Musharraf in no hurry to order poll
ISLAMABAD, Oct 27 — Pakistan’s new military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has virtually ruled out the possibility of immediate restoration of democracy in the country saying the job he has taken upon himself may take upto three years.

Wahid against Suharto’s trial
JAKARTA, Oct 27 — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said today that he was against putting former leader Suharto on trial.

Falungong activist dies in custody
BEIJING, Oct 27 — Chinese police stepped up patrol and surveillance of Tiananmen Square today, trying to put an end to three days of low-key protests by members of the banned spiritual movement Falungong.

USA to withdraw 2 UN resolutions
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 — The USA has said it would withdraw two draft UN resolutions on nuclear disarmament because they were in danger of being exploited to score points in a dispute with Russia.

Top award for Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’
LONDON, Oct 27 — South African J.M. Coetzee became the first author to win the Booker prize for the second time when he landed Britain’s top literary award for his gruelling novel “Disgrace”, edging past “Fasting, Feasting” by Indian writer Anita Desai who ended runner-up.

Lords lose peers’ right
LONDON, Oct 27 — After hours of emotional debate, members of the House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in Britain’s Upper Chamber of Parliament.

India, Pak ‘most corrupt’
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 — Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has ranked India and Pakistan among the most corrupt countries of the world for the second time in a row.

E. Timor leader puts off return
DARWIN (Australia), Oct 27 — East Timorese independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta has put off a return to the homeland he left 25 years back to seek international help in building the economy.

Armenian PM, Speaker shot

YEREVAN, Oct 27 (DPA) — Gunmen opened fire in Armenian Parliament today, fatally wounding some ten people including Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkissian and Speaker Karen Demirchyan before barricading themselves in the building with 200 hostages.

First reports had said Mr Sarkissian, 40 and Mr Demirchyan, 67, had survived, and were being treated in hospital. But their deaths were later officially confirmed.

Also killed in the spectacular attack — which came during a live television broadcast from the Parliament — were Deputy Speaker Yuri Bakshyan, government Minister Leonard Petrosyan and MP Mikael Kotanyan, it was stated.

President Robert Kocharyan was reported negotiating with the gunmen, believed to number three or four, after these had taken their hostages into a canteen area, demanding live television coverage — presumably to present further demands or make a statement.

The attackers, armed with automatic weapons, had begun their spectacular action by leaping up shouting "this is a coup ... your rule is over".

They then opened fire on deputies at point blank range, witnesses said later on Russian television. Viewers watching the televised session look on in horror as the group opened fire.

Later one man took the seat of the Speaker and said into the microphone "Your rule is over’’. He was recognised as a former journalist who officially held a seat in Parliament.

There were no reports of incidents at military units in the republic or large movement of military forces.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott had left the republic for Moscow shortly before the incident after holding talks with Mr Sarkissian.

Formerly a Defence Minister, Mr Sarkissian was appointed Prime Minister in July, second only to Mr Kotcharyan in authority. He was a member of the centrist "Unity’’ coalition which won a victory in parliamentary elections in May.

Mr Sarkissian was also the republic’s long-standing Communist party leader during Soviet rule.

The incident came as the Armenian apostolic church, in an election attended by religious dignitaries from all over the world, picked 50-year-old Karekin Nersessyan as its new supreme patriarch and catholicos of all Armenians.

Musharraf in no hurry to order poll

ISLAMABAD, Oct 27 (PTI) — Pakistan’s new military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has virtually ruled out the possibility of immediate restoration of democracy in the country saying the job he has taken upon himself may take upto three years.

Gen Musharraf, who is currently on an official visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE, gave a clear indication of the time frame he has in mind about holding polls in the country and restoration of democracy while speaking at the Pakistan journalists forum in Jeddah yesterday.

The General, who toppled the 32-month-old Nawaz Sharif government earlier this month in a coup, said his immediate task is ensuring across the board accountability and to recover looted national wealth.

"I cannot say how long this job will take. It may take one, two or even three years," he was quoted as saying in leading Urdu daily `Nawa-e-Waqt’ today.

General Musharraf said 813 defaulters in the country owed more than rupees 200 billion to the exchequer and of them three owe rupees 7.5 billion. He, however, refused to divulge names.

"These people are from Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad and have political backing," Mr Musharraf said vowing that nobody would be spared under his process of accountability.

Gen Musharraf, who is scheduled to return here this evening, is all set to start functioning as the chief executive of the country from his new secretariat tomorrow.

"If the accountability process is left incomplete and if corruption is not removed from the grassroots then the situation will be the same," he said.

He also indicated that he would soon constitute an economic committee to work on the economic ills of the country and advise government on it.

KARACHI (AFP): The Pakistan Muslim League (PML), party of deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif demanded the military allow access to its detained president.

"We have not had any contact with Nawaz Sharif as yet," PML vice-president Majeed Malik told reporters after a meeting of party leaders on Wednesday.

"We have no fears for his (Sharif’s) life because we believe the army will not do anything unjust," Mr Malik said.

The meeting stressed it would seek a confrontation with the military, but not at present.

"At present we should not adopt a policy of confrontation. It is not that we are afraid but such a course is not in the interest of the country," Mr Malik said.

Another PML leader, Ejaz-ul Haq, son of late military dictator General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, called for the release of Mr Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif.

Meanwhile a multi-party alliance in Pakistan is expected to impress upon a visiting Commonwealth delegation that the army coup was justified as "democracy under the Nawaz Sharif government was a farce".

The alliance would also urge the Commonwealth delegation, led by Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, not to link restoration of democracy in Pakistan with restoration of the Nawaz Sharif government.

However some components of the GDA might raise the new army ruler’s reluctance to give a timeframe for restoration of democracy, the source said.

Earlier, a statement from the Commonwealth said the delegation would press for a quick return to democratic rule.

"The mission will assess the current situation in Pakistan and explore with the regime its plans for the early return of Pakistan to democracy," said the statement.

But it warned that if there was no commitment to returning the country to civilian rule, "Then we’ll have to seriously consider Pakistan’s Commonwealth membership."

The mission follows a decision taken last week by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to suspend Pakistan after Musharraf’s coup.

Sharif talks to family on the phone

RAIWIND, Oct 27 (AP) — For the first time since the army overthrew his government on October 12 and locked him away, deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke to his family, an army Major guarding his palatial Raiwind home said today.

Maj Attiq-ur-Rehman posted at the 450-acre estate belonging to Mr Sharif and his family, told AP that the deposed Prime Minister made his first telephone call to his family yesterday — exactly two weeks after the military ousted his government.

"I received the call and he sounded normal. He said "Major how are you. You are just like a son to me," said Rehman. He gave the telephone to Mr Sharif’s family, who spoke to him for one hour.

It’s not known where Sharif is being held and until now the ousted Prime Minister has not been allowed contact with anyone.

"Every member of his family talked to him. He sounded relaxed and he told them "I am in perfect condition. I am being looked after. There is no need to worry," said Mr Rehman.

In one of the first visits to the Sharif estate, some 27 km from the eastern Punjab capital of Lahore, Rehman took a few reporters on a tour of the deposed Prime Minister’s grand residence, that he had not yet occupied. Maj Rehman said Sharif and his family were to move into the newly constructed home on October 15.

Khatami’s epoch-making visit to France

DUBAI, Oct 27 (Agencies) — Iranian President Mohammad Khatami today began his landmark visit to France to refurbish bilateral ties and strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

The moderate Khatami during his three-day visit is expected to refurbish Iran’s image in the West and bring in a slew of economic benefits for France in trade.

France, where the father of Iranian Islamic revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had taken shelter two decades ago, now has a “not-too-smooth” relationship with Iran and the visit is likely to put bilateral ties on an even keel.

The Vice-Speaker of the Islamic consultative assembly (Majlis), Mr Hassan Rowhani, said in Teheran yesterday, the visit would leave a positive impact on relations between Iran and the European Union (EU).

Mr Rowhani, who is also the head of Majlis foreign policy commission, told official Iranian news agency IRNA that French President Jacques Chirac’s invitation to his Iranian counterpart was an indication of the political will of ties.

There are great potentials for expansion of bilateral economic ties, particularly in the area of technology and investment, he said.

France is eyeing Iran’s vast reserves of oil and gas and also the trade possibilities the oil revenues will generate.

French companies have taken the lion’s share of $ 6 billion worth of contracts global firms have signed with Teheran to expand its oil and gas fields, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Mehdi Hosseini said.

Mr Hosseini told IRNA the first buy-back venture to expand Sirri fields ‘A’ and ‘E’ in the Persian Gulf was signed four months after the USA imposed an embargo on Iran. The $ 1 billion agreement was signed in the summer of 1996.

“Thanks to French participation in Iranian oilfields, the US embargo on European companies dealing with Iran had been largely ineffective, signifying a diplomatic win for Iran,” he said.

A member of Majlis foreign policy commission, Mr Reza Akrami, stressed that the visit would be a “turning point” for the Islamic revolution as it will “neutralise” Washington’s plan to isolate Iran.

The visit comes after years of spats over protocol and delay. Mr Khatami, who came to power with the votes of moderates, youth and women, would get a reception with “refreshments” as Paris has agreed to drop the tradition dinner when wine is always served in view of Islamic sensibilities.

Meanwhile, a report from Paris said French police arrested 30 people in raids against Iranian opposition circles around Paris today, shortly before President Khatami was due to arrive for an historic visit, Iranian opposition sources said.

At Auvers-sur-Oise north of Paris, an enclave of the Iranian opposition here, residents hurled chunks of cement at police and blocked roads into their neighbourhood with a truck when security agents tried to move in, the sources and police said.

The Iranian sources said some 20 people were arrested at Conflans and another 13 in Paris. The French police confirmed the operation but made no immediate mention of arrests.

TEHERAN: Hundreds of former agents of Iran’s dreaded pre-revolutionary secret service, Savak, have held a protest here to demand back-wages, newspapers reported today.

The daily Abrar said the men, formerly keeping a low profile because of the stigma associated with the late Shah’s infamous secret police, gathered in front of President Mohammad Khatami’s offices on Tuesday to demand back wages and social benefits.

Protesters told the daily Resalat that some 5,000 former Savak employees were still waiting for the government to settle their cases, nearly two decades after an amnesty granted them by the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

The protesters dispersed after a presidential aide assured them that officials would look into the matter, it said.

Rocket attack on Chechen capital

GROZNY (Russia), Oct 27 (Reuters) — Russian troops tightened the noose around Chechnya’s capital today, pounding Grozny with rockets from a nearby ridge, as President Boris Yeltsin vowed to get rid of “terrorism” in the region.

Rockets slammed into an oil-processing plant in the western part of the city, setting fires which shrouded the capital in thick, black smoke.

Residents panicked, trying to flee the rocket attacks launched from what seemed to be the Tersk Ridge outside the capital to the north, where Russian troops are positioned.

Federal forces and armoured columns rolled ever closer to Grozny, firing artillery at Chechen fighters in the mountain stronghold of Bamut and closing in on Gudermes, Chechnya’s second biggest town, 30 km east of the capital.

“We want to do away with terrorism, to get rid once and for all of the centre of terrorism, international terrorism in Chechnya,” Mr Yeltsin said at an award ceremony for academics, sportsmen and soldiers.

“Russian soldiers and officers will return peace and calm to the long-suffering Chechen territory,” he said.

Russian forces used multiple rocket launchers and heavy guns overnight against guerrillas at Bamut.

Dozens of Russian armoured columns rolled closer to the capital, but commanders of the federal forces were silent over whether they planned to storm it.

Russian troops were reported to have moved closer on the West, North-West and eastern sides of Grozny and generals showed few signs of wanting to end their air and artillery strikes against what they say are rebel targets in Chechnya.

Interfax news agency quoted the Russian military command as saying the troops had reached the outskirts of Gudermes, Chechnya’s second biggest town, 30 km East of Grozny.

“Under the pressure of our forces, the fighters are leaving their strongholds, their lines. They are on the run,’’ Lieutenant-General Gennady Troshev, who commands the eastern division of forces, said in televised comments.

But Chechen fighters denied television reports that Russian forces had entered the capital from the north and had fought guerrillas for the first time on the outskirts.

Wahid against Suharto’s trial

JAKARTA, Oct 27 (Reuters) — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said today that he was against putting former leader Suharto on trial.

Mr Wahid said it would be better if Suharto paid back any money which might be found to have been obtained through corruption and use it to help Indonesia out of its economic and political crisis.

“For me, we investigate. From the result of that investigation, we then decide how much (money) has to be returned by Pak Harto (Suharto) to go towards efforts to improve the economy and overcome the food crisis,’’ Mr Wahid told local editors.

“That is better than if we quarrel or go to court.’’

However, Mr Wahid said the final decision was in the hands of attorney general Marzuki Darusman.

Mr Darusman told a business lunch today that he planned to reopen a corruption probe and have it brought to court.

“I feel it is very wise if we wait and see what the minister will do, because that matter is not the President’s business,’’ Mr Wahid said.

Mr Darusman said the government planned to pursue investigations into a scandal surrounding PT Bank Bali TBK and saw resolving these two issues as vital for Indonesia’s recovery.

“It is crucial that these two issues are resolved properly and transparently so that the message is clear.... We will not tolerate any monkey business any more,’’ Mr Darusman said.

Mr Darusman is a leading proponent of reform within the former ruling Golkar Party, which Mr Suharto used as his own political vehicle for decades.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Ambassador to Indonesia on Wednesday said the new government in Jakarta clearly wanted to mend ties between the two neighbours.

Speaking after a meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid, Ambassador John McCarthy said the new leader had expressed a desire to improve relations.

Links have been strained over Australia’s leadership of a UN backed force in East Timor.

Falungong activist dies in custody

BEIJING, Oct 27 (AP) — Chinese police stepped up patrol and surveillance of Tiananmen Square today, trying to put an end to three days of low-key protests by members of the banned spiritual movement Falungong.

But their appearance in Tiananmen, China’s symbolic political heart, in defiance of a three-month crackdown against the Falungong assured their arrest.

An 18-year-old adherent of the Falungong spiritual movement banned by China had died in custody, the police said today in the first official confirmation of a death of a sect member in custody. A Reuters report said. Chen Ying died from injuries sustained after jumping from a train bound for the northeastern province of Heilongjiang in August, an officer said by the telephone from the provincial city of Jiamusi.

WASHINGTON: The USA has blasted China for its continuing crackdown on the Falungong sect, calling it a violation of human rights standards which even Beijing has endorsed.

“The ongoing crackdown is a violation of international human rights standards as set forth in human rights instruments, including international conventions that China has signed,” State Department spokesman James Rubin said yesterday.

USA to withdraw 2 UN resolutions

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 (AFP) — The USA has said it would withdraw two draft UN resolutions on nuclear disarmament because they were in danger of being exploited to score points in a dispute with Russia.

Robert Grey, the US representative to the General Assembly’s disarmament committee, said yesterday the resolutions “address important and relevant issues ... And would have been particularly timely this year”.

But, he told the committee, they “ran the risk of being” subjected to a campaign of amendment designed to introduce contention over the ABM (anti-ballistic missile) treaty in every possible way.”

Top award for Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) — South African J.M. Coetzee became the first author to win the Booker prize for the second time when he landed Britain’s top literary award for his gruelling novel “Disgrace”, edging past “Fasting, Feasting” by Indian writer Anita Desai who ended runner-up.

Coetzee, chosen for the £ 21,000 pound ($ 35,000) prize from a final shortlist of six, was unable to be here for the glittering award ceremony on Monday evening.

But he said in a statement read by his publisher: “This remains the ultimate prize to win in the English-speaking world and I am profoundly aware of the honour you have done me.”

The Professor of General Literature at the University of Cape Town won the Booker in 1983 for “The Life and Times of Michael K”.

The self-effacing author, determined to turn his back on the media hype that accompanies one of the world’s most sought after literary prizes, took time to praise the five other finalists from around the world whom he defeated.

Coetzee won with the tale of a professor who refuses to apologise for an impulsive affair with a student that cost him his job. He seeks refuge with his daughter on her farm where she is raped in a savage attack that reveals the fault lines in their relationship.

“The English novel is undoubtedly alive and well,” chief judge Gerald Kaufman declared after he and his fellow judges waded through 129 entries to pick their winner.

“Coetzee’s prose is chaste and lyrical without being self-conscious,” one critic said of the slim, unremitting novel.

“The winner has written a major novel and we are proud to pay tribute to it,” added Mr Kaufman, who is also a British Labour Parliamentarian.

The judges took the unusual step of singling out Indian writer Anita Desai as a worthy runner-up for her novel “Fasting, Feasting”. Kaufman said there was “huge admiration” for her book.

“Fasting, Feasting” explores family values in the East and the West. Desai, who teaches writing at MIT, has twice earlier been nominated for the Booker.

“It was a very difficult decision to make,” Mr Kaufman said after Coetzee had made history as the first two-time winner in the 31-year history of the award.

Besides Coetzee, South Africa had supplied the winner when Nadine Gordimer won in 1974 with “the conservationist”.

The Booker, a prize that thrives on controversy, assures its winner every year of instant literary stardom and a place on best-seller lists around the world.

Lords lose peers’ right

LONDON, Oct 27 (AP) — After hours of emotional debate, members of the House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in Britain’s Upper Chamber of Parliament.

The Bill was approved by the body 221-81 yesterday, marking one of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour Government Bill to remove hereditary peers from the Lords. The measure will now return to the House of Commons for finishing touches.

“A long chapter of history is being closed tonight,” said Lord Strathclyde, the Opposition Conservative Party leader in the Lords. “The tale is now told. The past in done. The glass is shattered and it cannot be remade. The Prime Minister has taken a knife and scored a giant gash across the face of history”.

Lord Strathclyde was successful in urging many Conservative members to abstain from the voting.

Lords leader Baroness Jay said it was “time to say thank you and goodbye” to the hereditary peers.

India, Pak ‘most corrupt’

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (PTI) — Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has ranked India and Pakistan among the most corrupt countries of the world for the second time in a row.

India scored 2.9 out of 10, the same as last year, while Pakistan slipped even further from last year’s score of 2.7 to touch 2.2, according to Transparency International’s (TI) fifth annual survey released yesterday.

Cameroon, which scored 1.5, nearest to the score of zero representing the highest level of corruption, was the most corrupt nation among those surveyed, it said. Denmark with a score of 10 is corruption-free.

Another shocking finding, in TI’s first survey of bribe-giving countries, is that major industrial nations which keep their officials honest at home do not hesitate to indulge in bribery and corruption abroad.

Ti discovered that Singapore, always among the corruption-free countries so far as its officials are concerned, is, nevertheless, one of the major bribe-giving nations abroad to increase exports.

On a scale of 10 for “highly clean” countries so far as corruption at home is concerned, Singapore scores 9.1. However, when it comes to bribe-giving to boost exports, it goes down to 5.7.

E. Timor leader puts off return

DARWIN (Australia), Oct 27 (Reuters) — East Timorese independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta has put off a return to the homeland he left 25 years back to seek international help in building the economy.

The 1996 joint Nobel Peace laureate is charged with finding backers for the almost two billion dollars needed over the next 10 years to rebuild basic infrastructure in East Timor.

One of the poorest regions in Asia, East Timor has few developed natural resources and little industry to speak of.

Medal for Gaddafi
TUNIS: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has received Yugoslavia’s highest decoration from President Slobodan Milosevic in recognition of his efforts to boost bilateral relations, the official Libyan news agency Jana said on Tuesday. Jana, monitored in Tunis, said the “great Star” medal had been brought to Libya by Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Lilic, a close associate of Mr Milosevic. — Reuters

Rommel murder plot
LONDON: British secret agents considered a plan to assassinate German General Erwin Rommel during World War II, according to secret government papers released. British commanders found out in March 1943 where the “Desert Fox” had set up his headquarters in North Africa, and as they were located close to the sea, an attack on them was suggested. The plan was disclosed in files of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the agency charged with carrying out sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. — Reuters

Hoyt Axton dead
NEW YORK: American country singer, composer and actor Hoyt Axton died on Tuesday following a massive heart attack at his Montana ranch. He was 61. Axton wrote songs for Elvis Presley, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt and John Denver. He also helped Ringo Starr and the group Steppenwolf to produce his songs. His biggest success was “Joy to The World”, recorded by the band Three Dog Night, which held the number one slot on the hit charts for six weeks running in 1971. — DPA