|
|
Putin calls for end to MOSCOW, Oct 14: Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli.....more
Blair warns of catastrophe LONDON, Oct 14: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today warned that it would be a catastrophe......more |
|
Arafat agrees to attend GAZA, Oct 14: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today agreed to attend a summit meeting in Egypt to try to halt an explosion of Israeli-Palestinian violence, UN and Palestinian officials said. "Arafat called the secretary-general five minutes ago and told him he would attend," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s spokesman Ahmed Fawzi told Reuters.......more Death toll in WASHINGTON, Oct 14: The death toll in the bombing of US naval destroyer at the Aden Port on Thursday rose to seventeen today since no trace of the ten missing sailors was found so far, 48 hours after the blast. The crew members ......more |
 |
 |
Putin calls for end to West Asia violence MOSCOW, Oct 14: Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to take decisive steps to stop the violence in West Asia. "The lastest outbreak of violence in the Palestinian territories has brought the situation in West Asia to a dangerous turn," said Puntin’s statement, issued by the Kremlin yesterday. "Further escalation of the conflict would lead to new, even more numerous casualities, and inflict a heavy blow to the peace process". "I call on Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak to take decisive measures to put an end to the violence, to immediately do everything possible to normalise the situation and to restore direct dialogue in the search for a way out of the crisis." Putin pledged that Russia, a co-sponsor of Middle East peace talks along with the US, would work to "restore the process of negotiations". Putin’s statement came after the Russain State Duma adopted a balanced and neutral resolution calling for an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the flare-up of the hostilities and urging Barak to stop military strikes and Arafat to display restraint. (PTI) |
|
Blair warns of catastrophe over Middle East LONDON, Oct 14: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today warned that it would be a catastrophe for the whole world if peace was not restored to the Middle East. Blair said it was "absolutely essential" that a Middle East summit be called as soon as possible between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. "We can see now over the last few days what a catastrophe it would be — not just for the Middle East but for the whole of the world — if this process is not put back together again," he told BBC radio. "I cannot emphasise how strongly it is important that the two sides now come together and get back into dialogue," he said in a telephone interview from the European Union summit in Biarritz, France. (REUTERS) |
|
Arafat agrees to attend West Asia summit GAZA, Oct 14: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today agreed to attend a summit meeting in Egypt to try to halt an explosion of Israeli-Palestinian violence, UN and Palestinian officials said. "Arafat called the secretary-general five minutes ago and told him he would attend," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s spokesman Ahmed Fawzi told Reuters. Annan told reporters Arafat had set no conditions for his participation. But Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters Arafat had agreed to attend the summit in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh after Annan had informed him that Israel had accepted his conditions. Fawzi said the summit, expected to involve Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, US President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Annan, would take place on Monday. Israeli Government spokesman Nachman Shai said he had no immediate comment on whether Barak would go to Sharm El-Sheikh. Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said Arafat had demanded assurances that what he called the Israeli siege of Palestinian territories would be lifted and that there would be a real ceasefire. Annan has been leading world efforts this week to end clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters in which at least 98 people, mostly Arabs, have been killed. Arafat had earlier held out for concessions from Israel before agreeing to attend any summit, notably the removal of tanks from the West Bank, reopening of Palestinian territories, and an international commission of inquiry into the violence. After getting Arafat’s confirmation he would attend the summit, Annan headed for Cairo for talks with Mubarak. Israel’s acting Foreign Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, yesterday said his Government did not want a "fiasco" like last week’s meeting between Barak and Arafat in Paris. Barak said on Israeli television yesterday he would not pay Arafat a price for attending a fresh summit. "We are not ready to pave the way there with prizes for violence... There can be no reward for violence," he said. Clinton had been optimistic about the chances of a summit. "We may get a breakthrough sometime in the next several hours," he said in a telephone call late yesterday to a political fundraiser in Arkansas. His voice hoarse, Clinton told the event monitored at the White House press room: "I have been on the phone all day today and I have some more work to do late tonight." The United States tried to clear the way for a meeting on egyptian soil, dropping insistence that the two sides commit themselves to ending the clashes before they hold a summit. But White House spokesman Jake Siewert told reporters in Washington "we have not made any decision" on whether to hold the summit. The United States has vowed that a suicide attack on a US ship in the Yemeni Port of Aden on Thursday would not stop it trying to broker a West Asia peace. The attack killed seven sailors with another 10 missing. European Union leaders added their voice yesterday to appeals for an emergency gathering to end the violence and rescue the shattered peace process. The Israelis accuse Arafat of failing to order an end to Palestinian stone-throwing and gun attacks which Israeli troops have matched with often deadly force. Palestinians accuse the Israeli Army of using excessive force. There were no immediate reports of clashes today. In unrest yesterday, soldiers shot dead a 21-year-old palestinian in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, where protesters chanted: "Bomb Tel Aviv". Troops wounded dozens in clashes in Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin, Bethlehem and the West Bank village of Hizma. But the overall level of violence yesterday was lower than on Thursday. All but seven of the 98 people killed since violence began were Palestinians or Israeli Arabs. About one in five of the dead were 18 or under. In Ramallah and in Gaza, supporters of the militant Islamic Hamas movement took part in protests alongside supporters of Arafat’s Fatah faction. Hamas, which has been behind suicide bombings that have killed dozens of Israelis, had called for "marches of rage" after Israeli helicopters on Thursday struck Palestinian targets to avenge the lynching of two of its soldiers. Arafat said yesterday that he had ordered an inquiry into the killings, but did not confirm an assertion by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in Tel Aviv that he had ordered the arrests of some of those responsible. (REUTERS) |
|
Death toll in bombing of US naval destroyer rises to 17 WASHINGTON, Oct 14: The death toll in the bombing of US naval destroyer at the Aden Port on Thursday rose to seventeen today since no trace of the ten missing sailors was found so far, 48 hours after the blast. The crew members were working round the clock to cut the tangled metal in the mess and living quarters area where they expect to find the bodies of ten missing crew members. The remains of seven sailors have been recovered and are scheduled to arrive at Dover Airforce Base, Delaware today. Meanwhile, officials here are worried that investigators sent to yemen to probe the bombing of the ship might face numerous obstacles, including a weak and uncooperative Government, and powerful anti-American sentiment. About 160 US officials have been sent to Yemen during the last two days to conduct the investigations. The intelligence officials who have reached Yemen had a close look at the antecedents of Islamic Army of Aden called Aden Abyan Islamic Army as a possible suspect in the suicide bombing (Abyan is a province in South Yemen). They also believe that the perpetrator most likely had links with Afghan based Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic militant who was indicted for 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa. Officials also said there is no hard evidence as yet pointing to any particular group. Among those under scrutiny are Palestinian Islamic Jehad, an Iranian-backed guerrilla organisation, Hamas, a group founded by the Muslim brotherhood and Hezbollah, a Lebanon based militant group. A Syrian born cleric living in England, Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammand said he had received a message from the Aden Abyan Army asserting their responsibility for the attack. But US intelligence officials remained skeptical about this version. (AGENCIES) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
