Kenneth Starr to be replaced soon
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 — Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who spent more than five years and $ 47 million investigating President Bill Clinton, will leave his post soon and be replaced by an assistant, sources close to Starr said.

Russian troops move towards Grozny
GROZNY, Oct 16 — Federal government troops surged towards the outskirts of Grozny overnight after taking a key Chechen stronghold, and shelled outlying villages north of the capital today, officials here said.

Life term for Indian businessman
NEW YORK, Oct 16 — An Indian immigrant who built a fortune in New York city gas stations was ordered by a judge yesterday to sell off his empire and spend the rest of his life in prison for his involvement in a murder-conspiracy case.

Clinton to speak on Monica after term
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 — President Bill Clinton has tried to close the book on the Monica Lewinsky scandal for the remainder of his Presidency, saying, “When I am out of office, I will have a lot to say about this.”

No smooth sailing for Musharraf
From I.A. Rehman

LAHORE, Oct 16 — The proclamation in the early hours of Friday whereby Gen. Pervez Musharraf assumed the power to rule over Pakistan under the title of Chief Executive proved to be the unavoidable culmination of the action taken on Thuesday.

Indications are available to the effect that the military leaders examined possibilities of finding other ways to fill the power vacuum, without compromising the position they had already taken, and found them unfeasible. That the use of expressions such as martial law and Chief Martial Law Administrator has been avoided clearly shows their keenness to contain adverse reaction, especially abroad. The effort at damage control and to keep some options open is also evident in the decision to use the President to issue orders on the advice of the Chief Executive, to suspend the legislatures instead of dissolving them, and to suggest that in some cases at least human rights will remain enforceable by courts. But there is no doubt in anyone’s mind about the nature of the new regime and the logic dictated by it.

The sole issue now is what can be done by the military regime to persuade public opinion at home and abroad of its actions henceforth providing a justification for the disruption of the constitutional order. That civilians will be associated with the governing body is a foregone conclusion and a search is reportedly on for ‘experts with unblemished record’. It has also been given out that the present interregnum will be for a short duration. Two retired generals have suggested a period of two years, which is in harmony with the ideas the previous caretakers also toyed with. But nothing can be said with certainty at the moment.

While the military leaders have been debating over their next move many groups and individuals have started advising them as to how they should proceed. The Jamaat Islami chief, Qazi Husain Ahmad, has said military rule will not solve anything and that the Pakistan Constitution should not be tampered with. Mr Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, who has served creditably as a judge of the Supreme Court, as provincial Governor and Law Minister, has offered an elaborate procedure for the election of a new Prime Minister, dissolution of the National Assembly as provided for in the constitution, reference to the Supreme Court to avoid new elections within the mandatory period of 90 days and a referendum on action (accountability) against corrupt politicians.

The Grand Democratic Alliance has criticised foreign powers for expressing sympathy for Nawaz Sharif because, according to it, he had come to power through unfair elections. A number of lawyers maintain that the promise of accountability of corrupt politicians makes the military rule acceptable.

At the popular level, it seems, support for the new set-up has increased, specially in Karachi, because of expectations that extra-legal killings and police excesses against citizens will cease. A division is visible in the democratic opinion even. Some sections reject the idea of fresh elections if these will again bring to power the same kind of leaders that were returned in the last five general elections and authoritarian rule will be re-established under the facade of an elected government. They strongly argue that the constitution needs to be purged of the distortions caused over the past three decades, and institutional guarantees created for rule of law, peace, and people’s rights. Others argue that the transitional regime should restore the democratic process as quickly as possible and leave the reform agenda to people considered competent in a democratic dispensation. However, everybody wants the corrupt to be brought to book.

Like every military regime that overthrows an elected government the present one should be looking for means to put up a people-friendly face, to generate goodwill by taking steps that are desired by the public. Since accountability has been debated for years, this will be one area in which the military regime may like to show quick results. Already steps have been initiated to proceed against defaulters on loans and those suspected of having violated foreign exchange regulations and Nawaz Sharif and his close partners could fall in the net.

There is also evidence that the regime is pursuing the case of refusal to allow landing permission to the plane that was bringing General Musharraf to Karachi from Colombo on Tuesday, thus endangering his life and the lives of nearly 200 other passengers. It could end up in a trial of some people for attempted murder. But if such proceedings are launched the over-riding concern could be to prove that the putsch of Tuesday was carried out to avert what according to Ejazul Haq, General Zia’s son and vice-chief of Nawaz League, would have been horrible bloodshed.

But prosecution of the corrupt alone will not sustain the military government’s credibility, particularly because the people have not forgotten that this was precisely the means General Zia had used to wriggle out of his ‘election in 90 days’ promise. The regime will be tested almost every day by the degree of basic freedoms it allows, particularly of the press, by assurances of everyone, including those just deposed being treated according to normal law and by evidence of movement towards revival of democracy being earnest and adequate. The going is unlikely to be smooth.

— Mr Rehman is former Editor of The Pakistan Times.

Sanctions on Taliban for Laden’s surrender

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (Reuters) — The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers until they surrender Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden for trial on the charge of plotting the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa.

The US-initiated resolution yesterday received the votes of all 15 council members, although Malaysia and Bahrain expressed concern about the effects on ordinary Afghans, and China also expressed some reservations.

At least 225 persons were killed and more than 4,000 wounded in the nearly simultaneous bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August 7, 1998. Most of the victims were in Nairobi.

The sanctions go into effect on November 14 after a 30-day grace period unless bin Laden is handed over by then.

The sanctions require countries to ban flights by planes owned, operated or leased by the Taliban, and to freeze bank accounts and property owned or controlled by the strict Islamist group that controls about 90 per cent of Afghanistan.

The only exceptions would be for flights or funds approved in advance on humanitarian grounds by a watchdog sanctions committee to be set up by the council. This would include flights for the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims.

The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, in a statement in Washington applauding the UN council’s action, said that despite condemnation by scores of countries after the 1998 bombings, “the Taliban has continued to allow bin Laden and his network to operate training camps, make threats against the United States and others and plan terrorists operations from their bases in Afghanistan.’’

Co-sponsoring the resolution along with the USA were Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Russia and Slovenia.

It demands that the Taliban turn over bin Laden “without further delay to appropriate authorities in a country where he has been indicted” or where he would be handed over or brought to justice.

ISLAMABAD (AFP): Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Saturday rejected the Security Council demand to hand over Osama bin Laden, a private Afghan news service reported.

But the militia proposed a meeting of religious scholars from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and a third Islamic nation it did not name to discuss the demand and arrive at a “unanimous decision.

“We will not hand over Osama bin Laden to anybody until a solution is found in accordance with the principles of Islam,” the spokesman told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).

People wanted both Kargil culprits to go

BEFORE Chief of Army Staff Gen Parvez Musharraf executed his coup d’eat, the people of Pakistan were hoping that both culprits of the Kargil debacle — Nawaz Sharif and the august Generalissmo — would either gracefully depart the scene or create a “new consensus” among the three centres of power — the Government, GHQ and Opposition.

Ayaz Amir in his “Islamabad Diary” column in the Dawn newspaper of September 24, title “The country deserves a fresh start”, had written: “Those responsible for the Kargil fiasco should go. That is the least favour they can do the nation.

“But there is an important caveat. Since the responsibility for this fiasco is two-fold, both the cooks of this broth should go. No scapegoating and no passing the buck. Either a two-fold cure or none at all. Half a solution will not set anything right and will only prolong the country’s distress.

“But there is a serious problem. Who will induce the twin architects of Kargil to follow the Roman example and fall on their swords?”

But in the column dated October 1, titled “No coup, no nothing,” Ayaz Amir railed against Washington’s gratuitous advice to the Pakistan military. He wrote: “Actually our American friends need never have bothered at all. No one in the army is planning a coup. Having had its fill of knocks this year, the army command was in no mood to add to its troubles. There was accordingly no reason for the US Administration to issue the statements it did admonishing the army against any extra-constitutional steps”.

“Now, of course, with Parvez Musharraf’s confirmation as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, for the next two years — that is contemporaneous with his term as army chief, this tinpot crisis has come to a whimpering end. In their enlightened self-interest both the heroes of this summer’s adventures (Kargil) remain in their respective positions.”

Imtiaz Alam in The News of October 2, titled “Finding a new consensus”, termed the “promotion” of General Musharraf as yet another return from the brink and said that it “signals the revival of a paramount role of the armed forces in matters of national interest....”

“What is quite predictable is that the armed forces will be asserting their viewpoint much more than they were in the recent past on both national security and related foreign policy issues.

“The State Department’s statements against the ‘change of goverments through extra-constitutional means’ were wrongly read both by the government and the Opposition. It became quite clear that the emphasis is on maintaining the ‘constitutional order and a constitutional conduct of the government”.

“...Although it has retreated for the ‘time being’ from asserting its authority against the last surviving institution, this may just be a tactical one step backward for the time being. In fact, by reinforcing the man it wanted to displace, it has accentuated its dilemma of keeping both Washington and the GHQ in good spirit....”

“What has become quite obvious is that neither can the government bypass the powers that be nor can the garrison impose its will on civil society....So far so good but not enough since the real crises of governance, the federation, the economy and national survival warrant a new national consensus among the three centres of power — the government, the GHQ and the Opposition.” —ADNI

Kenneth Starr to be replaced soon

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) — Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who spent more than five years and $ 47 million investigating President Bill Clinton, will leave his post soon and be replaced by an assistant, sources close to Starr said.

They said yesterday that Starr in the next few days would formally resign after heading an investigation that led to Clinton’s historic impeachment in the US House of Representatives and then acquittal in the Senate in the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Starr will be replaced by one of his associates, prosecutor Robert Ray, who will be responsible for wrapping up the various strands of the investigation that are still pending, the sources said.

Starr’s departure had been expected. He previously notified the US Appeals Court panel that appointed him that he wanted to leave by the end of October so he could return to his private law practice in Washington.

Starr’s investigation initially focused on Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s investment in the failed whitewater land deal in Arkansas in the 1980s and then expanded to a number of other issues.

But Starr became best known for his investigation of whether Clinton committed perjury or obstructed justice to cover up his sexual relationship with Lewinsky, a former White House intern. The Senate acquitted Clinton in February.

The Appeals Court judges interviewed a number of candidates within Starr’s office and settled on Ray. He previously had worked for another independent counsel, Donald Smaltz, in the investigation of former agriculture secretary Mike Espy.

Russian troops move towards Grozny

GROZNY, Oct 16 (AFP) — Federal government troops surged towards the outskirts of Grozny overnight after taking a key Chechen stronghold, and shelled outlying villages north of the capital today, officials here said.

Russian television showed federal armour moving along the Tersky Ridge overlooking the villages of Dolinsky, Raduzhnoye and Pobedinskoye northwest of the capital, although Grozny said the villages were still in Chechen hands.

“The frontline passes the length of Tersky Ridge,” Chechen presidential spokesman Said-Selim Abdulmuslimov told AFP.

“Ken-Yurt and the road to the village is under the partial control of the Russians,” he said, adding the federal troops were near Dolinsky but “they have not taken the village” yet.

According to the official, the new front stretches south of the River Terek from Ken-Yurt, down the road to Grozny before heading west along the high ground that overlooks the villages straddling the main road to Grozny.

Abdulmuslimov said he had been to Tolstoi-Yurt — some 10 km north of the outskirts of Grozny — early today, saying “I myself saw Russian shelling of the Tolstoi-Yurt and Vinogradnoye areas”.

Today’s developments came after Russian troops stormed the key rebel stronghold of Goragorsky some 60 km west of the capital yesterday.

Life term for Indian businessman

NEW YORK, Oct 16 (AFP) — An Indian immigrant who built a fortune in New York city gas stations was ordered by a judge yesterday to sell off his empire and spend the rest of his life in prison for his involvement in a murder-conspiracy case.

US District Court Judge Edward Korman imposed the unusual sentence on Gurmeet Dhinsa, 37, including stripping him of all his financial assets.

That includes the 40 city gas stations that Dhinsa owns or leases in the New York area.

During a trial earlier this year, witnesses said how Dhinsa arrived in the USA from rural northern India as a teenager in 1992.

Within years Dhinsa transformed himself from a car-wash attendant to become the head of a $ 60-million business.

Witnesses, many of them from New York’s Sikh community, testified at the trial that Dhinsa ruled with an iron fist, ordering employees suspected of stealing to be kidnapped, beaten and tortured.

Clinton to speak on Monica after term

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) — President Bill Clinton has tried to close the book on the Monica Lewinsky scandal for the remainder of his Presidency, saying, “When I am out of office, I will have a lot to say about this.”

Mr Clinton gave the response on Thursday as he ducked a question about why he had not contested a federal judge’s ruling that he lied in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case that brought his affair with Ms Lewinsky to light.

Mr Clinton gave a carefully controlled response when asked at a news conference whether he agreed that he had lied in the case or, if not, why he had not contested the ruling.

“When I am out of office, I will have a lot to say about this. Until then I’m going to honour my commitment to all of you to go back to work,” Mr Clinton said.

Fergie wants baby
LONDON: The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, has hinted at the possibility of remarrying her former husband Prince Andrew — and wants to have another baby. Ferguson, who has two daughters by Andrew, told the London Times in an interview that she wanted a baby boy this time and vowed she would continue to wear the wedding ring Andrew placed on her finger until she remarried. “If I get married again, whether to him (Andrew) or anyone else, that’s the time I’ll take it off,” said the ostracised royal, who professes she and Andrew are “the happiest divorced couple in the world”. — Reuters

Irish lottery
LONDON: Ireland’s newest millionaire is a Romanian asylum-seeker who won the Irish lottery, press reports said. Gabriel Casaneanu, a 25-year-old who has been waiting for the past two years to have his asylum application approved, won 1.1 million Irish punts ($ 1.5 million) from a lottery ticket bought at a Dublin shopping centre. Before the win, his wife and he were destitute and she is expecting their first child in December. — DPA

Popular book
FRANKFURT: The most popular book with pilferers at the Frankfurt book fair is a diatribe by Oskar Lafontaine, who started the year as the second most powerful man in Germany and left for the political wilderness. The former superminister’s leftist credo, which had earlier been serialised by conservative daily Die Welt, was unveiled at the book fair on Wednesday amid national television coverage and has been slipping into parka pockets ever since. — DPA

Hitler’s bunker
BERLIN: Construction workers digging deep in the centre of Berlin have come across remnants of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s infamous underground shelter, the “fuehrerbunker”. Experts are not certain if the concrete slabs found were part of the walls or the floor of the massive edifice whose roof was reputed to be 4.5 metres thick. — DPA

Crocodiles invasion
VILLAHERMOSA (Mexico): Crocodiles have invaded the southeastern Mexican city of Villahermosa since torrential rain covered about three-fourth’s of it with water. Environmental authorities said on Friday that they had trapped nine crocodiles, ranging from 3 to 8 feet in length. — Reuters

Adolf cartoon
FRANKFURT: “Mein Kampf” may have been voted one of the 100 books that shaped the century — but it was no show for Adolf Hitler’s seminal work at the world’s biggest book fair. There was no such problem, however, for Adolf the best-selling cartoon character who donned his German helmet time machine to travel “back to the future” from Paraguay to Sarajevo. — Reuters

Condom use in brothels
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has thrown his weight behind plans to enforce mandatory condom use in the country’s brothels in a bid to halt the spread of AIDS. “The AIDS virus has rapidly spread throughout our country,” the Prime Minister wrote to provincial governors in a letter. — Reuters

Hurricane Irene
MIAMI: Hurricane Irene pounded heavily populated southeast Florida on Friday with torrential rains and 85 mph winds that snapped trees, sent rivers of water into homes and left hundreds of thousands of people without power. Five persons were reported killed by downed power lines in Broward County, and four were drowned in the Bahamas. At least two persons were killed when the storm charged across Cuba. — Reuters