Russia, Belarus form union
MOSCOW, Dec 8 — Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a union treaty between their two countries today.

USA to sue gun industry
WASHINGTON, Dec 8 — The Clinton administration said it would file a class action lawsuit against the gun industry next year unless manufacturers agree to make major changes in the way they market and distribute guns.

$ 45,000 raised for Orissa relief
WASHINGTON, Dec 8 — The Indian community in Chicago turned a farewell dinner for an official into a fund-raiser for Orissa cyclone victims and raised over $ 45,000.

Food, water denied to elderly patients
LONDON, Dec 7 —Elderly patients in British hospitals are dying because they are being withheld food and water in what amounts to involuntary euthanasia, doctors have said.

Chechen rebels abandon key town

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) — Chechen rebel spokesman Movladi Udugov said separatist fighters battling Russian troops had withdrawn today from the key town of Urus-Martan, which lies to the south-west of the regional capital, Grozny.

“Chechen forces pulled out of Urus-Martan early this morning in line with an order from the (rebel) military high command as part of the plan to regroup for further battle with the Russian aggressors,’’ Udugov told Reuters by telephone.

Interfax news agency quoted the Russian general staff as saying federal troops had begun an operation earlier today to “free” Urus-Martan of rebel fighters. It said the operation aimed to keep civilian and troop casualties to a minimum, which suggested the Russians would advance cautiously.

It said Gen Vladimir Shamanov and Bislan Gantemirov, a pro-Moscow Chechen regarded by the Russians as a possible post-war leader of the rebellious province, were in charge of the Urus-Martan operation.

Udugov said fighting had raged for the past three days between Russian troops and Chechen fighters in a western suburb of Grozny. He also said Russian planes had bombed a market in the village of Shali yesterday evening, killing about 70 people. The reports could not be confirmed.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Interior Minister appeared to extend a deadline for residents to leave Chechnya’s besieged capital Grozny yesterday amid an avalanche of Western criticism of Moscow’s three-month-old campaign in the separatist region.

Vladimir Rushailo, speaking to NTV television from a checkpoint being organised in hilly country outside Grozny, said refugees should leave the city as quickly as possible to ensure their safety.

But he said the checkpoint near the village of Pervomaiskoye would work beyond Saturday, a deadline set down in leaflets dropped by military planes on the region.

“We will allow people able to leave before the 11th to pass through,” Rushailo, dressed in battle fatigues, told NTV.

“But as the... checkpoint will realistically take the bulk of displaced persons after December 11, this work will also be actively pursued after the 11th. Those able to leave areas of military activity should do so as quickly as possible in order not to endanger their lives and those of their loved ones.’’

Mr Rushailo said anyone offering armed resistance to the Russian army “will simply be destroyed”. There were no refugees in sight near the checkpoint.

The White House suggested that Washington was unlikely to cut off aid to Russia despite President Bill Clinton’s statement that Moscow would “pay a heavy price” for its onslaught.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters most US assistance to Russia went to reducing its nuclear threat and to promote democracy and said ending such aid to express displeasure over Chechnya would hurt USA’s national interests.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted people leaving Grozny as saying that most residents still in the city were holed up in cellars and unaware of the ultimatum. Tass quoted witnesses in Grozny as saying many people, most old and incapacitated, would not be able to walk through the 15-km (10-mile) corridor.

In Washington, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said after meeting US President Bill Clinton that Moscow’s actions were “unacceptable and disproportionate” and he hoped for a change in tactics. But he said the west would offer “constructive advice” on dealing with Chechen separatists.

After the European Union warned on Monday it might delay agreements with Moscow over Chechnya, leading bloc members, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, issued stinging condemnations of the campaign.

But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stood firmly by the campaign, which has caused his popularity to soar.

He said critics in the West should use their influence to get Islamic fighters in Chechnya to release hostages and hand over their radical commanders to Russia.

Mr Putin later struck a more conciliatory tone, telling reporters that Western leaders lacked solid information about what was happening in Chechnya and that this was Russia’s fault.

“It is our mistake because we failed to explain the situation properly,” he said. “We understand the Western concern about Chechnya from the humanitarian point of view.”

Russia, Belarus form union

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) — Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a union treaty between their two countries today.

The main points in the draft of the treaty as published by newspapers are:

— The two states will retain sovereignty and national identity but form a confederation, governed by a supreme state council (SSC) made up of leaders from both countries;

— by 2005, the draft treaty envisages a single currency, harmonised national legislations and uniform policies for tax, customs, borders and defence as well as a common securities market and forums for sharing scientific and technical information;

— the SSC will form union agencies and approve the union’s budget and international agreements. It will also have limited powers to issue decrees, resolutions, and directives;

— there will be a Union Parliament. Delegates from the Russian and Belarussian Parliaments will form the House of the Union, while the House of Representatives will be a directly elected assembly. The Union Parliament will assist in harmonising legislation from the two countries.

— there will also be a council of ministers;

— the two countries will remain separate entities at the United Nations and other international bodies.

— other issues to be governed by the treaty include the establishing of a common economic market, common transport, energy and communications systems and a regional grouping of Belarussian and Russian troops.

PARIS: Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, in a newspaper interview published today, poured scorn on a treaty to merge the ex-soviet nations of Russia and Belarus, predicting big losses for Moscow.

“We do not play this game,’’ Mr Kuchma told the Paris daily Le Monde. “It is the sovereign right of the Russian and Belarussian peoples to unite. But I believe Russia will suffer great losses from this union.’’

Ukraine, he said, was committed to “building an independent and democratic state. We have no intention of deviating from this.’’

Jakarta opposes war crimes court

JAKARTA, Dec 8 (AP) — If the UN establishes a court to try those responsible for war crimes in East Timor, Indonesia will not allow its generals to stand trial, media reports said today.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alwi Shihab said the government was doing its best to ensure such a tribunal is not established, the Jakarta Post reported.

“We will try not to deliver the generals to an international tribunal,” he reportedly told a parliamentary committee on defence and foreign affairs late yesterday.

The military commanded and equipped several militia gangs in East Timor that went on a burning and murdering rampage following the announcement of a UN-sponsored vote for independence.

A UN committee is in Jakarta after having just completed a nine-day inquiry in East Timor where they travelled throughout the territory gathering evidence.

The panel will present its findings to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who will decide whether the atrocities warrant the creation of a war crimes tribunal akin to those for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Security Council is likely to take up the matter early next year.

AP adds: In his strongest statement so far, President Abdurrahman Wahid today said his new government would not allow the restive Aceh province to break away from Indonesia.

“Any attempt to separate Aceh from Indonesia is an act that cannot be tolerated,” Mr Wahid told a panel of senior legislators who had summoned him to Parliament to explain his policies.

“Aceh is part of our domain,” said Mr Wahid, who came to office in October promising democratic reform for the world’s fourth-most populous nation.

Aceh’s separatists have waged a bitter, decade-long guerrilla war against the Indonesian rule in which at least 5,000 persons have died.

Judge rejects defence pleas
from Douglas Hamilton

CAMP ZEIST (Netherlands), Dec 8 — A Scottish judge today dismissed both defence motions in the case against two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing, upholding a conspiracy to murder charge and approving references to the two as agents of Libyan intelligence.

But Justice Lord Ranald Sutherland granted the defence the right to appeal against his decisions.

Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima stand accused of murder, conspiracy to murder and contravention of the 1982 Aviation Security Act for their alleged role in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

All 259 people aboard, most of them Americans, were killed along with 11 people on the ground when the airliner exploded in the night sky above the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Justice Sutherland’s first ruling rejected a defence submission that the crime of conspiracy is considered complete as soon as it is agreed. Since the alleged conspiracy had been agreed outside Scotland, they had argued no charge should be brought.

But the judge said, after careful examination in an area of law with few precedents, that the crime of conspiracy did not end with the making of the agreement. It continued as long as there were two or more parties intending to carry out the crime.

“I am satisfied that on the basis of what is set out in charge one (the conspiracy charge) the Scottish courts do have jurisdiction,’’ the judge told the court.

The ruling will be a boost to the prosecution as lawyers observing the hearing believe the conspiracy to murder charge should be easier to prove than the other principal charge of murder.

The pre-trial hearing, at which the accused made their first public appearance, was held in the former gymnasium of a disused U.S. air base in the Netherlands which has become British soil for the duration of the trial.

The trial, under Scottish law, is expected to open in February, although legal sources said a defence motion to delay its beginning could push the start date back to May. — Reuters

USA to sue gun industry

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) — The Clinton administration said it would file a class action lawsuit against the gun industry next year unless manufacturers agree to make major changes in the way they market and distribute guns.

Administration officials said yesterday that US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is readying a lawsuit on behalf of 3,200 public housing authorities around the country to recover the costs associated with gun violence, estimated at around $ 1 billion a year.

While the sum is significant, one HUD official said the lawsuit’s “primary interest will be to change the way the gun industry does business.”

Twenty-eight cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, already have sued makers of handguns to get reimbursement for municipal spending related to gun violence — on police and emergency medical services, for example.

$ 45,000 raised for Orissa relief

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (PTI) — The Indian community in Chicago turned a farewell dinner for an official into a fund-raiser for Orissa cyclone victims and raised over $ 45,000.

Of the $ 45,000, $ 10,000 were contributed by the India Development Service, a Chicago-based organisation supporting economic and social development projects in India.

Food, water denied to elderly patients

LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) —Elderly patients in British hospitals are dying because they are being withheld food and water in what amounts to involuntary euthanasia, doctors have said.

Families and the hospital staff have complained about the treatment of elderly relative.

Sos NHS patients in Danger, a pressure group of family members, concerned, is are planning to take the cases of 50 patients who died to the European Court of Human Rights.

Dr Adrian Treloar, a geriatrics specialist at Greenwich Hospital in South London, said yesterday involuntary euthanasia was occurring in government-funded National Health Service (NHS) hospitals because of a pressure for beds.

When you hear the stories there are times when one cannot put another explanation to it. One has a concern. I think it is very clear that the elderly do not always get all of the care that they need and there is a body of opinion that says that,” he told BBC Radio.

According to guidelines issued by the British Medical Association, doctors should be allowed to withdraw food and water given by tube to patients suffering from severe stroke and dementia, even if they are not facing imminent death.

Dr Treloar disagrees with the policy.

“In essence, if you decide to withdraw that tube what you are doing is something that will lead to the death of that patient...I disagree with that,” he added.

Sir John Grimley Evans, Professor of Gerontology at Oxford University has written to the NHS asking for more information and openness about age discrimination.

“There is a secrecy,” he said. “our difficulty is getting our hands on the relevant information.”

No one at the Department of Health was available for comment.

The latest allegations follow a damning report published last month which accused the NHS of discriminating against old people.

Age Concern England, a leading advocacy group, said ageism was apparent at all levels of the health service from primary care through to major teaching hospitals.

The report detailed personal accounts of patients who complained of being deprived of treatment because of their age. Others said they were given low priority or forced to pay for private treatment that they should have received on the NHS.

Painting fetches £ 29 m
LONDON: A still life painting by French Impressionist Paul Cezanne has sold for £ 18.15 million at Sotheby’s London auction house, far exceeding expectations. The colourful still life of apples, lemons and oranges — painted in 1888 and until a month ago stolen property — was expected to sell for between £ 9 and 12 million. It was entitled “Pewter Pitcher and Fruit.” — Reuters

Ramazan fast
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia will deport non-Muslims who eat, drink or smoke in public during the holy fasting month of Ramazan, the Saudi Interior Ministry has said. The Ministry, in a statement, on Tuesday said non-Muslims would not be allowed to break the fast in shops, on streets or in offices and if they do so they would be deported. More than half a million non-Muslim foreigners work and live in Saudi Arabia. — DPA

Wife attacks mistress
PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian police said on Tuesday that the wife of a senior government official threw battery acid on her husband’s mistress in a jealous rage, seriously burning the woman’s face and neck. The Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper reported she was the wife of Svay Sitha, Under-Secretary of state of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet. The victim was 18-year-old Tan Chhay Marina, a music video actress known for her beauty. — DPA

TV series by Spielberg
LONDON: American film director Steven Spielberg is to film an 11 hour television series about World War-II in Britain next year, Culture Secretary Chris Smith has said. “Band of Brothers” will be the story of the 101st air-borne division of the US Army which parachuted into France on D-Day with the mission of taking Hitler’s mountain retreat at Berchtesgarden. — AFP

120 kg TNT stolen
WARSAW: More than 120 kg of TNT were stolen from a military storehouse in Torun, central Poland, a Defence Ministry spokesman has said. The spokesman, Eugeniusz Mleczak, said on Tuesday that the theft was spotted on Monday night by a sentry and an inspection showed that 123.5 kg of TNT were missing. According to specialists, this amount of explosive can sweep away 10 residential tower blocks. — DPA

Launch delayed
CAPE CANAVERAL: A damaged cable aboard space shuttle Discovery has forced the NASA to postpone yet again its long-delayed flight to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The nicked cable was found on Monday during routine inspections of the main engine compartment. Shuttle managers decided on Tuesday that there was no way Discovery could blast off 12:13 p.m. (local time) on Saturday as planned. — AP

Russian suspects
MOSCOW: About 4,200 inmates have been released from Russia’s notoriously overcrowded pre-trial detention centres over the past month, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said. Putin made the announcement on Tuesday during a conference call with prison officials. He said the move would improve conditions in the jails, where tuberculosis and other illnesses were common and suspects often waited more than two years in overcrowded cells for their trials to begin. It was unclear if the inmates were released on bail awaiting trial or for lack of evidence in their cases. — AP