US 'plans to capture and try Pol Pot'

PRESIDENT Clinton is reported to have ordered plans drawn up for the capture of Pol Pot, the man who brought the killing fields to Cambodia.
US Attorney General, Janet Reno, is assuring Thailand and other countries it would assist in efforts to arrest and try Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader accused of overseeing the slaughter of two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
But White House officials refused to confirm a New York Times claim that plans for a search and arrest operation were being drawn up following an order from the president.
Ms Reno said yesterday: "We are prepared to support and work to implement a variety of options. If there was a situation in which we had to, in an appropriate circumstance, take custody, the Department of Justice would do so."
While the remnants of the ruthless radicals are in hiding in the Cambodian jungle, a Thai military officer said Pol Pot could be captured if he crossed into Thailand, and if the US guaranteed to fly him immediately to another country.
Travelling in Kentucky with President Bill Clinton, the White House spokesman, Mike McCurry, said he was "not aware we are in any position at this point to bring him to justice."
Asked if there might be an inclination to be lenient with Pol Pot because he is in his 70s and in failing health, McCurry said: "This is one of history's biggest mass murderers." There would be no mercy for the Khmer Rouge leader "given the injustices in Cambodia" during his reign.
Vietnam invaded the neighbouring country in 1979 and displaced the Khmer Rouge, which retreated into guerrilla warfare. Last year, Pol Pot lost a power struggle with other Khmer Rouge officials, and was placed under arrest in the jungle for killing a rival and his relatives,
A White House spokeswoman, Ann Luzatto, said: "we think he should be held accountable for the atrocities" committed in Cambodia. "We are supportive of international efforts to have him held to account for the atrocities. We are prepared to support any kind of international effort to bring that about."

Last Supper 'three days' before crucifixion

by Olivia Kelleher
ONE of the world's leading biblical archaeologists has claimed that Jesus and his disciples shared the Last Supper three days — and not just a matter of hours — before his crucifixion.
Father Bargil Pixner argues that new evidence has been discovered to explain the riddle that has long eluded bible scholars, as to why Matthew, Mark and Luke describe the Last Supper as a Passover meal, while John said that Jesus was crucified "just before" Passover. "Both timings in the bible were correct because they were based on different feast day calendars," he said.
Fr Pixner, a Benedictine Prior in the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, bases his theory on excavations which he claims show there was an Essene community in Jerusalem, whose inhabitants went by a solar calendar, which means that they would have had the Passover meal on the Tuesday of Passion week, rather than on the Friday. "By establishing that Jesus shared the meal by the Essene date and not the Temple priests or lunar date, we can properly understand the sequence of events," he said.
If Jesus was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday, and died on Friday, then the trial against him lasted three days.
"This timing makes more sense of the things that were supposed to have happened before he was crucified "at the third hour," which is at 9 a.m. on the Friday. Fr Pixner's claims have been greeted with scepticism by rival scholars, many of whom have denied the Essene presence in the Holy City.
The Essenes, authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, were Jewish purists who reacted against what they saw as the corruption of the high priests, and until recently were assumed to have lived mostly in small rural communities close to the Dead Sea.
Father Pixner has applied to the Greek Orthodox church for permission to excavate in a spot which he says will provide definitive proof for his claims.

Bidding begins for photos of pop star in toilets

PICTURES of George Michael repeatedly visiting the Beverley Hills men's toilets where he was arrested were reportedly touted around newspapers last night.
The superstar singer kept silent as the scandal enveloping him gained momentum.
Michael (34) who may face charges of lewd conduct, was hidden, out of reach of the press.
A spokeswoman at his US record company Dreamworks said yesterday: "There will be no statement today."
He has been bailed until May 5 by Los Angeles Police.
A US tabloid newspaper, The Globe, reported it was bidding for the snaps of the singer entering the toilet block in Will Rogers Memorial Park where he was arrested by undercover police.
They were reportedly taken by "a fan" who had trailed him from his Beverley Hills mansion.
Michael is said to have been caught on film entering and leaving the toilet on three different occasions with different men on one afternoon.
Also on offer were said to be pictures of the singer with friend Kenny Goss in the mansion garden, and sunbathing in the Will Rogers Memorial Park.
But Globe editor Tony Frost told the New York Post: "There's nothing of an explicit nature."
The LAPD has declined to release the arrest "mugshot" of George Michael.
A similar mugshot of Hugh Grant was published around the world after his arrest on a similar
charge of lewd conduct committed on Sunset Boulevard.
The Los Angeles Police Department has also refused for reasons of "privacy" to reveal the exact nature of the lewd act George Michael is supposed to have committed.
But police acknowledge he was alone in the convenience building when the undercover officer entered on routine "crime suppression duty."
Lt Edward Kreins said: "An officer went into the restroom and Mr Michael was engaged in a lewd act in front of him."
They believed he realised another person had entered the building, he said.
Michael was freed on $500 (£308) bail and is due to appear in court on May 5.
Lawyers say a jail sentence for the singer would be unlikely.
A report is to be sent to the DA who will decide whether to pursue the charge against Michael.

Yeltsin's man has 'no hope' in vote

RUSSIAN parliamentary leaders say President Yeltsin's nominee for premier does not have a hope of winning acceptance today.
Yeltsin says he will propose Kiriyenko to the Duma a second time if the MPs reject him. Communists and other hard-liners are insisting the president should nominate another candidate.
Forecasts varied on how many votes Kiriyenko might get, but even pro-government MPs accept inevitable defeat saying he might just scrape together 150 votes — far below the required simple majority of 226 .
"If that happens, that would cause a scandal world-wide and influence the president's attitude to this candidacy," said Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov, a member of the Communist Party. "I would try to convince the president not to nominate the same candidate again."
Communists and other opposition parties have criticised former banker Kiriyenko, 35, with less than a year of government experience, as being unqualified.
The constitution gives Yeltsin the upper hand in disputes with parliament, allowing him to disband the legislature if it rejects his nominee for premier three times. He has said he will use those powers if he has to.
Increasing the pressure on the government, the Communists helped organise a nationwide labour protest yesterday.

Woman and children got priority in evacuation of Titanic

by Olivia Kelleher
ORIGINAL documents relating to the sinking of Titanic have debunked the myth that third class passengers on the liner were locked below deck to enable wealthy passengers in the upper decks to board the lifeboats first.
In the Oscar-winning film, Titanic, there is a scene where the gates are shut and padlocked to keep third class or steerage passengers from escaping.
However, an exhibition in the Public Records Office in London shows that proportionately more men travelling in third class survived than those in second.
And if the film was accurate, two thirds of the first class male passengers would all have escaped with ease.
The documents suggest that the emphasis throughout the evacuation of the 705 was on women and children first rather then on a class system.
Head of publishing at the Public Records office, Aidan Lawless, claims that there is little evidence to prove that the scene in the film ever happened, and argues that the facts indicate otherwise.
"John Jacob Astor, the richest man aboard, who was worth £20.6m, asked to board a lifeboat to be with his wife who was very frail. But he was told that he could not. If the system had been hierarchical he would have been first in to a lifeboat," said Mr Lawes.
It is thought that more first class passengers survived because their cabins were nearer to the lifeboats and many of the emigrants in third class died because their poor English meant that they did not understand what was happening.
Official figures prove that among first class passengers 97% of women, 34% of men and all five children survived.
In second class, 84% of women, 8% of men and all 24 children survived the sinking of the liner.
While casualties were heaviest in third class, 12% of men, 55% of women and 30% of children survived, which would not have been possible if the gates had been locked.
The Public Records Office documents quote a low deck passenger called Pickard who said that they "were not prevented from getting up to the upper decks by anybody or by closed doors or by anything else."
The film scene may have had its origins in allegations by Ben Tillett, the militant leader of London dockers, who claimed steerage passengers were sacrificed to save the upper classes.
Many documents on display at the exhibition are poignant reminders of the scale of the tragedy, such as a casualty list including Frederick and Augusta Goodwin and their six children, and telegrams from the ship.
Meanwhile, the makers of Titanic are set to make a £5,000 donation to the Memorial fund of an officer who drowned trying to save passengers when the liner sank in 1912.
First officer, William Murdoch, the most celebrated native of the seafaring town of Dalbeattie in Scotland, had been depicted unfairly in the film as a coward and a bribe taker who shot at passengers and then committed suicide.
"I am pleased they have acknowledged Mr Murdoch was an honourable and heroic man," said Mr Scott Murdoch, a nephew of deceased officer.

Believe it or not

FOR the faithful, the Gospel account of the passion of Christ needs no further endorsement. However, on April 18, the Shroud of Turin will again go on public display, for the first time in 20 years.
The authenticity of the shroud has often been at the centre of religious and scientific debate since it was discovered in the small village of Lirey, France in 1357. Many theories on the shroud have been advanced since then, but it became somewhat of a cult subject in 1978, when Ian Wilson, in his book The Turin Shroud, declared that the image displayed on the shroud was a "snapshot of the resurrection".
His book followed a US team of scientists' discovery that the image on the shroud displayed wounds consistent with a crucifixion, as described in the Gospel.
The shroud is a negative image on linen of a man with his hands folded. It measures 14" 3' long and 3" 7' wide.
Ten years after Wilson's faithful assertion, however, a group of scientists radiocarbon-dated the shroud's age, not to the time of Jesus, but merely to a medieval era between the mid-13th and late 14th centuries. In other words, the shroud had been scientifically proven to be a fake. In January 1996, more fuel was added to the controversial debate because of discoveries made by a team in the USA.
Professor Leoncio A Garza-Valdes, an archaeological expert in the field of pre-Columbian artefacts, enlisted the expertise of microbiologist Prof Stephen Mattingly. Together they found that the shroud is centuries older than the previous carbon date which placed it in medieval times. The team found the shroud's fibres to be coated with fungi and bacteria which had been growing for centuries. According to Dr Garza and Dr Mattingly, this "biogenetic varnish" had prevented an accurate carbon reading of the shroud in 1988.
Dr Garza's revolutionary technique, a process of applying microbiological principles to archaeological research specimens, had never been used before on the shroud.
True believers, such as author Ian Wilson, no doubt had their faith restored by the San Antonio scientists' findings. And, contrary to claims that the shroud is nothing more than an elaborate hoax, no paints or inks have been found on the linen. Indeed, another member of Dr Garza's team identified a specimen of human male blood on the shroud.
No doubt, when the Shroud of Turin goes on public display next week for the first time in 20 years, hundreds of thousands of believers and sceptics alike will go on pilgrimage to see it and decide for themselves.

The Penguin held for another for 30 day

by Isobel Conway
DUTCH judges have remanded alleged Irish drugs baron George Mitchell, known as The Penguin, in custody for a further 30 days. The 47-year-old multi-millionaire is charged with a £5m computer parts robbery from an Irish truck in the Netherlands last month.
A truck driver, Thomas Massey, from County Meath, was also remanded in continuing custody, after the pair appeared at a closed session of Haarlem District Court yesterday.
Efforts by lawyers of the pair to have them released on bail were rejected. Two other men have been freed, pending the trial expected in mid June.
The request to free the men was rejected after the Dutch Attorney General voiced fears they might try to leave the Country. However, earlier restrictions which had forbidden visits, letters and telephone calls concerning Mitchell and Massey, have been lifted. They are being held in high security wings of separate jails in different parts of Holland.
They were members of a gang caught red-handed by Dutch police stripping a Walsh Western truck of its load near Amsterdam Airport on March 5. The lorry, loaded with computer parts from the Hewlett Packard plant in Leixlip, went missing on its way to a customer in the Netherlands. Their arrest followed the long-running Garda undercover operation, Wedgewood.
Dutch police believe the robbery may have been masterminded by George Mitchell, and reportedly worth £10mllion when he fled Ireland nearly two years ago.
Former County Meath hurler, Thomas Massey, told Dutch police his life and that of his family was threatened by those behind the robbery. He also confessed he was offered £40,000 for allowing his truck to be highjacked.

Mecca stampede kills at least 107 Muslim pilgrims

A STAMPEDE erupted on a crowded bridge near Mecca today, killing at least 107 Muslim pilgrims on the last day of the hajj.
Some were trampled and others fell to their death.
The stampede occurred at 12:40 pm (1040 BST) on a desert plain in searing heat as pilgrims performed a ritual laden with symbolism known as 'stoning the devil'.
The stampede broke out on a bridge at Mina, three miles from Mecca, where 2.3 million Muslims from about 100 countries have gathered, said the state news agency.
Police tried to rescue some of the pilgrims, but the surging crowds prevented them from getting near.
"We seek God's mercy for those who died and patience for their families," the agency said.
Crowds of tens of thousands had struggled with heat that hovered above 100 F (38 C). Helicopters earlier had hovered overhead to spot pilgrims fainting, and workers threw small bags of chilled water from trucks to those making their way to the pillars. To shield themselves, pilgrims covered their heads with towels or carried umbrellas, some inscribed with 'God is great'.
Police using loud speakers had pleaded in Arabic, English, French and Urdu for pilgrims to move along quickly. Other police with batons made room for pilgrims wanting to escape the crowds.
The stampede was the latest tragedy to befall the hajj, which in the past has been marred by other stampedes, fires and political protests that turned violent.
Last year, fires driven by high winds tore through a sprawling, overcrowded tent city at Mina, trapping and killing more than 340 pilgrims and injuring 1,500. In 1994, 270 pilgrims, most of them Indonesians, were killed in a similar stampede there.
In the worst tragedy, 1,426 pilgrims, many of them Malaysians, Indonesian and Pakistanis, were killed in 1990 in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.
Until yesterday, Saudi officials who oversaw the pilgrimage to Mecca had praised the smooth running of this year's hajj.
At the ceremony at the pillars, pilgrims throw seven chickpea size stones at each of the pillars on the Mina plain three times over as many days.
Thursday marked the last day of the hajj.
Pilgrims will still circle the Kaaba to end the pilgrimage, an obligation once in a lifetime of every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it.