Moscow papers clear Alger Hiss

NEW YORK (Reuter) - A senior adviser to the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, says newly opened files show there is no evidence that Alger Hiss, a former US State Department official, spied for Moscow at the height of the Cold War, the New York Times reported yesterday.

However, the newspaper quoted US scholars of Soviet affairs as cautioning that the apparent clearing of Mr Hiss, now 87, did not necessarily close the case which has divided Americans for years. Mr Hiss was jailed for perjury in 1950 for denying he was a spy. He was never actually charged with espionage.