Russia keeps security alert in place

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters): Russia maintained extra patrols around the Moscow metro, military and key energy sites today, following a warning from the country's spy chief two days earlier of a potential attack by extremists.

Spy chief Nikolai Patrushev, who also heads the state's anti-terror committee, triggered the alert on Tuesday when he said foreign allies had passed on information pointing to a possible strike.

The warning was the first alert from the anti-terror committee, set up last year to coordinate Russia's response to threats of attacks.

"We continue to carry out the same measures we did yesterday, on transport and the metro," Nikolai Sentsov, the committee's spokesman, said.

Yesterday the committee said no evidence had been found to support information about an attack but it pledged to continue heightened security for the time being.

Russia's three biggest mobile phone operators also switched back on transmitters today in the Moscow metro which the authorities had ordered be turned off a day earlier over fears of a possible remote control bomb.

Authorities have not specified where any potential threat may come from but Chechen separatists have fought two wars against Russia since 1994.

Present Assemblies to re-elect Musharraf as Prez for second term ISLAMABAD, Jan 18 (UNI): Pakistan government has said that the present Assemblies will re-elect President Pervez Musharraf between September 15 and October 15 this year for the second term.

The Dawn newspaper reported that the decision was reached after consultations with Constitutional experts during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad yesterday.

The Cabinet also decided that the Assemblies would complete their tenure on November 16, after which general elections would be held in accordance with the Constitutional provisions.

The re-election issue had been discussed by Musharraf with members of the Cabinet at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Aziz on Friday.

The decision was a forgone conclusion because under the Constitution, President's tenure would expire on November 15 and his re-election was required 30 days before that.

Pakistan Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said that the present Assemblies would complete their five-year term and since the President's tenure expires on November 15, his re-election would be sought in accordance with the Constitutional provisions.

The Cabinet meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Aziz, was briefed on Constitutional and legal aspects of the Presidential elections by a team of Constitutional experts led by Prime Minister's Senior Adviser Sharifuddin Pirzada.

Under the Constitution, President's electoral college consists of National and Provincial Assemblies as well as the Senate.

However, leading opposition parties flayed the government's move and described it as unconstitutional, undemocratic and unethical.

Deputy Secretary General of the six-party Islamic alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Liaquat Baloch said it was the responsibility of all political parties to stop the re-election of Musharraf.

The News quoted him as saying that a joint struggle by the opposition parties was required to oust Musharraf.

"We will make every effort to stop the re-election of General Musharraf,"he said.

Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) condemned the decision and termed it immoral.

"It is a mockery of democracy to say that a Parliament in its dying days has the right to impose on the people, a President for the next five years when it is not in place," PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

The decision would bring all opposition parties closer for a joint struggle against dictatorship, he added.

The Cabinet decision shows the country is not run by the Cabinet but by agencies, Babar said.

Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League also took a swipe on the government for taking an unconstitutional decision.

"How a Parliament with a five-year tenure could give someone a ten-year tenure," Ahsan Iqbal, Central Information Secretary of Pakistan Muslim League said.

It was yet another rigging formula devised to deny the people, the free choice of election and an attempt to perpetuate rule through backdoor, he added.

"The Cabinet decision also showed that the government could not face the people in a fair and free election," Iqbal said.

He said the opposition parties would block this move forcefully and decisively.