SouthChinaMorningPost[980225-world]

[Chinese News]

South China Morning Post

98 / 02 / 25 /

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1. [16]Asian Crisis Special
2. [16]Asian Crisis Special
3. [16]Asian Crisis Special
4. [16]Asian Crisis Special
5. [16]Asian Crisis Special
6. [16]Asian Crisis Special
7. [16]Asian Crisis Special
8. [16]Asian Crisis Special
9. [16]Asian Crisis Special
10. [16]Asian Crisis Special
11. [16]Asian Crisis Special
12. [16]Asian Crisis Special
13. [16]Asian Crisis Special
14. [16]Asian Crisis Special
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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Monday_ February 9 1998


_Post's web site voted best online newspaper _

__
The South China Morning Post has confirmed its place among the world's
online elite by winning a major global award.

The paper's Internet Edition was voted best online newspaper service
outside the United States at the third Editor and Publisher awards.

[18]Editor and Publisher is the American journalists' bible - a
magazine providing news and commentary about the newspaper business in
the US and around the world.

The panel of judges was made up of 23 journalism and online publishing
authorities from 10 countries.

The E&P Best Online Newspaper Awards, also called the EPpys, were
announced at a ceremony at the Interactive Newspapers '98 conference
in Seattle.

The Post's editor, Jonathan Fenby, said: "The Internet offers a new
dimension for major news gathering organisations like the Post and we
are delighted with this top-level recognition of the effort that has
been made to put us in the forefront of global information
dissemination.

"It is also a particularly pleasing recognition of the hard work and
skill that has been put into the site by all those concerned."

There were more than 400 entries from newspaper Web sites in 33
countries ranging from Russia and Argentina to Pakistan and Australia
- almost three times the number in last year's contest.

Postnet manager Christopher Justice, who leads the Post's online team
and who was in Seattle to accept the award, said: "Winning this
recognition by such a well-respected panel of judges is a great
honour. We were up against the best . . . and we won. We now aim to
gain even wider recognition by introducing exciting and innovative
additions to the site."

The Post defeated Britain's [19]Financial Times' web site and the
Toronto Star's [20]Citysearch to take the award.

The Post's web site was also a finalist in the awards'
most-competitive category - Best Special Section in a Newspaper Online
Service - for the [21]"1997 Handover" section. The award is the latest
praise for the Post's Internet Edition.

The Far Eastern Economic Review, in its current edition, describes the
Post's site as "probably the most comprehensive newspaper site in
Asia".

And Dow Jones & Co said in its [22]Business Directory Guide that the
site was "an excellent example of what online newspapers can do".

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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_People _

_Photographers jailed for Schwarzenegger chase _

[18][LINK]

_Don't mess with:_ Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Two celebrity photographers have been sentenced to jail for chasing
Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver as they drove their son
to school last year.

Giles Harrison, 29, received a 90-day term and Andrew O'Brien, 31, got
60 days for the May incident in which they followed the couple's
Mercedes-Benz and swarmed the car when it stopped.

"I'm not an insensitive person. I didn't carry out my job that day in
an insensitive manner," O'Brien said outside the Santa Monica,
California, court. "In hindsight, maybe I should have pulled out, but
I don't know."

Superior Court Judge Robert Altman allowed the photographers to remain
free on US$1,000 (HK$7,700) bail each pending appeal of their
convictions for false imprisonment. Harrison also was convicted of
reckless driving.

They were ordered to pay US$500 fines and placed on probation for two
years.

In issuing the sentences, Judge Altman said the pair had created a
dangerous situation, but he was not trying to make a statement about
celebrities and the media.

"There may be a problem when celebrities feel they cannot leave their
houses, but I don't think this is the place to debate this. Any type
of car chase is life-threatening to those involved."

O'Brien's lawyer, Charles Lindner, called the sentences "outrageous"
and said dealing with photographers goes with the territory of being a
celebrity.

"While I understand their distress, that's the price of fame," Lindner
said. "It means your public life is severely inhibited."

The judge was sending a message, Lindner claimed.

"If you cover the news too closely or too aggressively you'll end up
spending 90 days or 60 days in county jail," he said. "Because of the
Princess Diana situation, more stars are saying they're being hassled,
but fame is a double-edged sword."

The confrontation occurred as Schwarzenegger, 50, was recuperating
from heart valve surgery. The photographers, working for Splash news
and photo agency, were hoping to get the first post-surgery pictures
and videotape.

The prosecution said the two at one point forced the couple's car,
driven by Shriver, to stop on a street, and then swarmed it when they
stopped at a Santa Monica preschool attended by their son Patrick.

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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_People _

_Princess Margaret has mild stroke _

Princess Margaret has suffered a mild stroke while on holiday on the
Caribbean island of Mustique.

Margaret, 67, had the stroke on Monday and her condition was stable,
Buckingham Palace said. She was treated by doctors on Mustique and
then flown to Barbados, where she was undergoing tests in hospital.

The palace said the princess would be flown back to England when she
was well enough.

Margaret, four years younger than her sister, Queen Elizabeth,
regularly goes on holiday to Mustique.

Divorced in 1978 from Lord Snowdon, the princess is among the least
publicly active members of Britain's royal family and now spends long
periods on Mustique.

Margaret has long appeared less robust than her elder sister. Once a
heavy smoker, she had part of a lung removed in 1985.

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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_People _

_So sorry, Sir Elton _

__
Queen Elizabeth apologised to Sir Elton John for interfering with his
busy international programme as he accepted his knighthood yesterday.

"She said I must be terribly busy - but this is not the sort of thing
you put off.

"I flew back from LA yesterday and I'm going to Australia on Thursday,
but there was no way I would miss this," said Sir Elton, 50, whose
Candle in the Wind '97, sung at Princess Diana's funeral, has sold 33
million copies worldwide, raising £100 million (HK$1.26 billion) for
the princess' memorial fund.

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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_People _

_Honours row angers Connery _

Sean Connery said yesterday he had been subjected to character
assassination over claims he had been turned down for a knighthood.

Connery, the Scottish actor best known for playing James Bond in the
1960s, said he was not happy that remarks he allegedly once made about
violence towards women and his status as a tax exile had been dredged
up.

"I am fed up being told I don't pay taxes. I pay more than most people
in the UK," Connery said. "If they want to do a character
assassination on me, that's their way of justifying saying, 'Well, we
shouldn't give it to him"'.

A Sunday newspaper claimed Connery, 67, had been turned down for a
knighthood last year by the Labour Government because of his
vociferous support for Scottish independence.

But government sources reportedly expressed concern about Connery's
alleged remarks in which he appeared to suggest there were occasions
when it was acceptable for a man to slap a woman. He denied saying any
such thing.

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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_People _

_Royal painting fetches $17.8m _

A painting of Edward VIII, the former Prince of Wales, astride his
chestnut mare sold for a record US$2.3 million (HK$17.8 million) on
the fifth day of a New York auction of the Duke and Duchess of
Windsor's estate.

The price was the highest ever for a painting by Sir Alfred Munnings
and the most expensive item to date in the nine-day sale.

The buyer, who made the purchase by telephone, remained anonymous.

Pre-sale estimates for the 1920 canvas had reached US$800,000.

It was sold along with other possessions of the one-time king and the
woman for whom he abdicated, American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Texas businessman John McCall snagged the second-biggest prize of the
day, a six-volume edition of Winston Churchill's The World Crisis
inscribed to the duke. The price was US$145,500.

_[18]Back To Top_


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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_Iraq _

_Clinton's big stick scares off potential sympathisers _

_ANALYSIS by Carol Giacomo of Reuters in Washington_
As the remaining superpower, the United States is used to criticism
for acting like the world's policeman.

In the Iraq crisis, it wielded its threat of military might more
single-mindedly than usual, ceding much of the diplomacy to others.

And President Bill Clinton made clear the threat would remain
indefinitely in case Baghdad reneged on its accord with UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

One Clinton administration official said: "Perhaps at the end of the
day, if you have a diplomatic solution, people can point to us as
overbearing on the military end.

"But that's a rap we're prepared to take and we're proud to take."

Critics say Washington undermined its leadership role and created
problems for itself in the Arab world and elsewhere by appearing to
favour, or at least emphasise, a military option instead of diplomacy
backed by force.

"The British did both," said one former US official of London's
pursuit of diplomatic options, while co-operating with the US by
sending an aircraft carrier to the Gulf.

The Clinton administration failed to make a compelling case that the
threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction warranted taking military
action that could risk American and Iraqi lives, the former official
said.

Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies, said: "This has not been a good period for American
diplomacy.

"We seem to have concentrated on essentially pointless events like
town meetings and domestic political posturing when we faced a skilled
and persistent opponent."

Contrary to looking like a warmonger, the US could come out of the
crisis looking "like a wimp because we had the opportunity to hit
[Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] and we didn't", said Ken Pollack,
of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

But, he added, the key was "what do the Iraqis believe, and I think
the initial signs are good. It seems Saddam took our threat to bomb
him seriously".

_[18]Back To Top_


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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_Turkey _

_Turk passengers subdue 'panda bear' hijacker _

_AGENCIES in Ankara and Diyarbakir, Turkey_
_Updated at 2.09pm:_
Passengers aboard a hijacked Turkish airliner on Wednesday overpowered
a hijacker weilding a toy bear he said contained a bomb, just as
special forces stormed the plane at Diyarbakir, Turkey.

Three passengers jumped the man, 31-year-old Turk Mehmet Dag, who
claimed he was on a mission from God, the semi-official Anatolia news
agency said.

Dag claimed to have a bomb hidden in the toy panda bear he was
carrying and demanded to be flown to neighbouring Iran, officials
said. It was not immediately clear if there were explosives in the
bear.

''I jumped over him and started to punch his face when two other
passengers grabbed and threw him on the floor,'' passenger Vedat
Gulsen told the private ATV television station.

Mr Gulsen said they handed Dag to security forces who boarded the
plane disguised as caterers bringing in cigars and food that Dal had
demanded. ''I am the martyr of God,'' Dag, 31, shouted as he was taken
off the plane, and then whisked away to a military ambulance.

''He has religious delusions,'' army general Yasar Buyukanit, who was
involved in the hijack standoff, said.

An official at Diyarbakir airport said: ''It's over, he's been
arrested. The passengers have been released and the situation is
normal.''

Although the hijacker was registered as Dal by the airline, police
identified him Dag. They said he had a criminal record that included
drug charges, had served a two-month jail term for theft and had been
released from prison only six months ago.

Mr Gulsen said Dag was protesting against what he called the
oppression of Muslims in Algeria.

Dag hijacked the RJ-100 plane, which was carrying 63 passengers and
five crew, shortly after it took off from the southern city of Adana
on a flight to the capital, Ankara, late on Tuesday.

The hijacker diverted the aircraft to Diyarbakir, where he released 20
of those on board. Eight of those freed were ill.

He demanded a fresh plane to take him to Tehran along with several
passengers and crew, Anatolian said.

State Minister Refaiddin Sahin told the Anatolia agency Dag was acting
alone and not affiliated with any organisation, but Interior Minister
Murat Basesgioglu said: ''Everything will become clear during police
questioning.''

Anatolia listed four of the passengers as foreigners, but their
nationalities were not immediately available.

No one was harmed during the operation.

Diyarbakir is the main city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast where
rebels are fighting security forces for self-rule. The airport is
shared between the air force and civil aviation authorities.

_[18]Back To Top_


***************************************************************************

[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_Iraq _

_Clinton's big stick scares off potential sympathisers _

_ANALYSIS by Carol Giacomo of Reuters in Washington_
As the remaining superpower, the United States is used to criticism
for acting like the world's policeman.

In the Iraq crisis, it wielded its threat of military might more
single-mindedly than usual, ceding much of the diplomacy to others.

And President Bill Clinton made clear the threat would remain
indefinitely in case Baghdad reneged on its accord with UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

One Clinton administration official said: "Perhaps at the end of the
day, if you have a diplomatic solution, people can point to us as
overbearing on the military end.

"But that's a rap we're prepared to take and we're proud to take."

Critics say Washington undermined its leadership role and created
problems for itself in the Arab world and elsewhere by appearing to
favour, or at least emphasise, a military option instead of diplomacy
backed by force.

"The British did both," said one former US official of London's
pursuit of diplomatic options, while co-operating with the US by
sending an aircraft carrier to the Gulf.

The Clinton administration failed to make a compelling case that the
threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction warranted taking military
action that could risk American and Iraqi lives, the former official
said.

Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies, said: "This has not been a good period for American
diplomacy.

"We seem to have concentrated on essentially pointless events like
town meetings and domestic political posturing when we faced a skilled
and persistent opponent."

Contrary to looking like a warmonger, the US could come out of the
crisis looking "like a wimp because we had the opportunity to hit
[Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] and we didn't", said Ken Pollack,
of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

But, he added, the key was "what do the Iraqis believe, and I think
the initial signs are good. It seems Saddam took our threat to bomb
him seriously".

_[18]Back To Top_


***************************************************************************

[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_Iran _

_Praise for EU as it resumes contacts _

_AGENCIES in Teheran_
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi yesterday welcomed a European
Union decision to resume bilateral ministerial contacts.

In a speech at a Teheran foreign policy seminar, Mr Kharrazi said: "We
consider this to be a realisation of a better understanding by the
European Union of the important position of Iran and the role Iran can
play as a country and as chairman of the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference."

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday lifted the ban on
high-level diplomatic contacts which was imposed after a German court
last year ruled that Teheran's leadership had been involved in
political killings at a Berlin restaurant in 1992.

Teheran has strongly denied the charges.

"Many problems existing between the two sides can be resolved," Mr
Kharrazi said.

The EU is a major trading partner with Iran and has resisted moves by
the US to starve the country of vital investment in its oil and gas
reserves.

Mr Kharrazi said he was encouraged by recent statements on Iran by US
President Bill Clinton but said Washington had to act first to show it
wanted ties with the Islamic republic.

"I hear some good words from the American side . . . [but] words are
not enough," he said.

Long-standing US policy is that any improvement in ties, severed
during the 1979-1980 Iran hostage crisis, must include a dialogue on
Iran's alleged support for terrorism, opposition to the Middle East
peace process and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction - concerns
the EU shares.

Teheran has insisted that Washington demonstrate its goodwill towards
Iran by addressing grievances such as releasing Iranian assets frozen
in the US.

Last month, President Mohammad Khatami gave a historic interview on
American television in which he urged increased dialogue to bring
about "a crack in the wall of mistrust" between the two countries.

The successful visit last week of an American wrestling team to Iran -
the first since 1979 - has been compared to Washington's
ground-breaking "ping-pong diplomacy" with China in the 1970s.

This week six American foreign policy experts and academics are
continuing the unofficial cultural exchange with their attendance at
the Teheran seminar.

_[18]Back To Top_


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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_Northern Ireland _

_Bombing did not breach our cease-fire, says IRA _

_ASSOCIATED PRESS in Belfast_
The IRA yesterday sidestepped responsibility for bombing a hardline
Protestant town in an attack that has stoked sectarian passions
precisely when Catholic and Protestant negotiators are supposed to be
reaching a compromise.

The terrorists issued a statement studiously avoiding mention of
Monday's blast in Portadown, 50 kilometres southwest of Belfast.

It said the IRA's "complete cessation of military operations" called
in July 1997 "remains intact".

The statement mimicked an earlier claim which failed to confirm or
deny the IRA's involvement in two Belfast killings this month.

It could be interpreted that occasional breaches do not constitute a
formal abandonment of the IRA truce.

The British and Irish governments expelled the IRA-allied Sinn Fein
party from the negotiations on Northern Ireland's future for two weeks
as punishment for the two killings.

The negotiations are inching towards a settlement that would see the
return of strong local government to Northern Ireland.

While Britain said it would not rush to judge who committed the latest
bombing, leaders of the north's pro-British Protestant majority
accused the IRA.

The bomb inside a stolen silver BMW levelled two buildings, set
another alight and smashed windows and roofs across a wide area, but
phoned warnings allowed police to clear the area and prevent serious
injuries.

Notably, one caller used an old IRA codeword from the 1980s.

The attack followed Friday's car-bomb strike on another mostly
Protestant town, Moira, in which seven police and four civilians were
hurt. No one has claimed responsibility.

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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_United States _

_Zoo helps move 363kg man _

_AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Chicago_
A team of 20 medical workers borrowed heavy lifting gear from a zoo to
help move a 363-kilogram man suffering chest pains from his home to
hospital.

"He was in the basement. It was tough to get him out of there," said
Cleveland's Emergency Medical Services spokesman Leigh Whitmer, adding
that the borrowed tarpaulin was usually used for moving large animals.

"They encapsulated him in the tarpaulin and after reinforcing the
stairs, modifying the steps and the doorway, they got him out with a
ramp and pulley," he said.

The 47-year-old man, who does not want to be identified, was in stable
condition in hospital.

_[18]Back To Top_


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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_Britain _

_Loud-speaker boy baffles doctors _

_AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in London_
A three-year-old boy whose inability to speak without shouting has
driven his family - with the exception of a hard-of-hearing
grandmother - to despair.

Tom Coward, who has no problem with his own hearing, shouts so loudly
and so often that he has nodules on his vocal cords - a condition
usually associated with opera singers and football managers.

Doctors have been unable to find a medical reason for Tom's condition.

"Whenever we used to take him out and he saw someone he knew, he would
start singing Happy Birthday at the top of his voice," Tom's mother,
Cherry Coward, told The Guardian.

With the patience of neighbours starting to wane, Tom's family has
developed a rewards system to try to get him to lower his voice.

"If he does respond, we say we will take him to his grandma's. She
loves seeing him because her hearing isn't that good," Mrs Coward
said.

_[18]Back To Top_


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[14]Index

[15][LINK]

[16]Asian Crisis Special

[17]Bird Flu Outbreak

_Wednesday_ February 25 1998


_People _

_Accused killers 'on cocaine' _

[18][LINK]

_Killing field:_ Haing Ngor.

Three gang members accused of killing Academy Award-winning Cambodian
actor Haing Ngor were high on cocaine and wanted money to buy more
drugs, the prosecutor alleged in opening arguments at their trial.

Tak Sun Tan, 21, and Indra Lim and Jason Chan, both 28, were members
of the Oriental Lazy Boys gang and on a drug high when they approached
Haing Ngor on February 25, 1996, prosecutor Craig Hum told a Los
Angeles jury.

Haing Ngor handed over his US$6,000 (HK$46,400) Rolex watch but
refused to let go of a 24-carat gold locket that held the only picture
of his late wife, Hum said.

"Ultimately, this picture meant more than life itself to Dr Ngor," Hum
told the jury.

Haing Ngor a physician turned movie star who went on to become a
counsellor for the Chinatown Service Centre, was found in a pool of
blood in an alley outside his Chinatown apartment.

Haing Ngor, 55, won an Oscar for his portrayal of photo-journalist
Dith Pran in the 1984 film The Killing Fields.

Haing Ngor had spent four years in captivity under the Khmer Rouge in
the 1970s, before escaping to Thailand and heading for the United
States in 1980.

The three defendants each have a separate jury.

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