Sri Lanka President says PM manipulative

COLOMBO, Nov 9: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, locked in a power battle with the island’s Prime Minister, called her adversary manipulative a day after asking him to form an all-party Government to resolve the country’s political crisis.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe separately told he had nothing to say on Kumaratunga’s comments.

The power struggle between the two — who are elected separately — is at the heart of the growing crisis that threatens the country’s best chance yet to forge a peace with Tamil rebels.

Kumaratunga said the security situation had deteriorated under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, despite his signing a ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers 20 months ago, and that he had tried to take away her Constitutional powers.

"Many times the Prime Minister and Defence Minister have tried by various manipulative, dishonest means to get me to sign documents to give my powers away," she told in an interview late last night.

Wickremesinghe said: "I have no intention of commenting on specific charges. It is only by getting the democratic institutions running again that we can get the peace process moving."

kumaratunga sacked three cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, and suspended Parliament this week because of what she said was a grave threat to national security.

The moves are legal under the wide Constitutional powers Kumaratunga has, but puts her on a collision course with Wickremesinghe, whose party won Parliamentary elections in late 2001.

Kumaratunga said in a televised speech on Friday the solution was a unity Government — an idea that has surfaced repeatedly over the past decade but never happened because of deep policy and personal differences between the main parties.

"I have suggested the solution...Now the Prime Minister has to decide what he is going to do with it," she said.

Kumaratunga said she had not spoken to Wickremesinghe — who returned on Friday from a meeting with US President George W Bush — and would not say when she would see him.

"I can’t be telling you about my diary, but I will invite him when I can," she said at her official residence near the seashore in Colombo.

The Parliament was suspended until November 19 and Kumaratunga said she would not extend the suspension.

She also dismissed rumours that she would take over the finance portfolio, saying "it was not even thought of".

Although critical of Wickremesinghe’s handling of the peace process, the President said the military would honour the truce and the Prime Minister would continue pursuing peace.

Political observers said the political standoff could end in a general election, the third in four years, but Kumaratunga said she did not see the need. (AGENCIES)

Bombed Riyadh compound seen as soft target

RIYADH, Nov 9: Relaxed security and its proximity to the homes of some members of the Saudi royal family made Riyadh’s Muhaya compound an attractive target for suicide bombers, residents and diplomats said.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants shot their way into the 200-Villa complex with its mostly Arab residents today and detonated at least one car packed with explosives.

A western diplomat said the compound could have appealed to the militants because it is near homes belonging to Interior Minister Prince Nayef and some other royals and is also close to the diplomatic quarter where most western embassies are located.

"It could be that a group had a pre-arranged plan to carry out an attack and because of recent arrests acted quickly and chose a soft target. The security at the compound was not extensive," said the diplomat.

Suicide bombers used similar tactics in May to rip apart three compounds in the Saudi capital, killing 35 people — nine Americans, other foreigners and Saudis.

Since then, barricades and security checkpoints block the gates of many compounds, and security forces have mounted a tough crackdown.

One of the owners of the Muhaya compound in western Riyadh, Khaled Al-Muhaya, told the Al-Riyadh daily security was watertight.

But a resident, who declined to be indentified, told he had complained about security arrangements four times since the May 12 attacks.

"Security is awful, it’s pathetic," he said.

One envoy said that in general, security measures for compounds housing non-westerners tended to be more relaxed.

"It is fair to say that this was a soft target," said a senior western diplomat. "Security is not extensive there like other facilities or the diplomatic compound which is nearby."

Saudi officials said at least two people were killed in the attack and more than 65 injured, but a western diplomat estimated the death toll at between 20 and 30 people.

Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, is battling a surge in Islamist violence believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda.

On Friday, the United States issued its second security warning on Saudi Arabia in almost as many weeks, saying terrorists were planning attacks in the kingdom. US missions were shut in the kingdom yesterday for a security review.

Saudi newspapers and residents said most of the compound residents were families of middle-class professionals from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories who were attracted by Muhaya’s reasonable rents.

One newspaper said most of the male residents were at a Mosque performing special prayers for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when the bombers struck, explaining the high number of casualties among women and children.

A Lebanese man, indentified as Wissam, told Al-Riyadh he had picked the Muhaya because there were so many Arabs.

"I felt safe. But it seems the terrorists will spare no one, including Arabs and Muslims," he said. (AGENCIES)

S Lanka Govt may let President handle peace

COLOMBO, Nov 9: The Sri Lankan Government, in a power struggle with the island’s President, said today it may ask her to take over a peace process with Tamil rebels if she does not reverse a decision to sack three ministers.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga fired the defence, media and interior ministers, and suspended Parliament until November 19 last week, but has said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could continue pursuing peace with the separatist Tamil Tigers. But cabinet spokesman G L Peiris told a news conference today the Prime Minister must be in overall charge if he was to pursue the peace process, if not, the President should take over.

"The Prime Minister has the mandate and he must have control over all aspects," Peiris said.

"If the institutions of defence and media are not in control of the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister cannot have responsibility for the peace process," he said.

Kumaratunga has accused the Government of giving away too much to the Tamil Tigers, one of the world’s most ferocious guerrilla groups, in the peace talks.

She said she was acting in the country’s interests when she sacked the ministers and suspended Parliament.

But her move has thrown the country into political turmoil and analysts say it threatens the peace process initiated by Wickremesinghe’s Government with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) nearly two years ago.

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for minority tamils in Sri Lanka’s north and east since 1983.

On Friday, Kumaratunga called upon the Prime Minister to join her in a unity Government — an idea that has surfaced repeatedly over the past decade but has never succeeded because of deep policy and personal differences between the main parties.

"The Prime Minister will be called upon to to continue the peace process, while I shall take responsibility for the defence of the nation with the participation of the Prime Minister," she said in a speech.

But the Government seems to have called her bluff by offering to let her take over the peace process.

"The Government’s view is if Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is not entrusted with all responsibilities then it would be desirable for the President to take over the peace process," Peiris said.

He said the Government would support Kumaratunga if that happened.

The political crisis has been looming since Wickremesinghe won Parliamentary elections in late 2001, campaigning on a platform of peace talks with the LTTE, defeating Kumaratunga’s party.

Kumaratunga initiated negotiations with the rebels soon after winning her first Presidential term in 1994, but the talks broke down after the LTTE attacked two Navy boats in eastern Trincomalee port and the two sides went back to fighting.

The rebels have repeatedly said political fighting in the capital threatened the peace process and have accused Kumaratunga in the past of trying to scuttle the process.

They had no immediate response to the latest development.

The reaction from the independent media over the political crisis was negative, with the Sunday leader saying the country was in "the throes of mad cow disease". A poll of 150 business leaders published in the Sunday Times showed that two-thirds of them disagreed with the President’s actions and about 80 percent thought the crisis would "seriously set back economic growth". (AGENCIES)

Indians get highest number of work permits in the UK

LONDON, Nov 9: Indians accounted for the largest number of the work permits granted in the UK in 2002, the office for national statistics has claimed.

Of the total of 129,041 work permits issued during the year, the highest since the Second World War, Indians particularly doctors and it specialists accounted for 21 per cent. In the previous year 115,800 such permits were issued.

This is reflected in the shift of ethnic origin over the past eight years from one in four workers being from US in 1995 to the majority (21 per cent) now coming from India.

The top occupation group was the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. According to the study, 78 per cent of the computer programmer applications were granted to those coming from India. The ons expects these figures to rise again in 2003.

James Clarke, a research officer at the migration research unit, said: "Because of the bursting of the dotcom there’s been a decline in the expansion of the ICT sector, but it’s still a growing sector."

Simon Pugh, head of Britehr which uses a range of it programmers said "if the uk does not get to grips with it skills and red tape it will become a third party broker between an overseas workforce and organisations.

"In 2001 we had 180 skilled it staff but we now have 14 with 65 in India. We can get Indian programmers for 300 pounds a month. It is not just overseas workers entering the country that is harming us but firms are given little choice through costs but to move overseas," he said. (PTI)

Bomb attack in Baghdad kills US soldier

BAGHDAD, Nov 9: A roadside bomb attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad last evening killed a US soldier from the 1st armored division and wounded another, the US Army said today.

The attack brought to at least 150 the number of US soldiers killed in action since major combat was declared over on May 1.

Also yesterday, two soldiers from the 82nd airborne division were killed and one wounded by a roadside bomb in the town of Falluja, west of Baghdad.

Washington blames loyalists of ousted President Saddam Hussein and foreign guerrillas for the increasing attacks on the US led occupation forces in Iraq. (AGENCIES)

Maoists kill ex-Indian Army soldier

kATHMANDU, Nov 9: A former soldier of the Indian Army was killed and his daughter abducted by Maoist rebels from Chyangyad, Panchthar district in eastern Nepal.

A Panchthar district police official said Shukraraj Rai, 53, who had retired as a sergeant from the Indian Army, and his daughter were abducted from their house by Maoists about two weeks ago and the body of Rai was later found at Chyangadh. His daughter’s whereabouts and the reason behind the kidnapping and killing are not yet known, the official said.

In another incident, the Maoists shot dead an Assistant Inspector of the National Investigation Department, at his house in Gaindakot, in the adjoining Nawalparasi district yesterday. A group of three armed Maoists shot him at his home, Chitwan district police said.

More than 8,000 people have been killed in the Himalayan kingdom since the Maoists insurgency began in 1996.

The royal Nepalese Army says over 700 Maoists have been killed since the breakdown of the ceasefire and peace talks on August 27 this year. However, the figures have not been independently confirmed.

Political parties, human rights organizations and the civil society in Nepal have called for talks to resolve the problem. The Government, while expressing its willingness for dialogue has said the rebels should stop violence as a precondition.

Meanwhile, it has launched action against the Maoists under the unified command of the royal Nepalese Army despite opposition from political parties. (UNI)

Stress changes adolescent brain, US study shows

WASHINGTON, Nov 9: Severe stress can permanently affect an adolescent’s brain, causing changes in an area important for learning and memory, US researchers have reported.

The study, conducted using rats, suggests that teens may not always bounce back from trauma and suggests that adolescents may be more susceptible to permanent damage from stress than younger children.

Susan Andersen of Harvard Medical School and Mclean hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts and colleagues found that rats exposed to stress during adolescence — by being kept alone in cages — had lower levels as adults of a key protein in the Hippocampus, a brain region important for learning and memory.

The protein, synaptophysin, is used to measure how many brain cell connections are being made. Lower levels suggest reduced brain activity.

Andersen’s team told a meeting of the society for neuroscience in new Orleans that their study was the first to show that stress during adolescence affects adult brain cell connections.

Usually, in humans, synaptophysin levels peak between the ages of 18 and 20. Anderson’s team tested rats of comparable age.

The rats kept alone — something very stressful for a rat — did not experience the normal increase in synaptophysin as they reached early maturity.

"These data may suggest why early traumatic stress, such as physical or sexual abuse or neglect, is associated with a decrease in the size of the hippocampus in adulthood," Mclean hospital said in a statement.

"These pre-clinical data suggest that stress experienced early in life alters the normal developmental trajectory of the hippocampus, but that these changes are not apparent until later in life," said Andersen. (AGENCIES)

Iranian bus smashes into truck, killing 34 - IRNA

TEHRAN, Nov 9: A crowded bus and a truck ploughed into each other in central Iran, killing 34 people and injuring 10, the official IRNA news agency said today.

Iran has one of the world’s highest road accident rates. Iran’s newspapers frequently blame poor road maintenance.

The collision occurred on the highway between yazd, famed for its Zzoroastrian religious community, and the desert-city of Tabas, where the helicopter rescue mission for US embassy hostages failed in 1980. (AGENCIES)

Worker trapped in Italy building collapse dead

GENOA, ITALY, Nov 9: A worker trapped under the rubble when part of a building collapsed in the Italian port city of Genoa was found dead after almost 18 hours of digging through the debris, firefighters said today.

A wing of the city’s new three-storey maritime museum, which was covered in scaffolding as part of reconstruction works, collapsed yesterday morning with nine workers on the site.

Four were pulled out of the rubble with concussion and broken limbs. One man was located by calling his cell phone. The body of the ninth, Albanian-born worker was finally pulled out of the debris early today. (AGENCIES)

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