Scientist spied for China: Time
NEW YORK, March 15 — A Taiwan-born US scientist suspected of passing US nuclear secrets to China travelled in 1988 to Hong Kong and Beijing, where he may have divulged information on Washington’s most modern warhead, Time magazine reports.

Pro-democracy workers on fast
BEIJING, March 15 — Pro-democracy activists in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang said today they had begun an 18-day relay fast in protest against the sentencing of leaders of a banned opposition party to lengthy jail terms.

Men to fight for women
NAIROBI, March 15 — A new initiative by African men to combat the continent’s increasing violence against women is under way, a move few thought possible a few years ago. ‘‘We are trying to redefine what a man is,’’ says Mr Boitsepo Lesetidi of the Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training, South Africa.

US ex-Speaker survived FBI probe
WASHINGTON, March 15 — Former US House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, who as an ally of the then President Jimmy Carter, played a key role in US politics, survived a 20-month secret probe by the FBI for political corruption, documents have revealed.

Monica to Clinton’s rescue
SYDNEY, March 15 — Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, defended her former lover President Bill Clinton today saying that she did not believe him capable of the rape with which he is now accused of.

65,000 Indians arrive for Haj
DUBAI, March 15 — Half a million Muslim pilgrims, including 65,000 from India, have arrived in Jeddah for the annual Haj pilgrimage which reaches its climax on March 26.

Foreign Secretaries’ meeting fails to take place

COLOMBO, March 15 (PTI) — The Foreign Secretary-level meeting between India and Pakistan here on the sidelines of the SAARC officials summit could not take place today as air traffic disruptions delayed Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed’s arrival.

The secretary-level talks between the two countries are aimed at preparing the ground work for the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan.

At today’s standing committee meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Pakistan was represented by Additional Secretary Tariq Altaf, who is also the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The standing committee meeting comprising Foreign Secretaries of all seven SAARC member nations also got delayed by almost five hours due to late arrival of officials.

Indian Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath, who reached here last night, told PTI over the phone from Nuwara Eliya, the venue of the summit, today that he hoped to meet his Pakistani counterpart during the course of the standing committee meeting, which would go on till March 17.

Meanwhile, Pakistan High Commission officials here said that Mr Ahmed’s inability to arrive in time would not have any bearing on the proposed meeting between Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaz Aziz and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.

In view of Mr Ahmed’s absence, Indian High Commissioner to Colombo Shivshankar Menon is co-ordinating with the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman to work out the modalities for the Foreign Ministers meeting, Pakistani High Commission officials said.

Mr Ahmed is expected to arrive with the Pakistan Foreign Minister tomorrow night while Jaswant Singh is scheduled to arrive in the Sri Lankan Capital on Wednesday. The SAARC ministers conference is scheduled for March 18 and March 19.

Lack of optimism at Kosovo peace talks

PARIS, March 15 (AP) — Round II of the Kosovo peace talks opened today with little apparent hope of a deal between rival Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

The failure of the talks could lead to NATO bombardment of Serb strategic targets.

Three weeks after the first round of talks ended without a deal, the Serb and ethnic Albanian delegations entered a Paris conference centre for separate sessions with mediators.

Phil Reeker, the chief spokesman for the conference, said this time, the meeting would last "a few days at the most."

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, co-host of the talks along with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, said this was a time not for ceremony but for hard bargaining.

"Hubert Vedrine and I will have a very blunt and very frank message, and that is that this is not a conference for high rhetoric," Mr Cook said.

This is not a conference for ceremony. There is going to be no grand opening," added Mr Cook. "This is a conference for serious, business-like discussion, hard bargaining, aiming at a rapid conclusion."

But prospects did not look good for a deal. The Serbs say they will not accept a key part of the US-sponsored peace plan — the deployment of some 28,000 NATO-led troops to police the agreement.

The rebel leaders of Kosovo Albanians, who represent 90 per cent of Kosovo’s 2 million persons, have been reluctant to sign because they are not getting the independence they seek, and their guerrillas would have to be disarmed.

China to protect right to property

BEIJING, March 15 (AFP) — China’s Parliament today amended its Constitution to protect private property rights and enshrine the ideology of the country’s late leader, Deng Xiaoping.

The amendment was passed by the assembled deputies of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at their final session, with 2,811 votes in favour (98.4 per cent).

A two-thirds majority at the NPC is needed to change China’s Constitution, while 50 per cent is enough to pass laws or government work reports.

The amendment stresses that non-state enterprise, including private business, will no longer be a compliment to the state sector. It will now be an important component of the emerging socialist market economy.

As regards the US allegations of theft of nuclear technology, China asserted that it was fully capable of developing any kind of military weaponry.

“The so-called ‘spy case’ in which China has allegedly obtained nuclear secrets from the US a real fallacy,” Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji told mediapersons here after the Chinese Parliament gave a thumping approval for his work report for 1998 and passed six constitutional amendments.

Strongly denying charges of theft of nuclear technology, Mr Zhu claimed that some Americans had underestimated the ability of the USA to keep secrets, while they had underestimated the ability of China in research and development of military technology.

Referring to discussions in Washington about designing a theatre missile defence (TMD) system for Asia, the Chinese Premier said: “We are against TMD”.

Reiterating his country’s commitment to improve Sino-US relations, Mr Zhu said his first official visit to Washington would aim at presenting a ‘true picture’ about China and resume the good momentum of a constructive strategic partnership with the USA.

China’s first private sector trade union has been formed in East China’s Zhejiang province.

The union was formed recently in Lucheng district of Wenzhou City in order to protect the legal rights of employees in the private sector in line with state laws and regulations, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Lucheng district is home to 1,600 privately owned small businesses with a 3,000-member-strong workforce. The union has a membership of 200 and its president is a waitress at a local tea-house.

Trade unions are allowed to be formed in Chinese government offices, enterprises and institutions, according to strict rules. However, there are no specific guidelines on the formation of trade unions in the private sector.

The idea of forming a trade union for the private sector has also received the support of the Communist Party’s All-China Federation of Trade Union, the report said.

Wenzhou is known for rapid development of private economy in China. It has 205,000 privately owned small businesses with an employment of 340,000 persons.

Scientist spied for China: Time

NEW YORK, March 15 (AFP, Reuters) — A Taiwan-born US scientist suspected of passing US nuclear secrets to China travelled in 1988 to Hong Kong and Beijing, where he may have divulged information on Washington’s most modern warhead, Time magazine reports.

Time says in editions due for release today that Wen Ho Lee, who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, travelled to a 1988 seminar in Hong Kong and may during that trip have briefed Chinese officials on the miniaturised design of the W-88 warhead.

Lee also visited Beijing the same year, Time says, citing US government sources.

US intelligence officials were chagrined to discover in 1995 that Chinese nuclear blasts carried out from 1990 to 1995 involved a miniature warhead that was a near replica of the W-88, Time says.

But the weekly says Lee was not singled out as a suspect until 1996 when his travel records and movements were more closely examined.

And the magazine says he was not dismissed until after failing a second lie detector test this year. He passed a polygraph test in 1998, according to Time.

Time says the W-88 gave Beijing a “shortcut” to the most modern technology and could allow for Chinese missiles that are “lighter, more mobile, easier to hide and able to hit multiple, long-range targets.”

WASHINGTON: US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger has defended his handling of allegations that China stole US nuclear secrets and again said he would not resign, as some Republicans have demanded.

Appearing on NBC’s meet-the-press on Sunday, Berger also dismissed as ‘outrageous’, suggestions that the Democratic campaign contributions linked to China might have led to a lax approach in the espionage matter.

“You know, there is absolutely no truth to it,” he said.

‘No decisions that were made in connection with a serious espionage or a serious breach of security case were affected in anyway whatsoever by politics... It is outrageous and not based on any evidence,’ Berger said.

Another senior Republican Senator, Mr Dick Lugar of Indiana, recommended a ‘very serious review’ of the country’s China policy. Mr Lugar also said on NBC’s television show that the USA should make clear to China that it will defend Taiwan from a Chinese missile attack.

Pro-democracy workers on fast

BEIJING, March 15 (AFP) — Pro-democracy activists in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang said today they had begun an 18-day relay fast in protest against the sentencing of leaders of a banned opposition party to lengthy jail terms.

Each member of the Zheijiang branch of the outlawed China Democracy Party (CDP) will take turns fasting for a day until March 31, they said in a statement faxed here. The strike began yesterday with a fast by activist Wu Yelong.

Hong Kong (Reuters): The Chinese police has detained a member of a banned Chinese opposition party in eastern Hangzhou City, a Hong Kong-based rights group here said on Monday.

The police took Lai Jinbiao of the China Democratic Party from his home on Sunday evening.

Men to fight for women

NAIROBI, March 15 (IPS) — A new initiative by African men to combat the continent’s increasing violence against women is under way, a move few thought possible a few years ago. ‘‘We are trying to redefine what a man is,’’ says Mr Boitsepo Lesetidi of the Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training (ADAPT), South Africa.

Gender violence had increased in Africa, because men have been brought up to believe that they should act, instead of communicating their feelings.

‘‘Part of the problem is that most men who are violent don’t see the problem of violence against women as a violence, but as discipline, sanctioned by culture,’’ says Mugambi Kiai of the Nairobi-based Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).

The lack of political will in the male-dominated African governments also was identified as a hindrance against women’s progress to change such legal obstacles.

For example, recently when a group of women in Kenya demanded a stake in the ongoing constitutional reform debate, a senior minister in President Daniel Arap Moi’s Cabinet was quoted as saying that the ‘women’s caucus was a monster that did not deserve a place in constitutional reform’.

In Kenya, an average of 4.1 women are killed each month due to violence, compared to three inmates in police and prison cells who die as a result of diseases contracted due to the poor conditions in the east African country’s prisons, according to KHRC figures.

‘This means that women live in more atrocious conditions than prisoners in Kenya,’ says Kiai.

US ex-Speaker survived FBI probe

WASHINGTON, March 15 (PTI) — Former US House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, who as an ally of the then President Jimmy Carter, played a key role in US politics, survived a 20-month secret probe by the FBI for political corruption, documents have revealed.

The investigation, carried out during 1979-81, spanned 12 states and involved electronic wiring of informers, said the documents obtained by “The Boston Globe” under the Freedom of Information Act.

The FBI suspected that Mr O’Neill, a Democrat, used his political clout to win about $ 3 million in federal loans and guarantees for projects in which he and his associates had financial interests. At one time, the FBI felt that Mr O’Neill had received $ 65,000 in kickbacks, but the probe was closed after the investigators failed to find wrongdoing by the Speaker.

Monica to Clinton’s rescue

SYDNEY, March 15 (AFP) — Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, defended her former lover President Bill Clinton today saying that she did not believe him capable of the rape with which he is now accused of.

She told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio here that she was disturbed the word “rape” which had been used by Arkansas nursing home owner Juanita Broaddrick in her allegation against Mr Clinton about an alleged incident 21 years ago.

“I’m not calling Juanita Broaddrick a liar or saying that her story is not true”, she said, but added: “I think that the person I knew I don’t think would ever intentionally harm somebody or make them uncomfortable sexually. That’s my opinion.”

Ms Lewinsky told how she wanted to change her life because the only way she could be anonymous was by wearing a baseball hat, glasses instead of contacts, no make-up and keeping her head down. “If I go dressed normally it’s a little difficult,” she said.

She added that she was considering studying psychology or law, admitting she now knew a little more about the law than she would have liked.

“I don’t want to make a career out of being Monica Lewinsky forever,” said the former White House intern.

She felt very let down by the US system which had failed to protect her, but intended to remain in America because it was important for her healing process that she be surrounded by the people closest to her.

She said how she had felt humiliated and degraded about being described as a stalker after she had felt genuinely close to the President.

She had felt “very, very disappointed” about the hypocrisy of US feminists in their reaction to an affair which sparked debate about the dual morality of society that encouraged sexual freedom and then vilified her as an adultress

65,000 Indians arrive for Haj

DUBAI, March 15 (PTI) — Half a million Muslim pilgrims, including 65,000 from India, have arrived in Jeddah for the annual Haj pilgrimage which reaches its climax on March 26.

A record number of 1 lakh Indian pilgrims are expected to arrive in Mecca for the prayers. The Indian embassy in Riyadh and Indian Consulate in Jeddah have made arrangements to ensure that the Indian pilgrims do not face any problems.

To prevent overcrowding, the Saudi Government this year decided that Saudi citizens would be allowed to perform the prayers only once in five years.

Director Kanin dead
LOS ANGELES: Writer and Director Garson Kanin, who teamed up with wife, Ruth Gordon, to write comedies like “Adam’s Rib” and “Pat and Mike” for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, has died, Daily Variety reported. The Rochester, New York, native died on Saturday of heart failure at his Manhattan home after a long illness. He was 86, the paper said. — Reuters

US programme
WASHINGTON: A US Government programme to protect women against murder by angry husbands, jilted boy-friends or live-in lovers has had a contrary result — it saved more men’s than women’s lives, a study says. When the domestic shelter programme for battered women went into effect, 1,357 men and 1,437 women were killed by partners. Under the programme, the annual rate of such homicides fell to 430 for men and 1,174 for women, said the study carried out in 29 US cities in 1996. — PTI

US troops’ pullout
WASHINGTON: A top US military official has suggested the withdrawal of American troops stationed in Haiti because of the increasing political turbulence in the country that has put the troops in danger. Instead he suggested periodic visits by the US military personnel, Col Vince Ogilvie, head of public affairs of Southern Command said on Sunday. — PTI

Food shortage
DAR-ES-SALAAM: At least one million people are suffering from severe food shortages in Tanzania due to unpredictable weather and crop failures, the UN Food Agency has said. But it said it had only been able to raise half the $ 8 million needed to provide 20,000 tonnes of food to 1.14 million people in 12 regions of the East African nation. “If we don’t receive additional funds to mount this aid operation soon, we’ll see the onset of malnutrition and other hunger-related diseases which may ultimately cost human lives,” Ms Irene Lacy, the agency’s Tanzania director, said. — AP