Nudity costs Miss Bosnia title
SARAJEVO, Nov 10 — A tearful Miss Bosnia has been forced to give up her crown after photos of her posing nude appeared in a Sarajevo newspaper.

Dropping Pak visit ‘to fuel anti-Americanism’
WASHINGTON, Nov 10 — Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, who is currently here as an envoy of the country’s new military leader, has warned that President Bill Clinton will fuel anti-Americanism and harm India-Pakistan peace moves if he visits India early next year but boycotts Pakistan.

Parliament opposes Aceh referendum
JAKARTA, Nov 10 — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid today met top officials to discuss action to defuse the growing separatist pressure in Aceh, as Parliament’s Speaker said the House did not back a referendum there on independence.

Pope returns to Rome
ROME, Nov 10 — Pope John Paul has returned here after the trip to India and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia that tested the strength of the ailing Roman Catholic leader.

Mahathir opts for snap poll
from Jalil Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad today announced snap polls and predicted he would retain a two-third majority in what is seen as his biggest test since he won power 18 years ago.

Mr Mahathir confirmed that Parliament would be dissolved tomorrow, paving the way for Malaysia’s 10th general elections since independence in 1957. Elections were not due till mid-2000.

‘‘The government has decided to dissolve Parliament from tomorrow in order to enable a general election to be held, a cheerful Mahathir told a news conference.

Mr Mahathir, flanked by beaming leaders of his 14-party ruling coalition, said the king had signed a letter giving his consent to the dissolution of Parliament, which must be followed by elections within 60 days.

Asked if he was confident his Barisan Nasional and United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) coalition would retain the two-third majority it has held since independence, Mahathir (73) replied: ‘‘Yes, very confident’’.

The Election Commission said it would set the dates for both nominations and polling on Friday. Elections are expected by December 4, politicians said.

Parliament’s five-year term does not expire until next year, but Mr Mahathir wants to capitalise on an economic recovery and hold elections before more than 650,000 new voters, many of them young and sympathetic to the opposition, join the rolls in early 2000.

Mr Mahathir’s coalition is expected to win the elections, but the Opposition hopes to capitalise on dissatisfaction over the sacking and jailing of Mahathir’s former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, to win one-third of the seats in Parliament for the first time.

‘‘I don’t care if I am popular or not. What is important for me is that this country gets a good government’’, he said adding, ‘‘I don’t care if I go down in history as a good guy or a bad guy. What is important is what has been achieved.’’

The Election Commission said it was not clear if Anwar would be able to run. Four Opposition parties back Anwar for Prime Minister, but he is serving a six-year jail term for corruption.

The sacking and imprisonment of his former Deputy Anwar Ibrahim, have opened up deep divisions within Mr Mahathir’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party, confronting the Prime Minister with his toughest challenge since some party elders broke with him in 1987, splitting UMNO.

The four Opposition parties, otherwise divided by ideology, have rallied behind Anwar. They do not expect to topple Mr Mahathir but are seeking to deprive his coalition of a two-third majority for the first time since independence in 1957. Meanwhile Anwar’s trial on sodomy charges was postponed today as the judge hearing the case had fallen ill.’’

The stock market broke out of its recent doldrums and posted big gains on the prospect of elections. The Kuala Lumpur stock exchange’s main index closed up nearly 2 per cent.

‘‘The government has been citing the stock market as an indicator of economic recovery, and to prove their point they have to try to push the market above 800,’’ said the head of research at a local brokerage.

‘‘I’m not overly concerned about the outcome of the election’’, said Ng Bok Eng, senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research in Singapore. ‘‘Most people believe Mahathir will hold on to power.’’

An economist at a Malaysian bank said: ‘‘The economy has recovered very sharply. All major economic indicators are looking very strong. Overall it is very positive.’’

The government said yesterday that industrial production surged by more than 19 per cent in September. Economists say the economy, which broke out of recession in the second quarter, picked up steam in the third quarter.

Mr Mahathir said the government, which unveiled a budget for 2000 last month, would present a new budget after the polls.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said it was ‘‘scandalous’’ that Parliament’s work on the earlier budget would go waste, and accused the ruling UMNO coalition of four decades of ‘‘political arrogance, irresponsibility and political hegemony’’. — Reuters

Israel evicts Jewish settlers

MAON FARM (West Bank), Nov 10 (Reuters) — Hundreds of Israeli soldiers pushed past burning barricades in the early morning darkness today to evict defiant Jewish settlers from a rogue outpost in the West Bank.

Crying “shame” and “Arafat is proud of you”, settlers on the rocky hilltop kicked and screamed as soldiers dragged them away in an operation ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is engaged in intensive peacemaking with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Several hundred settlers at the outpost took to the roofs of caravans and half-finished houses where they pelted troops with eggs and sang the Israeli national anthem. Soldiers climbed ladders to full them down.

Settlers had set up the Maon Farm and other unauthorised outposts to establish “facts on the ground” ahead of Israeli-Palestinian talks on a final peace agreement. The talks began in earnest on Monday.

Under a compromise Mr Barak negotiated with the Yesha council of Jewish settlements, 12 outposts erected without government permission were to be uprooted while 30 were allowed to remain. But the Maon Farm group and their supporters had resisted.

“We are sure it is just a question of time until the whole of the people of Israel, including the government, will understand they are establishing here a Palestinian state instead of a state of Israel,” Benny Alon, a settlement leader, said.

No shots were fired during the operation and there were no reports of serious injuries.

Power was cut at Maon as red-berreted paratroops, armed with M-16 rifles moved in. An officer leading the column ordered the settlers and supporters to leave.

“It is very sad to see Jews move other Jews from their homes,” said a man who identified himself only as Motti.

Some of the settlers, men and women, weft as the army took them away.

Israel radio said soldiers, trained to confront Arabs, received psychological counselling before setting off on their mission against fellow Jews.

Russia to ban flights from Chechnya

MOSCOW, Nov 10 (UNI) — Russia will soon introduce a blanket ban on air flights from Chechnya to several other countries, including Pakistan, to isolate the Chechen rebels from the outside world and deprive them of the support of well-trained foreign mercenaries, specially from the Pakistanis and the Afghani Talibans, Voice of Russia has reported.

According to the Moscow radio, the decision to ban all flights from the Caucasus Republic is part of a series of emergency measures announced by the Kremlin yesterday after Russian intelligence services claimed to be in possession of authentic information about sophisticated weapons being rushed to the rebel forces from Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and some other Arab states.

In a statement released here, Russian Prime Minister Vladimitr Putin said that hereafter no foreign citizens, including those from Azerbaizan and Georgia, would be allowed to proceed to the war zones in Chechnya.

The Kremlin has also ordered strict checking of all cargo being sent by air or sea to North Caucasus and enforcement of a strict visa regime between Russia and its neighbouring states in North Caucasus. However, this order would not apply to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Georgia and Azerbaizan had been advised by Moscow to introduce a visa regime but the proposal received a negative response from these countries.

The radio also quoted Defence Ministry sources as saying that the two former Soviet republics were being used by some of the foreign countries, inimical to Russia, to push armed mercenaries to Chechnya. There were reports that a new contingent of 1,500 mercenaries from Pakistan, Afghanistan and some other Arab states was clandestinely towards North Caucasus.

Meanwhile, Kremlin sources described as “mere hysteria” the continuing calls by western countries for Russia to suspend its air strikes in Chechnya.

Pointing out that these countries might put pressure on Russia to suspend military operations in Chechnya at the forthcoming European Union summit to be held in Istanbul, Turkey on November 18-19, presidential spokesman Abdul Shabdrashidov said in a broadcast on Russian television that Moscow would not yield to any pressure in this regard.

UN endorses end to anti-Cuba embargo

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10 (Reuters) — The UN General Assembly has for the eighth year in a row overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution by a record majority calling for an end of the 40-year-old US economic embargo against Cuba.

Yesterday’s vote was 155-2 with eight abstentions, compared with last year’s tally of 197-2 with 12 abstentions on both occasions only Israel voted with the USA.

US allies like Japan, Canada, Norway, Australia and the 15-nation European Union supported the resolution, mainly because they consider their own sovereignty is infringed by the “extra-territorial” effects of the embargo in punishing non-US companies that trade with Cuba.

The US State Department rejected the resolution, saying that the issue had nothing to do with the General Assembly.

Opening the debate, the President of Cuba’s National Assembly, Mr Richardo Alarcon, said Cuba would file a lawsuit against the USA for more than $ 100 billion in compensation for the “enormous damages” caused by the embargo.

He did not say where the suit would be filed.

A Havana court last week upheld a $ 181.1 billion claim by Cuba against the US Government for deaths and injuries it said were caused by four decades of hostilities, such as the abortive 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

The “guilty parties” should be punished in compliance with the 1948 convention against the crime of genocide, Mr Alarcon said.

Mr Alarcon, a former foreign minister and once Cuba’s UN representative, was followed by more than 20 speakers who all supported the resolution.

Nudity costs Miss Bosnia title

SARAJEVO, Nov 10 (AP) — A tearful Miss Bosnia has been forced to give up her crown after photos of her posing nude appeared in a Sarajevo newspaper.

Alisa Sisic, a 20-year-old nurse from the central Bosnian town of Zenica, was chosen Miss Bosnia 10 days ago. She was to represent the country in the Miss World Pageant in London.

Last Thursday, photos of Sisic posing in the nude appeared in the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz.

Shocked by the photos and concerned that they could blemish the Miss Bosnia name, the competition organiser consulted his colleagues and decided to revoke Sisic’s title.

After consultations with London, we have decided to disqualify Alisa Sisic, Mr Zdravko Zubak, the organiser, said yesterday.

First runner-up Samra Begovic (19) a Bosnian national living in Sweden, was awarded the title.

Dropping Pak visit ‘to fuel anti-Americanism’

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (UNI) — Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, who is currently here as an envoy of the country’s new military leader, has warned that President Bill Clinton will fuel anti-Americanism and harm India-Pakistan peace moves if he visits India early next year but boycotts Pakistan.

Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, appointed to defend Gen Pervez Musharraf’s October coup, said he delivered the message to senior US officials including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“If the (Clinton) visit went one way only, there could be strong feelings of hurt in Pakistan, and certain anti-US elements would make much of it”, he told editors and reporters here.

“The Indians would crow, and that would inflame feelings in Pakistan and heighten tensions” between the two nuclear-armed South Asian nations, he said.

Mr Clinton is expected to visit South Asia early next year, where he will stop in India and possibly, Bangladesh. The daily quoted State Department officials having said that a visit to Pakistan would be all but impossible because of General Musharraf’s coup that ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and suspended Parliament.

The Pak special envoy said that in meetings with senior American officials in recent days he had been told that a visit to Pakistan was impossible unless the General could demonstrate some moves toward restoring democracy.

Parliament opposes Aceh referendum

JAKARTA, Nov 10 (Reuters) — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid today met top officials to discuss action to defuse the growing separatist pressure in Aceh, as Parliament’s Speaker said the House did not back a referendum there on independence.

Mr Wahid ordered Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad to visit Aceh on Saturday and speed up legislation giving provinces more autonomy and a greater share of the proceeds from their natural resources, General Wiranto, Co-ordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, told reporters.

Mr Wahid met General Wiranto, Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Amien Rais, Speaker of Indonesia’s highest legislative body, after cutting short a foreign trip partly due to tension in Aceh.

Mr Wahid said yesterday he supported the idea of a referendum on independence in resource-rich Aceh.

“Don’t let it reach a point where a referendum takes place, because if that happens, it could become a precedent whereby similar demands will be made by other regions,” Mr Tandjung said.

Mr Tandjung said a decision to hold a referendum must have the approval of the 500-member parliament and the country’s highest legislative body, the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Pope returns to Rome

ROME, Nov 10 (Reuters) — Pope John Paul has returned here after the trip to India and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia that tested the strength of the ailing Roman Catholic leader.

The Air India plane carrying the 79-year-old Pope, his entourage and reporters landed at the Ciamfind airport here last night after a flight from the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

The Polish Pope, who looked exceptionally wear during the last part of the trip in Georgia and suffered from chills because of the change in time zone and temperatures, was expected to rest before resuming his public activities.

Patriot missiles
WASHINGTON: South Korea has asked to buy $ 4.2 billion in Patriot missiles and advanced firing units built by Raytheon Co to defend against possible missile attack from North Korea, the Pentagon has said. U.S. Defence Department officials stressed that the proposal was only a request so far, but such a sale would be a major financial boost for the number three U.S. defence and aerospace company, which lost $ 169 million in its latest quarter and slashed earnings forecasts for this year and next. — Reuters

Flood damage
HANOI: Central Vietnam’s worst floods in a century have caused initial damage of more than $ 200 million and destroyed or damaged 630,000 homes, official media reported on Wednesday. The Vietnam news agency said 300 hospitals and medical clinics had also been destroyed, along with scores of schools across eight provinces, home to seven million persons. — Reuters

Resolution
BAGHDAD: Iraq has told the United Nations Security Council that it will reject a proposed resolution to ease nine-year-old economic sanctions against it, Deputy Prime Tareq Aziz has said. Mr Aziz, referring to discussions being held by the five permanent members of the Security Council to reach a draft resolution on Iraq, said the document shaping up would demand the impossible from Iraq. — Reuters

Picasso’s portrait
NEW YORK: Pablo Picasso’s portrait of his mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, “Nude on a black armchair,” sold for more than $ 45 million here on Tuesday at a Christie’s auction. — AFP

Submarines
MOSCOW: Russia will dismantle 18 nuclear submarines next year and is working on new technologies to speed up the process, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday. In all, Russia must scrap 107 nuclear submarines left over from the cold war, according to Valery Lebedev, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy. — AP

Sharif wife’s fast threat
ISLAMABAD: Deposed Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif’s wife Kulsoom Sharif has accused Gen Pervez Musharraf of denying her husband a chance to explain his actions. She also alleged that the Chief Justice of Pakistan had colluded with the General in a vilification campaign against Mr Sharif. — UNI

Contenders for Secy-Gen
DURBAN: Bangladesh’s former High Commissioner to India Farooq Sobhan and Mr Don McKinon, Foreign Minister of New Zealand, have emerged as the main contenders for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General. The two frontrunners for the coveted post are lobbying hard to get the support of a majority of member-countries for their candidatures. — UNI

Crew rescued
BANGKOK: The 17-man crew of a Japanese-owned freighter has been rescued off Southern Thailand more than two weeks after their ship and its cargo were stolen by pirates off Indonesia, the Thai maritime police said on Wednesday. — Reuters