UN suspends Iraq arms inspection

NICOSIA, Nov 1 (ANI, AP) — United Nations weapons inspectors have decided to suspend monitoring operations in Iraq following the latter’s announcement to halt all cooperation with them.

Yesterday, Baghdad announced that it would halt all cooperation with UN arms inspectors and monitors until the Security Council reviews the lifting of sanctions and removed Mr Richard Butler, chairman of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of dismantling Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

But, it has not decided to expel the monitors though they have been allowed to continue their work with cameras and electrical sensors, an Iraqi official said.

In Washington, the United States denounced the Iraqi action and said “all options” for dealing with Baghdad remained open.

“We view this as a very serious matter,” National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said.

US Defence Secretary William Cohen, in Wake Island during a refuelling stop en route to Hong Kong, said he was returning to Washington immediately to consult allies on the crisis.

The UN Security Council, including countries sympathetic to Iraq, reacted swiftly and condemned Baghdad’s decision, calling it a “flagrant violation” of UN Council resolutions.

The 15-member body said in a statement to the press, that it would consider further action and demanded that Iraq immediately rescind its decision and the one adopted on November 5 that banned inspectors from surveying new sites.

Iraq’s announcement was issued after a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and the ruling Ba’ath Party leadership led by Saddam Hussein.

Both the announcement and comments from Iraqi UN ambassador Nizar Hamdoon later said the move was in response to a Security Council decision on a “comprehensive review” of UN-Iraqi policy that Baghdad hoped would lead to a partial lifting of sanctions.

But the USA blocked efforts from France, Russia, China and other members to consider lifting the embargo on exports such as oil if Iraq complied with weapons demands. It said other issues needed to be reviewed, such as accounting for Kuwaiti prisoners and properties during Baghdad’s occupation of the emirate in 1990.

Washington also has been successful in keeping the nuclear file from being “closed” despite reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it did not expect to find any more atomic materials in Iraq. These favourable reports apparently persuaded Baghdad to exempt some five IAEA inspectors from its monitoring ban.

With the USA maintaining that sanctions would not be lifted while Saddam is in power, Baghdad apparently believes it has little to lose by stopping inspections. It maintains it has scrapped all its weapons of mass destruction and blamed Australian Richard Butler, UNSCOM Chairman, of allowing espionage among the inspection teams and deliberately prolonging sanctions.

The statement also blamed Mr Butler for not exonerating Baghdad in the recent controversy over whether it filled missile warheads with the deadly nerve gas VX before the 1991 Gulf war.

Iraq said the council should fire Mr Butler and restructure UNSCOM “in a way that would make it a neutral and professional international establishment, devoid of spying and deliberate harming and collaboration with the USA.”

BAGHDAD: A single nuclear monitoring team went into the field in Iraq today, exempt from Iraq’s decision a day earlier to end cooperation with UN inspectors for other weapons of mass destruction.

Members of the four-man team refused to talk with reporters as they left their headquarters at Canal Hotel on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Iraq announced yesterday that it was halting all cooperation with the UN Special Commission. But it said monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency could continue to work.

A UN official confirmed today that the team that went out was from the IAEA. He said UNSCOM inspectors were not being sent out.

Iraq’s decision drew a strong condemnation from the UN Security Council, which called Baghdad’s decision a “flagrant violation’’ of council resolutions and of an understanding between Iraq and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The written understanding last February averted military action against Iraq over country’s refusal to allow the inspection of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s palaces.

Iraq’s action yesterday was a further step in its battle to try to force the UN Security Council to declare UNSCOM’s work complete and to lift punishing trade sanctions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Mudslide kills 70 in Nicaragua

MANAGUA, Nov 1 (AFP) — Up to 1,000 people are feared dead after part of a mountainside, weakened by rain, fell onto five hamlets in north-western Nicaragua in the wake of hurricane Mitch.

The tragedy is likely to raise the number of storm victims to well above the current official figure of 402.

The death toll in the landslide that hit the municipality of Posoltega, 140 km north-west of Managua, on Saturday may reach 1,000, said Posoltega Mayor Felicitas Zeledon.

“We counted 58 corpses floating on the river, but we believe the death toll could reach 1,000,” Ms Zeledon told AFP by telephone, noting that some 1,200 people lived in the landslide area. He however, warned the information was still preliminary.

So far only 70 bodies have been recovered from the mudslide caused yesterday after a week of torrential rain in a remote area on the country’s northern border with Honduras.

Most of the villages in the area had been evacuated as the storm approached, Nicaragua’s director of the aid agency Care International said. Thousands of people had sought shelter in refuges near Chinandega.

With the confirmation of 70 deaths the official death toll has risen to 485 in Central America and the Caribbean a week after tropical depression Mitch raged out of the Caribbean as the fourth most powerful Atlantic hurricane of the century, with “catastrophic” winds of 295 kmph.

It was the first official confirmation of any deaths from the mudslides in the north-western province of Chinadega, where according to unconfirmed radio reports as many as 4,000 persons at the foot of the volcano may have been killed when mudslides came crashing down.

Maj Evenor Carcamo, head of the National Civil Defence System in the region, said earlier yesterday that authorities were unable to fly to Posoltega, during the day to check out the reports because of bad weather. About 14,000 people live in the town.

Gen Joaquin Cuadra, head of the Nicaraguan Army, added that the Posoltega region, 90 km north-west of here, near the Honduran border was one of the worst affected places.

Officially, Nicaragua reported 121 dead from heavy rains and flash flooding there. Another 151 people were listed as missing in Nicaragua, the National Civil Defence System reported yesterday.

Mitch, one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the Caribbean, was downgraded to a tropical depression, but continued to dump heavy rain on the region.

At least 131 persons were reported killed in Tegucigalpa after floodwaters rose to the third floor of some buildings in the Honduran capital on Saturday.

Hundreds of houses were washed away, seven of Tegucigalpa’s 10 bridges were knocked down and patients were evacuated from the third floor of the city’s social security hospital after the Rio Grande river overflowed its banks on Saturday.

By late yesterday, Mitch’s winds once near 288 kph had dropped to 55 kph and the storm was located about 75 to 120 km South of Santa Rosa De Copan, Honduras, moving West at 11 kph, the US National Hurricane Centre reported.

Money talks in US Senate poll
From Martin Kettle in Washington

BILL CLINTON was in New York on Friday doing what he does best, raising money and campaigning, in the dirtiest, closest and most expensive Senate race of the year. Money dominates the mid-term elections. Streams of unregulated donations are helping to drive campaign spending to a new high in an election where turnout is expected to sink to a new low.The trading of insults in the New York scrap between the Republican incumbent, Mr Alfonse D’Amato, and his Democratic challenger, Mr Chuck Schumer, does not come cheap. Between them they have already spent more than $23 million slagging one another off. The final bill will be much higher.Mr D’Amato is a master of well-funded political warfare and has raised more than $25 million for this campaign. By the end of September, when he lodged his last campaign accounts, he had spent $15.7 million, nearly twice as much as Mr Schumer.Most American voters already know how they will vote, if at all. They get their political information from the television, so the only way to swing votes or consolidate them is through television advertising.

This is one reason why a Republican decision to launch a series of last-minute advertisements attacking the Democrats for the Monica Lewinsky affair is seen as a significant gamble.

Prime-time slots cost big bucks, so candidates must devote themselves to relentless fundraising among their richest supporters, both individual and corporate, to whom they then become indebted. But money is power: in the 1996 elections, the top-spending candidate won in 88 per cent of Senate races and 92 per cent of House of Representatives contests.

So most observers expect Mr D’Amato to see off Mr Schumer on Tuesday with a blitz of advertising, even though the Democrat is just ahead in the polls.

Pre-election reports filed by the parties show that, nationally, the Republicans have a 73 per cent fundraising lead.

In 143 of next week’s 435 House of Representatives contests, and in two of the 34 Senate races the likely winners are “financially unopposed’’, according to a study by the Centre for Representative Politics. Most money will be spent on incumbents and on the minority of contests which are electorally -and financially “competitive’’.

In Florida, 18 of the 23 House incumbents face no major-party opponent at all, and only one constituency is designated competitive. Fourteen of the 18 candidates have already been elected unopposed because no one stood against them. Across the USA, five times as many candidates have a free ride back to Capitol Hill as in 1996.

The Democrats’ top contributors in this electoral cycle are the electricity workers, with $2.3 million, followed by the public service workers ($2 million) and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America ($2 million).

In contrast, the Republican Party’s top three donors are Philip Morris tobacco ($2 million), the Amway direct retail group ($1.47 million) and UPS parcel delivery network ($1.23 million). These are followed by organisations representing such sensitive industries as construction, car manufacturing and medical insurance, as well as the National Rifle Association ($984,000).

— The Guardian, London

Hamas leader released

NICOSIA, Nov 1 (ANI) — Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction leader Khaled Kurdiyeh escaped an attempt on his life when a bomb exploded in his car parked at a refuge camp near the southern Lebanon city of Sidon yesterday.

The Fatah leader was not in the car at the time.

No one claimed responsibility for the blast but security sources said it was probably related to last week’s signing of a Middle East interim peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians which has led to a crackdown on Palestinian militants.

Meanwhile, a Gaza report said Palestinian police have released two top members of Islamic militant groups in the Gaza strip, among the dozens rounded up since the signing of the latest peace deal.

Ismail Haniyah, a leading activist in the militant Islamic group Hamas, was arrested by Palestinian police on Thursday after a suicide bomber tried to blow up a bus carrying Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad activist Nafiz Azzam, one of the group’s top three leaders in Gaza, was arrested after attending a rally on October 23 marking the third anniversary of the assassination of Jihad’s former leader Fathi Shikaki.

Scores of shops burnt in Karachi riots

KARACHI, Nov 1 (AP) — Giant plumes of black smoke engulfed a troubled eastern neighbourhood in this violent port city today as activists of a minority ethnic party and police clashed, said eyewitnesses and police.

Scores of shops were set on fire and smouldering cars blocked roads as troops fired tear gas shells to disperse demonstrators protesting the arrest of at least 200 of their activists, along with five top leaders.

Supporters of the smaller Haqiqi faction of the former Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) hurled stones at the police, burned tyres, blocked roads and fired automatic weapons in the congested Eastern Landhi neighbourhood to protest a police raid on a meeting at their party headquarters.

The Haqiqi group is a splinter group of the Muttaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM), led by exiled leader Altaf Hussein.

Demonstrations in Karachi today involved Haqiqi workers who accused the government of arresting 200 of its supporters.

The government also arrested senior Haqiqi leaders, including the party vice-chairman Badar Iqbal and party officials, Younus Khan and Kamran Rizvi, they said.

DPA ADDS: Meanwhile, Sindh governor Moeenuddin Haider today announced a ban on all political rallies in Karachi.

“We will not allow any political rally or public meeting in the city till the situation improves,’’ Mr Haider, a retired Army general running the province following the imposition of federal rule said on Friday.

Mr Haider said it was premature to talk of holding fresh elections in the province whose assembly has been paralysed by the imposition of federal rule.

Missile agreement
JERUSALEM: The USA agreed in a memorandum signed to help Israel counter any danger posed to it by ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday signed the agreement in Israel in a ceremony attended by us Ambassador Edward Walker who said President Bill Clinton also signed it in Washington. The agreement sets two objectives: “Enhancing Israel’s defensive and deterrent capabilities and upgrading the framework of the US-Israel strategic and military relationships, as well as the technological cooperation between them.” — Reuters

Rabin remembered
TEL AVIV: Hundreds of thousands of Israelis crowded the square where a Right-wing Jew murdered Yitzhak Rabin nearly three years ago with many proclaiming that the late Prime Minister’s peace drive had prevailed. Demonstrators on Saturday waved banners and lit candles on the anniversary which came this year eight days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Right-wing government signed a peace accord with the Palestinians. Rabin’s voice was played over loudspeakers in a chilling reminder of the rally at the same spot on November 4, 1995 where he was killed. — Reuters

5 soldiers killed
SEOUL: Four US army soldiers and one South Korean soldier were killed on Saturday after their artillery vehicle fell into a river north of Seoul, according to a US military statement. “The vehicle apparently rolled off a bridge and plunged into Imjin river”. The soldiers, assigned to a US Infantry artillery unit, were returning from a training mission about 40 km north of Seoul, the statement said. — Reuters.

Rouble printing
MOSCOW: Russia will print 20 billion roubles ($ 1.25 billion) to pay back salaries and welfare allocations until the end of this year, Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov said on Saturday. Mr Zadornov earlier said the government had released 9.2 billion roubles ($ 575 million) to pay civil servants’ October salaries and some back pay settlements. In addition, the government paid nearly 30 percent of the salary arrears owed to employees in the scientific, health and education sectors. — AFP

Anti-monarchy march
LONDON: The police here on Saturday said it had arrested nine persons after demonstrators marched through central London to protest against the monarchy. According to the Scotland Yard, three persons were arrested after attempting to throw a cardboard axe over the gates of Buckingham Palace. Organisers from the protest group movement against the monarchy said they had distributed 1,00,000 leaflets inviting people to attend, although the police estimated the size of the protest at 400. — AP

Nuclear codes
MOSCOW: Russia’s nuclear command codes remain in President Boris Yeltsin’s firm hands while he recovers from his latest ailments at a Black Sea resort, the Prime Minister has said. Mr Yeltsin, suffering extreme fatigue and high blood pressure, handed over many responsibilities to Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov last week after doctors ordered him to rest. After a special cabinet session on Saturday to approve a long-awaited plan to tackle Russia’s two-month-old economic troubles, Mr Primakov said: “The nuclear briefcase is in the President’s firm hands.’’ — AP

Iranian troops
TEHRAN: Iranian infantry forces and tanks broke through the advanced lines of a mock enemy at the start of major war games near the tense Afghan border, state-run Teheran radio has reported. The forces, part of 2,00,000 army troops Iran says will take part in the exercises, advanced under the light of flares and heavy Iranian artillery and missile barrage, the radio said on Saturday. The operations were the first of four planned phases of Th Zolfaqar-2 manoeuvres which will reach their climax on Monday, it added. — Reuters