HC order against Benazir set aside
ISLAMABAD, March 18 — Former premier Benazir Bhutto today scored a major legal victory against the Nawaz Sharif government when the Supreme Court set aside an earlier order of the Lahore High Court closing the evidence in a corruption case against her.

Hezbollah hideouts attacked
TYRE (LEBANON), March 18 — Israeli warplanes attacked suspected guerrilla hideouts in southern Lebanon yesterday, security officials said. The Lebanese Army responded with anti-aircraft fire.

Suu Kyi’s husband not granted visa
YANGON (Myanmar), March 18 — The British husband of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is suffering from cancer and is seeking a visa to visit his wife, an associate of Suu Kyi has said.

Senate okays US missile defence Bill
WASHINGTON, March 18 — The US Senate has agreed to commit the USA to deployment of a national missile defence system as soon as it was technologically possible.

Arabia ‘funding’ Chechen rebels
MOSCOW, March 18 — Extremist groups in Chechnya are being funded by Saudi Arabia, according to President of the breakaway Republic Aslan Maskhadov.

Yeltsin leaves hospital
MOSCOW, March 18 — President Boris Yeltsin today left hospital after more than two weeks of treatment for a stomach ulcer and moved to a state residence outside the city here, the Kremlin said.

SAARC summit
India blocks bilateral issues

NUWARA ELIYA (Sri Lanka), March 18 (PTI) — India today blocked attempts to introduce bilateral issues in the SAARC consultations by getting deleted reference to the Lahore declaration with Pakistan and importance of informal political consultations from the draft declaration for the meeting of the council of ministers of the South Asian body.

The two-day meet of the SAARC Council of Ministers began here today amid sharp differences among member countries over such references, but these were finally dropped from the grouping’s proceedings in the face of stiff resistance put up by India.

Pakistan had called for inclusion of the Lahore initiative in a report of SAARC Foreign Secretaries finalised by the Sri Lankan officials and to be released at the end of the conference.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Sartaz Aziz, after holding 20-minute informal discussions over the issue, held a meeting with the conference Chairman and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshan Kadirgamar and after prolonged parleys Sri Lankan officials announced that all member countries, including Pakistan, had agreed to drop the references to bilateral issues.

"We have decided to throw out all references and now the problem has been sorted out," a senior Sri Lankan diplomat said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga today described the recent Indo-Pak summit in Lahore as the "foremost" development in the region and said the SAARC countries should not "shy away" from sorting out sensitive bilateral matters through political consultations.

Inaugurating the 21st session of the SAARC Foreign Ministers two-day meet here, Ms Chandrika hoped that the Lahore process initiated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif would usher in peace and stability in the troubled South Asian region.

Outlining various developments that took place after the Colombo SAARC summit last year, the Sri Lankan President said, "the foremost among these, of course, is the Lahore declaration, where Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India identified the series of practical measures for promoting friendship between their two countries."

Referring to the first ever bus service introduced between New Delhi and Lahore, she said the spirit of the Vajpayee-Sharif summit had led India and Bangladesh to consider similar service between Dhaka and Calcutta.

The Lahore spirit had also led to a land mark free trade treaty between India and Sri Lanka to give a boost to bilateral trade, she said.

Meanwhile, India and Sri Lanka are considering various alternatives, including imposing quantitative restrictions in allowing duty-free imports of tea and rubber from Colombo, under the December 28 Indo-Sri Lanka free trade agreement, a top Indian official said here.

Both countries today expressed confidence to sort out the differences with Sri Lanka and pave way for the implementation of the free trade treaty, delayed due to India decision to include tea and rubber in the negative list of items that would not qualify for duty free imports into Indian markets, the official, who did not wish to identify, said while briefing the Indian newsmen on the progress of talks currently on at the official level on the side lines of the SAARC Foreign Ministers meeting here.

While some differences arose over the inclusion of tea and rubber in the negative lists, India considered them as minor irritants, he said, adding that what was more important was the spirit under which the treaty was signed.

Kashmir cannot be core issue: India

NUWARA ELIYA, March 18 (PTI) — India today asserted that Kashmir could not be the core issue in the talks between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan and made it clear that it would insist on comprehensive discussions on a variety of issues when Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Sartaz Aziz met on the sidelines of the SAARC meet here tomorrow.

Confidence-building measures (CBMs) in the nuclear field were among the variety of issues on which India would insist on discussions with Pakistan, A top Indian official told Indian journalists on the eve of the Jaswant-Sartaz talks here.

India, while willing to include Kashmir in the agenda, preferred in-depth and equally serious discussions on issues like people-to-people contacts and steps to accelerate trade between the two countries, apart from CBMs, the official said.

On the Pakistani stand that Kashmir continued to be the core issue in any discussion between the two countries, the Indian official said New Delhi was hopeful that Islamabad would not insist on discussing Kashmir alone. He expressed hope that Pakistan would agree to discuss other initiatives as well which both countries had to undertake to normalise their relations.

The two ministers are scheduled to meet in this hill resort, east of capital Colombo, on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Even while the Indian official made India’s position categorically clear during the run-up to the meeting, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed, who briefly spoke to newsmen before the inaugural meeting of the SAARC ministers, struck a discordant note by saying that Pakistan would insist that Kashmir be considered as the core issue in any talks between the two countries.

The Indian official said Mr Ahmed had informal discussions with his Indian counterpart, Mr K. Raghunath, yesterday to work out modalities for the Foreign Ministers’ meeting and they would meet again a few more times, before the scheduled meeting between the two ministers tomorrow.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s bus journey to Pakistan has aroused a great deal of friendly feeling between the people of the two countries and the neighbours should address themselves to take the ‘Lahore process’ forward, the official said.

Referring to the positive feedback the visit of the Indian trade delegation to Pakistan generated, the official said the overwhelming sentiments expressed by Pakistan businessmen to promote trade shows that people of the two countries are eager to come closer.

The Indian official also appreciated Pakistan’s positive attitude to South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). “It has now been agreed by the SAARC officials here that the framework treaty for SAFTA should be ready by 2001.”

Serbs stall peace talks

PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) — Kosovo peace talks teetered on the brink of final collapse today as Yugoslav delegates rejected compromise and Belgrade massed troops in apparent preparation for an offensive in the southern Serbian province.

Fighting and shelling were reported along a 15-km front in the north of Kosovo and about 7,000 ethnic Albanians fled after Serbian security forces shelled a village.

In Washington, the USA expressed grave concern about what it called large-scale troop movements in and near the province and warned it would act if Belgrade let loose an offensive against ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 per cent of Kosovo’s population.

President Bill Clinton’s security team is to brief senators later on the Kosovo talks and “on the situation on the ground” in Kosovo as well as “consult on potential next steps”, National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said.

The co-chairmen of the peace conference, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, will return today to assess the progress of the talks. But it was clear at a news conference yesterday that negotiators were losing hope.

The chief mediator at the Paris conference, U.S. Ambassador Chris Hill, said after three days of talks with Yugoslav delegates “we would not anticipate any further progress”.

Diplomats said Mr Vedrine and Mr Cook would probably suspend the talks, clearing the way for NATO to renew its threat of air strikes if Serbs continued to reject an accord policed by Western troops.

A source in the Contact Group of big powers, overseeing the peace talks, said there was a chance Mr Vedrine and Mr Cook would go to Belgrade at the weekend to pile pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to back an autonomy plan for the province.

“This would show we had done everything possible to get an agreement”, the source said.

The Serbs have refused to discuss implementation of the plan, already agreed to by Kosovo Albanians, and have tried to reopen large parts of the political chapter of the deal.

With the peace talks nearing breakdown, concrete plans for NATO air strikes against Yugoslav military targets were being resurrected, amid speculation that attacks could be mounted as early as next week.

Security tightened at US arms labs

WASHINGTON, March 18 (AP) — Energy Secretary Bill Richardson imposed new security measures for national weapons laboratories yesterday and ordered an internal investigation of allegations that a department official was prevented from briefing Congress on evidence of Chinese espionage.

Mr Richardson outlined the new measures in a closed-door hearing of the Senate intelligence committee, department officials said.

The committee was questioning Mr Richardson and other Energy Department officials about the administration’s handling of an investigation of suspected Chinese theft of top-secret nuclear warhead technology from the Los Alamos national laboratory in the 1980s.

Intelligence officials first learnt of the apparent security breach in 1995 and an FBI investigation began in early 1996. A Los Alamos scientist in New Mexico was fired on March 8 after being the target of the FBI investigation. He has not been charged with any crime.

Mr Richardson said he was directing a formal inquiry into allegations that a senior department counter-intelligence officer had been prevented from disclosing to Congress his concerns about the security breach at Los Alamos.

According to published reports, Mr Notra Trulock, a senior intelligence officer at the department, had said he had been prevented from sharing information with Congress about the Los Alamos investigation by Elizabeth Moler, the then Deputy Energy Secretary.

Meanwhile, FBI Director Louis Freeh told a House hearing that the FBI still is trying to determine whether the leak at Los Alamos occurred through the passage of physical documents or simply viewing and memorising information that was seen or read.

HC order against Benazir set aside

ISLAMABAD, March 18 (PTI) — Former premier Benazir Bhutto today scored a major legal victory against the Nawaz Sharif government when the Supreme Court set aside an earlier order of the Lahore High Court closing the evidence in a corruption case against her.

A three-member Bench of the apex court headed by Justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui also directed the Ehtesab (accountability) Bench of the high court to hear all witnesses in the corruption case, the list of which has been submitted by Ms Benazir Bhutto’s lawyers on March 1.

The Supreme Court Bench set aside the order of the Ehtesab Bench of March 15 by which it has closed the recording of evidence in the alleged corruption case against Ms Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Mr Asif Zardari, involving the granting of exclusive license to a Swiss firm for pre-shipment inspection during the previous regime.

The Supreme Court’s order has come as a major setback for the accountability bureau of the Sharif government which had been investigating numerous corruption cases against Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari since the present government came back to power in February 1997 and it was expecting the conviction of the former premier in this case as the Ehtesab Bench had already announced that it would pass a judgement on March 22.

Hezbollah hideouts attacked

TYRE (LEBANON), March 18 (AP) — Israeli warplanes attacked suspected guerrilla hideouts in southern Lebanon yesterday, security officials said. The Lebanese Army responded with anti-aircraft fire.

The raids on hideouts of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group between Jebal Al-Butom and Yater appeared to be in retaliation for Hezbollah shelling of two Israeli outposts earlier yesterday.

A Lebanese man was wounded in the attack on the Israeli outposts, 2 km East of Yater.

The Israeli Army confirmed the air raids and the guerrilla attacks.

The Hezbollah said in a statement that its guerrillas opened fire on the outposts 30 minutes before the first Israeli air attack. The group refused to comment on the air attacks.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said the Israel was looking into the possibility of repositioning its troops in southern Lebanon but would not leave the occupation zone without an agreement to safeguard its northern border.

Now sex, lies & sleaze scandal in Russia

MOSCOW, March 18 (AFP) — Russian President Boris Yeltsin today ordered a probe into the moral propriety of his top law officer as a sex-lies-and-videotape furore swirled within the corridors of power.

From his hospital bed, Mr Yeltsin instructed a security council team to look into sleaze allegations against Prosecutor-General Yury Skuratov after a tape was broadcast, purporting to show the lawman cavorting naked in bed with two prostitutes, the Kremlin said.

After a meeting with Mr Skuratov, President Yeltsin also ordered an inquiry to establish whether the Prosecutor’s own privacy had been violated by RTR Television, which screened the tape late last night.

Mr Skuratov himself denounced the poor-quality video footage as an attempt to blackmail him over a criminal investigation, NTV private television reported.

The video is the latest twist in a long-running saga steeped in allegations of corruption, blackmail and sleaze.

Mr Skuratov, who has no shortage of enemies due to corruption probes into everyone from Central Bank officials to business barons, officially resigned last month due to “ill-health” and disappeared from the political scene.

Mr Yeltsin quickly accepted his resignation and urged parliament to endorse it, immediately fuelling speculation about politicians and graft-related elements to the lawman’s ouster.

But the federation council, the Upper House of Parliament, intensely suspicious that Mr Skuratov was being sidelined to nip corruption probes in the bud, yesterday overwhelmingly rejected Mr Yeltsin’s dismissal order.

Russian media today described the growing furore over Mr Skuratov as a developing political crisis and said the Kremlin had made a big mistake in trying to force Mr Skuratov’s dismissal through Parliament.

Suu Kyi’s husband not granted visa

YANGON (Myanmar), March 18 (AP) — The British husband of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is suffering from cancer and is seeking a visa to visit his wife, an associate of Suu Kyi has said.

Michael Aris, a scholar specialising in Tibet, has not been granted a visa in three years. His wife, feared and hated by Myanmar’s military government, has declined to leave the country for fear she would not be allowed to return.

Tin Oo, vice chairman of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, yesterday said Suu Kyi learned of Aris’s illness at least two months ago. He said that Aris had applied to the Myanmar Embassy in London for a visa and Suu Kyi had sent a letter in support of his request, but no answer had been received.

News that Aris is suffering from prostate cancer has been circulating in Yangon for several weeks, but Suu Kyi had sought to keep the matter private.

Tin Oo said Suu Kyi was adamant that the matter should not be exploited by any side for political gain.

Senate okays US missile defence Bill

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) — The US Senate has agreed to commit the USA to deployment of a national missile defence system as soon as it was technologically possible.

The Senate voted 97-3 yesterday to make it a national policy to deploy such a system but the legislation does not specify a time frame for deployment, the costs or the specifics of the defence system to be used.

The White House dropped a veto threat against the Bill on Tuesday after the Senate adopted an amendment designed to ensure that the policy would not interfere with arms control negotiations with Russia.

That was aimed at democratic concerns. The Bill would undermine the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty with the Soviet Union that limits both sides’ ability to deploy anti-missile systems.

Arabia ‘funding’ Chechen rebels

MOSCOW, March 18 (UNI) — Extremist groups in Chechnya are being funded by Saudi Arabia, according to President of the breakaway Republic Aslan Maskhadov.

Disclosing this at a public meeting at Central Square in Grozny, he accused Wahabbi Volunteers led by Col Khattak from Jordan of engineering clashes among various extremist groups and kidnapping Gen Gennady Sphigun of Russia from a stationary plane in Grozny on March 5.

Kidnapping of Gen Sphigun, a personal envoy of Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stapshsin, had raised the possibility of another armed conflict between Russia and Chechnya but the Russian President and Prime Minister decided against it.

Having lost to Chechen separatists once, Kremlin does not want to burn its fingers again. It sees Mr Maskhadov as a moderate with whom they can negotiate.

The Constitutional court, however, had exonerated Mr Yeltsin of this charge on July 31 last year. The court said the President had not gone beyond his constitutional powers.

Yeltsin leaves hospital

MOSCOW, March 18 (Reuters) — President Boris Yeltsin today left hospital after more than two weeks of treatment for a stomach ulcer and moved to a state residence outside the city here, the Kremlin said.

“The President has moved to his Gorky-9 residence,” a spokeswoman said.

Mr Yeltsin (68), was admitted to Central Clinical Hospital here for a second round of treatment on February 27 after his ulcer, first diagnosed in January, failed to heal fully.

The President spoke clearly and looked relatively well in television footage this week when he met Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov at the hospital.

Gandhi’s kin dead
JOHANNESBURG: A grand daughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Sita Dhupella, has died. Sita (70), who died on Wednesday in Durban, was asthmatic and had taken a turn for the worst in recent weeks, her son Satish Dhupella, said. She was the sister of Ela Gandhi, a human rights activist and a Member of Parliament of the ruling African National Congress. — PTI

UK MPs’ plea
LONDON: As many as 50 members of the British House of Commons have in a petition demanded that the baiting of bears be stopped in Pakistan’s Punjab province. In an Early Day Motion, the MPs expressed their “disgust” over the sport and noted that though bear baiting had been banned by the Pakistan Government in 1993, the sport still continued. — ANI

5 confess to murder
BAGHDAD: Five men, including three clergymen, have confessed on Iraqi television to killing a senior Shiite Muslim religious leader. The State-run television interrupted its programme late on Wednesday to announce the arrest of the five men for killing Iraq’s Shiite supreme religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sader. — AP

Suharto property
LONDON: The family of former Indonesian President Suharto, some of whom are under investigation for alleged corruption, are selling their London house worth $ 18 million, according to a report in The Independent, a British newspaper. The report said members of the family decided to sell the houses because the British Government had denied them visas. — ANI

Photographer dead
ATLANTA: Harry Callahan, who focused his camera on the ordinary and became one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, has died of cancer. He was 86. Callahan, who died on Monday at his home in Atlanta, was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1997, one of the highest honours for an artist. An exhibit of his work opened at the National Gallery of Art in 1994 and toured nationally. — AP

Military exercises
MOSCOW: More than 1,500 Air Force staff and airborne troops took part in military exercises on Wednesday in Central Russia, Russian media reported. Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev also attended the manoeuver in Budikhino, near the town of Kostroma, 320 km north-east of Moscow. — AP

Shiva temple
WASHINGTON: A magnificent $ 16 million Shiva temple - the San Marga Iraivan Temple - is being built at a Hawaiin rain forest in Kauai amid protests from locals, The Wall Street Journal reported. The project, led by Satguru Shivaya Subramuniyaswami, an American who later became a sanyasi, will house a 700-pound crystal for which granite slabs are being shipped from India. — PTI

Ring to enemy’s child
JOHANNESBURG: In a rare gesture, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, former wife of South African President Nelson Mandela, gifted the engagement ring Mandela had given her just before their wedding in 1958 to the daughter of a policeman ‘who had hounded and messed up her life.” She made the gesture at a birthday party for one of her grandchildren in Soweto, where the former security policeman, Paul Erasmus, and his 13-year-old daughter, Candice, were guests. — PTI