Saudi executives funding Laden
WASHINGTON, Oct 29 — Business executives in Saudi Arabia continue to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to Osama bin Laden, accused of last year’s US Embassy bombings in East Africa, the USA Today reported today.

Yeltsin muzzling media: Primakov
MOSCOW, Oct 29 — Sacked Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov blasted President Boris Yeltsin and his allies yesterday for muzzling the media and interfering in the campaign for December’s parliamentary election.

Minister quits in Armenia
YEREVAN, Oct 29 — Armenian Interior Minister Surem Abrahamyan resigned yesterday in response to the assault on the Parliament that killed the Prime Minister and seven other officials, Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency said.

US training for Iraqi Oppn leaders
WASHINGTON, Oct 29 — In a clear show of US support for Iraqi Opposition efforts to replace the regime of President Saddam Hussein, four dissident leaders will undergo specialised Pentagon training on organising and integrating a military force with a civilian government, the Defence Department said yesterday.

No deadline for democratic rule: Musharraf
C’wealth team unable to meet Sharif
from David Lunggren

ISLAMABAD, Oct 29 — Pakistan’s new army ruler today resisted pressure from Commonwealth ministerial team to announce a timetable for the restoration of democracy and refused to let them see deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

But Gen Pervez Musharraf said after a meeting with the four ministers that he was confident they would not now carry out a threat to recommend that Pakistan’s provisional suspension from the Commonwealth be made permanent.

The team, the first senior foreign visitors to meet General Musharraf since he ended Mr Sharif’s 31-month reign in a bloodless October 12 coup, wanted guarantees on a return to democracy.

But General Musharraf, in his first encounter with Western journalists since the coup, said he had told the team that he could not meet their demands. “My response was I can’t give any timetable for a certain reason and not for any malevolent intent. The reason was I have set myself certain objectives and I am targeting those objectives,’’ he said.

He said his priorities were strengthening the economy, the Pakistani federation and making “certain electoral reforms”.

“So these are my priority objectives, and I told them I wish there was a computer where I could feed all these objectives and the computer gave me a time-frame (for democratic return). Since there is no such computer, I can’t give a timeframe,’’ he said. To date Pakistan’s strongman has said only that the army would rule until it was no longer needed.

“I also (told them) you should target those objectives that have to be met and do not set any time targets,’’ he said.

The Commonwealth suspended Pakistan temporarily on October 18 and officials originally said if Musharraf did not give them a timetable, they were likely to urge leaders of the 54-nation grouping next month to make the suspension permanent.

The Commonwealth Foreign Ministers expressed disappointment that they were unable to talk by telephone to ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, despite assurances from the new army ruler.

“Despite assurances from General Musharraf that we could have telephone contact with Nawaz Sharif, this did not take place,’’ the visiting team said in a closing statement.

“We were, therefore, unable to obtain any direct verification of his health and legal status,’’ said the statement.

Sources close to the ministers say they waited at an Islamabad hotel room for some time awaiting a call from Sharif after a meeting with General Musharraf. But no contact was made.

General Musharraf, sending the same message that his senior officials gave the ministers yesterday, said he told them the coup was necessary to prevent the country falling into total chaos.

“I think this team which came went (away) satisfied that whatever we are doing is in the interests of Pakistan and that these are the aspirations of the Pakistani people,’’ he said.

“Their body language showed me they probably accepted our viewpoint to a degree.’’

Asked if he feared they would now recommend a formal suspension from the group of mainly former British colonies, he said: “I’m sure their recommendations should be favourable’’.

The Commonwealth’s language has in any case gradually changed and the ministers are now talking more about engaging Pakistan and helping it back to democracy.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, the mission leader, pressed Gen Musharraf for a meeting with Sharif, who has not been seen since the coup.

The General gave the team permission to talk by telephone to the ousted Sharif but vetoed a face-to-face meeting. “I haven’t allowed them to meet him. I have allowed them to talk to him on the telephone and I have given a personal assurance that I am not vindictive,’’ he said.

“He is absolutely in good health and being looked after and he is staying very comfortably. That’s my personal guarantee and assurance,’’ the General said.

Mr Sharif’s wife said in remarks published earlier that the military rulers had asked him to leave Pakistan and quit politics but he refused.

General Musharraf told reporters he had been obliged to act when Sharif tried to replace him as Chief of Army Staff and said the armed forces were the only stabilising force in Pakistan.

“I don’t know where the country would have gone then and therefore the people reacted. The people have welcomed this action which restored stability to the country and has given hope for the future. It has shown light in the dark tunnel which was invisible before this change,’’ he added. — Reuters

UN mission for Chechnya

MOSCOW, Oct 29 (UNI) — Advancing columns of Russian troops have almost reached Gudermes, the main centre of the Chechen guerrillas, but any quick end to the battle is a far cry, according to top Russian army brass, Novosti reports.

Reports pouring in from the battlefields indicate that the war in north Caucasus will “last for a long time”, the daily Commersant warned. It will take years to flush out Chechen ultras who are firmly entrenched in the high mountains, the daily writes and warns that the goal of ejecting them must be completed and not left half way.

Meanwhile, Chechnya which is heavily dependent on Russia for its civil supplies has run out of its essential commodities with the latter halting them.

Unconfirmed reports say that about 1,90000 evacuees have sought refuge in neighbouring Daghestan, Ingushetia, north Ossetia and Stavropol.

Authorities in Moscow in a softening gesture have decided to release Chechnya’s envoy in Russia Mirbeg Vachagayev if the besieged nation frees Russian General Gennady Shipgun.

Russia is expected to relax its grip on Chechnya to allow thousands to flee after two days of air raids on the Capital Grozny and villages just inside its western border.

Russian news agencies said Moscow would open four corridors out of the region.

UNITED NATIONS, (PTI): A UN mission will soon leave for areas bordering Chechnya to assess humanitarian needs of some 180,000 refugees who have fled following clashes between Russian and Chechen forces, a UN spokesman has said.

Chief UN spokesperson, Fred Eckhard said Secretary General Kofi Annan had been concerned for some weeks about the severe impact of the conflict in Chechnya, where thousands of civilians had been driven away from their homes.

LONDON, (DPA): A British journalist and an American photographer were detained by the Russian forces on the Chechen border after the car in which they were travelling attempted to cross a roadblock, The Times newspaper said here on Friday.

Anthony (Lloyd), 32, of The Times, was detained on Thursday with American freelance photographer Tyler Hicks.

UN Assembly adopts Indian resolution

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29 (PTI) — The United Nations General Assembly has unanimously adopted an Indian resolution calling for close cooperation between the world body and the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) towards the development of third world countries.

Introducing the resolution, the Indian Ambassador, Mr Kamalesh Sharma, stressed the important inputs that the people’s representatives could provide to the UN in promoting the development of developing nations in a “globalising world” to ensure that some states are not marginalised.

The Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Dr Najma Heptulla, the first woman to head the IPU, was warmly greeted by the thumping of desks as Mr Sharma mentioned her presence while the resolution was being adopted.

Several ambassadors and delegates walked up to her to congratulate her on her achievement.

The resolution, co-sponsored by 138 members, assumes significance in view of presiding officers meeting IPU will hold to coincide with millennium assembly session next year to chart out the course the world body would follow in the next century.

“We must work to make globalisation informed with ethical concern, equitable and broadbased so that it responds to the aspirations of all and leads to the marginalisation of none,” Mr Sharma told the 188-member Assembly.

The resolution welcomed the support provided to the UN by the IPU in the fields of peace and security, economic and social development, international law and human rights, democracy, good governance and gender issues.

The IPU, he emphasised, had taken up the cause of the large segment of humanity which was not beneficiary from globalisation and had in its recent conference in Berlin adopted a resolution calling for initiatives for underdeveloped debt ridden world.

Wahid Cabinet sworn in

JAKARTA, Oct 29 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s new “unity Cabinet” was sworn in today, formally marking the start of what many hope will be the most democratic period in the country’s history of mostly autocratic rule.

“It is hoped that this Cabinet will ensure that democracy truly takes place in the lives of the people,” President Abdurrahman Wahid told the 36 ministers during the ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

“Your duty is a most heavy one. On one hand you have to safeguard the eternal unity of this nation and on the other you have to follow rapid, global economic development.”

“We have to manage this process in a way that we do not lose our own identity, our true selves,” he said.

Mr Wahid, who won the country’s first contested presidential election on October 20, has drawn his Cabinet from leading political parties and the military to reunite the country after almost two years of economic and political chaos.

Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri led the ministers through their oath because Mr Wahid, who is half-blind, cannot read.

Among those sworn in was new armed forces chief Admiral Widodo — the first navy man given the top military job.

Soon after the swearing in ceremony at the Presidential Palace, the new economics team was due to unveil its strategy to drag the country out of crisis, hoping to persuade foreign donors to turn the aid tap back on.

DILI: The last Indonesian troops in East Timor could leave the ravaged territory by Sunday, a spokesman for the UN-backed multinational force said on Friday.

Saudi executives funding Laden

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) — Business executives in Saudi Arabia continue to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to Osama bin Laden, accused of last year’s US Embassy bombings in East Africa, the USA Today reported today.

The paper quoted senior US intelligence officials as saying the money transfers began more than five years ago and had been used to finance several attacks by Bin Laden, including an attempted assassination in 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia.

The USA yesterday said it would continue to meet Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to discuss demands for the expulsion of Saudi-born Bin Laden, but officials cautioned that they expected no dramatic moves soon.

The paper said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was expected to raise the issue with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan during his visit to Washington next week.

It cited a Saudi Government audit acquired by the US intelligence which showed that five of Saudi Arabia’s top business executives ordered National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom’s largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $ 3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks.

Yeltsin muzzling media: Primakov

MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) — Sacked Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov blasted President Boris Yeltsin and his allies yesterday for muzzling the media and interfering in the campaign for December’s parliamentary election.

Mr Primakov, a popular figure seen as a strong presidential candidate, warned in an open letter of “catastrophic consequences’’ if Mr Yeltsin did not alter course. He said the Kremlin was controlled by a small circle around Mr Yelstin.

Mr Primakov’s centre-left Fatherland-All Russia Bloc is expected to perform well in the December 19 poll for a new state Duma Lower House.

“The campaign for electing deputies to the Duma is going ahead in an environment of open interference by the President’s administration, which contradicts the law and generally accepted democratic norms,’’ Mr Primakov wrote.

“Your entourage is openly biased towards the victory of political forces loyal to them and the defeat of all others,’’ said the letter, which was also signed by the two other bloc leaders, powerful Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and St Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.

Minister quits in Armenia

YEREVAN, Oct 29 (DPA) — Armenian Interior Minister Surem Abrahamyan resigned yesterday in response to the assault on the Parliament that killed the Prime Minister and seven other officials, Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency said.

The report said that Abrahamyan (52) drew the appropriate consequences from the massacre and submitted his resignation, citing reports from the Interior Ministry.

The Defence Ministry called at noon for the resignation of Abrahamyan and the Secret Service chief and the Chief State Prosecutor. The military accused the three of allowing the bloodbath to happen because they did not provide a security system. The Armenian army, however, will protect President Robert Kocharyan, the Constitution and the people.

In Yerevan, rumors that Kocharyan also dismissed the Secret Service chief and the Chief State Prosecutor were denied by the President’s Chancellery.

Reuters: Flags stood at half mast across Armenia on Friday in mourning for Prime Minister Vazgen Sarksyan and other officials slain by gunmen in an attack which has shaken this impoverished former Soviet republic.

The gunmen, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, burst into Parliament on Wednesday, killing eight persons including Sarksyan and Parliamentary Speaker Karen Demirchyan.

US training for Iraqi Oppn leaders

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (DPA) — In a clear show of US support for Iraqi Opposition efforts to replace the regime of President Saddam Hussein, four dissident leaders will undergo specialised Pentagon training on organising and integrating a military force with a civilian government, the Defence Department said yesterday.

The vanguard group of four to undergo the “strategic-level” training and discussions at an air force base in Florida includes two former Iraqi army officers.

Sakharov prize
STRASBOURG: EastTimorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao is to receive the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize for his “spirit of freedom”. The conference of parliamentary leaders in Strasbourg on Thursday decided in favour of Gusmao, who had been fighting for East Timor’s independence from Indonesia since 1975. Gusmao will receive the prize, worth 15,000 euro ($14,200), on December 15 in Strasbourg. — DPA

Polonsky dead
LOS ANGELES: Filmmaker Abraham Polonsky, a prominent victim of the anti-Communist witch hunts of the 1950s, died at the age of 88, The Los Angeles Times has reported. Polonsky — who was blacklisted for more than 20 years, died at his Beverly Hills home on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack.— AFP

Rabbis solve problem
JERUSALEM: Israel’s chief rabbinate on Thursday said that it had solved a y2k problem that had bugged some orthodox Rabbis. Never happy about celebrations of the Christian calendar new year in the Jewish state, a number of orthodox clergy had called for a ban on parties in hotels on December 31, which falls on Friday night, the start of the Jewish sabbath. —Reuters

Pearl oysters stolen
TOKYO: Some 20,000 cultured pearl oysters have been stolen from two pearl oysters farms off the shores of Uwajima, Ehime prefecture in southwestern Japan, the maritime safety agency said. —DPA