Jones seeks to reopen case against Clinton
ST LOUIS, Aug 1 — Attorneys for Paula Jones have filed papers asking a federal appeals court to reinstate her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton, which was the catalyst for the White House sex-and-perjury scandal.

Jones seeks to reopen case against Clinton

ST LOUIS, Aug 1 (Reuters) — Attorneys for Paula Jones have filed papers asking a federal appeals court to reinstate her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton, which was the catalyst for the White House sex-and-perjury scandal.

The Jones suit, dismissed in April, alleged that Clinton made a crude sexual overture to her at A Little Rock, Arkansas hotel in 1991 when he was Arkansas Governor and she was a state employee.

Jones lawyers also filed an emergency petition to lift a seal on briefs and supporting documents in the case.

But the 8th U.S. circuit court of appeals yesterday reaffirmed the confidentiality order won by Mr Clinton last year keeping the contents of the Jones case sealed.

The Jones case triggered independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation of allegations that Clinton had sex with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and conspired to cover it up.

Lawyers for Jones said in their appeal that judge Susan Weber Wright’s dismissal of the case misapplied relevant law and misinterpreted facts, according to the Rutherford Institute, a conservative non-government group that is supporting Jones’s legal battle.

“This appeal presents an opportunity for the law to realise one of its highest functions, to teach the people,’’ Rutherford President John Whitehead said in a statement.

WASHINGTON: President Clinton refused comment on the Monica Lewinsky sex and perjury investigation, vowing not to speak publicly on the matter until he gives testimony to prosecutor Kenneth Starr.

Acknowledging shouted questions from reporters on the scandal for the first time since he agreed to testify, Mr Clinton said he was looking forward to giving his version of events to Starr in a videotaped deposition at the White House on August 17.

“I will do so completely and truthfully and I am anxious to do it. But I hope you can understand why in the interim I can and should have no further comment on these matters,’’ Mr Clinton said at an unrelated White House Rose Garden event to praise the performance of the US economy.

Mr Clinton’s brief remarks came at the end of a week of sensational developments in the sex scandal, which in recent weeks had seemed to settle into endless legal wrangling between the White House and Starr.

On Tuesday Lewinsky, the former White House intern who alleges she had an affair with Mr Clinton, agreed to testify in return for immunity from prosecution. She also turned over what she says is physical evidence of the relationship, including a dress she wore with Clinton, now being tested by the FBI for DNA evidence such as semen. If physical evidence of the affair were found on the dress, it would greatly strengthen Starr’s case against Mr Clinton, who has adamantly denied ever having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky.

Mums keep mum over dad’s identity
from Jess Cartner-Morley

LAST WEEK, Camille Marie Kelly Grimaldi was born in a Monaco maternity hospital named after her grandmother Grace Kelly. A statement issued by the family reported that Camille and her mother, Princess Stephanie, were doing well. Deliberately, there was no mention of the baby’s father. Despite feverish Press speculation, which has thrown up names such as Jean-Claude Van Damme and French goalie Fabien Barthez, Stephanie is refusing to reveal his identity.

Princess Stephanie’s circumstances are hardly run-of-the-mill. Growing up in Monaco, she was sandwiched between the equally ruthless French and Italian paparazzi and gossip Press. Her marriage to Daniel Ducruet, her former bodyguard and the father of her two elder children, ended when Italian magazines published compromising photographs of Ducruet with a former Miss Bare Breasts of Belgium. Stephanie’s wish to keep some aspects of her life secret, therefore, is understandable.

But keeping paternity under wraps is not a phenomenon exclusive to the famous. A recent study showed that an increasing proportion of women in Britain are choosing not to put the father’s name on their child’s birth certificate. The number of children registered without paternity being declared has doubled since the late 1970s, according to the Office of National Statistics.

What makes women leave a gap on the birth certificate? Actress Joanna Lumley kept the identity of her son Jamie’s father from the Press for 29 years. She did not tell the father (with whom she’s had a brief affair) of Jamie’s existence for two years, after which, with her encouragement, father and son became close. “I did what I thought was best at the time...All my friends, everybody knew — except the Press,” she observed.

Koo Stark, whose daughter Tatiana was born last March, kept the identity of the father secret throughout her pregnancy. She said that she intended to tell her daughter who her father was but leave it up to her to decide whether to go public when she grew up. Stark felt she was forced by Press intrusion to disclose that the father was US investment banker William Walker.

But what about the increasing number of women out of the public eye who choose not to put a father’s name on the birth certificate? Experts believe this increase is due not to feckless fathers who abandon their pregnant partners, but rather to unmarried women making a deliberate choice. “Many women want to keep their child for themselves because they want to make the decisions and take the responsibility,” says Jane Ribbens, director of the Centre for Family and Household Research at Oxford Brookes University. This is identified as part of a wider trend for women to exert more control in raising their children. “Even if a woman has a husband, she often wants him to act as helper rather than take over responsibility for the child,” Ribbens says.

Women who have children with partners whom they are not convinced will be their companion forever may be loath to have the father’s name on the birth certificate, as this might benefit a case for paternal custody in the event of a split. Of course, by denying recognition, a mother also reduces her entitlement to financial support from her child’s father, so not identifying the father is a course of action more easily open to women who can do without financial support from their fellow parent.

The idea that women’s increasing independence is a factor behind the growth of this trend is borne out by a statistics — one in five mothers over the age of 30 does not register the father’s name. Age is an important factor in independence; women over 30 are more likely than younger women to be financially self-sufficient, with the associated benefits of being in a position to possess a home, pay for childcare, and so on. They are also more likely to have support networks of friends and family that they consider strong enough to support them.

Those who disapprove of the phenomenon of mothers not naming fathers worry that it is a blow for the institution of the family. But most women do not make the decision with the intention of excluding the father from the child’s life. In the case of Princess Stephanie, she is widely rumoured to be maintaining a relationship with Camille’s father but is keen to keep this relationship private. Many women out of the public eye want to retain sole responsibility for their child in order to alleviate uncertainty as to what will happen in the event of a parental break-up. It seems there are perfectly good reasons for keeping mum. — The Guardian, London

Tamil parties urge India to mediate

COLOMBO, Aug 1 (Reuters) — Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka have called on India to once again intervene and mediate to find a solution to the country’s 15-year ethnic war, party officials said today.

The request came at a meeting between Tamil parties’ representatives and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Colombo today.

“We told Mr Vajpayee that this war has been going on for so many years and asked him to intervene and do something about this problem,” Mr Suresh Premchandran, leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Mr Premchandran said Mr Vajpayee had said he would consider the request. “He listened very carefully and said he will look in to the matter,” he said.

Mr Douglas Devananda, secretary-general of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) said in a memorandum to the Indian Premier that he wanted India to be a mediator in political negotiations amongst all concerned parties for the resolution of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

“We request the Government of India to facilitate talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) aimed at bringing about an end to the ongoing war,” said the memorandum.

India, Russia set up body on naval cooperation

MOSCOW, Aug 1 (PTI) — India and Russia yesterday decided to set up a high-powered steering body for direct interaction between the navies of the two countries.

The decision was taken at a meeting between the Indian Naval chief, Adm Vishnu Bhagwat, who is on a goodwill visit to Moscow and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Adm Vladimir Kuroyedov, sources said.

The Joint Working Group on naval cooperation had been set up within the framework of the 1996 Indo-Russian Defence Services Exchange Accord and no separate agreement on paper was required, the sources said.

According to the sources, India and Russia would hold their first-ever joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean in September.

Woman wakes up during surgery

VIRGINIA, Aug 1 (AP) — A woman, who woke up during surgery but was unable to complain about her horrible pain, won $ 150,000 in a malpractice lawsuit against her anesthesiologist. Jeannie Smith (48) said she woke up in the operations room on December 18, 1995, and could make out bright light shining on her face.

With a breathing tube down her throat and under the influence of a drug to immobilise her, Ms Smith couldn’t speak or move to let the doctors know she was awake on the other side of the surgical sheet draped around her.

What she could do, she said, was feel every cut, every stitch of a 45-minute operation to remove her ovaries.

“It was like a bomb exploding inside” Ms Smith said. “Nothing could describe the pain. It’s something I will never get over. It does something to you. I won’t ever be completely together again.”

On July 17, Ms Smith won a Malpractice case in Newport News Circuit Court against anesthesiologist David Carney. The judgement, however, was less than the $ 1 million she sought.

Carney’s lawyer, Gerald Walsh, said the doctor acknowledged that Isoforane, an anesthetic commonly used to keep patients asleep, apparently ran out without his knowledge during Ms Smith’s operation.

Charles celebrates birthday

LONDON: Prince Charles celebrated an early 50th birthday party on Friday with his two sons and longstanding companion Camilla-Parker Bowels amongst the 100 guests. Prince William and Prince Harry performed along side screen stars Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry in an hour-long comedy sketch especially written for the festivities at Charles’ Highgrove residence in western England, The Mirror newspaper said. The young princes’ act had been planned as a surprise but was leaked to a Sunday newspaper a few weeks ago. — Reuters

Oldest person dies

TOKYO: Japan’s oldest person, Asa Takii, died at a nursing home in southwestern Japan, the nursing home’s director said. She was 114. Ms Takii was born in Hiroshima in April 28, 1884. Her lifetime encompassed almost the entire span of Japan’s history as a modern nation. She witnessed her country’s rise as an imperial power, its crushing defeat in the World War II and its resurgence as the world’s second-largest economy. — AP

Viagra seized

LONDON:Agents raided a sex shop here and confiscated 14 black-market boxes of Viagra, the new anti-impotence drug that is wildly popular in the USA but remains an unlicensed banned substance’’ in Britain. The seized medication, 60 pills in all, was removed from a store in the city’s Soho section after an official came across Viagra during a routine check of the neighbourhood’s sex shops,the authorities said on Friday. — AP

Hollywood award

LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning producers Darryal Zanuck and David Brown of “Jaws” and “Deep Impact” fame will receive this year’s achievement award from the Hollywood film festival. Zanuck and Brown, who also produced “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Cocoon”, will receive the award for outstanding achievement in producing at a ceremony August 10, organisers said on Thursday. — AP

AIDS cocktail

WASHINGTON: US Government researchers have temporarily halted the enrolment of pregnant women into studies of the potent anti-aids protease inhibitors, as they try to determine whether the drugs might increase the risk of premature birth. The National Institutes of Health stressed on Friday that the safety concerns were very preliminary, and there was no reason for pregnant women taking drug cocktails’’ containing protease inhibitors to stop. — AP

Truth Commission

JOHANNESBURG: The final public hearing by South Africa’s Truth Commission into apartheid-era human rights violations has come to an end. The hearing, into the apartheid chemical and biological warfare programme, ended four hours before the expiry of the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to hold public hearings into human rights crimes. — PTI

US General in Pak

ISLAMABAD: The Commander-in-Chief of the US Central Command, Gen Anthony C. Zinni, on Wednesday visited Pakistani troops stationed at the Siachen. In his two hour stay at the world’s highest battalefront, General Zinni was briefed about the deployment of Pakistan troops. — UNI