Crisis in Israel blows over
JERUSALEM, Dec 29 — The ultra-orthodox Jewish Shas Party has said it resolved a budget row that threatened the stability of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s coalition government and his plans to make peace with Syria.

UNP leader backtracks
COLOMBO, Dec 29 — Amid reports that 16 more of its MPs have been secretly negotiating with the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) to join the proposed national government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has backtracked on his decision not to join the government.

Milosevic makes changes in army
BELGRADE, Dec 29 — Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has made a sudden series of changes in the army, promoting some commanders and dismissing others.

Ex-Miss World’s rapist sentenced

Army takes over Ambon security

JAKARTA, Dec 29 (DPA) — The Indonesian military today took control of security from the police in the strife-torn city of Ambon, where religious clashes this week have left at least 63 persons dead and more than 150 injured, military officials and media reports said.

Lieut-Col Iwa Budiman, a spokesperson for Maluku’s military command, confirmed that “as of 6 a.m. today the security command had been handed over from Maluku’s police chief, Brig-Gen Dewa Astika, to Major-Gen Max Tamaela, chief of Maluku’s Pattimura military command.

Colonel Budiman confirmed he was aware of a report that violence had broken out also on Haruku island, just east of Ambon, but declined to confirm reports that six persons had been killed there.

“I can only confirm reports about violence erupting on Haruku island, but I cannot get any confirmation about the fatalities,’’ he told DPA on the telephone.

Officials in the capital of Maluku province described the situation there as “totally crippled’’ as groups of warring residents rampaged through the streets with various crude weapons, including swords, homemade bombs and rifles.

Snipers firing from tall buildings forced many of the city’s residents to stay indoors.

The official Antara news agency reported from Ambon, 2,300 km north-east of Jakarta, that up to 63 persons had been killed in the past four days of sectarian clashes, the worst in a series of Muslim-Christian battles in the ravaged town.

But Colonel Budiman only confirmed that 44 persons , including a security officer, had died in the latest spasm of violence in Ambon.

“I can only confirm to you that 34 Muslims, nine Christians and one security officer have been killed’’ since the violence broke out on Sunday afternoon, he said.

At least 150 others were injured while hundreds of homes, shops and government and private offices have been torched.

Eyewitnesses said gunfire from the security forces could be heard sporadically throughout last night and early this morning. Explosions of homemade bombs could also be heard in Ambon’s Urimesing and Diponegoro neighbourhoods.

“Clashes are still going on between the two parties. Black smoke billowed from the burned homes, shops and other buildings,’’ a resident said on the telephone.

The latest round of violence broke out on Sunday evening after a bus driven by a Christian struck a Muslim youth, security officials said.

Russians take key points in Grozny

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters, UNI) — Russian forces said they had taken key positions in the Chechen capital Grozny and were today preparing for an assault on a main rebel base in snow-covered mountains to the South.

Russia’s ORT Television last night showed footage of special police units laden with grenades, prowling streets on the outskirts of the shattered capital.

News reports said Russian forces had occupied heights overlooking the city centre and were battling for control of a canned goods factory on the northern edge, scene of heavy fighting when Russia last stormed Grozny in 1994-95.

General Alexander Baranov, acting Russian Commander in Chechnya, said only four Russian troops and one pro-Russian Chechen militia fighter had been killed on Monday and yesterday, while Russian forces had killed about 200 Chechens.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said today Russia was wrapping up the final phase of its military campaign in Chechnya, Interfax news agency reported.

“I believe the operation in Chechnya is ending, at least its active phase”, Interfax quoted Mr Sergeyev as telling reporters. He said the current phase in the Russia offensive, with the goal of defeating the rebels in the mountainous south, would be the last.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has decorated top Generals leading the Russian offensive in the Caucasian mountains with the country’s highest national honour, Hero of Russia.

Fresh storms raise toll to 138

PARIS, Dec 29 (AFP) —After three days of devastating, hurricane-force storms, Europe was struck with more weather havoc in the form of blizzards, avalanches and floods that pushed its overall death toll to at least 138.

The new disasters since yesterday forced rescue workers in many of the countries already hard hit by the unprecedented storms to concentrate on saving lives, leaving the overwhelming clean-up and repair tasks to later.

Twelve persons were killed by avalanches in the Alps in Austria, bringing the total dead there to 14 since Sunday.

In Switzerland, where snow has also fallen, the authorities issued an avalanche warning. The Swiss Environment Ministry said the loss of millions of trees during the storms — which killed 13 persons there — had greatly raised the risk of snowslides.

Meanwhile, in Hungary, four persons died when a rescue helicopter flying in a heavy snowfall crashed. The police said another four persons froze to death over the past few days in a severe cold snap gripping the country which has shut down several roads and disrupted rail and air links.

The first wave of storms had built up over southern Britain, where eight persons died in high winds and floods, before gaining speed and sweeping into northern France, then on to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

A second wave hit Europe further south, striking southern France, northern Spain, again Switzerland and Italy, and through the Balkans and northern Turkey.

France bore the brunt both times. Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement said 68 persons were killed and eight others were missing since Sunday.

The second, the next day, brought with it winds of up to 200 km per hour in the south-west of the country.

Three persons died in the storms in Italy, including one in an avalanche in the Argentera valley, the police said.

In Germany, where 17 persons have died, the police said the Rhine had risen to dangerous levels and there was a risk of avalanches in the mountainous south. They added that truckers were stranded in heavy snow near Ulm and Wuerzberg.

Six Spaniards were killed in northern Spain.

Two hundred tents sheltering survivors of Turkey’s devastating earthquakes were flattened and the ensuing rain flooded refugee camps, Anatolia news agency reported.

France woke yesterday after its second pummelling to find state electricity firm EDF struggling to restore power to three million households.

France’s cultural heritage also suffered heavily, particularly around Paris where the Palace of Versailles lost part of its roof and around 10,000 trees from its grounds, the Cathedral of Notre Dame was damaged and the church of Sainte Chapelle lost its famous medieval stained glass window.

Crisis in Israel blows over

JERUSALEM, Dec 29 (Reuters) — The ultra-orthodox Jewish Shas Party has said it resolved a budget row that threatened the stability of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s coalition government and his plans to make peace with Syria.

“The main issues, the important issues have been finalised,” Shas spokesman Yitzik Sudri said yesterday. He added that the few “minor” issues which remained would be sewn up today.

Mr Sudri said shortly after Mr Barak agreed to handover $ 120 million extra to the Shas-controlled ministries last night. All 17 Shas parliamentarians voted with Mr Barak on a Bill connected to the 2000 budget.

The Shas had been wrangling for months with finance ministry officials over more than $ 200 million that it wanted for ministries under its control and for its struggling education network which generates the party’s grass roots support.

It had threatened to quit the government if it did not get its way in a move that would cost Mr Barak his majority at a critical time in his ambitious agenda to make peace with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians.

US President Bill Clinton, who mediated the renewal of Israel-Syrian peace talks earlier this month after a 45-month freeze, telephoned Mr Barak to find out whether the crisis could threaten the government’s stability, Mr Barak’s office said.

On Monday, Shas political leader Eli Yishai gave Barak 24 hours to find a way to solve the financial woes of the Shas school system, a cornerstone of support for the party among its power base of lower-class Jews with roots in Arab countries.

The education ministry said after overnight negotiations that a deal had been reached with the Shas on school funding.

With Shas’s backing, Mr Barak should easily have the 2000 budget approved by a parliament in a vote scheduled for tomorrow.

RAMALLAH (West Bank): A senior Palestinian official revealed today that in addition to public negotiations on a final settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the two sides were holding talks behind the scenes, away from the media spotlight.

Mr Yassir Abed Rabbo, who heads the Palestinian team to the final settlement talks with Israel, told Voice of Palestine Radio that such talks were being held on a regular basis. He insisted, however, that they were not secret.

“We have chosen to hold talks away from media spotlight, not because we want to hide anything,” he said, adding that if there would be results, they would be made public.

Mr Abed Rabbo and his Israeli counterpart, Oded Eran, have been holding public negotiations on the final settlement since November.

UNP leader backtracks

COLOMBO, Dec 29 (PTI) — Amid reports that 16 more of its MPs have been secretly negotiating with the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) to join the proposed national government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has backtracked on his decision not to join the government.

In an attempt to stem the growing dissent against Mr Wickrama-singhe’s leadership within the party ranks, a UNP spokesman said last night that contrary to reports, the combined meeting of the Working Committee and the Parliamentary Party on Monday had not taken a decision on the proposal to join the government.

In fact, Mr Wickramasinghe told the meeting that he would refer any official invitation to join the government to the Working Committee for a decision, the spokesman said adding the party had not closed the door on such a idea.

Cracks started appearing in the UNP shortly after Ms Kumaratunga, in her swearing-in speech on December 22, appealed to Mr Wickramasinghe to join her government to find a way to resolve the ethnic war with the LTTE.

Milosevic makes changes in army

BELGRADE, Dec 29 (Reuters) — Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has made a sudden series of changes in the army, promoting some commanders and dismissing others.

“The Yugoslav President and Supreme Commander Slobodan Milosevic issued decrees on the promotion, assignment to new posts and cessation of professional service of a certain number of Yugoslav army chiefs,’’ the state news agency Tanjug said yesterday quoting Mr Milosevic’s military cabinet.

One of the most significant promotions went to Mr Vladimir Lazarevic, who Tanjug said rose from the post of Commander of the army’s Pristina Corps — based in Kosovo until it was forced to withdraw in June — to deputy head of the broader Third Army.

Ex-Miss World’s rapist sentenced

TEL AVIV, Dec 29 (Reuters) — An Israeli court today sentenced an Israeli travel agent to 16 years imprisonment for raping and sodomising former Miss World Linor Abargil in Italy before she won the title in 1998, witnesses said.A three-judge panel said the sentence was handed down as a response to the “repulsive” offences committed by defendant Shlomo Nour, 43.

Breakthrough in human fertility
WASHINGTON: The sex chromosomes of humans and cats share a number of similarities, according to a report by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) published in the journal, Genome Research. William Murphy and Stephen O’brien of the NCI discovered that the genes of humans and cats are organised similarly on the X and Y chromosomes. The researchers said that the discovery could mean that scientists will be able to use cats to study human sexuality, including male fertility. — AFP

US journalist found dead
GUATEMALA CITY: The Guatemalan police were investigating the apparent murder of Mr Larry Lee, a US journalist who worked for the financial news agency Bridgenews. Mr Lee, 41, from Illinois, had been dead for six to 10 hours when he was found yesterday afternoon, said Mr Augusto Fernandez, a forensic investigator from the Guatemalan public prosecutor’s office. — Reuters

Clayton Moore is dead
LOS ANGELES: Clayton Moore, the actor who portrayed ‘The Lone Ranger’ for eight years in the television show of that name, died yesterday of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 85. “The Lone Ranger” ran on the ABC television network from 1949 through 1957, and one of the first shows filmed especially for television. — DPA