Bill Clinton

Clinton receives
support from
key senators

WASHINGTON, Dec 26: In a new boost to President Bill Clinton’s efforts to ward off an impeachment trial in the Senate, ...more

Africa caught between renaissance, conflict

NAIROBI, Dec 26: Limbs were missing from many of the corpses floating in the Pampana river, and some of them were . ...more

Christmas cakes
stolen in Colombo

COLOMBO, Dec 26: Hundreds of residents of a local suburb had an unpleasant Christmas surprise when they discovered that ....more

Nepal Govt allies squabble
over coveted portifolios

KATHMANDU, Dec 26: Newly-installed "election-Government" allies Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of ..more

HONOLULU, Dec 26: Three adventurers trying to make the first nonstop round-the-world flight in a balloon abandoned .....more

12 Tamil tigers
feared killed

VAVUNIYA (SRI LANKA), Dec 26: A motorboat carrying 12 Tamil tiger rebels, including two top ranking local guerrilla ....more

Founder of China’s
nuclear programme
passes away

BEIJING, Dec 26: Mr Wang Ganchang, the scientist credited with founding China’s atomic bomb programme...more

China commemorates
105th anniversary
of Mao’s birth
BEIJING, Dec 26: China marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of late revolutionary leader Mao Tse-Tung today with the release of books,.....more

Students protest
at Dhaka Varsity

DHAKA, Dec 26: Hundreds of students at Dhaka University staged marches today in protest at alleged sexual abuse by teachers, witnesses said...more

Africa caught between renaissance, conflict

NAIROBI, Dec 26: Limbs were missing from many of the corpses floating in the Pampana river, and some of them were headless.

The massacre perpetrated by rebels of the revolutionary United Front on villagers in Sierra Leone in October was just one of the innumerable atrocities that helped to fix the image of Africa in the eyes of the world during 1998.

The Lord’s resistance army, as the Ugandan guerillas style themselves, hack off the lips, ears and noses of their victims and force hundreds of children to take up arms in their struggle.

Hutu gangs murdered innocent peasant farmers in Rwanda and Burundi. There is no end in sight to the power struggles of the bloodthirsty militiamen in Somalia or in the long-running Sudanese civil war, which has also caused widespread famine.

The armed border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea remains unresolved, as does the dangerous Congo crisis.

Africa was once again the continent with by far the largest number of armed conflicts. The red cross, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, the world food programme and all the other major aid organisations were needed here as nowhere else to alleviate human suffering during 1998.

However, there were also signs of hope, of success in economic development and of the entrenching of democracy in many countries.

One such case was Burkina Faso. The country was last in the headlines after a military coup in 1987. The coup leader, Blaise Compaore, can today point to impressive results in liberalising the economy and in democratising the Sahel country.

These successes helped him to victory in the first multi- party elections in November - an event that did not make headlines.

One prophecy went round the continent reflecting the hopes of its hundreds of cultures. South African vice-president Thabo Mbeki predicted an African renaissance, and there are clear indications of this in many places.

U.S. President Bill Clinton took up the idea when he visited Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana and Senegal in March. This was the first state visit by a U.S. President to the continent in 20 years and the clearest declaration of a new U.S. Africa policy to date.

In Mr Clinton’s luggage was a new law for promoting trade with those African states placing their faith in democracy and the market economy.

Surprisingly Nigeria came forward as one of the countries that could profit most from this initiative. Earlier in the year this most populous of African countries with 108 million people was internationally ostracised, but the sudden death of its military dictator, Sani Abacha, opened the way to democratic reforms in the oil-rich country.

The new head of state, General Abdu Vi Abubakar, released political prisoners, moved against the most corrupt among the leaders of the military Junta and agreed a timetable with the opposition for free elections and the return of power to a civilian administration next year.

However, there was another term that gained currency in Africa in 1998. U.S. under-secretary of state for African affairs Susan Rice warned that "Africa’s first world war" was on the cards if the Congo conflict escalated.

The troops of six countries are involved in the war over control of Africa’s third largest country. President Laurent Kabila has negotiated with several others regarding entering the war, offering in exchange rich returns in the form of the Congo’s resources of diamonds, gold, copper and tropical hard woods.

Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Chad are supporting Mr Kabila against a strong rebel army, which is backed by troops from Rwanda and Uganda.

Where Kabila was Africa’s man of the year in 1997 after he toppled Mobutu Sese Seko, the late dictator, by August this year the rebels were rising against him, accusing him of being a "new mobutu" leading the country further down the road to ruin. (DPA)

Christmas cakes stolen in Colombo

COLOMBO, Dec 26: Hundreds of residents of a local suburb had an unpleasant Christmas surprise when they discovered that thieves had broken into the neighbourhood baker’s shop and stolen 800 cakes, a news report said today.

The theft occurred in the Handela area on Christmas eve, the Island newspaper reported.

Many Christians in Sri Lanka prefer to give cake ingredients to bakers who then prepare the cake for a small fee. The baker in Handela had taken orders for 800 cakes, baked them and then gone to sleep after a hard day of work.

On Christmas day, when the people came to collect their cakes, they found the shop empty and the baker crying. They were told their Christmas cakes were all stolen.

The baker has filed a case with the police who are investigating the theft. (AP)

Clinton receives support from key senators

WASHINGTON, Dec 26: In a new boost to President Bill Clinton’s efforts to ward off an impeachment trial in the Senate, two key democratic Senators, known for their independents viewsn are seeking his censure to spare him from the humiliation of his removal from office.

Two influential democratic Senators — Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Robert Byrid, who have opposed Clinton on several issues — are drafting a proposal to censure Clinton in the Monika Lewinksy scandal, CNN said adding their strategy is to draw Republican support.

Clinton also got strong support from the black community when black leader Rev Jesse Jackson’s son, Congressman Jesse L Jackson, jr., severely criticised those who are seeking Clinton’s removal from office.

Under lying the Clinton impeachment is neither sex nor lying nor perjury but American history itself. Essentially, the same Southern-based elitist economic and political forces that drove the Presidential impeachment process against (then president) Andrew Johnson in 1868 are driving the impeachment process 130 years later.

The underlying issue is essentially the same reconstruction, Jackson said in a statement. (PTI)

Nepal Govt allies squabble over coveted portifolios

KATHMANDU, Dec 26: Newly-installed "election-Government" allies Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxists-Leninists) squabbled bitterly over coveted portfolios till late yesterday before Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala could finally announce an eleven-member Cabinet last night.

The deadlock was resolved only after Mr Koirala’s Nepali Congress finally gave in, albeit reluctantly, to the CPN (UML) demand for the prestigious finance and water resources porfolios- in the process, retaining the also vaunted Information and Communications Ministry.

At the end of the day, the NC ended up with four of its members appointed ministers in addition to Premier Koirala while the CPN (UML) also clinched four ministerial berths. The NC retained the coveted home portfolio with Mr Govindraj Joshi, holding the same charge in the previous NC minority regime, continuing while another Koriala-confidant Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta was named Information and Communications Minister.

Mr Purna Bahadur Khadka was named Commerce Minister and Mr Kul Bahadur Gurung as Educations Minister.

The CPN (UML) contingent in the new Government is headed by Mr Bharat Mohan Adhikary, allotted finance, while another coveted charge, water resources, has been assigned to Mr Pradip Nepal. Both are CPN (UML) Standing Committee members joined by another from the party’s powerful decision-making body, Mr Amrit Kumar Bohara (local development). The fourth CPN (UML) nominee in the coalition-Cabinet is Bhim Bahadur Rawal given tourism and civil aviation.

Others appointed to the new Council of Ministers are Nepal Sadbhavana Party President Gajendra Narayan Singh (industry) and former journalist Ramesh Nath Pandey (population and environment) one often nominated members of the Rashtriya Sabha, the upper house of the Nepal Bicameral Parliament.

According to an agreement reached on Sunday between the NC and the CPN (UML) aimed at forming the new "election Government" to conduct parliamentary polls within the next four months, a bearth each has been further earmarked for the other two political parties in Parliament-the two factions of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party headed by former Premiers Surya Bahadur Thapa and Lokendra Bahadur Chand, respectively.

While the "new" RPP (Chand-Ted) is expected to join in Government shortly, the RPP-Thapa is yet to make clear its intentions in this regard.

Meanwhile, another three Cabinet berths were earmarked for the CPN (Marxist-Leninist), a splinter faction of the CPN (UML), but in view of it having declared that it would act in future as "a responsible main oppositions". Mr Kocrula- who at present holds all portfolios currently not allotted otherwise, including foreign affairs, defence and agriculture.

According to sources within both the NC and the CPN (UML), Mr Koirala was expected to seek summoning of Parliament shortly to secure the mandatory vote of confidence. After its success, he was expected to go in for a Cabinet-expansion to include members from parties presently unrepreseuted in Government and then recommend fresh parliamentary polls to be conducted by mid-April.

At present, the party-composition in the 205-seat Pratinidhi Sabha, the lower house of the Nepali Parliament, is as follows Nepali Congress 89, CPN (UML) 49, NSP three, RPP (Thapa-led) ten and "new" RPP (Chand-led) eight.

The main opposition CPN (ML) has forty members in the House while others comprise the maoist Nepal Mazdoor Kisan Party (two) and two ultra-left independent members. The House currently has two vacancies. (UNI)

Balloonists abandon round-the world quest

HONOLULU, Dec 26: Three adventurers trying to make the first nonstop round-the-world flight in a balloon abandoned their quest yesterday, ditching in the shark-infested waters off Honolulu a little more than halfway through their journey.

Coast Guard helicopters twisted them from the water in good condition and high spirits.

The men from British Mogul Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett and per Lindstrand of Sweden quit seven days into their journey after they lost the high-altitude, high-speed winds they needed to carry them eastward across the Pacific to North America. They had gotten caught in a low-pressure "trough" and feared they would be stuck there for a week.

"We weren’t let down by any of our training or our equipment. But we were let down by the weather," Lindstrand said.

"It was a ridiculous way to spend your Christmas Day but it was certainly exciting," Branson said in a thank-you call to the operations control room in London.

They lowered the 83-meter, combination helium and hot-air balloon and let it hit the Pacific Ocean about16 kms North of the island of Oahu, where the craft bounced across the water for kilometers because the explosive bolts that were supposed to cut the balloon loose from the crew capsule had been frozen by the cold and didn’t work.

The men, wearing their survival suits, were in the water no more than 10 minutes before they were hoisted in baskets aboard two coast guard helicopters, Fossett said.

"Lindstrand said he has ditched many aircraft in the past, but

this was the worst. It was horrendous.’’

The craft was not immediately recovered, but Fossett said plans were under way to salvage at least the capsule and the equipment aboard.

All three balloonists have made a total of 11 attempts at a nonstop flight around globe, some of which ended in near tragedy.

This time, as the balloon was landing, Fossett said, he was thinking "about the fact that I’ve made three attempts to fly round the world just in 1998 and it’s getting pretty discouraging."

"I think it’s time to go sailing," Fossett said.

The men were brought ashore at barbers point, about 10 miles (16 kms) west of Honolulu US Customs Inspectors were waiting to meet them and have them sign the declaration forms required of all those entering the United States.

The batloon voyage began on December 18 in Marrakech, Morocco, and, if successful, would have ended in Western Europe. The crew had hoped to reach North America sometime Friday, flying over Southern Canada or Washington state. They covered 20,100 kms before giving up.

"We were not told for 15 minutes whether they were alive, dead or injured," Project Director Mike Kendrick said from London. "I know it is a failure, but it is a glorious failure."

Balloon pilots cannot steer or control their speed with any precision, relying instead on extremely fast, high-altitude winds to carry them around the globe. They navigate by changing the lift of the balloon to ascend or descend into different wind currents.

After racing across the Pacific in winds of up to 320 kph) the adventurers’ balloon got sucked into a low-pressure system. They maneuvered the craft up and down between 1,830 meters and 8,230 meters to try to find a fast easterly wind. But the best they could do was a 25 kph wind.

"This is particularly disappointing," Fossett said. "Last night the weather changed on US and we were stuck. In the middle of the night we decided it was a hopeless situation."

If the balloonists had made the West coast, they would have broken the balloon distance record that Fossett set on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe earlier this year. He, too, was forced to ditch in the shark-infested waters of the Pacific.

During the journey, the team secured permission from 97 countries to cross their airspace. Iran, Iraq, Russia and North Korea refused permission. The crew also had some tense moments when they passed over China farther North than the balloon had been authorized to fly. (AP)

12 Tamil tigers feared killed

VAVUNIYA (SRI LANKA), Dec 26: A motorboat carrying 12 Tamil tiger rebels, including two top ranking local guerrilla leaders, capsised in the sea after an accident, rebel radio has said.

The voice of tigers radio monitored here city of Saed yesterday that two lieutenant colonels were among the dead. It gave no other details and did not say when or exactly where the accident took place.

Military officials here, 210 km North of Colombo, said explosives being carried by the rebels may have exploded prematurely. The rebels often use boats to attack Sri Lankan navy positions.

The rebels are fighting for a separate homeland in the North and east of Sri Lanka, accusing the Sinhalese majority of oppressing the Tamil minority.

While not all Tamils embrace the rebels’ extreme solution, many feel they are denied opportunity by the Sinhalese, who dominate the Government and military. The Government denies the charge and says Tamils have equal rights. (AP)

Founder of China’s nuclear programme passes away

BEIJING, Dec 26: Mr Wang Ganchang, the scientist credited with founding China’s atomic bomb programme, has died of an unspecified illness in Beijing, state-run media reported today. He was 90.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Mr Wang died on December 10 and was cremated yesterday at the Babaoshan Cemetery here, the final resting place of many of China’s revolutionary heroes.

A native of Eastern Jiangsu province, Mr Wang was graduated from Elite Tsinghua University in 1929 and earned a doctorate from Berlin University in 1933. Returning to China the following year, he helped establish China’s nuclear research programme.

Mr Wang worked as a research scientist at the University of California at Berkeley after World War II. He returned to China just before the communists took power in October, 1949.

Working at a Government-run academy, Mr Wang oversaw the design and manufacture of China’s first atomic bomb.

A front-page report in today’s people’s daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party, lauded Mr Wang as the "founding father" of China’s nuclear weapons programme and noted that President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, among many others, had sent condolences upon hearing of his illness and death.

"Wang Ganchang was an outstanding representative among our nation’s scientists. His passing is a great loss to atomic research in our country and the world," it said. (AP)