Wednesday, September 20, 2000,
Chandigarh, India






THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
W O R L D

Israel turns down Palestinian plea
JERUSALEM, Sept 19 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud-Barak has ruled out Islamic sovereignty over a key Jerusalem shrine sacred to Muslims and Jews, formally rejecting a Palestinian compromise proposal.

Military ruler’s residence attacked
ABIDJAN, Sept 19 — Soldiers attacked the residence of Ivory Coast military ruler Robert Guei before dawn yesterday, but they were repelled by troops loyal to the General. Sources close to the attackers said.

Probe rules out LTTE hand in air crash
COLOMBO, Sept 19 — Preliminary investigations into the recent helicopter crash, in which a senior Sri Lankan minister and 14 others were killed, while ruling out sabotage or an LTTE hand has raised suspicion about the involvement of a Tamil youth, media reports said today.

‘Summon’ Musharraf as witness
KARACHI, Sept 19 — A defence lawyer asked court officials today to summon Pakistan’s military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and other army generals to appear as witnesses at a hearing into the hijacking and terrorism conviction of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Thief steals car along with baby
JERUSALEM, Sept 19 — A three-month-old baby was stolen along with his parents’ automobile in Israel, Israeli radio reported today.



EARLIER STORIES
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Chhota Rajan may still be alive
BANGKOK, Sept 19 — Chhota Rajan, believed to have been slain in an attack in the Thai capital last week, may still be alive, the police and embassy officials said today.

Mugabe backs off land seizure
HARARE Sept 19 — President Robert Mugabe has backed away from the compulsory seizure of huge chunks of land owned in Zimbabwe by the powerful multinational Anglo American conglomerate, saying the move was a 'mistake', the company today said.

25 hostages freed in Colombia
CALI, (Colombia), Sept 19 — Gunmen have released 25 captives from a group of 80 persons kidnapped this weekend from two restaurants and a family farm in southwest Colombia, officials said.

Alpna found guilty of killing husband
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — Indian Canadian dentist Alpna Patel has been found guilty on charges of manslaughter for killing her 26-year-old husband. The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 10 years.

Genghis Khan’s ‘tomb’ found
URUMQI, Sept 19 — Chinese archaeologists have claimed to have discovered the “real” tomb of Genghis Khan, founder of the ancient Mongolia dynasty.

Indian beheaded for drug trafficking
RIYADH Sept 19 — An Indian man convicted of drug trafficking was beheaded in Saudi Arabia today, the Interior Ministry said.Tampi Raj Mandiram was found guilty of smuggling an unspecified quantity of heroin into the kingdom and was executed in the capital Riyadh, said the statement.

3 Indian UN troops hurt in accident
RASHAYA (Lebanon), Sept 19 — Three Indian peacekeepers in the UN force in Lebanon were injured, two seriously, in a road accident last night at the country’s borders with Israel, a UN spokesman said.

Order to recover Kursk crew bodies
MOSCOW, Sept 19 — President Vladimir Putin has ordered the recovery of the remains of the 118 crew members who died on board the Kursk, the Russian submarine which sank last month in the Barents Sea, it was announced today.
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Israel turns down Palestinian plea

JERUSALEM, Sept 19 (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud-Barak has ruled out Islamic sovereignty over a key Jerusalem shrine sacred to Muslims and Jews, formally rejecting a Palestinian compromise proposal.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, when told of Mr Barak’s response yesterday, said wagging his finger, “It’s not up to him to decide.”

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are deadlocked because of a sovereignty dispute over the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Mr Barak and Mr Arafat accused each other of intransigence yesterday. Still, mid-level negotiations resumed later in the day.

Progress is deemed unlikely before the USA issues its own bridging proposals. Palestinian officials said it is not clear when the US ideas will be submitted to the negotiators.

Mr Abdel Rahim Malouh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said he was given to understand the USA would first present its ideas verbally, and after gauging Israeli and Palestinian reaction, would put them in writing.

The document would also summarise understanding reached at the West Asia summit at Camp David in July. Both sides have accused each other of backtracking on proposals made at Camp David.

The main dispute is over who will be sovereign on the holy compound, once the site of the Jewish temple, the holiest shrine of Judaism, and today home to two major mosques that mark the spot where tradition says Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

NEW YORK: The US Secretary of State Ms Madeleine Albright pledged continued support to bring Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to a successful conclusion, saying that peace was the “only path” to a prosperous and safe Middle East.

“As long as Israelis and Palestinians remain serious in pursuing an agreement, we will respond to their requests for help in overcoming the hardest issues,” Ms Albright said yesterday at a dinner honouring former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in New York.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been meeting US officials here in the past few days to bridge differences, particularly over the sensitive issue of holy sites in Jerusalem, which held up a deal at the Camp David Summit in July.
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Military ruler’s residence attacked

ABIDJAN, Sept 19 (AFP) — Soldiers attacked the residence of Ivory Coast military ruler Robert Guei before dawn yesterday, but they were repelled by troops loyal to the General. Sources close to the attackers said.

The sources acknowledged that their bid against Guei had “failed” two hours after the attack with automatic weapons began around 3.30 a.m. (0330 GMT).

Loyalist troops and residents of the neighbourhood said the fighting ended around 5.30 a.m.

There was no immediate word on casualties and it was not known if Guei, who seized power in December in this country’s first military coup, was in the residence in Abidhan’s Indenie neighbourhood at the time.

Tensions have been rising in Ivory Coast ahead of a presidential election scheduled for October 22, in which (Guei is a candidate in defiance of strong criticism at home and from both France, the former colonial power, and the USA.
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Probe rules out LTTE hand in air crash

COLOMBO, Sept 19 (PTI) — Preliminary investigations into the recent helicopter crash, in which a senior Sri Lankan minister and 14 others were killed, while ruling out sabotage or an LTTE hand has raised suspicion about the involvement of a Tamil youth, media reports said today.

Investigators were trying to ascertain the identity of a Tamil youth who boarded the chopper along with the minister, the state-run daily news said, adding suspicion over his involvement increased after the police recovered all bodies of those killed in the crash except his.

According to Lanka Air Force officials, nine supporters and security personnel of the minister M.H.M. Ashraff, who was also the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader, were on board the chopper apart from five crew members.

“The missing body is believed to be that of the youth. His body would have been completely destroyed in the crash on September 16”, the daily quoted a police official as saying.

On the preliminary findings of the inquiry, The Island quoted the Air Force Chief of Staff, Air Vice-Marshal T.D. Perera, as saying that there was no evidence to suggest that the chopper had crashed due to a surface or air missile attack by the LTTE.

He said the explosions occurred in the fuel tanks.

The newspaper quoting the officials said there was no evidence to suggest that an onboard explosion had caused the crash, though nothing conclusive could be said as the helicopter’s black box had yet to be recovered.

The inquiry panel said that the crash was caused by the helicopter hitting the mountain, the Daily Mirror reported, adding that while a senior cabinet minister A.H.M. Fowzie had said he suspected onboard explosion, SLMC said yesterday that it suspected an engine sabotage caused the crash.

The Daily News said that the investigations revealed that the youth was the supporter of the ruling People’s Alliance (pa) candidate in the October 10 general election from eastern Digamadulla district, Kadirgamar Thambi, who was a close aide of Ashraff.

Thambi, who was reportedly travelling with Ashraff to his home constituency Ampara, was also killed in the crash.

The suspected youth slept in Ashraff’s drivers quarters the previous night and later travelled in the minister’s motorcade to reach the police headquarters in Central Colombo from where the MI-17 helicopter took off and crashed mid-way in the hilly terrain of Central Sri Lanka.

“No one had been body-checked before boarding the helicopter nor their names and identities recorded,” the newspaper said.

According to information gathered so far, the youth who arrived at the minister’s residence on September 15 was not checked by Ashraff’s security.

Investigators also found that Ashraff himself had inquired about the identity of the boy before boarding the ill-fated helicopter, the newspaper said. 
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Summon’ Musharraf as witness

KARACHI, Sept 19 (DPA) — A defence lawyer asked court officials today to summon Pakistan’s military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and other army generals to appear as witnesses at a hearing into the hijacking and terrorism conviction of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The lawyer, Azizullah Sheikh, made the request to a three-judge panel that resumed its hearing of Sharif’s appeal of his conviction on hijacking and terrorism charges that resulted in a life imprisonment sentence.

Sheikh argued that a speech by General Musharraf was the first report involving allegations of hijacking and terrorism against Sharif and, therefore, the military ruler should be summoned as a complainant and witness in the case.

The charges stemmed from events of October 12 last when the then Prime Minister Sharif allegedly denied permission to land at Karachi airport to a Pakistan international airline passenger jet carrying Musharraf and 198 other passengers.

The plane landed after the Army took over control of the airport. Hours later, Sharif was arrested and General Musharraf seized power to become Pakistan’s chief executive.

Sheikh also asked the court to summon Generals Ziauddin Butt and Iftikhar Ali as witnesses in the case.

The government’s attorney, Raja Anwar Qureshi, said he would seek instructions on the request and report back to the court.

Meanwhile, special public prosecutor, Zahoorul Haq, continued his arguments against Sharif’s acquittal plea. The government is pressing for raising the penalty for Sharif to capital punishment and also is seeking the conviction and death penalty for defendants who were acquitted by the anti-terrorism court judge.
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Thief steals car along with baby

JERUSALEM, Sept 19 (DPA) — A three-month-old baby was stolen along with his parents’ automobile in Israel, Israeli radio reported today.

In radio broadcasts, the parents pleaded with the hijacker to return their child, and the thief eventually reported to the police and said he had left the car with the boy parked at a certain spot.

The baby’s mother had just briefly gotten out of her car yesterday in Tel Aviv to get the baby carriage from the boot, the radio said.

A man jumped into the driver’s seat and drove away with the child in the rear seat of the automobile.

Desperate, the parents appealed to the thief via radio broadcasts. Several hours later, the unknown robber called the Jerusalem police and said the car with the baby was parked at the entrance of a refugee camp north of Jerusalem.

The baby boy seemed in good condition, but was taken to a hospital for examination.

The father later told the radio, “I’m so relieved, now I could even give (the thief) my car”.
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Chhota Rajan may still be alive

BANGKOK, Sept 19 (DPA) — Chhota Rajan, believed to have been slain in an attack in the Thai capital last week, may still be alive, the police and embassy officials said today.

Alleged Mumbai mafia boss Chhota Rajan might had jumped out of a window onto a balcony during the firing, the Thai police said.

Last Friday, a gang of seven gunmen, believed to be Indian nationals, entered the Bangkok apartment of Rohit D’Souza, owner of a jewellery company, and started shooting.

D’Souza was killed while his wife, Sikandi Hama, and a visiting friend, Vijay Daman, were wounded. The police found 48 bullet shells at the scene.

At first, the police thought that D’Souza, believed to be an Indian national travelling on a fake passport, was Chhota Rajan.

“We now know which group carried out the shooting and have been following it closely,’’ said Thailand’s Deputy Police Commission Police Gen Narongwich Thaithong.

“We expect to have some good news very soon,’’ he told DPA.

After consultations with the Mumbai Interpol, the Thai authorities believed that it was D’Souza’s friend Daman who was in fact Rajan, Indian Embassy sources in Bangkok said.

Delhi and the Bangkok Embassy have not yet become involved with the case and it is unclear whether India will request Rajan’s extradition.

“The investigation needs to be completed first,’’ said an Indian Diplomat. Thailand has no extradition treaty with India.

Both Daman and D’Souza’s wife were undergoing treatment at a Bangkok hospital where their rooms had been kept under tight security, said The Bangkok Post.
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Mugabe backs off land seizure

HARARE Sept 19 (DPA)— President Robert Mugabe has backed away from the compulsory seizure of huge chunks of land owned in Zimbabwe by the powerful multinational Anglo American conglomerate, saying the move was a 'mistake', the company today said.

Nicholas Oppenheimer, Deputy Chairman of the London-based gold, diamond and agriculture conglomerate, said on state television today that Mugabe had admitted that the formal listing for ‘compulsory acquisition’ of the company’s sugar estates in southern Zimbabwe was ‘a mistake’.

Oppenheimer and his son Jonathan flew into Harare yesterday for a rapidly scheduled meeting with Mugabe, only three days after 70 per cent of the 54,200-hectare hippo valley estate, which produces about 2,50,000 tonnes of sugar annually, had been listed for seizure.

‘We were much reassured that the President told us a mistake had been made, and agro-industrial estates were not intended to be gazetted for resettlement,’ said Oppenheimer. ‘The government is going to rectify this matter, so this is very encouraging.’

Agriculture Minister Joseph made said: ‘We are already in the process of cleaning up that particular list.’

Observers say Mugabe’s swift agreement to reverse plans to seize the estate is an indication of the influence the Oppenheimer family has over the 76-year-old President.

Agro-industrial estates are one of the government’s criteria for exemption from confiscation, but previous lists have also put down scores of other large and intensively farmed sugar, citrus, horticulture and timber estates for turning over to subsistence peasant farming.

In April, Mugabe said white farmers were ‘enemies of the state’. A total of 2,157 farms have been listed for seizure since June. Appeals to the government from the commercial farmers union, which represents the country’s estimated 4,500 white farming families, for negotiations over the properties have been ignored.
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25 hostages freed in Colombia

CALI, (Colombia), Sept 19 (AP) — Gunmen have released 25 captives from a group of 80 persons kidnapped this weekend from two restaurants and a family farm in southwest Colombia, officials said.

About 400 troops have surrounded the area where the remaining hostages are thought to be held. But officials said yesterday that they had no immediate plans to attempt a military-style rescue.

The authorities said the mass kidnapping on Sunday probably was the work of the National Liberation Army or ELN, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group.

The mass kidnapping was carried out by at least 50 heavily-armed men, many of them wearing military-style uniforms and bulletproof vests.

The gunmen, who initially claimed to be members of Colombia’s secret police, snatched several hostages from two restaurants along the highway on a popular weekend getaway spot and then headed to De Lima estate.

Twentyfive have been released but 55 others remained in captivity, the army’s gaula anti-kidnapping squad told Associated Press based on interviews with witnesses and freed hostages. 
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Alpna found guilty of killing husband

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (PTI) — Indian Canadian dentist Alpna Patel has been found guilty on charges of manslaughter for killing her 26-year-old husband. The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 10 years.

A Baltimore jury yesterday found Alpna guilty of voluntary manslaughter of her husband, Viresh Patel in March 1999 after a 10-month arranged marriage. Voluntary manslaughter means that she killed her husband in an emotional rage, legal experts said.

The sobbing woman was taken to the city jail handcuffed behind her back.

Judge John Prevas said he would decide whether to grant her bail and set October 24 for sentencing.

Her first trial had led to a verdict of not guilty of first and second degree murder.

The first jury accepted her plea that she did not intend to kill her husband and that he got stabbed several times when she struggled with him repeatedly as he tried to kill her. 
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Genghis Khan’s ‘tomb’ found

URUMQI, Sept 19 (PTI) — Chinese archaeologists have claimed to have discovered the “real” tomb of Genghis Khan, founder of the ancient Mongolia dynasty.

The tomb is located in Qinghe county in China’s northwest Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the state media reported today.

“This is the real tomb of Genghis Khan. The tomb at the Gandeli steppe in south-western inner Mongolia was not the burial ground of the Mongol ruler,” said Mr Zhang Hui, a research fellow at the Xinjiang museum here.
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Indian beheaded for drug trafficking

RIYADH Sept 19 (AP) — An Indian man convicted of drug trafficking was beheaded in Saudi Arabia today, the Interior Ministry said.Tampi Raj Mandiram was found guilty of smuggling an unspecified quantity of heroin into the kingdom and was executed in the capital Riyadh, said the statement. It did not provide further details.Today’s execution brings to at least 102 the number of persons beheaded this year. At least 99 persons were executed last year.
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3 Indian UN troops hurt in accident

RASHAYA (Lebanon), Sept 19 (AFP) — Three Indian peacekeepers in the UN force in Lebanon were injured, two seriously, in a road accident last night at the country’s borders with Israel, a UN spokesman said.

The soldiers were injured when their military vehicle overturned on a border road in Abbassiyeh, he said.
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Order to recover Kursk crew bodies

MOSCOW, Sept 19 (DPA) — President Vladimir Putin has ordered the recovery of the remains of the 118 crew members who died on board the Kursk, the Russian submarine which sank last month in the Barents Sea, it was announced today.

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said after a meeting with Mr Putin that the recovery operation would take place in October and November. Mr Klebanov stressed that the two nuclear reactors aboard the sub, which lies 100 metres below the surface of the sea, would not pose a risk during the recovery of the sub itself which is scheduled for next year as previously announced.
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WORLD BRIEFS

‘Comfort women’ sue Japan Govt
WASHINGTON: Fifteen women who survived Japanese sex slave camps during World War II filed suit against Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono in a US District Court here on Monday. The class action suit seeking unspecified damages marks the first time “comfort women” have sought justice in US courts, and the first time Japan has been named as a defendent, according to the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues. — AFP

Peru spy chief arrested?
LIMA: Peru was on Monday gripped by conflicting reports about whether its shadowy spy chief and most-feared man had been detained amid a full-scale political crisis that has thrown the South American nation into turmoil. Ana Montesinos, a woman identified by some local media as the sister of intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, filed court papers, alleging that her brother was being held illegally at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), the agency he turned into Peru’s most notorious institution. — Reuters

Olive oil and colon cancer
LONDON: British doctors on Tuesday added olive oil to the list of foods that may help prevent colon cancer. A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford adds to the growing body of evidence that shows olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, is as good as fresh fruit and vegetables in keeping colon cancer at bay. Dr Michael Goldacre and a team of researchers at the Institute of Health Sciences compared cancer rates, diets and olive oil consumption in 28 countries, including Britain, the USA, Brazil, Colombia, Canada and China. — Reuters

Mom kills newborn, hides in freezer
WARSAW: A 32-year-old mother of two turned herself over to police after her husband found the frozen corpse of a newborn — the couple’s baby — wrapped in a shopping bag in the kitchen freezer, Polish media reported. The woman, identified as Malgorzata F. told the police on Sunday that she had concealed her pregnancy and killed the infant immediately after birth for fear of her husband’s reaction. She said her husband’s insistence that the couple should have no additional children drove her to kill the newborn. — DPA

Robbing to go back to jail
COUNCIL BLUFFS, (IOWA): A lonely 76-year-old ex-convict on Monday demanded two $ 50 bills from a bank teller and then announced he would be outside in his car smoking a cigarette — waiting to be returned to prison. Bank employees were not sure he was serious, but they gave him the money. The police found him outside in his car. Stewart said he robbed the bank because he had no family and wanted to go back to federal prison. — Reuters

Poland presented coding machine
WARSAW: Britain’s Duke of York has presented Poland with a model of the Nazi coding machine enigma in a symbolic gesture recognising Poland’s role in helping to break the top-secret system. Prince Andrew on Monday told Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek that the enigma military encoding system would not have been broken by the allies without Poland’s contribution. Poland has long demanded credit for its three pre-war mathematicians who first broke the enigma code in 1933, long before the more famous British signals breakers got to work. — Reuters

Second octuplet dies, others well
MILAN: A second octuplet born to an Italian woman died on Tuesday morning, a hospital spokeswoman said. The baby girl, Cristina, had suffered from blood problems overnight. The 31-year-old Sicilian mother, Marinella Mazzara, gave birth on Sunday to the remaining seven babies of the eight she had been carrying but one, a boy, died shortly after birth. The first of the octuplets, a girl, was born naturally last Wednesday. One baby, a boy, was born naturally early on Sunday night. The others — three boys and three girls — were delivered by caesarian section several hours later. — Reuters

Gunmen release 15 captives
CALI: Gunmen released 15 captives on Monday from a group of at least 40 persons kidnapped the day before from two restaurants and a family farm in southwest Colombia, the police said. The authorities said the mass kidnapping on Sunday probably was the work of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group. — APTop

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