ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: At least five persons were killed and 32 injured, some of the them seriously, in a powerful bomb blast on a busy bridge in Pakistan’s Sialkot town today.

According to the official agency, the five-pound bomb, which was planted in an abandoned bicycle went off at around 0855 hrs......more

With the construction of the new building, Birmingham Children’s Hospital was granted royal permission to change its name to the Diana, Princess of Wales Children’s Hospital.

The Queen, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, unveiled a stained-glass window commemorating the opening, then met patients and their families, as Diana so often did in the last years of her life.

Diana’s reputation came under attack this week in a new book that said she telephoned death threats to Camilla Parker Bowles, her husband’s lover, and that she had committed adultery with her police protection officer before Prince Charles renewed his relationship with Mrs. Parker Bowles.

Sarah, Duchess of York, came to Diana’s defence in a television interview taped for broadcast on ITV last night.

"I got very angry about it," said the Duchess, commonly known as Fergie. "We all know that Diana isn’t here to answer the questions, so they shouldn’t be writing bad things without her being able to come here and answer them."

"I don’t think it’s right when we love her," she said. "She was a wonderful mother and a terrific friend. ... Let’s keep her as the wonderful humanitarian and fantastic and loving person. Don’t bring it down to this level." (AP)

Mr Abe Hirschfeld planned to hand plaintiff Paula Jones a giant mock check at a news conference today. The real money would be put in a trust fund in Dallas, where her lawyers are based.

The arrangement with Mr Hirschfeld is a precursor to negotiations with Mr Clinton’s lawyers, an attorney in the Jones camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday.

And then negotiations will begin with (Clinton attorney Robert Bennett ), and I don’t think it will take very long," said the lawyer, suggesting there might be some common meeting ground" over money.

The lawyer said Mrs. Jones’ attorneys would make a new overture to Mr Clinton on Monday. So far there has been no comment from the President’s lawyers.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hirschfeld said the news conference would announce an important new development’’ and would include Mrs Jones’ lawyers, but Mr Hirschfeld would not comment yesterday.

Previous attempts to reach a financial settlement stalled after Mrs. Jones rejected an offer of 700,000 dollars from Mr Bennett, insisting she wanted one million dollars.

Then Mr Hirschfeld stepped into the picture, offering one million dollars as part of a settlement involving all parties.

Last week, however, Mr Bennett said he would only consider a settlement if it did not include strings attached’’ - referring to Mr Hirschfeld’s offer. Mr Hirschfeld then said he was withdrawing his offer.

The White House has sought to dissociate itself from Mr Hirschfeld, who is facing tax-evasion charges.

Mr Hirschfeld has said he injected himself into the case in hopes of ending it for the benefit of the country and the world.’’

Mr Clinton’s denials under oath in the Jones case of a sexual relationship with Ms Monica Lewinsky were the foundation for independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s criminal investigation of the President.

Mrs Jones’ team had been demanding a total of two million dollars from Mr Hirschfeld and Mr Clinton to drop the lawsuit, which was dismissed by a judge but could be revived on appeal.

But as late as Thursday, one lawyer in the Clinton camp said the President’s attorneys were inclined to put settlement talks on hold until the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on whether to revive Mrs. Jones’ lawsuit.

In her lawsuit, Mrs. Jones claims that Clinton made a crude pass at her in a little Rock Hotel room in 1991, when he was Governor of Arkansas and she was a clerk for the state.

The suit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright of Little Rock, who ruled that Mrs. Jones’ allegations, even if true, fell short of the standard for sexual harassment.(AP)

The land that was sold was in not in Moscow, but in the Southern region of Saratov, which introduced agricultural land sales earlier this year. Such sales are illegal in most of the country.

Forty-one lots of rural land in Saratov were sold at the Moscow auction, which was opened by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

One of his top deputies, Oleg Tolkachev, told reporters that there are tentative plans to begin selling land in one district of Moscow, and that such an auction could provide a model for a broader sale of land in the capital.

However, he added, "Moscow lands are not deer pastures," and the city needs to carefully consider the ramifications of selling land containing the infrastructure of municipal utilities, such as water mains and electrical cables. (AP)

No injuries were reported and plate-glass windows remained intact in businesses in the resort town of kings beach on the lake straddling the California-Nevada line.

"I was sound asleep and the next thing I knew I was on the floor," said resident Brad Sherman. "I thought my house was going to fall apart."

The quake hit at 1:54 a.m. (0654 gmt), centered about 8 km North-Northeast of Kings Beach and was felt (50 km) Northeast in Reno, Nevada. Aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 3.0 followed minutes later, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado. (AP)

The roll back Malaria campaign will initially target the worst affected sub Saharan Africa where 90 per cent of deaths occur and which accounts for three fourth of the cases.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has welcomed the initiative, saying it has been conceived in such a way that cooperation among United Nations Organisations is only the hub of wider collaborative effort involving private sector companies, Non Governmental Organisations, multilateral organisations and affected countries.

For it is, above all, the countries and communities themselves that will need to mobilise in order to roll back Malaria, he said.

Roll back Malaria campaign, officials explain, is different from previous efforts to fight the disease as it will work through only new tools but also strengthening the health services of affected countries.

The ultimate aim of the programme, they say, is to develop a vaccine to immunise people against it.

The U N agencies, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will tie up with the World Bank and involve private sector, scientific community and voluntary organisations in controlling the disease.(PTI)

Announcing this, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha told newsmen the decisions were taken at a meeting of group ministers on prices, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee here.

He said the meeting decided that 10 per cent import duty on pulses would be lifted besides putting the item under open general licence.

Similarly, the four per cent special additional duty imposed this year on inputs like palmolein used as input in the manufacture of vanaspat stood abolished, he said.

Sinha said the Prime Minister would write to all state Chief Ministers asking them to step up dehoarding measures.

Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar has convened a meeting of state Chief Secretaries on November 7 to review the action taken on this score, he added.

Besides Prime Minister and Finance Minister, the group ministers comprised commerce, industry, food and agriculture and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission. Home and Defence Ministers are also part of it.

The group which met for the first time would hereafter meet from time to time to discuss pressing economic issues.

On potato shortage in the capital, Sinha said Prime Minister had asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh to supply surplus quantities in the state’s cold storage chain.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is holding a meeting to increase supplies to Delhi, he added.

He said the Cabinet Committee on prices and the official level committee headed by cabinet secretary would meet regularly every week to review the price situation and take remedial measures.

The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) had been asked to procure greater quantity of onions from other states where there was surplus.

Minister of State for Agriculture,Sompal would be contacting state governments which had surplus onions to facilitate increased supply in states facing shortage.

During 1997-98, onion production was only 36 lakh tonnes against 42.7 lakh tonnes in the previous year.

Asked from where government would get onions, sinha said it was trying to locate sources.

We have identified countries like Belarus and Kahakstan besides iran for onion imports, He said.

Prices of primary articles under the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) had increased by 12.82 per cent during the period till october 17 and 15.8 per cent as compared to corresponding period last year, he said. In contrast, fuel and power prices declined marginally since April 1, while that of manufactured articles rose marginally, Sinha said.

The rise in primary articles prices under WPI during the corresponding period last year was only three per cent, he said.

On edible oil supply, the minister said there was adequate stock of palmolein with government and the shortage was mainly in mustard oil.

While there was no increase in sunflower prices, groundnut prices had started declining with the start of the season, he said.

Shortfall in pulses production was around two million tonnes as the country’s output had remained stagnant around 13-14 million tonnes for the last 30 years, Sinha said.

As many countries did not produce pulses, import was difficult. Yet government had contracted for import of 8-9 lakh tonnes of pulses.

Price rise in pulses is confined mainly to arhar dal, which has increased by 16.5 per cent. But it is grown exclusively in the region, He said, adding government would approach Myanmar for pulses import.

Moong and masor dals could be used as substitute for arhar dal and their import was being sought from China, Turkey and Hungary, he said. (PTI)

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