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India discussing recurring flood problem with Nepal NEW DELHI, Aug 22: India is holding talks with Nepal on the problem of recurring floods in UP and Bihar as a result of greater inflow of water from. . ......more Gay outing of hamburg mayor stirs public debate HAMBURG, Aug 22: Most Germans, like most Europeans, a few years ago could only shake their heads in incredulous amusement over the fuss made . ....more Peaceful atmosphere in J&K is not a "fluke", says Mufti LONDON, Aug 22: The prevailing "peaceful atmosphere" in Jammu and Kashmir was not a "fluke" but a "permanent phase", Chief Minister Mufti ....more God’s
law vs man’s: WASHINGTON, Aug 22: The US tenet of separation of Church and state is being challenged ......more |
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Tony Blair to appear before Lord Hutton on Thursday LONDON, Aug 22: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is scheduled to give evidence next Thursday to Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death of Dr David ......more India
to double NEW DELHI, Aug 22: Commerce Minister Arun Jaitely has expressed the hope that India will double the present five billion-dollar bilateral trade with .......more Gay outing of hamburg mayor stirs public debate HAMBURG, Aug 22: Most Germans, like most Europeans, a few years ago could only shake their heads in incredulous ....more Israel
says killings GAZA CITY, Aug 20: Israel plans to kill more militant chiefs in raids mirroring a lethal missile ....more |
India discussing recurring flood problem with Nepal NEW DELHI, Aug 22: India is holding talks with Nepal on the problem of recurring floods in UP and Bihar as a result of greater inflow of water from rivers in the Himalayan kingdom but it will take time to arrive at any consensus, the Lok Sabha was informed today. In this regard, a joint team will be visiting Nepal, Minister for Water Resources Arjun Charan Sethi said while responding to concerns voiced by members on a calling attention motion on the flood situation in Bihar and steps taken by the Government. The Minister emphasised that implementation of the project involving interlinking of rivers would be a step in controlling floods. "Ultimately, this is the only solution," he said. Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said while immediate relief and other assistance was provided to Bihar and Assam, the most flood-affected states, there should be a permanent solution to these natural calamities. He said a separate department had been set up in the Home Ministry to deal with natural disasters. Advani said in the wake of the Gujarat earthquake, special equipment had been brought from Switzerland and sniffer dogs flown to detect people buried under the debris. Raising queries, several members from Bihar including Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramachandra Paswan, Rajesh Ranjan, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Prabhu Nath Singh, Renu Kumari, Devendra Prasad Yadav as also Adhir Chaudhary from neighbouring West Bengal sought urgent steps to find a permanent solution to the flood problem. They wanted India to take up with Nepal the issue of building dams in its territory including the Kosi high dam to address the problem. Earlier in a statement, the Deputy Prime Minister said that all possible assistance would be provided to Bihar in accordance with the norms and procedure prescribed by calamity relief fund and national calamity contingency fund. He said the state Government has reported that out of 38 districts 18 have been affected by floods by varying degrees during the current monsoon in which 79 lives have been lost, 2.87 lakh hectare of cropped area affected and 12,860 houses damaged. Advani said the responsibility of providing relief in the wake of natural calamities primarily rested with the concerned state Governments. The Centre supplemented the efforts of the states where necessary by providing logistic and financial support.(PTI) |
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Gay outing of hamburg mayor stirs public debate HAMBURG, Aug 22: Most Germans, like most Europeans, a few years ago could only shake their heads in incredulous amusement over the fuss made in the United States when a certain White House resident named Bill Clinton shared some kind of intimacy with a young office employee named Monica Lewinsky. Who cares? Was the general sentiment which people on the European side of the Atlantic had about the Clinton-Lewinsky tangle - it was the President’s private business and nobody else’s. Today, Germany is experiencing the same kind of soul-searching about the private sexual lives of politicians and just what, or how much, the public needs to know about it in the wake of an unsavoury scandal which has rocked the northern port city of Hamburg. On Monday, governing Mayor Ole Von Beust and his Justice Minister, Roger Kusch were outed at a press conference as homosexuals by the interior minister Ronald Schill in the culmination of an alleged corruption affair in the Government apparatus. Schill went on to allege that the Mayor and the Justice Minister were also a gay couple. While astonished reporters listened, Schill mumbled remarks about how he had received "information" about the activities by the two men together which pointed to sexual acts. The unsavouriness of Schill’s remarks - made moments after Von Beust had announced he had fired him and his undersecretary in the alleged abuse of office issue - generally angered the Hamburg public. But it also raised questions about whether the Hamburg Mayor may have helped to fuel the situation himself by having previously declined to declare his homosexuality. Schill, so the thinking in some gay quarters goes, may have thought he still had some leverage over the mayor simply by dangling the threat of outing him, because Von Beust steadfastly declined to declare what is regarded as an open secret in Hamburg. It is not that Von Beust - from the right-of-centre Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party which espouses family values and has a generally more conservative view on social morals - would lack a precedent, if he did so. Berlin’s popular social democratic Mayor Klaus Wowereit outed himself as a homosexual during the election campaign a few years ago, famously declaring: "I am gay, and that’s a good thing." voters overwhelmingly elected him to office. Yesterday in an interview prominently splashed across the inside pages of the mass-circulation tabloid bild Justice Minister Kusch declared "yes, I am gay". But Von Beust continued to be evasive, saying sexual orientation was a private matter. "Whether somebody is gay or heterosexual, what somebody does in bed is his own private matter," he told Bild. "and by the way, I am of the opinion that homosexuality is something normal." The rest of the interview concerned mainly his relationship with Kusch, whom the Mayor has known since university days 25 years ago and who also rents an apartment owned by the Mayor. But both Von Beust, 48 and Kusch, 49, flatly denied that they were a gay couple as insinuated by Schill. Von Beust acknowledged that he and Kusch in the past had been on vacation and went sailing together - however, not alone but along with other people. Kusch said he could remember only one or maybe two visits by Von Beust to his apartment. Once was during a renovation of the flat and the other was "with other guests". Newspaper and broadcast media commentators and analysts are all asking the same question: Are any of these private details about the mayor and the justice minister any of the public’s business? The answer appears to be yes and no. Bild in an editorial comment rhetorically asked "so what?" about the mayor’s sexuality, and added: "The only thing that matters is whether he is making good or bad politics... And whether he is treating voters respectably." But the conservative daily die welt in its lead editorial did raise the issue of the Schill insinuation of cronyism in the Mayor’s office, giving his gay friend Kusch a top political position. While using the term "villain" to describe Schill, the editorial said: "The devil can also sometimes be right. Using this scandal as an example, it should be publicly discussed whether homosexual relationships, which in themselves should no longer be a stigma for anyone, must be looked at from the perspective of possible cronyism." Schill’s behaviour in the affair meanwhile is being investigated by federal prosecutors in the light of a possible coercion attempt. In their last meeting with Von Beust before he was fired, Schill allegedly had threatened the Mayor by saying he would out Von Beust and Kusch, a threat which could be interpreted under German law as coercion of a constitutional authority. In an interview with die welt on Thursday, Schill admitted: ‘’maybe i went too far...Maybe i should have stopped myself.’’ (DPA) |
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Peaceful atmosphere in J&K is not a "fluke", says Mufti LONDON, Aug 22: The prevailing "peaceful atmosphere" in Jammu and Kashmir was not a "fluke" but a "permanent phase", Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said today even as his political rival Omar Abdullah favoured converting LOC into a "soft international border" between India and Pakistan. "It is not a temporary phase but a permanent phase," said Mufti Sayeed on BBC world’s question time India programme while appearing with national conference leader Omar Abdullah, Hurriyat leader Sajjad Lone and some other Kashmiri leaders. The Chief Minister said the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the state is supported not only by the people of Jammu and Kashmir but also by the people of Pakistan and India. "So I must say this change in the situation is conducive for peace and this peaceful atmosphere is not a fluke, it is not a temporary phase. It is the will and determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir." Mufti Sayeed suggested that the "walls of hatred and suspicion (existing between India and Pakistan) should be removed and the 300 Km Uri-Rawalpindi road should be reopened." Omar Abdullah suggested that a solution to the Kashmir problem lay in converting the Line of Control into a soft international border. "A soft border is essential to allow people of both sides of Kashmir to come across and facilitate the families to meet, reunite and trade. Greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir on this side, greater autonomy to Kashmir on that side of the border will help to solve the problem. "This is where the solution lies and this is what Government of India must address internally as well as externally," the former Minister of State for External Affairs said. Espousing the hard line, Sajjad Lone warned Mufti Mohammed that he has not given the correct assessment of the situation in Kashmir. Claiming that it was the "lull before the storm", Lone said "it is deceptive and intentionally deceptive. If tourists are the way of gauging normalcy then in 1999 you had much more tourists than you have now and after that there was a violent upsurge. "What you have done basically is sanitised an area of 10Km, which is Srinagar city. You go to the villages and try to see what is the fate of villagers there... Violence is troubling them every day. As long as you don’t address the basic issue of the Kashmir problem, there is no way you are ever going to have normalcy." (PTI) |
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God’s law vs man’s: ten commandments in US court ignites row WASHINGTON, Aug 22: The US tenet of separation of Church and state is being challenged by Alabama’s Chief Justice, who has erected a monument to the ten commandments in the state Supreme Court’s Rotunda. The move has led to Court orders to remove it and arrests of the faithful demonstrating to keep it. Yesterday, Chief Justice Roy Moore, who has defied the Court orders, found himself on the other end of a rebellion when all eight of his fellow High Court justices ordered "all steps necessary" to comply with the Court orders. Earlier in the day, some of the justices had also erected partitions to hide the 2.4-ton monument, which depicts the ten commandment carved into two tablets resting on a pedestal. But moore, a Baptist, ordered the partitions removed and told the minister who has organized the religious vigils around the monument to defend it. "The Berlin wall of religious tyranny went up, and it has been torn down," said the minister, Patrick Mahoney. The standoff in montgomery reflects a question that nags at a US society equally fervent about its religious as well as its political ideals: Does the principle of separation of Church and state necessarily prohibit all religious expression in Government? The debate has been the subject of lawsuits for years that have led to city Governments being ordered to dismantle nativity scenes, prayer groups being banned at state-supported schools and some Courts finding the pledge of allegiance to the US flag unconstitutional because it declares the United States "one nation, under God". At the same time, the US Congress has a Chaplain who leads prayers before sessions, Attorney General John Ashcroft holds Bible study at his office and President George W Bush often talks publicly about his Christian faith. This week, that debate focused on Alabama after Moore defied a Court-imposed deadline Wednesday to remove the monument he secretly installed one night two years ago. He remained unyielding Thursday, promising to continue his fight in the Courts and declaring before hundreds of cheering supporters on the Supreme Court steps: "I cannot forsake my conscience, I will not neglect my duty, and I will never, never deny my God." Moore’s opponents have argued that his replica of the ten commandments violates the US Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Moore has countered that its guarantee of religious freedom gives a seal of approval to his monument and that the ten commandments belong in the Court because they provide the "moral foundation" for US Law. With Moore’s failure to obey the Court order, the state faces fines of 5,000 dollars per day while it also debates how to cover a 600-million-dollar budget shortfall. For many faithful in the State, however, the fines are irrelevant compared to their religious convictions. Dozens have stood vigil on the Supreme Court steps, kneeling in prayer and singing hymns. Others who occupied the Rotunda refused orders to leave, and on Wednesday night, nearly two dozen were handcuffed, removed to the country jail and charged with trespassing. Alabama is a state in the US South, a region known for its fundamentalist Christian ideals and social conservatism. But the issue goes beyond mere religion in that state. It’s also about states’ rights - a fight over the federal Government’s authority vs. The self-determination of US states. States’ rights is what Alabama Governor George Wallace asserted when he defied a federal order calling for the racial desegregation of the state’s schools in 1963. Now some Alabamans see Moore taking up the mantle of Wallace, who remains a hero to many in the state. While Moore has his passionate supporters, his opponents are equally as ardent, accusing the elected official of using his office to force his religious views on others and of being a Court officer who flouts Court rulings. "There has been a lot of talk about the rule of law in recent days," State Attorney General Bill Pryor said Thursday. "The law means that no person, including the Chief Justice, is above the law." The Governor, Bob Riley, however, said he thought the Court rulings to remove the ten commandments were wrong, but he also commended the eight associate justices for their decision to comply with them. Meanwhile, Moore’s immediate options were running out after the US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his request for a stay of the removal order. But Moore’s political future appeared assured. He became Chief Justice on his popularity that followed from a similar revolt: He defied another Court order in the late 1990s to remove a copy of the ten commandments that he had carved and displayed in a county courtroom. And he can always turn to prayer. (DPA) |
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Tony Blair to appear before Lord Hutton on Thursday LONDON, Aug 22: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is scheduled to give evidence next Thursday to Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, the source to a BBC report which alleged his Government had "sexed up" an intelligence dossier in the run-up to the Iraq war. A day earlier, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon will give evidence. It will be the most difficult and detailed questioning Blair has yet faced over the war although he had earlier given evidence privately to the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, the Guardian daily reported today. On Thursday Blair will be followed by Gavyn Davies, the BBC chairman, and Tom Mangold, a journalist and friend of Dr Kelly’s. Members of Dr Kelly’s family will appear the following Monday and on Tuesday, September 2, police officers and a pathologist will give evidence about the scientist’s apparent suicide. On Wednesday, a psychiatrist and a member of the Baha’i faith will be the final witnesses to appear in the first stage of the inquiry. Blair’s day in court was announced last evening by Lord Hutton, who said his inquiry was now at the halfway stage. He said he expected to complete the testimony from all witnesses by Wednesday, September 3. Lord Hutton intends to begin the second stage of the inquiry, in which he will hear from counsel as well as some witnesses who could be recalled to clarify earlier points, or new witnesses who may come forward. He said he hoped to complete that stage by September 25. After that it would take him some time to prepare the report. The inquiry will not sit on bank holiday Monday. On Tuesday, it will hear from John Scarlett, the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir David Omand, the Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet office, and Andrew Mackinlay, a Labour member of the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee.(PTI) |
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India to double bilateral trade at 10 billion with China NEW DELHI, Aug 22: Commerce Minister Arun Jaitely has expressed the hope that India will double the present five billion-dollar bilateral trade with China in the next two years. "With economic cooperation in the offering, we intend to touch the 10 billion mark by the year 2005 through the bilateral trade with China," Mr Jaitely said at a CNBC-organised panel discussion on ‘Business Blueprint: The China Challenge’. Last year, the bilateral trade between the two asian giants stood at five billion dollars with the growth of Indian exports to China by 36 per cent. Commenting on the lessons learnt and basic difference between the two economies, Mr Jaitely observed that China concentrated on infrastructure growth, large volumes on economies of scale and high productivity. China model being liberal with the competitive cost of utilities, it has earned the designation of the ‘global factory’. While India model is entrepreneur driven and being a volatile democracy, bringing in the new reforms is not always easy. But looking at the progressive growth rate this year, India can compete in the service sector.’’ We should concentrate on services by brand India’’, he added. Taking the discussion further, CII chief economist Omkar Goswami pointed out that from the year 1992-2002, the real GDP growth rate was 5.8 per cent unmatched by any other country. The session noticed different views of the panelists on China as a manufacturing and outsourcing base for the Indian companies. Bajaj Electricals president R Ramakrishnan disclosed that the 8 per cent of the total turnover of the company comes out of China, the systems in India compelled them to move to China for a joint venture. Adding further to the debate, Mr Raj Mishra, group managing director, Orind Industries, Beijing, said China is not leveraging on the man power, it is leveraging on the Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) which averages to 49 billion dollars per year. J k Industries managing director R P Singhania opined that manufacturing in China for external markets is profitable because of low costs and highly capitalised subsidies. The cost of money is half compared to India and costs of infrastructure inputs are also very low along with better road networks and port efficiencies, he added. Pointing out that China is becoming a popular hub for catering to external markets, Mr Virendra Aggarwal, sr vice president-asia pacific, Satyam Computer Service, admitted setting up a production and development base in China to cater to the markets of Japan and Korea is easier because of the language similarity. Exports from China are profitable compared to serving the domestic Chinese market because of payment and contract issues, he added. Highlighting the advantage for the Indian industry out of the bilateral trade agreement, the panel were of the view that there are ample opportunities in the offering. Dr Goswami explained that with the opening of banking and financial sector in China, there would be big opportunities for Indian Software companies as they will have a big market there. On how Indian economy can benefit out of the emerging opportunities for trade and investment, Dr C Srinivasan, chairman, A T Kearney, India, said research and development is going to be the key for the success of Indian industry in China and India should also focus on the customer service. The panel stood unanimous on the need for India to develop infrastructure in order to compete with the fastest growing economy in the world — China.(UNI) |
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Gay outing of hamburg mayor stirs public debate HAMBURG, Aug 22: Most Germans, like most Europeans, a few years ago could only shake their heads in incredulous amusement over the fuss made in the United States when a certain White House resident named Bill Clinton shared some kind of intimacy with a young office employee named Monica Lewinsky. Who cares? Was the general sentiment which people on the European side of the Atlantic had about the Clinton-Lewinsky tangle - it was the President’s private business and nobody else’s. Today, Germany is experiencing the same kind of soul-searching about the private sexual lives of politicians and just what, or how much, the public needs to know about it in the wake of an unsavoury scandal which has rocked the northern port city of Hamburg. On Monday, governing Mayor Ole Von Beust and his Justice Minister, Roger Kusch were outed at a press conference as homosexuals by the interior minister Ronald Schill in the culmination of an alleged corruption affair in the Government apparatus. Schill went on to allege that the Mayor and the Justice Minister were also a gay couple. While astonished reporters listened, Schill mumbled remarks about how he had received "information" about the activities by the two men together which pointed to sexual acts. The unsavouriness of Schill’s remarks - made moments after Von Beust had announced he had fired him and his undersecretary in the alleged abuse of office issue - generally angered the Hamburg public. But it also raised questions about whether the Hamburg Mayor may have helped to fuel the situation himself by having previously declined to declare his homosexuality. Schill, so the thinking in some gay quarters goes, may have thought he still had some leverage over the mayor simply by dangling the threat of outing him, because Von Beust steadfastly declined to declare what is regarded as an open secret in Hamburg. It is not that Von Beust - from the right-of-centre Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party which espouses family values and has a generally more conservative view on social morals - would lack a precedent, if he did so. Berlin’s popular social democratic Mayor Klaus Wowereit outed himself as a homosexual during the election campaign a few years ago, famously declaring: "I am gay, and that’s a good thing." voters overwhelmingly elected him to office. Yesterday in an interview prominently splashed across the inside pages of the mass-circulation tabloid bild Justice Minister Kusch declared "yes, I am gay". But Von Beust continued to be evasive, saying sexual orientation was a private matter. "Whether somebody is gay or heterosexual, what somebody does in bed is his own private matter," he told Bild. "and by the way, I am of the opinion that homosexuality is something normal." The rest of the interview concerned mainly his relationship with Kusch, whom the Mayor has known since university days 25 years ago and who also rents an apartment owned by the Mayor. But both Von Beust, 48 and Kusch, 49, flatly denied that they were a gay couple as insinuated by Schill. Von Beust acknowledged that he and Kusch in the past had been on vacation and went sailing together - however, not alone but along with other people. Kusch said he could remember only one or maybe two visits by Von Beust to his apartment. Once was during a renovation of the flat and the other was "with other guests". Newspaper and broadcast media commentators and analysts are all asking the same question: Are any of these private details about the mayor and the justice minister any of the public’s business? The answer appears to be yes and no. Bild in an editorial comment rhetorically asked "so what?" about the mayor’s sexuality, and added: "The only thing that matters is whether he is making good or bad politics... And whether he is treating voters respectably." But the conservative daily die welt in its lead editorial did raise the issue of the Schill insinuation of cronyism in the Mayor’s office, giving his gay friend Kusch a top political position. While using the term "villain" to describe Schill, the editorial said: "The devil can also sometimes be right. Using this scandal as an example, it should be publicly discussed whether homosexual relationships, which in themselves should no longer be a stigma for anyone, must be looked at from the perspective of possible cronyism." Schill’s behaviour in the affair meanwhile is being investigated by federal prosecutors in the light of a possible coercion attempt. In their last meeting with Von Beust before he was fired, Schill allegedly had threatened the Mayor by saying he would out Von Beust and Kusch, a threat which could be interpreted under German law as coercion of a constitutional authority. In an interview with die welt on Thursday, Schill admitted: ‘’maybe i went too far...Maybe i should have stopped myself.’’ (DPA) |
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Israel says killings of militant leaders to continue GAZA CITY, Aug 20: Israel plans to kill more militant chiefs in raids mirroring a lethal missile strike on a Hamas leader, Israeli officials warned today, as tens of thousands of hamas supporters turned out for his funeral in a show of strength and promised thunderous revenge. Palestinian leaders said the killing of Ismail Abu Shanab, a top aide to hamas chief Ahmed Yassin, ruined what was to be an imminent campaign against militants by Palestinian security forces that would have included arrests and weapons roundups. The militants called off their two-month-old cease-fire and promised more suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli targets, raising the chances that a new round of mideast violence will sink a US-backed peace plan that aims to stop three years of violence and create a Palestinian state. Hamas quickly dispatched squads of young activists in gaza to launch homemade rockets into Israel. By this morning, six of the crude projectiles had been fired, damaging two houses but causing no injuries. More than a dozen mortars were also launched at Jewish settlements within Gaza, damaging another house. Several high ranking Israeli military officials said on condition of anonymity that there were plans to kill other top Hamas leaders if there are new palestinian suicide attacks and no efforts by Palestinian police forces to arrest extremists. (AFP) Israel says killings of militant leaders to continue GAZA CITY, Aug 22: Israel plans to kill more militant chiefs in raids mirroring a lethal missile strike on a Hamas leader, Israeli officials warned today, as tens of thousands of Hamas supporters turned out for his funeral in a show of strength and promised thunderous revenge. Palestinian leaders said the killing of Ismail Abu Shanab, a top aide to Hamas chief Ahmed Yassin, ruined what was to be an imminent campaign against militants by Palestinian security forces that would have included arrests and weapons roundups. The militants called off their two-month-old cease-fire and promised more suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli targets, raising the chances that a new round of mideast violence will sink a US-backed peace plan that aims to stop three years of violence and create a Palestinian state. Hamas quickly dispatched squads of young activists in gaza to launch homemade rockets into Israel. By this morning, six of the crude projectiles had been fired, damaging two houses but causing no injuries. More than a dozen mortars were also launched at jewish settlements within gaza, damaging another house. Several high ranking Israeli military officials said on condition of anonymity that there were plans to kill other top hamas leaders if there are new Palestinian suicide attacks and no efforts by Palestinian police forces to arrest extremists. (AP) Wreakage of missing plane found MOSCOW, Aug 22: A MI-8 helicopter carrying a regional Governor have been found in Russia’s far east on the third day of an intensive search, a top regional official told a Russian news agency. The parts of the helicopter were found on the Kamchatka Peninsula. According to reports, a MI-8 with the Governor of Sakhalin, Igor Farkhutdinov and 16 other passengers, on its way from Petropavlosk-Kamchatsjy to Severo-Kurilsk on the Kurliislands, went missing on August 20. The wreckage of the plane was found on the third day of an intensive search for the helicopter. The helicopter went missing as Russia carried out massive naval exercises in its far east, the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union. (UNI) Venezuelan police free kidnapped politician CARACAS, VENEZUELA, Aug 22: Venezuelan and Colombian Police killed five kidnappers to rescue a venezuelan opposition leader snatched from his farm a month ago, officials said today. Venezuelan Police Investigations chief Marcos Chavez said the operation freed Sergio Omar Calderon — former Tachira State Governor and a leading member of the opposition Copei Party — after a gunbattle last night near the Colombian border. Five gunmen had taken the opposition leader from his family home in tachira in July. Unshaven and Haggard, Calderon, an outspoken critic of leftist President Hugo Chavez, said he had been treated well during his captivity. "I lived from day to day thinking of god. ... I spoke to them about the Bible, sports and football," he said. He said his kidnappers spoke with Colombian accents and that he had seen an insignia of the EPL, the leftovers of a small Colombian rebel group known as the People’s Liberation Army. But Venezuelan and Colombian officials said the kidnappers were common criminals. "The kidnappers were armed with pistols and rifles and they resisted," Venezuelan Interior Minister Lucas Rincon said. An official from Colombia’s Das security police, told Venezuelan television that five kidnappers had been shot and killed and three more escaped. Opposition leaders, who accuse Chavez of close ties with Colombia’s left-wing guerrillas, had charged the Government with complicity in what they said was a political kidnapping. The Government dismissed the charges. Venezuela and Colombia share a porous 2,200-km frontier, where kidnappings are common and violent spillover from Colombia’s war has strained ties between the andean neighbors. Colombian Army officials accuse Chavez of giving guerrilla fighters shelter in Venezuelan territory. (AGENCIES) |
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