American Taliban fighter held by US troops

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters):A 20-year-old American who fought with the Taliban and survived the bloody Kala Jangi prison uprising near Mazar-i-Sharif last week has been taken into custody by U.S.

Special forces troops, Newsweek magazine has said on its web site.

The man, described by Newsweek yesterday as "a white, educated-sounding, apparently middle-class American," who identified himself only as Abdul Hamid, was taken into custody on Saturday at a hospital where he had been taken for treatment of minor gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

The special forces soldiers who detained Hamid took him aside for treatment and later left with him, doctors told the magazine.

A Northern Alliance military source said the U.S.

Soldiers had taken Hamid to Mazar-i-Sharif, Newsweek said, adding that U.S.

Forces refused to comment on his whereabouts.

Hamid told Newsweek earlier he was a Washington, D.C, native but indicated he grew up elsewhere in the United States.

He said he converted to Islam at age 16 and later went to Pakistan to study the Koran, Newsweek said.

Hamid said he came into contact with Taliban teachings while studying in Pakistan and traveled to Afghanistan six months ago to help "because the Taliban are the only government that actually provides Islamic law," the magazine reported.

He fought with the Taliban at the siege of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan and surrendered along with hundreds of other fighters after the two sides negotiated a deal.

Hamid later was transferred along with hundreds of other prisoners to Kala Jangi fortress west of Mazar-i-Sharif, where a revolt ensued a week ago.

The uprising was violently put down by US warplanes and Northern Alliance ground forces.

Several hundred prisoners were believed to have been killed.

A CIA agent was among those killed in the uprising, the first reported American combat death in Afghanistan.

Iraq to sign oil-for-food memorandum NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters):Iraq today will sign a memorandum of understanding with U.N.

officials to extend the oil-for-food program for another six months, Iraqi U.N.

Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said last night.

"I have been given instructions by my government to sign the memorandum of understanding," Aldouri told Reuters.

The oil-for-food program allows Iraq to sell oil despite sanctions, with proceeds placed in an account administered by the United Nations.

Iraq averages crude oil exports of about 2 million barrels a day, or four percent of the worlds daily demand.

Security council last week extended the program and pledged to alter sanctions by next June.

Iraqi officials in Baghdad on Saturday said Iraq accepts the extension of the oil program but rejects efforts to alter sanctions, now in their 12th year.

Afghans work on draft UN power-sharing accord BONN, GERMANY, Dec 3 (Reuters): Gruelling talks on forming a post-Taliban government for Afghanistan entered an intense seventh day today as rivals tried to tease out a compromise on a U.N.

draft accord to establish an interim administration.

The four Afghan factions represented at the U.N.-sponsored talks in a top-security hotel outside Bonn have agreed on the outline of a power-sharing government.

But they still have to decide on the fine print of an agreement and names for its 29 members.

As the talks continued, U.S.

Bombers pounded Kandahar, the last bastion of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Military said the battle for the southern city may be nearing "culmination point".

Fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan like many of the delegates and visibly exhausted, U.N.

Special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi worked into the early hours with the rival groups in Bonn, discussing proposed changes to a seven-page draft agreement he put to them early on Sunday.

"We are going sentence by sentence, comma by comma.

Everybody has comments on every single sentence.

There are four groups and four opinions within each group.

It is painstakingly tedious," U.N.

Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told Reuters.

An adviser to the group backing former king Zahir Shah said they would propose the ex-monarchs close aide Abdul Sattar Sirat to head the interim administration.

An adviser to the dominant Northern Alliance said his group had backed the choice.

But Fawzi said the delegates had yet to discuss formally their candidates for the new government around the table and said any discussion of names was only taking place bilaterally.

"We have had no proposals from anyone.

They are talking amongst themselves," he said.

"I dont think well see the names until tomorrow evening." Western diplomats, always in the wings to remind the Afghans that billions of dollars in reconstruction aid rest on a deal, said haggling over posts could take several more days.

"There is going to be a big fight about all this, starting tonight and going on tomorrow and for a little while," one western envoy said on Sunday evening.

"Quite a lot of people are digging in now.

It could even be Thursday or Friday." Abdul Majid Aziz, adviser to the former kings group, said progress was slow but sure.

"We are fighting for the future of Afghanistan.

It is not right to put some kind of time constraint that this has to be performed by Dawn," he said.

If rome nominee Sirat were to be approved by all groups at the talks in the Petersberg hotel above the Rhine, he would lead the interim government until the convening of a Loya Jirga, or Traditional Grand Assembly, in about six months.

According to a copy of the U.N.

Draft proposal obtained by Reuters, the interim authority would be composed of an administration of 29 members, a supreme court and a special independent commission to set up the Loya Jirga.

The draft, which Fawzi said had been amended substantially in the late night talks with Brahimi, proposed an administration made up of a chairman, five deputies and 23 other members.

It also requests the U.N.

Security council to consider mandating an international force to Afghanistan to provide security for Kabul and surrounding areas, and for all participants at the Bonn talks to withdraw forces from the city.

The draft calls for the 87-year-old former king to play a symbolic role in opening the Loya Jirga, which would elect a transitional authority to govern for about 18 months until a constitution is drawn up and a permanent government elected.

Until then, it suggests that most of Zahir Shahs 1964 constitution the most liberal political system the country has ever had would be reinstated as Afghanistans basic law.

Alongside the royalist rome faction, the second biggest in Bonn after the Noathern Alliance, there are two smaller exile groups, the Pakistan-based Peshawar group, and the Cyprus group, both of which can hope to be allocated far fewer government posts.

If Sirat, an ethnic Uzbek and professor of Islamic studies based in Germany who was a minister before the king was deposed in 1973, was confirmed, it would rule out prominent Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, a widely mentioned candidate.

Northern Alliance interior minister Yunis Qanuni and foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah are thought likely to keep their posts, although as both are Tajiks one might have to step aside for ethnic balance, diplomats said.

Whether any women would be named in the interim government was still uncertain.

draft accord calls for government participation for women, whom the Taliban forbade to work, study or leave home without being accompanied by a male relative.

(with additional reporting by Mehrdad Balali, Tom Heneghan and Adam Tanner) Pre-poll violence rocks Sri Lanka COLOMBA, Dec 3 (UNI): The last day of sweltering election campaign, which ended last midnight, turned out to be a disaster with death toll in the pre-poll violence rising from 17 to 21.

The police imposed indefinite curfew in several areas in the Anuradhapura district last night as the violence escalated.

Military assistance was also called for to keep the situation under control.

The curfew was imposed after one person was killed and 13 others critically injured when a grenade exploded during a procession of the ruling PA candidate at Madatugama, Anuradhapura in the country s north-central province.

Police said that the supporters of the PA candidate had attacked UNP supporters last morning and the grenade explosion might have been in retaliation.

Till yesterday noon 1731 incidents of pre-poll violence had been recorded by the police election unit.

The list of injured persons included 300 poll personnel as well as candidates from different political parties.

The UNP reported 896 incidents while the PA recorded 576.

In a another incident of violence in the eastern Trincomalee district a pa supporter was killed in a clash between the UNP and the PA supporters at China Bay.

In the Puttlam district, which continues to top the list in incidents of pre-poll violence, two UNP supporters were killed and six others seriously injured when police opened fire to quell a clash between the PA and the UNP supporters.

In a separate incident of poll violence in Kandy late last night at least 17 people were injured when a hand grenade was thrown at the concluding PA campaign.

Five children die of malaria SURENRANSAar (GUJARAT), Dec 2 (UNI): Five children, including two girls, have died and three others lost their eyesight during the last three days due to malaria, fasciparum and encaphalitis, reports here say.

Medical reports have revealed that the blindness was caused by encaphalitis, official sources said here today.

Fever has prevailed only in one area of Miyadavad near tower, due to unhygienic conditions, sources added.

Saudi issues ID cards to women for first time DUBAI, Dec 3 (DPA): Saudi authorities have issued 1,300 Saudi women their own civil identity cards for the first time, the Saudi Arab news newspaper reported today.

The paper said 250 women in Riyadh and 1,050 in Jeddah were the first Saudi women in the kingdom ever to be given their own separate ids.

Opponents of the move have argued that issuing ID cards to females would allow people to see pictures of women who are traditionally veiled in public.

To appease detractors, deputy interior minister Prince Ahmad said in a recent statement that women would not be required by law to obtain separate civil identity cards.

To qualify for IDs, women must be 22 year of age, as opposed to 16 for men, should have the written consent of a guardian, husband or father, and a letter from her employer, if she is a working woman.

The picture of female applicants must show their heads covered and their faces devoid of make-up or lipstick.

Womens photographs submitted to the office are kept in an envelope.

The female section at the office completes the procedures, including the scanning of pictures by computer.

Saudi women are currently included on the ids of their husbands or fathers and, although they need his approval to travel abroad, they can obtain separate passports.

Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict interpretation of the Islamic law, is one of the most conservatives countries in the world where women are not allow to drive and their job prospects are limited mainly to the health and education sectors, where they do not have to mix with men.

3 naxalites killed in encounters DANTEVADA (CHHATISGARH) Dec 3 (UNI): Three naxalites including a deputy commander of the Peoples War Group (PWG) were gunned down and one policeman was wounded in a series of encounters in Dantevada district last night.

Three hard core naxalites including a deputy commander of the PWG were killed near Bhopal Patnam police station as police opened fire on a group, which started firing on the treasury and police station.

Inspector general of police S K Paswan said while the body of the commander had been recovered, the assailants escaped with the other two bodies.

In another incident naxalites surrounded the Gangalur police station and continued firing for four hours.

One policeman was injured as the PWG men triggered a landmine blast on the police re-inforcement, he added.

In what appeared to be a well planned attack on police stations last night, the extremists fire at Farsegarh police station.

However, the pwg cadres escaped when the police personnel on duty retaliated.

Mr Paswan said elaborate security arrangements have been made to protect the people on the hit list of the PWG.

Post correspondent expelled from Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Dec 3 (UNI) Pakistan has expelled a correspondent of an American newspaper for his alleged involvement in undesirable activities.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington post, stationed at Quetta,was yesterday asked by the authorities to leave the countryimmediately, the Dawn said today.

Mr Chandrasekaran has been staying at the Serena hotel in theborder town of Quetta for the past one month to cover the Afghan war.

He was taken into custody by the local authorities from the hoteland detained at the railways rest house before being sent to thecapital by a PIA flight in the afternoon.

His expulsion comes days after another western journalist,Cristina Lamb, and a photographer were expelled from the country onNovember 9, the US choppers on mysterious mission in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Dec 3 (UNI) Two United States military helicopters, who were on a mysterious mission in the country, were spotted in Lakki Marwat district of Pakistans North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The frontier post quoting well-placed sources said the choppershovered over the skies for a while yesterday, after which they flewoff in the direction of a nearby tank.

The mission of the helicopters, however, remains unknown, thenewspaper said.

About us | Advertisers | Other Publications | Subscriptions | Advertising Weather | Letters | Search | Suggestions | Send Mail | Vaishnodevi ________________________________________________________ (c) 1998, The Kashmir Times Press Pvt.

Ltd., Residency Road, Jammu Tawi.