Rushdie Row

TEHERAN: Iran has asked India to explain why it granted a visa to British author Salman Rushdie, a newspaper reported today. The Iranian foreign ministry summoned India's Ambassador to Tehran R S Rathore, to seek clarification, according to the moderate Sobh-e-Emrooz daily, quoting informed sources at the ministry. The paper, which is known to be close to President Mohammad Khatami, said Rathore promised the foreign ministry to provide it with `sufficient clarification.'

Executions

BEIJING: China has executed 14 people in central Henan province ahead of the lunar new year holiday, the official media reported. The 14, allconvicted of crimes ranging from murder and rape to aggravated robbery, were sentenced to death on February 2 by the Provincial High Court, the Henan daily reported. China traditionally carries out death sentences before this holiday, which falls on February 16 this year. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said China handed down at least 3,152 death sentences in 1997 and executed 1,876 of the condemned.

Hun Sen meets Zemin

BEIJING: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday met Chinese President Jiang Zemin as he stepped up a campaign to bolster international recognition for his government. ``High-level contacts between the two nations in recent years have served to exert positive impact on the promotion of the bilateral traditional friendship, which in turn has pushed this relationship to a new high,'' Hun Sen said, according to Xinhua. Jiang greeted the Cambodian premier as an ``old friend'', the news agency added. China is a key player in Cambodia because of its past involvement as adiplomatic and military supporter of the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge from the early 1970s, until a UN-brokered peace accord in 1991.``Contrary to Western countries, Beijing has recognised Hun Sen's government as the legitimate one even after the ouster of Prince Norodom Ranarridh in July 1997,'' an Asian diplomat in Beijing told AFP.