Russia wipes out 4 bases
MAKHACHKALA (Russia), Sept 20 — Russian jets today bombed suspected Guerrilla camps inside Chechnya, and the military said the threat remained of a new invasion by Islamic gunmen gathered along the border.

Kosovo won’t be given UN seat
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has ruled out “for the foreseeable future” representation at the United Nations for Kosovo.

USA pledges to pay UN dues
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 — The USA will do its utmost to pay its outstanding dues to the United Nations, the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said today.

MNF peacekeepers land in Dili
80 pc of Indonesian troops withdraw

DILI (Indonesia), Sept 20 (Reuters AP) — International peacekeepers landed in East Timor at dawn today, launching a UN-approved operation to restore order and help usher the Indonesian province toward independence.

Heavily armed combat troops from Australia, New Zealand and Britain fanned out across Dili airport and harbour, securing the two vital links for waves of troops and supplies due to flood into East Timor by the end of the day.

The camouflage-green Hercules C-130 cargo plane leading the force touched down at 6:40 a.m. (4.10 a.m. IST), after the flight from a staging area in Australia 600 km (360 miles) away.

As the force grew and spread across the city toward the wharf, columns of black smoke from burning houses curled over Dili, apparently from fresh fires.

Men wearing the red and white bandanas of anti-independence militias were among hundreds of people at the garbage-strewn harbour who watched the armed and helmeted soldiers take positions near destroyed warehouses.

In the first incident of its kind, peacekeepers disarmed two militiamen who rode into the port area on a motorbike. The two offered no resistance and sped away after troops ordered them to leave.

Meanwhile, the East Timor Military Commander Col Noer Muis today said 80 per cent of the 7,000 troops and 5,000 police men in the territory had already been pulled out.

He said Indonesia would soon formally end martial law in the ravaged territory.

“We have heard it’s going to be lifted, but not today. No timing has been set yet,’’ he said.

DARWIN: The United Nations said it would begin rebuilding its mission in the ravaged East Timor Capital Dili on Monday after a quick, and so far peaceful, deployment of a multinational force in the strife-torn territory.

“We want to have a functioning headquarters as soon as possible,’’ UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) spokesman David Wimhurst said.

NEW YORK: A US freelance journalist and activist who was detained by Indonesian authorities in East Timor last week is to be deported, an East Timor activist group said on Monday.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) said in a statement that Mr Allan Nairn, a contributor to Left-wing publication “The Nation’’ and a leader of Etan, would be put on a plane to Singapore on Tuesday by the Indonesian Government. It said he was being held at Bali International Airport.

Mr Nairn was arrested in Dili and was then held in Kupang, West Timor.

JAKARTA: Leading Indonesian Muslim leaders on Monday rejected calls for a holy war against UN Forces deploying in East Timor saying that they supported the move to end the bloodshed there.

Arifin Junaidi, Vice-Secretary-General of the country’s largest Muslim Group Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said the organisation had never instructed his followers to sign up for a holy war against the international force in East Timor.

Third setback for Schroeder

DRESDEN, Sept 20 (AFP) —German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats suffered a humiliating electoral defeat, finishing third with just 10.7 per cent of the vote in a Saxony state poll, according to official provisional results.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has run Saxony in eastern Germany since German reunification in 1990, maintained its overall majority in the state on Sunday, with 56.9 per cent of the vote, slightly down from their 1994 figures.

Second were the former Communists in the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) with 22.2 per cent of the vote.

The Social Democrats’ junior partner in the Schroeder coalition government, the Greens, did not even get 5 per cent of the votes required to take any seats in the state Parliament. They finished with just 2.6 per cent of the votes cast.

The liberal FDP and the extreme Right also garnered less than 3 per cent of the vote each.

The turnout was slightly up on the 1994 vote at 61.1 per cent, with over two million people voting in the former East German state.

Saxony Governor Kurt Biedenkopf (69), is regarded as one of the CDU’s most-respected figures. His self-confidence has earned him the nickname “King Kurt”, and he was one of conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s fiercest critics.

The SPD lost state elections in Hesse in February and this month in Saarland, Brandenburg and Thuringia, thereby losing its majority in the Upper House of Parliament or Bundestag, which represents Germany’s 16 states.

Pak Oppn consensus on 9-pt agenda

LAHORE, Sept 20 (ANI) — The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) in Pakistan has announced a ninepoint national agenda to be implemented after the removal of the Nawaz Sharif Government.

The agenda, approved by a marathon meeting of GDA leaders at the PAT Secretariat, mainly focussed on “Nawaz hatao, mulk bachao”, but drew all component parties to a consensus on three months constitutional period of an interim government, which has so far remained the main discord among them.

Besides, the GDA also stated that the ongoing accountability process should be carried out without disturbing any provision of the constitution.

Briefing newsmen GDA leaders, including Dr Tahirul Qadri, Nawabzada Nasrullah, ANP President Asfandvar Wali. Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Hamid Nasir Chattha (all PPP), said there were still a number of matters that needed to be resolved.

The matters included the transformation of the GDA into an election alliance and its organisation, which Dr Qadri said, was deferred for the time being and the alliance would be run by the eight-member council announced by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.

Some of the nine points released to the press were: Across-the-board accountability by an independent and financially autonomous authority. Ruthless accountability should be started compulsorily and effectively before the next elections, without disturbing any provision of the constitution to ensure the eradication of corruption; independent and financially autonomous Election Commission; restructuring of the economy; strengthening of the federation by maximum provincial autonomy within the framework of the federation and devolution of powers; human rights and freedom of press; and effective representation of women in national institutions.

PAT chief Qadri lashed out at Nawaz Sharif, saying that his stay in power could damage the country and the federation beyond repair, and hence he must be thrown out of power at the earliest.

To a question, he said the ouster of government was “a matter of days”. The GDA leaders were of the view that Mr Sharif did not believe in democracy and constitution, and had from the first day established his discretionary powers by destroying national and constitutional institutions.

They directed their fire at the foreign visits of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, saying that he had been “acting as Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Finance Minister” at the same time because he was the Premier’s brother.

They said the parties would be bringing their proposals for improving the working of the GDA from time to time.

Meanwhile, the component parties of the Grand Democratic Alliance have decided to hold protest rallies in all the provincial capitals on September 25 to condemn the “brute” police action against political activists on September 11 and 12.

Announcing this last night, the acting chairman of the PPP, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, said that according to the GDA decision, the PPP and other parties would organise protest rallies on September 25.

The PDP (Karachi) committee also decided that the party would hold demonstrations on September 27 in Karachi. The decision was taken in the meeting of the PDP (Karachi), which was chaired by Maqsood Ahmed.

48-hr extension of deadline to KLA

PRISTINA, Sept 20 (AP) — After all-night negotiations, NATO today agreed to extend by 48 hours the deadline for the demilitarisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The rebel group had been required to demilitarise at midnight yesterday but KLA leaders refused to sign an agreement transforming the ethnic Albanian force into a civilian Kosovo corps.

“The process of demilitarisation is still ongoing,” KLA political leader Hashim Thaci told reporters as he left NATO headquarters here. “The talks are still ongoing and it’s been postponed for another 48 hours.”

The new deadline is midnight tomorrow, Gen. Mike Jackson, commander of the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo who, along with UN mission chief Bernard Kouchner, negotiated with Thaci and KLA military chief Gen. Agim Ceku, told reporters.

The United Nations and NATO were seeking KLA approval of a plan to transform the former rebel army into a 5,000-member civilian “Kosovo corps” to perform humanitarian and rescue missions.

Russia wipes out 4 bases

MAKHACHKALA (Russia), Sept 20 (AP) — Russian jets today bombed suspected Guerrilla camps inside Chechnya, and the military said the threat remained of a new invasion by Islamic gunmen gathered along the border.

Russia claimed to have wiped out four rebel bases in some 100 sorties over the weekend, but no casualty figures were immediately available from the latest strikes.

Russia claims that its air raids and artillery shelling from Dagestan have inflicted heavy losses on the gunmen. But the militants claim that hundreds of civilians have been killed.

Meanwhile, a handful of militants attacked Russian troops yesterday in the Novolakskoye region, one area that was seized by gunmen in September.

Kosovo won’t be given UN seat

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 (AFP) — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has ruled out “for the foreseeable future” representation at the United Nations for Kosovo.

Political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaci, was at the United Nations on Friday seeking a meeting with Annan and asking for representation for the ethnic-Albanian province of Yugoslavia.

USA pledges to pay UN dues

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 (AFP) — The USA will do its utmost to pay its outstanding dues to the United Nations, the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said today.

“Ambassador Holbrooke, the President and I are going to do everything we can to make that happen,” Ms Albright said after a meeting with Mr Annan here, adding that they had discussed “how important it is for the United States to pay our dues and arrears.”

Her pledge came after Mr Annan threw down the gauntlet earlier yesterday, warning that the USA risked losing its right to vote at the UN General Assembly if it did not make good on its arrears.

According to the UN, the USA owes about $ 1.7 billion, and must stump up $ 350 million by the end of the year to keep its voting privileges.

Floods kill 14
TEGUCIGALPA, (Honduras): Flooding and mudslides caused by days of torrential rain have killed eight persons, damaged roads and destroyed homes in northern Honduras, officials have said. The rain has caused widespread damage and evacuations elsewhere in the region, including El Salvador, where six persons were reported dead, and parts of southern Mexico. — Reuters

Mayor killed
BOGOTA: The Mayor of a small Colombian town was murdered by gunmen, the police said. He was at least the eighth mayor to die in political violence this year. Marco Emilio Londono was the Mayor of Vistahermosa, a town at the heart of a Switzerland-sized region that President Andres Pastrana cleared of state security forces a year ago to allow Marxist rebels to take part in ongoing peace talks. — Reuters

28 die in coach crash
SARAGOSSA: Twentyeight persons were killed and 25 injured when a coach travelling from Madrid to Gerona went off the road and overturned near La Muela, in northwestern Spain, regional authorities said here. Most of the passengers were elderly Spaniards on an excursion to Catalonia, the police said. At least 10 of the injured were in intensive care. — AFP

Khatami seeks pardon
DUBAI: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is seeking pardon from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on behalf of four people sentenced to death for the pro-democracy protests official sources said. Khamenei is the only person in Iran who can overturn judicial verdicts. The President has said that he was not informed of the death sentences until they were made public. — ANI