BRUSSELS

EU constitution to

include symbols of state

A future European Union constitution will include a flag, an anthem, a motto and a Europe Day, despite British reticence about such symbols.

The 105-member Convention on the Future of Europe decided at its final session yesterday to add a reference to the symbols of the 15-nation bloc, due to be enlarged to 25 states next May, in a draft constitution submitted to EU leaders.

The official EU anthem is the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the flag is the dark blue banner with 12 yellow stars in a circle, and the motto is "United in Diversity."

The date for Europe Day will be May 9, commemorating an historic speech by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, one of the EU's founding fathers.

JAKARTA

Complaint on US fighter jets

Indonesia said yesterday it was deeply concerned with a possible incursion by US fighter jets into its airspace that led to a tense showdown with Indonesian warplanes.

Five US F-18 Hornet planes went into attack mode and locked their missiles onto two Indonesian F-16 fighters during the incident on July 3, according to officials in Jakarta.

The American planes were said to be part of a US Navy convoy passing through Indonesian waters.

Top Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with US Ambassador Ralph Boyce yesterday to discuss the matter.

He told reporters after the meeting: "I have received a commitment that US war planes will not fly over Indonesian islands or land without permission."

CHICAGO

'Man might spy for Saddam'

The US Government has accused the owner of an Arabic newspaper published in Chicago of using his position to spy on Iraqi opposition leaders for Saddam Hussein's intelligence service.

Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi, 60, even provided Iraqi intelligence agents with bogus press credentials that could help them evade travel restrictions, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday in announcing Dumeisi's arrest.

"He wrote provocative stories to sort of goad people into responding to him and then he took the tapes and sent them over to the Iraqi government," US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said.

Dumeisi was charged based partly on a dossier seized in a Baghdad safehouse in April as US troops moved in.

STOCKHOLM

Apology on terrorist remark

A Swedish political leader apologized yesterday for remarks that German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was a terrorist.

Maud Olofsson also stressed she did not share the views of a British activist who compared the European Monetary Union to Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, with a centralized government and a common currency.

"I have apologized for having said that. It was a mistake," said Olofsson, who leads the Center Party in Sweden.

Olofsson's comments about Fischer came on Wednesday during a debate about the EMU and whether Sweden should adopt the euro in a September 14 national referendum.

KABUL

Afghan donation needs to double

International donors will have to more than double their pledges of aid to Afghanistan if the country is to recover from over two decades of devastating warfare, a senior UN official said yesterday.

"Unless there's a real influx of funds, this government can't even pay its salaries come August," said Nigel Fisher, the UN's deputy special representative for Afghanistan.

Donors pledged US$4.6 billion to rebuild Afghanistan over five years at a conference in Tokyo in January 2002, but funds have been slow to come in, Fisher said. Only US$2 billion has been distributed so far - half of it to the government and half via the United Nations and aid agencies.

The United Nations and World Bank officials estimate at least US$13 billion is needed to rebuild the war-torn country.

LONDON

Self-portrait goes for US$11 m

A Rembrandt self-portrait that lay unseen for hundreds of years under layers of overpaint sold for 6.9 million pounds (US$11.3 million) in London yesterday.

Auction house Sotheby's said the price was the highest ever paid for a self-portrait of the Dutch master at auction.

Dating from 1634 when the 28-year-old Rembrandt was at the height of his fame and living in luxury in Amsterdam with his new wife Saskia, the picture is the first of his self-portraits to be sold at auction in three decades.

It was bought by US casino tycoon Steve Wynn in a transatlantic telephone bid, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.

"The painting will be put on display at the Wynn Resorts Collection in Las Vegas," she said.

BUDAPEST

English not beautiful to the ear

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder - but for young Hungarians trying to decide what foreign language to study, it is also in the ear.

English is the most helpful second language for business and travel, but it just does not capture the hearts of Hungarians like French, Italian or Spanish, a new survey suggests.

Four out of five high school students said English was the most useful language they could learn, but 63 per cent said Romance languages were the most beautiful.

The survey was published this week by the University Entrance Information Service, which interviewed more than 26,000 students in high schools nationwide.

KHARTOUM

Plane crash survivor to go to London

A 2-year-old boy who survived an air crash that killed the other 115 people on board a Sudan Airways flight is to be flown to London for treatment, an airline spokesman said on behalf of his family yesterday.

Omar Ali, a Sudan Airways official, said the family of Mohamed al-Fatih Abu Sabaa were in mourning over the death of his mother, killed in Tuesday's crash, but stunned by the child's survival.

The president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, had pledged to pay for the boy's treatment, Ali said.

The toddler, who suffered 15 per cent burns in the crash, was reported to be in a stable condition in a Khartoum hospital, said Ali.

He said Mohammed had lost the lower part of his right calf in the accident, but had avoided bleeding to death because flames had sealed the wound. Airline officials had previously said the boy had lost a leg.

BRIEFLY

GUWAHATI, India: Monsoon rains have killed more than 180 people and forced about 400,000 from their homes in eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh and created a food shortage in some areas, officials said yesterday.

WAGAH, India: Authorities ordered more than 1,000 police to be alert today to prevent any attack when India and Pakistan resume direct bus links disrupted 18 months ago by threats of war between the rivals, officials said yesterday.

MOGADISHU: Clashes between rival factions over a land dispute in central Somalia have killed 25 people and wounded 18, residents contacted by radio said yesterday.

(China Daily 07/11/2003 page1)