Saturday, August 15, 1998
today's calendar
....... |
W O R L D | Saturday, August 15, 1998 |
|
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
....... |
||
|
Taliban set to wipe out
Opposition pockets |
 Taliban fighters with their guns celebrate on the frontline, 40 km northeast of Kabul on Thursday. — AP/PTI
|
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
Taliban set to wipe out Opposition pockets KABUL, Aug 14 (AFP) — The Taliban militia, buoyed by sweeping victories in northern Afghanistan, geared up today to launch an expected attack close to Kabul and urged Opposition troops there to surrender to prevent bloodshed. “We have sent messages to the local commanders and people to lay down their arms and join the Taliban movement,” said Mullah Abdul Sattar Akhund, Chief Commander of the Taliban there. As the militia rushed more troops to reinforce frontlines north of the capital, Akhund said his fighters were in high spirits. He claimed his militia would easily overrun the Opposition-held northern plains to reach the strategic Salang Valley, 80 km north of Kabul. The Taliban militia and supporters of the ousted government’s military strongman Ahmad Shah Masood have been squaring off 25 km north of Kabul for almost a year. Witnesses said jeeploads of Taliban troops were seen heading towards the frontline amid sporadic artillery exchanges. Travellers from the Opposition-held northern province of Parwan said Masood’s loyalists were strengthening their defences to brace for a possible Taliban assault. UNITED NATIONS(ANI): Condemning the Taliban for restarting fresh hostilities in northern Afghanistan, the UN Security Council last night urged the rabid Islamic outfit to end their offensive and demanded they should release the staff of the Iranian Consulate-General as well as the IRNA correspondent. In a statement released here after a closed-door meeting, the council expressed its grave concern over the escalation of armed conflict in Afghanistan and condemned the “complete disregard” shown by the Taliban, “towards the will of the international community” which had been demanding an urgent and unconditional ceasefire. The council warned flagrant violation of recognised norms and principles of international law would lead to appropriate retaliation. It also expressed its deep concern at persistent reports of outside military involvement in Afghanistan and called on all states to refrain from any outside interference, including the involvement of military personnel. The council was referring to accusations made by Russia and the northern anti-Taliban alliance that Pakistan was providing military assistance to the Taliban. Pakistan has denied the accusation. Yesterday, both Russia and
Tajikstan expressed concern about events in northern
Afghanistan after reports that refugees fleeing fighting
were congregating along the Tajik frontier. |
||||||
Iraq ready to resume talks DUBAI, Aug 14 (PTI, UNI) — Iraq has said it is prepared to continue dialogue with the UN on the resumption of cooperation with UN weapons inspectors which Baghdad had suspended a week ago. The UN special envoy, Mr Prakash Shah, met the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, yesterday and handed over a letter from the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan. “I have handed over the letter from the UN Secretary-General to Tariq Aziz .. we will continue dialogue’’, Mr Shah was quoted by television networks as saying after the meeting. In the letter, the UN Secretary-General has appealed to the Iraqi leadership to change its decision to dissociate with the UN weapons inspection team so that their work can continue unhindered. Mr Shah said Mr Aziz had told him that Iraq was “prepared to continue the dialogue” with the UN on this matter. UNITED NATIONS: Meanwhile, the Security Council has postponed any formal show of support for UN weapons inspectors in Iraq despite recent complaints from head inspectors that their work was being undermined by Iraq’s decision to freeze cooperation with the UN. Rather than issuing a formal resolution or statement, however, the council was on Thursday considering sending letters to Mr Richard Butler of the UN Special Commission, and Mohamed El-Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency, conveying support for their work and stating that Iraq’s actions were unacceptable, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Such a muted move was seen
as trying to gain more unity within the council, where
Russia, China and France have traditionally taken the
most sympathetic line toward Iraq. |
Pak armoured carrier project put on hold LONDON, Aug 14 (PTI) — Pakistan’s ambitious project to build 1,200 M113A3 armoured personnel carriers has come to a grinding halt following sanctions imposed by the USA for conducting the nuclear tests. The work on the $ 162 million follow-on project with US Defence LP in late June for the supply of material and critical sub-systems for the local manufacture of the M113A3 carriers has come to a near halt and according to the latest issue of Janes Defence Weekly the project is likely to be delayed considerably. “The project cannot go ahead until sanctions are lifted because all export licences for military hardware to Pakistan have been frozen,” the US company project manager told the Janes. Under an agreement signed in 1989, 775 M113A2 series carriers were being assembled in Taxila Heavy Industries. The first 20 vehicles were assembled in Pakistan with complete hulls provided by US firm and since then Taxila Industries was assembling the M113A2 using kits and components supplied by US Defence LP. But under a recent follow-on deal, Pakistan wanted to upgrade the armoured carriers to the state of art new series M113A3 having a powerful Detriot diesel engine, new automatic transmission, hydrostatic steering and upgraded suspension for cross country mobility. The defence journal said that besides the basic American M113 APC, Pakistan had developed a number of specialised variants including air defence versions armed with Chinese supplied HN-5 surface to air missiles and two 14.5 mm machine guns and the other with the Swedish Bofors RBS-70 laser guided missiles. It said Pakistan had also two anti-tank versions of the carriers one armed with 106mm M40 recoilless rifles and the other with Bakhtar Shikan Anti-Tank guided missile built in Dr A.Q. research laboratories. The journal said these
were essentially the China North Industries Corporation
3,000 M Red Arrow Anti-Tank guided missiles, although a
longer range had recently been developed. |
PoK leaders assail Geelani LONDON, Aug 14 (PTI) — Pakistan-occupied Kashmir leaders and various Kashmiri organisations here have assailed Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s claims that the present crisis in Jammu and Kashmir was for accession to Pakistan. Pro-independence groups here led by Shabir Choudhary, Chairman of the Kashmir institute, dismissed Geelani’s remarks as being “his personal opinion” and not reflecting the All-Party Hurriyat Conference stand. Other PoK leaders said Geelani was, in fact, the mouthpiece of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. The other JKLF faction Chairman, Amanullah Khan has described the Hurriyat conference as creation of Pakistani authorities, who were propping it up for their own interests. Speaking at a meeting in
Mirpur in PoK, Amanullah Khan was quoted by Pakistani
media here as dismissing the Hurriyat conference as
totally non-representative with its leaders being
‘self styled’. |
Burma sentences aliens to 7 years’ jail YANGON, Aug 14 (AFP) - A group of 18 foreign activists were sentenced to seven years’ hard labour by a court here today, they are expected to be deported tomorrow, diplomatic sources said. The court said the foreigners had 90 days to appeal but the home ministry has said they will all be deported to Bangkok tomorrow, a Western embassy source said. One of the activists said in court they would appeal. The activists were sentenced to serve their term in Insein prison, which is normally reserved for political prisoners, one embassy source said. The detainees - ten men and eight women - comprised six US nationals, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians, two Filipinos and one Australian. UNITED NATIONS: Myanmar has rejected the UN chief’s request that a special envoy be allowed to look into the human rights situation in the country, a UN spokesman has said. In a letter to the
government last week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked
that Mr Razali Ismail of Malaysia, a former President of
the General Assembly, be allowed to visit Myanmar at the
end of the week. The response from the Prime Minister was
polite but stated that there was no reason for such a
rushed visit. |
S. Korea to free 94 prisoners SEOUL, Aug 14 (AFP) — South Korea today pardoned 94 political prisoners and more than 2,000 other convicts to mark the nation’s 50th anniversary but Amnesty International slammed Seoul for making their release conditional. “The amnesty is aimed at achieving a grand national harmony to help overcome the current national crisis,” said Justice Minister Park Sang-Chun, announcing the amnesty in a televised address. Among the prisoners to be freed tomorrow is one of the most prominent political detainees, dissident poet Park No-Hae, who was jailed for life seven years ago for leading an underground revolutionary group. But 17 long-term prisoners, including Whoo Yong-Gak, (69) who has been behind bars for more than 40 years on charges of spying for North Korea, were excluded. They refused to sign a pledge to obey the laws. Seventy-seven foreigners will also be released from jails across the country and will be expelled immediately, while two Pakistani workers convicted of murder had death sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The prisoners will walk
free on the August 15 anniversary of the founding of
South Korea in one of the largest amnesties ever granted
here. It benefits a total of 7,070 people. |
Monica case: move to restrict access to evidence WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (AP) — Anticipating an impeachment report next month from independent counsel Kenneth Starr, House Judiciary Committee leaders are planning to restrict access to sensitive evidence by changing a rule that currently would let all 435 House members to review it. “I think we’re supportive of it,” said Rep. John Boehner, a member of the leadership. A Democratic Committee official said that the party’s leadership and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, would back the change. Mr Starr is expected to narrow the report solely to evidence of perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering in the Monica Lewinsky case, and his staff have already begun drafting possible language for such a report. But no decisions are expected to be made until after President Clinton, the last central witness to provide testimony, gives his account to a grand jury on Monday via closed-circuit television. The law under which Mr Starr was appointed requires that such a report be based on substantial and credible evidence that the President committed an impeachable offence. Any report Mr Starr sends to Congress would form the basis for lawmakers to decide whether to begin an impeachment inquiry that could lead to a vote on whether to remove Mr Clinton from office. But lawmakers have signalled that such proceedings likely wouldn’t start until next year. The goal for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde initially will be to confine access to the report to members of his committee so sensitive evidence will be safeguarded. A resolution will be offered to the House floor to change the current rule that gives any House member access to the report. “Modifying the rule is so important that Mr Starr may be told to hold off” transmitting a report until the issue was resolved, said a House official. House officials said they expected that Mr Starr would notify them in advance that a report was ready. Only the full House could change the rule. While lawmakers looked to September, the White House had a more immediate concern - Mr Clinton’s testimony on Monday. A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll indicated a majority of Americans, 56 per cent, say if Mr Clinton lied under oath as a witness in the Paula Jones case, that would be serious enough to consider removing him from office. Only 31 per cent said having a sexual relationship with Ms Lewinsky was serious enough to consider his removal from office and fewer than half said lying to the American people about Ms Lewinsky warranted considering his removal. The poll of 1,276 adults
conducted from Monday through Wednesday has a margin of
error of plus or minus three percentage points. |
| Global monitor New Zealand Dy PM dismissed Clinton’s
visit Indian women freed Khristenko’s
new post 32 miners killed Cattle clones |
 |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Business | Stocks | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
