Portraits

Robert McNamara, the former defence secretary who in 1995 wrote that the US was quot;terribly wrongquot; to fight in Vietnam, is quot;selling himself shortquot; with such mea culpas. Kissinger said: quot;I believe we got into Vietnam for noble motives and for valid objectives,quot; he said in a speech at the Nixon Centre in Washington.

quot;We did not assess properly the distinction between containment in Europe and containment in Asia. We made mistakes in the conduct of strategy,quot;Kissinger added. Asked about McNamara, who wrote in a 1995 memoir that he knew as early as 1965 that the US couldn8217;t win the Vietnam War militarily, Kissinger replied: quot;I would say he8217;s selling himself short.quot;

Closing the book

A Hong Kong judge has closed the legal chapter on concubines by ruling the Chinese practice of taking quot;secondarywivesquot; was abolished by a 1931 law change. Judge Brian Keith8217;s ruling ended a multi-million dollar inheritance dispute that depended on the legality of concubinage, The South China Morning Post said.

Keith adjudged the territory8217;s Civil Code adopted in 1931 made no mention of the practice, rendering illegitimate a claim by a millionaire8217;s widow that she was entitled to a share of his estate left in whole to one of his mistresses. An earlier court ruling had put the mistress, Chu Lee, in charge of the estate following millionaire Sung So-chun8217;s death in 1985.

But Sung8217;s 90-year-old widow, Chan Chiu-lam, disputed the decision, saying that as her late husband8217;s concubine from 1945, Chu was part of the family and thus had to share the estate out. Keith8217;s ruling means the widow and her two surviving children have no claim to the money because it was effectively given to a stranger, the paper said.

Keep out of Serbia

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ought to let the President of Serbiadecide what to do about Kosovo, Serbia8217;s restive mainly Albanian southern province, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs said in an interview. Biljana Plavsic, President of the Republika Srpska 8212; the Serb half of Bosnia 8212; said Milosevic should turn over responsibility for Kosovo to his successor as President of Serbia, Milan Milutinovic.

quot;Mr Milosevic should say that Kosovo is a Serbian problem and that it should be dealt with by the Serbian President Milutinov,quot; Plavsic told the daily Novi Blic.

She said that in quot;adopting a frontline positionquot; over Kosovo, Milosevic was quot;doing a disservice to the Serb peoplequot;. He was giving the impression that quot;the problem of Kosovo should be settled within the framework of Yugoslavia Serbia plus Montenegroquot; instead of by Serbians themselves, Plavsic said.

Stripped of post

Kim Song-Ae, the widow of the late North Korean president Kim Il-Sung, has been stripped of her post as head of the Democratic Women8217;s Union, an official report from Pyongyang stated.

TheKorean Central News Agency KCNA reported Chon Yon-Ok, vice chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, was appointed as the new chairwoman of the Korea Democratic Women8217;s Union at a recent general meeting in Pyongyang.

The report was carried in KCNA8217;s Korean-language service monitored here. Kim Song-Ae, 73, the second wife of the late dictator, is the stepmother of North Korea8217;s paramount leader Kim Jong-Il.

She headed the women8217;s Union from 1983 but kept her profile low beside the quot;Great Leader,quot; who died in 1994 at the age of 82. quot;Despite her title of the chairwoman of the Democratic Women8217;s Union, Kim Song-Ae has remained inactive for many years, letting her deputies do her roles,quot; a South Korean official monitoring news from Pyongyang in Seoul.

quot;Her associates and supporters have already been removed from posts of any importance,quot; he said, adding she has been at odds with the younger Kim. Unconfirmed reports about public prosecutions of officials and attemptedcoups have trickled out of the secretive Stalinist state since Kim Jong-Il, 56, became the general secretary of the all-powerful Korean Workers Party last October.

Pyongyang Radio introduced Kim Song-Ae after members of the Workers Party politburo as the widow of Kim ll-Sung at his funeral in 1994 and the first anniversary of his death.

In bad taste

Earl Spencer wants the memorial fund set up to honour his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, wound up, because he believes it is tasteless and degrading to her memory, a report said.

He has written to all nine trustees of the fund telling them to set a date to stop taking donations and to hand out all the money it has collected so far, said The Times of London, which quotes an unnamed close aide of the earl.

The fund expects to have collected Pounds 100 million by the end of the year, according to the daily newspaper. It has just taken out a 20-year lease on a new headquarters in London given free by a Japanese company. The Timesquotes Earl Spencer8217;s aide as saying: quot;He fears the fund is never going to stop and the idea of it going on and on making money out of the princess8217;s name is certainly not what she would have wanted.quot;

Earl Spencer suggested to his sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, who is President of the fund, that one possible date to call a halt would be August 31, 2000, the third anniversary of the princess8217;s death, the report said.