EgyptAir crash probe to remain with NTSB
WASHINGTON, Nov 20 — Some of the words originally attributed to a crewman of EgyptAir flight 990, which bolstered a US theory that the plane was deliberately crashed, were not spoken, according a government official.

Anwar Ibrahim not to contest
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Malaysia’s Opposition today lost its candidate for Prime Minister when former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim opted not to try to run in elections this month from his jail cell.

Mass grave exhumed
SARAJEVO, Nov 20 — Bosnian Serb experts have exhumed a mass grave in a Sarajevo cemetery holding the remains of more than 30 victims from the country’s 1992-1995 war, an Australian forensic anthropologist said.

China spying probe widened
WASHINGTON, Nov 20 — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has widened its probe of whether China stole advanced US nuclear weapons technology amid new evidence that suggests the information may have come from sources other than previous prime suspects.

Bush foreshadows US interest in India

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) — Republican front-runner George W. Bush foreshadowed a decisive shift in US attitudes towards southern Asia yesterday, saying that the USA should pay more attention to India.

In the first major foreign policy speech of his campaign to be President, Mr Bush spoke positively and at length about the promise of India. He added one short compensatory sentence about Pakistan, India’s rival and a US cold war ally.

He said, “Often overlooked in our strategic calculations is that great land that rests at the south of Eurasia. This coming century will see democratic India’s arrival as a force in the world. A vast population, before long the world’s most populous nation, a changing economy, in which three of its five wealthiest citizens are software entrepreneurs.”

“India is now debating its future and its strategic path and the USA must pay it more attention. We should establish more trade and investment with India as it opens to the world. We should work with the Indian Government, ensuring it is a force for stability and security in Asia,” — he added.

Almost as an Afterthought, he added, “This should not undermine our long-standing relationship with Pakistan, which remains crucial to the peace of the region.”

His remarks reflect a view increasingly heard among Republican Senators, for whom India’s democratic traditions should give it preference over coup-plagued Pakistan.

Senator Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who chairs the South Asia subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said earlier this year that India and the USA “share basic values and interests”.

It made no sense, he said, to reward China, a country with which the USA has serious problems, while punishing India for the nuclear tests it conducted last year.

Governor Bush’s positive remarks on India also go some way to neutralise the perception that he favoured last month’s military coup against Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

During a pop quiz on the names of world leaders, Mr Bush said of Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, “It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that’s good news for the sub continent”.

During the cold war, India was a leader of the non-aligned movement, which Washington saw as hostile to its interests and sympathetic to the Soviet Union. For years Pakistan was a member of Cento, the alliance which the USA set up to stop the Soviet Union expanding southwards.

Boost for pro-India lobby

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (UNI) — The pro-India lobby in the US Congress has scored a major victory, winning the support of Democratic Party’s Chief Whip David Bonior who till recently-backed Pakistan on all crucial issues, particularly Islamabad’s stand on Kashmir.

Congressman, Bonior was among those who urged President Bill Clinton to appoint a “special US Envoy” for Kashmir for the American mediation in the dispute, in sharp contract to India’s stand of treating it as a bilateral matter to be settled through direct negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad.

But last night, to the surprise of all, Mr Bonior, along with his Democratic Party colleague Sherrod Brown, wrote a joint letter to Mr Clinton, urging him to abandon his administration’s present policy of opposing World Bank loans for India’s infrastructural projects.

The US objection, arising out of the sanctions that the Clinton administration had imposed on India in protest against its May, 1998, nuclear tests, has resulted in denial of the World Bank loans worth $ 1,235 billion. Several other landmakers had also demanded unfreezing of this amount.

Mr Bonir’s new stance came as a surprise. Only on Tuesday, he along with three others, voted against a resolution in the House which hailed India’s democracy and called for establishing “strategic partnership” between the USA and India. The resolution was backed by a record number of 396 lawmakers, including 200 Republicans, 195 Democrats and an Independent.

But, the letter he signed with Mr Brown, one of the founders of the Congressional caucus on India and Indian-Americans, appealed to Mr Clinton, for the resumption of full World Bank funding to India, citing its democratic traditions and its successful conduct of a Parliamentary elections recently.

“We were puzzled by your (Clinton’s ) failure to extend the most important form of financial assistance to India, the World Bank’s “nonbasic” human needs loans. On repeated occasions, your administration has proclaimed our national interest is to advance the spread of democracy”, the letter said.

It reminded the President that “last month, over 350 million people elected a new government in India. Not only was this the largest election in history, it was an example of how democracy can work for any nation, regardless of its population or religious composition,” it added.

“A waiver of this sanction will send a strong signal to the people of India, as well as to other nations, that your administration supports and encourages the development of democratic institutions,” the letter said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, in his speech on the floor of the House, took the Republican Party’s leadership to task for its failure to bring to a vote a resolution condemning the recent military coup in Pakistan. “Since we have now adjourned, it’s likely that this resolution is dead for the year,” he added. (the party has a majority in Congress).

He wanted the House to go on record “expressing our condemnation of this year’s turn of events in Pakistan.”

Clinton’s Greece trip triggers riots

ATHENS, Nov 20 (Reuters) — US President Bill Clinton’s trip to Greece triggered a violent Anti-US riot by the Greek leftists that heavily damaged central parts of Athens and marred a visit to what Clinton called a treasured US ally.

In what appeared to be the most violent protest against Clinton since he took office in 1993, demonstrators rampaged through the main commercial area on last night, leaving burned out banks, smashed shop fronts and piles of smoking debris.

Protesters portrayed Clinton as the “Butcher of the Balkans” for his role in leading NATO air raid against Yugoslavia. Greeks also still resent US support for a military junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974.

The riot police fired dozens of teargas shells when demonstrators tried to push through their lines to march towards the US embassy. Choking fumes drove demonstrators and bystanders alike rushing from the main square.

In the ensuing riot, at least 10 banks and 35 shops were damaged, some completely gutted. The Labour Ministry and Central Bank were both damaged. Fire engines extinguished blazes across the city.

Sporadic clashes continued into the night, the police said 16 persons were rushed to the hospital and 41 were arrested.

Clinton and the Greek Government went on with the business of his 24-hour visit.

Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos hosted an elegant state dinner for Clinton and wife Hillary in a chandeliered room at the neo-classical presidential palace several blocks away from the centre of the violence at Syndagma Square.

In his dinner toast, Clinton noted that Greece had stood with the USA in every conflict this century.

“As in all friendships, we have not always agreed, but we have never broken ranks because of our shared devotion to democracy and freedom,” he said.

“If some engage in passionate debate, it is well to remember how hard both our countries have fought for their right to do just that,” Clinton said.

Clinton said on his arrival at the airport that he had come “as a ‘Philhellene’ — a friend of Greece”. His motorcade route into town was eerily quiet, heavily guarded by the police.

US officials criticised the Greek Government 10 days ago for not being able to guarantee the president’s security, and delayed and shortened his trip.

Pallone warns US on Pak regime

WASHINGTON,Nov 20 (PTI)— Top US Congressman Frank Pallone has warned the Clinton administration not to be the 'enabler' of Pakistan’s military regime 'out of cynical expediency' saying Pakistani attack in Kargil had demonstrated a behaviour in the army that was highly destabilising.

Pakistan's role in sowing death and destruction in Kashmir was exposed earlier this year to the world and given the proven collaboration between Pakistan and the fundamentalist Taliban militia in Afghanistan and with Osama bin Laden "you have to wonder why the USA continues to win the favour of

Pakistani regime," Mr Pallone told the House of Representatives yesterday.

Last month’s coup,the Congressman said was in a series of disturbing actions in Pakistan that deserved very close scrutiny and clear condemnation by the Congress as well.

Mr Pallone said last week’s rocket attacks against American and U N targets in the heart of Islamabad had come after solid evidence of the past had linked Bin Laden’s operation with Pakistan.

Besides, he said Pakistan was home to several well armed paramilitary groups sympathetic to Taliban and hostile to the USA. And these groups had participated in Pakistan’s army attack on Kargil- with many of the same elements who carried out last month’s coup detat.

Mr Pallone said in this backdrop the failure of the Republican leadership, too, in delaying a resolution condemning the Pakistani coup was very disappointing.

Similarity between Kashmir, Chechnya

MOSCOW,Nov 20 (UNI)— The separatist movements in Chechnya and Jammu and Kashmir have links since some of the leaders and sentiments guiding them are common, according to an expert analysis.

The analysis aired on the Radio Moscow last night linked for the first time the insurgent events in the Russian breakaway republic and the North Indian border state, and said both were being backed by odious figures like Osama bin Laden and leaders of fanatic outfits.

Talking about Kashmir in particular, the state-owned station noted that it was as part of its efforts to destabilise India that Pakistan suffered an ‘’ignominious fiasco’’ in its adventure in the Kargil mountain ranges.

The radio observed that Taliban-sheltered Bin Laden and Islamabad had sent emissaries to the Chechen conflict zones with $30 million, a huge cache of arms and a group of mercenaries.

In a direct reference to Islamabad’s complicity in the strife in Kashmir, the radio accused Pakistan of carrying out the same mission in the valley as well as in Grozny.

“Destabilising the whole of India is the target of the Pakistani separatists,’’ the radio maintained, and expressed the hope that New Delhi and Moscow devised collaborative measures to combat the crisis.

EgyptAir crash probe to remain with NTSB

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) — Some of the words originally attributed to a crewman of EgyptAir flight 990, which bolstered a US theory that the plane was deliberately crashed, were not spoken, according a government official.

The embarrassing admission strengthens Egyptian opinion that US media and officials are rushing to judgement on the cause of the crash and will further delay any decision to transfer leadership of the accident probe to the FBI as a criminal matter.

Closer review of the tape showed that the first sentence of a widely published quote from the cockpit voice recorder was in fact not uttered, the US official said yesterday.

“I made my decision now. I put my faith in God’s hands,” was the incorrect translation from Arabic reported by Reuters and many other news organisations from sources.

But the official said there was only a reference to faith in God prior to the auto-pilot being disconnected and the plane beginning an unusually steep but controlled plunge toward the ocean.

The Boeing 767 aircraft crashed on October 31 into the sea off Massachusetts less than an hour after taking off from New York for Cairo, killing all 217 people on board.

EgyptAir said yesterday that it had begun offering cash advances in cases of financial hardship to the families of those who died.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Jam Hall yesterday said the accident might had been the result of a deliberate act but he scolded the media and government officials for fuelling irresponsible speculation.

“Over the last few days we have seen a virtual cyclone of speculation about the course of this investigation,” Hall told a news conference.

“We have not released specific information from the cockpit voice recorder,” Hall said. “I find it difficult to believe that responsible public servants would engage in this type of conduct,” he added.

CAIRO: Investigations into last month’s crash of EgyptAir flight 990 will not be handled as criminal act, Egyptian officials who participated in the investigation have said.

“A political agreement was reached with the US side that the file will remain with the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB),” Murad Shawki Head of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Authority told reporters at his arrival from New York yesterday.

He did not explain what he meant by the political agreement. Shawki and Mamdouh Heshmat, Head of the Aviation sector at the Ministry of Transportation, were among Egyptian experts taking part in the investigations.

Anwar Ibrahim not to contest

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 (Reuters) — Malaysia’s Opposition today lost its candidate for Prime Minister when former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim opted not to try to run in elections this month from his jail cell.

In a last-minute move, Anwar decided not to have nomination papers filed on his behalf in a constituency in the capital where he had been expected to run, his brother and a politician said.

‘‘Anwar feels that it is not worth it to contest because he will be disqualified,’’ lawyer Zainur Zakaria told reporters in the Lembah Pantai constituency in the capital.

The four-party Opposition coalition had earlier chosen Anwar, who is serving a six-year jail term for corruption, as their candidate to succeed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad if the parties pulled off a major upset in the November 29 poll.

Zakaria, who was part of Anwar’s defence team in his corruption trial that ended in April, filed papers to stand in the Lembah Pantai constituency under Keadilan.

It was not immediately known who would replace Anwar as the Opposition’s candidate for Prime Minister should it win the November elections.

Mr Mahathir, who has been in power since 1981 and is Asia’s longest-serving elected leader, is widely expected to win the poll, although the Opposition hopes to deny the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority for the first time in three decades.

Mass grave exhumed

SARAJEVO, Nov 20 (Reuters) — Bosnian Serb experts have exhumed a mass grave in a Sarajevo cemetery holding the remains of more than 30 victims from the country’s 1992-1995 war, an Australian forensic anthropologist said.

Geraldine Hodgson of Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said yesterday that the site was unearthed last month. She said the remains had not yet been identified but that some carried documents suggesting they were Serbs.

Hodgson, who monitored the work of the Bosnian Serb Commission for missing persons, said the bodies had been dumped in a pit together with stretchers, amputated limbs and other items from a nearby hospital where the wounded were taken during the war.

Postmortems had revealed bullet and shrapnel wounds and Hodgson said those found had probably been wounded elsewhere in Sarajevo, besieged by Bosnian Serb forces at the time, and then taken to the Kosevo hospital where they later died.

China spying probe widened

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (DPA) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has widened its probe of whether China stole advanced US nuclear weapons technology amid new evidence that suggests the information may have come from sources other than previous prime suspects.

FBI officials, quoted by The Washington Post yesterday, said among the likely origins of the suspected leaks on the miniaturisation of warehouse were Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories and the US Navy.

Sandia assembles prototype warheads, Lockheed Martin attaches them to missiles and the navy supervises the process.

Allegations of China spying became public earlier this year and have been subject to Congressional investigation. Earlier FBI and Department of Energy investigations focused on the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a Taiwan-born scientist working there.

The scientist, Wen Ho Lee, has denied passing information on the miniaturised W-88 nuclear warhead to China and has not yet been charged by the authorities.

Expansion of the investigation, however, does not mean Lee would not be indicted for violating security rules while working at the Nuclear Weapons Laboratory, officials said.

Government sources told The Washington Post that weapons scientists had noted tell-tale errors in a Chinese intelligence document about the technology, leading them to suspect any leaks came from government contractors or defence installations.

Blue diamond
GENEVA: A pear-shaped blue diamond pendant sold for 3.2 million to a US-based dealer, Christie’s said on Friday. In a statement, the auction house said its main autumn jewellery sale in Geneva, held late Thursday, had netted nearly $ 35 million. Of the 499 lots of the gems on offer, 77 per cent found new owners. — Reuters

Oil paintings stolen
ROME: Five oil paintings, including two by the 17th century Italian master Guercino, have been stolen from Rome’s Capitoline Museums, the police said on Saturday. They said the paintings, with a combined value of between 500 million and one billion lire ($ 250,000-500,000), were taken while the gallery where they were usually housed, the Pinocoteca, was closed for restoration. — Reuters

N Korea-US talks
BERLIN: Talks to improve relations between the USA and North Korea ended with progress on Friday and prepared the ground for a future high-level meeting, a North Korean official said. “We had very constructive and business-like talks,” North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan told reporters outside the venue of the talks in the US Embassy in Berlin. — Reuters

12 die in blast
BEIJING: Twelve persons were killed and 10 seriously injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in southeastern China, state press said on Saturday. The blast on Thursday near Nanchang in Jiangxi province destroyed major parts of the factory, China’s biggest exporter of fireworks, causing losses worth 100,000 yuan ($ 12,000) the Beijing Youth Daily said. — AFP

Bangla poet dead
DHAKA: Renowned Bangladeshi poet Begum Sufia Kamal, who played an active role in the country’s liberation movement in 1971, died here on Saturday in a hospital. She was 88. A pioneering figure in the women’s rights and liberation movement in Bangladesh, Kamal is survived by two sons and two daughters. Kamal was shifted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital from her Dhanmandi residence on Thursday for chronic renal failure. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was among the first to rush to the hospital to pay tributes. — PTI