WASHINGTON: The United States is likely to emerge as a perceived safe haven for investors fleeing year 2000 technology problems, the US intelligence community said in remarks to be released on Wednesday.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its 12 sister spy outfits said Y2K-related malfunctions had the potential ``to cause or exacerbate humanitarian crises'' worldwide.

Lawrence Gershwin, National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology, said Russia, Ukraine, other eastern Europe countries, China, Egypt, India and Indonesia were ``especially vulnerable, due to their poor Y2K preparations and, in some cases, the difficulty of coping with breakdowns in critical services in the middle of winter''.

Gershwin made his comments in testimony prepared for a special Senate Committee on Y2K. The panel is studying the pitfalls of the coding glitch that could boggle computers and the operations they control as clocks tick over to January 1, when they maymistake 2000 for 1900.

``Some foreign governments and businesses will look to the US and its better prepared infrastructure to overcome Y2K problems abroad,'' Gershwin said.

Mobile `squelcher' to shut up annoying cellphone users

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong inventor, annoyed by loud public conversations on mobile telephones, has come up with a hand-held device which can interrupt such calls, the Hong Kong Standard reported on Wednesday.

Inventor Anil Vora said he created the device called "mobile squelcher" because he could not stand nuisance mobile telephone conversations by users in enclosed are as such as trains, restaurants or cinemas.

"The conversation will immediately break up, just like a radio changing frequency," by simply zapping the device in the direction of the mobile telephone users, Vora told the Hong Kong Standard.

The repeated interruption usually results in the mobile phone user abandoning the call and peace descending, he added.

Vora could not be contacted as hewas busy meeting prospective clients for his invention at the week-long Hong Kong Electronic Fair at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, his company staff said.

Employment opportunities in Singapore to be cut by half

SINGAPORE: Jobs created annually in Singapore will be slashed by half to 60,000 as the city-state progresses to a knowledge-based economy needing fewer workers, manpower minister Lee Boon Yang said.

Cautioning that the days were gone when Singaporeans were "spoilt for choice" with 120,000 jobs per year, he said the island state would yield much fewer employment opportunities even though the economy should expand by about five percent on an annual basis. "In the post-crisis days, we cannot expect the labour market to return to the conditions prevailing in 1995 to 1997," Lee was quoted saying Tuesday by Singapore's Business Times newspaper.

The minister also warned of more retrenchments ahead as the fast pace of technology meant companies should constantly seek outnew products and services, and look for better and lower-cost opportunities.