CTBT: Pak weighs pros
and cons
ISLAMABAD, July 29 — The military-led national security structure of Pakistan is debating the pros and cons of signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty from the security angle, even as the USA and the IMF have made it clear that any future aid depended on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision on signing the treaty.

Indian N-tests: "Traitors" in US intelligence blamed
WASHINGTON, July 29 — "Traitors" in the US intelligence gave away information to India about the timing and capabilities of American satellite surveillance enabling Delhi to fool Washington about the Pokhran nuclear tests

Iran plans long-range missile
WASHINGTON, July 29 — Iran could deploy a long-range missile in two to five years that would be more threatening than the medium-range missile it tested last week, a senior US official says.

Russians ‘aiding’ Afghan alliance
NEW YORK, July 29 — Russians are back in Afghanistan secretly engaged in the new Afghan war on the side of the Northern Alliance and against the Taliban who are supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported yesterday.

80 die in China train blast
HONG KONG, July 29 — Gas canisters exploded on a train in south-eastern China bringing down a railway tunnel and killing more than 80 persons.

Pak search for firm to fight case
ISLAMABAD, July 29 — Pakistan is in search of an American law firm to fight its case against the USA for breach of contract by not delivering 28 F-16 fighter jets.

Suu Kyi spends fifth day in car

YANGON, July 29 (AFP, Reuters) — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit by dehydration and other ailments yesterday as she spent the fifth day in a stand-off with the country’s military rulers, supporters said.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) chief accepted water from the junta and remained holed up in her car, they added, saying officials were ready to aid her if necessary.

The junta accused the USA of acting as “judge, jury and executioner” in its support of Ms Suu Kyi. She was examined by two of her doctors at the site of the roadside stand-off, 26 km northwest of here.

“According to her doctors, after her latest examination, her health is deteriorating. She was dehydrated. Her skin was becoming dry. She needs check-ups twice a day,” said an NLD statement.

The NLD said the doctors had asked the authorities, both verbally and in writing, for Ms Suu Kyi to be given access to a “mobile bathroom” for washing and cleaning.

Ms Suu Kyi was stopped by the military on last Friday as she travelled to meet supporters in the provincial town of Bathein, 150 km west of the capital.

She has remained in her car at the site for the past five days, refusing to return to Yangon. Foreign diplomats here said she had run out of food but had been visited by her doctor and found to be fit.

In Manila, leading nations yesterday warned Myanmar not to escalate the stand-off with Ms Suu Kyi and offered to help defuse political tension in the country, US officials said.

Separately, diplomats said the USA, the European Union, plus Japan, New Zealand, Canada, South Korea and Australia confronted Myanmar’s Foreign Minister during an informal meeting on the fringes of an Asian security conference.

CTBT: Pak weighs pros and cons

ISLAMABAD, July 29 (PTI) — The military-led national security structure of Pakistan is debating the pros and cons of signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) from the security angle, even as the USA and the IMF have made it clear that any future aid depended on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision on signing the treaty, media reports here said.

The News quoted officials as saying that they were examining whether Pakistan’s adoption of the CTBT would result in freezing of Islamabad’s present nuclear capability or whether it would eventually lead to nuclear rollback.

Leaders are concerned that under the CTBT, Pakistan will have to refrain from causing, encouraging, or in any way participating in the nuclear explosion-related activity, meaning strict international monitoring of all activities on nuclear installations all over the country, the report said.

It said the security officials felt that the Pakistan’s decision to sign the CTBT would force Islamabad to accept the proposed Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) blocking the country’s capacity to produce fissile material for the nuclear weapons programme.

Under the FMCT and the CTBT, Pakistan will have to freeze all activities at the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) long identified by the USA and the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) as a facility to produce enriched and weapon-grade uranium.

Centrifuge facilities situated in Sihala and Golra, extremely important components of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, will also come under freeze, the daily reported.

Next on the freezing list would be the plutonium production reactor at Khushab and the plutonium extraction plant at Chashma. Officials said Pakistan would also have to freeze all activities at uranium processing facilities in Dera Ghazi Khan and Chashma.

In the coming weeks Pakistan expects India to conduct nuclear missile tests, the daily reported quoting informed officials.

Pakistan officials are also gauging the serious fall-out on the country’s national security infrastructure if Pakistan’s signing of the CTBT led to a demand by any member country for the on-site inspection on the pretext of violating the CTBT.

Informed officials noted that by signing the CTBT Pakistan would allow extremely sensitive examination of its nuclear facilities by the international inspectors.

Monica to testify after immunity deal

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) — Monica Lewinsky, the young women at the heart of the White House sex and perjury scandal, will testify to the grand jury after signing a deal that protects her from prosecution, her lawyers said.

Ms Lewinsky’s testimony could put pressure on President Bill Clinton, who has denied under oath that he had an affair with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and who now faces a subpoena to testify before the grand jury himself.

She also denied the affair in a sworn statement in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. But that conflicts with what she told prosecutors in a face-to-face interview on Monday in New York city, sources said.

At that meeting, Ms Lewinsky said she did have a sexual relationship with President Clinton, but was never pressured to lie about it under oath, the sources said.

Details of Lewinsky’s deal were secret, but interpretations of what she might tell the grand jury varied widely. The Washington Post reported that she told prosecutors that Mr Clinton suggested hypothetical ways for her to avoid cooperating with Jones’s attorneys.

The New York Times reported on its website that Lewinsky would say Mr Clinton coached her on her testimony. Quoting two lawyers familiar with the case, The Times said Lewinsky told prosecutors that she and the President had a sexual relationship and that he made several efforts in December to persuade her to deny it in the Jones lawsuit.

Meanwhile, media report said Ms Lewinsky had struck a deal with independent counsel Kenneth Starr granting her blanket protection from prosecution in the case.

By agreeing not to charge her, The Washington Post said, Mr Starr had finally secured the cooperation of his probe’s most important witness.

Indo-US talks to focus on reconciliation

WASHINGTON, July 29 (UNI) — The high-level dialogue that the Clinton administration has initiated with India and Pakistan after their May nuclear tests seeks to reconcile the vital national interests of the USA and the world in nuclear non-proliferation with the national interests of India and Pakistan, respectively.

The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, who spelt out the objectives of the dialogue at a day-long conference of the Indian American Friendship Council here yesterday, said “We insist upon the word reconciliation rather than ‘compromise,’ ‘concessions,’ ‘sacrifice,’ or ‘rewards.’

“We are not asking either country to do anything that it feels is contrary to its self interests,” he said adding that “we are seeking to see how much common ground there is, to build on those areas where there is common ground and find some ways to manage the differences where there is not.” he added.

Mr Talbott, who has been given the lead by U.S. President, Mr Bill Clinton, for the U.S contacts with New Delhi and Islamabad, has met three times Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Jaswant Singh.

Indian N-tests: "Traitors" in US
intelligence blamed

WASHINGTON, July 29 (PTI) — "Traitors" in the US intelligence gave away information to India about the timing and capabilities of American satellite surveillance enabling Delhi to fool Washington about the Pokhran nuclear tests, Congress has been informed.

"We have had serious espionage in this country and there have been traitors in our country who have given away information about the timing and capabilities of our satellite surveillance. And that has been very damaging," the head of a Congressionally-appointed panel told a hearing.

Former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who headed the panel, also told the hearing that Pakistan had built underground facilities for its missile programme which was why the US intelligence officials were surprised by the flight-test of the Ghauri medium-range missile.

Underground facilities were also the reason why the USA did not know earlier that the North Korean medium-range missile was ready, he said.

According to a senior intelligence official, there had been information on underground facilities in some countries. "The agency (CIA) has long recognized that hiding facilities in mountains and below ground has been underway" which "makes our job harder", he said.

Iran plans long-range missile

WASHINGTON, July 29 (AP) — Iran could deploy a long-range missile in two to five years that would be more threatening than the medium-range missile it tested last week, a senior US official says.

Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk said yesterday the USA will redouble its efforts to curb the transfer of technology Iran will need to deploy the long-range missile, known as Shahab 4.

Mr Indyk, who heads the State Department’s Middle East bureau, said Shahab 4 will present an even greater threat “than Shahab 3, which has a range of about 1,300 km. Iran has said the weapon will be used for defensive purposes only.

Meanwhile, President Bill Clinton moved to penalize and cut off aid to seven Russian research and manufacturing enterprises accused of selling sensitive weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Mr Clinton yesterday signed an executive order expanding his authority to deal with the proliferation of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons technology and the missiles to deliver them.

Mr Clinton said the seven Russian enterprises, including research institutes and manufacturing plants, will be barred from exporting goods to the USA and also will be cut off from US assistance.

Russians ‘aiding’ Afghan alliance

NEW YORK, July 29 (PTI) — Russians are back in Afghanistan secretly engaged in the new Afghan war on the side of the Northern Alliance and against the Taliban who are supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported yesterday quoting US and foreign officials.

This time, the paper said, the Russians were after oil as well as protection of their borders.

In what senior US officials believe might be part of a larger Russian strategy to reassert influence over Central Asia and its vast oil reserves, the paper said, Moscow had begun to play a major role.

It had not committed troops into a country where at least 13,000 Soviet troops died during nine years of occupation before they left a decade ago.

But US officials and experts were quoted as saying Russia was supplying heavy weapons, training and logistical support to the Northern Alliance, a group which controlled the mountainous northern tier of Afghanistan.

The Russians, the paper noted, found themselves in loose collaboration with Iran in countering the growing power of the Taliban who controlled about two-thirds of the country.

US officials and experts, however, told the paper that Iran was supplying even more arms, fuel and other resources to anti-Taliban rebels than Russia.

80 die in China train blast

HONG KONG, July 29 (Reuters) – Gas canisters exploded on a train in south-eastern China bringing down a railway tunnel and killing more than 80 persons, most of them workers, a local newspaper said today.

The train was passing through a 800 metre-long tunnel between Guiyang. The capital of Gueizhou province, when canisters exploded one after another, The Ming Pao News said.

Pak search for firm to fight case

ISLAMABAD, July 29 (PTI) — Pakistan is in search of an American law firm to fight its case against the USA for breach of contract by not delivering 28 F-16 fighter jets despite being paid $ 658 million for the deal, according to media reports.

Formal proposals from the firms are expected in about a week’s time, Law Minister Khalid Anwar, who is in the USA for the purpose, told reporters in Washington yesterday.

However, the News reported that legal complications could prevent Pakistan from suing the US successfully for refund of the amount paid for the embargoed planes.

Balloonist plans global flight
MENDOZA (Argentina): American hot-air balloonist Steve Fossett will launch from Argentina an around-the-world journey that he hopes to complete in record 18 days, a Buenos Aires newspaper reported. If the 54-year-old Fossett completes his journey on schedule, U.S. Brewery Budweiser will pay him a million dollars, the Buenos Aires “Clarin” reported on Tuesday. He plans to kick off the 40,000 km journey in the direction of South Africa, where from he will fly over the Indian Ocean to Australia. From there, he will head back to Argentina. Fossett, who has made a record flight from the USA to India, plans to drift at an average altitude of 6,500 metres in his high-tech craft, which is equipped by nasa and has a balloon capacity of 16,764 cubic metres. — DPA

Miss Tahiti not French
PARIS: Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but it seems nationality is too. Miss Tahiti, 24-year-old Hinano Teanotoga, who was chosen to represent France in this year’s Miss World competition, has been turned down by the competition’s organisers. Eric Morley, head of the Miss World office in London has said Tahiti, part of the French overseas territory of French Polynesia, should have its own entrant. It should be appreciated that all these countries, including Tahiti, wish to promote their own tourism, therefore we invite them independently into Miss World. — Reuters

Coins from ship wreck
CAIRO: French underwater archaeologists fished out scores of gold, silver and copper coins from the wreck of Napoleon’s flagship L’orient, sunk off the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast, team leader Franck Goddio has said. Navigational instruments, swords, guns and several personal items which belonged to Napoleon’s soldiers were also found in the remains of the ship, which exploded two centuries ago in a battle pitting French naval forces against the fleet of Britain’s Admiral Nelson. — AFP

Russia’s N-plan
MOSCOW: The Russian Government has approved a plan to bring three new nuclear power plants into operation by the end of the decade and a further four by 2010, Itar-Tass news agency said. Quoting a document prepared by the Atomic Energy Ministry, the news agency said on Tuesday that the programme would cost $ 18 billion and that the state’s share in financing it was open to change in view of uncertainties over its annual budgets. — Reuters

US plea to Cambodia
WASHINGTON: The USA has urged the Cambodian government to investigate allegations of electoral fraud in general elections. State Department Spokesman James Rubin said on Tuesday it was too early to cast judgement on Sunday’s elections, but that charges of electoral fraud were serious. He urged the government to investigate the allegations “thoroughly, to ensure that the results reflect the will of the Cambodian people”. — AFP

6 hurt in clash
ISLAMABAD: At least six persons were injured on Tuesday as supporters of former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto clashed with the police outside a court during her trial in a gold import case, the police and witnesses said. More than 200 workers from her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) gathered outside a high court in the city of Rawalpindi as Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari came to answer the charges. Police baton charged the crowd to prevent them entering into the court and PPP activists responded by throwing stones at the police, witnesses said. — AFP