Anwar may face sodomy charges
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — The adopted brother of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim was today charged with two counts of sodomy, indicating that the state may proceed with sodomy charges against the ousted Deputy Prime Minister.

Delta-III fails to take off
CAPE CANAVERAL, April 23 — The launch countdown went all the way down to zero last night, but Boeing’s new Delta-III rocket did not ignite and remained on the pad.

40 bombs found in Colorado school campus
NEW YORK, April 23 — About 40 bombs were found from the building and grounds of the school in Littleton in Colorado in which two students armed with semi-automatic guns had killed 12 of their schoolmates and one teacher before killing themselves.

US-China WTO talks fail

BEIJING, April 23 (PTI) — High-level negotiations between China and the USA on Beijing’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) failed today with both sides agreeing to meet in future.

"Chinese and U.S. Negotiators will continue their talks on remaining issues of China’s entry into the WTO in the future although the current two-day talks concluded without obvious results,"’ the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Quoting China’s chief WTO negotiator, Mr Long Yongtu, Xinhua said China and the USA will continue their talks in the future on the remaining issues of China’s entry into the WTO.

Mr Long made these remarks after he and U.S. Assistant Trade Representative Robert Cassidy held an hour-long closed-door meeting here after the group discussion ended.

The two sides held group discussions on service trade today afternoon. They also held two technical group discussions on service trade and textiles.

Mr Cassidy arrived here on Wednesday, shortly after Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji returned from an official visit to the USA and Canada.

Despite offering greater market access to U.S. goods and services, Zhu failed to clinch a deal with the USA on China’s 13-year-long bid to enter the WTO.

The latest two-day’s of intensive negotiations formed part of an understanding reached between Premier Zhu and U.S. President Bill Clinton under which Washington has pledged to conclude talks on China’s accession to the WTO.

The USA is demanding a ‘commercially viable deal’ from China under which Beijing would open up drastically to American goods and services.

Mr Cassidy and the U.S. Trade delegation is expected to leave Beijing on Sunday, Xinhua added.

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji during his US visit earlier this month made wide-ranging market access and protocol commitments and blamed the domestic political atmosphere in the USA for the failure to nail down a WTO deal which he said was "99 per cent done".

NATO bombs TV station

BELGRADE, April 23 (AP) — NATO struck the headquarters of Serbia’s state television today, knocking the country’s main station off the air, killing at least two people and injuring 19 as it pressed its attacks into the heart of the capital.

Rescue workers were still labouring hours later to retrieve victims from “layers of concrete and steel over the bodies,” Yugoslav Deputy Foreign Minister Nebojsa Vujovic said.

The attack came hours after a Russian envoy said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had accepted the idea of a U.N.-controlled “international presence” in Kosovo. But Mr Milosevic only backs allowing an unarmed force in Kosovo, Mr Vujovic said indicating Belgrade still rejects the key element of a western-backed peace plan.

U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it fell short of NATO’s demands.

NATO, whose leaders are gathered in Washington to mark the alliance’s 50-year anniversary, insists on an armed force and says it will keep up its month-old air campaign until Belgrade allows one. It bombarded a broad swathe of Serbia yesterday, killing at least one person in a strike on a southeastern town, state media said.

An air-raid alert sounded in Pristina this afternoon, signalling the assault on Mr Milosevic’s forces was continuing.

The alliance fired a missile into the side of Serbian state television’s downtown Belgrade headquarters before dawn, killing a staff member, the station reported when it resumed broadcasting from what it said was a reserve system. A second death was confirmed later, and by early afternoon the fate was still uncertain of about 150 people the state news agency Tanjug said were inside the building at the time.

Several journalists and others employed in the television station have been killed or injured,’’ Tanjug said.

Reporters at the scene saw the body of one dead man — almost decapitated — dangling from the rubble. Another man was seen trapped between two huge concrete blocks. Doctors amputated both his legs at the site, freeing him from the debris. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died later, media reports said.

The attack knocked down the network’s transmission tower and collapsed its top two floors, according to reporters on the scene. Thick smoke filled the street, and terrified staff milled about calling the names of colleagues they feared were trapped inside.

“We were sitting in the editing room and all of a sudden we heard tremendous blast,” videotape editor Sava Andjelkovic told reporters. A wall behind me virtually vanished, and then the entire wing of the building. We heard screams of wounded people.’’

Russia offers to mediate Indo-Pak talks

MOSCOW, April 23 (IANS) — Russia has responded positively to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s appeal to step up Moscow’s participation in the South Asian peace process.

Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, in response to the visiting Pakistani leader’s appeal, has agreed to active Russian participation in the peace process, according to Itar-Tass news agency. “We will certainly comply with his request,” Mr Primakov was quoted as saying.

Mr Primakov apparently said Russia was ready to take part in the efforts aimed at achieving the stabilisation of the situation in South Asia and improvement of relations between countries of the region.

Foreign policy observers here believe Mr Primakov’s words were tantamount to Russian readiness to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. His statement is being seen as a departure from Russia’s earlier policy that the regional issue should be settled bilaterally.

Pakistani attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue are nothing new. But Mr Primakov’s statement was unexpected and is being seen by observers here as an indication that the issue is again sought to be internationalised. It marks a significant success for Pakistani diplomacy, observers say.

The first Pakistan Prime Minister to visit Moscow in 25 years, Mr Sharif said South Asia has been deprived of the fruits of progress and prosperity because of its volatile security environment. The root cause of tension in the region was the unresolved dispute over Kashmir.

Anwar may face sodomy charges

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (AP) — The adopted brother of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim was today charged with two counts of sodomy, indicating that the state may proceed with sodomy charges against the ousted Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Sukma Sarmawan, Mr Ibrahim’s former personal secretary, Mr Mohammad Azmin Ali, and a dressmaker for Mr Ibrahim’s wife, Mr Mior Abdul Razak, were all charged with committing perjury in regard to Mr Ibrahim’s sensational corruption and sex trial.

Mr Sarmawan was also charged with one count of assisting Mr Ibrahim in the act of sodomy against Mr Ibrahim’s former driver, Mr Azizan Abu Bakar, and one count of sodomy on Mr Bakar. If convicted, Mr Sarmawan could face up to 20 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty, surrendered his passport and was released on bail.

His trial was set for July 5.

Mr Ibrahim was convicted last Wednesday of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. The prosecution claimed Mr Ibrahim had sex with men and women and abused his powers of office by forcing the police to cover up his sexual misdeeds.

The conviction sparked rioting in downtown Mr Ibrahim Kuala Lumpur last week by thousands of supporters who believed was innocent.

Mr Ibrahim’s defence team was to meet with the prosecutors next Tuesday to determine whether he would face an additional corruption charge and five counts of sodomy. Some observers have said the state might drop the sodomy charges against Mr Ibrahim now that it had secured a conviction against the former No 2 leader.

Mr Sarmawan and Mr Razak confessed to the police last year that they had sex with Mr Ibrahim. They were each sentenced to six months in prison for allegedly allowing Mr Ibrahim to sodomise them, a crime in this predominantly Muslim country.

Both men, however, later retracted their confessions, saying they were coerced and tortured by the police into making the allegations against Mr Ibrahim.

Parenthood by choice
by Angela Neustatter in London

IF the gossip columnists are right, Koo Stark is planning to marry Warren Walker, the father of her two-year-old daughter Tatiana. Can this be the same Koo Stark who refused to name the father of the child when she announced her pregnancy back in 1996? The same Koo who inspired a flurry of newspaper articles about ‘career women’ who decide to go solo when it comes to motherhood? Who told Hello! magazine: “I’ll be bringing up the child on my own — I believe marriage is a wonderful institution, but I don’t think not being married is going to deprive my child of a secure and loving home”?

Perhaps Koo, like increasing numbers of women, has waited to see whether Warren was committed to their child before risking a legal partnership. These days, half of all conceptions take place outside marriage, and by the next century at least as many children will be born outside wedlock as within formalised partnerships. These statistics tend to be viewed as gloomy proof that an ever-increasing number of children are being brought up in single-parent families, with all the disadvantages they are thought to suffer. In fact, many unmarried parents live and care for their children as a couple; others share their upbringing, if not always from the same home. And a surprising number decide at some point after the children are born that they will marry after all.

This was the case with Mary and Lou Allcock, who were already living together when she became pregnant with Georgie but didn’t marry until he was five. “I have seen children change people’s relationships dramatically,” Mary explains. “I anticipated it putting a strain on our relationship, and thought that if we were married, we’d feel very trapped. I thought if things were too tough between me and Lou and we decided we couldn’t go on together, it would be much easier and less stressful for Georgie if we hadn’t gone through the whole business of a marriage.”

According to psychotherapist Diana Laschelles, Mary’s fears are not uncommon. Just as most couples now tend to have sex before marriage, many delay the wedding until after the children come along. “If they cope with the changes to the relationship, couples then marry — it is a way of making public their commitment to their child, rather than being about just themselves.” For Mary and Lou, the decision to marry was finally reached when Georgie started school. “I worried that Georgie would feel he had an inferior family; Lou wondered if he might feel less loved. So we got married for Georgie.” Sandra and Bob’s children were 10 and 12 when they married. “We did it because the kids hassled us,’’ he laughs. “They were going through that conservative stage kids do and they kept saying ‘We don’t like being bastards!’ So we did it for them.”

Sometimes, when one partner has children by a former marriage, couples wed to give the children from their union equal status and financial security. Rosa insisted on this when she had a child with Norman: “I wanted my kids to have inheritance rights, and also rights to their father if we split up.” So far, so practical. But why do couples with grown-up children suddenly marry? Jean and Bill’s daughters were 20 and 23 when they married earlier this year. Jean grew up with feminism, and says she was very aware of what happened to women when marriages broke down. She explains: “We didn’t plan my pregnancy and we hadn’t talked about marriage. I owned the house and decided to keep it in my name. I had seen many women with kids left in poverty because the family home had to be shared when they broke up with their husbands, and I decided that I didn’t want to risk marriage because of that.” She explained her reasoning to Bill. “He wasn’t thrilled, but I said we’d

live together, and if he did stick by his kids and prove a decent partner then I’d share the house with him if that time came.’’ She smiles: “He has always adored his kids and been a very big part of caring for them, even when he and I went through difficulties. He has also done masses of work on the house to make sure we had a good family home. So although in many ways I have never liked the idea of what marriage represents, when the kids left home and we decided to sell the house and have money in the bank the only way I could share that with Bill without paying lots of tax was if we married.”

It was important, too, that their daughters should see her behave decently towards their father: “What sort of lesson is it if I say that his fathering counted for nothing?”

If Koo Stark does tie the knot, she will be part of a trend in which not

marrying as soon as children are born shows not an irresponsible disregard for their welfare, but an attempt to get things as right as possible for their future.

(The Guardian, London)

Delta-III fails to take off

CAPE CANAVERAL, April 23 (AP) — The launch countdown went all the way down to zero last night, but Boeing’s new Delta-III rocket did not ignite and remained on the pad.

3-2-1, zero, plus-1, plus-2, and we had a hang fire or a misfire,” The launch commentator announced.

It was the fourth time in two weeks that Boeing had tried to send up the rocket with an Orion broadcasting satellite. Three times last night, an alarm halted the countdown at the last minute, but Boeing resolved those problems and moved on.

Neither the core stage of the rocket nor the strap-on boosters fired. The small steering engines on the rocket also never ignited.

Jay Witzling, a Boeing Vice-President, said the computer system failed to send engine commands. The company will try again early next week to launch the rocket if the problem can be solved quickly, he said.

It will eventually come together, we’re quite sure of that,” Witzling said.

Last August, a Delta-III carrying a Galaxy broadcasting satellite blew up 71 seconds after liftoff, a $ 225 million disaster that cost Boeing millions more for the investigation that followed.

40 bombs found in Colorado school campus

NEW YORK, April 23 (PTI) — About 40 bombs were found from the building and grounds of the school in Littleton in Colorado in which two students armed with semi-automatic guns had killed 12 of their schoolmates and one teacher before killing themselves.

The motive was as yet not clear but the explosives were strong enough to blow the building which they apparently planned to do but somehow could not.

Two of the most powerful bombs were discovered from the kitchen of the school and they had been connected to a gas cylinder.

The police said they were pipe bombs containing nails for maximum killing effect.

Maya civilisation
San Cristobal de Las Casas (Mexico): Archaeo-logists announced that discoveries in two 1,300-year-old Mayan temples could throw more light on the history of that famed but only partially understood civilisation. The National Institute for Anthropology and History said an altar or throne was discovered in one temple and an apparent funeral chamber in another, both at the south end of the plaza of the cross in Palenque. The buildings date to the classical period of about 200 to 900 A.D. — AP

Pak suicides
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s slow economic growth has been shoving people to commit suicide with as many as 265 suicide cases reported since February and forcing the Nawaz Sharif Government to take fruitless damage control exercise. Opposition parties blame the government’s “failure” to the economic problems of the people which “is leading to a large number of suicides and self-immolation cases”. — PTI

Indo-Pak N-tests
WASHINGTON: NATO has said nuclear tests by India and Pakistan have illustrated a new danger from weapons of mass destruction and asserted there is a need to guard against proliferation of such weapons and their means of delivery. “Nuclear tests by India and Pakistan have brought home the fact that the quest for nuclear weaponry was not only a cold war phenomenon” but also have the “clandestine efforts by other countries,” the NATO said in a literature circulated before its 50th anniversary summit beginning here today. — PTI

Diana case
PARIS: A French court will consider on May 21 the last requests for further judicial inquiries into the crash that killed Princess Diana, judicial sources said. Judge Herve Stephan will be able to conclude the investigation rapidly once the criminal division of the Court of Appeals, which is in charge of overseeing the investigation, completes its review of the requests, the sources said yesterday. — AP

30 die in collision
SHANGHAI: A truck loaded with freight hit a bus head-on in eastern China, causing an explosion and fire and killing at least 30 persons and injuring 23. The truck crossed the centre line and hit the bus on Wednesday on a highway in Xiangshui county in Jiangsu province, The People’s Daily reported. The area is near the city of Yancheng, 500 km north-west of Shanghai. — AP