June 10, 1979, Forty Years AgoAsian Powers Unite
Even as bleary-eyed delegates went about coaxing the hard-line Arabs and the Egyptians to arrive at something resembling consensus on the language in which the treaty with Israel is to be mentioned in the final communique of the conference, Indian and Sri Lanka foreign ministers, A B Vajpayee and Shahul Hameed went about more positive business. They have been jointly promoting an idea of an Asian bloc of nations, like an association of Asian Unity. Vajpayee has personally sounded out several leaders of delegations from Asian countries, and the response has been positive. The nucleus of such a grouping might take shape in Havana when the heads of states meet for the non-aligned summit in September.
Jupiter’s Volcanoes
Voyager I has transmitted some major data regarding Jupiter, which leads space scientists to believe that the planet may have, barring the earth, the only active volcanoes in the entire solar system. Larry Soderblom of the US said that the discovery had been made in the course of the scrutiny of a film taken by the spacecraft when it encountered the planet on March 5 last. UNI adds: The film revealed some red spots on Jupiter which rotated like cyclones with the atmosphere on the planet being very turbulent. Another discovery was the eight volcanoes… These were claimed to be the only active ones in the entire solar system, other than those on earth.
Congress Splits
The Congress (I) in West Bengal has split. In view of Indira Gandhi’s open support, however, the official group led by A B A Gani Khan Chowdhury and Subrata Mukherjee, has so long been on the top. But things started changing from the day the two groups fought in the presence of Mrs Gandhi at the airport hotel. The immediate provocation was perhaps the official group’s decision to invite Sanjay Gandhi to lead the Congress (I) march to Writers Building on June 22.
