• Mandela to back
  Clinton fully

Pak groups plan meeting on J&K
LONDON, Sept 24 — Pakistani groups here are planning to invite UN chief Kofi Annan to what is being billed by them as an international meeting on Kashmir with organisers aiming to put worldwide focus on the issue.

Attempt on Hun Sen’s life
Parliament sworn in

SIEM REAP (Cambodia), Sept 24 (AFP) — The new 122-seat Cambodian Parliament was sworn in here today, two hours after strongman Hun Sen survived an assassination attempt.

One boy was killed and three persons injured when a rocket exploded near Hun Sen’s car as he drove to King Sihanouk’s residence for a brief welcoming ceremony.

The powerful leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) was not hurt in the attack and joined the other MPs as they moved to the ruins of the ancient Khmer Capital of Angkor for the swearing in at the famed Angkor War Temple.

“We wish to take our positions to fulfil our mission that the people have offered to every one of us,” the MPs pledged following the chanting of prayers by Buddhist monks at the open air ceremony.

“We wish to respect constitution of Cambodia, currently and in the future, and we commit ourselves to sacrifice our lives to protect and defend the interest of the country and its independence.

“We will fight against corruption and fight to eradicate all kinds of violence and to protect our country against foreign invasion and uphold democracy,” they said in their oath of office.

While opposition leaders Prince Norodom Ranariddh of the Royalist Funcinpec Party and Sam Rainsy who heads his own party attended the opening ceremony, they have still not agreed to form a coalition with Hun Sen who did not obtain the two-thirds majority needed to govern alone.

‘No deal’ to avoid impeachment

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (AP) — House Speaker Newt Gingrich has rejected talk of an immediate deal with US President Bill Clinton to avoid a possible impeachment inquiry despite polls showing most Americans don’t want the President removed from office.

The White House accused Mr Gingrich of unnecessarily dragging out the investigation into the Monica Lewinsky matter.

“For anybody to talk about doing anything before we finish the investigative process simply puts the cart before the horse”, Mr Gingrich told reporters yesterday following a meeting of House Republican and Democratic leaders. “I don’t understand how people can rush to a solution before they finish the investigation”, he added.

At the White House, press secretary Mike McCurry said the idea of a lesser punishment such as a Congressional censure and a fine was a “bipartisan idea” that better reflected public sentiment. Mr McCurry said Mr Gingrich and his top lieutenants appeared mainly interested in delaying the matter for partisan political advantage.

“It is some concern to the White House that people who are genuinely motivated, who want to bring this matter to some resolution, seem to be drowned out by those who want this matter to drag on and on and on,” — Mr McCurry said.

Asked about polls showing Americans seemed to agree, Mr Gingrich said: “I think people would be frankly horrified if the Congress was simply a polling institution that enacted a grotesque version of justice based on the latest poll or the latest talk show”.

Republican and Democratic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the meeting Mr Dick Gephardt, leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives urged Republicans to agree to an expedited timetable for finishing the impeachment review. Several dates were suggested, some before and some after the November 3 elections.

Mr Gingrich brushed these aside. At one point, these sources said Mr Gingrich replied if the committee wrapped up its work in 90 days, for example, and then fresh material surfaced the entire process would have to be repeated.

In his comments to reporters, Mr Gingrich said the “timing depends, for example, on whether or not the President instructs his staff to testify. It depends on whether the attitude is obstruction or the attitude is cooperation”.

Democrats also said Mr Gingrich strongly suggested the Republicans might want to expand the inquiry beyond the issue of Mr Clinton and Ms Lewinsky, possibly folding in other areas that Mr Starr has investigated or allegations of campaign finance violations by the President during his 1996 re-election.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Gephardt called on independent counsel Kenneth Starr to turn over all material on Mr Clinton’s potentially impeachable conduct that was held back in an earlier report for totally unexplained reasons.

Mr Gephardt’s letter was sent in advance of Wednesday’s meeting in which he, Mr Gingrich and other leaders of the House and its judiciary committee searched for ways to curb the nastiness that had enveloped the impeachment review into Mr Clinton’s conduct with Ms Lewinsky.

“How can we decide on the fairness of the process without determining what is in the interviews, grand jury testimony and boxes of documents that for totally unexplained reasons the independent counsel withheld”, Mr Gephardt said in a letter asking Mr Gingrich to join him in the request.

Mr Gephardt acted a day after Mr Clinton’s attorneys complained Mr Starr’s report failed to include direct statements from Ms Lewinsky that no one asked her to lie about the affair or promised her a job in exchange for her silence.

Mandela to back Clinton fully

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (ANI) — South African President Nelson Mandela has said that he will support US President Bill Clinton come what may, as no other US President has “identified himself more with the aspirations of blacks”.

Speaking at a luncheon organised in his honour at the South African Embassy here, Mr Mandela said it was not his responsibility or desire to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries, including the USA.

“I will support my friends (read Clinton) even if they have been deserted by the entire group,” the South African President said.

He also used the occasion to ask for more investments from the USA which, he said, were needed to rebuild the socio economic infrastructure of his country.

He also acknowledged that his government had made mistakes since assuming power in 1994, and blamed it on inexperience of the nation’s rulers.

There was no point in judging South Africa on the basis of what was happening in the USA, Canada or in Europe. It would be more appropriate to judge the country on the basis of its own background. “We come from years in prison, from the bush, from exile and from the underground,” he added.

Reuter adds: Earlier, the US Government gave Nelson Mandela its highest honour awarding him a Congressional gold medal for ending apartheid and promoting reconciliation in South Africa.

In a rare display of unity, Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican-held congress presented Mandela with the medal in an elaborate ceremony at the Capitol.

Mr Mandela became the 100th person and the first African to receive the medal, which has been awarded to people ranging from George Washington to Mother Teresa.

‘Fatwa’ against Rushdie may go

LONDON, Sept 24 (PTI) — British authorities have indicated that they are hopeful of an early lifting of Iranian death threat, “Fatwa”, against the Indian-born British author, Salman Rushdie.

The authorities expressed their confidence after yesterday’s remarks by the Iranian President, Mr Mohammad Khatami, at the United Nations when he exclaimed: “This issue of Fatwa is almost completely finished”.

A Foreign Office official told PTI that the issue (of lifting the Fatwa) would figure prominently in the meetings of the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, with Iranian leaders.

The late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, had passed the Fatwa against the author for his book “The Satanic Verses”, forcing Rushdie to curtail his public appearances and remain virtually underground.

Nepal Speaker, deputy in the dock

KATHMANDU, Sept 24 (UNI) — In a piquant situation here, both Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Pratinidhi Sabha face similar impeachment motions, on charges of dereliction of their respective duties.

The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxists-Leninists), along with the other two recognised national political parties, the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party and the Nepal Sadbhavana Party, South sanction yesterday against Speaker Ram Chandra Poudyal for having “failed to act neutrally in Parliament” during the passage last week of a controversial Bill relating to local self-governance.

And in a tit-for-tat exercise, the ruling Nepali Congress and its alliance partner CPN (Marxist-Leninist) have accused Deputy Speaker Lila Subba Shreshtha of “unethically siding” with her party the CPN (UML) while presiding over the House earlier for four days when Speaker Poudyal was away on a foreign tour.

The questioned actions of the two presiding officers occurred during the passage of the Local Self-Governance Bill in the House in the past fortnight.

Deputy Speaker Shreshtha is accused of having allowed her party members unfettered play in opposing the controversial Bill and for not allowing parliamentary proceedings on five successive sittings, and Speaker Poudyal is charged with forcibly pushing the Bill past the voting stage without any discussion thereon and declaring it as having been adopted “in a conspiracy” against the combined opposition.

Speaker Poudyal’s action on September 17 led to chaos and violence in the House which resulted in injuries to several members and intensive damage to furniture inside.

Pak groups plan meeting on J&K

LONDON, Sept 24 (PTI) — Pakistani groups here are planning to invite UN chief Kofi Annan to what is being billed by them as an international meeting on Kashmir with organisers aiming to put worldwide focus on the issue.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in April next year, is the brainchild of puppet PoK Prime Minister Sultan Mehmood whose efforts to organise a similar meeting in Muzzaffarabad flopped with reported scant international presence.

The organisers said they also planned to invite British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Hurriyat and other leaders from Jammu and Kashmir to the meeting.

Apparently buoyed by recent statements of Mr Annan in his annual report to the UN General Assembly on Kashmir, the organisers feel time has come for a decisive international intervention on Kashmir.

Laden’s accomplices
LONDON: Seven men arrested in an anti-terrorist swoop here are believed to be linked with Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the US embassy bombings, a London-based Islamic group said. “They belong to various Islamic movements but some of them are linked to the International Islamic Front, Osama bin Laden’s movement,” said Omar Bakri Mohammed, who claims he is Bin Laden’s spokesman in Britain. Scotland Yard has earlier said the seven were arrested by police and Mi5 in dawn raids on Wednesday carried out under the Prevention of Terrorism Act at seven addresses in North-west and West London. — AFP

Editor held
TEHERAN: A senior official of Iran’s official news agency IRNA and a Chief Editor were arrested for authorising the publication of a report on an assassination attempt against the chief of a powerful foundation here, the agency reported on Wednesday. Mohammad-Reza Sadeq, the number two official at IRNA, and Ali-Reza Khosravi, the Editor-in-Chief of the agency’s social department, were picked up on Tuesday and sent to Evin prison after a five-hour interrogation. — AFP

Court faults UK
STRASBOURG, (FRANCE): The European Court of Human Rights, stepping into a highly sensitive aspect of family life, ruled that the British law had failed to adequately protect children who are beaten by their parents. Acting in the controversial case of a young boy beaten with a cane by his stepfather, the court on Wednesday found British children legally vulnerable to “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” forbidden by the European convention of human rights. It fined £ 30,000 in damages and legal costs. — Reuters

Drug smugglers killed
TEHERAN: The Iranian police killed 17 Afghan drug smugglers in four separate armed clashes, the daily Kayhan reported. In different clashes near the Afghan border last week, two Iranian policemen were killed, it quoted a police officer as saying on Wednesday. The police seized 1,754 kg of opium and morphine from the smugglers in the northeastern province of Khorasan which borders Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Iran is a major transit route for drugs smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan. — Reuters

Di’s bodyguard
PARIS: Trevor Rees-Jones, survivor of the crash which killed Princess Diana, has filed a suit against the Ritz Hotel and the firm which hired out the car which crashed, a legal source said here. The source said on Wednesday that the complaint was for “endangering the lives of others”. Former bodyguard Rees-Jones was an employee of the Ritz at the time of the August 1997 high speed smash, which killed Diana, her companion Dodi al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul. — Reuters

Accounts frozen
KARACHI: Pakistani tax authorities froze the accounts of a British-based electricity generating company on Wednesday which is locked in a dispute with the government over power tariffs, company officials said. The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has also sought the recovery of $ 32 million under Pakistani tax laws from the accounts of Hubco at Citibank, they said. The company said in a statement the Revenue Department had given a notice on September 12 for the payment of $ 41 million in tax by September 21. —AFP

Mine blast kills 28
BEIJING: A gas explosion at a coal mine in Chinese province of Henan has left 28 persons dead, reports said on Wednesday. The blast at Baofeng county on Friday, killed all but one of the workers on the day’s shift, the Henan daily reported. The cause of the explosion has been traced to a failure of one of the fans, ventilating the main shaft during the afternoon, the paper said. Provincial leaders have already visited the scene of the accident and ordered an investigation, it said. — AFP