Nobel Peace Prize given to Trimble, Hume
OSLO, Dec 10 — John Hume and David Trimble, Northern Ireland’s two main political leaders, received the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize today. They accepted the prize from Norwegian Nobel Committee President Francis Sejersted at a ceremony in the City Hall for their role in securing the historic April 10 peace accord in the British province.

Sen receives Nobel Prize
STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 — Amartya Sen, an ardent campaigner of social welfare who took economics to the exalted heights of philosophy, today received the prestigious 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics at a glittering ceremony here.

Clashes cast shadow on Clinton visit
JERUSALEM, Dec 10 — A Palestinian youth was killed and at least 130 Palestinans and five Israelis were injured in the worst clashes in months between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators on the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.

Stop thinking in wrong terms, FM told
STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 — Nobel laureate Amartya Sen today asked Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to “stop thinking in wrong terms” and set the economic priorities people oriented rather than commodity related as this alone would help the country meet the challenges of globalisation.

Impeachment plan
Panel proposes 4 articles

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) — US House Judiciary Committee Republicans proposed four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, alleging he betrayed the public trust in the Monica Lewinsky affair.

The draft articles of impeachment, released by the committee yesterday as White House Counsel Charles Ruff was concluding a two day defence of Mr Clinton, allege two counts of perjury and one each of obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

“William Jefferson Clinton, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust or profit under the United States,” each of the articles concludes.

The deeply divided committee will begin debate on the articles today after presentations by the chief counsels for committee republicans and Democrats.

The panel is almost certain to approve at least one of the articles on a party line vote later this week, sending the issue to the House of Representatives for a historic vote next week that is expected to be too close to call.

If impeached by the House, the issue would go to the Senate for only the second impeachment trial of a President in US history.

The articles allege two counts of perjury — one before independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s grand jury in August and one during a January deposition in the Paula Jone sexual harassment case.

The obstruction of justice article alleges seven instances when Mr Clinton attempted to “delay, impede, cover up and conceal” evidence related to the Jones case. The abuse of power article alleges President Clinton “frivolously” asserted executive privilege and made false and misleading statements to his Cabinet, aides and the American people.

It also charges Mr Clinton of making false statements in answering 81 questions submitted to him last month by Committee Chairman Henry Hyde.

“William Jefferson Clinton has undermined the integrity of his office, has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President, and has acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the articles said.

The release of the articles came minutes after Democrats unveiled their proposal to censure Mr Clinton rather than impeach him. Mr Hyde said yesterday he will allow a committee vote on the censure resolution.

The Democratic resolution said Mr Clinton made false statements concerning his “reprehensible” conduct and took steps to delay discovery of the truth in the Lewinsky affair.

Nobel Peace Prize given to Trimble, Hume

OSLO, Dec 10 (AFP) — John Hume and David Trimble, Northern Ireland’s two main political leaders, received the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize today.

They accepted the prize from Norwegian Nobel Committee President Francis Sejersted at a ceremony in the City Hall for their role in securing the historic April 10 peace accord in the British province.

“You are foremost among the many who have placed themselves at the service of peace, in and outside northern Ireland”, Mr Sejersted said.

He praised the laureates for their “wisdom and courage” in forging a deal that reshaped the future. “The vicious circle of violence has been broken”, he declared.

At a joint press conference yesterday Mr Trimble, a blunt-talking lawyer said Northern Ireland had passed a “watershed” with the accord.

“This award is greatly appreciated by the people of Northern Ireland, who see it as a mark of international recognition of the changes they are bringing about in the situation there”.

The ceremony was watched by King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, besides hundreds of dignitaries and other invited guests and a worldwide television audience.

Anwar’s ex-driver repeats charge

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Reuters) — Malaysia’s ousted Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim was dealt a major legal setback today when his ex-driver repeated his allegation that the former cabinet minister sodomised him in 1992.

Azizan Abu Bakar, a key prosecution witness in a trial at the crux of Malaysia’s political turmoil, also offered shocking new testimony alleging sexual crimes by the former Prime Minister in-waiting that drew gasps from the gallery.

The setback was compounded by the Judge’s decision not to consider a defence demand to throw out testimony by Azizan.

Azizan alleged in 1997 that Anwar had repeatedly sodomised him in 1992 and made him a “homosexual slave”. The accusation is central to the government’s case against Anwar, who has pleaded not guilty to five counts each of corruption and sodomy.

But on Monday, Azizan apparently contradicted himself under cross-examination when he agreed with the defence that he had visited Anwar’s family between 1992 and 1997 because Anwar did not sodomise him.

Under re-examination by the prosecution today, the ex-driver told the capital’s high court that he had been confused by the defence team’s questioning.

“I misunderstood the question put to me the other day because the year 1992 was too general and the defence team did not say to me when the months were that I visited the house of the accused,” Azizan said.

Sen receives Nobel Prize

STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 (PTI) — Amartya Sen, an ardent campaigner of social welfare who took economics to the exalted heights of philosophy, today received the prestigious 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics at a glittering ceremony here.

Sixty-four year old Sen, the first Asian to win the economics Nobel prize, received the award along with other laureates this year which included six Americans, three Britons, a German and a Portuguese.

While the Nobel prizes for Literature, Medicine, Chemistry, Physics and Economics were presented at a ceremony in Stockholm. The Peace Prize was given at Oslo.

Each prize carries a medal and diploma, a cheque worth 7.6 million Swedish kronor ($ 938,000) and money is shared if there are more than one recipient.

Sen, a Master of Trinity College at Cambridge University, becomes the sixth Indian to get the coveted prize.

"His contributions ranged from axiomatic theory of social choice over definitions of welfare and poverty indexes, to empirical studies of famine," the citation by the academy said while announcing the award in October.

At Stockholm, along with Sen, four other Nobel prize winners for Literature, Medicine, Chemistry and Physics received the award today being the death anniversary of the Prize creator Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel.

Clashes cast shadow on Clinton visit

JERUSALEM, Dec 10 (DPA) — A Palestinian youth was killed and at least 130 Palestinans and five Israelis were injured in the worst clashes in months between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators on the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.

The eleventh anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israel was marked yesterday in a manner reminiscent of the uprising itself - a general strike throughout the West Bank and clashes with Israeli soldiers.

Palestinians said Israeli soldiers shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian demonstrator in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Earlier, Israeli and Palestinian sources had said at least 20 Palestinians were injured in the West Bank clashes, which cast a shadow over U.S. President Bill Clinton’s upcoming visit to the region, which begins this Saturday night.

Palestinian President Yassir Arafat said yesterday that Mr Clinton’s visit to Gaza and the West Bank constituted recognition of the Palestinian people, Voice of Palestine radio reported.

Shekhar Kapur is best director

NEW YORK, Dec 10 (AP) — The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures has named Shekhar Kapur for the best director award for his film “Elizabeth”.

The best movie of the year honours went to “Gods and Monsters,’’ a film based on the 1995 novel about an ageing filmmaker’s relationship with his male gardener.

Ian McKellan was named best actor for his role in the film directed by Bill Condon.

Fernanda Montenegro was voted best actress for her role in Walter Salles’ emotional road movie, “Central Station.” The $ 3-million Brazilian movie was also chosen as the best foreign film.

The runner-up as best movie of the year was Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” followed by “Elizabeth.”

An award for special achievement for film went to Italian director Roberto Benigni.

Stop thinking in wrong terms, FM told

STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 (PTI) — Nobel laureate Amartya Sen today asked Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to “stop thinking in wrong terms” and set the economic priorities people oriented rather than commodity related as this alone would help the country meet the challenges of globalisation.

Criticising economic policies pursued by the Vajpayee government, Sen, who receives the Nobel Prize for Economics here, said in an interview to the All India Radio that Mr Sinha should “stop thinking in wrong terms”.

“I would say and ask (Sinha) to get his objectives right,” he added.

“And the objectives have to be more people related rather than commoditiy related, and the people related to (economic policies), will have to particularly focus on those who are worst off in society,” Sen said.

He said raising economic growth was no doubt important but what was ultimately most important was to expand the ability of most sections of the population to earn a decent living.

This, he said, was all the more important to meet the challenges of globalisation as now there was “no way for any economy” to escape the rapid process integration with the world economy.    

As world economy was increasingly getting more integrated, Sen said the real question was “what are the things to watch out for which will be problematic in a globalising world and there are many such things”.

To produce competitive products according to specifications required education which, he said, was very important from the point of view of having a successful opportunity in a globalising world.

In that context, he said neglect of basic education in India was a “major lacunae”. Besides India was in a situation where there was “very little asset, very little source of credit and this could be a very big problem” for the globalisation process.

“The absence of loan requirements, the absence of micro-credit will make big participation in a globalising world much more difficult,” he said, adding these are problems that require “domestic cure”.

There were, however, other problems of globalisation including monopolistic competition which needed to be addressed internationally.

To a question on how relevant welfare economics, which won him the Nobel Prize, was in India’s liberalisation process, Sen said any economic policy including liberalisation was concerned with achieving success.

This, he said was assessed by the economy of the society and hence welfare economics would have relevance though not in any specific sense.

Sen’s work on 1943-43 Bengal Famine, which earned him fame, was probably motivated emotionally by the experience of watching it first hand.

Case against Mamta
DHAKA: Hindi film heroine Mamta Kulkarni along with seven others faces a case in a local court here for allegedly speaking for reunification of Bangladesh and West Bengal. Leading English daily Independent and Bengali daily Banglabazar Patrika said, complainant Mohammad Shahidul Islam, an advocate, has filed the case alleging the eight persons, including editor of “Inquilab” and Mamta Kulkarani had violated Sections 500, 502 and 109 of the Bangladesh Penal Code by their remarks published in the daily. — PTI

Eurotunnel feat
CALAIS, FRANCE: A Russian man has walked from England to France through the channel tunnel, risking death from train passing at 150 km per hour, official sources said. The 36-year-old man whom police has not named, was picked up on Tuesday by the French police at Coquelles, on the outskirts of the port of Calais. He apparently walked into the 50-km tunnel on Saturday, after being spotted on the English side at the end of last week. Police and officials from the Eurotunnel operating company said it was a “miracle” that the man survived the trek. — AFP

Iranian writer
CAIRO: The body of a prominent Iranian writer missing since last week was found in a Teheran morgue, an international human rights group said adding that he appeared to have been murdered. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said morgue workers reported the presence of Mohammed Mokhtari’s body to his family. Works on Mokhtari’s head and neck indicated that he had been murdered, possibly by strangulation, although no autopsy has yet been carried out. — AP

Controversial law
PARIS: French lawmakers have adopted a controversial Bill that would give legal status to unmarried couples. But the measure could still be tripped up and is unlikely to become law before mid-1999. The so-called civil solidarity pact, or PACS, was adopted on Wednesday in a first reading 316-249, with the opposition right voting against the Bill that it has called a carte blanche for homosexual marriages. — AP

Iranian missiles
TEHERAN: Iran will test surface-to-surface missiles during the last stage of its naval war games, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said. Neighbouring Gulf states have been informed of the tests, the agency said on Wednesday quoting Issa Golverdi, the Maneuvers’ spokesman. Last September, Iran unveiled the Shahab-3 missile during a military parade. The newly developed weapon, believed to be based on North-Korean technology, has a rang of 1,300 kilometres. — AP

McDonald’s condom
MENOMONIE (US): A woman who says she bit into a condom that was inside a McDonald’s chicken sandwich has filed a lawsuit against the company. “She was horrified, Rick Pendergast, attorney for Veronica Minor, said on Tuesday “she went in the bathroom and threw up. “We have found her claims to be absolutely baseless,” said defence lawyer Cory Nettles. Her claim has absolutely nothing to do with the restaurant or the employees. The negligence lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, Pendercast said. — AP