Talks only way to resolve Kosovo: Annan
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2 — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, warning of a possible civil war, has urged the warring rebels and the Belgrade regime to hold negotiations without preconditions as demanded by the international community.

USA to spend more on disarmament
WASHINGTON, Feb 2 — The USA has proposed for fiscal 2000 a five-fold increase from $ 41 million to $ 251 million for the arms control and disarmament agency programmes to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

SC to hear plea against Hasina
DHAKA, Feb 2 — The Full Bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice A.T.M. Afzal, will hear tomorrow the matter of contempt of court by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Yeltsin has confidence in me: Primakov
MOSCOW, Feb 2 — In the midst of reports that the Russian President Mr Boris Yeltsin, was unhappy regarding the Prime Minister Mr Yevgeni Primakov’s proposal to curtail the President’s powers to disband Parliament, comes an assurance from the Premier about his enjoying Mr Yeltsin’s complete confidence.

NRI Christians for ‘decisive’ action
LONDON, Feb 2 — Indian Christians residing in the UK have asked the Vajpayee government to continue “decisive” action to end the recent spate of attacks on the community in India.

Panel divided on genocide charge
MOSCOW, Feb 2 — A parliamentary commission seeking to impeach Russian President Boris Yeltsin failed to decide whether it could prosecute the President on charges of committing genocide against the Russian people.

India to sign CTBT, WB to okay loan: USA

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (PTI) — India has agreed to sign the CTBT by spring and the USA for its part, is considering allowing the World Bank to approve a $ 210 million loan for restructuring the power sector in Andhra Pradesh, a senior US official told newsmen on condition of anonymity.

Lifting of the remaining bank-linked sanctions, which have held up loans worth $ 1.7 billion to India, and New Delhi’s adherence to the CTBT will be more or less in the same time-frame, he indicated yesterday.

But New Delhi had made it clear this “small step” could not be linked to its stand on the CTBT.

An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said in New Delhi yesterday, ‘lending and easing of the multilateral lending banks is a small step towards a positive atmosphere but there can be no linkage of this with India’s stand on the CTBT’’.

However, State Department spokesman James Rubin briefing newsmen on the eighth round of talks the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, held in New Delhi, said, “The dialogue was productive and generated new momentum. There is some encouragement on the part of our negotiators.”

He said, ‘We have said all along that our sanctions policy will be adjusted, based on progress in non-proliferation’.

Asked what this movement was, Mr Rubin replied, “With respect to the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the timing.”

To a question whether India has given any specific date for signing the CTBT, Rubin said, ‘We have received some encouraging indications on the timing that we are considering how to respond to, but I can’t be more specific than that’.

He said Mr Talbott had discussed it with the Secretary of State Ms Madeleine Albright, and there were indications that the Indians were going to move in a direction that will allow USA to respond with moves of our own. “There were some indications that this was a very good session... I will leave India and Pakistan to describe their own positions,’ he added.

Asked whether the USA would lift its hold on international financial institutions lending, Mr Rubin said we are considering the appropriate response, and we have always said that we would respond to progress by India and Pakistan on non-proliferation with easing steps of our own. But I am not prepared to describe specifically, in this particular forum, what we are prepared to do.

USA rejects Pak plea on J&K

ISLAMABAD, Feb 2 (PTI) — The USA today rejected Pakistan’s call for mediation in the Kashmir issue without India’s concurrence but promised all help to resolve the problem.

The USA is not in a position to act as a "mediator or broker" unless it is asked by both parties, US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said referring to India’s consistent opposition to any third-party mediation in the bilateral issue.

"We will do what we can," he, however, said in a speech at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) hours after the eighth round of talks with Pakistani leaders on wideranging issues, including nuclear non-proliferation and security.

A joint statement issued after the two-day US-Pakistan discussions, which ended apparently without making much headway with both sides deciding to continue their dialogue in the middle of the year, said: "The USA expressed its strong support for the current talks between Pakistan and India, including on Kashmir".

"Pakistan urged the USA to play a more active role towards the solution of the Kashmir dispute," the statement said.

Earlier, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Mr Talbott, during the latter’s courtesy call on him, that the Kashmir issue "lay at the centre of security problems in South Asia".

Earlier, Mr Talbott and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad said "significant" progress had been made during their talks on the issues of nuclear non-proliferation and security.

"The purpose has been to bring out positions, concerns and objectives closer and I think we have significantly achieved our objectives," Mr Ahmad said.

Clinton’s lawyers apologise to Monica

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (PTI) — White House lawyers who cross-examined Monica Lewinsky sprang a surprise by apologising to the former intern ‘for all things she and her family had been put through’ on behalf of President Bill Clinton, reports said today.

Ms Lewinsky was yesterday questioned as a witness by house prosecutors and Mr Clinton’s lawyers at a downtown hotel for the President’s Senate impeachment trial on charges that the President committed perjury and obstruction of justice.

‘There was an expression of regret for what she’s going through on behalf of the President,’ the Washington Times quoted a source familiar with Ms Lewinsky’s deposition.

According to observers, the statement of apology read by Mr Clinton’s lawyer, Mr Nicole Seligman, may have been aimed at appeasing Ms Lewinsky.

The closed-door videotaped testimony began at 2.03 pm (GMT) and ended at 8.14 pm (GMT).

Though it was the 23rd time Ms Lewinsky had told her story, it was for the first time that Mr Clinton’s attorneys had a chance to question the central figure in the White House sex scandal.

According to television reports, no explosive new evidence emerged from Ms Lewinsky during the cross-examination.

The tape will now be available for viewing to all Senators conducting the impeachment trial of Mr Clinton.

The Senators will decide, after viewing the tape, whether they need her to testify on the Senate floor.

The other witnesses will be Vernon Jordan, the President’s close friend who found a lucrative job for Ms Lewinsky and Sidney Blumenthal, to whom Mr Clinton described Ms Lewinsky as a ‘stalker’ who was after him for sex.

Talks only way to resolve Kosovo: Annan

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2 (PTI) — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, warning of a possible civil war, has urged the warring rebels and the Belgrade regime to hold negotiations without preconditions as demanded by the international community.

In a report to the Security Council, Mr Annan said he was increasingly concerned that the spread of violence could lead to an all-out civil war which might have “unpredictable results” for the region.

Mr Annan’s report came as the fragile ceasefire brokered by US mediator Richard Holbrooke is breaking down. Both rebels and Yugoslavia have failed to heed calls to stop fighting.

He said violence from whichever quarter could only lead to more suffering for civilians and negotiations were the only way to resolve the crisis.

NATO has been threatened both the rebels and Yugoslavia with little success. A six-member contact group has asked Yugoslavia and Albanians to hold talks in France on Saturday but Belgrade has called for a meeting of Security Council.

BERLIN: NATO could deploy up to 30,000 ground troops in Kosovo to guarantee compliance with a peace agreement, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana has said.

Questioned by a journalist on whether a Kosovo peace-keeping force would be made up of 30,000 men, Solana said yesterday: “In any case it will not be very far from a figure of that nature”.

“It would be very difficult for me to give a clear and precise figure” now, he added.

But he said that there would be “fewer people than we have in Bosnia now” because the size of Kosovo is smaller.

The NATO-led peace-keeping force in Bosnia is 36,000 men strong.

Meanwhile, the Yugoslav Government yesterday called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to try to prevent NATO threatening air strikes.

“NATO’s open threats jeopardise the chief principles of international relations, international peace and security and the very foundations of international legal order. This is why the federal Cabinet decided to call for a UN Security Council session to take adequate measures in keeping with the UN charter and prevent armed aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” the official Tanjug news agency said.

DAVOS: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today insisted that the big-power contact group would stand shoulder to shoulder even if force was needed to end the crisis in the troubled Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

Warring Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo should not doubt the six-nation group’s resolve to work together, he said playing down any split between Western allies and Russia over how to proceed.

The group said NATO could launch air strikes if no negotiated settlement emerged.

“The contact group has made clear that the international community will accept neither a delay nor a rejection and will keep all military options open,” he told a news conference. He had been asked if Germany would send ground troops to enforce any Kosovo peace accord even if the USA did not.

“The international community is acting in common and it would be entirely wrong to question this commonality, even theoretically,” he added.

Talks on Iraq panels begin

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2 (PTI) — Brazil’s Ambassador to the UN, Mr Celso Amorin, has begun consultations with diplomats from key member states in a bid to arrive at a consensus on the role and composition of three proposed panels that will review the UN’s overall ties with Iraq.

Moving fast, Mr Amorin, who will head the panels, met the UN Chief, Mr Kofi Annan, and ambassadors of Britain, Russia, Iraq and Kuwait yesterday, less than 48 hours after the council approved the panels, in a bid to resolve the contentious issues to satisfaction all parties.

Ignoring Iraq’s opposition to the panels, the council gave Mr Amorin a free hand last month in deciding the composition and scope of the panels, after key players — the USA and Russia — failed to agree on the role of the scandal-tainted UNSCOM’s role in future operations in Iraq.

While the USA has been stubbornly insisting the council retain the UNSCOM’s primacy in all future disarmament operations, Russia, a former Iraq ally, has called for its scrapping after reports of its spying activities surfaced.

The panels, which will go into the entire gamut of the UN’s ties with Iraq, including status of Iraqi disarmament, fallout of sanctions and fate of Kuwaitis missing in the Gulf war, are expected to submit their recommendations by April 15.

BAGHDAD (AFP): Iraq has said that words are not enough to counter the “American plot” aimed at overthrowing the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and called on Gulf countries to act against it.

“Countries which say they have no intention of plotting against Iraq should translate their rejection of the American plot into action,” said an official Iraqi spokesman, quoted by the official INA news agency.

Reacting to the current tour of the Gulf by US Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk, he yesterday said words were not enough. “It is how they act that shows the true stance of each of the neighbouring states towards the American plot.”

Indyk, who left Kuwait yesterday for Oman on the fourth leg of his trip, is on a mission to rally Gulf support for covert operations to topple Saddam Hussein.

Washington says it wants to work with Iraq’s neighbours and the Iraqi people, both from inside the country and the opposition in exile.

The Iraqi spokesman described the US aims as a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions and of international law, and denounced the Iraqi opposition as “traitors”.

USA to spend more on disarmament

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (UNI) — The USA has proposed for fiscal 2000 a five-fold increase from $ 41 million to $ 251 million for the arms control and disarmament agency (ACDA) programmes to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It has also suggested a 16 per cent increase for the Energy Department for its efforts to control weapons proliferation.

But President Clinton has requested an 8 per cent increase in the Defence Department along with this added emphasis on checking proliferation.

The fiscal 2000 Budget proposal implements plans to restructure the State Department which is absorbing not only the ACDA but the US Information Agency (USIA) minus its international broadcasting wing.

President Clinton has sent to Congress a request for the next fiscal year for $ 21.3 billion to fund international programmes ranging from trade promotion to weapons destruction to controlling greenhouse gases.

The Foreign Affairs request for fiscal year 2000, which starts on October 1, is $ 1,100 million less than for 1999 and represents less than 1 per cent of the Federal Budget, which the President says he intends to balance for the third consecutive year.

In the biggest departure from the 1999 Budget, Mr Clinton has requested huge increases for efforts to control proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"Current economic conditions (in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union) increase the risk of proliferation because weapons scientist and technicians are unemployed or unpaid and guards at facilities and borders are untrained and poorly equipped," the office of Budget and management wrote.

The allocation for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is $ 1.8 billion for development assistance programme in 51 countries and 12 regional programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The assistance to Asia will deal mainly with overcoming the financial crisis, creating a social safety net and supporting democratisation.

The biggest cutback in the foreign affairs spending proposal comes in the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement. Almost $ 600 million is being spent to stop illegal drugs from entering the USA in 1999, but the President says only about half that amount, $ 295 million, will be needed in the fiscal year 2000.

To underpin the fragile peace in West Asia, the President proposes to spend $ 5.2 billion. Israel and Jordan will receive foreign military financing to heighten their security preparedness. Jordan and the Palestinian authority will receive development assistance.

The proposed payment of arrears to multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, will be slashed by 69 per cent to $ 169 million because the banks have made progress in paying down debts.

Jang told to clear dues to get newsprint

ISLAMABAD, Feb 2 (PTI) — Pakistan’s Customs Department has said that the Jang, the country’s largest newspaper group facing sedition charges, owes about Rs 120 crore to the government against duties and taxes, pending which newsprint will not be restored to it.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reportedly seized a truckload of newsprint of the group yesterday despite a Supreme Court order to release the supply to prevent it from ceasing publication.

Reacting to the Supreme Court order, the Customs Department yesterday said in a statement that the newspaper group had not paid all duties, taxes and penalty amounting to about Rs 120 crore.

Officials said an order has been issued by the customs authorities raising the liability of about Rs 60 crore as demand for taxes and duty in respect of newsprint imported by the Jang group during the past few years by false circulation figures. An equal amount of penalty has also been imposed upon them for this offence.

According to the provision of the customs law, this amount could be recovered by the customs, central excise, sales tax authorities, either by detaining their imported goods or by detecting any amount due to them.

The apex court order stated: “In the circumstances, 1094 reels of newsprint shall be released provided the bills of entry have been cleared out of charge and all the duties, charges and dues in respect thereof have already been paid”.

LONDON: Pakistani journalists based in Britain have slammed the Nawaz Sharif government for “throttling” the Press in their country by threatening the fourth estate with ‘dire consequences’ and ‘asking the Jang group to sack scribes not following the government line.’

During a protest demonstration outside the Pakistan High Commission here on Monday, the Pakistani Journalists Association (PJA) President, Mr Zahoor Niazi said, ‘The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is suppressing the Press in an attempt to dissuade it from publishing what is not liked by it.’

SC to hear plea against Hasina

DHAKA, Feb 2 (UNI) — The Full Bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice A.T.M. Afzal, will hear tomorrow the matter of contempt of court by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The move by the country’s judiciary comes after the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Mr Habibul Islam Bhuiyan, petitioned the Chief Justice yesterday against the Prime Minister’s reported comment on a large number of bails granted in a row by the high court last August.

In his petition Mr Bhuiyan submitted the Prime Minister committed contempt of court by making a statement on Friday that the high court granted 1200 bails in two days and questioned the justification.

A notice issued by the Appellate Division Office requested the Attorney-General to remain present at tomorrow’s hearing at 9 a.m. local time.

This is for the first time that the country’s highest court is going to hear such a complaint against a sitting Prime Minister.

On her return from Calcutta last Friday, Prime Minister Hasina while addressing a press conference alleged a high court Bench granted 1200 bails on August 26-27 before the court went into vacation. Ms Hasina said the matter was brought to the notice of the Chief Justice, but he did not take any action.

“Though the Bench was changed, and had the Chief Justice inquired into the matter and taken actions, the judiciary would have been free from many responsibilities and doubts about the judiciary...’’ the Prime Minister was quoted as saying by the petitioner.

Yeltsin has confidence in me: Primakov

MOSCOW, Feb 2 (UNI) — In the midst of reports that the Russian President Mr Boris Yeltsin, was unhappy regarding the Prime Minister Mr Yevgeni Primakov’s proposal to curtail the President’s powers to disband Parliament, comes an assurance from the Premier about his enjoying Mr Yeltsin’s complete confidence.

In a television interview yesterday, Mr Primakov explained that his proposal was aimed at maintaining stability and political harmony in the country which might be threatened by political forces inimical to national interests. He made a strong plea for avoiding attempts to create a breach in Russia’s political life.

Russian and foreign media reported last week that the ailing Mr Yeltsin had given a dressing down to the Prime Minister for his audacious proposal.

My proposals do not contain any dangerous elements, Mr Primakov asserted. Our endeavour should be to achieve consensus on national issues,’ he added.

‘I enjoy the President’s complete confidence as is evident from his entrusting me with the task of convening the national security council, of which he is the chairman,’ Mr Primakov explained.

The Premier indicated his government’s determination to deal a heavy blow to political criminals who were looting the exchequer. The government, he continued, was also going to curb the rampant corruption.

Earlier, on his return from Davos, Mr Primakov told media that the primary planks of his country’s economic policy were amending the tax system so as to boost production, consolidating banking systems and encouraging foreign investment in Russian industry.

NRI Christians for ‘decisive’ action

LONDON, Feb 2 (PTI) — Indian Christians residing in the UK have asked the Vajpayee government to continue “decisive” action to end the recent spate of attacks on the community in India.

Expressing concern over the attacks and the killing of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Steines and his two sons, over 20 NRI Christian bodies said the government should “continue to take decisive action to maintain peace and end communal violence” in the country.

In a statement presented to the High Commissioner of India here, Mr Lalit Mansingh, who invited them last Friday to discuss the recent incidents, representatives also deplored “any attempt to make political capital out of the incidents.”

Mr Mansingh assured the community that the government was determined to retain the secular fabric of the country “at all costs” and quoted the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan’s description of the Steines’ killing as a “monumental aberration.”

Panel divided on genocide charge

MOSCOW, Feb 2 (AP) — A parliamentary commission seeking to impeach Russian President Boris Yeltsin failed to decide whether it could prosecute the President on charges of committing genocide against the Russian people.

The charge is spearheaded by Viktor Ilyukhin, a prominent Communist lawmaker, who recently provoked outrage with his virulent anti-Semitic statements, such as accusing Jews in Yeltsin’s office of waging genocide’’ against ethnic Russians.

He accused Mr Yeltsin of “premeditated actions’’ that led to a “partial elimination’’ of the Russian people, the Itar-Tass news agency reported yesterday.

Mr Llyukhin claims that Russia’s transition to a market economy has impoverished the Russian people and led to a sharp decline in life expectancy.

However, the panel failed to agree on the genocide charge. Commission chairman Vadim Filimonov said the group would meet again next week to vote on it.

Police beats up couple
LAHORE: A beleaguered Pakistani love-match couple told a court here on Monday that they were beaten in police custody following their arrest last week at Karachi airport. Humaira Butt, 28, and her husband, Mehmood Butt, narrated their ordeal when the police produced them before Lahore High Court Judge Tasadduq Hussain. — AFP

10 die in clash
NICOSIA: At least 10 persons, including four Turkish soldiers and six Kurdish rebels, were killed in a clash in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli early on Monday. Reports reaching here said nearly 7,000 troops backed by air power attacked Tunceli, a one-time stronghold of the Kurdistan Workers Party. — ANI

Galileo spacecraft
PASADENA: The Galileo spacecraft halted all non-essential activities by going into a ‘safe mode’ shortly after close approaches to the moon Europa and Jupiter. The spacecraft was stable and information it sent suggested that observations of Europa were successfully stored in its tape recorder, NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory said on Monday. — AP

Pak history
ISLAMABAD: The Punjab Education Minister, Brig (retd) Zulfikar Ahmed Dhillon, has challenged the history taught in Pakistan’s educational institutions by arguing that no Muslim shed even a drop of blood in the struggle against the British for the creation of his country. Brig Dhillon made this statement during his presidential address in Lahore at a recent meeting of an organisation comprising those who participated in the Pakistan movement. ‘We say we fought for the creation of Pakistan, but I say only one person, Quaid-e-Azam (Mohammad Ali Jinnah), worked for it...’, he said. — UNI

Drug conference
TOKYO: Japan and six other Asian countries on Tuesday began a two-day conference here to discuss the problem of illegal drugs in Asia and enhance regional cooperation to crack down on traffickers. The Asian drug law enforcement conference will mainly discuss ways to stop illegal drug production in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. — DPA

Quake damage
BOGOTA: One week after the heavy earthquake that devastated the coffee-growing heartland of western Colombia, the government here said that by Monday, 938 bodies had been recovered from the rubble and that 4,117 persons were injured. A total of 20 towns, cities and villages in the country’s Risaraldas and Quindio provinces had reported casualties and severely damaged buildings. — DPA

PM backs Charles
LONDON: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, lent his support on Monday to the relationship between Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his long-time mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles. Asked if the couple, who appeared as a couple in public for the first time last week, should be left alone to have their relationship, Mr Blair told ITV television: ‘Yes I do.’ — AFP

4 of sextuplets alive
BEIJING: The parents of China’s first naturally conceived sextuplets have taken two of the surviving infants home. Yao Hong, 33, had given birth to sextuplets — four boys and two girls — 40 days ago in northeast China’s Shengyang city. One boy and one girl could survive only for a week. — PTI