World Vignettes

Clinton and the art of poetryWASHINGTON: After filling his ears with the lyric words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Langston Hughes and Robert Fros...

Clinton and the art of poetry

WASHINGTON: After filling his ears with the lyric words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Langston Hughes and Robert Frost, President Bill Clinton concluded that the art of poetry will endure in the coming millennium.

During a White House event devoted to poetry, the President said having to memorise 100 lines from William Shakespeare8217;s 8220;Macbeth8221; as a high school student helped prepare him for his future 8212; and jokingly quoted from the literary classic to prove it.

8220;I learned about the dangers of blind ambitions, the fleeting nature of fame, the ultimate emptiness of power disconnected from higher purpose,8221; Clinton said. Shakespeare made me a better president.8221;

The President, alongwith First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and poet laureates Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove, read aloud some favourite poems as part of an effort to mark what Americans think and appreciate in verse at the end of the 20th century.

The event was the third of the Clintons8217; milleniumevenings,8221; which bring together leading creative thinkers to discuss the future.

Net romance

SINGAPORE: Alarmed by the trend among Singapore college graduates to marry late, the government launched a new Internet site that should bring educated singles together, Singapore television has reported. Dubbed the Internet matchmaker and set up by the social development unit, the system is to help college graduates meet members of the opposite sex or just make friends for a start, said senior minister for education Peter Chen yesterday.

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He urged single graduates to sign up and not wait, as more and more educated Singaporeans, especially women, are approaching their 30th birthday without ever tying the knot.

Deadly quarrel

BEIJING: A woman angry at her lover took revenge by putting phosphate into flour at the school cafeteria he managed in a southwestern Chinese city, poisoning 237 students, the China youth daily reported today. Of those poisoned, 236 were out of danger but efforts continuedto save one person still in critical condition in Liuzhou, in Guangxi province, the paper said.

Chen Shi8217;s love for Mou Jihong turned into hatred because they often fought. On Monday, she decided to ruin his business by contaminating the flour with phosphate, a chemical usually used in fertilizers.