LTTE admits losing key town
COLOMBO, Dec 5 — Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger guerrillas today admitted that they had lost a key town in northern Sri Lanka and accused government troops of indiscriminate aerial attacks.

Indian Navy to get Russian frigates
MOSCOW, Dec 5 — Russia will deliver an upgraded version of the Russian-made ‘Krivak’ class multi-role battleship, specially designed to carry Prithvi missiles, to the Indian Navy in 2002.

Remnants of Khmer Rouge surrender
BANGKOK, Dec 5 — The last main fighting force of the Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxist guerrillas who killed nearly two million Cambodians, have surrendered to the government, a journalist close to the rebels said today.

China executes “Big Spender”
GUANGZHOU, China, Dec 5 — China executed feared Hong Kong gangster “Big Spender” today soon after a court rejected his appeal against a conviction for kidnapping and other violent crimes, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Lockerbie suspects’ handover
UN chief in Libya for talks

TRIPOLI, Dec 5 (Reuters) — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew to Libya today to press its leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi to comply with UN Security Council demands and surrender two suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

“The Security Council resolution gives me a very specific task,” he told reporters on his plane. “I do not intend to go there to negotiate. I will discuss and clarify.”

He said clarifications had already been given “but I am prepared to go over them again if need be.”

Asked about a Libyan statement that Gaddafi does not have the legal power to agree to the handover of the Lockerbie suspects, he said: “I think Colonel Gaddafi has considerable authority.”

Mr Annan flew from Djerba, Tunisia, to the Libyan capital on a Tunisian airliner and changed to a Libyan plane. Journalists travelling with him were not allowed to fly on to Sirte, 40 minutes further east, where he was to meet Colonel Gaddafi.

Mr Annan left Tripoli in the morning and told reporters he knew his mission had raised expectations “and that is not always comfortable.”

“This will be our first encounter,” he said. “I have no idea what sort of atmosphere it’s going to be, what he is like, how he reacts. So it’s going to be an interesting meeting.

“Obviously, this is going to be very difficult discussion. It is an issue that has persisted for 10 years.”

Some diplomats say Annan would not be making the trip to the Libyan coastal city of Sirte without assurances of a date for the handover. Others are saying Gaddafi is unpredictable and a deal is not sealed yet.

AFP adds: However, Libya has already hinted strongly that the mission could end in failure.

Mr Annan said in Jert yesterday that he hoped to settle the Lockerbie affair “once and for all” at the meeting, “I hope to be able to conclude this case during my meeting with Muammar Gaddafi,” he told reporters at the end of a two-day official visit to Tunisia.

Later however, the Libyan news agency Jana poured cold water on hopes that an agreement would be achieved.

“Col Muammar Gaddafi is neither head of state nor head of government, nor Foreign Minister,” said the official commentator with the state news agency Jana.

“He is the guide of the September (1969) revolution, which completely rules out any possibility of his reaching any accord, be it with the UN Secretary-General or any other official in the world”.

Col Gaddafi took office as chairman of Libya’s Revolution Command Council when he overthrew the monarchy in 1969 but he himself rejects this and all other official titles.

Cut N-arsenal, USA told

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 (PTI) — The UN General Assembly has sought legally binding security assurances for non-nuclear states that sign the NPT and urged Russia and the USA to reduce their nuclear arsenals so as to ultimately eliminating them.

One of the many non-binding resolutions, adopted yesterday by the General Assembly, also strongly deplore the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan saying their actions represented a challenge to the non-proliferation regime.

The resolution adopted by 118-9 votes asked both nations, which have pledged themselves to voluntary moratoriums, to make it legal by signing and ratifying the CTBT.

India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Angola, Antigua, Barbuda, Malawi and Namibia, voted against the resolution adopted yesterday by the 185-member assembly.

The General Assembly passed two other significant resolutions on strengthening existing proliferation and disarmament regimes, one asking member states to adhere unconditionally to the NPT, and another listing the CTBT on its next session’s agenda.

It also voted 114-18 votes calling for legally binding security assurances to non-nuclear states party to the NPT against use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. India, Pakistan and Israel voted against it.

The General Assembly also urged nuclear states to stop improving warheads and their delivery systems and to immediately de-alert their nuclear weapons. It was passed 110-41 votes with 18 abstentions.

It urged all states to redouble efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons and strengthen policies on non-export of related equipment, materials or technology.

The call was contained in a resolution, adopted 160-0 on nuclear disarmament and ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons. There were 11 abstentions.

Separate voting was held on a contentious paragraph which said the may tests had undermined existing non-proliferation regimes. As many as 149 nations voted in favour of the resolution which India stoutly opposed. Pakistan, Bhutan, and Israel abstained.

The first operative paragraph reaffirming the importance of achieving universality of NPT was adopted in a separate vote with 166 votes in favour. India, Pakistan and Algeria opposed it while Bhutan and Cuba abstained.

By another resolution, the UN Assembly asked the USA and Russia to pare down their nuclear weapons on basis of existing agreements so as to ultimately eliminating them. One hundred sixty-six nations voted in favour and none against. However, India, Pakistan, Cuba, South Korea, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Tanzania abstained.

The UN body in a resolution expressed grave concern over use of nuclear wastes while another hailed a decision by the conference on disarmament to negotiate a treaty banning production of fissile material.

‘Book culprits’ of Malta tragedy

LONDON, Dec 5 (PTI) Ä four-member fact-finding mission currently in Italy to unravel the Malta boat tragedy, which claimed the lives of over 200 Indian immigrants two years ago, has demanded justice for the victims of the mishap.

In a letter submitted to Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfro on behalf of the Malta Boat Tragedy Sufferers’ Association, the mission demanded a comprehensive probe to bring to book those responsible for the tragedy.

Noting that the culprits has not yet been apprehended, the letter said “this is in total disregard and violation of principles contained in the universal declaration of human rights to which Italy is also a signatory.”

“We appeal to your to trace the culprits responsible for this great tragedy.”

Heada of the mission, Balwant Singh Khera, said there was an urgent need to determine how many immigrants died, how many were missing and how many were arrested in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The survivors also need to be sought out besides ensuring adequate financial compensation to the kith and kin of the deceased, a press release from Rome quoted Khera as saying.

LTTE admits losing key town

COLOMBO, Dec 5 (AFP) — Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger guerrillas today admitted that they had lost a key town in northern Sri Lanka and accused government troops of indiscriminate aerial attacks.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a statement from their London office said over 11,500 civilians fled the town of Oddusudan which the Defence Ministry said was in the hands of the military. The LTTE said that a “fleeing elderly civilian was killed” while many more were wounded when air force jets bombed the area on Thursday.

For its part, the military said they captured Oddusudan and were caring for some 500 civilians in the area.

The limited-scale offensive was launched by the security forces as their biggest and bloodiest campaign against the LTTE was called off.

Government forces marked the completion of the “Jayasikuru” or “Sure Victory” campaign by launching the smaller, successful drive to take Oddusudan, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The military mounted the “Sure Victory” drive to capture a 76-km stretch of highway from the Tamil Tigers in a bid to open a land route to the northern peninsula of Jaffna.

Troops covered about two-thirds of the highway before fierce Tiger resistance slowed the military advance. Tigers also dislodged the army from a strategic town in September, killing and wounding thousands on both sides.

According to UNI, in a fresh operation codenamed “Rivibala”, the Sri Lankan army yesterday fought a pitched battle with the Tamil Tiger rebels killing at least 10 militants, while the troops linked up three key northern towns and brought these under military control, the operational headquarters of the Ministry of Defence said.

A military communiqué said two divisions of the army participated in the operations and an area of 134 sq km of the linked up towns of Mankulam, Oddusudan and Nedu were brought under its control.

Indian Navy to get Russian frigates

MOSCOW, Dec 5 (PTI) — Russia will deliver an upgraded version of the Russian-made ‘Krivak’ class multi-role battleship, specially designed to carry Prithvi missiles, to the Indian Navy in 2002.

Under a deal signed by Moscow and New Delhi in 1997, two more of these frigates, designed specifically for India, will be handed over after an interval of six months each, Itar-Tass news agency said.

Equipped with medium range anti-air missile and rocket-artillery complexes, 100-mm artillery guns, DTA-53 torpedoes, RBU-6000 anti-submarine depth charges and reconnaissance copters, these will make a formidable man-of-war in coastal combat and the high seas.

Remnants of Khmer Rouge surrender

BANGKOK, Dec 5 (AP) — The last main fighting force of the Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxist guerrillas who killed nearly two million Cambodians, have surrendered to the government, a journalist close to the rebels said today.

Negotiators for the last band of guerrillas holed up near the Thai border met yesterday with representatives of the government in Phnom Penh at Preah Vihear Temple at the northern edge of Cambodia and agreed to lay down their arms, according to Nate Thayer of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

In 1997, Thayer became the first journalist allowed to interview the Khmer Rouge’s late leader Pol Pot, who had not been seen in public in nearly two decades. He is one of very few outsiders trusted by the guerrillas.

The surrender of the Khmer Rouge brings to an end more than 30 years of civil war in Cambodia that began with the Marxist guerrilla’s insurgency against the government in Phnom Penh in the late 1960s.

Not included in the surrender deal, however, were the Khmer Rouge’s three top surviving leaders, Tak Mok, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea. Pol Pot died in April this year.

The Cambodian Government and the USA have expressed a desire to capture all three and make them stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Khem Nuon, Ta Mok’s chief of staff who negotiated the surrender with government officials, said simply: “They are retired and are not part of the deal”.

He refused to go into details about them, Thayer said.

Khem Nuon claimed he was negotiating on behalf of 5,000 remaining ragtag troops and 15,000 civilians living under Khmer Rouge control.

The government was represented at the negotiations by Meas Sopheas, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Cambodian military.

Under the agreement, the remaining guerrillas will join the government army and the civilians will return to Anlong Veng, the guerrillas’ former stronghold in the north.

While it was possible there are some tiny bands of guerrillas still wandering the jungles, Thayer said he knew of no sizeable Khmer Rouge fighting force that could pose a viable threat to the government.

The surrender comes less than a month after Cambodian strongman Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh, whom he ousted as Co-Prime Minister in a bloody 1997 coup, struck their own deal to end the country’s deadlocked political conflict and form a working government.

China executes “Big Spender”

GUANGZHOU, China, Dec 5 (Reuters) — China executed feared Hong Kong gangster “Big Spender” today soon after a court rejected his appeal against a conviction for kidnapping and other violent crimes, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Four of Cheung Tze-Keung’s henchmen were also put to death for a range of crimes, including kidnapping property developer tycoons Victor Li Tzar-Kuoi, son of Cheung Kong Chairman Li Ka-Shing, and Sun Hung Kai Chairman Walter Ping-Sheng.

Two other gang members had also received death sentences, but their executions were suspended for two years. Twentynine others received prison terms of up to life.

A Hong Kong newspaper said the Chinese authorities had granted Cheung a final request to see his two sons.

Cheung handed a letter to his lawyer for his family, but its contents were not known.

The executions were carried out shortly after the People’s High Court in Guangzhou rejected the defendant’s appeals, Xinhua said.

Youngest mother
BUDAPEST: An 11-year-old Hungarian girl has given birth to a healthy baby girl, becoming the country’s youngest mother, according to Hungarian news agency MTI. The father of the newborn is 17, while the maternal grandfather is 32-year-old and the grandmother is 31. MTI said on Friday. The police was investigating the case, as Hungary’s criminal code considers sex with minors of less than 12 years as a violent criminal offence, it added. — Reuters

Abargil comes home
NETANYA (Israel): A jubilant crowd of thousands turned out in the coastal town of Netanya on Friday to welcome home the newly crowned Miss World, Linor Abargil. An 18-year-old of Libyan and Moroccan extraction, Abargil won her title last week at the Miss World contest in the Seychelles islands. Her townsfolk, from tots to grandparents waited in the main square for the return of the brown-eyed high school graduate. Wearing a crown, Abargil arrived in a black limousine followed by a stream of motor cycles, dozens broke through police lines for a better view. In a ceremony attended by Netanaya’s Mayor, Abargil waved to the cheering crowd and thanked her family and the town. — AP

270 hanged in public
WASHINGTON: An Iranian opposition group has said at least 270 persons have been hanged in public and eight stoned since Mohammad Khatami was elected President last year. Three men, two of them brothers, were hanged in public last week in northern Iran and two in Teheran, the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a press release on Friday. The USA considers Mr Khatami a moderating influence in Iran and has sought to encourage moderation with sports and academic exchanges. — AP

Reprieve for scribe
WATERVILLE (USA): A Pakistani journalist charged by his country with sedition for writing about the slave-like working conditions of children will be allowed to leave Pakistan temporarily to come to Colby college, officials said on Friday. The break in the stalemate over Zafaryab Ahmed’s detention came this week when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Washington. — AP

Glenn honoured
FORT MYER (Virginia): Former US fighter pilot, Senator and astronaut John Glenn, a veteran of two wars and 149 combat missions, has been awarded the Defence Department’s highest civilian honour. We express our gratitude to a true American hero who, from the streets of a small Ohio town to the High heavens above, has indeed lived a life of courage, integrity, judgement and dedication,” said Defence Secretary William Cohen, who gave the 77-year-old Glenn the medal for distinguished public service. — AP