Dy Mayor of Colombo flees the country

COLOMBO, Aug 15: The Deputy Mayor of Colombo and a senior functionary of the opposition United National Party (UNP), who has been accused of arranging a forged passport for a former police officer charged with human rights abuses to help him flee the country, has himself left the country, the state media reported today.

Mahammod Maharoof, a close associate of UNP leader Ranil Wickramasingher has been accused of arranging a forged passport for a former Senior Superintendent of Police,(SSP), Douglas Peris, who has been charged during the previous UNP regime.

Peiris, in a sworn affidavit before a local court last week has said that Maharoof and other UNP functionaries handed over a forged passport to his son so that he could travel to Dubai.

The former SSP also said that he fled to Tuticorin in India by a boat in 1996 at the instance of the UNP leadership, after the Government has instituted a special commission to probe several killings of youth, alleged to be the members of the ultra-left wing Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna, (JVP) between 1988-90.

Hundreds of youths have alleged to have been killed during the security forces crackdown to quell a youth insurrection organised by the JVP. Peiris was finally arrested early this month, when he returned from Chennai on a false pasport.

In his affidavit, Peiris alleged that H Chennai after a four year stay in Switzerland and other European countries. He was handed over a false passport in Chennai by UNP activist with instructions for him to go to Dubai, where a job has been arranged for him.

But he chose to return to Colombo after he suspected a plan to kill him by Dawood Ibrahim and his associates in Dubai, he was quoted in the official media as saying in his affidavit.

The passport has been arranged by Maharoof, he alleged.

Peiris, has been accused of setting up a torture chamber at suburban Battalanda here, which formed part of the parliamentary constituency of UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe. Peiris served as SSP of that area. In his affidavit, he had confirmed the existence of a death squad and torture chamber under the patronage of UNP leader.

The UNP, however, has alleged that Peiris has been brought back on a false passport to discredit the party and Wickramasinghe before this year’s general elections. (PTI)

Clinton bids triumphal farewell, extols record

LOS ANGELES, Aug 15: President Bill Clinton bid a feisty and triumphful farewell to his Democratic Party giving thanks that a man from "a small southern town" could serve as President and hailing a nation at the pinnacle of prosperity.

Speaking before a rapturous audience at yesterday the Democratic National Convention, Mr Clinton reviewed the policies that he said brought America its record economic boom and said Vice President Al Gore was the best man to keep it going.

In his last major political address before he leaves office in five months, Mr Clinton was by turns pugnacious and celebratory as he looked back at his eight years in the White House and ahead to the November seven election.

"I came here tonight, above all, to say a heartfelt thank you," Mr Clinton said in a speech interrupted some five dozen times by loud applause from the 4,338 delegates gathered on the convention’s opening night.

"Now, at this moment of unprecedented good fortune, our people face a fundamental choice. Are we going to keep this progress and prosperity going?" he asked. "Yes we arey" he added, setting off a chanting echo from the audience.

Clinton’s speech was an elaborately staged spectacle, with suspense building as a camera showed him walking alone through the halls of the Los Angeles Staples Centre before he burst into the stadium to roaring applause and stomping feet.

The President sang the praises of Gore, who is to be crowned as the Democratic presidential nominee on Thursday, saying he was a "profoundly good" man and a "strong leader" of exceptional intelligence, drive and decency.

Seeking to puncture what he fears is a complacent mood in an electorate basking in the longest economic expansion in US history, Mr Clinton argued that the November seven election was crucial to keeping the good times rolling on.

"My fellow Americans, the future of our country is now in your hands. You must think hard, feel deeply, and choose wisely," he said, and then echoed his 1992 and 1996 campaign battle cries: "Keep putting people first keep building those bridges and don’t stop thinking about tomorrow."

Mr Clinton said Gore and his running mate connecticut Sen Joseph Lieberman were the obvious choice over Republican Presidential nominee Texas Gov George W Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney, whom he never mentioned by name.

"Everyone knows he (Gore) is thoughtful and hard-working. But I can tell you personally, he is one strong leader," he said. "Al Gore and Joe Lieberman will keep our prosperity going by paying down the debt, investing in education and health care, moving more people from welfare to work and providing family tax cuts we can afford."

Mr Clinton also put in a warm word for his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for a Senate seat from New York, saying: "She’s been a great first lady. She’s always been there for our family. And she’ll always be there for our the families of New York and America."

He made no reference, however, to his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky that led to his December 1998 impeachment, leaving his expression of contrition last Thursday to a group of Ministers his last word on the matter.

In a speech Laden with specifics, Mr Clinton hailed the 22 million jobs created since he took office, along with falling crime, child poverty, teenage pregnancies and welfare rolls.

"That’s the record. Or, as that very famous Los Angeles detective, Sgt Joe Friday used to say, ‘just the facts ma’am," Mr Clinton said.

"Let’s remember the standard the Republicans used to have for whether a party should continue in office — my fellow Americans, are we better off today than we were eight years ago?" Clinton asked, echoing former President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 battle cry. "You bet we are," he added.

Without mentioning him by name, Mr Clinton fired a salvo at Republican Presidential nominee Bush, belittling the Texas Governor’s claim that the democratic White House’s policies had little to do with the US economic expansion.

"To those who say the progress of these last eight years was just some sort of accident, that we just kind of coasted along, let me be clear," he said. "America’s success was not a matter of chance it was a matter of choice."

Mr Clinton, who has grappled for months with his departure from the White House on January 20, 2001, was most effusive in offering thanks to the party that made him the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win two terms in office.

"Fifty-four years ago this week, I was born in a summer storm to a young widow in a small southern town," he said. "America gave me the chance to live my dreams. And I have tried as hard as I knew how to give you a better chance to live yours."

"Now, my hair is a little grayer, my wrinkles are a little deeper, but with the same optimism and hope I brought to the work I love so eight years ago, I want you to know my heart is filled with gratitude," Mr Clinton added. (REUTERS)

Hit & run case involving prince shakes Kathmandu

KATHMANDU, Aug 15: A hit and run case allegedly involving a Nepalese prince has taken a new twist, with an ordinary soldier claiming responsibility for the incident, a newspaper report said today.

Media reports said Nepalese King Birendra’s nephew, Prince Paras, while driving in the capital ten days ago, smashed into and killed a well-known Nepalese musician named Praveen Gurung and then fled the scene.

According to published reports, the incident took place after the revelling prince left a disco in a huff and began driving recklessly.

The prince, who was driving a vehicle belonging to the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, of which his father, Prince Gyanendra, is chairman, did not allow the two police officers who followed him to come near him.

He was also reported to have taken out a pistol and threatened the policemen on duty.

He was later whisked off to his residence in a privately owned vehicle.

The incident triggered off a series of protests in the Nepalese capital, with media and Parliament calling on King Birendra to strip his nephew of his royal immunities and allow the law to take its course.

Nepalese stage, cinema and TV artists as well as musicians took part in a protest demonstration yesterday, calling for immediate action against the prince, who had been involved in three other fatal accidents previously.

The mass circulation Nepali language daily Kantipur reported Tuesday that a 30-year-old soldier named Khadga Bahadur Bhujel went to the police station last Friday and claimed responsibility for the incident.

The newspaper also reported that a witch hunt had started to trace the police officer who fed the news about the prince to the media.

The newspaper’s own reporter, Kedar Ojha, who broke the news, said, "I am being tailed by the Army intelligence in plain clothes."

Now, with a soldier allegedly being made a scapegoat, observers in the Nepalese capital think that chances of any action being taken against the prince have diminished. (DPA)

Race against time to save crew on Russian N-submarine

MOSCOW, Aug 15: Time is running out to save more than 100 crew members onboard the Russian nuclear-powered Submarine Kursk, trapped at the bottom of the Barents sea, Russia’s navy chief warned today.

"We fear the worst for the lives of the crew," said Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, cited by Interfax news agency.

"Knowing that, our sailors will do everything they can to save people despite the difficult weather conditions," he added.

The Admiral said that because of the rough seas, rescue ships were unable to drop anchor.

Rescue efforts continued through the night, but stormy weather conditions were preventing emergency teams from getting the 116 crew to safety, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, quoted by Interfax.

However, Klebanov declined offers of assistance from foreign countries, in particular the United States.

"We have all the technical means necessary, they are no worse than those of the Americans," he said.

The submarine, which was carrying 24 missiles, none nuclear, sunk to the sea bed during exercises conducted early Sunday by Russia’s northern fleet.

It shut down its nuclear engines on Sunday morning, and has not released any radioactive pollution, the Norwegian Institute for the Prevention of Radiation said yesterday.

Rescue teams were examining the hull of the Kursk, the Admiral said. "The exact cause of the accident has not been established for the moment," he said.

Russia’s northern fleet has a history of nuclear submarine accidents over the past few years.

The worst accident occurred in 1989, when a Soviet nuclear-powered submarine, the Komsomolets, sank off the Norwegian coast, with the loss of 42 lives. (AFP)

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