British, European MPs snub Pak
ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 — Pakistan suffered a major diplomatic setback this week when a number of British and European parliamentarians rejected Pakistan’s invitation to attend a conference on Kashmir, being held at Muzzafarabad in the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir from tomorrow, media reports said today.

14 held for US
mission blast
NAIROBI, Aug 11— The Tanzanian police today announced the arrest of 14 persons — six Iraqis, six Sudanese, one Turk and one Somali — over Friday’s bombing of the US embassy in Dar-es-Salaam.

Hekmatyar shot dead?
KABUL, Aug 11 — The Taliban militia said today that former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who was a leader of one of the factions opposing them had been killed in northern Afghanistan.
Paris finally honours Churchill
FIFTYFOUR years to the day after Winston Churchill stamped down the Champs-Elysees to a rapturous reception from the newly liberated people of Paris, the French capital will unveil a statue in his honour.
Consensus eludes USA, S. Korea
SEOUL, Aug 11— South Korea and the USA have failed to reach an agreement on the level of economic sanctions on North Korea to be lifted, although they held extensive discussions on the issue in Hawaii.
Gates not the richest American
WASHINGTON, Aug 11— Software king Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, but he is certainly not the richest American ever, reports the US economic magazine Forbes Asap.
Kohl rules out ties with Opposition
BONN, Aug 11— With seven weeks left for elections in Germany, Chancellor Helmut Kohl has firmly ruled out joining the Opposition Social Democrats in forming a “grand coalition” government
July hottest month in modern history
WASHINGTON, Aug 11 — July was hottest month on record around the world and reflects a dangerous trend certain to get worse unless steps are taken to stop global warming, US Vice-President Al Gore has said.

British, European MPs snub Pak

ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (PTI) — Pakistan suffered a major diplomatic setback this week when a number of British and European parliamentarians rejected Pakistan’s invitation to attend a conference on Kashmir, being held at Muzzafarabad in the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) from tomorrow, media reports said today.

Barring one, all other British MPs and members of the European Parliament, who had been invited to the conference, turned down the invitation, "Dawn" reported.

The conference is to be held on August 12 and August 13 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the UN Security Council resolution on Kashmir.

Though the MPs have not given the reason for declining the invitation, it is understood that the release of official secrets, including internal memorandums from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Office and the Pakistan Foreign Office, by the Chairman of the Accountability Cell, Senator Saifur Rehman to BBC television has forced the MPs to distance themselves from Pakistan.

14 held for US mission blast
Toll 230

NAIROBI, Aug 11 (AFP) — The Tanzanian police today announced the arrest of 14 persons — six Iraqis, six Sudanese, one Turk and one Somali — over Friday’s bombing of the US embassy in Dar Es Salaam. That came as the death toll in the twin bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya rose to 230, 220 of them in Nairobi, including 12 Americans.

DAR-ES-SALAAM: FBI agents and Tanzanian police started interrogating a Sudanese national and two Arabs today over the bombing of the US Embassy in Dar-es-Salaam last Friday, Home Affairs Minister Ali Ameir Mohammed told newsmen.

“We have started interrogating them and whether we release them or not will depend on the outcome of the questioning,” the minister said.

He declined to name the suspects or the nationalities of the two Arabs, but unconfirmed reports circulating here said one of the suspects might be an Iraqi.

A German national, the minister said, was yesterday briefly detained as he was about to leave the country after being found with pieces of metal from the bomb site. He was allowed to proceed after telling the police that he had bought the pieces as souvenirs from a young Tanzanian man.

“When the police confronted the young man, he is said to have sold the pieces to the German. He admitted doing so, saying that he had picked them up at the site of the bombed embassy. He was released after questioning,” the minister said.

US forensic and bomb experts were continuing with their investigations today at the embassy compound, sifting through debris in an effort to establish the kind of bomb used by the terrorists.

LOUISVILLE (Kentucky:) President Bill Clinton cut short a huge fund-raising drive for his party in response to the embassy bombings in Africa and ahead of his testimony in the White House intern probe.

Mr Clinton decided to curtail his four-state, four-million-dollar tour yesterday to return to Washington today for an emergency national security meeting on the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

In his first address in Kentucky, Mr Clinton paused for a moment of silence for the 12 Americans who died in the Kenya blast and vowed to track down the attackers.

“We must be strong in dealing with this. We must not be deterred by the threat of other action. There is no way out if we start running away from this kind of conduct,” he said.

But the President, who later flew to Chicago to continue fund-raising, was determined to give his party members the biggest possible boost into the November midterm elections, when Democrats hope to regain control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans.

The fund-raising trip takes Mr Clinton away from his intensive preparations for August 17, when he testifies to the grand jury investigating whether he had an affair with former intern Monica Lewinsky and sought to cover it up.

On his first stop in Kentucky, Mr Clinton was greeted by signs spelling out some of the more sensational details stemming from the case.

RAMSTEIN, Germany (Reuters): A U.S. transport plane carrying the bodies of 11 American citizens killed in a devastating bomb blast in Nairobi last Friday arrived in Germany today en route to the USA.

The C-141 transport plane carrying 11 coffins touched down at a US airbase at Ramstein in south-western Germany. The bodies are to be flown to the USA with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who will fly to Ramstein tomorrow.

MBABANE: The US Embassy in Mbabane, capital of the Southern African kingdom of Swaziland, was evacuated on Tuesday after receiving a bomb threat, independent radio news reports said.

The seven-storey building was cordoned off after embassy officials received an anonymous telephone call informing them that a bomb was about to explode, South Africa’s network radio reported.

Police with sniffer dogs were rushed to the building to search for explosives, the radio said.

US-Pak army exercises put off

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (PTI) — The USA has decided to postpone indefinitely the joint military exercises with Pakistan unless Islamabad accepts the CTBT and commits itself to halt fissile materials production, reports Defence News.

The direction to this effect was given to Pentagon (for halting the exercises) by White House and the State Department in a meeting on July 30 chaired by Mr Robert Fauver, coordinator of a special US Government action team on South Asia, the weekly said in its latest report.

“Civilian officials instructed the military planners to temper enthusiasm for military-to-military ties with Pakistan. Moreover, Pentagon officials were directed to refrain from even the most preliminary logistical preparations for joint exercises and from direct talks with Pakistani counterparts over rescheduling plans,” it said.

“White House and State Department officials”, said the weekly, “insist that resumed military-to-military exercises should be held out as a reward for Islamabad’s agreement to sign the CTBT, and commitment to halt fissile materials production.”

“Our priority as far as these exercises are concerned is how they will be supportive of our ongoing talks, and how withholding the exercises as a deliverable will assist us in reaching our overall non-proliferation objectives,” said a State Department official.

The official said a recent visit to Pakistan by US Marine General Anthony Zinni, Commander of the Central Command, left many on Talbott’s action team concerned that the US military was moving ahead with plans to resume the relationship without adequate direction from Talbott.

Mr Riaz Khokhar, Pakistani Ambassador to the US, told the weekly: “There is no doubt that there has been (in Pakistan) a popular feeling of betrayal and alienation. But, at the same time, the military-to-military relationship is the oldest, most established relationship that clearly has stood the test of time.”

“If your military people have some concerns, they have good reason. Because, looking at the whole region, who is it they can depend on? The fact is, we have been a very close, sincere ally of the US for decades. No one can point to even one example where Pakistan, as a friend and ally, betrayed the USA,” Mr Khokhar said.

Hekmatyar shot dead?

KABUL, Aug 11 (AP) — The Taliban militia said today that former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who was a leader of one of the factions opposing them had been killed in northern Afghanistan.

The sources said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was shot by three gunmen in the northern province of Takhar, an area held by the anti-Taliban alliance of which he was a leader. They had no further details and there was no independent confirmation.

However, Mr Hekmatyar’s son-in-law Ghaired Baheer said the report was "baseless."

"I just spoke to him about five minutes ago, he’s fine, he’s energetic as always, Mr Baheer said in Islamabad.

Mr Baheer, who represents his father-in-law’s Hezb-e-Islami party in Pakistan, said he had spoken by telephone to Mr Hekmatyar at an undisclosed location in northern Afghanistan.

Mr Hekmatyar fled to neighbouring Iran after the Taliban ousted his government from Kabul in 1996, but returned to help lead a fractious coalition of anti-Taliban factions. An ally said recently he was in Badakshan province in the far northeastern province of Afghanistan, bordering Takhar province.

Reuters adds: The Islamic Taliban movement gained key areas in the northeast and central Afghanistan today after heavy fighting with the opposition, sources in Kabul and neighbouring Pakistan said.

Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoting its sources said the militia had seized Taloqan, capital of Takhar province, after driving out the fighters of Ahmed Shah Masood, the military chief of the ousted Afghan government.

Earlier, an opposition official had conceded losses in Takhar province but said Taloqan was still not in Taliban’s control.

The official told Reuters that Masood was deploying fighters from his native Panjsher valley to the south of Takhar for a counter attack later in the day.

No other details were immediately available of the fighting that had in the morning when Taliban fighters pushed through opposition defences in neighbouring Bangi district.

AIP said about 2,000 to 3,000 Taliban fighters had launched the offensive and reached Taloqan, a stronghold of Masood in a few hours. It said the opposition fighters had fled the city paving the way for Taliban’s entry.

The Taliban movement said its forces had also gained a vast area from the opposition forces in central Afghanistan.

"Saighan, Tala wa Barfak, Kohmard and Darye Suf districts in the centre of the country have been liberated from the opposition in an operation this morning," a Taliban official, wishing not to be identified, said.

He said the attack on Bamiyan was launched from the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the main stronghold of the opposition that quickly fell to the Taliban on Saturday.

He did not have more details on the fighting in and around Bamiyan but said the militia was continuing its offensive there.

Earlier, the spokesman had said that heavy fighting was going on in Takhar and Taliban jet fighters were involved in air raids on Masood’s positions.

Paris finally honours Churchill
from Jon Henley in Paris

FIFTYFOUR years to the day after Winston Churchill stamped down the Champs-Elysees to a rapturous reception from the newly liberated people of Paris, the French capital will unveil a statue in his honour.

The British Embassy announced on Wednesday that the Queen would be in Paris on November 11 for the Armistice Day anniversary celebrations and would unveil the memorial — a 10 ft (about 3m) bronze by the French sculptor Jean Cardot.

It marks the end of a five-year campaign by an Anglo-French businessman, Brian Reeve. He was determined to see a memorial to Britain’s irascible wartime leader erected in Paris, to match the one in London of his equally fiery French counterpart, Charles de Gaulle.

“It was an idea I’ve had for a very, very long time, “Mr Reeve said on Wednesday. “I was born in London in 1936, lived through the blitz and have memories of Churchill on the streets of London. But when I moved to Paris in 1961, there was nothing to commemorate him but a small avenue”.

Both capitals have been slow to honour each other’s wartime heroes — perhaps reflecting the less-than-smooth relations between the two men. Stubborn and arrogant, Churchill and De Gaulle rarely saw eye-to-eye, the British Prime Minister once referring to the future French President as “the heaviest cross I ever had to bear”.

For his part, De Gaulle, on seeing the Parisian crowds cheering Churchill on the Champs-Elysees in 1944, was heard to mutter: “Fools and cretins! Look at this rabble cheering the old bandit!”

Mr Reeve formed his Association for a Statue of Winston Churchill in Paris shortly after the Queen Mother unveiled a monument to De Gaulle outside the wartime headquarters of his Free French movement in Carlton Gardens in 1993. Fund-raising for the De Gaulle statue was led by Churchill’s daughter, Lady Soames.

President Jacques Chirac backed Mr Reeve’s idea, forming a committee of honour headed by Pierre Messmer, a former Prime Minister. But it was not until a national appeal was launched in December with the help of the Mayor of Paris, Jean Tiberi, that donations started to flow.

The statue portrays Churchill in characteristically robust pose — it was drawn from photographs and film footage of him in the Champs-Elysees in Royal Air Force uniform, cane in hand, on Armistice Day 1944. Now in its final wax version, it will be cast in early next month and erected on November 8, on the corner of Cours de la Reine and Avenue Winston Churchill in the city’s eighth arrondissement.

“It’s a wonderful, dynamic image,” Mr Reeve said. “It’s like he’s walking down the avenue the way the Germans did five years previously, but now he’s thinking, ‘It’s ours.” — The Guardian, London

Consensus eludes USA, S. Korea

SEOUL, Aug 11 (Oana-Yonhap) — South Korea and the USA have failed to reach an agreement on the level of economic sanctions on North Korea to be lifted, although they held extensive discussions on the issue in Hawaii.

The USA did not totally rule out the possibility of lifting the sanctions on North Korea at some level, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday.

“The conditions for lifting sanctions, however, are not favourable in the Republican Congress mainly because of the recent infiltration of a North Korean submarine into South Korea and North Korea’s suspected transfer of missile technology,” the official said.

During the Hawaii talks, Seoul and Washington agreed that they would continue to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea, including possible provision of surplus wheat, according to the official.

The two sides also agreed that the heavy fuel provision should continue to preserve the agreed framework which suspended North Korea’s suspected development of a nuclear weapons programme.

Gates not the richest American

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (DPA) — Software king Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, but he is certainly not the richest American ever, reports the US economic magazine Forbes Asap.

True, Gates’ wealth does represent 0.58 per cent of the US economy, says the magazine’s August issue. But American business giants who came before Gates have knocked him to the sixth position on the list of America’s richest men.

Topping the list is John D. Rockefeller, whose wealth due to oil represented 1.53 per cent of the US economy before his death in 1937. Cornelius Vanderbilt, who died in 1877, amassed a steamboat and railroad fortune equal to 1.15 per cent of the economy.

Furrier John Jacob Astor eventually went into real estate, which earned him a slot as the third richest American with riches representing 0.93 per cent of the economy before he died in 1848. Stephen Girard stockpiled profits in shipping, which he later used to become the largest investor in the first bank of the USA. Girard, who is fourth on the Asap list, died in 1831, but had accrued wealth representing 0.67 per cent of the economy. Andrew Carnegie is the last on the list before Gates. He garnered personal profit amounting to 0.60 per cent of the economy. He died in 1919.

Kohl rules out ties with Opposition

BONN, Aug 11(PTI) — With seven weeks left for elections in Germany, Chancellor Helmut Kohl has firmly ruled out joining the Opposition Social Democrats in forming a “grand coalition” government ending speculations over one of the post-poll scenarios.

Unfazed by the opinion polls which favoured Social Democrats “Gerhard Schroder to end Kohl’s uninterrupted 16-year rule,” Mr Kohl said the tide was “turning his way” and that the final seven weeks would be favouring him.Mr Kohl said here yesterday that he was going into the decisive battle in “good spirits” as his main party in the ruling coalition. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and rival Social Democrats held their first crucial strategy sessions to woo the electorates since the summer holiday period began in June-end.

Mr Kohl, who is seeking a record fifth term, said his Christian Democrats would never serve in a coalition led by the Social Democrats, many of whose centrist policies are now fairly close to his and those of the CDU.

With the Social Democrats focusing on the main election plank of need for a change and unemployment, Mr Schroder has said the he has left open the option of turning to Mr Kohl’s party to form a “grand coalition” of the two main political forces.

Mr Schroder has favoured grand coalition governance if he is not able to form a “red-green” coalition with the ecologist Greens Party.

July hottest month in modern history

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) — July was hottest month on record around the world and reflects a dangerous trend certain to get worse unless steps are taken to stop global warming, US Vice-President Al Gore has said.

According to new data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average global temperature last month was 61.7°F (16°C), 1.26° higher than the long-term average for July and 0.45° higher than the previous record for the month set last year.

“This was the hottest July in the history of the world since modern records have been kept,” Mr Gore said in releasing the data at the White House yesterday.

“July wasn’t just the hottest July on record. It was the hottest month on record period. The hottest month since we began keep reliable records more than 118 years ago,” Mr Gore said.

Mr Gore warned that the heat waves, drought, powerful storms and flooding that had struck parts of the USA and the world this year would get worse unless greenhouse gas emissions were controlled.

150 massacred in Angola
LUANDA: More than 150 persons have been killed near the northeastern town of Caombo, the second massacre in the area in three weeks, Angolan state radio reported. The radio said Saturday’s massacre close to Caombo, 400 km east of Luanda, was the work of the former rebel movement UNITA. UNITA was blamed for a massacre at the nearby town of Bula on July 21 in which at least 100 died. — AP

Elephant inseminated
BERLIN: For the first time, zoologists have reported the successful artificial insemination of the African elephant. The animal was treated at the Indianapolis zoo with the help of a method developed by Dr Thomas Hildebrandt of Berlin. On Thursday, the Institute for Zoo Biology and Wildlife Research in Berlin reported that the cow was pregnant. Zoologists from the USA and Berlin hope that the numbers of African elephants in captivity can be maintained using the method. — DPA

Alfred Schnittke
MOSCOW: With musical performances and eulogies, Russian artists paid a tribute on Monday to Alfred Schnittke, one of the leading composers of this century who died a week ago. Mstislav Rostropovich, a close friend of the composer, performed a Bach suite on the cello during the funeral, and violinist Gidon Kremer played a Schnittke composition. Poet Bella Akhmadulina and theatre director Yuri Lyubimov were among a dozen eulogists. Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Director of the Conservatory, said Schnittke had deserved a place in the pantheon of modern Russian music, alongside Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. — AP

New President
QUITO: Ecuador’s new president, Mr Jamil Mahuad, was sworn in on Tuesday, promising to turn around the Andean nation’s dire economic situation and find a solution to a simmering border conflict with Peru. In a ceremony in Congress, Mr Mahuad draped the presidential sash made by nuns over his chest and set a conciliatory tone in an hour-long inauguration speech that followed. The Presidents of Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica and Venezuela were among the 600 dignitaries attending. — Reuters

Murder charge
CHICAGO: Two boys, aged seven and eight, who appeared in a juvenile court here, have been charged with murdering and sexually molesting an 11-year-old girl because they wanted to steal her bicycle. News of their arrest on Sunday stunned this violence-hardened mid-western metropolis. The boys are believed to be the youngest ever charged with murder in the Chicago area. The police said the two boys had initially come forward as witnesses in connection with the gruesome death of 11-year-old Ryan Harris in the southern Englewood neighbourhood two weeks ago. — AFP

Jiang to visit Japan
TOKYO: Chinese President Jiang Zemin will make a state visit to Japan from September 6 to 11, the Japanese Government announced on Tuesday. The visit is part of events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the signing of a Sino-Japanese peace and friendship treaty, the government said. Jiang will meet Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, among other things. — AFP

Crowned Buddha
WASHINGTON: Smithsonian has acquired more Indian and other Asian art, including the Crowned Buddha through gifts or purchases, the art gallery said in a press release. The majestic 11th century sculpture, the Crowned Buddha, said the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, “was created at a time when art and learning thrived under the Pala and Sena kings of eastern India, the final great era of Buddhist art in the country where the faith originated.” The sculpture was purchased by the Friends of Asian Arts (FAA), the gallery’s membership organisation. — PTI

Child workers
BANGKOK: The police has rescued six girls who worked for years without pay, caring for a millionaire’s dogs, officials said. The girls, including an illegal immigrant from neighbouring Myanmar, ranging in age from 12 to 15, were sent by their families to the home of the millionaire to work as servants to repay various debts. An official of the Labour Ministry’s division on women and child labour said on Monday that the girls were assigned to take care of their employer’s 30 dogs. — AP

Project suspended
WASHINGTON: The USA has suspended Boeing’s international project to launch satellites off a platform in the Pacific, the Washington Post said. The State Department suspended the “Sea Launch July 27” after determining that Boeing had disclosed sensitive US space information to Russian and Ukrainian engineers working on the joint venture, it said on Monday. — AFP

Milk survey
LONDON: The British Government is to undertake a nationwide survey into milk quality in the wake of fears that a harmful bacteria affecting cattle could be causing Crohn's’s disease. A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said on Monday that the survey would include all main types of milk, with over a thousand samples being examined for a range of bacteria. — AFP