UN disarmament meeting ends on controversial note
GENEVA, Sept 8 — The U.N. conference on disarmament closed on a controversial note today with Pakistan's representative likening the five nuclear powers to "drunkards preaching abstinence to the rest of the world". The only concrete result of this year's conference was the setting up of a committee for a "cut off" treaty forbidding production of new nuclear material for military use.

‘Give advance copy’ of Starr report
WASHINGTON, Sept 8 — US President Bill Clinton’s lawyer has asked for an advance copy of the report independent counsel Kenneth Starr plans to present to Congress on the President’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, CNN reported.

S. Korea coalition gets majority
SEOUL, Sept 8 — South Korea’s ruling coalition today ended its minority status in Parliament and secured a working majority when four Opposition lawmakers changed their side, party officials said.

Sam Rainsy freed
PHNOM PENH, Sept 8 — Shielded by UN officials and cheered by a mob of thousands of motor-cycle riders, opposition leader Sam Rainsy walked free today from a hotel where he had sought refuge overnight from arrest by strongman Hun Sen.

‘No curbs’ on Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said today that there were no restrictions on the movements of former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

Duma threatens Yeltsin with impeachment

MOSCOW, Sept 8 (PTI) — Beleaguered Boris Yeltsin was today threatened by the Communist-majority Duma with impeachment if he proposes Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin’s name for the third time as the Prime Minister even as the Russian President took an unprecedented timeout and did not send the renomination.

A decision by Mr Yeltsin to renominate the acting Premier, Mr Chernomyrdin, who was heavily defeated in two previous votes on August 23 and yesterday, would lead to moves to remove the Kremlin boss, deputy chairperson of the Duma committee on impeachment Yelena Mizulina told reporters.

“Duma will be dissolved that very moment as the (third) negative voting on Mr Chernomyrdin becomes clear. We do not want that. Thus, the voting on the impeachment and the launch of the impeachment procedure must occur before the third attempt to approve Mr Chernomyrdin as the Premier”, she said.

In spite of heavy expectations, Mr Yeltsin today did not send the nomination of Mr Chernomyrdin to Duma for the third time for confirmation as the Prime Minister.

“The President is unlikely to send nomination papers by Tuesday night”, Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.

In the latest developments, acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov (69) has emerged as the most popular compromise candidate for the Premier’s post but he rejected the offer.

“I am grateful to everyone offering my candidature as the government chairman. But I must clearly say I cannot agree to that”, Mr Primakov was quoted as saying by the official Itar-Tass news agency.

Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov, a prominent Communist leader, told reporters he saw no problem in the approval of Mr Primakov as the new Premier in the first attempt itself.

Chairman of the powerful Federation Council — the Upper House — Yegor Stroyev, who declined to seek Premiership, described Mr Primakov as a “wonderful” choice.

Mr Primakov’s name was proposed by the leader of the Liberal Yabloko Bloc, Dr Grigory Yavlinsky, at the Kremlin negotiations with Mr Yeltsin yesterday before the Lower House overwhelmingly rejected Mr Chernomyrdin’s candidacy for the second time.

In the event of a third negative vote against Mr Chernomyrdin, Mr Yeltsin’s would be free to dissolve the House, a luxury he cannot afford now as the country is sliding towards the repetition of the Indonesian scenario.

Mr Yeltsin could also name a new candidate in place of Mr Chernomyrdin, who would be acceptable to the majority of the Duma factions.

N. Korea plans ‘second launch’
Accord on peace talks with USA

MOSCOW, Sept 8 (AFP) — North Korea is preparing a second ballistic missile launch for Wednesday, Itar Tass news agency reported yesterday, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

A first test on August 31 sparked outrage in the USA, South Korea and Japan which suspended food and other assistance to North Korea following the launch.

North Korea insists it carried out a satellite launch, but Washington, Tokyo and Seoul insist Pyongyang fired a medium-range ballistic Taepo-Dong I missile which overflew Japanese territory.

SEOUL (AFP): The USA has spotted a satellite which North Korea says it put into orbit last week, but failed to pick up any signal from the object, a South Korean report said on Tuesday.

Official confirmation was not immediately available. Officials here say Washington will announce its findings of a probe into whether the North fired a ballistic weapon or launched a satellite as it claims later this week.

The Korea Times quoted a government source as saying the sighting appeared to back up the North’s insistence it launched an object into orbit, but cast doubt on whether it was operational.

“The United States has found an object believed to be North Korea’s satellite but failed to pick up signals,’’ a Seoul Government source was quoted as saying.

But a complete failure to detect a signal from the orbiting object would make it very difficult to fully verify Pyongyang’s claim it had successfully launched a satellite, or that it had carried out a ballistic weapons test.

The paper said the detection of a signal would decide whether the object was a satellite or “just trash orbiting the earth.”

Meanwhile, North Korea has agreed with the USA to hold talks next month aimed at formally ending the 1950-53 Korean war, Seoul government sources said.

The two countries also decided to re-start bilateral talks on curbing missile proliferation next month after they were abruptly cancelled last year when two North Korean diplomats requested asylum in the USA.

The apparent breakthrough in talks in New York came amid growing worries over Pyongyang’s missile capabilities and as its opaque government became more dominated by the military.

“Those are some issues we believe were agreed during the latest round of talks in New York,” a government source told AFP.

Four-party talks — including the USA, North and South Korea and China — are aimed at brokering a permanent peace to formally end the war.

Pakistan trained Taliban, says ex-minister

ISLAMABAD, Sept 8 (UNI) — Former Pakistani Interior Minister Major General (retd) Nasirullah Babar has accepted that the Taliban in Afghanistan were trained under his guidance in 1994.

Addressing a rally in Gujranwala in Punjab (Pakistan), Mr Babar said he was the interior minister in the Benazir Bhutto government when under his tutelage the student militia were imparted training.

Mr Nasirullah Babar said that the late Z.A. Bhutto was the moving force behind the Afghan uprising but he regretted that he was not acknowledged. He said, prominent Afghan leaders including Ahmed Shah Masud, Bulbadin Hikmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabbani were given refuge by Ms Bhutto, who had realised the fact that the Russian influence had been increasing in the region.

Therefore on the directive of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1973, the training of Afghan Mujahideen was started and he (Babar) himself had supervised it. Later even in 1994, the Taliban were given lessons in military techniques by him when he was the interior minister in the Benazir Bhutto government, Mr Babar said.

Only recently while addressing a Press conference in Islamabad, Mr Babar had strongly denied any involvement with the Taliban when a foreign journalist had confronted him of having been seen in Afghanistan with the Taliban militia.

UN disarmament meeting ends on
controversial note

GENEVA, Sept 8 (AFP) — The U.N. conference on disarmament closed on a controversial note today with Pakistan's representative likening the five nuclear powers to "drunkards preaching abstinence to the rest of the world".

The only concrete result of this year's conference was the setting up in August of a negotiating committee for a possible "cut off" treaty forbidding production of new nuclear material for military use.

Ambassador Clive Pearson of New Zealand expressed the regrets of 10 of the 61 participating countries that the conference's final report did not feature a condemnation of India and Pakistan's nuclear tests.

Pakistan's delegate Munir Akram lashed out at critics of his country's nuclear policy, while India's Savitri Kunadi gave a less acerbic response.

"What God has ordained that there will five legitimate nuclear weapons states?" asked Akram, saying he did not accept "such moralising" from the five nuclear powers of Russia, the USA, China, Britain and France.

Kunadi said all nuclear states "should refrain from the weaponisation or deployment of nuclear weapons, from the testing or deployment of missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, and from any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons".

She said her country would not accept any distinction between the tests conducted by one state or another.

Real IRA declares total ceasefire

BELFAST, Sept 8 (AFP) — The real IRA, the dissident group that bombed Omagh in Northern Ireland last month, killing 29 persons, today declared a total ceasefire.

The organisation, which suspended military activities three days after the Omagh massacre on August 15, which also injured 220, said it had declared “a complete cessation” from early this morning.

The real IRA, which said it had planted the bomb, split from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) last year after the IRA declared a ceasefire in July.

The Omagh massacre prompted the British and Irish governments to introduce tough new measures to combat groups which failed to go along with April’s peace accord for Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, Britain and Ireland on Tuesday cautiously welcomed the ceasefire announced by the real IRA.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was quoted in television reports as saying the real IRA statement was important and positive for the northern Ireland peace process, provided it was fully implemented.

But he made clear the British and Irish Governments remained determined to track down the Omagh bombers.

‘Give advance copy’ of Starr report

WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (AFP) — US President Bill Clinton’s lawyer has asked for an advance copy of the report independent counsel Kenneth Starr plans to present to Congress on the President’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, CNN reported.

David Kendall, the President’s personal lawyer, asked for the copy of Starr’s report in a letter yesterday, saying it was necessary to ensure “elemental fairness” to the President, the network said.

“Elemental fairness dictates that we be allowed to respond to any ‘report’ you send to the house simultaneously with its transmission,” Kendall wrote.

The report, expected within the next few weeks, is likely to have such damaging details that some believe Clinton would be censured by Congress a major embarrassment, but far short of being forced from office.

Others say Starr’s report would be so personally and politically devastating it would force Clinton to resign or face impeachment by Congress.

S. Korea coalition gets majority

SEOUL, Sept 8 (AFP) — South Korea’s ruling coalition today ended its minority status in Parliament and secured a working majority when four Opposition lawmakers changed their side, party officials said.

The four lawmakers from the Opposition Grand National Party (GNP) joined the National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) headed by President Kim Dae-Jung, bringing the number of the NCNP’s parliamentary seats to 101.

Combined with 52 seats occupied by the NCNP’s allies, the United Liberal Democrats led by Prime Minister Kim Jong-Pil, the coalition has now 153 seats, three seats more than a simple majority of 150 in the 299-seat National Assembly.

At least four more GNP lawmakers are reportedly about to join the NCNP.

Sam Rainsy freed

PHNOM PENH, Sept 8 (AP) — Shielded by UN officials and cheered by a mob of thousands of motor-cycle riders, opposition leader Sam Rainsy walked free today from a hotel where he had sought refuge overnight from arrest by strongman Hun Sen.

Motor-cycle taxis, a core of opposition support, roared through the streets, snarling traffic and beeping horns to the rhythm of their leader’s name: “Sam Rain-Sy Sam Rain-Sy”.

Hun Sen rescinded an order earlier today to have Sam Rainsy arrested for what the Cambodian leader called “terrorism,” blaming his most vocal rival for a grenade attack yesterday on his house. No one was hurt.

Security was eased today. Thousands of motor-cycle drivers and Buddhist monks waited outside the hotel as word of Sam Rainsy’s release spread.The politician was escorted by the UN’s special representative, Lakhan Mehrotra, in a convoy of UN vehicles to the home of his ally, Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

Mr Ranariddh and Mr Sam Rainsy have been challenging Hun Sen over his declared victory in parliamentary elections of July 26, alleging massive fraud. Hun Sen-controlled panels have rejected their complaints.

‘No curbs’ on Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Reuters) — Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said today that there were no restrictions on the movements of former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

The Prime Minister told a news conference that Anwar was doing his best to get arrested, and that the sacked minister’s reform movement was a ploy to deceive the public.

Mahathir said he has no plans to appoint a Deputy Prime Minister adding that his united Malays National Organisation (UMNO) would pick his successor from the two most senior party leaders.

Indians freed
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has released three Indians held in connection with a threat on the US Embassy in The Philippines and the case is now closed, an Interior Ministry official said on Monday. The three men were detained after their handwriting closely matched that on a note threatening the attack, which was found on an Emirates airlines flight from Dubai to Kuwait. All passengers were subjected to a handwriting test to find who had written the note, that threatened a bomb attack on the US Embassy in The Philippines on September 4. — AFP

N-workers’ stir
MOSCOW (AP): Workers at two Russian nuclear research centres in the south Urals have gone on strike to demand unpaid wages, the Itar-Tass news agency has said. “Conditions indeed have become intolerable and socially dangerous,” said Vladimir Gorshkov, deputy union leader at the Russian federal nuclear centre on Monday. The centre, one of Russia’s two major nuclear weapons research institutes, is located in the Ural mountains town of Snezhinsk. — AP

Sex change
TOKYO: A medical school has postponed Japan’s first officially approved sex-change operation following reports questioning its past surgery on a trans-sexual, news reports have said. Saitama Medical College, just north of Tokyo, originally had planned to perform a sex-change operation on a 30-year-old woman on Friday. The decision to postpone the operation came after college officials acknowledged that the college hospital had performed surgery on another woman five years ago without obtaining approval from its Ethics Committee. — AP

Lighthouse
PARIS: Alexandria’s lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, will be rebuilt on the same site in a 21st century version, the project’s sponsors has said. Foundation Internationale Pierre Cardin, run by the French fashion designer, on Monday said the Alexandria authorities gave the green light to the 400-million franc ($ 70 million) project which would be announced officially on Thursday. — Reuters

Dengue toll 202
MANILA, (Philippines): At least 202 persons have died in The Philippines of dengue fever and more than 11,200 others have been hospitalised with the disease in the first eight months of this year, the Department of Health has said. The department revised the toll after reports from rural areas reached Manila, and said on Monday that it did not reflect a major new upsurge in the disease. — AP

Robber returns cash
ALBUQUERQUE, (US): The police said a man threatened a woman at an automated teller machine and took $ 20. Then, when she pleaded with him, he gave it back. Officers arrested James Bigger anyway. The 46-year-old woman was `scared to death’ during the robbery on Thursday evening. She shook uncontrollably and had difficulty breathing, according to the police report. — AP