Gen Wiranto fails to turn up
JAKARTA, Dec 22 — Former Indonesian armed forces chief Gen Wiranto today failed to turn up at an Indonesian inquiry into rights abuses in East Timor to explain the violence which left the territory in ruins.

India’s claim to UN seat backed
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 22 — Russia, Mauritius and Cyprus have strongly supported India’s candidature for permanent membership in the expanded UN Security Council.

Schwarzenegger settles lawsuit
LOS ANGELES, Dec 22 — Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger has settled his $ 50 million lawsuit against The Globe tabloid over a 1998 story that said he was in ill health and in danger of a heart attack, a publicist has said.

Plot of Suharto’s daughter seized
JAKARTA, Dec 22 — The Indonesian Bank restructuring Agency (IBRA) has seized a 14-hectare plot of land in Jakarta belonging to one of ousted President Suharto’s daughters, news reports said today.

USA: Laden behind terrorism in J&K

WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (PTI) — The USA has warned that international terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is “increasingly” playing a role in abetting terrorism in Kashmir threatening stability in south Asia.

“His (Bin Laden’s) operations and operatives are worldwide in scope and increasingly play a role in areas such as Kashmir, central Asia, the Caucasus, Chechnya and Dagestan...”, Assistant Secretary of State Karl F. Inderfurth has said yesterday.

Stating that “there is no question that terrorism is a growing threat to stability in south Asia”, Inderfurth asserted that “we are working hard to end these threats”.

“We are confident we can bring him (Bin Laden) to justice and it is only a matter of time. We are going to work very hard at it,” he told Indian and Pakistani reporters here.

The Assistant Secretary of State also said that Bin Laden was not the only terrorist operating in south Asia and referred to the recent attack on Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber.

“It is out strongly held view that Bin Laden is not the only one” in south Asia and “we know the countries of the region recognise this threat and we want to seek expanded cooperation with them in addressing it,” he opined.

The USA has issued a warning to Americans worldwide of a possible terrorist attack during the new year period.

“The US government believes that terrorists may be planning to conduct attacks against officials and non-official Americans in and around the new year period,” the State Department warned yesterday.

It said investigations following the arrest of suspected terrorists in Jordan having links with Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden had shown that they may target tour buses, hotels and tourists sites in the west Asia region.

Looting follows floods in Venezuela
Over 250,000 homeless

LA GUAIRA, (Venezuela), Dec 22 (Reuters) — Paratroopers pinned down looters stealing from the dead and destitute yesterday in the aftermath of Venezuela’s devastating mudslides and flash floods that may have killed up to 30,000 people.

The landslides, which almost wiped out a 60-mile (100-km) stretch of Caribbean coast, were likely to rank as one of Latin America’s worst natural disasters of the 20th century.

Amid persistent looting, soldiers carrying semi-automatic weapons scoured the desolate moonscape left by the avalanches of mud and rocks that buried most victims alive but left some gruesome corpses exposed to the tropical sun.

“There are unfortunately thousands of people buried in the mud, and the final number we will never know — the forecast that we could have may be 25,000 or 30,000 people,” Civil Defence National Director Angel Rangel said.

Bearing the brunt of the disaster was Vargas state, an area of 350,000 people with popular beaches, not more than an hour’s drive from the capital, Caracas.

There, mudslides and raging rivers swept away shantytowns perched on steep slopes of the lush Avila mountain and left tall buildings marooned in a sea of rock-hard debris.

Government officials said reconstruction would run into the billions of dollars and take several years. Economists predicted the disaster would aggravate a deep economic recession in the oil-rich country of 23 million.

Gen Charles Wilhelm, head of the US Southern Command, reported after a visit to the disaster zone that the death toll appeared to be “catastrophic”. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said in Washington, “we are supplying body bags by the thousands.”

CARACAS (DPA): As rescue crews and medical personnel reached more remote towns and villages, the Red Cross put the number of homeless at 250,000.

But President Hugo Chavez said, “any figure at the moment is nothing more than speculation and we could easily fall victim to exaggeration.’’ He said 140,000 had been left without a roof over their heads.

Meanwhile looting was reported, with the looters breaking into clinics and businesses stealing medicines, surgical instruments and electric appliances, the mayor of the city of La Guaira, Lenin Marcano, said.

Between 200 and 300 persons were arrested for looting yesterday, the Mayor said. “This looting is taken place not because of hunger, because we have provided foodstuffs for the entire region.”

Mr Chavez has ruled out declaring a state of emergency to avert looting, but vowed yesterday to nip looting in the bud.

“I have ordered patrols to be increased,” he said. “We will deploy more military police to ensure that a wave of looting doesn’t break out.’’

Experts at insurance companies said the flooding had caused 2 billion dollars in damage to infrastructure, businesses and houses.

The President of the Alliance of Businessmen, Vincente Brito, said at least 200,000 jobs have been lost.

Destruction of the infrastructure in coastal region of Vargas was widespread. The region lies between the sea and the mountains not far from Caracas.

Rainfall had lashed the Caribbean coast for more than two weeks and stopped only on the weekend. Many houses, streets and autos disappeared under masses of sludge. There were fears that many bodies lay buried under the mud.

Defence Minister Raul Salazar said the evacuation of some 50,000 victims from the hardest-hit northern coastal regions was not the most difficult task.

Eight U.S. Military helicopters were already on-scene and had evacuated some 4,000 people in more than 200 sorties, the U.S. Defense Department said in Washington.

C-130 aircraft from U.S. Military facilities in Puerto Rico were also delivering medical supplies, food, water, body bags and equipment, including a 1,135-litre-per-hour water purifying machine.

Chechens ‘encircle’ Russian paratroopers

DUBA YURT, Russia, Dec 22 (AP) — Chechen fighters today claimed to have encircled and inflicted heavy losses on a force of Russian paratroopers which parachuted into the southern mountains to cut off rebel supply lines.

Meanwhile, federal forces stepped up their artillery barrage today on the Chechen capital Grozny, the last major town occupied by the rebels in the breakaway republic.

Russia has acknowledged dropping paratroopers in the southern mountains, but a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman denied that the force had been surrounded.

Chechen commander Adam Baibulatov said about 1,000 Russian paratroopers had landed five kilometres from the southern border with Georgia inside Chechnya a week ago, and were surrounded and taking heavy losses from rebel forces.

He said the Russians were trapped because heavy fire from the insurgents was preventing helicopters from landing with ammunition and other supplies for the paratroopers.

‘‘Chechen fighters have established a tight noose’’ around the paratroopers, Mr Baibulatov said in an interview here.

Russian Col. Gen Viktor Kazantsev said Russian units were operating across Chechnya’s southern highlands, and had blocked a key road used by the rebels.

Russian troops have already taken control of Chechnya’s northern plains after moving into the breakaway republic in September. But they may have more problems taking the south, where the mountainous terrain favours the rebel’s hit-and-run tactics.

MOSCOW (Reuters): Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today said the military campaign in Chechnya was near its end and Interfax news agency said commanders had received orders and were ready to take the capital Grozny.

After meeting President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin, Mr Putin said the military campaign was nearly finished, but Russia had set no firm deadline and would do all it could to limit casualties among its troops.

Interfax quoted military sources as saying commanders had already received their orders to seize Grozny with a ‘‘special operation’’ and completed their preparations.

‘‘The necessary forces and means for carrying out the military operation have already been concentrated around Grozny,’’ Interfax said. Russian generals say they will take the city without a full-scale frontal ground assault.

A Chechen rebel leader said Russia today launched its fiercest artillery strikes in 10 days on the capital on Wednesday, but a military spokesman at headquarters in Mozdok, just outside Chechnya, told NTV television the city was mostly quiet.

Interfax news agency quoted the rebel mayor of Grozny, Lecha Dudayev, as saying overnight artillery strikes on the capital were the heaviest in 10 days. He said shells had fallen all across the city, especially in an industrial zone in the west.

Reuters correspondent Maria Eismont, who was in Grozny at the weekend with a small group of reporters for foreign news organisations, said about 8,000 guerrilla fighters were holed up in secure positions and had vowed to defend the city to the last man.

She said thousands of civilians remained trapped in cellars with little food or firewood. Official Russian estimates of civilians still in Grozny have ranged from 4,000 to more than 40,000, but there is no way to count them.

Pak’s Chashma N-plant unsafe: expert

ISLAMABAD, Dec 22 (PTI) Pakistan’s second nuclear power plant which is scheduled to become operational early next year has locational and manufacturing flaws which makes it unsafe and may lead to a major nuclear disaster, a leading Pakistani expert has warned.

Participating in a panel discussion here Dr A.H. Nayyar, Associate professor of Physics in Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, presented his study on the recently completed but yet to be operational nuclear plant at Chashma, which is barely 100 km from here.

Speaking on the safety of the plant, which has been almost entirely built by the Chinese experts, Dr Nayyar warned that the plant had not only been built at a “very dangerous site” but it also has design flaws and in case of a disaster human as well as marine life in the Indus river would be affected.

Mr Zia Siddiqui, Deputy Plant Manager at the Chashma plant, however, refuted these conclusions but failed to give specific replies on the point raised by Dr Nayyar and simply said: “Risks have been assessed and the plant built accordingly”. But Dr Nayyar stuck to his point and even raised question about the Independence of the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Board (PNRB), which is responsible for overseeing the safety requirements of such a nuclear plant.

Gen Wiranto fails to turn up

JAKARTA, Dec 22 (Reuters) — Former Indonesian armed forces chief Gen Wiranto today failed to turn up at an Indonesian inquiry into rights abuses in East Timor to explain the violence which left the territory in ruins.

General Wiranto was summoned by the official body to appear today. An official said he had requested more time to prepare.

“We got a phone call this morning from the (lawyers) team ...We received reports that in order to produce better explanations, the investigation has to be postponed,” Asmara Nababan told a news conference.

General Wiranto, the coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, was Defence Minister and armed forces chief at the time of an independence referendum in East Timor on August 30.

India’s claim to UN seat backed

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 22 (PTI) — Russia, Mauritius and Cyprus have strongly supported India’s candidature for permanent membership in the expanded UN Security Council.

Participating in the General Assembly debate on expansion and reform of the 15-member council yesterday, they argued that India’s claim was valid from all angles — be it demographic or economic. The NATO action in Kosovo has only “substantiated” Russia’s belief that there is no alternative to enlargement of the council, he said.

Ambassador Anund P. Neewoor of Mauritius said India, as the second most populous country, the largest democracy and an industrial and economic “power house”, more than deserved a permanent seat in its own right.

Cyprus’ representative Constantine Moudhoutas said criteria for permanent membership should be contribution to the UN budget and its peacekeeping missions. India absolutely qualified on that criteria, he told the 188-member Assembly.

Schwarzenegger settles lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, Dec 22 (Reuters) — Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger has settled his $ 50 million lawsuit against The Globe tabloid over a 1998 story that said he was in ill health and in danger of a heart attack, a publicist has said.

Under terms of the settlement, The Globe will donate an undisclosed sum of money to Schwarzenegger’s charity, the Inner City Games Foundation.

Schwarzenegger, (52), underwent successful surgery in April, 1997 to repair a defective heart valve, and doctors said afterwards there was no reason the star could not continue his active lifestyle.

“I feel completely vindicated by the settlement, and I am well-satisfied with the amount that I received as part of the settlement and with the contribution that The Globe made to the Inner City Games Foundation,” the actor said in a statement.

Plot of Suharto’s daughter seized

JAKARTA, Dec 22 (DPA) The Indonesian Bank restructuring Agency (IBRA) has seized a 14-hectare plot of land in Jakarta belonging to one of ousted President Suharto’s daughters, news reports said today.

IBRA’s senior legal officer Agustus Sani Nugroho said the land was seized after the property firm, PT Sinar Slipi Sejahtera failed to reach an agreement with the state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) on settling its $ 106 million debt, The Jakarta Post reported. The property firm is owned by Sit Hardiyanti “Tutut” Rukmana, Mr Suharto’s eldest daughter.

Tandoor murder in Namibia
WINDHOEK: A Namibian court has convicted a German national on a charge of brutally murdering his young wife and later cooking her body to wipe out the evidence. Billed as Namibia’s worst murder, Thomas Florin had butchered his wife, Monika Florin, to death on the night of June 2, 1998. — PTI

Ignorant Israelis
JERUSALEM: Most Israelis do not know when Christians celebrate Christmas, a poll testing Israeli attitudes towards Christianity found on Tuesday. The Gallup poll which was commissioned by a group that fosters Jewish-Christian understanding, found that 75 per cent of Israeli Jews did not know that December 25 was the day most Christians celebrated the Christmas holiday. — Reuters

Love child’s privacy
WELLINGTON: The New Zealand mother of the love child of Britain’s Princess Anne’s ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips has gone on television to appeal for the 14-year-old girl to be left alone. Heather Tonkin conceived her daughter during a night of love with Captain Phillips when he was visiting New Zealand for a horse show. — DPA

Pub’s no to Christmas
LONDON: Like the Victorian Curmudgeon scrooge in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, a pub owner in England has had enough of yuletide cheer and declared his premises a “Christmas-free zone”. Landlord Bill Kelly, who runs the Posada in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, has banned Christmas records, decorations, tinsel and trees from his pub. — DPA

Court ruling on gays
STRASBOURG (France): Being a homosexual is no reason to ban a father from caring for his children, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday. Judges were unanimous in finding that Portugal had violated the rights to “respect for private and family life” of a divorced father when it stripped him of parental responsibility for his nine-year-old daughter on the grounds that he was a homosexual and lived with another man. — Reuters

Probe ordered into oil spills
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Government has ordered a high-level inquiry into two heavy oil spills along the Karachi coastline that could cause serious damage to the fragile ecosystem in the area. — UNI