Cohen: Missile defense system in Gulf `imperative'
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said Saturday it has become ``imperative'' for U.S. allies in the Gulf to acquire a ballistic missile defense system to counter long range weapons in the hands of countries such as Iran and Iraq.
Cohen said the United States has five defense systems under research and development and ``we hope we hope we can share that technology with Bahrain and other Gulf countries.''
He was speaking to reporters before leaving for Qatar, his second stop in a six-nation Gulf tour, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
``Because of the proliferation of missile technology globally but especially in the Gulf region, we believe it's important'' to look at ways to cooperate with U.S. allies, said Cohen.
``I think it becomes imperative that countries cooperate and develop a theater missile protection system for their people and for their forces,'' said Cohen, citing threats from Iran and Iraq.
The United States sees Iraq and Iran, which recently tested a long-range missile, as major threats to the Gulf region.
Cohen said Iraq, under U.N. sanctions, continues efforts to acquire missile technology that has a longer than permissible range.


Spirited bidders snap up art seized from failed finance firms
Paintings and other art objects once displayed in elegant offices were snapped up this weekend in Thailand at an auction of assets of collapsed financial firms, Thai media reported Sunday.
The three-day auction of more than 1,000 items, which ended Sunday, was expected to bring in more than an initial estimate of 30 million baht (dlrs 697,000).
The paintings, sculptures and other art-related objects were seized by Thailand's Financial Restructuring Authority, a government agency set up to liquidate the assets of 56 finance companies which were shut down last year.
The closings were required by the International Monetary Fund as part of its dlrs 17.2 billion bailout program for the depressed Thai economy. The proceeds of the auction will go to pay the debts of the failed companies.
``The going prices have been very high, much higher than I expected,'' an art gallery owner, Hongjorn Samae-ngamjaroen, was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post.
An untitled painting of a lotus pond by the late Thawee Nandakwang was sold for 2.8 million baht (dlrs 65,000), way above its starting bid of 400,000 baht (dlrs 9,300).
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai donated two of his sketches to the auction, which was handled by Christies, the British auction house. It was held at Bangkok's Queen Sirikit Natoinal Convention Center.


LONDON: Nov. 26.
Word of the agreement leaked out when former captain Courtney Walsh, head of the West Indies players association, told the Caribbean News Agency that Lara and Hooper had been reinstated and the tour was going ahead.
The crisis came to a head last Wednesday when the West Indies Cricket Board fired superstar batsman Lara as captain and Hooper as vice-captain. The two had refused to travel to South Africa, demanding better pay and conditions for the tour.
Team members had insisted that Lara and Hooper be reinstated as part of any settlement.
Jimmy Adams, treasurer of the players' assocation, negotiated on behalf of the players Monday with Rousseau.
Ali Bacher, head of South African cricket, also was directly involved in Monday's talks after sitting on the sidelines Sunday.
West Indies tour manager Clive Lloyd and WICB member Joel Garner were also involved in the talks which began Friday.
Progress was reported over the weekend with the announcement of a sponsorship deal offered by former South African wicketkeeper David Richardson, who runs a sports marketing firm in Johannesburg.
Earnings from the sponsorship proposal would apparently help meet the players' demands for better pay, which is reported to range from dlrs 15,000 to 60,000 for the South African tour.
(jp/sw)


The Nation's Weather
Severe thunderstorms were forecast for much of the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Georgia and northward to Tennessee. Rain was forecast in the Carolinas by tonight.
Lightning, large hail, wind of 60 mph and more than 2 inches of rain were possible. Lighter amounts were expected in the Ohio Valley.
The same storm system roared through Texas and Oklahoma on Thursday, hitting areas with wind, hail and heavy rain. Some flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were delayed up to seven hours.
In the Northeast, as much as 8 inches of sunnyow were possible in the Adirondack and Green Mountains. sunnyow was forecast from northwesterain Pennsylvania into Maine. Gusty winds were expected to keep wind-chill readings well below freezing.
Mostly quiet conditions were forecast for the West, Rockies, Southeast and northerain Plains today. Showers were possible in the Southerain Califorainia and along the coasts of Washington and Oregon.
Highs today were forecast to reach the 30s in New England; the 40s in the Northeast, Midwest, Great Lakes and northerain Rockies; the 50s in Northwest, mid-Atlantic states and northerain Plains; and the 60s, 70s and 80s in the Southeast, Southwest and southerain Plains.
The highest temperature reported in the continental United States on Thursday was 90 degrees in the Texas communities of Cotulla and Alice. The low was minus-4 at Grand Marais, Minn.


O'Hare Closes Terminal for Security
CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines shut down a terminal for hours so authorities could search for a passenger who ran past a security checkpoint and disappeared into the crowd at O'Hare International Airport.
United spokeswoman Kristina Price said 131 flights were canceled Thursday and more than 100 were delayed nationwide because of the incident. About 6,000 passengers were cleared from the terminal during the search, airline officials said.
Eighty more flights were canceled today and numerous others were delayed as the effects of the shutdown lingered, Price said, adding that the carrier hoped to be back to a normal schedule by this afternoon.
The man was not found and Chicago police said officers turned up nothing suspicious.
He was leaving a concourse and heading toward the baggage claim area when he turned back and ran up a one-way staircase leading to the concourse, United spokesman Matthew Triaca said. Guards are stationed at the staircase, but the man ran past them.
No United flights left the terminal during the search and only a few landed at other United gates. Some flights resumed by early evening.


Iran to complain about U.S.-radio at the Hague tribunal
Iran will protest to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and other global bodies about the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe, the Iran Daily reported Monday.
It quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying the radio ``was set up to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.''
It did not say when the complaints will be filed. The English-language daily also did not say which organizations Iran will approach besides the ICJ in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Iran recalled its ambassador from Prague to protest the Czech government's assistance to the radio and said it would reduce the level of its economic and political cooperation with Prague.
The American-sponsored station also began broadcasts directed to Iraq on Friday. In a trial period of several weeks, the station will broadcast one 30-minute program a day to Iran and Iraq.
The Farsi-language service to Iran was approved by the Czech government in August.
Radio Free Europe began transmitting from Munich, Germany, in 1951, spreading uncensored news to Soviet-controlled countries behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War between the West and the Communist East.
It moved its headquarters to Prague in 1995 following the collapse of communism six years earlier. ti/vj


Iraqi minister arrives in Iran to attend trade fair
Iraq's trade minister arrived Wednesday to attend an international trade fair and hold discussions with his Iranian counterpart, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Mohammed Mehdi Saleh and his seven-member delegation traveled by land and crossed into Iran at the Khosrawi border point in the western Kermanshah province, the official news agency said.
It quoted Saleh as saying that he would discuss with Iran's Trade Minister Mohammad Shariat-Madari ways of expanding commercial ties between the two countries. The fair is scheduled from Oct. 1 to 11.
This is the second consecutive year that Iraq is attending the Tehran International Trade Fair, and points at the need for the two neighbors to do business despite their traditional animosity.
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war which ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire.
Iran claims Iraq still holds 4,000 prisoners of war while Iraq says Iran is holding about 20,000 prisoners. More than 1 million people were killed or wounded on both sides during the 1980-88 war.
Tehran accuses Baghdad of helping Iranian opposition groups and the two sides accuse each other of allowing infiltrators to sneak across their borders for acts of sabotage.
In December, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan became the highest-ranking Iraqi to visit Tehran since the 1991 Gulf War when he attended the Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting. ti/vj


Sotheby's Announces Internet Site
NEW YORK (AP) -- Home shoppers can buy airline tickets, Beanie Babies and garden tools via computer. Why not a $9 million Rembrandt painting?
Sotheby's, the New York auction house, said Tuesday that it will spend $25 million to launch sothebys.com, an Internet site where the public will be able to bid on antiques, art, jewelry, sports memorabilia and other collectibles.
The value of items on the virtual auction block initially will be capped at about $10,000. More expensive items will be posted when imaging technology improves enough to give clear views of items from multiple angles.
``There's no point in having a fuzzy image on a $100,000 item,'' said Susan Solomon, head of the new venture.
Sotheby's first major online auction, planned for July, will feature baseball memorabilia.
While online auction sites have become extremely popular, consumer groups say the sites have produced more consumer complaints than any other Internet category because of shoddy merchandise and other fraud.
Sotheby's said it would only sell merchandise from the auction house itself or reputable art dealers. And bids will only be accepted from customers who have registered their charge card numbers in advance.
Officials at Christie's, another leading New York auction house, said they were also considering an online auction site


Nikhil Chakravarty, a top Indian political columnist, dead at 74
Nikhil Chakravarty, one of India's best known journalists, has died. He was 74.
Chakravarty was suffering from brain cancer and died in hospital on Saturday, his family said.
Politics was his forte and his columns appeared in leading Indian newspapers and magazines.
Chakravarty also started a weekly news magazine, ``Mainstream,'' in 1962 and edited it for more than three decades.
Last year, the government appointed him chief of Prasar Bharati, an autonomous corporation set up to end government control of radio and television.
Chakravarty declined a top government award in 1990, saying no journalist should be identified with the governing establishment.
He graduated from Calcutta University and studied at Oxford University's Merton College in England.
Chakravarty taught history at Calcutta University in the 1930s before taking to journalism as correspondent of a weekly brought out by the Communist Party of India.
He later joined the CPI and remained a member until 1978.
He closed the Mainstream weekly for a while when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed emergency rule in India 1975-77, jailing political opponents and imposing censorship on newspapers and magazines.
Chakravarty was born November 3, 1913, in India's northeastern state of Assam.


Iraq, Iran sign pact to resolve POW issue
Iraq and Iran have signed a deal that Iraq says will resolve their longstanding dispute over prisoners of war.
The agreement was reached following a week of talks in Baghdad between senior Iraqi officials and a visiting Iranian delegation headed by Abdullah al-Najafi, head of Iran's POW commission, the official Iraqi News Agency reported Wednesday.
But the agency gave no further details and al-Najafi, who left Baghdad on Wednesday, declined to comment.
Al-Najafi arrived in Baghdad last week with a list of thousands of Iranian POWs Tehran claims are still held by Iraq.
Iraq has long maintained that it has released all Iranian prisoners and was reportedly angered by the new list.
In April, Iran released 5,584 Iraqi POWs and Iraq freed three POWs and 316 Iranians it classified as civil law detainees.
It was the largest repatriation of Iranian and Iraqi POWs since 1990, said the International Committee of the Red Cross, which supervised the swap. The Red Cross says it knows of several thousand Iraqis in Iran, but it is not aware of more Iranian POWs in Iraq.
The Iran-Iraq war, in which more than more than 1 million people were killed or wounded, ended in 1988.
The issue of POWs has long stood in the way of better ties. lb-a


Museum To Return 3 Stolen Works
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The J. Paul Getty Museum is returning three ancient works of art to Italy after determining they were stolen.
One sculpture sat in its collection for 17 years. The objects will be flown to Italy this week, along with pieces that were loaned to the museum for an antiquities exhibit, according to a statement issued by the Getty on Monday.
The stolen items are a terra cotta drinking cup from 480 B.C., found to have been illegally excavated from an archaeological site; a torso of the god Mithras from the 2nd century, found to have been stolen from a private Italian collection; and the sculpted head of a victorious athlete, a 2nd century Roman copy of an earlier Greek work, which was apparently taken from the storeroom of a scientific excavation.
For security reasons, the museum did not say how much the pieces are worth.
Although nobody claimed the works, Getty decided to return them based on information supplied by experts in the field and in consultation with Italian officials.
International concern has been growing about rampant thefts of priceless art from collections and the looting of archaeological sites.
The billion-dollar museum, located on a hill in the Brentwood area, opened in 1997.


Saddam says U.S. will reap nothing, urges Iran to normalize ties
President Saddam Hussein said Saturday the United States will reap nothing but a ``harvest ... full of thorns'' from its campaign against Iraq.
Addressing the nation on television to mark the anniversary of the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam also urged Iran to normalize relations with Iraq.
Saddam did not refer to his decision Wednesday to freeze cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors, but he said the United States and its allies would be misled if they thought they could bring Iraq to its knees.
This is exactly what the Iranian government under the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini thought it could do in the war, but it failed, Saddam said.
``Those imposing aggression on Iraq ... and the unfair embargo neglect this fact today,'' Saddam said, referring to sweeping sanctions the United Nations imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
``They are making the same mistake. Their harvest will be full of thorns and the outcome will be a taste of bitterness.''
The president delivered his speech in a black suit. He had decreed that Saturday be celebrated as a day of victory over Iran, and an artillery salute of 101 guns boomed over Baghdad in the early morning. National radio and television played patriotic songs for the occasion.
Saddam spoke, 7th graf pvs


Austrian president tells Albright of effort to identify stolen art
Austria's president told Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday that the government was establishing a commission to identify art which was stolen from Holocaust victims by the Nazis.
Austrian officials said President Thomas Klestil told Albright, who paid a one-day visit to Vienna after the Moscow summit, that the commission would first determine the origin of all art works owned by the Federal Museum here.
There was no statement on the art issue by U.S. officials. Albright left for the United States after meetings with Klestil, Chancellor Viktor Klima and Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel.
Austria, the United States and 37 other nations have launched a drive to identify billions of dollars worth of art stolen from Holocaust victims throughout Europe.
The World Jewish Congress estimates the current value of stolen art at between dlrs 90 billion and dlrs 140 billion.
In June, the Association of Art Museum Directors in the United States recommended that American art museums check their own collections to determine if any works were stolen during the war and set up a worldwide database for tracking.
Austria was absorbed into Adolf Hitler's Germany in 1938 and was restored as an independent nation following World War II.
rr


Astronomers Spot Storm on Mars
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A cyclone four times the size of Texas raged across the northern polar region of the planet Mars last month, according to space telescope views of the red planet.
The Space Telescope Science Institute announced today that the Hubble Space Telescope on April 27 spotted an immense Martian storm cloud, made up of water ice, that was 1,100 miles long and 900 wide.
Bands of clouds spiraled in a counterclockwise motion around a 200-mile wide eye in the center of the storm, taking on a shape that resembled hurricanes on Earth, astronomers said.
The storm occurred during the summer in Mars' northern hemisphere. It came after seasonal warming evaporated the carbon dioxide ice sheet that caps the Martian north pole during part of the year.
Officials said the storm was three times larger than a storm spotted 20 years ago by the Viking Orbiter spacecraft.
Astronomers used a wide field planetary camera on Hubble to photograph Mars during the planet's closest approach to Earth in nearly eight years.
Two pictures, taken six hours apart on April 27, showed that the storm moved slightly eastward. In the second picture, the storm appeared to be in the process of breaking up.
Later pictures by the Hubble camera failed to find the storm, and astronomers said it could have been a short-lived phenomenon.


Syria opposes any attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein
Syria opposes attempts by the United States and Britain to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Syrian Vice-President Abdul-Halim Khaddam said Thursday.
Such moves would ``serve Israel's design to disintegrate the Arab and Islamic world,'' Khaddam said after receiving his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Habibi, at Damascus airport.
The United States has granted dlrs 97 million to Iraqi opposition groups. British and American officials hosted meetings in London last month of 16 Iraqi dissident groups in a bid to promote cooperation among them.
``This is a very dangerous issue ... No state in the world has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of any other country,'' Khaddam said.
Habibi said the Iraqi and Palestinian questions were of great concern to Iran and Syria: ``There should be coordination between the two countries over these issues.''
The official Iranian news agency, IRMA, said the Iraqi and Palestinian issues would be the focus of talks between Habibi and Khaddam at the meeting of the Syrian-Iranian Supreme Committee. The committee meets biannually to promote cooperation in foreign affairs, trade and technology.
Habibi, who is accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, is expected to meet Syrian President Hafez Assad during his three-day visit.
Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally and supported the Persian state during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. str-bm-jbm


Stolen painting in New Zealand recovered, one man arrested
A 19th-century painting worth U.S. dlrs 1 million stolen from Auckland Art Gallery nine days ago has been recovered, police said Monday.
Senior Sgt. Gary Allcock said he understood that one person had been arrested over the theft of the 1874 oil, ``Still on Top,'' by French-born artist Jacques-Joseph (James) Tissot, one of New Zealand's most expensive and popular European works.
He said details would be disclosed later.
The painting valued at up to U.S. dlrs 1 million was stolen Aug. 9 by a man armed with a shotgun in a daring robbery at the Auckland Art Gallery.
The man, clad in black and wearing a motorcycle helmet, dark visor and gloves, burst through the main door with a sawed-off shotgun and a crowbar.
Museum official Kate Darrow said the man ran through the Grey Gallery waving a firearm and yelling ``get down,'' and ``keep back'' to staff and patrons.
She said the man appeared to know where he was going and went to the Lower Wellesley Gallery, where the painting was displayed.
The gunman grabbed the painting off the wall and dropped it on the ground. He then used the crowbar to remove the canvas from the frame and take it off the backing board.
The robber left through the main entrance and skirted behind the gallery into Albert Park, pursued by a member of the public. He was believed to have climbed on a motorcycle and escaped via a nearby highway.


Alaska Hiker Killed by Bear
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A man on a day hike in a rural area was killed when a bear bit his head, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday.
Kenneth Cates, 53, was found Wednesday morning on a horse trail in a heavily wooded area of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge near his hometown of Soldotna.
The attack happened about six miles off a busy road. The area is about 60 miles southwest of Anchorage.
The fatal mauling is thought to have happened Tuesday.
His only visible wound was a single bite to the head, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the state Division of Wildlife Conservation.
State and federal wildlife officials were looking for the bear involved in the attack. If the bear is judged to pose a continuing threat to humans it may be killed.
Troopers said Cates' .280-caliber rifle and two spent shell casings were found near the body, along with traces of blood that suggest that Cates may have wounded the animal.
``We don't know if one was a warning shot and one real, or if there were two real shots,'' Bartley said.
Cates' death is the first fatal bear mauling in Alaska since Feb. 8, 1998, when Audelio Luis Cortes, 40, was killed while working on a seismic crew in the Swanson River oil field near Kenai. Cortes also died from a single head bite.


Shepard, Glenn set first two milestones
__
May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard becomes first American in space.
Feb. 20, 1962: John Glenn becomes first American in orbit.
Jan. 27, 1967: Gus Grissom, Edward White II and Roger Chaffee die in Apollo 1 spacecraft fire on launch pad.
July 20, 1969: Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on moon.
July 17, 1975: American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft link in orbit.
April 12, 1981: Columbia soars on first space shuttle flight.
June 18, 1983: Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space.
Jan. 28, 1986: Challenger explodes, killing all seven on board.
April 25, 1990: Hubble Space Telescope is released into orbit.
Dec. 2, 1993: First Hubble repair mission is launched.
March 14, 1995: Norman Thagard is first American to be launched on a Russian rocket. Two days later, he becomes first American to visit Mir.
June 29, 1995: Atlantis docks with Mir in first shuttle-station hookup.
Sept. 26, 1996: Shannon Lucid returns to Earth after 188-day Mir mission, a U.S. space endurance record and a world record for women.
Nov. 19, 1996: Story Musgrave, at age 61, becomes oldest man in space.
Oct. 29, 1998: Discovery is scheduled to blast off, carrying 77-year-old John Glenn back into orbit and making him oldest man in space.


Impressionist paintings recovered, curator central suspect
Police have recovered two valuable Impressionist paintings stolen 10 days ago in what appears to have been a staged heist and arrested the museum curator for alleged armed robbery, police sources said Wednesday.
Two other people, described as small-time thugs, also were arrested in connection with the Sept. 21 theft of a Monet and a Sisley at the Fine Arts Museum of Nice, according to the sources in the judicial police. They spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
The art works, Claude Monet's 1897 painting ``The Cliffs of Dieppe'' and Alfred Sisley's 1890 work ``The Alley of the Poplars,'' were found on a sail boat anchored in the small Riviera port of Saint Laurent du Var, police said.
The police sources said that curator Jean Forneris is suspected of having ordered the theft.
The paintings were stolen by two masked men who took Forneris from his home, drove him to the museum, then bound and gagged him, the caretaker and another employee and shut them in the museum library.
The museum alarm had been turned off, allegedly because the caretaker was on duty. The two men sped off in the curator's car with the paintings.
Forneris later expressed his ``shock'' at the thefts.
(eg-parf)


Businessman killed in Siberian town
A Russian businessman was killed on his way to work Wednesday by an unidentified gunman in what appeared to be an organized crime killing, according to news reports.
Yuri Zinin, the head of Sibneft Company was shot in the back as he walked out of his apartment building in the town of Leninsk-Kuzntesky in the Kemerovo region of central Siberia, Russian news agencies quoted local police as saying.
Zinin's company has the same name as one of Russia's largest oil producers, Sibneft, controlled by controversial business mogul Boris Berezovsky. But the two companies are separate.
Zinin's Sibneft was locally-based and mostly involved in selling oil products and coal. Kemerovo is one of Russia's main coal-mining regions.
Police launched a search for the killer who fled. Officials wouldn't comment on possible motives for the murder.
There are hundreds of contract murders in Russia every year as mobsters fight for control of profitable businesses. Only a small number of such killings are ever solved.
The small town of Leninsk-Kuznetsky became known nationwide last year, when the city mayor was arrested on tax fraud and embezzlement charges. Mayor Gennady Konyakhin, also accused of being linked to the mob, is in custody awaiting trial.
(vi/ren)


German zoo hopes court will allow it to accept baby elephants
The Dresden Zoo went to court Tuesday to challenge Environment Minister Juergen Trittin's order forbidding the import of four baby elephants taken from the wild in Africa and abused.
Zoo director Hubert Luecker said the complaint was filed with an administrative court in Cologne.
The elephants, which were to be sent this month to the Dresden and Erfurt zoos in eastern Germany, were part of a group of 30 young elephants captured in August from herds in Botswana and taken to a South African farm.
A South African judge ruled early this month that the animals had been abused and deprived of water at the farm. He granted temporary custody to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
But while the judge approved the export of four baby elephants to Germany and three to Switzerland, Trittin last week said Germany would protest the abuse of animals by not accepting them in its zoos.
Others argue the elephants may face a worse fate if they don't come to Germany.
Norbert Otto, a federal lawmaker from Erfurt, demanded in parliament Tuesday that Trittin take steps to prevent the animals from being put to sleep in South Africa.
In addition, the cultural minister of Saxony, of which Dresden is the capital, asked the state's 740,000 school children to write letters of protest urging Tritten to allow the elephants into Germany. (aet-pfg)


Vietnam's prime minister demands improvements by state monopoly
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has taken the state electricity monopoly to task for abuse of power and excessive bureaucracy while accusing it of overcharging, the newspaper Dau Tu (Investment) reported Thursday.
In a blunt assessment, he ordered Electricity of Vietnam to help cut waste that is driving up costs and could spark public discontent. EVN must work out corrective measures based on his instructions, and individual leaders have to do self-criticisms.
Khai said the utility has plenty of problems, particularly in the tender process and project accounting, that have led to complaints and affect Vietnam's reputation with foreign investors.
In March, former President Le Duc Anh, in an article for the Army newspaper, criticized irregularities in the bidding process for the country's largest thermal electric plant.
Local media have reported that the company has overblown the costs for construction and repair work on a number of projects to justify overcharging for electricity.
Vietnam is chronically short of power, and several projects to raise its output are bogged down in bureaucracy.
EVN imposed rotating power cuts earlier this year as the worst drought in a century dropped water levels to critical levels at the reservoirs that feed key hydroelectric plants.


International police seek to stymie illegal art trafficking
Police officers from 23 countries met in Budapest to seek more efficient ways to combat illegal traffic in art treasures, a police official said Thursday.
Held under the auspices of Interpol, the International Police Organization, the three-day closed meeting allowed the officers to make personal contact and to help their East European counterparts catch up.
``We have a five-member team working on illegal art traffic, and the group was set up only this April, while France has over 30 policemen in the same detail and with many years of experience,'' Hungarian police Col. Tamas Simon said.
Illegal art traffic is a growth industry.
In 1990, the year after communism collapsed, there were 702 registered cases in Hungary, and the total value of the stolen treasures was 71 million forints (dlrs 340,000 in present terms).
In 1993, there were in 1996, 1,025 cases involving 430 million forints (dlrs two million) worth of stolen treasures.
``This is a special area of police work as stolen art may not appear for 30 years on the market,'' said Jean Pierre Jouanny, director of the French national bureau of Interpol.
Hungary is largely a transit country for stolen art, with the line of traffic moving from east to west.
Work is underway in cataloging the country's art treasures, establishing a data base and a network of contacts among art dealers, auctioneers and museums.
(ab/rp)


Israel increases security at airports following threats
Israel is adding security personnel at its international airport in response to threats by Islamic militants to attack Israeli and U.S. targets, including airlines, officials said Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior adviser, David Bar-Illan, said Israel would use all measures it deemed necessary to fight terrorism.
Asked whether this included pre-emptive strikes, Bar-Illan told The Associated Press: ``I don't want to be specific about anything but obviously we are not ruling out anything.''
Threats against U.S. and Israeli targets emerged after last week's U.S. air strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan that were aimed at Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire and Islamic militant linked to the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa this month.
On Sunday, a leading Muslim activist close to bin Laden said Islamic militants are preparing to retaliate for the air strikes by targeting U.S. and Israeli strategic sites and airliners.
A U.S. basketball team from the University of Connecticut, which arrived Monday for a nine-day tour of friendly games, hired two private security guards to accompany them in Israel.
``The administration of the University of Connecticut demanded bodyguards and we readily agreed,'' said the teams' tour operator Nels Hawkinson. ``Had it not been for the bombings in Afghanistan and Sudan we would not have seen the need,'' he said.
Pini Shis, 6th graf pvs dl


Airport ready for operation; Palestinians await word from Israel
The new Palestinian airport, a powerful symbol of fledgling independence, is ready to open, the head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority said Friday after an operations drill with Israeli officials.
Yasser Arafat International Airport in the southern Gaza Strip was to have opened last week as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. However, Israel fell behind schedule when it held up Cabinet ratification of the accord by two weeks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the airport would start operating next week, but has not set a date.
On Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian officials staged a four-hour drill, said Fayez Zeidan, head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority.
About 100 Palestinian airport employees and 50 Israelis who will share security duties played the roles of passengers and airport personnel. For lack of a plane, the ``passengers'' arrived by bus.
Zeidan said the exercise covered arrival and departure procedures, including passport checks as well as customs and luggage inspection.
He said the airport was ready for operation. ``We just need to hear from the Israelis,'' Zeidan said. sa-kl


Cult guru's lawyers lash at prosecutors, court
Attorneys for a cult guru accused of murder in the nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways denounced his trial Thursday as ``unfair'' because some of the prosecutors' charges are contradicted by testimony from their own witnesses.
Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, is on trial on 17 charges in the March 20, 1995 sarin attack that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
Other cult leaders have also been charged in the gassing as well as in other slayings.
Osamu Watanabe, Asahara's chief defense lawyer, said the trial should not be allowed to go on.
``We must wonder why such abnormal and unfair proceedings are tolerated. The court has been negligent,'' Watanabe told the Tokyo District Court.
The prosecutors say Asahara, accused of masterminding the subway gassing, decided on the attack on March 18, 1995 while riding in a car with his followers.
But Watanabe pointed out that top cultist Yoshihiro Inoue, a key witness for the prosecution, told the court that Asahara was still undecided on the timing of the attack at that time. Inoue quoted Asahara as saying that he needed to meditate about it.
Last April, the defense raised similar objections, but the prosecutors refused to change their statement. (cw)


Police identify substance in tea poisoning case
The poison that sickened 10 Japanese company employees after they drank tea brewed from the same water pot was a toxic sodium compound that affects the central nervous system, police said Tuesday.
Police still had no clues to who might have put the chemical in the pot, which had been filled with water between Friday night and Monday, they added.
The 10 workers at Xyence Co., a wood preservative company in Niigata, 256 kilometers (159 miles) northwest of Tokyo, were hospitalized Monday after suffering nausea and numbness during their morning tea break.
The case gave Japan another shock two weeks after curry laced with cyanide and arsenic killed four people at a festival in southwestern Japan. It also raised fears of copycat attacks.
Lab tests on the tea revealed traces of sodium azide, a chemical used in many industrial products, including air-bag mechanisms, said police spokesman Masashi Toma.
The victims of the poisoning were in stable condition, but three suffered mild liver disorders Tuesday, said Yasuo Hirose, an official at the Niigata City Hospital.
The March 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways carried out by the Aum Shinri Kyo religious cult has made Japan particularly wary of poisoning incidents. The subway gassing killed 12 people. (js)


REPEATING Protectively
Iran will protest to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and other global bodies about the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe, the Iran Daily reported Monday.
It quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying the radio ``was set up to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.''
It did not say when the complaints will be filed. The English-language daily also did not say which organizations Iran will approach besides the ICJ in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Iran recalled its ambassador from Prague to protest the Czech government's assistance to the radio and said it would reduce the level of its economic and political cooperation with Prague.
The American-sponsored station also began broadcasts directed to Iraq on Friday. In a trial period of several weeks, the station will broadcast one 30-minute program a day to Iran and Iraq.
The Farsi-language service to Iran was approved by the Czech government in August.
Radio Free Europe began transmitting from Munich, Germany, in 1951, spreading uncensored news to Soviet-controlled countries behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War between the West and the Communist East.
It moved its headquarters to Prague in 1995 following the collapse of communism six years earlier. ti/vj


Iranian POW negotiator holds talks with Iraqi ministers
The head of Iran's prisoner of war commission met with two Iraqi Cabinet ministers Saturday in a bid to glean information about thousands of Iranian POWs allegedly in Iraq, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told Abdullah al-Najafi that the two states needed to ``speed up the closure of what remains from the POW and Missing-In-Action file,'' INA said.
The issue of POWs and missing persons remains a stumbling block to normalizing relations between the two neighbors.
Iraq has long maintained that it has released all Iranian prisoners captured in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. The countries accuse each other of hiding POWs and preventing visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross to prisoner camps.
The ICRC representative in Baghdad, Manuel Bessler, told The Associated Press that his organization has had difficulty visiting POWs on both sides on a regular basis.
In April, Iran released 5,584 Iraqi POWs and Iraq freed three POWs and 316 Iranians it classified as civil law detainees in the largest exchange since 1990.
More than 1 million people were killed or wounded in the Iran-Iraq War.


Prosecutor: Botha may still stand trial
A prosecutor on Friday left open the possibility that former apartheid President P.W. Botha would be put on trial for abuses committed during white rule.
Prosecutor Jan D'Oliveira said he currently has insufficient evidence to prosecute Botha, but that information collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa), which investigated apartheid-era abuses, still must be evaluated to ascertain whether charges would ultimately be brought.
Last month, the Truth Comission issued a landmark report on its findings. It said Botha had ordered the 1987 bombing of the African National Congress' London headquarters and the 1988 bombing of a Johannesburg building housing an anti-apartheid group.
When Botha was head of state in the 1980s, thousands of people were detained without trial. Many were tortured and others killed.
The commission can grant amnesty to those who fully confess to politically motivated abuses committed during apartheid. Botha has said he has nothing to confess and has not sought amnesty.
Earlier this year, Botha was convicted of contempt of court for refusing to testify before the commission. He was handed a suspended one-year jail sentence and a 10,000 rand (dlrs 5,700) fine. He has appealed the decision.
(sapa-aos)


Report: South African truth panel to condemn ANC
A panel probing apartheid-era abuses has accused the African National Congress of human rights violations, including torture and bomb attacks, the state broadcaster said Monday.
The ANC, which led the struggle against white rule and now is in power, previously has acknowledged it was told to expect implication in right violations.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will release its final report on 2 1-2 years of investigation on Thursday. The report was expected to place overwhelming blame for the era's abuses on white governments and their brutal security services.
South African Broadcasting Corp. radio said it had been leaked a ``preliminary document'' which condemns the ANC as politically and morally responsible for gross human rights violations during and after the fall of apartheid.
An ANC spokesman, Thabo Masebe, said he believed the news report referred to a commission letter sent in advance ``informing us of its intention to implicate the ANC in gross human rights violations.''
Commission officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ANC was nervous enough about the report to request a meeting with commissioners earlier this month. The panel refused, to avoid appearing embarrassed.
The party says the accusations against it likely would center on the planting of land mines on border farms, abuses at its military camps in Angola and bombings.
(djw)


MALAYSIA
PORT DICKSON, Tues. - Federal and State Government agencies, given the task to undertake economic projects under the Development Programme for the Hardcore Poor (PPRT), must ensure their successful implementation.
Rural Development Minister Datuk Annuar Musa said yesterday those responsible should closely monitor the implementation of the projects and ensure that the allocation provided by the ministry benefit the hardcore poor participants.
He said those responsible, including district officers, must personally check on the progress of the projects being carried out.
``We don't want to see projects as being a success on paper but on inspection, they don't show the desired results,'' he added.
According to him, it was the ministry's policy now that the minister, deputy minister, parliamentary secretary, director-general and other senior ministry officials had to visit the PPRT projects to see what was happening to the allocation given by the Government.
Annuar said this after visiting a mussel rearing project in Kuala Lukut today as part of his day-long visit to several PPRT projects in Negri Sembilan.
Present were Chembong Assemblyman Firdaus Harun and Port Dickson district officer Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman.
Annuar added that the implementing agencies should also conduct in-depth studies of the projects proposed to ensure their viability.


THAILAND
MORE and more people are dying or suffering from fatal diseases such as brain tumours, mammarian or breast cancer and brain haemorrhage due to a lack of proper medical care.However, things may change as the Srisiam Hospital in Bangkok has now established the first ever Radio Surgery Institute in Thailand -- (there are presently more than 100 radio surgery centres around the world).
Radio surgery is a modern technique which doesn't require surgery in order to remove cancerous growth or tissues. It involves a three dimensional method known as Stereotaxic Surgery, which is also used in conjunction with radiation equipment known as the Linear Accelerator.
With this new technology, doctors are able to removal cancerous tissues embedded deep inside the brain or near sensitive organs that makes normal surgery very difficult and risky. With radio surgery, every step is controlled by computers and patients are conscious while they undergo treatment.
This new technique is also capable of treating diseases such as Artero Venous Malformation (the clotting of veins or blood capillaries in the brain).So far, ninety per cent of the radio surgery treatments have been successful and patients only have to remain in hospital for three days. Additionally, there is no need for patients to shave their heads and radio surgery causes no scar, little blood loss and is not expensive.For more information contact the hospital at srisiam ksc.th.com.


Portugal and Spain reach agreement on common water supplies
Portugal and Spain on Monday reached an agreement over shared water resources on the Iberian peninsula, wrapping up a two-day summit that both premiers called historic.
``It is an ambitious, modern, wide-ranging and efficient agreement,'' Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Guterres said at the end of the summit in Albufeira, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Lisbon.
Both governments worked out a shared management plan to monitor water volume in the rivers which supply both countries.
Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar said the agreement reflected ``an exceptional moment'' of relations between the two Iberian countries.
Water supply on the southwest European peninsula was one of the few sticking points between the two countries, which have strong trade links and close political ties.
Spanish plans to develop hydroelectric projects on its side of the border have been a constant threat to Portugal's supply, which comes mainly from rivers with sources in the neighboring country.
Both governments also reiterated their decision jointly to campaign for continued development funds provided by wealthier European Union nations.
Cabinet Members also agreed to build new road and railway links between the two countries.
The Albufeira summit also produced a plan to increase cooperation between police at the border, in order to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.


Bank Fires Seven for E-Mail Misuse
CHARLOTTE (AP) -- First Union Corp. says it has fired seven employees within the last week for sending pornographic and other inappropriate e-mail.
First Union, the nation's sixth-largest bank, confirmed the firings Friday, but company spokeswoman Sandy Deem would not release more details.
The bank ``will not tolerate conduct that interferes with another person's work performance or creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile environment,'' Deem said.
The Charlotte Observer reported Friday that employees at the University Research Park office circulated e-mail that included videos of people having sex and other material of a sexual nature. The company stumbled on the e-mail when the volume of messages became so heavy it slowed down a server.
One employee fired within the past week from the bank's home-equity division was called into an office, shown a stack of e-mail and fired on the spot, an employee told the newspaper.
First Union, a Fortune 100 corporation, joins a number of companies taking swift and severe action for violations of company e-mail policy.
Companies are seeking to protect themselves from legal claims that their work environment is hostile. An increasing number of lawsuits alleging sexual harassment have based claims in part on e-mails taken from company computer systems.


Iran to complain about U.S.-radio at the Hague tribunal
Iran will protest to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and other global bodies about the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe, the Iran Daily reported Monday.
It quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying the radio ``was set up to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.''
It did not say when the complaints will be filed. The English-language daily also did not say which organizations Iran will approach besides the ICJ in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Iran recalled its ambassador from Prague to protest the Czech government's assistance to the radio and said it would reduce the level of its economic and political cooperation with Prague.
The American-sponsored station also began broadcasts directed to Iraq on Friday. In a trial period of several weeks, the station will broadcast one 30-minute program a day to Iran and Iraq.
The Farsi-language service to Iran was approved by the Czech government in August.
Radio Free Europe began transmitting from Munich, Germany, in 1951, spreading uncensored news to Soviet-controlled countries behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War between the West and the Communist East.
It moved its headquarters to Prague in 1995 following the collapse of communism six years earlier.


Hungarian government and Jewish communities agree on compensation
The Hungarian government and the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities signed an agreement Thursday on collective compensation for communist-era confiscations, the state news agency MTI reported.
The financial basis for the funding is real estate that belonged to the Jewish communities and fell victim to nationalization under the communists.
Instead of getting back the actual property _ 152 schools and other buildings _ the assessed value of which is 13,511,000,000 forints (dlrs 63 million), the Jewish community collectively is to get a percentage annually, starting with the current year, when 608 million forints (dlrs 2.9 million) will be paid.
``The money will be mainly used for education, religious services, social welfare, health service, and charity ends,'' Gusztav Zoltai, executive director of the Federation, said.
There are between 80,000 and 100,000 Jews in Hungary. Some 600,000 were killed in the Holocaust.
When the communists assumed full power in 1948, they started a wave of nationalizations that spared no one, including the Jewish community.
On June 20, 1997, a similar agreement, the first of its kind, was signed between the Hungarian government and the Vatican.
(ab/rp)


Airport ready for operation; Palestinians await word from Israel
The new Palestinian airport, a powerful symbol of fledgling independence, is ready to open, the head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority said Friday after an operations drill with Israeli officials.
Yasser Arafat International Airport in the southern Gaza Strip was to have opened last week as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. However, Israel fell behind schedule when it held up Cabinet ratification of the accord by two weeks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the airport would start operating next week, but has not set a date.
On Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian officials staged a four-hour drill, said Fayez Zeidan, head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority.
About 100 Palestinian airport employees and 50 Israelis who will share security duties played the roles of passengers and airport personnel. For lack of a plane, the ``passengers'' arrived by bus.
Zeidan said the exercise covered arrival and departure procedures, including passport checks as well as customs and luggage inspection.
He said the airport was ready for operation. ``We just need to hear from the Israelis,'' Zeidan said


This ``Dracula'' kills cattle and deer
A giant black bear, whom peasants have nicknamed ``Dracula,'' is creating anxiety in western Romania because of his taste for cattle and sheep, an official said Thursday.
Peasants whose livestock has been devoured by the hungry bear have lodged seven complaints in the past six weeks, said Nicolae Onetiu, head of the state hunting and fishing reserves in western Romania.
Dracula was named after the Transylvanian vampire count of legend because of his bloody appetite, said Onetiu. The male bruin weighs at least 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and has moved closer to inhabited areas from forested regions with the onset of cold weather, but is apparently not yet ready to hibernate.
Dracula has killed at least six cows and seven sheep over the past six weeks.
Most bears are omnivorous, but in Romania, many bears were weaned on meat, said Onetiu. Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist dictator toppled and executed almost a decade ago, was an avid hunter, and hunting reserve cubs were fed meat to make them grow bigger quicker, leaving generations partial to meat.
State rangers count 135 bears living in the Apuseni Mountains in western Romania, all of them protected by law.
(str/am/gj )


AP Nicaragua Reporter Garcia Dies
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- Rodolfo Garcia, an Associated Press reporter who helped chronicle Nicaragua's emergence out of civil war, a papal visit, volcanoes and floods, died in Managua after a long illness. He was 58.
Garcia joined The Associated Press office in Managua in 1986 after working for Radio Nicaragua, where he was director of short-wave broadcasts, and after helping found a local news agency, Agencia de Noticias Nueva Nicaragua.
For the AP, he covered the war between the Sandinista government and Contra rebels, the Sandinistas' loss of power at the ballot box and the country's sometimes turbulent effort to put years of war behind it.
He also reported on volcanic eruptions, the 1996 visit of Pope John Paul II and the ravages of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
''He worked under very difficult conditions created by a civil war but always managed to maintain total objectivity and a fair vision under pressure in reporting for The Associated Press,'' said Eloy Aguilar, the AP bureau chief for Mexico and Central America.
Garcia was born in Nandasmo, a town about 15 miles south of Managua. He attended the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua.
Garcia suffered a series of illnesses last year, including diabetes and cancer. He died Saturday night.
He was buried in Nandasmo on Sunday. He is survived by his wife, Ana Leonor Hernandez, and four daughters.


Norwegian company moves ahead with clean power plant
The Norsk Hydro ASA concern announced plans Friday to build a hydrogen-burning power plant that it says will produce electricity with virtually no climate-damaging emissions.
The 51-percent state-owned company notified the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate of plans to build the plant, to be called HydroKraft, pending approval by government agencies.
The company said if it receives the proper approvals in 1999, construction of the plant would be completed during 2002 and production startup would occur in early 2003.
Earlier this year, the company announced a new technology that would allow it to use clean-burning hydrogen to generate electricity. The hydrogen for the plant would be extracted from natural gas.
Norsk Hydro, a major petroleum producer, now says studies have shown the proposal to be economically viable. It also said the plant's carbon dioxide emissions would be 90 percent lower than plants using natural gas.
Norway is the world's second-largest oil exporter, and also produces vast amounts of natural gas from its offshore fields. Virtually all of the country's electricity now comes from hydroelectric plants.
Under the company's plans, natural gas, air and water would be mixed to produce hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
Norsk Hydro wants to build the plant at Karmoey, an island about 500 kilometers (300 miles) west of Oslo.


Iraq, Iran sign pact to resolve POW issue
Iraq and Iran have signed a deal that Iraq says will resolve their longstanding dispute over prisoners of war.
The agreement was reached following a week of talks in Baghdad between senior Iraqi officials and a visiting Iranian delegation headed by Abdullah al-Najafi, head of Iran's POW commission, the official Iraqi News Agency reported Wednesday.
But the agency gave no further details and al-Najafi, who left Baghdad on Wednesday, declined to comment.
Al-Najafi arrived in Baghdad last week with a list of thousands of Iranian POWs Tehran claims are still held by Iraq.
Iraq has long maintained that it has released all Iranian prisoners and was reportedly angered by the new list.
In April, Iran released 5,584 Iraqi POWs and Iraq freed three POWs and 316 Iranians it classified as civil law detainees.
It was the largest repatriation of Iranian and Iraqi POWs since 1990, said the International Committee of the Red Cross, which supervised the swap. The Red Cross says it knows of several thousand Iraqis in Iran, but it is not aware of more Iranian POWs in Iraq.
The Iran-Iraq war, in which more than more than 1 million people were killed or wounded, ended in 1988.
The issue of POWs has long stood in the way of better ties


Lufthansa, German railway pledge closer cooperation
Seeking to shift some domestic travel from planes to trains, Germany's flag carrier, Lufthansa, and the German railway signed a letter of intent Monday to work on coordinating services and schedules.
The goal is to make it easier to travel by train to Lufthansa's main hub in Frankfurt, instead of flying there. Starting in 2001, Lufthansa boss Juergen Weber hopes to eliminate such short hops _ between Frankfurt and Cologne, for example _ thus freeing up takeoff and landing slots for more lucrative international flights.
As part of the Lufthansa-Deutsche Bahn deal, passengers could check their luggage through at the train station for the Lufthansa flight they will catch at Frankfurt.
The service is already in place at Saarbruecken, although travelers must drop their bags off the day before. Starting in September, the service will be extended to five other cities: Duesseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, Wuerzburg and Nuremberg.
Passengers flying on Lufthansa partners United and SAS would also be able to use the service, he said.
The airline and railway said they'd form a working group to resolve such problems as security checks on the luggage and making sure the bags get to the airport from the train station on time.
Deutsche Bahn chief Johannes Ludewig said his railway also would work to coordinate schedules better with Lufthansa flights to make connections easier, and allow for combined train and plane tickets. (pfg-aet)


Report: Plane robbed by gunmen in Nigerian airport
An Air Afrique Boeing-727 jet was the third passenger liner looted in the past month by armed robbers while awaiting takeoff at Nigeria's largest international airport, the Lagos Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.
The thieves broke into the aircraft's luggage compartment and escaped with a large quantity of baggage as the plane was awaiting permission to take off from the Lagos international airport control tower around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, the Guardian said. It was not clear where the airliner was destined.
There was no immediate confirmation of the report.
The plane's captain, who noticed the theft, sent a distress call that went unanswered by airport officials. Security personnel on duty later said said they were unable to capture the culprits because their only security vehicle had been taken away for routine maintenance.
In another incident last week involving an unidentified passenger jet, landing gear worth dlrs 1 million was stripped from while the plane was waiting to take off, the newspaper said. In May, a Cameroon Airlines plane was robbed of its luggage after armed thieves blocked the plane on the tarmac with a large log.
The robberies came despite orders from airport security officials to shoot suspected thieves on sight.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has a notoriously high rate of violent crime accompanied by a breakdown of law and order under years of military rule.
(fa-gam)


REPEATING Protectively
Iran will protest to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and other global bodies about the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe, the Iran Daily reported Monday.
It quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying the radio ``was set up to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.''
It did not say when the complaints will be filed. The English-language daily also did not say which organizations Iran will approach besides the ICJ in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, Iran recalled its ambassador from Prague to protest the Czech government's assistance to the radio and said it would reduce the level of its economic and political cooperation with Prague.
The American-sponsored station also began broadcasts directed to Iraq on Friday. In a trial period of several weeks, the station will broadcast one 30-minute program a day to Iran and Iraq.
The Farsi-language service to Iran was approved by the Czech government in August.
Radio Free Europe began transmitting from Munich, Germany, in 1951, spreading uncensored news to Soviet-controlled countries behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War between the West and the Communist East.
It moved its headquarters to Prague in 1995 following the collapse of communism six years earlier. ti/vj


Swiss government eyes shutting down nuclear power plants
The Swiss government Thursday announced that it is planning the country's eventual exit from nuclear power, saying it wants to support instead hydroelectric plants.
But environmental campaigners criticized the lack of a timeframe for closing the country's four nuclear power plants.
Government officials will work with representatives of the power industry, environmental groups and local governments to discuss a timetable and removal of nuclear waste, a government statement said. It is unrealistic to build more power stations because of environmental concerns, the government has said.
Should the discussions between concerned parties fail to produce an agreed timetable, the federal cabinet will make the decision, said the statement.
``We have set out on a new course,'' said Federal Energy Minister Moritz Leuenberger. ``Details have yet to be decided.''
In a related move, the federal cabinet ordered energy officials to draw up a discussion paper on changing laws governing the domestic electricity market.
The government envisages the creation of a national company to own the power infrastructure.
A timeframe for carrying out liberalization of the electricity market itself remains to be determined, the cabinet said.
The cabinet said it wants to support hydroelectric plants. It ordered a study of the possibility of tax breaks for hydroelectric plants and how to encourage upgrades of those plants.


LONDON: Nov. 26.
The apparent settlement came after four days of talks involving the West Indies players and officials of the West Indies and South Africa cricket boards.
The crisis came to a head last Wednesday when the West Indies Cricket Board fired superstar batsman Brian Lara as captain and Carl Hooper as vice-captain. The two had refused to travel to South Africa, demanding better pay and conditions for the tour.
Team members have insisted that Lara and Hooper be reinstated as part of any settlement.
Jimmy Adams, treasurer of the players' assocation, negotiated on behalf of the players Monday with Pat Rousseau, president of the West Indies Cricket Board.
Ali Bacher, head of South African cricket, also was directly involved in Monday's talks after sitting on the sidelines Sunday.
West Indies tour manager Clive Lloyd and WICB member Joel Garner have also been involved in the talks which began Friday.
Progress was reported over the weekend with the announcement of a sponsorship deal offered by former South African wicketkeeper David Richardson, who runs a sports marketing firm in Johannesburg.
Earnings from the sponsorship proposal would apparently help meet the players' demands for better pay, which is reported to range from dlrs 15,000 to 60,000 for the South African tour.
(jp/sw)


Actress Brooke Shields accepts libel damages, apology over false
Actress Brooke Shields on Monday accepted ``very substantial'' libel damages and a public apology over a newspaper article alleging that she was questioned by police for two hours in connection with drug offenses as she left the Cannes Film Festival.
The Mail on Sunday reported May 24 in an ``exclusive'' that began on the front page and continued on page three that Miss Shields' luggage was searched and her flight at the Nice Airport delayed while French police quizzed her.
After the actress filed suit against Associated Newspapers Ltd., the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, the paper's editor and two Mail journalists, the Mail on Sunday published a front-page apology and retraction on May 31.
The retraction said the story was totally false and conceded Miss Shields had not even been stopped at the airport.
``The defendants recognize that Miss Shields is a staunch and committed anti-drug campaigner and that she has spent considerable amounts of time supporting substance abuse programs and raising much needed money for anti-drug abuse programs,'' said Claire Shields, the defendants' attorney.
The newspaper's front-page article ``must therefore have been especially hurtful to her and to her family,'' the attorney said.
The Sunday paper's editor, Jonathan Holborow, has written the actress, who was not present in court Monday, a personal letter of apology.
The amount of the damages was not disclosed.
(kg)


ENGLISH
Viravaidya's plan to set up a watchdog company to monitor SET-listed companies and expose possible abuses of corporate ethics. I agree with him whole-heartedly and would like to know where to mail my checks to subscribe to the company's shares. Could you advise?
Also, I fully support his request for the media to report on the lifestyle of former executives of the failed banks and finance companies. We all know too well that these people will not be punished legally because of the inefficiency of the Bank of Thailand in collecting evidence against them and of our justice system in delivering timely justice. It is the media's job to discover how these guys are better off after destroying our country, and it is the Thai people's job to socially punish them.
I would like to propose that newspapers and TV stations play up this issue (the continued luxurious lifestyle of the former executives) to attract more public attention, and I will give them Bt20,000 of my hard-earned salary with my full blessing.
Artit Krichphiphat (An ordinary Thai citizen who wants to see the right things get done) Editor's note: Khun Mechai will organise a seminar on the plan on June 7 at the Telephone Organisation of Thailand at 10 am. The media already has the duty to cover such issues without additional financial reward.


Interpol needs to revamp strategy to keep abreast of crime
Interpol must modernize if it wants to effectively fight increasingly sophisticated crime syndicates in the next century, the police organization's president said Thursday.
The criminal environment has changed at a ``much greater pace'' than Interpol, Toshinori Kanemoto told the opening session of the 67th general assembly of the International Criminal Police Organization.
A failure to modernize Interpol could mean the organization ``risks being displaced against a backdrop of international organized crime,'' he said.
Kanemoto said a new Interpol strategy will be discussed at the six-day assembly and, if adopted, would be put into effect next January.
The former Japanese police official said the assembly also will discuss terrorism, which he called one of the ``new forms of criminality,'' as well as the illegal drug trade and money laundering.
With crime becoming increasingly sophisticated, Kanemoto said, it has become harder for police officials to gather evidence for prosecution. He said these new challenges require increased cooperation, particularly through Interpol.
The police officials are expected to discuss a strategic development plan aimed at making Interpol more proactive by re-examining the needs of the group's 177-member states, Kanemoto said.
Details of, graf 8 pv