USA sacks Taiwan-born scientist
WASHINGTON, March 9 — The US Department of Energy has sacked a Los Alamos weapons designer suspected for his involvement in smuggling nuclear secrets to China.

BCCI fraud case: Jailed Pak tycoon makes appeal
LONDON, March 9 —An imprisoned Pakistani shipping tycoon yesterday appealed against his 1997 conviction in the fraud that led to the spectacular failure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Key KLA leaders clear peace plan
WASHINGTON, March 9 — The US Government’s goal of winning the support of Kosovar Albanians for a six-nation peace plan has advanced with key rebel military leaders giving their blessing to the proposal, the State Department announced.

Pak Government refutes Opposition allegations
ISLAMABAD, March 9 —The Nawaz Sharif government in Pakistan has dismissed the Opposition’s allegations that it entered into a “secret deal” with India on Kashmir during the recent prime ministerial level meeting at Lahore.

Flores to head Salvador government
SAN SALVADOR, March 9 —Mr Franciso Flores (39) of El Salvador’s government right wing party who won an overwhelming victory in the presidential elections held on Sunday, pledged yesterday to form a broad-based government.

USA sacks Taiwan-born scientist

WASHINGTON, March 9 (PTI, AFP) — The US Department of Energy (DOE) has sacked a Los Alamos weapons designer suspected for his involvement in smuggling nuclear secrets to China.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced that he has sacked Taiwan-born Wen Ho Lee, weapons designer in the laboratory, on suspicion that he helped Chinese intelligence obtain the secrets of the most advanced multiple independently targetable US nuclear warhead — the W-88 — in the 80’s, a DOE statement said.

However, Beijing denied all such allegations as “unfounded rumours” and said such rumours were spread by people who want to stop bilateral ties from improving.

The employee, described as a scientist by US press reports, was sacked for “failing to properly safeguard classified material” and apparently ‘attempting to deceive the laboratory about security related issues’ the department said in a statement.

His notice of termination also said he failed to inform the DOE about ‘contact with people from a sensitive country.’

The move follows revelations that the Chinese obtained sensitive information about nuclear missile technology from the USA in the mid-1980s.

In recent months, the DOE had transferred the employee from a classified to a non-classified workplace, and also suspended his security clearance, the statement said.

But the department kept the employee on the payroll so that the FBI could more ‘efficiently investigate the case.’

But his usefulness was deemed to have ended once he was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, however.

The scientist was informed of the decision in a letter yesterday from his employers, the University of California, which manages some of the personnel at the laboratories.

Referring to the sacking of a US scientist by DOE after an inquiry, Chinese Foreign Office spokesman Zhu Bangzao said “Beijing has very little knowledge about the sacking. But we are closely following it.”

“All I can say is, the US media had disseminated many rumours about China stealing US technology and they are all unfounded,” Mr Zhu said, referring to allegations reported in the New York Times on Saturday that China had managed to obtain high technology from the USA enabling it to build more advanced nuclear weapons.

However, he reiterated Beijing’s official view that allegations of high-tech spying were motivated by domestic politics in the USA.

“Some people want to hamper the normal export of technology to China,” Mr Zhu said.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the US to use the forthcoming visit of Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to improve worsening relations.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post blasted the Clinton administration for allowing China to obtain hi-tech from the USA that will be useful for its military.

“The Clinton administration yet again comes under a heavy burden to show it is prepared to deal not with the China of its found hopes but with China as it is,” it said.

The Post said Lee had failed an FBI polygraph test last month and had refused to cooperate with the FBI’s investigation into how China may have gained access to sensitive US weapons technology.

Mr Peter Leitner, an official with the Pentagon’s defence threat reduction agency, said US firms had already sold China advanced software which, when loaded into high-performance computers freely available here, can simulate the resistance a warhead meets as it re-enters the atmosphere.

With that knowledge, he said, Chinese weapons designers can, just as their US counterparts, learn to transform primitive “city buster” warheads into more precise “bunker busters.”

However, it allowed China to get hold of the top secret W-88 nuclear warhead, a state-of-the-art miniature warhead that can be clustered on to a single missile.

Meanwhile China cautioned the USA and Japan against providing a theatre missile defence (TMD) shield to Taiwan saying such efforts would face strong opposition from Beijing.

“The effort to incorporate Taiwan into TMD demonstrates the ulterior motive of some people to obstruct the great cause of China’s reunification,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters.

The attempt to include Taiwan in the TMD system developed by the USA and Japan would be firmly opposed by China, Mr Zhu said denying reports of Beijing’s deployment of M-9 and M-11 missiles along the coast to deter Taiwan from declaring independence.

BCCI fraud case: Jailed Pak tycoon makes appeal

LONDON, March 9 (AP) —An imprisoned Pakistani shipping tycoon yesterday appealed against his 1997 conviction in the fraud that led to the spectacular failure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Abbas Gokal is serving a 14-year sentence for two counts of conspiracy plotting to commit false accounting and conspiring to defraud the BCCI in a fraudulent scheme that funnelled $ 1.2 billion out of the bank.

Gokal, 62, received the steepest sentence of its kind to be meted out by a British court. At the sentencing, the judge said Gokal’s actions had threatened the integrity of the entire international banking system.

Gokal was present at London’s law courts for the start of a hearing before the court of appeal judges.

One of the main grounds of his appeal centres on the circumstances in which he was brought within this jurisdiction.

Gokal was arrested in July 1994 in Frankfurt, Germany, as his flight from Karachi, Pakistan, to the USA stopped for refuelling. He was extradited to Britain in December 1994 and went on trial in September.

Jurors convicted him after hearing prosecutors from Britain’s serious fraud office contend that he had siphoned the money out of the BCCI and then used it to pay for private jets, fancy homes and Rolls-Royce's.

Gokal said he was innocent and had to use public assistance to get legal representation.

Gokal’s Gulf Group, a Middle East shipping company, was the biggest borrower from the BCCI, he and his brothers, Mustafa and Murtaza, once controlled more than 100 shipping vessels in the Middle East. But their financial empire ran into trouble in the late 1970s.

For years, the BCCI kept giving them money and juggled its books to try to cover up the problem.

Accountant Abdul Chiragh, from Southern England, was found guilty of setting up bogus accounts in the names of offshore companies. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Mustafa and Murtaza Gokal have avoided prosecution by staying in Pakistan, which had no extradition treaty with Britain. Other alleged conspirators are believed to be out of the reach of British Justice, mostly, in Pakistan.

Aussies may dump Queen

CANBERRA, March 9 (AP) — The Australian government today released draft laws which set up the referendum at which Australians will choose whether to dump Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State and make their nation a republic.

On November 6, Australia’s 11.6 million voters are due to vote in a referendum on whether to sever their links to the British monarchy and become a republic, with an Australian Head of State.

Some Republicans also want to adopt a new preamble then, recognising the prior occupation of the continent by aborigines and Torres Strait islanders.

Under the draft legislation released today, the issues will be the subject of separate questions on two ballot papers in the referendum.

The draft legislation was released to give Australians the chance to comment, Attorney-General Daryl Williams and Special Minister of State Chris Ellison said in a joint statement.

Also released was a draft of the proposed presidential nominations committee Bill, which would establish a committee to consider public nominations for a president.

The draft law codifies the recommendations of a constitutional convention which was held in February last year which suggests a four-part process for choosing a president.

It would start with public nominations for a panel of candidates. The Prime Minister of the day would then choose one candidate, whose nomination would have to be approved by the country’s Opposition leader.

The two leaders would then be required to present the name of their agreed candidate to a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament.

A two-third majority vote would be needed to finalise the nomination.

The proposal is already controversial. Opinion polls show that perhaps almost 70 per cent of Australians who want a republic also want a directly elected president, not one chosen by Parliament.

Prime Minister John Howard has warned that a popularly elected president would effectively become a rival to the Prime Minister, who is Australia’s Head of Government, although not Head of State.

Key KLA leaders clear peace plan

WASHINGTON, March 9 (AP) — The US Government’s goal of winning the support of Kosovar Albanians for a six-nation peace plan has advanced with key rebel military leaders giving their blessing to the proposal, the State Department announced.

But a hardline commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army defiantly insisted yesterday the KLA would not give up its arms — an important requirement of the peace plan proposed by five Western powers and Russia.

The statement appeared to run counter to the decision of the KLA general staff to approve the plan. The decision was considered significant but State Department spokesman James Rubin stopped short of calling it a breakthrough, mindful that a Kosovar Albanian signature on the peace plan promised for Sunday never materialised.

Mr Rubin said the KLA general staff informed US mediator Christopher Hill of its approval and authorised Mr Hill to notify Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of their decision.

He said it was too early to declare victory. “I think I will conclude that the agreement has been signed when it’s been signed,’’ he said. Other sources said their signature was expected before the end of the week.

Military elements with the Kosovar Albanians are considered more hard line than the political leaders. So once the former group signs on, there apparently will be no further hurdles to clear. It would then be up to the Serb side to accept it.

Rebel commander Ramush Hajredinaj said he was fearful of not having a defensive force against the Serbs.

“Not to have an army would be a big mistake,’’ said Hajredinaj, one of five KLA commanders invited to visit Washington in another diplomatic move to persuade rebels to adopt the deal for Kosovo self-rule.

The agreement allows Kosovar Albanian self-rule without sovereignty in the embattled province, and also calls for the deployment of almost 30,000 NATO troops to enforce it. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has made some concessions on the political side but thus far has adamantly opposed the presence of any foreign troops on Serb soil.The Clinton administration is hopeful that both sides will have accepted the agreement by March 15, when peace talks are scheduled to resume in Paris.

Pak Government refutes Opposition allegations

ISLAMABAD, March 9 (PTI) —The Nawaz Sharif government in Pakistan has dismissed the Opposition’s allegations that it entered into a “secret deal” with India on Kashmir during the recent prime ministerial level meeting at Lahore.

“There is no secret understanding or deal, nor is here any weakening of our position on the Kashmir dispute”, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz told the Senate yesterday, refuting the Opposition’s allegations that the government had compromised its position on Kashmir.

“There is no question of the government having compromised Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir”, he said as rightwing parties led by the Jamaat-e-Islami accused Mr Sharif of the striking a secret deal with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr A.B. Vajpayee, during their meeting.

An irate Opposition, however, was not pacified by the minister’s clarification and demanded that the government take the nation into confidence about the summit talks.

Mr Sharif, has been under fire from both opposition parties and hardline groups such as the Jammat-e-Islami, for signing the Lahore Declaration that calls for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

Flores to head Salvador government

SAN SALVADOR (El Salvador), March 9 (AP) —Mr Franciso Flores (39) of El Salvador’s government right wing party who won an overwhelming victory in the presidential elections held on Sunday, pledged yesterday to form a broad-based government.

Preliminary official figures gave Mr Flores and his Republican National Alliance about 52 per cent of the vote, enough to avoid a run-off against Mr Facundo Guardado of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

Mr Flores, who starts his five-year terms on June 1, said he would name a commission to help him select Cabinet ministers. He also promised a frontal attack on the country’s crime problem as well as greater attention to education and agriculture.

Millennium babies
LONDON: Thousands of British couples are planning a special night of love on March 20, because that is the night they are most likely to conceive a child to be born on the first day of the new millennium. According to The Sunday Times, most couples are motivated by the belief that such an auspicious birthday would be lucky or fashionable. But some are hoping to win prizes from television stations for the first baby born in 2000. Whatever the motive, the chances of success are slim; experience shows that fewer than 4 per cent of the babies are born on the expected day. — ANI

King Fahd’s wife dead
RIYADH: Saudi King Fahd’s wife died on Monday after a ‘long illness”, according to Saudi Radio monitored by the BBC. The radio was quoting from a statement from the royal court. It gave no further details. Sources told Reuters that she had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in the USA. — Reuters

Yeltsin in hospital
MOSCOW: Doctors treating Boris Yeltsin for a stomach ulcer say the Russian President should remain in hospital at least until March 20, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Monday. Quoting a source close to the Kremlin, the agency reported said that Mr Yeltsin, 68, might decide to ignore the doctors’ recommendations and leave hospital earlier as his condition was stable. “Hopes of seeing the President deliver his annual state of the nation address in March are not lost,” the source said. — AFP

Castro can’t be tried
MADRID: Spain’s highest court has ruled that the country has no jurisdiction to try Cuban President Fidel Castro because he is a Head of State, while reaffirming its right to judge former Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet. The National Audience said that the difference between the two was that Castro is still the leader of his country, whereas Pinochet left office in 1990. The court was examining a suit filed against Castro by a Cuban human rights group for torture, terrorism and genocide, the same charges that were laid against Pinochet. — AFP

Ta claims innocence
PHNOM PENH: Former Khmer Rouge guerrilla chief Ta Mok, who was arrested on the northern Cambodian border with Thailand, has told his interrogators here that he had no part to play in the genocide of almost two million innocent Cambodians during the infamous Pol Pot regime from 1975 to 1979. Questioned by his interrogators on Monday, Ta Mok, laid the blame for the killing of 1.7 million Cambodians squarely on Pol Pot, who died in the Cambodian jungles in April last year. — ANI

Scribe sentenced
GREENBELT (Maryland): A US Journalist got 18 months in prison on Monday for distributing child pornography online, despite his claim that he was doing research for a story on child molesters. Larry Matthews, a national public radio producer, who said he was working on a free-lance magazine article, had pleaded guilty. Matthews is the first journalist prosecuted for accessing child porn, according to the reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. — AP