King, Queen sing sings
Raj Kapoor’s Aawara gives Indian touch to banquet for Vajpayee

PHBOM PENH, Nov 5: Giving an Indian touch to a banquet hosted for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and leaders attending the first-ever Indo-ASEAN summit here, music from Raj Kapoor’s film "Awara’ was played before the august audience.

In a rare gesture, Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Monineath sang songs in English, French, Malay and Filipino languages.

"The banquet was really different. There was bonhomie and it was not the usual formal affair. The King and the Queen sang eight songs in English, French, Malay and Filipino languages," Indian officials said today.

Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri were seated by the side of Vajpayee at the dinner.

Cambodia and nine other ASEAN countries are attaching special significance to the Prime Minister’s visit with the Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong saying "economic potential is enormous and the first summit today with India will bring its member nations closer to the market of one billion people."

Cambodia’s only English daily ‘Cambodian Daily’ said quoting Namhong "this is one reason why Cambodia supports the idea of a summit with India."

He said it was Prime Minister Hun Sen who was the first to suggest the idea of a summit two years back, but a consensus among ASEAN members could not be reached until last year’s summit in Brunei.

The highest selling vernacular daily ‘Resmei Kampuchea Daily’ said "the Prime Minister of India has created a historic event for Cammbodia-India-ASEAN relations."

Earlier at a reception hosted by Indian ambassador P K Kapoor, Bharatnatyam exponent Saroja Vaidyanatham performed dances on Mahabharata and Ramayana. (PTI)

Vajpayee for enhanced Indo-ASEAN
cooperation through AFTA

PHNOM PENH, Nov 5: Describing the first India-ASEAN summit today as a "logical progression" of the traditional links, Prime Minister Vajpayee has said he would seek enhanced cooperation with the ten-nation grouping through the ASEAN Free Trade Area.

"We are seeking to accelerate trade and investment flows between India and ASEAN through enhanced cooperation with the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)," he said in a message to a publication brought out by Indian embassy for the summit.

Vajpayee, making his second visit here in last six months, said "the first India-Asean summit is a logical progression of traditional links in line with contemporary opportunities and realities."

ASEAN has a annual turnover of a trillion US dollars and India’s trade with the grouping is only ten million US dollars.

The Prime Minister, who would hold bilateral talks with Cambodian Premier Hun Sen tomorrow, said it was particularly fitting that the summit should take place in Phnom Penh because of the closeness of Indo-Cambodian ties.

Referring to lesser developed Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, which are new entrants to ASEAN, Vajpayee said India would support intergration of new and less developed members of the grouping with those of the older and better developed states.

Vajpayee would also be holding bilateral talks with Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri on the sidelines of the summit.

Vajpayee said "I am convinced that the Indo-ASEAN partnership is set to acquire a new vibrancy based on a closer political dialogue and mutually beneficial economic cooperation".

A senior Indian official here said, to give a push to economic engagements, Indo-ASEAN economic ministers have agreed on a Regional Trade and Investment Area (RTIA) as a long term objective.

"A task force for economic linkages is being set up to develop a draft framework agreement for submission to next meeting of economic ministers in October next year," he said.

The summit, he said, would explore the possibilities in countering rising terrorism, globally and regionally.

ASEAN comprises Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Thailand and Malayasia.

Besides India, ASEAN’s other dialogue partners are Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US. Other summit level partners of the grouping are China, Japan and South Korea. (PTI)

Jupiter probe ready for swan song

PASANDENA CALIFORNIA, Nov 5: NASA is preparing for a final battery of observations with its Galileo space probe, which is scheduled to cap a seven-year science mission Tuesday with its closest approach ever to jupiter and an unprecedented pass by its odd inner moon, Amalthea.

After the Amalthea flyby, Galileo will begin its 35th and final orbit around the solar system’s largest planet. Last January, mission scientists used the spacecraft’s close encounter with the Jovian moon IO to set it on a course that will take it directly into the planet’s crushing atmosphere on September 21, 2003, where it will be incinerated. The maneuver is planned to avoid the possibility of contaminating any potential indigenous life forms on the ocean-bearing moon, Europa.

We’re all focused on making this the most successful encounter that we can, said Galileo Project Manager Eilene Theilig, with NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory, in an interview with United Press International.

Although Galileo’s official demise will not occur until next September, this latest pass by Jupiter and Amalthea could turn the spacecraft into an instant relic. Its latest pass by Jupiter will be the equivalent of about one-fifth the distance between earth and the moon, close enough to expose Galileo to a massive dose of radiation. Operating in the Jovian system since 1995, the indefatigable probe already has been exposed to four times as much radiation as it was designed to withstand.

It’s a risky maneuver, acknowledged JPL spokesman Guy Webster. That’s why we do it last. Even if Galileo’s instruments do not survive, the spacecraft will remain on course for destruction by Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Knowing the risks of the Amalthea encounter, we used the last passage of IO to put the spacecraft on path to take it to impact requiring no future course corrections from us, Theilig told UPI. We wanted to make sure that while we could still control the spacecraft we did that.

Galileo’s science team has set a course for the probe to pass about 160 kilometers (99 miles) above Amalthea’s cratered surface —a little more than half the length of the egg-shaped moon. The close flyby, scheduled to take place at 1:19 a.a. Eastern time Nov. 5, is of particular interest because so little is known about Jupiter’s inner moons.

Tiny Amalthea appears to give off more heat than it takes in from the sun. Scientists also are eager to learn the moon’s mass and density — measurements that will yield important clues about how Amalthea formed. Learning about planetary systems and dynamics is important in the search for planets — and possibly life — in other solar systems.

There’s a large effort on to identify planets around other stars and understanding how our own system formed is applicable to those studies, Theilig said.

The flyby also will give scientists information about jupiter’s inner magnetosphere and its thin dusty rings, believed to have been formed from particles blasted off Amalthea and the planet’s other inner moons.

If the probe survives the encounter, the science data collected during the pass is expected to be radioed to earth over the next two months. Galileo’s flight team is scheduled to disband in January and return to oversee the probe’s cremation eight months later. (AGENCIES)

‘China democracy activist Fang detained’

BEIJING, Nov 5: Chinese police have detained Government official-turned-democracy activist Fang Jue and confiscated some of his belongings days before a pivotal Communist party congress, his sister said today.

More than ten policemen showed up at Fang’s residence in central last Beijing last evening and hauled off the frail but outspoken activist, warning onlookers not to say anything, younger sister Liu Jing said.

"He was taken away in the afternoon. His neighbours all saw it happen and they told me about it," she said. Police returned later and confiscated many of his personal effects, including his computer and telephone, she added.

Police at a station near Mr Fang’s home declined to comment. "I can’t answer your questions. I don’t know," a duty officer said.

In January 1998, the former researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences called for direct elections at all levels of Government, freedom of the press and the right to form new political parties and independent labour unions.

At the time he published the article, Mr Fang said some 200 mid-ranking Communist party cadres backed his radical proposals.

In July that year, however, police detained him. Eleven months later they charged him with illegally selling oil import quotas and pocketing 145,000 yuan (17,500 dollar) when he was a Government planner in the southern city of Fuzhou.

This July, Mr Fang was released from jail and has been beating the drum of reform ever since, faxing statements and giving interviews to foreign reporters. Fang’s sister Liu said she went to the local police station to inquire into his whereabouts after she heard he had been taken away, but they declined to answer her questions.

"He has a lawyer, but it’s no use seeing the lawyer until I know where he is," she said.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said he did not know about

Mr Fang’s case, but said China took the law seriously.

"I’m not sure about the situation you’re talking about, but I just want to emphasise that China is a country of laws and we do things according to law," Kong Quan told reporters.

"China is a country of laws. It can be said that there is consensus on advocating reform of the political system."

China’s ruling Communist Party advocates political reform from within, and talk of multi-party democracy is taboo.

Liu last talked with Fang on Sunday evening and last saw him on Saturday at his residence where she said there were several plainclothes police.

China frequently rounds up dissidents, steps up surveillance of them or forces them out of Beijing during sensitive times, like visits by foreign dignitaries or party events like the 16th party congress due to open on Friday.

Ms Liu, however, said she did not know why Mr Fang would have been detained.

"The 16th party congress doesn’t have anything to do with us," she said of a meeting at which top leaders, including President Jiang Zemin, are expected to hand their posts to a new generation.

"His actions have all been legal," she said. "They’re the ones who have broken the law by not telling his family anything about his whereabouts."

In 1998, Mr Fang’s call for political reform came during a relatively liberal political climate in China that ended with the jailing of several high-profile dissidents. (AGENCIES)

US seeks extradition of Pakistanis

HONG KONG, Nov 5: Two Pakistanis and one Indian-born US citizen, all wanted by Washington for allegedly plotting to supply missiles to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network, are in custody in Hong Kong and awaiting extradition to the United States, officials said today.

Pakistanis Syed Mustajab Shah and Muhammed Abid Afridi, and naturalized US citizen Ilyas Ali, were arrested by Hong Kong Police Sept 20 after a tip-off from the FBI and appeared in the eastern magistrates’ courts today, Hong Kong’s Justice Department said in a statement.

The men allegedly planned to use profits from smuggling drugs, including heroin and hashish, to the United States to buy four stinger anti-aircraft missiles, the statement said.

The men, who are wanted to stand trial in Southern California for drug smuggling and providing resources to terror groups, objected to being extradited, the statement said.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, has an extradition agreement with the United States.

The case was adjourned until Nov 15 to allow time for authorities to await the formal extradition request and support ing documents from the United States, the statement said.

The US consulate declined comment. Officials at the Pakistan and Indian consulates did not immediately respond to requests for information.

Justice Department spokesman Felix Leung said it was Hong Kong’s first terrorism-related extradition. (AP)

Sharon says he is dispersing Parliament, calling elections

JERUSALEM, Nov 5: In a surprise move, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today dispersed Parliament and called snap elections, to be held at the beginning of February, after he failed to restore his Parliamentary majority.

The dramatic developments underscored the growing instability of Israel’s political system, at a time when the nation is facing severe problems, the 2-year-old conflict with the Palestinians, a deepening economic crisis and the possibility of an Iraqi attack on israel in the event of a US strike against Saddam Hussein. The country has had five Prime Ministers in the past seven years.

Sharon said he made the decision reluctantly, but that he had no choice because the alternative succumbing to political blackmail by potential coalition partners would have been worse. "Elections are the last thing this country needs right now," Sharon told a hastily called news conference at his office.

Sharon’s coalition broke apart last week, after the moderate Labor Party quit in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements, and the Prime Minister today accused his former coalition partner of acting irresponsibly.

Sharon also had harsh words for a far-right faction, the National Union-Israel Beitenu, which rebuffed his invitation to join the coalition.

The Prime Minister said the faction had come with a long list of demands, including that he change the basic government guidelines and that he reject a new US-backed peace plan. "I made it clear that I am not going to change the guidelines, or the Commitments that I took upon myself in my talks with the White House, and I will not deviate from the budget," Sharon said.

The Israeli election campaign will be held under the shadow of a possible Iraqi attack on Israel, in the event of a US-Iraq war. Asked how he felt about the possibility of Israelis going to the polls while wearing gas masks as protection against non-conventional weapons Israel fears Saddam might use, Sharon said: "I don’t think it’s responsible to talk about that sort of thing."

He also said that his transition Government will fight Palestinian militants without compromise. Sharon’s announcement came a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber from the Islamic Jihad faction blew himself up in a shopping mall in the central town of Kfar Saba, also killing two Israelis and wounding 11.

Sharon did not set an exact date for the new elections, but said they should be held in the first days of February. Asked about Feb 4, a date mentioned in Israeli media reports today, Sharon said: "I’m being told that this is the date."

Such a short period for campaigning is unusual in Israel, which has seen drawn out political battles lasting for many months.

In the coming weeks, both Sharon’s likud and the labour party will choose candidates for Prime Minister. Sharon’s chief rival is ex-Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who over the weekend rebuffed an offer by Sharon to serve as his Foreign Minister. Sharon said that the offer still stands.

Sharon’s announcement came only a day after former army chief Shaul Mofaz was sworn in as Israel’s new Defense Minister. (AP)

China’s Communist Party expels banker, silences critic

BEIJING, Nov 5: China’s Communist Party put the finishing touches to a generational leadership change and kicked out a disgraced banker today after silencing one of its most outspoken critics in the final days before a pivotal Congress.

The party’s 325-strong central committee also approved a change to the party constitution, allowing private entrepreneurs to join for the first time, at its pre-Congress plenum, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The moves highlighted the party’s drive to clean up official corruption and maintain rigid political control while adapting itself to an increasingly pluralistic and capitalistic society —major themes of its 16th Congress due to open on Friday.

President Jiang Zemin is expected to retire as party chief at the Congress, along with other leaders over 70, but to maintain power by installing allies in key posts and having his political theory made official doctrine, analysts say.

The plenum in the Soviet-style Jingxi Hotel was shrouded in secrecy, but Chinese sources said it finalised the most sweeping leadership change since purges that followed the crackdown on protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Police have thrown a security cordon around Beijing while propaganda chiefs threaten to punish leaks with jail sentences, spotlighting the sensitivity of what has been billed as the first orderly succession in communist Chinese history.

More than 10 policemen last evening detained Fang Jue, a frail but outspoken Government official turned democracy activist, from his home in Central Beijing, his younger sister Liu Jing told Reuters.

"The 16th party congress doesn’t have anything to do with us," she said. "His actions have all been legal. They’re the ones who have broken the law by not telling his family anything about his whereabouts."

In 1998, the former researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences called for direct elections, freedom of the press and the right to form political parties and free trade unions.

Later, he was jailed for selling oil import quotas illegally when he was a Government planner in the southern city of Fuzhou.

Mr Fang was released from jail in July and has been beating the drum of reform ever since. Local police declined to comment. China frequently rounds up dissidents and punishes wayward officials in the runup to sensitive meetings like the Congress.

Xinhua said the plenum decided to strip banker Wang Xuebing of his alternate membership in the central committee and expel him from the party.

"Wang Xuebing took advantage of his position to embezzle and accepte bribes," it said. "He had a debauched life style and corrupted morality."

Mr Wang, a protege of Premier Zhu Rongji, was sacked as head of the China Construction Bank in January over problem loans made Zuring his tenure as head of the Bank of China years earlier.

The Plenum formally approved the start date of the Congress on November 8, Xinhua said.

Next week, the 2,120 delegates will formally elect a new central committee, which will then hold its first meeting and name a politburo and standing committee.

"The plenum also discussed and approved a report which will be presented by the 15th CPC Central Committee to the 16th party Congress, as well as an amendment to the constitution of the Communist Party of China," Xinhua said, but gave no details.

The Congress is expected to add to the charter Jiang’s "three represents" theory, which says the party represents advanced productive forces, advanced culture and the vast majority of Chinese people.

It is designed to broaden the party’s membership to private entrepreneurs and others previously excluded, analysts say.

The Congress will also change the charter to say the party represents not just the working class but the whole Chinese nation, Chinese sources say.

Xinhua made no mention of the personnel changes.

Vice President Hu Jintao, 59, is expected to take over from Mr Jiang, 76, as general secretary of the party.

But Mr Jiang has secured promotion of key allies to the new politburo standing committee, the party’s top policy body which has seven seats at the moment, so he can continue to call the shots from behind the scenes, Chinese sources say.

Zeng Qinghong, 63, Mr Jiang’s main protege, stepped down as head of the party’s organisation department two weeks ago and is certain to join the standing committee, they say.

"Hu Jintao will hold the top post, but Jiang and Zeng will hold the real power," said one Chinese political scientist. (AGENCIES)

5 Nepalese women nabbed for stealing gold coins

CHENNAI, Nov 5: Police arrested six women hailing from Nepal within three hours after they made away with 74 gold coins, weighing half a kg, from a private jewellery boutique shop here last evening.

Detailing the operation, Chennai City Police Commissioner K Vijay Kumar told newspersons today that the arrests were made after prolonged and heated arguments with the accused, who tried to throw the coins into the toilet and flush them in.

However, all but two of the coins stolen from the recently-opened tanishq boutique shop at Cathedral Road by diverting the attention of those working in the shop and the security guard, were recovered within three hours after the message was sent to the police control room.

Besides the gold coins, one kg each of gold and silver oranments, burgled from various shops and Rs 39,000 cash, Rs 1,000 worth of Nepali currency and a set of wrist watches, all put together worth Rs six lakh, were recovered from them.

Investigations revealed that they were also involved in similar robberies in Siliguri near Darjeeling, Berhampur in Orissa and Visakhapatnam. The theft came to light couple of hours after five of the accused entered the shop on the pretext of buying jewels before making away with a box containing the gold coins, despite the installation of cctvs.

The five women—Dhuruma (35), Yaanchai (30), Cherin Samjan (34), Dolmo Chering (40) and Dekky Sama (27)—soon took an auto and got down near the Chepauk Cricket Stadium before checking into the hotel where they were staying for the last few days.

The theft came to light only after the auto-driver Selva Ganesh went back to the shop to handover the empty box left behind in the vehicle by the women at around 1500 hrs after which police were informed.

Acting swiftly, all the 81 police stations in the city were alerted, besides the airport, railway station and bus stations came under surveillance before a special team from Flower Bazaar Station headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, Inspector Edward and Sub-Inspector Jawahar pursued on the clue they received from various places about the physical identity of the women, and arrested them at their hotel, from where they were busy packing things to leave the city.

Stating it as a well-coordinated effort with the help of public cooperation, the Commissioner announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 to the entire police team, including Rs 5,000 each to the auto-driver and nazir. (UNI)

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