The Tribune...World

	W O R L D	Saturday, July 18, 1998
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US curbs stay despite waiver
WASHINGTON, July 17 — The USA has dismissed any possibility of an imminent lifting or easing of sanctions slapped on India and Pakistan for their nuclear tests...

Mandela’s birthday to be gala affair
JOHANNESBURG, July 17 — South Africa is making sure that President Nelson Mandela’s 80th birthday tomorrow is a gala affair and money is being raised through festivities to help his numerous charities...

Remains of Czar, family laid to rest
MOSCOW, July 17 — Last Emperor, Nikoloi Romanov, the Second, his wife, the Czarina (Alexandra) of Russia, and their three daughters were finally laid to rest at the family graveyard located in Peter and Paul fortress this afternoon...

Dalai Lama not to visit Taiwan
TAIPEI, July 17 — Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he would indefinitely postpone a visit to Taiwan to avoid irking China...

Bid to stop bodyguards’ testimony
WASHINGTON, July 17 — Summarily dismissed by a federal appeals court, the Clinton administration made a last-ditch plea to Chief Justice William Rehnquist to stop prosecutors from questioning the President’s Secret Service protectors before a Grand Jury...
Sex-and-treason tale grips Israel
AN ISRAELI judge at the centre of a sex-and-espionage scandal refused to withdraw from a high-profile treason trial on Wednesday despite claims that he had an affair with one of the defence lawyers and improperly consulted the Prime Minister over the verdict...
War crimes court move blocked
ROME, July 17 — Delegates from 160 countries today faced deadline to hammer out a UN treaty creating the world’s first standing war crimes court as the USA mounted an aggressive campaign to limit its reach...
Viagra-laced drinks on sale
ANGELES CITY (Philippines), July 17 — Bars in a northern Philippine city known for vice are offering a new drink - Viagra cocktails with such enticing names as get it up, a news report said today...

US curbs stay despite waiver
WASHINGTON, July 17 (PTI, UNI) — The USA has dismissed any possibility of an imminent lifting or easing of sanctions slapped on India and Pakistan for their nuclear tests and said the “myriad” embargo now in place will continue despite the 12-month waiver approved by the Senate.
“We are not walking back from our sanctions policy towards India or Pakistan. Nor is it correct that lifting or easing of sanctions is imminent,” State Department spokesman James Rubin said here yesterday.
“Let me be very clear. We are seeking authority to waive sanctions. There has not been a decision by the USA to eliminate sanctions imposed as a result of the Indian and Pakistani tests,” he said, dispelling speculations that in case of a full waiver, the sanctions would be lifted without any condition.
The “myriad” sanctions now in place will remain, Mr Rubin confirmed.Stating that the waiver granted by the Senate did not go far enough, the spokesman said the President must have the authority to waive sanctions for an unlimited period.Only then would the USA have enough flexibility in its dealings with India and Pakistan to meet its non-proliferation objectives.
}“If granted the waiver authority of the type now under consideration, the Administration would not I emphasise the word ‘not’ — be prepared to use such authority in whole or in part until there has been substantial progress towards achieving the goals set forth in the UN Security Council permanent members’ declaration of June 4 in Geneva and the subsequent G-7 statement of June 12,” Mr Rubin said.
“Then and only then would we be in a position to consider waiving, in whole or in part, the sanctions that are now in place,” he said.
“There has been unfortunate interpretation of the amendment, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, authorising the President to waive non-military sanctions up to a year, Mr Rubin said.
We want the authority to waive sanctions so that we have flexibility in our dealings with India and Pakistan to help us meet our objective of nuclear non-proliferation”.
Presidential Press Secretary Mik McCurry said: “For humanitarian reasons these have been removed. But I don’t think it would be accurate to say that these have largely been removed.
On whether there would be no disincentive to nations developing nuclear weapons because of the “failure” of the European nations to impose sanctions on New Delhi and Islamabad, he said: “I think the degree to which India and Pakistan have both suffered in the eyes of the world community of the decisions that they make with respect to testing is in itself a disincentive for other countries to pursue nuclear programmes.
"But we obviously are going to have to watch very carefully to see how other countries respond,” Mr McCurry said at a White House briefing yesterday.
Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, who has been appointed by President Clinton as his Administration’s lead official to talk to India and Pakistan on the aftermath of their nuclear tests, will be in New Delhi and Islamabad next week for further talks with leaders of the two countries.

Remains of Czar, family laid to rest
MOSCOW, July 17 (UNI) — Last Emperor, Nikoloi Romanov, the Second, his wife, the Czarina (Alexandra) of Russia, and their three daughters, whose skeletons were flown from the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg to St Petersburg last evening, were finally laid to rest at the family graveyard located in Peter and Paul fortress this afternoon.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who had arrived here earlier, attended the requiem held in the memory of the family.
Nicholas II, as the Czar is called, was the last of the Romanov Emperors who ruled Russia for 300 years. After abdicating the throne in 1917 in the throes of the Russian Revolution, he was executed on July 17, 1918, along with Alexandra, their five children and four servants. The bodies were dumped in a mass grave in the forest outside Yekaterinburg and remained there until they were unearthed in 1991.
The city where they were executed, Yekaternburg, was renamed by the Soviet Union as Sverdlovsk, after the first Russian President and Communist leader Yakob Sverdlov. However, the city got back its original name in 1991 after the collapse of the erstwhile Soviet Union.
President Yeltsin, who also hails from the same city, had exhorted the Russians to give a befitting farewell to the Czar and thus “atone the sins committed by their forefathers”.
The final rituals were performed by the priests of the local Russian orthodox church. The supreme head of the church, Alexei the Second, had abstained from the burial ceremony in the former Russian capital, but attended the memorial mass in Moscow. Practically all Russian orthodox churches also held a requiem for the royal family members.

Mandela’s birthday to be gala affair
JOHANNESBURG, July 17 (PTI) — South Africa is making sure that President Nelson Mandela’s 80th birthday tomorrow is a gala affair and money is being raised through festivities to help his numerous charities. Mandela will contribute all the money raised to the Nelson Mandela Children's’ Fund and the Nelson Mandela Millennium Charitable Fund, reports said.
A major birthday bash will be held in Johannesburg on Sunday when 2,000 local and international guests will attend a special dinner. They are expected to pay 10,000-rand per ticket for the dinner.
Other celebratory events include concerts in Johannesburg and Durban. The President will also host 1,500 under-privileged children to a fun day at the Kruger National Park.
In addition, newspapers, radio and television stations around the country are producing special supplements and programmes to honour a “phenomenal statesman of our lifetime.”
One chainstore has offered greeting cards to wish Mandela at a reduced price, hoping a record will be established for largest number of birthday cards received by a single person.
On his birthday, Mandela will spend the day privately with his family in Johannesburg.
While the excitement over Mandela’s birthday is reaching a fever pitch, there is strong rumour that Mandela may tie the knot with his “sweetheart and companion” Graca Machel, widow of former Mozambique President Samora Machel.

Dalai Lama not to visit Taiwan
TAIPEI, July 17 (Reuters) — Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he would indefinitely postpone a visit to Taiwan to avoid irking China and jeopardising the chance of opening talks with Beijing, a leading Taipei newspaper said today.
The Dalai Lama said it was more important for him to have dialogue with Beijing than to re-visit the nationalist-ruled Taiwan.
“As you know our contacts with China have been increasing over the past months and we have some expectation for China, which is why I decided to indefinitely postpone my Taiwan visit,” the Dalai Lama told the Taipei-based China Times in an interview.
“I really would like to have a conversation with the Chinese Government. So if my visit to Taiwan will make the Chinese Government extremely unhappy, I can decide not to go,” he said.

Bid to stop bodyguards’ testimony
WASHINGTON, July 17 (AP) — Summarily dismissed by a federal appeals court, the Clinton administration made a last-ditch plea to Chief Justice William Rehnquist to stop prosecutors from questioning the President’s Secret Service protectors before a Grand Jury.
On a day of escalating legal tension, the Justice Department won a temporary reprieve in the morning that kept US President Bill Clinton’s chief bodyguard already at the courthouse from testifying before the Monica Lewinsky Grand Jury.
But a few hours later, the US Court of Appeals, with stinging language, unanimously refused to reverse a decision by three of its judges ordering the Secret Service employees to testify.
The likelihood of success before the Supreme Court is insufficient to warrant further delay in the Grand Jury’s investigation,’’ the appeals court said yesterday, noting that none of the nine judges ruling in the case offered to intervene. Two of the court’s 11 judges excused themselves.
The extraordinary legal situation was left at day’s end in the hands of Mr Justice Rehnquist.
The Justice Department also filed a formal appeal asking the Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision. “The Secret Service’s success depends critically upon the ability of its personnel to maintain constant close proximity to the President,” the brief said.
With the legal drama involving Cockell still unresolved, the Secret Service decided on Thursday evening to temporarily give his assignment as chief of the detail to another agent to ensure the security team isn’t distracted, officials said.

Sex-and-treason tale grips Israel
From Julian Borger in Tel Aviv
AN ISRAELI judge at the centre of a sex-and-espionage scandal refused to withdraw from a high-profile treason trial on Wednesday despite claims that he had an affair with one of the defence lawyers and improperly consulted the Prime Minister over the verdict.
Judge Amnon Strashnov told a wall of television cameras in his Tel Aviv court that the allegations were “interesting and imaginative but have no basis in truth... The attempt to disgrace the judge has failed”.
The Judge asked for quiet to allow him and his two fellow judges to consider the sentencing of Nahum Manbar, an Israeli businessman convicted last month of having sold £ 10 million worth of military hardware to Israel’s most implacable foe, Iran.
The cameras refused to budge. The case — involving a heady mix of sex, lies, audio tape and poison gas — has rapidly become a national obsession. The two main national tabloids devoted their first 13 pages to the story on Wednesday burying the latest reports on the ailing Middle East process.
Manbar was due to be sentenced yesterday. In the court, the former paratrooper, millionaire and basketball impresario expressed regret and asked for forgiveness for his crimes, which consisted of smuggling ingredients and equipment for the production of mustard and nerve gas to Teheran. But he was almost forgotten in the scrum. The Israeli Press is currently far more interested in the wide-ranging social life of one of his former lawyers, a 26-year-old legal intern called Pninat Yanai.
According to her former employers, Ms Yanai is supposed to have maintained “close personal relations” with Judge Strashnov, the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser, Shai Bazak, and a senior secret serviceman who was also a prosecution witness, while the trial was under way.
All this time, she was living with her now former boyfriend, Ziv Chem. It was Mr Chen’s testimony which provided the basis of Wednesday’s attempt by the chief defence lawyer, Amnon Zichroni, to force Judge Strashnov to step down because of his “close, intensive and personal” relations with Ms Yanai.
According to Mr Chen’s affidavit, the judge relentlessly pursued the lawyer after she left his chambers to join Mr Zichroni’s team. According to Mr Chen, the judge sent her lewd notes and called her regularly on her mobile telephone while the Manbar trial was under way.
Ms Yanai has denied having a sexual relationship with the judge but has admitted to a close friendship, in which he “soothed, comforted and strengthened” her when she found out her mother had cancer.
Meanwhile, Manbar’s wife, Francine, claims to have tapes of telephone conversations with Ms Yanai, in which the aspiring young lawyer boasted of her friendships with the judge, Mr Bazak and a senior officer from the Shin Bet internal security service. it was during these conversations that Ms Yanai supposedly claimed that Judge Strashnov was consulting the Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.
“It’s unacceptable that the Prime Minister should be involved in this way,” Mrs Manbar said from her home in Switzerland. — The Guardian, London

War crimes court move blocked
ROME, July 17 (AP) — Delegates from 160 countries today faced deadline to hammer out a UN treaty creating the world’s first standing war crimes court as the USA mounted an aggressive campaign to limit its reach.
The UN conference hopes to establish a court where individuals could be prosecuted for the most heinous offenses: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The conference is split into two camps: delegates who want the strongest, most independent court possible, and delegates including those from the USA who want to curb its scope.
A separate funding agreement has been reached that calls for the countries that endorse the treaty to pay most of the court’s expenses.
A deal also was reached on adding forced pregnancy to the list of war crimes, according to Bosnia’s UN Ambassador, Muhammed Sacirbey.

Viagra-laced drinks on sale
ANGELES CITY (Philippines), July 17 (DPA) — Bars in a northern Philippine city known for vice are offering a new drink - Viagra cocktails with such enticing names as get it up, a news report said today.
The concoctions are not typical gin and vodka, screwdrivers or exotic margaritas, but laced with the anti-impotence drug Viagra still banned in the country, according to the Philippine daily Inquirer.
Cashing in on the Viagra craze, such establishments as Voodoo, Lollipop, Mudbones and Kokomo’s dotting the city’s entertainment strip are even advertising their drinks on the internet.
We have just received a rather large supply of Viagra and decided to put on a nature’s helper shooter on our menu, the Voodoo website says.

Global monitor

Mahbub-ul-Haq dead
UNITED NATIONS: Noted Pakistani economist and former top official of the United Nations Mahabub-ul-Haq died here on Thursday. Haq (64) was diagnosed to be suffering from pneumonia after he collapsed about two weeks ago and went into coma a few days earlier. The annual human development report, produced by the United Nations, was Haq’s brainchild when he was a top official at the UN Development Programme (UNDP).—PTI
Biggest graft case
BEIJING: Former Beijing Party chief Chen Xitong has been formally charged with bribery and abuse of power, a supreme people’s court spokesman said on Friday, signalling that a long-awaited trial of the disgraced leader was imminent. Chen (67) was dismissed from his post as Beijing Party Secretary in April, 1995, after being implicated in the $ 2.2 billion corruption case — the biggest in Chinese history. — AFP
Peace talks ruled out
SAN CRISTOBAL, (Mexico): Mexico rebel leader Marcos ruled out any further peace talks with the government in his first comments on new government moves to restart peace talks. The Commander of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) said officials had “destroyed confidence in the government. “Without confidence it is impossible to reach accords,” Marcos said in a statement released on Thursday. — AFP
General dead
WASHINGTON: Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the south Vietnamese police chief frozen in the act of shooting a prisoner on a street corner in a prize-winning photograph, has died, family members have said. They said Loan, who was born in 1930, died on Tuesday evening of cancer at his home in Burke, Virginia. The picture of the execution in then Saigon, showing Loan pointing a handgun at the head of a man captured after gunfights broke out across the city during the 1968 Tet offensive, is one of the enduring images of the Vietnam war. — Reuters
Waiver extension
WASHINGTON: President Bill Clinton planned on Friday to extend a waiver for another six months of a law that requires the USA to penalise foreign firms that invest in Cuba. White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Mr Clinton planned to sign papers authorising a renewal of the waiver of the Helms-Burton law. — Reuters
Floods kill 760
BEIJING: China on Friday said that at least 760 persons have died in the country’s worst floods in recent times with the authorities warning even greater floods in the coming weeks. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs put the death toll at 760 and said nine provinces in the country’s eastern, central, southern and southwestern parts were the most-hit by unprecedented floods. — PTI