Asian Christians stage march
LONDON, March 7 — Asian Christians here staged a march to protest against the persecution of Christians in India” and urged the Indian Government to take action to stop atrocities against the community and missionaries.

Mercenaries’ bid to seize assets
LONDON, March 7 — A group of British mercenaries is mounting a series of legal actions around the world to attempt to seize the assets of the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Catholics protest over poll dates
COLOMBO, March 7 — Thousands of Roman Catholics demonstrated outside churches across Sri Lanka today, brushing aside appeals by the President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, to call off the agitation over the date of local council elections.

Doctorate for Swraj Paul

USA denies training

India to boost trade with Pak

ISLAMABAD, March 7 (PTI) — India has said it is keen on further boosting trade ties with Pakistan at a pace at which Islamabad is comfortable with.

"India is willing to move along with Pakistan in trade and other matters at a pace at which Islamabad is comfortable with," Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan G. Parthasarthy said while addressing a meeting of Pakistani businessmen and industrialists in Karachi yesterday.

"India is keen to develop bilateral trade relations with Pakistan benefitting both countries," he said adding that the world is fast becoming a global village and this has necessitated the two neighbours to cooperate with each other and develop trade links.

The Indian High Commissioner also said that India was concentrating more intensely in boosting trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. It was also strongly committed to a South Asian free trade regime by 2001.

"Our trade with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and other SAARC countries has increased and in the same spirit we shall develop trade relations with Pakistan", Mr Parthasarthy said adding that "we are also negotiating with China for expanding trade".

The Indian High Commissioner’s comments came a few days after Pakistani Finance and Commerce Minister Ishaq Dar ruled out the possibility of any liberalisation of trade relations with India.

Responding to questions by Pakistani businessmen about problems in obtaining business visas for India, Mr Parthasarthy promised to facilitate them with the same despite the fact that the "high commission at Islamabad has to cope with a very high demand for visas daily".

He said that every day the high commission receives 850 to 900 visa applications but it cannot process more than 350 due to shortage of staff.

The Indian High Commissioner, who had been Consul General at Karachi, was on his first visit to Pakistan’s commercial capital since taking over about a month ago, also visited the tomb of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, today.

Mr Parthasarthy recalled an earlier visit of former Indian Foreign Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, to the tomb of Pakistan’s founding father in 1981 and noted that his visit to the mazar was an appropriate symbol of the desire of the people of India to promote friendly and neighbourly relations with Pakistan.

The Indian High Commissioner’s visit to the tomb of Pakistan’s founding father came barely a fortnight after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, set up in memory of the 1940 resolution of the All Andia Muslim League demanding a separate nation.

Indo-China border talks soon

BEIJING, March 7 (PTI) — China today said the vexed border talks with India would resume soon but urged New Delhi and Islamabad to roll back their atomic weapons' programme.

"I expect, may be soon, the joint working group (JWG) on the boundary question between China and India will resume their activity,’’ the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, told mediapersons here on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Chinese Parliament.

China had suspended the JWG session last year, protesting against the Indian nuclear tests and New Delhi’s alleged "China threat".

Beijing had also been dilly-dallying on the question of resumption of official-level dialogue between the two sides to normalise bilateral relations, which had remained frozen for over seven months.

The last JWG meeting was held in New Delhi in August, 1997, with Mr Tang, the then Vice-Foreign Minister, leading the Chinese delegation.

India contends that China is illegally occupying 43,180 square km of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 square km illegally ceded to Beijing by Pakistan under the Sino-Pakistani boundary agreement in 1963.

China, on the other hand, claims that India is occupying some 90,000 square km of the Chinese territory.

While denying responsibility for deteriorating Sino-Indian relations since May last, the Chinese Foreign Minister expressed the hope that New Delhi would take "concrete steps" to revive and boost further bilateral ties.

He claimed that Beijing had made "unremitting efforts" for a long time to improve relations with India.

Welcoming the recent statements of Indian leaders, including those by Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, expressing New Delhi’s desire to have friendly and good neighbourly ties with China, Mr Tang said, "Recently we have noticed that leaders of India have on several occasions made public statements expressing their wish to improve relations with China".

He stressed that "they (the Indian leaders) have also repeatedly said at present India does not regard China as a threat to India".

China ‘tests’ stolen N-warhead

LONDON, March 7 (PTI) — China has successfully tested the most advanced nuclear warheads systems, which it stole from the USA and could now have the capability to compete in arms race with the West, The Observer daily reported here today.

The USA was facing the most damaging espionage scandal of the post-cold war era with new evidence emerging that secrets of the US most advanced W-88 nuclear warheads had been stolen by Chinese agents working at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, the report said.

According to the daily there were warnings that a network of Chinese agents were at work in highly sensitive US nuclear installations, helping transform China’s nuclear capability into an arsenal based on stolen and legally exported US technology.

The paper, quoting high level US intelligence sources, said it had emerged that for three years, the White House and President Clinton had been resisting mounting administration pressure to act and had fought off dire warnings of top classification leaks from Los Alamos in a bid not to disrupt the trade driven thaw with the Chinese Communist regime.

BEIJING (AFP): The Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, denied today a US press report alleging China built and tested nuclear bombs using information stolen from a US Government laboratory.

“This report is irresponsible and unfounded,” Mr Tang said during a press conference.

The New York Times reported yesterday that secret design information was stolen during the 1980s but was not uncovered until 1995.

China’s nuclear weapons designs were about a generation behind those of the USA until the mid 1990s, when the Chinese nuclear test bombs began to show similarities to the US most advanced miniature warhead, the Times reported.

The Pentagon confirmed in January the FBI was actively investigating whether China obtained secret information for the most modern US nuclear warhead.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said at the time the government had identified “security problems” at US Department of Energy laboratories, which design and test US nuclear weapons, in the mid-1980s but had since tightened security.

Meanwhile, UNI adds from Washington that the Clinton Administration is investigating whether China stole the nuclear secrets and used them to improve its own arsenal.

“Currently there is an ongoing investigation to determine if there was criminal conduct and we continue to assess the implications for national security”, said White House National Security Council spokesman David Leavy.

According to other administration sources federal agents had questioned a suspect this week for his possible involvement in stealing top secret documents from the national laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and passing them to Beijing.

Beijing’s dig at Dalai Lama

BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) — On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Tibet, China lambasted the Dalai Lama today as a stubborn mastermind of a 40-year Tibetan independence movement.

“The Dalai Lama has been obstinate in his vain attempt to gain Tibet an independence”, the official Xinhua news agency said of the exiled spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

“In the past four decades, the Dalai Lama has changed some of his tactics, but his attempts to split Tibet from the motherland have remained unchanged”, it said.

“The Dalai Lama is the major source for social disturbances in Tibet as well as the biggest obstacle to the establishment of the normal order of Tibetan Buddhism,” it said, apparently referring to intermittent protests by people loyal to the Dalai Lama. “His attempt to separate Tibet from its motherland and realise the fond dream of restoring his rule in old Tibet is bound to fail”.

The commentary appeared on the eve of the 10th anniversary of Beijing imposing martial law in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on March 8, 1989, following three days of anti-Chinese riots. An estimated 50 Tibetans were shot dead by police during the mayhem, and martial law remained in effect for more than a year, until May 1, 1990.

Meanwhile, China has put on alert its entire security apparatus in Tibet to foil violent pro-independence activities ahead of the 40th anniversary of the abortive Lhasa uprising against Chinese rule, sources said here.

The authorities have mobilised new resources to ensure law and order in Tibet in the run-up to the sensitive anniversary of the March 10 anti-China uprising, the sources said, while noting that Beijing will not tolerate violent protests in the Himalayan region.

China’s Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) crushed the rebellion on March 22 following which Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama fled to India.

Pro-independence activities in Tibet and Xinjiang are regarded serious threats to stability in China.

Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao this week said top priority should be given on maintaining social stability in Tibet.

We should unswervingly maintain social stability, fight against separatism and safeguard the unity of the motherland and ethnic solidarity with a clear-cut stand, Hu, a former Communist Party Secretary of Tibet said during the ongoing session of the Chinese Parliament here.

Sources also said that Chinese President Jiang Zemin may visit Tibet later this year to help pacify anti-Beijing feelings in Lhasa.

Meanwhile, China is organising a mega exhibition here from tomorrow to showcase changes in the Himalayan region under Communist rule since 1959.

The exhibition will also coincide with the 40th anniversary of Tibet’s abortive March 10 uprising against Chinese rule.

Asian Christians stage march

LONDON, March 7 (PTI) — Asian Christians here staged a march to protest against the persecution of Christians in India” and urged the Indian Government to take action to stop atrocities against the community and missionaries.

The 3 km silent march went through central London last night passing in front of the Indian High Commission to highlight what they called “growing persecution of Christians in India.”

The march organised by the Alliance of Asian Christians, a group claiming to represent some 45,000 Asian Christians here and 200 churches in UK paused outside the High Commission premises at the strand to submit a protest note calling on the Indian Government to take action to stop atrocities against Christians and missionaries.

The march was backed by evangelical alliance, of the Church of England and Catholic and other orthodox churches, who run considerable number of educational and missionary institutions in India. The protesters in the march came from churches all over England, with leading churches in London, Manchester, and other areas laying coaches to transport marchers.

About 2000 persons carrying banners and placards listing what they called “113 acts of persecution over the last 10 months as compared with just 50 in 50 years of Indian Independence”, started from Holborn tube station, passed in front of High Commission in Aldywich before continuing down the strand top Arundel street and onto the embankment.

The march was followed by a multi cultural prayer vigil at the Christian Centre in Marsham street near Westminster. Mr Pradip Sudra, general secretary of the Asian Christian alliance said, “The march is to convey our strong feelings against the increasing number of reports of persecution of Christians in India.”

The speakers at the Westminster vigil claimed that when the Australian missionary Graham Staines and two of his sons were burnt to death in Orissa, the authorities ordered an inquiry not into their deaths, but into the question of Christian conversions.

Genetic research — playing with fire

PARIS, March 7 (PTI) — Recent advances in biological research have paved way for new type of biological weapons which could kill a particular ethnic or familial group in a region or a city, making them a nightmare of 21st century, warn scientists.

“It will be unfortunately possible to design biological weapons targeting specific ethnic groups when more information on genome research is available,” says Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Head of Science and Health Policy at the British Medical Association (BMA), London.

In simple terms, scientists say that advances in biological sciences will differentiate Africans from whites, Arabs from East Asians using genetic characteristics and this technology can be converted to design appalling biological arsenals in future.

This terrifying prospect may be an unwelcome piece of spin-off from research being carried out under the Human Genome Project (HGP), an international scientific effort to map and sequence the genes in the human body and find out more about human DNA.

The HGP, started in 1990, aims to trace and identify the 60,000 to 80,000 genes in the human body. About 17 per cent of the genes have already been sequenced, and the project is expected to be finished by 2003, the year that marks the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Fransis Crick.

On the positive side, the detailed understanding of human genetic mechanisms will help scientists to find out the cause of many diseases. Genome research has already helped to identify genes associated with diabetes, breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

HGP will enable the doctors to predict whether or not a specific drug will work on a particular patient, allowing therapies to be more accurately targeted, revolutionising medical sciences.

Scientists say, on the contrary once completed, the project will also provide sufficient data about genetic differences between population and ethnic groups, possibly leading to the misuse of this technology to target groups specifically with dangerous micro-organisms.

The world community is already struggling to eliminate existing biological weapons. These weapons, which carry disease spreading agents like Anthrax and other lethal toxins, can devastate human beings without causing damage to buildings or infrastructure.

The 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) prohibits its 142 signatories from developing, producing, stockpiling and acquiring biological weapons. However, arms control experts say that it needs to strengthen with more export controls and strong verification procedures.

Experts say that professional scientists and physicians in developed countries, where the research is being currently undertaken, should have ethical responsibilities and take no part in biological and genetic weapon projects and close monitoring of developments in biotechnology.

Mercenaries’ bid to seize assets

LONDON, March 7 (AFP) — A group of British mercenaries is mounting a series of legal actions around the world to attempt to seize the assets of the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The paper said the firm had begun legal moves in Britain, the USA, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.

The move follows an international tribunal ruling last October that the government must pay the $ 18 million (US) balance of a contract to hire Sandline’s mercenary army.

Papua New Guinea tried to abort its 36-million-dollar contract with Sandline to supply mercenaries to put down a 10-year-old secessionist conflict on the Island of Bougainville.

Catholics protest over poll dates

COLOMBO, March 7 (AFP) — Thousands of Roman Catholics demonstrated outside churches across Sri Lanka today, brushing aside appeals by the President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, to call off the agitation over the date of local council elections.

Catholics carried placards before and after Sunday services to condemn the elections chief for scheduling the elections on April 1, which they said would disrupt Easter services.

Ms Kumaratunga went on television yesterday night urging the Catholic minority to call off the protest.

Doctorate for Swraj Paul

LONDON, March 7 (PTI) —Dr Swraj Paul , a leading NRI industrialist and Chairman of Caparo Group, has been conferred with an honorary doctorate of science by the University of Buckingham here.

The doctorate was conferred on Lord Paul, who is also Britain’s roving economic ambassador, by the University Chancellor, Sir Martin Jacomb, on Friday, a release issued by the university said today.

USA denies training

COLOMBO, March 7 (PTI) — The USA has rejected the application of a senior Sri Lankan Army Officer for American military training programme even as it approved the sale of C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and speed boats to the country.

The application of an “unidentified” senior army officer was rejected by US Army’s Pacific Command for alleged human rights violations during anti-LTTE operations in north, the state-owned Sunday Observer said.

Love, leave or marry them
WASHINGTON: The US Army has tightened its rules on fraternisation and issued a “love them or leave them” ultimatum to all enlisted soldiers and officers who are romantically involved. And not only love them but marry them. It gave them one year to tie the knot or break up permanently. Under the new rules, those now dating must either marry by March 1, 2000 or end their relationship. Any officer who is smitten by a cute private but who has not yet told her that will now have to forget it: all such new romances are off limits in future. — PTI

Balloonists’ bid foiled
TOKYO: Two British balloonists forced by bad weather to ditch into waters off Japan on a round-the-world attempt were safely rescued by Japanese military forces on Sunday, an official spokesman said. The spokesman for the Japan Self Defence Forces (SDF-military) told Reuters a helicopter and an aircraft were involved in the rescue and the two balloonists were safely back on land. — Reuters

Ta Mok interrogated
PHNOM PENH: Notorious Khmer Rogue military chief Ta Mok Ahs spent his first night in government detention, handcuffed and undergoing rounds of interrogation after his arrest on Saturday, security sources said on Sunday. His interrogation was filmed by military intelligence officers, the sources said, but no further details of the results of the questioning were immediately available. However, it remains unclear whether Ta Mok faces a local military court, a civil court or a international tribunal recently recommended by a panel of UN experts. — AFP

2 boats sink, 4 dead
MIAMI: Two boats attempting to smuggle about 36 Haitians into the USA sank off the coast of Florida and only three survivors had been found, the US Coast Guard said. The three survivors were plucked from the Atlantic Ocean early on Saturday about 48 km off of Palm Beach, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeff Hall said. — Reuters