Islamabad blasts
Police begins probe
ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 — Pakistani authorities have beefed up security arrangements in the city and launched special drives to pre-empt recurrence of rocket attacks on US and UN establishments here, even as a high-level investigation team was set up to probe the explosions.

Egyptair crash: CVR found
NEWPORT, Nov 14 — With the long-sought Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) now having been recovered, US investigators said they had a better chance of solving the deepening mystery of what caused Egyptair flight 990 to crash, killing all 217 passengers and crew.

Indian dailies seized
COLOMBO, Nov 14 — The Sri Lankan authorities, in an attempt to enforce the prevailing domestic censorship on all defence related news items emanating from Colombo, have begun confiscating all Indian newspapers and magazines arriving here from New Delhi and Chennai since Wednesday.

Rebels free 100 hostages
COTOBATO (Philippines), Nov 14 — Muslim separatists freed unharmed today some 100 people they took hostage after a pre-dawn raid on a southern Philippine Christian village in the latest attack to mar formal peace negotiations.

Turkish quake toll 393

ANKARA, Nov 14 (AFP) — Rescuers in the town of Duzce brought out three persons from under rubble early today, 30 hours after the latest major quake to hit northwest Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported.

“Mehmet Aykut, his son Ozgur and his daughter Ozlem were immediately hospitalised, the report said, but did not give details of their condition.

According to local officials, cited by NTV, at least 393 persons were killed and up to 2.000 were injured, while the Health Ministry crisis centre in Ankara puts the provisional toll at 341 dead and 2,690 hurt.

The latest operation brought the number of people rescued more than 24 hours after the killer quake up to five.

Late yesterday, coal miners from the Black Sea province of Zonguldak, one of the first teams to arrive in the region, pulled a mother and daughter from the second floor of a multi-storey building also in Duzce, the all-news NTV channel said.

Murvet Durucan, 60, and her 29-year-old daughter, Ilknur, were also in hospital, the report said.

The earthquake struck the town of Duzce on Friday with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter Scale.

The latest Health Ministry list puts the toll at 323 dead with more than 2,657 injured.

News of the rescue came as teams said hopes were fading of finding more survivors because of the fast falling temperature.

Turkish rescuers yesterday extracted a 19-year-old university student from the rubble of a building in the same town, 25 hours after the earthquake, Anatolia news agency said.

After 12-hours of hard work, a civil defence team freed Onder Atac from a five-storey building where he was living with another student and an old woman, the report said.

Rescuers had saved the other student, identified as Haydar, earlier in the day. These was no immediate word on the woman.

In the northwestern Turkish city of Bolu meanwhile, a pregnant woman was extricated from under a collapsed building after rescuers amputated her arm, Anatolia said.

Turkish troops had struggled since late Friday to pull out the woman, identified as Nilgun, but could not free her arm. She was flown to the Gulhane Military Hospital in Ankara on a helicopter after the operation, Anatolia added.

Yesterday, three men and a woman were rescued from the rubble of collapsed multi-storey buildings in Duzce and Kaynasli, which were devastated by a powerful earthquake on Friday.

In Kaynasli, civil defence teams freed a woman and a man from the fourth floor of a six-storey building nearly 10 hours after it collapsed to the ground.

Anatolia reported that two men were pulled out from the wreckage of a five-storey building in nearby Duzce, the epicenter of the earthquake.

Witnesses were quoted by the agency as saying that the same building had entombed some 60 persons who had gathered for prayers following a burial earlier Friday.

People asked to return to Vavuniya

COLOMBO, Nov 14 (Reuters) — The Sri Lankan troops today urged some 100,000 people to return to the northern town of Vavuniya from where they fled fearing attacks by Tamil Tiger Rebels, residents said.

‘’Soldiers are going around with loudspeakers announcing that they have taken every precaution and it was safe to return to Vavuniya,’’ a Tamil resident told Reuters over the telephone.

Hardly anybody heeded the military announcements, although a large number of people were returning during the day to either purchase food items from the few shops that remained open or to remove more items from their homes.

‘’It is not safe for me or my family to be in Vavuniya during the night. If there is shelling and I try to leave, the military might mistake me for a tiger,’’ said a resident who did not wish to be identified.

Today, the train service to Vavuniya was resumed after a day-long suspension and state-owned radio also requested government officials to return, residents said.

They said there were no reports of shelling in Vavuniya, but troops shot dead a rebel when he attempted to throw a grenade at them 3 km from the town yesterday.

PTI adds: The Sri Lankan Army on Sunday claimed to have killed seven more LTTE rebels in northern Vanni while consolidating its defences around Omanthai, the last urban centre still under its control, even as Tamil civilians who fled the northern Vavuniya town fearing rebel attacks returned home.

Seven rebels were killed in two separate attacks in Vanni on Sunday where the Army suffered serious reverses in the past two weeks losing six towns, including Puliyankulam, to the Tamil Tigers, a defence release said here.

Reports from the garrison town of Vavuniya said the army, after initial losses mainly due to mass desertion by troops, recovered under the new regional command and reinforced its defences around Puliyankulam and Omanthai.

Meanwhile, the People’s Alliance (PA) of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga is ahead of its rival United National Party (UNP) in the run-up to the December 21 presidential election despite recent army reversal against the Tamil Tigers, according to an opinion poll.

The first of the series of opinion polls published on Sunday by the Sunday Times newspaper said respondents gave Kumaratunga’s party a much higher rating than the UNP on the crucial issues of handling of the ethnic war and economy.

Russians set for advance on Grozny

GROZNY, Nov 14 (AP) — Russian forces were regrouping and preparing for an advance on the Chechen capital, Grozny, after claiming to have full control of Gudermes, the republic’s second largest city, military officials said.

Gudermes and the area around it were under control of Russian forces and the region was now a “zone of peace and accord,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted top officials as saying.

Russian forces were regrouping their forces in the east of Chechnya and preparing for an offensive on Grozny, a spokesman at the military press in Dagestan said, Interfax news agency reported.

Russian warplanes continued to bomb suspected rebel bases and intensified strikes in Argun Gorge, southeast of Grozny, where militants were believed to be moving southward towards Georgia, Interfax said.

Russian soldiers moved into Gudermes on Friday and launched a methodic house-by-house search for militants. Yesterday, military officials claimed control of the city, hoisting the Russian flag in a central square and playing the national anthem.

Russian commanders held a rally in the city centre late yesterday and promised residents electricity within days, and soldiers began delivering food and humanitarian aid.

Interior Ministry commander, Col Gennady Fomenko, said the take-over went smoothly, though Russian news reports said two servicemen were killed when their truck hit a mine.

The USA and other Western countries have accused Russia of excessive force in Chechnya, leading to high civilian casualties. Moscow has angrily dismissed the criticism as interference in its internal affairs, and has insisted that Russian forces were striking at only Islamic rebels.

Net gambling grips users

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) — From casino-type games such as slot machines, blackjack and video poker to betting on the national football league, World Cup soccer and professional golf, gambling is big business on the Internet and getting bigger.

No one knows for sure how much money is being gambled on the Net. One research firm estimates that worldwide online gambling revenue will total $ 1.2 billion this year and could grow to $ 2.1 billion in 2001.

There are 400 websites offering gambling, according to one estimate. All it takes is a credit card and anyone can gamble from the convenience of a home, 24 hours a day.

In an effort to skirt US laws against gambling, many companies with websites have set up operations offshore in such exotic Caribbean locales as Antigua, Curacao and the Dominican Republic, but the federal law enforcement authorities are pursuing the companies anyway.

In March 1998, 22 owners, managers or employees of 11 Internet sports betting firms in the Caribbean were charged at the federal court in New York. Nine of them have pleaded guilty, cases against four are pending and seven of those charged remain fugitives. Two cases were dismissed.

Federal authorities say they will continue to monitor and prosecute offshore betting operations, but they acknowledge it is a formidable task.

“These websites appear and disappear constantly. It’s a fluid situation,” said Thomas Fuentes, chief of the FBI’s organised crime section. “They can move a site literally halfway around the world in a nanosecond.”

Meanwhile, managers of the gambling websites said they were being targeted unfairly.

“We don’t think what we’re doing is illegal,” said Steve Schillinger, Vice-President and Director of Wagering for World Sports Exchange, an Antigua-based operation that reportedly took annual bets of $ 100 million to $ 200 million.

Schillinger, one of those charged last year with illegal sports betting, refuses to return to the USA. He said the US Government does not have jurisdiction over his company because it was not based here.

Online gambling has also come under scrutiny in the Congress.

A Bill introduced by Arizona Republican Sen Jon Kyl will ban all forms of Internet gambling. The Senate approved it last year but the Congress adjourned before the House can act. A similar measure has been introduced in the House this year and a Kyl aide said he is optimistic the measure will pass.

A major source of concern about Internet gambling is the impact on young people.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission concluded, “There are currently no mechanisms in place to prevent youths — who make up the largest percentage of Internet users — from using their parents’ credit card numbers to register and set up accounts for use at Internet gambling sites.”

The panel plans surveys of students on several campuses, but if a survey already done on one campus is any indication, college officials have a lot of work to do. Liz Williams, Associate Director for Student Affairs at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said results there were troubling.

Islamabad blasts
Police begins probe

ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (PTI) — Pakistani authorities have beefed up security arrangements in the city and launched special drives to pre-empt recurrence of rocket attacks on US and UN establishments here, even as a high-level investigation team was set up to probe the explosions.

Special security personnel have been posted in diplomatic areas of the city, especially around US and UN installations and a drive has been launched against cars with tinted glasses, the police said.

Banners were put on streets urging car owners to carry all documents with them, while the police set up special check posts at important road crossings.

An investigation team, led by Superintendent of Police Khalid Mahmood and comprising other senior police officials, has already started collecting evidence from different sites of the multiple attack, a senior police official said.

Explosive experts examined home-made rocket launchers in search of vital clues to the explosions, for which no one has so far claimed responsibility.

Some Pakistan-based pro-Taliban groups have been threatening the USA since August for putting pressure on Kabul to hand over suspect terrorist Osama bin Laden to face trial for his alleged role in bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year which claimed 224 lives.

Egyptair crash: CVR found

NEWPORT, Nov 14 (AFP) — With the long-sought Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) now having been recovered, US investigators said they had a better chance of solving the deepening mystery of what caused Egyptair flight 990 to crash, killing all 217 passengers and crew.

A US navy robot, ‘‘Deep Drone,’’ plucked the recorder from among the plane debris some 250 feet below the ocean surface.

Officials said the recorder would remain aboard the navy salvage ship ‘‘Grapple’’ until dawn, before being transferred to another ship, ‘‘Austin’’. It would complete its journey by helicopter to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) labs in Washington for analysis.

Officials said the recorder had lost a nameplate and was dented on one side. The recorder’s “pinger” — the electronic locating device — had become detached, but they were unable to provide immediate information about the condition of audiotape inside the device.

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said recovering the device was a major breakthrough that could provide clues to the cause of the tragedy.

Indian dailies seized

COLOMBO, Nov 14 (PTI) — The Sri Lankan authorities, in an attempt to enforce the prevailing domestic censorship on all defence related news items emanating from Colombo, have begun confiscating all Indian newspapers and magazines arriving here from New Delhi and Chennai since Wednesday.

Distributors of the different Indian newspapers said here yesterday that customs officials at Bandaranaike International Airport had stopped releasing the packets containing the newspapers.

“We have been going everyday to collect the packets but they are not being released,” said one of the agents.

Rebels free 100 hostages

COTOBATO (Philippines), Nov 14 (AFP) — Muslim separatists freed unharmed today some 100 people they took hostage after a pre-dawn raid on a southern Philippine Christian village in the latest attack to mar formal peace negotiations.

About 200 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas stormed Tibao village in North Cotobato province, killing a pro-government militiaman and wounding four others before taking hostage the villagers.

Five MILF guerrillas were also killed and seven were wounded in clashes in nearby municipalities as two major rebel camps came under heavy mortar fire from the military, military and rebel commanders said.

Town Mayor Luigi Cuerpo said the guerrillas herded the hostages into a Catholic church and the men were ordered to dig foxholes near a highway, where MILF forces had set up blockades to prevent government troops from advancing.

Latvia’s referendum
RIGA: Voter turnout in Latvia’s national referendum on pension reform was too low to produce a binding result, preliminary figures from Latvia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) indicated after polls closed on Saturday. With figures in from most major cities and towns, nationwide turnout had reached just 25 per cent of the electorate, whereas 70 per cent was needed to make the referendum valid. — DPA

10 Egyptians killed
CAIRO: Ten Egyptian workers were killed and seven were injured on Saturday when a train smashed into a group of workers who were trying to help people involved in a car accident near the railway tracks, security sources said. They said the site of the accident in Qalyubia, 20 km north of here, was covered by fog. — Reuters

220 years in jail
GUATEMALA CITY: A former Guatemalan army officer was sentenced to a total of 220 years in prison for the multiple murder of civilians during the country’s civil war in 1982. The court in the south-western province of Totonicapan on Saturday found 62-year-old Candido Noriega guilty on six charges of murder and two of manslaughter, radio stations reported. The slayings were carried out during an operation in Tululche in Quiche province. — DPA

President’s car stolen
SAO PAULO: Not even the President of Brazil can escape the rampant crime in Sao Paulo, one of South America’s most violent cities. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s compact car was stolen on Friday night after his driver parked the vehicle on a Sao Paulo street while running an errand, local media reported on Saturday. — Reuters

US satellite
PARIS: The seventh launch of an Ariane rocket this year put a US commercial satellite into space on Sunday, officials of the French space company said. The rocket blasted off toward midnight from the Kourou spaceport in French Guyana, and 20 minutes later the General Electric, GE-4, communications satellite floated free of the rocket, Arianespace officials announced in Evry near Paris. — DPA