an editorial. “Instead of slinking away into the shadows to plot what they imagine to be revenge, these people should stand up in the full glare of the media and insist that they and by extension their supporters will accept the legally-elected government. The will of the people must be respected.” “(But) all too often that has not happened.”
IANS |
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Bomber kills himself, injures 13 Jerusalem, September 4 The bomber’s head landed in the yard of the French school close to the scene of the blast in Ha Nevehim Street, or the Street of the Prophets, in west Jerusalem, a father who had just arrived with his little girl, said. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was booed by dozens of Israelis shouting “death to Arabs” as he visited the scene of the blast, which dealt a new blow to efforts to prepare a meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The police said the man, disguised as a religious Jew,
triggered off a bomb he was carrying in a rucksack on his back, apparently when he was approached by border guards alerted by suspicious passers-by. A border guard was one of those hurt in the blast. Israel blamed the attack on the Palestinian leadership and the push for resolutions against Israel to be included in the final declaration of the UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. The attack is “a direct result of the flow of hatred the Palestinian Authority has poured onto its people and the international community,” Avi Pazner, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said Mr Yasser Arafat and the Arab league “are inciting the most extreme hatred and violence against Israel. They did it in Durban and they are doing it within the Palestinian Authority.” But Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo threw the blame on the Sharon’s government. Moscow: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched his three-day visit to Russia today by meeting Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who has expressed alarm at spiralling violence in the region. Russian news agencies noted that Ivanov had said that events in West Asia were “developing according to the worst case scenario”.
AFP, Reuters |
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Lawmakers urge Bush to lift sanctions on Pak Washington, September 4 In two separate but largely identical letters sent to Mr Bush, Senators and Congressmen from both the Republican and the Democratic parties have applauded the Bush administration’s review of unilateral sanctions against India and Pakistan and stressed the importance of treating both countries equally and fairly. “We applaud your administration’s review of the US policy towards Pakistan and India, and especially the attention being given to the removal of unilateral economic sanctions that were imposed on both nations following their respective nuclear tests in 1998.” Making their plea for equal treatment of India and Pakistan more explicit, the Congressional leaders said, “It is vitally important that both nuclear powers in South Asia be treated equally and fairly in order to further our country’s non-proliferation objectives.” The co-signers of the two letters, mostly members of the Pakistan Caucus in the Congress or its supporters, stressed the “crucial importance” of Pakistan in the US policy perspectives. Despite Islamabad’s explicit support to the Taliban movement and its cross-border terrorism against India, they argued that “Pakistan remains a critically important, moderate friend of the USA in the Islamic world and South Asia.” On the Senate side, the signatories include Democratic Senators Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Robert Torricelli, Tom Harkin, Harry Reid and Republican Senators John Warner and Gordon Smith.
PTI |
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Shakespeare’s hidden lesbians London Hermione, Portia and Beatrice were apparently gay. And Cleopatra’s household was a hotbed of same-sex affection. Not only the Egyptian Queen but the queen of the fairies, Titania, had lesbian tendencies too, according to the remarkable new insights of Dr Theodora Jankowski, a former Professor of English literature at University of Washington. In “The Winter’s Tale”, Hermione disappears for 16 years having been accused by her husband of having an affair. Jankowski has raised the possibility that, cared for in secret, her courtier Paulina attended to “all of Hermione’s needs”. The “removed house” in which it is hinted that Hermione was hidden, “represented a secure, private place where a woman could engage in erotic interludes with another woman without arousing suspicion”. Portia in “The Merchant of Venice” marries Bassanio, Jankowski explains, “with little evidence of real love” on either side. “There are few Shakespearean couples who marry with less of a history of love or serious courtship.” Portia is far more likely to be in love with Nerissa, her serving woman, we should have realised.” Beatrice in “Much Ado about Nothing,” played by Emma Thompson in a 1993 film, may have been the lover of Hero, with whom she shared a bed for a year. The female coupling has gone unremarked until now, but Jankowski says: “If Hero could have been unchaste with a strange man the night before her wedding, then it’s entirely possible she may have been unchaste with her cousin.” Lindsay Posner, a director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, said: “All of Shakespeare is so rich with ambiguity that you can really turn any of his plays in your own culture’s image. That’s why he has lasted so long. There’s always something in them with resonance that can be interpreted and re-interpreted as history changes.”
The Observer, London |
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Foreign aid workers put on trial Kabul, September 4 The trial, which Chief Justice Noor Mohamed Saqib said would be closed despite earlier promises that it would be open to journalists and relatives of the accused, was expected to last several days at least. Saqib and 14 Islamic clerics met for nearly four hours today at the start of the trial, which will eventually allow the eight foreign aid workers to speak in their own defence. Saqib would not say when they would be called to the court. He said they would also be provided with a lawyer if they requested one. The eight foreign aid workers, who also include four Germans and two Australians, were arrested, along with 16 Afghan staff members. The foreign aid workers were to be tried separately. Under Taliban law, the penalty for a foreigner who is caught proselytizing is jail and expulsion. For an Afghan, the penalty is death. For the parents of the two jailed Americans, Dayna Curry, 29, and Heather Mercer, 24, the wait has been fraught with uncertainty.
AP |
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Egyptian desert to be used for Mars tests Cairo, September 4 “After laboratory work, we now want to study the performance of our prototypes on a terrain which matches the surface of the Mars as closely as possible,” said Egyptian astronomer Essam Heggy, involved in the project. The Netlander system, composed of four land-penetrating radars, will be put to the test in the Western Desert near Siwa in February 2002, ahead of plans to send it to the Mars in 2007 on board an Ariane-5 rocket, Heggy told AFP. Each of the four Netlander probes will be dropped off on a different part of the Red Planet to look for traces of water beneath the surface to a depth of up to 2 km, Heggy said. In June, 2000, the US space agency, NASA, announced that pictures from the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor pointed to the recent presence of liquid water, one of the fundamental factors required to create and sustain life.
AFP |
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Fighting erupts
north of Kabul Islamabad, September 4 The Taliban militia captured the Khanqah and Sang-e-Borda areas in the south-west of Mahmud-i-Raqi, capital of Kapisa province, around 70 km north of Kabul, the Afghan Islamic Press reported. Taliban forces have also tried to enter the valley from the northern end in recent months, but have failed to break opposition defences in Takhar province.
AFP |
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