Barak for descaling US role in W. Asia
WASHINGTON, July 14 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in an interview with The New York Times, set out conditions for moving the Middle East peace process along, including a less prominent role for Washington.

Smith quits Republican Party
WASHINGTON, July 14 — Republican presidential candidate Senator Bob Smith has quit the party, saying the party platform was “not worth the paper it’s written on.”

Oil firms to get $3 b
UNITED NATIONS, July 14 — The United Nations has awarded nearly $ 2.8 billion to several oil companies for damages sustained in Middle East oil fields when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

ASEAN told to start talks
BANGKOK, July 14 — Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on the Association of South East Asian Nations to launch an initiative encouraging a dialogue between her National League for Democracy and the ruling generals.

‘Star Wars’ voted millennium movie
LONDON, July 14 — Though it may look dated beside the latest space epic, but Britons have voted the first “Star Wars” film their “Movie of the Millennium”, a survey has shown.

Teheran clamps down on protests

TEHERAN, July 14 (AFP, Reuter) — Iran’s supreme leader ordered a clampdown on violent anti-government protests today as hundreds of thousands of people attended a rally here called to show support for the Islamic regime.

“The people will not allow acts of destruction and the Islamic republic will repress it,” Iran’s supreme leader and spiritual guide Ayatollah Ali Khameni said in a message to the nation broadcast on radio.

Ayatollah Khamenei called on the “government and on the security forces”, as well as the “basiji’s” (Islamic militia) to “repress corrupt and counter-revolutionary elements”.

“It has been two days that two groups of bandits, supported by certain failing political groups, as well as by foreign enemies, have taken up destructing public buildings in Tehran and spreading insecurity,” he said.

Ayatollah Khamenei also said that “the revolutionary people of Iran should not permit the bandits and counter-revolutionaries to permit once again a domination by the “criminal” USA over Iran.”

Ayatollah Khamenei’s words came after the country’s sixth day of violent unrest between mainly student, pro-democracy protesters and the Islamic militia. The clashes caused serious damage in central Tehran.

The Organisation for Islamic Propaganda, the Iranian regime’s main propaganda instrument, called for a large popular demonstration to be held at Tehran University.

The Defence Minister, Adm Ali Shamkhani, said the authorities would not tolerate any further criticism of Islam or of Iran’s supreme leader.

Another senior member of the Islamic regime warned meanwhile that persons arrested during rioting here over the past two days would face trial as “counter-revolutionaries.”

Those responsible for violent clashes with the security forces here on Monday and yesterday are “bandits and saboteurs,” Parliament’s Deputy Speaker Hassan Rouhani told a huge rally at Teheran University.

Conviction on charges of engaging in “counter-revolutionary” activities is punishable by the death sentence in the Islamic republic.

Rouhani, a conservative, also issued a stern warning against “foreign interference” in the unrest which has rocked the Islamic republic and said Teheran would respond to any country supporting the demonstrations.

“We expected the reaction from the USA and the Zionist regime (Israel) but certain other countries are making a mistake by lending their support,” he said.

He warned foreign countries voicing support for Iran’s current social unrest that the government would retaliate.

“Speeches made by certain countries about the events of the past several days will be recorded in our files,’’ the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s highest body dealing with internal and external security, said.

Mr Rouhani’s warnings were apparently aimed at Turkey, whose Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, yesterday said that the unrest was the product of an oppressive Islamic regime.

Thousands of Iranians, many carrying portraits of the late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, marched on Wednesday in support of the Islamic system here.

The official unity rally was called by the Iranian clerical establishment and backed by most moderate reform groups.

“Death to America,’’ roared the crowd, incited by official statements that the USA and other “hostile’’ powers were behind the recent turmoil that had resulted in the most violent scenes since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The rally was broadcast live on state television, hosted by a popular presenter of children’s programmes and game shows. Patriotic songs played were in the background against heroic images of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq.

N. Ireland peace Bill passed

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) — Prime Minister Tony Blair’s emergency legislation to save the Northern Irish peace process was today passed by the House of Commons but failed to address Protestant leaders concern about arms decommissioning.

The Northern Ireland Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons after eight hours of heated debate, but the legislation did not include amendments put forward by Ulster Unionists, who wanted guarantees that the Catholic Sinn Fein would be excluded from a new Belfast government if its IRA allies failed to disarm.

The Bill, which is being rushed through Parliament within three days to allow a power-sharing executive to be set up by Sunday, passed with 343 votes in favour and 24 votes against, with a large number of abstentions.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, scheduled to be head of the new Belfast government, said the legislation was ‘’flawed and unfair’’.

His Unionists, backed by Opposition Conservatives, wanted amendments that included spelling out more clearly that Sinn Fein would be excluded from power if the Irish Republican Army (IRA) did not hand in weapons according to a set timetable before a May 2000 deadline.

The amendments also called for further release of imprisoned members of Northern Ireland’s guerrilla groups to be conditional on laying down of arms. Unionists also failed to get provisions passed to allow other parties to share power in the Northern Ireland executive if Sinn Fein was forced to withdraw because the IRA did not hand in its guns.

Unionists vote in Belfast later today on whether to take part in the executive when a rejection could torpedo last year’s historic Good Friday peace agreement.

Sharif ‘approved operations in January’

ISLAMABAD, July 14 (PTI) — A former Pakistan Army Chief, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg (retd), has lashed out at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for making the forces a “scapegoat” in the Kargil crisis and claimed the Premier had approved the operations in January after briefings by the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Reacting to the address to the nation by Mr Sharif on Monday on the Kargil crisis, General Beg said in Karachi that the “armed forces are being made the scapegoat for the fiasco and the government is being credited for saving the country from a catastrophic war”.

Mr Sharif had announced during his address that he had saved the country from a dangerous war by asking the infiltrators to withdraw from the Kargil heights.

General Beg said Mr Sharif had been given hours of briefings by the army and the ISI on the operations which had been approved in January itself.

“Can the government deny the hours of briefings given to the Prime Minister at General Headquarters and ISI Headquarters and approval to the Mujahideen operations as early as January 1999? Yet the army is being blamed for the Kargil fiasco.”

General Beg’s claim also negates Mr Sharif’s argument during his address that the Kargil operations had been carried out by “Kashmiri Mujahideen” with no Pakistani involvement.

Reacting to the orchestrated explanations of the government for the Kargil pullout, General Beg said they were the result of a “tragic and myopic vision” because “no government can ever be viable and can sustain itself if the armed forces are discredited and their morale is sacrificed at the altar of expediency”.

He also expressed surprise at the Sharif government’s “surrender to the threat of war” from India claiming that “Pakistan had taken appropriate measures to frustrate the Indo-Israeli plan to attack Pakistan’s nuclear installations when Pakistan acquired nuclear capability in 1986 and developed the delivery system in 1989”.

“Why did our government buckle under pressure now?” he asked.

Barak for descaling US role in W. Asia

WASHINGTON, July 14 — (AFP) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in an interview with The New York Times, set out conditions for moving the Middle East peace process along, including a less prominent role for Washington.

“I don’t think the CIA should be involved in counting the number of policemen in the Gaza Strip to check up on the Palestinians,” Barak told the daily Tuesday, on the eve of his weeklong visit to the U.S.A.

He described the US role in the region as “overly involved,” suggesting the Americans should stop acting as “arbitrator, policeman and judge,” and return to their “special roles as facilitators.”

“I think the American role should be more special. This is the reason I’m going to Washington tomorrow. I want to share ideas and build an overall strategy,” Barak said.

He said he wanted to persuade Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to abandon his demand for full and immediate implementation of the Wye River memorandum.

Barak also said he wanted to negotiate on several fronts simultaneously — with the Palestinian, the Syrians and the Lebanese.

AQABA (Jordan), Barak pledged to keep Jordan close to the renewed peace process, reassuring King Abdullah II that the relationships will not be lost in the shuffle.

“Jordan is highly important for the future of peace,” Barak said. “The very fact that we are able at this stage to launch major effort to make peace with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese, it would be much more complicated without the example that Jordan opened.”

Jordanians favour Barak’s thawing peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria, but fear the renewed talks might drown their voice on final status issues that affect the whole region — including final borders, water resources and the status of refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live in Jordan.

Smith quits Republican Party

WASHINGTON, July 14 (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Senator Bob Smith has quit the party, saying the party platform was “not worth the paper it’s written on.”

“I ’ve decided to change my registration from Republican to Independent,” Smith said on Tuesday in a Senate floor speech, becoming the first third-party Senator since 1983.

Smith said he had “committed the unforgivable sin” by pointing out Republican hypocrisy. “I’ve exposed the fraud. It is a fraud and everyone knows it,” he said.

The Republican “establishment” values getting elected more than their own platform, compromising on issues like gun control and abortion, the New Hampshire Senator said.

In a crowded Republican presidential field, Smith’s presidential campaign trailed in both support and fund raising.

Smith was supported by only 1 per cent of Republicans, well behind virtually every other candidate in a field dominated by Texas Governor George W. Bush.

Oil firms to get $3 b

UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (AP) — The United Nations has awarded nearly $ 2.8 billion to several oil companies for damages sustained in Middle East oil fields when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

“If you remember those oil fires burning away on TV, that’s what happened to us,” Texaco Inc spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said yesterday after the decision was publicised. The equipment, the facilities were destroyed.”

The money comes from an account funded by 30 per cent of Iraqi oil sale revenue, which is retained by the UN Compensation Commission under an agreement with Iraq. The commission rules on claims made by companies and individuals.

The commission gave the biggest share by far, $ 2.2 billion, to the Kuwait Oil Co, which had earlier received about $ 600 million for extinguishing oil well fires.

The Texaco subsidiary, Saudi Arabian Texaco Inc, gets $ 506 million plus unspecified interest. But the company said 85 per cent will go to income taxes in Saudi Arabia.

Several other American and British companies were awarded compensation as well in the June 25 decision, but in much smaller amounts.

ASEAN told to start talks

BANGKOK, July 14 (Reuters) — Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to launch an initiative encouraging a dialogue between her National League for Democracy (NLD) and the ruling generals.

In a commentary published yesterday in Thailand’s ‘The Nation’ newspaper, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner said the ASEAN’s “constructive engagement” of the ruling military had failed and its policy of non-interference was an excuse for not helping.

She said while some countries were working towards democracy in Myanmar, members of ASEAN were not. She said some ASEAN nations justified not helping by arguing that democracy was a “Western” concept.

‘Star Wars’ voted millennium movie

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) — Though it may look dated beside the latest space epic, but Britons have voted the first “Star Wars” film their “Movie of the Millennium”, a survey has shown.

“Star Wars - A new hope’’, made in 1977, featured on top of the list of Britain’s 100 favourite films, pipping the high-seas love story “Titanic” into second place.

Critics were left gasping as viewers picked pure entertainment over classics. “Grease” and “Pretty Woman” both got more votes than “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Citizen Kane”.

Actor-Director Richard Attenborough was bemused, “It’s incredible, extraordinary that ‘Titanic’ should be the number two movie of all time. I’m speechless, there are several hundred films I’d put ahead of it,” he said after the results were announced yesterday.

The top 100 list contained no Charlie Chaplin films, no Woody Allen, and only one foreign language film, “Cinema Paradiso”, which scraped in at number 95.

Nun, priest defrocked
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has punished an American nun and priest, both long-time gay activists, for propagating “erroneous and dangerous’’ views and refusing to toe the Roman Catholic church’s line on homosexuality. The congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which controls the orthodoxy of Catholic teaching, said in a statement yesterday it had banned Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent permanently from pastoral work involving homosexuals. The ruling, signed by the Vatican’s top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and endorsed by Pope John Paul, also barred them indefinitely from holding office in their religious orders. — Reuters

Dissidents on fast
HAVANA: A group of six Cuban regime critics protesting the political situation on the Caribbean island nation have been on a fast for nearly 40 days, each day representing one year of President Fidel Castro’s reign. — DPA

Ending seizures
BALTIMORE: Surgeons removed half of a teenage girl’s brain in hopes of stemming the spread of a deadly neurological disease that racked her body with seizures and was eating away at her brain. The left side of Amber Ramirez’s brain — the side that controls speech and fine motor movements — was removed in a 12-hour operation at Johns Hopkins Medical Centre yesterday. The surgery may leave her without the ability to speak, but she didn’t want to live with the rare Rasmussen’s disease any longer. — AP

Deportation order
NEW YORK: A US appeals court has ruled that a Ghanaian woman fighting deportation had shown that her fears of genital mutilation were “grounded in reality’’ and reversed a ruling denying her asylum in the USA. The court that Adelaide Abankwah, 29, provided convincing evidence that her fear of genital cutting as punishment for having had premarital sex with a boyfriend “is objectively reasonable.” — Reuters

Guns for women
BONN: Germany’s women soldiers, whose current duties are chiefly in the medical corps and the army band, could soon be allowed to carry guns, Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping said. “The constitution forbids women in the army from carrying guns, but separately from this we are examining ways of deploying women on sentry duty, which would mean bearing arms,’’ Scharping told Bild newspaper yesterday. — Reuters

Sir Mekere is PM
PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea’s parliament ditched the two-year-old government of Bill Skate today and made former central banker Sir Mekere Morauta Prime Minister of the crisis-torn South Pacific nation. Mr Morauta won the leadership by 99 votes to five in a last-minute upset that could scupper a deal Mr Skate had brokered to recognise Taiwan in a bid for overseas aid to rescue a devastated economy. — Reuters

3 Hitlers auctioned
OSLO: Two landscape watercolours and a line drawing by Adolf Hitler fetched $ 80,000 at auction in the seaside town of Toensberg in Sout-East Norway. The watercolours of rocky landscapes entitled “Die Felsenbucht” and “Berglandschaft Mit See”, depicting a cliff-lined bay and mountain scenery, were dated 1911 and 1913. The drawing of an old house and garden entitled “Altes Haus Mit Garten” was signed in 1914. — Reuters