Barak, Arafat hold secret talks
JERUSALEM, Sept 17 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met secretly late last night, an Israeli official said. Israel radio reported that they discussed negotiations for a peace treaty, which resumed this week after a long stalemate.

Typhoon kills 14 in China
BEIJING, Sept 17 — At least 14 people have been killed in south-eastern China as typhoon York wrecked havoc in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, official reports said today.Eight people were reported dead when the typhoon struck land at the mouth of the Pearl river yesterday evening and then violently attacked the river delta and Guangdong province, Xinhua news agency said.

USA rejects appeal on special J-K envoy
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 — The Clinton administration has rejected an appeal by some 60 Senators and Congressmen seeking appointment of a special envoy for Kashmir

99 pc back peace plan in Algeria

ALGIERS, Sept 17 (AFP) — Algerian voters have overwhelmingly supported president Abdelaziz Boutelika’s peace plan in a referendum, with 98.63 per cent of votes cast in favour of the scheme, Interior Minister Abdel Malek Sellal announced.

A total of 14,591,064 people voted “yes” in the referendum yesterday with just 202,151 abstaining.

The final turnout rate in the referendum was put at 85.06 per cent of the 17.5 million eligible voters, the minister said early today.

The referendum was a test of Mr Bouteflika’s “civil reconciliation” programme, the cornerstone of which is a law granting full or partial amnesty to Islamic militants who surrender, as long as they are not guilty of “blood crimes” or rape.

The vote was also seen as an endorsement of Mr Bouteflika’s tenure and the green light for him to tackle fully the problem of the armed rebels in Algeria. A total of 100,000 people have died since the country was plunged into civil strife seven years ago.

Some 300 militants have already surrendered under the amnesty law.

The question put in the referendum was: “Do you support the general plan of the president of the republic to bring about peace and civil reconciliation?

Air drops begin in East Timor

DARWIN (Australia), Sept 17 (Reuters) — Two C130 Hercules transport planes today made the first air drops for refugees in strife-torn East Timor, the Australian Government’s aid agency said.

The planes dropped 20 tonnes of rice and blankets.

“The drops appear to have gone well,’’ Ausaid spokesman Matthew Francis said.

“The planes dropped at several locations and these are now on their way back to Darwin.’’

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for East Timor Ross Mountain said earlier that flights would be negotiated ‘’case by case’’ with the Indonesian Government.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was bringing in 15 tonnes of food and 500 kg of medical supplies to Dili today, on an Indonesian air force plane from Surabaya.

“The food is going straight to Dare in an Indonesian military truck where it will be distributed under ICRC supervision,’’ said an ICRC official from Dili. Two aircraft a day would start arriving and next week a ship would dock at Dili’s port, he said.

DILI: Pro-Jakarta militiamen today said they were ready to kill members of a U.N. force heading for East Timor even as the top bishop still in the territory warned of a new wave of massacres.

In Jakarta, fresh protests broke out at the Australian Embassy as Australian corporations evacuated their staff from Indonesia.

Despite a relative calm in Dili, Red Cross officials said fresh blood on the streets showed that attacks by pro-Jakarta forces had not stopped. Smoke still hung over the city as the United Nations sent its first airdrops of urgent aid.

In Atambua, a West Timor border town flooded with refugees, a leader of pro-Jakarta militias said forces had registered to fight the U.N. force due to arrive on Sunday.

“At this moment entire components of the command of the pro-integration struggle in East Timor have registered themselves as volunteers ready to face the United Nations forces,’’ Bishop Domingo de Deus said.

In East Timor’s second city Baucau, the most senior clergyman left in the territory warned of another wave of murder unless pro-Jakarta militias were brought under control and called for a tribunal to investigate atrocities there.

Bishop of Baucau Basilio do Nascimento, speaking in an interview with Reuters, said the militiamen were mostly to blame for the savagery in his city.

“We can’t say it’s genocide yet...but genocide may happen if the Indonesian troops fail to control the militia,’’ he said in Baucau, its streets largely deserted after weeks of violence by anti-independence militiamen who have been backed by the Indonesian military.

The U.N. office has been burned and ransacked along with 71 U.N. cars.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said the devastation of the East Timor capital would hamper early efforts to provide aid to tens of thousands of East Timorese forced from their homes and facing starvation and disease.

The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for East Timor told Reuters the United Nations was also seeking urgent protection for and access to an estimated 150,000 East Timorese refugees who have either fled or been forced into neighbouring West Timor.

Aid agencies have said they feared the refugees in West Timor could be used as “hostages’’ by pro-Jakarta militia in retaliation for the arrival in East Timor this weekend of a multinational force to be led by Australia.

SUVA: The South Pacific island nation of Fiji today said it will send about 180 soldiers to join the multinational force being readied to restore order in East Timor.

Home Affairs Minister Joji Uluinakauvadra said the men are scheduled to leave for Dili by the end of next week.

Sharif may revive Shariah Bill

ISLAMABAD, Sept 17 (PTI) — Amidst mounting Opposition pressure to resign, beleaguered Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif is giving hints of a likely revival of a controversial Shariah Bill to enforce strict Islamic laws in the country which could give him immense powers.

Mr Sharif's Religious Affairs Minister Raja Zafarul Haq, while refusing to condemn a mullah for threatening legislators with death sentence if they refuse to pass the Shariah Bill, told the Senate that a majority of the people in the country wants the supremacy of Quran and Sunnah (Saying of Prophet).

Mr Haq, who was responding to the Opposition's demand to condemn the mullah for passing a fatwa against opposition Senators, said that the Shariah Bill had been passed by the National Assembly (Lower House) and expressed confidence that it would be passed by the Senate (Upper House).

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Sharif surprised his Cabinet colleagues when he landed at the Cabinet meeting accompanied by a mullah belonging to Tableeghi Jamaat (Party of Preachers) and before starting the Cabinet meeting asked the ministers to listen to the mullah, who would give them a lecture on how to run an Islamic state.

The mullah reportedly gave an hour-long lecture to the Council of Ministers as well as senior officials.

Incidentally, earlier, the Opposition parties have alleged that the Shariah Bill is the brainchild of Mr Sharif's father Mian Mohammad Sharif, who is an ardent follower of Tableeghi Jamaat and holds regular congregations of the jamaat.

Mr Sharif's sudden religious leanings and a categorical statement by his Religious Affairs Minister is clearly indicating towards the revival of the Shariah Bill, which had been passed by the National Assembly in October last year and lying in cold storage since then.

The government did not introduce it in Senate till date because it lacks the required two-third majority in the House required for passing the Shariah Bill.

Barak, Arafat hold secret talks

JERUSALEM, Sept 17 (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met secretly late last night, an Israeli official said. Israel radio reported that they discussed negotiations for a peace treaty, which resumed this week after a long stalemate.

David Ziso, Barak’s spokesman, confirmed that the meeting took place, but gave no details. The radio report said the meeting lasted several hours.

The secret session followed the announcement that Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo will head the Palestinian negotiating team for the treaty talks. Israel has yet to name the head of its delegation.

Resumption of the negotiations is part of the latest interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, signed September 5 at Sharm-el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort. Under the accord, Israel is to turn over another 11 per cent of the West Bank to Palestinian civilian control, bringing the total to 40 per cent, as peace treaty talks proceed.

Israel carried out the first of three transfers, handing over 7 per cent of the territory. The Palestinians, obligated to control violent extremists and reduce the size of their police force, handed the Israelis a list of their police officers.

Typhoon kills 14 in China

BEIJING, Sept 17 (PTI) — At least 14 people have been killed in south-eastern China as typhoon York wrecked havoc in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, official reports said today.Eight people were reported dead when the typhoon struck land at the mouth of the Pearl river yesterday evening and then violently attacked the river delta and Guangdong province, Xinhua news agency said. It was the first direct hit by a typhoon to the provincial capital city, Guangzhou, since 1975.

The typhoon has also caused direct economic losses of over 200 million yuan ($ 24.1 million), the report said.

Six people were killed in the south-eastern province of Fujian and over 10,000 people stranded due to serious flooding in many cities, another report said.

In Hong Kong, “York” hit first before moving on to the Chinese mainland. One person was killed, one was missing and at least 466 injured, mostly by flying glass or other blown objects. It paralysed normal life in Hong Kong yesterday and over 470 flights affected.

USA rejects appeal on special J-K envoy

WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (PTI) — The Clinton administration has rejected an appeal by some 60 Senators and Congressmen seeking appointment of a special envoy for Kashmir, saying that the USA was not going to impose itself on Kashmir affairs.

Pakistan, on whose behalf the Congressmen and Senators were pressing for the appointment of a special envoy, was going to get neither US mediation nor the services of a special representative, State Department officials said.

Pak army regulars ‘involved in Kargil’

LONDON, Sept 17 (PTI) — Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has confirmed that Pakistani army regulars and not Mujahideen were involved in the Kargil operation and described the “humiliation” suffered by her country as “even greater” than the debacle in 1971 Indo-Pak war leading to the liberation of Bangladesh.

“It was not even Mujahideens. It was Northern Light Infantry first I refused to believe it. I saw my own government admitting to it,” she said in an interview to PTI here.

Ex-soldiers join hands, float outfit

ISLAMABAD, Sept 17 (PTI) — In a significant development, several retired Pakistani army personnel have accused the political leadership of failing to take the country out of a “governance crisis” and floated a political outfit, to “ward off the impending threat of chaos” in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society headed by Lt Gen Faiz Ahmed Chisti (retd), a close confidant of former dictator Zia-ul-Haq, decided to launch its own political outfit, Tehreek-e-Tameer-e-Pakistan (TTP) (movement for building Pakistan) after a review of the country’s political situation.

“The concept of good governance had been completely lost,” the society said expressing no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Gas explosion
MOSCOW: Two persons were killed by a gas explosion in an apartment building in St. Petersburg, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass said. According to the authorities, the gas leaked from a kitchen late on Thursday in one of the apartments. The force of the blast threw the two victims out of a window on one of the upper storeys. The building was badly damaged. — DPA

Power palms
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government is considering the use of biomass as a fifth fuel in its existing four-fuel policy in line with the government’s promotion for the use of renewable biomass for power generation. A local study estimated that empty fruit branches of the palm oil industry in the country alone have an annual potential of two million tonnes of oil equivalent. — Bernama

The F-word
LONDON: The Sex Pistols yelled it on live television. Monica Lewinsky forced the august New York times into printing it. And a new book due out in Britain next week reveals every last iota about the dreaded F-word. “The F-word: the complete history of the word in all its robust and various uses” is just that: dictionary, history book and a collection of anecdotes about the four-lettered word that dare not speak its name. — Reuters

Hindi neglect lamented
LONDON: The ongoing World Hindi Conference here has expressed concern over the neglect of Hindi language despite its recognition as the official language of India 50 years ago. Speakers at the sixth World Hindi Conference, being attended by 400 delegates from 29 countries, yesterday felt the language had not attained its due status. — PTI

Leaders under watch
LA PAZ: Government leaders, as well as Opposition parties, journalists and trade unionists in Bolivia feel like they are being watched after discovering that mainstream media, and even President Hugo Banzer, were the victims of espionage. Two newspapers and two television stations in Bolivia realised they were being spied on when microphones and telephone wire-taps were found, unleashing a political scandal. But government reaction has so far been subdued. — IPS