Taliban order on daily prayers
KABUL, Jan 30 — Afghanistan’s purist Islamic Taliban movement has threatened to punish any male resident of Kabul who does not attend the five daily prayers, residents said. The religious police — formally known as the Department for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice — announced the order over loudspeakers at Kabul’s mosques yesterday.

Poland, Hungary asked to join NATO
BRUSSELS, Jan 30 — Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were yesterday officially invited by NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana to become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Anwar ordered to enter defence case
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — A Malaysian judge today dealt a blow to sacked Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, ordering him to enter a defence case in his criminal trial over four corruption charges.

Settlement reached in wrongful death case
BOSTON, Jan 30 — A settlement reached between Louise Woodward and the family who sued her for the wrongful death of the 8-month-old boy in her care prevents the former British AU pair from profiting from selling her story.

Future of human cloning dim
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 — Prospects of cloning humans became dimmer when scientists in the USA failed to clone a monkey successfully despite trying 135 times, reports said here.

US Congressman warns India on attacks

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (PTI) — A Democratic Congressman has asked the Indian Government to punish "swiftly and severely" those perpetrating violence against minorities in the country even if it is politically uncomfortable to do so, otherwise it might face "serious problems including legislative sanctions" from Washington.

Noting the strong condemnation by the President, Mr K. R. Narayanan, and the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, of the violence against Christians, Congressman Gary Ackerman said at a Republic Day dinner hosted by Indian Americans here yesterday that the Indian Government "must reassert its secular credentials. I must warn all of you that unless the Government of India does act firmly, showing the whole world that it would not tolerate attacks against religious minorities, New Delhi would have serious problems on the hill."

Ackerman, who is co-Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said the government must bring to book the criminals even if it was "politically inconvenient".

On the nuclear issue, he said the US policy makers had failed to understand the reasons behind the Indian tests due to their "arrogance and ignorance."

Ackerman also criticised New Delhi’s economic agenda, saying that the "series of on-again, of-again policy declarations are very confusing to the international community."

Clinton a bit disappointed with India

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (AFP, UNI) — US President Bill Clinton expressed “some disappointment” during his telephonic talk with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last night and said the Indo-US relationship “has not blossomed as he had hoped”, the White House said.

Mr Clinton expressed “some disappointment” that the Indo-US relationship “has not blossomed as he had hoped, and that his goal remains to work through differences and move the relationship forward,” White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.

Mr Clinton intervened personally yesterday in Indo-US talks on nuclear non-proliferation with a phone call to Mr Vajpayee. “The main reason for the call was to express his hopes in the talks” being held in New Delhi between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Deputy US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, the spokesman said.

Mr Lockhart said Mr Clinton expressed his appreciation for India’s commitment to adhere to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.Mr Lockhart, giving details of Mr Clinton’s 10-minute-long telephone call to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee yesterday, said the President also, without going into a great deal, discussed the four areas to non-proliferation concern that had become much of the foundation of the discussions between the USA, India and Pakistan.Mr Lockhart did not spell out the four areas but said “one of the major points of discussion will continue to be the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.”

Pak to have nationwide military courts

ISLAMABAD, Jan 30 (PTI) — Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif today issued a decree on setting up of military courts throughout the country to quell terrorism and violence, but denied it was an attempt to set up a parallel judicial system.

The decree was issued in the name of President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar hours after Mr Sharif announced in Lahore that military courts would be set up throughout Pakistan following their success in violence-rocked Karachi.

The military courts will bring down the crime rate in the country, he told a delegation of people from Lahore.

"We have no other ulterior motives," he said, adding that his Government respected the judiciary.

The decree came only two days ahead of the scheduled hearing by the Supreme Court of petitions challenging the validity of the controversial courts in Sindh which has till now handed down 13 death sentences, all of which have been stayed by the apex court.

"We want to form a civilised society in Pakistan," Mr Sharif said, adding that in Karachi criminals had been going scot-free for many years but "the military courts have helped stem the trend".

Monica to testify at hotel

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (AFP) — The Senate yesterday summoned Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses, whose testimony prosecutors hope will turn the tide against President Bill Clinton in the second presidential impeachment trial in US history.

Mr Clinton’s efforts to hide an affair with the former White House intern led to the perjury and obstruction of justice charges he faces in the Senate.

Taking testimony from witnesses may be the last chance for Republican trial “managers” from the House of Representatives, who act as prosecutors, to change the widespread expectation that the 67 votes needed to remove him from office are not there.

White House lawyers, meanwhile, will have up to four hours on Monday to query the 25-year-old Lewinsky, whose videotaped deposition will probably be taken at her hotel.

It will be the White House’s first opportunity to question the women at the centre of the sex-and-lies scandal that broke one year ago.

Prosecutors will also have up to four hours to question Ms Lewinsky as one Republic Senator and a Democratic colleague preside.

Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan and White House aide Sidney Blumenthal will appear on Tuesday and Wednesday in a Senate room normally used for confidential briefings, according to a statement from Democratic leader Tom Daschle’s office.

Questions will be limited to subject matters relevant to the perjury and obstruction of justice charges Mr Clinton faces in his impeachment trial stemming from his efforts to conceal an affair with Ms Lewinsky.

Republican trial “managers” from the House of Representatives and White House counsel will each have four hours to query the 25-year-old, a time limit extendable only if Senate Republican and Democratic leaders agree.

Initially, only Senators and their staff will be allowed to view the videotaped testimony.

When the first impeachment trial in 131 years resumes on February 4, the Senate will decide by a simple majority whether to call live witnesses or view the recordings.

AP adds: Meanwhile, orders are piling up for “Monica’s Story”, the story she wants to tell.

The book by British writer Andrew Morton on Monica Lewinsky, based on exclusive interviews with her, has begun selling briskly on the websites of two major online booksellers, in advance of its expected release in late February.

Well before the blizzard of publicity, including a Barbara Walters interview with Ms Lewinsky designed to be shown near the time of the book’s release, “Monica’s Story” yesterday stood at 59 on the new weekly list of top 100 bestsellers at the Barnes and Noble site.

Amazon-Com, meanwhile, ranked the book 657th in sales at one point yesterday, which spokesman Bill Curry called a strong showing for an unpublished book. The rankings of Amazon-Com’s 10,000 most popular titles reflect sales over the previous 24 hours and change every hour.

Barnes and Noble is telling readers the 288-page book will be available on February 21. Amazon Com says only that it will be published late in the month.

Publicity surrounding the book may be complicated by terms of her immunity deal with independent counsel Kenneth Starr barring Ms Lewinsky from speaking to the new media about her relationship with President Clinton without approval from Mr Starr’s office.

Ms Lewinsky is trying to win legal clearance to go ahead with the Walters interview. But the immunity deal has not been an obstacle to the book.

Morton, a biographer of the late Princess Diana, is quoted in publicity material as saying that the woman he came to know bears little resemblance to her public image.

“The Monica I discovered is a bright, lively, and witty young woman who bears the scars of her continuing public shaming, but remains undefeated.”

Taliban order on daily prayers

KABUL, Jan 30 (Reuters) — Afghanistan’s purist Islamic Taliban movement has threatened to punish any male resident of Kabul who does not attend the five daily prayers, residents said. The religious police — formally known as the Department for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice — announced the order over loudspeakers at Kabul’s mosques yesterday.

The residents said the religious police threatened to punish those who failed to comply with the order.

“The type of punishment was not mentioned. They (the religious leaders) said neighbours should inform the religious police if any man did not attend the prayers,” said one resident.

It was the latest ruling on prayers imposed by the Taliban Businesses have to close during prayers and the Taliban have ordered men to grow beards and not wear western clothes, saying that it is required under Islamic law.

Shopkeepers who have stayed open during prayers have been fined or have had their businesses closed for several days as a punishment.

The Taliban, which control 90 per cent of Afghanistan, have barred women from working outside the home apart from in the medical sector and banned girls from education, while women are required to cover their bodies from top to toe when they leave their homes.

Poland, Hungary asked to join NATO

BRUSSELS, Jan 30 (DPA) — Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were yesterday officially invited by NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana to become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

NATO confirmed that invitations had been issued. Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Bronislav Geremek revealed that Poland had been invited to join.

It was proposed that the three east European countries would be admitted to the NATO at the beginning of March and that there would be a ceremony to mark the occasion in Washington at the end of April.

On April 4, NATO will complete 50 years of its existence.

The Parliaments of all 16 NATO countries have accepted the three membership applications, Brussels sources said.

Mr Geremek spoke of a “special moment’’ for Poland while Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek said that Poland’s admission to NATO, which has caused a controversy between Russia and the West, would mean Poles could live in complete security for the first time in two centuries.

Mr Buzek vowed that Poland would fulfil all its obligations as a member of the alliance.

Y2K — a potential eco hazard

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (IPS) — From nuclear reactor accidents to drinking water pollution, the computer glitches expected in the year 2000 threaten the world with a host of environmental and public health problems, environmental groups say.

When this year comes to an end, many computers and electronically controlled machines will take 00 for 1900 rather than 2000, or will not interpret it at all. So, after December 31, 1999, many computers and microchips will malfunction by freezing or spewing out incorrect data.

If the millennium bug or Y2K problem, as this phenomenon is called, is not remedied, computer-run operations — including industrial plants, electric grids and health systems — are expected to malfunction, and threaten public safety and the environment.

Developing countries are expected to be especially hard hit by the millennium bug because they are the least prepared, according to the World Bank and the United Nations.

“Computer chips are embedded in many operations of modern life, including power plants, power lines, and drinking water and wastewater treatment plants,’’ says Lois Epstein, a senior engineer with the Washington-based Environmental Defence Fund (EDF).

“Drinking water may be contaminated because of incorrect automated lab tests and, more seriously, chemical plants or pipelines can have costly and fatal accidents from abnormally high pressures or temperatures,’’ she says.

In a report titled “Y2K and the environment: a compendium of potential problems and opportunities,” Ms Epstein outlines specific problems that could occur in various industries.

If there is an interruption of electric power, industries may accidentally release dangerous chemicals, says the report. And the failure of a computer to detect and address abnormal conditions within a gas or oil pipeline, tank or landfill could cause a potentially hazardous leak that could contaminate soil and groundwater, it explains.

According to the EDF, computer malfunctions at a drinking water treatment plant could cause inaccurate laboratory results or make filtration and disinfection systems fail.

A dam’s failure to ensure appropriate water flow could cause floods or inadequate flows in streams or rivers. This may have adverse ecological impacts, including fish kills, says the group.

Fortunately, says Ms Epstein, many of the most dangerous industrial processes are designed to shut down safely if problems are detected, rather than to behave unpredictably.

But she has a word of caution for sceptics who think the Y2K problem has been over-emphasised: “Computer failures related to incorrect processing of dates are not only hypothetical,’’ she says. “Already a number of date-related failures have occurred.’’

Anwar ordered to enter defence case

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (Reuters) — A Malaysian judge today dealt a blow to sacked Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, ordering him to enter a defence case in his criminal trial over four corruption charges.

The decision by High Court Judge Augustine Paul means the trial, which started in November, will continue with Anwar’s lawyers calling witnesses. The defence has said it plans to call Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

“After having considered the evidence relevant to the charges and the submission of learned counsel, I find that the prosecution has made out a prima facie case against the accused on each of the four cases as amended,” Augustine said.

“In other words, the prosecution has established prima facie evidence, the ingredients of an offence. I, therefore, call upon the accused to enter upon his defence on all four charges as amended,” said Augustine, who is Judge and jury in the trial.

Anwar, 51, was sacked and arrested in September, and charged later that month with five counts each of corruption and sodomy. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The court has been examining four of the corruption charges since the trial started in November.

Settlement reached in wrongful death case

BOSTON, Jan 30 (AP) — A settlement reached between Louise Woodward and the family who sued her for the wrongful death of the 8-month-old boy in her care prevents the former British AU pair from profiting from selling her story.

“The goal of this case is what is was from the beginning, that Louise Woodward would not become a millionaire,’’ said Fredric Ellis yesterday, the lawyer for doctors Sunil and Deborah Eappen. “The goal of this lawsuit was to use the civil justice system to accomplish something the criminal justice system couldn’t.’’

A jury found Ms Woodward guilty last year of second-degree murder in the 1997 death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. But a judge reduced the conviction to manslaughter and she was released after serving 279 days in prison. She was allowed to return home to Elton, England, in June.

Yesterday’s agreement stipulates that Ms Woodward donate any money she gets from the case to the international children’s charity, UNICEF. If Ms Woodward tries to keep any money herself, the Eappens would go to court to demand the money be given to a non-profit foundation established in their baby’s name.

Legal experts debated whether any ban on profits ordered by a US court could be enforced in England. But Mr Ellis said the confidential agreement was enforceable overseas because it was written in the form of a contract with the help of international legal experts.

“I entered into this completely voluntarily and it does seem like the right thing to do to, to settle once and for all and to put an end to it so that we can all get on with our lives and so I can carry on studying,’’ Ms Woodward said on Friday in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

She told Sky TV news she would really like to concentrate on her law degree and making friends in London.

Bone disease gene identified

TORONTO, Jan 30 (PTI) — Canadian scientists have identified a key gene that triggers osteoporosis — brittleness of bones — which affects millions worldwide, especially post-menopause women.

“We are just lucky to find it. Now we know what triggers a cell to eat away bone ... we can find a way to stop it,” Dr Josef Penninger, immunologist at the Ontario Cancer Institute, said here.

The Austria-born researcher, whose team’s findings have been published in the latest issue of the science journal “nature”, was confident this genetic knowledge would result in new treatments.

“I think this will be a big drug, which will really help people,” Dr Penninger added.

Osteoporosis which erodes bone affects millions of people all over the world — the vast majority of them women. Any treatment that could significantly reduce this risk would represent a major breakthrough, he said.

Explaining his team’s findings, Dr Penninger said some mice with severe osteoporosis were injected with a compound designed to block the effect of a mutated “OPGL” gene. Within a week they were normal. “It is amazing. I have never seen anything like it.”

Future of human cloning dim

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (PTI) — Prospects of cloning humans became dimmer when scientists in the USA failed to clone a monkey successfully despite trying 135 times, reports said here.

The failure was reported yesterday to the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Research Resources in Bethesda (Maryland) by Don Wolf, who is leading the monkey-cloning effort at the Oregon Regional Private Research Centre in Beaverton.

“Clearly, it is not easy in monkeys, so it is not going to be easy for humans either,” Mr Wolf said about his experiments.

Some scientists, however, told the council they were reluctant to extrapolate from the monkey work any firm conclusion about the feasibility of eventually cloning human beings.

As monkeys are the closest to humans in the tree of evolution, it had been assumed that, before trying to clone humans, one should try to clone monkeys.

The ethics of cloning humans are still under debate. There is no similar objection to cloning animals, including monkeys.

Japanese telescope
TOKYO: The search for new worlds in deepest space took a huge leap forward, when Japan unveiled the “first light” results of the world’s largest optical infra-red telescope. The Subaru telescope, located at the top of the giant volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii, can peer farther than ever before into some of the darkest corners of the universe. “We won’t only be able to see far but also see in great detail,” Keiichi Kodaira, Director of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, said in Tokyo on Friday. — Reuters

Wrong diagnosis
CHICAGO: An Ohio man has sued his former doctor for allegedly misdiagnosing him with HIV and then prescribing a potent drug that had to be taken each day for more than six years. Mark Savage contends he was never even tested for HIV by Dr David Blatt and his colleagues at Illinois Masonic Medical Centre in Chicago. His lawsuit says he was diagnosed with the AIDS virus in July 1990 and treated with AZT and other AIDS-fighting drugs through 1996. Savage’s lawsuit says he suffered extreme mental pain and AZT-induced side effects as tingling hands, vision and bowel problems, and depression. In 1997, Savage’s Ohio doctor questioned his lack of symptoms and ordered tests that determined he was not carrying the AIDS virus. — AP

Colon cancer vaccine
LONDON: An experimental anti-cancer vaccine given to colon cancer patients after surgery reduced the recurrence of the disease, Dutch doctors have said. The vaccine, called active specific immunotherapy or ASI, was customised for each patient. It contained cells from the tumour and a strain of bacteria to kick start the immune system to kill any remaining cancer cells in the body. Colon cancer is potentially curable with surgery but a successful outcome depends on the extent of the disease. The researchers tested the vaccine on patients with stage II and III colon cancer. The vaccine showed significant results in patients with stage II colon cancer in which the tumour has penetrated the bowel wall but remained localised. — Reuters

Defendant weds witness
SPRINGFIELD, (Massachusetts): A man charged with vehicular homicide married the only witness against him just before his trial, effectively ending the case. A judge dismissed charges on January 22 against Michael Vega after his bride, Antoinette Marie Joseph, refused to testify. Judge Constance Sweeney called the timing of the marriage “a terrible violation of ordinary moral decency.’’ Last June, Vega, 30, was riding with Joseph, 32, and arguing with her when he allegedly grabbed the wheel. The car swerved into the path of an oncoming vehicle and struck an oncoming car, killing the driver, John Askins, 64, prosecutors said. The case was dismissed because there was no evidence. — AP

Patient walks out
LOS ANGELES: A 68-year-old patient hooked up to a heart monitor simply got up and walked out of a San Fernando valley hospital with the six-foot (1.8-metre)-tall machine in tow. He didn’t want to stay any longer,’’ police spokeswoman Stacy Blodgett said after Mission Community Hospital told officers the man left with the $ 2,000 heart monitor. Theft and missing person reports were filed. Patients leave all the time and they take all kinds of things, but this one’s just a little different,’’ a hospital executive said. — AP

Goth ID card
WARSAW: Archaeologists have discovered a gold “ID card” in an old cemetery near Hrubieszow, in eastern Poland, which dates back to the third century, a local researcher has said. “We have found a rectangular plaquette, the size of a matchbox, made of gold,” said Andrzej Kokowski, researcher at the Marie Curie-Sklodowsk University in Lublin. “After cleaning, we have discovered engraving of the helmeted head of a Goth warrior surrounded by birds. It seems to be a kind of identity card of a military chief from 1,800 years ago,” Kokowski added. — AFP