Pak may reduce IB strength
ISLAMABAD, Jan 19 — The Nawaz Sharif Government is reportedly considering a massive cut in the present strength of the Intelligence Bureau to make it slim and efficient.

Hong Kong reduces visa-free time
BEIJING, Jan 19 — The sizeable Indian and Pakistani communities in Hong Kong have criticised the new “discriminatory” act of the Hong Kong Government which has reduced the visa-free entry period from three months to 14 days for the people of South Asia.

Lesbian wedding ‘solemnised’
WASHINGTON, Jan 19 — One hundred ministers of the United Methodist Church, defying its ban, has conducted and celebrated a lesbian wedding in Sacramento in trend-setting California.

Tibetan monks arrested
BEIJING, Jan 19 — The Chinese authorities in eastern Tibet have arrested five monks who refused to accept a “patriotic education” campaign, the Tibet Information Network said in a statement today.

Charles, Di ‘married for love’
LONDON, Jan 19 — Excerpts from letters written by Prince Charles and Princess Diana published in the daily Mirror yesterday claim to show that the couple were deeply in love and that their marriage in 1981 was not doomed from the start.

USA warns Milosevic of air strikes

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Agencies) — The USA has warned Yugoslavia of military action if it failed to allow UN peacekeepers and war crimes tribunal representatives into Kosovo to investigate the massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians.

Nato has reaffirmed an activation order for air strikes against Yugoslav targets in Kosovo, but the order has been suspended for now, pending a political decision, State Department spokesman James Rubin said yesterday.

Nato secretary-General Javier Solana had emphasised yesterday that orders for an air operations were still in effect.

The UN security Council members also have strongly condemned the massacre and demanded an immediate investigation.

Washington is perceived by the Serbs and Russians as supporting the Muslim majority in the province against the minority Serbs who are in an overwhelming majority in the rest of the country.

Mr Rubin and the UN Security Council asked Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to reverse a decision to expel the American head of international monitors in Kosovo, Mr William Walker.

Mr Walker on Sunday had blamed Yugoslav security forces for the slaughter of the ethnic Albanians. But the Yugoslav side argued that the security forces were forced into an exchange of gunfire with “ethnic Albanian militants”.

Earlier, yesterday the Yugoslav authorities also refused to allow Ms Lousie Arbour, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, to enter the country from the neighbouring Macedonia on the grounds that she and her team did not have a valid visa.

Ms Arbour had tried to enter the country to investigate massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians.

The Yugoslav Government yesterday ordered head of the verification mission in Kosvo William Walkar to leave the country within 48 hours. A Yugoslav official television carried the order.

Mr Walkar has been accused by Yugoslav Foreign Ministry of prejudiced interpretation of what happened in Racak on Friday during a police operation to arrest groups responsible for terrorist attacks.

The ministry said, Mr Walker to monopolise the interpretation of developments in Kosovo disregarded the competent Yugoslav authorities who are sovereign in every part of the state and solely competent to establish facts within legal framework.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also warned Yugoslavia against the “grave mistake” of failing to live up to the cease-fire agreement in Kosovo.

“There was an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Council today and they made it very clear that the activation order for air strikes is on the table,” Ms Albright told reporters.

Chandrika calls for provincial poll

COLOMBO, Jan 19 (PTI) — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has called for provincial elections soon, which the Opposition said was to escape adverse judgement from the country’s Supreme Court against postponing the polls earlier.

The President, taking opposition parties and media by surprise, announced last night that the elections would follow the crucial January 25 elections in the north-western provincial council, considered by analysts as a test for the ruling Peoples Alliance (PA) and the opposition United National Party (UNP).

In a letter to country’s Chief Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake, the President said the Government had now adequate number of security forces for poll duty, a reason for which she had postponed the elections earlier through a proclamation in August 1998.

The dates for the poll are yet to be finalised.

Even as the official media projected the decision as “confidence” of the President in romping home victorious, the UNP said “the President feared an adverse judgement in the fundamental rights case filed by several candidates questioning her powers to postpone the elections.”

UNP said the Government had become “nervous” and the fact could be gauged from the recent assurance by the Attorney-General to Supreme Court that a “compromise formula would be worked out soon with the Election Commission.”

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister of the Sri Lanka’s North-Eastern province Varadaraja Perumal, who was in exile for eight years in India, will shortly meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga to discuss his future plans.

Mr Perumal, who arrived here secretly is also expected to meet other Sri Lankan leaders, EPRLF sources said here today.

Confirming his arrival for the first time, the EPRLF sources said Mr Perumal was currently in Colombo on an exploratory visit to join active politics, adding that he would be meeting Mrs Chandrika after the elections to North-West Provincial Council on January 25.

The sources said Mr Perumal had arrived here alone, leaving his wife and children in Madhya Pradesh, where he was lodged by the Indian Government to protect him from the LTTE.

“He, however, has not taken a decision to stay here yet and has the option to go back” they said.

“He continues to be a member of our party and we have no problems about his return” the sources said adding that the party would also decide shortly on his future plans.

Clinton trial
Defence focuses on conflicts

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (AP) — White House lawyers are mounting an aggressive defence of President Bill Clinton only hours before he delivers a state of the union address from the very chamber where he was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours’’ a month ago.

In opening arguments before the Senate, Mr Clinton’s defence team was focusing on conflicts in testimony gathered by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, a shift in strategy aimed at undercutting House charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, sources say.

In addition, Mr Clinton’s lawyers have expressed interest in having some Democrats from the House Judiciary Committee join the defence team, according to officials familiar with the White House discussions.

Tonight’s face-to-face meeting between Mr Clinton and the Republican-led Congress caps a momentous day in a month that already has had its share of history-making events. Never before has a President on trial in the Senate appeared before his jurors to deliver a state of the union message.

It will be the second consecutive year that Mr Clinton, with his wife Hillary looking on, delivers the traditional policy speech to lawmakers consumed by his efforts to cover up marital infidelities.

At his trial, meanwhile, the switch from not discussing the facts in the impeachment case to disputing many of them could open the way for Republican demands for witnesses to help resolve the disputes. The White House has been fighting that prospect but now expects witnesses, officials said.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle yesterday concurred, saying witnesses might be inevitable. In an interview with the Associated Press, the South Dakota Democrat said witnesses could lead to the spectacle of a 100 Senators watching former White House intern Monica Lewinsky point to where the President touched her.’’

But Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, dismissed Daschle’s warning as all-or-nothing’’ scare tactics that are just not true.’’

House Republican prosecutors on Saturday finished a three-day presentation of their case in support of two articles of impeachment that were approved on December 19 on mostly partisan votes. The White House will get 24 hours to present its rebuttal. White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff was to spend several hours presenting opening defence arguments on Tuesday before the trial recesses for Mr Clinton’s state of the union address in the House chamber.

After the White House finishes its presentation on Friday or Saturday, the Senate will submit questions in writing to both sides, to be read by Chief Justice William Rehnquist as presiding trial officer.

One area of White House attack is witness testimony in regard to the alleged obstruction of justice. Ms Lewinsky says she got a call from Mr Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie, arranging to pick up gifts from the President a few hours after Ms Lewinsky told Mr Clinton of her concern that she’d have to turn over the presents to lawyers in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against the President.

However, Mrs Currie says she thinks it was Ms Lewinsky who initiated the gift return and Mrs Currie has testified that she has no recollection of ever talking to Mr Clinton about returning the gifts, before or after she picked them up.

The Clinton legal team credits Mrs Currie’s account, while noting that both witnesses testified that the President did not ask Ms Lewinsky to surrender the gifts.

Such back-and-forth forms the backdrop for Clinton’s address tonight, when bitter political enemies crowd onto the House floor as the President, his legacy already soiled by impeachment, lays out his agenda for the year.

Republican leaders have advised their rank and file to give Clinton a courteous, but restrained, reception. Senate Republican aides who asked not to be identified said party leaders were quietly spreading the word that Senators should adopt the demeanour of Supreme Court justices who will attend and not express themselves during the address.

Absent will be House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, who said he prefers to avoid crowds.

A survey released yesterday by the Pew Research Centre for the people and the press showed that a steady two-thirds of Americans want the trial to end with Mr Clinton still in office, and that less than one-third are paying close attention to the historic proceedings.

Sixtynine per cent said the trial had not changed their opinions about whether the President should be removed from office or resign.

Pak may reduce IB strength

ISLAMABAD, Jan 19 (UNI) — The Nawaz Sharif Government is reportedly considering a massive cut in the present strength of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to make it slim and efficient.

At present the civilian spy network has more than 4,000 staffers who have failed to produce positive results for the government, reports the daily “The News”, quoting a senior official of the organisation.

“I think less than one thousand persons are enough to do the job which at present is being done by more than 4,000 staffers,” said a highly placed source, adding that this would save a huge amount of money that is being spent on these staffers.

The cut in the manpower can be compensated by introducing modern technology and equipment for gathering intelligence.

This structural change has reportedly been suggested by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s confidant Senator Saifur Rehman, who was asked last month to examine the working of the IB and suggest revamping. The Sharif Government believes that the agency is filled with political appointees.

The alleged attempt on Mr Sharif’s life early this month and the massacre of 18 Shias at a mosque in Muzaffargarh had convinced the Government that the intelligence agencies needed a thorough review.

However, the dozen-or-so spy networks are not able to help in stemming terrorist activities in the country, even though their political and religious backing is no secret.

Hong Kong reduces visa-free time

BEIJING, Jan 19 (PTI) — The sizeable Indian and Pakistani communities in Hong Kong have criticised the new “discriminatory” act of the Hong Kong Government which has reduced the visa-free entry period from three months to 14 days for the people of South Asia.

Citing rising illegal entry by people of countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Hong Kong special administrative region (HKSAR) government slashed the visa free entry period into Hong Kong to not more than 14 days.

The new directive, effective from January 18, reduced the maximum period of visa-free stay in Hong Kong from three months to two weeks, the Consulate General of India in Hong Kong said in a release.

Indian Consul-General Veena Sikri said the move could have an impact on the “big and active” Hong Kong Indian community.

“Hong Kong is an important trading partner of India and there are a lot of people based here doing business. We would not like to see any effect on trade and commerce but we have to wait and see, Ms Sikri said.

An Indian community representative branded the move “discriminatory” and both Indian Consulate and Pakistan welfare group is flooded with complaints in this regard.

Sources said it was the first time that such an arrangement had been curtailed since Hong Kong was transferred from British to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

However, Hong Kong’s immigration officials defended the move saying that the new directive was required because of “control problems” despite a fall in the number of overstayers from the three South Asian countries from 1996 to November last year.

Statistics show that overstayers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh fell from 590 in 1996 to 482 in 1997 and 354 up to November, 1998.

“We believe that genuine visitors and businessmen would not be affected by the change,” a spokesman said.

However, the Chairman of the Council of Indian Associations, K. Sital said the Hong Kong Government’s move was discriminatory.

Pill that shoots Cupid’s arrow

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (PTI) — Cupid’s mythological arrow may be soon replaced by a pill.

“It is possible to make a pill that will induce love and persuade a man and a woman to marry ... provided both swallow the pill or are tricked into taking it”, says US chemists.

Anthony Walsh, Professor of Criminology at Boise State University and author of “The science of love: Understanding love and its effects on mind and body” says, “it is chemicals which cause persons to fall in love, marry, stay married or divorce or just shack up.

“When you are in love, you feel darned good. You have that giddy feeling, a feeling of exhilaration and euphoria ... that is a chemical reaction”, he notes.

Walsh, who has been happily married over 30 years, says: “the chemicals at work in the phase of my relationship with my wife are the same kinds of chemicals that make an infant calm in the presence of his mother”.

Such chemicals, which promote bonding and calming, he says, include oxytocin, vasopressin and endorphins. Oxytocin is a hormone released during orgasm by both sexes and during childbirth by women. Vasopressin is an anti-diuretic hormone, endorphins are polypetides that have an opiate-like effect, he explains.

Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University who make students undergo magnetic resonance imaging to detect changes in brain chemistry that occur during romantic relationships also endorses the arguments that chemicals caused persons to fall in love, media reports said.

Dr James H. Fallon, Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of California at Irvine College of Medicine; and Robert E. Friar, Professor of Physiology and Human Sexuality at Ferris State University in Michigan say a neurotransmitter called phenylethylamine or pea “gives you that erotic high, and don’t forget the hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which induce lust which accompanies love.

Some of the leading researchers in this field were interviewed in a report titled “The science of love” published in the February issue of “Life” magazine.

Dr Fallon told the magazine that neuroscience discoveries of the past decade let researchers predict — and even to a limited degree control — a phenomenon once thought uncontrollable, namely love.

The learned doctor adds, “we are at the dawn of a new beginning where people may soon never have to suffer the pain of love’s stings and arrows such as rejection, bonding difficulties and “attachment disorders”.

He predicts that within the decade, there will be brain chemical nasal sprays to enhance desire and love between a couple. “We are very close and that is not just happy talk”, he said.

Lesbian wedding ‘solemnised’

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (PTI) — One hundred ministers of the United Methodist Church, defying its ban, has conducted and celebrated a lesbian wedding in Sacramento in trend-setting California.

Pictures of the “marriage” of Ellie Charlton and Jeanne Barnett, waiving to a large crowd at the public ceremony on Sunday, were published throughout USA but those not reconciled to such “weddings” carried placards at the function, one of which read: “brides of Satan”.

At the service a choir of 100 sang hymns from a stage lit with candles and covered with flowers and designed to be an altar, the entire audience stood and swayed.

Tibetan monks arrested

BEIJING, Jan 19 (AFP) — The Chinese authorities in eastern Tibet have arrested five monks who refused to accept a “patriotic education” campaign, the Tibet Information Network (TIN) said in a statement today.

The arrests came after efforts by the authorities to ban photographs of the Dalai Lama and to impose new registration requirements for monks, TIN quoted a former monk now in exile as saying.

The London-based network said one of the five, Lobsang Sherab, was under investigation for charges relating to state security and attempting to overthrow the government.

The other four were arrested for organising displays of Dalai Lama photographs, putting up posters and encouraging a boycott of the campaign.

Two other monks detained at the same time said they were severely beaten before being released, TIN reported.

Charles, Di ‘married for love’

LONDON, Jan 19 (DPA) — Excerpts from letters written by Prince Charles and Princess Diana published in the daily Mirror yesterday claim to show that the couple were deeply in love and that their marriage in 1981 was not doomed from the start.

The letters, written separately in 1983 and 1984 to a close relative who remains unidentified, show that “The Prince chose his bride out of genuine affection.... and reveal that Diana was still deeply attached to her husband when their love was meant to be crumbling.”

When the couple were in Australia in 1983 on Diana’s first major overseas trip since their wedding, Charles called her “wonderful”. He mentioned how gruelling the tour was and said: “I do sometimes worry so much about what I have landed her in at such an impressionable age.” She was then 22.

‘Heirless’ assets
BERNE: Switzerland has begun a campaign to find the claimants to assets dating from World War II which belong to foreigners or stateless people. A list of 580 names was issued on Monday by the Swiss Foreign Ministry and is available at Swiss embassies and on the Internet (www.switzerland. taskforce.ch). The aim of the campaign is to find owners of assets now included in a fund of three million Swiss francs ($2.17 million). — DPA

Lensmen’s awards
WASHINGTON: Three AFP photographers captured awards over the weekend at the 1999 White House News Photographers awards. AFP’s Luke Frazza placed second in the sports action category for his shot of Leslie Sharpe of the National Football League’s Washington Redskins diving for a touchdown. The first and second place went to John McDonnel and Rich Lipski, both of The Washington Post. — AFP

Snow mishaps
ANKARA: Auto accidents in Turkey’s snow-covered capital claimed at least 21 lives on Monday, including 13 persons killed when a bus tumbled off a slippery road. Despite warnings by the authorities of the dangers of snow-covered roads, more than 300 crashes were registered in and around Ankara by mid-afternoon. More than 20 were injured in the bus crash on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said. — AP

KGB device found
BERN: Switzerland has asked Russia for details of Soviet-era spying in the country after the police unearthed long-buried KGB radio equipment which had been secured with explosives, the authorities said on Monday. The metal case, planted at the height of the cold war in the mid-1960s, was found at the end of last year in Woods near Bern, the federal police said. It was buried about 1 metre underground. — AP