US-Russia talks on to end war
HELSINKI, May 19 — Russia and the USA are locked in tough talks to try to thrash out their views on the future of Kosovo in enough detail to send Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic a common message.

Duma approves Yeltsin man as PM

MOSCOW, May 19 (AP,PTI) — Mr Sergei Stepashin was today approved as Russian Prime Minister by lawmakers after he warned that Russia needs urgent and courageous policies to rescue its battered economy. The state Duma, the lower chamber of Parliament, voted 297-55 to approve Mr Stepashin following the dismissal of his popular predecessor Yevgeny Primakov last week.

None of the major factions voiced objections to Mr Stepashin’s confirmation during brief hearings. Some of the communists also said they would support the new Prime Minister.

Mr Stepashin, watching the voting from the chamber, was visibly pleased as the outcome of the vote flashed up on a large electronic screen. “I sincerely thank you for your support,” he told lawmakers, “expected a lot of difficult and angry questions today, but there were none,” he said.

Lawmakers said they had backed Mr Stepashin because they feared Mr Yeltsin would turn to a more radical candidate if his first choice was rejected.

Many lawmakers, tired of months of political confrontation, said they hoped that Mr Stepashin would be in office for at least the rest of the year.

Mr Stepashin’s immediate task is to name a Cabinet, a task he will have to carry out with Mr Yeltsin’s approval. The Communists warned they would oppose the naming of liberal reformers to the cabinet, but the Duma cannot block any ministerial appointments.

Mr Stepashin promised to tackle the country’s huge economic and social problems. He said Russia needed bold and effective policies to reverse years of economic decline, but he spelled out few details during his speech to the Duma.

“I am not General Pinochet. My name is Stepashin. I am not going to resort to emergency steps”, the Prime Ministerial candidate declared while addressing the deputies before the voting in an obvious reference to critics who had pointed to his KGB background.

Expressing his commitment to the policy of political and economic stability of his predecessor, Mr Stepashin vowed to back industry and spend more on defence.

He described the NATO operations against Belgrade as primarily, a strike against Russia” and said that his government would spend up to 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence.

Mr Stepashin, with very little of experience to back him, won the Duma’s overwhelming endorsement after he vowed to adopt tough measures to improve the lot of Russia’s masses and crack down on crime.

Immediately afterwards Mr Yeltsin signed a decree proclaiming the former Interior Minister as Prime Minister. He dumped the ever cautious Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov on May 12.

Mr Stepashin’s confirmation as Premier followed days of consultations with the chastened Communist-dominated Duma which chose to back Yeltsin’s nominee rather than risk angering him after its proposed vote of no-confidence fell through last week.

Mr Yeltsin had the constitutional option of dissolving the Duma if it had chose to reject his nominee three times and calling for fresh polls. Mr Stepashin’s appointment has ended fears of yet another damaging political controversy in the country struggling to come to terms with its economic woes.

In his address shortly after he received the Duma’s endorsement, Mr Stepashin said he planned no major changes in Mr Primakov’s policies but promised to address human suffering caused by the sweeping economic changes introduced in the past few years.

He also urged the Duma to quickly pass laws to secure the release of urgently needed IMF funds. “Without acceptance of these laws, it is not possible to Russia’s foreign debt burden,” he said.

US-Russia talks on to end war

HELSINKI, May 19 (Reuters) — Russia and the USA are locked in tough talks to try to thrash out their views on the future of Kosovo in enough detail to send Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic a common message.

Russia’s Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met in the Finnish capital Helsinki for seven hours yesterday and were to continue the talks today.

Moscow, Serbia’s long-time friend and ally, agreed with the West earlier this month that a foreign military force was needed to protect Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians from Serb brutality and see that nearly a million refugees can go home in safety.

But what foreign force? under whose control? with what sort of mandate? those are the issues so far preventing Russia and the West from speaking with one voice and keeping NATO from getting the approval of the UN Security Council for its air war on Yugoslavia.

Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott had discussions with the Mr Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the latter is representing the European Union in talks with Belgrade.

The post quoted White House officials saying that they consider Mr Chernomyrdin’s involvement constructive, though Russia has yet to accept Mr Clinton’s bottom line on two essential parts of an agreement. It includes USA insistence that the security force that would go to Kosovo after a settlement must be led by NATO.

Meanwhile, the two UN special envoys for the Balkans have set in motion the process of evolving a role for the United Nations in the Balkan conflict. Appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan early this month, one of them, Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, yesterday told a press conference at the United Nations that there was interest and support for a UN role in Kosovo but opinions on the extent of its involvement and timing varied widely.

WASHINGTON: The President of the USA Mr Bill Clinton has, for the first time, spoken of the possibility of considering sending ground troops to Kosovo even as diplomatic efforts to resolve the Balkan crisis appeared to gain ground.

Talking to reporters here yesterday, he, however, made it clear that he would consider such an option if he was convinced that NATO’s strategy of bombing Yugoslavia would not bring victory. “I and everyone else has always said that we intend to see our objectives achieved and that we have not and will not take any option off the table,” Mr Clinton added.

According to The Washington Post, Mr Clinton’s insistence that his mind is open to putting combat troops in Kosovo marked a rhetorical shift — “I do not intend to put our troops in Kosovo to fight a war,” he announced on the first day of airstrikes 56 days ago — but senior administration officials said “as a practical matter they are weeks away at least from a decision to assemble an invasion force.”

Later officials explained that the President wanted to dispel any impression that NATO might accept a solution short of its known demands from Yugoslavia.

Zardari alleges torture
Denies suicide bid report

KARACHI, May 19 (AP) — Weak from having neither slept nor eaten in three days, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, the jailed husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said his jailers torturned him, a colleague who saw him said today.

The former Defence Minister in Ms Bhutto's Government, Mr Aftab Shaban Mirani, saw Mr Zardari late yesterday following police reports that he tried to commit suicide.

Mr Zardari denied the suicide attempt, said Mr Mirani in an interview with Associated Press.

In a statement from the United Arab Emirates, where she is currently living, Ms Bhutto has accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government of trying to murder her husband.

The meeting between Mr Zardari, Mr Mirani and his father was held late yesterday in a stark cement box-shaped room in the Criminal Investigation Agency centre in southern Karachi, said Mr Mirani.

Mr Zardari's neck was red and swollen and there was a bandage on his neck beneath his left ear, said Mr Mirani.

Mr Zardari was weak, his clothes dishevelled and his eyes bloodshot, he said.

Mr Zardari has refused to eat or drink anything for the past three days because he fears his jailers will try to poison him, said Mr Mirani. Mr Zardari had requested food from outside the CIA centre where he is being held, but the authorities have so far refused his request.

Mr Mirani said the men spoke in whispers throughout the 15-minute visit to prevent nearby guards from overhearing their convesation, he said.

According to Mr Mirani, Mr Zardari told him: "I am being tortured and they keep asking me questions for which I have no answers. They haven't let me sleep in three days".

"We kept speaking in whispers because of the officials sitting there trying to listen", said Mr Mirani.

The Sind High Court today ordered the authorities to return Mr Zardari to the hospital in Karachi where he had been receiving treatment for a chronic back ailment.

The court issued a similar order earlier this week, but it was ignored. Today the court also accused the Sind Provincial authorities of contempt of court because they refused to implement the earlier court order and return him to the hospital.

Scores of police and several police vehicles had been deployed outside the CIA centre where dozens of Ms Bhutto's supporters had been holding protests.

Chaudhry sworn in Fiji PM

SUVA, May 19 (AFP) — The Labour Party leader, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry, was sworn in as Fiji’s first ethnic Indian Prime Minister today and vowed to steer his country away from the racial politics that divided it in the past.

He also admitted that security was being stepped up to counter the possibility of mischief-making by disgruntled opponents following Labour’s landslide victory over a coalition led by Mr Sitiveni Rabuka in Fiji’s historic mutli-racial elections last week.

Mr Chaudhry said Fiji must put behind it the events of 1987, when the previous democratically elected Labour government was brought down in a racially inspired coup.

“Our emphasis must now shift to that of building a secure multi-racial foundation for our country and not on propagating communal politics,” he said after being sworn in by the country’s President.

The Indian-dominated labour party won an overwhelming mandate from what it said was a multi-racial cross-section of voters, giving it 37 of the 71 parliamentary seats. Its coalition partners, two indigenous Fijian parties, won another 14 seats between them.

Although it has a clear majority in its own right, labour stood by its coalition agreement by offering deputy prime ministerships to leaders of the two other parties.

One is the Fijian Association Party leader, Ms Adi Kuini Speed, widow of Timoci Bavadra, leader of the Labour government ousted in the 1987 coup the other is Mr Tupenj Baba.

Mr Rabuka, who led the coup in which he locked up Bavadra and his ministers, including Mr Chaudhry, has agreed to lead the opposition after his SVT party’s strength was reduced to nine in the new Parliament.

Mr Chaudhry told Fijians, who make up 51 per cent of the country’s 80,000 population compared to 44 per cent Indians, “You have nothing to fear from the Fiji Labour Party.”

Their special rights as an indigenous community were well entrenched in the new constitution, he said.

Peace pact signed with Sierra rebels

LOME (Togo), May 19 (AP) — Sierra Leone’s government troops and the country’s rebels have agreed to a ceasefire that will begin next week.

The two sides also agreed to immediately release all prisoners of war and give free access to humanitarian workers to move in the country.

Mr Foday Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary United Front, and Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah signed the agreement yesterday to lay down their weapons on May 24, with peace talks starting the following day.

Although repeated attempts to end seven years of savage fighting have failed in recent years, both sides expressed optimism for peace in the war-wrecked West African nation.

Flanked by US envoy, Rev Jesse Jackson, and representatives for the United Nations and Organisation of African Unity, Mr Kabbah predicted negotiations will bring lasting peace to Sierra Leone by early June.

“For Sierra Leoneans, the war should now be against ignorance, poverty and disease”, said Mr Kabbah in a speech in downtown Lome. He did not mention an earlier demand that the rebels vacate diamond mines and all roads before any ceasefire would take effect and it was not immediately clear if either side made any concessions.

Mr Sankoh, who says he commands 40,000 rebels that control two-thirds of the country including the diamond-rich east, called on the international community to ensure that both sides lay down their arms.

Nanny on trial for baby’s death
From Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles

A BRITISH nursery worker accused of shaking an American baby to death in a rage over a dirty nappy has gone on trial in San Diego, California, in a case resonant of the British au pair Louise Woodward trial.

Deputy District Attorney Daniel Goldstein told the jury of seven men and five women that Manjit Kaur Basuta, 43, originally from Berkshire, had shaken 13-month-old Oliver Smith so violently that his brain “broke down” and he died.

Opening a trial that is likely to last four weeks, Goldstein said: “Manjit Kaur Basuta was supposed to care, respect and protect Oliver. She did not. The defendant grabbed him in a rage of frustration because the diaper change was not going right.”

Goldstein told Court Room 54 that the case was about frustration and tolerance and expecting adult behaviour in a baby. He is alleging that Basuta grabbed the baby and shook him so violently that he died.

Oliver was one of seven children being cared for by Basuta at her home in Carmel Valley on March 17 last year. He suffered massive head injuries shortly after lunch and the medical examiners’ office found he had a subdural haematoma beneath his skull and massive brain swelling because of the bleeding.

The prosecution is claiming that Basuta, in a fury, shook the baby to death. The defence deny the charges and are suggesting that the child either died accidentally or was killed by somebody else.

Basuta and her husband had moved to California in 1989. She had previously worked as a nurse at a hospital in Ascot but followed her husband who had a job as an executive in a communications firm in California.

The chief prosecution witness in the case will be Christina Carillo, who was Basuta’s housemaid for nearly a year before the incident took place.

According to transcripts of testimony given before the grand jury before the trial, Carillo gave graphic details of the child’s last moments alive.

She alleges that Basuta became angry when Oliver refused to obey her order to stop watching television and come into another room to have his nappy changed.

It is claimed that at this stage she shook him violently and the child’s head was shaken forward. His skin started to change colour and he fell unconscious.

Carillo has also claimed that Basuta would become hysterical around the children: “She would grab them by the arm and throw them like animals. I would feel sad.” She has claimed that Basuta told her to tell the emergency services that the boy had suffered a fall and threatened to report her for being an illegal immigrant if she did not back up her story.
— The Guardian, London.

Child porn banned
TOKYO: Japan’s Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday banned the production and sale of child pornography and outlawed sex with a minor, answering mounting criticism over the country’s lax sex-crime laws. The measure has been approved by the Upper House and Tuesday’s vote made it law. The Justice Ministry said the new restrictions will take effect sometime in the fall. — AP

Hyperactive volcano
COLIMA: Mexico’s Volcan de Fuego erupted 20 times over a 24-hour period, sending volcanic ash raining onto surrounding areas, officials said on Tuesday. Scientists are keeping a close watch on activity at the 3,960 metre-high volcano, one of Mexico’s most active and authorities were on standby for possible further evacuations. — AFP

Sanskrit inscription
BEIJING: Chinese archaeologists have found a 1,500-year-old stone inscription carved in Sanskrit and Chinese languages near the city of Yueyang in China’s Hunan province. The 1.7 metres by one metre inscription is located on a cliff at Junshan mountain near the city, Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Mr Wo Baihui, head of the International Indian Philosophy Institute, as saying. There are two Sanskrit words and two Chinese characters carved in the stone, Mr Baihui said. — PTI

AIDS vaccine
BALTIMORE: Researchers are closer to finding an AIDS vaccine, but prevention should be stressed in the meantime, experts said here on Tuesday. — AFP