Ershad expels wife for anti-party line
DHAKA, Nov 29 — Former Bangladeshi military strongman Hussain Muhammad Ershad today expelled his wife from his party’s policy making body for accusing the opposition alliance of destabilising the country by calling frequent shutdowns.

Putin enters race for Presidency
MOSCOW, Nov 29 — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, `heir apparent’ for the presidency after Boris Yeltsin, said he will fight for the top Kremlin post next summer even if fired due to Kremlin intrigues.

N. Ireland set for home rule govt
BELFAST, Nov 29 — Northern Ireland, for 30 years ripped apart by bloody sectarian violence, today began to build its first home-rule government for a quarter of a century.

Taliban set up Islamic councils
ISLAMABAD, Nov 29 — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia has announced the establishment of hundreds of Islamic consultative councils to supervise judicial and administrative machinery across the country.

Order ‘restored’ in E. Timor
SYDNEY, Nov 29 — The Australian-led peacekeeping force in East Timor has substantially achieved its mission to restore peace and order in the territory, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Panda that cemented Sino-US ties dead
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 — Hsing-Hsing, the giant panda that was adored across the USA as a symbol of friendship with China, was put to sleep yesterday after suffering from kidney failure associated with old age.

Jaswant criticises US role in Pak

NEW YORK, Nov 29 (PTI) — External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said that the USA was “one of the contributors to the situation in Pakistan today”.

“The US has invested heavily in Pakistan over decades, in men and materials, armaments and money,” Mr Singh said, adding that he was disappointed by the US approach towards the military coup in Pakistan.

“Now the US has run into a blind alley, and therefore there is no other option for it to adopt than wait-and-see. It is disappointing, but I have to live with it,” he added.

In an interview with ‘Time’ magazine, Mr Singh said the USA advocates a commitment to democracy and human rights globally but if that yard stick was applied to the situation in Pakistan, it’s a disappointment.

He said that India will welcome globalisation as an “equivalent of political democracy” and not as a “perpetuator of disparities” in this era of economic liberalisation.

“I do believe in the creative genius of individuals, free enterprise and economic liberalisation. But under the guise of liberalisation we must not permit the perpetuation of disparities”, he said.

He said India has to reduce the “bureaucratic obstacle course” that investor’s face to increase the rate of foreign investment in the country.

Replying to a question, he said India has always stood for China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

“We believe that this will open the markets in China to the rest of the global community and that China will then have to compete with other countries on more equal terms”, he said.

He said India’s nuclear programme is neither country-specific nor threat-specific but aimed at acquiring “strategic space and autonomy”, an aim which it has achieved.

“It was a well-thought out project. It was a continuity — rather than an aberration — of policy and it achieved its objectives of giving India additional strategic space and autonomy,” Mr Singh told `Time’ magazine in an interview.

The programme, he said, is an answer to a “wholly iniquitous” new nuclear security paradigm that has come into existence since the end of the cold war.

Asked if taking over of power in Pakistan by army chief General Pervez Musharraf, who is believed to be behind the Kargil intrusions, indicated anything about the direction Islamabad may be moving in, Mr Singh said “I won’t comment on the direction on which Pakistan has already set itself. We’ll watch the situation.”

Questioned whether any new initiatives are being undertaken to end militancy in Kashmir and what is the solution to the problem, he asserted, “stop cross border terrorism.”

Replying to a question, he said a general election has just been held there (in J&K), and the Chief Minister of the state has been talking of local-body elections. He replied in the affirmative when asked whether he attributed low turnout in election in the state to intimidation by militant groups.

“If this cross-border terrorism is discontinued, the people will be at peace.

N-command in a month: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Nov 29 (PTI) — Pakistan’s military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has declared that he would put in place a nuclear command and control system within a month.

"We are responsible people. We can handle our missile arsenal. I can assure that within a month I will declare it and you will see that we have an organisation in which command and control is in safe hands", General Musharraf said in an interview to BBC, published by English daily The News today.

With General seizing power last month, not only Pakistan returned to army rule after a gap of 11 years, but it also made it the only nuclear power country in the world under the control of the army causing concern among the international community.

The General Musharraf sought to justify the military take-over saying that an Army set-up could be better than a civilian one.

"We are definitely a body which has a system where corruption is very difficult because everyone is accountable at every tier. At every tier people are being watched by the next superior and watched very closely. Then we have our intelligence set-ups everywhere which are overseeing everything that is going on", he was quoted as saying.

"The Army is taken in Pakistan to be a body which can deliver," General Musharraf said in an apparent indication that he was not in favour of an early return to the civilian rule.

Last Thursday Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar declared that "minimum nuclear deterrence" would be the guiding principle of Pakistan’s nuclear strategy, but had refused to quantify it saying that it would entirely depend on the Indian nuclear build up.

He had also said that Pakistan would conduct another nuclear blast if India did so before the enforcement of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Both India and Pakistan after their tit for tat multiple nuclear tests in May 1998 had declared a self-imposed moratorium on further nuclear tests.

Mahathir faces challenge

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (AFP, AP) — Voting started throughout Malaysia today in a general election seen as a referendum on the 18-year-rule of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Polling began at 8 a.m. (midnight GMT) in peninsular Malaysia and 7.30 a.m. in Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo island. At stake are all 193 parliamentary seats and 11 out of 13 state assemblies.

Mr Mahathir Mohamad, Asia’s longest-serving elected leader, has staked his political reputation on retaining the two-thirds majority which the National Front - in power since independence from Britain in 1957 - has enjoyed for 30 years.

A new Opposition alternative front alliance is equally determined to take this away to curb what it sees as Mahathir’s near-absolute power and usher in a new two-party era free from what it calls corruption and cronyism.

The Opposition, whose candidate for Prime Minister is jailed Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim, tacitly concedes outright victory is impossible.

But major losses by the ruling coalition could open Mahathir to challenge in a party leadership vote next year, according to some analysts.

Anwar, who is serving a six-year sentence for corruption and is on trial for sodomy, was once Mahathir’s hand-picked successor. But since being jailed, beaten and put on trial for crimes he denies, Anwar (52) has become the Opposition’s symbol for change.

“I will vote for the opposition because I want justice and accountability. It cannot be a one-man show,” said Shanti Kanagasabhai, a 34-year-old university teacher, as she walked into the polling booth in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangsar neighbourhood.

Mahathir has repeatedly reminded Malaysia’s 22 million people how much they have benefited as the economy grew by 8 per cent each year for a decade until the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The average annual incomes have risen from $ 300 in 1957, when Malaysia won its independence, to $ 3,800 this year.

He has warned Muslim Malays that they could forfeit special privileges and cautioned the ethnic Chinese minority that it could lose its religious and cultural freedoms if the opposition wins.

Mahathir’s popularity among the majority Muslim community is largely attributed to an aggressive affirmative action plan, which favours Malays over the ethnic Chinese and Indians in education, the awarding of business contracts and public sector jobs.

But the minorities, mostly Buddhist, Christian and Hindu, have benefited from an expanding economy and their cultural and religious practices have rarely been disturbed.

The opposition has described Mahathir’s campaign as dirty and vicious. It has also accused the governing group of relying on an electoral system crafted to suit itself.

Ershad expels wife for anti-party line

DHAKA, Nov 29 (DPA) — Former Bangladeshi military strongman Hussain Muhammad Ershad today expelled his wife from his party’s policy making body for accusing the opposition alliance of destabilising the country by calling frequent shutdowns.

“Ms Rowshan Ershad has been expelled for her anti-party statement,” said a spokesman for the ousted military ruler’s Jatiyo Party. The move automatically strips her of the vice-presidency of her husband’s party.

Ms Rowshan, in a press note at the weekend, blamed the four-party anti-government alliance for trying to ruin the country’s fledgling economy, worsening the conditions of the impoverished millions.

The Jatiyo Party is a key member of the Right-wing four-party alliance, led by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which has launched a street campaign to topple the Centre-Left government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, paving the way for a snap general election.

Ms Rawshan said the opposition alliance should seek out other forms of protests instead of enforcing general strikes which were hurting both stability and the economy.

Analysts said Ms Rawshan’s statement showed rifts among some top leaders of the alliance on the current anti-government move. But it evoked a sharp reaction from the hard-liners, who demanded her expulsion from the alliance.

Putin enters race for Presidency

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (PTI, Reuters) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, `heir apparent’ for the presidency after Boris Yeltsin, said he will fight for the top Kremlin post next summer even if fired due to Kremlin intrigues.

“I still will run for the presidency, if I am dismissed due to intrigues and not because of unsatisfactory work of the government,” Mr Putin said in an interview to Russian TV-6 channel last night.

President Yeltsin had appointed Putin as Premier on August 9, 1999 and simultaneously named him his successor.

Mr Putin, who completed 100 days in office last week with the highest popularity rating of 42 per cent due to the success in the ongoing Chechnya campaign, is generally seen as the appointee of the ‘family’ (Kremlin insiders).

However, with his vast popularity and firm backing of the armed forces—a unique combination of vital factors— neither enjoyed by Mr Gorbachev nor Mr Yeltsin, Mr Putin by making such public statements, seems to be eager to cut the Kremlin strings and play an independent role on his own.

Earlier last weekend, he blatantly rejected the offer of backing by a member of the Kremlin ‘’family’’, financier Boris Berezovsky.

In 1996 Berezovsky played a pivotal role in Mr Yeltsin’s re-election.

Mr Putin compared Berezovsky’s offer of pooling the resources of the Russian oligarchs for his presidential campaign with the ‘Trojan horse’.

While, the Kremlin has said President Boris Yeltsin was on the mend from his latest bout of illness and was keeping an eye on Russia’s nine-week military offensive in the breakaway Chechnya region.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose visit was postponed on Friday due to Mr Yeltsin’s new bout of bronchitis, also said Mr Yeltsin should recuperate for a few days and early next month sign a pact to unite the two countries.

Both the Kremlin and Mr Lukashenko yesterday dismissed front-page conspiracy theories that the illness was an excuse to postpone the union deal with Belarus, saying the planned signing ceremony would have been spoiled by Mr Yeltsin’s hoarse voice.

“The President is recuperating but is continuing with a part-time work schedule, looking through his post and sending it back to the Kremlin,’’ Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Yakushkin said in an interview with RTR Television yesterday.

N. Ireland set for home rule govt

BELFAST, Nov 29 (Reuters) — Northern Ireland, for 30 years ripped apart by bloody sectarian violence, today began to build its first home-rule government for a quarter of a century.

Protestant and Roman Catholic parties will nominate Ministers to a coalition government of pro-Irish Republicans and pro-British Unionists which will become fully operational on Thursday, when London will hand over power.

But the bitter disagreements that have led to more than 3,600 deaths in the province were still hanging in the air as members of the Northern Ireland Assembly made their way to Belfast’s Stormont Castle to name the new government ministers.

“There are lots of difficulties yet to be resolved,” Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army’s political ally Sinn Fein, said late yesterday.

In a direct reference to comments by the pro-British Ulster Unionist (UUP) leader David Trimble after his party on Saturday approved a power-sharing deal, Mr Adams said: “None of us will have done our bit until this work is completed.”

Mr Trimble had challenged Mr Adams on Saturday, saying “We have done our bit, Mr Adams. It is over to you.”

When the Cabinet is formed, it will be the first time in history that Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists will be sharing power although Catholic Nationalists have ruled alongside the Unionists before.

“Democracy will be restored to Northern Ireland in a matter of days,” The Times declared in its comment pages.

It said Mr Trimble had taken a “huge political risk” in allowing a government to be formed before the IRA began to disarm — a move many Unionists vehemently oppose — but warned this was only the “first base” of the peace process.

“Whether it (the process) advances further now rests exclusively with the Sinn Fein and the IRA”, it said.

Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said he was confident a process leading to disarmament would start this week.

“As far as I am concerned, when devolution starts on Thursday the IRA will appoint their own representative to the decommissioning commission,” Mr Mandelson told BBC Television.

Taliban set up Islamic councils

ISLAMABAD, Nov 29 (AFP) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia has announced the establishment of hundreds of Islamic consultative councils to supervise judicial and administrative machinery across the country.

The militia’s supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar in a decree yesterday asked the people to constitute Ulema Shoora or councils of Islamic scholars at district and provincial levels, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

Each council will comprise 10 scholars picked by the local people and intellectuals from their region, the AIP reported.

Quoting a Taliban spokesman in the militia’s base in Kandhar, southern Afghanistan, the agency said the councils had already started functioning at some places.

“The aim of the Ulema Shoora is to remove public grievances against the administration and provide speedy justice” to the people at grassroots level, the spokesman said.

It said Omar took the initiative following complaints about “Growing incidents of bribery and corruption” in the administrative and judicial organs in some areas held by the Taliban.

Order ‘restored’ in E. Timor

SYDNEY, Nov 29 (AFP) — The Australian-led peacekeeping force in East Timor has substantially achieved its mission to restore peace and order in the territory, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Speaking on his return from visiting Australian troops in the former Indonesian-controlled territory, Mr Howard said the head of the mission Maj-Gen, Peter Cosgrove, believed a key part of his peace-keeping mandate had been achieved.

“Bear in mind that things have improved quite dramatically , and General Cosgrove told me that if you looked at that part of his mandate of restoring peace and stability that had been substantially achieved,” Mr Howard told ABC radio.

Panda that cemented Sino-US ties dead

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) — Hsing-Hsing, the giant panda that was adored across the USA as a symbol of friendship with China, was put to sleep yesterday after suffering from kidney failure associated with old age.

The panda, given to the Smithsonian National Zoo as a gift in 1972 to commemorate President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China, was 28.

Lisa Stevens of the national zoo told a news conference that the panda dined on a last meal of sweet potatoes, bamboo shoots, rice gruel and his favourite treat of all — a starbucks blueberry muffin — before zoo officials put him to sleep at 7 a.m. Local time (1200 GMT) yesterday.

The panda house where Hsing-Hsing, known affectionately as Hsing among the zoo staff, lived since arriving in Washington as a cub, was grim on Sunday afternoon. Visitors were allowed to view pictures of the panda’s life and offer condolences.

One area of the panda house still carried a display of get well wishes from children across the country who had learned of Hsing’s health problems, which had worsened since May when he was diagnosed with kidney failure. One such card read, “Dear Hsing-Hsing, I hope you feel better because I love you.”

“Hsing-Hsing was a gift of friendship and peace from the People’s Republic of China to the people of the USA. He arrived with the female giant panda Ling-Ling on April 16, 1972. We will all miss him,” a tribute from the zoo staff read. Beneath the tribute lay two red roses.

Hsing-Hsing, one of the longest living pandas ever, came to Washington with Ling-Ling in 1972 as a result of Mr Nixon’s visit to China, which opened diplomatic doors.

The pair became an instant hit at the zoo, with more than 20,000 people visiting them on their first day and millions more visiting them in the following years. Ling-Ling died in 1992 of heart failure.

Wooing subscribers
BERLIN: Germany’s irreverent left-wing daily Tageszeitung turned its front page into a low-brow tabloid filled with naked breasts and sensational headlines on Sunday after a drive to attract new subscribers fell short of its goal. The editor had vowed to briefly transform the paper, known for its witty broadsides and staunch defence of minorities and women’s rights, into a “trashy tabloid” unless it could sign up new subscribers. — Reuters

Patented curry
LONDON: A Japanese company has stunned devotees of Indian food by applying for a patent on curry, according to a British Sunday newspaper. The House Foods Corporation is trying to take out a patent on the dish cooked every day by hundreds of millions of people on the Indian subcontinent and which has become a favourite in restaurants throughout Britain. The Indian Government views the application as “a matter of concern”, The Independent said. — Reuters

46 hurt in blast
CAPE TOWN: Forty-six persons were injured when a bomb went off at a pizza restaurant in Cape Town on Sunday. A spokesman for the controversial People Against Gangsterism and Drugs denied the organisation was involved in the attack. — DPA

2 journalists shot
BOGOTA: Two journalists were shot dead yesterday while covering local elections in a region of northern Colombia that Marxist rebels and Right-wing paramilitary groups have turned into a war zone as they battle for territorial control, authorities said. Military officials said the bodies of the two local television reporters, cameraman Luis Alberto Rincon and correspondent Alberto Sanchez, were found dumped alongside a rural road outside the town of El Playon in Santander province, where municipal elections were held on Sunday.— Reuters

150 skiers rescued
PARPAN, Switzerland: Swiss rescue teams, using helicopters and ropes, plucked 150 people from a stalled chairlift at a ski resort near the Italian border on Sunday, police said. A police spokesman said 50 skiers at the Graubunden resor of Staetzerhorn, near Parpan were rescued by two national rescue service helicopters and 100 people were helped to the ground by rescuers with ropes. — Reuters

Virtual shops
WASHINGTON: Internet heavyweights Jeff Bezos of Amazon Com Inc and Steve Case of America Online Inc have predicted virtual shopping would become more popular but denied it would put real shopping out of business one day. “The physical world is a wonderful medium and it’s not going to go away”, Amazon chief executive Bezos said on Sunday during an ABC television discussion. — Reuters

9 hurt in attack
LONDON: Nine people were injured on Sunday a nude man wielding a sword attacked church-goers in Thornton Heath, Southwest London, local police said. Three of the injured were hospitalised in a serious condition, police said. — AFP