W O R L D

USA: First UN draft, then inspectors’ return
Washington, October 2
US Secretary of State Colin Powell rejected the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq without a tough new resolution from the Security Council, saying existing agreements for the monitors were inadequate.

Iraqi deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz gestures as he addresses a news conference in Ankara on Wednesday. He said there was no need for a new UN resolution to cover the operations of arms inspectors in Iraq. Aziz said Iraq would fight back determinedly if attacked by the USA. — Reuters photo

Pak law to ‘suppress’ Press
Islamabad, October 2
Pakistani journalists have warned that a new defamation law promulgated by the government could be used to suppress press freedom.

C’wealth assures PML on rigging
London, October 2
The Commonwealth has assured the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of its intention to take up the issue of pre-poll rigging in Pakistan with the military regime after the party presented “concrete evidence” of “massive rigging” to its Secretary General Don McKinnon.

5 held in Britain’s smuggling racket
London, October 2
A gang that had smuggled hundreds of people from the Indian subcontinent into UK has been busted with the arrest of five persons, the police here has said. The five suspects, arrested in raids in London, Birmingham and Bedford, are all UK nationals of sub-continental origin, the police said.

4 Indian American bodies join hands
New York, October 2
Heeding Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s advice to Indian Americans to work unitedly in interest of the community in the USA, four major organisations have decided to pool their resources to promote common causes and interests.

Palestinians wave their flags on their way to a rally in Gaza city to protest against US President George W. Bush's last decision on Jerusalem issue and support Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Wednesday. US President Bush, at the risk of angering Arabs and Muslims, signed legislation on Monday that requires his administration to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital. — Reuters

USA: First UN draft, then inspectors’ return

Washington, October 2
US Secretary of State Colin Powell rejected the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq without a tough new resolution from the Security Council, saying existing agreements for the monitors were inadequate.

Powell said yesterday there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that “the United States will continue to pursue a new UN resolution.’’

Negotiators in the US House of Representatives have reached agreement on a resolution authorising possible use of military force against Iraq, House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt said.

“We have to keep moving in this direction because we have seen in the last several weeks we have to keep the pressure up,’’ he told a briefing at the State Department.

“We will not be satisfied with Iraqi half-truths, or Iraqi compromises or Iraqi efforts to get us back in the same swamp.... Pressure works, we will keep it up.’’

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix told reporters yesterday in Vienna that Iraq had agreed on the logistics of resuming inspections under UN Security Council rules.

An Iraqi official said the inspectors could arrive in Baghdad in about two weeks.

“We’re going to work with our partners in the Security Council to put in place a new resolution,’’ said Powell, adding that any resolution “has to have consequences for failure on the part of Iraq to act and to respond to the requirements of the international community.’’

So far only Britain among the five permanent Council members with veto power has signed on the draft, which some diplomats characterised as a blueprint for war.

France, Russia and China have strong reservations about authorising the USA to make a decision on when Iraq has violated terms of the new proposed resolution. But the envoys said it was far from certain whether the three would use their veto power to block the measure or abstain if no US compromises were forthcoming.

Under the proposed US document, obtained by Reuters, Baghdad has seven days to accept all provisions in the resolution. It then has 23 more days to give an accounting of its weapons of mass destruction and an extensive list of related materials and components.

Only after the declaration, can UN inspectors, out of Iraq for nearly four years, begin their work.

Should Iraq fail to disclose anything, any United Nations member can use force against Baghdad.

ANKARA: Iraq condemned U.S. proposals for a tough U.N. resolution on arms inspections today, as much of the world stayed warily on the sidelines of a diplomatic chess game that could end in war.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said in neighbouring Turkey that the new U.S. draft resolution, which demands that Iraq open every inch of its territory to inspectors or face swift attack, was “unacceptable”. But he assured NATO member Turkey, home to U.S. airbases likely to be used for air raids, that Baghdad’s forces would not attack Turkey itself.

On the sensitive issue of inspecting “presidential sites”, which include palaces of President Saddam Hussein and are suspected of containing weapons or related materials, Aziz said an agreement reached with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in February 1998 was still in place. That agreement stipulated special arrangements be made for any inspections of eight specific “presidential sites” — apparently falling far short of Washington’s demand for “unfettered access” to anywhere in Iraq. Reuters

Pak law to ‘suppress’ Press
Muhammad Najeeb

Islamabad, October 2
Pakistani journalists have warned that a new defamation law promulgated by the government could be used to suppress press freedom.

Pakistan on Tuesday promulgated a law that calls for a minimum fine of Rs 50,000 or three-month imprisonment if defamation charges against print or electronic media are proved by no less than the court of a district judge.

“We are planning to go to court against this law. This is discriminatory and governments may use it to suppress media,” said C.R. Shamsi, secretary general of the Pakistan Union of Journalists.

Other media houses and human rights activists also said the law could be used against the press.

“I am afraid it may be used and misused by the authorities against anyone they want and especially the press,” said leading rights activist Asma Jehangir.

The new law says: “Any wrongful act or publication or circulation of a false statement or representation made orally or in written or visual form which injures the reputation of a person, tends to lower him in the estimation of others or subject him to ridicule, unjust criticism, dislike, contempt or hatred shall be actionable as defamation.”

It identifies two forms of defamation. “Any false oral statement or representation that amounts to defamation shall be actionable as slander.

The law provides a mechanism for defence of a person against whom defamation proceedings have been initiated.

An appeal against the district judge’s order can be taken to the high court within six months. IANS

C’wealth assures PML on rigging

London, October 2
The Commonwealth has assured the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of its intention to take up the issue of pre-poll rigging in Pakistan with the military regime after the party presented “concrete evidence” of “massive rigging” to its Secretary General Don McKinnon.

The military regime in Pakistan had rejected the candidature of PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on the ground that his signatures on the nomination forms were “forged.”

Earlier, Ishaq Dar and Hasan Nawaz Sharif, son of the PML-N leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had presented the “evidence of the military regime’s pre-poll rigging” to McKinnnon at a meeting here on September 20, the PML-N claimed.

Islamabad: After initial emabarrassment over the “interim report” leaked to the Press, the European Union team which arrived here to monitor the October 10 general election in Pakistan, today admitted the report contained preliminary observation for consideration by the EU Parliament.

Retracting from his earlier statement that observations of the EU mission published by a Pakistan newspaper last weekend was part of a “briefing”, the Chief of the poll monitors team John Cushnahan said the contents published by the daily were genuine and formed part of preliminary observations. PTI

5 held in Britain’s smuggling racket

London, October 2
A gang that had smuggled hundreds of people from the Indian subcontinent into UK has been busted with the arrest of five persons, the police here has said.

The five suspects, arrested in raids in London, Birmingham and Bedford, are all UK nationals of sub-continental origin, the police said.

But hundreds of persons the gang brought into the country have vanished with apparently no trace. The police has seized several papers, but with no real names and no travel documents it will not be easy to find them, officials said. Those coming in are believed to have paid the gang Rs 5,00,000 per head. IANS

4 Indian American bodies join hands

New York, October 2
Heeding Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s advice to Indian Americans to work unitedly in interest of the community in the USA, four major organisations have decided to pool their resources to promote common causes and interests.

For this purpose, an eight-member coordination committee comprising two representatives from each organisation had been set up to identify issues and decide on action to be taken. PTI

GLOBAL MONITOR

OZONE HOLE OVER ANTARCTIC SPLITS
GENEVA: The ozone hole over the Antarctic last week weakened and split into two, an unprecedented phenomenon, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said. Experts said one of the two holes is situated west of the southern tip of South America, while the other is centred southeast of the tip of Africa, the agency reported in a statement Tuesday. The “hole” is in fact a thinning of the layer of ozone molecules in the stratosphere that filter out dangerous ultra-violet light from the sun which is capable of damaging DNA, killing plant life and causing skin cancer. AFP

‘TELESCOPE’ OF EARTH SIZE
WASHINGTON: Several international teams of astronomers have joined together to create a “virtual telescope” roughly the size of earth and the most powerful in the world, researchers have announced. The new array could detect features 3,000 times smaller than the finest detail observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists announced Tuesday. AFP

24 KILLED AS HOUSES COLLAPSE IN SYRIA
DAMASCUS: At least 24 persons were killed after a number of old houses in Syria’s second largest city of Aleppo collapsed on Wednesday, Syrian Interior Minister Ali Hammoud said. Aleppo Governor Osama Uday was quoted as saying earlier that old caverns beneath the homes had caved in before dawn, leading to the collapse of the homes in Aleppo in north-west Syria. Reuters

PAK TIT-BITS

PARTIES WHIP UP ANTI-US FRENZY
SWABI: Firebrand Islamic party leaders are hitting the campaign trail in Pakistan with fervent anti-US rallies in the lead-up to the parliamentary poll. Candidates from a six-party alliance this week whipped a crowd of 8,000 supporters into a fever of anti-US chants in this northwestern town with fiery pledges to throw out US forces using Pakistan as a base for operations in Afghanistan. AFP

PPP LIKELY TO WIN MAJORITY: SURVEY
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) may win a narrow majority in this month general election but a breakaway Pakistan Muslim League faction is expected to form the new government, says BBCUrdu.com survery. A total of 2,827 Pakistani of voting age were asked their opinion about the elections, as part of an opinion poll commissioned by BBCUrdu.com and conducted in 99 cities and towns and more than 100 villages across Pakistan. The survey was conducted at the end of September. IANS

HEARING ON BHUTTO’S PLEA ADJOURNED
KARACHI: A Pakistani court on Wednesday adjourned a hearing on a petition filed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto challenging laws barring her from the poll, after her lawyers sought more time to prepare their arguments. Ms Bhutto’s chief counsel, Farooq Naik, said the case had been adjourned until November 12, more than a month after the October 10 general election. Reuters