Daily Excelsior... World

Dubai company details
plans to sell US port
operations

WASHINGTON, Mar 16: A Dubai-owned company announced that it will sell all its US port operations within six months to an unrelated American . .. ........more

Pak Govt should sever ties with Islamic groups: ICG

NEW YORK, Mar 16: Pakistan's military Government should sever ties with banned Islamic militant groups as the move would reduce threats to the .............more

Michael Jackson pays Neverland wages, avoids lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, Mar 16: Pop star Michael Jackson has started to pay more than USD 300,000 in back wages owed to employees of his Neverland .. .....more

'Book of Jihad' found
in terror suspects'
home, FBI says

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, Mar 16: Publications promoting jihad and a Pakistani militant group were found in the home of a father and son who are charged with lying about the younger man attending .......more

US and Australia urge
China to grow positively

SYDNEY, Mar 16: China needs to accept the global responsibilities that come with its emergence as an Asia-Pacific power, and be more transparent ..............more

Creditor banks sell Yukos loans on to Rosneft

MOSCOW, Mar 16: Western creditor banks have sold nearly USD 500 million of debt owed to them by the beleaguered Russian oil company Yukos to state-run Rosneft, Yukos has said.... ........more

China must be frank about military build-up, says Rice

SYDNEY, Mar 16: The United States is concerned about China's military build-up and Beijing should be transparent about what the trend means, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said............more

Pakistani businessman
in Guantanamo
petitions court

German firm says sorry as drug trial victims fight for life ..........

US will be able to work with UN Human Rights Council: Annan ........

No long-term cancer risk seen from breast implants .........

Drop in air pollution linked to reduced mortality ...........

Dubai company details plans to sell US port operations

WASHINGTON, Mar 16: A Dubai-owned company announced that it will sell all its US port operations within six months to an unrelated American buyer and providing new details about its sales plans that were forced by congressional worries about terrorism security.

Lawmakers who criticised the Bush administration for approving DP World's earlier plans to operate in the United States said they were satisfied. Still, the US House voted 377-38 yesterday to express formally its opposition to DP World running any port terminals in America.

DP World, the world's third-largest ports company, said that until the sale is completed its US businesses will operate independently. The announcement was the first time DP World described its plans for the newly acquired US operations as a "sale" to a single American buyer and indicated it would retain no stake.

Michael Seymour, the president of DP World's US subsidiary, said there was "already significant interest in the sale from American buyers."

Asked whether a foreign-owned company with its own US subsidiary might qualify, Seymour said: "An American buyer is exactly what we say it is; it's an American buyer, and we envisage it will be a wholly owned American organization."

DP World said it would provide information about its business to "interested parties," which it did not identify.

The new disclosures by DP World responded to questions raised since its vague announcement last week that it intended to "transfer fully" to an unspecified American company the US operations it acquired when it bought London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co USD 6.8 billion. (AP)

Pak Govt should sever ties with Islamic groups: ICG

NEW YORK, Mar 16: Pakistan's military Government should sever ties with banned Islamic militant groups as the move would reduce threats to the country's internal security and reassure India, a leading think tank has said.

The Pakistani Government risks increasing threats to domestic and regional security if it insists on dominating post-earthquake reconstruction efforts, undermines civilian participation and allows banned jihadi groups to continue to wield influence, according to the International Crisis Group.

President Pervez Musharraf severing his ties with banned jihadi groups and excluding them from earthquake relief and reconstruction would also empower moderate Pakistani voices and reassure India, it added.

"Turning a blind eye again to Musharraf's links to the jihadis would further embolden radical forces that are capitalising on years of military rule," the ICG said.

The group finds that the military Government has sought to use earthquake rescue and relief, and now intends to use reconstruction and rehabilitation, to demonstrate its competence.

While it eventually provided important logistical support to care givers, the ICG said, the military's ineffective initial response to the October 8, 2005 earthquake in Kashmir and Northwest Frontier Province cost many lives.

Musharraf's Government sidelined civilian structures in the earthquake areas, and its strategic priorities were translated into support for the relief role of Islamist organizations, even banned jihadi groups, who are operating under new names, Samina Ahmed, Crisis Group's South Asia Project Director said. (PTI)

Michael Jackson pays Neverland wages, avoids lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, Mar 16: Pop star Michael Jackson has started to pay more than USD 300,000 in back wages owed to employees of his Neverland ranch, avoiding a civil lawsuit, California officials said yesterday.

State authorities on Tuesday gave Jackson an additional 24 hours to pay unpaid wages to 69 workers at his Neverland ranch and a fine, or face a lawsuit from the labour department.

Representatives of Jackson are processing the payroll for the back pay owed to his employees, the Department of Industrial Relations said in a statement.

They will distribute payroll directly to the employees today, the department said.

"There is no need to take legal action in this matter at this time as our main concern that all employees receive wages owed to them is being addressed," said Robert Jones, acting California labour commissioner.

"As directed in a letter on March 7 demanding payment of wages, arrangements have been made to ensure that all employees are paid wages owed them," Jones said.

The commissioner said that the total amount in back wages paid would be determined upon completion of the payroll process and verification of Jackson's records.

At that point the Department of Industrial Relations will "calculate the total amount in penalties and act to ensure they are paid," he said.

The department said that Jackson's representatives also indicated they were in the process of obtaining workers' compensation insurance. (AFP)

'Book of Jihad' found in terror suspects' home, FBI says

FBI agents found the items while searching the family home in the Central Valley town of Lodi two days after the men were arrested last June, Assistant US Attorney Robert Tice-Raskin said yesterday during the men's trial in US District Court.

"This is the book entitled 'Book of Jihad," he said. "It teaches the virtues of violent jihad," the Arabic term for holy war.

A magazine found with the book was published in Urdu by "a well-known militant group in Pakistan," Tice-Raskin told US District Judge Garland Burrell Jr.

FBI agent Briget Cox testified that the magazine had "pictures of violence, dead persons and military items like machine guns." She said financial and insurance documents were seized with the publications.

Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, 48-year-old Umer Hayat, are being tried in front of separate juries, which were together in the courtroom for the second time yesterday during the fifth week of their trial.

Hamid Hayat is being tried on three counts of lying to the FBI and separate charges of providing material support to terrorists by attending the camp. His father is charged with two counts of making false statements to the FBI. (AP)

US and Australia urge China to grow positively

SYDNEY, Mar 16: China needs to accept the global responsibilities that come with its emergence as an Asia-Pacific power, and be more transparent about a build-up of its military, the United States and Australia said today.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in Sydney, said it was important to ensure that China's growing influence in international politics was positive.

Rice urged Beijing to be more open with its people and the world about the country's economy and a build-up of its 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army, which is the world's largest standing military force.

''I heard that there is going to be a 14 per cent increase in the Chinese defence budget -- that's a lot. China should undertake to be transparent about what that means,'' Rice told a joint news conference with Downer.

Rice said she was concerned about China's transition, but that Washington planned to encourage positive trends in China's development and work closely with Beijing on global issues.

''The growth of the Chinese economy, if it's done in a rules-based way, in which China is fully obeying the rules of the global economy, is a very positive development for international growth and for the United States,'' Rice said.

But while Rice has expressed concern that China could become a ''negative force'', Australia sees it as more of an economic opportunity and has been struggling to balance ties with two of its largest trading partners.

FREEDOM FIGHT

The rise of China will be the focus of top-level security talks between Australia, the United States and Japan on Saturday, but Downer said that Australia did not believe Washington was pursuing a policy of containing the Asian giant. (AGENCIES)

Creditor banks sell Yukos loans on to Rosneft

MOSCOW, Mar 16: Western creditor banks have sold nearly USD 500 million of debt owed to them by the beleaguered Russian oil company Yukos to state-run Rosneft, Yukos has said.

The news sparked speculation that Rosneft, which took over Yukos' biggest oil fields in a controversial nationalization in December 2004, is poised to snap up the remainder of the assets of Russia's once-largest oil producer.

"Rosneft now has the firepower to go after the collateral for those loans, which is the remaining assets of Yukos," Roland Nash, head of research at the Renaissance Capital investment bank in Moscow, said yesterday.

The creditor banks filed a suit last week with the Moscow Arbitration Court to have Yukos declared bankrupt because the company defaulted on a USD 1 billion syndicated loan. The court has set the hearing for March 28.

The loan was arranged in 2003 by Societe Generale SA jointly with Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup Inc. And HSBC PLC.

Yukos said in a statement that it had received notification about the sale of the debt. It added that the agreement between the banks and Rosneft - which already owns what was once Yukos' main oil production unit - appeared to date from last December.

A letter to all parties involved dated Tuesday said the sale agreement had been struck on Dec. 13 and that Societe Generale was withdrawing as lead bank this week. It did not say when the agreement became binding. (AP)

China must be frank about military build-up, says Rice

SYDNEY, Mar 16: The United States is concerned about China's military build-up and Beijing should be transparent about what the trend means, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Rice was speaking at a news conference here today after meeting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and ahead of a new trilateral security dialogue with Japan on Saturday at which China's growing might is top of the agenda.

"We've said we have concerns about the Chinese military build-up. We've told the Chinese that they need to be transparent about what their military build up means," Rice said.

"I heard there's going to be a 14 per cent increase in the Chinese defence budget - that's a lot - and China should undertake to be transparent about what that means."

The United States wanted to see China "as it grows in importance and influence, responsible in international affairs, more open, both towards its own people and towards the international system," Rice said.

Washington recognised that China "is going to be, and is, influential in international politics and has every desire to see that influence be positive".

The US believed the growth of the Chinese economy, "if it is done in a rules-based way in which China is fully obeying the rules of the global economy, is a very positive development for international growth and for the US". (AFP)

Pakistani businessman in Guantanamo petitions court

WASHINGTON, Mar 16: A former Pakistani businessman is petitioning a federal appeals court over his detention at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the mastermind of the September 11 plot and two other Al-Qaida members in US custody can exonerate him of terrorist activity.

Saifullah Paracha, arrested in July 2003 at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand, said he met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1999 and interviewed the al-Qaida leader in 2000 for his news agency, one of seven businesses Paracha said he owns.

Paracha says the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit should order the questioning of alleged Al-Qaida members Majid Khan and Ammar Al-Baluchi as well as the man who oversaw the terror attacks of September 11, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

At a trial of Paracha's son late last year, written statements introduced from Khan and Al-Baluchi exonerate Saifullah Paracha of any knowledge of terrorist activities, Paracha's lawyer said in court papers filed March 8.

Paracha's lawyer also wants the court to order the questioning of Mohammed, who "was intimately involved in the contacts Khan and al-Baluchi had" with Saifullah Paracha, the court papers added.

Paracha's son, Uzair, 25, who says he was pressured into a false confession, was convicted in New York in November of trying to help Khan slip past US immigration officials using fake travel documents to carry out a chemical attack. (AP)

German firm says sorry as drug trial victims fight for life

LONDON, Mar 16: A German drug company said it has apologised to the families of six men who were in hospital today, two badly deformed and fighting for their lives, after a clinical trial in London went horribly wrong.

Thomas Hanke, chief scientific officer at TeGenero, also insisted that the trial to test a medicine for immunological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and certain cancers had met regulatory standards.

But senior doctors told The Times newspaper that the test at a research unit operated by US company Parexel International had failed to conform to best medical practices.

Two of the six patients were critically ill and the other four remained in serious condition in the intensive-care unit of Northwick Park Hospital, an official at the north-west London hospital said.

The men, who had all been healthy, were admitted yesterday evening after suddenly falling ill while taking part in the drug trial at the independent research unit in the hospital compound.

Doctor Hanke said TeGenero was "devastated" at the "shocking developments" in the testing of its drug, which the firm identified as TGN1412.

Asked by reporters whether the company had apologised to the men's families, he replied: "Yes."

Hanke also said the drug had shown no adverse side-effects previously and the testing had been done to regulatory standards.

Initial research into the new medicine started in 1997 and it had been in development since 2000 but testing had now been halted, Hanke added. (AFP)

US will be able to work with UN Human Rights Council: Annan

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16: The United Nations has expressed confidence that the United States will be able to work with the new United Nations Human Rights Council despite its opposition to a draft framework for the panel.

"I think in a normal democratic process, if you can get unanimity, well and good," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Johannesburg after meeting with former South African President Nelson Mandela during a two-week visit to Africa.

"But if you can't, and an overwhelming majority of the members go for something, I think it should work.

"And I am sure the US, which has done so much for human rights, will find a way to work with the other Member States to make the council what it ought to be," he said.

In presenting his proposed reforms a year ago, Annan wanted election to be by a two-thirds majority and failure to achieve this has been cited by the US as one of the main elements in its opposition.

But while conceding his inability to reach this goal, he has repeatedly stressed that the Council as proposed by General Assembly President Jan Eliasson after months-long consultations with Member States could be a basis for more effective human rights protection.

"The President of the General Assembly has done a great work, working with all the member states to come up with a document that gives a credible basis to move forward," he said. (PTI)

No long-term cancer risk seen from breast implants

NEW YORK Mar 16: Results of a study that followed women up to 30 years adds to evidence that silicone breast implants do not boost cancer risk.

The study, of nearly 2,800 Danish women who received breast implants between 1973 and 1995, found that these women actually had a lower risk of breast cancer than a group of similar but implant-free women. Also, the implants were not tied to other types of cancer, according to findings published in the International Journal of Cancer.

Women with breast implants did have a higher rate of non-melanoma skin cancers, the most common and least threatening forms of the disease. But it's possible that greater sun exposure explains that association, the study authors speculate.

"Our current results support the conclusions of recent expert review committees that silicone breast implants are not associated with an excess risk of breast or other cancers,'' write the researchers, led by Dr Soren Friis of the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen.

Past research had indicated that, despite fears about the cancer-causing potential of silicone found in animal studies, silicone breast implants do not lead to cancer in some women.

But few studies had looked at breast cancer risk beyond the 15-year mark, or at the risk of tumors in sites other than the breast, according to Friis and his colleagues.

Women in their study were followed for up to 30 years after receiving breast implants, and overall, their risk of developing breast cancer was 30 percent lower than that of the 1,736 women in the comparison group.

The reason for the lower risk is unclear, according to the researchers.

It's possible, they speculate, that women who seek breast implants are generally at less risk of breast cancer; in past research, Friis's team found that compared with other women, those with implants tended to be thinner and have more pregnancies - a factor that has been linked to lower breast cancer risk.

The current study also found no evidence that women with breast implants were diagnosed with breast cancer any later than other women -- even though implants can interfere to some degree with the x-rays used in mammography screening.

Despite their encouraging result, the researchers advise that ''further studies of the effects of silicone breast implants on breast cancer detection and survival may be warranted.''

(AGENCIES)

Drop in air pollution linked to reduced mortality

NEW YORK, Mar 16: Reductions in fine particulate air pollution do seem to translate into a survival benefit on a population level, researchers have shown.

The drop in mortality ''was observed specifically for deaths due to cardiovascular and respiratory disease and not from lung cancer, a disease with a longer latency period and less reversibility,'' Dr Francine Laden, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, explained in a statement.

A direct link between death rates and small airborne particles 2.5 microns in diameter or less -- dubbed PM2.5 -- has been noted in numerous epidemiologic studies, but it was unclear if improvements in particle exposure would actually lead to better survival, according to a report by Laden and her colleagues.

As they explain in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, in an earlier analysis of data from the Harvard Six Cities study, long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 was associated with increased mortality.

Laden's team analyzed data for 8 additional years of follow-up, during a period when air pollution was declining in many of the cities studied. The urban areas included in the study were Watertown, Massachusetts; Kingston and Harriman, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; Steubenville, Ohio; Portage, Wyocena and Pardeeville, Wisconsin; and Topeka, Kansas.

Consistent with previous findings, the overall mortality in those cities rose steadily with each increase in PM2.5 of 10 microgram per cubic meter. As PM2.5 levels fell during follow-up, so did overall mortality.

The results suggest that increases in mortality related to PM2.5 are ''at least in part reversible,'' the researchers conclude

(AGENCIES)