Dole’s wife may join presidential fray
WASHINGTON, March 11 — Ms Elizabeth Dole, wife of former Republican Leader in the Senate Bob Dole, has joined other Republicans in seeking nomination for the US presidency.

Soya oil breast implants banned
From Sarah Boseley
BREAST implants filled with soyabean oil, chosen by thousands of women because of the panic surrounding silicone, were banned in the UK by the Department of Health on Monday amid concerns for their safety.

Drug reactions ‘claim 1 lakh lives’
WASHINGTON, March 11 — Adverse drug reactions and clash of medicine in American hospitals claim as many as 1,00,000 lives every year, a scientific study here shows.

Fat-salaried UN dog
UNITED NATIONS, March 11 — UN has strongly defended a dog in its ranks who earns $ 150,000 annually — more than an Under Secretary General in the world body.

Congo expels UK envoy for spying
KINSHASA, March 11 — The Democratic Republic of the Congo ordered the expulsion of a British diplomat yesterday. Accusing him and five detained British and US government officials of spying.

Holbrooke’s talks with Milosevic fail

WASHINGTON, March 11 (AFP) — President Bill Clinton’s Kosovo policy suffered a double defeat as talks with Serbia’s leader failed and Congress strode towards a vote on lending US troops to a possible peacekeeping force in the war-torn Sebrian province.

US envoy Richard Holbrooke said in Belgrade yesterday that talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had yielded no progress, dimming prospects for a peace deal between Serbs and separatist Kosovar Albanians.

"He did not change his previously stated positions and obviously we didn’t change ours," Mr Holbrooke told CNN after lengthy direct talks.

Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert overrode Secretary of state Madeleine Albright’s strong objections and set a debate on contributing US forces to an eventual NATO force today.

"Some have said we should not have this debate. I disagree," Mr Hastert said in a statement on a House and Senate resolution that would authorise Clinton to deploy US soldiers for such a mission.

Ms Albright had warned a House panel that a divisive debate would send the wrong signal to the warring parties at this critical time

"A Congressional debate now, I can assure you, would complicate our efforts to get the Serbs and the Kosovar Albanians on board," Ms Albright said, adding it might also cause rifts within NATO.

"I might add that a vote at any time to oppose an authorisation could be taken as a green light for both sides to resume fighting," she added.

Should a peace agreement be reached, Washington has said it wants to send some 4,000 US troops to take part in a 30,000-strong NATO peace implementation force in the majority-Albanian province where the Kosovo Liberation Army has been fighting for independence.

SKOPJE (AFP): German battle tanks being deployed overseas for the first time since the second world war are expected in Macedonia as part of a potential peacekeeping force for Kosovo.

Major Rainer Goetz, military spokesman for the German contingent of the NATO force on Wednesday said four Leopard-2 tanks would cross the border from Greece into Macedonia.

Dole’s wife may join presidential fray

WASHINGTON, March 11 (PTI) — Ms Elizabeth Dole, wife of former Republican Leader in the Senate Bob Dole, has joined other Republicans in seeking nomination for the US presidency.

Ms Dole, however, made it clear yesterday she would take a final decision on becoming the first US woman president after travelling across the country to find what Americans want from their next president.

She took the first step by setting up an exploratory committee to raise money and touted her service under five presidents. She had served as Secretary of Transportation and Labour between 1983 and 1990.

"I know a lot about running in presidential campaigns. I have been involved in a lot of them," said Ms Dole who campaigned for her husband during his failed White House bid in 1996.

In an editorial The Washington Times said Ms Dole’s chances, at present rated low, will improve if her husband stops promoting the viagra sex potency pill on television.

Ms Dole and Texas Governor George W Bush, son of name sake of the former president, who got a Republican nomination bypassing Vice President Al Gore are rated high among the president probables, the elections for which would be held in 2001.

A Gallup poll yesterday gave Mr Bush 56 per cent of the votes against 45 per cent for Mr Gore and 50 per cent for Ms Dole.

Khatami meets Pope amidst protests

VATICAN CITY, March 11 (AFP) — Iranian President Mohammad Khatami arrived at the Vatican today for a private audience with Pope John Paul II on the final day of a landmark trip to Italy.

About 50 Iranian dissidents demonstrated near St Peter’s Square, shouting "Khatami terrorist" as the President arrived with a heavy police guard.

The Pope bid Khatami "welcome" in Italian before starting the talks, which were to take place in English.

The demonstrators were from the Iranian Opposition movement national resistance council — People’s Mujahideen.

The meeting with the Pope will conclude Khatami’s visit to Italy, the first by an Iranian leader to Western Europe since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

TURIN (Italy): Overlapping with the visit of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, author-in-hiding Salman Rushdie surfaced in Italy yesterday to pick up an honorary degree from the University of Turin.

Mr Rushdie described the simultaneous visits as coincidence.’’

He joked to reporters that there was no meeting with Mr Khatami in his schedule adding he wanted as little to do with Iran as possible.

The India-born Rushdie last month marked his 10th year in hiding from a death edict issued by the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini said Rushdie’s "The Satanic Verses’’ was blasphemy.

Living in Britain, Rushdie has appeared from time to time in public but generally with little advance warning and lots of security.

In Turin, Rushdie said the comparatively moderate views of Mr Khatami gave him hope yet noted those views weren’t shared by all of Iran.

Mr Khatami’s government has distanced itself from the drive to carry out the death edict, saying last fall that it would not be associated with any reward.

However, Iran’s state-run news agency quoted Mr Khatami as signalling displeasure at Rushdie’s Italian appearance.

In Rome, Mr Khatami said he was sorry to see European countries "encouraging a person who has desecrated sanctities and feelings of more than one billion Muslims," the Islamic Republic News Agency said.

Soya oil breast implants banned
From Sarah Boseley

BREAST implants filled with soyabean oil, chosen by thousands of women because of the panic surrounding silicone, were banned in the UK by the Department of Health on Monday amid concerns for their safety.

Some 5,000 women who have had the Trilucent implants since they were launched in 1995 now face uncertainty and anxiety. While surgeons and clinics have been told to send back their stocks of Trilucent implants, those women who already have them are being told that more research is being done to establish whether they are at risk. Advice lines have been set up to cope with the anticipated fears of many of the women.

The news caused the old furore over breast implants to erupt again, as the anti-silicone campaigners claimed British women had been used as guinea pigs for an implant that is not licensed in the USA. They also pointed out that the soyabean oil filling is contained in a silicone shell.

There have been 74 reports of adverse effects from the Trilucent implants in five years, the most worrying of which relate to inflammation and swelling caused by ruptures or leakage from the implant. There have been concerns that any leaking oil is not absorbed into blood vessels and removed from the body as well as intended.

The government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeremy Metters, said the Medical Devices Agency, which monitors the safety of implants, had received a small number of "reports of local complications". On the precautionary principle, the government advised that no more should be implanted.

"Further investigations are being undertaken to provide additional advice to those women who have these implants, so that they can make an informed choice as to what to do next. Until this information is available it is prudent to stop more women being exposed to any potential risk." Women are advised to talk to their doctors.

The soyabean oil-filled implants were licensed in this country in 1995 and were immediately promoted by cosmetic clinics as a natural alternative to silicone. Many women who wanted enlarged breasts were nervous of silicone following the massive publicity that surrounded legal action against the manufacturers in the USA, where a number of women secured huge compensation for injuries ranging from joint pains to chronic fatigue syndrome which they alleged were caused by ruptured implants.

Pro David Sharpe, President of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, is a supporter of silicone, which was given a clean bill of health by an Independent Review Group commissioned by the Department of Health last July. "Cosmetic companies who sold these implants in vast quantities have traded on the fear of silicone," he said.

Evidence suggests now, he said, "You can get an emulsion around the implant if it leaks with a yoghurty type appearance", although he was not aware of any lasting ill-effects once the implant was removed. The suppliers of Trilucent implants, Collagen Aesthetics, who have just sold their holding to Sierra Medical Technologies, and the manufacturers Lipomatrix, claimed they were confident the implants were safe.

— The Guardian, London

2 Tibetan monks held at Lhasa

BEIJING, March 11 (AFP) — Two Tibetan monks were detained in Lhasa after they staged a brief protest to mark the anniversary of anti-China riots, the Tibet Information Network (TIN) said today.

The London-based TIN also said in a statement that at least 80 people had been arrested in recent weeks around Lhasa to discourage attempts to commemorate the riots.

The two monks reportedly shouted slogans for a few minutes in the Barkhor Square area "before being arrested by security police," TIN said in a statement received here. It said full details were not yet available.

Barkhor Square, at the foot of Jokhang Temple in the centre of the Tibetan Capital, was where both the March 10, 1959 uprising and the March 8, 1989 anti-China demonstrations started.

The first uprising resulted in thousands of Tibetans killed and the second riot led to at least 70 dead.

According to the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, Lhasa has been placed under tight military security ahead of the anniversaries.

Three military vehicles, each containing eight soldiers in riot gear and dogs, patrolled the Barkhor Square area yesterday, while security officers with binoculars scanned the area from rooftops, a source in Lhasa told the campaign group.

Drug reactions ‘claim 1 lakh lives’

WASHINGTON, March 11 (PTI) — Adverse drug reactions and clash of medicine in American hospitals claim as many as 1,00,000 lives every year, a scientific study here shows.

The study, headed by Dr Bruce Pomeranz of the University of Toronto, said the intake of alcohol, vitamins and herbal supplements affects the process of medication and incompatible drugs alter the action of others.

"The sky-rocketing number of drugs on the market, combined with the lack of a uniform system for preventing or tracking interactions, raise the potential for dangerous interactions," said "AARP Bulletin", yesterday.

Congo expels UK envoy for spying

KINSHASA, March 11 (Reuters) — The Democratic Republic of the Congo ordered the expulsion of a British diplomat yesterday. Accusing him and five detained British and US government officials of spying.

Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji told Reuters the diplomat, who was briefly detained on Sunday, had been told to leave the country at once.

"A diplomat who was the guide in all of this, we have pronounced him persona non grata", he said. "He must leave the country today. I delivered the message to the British ambassador".

It was not immediately clear whether the diplomat — named by Britain as Gregor Lusty — had left the country yet.

Britain’s Foreign Office criticised the expulsion.

Fat-salaried UN dog

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (PTI) — UN has strongly defended a dog in its ranks who earns $ 150,000 annually — more than an Under Secretary General (USG) in the world body.

UN Assistant Secretary General Toshiyuki Niwa justified the bomb sniffing canine’s job in view of large number of suspicious packages and letter bomb threats which the world body receives, after Costa Rica, during the budgetary committee meeting recently, questioned the wisdom of spending so much on the high security dog — Jerry.

The dog and its handler earn $ 60 per hour and work for ten hours a day for 252 days a year. Jerry, got the job following bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

But Jerry’s job is still temporary and it will be known after the general assembly passes budget later this whether he will continue to earn more than an USG even though he may not get the rank and an office.

Clinton admits mistakes
GUATEMALA CITY: Facing anti-US protests over deportations, President Bill Clinton has admitted to Guatemalans that US support for "widespread repression" in their bloody 36-year civil war was a mistake. "For the US, it is important that I state clearly that the support for military forces or intelligence units which engaged in violent and widespread repression ...was wrong," Mr Clinton said today as he began a round-table discussion on Guatemala’s search for peace. — Reuters

Queen’s birthday
SEOUL: The provincial city of Andong in South Korea, is bustling to hold the birthday party of British Queen Elizabeth II on April 21. The Queen who will arrive inKorea on April 19 for a four-day stay has said she wants to celebrate her birthday at a place that embodies the traditional spirit of Korea. She turns 73 this year. — Oana - Yonhap

Chinese spacemen
SHANGHAI: China has selected and begun training its first astronauts in preparation for a bid to join the USA and Russia in the exclusive manned space-flight club, the Wenhui Daily reported on Thursday. The official newspaper quoted Zhang Heqi, a senior researcher working on the country’s "space shuttle" project, as saying the astronauts had been chosen from among China’s best fighter pilots. — AFP

Templeton prize
NEW YORK: A physicist and theologian who pioneered dialogue between science and religion was named on Wednesday as the 1999 winner of the Templeton prize for progress in religion — the world’s largest annual prize. Ian Barbour, 75, won international attention with the publication in 1965 of "issue in science and religion", an exploration into the relation of religion of the history, methods and theories of science. Barbour will accept his prize at a private ceremony on May 11 at the Buckingham Palace in London, followed by a public ceremony on May 17 at the Kremlin in Moscow. — Reuters

Space telescope
BEIJING: China is all set to produce world’s most powerful spectrum space telescope which would be able to observe about 4,000 celestial bodies at a time, Su Dingqiang, a specialist on astronomical instruments engaged as technical consultant of the project and academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. He said the draft design had been buit and the telescope would be competed by 2004. — PTI

Herbivore fossil
JOHANNESBURG: South African scientists have found the fossil of a 260-million-year-old plant-eater, which they say is the most primitive member of its species yet discovered. The discovery was announced on Wednesday by the University of the Witswatersand, which co-headed the research team that found the fossil near Willinston in the country’s northern province. The fossil is the skull of an animal belonging to the anomodonts species which were the earth’s dominant land creatures some 250 million years ago, before the appearance of dinosaurs. — AFP

Versace HIV-positive
MIAMI: A new book on the manhunt for serial-killer Andrew Cunanan says Gianni Versace had the AIDS virus, drawing outrage from the deceased designer’s family. Maureen Orth, a Washington journalist who wrote extensively on the Italian designer’s killer for the Vanity Fair magazine, said she learned Versace was HIV-positive from detective Paul Scrimshaw. In "Vulgar Favors Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the largest failed manhunt in US history," Orth also alleges that investigators bungled the search for Cunanan. The book was released on Tuesday by the Delacorte press. — AP

Power curbs exemption
WASHINGTON: The US House International Relations Committee has continued till September 30, 2000 President Bill Clinton’s authority to exempt India and Pakistan from certain sanctions under the Arms Export Control Act, the Foreign Assistance Act and the Export Import Bank Act. The authority for exemption applies especially to the expanded international military education and training programme and professional military education programmes. It has to be passed by the full House. No difficulty is anticipated. It will then go to the Senate. — PTI