2 sentenced for bombing WTC
NEW YORK, Nov 25 — US District Court judges have sentenced one man involved in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing to 10 months in jail and another to eight years.

‘Dr death’ challenges prosecutors
DETROIT, Nov 25 — Dr Jack Kevorkian, the controversial doctor who has helped several people commit suicide, injected a terminally ill man with a lethal dose of drugs on a videotape broadcast nationally and challenged the authorities to prosecute him for it.

India to buy 2000 MW of power from Pak
ISLAMABAD, Nov 25 — Pakistan today agreed to sell about 2,000 MW of power to India as experts from both countries discussed technical details including setting up of proper infrastructure for transferring power.

$ 5.5 b IMF bailout package for Pak
ISLAMABAD, Nov 25 — After two weeks of tough talks the International Monetary Fund agreed today to give Pakistan $ 5.5 billion to salvage its shattered economy, finance officials said.

No probe against Gore: Reno
WASHINGTON, Nov 25 — Attorney-General Janet Reno has decided not to seek an independent counsel to investigate alleged political fund-raising abuses by US Vice-President Al Gore.

UN council deadlocked on Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (Reuters, AP) — The UN Security Council has failed to reach a decision on Iraq’s refusal to surrender arms documents to weapons inspectors after Russia blocked a statement calling for Baghdad’s compliance.

“We have not reached any definitive conclusions this evening,” the British Ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, told reporters yesterday. “So these discussions will continue but this is not a very encouraging start”, he added.

Council President Peter Burleigh of the USA said members had expressed full support for the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), in charge of scrapping Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“Council members expressed their continued full support for UNSCOM in fulfilment of its mandate,” he said.

The nearly four-hour closed-door meeting had been described as far more tranquil than previous debates on Iraq. But shortly after a majority of members expressed support for the British statement, Russia objected, diplomats said.

Before agreeing to any statement, Moscow’s Ambassador, Mr Sergei Lavrov, wanted a full discussion first of whether the documents Mr Butler was seeking really existed, envoys attending the council meeting said.

But Sir Jeremy said it was dangerous for the council to ignore what he called a clear example of Iraq’s failure to cooperate, the envoys added.

Meanwhile, the Security Council has decided to allow Iraq to sell another $ 5.2 billion in oil over six months to buy badly needed humanitarian aid for Iraqis suffering under UN sanctions.

In a 15-0 vote yesterday, the council renewed the UN “oil-for-food” programme and also agreed to let Iraq to buy another $ 300 million in spare parts to repair its dilapidated oil facilities.

BAGHDAD (AFP): The UN weapons experts have inspected a total of 25 sites in Iraq that had been placed under continuous surveillance, Iraqi General Hussam Mohammed Amin said.

Eight groups of UNSCOM specialists inspected 12 locations while three groups of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors checked 13 sites, he said yesterday.

General Amin heads the National Surveillance Department, the Iraqi counterpart to UNSCOM.

BAGHDAD (AFP): Backed by the "full support" of the Security Council and as a row over arms documents eased, UN weapons inspectors Wednesday started a second week of work since their return to Baghdad.

Ten jeeps, in three groups, left the Baghdad headquarters of the UN Special Commission (UNCOM) tasked with disarming Iraq, witnesses said.

The weapons experts stepped up the pace of their work yesterday, inspecting 25 sites placed under long-term monitoring, according to Iraqi officials. UNCOM itself, as in previous days, kept a lid on its activities.

Meanwhile, Chief Editor of Iraq’s Al-Jumhuriya newspaper, Salah Al-Mukhtar will be Baghdad’s new Ambassador to India, an Iraqi official has said.

Iraq also replaced its ambassador to the UN, Nizar Hamdoon, as part of a sweeping diplomatic reshuffle, the official told AFP yesterday.

Hamdoon’s job would go to Said Al-Moussawi, a diplomat accredited to the U.N., he said requesting anonymity.

A total of 25 Iraqi diplomats posted abroad were affected by the most sweeping reshuffle of Iraqi diplomats since the 1991 Gulf war.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf yesterday met the Ambassadors whom he had recommended “to boost Iraq’s diplomatic activities on lifting the embargo” imposed on the country in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait.

Bahamas deports Indians

NASSAU (Bahamas ), Nov 25 (Reuters) — Law enforcement authorities said they had begun deporting nearly three dozen immigrants from India who were smuggled into the Bahamas by an international ring supplying businesses with cheap labour.

Melvin Seymour, Director of the Bahamas Department of Immigration, yesterday said 11 Indians had been deported and 21 others were to leave for India or Cuba — as soon as flights became available.

Seymour said that he assumed the Indians, many of whom were staying in hotels when arrested in recent weeks, were using the Bahamas as a steppingstone to the USA.

The US Immigration and Naturalisation Service said Nitin Shettie, 30, also known as Nick Diaz, the smuggling organisation’s alleged ringleader, was arrested in the Bahamas on Saturday.

The Bahamas police arrested the Indians while assisting in the US investigation.

ATHENS (AFP): Twenty-five illegal Indian immigrants spent four days locked in an abandoned truck at the port of Igoumenitsa, in north-western Greece, it was reported today.

Customs police were alerted after passers-by heard calls coming from the truck which was blocked by a strike at the port, the newspaper Eleftherotypia said.

Officials say the Indians were in bad shape after being confined in a two-square-metre space hidden behind the truck cargo.

The police said the Indians boarded the truck last Wednesday in Athens after paying the driver $ 300 each to take them to Italy.

The truck was due to be shipped to Italy on Saturday but police believe the immigrants would have suffocated before arrival. The driver is being sought for abandoning the vehicle. They are now being held by police pending a decision on their fate.

Traffic of illegal immigrants is common between Greece and Italy.

2 sentenced for bombing WTC

NEW YORK, Nov 25 (Reuters) — US District Court judges have sentenced one man involved in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing to 10 months in jail and another to eight years.

Judge Whitman Knapp yesterday passed the lighter sentence — amounting to time served — on Ibrahim Ahmad Suleiman, convicted last January on two counts of perjury for lying to the grand jury investigating the bombing.

Suleiman was led away in handcuffs to face what Assistant US Attorney Michael Garcia said were immigration fraud charges in Texas.

Before imposing the sentence, the lowest allowed by law, Knapp criticised Suleiman’s lawyer for having failed to persuade his client to invoke his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Suleiman denied travelling with convicted World Trade Centre bomber Ahmad Ajaj despite extensive evidence he had done so. And he denied handling a bombing manual even though his fingerprints were on it.

In a separate hearing, Judge Michael Mukasey sentenced Mohammad Abouhalima to eight years in prison.

Abouhalima was convicted in May, 1997, of driving his brother, Mahmud Abouhalima, to JFK Airport for a day’s flight to Saudi Arabia, knowing he had taken part in the bombing.

The attack killed six persons, injured more than 1,000 and caused $ 500 million in damage.

‘Dr death’ challenges prosecutors

DETROIT, Nov 25 (AP) — Dr Jack Kevorkian, the controversial doctor who has helped several people commit suicide, injected a terminally ill man with a lethal dose of drugs on a videotape broadcast nationally and challenged the authorities to prosecute him for it.

"Either they go or I go", Dr Kevorkian said on the CBS news show "60 Minutes". "If I'm acquitted, they go, because they know they'll never convict me. If I'm convicted, I will starve to death in prison, so I will go", he said.

"The issue's got to be raised to the level where it is finally decided", he added.

At least five affiliates of the TV network, all owned by Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp, refused to air the Kevorkian segment on Sunday night because of its graphic contents.

CBS News issued a statement defending the story, saying that it went to the core of an important national debate.

"CBS News believes this programme a valuable public service", it said. However, CBS News "respects the right of local broadcasters to determine what is appropriate for their communities", it added.

Portions of the tape supplied by the retired pathologist to "60 Minutes" showed Mr Thomas Youk (52), who had a terminal degenerative muscular disease, being given a deadly dose of drugs.

Dr Kevorkian said Mr York died on September 17, less than three weeks after Michigan state enacted a law making assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Dr Kevorkian's face is not shown on the videotape, but he described his actions as Mr Youk is shown being given three injections.

First, a drug was injected into Mr Youk's right arm to put him to sleep," Mr Youk's chin is to his chest and does not respond when he is asked if he is awake", Dr Kevorkian said. He then injected a muscle relaxant to stop Mr Youk's breathing and his head began to tilt back.

A shot of potassium chloride is then given to stop Mr Youk's heart, Dr Kevorkian said.

Dr Kevorkian, who has acknowledged helping about 120 persons commit suicide, has been acquitted of assisted suicide charges in three trials and a fourth ended with a mistrial.

In past cases, Dr Kevorkian has said his clients voluntarily activated his home-made devices that delivered the carbon monoxide or intravenous chemicals that caused their death. With Mr Youk's death, Dr Kevorkian moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia.

On the videotape, Mr Youk in unintelligible speech acknowledged Dr Kevorkian's reading of a form consenting to have his life end by "direct injection". Dr Kevorkian asked him if he wanted to postpone the injection, and Mr Youk agreed to wait a week.

"But I got a call the next night from his brother saying that Tom wants it now", Dr Kevorkian said, adding, "And I couldn't says ‘well no’."

Dr Kevorkian said Mr Youk was terrified of choking to death. His family said he was having trouble breathing, swallowing and was choking on his saliva.

Mr Youk's wife, Melody, said on the broadcast she was grateful her husband's suffering could be ended.

Miss India favoured to win

MAHE BEACH (Seychelles), Nov 25 (AFP) — Miss India, 23-year-old Annie Thomas, is one of the favourites to win the Miss World crown here tomorrow.

She is backed — with equal betting on Miss South Africa, 25-year-old Kerishnie Naicker — by hotel waitresses, support staff, and many of the 85 journalists covering the competition in these Indian Ocean islands.

Thomas, who is bright and articulate — a prerequisite for the title, which involves giving speeches around the world — threw away a career in medicine to devote herself to acting.

She studied biology for two years, but told AFP yesterday “I realised I was getting more happiness from acting”.

Thomas, who is based in New Delhi, says she spends some time in Bombay, appearing in television dramas to keep hearth and home together because she is supporting herself. But that her real love is the challenge of the stage.

“In the theatre, she said, you can rehearse for months. But, each time, you only have one night on the stage to convince people. Whereas in television you can redo the scene again and again until you get it perfect”.

She has spent two years modelling too, but says that by nature “I’m quite home-bound, I play with my labrador, Crystal, like listening to soft music, both Indian and western and like cooking.”

With the age of the 86 contestants ranging from 17 to 25, she describes herself, with a grin, as “one of the grandmothers”. “I wouldn’t like being here at 17,” she said.

But she added that she was enjoying herself completely — “it’ll be something for us to brag about to our grandchildren”.

Thomas maintained at first that she was not nervous as tomorrow’s final approached, but then admitted to being “slightly nervous” while doing a balancing act with her emotion.

She has a boyfriend back home, she said, a television director — “no name” — who will be watching the final.

Miss Nepal, 19-year-old Jyoti Pradhan, is laid back. She is enjoying herself, “making friends... you’d never get this chance in later life”.

Pradhan, who is studying computer engineering at the University of Kathmandu, has travelled to Britain, France and Germany and speaks perfect English.

India to buy 2000 MW of power from Pak

ISLAMABAD, Nov 25 (PTI) — Pakistan today agreed to sell about 2,000 MW of power to India as experts from both countries discussed technical details including setting up of proper infrastructure for transferring power.

A seven-member Indian delegation led by Pradeep Baijal, Special Secretary in the Power Ministry, held day-long deliberations with their Pakistani counterparts and discussed possibilities of exporting power to India, Pakistani Power Ministry sources said.

The Pakistani team was led by Ibrahim Shah, Joint Secretary, Power Department. The two teams will continue discussions tomorrow.

Today’s discussion mainly assessed the available infrastructure for power transmission on both sides of the border and ways to improve it to enable smooth transfer.

The two sides are exploring the possibilities of transferring power into the Indian state of Punjab.

Pakistan has nearly 3000 MW of surplus power and was looking for prospective buyers.

$ 5.5 b IMF bailout package for Pak

ISLAMABAD, Nov 25 (AP) — After two weeks of tough talks the International Monetary Fund agreed today to give Pakistan $ 5.5 billion to salvage its shattered economy, finance officials said.

The agreement saves Pakistan from a certain default on its whopping $ 32 billion debt.

The agreement ends months of economic uncertainty during which Pakistan’s stock market plunged to record lows, foreign investment dried up and jittery Pakistani investors stayed out of the market.

The IMF deal still requires final approval from the IMF board of directors at a meeting in Washington next month.

The biggest hurdle to the bail out package was removed earlier this month when the USA agreed to support a one-time deal for Pakistan despite sanctions imposed on both Pakistan and India last May.

The sanctions were aimed at punishing the two neighbours for conducting underground nuclear tests. Pakistan was badly affected because it is heavily dependent on international aid.

The bailout package for Pakistan also comes with a number of conditions which include structural reform in its banking sector, tax reform to increase its tax base and revenue as well as a provision to try to reduce corruption.

No probe against Gore: Reno

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) — Attorney-General Janet Reno has decided not to seek an independent counsel to investigate alleged political fund-raising abuses by US Vice-President Al Gore.

In rejecting the appointment of an outside prosecutor, Ms Reno said she found evidence that Mr Gore lied to FBI agents about telephone fund-raising calls from his office during the 1996 presidential election campaign “so insubstantial that there are no reasonable grounds for further investigation”.

President re-elected
OUAGADOUGOU: The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Chairman, Mr Blaise Compaore, has won a fresh term as President of Burkina Faso with 87.52 per cent of votes cast in an election on November 15, the Supreme Court announced. Mr Compaore, (47), and in power since a coup in 1987, defeated two minor candidates who ran in defiance of a boycott by the opposition. The turnout was 56.09 per cent, well up on the 25 per cent turnout in 1991 when Mr Compaore won his first seven-year term. — Reuters.

Fire-walking record
SYDNEY: An American fitness fanatic claims to have set a world fire-walking record after tramping 84.5 metres over coals, which, he said, were hot enough to melt aluminium. Mr Kurek Ashley, a personal fitness trainer to film stars Morgan Fairchild and Chuck Norris, broke the previous record of 48 metres in Brisbane. — DPA

Cable car for pilgrims
KURLINGTAR: Nepal’s first passenger cable car has begun ferrying pilgrims to one of the most popular temples in this Hindu kingdom. The 2.8 km long cable line cost Rs 4.30 million. Nepal’s Crown Prince Dipendra inaugurated the ride on Tuesday. More than 2,000 devotees were taken by the cable car on the first day to Mannakamana temple. Earlier, the trek to the temple took nearly three hours. — AP

Suicide by workers
ALGIERS: Some 60 workers in Algeria have committed suicide after losing their jobs through International Monetary Fund-inspired cutbacks and factory closures, spokesman for the far-left Workers Party, Mr Louisa Hanoune, said. In an interview published on Tuesday in the Daily Demain I, Algerie, Mr Hanoune said the government was “responsible for the suicides”, describing its policies as “murderous”.— AFP

N-pact signed
TEHERAN: Iran and Russia signed a cooperation accord to speed up the completion of a controversial Iranian nuclear reactor on the Gulf and study possible joint development of other power plants. Russia agreed that completion of the first phase of the Bushehr plant would be brought forward by three months, state radio reported on Tuesday. Under the accord the two countries also agreed in principle to study the construction of more power plants in Iran. — AFP

Cold wave in Europe
BUCHAREST (ROMANIA): Frigid weather and snowstorms sweeping through Europe have claimed more lives, bringing the death toll to at least 85 since last week. Fourteen more deaths were reported on Tuesday. The worst hit has been Poland, with 41 weather-related deaths, and Romania, with 30. France, Bulgaria and Italy also reported storm-related deaths. In the county of Tulcea in South-Eastern Romania, schools were closed due to unheated classrooms and roads made impassable by heavy snow. — AP

Sex trade
LONDON: The British overseas development charity, Actionaid, launched a campaign on Wednesday to stamp out trafficking in women and children in Asia. Actionaid said organised crime rings were targeting poverty-stricken women and children in parts of Asia in what amounted to a contemporary form of the slave trade. It said that in Asia one million women were sold into prostitution each year. More than 650,000 children worked as prostitutes and some victims of sex trafficking were as young as 10 years old. — Reuters