Taliban to close down training camps in 10 days
ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 —Barely a day after accusing the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, of being behind the sectarian killings in Pakistan, Islamabad has now put the blame on the afghan-trained terrorists for the violence and asked the Taliban-regime to close down terrorist training camps on its territory.

Clinton signs $ 288.8 b defence budget
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 — President Bill Clinton has signed a $ 288.8 billion military budget that increases defence spending for the first time since the cold war ended and gives troops their biggest pay raise in 18 years.

Senior PPP leader quits
ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 — A senior leader of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has resigned due to growing rift within the party, causing it a severe setback.

Mexico ratifies N-test ban treaty
MEXICO CITY, Oct 6 — Mexico, one of the 44 nuclear-capable countries that must ratify a landmark treaty banning nuclear tests for it to go into effect, said it notified the United Nations of its ratification yesterday.

Convicted for rape of ex-Miss World
TEL AVIV, Oct 6 — An Israeli travel agent was today convicted for raping a former Miss World.

Chechen forces pull back: 48 dead

GROZNY (Russia), Oct 6 (AFP) — Russia tightened its grip on Chechnya today with Grozny admitting it had pulled out of a key northern province while claiming that 48 people had died in a spate of attacks by federal forces.

The retreat had been ordered for “tactical reasons” a member of the crisis unit set up by Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov told AFP. It was the first time Grozny had announced such an important withdrawal.

Russian troops have taken up positions along the Terek river since pouring thousands of men, tanks and armour along the strategic waterway since driving into Chechnya on October 1 to crush Islamic guerrillas operating in the republic.

Attacks by government troops, who control the northern third of Chechnya, had cost almost 50 lives in the 12 hours to mid day in three separate incidents, Chechen officials told AFP.

Twenty-eight Chechen civilians died when Russian tanks opened fire on a fleet of buses ferrying refugees from Grozny back to their northeastern village of Shelkovskaya late on Tuesday, regional prefect Abdulkadir Israilov said.

Of the 40 people, mainly women and children, on board the first bus, 28 were killed, and nine of the 12 survivors were in a serious condition, the Chechen official said.

Twelve more died in an overnight air raid on the village of Koshkeldy near the eastern Chechen border with the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan. Thirty others were wounded in the attack, the Chechen presidency said.

MOSCOW (Reuters): Chechnya, fearing a concerted Russian offensive, introduced martial law today after Moscow said its forces had already seized one third of the rebel region and had not yet finished.

Officials said the number of refugees fleeing the north Caucasus province because of the advance and a week of air raids grew by 7,000 in the past 24 hours. The total exceeds 120,000 and many sleep in the open.

Russian news agencies said martial law, ordered by Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, came into effect at midnight. A Reuters reporter in Grozny, the regional Capital, said there were no visible signs of martial law so far.

Russian and guerrilla forces exchanged fire overnight in the northern regions of Shelkovskoy and Naursk just above the Terek river, where Russi

an troops have advanced to create what military analysts say is the border of a buffer zone.

Military officials in Moscow have said they are waging a “pinpoint campaign” against the guerrillas, their bases and their training camps. They have also targeted oil refineries, which they say provide the rebels with money for weapons.

But Chechen officials maintain that the bombing campaign has killed dozens of civilians.

URUS-MARTAN (Russia): At least one pilot died when a Russian warplane, hit by portable anti-aicraft missile according to local officials, crashed in the breakaway region of Chechnya, witnesses said yesterday.

A Reuters reporter saw the wreckage of a warplane and the remains of a pilot in a field between the town of Urus-Martan and the village of Goiskoye, 20 km south-west of the regional capital Grozny. Officials said a search was under way for a second pilot who ejected after the plane was hit.

Russian bombers have put out of operation Chechnya’s biggest hydro-dam.

Voice of Russia on Tuesday quoted a Defence Ministry spokesman as saying that bombs and laser rockets were used to blow up nine bridges also destroying routes used by militants.

Taliban to close down training camps in 10 days

ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (PTI) —Barely a day after accusing the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, of being behind the sectarian killings in Pakistan, Islamabad has now put the blame on the afghan-trained terrorists for the violence and asked the Taliban-regime to close down terrorist training camps on its territory.

There was definite proof of a fresh batch of terrorists having entered Pakistan from Afghanistan recently to carry out sectarian killings, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif told reporters in Lahore yesterday after a Cabinet meeting.

When asked about Interior Minister Choudhury Shujaat Hussain’s statement that RAW was behind the killings, the chief minister, who is a brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said RAW’s involvement could not be ruled out ‘’but the terrorists are coming from another neighbouring country,” Urdu daily Jung reported.

Meanwhile, a special emissary of Nawaz Sharif has reached Kandahar with a message asking Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar to close down all terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and hand over nearly 150 Pakistani terrorists to Islamabad, the English daily The News said, quoting official sources.

“Mullah Mohammed Omar has assured Pakistan that he will personally look into this matter and no one will be allowed to use Afghan soil for sponsoring any kind of terrorist activities inside Pakistan” the report, sent by the special emissary to the Prime Minister revealed, the daily reported.

The report said the Taliban leader assured Pakistani authorities of closing down terrorist training camps within 10 days and that the Pakistanis under training would be handed over to Islamabad.

A spurt in sectarian killings across Pakistan last week left 35 people, mostly Shias, dead within a span of five days.

The Cabinet also formed a special committee to monitor the law and order situation and keep an eye on the ‘Imams’ (prayer leaders) of mosques belonging to various sects to prevent them from delivering provocative speeches. Mr Shahbaz Sharif in a direct attack on militant Sunni outfits said Pakistan could not be declared a Sunni state as being demanded by them.

B’desh Oppn spurns negotiation offer

DHAKA, Oct 6 (Reuters) — Bangladesh’s main opposition party today slammed the door on a government offer to discuss ways to end chronic political unrest in the country.

“Our leader Begum Khaleda Zia is ready only to discuss the resignation of the government,” said Morshed Khan, a policymaker and legislator of Begum Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Mr Morshed Khan said Begum Khaleda expressed her outright refusal to negotiate at a meeting yesterday with the US Ambassador Mr John Holzman, who was seeking a response to the invitation to talks from Prime Minister Ms Sheikh Hasina.

“Nothing else can be discussed... the movement (to oust Hasina’s government) will continue,” Mr Morshed Khan quoted Begum Khaleda as telling Holzman.

The opposition has staged at least 35 days of nationwide strikes since Ms Hasina took office in June 1996. The stoppages, aimed at forcing her to resign and call early parliamentary elections, are routinely accompanied by street violence.

The next national vote is not due before 2001.

Ms Hasina invited the opposition to talks in a speech last month, an offer she repeated verbally last week, but Begum Khaleda has demanded a formal written invitation.

3 indicted for money-laundering

NEW YORK, Oct 6 (AFP) — A federal prosecutor here obtained indictments against three persons and brought charges against three companies on Tuesday in connection with a vast Russian money-laundering scandal.

The charges claim Peter Berlin, Lucy Edwards and Alexei Volkov, as well as the companies Benex, BECS International and Torfinex were involved in a scheme by Russian mobsters to launder 7 billion through the Bank of New York (BNY) accounts.

The indictments were handed down by a federal grand jury on September 16 but only made public yesterday, according to a statement from US attorney Mary Jo White.

“It is important to emphasise that the ongoing investigation is very intense and broad, and it is likely to go on for some time,” White said in the statement.

“Many questions about the various sources of the monies following through the accounts at the Bank of New York remain to be answered,” she said.

Russian tax authorities are investigating more than eight banks and several dozen Russian companies in connection with the case. Economic crime investigators searched branches of the Russian Bank Sovinbank yesterday, which has not been named in the New York charges.

Berlin, who is married to Edwards, is president of Benex and BECS. He is charged with opening accounts for both companies at the Bank of New York. Edwards was a vice-president in the bank’s Eastern European division, but was suspended as a result of the money laundering allegations.

Clinton signs $ 288.8 b defence budget

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) — President Bill Clinton has signed a $ 288.8 billion military budget that increases defence spending for the first time since the cold war ended and gives troops their biggest pay raise in 18 years.

The fiscal year 2000 National Defence Authorisation Bill signed by Mr Clinton yesterday during a special Pentagon visit provides military personnel with a 4.8 per cent salary hike and increases pension benefits beginning next January 1.

The total represents a boost of $ 8 billion by the Republican-controlled Congress over what Mr Clinton sought for the year. It also provides extra pay for high-tech personnel, especially in the air force, and anticipates further basic military pay increases each year through fiscal 2006.

“It provides for a strong national defence and a better quality of life for our military personnel and their families,” Mr Clinton said.

“The excellence of our military is the direct product of the excellence of our men and women in uniform. This Bill invests in that excellence. It authorises ... a comprehensive programme of pay and retirement improvements that add up to the biggest increase in military compensation in a generation.”

The Bill authorises $ 275.5 billion for the Defence Department in the fiscal year which began last Friday. Most of the remaining $ 13.3 billion would go to the Energy Department, which oversees the nation’s nuclear arms programmes.

Senior PPP leader quits

ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (PTI) — A senior leader of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has resigned due to growing rift within the party, causing it a severe setback.

“PPP Secretary General Choudhury Ahmed Mukhtar has resigned and the post will be filled by some other active leader,” a party spokesman said here today.

Though Mr Mukhtar said he would remain loyal to PPP chief Benazir, English daily The News, quoting a senior leader, said he had become a victim of infighting between Benazir and North West Frontier Province leader Aftab Ahmed Khan Sher Pao, who was expelled from the PPP recently.

Sources claimed that Mr Mukhtar was expected to join the ranks of Sher Pao, who claims he heads the actual PPP.

Benazir herself is unable to return to Pakistan for the time being in view of arrest warrants issued against her in at least two corruption cases.

Mexico ratifies N-test ban treaty

MEXICO CITY, Oct 6 (Reuters) — Mexico, one of the 44 nuclear-capable countries that must ratify a landmark treaty banning nuclear tests for it to go into effect, said it notified the United Nations of its ratification yesterday.

“The ratification of the treaty is in accordance with Mexico’s foreign policy on disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament,” the Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement.

Mexico’s ratification came on the eve of an October 6-8, conference in Vienna called by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, to speed up approvals of the test ban treaty.

Convicted for rape of ex-Miss World

TEL AVIV, Oct 6 (AP) — An Israeli travel agent was today convicted for raping a former Miss World.

The Tel Aviv District Court found that Shlomo Uri Noor raped Linor Abargil, also an Israeli, on October 6 last year in Italy, two months before she won the Miss World title. Noor maintained his innocence, saying Abargil had consented to having sex.

In today’s ruling, the court said Noor was a liar who had tried to mislead the judges with his strange behaviour, such as bursting into tears or laughter unexpectedly. The defendant acted like Dr Jekyll and Hyde, said Judge Natan Amit. The sentence will be imposed at a later date. Ms Abargil’s testimony was given behind closed doors.

N-plant raided
TOKYO: The Japanese police on Wednesday raided offices of JCO Co, operator of a uranium processing plant where the nation’s worst-ever nuclear accident occurred last week. A police spokesman said about 200 investigators raided JCO’s headquarters in Tokyo and its office in Tokaimura, about 140 northeast of Tokyo to investigate the cause of last Thursday’s accident in which more than 50 persons were exposed to radiation. — Reuters

Gas leak
HELSINKI: Hydrogen gas escaped momentarily into the atmosphere at a nuclear power station in southern Finland, but caused no danger to the surrounding area, according to nuclear safety officials. The leak took place on Thursday when empty hydrogen gas containers were being replaced outside at the Loviisa plant, some 100 km east of Helsinki. “There was no danger to the power station workers, the environment or people in the vicinity,” authorities said. — AP

‘Blasphemous’ book
TEHERAN: Iran has suspended the licence of a publishing house which printed a book deemed blasphemous to Shi’ite Islam, an official at the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry has said. The official on Tuesday told Reuters the book Divaneh-ye Dovvom (the second lunatic) was written in what he termed a “cryptic style” and disparaged the 12th Imam. — Reuters

Congo soldiers freed
NAIROBI: Congolese President Laurent Kabila has released 3,000 government soldiers who had been detained for three months for alleged desertion, state radio announced on Tuesday. The troops were rounded up last summer amid reports they had abandoned their position near Lubumbashi during clashes with rebels. — DPA