NY battles mosquito threat
NEW YORK, Sept 14 — Manhattan’s Central Park was sprayed with insecticide yesterday in New York city’s battle to kill mosquitoes after a rare outbreak of St. Louis Encephalitis that claimed three lives.

Anwar’s claim a ploy, says Mahathir

Starr wins appeal

No Jakarta terms on peace force
1300 E. Timorese flown to Australia

JAKARTA Sept 14 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s President B.J. Habibie today said Jakarta was putting no conditions on the formation of a UN peacekeeping force for East Timor, Finland’s Ambassador told reporters after meeting the President.

Ambassador Hannu Himanen added there was a prospect of imminent airdrops of aid for tens of thousands of refugees sheltering in the territory’s mountains. Mr Habibie made his comments in a meeting with the top diplomats in Jakarta of all 15 members of the European Union.

“Basically, the President repeated what he said on Sunday, that Indonesia is inviting an international force. He said there are no particular conditions attached to it and it is up to the United Nations to decide on the force,” Mr Himanen said.

DARWIN (Australia): The UN today closed its besieged compound in Dili and began evacuating 1,300 East Timorese refugees and most of its staff to Australia.

The UN said it could no longer guarantee the safety of refugees in the looted and burnt-out East Timorese capital and that Indonesian President B.J. Habibie had given permission for the mass evacuation.

“We have closed the UN compound in Dili and the majority of our remaining international staff and a small number of our local staff are also on the flight coming out today,” Mr Ian Martin, head of the UNAMET mission, said on his arrival from Dili.

“There has been great concern on our part for their (refugees’) future and it is not possible in the current circumstances in East Timor to make any other arrangements to guarantee their safety,” Mr Martin told reporters.

“We have been working for some days getting the necessary permission (from Jakarta) so it was just a matter of when the permission came through,” he said.

Mr Martin said 12 UN staff would remain in Dili at a different location, headed by Bangladeshi Brigadier-General Rezaqul Haider but that it was now untenable to maintain a full UNAMET presence in the bloodied territory.

Asked if UN staff feared retribution if they remained in Dili ahead of a UN peacekeeping force which is expected to arrive within the week, Mr Martin said: “Certainly we are very concerned about the security situation”.

BRUSSELS: The European Union agreed on to impose a four-month embargo on arms sales to Indonesia to put pressure on Jakarta to respect East Timor’s vote for independence.

“The (EU) Council has agreed, for a period of four months, on an embargo on the export of arms, munitions and military equipment, a ban on the supply of equipment which might be used for internal repression or terrorism and a suspension of bilateral military cooperation,” EU Foreign Ministers said in a statement on Monday.

QUEENSTOWN (AFP): US President Bill Clinton on Tuesday dismissed Indonesian objections to the presence of Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and the USA in an East Timor peacekeeping force.

In Jakarta, the Chairman of Indonesia’s ruling Golkar Party has called for the countries to be excluded from the force.

But Mr Clinton said the Golkar stance did not represent the official Jakarta position.

In New York, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas confirmed his country would not impose any conditions on the force which Mr Clinton said would be mainly Asian.

Indian Embassy denies girl kept as ‘slave’

PARIS, Sept 14 (AFP) — The Indian Embassy in Paris demanded that French authorities hand over a young Indian woman, who an anti-slavery group said had been overworked by her diplomat employer and who a French doctor said had been sexually mutilated.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “We are following this affair closely,” and added that the Indian diplomat involved, “has diplomatic immunity”.

In a statement yesterday, the Indian Embassy said allegations of maltreatment by her employer “are false and are strongly denied”.

It said it holds the French authorities responsible for the welfare of the woman, whom it named as Lalita Oraon, and that “the injuries Ms Oraon has suffered in the custody of the French authorities are a matter of serious concern”.

It added that the French police had taken the girl into custody “and despite being informed of her identity and her employment with the Embassy’s diplomat, they refused to hand over Ms Oraon to the Embassy’s charge”.

The statement said Ms Oraon had not been working satisfactorily and that she had probably fled when she overheard plans to send her back to India.

Earlier, Philippe Boudin, Director of the Committee Against Modern-Day Slavery, said the Indian woman “fled her employer’s Paris home on Sunday, September 5.

Gul blames Sharif for defeat

ISLAMABAD, Sept 14 (PTI) —Former ISI chief Gen Hamid Gul (retd) has accused Premier Nawaz Sharif of conspiring with US President Bill Clinton to ensure Pakistan’s defeat in the Kargil conflict and demanded removal of the present “ruling mafia” in the country.

“The joint Clinton-Sharif conspiracy made Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee look like a victor in the recent Kargil crises”, The News quoted General Gul as saying at a gathering organised in Birmingham by the Tehreek-e-Kashmir.

He was particularly critical of the present political system of the country which provided protection to the corrupt and termed leaders of both Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League and Ms Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party as “ruling mafia”.

“Both (parties) are taking turns to rob and ruin the country and its resources”, he alleged.

He also dismissed Mr Sharif’s claims that his government enjoyed the people’s mandate, terming it a “fake mandate”, and demanded a complete transformation of system in the country through a strict implementation of the Constitution.

General Gul prescribed even-handed accountability of all politicians, an independent judiciary and elections as per Articles 62 and 63 which prescribe that only those who follow Islamic principles can be elected to parliament and a complete decentralisation of power.

General Gul also demanded that Pakistan refuse to pay all its foreign debt as these loans had never been used for the benefit of the people and go in for a hike in defence expenditure.

LAHORE (AFP): Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has shrugged off an Opposition campaign to oust him, saying that his opponents had no agenda to offer to the people.

“They were badly defeated in the last general election and were totally rejected by the masses”, Mr Sharif said on Monday after opening a girls school in his home constituency in the eastern city of Lahore.

“The statement came as a 19-party alliance of religious and political parties kept up attempts to force Mr Sharif to resign, accusing him of betrayal for overseeing the withdrawal of Islamic militants from Kashmir in July after two months of fighting with India.

PGPC appointment irks Pak Sikhs

ISLAMABAD, Sept 14 (PTI) — Members of the Sikh community in Pakistan have expressed strong resentment over the appointment of a Muslim as Chief of the newly-formed Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PGPC) saying it amounts to sacrilege of their religion.

Almost all Sikh members have resigned from the PGPC in protest but are reluctant to come out in the open against the decision of the Pakistani authorities for fear of persecution by the establishment, English daily “News” said here today in a report from Peshawar.

Those who have resigned include Mahesh Singh, who led a delegation of Pakistani Sikhs from Sindh to India in April this year, Nanak Singh, from Baluchistan, Mastan Singh and Ram Singh from Punjab and member of the NWFP provincial Assembly Gian Singh.

“Resentment is widespread. The trouble is that we risk being dubbed Indian agents if we dare speak openly against this,” one member of the community was quoted as saying.

Members of the 50,000 strong community said appointment of former ISI chief Javed Nasir amounts to not only a “sacrilege” of their religion but also violation of the Pakistani Constitution which safeguards rights of minorities. “Can a Sikh be asked to head the Haj directorate?”

Pakistani Sikhs also questioned the bonafides of Sham Singh, who has been appointed Co-President of the PGPC.

NY battles mosquito threat

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters) — Manhattan’s Central Park was sprayed with insecticide yesterday in New York city’s battle to kill mosquitoes after a rare outbreak of St. Louis Encephalitis that claimed three lives.

Health officials were investigating whether a 79-year-old woman who died on Saturday in the Borough of Queens was a fourth victim of the brain-swelling viral infection named after the city where it first appeared in 1933.

The number of confirmed cases of St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE) in the first recorded outbreak of the disease in New York city increased to 11 with the addition of two new cases in the Bronx yesterday. Three elderly people have died, officials said. Sixtyfive cases are still under investigation.

‘‘All New Yorkers should take precautions against mosquito bites,’’ Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told a news conference, urging residents ‘‘to be calm and cooperative as we continue our surveillance for this virus and do whatever is necessary.’’

The outbreak, traced to birds that carried the virus from Southern regions and transmitted it to the local mosquito population, became apparent to city health officials on September 2.

Anwar’s claim a ploy, says Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (AFP) — Allegations by ousted Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim that he was poisoned with arsenic are a ploy to sully the nation’s image and gain political mileage, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has said.

The claims smacked of a plot to arouse the anger of Anwar supporters and instigate them to rally against the government, the Prime Minister was cited as saying by The Star newspaper today.

Starr wins appeal

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (AFP) — Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, whose investigations almost led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, won a legal victory here when an Appeals Court ruled he should not face criminal charges for leaking grand jury information.

In a statement, Mr Starr called the case against him an attempt to “distract” his own investigation of Mr Clinton.

Drug traffickers
WASHINGTON: The USA has started deploying armed helicopters to intercept traffickers running drugs across the Caribbean in high-speed boats, US officials said on Monday. The secret deployment of armed aircraft by the US Coast Guard over the past 10 months has resulted in the seizure of a record 53 tons of Colombian cocaine heading for US cities. — Reuters

Sex on camera
TORONTO: Candid camera was never as humiliating as this. The Canadian police said on Monday that when they raided a brothel in the southern Ontario city of Mississauga last week, they discovered evidence suggesting sexual encounters had been filmed and downloaded on to the Internet. “During the search they found hidden pinhole cameras throughout the apartment — some were in lamps and motion detectors,” said police spokesman Sergeant John Betts. — Reuters

Army wage freeze
BEIJING: China has frozen a wage rise for its 2.5 million servicemen after the biggest spying scandal of its Communist-Era angered President Jiang Zemin, military sources said on Tuesday. The scandal led to the courts-martial and executions last month of Maj-Gen Liu Liankun (retired), 58, and Senior Col Shao Zhengzhong, 56, for selling state secrets to Taiwan for at least $ 1.6 million, the sources said. — Reuters

UNICEF chief Bellamy
UNITED NATIONS: UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy was reappointed to a second five-year term and pledged to make the fight against AIDS and poverty among her priorities for the world’s children. She was named Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund in 1995. — AP

Child spanking
BOSTON: The highest state court in Massachusetts on Monday heard arguments about whether spanking a child constituted abuse or was just good discipline. The case involved Woburn, Massachusetts, Minister Donald Cobble who in 1997 hit his then nine-year-old son, Judah, with the end of a leather belt after the boy came home with a bad report card. — Reuters