‘Fair amount of IMF loans to Russia misused’
LONDON, Sept 20 — A Russian financial official said in a British television interview today that billions of dollars of the International Monetary Fund loans in Russia were either misused or stolen.

US-Pak talks on CTBT
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 — A senior US official has held two days of talks with Pakistani officials in a bid to persuade Islamabad to sign a global ban on underground nuclear tests, diplomats have said.

West Asia talks fail
JERUSALEM/Gaza, Sept 20 — US special peace envoy Dennis Ross has ended an 11-day visit to the West Asia by meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but was unable to bring about an agreement on an Israeli troop pull-back on the occupied West Bank.

Viagra ‘effective’ for Asian men
HONG KONG, Sept 20 — Viagra’s effectiveness in treating impotence crosses racial lines, with new tests proving that it works for Asian males, the drug’s manufacturer has said.

Scandal costs Clinton Nobel prize

LONDON, Sept 20 (AFP) — The sex-and-perjury scandal engulfing US President Bill Clinton has robbed him of the chance of winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in securing an IRA ceasefire, The Mail reported today.

Citing sources associated with the Nobel Committee, the weekly tabloid said Clinton, nominated along with former US Senator George Mitchell, the chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks, was no longer a leading contender.

Clinton had been considered a front-runner among 139 candidates for the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize because of his role in successful negotiations that led to the current ceasefire by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), according to The Mail.

Now, however, it is possible that Mitchell will be given the award on his own, the British newspaper said.

LOS ANGELES: Independent counsel Kenneth Starr plans to expand his probe of White House misdeeds and could even indict Hillary Rodham Clinton in his quest for making a case to impeach President Bill Clinton, a report here said.

The Los Angeles Times’ Sunday edition said Starr is looking into roles of the First Lady and other top officials in both the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-lies affair and other unrelated events.

Starr was originally authorised to investigate Clinton’s involvement in a shady 1980s Arkansas land deal.

The role was later expanded to include the allegedly illegal firing of the White House travel office staff, and the White House use of FBI files on political enemies, both dating from the early 1990s.

Starr reportedly plans to indict Clinton’s presidential secretary Betty Curie, Deputy White House counsel Bruce Lindsey and Clinton power-friend Vernon Jordan for their roles in the Lewinsky affair.

UN session begins today
Non-proliferation, terrorism to dominate

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 (PTI) — Non-proliferation, terrorism, the currency crisis in South East Asia and regional conflicts in Africa and Afghanistan are expected to dominate the agenda of the 53rd UN General Assembly session beginning here tomorrow amidst unprecedented security.

For the first time in the UN’s 53-year-old history, the road in front of the imposing Rockfeller Building will be closed to traffic for the two weeks of the session. Trucks will also not be allowed near its vicinity.

The assembly is expected to focus on several issues of international concern, especially terrorism, non-proliferation and the effects of globalisation in the light of the South East Asian crisis, sources here said.

But environmental concerns and issues connected with sustainable development will, in all probability, take a back seat at the annual meeting, they said.

US President Bill Clinton will open the debate tomorrow coinciding with the airing of embarrassing videotapes of his sexually explicit court testimony in the Monica Lewinsky case.

Mr Clinton is likely to focus on the need to stop proliferation of nuclear weapons without promising any cut on US part, touch on regional conflicts and lay stress on market economy to overcome the current financial crisis.

South African President Nelson Mandela, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandarnaike Kumaratunga, British Premier Tony Blair, Iranian President Syed Mohammad Khatami, Japanese Premier Keizo Obuchi and Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Altas are among other leaders who will address the session.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is scheduled to speak on Thursday, a day after his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif makes his presentation to the assembly.

Mr Vajpayee, a familiar figure in the UN corridors, is expected to explain India’s security concerns vis-a-vis its neighbours that prompted the nuclear tests in May and New Delhi’s stand on terrorism.

Mr Sharif has already said he will raise the Kashmir issue at the assembly as in the past “drawing attention of the world community to pressing problems such as Kashmir.”

Mr Khatami, the first Iranian President to address 185-member assembly in 12 years, is expected to highlight Teheran’s desire to better ties with other states, especially the USA, and Iran’s role as a regional power broker.

He is also likely to call upon the assembly to take decisive steps to resolve the situation in Afghanistan.

He has said “we must put the rebels (Taliban) in their place and avoid genocide and ethnic massacres in Afghanistan.”

Ousted PM ‘still calling the shots’

MOSCOW, Sept 20 (UNI) — Speculation is rife in the Russian capital that ousted Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin “is calling the shots from behind the scene” as three of his close lieutenants have been inducted in the newly formed Yevgeny Primakov Cabinet.

However, political pundits are still finding it difficult to identify the true colour of the new Cabinet, with the appointment of Leningrad Governor Vladimir Gustov as the first Deputy Premier, a post so far held by Communist leader Yuri Maslyukov.

That the new Cabinet would not have a smooth take-off was evident when one of the three close aides of Mr Chernomyrdin, Vladimir Ryzhkov reportedly declined the offer of joining the Cabinet.

When his name was announced for the Deputy Premiership, Mr Ryzhkov could not be contacted as he was in Germany. However, all speculations about his joining the new ministry were set at rest when his appointment was confirmed by Kremlin.

When the names of two more men of Mr Chernomyrdin, Mr Alexander Shokhin and Mr Vladimir Bulgak, were also announced for the post of Deputy Prime Minister, popular daily Nezavisimaya gazeta described the development as “rats leaving the sinking ship”.

But the appointment of Mr Gustav on Friday night as the first Deputy Prime Minister has finally deflated the ego of the Communists, whose representative, Mr Maslyukov, was supposed to have remained the only Deputy Premier in the new government and controlled all economic affairs, observers here say.

‘Fair amount of IMF loans to Russia misused’

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) — A Russian financial official said in a British television interview today that billions of dollars of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans in Russia were either misused or stolen.

“We have checked a fair proportion of the loans and I’m ashamed to say that several billion dollars have not been used for the intended purpose and some of it was simply stolen,” Mr Venyamin Sokolov, Chief State Auditor, told a BBC programme.

Mr Sokolov was indirectly quoted as urging the West not to give more money unless better supervisory measures were in place. The BBC released a statement carrying the remarks.

His comments come as the IMF is considering whether to disburse fresh funds to cash-strapped Russia, which is grappling with political upheaval.

“It’s a basic prerequisite for the development of market economics in order to create a highly effective economy and to overcome corruption”, he added.

US-Pak talks on CTBT

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 (AFP) — A senior US official has held two days of talks with Pakistani officials in a bid to persuade Islamabad to sign a global ban on underground nuclear tests, diplomats have said.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Karl Inderfurth met Riaz M. Khan, a senior official in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, at the US Mission to the UN in New York on Thursday and Friday, they said yesterday.

No word was immediately available on whether progress was made at the meetings, scheduled ahead of talks tomorrow between Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and US President Bill Clinton on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Pakistan is linking its signature of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to the lifting of US economic sanctions imposed after Islamabad staged a series of nuclear tests in May in response to Indian nuclear explosions.

West Asia talks fail

JERUSALEM/Gaza, Sept 20 (DPA) — US special peace envoy Dennis Ross has ended an 11-day visit to the West Asia by meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but was unable to bring about an agreement on an Israeli troop pull-back on the occupied West Bank.

Mr Ross last night met Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Gaza and then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, but neither side reported any real progress in the talks.

However, a glimmer of hope remained after Mr Arafat said he was willing to meet Mr Netanyahu when both leaders are in New York next week to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.

Israel army radio said last night that Israeli officials “would examine Mr Arafat’s offer in the coming days.”

The radio said Mr Arafat’s proposal could mean that a pull-back deal was in the offing, but added that the next few days would tell if this was in fact the case.

Mr Ross and Mr Netanyahu were joined in their meeting by members of Israel’s security cabinet. A statement issued afterwards by Mr Netanyahu’s office said that only “some progress” had been made

The US envoy said the headway was that both Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu would be in the USA next week, and said “this will also offer an opportunity to build on what has been done here.”

Viagra ‘effective’ for Asian men

HONG KONG, Sept 20 (AP) — Viagra’s effectiveness in treating impotence crosses racial lines, with new tests proving that it works for Asian males, the drug’s manufacturer has said.

Tests showed that 81 to 86 per cent of Asian men suffering from impotence reported an improvement after taking the drug for 12 weeks, Pfizer Corp said in a statement on Friday.

“The results are not surprising, considering the extensive clinical trials already conducted in the USA and from experience in other countries,” Dr Akmal Taher of the University of Indonesia was quoted as saying in a statement.

The tests were conducted in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

“Our results in Asia show the effectiveness of the drug across racial lines,” Peter Chan Siu-Foon, research leader of the Hong Kong tests, told The South China Morning Post.

He added that some of the men who took the drug in Hong Kong did report side-effects, with 15 per cent suffering from flushes and 13 per cent complaining of headaches.

There are an estimated 200,000 men in Hong Kong who suffer from impotence, the paper reported. Viagra is still banned in the territory.

Chinese troops
BEIJING: China will station troops in the Portuguese enclave of Macao after it reverts to Chinese sovereignty next year, Vice-Premier Qian Qichen said. Addressing a meeting of the Macao Preparatory Committee overseeing the power transfer, Mr Qian said presence of the troops would symbolise China’s sovereignty over Macao and protect social order and economic development. — PTI

Iraq oil smuggling
LONDON: A former top aide of Mr Saddam Hussein who defected earlier this year has given details of Iraqi President’s sanction-busting oil smuggling network, the British Sunday Telegraph newspaper has reported. Mr Sami Salih, who is at present hiding with his wife and four children in Belgium, told US and British intelligence officials how Iraq smuggled oil across its borders in contravention of the UN trade sanctions imposed in 1990 after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the newspaper said on Saturday. — Reuters

2 Indians murdered
JOHANNESBURG: An Indian woman and her daughter were raped and murdered in South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal province on Thursday. The police said 52-year-old widow Rookmoney Naidoo and her daughter Roshini, who was to marry in January, were raped and murdered in the town of Verulam, 35 km north of Durban. — PTI

“Lewinsky” cigars
BUCHAREST: The Internet publication of Kenneth Starr’s report on US President Bill Clinton’s relations with Monica Lewinsky has given a welcome, unexpected boost to cigar sales in Romania. Inspired by the pair’s now much-publicised antics in the Oval office, a cigar distributor in the Central Romanian town of Cluj has renamed its product after the former White House intern. — AFP