A nurse takes care of two of six babies born to Yao Hong at the Second Attached Hospital of China Medical Science University in Shenyang on Thursday — PTI

‘Full security’ for 2 top Khmer defectors PHNOM PENH, Dec 28 — Cambodia’s Government today pledged full security for two top leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge who have quit their jungle hideouts, dismissing calls for the defecting pair to be arrested. Indo-US talks may fail WASHINGTON, Dec 28 — The next round of talks between India and USA on proliferation and disarmament is expected to end as inconclusively, unless Washington shows more flexibility , analysts here said.Unless there is a sea change in the US attitude towards India, the talks will be a polite reiteration of two countries’ well known positions on the NPT and the CTBT, they said.

Arab MPs flay air strikes
AMMAN, Dec 28 — Participants in an extraordinary meeting here of members of Parliament from 16 Arab countries condemned British and US air strikes against Iraq and called on their governments to work for the lifting of UN sanctions.

Chinese fighter jets for Pak
BEIJING, Dec 28 — The cash-strapped Pakistan Government has reportedly decided to order new fighter planes equipped with night combat capability from its ally China to strengthen its air force, sources said here yesterday.

Impeachment trial inevitable

WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (Reuters) — Leading Republicans and Democrats have said that President Bill Clinton was sure to face an impeachment trial in the Senate over the Monica Lewinsky scandal but was unlikely to be removed from office.

Senators from both parties said in television talk shows yesterday that the process, due to start early in January, should be dealt with as quickly as possible and was most likely to end in a tough censure resolution against the President.

“I think it’s fair to say on a bipartisan basis. The votes today aren’t there for impeachment per se,” Senate minority leader Thomas Daschles said on the NBC news programme “meet the Press.” “I don’t think they’re there on either side.

Clinton’s Democrats are in a minority in the 100-member Senate but have enough votes to keep him in office because a two-thirds majority of Senators is required for a conviction.

The President yesterday took an impromptu walk after meeting well-wishers shouting, “we love you, Mr President.”

His job approval ratings have been high during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, soaring above 70 per cent after the House of Representatives impeached him on December 19 in a mostly party-line obstruction of justice.

Clinton’s trial in the Senate will be only the second in history, and since the last 130 years ago, there is little precedent for how Senators should go about it.

Senators said if there were not enough votes to convict Clinton, they should move on to draft a censure resolution.

“If we cannot ...we are going to have to do the next best thing which is to point out to the American people how really bad (Clinton’s) actions were,” Senator Orrin Hatch, an Utah Republican, said on the CBS programme “face the nation”.

“We are going to have to do the very best we can to let the world know that Clinton has sullied the office, that he has not done what is right, that literally he has brought embarrassment to the nation,” said Orrin Hatch, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman.

Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, Senate Rules Committee Chairman, said on Fox News yesterday Senate should vote on the two impeachment articles before considering a censure move.

“I think we owe it to the House of Representatives to dispose of the articles of impeachment, up or down,” he said.

“Assuming neither of the articles pass, which is what is widely expected to be the outcome today, then at that point it seems to me you sit down and you negotiate the censure alternative,” McConnell said.

The presidential trial is scheduled to begin on or about January 7 or 8, shortly after the Senate reconvenes from its winter break, said Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.

Senators appearing on the talk shows said the trial should not be protracted.

“It is not at all clear to me that we have to put on a public show trial and bring all these rather infamous characters in to testify before the public,” McConnell said, referring to former White House intern Lewinsky and others.

Kashmir no cause for war: scholar

WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (PTI) — A leading American scholar has dismissed the US stand that Kashmir represents a potential flashpoint that could spark off a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, unless resolved to Islamabad’s satisfaction.

“There is no danger of an Indo-Pakistan war, nuclear or otherwise, over Kashmir or any other issue,” Prof Leo Rose, Professor Emeritus of political science at the Centre for South Asia Studies of California University, said recently.

In an interview to the centre’s newsletter, Rose, who has worked on both sides of the Line of Control in Kashmir, rejected the US stand that Kashmir was a potential nuclear flashpoint that could provoke India and Pakistan to go to war.

“I don’t think there is a nuclear crisis in South Asia. Both India and Pakistan have made public their capacity to have nuclear weapons, but that goes back 10 years for both these countries.

“So when they decided to do so, in a couple of weeks both were able to put a bomb together and test it. Those were the explosions. But that was something they have had for a long time,” he said.

Much to New Delhi’s annoyance, the USA has after the Pokhran tests echoed the Pakistani line that Kashmir represents a nuclear flashpoint in the region, insisting that both neighbours rollback their nuclear and missiles programme.

“I think,” Rose said “both India and Pakistan are too intelligent to think of using nuclear weapons against each other. Pakistan knows if it had a nuclear war, virtually all its cities would disappear, since most are within 100 miles of the Indian border.”

‘Full security’ for 2 top Khmer defectors

PHNOM PENH, Dec 28 (AFP) — Cambodia’s Government today pledged full security for two top leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge who have quit their jungle hideouts, dismissing calls for the defecting pair to be arrested.

Nominal rebel leader Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot’s top ideologue Nuon Chea are due to arrive in the capital tomorrow to meet Prime Minister Hun Sen who approved their Christmas Day defection to the government.

"They will be in Phnom Penh tomorrow and we will provide full protection to them," said Secretary of State for Information Khieu Kanharith.

"The question of arrest is the decision of an international court, and so far there is no international court, and up to now nobody has levelled any charges against them," he added.

When Khieu Samphan was last in Phnom Penh, following the 1991 Paris peace agreement, he was attacked and badly beaten by a massive lynch mob.

Nuon Chea has not been in Phnom Penh since the toppling of the regime in 1979, when Vietnamese forces invaded and sent the shadowy group to jungle bases. Yesterday Human Rights Watch called for the pair to be arrested.

"We are not saying they have clean hands," noted Khieu Kanharith, himself a victim of the Maoist-inspired regime.

"The victim and the jailers have to live together, and for now we want to enjoy peace."

However, he did not rule out handing the pair over to an international tribunal which may eventually get under way.

Indo-US talks may fail

WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (PTI) — The next round of talks between India and USA on proliferation and disarmament is expected to end as inconclusively as the earlier rounds, unless Washington shows more flexibility in accommodating New Delhi’s security concerns, analysts here said.

Unless there is a sea change in the US attitude towards India, the talks, to be held sometime in the second half of January, will be a polite reiteration of two countries’ well known positions on the NPT and the CTBT, they said.

They said that both sides will firmly agree to disagree and decide to continue negotiations that began in the aftermath of India’s May nuclear test, which Washington said “endangered regional security” and upset proliferation goals.

Although India has indicated its willingness to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), provided its security concerns vis-a-vis China are addressed, the USA insists New Delhi roll back its nuclear and missiles programme.

With both sides adamantly sticking to their respective positions, several round of talks between key interlocutors have so far failed to yield any results.

The sixth round of talks concluded in Rome last month with both sides agreeing to continue talks.

While India said there was no change in its position on the CTBT, USA, which has been asking India to “speedily and unconditionally” sign it, “described the circumstances that would enable the two countries to transcend difficulties as currently exist.”

Analysts cited several reasons why they expected the talks to fail. The USA is not reconciled to India as a nuclear power, still defers, due to long habit, to Pakistani claims to be treated as India’s equal.

As the sole superpower, USA feels that if India with its independent policies becomes a strong, missile armed nuclear power, it will undermine US freedom of action.

US strategy requires, the continued possession of nuclear weapons and the right of first use against any third country which threatens its interests with weapons of mass destruction.

The Clinton administration, analysts said, has also become a prisoner of its own rhetoric. It has convinced its public that India cannot be allowed to retain nuclear weapons and missiles. A complete-turn-around in the position at this juncture can raise eyebrows.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the USA has given the impression that India will sign the CTBT unconditionally. It is not willing to give India what it wants as quid pro quo, namely access to US technology in sensitive areas and equal treatment with China, a non-democratic power, they said.

Arab MPs flay air strikes

AMMAN, Dec 28 (AFP) — Participants in an extraordinary meeting here of members of Parliament from 16 Arab countries condemned British and US air strikes against Iraq and called on their governments to work for the lifting of UN sanctions.

But they stopped short of endorsing calls by Iraq for Arab governments to defy the embargo imposed after Baghdad’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and resume trade unilaterally.

The MPs “roundly condemned the unjust British-US aggression against Iraq and demanded that the UN Security Council guarantee that it would not happen again,” in a final statement issued after the meeting.

They also “backed Iraq’s legitimate demand for compensation for human and material damage” caused by the raids.

The MPs decided to send an Arab parliamentary delegation to Iraq to “declare its support for the country and assess the impact of the aggression.”

They also called for the ending of no-fly zones enforced by Britain and the USA in northern and southern Iraq saying they had no basis in UN resolutions and “damage the unity and sovereignty of Iraq.”

They only “invited Arab governments to work for the lifting of the embargo against Iraq and to put an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people,” in their final statement.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz had called on political parties across the Arab world yesterday to “work from now on to put pressure on governments to break the embargo”.

CAIRO (AP): Saudi Arabia is lobbying to postpone this week’s emergency meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers scheduled to discuss the showdown between the USA and Iraq, Arab diplomats have said.

The meeting, due to be held on Wednesday in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, was called by Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid in the wake of last week’s US-British military attacks on Iraq.

BAGHDAD (AP): Iraq increased the pressure in its confrontation with the USA on Sunday, saying it would reject an extension of a UN-monitored programme that fed civilians and would order the aid monitors to leave.

Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh did not say when Baghdad would ask the UN staff to leave. The latest phase of the UN-approved oil-for-food deal expires at the end of April.

Queen Victoria’s love letters

LONDON, Dec 28 (Reuters) — Love letters between Britain’s Queen Victoria and her gamekeeper and confidant John Brown were unearthed by the makers of the hit film Mrs Brown, The Times newspaper said today.

The cache of letters, which the paper said revealed the depth of the widowed 19th century Queen’s friendship with Brown, was shown to film producer Douglas Rae and writer Jeremy Brocks during the early stages of their work on the film.

Rae said he was alerted about a woman, a descendant of Brown, who had letters and photographs of the two. They had been stored in a trunk and placed in an attic for years in her house near the royal family’s Scottish residence of Balmoral.

“All the letters and photographs had been kept by the family for all these years,” The Times quoted Rae as saying. “We sat and red all the correspondence between Victoria and Brown and there is no doubt in my mind there were written by two people who were very, very close and shared an intimate friendship.”

The family has decided nothing will be made public while the present members of the royal family, particularly the Queen Mother, are still alive, Rae said.

The film, for which Judi Dench was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of the Queen, featured a Valentine card found in the bundle of letters which read: “To my best friend JB from his best friend VR.”

Chinese fighter jets for Pak

BEIJING, Dec 28 (PTI) — The cash-strapped Pakistan Government has reportedly decided to order new fighter planes equipped with night combat capability from its ally China to strengthen its air force, sources said here yesterday.

A high-level Pakistan Air Force (PAF) delegation visited the Zhuhai International Airshow in south China recently and reportedly concluded a deal for the sale of F-7mg aircraft, the upgraded version of the Chinese F-7, they said.

The Pakistani decision follows the US move to call off the controversial F-16 deal with Islamabad and return around $ 324.3 million taken as advance payment for it.

Further details regarding the deal are not available.

The F-7mg, one of the star attractions at the airshow, is a much better aircraft than the F-7ps, currently flown by the PAF, experts said.

It has more manoeuvrability and has an engine with increased thrust, advanced avionics equipment and modern cockpit configuration. Further, it has night combat capability, they said.

Millions of eggs to be imported
JAKARTA: Indonesia will fly in millions of eggs from Thailand and the USA over the next three weeks to cater for soaring demand over the Muslim fasting month, reports said. “They will be arriving by plane starting next week,” Trade and Industry Minister Rahardi Ramelan was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post on Sunday. He said private companies were also being urged to import chicken eggs to bridge the shortage which has been compounded by scores of poultry farms going out of business because of the high cost of imported feed. — AFP

6 kids burnt
DETROIT: Six children, the youngest only two years old, were killed when a fire sent flames and smoke roaring through the upstairs bedrooms of their grandparents’ home. Three adults and a 10-year-old child escaped. “The only way to get out was to jump out the windows,” Arson chief Jon Bozich told WDIV-TV. “We had two individuals who managed to do that ... But unfortunately the younger children for some reason didn’t do that.” The children, ages 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11, were found in two bedrooms. — AP

Book on sex
MOSCOW: Give this much to Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the bad boy of Russian politics: he has an impeccable sense of timing. As the year of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky drew near its close, Mr Zhirinovsky took over a Moscow nightclub on Sunday to unveil his new book: “The A to Z of sex.” Mr Zhirinovsky, an extreme nationalist with a taste for the outrageous, was once considered a potentially strong candidate for President of Russia. Today, he is better known for the sort of political burlesque that he demonstrated on the packed floor of “Dolls” nightclub. — AP

2 of 6 born die
BEIJING: A Chinese woman has given birth to sextuplets but two of them died of lung haemorrhages, media reports on Monday said. Four baby boys and two baby girls, were born on December 23 in northeast China’s Shenyang city. They were delivered by Caesarean section when their mother, Yao Hong, a 33-year-old Woa woman had delivery problems. The mother was pregnant for only 28 weeks, and the heaviest infant had a birth weight of only 1.17 kg, Dr Mao Jian of China Medical University said. — PTI

5 shot in mosque
ISLAMABAD: A gunman sprayed bullets inside a mosque overnight, killing its chief priest along with four other persons in Pakistan’s Northwestern Frontier Province, reports said on Sunday. The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) agency, quoting police sources, said the killings were motivated by a feud between the Imam and the assailant who fled. The five were waiting for the evening call for prayers that announces the time for breaking the daylong Ramadan fast. — DPA

Yachting tragedy
SYDNEY: Two yacht crew members are dead, three yachts remain missing and rescue resources were stretched to the limit on Monday as huge seas and gale-force winds continued to batter the Sydney-to-Hobart race fleet. A helicopter rescue team flew to a spot about 50 nautical miles off the far south New South Wales town of Merimbula. Two crew found dead on the stricken 40-foot vessel, ‘Business Post Naiad’, were left behind while seven colleagues were winched aboard the helicopter and flown to Merimbula Hospital, he said. — AP

Lottery winner
HANOI: A Vietnamese who won $ 25,000 in a lottery repaid a merchant whom he had robbed before buying the winning tickets with the proceeds, a newspaper report said on Monday. Nguyen Trung Quang stole 108 million dong ($ 7,800) from a fish merchant in August and used part of the proceeds to buy several lottery tickets. After winning he turned himself into the police, confessing his crime and offering to repay his victim. — APF

Largest statue
BEIJING: A 3.8-metre statue of Guan Shi Yin, the Buddhist Goddess of mercy, made up of gold and precious stones, in South China’s Hainan province has been confirmed as the world’s largest icon. The Shanghai office of the Guinness Book of World Records granted a certificate to the statue on Sunday as the largest of its kind in the world, reports Xinhua news agency. It is made of more than 100 kg of gold and decorated with 100 kg of jadeite, 120 carat diamonds and thousands of other precious stones. — PTI

Pipeline blast
BOGOTA: An underground natural gas pipeline erupted in a rural hamlet of northern Colombia, killing at least 12 persons, bringing down power lines, and setting homes on fire, the authorities said. Another 70 persons were injured in the blast on Sunday in Arroyo de Piedra, a village in Atlantico state, about 650 km north of the capital, Bogota. Officials feared the death toll could rise, as burn victims succumb to their injuries. — AP