PEOPLE

Statton, 37, is claiming racial and sexual harassment and breach of contract. The allegations were made as the Princess8217;s memorial fund confirmed it would accept an offer from the Shirayama corporation of office space at County Hall on a 20- year, rent-freebasis.

Ray of darkness

James Earl Ray, confessed assassin of Martin Luther King Jr and central figure in the conspiracy talk that hunted the crime ever since died on Friday, prison officials said. The 70-year-old Ray was pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital in Nashville where he had been taken for treatment of end stage liver disease, a condition that had left near death a number of times since late 1996.

His death, reported by the Tennessee Department of Correction, closed one of the last windows on the April 4, 1968, assassination of the preacher and civil rights leader.

Ray pleaded guilty to the crime and signed a court stipulation that constituted a broad confession but recanted almost immediately saying he did not kill King but was duped as part of a larger plot.

Defending Lolita

Actor Jeremy Irons has again defended the controversial film Lolita, based on Vladimir Nabokov8217;s novel of a middle-aged man8217;s tragic sexual obsession for a 12-year-old girl, in which heplays the lead.

At a debate held after the first screening of the film in Britain, in the central English town of Warwick, Irons denied Lolita glamorised paedophilia.

quot;Paedophiles can derive pleasure from bank advertisements and soda ads.quot;

quot;I do not believe we are hanging out dirty knickers for people to sniff. Forgive me for being so crude,quot; he said.

The film, which spent some 18 months on the shelf of a US distributor after censors ruled it too risque, is slowly inching its way on to European screens amid much outrage from child protection groups.

Irons recently denounced the quot;moral panicquot; threatening the distribution of the film in Britain. The world screen debut was made in the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian in September.

Linda8217;s last moments

The family of Linda McCartney admitted misleading the police and public over the circumstances surrounding her final days, but dismissed growing speculation that her death had been quot;assistedquot; as total rubbish. A McCartney familyspokesman confirmed she had not died in California, as first reported, but at a secluded ranch owned by Sir Paul near Tucson, Arizona.

The public had been deceived, he said, in an attempt to guarantee privacy for the family.

But California police said inquiries into the death would continue. quot;We would like nothing better than to call off this investigation,quot; said Lt Deborah Linden of Santa Barbara police. quot;But we need official confirmation of the location of her death.quot; The confusion began when the family failed to produce a death certificate and cremation document as required by law. Geoff Baker, Sir Paul8217;s spokesman, confirmed Linda had spent the last days of her life at the family8217;s 151 acre ranch in Arizona. Its existence had been a closely guarded secret. According to the Arizona Daily Star, the McCartneys were at the ranch for several days before she died last Friday. She was cremated at a funeral parlour in nearby Tucson. Baker admitted tricking the media into thinking Linda had died inSanta Barbara, but said he was trying to keep secret the existence of the family8217;s Arizona home. quot;It was a decoy. It was nothing to do with the McCartneys. It was my decision.quot;

Monica movements

A secret service officer voiced concerns about Monica Lewinsky8217;s movements and behaviour in the White House a few days before she was transferred to the Pentagon, the New York Times said today.

Gary Byrne told deputy White House chief of staff Evelyn Liberman two years ago that he had seen the young intern in the west wing of the building without authorisation, and that he had seen her there after hours as well, a former unidentified White House official told the daily. Within days, Lewinsky was removed from her job as a low-level aide in the White House to a minor position in the Pentagon, said the official.

Lewinsky is at the centre of an investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr into allegations she had an affair with President Bill Clinton who suborned her to lie about it under oath8211; an impeachable offense.