BEIJING : Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is accompanied by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, reviews troops during a welcome ceremony in Beijing on Wednesday. AP/PTI

Hawks for tough Chinese stand
BEIJING, Oct 15 — Hardliners in the ruling Communist Party of China and the powerful Army are understood to have favoured maintaining a tough stance against India in the wake of the Pokhran nuclear tests.

Inquiry may hit US Republicans

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (AFP) — Public support for the US Congress since it launched an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton has fallen, while Mr Clinton’s remains strong, a New York Times/CBS news poll said.

Only 46 per cent approve of the Republican-led Congress, down sharply from 56 per cent in September, while 60 per cent approve of how Mr Clinton handles his job overall — 60 per cent approve his foreign policy and 70 per cent his economic leadership.

In providing insight on voter trends three weeks ahead of congressional elections, the poll could signal a backlash for both Republican-led Houses of Congress, The New York Times said on publishing the poll.

Nearly 50 per cent of Americans said the 105th Congress has accomplished less than normal. Asked to name something noteworthy the lawmakers have done, 16 per cent said the impeachment probe, while 72 per cent could not name anything. And 75 per cent thought Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation of Mr Clinton’s attempts to cover up his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky was not worth the time.

Nearly 70 per cent believed the impeachment inquiry was politically motivated and pushed through by Republicans to damage Mr Clinton and the Democrats.

The telephone survey of 926 adults was conducted on Monday and Tuesday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Meanwhile, The omnibus Bill, lumping together all unfinished business of the US House of Representatives before it adjourns, is expected to include authority to US President Bill Clinton to ease sanctions against India and Pakistan if and when he so decides.

However, whether President Clinton will use his discretionary powers, if granted, to ease sanctions against India and Pakistan is being linked to US pressure on India and Pakistan to sign the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) and meet other demands, even relating to what India considers an internal issue, namely Kashmir, analysts here say.

An effort is also being made to include the immigration provisions in the Bill raising the ceiling for the import of computer programmers and other hi-tech personnel under temporary visas to meet shortage of such personnel in the USA, they say. Imported personnel are also needed to meet shortage for normal needs.

The matter has become urgent because of the need to adjust computers for the year 2000 problem in which too many computers at present will produce data for 1900s and cannot recognise demands for data from the year 2000.

How Holbrooke made a deal
from Martin Walker in Brussels
and Richard Norton-Taylor in London

RICHARD Holbrooke arrived in Kosovo last week with nothing but a piece of paper and a stack of briefing notes from the man who had done all the preliminary work, US special envoy Chris Hill.

But that piece of paper, which contained the essence of the deal, had taken months to draft and was the product of an unprecedented international effort by unsung backroom officials.

British diplomats examined the various forms of autonomy around the world, from Canada’s Quebec to Spain’s Catalonia, to come up with a system, including an ethnically balanced police force and an ombudsman, that might just reconcile the Muslim Kosovans to their Orthodox Serb overlords.

White House officials conferred with senators from the deep South and Jewish congressmen from New York to establish how important a war crime tribunal on Kosovo would be. Essential, came the verdict.

“Public opinion has been driving us into this thing, with pictures of dead babies in Kosovo. Public opinion is going to want an accounting,” commented a staff aide to the foreign relations committee.

Polish diplomats, currently holding the chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) talked to NATO and the Russians about fielding a large monitoring group to verify a Serb withdrawal.

Russian officials, whom the contact group veterans always found far more helpful than the public utterances of Russian leaders might imply, inquired what concessions the Serbs could make.

Mr Holbrooke’s piece of paper made four main points. Serb forces had to be withdrawn from the heartland of Kosovo, at least back to their barracks. In return, Serbia should retain nominal sovereignty over a largely self-governing Kosovo and control a border strip.

An independent verification team should check the withdrawal and ensure the safe return of Kosovan refugees.

Formal autonomy talks for Kosovo had to begin swiftly, with a fixed agenda and a deadline for completion under contact group supervision.

Finally, there had to be justice after the atrocities of Kosovo, preferably through the war crimes tribunal.

Mr Holbrooke’s first effort did not get far. President Slobodan Milosevic made it clear he doubted NATO had the nerve or the unity to back its threats with real force.

Mr Milosevic and Mr Holbrooke are old sparring partners from the Dayton accord which brought peace to Bosnia. They have a sneaking respect for each other’s negotiating skills.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday, Mr Holbrooke wore him down, calmly telling him to wait and see. Both German governments, old and new, would authorise the activation order. So would the Italians and the Italian airbases would be available to NATO.

The Serbs should not fool themselves. NATO was determined and NATO was coming. He also shuttled back twice to the Kosovans to reassure them he would never leave them again at the Serbs’ mercy.

Monday’s final session of talks was punctuated by the news that the Italian cabinet had authorised the use of force and of their bases and then by the German statement that they too would sign the activation order.

“You have run out of time, Mr President,” Mr Holbrooke said and made one last offer: if he could go back to NATO in person and tell them Serbia had agreed to the “durable and independent” system for verifying compliance with the UN resolution,” proposed by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the air strikes could be delayed.

Mr Milosevic made another of his famous promises. For the moment, the Holbrooke mission had worked.

—The Guardian, London

Hindujas to the rescue of Millennium Dome

LONDON, Oct 15 (PTI) — Prominent non-resident Indian business group, the Hinduja Brothers, have come to the rescue of Britain’s next century tourism showpiece, the Millennium Dome, being built to mark the world’s transition into the 21st century.

The four Hinduja brothers — Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok — reputed to be among the top 15 richest families in Britain have announced they would underwrite and support to ensure that the £ 6 million sterling worth millennium dome’s spirit zone was built.

The support of Hinduja brothers — known for their promotion of multi-cultural causes around the world — for the spirit dome, intended to put religion at the heart of millennium project, has come as a big boost to the project, racing against time to meet the December, 1999, deadline.

Many of the 12 zones of the dome project got quick sponsorship because of their commercial value with British multi-national companies like British Airways, British Telecom and British Airports authorities and others coming forward.

However, the spirit zone had not been backed until the Hinduja Group stepped in through their Hinduja Foundation.

‘‘We have offered to underwrite the spirit zone because traditional values and promotion of multi-cultures is close to our heart,’’ said Srichand P. Hinduja, the eldest of the Hinduja brothers and Chairman of the Hinduja Group of Companies.

The initiative of the Hinduja Brothers came in for a pat by the media here, who said the group was known for its commitment to fostering understanding between the host country and overseas groups, which in turn encourages economic development and elimination of poverty.

The Hinduja brothers, reports here said, were known for their closeness to political quarters.

However, Srichand Hinduja brushed this aside asserting that behind their aim to underwrite the spirit zone lay ‘’the family’s deep and abiding faith in spirituality and its solutions to the problem besetting the human race’’.

Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Baha’is, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians and Buddhists would be represented in the spirit zone of the Millennium Dome and the brothers recognise and respect the role Christianity will be given in the dome.

‘No forgiving Nasreen’

DHAKA, Oct 15 (PTI) — The Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), a forum of six Bangladeshi radical groups spearheading the street protests for immediate arrest and execution of Taslima Nasreen for alleged blasphemy, has rejected her mother’s plea for forgiveness to the embattled feminist writer.

“The apology of her mother is not acceptable,” IOJ secretary-general Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini was quoted as saying by English language daily Bangladesh Observer today.

In a hardened posture against Nasreen who in her novels and columns has attacked the influence of religion and discrimination against women, Mr Amini attached several conditions for relaxing their campaign against the author.

“Taslima Nasreen must seek apology for her writings and statements against the holy Koran, Islam, the Prophet and Shariat”, he said.

Terming Nasreen’s writings as “unpardonable”, he, however, said: “If she publicly seeks forgiveness the IOJ Majlis-e-Shura will take a final decision about her after consultation with the top ulemas”.

Demanding that Nasreen withdraw all her books from the market, he said, “In her future writings, she should acknowledge her past mistakes”.

Mr Amini said the IOJ never demanded expulsion of Nasreen from the country, but “we press for her death sentence.”

His statement comes less than a week after Nasreen’s ailing mother Eid-ul-Ara Begum sought forgiveness from all for her daughter.

Hawks for tough Chinese stand

BEIJING, Oct 15 (PTI) — Hardliners in the ruling Communist Party of China and the powerful Army are understood to have favoured maintaining a tough stance against India in the wake of the Pokhran nuclear tests.

During the three-day closed brainstorming plenary session of top brass of the party, which concluded here yesterday, the hardliners pressed for maintaining the status quo in China’s ties with India as it had not taken concrete steps to untie the knot in the Sino-Indian relations, sources said.

The meeting noted that China’s relations with India had turned sour with the bjp-led government assuming power in Delhi in March, the sources said, adding the same time Zhu Rongji was also appointed the Chinese Prime Minister.

The meeting took stock of China’s relations with major powers and neighbours and expressed satisfaction over the diplomatic gains in the recent past.

Exiled Nobel laureate returns
LAGOS: Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka arrived in Lagos from London, ending almost four years in exile, according to airport officials. The writer arrived from London aboard a Lufthansa flight on Wednesday touching down at around 7:40 p.m. (1840 GMT). Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986, was the most prominent critic of the late dictator General Sani Abacha and agreed to return to Nigeria after Abacha died in June and was replaced by General Abdulsalami Abubakar. — AFP

Monica’s apology
WASHINGTON: Monica Lewinsky is moving out of her Watergate residence and apologising to neighbours for any trouble her new-found media attention may have caused them. Ms Lewinsky sent fellow residents of the Watergate South a printed note on Tuesday informing them of her departure, according to The Washington Post. — AP

Salman Rushdie
TEHERAN: Increases in the bounty on the head of British author Salman Rushdie have served notice that Iran’s conservatives are prepared to fight for their religious principles whatever the cost to Iranian diplomacy. An Iranian press report that a major religious foundation has upped the price on Rushdie’s head to $ 2.8 million touched off fresh fears for the author’s life despite what London has billed as a diplomatic deal to ensure his safety. A hardline faction also announced it would collect another $ 333,000, payable to the assassin or, in the event of his death, to his family. — Reuters

Charles to complain
LONDON: Prince Charles, ever protective of his motherless sons, will complain to a press watchdog over a tabloid newspaper report that Prince Harry had to have a close marine-style haircut after an attempt to emulate a favourite soccer star’s crop went wrong. Charles’ office said he would write to the Self-Regulatory Press Complaints Commission about the front-page story in The Mirror on Wednesday which said 14-year-old Harry and his classmates at prestigious Eton College had tried to copy soccer player Michael Owen’s short haircut. — AP

Driverless train
PARIS: Paris plans to ushers in 21st century with a new driverless fully-automated underground metro line described as a revolution in urban transport and a star of French technology. Legions of harassed workmen on Wednesday rushed to put the final touches to Line 14, or Meteor, a seven-kilometre underground route cutting through the heart of Paris. “This is the world’s first automated high-capacity train,” boasted Meteor project chief Francois Saglier. — AFP