HRW fears many arrested in Nepal may not be seen again

NEW YORK, Feb 9: Fearing that many activists arrested in Nepal, following the take over of power by King Gyanendra, may not be seen again, the human rights watch has said the international community should help end arbitrary detention of political workers and journalists in the Himalayan Kingdom.

In a statement issued today, the US-based human rights watch noted that US and Britain had condemned the seizure of power by the King but criticised the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, providers of "significant" economic assistance, for remaining silent.

"It is crucial for the international community to demonstrate that it will not lightly accept the King’s abusive actions. If they act with a common purpose, the King and the army will have little choice but to reverse course," it added.

With ongoing arrests reported around the country, human rights watch said there is a risk that some of those being arrested will be "disappeared" by the security forces and never seen again, as happened during Nepal’s last state of emergency in 2001.

"With all power concentrated in the hands of the King, he is now responsible for what happens to the people detained after the takeover," said Brad Adams, Asia Director for Human Rights Watch.

"In handing the army unbridled power, he will also be responsible for the predictable human rights abuses the army commits under the state of emergency."

Although information from areas outside Kathmandu remains limited due to the cutting of telephone and internet services, human rights watch said at least 150 political leaders and student activists have been arbitrarily detained or placed under house arrest since the February 1 royal takeover.

During past crackdowns and the last state of emergency (2001-2002) the security forces arrested numerous journalists, student leaders, political activists, lawyers and suspected maoist sympathizers who were then "disappeared, arrested and never seen again, and presumably killed in custody," it noted.

"We are not just concerned about the arbitrary arrests that are taking place across Nepal," said Adams. "Our chief concern is that some of those being arrested may never be seen again, that they might "disappear" or be killed in custody.

In addition to the political leadership, more than 100 local political leaders and student activists have also reportedly been arrested throughout the country. Most central committee members of the mainstream political parties have either been arrested, placed under house arrest, or have been forced into hiding, the human rights watch said.

On February 8, the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal (NHRC) and Kapil Shrestha, a fellow Commissioner, attempted to board a plane to the eastern city of Biratnagar to open a regional office of the NHRC but was prohibited from boarding the plane, the watch said. (PTI)

UK army pilot used helicopter to deliver pizza

LONDON, Feb 9: A British army pilot has been disciplined by senior officers for using a tank-busting helicopter to deliver a pizza to his girlfriend.

The pilot, based with Britain’s 659 army air corps squadron in Suffolk, eastern England, was on a map-reading training drill when he dropped off the pizza to his girlfriend who was taking part in an exercise 50 km away.

The 25-year-old lieutenant had picked up the takeaway before setting out on the sortie in his lynx helicopter, the Sun newspaper reported yesterday. He was reprimanded but did not have his pilot’s licence taken away, the paper added.

"The opportunity to add a light-hearted element to the planned sortie was taken but with no detriment to the sortie objective," a UK Defence Ministry spokeswoman told .

"The chain of command do not condone these actions and have disciplined the individuals concerned." (AGENCIES)

Birth of a terrorist US scholars seek clues

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: What turns a man into a terrorist? What makes a doctor like Al-Qaeda’s Ayman-al-Zawahri swap healing for killing, or a Palestinian mother of two blow herself up at an army checkpoint?

A new US Government-funded centre at the university of Maryland aims to find out. Scholars involved in the project, funded with a 12 million three-year US grant, hope their research will explain what makes people adopt terrorist tactics, and then help stop attacks before they occur.

The centre, which is due to be running by April, is "focused on helping us understand and improve the prediction, timely detection and prevention of terrorist attacks and terrorist behaviours," outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at the project’s formal launch last month.

But even before the centre gets off the ground, critics are questioning its merits. Some wonder whether it is possible to detect common patterns among militants who range from leftist rebels in Latin America to Muslim zealots in the Middle East. Others fear the centre will only generate vague theories that will not help lessen the incidence of violence.

Criminologist Gary Lafree, who will head the new centre, says the research alone will not end global terrorism but will help policymakers understand the genesis and growth of militant groups and let them take measures to mitigate the threat.

His team of about 60 psychologists, political experts and other social scientists will examine a database of 70,000 attacks since 1970 and conduct surveys in several Arab and Islamic states to learn more about the societies andcircumstances that have spawned militant groups.

They will also see if prisons could be breeding grounds for terrorists, pay special attention to fringe groups and pursue more than 30 other projects in search of clues.

"It is the kind of information which we think is very much capable of changing policy and changing the way we look at terrorism," Lafree told .

He said much of the conventional wisdom on what makes a terrorist — such as poverty, a lack of democracy or poor education — was oversimplified and did not help solve the problem.

Lafree said blaming the complex phenomenon of terrorism on single factors such as us foreign policy was also too simplistic. He said terrorism was an intricate mosaic that would have to be understood as a whole in order to be addressed.

He said the centre wanted to provide a much richer and far more sophisticated answer to three core questions: What makes people become terrorists, what sustains violent groups and how do people react to terrorist attacks.

Some skeptics wonder whether the scope of the project is too broad, arguing it is all but impossible to find a common denominator among the world’s vast array of militants.

"One thing that we’ve discovered is that common denominators are scarce on the ground, and the search for them may be chimerical," said Steve Simon, a terrorism expert at the rand think tank outside Washington.

Asked whether the Maryland team expected to find patterns among militants as diverse as Al-Qaeda, Oklahoma city bomber Timothy Mcveigh and groups fighting occupation, Lafree said: "Well, that is the question of the hour."

"Obviously when you’re dealing with a database that (includes) Al-Qaeda and people blowing up abortion clinics, you’re going to get a very different set of findings than if you’re looking at a very focused study of, say, Al-Qaeda. What we’re trying to do is proceed on both," he said.

Other critics worry the academic approach to terrorism is a waste of time and money.

"Government-backed research centres are notorious for issuing reports and not much else, but occasionally a gem will emerge," said a skeptical editorial in the conservative Washington Times.

Wyn Jennings, the Department of Homeland Security’s program manager for the new centre, insisted the results of the research would not end up as turgid academic tomes, relegated to the back of a library shelf.

He said all results — even if they are politically unpopular —would be reviewed at the highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security so that appropriate action is taken.

But the scholars and DHS agree that even at their most successful, the results of the centre’s research will not be a magic bullet to eliminate terrorism.

"To uproot terrorism generally, this idea of a ‘war on terrorism,’ is probably overkill. It’s like combating evil, or sin. It’s a good thing if you can get it, but it’s probably not very realistic," said Arie Kruglanski, a social psychologist and one of the lead investigators of the centre.

Kruglanski said it was more realistic to try to identify the groups that specifically target the United States, to understand when and why they use violent means, and then to discuss intervention or policy steps.

"Maybe it’s up to us to create conditions under which alternative means of attaining those populations’ goals would seem more feasible," he said. "In the absence of alternatives, this is going to be the only game in town." (AGENCIES)

India’s prompt Tsunami relief will help improve relations

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: India’s prompt action in providing relief to Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia in the aftermath of the devastating tidal wave disaster will invigorate its "look east" policy aimed at strengthening relations with southeast Asia, a leading US think tank has said.

"The Indian naval forces mobilized with impressive speed, providing relief to Sri Lanka within the first 12 hours of the disaster. Relief operations were fully underway in Lanka and the Maldives by Tsunami day three (December 28)," the south Asia monitor, a newsletter published by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank said.

The Indian armed forces were the first to reach Sri Lanka and the Maldives after the Tsunami struck, it said, adding pictures of the Indian Navy in relief operations in Galle, the hard-hit southern port, made a strong positive impression in the region.

This will serve to reaffirm and invigorate India’s "look east" policy, intended to strengthen the country’s ties with southeast Asia, the monitor said.

The Indian Navy, it points out, is coordinating its operations with its US counterpart, and this is yet another illustration of deepening US-India relations.

For us the main long-term opportunity lies in the potential for deepening relationships both within the region and between the United States and India, it said. (PTI)

Thaksin brushes off loss of Thailand’s Muslim south in poll

BANGKOK, Feb 9: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra today brushed off his party’s loss of all but one race in mainly Muslim southern provinces, as four polling stations held a rerun of the weekend poll. "Thai Rak Thai did not lose the south because of our policies. We lost, first of all, because of delays in the process undertaken to solve those problems," he told reporters.

"Secondly, people in the south mistrust authorities

because of past mistakes, like the killings. And third, local

authorities are not patient enough in dealing with the

insurgents. These problems take time to resolve," he said.

Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais love Thais) party

scored an overwhelming victory in Sunday’s elections, but

failed to win a single seat in four southern Muslim provinces.

Unofficial results compiled by a pool of local media,

with 70 per cent of ballots counted by early today, showed

TRT with 376 seats nationwide.

Rival democrats had 93 seats, current TRT coalition

partner chart Thai 24, and the newly formed Mahachon party

one.

Thaksin’s remarks came as four polling stations were

conducting reruns of Sunday’s vote, after election officials

found irregularities that called into question the validity

of the first vote Sunday. (AFP)

Sri Lanka Tsunami baby undergoes crucial DNA test

COLOMBO, Feb 9: A baby found under a pile of garbage after the Tsunamis smashed into Sri Lanka in December and a couple who claim him as their own underwent genetic fingerprinting tests here today following a court order. The boy, tagged "baby 81" because he was the 81st patient admitted to the hospital in the eastern town of Kalmunai on December 26, the day the Tsunamis struck, arrived at the Gene Tech laboratory escorted by two policemen.

Three nurses, a hospital administrator and a court

registrar also made the near 12-hour drive from Kalmunai.

Junitha Jeyarajah, and her husband Murugpillai, the

only couple claiming to be the parents of the four-month-old

infant, arrived separately escorted by officials of the

United Nations Children’s Dund (UNICEF).

Media reports saying that nine couples were claiming

the child have been denied by doctors, the courts and police.

A Magistrate in Kalmunai last week ordered a DNA test

on the baby and the couple claiming the child in a bid to

conclusively establish the parentage.

The couple said they were separated from the boy when

the waves smashed into Kalmunai and destroyed their house.

The boy was rescued by their neighbour from under a

heap of garbage after the deadly waves subsided.

The cost of the tests was being borne by UNICEF.

Gene Tech Chief Executive Naya Gunasekara said the

tests had been completed and that the laboratory would try to

expedite the results. (AFP)

Teenage girls jailed for murdering drunk man

LONDON, Feb 9: Two teenage girls who kicked and stamped to death a drunk middle-aged man who they said made "inappropriate sexual advances" at a party were jailed for life.

Maxine Breakspear, 19, and Rochelle Etherington, 18, were found guilty at the old Bailey in December of the murder of 42-year-old James Dalrymple from northern Ireland.

The girls said Dalrymple rubbed his hand up one of the defendant’s legs and asked for sex at a party at his house in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

Sentence had been adjourned until Tuesday for reports.

"However irritating his behaviour was or offensive his language, the fact is he died an unlawful death in his own home," Judge Peter Beaumont told the girls yesterday.

"You will have to bear that responsibility for the rest of your lives."

Both girls were ordered to serve at least 13 years before being eligible for parole. (AGENCIES)

Iceland pharma firm actavis strikes deals in India

STOCKHOLM, Feb 9: Icelandic Generic pharmaceuticals maker actavis said it would acquire India’s lotus laboratories for around 20 million euros (25.52 million dollars) in cash.

Lotus employs 230 people and specialises in clinical trials and drug-drug interaction, actavis said in a statement yesterday.

"The acquisition is not expected to materially affect Actavis’s financial results in the short term," Actavis said, adding it would reduce its R D expenditure and support its US market entry.

Actavis said it had also agreed with Indian emcure pharmaceuticals on four products, which emcure will manufacture for sale in the US market.

"This collaboration will significantly lower the cost base for these products which have been developed by actavis R D specialists and will be marketed by Actavis in the United States," the Icelandic company said.

Actavis shares traded 1.4 percent up on the day at a two-week high of 42.40 icelandic crowns ( 0.667) in Reykjavik at 1455 gmt. Up 9.4 percent this year, actavis has clearly outpaced the Dow Jones eurostoxx health care index which has gained just under two percent. (AGENCIES)

Worldcom’s Sullivan Ebbers said ‘hit the numbers’

NEW YORK, Feb 9: The former Finance Chief of Worldcom inc. testified that Bernard Ebbers, as CEO, had pressured him every quarter to meet wall street earnings estimates, repeatedly telling him "to hit the numbers."

In his second day of testifying as the prosecution’s star witness against Ebbers yesterday, Scott Sullivan recounted a series of conversations with his boss about the importance of meeting analysts’ profit expectations.

"I would discuss them every time an analyst changed a model and it changed our consensus," Sullivan said, referring to earnings and revenue estimates issued by analysts who followed the company.

Sullivan said that Worldcom’s stock would fall if the company’s results failed to meet wall street guidance — and he felt under the gun from Ebbers to keep that from occurring.

"The source of that pressure was Bernie and the source of the pressure was the marketplace," Sullivan said.

Sullivan later told Jurors that in each meeting to review preliminary quarterly results between the fall of 2000 and spring of 2002, Ebbers told him: "We have to hit our numbers."

Federal prosecutors charge that with business deteriorating in the telecommunications business in 2000, ebbers orchestrated a massive accounting fraud, directing Sullivan to have his accountants puff up revenue and hide expenses.

Two years later, in 2002, Worldcom filed for bankruptcy protection, sparking public outrage and giving rise to calls for the criminal prosecution of Ebbers.

But prosecutors did not bring charges against Ebbers until Sullivan agreed to cooperate last year after pleading guilty. In testifying against his former boss, Sullivan is hoping to win leniency at his sentencing.

Lawyers for Ebbers have argued that Sullivan was behind the accounting fraud and that their client stayed away from complex financial decisions.

Worldcom emerged from bankruptcy last year under the name MCI. (AGENCIES)

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