Air-India blast report sent to prosecutors
VANCOUVER, Oct 16 — The police has sent a long-awaited report to government prosecutors so they can assess whether charges will be filed in the terrorist bombing of an Air India jetliner in 1985.

Indo-German extradition treaty finalised
BONN, Oct 16 — India and Germany have finalised an extradition treaty which includes cooperation in tackling criminal incidents and opens a new chapter in bilateral relations.

Wary Serbs refuse to budge in Kosovo
A HUDDLE of ethnic Albanian men sat in the shadow of burnt houses in the village of Jablanica in western Kosovo yesterday (Thursday). There was no sign of their women and children returning from their makeshift shelters in the surrounding woods and mountains.

US Cong includes Bill on work visas
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 — The US Congress has included the legislation for increasing work visas for skilled foreign professionals in the Omnibus Bill on demands by software and other hi-tech firms facing skilled manpower shortages.

Lahoud elected Lebanon President

Typhoon Zeb claims 71 lives

MANILA, Oct 16 (AFP) — The death toll from typhoon Zeb rose dramatically in the Philippines today with reports saying 64 persons killed and the official government figure showing at least 35 dead.

A disaster relief official told SNN Television 59 people had been killed in the resort city of Baguio, mostly in landslides, after Zeb hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday and Thursday.

Zeb then moved to Taiwan where seven people have been killed and three are missing.

TOKYO (AP): A weakened typhoon Zeb approached islands in southern Japan today.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 108 kph Zeb was located about 190 km west of the island of Ishigaki in Okinawa prefecture as of 9.30 am IST, Japan’s meteorological agency said.

It was moving north-northeast at about 20 kph in the East China Sea, the agency said. Weather reports forecast rain for most of western and central Japan over the weekend due to the effects of the typhoon.

Two domestic flights from Tokyo’s Haneda airport to Okinawan islands in the south were cancelled today because of the typhoon, airport authorities said.

Disaster officials in the Philippines said the typhoon left at least 63 people dead, mostly due to drownings and landslides. At least one person died of electrocution, while another was bitten by a snake.

The casualty figure is expected to rise because several mountain villages in the northern Philippines remain isolated. President Joseph Estrada flew today to the Cagayan valley region, one of the hardest-hit areas, to personally inspect the typhoon’s damage.

At least 103,000 people were forced to flee their homes in the Philippines because of flooding. Most have since returned home, but more than 10,000 people remained in 28 government shelters.

In Benguet province, at least ten people were killed and an undetermined number were missing after boulders, mud and debris crashed down a mountain and buried workers’ quarters of the Luzon Hydroelectric Cooperative.

In nearby Baguio city, five people died in separate landslides, and a 30-year-old South Korean student was killed when a section of road collapsed, plunging his car into a ravine, said chief inspector Ricardo Villena.

At least five provinces have been declared in a state of calamity, to allow emergency funds to be released for these areas. Price control also have been established to prevent profiteers from taking advantage of the situation.

In Taiwan, six people were dead and four missing after Zeb roared across the island today.

Rivers in the Taipei area swelled, and low lying urban areas in Taipei county were flooded by torrential rains. Residents were evacuated by rescue workers patrolling through the night in inflatable boats.

Many international flights were cancelled, and others arriving in Taipei were rerouted to Hong Kong, airport officials said.

"At its peak, Zeb reached super typhoon’’ status, with sustained winds of 240 km per hour and gusts measuring 295 km per hour.

West Asia: Tough bargaining at talks

QUEENSTOWN (USA), Oct 16 (AP) — Israeli and Palestinian leaders settled in for a second day of peace talks today at a rustic Chesapeake Bay retreat, the ice-breaking handshakes and expressions of hope giving way to tough bargaining to put the West Asian peace process back on track.

After convening the talks yesterday in a small wooden building on the banks of the Wye river, President Bill Clinton returned to Washington, leaving secretary of State Madeleine Albright to oversee today’s meeting. Mr Clinton intends to stay in touch with her on the phone.

At centerstage at the closed-door negotiations is an American plan designed to clamp down on terrorists in the West Bank, a key Israeli condition for agreeing to withdraw its troops from a further 13 per cent of the land Israel captured in 1967.

"There is hard work ahead," Mr Clinton declared in brief remarks to mediapersons before exchanging greetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and their 20-member delegations of legal, technical and policy experts.

The first session started about 0145 hours GMT, White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said, and broke up at 0610 hours IST today. It included a group meeting of all three delegations, plus separate meetings between Mr Clinton and the two other leaders. Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu did not meet alone but probably will, state department spokesman James Rubin said.

Mr Rubin refused to discuss the substance of the meetings. He said the first day of meetings showed the parties were interested in creating a "constructive and pragmatic relationship." The summit is expected to conclude tomorrow, but Mr Rubin did not rule out an extension.

Mr Clinton returned to the White House after hosting a dinner for Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu. He called for a genuine "Israeli-Palestinian partnership that will stand the test of time.’’

Ms Albright said the aim was to strike a "land-for-security’’ deal a further withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank in exchange for stronger Palestinian measures to ensure Israeli security.

Mr Netanyahu’s position is that he cannot give up land, which is tangible, in exchange for promises alone.

NATO, Belgrade sign accord

BELGRADE, Oct 16 (AFP) — NATO and the Yugoslav Government signed an agreement on the aerial verification of the situation in Kosovo, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana has announced.

Mr Solana and General Wesley Clark, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, were in Belgrade to insist on talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that he comply with demands that his troops be withdrawn from Kosovo only 48 hours before a deadline expires.

But Mr Solana said after the signing ceremony yesterday that special Serbian police units continued to be stationed in Kosovo and must be withdrawn immediately.

“According to our information, and our information is good, special police units remain in Kosovo,” he said. “These units must be withdrawn immediately.”

He said the NATO would “maintain its pressure.”

“I came to Belgrade to deliver a very simple, very strong message to President Milosevic; he must comply, he must comply fully and immediately with the requirements of the (UN) Security Council resolution No 1199,” Mr Solana said.

“Three weeks after that resolution was adopted, we are still far from seeing full compliance with the international community’s demands.”

“We will keep the situation in Kosovo under close scrutiny,” Mr Solana said, adding that “NATO will remain ready to act if those obligations are not met.”

The air surveillance deal calls for unarmed spy planes to watch over Mr Milosevic’s compliance to withdraw his troops from Kosovo and allow safe return of tens of thousands Kosovo Albanian refugees.

“Any attack or hostile attitude against our NATO verification aircraft will have the gravest consequences,” Mr Solana warned.

International officials also huddled in Paris and Vienna yesterday to push ahead the assessment process aimed at making sure Mr Milosevic adheres to the breakthrough agreement reached this week with US Envoy Richard Holbrooke.

In Vienna, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) yesterday formally agreed to oversee the 2,000-member ground verification mission — unarmed monitors who will roam through Kosovo to make sure terms of the agreement with Mr Holbrooke are being honoured.

The OSCE said in a statement that its current chairman, Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, will sign the ground verification agreement today in Belgrade with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic.

Poland’s Ambassador to the OSCE, Adam Kobieracki, told the Austria Press Agency that the verification mission could cost about $ 200 million, with the USA, Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Germany assuming most of the burden.

In Kosovo, the UN refugee agency delivered more aid to those displaced by the seven-month crackdown in the secessionist Serbian province, which is populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Albanians.

Yeltsin's visit to India doubtful

MOSCOW, Oct 16 (IANS) — With power slipping out of his hands and his health taking a turn for the worse, Russian President Boris Yeltsin is unlikely to pay his scheduled December visit to India.

As tens of millions of Russians in a nationwide protest on October 7 demanded Mr Yeltsin’s resignation and the Duma, the Lower House of Parliament, went ahead with its attempt to impeach him, powerful members of the presidential administration were contemplating cancellation of scheduled foreign trips by their ailing and politically mauled leader.

"President Yeltsin’s top advisers are making all efforts to get his consent to cancel all his visits till the year 2000, particularly his foreign tours," a source at the Kremlin said.

"Perhaps the only exception can be for summits like G-8 (Group of Eight industrialised nations) where the Russian President’s presence is essential," the source said.

There were rumours that Mr Yeltsin almost agreed to give up power voluntarily and the resignation letter was lying on his table waiting for his signature. Hectic meetings of the President’s close advisers with his arch adversary, Communist leader Genady Zhuganov, negotiating judicial and other guarantees for Mr Yeltsin after his permanent exit from the Kremlin reinforced the belief that resignation was only a matter of time.

But Mr Yeltsin, unpredictable as he is, changed his mind about stepping down though his political position has since weakened considerably.

While the Duma passed a resolution demanding Mr Yeltsin’s resignation, a similar resolution fell short of being approved by only 10 votes in the Upper House, a body constituting regional governors usually loyal to the President as they are dependent on him for their survival.

Mr Yeltsin’s outrageous performance during his official visit to the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, where he slurred while speaking and at one point nearly toppled over while inspecting the guard of honour, sent shock-waves through the nation. Opposition leader Zhuganov declared indignantly that the era of Mr Yeltsin had come to its logical end.

USA may have leaked N-bomb secret

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (PTI) — A Pentagon official has claimed India and Pakistan may have obtained US papers relating to the building of nuclear bombs for such material has been found in boxes of papers wrongly released by the Defence Department to the public.

The official said these papers contain “the nation’s most sensitive secrets.”

Some of the papers, the official said, include design information of great value of proliferants who want to weaponise their devices as India and Pakistan did.

MOSCOW (AP): Russia has tested 10 new Grad missiles with a 40-km range, twice its earlier versions, a news report said.

The 122-mm missile, tested yesterday, is developed by the state-run company Splav and has already been approved for export, the Itar-Tass news agency said.

Military attaches from 30 West Asian and Southeast Asian nations watched the launch outside Orenburg, about 1,300 km southeast of Moscow.

Splav’s head of marketing and foreign trade, Alexander Kuznetsov, said the test proved that the missile was ready for mass production, Itar-Tass said. He said the 40-km range was twice as far as basic 122-mm Grad missiles.

Air-India blast report sent to prosecutors

VANCOUVER, Oct 16 (AP) — The police has sent a long-awaited report to government prosecutors so they can assess whether charges will be filed in the terrorist bombing of an Air India jetliner in 1985.

All 329 persons on board Air India flight 182, including 280 Canadians, were killed when the plane, bound from Canada to London, blew up over the coast of Ireland.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been hunting for the bombers since then, in what the force calls the most complex investigation in its history.

In a new release yesterday, the RCMP said the submission of the report to prosecutors does not mean the filing of charges is imminent. No time frame was set for the review process and, the police declined to reveal any details about the evidence.

“Criminal charges would be approved only if prosecutors determine there is substantial likelihood of a conviction and it is in the public interest to proceed,” the RCMP said.

The RCMP has faced repeated criticism from relatives of the victims who have complained that the investigation has dragged on too long.

The police believe a group of Sikh separatists living in British Columbia planned to blow up two Air India jets as part of a terrorist campaign.

Indo-German extradition treaty finalised

BONN, Oct 16 (PTI) — India and Germany have finalised an extradition treaty which includes cooperation in tackling criminal incidents and opens a new chapter in bilateral relations.

The treaty is expected to be signed within three months, India’s ambassador Satinder Lambah told PTI here before taking over as the new envoy to Russia after his three-year tenure in Germany.

Mr Lambah said the first ever joint working group on terrorism, which met here within one week of the state visit of President KR Narayanan to Germany, was successful.

Mr Narayanan, during his meetings with President Roman Herzog and the outgoing Chancellor Helmut Kohl, had stressed the need for bilateral cooperation in fighting terrorism.

Mr Lambah said there was “greater appreciation” of India’s rationale behind its May nuclear tests and its position on disarmament now as compared to the period soon after the explosions.

He said a “positive decision” is expected soon on the issue of setting up a Mumbai House in India as a nodal point to deal with Indo-German joint ventures.

Wary Serbs refuse to budge in Kosovo
From Chris Bird in Jablanica

A huddle of ethnic Albanian men sat in the shadow of burnt houses in the village of Jablanica in western Kosovo yesterday (Thursday). There was no sign of their women and children returning from their makeshift shelters in the surrounding woods and mountains.

Two guerrilla fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army sauntered down from the wooded hills above the village, the black double headed eagle and letters UCK, the insignia of the KLA, sewn on their uniforms.

“We’ve heard about the agreement but no one believes it,’’ one of them said in reference to the deal reached this week between the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, and United States Balkan envoy, Richard Holbrooke.

“One shot and everyone runs back into the hills.’’ There was a sudden explosion in the hills around the village, situated about 50 miles west of the regional capital, Pristina. “Many people have their tractors and trailers packed ready to run away again,’’ he said.

“There are two problems. There is no security here for people to return and even if they did, they have no means with which to rebuild their homes,’’ the KLA commander said.

Serb police in nearby Dolovo sat inside the shell of a burnt-out house and under fruit trees. Others emerged from side streets carrying assault rifles. Most of the houses were destroyed when the mainly Albanian village went up in flames during a Serb offensive in May.

Nor are the Serbs in Kosovo holding their breath for the arrival of Mr Holbrooke’s 2,000 “compliance verifiers’’ to make sure Mr Milosevic keeps his promise to withdraw his troops and hold talks on a political settlement.

—The Guardian, London.

US Cong includes Bill on work visas

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (PTI) — The US Congress has included the legislation for increasing work visas for skilled foreign professionals in the Omnibus Bill on demands by software and other hi-tech firms facing skilled manpower shortages.

If passed by the Congress, this Bill will benefit a large number of Indian software professionals seeking jobs with US firms under the “H1-B” work visa.

Senator Spencer Abraham, the Bill’s author, said: “This is a big victory for the economy, which is being fuelled in large part by our hi-tech industries.”

Lahoud elected Lebanon President

BEIRUT, Oct 16 (Reuters) — Parliament yesterday elected army commander General Emile Lahoud, labelled austere and honest, to be Lebanon’s first new president since the end of its civil war.Although the backing on neighbouring Syria was crucial, the man who rebuilt Lebanon’s army from the ashes of the 1975-90 conflict into a non-sectarian force had enjoyed broad popular support in the weeks leading up to the formal election.General Lahoud, 62, was backed by all 118 deputies who attended the session of Parliament. The 10 absentees were mainly associated with Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze minority.

President re-elected
Baku: Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev was re-elected to a new five-year term with 76.11 per cent of the vote, after the preliminary results were released on Thursday by the Central Election Commission (CEC). His challenger Etibar Mammedov came second with 11.6 per cent of the vote, according to the CEC. Some 3,289,221 votes were cast in Sunday’s election, the election body added. Some western observers expressed concern that the CEC had delayed the release of the first preliminary results in order to alter the final tallies. — AFP

Leader quits party
Dhaka: A senior leader of Bangladesh’s main fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, resigned after being charged with sodomy with two party colleagues, a newspaper reported on Thursday. The Muktakantha newspaper said Syed Abdullah Mohammad Abu Taher, Secretary-General of the party in Dhaka and a doctor, resigned two days ahead of the deadline for a probe report charging him with corruption and sodomy. — AFP

Jail for dog burner
Sydney: Australian animal lovers on Friday welcomed a 12-month jail sentence for a man who dropped a puppy into a drum of burning coal. Eddie Stanlund, a guest at his friend, Max Summerville’s 60th birthday party, picked up a five-week-old Border Collie and dropped it in a drum glowing with hot coal. The guests were sitting around the drum, warming themselves. — AFP

Fined for fouling
Amsterdam: Answering the call of nature has become a crime in the Dutch capital for dogs and humans who dare to do their thing in public places. The Amsterdam police force announced fines this week as part of an ambitious crackdown on pet owners who don’t clean up after their dogs, and on people who don’t behave much better than canines. Dog owners face fines of $ 40 if they are caught letting their pets foul the sidewalks. The fine for people who urinate in public is a bit less $ 32.50. — AP

Memorable quotes
London: James Bond edged out “Casablanca” to win the greatest film quote award from the Guinness Book of Films. The compilers decided on Thursday that “Bond- James Bond” as first uttered by Sean Connery in the 1962 film “Dr No” was the most memorable quote in the history of cinema. Humphrey Bogart came a close second with the immortal line from the 1942 classic “Casablanca” - “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” Mae West took the third place with her “I’m no angel” line back in 1932 - “It’s not the men in your life that counts, it’s the life in your men.” — Reuters