Dutch scribe slain in E. Timor
DILI (EAST TIMOR), Sept 22 — A Dutch journalist has been shot dead in East Timor, the first reporter slain in a wave of anti-independence violence in the Indonesian-ruled territory.


Rushdie, Seth out of Booker race
LONDON, Sept 22 — A more than a generous sprinkling of "tedious passages" and "ghastly puns" saw the Booker sunk for Salman Rushdie’s "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" while being steeped in too much music rendered the notes discordant for Vikram Seth’s "An Equal Music".

India urged to forge consensus on WTO issues
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 — Guyana, Chairman of the G-77, has urged India to take the initiative in forging a consensus among developing nations on trade issues that are likely to come up before the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle in the USA.

Aftershocks hit rescue efforts
BEIJING, Sept 22 — Massive aftershocks hit Taiwan today hampering rescue efforts to rescue some 3,000 people still believed trapped under the rubble even as the death toll in yesterday’s devastating quake the worst to hit the country in a century rose to 1,800.

Tests deny Anwar’s charge
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Initial tests conducted by a hospital on Malaysia’s former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim showed no clear signs he was poisoned with arsenic, a news report said today.

UN not only body for peacekeeping: USA
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 — The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, told the United Nations that groups of nations should have the right to launch military action outside of UN auspices to stop mass killings in their areas of interest.

India, Japan for SC expansion
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 — India and Japan, both strong contenders for a permanent UN Security Council seat, have decided to jointly work for the expansion of the Council.

Jordan arrests 3 Hamas leaders
AMMAN, Sept 22 — Jordanian security officials detained three leaders of the militant Palestinian group Hamas immediately after the airliner carrying them arrived at Amman’s international airport today, witnesses said.

Militia HQ raided
Dutch scribe slain in E. Timor

DILI (EAST TIMOR), Sept 22 (Reuters) — A Dutch journalist has been shot dead in East Timor, the first reporter slain in a wave of anti-independence violence in the Indonesian-ruled territory.

Witnesses said men wearing Indonesian military uniforms had chased and killed a foreign journalist yesterday in East Timor’s ruined capital.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry today said the man, found face down in the backyard of an abandoned house in this city, was Sander Thoenes, a Jakarta-based writer for The Financial Times.

Thoenes was riding pillion on a motorbike taxi in an outer suburb when the pair were attacked. The driver survived but Thoenes’ body was found this morning, shot in the torso. His face had been mutilated. He was 30.

The motorbike driver told newsmen here that they had been shot at by men in military uniform in the suburb of Becora, about 3 km from the city centre.

The commander of a UN force trying to restore order in East Timor said today that the incident would be investigated and the findings be reported to the United Nations.

Australian troops trying to bring peace to east Timor raided the headquarters of a pro-Indonesia militia in the Dili today arresting six men, witnesses said.

The troops, part of a Multinational force anthorised by the UN, also seized photos, bank statements and other documents from the headquarters of the Aitarak militia before securing the building, the witnesses said.

Aitarak (Thorn) is one of the most brutal of the militias responsible for a wave of killing and destruction in the eastern half of Timor is land since last month’s referendum.

The militia headquarters, a former hotel once used as a torture centre by Indonesian troops, was empty when the Australians arrived, but the six armed militiamen later turned up. “They (the Australians) tied them up and made them squat down,’’ a witness said.

Other foreign journalists have also come under attack by men in military uniform as well as militiamen trying to subvert the territory’s overwhelming vote last month for independence.

Canadian journalist Paul Dillon, of the Globe and Mail, went to the scene after the Dutchman’s body was found.

“At 5 a.m., a local resident, a young man, went out to look for something to eat and found a body of a man who we now know is a colleague. It brings home the danger here... It’s very shocking,’’ Dillon later told reporters.

DARWIN: A British journalist, a US photographer and their two local staff had been rescued unharmed from a militia attack in East Timor, Australian defence said on Wednesday.

The Sunday Times reporter Jon Swaine, US photographer Chip Hires, and their driver and translator had spent the night after the attack under protection of multinational troops, Australian defence spokes-man Colin Blair said.

WASHINGTON (AP): Reflec-ting America’s minimal role in the international peacekeeping mission, the Pentagon said only two American soldiers were in East Timor.

P.J. Crowley, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Public Affairs, said the Americans would remain in Darwin until the Australian commander of the UN-authorised force, Maj-Gen Peter Cosgrove, decides they are needed in East Timor.

Rushdie, Seth out of Booker race

LONDON, Sept 22 (PTI) — A more than a generous sprinkling of "tedious passages" and "ghastly puns" saw the Booker sunk for Salman Rushdie’s "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" while being steeped in too much music rendered the notes discordant for Vikram Seth’s "An Equal Music".

Some among the five-panel judges who ruled out Rushdie from the contest at their meeting last night felt "The Ground..." contained too many "tedious" passages and also too many "ghastly puns."

Seth’s "An Equal....", they felt, was "inaccessible" in parts, requiring too great a knowledge of music by the reader.

Heavily tipped to be shortlisted for the Booker, the exclusion of the two India-born heavyweight writers is sure to leave a taste of bitterness. However, the six authors who have been shortlisted include Anita Desai from India.

Mussoorie-born Desai was selected for her work "Fasting, Feasting", a novel with a plot set in India and later the USA and revolves around a family ruled by "mamapapa", indicating strong family bonds.

Thick spectacles, a pimply complexion and big hands find Desai’s heroine, Uma, hard pressed for a suitable husband. She comes close twice. Her brother leaves for the USA where the bulimic daughter of his hosts reminds him of Uma.

Desai’s characters are beautifully described. Her writing is polished and mature, with a wit she cleverly underplays.

Russia seals off Chechen border

MOSCOW, Sept 22 (UNI) — Russia has sealed off the border along Dagestan, disallowing traffic to cross over from the conflict-ridden Chechen belt.

A cordon has been erected around the Chechen border stretching along Dagestan. The block became operational since last night, the Russian Defence Department announced yesterday.

“The whole area has been cordoned off so that not a single living soul will be able to carry out subversive attempts,” Gen Alexander Agafanov, the Defence Department spokesman, said even as he admitted that the situation along the borders remained “very complicated and dangerous”.

The formal announcement of the sealing off came today. Ria Novosti quoted Alexei Kulakovsky, envoy in North Ossetia and Ingushetia on the edge of Chechnya, as saying that the border had been closed late yesterday and no traffic would be allowed to cross it from Chechnya.

Reports about dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden’s decision to finance training “death squads” to carry out crimes in the heartland of Russia has alarmed the security services all over the country.

Russian Premier Vladmir Putin, appearing on Russian TV, disclosed his government’s decision to carry out air strikes on all bases of Shamil Basayev. This will be the third time this week that Moscow would resort to this operation in the so far impregnable wall around Chechnya, being ruled by rebel Muslim fighters.

Russian armed forces have completed the first round against terrorists on the Dagestan-Chechen borders. A second round, if necessary, would commence with ground operation inside the “rogue” republic of Chechenya, Gen Valery Manilov, a senior commander coordinating operations in North Caucasia told ‘Voice of Russia’.

Fresh reports from the disturbed areas in North Caucasus speak about direct hits being made by the Russian air force on the headquarter of Chechen rebel leader Shmil Basayev. “Airstrikes on it have been quite successful,” Novosti claimed.

The news agency quoted Defence sources claiming that such air-raids on different bases of paramilitary Chechen forces would continue “till they are eliminated”.

India urged to forge consensus on
WTO issues

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (PTI) — Guyana, Chairman of the G-77, has urged India to take the initiative in forging a consensus among developing nations on trade issues that are likely to come up before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Seattle in the USA.

The Guyanese Foreign Minister, Clement Rohee urged External Affairs Minister Mr Jaswant Singh during their meeting here yesterday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to take a lead on trade issues affecting the developing world.

India has been trying to build a consensus through various groups including the SAARC and the G-15. Members of the G-15 are meeting at the UN Headquarters to forge unified stand on trade issues.

Developing nations are opposed to the new round of trade talks as they feel that they have yet to come to terms with their commitments made at the Uruguay round of negotiations, but industrialised nations are determined to go ahead with it.

Guyana has a sizeable population of Indian origin and the two foreign ministers also discussed ongoing technical and economic cooperation between the two nations. Among other things, India offers a number of scholarship to Guyanese.

Mr Rohee wanted greater cooperation between the two countries and urged India to initiate new programmes in scientific and technical fields.

Aftershocks hit rescue efforts

BEIJING, Sept 22 (PTI) — Massive aftershocks hit Taiwan today hampering rescue efforts to rescue some 3,000 people still believed trapped under the rubble even as the death toll in yesterday’s devastating quake the worst to hit the country in a century rose to 1,800.

Taiwan’s seismology centre said the first tremor measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Taichung city, some 150 km south of Taipei, at 8.14 am (0544 IST), followed half an hour later by another measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale at Nantou town.

The fresh quakes triggered mudslides and caused cracks in the Sun Moon Lake reservoir, one of the largest in the country, forcing the authorities to evacuate residents to safer places. The seismological department has predicted some more tremors in the next few days.

A strong earthquake struck Taiwan early today in the same area where an even more powerful one killed more than 1,700 people on the island the day before.

State radio reported from Nantou that frightened volunteers ran out of a stadium that is being used as one of the county’s rescue centres. But they returned soon afterward.

The quake, with a 6.8 magnitude, was one of the more than 2,000 aftershocks felt from yesterday’s 7.6 quake.

Another tremor struck at 6:17 a.m. today with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1, the weather bureau said. It was centered at sea about 10 kilometres east of Hualien, which is located 150 kilometres east of Taipei, it said.

Rescuers found more bodies than survivors as they bored into buildings toppled by yesterday’s massive earthquake.

Meanwhile, earthquake-ravaged Taiwan said it would welcome emergency relief teams from its rival China if Beijing offered help but only if there were no political strings attached.

Mr Jan Jyh-Horng, who oversees semi-official talks with Beijing, held out hope for an easing of bitter recent frictions through the disaster, saying Taiwan was touched by mainland President Jiang Zemin’s consoling words in the hours after the quake.

“We hope this is a good beginning’’, said Mr Jan, deputy head of Taipei’s Straits Exchange Foundation, which handles bilateral exchanges in the absence of official contacts. He hinted that the foundation was awaiting further contact from its Beijing counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, and said help would be welcomed as long as cross-strait politics stayed out of the way.

“If they offer to send people for relief work, they are more than welcome. So far nobody has contacted us. We heard (Jiang’s comments) from Xinhua,’’ he said.

Rescuers or relief workers from the mainland would have to apply to the foundation and demonstrate that they had no political motives, something that is not asked of teams from other countries.

Tests deny Anwar’s charge

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 (DPA) — Initial tests conducted by a hospital on Malaysia’s former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim showed no clear signs he was poisoned with arsenic, a news report said today.

However, the Director of the state-run UKM Hospital in Kuala Lumpur said whether Anwar was indeed poisoned could only be ascertained once the results of more detailed tests were obtained from both local and foreign laboratories in England and Australia.

The Malay-language utusan malaysia daily in a front page story quoted the Director, Mr Khalid Abdul Kadir, as saying in an interview that there were no clear signs that Anwar had been poisoned with excessive levels of arsenic.

He also denied rumours that Anwar was gravely ill, saying Anwar was healthy and there was no need for worry.

Anwar has been undergoing tests at the hospital since September 10 after he claimed that a secret test last month on his urine sample in Australia showed arsenic levels 77 times higher than normal.

His sodomy trial has been postponed since then, prompting fears among his family and supporters that he was seriously ill. Anwar is currently serving a six-year jail term for corruption at the Sungei Buloh Prison in the capital.

Meanwhile, the man who accused Anwar of sodomy was ordered by an Islamic Court today to be put in police custody ahead of his trial for sexual misconduct under Muslim Law.

UN not only body for peacekeeping: USA

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) — The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, told the United Nations that groups of nations should have the right to launch military action outside of UN auspices to stop mass killings in their areas of interest.

In a speech yesterday to the annual UN General Assembly, Mr Clinton also appealed for an “unrelenting battle against poverty” to help people left behind in the global economy, and announced a new US effort to promote development of vaccines against diseases common in poor countries.

Making his seventh speech to the United Nations with an eye toward the new century, Mr Clinton said the international community had a “shared responsibility” to strengthen its capacity to combat outbreaks of mass killing and displacement of people.

“When we are faced with the deliberate organised campaigns to murder whole peoples or expel them from their land, the care of victims is important, but not enough. We should work to end the violence,” he said in a muted speech during which he strained against a lingering hoarseness.

The President endorsed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s warning on Monday that countries could not assume their national sovereignty would protect them from international intervention to stop flagrant human rights abuses.

But he differed from Annan’s aim that such interventions be conducted under UN auspices, saying that UN authority was not always needed.

“The way the international community responds will depend upon the capacity of countries to act, and on their perception of their national interests,” Mr Clinton said.

He cited NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, which lacked UN authorisation as Security Council members Russia and China balked. He also cited Nigerian-led intervention in Sierra Leone and the Australian-led UN peacekeeping force for East Timor.

“That is proper so long as we work together, support each other and do not abdicate our collective responsibility,’’ he said.

“I know that some are troubled that the USA and others cannot respond to every humanitarian catastrophe in the world,” Mr Clinton said. “We cannot do everything, everywhere. But simply because we have different interests in different parts of the world does not mean we can be indifferent to the destruction of innocents in any part of the world.”

India, Japan for SC expansion

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (PTI, AFP) — India and Japan, both strong contenders for a permanent UN Security Council seat, have decided to jointly work for the expansion of the Council.

The External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, discussed the issue briefly with his Japanese counterpart, Mr Masahiko Koumura yesterday. The matter will be examined in detail later when Mr Jaswant Singh visits Japan.

The issue also came up during Mr Jaswant Singh’s meeting with the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mr Luiz Felipe Lampreia. Brazil, is yet another aspirant for a permanent Security Council seat.

During the meeting with Mr Koumura, the Japanese side sought clarifications on India’s draft nuclear doctrine, which Tokyo had earlier dubbed “objectionable and unacceptable.”

After Mr Jaswant Singh’s explanations, Mr Koumura said he was “delighted” with the clarifications.

UNI adds: In his efforts to build an international strategy against terrorism, Mr Jaswant Singh has secured Russia’s cooperation in mobilising global cooperative action to fight across border terrorism as evident in Kashmir.

During his meeting with his Russian counterpart Mr Igor Ivanov, here on Tuesday, they felt now was the proper time for international action to check the spreading menace. Mr Jaswant Singh had a meeting with his British counterpart, Mr Robin Cook, on Monday during which they agreed to explore possibilities of joint international action against such activities, particularly those sponsored by the Taliban militia, which controls most of Afghanistan.

Jordan arrests 3 Hamas leaders

AMMAN, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Jordanian security officials detained three leaders of the militant Palestinian group Hamas immediately after the airliner carrying them arrived at Amman’s international airport today, witnesses said.

They said the three leaders - Khaled Meshal, the Hamas politburo chief, and senior officials Musa Abu Marzook and Ibrahim Ghosheh —were taken into custody by security officials as they stepped out of the plane which had landed around 9 am local time (12.30 pm IST).

The witnesses, who were on board the connecting flight from Dubai to Amman, said the three leaders were arrested immediately after their plane landed at Queen Alia airport.