Doctors’ stir shuts Lanka hospitals
COLOMBO, June 14 — Thousands of patients were turned away from state hospitals in Sri Lanka today after some 4,500 doctors began an indefinite strike.

Conservatives lead in EU poll
BRUSSELS, June 14 — Centre-Right parties grouped within the European Peoples’ Party will be the dominant force in the next European parliament, the body’s outgoing President Jose Maria Gil-Robles has said.

Megawati’s party may win
JAKARTA, June 14 — A week after Indonesia’s first free parliamentary election since 1955, Megawati Sukarnoputri’s National Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) seemed to be the likely winner today, with a clear lead ahead of the 47 other parties.

Parliament assumes office in Fiji
SUVA, June 14 — Fiji's new 103-member Parliament assumed office today with a controversy over who would nominate eight opposition members to the Upper House or Senate likely to be referred to the country's high court.

14,000 NATO men in Kosovo

BRUSSELS, June 14 (DPA, AFP) — With Serb forces pulling out on schedule, about 14,000 NATO soldiers arrived in Kosovo and 24,000 more were in staging areas in Macedonia waiting to move in as part of the Kosovo Peacekeeping Force (KFOR), according to NATO.

Italian troops had reached Pec, where they were to establish the headquarters of their peacekeeping zone. A German armoured brigade was fanning out in southern Kosovo.

US units had begun taking over security at the strategic Kacanik Pass where Britons earlier stood guard.

A NATO spokesman said Serbian soldiers and police special forces were continuing their withdrawal on time, with a pullout from zone one in southern Kosovo proceeding rapidly.

Reporters in the Kosovo capital Pristina said there were sporadic gunshots overnight in the city, but it was generally quieter than the first night that the FOR spent in the city.

Yesterday British soldiers shot dead a man who attacked them and four Serbs were killed at the hands of ethnic Albanians in the city.

In Prizren, where German forces yesterday shot dead an off-duty policeman who attacked them, the situation was “generally quieter’’, according to German army press officer Dietmar Jeserich.

The Serb withdrawal was “very disciplined”, the paramilitary one was “naturally” less so, said Lt-Col Jeserich.

According to an AFP report, a third German journalist was shot dead in southern Kosovo, the theatre of a clash between German peacekeeping troops and Serbs and the reputed site of a mass grave, the German armed forces said.

Maj Hans Christian Klasing, spokesman for the German contingent in the KFOR, said the journalist worked for ZDF-2 television.

The body was found today by a KFOR patrol at the Dulje Pass, 8 km from Suva Reka, which is about 45 km from Pristina.

A press card had been found but the name was illegible and checks were being carried out to establish the identity.

Two journalists shot dead on Sunday worked for the German magazine Stern, its publishers said today.

Reporter Gabriel Gruener, 35, and photographer Volker Kraemer, 56, were killed by identified gunmen near the town of Stimlje, which is located on the same road as Suva Reka.

Kraemer was killed instantly, while Gruener was treated by NATO doctors and died later in a Macedonian hospital.

NATO said the number of its troops in Macedonia had remained steady because more were streaming in as fast as the KFOR units crossed the border into Kosovo.

An anti-government group in Belgrade charged that 30,000 Serbs in Kosovo were fleeing their homes. Mr Budimir Trajkovic, leader of the Serbian Resistance Movement of Kosovo, said the number included Serb refugees within and beyond Kosovo.

PRISTINA: In Belgrade the Yugoslav army said it would return to Kosovo if the peace accord between Belgrade and the international community breaks down.

“We are five kilometres from Kosovo,” Tanjug news agency quoted General Nebosja Pavkovic as saying yesterday. “If the agreement fails we will return to Kosovo.”

Gen Pavkovic commands Yugoslavia’s Third Army, which held Kosovo until forced to withdraw under the accord accepted by Belgrade after 11 weeks of NATO bombing.

Kargil could cost Sharif his job

ISLAMABAD, June 14 (UNI) — The Pakistan-supported invasion of the Kargil-Dras region may ultimately boomerang on the Nawaz Sharif government.

The Army, whose image was sagging until its invasion into the Kargil-Dras region in Jammu and Kashmir, is fast regaining its popularity while conversely, the image of Mr Sharif and his colleagues has received a severe setback because of the recent BBC TV film which showed his family’s corruption, his persecution of senior journalists and his handling of the economy which has been the cause of many suicides in recent months. The federal budget his government presented yesterday in the national assembly may wake things worse for him, according to Pakistani economists.

Rumours were making the rounds that a plan has been prepared to remove Mr Sharif from power and try him for corruption just as he has done with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. After the 13th Amendment to the Constitution the elected government cannot be dismissed by the president. Only the Army can do that in a coup. It is said the Army still remembers the humiliation it faced at the time of the sacking of Gen Jahangir Karamat in October last year by Mr Sharif.

It is very clear that the Army and Islamic militants, whom it helped infiltrate the Kargil-Dras sector, are not willing to let Mr Sharif’s government try to resolve the present crisis with diplomacy.

Pallone to oppose repeal

WASHINGTON, June 14 (PTI) — Influential US Congressman Frank Pallone has said that he will oppose the repeal of the Pressler Amendment, which bars military aid to Pakistan, following the recent developments in Kargil, reports said here today.

“In the past few weeks, we were again reminded of why the Pressler Amendment should remain in effect as we have seen Pakistani support for militants who have infiltrated the territory on India’s side of the Line of Control in Kashmir”, Mr Pallone, co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India, was quoted as saying.

“It is clear that Pakistan is the country that is promoting instability in this current conflict, as they have so often done in the past,” he said adding he would work to ensure that the Pressler Amendment was not repealed.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the US-India Business Council Mr Dean R O’hare, has said that the council would appeal to the Clinton Administration during its 24th annual meeting here beginning tomorrow to lift all economic sanctions against India.

In this connection, he lauded the recently initiated Brownback-Roberts Amendment which suspends for five years a law requiring the USA to impose broad punitive sanctions on India and Pakistan for their May nuclear tests last year.

“The Brownback-Roberts Amendment establishes the foundation for a broadbased bipartisan consensus on the U.S. approach to a region where the USA has large and rapidly increasing commercial and national interests,” he said.

He allayed fears that the amendment, which would pave the way for military sales and credits to India and Pakistan, including technology sales, would harm Indian interests.

The amendment noted that curbs on military sales would be removed “if and when circumstances warrant” and that “this will not apply to any party that initiates or supports activities that jeopardise peace and security in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

“Given the evidence that has emerged concerning Pakistan’s role in attempting to destabilise Kashmir”, this reflected the strong Senate view that troublemakers must not be rewarded for their dangerous activities, he said.

Mr O’hare warned the Clinton Administration against linking the resumption of development loans to Delhi to signing the comprehensive test-ban treaty (CTBT) and hoped that Congress would move soon to restore such funding to India.

He also urged the Clinton Administration to further rationalise a ban on exports to 196 Indian entities whose relationship with the Pokhran tests were marginal.

The Brownback-Roberts Amendment, specifying that “export controls should be applied only to entities that make direct and material contribution to weapons of mass destruction and missiles”, would address this issue effectively, he hoped.

Conservatives lead in EU poll

BRUSSELS, June 14 (AGENCIES) — Centre-Right parties grouped within the European Peoples’ Party (EPP) will be the dominant force in the next European parliament, the body’s outgoing President Jose Maria Gil-Robles has said.

“There is a considerable political change between the two major groups in parliament,’’ Mr Gil-Robles told mediapersons yesterday.

The EPP is set to gain between 210 to 215 seats in the 626-member European Parliament, overtaking the Socialists who will only secure 185-190 seats, Mr Gil-Robles predicted.

The Socialists are the current Parliament’s most powerful group with 214 seats.

But analysts say that poor showing by the Socialists in Germany and in Britain, where proportional representation has been introduced for the first time, has hit the group’s overall performance in the 15-nation bloc.

Poor voter turn-out has also been a key characteristic of the Euro polls, with analysts saying that less than 50 per cent of the bloc’s 297 million voters have actually cast their ballots.

Mr Gil-Robles said voters across the union were still unaware of the increasing power and clout of the Euro-assembly.

Mr Gil-Robles also predicted a rise in strength of the parliament’s green and liberal groups.

Megawati’s party may win

JAKARTA, June 14 (DPA) — A week after Indonesia’s first free parliamentary election since 1955, Megawati Sukarnoputri’s National Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) seemed to be the likely winner today, with a clear lead ahead of the 47 other parties.

The daughter of the country’s founder-President Sukarno had refrained from declaring victory by today, even though her party gained 38 per cent of the votes counted so far.

Party’s Deputy Chairman Dimyati Hartono said “we have confidence that we’ll win”. The PDI-P’s leadership, however, has also said it will only declare victory once two-thirds of the estimated 112 million votes are counted.

The ruling Golkar Party which is in the third place, according to the votes counted so far, has accepted defeat after dominating Parliament for three decades. Official results are expected by June 21.

Parliament assumes office in Fiji

SUVA, June 14 (AFP) — Fiji's new 103-member Parliament assumed office today with a controversy over who would nominate eight opposition members to the Upper House or Senate likely to be referred to the country's high court.

The Senate is a nominated body with 14 of its 32 members picked by the Great Council of Chiefs, nine by Prime Minister and eight by Leader of the Opposition, who at present is Inoke Kubuabola. One comes from the island of Rotuma.

Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhary and Kubuabola have clashed over interpretation of a new Constitution requiring the opposition's eight nominees to reflect the proportionate size of each party in the Lower House.

Mr Chaudhary says this entitles the ruling Fiji Labour Party to have four names submitted by Kubuabola and the Fijian Association Party, Labour's coalition partner in government, to have one.

But Kubuabola has resisted and the matter now appears set to go to the high court for a decision.

Docs’ stir shuts Lanka hospitals

COLOMBO, June 14 (Reuters) — Thousands of patients were turned away from state hospitals in Sri Lanka today after some 4,500 doctors began an indefinite strike.

Hospital authorities said only emergency services were functioning at hundreds of state-run hospitals while other routine operations and services had been rescheduled.

Crew found alive
JAKARTA: Indonesian rescue workers on Monday found three crew members of a Russian helicopter that went missing in the jungle of the country’s easternmost province of Irian Jaya on Friday. The official Antara news agency reported that pilot Anatoli Vladimir and two other crew members were found alive by rescue workers after they walked for three days from the crash site in Ilu sub district. — DPA

108 Poles beatified
WARSAW: Pope John Paul-II on Sunday beatified as martyrs in Warsaw 108 Poles killed by the Nazis during World War II. A day after a fall that left him with a cut on the head and three stitches, the Catholic leader was wearing a white plaster on his right temple when he appeared for a mass in downtown Warsaw attended by 800,000 faithfuls. — DPA

Illegal workers
KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said that Malaysia’s plantation owners must repatriate their illegal foreign workers by July 15 or face government action. He said on Sunday that enforcement action would be taken after the deadline against illegal workers who did not renew their work permits. — DPA

Death sentence
DUBAI: A 28-year-old Pakistani butcher, who murdered his sister’s husband with four accomplices, has been sentenced to death by the Dubai Appeals Court, newspapers reported on Monday. Munawar Dost Mohammad and his two brothers were all sentenced to life in jail in March for the premeditated murder of their brother-in-law who allegedly mistreated their sister. They appealed as did the prosecution which told the court the trio had tied up their in-law, also from Pakistan, electrocuted him, strangled him, burned the body and dumped it in the desert in neighbouring Oman. — AFP