PoK groups deride Pak claim
LONDON, Oct 11 — Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Kashmiri groups here have challenged the claims of Islamabad to speak on their behalf, saying that Pakistan was an “occupying force” in Jammu and Kashmir under the UN resolutions.

Taliban release 10 Iranians
ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 — The leader of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar today ordered the release of 10 Iranians held prisoners there, a Taliban spokesman said.

US court ruling on ‘soft money’
WASHINGTON, Oct 11 — A US district court has ruled that the ban on political donations by foreigners applies only to donations to individual candidates and not “soft money” donated to the political parties.

NATO decision on Kosovo today
Holbrooke’s talks fail

BELGRADE, Oct 11 (Reuters, AP, AFP) — US envoy Richard Holbrooke today said his latest round of talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic failed to come up with a solution to end the Kosovo crisis despite earlier claims by Belgrade of a possible political solution.

A weary Holbrooke told reporters after a seven-hour meeting with Mr Milosevic that NATO would meet tomorrow to authorise military action in the troubled Serb province.

“Nothing has changed. The situation is very serious,” Mr Holbrooke said, adding that his efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to the crisis would continue.

“We will continue to meet with President Milosevic... and we will work continuously in the hope that we will find in the next two days a viable, peaceful alternative,” he said.

As Mr Holbrooke spoke, the USA announced the departure of six B-52 bombers, a reconnaissance aircraft and 13 tanker planes to Britain for possible punitive air strikes against Belgrade over its brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

The negotiator, who also met with Kosovo Albanian political leaders yesterday, has been seeking an 11th-hour diplomatic resolution of the crisis which the west would prefer to risky NATO intervention.

The Yugoslav authorities, meanwhile, said today protracted talks between President Milosevic and US envoy Richard Holbrooke had opened the way for a political settlement to the Kosovo crisis.

But a US source close to the talks said there was “nothing new” in Belgrade’s three-line statement.

In a statement released after Mr Holbrooke and Mr Milosevic completed seven hours of talks, the Belgrade Government said: “It was agreed that all necessary conditions exist for the resolution of open questions through a political process.”

The terse, three-sentence statement issued by the official news agency Tanjug said it was agreed that Serbia meet conditions set by the UN for ending the threat of NATO air strikes against Serbian military targets.

LONDON: The first of six US B-52 bombs arrived today at a base in Britain for possible military action in Yugoslavia, base officials said.

Two of the bombers, which can each carry 20 cruise missiles, arrived at the Royal Air Force base at Fairford in south-west England following a flight from Barksdale, Louisiana.

The other four were to arrive at half-hour intervals. They are travelling with an RC-135 reconnaissance plane and some refuelling planes.

Also committed are two long-range Stealth B-2 bombers, a dozen F-117 Stealth fighters as well as F-14, F-15 and F-16 fighters based in Germany, Italy or aboard aircraft carriers.

In all, the NATO member countries have mobilised some 430 warplanes to challenge Belgrade’s 80 Russian-built Mig fighters and anti-aircraft batteries.

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary William Cohen has ordered the deployment of six B-52 bombers, one reconnaissance aircraft and 13 tanker aircraft to Britain to prepare for possible NATO military intervention in Kosovo.

The planes will be among 260 US aircraft already committed by the USA to support air operations against Serb forces. Most of the force already is in Europe, either stationed at bases there or aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, which is currently in the Mediterranean, the Pentagon said yesterday.

MOSCOW: A Russian Defence Ministry official has warned Moscow could consider large-scale military cooperation with Belgrade if NATO carries out air strikes against Yugoslavia.

“Russia would then have the right to large-scale military cooperation with Yugoslavia,” said Mr Leonid Ivashov, head of the Department for Military Cooperation in the Defence Ministry.

“If standards of international law were to be violated, then the embargo imposed in March 1998 will also cease for us,” Itar-Tass news agency cited him as saying on NTV television network.

“We cannot abandon a brotherly people in a situation like that,” Mr Ivashov said.

It was not known if he was speaking in his official capacity.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is threatening to carry out air strikes against Serbia in order to pressure the Yugoslav President to comply with UN demands to end Belgrade’s crackdown on Kosovo.

PoK groups deride Pak claim

LONDON, Oct 11 (PTI) — Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Kashmiri groups here have challenged the claims of Islamabad to speak on their behalf, saying that Pakistan was an “occupying force” in Jammu and Kashmir under the UN resolutions.

Dismissing claims of Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed that he would represent Kashmiri people at the forthcoming Indo-Pak dialogue, pro-independence groups as well as groups from PoK are up in arms and expressed open outrage and anger” at his remarks.

Mr Shabir Choudhry, senior JKLF (Yasin faction) leader and head of its diplomatic section, in a statement said: “It is only the people of Kashmir who have the right to choose who will represent them and decide their future”.

“Pakistan’s role in Kashmir is that of an occupier and has no locus standi”, he said.

In an apparent attack on silence on the subject by the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Mr Choudhry warned, “Any Kashmiri who wants to give this right away to our occupiers is a puppet and has no credibility”.

However, other PoK leaders here like Afzal Tahir and Anwar Khan were openly saying, “Hurriyat had now to come out and prove its bona fide claims of representing Kashmiris”.

The Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Committee, Mr Anwar Khan, said under the UN resolutions, by which Islamabad swears by in international fora, “Pakistan has been declared the aggressor in Jammu and Kashmir and had been asked to vacate its troops which it should do now and let the people of the state negotiate their future in a dialogue with India”.

Dr S.K. Durrani, president of the Indo-Kashmir European Forum, and organisation of Kashmiri Pandits here, voiced outrage at Mr Shamshad Ahmed’s claims, saying, “The hands of the Pakistani Government are red with the blood of innocent Kashmiris”.

Welcoming the resumption of Indo-Pak talks, Mr Shabir Choudhry said, “Foreign Ministers of both countries have every right to represent their respective governments, but they have no right to represent the Kashmiri people”.

Mr Mushtaq Hussain, president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front (JKNLF), said, “No Kashmiri group had given mandate to Pakistan to speak on its behalf”.

Describing Pakistan as the “occupying force in Pakistan-held Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan and Hunza”, Mr Hussain said the division of the state was against the aspirations of the people of these regions and situation had to be built to remove this and let people from either side of state reunite.

US opinion split over impeachment

NEW YORK, Oct 11 (AFP) — Americans are split over what should happen next in the White House sex-and-lies scandal after Congress voted to open an impeachment inquiry into President Bill Clinton’s affairs, a Newsweek poll has shown.

While 31 per cent said Mr Clinton should resign over allegations that he committed perjury and obstructed justice stemming from his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, 31 per cent also said Congress should merely censure Mr Clinton and then drop the matter.

Only one American in 10 said Congress should plough ahead with the impeachment inquiry and 25 per cent said no action should be taken.

A slim majority, 51 per cent, said the allegations against Mr Clinton were less serious than those against President Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974.

The poll showed support for Mr Clinton’s impeachment and removal from office is as high at 32 per cent, as it was for Mr Nixon, once impeachment proceedings began against him.

However Mr Clinton’s job approval rating at 58 per cent is much higher than Mr Nixon’s after the start of the impeachment probe into Watergate, according to the survey of 752 adults conducted on October 8-9 which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 per cent.

Ackerman elected head of India caucus
from Aziz Haniffa

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 — U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman has been elected chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India ousting Mr Frank Pallone.

Mr Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey, founded the caucus nearly five years ago with a dozen members and built it up to a bipartisan organisation of nearly 100.

Mr Ackerman, a New York Democrat, is one of India’s best friends in Congress. He is a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs (now renamed International Relation) Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific, which has jurisdiction on matters pertaining to South Asia, and is highly knowledgeable about issues related to India.

Leading the revolt that against Mr Pallone was Mr Jim McDermott, another founder-member of the caucus.

Sources said Mr McDermott called for an emergency meeting at which Mr Ackerman was elected, because he was apparently concerned that Mr Pallone was not providing adequate leadership to the caucus. He was also apparently concerned that Mr Pallone hogged all the credit and never acknowledged the work done on behalf of India by other caucus members, particularly some of those who had co-founded the body.

According to sources, the way Mr McDermott phrased it, the issue at hand was whether Mr Pallone should remain chairman ad infinitum or should the caucus chairmanship be a limited term so others could be more involved.

Sources said only about a dozen members actually attended the special meeting and all but Mr Pallone voted to limit the caucus chairmanship to a two-year term.

Mr Ackerman, the sources said, had been “very gracious’’ in praising Mr Pallone’s efforts in starting the caucus and getting about 100 members to join it. In order to involve more members in caucus activities, he said he would create several subcommittees to deal with specific Indo-U.S. issues.

Reaction to Mr Pallone’s ouster was mixed, with some saying, “Pallone being ousted is the best thing that happened to the caucus” and that “he was too much to the Indian Embassy’s lackey,” to others feeling he was “intensely committed and was the driving force behind the caucus.” — IANS

Taliban release 10 Iranians

ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (Reuters) — The leader of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar today ordered the release of 10 Iranians held prisoners there, a Taliban spokesman said.

The spokesman, quoted by a Pakistan-based Afghan news service, said he ordered the release ‘’in honour’’ after a Palestinian delegation that met him today in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

The prisoners release orders came while the UN special envoy on Afghanistan, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi is in the region trying to ease tensions between Iran and Taliban over the killings of eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist in northern Afghanistan in August.

Today’s move follows a report by Iranian state television on Friday that the Taliban had released and repatriated five Iranians as a result of efforts by Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a Saudi-based Afghan citizen.

US court ruling on ‘soft money’

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (PTI) — A US district court has ruled that the ban on political donations by foreigners applies only to donations to individual candidates and not “soft money” donated to the political parties.

Yesterday’s ruling by Paul L. Friedman makes many foreign donations, which have hitherto been denounced as scandalous interference by foreigners in the American election process, perfectly legal if not praiseworthy.

The ruling, if sustained, is a godsend to the Democratic Party of President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, which the foreigners mainly favoured in the last election with liberal donations.

Sukarno’s daughter
SANUR (INDONESIA): Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of former President Sukarno, has been unanimously elected chairperson of her opposition group. Her election is being viewed as a first step towards her goal of becoming the President next year. A scream of joy went up in the room when the widely popular Ms Megawati, the only candidate on the ballot of her faction of the Indonesian Democratic Party (IDP) got every single vote in a show of hands on Saturday. — AP

Rebels’ warning
GOMA (CONGO): Rebels, who shot down a Congolese airliner over the Eastern government-held city of Kindu on Saturday, have warned that they will shoot down any aircraft trying to land at the town’s airport. “We ask all companies to take care to avoid another such accident,” Mr Alexis Tambwe, a senior rebel official, said, adding that the rebels did not control Kindu airport but had the military might to prevent other planes from landing there. — Reuters

Gandhi street
BONN: Germany remembered Mahatma Gandhi on his 50th death anniversary by naming a street after him in Stuttgart, 300 km from here. The name-giving ceremony of a street in the Burghulzhof area of the capital of Baden-Wurttemberg was conducted by Indian Ambassador to Germany S.K. Lambah over the week-end. — PTI

Death sentence
TEHERAN: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi has denied reports that an Iranian appeals court has upheld the death sentence on German businessman Helmut Hofer for having an affair with a Muslim woman. “So far no new verdict has been issued on Hofer,” Mr Mohammadi told the Iranian news agency IRNA, a Xinhua report said on Saturday night. Mr Mohammadi said Hofer was sentenced by a local court, but after he appealed, Iran’s Supreme Court found some problems with the verdict and sent it back to the original court. — PTI

‘Smart pollution’
WASHINGTON: An alarming type of biological pollution may be sitting quite prettily in backyards around the world. Exotic species of plants, bugs and animals, carried across borders intentionally or by accident, pose new dangers in places they don’t belong. Environmentalists call it “smart pollution”, because new species can quickly evolve to dominate and sometimes destroy native plants and animals. Environmental researcher Chris Bright says it is the second greatest threat to the biological diversity of the planet, next to the loss of habitat. — AP