The parents of the Tibetan "living Buddha" who escaped to India in January have been detained by Chinese authorities, according to a group which monitors Tibetan affairs.

The 14th Karmapa's father and mother were said to have been taken away from their home in Lhasa and put under surveillance in the eastern Chamdo region, where they were previously nomadic yak herders.

A Chinese government spokesman in Lhasa yesterday denied the report by the London-based Tibet Information Network (TIN), calling it "rumour". Foreign journalists are not able to visit Tibet independently to verify stories.

Recent travellers to Tibet found that Tsurphu monastery, seat of the 17th Karmapa, was closed to visitors. Monks had been warned to improve their "political attitudes".

TIN sources claim that China has mounted an intense security-operation to find out how the 14-year-old Karmapa, spiritual head of the Kagyupa - one of Tibet's four main Buddhist schools - travelled from Tsurphu to the Nepalese border.

Contrary to early reports, he did not walk the whole way but travelled in a jeep, leaving it when necessary to walk or climb around Chinese checkpoints.

The Karmapa is now staying at a monastery near Dharamsala, headquarters of the Dalai Lama. John Gittings, Hong Kong

Meat ban triggers violence

An EU ban on importing meat from Morocco has sparked a wave of racial unrest among the Muslim population in the north African enclave of Melilla.

Dozens of young Muslims went on the rampage in protest at the ban, which seeks to limit the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from north Africa to Europe.

They insist that lamb imported from the Spanish mainland is no substitute for Moroccan mutton traditionally sacrificed to celebrate the feast of Aid El Kabir, the second most important in the Muslim calendar after Ramadan.

The youths set fire to rubbish containers, barricaded streets and threw stones at police patrolling Muslim areas of the city following violent clashes between Moroccan immigrants and the indigenous population in Almeria, in southern Spain, two weeks ago.

Mustafa Aberchan, the president of Melilla, a 4.6 sq mile-area surrounding a coastal fortress which was seized by Spain 500 years ago, said the protests were a deliberate attempt to destabilise the territory.

"There are political forces that want to undermine the racial harmony we enjoy," said President Mustafa.

The protest coincided with the first visit to Spain by Morocco's king Mohamed VI yesterday to meet King Juan Carlos and the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar.

Relations between Spain and Melilla have been strained over the clashes in Almeria, Spanish farmers' refusal to allow Moroccan produce to enter the EU through Spain and renegotiations of an agreement on fishing rights.

AP, Melilla

Aum link to defence computers

Japan said yesterday that its government ministries would stop using computer software developed with the doomsday cult accused of a fatal 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

The discovery of the software in computer systems at a number of ministries and several major private companies came a day before the systems were due to be activated at the defence ministry.

The embarrassing discovery that members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult had been involved in designing the software came after a series of hacker raids on government computers in January and leap year computer glitches on Tuesday.

Analysts said the cult may have been close to infiltrating government computers and obtaining vital information, including on defence.

In the 1995 gas attack on Tokyo's tube system, 12 people were killed and thousands injured. Aum preached that the world was coming to an end and the cult must arm itself.

Defence officials said they had been unaware of the possible Aum link and had had no direct contract with the cult. But they said Aum members had helped install the new system.

Computer experts said this could have given Aum a back door into defence networks.

"Aum could have done anything - install mechanisms inside the network to allow them remote access or even to create a network malfunction," said the president of the Artemis computer security firm, Hideharu Ishikawa.

Introduction of the software system had been postponed indefinitely, pending checks, defence officials said.

While classified military and other strategic information was stored in a secure computer network, Aum could have read email exchanges between the ministry and outside networks, Mr Ishikawa said.

The computer business has been a major source of income for Aum, which used to run a string of discount computer shops. It is believed to have shifted recently to software development.

Because Aum used related companies and acted as a subcontractor, ministries would have been unaware of the Aum connection, computer experts said.

The transactions were listed in documents found in a police raid on an Aum-linked company on Tuesday.

Reuters, Tokyo

Gadafy abolishes ministries

The Libyan government yesterday scrapped most of its ministries and transferred most of their duties to the provinces in a move reflecting Colonel Muammar Gadafy's dissatisfaction with the outgoing cabinet's economic policies.

The energy ministry was among 12 to be scrapped and their powers devolved to provincial committees or other bodies. The key ministries of defence and foreign affairs will remain under central supervision.

The defence ministry has always been kept out of government control and is run by Col Gadafy's allies.

Energy policy in the major oil-producing state will be supervised by the prime ministry, which will also supervise the ministries of foreign affairs, African unity, finance, information and tourism, justice and public order.

The restructuring was approved by the general people's congress (GPC) during debates broadcast by Libyan state television.

On January 28 Col Gadafy unexpectedly attended the GPC's opening session and tore up the 2000 draft budget, ordering it to be revised and the congress postponed.

He said he was unhappy with the government's reliance on oil revenues instead of diversifying the economy. Oil revenues account for nearly 95% of Libya's foreign exchange income.