Voters reject PM’s man
TOKYO, April 12 — Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was humbled today after Tokyo voters rejected his hand-picked candidate and elected an outspoken nationalist and US-basher as Governor of the Capital.

‘Elizabeth’ wins 5 British awards
LONDON, April 12 — Elizabethan England ruled the day at the 51st British Academy film awards yesterday with five prizes going for “Elizabeth” and four for last month’s leading Oscar-winner, “Shakespeare in Love”.

USA may send ground troops
from Vasantha Arora

WASHINGTON, April 12 (IANS) — With its aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia not achieving the desired result, the Clinton administration is for the first time holding out use of ground troops as an option in Kosovo.

In Sunday television talk shows, White House Chief of Staff John Podesta said NATO had, in fact, made backup plans for ground troops and those plans “could be updated quickly” if the alliance “decides to move forward with planning.”

Similar views were voiced by Defence Secretary William Cohen, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and National Security Council spokesman David Leavy. Though they appeared optimistic about the efficacy of the airstrikes, they hinted at the possibility of bringing in ground troops, if necessary.

U.S. public opinion polls show support for ground troops and a growing number of both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are urging Mr Clinton to push NATO to put the option of deploying troops “on the table.”

Mr Clinton’s aides also spoke for the first time for a leadership change in Yugoslavia, apparently treating Milosevic like Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Democratic Senator Joseph Biden called Milosevic a “war criminal.”

Mr Podesta said he wanted Yugoslavia to attain a measure of democracy and respect for human rights if it was to become a viable member of Europe. Ultimately, he said, “for them to create a stable situation, it looks to me like they are going to need a new leader.” He, however, hastened to add that the NATO airstrikes were not intended to oust Milosevic.

YONKERS (AP): Hundreds of Americans in camouflage uniform stood in a parking lot of a suburban New York hotel, volunteering to fight the Serbs.

The men and women yesterday were ready for guerrilla war: they pulled shiny new combat boots and army-green sacks from their Volvos, Chevys and Mercedes-Benzes.

“Albanians are willing to die for freedom”, yelled Joseph Dioguardi, head of the Albanian-American Civic League, to the more than 400 recruits in military formation. “Yeah”, responded Laura Muriqi (4) whose father, a Manhattan doorman, stood at attention in his camouflage uniform.

“It’s dangerous, but it’s the last chance to be free or die”, said Remziga Gjonbalaj, tears in her eyes. About 500 family members and friends watched, weeping and cheering, in the lot outside the Albanian-run royal Regency Hotel.

Her brother, a waiter in a New York restaurant, was among the would-be soldiers leaving this week on charter flights from New York to Tirana, capital of Albania.

They are to be trained there before attempting to cross the mountainous border sprinkled with land mines to join the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Some recruits spent time in the U.S. military or in the Yugoslav army, but most are untrained. Their uniform from army-navy surplus stores is brand new.

They plan to join the Kosovo rebel force in a last-ditch effort to save hundreds of thousands of Albanians who have fled their decimated towns and villages. About 30 women were among the recruits.

BELGRADE (AP): A prominent newspaper owner who has been critical of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was shot to death by unknown gunmen, the police said.

The owner of the Dnevni Telegraf, Mr Slavko Curuvija, was shot in the hallway of his apartment building yesterday in downtown Belgrade. Witnesses, who refused to be named, said at least two gunmen in leather jackets fired several shots in Curuvija’s back and head as he was entering the building. His wife, Branka Prpa, was with him and was pistol whipped, the witnesses said. She called the police.

Mr Curuvija’s newspaper has been banned and slapped with hefty fines several times for criticising Mr Milosevic and other government officials since a strict media law was adopted in October.

Since the new media law took effect, all major newspapers and radio and television stations who oppose Mr Milosevic have been shut down, or their directors have been replaced.

Mr Curuvija, in his late 40s, managed to keep publishing nonetheless, by moving operations to Montenegro, a more liberal Yugoslav republic.

Pak set to respond to Agni-II

ISLAMABAD, April 12 (PTI) —Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has given the “green signal” to the scientists to prepare for a “matching response” to India’s test firing of Agni-II after consultations with the top military and civilian leadership, media reports said here today.

Mr Sharif was closeted with top officials yesterday chalking out strategies to counter the “threat” due to the test firing of the 2000 km range Agni missile, the largest circulated Urdu daily “Jung” quoted reliable sources as saying.

It also said Mr Sharif held an emergency meetings with the top military and civilian leadership including senior ministers of his Cabinet and Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed and had given the “green signal” to scientists to prepare for test firing of the long range advanced missile system of Pakistan.

“Pakistan is going to test fire its missile very soon,” the report said and added that despite being a holiday yesterday, scientists and engineers had started preparations for the same on a “war footing”.

The report claimed that during his meeting with top officials, Mr Sharif made it clear that Pakistan’s security had been threatened due to test firing of Agni and Islamabad would be “justified” in taking any step to strengthen its security.

Another newspaper “The News” quoted defence experts as saying that Pakistan at present had at least three highly sophisticated missiles in its arsenal which it could test fire within days.

The English daily claimed that the first of these missiles is “Shaheen-I” which has a range of 750 km and has been displayed on March 23 during Pakistan day.

The paper said the missiles can be fired within days as the scientist behind it, Dr Samar Mubarakmand, has already been quoted as saying that “we are ready to do anything if the government wants to do.”

The second option would be to fire an extended version of “Ghauri” with a range of 1700 to 2000 km.

Ghauri with a range of 1500 km and a payload capacity of 700 kg was test fired one year ago on April 6 and Mr Qadeer Khan had declared immediately afterwards that it would be followed by Ghaznavi with a longer range.

The third option for Pakistan is Shaheen-II which reportedly has a range of 2300 km and a payload capacity of 1000 kg, the news claimed,

Though media reports here insist that all these missiles are the result of Pakistan’s indigenous missile programme western media reports, mainly the US media, have said that it was proved beyond doubt that all these technologies had either been acquired from China or North Korea.

Even former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in his report as chief of the Congressional committee on missile threats had concluded that Ghauri was a version of the North Korean Nodong missile.

Interestingly the current missile controversy has led to the resurfacing of the old rivalry between KRL and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) as Dr Mubarakmand with his Shaheen range of missile is believed to be a staunch opponent of Dr Qadeer Khan.

Meanwhile Pakistan accused India of going against the spirit of understanding reached between the two countries in Lahore by test firing the Agni-II missile and called for an end to the arms race in the region urging expediting of the bilateral dialogue process in this regard.

The test firing of the Agni-II missile barely a couple of weeks before the scheduled expert-level talks between the two countries is “against the spirit of the memorandum of understanding signed at Lahore”, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz told state-run PTV.

BEIJING: The official Chinese media on Monday refrained from making any comment on India’s Agni-II missile test firing but the free-wheeling Hong Kong press questioned its timing and purpose.

Leading official newspapers of China, Peoples Daily”, “China Daily” and “Liberation Army Daily” — relegated the news to the inside pages and, unlike during last May’s Pokhran nuclear tests, did not offer any comment.

The state-run Xinhua news agency ran news items and reactions from Washington, Moscow, Tokyo and Islamabad without comment while the official China Central Television (CCTV) covered the test firing in all its major newscasts.

The silence in the Chinese media reflects the official stand of wait and watch, one analyst said noting that Beijing would be closely monitoring the political developments in New Delhi.

Raid ‘revealed’ China’s N-plans

WASHINGTON, April 12 (PTI) — The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) got the first concrete evidence of China’s nuclear and missile programmes from documents accidentally seized by Tibetan guerrillas who ambushed a Chinese Army convoy in the early ’60s, the Newsweek magazine has reported.

The Khampa guerrillas, trained by the CIA to fight against the Chinese for Tibetan Independence and helped by the Indian intelligence after the 1962 war, seized these documents, weighing about 70 kg, after they shot dead all members of the convoy in Tibet, the magazine claims in its latest issue.

The intelligence yield from the Tibetan operation “was just the greatest”, former CIA official James Lilley recalls the then CIA head of far-East division, Desmond Fitzgerald as saying.

They also detailed the disastrous effects of China’s 1959-61 “great leap forward” which plummeted People’s Liberation Army's (PLA) morale and Beijing’s plans to move more troops into Tibet, and also about the Sino-Soviet rift, Lilley says.

After the raid on the Chinese military convoy, the Tibetans loaded their horses with the “loot”, including hats and epaulets from the dead Chinese, diaries and 170 personal letters along with the bloodstained, bullet-riddled documents.

“I hoped that maybe the Americans would be happy,” recalls one of those who was in that action, Baba Yeshe.

Voters reject PM’s man

TOKYO, April 12 (PTI) — Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was humbled today after Tokyo voters rejected his hand-picked candidate and elected an outspoken nationalist and US-basher as Governor of the Capital.

Mr Shintaro, Ishihara, a former Cabinet Minister swept to victory with 30.2 per cent of the vote. He defeated Mr Obuchi’s Liberal Democratic Party backed Yashushi Akashi who was able to garner only 12.5 per cent of the votes.

“It is a reflection of the people’s will toward local government, and I would like to take it humbly.” Mr Obuchi said of the election in which Mr Ishihara swept aside the ruling party candidate.

He expressed concern at the level of support given by his party to Mr Akashi and told reporters “since I myself asked Akashi to run for the election I am very disappointed with the result.”

During the poll campaign, Mr Obuchi had introduced Mr Akashi as “someone Japanese could be proud of as Tokyo Governor” and had expelled a long-time party colleague and a former Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa for contesting against “his candidate.”

Mr Obuchi had also taken disciplinary action against Mr Ishihara’s son, who belongs to the LDP, for campaigning for his father.

‘Elizabeth’ wins 5 British awards

LONDON, April 12 (AP) — Elizabethan England ruled the day at the 51st British Academy film awards yesterday with five prizes going for “Elizabeth” and four for last month’s leading Oscar-winner, “Shakespeare in Love”.

But it was an altogether separate ‘Elizabeth’ screen legend Elizabeth Taylor who got the evening’s biggest applause as she haltingly stepped to the podium to a sustained standing ovation to receive a lifetime achievement award from the British Academy.

In an emotional speech, Taylor called the prize ‘the most incredible award’.

Taylor dedicated the prize to those who had been involved with her in her long standing crusade against AIDS.

Oscar winner Italian actor Roberto Benigni, triumphed as well at the British Academy, winning his second consecutive prize for best actor.

“This is my first prize in England”, said the ever-effusive Benigni, who was a memorably manic presence at last month’s Oscars, “Really, I am full of joy, like a watermelon”.

The recipient this year of seven academy awards, including best picture, “Shakespeare in Love’ took the Bafta prize for best film, as well as supporting performance prizes four Judi Dench and Australian actor Geoffrey Rush.

A second Australian performer, Cate Blanchett, was named best actress for the title role in “Elizabeth”, which won four further awards including outstanding British film of the year.

Although shut out at the Oscars, the darkly satiric “The Truman Show” won three British Academy awards — best director (Peter Weir), best original screenplay (Andrew Niccol) and best production design.

Best foreign film went to another Oscar also-ran; the Brazilian film ‘Central station’.

Director Steven Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’, one of the most popular film on 1993, won two lesser Baftas for best sound and best visual effects.

The Orange Audience award for the most popular film of 1998, the only prize voted by the general public, went to the cheeky East End London gangster comedy “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.”

Niger’s new chief
NIAMEY: Presidential Guard Commander Daouda Mallam Wanke has been appointed to head a national reconciliation council that will govern Niger for the next nine months, a statement issued by the army chief of staff here said on Sunday. Members of the presidential guard assassinated President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara on Friday. According to diplomatic sources in the region, Wanke himself took part in the killing. — AFP

Human cloning
BEIJING: Chinese scientists have cloned human genes that cause hearing loss and exostosis, an abnormal bony growth, and have made progress in research on leukaemia and several types of cancer, according to an official report. He said Beijing’s strategy to make disease-related genetic research the centre of its HGP is the right course since headway has already been made in research on leukaemia and cancer of the oesophagus, liver and nasopharynx area. — PTI

Women MPs
BRUSSELS: One in eight of the world’s parliamentarians is a woman, a world-wide parliamentary organisation has said. Swedish women led the way with 42.7 per cent representation. Only 3.4 per cent of parliamentarians in the Arab world were women, it said, adding that Kuwait, the UASE, Comoros, and Djibouti were among more than 10 countries having no women parliamentarians at all.

Asha Bhonsle day
WASHINGTON: Democratic Congressman Gary L. Ackerman has issued a “proclamation,’’ declaring April 10 as the “Asha Bhonsle day’’ for the entire Indian-American community to recognise the playback singer as an “impeccable cultural ambassador promoting better U.S.-India relations.” She had a concert here in the Kennedy Centre for the benefit of a charitable hospital in India. — UNI

Sectarian outfit
LAHORE: The police in Pakistan’s Jhang district have unearthed two underground networks of the Lashkar-e-Jangvi (LJ), and have claimed to resolve all cases of sectarian violence in the last two years. — ANI