W O R L D

Canada re-elects Liberal Party
ottawa, Nov 28 — Canadians re-elected Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s governing Liberal Party to a third consecutive majority government, cbc Television reported. The liberals made early progress in eastern Canada, where the ballot boxes were opened first, and solidified their lead in vote-rich Ontario, which returns 103 of the 301 members of the House of Commons.

Clinton to visit N. Ireland
WASHINGTON, Nov 28 — US President Bill Clinton will visit Northern Ireland to help jumpstart the stalled peace process there during a trip to Britain and Ireland from December 12 to December 14, White House spokesman Jake Siewert confirmed.

Rajan escape: 9 cops sacked
BANGKOK, Nov 28 — Nine Thai police guards who were on duty on November 24 when Mumbai mafia boss Chhota Rajan escaped from a Bangkok hospital have been sacked, news reports said today.

Strategic bodies under Pak NCA
ISLAMABAD, Nov 28 — Pakistan has placed the country’s strategic organisations under the control of the Nuclear Command Authority, press reports said today.

Mixed response to LTTE’s offer
colombo, Nov 28 — The offer of unconditional talks by ltte leader V. Prabhakaran has drawn a mixed response with government officials and diplomats remaining skeptical about his “insistence on conditions” while a moderate Tamil party urging the Sri Lankan administration to seize the chance to resume peace talks.

Daredevil David performs ‘cool’ stunt
NEW YORK, Nov 28 — At the start of a three-day stunt show in Times Square here yesterday, illusionist and daredevil David Blaine put himself inside a six-ton block of ice.

Cabinet post for Chechnya
MOSCOW, Nov 28 — Russian President Vladimir Putin today created a new Cabinet post responsible for Chechnya and named an ethnic Russian to head it, the Kremlin said.

Seven killed in copter crash
canberra, Nov 28 — Five mining executives were among seven persons killed when their helicopter crashed today in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, a mining company official said.

Another minister quits
manila, Nov 28 — The Philippines’ Science and Technology Secretary has resigned from the Cabinet, the third minister to quit President Joseph Estrada’s administration since he was linked to a bribery scandal last month.

LTTE targets bus, 7 killed
COLOMBO, Nov 28 — Tamil Tigers ambushed a bus in north-central Sri Lanka today, killing seven passengers and injuring 22 others, army spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said.

Canada re-elects Liberal Party

ottawa, Nov 28 (afp) — Canadians re-elected Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s governing Liberal Party to a third consecutive majority government, cbc Television reported.

The liberals made early progress in eastern Canada, where the ballot boxes were opened first, and solidified their lead in vote-rich Ontario, which returns 103 of the 301 members of the House of Commons.

In Canada’s parliamentary system, the party winning the most seats in the 301-member House forms the government.

In the 1997 general election, the Liberals won a clear majority (155 seats) even though they won only 38 per cent of the popular vote nationwide. Thanks to byelections and defections from other parties, the Liberals increased their majority since then to 161 seats.

In each of the 301 voting districts, the winner is the candidate who garners the highest number of votes without necessarily winning a majority of the votes cast.

Mr Chretien achieved his aim of a repeat of the 1997 election, in which the Liberals won 101 of the 103 seats in Ontario, largely because the Reform Party — which has since changed its name to the Canadian Alliance — and the Progressive Conservative party split the Right-wing vote.

Early voting on November 26 was marked by reports of problems, with a lack of election officials on hand in the maritime provinces, incorrect addresses for polling places in Montreal, and delays due to lack of ballots in Toronto.

Clinton to visit N. Ireland

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (AFP) — US President Bill Clinton will visit Northern Ireland to help jumpstart the stalled peace process there during a trip to Britain and Ireland from December 12 to December 14, White House spokesman Jake Siewert confirmed.

Mr Clinton, who has already played a key role in the process, will discuss with British and Irish leaders the implementation of the Good Friday peace pact, Mr Siewert said, adding that an exact itinerary had not been set.

“The President hopes that this visit will help overcome current difficulties on the path to a lasting peace in Northern Ireland,” Mr Siewert said yesterday.

He said Mr Clinton was making the trip at the invitation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, Northern Ireland Prime Minister David Trimble and Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon

In London, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said London and Washington were discussing a British request for the dissident Catholic Republican group, the “Real IRA,” to be classified as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US State Department.

Such a measure would bar members of The “Real IRA”, — responsible for the Omagh bombing which killed 29 persons on August 15, 1998 — from obtaining visas that would allow them to do fund-raising in the USA.

A visit by Mr Clinton to both Northern Ireland and Ireland before he steps down from the US presidency on January 20 had been the object of speculation for weeks. 

Rajan escape: 9 cops sacked

BANGKOK, Nov 28 (DPA) — Nine Thai police guards who were on duty on November 24 when Mumbai mafia boss Chhota Rajan escaped from a Bangkok hospital have been sacked, news reports said today.

The nine guards, all of them non-commissioned officers, were sacked yesterday but may be reinstated if a police investigation into the case fails to find them responsible for Rajan’s escape, said the Bangkok Post newspaper.

Rajan, who recovered from gunshot wounds at Samitivej Hospital, has reportedly fled the country.

On November 17, the Indian Government submitted a letter to the Thai Foreign Ministry requesting Rajan’s extradition to India, where he faces charges of murder and other serious crimes.

Rajan’s former Thai lawyer Sirichai Piyapichetkul said Rajan told him that he had paid $ 575,000 bribe to a police Major-General to secure his escape from Samitivej Hospital, where he was in police custody pending extradition proceedings.

According to the Bangkok Post, police Major-General Kreukpong Pookprayoon, chief of the Immigration Bureau’s general staff division, approved Rajan’s request to continue receiving medical treatment at the hospital, overruling a Bangkok police department suggestion that the gangster be transferred to the Police General Hospital, where security was tighter.

Rajan was reportedly scheduled to be transferred to the police hospital at the end of the month.

Rajan was shot at in a Bangkok apartment on September 15 by Pakistani hit-men allegedly hired by his gangland rival, Dawood Ibrahim, another notorious Mumbai mafia figure currently residing in Pakistan.

Thailand’s deputy police commissioner Sant Saluthanon today urged Mr Sirichai to present his evidence of Rajan’s bribe to the police.

‘‘I’ll give a press conference to hand over all the evidence at Don Muang Airport before departing from the country,’’ Mr Sirichai told DPA.

‘‘I need to leave for my own safety and to gather more evidence abroad,’’ he added. Mr Sirichai claimed to have received several death threats since accusing the police of having accepted bribes from Rajan. 

Strategic bodies under Pak NCA

ISLAMABAD, Nov 28 (DPA) — Pakistan has placed the country’s strategic organisations under the control of the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), press reports said today.

Headed by the military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, the NCA at its second meeting took the decision to conform to international nuclear and strategic arms conventions that required a central authority for strategic arms, official sources were quoted as saying yesterday.

The NCA, aimed at creating command and control mechanisms for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and missile systems, was established in February and is responsible for policy formulation, employment and development control over all strategic nuclear forces and strategic organisations.

General Musharraf announced the establishment of the NCA weeks after deposing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October last year, saying that it had become necessary after the six nuclear tests that Pakistan conducted in May, 1998, in response to the five done by India.

The creation of the NCA has helped in allaying fears that if pressed by India, a military government may resort to a reckless use of nuclear weapons, according to Dr Qadeer Khan who is considered the mastermind of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

The NCA will now monitor the work of organisations such as the Khan Research Laboratories, headed by Dr Qadeer Khan, the National Development Complex and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. 

Mixed response to LTTE’s offer

colombo, Nov 28 (pti) — The offer of unconditional talks by ltte leader V. Prabhakaran has drawn a mixed response with government officials and diplomats remaining skeptical about his “insistence on conditions” while a moderate Tamil party urging the Sri Lankan administration to seize the chance to resume peace talks.

Officials and diplomats said although Prabhakaran had expressed readiness for an unconditional dialogue, his insistence on “conditions of normalcy has brought us back to square one.”

Prabhakaran, in a speech yesterday, had called for de-escalation of war and creation of a peaceful, and cordial environment conducive for negotiations.

The moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (tulf) urged the government to respond by calling a ceasefire to allow talks to begin.

“Now that there is a mediator, he can straighten out the contradictions,’ tulf senior vice-president V. Anandasangari said referring to the Norway-backed peace initiative.

The Ltte’s arch-rival, the Democratic People’s Liberation Front, however, said Prabhakaran’s offer did not contain anything new but was a reiteration of the conditions put forward earlier.

“The speech has nothing new. But we don’t know if there has been a deal struck behind the scenes. What they say in public may be different from what they have agreed privately,” party leader and former mp Dharmalingam Sidharthan said.

There was no official reaction from the government to the ltte offer, but Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake had yesterday said there would be no let-up in the military campaign against the ltte.

“The government is certainly not in favour of a ceasefire as previous experiences have shown that the enemy insists on a ceasefire only when it is weak,” he said. 

Daredevil David performs ‘cool’ stunt

NEW YORK, Nov 28 (ANI) — At the start of a three-day stunt show in Times Square here yesterday, illusionist and daredevil David Blaine put himself inside a six-ton block of ice.

Blaine, wearing only pants, a cap and boots, was hooked up to monitors and bounced up and down from time to time to keep his blood pumping. A tube, composed of two sections, with Blaine’s contour carved into the middle allowing for space between his body and the ice, ran through the ice block, providing Blaine with air and water.

“This is by far the most painful thing I am ever going to go through physically”, he said adding that “I have nothing to lean against. I can’t move.”

Blaine trained for the stunt by immersing himself in tubs of ice. “If I have an itch, I can’t scratch myself. If I fall asleep my face presses into the ice. It is a real danger.”

Curious New Yorkers and tourists waved or touched the ice block to make sure it was real. Comments ranged from “that was cool” to “it’s a hoax, they’re pumping in heated air”, which organisers of the stunt vehemently denied. Blaine also seemed as curious about the onlookers as they were about him.

Meanwhile, a medical team monitored his vital signs and a couple of “ice breakers” were also present in case of an emergency. According to doctors, stopping of circulation and frostbite were among the biggest dangers.

Cabinet post for Chechnya

MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) — Russian President Vladimir Putin today created a new Cabinet post responsible for Chechnya and named an ethnic Russian to head it, the Kremlin said.

A Kremlin spokesman said Mr Vladimir Yelagin, a former First Deputy Head of the State Construction Commission, had been given the rank of minister with the brief of coordinating government agencies working on socio-economic development in Chechnya.

Russian officials and Chechens have complained that money sent to rebuild the devastated rebel region has disappeared.

Russian forces poured into Chechnya more than a year ago to fight pro-independence guerrillas who were blamed for attacks on Russian cities.

Seven killed in copter crash

canberra, Nov 28 (Reuters) — Five mining executives were among seven persons killed when their helicopter crashed today in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, a mining company official said.

Four executives of the locally run Societe Minieres Du Sud Pacific (SMSP) were killed in the crash, along with an environmental assessor employed by a New Caledonian subsidiary of Canadian Miner Falconbridge Ltd.

An employee of a Canadian aviation company, under contract with the SMSP, and the helicopter pilot, were also killed in the early-morning accident.

“It’s very tragic, we’ve lost much today,” smsp spokesman Stephan Camerlynck told Reuters by telephone from New Caledonia.

He said the helicopter was flying from the capital Noumea on the west coast of New Caledonia to the Nakety nickel project on the east coast when the helicopter crashed in a mountain range.

Another minister quits

manila, Nov 28 (Reuters) — The Philippines’ Science and Technology Secretary has resigned from the Cabinet, the third minister to quit President Joseph Estrada’s administration since he was linked to a bribery scandal last month.

Filemon Uriarte said in his resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters today, that he was leaving the government effective end of November because he wished “to go back to the private sector’’.

LTTE targets bus, 7 killed

COLOMBO, Nov 28 (PTI) — Tamil Tigers ambushed a bus in north-central Sri Lanka today, killing seven passengers and injuring 22 others, army spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said. LTTE rebels set off a powerful blast targeting the bus at Thammennawa in Anuradhapura district.

Two government soldiers and a rebel were also killed in an overnight exchange of fire at Padaviya in the region, army sources said.

WORLD BRIEFS

British author Bradbury dead
LONDON: British novelist Sir Malcolm Bradbury, whose works included “Eating People Is Wrong’’ and “The History Man’’, has died at the age of 68. Bradbury was renowned as the founder of the University of East Anglia’s creative writing school, which has produced a crop of successful novelists including Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan, both winners of Britain’s prestigious Booker prize. Bradbury was Professor of American Studies at the university. He also worked prolifically as a television scriptwriter and literary critic. His sixth and final novel “To the Hermitage’’ was published seven months ago. — Reuters

Infidelity bad for heart
SYDNEY: Almost half of those who suffer a stroke while having sex are not with their regular partner at the time, an international conference has been told. Japan’s Izumi Toyoda told the Fourth World Stroke Congress in Melbourne on Monday that his research showed that 54 per cent of those who suffered a stroke during sex were with their regular partner at the time. He said further research was needed into the correlation between promiscuous sex and strokes so counter-measures for their prevention could be offered. — DPA

Brainless baby baptised
ROME: An Italian mother has given birth to a brainless baby despite doctors’ predictions, so that the infant can be baptised and go to paradise, hospital officials and press reports said. The baby boy, Carlo Gabriele Maria Pio, died two hours after he was born near the northern city of Pavia. The Catholic Bishop of the city, Giovanni Volta, praised the parents’ decision not to have an abortion as exemplary for Christians. The boy was baptized by a doctor as the priest was not available during his two-hour life. “God defeated death,” so he can go to paradise, the parents’ newspapers quoted the parents as saying after the baptism. — AFP

6 killed in Western Cape fires
CAPE TOWN: At least six persons have died in devastating fires which swept through informal settlements in South Africa’s Western Cape on Sunday and Monday, leaving about 1,000 families homeless, provincial government authorities said. The fire also damaged power lines, causing power failures across the Cape Peninsula. A spokesman for Cape Town’s fire brigade, Mike Lightly said the cause of the blaze was not known, the SAPA news agency reported. — DPA

Scientists find brain’s ‘funny bone’
CHICAGO: The brain may have a “funny bone,” scientists have reported, a finding that may explain why some stroke victims lose their sense of humour. “A small part of the frontal lobes appears critical to our ability to recognise a joke,’’ said Dean Shibata of the University of Rochester School of Medicine on Monday. Shibata and colleagues released a report at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America that was based on the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map activity in the brains of 13 persons exposed to humour in four different tests. — Reuters

Dead Indian resurfaces, held for fraud
MOSCOW: An Indian citizen, who was declared dead and a case of counterfeiting against him closed, was arrested after he resurfaced and was found to be involved in fresh cases of fraud. The Indian, identified as Mr N., was arrested in Omsk town of Siberia on the charges of a major fraud involving 140,000 roubles, sources in the Russian Interior Ministery’s Department for Combating Economic Crimes said. A firm had informed the police that an Indian citizen had used forged papers and secured medicines worth 140,000 roubles Itar-Tass reported . — PTI

World’s longest road tunnel opens
OSLO: Norway’s King Harald has opened the world’s longest road tunnel — the 24.5-km Laerdal Tunnel connecting the Aardal and Aurland districts in the country’s West. The tunnel, which runs 1,500 m under a mountain, cuts travel time from three hours on the car ferry around the Sognefjord inlet to 20 minutes. Costing around $ 110 million the tunnel guarantees a year-round road connection between Oslo and the west coast port of Bergen. — DPA