W O R L D

Pro-independence party wins in Taiwan
TAIPEI, March 18 — The pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party declared victory today in Taiwan’s presidential elections for its candidate Chen Shui-Bian as voters defied warnings of war from arch rival China.After 78.5 per cent of the vote had been counted Chen had won 41.1 per cent. Independent James Soong had 35.1 per cent and Lien Chan of the ruling Kuomintang trailed at 22.9 per cent, Formosa television said.

WASHINGTON: President Clinton poses for a photo with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, left, Social Democratic Labour Party leader John Hume, second from left, and First Minister David Trimble of Northern Ireland, right, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Friday. Clinton welcomed a parade of Northern Ireland's leaders to the White House, hoping to use the cheer of St. Patrick's Day to nudge them toward a compromise. — AP/PTI

‘Accept’ India, Pak as N-powers
WASHINGTON, March 18 — A senior US Congressman has said it would be “wise” for the USA to accept India and Pakistan as nuclear powers and provide them with the technology to help prevent an accidental nuclear war.

China ‘tried to’ buy US missile
WASHINGTON, March 18 — China has covertly tried to buy one of the US Army’s most effective weapons, the Hellfire anti-tank guided missile, from Egypt, a media report said today.

Ultras kill 19 in Algeria
ALGIERS, March 18 — At least 19 persons were killed and three injured in violence which marked this week’s Id-el-Kebir religious festival, Algeria’s Le Matin newspaper reported today.

Pro-independence party wins in Taiwan

TAIPEI, March 18 (AFP) — The pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party declared victory today in Taiwan’s presidential elections for its candidate Chen Shui-Bian as voters defied warnings of war from arch rival China.After 78.5 per cent of the vote had been counted Chen had won 41.1 per cent. Independent James Soong had 35.1 per cent and Lien Chan of the ruling Kuomintang trailed at 22.9 per cent, Formosa television said.

China views Taiwan as a rebel province and ahead of the vote repeatedly warned Taiwanese not to vote for independence and specifically said not to vote for Chen.

Beijing also threatened it would wage war if Taiwan dragged its feet over reunification. The two sides have been split since Mao Zedong’s Communist forces drove the nationalist Kuomintang to the island in 1949

At least 100,000 people packed the streets outside the DPP headquarters where party leaders were making victory speeches.

Chen was inside the building with senior DPP officials after the elections, which appeared to have upset the 50-year status quo which has governed delicate cross-strait ties.

Pre-election polls had showed the race was too close to call but Chen looked to be heading for a convincing victory today.

The nationalist party has been unable to deliver on public calls for reform and clean government in the island which split from mainland China in 1949 after a bitter civil war.

China views Taiwan as a rebel province awaiting reunification, but Taiwanese prefer the status quo — a self-ruled democracy but not officially independent.

Ahead of the vote, Beijing stepped up warnings to Taiwan saying if it dragged its heels over reunification talks it would face war.

It has also sought to sway voters away from the pro-independence Chen, and reiterated it will never tolerate independence for the island.

China’s huge People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has vowed it is ready for any eventuality, and although military analysts have dismissed the threats as sabre-rattling, Taiwan has put its military on a 39-hour state of “heightened alertness.”

A press report in Hong Kong, said China yesterday had scrambled fighter jets and transported large numbers of troops around Fuzhou in the southeastern province of Fujian.

The report claimed fighter jets were “heard” flying over Fuzhou, while a column of tanks and some 60 military transport trucks seen around the city, the pro-Beijing Ta Kung Bao said.

‘Accept’ India, Pak as N-powers

WASHINGTON, March 18 (PTI) — A senior US Congressman has said it would be “wise” for the USA to accept India and Pakistan as nuclear powers and provide them with the technology to help prevent an accidental nuclear war.

The Chairman of the House international relations subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Mr Douglas Bereauter, also appealed to President Bill Clinton to lift sanctions against the two countries.

Stating that the US policy of preventing India and Pakistan from becoming nuclear weapon powers had failed, he said: “This policy may have helped deter proliferation for many years, but... laws that were enacted to deter proliferation now limit our ability to engage in very important ways with India and Pakistan to actually avoid a nuclear confrontation.”

“I believe, for example, the USA should now work closely with India and Pakistan to better assure that the control of this nuclear capability in their hands is as safe as possible,” he said.

The USA has fail-safe technology and experience with redundant command-and-control systems — elements of which it can share — to ensure that inadvertent or unauthorised nuclear launches do not occur, he added.

Mr Bereauter said: “I have urged the administration to act on this matter, but they insist their hands are tied. Frankly, I find this answer doubtful but, if accurate they need to clearly and aggressively seek a statutory change.”

The view that the sanctions have outlived their utility and only serve to antagonise India had earlier been expressed by the Chairman of the Senate subcommittee dealing with India and other countries, Mr Sam Brownback.

China ‘tried to’buy US missile

WASHINGTON, March 18 (PTI) — China has covertly tried to buy one of the US Army’s most effective weapons, the Hellfire anti-tank guided missile, from Egypt, a media report said today.

Chinese agents recently approached the government of Egypt and offered to buy one of the 900 Hellfires purchased by Cairo in recent years from the USA, intelligence officials, on condition of anonymity told The Washington Times.

“Obtaining Hellfires,” the newspaper said, “would augment a Chinese Army increasingly viewed as a potential US enemy.”

The USA has an agreement with Egypt that it will not resell the missiles or give it to any third party.

China is believed to want the missile for reverse-engineering or duplication by the domestic industry.

Indian woman sues UK society

LONDON, March 18 (IANS) — A woman of Indian descent, who used to head the Equal Opportunities Commission in Britain, has launched legal proceedings, claiming that she herself is being racially discriminated against.

Ms Kamlesh Bahl, vice-president of the Law Society, began the proceedings after the society suspended her for her “bullying tactics” Ms Bahl, former chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, is getting legal advice from Cherie Booth, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, who is a lawyer.

Mr Bahl has drawn much flak. The Law Society voted on Thursday to suspend her for her “beastly” ways. A special meeting will be called next month to consider her “permanent removal” from the Law Society.

The action came after a report by a retired law lord, Lord Griffiths, upheld five complaints that Ms Bahl had been bullying staff at the Law Society.

Ultras kill 19 in Algeria

ALGIERS, March 18 (AFP) — At least 19 persons were killed and three injured in violence which marked this week’s Id-el-Kebir religious festival, Algeria’s Le Matin newspaper reported today.

Eleven persons, including seven children, were killed on Wednesday in the latest massacre carried out by armed Islamic extremists in Chaiba, near Bou Ismail, 40 km west of Algiers, it said.

Four others were killed on Wednesday in an explosion and ensuing fire in a shanty town in Draa Smar, 80 km south of Algiers, Le Matin reported.

An armed group shot dead a 50-year-old man in the same area on Thursday, the paper said. Other apparently random killings included the murder of a woman stopped at a bogus checkpoint on a road in the Bourmedes region, 50 km east of the capital.

WORLD BRIEFS

Another World War II bomb recovered
BEIJING: More than 1000 patients and staff were evacuated from a Hong Kong hospital after a World War II bomb was unearthed at a construction site nearly, reports said on Saturday. The 225-kg bomb recovered on Friday was the second such device found in Hong Kong in less than a month. — PTI

Mudslide kills 22 Peruvians
LIMA: A massive avalanche of mud and stones caused by heavy rain tore through a remote Andean village and killed 22 Peruvians, including eight children, the authorities have said. At least 20 other villagers survived the mudslide on Thursday evening, which was about 1.5 km wide and buried most of the small village of Uralla in the central Andean region of Huancavelica — Reuters

Man who dropped first A-bomb dead
WASHINGTON: Mr Thomas Ferebee, the bombardier who dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II, was died at his home near Orlando, Florida, after a brief illness. He was 81. Mr Ferebee was a US Army air corps Major and only 26-year-old on August 6, 1945, when the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, another crew dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered on August 14. — DPA

Mission planned on space weather
PARIS: The European space agency will soon be launching a cosmic armada in a unique scientific experiment to explore space weather and discover how the sun affects our world. For the first time, a fleet of four identical satellites will fly in group formation along elliptical orbits around the earth, allowing scientists to make the first detailed, three-dimensional maps of the space environment within 120,000 b.m. of the planet’s surface. — DPA

Life magazine to cease to be monthly
NEW YORK: Life magazine, whose photojournalists for more than 60 years have recorded some of the nation’s most memorable events, has said it will no longer be published as a monthly beginning on May 1. Life was born in November, 1936, as the brainchild of founding Editor Henry Luce, who saw an imaginative use for the newly invented, portable 35mm camera. — Reuters

Asylum to Red Army guerrilla
BEIRUT: Lebanon has granted political asylum to Japanese Red Army guerrilla Kozo Okamoto, but the fate of four of his comrades deported to Jordan was unknown after they were refused entry into the kingdom. Lebanon’s Interior Ministry said on Friday in a statement the government had granted an exception to Okamoto because he participated in resistance operations against Israel and was subsequently tortured in Israeli jails. — Reuters

Russia, IS to hold joint exercises
MOSCOW: Russia and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will hold joint military exercises to coordinate measures against terorism in Central Asia and Caucasus. Addressing CIS defence ministers, Russian Defence Ministry Chief Marshal Igor Sergev said the operation, “South Sheild of Commonwealth-2000,” will be held from March 24 to April 3 with an aim to improve the system of control over the command and staff exercises in these states. — UNI

200 jail inmates escape
BANGKOK: About 200 inmates broke out of a juvenile detention centre on the outskirts of Bangkok on Saturday after rioting and fighting the police with sticks and stones. The Thai news agency radio station said several police officers were injured by missiles at the Ban Metta detention centre in Bangna on the eastern outskirts of Bangkok after rioting broke out there at about 10 a.m. — Reuters

Lothrop Worth dead
LOS ANGELES: Lothrop Worth, a cinematographer whose career stretched from the silent era to the 3-D craze of the 1950s, has died. He was 96. Worth died on Thursday at Motion Picture & Television Hospital. — AP