Russia begins talks with Chechen leaders
No let-up in offensive
MOSCOW, Dec 19 — Russia upped its offensive on the Chechen capital, Grozny, today after seizing another district on the edge of the city even as a top general revealed that talks had been held with Chechen ministers.

Italian Premier resigns
ROME, Dec 19 —Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema has formally resigned , bringing to an end Italy’s 56th government since the World War II.

‘Fair-weather’ friends ditch Sharifs
LAHORE, Dec 19 — The first visit of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother deposed Chief Minister of Punjab province Shahbaz Sharif to their stronghold — Lahore — after the change of government, saw strange absence of a majority of the suspended legislators of the city, during their stay, though they were warmly received by ‘faithful’ party workers and family members.

Ex-minister still untraced: family
ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 — Mushahid Hussain, former Minister and an adviser of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is untraced five days after his formal arrest by the army, his family has claimed, demanding disclosure of his whereabouts.

Barak ‘not to’ meet Arafat
JERUSALEM, Dec 19 — Israel today denied a Palestinian announcement that Prime Minister Ehud Barak would meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat tomorrow for talks on their troubled peace negotiations.

UK minister writes to Sharif’s son
LONDON, Dec 19 — “Show trials” of persons arrested by Pakistan military regime will not help in building confidence that the Army intends to restore democracy in the country, Britain has said.

Macau handed over to China
Colonial sun sets over Asia

MACAU, Dec 19 (Reuters, AFP) — China regained little Macau after 442 years of Portuguese rule over Europe’s first and final colonial outpost on the Chinese soil and promptly swivelled its focus to the last item on its reunification agenda — Taiwan. The red Chinese flag was hoisted at midnight today. Chinese President Jiang Zemin made clear that Beijing’s gaze looked beyond this south China enclave towards arch-rival Taiwan. “The Chinese Government and its citizens have the confidence and ability to solve the Taiwan issue by an early date and realise China’s complete reunification,” he told some 2,500 guests, including Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio.

Meanwhile, the police detained nearly 40 members of the banned Falungong sect for several hours, and expelled two Hong Kong dissidents just hours before the enclave reverted to the Chinese rule today.

Earlier, sadness was mixed with satisfaction among onlookers as Portugal lowered its flag on today at its Macau headquarters, Praia Grande Government Palace, hours before returning the enclave it has ruled for 442 years to China.

Some 2,000 residents and foreign guests packed the courtyard of the rose-coloured building to watch the ceremony.

Four officers of the Macau security forces folded the flag and presented it to Governor Vasco Rocha Vieira. A 41-man band played Portugal’s national anthem, ‘A Portuguesa’.

President Jorge Sampaio and Chinese President Jiang Zemin will oversee the official handover at midnight when Portugal hands back the trading outpost it founded in 1557.

Governor Vieira clutched the flag to his chest and cast a last glance at the Government Palace, which has been his office since April 1991.

A government spokesman said the Governor would take the flag to Lisbon, where it would be displayed at a Macau Cultural Research Institute.

Most in the crowd outside were local ethnic Chinese, many of whom brought their children.

“I just wanted to see the ceremony because it’s such an important historic event for all of us here,’’ said 28-year-old Ho Wai-Meng, who witnessed the event with his wife and two young sons.

He said he was “a bit sad” to see the Portuguese go. ‘’they weren’t too bad after all, they gave us their passports and built the airport,’’ Ho said.

Not everyone was so generous to the Portuguese, who did little to develop the backwater on the South China coast until the last 10 years.

A gambling tours operator, who gave his name as Lei, said he came to “make sure they really took that bloody flag down.

“They came to Macau as pirates and they are leaving as pirates,’’ Lei said, adding he regarded his Portuguese passport “as nothing more than a travel document’’.

Ethnic Chinese, many with ties to mainland China, now make up more than 95 per cent of Macau’s population of 430,000. Portuguese and Macaunese, or Eurasians, are numbered at no more than 11,000.

TAIPEI: Taiwan today said it would seek to maintain trade and other relations with Macau despite Portugal handing over the territory to its rival Communist China.

Taiwan also asked China to abide by its promises of “rule by Macau people” and “highly autonomous rule”, while pledging to help promote development in Macau.

“Our relations with Macau has been close and we hope that there will be room for further development in the future,’’ said government spokesman Chao Yi in a statement.

Mr Chao vowed to maintain ties with Macau under the principle of reciprocity and mutual benefit, and called on the new Macau administration to protect Taiwan’s rights and interests in the territory in accordance with goodwill and law.

Russia begins talks with Chechen leaders
No let-up in offensive

MOSCOW, Dec 19 (AFP) — Russia upped its offensive on the Chechen capital, Grozny, today after seizing another district on the edge of the city even as a top general revealed that talks had been held with Chechen ministers.

Despite difficult weather conditions, Russian warplanes and attack helicopters continued to blast the ruined capital and rebel strongholds in the mountains, federal military headquarters said, cited by Interfax.

While Russian forces tightened their grip on Grozny, where Moscow aims to hoist the Russian flag by the new year, the army chief, General Anatoly Kvashnin, revealed direct peace talks had taken place with top members of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov’s government.

But he said that the generals who had attended the negotiations had made it clear that Moscow would accept only the unconditional surrender of the breakaway republic.

“There have been contacts with representatives of (Maskhadov’s) Cabinet, two Vice-Premiers and a few ministers,” General Kvashnin said after returning overnight to the Moscow region from the northern Caucasus.

“We were blunt: they (the Chechens) must completely accept the conditions laid down by Moscow”, the General said, adding that there could be no negotiations, Itar-Tass reported.

“There will be no change (in the plans of the operation),” Gen Kvashnin said of Russia’s offensive to crush Chechnya since pouring tanks and soldiers into the territory on October 1.

Reuters adds: Thousands of civilians remained trapped in Grozny’s freezing cellars with little or no food, but the message from Russia’s General Staff to the Chechen leadership was uncompromising — surrender or be destroyed.

Russian Generals said last week they would capture the Chechen capital within days and yesterday said they had virtually taken control of the city’s Chernorechiye district. They continued to deny plans for a full-frontal blitz of Grozny.

Officials in Mozdok, headquarters of Russia’s forces in the north Caucasus region located just outside Chechnya, said warplanes and military helicopters had flown 60 sorties over the past 24 hours.

Interfax said they had struck rebel targets in Grozny, the nearby Argun Gorge and the southern villages of Vedeno and Shali, destroying a guerrilla base, four anti-aircraft guns, an armoured column and other infrastructure.

Troops based in Mozdok also found time to vote in the Duma election and turnout surpassed 75 per cent, Itar-Tass news agency said. Chechnya itself was the only part of the sprawling Russian federation not taking part in today’s election.

The Chechnya campaign has wide public support in Russia and dominated the parliamentary election campaign, making Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who took office just as fighting began outside Chechnya in August, Russia’s most popular politician.

Venezuela storm toll over 650

CARCAS, Dec 19 (Reuters) — More than 500 persons have been killed by raging rivers and mudslides along Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, President Hugo Chavez said today, pushing the official death toll from this week’s killer storm to over 650.

More than 7,000 persons are reported missing and presumed dead in the South American country’s worst natural disaster in 50 years.

“They told me today that we have more than 500 bodies in a gathering centre,” Mr Chavez told reporters yesterday.

“Also, a Venezuelan Navy ship picked up 50 bodies from the sea,” off the devastated state of Vargas, just north of the capital Caracas, he said during an impromptu news conference that went into the early hours today.

Most of the victims were buried alive under avalanches of mud or swept downstream on Wednesday and Thursday as torrential rains drenched Venezuela’s central coastal area, including Caracas where at least 100 died.

The final death toll was expected to be much higher, with survivors, among the thousands who were evacuated yesterday by a warship and dozens of Army helicopters from the disaster area or trekked out of it, speaking of thousands of dead.

Another 2,00,000 were left homeless, government ministers said, as the magnitude of the disaster became apparent in Vargas, a ribbon-shaped state with 350,000 inhabitants. 

The government set up a massive air and sea military rescue operation involving 12,000 troops on orders from Mr Chavez, a former paratrooper. Survivors shared horrific tales.

Ivan Pulido, from the beach resort of Caraballeda, said he saw “hundreds of corpses rotting in the sun.” Another survivor said in his village alone, there were about 1,000 dead.

Defence Minister Raul Salazar said: “We might never know how many people died because in some areas, they were buried under 16 to 20 feet of mud.”

Ex-CM disqualified for 21 years

ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (PTI) — Pakistan’s New Accountability Bureau (NAB) has disqualified a senior politician from holding any office for 21 years after being found guilty of corruption even without his conviction in a court created for the purpose.

The Deputy Attorney General of NAB, Mr S. Zaman Khan, told the state-owned PTV yesterday that since Sardar Arif Nakai of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), who was the Chief Minister of Punjab till 1996, had “confessed to his crime voluntarily, he stands disqualified for 21 years.”

Nakai, the first politician to be disqualified from politics since the October 12 coup and imposition of a strict new anti-corruption law, was arrested last month on the basis of a reference filed against him by the previous Nawaz Sharif government.

Only a few days ago NAB court had disposed of a corruption case against Nakai, believed to be very close to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He was released after paying Rs 15 lakh to the government.

The PPP leader was charged with withdrawing Rs 19 lakh from the Chief Minister’s discretionary fund to pay for travel expenses of his and his family members to Saudi Arabia during his tenure as Chief Minister. He had earlier paid Rs four lakh.

After his release, Nakai argued he had taken the money for an official trip and was not advised by any official that it was against the law.

The Deputy Attorney General said: “By paying back the amount misused from the discretionary funds at the disposal of Chief Minister, Nakai in fact has admitted to have benefited himself from the money and this proves the offence under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, to face the penalty of 21-year disqualification from becoming members of the (national or provincial) Assembly through contest in the general election.”

He also clarified that in declaring Nakai disqualified the Chief Election Commissioner would also not come in picture as he was not a member of the Assembly now.

Italian Premier resigns

ROME, Dec 19 (Reuters) —Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema has formally resigned , bringing to an end Italy’s 56th government since the World War II.

As had been widely expected, he tendered his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the end of a debate on the turmoil in his 14-month-old government yesterday, throwing Italy into a full-scale political crisis.

A statement from Mr Ciampi’s office said the President would begin consultations with institutional figures, former Presidents and political parties at 8.45 a.m. (1.15 IST) today to see if consensus could be found for a new government.

‘Fair-weather’ friends ditch Sharifs

LAHORE, Dec 19 (ANI) — The first visit of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother deposed Chief Minister of Punjab province Shahbaz Sharif to their stronghold — Lahore — after the change of government, saw strange absence of a majority of the suspended legislators of the city, during their stay, though they were warmly received by ‘faithful’ party workers and family members.

From an army of 300 elected city councillors, only a handful were seen on the occasion. Of the 10 deputy mayors, only Mian Marghoob was seen embracing Shahbaz. Former Lord Mayor Khawaja Ahmad Hassan and the rest of his deputies, the Gawalmandi diehards — all seen as traditional Sharif allies — were nowhere in sight to the utter dismay of the “two sons of Lahore”.

Ex-minister still untraced: family

ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (PTI) — Mushahid Hussain, former Minister and an adviser of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is untraced five days after his formal arrest by the army, his family has claimed, demanding disclosure of his whereabouts.

“I am a witness to the fact that he was picked up by the army and taken away in an army truck... family and media representatives have spoken to both civilian and military authorities alike but no-one knows where my husband is,” Hussain’s wife Dushka Sayed told English daily The News.

Barak ‘not to’ meet Arafat

JERUSALEM, Dec 19 (Reuters, AFP) — Israel today denied a Palestinian announcement that Prime Minister Ehud Barak would meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat tomorrow for talks on their troubled peace negotiations.

“Nothing has been scheduled — not a place and not a time. We have not even decided a date for a meeting with Mr Arafat,” an Israeli official said.

UK minister writes to Sharif’s son

LONDON, Dec 19 (PTI)— “Show trials” of persons arrested by Pakistan military regime will not help in building confidence that the Army intends to restore democracy in the country, Britain has said.

“Show trials of those arrested will do nothing to encourage confidence that the military genuinely intend to restore democracy.” British Foreign Minister for South Asia Peter Hain said.

Asian newsmaker
BEIJING: Masayoshi Son, “the king of the Internet” has been named Asian newsmaker of the year by the “Time”. Son was chosen by “Time” as the person who has done the most to shape 1999, the magazine said in a release. He has a 300-year plan to invest in Net-related companies, so that his business holdings — an empire he calls an Internet Zaibastu — span the globe, feed one another and starve the competition. — PTI

Atop a tree for 2 yrs
STAFFORD (California): A Californian woman who spent two years perched atop a giant redwood in a personal protest against logging returned to the ground on Saturday after the local timber company agreed to preserve the towering tree. After some 737 days of living on and communing with the ancient tree she dubbed luna, 25-year-old Julia “butterfly” Hill announced her victory to supporters in the small town of Stafford, 390 km north San Francisco. — Reuters

Doomsday cults
TORONTO: Doomsday religious movements awaiting an apocalypse at the turn of the century pose a threat to national security, according to a Canadian intelligence report quoted in a newspaper report. In a report obtained by The National Post, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said 400 of the estimated 1,200 cults around the world were predicting end-of-the-world scenarios tied to 2000 and may resort to violence. — Reuters

Pope’s teacher dead
VATICAN CITY: Cardinal Paolo Dezza, a former Jesuit leader and theologian who once taught the Pope, has died at the age of 98, the Vatican said. Dezza, who died on Friday, was named by Pope John Paul as temporary leader of the Jesuits in the 1980s when the order was wrestling with how to respond to social injustice. — Reuters

Ex-doc gets life term
SAN DIEGO: A former doctor who caused the death of a 79-year-old by cutting off his healthy leg and leaving him in a hotel room was sentenced on Friday to 15 years to life in prison. Former Doctor John Ronald Brown, (77), was convicted of second-degree murder for the May 11,1998, death of Philip Bondy, who asked Brown to amputate the leg to fulfil a lifelong fetish of having a limb removed, officials said. — AFP

Viagra imitator
BEIJING: A company that claims to have manufactured a Chinese version of the anti-impotence drug viagra has lost a lawsuit to end a ban on sales of the capsules, state media has said. A Beijing court ruled on Friday that Shenyang Feilong Health Products Co. had not properly registered its trademark “Weige”, and was improperly selling its product under the unregistered name, the People’s Daily newspaper said on Saturday. — AFP