W O R L D	Friday, July 24, 1998
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Russia outlines defence package LONDON, July 23 — Russia has outlined a new $ 700 million defence package to India for the sale of the modernised 44,500 tonne aircraft carrier “Admiral Gorshkov” equipped with 24 vertical take off, new MIG 29K fighters. 5-year jail term for Teheran Mayor TEHERAN, July 23 — A Teheran court sentenced the capital’s reformist Mayor, Mr Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi to five years in prison on corruption charges today and barred him from public life for 20 years...

SAARC: bilateral issues not on agenda COLOMBO, July 23 — Pakistan has failed in its attempt to get the contentious bilateral issues incorporated in saarc agenda as the draft declaration of the forthcoming summit makes no mention of any such issue When UK agents plotted to kill Hitler LONDON, July 23 — British agents secretly plotted to kill Adolf Hitler during the final months of World War II, according to top secret papers made public for the first time today...

Clinton’s China policy backed WASHINGTON, July 23 — Giving a boost to President Bill Clinton’s China policy, the US House of Representatives has beaten back efforts by critics to end normal trade relations with Beijing... Jiang orders PLA to close businesses BEIJING, July 23 — Chinese President Jiang Zemin has ordered the country’s powerful military to shut down its business empire as part of a drive against rampant smuggling... Iran test-launches missile NEW YORK, July 23 — Iran test-launched a medium-range missile capable of striking Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, The New York Times reported today... More reliable cloning technique developed DENVER, July 23 — In what could be a big boost for biomedical research, scientists in Hawaii have turned out more than 50 carbon-copy mice using what is believed to be a more reliable cloning technique than that used to create dolly the sheep... Monica case at ‘decisive’ stage WASHINGTON, July 23 — In a signal that the Monica Lewinsky investigation might be reaching a decisive stage, the attorney for President’s Secretary Betty Currie said she apparently had completed her grand jury testimony... Interplanetary Internet GENEVA, July 23 — NASA scientists are preparing for the first interplanetary Internet gateway on the next Mars mission, a key telecommunications figure has said...

Russia outlines defence package LONDON, July 23 (PTI) — Russia has outlined a new $ 700 million defence package to India for the sale of the modernised 44,500 tonne aircraft carrier “Admiral Gorshkov” equipped with 24 vertical take off, new MIG 29K fighters. Under the proposal, which has been outlined to a high-level Indian defence delegation led by the Naval chief, the Russians have offered to convert the air capable heavy cruiser “Admiral Gorshkov” into a short take-off, but arrested recovery (STOBAR) carrier. According to the latest issue of Jane’s Defence Weekly, the sales package will include a new carrier capable variant of the MIG-29 Fulcrum multi role fighter, and KA-28 anti-submarine and KA-31 airborne early warning Helix helicopters. The magazine says details of the proposal have been released by Russia’s Nevskoye project design bureau (PKB) and state arms exporter Rosvoordouzhenie. Quoting Russian sources, Janes says a decision on the long pending proposal, which will restore the Indian Navy’s two carrier strike force, is imminent. The sources say in a related development an earlier version of the MIG-29K development aircraft has in recent months resumed ski-jump assisted short take-off trials at the Zhukovsky flight test centre. The “Admiral Gorshkov”, a modification of the earlier project 1143 design was commissioned into the Soviet Northern Fleet in 1987. The warship combines a heavy armament on its forward section including 12 surface-to-surface missiles with an angled through deck enabling short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) operations. When it went into operation, the “Admiral Gorshkov” air group included Yak-38m Forger STOVL aircraft and KA-25.27 and 29 helicopters, but lost its air wing when YAK-38 were retired in 1992. Subsequently, the aircraft carrier was damaged in a fire in 1994 but has now been repaired. The warship has not been re-deployed. Conversion plans for the aircraft carrier developed by the Nevskoye PKB will see all armaments on the forward deck removed and the area plated to serve as a take-off runway with a 14.3 degree bow ski-jump at its end. Janes says two restraining stands are being fitted to allow the MIG-29 to reach full power before making a ski-jump assisted short take-off. Nevskoye says the modernisation of the carrier for India will include making it capable of carrying the 24 new MIG-29K fighters (11 on the deck and the rest in hangers) and six helicopters. Alternatively, the Russians are offering a mix of 21 MIG-29K fighters and 13 helicopters and fitting the aircraft carrier with two lifts. Janes says the new MIG-29K aircraft on offer to India is very different from the original carrier capable MIG-29K tested earlier on board the “Admiral Gorshkov” in the early 1990s. The new MIG-29K is based on the MIG-29MT fighter. The latest variant features a larger wing, larger tailplanes, uprated and corrosion projected Klimov RD-33 engines and a hydraulically operated arrester hook. Janes says the new MIG-29K carrier will have an air-to-air refuelling probe fitted allowing the fighter to “top-up” in flight after launch. Quoting Russian officials, it says besides being able to carry all existing air-to-air and air-to-surface armaments, the naval MIG-29K is being offered to India with the KH-35 Kayak anti-ship missile. Janes claims that an Indian defence delegation inspected the “the Admiral Gorshkov” in January and quoted Nevskoye PKB chief designer Boris Shmelov as saying that the entire modification and modernisation of the carrier will be completed within three years of the contract signature.

SAARC: bilateral issues not on agenda COLOMBO, July 23 (PTI) — Pakistan has failed in its attempt to get the contentious bilateral issues incorporated in saarc agenda as the draft declaration of the forthcoming summit makes no mention of any such issue but affirm India’s position that sub-regional cooperation agreement is not violative of the association’s charter. A special envoy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently toured Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to canvass support for setting up a mechanism under which bilateral issues could be discussed at saarc summit. Saarc charter prohibits discussion on bilateral issues at the summit. The draft declaration of the 10th summit, beginning here on July 29, has laid stress on acceleration of economic cooperation and need for "firm collective response" by seven-member organisation to resist discriminatory norms of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The document circulated by the host Sri Lanka emphasises on "sub-regional cooperation", an issue which became contentious during the last summit at Male when Pakistan and Sri Lanka expressed reservation about India working out separate agreement on power and water sharing with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It says such cooperation is necessary to compliment bilateral and multilateral agreements among the members of the association which comprises India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The draft stresses on working out collective strategies to promote "rule based, non-discriminatory and equitable international trading system" and calls for ‘deeper’ preferential tariff concessions among the member countries to accelerate the process for the realisation of South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement. ISLAMABAD (AFP): Meanwhile Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed is leaving for Colombo today for talks with his Indian counterpart to prepare ground for the much-awaited meeting between Prime Ministers of the two countries next week officials said. Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee are to meet in the Sri Lankan capital on the sidelines of the July 29-31 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit. This will be the first direct contact between India and Pakistan since the hostile neighbours conducted nuclear tests in May. Ahmed will also participate in the standing committee meeting of foreign secretaries of SAARC nations to prepare the agenda for the summit. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said the secretaries of the two countries would focus "on operationalisation of the mechanism for the resumption of the dialogue".

5-year jail term for Teheran Mayor TEHERAN, July 23 (AFP) — A Teheran court sentenced the capital’s reformist Mayor, Mr Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi to five years in prison on corruption charges today and barred him from public life for 20 years. Mr Karbaschi, (44) had been charged with offences ranging from embezzlement to mismanagement and illegal election campaign contributions, but throughout his trial he insisted he had never stolen a single rial and the charges against him were political. The Mayor has been a key challenger of the powerful conservative establishment and played an instrumental role in President in Khatami’s election in May last year. The court’s decision to remand the Mayor in custody for nearly a fortnight in April provoked street demonstrations and clashes between his supporters and militant fundamentalists. PTI adds: The judge also ordered Mr Karbaschi to pay a fine of one billion rials ($ 330,000) and receive 60 lashes. The lashing could, however, be suspended for four years. The Mayor was not present when the judgement was made in a trial that is likely to heighten tension between the hardliners and the moderates. He has got 20 days to appeal. “I considered God and the Doomsday in issuing my verdict”, judge Mohseni Ejei said, according to reports from Teheran. “Karbaschi is sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, a 20 year ban from government and municipal posts, 60 lashes suspended for four years, one billion rials of fine and he has to pay back to the municipality 600 million rials ($ 200,000) for embezzlement and 17 billion rials for wasting government property,’’ the judge ordered. Mr Karbaschi was tried on charges of embezzling more than 14.5 billion rials, bribery and mismanagement. “The sentence was excessive. He should have been cleared of all charges,’’ one of Mr Karbaschi’s lawyers said. The suspended mayor will remain free on bail till the appeal. Mr Karbaschi, a technocrat, built housing and supermarkets and introduced the Internet. However, his critics have accused him of using the municipality as a private political machine and enriching himself. The Mayor’s arrest by the hardline-led judiciary in April triggered a row with the Khatami Government as protesters took to the streets in his defence in April. He was released after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader responded to the President’s request. Meanwhile, the UK Government, after almost two years of confrontation and friction, is on the verge of sending a ministerial delegation to Iran to upgrade diplomatic relations and break stalemate in ties. The government is sending a high-level Foreign Office delegation to Iran next week headed by Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr Derek Fatchett, to set in motion the resumption of full relations between the two countries. The stalemate between the two countries existed with Britain taking the line followed by Americans downgrading diplomatic relations with Teheran after the ouster of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The relations worsened further after the fatwa against Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie. A senior Foreign Office official is already in Teheran for talks to prepare ground for resuming full diplomatic relations. The fatwa issued by the Iranian religious leadership in 1989 against Rushdie for his book ‘The satanic verses’ has still not been lifted and he is still under police protection. Media report said that move by Cook and Fatchett to head towards rapprochement with Iran may face opposition in Britain from supporters of Rushdie and others.

Clinton’s China policy backed WASHINGTON, July 23 (PTI) — Giving a boost to President Bill Clinton’s China policy, the US House of Representatives has beaten back efforts by critics to end normal trade relations with Beijing. Lawmakers yesterday voted against a resolution seeking to bar the most favoured nation treatment, or normal trading rights (NTR), as it is now called, by a margin of 264-166, despite protests over Beijing’s human rights and trade record. Welcoming the move, Mr Clinton, who has lobbied hard to renew China’s MFN every year, said “this vote reflects my conviction that active engagement with China — expanding our areas of cooperation while dealing forthrightly without differences - is the most effective way to advance our interests.” Defending his China policy, he said during the past year and during his recent trip to that country he had seen tangible results of his policy. Yesterday’s vote means that Congress can’t block the extension of the trade status this year for China, since both chambers would have to approve the decision. Earlier, Mr Bill Clinton signed a Bill changing the MFN to the NTR in a bid to cool some of the controversy. Commenting on this change, White House spokesman Michael McCurry said the MFN sounded more like giving favour to somebody, “and that’s not we’re doing... We think that it will help Americans understand that we’re talking about extending the normal trade relations we extend to every country on earth save “rogue nations ...”. Opposing the MFN status to Beijing, Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown, a prominent member of the Caucus for India and Indian Americans, said the USA had for too long tolerated an increasing trade imbalance with China, as well as continued human rights abuses, religious persecution, nuclear proliferation and the widespread use of prison and child labour. The majority in House agreed with Congressman Lee Hamilton that trade with China was in the American interest even if there was an adverse balance of trade and that engagement was a better way to influence China than confrontation and isolation.

Jiang orders PLA to close businesses BEIJING, July 23 (PTI) — Chinese President Jiang Zemin has ordered the country’s powerful military to shut down its business empire as part of a drive against rampant smuggling, which deprived the government of $ 12 billion in revenue every year. Declaring that the army’s reputation was at stake, Mr Jiang, Commander-in-Chief of the three-million strong PLA, asked its top brass to “fully understand the importance and urgency of the nationwide anti-smuggling campaign, in order to ensure the country’s long-standing stability and the army’s purity.” Political analysts were surprised at Mr Jiang’s order, which came at a closed-door meeting on July 20-21, for the PLA plays a crucial role in China’s politics and businesses run by it are the major source of funding the country’s military modernisation. Experts said closing thousands of PLA-run business establishments, covering medicine, real estate, hotels and space launches, would not be easy. But they do not see any immediate rumbling for Mr Jiang who is the chief of the Communist Party and the Central Military Commission and, more importantly, enjoys the support of the majority in the PLA after he purged some top Generals last year.

When UK agents plotted to kill Hitler LONDON, July 23 (DPA) — British agents secretly plotted to kill Adolf Hitler during the final months of World War II, according to top secret papers made public for the first time today. A detailed 120-page dossier setting out the options for an assassination attempt was drawn up by the special operations executive (SOE) responsible for operations behind enemy lines. The proposals ranged from a lone sniper attack or poisoning to an all-out airborne assault by paratroops on the Nazi dictator’s mountain hideout. Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was personally informed that the chiefs of staff had given their blessings to the project. And before the war in Europe ended following Hitler’s suicide with his mistress Eva Braun, they had even identified and approached a potential assassin to carry out the hit. The extraordinary tale of Operation Foxley, as it was codenamed, is disclosed in SOE files released for the first time to the public record office in London. The documents, which at times read more like a thriller, show how the SOE even considered hypnotising Rudolph Hess — Hitler’s former deputy, and sending him back to Germany to kill Heinrich Himmler, the hated head of the SS. Operation Foxley had its genesis in a bizarre telegram from the SOE’s office in Algiers on June 19, 1944, saying a source had put up an immediate project for killing Hitler. Authorisation was needed swiftly if they were to act upon the intelligence, it said, adding: “we are not mad nor is this a joke.” Clearance came from Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, and a cable was sent to Churchill informing him, in the event the plan, based on a tip off from a French colonel that Hitler was staying at a chateau near Perpignan, came to nothing. By late 1944, a 120-page file was prepared on a possible assassination attempt. The dossier contained exhaustive details of habits and movements of Hitler and his entourage — down to the time of his morning walk and the way he drank his herbal tea. There were three basic options. The first was an assassination attempt at Berchtesgarten — Hitler’s hideaway in the Bavarian Alps —either by a sniper using a high-powered rifle as he took his morning walk to the local teahouse, or a bazooka attack on his car on the way back. The next was the derailment of Hitler’s train by blasting the track as it went through a tunnel, or alternatively throwing a suitcase of explosives off the platform as it went through a station. Finally there was an aerial bombard of Berchtesgarten while an SAS battalion was parachuted in to mop up the 260 or so defenders and kill Hitler and any of his Nazi cronies. None of those plans was ever carried out and a number of schemes aimed at demoralising German civilians or spreading rumours of an impending coup fizzled.

Iran test-launches missile NEW YORK, July 23 (AFP) — Iran test-launched a medium-range missile capable of striking Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, The New York Times reported today. Unnamed US officials said a US spy satellite detected the launch early yesterday and that analysts were studying data about the missile, which they believe Iran bought from North Korea, the paper said. “This weapon would allow Iran to strike all of Israel, all of Saudi Arabia, most of the Turkey and the tip of Russia,” a senior US official told the paper. Intelligence officials said they were sure that Teheran successfully tested the missile and that both the launch site and impact area were inside Iranian territory, the paper said. “The major reaction to this is going to be from Israel and we have to worry what action the Israelis will take, because the Israelis clearly view the Iranians as their main threat in the Middle East,” a former intelligence official told the paper. The report came one month after Washington made overture to work towards resuming ties with Teheran.

More reliable cloning technique developed DENVER, July 23 (AP) — In what could be a big boost for biomedical research, scientists in Hawaii have turned out more than 50 carbon-copy mice using what is believed to be a more reliable cloning technique than that used to create dolly the sheep. The scientific potential could be broad because mice are the best-understood and most commonly used animals in biomedical experiments. Having genetically identical copies of the same animal could speed research in fundamental biology and virtually every branch of medicine and drug development. University of Hawaii scientists, reporting in today's issue of the journal Nature, describe their work as the first reproducible cloning of a mammal from adult cells" extending at least three generations. They said it was a marked improvement over the method used to make Dolly, which other laboratories so far have failed to duplicate. Biologists in the USA and Europe hailed the mice-cloning effort as having much greater potential than the cloning of more complex creatures such as dolly or a pair of calves that were born earlier this month in Japan. The importance of this report cannot be overemphasised," said Davor Solter, a biologist at the Max Plank Institute in Germany. Researchers said that with the Hawaii cloning method, cattle and pigs could be reprogrammed with human genes to mass-produce proteins essential to treat illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Animals could custom-grow organs for transplantation. Working in a windowless lab for 16 hours a day, the Hawaii group used an injection method dubbed the Honolulu technique" to transfer genetic material from adult mice to an empty egg.

Monica case at ‘decisive’ stage WASHINGTON, July 23 (AP) — In a signal that the Monica Lewinsky investigation might be reaching a decisive stage, the attorney for President’s Secretary Betty Currie said she apparently had completed her grand jury testimony. With Mrs Currie, President Bill Clinton’s personal secretary, standing behind him, attorney Lawrence Wechsler said his client has been given no date to return to the grand jury. We believe Mrs Currie has completed her grand jury testimony,’’ he said yesterday. Mrs Currie is happy to have this experience behind her and she looks forward to returning to work.’’ Mrs Currie was the first witness to testify in the Lewinsky investigation, causing a stir when she first walked through a throng of reporters and camera crew last January 27. She appeared for the fifth time yesterday. If anything, her testimony is even more important than ever. Prosecutors now can compare her testimony in key areas to that of secret service officers, who are testifying reluctantly under court order and to Pentagon employee Linda Tripp, whose tape recordings of Ms Lewinsky triggered the investigation. Interplanetary Internet GENEVA, July 23 (AP) — NASA scientists are preparing for the first interplanetary Internet gateway on the next Mars mission, a key telecommunications figure has said. The idea is to go beyond the earthly Internet site that many people around the world visited last year to follow the adventures of the Mars Pathfinder’s rover on the red planet, said Mr Vinton Cerf, widely regarded as father of Internet. The time is now to think beyond the earth, Cerf told Inet ‘98, the annual meeting of the Global Internet Society yesterday. There is now an effort under way to design and build an interplanetary Internet.

Global monitor Disease threatens Papua victims SISSANO LAGOON (Papua New Guinea): The threat of a disease from thousands of rotting corpses is so dangerous that the government may have to evacuate the survivors of the deadly Tsunami wave, a senior official said on Thursday. More than 1,200 people are officially confirmed dead after a Tsunami smashed villages on the north-coast on Friday, but another 6,000 are missing and feared dead, their bodies hidden in the impenetrable mangrove swamps. — AP Suharto’s relatives JAKARTA: Indonesia’s ruling Golkar Party had decided to fire seven of former President Suharto’s relatives from the nation’s top legislative body, local newspaper reported on Wednesday. The daily Kompas said four on the ex-leader’s children, along with his half-brother, cousin and a daughter-in-law, would be dropped from the People’s Consultative Assembly. — AP Taliban ban PESHAWAR: Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have barred foreign aid workers from taking vehicles and other equipment under their use out of Afghanistan, the Pakistan-based news agency Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on Wednesday. Quoting officials, the AIP said all 64 expatriate workers who had left Kabul on Tuesday arrived in Peshawar without cars on Wednesday. — DPA Around the world LONDON: After surviving a 120-day adventure, a British pilot has completed his record-breaking journey around the world to become the first to circumnavigate the globe by microlight aircraft, essentially a hang-glider with a motorcycle slung underneath. Although he failed to complete the odyssey in time to match Phileas Fogg’s fictional trip around the world in 80 days, he smashed the previous record for a round-the-world flight in an open-cockpit single-engined aircraft. That was set in 1924 by four US Army pilots who completed the trip in 175 days in a Douglas biplane. — AP Pyramid scheme WASHINGTON: More than 15,000 persons around the world who lost money in an internet pyramid scheme will receive refund cheques of $ 300 to $ 500 this week in a civil settlement, federal regulators said on Wednesday. The Federal Trade Commission said 8,894 persons in the USA who participated in the Fortuna Alliance and its successor, Fortuna II, would receive $ 3.1 million in refunds. Cheques were mailed on Monday. — AP Radio station VANCOUVER: A radio station billing itself as the world’s first live “all-whale” broadcaster — with the call letters ORCA FM — has been launched in this western Canadian city. Hundreds of people attended the station’s debut at a local aquarium, flocking to catch the station’s first minutes on air, instead of whale calls. However, they heard what sounded like a ship at sea. — AFP Viagra sales WASHINGTON: After a frenzied start for the impotence treatment Viagra, US sales of the little blue pill are starting to slump, a research firm has said. Weekly prescriptions for Viagra fell from 303.424 in the week ending May 8 to 184.312 in the week ending July 10, according to industry research firm, IMS Health. Analysts said they had expected prescriptions to taper off after the drug’s initial release. — AFP

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