The sentence was handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court in the

The sentence was handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court in the south-western provincial capital of Guiyang. Under Chinese law, any challenge to the Communist Party’s dominance is considered subversive.It is not Ma’s first jail term for speaking out. In the 1980s he spent more than three years in prison for taking part in winter student protests in Peking. He was detained again in January 1998, with three other poets who launched a “Cultural Renaissance” movement calling for political reform, and had planned to publish a magazine promoting increased literary freedom.Two of the other poets – Wu Ruohai and Li Xi – have already been sentenced to three years’ reform through labour, under an administrative penalty that does not require a trial. The fate of the fourth poet, Liu Xianli, remains unclear, although according to reports, he was sentenced to a jail term in Shanghai for downloading pornographic pictures from the internet. Human rights campaigners say that the Shanghai police are known to use criminal charges to persecute political dissidents.The Communist Party has traditionally protected its dominance with harsh and sweeping anti-subversion laws.

Proponents of political reform are routinely punished with long prison terms. In other cases, charges such as distributing pornography are used to silence critics.China’s efforts to stamp out dissent – both religious and political – mean that scores of activists have been imprisoned in recent months, especially those belonging to the Falun Gong spiritual movement or the outlawed China Democracy Party. The United States has already agreed to sponsor a motion at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva this month condemning China’s human rights record.. Defense Secretary William Cohen said Wednesday he will press Japanese defense officials not to cut the dlrs 5 billion a year the government pays to keep 47,000 American troops in Japan. Defense Secretary William Cohen said Wednesday he will press Japanese defense officials not to cut the dlrs 5 billion a year the government pays to keep 47,000 American troops in Japan.
“It’s important to us,” Cohen said.Speaking to reporters on Cohen’s flight here from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a senior aide told reporters that the Pentagon is hopeful of reaching a new five-year “host nation support” agreement by this summer, when President Clinton will travel to Japan for an international summit conference in Okinawa.The official, who spoke on condition he not be identified, also said Washington and Japan were on the verge of an agreement that will address U.S.

complaints about pollution from the smokestacks of an incinerator located just outside the gates of the Atsugi Naval Air Facility, south of Tokyo.The U.S. Navy says the Shinkampo incinerator is harming the health of the 6,600 residents and Navy workers who live within a half mile of it. Last year Japan’s Environment Agency said the levels of carcinogenic dioxin are dangerously high near the Atsugi naval facility.A study conducted last summer by the Japanese government and the U.S. Navy found dioxin in concentrations almost 10 times the level deemed acceptable by the Japanese government.The U.S.

official said he expected that a “comprehensive agreement” would be announced when Cohen visits Atsugi on Thursday with Tsutomu Kawara, chief of the Japanese Defense Agency. The official declined to provide any details but said the solution would be “very expensive” for Japan.The Tokyo newspaper The Daily Yomiuri reported in Thursday’s editions that Kawara said on a visit to the incinerator on Wednesday, before Cohen arrived in Japan, that something must be done to address the Americans’ concerns, including the possibility of the government taking over the plant.”I think there may be a need to employ special measures to solve the problem,” the newspaper quoted Kawara as saying.On the matter of negotiating a new 5-year agreement on financial support for U.S bases in Japan, the U.S. official said the Pentagon believes it can persuade Tokyo to keep “roughly the same” level of payments. xpires in 2001, Japan pays about dlrs 100,000 a year for every U.S soldier, sailor, airman and Marine based in Japan. That amounts to about dlrs 5 billion a year – by far the most generous financial support by any ally with American forces on its soil.Cohen also expects to discuss with Japanese officials his three-day visit to Vietnam, which was the first by an American defense secretary since before the Vietnam War ended 25 years ago.. Ministers blamed the United Nations yesterday for delays in getting aid to Mozambique after the country was hit by disastrous floods last month.

Ministers blamed the United Nations yesterday for delays in getting aid to Mozambique after the country was hit by disastrous floods last month.
A UN disaster team, including two members from Britain, pulled out two days before the worst floods hit the country, Clare Short, the International Development Secretary told a Commons committee. She denied there had been a dispute between her department and the Ministry of Defence over its demand for £2.4m to supply helicopters – a figure that later dropped to £1.2m.The International Development Committee was told a UN team of disaster assessors, one of whom came from Ms Short’s department, spent 12 days in Mozambique but left on 24 February. Two days later the country’s river system was inundated and a second UN team had to be recruited.”They came out too quickly That is deeply, deeply regrettable,” Ms Short told the MPs “There is a lot of room for improvement. The UN was not alert enough and it wasn’t fast enough at that point.”Ms Short said the position was initially confused and reports from the British members of the team did not immediately highlight the need for helicopters. “What we sent first wasn’t helicopters – it was emergency aid, tents, sanitation equipment.