Raisa laid to rest
MOSCOW, Sept 23 — Mikhail Gorbachev struggled to keep his eyes away from his wife of more than 40 years today, weeping when her coffin was shut and Raisa was lowered into the ground at a stylish but simple funeral in bright autumn sun.

Court’s no to relief to Nanjing victims
TOKYO, Sept 23 — A Tokyo court rejected a compensation claim by Chinese citizens for damages stemming from the Japanese imperial army’s rape of Nanjing and biological experiments on prisoners during World War II.

More aftershocks in Taiwan
NANTOU COUNTY (Taiwan), Sept 23 — More aftershocks rippled through Taiwan overnight, hampering rescue teams racing against time to find survivors among 2,300 persons entombed two days ago by the island’s most powerful earthquake on record.

Pallone against US mediation
WASHINGTON, Sept 23 — Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone has urged fellow lawmakers not to support efforts to establish a U.S. or international mediation role in the Kashmir conflict.

Chechnya airspace closed

MOSCOW, Sept 23 (UNI) — The airspace over Chechnya has been officially closed. Any attempt to trespass will be checked by all available means.

This was declared today by Russian General Vladimir Shamanov, Commander of the Western Front. The step was being taken in accordance with an earlier decision, the General added.

Meanwhile, Russia may replace Defence Minister Marshal Sergeyev with General Anatoly Kvashnin in wake of the initial debacle in Dagestan where Islamic guerrillas had occupied several villages after intruding from their bases in breakaway Chechnya, media reports said here today.

The Kremlin is likely to sack Marshal Sergeyev and replace him with General Kvashnin, at present Chief of the Defence Staff, as up to 50,000-strong army group amassed on the perimeter of the breakaway Caucasian region of Chechnya, a local daily, Sevodnya, said.

General Kvashnin was the commanding officer of the northern Caucasus army group during the 1994-96 Chechnya war lost by Russia.

Stating that the Kremlin was looking for a "scapegoat" for the initial debacle in Dagestan, the daily said Marshal Sergeyev was under attack for his infatuation for strategic nuclear forces and ignoring the conventional forces capable of warfare against guerrillas.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Iliya Klebanov, 90 per cent of the defence budget was consumed by strategic forces while the conventional forces were deprived of latest weaponry.

Meanwhile, the Russian army, which has sealed the border with Chechnya is all set to launch an overall offensive, reported "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" and "Izvestia" today.

"As compared to the politicians the army is already poised for any developments of events", Nezavisimaya Gazeta said as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had confidential consultations with Defence, Interior and Emergency Situations Ministers today before leaving for Volgodonsk and Kazakhstan.

Firing at UN complex in Dili

DILI (East Timor), Sept 23 (Reuters, AP) — Foreign troops fired in the air today to warn off Indonesian troops collecting ammunition from a store here.

Indonesian military spokesman Colonel Willem Rampangili told reporters his forces and the multinational force (Interfet) charged with restoring peace in East Timor were investigating the incident.

“Interfet had a misunderstanding about the activities of Indonesian soldiers who were moving goods from the store,” he said. “Misunderstandings sometimes happen in the field.”

However, a British officer said Gurkhas guarding the UN compound had opened fire after being shot at by men believed to be members of the pro-Jakarta militias.

Referring to the Gurkhas she said: “they were involved in a contact. They had shots fired at them by what we believe to be militia, but that’s not been confirmed.”

It was unclear whether they were referring to the same incident, both of which took place near the United Nations compound.

At least two shooting incidents were reported in Dili today, in the first gunfire in the city’s centre since international peacekeepers arrived in East Timor’s devastated capital this week.

Several bursts of automatic gunfire rattled across the mostly deserted city.

In one incident, shots were fired near the sports stadium where refugees were seeking protection from pro-Indonesia militias.

There were no casualties, said Lt. Col. Peter Welch, an Australian battalion commander, but the shooting sent dozens of people scurrying for cover toward Australian soldiers.

Witnesses told The Associated Press the shots came from Indonesian army troops firing into the air in two passing trucks. But Welch said the shooting apparently was an apparent attempt by pro-Jakarta militia gunmen to be seen and heard.

An hour after the shooting, three suspects were marched into battalion headquarters, their hands tied behind their backs.

More shooting was heard near Dili’s harbour, a vital link for the peacekeepers to unload men and supplies to sustain the 7.500-strong man force due to take position in East Timor.

Major General Peter Cosgrove told reporters he was accelerating the deployment of his force, which already had about 3,000 troops on the ground in the bloodied territory.

“We will be extremely interested in any en Masse move into the province (East Timor),” Maj Gen Cosgrove said, “the issue is of course until they get to the East and West Timor border, the (UN) mandate does not have any particular sway over what they might do.”

China rejects Annan plea

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (Reuters) — China strongly rejected appeals from Secretary-General Kofi Annan and western leaders to consider military intervention when governments massacred their own citizens.

China’s Foreign Minister, Tang Jiaxuan, told the UN General Assembly yesterday that NATO had created an “ominous precedent” when it bombed Serbia this year over Kosovo this year without approval of the UN Security Council, in which China had veto power.

“We are opposed to the use of force under whatever pretext,” Mr Tang said. “The issue of human rights is, in essence, an internal affair of a country and should be addressed mainly by the government of that country.”

The minister’s speech was the most hardline objection yet to calls by Annan, US President Bill Clinton and European leaders for the recognition of the right of humanitarian intervention when states commit massive human rights abuses.

In contrast the Foreign Ministers of Germany and Italy, who addressed the Assembly yesterday, said the United Nations had to develop new criteria to deal with humanitarian interventions, such as in Kosovo and East Timor.

“The international community now takes military action to deal with tragedies that only a few years ago would have left us indifferent,” Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the trend towards humanitarian invention could develop in two ways — either outside the United Nations or with UN approval, which would need unified action by the Security Council.

Consequently, he said the permanent five members on the 15-nation council should justify using their veto in a public statement to the General Assembly and thereby “bring about substantial progress towards using the right of veto more responsibly.”

Otherwise, he said, there was a risk the United Nations could be bypassed in the future, as it was in Kosovo.

Raisa laid to rest

MOSCOW, Sept 23 (Reuters) — Mikhail Gorbachev struggled to keep his eyes away from his wife of more than 40 years today, weeping when her coffin was shut and Raisa was lowered into the ground at a stylish but simple funeral in bright autumn sun.

Mr Gorbachev, who as Soviet leader was instrumental in ending the cold war, put an arm round his wife’s head, stroking her face and hair and whispered to her before an Archbishop covered her, chanting a liturgy and sprinkling sand on her body.

Raisa died on Monday of leukaemia in the German city of Muenster.

“Whenever we met they were together,’’ former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, one of the many dignitaries to have attended the funeral, told reporters. “It was a significant factor — they were a pair, a couple.’’

Mr Kohl, President Boris Yeltsin’s wife, Naina, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s wife Doris, watched with heads bowed as Gorbachev, 68, and daughter Irina joined other mourners on the slow, silent walk down a flower-strewn path at the cemetery for a final farewell before the burial.

Earlier, Mr Gorbachev, who led the officially atheist Soviet Union as President and Communist Party chief, attended a private religious service in the cemetery chapel.

Court’s no to relief to Nanjing victims

TOKYO, Sept 23 (Reuters) — A Tokyo court rejected a compensation claim by Chinese citizens for damages stemming from the Japanese imperial army’s rape of Nanjing and biological experiments on prisoners during World War II.

In his ruling at the Tokyo district court, presiding Judge Ko Ito said: “no matter how inhumane the action (taken by Japan) may have been, the plaintiffs have no right to directly ask the Japanese government to compensate.”

The suit had sought 100 million yen (960,000 dollars) in compensation from the Japanese government.

Nanjing, then the capital of nationalist-ruled China, was sacked by Japanese troops, who executed 300,000 persons within a few months between late 1937 and early 1938, according to Chinese accounts.

More aftershocks in Taiwan

NANTOU COUNTY (Taiwan), Sept 23 (Reuters) — More aftershocks rippled through Taiwan overnight, hampering rescue teams racing against time to find survivors among 2,300 persons entombed two days ago by the island’s most powerful earthquake on record.

More than 48 hours after the earthquake struck the official toll was 2,042 dead, 6,537 injured and 208 missing.

Altogether 2,300 were trapped in shattered buildings, and fears for their hopes of survival ebbed with each passing minute.

More bodies than survivors were being found by Taiwan and international rescue teams, aided by sniffer dogs and other special equipment.

Aftershocks rumbled through Taiwan overnight and posed new dangers for rescuers, threatening to bring down or shift the mangled concrete and steel remains of buildings.

More than 2,000 aftershocks have hit Taiwan since the earthquake which, at 7.6 on the open-ended Richter scale at 1.47 a.m. on Tuesday (5.47 p.m. GMT Monday), was more intense than the 7.4 tremor that killed over 15,000 persons in Turkey last month.

Nantou and Taichung counties in central Taiwan, were hit the most as the earthquake had its epicentre there.

Pallone against US mediation

WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (UNI) — Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone has urged fellow lawmakers not to support efforts to establish a U.S. or international mediation role in the Kashmir conflict.

Speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, he said, ‘thus far, the Clinton administration has wisely resisted Pakistani attempts to internationalise the Kashmir conflict, and certainly that was the case after the last conflict where President Clinton specifically said that he was not going to act as a mediator and that the two nations basically had to sit down together and work out their differences.”

Diana Ross released
LONDON: The US pop diva Diana Ross was released from a police station at London’s Heathrow Airport after being cautioned about an alleged assault on an airport security officer, the British police said. “She was released on Wednesday after being cautioned,” a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said. — Reuters

Pinochet extradition
SANTIAGO: A lawyer representing Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet said he expected a British court to order the General’s extradition to Spain within three weeks. Fernando Barros told Radio Agriculture on Wednesday that Britain’s Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, which begins proceedings next Monday, will reach a ruling against Pinochet around October 15.— Reuters

Iraq missiles fired
BAGHDAD: Iraq fired surface-to-air missiles at US and British warplanes flying over the north of the country, a military spokesman said. The spokesman said the US and British fighters patrolling a northern no-fly zone overflew the provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Nineyeh “before fleeing under fire to their base in Turkey.” — AFP

Child molester attacked
OKLAHOMA CITY: A convicted child molester was attacked by a cellmate in an Oklahoma prison and his penis was cut off, the State Corrections Department said. John Henry Brown, 52, remained in critical condition in a local hospital for nearly three weeks after the September 3 assault, which only became public because of a newspaper report. — Reuters