Habibie for Wiranto as Vice-President
JAKARTA, Oct 11 — Indonesia’s beleaguered President BJ Habibie said military chief Gen Wiranto is well suited to be Vice-President, citing the Commander’s ethnic background as the main reason.

Serb Oppn leader snubs EU
LUXEMBOURG, Oct 11 — Foreign Ministers of the European Union met here today determined to step up pressure on Yugoslavia’s President Slobodan Milosevic to resign, promising international assistance for the country once he is ousted.

Deal on Jews’ emigration
LONDON, Oct 11 — Cuban President Fidel Castro has agreed to a secret deal allowing about 400 Jews to emigrate to Israel, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

China restricts poll surveys
BEIJING, Oct 11 — China has ordered foreign pollsters to strictly comply with the Communist nations regulations so as to prevent leaking of state secrets, the state media reported today.

India, Pak ‘making nuclear missiles’
NEW YORK, Oct 11 — India and Pakistan have begun “weaponising” the nuclear devices they tested in May last year, unidentified senior aides of US President Bill Clinton have been quoted by the ‘Newsweek’ as saying.

Chechnya camps bombed: 50 killed

GROZNY (Russia), Oct 11 (AFP) — Russian forces have intensified pushed on towards the Chechen capital offensive and Grozny, as warplanes pounded villages in the tanks and breakaway republic heaviest bombings in a month.in the

“If the Chechens — the real ones, there are bandits but there are also Chechens — ask us to do it, we will liberate Grozny,” Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev told Russian RTR public television.

“I would like to stress that we have already had such requests,” added Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was sitting beside Sergeyev for the broadcast.

The two ministers yesterday spoke as fighting hit a peak in the breakaway republic, where Russia sent in troops, tanks and armour on October 1 for the first time since the bloody 1994-1996 Russian-Chechen war.

Some 475 Russian soldiers have died in clashes in the past two days alone, Chechen officials reported.

Moscow initially said it moved its forces in to create a “security zone” in the north to prevent Muslim insurgents from staging attacks on targets in neighbouring areas.

It has also announced plans to install a government in parts of the northern third of the breakaway republic, now under Russian control.

Chechnya was left with de facto independence after the 21-month Russian-Chechen war, which left some 80,000 dead.

Russia attacked Chechnya after Muslim militants aiming to establish an Islamic republic in the region invaded nearby Dagestan in August and September.

Combats have escalated since early Friday as the Russian military neared Grozny.

Two Russian STO-24 warplanes last night bombed the southwestern Alkhankala region, 20 km from Grozny, an AFP correspondent reported, hitting civilians and damaging a number of buildings.

Russian bombings overnight, which did not cease for a minute in southern parts of the republic, killed 32 civilians, the Chechen presidency told AFP yesterday.

Russian federal troops also pounded the outskirts of Grozny with heavy artillery fire and rocket launchers.

MOSCOW (UNI): Fifty rebels have been killed in heavy bombing of their bases and training camps in Chechnya by Russian Air Force war planes, Voice of Russia reported.

Russian forces’ casualty figure is seven, it added.

Meanwhile the outflow of Chechen refugees into neighbouring Ingushetia continues unabated, with official figures being put at 1,50,000.

Russia is sending envoys to leading Islamic states to explain its offensive in Chechnya, Interfax reports.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will send emissaries to Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Islamic countries, Interfax said quoting a Foreign Ministry source.

Iran on Tuesday urged Russia to end its military action while other Islamic countries have been concerned about the escalating military offensive.

Putin’s terms for talks

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today he would agree to talks sought by the leader of breakaway Chechnya only if it handed over suspected “terrorists” to Russia, Interfax news agency said.

“I favour (Chechen President Aslan) Maskhadov’s request, but I would put priorities in a different order,’’ Mr Putin said. “First the terrorists responsible for attacks on peaceful villages and apartment block blasts...should be extradited.”

Russia has accused Chechnya of harbouring Islamic militants who have invaded its southern region of Dagestan twice since August. It also holds the fighters responsible for a series of bomb blasts in Russian cities in which nearly 300 people died.

Mr Maskhadov, a relative moderate with little influence over unruly Chechen warlords, said yesterday he was ready to clamp down on terrorists if Russia agreed to withdraw its troops and end the bombings.

“Let them first extradite people who have their hands stained with blood,” Interfax quoted Putin as telling reporters ahead of a trip to the central Russian town of Lipetsk.

‘Jakarta provoked clash’

DILI (East Timor), Oct 11 (Reuters) — The Multinational forces in East Timor mounted an air mobile search for militia in south-western part of East Timor today, questioning 80 persons but detaining no one, a spokesman said.

“Reacting to some reports of militia activity in the villages of Hatutu and Cassa, air mobile operations were conducted into those two areas,” Col Mark Kelly, spokesman for the multinational force known as Interfet, told reporters.

“In Hatutu approximately 50 persons were detained and questioned initially but no arms were present so those persons were allowed to go on their way.

“In Cassa 30 initially were apprehended. Again, no weapons were present and therefore that group was allowed to continue on its way as well.”

Australian-led Interfet troops have been operating in East Timor for three weeks trying to restore order.

Pro-Jakarta militia groups went on a murderous rampage after the majority of the population voted in favour of independence in a UN-supervised referendum on August 30.

Militia activity in the East seems to have died down but potential violence in the western regencies, along the border with West Timor, continues to be a concern.

Interfet troops moved into the West over the past week and began to secure important towns in the West, opening them up to humanitarian aid.

The use of helicopters to put troops on the ground across East Timor is key to Interfet’s ability to disarm remaining militia that have not fled to Indonesian-controlled West Timor.

SYDNEY (DPA): Meanwhile, the East Timorese resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, on Monday said Indonesia was behind clashes on the border with West Timor that have claimed three lives and injured at least seven others.

“They want to see how much the Australian troops are ready to fight,” Mr Gusmao said at a meeting with Melbourne’s large East Timorese community.

The third and most serious skirmish happened on Sunday near the border town of Motaain. Regular Indonesian troops opened fire on Australian members of the international peacekeeping force, claiming that the Australians had strayed across the border into Indonesian-held West Timor.

An Indonesian policeman died and two were injured in a confrontation that has raised tension between the Indonesian military and Australian-led peacekeeping force.

In the next few weeks Parliament in Jakarta is expected to cancel the 1976 annexation of East Timor and pass the blighted half-island into UN trusteeship prior to full nationhood.

Mr Gusmao, who is expected to be elected President of the new nation, announced he would be returning to his homeland within the next two weeks.

Mr Gusmao, who spent 18 years as a guerrilla fighter before he was captured in 1992, was released from detention in Jakarta last month.

Habibie for Wiranto as Vice-President

JAKARTA, Oct 11 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s beleaguered President BJ Habibie said military chief Gen Wiranto is well suited to be Vice-President, citing the Commander’s ethnic background as the main reason.

In an interview with Tempo weekly magazine published today, Mr Habibie also vowed not to step back from his bid for re-election.

“If the President is not Javanese, then the Vice-President must be a Javanese,’’ Mr Habibie said, when asked why he favoured Gen Wiranto as his candidate for the past of Vice- President.

Mr Habibie is from Sulawesi Island. Ethnic Javanese are easily the largest among some 300 ethnic groups across the vast archipelago. Mr Habibie added that he personally preferred a military person for the post.

Serb Oppn leader snubs EU

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 11 (DPA) — Foreign Ministers of the European Union met here today determined to step up pressure on Yugoslavia’s President Slobodan Milosevic to resign, promising international assistance for the country once he is ousted.

But E.U. plans for 30 Belgrade Opposition leaders to co-sign a declaration to that effect ran into a snag when one key Opposition figure boycotted today’s meeting.

The head of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Mr Vuk Draskovic, refused to attend the signing ceremonies, calling the E.U. declaration an “ultimatum’’ which would harm Opposition groups in the eyes of “grassroots” Serbs.

The declaration would lift sanctions and support Belgrade’s readmission to international institutions - but only after President Milosevic and all others indicted for war crimes have been removed from office.

Serbia would be expected to introduce legislation in line with international standards on democracy and human rights, and hold free and fair elections under international supervision.

But after seeing the declaration they were expected to adopt with the E.U., Mr Drascovic and other leaders of the Serbian Opposition said that the language it contained on the touchy issue of war crimes might prevent them from going.

Beta news agency quoted Opposition sources as saying they objected to the stipulation that suspected war criminals be extradited before aid can start.

A number of Serbian officials have been indicted for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. President Milosevic and Serbian President Milan Milutinovic are among them.

Deal on Jews’ emigration

LONDON, Oct 11 (AP) — Cuban President Fidel Castro has agreed to a secret deal allowing about 400 Jews to emigrate to Israel, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

An Israeli official confirmed the report.

Cuba has no formal ties with Israel, having broken off relations after Israel’s victory in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, so the exit visas were granted through Canada, the London-based newspapers said.

Mr Castro is known to want to improve Cuba’s image abroad and encourage Washington to consider lifting the nearly 40-year-old economic embargo wrecking the nation’s economy.

Four hundred of the immigrants are living in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon in an absorption centre, the Israeli official said on condition of anonymity. Most of them are students and are hoping their parents will be allowed to emigrate as well.

Mr Castro, accused of supplying arms to Palestinian terror groups, has long been hostile to Israel. While he never cracked down on Jews, the country officially embraced atheism in 1962, forcing many to shy away from public worship.

China restricts poll surveys

BEIJING, Oct 11 (PTI) — China has ordered foreign pollsters to strictly comply with the Communist nations regulations so as to prevent leaking of state secrets, the state media reported today.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said it would strictly enforce a two-month-old regulation on conducting polls in China, according to China daily.

“What we want to rectify with the regulation are surveys that are harmful to state security and the public interest. We also want to bar substandard survey institutions,” a senior NBS official said while denying the charge that the government wanted to choke foreign survey firms.

India, Pak ‘making nuclear missiles’

NEW YORK, Oct 11 (PTI) — India and Pakistan have begun “weaponising” the nuclear devices they tested in May last year, unidentified senior aides of US President Bill Clinton have been quoted by the ‘Newsweek’ as saying.

Pakistan has already put nuclear warheads on some missiles and India is following suit, the American magazine has quoted the officials in its upcoming issue.

The officials voiced their concern, it says, after the United States Senate slated a vote on the Comprehesive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) tomorrow.

However, diplomats say the comments to ‘Newsweek’ could be part of the administration’s strategy to pressurise the Senate into not killing the treaty.

Blobel wins Nobel for Medicine

STOCKHOLM, Oct 11 (AP) — Guenter Blobel of Rockefeller University in New York won the Nobel Prize for Medicine today for his research on proteins which shed new light on human diseases including cystic fibrosis and early development of kidney stones.

Blobel (63), a native of Germany, was cited for the discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localisation in the cell.

"A number of human hereditary diseases are caused by errors in these signals and transport mechanisms," the Nobel Assembly said in announcing the prize.

"Blobel’s research has also contributed to the development of a more effective use of cells as ‘protein factories’ for the production of important drugs."

The prize announcement said his work had several implications.

"One example is the hereditary disease primary hyperoxaluria, which causes kidney stones at an early age.. ... Other hereditary diseases, e.g., cystic fibrosis, are caused by the fact that proteins do not reach their proper destination."

Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry are to be announced tomorrow, followed by Economics on Wednesday and the Peace prize on Friday. All prize announcements are in Stockholm, except for the Peace prize, which is announced in Oslo, Norway.

Social Democrats lose
BERLIN: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats suffered another election defeat on Sunday in the city-state of Berlin with voters picking the main opposition Christian Democrats as the leading party. The Social Democrats (SPD) scraped in with just 23.1 per cent, according to a first vote-count projection from Germany’s ARD television network. If confirmed, this would be the party’s worst result in Berlin since World War II. — DPA

Social scientist dies
KARACHI: Noted Pakistani social scientist Akhter Hameed Khan on Sunday died of kidney failure in the United States of America, his family here said. The 85-year-old Khan, who was decorated in Pakistan and abroad for his services in social development, died in a hospital in Indiana where he had gone to meet his relatives, they said. — AFP

Peru’s Premier
LIMA: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has named lawyer Alberto Bustamante Belaunde as the country’s new Premier. Bustamante Belaunde (49), is best known for defending Peru’s poor record before the inter-American court. His predecessor Victor Joy Way resigned the previous week in order to announce himself a candidate in the April 2,000 parliamentary election. — DPA

Egyptian Cabinet
CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has approved a new Cabinet that introduces more than a dozen fresh faces stressing youth, economy and technology, officials said on Sunday. The Cabinet led by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid brings changes at 12 ministries and the creation of a new Youth Ministry but retains old hands at key posts like foreign affairs, defence and interior. — AFP

15 women burnt
BEIJING: Fifteen women workers were killed last week when fire raged through a mattress factory in southern China, state media reported on Monday. The women, aged 20 to 46, were trapped inside the five-storey building, where iron bars covering windows and doors blocked their escape from smoke and flames, the Beijing Morning Post said. Only two women survived the blaze that started at 10 a.m. on October 9 in Zhuliao town, a suburb of the provincial capital of Guangzhou. — DPA

Scribe released
KUALA LUMPUR: Canadian journalist Murray Hiebert, who was jailed last month for contempt of court, was freed on Monday after serving four weeks of his six-week term. Mr Hiebert was released early morning at the Seremban prison, 65 km south of Kuala Lumpur, and was met by his lawyers who drove him away, eye-witnesses said. The Kuala Lumpur Bureau chief of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review weekly magazine was jailed on September 11 after the court of appeal rejected his application to overturn a three-month jail term imposed by a lower court. — DPA