Jakarta troops leave E. Timor
DILI (East Timor), Sept 27 — Indonesia’s armed forces handed over the military control of East Timor to UN troops today, formally marking Indonesia’s first big step out of the territory it has ruled for almost 24 years.

Taliban capture air base, two areas
KABUL, Sept 27 — Afghanistan’s Taliban Islamic Movement today reported taking several areas at the weekend in the country’s north where it has launched a second offensive within two months to dislodge opposition forces.

34 torture charges against Pinochet LONDON, Sept 27 — A hearing on whether Gen Augusto Pinochet should be extradited to Spain to face human rights charges today heard "serious allegations’’ of torture against the former Chilean dictator. The elderly Pinochet, who has been undergoing hospital treatment, did not attend the opening of the hearing, which is expected to last five days.

Pro-Pinochet demonstrators brandish banners on Monday outside London’s Bow Street Magistrate’s Court, where the long-awaited extradition hearing of the former Chilean dictator is under way. — AFP

Chechnya bases bombed: 50 dead
GROZNY, Sept 27 — Fifty persons were today killed in fresh Russian air attacks against the rebel republic of Chechnya, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov’s office said.

Ghauri III to be test-fired tomorrow
ISLAMABAD, Sept 27 — Pakistan would test fire on Wednesday a newly developed and more powerful version of its Ghauri missile which can hit targets up to a distance of 3000 km, thus bringing almost all the big cities of India including Calcutta, within its range, the Urdu daily Ausaf reported today.

UK to have more women judges
LONDON, Sept 27 — The British Government plans to increase the number of ethnic minority and woman judges with Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine announcing targeting such members for promotion, a media report said here today.

‘Gandhi’, ‘Elizabeth’ in top 100 UK films
NEW DELHI, Sept 27 — Richard Attenborough’s "Gandhi" and Shekhar Kapoor’s "Elizabeth" have made to the British list of top 100 films of this century.

Troops kill seven church workers
Jakarta troops leave E. Timor

DILI (East Timor), Sept 27 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s armed forces handed over the military control of East Timor to UN troops today, formally marking Indonesia’s first big step out of the territory it has ruled for almost 24 years.

In a ceremony at Indonesian military (TNI) headquarters in Dili, the control of security was officially handed to Major-General Peter Cosgrove, chief of UN forces in East Timor (Interfet).

"This morning the ceremony was held for the formal handover of the security control from TNI to Interfet", Maj-Gen Kiki Syahnakri, Indonesia’s commander in East Timor, told a news conference in the ruined East Timorese capital.

UN force officers confirmed today that 15,000 Indonesian troops had left the bloodied territory but denied the handover. "There was not a handover", Col Mark Kelly, chief of staff to the force commander, told reporters.

Dili was quiet today. But some fires were still burning in the charred city and tensions ran high. On Sunday, a bank near an evacuated Indonesian army barracks was set alight.

People who fled the city during the bloodshed have begun to return, only to find their homes destroyed. Many recover what belongings they can and return to hiding places in the hills.

The chief of the UN multinational force in East Timor today denied that Indonesia had handed over the control of the territory to them earlier that day.

Hours after Indonesia’s local military commander said he had relinquished the control of security, Maj-Gen Peter Cosgrove said Indonesia was still responsible for the security. "Indonesia retains security control for the province", he told reporters.

General Syahnakri said around 1,000 troops would remain in Dili to secure the military headquarters and major utilities, as well as the port and airport. Indonesia has already withdrawn thousands of troops and has around 4,500 still left in the territory.

The final contingent of troops would be withdrawn once Indonesia’s highest legislative body, the People’s Consultative Assembly, formally approved East Timor’s separation, he added.

The Assembly convenes on Friday. Portuguese media reported that seven church workers, including two nuns and a priest, were killed by Indonesian troops in the eastern part of East Timor.

A Roman Catholic priest, identified as Father Martins, told Portugal’s radio TSF by telephone from East Timor that the vehicle in which the group was travelling had been attacked by a group of soldiers on the road between Baucau and Los Palos.

‘‘They were killed by the Indonesian military,’’ he said, adding that the deaths had been confirmed by Bishop Basilio de Nascimento of Baucau. He said one of the nuns, Sister Herminia, was Italian. He did not say how the group had been killed.

Portugal’s Lusa news agency, in a report from Dili, quoted church sources as saying the attack occurred on Sunday.

DARWIN (Reuters): Aid flights to East Timor were limited on Monday due to a big deployment of multinational troops and equipment to Dili’s congested airport, said the UN’s East Timor aid coordinator.

The Australian navy supply ship, Hmas Tobruk, was also being loaded in Darwin and was expected to sail for East Timor later today, Mr Lawson told Reuters.

The UN said the heavy military deployment meant Dili airport had become too congested for desperately needed aid flights to land and the capital’s port was also clogged.

SYDNEY: Multinational troops launched a surprise raid on the militia stronghold town of Liquica, forcing militiamen to flee into the hills, Australian media said today.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio said about 150 troops in Australian Blackhawk helicopters swooped on Liquica, west of Dili, forcing 30 militiamen to flee the town.

Australian Associated Press reported from Dili that no shots were fired during the Liquica operation — the first outside Dili and the territory’s second major town of Baucau.

CANBERRA: Prime Minister John Howard on Monday rejected reports that Australia was acting as a regional deputy to the USA in its role as "global policeman".

Peck by Khushwant causes uproar in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Sept 27 (PTI) The Pakistan government has sought an explanation from its High Commissioner in New Delhi Ashraf Jehangir Qazi as to why he exposed the country to an embarrassment by allowing his family to attend a function where noted writer Khushwant Singh planted a peck on his daughter, a newspaper reported today.

"Pakistan Observer", quoting official sources, said the government has sought the explanation and Qazi’s diplomatic career may be in jeopardy due to the controversy over his daughter getting a "peck" from octogenarian Khushwant Singh.

Vernacular dailies in Pakistan reproduced a photograph which showed Khushwant Singh planting a peck on the cheek of his daughter. The papers termed it as "highly objectionable" which "lowered Pakistan’s head in shame."

The Pakistani press described it as "objectionable" the function which was held to release Khushwant’s Singh’s latest book "The Company of Women".

Mr Qazi, who was incidentally in Pakistan for consultations when the function was held, yesterday slammed a section of the press for giving a "shameful interpretation to an innocent gesture". In a statement, he charged the media with pursuing "opportunistic gutter journalism".

Qazi said Khushwant Singh was "fit to be his daughter’s great great grandfather" who bestowed an "affectionate peck".

Sonia not daunted by risk to life

LONDON, Sept 27 (PTI) — The Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, says she is not daunted by the risk to her life after entry into politics.

"Why should I be afraid?", she countered when asked by The Sunday Telegraph whether she was afraid of the threat posed to her as prime target as both her husband and mother-in-law were assassinated.

Asked what made her forsake her privacy for the rough and tumble of Indian politics, she told the interviewer, "I couldn't refuse. People came and begged me with so much love, I had to do it for them and for the family".

On her Italian roots, on which the BJP and its allies have been harping on, she acknowledged there was a credibility problem. Her own sister never believed her insistence she was Indian. "She used to ring me up and argue with me. It was only after Rajiv died that she finally understood me, Ms Gandhi added.

Asked how a young woman of the sixties, who married a very modern man, could play the Indian daughter-in-law, she said, "I have lived here for 30 years and I really do feel Indian".

"I've experienced great happiness and great sadness in my life and, somehow, my destiny seems to be linked with this family".

To a query on whether she would ever consider remarrying, she said, "I could never love anyone but my husband". Asked whether she could leave politics, she replied in affirmative, adding, "When I make up my mind to do something, I go through with it".

Extradition trial begins
34 torture charges against Pinochet

LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) — A hearing on whether Gen Augusto Pinochet should be extradited to Spain to face human rights charges today heard "serious allegations’’ of torture against the former Chilean dictator.

The elderly Pinochet, who has been undergoing hospital treatment, did not attend the opening of the hearing, which is expected to last five days. He must only be present for the decision, which is not expected until about two weeks after the extradition hearing ends.

Lawyer Alun Jones, appearing for Spain, said the case against Gen Pinochet was well grounded in British law, specifically the 1988 Criminal Justice Act which incorporated the 1984 international torture convention.

"An act of torture by a public official anywhere in the world is an offence under United Kingdom law,’’ Mr Jones said. "It becomes simply facile to argue that these offences are a matter for Chile and no one else.’’

Gen Pinochet has denied the charges and has said that he could not control everything that happened in Chile while he was in power.

"The allegations against General Pinochet do indeed constitute some of the most serious allegations of crime ever to come before an English court,’’ Mr Jones said.

A clerk spent 12 minutes reading the 35 charges — 34 allegations of torture and one of conspiracy to torture.

Gen Pinochet’s lawyer Clive Nicholls, contested Spain’s right to add new charges of torture to its case, noting that only one specific act of torture in the charges read out dated from the original Spanish request for extradition last year.

Magistrate Ronald Bartle agreed to listen to Spain’s case in full and hear arguments later on whether all the charges were admissible.

Gen Pinochet (83) has been under house arrest in Britain for nearly a year and Chilean officials have expressed concern about his health.

The supporters and opponents staged a shouting match outside London’s Bow Street Magistrates court, coralled behind barriers just 10 feet apart. The pro-Pinochet demonstrators outnumbered the opponents by about 200 to 30.

But human rights activists were jubilant that the ex-dictator’s case had come to court. "For us to get to this day is really a vindication of the thousands of victims of torture and brutalisation and disappearance in Chile,’’ said Mr Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch.

Inside the courtroom, Gen Pinochet’s supporters and detractors rubbed elbows with his lawyers and relatives of alleged victims, prosecutors, human rights advocates and journalists. Two other courtrooms were used as annexes, where those present could watch television feeds of the proceedings.

This week’s extradition hearing is the main forum in which Magistrate Bartle considers whether the General should be sent to Spain to face trial for alleged human rights abuses during his time in power from 1973 to 1990. Either side can appeal, and the judicial marathon may run months or years more.

His allies say his health is rapidly worsening. The latest alarming report in The Sunday. Times said he had suffered a stroke that had left him bedridden for the past two weeks.

Taliban capture air base, two areas

KABUL, Sept 27 (Reuters) — Afghanistan’s Taliban Islamic Movement today reported taking several areas at the weekend in the country’s north where it has launched a second offensive within two months to dislodge opposition forces.

The Taliban seized Dashti Archi in Kunduz province and Hazratbagh in adjacent Takhar province, a stronghold of main opposition commander, Ahmad Shah Masood, some 25 km from the provincial capital of Taloqan, Taliban sources said.

They said the Taliban forces had also captured the dusty Khwajaghar air base at Taloqan.

Takhar lies on the border with Tajikistan, Masood’s last overland supply line with the outside world. It is known as the backbone of Masood. Opposition sources have acknowledged the loss of ground to the Taliban in the area, where they said heavy fighting was raging to prevent the fall of Taloqan.

Chechnya bases bombed: 50 dead

GROZNY, Sept 27 (AFP) — Fifty persons were today killed in fresh Russian air attacks against the rebel republic of Chechnya, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov’s office said.

Some 26 persons were killed in the capital, Grozny, with the other victims in villages bordering the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.

Russian warplanes pounded Grozny for the fifth straight day today, attacking oil refineries and communication sites in the South of the city.

The attacks, which threaten to renew the two sides’ bloody 1994-96 war, are directed against suspected terrorist groups held responsible for organising a wave of Russian apartment block bombings that have killed nearly 300 persons.

The latest toll figure brings to at least 380 the number of Chechens reported killed by the wave of Russian air raids.

Ghauri III to be test-fired tomorrow

ISLAMABAD, Sept 27 (PTI) — Pakistan would test fire on Wednesday a newly developed and more powerful version of its Ghauri missile which can hit targets up to a distance of 3000 km, thus bringing almost all the big cities of India including Calcutta, within its range, the Urdu daily Ausaf reported today.

Quoting sources in Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL), the daily claimed that the extended version of the Ghauri missile, which would be called Ghauri-III, will be test fired from the KRL in the outskirts of Islamabad.

The paper said the Pakistani nuclear scientists have developed the more powerful engine of medium range surface-to-surface Ghauri missile which would enhance the range of the already tested missile to up to 3000 km.

The sources told the newspaper that after the successful test-firing of this latest version of Ghauri missile almost all the big cities of India, including Calcutta, will come within the range of Pakistani missiles.

UK to have more women judges

LONDON, Sept 27 (PTI) — The British Government plans to increase the number of ethnic minority and woman judges with Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine announcing targeting such members for promotion, a media report said here today.

Lord Irvine has appointed Sir Leonard Peach to scrutinise how judges and Queen’s Counsel (QC) — leading barristers eligible to become judges — are appointed in England and the Wales, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

"It is crucial that people are totally confident that judges are appointed on merit alone, and that barristers achieve QC status through an absolutely fair assessment of their skills and qualities," he told the newspaper.

A spokesman for him said: "The Lord Chancellor wants to encourage qualified ethnic minority lawyers to apply to become QCs and judges, and has commissioned research into factors that affect decisions to apply for judicial appointments among women and ethnic-minority lawyers.

"He also has made it clear that homosexuality is no bar to appointment."

According to latest statistics available, which are for 1996, 2,845 men were judges or QC at all levels of the judicial system, compared with only 306 women, who were almost exclusively concentrated at the lower levels. There were only 15 non-whites.

The reforms signalled by Lord Irvine come after two years of policy changes.

Before the last elections, the Labour Party was committed to setting up a judicial commission and taking the power to appoint judges out of Lord Irvine’s hands.

After the elections, however, Lord Irvine dropped the idea and started to open up the procedure by advertising for nominees to be judges.

‘Gandhi’, ‘Elizabeth’ in top 100 UK films

NEW DELHI, Sept 27 (UNI) — Richard Attenborough’s "Gandhi" and Shekhar Kapoor’s "Elizabeth" have made to the British list of top 100 films of this century.

"Gandhi" is ranked 34th and "Elizabeth" 71st in the survey conducted by the British Film Institute among filmmakers, technicians, actors, writers and academics.

"The third man" (1949) by Carol Reed tops the list followed by David Lean’s "Brief Encounter" (1945) and "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) Alfred Hitchcock’s "the 39 steps" (1935) and Lean’s 1946 film "great expectations".

"Elizabeth", released last year, became eligible because the BFI fount it "culturally British and filmed here (in Britain) pretty much 100 per cent", besides being produced by a British company, Working Title.

About 400 directors submitted their favourite 100 films to the first survey of a full century of British filmmaking. More than 25,700 votes were cast covering 820 films. David Lean’s 1957 film "the bridge on the river kwai" is eleventh.

David Lean directed six of the 100 films, Julie Christie appeared in six, Michael Caine in seven and Sir Alec Guinness in nine. No Charlie Chaplin film figures in the list released in the British media released over the week end.

A carry on film has also made the list — "Carry on up the Khyber" (1968). The 100th film is Roland Joffe’s "The Killing Fields" 1984.

There are three 30s films, 16 made in 40s, 10 each from 50s and 70s, 26 from 60s, 18 from 80s, and 17 from 90s.

10 dead in crash
LOS ANGELES: A light aircraft wrapping up a sightseeing tour of the Hawaii islands on Saturday crashed high on the side of the Mauna Loa volcano killing all nine passengers and its pilot, the authorities said. There were no survivors. — Reuters

Einstein’s daughter
NEW YORK: A new book claims that Albert Einstein’s illegitimate daughter was born severely retarded, possibly with Down syndrome, and died at 21 months after a bout with Scarlet fever. When the first volume of Einstein’s collected papers was released in 1987, it showed that he had had an affair while at university with a fellow student named Mileva Maric, who later became pregnant and gave birth to a child at her parents’ home in rural Serbia. — AP

JFK’s mistress
LOS ANGELES: Judith Campbell Exner, whose affairs with US President John F. Kennedy and mafia boss Sam Giancana earned her decades of public scorn and disbelief but ultimately stained the Camelot myth, has died, hospital officials said. A spokesman for City of Hope Cancer Centre in the Los Angeles suburb of Duarte said Exner (65) died there just before midnight on Friday after a long battle with breast cancer. — Reuters

Quebec’s referendum
DRUMMONDVILLE, (Quebec): Quebec separatist leaders on Sunday threw some cold water on the idea of a quick referendum on secession from Canada within their current five-year term. In a speech, Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard refused to detail a firm referendum timetable and asked delegates to fight public apathy by intensifying their actions in favour of independence of the French-speaking province. — Reuters