W O R L D

Celera makes human genetic map
WASHINGTON, April 8 — Celera Genomics has said it has finished the first step of sequencing the genes of one person, making a human genetic map that could eventually transform medicine and biology.

Cuban boy set to reunite with father
WASHINGTON, April 8 — US Authorities yesterday made plans to reunite Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez with his father as early as next week in a painful custody war that has pitted the boy’s surviving parent against relatives in Miami.

Talks would have no sanctity: Panja
CAIRO, April 8 — India today said there would be no sanctity of any Indo-Pak talks while the military regime was at the helm in Islamabad and that ties between the two neighbours could not improve till Pakistan continued to indulge in cross-border terrorism in the country.

WORLD BRIEFS

Supporters of Nawaz Sharif, deposed prime minister of Pakistan who was sentenced to life in prison yesterday on charges of hijacking and terrorism, are praying for his release, after Friday prayer in Lahore. — AP/PTI

Vajpayee’s US trip likely in August
WASHINGTON, April 8 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to the USA, in response to Mr Bill Clinton’s invitation extended during the US President’s India visit, may take place in late August or early September, New Delhi’s Ambassador in Washington Naresh Chandra has said.

HANOI: Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap speaks during a rare meeting with a large group of foreign journalists in Hanoi on Saturday. Gen Giap, 88, led the Vietnamese to victory over the French and Americans. AP/PTI

Afghan factions resume fighting
KABUL, April 8 — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban attacked opposition positions in a strategic valley north of Kabul overnight, but failed to gain any territory, anti-Taliban officials said.

Jeffrey Archer held for questioning
LONDON, April 8 — Novelist Jeffrey Archer has been arrested for questioning over his admission last year that he asked a friend to lie for him before a 1987 libel trial.

Seven Russian train guards found dead
MOSCOW, April 8 — Seven Russian military guards were found shot dead yesterday on a freight train carrying military equipment, police said.

Celera makes human genetic map

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) — Celera Genomics has said it has finished the first step of sequencing the genes of one person, making a human genetic map that could eventually transform medicine and biology.

The company aims to be the first to have a complete sequence of the human genome, which is the collection of all the genes and other genetic material that are the basic blueprint of life.

Scientists will use this map to learn more about genes involved in disease, how medicines work, and the workings of basic human biology.

“This is the key milestone”, Venter, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of Celera, said in an interview on Thursday.

Celera plans to use the genes of five different persons, who will remain anonymous, to make up a final human genome sequence. It will copy this sequence several times over to make sure it is correct.

Venter has pledged he will not use the law to prevent other scientists from mining the human genome for insights or for profit.

The White House and publicly funded researchers also stressed that no one wants to restrict the right to patent and profit from new discoveries.

Last month, shares in the entire biotechnology sector plunged when US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a joint statement urging that genome information be made freely available to the public.

Venter said his company’s intentions had been misunderstood.

“One of Celera’s founding principles is that we will release the entire consensus human genome sequence freely to researchers on Celera’s Internet site when it is completed”, Venter told a hearing of the energy and environment subcommittee of the House Committee on Science yesterday.

“We are not attempting to patent the human genome, any of its chromosomes, or any random sequence”, he added.

“We will place no restrictions on how scientists can use this data... the only protection that we have indicated that we would seek is database protection, as exists in Europe, to inhibit other companies from selling the Celera database”.

Cuban boy set to reunite with father

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) — US Authorities yesterday made plans to reunite Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez with his father as early as next week in a painful custody war that has pitted the boy’s surviving parent against relatives in Miami.

The boy’s father, who came from Cuba on Thursday to reclaim his son, was given assurances about a reunion during an emotional meeting on Friday with Attorney-General Janet Reno that started with a formal handshake and ended with a hug.

Ms Reno told a news conference that she would give instructions early next week to the Miami relatives looking after the 6-year-old boy about when and how Mr Juan Miguel Gonzalez could be reunited with his son.

“Next week I expect the USA to take steps to transfer the custody and the parole and care (of Elian),” Ms Reno said.

She also made it clear that the boy’s father would be free to return to Cuba with his son if the Miami relatives, who do not want the child to grow up in Communist Cuba, fail to provide an undertaking that they would voluntarily hand him over after exhausting their legal appeals.

Elian has not seen his father since last November when he was rescued off Florida’s coast, floating on an inner tube for 50 hours after surviving a disastrous migrant voyage in which his mother, who was divorced from his father, drowned.

“They gave me all their support in resolving this as soon as possible. They have assured me, the state and the government has assured me, that this will be done. I am sure that it will be so and that soon I will have my son with me again,” the boy’s father said after meeting Ms Reno and Immigration and Naturalisation Commissioner Doris Meissner.

Ms Reno, who would not be pinned down on the exact day of the reunion, said she had asked the Miami relatives to meet two psychiatrists and a psychologist on Monday to work out how a transfer could take place in the least disruptive way.

Ms Reno, who comes from Florida, stressed that no Cuban government officials attended her hour-long meeting with the father, in a case that has stirred passions in Cuba and among Cuban-Americans in Miami.

“I wholeheartedly reject Cuba’s system of government. Mr Gonzalez and I do not share the same political beliefs, but it is not our place to punish a father for his political beliefs or where he wants to raise his child,” she said.

Talks would have no sanctity: Panja

CAIRO, April 8 (PTI) — India today said there would be no sanctity of any Indo-Pak talks while the military regime was at the helm in Islamabad and that ties between the two neighbours could not improve till Pakistan continued to indulge in cross-border terrorism in the country.

“Unless Pakistan held elections, with whom could India hold talks. And even if New Delhi held talks where is the sanctity of such talks ... The next elected government in Pakistan may not find the earlier talks binding,” Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja said here.

Asked if New Delhi saw any possibility of improving ties with Islamabad with Gen Pervez Musharraf as the ruler there, Mr Panja said, “Relations cannot be improved when one side (Pakistan) makes it its policy to indulge in cross-border terrorism, supporting acts of violence, fomenting extremism and indulging in vicious propaganda against the other side.”

Problems between India and Pakistan have to be resolved bilaterally through a dialogue and “Pakistan has to understand that it is in its own interests and in the interests of the region to abjure the path of cross-border terrorism and hostile propaganda and create the conditions necessary for a dialogue,” he said.

“If our jawans are being killed, it is not possible to hold talks,” he added.

Reiterating that Jammu and Kashmir was “part and parcel” of India, Mr Panja warned Pakistan that if a “Kargil like” situation arose ever again, the Indian Army would “forthwith” throw out the infiltrators.

“Not a single inch of soil of our motherland will be surrendered to anybody. The whole of Kashmir is part and parcel of India,” said the minister, who was transiting through the Egyptian capital on his way to Sudan to co-chair the second meeting of the India-Sudan Joint Commission set up in 1995.

Asked what would be New Delhi’s response if the USA offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, he said, “Our stand is principled and consistent, and has been understood by the USA.”

Referring to US President Bill Clinton’s recent visit to India, he termed it a success and noted it was a “matter of time” before results of the tour began to show.

By agreeing to an institutionalised dialogue across a wide spectrum of issues, both sides have laid the foundations for a much more constructive and productive relationship in the future, he said.

On the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Mr Panja said it was expected to be finalised by 2001. “This would spell out the schedule for trade liberalisation among the SAARC countries.”

On border talks with China, he said India had sought a resolution of all outstanding problems between the two countries through dialogue in a spirit of friendship and cooperation.

During his visit to Sudanese capital Khartoum, a cooperation agreement is to be signed between India’s Foreign Service Training Institute and Sudan’s Diplomatic Institution.

US sanctions against India ‘to persist’

WASHINGTON, April 8 (PTI) — There can be no development of Indo-US relations to its full potential, in spite of President Bill Clinton’s recent visit, until India joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a top Clinton administration official has said.

“Until it (India) does so, the strong US sanctions against India will persist,” John Holum, Clinton’s Senior Adviser for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation and Security Affairs, said yesterday.

Holum said the three countries who had chosen not to enter the treaty and to preserve their nuclear options — India, Pakistan and Israel — should not consider the issue as over.

“It would be wrong to think that India, Pakistan and Israel have got away with their decision to keep out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” he said.

“US pressure will continue until India, Pakistan and Israel join the NPT,” he added. The NPT allows the right to nuclear weapons only to a select group of five nations — the USA, China, Britain, France and Russia.

Holum, the administration’s most authoritative voice on non-proliferation, said an Indian signature on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the proposed convention to cut off further production of missile materials would be viewed only as the first step for New Delhi.

India has always maintained that it believed in disarmament but wanted the top nuclear nations to take the lead and fix a time frame in this regard for themselves.

The UN Security Council threatened additional sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers if they did not stop fighting and surrender Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden for trial.

“The Security Council reaffirms its readiness to consider the imposition of further targeted measures...With the aim of achieving full implementation of all its relevant resolutions,’’ the 15-member body said in a statement yesterday.

The Taliban is under Security Council air and financial sanctions in an attempt to force it to hand over Bin Laden.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, who presided over a debate on Afghanistan, called the Taliban a “criminal gang’’ and suggested the council consider an arms embargo. But this has been rejected in the past as being nearly impossible to enforce.

Vajpayee’s US trip likely in August

WASHINGTON, April 8 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to the USA, in response to Mr Bill Clinton’s invitation extended during the US President’s India visit, may take place in late August or early September, New Delhi’s Ambassador in Washington Naresh Chandra has said.

The way the Clinton visit went in India was simply “fantastic” and the institutional structures set up during it “will help us to exploit in good time and in quick time the potential which has been identified”, he told Atlantic Council here yesterday.

Mr Chandra expected the coming months to be a period of intense activity to move the relations of the two countries forward.

“We have recognised there are also hurdles. There are legislative hurdles and sanctions are still in place but we are working generally to reduce these artificial barriers to maximise the utilisation of the potential that exists,” he said.

“We are planning an early meeting of our External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh with the Secretary of State (Madeleine Albright) and a whole lot of preparation would go into that,” said Mr Chandra.

He said Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha would meet Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and might sign an agreement for economic and commercial cooperation during a forthcoming trip here.

Afghan factions resume fighting

KABUL, April 8 (AFP) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban attacked opposition positions in a strategic valley north of Kabul overnight, but failed to gain any territory, anti-Taliban officials said.

The Islamic militia first launched a barrage of heavy weapons fire at the positions in the Giawa area of the Nejrab district in northern Kapisa province late on Thursday, they said.

“Hours later, around midnight they launched their infantry attack, but failed to gain ground”, said Assem Suhail, a spokesman for key anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Masood.

The fighting between the Taliban, which control most of Afghanistan, and Masood loyalists holding northeast mountainous areas continued until yesterday morning, Suhail said.

Largely controlled by the Taliban militia, Nejrab, 85 kms north of Kabul, controls access to Masood’s Panjsher valley stronghold, a bit farther north in the Hindukush mountains.

UNITED NATIONS: With clashes mounting in Afghanistan, a senior UN official yesterday said he believed combatants were preparing for an organised large-scale offensive, recruiting both fighters and arms from abroad.

Mr Renninger, who opened a Security Council meeting on Afghanistan organised by Canada, said Taliban fighters and equipment were being concentrated on the front lines in the Shomali plains, about (40 kms) north of Kabul, the capital. The object was to capture terrain in Samangan and Baghlan provinces to the north.

He said foreign combatants were flocking to Afghanistan again, an apparent indication of difficulties in recruiting enough fighters locally.

In some cases, reports indicated fighters were openly recruited through religious schools in Pakistan and sent into Afghanistan by a convoy of buses and trucks to fight for the Taliban, Mr Renninger said.

Jeffrey Archer held for questioning

LONDON, April 8 (AP) — Novelist Jeffrey Archer has been arrested for questioning over his admission last year that he asked a friend to lie for him before a 1987 libel trial.

The best-selling novelist and former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party was yesterday questioned for several hours at a London police station before he was released on bail. He was not charged.

Archer had filed and won the libel suit after Daily Star accused him of hiring a prostitute.

Daily Star last year asked Scotland Yard to probe whether a criminal offence had been committed, after Archer admitted that he had asked a friend to cover for him before the trial by saying they were having dinner together when he was actually having dinner with a close woman friend.

Archer, Tory candidate for London Mayor, was forced to drop out of the London Mayor’s race in November and was expelled from the Conservative Party for five years after admitting he had asked the friend to lie.

Seven Russian train guards found dead

MOSCOW, April 8 (DPA) — Seven Russian military guards were found shot dead yesterday on a freight train carrying military equipment, police said.

According to a report by Itar-Tass news agency, the guards had been shot with automatic weapons.

Initially the bodies of three officers of the Russian interior ministry unit were found on the train near the city of Saratov on the Volga.

The four other victims were found on a search of the train which had come from the south of the country. Police gave no information on possible motives for the killings.

WORLD BRIEFS

World’s oldest bookshop to close
LONDON: John Smithson, the world’s oldest bookseller and a favourite of the Scottish national poet Robert Burns, is to shut its doors in Glasgow after losing the battle against book superstores and online discount shopping, Britain’s The Times has reported. The firm was founded in 1751 by John Smith the youngest son of the Laird of Craigend, who opened a shop on Trongate selling books, snuff and coffee to Glasgow’s tobacco merchants. — DPA

Japan elections in June
NEW YORK: Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is most likely to call a general election in June a top Japanese government official said. “There are very few choices for setting the (election) date” the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying. Economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported the official saying a tight schedule of political and diplomatic events between now and the end of July would leave only a few possible dates open for an election, including June 4 or June 11. — Reuters

Woman jailed for neglecting kids
LONDON: A British woman, known as the “baby factory” to the police and jailed for neglecting four of her seven children, but acquitted of murdering two of her sons, is pregnant with her eighth child, The Daily Telegraph has reported. The 26-year-old woman, who may not be named to protect her children was sentenced last month to two-and-a-half years in prison. The woman born in Brighton on the south coast was expected to be released later this month because of the time that she had spent in custody before the trial. The Telegraph said. — DPA

15 yrs in jail for imaginary rape
LONDON: A British man who has spent nearly 15 years in jail for the rape of a student nurse was cleared and freed on Friday after an appeal court ruled that the crime ‘‘almost certainly never happened at all’’. Roy Burnett, 56, a gardener from Bromley, Kent, was jailed for life at London’s Old Bailey Court in 1986 after a jury accepted evidence from a 20-year-old nurse that she had been raped and seriously assaulted. Burnett consistently said he was innocent, but had no grounds for an appeal until 1998 when the same woman made a false complaint of rape to the Devon police. The police were informed and Burnett’s case was reopened. — DPA

Gypsies victims of ‘discrimination’
WASHINGTON: Gypsies or Roma people, who migrated from India to Europe centuries ago, are facing discrimination, an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) report has said. OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max Van Der Stoel said on Friday that ever since they migrated, the Europe’s Roma people had faced discrimination and, sometimes, violence. — PTI

Libya claims $ 33.6 b loss from sanctions
UNITED NATIONS: Libya claimed US $ 33.6 billion in damages from seven years of UN sanctions and said the country would continue to suffer for years to come even though the measures were suspended last year. In a 20-page report sent to the Security Council, Libyan Ambassador Abuzed Omar Dorda gave a comprehensive rundown of financial losses across all sectors of Libyan society, including health care, agriculture, livestock, transport, industry, trade and energy. — AP

Blair refuses money for son’s photos
LONDON: Prime Minister Tony Blair and his pregnant wife, Cherie, have turned down several six-figure offers for the first pictures of their fourth child due in about six weeks, newspapers reported on Saturday. A Downing Street spokesman could not confirm the reports but The Times said the Blairs had decided to hire a photographer to capture the first portrait which would then be distributed free of charge. — Reuters

China’s first test-tube quintuplets born
BEIJING: China’s first test-tube quintuplets were born at a hospital in Taiyuan, the capital of North China’s Shanxi province, but two of them have died, a report said on Thursday. The two boy members of the quintuplets born on Wednesday died of dyspnea and the three girls are suffering with the problem of underdeveloped lungs. —PTI

Man confesses to stabbing Leeds fan
ISTANBUL: A Turkish man has confessed to stabbing one of the two English fans killed in clashes before the UEFA Cup semifinal between Galatasaray and Leeds United, police have said. A police investigator, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, on Saturday said that Ali Umit Demir confessed during interrogation that he stabbed a Leeds fan. — AP