Party’s threat to quit coalition
JERUSALEM, Dec 27 — The ultra-orthodox Jewish Shas Party, which provides 17 critical seats in the Israeli Government, has told Prime Minister Ehud Barak it will quit his coalition, Israel Radio reported today.

Net turns into crystal ball
NEW YORK, Dec 27 — The imminent arrival of the year 2000 has prompted professionals and amateurs alike to try to divine how life will change in the decades and centuries to come — and the Internet offers a glimpse into many of those crystal balls.

Rightist wins Guatemalan presidential poll
GUATEMALA CITY, Dec 27 — a Guatemalan opposition candidate whose party was created by a former military dictator won a landslide run-off victory in the country’s first presidential elections since the end of civil war, official results have showed.

‘Any Given Sunday’ tops at box office
LOS ANGELES, Dec 27 — Director Oliver Stone scored a box office touchdown as his football drama “Any Given Sunday” led the pact at a busy Christmas holiday box office, according to studio estimates issued yesterday.

More oil leaks out of sunken tanker
BREST (France), Dec 27 — Already facing an “ecological catastrophe”, France’s Atlantic coast was dealt another blow yesterday as more oil was seen leaking out of the back of a sunken tanker off the coast of Brittany.

38 die in Ambon communal clashes

JAKARTA, Dec 27 (DPA) — At least 38 persons have been killed and dozens others wounded as the sectarian fighting between Muslims and Christians continued today in eastern Indonesia’s strife-torn city of Ambon, residents and news reports said.

The official Antara news agency reported that 435 troops were sent to Ambon from East Kalimantan to help quell the ongoing violence between Muslims and Christians.

“At least 26 persons have died and more than 30 others injured. The situation here is extremely tense with sounds of gunfire continuing to ring out”, a staff member at Al-Fatah Mosque told DPA by telephone.

The Muslim activist, who asked for anonymity, said fighting between the warring residents was continuing and that thick smoke was to be seen from burning houses and other buildings.

Antara reported that the other 12 fatalities were brought to Ambon’s Protestant Hospital and the state-run Haulussy Hospital. Most of them died of gunshot wounds.

A member of the local Protestant Maranatha Church, who identified himself as Pattinaya, said at least six Christians were killed and 20 others wounded in clashes since late yesterday.

He said most of the victims were shot by the security forces.

“The situation is still very chaotic here.I could hear gunshots fired from here,” a policeman at Ambon’s police headquarters said.

A staff member with the Maranatha Protestant emergency post, Adolf, accused the Muslim mobs of burning “many homes owned by Christian residents” since early this morning.

He said houses located behind the Silo Church had also been set on fire by angry mobs and they were aided by security troops.

Police and military officials said the warring groups no longer relied on arrows and machetes but now used “sophisticated” home-made guns.

Earlier today, Jakarta’s Media Indonesia daily reported that at least 125 persons had been killed in clashes on the island of Buru since December 22.

Over 40 killed in hurricane

HAMBURG, Dec 27 (DPA) — More than 40 persons were reported dead as Western Europe was struck on Sunday by hurricane-strength winds of up to 200 km an hour and heavy rain.

The dead included at least 15 in Germany from overturned trees and road accidents, at least 13 in Switzerland and at least 20 in France. In Germany, hundreds were injured. In the days leading up to the Christmas holiday in Great Britain, three persons died in storms and rain.

Winds gusting up to 200 km an hour yesterday blew east from France and Switzerland toward Germany, cutting a path of destruction. Rail and auto traffic collapsed.

“We have never experienced such a strong hurricane over the interior in Germany,’’ said meteorologist Petra Fechner, from the German Weather Service in Offenbach. “Normally, such strong low pressures develop out at sea rather than over land.’’

In Baden-Wuerttemberg 11 persons were killed, while in Bavaria, three died, the police said. A woman around 50 years old was killed in Ostalgau when she was caught in a gust of wind and blown into the river Guenz and drowned. In the Rhineland-Palatinate, one person was reported dead.

Transport services were left in chaos and airports were closed as Paris was hit by gusts of 170 km an hour. An employee of the French Meteorological Service said no records existed of heavier winds ever hitting the capital.

The Paris airports of Roissy and Orly were closed temporarily while many railway stations were shut. Eyewitnesses said some streets looked like a battleground as trees, stones, scaffolding, power lines and Christmas trees were blown through the air.

“In our records, there is no indication that a storm of such strength ever hit Paris,’’ said an employee at the French Weather Service.

As the storm extended farther south, several motorists were hit by uprooted trees. One farmer died under a bale of hay and another man drowned.

In Normandy, Brittany and Alsace-Lorraine, most trains services were halted. About 4,000 trees were blown over in the garden of Versailles Palace, in central France.

In Brittany, soldiers, civil defence workers and hundreds of volunteer helpers were battling to avert an ecological disaster as storm-lashed seas drove oil spilled from the stricken Maltese-registered tanker “erika” on to the shore.

By late afternoon, 1.5 million French households were without electricity.

In Switzerland, one person riding in an aerial cable car in the ski resort of Crans-Montana was hit when the car hit an uprooted tree.

Another man making emergency repairs to a house was killed when he was blown off the roof. Elsewhere, six persons — including a six-year-old boy — were killed by uprooted trees.

Many communities lost their power supplies while roads and railway lines were blocked by fallen trees.

In south-west Germany, between 20 and 30 major train routes were blocked by trees. Thousands of people were stranded at railway stations. German Railways spokesman Martin Katz said that some substitute bus services were unable to run because of chaos on the roads.

No trains from France or Switzerland had reached Germany by yesterday afternoon. Munich airport was closed in the afternoon.

In Belgium, several rivers broke their banks.

Israel frees five Lebanese ultras

BEIRUT, Dec 27 (Reuters) — Five members of Lebanon’s Hizbollah, freed by Israel after being held for more than 10 years without trial, arrived in Beirut early today.

The prisoners, who left Israel on Sunday and came to Lebanon via Berlin, landed at Beirut airport where they were welcomed by cheering families and officials. A German spokesman said his government had brokered their release.

The prisoners are the first Lebanese guerrillas released by Israel since 1998, when the Jewish state swapped 60 detainees and the bodies of 40 guerrillas for the remains of soldiers killed in a botched South Lebanon raid.

All are members of the Iranian-backed Hizbollah, fighting to oust Israeli troops from South Lebanon, and include two aides of Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, a leader of the Islamic group abducted from his home by Israeli commandos in 1989.

JERUSALEM (AFP): Israel said it would set free some two dozen Palestinian prisoners from its jails to mark the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, a decision Prime Minister Ehud Barak described as “painful”, but which was immediately rejected by Palestinians.

An official in Mr Barak’s office said yesterday the decision to free at least 24 Palestinian prisoners followed a meeting of the Security Cabinet, but he did not say when the release of the men would take place.

But the Palestinians said they were not satisfied.

“We have not been notified of anything so far, but if the figures are correct it’s a joke,” Palestinian Minister for Prisoners Hisham Abdelrazek told AFP.

Party’s threat to quit coalition

JERUSALEM, Dec 27 (Reuters) — The ultra-orthodox Jewish Shas Party, which provides 17 critical seats in the Israeli Government, has told Prime Minister Ehud Barak it will quit his coalition, Israel Radio reported today.

It said Mr Eli Yishai, leader of the Shas Party, told Mr Barak the party’s Council of Elders had decided Shas should resign from the government. It said Mr Barak had asked Mr Yishai to wait 48 hours before taking a final decision.

“We told the Prime Minister that in this situation we cannot continue to be in the government”, Mr Yishai told Israel Radio, citing social issues.

A Shas resignation would deny Mr Barak the 61 members he needs for a majority in the 120-seat Parliament.

Mr Barak’s office told Reuters the Prime Minister had asked Shah to hold off resigning for 24 hours, and Shas had agreed. Sources close to the Prime Minister said Mr Barak believed the issues would be resolved “in a natural way”.

Net turns into crystal ball

NEW YORK, Dec 27 (Reuters) — The imminent arrival of the year 2000 has prompted professionals and amateurs alike to try to divine how life will change in the decades and centuries to come — and the Internet offers a glimpse into many of those crystal balls.

One good place to start is the World Future Society’s Website (http://www.wfs.org). The 30,000-member, Bethesda, Maryland-based group’s homebase in cyberspace includes its top 10 forecasts for the year 2000 and beyond. Among those forecasts:

— The number of centenarians worldwide will increase from 135,000 today to 2.2 million people by 2050.

— By 2010, biomonitoring devices that resemble wristwatches will provide wearers with up-to-the-minute information about their health.

— Tiny electronic microchips implanted in a person’s forearm could transmit messages to a computer that controls the heating and light systems of intelligent buildings.

— The 21st century could see widespread infertility and falling birth rates.

— Farmers will become genetic engineers, growing vaccines as well as food.

The site also features a compilation of quotations, “The wisdom of the world - 1,000 messages for the new millennium.’’ The Collection, compiled by Bruce Lloyd, a lecturer at South Bank University, contains pithy quotations from Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin and others.

The quotations page (http://www.wfs.org/q-intro.htm) has a link that enables visitors to “contribute whatever wisdom you have to the new millennium.’’ The best contributions will be posted on the site when the millennium arrives — officially — on January 1, 2001.

“We think that’s kind of fun... People from all over the world have responded,’’ Robert Schley, the World Future Society’s Programme Director, who maintains its website, said in a telephone interview earlier this year.

Schley said interest in the New Year has been magnified this time by the ‘’millennium bug’’ computer problem, which added an undercurrent of concern to the customary optimism that accompanies the change.

The society is far from alone in attempting to figure out the future. University of Cincinnati’s faculty, for example, have been peering into the next century, and their great expectations can be found on the school’s website (http://www.uc.edu/info-services/tips.htm).

A number of consulting and research businesses make their living by trying to give businesses, governments and others an advance look at things to come. While they may not want to give away the store by telling all, some of their forecasts can be found online.

Rightist wins Guatemalan presidential poll

GUATEMALA CITY, Dec 27 (Reuters) — a Guatemalan opposition candidate whose party was created by a former military dictator won a landslide run-off victory in the country’s first presidential elections since the end of civil war, official results have showed.

With over 70 per cent of the vote counted, mr Alfonso Portillo of the right-wing Guatemalan republican front (FRG) had 67.57 per cent of the vote against 32.43 per cent for mr Oscar Berger of the ruling pro-business party for the national advancement (pan), electoral officials said.

Mr Portillo, a charismatic former university professor and the son of a rural teacher, claimed victory late yesterday.

‘‘I thank god and the people for the support they have given me.I will live up to the expectations the people have placed on me,’’mr Portillo told reporters.

He has pledged to fight crime, battle class inequality and curb the rising cost of living in this poor central American country of 11 million people.

Pan candidate Berger conceded defeat before downcast supporters.‘‘I hope the Guatemalan people have not made a mistake,’’ he said.

President Alvaro Arzu, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, also acknowledged the pan’s defeat in the run-off vote.

‘‘Today is not the end of the era. It’s the beginning of a new era for those who love the fatherland,’’ mr Arzu told supporters.

‘Any Given Sunday’ tops at box office

LOS ANGELES, Dec 27 (Reuters) — Director Oliver Stone scored a box office touchdown as his football drama “Any Given Sunday” led the pact at a busy Christmas holiday box office, according to studio estimates issued yesterday.

The $ 55-million ensemble drama, which stars Al Pacino as an ageing pro-football coach struggling to come to terms with the pressures of the modern game, earned about about $ 14.25 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, and $ 21.29 million since its Wednesday opening, said the film’s distributor, Warner Bros.

Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx and a slew of Gridiron Greats coaster. A studio spokesman said the three-day haul marked a new record for stone, whose previous best opening was $ 11.2 million for “Natural Born Killers” in August, 1994. That film went on to make about $ 50 million.

Opening at number two was the homoerotic thriller “The Talented Mr Ripley” with a two-day total of $ 13.8 million since it opened on Christmas Day, said Paramount Pictures, which is distributing the film in North America. Its per-screen average of $ 5,982 from 2,307 sites was the highest in the top 10.

Based on a novel, by Patricia Highsmith, the film stars Matt Damon as a con artist who enjoys his new life in 1950s Italy so much that he kills his new chums to ensure that it will last. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law coaster for director Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient”).

The other new entries in the top were Universal’s “Man on the Moon”, starring Jim Carrey as late comic Andy Kaufman, tied at number five with “The Green Mile” with $ 9.0 million and Dreamworks’ Tim Allen sci-fi comedy “Galaxy Quest” at number eight with a two-day sum of $ 8.1 million.

Last week’s champ, “Stuart Little,” tied at number three with “Toy Story 2” with $ 12.5 million. Columbai originally reported $ 12 million for “Stuart” and estimated $ 11.5 million for Walt Disney Pictures’ “Toy 2,” but subsequently upgraded its talking mouse film so that it will at least be on a level pegging with the Disney cartoon.

The 10-day total for “Stuart Little” stands at $ 40.2 million, while “Toy Story 2” has $ 179.9 million. Disney expects it to reach $ 200 million by December 31.

According to Exhibitior Relations Co., which collects the studios’ estimates, the top 12 movies this weekend grossed a combined $ 104 million, down 27 per cent from the year-ago period, when the top four films — headed by “Patch Adams” with $ 25.3 million — all scored more than “Any Given Sunday”.

Of course, it helped that Christmas Day 1998 fell on a Friday. Allowing the studios to maximise their weekend haul.

Rounding out the top 10 were Touchstone’s Bicentennial Man” at number seven with $ 8.3 million (10-day sum $ 22.5 million), Touchstone’s “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” at number nine with $ 6.2 million (17-day sum $ 35.4 million) and Fox’s “Anna and the King” at number 10 with $ 4.7 million (10 day sum $ 13.5 million).

More oil leaks out of sunken tanker

BREST (France), Dec 27 (AP) — Already facing an “ecological catastrophe”, France’s Atlantic coast was dealt another blow yesterday as more oil was seen leaking out of the back of a sunken tanker off the coast of Brittany.

The police port authorities in Brest said the national navy had spotted the leak. An estimated 4.3 million gallons (16.3 million litres) of thick oil remain in the holds of the Maltese-registered Erika — more than was spilled when the tanker broke in two and sank on December 12.

The new slick was spotted as the navy flew over the area on a daily reconnaissance mission. It measures around 1,000 metres by 300 metres.

The discovery came as the thick, foul-smelling oil, with the consistency of chewing gum, continued to wash up on the coast stretching from north-western Brittany to the Vendee region, an area famed for its beaches and oyster farms.

Bath house fire kills 20
BEIJING: Fire engulfed a hotel bath house in northeast China on Sunday after a late night Christmas party, killing 20 persons and injuring at least 51, newspapers reported on Monday. Firefighters saved 150 persons, including seven Japanese from the Hawaii Grand Hotel in Changchun, capital of northeastern province of Jilin, Changchun Evening News said. —Reuters

Green-card Falun Gong men
HONG KONG: Three US Green-Card holders detained in China after attending a meeting of the banned Falun Gong group are to be freed this week, it was reported here on Monday.Feng Lili, Chen Zhao and Huang Wun will be released nearly two weeks after they were taken from their hotel in the southern city of Shenzhen, the South China Morning Post said.—AFP

Bishops doubt Bible
LONDON: The vast majority of British Bishops— Anglicans, Catholics and Methodists — don’t believe the Bible’s version of the creation of the world, according to a BBC-Radio investigation aired on Monday. Only three out of the 103 Bishops questioned said that the scripture version of events — in which God created the world in six days — was the truth. Eighty of them doubted the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. A quarter of them did not believe that Jesus was born to a virgin. — AFP

Napoleon’s ‘enemy’ reburied
MOSCOW: The remains of a Russian general who fought Napoleon’s army in 1812 were reburied on Monday at a church on Moscow’s western edge, some 70 years after they were unearthed by the Bolsheviks. Gen Ivan Dorokhov led the liberation of the town of Vereya from Napoleon’s troops in 1812, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. —AP

10 killed in Dhaka fire
DHAKA: Ten persons were burnt to death and three remained missing as an overnight fire razed to the ground a sprawling slum colony on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, police and hospital sources said on Monday. Witnesses said the fire was sparked by an exploding kitchen stove used by a slum resident.— DPA

Zhirinovsky to run for President
MOSCOW: Outspoken ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who finished fifth in Russia’s 1996 presidential election, said he would run again in 2000. In a debate yesterday with other lawmakers on the Russian television program “Itogi”, Mr Zhirinovsky said he would run again for President even though he knew he wouldn’t win. He predicted that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, currently the top presidential contender, would come in first. — AP

Rhythm ’n blues legend dead
ROSWELL: Rhythm and blues legend Curtis Mayfield(57), whose music helped define the Chicago sound in the 1960s and whose style influenced artists from pop to hip hop, died on Sunday a North Fulton regional hospital spokeswoman said. A member of the rock and roll hall of fame, Mayfield’s hits included the soundtrack from ‘‘Superfly’’ and the seminal singles ‘‘People get ready’’ and ‘‘Keep on pushing.’’ — Reuters