Hussain ‘did not’ offer to turn approver
ISLAMABAD, Dec 16 — The mother of former Pakistan Information Minister Mushahid Hussain has bitterly criticised Pakistani newspapers for saying that her son had offered to turn approver against deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif allowed to visit Lahore
LAHORE, Dec 16 — Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, allowed brief parole from jail to join family mourning, told followers in his native city that his “difficult time” would end soon.

Jakarta MPs back away from referendum
JAKARTA, Dec 16 — Indonesia’s Parliament today backed away from the idea of allowing any referendum for the troubled province of Aceh, in a move quickly backed by a top minister.

Venezuelans approve new Constitution
CARACAS (Venezuela), Dec 16 — Venezuelans have overwhelmingly approved a Constitution that boosts women’s rights, eliminates the Senate and vastly increases the power of President Hugo Chavez allowing him to stay in office for up to 13 years.

Bomb-like object thrown at Lata’s reception
LONDON, Dec 16 — A bomb-like object was thrown at the famous Nehru Centre here yesterday, minutes before melody queen Lata Mangeshkar arrived to attend the reception in her honour.

• Surrender anniversary observed in B’desh
• Crisis intensifies in Sudan

Over 100 Russians die in battle for Grozny

MOSCOW, Dec 16 (DPA) — Russian military officials today confirmed heavy losses in a clash with Muslim rebel defenders of the Chechen capital, Grozny, despite earlier denials by the Defence Ministry of the incident. (According to PTI, more than 100 Russian soldiers were killed in a fierce battle with Chechen rebels on the northern districts of Grozny.)

The AVN military news agency cited sources at the federal forces headquarters in the north Caucasus as saying about 50 men were killed in a reconnaissance raid last evening into the besieged city, and seven armoured vehicles destroyed.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev had blasted as a “media provocation’’ western and Russian media reports of heavy losses during a first major advance into the city, according to Interfax news agency.

“There was no assault on Grozny and there won’t be one”, Mr Sergeyev was quoted as saying.

According to radio station ECHO Moskvy and eyewitness reports by journalists, a column of tanks had advanced from the Russian-controlled airport of Khankala to the east of the Grozny almost into the centre of the besieged city.

Fierce fighting had erupted at Minutka Square near Khankala with up to 2,000 rebels surrounding the Russian troops, the radio said.

Dozens of Russian soldiers were killed in the fighting, which lasted about three hours, reports said. Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were left ablaze. In the wake of the clashes, Russian forces opened fire with heavy artillery on Minutka Square.

The Russian FSB domestic intelligence service denounced the reports as a fabrication sponsored by foreign governments trying to undermine the military operation and the government ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

“If any correspondent really saw tanks burning in Grozny, then these were Chechen tanks destroyed by Russian air strikes’’, FSB spokesman Alexander Zdanovich said on Russian NTV television.

Grozny has been completely encircled by federal forces for two weeks. Russian commanders have ruled out a full-blown storming of the city to avoid repeating the disaster of 1994 New Year’s Eve when Russian forces pouring blindly into Grozny lost about 1,500 men.

In the past few days special units have, however, entered the capital to gather intelligence about rebel defences, according to military sources.

PTI adds: Last night’s clash was the bitterest yet between the rebels and troops who faced rocket-propelled grenades by the guerrillas.

AVN, run by former military correspondents, said Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev and other military brass categorically denied storming the breakaway province’s capital.

Speaking on NTV, FSB spokesman Gen Alexander Zdanovich did not rule out that a “reconnaissance mission” by Russian armoured units could have been mistaken by the militants as a major assault. However, he ruled out ‘heavy casualties’ to his troops.

Meanwhile, former Chechen Information Minister Mauladi Udugov is negotiating a separate deal behind the back of President Aslan Maskhadov with the Saudi-born renegade billionaire Osama bin Laden to set up a Chechen government-in-exile on the territory of Afghanistan held by Taliban, Interfax news agency said.

Earlier this week, Udugov had a secret meeting with Laden’s emissary in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, to discuss military aid to the rebels and formation of a government-in-exile without Maskhadov, it reported quoting Russian intelligence sources.

Bin Laden has allegedly enrolled a 5000-strong force to fight in Chechnya and commit terrorist acts in Russian cities.

Reuters adds: Another military spokesman said Russian units had merely continued to improve their positions in Khankala and in the north-western Gikalo district during the night.

The main clashes last night were in the Mityurina district. The rebels attacked the column with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

The fighting lasted about three hours and ended around 11 pm local time. Russia pounded the area where the fighting took place with Grad multiple-launch rockets.

Mr Knut Vollebaek, Head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), told reporters before heading for the Russian-held eastern Chechen town of Gudermes that he thought it unlikely he would be allowed to mediate.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov said he was ready to pay almost any price to stop the war, which has now raged for nearly three months, but made clear talks with Moscow could not work without foreign help.

“There absolutely must be a third party in any future negotiations which could give guarantees that any accord will be implemented,” Mr Maskhadov told Reuters Television in an interview shown yesterday.

Ban on aid to Pak not lifted: USA

WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (UNI) — The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, has made it known that he has not withdrawn the Pressler Amendment, reaffirming that the ban on US military and bulk of the economic aid to Pakistan, which was imposed nine years ago in protest against its nuclear programme, would remain in place.

“For Pakistan, I did not waive the Pressler Amendment,” Mr Clinton said in reply to a letter of Democratic Congressmen Eliot L. Engel, copies of which were made available to the Press here last night.

This sets at rest reports, circulating in a section of the media, that the President, using his newly acquired sanction-waiver authority, had freed Pakistan from the 1985 non-proliferation law invoked against it in October 1990, by then President Bush to deter Islamabad, though unsuccessfully, from going ahead with its nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Clinton said he had waived only the “ban on USDA (US Department of Agriculture) credits and credit guarantees and on US commercial bank lending” in case of Pakistan, apparently to help American farmers sell wheat to that country.

“I believe this approach serves US interests by sending the appropriate message on the importance of democracy to Islamabad, while at the same time not unduly burdening US farmers and businesses,” the President remarked.

He shared Congressman Engel’s concern over the military coup in Pakistan, saying, “I agree with you on the importance of upholding democracy.”

“I have been very clear that we can not have business as usual with Pakistan until it returns to a democratically elected government,” Mr Clinton said, adding, “We will structure out policies to encourage Pakistan to return to democracy as soon as possible.”

Bin Laden comrades held in Jordan

DUBAI, Dec 16 (UNI) — The authorities in Jordan have arrested 13 alleged associates of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, suspected to be planning terrorist attacks.

Kuna news agency said those arrested included 11 Jordanians, an Iraqi and an Algerian. They carried fake passports of various Arab states and arrived in Jordan from Afghanistan where they had got military training in the use and making of bombs and explosives.

“The Jordanian security services have arrested a group of Jordanians, an Iraqi and an Algerian,who were trained in Afghanistan in the use of explosives and weapons and who planned to carry out several terrorist attacks”, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Rauf Rawabdeh was quoted by media as telling Parliament.

Kuna said Clinton Administration officials had linked those arrested with Bin Laden, who was wanted by US courts on the charges of conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 220 persons were killed.

The news agency said the arrests in Jordan had prompted the US State Department to issue a warning of attacks on Americans.

It said on Monday, State Department Counter-Terrorism chief Michael Sheehan visited New York to tell the Taliban representative that his regime would be held responsible for any attacks on Americans by Bin Laden’s network.

WASHINGTON (Reuters): The US Government, which issued a worldwide warning five days ago of a terrorist threat against its citizens, is in contact with Pakistan about a reported arrest near its Afghan border, a State Department spokesman has said.

The spokesman, Mr James Foley, was responding to questions at a telephone briefing about whether any further arrests had been made in relation to the public warning his department issued, apart from the 13 persons detained in Jordan last week.

“We’re in contact with the government of Pakistan about this matter. The report we’ve seen has to do with an arrest made in Pakistan,” Mr Foley said.

US officials say the arrests in Jordan were a central element of their decision to issue the warning of potential terrorist attacks at gatherings or celebrations over the New Year and during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramzan.

Dubai (Reuters): Only direct negotiations between the USA and the Taliban government in Afghanistan could solve the issue of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister was quoted as saying today.

Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar made his comments in an interview with the London-based Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily.

Mr Sattar said Pakistan’s new military government would not allow the use of its territory by any foreign country to launch attacks on neighbouring Afghanistan.

Hussain ‘did not’ offer to turn approver

ISLAMABAD, Dec 16 (UNI) — The mother of former Pakistan Information Minister Mushahid Hussain has bitterly criticised Pakistani newspapers for saying that her son had offered to turn approver against deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Mr Hussain was arrested on December 14 after two months of house arrest.

During this period a section of the Press wrote that the military government had provided him with a computer to record everything about Mr Sharif’s rule including his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Lahore early this year.

But Ms Syed told the BBC (Urdu) last night “it is all concocted. The Press has been writing lies.’’

With Mr Hussain as the Information Minister, Mr Sharif’s deposed government had very bad relations with the Press — in fact, worse than what any other Pakistani government had shared with the fourth estate.

Sharif allowed to visit Lahore

LAHORE, Dec 16 (Reuters) — Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, allowed brief parole from jail to join family mourning, told followers in his native city that his “difficult time” would end soon.

In a remark at the home of his late mother-in-law yesterday, he accused military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf of victimising him by ordering his trial on charges which could bring a death sentence.

“This is not the Pakistan army, but a few generals who are doing this,” Mr Sharif said about the October 12 bloodless military coup that toppled him.

It was not immediately clear if the authorities would let Mr Sharif and Mr Shahbaz spend the night in Lahore, which is Punjab’s capital.

Mr Raja Qureshi, Sindh province Advocate-General, had said in Karachi that the brothers would be brought back the same day.

Jakarta MPs back away from referendum

JAKARTA, Dec 16 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s Parliament today backed away from the idea of allowing any referendum for the troubled province of Aceh, in a move quickly backed by a top minister.

Separatists are demanding a referendum on independence for the Sumatran region. A special parliamentary committee earlier recommended holding a vote of some kind in the province.

But today a full Parliament specifically excluded this recommendation when it ratified other decisions by the panel. A copy of the final motion received said the government needed to hold further talks on a referendum with Parliament and the Acehnese.

The decision now goes to President Abdurrahman Wahid for consideration and is non-binding.

Justice, Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra quickly endorsed Parliament’s decision, saying the 500-member Parliament alone did not have the authority to authorise one without a meeting of the top legislature, which includes an extra 200 lawmakers.

“If the government decides to give a referendum, then it means the government has to hold a People’s Consultative Assembly’s special meeting to change the existing law. That is why it is impossible for the government to give a referendum to Aceh,” Mr Yusril was quoted as saying by the official Antara news agency.

Venezuelans approve new Constitution

CARACAS (Venezuela), Dec 16 (AP) — Venezuelans have overwhelmingly approved a Constitution that boosts women’s rights, eliminates the Senate and vastly increases the power of President Hugo Chavez allowing him to stay in office for up to 13 years.

With about half the ballots counted, 71 per cent voted in favour of the new Constitution and 29 per cent were opposed.

Street celebrations immediately broke out when the results were announced by the National Electoral Council yesterday.

Torrential downpours that killed 17 persons had forced officials to delay poll closings by two hours because many people had not been able to reach voting centres. The new Constitution, drafted by a 131-member assembly dominated by Mr Chavez’s supporters, expands the rights of minorities and seeks to clean up corrupt courts and break the political stranglehold of parties that most Venezuelans blame for squandering the Western Hemisphere’s largest oil reserves.

The charter also sharply reduces civilian control of the army and increases the state’s role in managing the economy.

Bomb-like object thrown at Lata’s reception

LONDON, Dec 16 (PTI) — A bomb-like object was thrown at the famous Nehru Centre here yesterday, minutes before melody queen Lata Mangeshkar arrived to attend the reception in her honour.

The police and the bomb squad personnel rushed to the centre and took the bomb-like object for forensic examination. The round shaped tin with wires attached had hit the windowpane on the first floor of the centre leaving behind a gaping hole. After throwing the object the miscreant vanished from the scene, the police said, adding that no arrests were made and investigation was on.

The Nehru Centre Director, Prof Indra Nath Chaudhury, said such a thing had never happened in the past three years of his tenure.

At the reception organised jointly by the India League and the Nehru Centre to honour the melody queen on her nomination as member of the Rajya Sabha, the acting High Commissioner to Britain, Mr Hardeep Puri, said “Padma Vibhushan Lata Mangeshkar is an outstanding musician not only of this century but of the millennium.

Surrender anniversary observed in B’desh

DHAKA, Dec 16 (DPA) — Tens of thousands of people gathered at a memorial near the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, today to honour dead freedom fighters and mark the 28th anniversary of the surrender of Pakistani forces, leading to the country’s independence.

About 50,000 people, many of them carrying flowers, marched barefoot to the memorial for the independence heroes, police and witnesses said.

Crisis intensifies in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Dec 16 (DPA) — The Sudanese Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Mohamed Al-Amin Khalifa, has resigned, the official Al-Anbaa daily reported in Khartoum today.

The daily also said that President Omar Bashir had relieved the Governor of Sennar state, Yakoub Abu Shoura, of his post in his drive to purge the government of members he regarded as uncooperative.

Another Khartoum daily, Al-Rai Al-Aam, today quoted the government spokesman, Mr Ghazi Salah-Eddin, as saying that Mr Khalifa, who resigned yesterday, had been replaced by Mr Abul Gassim Mohamed Ibrahim as Minister of Cabinet Affairs.

Shakespeare’s tome
LONDON: An 18th century book of heraldry and a tome of Shakespeare’s works fetched higher then expected prices at an auction, Sotheby’s said. The collection of heraldic papers belonging to Sir Henry St George, the younger, which include his designs for the reformed royal standard and the union flag after the 1707 union of England and Scotland, sold for £ 62,000 ($ 99,400) on Wednesday. — Reuters

Bank in Antarctica
SANTIAGO: Liliana Labra, a Chilean mother of three left Santiago on Wednesday to run the only bank in Antarctica, the first woman to hold the job, an official at her bank said. Labra (42) will run the branch of the Banco de Credito e Inversiones (BCI) for three months, Tatiana velez, a BCI spokeswoman, told Reuters. — Reuters

Frozen eggs
BELFAST: A British woman on Wednesday was at the centre of a legal battle following a ruling that her eggs, frozen while she underwent cancer treatment, could not be used for giving birth to a baby. Carolyn Neill (34) of Belfast said the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has ruled that she cannot use her eggs or take them abroad now that her cancer treatment has been completed successfully. — AFP

‘Vampire’ arrested
PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian man accused of killing people and drinking their blood in the belief that it would cure him of AIDS has been apprehended by the police. Described as a “vampire” by local villagers, Pheach Phen (20) was arrested on December 7 in the eastern province of Kompong Cham after allegedly killing a five-year-old boy and sucking his blood the Koh Santepheap newspaper reported. — AP

Boy George hurt
LONDON: Boy George, the flamboyant frontman of pop band culture club, was nearly killed when he was hit by a giant disco ball that plunged from the ceiling of a British concert hall. Boy George was doing a sound check with the rest of the reformed 1980s band at the Bournemouth International Centre in southern England when the wire holding the 62-LB (28 kg) mirrored ball snapped, The Sun said on Thursday. — Reuters

Meat irradiation
WASHINGTON: Meat packers have received the long-awaited approval to start irradiating beef, pork and lamb to kill deadly bacteria and other organisms, whether shoppers will go for ground beef or pork chops that have been zapped remains to be seen. It is the only known method to eliminate deadly e.coli bacteria in raw meat. The technique can significantly reduce levels of other pathogens, including listeria, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the Agriculture Department. — AP