USA offers N-umbrella to South Korea
SEOUL, Jan 16 — The United States of America was ready to provide a nuclear umbrella for South Korea if attacked by the North, US Defence Secretary William Cohen said in a statement released here yesterday amid worries Pyongyang may have revived its nuclear programme.

Ministers fail to agree on Congo peace plan
LUSAKA, Jan 16 — A meeting of ministers from 15 southern African countries ended here today without an agreement on holding a new heads of state summit on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Israel-Palestinian secret meetings
JERUSALEM, Jan 16 — Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai has secretly met top Palestinian officials in recent weeks despite a freeze in West-Asia peacemaking, Israel Radio said.

Ted Hughes wins another prize
THE late poet laureate Ted Hughes gained his second literary prize in two days on Tuesday when his last book, “Birthday Letters”, won the Whitbread Poetry Award.

Clinton trial
Call witnesses: prosecutors

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (PTI) — House of Representatives prosecutors in Mr Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial claimed the evidence against the President in the Monica Lewinsky case showed he obstructed justice, and said witnesses and Mr Clinton himself should be called to testify.

Continuing their efforts to convince the jury of 100 Senators in the second presidential impeachment trial in the US history that Mr Clinton should be removed from office, the prosecutors said the evidence proved the President committed perjury and obstructed justice to hide his affair with the former White House intern.

"Let’s examine Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan, Betty Currie and the other key witnesses ... invite the President to come, judge for yourself their credibility," Republican representative in the prosecution team, Bill McCollum of Florida, told the Senate.

This is the first time since the 13-member team opened its arguments on Thursday that the prosecutors demanded that Mr Clinton’s name be included in the witnesses list.

The prosecution’s presentation will end with the argument on whether Mr Clinton’s conduct in the Lewinsky affair amounted to impeachable offences.

Three Republicans will follow the other House prosecutors, who spent more than 10 hours since Thursday elaborating on the facts and evidence in the case, and explain why they contended that under the US Constitution Mr Clinton’s alleged perjury and obstruction of justice met the test of "high crimes and misdemeanours".

Later, Illinois Republican Henry Hyde, who heads the prosecution, will present the summation of the prosecution arguments.

During yesterday’s proceedings, Mr Hyde had said the issue of summoning witnesses was "under intense discussion".

The issue of whether or not to summon the witnesses has polarised the Senate with many Senators from Mr Clinton’s Democratic Party arguing that the available evidence was enough to decide the trial, the only one since President Andrew Johnson escaped impeachment by one vote in 1868.

The White House has expressed doubts on whether Mr Clinton, if summoned, would accept an invitation to appear, saying he has testified enough about his affair with Lewinsky and related events.

The jury of Senators have agreed broadly that decisions on calling witnesses will be deferred till both sides presented their cases.

Scrap UNSCOM: Russia
USA, UK reject proposal

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 16 (PTI) — In a fresh move to break the Iraq-US stand-off over UN arms inspections, Russia has proposed the abolition of UNSCOM overseeing Iraqi disarmament and its replacement by a team of experts directly responsible to the Security Council.

The proposal, unveiled by Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Sergey Lavrov in the Council yesterday, called for the easing of the oil embargo on Iraq and a long term monitoring mechanism to ensure Baghdad did not rebuild its awesome war machinery.

The USA and Britain, which advocated a hardline approach towards Iraq, quickly rejected the seven-point proposal, saying UNSCOM and the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) should go back to Iraq to continue unfinished disarmament work.

Talking to reporters yesterday, US Ambassador to the UN Peter Burleigh rejected the Russian proposal outright insisting that the question at stake was how to get the inspectors back into Iraq to implement the UN resolutions.

Although Baghdad has so far not reacted to the proposal, the Russian initiative is likely to find favour with Iraq, which has dubbed UNSCOM a “pack of American spies” and repeatedly called for its abolition.

The Russian proposal also called for sending a fact finding mission to Iraq comprising disarmament experts from as many countries as possible as also IAEA representatives to reassess the status of Iraqi disarmament following the raids.

It proposed that the oil embargo on Iraq should be lifted and a long-term monitoring system set up to ensure that Iraq did not acquire weapons of mass destruction in the future, the Russian proposal said.

The new committee would function directly under a committee established by the 15-member Council, it suggested in an apparent move to dilute US hold over the inspections.

Pressing for an independent experts’ team, Russian Ambassador Lavrov reportedly told the Council that UNSCOM could not work in Iraq any longer in its present form.

He also rejected the idea of revitalising it, saying it was like revitalising the Soviet Union.

Security Council head Celso Amorin of Brazil said all delegations had “positive engagement” over the French and Russian proposals as well as other informal proposals during the closed door consultations yesterday.

Despite diametrically different views on the issue, he said “there are areas of concern that many countries share, such as devising a long-term ongoing monitoring and verification system that could work.

In another development, the US State Department said that the USA planned to supply Patriot missiles to Turkey as protection against a possible Iraqi attack.

“We have agreed in principle to send a Patriot battery to Turkey for the duration of the current crisis with Iraq,” said State Department spokesman James Rubin in Washington yesterday.

“We see no immediate threat to Turkey but there are a lot of threatening statements coming from Baghdad,” he added.

Meanwhile, a report from Baghdad said Iraq yesterday stepped up its attacks on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, accusing them of undermining calls for an Arab summit to hide the truth about their involvement in last month’s Anglo-US air strikes from Arab public opinion.

“The (Gulf) foreign ministers’ decision not to take part in an Arab summit which Iraq attends is in reality a Saudi-Kuwaiti decision alone,” Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf said.

“The rulers of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have realised that in any official Arab forum, Iraq would expose all proof about their direct criminal participation in the Anglo-US aggression against Iraq,” Sahhaf told the official news agency, INA.

US plea to India, Pak on missiles

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (PTI) — The USA has urged India and Pakistan to refrain from testing ballistic missiles to avoid “heightening tension” and “fuelling a missile arms race” in the region amidst media reports that tests by both were imminent.

“We are aware of and note with concern several reports from the region predicting possible tests of ballistic missiles by India and Pakistan. We have raised in the last day with both nations directly our concerns on the matter,” State Department spokesman James Rubin said yesterday.

“We have urged both sides — through the embassies in India and Pakistan — to exercise restraint and to avoid inflammatory actions that would heighten tensions and fuel a missiles arms race.

“Missile tests would not be helpful to efforts to reduce tension and build confidence through dialogue in South Asia, nor would they help the climate for our ongoing effort with the two countries,” Mr Rubin said at his daily Press briefing.

US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott would also raise concerns over the possibility of missile tests by the two nations when he visited the region later this month, he said.

He, however, refused to divulge what the USA knew about any preparations for the tests or whether Washington had received any assurances to the contrary from Islamabad and New Delhi.

USA offers N-umbrella to South Korea

SEOUL, Jan 16 (AFP) — The United States of America was ready to provide a nuclear umbrella for South Korea if attacked by the North, US Defence Secretary William Cohen said in a statement released here yesterday amid worries Pyongyang may have revived its nuclear programme.

“Secretary Cohen reaffirmed the US commitment to render prompt and effective assistance to the RoK (South Korea) for repelling any armed attack against the RoK in accordance with the RoK-US mutual defence treaty and to provide a nuclear umbrella for the RoK,” a joint South Korea-US communiqué said.

The communiqué was released following meeting between Cohen and his South Korean counterpart Chun Yong-Taek.

Ministers fail to agree on Congo peace plan

LUSAKA, Jan 16 (AFP) — A meeting of ministers from 15 southern African countries ended here today without an agreement on holding a new heads of state summit on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The summit had been billed as follow-up to a ceasefire accord but diplomats said last evening that such a document was unlikely to emerge here because of Kinshasa’s refusal to consider proposals put by the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy group.

Questioned by AFP, DRC Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo said that for his government, talks should primarily focus on a ceasefire “between us and the invaders”, meaning Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

An official communiqué issued today said the ministers had agreed to set up two committees “to submit reports to the next regional ministerial meeting which should be convened as soon as possible”.

The “committee on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement” will be headed by Zambia and will include countries involved in the fighting in the former Zaire.

The other, the “committee on security concerns in the Congo and neighbouring states” will include Zambia, Kenya, Botswana and Mauritius.

The UN, the Organisation of African Unity and the Southern Africa Development Community are all members of both committees.

Israel-Palestinian secret meetings

JERUSALEM, Jan 16 (Reuters) — Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai has secretly met top Palestinian officials in recent weeks despite a freeze in West-Asia peacemaking, Israel Radio said.

The latest meeting was held with top Palestinian negotiator Mohmoud Abbas at Mordechai’s home near Jerusalem, the radio said yesterday.

Mohammed Dahlan, the head of Palestinian Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, confirmed that he met Mordechai two weeks ago but could not say if meetings with others were held. Israeli officials were not immediately available to comment.

“The objective of the meeting was to keep channels to the Israeli government open,” Dahlan told Reuters.

Ted Hughes wins another prize
From Dan Glaister in London

THE late poet laureate Ted Hughes gained his second literary prize in two days on Tuesday when his last book, “Birthday Letters”, won the Whitbread Poetry Award.

Together with the winners in three other categories — best novel, first novel and biography — “Birthday Letters” now goes forward to compete for the £ 21,000 ($35,000) Whitbread Book of the Year award, which Hughes won last year with his translation of “Tales from Ovid”.

The other winners were Justin Cartwright, who won the novel award for his study of small-town American life “Leading The Cheers”, Amanda Foreman for her biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Giles Foden, who won the first novel award for “The Last King of Scotland”, his thriller about a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda.

On Monday “Birthday Letters”, Hughes’s account of his relationship with his late wife Sylvia Plath, won the T.S. Eliot Prize, poetry’s leading award.

Amanda Foreman’s first book examining the life of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, echoes with contemporary resonance as it traces the life of Georgiana Spencer, born at Althorp in 1757.

A compulsive gambler and trend-setter, her determination to play a part in world affairs saw her develop into one of the most respected politicians of her age.

The judges praised it as “a model biography... a work of scholarship which is also highly readable . . . people fall in love with this book.’’

Giles Foden, The Guardian’s deputy literary editor, was praised by the judges for his “wholly accomplished and highly ambitious book... it stands comparison with anything we have read this year.”

A young Scottish doctor finds himself appointed personal physician to the self-styled “Last king of Scotland”. The novel traces Amin’s eight-year dictatorship in Uganda through the doctor’s journal.

Winner of the best novel category, “Leading The Cheers” was praised by critics as a “complex and rewarding novel... from a talented and original writer”. The judges said it was “a clear and unanimous winner from a very heavyweight field.”

The Whitbread Book of the Year award will be announced on January 26. The judging panel will be chaired by Raymond Seitz, writer and former US ambassador to Britain. He is joined by Express editor Rosie Boycott, writers Sarah Bradford, P.J. Kavanagh, Shena MacKay and Allan Massie, and broadcasters Magnus Magnusson and Kirsty Young.
— The Guardian, London

Twins give births
NEW YORK: Identical twins Yaney Rosario and Quelia Nova have shared most things in life even the same delivery room for their babies. The 29-year-old New York city sisters, using the same midwife, gave birth less than three hours apart on Tuesday. It was god, no doubt about it, said Ms Nova. Six-pound, 14-ounce Juan Rosario Jr. was the first to debut at 8:16 p.m. at 10:55 p.m., his 6-pound, 6-ounce cousin, Keidy Salcedo, was born. Rosario said she started having contractions on Tuesday morning and went to the hospital around 6 p.m. when Rosario’s husband, Juan, called his sister-in-law after the birth of Juan Jr., he was met with a surprise. I have contractions. I’m on the way to the hospital, Ms Nova told him. — AP

Bennett shuns degree
LONDON: Playwright Alan Bennett says he turned down an honorary degree from Oxford University to protest the university’s acceptance of money from Mr Rupert Murdoch. In his diary of 1998 published in the London review of books, Mr Bennett said he was offered the honour in November. He refused it because he believed Oxford was wrong in 1992 in accepting three million pounds from Mr Murdoch, Chairman and chief executive of the News Corp., to endow a chair in language and communication. Mr Murdoch’s companies are involved in publishing and broadcasting around the world but he is probably best known in Britain as the owner of the Sun, the biggest-selling tabloid newspaper. Like Mr Bennett, he’s an Oxford graduate. — AP

Mine blast kills 8
BEIJING: At least eight miners have been killed and 13 injured in a gas explosion at a coal mine in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. The explosion occurred on Thursday afternoon in a shaft at the Shuanghe coal mine of the Yongrong Mining Administration, 130 km away from the Chongqing city centre. The mine administration said the cause of the accident was being probed. With more than 15,000 employees, the Yongrong Mining Administration produces 1.4 million tonnes of coal per annum. — PTI

Plane strays
WASHINGTON: A small private aircraft strayed into restricted airspace near the White House on Friday shortly before President Bill Clinton’s arrival, prompting guards to fire a red flare into the sky. Officials said the pilot of the twin engine aircraft strayed off course but did not pose a security threat. “This was never considered a problem,” a White House official said, noting the pilot had been in touch with air traffic controllers at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport. A few minutes later, Clinton arrived at the White House onboard his marine one helicopter. — Reuters

60 kg meat as bribe
MOSCOW: Desperate to avoid serving in Russia’s troubled military, one young man apparently offered a recruiter a bribe, few in the underfed armed forces could refuse: 60 kilograms of meat. It seemed to work but the officer was caught before he had a chance to dig in to his bounty. Military prosecutors in the Arkhangelsk region in far northern Russia detained the officer and launched an investigation into the case, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Friday. Most Russian draft-age men try to avoid conscription, and only about 20 per cent of those conscripted actually join. The military is plagued by delayed paycheques and food supplies, low morale and vicious hazing of young recruits by older soldiers. — AP

Cardiac arrest record
BEIJING: A farmer in Central China’s Hunan province has entered her name into the Guinness Book of World Records for surviving the longest period of cardiac arrest in the history of surgery worldwide. Luo Qiulian survived cardiac arrest for two-and-a-half hours during heart surgery in December 1997, Xinhua news agency reported last night.— PTI