Send Pak troops to fight Serbs: Imran
ISLAMABAD, April 7 — Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has joined other Pakistani opposition leaders in demanding that the government send troops to Kosovo to save Albanian Muslims from Serb atrocities. He also charged that the attitude of Muslims worldwide towards their brethren in Kosovo was against the principles of Islam.

Rights violated at US women’s prisons
UNITED NATIONS, April 7 — Sexual misconduct by prison guards is common in women’s prisons in the USA, an independent fact-finder for the United Nations has said.

Hun Sen relents on trial
PHNOM PENH, April 7 — Prime Minister Hun Sen has relented in his opposition to foreign participation in the trial of a senior Khmer Rouge leader, telling a US Senator that judges and prosecutors from other countries would be welcome to help.

Rebels attack boats, kill 50
FREETOWN, April 7 — Rebels killed more than 50 persons when they attacked two boats in southern Sierra Leone, a representative of the boat owners have told reporters here.

Provincial Councils’ elections
Peoples Alliance sweeps polls

COLOMBO, April 7 (PTI) — Sri Lanka’s ruling Peoples Alliance (PA) swept polls to all five Provincial Councils in the Sinhala-dominated south today in tightly contested polls largely seen as a test of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s popularity ahead of key national elections.

Sri Lanka’s the ruling Peoples Alliance (PA), headed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, made a clean sweep winning control of all the five provincial councils for which polling was held yesterday capturing 30 seats against 112 secured by the opposition United National Party (UNP) in a neck and neck fight, says UNI from Colombo.

The ruling party, at the heart of an intense controversy over rigging in polls to the northwest council last February secured a simple majority in all councils staving off a powerful challenge from its arch rival and principal opposition the United National Party (UNP).

Final results announced by the Election Commission this morning after overnight counting said the ruling alliance wrested control of UNP-held northwestern, Sabarugamuwa, Uvva and central provinces and retained power in capital Colombo.

Ms Kumaratunga’s own party the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP), won more seats than the UNP in all five provinces which would enable it to form the government with its allies.

The party won 19 of the 32 seats on stake in the Sinhalese-dominated rural province of north-central Anuradhapura, in a strong vindication for the President’s peace package for the northeast. The UNP won 12 and the Left wing Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP) two seats.

The alliance also won 22 of the 44 seats up for the grabs in south central Sabaragumuwa province and 17 of 34 seats in south eastern Uvva province. The UNP won 19 and 14 seats respectively in the two provinces.

The ruling party made surprising inroads into strongholds of former premier Ranil Wickremasinghe’s UNP in the western provinces, comprising central Kandy and Colombo. The party secured 26 out of 58 seats in the central province, home to over six lakh Indian Tamil tea estate labourers.

Its ally, the National Union of Workers, recently floated by cyclone workers Congress president S. Thondaman, a moderate, won six seats, the UNP won 23 and the JVP one.

The alliance won 46 of the 104 seats in the western province where the UNP had fielded its front line leader and Colombo Mayor Karu Jayasurya as the chief ministerial candidate. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the National Union of Workers won a seat each.

The UNP too put up a strong show winning 44 seats mostly from Colombo’s urban areas. The JVP secured eight seats and the new Left Front three. Ideological differences among the three opposition parties will not let them form a government.

The UNP won about 62 per cent of the votes in Colombo city as against the ruling coalition which secured only 24 per cent. Analysts here believe the government’s failure to solve the ethnic problem translated into votes for the UNP.

The ruling party was able to offset its losses in Colombo by winning with huge margins in Attnagalla division, home of the ruling Bandaranaike family. The alliance secured 60 per cent of the votes there as against the UNP which got 29 per cent.

The results mark the return of Thondaman, whose party in the 1997 local body polls suffered losses, when the Estate Tamil’s overwhelmingly voted for the UNP. Though the PA and the Cyclone Workers Congress contested the polls separately this time, both won substantial number of seats.

Victories for President Kumaratunga today consolidated her party’s position which had also won the poll to the north-western province held on February 25. The results, however, of those councils were challenged in the court by the UNP for widespread poll irregularities.

Analysts here said the results re-establish Kumaratunga’s hold on her party and the country and this might prompt her to opt for mid-term presidential elections later this year.

USA seeks Russian mediation
Four-point plan on Kosovo

WASHINGTON, April 7 (AFP) — US Vice-President Al Gore has appealed to Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov not to let their differences over Kosovo get between them.

“Primakov understood the situation on the ground, understood our view and I think there was some concurrence that this should not become a problem between our two countries,” said White House spokesman Mike Hammer yesterday.

Mr Gore initiated the call to Mr Primakov, who abruptly cancelled his trip on March 23 just before the NATO air strikes.

Mr Hammer declined to comment on the Russian version of the 45-minute call, and said: “The Vice-President described a very stark picture on the humanitarian side of what was going on in Kosovo”.

The spokesman added that the USA appreciated Russia’s work on the Rambouillet peace agreement and Moscow’s continued interest in finding a diplomatic solution.

Meanwhile, a report in The New York Times says the Clinton administration has approached Moscow to serve as a go-between with President Milosevic in a new attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Kosovo.

Referring to Vice-President Gore’s call to Prime Minister Primakov, the daily said he sought Russia’s help in getting the Yogoslav leader to take steps that would lead to a resumption of negotiations.

Mr Gore’s contacts with Russia were reported as the administration continued to explore other strategies to resolve the conflict without using allied ground forces to fight the Serbs.

Administration officials said the Russians would be asked to urge Mr Milosevic to accept the four points that the NATO allies outlined last weekend as a condition for ending the NATO bombing. These are: withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo, the return of the refugees, the introduction of an international security force and self-government for Kosovo.

MOSCOW (AFP): NATO is planning to launch a 100,000-man ground operation into Kosovo from several areas including Albania in 15 days’ time, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said.

“According to our experts as well as the French, NATO is leaning towards the launch of a ground operation in Kosovo,” Mr Ivanov told reporters here yesterday. The 24 US Apache combat helicopters, despatched to Albania, and 2,000 troops would be involved in the operation.

“The goal of the operation is to separate Kosovo from the rest of Yugoslavia and install a provisional government,” said the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces, Yuri Boluyevsky. Who appeared alongside Mr Ivanov at the news conference. He said Macedonia and the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina would also be taken in the partition.

Mr Ivanov asserted that Russia did not plan to provide military aid to Yugoslavia, its Slavic friend.

Meanwhile, Russia sent its first batch of humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia to help ease the impact of NATO raids that President Boris Yeltsin called “barbaric”.

Mr Yeltsin welcomed President Milosevic’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire with Kosovo rebels yesterday. “Any peace initiative must be useful”, presidential spokesman Dmitry Yukushkin quoted Mr Yeltsin as saying.

“The situation is favourable for political, but not military steps,” Mr Yeltsin told reporters. “One can’t help expressing indignation over the barbaric bombardment of Belgrade”.

In Paris, French President Jaques Chirac called Belgrade’s ceasefire “necessary but insufficient”, noting that President Milosevic had to meet NATO conditions to insure a return to peace and security in Kosovo.

Bombing may cost USA ‘2 billion’

WASHINGTON, April 7 (DPA) — The cost of bombing Yugoslavia could reach $ 2 billion for the U.S. military, and is in danger of exploding into the U.S. debate, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

Already, about $ 500 million were spent in the first two weeks, according to calculations by the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-partisan group that counted primarily.

The cost of cruise missiles fired at Yugoslav targets since March 24.

The cost figures do not include money spent by other NATO allies participating in the bombings.

Nor do they include the cost of rushing relief aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Kosovo as Serb troops and paramilitary forces systematically expel ethnic Albanians from their homes.

But with President Bill Clinton vowing that the bombing will “persist until we prevail” and will be “unceasing and relentless.” The cost could quickly escalate to between $ 2 billion and $ 4, the centre said.

The Pentagon has not issued its own cost projections, but cruise missiles cost between $ 1 million and $ 2 million while a single B-2 Stealth bomber mission from Missouri to Yugoslavia uses $ 300,000 worth of fuel.

Paying for the U.S. share of operation allied force will probably require an emergency spending legislation by Congress and will certainly eat into projected Budget surplus, the Times reported, yesterday.

That might endanger Democrat Clinton’s prized social programmes and hurt the Republicans’ chances of enacting a tax cut in advance of the 2000 presidential elections.

Send Pak troops to fight Serbs: Imran

ISLAMABAD, April 7 — Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has joined other Pakistani opposition leaders in demanding that the government send troops to Kosovo to save Albanian Muslims from Serb atrocities. He also charged that the attitude of Muslims worldwide towards their brethren in Kosovo was against the principles of Islam.

Pakistan, itself being created in the name of Islam, should send troops to the Serbian province of Kosovo to stop the genocide of ethnic Albanians, most of whom are Muslims, said Mr Imran Khan, chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

He claimed that although NATO was attacking the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic, the effort would prove useless unless Pakistan sent its forces without hesitation to save Kosovo Muslims from Serb brutality, NNI news agency reported.

Lashing out at the Pakistani Government, Imran said sending goods worth Rs 10 million was not enough. He said the main issue was stopping the Serbs from killing Muslims in the area. — IANS

45 die in fresh Timor clashes

LISBON, April 7 (AP) — Gunmen Lobbed grenades and fired shots into a church in east Timor yesterday where about 1,500 terrified residents had taken refuge, killing 40 persons, according to reports.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of the east Timor capital, Dili, told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that the death toll at the church in the town of Liquisa had been confirmed by an Indonesian military commander.

Another five persons were shot dead at the house of the Liquisa parish priest. According to bishop Carlos Belo, joint winner of the 1996 Nobel peace prize.

Liquisa, located 30 km west of Dili, has been the scene of escalating clashes between pro-Indonesian and separatist factions in recent days.

DILI (East Timor): East Timorese Bishoo Carlos Ximenses Belu today said more than 25 East Timorese had been “massacred” by Indonesian-backed militia in a churchyard.

“I have a paper from the military commander that there were 25 bodies inside the priest’s house. But according to other witnesses outside around the church there were other bodies. I don’t know exactly how many”, Bishop Belo told reporters here.

Rights violated at US women’s prisons

UNITED NATIONS, April 7 (IANS) — Sexual misconduct by prison guards is common in women’s prisons in the USA, an independent fact-finder for the United Nations has said.

Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka, fact-finder for violence against women, said in her report to the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in Geneva that there were “large-scale violations in the prisons in the United States.” The UNHRC is meeting to examine rights violations around the world.

According to a New York Times report, since the session began on March 22, the USA has found its rights record being scrutinised and sometimes criticised on accusations of police brutality, ill-treatment of detained women and use of capital punishment, especially for those who committed crimes before the age of 18.

“Coomaraswamy added sexual misconduct and the cruel use of shackles in women’s prisons to the list since her visits last June to state and federal prisons in six states and Washington D.C.,” the Times report said.

She noted in her report that, according to the Justice Department statistics, the USA has the largest number of prisoners in the world, with more than 43,000 women in custody. These women, were most often black and were often unwittingly involved in drug trafficking.

In some prisons, she was told that “at least two-third of the female inmates have been sexually or physically abused.” Rape, she said in her report, was a “fairly rare phenomenon.” More frequent, she added, was “sex in return for favours.”, Besides, Ms Coomaraswamy said, she found “sanctioned sexual harassment” to be prevalent.

She described such incidents as “women being pat-frisked by men and monitored in their rooms and in the showers by male correction officers.”

She had the testimony of 44 women in custody and 10 correction officers while visiting prisons in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York states.

She called for an end to use of leg irons and chains since it “violates international standards and may be said to constitute cruel and unusual practices”. Women who are refugees or seeking asylum have been “in many cases shackled at the airport even where there is no criminal sanction against them,” she said.

Hun Sen relents on trial

PHNOM PENH, April 7 (AP) — Prime Minister Hun Sen has relented in his opposition to foreign participation in the trial of a senior Khmer Rouge leader, telling a US Senator that judges and prosecutors from other countries would be welcome to help.

Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrats, confirmed today that his three-hour of talks yesterday night with the Cambodian leader had produced a very positive step forward.

Mr Hun Sen’s refusal to allow international participation in the trial of Ta Mok, the only senior leader of the genocidal revolutionary group in custody, had led to calls in some quarters for foreign aid to desperately poor Cambodia to be cut off.

Rebels attack boats, kill 50

FREETOWN, April 7 (AFP) — Rebels killed more than 50 persons when they attacked two boats in southern Sierra Leone, a representative of the boat owners have told reporters here.

Abdulai Turay, an official of the Tissana Boatsmen Association, yesterday said the attack came off Kigbla, 70 km south of Freetown, on Saturday.

The rebels opened fire from the shore, wounding some of the passengers, then used four dugout canoes to plunder the boats.

“They looted the two boats clean,” Turay said, taking kerosene and food supplies which the passengers, mainly traders, were taking for sale in Kenema because roads were still closed by the rebellion.

Another eyewitness said he believed the rebels were hiding in mangrove swamps to ambush passing boats for food.

Crew killed
ANKARA: A Turkish airlines jet crashed in southern Turkey early on Wednesday killing all six crew members, state-run Anatolian news agency said. No passengers were on board, it said. The plane took off from Adana airport bound for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, but went down near the town of Ceyhan, 40 km from Adana. — Reuters

Inca mummies found
BUENOS AIRES: Three 500-year-old Inca mummies, the apparent victims of a ritual sacrifice, have been found frozen and in near perfect condition on an Andean volcano peak in northern Argentina. Dr Johan Reinhard said on Tuesday that the exceptionally well-preserved remains would offer scientists a rare opportunity to conduct DNA testing on centuries-old bodies. — AP

Wax Hitler stolen
NIAGARA FALLS: A life-sized wax figure of Adolf Hitler, in full Nazi uniform has been reported missing from Hall of Fame Museum. Theft of the figure is believed to have occurred on Monday, and cashier Angie believes the culprits walked out with the figure arm-in-arm. — AP

Woman shot
LAHORE: Samia Imran (32) was shot and killed on Tuesday by a gunmen, who was allegedly hired by her father because he opposed her attempts to get a divorce, police said. Imran had sought refuge in a woman’s shelter in the eastern Punjab provincial capital of Lahore. — AP

2,735 planes scrapped
MOSCOW: Russia’s hard-pressed airlines are running out of planes as they scrap hundreds of old aircraft every year that cannot be replaced, according to a report. The Itar-Tass news agency said Russian airlines discarded 2,735 planes and helicopters during the past six years. — AP

Fisherman fined
MOSCOW: A Russian court has fined the Captain of a Chinese fishing boat $ 1 million for poaching in Russian waters, a sum that would take him several lifetimes to pay off, the Itar-Tass news agency has reported. The fine was imposed on Tuesday on the unidentified captain of the vessel. Zong Hong 37. Two members of the crew were killed and several injured when the boat was seized by Russian coast guards last May. — AP

2 get death sentence
MULTAN: A special Anti-Terrorist Court in Central Pakistan sentenced to death two Sunni Muslim militants, convicted of killing five Shiite Muslims in a mosque attack. The court, announced the sentence in Dera Gazhi Khan, 40 kms south-west of Multan. The September 1998 shooting at the mosque killed five persons and wounded six others in Kot Addu, 30 km north-west of Multan. The two men belonged to an extremist Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahara. — AP

Jazz musician dead
SANTA MONICA (USA): Red Norvo, who had the opportunity to performed alongwith Charles Mingus and Frank Sinatra and is credited with introducing the xylophone to jazz died at the age of 91 on Tuesday. — AP