Close mausoleum of Mao: Dissident
BEIJING, Dec 26 — China today marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong, as an outspoken dissident called on Beijing to close the late leader’s mausoleum and take down his portrait from central Tiananmen square.

Senators draft proposal to censure Clinton
WASHINGTON, Dec 26 — Two influential Democratic Senators are drafting a proposal to censure US President Bill Clinton that would fall short of removing him from office, CNN reported.

Saudi Govt tried to kill me: Laden
ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 — Exiled Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden accused the Saudi Arabian Government in an interview published today of plotting to kill him.

Religious militants smash shops in Pak
QUETTA, Dec 26 — Pakistani religious militants who believe music and television corrupt society have smashed TV sets and video cassette recorders in attacks on shops here, witnesses said today.

Lift sanctions, says Iraq
BAGHDAD, Dec 26 — Iraq today stepped up its campaign for an unconditional and immediate lifting of UN sanctions, insisting it would not accept any compromise plan on arms inspections from China, France or Russia.

143 die in Xmas eve violence

BOGOTA, Dec 26 (AFP) — At least 143 persons died and 500 were injured in violence and accidents in Colombia on Christmas eve, the police said.

The majority (83) were killed in street brawls involving guns, 40 persons died in road accidents and another 20 in other circumstances although the casualty figure was 35 per cent lower than the 1997 death toll.

The most violent areas were Bogota, Cali, in the southeast of the country and Medellin in the northeast, Bogota police chief General Argemiro Serna said.

In Cali, a young girl was killed at midnight by two men on a motor cycle who were trying to steal her Christmas present, officials said.

Another young girl in the coastal city of Cartagena died when her Christmas tree caught fire.

Dozens of adults and children suffered burns from fireworks, in spite of a government campaign highlighting the dangers.

Hospitals in the southern Bogota suburbs were on an emergency footing to deal with the injuries, which were three times more numerous than the same time last year.

Meanwhile, a skirmish between Marxist guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and soldiers in the northeast of the country yesterday left one woman guerrilla dead and two soldiers injured.

PARIS (AP): Carbon monoxide fumes believed to have come from a faulty heating system sickened 250 persons attending Christmas mass in a village church, sending 40 of them to the hospital.

The worshippers and the priest suffered headaches, nausea and vomiting as the Thursday evening service ended in Saverdun, a village in the southwestern Ariege region.

Recognising the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, a doctor called for help, and a crisis centre was set up in a village hall, where throughout the night worshippers were treated with oxygen.

Forty persons, including young children and a pregnant woman, had to be hospitalised in nearby Toulouse or other towns.

HAVANA: Cuba has granted the Roman Catholic church a rare Christmas wish: authorisation to send a national holiday greeting over government-controlled radio.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Cuba’s top Catholic leader, received permission on Friday to read the message on Christmas afternoon over the music station, government and church sources confirmed.

The authorisation was a sign of continued warming relations between Fidel Castro’s government and the church nearly a year after Pope John Paul ii visited the Communist island.

The return of Christmas as a permanent holiday is a joy for the Church and for the Cuban people,’’ Cardinal Ortega said in the 15-minute message.

Now let us hope that it doesn’t become a day of an imported Santa Claus,’’ echoing the concerns expressed by church and Communist Party leaders alike that the day could become quickly commercialised.

Close mausoleum of Mao: Dissident

BEIJING, Dec 26 (AFP) — China today marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong, as an outspoken dissident called on Beijing to close the late leader’s mausoleum and take down his portrait from central Tiananmen square.

“Every year on December 26, the newspapers are full of positive things about Mao, but I call on people to speak the truth,” said Gao Hongming, a Beijing activist who recently attempted to stand as a candidate in local elections.

“In creating new China, Mao did much successful work, but after the revolution he made lots of errors and his greatest crime was his personal dictatorship,” Gao said in an open letter addressed to China’s Parliament, government and ruling communist party.

In a four-point demand, Gao called on the central government to take Mao’s embalmed body out of the huge mausoleum which dominates Tiananmen Square and transform the building into a memorial hall for all the heroes of China.

He also called for the huge portrait of Mao that hangs at the north of the square, on the Gate of Heavenly Peace, to be removed.

Mao was born on December 26, 1893, and died on September 8 1976, after three decades as China’s Great Helmsman, leaving a clouded legacy and the nation in isolation and economic collapse.

China marked the birth anniversary of Mao with the release of books, cassette disks and other memorabilia.

Although many of Chairman Mao’s radical Communist policies have been discredited since his death, the ruling Communist Party has sought to use his legacy to reinforce its own legitimacy.

Balloonists abandon quest

HONOLULU, Dec 26 (AP) — Three adventurers trying to make the first non-stop round-the-world flight in a balloon abandoned their quest yesterday, ditching in the shark-infested waters off Honolulu a little more than halfway through their journey.

Coast guard helicopters hoisted them from the water in good condition and high spirits.

The men, British mogul Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden, quit seven days into their journey after they lost the high-altitude, high-speed winds they needed to carry them eastward across the Pacific to North America. They had gotten caught in a low-pressure trough” and feared they would be stuck there for a week.

“We weren’t let down by any of our training or our equipment. But we were let down by the weather,” Lindstrand said.

“It was a ridiculous way to spend your Christmas Day but it was certainly exciting,” Branson said in a thank-you call to the operations control room in London.

They lowered the 83-metre, combination helium and hot-air balloon and let it hit the Pacific Ocean about 16 km north of the island of Oahu, where the craft bounced across the water for kilometres because the explosive bolts that were supposed to cut the balloon loose from the crew capsule had been frozen by the cold and didn’t work.

The men, wearing their survival suits, were in the water no more than 10 minutes before they were hoisted in baskets aboard two Coast Guard helicopters, Fossett said.

Lindstrand said he had ditched many aircraft in the past, but this was the worst. “It was horrendous.”

The craft was not immediately recovered, but Fossett said plans were under way to salvage at least the capsule and the equipment aboard.

All three balloonists have made a total of 11 attempts at a non-stop flight around the globe, some of which ended in near tragedy.

This time, as the balloon was landing, Fossett said, he was thinking about the fact that he had made three attempts to fly around the world just in 1998 and it was getting pretty discouraging.

“I think it’s time to go sailing,” Fossett said.

The men were brought ashore at Barbers’ Point, about 10 miles (16 km) west of Honolulu. US Customs inspectors were waiting to meet them and have them sign the declaration forms required of all those entering the USA.

The balloon voyage began on December 18 in Marrakech, Morocco, and, if successful, would have ended in western Europe. The crew had hoped to reach North America on Friday, flying over southern Canada or Washington state. They covered 20,100 km before giving up.

Pak's no to moratorium on N-material

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 (PTI) — Pakistan today rejected any possibility of accepting a moratorium on fissile material production under a unilateral or multilateral arrangement pending the conclusion of the fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT).

"Pakistan cannot agree to any demand for a moratorium on the production of fissile material unilaterally or multilaterally before the conclusion of, or separately from the fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT)," country’s Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said while replying to a question in the National Assembly.

Admitting that the USA and other western countries were pressing for a moratorium on fissile material production, he said Pakistan had "clearly enunciated its position to them in this regard".

He said Pakistan’s position on fissile material was based on principles and it believed that a fissile material treaty should be an instrument promoting both nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

In an obvious reference to India, the Pakistani Foreign Minister also expressed concern at the already existing stockpile of fissile material in the region which, he said, would not be addressed by a fissile material cut-off treaty.

Senators draft proposal to censure Clinton

WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (AFP) — Two influential Democratic Senators are drafting a proposal to censure US President Bill Clinton that would fall short of removing him from office, CNN reported.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Robert Byrd of West Virginia met earlier in the week to draft a proposal that would draw Republican support and pass the test of constitutional validity, CNN said yesterday.

Citing a senate source close to Moynihan, the cable network said the two Senators planned to take the plan to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle when it is completed, and to Senate Repubicans.

The report is a boost for the President, who faces an impeachment trial in the Senate after the House of Representatives voted to impeach him on December 19.

While Moynihan and Byrd are members of Clinton’s party, the two are known as independent-minded and are respected by their colleagues.

Moynihan was among the Democratic Senators who criticised Clinton’s behaviour in the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-lies scandal in early September. The four-term Senator has also had sharp disagreements in the past with the President on other issues.

Saudi Govt tried to kill me: Laden

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 (Reuters) — Exiled Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden accused the Saudi Arabian Government in an interview published today of plotting to kill him.

The bid was foiled by Afghanistan’s Taliban Militia, his hosts, Osama was quoted as saying.

“Thanks to Allah, the assassination attempt.. failed,” a Pakistani English-language daily The News reported.

All three men were arrested and were being held in prison in Kandahar, the Taliban headquarters, it said.

One of the plotters “was offered one million Saudi riyals and the nationality of Saudi Arabia to accomplish the mission”, Osama was quoted as saying.

He was interviewed on Wednesday night at a secret place near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the paper said.

The USA accuses Osama Bin Laden of masterminding the bombings of two of its embassies in Africa in August in which 253 persons died.

The Saudi billionaire has been living in exile in Afghanistan and the ruling Taliban religious army, which controls most of the country, has refused to hand him over.

Religious militants smash shops in Pak

QUETTA, Dec 26 (AFP) — Pakistani religious militants who believe music and television corrupt society have smashed TV sets and video cassette recorders in attacks on shops here, witnesses said today.

The attacks were made yesterday following the launch of a campaign by the radical Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) Party against alleged un-Islamic activities and proliferation of obscenity.

Groups of bearded young men raided shops in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, shouted slogans condemning the “sinful” trade in music and video films, witnesses said.

Eating, drinking or smoking in public during dawn-to-dusk fasting has been officially banned and offenders can be jailed for up to three months.

Lift sanctions, says Iraq

BAGHDAD, Dec 26 (AFP) — Iraq today stepped up its campaign for an unconditional and immediate lifting of UN sanctions, insisting it would not accept any compromise plan on arms inspections from China, France or Russia.

“We will accept no option other than the lifting of the embargo,” said the official Al-Qadissiya newspaper.

“Iraq rejects any diversionary tactics, whatever their origin, which aim to keep the embargo in place,” it said.

The Babel daily, controlled by President Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, also hammered home the message that the sanctions imposed after Iraq’s August 1990 invasion of Kuwait must end without discussion.

“Our people, who are still healing their wounds following the imperialist-Zionist aggression, will accept nothing but the lifting of the embargo. It is the goal for which we will fight and sacrifice ourselves.”

CIA budget
WASHINGTON: After two years of partial openness about its annual budgets, the CIA has once again refused to disclose its budget appropriations for fiscal 1999 on “national security grounds.” This followed a suit in a US district court by the Federation of American Scientists under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the information. The CIA had revealed earlier that appropriations for US intelligence agencies totalled $ 26.6 billion for fiscal 1997 and $ 26.7 billion for fiscal 1998 ended September 30. — PTI

Reunification
BEIJING: China on Saturday strongly opposed any attempts to separate Taiwan from the mainland and called for the reunification of Taipei with Beijing. “If somebody wishes to use geographic differences to separate the Taiwanese and Chinese people or the Taiwanese and Chinese nationalities, such attempts will be firmly opposed and are doomed to failure,” vice-president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across Taiwan Straits Tang Shubei was quoted as saying in a report in China Daily. — PTI

63 paralysed
KATHMANDU: At least 63 persons were left paralysed after consuming contaminated food in south-western town of Nepalgunj, reports said on Saturday. “The number of paralysis victims in the past several days in the two neighbouring Tharu villages have been increasing as reports of more cases continue to pour in here,” The Kathmandu Post said. A team of doctors and paramedics has been sent to the affected villages. Doctors suspect the victims consumed contaminated oil,” health officials said. — AFP

Suharto’s factory
MEDAN: An estimated Rp 15 billion chemical factory, allegedly owned by former President Suharto’s family, has been found by the Indonesian high prosecution office in Belawan, 45 km south of here. The chemical unit, Pt Aribhawana Utama, which produces fatty alcohol and glycerine, located in the Belawan port area, had been reported by its owners, former President Suharto’s eldest and youngest sons, Mr Sigit Harioiudanto and Mr Utomo Mandala Putrab. Earlier a special team of the prosecution office had found a pharmaceutical and cosmetics factory in Sei Mencirim, with a sales turnover of Rp 200 million, owned by Ms Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, Suharto’s eldest daughter. — Pool-Antara

Media guidelines
BEIJING: China has issued new media guidelines to avoid concentrating on “negative” coverage amid reports of a nation-wide crackdown on dissidents. An official circular urged media bosses to strengthen the coverage of achievements under the Communist Party leadership and to avoid concentrating on “negative reports”, including the misallocation of social resources. “The state media heads are asked to carefully select analysis articles on the economic situation and political structural reforms,” said a senior official of the State Press and Publications Bureau. “It is not a total ban but selected articles have to be in line with the official tone”, the official added. — PTI

Daughter killed
COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan couple, unable to stand the suffering of their four-year-old daughter ill with cancer, gagged her to death and later killed themselves by drinking insecticide, a news report said on Saturday. Mr A.H. Sarath, (32), a school teacher and his wife Swarnamali Samanmali stuffed a piece of cloth in the mouth of their only child Shammi Samanmali after concluding that they would not be able to cure her. The deaths occurred on Wednesday in the port city of Galle, 110 km south of here. — AP

Mandela’s mediation
JOHANNESBURG: President Nelson Mandela could mediate to resolve the Sri Lankan conflict, a South African lawmaker, who recently visited the island republic, has said. “I think if President Mandela mediates there may be some chance of success. Both the government and the Tigers hold him in high esteem,” Inkatha Party member Kisten Rajoo, part of an eight-member team on a fact-finding mission to Colombo, said. Meanwhile, a leading political analyst, Dr Kiru Naidoo, of the University of Durban-Westville, has criticised the South African Government for sending across a delegation at this stage. “It’s unfortunate and premature”, he said, “for South Africa to have sent this delegation without first having mapped out clear foreign policy objectives in dealing with the political crisis there.” —PTI