TNI backs Megawati’s presidential bid
JAKARTA, Oct 8 — Indonesia’s military (TNI) is expected to back popular Megawati Sukarnoputri’s presidential bid in an effort to head off civil unrest and mend its own tarnished image, sources said today.

Mexico flood toll rises to 218
TEZIUTLAN, Oct 8 — With dozens of people believed buried alive in mudslides, rescue workers struggled to reach remote towns in southern and central Mexico, where flooding following heavy rains has killed at least 218 people.

Lashkar faces terrorist label
WASHINGTON, Oct 8 — Pak-based the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which actively sponsors terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, may be branded as a “terrorist outfit” by the USA soon, sources said here today.

Chechen leader appeals to NATO
MOSCOW, Oct 8 — Chechnya’s President Aslan Maskhadov has appealed to NATO to help end fighting between his forces and Russian troops, Ria news agency said today.

Pinochet can be extradited to Spain
From Susan Cornwell

LONDON, Oct 8 — A British court today ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet can be extradited to Spain to stand trial on torture charges, setting off wild celebrations by his opponents.

General Pinochet’s lawyers are expected to appeal to the High Court against the ruling by London Magistrate Ronald Bartle. They have 15 days in which to file an appeal, and Pinochet cannot be extradited while the appeal is pending.

“I am satisfied all the conditions are in place (for extradition) which obligates me to commit Senator Pinochet to await the decision of the Secretary of State (Home Secretary Jack Straw),” Mr Bartle said in his ruling. The ex-dictator was not present for the decision because he had been excused from appearing due to ill-health.

There were cheers inside the courtroom and outside, where opponents of the general had gathered. Unlike previous occasions involving court decisions on the case, supporters of the 83-year-old General were absent this time.

Extradition must be approved by Home Secretary Straw. Pinochet’s lawyers can ask him to block extradition on grounds of the General’s ill-health.

Senator Pinochet, (83), was arrested in London nearly one year ago at the request of Spain, which wants to try him on torture charges dating from the latter part of his 1973-1990 rule in Chile. He denies the charges and is under house arrest near London. Last week Mr Bartle heard four days of legal argument for and against the proposed extradition.

In a statement issued after the decision, Senator Pinochet declared that he was not guilty of allegations of torture and conspiracy to torture made by Spain. “I declare that I am not guilty of the crimes for which I am accused,” the Senator for life said in a statement read out by his lawyer, Mr Clive Nicholls. “Spain has not produced a single piece of evidence which shows that I am guilty. “Not only that, I believe Spain has not properly investigated any of these crimes and does not have jurisdiction to try me,” the statement said.

When the news hit the street outside the courtroom, anti-Pinochet protesters cheered and began chanting: “He’s going to Spain, he’s going to Spain. We have won a big decision but we now have to see if Pinochet tries to appeal,” said Ms Orita Vargas, whose two nephews “disappeared” during the General’s rule.

“Pinochet’s wall of impunity has crumbled. The thousands of people who were killed, brutalised and had ‘disappeared’ during his regime and their families are finally finding justice. Pinochet can drag this out with appeals but he cannot hope to overturn this sound, legal decision,” Mr Reed Brody of the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said. “Unless politics intervenes, Pinochet will be going to Spain,” he added. — Reuters

DPA adds: The Bow Street Magistrate’s Court committed Pinochet on all 35 charges he faces — one of conspiracy to torture and 34 of the torture of individuals.

In Spain, about 100 demonstrators also cheered in central Madrid on hearing the news. The demonstrators mostly Chilean, Argentine and Spanish, some of whom were family members of Pinochet’s victims, shouted “Pinochet murderer”.

Deputy Chief Stipendiary Magistrate Ronald Bartle delivered his ruling committing Pinochet to await British Home Secretary Jack Straw’s decision on extradition. Mr Straw has already ruled that the case can go forward in the courts. Now the Home Secretary must ultimately approve the extradition a process which legal analysts predicted could take up to two years.

A further appeal to the House of Lords is also possible before Mr Straw takes his decision.

Lawyer Alun Jones, representing the Spanish Government, said he had nothing to say in response to Senator Pinochet’s statement, telling the court “there are already enough strident voices” surrounding the case.

A Spanish investigating judge, Baltasar Garzon, has accused Pinochet of orchestrating the repression of political opponents during his 1973-90 rule. His allegations had been refined by the Crown prosecution service, acting on behalf of the Spanish authorities, to 35 charges — one of conspiracy to torture, and 34 of torture of Chilean individuals.

Representatives of the ruling Conservative Popular Party meanwhile slammed former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for calling Pinochet a “political prisoner” and for saying that he would not get a fair trial in Spain. Party spokesman Jose Maria Robles Fraga said he “did not agree” with Ms Thatcher, and accused Thatcher of making “erroneous” references to the Spanish judicial system.

MADRID: Human rights activists and Chilean exiles danced and cheered in central Madrid today to celebrate a British magistrate’s ruling that general Pinochet should be extradited to Spain to stand trial.

More than 100 demonstrators who crowded around portable radios at the historic Puerta Del Sol Monument erupted with joy on hearing the decision.

The festive atmosphere was tempered by the realisation that it was just the latest step in a long judicial process. Legal experts say the appeals process could drag on for months, if not years.

SANTIAGO: Human rights activists in Chile punched their fists on the air in wild celebration today after hearing the British court ruling.

“We are extremely happy, we are extremely emotional. We have waited for this moment for a long time. This is really special,” Ms Viviana Diaz, president of families of the detained and disappeared, told reporters at the headquarters of the protest group.

Members of the human rights group, which has campaigned for years for justice for more than 3,000 people who died or disappeared under Pinochet’s iron-fisted 1973-1990 rule, held hands in a circle as they waited in the final moments ahead of the ruling. They broke into tears of joy when the news broke.

The mood across town at the headquarters of the Pinochet Foundation, where around 200 supporters of the 83-year-old General held an all-night vigil in honour of the father-figure of the Chilean military, was subdued. “It was expected”, said a stern-faced Jorge Prado, a director of the foundation which doles out military scholarships and polishes Pinochet’s image. “Now it is time for the Chilean Government to pressure London and Madrid to make them understand the precarious state of General Pinochet’s health.”

Serb opposition unites against Milosevic

BELGRADE, Oct 8 (Reuters DPA) — Serbia’s divided opposition has settled its main differences over electoral issues and said it would soon be ready to challenge Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to a showdown at the elections.

The authorities, under pressure since NATO’s March-to-June air war drove Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, say they will hold elections, but only if the opposition demands them officially.

“Participants have agreed on all important issues concerning election conditions and the election laws,” said a statement from a round table of opposition officials yesterday.

It said another session would be held next week and once the agreement is signed it would be sent to the government.

PRISTINA: The new Commander of the Kfor peacekeeping forces in Kosovo, German General Klaus Reinhardt, sees improvement of security in the province as the primary goal of his forces.

“We can certainly not retreat even a single millimetre in regard to safe surroundings. Here we will focus on that goal just as strongly as ever,” he told DPA early today.

General Reinhardt was scheduled to take over before noon on Friday as Commander of the nearly 50,000 international troops stationed in Kosovo and nearby countries. He replaces British General Michael Jackson.

“That means bearing full responsibility for the security of every population group here in Kosovo — regardless of which Ethnic group they belong to. I can only say that I will (do) that.”

“It is certainly important that the people here see that, for the first time this century, they have a German who has come here to lead troops — not as occupying forces, but as someone who has come to help the people here,” he continued.

WASHINGTON: The World Bank has said it will spend up to $ 60 million over the next 18 months to support the reconstruction and economic recovery in Kosovo.

The bank’s executive board on Thursday approved the spending after reviewing a bank assessment of Kosovo’s economic needs following the NATO bombing campaign and Serb ethnic cleansing.

And now the Y6B bug

NEW YORK, Oct 8 (AP) — A majority of the 370,000 children born next Tuesday will be poor. Half will be Asian. And in theory, one will be the planet’s 6 billionth person.

Most experts greet this milestone with anxiety. In just 12 years, they note, humans have increased their number by one billion. During the 20th century, the world’s population has tripled. And by 2100, ecologist David Pimentel of Cornell University warned in a recent paper, “12 billion miserable humans will suffer a difficult life on earth.”

Advocates for population control call it “Y6B.” They warn that if humanity can’t clamp a lid on the population explosion it will spell serious trouble — war, famine, economic collapse.

But not everybody agrees that October 12 is a day for doom and gloom. Economist Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., considers it an occasion for celebration.

“This is an incredible thing that we have 6 billion people,” he says. “It’s a real tribute to human ingenuity and our ability to innovate.”

Moore was a student of economist Julian Simon, who died last year at the age of 65. Simon criticised warnings about population growth, arguing that technological innovation would progress fast enough to support the human race. To an extent, that is what has happened this century.

“A lot of these prophecies of doom have really proven to be false,” Moore says.

Even the UN, a leading advocate for population control, has found reason for encouragement in recent population growth, because the boom is proof of increased agricultural production, decreased infant mortality and prolonged life expectancy.

But the “Green Revolution” that increased food production so dramatically in the sixties and seventies appears to have reached its limit. Total agricultural yields have levelled off and per capita food production has actually been falling since 1983, Pimentel notes in the current issue of “environment, Development, and Sustainability.”

And there is little chance that genetically modified crops and other biotechnology will reinvigorate agricultural production.

“We can hope, but actually if you look, biotechnology’s been with us for the last 20 years,” Pimentel says. “To state it will turn the food situation around, the evidence is not there.”

Fresh radiation leak in Japan

TOKYO, Oct 8 (DPA, AFP) — The Tokyo Electric Power Company today said a very small radiation leakage has been detected at a nuclear-related facility in Rokkasho, Aomori prefecture, northern Japan.

The leak came from two barrels transported from the company’s nuclear power plant in the northern Fukushima prefecture.

Meanwhile, Japan bowed today to an international inspection of the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl amid reports that the disaster was bigger than first feared.

The government said it had agreed to let in the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which offered to help immediately after the September 30 radiation leak.

“The IAEA has offered to send experts to look into this accident. We will accept the offer,” the Science and Technology Agency Chief, Mr Hirofumi Nakasone, told a news conference here.

The leak at a uranium processing site in Tokaimura, 120 km north-east of Tokyo, exposed as many as 49 persons to radiation and forced more than 320,000 persons to shelter at home for two days.

The operator, JCO Co. Ltd., said three workers — two of them now in critical condition — used steel buckets to pour 16 kg of uranium into a tank, seeing a blue flash as they set off a nuclear reaction.

It is being termed as the worst accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

TNI backs Megawati’s presidential bid

JAKARTA, Oct 8 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s military (TNI) is expected to back popular Megawati Sukarnoputri’s presidential bid in an effort to head off civil unrest and mend its own tarnished image, sources said today.

The move will boost her chances, which were hurt when former allies deserted her to support Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid.

Underlying the military’s stand is the fear of fresh riots if Ms Megawati’s June parliamentary win fails to translate into the presidency when the top legislature, the People’s Consultative Assembly, chooses the next president on October 20.

“The analysis within military intelligence is that if Ms Megawati is not elected President, there will be an outbreak of ‘extraordinary riots,’ a military intelligence source told Reuters. “The military is therefore more likely to lean towards Ms Megawati.”

He said the armed forces’ over-riding concern was to prevent the world’s fourth largest country tearing itself apart. Thousands have already been killed in waves of communal violence that have swept the country over the past two years.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Megawati supporters took to the streets demanding she be appointed President.

The military and the police have 38 appointed seats in the parliament in recognition of their dual political and defence role.

With no party or alliance anywhere near a majority in either the Parliament or the Assembly, the armed forces could yet be kingmaker with the deciding votes in the country’s first contested presidential election.

Officials from Megawati’s party are confident they can swing the military behind her.

“Ideologically, the military is closest to Ms Megawati, in terms of nationalism, upholding a unitary state...,” PDI-P co-Chairman Major-General Theo Syafei (retd) told Reuters. He is one of the several retired military officers in the party.

Asked if the military is likely to vote for Ms Megawati, he said: “Oh Yes”.

Mexico flood toll rises to 218

TEZIUTLAN, Oct 8 (AP) — With dozens of people believed buried alive in mudslides, rescue workers struggled to reach remote towns in southern and central Mexico, where flooding following heavy rains has killed at least 218 people.

Official death tolls soared yesterday as rescue workers fought through mudslides for buried victims using everything from bulldozers to buckets to bare hands.

Flooding sent rivers roaring over their banks across the southern and central half of Mexico. More than 157,000 people have been forced from their homes.

In Mixun, a village in the mountains of Puebla state 105 miles, northeast of Mexico City, a mudslide buried 15 homes and a school on Wednesday. Ten persons escaped but 40 others were believed trapped in the mud, said Juan Francisc Ponce Salas, an official in Pantepec, which includes Mixun.

State spokesman Jaime Molina said four persons had died there — including two teachers — and 17 primary school students were missing.

“We need help urgently since we, with our hands, can’t do anything. We need equipment to get out the people trapped under the mud,” another Pantepec official, Luis Francisco Diaz told the government news agency Notimex.

President Ernesto Zedillo, who flew home yesterday from Canada, ordered the military to do whatever it could to assist flood victims and set up shelters.

Later in the day Puebla officials said 166 people had died there, most in mudslides in remote mountain towns. “It’s a fact that more are going to appear” dead, Molina said by telephone. He said 125 people were missing.

Lashkar faces terrorist label

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 — Pak-based the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which actively sponsors terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, may be branded as a “terrorist outfit” by the USA soon, sources said here today.

Another Pak-based terrorist outfit, the Harkat-ul-Ansar, is already on the list.

Mr Singh and Mr Gill told reporters at the Indian Embassy here that there was an understanding in USA of India’s position that while it was essential to have a dialogue with Pakistan, for meaningful talks, Islamabad would have to respect the sanctity of the Line of Control and stop sending terrorists across it.

Chechen leader appeals to NATO

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) — Chechnya’s President Aslan Maskhadov has appealed to NATO to help end fighting between his forces and Russian troops, Ria news agency said today.

Russia, which is trying to crush Islamic guerrillas based in Chechnya, says its military campaign in the region is an internal matter but Western countries have expressed fears it might lead to a repeat of the disastrous 1994-96 Chechen war.

Ford factory photo
NEW YORK: An original photo by Charles Sheeler of a Ford Factory in Detroit fetched a record $ 607,500 at an auction, according to Sotheby’s here on Thursday. The US artist’s 1927 photograph, “Criss-Crossed Conveyors, Ford Plant” was sold on Wednesday to a specialist gallery in San Francisco, establishing a new world auction record for a photograph. Sotheby’s had estimated the photo to be worth $ 150,000-250,000 at an auction. — AFP

Hubble mission delayed
CAPE CANAVERAL: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has said it was delaying a hubble repair mission because it needed time to fix electrical problems on the shuttle Discovery that came to light after a near-disaster in the last launch. Discovery’s next flight has been put off until December 2. It will carry seven astronauts on a 10-day mission to repair the Hubble space telescope, NASA said on Thursday. — Reuters

DNA for identity
MILWAUKEE: Prosecutors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have taken the unprecedented step of identifying a rape suspect based only on his DNA, media reports said. The identity of the man investigators believe who had raped three women in 1993 is unknown but prosecutors found evidence of the same person’s DNA at the crime scenes and believe that person is the perpetrator. — DPA

Knighthood for Solana
LONDON: Former NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana has been granted an honorary knighthood by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, although he will not be called by the title “Sir”. “The queen has been graciously pleased to approve that an honorary Knighthood-Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George-be conferred on Senor Solana ... for his service to NATO,” a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said on Thursday. — Reuters