Hot race if Hillary contests
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 — With the impeachment trial over, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will give serious thought to running for the Senate from New York next year, senior White House officials have said. Democrats and Republicans alike have predicted a terrific race if she steps in.

Iraq ‘has ability’ to attack US bases
BAGHDAD, Feb 15 — The Iraqi government has said that it was capable of attacking American and British bases in the Gulf that are used to launch airstrikes against Iraq.

New deadline set for Kosovo talks

PARIS, Feb 15 (UNI) — The Kosovo peace talks have been extended by another week as no agreement could be reached between the Serbians and ethnic Albanians with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warning of air strikes if no solution could be reached by then.

“We have decided to continue the negotiations which must be concluded by Saturday, February 20,” French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, said in a statement here last evening after the meeting of the Contact Group, consisting of France, Russia, the USA, the UK, Germany and Italy.

Peace talks between warring Serbians and ethnic Albanians were arranged at the initiative of the contact group following the escalation of violence in Kosovo, southern Serbian province. The week-long talks at Rambouillet, 50 km from here, yielded little as both sides stuck to their positions.

While ethnic Albanians, who form 90 per cent of the population in Kosovo, want complete independence, Serbians were not willing to give anything more than autonomy to the trouble-torn province.

The statement conceded that progress was slower than the contact group had hoped for but said “essential ground clearing work has been carried out” and warned that “time is now very short to reach a negotiated settlement, which is the only way to avoid further large-scale violence.”

US Secretary of State Medeleine Albright, who arrived here yesterday, managed to bring the Serbian and ethnic Albanians together for the first time during the week-long talks attended also by other Foreign Ministers of the contact group nations.

“I am pleased I was able to bring the leaders of the two delegations together for their first joint meeting,” Ms Albright said after a three and half hour meeting. She warned both Serbian authorities and ethnic Albanians of NATO air strikes if they do not reach any solution in the coming week.

“Nothing less than decisive action from NATO and the contact group will keep both sides focused on the task at hand,” Ms Albright, who later left for Mexico said. She also held separate meetings with the French Foreign Minister and Serbian President who is participating in the talks.

The week-long talks progressed little with the Serbian side insisting that the ethnic Albanians respect the present Yugoslav borders. The Serbian president also strongly opposed to stationing NATO troops in the Kosovo region even after the peace deal saying it violated the sovereignty of Yugoslavia.

Change HK court ruling: China

BEIJING, Feb 15 (PTI) — The first major test of Hong Kong’s autonomy under Chinese rule has surfaced with a legal tussle between Beijing and a Hong Kong court with the former firmly seeking a change in the controversial right of abode ruling by the latter.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Secretary for Justice Ms Elsie Leung Oi-Sie, who came here to discuss the dispute, said the Chinese officials called the ruling by the Hong Kong court of final appeal a mistake and said it should be rectified.

“The (Chinese) Central Government believes part of the judgement on the right of abode breached the Constitution and the basic law and needs to be rectified,’’ Ms Leung was quoted as saying on her return.

“I seized every opportunity to reflect Hong Kong people’s worries on the impact on the rule of law and their views that the way to resolve it should not undermine confidence,’’ she said.

The mainland officials expressed understanding on this and said they would adhere to the ‘one-country, two-systems’ concept and the spirit of basic law in handling it. “We are confident that the matter can be resolved in a satisfactory way. They urged us not to think the central government has lost confidence in the SAR,’’ Ms Leung said.

However, observers believe the legal row is likely to shake confidence in the independence of Hong Kong courts as Beijing is in no mood to accept the verdict of the Hong Kong court of final appeal.

They noted that the dispute was the first serious test of the independence of Hong Kong courts since the former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

The whole controversy centres on a ruling by the court last month that any Chinese person with one Hong Kong parent has the right to live in Hong Kong. The contentious issue is whether the Hong Kong court or China’s legislature has the right to interpret the basic law, the Hong Kong Constitution under Chinese rule.

The court of final appeal ruled that China was violating the rights of emigrants with Hong Kong ancestry by insisting on its own screening process before issuing permits to leave the Chinese mainland.

Since Hong Kong returned to China, Beijing has avoided actions that could be interpreted as violating the ‘one-country, two-systems’ principle which guarantee considerable autonomy for the region.

But on the issue of migration from the mainland, Beijing decided to defend its own interpretation of the basic law as it feels that a rush of emigrants from the Chinese mainland would destabilise Hong Kong, observers point out.

Meanwhile, Beijing has opposed foreign intervention on the sensitive issue.

Asked to comment on the reactions from Washington and London, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said foreign powers should not interfere in the domestic issue of the Hong Kong court ruling on the right of abode issue.

China lets off rebel on parole

BEIJING, Feb 15 (AFP) — China today released dissident journalist Gao Yu on medical parole, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.

“Gao Yu was let out at around midday. She went home, had a meal and is now asleep,” the information centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement spokesman told AFP by telephone.“But she still has to report to the police station wherever she goes,” he said.

Gao was arrested in October 1993 and sentenced a year later to six years’ imprisonment for “divulging state secrets” overseas when she worked for the Hong Kong magazine Mirror and a newspaper.

Gao had already spent 14 months in prison after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Gao, who has a heart problem, was due to finish her prison term in October 1999.

Clinton, Annan in line for Nobel prize

OSLO, Feb 15 (AFP) — US President Bill Clinton has been nominated for the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize, as well as his Balkan peace-broker Richard Holbrooke, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Pope John Paul II, informed sources said today.

Sources also said the late King Hussein of Jordan had been proposed although the Nobel Prize rules bar nomination of deceased persons.

The deadline for proposing candidates for the prestigious Nobel Peace prize was February 1, and there are presently 118 of them, the sources said — 85 individuals and 33 organisations.

But letters with new names are still arriving to the Nobel institute in Oslo, and five members of the Nobel Committee have the right to hand in their own proposals until the first formal committee meeting on February 26.

“We don’t know what the final figure will be, but we will not beat the record figure of 139 candidates from last year,” Institute director Geir Lundestad said today. Mr Lundestad is also Secretary of the Nobel Committee.

Among the organisations proposed for 1999 are the Salvation Army, Medecins Sans Fronteires (Doctors without borders) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which would celebrate its 50th anniversary in April.

The selection of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner would be done in mid-October and the prize ceremony takes place on December 10.

Hot race if Hillary contests

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (AP) — With the impeachment trial over, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will give serious thought to running for the Senate from New York next year, senior White House officials have said. Democrats and Republicans alike have predicted a terrific race if she steps in.

A number of people have been really urging her to run, and I think she wants to hear them out, “White House chief of staff John Podesta said on ABC’s morning show “This Week’’, yesterday.

“There are a lot of people in New York who think she would be a great Senator and are very excited about the prospect that she would represent them,’’ added White House Communications Director Ann Lewis on CNN’s late edition.’’ I do think she would win,’’ she said.

Talk has been circulating for several months of prospects that Mrs. Clinton would run for the seat to be vacated when Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan leaves the Senate in 2000 after 24 years in office.

Moynihan, interviewed on NBC’s meet the press,’’ said she’d be welcome and she’d win.

“She’s going to be very deliberative about this. This is going to be a major life change,’’ said Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg from neighbouring New Jersey, adding “I think she would be one terrific candidate,’’

“It would be an incredible race,’’ Republican Senator John McCain said of a possible matchup with New York’s Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani. One thing I know about Rudy Giuliani, he’ll tangle with anybody,’’ he said on NBC

“Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is in charge of money-raising for Republican senatorial campaigns, said on CNN that Mrs. Clinton’s entry into a race against Giuliani would make this a titanic struggle of two very popular figures.’’

Iraq ‘has ability’ to attack US bases

BAGHDAD, Feb 15 (AP) — The Iraqi government has said that it was capable of attacking American and British bases in the Gulf that are used to launch airstrikes against Iraq.

We, by help from God and support from the sons of our glorious Arab nation, including true and sincere nationals ... In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have the ability to attack the soldiers and means of aggression from whatever region, Iraqi Television said yesterday, quoting a statement from President Saddam Hussein and senior leaders.

The statement came amid a simmering war of nerves with the USA and Britain over no-fly zones imposed in northern and southern Iraq. Iraq does not recognise the zones and has promised to fire at any plane that violates its air space.

The Iraqi statement was issued following a meeting Mr Saddam held with three senior aides. It again warned Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to distance themselves from the USA.

“Once again ... we draw the attention of the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and tell them you are getting involved now in a vicious and aggressive war that the people of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have no interest in,” the statement said.

Mars once had life, says data

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (DPA) — The Mars global surveyor, a US space probe that has been orbiting Mars since September, 1997, has relayed back growing quantities of data suggesting that there may have been life on the red planet in its younger days.

Its cameras and sensors have revealed geological structures that may have been shaped by running water, traces of a magnetic field 3.5 billion-year-old and large quantities of haematite, a ferric oxide ore.

Mr Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado in Boulder says there is a fair chance that life of some kind may have existed on Mars 3.5 billion-year-ago.

The main pointer to this possibility was the remains of a former magnetic field similar to the earth’s own, he wrote in Science, a US weekly.

Astronomers have long known that Mars has no magnetic field worth mentioning. So it came as the more of a surprise when the US space probe measured in the planet’s surface rock the remains of a permanent magnetic field in parts of Mars that are 3.5 billion-year-old.

When the liquid magma cooled down to form rocks, the magnetic minerals practically “froze” into an image of an early Martian magnetic field, Mr Jakosky noted.

This magnetic field was definitely most important for the planet’s early atmosphere in that it will have protected it from constant bombardment by solar particles.

The planet’s original atmosphere, which is presumed to have been dense, hot and to have incorporated enough water and energy for simple life forms. Then changed into a thin, cold atmosphere hostile to life.

Further indications have been provided new and improved pictures of the planet’s surface. They show a large number of gulches and canyons on the desert planet, typically, they are several hundred metres deep and 1 km wide and they occur almost entirely in regions that geologists also estimate to be over 3.5 billion-year-old.

Many of them appear to have been cut into the surface stone by running water. Detailed analysis now show that the water was not rainfall. It emerged from the volcanic soil in large and powerful springs.

Yet another indication of an earlier era on Mars that may have been more conducive to life is the presence of haematite, Mr Jakosky adds. Haematite occurs on earth in water when it is hot. Only volcanic systems are able to supply enough water at the temperatures required.

Scientists feel that these conditions would release sufficient energy to make possible the creation of viable cells.

Freedom on sale
BAGHDAD: Iraqi prisoners who have served at least half their jail terms can buy their freedom by paying two million dinars (nearly $ 1,000) for each remaining year, a state-run weekly has reported. The newspaper, Al-Musawir, on Sunday said that the prison deal was approved by the Revolutionary Command Council last week, mainly to raise funds for the cash-strapped government and the prison system. — AP

U2 concert
LOS ANGELES: Irish supergroup U2 is planning a massive benefit concert for Third World countries in Cologne, Germany and lead singer Bono has already asked the elite stars of pop like Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, R.E.M. and The Beastie Boys to take part, The Los Angeles Times has reported. The proposed concert would take place in Cologne on June 19 to coincide with the Group of Eight summit where leaders of the world’s eight wealthiest industrial nations will discuss global economic issues. — DPA

“Year of rabbit”
BEIJING: Chinese all over the world are ready to usher in the lunar new year on Tuesday with the ruling Communist Party leadership stressing for maintaining political and social stability. The lunar new year, also known as spring festival, is the biggest holiday for over 1.2 billion Chinese and many other Asians. According to ancient Chinese astrology, February 16 will mark the end of the year of the tiger and usher in the year of the rabbit. The year of the rabbit is considered a year of peace and reconciliation, a time when the hectic pace of life slows down and social activities and leisure pursuits take precedence. — PTI

Faux pas at fest
BERLIN: Theatre staff apparently were so caught up in the play within “Shakespeare in Love”, screened at the Berlin Film Festival, that they turned the house lights up after Romeo and Juliet died, even though the movie wasn’t over yet. “I’m appalled I don’t know why that happened”, academy award-nominated director John Madden said with a laugh at a news conference afterward. “I understand that last night during the thin ‘red line’ they put the final reel on upside down. But these things happen. I’m sure they’re doing the best they can”. “Shakespeare in Love” is one of 25 films competing for the Golden Bear, which is to be awarded on February 21. — AP

Rocket launched
MOSCOW: A Russian Proton-K rocket carrying a US broadcasting satellite, Telstar-6, was successfully launched early on Monday from a launch site in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Interfax News Agency reported, quoting the Russian space firm Khrunishchev. The launch had been postponed twice earlier, once in October and then in January, due to technical problems.— AFP

Hong Kong population
BEIJING: Hong Kong’s population has risen to over 6.8 million with a growth rate of 2.8 per cent in 1997. The latest demographic figures released by the Census and Statistics Department show the estimated population of the Asia’s leading financial and commercial centre at the end of 1998 was 6,805,600, an increase of 188,500 persons and growth rate of 2.8 per cent over 1997. Migration of people to this country accounted for 89 per cent of growth with 167,000 persons coming to Hong Kong between 1997 and 1998. — PTI