Louisiana votes for Blanco

WASHINGTON, Nov 16: India-born republican candidate Bobby Jindal lost the high profile Louisiana governorship elections to veteran democrat Kathleen Blanco by a four per cent margin.

By winning the elections Blanco, 60, makes political history by becoming the first female Governor of the state in America’s deep south that has seen only white men fill the post since 19th century. It is also a rare gain for democrats in elections that has seen several republican victories.

With 93 per cent of precincts counted, Blanco a Cajun, had 52 per cent or 680,418 votes against Jindal who recived 48 per cent or 640,541.

The polls, which will also elect a new state legislature, prosecutors and a Lieutenant Governor, started at 6 AM (1730 IST) yesterday and closed at 8 PM (0700 IST) today.

The outcome of the polls had to be historical in any case. The verdict would have been either in favour of 32-year-old Jindal an Indian American or a woman.

Blanco has a two-year record in public office, having served in the legislature and on the Public Service Commission before being elected Lieutenant Governor eight year ago. She had finished second behind Jindal in a six-candidate primary on October 4 with strong support in her native Cajun country and among women.

Just as conservative as Jindal on social issues, Blanco had projected herself as an advocate for family and children and in the final days of her campaign had attacked Jindal’s record as Secretary of the State Department of Health and Hospitals.

Jindal, son of Indian immigrants and a former Rhodes scholar, worked in the Bush administration and was State Secretary of Health and Hospitals under the outgoing Governor Mike Foster.

Latest opinion polls had shown Jindal trailing slightly behind Blanco. Pollsters had suggested that the race could tip either way due to the number of undecided voters.

Jindal’s position was strengthened by a combination of educated white conservatives drawn by his skills as a technocrat, working class whites and a sections of blacks.

Both candidates foccused their campaigns on promises to bring jobs to Louisiana, which has been suffering from economic recession and net outmigration of population in 1990s. (PTI)

Myanmar turns down Pak’s claim over Bahadur
Shah Zafar’s Mazar

YANGON, Nov 16: In a rebuff to Pakistan, the Myanmar authorities have resolutely turned down its efforts to claim the ‘Mazar’ (mausoleum) of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar even as they have allowed Indian help for beautification of the Mazar.

Myanmar assured India that no decision contrary to India’s interest would be taken with regard to the Mausoleum, an External Affairs Ministry official said.

Work on marble tiling of the forecourt of the two-storey Mausoleum is being undertaken by the people of Indian origin with the help of Indian mission here.

The Mazar, located at no. 6, theatre road, is the most famous address for any Indian visiting the Myanmarese capital, Yangon. Beginning with Subhash Chandra Bose, there has been a tradition of Indian leaders visiting the monument as part of their official itinerary.

Pakistan has continuously made efforts to claim the monument as its own by first demanding that the grave be shifted to Pakistan. After a refusal from the Myanmar Government, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf announced a donation of USd 50,000 to construct a new building at the Mazar. This was also turned down.

The Indian mission in Yangon has streamlined and strengthened its activities at the Mazar which is formally visited by the Ambassador and other diplomats on the Independence and Republic Day.

The embassy, supported by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, also arranges for a Qawali programme at the Mazar apart from providing assistance to the organisers for the annual Urs of Bahadur Shah Zafar.

The king-poet was arrested from Delhi after the failure of the first war of Independence against the British in 1857. The sad and broken Bahadur Shah was brought here in chains after the brutal murder of his sons.

Bahadur Shah Zafar spent four long years in Yangon and died on November 7, 1862. Confined to a garage attached to a bungalow of an English officer, Zafar lived the life of a ‘Faqir’ and passed away in ignominious anonymity in the outskirts of the city.

Two other exiled members of his family, wife Begum Zeenat Mahal and granddaughter Raunaq Zamani Begum who died in 1930 were buried alongside Bahadur Shah’s grave.

Even after his death the British seemed to fear him and did not allow any visitors to the premises for thirty years. To keep people away from the grave, the stone put there merely said that he was buried ‘near this spot.’

A trust was set up only in 1935 after a Court decree and the tomb was handed over to the trust headed by Sikandar Bux. Donations made by the general public were used for the maintenance of the Mausoleum.

The exact location of the grave remained unknown for a long time. It was discovered while digging for construction of a memorial hall in 1991.

A subterranean grave was found which is believed to be his true grave. The graves on the ground level, it appears, were decoys constructed by the British to ensure that nationalist sentiments were not aroused centering on the last emperor.

His anticipation of such an end must have given him the inspiration to compose the immortal couplet in which he spoke of his deprivation of two yards of land for his burial in his mother land "Do Gaz Zameen Bhi Na Mili." (PTI)

Pak willing to discuss Sind-Rajasthan bus service

ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Shedding its reservations over recent Indian proposal to re-open border point between Sindh and Rajastan to run a bus service, Pakistan has asked India to "come to the negotiation table" to discuss the issue.

"The border may be re-opened through a dialogue for which India should come to the negotiation table," Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told reporters in Lahore yesterday.

Kasuri’s comments came as a surprise as Pakistan, while reacting to recent Indian proposal to run a bus service between the two countries said it has to wait till the two countries begin a composite dialogue to settle differences on Kashmir and other issues.

Besides proposing a bus service between Khokharapar (Sind) and Minabao (Rajasthan), India also suggested a bus service between Srinagar and Muzafarabad, the capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir(PoK) and a ferry service between Mumbai and Karachi.

Kasuri said the forthcoming SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad in January next would be of great significance and hoped that Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee would attend the summit.

"If India has any reservation to attend the SAARC conference it should inform Pakistan accordingly" he said adding India should the attend summit conference un-conditionally.

Pakistan also appreciated people-to-people-contact between India and Pakistan and agreed frequent exchange of delegations could help better ties between the two countries, Kasuri said.

Later addressing a seminar organised by Pakistan’s Kashmir Action Committee (KAC) in Lahore, he denied Islamabad had any role in the recent split of the all party Hurriyat Conference in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Tactics to split organisations would neither serve Pakistan nor the Kashmir movement", he said.

Kasuri said that Pakistan was making all out efforts through diplomatic channels to help resolve the Kashmir issue through peaceful means and added war was no option to resolve issues.

Meanwhile, Pakistan foreign office has said the increase in the number of officials in the High Commissions of Pakistan and India was insufficient to cope with the issuing of visas and suggested the two sides to restore the diplomatic strength to 110.

Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan had no objection over the opening of visa camps as suggested by India recently but for that purpose both countries would have to restore their diplomatic missions to the strength that existed before December 2002.

India trimmed its diplomatic staff from 110 to 47 following an attack on its Parliament in December 13, 2002.

Recently the two countries agreed to increase their staff strength to 55. (PTI)

Singapore does some soul searching over sex

SINGAPORE, Nov 16: Singapore, where prostitution is legal and oral sex is a crime, is doing some soul searching over morality, sexuality and the law.

In a country ranked last for two straight years in a global list of most sexually active nations, and where fertility rates are falling, debate over laws on sex is growing after a 27-year-old man was arrested for receiving oral sex.

The man, a police coast guard sergeant, landed in Court after a girl reported to police she had performed oral sex on him after the two met in an internet chat room.

Local media said she was 16 years old, above the age of consent in Singapore. After days of furious public letters in newspapers deriding the law on oral sex as antiquated and out of step, the Government announced that her age at the time of the incident was 15.

The controversy is unlikely to die down, lawyers say, because of section 377 in Singapore’s Penal Code that police used to prosecute the case.

That section says "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animals can be fined and jailed up to 10 years, or even for life."

That a law that effectively criminalises homosexuality and oral sex between men and women exists and is enforced appears to have mortified much of the public.

"Does anyone not realise how Archaic the law against oral sex is?" Wrote Christopher low Kin Siong in one of many letters of portest to the Straits Times Newspaper. "There is no reason why the law should interfere with anyone’s sex life."

"By enforcing the act, the state has made criminals of the majority of adults with a sex life."

Sustained public criticism of Singapore’s semi-authoritian Government, and its laws, is extremely rare. But calls for the Government to withdraw from the bedroom are filling web chat rooms, buzzing around cafes and stirring protests from lawyers.

"We need to revise the law," said criminal lawyer Sarbrinder Singh. "We together with members of Parliament are going to debate this issue in the Parliament. Our aim is to legalise oral sex as long as the female is consented and no force is imposed."

Singh said a handful of his clients had gone to Court because of oral sex and about 20 clients had consulted him on the issue in the past three years. "In Singapore, oral sex is very common, but going to Court is very uncommon," he said.

Legal experts say the law is dangerously opaque. In one case detailed in the Straits Times, a wife had tried to punish her unfaithful husband by performing oral sex on him and then reporting him to the police.

The criticisms come as the Government struggles to relax censorship laws that now ban playboy magazine, clip racy scenes from movies and scissor drug references from pop cultural magazines — rules that have helped earn Singapore the well-known Sobriquet of Asia’s "Nanny state.

Although a ban on "Sex and the city", the hit US TV Sitcom about a quartet of single women in New York, was lifted in September along with a 21-year ban on Cosmopolitan magazine, authorities have yet to air the show or allow "cosmo" to go on sale.

Officials say they need more time to ensure the conservative majority in the island’s polyglot community of ethnic Chinese, malays and Indians are not offended. Residents say they expect this to mean parts of "sex and the city" will still be censored.

The public generally supports Singapore’s tough laws — including the death penalty for drug smugglers, bans on pornography and curbs on political dissent — as part of a social contract that in return has delivered years of economic prosperity.

But laws on sex are different, residents say, exposing a raw nerve in a country that only this year revealed that gays now worked in the public service — a low-key policy shift aimed in part at fostering a creative class and attracting foreign talent.

Meanwhile, prostitution remains openly legal.

On Singapore’s most fashionable shopping street, for example, a plaza with dry cleaning services, jewellers and golf stores is also filled with escort services and several floors of discos known as gathering points for women selling sex. (AGENCIES)

Explosion in crowded Bogota pub wounds many

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, Nov 16: At least one explosion ripped through a crowded pub in an upscale neighborhood of Colombia’s capital Bogota, wounding 10 or more people, said police, who suspected a bomb caused the blast.

There were one or two explosions at the popular Bogota beer company pub opposite a shopping mall in the city’s prosperous north at about 10 PM 0300 GMT today, police said.

A police officer on duty at the national police headquarters said that at least 10 people had been injured.

Police said they believed a bomb or grenade caused the blast but that it was also possible that a propane tank exploded at the bar.

They did not say if they had any suspects for the possible attack. Left-wing rebels, far-right paramilitaries and common criminals have all planted bombs in public places.

"I heard an explosion, and then another one. I just tried to help people who were hurt," one of the injured men, Arturo Vasquez, who sells handicrafts on the street, told .

He had large blood stains on his jeans from injuries he said were caused by Shrapnel, and more blood stained a cloth bag slung over his shoulder. He said he saw people who had been burned and cut.

A car bomb killed at least six people in a grimy Bogota commercial district in October, and police investigated both leftist rebels and far-right paramilitaries. Authorities blamed Marxist guerrillas for a huge bomb which killed 36 people at the city’s exclusive Nogal club in February. (AGENCIES)

US Tokyo envoy sees Japan troops in Iraq this year

CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Nov 16: The US Ambassador to Japan today predicted that the Japanese Government would send troops to Iraq this year, despite its decision to postpone such a move.

Responding to questions from troops at this US marine base, Howard Baker said that the decision by the Japanese Government "is still very much in their minds..."

"But I think, bottom line, is that the Japanese will still dispatch a group of self-defence forces to Iraq — and probably still this year."

A marine asked visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld what effect any decision by Japan not to send troops would have on the presence of American forces in Iraq.

"They have not decided not to send troops," Rumsfeld responded during a visit to this Japanese island.

He then asked baker to respond.

"My understanding is that the original announcement that the Japanese will send some of their self-defence force to Iraq still stands — they still plan to do that," the Ambassador said.

"What they backed off, as I understand it, is a firm date for doing that," Baker added.

"It is still very much in their minds. I think the (Japanese) survey team that’s on its way to Iraq now will probably give a recommendation on when."

Tokyo had been expected to commit about 150 non-combat troops to Iraq before the end of the year. But after Wednesday’s attack in the southern town of Nassiriya that killed 18 Italians, Japanese officials said that dispatching the troops was impossible under present conditions.

Japanese Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba told Rumsfeld in Tokyo yesterday, however, that his Government still intended to send troops to Iraq "at an early date", and meanwhile was closely watching the situation on the ground.

But it now faces a quandary, torn between its alliance with the United States and domestic public opinion, which opposed the US-led war in Iraq and is predominantly against sending troops to the country.

A Japanese fact-finding mission left for Iraq on Saturday to report on the security situation. (AGENCIES)

Rumsfeld sees no draw down of US forces in Iraq

KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, Nov 16: American forces will not begin pulling out of Iraq next june as a new self-rule Government takes root there, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today said.

"No, no," he told reporters travelling with him on a visit to Okinawa when asked if plans announced by Iraq’s governing council for a transitional Government would have any bearing on the continued presence of US forces in the troubled country.

"There are no changes in the security situation. We are on the map we were on last week, last month. This has nothing to do with US troops in Iraq," Rumsfeld said.

"The timetable, or the way ahead that the governing council has been describing, relates to the governance aspects of the country and not to the security aspects. That’s on a separate track.

"We’re working to bring in additional coalition forces, we’re making plans for the rotation of our forces out and new US and coalition forces in," he went on.

"And the announcements with respect to Iraqi governance don’t have a relationship to that. And any stories that you’re seeing like that ought to have someone raise questions about the source," Rumsfeld said. (AGENCIES)

Iraqi religious authority may join Iraqi ruling council

CAIRO, Nov 16: The moslem authority of religious men announced that they expect to meet with us civil administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer this week to discuss cooperation, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported.

The Saudi newspaper yesterday said the authority has already established a committee headed by Sheikh Hareth Al-Dari to study the possibility of being represented in the Iraqi ruling council.

A source at the authority was quoted as saying that the religious men "will probably agree to cooperate with the ruling council and join them given that the aim is to speed up the end of the occupation and place a timetable for US withdrawal." (DPA)

Saudi authorities ‘’looking at apossible women police force’’

CAIRO, Nov 16: The Saudi interior ministry is examining a study prepared by a security committee recommending the establishment of a police force comprised of women, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper said.

It quoted informed sources at the interior ministry as saying the mission of the force "would not constitute field work, but rather the policewomen would handle special security missions".

These could include security investigations in addition to the monitoring of activities of women suspected of unspecified "collaboration".

It quoted the sources as sying "policewomen would monitor and report the unnatural activities of women during events organized for women."

The need for policewomen had increased after the Interior Ministry confirmed that "terrorist organizations were able to recruit women to help in their operations and escape".

"There is also information that the terrorists are seeking to include women in their network because they are easier to infirltrate security checks," the sources said yesterday.

Al-Hayat said the interior ministry realized following last week’s attack on a residential compound in the Saudi capital Riyadh that security forces had refrained from searching cars that included families.

The reports of establishing a police force for women come one month after Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Sl-Faisal announced that women will be appointed in the kingdom’s diplomatic corps.

Women in Saudi Arabia are subject to a raft of restrictions. They must follow strict dress code, they are not allowed to drive and they need written permission from a male relative if they want to travel. (DPA)

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