W O R L D

Chechen blasts kill over 60
MOSCOW, July 3 — More than 60 persons, mostly Russian soldiers, were killed when Chechen rebels targeted Russian installations in a series of blasts in four towns in the rebel republic, reports reaching here today said.

Kashmir is not India, says Musharraf
ISLAMABAD, July 3 — Pakistan’s Chief Executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf, last night told an audience of South Asian journalists, dominated by Indians, that “Kashmir is not India” and that the Lahore Declaration did not serve Pakistan’s interests as the Indian Prime Minister never wanted to discuss Kashmir.

• Sharif complains of solitary confinement

WORLD BRIEFS

HANOVER: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, centre, shakes hands with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, second from right, in front of a painting of the Chinese wall after they signed the guestbook at the pavilion of China at the Expoground in Hanover, northern Germany, on Sunday. At the right stands Rongji's wife Lao An. — AP/PTI photo

Bush, Gore still neck and neck
WASHINGTON, July 3 — Vice-President Al Gore and George W. Bush, his Republican rival for the November Presidential elections, are in a dead heat in the latest Newsweek poll, which contrasts with recent polls that gave a significant lead to Bush.

AIDS threatens South Africa
KATLEHONG, July 3 — A group of 20 teenaged boys jostle for the ball during a carefree afternoon soccer game. In the coming years, half of these exuberant children will die a slow death from AIDS, if statistics hold, possibly triggering a devastating demographic catastrophe and causing the continent’s most developed economy to be badly damaged.

‘Being upbeat won’t beat cancer’
SYDNEY, July 3 — We have all heard stories about persons who beat cancer through the power of positive thinking. Well, according to some experts, that’s just what they are — stories.

Westminster to be opened to tourists
LONDON, July 3 — The palace of Westminster will open its doors to tour groups this summer. This will be the first time that visitors will have access to the chambers of the Houses of Parliament. Previously members of the public have had to seek the sponsorship of their MP to attend the visitor’s gallery. The tours, led by London blue badge guides, are an experiment for the duration of Parliament’s summer recess.

Chechen blasts kill over 60

MOSCOW, July 3 (PTI) — More than 60 persons, mostly Russian soldiers, were killed when Chechen rebels targeted Russian installations in a series of blasts in four towns in the rebel republic, reports reaching here today said.

At least 50 Russians were killed today as a suicide bomber crashed an explosive-laden truck into an Interior Ministry building in Argun, where fighting between the rebels and the troops raged throughout the night, near Grozny, Itar-Tass quoting the Chechen police reported.

Besides Argun, the rebels had been targeting the installations in Naibyora, Urus Martan and Gudermes since yesterday, the reports said.

A Kremlin spokesman, quoted by Interfax news agency however, said 36 persons were killed in the series of blasts and the toll was expected to go up as casualties in the Argun blast had not yet been counted.

He said 74 persons were reported to have been injured in the attacks.

Russia’s top military commander in Chechnya Gen Gennady Troshev had described the Argun incident as “one of the most tragic incidents”.

“They are not happy with the peace that has come to the Chechen territory. They are doing all they can so that there will be no peace,” General Troshev told NTV television.

The General condemning the attack said it was an act of “Kamikazes” who did not want peace.

Meanwhile, three Russian servicemen and eight soldiers were killed yesterday in a blast in Gudermes, Itar-Tass, quoting Interior Ministry, said.

Gudermes is the headquarters of the Kremlin-appointed pro-Moscow Chechen Government.

Adds AP: Vasara Vesitaya, a worker in the dormitory cafeteria of the Interior Ministry in Argun, left for home three minutes before the blast in Argun. She believed a number of corpses were trapped in the rubble.

“I left the fence and suddenly saw a huge truck coming at high speed. It crashed through the barrier and then something horrible began. The glass from windows in surrounding houses shattered, the earth shook,” she said.

The truck bomb left a deep crater in the asphalt and a pile of bricks and tangled wires from the dormitory. On one end of the building, the servicemen’s metal bunk-beds were still lines up — but the outside wall was sheared off.

Russian troops were driven out of Chechnya in a 1994-96 war. They returned after Chechnya-based Islamic militants raided several villages in the neighbouring Russian region of Dagesta, and after about 300 persons died in apartment bombings, the government blames on Chechens.

Kashmir is not India, says Musharraf
From Tarun Basu

ISLAMABAD, July 3 — Pakistan’s Chief Executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf, last night told an audience of South Asian journalists, dominated by Indians, that “Kashmir is not India” and that the Lahore Declaration did not serve Pakistan’s interests as the Indian Prime Minister never wanted to discuss Kashmir.

“We don’t consider Kashmir to be India as it is a disputed territory,” General Musharraf told a gathering of nearly 100 journalists, most of whom were here for a two-day media seminar organised by the Jang group of newspapers.

Of the 60-odd visiting South Asian journalists at the seminar titled, “Towards a free, fair and vibrant media,” 46 were Indians while the rest of the audience was composed of a sprinkling of Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepalese and selected Pakistani journalists.

General Musharraf, who came to the media dinner an hour late, said he doubted the sincerity of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in February, 1999, for the historic peace talks with then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, deposed in a military coup the following October.

“The Prime Minister of India never wanted to talk about Kashmir. So one doubts the sincerity of his going to the Minar-e-Pakistan (the monument erected to commemorate the birth of Pakistan).”

He, however, clarified that he was not against the Lahore process, but what he knew was it did not address the Kashmir issue. “I was a part of the Lahore Declaration. I know what was being written or was being discussed,” he said.

General Musharraf was the army chief under Sharif during Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Pakistan and was considered the “architect of Kargil” when Pakistan army-backed guerrillas sneaked into the Indian territory across the Line of Control at Kargil in late May 1999. The ensuing 50-day conflict between Indian and Pakistani troops left hundreds dead on both sides.

General Musharraf dismissed India’s contention that Pakistan was promoting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, saying “We don’t call what is happening in India-held Kashmir as terrorism. It is freedom struggle.” He also distinguished between the international border and the Line of Control in Kashmir, saying the latter vaguely demarcated territory which was disputed and did not belong to India.

General Musharraf’s no-holds barred responses to journalists’ questions virtually served to rule out any immediate prospect of dialogue between the two countries. Although he appeared to be pleading when he talked of India’s refusal to deal with him, he also said that he would not stand to be “humiliated” if he made the first move and the Indian Government spurned him.

He said he was not a warmonger despite his military uniform and that he stood for peace and prosperity in South Asia, but the Indian Government was not getting down from its high moral ground to talk to him.

He said if India put conditions for a dialogue, he could also put “10 conditions” and said if India talked of the wounds of Kargil, Pakistan could also talk of the wounds of Siachen. He said he was the last man to admit that Kargil was a mistake and that it would serve both countries “if we don’t go into history” but start afresh.

To repeated questions on the issue, General Musharraf, who seemed to be in his element at the question-and-answer session that lasted almost till midnight, said what was happening in Kashmir was not terrorism. “It’s a freedom struggle. The people of Kashmir have risen against you. I don’t think there is anyone in Kashmir who wants to remain with India.”

He said if India put conditions on Pakistan like reducing the level of terrorism, Pakistan could also put conditionalities on India like “reducing the level of atrocities in Kashmir” before it started talking. “Then we won’t get anywhere,” the general said.

He had to answer several questions on his recently reported statement in which he made a distinction between ‘jehad’ (Islamic holy war) and terrorism. He rationalised jehad by saying it was defensive in nature, as a jehad could be waged against poverty, against illiteracy and against suppression of Muslims, as in Kashmir. But he denied he was preaching jehad specifically against India, though later on he clarified that he did not consider Kashmir to be part of India at all.

To Indian journalists General Musharraf came across as an impressive performer before the cameras who really does not weigh the import of the words he is saying. The general got so carried away by his own eloquence that, after the conclusion of the prolonged press conference, he came back to the podium again from his seat — after perhaps being advised by Begum Musharraf, who sat next to him at the head of the table — to apologise to the Indian guests for having “unwittingly trampled on their sensitivities.” He said he was a blunt man and did not believe in mincing words, though he often ended up being misunderstood.

General Musharraf also sought to take “full advantage” of his audience, as he himself put, by saying the scope of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) needed to be expanded to include political issues as well so that the other five nations of SAARC could be involved in resolving the dispute between India and Pakistan.

He also called for removal of the consensus clause in SAARC, so that the next summit could be held as quickly as possible. At India’s instance last year the SAARC summit in Kathmandu was put off, because New Delhi said Pakistan did not have a democratically elected government to represent its people. This has continued to rankle Pakistan and it used the media seminar to drive home the point that, despite India, Pakistan managed to pull of a SAARC gathering. —IANS

Sharif complains of solitary confinement

ATTOCK, July 3 (AFP) — Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today complained he was being kept in “solitary confinement” as his corruption trial resumed.

“The jail authorities are trying to keep me in solitary confinement,” he said, describing the condition of his cell in the high-security Attock Fort as unacceptable. Judge Farrukh Latif, heading the anti-corruption court, promised to look into the matter and advised Mr Sharif to give him a written complaint.

The proceedings were adjourned until tomorrow.

71-yr-rule ends in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, July 3 (AP) — Opposition candidate Vicente Fox won Mexico’s presidential elections in a stunning victory that ended the ruling party’s 71-year lock on the presidency.

The victory in yesterday’s vote was almost unthinkable for many in Mexico, where the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has been synonymous with the government — and even the nation itself — to millions of supporters and detractors alike.

With 22 per cent of the official count tallied, Mr Fox had 47 per cent, the PRI’s Francisco Labastia had 32 per cent and Leftist candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas had 16 per cent.

Official projections of the final count also showed Mr Fox the winner. The results herald enormous political and social changes for a country where nobody alive had ever seen a governing party lose a presidential election.

Mr Fox assured Mexicans there would be a calm transition.

‘‘From today forward, we need to unite. We have to work together to make Mexico the great country we have all dreamed of,’’ he said.

He called yesterday a ‘‘historic day for the country’’.

President Ernesto Zedillo said election officials’ preliminary results ‘‘are sufficient and trustworthy enough to say that the next president of the republic will be Vicente Fox’’.

Moments later, ruling-party candidate Francisco Labastida effectively conceded defeat, saying:

‘‘The citizens have made a decision that we should respect, and I’ll set the example myself.’’ 

Bush, Gore still neck and neck

WASHINGTON, July 3 (AFP) —Vice-President Al Gore and George W. Bush, his Republican rival for the November Presidential elections, are in a dead heat in the latest Newsweek poll, which contrasts with recent polls that gave a significant lead to Bush.

The Newsweek poll out today showed Gore with the support of 46 per cent of registered voters polled, whereas Texas Governor Bush took 45 per cent.

A poll released by the Gallop Organisation gave Bush a 13-point lead over Gore, with 52 per cent of its respondents giving Bush the nod and 39 per cent going Gore.

The research group, which conducted the poll for Newsweek, said other polls giving Bush an advantage may result from “likely voters” —not registered voters — that may over-estimate Republicans at this stage of the Presidential race.

The Newsweek polls found that in a four-way Presidential contest, the competition between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees would be very tight. In this race, Bush would win 41 per cent of registered voters, Gore 40 per cent, Green Party candidate Ralph Nadar 6 per cent and likely Reform Party Pat Buchanan 2 per cent.

The research group interviewed 607 registered voters for the poll, which carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 per cent.

AIDS threatens South Africa

KATLEHONG, July 3 (AP) — A group of 20 teenaged boys jostle for the ball during a carefree afternoon soccer game. In the coming years, half of these exuberant children will die a slow death from AIDS, if statistics hold, possibly triggering a devastating demographic catastrophe and causing the continent’s most developed economy to be badly damaged.

“This is a disaster,” said Mr Marothi Ramaube, an official of the South African Business Council on HIV/AIDS, “We know it’s massive. How massive we don’t know.”

An estimated 4.2 million South Africans, 10 per cent of the population, are currently infected either with AIDS or the virus that causes AIDS.

The number is expected to double by 2006, with many becoming infected as they enter what should be their most productive years.

If the disease is not reined in, more than half of all 15-year-old boys in South Africa will die of AIDS, according to a United Nations study released last Tuesday in advance of the 13th international AIDS conference, which starts this Sunday in the coastal city of Durban.

Unlike many 15-year-olds playing soccer in the township of Katlehong east of Johannesburg, Sbusiso Dibitso is fully aware of the risk. His 27-year-old sister, Tseleng, died of AIDS last July.

Though he did not use a condom the first time he had sex last year, he says he has done so ever since. But many of his classmates have yet to see someone they care for die of the disease, and they don’t really believe it exists.

South Africa’s business community is worried as well. Posters warning of AIDS adorn company bulletin boards and jars of free condoms stand in front of their nurses’ offices. Companies have trained thousands of their workers to teach others how to avoid the disease.

The state-owned power company, Eskom, spends 4 million rand a year educating its 31,000 employees about AIDS, according to Ms Liz Thebe, head of Eskom’s AIDS programme.

The company has discovered an alarming rate of infection among the scholarship students — the future leaders of the company. Hence, it is sending them to AIDS-awareness seminars as well.

“We are worried. Who are you going to employ?” Ms Thebe said

Business companies are beginning to face other, more costly, worries, analysts said. As workers take more sick leave, they will have to hire extra staff. 

SA starts penguins’ evacuation

JOHANNESBURG, July 3 (ANI) — In one of the world’s biggest evacuations of wild birds, thousands of oil-soaked penguins are being lifted off the Dassen island off South Africa’s Atlantic coast.

The operation began following a massive oil slick last week when a bulk carrier carrying 1,400 tonnes of oil sank off Cape Town.

A spokeswoman for the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) said up to 56,000 birds would be taken off Dassen island, 50 km north of Cape Town.

She said there were between 15,000 and 20,000 oil-free penguins on the island and they would be airlifted to Algoa Bay near Port Elizabeth, where they would be released into unaffected waters.

Rescuers hoped that once the birds had been thrown into the seas around Port Elizabeth, they would then swim back to their Cape Town nests in time for the oil to have been dispersed and the water cleaned up.

‘Being upbeat won’t beat cancer’

SYDNEY, July 3 (DPA) — We have all heard stories about persons who beat cancer through the power of positive thinking. Well, according to some experts, that’s just what they are — stories.

Extensive research with late-stage breast cancer patients at Sydney’s prestigious Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) failed to find any proof that having a sunny outlook on life helped to keep death at bay.

“We didn’t find that the rate of survival of those members of the group who went through therapy was any better than of those who didn’t,” said Mr Anthony Kidman, the Director of the RNSH’s health psychology unit.

The research took five years and involved 124 women with advanced breast cancer some of them had cognitive behaviour therapy sessions to try and cheer them up.

This is not to say that the human mind has no healing power: “I think the central nervous system does have an effect on the central immune system, which is why when we are depressed we seem more susceptible to colds and other things,” Mr Kidman said.

However, although the researchers did find that some patients lived a lot longer than the others, there was no evidence that the state of mind was the telling factor.

This survey is the fifth to contradict the celebrated 1989 finding by American researcher David Spiegel that women with advanced breast cancer who attended a weekly support group lived longer than those who did not.

Mr Kidman said one explanation for the differing rates of survival might be behaviour of the patients.

Some cancer patients were so despairing that they did not bother to take their pills, to turn up for examinations, to take care of themselves or in any way help stave off mortality.

He admitted that having a positive attitude could not hasten death. He also recognised that no amount of research could change the minds of those who reckoned that stress caused cancer and that relieving stress could cure it.

“If you are of the view that the mind controls cancer, then you might say ‘I didn’t meditate enough’ or ‘I didn’t drink enough carrot juice’ or whatever,’’ he added. 

Westminster to be opened to tourists

LONDON, July 3 — The palace of Westminster will open its doors to tour groups this summer. This will be the first time that visitors will have access to the chambers of the Houses of Parliament. Previously members of the public have had to seek the sponsorship of their MP to attend the visitor’s gallery. The tours, led by London blue badge guides, are an experiment for the duration of Parliament’s summer recess.

Visitors will be able to walk through both chambers and Westminster Palace, but not Big Ben. “It is quite a complicated route because the palace was not designed for large groups of people,” said visitor manager Michael McDonald. “On a normal day,” he continued, “We get about 1,000 visitors when the House is in session, but we think this figure could double”.

However, visitors will not enjoy the privileges of either peers or parliamentarians. “It is a rule that unelected members of the public are forbidden to sit on the benches,” said McDonald. Tourists will also miss the Mace, which only appears on the House of Commons table when parliament is in session.

The palace will be open from August 7, until September 16, and tickets will be only available in advance. — Observer News Service.

WORLD BRIEFS

Vatican slams door on gays
ROME: The Catholic Church has launched a fierce attack against the World Gay Pride celebrations in Rome, ordering a Bishop not to attend a gay forum on religion and condemning what a senior theologian dubbed “gay ideology.” French Bishop Jacques Gaillot on Sunday said Pope John Paul II had ordered him to drop plans to address the meeting, scheduled for Monday at a Rome hotel as part of a series of July 1-9 gat pride events. — AFP

Asian illegal immigrants held
ATHENS: The Greek police on Sunday arrested 30 Asian illegal immigrants, including 15 Indians, found lying in the false bottom of a truck full of watermelons about to leave for Denmark, a spokesman said. The illegal immigrants arrested also included five Pakistanis, two Iraqi Kurds and eight Bangladeshis. They were scheduled to be examined by the state attorney’s office and expelled. — AFP

G 7 ‘running away’ from debt relief
LONDON: The G 7 states are trying to run away from the issue of relieving the debts of the poorest countries by holding their next summit on a remote island. International debt campaign group Jubilee 2000 said. Unveiling a new report called “island mentality”, ahead of a meeting later this month of the G 7 leading industrial countries on the Japanese island of Okinava, jubilee 2000 chief Ann Pettifor on Sunday accused the G7 of breaking a promise to write of a large swathe of poor country debt this year. — Reuters

Flights to Dubai from Chennai
DUBAI: Emirates Airlines will start non-stop flights between Dubai and Chennai from September 1. Passengers to South India will have the convenience of four non-stop weekly flights from Dubai to Chennai, operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Return flights will be operated on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, an Emirates Airlines press note said. — UNI

Timor’s Gusmao weds his sweetheart
SYDNEY: East Timor resistance leader Xanana Gusmao married his Australian sweetheart in the former Portuguese colony’s Dare township at the weekend, sources in Melbourne confirmed on Monday. It was the second marriage for Gusmao, 54, but the first for Kirsty Sword, a former aid worker with Australian volunteers abroad. The two met while Gusmao was in Jakarta prison. He was released last year when Indonesia accepted that East Timor would become a free country. — DPA

Scam bid: 2 sisters held for murder
BANGKOK: The Thai police has charged two sisters with murdering a Myanmar (Burmese) national in an attempt to scam Japanese insurance companies out of $ 3.2 million in life insurance policy benefits, news reports said on Monday. The police arrested Penporn Chaiya , 51, and her sister Pibul, after the twosome confessed to murdering a Myanmar woman last month as part of an elaborate scheme to cheat Japanese life insurance companies out of $ 3.2 million worth of benefits, said the Thai-language Matichon newspaper. — DPA

Top military official dies in plane crash
MANILA: A top military official was killed on Sunday and a provincial Governor feared dead when a military plane crashed in the western Philippines, officials said. Police General Lucas Manguelod said the 12-seater plane plunged into the sea off the coast of the province of Palawan, 660 km south-west of Manila. — DPA

Dirty contact lenses can harm eyes
BONN: Removable contact lenses should be thoroughly cleared and disinfected on a daily basis, say German experts. Anyone wearing lenses for several days at a time, or failing to clean them properly, is at risk from an inflamation of the cornea. The German Federal Institute for Medicines and Medical Products in Bonn is keen to remind contact lens wearers of this risk in the face of an increase in the number of registered cases of corneal inflamation. — DPA