Daily Excelsior... World

Bush- the only US
President to follow father

WASHINGTON, Dec 14: Mr George W Bush will be the only President to follow his father to the White House, after an unprecedented five-week legal battle that ended when Vice President Al Gore conceded defeat. ......more

British villagers hail
Bush’s victory

LONDON, Dec 14: Residents of a small english village hailed Mr George W Bush’s US presidential election victory as a triumph for a "local boy". They say that messing, a hamlet of 250 in the eastern english county of Essex, was the home of the Bush dynasty until a farmer called Reynauld.....more

Strengthen relations
with India, pressure
Pak: panel

WASHINGTON, Dec 14: The United States should "increase engagemets" and "strengthen relations" with India while pressuring "Pakistan to end support to the Taliban and show restraint in Kashmir," a leading US think-tank has said.......more

Osama Bin Laden

UN likely to impose arms
embargo against Taliban

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14: The Security Council is likely to impose an arms embargo against Taliban sometime next week despite fears that it.......more

What next, world
wonders, now
that Bush has won

TOKYO, Dec 14: The final result in the US Presidential election set off a sigh of relief around the world today, but concerns also emerged about what ......more

Bangla HC gives
split verdict on 1975
assassination case

DHAKA, Dec 14: A two-judge bench of Bangladesh High Court here today pronounced a split......more

Bush- the only US President to follow father

Democrat Gore, who won the nationwide popular vote, conceded the 2000 US Presidential election to the Texas Governor yesterday and vowed to work with his former rival to "heal the divisions" of their long and bitter battle.

Before Mr Bush, the eldest son of President George Bush, was declared the winner, only John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams, had ever followed his father to the White House.

Both Mr George W Bush and John Quincy Adams, the nation’s sixth President, had hard fought races.

Mr Bush won the electoral vote by just one more than he needed to clinch the presidency, but Mr Gore challenged Florida’s certification of Mr Bush as the winner of the state’s 25 electoral votes - until the US Supreme Court denied him a hand count in a historic split decision on Tuesday.

The younger Adams bested a field of four to win the presidency in 1824, though he failed to win the popular or electoral balloting and was chosen by the house of representatives.

Like the younger Bush, Adams’ father was elected President after two terms as Vice President, but failed in his bid for re-election. (REUTERS)

British villagers hail Bush’s victory

LONDON, Dec 14: Residents of a small english village hailed Mr George W Bush’s US presidential election victory as a triumph for a "local boy".

They say that messing, a hamlet of 250 in the eastern english county of Essex, was the home of the Bush dynasty until a farmer called Reynauld Bush left for new England in 1631.

"We’ve got records going back to about 1300. The family were farmers and reynauld bush emigrated in 1631," Roger Carter, author of a book on messing’s history, told Reuters today.

"We will be writing to the new President and inviting him cordially to come and see us. As a President he is also entitled to a hard-back copy of my book," Carter said.

Mr Tony Keogh’s old crown pub in the village has a bar named after George W Bush’s father, George Bush, who was US President from 1988-92.

"I’m going to get a bit of masking tape and put a W in there now," Mr Keogh said.

He said letters from George Bush senior thanking messing residents for their interest in his genealogy were on display in the village, as well as a white house flag sent by the former President.

Mr Keogh had no doubt the new President would be eager to maintain a link with messing.

"Bush is an Essex boy at heart," Mr Keogh said.

Messing residents plan a "Gore’ fawkes night" of celebrations, including burning an effigy of losing candidate Al Gore, when Mr George W Bush is inaugurated as President.

Britons traditionally burn effigies of 17th century traitor Guy Fawkes on November 5 to celebrate his failed attempt to blow up Parliament.

"We’ll have a Gore guy (effigy) with a mask and a set of stocks outside with gore in them and a ‘Bush fire’ barbecue," said Mr Keogh.

Britain’s times newspaper said genealogist Hugh Peskett first exposed the Bush family’s impeccable lineage 10 years ago.

But Mr Peskett told the paper: "The family didn’t like my research as it made them look too aristocratic when they wanted to appear like Texan ranchers.

"Their heritage as settlers is not an image they want to project."

The times said messing residents were checked out by CIA agents after the village’s Parish Council invited George Bush senior to visit when he was in power.

"He eventually sent his regrets," said the paper. (REUTERS)

Strengthen relations with India, pressure Pak: panel

The rand corporation panel, comprising 60 leaders, who have held senior positions in both the republican and democratic administrations, has said that "India is becoming a major asian power and, therefore, warrants an increased level of engagement and appreciation of its potential for both collaboration.

"By contrast, Pakistan is in serious crisis and is pursuing policies counter to important US interests," it said.

The panel further said that "the United States should increase pressure on Islamabad to stop support for the Taliban, to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, to show restraint in Kashmir, and to focus on solving its own internal problems."

"US relations with each state (India and Pakistan)," the panel said, "should be governed by an assessment of the intrinsic value of each country to American interests."

Speaking to reporters on the panel’s recommendations, a former US Ambassador in democratic administration, Robert e Hunter and Zalmay Khalilzad, a rand senior adviser, said with regard to India and Pakistan in particular, "we advised a decoupling and not looking at them as interconnected".

"We have to look at opportunities and problems in each in terms of US strategy and in its own terms," they said. (PTI)

UN likely to impose arms embargo against Taliban

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14: The Security Council is likely to impose an arms embargo against Taliban sometime next week despite fears that it would lead to closure of the United Nations humanitarian programmes in drought-hit and war-ravaged Afghanistan.

The United States and Russia are pressing for the arms embargo to force Taliban to close down terrorist training camps which send militants to Chechnya as also Kashmir and other parts of the world and hand over Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi dissident millionaire, who is accused by Washington of masterminding terrorists attacks at its interests and citizens worldwide.

But Taliban, which control 95 per cent of the Afghan territory, has refused to hand over Bin Laden, contending that there is no convincing proof of his involvement and that he is a guest whom they cannot turn out.

United Nations officials have expressed the fear that imposition of the embargo would lead to increased threat to humanitarian workers and might mean withdrawal of the international workers and closing of the programmes.

But supporters of the resolution say back-stepping on sanctions would mean yielding to the blackmail of terrorists.

The 15-member Council will hold closed door consultations on Wednesday to take stock of the overall situation and decide how to proceed. (PTI)

What next, world wonders, now that Bush has won

TOKYO, Dec 14: The final result in the US Presidential election set off a sigh of relief around the world today, but concerns also emerged about what will happen next, given the deep divisions in the American electorate, court system and congress.

Television stations in Japan and other countries in the Asia-pacific region interrupted programming today morning for live coverage of the concession speech by Vice President Al Gore and the victory speech by Gov George W Bush after weeks of vote recounts in Florida and court rulings about the disputed result.

The race was the closest US Presidential election in 124 years, with Gore winning the national popular vote, but losing the state electoral contest.

"I think Al Gore made right decision. People have become bored of the whole thing. He can try again in four years. And when he does, people will remember him in a much better image," said Lee Jung-Soo, 27, a worker at a public relations company in Seoul, South Korea.

"A prolonged confusion like this will have very negative effect on the us politics and economy," said Kim Soo-Min, an internet web master, in Seoul.

In his speech, Gore said, "I say to our fellow members of the world community, let no one see this contest as a sign of American weakness. The strength of American democracy is shown most clearly through the difficulties it can overcome."

In his address to American people, Bush said, "together we’ll have a bipartisan foreign policy true to our values and true to our friends. And we will have a military equal to every challenge, and superior to every adversary."

Leaders such as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued statements congratulating president-elect Bush and promising to continue their countries’ close relations with the United States.

But public concerns emerged in several countries about issues such as the new foreign policy that will develop in the United States under Bush’s leadership.

In Taipeews Channel, TVBS, broadcast both speeches live as a reporter provided a simultaneous translation in Mandarin. TVBS followed the speeches with analysis about how the Bush victory will change politics in Washington.

TVBS also showed scenes of speeches and debates in which Bush had mentioned Taiwan. Of special interest was an earlier speech in which Bush had said that if China attacks Taiwan, the United States must come to the island’s defence.

Ham Sung-Duk, a Political Science Professor at Korea University, said the sharply divided US electorate and congress, which split nearly down the middle between Republicans and Democrats, could cause a change in US policies toward North and South Korea.

Under President Bill Clinton, the United States persuaded North Korea to halt its long-range missile tests and supported the South’s "sunshine policy" that began the long process of reconciling its many differences with North. (AP)

Bangla HC gives split verdict on 1975 assassination case

DHAKA, Dec 14: A two-judge bench of Bangladesh High Court here today pronounced a split verdict on an appeal by 15 former Army officers sentenced to death for the assassination of country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a bloody coup in 1975.

Judge Mohammad Ruhul Amin upheld only 10 of the 15 death penalities imposed by a lower court in 1998.

But his colleague A B M Khairul Haque, in a separate order, confirmed death penalties for all the 15 convicted Army officers.

Both Judges read out brief orders amid tight security.

Court sources said the split verdict will go to the Chief Justice for possible review by a third judge.

A death reference bench comprising Justice Amin and Haque delivered the judgement today after 64 days of hearing.

The Bangladesh High Court began hearing on June 28 the death reference of Bangabandhu case, required for confirmation of death sentences to 15 former Army officials.

A district court in a verdict in November, 1998 had ordered that the 15 convicted persons be executed by an open firing squad and may be hanged.

Under Bangladeshi laws, a death sentence passed by a lower court has to be confirmed by the high court.

The four convicts had appealed to the high court against the verdict of the Dhaka district and Sessions Judge. The remaining 11 convicts are still at large.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had already urged US President Bill Clinton to extradite three former Bangladeshi Army officers implicated in the case.

Scores of waiting activists from Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League and its student front took to the streets to protest the split verdict.

They stoned and damaged several vehicles trigerring panic around the court, witnesses said. Fearing the verdict could spark violence, authorities had deployed hundreds of security personnel in Dhaka particularly in and around the court.

Hasina has appealed to the nation not to resort to violence. Prime Minister’s appeal came in the wake of the violent protest in the capital and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in an impromptu rally in Dhaka, a number of senior Government Ministers of the ruling Awami League demanded that all those involved in Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s assassination should be punished.

"Bangabandhu", who led the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971, was gunned down by rebellious soldiers at his Dhaka residence on August 15, 1975. (PTI)