India to receive first batch of Su-30mki fighters next year

LONDON, Nov 2: India will receive the first batch of ten 32 Sukhoi Su-30mki multirole fighters from Russia late next year, while the remaining will arrive before the end of 2003, Jane’s defence weekly reported.

New Delhi had ordered 40 Su-30mki fighters under a 1.3 billion US dollar contract signed with Moscow in November 1996, but only eight aircraft have reached India till now.

Delivered in 1997, these aircraft were of the preliminary Su-30k configuration, and were not equipped with advanced features such as forward canards, thrust-victor control engines and advanced avionics, the report said.

Russia’s Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association is expected to upgrade all 18 of these Su-30ks to Su-30mki standard after 2003 through its role as prime agent for the Indian contract.

The work could also be carried out at one of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s facilities, as the company is expected to launch licensed production of the Su-30mki after 2004, it said. An inter-Governmental agreement covering the deal was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to India early last month. The 20-year accord does not include re-export rights, it said.

Under a separate deal, India on October 19 received its first four of 40 mil Mi-17-IV (Mi-8mtv-2) transport helicopters ordered at a cost of 170 million dollars earlier this year.

Russia’s Kazan helicopter plant is due to complete deliveries of the remaining aircraft by late 2001, after which all 40 will undergo an upgradation programme to include the installation of 12 Vikhr-m (At-16) medium-range air-to-surface missiles. The laser-guided weapon has a maximum range of about 10 km. (PTI)

Founder of MQM offers to step down from leadership

LONDON, Nov 2: Altaf Hussain, founder of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) in Pakistan, has offered to step down as party leader if the "legitimate demands" of the Mohajirs are fulfilled.

In a statement, Hussain sought to know from the rank and file of the party whether they "hold him responsible for all the difficulties they face" and if it is so, he is "ready to voluntarily step down from the leadership of the struggle".

"And in such a situation, the Mohajir dignitaries, intellectuals and downtrodden people have the right to hand over the leadership of the struggle to whosoever they deem fit," he said.

He said the Army had offered that if he stepped down from the leadership, its operation against the Mohajirs which began in June 1992 would not only be ended but all the detainees would be freed within 48 hours, the statement quoting Hussain said.

"However, despite making this announcement, the Army generals at the helm of affairs did not fulfil their pledge. Thereafter, on the demand of the Mohajirs and the MQM workers, I once again took charge of the leadership", Hussian said.

During his 22-year struggle he has not experienced anything but despair, suffering and tears, the founder of the third largest party in Pakistan, after the Pakistan Muslim League and the Pakistan People’s Party, said. (PTI)

Bush, Gore get in their best shots on campaign trail

WASHINGTON, Nov 2: Like prize-fighters in the final round, George W. Bush and Al Gore got in their best shots in victory in their battle for the White House still up for grabs.

Looking for the knockout punch with six days to go until polling day, Bush, the Republican Governor of Texas, said democratic Vice President Gore has promised away US prosperity in a wish-list of new spending that would ruin the economy.

"He offers new federal spending programmes to nearly every voting bloc," Bush told thousands of enthusiastic people who gathered in an airplane hangar in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to hear him speak.

"These are not the policies of the ’90s; these are the same policies that threatened our economy in the ’70s," he said, making reference to the budget deficits that weighed down the US economy during that era.

"This is spending without discipline, spending without priorities and spending without end."

Gore was also in attack mode in Florida, a state once considered safe for Bush which some polls show leaning toward the Vice President.

Mocking Bush’s capacity to grasp basic math, Gore said his rival’s programmes simply did not add up.

A Gore victory in Florida would deal real and symbolic blows to the Texas Governor’s Presidential hopes: not only does Florida have 25 electoral college votes — 270 unlock the doors to the White House — but Bush’s brother Jeb Bush is its Governor.

At a rally here, Gore also touted his environmental bona fides, telling the crowd here he had "a message for the other side ... On the environment, I have never given up, I have never backed down and I never will."

Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the campaign’s internal polling showed the Vice President in the lead in Florida, while an La Times survey gave bush a thin 48 per cent to 44 per cent edge, well within the five percentage point margin of error.

A poll released late Tuesday by MSNBC had gore up 51-39 with a four-point error margin in the state.

Bush leads in most national polls with his widest edge in the latest MSNBC surveys giving him 46 per cent of the vote against 41 per cent for gore.

After two days in the Western United States, where he spoke to thousands of people in Oregon and Washington, Bush shifted his focus to the midwest, where he is expected to remain until Friday. The region is considered crucial in the race for the White House.

After making several stops in Florida, Gore was to head to Pennsylvania, where polls also forecast a neck-and-neck race, then on to Illinois, New Mexico, and Missouri today followed by a campaign swing through Iowa and his home state of Tennessee on Friday. (AFP)

Yugoslavia admitted to United Nations

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2: Ending eight years of isolation, the new democratic but truncated Yugoslavia has been admitted into the United Nations by acclamation with its new red, white and blue flag being hoisted in place of that of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Immediately after General Assembly President Harri Holkeri announced last evening that it had been admitted, the Yugoslav delegation was escorted to its seat in the Assembly hall.

Yugoslavia, which was among the founding members of the United Nations had lost its membership of the world body after the Security Council had determined in 1992 that, it had ceased to exist after four republics broke away.

Speaking at the flag-raising ceremony, Secretary General Kofi Annan called the event a "milestone in the long and difficult passage of the Balkans towards becoming a truly free and democratic region".

The future of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was "profoundy tied" to the freedom, prosperity and human rights of its neighbours, Annan said.

The ceremony was watched by Yugoslavia’s special Presidential envoy who described the event as "bright moment in history."

The new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, had last week applied for the membership in a letter sent to Secretary General Kofi Annan in which he affirmed that his country accepted "oblications contained in the charter of the UN and undertakes to fulfil them". (PTI)

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