W O R L D

UN in touch with RUF on Indian hostages
FREETOWN, June 10 — The UN said today it was still in contact with Sierra Leone rebels holding 21 Indian UN peacekeepers hostage but rejected conditions placed on their release.

Russia gives missile defence system plan
BRUSSELS, June 10 — Russia today gave NATO a proposed defence against ballistic missiles that it claims would avert the need for a US system requiring revision of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty.

Speight men go on rampage
SUVA, June 10 — About 100 supporters of Fijian rebel leader George Speight poured out of the parliamentary complex where they are holding more than 30 hostages and rampaged through town, setting a restaurant ablaze.

SUVA: A Fijian soldier mans a checkpoint equipped with a machine gun on a main street in Suva, the capital of Fiji on Saturday. — AP/PTI

6,000 foreign militants trained in Pak: report
LONDON, June 10 — At least 6,000 foreigners, including Iranians, Sudanese, Pakistanis and Arabs, are being trained in various camps in Pakistan, a media report said here today.

Ethiopia attacks Eritrea
ADDIS ABABA, June 10 — Ethiopia said it had launched a “counter-offensive” against Eritrean forces along their western front today, just hours after Eritrea said it accepted an internationally-brokered peace plan.

Women draft plan on gender equality
UNITED NATIONS, June 10 — After an all-night session, 180 countries at a UN conference on women’s rights completed today a plan on practical measures toward achieving equality of the sexes, including combating violence against women in the home.

Solomons truce holds
HONIARA, (Solomon islands), June 10 — Residents in the Solomon islands capital Honiara fled the town today and hundreds of expatriates were evacuated as a temporary truce between warring ethnic militias held for a second day.

11 die in boat mishap
BEIJING, June 10 — At least 11 participants in a boat race in Hunan province in central China were killed when their boat was sucked to the bottom of a reservoir, the Yangcheng Evening News has reported.

21 killed in encounter
KATHMANDU, June 10 — Twelve policemen, seven civilians and two rebels have been killed in a fierce encounter with Maoist insurgents in Nepal, authorities said today.

UN in touch with RUF on Indian hostages

FREETOWN, June 10 (AFP) — The UN said today it was still in contact with Sierra Leone rebels holding 21 Indian UN peacekeepers hostage but rejected conditions placed on their release.

UN spokesman in Freetown David Wimhurst said the world body was in frequent contact with the rebels but could not accept any demands. “We have said all along we cannot accept any conditions for the release of any of our personnel.” The UN said earlier this week it believed the 21 were about to be released after a meeting between an Indian officer, Major Punia, and a high-ranking RUF leader, Gen Sesay Issa.

Mr Wimhurst said yesterday that Issa’s pledge appeared to have been overturned by the collective RUF leadership.

NEW DELHI (UNI): India said on Saturday it would not negotiate with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone for the release of 21 Indian soldiers held hostage by it and added that it was the primary duty of the UN.

“It is a challenge to the UN. The Indian soldiers are operating under the UN flag. We hope the UN will make intensive efforts to secure their release,” an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said here.

The spokesman, however, said India would continue to make diplomatic efforts and exert all kinds of pressure on the RUF. A delegation comprising the Director-General of Military Operations, Lt-Gen N.C. Vij, and representatives of Air Headquarters and the Ministry of External Affairs were at present in Sierra Leone.

Russia gives missile defence system plan

BRUSSELS, June 10 (Reuters) — Russia today gave NATO a proposed defence against ballistic missiles that it claims would avert the need for a US system requiring revision of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty.

President Vladimir Putin suggested this week that Russia and the NATO allies could together create a way of defending against missile threats from so-called “rogue states”, without knocking them out in space as proposed by Washington.

But today’s description of what Moscow has in mind, presented to alliance Defence Ministers by their Russian counterpart Marshall Igor Sergeyev, apparently did not go far enough to permit a quick assessment by the allies.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said Mr Sergeyev had mentioned the proposal during a meeting of the NATO-Russia permanent joint council.

The Russian minister was due to have bilateral talks later in the day with US Secretary of Defence William Cohen, in which further discussion on the proposal was likely.

“We’re not in a position to evaluate the points made today. Questions have been asked and clearly they will be dealt with at a later stage. Clarification of such an important issue is of enormous importance,” Mr Robertson said.

MOSCOW, UNI: In a move that could be seen as a turnaround in the bitterness in relations between NATO and Russia following last year’s strikes over Yugoslavia, Russia and NATO have agreed to cooperate with each other to defend themselves against outside missile threats.

Talking to newspersons here after returning from a meeting of the NATO-Russia permanent joint council at Brussels, Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said, “at the council meeting the two sides agreed to begin cooperation while taking into consideration each other’s interests”.

The differences between NATO and Russia had been resolved, he said. The statement comes close on the heels of US President Bill Clinton’s statement during his recent visit to Moscow in which he said that military operations against Yugoslavia were a mistake.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General of Russia’s National Security Council Sergei Ivanov in a recent interview to Moscow’s leading daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, hinted at the possibility of Russia joining NATO.

Mr Sergeyev told the same news conference that shooting down a threatening missile in a few minutes directly after its launch would not, in Moscow’s view, constitute a violation of the ABM treaty.

“The Putin proposal for theatre defence does not compromise in any way the ABM treaty,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

He said Russian experts had already conducted a great deal of research on a tactical ABM system. “The work to separate the strategic and non-strategic missile has been done and registered,” Mr Sergeyev added.

The Defence Minister urged the USA, co-signatory with Moscow to the key 1972 arms control pact, to adopt the same position as Russia, which discriminates between strategic and non-strategic ABM systems.

Speight men go on rampage

SUVA, June 10 (Reuters) — About 100 supporters of Fijian rebel leader George Speight poured out of the parliamentary complex where they are holding more than 30 hostages and rampaged through town, setting a restaurant ablaze.

Firefighters rushed past military checkpoints to the fire which gutted the lighthouse cafe on the edge of Suva harbour, about 300 metres from the complex occupied for more than three weeks by gunmen in the name of indigenous Fijian rights.

Soldiers blocking the road leading to the burning building told reporters the rampaging crowd came from among the hundreds of supporters who have gathered for weeks in the compound, some accused of looting homes and businesses for food and valuables.

“It’s not safe. There are about 100 of those fellows and they’re armed with knives,” one soldier told reporters.

Police sources said the group might have left the complex to try and free other Speight supporters being held near the lighthouse restaurant, but quickly retreated to the complex after starting the fire.

With the exception of one hostage who was allowed out to attend a funeral, the captives have not been seen since the early days of the siege.

Speight earlier today ruled out releasing any more hostages before indigenous Fijian rule is restored.

“Not one more,” he told a news conference from his stronghold inside the parliamentary complex. “We will not be deterred by arguments based on democracy and multiculturalism.”

Speight also said he supported the endorsement by influential elders of former Vice-President Josefa Iloilo as Fiji’s next civilian President.

This puts him at odds with the military government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, which is attempting to negotiate the release of the hostages, and wants to remain in power for at least three months.

AP: Tribal chiefs tried but failed today to persuade coup leader George Speight to free his hostages, then fresh troubles broke out in the night when rebels torched a seaside restaurant.

6,000 foreign militants trained in Pak: report

LONDON, June 10 (PTI) — At least 6,000 foreigners, including Iranians, Sudanese, Pakistanis and Arabs, are being trained in various camps in Pakistan, a media report said here today.

The ‘Times’ report, quoting three militants captured in Kupwara in Kashmir, added that between 8,000 and 10,000 ‘disaffected’ locals had received religious and weapons training in remote forest camps in Pakistan.

Abdul Rehman Dar (23), Mushtaq Ahmad Parray (18) and Manzoor Ahmad Shah (16) from Kashmir, claiming to be among the locals to receive the training, said they had sneaked across mountains separating the divided Himalayan state.

Shah, from the frontier Punzwa village, said he crossed into Pakistan on August 2 after being approached by a Hizbul Mujahideen militant he knew by the code name ‘‘Ishtiaq’’.

He said he and 20 other Kashmiris were taken across the border by Pakistani guides. They were brought to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and then on to a training camp near Mansehra.

Like the other two, he said the Pakistanis were involved at all stages of the border-crossing operation, but insisted that he never saw members of the Pakistan armed forces at any of the camps where he received three months of instruction in the Koran and Jehad from fellow Kashmiri teachers.

Shah was then sent with 75 others to a forest camp for training by foreign Urdu-speaking instructors in how to use small arms and light and heavy machine guns.

After training, he was sent back across the border on May 25.

Parray and Dar, from Halmatpora, said they had joined much earlier.

They received identical religious training at another camp named Safrida before being sent back with Shah to recruit other Kashmiris. They failed because a fourth member of the group was captured and they surrendered, believing their hideouts to have been compromised, the report said.

Ethiopia attacks Eritrea

ADDIS ABABA, June 10 (Reuters) — Ethiopia said it had launched a “counter-offensive” against Eritrean forces along their western front today, just hours after Eritrea said it accepted an internationally-brokered peace plan.

The Ethiopia Government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse said in a statement that the Ethiopians had attacked at 4 a.m. (06.30 IST) today near the Eritrean towns of Guluj and Tessency “in line with the instructions to deal vigorously and decisively with provocative attacks made by the Eritrean army”.

Eritrea said late yesterday that it had accepted ceasefire proposals to end the two-year border war, drawn up by the Organisation of African Unity after peace talks in the Algerian capital Algiers.

Ethiopia’s team in Algiers, headed by Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, was expected to respond by noon (16.30 IST) today.

Both sides said fighting was also continuing near the Eritrean port of Assab today in the south-east of the country.

Women draft plan on gender equality

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 (Reuters) — After an all-night session, 180 countries at a UN conference on women’s rights completed today a plan on practical measures toward achieving equality of the sexes, including combating violence against women in the home.

The one-week conference also broke new ground on battling HIV/aids and took a strong stand against “trafficking” — the luring of women and children across borders for prostitution or domestic slavery.

At issue was a follow-up document to an action programme devised at a landmark global women’s conference in Beijing five years ago. The week-long New York meeting was to accelerate plans toward women’s equality and emphasise new issues that have arisen since 1995.

Angela King, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Women, was upbeat about the result.

“It was absolutely worth it,” she said. “I feel that all those millions of women who are looking at us are totally vindicated and they have something to grasp, to assist them for their battles for equality.”

Nevertheless, a large group of activist organisations that attended the conference from around the world issued a joint statement expressing some disappointment at the outcome of the week-long negotiations.

“We regret that there was not enough political will on the part of some governments and the UN system to agree on a stronger document with more concrete benchmarks, numerical goals, time-bound targets, indicators, and resources aimed at implementing the Beijing platform,” they said.

On most programmes involving sexuality, including the treatment and punishment of women who had legal or illegal abortions, there were few advances on the provisions negotiated in Beijing.

Much of the debate on sexual rights pitted Islamic nations, especially Algeria, Libya, Iran, Pakistan and Sudan, along with the Vatican, against western and African nations and nearly all of Latin America except for Nicaragua.

Delegates did agree, however, on strong planks calling for the prosecution of all forms of domestic violence, including marital rape so-called ‘’honor’’ killings of female relatives who have ‘’shamed’’ their families, as well as forced marriages, were addressed for the first time.

Rwanda, Uganda ignore pleas

KISANGANI (Congo), June 10 (Reuters) — Fierce fighting swept the streets of the Congolese city of Kisangani today as Rwandan and Ugandan troops ignored international pleas for a ceasefire.

Overnight and into the morning, relentless bursts of automatic gunfire echoed from the city’s Tshopo residential district, where troops from the former allies confront each other along a jagged 6 km frontline.

Neither side appeared to be making substantial gains on the sixth day of fighting which aid workers say has killed at least 150 civilians, wounded 700 and is steadily destroying the jungle city.

The decaying bodies of the dead lay in the streets of the city on Saturday, ill-equipped hospitals are already swamped and casualty figures are likely to rise further as doctors and aid workers venture out cautiously to reach the wounded.

Alexandre Liebeskind of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters: “Most of these people have been killed or wounded by shrapnel and bullets, some by pieces of houses that fell on them.’’

UN military officials estimate that 6,000 artillery rounds have rocked the city, once the thriving hub of the diamond trade of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Both Rwandan and Ugandan troops have ignored appeals by the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for ceasefires, although the Presidents of both countries said they had agreed to a halt in hostilities.

“If either side cared for the civilian population, they could call a unilateral ceasefire,’’ said Lt-Col Khan Khalid, part of a small UN monitoring team stationed in the city. “But they don’t give a damn about the people. It’s the people who are suffering, not them.’’

Today, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba flew to Kampala to meet Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni and appealed once more for the fighting to stop, before going on to the Rwandan capital Kigali.

“I am consulting with our two brothers to stop the war in Kisangani,’’ Chiluba told reporters. “It is unhelpful, it is unacceptable, it is inexplicable.’’

Solomons truce holds

HONIARA, (Solomon islands), June 10 (Reuters) — Residents in the Solomon islands capital Honiara fled the town today and hundreds of expatriates were evacuated as a temporary truce between warring ethnic militias held for a second day.

Australian and New Zealand Foreign Ministers, in Honiara with a commonwealth delegation for talks with rival militia and Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’Alu, ruled out sending peacekeepers to the Solomons after an attempted coup on Monday which sparked fierce fighting.

The Foreign Ministers, who are also due to visit coup-hit Fiji next week, called for rival militia to lay down arms, extend a 14-day truce declared on Friday and return to the negotiating table.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said coup leader Andrew Nori had agreed to return stolen arms to the police by next Thursday, when a parliamentary vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister was scheduled.

A New Zealand frigate had arrived in Honiara, but Goff said its orders were to assist with evacuations, not restore peace.

“The frigate is not here as gunboat diplomacy,’’ he said. “It is our determination that we cannot solve by military forces the problems (in the Solomons).’’

The Australian navy supply ship Hmas Tobruk loaded with 480 expatriates from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Britain left Honiara on Saturday.

11 die in boat mishap

BEIJING, June 10 (AFP) — At least 11 participants in a boat race in Hunan province in central China were killed when their boat was sucked to the bottom of a reservoir, the Yangcheng Evening News has reported.

Another 18 persons sustained severe injuries in the accident, which happened on Wednesday in the province’s Mayang county, the Yangcheng.

The boat, carrying 61 persons, had just left its berth when the gates of a reservoir about 100 metres downriver opened and swallowed up the boat with its crew.

After one day of searching for survivors, 11 people were confirmed killed, the paper said. The boat was taking part in a dragon boat race, held annually in many parts of China.

21 killed in encounter

KATHMANDU, June 10 (AFP) — Twelve policemen, seven civilians and two rebels have been killed in a fierce encounter with Maoist insurgents in Nepal, authorities said today.

The Maoists threw two powerful grenades at two houses, killing seven civilians, police said. Then a group of rebels attacked a police post at Theme village in Jajarkot district, 358 km northwest of Kathmandu.

The Maoists launched their armed struggle for the establishment of a separate republic in February, 1996. Since then 1,330 persons have been killed, more than two-thirds of them Maoists.

WORLD BRIEFS

Pak’s new envoy to Russia
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday appointed Mr S. Iftikhar Murshed, a senior Foreign Ministry official, as its Ambassador to Russia, an official statement said. Mr Murshed (53), who is considered an expert on Afghanistan will replace Mr Mansoor Alam, the current Ambassador in Moscow. Mr Murshed had served as Ambassador to South Korea from 1990 to 1995. — AFP

Jacob Lawrence dead
SEATTLE: Jacob Lawrence, whose use of bright colours and bold images to capture the struggles of American blacks made him one of the country’s most celebrated painters, died on Friday. He was 82. Lawrence passed away in his sleep at his Seattle home, according to a statement from the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation that was founded by the artist and his wife to promote the American art. — Reuters

Howard’s jet makes emergency landing
BRISBANE: A VIP jet carrying Australian Prime Minister John Howard and opposition leader Kim Beazley made an emergency landing on Friday when a warning light showed “wrongly” that an engine was on fire. The politicians were returning from the funeral of Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi when the light began flashing, indicating flames in one of the Boeing 707’s four engines. — AP

Woman sets grandson afire
NAIROBI: A Kenyan woman, who caught her grandson eating her fish, doused the boy in petrol, set him on fire and then chopped off his fingers, a newspaper said. The Kenya Times on Friday said the 46-year-old woman had returned home to find the boy eating the fish she had prepared for lunch. In a fury, she began to cane the boy and then tied his hands together with dry grass before setting him on fire. The woman has later arrested. — Reuters

Directed to give half the money
REGINA: A Canadian court has ruled that a woman who successfully claimed all of a $ 2-million-Canadian dollar lottery jackpot must give back half the money to the boyfriend she left after getting the prize, a Canadian television report said. David Thompson (530) from Regina, Saskatchewan, had sued his former girlfriend Bertha Hayley for 1 million Canadian dollars, alleging that the winning ticket presented to lottery officials by Ms Havley in 1998 was his. — DPAD

Jailed for child pornography
DUBLIN: A German computer technician has become the first person to be jailed in Ireland for accessing child pornography from the Iternet, a court spokeswoman said. She said on Friday that Tobias Vollmer (22) from Halle, eastern Germany, was jailed for 18 months. The owner of the computer had complained to the police in this connection. — Reuters

Dion pregnant at last!
MONTREAL: French Canadian pop diva Celine Dion said she was pregnant, ending speculation sparked after she spent a few days at a fertility clinic in New York. In a statement on Friday, Dion said she wanted to “share the wonderful news” with her fans. “There’s no hiding happiness. We can’t keep something so big, so wonderful a secret just for us. This time it’s for real — I’m pregnant,” Dion said. — Reuters

Order restored in jail after killings
SAO PAULO: The Brazilian police restored an order to an overcrowded jail in the northern state of Ceara where 1,200 inmates rioted after six inmates were shot dead during an escape, prison officials said. The riot erupted in the prison built for 900 inmates after the breakout attempt on Thursday Armed prisoners exchanged gunfire with the police on Friday in the 15-hour stand-off at the Paulo Sarasate prison near Fortaleza. — Reuters

Sculptor George Segal dead
WASHINGTON: Sculptor George Segal, one of the pre-eminent sculptors of pop art, has died at his home in New Jersey, the New York Times reported on Saturday. According to the daily, Segal (75), was one of the most influential artists of his time. His preferred and most celebrated medium was rough-surfaced body casts of actual people. Starting in the 1970s, he sometimes painted the figures and their settings in bright, flat colors, giving them a visual vibrancy that again reflected his roots in painting. — AFP