UN team demands secret papers
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 — The UN arms commission has asked Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, for several secret documents denied to it previously, including a logbook discovered by arms experts at an Iraqi Air Force base earlier this year, UN officials said here.

USA backs Iraqi Oppn leader
WASHINGTON, Nov 19 — The USA gave visible support to a prominent Opposition leader in Iraq, announcing that Mr Ahmed Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, had met Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk.

Asteroid may have killed dinosaurs
LONDON, Nov 19 — Scientists are more certain than ever that a huge asteroid collided with the Earth 65 million years ago and led to the demise of the dinosaurs.

9 of Christian family killed
ISLAMABAD, Nov 19 —Nine members of a Christian family, including women and children, were killed at their house in the Nowshera cantonment area, near Peshawar, last night.

Minister to quit politics
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 19 — A South African Cabinet Minister of Indian origin has announced his decision to quit active politics after the 1999 general election.

Patients helped to die
LONDON, Nov 19 — As many as 27,000 persons have been helped to die at their request by doctors withholding treatment or prescribing lethal doses of drugs, according to a new study.

Israel clears West Bank pullback

JERUSALEM, Nov 19 (Reuters) — Israel today approved a first troop pullback from the West Bank under a peace deal with the Palestinians and officials said the withdrawal could proceed as soon as tonight.

The decision followed the Cabinet’s acceptance that the Palestinians had met their initial obligations under the US-brokered land-for-security deal signed last month at the Wye River Plantation near Washington. Israel Radio said the vote was seven to five with three abstentions.

"The Cabinet approved it", said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Aviv Bushinsky. He confirmed the voting figures. Israeli and Palestinian officials said the pullback could begin later in the day.

The withdrawal is expected to cover areas near Jenin town on the northern West Bank, where Israeli troops continue fortifying Jewish settlements bordering land that would fall under Palestinian rule.

It will be Israel’s first withdrawal from occupied West Bank land since January 1997, when it handed over most of Hebron to Palestinian rule.

Israel is obliged in this first of three phased-pullbacks, mandated under the deal, to hand over another 2 per cent of the West Bank to partial Palestinian control and pull out of another 7.1 per cent that is now held jointly.

The Wye accord commits Israel to cede another 13 per cent of the West Bank in three phases over 12 weeks in return for a Palestinian crackdown on anti-Israel militants and other political moves such as the outlawing of incitement.

HEBRON (West Bank) (Reuters): Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today issued a decree outlawing incitement to violence, a key requirement under a deal with Israel giving Palestinians control over more West Bank land.

The President’s chief aide, Mr Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, read out the decree outlawing "incitement of racist prejudice and encouragement of violent practices that violate the laws".

He said this included incitement of violence sabotaging ties with "brotherly" and "foreign" states.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser David Bar-Illan earlier said Israel was still waiting for clarifications that the Palestinians had issued the decree banning incitement to violence in areas under Palestinian rule.

UNITED NATIONS: The UN has expressed full support for the "Bethlehem 2000" project being undertaken by the Palestinian authority to mark the occasion of Jesus Christ’s birth in Bethlehem and the onset of the third millennium.

Welcoming the celebration, the UN General Assembly, in a resolution adopted last night, asked the international community to ensure success of the event, slated from Christmas 1999 to Easter 2001, and called on Secretary-General Kofi Annan to mobilise UN efforts towards that end.

Palestinian and Israeli representatives, however, traded harsh words while expressing support for the resolution, adopted without vote, but amidst political recriminations that show no chances of ending with the close of the century.

Stressing need for change in the ground situation in the vicinity of Bethlehem, it expressed hope for rapid progress in the West Asia peace process so that the next millennium may be celebrated in an atmosphere of peace and reconciliation.

Impeachment hearings begin

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) — Independent counsel Kenneth Starr today publicly waded into a political impeachment fight by arguing to Congress that President Bill Clinton’s abuse of power might require his removal from office.

Mr Starr’s appearance before the First House of Representatives Judiciary Committee presidential impeachment hearings since Watergate 24 years ago set off a democratic response that included accusations of his being a "federally paid sex policeman."

Mr Starr calmly went on with a more than two-hour opening statement that point-by-point outlined his investigation of Clinton’s affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his arguments that presidential lying and cover-up could be grounds for impeachment.

In response to claims his investigation was just a nosy inquiry into a private sexual affair, Mr Starr said his case "never suggests that the relationship between the president and Ms Lewinsky in and of itself could be a high crime or misdemeanour," the only causes for impeachment mentioned in the constitution.

But after eight months of grand jury hearings and sworn testimony by Clinton himself, Mr Starr said his office "concluded that perjury and obstruction of justice ‘may constitute grounds for an impeachment.’

For only the third time in history, the committee opened hearings on whether the President of the USA should be impeached. Mr Starr was the first and so-far only scheduled public witness.

Committee Chairman Henry Hyde of Illinois tried to get the hearings off on a lofty plane by saying, "Mr Starr is here to help us understand the facts. The hearing today is not a trial, nor is it White House versus Ken Starr or Republican versus democrat."

In an interview with ABC Television broadcast hours before the impeachment hearing was to open, Mr Starr said the Lewinsky affair was "serious."

"These are serious matters that have to be looked into," he was quoted as saying.

Mr Starr’s 58-page testimony outlines the charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering already contained in the massive report delivered to Congress in September.

But the new testimony, an advance copy of which was obtained by AFP, represented a ratcheting up from those earlier charges, by more explicitly framing the evidence as the basis for case that Clinton abused his presidential power.

Clinton on economic revival mission

TOKYO, Nov 19 (PTI) — US President Bill Clinton arrived here today on a two-day trip to urge Japan to inject a new stimulus into its economic revival efforts to pull the East Asian countries out of a financial slump.

Security issues are also likely to dominate the agenda of Clinton’s summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi tomorrow, with the two leaders expected to exchange views on stationing of US forces in Japan and North Korea’s nuclear ambition.

"Nothing is more important to restoring stability and growth in Asia than efforts to restart Japan’s economy," the American President said in Washington before leaving on a five-day visit which also includes a trip to South Korea and the Island of Guam.

‘Today, nations look to Japan to take decisive steps to help the Japanese people to restore growth in Asia and around the world," he said, adding Tokyo had to act as a growth engine for the sluggish East Asian economies devastated by financial failures over the past one year.

Clinton said he would discuss with Obuchi the measures that would enable Japan to "promptly and effectively" implement its commitments to banking reform, stimulate consumer demand and growth, deregulate key economic sectors and open its markets further.

Obuchi said he would convey to the US leader Japan’s confidence in overcoming the recession and bouncing back to growth next year aided by the recently announced economic package of more than 23.9 trillion yen ($ 189 billion).

SEOUL (Reuters): Days after threatening a massive air assault against Iraq, Clinton will travel to the Korean peninsula this week for talks about another unpredictable military regime with suspected nuclear ambitions.

US and Korean officials say Clinton’s talks with South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung on Saturday will focus on their engagement policy with North Korea, aimed at easing tensions on the world’s last cold war frontier.

AFP adds: Meanwhile, the US pointman on Korea, Charles Kartman, on Thursday warned that a key nuclear deal with North Korea could be in danger unless Pyongyang allowed inspections of underground sites suspected of being used for weapons development.

Kartman delivered his warning after "two days of intensive talks" in North Korea aimed at opening up the facilities to outside inspection.

The talks ended without any agreement, he said here.

The special envoy for Korean peace told reporters: "There is still a rather wide gap between the US and North Korean positions on inspecting the suspect sites."

He warned that a crucial 1994 deal, which averted a conflict in the region, was at risk unless Washington’s worries that Pyongyang might have revived its nuclear programme were allayed.

Malta boat tragedy panel in Greece

ATHENS, Nov 19 (UNI) — A delegation of the Malta Boat Tragedy Sufferers Association, which is visiting various places in Greece today demanded that the culprits responsible for the death of about 280 people be tried in the International Court of Justice.

The delegation, led by Mr Balwant Singh Khera, called on Indian Ambassador Gurdip Singh Bedi, who has made arrangements for its visit to Galata, Crete and Poros to collect information relating to the tragedy.

The victims, including 170 Indians mostly from Punjab, were believed to have drowned in the icy waters of the Malta-Sicily channel when their overcrowded boat capsized on the night of December 24-25, 1996.

Besides India, the unemployed youths from Pakistan and Sri Lanka had been tempted with lucrative jobs abroad and made to pay huge sums, ranging from Rs two to Rs three lakh, to travel agents.

The delegation will also meet officials of the Greek Government, political parties and mediapersons here.

The CBI has already filed a charge sheet in a Delhi court against some travel agents.

Mr Khera regretted that shipping companies and travel agencies deny the very occurrence of the incident. "Even the political parties and governments of the countries involved lack interest in the probe. No wreckage and not even a single corpse is traced yet."

"The tragedy needs an international probe. It needs to be ascertained exactly how many have died, how many are missing or in hiding and how many were arrested and imprisoned.

"We call upon the Indian Government to trace the culprits and conspirators hiding in different countries by taking up the case with the respective countries and file the case in International Court of Justice or the United Nations Organisation," he said.

India to buy 10 SU-30 planes from Russia

MOSCOW, Nov 19 (UNI) — India is expected to buy 10 additional SU-30 MK1 fighter planes from Russia.

The earlier contract between the two countries was for the delivery of 40 planes of this class, and some have already joined the Indian Air Force.

The purchase of additional planes was discussed at the recent Moscow meeting of the Joint Defence working group in Moscow, news agency Interfax said.

Quoting Russian Defence sources the agency reported that dates and terms of the delivery will be laid down in a defence agreement likely to be signed during the Indo-Russian summit in Delhi next month.

Citing a statement of Russian Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Mikhailov, Interfax said plans for the sale of three Russian frigates, a submarine, a consignment of tanks and the formidable S-300 air defence systems to India were on the anvil.

Earlier, daily "Commersant" reported that the deal for the air defence systems for India assumed urgency following the nuclear tests carried out in May this year by India and Pakistan. India apprehends missile attack from its neighbours on its major cities, according to the daily.

If the deal for new generation of S-300 PMU-Isair defence systems goes through, India will be acquiring it virtually at the same time as its induction into the Russian air forces arsenal.

According to Interfax, Russia would assist India in building a nuclear-powered submarine by the year 2004. It said Moscow will lend the services of its specialists to enable India to completely update its ‘fleet’ of MIG-21 fighters, thereby refuting some reports that the work was going to be delayed.

The daily also hinted that India will be receiving a consignment of latest T-90 tanks, which are still undergoing tests and yet to go into serial production. Sources also pointed out that India would be the first country to receive these tanks based on latest technology.

UN team demands secret papers

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 (Reuters) — The UN arms commission has asked Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, for several secret documents denied to it previously, including a logbook discovered by arms experts at an Iraqi Air Force base earlier this year, UN officials said here.

"I sent him a letter yesterday: I sent him one today and I’II send him another one tomorrow," said chief arms inspector Richard Butler yesterday in answer to questions in Philadelphia, where he was speaking to the World Affairs Council.

The air force document was uncovered during a search on July 18 and listed the amount of ordnance capable of being filled with chemical and biological agents Iraq expended during its 1980-88 war with Iran.

UNSCOM inspectors glanced at it but were not given a copy. It was believed to contain fewer munitions than previously disclosed, raising questions about Iraq’s current stockpile.

Mr Ewen Buchanan, UNSCOM spokesman, said Mr Butler’s letter on Tuesday asked for "several documents some of which have been requested a long time ago".

Mr Amer Al-Saadi, an adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said on Tuesday his government was ready to "discuss" the documents. But he stopped short of saying Iraq would surrender them.

MADISON (AP): Former United Nations arms inspector Scott Ritter has said that the only way to threaten the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is to invade with ground troops.

Mr Ritter, speaking to an audience of 200 at Drew University, yesterday said threatening air strikes, as has been done in recent weeks, wasn’t an effective tactic against Mr Hussein, whom he called Iraq’s "centre of gravity."

If you have to take Saddam Hussein and make him accountable, you have to threaten his regime," Mr Ritter said. "The only way to threaten his regime is to use ground forces."

But he said Congress would not be able to get public support for a military strike of that magnitude without taking the matter to the American people.

A group of protesters momentarily disrupted Mr Ritter’s speech, calling him a CIA spy and accusing him of trying to incite the country and global community into another military strike against Iraq.

After listening quietly, Mr Ritter said he welcomed the protesters and that the issue needs to be more widely discussed by the American public.

USA backs Iraqi Oppn leader

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (AP) — The USA gave visible support to a prominent Opposition leader in Iraq, announcing that Mr Ahmed Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, had met Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk.

The meeting was held "in the context of the President’s statement that we will support the Opposition," Mr Andrew Steinfeld, a State Department press officer, said yesterday. "We are looking forward to a day when someone else governs Iraq."

The Congress is an umbrella group in London that seeks to unite numerous groups opposed to President Saddam Hussein.

At one time, it succeeded in bringing together Shia Muslim groups, former ruling party officials and Kurdish guerrillas who sought autonomy in northern Iraq.

However, the broad coalition crumbled over the years, hampered by internal divisions, a lack of resources and what the group saw as wavering US support.

LONDON: In a bid to unite opponents of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, Britain has said it will host a meeting of Iraqi Opposition groups next week.

The Foreign Office said London-based representatives of more than a dozen Opposition groups have been asked to meet Mr Derek Fatchett, a Minister at the Foreign Office, on Monday.

"The international community as a whole could only all welcome Saddam Hussein’s disappearance from the scene," said a Foreign Office spokesman, yesterday.

Asteroid may have killed dinosaurs

LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) — Scientists are more certain than ever that a huge asteroid collided with the Earth 65 million years ago and led to the demise of the dinosaurs.

They knew that something big smashed into the planet. Probably at the site of the Chicxulub crater on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. But despite decades of research they are still not sure what it was.

But Frank Kyte, a geologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, thinks he has found a fossil meteorite that is a tiny bit of an asteroid that smashed into the Earth all those years ago.

"From what we know of asteroids and what we know of comets I’d say this is much more likely to have come from an asteroid," he said in a telephone interview.

The 0.5 inch fossil was retrieved from the k/t boundary, the geologic layer of the Earth when the cretaceous period ended and the tertiary started, about the same time the dinosaurs began to disappear.

"We really don’t understand a lot about what happened to the physical environment at that time. It’s only through learning from little bits of data that we’ll be able to shed more light on this," said Kyte.

He believes the fossil meteorite is another piece of the puzzle that could help to explain what happened to the Earth and the dinosaurs.

9 of Christian family killed

ISLAMABAD, Nov 19 (UNI) —Nine members of a Christian family, including women and children, were killed at their house in the Nowshera cantonment area, near Peshawar, last night.

The ghastly murders have sent a shock wave in the nearby localities and thousands of people gathered near Artillery Colony No 2.

The head of the family was a scavenger and had been earning his livelihood through spiritual healing by using "taweez and ganday".

The killers, who beheaded most of the family members, wrote from the blood of the deads on the wall, "this is the end of black magic."

Minister to quit politics

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 19 (PTI) — A South African Cabinet Minister of Indian origin has announced his decision to quit active politics after the 1999 general election.

Transport Minister, Mac Maharaj, a freedom fighter and seasoned politician, has announced that he has been in politics for 45 years and it was now time for him to spend more time with his family.

Patients helped to die

LONDON, Nov 19 (POOL-GNA) — As many as 27,000 persons have been helped to die at their request by doctors withholding treatment or prescribing lethal doses of drugs, according to a new study.

A doctor from north London admitted that he had helped 10 patients to die at their request. Another, also from London, described the first time he administrated a lethal dose of the painkiller, diamorphine, to a dying patient as a defining moment in his medical career. He said the drug offered the most delightful and delicious way to die.

The British newspaper The Sunday Times, said that one in five believed doctors should have the right to prescribe lethal medication while more than two-thirds said doctors should have the power to assist death by withholding treatment

Mirages for UAE
DUBAI: In a major defence deal, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed a $ 3.2 billion deal with France’s Dassault Aviation to buy 30 Mirage fighters. Under the deal the UAE will buy 30 Mirage top-of-the-range 2000-9s from Dassault Aviation and the company will also upgrade 33 2000-5S which the UAE bought some 20 years ago. The UAE is also expected to sign a $ 672 million deal to buy missiles to equip the Mirage fighters, it said. — PTI

Film-style escape
CAIRO: Like a scene out of a Hindi film, two Egyptian men escaped from the clutches of their employer, a Saudi Prince, after sliding down five floors from their room on the 29th floor of a five-star hotel here with the help of knotted bedsheets. The two men, a cook and a waiter, were allegedly locked in a plush hotel room by Prince Turki Bin Abdel Aziz and had not been paid for five months, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday. — PTI

Mickey Mouse is 70
LOS ANGELES: Mickey Mouse, the animated rodent in short pants, known as one of the century’s top pop icons and an enduring source of revenue for the US entertainment giant, Disney, turned 70 on Wednesday. To mark the occasion, Disney said it planned a four-hour special birthday broadcast to be shown on two of its cable television channels in honour of Mickey and his faithful friend, Minnie. AFP

TV star dead
LOS ANGELES: Emmy-winning actress Esther Rolle, who starred in the TV sitcoms "good times" and "maude," died on Wednesday, her agent said. She was 78. Agent Jenny Delaney did not give the cause of the death of the actress, who also appeared in the movies "Driving Miss Daisy" and "rosewood." Rolle was one of the US television’s best known black actresses. — Reuters

Jealous killer
SHANGHAI: An East-China farmer, jealous of his better-off neighbours, killed four of them and 12 of their water buffaloes by feeding them rat poison, the official Liberation Daily said. Mao Tiansheng carried out the deeds between early 1996 and May this year, setting off a scare that madcow disease had affected the tiny village of Yongfeng in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the newspaper said on Wednesday. — Reuters

Now pig cloning
LONDON: The Scottish scientists who created "Dolly", the sheep, hope next year to become the first in the world to clone a pig, they said on Wednesday. They hope their research will help solve a worldwide shortage of donor organs, as cloning will allow pigs to be modified genetically so that their organs can be transplanted on humans. The project is being carried out by Roslin Bio-Med, a company formed by the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, which created "Dolly". — AFP

Quake rocks Iran
TEHERAN: A strong earthquake which hit southern Iran has caused landslides in a mountainous area and damaged six villages, Teheran Radio reported on Wednesday. It said the quake, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale, caused 80 to 100 per cent destruction in villages in Kerman province. There was also a tremor in south-western Khuzestan province, the radio said. — Reuters