WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Despite a new Osama bin Laden videotape threatening more attacks, US officials have.....more

Arafat does not have
life-threatening
illness-aides

CLAMART, FRANCE, Oct 31: Medical tests carried out on ailing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat have ruled out.....more

Japanese Govt says
will keep its
troops in Iraq

TOKYO, Oct 31: Japan said today it would keep its troops in Iraq, where they are carrying out humanitarian work.....more

German police struggle
to stop naked
pair on street

BERLIN, Oct 31: German police detained a naked 25-year-old woman and her 23-year-old partner who were engaged in.......more

LONDON, Oct 31: A large majority of Britons think a US election victory for John Kerry is the best outcome for global.....more

Ukraine poll decides
Russian or western
orientation

KIEV, Oct 31: Ukrainian voters start choosing a new President today, a tense contest to determine whether the.....more

Hizbollah head says
prisoner swap
talks progress

BEIRUT, Oct 31: The head of Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerrilla group has said there had been new German-brokered talks....more

Japanese hostage
confirmed beheaded in Iraq

TOKYO, Oct 31: A headless body found in Baghdad has been confirmed as that of a japanese hostage whose captors....more

Ridge says US has no specific election threats

WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Despite a new Osama bin Laden videotape threatening more attacks, US officials have received no specific information about election day threats and homeland security secretary Tom Ridge has urged Americans to feel safe when they vote.

"It’s important to know ... There is no specific intelligence that targets election day, polling places and the like. The threat has always been directed to the American homeland and we need to understand that," Ridge told a press briefing yesterday.

"First of all we want to make sure that people feel safe and comfortable about going to vote," he said, affirming there were no plans to raise the terror threat level, which now stands at "elevated" or yellow.

Ridge was speaking a day after the Bin Laden video was shown on the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, and the same week ABC news broadcast another purported Al-Qaeda tape threatening bloody new attacks.

"What is really new are the tapes, it’s not the threat. America has been dealing with the general threat to our homeland now since September 11," Ridge said.

He said federal, state and local officials had stepped up security in the run-up to Tuesday’s elections and would continue to do so, but said he had not ordered any new measures in response to the videotape.

"Our effort nationwide, down to the local level, to enhance security is ongoing. We are far safer today than we’ve ever been before," Ridge said.

As part of these efforts, Ridge said the FBI and Department of Homeland Security had sent out an informational bulletin on Friday to state and local law enforcement officials, something he said had happened "probably 150 times over the past year."

The secretary said he had also briefed about 350 homeland security advisers from states and major cities as well as chiefs of police yesterday.

"And in the hours and the days ahead, we’ll increase our coast guard patrols of the harbours. We’ll change some of the inspection protocols at our ports of entry and our airports.

"We’ll work with our cities to reroute, as we’ve done from time to time in the past, hazardous material, be it in trucks or railroads, around some of our major urban areas," Ridge said.

DHS chief spokesperson Brian Roehrkasse said these steps were part of ongoing security measures and stressed they were not new efforts triggered by the video.

In the tape, Bin Laden criticised President George W Bush and thrust himself into the midst of the final days of the campaign between Bush and his democratic rival, Sen John Kerry.

John Brennan, Director of the terrorist threat integration center who addressed the briefing with Ridge, said the tape was still being analyzed, but may have partly been designed to "demonstrate that Al-Qaeda ... Is still effective, even though they have not, in fact, been able to do something here in the states" since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

He said audio and video tapes from Al-Qaeda leaders were not necessarily considered signals to followers to launch new attacks, as some analysts have suggested.

The White House said Bin Laden was Bush’s focus in an early morning videoconference with his homeland security team, including Ridge, Attorney General John Ashcroft, CIA Director Porter Goss and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. (AGENCIES)

Ukraine poll decides Russian or western orientation

KIEV, Oct 31: Ukrainian voters start choosing a new President today, a tense contest to determine whether the ex-Soviet state intensifies traditional links with Moscow or begins looking towards the west.

Two of 24 hopefuls are expected to go through to a run-off next month — Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, backed by Ukraine’s establishment and an advocate of further integration with Moscow, and western-leaning liberal Viktor Yushchenko.

With the two rivals even in opinion surveys, neither was likely to get the 50 percent needed for a first-round victory.

Polling stations for 37 million eligible voters open from 1130 ist to 2330 ist. Results of an exit poll will be announced soon after, with returns coming in overnight.

The United States and European Union voiced reservations at some aspects of the campaign and called for a clean vote.

The poll is tantamount to a referendum on the decade in office of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who is backing his Prime Minister. Each side has accused the other of trying to subvert the poll or of inciting its supporters to violence.

Though it cast off Soviet rule 13 years ago, Ukraine remained subject to heavy Russian influence in the campaign. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin visited Kiev in its final stages and endorsed the premier’s record of high economic growth.

As darkness fell on the eve of the vote, servicemen erected metal barriers around the election commission building, where votes will be tallied. Authorities threw up a high fence last week after a rally attended by 100,000 Yushchenko supporters ended with minor altercations. (AGENCIES)

Japanese hostage confirmed beheaded in Iraq

TOKYO, Oct 31: A headless body found in Baghdad has been confirmed as that of a japanese hostage whose captors had threatened to kill him if Japan did not pull out its troops, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said today.

Al-Qaeda ally Abu-musab-al-Zarqawi’s militant group said in an internet video on Wednesday it would behead Shosei Koda, 24, within 48 hours if Japan did not withdraw its troops from Iraq.

"To our regret, we have confirmed that the body is that of Shosei Koda," Machimura told reporters.

"The act of terrorism to take the life of a civilian is absolutely vicious and we must not tolerate such acts," Machimura said. "Japan, cooperating with the international community, must continue to fight terrorism firmly."

Iraqi police found the headless body of the Asian man in Baghdad yesterday. A news agency pool video obtained in Baghdad showed the corpse in a white, blood-soaked shirt and the severed head of a Japanese-looking man with a thin beard.

Someone can then be seen lifting the head up by its long black hair and holding it up to the camera.

The hostage crisis poses a challenge for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who sent troops to Iraq on a non-combat mission despite opposition from a majority of the Japanese public.

But analysts have said the fallout could be limited because many ordinary Japanese have blamed Koda for putting himself at risk despite warnings from the Government not to travel to Iraq.

Confusion had surrounded Koda’s fate.

A beheaded body found in Iraq on Friday was initially thought to be that of Koda, but it was later identified as an Iraqi man. Another corpse described as Asian-looking also turned out not to be Koda’s.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said the latest body, and the decapitated head, had been found around Haifa street, a dangerous area in central Baghdad where insurgents are active.

At least 25 foreigners from a dozen countries are thought to be in the hands of kidnappers trying to drive US-led forces and foreign workers from Iraq. Scores of foreigners have been abducted since April.

Many have been freed but more than 35 have been killed, several of them beheaded. (AGENCIES)

Senior lower court Judge in dock over forgery allegations

DHAKA, Oct 31: The High Court bench and bar appeared baffled and speechless over a report that a junior Judge forged his law graduation certificate before being inducted into the bench last August.

Two major dailies reported that Faisal Mahmud Faizee, one of the 19 additional Judges appointed on August 23, had managed to forge his mark sheet in Muslim law examination in 1989. An inquiry committee of Chittagong university from where he appeared for the exam revealed the forgery.

President of Supreme Court bar association, barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud, along with a group of senior lawyers, met Chief Justice Syed J R Mudassir Husain yesterday and discussed the situation arising out of the newspaper reports. The bar leaders requested the Chief Justice to withdraw Justice Faizee from the bench.

The Chief Justice assured the bar leaders that he would look into the matter.

Earlier, as the court sat for the day, some aggrieved lawyers rushed to the 2-member bench where Justice Faizee and his senior were sitting for disposing of cases. The lawyers submitted that Justice faizee should not sit in any bench on moral grounds.

Senior judge asgar khan told the lawyer that it is the chief Justice who had constituted the bench and Faizee cannot be unseated without the CJ’s order.

The Supreme Court Bar Association executive committee held an emergency meeting and unanimously decided to boycott the bench of Justice Faizee.

Bar Association president Rokanuddin told reporters that the appointment of Faizee as additional Judge had undermined the image of the judiciary. The authorities appointing controversial persons as Judges have no right to tarnish the image of lawyers and the profession. "We had cautioned the Government against appointment of Judges merely on political consideration and ignoring quality and personal integrity," he added. (UNI)

US marines on edge at risky Falluja post

FALLUJA, IRAQ, Oct 31: Any motorist who slows down is seen as a suspected suicide bomber. Fingers squeeze triggers at the slightest movement around nearby houses. Mortars and grenades can rain down at any time.

US marines manning their most advanced position in Falluja can guess what to expect when US-led forces launch a widely flagged offensive to drive insurgents from the city.

Almost daily guerrilla attacks on the position on the main road into Falluja make it the most dangerous spot held by the marines around the bastion for Sunni Muslim rebels.

"Sometimes it’s very quiet after a period of attacks. But that is when it is tricky. The biggest challenge here is keeping everyone alert," post commander lieutenant John Campbell told .

The forward post was set up to screen cars along a highway the us military says is used to move guerrillas and weapons in and out of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.

Marines spend much time worrying what the rebels will do next. Clutching M-16 rifles on a concrete tower, they keep a close eye on the road that leads into the industrial zone, a hotspot that starts just 100 metres (yards) away.

Bullets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades land from every direction, including the row of houses across the street or the highway, where it’s hard to spot rebels because their cars look like everyone else’s. (AGENCIES)

Policeman, worker killed in Thai restive south

BANGKOK, Oct 31: Militants have shot and killed a policeman and a construction worker in Thailand’s restive south, police said today, as troops prepared to free the last batch of 1,200 Muslim protesters held at a military camp for a week.

Islamic leaders and analysts said Muslim outrage over the death of 85 protesters could trigger deadly reprisals and attract more recruits to a 10-month outbreak of unrest in the region, which has already killed nearly 450 people.

Two men on motorcycle pumped five bullets into a truck carrying 12 workers to a road construction site in Narathiwat province and killed a 32-year-old man, police said today. The gunmen fled the scene.

"The victim, Sudkhet Suttiboonsri, died before arriving at hospital," an officer at Joh Irong police station in Narathiwat told .

In another ambush a gunman shot and killed a newly-recruited Buddhist lance corporal at a store in Pattani province last night, police said. (AGENCIES)

IAEA to conduct final probe on S Korea tests: Seoul

SEOUL, Oct 31: The UN nuclear watchdog will conduct a final inspection in South Korea this week before completing a report on the country’s unauthorised nuclear experiments, the South Korean Government said today.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will make a week-long visit from Tuesday prior to finalising their report for delivery to the agency’s board of governors in late November, a science and technology ministry spokesman said.

South Korea said in September that scientists at Government laboratories had enriched a minuscule quantity of uranium in 2000 and previously had extracted a trace amount of plutonium in 1982, all without government knowledge or authorisation.

"The focus of this visit will be to consult and check with South Korea on the draft report," Ministry Spokesman Lee-Sang-Mok said by telephone.

He said inspectors would visit the sites of the controversial experiments — a Government research centre in taejon, south of Seoul, and an experimental nuclear reactor in the capital — and interview the scientists involved.

"We will continue to provide the utmost cooperation," Lee added.

Some diplomats on the IAEA board have said Seoul’s failure to report the experiments violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and should be reported to the UN Security Council.

South Korea insists that it never intended to build a nuclear weapons programme and was fully committed to non-proliferation.

North Korea has cited the experiments as one reason for holding up multilateral negotiations aimed at ending its own nuclear weapons programmes. (AGENCIES)