Rebels resist Russian advance
MOSCOW, Dec 6 — Russian jets and helicopters attacked targets around Chechnya today, while rebel fighters put up heavy resistance in a key town that Russian commanders claimed to have captured last week.

Bid to end W.Asia deadlock fails
JERUSALEM, Dec 6 — U.S. West Asia envoy Dennis Ross failed to break a peace deadlock when he met Israeli and Palestinian negotiators today, leaving the sides pinning their hopes on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who arrives tonight.

Miss World’s link with Dubai DUBAI, Dec 6 — Yukta Mookhey,the 20-year-old Indian beauty who was crowned Miss World on Saturday,studied in the United Arab Emirates. This was disclosed by her to Weekend, a magazine brought out by Khaleej Times, when she visited Dubai in October.

Yukta Mookhey at a TV studio in London. — AP/PTI

Lander probably crashed
PASADENA (Calif), Dec 6 — Frustrated mission controllers here failed again to break the ominous silence of the Mars Polar Lander — for the fifth time in 48 hours and acknowledged the possibility that the probe did not survive the landing.

289 escape from jail
JAKARTA, Dec 6 — The police on Bali was hunting for scores of prisoners still on the run today after 289 inmates broke out of a jail near one of the Indonesian island’s most popular tourist areas, The Jakarta Post said.

Immigrant kills 5 kids, self
SACRAMENTO (Calif), Dec 6 — A man shot and killed five of his seven children on Saturday in the family’s one-bedroom apartment then killed himself, the police said.

Pak coup: SC orders regular hearings

ISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (PTI) — The Supreme Court of Pakistan today ordered day-to-day hearing from January 31 on petitions challenging the ouster of the Nawaz Sharif government in a military coup on October 12, while rejecting a plea to halt criminal proceedings against the deposed Prime Minister.

A five-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Saiduzzamam Siddiqui after hearing petitioners, Pakistan Muslim League and others directed that notices be issued to all respondents to file their replies by January 17.

Mr Siddiqui said since it was an important and sensitive case it needed to be heard by a larger Bench and directed that the matter be brought to his notice after January 17 for its constitution.

The court, however, rejected a plea by PML leader Zafar Ali Shah to stop criminal proceedings against Sharif in an anti-terrorism court in Karachi in the plane hijacking case.

The PML, in its petition, called the army action as “illegal and unconstitutional”.

Altogether five petitions were filed in the apex court, with two challenging General Pervez Musharaff’s toppling of the government.

Mr Shah, a member of the suspended Parliament and former Parliamentary Secretary, was the first to challenge the military take-over, on November 15.

Subsequently, the PML filed a comprehensive petition challenging the military take-over through Speaker of the National Assembly Ilahi Bux Soomro and 11 others.

Later three more petitions were filed by two independent lawyers, Habib Wahabul Kheiri and Syed Iqbal Haider and freelance journalist Shahid Orakzai supporting the military take-over. The petitions urged the court to declare the military action as valid.

Attorney General Aziz A. Munshi, appearing for the military regime in the packed court said he had only received the petitions of Wahabul Kheiri and Orakzai.

On a query from the Bench, Munshi said he would represent the Federation of Pakistan as General Musharraf and the National Security Council were part of it.

Mr Shah, however, contended the Federation of Pakistan could only be represented by Nawaz Sharif, duly elected Prime Minister of the country.

Scribes may be ‘next target’ of Pak army

ISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (UNI) — Journalists who criticised the Pakistani army for its invasion of Kargil early this year may be the military government’s next target after it finishes with bank defaulters.

According to a Jang report, the army will begin phase two of its operation in which “those who worked against national security will be targeted.” It will include those who, according to the paper, were involved in “conspiracies against the armed forces.”

The paper quotes “reliable” sources to say that phase two of the crackdown would cover those senior journalists and columnists “who spewed poison against the Pakistani army during the Kargil issue and wrote anti-state columns.”

In addition to the eight senior journalists who are already on the exit control list, details and audio-video evidence was being collected against other journalists who supported deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against the army, the paper said.

During the Kargil conflict, many Pakistani journalists and columnists had criticised the army’s action, especially when it resulted in national ignominy, which they said was worse than the one suffered in the 1971 war when India defeated Pakistan and East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

Thus far, Gen Pervez Musharraf had not placed any restrictions on the Press, which on its own is observing self-censorship to avoid the army’s displeasure on the other hand, it had been giving stories exposing Mr Sharif’s government and that is what the army would like the Press to do just now. Gen Zia-ul-Haq, too, had initially spared the Press to expose Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s deposed government. Censorship was imposed and journalists were publicly whipped when the army did not require them.

Mourning parents throng police station

LAHORE, Dec 6 (AFP) — A police station in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore has become a centre of mourning as wailing parents daily sift through clothes, shoes and photographs of 100 children allegedly molested and killed by a maniac who remains at large.

The families began arriving early on Thursday soon after the police invited parents of missing children to identify the belongings displayed on the open lawns of Ravi Road police station.

“We allowed a couple and asked others to go one by one. But within minutes grieving parents literally rampaged the site,” station officer Ashiq Marth said.

“It was a heart-rending scene and even I failed to control my emotions,” he said, adding that loud cries of frenzied parents could be heard outside the police station. Mr Marth said scores of people were streaming in daily. “They start screaming and wailing as soon as they recognise the clothes of their children,” he said.

The belongings were recovered from an abandoned house identified by accused Javed Iqbal, who said he had killed 100 children and dissolved their bodies in acid containers. Iqbal has gone missing since making the written confession.

The police plans to keep dozens of shoes, clothes and photographs of his victims as evidence against the self-confessed psychopath.

Some of the parents who had recognised the belongings made repeated visits. “They come just to see the clothes of their children and mourn,” Mr Marth said.

Bashira Bibi, mother of nine-year- old Matto Kala tried to resist returning the clothes she identified on Saturday. The police had to snatch them from her and she fainted, witnesses said.

Distraught parents of more than 60 children have identified photographs and belongings of their children.

Lahore police chief Saud Aziz told AFP two men had been arrested after they “admitted they were partners in the crime” and participated in the killings of at least 25 children.

Both have confirmed Iqbal (38) had been killing young boys after sexually abusing them, he said.

Iqbal in his letter dated November 22 said his victims were beggars and runaway children. He said the killings were in revenge for his arrest and ill-treatment by the police over child abuse charges.

Police records show Iqbal was arrested in 1989 and remained in jail for 18 months before he was bailed out. He was again arrested in September 1998 following a complaint from a neighbour of child abuse.

Iqbal claimed he was severely beaten by his neighbour and that the police, ignoring his injuries, arrested him. This made him turn against the police, the letter said.

The killings, the first of their kind in Pakistan, have triggered panic among many poor parents who are now reluctant to let their children out of their home fearing the killer is at large.

Rebels resist Russian advance

MOSCOW, Dec 6 (AP) — Russian jets and helicopters attacked targets around Chechnya today, while rebel fighters put up heavy resistance in a key town that Russian commanders claimed to have captured last week.

Russian forces surrounded Argun in eastern Chechnya last week, and commanders claimed that their troops have been “mopping up” since then. But there were reports today the Russian forces did not control Argun and were facing growing resistance.

Russia’s NTV television reported that Russian forces had taken control of one district in Argun, located 15 km east of the capital Grozny, but had not defeated militants, holed up in the town centre and other districts. Russian officers in Chechnya also said rebels still held large parts of Argun.

The Russian command has been reluctant to engage large concentrations of militants in ground fighting for fear of incurring heavy casualties. High casualties could weaken Russian public support for the war.

But there are indications that the Russian military will have to start risking greater losses. As Russia has tightened its encirclement of Grozny, the rebels have put up greater resistance.

Besides, the Russians have not yet tried to occupy the mountainous south of Chechnya, where the rebels main strongholds are. Chechen commanders over the weekend said insurgents in Grozny and Urus-Martan to the south were turning their positions into “impregnable fortresses.”

Meanwhile, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin has said the adoption of an amnesty for some Chechen rebels would hasten the end of the war in the breakaway republic.

“Our aim is to finish the military operation as early as possible to avoid civilian victims and to minimise military losses,” Mr Putin told the Russian state television channel RTR yesterday. “The amnesty law will help us achieve this task,” he added.

Under the proposed law, Chechen fighters who lay down their weapons before December 30 will be granted amnesty provided they have not committed serious crimes.

“Chechen warlords are forcing young people who do not yet have the blood of Russian citizens on their hands to join their forces,” he told RTR.

Bid to end W.Asia deadlock fails

JERUSALEM, Dec 6 (Reuters) — U.S. West Asia envoy Dennis Ross failed to break a peace deadlock when he met Israeli and Palestinian negotiators today, leaving the sides pinning their hopes on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who arrives tonight.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters that he, Ross and Israeli negotiator Oded Eran were unable to clear the way for a delayed Israeli Hanover of another 5 per cent of West Bank land to Palestinian self-rule.

But after meeting Mr Ross and Mr Eran, Mr Erekat said: I really hope Madame Albright will exert maximum effort to ensure that all issues are implemented as agreed. Mr Ross was on his way to Saudi Arabia to meet Ms Albright in Riyadh at the start of her mission.

“Ross heard from Eran and myself about the extensive Israeli and Palestinian positions on all the outstanding interim issues and I believe he will convey to Albright what he heard in preparation for her visit,’’ Mr Erekat said.

CAIRO (PTI): Mr Ross and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday discussed settlement and sticking points in negotiations during their meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has emphasised they would urge the USA to use its influence over Israel and make it stop its settlement activity, which is one of the main reason for the stalemate in peace talks.

Israel has, however, said the Jewish settlement activities in areas where Palestinians want to make their independent state were all approved of by the previous governments. The Palestinians want to set up an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and hope East Jerusalem would be its capital.

Yesterday, Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy of the settler-supported National Religious Party announced tenders for the building of 500 new housing units in two major Jewish West Bank settlements.

Jerusalem will be the most sensitive and touchiest of issues at the final peace talks between the two sides as both lay claims to it.

On Friday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in Ramallah that the negotiations with Israel on a permanent peace treaty were deadlocked and called on USA to force Israel to stop expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

“The final status talks are revolving around an empty circle,” he told the Palestinian Cabinet.

He accused Israel of using the talks as a cover for expansion of the Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

“The need is great now for an immediate American and international intervention to stop this onslaught,” Mr Arafat was quoted by an official Cabinet communiqué as saying.

Miss World’s link with Dubai

DUBAI, Dec 6 (UNI) — Yukta Mookhey,the 20-year-old Indian beauty who was crowned Miss World on Saturday,studied in the United Arab Emirates.

This was disclosed by her in an interview to Weekend, a magazine brought out by Khaleej Times, when she visited Dubai in October last.

The magazine had carried a cover-page article on her in which she said “My brother and I were schooled at the British Al Ain English speaking school. I was here for eight years from 1979 to 1987 — we were earlier in Muscat. There were children of all nationalities in the school-everybody had their own accents, and trying to talk to each other, especially when you are that young and you are barely learning how to talk yourself was really fun and interesting.”

However, when Yukta’s parents decided that higher education was best pursued in India, and thus relocated to Mumbai, the two children had a rough time.

“Both of us had a British accent... We were fair, lovely looking children, because we had not gone through the Mumbai rough and tumble, and our faces were glowing. The others thought we were snobs, and no one would talk to us “firangs” (foreigners). We used to literally sob, like small children going to nursery for the first time. Things changed gradually and it took a year to settle down”, she said.

Yukta was quoted as saying that “the best part about school in Dubai, which I realised when we went back to India, was that there was no homework. There were no school bags to carry, no tiffin boxes — lunch used to be in canteen. We used to do plays and lots of fun things — school was fun, and I used to do very well, as I realise now when looking at my reports”.

She remembers Dubai as an enjoyable place. “We used to come to Dubai and Sharjah on weekends. In fact, we still have friends but I have not met them on this trip as they are away.”

Lander probably crashed

PASADENA (Calif), Dec 6 (Reuters) — Frustrated mission controllers here failed again to break the ominous silence of the Mars Polar Lander — for the fifth time in 48 hours and acknowledged the possibility that the probe did not survive the landing.

“Our confidence is less and less that we landed successfully,” Project Manager Richard Cook glumly told reporters after the latest failure yesterday.

Mr Cook said the Lander team — which he described as “getting more frustrated and more tense about this” — would continue to try various ways to communicate with the craft, all of which would be completed by tomorrow morning.

“Once we are done with these, we are really at the point of diminishing returns. After Tuesday we will have to question whether or not the Lander entered (the Martian atmosphere) and landed successfully,” he said.

Following the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter in September due to human error, the loss of the current mission would be a crushing blow to NASA’s “better, cheaper, faster” solar exploration programme and might lead to new criticism of attempts to conquer Mars on the cheap.

But Mr Cook defended the concept, pointing out that NASA would be sending Landers to Mars every two years. “This would be much more painful if it was the only mission for the next ten years. We have missions every two years. We can learn from our mistakes. We have to be determined to go and not give up when this kind of thing happens,” he said.

289 escape from jail

JAKARTA, Dec 6 (Reuters, DPA) — The police on Bali was hunting for scores of prisoners still on the run today after 289 inmates broke out of a jail near one of the Indonesian island’s most popular tourist areas, The Jakarta Post said.

The newspaper said 104 escapees had been recaptured by last evening but the rest remained on the run after overpowering the 14 wardens on duty at Krobokan Penitentiary near Kuta. Some hijacked cars and motorbikes outside the jail, it said.

“Since the inmates do not wear uniforms, people were told to call the police if they saw any males who were sweaty, barefoot and possessed no identity card,” The Jakarta Post said.

Kuta, on the southwest coast of Bali, is one of the main tourist areas on the island which is visited by more than a million tourists a year.

With Christmas just three weeks away, it was unclear whether the breakout would have any unpleasant effects for foreign tourists visiting the holiday island.

Y2K threat to Russian N-plants

WASHINGTON,Dec 6 (AFP) — The US authorities are “focused on” potential millennium bug risk at Russian-designed nuclear plants, although they do not anticipate any increased risk of a nuclear accident, a senior official has said.

Based on “the general consensus across the board, our intelligence agencies as well as the work (we have done) with those countries, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no significantly increased chance of a nuclear incident with those plants,” John Koskinen, the White House’s Y2K point man, told CNN yesterday.

Immigrant kills 5 kids, self

SACRAMENTO (Calif), Dec 6 (Reuters) — A man shot and killed five of his seven children on Saturday in the family’s one-bedroom apartment then killed himself, the police said.

The victims, four boys and a girl, ranged in age from two to eight. The two eldest children, boys aged nine and 14 years, escaped the shooting uninjured, the police said yesterday.

Neighbours told The Sacramento Bee newspaper that the 14-year-old burst out of the apartment to warn his nephews that the man was about to start shooting.

“You could hear him shooting inside,” neighbour See Vue, (15), told the newspaper. “People were running around yelling and grabbing their kids and taking them home. There were too many kids around and everyone was afraid he would come out shooting.”

Neighbours said the other boy escaped by jumping out of a bathroom window. After the incident, the police led two shoeless boys wrapped in a blanket and a police jacket to a patrol car, The Bee reported.

The police received emergency calls around 4:05 p.m. PST (2305 GMT) on Saturday. The door to the apartment was locked when they arrived at the crowded two-storey building in the low-income section north of Sacramento.

Inside they found bodies of several of the children lying on a bed in the living room. Another child’s body was on the floor in front of a television set, the police said.

The police identified the man as Kao Xiong and The Bee said he and his family were from Laos .

He had been arguing with his wife, who left the apartment prior to the shooting and was sewing with a neighbour when the incident occurred.

According to the police the man shot himself in the head with a high-powered hunting rifle and used that gun, plus a shotgun to kill the children.

A nephew of the children’s mother, Cheng Thao, told the newspaper that the family had lived in the apartment complex for about a year and had been in the USA for about eight years.

He said the family was part of the Hmong people of Southeast Asia and had lived in refugee camps in Thailand before coming to the USA.

AP adds: Mai Thao returned to the one-bedroom apartment where her husband killed five of their seven children and himself less than 24 hours before.

She went there yesterday to mourn. Instead, she found a police seal on the door, a last touch by detectives who had scoured the bloodstained rooms for an explanation for the tragedy that befell the Laotian immigrant family.

Crying, Thao forced her way in, only to be turned back by the landlord, who boarded up the door and told her to leave. She sat on a staircase outside and sobbed, comforted by dozens of neighbours.