Monica contradicts Clinton
WASHINGTON, Aug 20 — Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky today deposed for the second time before the grand jury in independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s probe into the sex-and-perjury scandal involving her and Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, it is reported Clinton has given a DNA sample to Starr.

Burma’s army not to convene Parliament
YANGON, Aug 20 — Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi offered today to end her road-side standoff with the military government if the government agreed to release jailed members of her political party.

Gorbachev to testify against Yeltsin
MOSCOW, Aug 20 — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has expressed his readiness to testify against Boris Yeltsin before a special commission formulating charges for launching impeachment proceedings against the Russian President, commercial channel “NTV” has said.
Benazir alleges irregularities
KARACHI, Aug 20 — Former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto today rounded on a Swiss Magistrate who has demanded that she be indicted on money-laundering charges, saying he had acted against the Swiss Constitution and law.
Kim set to be named N. Korean President
SEOUL, Aug 20 — North Korea announced today that Parliament would be convened for the first time in four years, setting the scene for de facto leader Kim Jong-Il to be elected President at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Monica contradicts Clinton

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (PTI) — Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky today deposed for the second time before the grand jury in independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s probe into the sex-and-perjury scandal involving her and Bill Clinton amidst reports that her revelations could be highly damaging for the President.

Accompanied by her lawyer and spokesman, Ms Lewinsky testified before the same grand jury of 23 members at the Federal Court which heard Mr Clinton on Monday admitting an "inappropriate relationship" with her.

Ms Lewinsky’s testimony, the second before the grand jury after August 6 when she gave her account for about nine hours, might turn out to be highly damaging for Mr Clinton as media reports said that hurt by the President’s dismissal of their affair as a minor sexual alliance, she might say it went beyond oral sex.

On August 6, Ms Lewinsky had admitted under oath that she and Mr Clinton had an affair while the latter, after seven months of denials, finally confessed on August 17 that his dalliance included oral and "manual" sex.

The Washington Post said today, quoting unidentified sources that Ms Lewinsky was hurt that Mr Clinton appeared to dismiss their relationship as a minor sexual alliance during his televised address on Monday.

She was particularly surprised over the fact that he stuck to the definition of sexual relations set down in the dismissed Paula Jones sexual harassment case against him, the sources told the newspaper.

Ms Lewinsky earlier told investigators that in addition to oral sex, she and Ms Clinton had engaged in other sexual activities that might come under the definition set down in the Jones case, including intimate touching, the Post quoted its sources as saying.

It said another development that might harm Mr Clinton was if she testified that Mr Clinton’s personal secretary Betty Currie had approached her to retrieve several presidential gifts subpoenaed in the Jones case.

Any conflict between the testimonies of Ms Lewinsky and Mr Clinton about the "inappropriate relationship" between them may be among the most serious legal threats facing the US President, the Post said.

In another development, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurrie said Mr Clinton’s DNA sample, to be used to see whether the alleged remains of body fluids in Ms Lewinsky’s navy blue party dress came from Mr Clinton, could be obtained from the naval medical hospital.

Clinton’s DNA samples given to Starr

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) —President Clinton has given a DNA sample to the independent prosecutor probing the sex-and-perjury scandal, US television networks have reported.

ABC and NBC said that Clinton had already given a DNA sample, but said it was unclear when he had done so.

The FBI have been testing a dress belonging to Monica Lewinsky that may be stained with presidential semen. An examination of a DNA sample from the President was necessary to determine if this were so.

AP adds: Speaker Newt Gingrich and fellow House Republican leaders talked by phone about GOP Whip Tom Delay’s call for US President Clinton to resign, and no objections were raised, officials said.

While most House Republicans have avoided making controversial statements about Clinton in recent days, Delay said on Tuesday the President “should resign for the good of the country.”

Clearly, the President has done irreparable damage to the office of the Presidency. “More troubling, the President has lied to his family, his friends, his cabinet, Congress and the American people,” said Delay.

He continued his campaign yesterday, at one point challenging a reporter’s stated assumption that it was out of the question that Clinton would resign. “I think the mood of the nation is moving in that direction,” he said.

EDGARTOWN (Reuters): President Clinton strolled alone with his dog Buddy yesterday as he spent his 52nd birthday with his family, trying to put his life back together after admitting an affair with a young woman.

Clinton, his wife, Hillary, and daughter, Chelsea, planned to emerge later for a low-key birthday party at the home of Vernon Jordan, a friend implicated in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

On the first full day of a 12-day vacation on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, the Clintons were “spended quite a lot of time together as a family, just lounging around,” White House spokesman Mike McCurry said.

The Clinton’s were staying at the same borrowed Oyster Pond estate in which they have stayed on two of their three previous trips to this vacation island off the coast of Massachusetts.

Burma’s army not to convene Parliament

YANGON, Aug 20 (AP) — Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi offered today to end her road-side standoff with the military government if the government agreed to release jailed members of her political party.

Ms Suu Kyi’s health was also “failing” according to a statement released today by the National League for Democracy, her party.

Citing her personal physicians, who have visited her twice in her van outside Yangon, her eyes are turning yellow and she has low blood pressure, the party statement said.

Her doctors took blood samples, fearing she may have contracted jaundice or another disease after spending nine days in her car with three colleagues, 32 km outside Yangon.

Ms Suu Kyi is engaged in her fourth confrontation in two months with the military government over her right to travel freely within the country.

She was stopped outside Yangon last Wednesday by the authorities as she attempted to drive to the city of Bassein to meet MPs from her party.

The NLD said the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Winner was willing to return to Yangon if the government released jailed MPs and other members of her party imprisoned since May.

There are 42 NLD members of Parliament in Burmese prisons, according to the All-Burma Students Democratic Front, an exile group.

The number of NLD members arrested since May is unclear, as she has said in the past that when people are arrested in far-flung provinces the party sometimes did not hear about it.

Ms Suu Kyi’s offer to end her protest comes one day before her party’s deadline for the military to convene Parliament.

There was no immediate response from the military government to Ms Suu Kyi’s demand. In the past, they have never met her calls to release political prisoners or begin a dialogue.

The military said today it has no intention of meeting the demand.

“The question is how does one call a Parliament if no constitution exists,” said a government spokesman. “The demand to convene one sounds like forcing a bald person to dye his hair.”

Several ethnic insurgent groups, exiled democracy activists and western governments have supported the NLD’s call for Parliament to be convened.

The NLD won 82 p.c. of the seats in the assembly in a 1990 election, but the military refused to honour the results. After the NLD victory, it denied the election was for a Parliament, but instead for delegates to a convention to write a new constitution.

The constitution is not complete and the draft being worked on gives the military the leading role in politics and bars Ms Suu Kyi from holding public office.

The military has ruled the country since 1962. In 1988, the military gunned down thousands of protesters during a nationwide democracy uprising.

Butler ascertains Iraq’s mood

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 (PTI) — Apparently disappointed over the UN Security Council’s lukewarm support to intrusive inspection in Iraq, Unscom chief Richard Butler has politely inquired from Baghdad whether it would resume cooperation with the weapons inspectors.

Iraq has already indicated it has no plans to change its policy of non-cooperation, but reply to Butler’s letter on these lines could strengthen his hands.

Then he could go to the Security Council and ask for further guidance, for in case of a major confrontation, the Council would have to deal with the situation.

Butler had written a letter to the Security Council asking for guidance after Iraq decided on non-cooperation, but in the reply, highly divided the Council merely expressed support to his mission and did not say whether he should order intrusive inspections despite the Iraqi position.

A reply from Baghdad to Butler’s letter would put the ball again in the court of the Council.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special envoy in Iraq Prakash Shah is returning to the headquarters after having failed to persuade Iraqi officials to resume cooperation.

Shah, a former Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, was sent by Annan with a “firm” message for Iraq to comply with the Security Council resolutions and cooperate with the UN weapons inspectors, chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

But Iraqis apparently brushed aside the message. Shah is expected to report to the Council sometime next week.

Eckhard said Annan had spoken to Iraqi authorities on telephone besides sending Shah with the message and participating in the council deliberations before leaving for a visit to Portugal and then on vacation.

The United Nations will help Iraq’s oil industry by expediting the process of procuring spare parts to enable it to produce the required quantity of crude efficiently, diplomats here said.

The world body is bringing in two oil industry experts to speed up the process of finalising authorisation to purchase spare parts, they said.

Under a Security Council resolution, the UN has to authorise every purchase of the spare parts.

Gorbachev to testify against Yeltsin

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (PTI) — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has expressed his readiness to testify against Boris Yeltsin before a special commission formulating charges for launching impeachment proceedings against the Russian President, commercial channel “NTV” has said.

Gorbachev’s announcement came as Russia commemorates the seventh anniversary of the hardline abortive coup of August 19-21, 1991. After which Yeltsin emerged as the strongman of Russia by banning the Communist Party and marginalising the powers of the Soviet President.

The Duma Impeachment Commission has also sent summons to former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and former Belorus head Stanislav Shushkevich.

The “unconstitutional disbandment” of the Soviet Union is one of the charges levelled against Yeltsin, when in December, 1991, along with Kravchuk and Shushkevich, he signed a decree denouncing the 1922 Union Treaty as result of which Gorbachev lost his Kremlin job and the Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 independent states.

The Communist-dominated Duma is also accusing Yeltsin of “destroying” the national economy.

Under the Russian constitution specially tailored for Yeltsin, it is virtually impossible to impeach the President.

However, the Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov has expressed confidence that in the crisis situation following the devaluation of rouble, Duma would be able to muster 300 votes required for launching the impeachment process.

Benazir alleges irregularities

KARACHI, Aug 20 (AFP) — Former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto today rounded on a Swiss Magistrate who has demanded that she be indicted on money-laundering charges, saying he had acted against the Swiss Constitution and law.

“I call upon the Swiss authorities to examine the irregularities committed in my case,” Ms Bhutto told reporters.

“I never heard a magistrate holding press conferences and interviews to damage the reputation of a leader of international repute,” Ms Bhutto said.

She had never received any “direct correspondence” from Judge Daniel Devaud and learnt about the proceedings through the press. “This is unprecedented,” she said.

Asked what she would do if she received the indictment, Ms Bhutto said, “I would do whatever my lawyers ask me to do.”

Kim set to be named N. Korean President

SEOUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) — North Korea announced today that Parliament would be convened for the first time in four years, setting the scene for de facto leader Kim Jong-Il to be elected President at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the Supreme People’s Assembly will open in Pyongyang on September 5. Kim is widely expected to be named President by the assembly before the secretive Stalinist state celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding on September 9.

The assembly, the nation’s unicameral legislative body, met last in April, 1994, three months before the death of Kim’s father and the founder of North Korea, Kim II-Sung.

Last month, elections were held for the 687-seat Parliament with Kim being elected from a constituency in capital Pyongyang.North Korea’s media has been hinting for days about the Communist world’s first dynastic succession.The presidency is the last of the three titles Kim has yet to inherit from his father.

Ex-Mayor’s plea rejected
HONG KONG: The Supreme Court of China rejected an appeal by former Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong for commuting his 16-year jail sentence for corruption and dereliction of duty. Chen, the senior most Chinese Communist official to be toppled in a corruption scandal, was detained in 1995 after the suicide of his protege, Vice-Mayor Wang Baosen, who was under investigation for a multi-million dollar corruption-related case. He was purged from the Communist Party’s powerful 20-member Politburo the same year. — ANI

Czech Govt
PRAGUE: The first Left-wing Czech Government since the fall of communism won formal parliamentary approval on Wednesday when deputies of an arch-rival opposition party stayed outside the chamber for a confidence vote. But the victory for Prime Minister Milos Zemen’s Social Democrats may mark only the start of a long struggle with Centre-Right opposition parties controlling 102 of 200 seats. Zemen’s party emerged from the June poll the biggest, with 74 seats.— Reuters

Diana’s car
WASHINGTON: The Mercedes used by Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed on the night of their fatal Paris crash may have had “serious mechanical failures,” Time magazine says. The French police will hand over their technical report on the black Mercedes S-280 in late September, the magazine said. Injuries to Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana’s bodyguard, suggest the front airbags may have inflated “with explosive force” before the Mercedes struck the concrete pillar in the underpass. — AFP

Incest
STERLING HEIGHTS (US): A 17-year-old Indian boy accused of impregnating his 12-year-old sister was charged with a felony rape count. Macomb county prosecutor Carl Marlinga, who was criticised for characterising the incident as ‘youthful sexual experimentation,’ said on Wednesday that he would consider a plea seeking a lesser offence to avoid causing further trauma to the boy, originally from India. The girl’s family went to court to win the right for her to have a late-term abortion in Kansas. The girl underwent the abortion late last month. — AP

Jordan’s new PM
AMMAN: Jordan’s King Hussein has named Fayez Tarawneh as his new Prime Minister after accepting the resignation of Abdel Salam Majali. “The monarch issued a decree on Wednesday evening appointing Tarawneh Prime Minister,” a top official said, adding that the formation of a new government would be announced in the next 24 hours. The official said that the King, currently undergoing cancer treatment in the USA, had “accepted Majali’s resignation.” — AFP

Surgery on Internet
WASHINGTON: The first open-heart operation ever broadcast over the Internet ended successfully, said surgeons at St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas. The quadruple bypass was performed on Rene Fluker, a 48-year-old mother, on Wednesday and was followed for two-and-a -half hours by millions of spectators on the American Health Network’s (AHN) internet site. Viewers saw the patient’s heart and heard surgeon Denton Cooley’s comments in what the hospital called a bid to raise public awareness of heart problems. — AFP

Indian’s burial
WASHINGTON: Prabhi Kavaler, one of the two Indian Americans killed in the US Embassy bombing in Nairobi, will be buried in the famed Arlington cemetery for war veterans. US President Bill Clinton formally gave exemption for Kavaler’s burial at the cemetery where President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and many other famous Americans have been laid to rest. — PTI

Life term for student
SYDNEY: An Australian court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to a university student here for murdering two Indian students more than a year ago. Announcing the sentence, the Brisbane Supreme Court held that Rhaajesh Subramanian (27) had shot dead his flat-mates — Ajay D’Souza (21) and his sister, Priya D’Souza (22) — “with the only known motive being greed”. — PTI

Virginity test
ANKARA (Turkey): Turkish prosecutors have refused to let an imprisoned German woman sue prison officials for subjecting her to a virginity test, her lawyer said. Turkish prisons often force the tests on female prisoners, saying the exams reduce allegations of rape by guards. Human rights groups say the tests are a way of harassing female political prisoners. Eva Junckhe was arrested in October 1997 on charges of belonging to an outlawed Kurdish rebel group, the PKK. She has been locked up in a prison in southeastern Turkey pending a verdict in her trial. —AP

Iridium satellites
BEIJING: Telecommunications major Motorola’s bid to establish a global wireless communication network got a major boost on Thursday when a Chinese rocket successfully launched two iridium satellites. A China-made ‘long march 2C’ carrier rocket successfully sent two US-made iridium satellites early on Thursday morning from the Taiyuan satellite launching center in north China’s Shanxi province, Xinhua reports. — PTI