British Trade Secy resigns
LONDON, Dec 23 — Britain’s Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson has tendered his resignation following controversy over a loan he received from a fellow minister, one of his Cabinet colleagues said today.

Police raids Seoul’s Buddhist temple
SEOUL, Dec 23 — Thousands of riot police stormed a temple in the centre of the capital today to evict Buddhist monks, who fought back hurling petrol bombs and bottles, witnesses said.

Iraq bars UN plane from landing
UN relief staff back in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Dec 23 (AFP) — Iraq refused to allow a United Nations plane to land at Baghdad airport today to take out the UN special representative Prakash Shah, a UN official said.

“There are no flights between Iraq’s Habbaniyah Airport and Bahrain for the time being,” the official said. Bahrain is used as a rear base by UN staff working in Iraq.

Mr Shah and UN humanitarian programme coordinator Hans von Sponeck had to leave by road for Amman, the official said.

They had remained in Baghdad with a skeleton crew of humanitarian staff during the four-night aerial bombardment of the country by Britain and the USA.

Iraq also ordered the UN to cancel a scheduled flight of military observers headed to the demilitarised zone between Iraq and Kuwait.

Iraq offered no explanation for its decision, which was likely to increase tension with the world body.

DUBAI (PTI): More than 100 UN humanitarian aid workers, who had left Iraq before the US-led air strikes, returned to Baghdad on Tuesday night after a gruelling 12-hour road journey from Amman covering a distance of 900 km.

CNN said the aid workers, who travelled by three buses and several cars, will continue their aid mission which is to oversee the oil-for-food programme, thereby allowing Iraq to sell part of its oil to meet essential needs, though a major share goes to war compensation.

Iraq has now started getting the supply of food and medicines through its southern port of Umm Al-Qasr which is incidentally also the destination for the Dubai ferry service.

WASHINGTON (AP): Battling to save the U.N. weapons inspection system, the US Government stood firm on Tuesday on the authority of Mr Richard Butler and his commission to decide how to operate in Iraq.

“It is up to UNSCOM to decide how it can be most effective in the pursuit of the mission,” Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering said of the UN special commission on Iraq.

The senior US diplomat said, the USA was willing to consider permitting Iraq to sell more of its petroleum if food was in short supply.

With US support, the council is permitting Iraq to sell 5.2 billion barrels every six months provided the revenue is used for food and medicines.

Meanwhile the USA said it would withdraw many of its deadliest bombers and the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier from the Gulf after last week’s bombing of Iraq.

Defence Secretary William Cohen told reporters the number of US troops in the Gulf region would drop to between 21,000 and 22,000 from 29,900 during the four-day bombardment of Iraq.

Mr Cohen emphasised that Washington would maintain more than enough US troops and equipment in the region to respond to any new threats by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

LONDON (PTI): The aerial blitz by the USA and Britain on Iraq was against the wishes of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who wanted to give Baghdad more time before any military action was initiated, The Observer has said.

When a “major divergence” occurred between Mr Annan and the Anglo-American coalition leaders on their approach to the Iraqi crisis, a USA Security Council delegate reportedly “tore” up Mr Annan’s letter suggesting Iraq be given more time before any military action, the paper said.

Anwar’s plea on sacking dismissed

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Reuters) — A Malaysian court today dismissed a suit by ousted Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim challenging his sacking by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the official Bernama news agency said.

The capital’s High Court rejected Anwar’s claim that Mahathir had violated the constitution by allegedly failing to obtain the king’s consent before sacking the former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister on September 2, Bernama said.

Anwar’s lawyer had argued that only Malaysia’s king known as Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, could dismiss a minister and Mahathir had violated the constitution by sacking Anwar without the monarch’s assent.

Earlier, a dramatic family feud unfolded in the High Court when a star witness behind the allegations of sexual misconduct against Anwar Ibrahim admitted she had been disowned by her father over the scandal.

As the defence sought to discredit her allegations against Anwar, Ummi Hafilda Ali also acknowledged she had carried Anwar’s photo around in her handbag but angrily denied being “madly in love” with him or being jealous of her sister-in-law who was close to him.

The prosecution cases rest largely on a letter to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last year in which Ummi had alleged that her brother’s wife had an affair with Anwar.

HC pulls up Sharif govt

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23 (PTI) — The Lahore High Court has pulled up the Nawaz Sharif government for failing to foresee the consequences of the nuclear tests conducted earlier this year as the government lawyer conceded before the court that the economic crisis was the result of the economic sanctions.

While hearing the freezing of the foreign currency account case, the Full Bench of the high court on Monday observed, “It seemed that the government went in for the tests without considering the repercussions,” when Deputy Attorney-General (DAG) Sher Zaman said the economic crunch was due to the nuclear tests.

“People were under the impression that the country would be stronger after the nuclear explosions,” the bench observed.

The ongoing foreign currency accounts case has pushed the Sharif government into a difficult position as a number of account holders have moved the court for the restoration of their frozen accounts.

The government had frozen all foreign currency accounts with an estimated value of $ 11 billion amidst fears that people would rush to withdraw foreign currency when the government had less than $ 1 billion in its kitty.

The court refused to accept any of the arguments put forward by the DAG in defence of the move by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to freeze all foreign currency accounts in the court immediately after the nuclear blasts on May 28.

But the court observed that one of the affected parties had moved the court and that the government was hammering the account holder and termed the government circular of the conversion rate being fixed at Rs 46 to a dollar as “an indirect attack on the account holders”.

Dissidents seek Annan’s help

BEIJING, Dec 23 (AFP) — The beleaguered band of Chinese dissidents still at liberty following a heavy-handed crackdown from Beijing today called for help from the international community.

“The Chinese Government has completely disregarded our repeated appeals and given heavy terms to Wang Youcai, Qin Yongmin and Xu Wenli for subverting state power,” four of China’s most moderate activists said in a letter to US Secretary- General Kofi Annan.

“This has left us shocked, disappointed and worried and we urgently demand that the United Nations and the international community pressurise China to respect our basic dignity,” the four intellectuals said.

They include retired philosophy professor Ding Zilin, whose son was killed by troops in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and Lin Mu, secretary to the late party secretary Hu Yaobang.

The appeal came after China sentenced three leading members of a fledgling opposition group to terms ranging from 11 to 13 years for subverting the state.

British Trade Secy resigns

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) — Britain’s Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson has tendered his resignation following controversy over a loan he received from a fellow minister, one of his Cabinet colleagues said today.

"He has resigned," Jack Cunningham told Independent Television.

The news was a massive blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair for whom Mr Mandelson had acted as a key political ally.

Mr Mandelson received a  £ 373,000 ($ 627,000) loan in 1996 from millionaire Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson to help him buy a house in the fashionable West London suburb of Notting Hill.

His department is currently investigating a possible conflict between Robinson’s political and business interests.

"It is sad,’’ Mr Cunningham told Independent Television. "People across the party will be sad.’’

He indicated that the move was Mr Mandelson’s decision. "Peter has found it necessary to resign...He has decided to leave the government to uphold the high standards (expected of ministers).’’

Police raids Seoul’s Buddhist temple

SEOUL, Dec 23 (AFP) — Thousands of riot police stormed a temple in the centre of the capital today to evict Buddhist monks, who fought back hurling petrol bombs and bottles, witnesses said.

The police in full riot gear and brandishing batons and shields used water hoses to make their way into Chogye temple, the headquarters of South Korean Buddhism, but monks inside welded the entrance shut.

"We will not budge from here," some of the monks, wielding steel pipes, shouted from inside the temple, which boasts of one crore followers

Some 100 gray-robed monks hurled petrol bombs and bottles in a battle sparked when thousands of riot police stormed the temple, witnesses said.

The raid was launched after a court earlier this month gave permission to the police to go into the temple to end a feud between the monks which erupted in November.

Nobility of human spirit prevails

DUBAI, Dec 23 (PTI) — A Filipino on a death row in Abu Dhabi for murder of an Indian Sikh had a last-minute reprieve when the brother of the victim pardoned him.

The convict, Ahmed John Aquino, who murdered Harbhajan Singh in December last year, got the unexpected gift of life when Kulver Singh Maali, brother of the deceased, sent an affidavit of pardon in response to numerous appeals for forgiveness for the Filipino.

“It is the time of Ramazan and the season of goodwill and in the light of pleas for mercy, we have decided to agree for the death penalty to be lifted and commuted to life imprisonment”, the affidavit said.The Birmingham-based family of the victim agreed to the pardon not on the basis of the blood money (compensation) being offered, but on the basis of the appeal sent by Aquino and numerous other pleas, the Gulf Today daily quoted the Filipino Ambassador Amable Aguiluz as saying.

Suicide by Rajiv case accused

COLOMBO, Dec 23 (PTI) — One of the prime accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who headed the LTTE’s women’s wing, committed suicide two-and-half years ago when about to be caught by Sri Lankan security forces, President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said.

Akila, the number three accused in the case, next only to LTTE, supremo V. Prabhakaran and LTTE intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman, swallowed cyanide and died after an attack by the group’s women cadre on an army camp was repulsed by the troops, Ms Kumaratunga said in a recent interview to Frontline.

Monica set to be key player in '99
from Martin Kettle in Washington

MONICA LEWINSKY dominated the crisis of Bill Clinton’s presidency throughout this year, and she is set to be the ticking timebomb of the dramas in 1999 too.

The former White House intern, whose taped telephone conversations about her relationship with Mr Clinton triggered the events that have culminated in the President’s impeachment, is weeks away from giving television interviews that are certain to have an effect on the spectacle about to be played out in Washington.

Ms Lewinsky has signed contracts to give two long interviews early in the new year. They are likely to be broadcast before Mr Clinton’s Senate trial, for which preliminary procedures will begin when Congress reassembles on January 6. The trial itself is not expected to get under way for as much as a month after that.

The two interviews, with Barbara Walters of America’s ABC television network and Jon Snow of Britain’s Channel Four, are to take place in Los Angeles during the holiday season, though no final dates have been set for the interviews or their transmission.

The interviews are due to air simultaneously on opposite sides of the Atlantic, with the transmission date likely to be determined by the ABC schedules and the timing of the Senate trial.

The prospect of Ms Lewinsky giving her side of the relationship with Mr Clinton in evidence to the Senate trial is said to appal all sides in Washington. The possibility that she might have to sit for several days in the august surroundings of the Senate giving details of when, where and how Mr Clinton touched different parts of her body is a powerful incentive in moves to avert a full-length hearing.

But the interviews are likely to go ahead regardless of the trial. What she says will inevitably command worldwide media attention, and it will also affect the argument about Mr Clinton’s guilt or innocence and have an influence on calculations about the Senate process.

The sections of Ms Lewinsky’s interviews that will matter politically and legally will be the parts dealing with the questions at the heart of the impeachment charges: whether Mr Clinton asked her to lie about their relationship and whether he tried to arrange her cooperation by arranging job assistance.

No matter how attentively she courts obscurity, Ms Lewinsky remains an iconic figure around the world. The Russian Parliament debated a proposal to ask her to use her influence with Mr Clinton to bring the bombing of Iraq to an end. In Iraq itself, an official dubbed the air assault “Operation Monica’’.

— The Guardian London

Cracks in coalition
BONN: In the first public row in Germany’s new centre-Left coalition, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned his Environment Minister Juergen Trittin to toe the government line on abandoning nuclear energy. Trittin on Tuesday acted in what amounted to insubordination by unilaterally dissolving two commissions set up to advise the government on the nuclear industry ahead of consultations with power companies on abandoning nuclear energy. Schroeder moved to quash this immediately by saying in a communiqué on Tuesday that Trittin’s “decision was not reached in agreement with the chancellery.” — AFP

$ 333m for US troops
SEOUL: South Korea will pay $ 333 million for keeping US troops on its soil next year, American and South Korean military officials said on Tuesday. Though Seoul has signed a long-term agreement to gradually increase its share of the cost of keeping US troops here, a prolonged economic crisis has curtailed seriously the government’s financial capabilities. The 1999 figure is six per cent up from $ 314 million this year, but is sharply down from the $ 440 million the country had initially promised to pay next year. This year, South Korea had initially promised to pay $ 399 million but ended up paying just $ 314 million. — AP

Stay renewed
UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council has unanimously approved a six-month renewal of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, expressing grave concern at “the continuing excessive levels of military forces and armaments” on the divided island. The Greek Cypriot-led government is planning to install Russian S-300 air defence missiles. Turkey, which has stationed some 30,000 troops in northern Cyprus for the past 24 years, has threatened to prevent the missiles from being deployed. The 1,260-member peacekeeping force, known by the acronym UNFICYP, was first sent to Cyprus in 1964 after a government including both Greek and Turkish Cypriots broke up amid inter-communal violence. Its mandate was renewed on Tuesday till June 30, 1999. — Reuters

21 die in mishap
LAINGSBURG (South Africa): A bus carrying holiday travellers collided with a truck on a highway north of Cape town early on Wednesday, killing 21 persons, media reports said. Four of the dead were children, and 17 persons were injured in the accident, which occurred just after midnight, SABC state television said. The bus was carrying about 60 persons when it hit an 18-wheel long-haul truck on the N-1 highway near this town 260 km northeast of Cape Town, SABC said. Seven of the injured were in critical condition, the state TV said. — AP