Ghazni, August 18
Taliban militants today were deciding the fate of 19 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, after the talks for their release failed, a spokesman for the militia said.

“The negotiations have failed. The Taliban leading council is making its decision now on the fate of the hostages,” said the spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi.

Face-to-face talks between Taliban negotiators and a South Korean delegation in Ghazni, the capital of Ghazni province where the 23 Christian aid workers were abducted nearly a month ago, ended on Thursday with no result, he said.

Ahmadi said more talks did not seem “probable” as Taliban demands the release of some of their men from prisoner in exchange for the hostages’ liberty had not been met by the Afghan government.

“Further talks will not achieve anything, the Koreans said the Americans and the Afghan government are not ready to release our prisoners,” he said.

The Taliban freed two women hostages on Monday in what they said was a “gesture of good will”. The two were the first to be released since the South Koreans were seized on July 19 on the main highway, south of the capital Kabul.

Two of the men in the group have been murdered, and the Taliban have threatened to shoot more if their demands are not met. — AFP

Ankara, August 18
Two men claiming to be al-Qaeda members who hijacked a Turkish plane today surrendered at an airport in southern Turkey after hours of negotiations, officials said.

"The terrorists have been taken in, the hijack is over," Hayrettin Balcioglu, the deputy governor of Antalya where the plane made an emergency landing after its seizure, told the Anatolia news agency.

Turkish interior minister Osman Gunes identified one of the hijackers as Turkish national Mehmet Resat Ozlu, and the other as a man who had a Syrian passport but was believed to be of Palestinian origin.

The CNN-Turk news channel showed two people leaving the plane and being handcuffed before being taken away in a white vehicle.

"The hijackers regret what they did and want to return to Iran," a crew member was quoted by the NTV news channel as saying.

The hijackers, who said they were carrying a bomb, commandeered the Atlas Jet plane shortly after it took off from an airport in Turkish northern Cyprus at 7:15 am (0945 IST) for Istanbul with 136 passengers and six crew, the private airline's manager, Tuncay Doganer, said. — AFP

Washington, August 18
With the remarks of the US state department spokesman creating an uproar in India, Washington has clarified to New Delhi that its position remains that the civil nuclear cooperation will not be suspended automatically even if an atomic test was conducted.

“It has been reiterated to us that the US position remains as it had been articulated earlier at an authoritative level,” Indian ambassador Ronen Sen told PTI here.

The Bush administration has “reiterated” that India “retains its right to (conduct a nuclear) test and the US retains its right to react,” Sen said, adding, however, “this reaction will not be automatic suspension of all cooperation.”

The clarification comes four days after state department spokesman Sean McCormack said: “The proposed 123 Agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated.”

This remark triggered an upheaval in India’s political arena with the government’s Left allies and opposition parties targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and accusing him of “misleading” the country. The Left alleged some “facts were being concealed” by the government.

The Indian government has pointed out that 123 Agreement is silent on the issue of testing, implying that New Delhi has not lost the right to explode a nuclear bomb, if required, in national interest.

The Prime Minister told Parliament on Monday that nuclear deal would not affect India’s right to undertake future nuclear tests. — PTI

Baghdad, August 18
The international police organisation (Interpol) today issued a wanted notice for Saddam Hussein’s eldest daughter, who is sought by the Iraqi government on suspicion of terrorism.

Interpol’s “Red Notice” does not represent an international arrest warrant but is a request for the foreign police forces to cooperate in tracking down 38-year-old Raghad Hussein and in extraditing her to face justice in Iraq.

Hussein has lived openly in Jordan since July 2003 and since last year has been on a list of 41 persons associated with her father’s regime that the new Iraqi government is seeking to prosecute for inciting violence.

Known to some as “Little Saddam” for her aggressive temperament, Raghad has taken a more public role in defending her father, who was executed on December 30 last year.

The wanted notice posted on Interpol’s website said an Iraqi arrest warrant has been issued accusing her of inciting “crimes against life and health” and “terrorism”.

It urged anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts to contact their local police or the Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France. — AFP

Male, August 18
Thousands of Maldivians voted today in a referendum many hailed as the tiny Indian Ocean nation's first real expression of democracy.

Voters were technically choosing a new form of government, but many saw the referendum as an informal vote of confidence on the 29-year-reign of Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving ruler.

"This election means freedom," said Suheil Ismail, 41, after voting in a breezy, open room at a schoolhouse in the capital of Male.

Today's voting appeared generally calm and courteous.

At the national soccer stadium in Male, voters waited quietly in the shady stands for their turn to enter one of the 13 blue voting tents that ringed the field.

Gayoom is pushing for a US-style political system, with a powerful executive presidency. The opposition, wary of giving too much power to another leader -- or to Gayoom for yet another five-year term -- backs a British-style parliament, which would be led by a more accountable prime minister. — AP

President Musharraf has obliquely warned the judiciary to avoid a policy of confrontation and urged judges to remain on the path of “live and let live”.

“The judiciary and the executive must remain within their limits and not to interfere in each other’s work”, the President has been telling MPs, senators and provincial lawmakers during his current bid to garner support for his election from present assemblies in uniform.

The general has separately met cabinet ministers, members of the national assembly, the senators and members of Punjab assembly in a flurry of meetings during past one week.

The General has been holding public rallies in the past since he embarked on this campaign last year.

With opposition and the election commission taking umbrage to his public campaign, Musharraf has now entered another phase of direct interaction with lawmakers who constitute the electoral college for the presidential election.

His legal experts have repudiated opinion expressed by the legal fraternity that he cannot contest elections in uniform. Politicians and lawyers have threatened to unleash a street challenge to block Musharraf’s election plans even if he surmounts Court obstacles.

Musharraf is afraid that Nawaz Sharif’s return might set a stampede in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League to ride the Sharif bandwagon, hence the current interaction.

Background informal discussion with many of the participants of these meetings reveal that during contacts with the lawmakers, particularly those from Punjab, the imminent threat of exiled premier Nawaz Sharif returning to Pakistan to lead the street agitation has loomed large during the discussions.

While the other mainstream leader Ms. Benazir Bhutto has assured him she would not return before elections, Sharif seems determined to come defying all hurdles including an understanding he has admitted having given to Saudi Arabia to stay out for ten years.

When asked the course of events if the verdict is against him in the Sharif case, the uniform issue and his re-election, Muhsarraf said, “We are trying to avoid a confrontation between the judiciary and the executive. We are making efforts to broker a patch-up.”

He said that the country’s defence was being upgraded, and that the missile programme was in safe hands.

President Musharraf said he would like to take pride in having pulled Pakistan out of its economic mess.

He said that billions of rupees were being spent on infrastructure in major cities like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

He also expressed his resolve to wipe out unemployment in the country.

About socio-economic development, he said that health and education sectors were getting top priority and record funds were being allocated to them.

All this has brought qualitative improvement in the people’s lifestyle.

He said efforts were afoot to expedite provision of electricity, water and gas to areas that had remained deprived of these facilities.

Musharraf is also banking on American support despite some irritants in relations which have accentuated in recent weeks.

The Bush administration, struggling to find a way to keep Musharraf in power amid a deepening political crisis in Pakistan, and is quietly prodding him to share authority with a longtime rival as a way of broadening his base, according to American and Pakistani officials.

Islamabad, August 18
If former Prime Minister in exile Nawaz Sharif chose to return to Pakistan, the grounds forming the very basis of the pact under which he was awarded pardon would be revoked, President Pervez Musharraf has said.

“I have no fears of any kind from any quarters. I will not take any dictation in this regard from any quarters, including the West," 'The News' reported today, quoting the President as saying.

“Sharif family left the country by striking a deal with the government and the document had the signatures of all members of the Sharif family. And we will present the document anywhere and anytime we deem necessary," Musharraf claimed.

He, however, said he would respect any decision given by the Supreme Court regarding the case of the Sharif family.

The deposed premier and his brother Shahbaz Sharif recently filed petitions before the apex court seeking judicial directive to the government not to obstruct their return home from their "forced exile" and permit them to take part in the general election slated later this year.

The Sharif brothers have also denied any deal with the government in their latest petition.

Though the Supreme Court on Thursday said that "Shahbaz Sharif is free to come back to the country", a five-judge Bbench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry is yet to take any decision on the deposed premier's case.

Musharraf had toppled Sharif's elected government in a bloodless coup in 1999. Both Sharif and his brother were arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate Musharraf. — PTI

Toronto, August 18
Supporters of a paralysed Sikh refugee claimant, who is facing deportation early next week nearly four years after entering Canada on a fake passport, have sought his release on humanitarian grounds and urged the government to allow him to live in this country.

Laibar Singh, 48, is set to be deported by the Canadian Border Services, which has hired a private jet to take him to Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, ‘Vancouver Sun’ reported today.

But his supporters, who range from community groups to politicians, said his deportation is akin to a death sentence and called on immigration minister Diane Finlay to immediately review his case.

“The community at large is very concerned. If this man is forced to leave Canada, he is facing death, there’s no two ways about it,” said Surdev Singh Jatana, a member of the Abbotsford Sahib Kalgidhar Darbar temple.

“We strongly request the minister to give this man a chance to have a better life here than no life in India.”

The supporters, along with his lawyer Zool Suleman, say they have have no response to their pleas to government. — PTI

London, August 18
Veteran British journalist Bill Deedes, the inspiration for the naive young reporter in the novel "Scoop", has died aged 94, ending a 76-year career during which he was a Cabinet minister and newspaper editor.

Tributes flooded in from politicians and colleagues of Deedes, who was still writing for the Daily Telegraph newspaper until shortly before his death on Friday.

"Britain owes a huge debt of gratitude to the patriotism and public service given by Bill Deedes," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Deedes, the only Briton to have been both a Cabinet minister and editor of a national newspaper, began his distinguished career in 1931 on the now defunct Morning Post.

He became best known as the inspiration for the character William Boot in Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel "Scoop", which tells of a hapless rural reporter who is sent by mistake to cover a civil war in a fictional African state.

Deedes had been sent to Abyssinia in 1935 to cover the invasion ordered by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and arrived with a huge amount of luggage.

He admitted this might have given Waugh, who was also covering the war for a rival paper, the idea for the character.

He won the Military Cross medal for valour during World War II and afterwards turned to politics. — Reuters