Israel to ratify accord
JERUSALEM, Nov 5 — After several delays, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today presented the land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians to his Cabinet for approval, taking a necessary step toward implementation of the accord.

Runa Laila’s marriage ends
DHAKA, Nov 5 — The short but stormy marriage of celebrated Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila with her second husband Ron Daniel Pilnik, a Swiss national, has come to an end after a Dhaka court accepted a divorce petition filed by her Swedish husband, media report said today.

World’s oldest stamps up for sale
LONDON, Nov 5 — A block of postage stamps claimed to be among the world’s oldest is up for sale in Britain at a price of $ 4.5 million.

Laden indicted in embassy bombings

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (AP) — Fugitive Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Laden and a top aide have been indicted in the US Embassy bombings in Africa and accused of conspiring to kill Americans outside the USA.

Bin Laden and Muhammad Atef, identified as military commander of Bin Laden’s organisation, were yesterday charged in an indictment returned in the US District Court. The US State Department announced rewards of up to $ 5 million for their arrest and conviction.

If convicted, both men could face the death penalty.

They and four other men are charged with taking part in a worldwide terrorist organisation led by bin Laden in a conspiracy to murder Americans.

The targets of the alleged plot included members of the US Military in Saudi Arabia and Somalia and Americans employed at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

Other goals included setting up front companies, providing bogus travel documents and lying to authorities in various countries, prosecutors said.

The indictment alleged Bin Laden and his group, Al-Qaeda, forged alliances with representatives of the Government of Iran, the National Islamic Front in Sudan and an Iranian group, Hezbollah.

Prosecutors alleged Bin Laden’s organisation acted on its own as well as through other organisations operating under its umbrella.

Prosecutors identified other organisations as the Al-Jihad group based in Egypt, the Egypt-based group led at one time by Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and a number of groups in other countries, including Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.

Bin Laden has already been indicted by a grand jury in the US District Court in Manhattan, but the indictment returned yesterday directly linked him to the embassy bombings on August 7. The blasts at embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzania killed 24 persons, including 12 Americans, and injured thousands.

The indictment said five of the defendants were charged with murdering the civilians killed in the two embassy bombings.

The indictment alleges Bin Laden and a committee of his group’s members issued fatwahs, or religious edicts, urging other members and associates of the group to kill Americans.

Among those charged previously was Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, described as a top lieutenant of Bin Laden. Salim was charged in September with murder conspiracy and use of weapons of mass destruction in an international plot to kill US citizens.

The grand jury was convened after 19 US service personnel were killed when a bomb exploded in June 1996 at a military apartment complex in Saudi Arabia. There were suspicions that Bin Laden was linked with the attack.

Israel to ratify accord

JERUSALEM, Nov 5 (AP) — After several delays, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today presented the land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians to his Cabinet for approval, taking a necessary step toward implementation of the accord.

The Cabinet was expected to narrowly ratify the agreement despite opposition by several ministers. However, the vote might not be taken until Friday or even Sunday, after many hours of debate, said the Prime Minister’s Adviser, Mr David Bar-Illan.

Mr Netanyahu had postponed the Cabinet meeting twice in two days, charging that the Palestinians had failed to present a timetable for the arrests of 30 suspects in the killings of nearly 100 Israelis.

Mr Bar-Illan said the Cabinet was convened after Israel received assurances from the USA last evening that the 30 would be arrested in three stages, with their roundup to be completed by the end of January.

Under the accord, Israel is to withdraw from 13 per cent of the occupied West Bank over 12 weeks, with the Palestinians taking steps against Islamic militants during each phase of the pullback.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said yesterday that 12 of the wanted men were already in detention, and that he would make an effort to round up the others.

A Palestinian police official said today that in all, 14 were in jail. Several of the suspects had been in Palestinian jails for months or years, but security officials in the past refused to provide figures.

AFP adds: At least three members of the 17-strong Netanyahu Cabinet have said they would vote against the accord hammered out last month during nine days of US-hosted talks at the Wye River Conference Centre in Maryland.

According to Israeli radio, Mr Netanyahu would for the first time submit a map to the Cabinet outlining the areas of the West Bank from which Israel agreed to withdraw its troops.

NICOSIA (ANI): Three members of the South Lebanon Army were killed in the roadside bomb attack in Israel.

Reports from Marjayoun said a pro-Iranian Hizbullah guerrilla group had claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the bomb was planted near the southern enclave of Jezzine.

Mitch leaves 13,000 missing

TEGUCIGALPA (Honduras), Nov 5 (AP) — Hondurans buried more of their dead and formed long lines for water and gasoline as officials struggled to feed and shelter a population still in shock from the hurricane Mitch.

An estimated 13,000 persons were missing in the region.

Medical workers buried 13 flood victims in a common grave in Tegucigalpa yesterday, making signs of the cross and placing two wooden crosses among the plastic-shrouded bodies before a bulldozer plowed earth over them. The bodies were too decomposed to identify, officials said.

A revived tropical storm Mitch plowed across the Gulf of Mexico yesterday towards Florida where it was expected to strike with heavy rain and wind and the possibility of floods and tornadoes.

While officials previously estimated 7,000 dead in Honduras, President Carlos Flores said in a nationwide broadcast on Wednesday that some 6,500 persons were confirmed dead and more than 11,000 were missing. Mitch destroyed more than 60 per cent of the nation’s infrastructure, he said.

In northern Nicaragua, the task of burying or burning bodies continued in massive mudslides near the Casitas Volcano, where a crater lake collapsed on Friday. About 200 more corpses were found there on Wednesday, boosting the confirmed death toll to 1,568. As many as 2,000 are feared dead.

More than 750,000 persons lost their homes or possessions across Nicaragua, and 1,804 are listed as missing nationwide.

China not to recognise Dalai Lama's govt

BEIJING, Nov 5 (PTI) — China has ruled out recognising the India-based government-in-exile of the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama and has urged him to sincerely renounce his claims for Tibetan independence so as to restart negotiations on the vexed Tibet issue, the state media reported today.

Reacting to foreign media reports that the Dalai Lama plans to make a statement on the political status of Tibet during his current US trip, a spokesman for the state council, said the Chinese central government does not recognise the illegal government-in-exile established by the Dalai Lama after he fled to India in 1959.

Western media reports quoting aides to the Dalai Lama said he will respond to Chinese overtures for negotiations during his four-day stay in Washington, beginning on Saturday.

The latest Chinese statement comes after Beijing ruled out allowing a pilgrimage by the Dalai Lama to a famous Buddhist retreat in China and a possible meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

According to media reports, the spokesman for the state council information office has repeated Beijing’s pre-conditions that the spiritual leader must admit that Tibet and Taiwan were an inalienable part of China.

The spokesman also said China had issued a formal decree to dismantle the former Tibetan Government of the Dalai Lama in Tibet after an armed rebellion launched by a few upper class reactionaries was quelled in 1959.

He also pointed out that China established the Tibet autonomous region in 1965 with political powers in the hands of the people.

A system of regional autonomy was introduced for minority nationalities, the state council spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

It is obvious that anti-China forces in the international community are still trying to use the Dalai Lama to put pressure on the Chinese Government, he said.

Diplomatic sources said the latest statements from Beijing were intended to put pressure on the Dalai Lama to make the conciliatory statement towards Beijing while appearing to be tough on its pre-conditions for resuming dialogue.

Runa Laila’s marriage ends

DHAKA, Nov 5 (PTI) — The short but stormy marriage of celebrated Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila with her second husband Ron Daniel Pilnik, a Swiss national, has come to an end after a Dhaka court accepted a divorce petition filed by her Swedish husband, media report said today.

In his divorce petition, filed early this year, Pilnik accused Laila of having an extra-marital affair with Alamgir, once a heart-throb of Dhaka’s silver screen.

Laila, now in her mid 40s, has performed around the world and has been estranged from her husband for a long time, during which she had been the subject of a rumour linking her name with Alamgir.

Laila, who has a daughter from her first marriage with Zaved Kaiser, a descendant of the Nawab family of Dhaka, had tied the nuptial knot with Pilnik in London in 1990. The marriage ran into trouble soon afterwards.

Laila did not turn up for the verdict at the court of the First Assistant Judge, Dhaka, yesterday, who granted an ex-parte decree accepting Pilnik’s divorce petition, the vernacular daily, Ittefaq said.

Why Republicans’ gamble failed
By Roopinder Singh

DEMOCRATS are ecstatic, Republicans dejected, following the surprising results of the mid-term American elections in which Democrats reversed historical precedents by increasing the number of seats they held in the House of Representatives even as they managed to neutralise the losses that were expected in the US Senate.

The Republicans or Grand Old Party (GOP), have, of course, retained control of both the House and the Senate, but the Democrats gained five seats in the House of Representatives even as they managed to keep their 45 Senate seats.

In the backdrop of the explosive revelations about that Monica Lewinsky affair and the threat of impeachment proceedings, the Democrats had been expected to do badly, but it is evident that for the voters, the relationship between Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was not as vital an issue as had been thought.

Exit polls showed that 20 p.c. of voters identified education as their most important concern since voting, 19 p.c. moral and ethical issues, 14 p.c. named the economy, and 12 p.c. identified taxes and social security. The much-talked-about relationship came at number seven on the list of priorities.

In the wake of the release of the Starr report, even Democrats had begun to doubt President Clinton’s ability to lead the party. Things came to such a pass that Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democrat, condemned President Clinton’s behaviour in the Lewinsky affair on the Senate floor.

Senator Lieberman, in his statement, which has been hailed by Republicans and endorsed by fellow Democrats, including Senator Bob Kerrey and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, not only was Clinton’s adultery with a young subordinate immoral, his lying about it was immoral too and such immoral behaviour sent bad moral signals to kids.

No wonder the Republicans went the whole hog in making it the main election plank on their agenda, especially towards the end of the campaign when they ran advertisements trumpeting their plan to pursue the case against Clinton.

In doing so, they inadvertently bolstered Democratic efforts to rope in the minorities (Blacks and Hispanics) who are considered as loyal Clinton followers. Women’s support for Clinton had not been affected much despite the scandal. As Rev Jesse Jackson pointed out, black, Hispanic and women’s interests had converged.

Of course, money played a big role with opinion poll numbers often rising and falling in a seeming synchronised fashion with the rise and fall of the money spent on television commercials. They raised more money than the Democratic counterpart for Senate elections, $ 78 million to $ 49 million, according to the latest figures from the US Federal Election Commission, but the Democrats seemed to have used their money more effectively.

Then there was the question of a message. Clinton promised contended voters more of the same while Republicans did not seem to have a vision beyond presidential peccadilloes. As Republican Senator Rick Santorum admitted: “We didn’t have any message the Monica Lewinsky thing didn’t affect people’s lives enough to make our people want to vote.”

It is significant that six out of 10 voters disapproved the way the Congress had handled the Monica Lewinsky case. Though the Republicans still have a majority, they can’t muster the numbers needed to impeach the President.

Of course, the gubernatorial poll was also historic. If the Democrats bucked the historical trend for mid-term elections, former President George Bush’s two sons won Governorships. This is the only the second time in US history that two brothers have been state Governors simultaneously. Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Governor Winthrop Rockefeller held the top positions in New York and Arkansas in the 1960s.

Mr George W. Bush got more than two-thirds of the vote in his re-election as Texas Governor. He is expected seek the Presidential nomination in 2000. His younger brother, Jeb, won the Florida post on his second try.

If we look at the broad trends that marked this particular election, it is interesting that the voters confounded poll pundits completely. They behaved with maturity, and in the absence of any single major issue, responded to their local concerns. At the national level, they went in for the status quo.

All the moral outrage expressed by political leaders on the Clinton-Lewinsky issue failed to have an impact on voters. To answer anti-Clinton placard holders who greeted the US President with messages like “its Monica stupid,” the Democrats can gleefully retort: “It’s the economy, stupid.” The moral of the story — moral outrage took the backseat — Clinton’s tryst with his intern was ignored, the President, who continued to lead his country even while he was under pressure from his foes, was rewarded.

World’s oldest stamps up for sale

LONDON, Nov 5 (AP) — A block of postage stamps claimed to be among the world’s oldest is up for sale in Britain at a price of $ 4.5 million.

The 48 mint condition twopenny blues, which bear the image of Queen Victoria, were issued in 1840 but were forgotten for more than a century until they were discovered rolled inside an old leather writing set by the Duke of Buccleuch’s staff in 1945.

It is thought they were originally bought by Walter Francis, a previous Duke of Buccleuch, to use on his household mail.

After its discovery, the set became part of two major private collections before being acquired a few months ago by London stamps dealers Spink and Sons Ltd., which is now selling them.

Islamic lessons
BERLIN: Islam took a major stride into German mainstream life as a Berlin court ruled that the Muslim community was entitled to organise its own religion classes in public schools. The unprecedented ruling on Wednesday applies only to the state of Berlin, which like the other 15 German states has exclusive control of its educational system. The Lutheran and Catholic Churches already conduct classes for young believers in the city’s schools. — DPA

Oasis star held
LONDON: Oasis star Liam Gallagher has been arrested by the police after being accused of attacking a photographer and damaging his camera equipment outside a pub, tabloid newspapers reported on Thursday. The Mirror said that Gallagher punched Mel Bouzad and smashed his camera equipment after the photographer followed the singer to a pub near his north London home. — AP

Blast at Kremlin
MOSCOW: A man drove his car through police barricades onto Red Square on Wednesday night, screeching to a halt metres from a main entrance to the Kremlin and jumping clear an instant before the vehicle exploded, Interfax said. The driver and three military guards at the entrance were injured, one of the guards critically. An Interior Ministry spokesman identified the driver as Ivan Orlov, 65, a journalist working for the nationalist movement, The Russian Truth. — AFP

Eiffel staff strike
PARIS: A strike has locked visitors out of the Eiffel Tower for a fifth full day and promised to keep Paris’ most visited monument closed for a sixth day, despite two hours of talks. “The negotiations did not go too badly,” the press office of the company that runs the Eiffel Tower said on Wednesday. But new, minor points of contention were raised, it added, without providing details. The 200 workers employed at the Eiffel Tower are demanding more personnel, rejecting as insufficient the recent hiring of 20 persons, with plans to recruit five more workers at the start of the year. — AP

Fund-raising ride
LOS ANGELES: Harley-Davidson rider Jay Leno will lead a pack of 20,000 bikers, including “easy rider” Peter Fonda, on a Southern California excursion. The excursion, they say will include great barbecue, terrific music and, most of all, good intentions. Love Ride will set off on Sunday from Harley-Davidson glendale with Grand Marshal Leno and Honorary Grand Marshal Fonda guiding bikers on a 80-km journey to Castaic Lake. Participants will hear a concert there by the Steve Miller band and George Thorogood and The Destroyers. The trip is expected to raise more than $ 1 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. — AP