W O R L D	Friday, July 17, 1998
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Pakistan may sign CTBT ISLAMABAD, July 16 — Pakistan is considering signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a leading daily quoting an unidentified senior Pakistani official reported today... 18 more die in B’desh floods DHAKA, July 16 — Death toll from the week-long rains has risen to 45 with 18 more deaths reported today after four more districts were flooded last night...

J & K separatists told to contest poll LONDON, July 16 — A prominent supporter of Kashmiri separatists in the British Parliament, Lord Eric Avebury, has asked them to return to the “ballot box” as their armed struggle has failed... NRIs’ gift to nation LONDON, July 16 — Faced with the embarrassment of losing the Mahatma’s letters, two noted non-resident Indian industrialists intervened to buy the historical correspondence at a London auction and then gifted the bunch to the nation...

Yeltsin decides to attend Czar’s burial MOSCOW, July 16 — In an unexpected move, President Boris Yeltsin reverting his earlier decision is now flying to St Petersburg to attend the tomorrow’s ceremonial burial of the last emperor of Russia Nicholas II and his family executed by Bolsheviks 80 years ago... Sisulu awarded Padma Vibhushan JOHANNESBURG, July 16 — Veteran South African freedom fighter Walter Sisulu (90) has been awarded India’s prestigious Padma Vibhushan... FBI foils plot to poison Clinton NOT even Ian Fleming could have conjured so bizarre a contraption: a lighter that would shoot poisoned cactus needles at President Bill Clinton. Yet, three supporters of an independent state of Texas planned such an assassination...

Pakistan may sign CTBT ISLAMABAD, July 16 (PTI) — Pakistan is considering signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a leading daily quoting an unidentified senior Pakistani official reported today. “We are giving a serious consideration to signing the CTBT, but not to ratify it as the treaty could only come into force when the P-5 plus the three (India, Pakistan and Israel) ratify it,” The News quoted the official as saying. The official also said that the Americans have mounted pressure on Pakistan to sign and ratify the CTBT in the wake of its nuclear tests. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Mr Gohar Ayub Khan, had said a couple of days ago that pressure was being mounted on Pakistan to sign the CTBT while declaring that Islamabad’s stand on CTBT was no longer linked to India’s stand on the issue. The U.S Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Mr Karl Inderfurth, had recently said that the USA has made it clear it wanted to see that both India and Pakistan did not conduct further nuclear tests and sign and ratify the CTBT immediately and without any conditions. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has also reportedly convened a meeting of the defence committee of the Cabinet to discuss issues linked to the post-test situation. The meeting is being held in the wake of reports from Washington that a decision on the release of the crucial IMF loan to Pakistan had been withheld till the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot to South Asia next week. The IMF board, which was to discuss of release of loans to Pakistan last Monday deferred its decision ostensibly under pressure from the G-8 countries, who earlier resolved to block all loans from multilateral agencies to both India and Pakistan. The delay in release of the IMF loan is further aggravating Pakistan’s economic crises leading to the fears that the country may default on its debt repayment liabilities as its foreign exchange reserve has slumped to barely $ 750 million, enough to meet import requirements for only three weeks. Pakistan earlier had been insisting that it would sign the CTBT only if India did, but in recent times it has undertaken a “strategic review” of its stand on the issue.

J & K separatists told to contest poll LONDON, July 16 (PTI) — A prominent supporter of Kashmiri separatists in the British Parliament, Lord Eric Avebury, has asked them to return to the “ballot box” as their armed struggle has failed. “I have come to believe now that Kashmiri separatist leaders should come round to fighting elections as the armed struggle has not been successful,” Lord Avebury, a known India baiter in the House of Lords, told a meeting organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Amanullah group) here last night. “Personally, I have been a supporter of armed struggle in Kashmir. We tried it all these years. It has not been successfull. We should now return to expression through elections,” the Chairman of the British Parliamentarians Friends of Kashmir Association said. The meeting in the Westminster annexe was attended by a fair sprinkling of India baiter members of House of Commons. Lord Avebury, who has failed in his attempt to bring leaders from both the sides of Kashmir to London, asked the Kashmiri separatist leaders to “to go for elections next time it is due”, and added they should represent the people of Jammu and Kashmir rather than what he called “stooges”. “Through elections, Kashmiri leaders can express to the international community the problems being faced by them,” Lord Avebury said at the meeting called to reflect opinion on JKLF Chairman Amanullah Khan’s recent proposal for demilitarisation of Kashmir and allowing a cooling-off period under “internationally supervised re-unification”. Lord Avebury said Mr Khan’s proposal, though “laudable”, was impractical as under international laws it could not be entertained by the United Nations. While some members of Commons active on the Kashmir front, like Mr Stephen Timms and Mr Tony Clark, supported moves for a new initiative, other Labour members, including Mr Tom Cox, Mohd Sarwar, Mr Kelvin Hopkins and Mr David Chatter shied away from taking any anti-Pakistan posture on Kashmir.

18 more die in B’desh floods DHAKA, July 16 (AFP) — Death toll from the week-long rains has risen to 45 with 18 more deaths reported today after four more districts were flooded last night. Dhaka’s Janakantha daily reported 18 more deaths while the Banglabazar Patrika quoted official sources as confirming only six more deaths. The government has summoned a high-level meeting today to review the latest situation and take emergency steps for relief operations, officials said. Gushing waters from the Gumti in Eastern Comilla district threatened major embankments and nearby villages. Troops had to be called in to protect facilities and take up emergency repairs in case of major breaches, reports said. Reports said the south-eastern coast and eastern hilly districts had been the worst hit. Strike (PTI): At least 25 persons were injured in sporadic violence during an Opposition-sponsored general strike that crippled normal life in Bangladesh capital today. 40 other Opposition activists were also arrested. The riot police fired several rounds of tear gas shells and chased main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activists when home-made bombs were thrown in front of the car of a senior police official near the BNP office in downtown Dhaka.

NRIs’ gift to nation LONDON, July 16 (PTI) — Faced with the embarrassment of losing the Mahatma’s letters, two noted non-resident Indian industrialists intervened to buy the historical correspondence at a London auction and then gifted the bunch to the nation. The collection of 18 letters in English and Urdu to Maulana Bari, late founder of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, written during 1918-24 with some in Gandhi’s own hand, came under the hammer at the Sotheby’s yesterday. A former Indian High Commissioner here Dr L.M. Singhvi persuaded NRI industrialists Ghulam Kadir Noon and Nat Puri to intervene, and the two together paid £ 21,172 to acquire the rare papers in the auction. Noon, the renowned Indian readymade food mogul, and Puri, who runs an engineering empire, later announced they were gifting the documents, which also include some letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru and his father Pandit Motilal Nehru to Maulana Bari, to the nation. Most of the letters, running into 38 pages of original text and 26 pages of translation, and all on yellowed Indian paper but said to be in good condition, throw light on Gandhi’s thoughts on developing Hindu-Muslim unity right from the start of the freedom struggle and making secularism the main plank of the Congress. Dr Singhvi, who played a key role in the acquisition of the documents, said, “It was essential to get these rare papers back as they form part of our national heritage”. The Former High Commissioner had also played a sterling role in the earlier acquisition of Gandhi’s papers on the Gita and his reflections on the importance of khadi. Yesterday’s auction at the Sotheby’s opened with the bid of £ 7,000 and the two NRI businessmen intervened even as the Indian High Commission was trying to join in the bid to acquire the papers.

Yeltsin decides to attend Czar’s burial MOSCOW, July 16 (PTI) — In an unexpected move, President Boris Yeltsin reverting his earlier decision is now flying to St Petersburg to attend the tomorrow’s ceremonial burial of the last emperor of Russia Nicholas II and his family executed by Bolsheviks 80 years ago. In his televised address to the nation today, Mr Yeltsin said, “This is a matter of human justice” and he has decided to attend the funeral of the last remains of the Russian royal family and their royal servants. Mr Yeltsin had previously said he would not attend the ceremony out of respect for the wishes of the Russian orthodox church, which disputes the authenticity of the remains. Mr Yeltsin has another personal reason to pay last homage, as it was he as the party chief of the Sevrdlovsk region who had ordered the demolition of Ipatiyev House in Yekaterinburg (Urals) in the basement of which the whole royal family and its servants were executed by the Bolshevik firing squad on the night of July 17, 1918. The Head of State will travel to the former imperial capital of St Petersburg for tomorrow’s ceremony. The royals are to be buried in the cathedral inside the Peter and Paul fortress, the traditional resting place of the Romanov dynasty since Peter the great. Commenting on Mr Yeltsin’s decision, the Russian patriarch Alexi II said he respected “moral motives” of the President. The ceremony will come 80 years after the family’s execution by Bolshevik revolutionaries in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

Sisulu awarded Padma Vibhushan JOHANNESBURG, July 16 (PTI) — Veteran South African freedom fighter Walter Sisulu (90) has been awarded India’s prestigious Padma Vibhushan. Mr Sisulu, former Chairman of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), was given the award by Indian High Commissioner in Johannesburg Laxmi Jain at a ceremony here last night. “You are an example to all of us,” Ms Jain said while presenting the award adding that India was deeply honoured to recognise the contributions made by Mr Sisulu towards the liberation of South Africa and mankind in general. Mr Sisulu had served more than 25 years as a political prisoner with Mr Nelson Mandela and Mr Ahmed Kathrada in the infamous Robin Island prison. “He has been the gentle giant in our struggles for democracy and liberation. He has been an inspiration to all of us through his untiring efforts, his humility and his patience,” said Mr Kathrada.

FBI foils plot to poison Clinton from Christopher Reed in Los Angeles NOT even Ian Fleming could have conjured so bizarre a contraption: a lighter that would shoot poisoned cactus needles at President Bill Clinton. Yet, according to the FBI, three supporters of an independent state of Texas planned such an assassination. The agents arrested the men, Oliver Emigh, Jack Grebe and Johnnie Wise, and they are in prison in Brownsville on the Texas-Mexico border. The plan, which they apparently unsuspectingly revealed to an undercover FBI informant, was to modify a Bic lighter so it would expel air instead of propane gas. They intended to glue a hypodermic needle to the aperture and insert a cactus needle — readily available in the Rio Grande area of Texas, where they lived. Then they would coat the needle with a deadly biological agent such as anthrax, botulism bacteria or the AIDS virus, and get near enough to the President to fire it. How this would cause the state (once indeed an independent republic) to float free again was not explained to the FBI’s man on the spot. But the trio allegedly sent threatening mail to the President, Attorney-General, Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh. The message to Mr Freeh read: “Your FBI employees and their families have been targeted for destruction by revenge.” Agents also found several 30-gallon drums and three jars containing a clear liquid in Wise’s caravan. Without specifying their contents, the agents said in an affidavit that they “could include rotten meat, blood infected with the AIDS virus, anthrax spores, and the rabies virus”. Wise’s lawyer, Mr Keith Uhless, said the drums contained orange marmalade, and the clear liquid was coconut oil to make soap. The case bears an unfortunate similarity to the FBI arrest in February of two men allegedly plotting to release anthrax into the New York underground system. The “anthrax” turned out to be a harmless vaccine. — The Guardian, London

Global monitor USA to penalise 9 Russian firms WASHINGTON: The Clinton Administration said on Wednesday that it would penalise nine Russian enterprises found to have sold sensitive technology to Iran, Libya or North Korea that could be used for weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, White House applauded the Russian Government for establishing an investigative commission that uncovered the illicit exports, the commission threatened administrative and even criminal charges against the enterprises, the Itar-Tass news agency reported in Moscow. Aid offered to India MOSCOW: Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has offered Delhi help in major development projects, including construction of metro railway, Yamuna river water management and waste treatment, according to Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. He was on a visit to the Russian capital. — PTI Park in Himalayas BEIJING: China has entered into a tie-up with a US nature protection group to build the world’s largest national park on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas. The American association will invest $ 2 million in the construction of the park which will cover an area of 60,000 sq km, seven times the size of the famous Yellowstone National Park of Wyoming in the USA. — PTI Lightning kills 14 BEIJING: A bolt of lightning killed 14 persons and injured 42 others in southern China who had sought shelter from a storm in a building, a state-run newspaper reported. The storm struck on last Friday in Yungui village in Guizhou Province. Yangcheng evening news reported on Wednesday. — AP ‘Titanic’ in China BEIJING: James Cameron’s Oscar-winning Hollywood epic “Titanic” has continued its voyage into movie history, smashing box office records in China, officials here said. The film is the most profitable foreign or Chinese film ever released in China. — AFP Warning about Viagra TOKYO: Japan issued a warning against the use of the anti-impotence drug Viagra, after a 60-year-old man died shortly after taking the pill. “The causal relation between the death and Viagra is not determined”, a Health and Welfare Ministry spokesman said. adding that “but we would like to draw people’s attention to this. — AFP Kids abused sexually THE HAGUE: Children between age of one year and a year-and a half were sexually assaulted as cameras filmed the acts to make saleable pornographic materials, Dutch news reports said. The police, in a raid at a home in Zandvoort, confiscated thousands of photographs ad videos as evidence of sexual abuse of the young children by an organised criminal gang. — DPA Lankan MP killed COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan MP, Mr S. Shanmuganathan (36), was killed along with his son and four policemen on the night of Wednesday when suspected LTTE rebels blasted his vehicles with a claymore mine near northern Vavuniya. — PTI

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