Iraq’s reservations on French move
DUBAI, Jan 14— France has put up before Iraq its proposal to lift the oil embargo under a new arms monitoring regime after the French initiative drew a positive response from key UN powers.

Obuchi forms coalition govt
TOKYO, Jan 14 — Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi formed a new cabinet today while launching a coalition government with a major opposition group that will give him more power in Parliament.

Court order setback for Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — A Malaysian judge today dealt a setback to the sacked Finance Minister, Mr Anwar Ibrahim, with a restriction on evidence about alleged sexual misconduct in his corruption trial.

Threat to cut back Russian launches
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 — Raising the ante, the US Government has threatened to cut back or even eliminate Russian launches of US-made satellites as punishment for aiding Iran’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

‘Double standards’ of Clinton foes
AMERICA’S most notorious pornographer on Tuesday accused one of the prosecutors in President Clinton’s Senate trial of condoning his former wife’s abortion and then lying about it.

Impeachment trial begins

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (PTI) — Prosecutors today opened arguments in the impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the Monica Lewinsky affair with one of the prosecutors saying "no man is above the law".

"We are here today because President William Jefferson Clinton decided to put himself above the law, not once, not twice, but repeatedly," prosecutor James Sensenbrenner said, demanding the removal of Clinton from Presidency.

He then cited perjury, false and misleading statements under oath and obstruction of justice Clinton engaged in according to the articles of impeachment.

Senators sat in silence as US Chief Justice William Rehnquist opened the hearing with House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde presenting a general outline of the case against Clinton.

The prosecutors have up to 24 hours over three days to buttress the charges in two articles of impeachment that the House passed last month.

Clinton’s defence team will kick off its presentation next Tuesday, the same day the President is to deliver his annual state of the Union speech.

Earlier, Clinton reposed confidence in the ability of the Senate to do justice as it began hearing arguments today in his impeachment trial which could lead to his dismissal from office.

At a White House function yesterday, a correspondent bluntly asked Mr Clinton: "Do you fear removal from office with the build-up of this case?"

The President, who has been avoiding comment on the subject for the past three weeks, replied in a measured tone: "I think that the brief speaks for itself and the statements which have been made by hundreds of constitutional experts and others — I trust that the right thing will be done." When asked about the outcome of the trial, he said: "I think the Senate has to deal with that. We filed our brief today (Wednesday). It makes our case. The important thing for me is to spend as little time thinking about that as possible, and as much time working on the issues we are here to discuss as possible. They have their job to do in the Senate, and I have mine. And I intend to do it."

He declined to comment on whether the allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice made against him were impeachable offences. "I believe that it’s not necessary for me to comment further than our brief. The important thing that I think you should be asking yourself is why did 900 constitutional experts say that they strongly felt that this matter was not the subject of impeachment," he added.

Defying advice to the contrary, President Clinton plans to deliver his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 19, right in the middle of the trial. Some lawmakers and officials had suggested cancelling the proceedings on that day to prevent its clashing with Mr Clinton’s scheduled address.

Meanwhile, in their 130-paged trial brief filed with the Senate yesterday, Mr Clinton’s lawyers have questioned the legal basis to remove him from office, arguing that neither "fact nor law" warranted it.

Iraq’s reservations on French move
UN council members hail plea

DUBAI, Jan 14 (PTI) — France has put up before Iraq its proposal to lift the oil embargo under a new arms monitoring regime after the French initiative drew a positive response from key UN powers.

In Baghdad, French envoy, Yeves Aubin de la Messuziere, met Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz for two hours to brief him on the proposals, diplomats said today. The meeting was “constructive”, they said.

By proposing an end to the embargo on Iraqi oil sales and replacing intrusive weapons inspections with a looser system of arms controls, France hoped to break the deadlock in the UN Security Council paralysed for months in formulating any policy on Iraq.

The proposal, unveiled to the Security Council last night, would ensure that President Saddam Hussein does not rebuild his arsenal as well as bring relief to Iraqis groaning under crippling sanctions, diplomats said.

They said a majority of the 15-member all-powerful council hailed the proposals as a “good start” at the overnight closed-door consultations. Council hardliners — Britain and the USA — too did not reject it out of hand.

Baghdad, whose refusal to cooperate with UNSCOM, culminated in last month’s Anglo-US air strikes on the country also did not oppose it but voiced its reservations on it.

U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin yesterday rejected outright the French proposal but commended its other “positive points”, indicating he would not be averse to adopting it with suitable modifications.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters, AP): The USA sees positive elements in a French proposal to stop Iraq rearming but insists that Iraq must disclose past weapons programmes before the UN lifts sanctions.

The US State Department said it also had concerns about the French plan, which would not require UN monitors to seek out any existing biological, chemical or ballistic weaponry.

“We have a number of questions and concerns that we are going to address to France about the proposal,” State Department spokesman James Rubin said yesterday.

Mr Rubin said two good points in the plan were that it emphasised the need for an inspection and monitoring system in Iraq and that it suggested controlling how the Iraqi Government spent the money it earned from oil exports.

French diplomats presented the plan on Tuesday to the other four Permanent Members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, Russia and the USA.

The plan includes lifting the oil embargo and replacing the existing UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) with a new team, which would not hunt for evidence of existing weapons of mass destruction but would ensure no fresh programmes were developed.

Despite authorising Iraq to buy $8 million in high-protein biscuits in the last half of 1998, the UN has not received any contracts to get the food to Iraqis suffering under UN sanctions, a spokesman said.

Similarly, the UN humanitarian programme for Iraq had only received one contract to provide special therapeutic milk for severely malnourished children, spokesman John Mills said yesterday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the French proposal on Iraq, as “the first concrete step” towards rebuilding Security Council strategy after the air strikes.

U.N. chief spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed at a news briefing that Mr Annan had been briefed on the “essence” of the proposals, which would all but finish off the UNSCOM.

“He (Annan) feels that it’s important that the council come to grips with these “morning after” questions’ that he’s been posing for some time on how to get on with the disarmament of Iraq after there’s been bombing,” Mr Eckhard said.

“So he welcomes the French proposal as the first concrete step in that direction, and he’ll be watching council deliberations carefully,” Mr Eckhard said.

Significantly, media reports had claimed Mr Annan had *credible evidence* to suggest that UNSCOM inspectors spied for the USA, leading to calls for controversial UNSCOM chief Richard Butler’s resignation.

Russia, a strong critic of the recent air raids on Baghdad, hailed the “thrust” of the proposal but insisted that Mr Butler should step down as a prelude to UNSCOM reforms.

BAGHDAD (Reuters): Iraq has rejected any attempts to revive arms inspections by a UN Special Commission, in an apparent cool reaction to French and Arab attempts to ease the world body’s long stand-off with Baghdad.

But Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan also said on Wednesday that Baghdad would accept an unconditional and balanced dialogue with the USA to resolve the row over prohibited weapons.

“We do not reject any dialogue with America provided that it is without conditions and restrictions and that it is balanced,” Mr Ramadan told a news conference.

“But we are not running after such a dialogue,” he said.

MPA, guard killed in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Jan 14 (PTI) — In yet another incident of growing terrorism-related violence in Pakistan, a sitting member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly and his guard were gunned down by unidentified assailants in Punjab province.

Four armed persons fired with Kalashnikov rifles at Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a ruling Awami League MPA of the Punjab Provincial Assembly in his house in Mianwali town yesterday and killed him and his guard on the spot, reports said.

The assailants entered his house with a group of people who had come to meet Niazi, they added.

The incident has further raised doubts about Prime Minister Sharif's claim that terrorism had been curbed substantially following steps to set up military courts in Karachi and anti-terrorist courts in Punjab.

Reports said the MPA's three-year-old grandson was injured along with two other persons in the attack.

This is the third major incident of terrorism in Punjab within less than two weeks.

On January 3, Mr Sharif had escaped a bid on his life near Lahore. The next day, 17 Shia Muslims were killed inside a worship place in southern Punjab by unidentified gunmen.

The Sharif government had earlier dismissed a coalition government in Sindh province citing growing law and order problem there.

Obuchi forms coalition govt

TOKYO, Jan 14 (AP) — Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi formed a new cabinet today while launching a coalition government with a major opposition group that will give him more power in Parliament.

The move came hours after a last-minute breakthrough late yesterday in a dispute over security issues that had threatened to scuttle the partnership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Liberal Party.

Despite the deal, the Liberal Democrats still lack a majority in the Upper House of Parliament. But joining hands with the Liberals will help it pass Bills aimed at reviving Japan’s economy and upgrading its defence alliance with the United States of America.

“The coalition will solidify the Obuchi administration in efforts to solve issues within and outside the country and live up to expectations,’’ said Chief Cabinet spokesman Hiromu Nonaka, who retained his post in the new cabinet.

The coalition partners are both viewed as conservative forces in Parliament. In fact, many Liberal party lawmakers were once members of the Liberal Democratic Party. The Liberal Party is the sixth largest party in the Upper House of Parliament, and the third largest in the more powerful Lower House.

Liberal Party Secretary-General Takeshi Noda landed the post of Home Affairs Minister. Noda had served as a cabinet minister twice with the governing party before leaving it in the early 1990s.

Two cabinet posts the National Land Agency and Science and Technology Agency were eliminated under the coalition pact and incorporated as part of the Construction Ministry and the Science and Technology Agency, respectively.

The number of ministers in the new cabinet was cut to 18 from the previous 20, in line with concessions that the ruling party made to the Liberal Party on streamlining the government.

Three outgoing ministers submitted their resignations to Obuchi.

Court order setback for Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 (Reuters, AP) — A Malaysian judge today dealt a setback to the sacked Finance Minister, Mr Anwar Ibrahim, with a restriction on evidence about alleged sexual misconduct in his corruption trial.

Mr Anwar angrily denounced the high court Judge, Mr Augustine Paul’s decision. “They (prosecution) abuse me for weeks and now we cannot say anything about it. This is Mahathir’s justice,” he told newsmen during a break in the trial, referring to the Prime Minister, Mr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mr Anwar has pleaded not guilty to five counts each of corruption and sodomy. Since the trial began in November, the high court has been considering four corruption charges, that allege that Mr Anwar abused his power in 1997 as then Cabinet minister.

Yesterday, the judge agreed to the prosecution’s proposal to amend the four corruption charges. Mr Anwar’s lawyers said the government had lowered its burden of proof as it no longer had to prove sexual misconduct and sodomy on Mr Anwar’s part to win conviction on the corruption charges.

Today, Mr Augustine said that in view of the amended charges, “the truth or falsity” of the allegations of sodomy and adultery no longer mattered to the corruption case. “Therefore, it is my ruling that any evidence submitted to the truth and falsity of these allegations becomes irrelevant,” he said.

Mr Anwar’s chief counsel Raja Aziz Addruse, called the judge’s decision an “adverse ruling.”

The ruling threw the defence into disarray as it was now barred from rebutting much of the evidence the prosecution has mounted.

Defence lawyers say that even if the court disregards all sexual evidence against Mr Anwar, they should be given a chance to refute the lurid allegations which have been repeated over and over in court and reported by the Press.

In the original charges, the prosecutors said Mr Anwar, the one-time heir-apparent to the Prime Minister had abused his powers to protect himself from criminal proceedings arising out of the alleged acts.

Defence lawyers say the prosecutors amended the four charges for which Mr Anwar is being initially tried because they did not have enough evidence to prove sexual misconduct.

By the amendment, the prosecution is seeking to procure a ‘lower burden of proof,’ Mr Raja Aziz said.

Threat to cut back Russian launches

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (AP) — Raising the ante, the US Government has threatened to cut back or even eliminate Russian launches of US-made satellites as punishment for aiding Iran’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

“When Russia’s quota for launches is reviewed at the end of the year, we will take into account very seriously progress, if any, that we have made in getting Russia to stop its entities from supporting Iran’s missile programme,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said yesterday.

The administration on Tuesday imposed economic penalties on a Russian university and two scientific research institutes after concluding they had assisted Iraq in developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

In response, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov yesterday sharply criticised the Clinton administration, saying: “Using force and exerting sanctions against our organisations are counterproductive for Russian-American relations, which we consider very important.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement that the sanctions “can only complicate Russian-American relations.”

‘Double standards’ of Clinton foes
From Julian Borger in Washington

AMERICA’S most notorious pornographer on Tuesday accused one of the prosecutors in President Clinton’s Senate trial of condoning his former wife’s abortion and then lying about it.

Larry Flynt’s allegation defied Washington’s efforts to drag the impeachment saga from a quagmire of scandal.

Bob Barr, a Rightwing Republican Congressman from Georgia and one of the prosecution “managers”, denied the allegations, adding: “I have steadfastly worked to focus attention on substantive issues like perjury and obstruction of justice, and away from lurid personal allegations.” Mr Flynt accused him of hypocrisy. At a Beverly Hills press conference, the publisher of Hustler magazine produced an affidavit signed by Gail Barr, the Congressman’s former wife.

She claimed he had condoned and paid $300 for an abortion in 1983. She also claimed that he drove her to the clinic and looked after their two children while the operation was performed.

Mr Flynt contrasted this with Mr Barr’s statement at the couple’s divorce proceedings three years later, when he said under oath that he had opposed the abortion.

In her statement, Ms Barr also accused Mr Barr of having an affair with Jerilyn Dobbin while he was still married to Ms Barr. Mr Barr married Ms Dobbin a month after the divorce. At the divorce hearings, he refused to answer questions about his alleged adultery.

“I just want to expose him for what he is,” Mr Flynt said, warning of eight more exposes of leading figures.

The porn magnate has been a major player in the political scene since he bought a full-page advertisement in the press in October offering $1 million to anyone who had “had an adulterous sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official”.

Hustler magazine said the response was overwhelming. The resignation in December of Bob Livingston as Republican leader is thought to have been triggered by Hustler’s activities.

The publisher, living up to his 1996 Hollywood portrayal in The People vs Larry Flynt as a scourge of society’s double standards, said his aim was to expose hypocrisy in the impeachment process.

He said: “There is nothing that will change someone’s moral outlook quicker than cash in large sums.’’ — The Guardian, London

US plane crash
AACHEN, GERMANY: All four crewmen probably died when a US NATO in-flight refuelling plane went up in flames on Wednesday night in a forest near Aachen, Western Germany, police and military spokesman said. In Washington, the US air force said the aircraft, a KC-135, crashed as it was coming in to land at a NATO airstrip at Geti fnktrchen-Tfveren. — AFP

Woman kills lover
BEIJING: A popular young Chinese Vice Mayor committed suicide last week after killing her lover of three years, the Guangzhou daily said on Wednesday. Chen Guilting, Vice Mayor of Zhumadian in central Henan, shot her lover dead on January 5, the paper said. Chen, 36, later died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. — Reuters

Smog emergency
MEXICO CITY: Mexico City has declared its first smog emergency of 1999, pulling nearly two million cars off the streets as pollution reached dangerous levels, officials have said. An official with the environmental monitoring service said on Wednesday the smog alert was declared late on Monday. The alert was in force all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. — Reuters

Ban on alcohol ads
KATHMANDU: Nepal will ban alcohol and tobacco advertisements on television and radio beginning next month, a Cabinet minister has said. Minister for Communications and Information Jai Prakash Prasad Gupta said the ban would come into effect from February 19. The decision would cover the state television and radio and some private radio stations in the Himalayan kingdom. — Reuters

China garden
BEIJING: Scottish horticulturists are laying lawns and digging flower beds in deepest Yunnan to create a traditional walled garden that any Briton would be proud of — but the twist in the tale is all plants come from China. ‘China is known as the mother of all gardens, and many of the plants that we think of as being British garden plants like roses and rhododendrons are native to China,’ David Paterson, Deputy Head of Horticulture at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, said on Wednesday. — AFP

‘Rambo’ kills 7
TEHERAN: Seven Afghan drug traffickers were shot dead when the Iranian militiaman they were holding hostage freed himself and then gunned them down ‘Rambo’ style, The Gods newspaper has reported. The militiaman, who had been held captive by the traffickers for four days in their remote hilly hideout in Torbat-e-Heydarifh, broke free and turned on the Afghans. — AFP