Russia, West set to sign arms deal
ISTANBUL, Nov 17 — Western leaders and Russia are set to sign a landmark European arms accord at a summit in Istanbul starting tomorrow, despite a fierce showdown over Moscow’s onslaught in Chechnya, diplomats says.

Indo-US talks to continue in Jan
LONDON, Nov 17 — India and the USA today agreed on the need to make "tangible progress" on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), disarmament and non-proliferation and decided to ‘’intensify their contacts at all levels’’ in the run up to President Bill Clinton’s visit to New Delhi early next year.

Barak aide on secret mission
JERUSALEM, Nov 17 — One of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s top aides was sent recently on a secret mission as part of the attempts to renew peace talks with Syria, the Israeli Ma’ Ariv daily reported today.

Five jailed for killing Sikh temple caretaker
SURREY, (British Columbia), Nov 17 — Five men linked to a neo-Nazi skinhead group were sentenced today to prison terms ranging between 12 and 15 years for the beating to death of an elderly caretaker at a Sikh temple.

Summit gives Castro regime legitimacy
HAVANA, Nov 17 — President Fidel Castro presided over the formal closing of the Ibero-American summit last night then took the opportunity to defend his Communist nation and belittle the dissident movement in Cuba.

EgyptAir co-pilot may have caused crash
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 — The probe of the EgyptAir flight 990 disaster took a dramatic turn as the USA investigators began to suspect that a co-pilot may have crashed the plane on purpose.

Bhopal victims file fresh suit
NEW YORK, Nov 17 — Fifteen fifteen years after thousands were killed in a poison gas leak at a Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant in Bhopal, survivors and relatives of victims have sued the company for “depraved indifference to human life.’’

More teeth for defence forces
MOSCOW, Nov 17 — India will acquire a whole range of sub-strategic weapons systems from Russia which will help boost its strike capability to control the vast Indian ocean region, ‘The Moscow Times’ has reported.

Congo army, rebels sign accord
POINTE-NOIRE (Congo Republic), Nov 17 — Congo Republic’s armed forces and rebel representatives have signed an accord calling for a nationwide cessation of hostilities, witnesses and officials said.

Rescued after 100 hours
ANKARA, Nov 17 — Turkish rescuers pulled a man alive from the rubble on Wednesday more than 100 hours after he was buried by last Friday’s quake.

I was forced to sack Musharraf: Sharif

ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (PTI) — The deposed Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif, who is under detention, has reportedly said some sudden development had forced him to sack the army chief General Pervez Musharraf which led to ouster of his government in an army coup last month.

"The situation had suddenly changed" and he (Sharif) had received such information under which action against the army chief had become necessary, Mr Mohammed Sarwar, British MP of Pakistani origin, said after meeting Mr Sharif.

Mr Sarwar was specially allowed to meet Mr Sharif, who is being held by the army at an undisclosed place since his overthrow on October 12, the Urdu daily ‘Khabrain’ reported.

The British Parliamentarian is only the second person, after Canadian High Commissioner Ferry De Karckhove to have been allowed by the military authorities to meet Mr Sharif.

"Sharif is worried and disappointed and he says that he himself had extended the term of the army chief, but later the situation suddenly changed and he got such reports he had to dismiss the army chief," Khabrain quoted Mr Sarwar as saying.

The deposed Prime Minister suddenly sacked Gen Musharraf on October 12, soon after he had himself regularised the general’s position as chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC).

Mr Nawaz Sharif, however, also indirectly criticised his close advisers saying that the people around him were deaf and dumb and didn’t reply to any query, the newspaper said.

Mr Sarwar said that Mr Sharif seemed totally unaware of the allegations against him which included such charges like high treason, attempt to hijacking, kidnapping and endangering the lives of nearly 200 passengers of a PIA flight.

The former Prime Minister when told by Mr Sarwar that the Commonwealth is considering giving two-years to General Musharraf, expressed his surprise by asking, "is this true".

Mr Sharif also expressed concern about the health of his father and said that till now he had no knowledge about him.

Taliban order end to anti-UN demonstrations

KABUL, Nov 17 (AP) — The Taliban has ordered an end to often violent demonstrations against UN sanctions and promised to compensate the United Nations after one of its offices was burned to the ground.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued a statement yesterday from his headquarters in southern Kandahar that sharply criticised UN sanctions but urged Afghans to seek solace in prayer, not public protests.

“Only trust in Gods I ask everyone do not demonstrate anymore. You should show restraint,” he said. “Instead you should leave it to God to take revenge against these cruel people,” he said referring to the USA and the UN.

The statement came as Erick de Mul, the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan, arrived here for talks with Taliban officials.

Mr De Mul told reporters that Taliban officials offered compensation for damage done by protesters. On Monday in northwestern Farah province, where a UN office was burned to the ground, and vehicles and equipment around the country have been vandalised or stolen.

Council members called for increased security for UN staff and buildings, said a statement read by council president Danilo Turk of Slovenia.

The UN accused the Taliban of not doing enough to stop the violence, which is going on daily since Sunday, when the world body imposed sanctions over the Taliban’s refusal to hand over Osama Bin Laden for trial either in the USA or in a third country.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters): The Security Council has condemned attacks on UN offices in Afghanistan and again demanded that the country’s Taliban rulers turn over Saudi-born militant Osama Bin Laden for trial on charges of bombing US embassies in Africa.

A statement read to reporters on Tuesday by council President Danilo Turk of Slovenia followed a briefing for council members on the situation in Afghanistan.

Russia to ease refugee crisis
Evacuation of Grozny ordered

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (Reuters, DPA) — The head of the United Nations refugee agency met Russian Ministers today to discuss the plight of people who have fled the campaign against Chechnya and said her organisation would work with Russia to help them.

United Nations High Commissioner for refugees Sadako Ogata met Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu before heading for talks with Mr Igor Ivanov, Russia’s Foreign Minister.

Ms Ogata is due to visit the conflict zone tomorrow, although it was not clear if she would go to Chechnya. “We have agreed very much that we (the UN and Russia) will cooperate and coordinate our systems,’’ Ms Ogata told reporters after meeting Mr Shoigu.

More than 200,000 Chechens have fled the seven-week campaign of intensive bombing and shelling as Russia pursues Muslim rebels in Chechnya. Many refugees have poured into the neighbouring province of Ingushetia.

The offensive has been severely criticised in the West, but Russia has defended the operation as a fight against terrorists. It has also accused the west of hypocrisy.

Ms Ogata said a new appeal was being launched to cover UN relief operations in the region for another three months and that Russia had pledged to ensure the security of UN operatives in Ingushetia and Chechnya.

Mr Shoigu said he and Ms Ogata had discussed what was needed for the refugees, for those in Ingushetia who had sheltered people fleeing the fighting and what aid was necessary for the zones in Chechnya which Russian forces have taken back under control.

Meanwhile, Russian troops have “tightened their grip’’ over Grozny and have asked the people to leave the city as a final offensive against it appears imminent.

Novosti quoted Nikolia Koshman Deputy Premier of Russia, as saying that orders to vacate the city have been issued for security reasons and “special corridors’’ set up for their exit.

Speaking to a group of G-8 envoys based here, he expressed the hope that refugees forced to seek shelter outside Chechnya would be asked to return to their homes by the end of December.

With the Organistaion for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit opening in Istanbul today Russia and the West have begun launching virulent attack on each other on the Chechen issue.

President Boris Yeltsin will address the summit tomorrow and meet US President Bill Clinton before flying back to Moscow the same day.

Kremlin has offered one more opportunity to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov to avoid frontal military conflict with the advancing Russian troops.

Quoting Defence Ministry sources “Voice of Russia’’ radio said Mr Maskhadov must hand over terrorists Shamil Basayev and Jordanian mercenary “commander” Khattab to prove his control over the situation. If he does not do so, there was no use in entering into talks with him, it added.

DPA adds: Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov was rumoured to be planning a surprise visit to the OSCE summit beginning tomorrow in Istanbul, Interfax news agency reported.

Mr Maskhadov was already believed to be in the Turkish capital, informed sources told the agency.

His spokesman, Selim Abdulmuslinov, would not confirm the reports, but did not rule out an appearance by Mr Maskahdov at the two-day summit.

WASHINGTON: US President Bill Clinton, increasingly concerned about Russia’s offensive in Chechnya, will tell President Yeltsin the policy is a “dead end’’ that needs third-party mediation, The Washington Post reported today.

The paper quoted National Security Adviser Sandy Berger as saying that Mr Clinton would join several European allies in criticising Russia’s bombardment of Chechnya when he and Yeltsin meet in Turkey tomorrow.

Mr Berger told the daily that Mr Clinton planned to raise Chechnya even if Yeltsin attempts to deflect discussion on the conflict.

Russia, West set to sign arms deal

ISTANBUL, Nov 17 (AFP) — Western leaders and Russia are set to sign a landmark European arms accord at a summit in Istanbul starting tomorrow, despite a fierce showdown over Moscow’s onslaught in Chechnya, diplomats says.

The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, who arrived here yesterday, will raise the Chechen issue directly with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at the two-day Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit, officials confirmed.

But it appears unlikely to derail signature of an updated version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE). Treaty, said diplomats gathered in Turkey’s economic capital.

“Delegates are confident that it will be signed” on Friday morning, before the climax of the summit, a diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity late yesterday.

The Istanbul meeting aims to trumpet two key accords: The revised CFE Treaty and a new European security charter to concretise the continent’s post-cold war security arrangements.

The new CFE accord will cut by an average 10 per cent Ceilings established by the 1990 accord for the deployment of weapons such as tanks, aircraft and artillery forces, notably on front lines between the former enemy blocs.

Indo-US talks to continue in Jan

LONDON, Nov 17 (PTI) — India and the USA today agreed on the need to make "tangible progress" on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), disarmament and non-proliferation and decided to ‘’intensify their contacts at all levels’’ in the run up to President Bill Clinton’s visit to New Delhi early next year.

"A visit of the President of the United States to India in the coming year would provide the occasion to significantly improve mutual understanding and cooperation,’’ a joint statement issued at the end of the ninth round of talks here between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said.

The statement issued after the two-day meeting, held after a gap of nearly 10 months, said the two sides agreed that the purpose of the talks "is to lay the foundation of a broad-based forward looking relationship between the US and India.’’

The two sides agreed on the importance of among other things disarmament and non-proliferation, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the need to make tangible progress on these issues.

The meeting assumes significance as it comes close on the heels of the Clinton administration’s report to the US Congress saying that no tangible progress had been made in talks with India on nuclear issues and concern over New Delhi’s draft nuclear doctrine.

The discussions on the nuclear issues were held in the back drop of the US Senate rejection of CTBT. While Washington has been insisting that India should sign the CTBT, New Delhi has maintained that it would work for building up the widest possible national consensus on the issue.

The two sides agreed to hold the next round of talks in January next year for which the venue is yet to be decided.

This was the first high-level interaction between the two sides after the new Vajpayee government assumed office and India announced its draft nuclear doctrine, which has come in for sharp criticism from Washington.

However, New Delhi has termed US concerns as "overstated" as it was simply a discussion paper released by the National Security Advisory Board.

Barak aide on secret mission

JERUSALEM, Nov 17 (DPA) — One of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s top aides was sent recently on a secret mission as part of the attempts to renew peace talks with Syria, the Israeli Ma’ Ariv daily reported today.

According to the report, Mr Danny Yatom, Mr Barak’s Political-Security Adviser, met Jordanian King Abdullah in France, in order to receive the reply to a message Israel sent Syrian President Hafez Assad last week.

The Israeli message was apparently sent via the Jordanians. Ma’ Ariv quoted King Abdullah as saying in an interview with a French newspaper that Israel and Syria need just one more small effort to close the gap between their respective positions as regards the restart of the negotiations.

The two sides broke off peace talks in 1996, and have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to find a formula which will relaunch the negotiations.

Most of the current dispute centres around the Syrian demand that the talks pick up from the point at which they were aborted, and the disagreement over where that point was.

Meanwhile, Israel delayed a promised transfer of more West Bank land to the Palestinians until at least next week despite the efforts of US West Asia envoy Dennis Ross to broker a compromise.

Yasser Arafat insisted his Palestinian authority would not let Israel dictate the territory to be handed over as the two sides again found themselves at odds despite September’s breakthrough Sharm el-Sheikh peace accord.

“Israel will not carry out a troop withdrawal from the West Bank this week. Orders have been given to army units to put their preparations for the pullout on hold,” a senior military official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.

The land handover, the second of three West Bank pullbacks called for in the Sharm agreement, was due to be carried out on Monday but was put off after the Palestinians refused to sign the maps of the withdrawal presented by Israel.

Arafat insisted last evening that Israel would have to negotiate the areas to be handed over and that the Palestinians would not let the Israelis decide for themselves the regions of the wihdrawal.

“No one has the right to impose the maps of the withdrawal on us,” the Palestinian leader told reporters in Gaza city following a meeting with visiting officials from the United Arab Emirates.

Five jailed for killing Sikh temple caretaker

SURREY, (British Columbia), Nov 17 (AP) — Five men linked to a neo-Nazi skinhead group were sentenced today to prison terms ranging between 12 and 15 years for the beating to death of an elderly caretaker at a Sikh temple.

Provincial Judge William Stewart ruled that the killing of Nirmal Singh Gill (65) was racially motivated and called it repugnant describing the killers as “moronic braggarts.”

The five pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the January 1998 killing of Gill outside the Guru Nanak Temple in suburban Surrey.

All five - Nathan Leblanc (27); Robert Kluch (26); Radoslaw Synderek (24); Daniel Miloszewski (22); and Lee Nikkel (18) - had links to a neo-Nazi group called White Power, according to courtroom evidence.

The police said the men bragged about the killing to undercover officers posing as motor cycle gang members.

Summit gives Castro regime legitimacy

HAVANA, Nov 17 (DPA) — President Fidel Castro presided over the formal closing of the Ibero-American summit last night then took the opportunity to defend his Communist nation and belittle the dissident movement in Cuba.

In a news conference after the summit was wrapped up and several Latin American leaders had referred to the lack of democracy in Cuba, Mr Castro made a rare defence of his nation’s human rights record under Communist party rule.

Mr Castro (73) called the dissident movement a “virtual opposition” that is funded by the USA and does “not really exist” among the people. He referred to a “industry of dissidents” that had no basis in the popular will.

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo made apparent reference to Cuba when he said, “there can be no sovereign nations without free men and women.” He said liberty involved the freedom to free thought, dissent or participation in the political system.

Despite the close scrutiny of his regime, Mr Castro gained by hosting the summit and showing that all but five of the 21 heads of state from Spain, Portugal, South America, Central American and Caribbean recognised his legitimacy.

It was the first time the summit has been held in Cuba since the annual gathering was initiated in 1991. The Presidents of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador did not attend due to political differences with Havana.

The Presidents of Chile, Eduardo Frei, and Argentina, Carlos Menem, also stayed away in protest against Spain’s backing of the extradition order from London of detained former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The participating heads of state issued a joint Havana declaration yesterday calling for an end to interference by third party countries in domestic affairs of nations.

EgyptAir co-pilot may have caused crash

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (AFP) — The probe of the EgyptAir flight 990 disaster took a dramatic turn as the USA investigators began to suspect that a co-pilot may have crashed the plane on purpose.

“Based on the evidence we have seen thus far ... we have found so far no sign of a mechanical — or weather-related event that could have caused this accident,” said Mr Jim Hall, head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is leading the investigation.

But Mr Hall told mediapersons late last night that he had considered handing the investigation over, possibly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — a move that would indicate the NTSB believes a criminal act may have caused the crash.

Mr Hall’s comments came as reports swirled in USA media that data from the so-called ‘black boxes’ seemed to show that when the co-pilot was left alone briefly in the cockpit, he said a short Muslim prayer.

Without directly acknowledging the reports of a prayer, Mr Hall warned that ‘there are significant differences in the cultural interpretation of some of the expressions on the recorder’.

CAIRO (PTI): EgyptAir has said it was only ‘natural’ if someone had read out a prayer in the cockpit of flight 990 just before it crashed as it must have been an emergency situation on board then.

The crew of the ill-fated Boeing 767 were very skilled and if someone read out a prayer it was only “natural” in case of an emergency situation, an EgyptAir statement said.

Bhopal victims file fresh suit

NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) — Fifteen fifteen years after thousands were killed in a poison gas leak at a Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant in Bhopal, survivors and relatives of victims have sued the company for “depraved indifference to human life.’’

The suit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday, also names former Chairman Warren Anderson as a defendant. The case seeks unspecified damages and wants the Federal Court to take back the control of litigation that was first filed here against the Union Carbide by the Indian Government but was moved to India in 1986 for jurisdictional reasons.

Although the Indian government’s civil case against the company was settled in 1989 for $ 470 million, criminal matters against the defendants are still pending in India.

Kenneth McCallion, plaintiffs lawyer for the victims and family members, said a key issue in the suit filed yesterday was the 1986 ruling that granted Union Carbide’s request to have the government’s case tried in India.

However, to have the case moved to India, where damage awards are much lower, Union Carbide had to agree to submit to the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

More teeth for defence forces

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (PTI) — India will acquire a whole range of sub-strategic weapons systems from Russia which will help boost its strike capability to control the vast Indian ocean region, ‘The Moscow Times’ has reported.

Russia plans to sell 60 carrier-capable MIG-29KS to India in addition to 90 T-90 tanks besides providing production licenses for the manufacture of SU-30MKI multipurpose fighter planes and 210 T-90 main battle tanks, the daily said.

Under the military-technical cooperation signed between India and Russia earlier this month, Russia could earn “as much as $ 4 billion over the next three years,” deputy head, Centre for Analysis of Strategic Technologies, Konstantin Makienko was quoted by the daily as saying.

An aide of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister speaking on condition of anonymity said India would be taking on lease A-50 airborne early warning systems and TU-22M-3 backfire long-range bombers to strengthen its naval capability to counter enemy aircraft well before they penetrate the Indian mainland.

The bomber has a maximum range of 2,410 km and can carry a 12-tonne payload of bombs and missiles. It can carry five KH-22MA air-to-ground missiles as well as both nuclear and conventional bombs with a total weight of 24 tonnes.

The A-50 early warning aircraft can operate as far as 1,000 km away from its base for four hours. It can detect fighters within a range of 230 km, surface vessels within 400 km and ballistic missile launches within 1,000 km.

Congo army, rebels sign accord

POINTE-NOIRE (Congo Republic), Nov 17 (Reuters) — Congo Republic’s armed forces and rebel representatives have signed an accord calling for a nationwide cessation of hostilities, witnesses and officials said.

But the accord signed yesterday, which also called for amnesties and rehabilitation for all rebels laying down their weapons and renouncing violence, gave no details of when any of the provisions would take effect.

The accord, called for “the unconditional, nationwide end of armed clashes between the different militias and government forces, particularly in the regions of the south, the Pool, Bouenza, Niari and Lekoumou.”

Rescued after 100 hours

ANKARA, Nov 17 (Reuters) — Turkish rescuers pulled a man alive from the rubble on Wednesday more than 100 hours after he was buried by last Friday’s quake.

The man, 42-year-old Sefa Cebeci, was rushed to hospital in Istanbul and was under intensive care suffering from exhaustion, a broken arm and kidney malfunction.

The state-run Anatolian news agency said rescue workers pulled the man from under the concrete of a ruined building in the town of Duzce, where the tremor of 7.2 on the Richter scale buried him.

The death toll stood at 550 today, according to figures released by the official Crisis Management Centre. More than 3,200 persons were injured.

General demoted
WASHINGTON: A US Army Major General has been stripped of his two stars and forced to retire at the rank of Colonel for having sexual affairs with the wives of two subordinate officers, the army has said. In the second major punishment given to a senior army officer this year for adultery, Army Secretary Louis Caldera ordered that Maj-Gen. John J. Maher III, 51, be reduced two grades in rank and lose what could total nearly $ 1 million in retirement pay over the next 30 years. Army officials said the sexual misconduct by General Maher occurred over the past eight years. — Reuters

Taliban execute woman
PESHAWAR: An Afghan woman convicted by a Taliban court for murdering her husband was executed in Kabul, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency has reported. AIP quoted Radio Kabul as saying that the Taliban supreme leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, verified the sentence handed down to the woman, Zarmina. Zarmina had killed her husband with a hammer last July. — DPA

Escobar’s widow held
BUENOS AIRES: The Argentine Police said on Wednesday that they arrested the widow and son of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in a raid on a Buenos Aires apartment. The late cocaine king’s widow Victoria Henao and her son Juan Pablo Escobar were detained on Tuesday night by federal police on charges of money laundering and falsifying documents, a police spokeswoman said. “They had information they were in the country and they managed to locate them,” said spokeswoman Patricia Werner of the arrests in the middle class suburb of Saavedra. — Reuters

Youngest murderer
PONTIAC (US): A Michigan jury has found 13-year-old Nathaniel Abraham, one of the youngest murder defendants ever in the USA, guilty of second-degree murder, meaning he could be released by age 21. Abraham was 11 when he was arrested on Halloween Night two years ago, still wearing his trick-or-treating costume, for the October 29, 1997, shooting death of 18-year-old Ronnie Greene Jr.— Reuters

Millennium tours
TOKYO: Several Japanese travel agencies are organising tour packages to the Antarctic for new year’s eve, asking people to visit the frozen continent at the dawn of the new millennium. A typical tour plan is a 14-day package to first fly to South America from Japan, then take a ship to cruise around the Antarctic Peninsula. Seven to eight land tours using rubber boats are also usually included. Last year, the total number of tourists to the Antarctic surpassed 10,000 for the first time. The visitors, included about 290 Japanese. — DPA