Afghan warning to Iran
ISLAMABAD, Sept 2 — Enraged over the movement of 70,000 strong Iranian elite troops along its border, Afghanistan today issued a stern warning to Teheran against any “provocative act and rhetoric.”

• US firm signs deal with Taliban

China flays US missile strikes
BEIJING, Sept 2 — China today, for the first time, openly criticised the USA for launching retaliatory missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan, saying that it set a “bad precedent.”

Clinton may face contempt charge
WASHINGTON, Sept 2 — President Bill Clinton’s legal affairs has taken a turn for the worse with a US district judge hinting at contempt charge slapped on him for his misleading testimony in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct case.

Second hearing on acting PM tomorrow
MOSCOW, Sept 2 — Lawmakers in the state Duma, Lower House of Parliament, voted today to take up the second confirmation hearing on acting Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin on Friday.

Australia’s Democrats eyeing youth vote
ADELAIDE, Sept 2 — The Australian Democrats have made a pitch for the youth vote ahead of the October 3 federal election with a kit of condoms and a slogan, “so it’s your first time, get some protection, vote Democrats”.

Japan softens stand on India

TOKYO, Sept 2 (PTI) — In an apparent softening of its stand on sanctions against India for its nuclear tests, Japan has hinted at normalising bilateral relations with New Delhi.

According to highly-placed diplomatic sources, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura yesterday invited Indian Ambassador Siddharth Singh to discuss ways to normalise the India-Japan official- level talks.

However, it was not immediately known what might follow yesterday’s meeting between the two.

After the nuclear tests by India in May last, Japan had cancelled a scheduled Foreign Secretary-level meeting between New Delhi and Tokyo. It had asked India’s Defence Secretary not to visit the country on official business and called off a scheduled annual meeting between the Ministries of International Trade and Industry of both countries.

Ambassador Siddharth Singh, according to sources, allayed Japanese apprehensions about India and expressed disappointment that the Japanese Government in its various pronouncements never acknowledged India’s policy of restraint.

He told the Japanese minister that Tokyo did not acknowledge India’s various nuclear disarmament proposals and “our brilliant record on non-proliferation.’’

India never transferred its nuclear technologies to other nations, even those with which it has had excellent, very close relations for a long time, Mr Siddharth Singh said.

He alleged that Tokyo ignored the fact that India had not violated any international agreements to which it was a party or any commitment it had made.

Sources said he briefed the minister on various Indian initiatives before and after the latest nuclear tests with regard to the NPT, the CTBT, and disarmament.

He also told the Foreign Minister so far as India was concerned there had always been a link between nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

Even though Japan had suspended official-level dialogue with India since May, New Delhi had all along been engaged in intensive talks with the USA on the nuclear issue, Mr Siddharth Singh said, adding Tokyo must take note of this and normalise relations with New Delhi.

‘Give N-safety locks’ to India, Pak

WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (PTI) — An American nuclear expert has urged the US Government to make available the technology of nuclear safety locks to India, Pakistan and other nascent nuclear states to prevent accidental detonation of nuclear bombs, a real possibility, he says, without such locks.

Referring to such accidents in the past, the expert Todd Sechser, a research analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, in an article in The Wall Street Journal urged the USA to face the new era of proliferation squarely and expand nuclear safety cooperation to these countries.

Washington should declassify basic nuclear safety technologies and permit the sale of electronic locks and early warning systems to nascent nuclear powers, he said adding India and Pakistan had neither the financial resources nor the technological base to develop the electronic locks and protective arming devices employed on US nuclear forces.

Saying that declassifying the most advanced safety devices would compromise the security of US weapons, Sechser said, simpler but nonetheless effective versions could be approved for international sale.

These nuclear catastrophic scenarios are especially likely in regions such as South Asia and the Middle East, he said.

Sechser referred about some accidents in the past. In May 1977, during a routine flight over densely populated Karachi, a Pakistani Mirage III jet fighter accidentally dropped two fuselage tanks. The tanks fell on the earth and exploded killing 10 persons. Had the accident involved a nuclear weapon, the result would have resembled the blasts that levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Such a scenario, he says, is not so far-fetched. During the cold war, dozens of US Air Force and Navy aircraft carrying nuclear warheads crashed or accidentally dropped their bombs over US soil and coastal waters.

Shariah law challenged

ISLAMABAD, Sept 2 (AFP) — A government move to enforce Islamic Shariah law in Pakistan — widely attacked by political opponents as an opportunistic move — has now been challenged in the Supreme Court, reports said today.

The News, a daily, said Sultan Bahadur, a local lawyer, had filed a petition arguing that a Bill to go before Parliament would undermine the independence of the judiciary and fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

A national debate on far-reaching implications of the move and government’s intentions has been growing since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif unveiled the plan on Friday in the National Assembly.

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto described the proposed constitutional amendment as “a mockery of Islam and yet another attempt to fool the people of Pakistan in the name of religion.”

Mr Sharif says Islamisation is the key to solving deep-rooted problems such as rampant corruption, social injustice, economic inequality and maladministration.

But political opponents and independent analysts say Mr Sharif is seeking to acquire more powers in the name of Islamisation and to divert attention from the economic crisis following nuclear tests in May and subsequent sanctions.

Afghan warning to Iran

ISLAMABAD, Sept 2 (PTI) — Enraged over the movement of 70,000 strong Iranian elite troops along its border and reports that they would remain there even after the three-day exercise, Afghanistan today issued a stern warning to Teheran against any “provocative act and rhetoric.”

The Supreme Judicial Council of Afghanistan, which met in Kabul, warned Iran to avoid “provocative acts and rhetoric” saying the “Afghan nation is not scared of war,” media reports said here today.

In an obvious reference to the Iranian military exercise, the meeting observed that the “enmity of Iran with the Afghan nation has prolonged and such deeds of Iran would Inshallah (God willing) result in the fall of that country.”

The meeting also issued a stern warning to Iran saying: “We tell the Iranian government to cast an eye on the Afghan history, study it minutely and learn a lesson from the defeats of the British and the Russians so that they may not be repentant in future.”

DUBAI: Iran has launched an unprecedented massive military exercise involving 70,000 elite troops along its north-eastern border with Afghanistan even as the Taliban militia today asked for UN mediation to ease tension with Teheran.

“The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) started an unprecedented military exercise with participation of 70,000 elite forces in north-eastern Iran on Tuesday and the Ashura 3 war games are being launched at 600 square km along the eastern border,” official Iranian news agency IRNA said.

The revolutionary guards commander, Major-General Yahya Rahim Safavi, was quoted by the Iranian state television as telling the troops that Teheran would not tolerate “open or secret interference of foreign powers in its neighbouring countries nor threats to its security and peace.’”

The troops would remain near the border even after the end of three-day massive military exercises there, he said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi said his country would do what it deemed necessary to secure safety and freedom of the Iranian diplomats and citizens allegedly held hostages in Afghanistan.

Laden sparks Benazir-Nawaz duel

ISLAMABAD, Sept 2 (Reuters) — From exile in Afghanistan, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden sparked a duel between Pakistan’s main political rivals — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Ms Bhutto, in an overnight speech to Parliament, accused Laden, a Saudi Arabian millionaire blamed by the USA for bomb attacks on its embassies in East Africa, of funding Mr Sharif’s campaign to drive her from office in the 1980s.

Mr Sharif’s Information and Media Development Minister Mushahid Hussain yesterday rejected the charge as “preposterous, ludicrous and absolutely false” and accused Ms Bhutto of trying to harm Pakistan’s image.

Many Pakistani Muslims regarded Laden as an Islamic hero after the August 20 US missile strike on suspected guerrilla camps in eastern Afghanistan that Washington said were linked to the Saudi militant.

But political sources said the controversy between Mr Sharif’s government and the Opposition leader could cause a big divide of opinion about the Saudi militant.

Mr Sharif was the Chief Minister of the populous Punjab province in 1989 when, according to Ms Bhutto’s speech, Laden sent him money from Saudi Arabia to buy parliamentary deputies for an unsuccessful no-confidence vote to oust her as Pakistani Prime Minister.

“This is absolutely false, without any foundation,” Mr Hussain told reporters yesterday.

“There is no connection at all of any Pakistani leadership least of all Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, with Laden and this allegation which Ms Bhutto has made for the first time and that too after 10 years... is an attempt both to appease probably certain lobbies outside Pakistan and also to malign Pakistan,” Mr Hussain said.

He said the government felt Ms Bhutto had done disservice to Pakistan “by going to such an extent in her enmity with the government because this could be exploited by our enemies.”

Mr Hussain said Ms Bhutto’s comments could serve to echo what he called a campaign launched by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to link Pakistan “with what the Indians call terrorism and with people like Osama bin Laden”.

China flays US missile strikes

BEIJING, Sept 2 (PTI) — China today, for the first time, openly criticised the USA for launching retaliatory missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan, saying that it set a “bad precedent.”

“There is no doubt that the US attacks constituted a transgression of other countries’ sovereignty,” the official “China Daily” said in a commentary on the August 20 Cruise missile attack “Such a bad precedent not only encourages further violations of sovereignty, but also jeopardises international collaboration in the crusade against terrorism,” the daily said.

Clinton may face contempt charge

WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (PTI) — President Bill Clinton’s legal affairs has taken a turn for the worse with a US district judge hinting at contempt charge slapped on him for his misleading testimony in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct case.

Judge Susan Weber Wright said at Arkansas yesterday that she would release Mr Clinton’s January 17 videotaped deposition and other documents in the Jones lawsuit unless valid objections were raised by September 15.

Mr Clinton had deposed in that case that he had no sexual affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky. He subsequently admitted an "inappropriate" relationship.

The judge said the tape and other documents, including Ms Jones’ deposition in which she was believed to have described certain "distinguishing characteristics" of Mr Clinton’s private parts would be posted on the court’s Internet web site from September 28.

The judge said she had not yet decided whether Mr Clinton should be held in contempt for his testimony, during which he denied having sexual relations with Ms Lewinsky and testified that he could not recall ever being alone with her in the White House.

For now, however, judge Wright said in her ruling: "The President may be in contempt."

Reuters adds: Independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s prosecutors, trying to complete their sex-and-perjury investigation of Mr Clinton, questioned Ms Lewinsky last week, her attorney said on Wednesday.

Mr Plato Cacheris, one of the attorneys representing the 25-year-old former White House intern, said Ms Lewinsky was questioned under oath at Mr Starr’s office on August 26, but declined to discuss the substance of her testimony.

Second hearing on acting PM tomorrow

MOSCOW, Sept 2 (AFP) — Lawmakers in the state Duma, Lower House of Parliament, voted today to take up the second confirmation hearing on acting Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin on Friday.

Deputies voted 298-1 asking Mr Chernomyrdin to come to the state Duma for a second confirmation hearing on Friday.

Mr Chernomyrdin had failed in his first confirmation hearing on Monday. President Boris Yeltsin then resubmitted the acting Premier’s candidacy for a second of the three potential votes despite urgent calls by lawmakers for the Kremlin to enter a new candidacy.

Several Communist leaders, who together with their Leftist and Nationalist allies compose the Duma’s majority, said they would prefer to see Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov or Federation Council Upper Parliament Chamber leader Yegor Stroyev head the Russian Government.

Australia’s Democrats eyeing youth vote

ADELAIDE, Sept 2 (AP) — The Australian Democrats have made a pitch for the youth vote ahead of the October 3 federal election with a kit of condoms and a slogan, “so it’s your first time, get some protection, vote Democrats”.

Democrats deputy leader Natasha Stott Despoja said the kit was to encourage young people to “practise safe politics” and to explain the country’s voting system.

“This kit is directed at many young Australians, 5,00,000 of whom are voting for the first time,” Stott Despoja said. It aims at explaining the preferential system, saying that why a vote for a third party is never a wasted vote, but also explaining to people why their preferences count.

Australia’s preferential voting system requires all major parties to list candidates from other groups in a descending order of preference. Preferences, or secondary votes, can often result in candidates winning the elections.

Stott Despoja said the Democrats had received a number of calls from young people, their parents and schools asking them to explain the system and to outline some of the policies of all political parties.

Pak court rejects Benazir’s plea
KARACHI: A Pakistani court has rejected separate petitions by the Opposition leader and former Premier Benazir Bhutto and her jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari to stop the government from helping the Swiss authorities in connection with money laundering charges against her, court sources said. The petitions were filed in June seeking a court order to stop cooperation between the Pakistani officials and the Swiss authorities.—DPA

‘Titanic’ fever returns
LOS ANGELES: “Titanic” is well on its way towards becoming the biggest-selling live-action video in Hollywood history. Across the USA, people lined up at video and music stores to purchase the two-tape set of the 600 million dollars box office blockbuster at the earliest possible moment it was available. Sales information was sketchy at best on the first day of the second wave of the “Titanic” craze. Blockbuster video announced it had pre-sold one million copies, though it wasn’t known how many of those were picked up. — AP

21 killed
DUSHANBE: A total of 21 persons were killed and nine seriously injured when a coach crashed into a ravine in north-western Tajikistan, the country’s Interior Ministry disclosed on Wednesday. The accident occurred about 45 km from the capital, Dushanbe, on Monday, it said. — AFP

Bogus monks
BANGKOK: Gangs of Thai men are posing as Buddhist monks to beg for money in neighbouring countries, the Foreign Ministry has said. Twenty bogus Buddhist monks from Thailand were arrested in the past year while staging their scam in Singapore, a ministry statement said. All were deported back to Thailand. Begging is illegal in Singapore, and Buddhist monks need permission from the authorities to seek alms. — AP

Dengue fever
MANILA: At least 114 persons have died of dengue fever and over 7,750 other sufferers have been hospitalised in the Philippines in the first eight months this year, the Department of Health has said. The department stated on Tuesday that more cases are expected due to the onset of the rainy season. —AP

Couple chased
NORFOLK (USA): For better or worse, Lisa Murray and Michael Ryan were going to get married. It didn’t matter that Hurricane Bonnie chased them across two states to three different sites. The couple had been planning an oceanfront wedding in Nags Head, North Carolina, for the past year, renting four beach houses for their wedding party and friends. But they had to flee every time because Bonnie approached. — AP

Transsexual jailed with women
LONDON: A 57-year-old British transsexual has been sent to the female unit of a prison to serve his sentence for embezzlement. Lawyer Alexandra Macrae, formerly Stephen but still a biological male, was sentenced to 15 months at Dundee Sheriff court in Scotland. Macrae, a former amateur Rugby player and son of a Church of Scotland minister, is the first biological male in Britain to be jailed with women. — AFP

Deputy minister held
MOSCOW: Mr Vladimir Petrov, Russia’s first Deputy Minister of Finance, was arrested in Moscow on suspicion of corruption, Russian news agencies have reported. The reports on Tuesday quoted prosecutors as saying that the 44-year-old Petrov was suspected of accepting bribes from a Russian bank. — DPA

Copter crashes, 2 dead
MOSCOW: A Russian helicopter has crashed near a village in the Siberian region of Kamchatka killing two persons and injuring three, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Wednesday. — AFP