Sell N-technology to pay debts: Gul
ISLAMABAD, July 8 — A former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence Hamid Gul, has advocated that the government must not hesitate to sell nuclear technology to pay its debts and solve its economic problems.

Korean missile site
WASHINGTON, July 8 — North Korea is building what appears to be an underground missile-launching base within miles of the Chinese border, a South Korean presidential spokesman told The Washington Post in an interview published today.

DNA test of Washington demanded
America’s national icon George Washington fathered an illegitimate child with a young slave girl called Venus, according to her descendants who are demanding a DNA test to prove their claim.

1,300 ferry passengers evacuated
GOTEBORG (Sweden), July 8 — Rescuers safely evacuated more than 1,300 passengers and crew on an overnight ferry from Germany to Norway before dawn today after a fire broke out below decks, rescue official said.

China, Japan agreement on WTO
BEIJING, July 8 — Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's maiden official visit to China got a good start with both sides clinching a basic agreement on the Beijing's bid to join the World Trade Organisation.

India warned against dialogue with Pak

WASHINGTON, July 8 (PTI, (UNI) — A leading US Congressman Republican Bill McCollum has warned India against the Clinton Administration’s “package deal” for a dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad after the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from the Kargil sector.

“The deal’s proponents tell us it will provide Pakistan a face-saving outlet out of the armed conflict before it escalates into a wider war,” he said in a statement.

“However, there are many pitfalls in this approach,” in all political discussions to date, he notes, Pakistan still defines the invaders as ‘militants.’ Thus absolving Pakistan of the formal responsibility for what can otherwise be termed an act of war.

The more there is international acceptance without challenge of the Pakistani excuse that these ‘militants,’ the more it contradicts the 1972 Simla Agreement defining the Line of Control. This argument makes a mockery of any such bilateral agreements, McCollum said.

“Ultimately, international acceptance of these principles will reward Pakistan for its armed aggression and punish India for its self-restraint in evicting the intruder,” he said.

“Moreover, any political outcome in which Pakistan’s interests are met will also reward Beijing,” he remarked.

Endorsing India’s decision to evict the infiltrators by force, McCollum added that with the fighting in Kargil area stabilising in favour of India. “Pakistan is in dire need for a dramatic breakout to salvage some achievements from an otherwise doomed strategic gambit.”

The dialogue, he suggests, would be one such achievement.

Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone has urged President Clinton to reject Pakistan’s oft-repeated demand for mediation in Kashmir, and confine to his current “limited approach” of securing withdrawal of its forces from India’s side of the Line of Control (LoC).

In a letter to the President last night, he said he was pleased that the Clinton Administration had thus far resisted Pakistani attempts to internationalise the Kashmir conflict.

Bombings in Dhaka amid strike

DHAKA, July 8 (Reuters) — Bombings today rocked the Bangladeshi capital as the city awoke to an opposition strike, mayhem and reports of a late-night rampage by the police.

Hundreds of police personnel had taken to the streets here yesterday after a colleague died and seven policemen were wounded in bomb blasts blamed on opposition activists, witnesses said.

Outraged, they overturned vehicles, smashed windscreens and caused other damage, the witnesses and newspaper reports said.

Bombings continued today as the opposition strike, to protest against rising prices and other grievances, lead to the closure of schools, shops, factories and private offices across Bangladesh.

One man died today, apparently after he was hit by a bomb or a speeding vehicle in Dhaka, doctors at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital said.

They had treated about 10 persons hurt during the strike. Ten more were injured in the southeastern town of Cox’s Bazaar in a clash between strike supporters and opponents, officials said.

The opposition and ruling parties today blamed each other for the bombing that killed the policeman near the city’s Noor Hossain Square yesterday.

No arrests had been made. Three of the seven wounded policemen were in a serious condition, hospital sources said.

Paramilitary soldiers and extra policemen today reinforced security in Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong. Clashes in a similar strike on June 13 killed one man and wounded hundreds.

The Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges closed, and airport officials said some flights could be cancelled or rescheduled.

An alliance of major opposition parties, led by the BNP, called the strike in protest against what they called an "anti-people budget’’ passed in parliament last week and other concerns, including deteriorating law and order and rising prices.

Barak takes 4 portfolios

JERUSALEM, July 8 (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak who has already reserved the key post of defence minister for himself, personally took charge of four more ministries today.

In a series of changeover ceremonies in the Prime Minister’s office, the outgoing ministers of immigrant absorption, agriculture, science and tourism transferred their powers to Barak.

Outgoing Immigrant Absorption Minister Yuli Edelstein of the Israel B’aliya Party. which represents Russian-speaking immigrants, was the first to hand over his office.

He was to be followed by Agriculture Minister Raphael Eitan of the far-Right Tsomet Party and Science Minister Silvan Shalom and Tourism Minister Moshe Katzav of the formerly ruing Likud Bloc.

Barak was obliged to hold on to the portfolios himself after appointing the maximum 18 ministers allowed by law to other cabinet positions.

He intends to submit legislation to Parliament next week to expand the Cabinet to 24 members. If the Bill passes, Barak will then appoint full ministers to the four posts, aides said.

However, opposition parties and several senior Knesset members from Barak’s Labour Party, including Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and Speaker Avraham Burg, oppose the move.

For the first time in Israel’s history, an Arab-Israeli will sit in the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Defence Committee, Israeli Radio reported.

The man who appears to be slotted for the job is Taleb al-Sana, a Bedouin member of the United Arab list which holds five seats in the 120-strong parliament, or Knesset.

“The chances that I will be a member of the Knesset foreign affairs defence committee are good. It now depends on the vote in my party, the United Arab List,” Sana told Israeli Radio.

The appointment of an Arab-Israeli to the committee marks a change of policy towards Arabs who were previously excluded from participation in committees dealing with security issues.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Labour angered the three Arab parties representing the Arab population in Israel when he excluded them from the coalition.

The new premier said, however, that he would include Arab-Israelis in Knesset committees. According to Israeli Radio. Barak is planning to appoint an Arab to chair the committee dealing with drugs. It is the first time in Israel’s history that an Arab will chair a Knesset committee.

Barak was sworn-in on Tuesday.

Israeli-Arabs are Palestinians who remained in Israel after the creation of the state of Israel and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. They account for one sixth of the country’s population of six million.

Respect LoC, Lanka tells India, Pak

KATHMANDU, July 8 (UNI) — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Banadaranaike Kumaratunga has appealed to both India and Pakistan to "respect’’ the Line of Control in Kashmir and hopes that there will be "no intrusion either way.’’

Talking to newspersons here yesterday during her ongoing four-day state visit to Nepal, the Sri Lankan President, who is also currently Chairperson of the South Asian regional grouping SAARC, observed that the LoC in Kashmir had been agreed upon after "detailed consultations’’ and that both India and Pakistan should "respect it.’’

Referring to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in February earlier this year and the Lahore declaration issued then, Mrs Kumaratunga said the joint affirmation then had raised "lots of hope’’ in the South Asian region. And even now, she further hoped, the "mature leaderships’’ in both countries would be able to ‘’settle the issues through consultations.’’

In this context, the current SAARC Chairperson did not see "any impediment’’ in the timely convening of the eleventh summit, scheduled to be held in Kathmandu in November next. Despite heightened tensions following nuclear tests by both India and Pakistan last year, the tenth summit in Colombo was also held as scheduled, she pointed out.

Meanwhile, she ruled out any role for SAARC as a mediator in defusing the ongoing Indo-Pak tensions, pointing out that the grouping’s charter did not allow it any role in bilateral matters. Admitting that lately the summit meetings had provided opportunities for "informal political discussions "bilaterally, she reiterated that SAARC was still "not authorised’’ to issue statements on "bilateral contentious issues’’ between member-states.

Sell N-technology to pay debts: Gul

ISLAMABAD, July 8 (UNI) — A former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Hamid Gul, has advocated that the government must not hesitate to sell nuclear technology to pay its debts and solve its economic problems.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before his visit to Washington, Gul said Pakistan must not accept any foreign pressure to withdraw the forces from India’s side of the Line of Control (LoC).

The letter, which appeared in Urdu daily Jang, says the Foreign Office, which is not "mission-oriented’’ must not create an impression that the Prime Minister is unnerved. Gul said the Foreign Office advocate that the LoC be restored to its 1972 position is not correct. Pakistan must not help India to extricate itself from the "icy hell’’ in Siachen, he wrote.

Pakistan, he wrote, has the nuclear option and the strength of the "Kashmiri militants." "If the United States puts economic pressure we should declare moratorium on loan repayments....if the IMF and the World Bank have no compunction in economically drowning the nation of 14 crore then we must make it very clear that we will pay our debts and solve our economic problems by selling nuclear technology.’’

Korean missile site

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) — North Korea is building what appears to be an underground missile-launching base within miles of the Chinese border, a South Korean presidential spokesman told The Washington Post in an interview published today.

“Something is being built in that location, and the South Korean and American military are very concerned about it,” Mr Chung Eun Sung, Press Secretary to President Kim Dae Jung, told the newspaper.

Mr Chung said that based on intelligence reports, South Korea has a “well-grounded assumption” that the site under construction in the mountainous area of Yeongjeo-Dong, about 19 km from China, is a launching platform for North Korea’s Taepodong I and its more advanced Taepodong II ballistic missiles.

Reports about the potential missile base come amid concerns that North Korea is preparing to test-launch from a different site a Taepodong II missile with sufficient range to reach Alaska or Hawaii.

US officials declined to comment on the suspected missile site, saying that it was an intelligence matter.

The post said reports about the Yeongjeo-Dong site had circulated for months in intelligence circles, but that Mr Chung publicly confirmed them for the first time when asked about a story on the site in a South Korean newspaper yesterday.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said construction of the base was about 70 per cent completed and it had 10 launch pads.

Ghosts exist, say scientists

MADRID, July 8 (DPA) — Ghosts, spirits and poltergeists seem about as far as you can get from rationality and science.

But in the Spanish capital Madrid, a group of professional ghostbusters uses modern instruments ranging from magnetometers to ultrasound machines to track down ghosts, observe them, and expel them.

‘’The phenomenon known as ghosts undoubtedly exists,’’ says Sol Blanco-Soler, photographer with the group Hepta which has investigated paranormal phenomenon around Spain for 12 years.

‘’Science cannot yet explain it,’’ she says, ‘’but that does not preclude the use of scientific instruments.’’

The group comprises a physicist, a physicist-geologist, an architect, a video specialist, a photographer, a psychologist who is also a clairvoyant, and a coordinator.

All have university education and some have Ph.D.’s. each one makes use of his speciality, with the photographer taking pictures of alleged ghosts, the physicist examining their relation to the laws of physics, and so on.

‘’We are alerted by people who notice strange things happening in their houses, such as moving objects, odd sounds or smells, or sightings of people who died years ago,’’ Blanco-Soler explains.

Around 95 per cent of the cases are psychological delusions or due to causes such as faulty plumbing. Hepta psychologist checks for the former while the architect takes care of the latter.

In around 50 cases, Hepta claims to have identified the presence of paranormal phenomenon, with the help of modern instruments.

‘’Cameras and video-cameras can capture ultra-violet rays, and reveal things which are not visible to the naked eye,’’ Blanco-Soler says, showing photographs of cloud-like white or pink forms which she believes to be ghosts at a well-known Madrid ‘’haunted house’’, the Aristocratic Linares Palace.

‘’We have also noticed that when someone claims to see a ghost, the earth’s magnetic field has usually undergone slight alterations in that spot,’’ says physicist Lorenzo Plaza who uses a magnetometer to detect the possible presence of paranormal phenomenon.

The group even uses a thermometer, claiming that the arrival of a ghost abruptly lowers the temperature of the air.

Hepta says that it has mostly spotted poltergeists, defined by the group as energy emanating from people under great stress which can make objects move or the lights go out.

‘’Ghosts as such are very rare, and we have only identified around 10 ghosts in 12 years,’’ Blanco-Soler says.

DNA test of Washington demanded
By Julian Borger in Washington

America’s national icon George Washington fathered an illegitimate child with a young slave girl called Venus, according to her descendants who are demanding a DNA test to prove their claim.

A few months ago DNA tests confirmed reports that another founding father, Thomas Jefferson, had children with his slave girl, Sally Hemmings, a revelation that prompted a wide-ranging reappraisal of the country’s early racial history.

Venus’s descendants say that, according to family tradition, she was Washington’s “personal sleep partner” until she became pregnant in 1784. Her son, West Ford, was pale-skinned and bore some resemblance to the man who went on to become the first US President.

— The Guardian, London

1,300 ferry passengers evacuated

GOTEBORG (Sweden), July 8 (AP) — Rescuers safely evacuated more than 1,300 passengers and crew on an overnight ferry from Germany to Norway before dawn today after a fire broke out below decks, rescue official said.

A ship in nearby waters pulled alongside the ferry Prinsesse Ragnhild shortly after the flames erupted at about 2 a.m. (local time), helicopters from Sweden and Norway also helped to airlift stranded passengers, officials said.

Several passengers suffered smoke inhalation, rescue officials said, but there were no serious injuries reported.

The fire was finally brought under control about four hours after it broke out.

“The fire is out,” said Peter Gikstroem of the Goteborg police shortly after 6 a.m. local time.

China, Japan agreement on WTO

BEIJING, July 8 (PTI) — Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's maiden official visit to China got a good start with both sides clinching a basic agreement on the Beijing's bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"We have reached a basic agreement and a formal agreement is expected to be finalised during Mr Obuchi's talks with the Chinese leadership tomorrow," a senior Japanese official told reporters here at a briefing.

Though the official did not provide details of the WTO deal, he said Japan would press China to open up further its services sectors like distribution, telecommunications and financial services in exchange for Tokyo's support for Beijing's accession to the WTO.

If the deal is signed tomorrow, Japan will become the first among the Group of Seven (G7) to officially back China's bid to join the multilateral trade body.

China's entry into the WTO has been bogged down for the past 13 years due to political reasons. The USA and the West have been blocking the China's entry by demanding a high price in terms of market access.

War crimes
The Hague: Radoslav Brdjanin, a Bosnian Serb MP arrested for “crimes against humanity, has been incarcerated in the war crimes detention centre in The Hague, a tribunal spokesman said on Wednesday. The tribunal has also made public the bill of indictment accusing Brdjanin of “crimes against humanity” against Muslims and Bosnian Croats in western Bosnia during the first nine months of the 1992-1995 war. — AFP

Papua PM quits
PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Bill Skate quit on Wednesday with his government crumbling beneath him and a row raging over new diplomatic ties with Taiwan. “I want to announce my resignation as the Prime Minister of this nation,” Mr Skate told reporters at his official residence in the South Pacific nation’s capital — Reuters

Computer for Mir
MOSCOW: A US space agency official on Wednesday expressed concern that a decision to suspend Russian space launches in Kazakhstan could delay a vital navigation system from reaching the Mir space station. The last Russian-French crew is to leave Mir in late August, leaving the 14-year-old station unmanned for up to half a year as Moscow tries to raise money to send up new crew. — Reuters

Holocaust memorial
BERLIN: In another step towards building Germany’s long-delayed national holocaust memorial, lawmakers have drafted a Bill establishing a foundation to oversee the project, officials said on Wednesday. Foundation members — representing the federal and city governments as well as a private group that first proposed the memorial a decade ago — will be nominated by party factions and confirmed by Parliament, according to the Bill. — AP

Bahrain’s leader
MANAMA (Bahrain): A Bahraini security court on Wednesday convicted the Gulf nation’s most-prominent Shi’ite Muslim opposition leader and sentenced him to 10 years in jail, his lawyer said. The three-judge panel also ordered Sheik Abdul-Ameer al-Jamri (62) to pay a fine of 5.7 million Bahraini dinars (1,520,000 US dollars), said attorney Abdul-Shaheed Khalaf. “The court decision came as a shock,” Khalaf said. Al-Jamri was widely expected to be released. — AP

Togo peace deal
LOME (Togo): Formally ending eight years of one of the world’s bloodiest civil wars, Sierra Leone’s President signed the second, in three years, peace accord with the country’s rebels, agreeing to share power and offer war criminals amnesty. President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Revolutionary United Front leader Forday Sankoh yesterday, signed the deal in a solemn ceremony in Togo’s capital of Lome following an overnight summit of regional leaders. — AP

Jim Allen dies
LONDON: British playwright and scriptwriter Jim Allen, who won acclaim for “Land and Freedom,” the 1995 film about the Spanish civil war, has died at 72, The Times reported today. Allen died on June 24 in his home city of Manchester, the newspaper said. The cause of death was not given. — AP