Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gestures as he takes the trash to the street at his Marietta (USA) home on Saturday. — AP/PTI

Gingrich to leave Congress WASHINGTON, Nov 8 — Mr Newt Gingrich announced yesterday, the day after he said he was stepping down as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, that he would leave Congress and return to private life.

UK betrayed me: Pinochet LONDON, Nov 8 — Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has said he felt betrayed by Britain when arrested in London last month. Pak women’s varsity fails to take off RAWALPINDI, Nov 8 — Pakistan’s first women university has failed to get off the ground contrary to the announcement that regular classes would begin this year.

Jihad owns bombing
NICOSIA, Nov 8 — Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has claimed to have carried out Friday’s bomb attack in West Jerusalem.

UK minister admits being gay
LONDON, Nov 8 — Britain’s Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, yesterday admitted that he was gay but denied paying for sex after a former lover tried to sell his story to a tabloid newspaper.

Markaz to "strike in HP and J&K"

ISLAMABAD, Nov 8 (PTI) — A leading Pakistani Islamic militant group has declared that it was going to expand further its militant activities in India including Himachal Pradesh and claimed that it has sent a large number of Pakistani trained terrorists for strikes in Kashmir since last year.

Chief of the Markaz Dawat-ul-Irshad (Centre for preaching) Hafiz Muhammad Saeed addressing the concluding session of the Markaz congregation earlier this week near Lahore said they will also include Himachal Pradesh in their area of activities, media here reported.

He brushed aside the reports that the USA was preparing groundwork to declare Markaz a terrorist organisation saying the American move was due to the fact that “it cannot tolerate Islam”.

Pakistani media quoting Intelligence reports had recently claimed that the USA was on the verge of declaring Markaz a terrorist organisation and is gathering information on its activities after its chief declared ‘Jehad’ against America following its missile attack on the terrorist training camps of Saudi dissident, Osama Bin Laden, on August 20.

The USA had earlier declared the Harkat-ul-Ansar, another Pakistan-based militant group involved in militant in Kashmir, as ‘terrorist’ group apart from Osama bin Laden’s Al-qaidn group. the Harkatul Ansar since then has changed its name to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

Pak for Altaf’s extradition

LONDON, Nov 8 (PTI) — Pakistan has sought formal extradition of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) strongman Altaf Hussain from Britain charging him with 50 killings and 150 kidnappings and waging a terror campaign through telephone from his headquarters in London.

The Sunday Times quoting Pakistani Government officials, said if the extradition proceedings failed, it would press for the MQM leader’s trial in a British court under the recently passed British Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act, 1998.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who after the recent shake-up in the army in the wake of sudden resignation of Army chief Jahangir Karamat had become the most powerful politician in Pakistan after Z A Bhutto, was acting against his old political ally MQM under increasing pressure from military and intelligence chiefs, it said.

The paper said Pakistani officials were in the process of handing over formal charge to the British Home Office which may include a nMQM hit list containing names of Pakistan’s most prominent philanthropist, Hakim Sayeed brutally gunned down in Karachi recently and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

However, the paper said Mr Sharif’s move to seek Altaf’s deportation would face a lengthy legal process as Pakistan and Britain did not have an extradition treaty. Pakistan has been spurning repeated moves by the British authorities for such a treaty and has been refusing to deport big names involved in the BCCI scandal and number of others wanted on drug trafficking and forgery charges.

Altaf Husain in an interview to the daily denied any links with violence in Sindh and asserted that he would fight any deportation order.

“I am not afraid of any cases registered against me. The people of Sindh are the real judges, they have voted for me not once, but again and again”, the MQM leader was quoted as saying adding that he strongly denied charges that his party was involved in terrorism.

“In fact it was the Mohajir who were at the receiving end of state terrorism in Sindh. The official agencies, through private militias are running a campaign of terror and bloodshed. Thousands of our workers are languishing in jails and are being executed extra-judicially”, he said.

The Sunday Times said the Sharifs Government was facing inquiries into the conduct of its own forces investigating the killing of the Hamdard chief, with MQM member accused of killing Hakim Sayeed, found dead in a police cell.

British sources were quoted as expressing scepticism over reports that Pakistan may ask Britain to invoke the new terrorism Act against Altaf Hussain in the background of Pakistani and Islamic groups having bitterly opposed the passage of the Bill in the fear of it being used against them for huge illegal fund raising in Britain for “jehads” abroad, particularly Kashmir.

“Once the Pakistan Government itself asks for invoking the Act, it would not be easier for the British authorities to clamp down on illegal jehad fund-raising,” diplomatic observers said.

Anwar’s affairs ‘aired’ in open court

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (AFP) — Months of whispered rumours of sex and intrigue circulating among Malaysia’s high society about Anwar Ibrahim have finally exploded into open court, and are set for a further airing once his trial resumes tomorrow.

At the heart of the matter, according to the prosecution, is a sex scandal with the ousted Deputy Prime Minister as the main protagonist surrounded by a host of characters including a former actress and a chauffeur.

A police report disclosed in court on Friday finally acknowledged what has titillated gossip-mongers of more than a year — Anwar was suspected of an affair with the wife of his private secretary.

The allegation was contained in letters written by the woman’s sister-in-law and his driver which were later retracted under duress from Anwar, the prosecution maintains.

Not so, argues the defence, saying the allegations were withdrawn because they were lies in the first place.

The defence team led by the indefatigable Christopher Fernando appeared to have the upper hand in the first week when the court received a report written by outgoing police intelligence chief Mohamad Said Awang had dismissed the sex charges as “baseless.”

“The main factor which drove Ummi Hafilda Ali to make the report... was her suspicion that her sister-in-law Shamsidar Taharin was having an affair with Anwar Ibrahim,” Said’s report concluded.

His report said the driver Azizan Abu Bakar “made the allegations because he was influenced by the pleadings of Ummi Hafilda Ali,” the glamorous sister-in-law of the alleged mistress.

And it acknowleged that the two might have been unwitting pawns for “certain groups that may have their own agenda and play a role behind the scenes to urge Ummi and Azizan to smear Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.”

Photos of the letter-writer Ummi, whose bobbed dark hair and a passing resemblance to a certain Miss Lewinsky have gained her the nickname Monica, have plastered the pages of newspapers here.

Gingrich to leave Congress

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (DPA) — Mr Newt Gingrich announced yesterday, the day after he said he was stepping down as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, that he would leave Congress and return to private life.

“For me to stay in the House would make it impossible for a new leader to have a chance to grow and learn,” Mr Gingrich told reporters outside his home in Marietta, Georgia while announcing his decision not to take the seat to which he was re-elected on Tuesday.

Mr Gingrich, a Republican who was re-elected to an 11th two-year term in the House, said on Friday evening he would step down from the Speaker’s post. His decision came after a surprisingly strong showing by Democrats in the congressional elections.

His announcement means a special election will be needed to fill Georgia’s sixth US House district seat to which Mr Gingrich was to return in January.

Mr Gingrich told reporters he was confident his district would remain Republican after a special election.

UK betrayed me: Pinochet

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) — Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has said he felt betrayed by Britain when arrested in a London hospital last month.

“The experience of my arrest has shaken my belief in Britain,” the clearly angered 82-year-old General said in a statement released last night and carried extensively in the British media today.

“I did not believe that I would be the subject of spurious attempts by foreign prosecutors to convict me on unproven charges,” said Gen Pinochet, who will demand an apology from Britain if his arrest is overturned.

Raising fears that his arrest could unbalance the delicate situation in Chile, he argued that reconciliation was the best path to peace — as spain proved after the years of the Franco dictatorship and its move to democracy.

He reminded Britons that Chile had helped Britain in its 1982 Falklands war with Argentina and he profusely thanked former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for voicing her support for him after his arrest.

Gen Pinochet said he had been sent to Britain as a special envoy of his country and should have enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

Pak women’s varsity fails to take off

RAWALPINDI, Nov 8 — Pakistan’s first women university has failed to get off the ground contrary to the announcement that regular classes would begin by September this year.

Fatima Jinnah University in Rawalpindi has been unable to open its doors to students because the Education Department of the Government of Punjab province could not select the Vice-Chancellor of the first-ever women university in the country, the NNI news agency reported, quoting unnamed officials.

Parents of aspiring students have urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take personal interest in the university’s affairs for its early opening.

Three renowned women educationists — Shamim Abbas of Allama Iqbal Open University, Dr Mashooda Hasan of Quaid-e-Azam University and Dr Amina Nasir — have been interviewed for the job so far.

“No decision has been taken so far regarding the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor,” the agency quoted the officials as saying.

The university has so far received over 8,000 applications from Punjab province. “The university has earned over Rs 560,000 while selling prospectuses costing Rs 70 each,” the officials were quoted by NNI as saying. — IANS

Jihad owns bombing

NICOSIA, Nov 8 (AFP) — Members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad carried out Friday’s bomb attack in West Jerusalem, the group’s leader Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, said in an interview on Saturday with radio Monte Carlo.

“The heroes Yussef Al-Saqhir and Et Suleiman Tahayneh are martyrs of the Islamic Jihad,” said Shallah, who is based in Damascus. “They carried out Friday’s attack in Jerusalem in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy which is continuing without interruption, its policy of settling and Judaising the occupied territories.”

UK minister admits being gay

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) — Britain’s Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, yesterday admitted that he was gay but denied paying for sex after a former lover tried to sell his story to a tabloid newspaper.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, embroiled for the third time in a month in a public row over the sex lives of his Cabinet, was quick to defend Mr Brown and said there was no question of him being asked to resign.

Mr Brown’s admission last night came only days after Welsh Secretary Ron Davies resigned after becoming the victim of an armed robbery when he befriended a stranger late one night in a London park known as a meeting place for homosexuals.

Davies denied newspaper allegations that he was involved in a gay sex encounter.

World’s first exhibition on adultery

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (PTI) — Amidst scandals of adultery galore, Malaysians throng a unique two-year long exhibition that surveys 5,000 years of adulterous behaviour all over the globe.

Despite economic recession and political uncertainty, Malaysia boasts of not only having managed successful Commonwealth Games but organised the world’s first known exhibition on adultery.

The exhibition on marital infidelity through ages is titled “Infidelity — violation of family values” and has 25 sections covering anti-adultery devices like chastity belts, an infamous means of curbing Infidelity, punishments for infidelity and even culturally acceptable peccadilloes.

Approved by the Malaysian Parliament, the exhibition is organised by the Department of Museum and Antiquity, Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism, under the supervision of curator Shahrum Yub, former director of Malaysia’s National Museum.

The exhibition inaugurated last year and scheduled for closure in March, 1999, has drawn crowds from all walks of life eager to know more about adultery with sex scandals disturbing the political scenario at home or abroad.

It took two years of research for Shahrum, a British-trained curator, to complete the project which surveys 5,000 years of adulterous behaviour from all over the globe.

During the period of research, Shahrum uncovered several societies in which infidelity was acceptable.

“Men of the Wodaable tribe in Africa who believed themselves to be ugly, permitted their wives to have intercourse with other men to ensure more attractive children. In the Aleutian islands, a woman’s hospitality, included sexual services, while aboriginal of New South Wales used wife exchange as a form of peacemaking after war,” says Shahrum.

It was an uphill task for Shahrum to organise the exhibition in usually staid Malaysia.

“I censored myself and made sure that nothing nude gets into the different sections,” says the 63-year-old curator.

The modern exhibit is that of John Dennis Profumo, British Minister of War who resigned in 1963 after having an affair with the lover of a Soviet naval attache.

The affliction of adultery in form of various venereal diseases (VD) has been highlighted right from syphilis in the 16th century Europe to AIDS in the 20th century and comes out with an explanation that VD was a result of prevailing adultery.

The exhibition features punishment for adultery — whipping, branding, beating, blinding, mutilation of genitals and sorcery.

The exhibits depict various methods used to curb infidelity. The most popular section among the crowds is on chastity belt, an uncomfortable device popularised in Europe after the 13th century, even though first developed in Asia.

Shahrum says being an anti-adultery tactics, the chastity belt was also called “an invention of misogynist” as women were subjected to inhuman torture by men who forced them to wear the belt which even had a lock the key of which men used to carry with them while away from home.

The ancient Chinese custom of foot-binding is also an anti-adultery tactic as it virtually cripples woman, thus confining her to her home, says Shahrum.

In a section “sex for sale”, the concept of gigolo or heterosexual male prostitute is well defined with the portrait of a famous American gigolo, Johny Stampanato, who was murdered on April 4, 1958, lending credibility to the section which also features the origin and growth of world’s oldest profession — prostitution.

The exhibition has a horrifying scene depicting how punishment was inflicted for adultery to women in the 16th century Europe using rats as torturing tools.

The exhibits throw light on Jewish law known as Mosaic Code composed in 1000 BC which penalises adultery by stoning to death while in Islam the Prophet had commanded that adulterers should be stoned to death.

In Iran, Article 119 of code makes mandatory death sentence by stoning.

De Klerk remarries
JOHANNESBURG: Former South African President F.W. de Klerk married his long-time companion, Greek-born Elita Georgiades (46), in Onrus Rivier in the Cape, SABC Public Television reported. The wedding took place on Saturday, a week after Mr De Klerk divorced his wife of more than 30 years, Ms Marike, in the Cape Town High Court last Friday. — AFP

Ferry service to Iraq
DUBAI: The first ferry service to Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait left here breaking a hole in the international isolation created by eight years of UN sanctions including a ban on all regular flights. The Jebel Ali-1 weighed anchor and set sail for the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on Saturday offering travellers without special UN authorisation the first alternative to the 950-km desert road journey from Amman. The ferry can carry up to 550 passengers, as well as 220 cars and 500 tonnes of goods, on the 36-hour Gulf crossing to Iraq and will provide a weekly service. — AFP

First black Pope
WASHINGTON: Cardinal from Africa Francis Arinze has a chance of becoming the first black Pope in the history of the Vatican, The Wall Street Journal has reported. A former Bishop of Nigeria, he currently heads the Pope’s Commission on World Religions. He is also one of them helping to plan the Pope’s project — The Millennium Jubilee. The Cardinal has met several Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim leaders to help increase understanding among religions. — PTI

Award for banned film
TOKYO: An Iranian film, banned from exhibition for six years at home, has won the Asman Film Award at a Tokyo international film festival, organisers said. “Dance of Dust” beat 17 other entries from China, India, Israel, Taiwan and other Asian nations to win 1 million yen ($8,500) in prize on Saturday at the 11th Tokyo International Film Festival. The film which has no dialogues was produced in 1992 and was prevented from being exhibited for six years by the Iranian Government which lifted the ban this year. — AFP

Kohl loses party post
BONN: Christian Democrat (CDU) Parliamentary Whip Wolfgang Schaeuble was elected on Saturday as head of Germany’s Conservatives, calling for unity as he replaced former Chancellor Helmut Kohl after 24 years in a party now in the Opposition. Mr Schaeuble, (56), who has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot while campaigning in 1990, has scored regularly in opinion polls as Germany’s most popular politician. — AFP