LTTE asked to renounce ‘Eelam’
COLOMBO, Dec 4 — Sri Lanka has asked the LTTE to renounce its claim to an independent state in the island republic’s Tamil-dominated north-east and agree to negotiations within a particular timeframe as a pre-condition to talks.

House move to censure Clinton
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 — US House Impeachment investigators dropped their campaign finance probe to focus on the core charges against President Bill Clinton as the new Speaker pushed for a quick impeachment vote in the full House.

Suharto faces house arrest

Missile fired ‘accidentally’ at Korean border
N. Korean army on full alert

SEOUL, Dec 4 (PTI) — An anti-aircraft missile was inadvertently fired today from a South Korean Air base, west of Seoul, injuring at least three persons and sparking off warning bells in the heavily militarised Korean border.

The missile was launched from one of eight silos at an air force base in the western port of Inchon when military technicians were checking equipment, the Defence Ministry and local media reports said.

Technicians exploded the unarmed missile, using a safety device in the weapon, after it soared 300 metres above the base, 40 km south of the volatile Korean border, Yonhap Television News (YTN) said.

Fragments from the exploded missile fell on a residential area, injuring at least three persons and damaging cars and homes, YTN said, adding, the flaming debris also set off a fire on a nearby hill.

One man was treated for head injuries, it said.

The missile was identified as a 34-year-old ‘Nike Hercules’ with a target range of some 160 km, used for shooting down enemy aircraft, YTN said.

An uneasy truce prevails in the region after the 1950-53 conflict between North and South Korea.

SEOUL (AP) — Meanwhile, North Korean news media has said the Communist nation’s military is on full alert for war with the USA if a dispute over nuclear inspections comes to blows.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) yesterday reported that North Korean soldiers and people of all walks of life were on full alert for war.

The United States of America and North Korea are set to resume talks today about inspections of an underground North Korean site suspected of being used to produce nuclear weapons.

KCNA broadcasts brimmed with anti-American saber-rattling.

Our people’s army will blow up the US territory as a whole if the United States of America starts a war on the divided Korean peninsula, Vice Defence Minister Jong Chang Ryol was quoted as saying yesterday.

The General Staff of the North Korean military accused Washington on Wednesday of pushing the situation in Korea to the brink of war by demanding inspections and talks aimed at preventing Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Under the prevailing touch-and-go situation, the Korean People’s Army is now bracing itself for a fight against the US imperialist aggressors, KCNA quoted Jong as saying.

The agency also quoted various party officials, plant managers, even museum curators as pledging a thousandfold revenge or vowing to arm themselves with the spirit of human bombs and of suicidal attack.

Washington demands unconditional inspections of the North’s underground project. But North Korea asked Washington to pay $ 300 million for the right to inspect the site.

The North’s 1.1 million-strong military is the world’s fifth largest. It forms the backbone of the North Korean government, with leader Kim Jong Il ruling the country as the head of the military.

LTTE asked to renounce ‘Eelam’

COLOMBO, Dec 4 (PTI) — Sri Lanka has asked the LTTE to renounce its claim to an independent state in the island republic’s Tamil-dominated north-east and agree to negotiations within a particular timeframe as a pre-condition to talks.

“The rebels will have to drop their demand for a separate state and negotiate within a particular timeframe. Moreover, the government is unlikely to end military operations during the talks,” state-run daily News said today.

In a hard-hitting editorial on LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran’s recent overtures for peace talks, it said although the government would not close its door to a political settlement, the LTTE would have to fulfil some conditions before talks were initiated.

The statement assumes significance coming as it does close on the heels of a similar statement in Parliament by Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

Reacting to the LTTE’s latest offer Mr Kadirgamar, whose government is irritated by the LTTE’s intransigence on the Eelam issue, had termed the LTTE as “a pack of murderers” and said the government would talk to them only after they were contained.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has launched criminal proceedings against over 100 policemen for human rights abuses during the crackdown by former President R. Premadasa on the Left wing, Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP).

The charges against the officials, based on the findings of the judicial commissions appointed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga were finalised by the Attorney-General’s Department, the state-run media said here today.

Trial proceedings have already been launched against 28 persons, the reports said, adding legal proceedings against others would begin in different high courts in various districts soon.

The cases mostly relate to large-scale disappearances reported in the Sinhalese-dominated south, during the period between 1988 and 1990 when the then Premadasa regime launched a crackdown on the Left wing JVP resulting in the massacre of thousands of youth.

Snags in N. Ireland peace process

BELFAST, Dec 4 (Reuters) — The British and Irish Prime Ministers voiced their frustration as talks to kickstart Northern Ireland’s stalled peace process ran into further trouble.

Britain’s Tony Blair flew into the province for talks that ended with confident assertions by Catholic Nationalists that they and Protestant Unionists were poised to bridge yawning gaps about new political structures.

But daylight brought fresh recriminations and a war of words between the communal leaders, dimming hopes of an early end to difficulties that have blocked the implementation of the landmark Good Friday agreement signed last April.

Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who were close allies in framing the according talked on the telephone as the hoped-for progress came unstuck.

Spokesmen for both said they were disappointed at the turn of events and stood ready to help out.

“They both feel very*disappointed that progress that appeared to have been made last night had evaporated during the course of the day,” a spokesman for Ahern said yesterday.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said said there was an urgent task to resolve differences of interpretation that had arisen following the overnight talks.

“This is of course largely a matter for the parties themselves and he stands ready to help if he can.”

Britain and Ireland had hoped that long-time political enemies would breathe new life into the accord by agreeing on the shape of its political institutions.

Although Protestant Unionists and Catholic Nationalists were originally reported to have made progress on key structures, it was clear that the accord’s full implementation continues to be blocked by a long-running disarmament row.

The governments have been banking on a breakthrough on the “nuts and bolts” of the political structures to speed up disarmament by Irish Republican Army (IRA) extremists.

Mr John Taylor, deputy head of the Ulster Unionist Party, vowed that his party would not share power with Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political ally, while the guerrillas retained arms.

“I do not expect any conclusion tonight or tomorrow, and possibly well into next week,” Mr Taylor said.

Seamus Mallon, Catholic Nationalist leader and Deputy First Minister, pointed an accusing finger at Unionists.

“I have done everything I can in recent months to advance the agreement...It is now for the other parties to confirm their participation in the (overnight) agreement brokered by the Prime Minister.”

House move to censure Clinton

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) — US House Impeachment investigators dropped their campaign finance probe to focus on the core charges against President Bill Clinton as the new Speaker pushed for a quick impeachment vote in the full House.

Incoming House of Representatives Speaker Bob Livingston said yesterday the impeachment debate could carry over to next year, if the House Judiciary Committee did not vote out articles of impeachment by the end of next week.

A moderate House Republican said he was crafting a proposal to censure Clinton rather than impeach him, imposing a fine on the President and forcing him to admit his wrong-doing. Other Republicans questioned the support for such a move.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to approve at least one article of impeachment against Clinton by the end of next week arising from charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Chairman Henry Hyde told panel Republicans in a conference call yesterday that allegations arising from the 1996 White House fund-raising scandal would not be considered as the committee drafts impeachment articles.

“What we’re down to dealing with are the core charges, particularly the perjury charge”, said representative Christopner Cannon, a Utah Republican and committee member.

A Federal Judge allowed one Democratic and one Republican committee representatives to view secret Internal Justice Department memos on the campaign finance issue on Wednesday and Hyde told Republicans there was no clear evidence of impeachable acts requiring further investigation.

The decision clears the way for decisive hearings next week, with the White House presenting a defence of Clinton on Tuesday.

With Republicans holding a 228-206 majority in the House with one independent. About 12 Republicans would have to crossover to defeat impeachment if all Democrats supported Clinton.

Five Republicans have said they will vote against impeachment, and three Democrats have said they will vote to impeach, “right now, I don’t see more than 10 Republicans” who will vote against impeachment, an aide to a moderate Republican said.

AP adds: These sources added that while Democrats are willing to join in efforts to wrap up the issue by year’s end, they will insist on a lengthy period for debate on the House floor and demand that consideration be given to censure as an alternative to impeachment.

Spielberg may aid Holocaust memorial
From Ian Traynor in Berlin

STEVEN Spielberg has stepped in to help the new German government out of a dilemma over a Holocaust memorial planned for Berlin by offering Germany his own project on Holocaust survivors as a centrepiece of a revised “remembrance centre”.

With Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government hoping to stop plans for an American-designed construction featuring hundreds of concrete pillars near the Brandenburg Gate, Spielberg’s offer is likely to be seized on as an “interactive” way of commemorating the Nazis’ slaughter of Jews.

In an interview published recently in the news magazine Stern, the film director said he would be delighted to make his Frankfurt-based Shoah Foundation project part of the Berlin memorial.

Over several years the project has recorded interviews with almost 50,000 Holocaust survivors all over the world and made them available in computerised video form in Frankfurt.

“It would be wonderful if I could contribute (to the memorial)”, Spielberg said.

Ten years after the decision to commission a German memorial “to the murdered Jews of Europe’’, the final decision on the monument has been deferred until next year.

Michael Naumann, a former New York publisher who is Mr Schroeder’s new arts supremo, welcomed Spielberg’s offer. He suggested that the project become part of the Holocaust memorial and be housed in a $75 million Jewish museum which is being built in Berlin. The museum, in the form of a broken Star of David, was designed by the leading architect David Liebeskind.

There were two architectural competitions for the Berlin project and a shortlist of four entries was compiled last summer. The winner was expected to be a gigantic maze of 2,500 concrete pillars of varying heights designed by American Peter Eisenmann. Chancellor Helmut Kohl asked Mr Eisenmann to soften his design by altering the dimensions and adding more trees.

The monument, however, became a casualty of the recent general election campaign when Mr Schroeder and Mr Naumann publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the American design and with the notion of commemorating the Holocaust with a huge structure. Mr Schroeder and Mr Kohl then agreed to shelve the issue until after the election.

The new government says a final decision on a memorial should be left to parliament, which will vote on the matter early next year.

But the project set up by the Jewish director of “Schindler’s List” is believed to be much closer to Mr Naumann’s ideas on a Holocaust memorial. Spielberg said it was up to the German government to contact him on the project.

Spielberg suggested his videotapes of 49,468 Holocaust survivors could be deployed in “meditation rooms” equipped with television screens. There would also be “interactive rooms” where the same material could be used for research.

“Germans are inclined to isolate themselves in a vacuum of shame, regret and guilt. They should look around. Other peoples, too, have gone too far and placed evil over good.’’

— The Guardian, London

Suharto faces house arrest

JAKARTA, Dec 4 (Reuters) — Disgraced former Indonesian President Suharto could be placed under house arrest during an official probe into his wealth, a senior government official said today.

Attorney-General Andi Ghalib could put the 77-year-old former President under house arrest while he investigated allegations whether he had corruptly amassed a personal fortune during his 32-year rule.

The A-G later told reporters: “We will summon Suharto as soon as possible — God willing, next week”.

Chariots unearthed
BEIJING: Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a pair of 3,000-year-old chariots, believed to have belonged to imperial family members, Xinhua reported on Thursday. The two chariots, 3.2 metres long and 3.1 metres wide, were discovered during routine excavation work in eastern Shandong province. — AFP

China warns USA
BEIJING: China on Thursday defended its crackdown on political dissidents and warned the USA and other countries not to meddle in its internal affairs. Shrugging off US criticism over the arrest of dissident leader Xu Wenli, whom China accused of ‘damaging state security’, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said Beijing would not tolerate outside interference in its internal affairs. — PTI

Ice Man
LONDON: Oetzi the Ice Man, the 5,300-year-old corpse, found perfectly preserved in a tyrolean glacier seven years ago, probably used natural laxatives and antibiotics, an Italian doctor said on Friday. Since Oetzi’s tattooed corpse was discovered by German tourists near the Austro-Italian border in 1991, experts have discovered he suffered from arthritis, most likely died of exhaustion. — Reuters

22 executions
BEIJING: A brother and sister team of bank robbers and a factory worker who raped 11 schoolgirls were among 22 persons put to death in two Chinese cities, state media reported on Friday. Courts in Beijing and Urumqi, capital of China’s northwestern-most region of Xinjiang, ordered the executions on Thursday. — AP

Syria poll
DAMASCUS: Syria’s ruling coalition, the National Progressive Front, as expected, won the majority of seats in the 250-member Parliament, the government has announced. The front, led by the Baath party of President Hafez Assad, can win up to 167 seats in Parliament, and Interior Minister Mohammed Harba on Thursday announced it won its full allotment. — AP