WASHINGTON: The sex-scandal rocking the US is set to prolong as the White House and Republicans have locked their horns over the issue of calling witnesses to the senate. Republicans, who enjoy a 55-45seat edge, backed calling Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses, Clinton friend Vernon Jordan and White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, and even democratic opponents of the measure conceded the majority would probably win. The Democrats are in no position to block their summons as it needed only a simple majority. However, as a concession to the democrats, the house managers have agreed not to call Betty Currie, the President's secretary who facilitated Lewinsky's entry into the oval office when Clinton wanted her services.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Wednesday censured President Chandrika Kumaratunga for using emergency powers to postpone key local council elections and ordered the restoration of the vote. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice G P S De Silva held that Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake should not have followed a wrong order issued by Kumaratunga indefinitely putting off the elections. The landmark judgement was delivered following a series of cases filed by theopposition and rights groups against the postponement of elections for five provincial councils that were originally due last August 28. The Supreme Court ordered the elections commissioner to announce the provincial council election dates within three months.

LONDON: Former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Dennis Halliday said that anctions against Iraq were leading to up to ,000 deaths a month in an interview published here on Wednesday. ``After eight years in Iraq, we've got to classify sanctions as a form of warfare, given that they're producing 5,000-6,000 Iraqi deaths per month,'' Halliday told the Guardian. ``We've got to come up with another answer.'' Halliday, 67, an Irishman and a former diplomat, resigned last September from his job overseeing the Iraqi oil-for-food programme in protest at continuing sanctions. A UN official for more than 30 years, Halliday Left Baghdad after 13 months of supervising implementation of the 1996 deal which allows Iraq to sell limited quantities of crude to buyhumanitarian supplies. The deal was set up under UN sanctions imposed since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

REWARD

Egyptian millionaire Mohamed al-Fayed is offering a million-pound reward for information which would trace the mystery Fiat Uno reportedly involved in the Paris crash that killed Princess Diana, his spokesman said.

Al-Fayed, whose son Dodi died alongside the Princess of Wales in the August 1997 crash, ``will make an announcement in the next couple of days,'' the spokesman said. ``It will be a reward of up to one million for information leading to the identity of the driver of the Fiat or the whereabouts of the vehicle,'' he added.

The white Fiat reportedly struck the Princess's Mercedes a glancing blow as it entered the Alma tunnel in central Paris. But the vehicle has never been found.

Al-Fayed, owner of London's luxury Harrods department store, and the Hotel Ritz in Paris, has alleged that his son and Diana were the victims of a secret services plot to prevent the couplemarrying and embarrassing the British monarchy.

IT'S OFFICIAL

Sacked Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai officially ANNOUNCED THAT he will stand for Prime Minister in May's election as leader of a new centrist party. ``This new team will lead us along a new path. Our priority is the unity of the people,'' Mordechai told a news conference. He was flanked by former Army chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who has been named deputy leader of the party, former finance minister Dan Meridor and former Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo. Mordechai, Meridor and Milo have all left the Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the new grouping, whose name has not yet been announced. Mordechai gave few details of his electoral platform, but said ``teams have been given instructions to prepare our programme''.He called for the implementation of October's Wye accord, which has been frozen since Netanyahu refused in December to carry out the second of three Israeli troop withdrawals from the WestBank. He also urged ``territorial concessions'' on the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967. ``Our strategic aim is to achieve real peace on every front,'' Mordechai said.ĪSACKED Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai officially announced that he will stand for Prime Minister in May's election as leader of a new centrist party. ``This new team will lead us along a new path.

Our priority is the unity of the people,'' Mordechai told a news conference. He was flanked by former Army chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who has been named deputy leader of the party, former finance minister Dan Meridor and former Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo. Mordechai, Meridor and Milo have all left the Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the new grouping, whose name has not yet been announced. Mordechai gave few details of his electoral platform, but said ``teams have been given instructions to prepare our programme''.

He called for the implementation of October's Wye accord, which has beenfrozen since Netanyahu refused in December to carry out the second of three Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank. He also urged ``territorial concessions'' on the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967. ``Our strategic aim is to achieve real peace on every front,'' Mordechai said.