UK anti-terror Bill passed

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) — Britain’s drive to put renegade Irish guerrillas behind bars won parliamentary support after a debate lasting until dawn today.

The Lower House of Commons swept aside some members’ protests that the government was trying to force them into passing draconian anti-terror measures too quickly, giving the Bill its final reading.

Shortly after the vote, US President Bill Clinton arrived in Northern Ireland to show his support for the province’s peace process.

President Clinton, on a one-day trip, was due later to make a speech to politicians and community leaders and visit Omagh.

The Bill approved overnight will be debated by the House of Lords later today before becoming law.

Prime Minister Tony Blair called Parliament back from its summer break on Wednesday to consider the legislation, framed after last month’s Omagh bombing in which 28 people died.

It is also designed to crack down on people living in Britain plotting guerilla crimes abroad by making this a specific offence.

Earlier, Mr Blair, warned nations fostering terrorist groups and terrorism with international action calling upon his country to play an important role in the battle against this evil.

“Britain must play an active part in the battle against terrorism”, Mr Blair said while piloting a new anti-terrorism Bill in the House of Commons last night and vowed not to let the UK become any kind of haven for international terrorists and their supporters.

“Nations which sponsor terrorist groups and international terrorism should not expect to get away with it and they have to face collective wrath of the world community,” he said.

The Bill provides for seizing property and assets of individuals and groups found indulging in terrorism in the UK or planning militant strikes abroad.

It also empowers security agencies to seize and the investigate funding network of terrorist groups.

The British Prime Minister brushed aside bid by his own party backbenchers, who are labelled by the media here as “terrorist lovers”, to question the justification of American Cruise missile attacks against Afghanistan and Sudan.

The Bill which was rushed through the House of Commons convened hastily during summer recess also makes the provision that opinion of senior police officers would be admissible in courts as evidence of membership of specific terrorist groups.

Under the new power the courts would also be allowed to draw inference from a suspect’s refusal to answer question during investigation.

Mr Blair asserted that the new legislation though tough was fully in line with the rule of the law and did not in any way breach European convention on human rights.

“There are few more important challenges to democracy than terrorism in all its forms. We must fight it vigorously wherever it appears” the British Prime Minister told the House.

The legislation evoked support from all groups in the House, including the Tory opposition and the Liberals.

The passage of the Bill was marked by an important step by Northern Ireland Republican Sinn Fein when its President Gerry Adams announced that he was appointing his key aide Martin McGuinnes to work with the independent commission on decommissioning of weapons in Northern Ireland, the last stumbling block to bolster peace process.

Russia heads for showdown

MOSCOW, Sept 3 (PTI) — The political standoff between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Communist-dominated Duma appeared to head for a showdown with the Opposition today vowing to reject the candidature of Acting Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin in tomorrow’s second vote and threatening to impeach the President who made a new compromise bid.

The President attempted to end the deep political crisis by making a fresh bid to reach a compromise with Parliament by reviving a pact which could wrench away some of his sweeping powers.

The Communists, however, asserted that they would block Mr Chernomyrdin’s confirmation tomorrow, when the President’s nominee faces a second of the three votes to ratify his appointment.

In the first vote on August 31, Mr Chernomyrdin was rejected by the Duma, polling 94 votes for and 251 against in the 450-member house. Mr Yeltsin soon re-introduced his nomination for the second vote.

If the Duma rejects Mr Chernomyrdin thrice, Mr Yeltsin will have to dissolve the chamber and call an early election.

“Everything that’s wrong with our country ... Is connected with Mr Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin,” communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov told U.S. TV network, ABC.

Warning Mr Yeltsin not to disband the Duma, Mr Zyuganov said, “this is not a direct route to confrontation, but rather the bloodshed of civil war.”

He said legislators would call on Mr Yeltsin tomorrow to drop Mr Chernomyrdin as his nominee and “introduce a man who the majority could support.”

Japan Army on alert

TOKYO, Sept 3 (AP, PTI) — Japan’s military was put on an increased level of alert today to prepare for a second ballistic missile test-launch by North Korea. Japan also ended all charter flights to and from North Korea in retaliation to North Korea’s plan.

Defence agency spokesman, Mr Hiromitsu Kuwano, said Japan’s military had upgraded its level of alertness against any possible test.

The decision to stop flights affects nine cargo flights from North Korea to Japan and 14 other flights that are still up for approval. Tokyo has already decided to drop further talks to establish diplomatic ties with North Korea. It has ruled out additional food aid and suspended work on an international project to build nuclear reactors there.

Japan also plans to file a protest in the United Nations, both in the Security Council and the General Assembly, officials said.Both Houses of the Japanese Parliament, in a special session, today unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Monday’s missile launch over Japan and termed Pyongyang’s move as “a reckless and extremely dangerous act.”“This chamber recognises the act as unforgivable and resolutely protests here to North Korea,” the resolution said.The Upper House said the act “took no heed of the possibility that it (missile) might land in our country’s territory and completely ignores international common sense”.

South Korea’s Defence Minister Chun Yong-Taek, after returning from Japan, said Seoul was considering staging its first joint military exercises with Tokyo amid a possibility that North Korea may be planning a fresh missile launch.

Earlier, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Muneo Suzuki told mediamen, “We have information that there might be a second launch (by North Korea).”

Where execution is entertainment
from Richard Galpin in Kabul

UNTIL a week ago, most ordinary Afghans had never heard the name Osama bin Laden. Now, in the wake of the American Cruise missile attack, the Saudi dissident, regarded by Washington as enemy number one, is rapidly gaining the status of a hero.

The Taliban movement which runs Afghanistan has pledged never to hand him over to US investigators.

Two weeks ago a military offensive in the north extended Taliban control to at least 90 per cent of the country.

Four years after emerging as a band of religious zealots from Islamic schools and Afghan refugee camps in northern Pakistan the Taliban student militia are on the verge of achieving what neither the Communists, the Soviet Army nor the Mujahideen could do. The achievement of peace and a unified government, they believed, would be rewarded with international recognition and a seat at the United Nations.

But Afghanistan is set to remain a pariah state for as long as Bin Laden is allowed to be “a guest” on its soil.

Before the US strikes there had been a glimmer of hope that, with international recognition, more moderate elements within the Taliban movement would prevail. That hope has now been destroyed.

The atmosphere in Kabul, is stiffling. A visit to the national sports stadium on any Friday leaves an indelible impression of the lengths to which the Taliban will go to ensure their grip over the nation.

The stadium, restored with help from the United Nations and a German aid agency, has become the venue for executions, amputations and floggings for those deemed to have veered off the narrow path of Islamic dogma. After long speeches by the mullahs, the “criminals” are paraded before the crowd, which normally numbers at least 3,000.

This is one of the few permissible forms of entertainment in a country where televisions, videos, cinema houses, theatres, music, dancing and alcohol have been banned. Light refreshments are provided by children selling popcorn and bread.

The atmosphere becomes more excited as the authorities prepare to administer the punishment to the first victim-a man caught drinking alcohol.

With his hands tied behind the back, he is flogged by two men using a leather strap. After receiving 80 lashes, he is bundled into the back of truck and driven out of the stadium.

But it is the ampulation that brings the crows to its feet. As the three surgeons, wearing masks to protect their identity, inject the man with anaesthetic, young men and boys run along the stands to get the best view.

Prayers are muttered as the hand comes off and there is a cheer from the crowd. It is the same of executions, a roar echoes around the stadium as the shots from the Kalashnikovs are fired.

But the Taliban crusade goes beyond stamping out crime. They have pledged to create the “purest” Islamic state in the world.

It is women who have borne the burnt of the Taliban’s religious zeal. They are banned from working, receiving a proper education or being seen outside the home.

On the streets of Kabul women are transformed into billowing blue objects, covered from head-to-toe in the regulation burka

And all this in a city where a few years ago women used to attend university dressed in mini-skirts and wearing make-up.

Already, Kabul stands as a grim monument to the destruction wrought by decades of conflict. Whole suburbs lie in ruins. Now it is difficult to hope for anything better. — The Guardian, London.

Clinton wanted Lewinsky back

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (UNI) — New details have surfaced about President Bill Clinton’s testimony in the extra-marital affairs with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky (25) even as he made an attempt, his third in recent days, to explain his behaviour.

According to today’s New York Times, he told the grand jury investigating his relationship with Ms Lewinsky, that he was troubled by her transfer out of the White House and discussed bringing her back in the summer of last year.

In an almost identical story, The Washington Post reported that Mr Clinton told prosecutors that he tried to help Ms Lewinsky in January in her efforts to find a private sector job and asked a senior White House aide whether he would be willing to write her a favourable job recommendation.

The President, at a press conference in Moscow after his summit with Russian President Yeltsin yesterday, said he believed he had adequately expressed his "profound regret to all who were hurt" by his extra-marital affair.

The President said he had asked to be forgiven and spent very valuable time on vacation making amends to his wife Ms Hillary Clinton and their daughter Chelsea.

Mr Clinton testified on August 17 that he spoke about his worries over Ms Lewinsky’s situation with Marsha Scott, a senior aide in the White House personnel office and a friend of his since high school, The Times reported, quoting lawyers familiar with his testimony.

That discussion, in July 1997, is the first indication that Mr Clinton took an interest in returning Ms Lewinsky to the White House from the public affairs job at the Pentagon, where she was transferred against her wishes in April 1996.

Mr Clinton’s apparent sympathy for Ms Lewinsky is starkly at odds with the view of some White House staff members, who suggested as recently as the spring that she had been shadowing or even stalking the President, which is why they said they thought she should leave, the daily adds.

The President did not order Ms Lewinsky’s return and did not ask aides to give her favourable treatment, one adviser knowledgeable about his testimony said. And despite her own pleas to White House officials, Ms Lewinsky did not receive a position there.

Ms Scott met with Ms Lewinsky twice last summer to talk about her career, even though she was not responsible at the time for administration of jobs outside the White House.

Mr Clinton assured her that he would bring her back to the White House after the presidential election that November, an associate of Ms Lewinsky said.

Mr Clinton’s allies and Mr Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, have seized on Mr Clinton’s conversation with Ms Scott for opposing purposes.

To the President’s team, the talk is evidence that Mr Clinton was concerned, as any man might be, for the well-being of a woman he had been intimate with. They argue that if he was intent on buying her silence, he would have surely insisted that his aides rehire her.

But allies of Mr Starr say that prosecutors view Mr Clinton’s stated interest in Ms Lewinsky’s return to the White House as a possible abuse of his office, a likely accusation in a report that Mr Starr is preparing for Congress. They may also cite the conversation as an attempt by the President to obstruct justice by keeping Ms Lewinsky mollified and silent about their relationship, The Times says quoting the allies.

To the prosecutors, the timing of the conversation is significant. Weeks before, on May 27, 1997, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Ms Paula Jones’ sexual misconduct suit could proceed against Mr Clinton while he was in office. Days later, Ms Jones’ lawyers said that they planned to seek testimony from other women linked to Mr Clinton. That effort eventually led them to Ms Lewinsky.

UN war crimes tribunal
indicts ex-mayor

ARUSHA (Tanzania), Sept 3 (AFP) — A UN war crimes tribunal yesterday found the former Mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, guilty of genocide, the Hirondelle news agency said.

Akayesu, on trial before the international court sitting in this Tanzanian town, was accused of inciting the massacre of thousands of minority Tutsis in the central Rwandan district in 1994.

The court is still delivering judgement on Akayesu, one of the accused ringleaders of the slaughter of more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda, according to Hirondelle, a Swiss-founded news agency monitoring proceedings.

USA developing arms systems

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (PTI) — The US army is developing two new weapons systems — an electromagnetic rail gun and an electrothermal chemical gun — and considering arming future vehicles with hypervelocity missiles, according to Defense News.

The electromagnetic rail gun, which may be fielded in 2015, would use an electronic power source similar to a car’s alternator to generate tremendous amounts of energy in quick bursts to fire rounds. It may be machine-tested in September, the journal reported.

The electrothermal chemical gun, which may be fielded in early 2005, will use an electronic power supply to generate an electrically neutral gas plasma, and would generate 30 times the energy of traditional tank guns to send a round hurtling towards enemy targets.

USA unlikely to ratify CTBT

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (PTI) — A test vote in the Senate has indicated that the house is unlikely to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which the Clinton administration is pressuring India to sign.

US ratification of the treaty looks doubtful as yesterday’s vote for the US contribution of 29 million dollars to monitor CTBT was passed 49-44. A two-thirds majority or 67 votes is required for ratification.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said specifically before the vote on the funding measure, "anything less than 67 votes in support of this amendment (funding measure) will send a strong signal that the Senate is prepared to reject this treaty."

The Washington Post noted that since India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in may, "the Clinton administration has been pressing the Senate for action, arguing that US ratification is essential if India and Pakistan are to be persuaded to sign".

Treaty opponents argue that the priority should be not CTBT but building a missile defence for the USA.

Child porn clubs raided
LONDON: About 100 persons in 12 countries were arrested in what the police said was the biggest ever worldwide swoop on paedophiles operating on the Internet. The British police coordinated the raids on Wednesday, codenamed “Operation Cathedral”, in Europe, Australia and the USA. They recovered more than 100,000 indecent images of children as young as two from one US-based paedophile club known as “Wonderland”. “The content would absolutely turn the stomach of any right-minded person. It is disgusting stuff,” said Detective Superintendent John Stewardson, who led the operation from the UK. — (Reuters)

Senate clears funds
WASHINGTON: The Senate has easily approved $ 18 billion to help the IMF cope with financial crises in Asia and Russia and billions more to fund US-aid programmes around the world. The Senate passed the legislation on a vote of 90 to three on Wednesday. “Its future is uncertain as President Bill Clinton’s advisers said they will seek major changes, including a boost in the foreign aid budget above the $ 12.6 billion it allows, before they will recommend the president sign the final version into law.” — (Reuters)

US rocket blast
CAPE CANAVERAL: A momentary loss of electrical power led to the billion-dollar explosion that destroyed a Titan 4A rocket and the top secret spy satellite it was carrying, the US Air Force has said. The Titan 4A, the most powerful unmanned US rocket, blew up 42 seconds after lifting off from Cape Canaveral on August 12 in one of the most expensive space disasters in history. The combined cost of the rocket and its cargo was put at about a billion dollars. — (Reuters)

Diana’s sons’ plea
LONDON: Princess Diana’s sons William and Harry have appealed to Britons to let their mother rest in peace, saying constant reminders of her death cause “nothing but pain to those she left behind”. The teenage princes said in a statement they had been enormously confronted by public sympathy since Diana’s death a year ago. But they said they believed their mother “would want people now to move on”. William, 16 and Harry, 13, issued their statement on Wednesday.— (Reuters)

Movie town burnt
SANTA FE: The famous wild west movie town of Cook Ranch in northern New Mexico went up in smoke after a planned explosion on a blockbuster movie starring Kevin Kline and Will Smith ran out of control. The explosion on Tuesday at Cook Ranch, a small town near here which was made for filming movies, was planned as part of a stunt sequence for the Warner Bros, movie “Wild Wild West”. — (Reuters)