Israel’s terms rejected
JERUSALEM, Nov 12 — After several postponements, the Israeli Government has narrowly approved the latest West Asia peace accord calling for withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, but the ministers attached several conditions that were immediately rejected by Palestinian officials.

• Softens stand on Taiwan

UN observer chief quits
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 12 — Brig-Gen Sergio Espinoza Davies, chief of the UN Military Observer Mission in India and Pakistan, is leaving the post following allegations of human rights violations against him in Chile during Gen Augusto Pinochet’s regime.

Bid to impeach Clinton ‘doomed’
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 — Several congressional Republicans have said attempts to impeach President Bill Clinton were doomed to failure, with a key Senator suggesting dropping the effort in favour of criminal prosecution after he leaves office.

Indonesian youth hold massive rally
JAKARTA, Nov 12 — More than 6,000 Indonesian students and civilians, waving flags and banners, marched towards Parliament today to protest against a special session of the main legislative body.

Principal crawls to school
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 — A Principal in Utah crawled to school for three hours on his hands and knees through deep snow, making good promise to take the unusual trek if his students read more books.

Tension mounts in Gulf; Iraq defiant

DUBAI, Nov 12 (PTI) — The USA and the UK today edged closer towards unleashing a military strike against Iraq by ordering a major build-up of troops and weapons in the Gulf even as defiant Baghdad urged the United Nations to prevent American aggression for its break with UN arms inspectors.

More than 3,000 American troops converged on the Gulf as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein showed no sign of ending his defiance of the UN arms inspections despite a Security Council appeal.

US President Bill Clinton warned that Washington was ready to act if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not back down on his October 31 decision to halt cooperation with UNSCOM in charge of dismantling Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

"We continue to hope, indeed pray, that Saddam will comply, but we must be prepared to act if he does not," Mr Clinton said last night after issuing a warning that it could launch air strikes at any time.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned through BBC radio, "the next step is action, fabricating evidence, telling lies about his programme, attempting to prevent the inspectors doing their work... We cannot allow such a situation to happen."

Iraq retorted saying the country was ready to defend itself "The USA wants to maintain an element of surprise.... but there will be none as Iraq is prepared to face up to any eventuality," the country's official daily Al- Qadissiya declared.

The Iraqi Cabinet also denounced the US threats saying the possibility of an "American-Zionist strike that the USA has threatened against our people and our homeland was without any mandate or Security Council resolution."

Meanwhile, Iraq’s ruling Baath Party today called on Arab’s to wage a jehad against the USA.

The party’s mouthpiece Ath-Thawra warned that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council would be held responsible "for whatever happens to Iraq" if it failed to prevent an attack in the latest stand-off.

Israel’s terms rejected

JERUSALEM, Nov 12 (AP) — After several postponements, the Israeli Government has narrowly approved the latest West Asia peace accord calling for withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, but the ministers attached several conditions that were immediately rejected by Palestinian officials.

The stipulations, and a threat to annex West Bank land if the Palestinians do not comply, did not ease the concerns of one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key constituencies — Right-wing Jews who live in settlements in the West Bank.

The settlers rejected the cabinet’s decision yesterday and said they would take as much West Bank land as they could before Israel began its promised troop withdrawal.

Yesterday’s vote had been delayed several times, in part due to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem by an Islamic militant last week.

Mr Netanyahu’s adviser David Bar-Illan said the pullback would likely not begin for at least another week, following a parliamentary vote scheduled on Tuesday.

Mr Netanyahu said the agreement would stop altogether if the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian Parliament-in-exile, does not hold a formal vote by mid-December to revoke clauses in the PLO founding charter that call for Israel’s destruction.

Under the agreement, the PNC is to convene to reaffirm changes it voted on in April, 1996, and does not mention a vote.

Any additional pullback would turn over no more than 1 per cent of the West Bank to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s control.

And at a news conference following the vote, Mr Netanyahu said Israel reserved the right to annex large chunks of the West Bank if Mr Arafat made good on a threat to declare independence next May.

Palestinian officials said the conditions were violations of the accord signed in the presence of US President Bill Clinton in Washington on October 23.

“We spoke to the American administration and filed an official complaint regarding the conditions. We asked Mr Netanyahu before to stop the threats and conditions, but he chose threats, which means he does not want there to be trust between us,’’ said an angry Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official who helped negotiate the accord.

After seven hours of debate yesterday, eight of 17 ministers voted in favour of the condition-riddled deal, but five ministers abstained and four voted against it, a move that showed their allegiances are with the settlers and not the Prime Minister.

But in a boost for Mr Netanyahu, hawkish Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon voted for the deal. Mr Sharon’s refusal to reveal where he stood on the accord before the vote led to speculation that he would abstain.

Calling himself “the father of settlements,’’ Mr Sharon appealed to the Right wing to trust the accord and said the government would continue to expand Jewish settlements. As housing minister in the early 1990s, Mr Sharon oversaw a dramatic expansion of settlements.

But leaders of the powerful Jewish settler lobby said it wasn’t enough. Flexing their numbers, thousands of supporters staged a protest rally in Tel Aviv yesterday against the accord.

Meanwhile, Israel published a tender today for the construction of 1,025 homes at a disputed Jewish settlement site in Arab East Jerusalem, a day after approving a new interim peace deal with the Palestinians.

A government advertisement in Ha’aretz newspaper called for offers from contractors to build houses at Har Homa, known in Arabic as Jabal Abu Ghneim. The groundbreaking at the hilltop site in March 1997 caused a near-collapse of peace efforts.

Israel plans to build 6,000 homes for settlers at the site. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Jews would be able to move into the neighbourhood by 2000.

Dalai Lama’s meeting with Clinton
China summons US envoy

BEIJING, Nov 12 (PTI) — China today slammed the Dalai Lama for internationalising the Tibetan issue and described him as a “seasoned newsmaker” adept at “manipulating” public opinion against the Chinese Government.

“If the Dalai Lama does have the sincerity to talk. He does not need to internationalise the (Tibet) issue,” the official “China Daily” said, accusing the exiled Tibetan religious leader for undertaking an American tour.

“With religious grab as his best political asset, the Dalai Lama acts like a seasoned newsmaker who knows too well how to manipulate public opinion,” the commentary in China’s only English-language newspaper said.

Criticising the Dalai Lama’s current US visit, it said the Tibetan leader had staged “The Dalai Lama Show” in Washington with the “usual ploy” of President Bill Clinton’s “drop by” to meet the Dalai Lama at the White House.

“This is nothing but a public relations farce,” it said, while noting that it amounted to nothing. “He has so far presented nothing fresh,” it added.

AFP adds: The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned US Ambassador James Sasser over President Bill Clinton’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, a US Embassy spokesman said.

China softens stand on Taiwan

BEIJING, Nov 12 (PTI) — China today made a conciliatory move towards Taiwan saying it would adopt a flexible policy of “one-China-three systems” if Taipei returned to the mainland, even as it slammed the USA for allowing its Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to visit Taiwan terming it as an “interference in its internal affairs”.

China would be flexible enough to allow a policy of “one-China-three-systems” after Taiwan returned to the Chinese fold, Chinese President Jiang Zemin told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun while rejecting the democratisation of his country as a condition for the unification.

However, Jiang did not rule out the possibility of China changing its name, anthem and flag in future negotiations with Taiwan for unification.

China would not send any officials from the mainland to Taiwan and would rather have Taipei send its officials to the central government once unification had taken place, he said.

Arsenic poisoning ‘killing thousands’

NEW YORK, Nov 12 (PTI) — Tens of thousands of people in India and Bangladesh may be slowly dying from arsenic contents present in the water they consume from tubewells, The New York Times reported yesterday.

In West Bengal alone six million people are drinking contaminated water and three lakhs already show signs of the poisoning, the paper quoted Mr Dipankar Chakraborti, an analytical chemist who has done work with arsenic in the USA, as saying.

Indian officials have already begun sealing contaminated wells and replacing them with longer pipes into deeper aquifer, it said, however noting that it was in Bangladesh where the problem was more complex and widespread.

“Maybe it was a lack of administrative support, maybe a lack of political will which is responsible for the slow response in finding a solution to this problem,” Mr K.J. Nath, who has dealt with the issue for the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, said.

“One has to be rational. India has 17 million people affected by tuberculosis, seven million by diarrhoea, two million by malaria. In that context, arsenic in West Bengal is not so serious,” he said.

With no permanent treatment for the poisoning, physical decay could, however, be arrested if a person stopped drinking the arsenic-contaminated water, the paper said.

Arsenic also poses the highest cancer risk ever found, says Dr Allan Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of California who has made three trips to Bangladesh this year, adding “but we still don’t know how many millions have been exposed and at what level. We could be talking about hundreds of thousands of deaths,”

“We just don’t know. The cumulative dose is what kills. Every day that people continue to drink the contaminated water could result in more arsenic-related deaths down the road in five, 10 or 25 years. This is a major emergency,” he said.

It was the lack of resources in Bangladesh that was further aggravating the risk factor, the paper said.

UN observer chief quits

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 12 (PTI) — Brig-Gen Sergio Espinoza Davies, chief of the UN Military Observer Mission in India and Pakistan, is leaving the post following allegations of human rights violations against him in Chile during Gen Augusto Pinochet’s regime.

Human rights organisations, which had levelled the allegations and demanded his removal from the UN post, welcomed the development but criticised the move of the Chilean Government to bring him back with promotion to the rank of Major General.

Chile informed the UN that Espinoza was being appointed Inspector General of the Chilean Army by December 15 and would leave his post as head of the observer mission.

The allegations against Espinoza had surfaced after Spain sought Pinochet’s extradition from Britain. Pinochet, who came to power in a coup in 1973, ruled the country till 1990. He was accused of murders, kidnappings and illegal executions.

Bid to impeach Clinton ‘doomed’

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) — Several congressional Republicans have said attempts to impeach President Bill Clinton were doomed to failure, with a key Senator suggesting dropping the effort in favour of criminal prosecution after he leaves office.

Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennysylvania yesterday said that the impeachment inquiry should be abandoned in favour of criminal prosecution of Mr Clinton after he left office in 2001, saying members of the Congress were “searching for a way out” of an impeachment process that was “going nowhere”.

Representative Mark Souder of Indiana, a Conservative Republican who signed a petition pushing Mr Clinton’s impeachment long before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, said there were not enough votes in the House for impeachment.

“I don’t believe at this time, with the information that I have, that I would vote for impeachment,” Mr Souder said, adding that the inquiry should be halted until there was a case against Mr Clinton that involved more than perjury-and-sex allegations.

Some Republican lawmakers acknowledged the impeachment push lost steam after the party’s election losses last week. But Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee said they would push ahead with hearings planned for next week.

White House Spokesman Jim Kennedy declined to comment directly on the suggestions of Mr Specter, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former District Attorney, but cited what he called “a broad and bipartisan consensus ... that this matter should be brought to a close.”

Indonesian youth hold massive rally

JAKARTA, Nov 12 (AFP) More than 6,000 Indonesian students and civilians, waving flags and banners, marched towards Parliament today to protest against a special session of the main legislative body.

The crowd, watched by hundreds of troops and police, swelled by the minute, an AFP reporter said.

Separate groups of protesters were reported from different parts of the city. One group, aboard 40 buses, reached a heavily-guarded intersection some 100 metres north of the Parliament complex, where the special session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) was meeting.

A third group of hundreds of students, with flags and drums was marching in the Cikini area, 5 km from the complex.

The students charge that the MPR, now in the third day of a special session to map out political guidelines for the post-Suharto era, is made up of the same men who kept Suharto in power.

Principal crawls to school

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (ANI) — A Principal in Utah crawled to school for three hours on his hands and knees through deep snow, making good promise to take the unusual trek if his students read more books.

“I started from my home at 7 a.m. and reached the school around 9.45 a.m., with the entire school there to cheer me on,” Mr Ken Luke, Principal of East Elementary School in Tooele, said.

Mr Luke promised that if the students of kindergarten through Grade VI reached the goal of reading 1,50,000 pages, he would crawl to school.

34 rebels killed
BOGOTA: At least 34 persons were killed in another flare-up of fighting between Leftist guerrillas and government troops in Central Colombia, officials said. General Rito Alejo Del Rio said on Wednesday that the conflict in Tolima state had resulted in the death of 30 rebels. The fighting erupted when rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attacked a village. — DPA

Death sentence
GUANGZHOU (China): Hong Kong crime boss Cheung Tze-Keung and four members of his gang were sentenced to death in this southern Chinese city on Thursday for a string of offences, including kidnapping and arms smuggling. Armed police stood guard as the court handed down the death sentence on Cheung (43), known as “Big Spender,” who was the ringleader of a 36-member gang. The court also ordered the confiscation of Cheung’s property, worth 662.1 million yuan ($ 79.77 million). — AFP

Tamils denied asylum
KASSEL, (Germany): Tamils from Sri Lanka have no right to asylum in Germany on political grounds, a German court ruled on Wednesday. The court, which overturned a judgement from a lower court granting a Tamil woman asylum, said there was no evidence that the government in the island of 17 million persons was persecuting minority Tamils. Around 4,000 Tamils applied for asylum in last year and most of the applications were rejected. — DPA

Siberian tiger killed
WASHINGTON: A rare Siberian tiger that escaped from a cage in Texas and hid in nearby woods, has been shot dead by policemen. Using hunting dogs, they found the tiger and hoped to tranquillise it, but had to shoot, when it charged towards them. The tiger was one of the two that escaped from Cut-and-Shoot Home on Sunday when a caretaker left their pen open. — ANI