USATODAY:
Olympic scandal claims fourth resignation
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A Kenyan implicated in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal became the fourth International Olympic Committee member to resign Wednesday.
Charles Mukora said he resigned ''on principle.''
''I was an innocent victim of circumstances. However, the president of the International Olympic Committee has advised us to tender our resignations before March 17-18 in order to put these allegations to rest,'' Mukora said.
The International Olympic Committee on Sunday named Mukora as one of nine IOC members who received an under-the-table payment from Salt Lake City when it bid to host the Winter Olympics in the year 2002.
The IOC said Mukora, who is a wealthy man in his own right, received $34,650.
The Lausanne-based organization recommended he resign before being ousted at an IOC board meeting in March.
Mukora had told the IOC panel the payments were made in support of ''sports development in Kenya'' and for ''world youth sporting activities.''
But the IOC concluded that Mukora accepted the payment for ''his personal benefit'' and should be expelled.
Three other members resigned last week as a result of the scandal.
Mukora, an IOC member since 1990, has been chairman of the Kenya Olympics Association and first vice chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed01.htm

USATODAY:
Doctors: King Hussein suffers relapse
AMMAN, Jordan - King Hussein has suffered a relapse of cancer, his doctors said Wednesday, one day after the Jordanian monarch appointed his eldest son as crown prince and flew to the United States for treatment. The 63-year-old king was re-admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., according to a statement from the king's private physician and his team of clinic doctors. The statement said the king, who is being treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, was in stable condition Wednesday. Hussein's doctors say that since his return to Jordan on Jan. 19, the king has had high fever and low blood counts, indications the bone marrow transplant may not have been successful.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm

Joongang Daily:
$Bil. PC Market in Danger from Strikes
PC parts companies are worried about the strikes caused by the so-called big deals.
Strikes by Daewoo Electronics and LG Semiconductors' employees over big deals are expected to be prolonged, and companies which supply parts to those companies including Hewlett Packard Korea, Compaq Computer, IBM Korea and Philips are trying to attract clients from other companies in Japan and Taiwan.
Some foreign companies in Korea including HP Korea are saying that if the situation continues for even more than one week from now, it can not help but focus on client-companies in Taiwan.
HP Korea has already begun negotiations with a PC monitor maker in Taiwan.
Compaq Computer which buys more than 200 million dollars worth of monitors per year from Daewoo Electronics is considering buying products from Taiwanese firms if Daewoo Electronics' strike continues much longer.
Compaq Computer also buys more than 600 million dollars worth of DRAM semiconductors per year from LG Semiconductors, but it is considering a transfer of 200 million dollars to Japanese-made DRAM semiconductors.
Philips Korea which bought more than 500 million dollars worth of semiconductors from Korean companies last year is also contemplating purchasing products from other foreign companies if strikes are not quickly resolved.
Companies in Taiwan and Japan are seizing the opportunity and negotiating to increase providing parts to multi-national PC companies in Korea.
The Ministry of Information and Communication have started an investigation of trends of other foreign companies that are providing PC parts to Korean-based companies.
http://english.joongang.co.kr/

Russiatoday:
Russia, U.S. Vow to Overcome Differences
The United States and Russia failed to reconcile all their differences during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Tuesday but pledged not to let the disputes sour relations.
"There are a number of issues that are on the table when we talk. On some we agree totally and on some of them we disagree partially," Albright (pictured) told a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after two days of talks in Moscow.
"But I think that is in the spirit of two important countries who have their own national interests and is perfectly proper. What I found most interesting out of this visit is our ability to speak in frankness and friendship with each other about the common problems we face."
She said she had expressed this view during a 25-minute telephone conversation on Tuesday with President Boris Yeltsin, who is recovering in hospital from a stomach ulcer, and during a dinner with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov on Monday.
Yet as the news conference ended, Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement strongly condemning the deaths of civilians in what Iraq said was a U.S. missile attack on Monday.
"Nothing can justify new deaths among the civilian population of Iraq, which has already been bled dry by the hardships of many years of blockade," it said.
The strong wording highlighted the strains in a relationship carefully tended since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Albright arrived on Monday to try to narrow differences on issues including arms control, sales of Russian technology to Iran, and the crises in Iraq and Yugoslavia's Kosovo province.
Ivanov, who met her on both Monday and Tuesday, said Russia and the United States' overall strategic goals coincided and described the talks as constructive and productive.
"We think the lack of agreement of our views on some issues must not be an obstacle to the development of our partnerly relations," he said. The two sides also signed an agreement which Albright said would allow the United States to resume cooperation with Russia over the launching of satellites.
But Ivanov also pointed to Russia's concerns on a series of issues, including U.S. plans for an anti-missile defense system that might breach the Russia-U.S. Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
"We firmly believe that further reduction of strategic missiles can be done only on the condition that we are certain this agreement will be preserved and observed as a cornerstone of strategic stability," he said. Ivanov rejected any "pressure" to curb Russian technology exports after U.S. criticism of Moscow's cooperation with Iran.
He also said Russia was worried by any use of force without approval of the United Nations Security Council, making clear Moscow's opposition to U.S.-British air strikes against Iraq and to any plans to use force against Yugoslavia over Kosovo.
Albright failed to persuade the Russian parliament to ratify the START 2 arms reduction pact which has been approved by the U.S. Senate. But both sides reported progress towards agreement on amending the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) to reflect the post-Cold War military balance. They said they hoped an amended CFE pact would be ready for signing by November.
Despite their differences over Kosovo, Russia and the United States issued a joint statement on the crisis expressing concern at the violence in the Yugoslav province.
On the economy, Albright made clear that Washington and the International Monetary Fund would support new loans to Russia only if it pushed ahead with reforms.
"It is necessary for there to be an economic program and a budget that is realistic, that provides a sense of confidence to various creditors and allows Russia to proceed down the road of a market economy," she said. Ivanov told Russian Television, however, that Russia would not trade diplomatic concessions for financial support -- "a billion for Kosovo, another billion for Iraq" as he put it.
Albright also met Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov on Monday and regional governor Aleksander Lebed and liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky on Tuesday. All three are likely to run for the presidency when Yeltsin's term ends in 2000.
She later joined Ivanov for an evening of opera at the Bolshoi Theatre. She was due to fly to Saudi Arabia early on Wednesday for talks likely to focus on Iraq.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/01.html

Joongang Daily:
Unemployment Affects the Sport of Ping Pong
Korean table tennis is also being affected by the serious unemployment problem the country is facing.
Ping Pong, which brought Korea two gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and one gold at the 1998 Bangkok Asiad, has lost half of the teams from its league and coaching staff and players are now out of jobs.
Lee Sang Kook, manager of the men's national team, is looking for a position at a girl's high school. In addition to that, Oh Byung Man, former men's team coach for Samsung Life Insurance's team, who led Korea to the gold medal in team competition by defeating world champion China 3-0 at the Singapore Asian Table Tennis Championships in 1996, is now studying English.
The 1988 Olympic men's singles winner, Yoo Nam Kyu, is just waiting for his team to re-form, but does not know when that will be.
http://english.joongang.co.kr/