Philippines President Joseph Estrada (right) former Presidents Fidel Ramos (left) and Corazon Aquino release doves on Monday, at suburban Quezon city to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the "People Power" revolution that ousted the 20-year-rule of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. — AP/PTI

Spacecraft docks with Mir
KOROLYOV (Russia), Feb 22 — A Russian spacecraft carrying a joint Russian’French-Slovak crew docked successfully today with the orbiting station Mir, mission control said.

China cracks down on rebels
BEIJING, Feb 22 — China today signalled an intensified campaign against dissent, just 11 days before its parliament meets to debate the inclusion of “acts against state security” as a new crime under the constitution.

UK Bill to hit Lankan residents
COLOMBO, Feb 22— Hundreds of Sri Lankans living in the United Kingdom illegally will be on the run when Britain’s new Immigration and Asylum Bill, to empower authorities to make arrests without a warrant, is passed.

Indo-Pak MoU hailed
TOKYO, Feb 22 — Many Asian countries, including Japan and Iran, today hailed the outcome of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s just concluded visit to Pakistan saying that this would ease the danger of a nuclear and conventional arms race in South Asia.

Obasanjo’s PDP wins majority
ABUJA, Feb 22 — The party backing Nigeria’s former military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo for the presidency has won an absolute majority in the new Senate, figures from Saturday’s elections showed today.

Politicians warn Hillary
WASHINGTON, Feb 22 — First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reputation for toughness and political smarts will be put to a full test if she decides to run for a New York Senate seat, politicians from both parties have warned her.

Blast at court hearing Anwar case

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Reuters) — A loud explosion was heard today inside an evacuated Malaysian courthouse where the corruption trial of sacked Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim was being held.

The explosion occurred after a bomb disposal unit had entered a wing of the building to investigate a suspicious box.

Anwar and High Court Judge Augustine Paul were seen being driven away separately from the courthouse.

Nearly 50 police and paramilitary personnel stood guard outside the double-storeyed Moorish federal courthouse in the centre of Kuala Lumpur.

Anwar’s corruption trial had earlier been adjourned for lunch. The building had been evacuated before the bomb disposal squad entered.

Meanwhile, Anwar said he never ordered the police to cover up an investigation into alleged sex crimes by him.

Anwar, answering queries by a defence lawyer at his corruption trial in the high court, stood by his argument that he was a victim of a political conspiracy that culminated with his sacking and arrest in September.

As Anwar testified, a royal commission started public hearings into injuries the former Cabinet Minister sustained in police custody after he was detained.

The trial and commission hearings were taking place simultaneously in adjacent courtrooms, keeping a spotlight on the former Prime-Minister-in-waiting turned dissident.

Policemen stood guard around the court complex. There were few bystanders and no incidents.

Anwar’s appearance in court in September with a black eye sparked global outrage. A police investigation failed to identify who had hit Anwar, although the Attorney-General blamed the police, prompting the police chief to quit last month.

The Royal Commission, charged with identifying the person or persons who hit Anwar and submitting a recommendation to the King, has subpoenaed Anwar to appear tomorrow.

In his criminal trial, Anwar has pleaded not guilty to five counts each of corruption and sodomy.

The four corruption charges under examination since November say he directed the police to force two persons who accused him of sex crimes to retract their allegations.

Fighting breaks out in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Feb 22 (AP) — Serb forces backed by tanks today battled ethnic Albanian rebels northwest of here while US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pushed belligerents to accept a settlement to keep the Kosovo peace talks in France from collapsing.

International peace verifiers also reported the Serb police was separating men from women and children in two ethnic Albanian villages near the fighting in what spokesman Sandy Blyth called “obviously a bad sign”. Television crews reported the police was blocking access to the area.

Fighting erupted at approximately 9.45 local time (2.15 p.m. IST) when about 10 Serb military vehicles came under fire near the town of Vucitrn, about 25 km northwest of Pristina, according to Mr Walter Ebenberger, spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Mr Ebenberger said Serb forces called in reinforcements, including two tanks and an armoured personnel carrier, which returned fire.

He said the fighting ebbed about two hours later, and there was no word on casualties. The ethnic Albanian-run Kosovo Information Centre said the fighting started when government troops attacked three villages in the Vucitrn area.

The latest fighting added urgency to diplomatic efforts to save the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet, France, which appeared near the brink of collapse. Ms Albright returned to the conference site to push the belligerents hard to make a deal with just one day left before the latest deadline of 3 p.m. (7.30 p.m. IST) tomorrow.

The ethnic Albanian centre also said the body of one 50-year-old ethnic Albanian man and his son were found today near Kacane, about 50 km south of Pristina, near the Macedonian border.

In another sign of rising tensions, two unarmed peace monitors from Lithuania and Luxembourg were assaulted by two angry Serbian policemen in Kosovo but were not seriously hurt, the OSCE said.

OSCE spokesman Jorgen Grunnet said the verifiers were on a routine patrol late yesterday, about 30 km north of here, when they were confronted by two policemen. After a brief argument, the observers were “roughed up”, Mr Grunnet said.

Spacecraft docks with Mir

KOROLYOV (Russia), Feb 22 (Reuters) — A Russian spacecraft carrying a joint Russian’French-Slovak crew docked successfully today with the orbiting station Mir, mission control said.

Reporters at mission control at Korolyov, near Moscow, saw live pictures beamed from space of the Soyoz TM-29 capsule docking at 1106 IST.

Russian Commander Victor Afanasyev, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Haignere and Slovak Ivan Bella lifted off from earth on Saturday, the 13th anniversary of the launch of Mir’s first module. They could be the last crew to join Mir before it is retired.

Bella will return to earth after eight days with the departing Mir Commander, Gennady Padalka. Sergei Avdeyev, who has already spent six months in the orbit, will stay for another six months and return in August with Afanasyev and Haignere.

The crew will carry out scientific experiments. Haignere, an air force pilot who visited Mir for three weeks in 1993, plans two space walks during his mission. He is due to instal and remove scientific experiments from Mir’s exterior.

China cracks down on rebels

BEIJING, Feb 22 (AFP) — China today signalled an intensified campaign against dissent, just 11 days before its parliament meets to debate the inclusion of “acts against state security” as a new crime under the constitution.

In an apparent attack on dissidents, the official legal daily said in its editorial that there were “people who have weak awareness and low consciousness of state security.”

“Some people block the state security organs tasked with implementing public affairs according to the law. Some people leak state security secrets and cause severe damage to the government’s work,” said the paper, the official voice of China’s judiciary.

“These hostile elements always hide under a legal and open cover to carry out their secret and illegal activity.

“The special organs of the government should depend on the people to get their support and assistance to expose our enemies and give them no place to hide,” the paper said.

Authorities have cracked down on the outlawed China Democracy Party (CDP) whose members have defiantly called for Congress next week — just days before the annual full session of parliament, the National People’s Congress, starts on March 5.

The CDP, the first group to actively challenge the Communist Party’s 50-year monopoly on power, plans to hold its Congress in the central city of Wuhan from March 1 to 3.

UK Bill to hit Lankan residents

COLOMBO, Feb 22 (UNI) — Hundreds of Sri Lankans living in the United Kingdom illegally will be on the run when Britain’s new Immigration and Asylum Bill, to empower authorities to make arrests without a warrant, is passed.

Quoting the British authorities, the government-run Daily News said these powers are to be granted for the first time in a bid to curb the rising tide of foreigners entering the country illegally and to obviate the necessity for immigration officers to be accompanied by police which is hampering the battle against racketeers flooding Britain with immigrants.

Obasanjo’s PDP wins majority

ABUJA, Feb 22 (Reuters) — The party backing Nigeria’s former military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo for the presidency has won an absolute majority in the new Senate, figures from Saturday’s elections showed today.

Incomplete figures from 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states plus the capital Abuja showed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had won 55 of the 109 Senate seats. The All People’s Party had 18 and the Alliance for Democracy 19 seats.

Results have still not been announced for 16 seats in the Senate, the Upper House of Nigeria’s new National Assembly, which also includes a 360-member House of Representatives, where the PDP is poised to secure a majority.

The National Assembly replaces a council of generals as Nigeria’s law-making body after May 29, the date on which General Abdulsalami Abubakar has pledged to step down to end 15 years of military rule in the oil-producing country of 108 million.

The National Assembly vote, for which a low turnout was recorded in most parts of the country, was seen as a key test of support ahead of a presidential ballot on Saturday.

Front-runner Obasanjo, who relinquished power nearly two decades ago for Nigeria’s last elected president Shehu Shagari faces a serious challenge from former Finance Minister Olu Falae, who is backed by an alliance of the other two parties.

Politicians warn Hillary

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (AP) — First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reputation for toughness and political smarts will be put to a full test if she decides to run for a New York Senate seat, politicians from both parties have warned her.

Former Republican Senator. Alfonse D’Amato, a potential rival for the seat, said the Republicans are actually relishing the battle.

New York city’s combative Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said a run by the First Lady would give him an incentive for seeking the Republican nomination.

“Starting off from the underdog position would probably be a good thing, from my point of view,” Mr Giuliani said on the CNN.

With the impeachment over and the Congress not yet back in full gear, the possibility of a Clinton-Giuliani race in New York dominated news programmes yesterday morning.

It’s the comer story for the US editions of both Time and Newsweek this week.

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, predicted that Mrs Clinton would win if she runs for the seat being vacated by four-term Senator. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat. But it will be a tough fight,” he said on the CBS.

The Republicans differed on the outcome but agreed it would be close. A Time and the CNN poll of New York residents put Mrs Clinton ahead of Mr Giuliani 52 per cent to 43 per cent, but Mr Giuliani, on the ABC Television, said in the end “We are looking at a two or three per cent race.”

Mrs Clinton has said she is talking to people about running and has not made up her mind.

Mr Giuliani said he had no intention of attacking Mrs Clinton over the impeachment of her husband or accusing her of being an opportunist who does not live in New York.

Indo-Pak MoU hailed

TOKYO, Feb 22 (PTI) — Many Asian countries, including Japan and Iran, today hailed the outcome of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s just concluded visit to Pakistan saying that this would ease the danger of a nuclear and conventional arms race in South Asia.

Japanese Premier Keizo Obuchi particularly noted the agreement between India and Pakistan envisaging urgent steps to cut down the risk of an accidental nuclear war and their resolve to intensify efforts to solve all outstanding issues.

Iran hoped the summit-level talks between the two neighbours would lead to peace in South Asia.

Sri Lanka said any improvement in the advancement of Indo-Pak dialogue on contentious issues was good news for the region.

The improvement in relations between India and Pakistan was a welcome sign for the region, a Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Colombo.

Kosovo — a tinderbox in the Balkans
by Mohan Bhatt

WITH prospects of a long-term solution fading away owing to the stiff attitudes adopted, on one hand, by Yugoslav strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, over the deployment of NATO ground troops in Kosovo and by the Kosovars over the grant of limited autonomy, on the other, the stage is set for a prolonged period of tension and unrest in the Balkans.

The peace talks at Rambouillet, the summer chateau of French Presidents in a sleepy town 50 km from Paris, seemed to be going on and on. The talks have again been extended till February 23. The truculent attitude of President Milosevic on deployment of foreign troops to enforce any deal in Kosovo has been stalling the talks. The peace plan proposed by the six-nation Contact Group seems to be practicable, of course, with some give and take. But what the 16-member Serb delegation led by its president, Milan Milutinovic, opposes is grant of a NATO protectorate status to Kosovo. This would give the European military alliance power to oversee and, at times, block Serbian operations in that province.

The Kosovars, which includes the top brass of the Kosovo Liberation Army, are dead set against Serbian suzerainty over their province and want freedom, but moderates like Ebrahim Rugova, the popular leader, are willing to settle for autonomy. Diehards want the province to be part of a “greater Albania”.

The seven-point peace proposal by the Contact Group envisages that Kosovo will remain part of Serbia which would control its economy, defence and foreign policy; Serbia will cut its presence in Kosovo to 2575 policemen and 1,500 army troops (which would be confined to a 5-km stretch on the Macedonia and Albania borders); Kosovars will have to disarm and dismantle the KLA; Kosovo will have a 100-member parliament with all communities represented which would choose a president and a premier and will have a separate judiciary; NATO troops will ensure that the above-mentioned goals are achieved.

The peace plan will be reviewed after three years to ensure whether it has been strictly followed or be modified as per the ground situation.

As this peace plan is being executed at gunpoint by the West and NATO, it would not be palatable to the two sides. A solution to this intractable problem seems a Sisyphean task.

Ethnic Albanians, comprising 90 p.c. of Kosovo’s population, want to preserve their art, culture, language and not be swamped by the Serbs who are keen on ethnic cleansing. The Kosovars have no choice: since they are the weaker side they would prefer NATO protection. The Rambouillet accord, if it comes about, would be a peace thrust on them by Western diktat.

The massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians at the village of Racak, south of Pristina, last month spurred the West and NATO to come to grips with the problem by initially despatching a team of verifiers from the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe). The Serbs, however, gave them a frosty welcome and were reluctant to cooperate with it. Several hundred Kosovars (both ethnic Albanians and Serbs) have been killed over the past year and at least 250,000 made to flee their homes.

The West and USA are ready to provide a military presence but not for committing its troops for a Vietnam-type war. They are ready to give economic support but only if there are signs of peace. They dread the prospect of getting stuck in the Balkan quagmire.

It seems the Rambouillet talks can at best provide a pyrrhic victory to the two combatants. As in Bosnia, it can end the war, but can it bring meaningful peace?

Berlin Film Festival
BERLIN: Terrence Malick’s gripping south pacific war epic “The Thin Red Line” received the Golden Bear award at the conclusion of the 49th Berlin Film Festival on Sunday. Malick’s first film in two decades, up for seven academy awards in Hollywood next month, won out over 24 competition pictures, including the one critics had tipped to take the top award, Shakespeare in Love”. — DPA

Cosmic seeds
BEIJING: Ever on the lookout for innovative ways to feed its 1.2 billion people, China has turned to conditioning rice and wheat seeds in space to lift crop yields, state news media has said. Seven times in the past 11 years China has launched seed-laden satellites and balloons into the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere to expose them to strong doses of solar radiation. The result was a minimum 10 per cent boost over normal crop yields when the irradiated seeds were planted back on earth. — Reuters

Diana’s memorial
PARIS: A popular makeshift memorial above the underpass where Princess Diana was killed in a car crash was splashed with red paint while its base and support column were daubed with yellow and crimson. — Reuters

N. Korea reactors
TOKYO: The construction of planned safer nuclear reactors in North Korea under an international project will be delayed and will not be completed until at least 2007, a daily has said. The expected delay is mainly due to stalled talks on funding for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation The Tokyo Shimbun said on Sunday. — AFP

Biodiversity talks
CARTAGENA: Final negotiations for an agreement on biodiversity here have been delayed once more, a Colombian official said. Talks were to begin again on Sunday at a plenary session that could be the last before Monday’s meeting between ministers, the official said. Delegates from 174 nations had been trying to hammer out regulations on cross-border transport of genetically altered fruits, vegetables and other organic products, known as modified living organisms. — AFP

Jagdish Bhagwati
NEW YORK: Internationally acclaimed economist Jagdish Bhagwati has been appointed to the chair of Indian political economy at Columbia University, the first such specialised centre in the USA set up to study India’s economic reforms. “The chair will provide for a close focus on the study of India’s economic reforms,” said Mr Bhagwati, who is already a faculty member at the university. — PTI

Amnesty for prisoners
SEOUL: South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung will grant amnesty for 1,500 prisoners on Thursday, including a man thought to be the world’s longest-serving political prisoner, local newspapers said on Monday. Another 6,500 persons, who have been convicted of an offence, but have not been jailed, will have their civil rights restored or fines waived under the amnesty to commemorate Kim’s first year in office, the newspapers said. — Reuters

Suharto’s charge
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s disgraced former President Suharto has accused his ministers of making him a scapegoat for all the failures of his regime, local newspapers reported on Monday. Former anti-Suharto dissident Yusuf AR told reporters after meeting Suharto that the retired general complained his ministers — many serving in the government — were trying to shirk their role in his rule by saying he made all strategic decisions himself, The Jakarta Post reported.— Reuters