Russian PM to visit Belgrade
MOSCOW, March 29 — Russia seized the initiative over the Kosovo crisis today by announcing a visit to Belgrade by Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov as it warned 1,000 civilians had died in the escalating NATO air campaign.

Three shot down in Karachi on Id
KARACHI, March 29 — Gunmen shot dead three persons outside a mosque during the Muslim ceremony of Id-ul-Zuha, police said today. The gunmen, riding motorcycles, opened fire on a group of people in Karachi in the southern Kalakot district. Two of the victims died instantly, while the third died at a hospital.

Day of celebration for Serbs
BELGRADE, March 29 — Hundreds of jubilant Serbs made their way to a wheat field on Sunday to rummage through the wreckage of a high-tech US fighter jet and celebrate what they saw as a victory over NATO.

Suu Kyi ‘won’t go to UK for funeral’
BANGKOK, March 29 — Myanmar Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not go to England for the funeral of her late husband Michael Aris despite a government offer to allow the trip, a confidant said today.

Qazi re-elected Jamaat chief

Brawl leaves 15 students dead

Kosovo refugees flood Albania

KUKES (Albania), March 29 (AFP) — A “river of refugees” from Kosovo has brought some 70,000 Kosovars to north-eastern Albania since Saturday, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said today.

“Refugees have been arriving all night at Kukes in northeastern Albania and nearby regions. The border was open all night,” the OSCE official Andrea Angeli told AFP from the Albanian capital, Tirana.

“Around 4,000 per hour are coming into the Albanian territory... And thousands are still coming,” he added. “This is a river of refugees,” said Angeli.

The exodus follows a reported onslaught by Serb forces on ethnic Albanian villages, coinciding with a NATO air campaign aimed at forcing Yugoslavia to end repression and sign a peace deal on Kosovo.

Albanian Deputy Premier Ilir Meta said today more than 60,000 Kosovo refugees had entered Albania in two days.

They are mainly women and children and old people, they are very tired and shocked, some have seen terrible things, some are wounded and their houses have been burned by Serbian police,” Mr Meta told BBC Radio.

More than 10,000 refugees from Kosovo have found their way to the town of Rozaje in eastern Montenegro in the past two days, and the situation there is chaotic, officials said.

Meanwhile, Mr Bajiram Gecha, a member of the Kosovo crisis committee, accused the Yugoslavian authorities of causing mass exodus of Albanians into neighbouring countries to escalate the tension.

“We received report that over half a million people, almost 25 per cent of the population, have been forced to leave. Hundreds of men have been killed by special Serbian squads,” Mr Gecha told CNN.

He appealed the NATO allies to intensify its air strikes and seriously consider sending ground troops into Kosovo to halt the massacres. There is no consensus among NATO allies to send NATO troops to clash with Serbian forces well entrenched in mountainous regions of Kosovo.

While the USA and some of the European officials are playing up massacre of Albanians, French officials reacted cautiously saying there was no proof of mounting Serbian oppression of Kosovo Albanians.

“I advise you to be prudent with all the information you are handling,” French Defence Minister Alain Richart told journalists.

Meanwhile, Yugoslavia’s ambassador to the UN, Mr Valdislav Jovanovic, denied allegations that Serbian special forces were forcing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to flee the region. “It is normal during a war that civilians try to escape from fighting zone,” he told CNN.

WASHINGTON: NATO leaders are determined to “respond strongly” to continued violence in Kosovo, US President Bill Clinton has said.

Mr Clinton said he had been in “close contact” with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema.

Russian PM to visit Belgrade

MOSCOW, March 29 (AFP) — Russia seized the initiative over the Kosovo crisis today by announcing a visit to Belgrade by Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov as it warned 1,000 civilians had died in the escalating NATO air campaign.

President Boris Yeltsin ordered Mr Primakov, Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to set off on a mediation bid tomorrow, a Kremlin spokesman told a television network.

He said it was too early to say how long the Russian delegation would stay in Belgrade or whether the negotiations would continue in other European capitals.

Government sources indicated the troika would visit Bonn, following calls by France and Italy for Russia to play a more active role in resolving the Kosovo crisis.

Mr Ivanov increased the pressure on NATO today, warning Russia had drawn up fresh measures to force a halt to the NATO onslaught on top of the expulsion on Friday of the alliance’s envoys here.

"In the coming days, Russia will take additional steps towards ending NATO air raids on Yugoslavia," Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Mr Sergeyev said the NATO campaign had exacted a heavy toll of the civilian population, which Mr Ivanov denounced on Friday as an "undisguised genocide" against the Yugoslav people.

Five days of air strikes have killed "1,000 civilians, 10 times more than the number of military casualties", the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Mr Sergeyev as saying. On Friday, Russia had put the toll at more than 100 dead.  

Meanwhile, NATO warplanes hammered Serbian military targets in Yugoslavia during the second phase of air strikes even as tens of thousands of refugees were fleeing Kosovo and pouring into neighbouring countries.

French TV reports said NATO aircraft pounded Serbian ground forces for the first time in Central Kosovo destroying four tanks. An airport in the Nis city was attacked by NATO aircraft, killing one soldier and injuring five others.

"What we want to do is to stop the ethnic cleansing, the violence undergoing at present in Kosovo," NATO secretary-general Javier Solana said. "A quarter of the population has been displaced," he said. 

Nearly 50,000 ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing the attacks were massed on the border, Albania’s Information Minister Musa Ulgini was quoted as saying.

Albanian sources said some 30,000 Kosovars escorted by Yugoslav army tanks were being driven to Montenegro.

Meanwhile, the USA has increased its number of aircraft from eight to 21 at the Aviano airbase in Italy. Britain also increased the number of fighter planes yesterday.

Earlier, B-52 bombers, originating from British bases and F-16s from the Italian bases, bombed for the fifth night the Yugoslav military columns and tanks deployed in Kosovo.

There was no consensus among NATO allies to send NATO troops to clash with Serbian ground forces well-entrenched in the mountainous regions of Kosovo.

Protesters gathered near the US Embassy in Paris and the French police had to resort to tear gas to disperse the crowd which turned violent.

Another group of Serbian protesters held a peaceful demonstration near the Eiffel Tower. Reports of opinion polls in French media said there was a growing trend of people opposing air strikes and seeking diplomatic negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Serbian authorities underlined their defiance of NATO air strikes by lifting a blackout in the capital Belgrade yesterday as bombs and missiles struck military targets across the country for the fifth day.

Pak army chief to visit China

BEIJING, March 29 (PTI) — China and Pakistan are set to further their political and defence ties with a high-level exchange of visits and sale of Chinese arms, including fighters to Islamabad.

The Pakistani Army Chief, Gen Parvez Musharaf, is scheduled to pay an official visit to China from April 5 to bolster Sino-Pakistani defence cooperation, diplomatic sources told PTI here.

Confirming the visit of Gen Musharaf, a senior Pakistani official said the trip was aimed at furthering Islamabad’s friendly relations with Beijing.

However, the official said Gen Musharaf’s schedule in China was being finalised. He was expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, Gen Fu Quanyou, and call on the Defence Minister, Gen Chi Haotian, and other senior Chinese leaders.

The Pakistani Army Chief’s China visit comes close on the heels of Gen Chi’s visit to Islamabad last month, the first by a senior Chinese leader since Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests in May last year.

Diplomatic sources attached significance to the high-level exchange of visits, saying that it clearly points out to Beijing’s clear-cut message that it would not forgo its key ally in South Asia to improve its relations with India.

Meanwhile, Mr Li Peng, a senior Chinese leader, is scheduled to visit Pakistan from April 8.

Meanwhile, the sources said Pakistan launched its first missile craft built with Chinese help on Friday. The missile craft was built at the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KSEW) with Chinese technical assistance and formed part of Beijing’s efforts to bolster Islamabad’s conventional weapons capabilities.

The missile craft, to be fitted with Chinese-built C-802 type missiles, is estimated to cost $ 18.51 million, which some defence analysts say is far less than the international market price for a similar naval vessel.

Bishop objects to Army’s presence
near church

COLOMBO, Mar 29 (PTI) —Head of a famous Christian church at Madhu town, which was captured by the Sri Lankan Army last week from the LTTE, has objected to the bunkers being built by the troops close to it.

Bishop Royappu Joseph, who was here in connection with a conference of bishops, has been quoted in the local media yesterday as saying that he has conveyed his reservations to the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga when she spoke to him on phone to discuss the plight of over 20,000 refugees who took shelter around the church.

The Sri Lankan Army in a swift move last week took over from LTTE the Madhu town in Northern Mannar district which was located deep in the LTTE-held Northern Vanni jungles without much resistance from the rebels. The church and the town which was a famous pilgrim centre for Sri Lankan Christians since then is in total control of the troops.

After hearing the news of Madhu town’s takeover by the Army, the church officials first objected to the soldiers walking into the church with their footwear and army uniforms and later told the visiting newsmen they feared the area might soon become a centre of conflict between the Army and the Tamil rebels.

Soon after the capture of the town, the Army consolidated its position by establishing check points and bunkers in the town before beginning to screen the people.

Bishop Joseph has also called for urgent medical help for the refugees as most of them were suffering from cholera. He said two refugees have succumbed to the disease and another 40 cases have been reported.

Three shot down in Karachi on Id

KARACHI, March 29 (AP) — Gunmen shot dead three persons outside a mosque during the Muslim ceremony of Id-ul-Zuha, police said today.

The gunmen, riding motorcycles, opened fire on a group of people in Karachi in the southern Kalakot district. Two of the victims died instantly, while the third died at a hospital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The assailants managed to flee, and security forces patrolled the streets of this volatile port city.

The police said it was an act of terrorism tied to the Id day celebrated worldwide by devout Muslims after the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, the police raided a number of offices of the ethnic Mohajir Quami Movement in a bid to prevent the party from collecting hides of the sacrificed animals.

The federal government has banned hide collection by political parties in Karachi, saying that the funds generated by selling the animal skins are used for terrorism.

Thousands of goats, sheep, cows and other animals are sacrificed every year in Karachi during Id festival.

The police said at least six MQM workers had been arrested for violating the ban.

The MQM said the government was wrongly arresting its workers.

“We use this money for social service activities and not for terrorism,’’ said Farooq Sattar, a MQM leader.

Paraguay President quits

ASUNCION, March 29 (DPA) — The President of Paraguay, Mr Raul Cubas, resigned, apologised to the nation and turned over power to the leader of the Senate, Luis Gonzalez Macchi, who was sworn in during a jubilant late night parliament session.

Mr Macchi, who had worked for Mr Cubas’ ouster during impeachment proceedings, was carried into the Congress Assembly on the shoulders of his supporters. He has 90 days to call new national elections.

“I apologise to all of those who had elected me,’’ said Mr Cubas, who claimed he did not want to be responsible for further civil strife in the country. He appeared on national television with his wife standing by his side.

Mr Cubas called for the ruling Colorado party to maintain unity and support the nation’s best interests.

When the news of Mr Cubas’ resignation was first broadcast last evening thousands of people immediately took to the streets of Asuncion to celebrate the President’s downfall. The numbers were estimated at up to 150,000 as the main downtown plaza was overflowing with revellers.

Impeachment hearings were brought against Mr Cubas under suspicion he and retired General Lino Oviedo were behind Tuesday’s assassination of Vice-President Luis Maria Argana, a popular leader of the anti-Cubas faction in the ruling Colorado party.

Computer virus may wreak havoc

NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) — A new fast-spreading computer virus could spread havoc after already forcing several large US corporations to shut down their e-mail systems, The New York Times has reported.

The virus, which is named Melissa and is spread by e-mail, may have infected tens of thousands of home and business computers on Friday, The Times reported yesterday quoting network security companies.

The virus replicates itself by going into the address book of the computer’s user and e-mailing itself to 50 addresses — eventually overloading network systems to the point where they must be shut down. It does not appear to harm or disable the computers, the experts told The Times.

E-mail infected with the virus has a topic line which begins "important message from" followed by the name of the person whose computer address book inadvertently provided the recipient’s e-mail address.

That is followed by the seemingly innocuous message: "Here is that document you asked for...don’t show it to anyone else," a massive document called list.doc is attached, the paper said.

Mild quakes in Japan, Iran

TOKYO, March 29 (AP) — A moderate earthquake today shook the Izu islands south of Tokyo, the Japanese meteorological agency said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The agency said the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.9, struck at 1:37 a.m. local time (1637 GMT Saturday). It was centred in the Pacific Ocean south of Miyake Island, which is 190 km south of Tokyo.

There was no danger of Tsunami, tidal waves sometimes set off by quakes, the agency said.

The agency reported a series of weaker tremors, with magnitudes of 3.2 to 3.7, later Sunday morning near the Izu islands and south of the ITO Peninsula, about 135 km south of Tokyo.

DUSHANBE (Tajikistan): An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 struck southern Tajikistan, injuring two persons and damaging 27 homes, officials said.

The quake hit Saturday night, with the epicentre 20 km (about 12 miles) south of Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, the Ministry for Emergency Situations said.

TEHERAN (AFP): An earthquake hit the southern Iranian province of Fars on Monday, but no casualties or damage was reported, the official news agency IRNA said.

The quake, measuring 4.6 degrees on the Richter scale, shook the northern part of Kazeroun city at 410 GMT, Teheran university’s Geophysics Institute said.

Iraq paid $ 800,000 to Primakov: report

NEW YORK, March 29 (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov received at least $ 8,00,000 from the Iraqi Government and hindered UN efforts to monitor Baghdad’s illegal weapons programmes, The New Yorker magazine has reported.

The magazine, in an article by investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh, also said the US military attempted to assassinate Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during allied air strikes last December. The story was reported in the magazine’s April 5 edition, which hit US news-stands today.

According to The New Yorker, Mr Primakov has a close friendship with Mr Saddam dating back to the 1960s, when the Russian official was a Pravda correspondent in West Asia.

UN Weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus learned how close that friendship was in 1996 when he alerted Mr Primakov to evidence that Russia was smuggling illegal contraband to Iraq, including materials for the Iraqi nuclear programme, The New Yorker said.

Mr Primakov, Russia’s Foreign Minister at the time, said his government was not involved in any illegal smuggling and promised to conduct an investigation, Mr Ekeus is quoted as saying.

Mr Ekeus said he never saw the results of any investigation and secret codes used by the Russians were subsequently changed.

Then, in November 1997, British intelligence found strong evidence of an $ 8,00,000 payment to Mr Primakov by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the magazine said.

“A payment was made”, it quotes an American source as saying. “This is rock solid”. According to the report, senior cia officials had believed for a long time that Mr Primakov was receiving payments from Mr Saddam.

In Moscow, Mr Primakov’s spokeswoman Tatyana Aristarkhova said she could not comment on The New Yorker article because she had not seen it.

Day of celebration for Serbs

BELGRADE, March 29 (AP) — Hundreds of jubilant Serbs made their way to a wheat field on Sunday to rummage through the wreckage of a high-tech US fighter jet and celebrate what they saw as a victory over NATO.

Some pulled out knives, and like hunters skinning prey, stripped away at the outer covering that was supposed to make the aircraft nearly invisible to radar. Others picked up the wing section pocked with gaping holes, and flipped it repeatedly.

The downed US fighter jet near the village of Budjanovac, about 50 km north-west of Belgrade, was one of the first events Serbs could interpret as a sign of success against the NATO bombardment that began on Wednesday.

Pro-government papers equated the crash with overwhelming success. The Daily Expres wrote of Stealth fighters falling “like overripe pears.’’

That was hours before a senior US defence official said there were strong indications the fighter was downed by a surface-to-air missile.

Suu Kyi ‘won’t go to UK for funeral’

BANGKOK, March 29 (Reuters) — Myanmar Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not go to England for the funeral of her late husband Michael Aris despite a government offer to allow the trip, a confidant said today.

Ms Suu Kyi has already begun performing Buddhist rites for her late husband in Yangon, said Mr Tin Oo, Vice-President of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

“Even though she is a devout Buddhist, she is definitely not leaving Yangon to perform rites for her husband there. She is performing Buddhist rites for him here. On the seventh day on Friday she will hold a major ceremony in her house,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview from Yangon.

Qazi re-elected Jamaat chief

ISLAMABAD, March 29 (PTI) — The chief of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, who had vowed to foil all attempts to normalise relations with India without a solution of the Kashmir problem and enforce strict Islamic laws in Pakistan, has been re-elected for another term of five years.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who is currently recuperating from surgery, was re-elected with an overwhelming majority of nearly 80 per cent in the party elections and would now be the “Ameer” (chief) of JI for another term extending up to 2004, a party spokesman said.

Brawl leaves 15 students dead

JAKARTA, March 29 (AP) — At least 15 senior high school students drowned after jumping into a river during a brawl last week on Indonesia’s main island of Java, a local newspaper reported today.

Rescuers found the bodies of the victims over the weekend in the Cisadane river in Bogor city, 60 km south of Jakarta, Kompas reported.

The students, who studied at a navigation school in Jakarta, were involved in a fight on Friday with students from a technical high school in Bogor. They jumped into the river while trying to escape.

Some 200 students from Jakarta had gone to Bogor to avenge the beating of one of their friends by their Bogor rivals. The police detained 42 students after the brawl but later released them.

‘Dr Death ’ convicted
WASHINGTON: Dr Jack Kevorkian, the well-known crusader for euthanasia, has been convicted on charges of committing the second-degree murder of a terminally ill man. A jury of seven women and five men, after 12 hours of deliberation, convicted Dr Kevorkian of murdering Thomas York by giving him a lethal injection. The 52-year-old man was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal disease. Dr Kevorkian, who presented a videotaped film on Youk’s death to prosecutors, said he gave the lethal injection to Youk to ease his suffering. The juryin its verdict said Dr Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, could face a minimum sentence of 10 to 25 years. —ANI

Courses for brides
KAULA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Penang resort island will soon run special courses to teach local brides-to-be how to become “good” wives and daughters-in-law in a bid to reduce divorce rates, reports said on Monday. The courses are targeted especially at career-oriented women who are “not contented to be just housewives”, said Ms Kee Phaik Cheen, who is head of a state committee on women’s development. — DPA

Exhibition on ‘Devi’
WASHINGTON: The first-ever exhibition based on the theme “Devi” (Goddess) depicting various forms from the first century till modern day began here with the invocation of Saraswati (Goddess of learning). The celebration started on Sunday with prayers and chants of the Vedas under the auspices of the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple by 24 Indian children. Renowned Indian dancer Mallika Sarabhai gave an enthralling demonstration of Indian classical dances and their significance. — PTI

N. Zealand irked
AUCKLAND: New Zealand scientists are upset at the commission of the so-called “father of nuclear science”— Sir Ernest Rutherford — from Time magazine’s series on the most influential people of the 20th century, The Sunday Star-Times reported. Rutherford, born in New Zealand in 1871, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908 for his discoveries on the nature of the atom and is widely regarded as the founder of nuclear physics. — AFP

Japanese lawmakers
TOKYO: A group of ruling party lawmakers called for cutting Japan’s contribution to the UN, if the world body does not soon give Japan a permanent seat on its influential Security Council, a news report has said. The group of Liberal Democratic Party legislators said Japan should cut the 47.1 billion yen ($ 395 million) in voluntary contribution it gives annually to the UN by 10 per cent until it gets the seat, Kyodo new agency said on Saturday. Party officials could not be reached for comment. — AP

‘Rambo’ recreated
LONDON: In a scene that seems a recreation straight from the sets of the blockbuster “Rambo”, the Lebanese Army has used rocket-propelled grenades to kill a man who has shot two persons dead. Police officials said Tony Rohans had barricaded himself inside his house in the village of Ebrine north of Beirut after shooting two passers-by on Friday evening with a M16 assault rifle. He had fired shots and lobbed hand-grenades at troops who surrounded his house, the said. — ANI