Pak swoop on Taliban outfit
ISLAMABAD, Feb 5 — In what appears to be the Pakistani government’s latest stance on containing Taliban’s activities in the country, the police has arrested four top leaders of militia’s indigenous outfit in a township of district Hango in the North-Western Frontier Province.

Senate’s no to live testimony
WASHINGTON, Feb 5 — Weary from the all-consuming presidential impeachment trial, US Senators are moving briskly to end the proceedings.

Canadian envoy to SA attacked
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 5 — Canada’s top ranking diplomat to South Africa has been attacked by an unknown assailant, who tricked his way into the envoy’s Cape Town hotel room, the Canadian High Commission said today.

Butler may quit by June-end
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 5 — Chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, whose resignation is being demanded by Russia and China due to the controversies relating to inspections at Iraq’s suspected arms sites, is expected to quit the job at the end of June when his two-year term expires.

Serbia to take part in talks on Kosovo
BELGRADE, Feb 5 — The Serbian Parliament has voted in favour of sending a delegation to Rambouillet in France for attending peace talks on Kosovo and authorised the government to choose the team.

• White House ‘coerced TV on rape charge’
• Bathe twice a day to live past 100
• Canadian award for Roshan Seth

Pak swoop on Taliban outfit

ISLAMABAD, Feb 5 (UNI) — In what appears to be the Pakistani government’s latest stance on containing Taliban’s activities in the country, the police has arrested four top leaders of militia’s indigenous outfit in a township of district Hango in the North-Western Frontier Province.

NWFP police and frontier constabulary personnel yesterday arrested four leaders of the newly-launched Taliban Tehrik at Orngazai, following the militiamen’s house-to-house search for TV and radio sets which they consider un-Islamic.

The Tehrik came into the spotlight after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced in November that Pakistan would have the Islamic system of justice as practised by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, a BBC report said last night that the police had actually gone to the area to arrest nine robbers.

People at Orngazai felt harassed by the self-styled Pakistani brand of the Taliban and accused it of imposing Islamic law in the area , the BBC added.

In December they ordered execution of a man accused of murder.

However, the arrest of the four Tehrik leaders, including Maulana Sayed Rahman Hashmi, holds significance in the light of US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott’s visit to Pakistan.

The action may be looked to as Islamabad’s move to restrict militia’s activities in the country.

Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden did also reportedly figure in Mr Talbott’s discussions with the Pakistani authorities.

Meanwhile, commercial life ground to a halt and streets looked deserted today as Pakistan observed a day of “solidarity” with Kashmiri militants, witnesses said.

Political parties and Kashmiri organisations planned rallies in Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir as the government declared a nationwide holiday for the occasion.

Roadside banners hailed the “Kashmir jihad” and called on the United Nations to end human rights “violations” in Kashmir.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a message, vowed continued political and moral support for the “Kashmiri struggle” and appealed to the international community to help bring about a solution to the Kashmir issue.

Senate’s no to live testimony

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (AP, AFP) — Weary from the all-consuming presidential impeachment trial, US Senators are moving briskly to end the proceedings.

In a bipartisan vote yesterday, Senators rejected a request by the Republican prosecutors to force Ms Monica Lewinsky to testify live before the US Senate. Instead, they agreed to permit the showing of portions of videotaped testimony she gave this week to prosecutors.

Parts of her recorded deposition are to be played at the nationally televised trial session on Saturday.

With their decisions yesterday, the Senators moved to bring the trial to a conclusion by the end of next week.

Meanwhile, in her trial deposition, Ms Lewinsky told House prosecutors she still has “mixed feelings” for Mr Clinton and continues to admire him. She insisted he did not encourage her to lie when he informed her in a late-night call that she might become a witness in a sexual harassment lawsuit against Mr Clinton filed by a former state government worker.

With 25 Republicans joining Democrats also, the Senate rejected, 70-30, the prosecutors’ request to issue a subpoena requiring the young woman at the centre of the impeachment drama to testify in the well of the Senate.

With support from several Democrats, however, Senate Republicans approved the House prosecutors’ request to show at the trial this weekend ‘all or portions’ of the videotaped depositions of Ms Lewinsky, presidential friend Vernon Jordan and White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal.

Prosecutors and White House lawyers would have up to three hours each to show portions of those videotapes tomorrow before the two sides begin closing arguments.

Earlier in the day, emerging from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, majority leader Trent Lott declared the Senate was ‘on track’ for a final vote on the two articles of impeachment by February 12, or perhaps a day earlier. Democrats renewed a call for a formal censure of the President, but only after the trial ends with his acquittal on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

While the drive to end the trial picked up steam, Republicans thwarted a democratic request to skip the airing of any witness testimony and move directly to closing arguments. The idea offered by minority leader Tom Daschle was rejected 56-44.

Phone tapping
Russia’s media baron under probe

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (UNI) — The Prosecutor-General’s office is probing the tapping of telephones of President Boris Yeltsin and other prominent figures of Russia by a firm run by top oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, “Voice of Russia” and some major dailies reported.

Often referred to as the “George Soros” of Russia’s financial world, Berezovsky, an average wage-earner during Soviet times, shot into the limelight when he secured ownership of major firms in various sectors of Russian economy ranging from fuel industry and air companies to the media. The privatisation of state property was a godsend opportunity for him to climb up the ladder.

The US magazine, Fortune, included him among the 400 richest men in the world.

In and out of power and presidential favour from time to time, he virtually declared a “war of nerves” against the Primokov Government, as it earned his wrath for rehabilitating Russian economy by leashing in chief operators of the Russian market and nabbing corrupt businessmen and politicians.

Owner of Russia’s most powerful daily Nezavisimaya Azeta, Novoye Izvestia and the popular ORT television station also. Berezovsky is no more under the wings of President Yeltsin’s family, writes the widely-circulated daily, Komsomolskaya Pravda. That is the reason why the authorities this time have not come to his rescue, when he is under attack from various government quarters.

The media on Thursday night also reminded how in the past Berezovsky was known as maker and unmaker of various Russian Cabinets, though he limited his political ambitions to playing secondary roles in running the government.

The longest serving Premier of Russia till last year Viktor Chernomyrdin was often called a “Berezovsky creation”.

A staunch proponent of US business philosophy, according to which “what is good for big business is good for the country also”. Berezovsky launched a “covert war” against Mr Primakov and his Left-leaning Cabinet ministers. For the tycoon, it is question of survival.

Russian wire service Novosti disclosed that Deputy Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika, who is dealing with the Berezovsky case, has been given a blank cheque by the Prime Minister to wage an open war against rampant financial and political corruption in Russia.

Canadian envoy to SA attacked

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 5 (Reuters) — Canada’s top ranking diplomat to South Africa has been attacked by an unknown assailant, who tricked his way into the envoy’s Cape Town hotel room, the Canadian High Commission said today.

The attacker, pretending to be a member of the luxury hotel’s maintenance staff, drew a Sten gun on High Commissioner James Bartleman, tied him up and robbed him of his valuables.

"He (Bartleman) struggled and now has a fractured nose and an injured foot. He’s now in a Cape Town hospital," a spokeswoman for the Canadian High Commission in Pretoria said.

The attack happened last night just after Mr Bartleman checked into his hotel so that he could attend the opening of the South African Parliament today.

The assault on Mr Bartleman came on the heels of the murder of a high-profile South Korean businessman in a Johannesburg suburb, a further blow to south Africa’s attempts to shake off its image as one of the world’s most crime-plagued countries.

Butler may quit by June-end

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 5 (PTI) — Chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, whose resignation is being demanded by Russia and China due to the controversies relating to inspections at Iraq’s suspected arms sites, is expected to quit the job at the end of June when his two-year term expires.

A former Australian UN Ambassador, Mr Butler told reporters here yesterday that he was unlikely to remain at his post after June 30.

The news was not unexpected as there had been speculation for quite some time that Mr Butler, who is considered close to the US administration, will not remain beyond his term.

However, he defended the work of the UN Special Commission overseeing Iraqi disarmament, saying that it knows more about Iraqi weapons and efforts to conceal them than anyone else.

It was Mr Bulter’s report about Iraqi non-cooperation which led to American and British air strikes against Baghdad in mid-December.

The inspectors, who were withdrawn just before the strikes, have not been allowed by Iraq to return.

Russia and China contested Mr Butler’s report and Russia virtually charged him with dishonesty and demanded abolition of the UNSCOM itself, after it became known that American intelligence agencies had been using inspectors to get information for themselves.

Serbia to take part in talks on Kosovo

BELGRADE, Feb 5 (UNI) — The Serbian Parliament has voted in favour of sending a delegation to Rambouillet in France for attending peace talks on Kosovo and authorised the government to choose the team.

Addressing Parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic said his government decided to take part in the talks because of Serbia’s determination to fight for peace and at the same time to defend Kosovo in world fora.

The decision was yet another move to contribute towards a peaceful solution of the Kosovo crisis, Mr Marjanovic added.

MOSCOW: The Russian Duma has asked President Boris Yeltsin to counter NATO’s possible invasion of Yugoslavia and recommended the government to pull out from the UN sanctions imposed on that country during the Bosnia war.

The Duma described as a war against a sovereign nation NATO’s decision to launch a full-scale military action against Yugoslavia in the event the hostilities continue till February 6, The Voice of Russia said.

Quoting alliance sources in Brussels, the Russian media reports 38,000 troops have already amassed close to Yugoslavian borders.

Bathe twice a day to live past 100

BANGKOK, Feb 5 (Reuters) — Thailand’s Health Ministry says anyone wanting to live past 100 should brush their teeth and bathe twice a day, keep their homes tidy and clothes clean.

In its “simple secrets to longevity”, the ministry also advises three proper meals a day, 30 minutes exercise thrice a week, six to eight glasses of water a day and six to eight hours’ rest.

It also prescribes a health check-up once a year, avoidance of narcotics, a moral lifestyle. low-fat diet and maintenance of close ties with family and friends.

White House ‘coerced TV on rape charge’

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (PTI) — The White House unsuccessfully pressured Fox News Television into not broadcasting a story about a woman who claims President Bill Clinton raped her 21 years ago and then coerced her into denying it under oath, the Washington Times reported yesterday, quoting Fox Network sources.

White House press Secretary Joe Lockhart said that he was not going to comment on “private conversations” with the Fox News reporter.

The woman in question is said to be Juanita Broaddrick. Her attorney, William P. Walters, told the paper that two weeks ago his client, in an unpaid interview, broke her self-imposed press silence by allowing herself to be interviewed by NBC-TV.

Canadian award for Roshan Seth

TORONTO, Feb 5 (Reuters) — Indian actor Roshan Seth, who first shot to fame enacting Jawaharlal Nehru in Sir Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi”, has been declared the best actor in the Canadian film industry’s genie awards for his performance in the movie “such a long journey”.

Seth played the lead role in the film based on Rohinton Mistry’s novel of the same name and costarring Naseeruddin Shah.

Francois Girard’s historical epic, “The Red Violin”, swept the awards declared yesterday, winning in seven categories, including best picture.

Reversing strokes
NASHVILLE (Tennessee): For the first time, doctors have shown they can reverse massive strokes up to six hours after the start of symptoms by squirting a new clot-dissolving medicine directly into the brain. The new approach offers potentially better treatment for the worst strokes and a doubling of the three-hour window that now is the deadline for stroke victims to get help before they suffer permanent brain damage. Doctors tested the medicine, called Prourokinase, on people who suffered a particularly serious form of the disease. — AP

Man hired to kill son
BANGKOK: A Thai mother has confessed to hiring a gunman to murder her son to purge society of the misery he was causing by pushing amphetamines, the police said on Thursday. Supatra Chomphoosri, (48), was arrested this month and charged with the premeditated murder of her son Suthipol Netsuwan, a former police sergeant, on December 30. She confessed to paying $ 1,200 to get him killed. — AFP

Chinese Viagra
BEIJING: A Chinese company has launched a “desi” version of the anti-impotence drug Viagra at a fraction of the price of its US-based original. A company in Shengyang this week launched the Chinese pill “wei ge” — the “big brother” — that promises to combat impotence and improve sexual performance.”Our tests on guinea pigs show that it is more effective than viagra”, chairman of the company said. — PTI

Nuke ‘spy’ case
MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal to drop treason and spying charges against a former captain who accused the navy of dumping nuclear waste in the Arctic Sea. The judgement supported an earlier decision that prosecutors needed more time to produce evidence against Alexander Nikitin. The court heard his case at a closed session, a move which his lawyers and human rights groups said had no basis in law. — Reuters

“Baywatch” team
SYDNEY: It claims to be the world’s favourite television show but producers of “Baywatch” pleaded poverty on Thursday, approaching Australian Government for financial help in relocating down under. The producers have said they fell in love with Australia last year during filming in the Sydney area and would like to relocate here permanently. — AFP

PPP leaders sacked
ISLAMABAD: Former Premier Benazir Bhutto on Thursday removed two leaders of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for creating an internal split in the North-West Frontier Province, the party said. The PPP chairperson sacked Mr Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao from the post of central vice-chairman and Senator Masood Kausar from the office of provincial president of the party, it said. — AFP

US scribe dead
WASHINGTO: Joseph Kings-bury-Smith, a former national Editor and Chief Foreign Correspondent for Hearst newspaper and a one-time publisher of The New York Journal-American, died at his home in suburban Virginia on Wednesday. He was 90. In 1956 he shared the Pulitzer Prize for international affairs reporting with Hearst colleagues, William Randolph Hearst (Jr) and Frank Conniff for a series of interviews the previous year with Nikita Krushchev and other Soviet leaders. — AP