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COLOMBO, Oct 22: The ruling People Alliance (PA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) have .....more
Chirac asks China to give more freedom to Tibetans BEIJING, Oct 22: French President Jacques Chirac and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin held extensive....more Alert over suicide bombers; US probe LTTE hand in ship attack COLOMBO, Oct 22: Sri Lankan Police has sounded a red alert amidst intelligence ....more |
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Arab leaders say they CAIRO, Oct 22: An Arab summit called to confront a frightening and deadly upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence ended today with a declaration that Arabs may consider cutting ties with Israel, but did not call on them to do so. Arabs "hold Israel responsible for any steps taken in regard to relations with Israel by Arab countries, ....more MULTAN, Oct 22: Two passenger buses collided in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province killing at least 40 people and injuring 77 others, police said today. . .......more |
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COLOMBO, Oct 22: The ruling People Alliance (PA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) have reached an agreement to preserve the stability of the new PA Government, which was formed this week, media reports said here today. Both official and private media here carried reports quoting the PA and the UNP sources that Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, who formed a coalition Government after obtaining a three-seat majority reached a working arrangement with UNP leaders to run his Government without any problems for the next two years. According to the accord, the UNP which has 89 MPs in the 225-member Parliament would not confront the Government and adopt a positive approach to enable it to function smoothly. On its part, the Government has agreed to appoint three independent commissions to conduct elections, administer police and other public services, which was a longstanding demand of the UNP. The Government also agreed to bring in media reforms by removing the criminal defamation, the official Sunday Times reported today. The agreement, to be ratified by the UNP working committee tomorrow has been reached between Wickramanayake and UNP chief whip Tyrne Fernando, the Sunday Observer said. The reason for reaching such agreement between two parties was stated to be to relieve the Government from the undue pressure being exerted by Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, (SLMC), whose leaders were allegedly demanding plum portfolios for extending support. Another junior partner in the PA Government, the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) which has won five seats has been given one cabinet portfolio. Terming the agreement as a working arrangement, Fernando has been quoted in the Sunday Times as saying that the ‘aim of the exercise is to introduce a new political culture’. The agreement between the two parties, which were arch rivals in Sri Lankan politics, followed after the two parties agreement to unanimously elect UNP MP and president Chandrika Kumaratunga’s politically estranged brother, Anura Bandaranaike as the new speaker of the Parliament. However the all important constitutional reforms to grant autonomy to the Tamil provinces has not figured in the agreement. Its conspicuous absence has set off speculation that the Government would not immediately bring in new draft Constitution to avoid confrontation. Chandrika’s constitutional reforms were vehemently opposed by the UNP and the Buddhist monks. (PTI) |
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Chirac asks China to give more freedom to Tibetans BEIJING, Oct 22: French President Jacques Chirac and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin held extensive talks including the contentious issue of human rights, with the French leader making special plea for religious freedom in Tibet, the state media reported today. Immediately after the two leaders met in Yangzhou city in East China’s Jiangsu province, Chirac’s spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said the French leader urged China to ratify two UN human rights covenants and handed over a list of individual cases of particular concern to France. On Tibet, Chirac, who is making his second trip to China, said France accept unequivocally that the region is part of China but would like to see more religious and political freedom for Tibetans. "The two heads of state had an extensive and in-depth exchange of views on bilateral ties and major international issues of mutual concern," Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. Jiang and Chirac reached important consensus amidst friendly atmosphere, the spokesman said. During the meeting, Jiang said China has always attached importance to sino-french relations and believed that the two sides should consider and handle issues related to bilateral ties with "strategic perspectives" and proceeding from "long-term and fundamental interests of the two countries." (PTI) |
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Alert over suicide bombers;
US probe COLOMBO, Oct 22: Sri Lankan Police has sounded a red alert amidst intelligence report that 47 LTTE suicide bombers have sneaked here to target new Cabinet Ministers and top military officials, even as the US officials probing the October 12 bombing on the American Navy destroyer near Aden suspect the involvement of LTTE in the attack. With swearing-in of 44 new Cabinet Ministers on Thursday, intelligence reports indicated infiltration of 47 suicide bombers to step up attacks in Colombo, DIG of Colombo Range Bodhi Liyanage said here today. SSP, Intelligence, Bandula Wickramasinghe was also quoted by official media as saying it had been established that LTTE suicide bombers have increased the quantity of explosives in their suicide jackets from 700 gms to six kilograms to cause greater devastation. He said police was also experimenting with various methods to detect and arrest suicide bombers much before they exploded. Meanwhhile, a newspaper, Island, reported today that US officials were investigating whether LTTE had in any way assisted the Middle Eastern Muslim terrorist groups to carry out suicide bombing on the US destroyer, USS Cole, at Aden port in which 17 naval sailors were killed. "Although investigators believe that the bombers were members of Middle Eastern terrorist group, they suspect that the LTTE may have assisted in planning the attack or training the suicide bombers," the newspaper said. While Muslim terrorist Osmana Bin Laden continue to be the prime suspect for the bombing on the ship, suspicion about LTTE involement arose as this was the first sea-borne suicide attack against US forces in the Middle East, the newspaper said. With over 250 sucide bombing missions, LTTE’s black sea tigers have acquired enormous experience in training human bombers for suicide missions, it said. The highly trained LTTE sea tiger suicide units were responsible for dozens of attacks on Sri Lankan naval ships, the paper said. "The fact that the bombers knew how much explosives were needed to sink the ship and carefully brought their boat to the spot along destroyer’s hull where the blast would create maximum damage, indicate an extremely high level of planning", it said. The involvement of LTTE could not have been ruled out as its leadership was extremely angry with US President Bill Clinton’s decision to ban the outfit and to assist the Sri Lankan Army with various training programmes. The LTTE did not hesitate to assassinte former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for pursuing an active anti-LTTE policy, the paper recalled, saying the rebel group’s hand in the attack on American ship could not be ruled out as it has well established connections with various terrorists groups all over the world. (PTI) |
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Arab leaders say they may cut ties with Israel CAIRO, Oct 22: An Arab summit called to confront a frightening and deadly upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence ended today with a declaration that Arabs may consider cutting ties with Israel, but did not call on them to do so. Arabs "hold Israel responsible for any steps taken in regard to relations with Israel by Arab countries, including their cancellation," said the final declaration, read by Arab league secretary-general Esmat Abdel-Meguid to a live television audience across the region. Referring to establishing new ties, the declaration also said: "Arab leaders assert in the light of the collapse of the peace process their commitment to standing up to Israeli attempts to infiltrate the Arab world under any name and to the halting of establishing any relations with Israel," The carefully worded statement addressed what had emerged as the most contentious issue before the leaders meeting in Cairo: Whether ties several have with the Jewish state should be reconsidered. Libya had walked out yesterday, the first day of the two-day summit, saying it was frustrated that the gathering would not clearly call for an end to ties with Israel. Egypt and Jordan have diplomatic relations with Israel. Mauritania, a west African nation that is a member of the Arab League, opened diplomatic relations with Israel in January. Oman, which along with Qatar had lower level ties, suspending relations Oct 12, closing Israel’s trade mission in Muscat, the capital, and withdrawing its trade envoy from Tel Aviv. Libya had said cutting such ties was the least Arabs could do in response to more than three weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence that have left 117 dead and more than 2,000 wounded - the vast majority Palestinian. While the summit was unified in holding Israel solely to blame for the violence and for bringing the peace process to an impasse, moderates warned against doing anything that might make future negotiations difficult. Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries with peace treaties and diplomatic relations with Israel, insist negotiations are the only way to bring lasting peace to the region. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had opened the summit with an acknowledgment of Arabs’ anger, but warned against "surrendering to our emotions." Mubarak also called on Israel to prove that it, too, wanted peace. But among ordinary Arabs, the outcome was likely to fuel criticism already being heard: that Arab leaders are divided and unwilling to confront Israel. (AP) |
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MULTAN, Oct 22: Two passenger buses collided in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province killing at least 40 people and injuring 77 others, police said today. The buses collided early today near Shorkot, about 120 kilometres east of Multan. The buses were apparently trying to miss a donkey, which suddenly crossed the road, said a witness. "The driver couldn’t control the vehicle while trying to save the donkey and slammed into the bus coming from the opposite direction," said Mohammed Javaid, one of the victims. The injured have been taken to nearby hospitals where several are in critical condition, police said. They were investigating the accident. (AP) |
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