Diplomatic efforts on to defuse crisis
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 — Television networks today showed US ships in the Mediterranean ready to fire Cruise missiles and squadrons of carrier-based aircraft ready to take off on a strike mission, a day after President Bill Clinton served an ultimatum on the Balkan state over its offensive posture on Kosovo.

KARACHI : A motorcyclist passes a vehicle in flames after young activists burnt more than 100 vehicles to protest the killing of their political party leaders in Karachi on Wednesday. Entire neighbourhoods of the port city have been shut down since Monday, following the shooting deaths of the leaders of the Muttiheda Quami Movement (MQM).— AP/PTI

Kashmir groups’ rift with Pak diplomats
LONDON, Oct 7 — Serious differences between some Kashmiri separatist groups and Pakistani officials are reported to have surfaced after Britain’s Labour Party annual conference in Blackpool last week.

Clinton’s decision on waiver within a week
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 — President Bill Clinton will decide within a week whether to veto the Agricultural Appropriations Bill passed by the Senate which gives him the authority to waive sanctions against India and Pakistan.

Massive rallies against Yeltsin
VLADIVOSTOK, Oct 7 — Thousands of Russians staged protests in the east of the country today against wage arrears and President Boris Yeltsin’s seven-year rule at the start of a day of nationwide strikes and rallies.

Pak to talk on behalf of J&K: Ahmed
ISLAMABAD, Oct 7 —Pakistan today gave an intriguing twist to the Kashmir issue just a week before the resumption of Foreign Secretary-level talks with India by stating that it was in fact negotiating on behalf of the people of Kashmir.

India proposes cess on education
PARIS, Oct 7 — India proposes to promote privatisation of higher education in a big way and is also considering introducing “radical changes” in the examination system.

• Booker for driver?

Diplomatic efforts on to defuse crisis

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (PTI) — Television networks today showed US ships in the Mediterranean ready to fire Cruise missiles and squadrons of carrier-based aircraft ready to take off on a strike mission, a day after President Bill Clinton served an ultimatum on the Balkan state over its offensive posture on Kosovo.

The American President served the ultimatum on Yugoslavia yesterday saying: “If the Serbs do not withdraw and negotiate autonomy with the ethnic Albanian Muslim majority in Kosovo, NATO is prepared to act”.

Blaming Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the crisis, which has resulted in a quarter million ethnic Albanians being driven from their homes, Mr Clinton said: “Declare an immediate ceasefire; withdraw security forces; (and) allow humanitarian relief groups access to Kosovo”.

Addressing the annual meeting of the World Bank and the IMF here, he asked Yugoslavia to begin “real” negotiations with the Kosova Albanians to find a peaceful and permanent solution to their “rightful demand for autonomy”.

An American diplomat, after US envoy Richard Holbrooke met Milosevic last night, today said in Belgrade: “We are on the edge of a major use of force or on the edge of something substantial that would avoid the use of force”.

“This is grim ... it seems to me the grimmest situation we’ve faced in this region”, the diplomat familiar with the talks said after US troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke met Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for more than two hours last night, the second such meeting in two days.

The meeting came as the West stepped up its warnings that air strikes could come within days. Russia announced it would veto the UN Security Council resolution legitimising such action and China also said it opposed the idea.

US President Bill Clinton said NATO was prepared to act unless Milosevic ended the offensive against Ethnic Albanians who made up 90 per cent population in Kosovo.

US Defence Secretary William Cohen warned yesterday that NATO air strikes could destroy a “substantial portion” of Serbia’s military power, but said he opposed any use of US ground troops in enbattled Kosovo.

Diplomats in Brussels said US Secretary Madeleine Albright might meet the foreign ministers of the six-nation contact group on Kosovo — including Russia — in the Belgian capital tomorrow.

MOSCOW (AP): Russian President Boris Yeltsin today conferred with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the conflict in Kosovo, the President’s press service said.

Mr Yeltsin ordered Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to attend on Friday a meeting in London of the six-member contact group on Yugoslavia, news agencies reported. The group includes the USA, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia.

NATO is building up forces at a base in southern Italy and has threatened air strikes against Serb (Yugoslav) forces that are cracking down on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. Russia fiercely opposes air strikes.

Russia yesterday threatened to use its veto in the UN Security Council to stop NATO strikes, and Belarus offered military assistance to its traditional Slav ally.

Mr Ivanov told Mr Yeltsin that Russia’s efforts to discourage air strikes resulted in a growing understanding of the feasibility for a political settlement, Interfax news agency quoted Mr Yeltsin’s spokesman as saying.

UNITED NATIONS: UN Security Council members have called for “full and sustained compliance” with their two week-old resolution that demanded that Yugoslavia should withdraw its forces from Kosovo and end its crackdown on civilians.

In a press statement on Tuesday that took many hours to negotiate, the council urged the international community “to intensify efforts to prevent a humanitarian disaster”.

Although the statement was issued to the press and, therefore, does not have the mandatory or legal standing or a resolution, delegates fought over each word.

The statement condemned “the tactics of indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians, as well as terrorist activities”.

It said military activity had appeared to wind down in recent days but that Yugoslavia’s “armed presence in Kosovo remained significant and the operations of the special police had continued” after adoption of the council’s resolution on September 23.

“Council members agreed that there had yet to be full compliance” with their resolutions and “made clear their determination to see full and sustained compliance”, the statement said.

Russia, China and Brazil succeeded in softening an earlier statement that Slovenia had drafted and the USA and Britain had supported.

Kashmir groups’ rift with Pak diplomats

LONDON, Oct 7 — Serious differences between some Kashmiri separatist groups and Pakistani officials are reported to have surfaced after Britain’s Labour Party annual conference in Blackpool last week.

The differences arose after the Prime Minister of occupied Kashmir, Sultan Mehmood, failed to hold a fringe meeting at the conference, allegedly due to lack of cooperation from Pakistani diplomats here.

Mehmood met Derek Fatchett, Junior Minister in the British Foreign Office, in Blackpool and some Members of Parliament. But for the first time in many years no fringe meeting on Kashmir was held at the Labour conference. Several Kashmiri groups have blamed the Pakistani High Commission for failing to organise such a meeting.

Several Kashmiri groups have openly condemned the position taken by the Pakistanis. “This shows that the Pakistanis are working against the Kashmiris,” Mohammed Anwar Khan of the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Committee told IANS.

Mehmood is reported to have sought the support of the High Commission to organise the meeting for him. But the Pakistanis apparently refused to oblige, according to a well-placed Kashmiri source.

Some supporters of Labour leaders sympathetic to Kashmiri separatists managed to get a few Kashmiris together at the last minute and called it a fringe meeting. But fringe meetings are formally scheduled and need to be listed at the party conference. No such meeting was listed.

Kashmiri groups are also disappointed that British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook did not specifically mention Kashmir in the debate on foreign policy, something he has done on earlier occasions. Kashmiri groups claim there has been little effective lobbying on their behalf by the Pakistanis.

Only a few people attended the last-minute meeting. Several speakers at this meeting were critical of “Indian occupation” of Kashmir.

The basis of the differences between Mehmood and the Pakistani High Commission was apparently party affiliations, the source claimed. Mehmood is from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led by Benazir Bhutto, the principal opposition force in the country. Until recently the PPP had an affiliate party for the Pakistani part of Kashmir. But Bhutto has now dissolved that separate party and merged it into the main PPP.

Pakistani campaigning on Kashmir continued to be plagued by inter-party differences, the source claimed. — IANS

Three top aides to leave Clinton
from Martin Kettle in Washington

MR BILL CLINTON will lose three of his most trusted advisers, prompting speculation that he is being abandoned by those closest to him. Although the departure from the White House this month of Erskine Bowles, Mike McCurry and Rahm Emmanuel has been well signalled, it leaves the President dependent for his survival strategy on an untested team.

Mr Bowles, the White House Chief of Staff, confirmed yesterday that he would leave when Congress adjourned for the mid-term elections, which could mean that he would quit at the end of this week.

Mr Emmanuel, Senior Adviser on Policy and Strategy, and a frequent White House spokesman on television, was expected to leave on October 23. Mr McCurry, the President’s press secretary, left on Friday and has been replaced by his deputy, Joe Lockhart.

All three insist that they have not resigned for political reasons.

The replacements for Mr Bowles and Mr Emmanuel have not yet been named, although White House sources say that the new Chief of Staff is expected to be the current number two, John Podesta.

Another possibility is Mr Greg Craig, the long-standing Clinton confidant brought back to the White House last month to coordinate its anti-impeachment strategy.

Mr Clinton is about to become only the third US President to face impeachment proceedings in Congress. The three departing aides were valued as heavyweight figures who could tell the President what they really thought. Mr McCurry is the best known of the three to the public because of his job, but the decisive departure is that of Mr Bowles, who took over as Chief of Staff from Leon Panetta after Mr Clinton’s re-election in 1996.

The multi-millionaire, Mr Bowles, is one of the few top Clinton aides to have built good working relations across the board in Washington. But he has been criticised for failing to get a grip on the Lewinsky scandal when it surfaced in January.

He is returning to his home state, North Carolina, after six years in Washington, and is widely expected to run for Governor in 2000. Mr Emmanuel, little known to the general public, has been the President’s principal policy strategist, and his departure may signal the end of Mr Clinton’s hopes of being remembered for his public achievements rather than his private failings. — The Guardian, London

Massive rallies against Yeltsin

VLADIVOSTOK, Oct 7 (Reuters) — Thousands of Russians staged protests in the east of the country today against wage arrears and President Boris Yeltsin’s seven-year rule at the start of a day of nationwide strikes and rallies.

“Yeltsin quit” and “Give us our wages now” read the banners of protesters assembled before the local government headquarters assembled before the local government headquarters in Vladivostok, seven time zones east of Moscow and home to Russia’s once proud and now crumbling Pacific Fleet.

But early indications from Vladivostok, from Sakhalin Island and from Khabarovsk (on the Chinese frontier) suggested the turnout would be well below the 10 million forecast by Communist opposition leaders.

More worrying for Mr Yeltsin may be the number of local bosses expected to address the crowds and turn their fire on Moscow, including Gen Alexander Lebed, Governor of Krasnoyarsk (Siberia), who is already gearing up for a campaign to win the Presidency for himself.

Some 150,000 people are due to rally beneath the walls of the ancient fortress later in the day to hear labour leaders demand payment of billions of dollars of unpaid wages and pensions and Left-wing politicians call for Mr Yeltsin to step down without waiting for his term to end in 2000.

Meanwhile, in a sign of reprieve for Russian Prime Minister Primakov, the Opposition has agreed to stage its protests in a peaceful manner.

According to a Moscow Times report, the Opposition’s decision to hold peaceful rallies was in response to the Prime Minister’s appeal to the people not to “rock the boat” at this juncture.

The mood of the Opposition was also reflected in an interview by Gennadi Seleznov, Duma Speaker and number two in the main Opposition party, to a journal, Vek. Speaker Seleznov told the journal that trade unions felt they had not given enough time to the Primakov government to tackle the economic ills of the country.

“The massive show of strength by the trade unions and the anti-Yeltsin forces on action day had been planned long before the Primakov government was installed in the Kremlin’’, the Speaker said.

The administration has issued strict orders to the military and the quasi-armed forces to desist from using force against the demonstrators anywhere. In fact, the Prime Minister had told Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin that “rallies and demonstrations are a democratic right of the people”.

Clinton, Monica ‘dresses’ in demand

BOSTON, Oct 7 (AP) — This year’s most popular halloween costume may call for a blue dress, a beret and, yes, a cigar.

“We thought titanic costumes would be the big rentals, but it looks like Bill and Monica are winning the race,” said Stephen Laliberte, rental manager at Boston Costume.

As the impeachment process moves forward in Washington, stores around the USA are fielding requests for costumes of President Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp. And that’s not all.

“Volvo-driving-type liberals are looking for Kenneth Starr costumes,” said Mary Papayotou, owner of Chicago Costumes. They want to support the President.” The story didn’t break early enough for manufacturers to put together rubber masks or costume ensembles in time for halloween. But customers are asking for wigs, dark berets, cigars and other props.

“People even want the tie,” said Marilynn Wick, owner of the Fort-Lauderdale, Florida-based Chain Costume World, referring to one of the gifts the former White House intern gave to the President.

Pak to talk on behalf of J&K: Ahmed

ISLAMABAD, Oct 7 (PTI) —Pakistan today gave an intriguing twist to the Kashmir issue just a week before the resumption of Foreign Secretary-level talks with India by stating that it was in fact negotiating on behalf of the people of Kashmir.

"Pakistan is in fact negotiating on behalf of Kashmiri people and at a later stage when a decision on the future of Kashmir will be taken the Kashmiri people will be involved in the talks", Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed told the official APP news agency.

"What we are doing is on behalf of the people of Kashmir and we are not in a position to take a decision on the future of Kashmir. We will have to associate the people of Kashmir," he said.

Pakistan was in constant touch with the Kashmir leadership on both sides of the Line of Control he said adding it would be the "Kashmir nation" which would finally decide either to join India or Pakistan as had been stipulated in the UN Security Council’s resolutions on Kashmir.

Ahmed, who will be leading the Pakistani side in the three-day dialogue, however, cautioned against expecting any, "miracle or breakthrough" during the dialogue which is resuming on October 15 after a break of 13 months.

Ahmed said the talks were going to be "a process to explore the possibility of finding a common ground to approach a solution of all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir".

He said that during the forthcoming talks both sides would first take up the issues of peace and security including confidence building measures and Jammu and Kashmir while the rest of the six issues would be taken up later.
The Pakistani Foreign Secretary alleged that it had been witnessed in the past that the Indian side was, "not positive" in their approach to the dialogue and urged, "whenever there is a dialogue one should enter into it with open mind and constructive approach."

He said that as far as Pakistan was concerned, "we are determined to seek a peaceful settlement of Kashmir on the basis of Security Council resolution" and he also stressed on the need for an effective engagement of the USA and major powers to facilitate a peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute.

Shamshad Ahmed also emphasised that in the past no dispute between India and Pakistan had been resolved as a result of bilateral dialogue but, "this (bilateral talks) has been emphasised by the international community, so an effort is being made."

India and Pakistan had agreed to resume the bilateral dialogue, stalled since September 1997, after the two Prime Ministers — Atal Behari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif — met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session on September 23 in New York.

Earlier, the international community urged both the countries to resume the dialogue to reduce tension in the South Asian region specially after the nuclear tests by both the countries in May this year.

US President Bill Clinton who met Pakistani Premier, in New York also stressed for resumption of dialogue.

The Indian team led by Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath, is scheduled to arrive here in the evening of October 15 and the talks will begin on October 16 during which the two sides will discuss peace and security including confidence building measures and Jammu and Kashmir.

India proposes cess on education

PARIS, Oct 7 (UNI) — India proposes to promote privatisation of higher education in a big way and is also considering introducing “radical changes” in the examination system. According to the “India country paper”, placed at the ongoing UNESCO world conference on higher education, the contribution of the private sector to higher education had not been encouraging. “In the global wave of privatisation and increasing financial stringency, privatisation of education, establishment of private institutions, in particular is being proposed”.

The report said the government wanted to encourage private initiatives in higher education but did not desire its commercialisation.

There was also a proposal to levy an educational cess on industries and other organisations which used technical manpower. The education cess was an education specific tax to be levied from those who employed the educated manpower. The basic argument was that those who employed higher educated manpower should be required to share the cost of producing “this highly skilled human capital”, the report added.

Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said the report gave an idea of how India had been able to construct one of the largest systems of higher education in the world and the tasks it envisaged to equip its young people so as to enable them to share their responsibilities both as Indians and as citizens of the world.

Listing the vision and the tasks ahead, the report said radical changes were needed to be introduced in the system of examination. The new testing system should facilitate delinking of degrees from jobs and curricular reform bringing in emphasis on multi-disciplinary courses.

The report noted that the world was entering into an information age and development in communication, information and technology would open up new and cost-effective approaches for improving the reach of higher education to the youth as well as to those who needed continuing education for meeting the demands of explosion of information, fast-changing nature of occupations and life-long education.

It said India had already decided to launch “operation knowledge” as part of the information technology action plan. This would mean not only continuous expansion and improvement of modern equipment but also a gigantic task to redesign teaching-learning materials in every discipline to the special demands of the new technologies and media of transmission and new teacher-pupil relations.

It would not be enough to promote specialised knowledge and skills of professional excellence, a deeper and subtler aim would be to develop abilities to think globally and to resolve emerging tensions between rationalistic, ethnic, aesthetic and spiritual elements of personality, the report added.

The 54-page report said special emphasis on value-oriented education would impart a new dimension to the role of the teacher. The objective of integral development of personality could not be fulfilled without teachers developing their own integral personality.

Clinton’s decision on waiver within a week

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (PTI) — President Bill Clinton will decide within a week whether to veto the Agricultural Appropriations Bill passed by the Senate which gives him the authority to waive sanctions against India and Pakistan.This was stated by Democrat leader Tom Daschle yesterday after the Senate approved the Bill, saying there was no controversy over the waiver authority for President Clinton, as he would decide whether all or any of the remaining sanctions against India and Pakistan, except for those relating to the sale or transfer of military items and dual use items, should be waived.

If Clinton rejects the Bill, it will be because he feels that the Republican majority has not taken care of the American farmer adequately.

An earlier provision in another Bill exempting only agriculture and “basic human needs” loans was considered by American business as totally inadequate.

Sanctions are coming under increasing disrepute in the USA, even though the Clinton Administration and Congress as also many states are resorting to them. Emerging Markets, a publication distributed among those attending the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, notes in its latest issue: “There are signs that sanctions are going out of fashion.”

“Under pressure from corporations angered by lost sales and burdened by the legacy of too many failed policies, western nations are turning away from sanctions as tools of political pressure. It is not to say, however, that the death knell of the concept should yet be rung,” it says.

Laden ‘possesses N-weapons’

LONDON, Oct 7 (AFP) — Osama bin Laden, the Islamist terrorist leader accused of the bombing of two US Embassies in East Africa, has acquired nuclear weapons from Central Asia, an Arabic newspaper in London reported.

The exiled Saudi millionaire, who is based in Afghanistan, has a network of sources and contacts in Central Asia and the Ukraine, according to Al-Hayat, which cited diplomatic sources from the region.

Through this network he has obtained nuclear weapons from former Soviet republics, the paper said, although the countries were not named and the number of weapons or any payments involved were not detailed.

Reports in the “Times” added that the Foreign Office had no information about the reports and the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies suppressed scepticism, saying that Bin Laden would also need missiles, launchers, sites, activation codes and training to use the weapons. The devices could, however, be used in suicide car or lorry attacks.

Booker for driver?

LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) — Bus driver Magnus Mills discovered he had joined Britain’s literary elite only when he finished the day shift on his route 159 around London.

He was besieged with well-wishers telling him that the novel which he had written between shifts was on the short list for the Booker, one of the world’s most famous literary prizes.

Prostitution legalised
COPENHAGEN: Prostitution, already widely tolerated in Denmark, will become legal under a proposal presented by the government. In announcing the proposal, the government said it was not supporting prostitution, but wanted to decriminalise what it described as a social rather than criminal matter. — AP