No headway in NATO, Serbia talks
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 — Threats of air strikes lingered in the Balkans today with the crisis talks between NATO and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic on Serbia’s policy on Kosovo “making no headway” and USA urging for an end to “brutal repression” in the strife-torn province.

Sonia Hindu by marriage: VHP leader
NEW YORK, Jan 20 — The recent spate of attacks on Christians in Gujarat had “nothing to do with” Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a top leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad has said.

Yeltsin doesn’t need surgery
MOSCOW, Jan 20 — The President Boris Yeltsin’s condition was improving and doctors have ruled out surgery for stomach ulcer as the President was responding positively to drug treatment, Kremlin sources said today.

Annan counters criticism
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 20 — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sought to counter criticism in the US media on how he was handling his job, particularly towards Iraq where Washington believes he is not tough enough.

Chandrika’s poll drive gets boost
COLOMBO, Jan 20 —Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga received a major boost to her campaign for the North-West Provincial Council election as her arch rival, Srimani Athulathamudali, widow of former UNP strongman Lalith Athulathamudali, rejoined the ruling People’s Alliance.

Hereditary peers' era to end
LONDON, Jan 20 — The British Government is launching one of the biggest constitutional changes in the country of this century, a Bill to end the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords.

France wants India to adhere to CTBT

BONN, Jan 20 (PTI) — India and France have ended their second round of “strategic dialogue’’ on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament with Paris lauding New Delhi for the ‘progress made’ towards ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

French President Jacques Chirac at a meeting with Prime Minister’s Special Adviser Brajesh Mishra yesterday had expressed satisfaction at the progress made towards ratifying the treaty banning nuclear tests and reiterated his call for India to adhere to the CTBT.

The entire gamut of bilateral relations and the future contours of Indo-French cooperation also came up for a review during the meeting between Mr Brajesh Mishra and special representative of the French President Jacques Chirac, Gerard Errera in Paris.

The two countries also planned to convene the first meeting of the Indo-French working group on energy in March.

The ongoing security dialogue initiated first in New Delhi on October 28 is aimed at outlining long-term cooperation between India and France with the goal of contributing towards a multi-polar world in which India had the “authority’’ to play an important role, according to a statement issued by the Indian embassy in Paris.

Mr Mishra was also here late last year to brief India’s major interlocutors including some of the nuclear weapon states as well as Germany and Japan about the rationale behind New Delhi’s nuclear tests in May last.

The decision to engage in a “strategic dialogue’’ between India and France was taken in principle during the state visit by the Chirac to India in January 1998.

Mr Mishra’s visit to Paris comes less than a week after Defence Minister George Fernandes’ official visit during which the latter said that India would like to build on its relationship with France especially after Paris took an “understanding view’’ of New Delhi’s security concerns when it conducted the nuclear tests.

Clinton's men mount feisty defence
Popularity soars
From Martin Kettle in Washington

AN unrepentant Bill Clinton took the fight to his enemies on Tuesday night when White House lawyers launched a powerful defence against a "witch’s brew" of charges in his Senate impeachment trial.

As Mr Clinton remained in the White House putting finishing touches to a speech that was expected to celebrate America’s continuing economic boom and improving law and order record, his lawyer Charles Ruff told the Senate trial that the President should remain in his post.

"William Jefferson Clinton is not guilty of the charges," Mr Ruff said as the trial resumed. "He did not commit perjury, he did not obstruct justice, he must not be removed from office," he said leaving no doubt that he intended to mount an across-the-board defence of his boss against what he later said was "nothing more than a rush to judgement".

Most observers believe that the Senate’s Republican majority will vote next week to prolong the presidential trial by calling a group of witnesses — including Monica Lewinsky.

But Mr Ruff fired a shot across their bows by signalling that he will call Ms Lewinsky’s former friend Linda Tripp to question her "oddly multifaceted role" in the investigations of independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Ms Tripp’s role in the case was "more than merely a backdrop" to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, Mr Ruff charged. It was "inexplicable" that Mr Starr had allowed her to aid the legal team of Paula Jones, who alleged that the President sexually harassed her.

Earlier, leading Republicans rejected suggestions that a decision to call witnesses, due to be voted on early next week, will turn the trial into a smut show.

"I don’t think it should lead to an unseemly spectacle. You don’t have to get into the details,’’ said Senate majority leader Trent Lott.

Mr Ruff told the Senate the White House welcomed the opportunity to prove Mr Clinton’s innocence. "Some have suggested that we have feared to do so. We do not."

As Mr Ruff and Mr Clinton launched their winter offensive, the latest Gallup poll, published in USA Today, showed 81 per cent of Americans think the Clinton presidency has been a success, against 16 per cent who consider it a failure. President Clinton’s job approval rating was 69 per cent and 60 per cent said the state of the US economy was "the best it has been in their lifetime". However, only 24 per cent said Mr Clinton was "honest and trustworthy". —The Guardian, London.

Clinton talks tough on Iraq

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (AFP) — US President Bill Clinton today took aim at foes Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Osama Bin Laden as he unveiled foreign policy initiatives for the next century.

In his annual state of the union address, Mr Clinton told Congress the coming millennium demanded “new partnerships for peace and security” to enhance efforts to promote international peace and democracy.

“No nation in history has had the opportunity and the responsibility we now have to shape a world more peaceful, secure and free,” he said.

The President stressed the need to fight terrorism and nuclear proliferation, to restart the stalled West Asia peace process and, in the short-term, to end the “brutal repression” in Kosovo.

“With our Nato allies, we are pressing the Serbian Government to stop its brutal repression in Kosovo, to bring those responsible to justice and give the people of Kosovo the self-government they deserve.”

Mr Clinton also urged the expansion of Nato and ties with crucial states in Asia — notably South Korea, Japan and China — and vowed to continue to isolate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“America will continue to contain Saddam — and we will work for the day when Iraq has a government worthy of its people,” Mr Clinton said.

He congratulated the 33,000 US soldiers who participated in last month’s British and US bombing raids on Iraq, calling their performance “superb” and promising to increase military spending over the next six years to support troops and maintain modernisation and readiness.

The President also urged Congress to provide promised funding for the implementation of the Wye river peace-for-land accord between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“We must not. We dare not let them down,” he said.

In addition, the President said he wanted to support the United Nations which he said shared burdens that the USA might otherwise shoulder alone. The UN says that Washington owes it about $ 1.5 billion.

“America needs a strong and effective UN,” Mr Clinton said: “I want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts.”

Mr Clinton noted that two of the biggest threats to world security were the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism, calling on the Senate to ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) as an example.

“It has been two years since I signed the comprehensive test ban treaty. If we don’t do the right thing, other nations won’t either,” Mr Clinton told Congress.

“I ask the Senate to take this vital step: approve the treaty now. So we can make it harder for other nations to develop nuclear arms — and to make sure we can end testing forever,” he said.

His comments followed a promise to increase efforts to “restrain the spread of nuclear weapons and missiles, from North Korea to India and Pakistan”.

On terrorism, the President reminded lawmakers of US retaliation for last year’s deadly embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania and said attacks on Washington’s interests would not go unpunished.

“As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our nation at security — including increased dangers from outlaw nations and terrorism,” Mr Clinton said.

“We will defend wherever we are threatened — as we did this summer when we struck at Osama Bin Laden’s network of terror,” he said, referring to the alleged mastermind of the embassy attacks.

On Asia, Mr Clinton warned China that its stability could no longer depend on limiting human rights, but urged Americans to refrain from isolating the Communist giant.

“In China, I said to the leaders and people what I say again: stability can no longer be bought at the expense of liberty,” Mr Clinton said.

“But I say to the American people: it is important not to isolate China. The more we bring China into the world, the more the world will bring change and freedom to China.”

Mr Clinton also called Africa a priority, saying democracy and reform there was rising but was “still held back by violence and disease”.

8 die in Indonesia riots

JAKARTA, Jan 20 (AFP) — At least eight people were killed and more than 100 injured as clashes between Christians and Muslims rocked the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon for the second day today, reports and officials said.

“Our records here say eight people died, four yesterday and four today, but there may be more still unreported,” said First Sergeant Victor at the Maluku province police headquarters.

Victor could not say how many were injured. But the official Antara News Agency said 100 were seriously hurt in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, which last month was described by President B.J Habibie as a model of religious harmony.

Mobs burned at least 45 houses, 75 street kiosks, 16 cars, 25 motorcycles and around 100 pedicabs, he said. Two markets and a private Islamic elementary school were also set on fire.

There were no details on most of the deaths but an employee at Ambon state hospital and a policeman said one man died from gunshot wounds.

Sergeant Edi Wattimena of Ambon police said he saw two bodies in the Mardika village earlier today. One was shot dead and the other slashed to death.

No headway in NATO, Serbia talks

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (PTI) Threats of air strikes lingered in the Balkans today with the crisis talks between NATO and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic on Serbia’s policy on Kosovo “making no headway” and USA urging for an end to “brutal repression” in the strife-torn province.

“We made no headway,” a senior diplomat said after NATO commander General Wesley Clark met Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at Belgrade yesterday.

Rattling up US warnings, President Bill Clinton today said, “with our NATO allies we are pressing the Serbian Government to stop its brutal repression in Kosovo, to bring those responsible to justice and give the people of Kosovo the self-government they deserve.”

His comments come after US officials stepped up their warnings to Milosevic over Kosovo, laying down four demands for the threat of air strikes to be lifted.

Meanwhile, UN Security Council condemned the massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians and demanded immediate investigation into the killings.

In a presidential statement read out at an open meeting late last night, the council deplored Yugoslavia’s decision to block the entry of UN war crimes tribunal’s prosecutor Louise Arbour from entering Kosovo and Belgrade’s decision to expel America’s William Walker.

Meanwhile, head of the Yugoslav forensic team examining the bodies of 40 ethnic Albanians, believed to have been slaughtered by the Serb police, said they bore no signs of having been massacred, reports said.

Yugoslav and Belarussian forensic experts yesterday examined the bodies of the villagers from southern Kosovo killed last Saturday.

The Security Council asked Belgrade to cooperate fully with the tribunal set up to try war crimes.

The USA and France would have liked the council to demand that Arbour be allowed in Kosovo but apparently agreed to leave that out to get a consensus without which the statement could not have been issued.

The statement noted that international monitors had blamed Serbian forces for the massacre.

The four demands delivered to Milosevic yesterday were reversing the decision to expel Walker, allow UN war crime investigators to probe the massacre, the identification of the perpetrators of the massacre and the reversal of last October’s cease-fire agreement.

Meanwhile, Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko has urged President Bill Clinton to back military intervention in Kosovo to prevent a regional war in the Balkans, the Albanian government said.

Sonia Hindu by marriage: VHP leader
from Jyotirmoy Dutta

NEW YORK, Jan 20 — The recent spate of attacks on Christians in Gujarat had “nothing to do with” Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a top leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad has said.

Asked if the targeting of Christians was part of a political agenda to discredit Ms Sonia Gandhi, who is a Roman Catholic, the VHP leader, Mr Bhupendra Kumar Modi, said the attacks had no connection with her.

“Sonia Gandhi is by her marriage well accepted as a Hindu,” Mr Modi, who was on a week-long tour of the USA and Europe, said. “The masses have accepted her as (former Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi’s good wife. She has embraced Indian culture. She visits temples and offers puja (prayers). These incidents have nothing to do with Ms Sonia Gandhi. I knew Rajiv Gandhi well and I know and respect her.... as a model for Indian womanhood.”

Mr Modi, who is chairman of Modicorp, one of India’s five biggest industrial houses, was in New York to discuss a proposal for what he described as a “spiritual non-aggression pact” with a group at the United Nations. He was due to visit Los Angeles, London and Paris before returning to India.

The VHP leader also claimed that his organisation was not involved in the Gujarat incidents. “It has been established by a team of inquiry that the VHP is not involved in these attacks,” he said.

“The reason it has been surmised that the VHP is behind these attacks is because of the Parishad’s long record of conducting a movement against forcible conversions,” Mr Modi said. “For centuries it has been the practice of an invading king or an invading power to convert the population of a country it has conquered to its own religion. We want an end to this practice.”

Asked if the VHP had any evidence of “forcible conversions,” Mr Modi said any kind of inducement offered to change one’s religion was forcible conversion. “I am talking of missionaries who pursue conversion as an agenda,” he said. “These missionaries are evaluated on the basis of the number of conversions achieved. They tell the poor villager that he is poor because of his religion and that if he changed his religion he would become rich. This is an inducement — through money or offer of any other materialistic benefit.”

“There have been many conversions all over the world. This is not a new thing. Conversions are carried out as part of their agenda by agencies supported by the power of arms or money,” Mr Modi continued. “Muslim countries do not allow any missionaries into their countries. India does. But being a democracy, it also has a free Press, which reports such conversions. Because of the free Press, these examples of conversions are becoming more and more noticed.

“If a person changes his religion on his own, that is his own choice and such a personal choice is respected all over the world. But when you try to change the religion of an entire family or community, then it cannot be seen as a person’s individual choice. When a whole village is converted en masse, it is not an individual choice. That’s an example of forcible conversion,” he claimed.

About VHP leader, Mr Giriraj Kishore’s statement that the organisation aimed to strike an alliance with the world’s non-aggressive religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Confucianism while opposing the evangelism of “aggressive” religions like Islam and Christianity, Mr Modi said the idea had come up at an inter-faith conference in Kyoto, Japan, followed by a conference at Modinagar in India.
— IANS

Yeltsin doesn’t need surgery

MOSCOW, Jan 20 (PTI) — The President Boris Yeltsin’s condition was improving and doctors have ruled out surgery for stomach ulcer as the President was responding positively to drug treatment, Kremlin sources said today.

Yeltsin’s doctors, who performed control gastroscopy this morning did not find any evidence of bleeding of stomach ulcer and have allowed him to stroll in his ward in the Central Clinical Hospital here and to work on the table, Radio Ekho Moskvy reported.

According to the doctors, there was no sign of bleeding, “inflammation and swelling in the tissues around the area of ulcer has been removed and as of today there was no need of surgery,” Itar-Tass quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin as saying.

“The doctors have observed that recovery treatment by means of medicines will continue,” he said.

The favourable response to drug treatment came as a relief to the medical experts since operation to remove stomach ulcer usually lasts more than six hours and could have been too risky as Yeltsin, who will turn 68 on February 1, had undergone quintiple bypass heart operation in 1996, the radio said.

Annan counters criticism

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 20 (Reuters) — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sought to counter criticism in the US media on how he was handling his job, particularly towards Iraq where Washington believes he is not tough enough.

In an address to the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Annan yesterday said that when he spoke to leaders such as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, he was not passing a moral judgement on their behaviour. Instead, he was doing his job — to seek compliance of U.N. resolutions through peaceful diplomacy.

While Mr Annan has received praise in the U.S., the criticism is equally as strong, with some accusing him of being morally blind and seeking peace at any price.

“Ultimately, the peace we seek, in Iraq as everywhere, is one that reflects the lessons of our terrible century; that peace is not true or lasting if it is bought at any cost; that only peace with justice can honour the victims of war and violence; and that without democracy, tolerance and human rights for all, no peace is truly safe,” he said.

Chandrika’s poll drive gets boost

COLOMBO, Jan 20 (PTI) —Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga received a major boost to her campaign for the North-West Provincial Council election as her arch rival, Srimani Athulathamudali, widow of former UNP strongman Lalith Athulathamudali, rejoined the ruling People’s Alliance (PA).

Official media here reported that Mr Athulathamudali, leader of the United Lalith Front, party named after her assassinated husband, shared the platform with Mrs Chandrika at Nikaweratiya in the North-West Puttalam district last evening where she extended her full support to the President.

But her decision to extend the support to the PA was not without any hiccups. One of the associates and a senior member of Parliament, Ravi Karunanyake, was dismissed from the party for strongly opposing her move to support Chandrika.

Hereditary peers' era to end

LONDON, Jan 20 (AFP) — The British Government is launching one of the biggest constitutional changes in the country of this century, a Bill to end the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords.

One of the most radical proposals in the legislation is to replace some of the nobles with “people’s peers”, ordinary people nominated by the public.

They would sit and vote in the Lords instead of peers whose ancestors, in many cases, have sat in the Upper Chamber since the 14th century.

Hereditary peers would also lose cosy privileges such as free parking and use of the restaurants and tea-rooms at Westminster.

The radical shake-up is sure to spark fierce clashes over the coming year between Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour administration and the opposition Conservatives.

The Tories have an in-built majority in the Upper Chamber thanks mostly to the more than 750 Dukes, Earls, Marguesses, Viscounts and Barons who have the right to sit and vote there on matters of state.

In line with convention the House of Lords Bill was given a formal first reading yesterday in the Lower House of Commons without a debate or vote.

However, details of the legislation were only being unveiled today. It includes the setting-up of a royal commission to study the long-term shape of the Lords.

‘Dolly’ scientist
LONDON: British scientist Ian Wilmut, who successfully cloned the sheep “dolly’’, said on Wednesday that he was now turning his attention to the artificial reproduction of human embryos. In an interview on BBC television, Wilmut said he hoped to begin preliminary experiments on the project next week using embryos which were at a very early stage of development. The embryos to be used would be killed before they reached the foetus stage, said Wilmut who believes his work could be invaluable in helping to devise therapy methods for illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. — DPA

Cuban immigrants
MIAMI: Facing a rising tide of Cuban immigrants smuggled to Florida, US officials said they suspected Havana might have eased some controls that seek to prevent Cubans from leaving the Communist nation. Since Friday, the US Border Patrol has picked up 83 illegal Cuban refugees in southern Florida, all of them believed to have been carried to the state by professional smugglers, Dan Geoghegan, assistant chief of the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, said on Tuesday. Twentythree Haitians also had been picked since Friday while attempting to enter the USA illegally. — Reuters

Bush sworn in
AUSTIN TEXAS: George W. Bush has been sworn in for a second term as Governor of Texas, calling for racial and ethnic reconciliation and a return to traditional moral values — issues that may become themes for the White House campaign in 2000. With his father, former President George Bush, and his mother, Barbara Bush, in the audience, he took the oath on Tuesday. Bush (52), the first man to win two consecutive four-year terms as Governor of Texas, has already been crowned the early favourite for the Republican presidential nomination, even though he has not yet officially made up his mind to run. — Reuters

Lawyers ‘gave up’ Jones
LITTLE ROCK (Arkansas): Paula Jones’ lawyers say her original legal team abandoned her case and are not entitled to any part of the $ 850,000 compensation that President Bill Clinton paid to settle her sexual harassment lawsuit. Lawyers Joseph Cammarata and Gilbert K. Davis, who successfully argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr Clinton should stand trial while still in office, are seeking $ 875,000 in fees and expenses. Mrs Jones’ most recent lawyers, said in a court filing on Tuesday that Cammarata and Davis could not make a valid claim to the money as they abandoned Paula Jones in September 1997. “They were not discharged they quit”. — AP

Birthday cards
LONDON: The London police is trying to check the rising graph of crime and drug pushing by sending birthday cards to criminals. Inside each card is a picture of a cell door and a caption, “thinking of you on your birthday.” Even the Superintendent of Police, East London, Gary Copson, who thought of this birthday message to criminals, himself was unhappy about the card with an implicit warning to criminals. Suspected drug dealers and robbers are also on the birthday list. — ANI