Row brewing between Jiang, Qiao

BEIJING: The rivalry between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and National People's Congress (NPC) Chairman Qiao Shi has intensified over key appointments to be made at the 15th communist party Congress, analysts have said.

Jiang and Qiao have already begun a `protracted struggle' over personnel appointments to be decided at the party Congress scheduled for October. Both are reportedly supporting different candidates for the key positions of the heads of the commission on legal and political affairs and the central commission for disciplinary inspection.

Candidates recommended by Jiang, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), hail from Shanghai, including the Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, Huang Ju.

Qiao, a former head of the legal commission, is lobbying for the minister of state for security, Jia Chunwang, and the alternate member of the Politburo, Wen Jiabao.

More dirt on Dan Burton

WASHINGTON: US Congressman Dan Burton, who has been blasting the White House almost daily for allegedly consorting with unsavoury characters in its search for campaign dollars, has been accused of doing precisely what he has been criticising others for.

Burton, who chairs the House investigation of 1996 campaign irregularities, discussed US allegations of drug money laundering in the Caribbean island of Aruba in 1995 with Carlo Mansur, the managing director of Interbank Aruba, whose brother and cousin had been indicted for federal drug charges, The Washington Post said.

Burton discussed the matter at a dinner with Mansur during a visit to Puerto Rico in April, 1995, The Post said in the latest expose of Burton.

12 killed in Algiers car bomb

ALGIERS: A powerful car bomb exploded on Thursday in a town south of the capital, in the heart of a region wracked by bombings and massacres. At least 12 people were killed and 50 wounded in the latest attack, officials said. The bombing near the town hall of Boufarik was the latest incident in a new spate of violence ahead of next month's parliamentary elections. The blast in Boufarik, about 35 km south of Algiers, shattered windows, broke tree trunks and destroyed nearby cars, witnesses said on customary anonymity. The bomb left a crater one metre deep (more than three feet deep). There was no claim of responsibility for the explosion, but suspicion fell on Muslim militants waging a five-year-old insurgency against the military-backed government.

Jackson's bride happy to be apart

LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson's bride doesn't mind living away from her husband and their three-month-old son. After all, the pop superstar changes diapers, feeds and even naps with young prince Michael Jackson Jr., Debbie Rowe said. ``I don't need to be there,'' Rowe said in an interview that aired on Wednesday on KNBC-TV. I would have nothing to do.'' Rowe, who has an apartment in Los Angeles, denied reports that she married Jackson and bore his child for money.

``I don't need money,'' said Rowe, a 37-year-old nurse who works for one of Jackson's doctors. ``I would never do this for money. I did this because I love him.'' A London tabloid reported that Rowe was paid more than $500,000 to have the singer's baby. Rowe also denied reports that the child was conceived by artificial insemination.

89-yr-old Hong Kong movie tycoon marries

HONG KONG: Sir Run Run Shaw, 89-year-old boss of Hong Kong's biggest movie studio, has married his long-time female companion in Las Vegas, the studio said Thursday. Shaw married 62-year-old singer Lee Mong-Lan, known by her stage name Mona Fong, in the Little White Chapel on May 6, the studio's production controller, Wong Ka-Hei said.

Founded in 1958, Shaw Studios has produced over 800 films, Wong said. Action movie star Chow Yun-Fat and John Woo, director of Hardboiled are products of Shaw Studios, as is Maggie Cheung, who stars in Irma Vep. The couple made no announcement of the marriage because ``they are old and they didn't want to tell their heart's desire to the world,'' he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.