BEIJING, Dec 10: China today declared that the Tibet question was no longer....more

Pak, North Korean,
Iran missiles have
common basic design

LONDON, Dec 10: Pakistan’s controversial Ghauri, Iran’s Sehab and North Korea’s Nodong...more

3-million-year-old
human skeleton found

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 10: In a find called "momentous," researchers have said they had discovered the first....more

Another ring pushing
immigrants into
US dismantled

TORONTO, Dec 10: Two weeks after US authorities smashed the biggest ever alien smuggling....more

Armenian Dy Defence
Minister shot dead

YEREVAN, Dec 10: Armenian Deputy Defence Minister Vagram Khorkhoruni was shot dead outside....more

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 10: In a find called "momentous," researchers have said they had discovered the first....more

Sharif concedes
US trip a failure

ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Premier Nawaz Sharif has conceded that his much hyped meeting with US President.....more

Informal China talks
break down: Lama

PARIS, Dec 10: The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, has said attempts at informal.....more

Amartya Sen

Make economic priorities
people-oriented: Sen

STOCKHOLM, Dec 10: Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen today said India should reset its economic...more

Tibet no longer a ‘religious’ issue

BEIJING, Dec 10: China today declared that the Tibet question was no longer a religious issue but a political one with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama internationalising it during his frequent globe trotting.

The Dalai Lama has played up the Tibet issue internationally by using the issue of dialogue between him and the Chinese Central Government, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said.

Expressing China’s deep dissatisfaction and regret at the French Government’s invitation to the Dalai to participate in the 50th anniversary celebrations of the universal declaration of human rights in Paris, Zhu said the Dalai Lama issue is not a religious one but a political issue.

The Dalai Lama has a well-organised and a problematic political organisation, Zhu said while commenting that the Dalai was far from a religious figure but a political exile engaged in splittist activities against China.

The Dalai Lama, who fled tibet to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese Communist rule, has been campaigning for greater autonomy for the Himalayan region.

But the Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman said, fundamentally speaking, the Tibetan independence issue is a product of the imperialist aggression against China, and that some anti-China foreign forces were attempting to exert pressure on the Chinese Government on the issue.

We are fully aware of this fact, ‘Zhu said, hinting at pressures from the United States and other western countries on the Tibet issue.(PTI)

Pak, North Korean, Iran missiles
have common basic design

LONDON, Dec 10: Pakistan’s controversial Ghauri, Iran’s Sehab and North Korea’s Nodong ballistic missiles may have a common basic design as they all appeared to be of the same pattern of missile programme, Western defence experts have said.

Iran test fired Sehab-three missile on July 21, weeks after Pakistan and North Korea had undertaken flight trials of 1,300 kms Ghauri and 1,500 kms Nodong missiles, the Janes defence weekly said in the latest issue.

This leads US to believe that there has been some exchange of data, with the three nations’ timing and the limited flight trials of the three missiles close to each other, Janes’ editor on air launched weapons, Duncan Lennox said.

The weekly said there appeared to be a pattern in missiles prgramme of the three countries as Iran, like Pakistan and North Korea, is now reported to working on longer range ballistic missile, known as Sehab-four, and a satellite lach vehicle that may be based on the Sehab-four design.

Western defence experts said it could not be of coincidence that North Korea had recently announced that they had undertaken flight test of a satellite vehicle and Pakistani defence scientists had recently been quted of claiming to have reached satellite launching capability.

Iran recently publicly displayed, for the first time, it’s new 1,300 kms range surface to surface ballistic missile, Sehab-three, which was 16 metres long with 1,000 kg payload and separating warhead of about 700 kg. (PTI)

3-million-year-old human skeleton found

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 10: In a find called "momentous," researchers have said they had discovered the first complete skeleton of a human ancestor dating back more than three million years.

The find stems from the discovery four years ago of ankle and foot bones mistakenly labelled animal fossils at the University of the Witwatersrand. Researcher Ron Clarke at the time said the bones belonged to the Australopithecus, which had both human and apelike features.

Following up on the find, Clarke and his team said they identified the rest of the skeleton. They said they discovered the remaining bones and skull in University cupboards and by revisiting the cave near Johannesburg where the foot bones were found.

The find of a complete Australopithecus skeleton will help researchers fill the gaps in other discoveries, Clarke said. The 3.6 million-year-old creature lived in a wooded area and was capable of climbing trees, he said.

Previously, the most complete early hominid was "lucy," an Australopithecus whose partial skeleton was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. The oldest complete skeleton before this latest discovery dates back to 1.8 million years, Clarke said. It was that of a homo erectus, found in Kenya.

This is "probably the most momentous find ever made in Africa," said Philip Tobias, professor emeritus of the Witwatersrand Anatomy Department, who has been involved in string of finds.

Much of the latest skeleton remains embedded in fossil rock at the Sterkfontein caves.

Clarke’s findings were due to be published today in the journal nature. They appeared yesterday in the South African journal of science. (AP)

Another ring pushing immigrants into US dismantled

TORONTO, Dec 10: Two weeks after US authorities smashed the biggest ever alien smuggling racket pushing into the country cheap labour mostly from India, Canadian Police have busted a criminal ring that sneaked hundreds of Chinese immigrants into the US via Canada.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a joint operation with the US immigration authorities arrested eight people for smuggling the Chinese into the country from where the immigrants were sent to the US, police said yesterday.

Rcmp said the Chinese immigrants mostly came from Fujian province and were sneaked into the US through the Canadian border city of Cornwall, Ontario, each immigrant paying a huge amount to the ring.

Those arrested, mostly from Toronto and Cornall, now face charges of violating the US and Canadian immigration regulations.

Canadian Immigration Minister Luceinne Robillard had on Monday introduced a proposal in Parliament seeking to tighten citizenship laws and residency requirements.

US immigration agents in November dismantled a flesh cartel that smuggled more than 12,000 illegal immigrants into the country, mostly from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria. (PTI)

Armenian Dy Defence Minister shot dead

YEREVAN, Dec 10: Armenian Deputy Defence Minister Vagram Khorkhoruni was shot dead outside his home in the capital Yerevan overnight, police said today.

The assailants were unknown. Several cartridge shells were found at the site, but the Interior Ministry press service gave no further details.

The murder was the second of a high-ranking Government official in 5 months. State Prosecutor Henrik Kachatryan was killed on August 6.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, elected in March, has launched a battle against corruption in the former Soviet caucuses. Officials from several ministries have been arrested.

Armenia is locked in a decade-long dispute with its neighbour, Azerbaijan, over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.(Reuters)

3-million-year-old human skeleton found

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 10: In a find called "momentous," researchers have said they had discovered the first complete skeleton of a human ancestor dating back more than three million years.

The find stems from the discovery four years ago of ankle and foot bones mistakenly labelled animal fossils at the University of the Witwatersrand. Researcher Ron Clarke at the time said the bones belonged to the Australopithecus, which had both human and apelike features.

Following up on the find, Clarke and his team said they identified the rest of the skeleton. They said they discovered the remaining bones and skull in University cupboards and by revisiting the cave near Johannesburg where the foot bones were found.

The find of a complete Australopithecus skeleton will help researchers fill the gaps in other discoveries, Clarke said. The 3.6 million-year-old creature lived in a wooded area and was capable of climbing trees, he said.

Previously, the most complete early hominid was "lucy," an Australopithecus whose partial skeleton was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. The oldest complete skeleton before this latest discovery dates back to 1.8 million years, Clarke said. It was that of a homo erectus, found in Kenya.

This is "probably the most momentous find ever made in Africa," said Philip Tobias, professor emeritus of the Witwatersrand Anatomy Department, who has been involved in string of finds.

Much of the latest skeleton remains embedded in fossil rock at the Sterkfontein caves.

Clarke’s findings were due to be published today in the journal nature. They appeared yesterday in the South African journal of science. (AP)

Sharif concedes US trip a failure

ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Premier Nawaz Sharif has conceded that his much hyped meeting with US President Bill Clinton could not achieve anything on the issues of Kashmir and sanctions.

Sharif who returned home last night after visiting the US and some other countries amidst widespread criticism by both the opposition leaders and the media here said there was no justification for all this hue and cry.

What could America have done for Pakistan or Pakistan for America? He asked mediapersons at the airport when his attention was drawn to the criticism that he failed to extract anything from the US President despite an earlier claim by the Government that Sharif would ask Clinton to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir issue and lift rest of the sanctions.

Were these political parties expecting that US will arrange a plebiscite in Kashmir on December 3 ? Or will it remove sanctions the next day without consulting Congress?, Sharif asked seeking to know what is their criteria for success and failure?

His visit, he claimed, demonstrates that Pakistan is being given priority as a key player in the region and that as a result of his meeting with Clinton a new basis has been laid for Pak-US relations which is free of friction and pressure.

Sharif met Clinton at the White House on December 2. (PTI)

Informal China talks break down: Lama

PARIS, Dec 10: The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, has said attempts at informal talks with Beijing about his demands for Tibetan autonomy from China had recently broken down.

For a while we held the hope of improving the situation by using non-official channels of communication. But, recently and once again, difficulties have arisen, and these channels are no longer working, he told a public rally yesterday.

Answering a question about Sino-Tibetan relations after giving a predominantly philosophical discourse, the Dalai Lama, said the situation in Tibet had become very serious.

It seems like there’s a kind of new cultural revolution happening in Tibet at the moment, he said, alluding to the political upheaval in China in the 1960s.

Earlier yesterday the Dalai Lama told French radio Europe one that he was receiving mixed signals from Beijing on his demands for Tibetan autonomy from China.

Dalai Lama said he had established channels of communication with Beijing, one of which was completely reliable and sound.

There are once again slightly confused and not very clear signals from China, he said.

Saying that he was ready to open talks without preconditions Dalai Lama said that he was not asking for independence but for autonomy to give Tibetans authority over the running of their internal affairs, leaving China in charge of defence and foreign affairs. (REUTERS)

Make economic priorities people-oriented: Sen

STOCKHOLM, Dec 10: Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen today said India should reset its economic priorities to make them people-oriented rather than commodity related as this alone would help the country meet the challenges of globalisation.

The objectives have to be more people related rather than commodity related, and the people related to (economic policies), will have to particularly focus on those who are worst off in society, Sen said in an interview with All India Radio.

When asked what he would tell Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha if sen got a chance to meet him, the renowned economist said I will tell him to stop thinking in wrong terms and ask him to get his objectives right.

Though raising economic growth was important, the ultimate objective was to expand the ability of most sections of population to earn a decent living, Sen, who receives the Nobel Prize for Economics today, said.

This assumes more importance as only by providing for a certain economic security to the poorest of the poor could the country meet the challenges of globalisation, as there is no way any economy can escape the rapid process of integrating with the world economy.(PTI)