30 hurt as strike cripples Dhaka
DHAKA, April 18 — A general strike today paralysed transport and shut down banks, shops and schools following a night of violent unrest in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka.

Sharif unfazed by Atal Govt’s fall
ISLAMABAD, April 18 — Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has played down the fall of the Vajpayee Government and said his government would work with its successor to improve ties.

Anwar backers told to end stir
KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — The Malaysian Government has criticised supporters of jailed former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim and urged his wife’s new party to keep protesters off the capital’s streets.

• 10 die in Nigeria revenge attack

Second exodus of refugees
5 Kosovars die as vehicle hits mine

BELGRADE, April 18 (AP) — NATO jets pounded a major refinery and targets around Belgrade early today, delivering the punishment the alliance said it would mete out until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic changes his policies on Kosovo.

Meanwhile, a vehicle carrying ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo reportedly struck a land mine at the Albanian border, killing five persons.

The accident came as ethnic Albanians continued to pour out of the turbulent Serbian province in what international officials describe as the start of a second huge wave of refugees forced out by Mr Milosevic’s forces. Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Commander in Europe, said his pilots were reporting scenes of ethnic cleansing on a staggering scale inside Kosovo.

Lashed by rain and exhaustion, some 30,000 Kosovo Albanians arrived in neighbouring Albania and Macedonia yesterday and another 1,200 entered Albania early today at the Morini border post before the 1.45 a.m. (local time), mine explosion. Serb forces overseeing the expulsions promptly stopped all crossings, said Andrea Angeli of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Nato struck hard on its 25th night of attacks aimed at forcing Mr Milosevic to accept a political solution for Kosovo. Serbian media said bombs hit a major oil refinery in Yugoslavia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, and a nitrogen fertiliser plant and oil storage depot in Pancevo outside Belgrade.

The official news agency Tanjug warned of a huge cloud of thick smoke moving from Pancevo toward Belgrade, 20 km to the Southeast, and urged residents to cover their mouths with handkerchiefs.

Another huge cloud of thick smoke emerged from the immense fire ignited by the six NATO missiles that hit the Novi Sad oil refinery, illuminating the night sky in what Serb Television described as the strongest attack so far of the air campaign. There, too, residents were advised to breath through handkerchiefs as a precaution, although Tanjug said the smoke contained no poisonous materials.

Serb authorities said a 3-year-old girl was killed and five persons were injured in an attack in Batajnica, northwest of Belgrade, where a military airfield is located.

At least three other towns in western and central Serbia came under attack, with serious damage inflicted on both military and civilian facilities, local media said.

London (DPA): NATO is not planning to send ground troops to Kosovo, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said today following a report in the Observer newspaper which said the alliance was gearing up for a limited ground invasion after three weeks of aerial bombardment.

Mr Cook said the British Government had made it clear from the outset that it had “no intention and no plans to send in ground troops to Kosovo.’’ “Even if we were to develop such intentions - and we have not — it would be two to three months before we could act upon it,’’ said Mr Cook.

The Observer report said 80,000 troops had been earmarked for a NATO ground operation and that US forces had already begun training at a mock-up of a Balkan village in the Colorado Rockies.

Quoting sources in London and Washington, the Observer said the accelerated timetable follows insistence by NATO’s political leaders that the allied military campaign against Yugoslavia must be wrapped up within three months.

The paper also reported a “radical rethinking’’ of NATO’s air strategy to include lower level and higher precision raids against Serb forces in Kosovo and economic targets.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast Television today, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said NATO was still hoping to achieve its aims through aerial attacks. He said military authorities believed the air campaign was enough.

Meanwhile, AFP says NATO plane hit by Yugoslav air defences south of Pristina has crashed near the border with Macedonia, Serb television RTS has said, quoting Yugoslav military sources.

The plane sought to make an emergency landing in Macedonia after it was struck at around 2.30 p.m. (GMT) yesterday above the southern Kosovo region of Urosevac, the report said.

In Brussels, a NATO spokesperson denied the report.

In a reported separate incident, official Yugoslav agency Tanjug said that a plane, possibly from Britain, had been shot down by Yugoslav air defences near the southwestern Serbian town of Prijepolje yesterday.

Washington (Reuters): The Pentagon has said it was “not optimistic” that a prisoner swap could be arranged with Belgrade to free three US soldiers in return for a Serb army officer now held by the US military in Albania.

Navy Captain Mike Doubleday, a Defence Department spokesman, yesterday accused the Yugoslav President of denying the three soldiers their rights under the Geneva Convention since they were taken prisoner on March 31 by the Serbs along the Yugoslavia-Macedonia border.

He said the Yugoslav Army Lieutenant turned over to the US military by the Albanian government on Friday had been allowed to meet two representatives of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Tirana yesterday and to write a letter to this family.

Poll shootout in Turkey : 3 dead
141 Kurds die in operation

DIYARBARKIR (Turkey), April 18 (AFP) — Three people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting today between rival candidates in a local election in south-eastern Turkey, local security officials said.

The families of the candidates opened fire following a dispute in the town of Vransehir in Sanirfa province, the official said.

It was the first major outbreak of violence in the nationwide parliamentary and municipal elections held today in Turkey.

Six other people sustained injuries from blows with a club and rock-throwing in a separate scuffle between candidates to the Konukbekler local elections in the eastern province of Mus, Anatolia news agency reported.

Reuters adds: Turkey said today it had killed 141 Kurdish separatist guerrillas and lost 10 soldiers in a military operation in northern Iraq last week.

Mr Aydin Arslan, Governor of the Turkish south-eastern region under emergency rule, said the operation, believed to involve 3,000 troops backed by attack helicopters, had ended. He did not say when the troops, who crossed over a week ago, had returned.

Another 43 Kurds loyal to captured guerrilla leader Abdulla Ocalan had been killed in army operations in Tunceli district of the south-eastern region. Among the dead included Emrullah Mentes, a leading regional commander of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Ocalan faces trial for treason this summer over the death of over 29,000 people in his 14-year-old armed campaign.

Turkish forces pursuing PKK guerrillas frequently cross the border into northern Iraq, an area beyond Baghdad’s control since the 1991 Gulf war, where rebels have bases.

30 hurt as strike cripples Dhaka

DHAKA, April 18 (DPA) — A general strike today paralysed transport and shut down banks, shops and schools following a night of violent unrest in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka.

More than 5,000 paramilitary troops and riot police were deployed in the capital following overnight clashes between opposition activists and supporters of the ruling Awami League which left at least 30 persons, injured.

Hospital sources said seven passengers were critically wounded when the bus in which they were riding was hit by a petrol bomb.

Witnesses said at least three buses were set afire and several cars smashed by mobs in Dhaka’s busy Motijheel district on the eve of the strike late Saturday.

Sunday is a full working day in the Muslim-majority country.

The strike also crippled transport and businesses in the biggest port city of Chittagong, 240 kms southeast of Dhaka.

The countrywide strike was called by an anti-government alliance led by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to protest against power and water shortages and alleged repressive measures by the government against political rivals.

Sharif unfazed by Atal Govt’s fall

ISLAMABAD, April 18 (Reuters) — Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has played down the fall of the Vajpayee Government and said his government would work with its successor to improve ties.

Mr Sharif told reporters that the landmark Lahore declaration he reached with Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee would be unaffected by the BJP-led government’s resignation after it lost a vote of confidence by one vote.

“We want Pakistan and India to settle issues, including Kashmir, through a dialogue, and I am not in favour of an arms race,” Mr Sharif said in Lahore.

The Premier also announced measures to ease visits to Pakistani shrines by Sikhs from India and urged that their holy sites around the country should be maintained to a level that their followers would expect. An official statement said the fall of the Vajpayee Government was an internal matter of India.

BEIJING (PTI): The fall of the BJP-led coalition government in India is unlikely to affect the forthcoming round of Sino-Indian border talks later this month, official sources here said.

“We feel that the joint working group (JWG) will be held as scheduled,” a source told PTI.

Foreign Ministers of China and India had agreed to hold the 11th round of the JWG talks on the border issue in Beijing on April 26.

Indian sources here said the Foreign Secretary, Mr K. Raghunath will lead the Indian side at the two-day talks, the first between the two sides after India’s nuclear tests last year.

China had suspended last year’s JWG meeting after India cited a Chinese threat to justify its tests. The last JWG was held in New Delhi in August 1997.

COLOMBO (UNI): Political leaders in Sri Lanka feel that the ouster of the Atal Behari Government would not affect the Indo-Lankan relations. Sri Lankan newspapers on Sunday came out with banner headlines — India without a government. “Congress jubilant after government’s fall” and “All eyes on Sonia Gandhi”.

In front-page articles, leading newspapers described the Indian political scene as “fluid”, expressing doubts whether anyone can form a government with just one vote majority.

Quoting defence circles, The Sunday Times reported that in the event of Mrs Sonia Gandhi heading the next government, she would firmly deal with the LTTE and will take steps to bring to book those responsible for the killing of her husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. More so, the support to her from AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha, an opponent of the LTTE, would add to this.

Dubai: Media in Gulf has praised the ousted BJP government even as the prominent NRIs were disillusioned with the way in which the Vajpayee regime was voted out of power.

“It is an irony that the BJP-led government had to bow out of office just as it was getting its act together”, the Khaleej Times, an English daily said in a front page comment.

The largely circulated daily which was earlier critical of the BJP on several counts gave grudging praise to the party saying “the BJP-led coalition can claim to have notched up some remarkable achievements, despite the fragility of the coalition it steered”.

The daily lauded the government for showing the political will for the nuclear tests and the missile launches and also for seeking accommodation with the USA as a a de facto nuclear power.

Noting that the government was voted out of power on ‘non-issue of the dismissal of the naval chief’, the Sharjah-based daily, Gulf today, said AIADMK leader Jayalalitha found it a convenient pretext to create a political mess.

Anwar backers told to end stir

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Reuters) — The Malaysian Government has criticised supporters of jailed former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim and urged his wife’s new party to keep protesters off the capital’s streets.

“The rioters brought along Keadilan’s flag here and there, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper today, referring to the newly formed Parti Keadilan Rakyat (national justice party) headed by Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. “I would like to advise Keadilan to stop the street violence,” Mr Abdullah said.

About 300 persons participated in the protests near the court complex were Anwar was convicted shouting “reformasi” reform — the rallying cry of groups aligned with Anwar.

The Malaysian police blasted protesters and shoppers with water cannon in a tourist district yesterday in the fourth day of demonstrations in support of Anwar.

10 die in Nigeria revenge attack

LAGOS, April 18 (Reuters) — At least 10 people were burnt to death in northern Nigeria when criminals locked and set fire to four houses in a revenge attack on a vigilant leader, a local paper said here today.

The Times said Lado Dan Banga, who had prevented several robberies in the area, survived the attack at the town of Pembegua on Friday night.

50 hurt in London blast
LONDON: Nearly 50 persons were injured, two seriously, in a bomb blast that ripped through a busy market street in Brixton, South London on Saturday, the police said. There was no warning before the bomb want off at 4.30 p.m. (GMT) near an Iceland supermarket, the police said. About 48 persons, including a police official, were taken to hospital. Two of the victims, one of them a child, were seriously injured, they said. — Reuters

Overture to Libya
STUTTGART (GERMANY): Libya can join the European Union’s Barcelona process only after the United Nations lifts sanctions and Tripoli fully accepts the Euro-Med dialogue principles, said a statement on Friday after a meeting of 27 Euro-Med foreign ministers. A nine-person Libyan delegation took part at the two-day meeting here as a non-participatory guest. — DPA

US air raid kills 4
BAGHDAD: Four Iraqis were killed on Saturday and a fifth injured in raids by US warplanes on Northern Iraq, Iraqi military said here. “The bombardment left four citizens dead and another wounded,” a spokesman for Iraq’s anti-aircraft defence said without specifying if the casualties were civilians or soldiers. — AFP

Lutyens’ daughter dead
LONDON: Mary Lutyens, a prolific novelist, biographer, magazine write and editor, has died after almost six decades of writing. Lutyens, whose father was the well-known architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and whose maternal grandfather, the Earl of Lytton, was a Viceroy of India, died peacefully on April 9 in London. She was 90. The cause of death was not announced in death notices. Lutyens was married twice. She is survived by the daughter of her first marriage, Amanda. Lutyens was cremated on Thursday. — AP

Nuclear vandalism
MOSCOW: A man was arrested on charges of attempting to steal equipment from a nuclear power plant, which automatically shut down as a result of the intrusion the authorities said. The arrest took place on Saturday in the far northern city of Murmansk, where the Kola Nuclear Power Plant shut down early on Friday when it detected someone tampering with its equipment, the Federal Security Service (FSB) told Russian news agencies. — AP

Cholera kills 31
ANTANANARIVO: Thirtyone persons have died of cholera in hospitals in Northwest Madagascar, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday. A total of 378 suspected cases suffering from acute diarrhoea were receiving hospital treatment in Mahajanga province on the country’s northwest coast, the ministry said. About 30 per cent of those hospitalised were actually suffering from cholera. — AFP

Student kills principal
MULTAN: A disgruntled student on Friday shot and killed his college principal after the principal refused his request to declare a holiday, the police said. Abdul Rehman Sungera, head of the Pakistan Muslim League student wing in Multan, wanted the government technical college closed to let people attend a Muslim League rally, they said. The principal, Shahid Ameen, refused and was shot, the police said. — AP