Zardari case: Lawyers ask rights groups to intervene
ISLAMABAD, May 21 — While newspapers in Pakistan displayed front page pictures today of an injured Asif Ali Zardari, lawyers for his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, asked human rights groups to probe his condition.

Equality Bill in Japan
TOKYO, May 21 — Japan’s Upper House of Parliament today passed a Bill to stop discrimination among men and women and give them equal privilege and participatory rights.

E. Timor ballot to cost $ 50 m: UN
UNITED NATIONS, May 21 — Secretary-General Kofi Annan says it will cost more than $ 50 million to conduct a UN-supervised ballot on August 8 which will allow the people of East Timor to decide whether to remain part of Indonesia or seek independence.

NATO strike damages Indian envoy’s house

BELGRADE, May 21 (UNI, AFP) — Indian Ambassador’s residence in Belgrade was damaged last night by the impact of a missile that was intended to hit a fuel depot.

Window pane of a ventilator at the main entrance was shattered and glass was strewn on the floor at the entrance of the drawing room.

A heavy painting and a Ganesha statue fell off the wall of Ambassador S.K. Mathur’s bedroom. No one was injured as the Ambassador and his wife were in the kitchen at that time.

Mr Mathur told UNI this morning that at 8.20 p.m. while they were in the kitchen, which is in basement, they heard a big explosion which shook doors and windows and shattered window panes.’’

The Ambassador said his wife and son would soon leave for India while he himself was planning to shift to a hotel.

Indian Ambassador’s residence with frescos on walls and ceiling is considered one of the most beautiful houses in Belgrade.

The Swiss Ambassador’s residence was also damaged by the impact of the missile. At that time he was hosting a reception. Later the Swiss Ambassador left Belgrade.

The raids killed one civilian and injured several, Tanjug News Agency reported today.

Nikola Hinic, whose age was not given, was killed when two bombs fell on Vuka Karadzica street 1 km from the centre of Sombor, destroying the homes of the Hinic and Knezevic families, Tanjug said. An unspecified number of injured were hospitalised.

The agency reported a series of very loud blasts just before midnight at Sombor, 200 km northwest of Belgrade.

Tanjug said a fuel depot of the Naftagas Company was targeted in an industrial area south of the town and a fire started. The blaze was brought under control a few hours later.

Meanwhile, NATO on Friday said that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must agree to meet the allies’ five key conditions on Kosovo before there is any let-up in bombing, a report from Brussels said.

Alliance spokesman Jamie Shea said Belgrade must give an unequivocal commitment to end repression, pull its troops out of Kosovo, agree to deployment of an international military force, allow ethnic Albanian refugees to return and begin negotiations on the province’s future status.

“We must have from Milosevic agreement to meet these five conditions for NATO action will continue. That is clear.”

Meanwhile, a fresh round of talks aimed at resolving the Kosovo crisis wrapped up in Moscow today without any visible progress as tension rose between Serbia and its junior partner in the rump Yugoslav state, Montenegro.

MOSCOW (Reuters): US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said on Friday that talks in Moscow on the Kosovo crisis had been “sufficiently constructive” for him to return to the Russian capital next week for more negotiations.

Talbott said he and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the European Union envoy on Yugoslavia, would return for more talks with Russia’s Balkans envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin. “Obviously Viktor Stephanovich (Chernomyrdin) and the two of us feel that there’s a process here worth continuing,” Talbott told reporters.

“I think that my talks here in Moscow this time have been sufficiently constructive and serious to justify my coming back yet again next week,” Talbott said before talks with Russia’s acting Foreign Minister Iqor Iyanoy.

“I’ll be back next week, President Ahtisaari will be back next week,” said Talbott, who was expected to leave Moscow today.

WASHINGTON: The US Senate has adopted a $15 billion package funding the air war against Yugoslavia, helping hurricane-ravaged central America, aiding Jordan, and Bankrolling a host of domestic projects.

After often tough debate punctuated by Conservatives’ denunciations of tacked-on domestic provisions, Senators approved the bill by a 64-36 margin, sending the measure for final approval to President Bill Clinton.

The President hailed the passage as a clear signal to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that “the Congress and the American people are committed to this mission.”

Senate okays Bill on guns

WASHINGTON, May 21 (AP) — Propelled by a shocking outbreak of school violence, The Senate has passed a legislation to require the sale of safety devices with handguns and expand a system of background checks for firearm purchasers.

The vote was 73-25 and came a few hours after Vice-President Al Gore eagerly broke a 50-50 tie in favour of an amendment to require background checks for all firearm transactions at gun shows and pawn shops. Mr Gore, in his constitutional role as President of The Senate, cast the deciding vote after the senators voted 50-50.

The passage sent the measure to the House, where Speaker Dennis Hastert had signalled support for fresh restrictions on guns. Republican and democratic leaders were discussing plans to bring the issue to the house floor as soon as mid-June.

The legislation requires background checks for all sales at gun shows. It also will close what gun control advocates say was a loophole that allows anyone to pawn a gun and reclaim it without undergoing a check.

In addition, the measure continues current gun law that a majority of the Republicans had succeeded in changing briefly earlier in the day. Under the measure as passed, for example, background checks could still take up to three days instead of the 24-hour ceiling that the Republicans wanted on them.

Importing high-capacity ammunition clips will be banned and any juvenile convicted of a felony will be denied the right to purchase a gun for life.

The measure calls for $5 billion over five years to help crack down on juvenile crime. It provides money for prosecutors, and makes it easier to try some juveniles as adults. In addition, it mandates a study of the entertainment industry to gauge the impact of its violent products on the youth.

CTBT: India, Pak ‘committed’

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UNI) — India’s Ambassador to the USA Naresh Chandra and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar have restated their respective government’s commitments to adhere to the CTBT by September, without indicating as to how the two countries would stick to the deadline.

“September, 1999, remains a national commitment,” Mr Chandra said while participating in a discussion here yesterday on the possibility of future nuclear war between India and Pakistan on Kashmir. Both envoys ruled out such an eventuality.

They wanted the USA to lift the economic sanctions it had imposed after the nuclear tests in May last year.

Organised by the National Security News Service, the discussion was moderated by proliferation expert George Perkovich and Dr Stephen Cohen, a South-Asia expert of Brookings Institution.

Prime Minister Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif made the commitment on the CTBT in the UN General Assembly last year. Mr Vajpayee now was only a care-taker Prime Minister and was not expected to take such a vital decision like signing the CTBT during the run-up to the Parliamentary elections.

Mr Khokhar said Pakistan was still committed to signing the CTBT but it would do in an atmosphere free of pressure and coercion. It would be difficult to sell the treaty to Pakistan under duress, he added.

He made clear that Pakistan’s nuclear programme was India-specific while Mr Chandra spoke of wider nature of India’s security concerns.

Nothing to celebrate about N-tests: USA
By Aziz Haniffa
India Abroad News Service

WASHINGTON, May 21 — The Clinton administration criticised India and Pakistan for celebrating the one-year anniversary of their nuclear tests and warned that it could be the precursor to an arms race in South Asia.

The State Department spokesman, Mr James Rubin, said, We don’t think there’s anything to celebrate about the nuclear tests in India or Pakistan.

He claimed, these tests have harmed the standing of these two countries in the world and have harmed their ability to get international support for their necessary economic growth. So there’s nothing good about it.

The White House spokesman, Mr Joe Lckhart, said “It’s certainly not our view that the testing is something to be celebrated He said the nuclear tests by New Delhi and Islamabad were “a step in the wrong direction, a step away from and escalating, potentially escalating, an arms race”.

“So I think as we come to the anniversary and this is a time of reflection of what is the right way, the right side of history to be one, rather than a celebration of being on the wrong side”, Mr Lockhart added.

India celebrated the first anniversary of the Pokhran tests on 11 and 13 May and Pakistan is preparing an elaborate celebration beginning 22 May and culminating on 28 May, the day it responded to India’s tests.

PM appeases Fijians

SUVA, May 21 (AFP) — Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry made major concessions to appease ethnic Fijian nationalist sentiment today, giving them the majority of seats in his Cabinet despite the massive win for his Labour Party.

“It is to reassure the Fijian community that they should not fear an Indian-dominated government,” Fiji’s first ethnic Indian Premier said.

“This is the fear they played on in 1987 to get rid of the Bavadra government,” he told AFP.

Of the 18 Cabinet positions, 11 have gone to Fijians of various parties. There are five State Minister positions of which two have gone to Fijians.

Mr Chaudhry retained for himself the Finance and Public Enterprises portfolio.

Mandela to write his story

JOHANNESBURG, May 21 (PTI) — South African President Nelson Mandela has said he will write an autobiography on his five-year rule of a democratic country when he retires after the elections on June 2.

“Three years after my retirement, I will be concentrating on writing. I will not have much time for other things,” Mr Mandela said in a farewell television interview last night.

“But I am a disciplined member of the African National Congress and if they call upon me to assist in any way I will be available,” he said.

The Nobel peace laureate, who would step down from power on June 16 when new President Thabo Mbeki is to be installed, said he would try to assist in international disputes “if it took a day or two to resolve” but would not get involved in lengthy problems.

Zardari case
Lawyers ask rights groups to intervene

ISLAMABAD, May 21 (AP, UNI) — While newspapers in Pakistan displayed front page pictures today of an injured Asif Ali Zardari, lawyers for his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, asked human rights groups to probe his condition.

Ms. Bhutto said the police has tortured her husband and she feared they wanted to kill him.

The government had denied the charges of torture, but Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered a judicial inquiry into the allegations. Mr Sharif had ordered the inquiry results within two weeks.

Mr Zardari, is currently in Aga Khan Hospital in southern Karachi, where he was being treated for a cut tongue. Photographs of the injured Zardari showing his lacerated tongue were on the front pages of newspapers today.

Police officials said the wound was self-inflicted in an attempt by Mr Zardari to go to the hospital. Mr Zardari however said, it was the result of torture.

In a letter to Pakistan’s widely respected human rights commission of Pakistan, Ms. Bhutto’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, said Mr Zardari’s family and colleagues feared for his life. He asked that the organisation launch an investigation.

Equality Bill in Japan

TOKYO, May 21 (PTI) — Japan’s Upper House of Parliament today passed a Bill to stop discrimination among men and women and give them equal privilege and participatory rights.

The Diet, passed the Bill and sent it to the Lower House for final enactment during its current session, which ends on June 17.

Under the new law, the government at all levels is required to ensure that men and women enjoyed the same privilege and participatory rights.

E. Timor ballot to cost $ 50 m: UN

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 (AP) — Secretary-General Kofi Annan says it will cost more than $ 50 million to conduct a UN-supervised ballot on August 8 which will allow the people of East Timor to decide whether to remain part of Indonesia or seek independence.

In a report to the General Assembly circulated yesterday, he asked for approval of an initial budget of $ 45.7 million and said an estimated $ 7.4 million more would be needed to deploy up to 300 foreign police officers.

A UN advance team was in East Timor when Indonesia and Portugal signed a historic agreement on May, 5 authorising the ballot.

Box office record
LOS ANGELES: The new “Star Wars” film took in a record $ 28.5 million at the US box office in its first 24 hours, raking in the biggest-ever single day take in film history, 20th Century Fox, has said. “Star Wars, Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace” opened on Wednesday in almost 3,000 cinema houses across the USA. — Reuters

Flogged to death
DHAKA: Bedi Begum died after an Islamic cleric ordered her to be buried up to the waist and flogged 101 times with a bamboo cane for having premarital sex and inducing an abortion, the police has said. It learned about the May 14 court trial a week later because her family was threatened with reprisal by the cleric. The incident occurred in Batsail, a remote village in northeastern Sylhet district. — AP

Same-sex couples
OTTAWA: Canada’s Supreme Court has given Ontario six months to amend its laws to allow same-sex couples, saying the province’s definition of a spouse as a person of the opposite sex is unconstitutional. The much-anticipated decision on Thursday, perhaps the court’s most definitive ruling to date on same-sex rights, can mean hundreds of laws will need to be rewritten because other provinces as well as the Federal Government have similar definitions. — AP

Tobacco museum
BEIJING: China, the world’s biggest cigarette producer, is building a museum dedicated to the history and health hazards of tobacco. The museum is to be located in the city of Yuxi in China’s Kunming province and owned by the Yuxi Cigarette Factory, Asia’s largest cigarette factory, the official Xinhua news agency has said. — PTI

Motor cycle stunt
GRAND CANYON WEST, (Arizona): Motor cycle daredevil Robbie Knievel has jumped a 60-metre-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon. Fireworks erupted and a crowd of about 500 cheered as Knievel cleared the gorge on Thursday. It wasn’t immediately known if he broke his world record leap of 66.9 metres. — AP