1.5 Lakh pirated Bollywood DVDs seized

LONDON, Nov 18: In the largest ever haul, British police have seized about 1.5 lakh pirated Bollywood DVDs and other counterfeit goods worth over five million pounds in a raid at a London suburb.

Four people were arrested and three cars seized from Hayes, near Southhall, with more arrests expected to follow, police said today.

Acting on a tip-off, officers carried out the raid under "Operation Don", code-named after a Bollywood action flick, and seized almost two million items.

The estimated 13 tonnes of merchandise included about two lakh counterfeit DVDs, three-quarters of which were Indian titles, as well as CDs and sports goods.

More than 6,000 pounds in cash were also recovered. The investigation was led by Ealing Council's trading standards officer. (PTI)

NATO chief for removal of troop restrictions in Afghanistan

QUEBEC, Nov 18: NATO's chief urged lawmakers of alliance nations to lean on their Governments to remove restrictions on troops operating in Afghanistan.

Speaking at a meeting in Quebec City yesterday, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that so-called national caveats - limitations put on the missions soldiers can undertake - are understandable, but ultimately divisive.

There is a growing rift in the military alliance as Canadian, American, British and Dutch forces in southern Afghanistan bear the brunt of heavy fighting against Taliban insurgents.

The French, German and Italian forces patrol relatively quiet sectors in the north, under self-imposed limitations that keep them out of combat operations.

A report presented to the meeting of the parliamentarians said some progress had been made in getting rid of restrictions, but not enough.

De Hoop Scheffer was addressing the closing of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Quebec City, which brought together 300 lawmakers from NATO and partner countries. The session focused on issues affecting the Transatlantic Alliance, including the future role and relevance of NATO, which will be further discussed at the upcoming NATO Summit in Latvia. (AGENCIES)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Palestinian militant group may consider truce with Israel

GAZA CITY, Nov 18: The Islamic Jihad militant group said it would consider halting rocket attacks on Israel in response to a request from President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas met yesterday with leaders of the hard-line group, which has carried out numerous suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli targets, and urged them to halt the violence.

"Abbas said the truce is a necessity in the framework of national interest," said Khedr Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza. "We said the truce must be mutual ... And part of a national consensus."

Islamic Jihad's website, quoting Khaled al-Batch, another leader of the group, said Abbas' proposal is "worth studying."

While Islamic Jihad is not the only group to fire rockets, it has repeatedly resisted calls from Abbas to end its attacks on Israel. A halt in rocket fire by the group would be an important accomplishment for Abbas, who hopes to revive peace talks.

On Wednesday, an Israeli woman was killed by a rocket that landed in the southern town of Sderot, near the Gaza border. Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants claimed responsibility for the attack. (AGENCIES)

Koirala asks Maoists to stop recruiting children as soldiers

KATHMANDU, Nov 18: Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has asked the Maoists to immediately halt recruitment of child soldiers amid protests by people and human rights organisations against the rebels’ drive.

"The Government has taken seriously the Maoists’ drive to recruit children, luring and even forcing them to join their army," Koirala told reporters yesterday at his home town, Biratnagar, in eastern Nepal.

Koirala said he had also raised the matter with Maoist chief Prachanda yesterday before the latter left for New Delhi to attend the Leadership Summit being organised by The Hindustan Times.

"I have told Prachanda to stop such activities," he said. Koirala also drew the attention of the Maoist leadership to the protests by people in several districts against the Maoists’ recruitment campaign.

The Maoists have reportedly intensified their recruitment campaign for the so-called Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by luring school children and youths in various parts of the country despite agreeing to confine their armed cadres to temporary barracks by November 21 as per the historic peace deal with the government.

There are reports that the Maoists have recurited youths in Surkhet, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Chitwan, Dhading and other districts, promising to pay them attractive salaries and later jobs in the Nepalese Army after the conclusion of the peace process.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission and the ruling Nepali Congress Party have, in separate statements, expressed serious concern over the Maoists’ continued recruitment drive.

The European Union mission in Kathmandu has also denounced the Maoists’ recruitment of children into their armed forces.

The parents of children, who were "taken" by Maoists for recruitment in the PLA, staged demonstrations in Morang in eastern Nepal, blocking traffic for eight hours on the East-West highway yesterday. (PTI)

China to control violent programmes on TV, radio

BEIJING, Nov 18: The Chinese Government will impose restrictions on the reporting of "vicious crimes" on radio and television, hoping to create a ‘healthy environment’ for the country’s youth.

"We must not let improper crime reporting harm young minds," vice director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), Zhang Haitao said.

"Reporting of cases that harm public security and cases of vicious crime such as kidnap and arson will be subject to strict controls. Detailed reports of detective work and investigations by the police will be banned and detailed descriptions and analysis of criminal methods and motives will also be banned," Zhang said.

"Programmes should not exaggerate violence, murder, pornography, and horror scenes and the name, address, photograph and anything else that might reveal the identity of a juvenile delinquent should not be mentioned," he added.

"Crime reporting programmes have been growing and are exerting a more and more important impact on social life," Zhang said.

SARFT statistics show China currently has nine crime reporting channels and more than 200 programmes.

"However, a lot of these programmes place too much emphasis on criminal cases, inadequate legal promotion and superficial juristic analysis of cases," Zhang was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

"To boost audience ratings, some programmes go into every little detail of the crime and completely recreate a crime scene, which have had negative influences on the young, he said.

Zhang also called for more reporting on civil cases and economic disputes in addition to criminal cases. (PTI)

Ex-Homeland Security aide gets 5 years in prison

BARTOW, FLORIDA, Nov 18: A 56-year-old former Homeland Security press aide was sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded no contest to sending sexually explicit Internet messages to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

Brian Doyle, who resigned shortly after his April 4 arrest, also will have to serve 10 years of probation and register as a sex offender.

"I am profoundly sorry for everything. How I feel inside can't be described," Doyle told Circuit Judge J. Dale Durrance on yesterday.

Doyle was immediately taken into custody.

The April arrest of Doyle, who had access to sensitive Homeland Security information, raised doubts about the agency's ability to ensure the security credentials of its own people.

Doyle pleaded no contest in September to seven counts of using a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor.

Prosecutors said Doyle wrote graphic descriptions of sexual acts in online chats with a 14-year-old named "Ashlynne," who was actually a character created by sheriff's detectives.

According to court records, Doyle also bragged about his government connections, provided his government-issued phone numbers and showed off his department ID. (AGENCIES)

New educational guidelines for preventing radicalisation

LONDON, Nov 18: Students should be taught how to spot extremist infiltrators to prevent them from preying on vulnerable young people, according to official guidelines, by the Department for Education and Skills.

Radical speakers with a history of inciting racism could be banned from campuses, say the guidelines published yesterday and tutors should work more closely with mosques and imams to prevent ‘extremism in the name of Islam’ taking hold. Lecturers should also work with the police, learning to recognise the signs of violent extremism and being more vigilant when students disseminate or preach radical Islamist views.

Presenting the new guidance, Bill Rammell, the Higher Education Minister, warned of a serious threat from Muslim extremists recruiting students to terrorism. He insisted that the advice was not about targeting England’s 1.8 million Muslims, but about promoting safety and protecting vulnerable students from bullying and harassment.

"The guidance provides a recognition that I believe must be faced squarely that violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK, and that there is evidence of serious, but not widespread, Islamist extremist activity in [higher education institutions]," he said.

In the past the National Union of Students has adopted ‘no platform’ policies to keep groups, such as al-Muhajiroun, that were accused of distributing anti-Semitic literature, off campuses. The Government recently proscribed al-Muhajiroun under recent anti-terrorism legislation. Similar organisations have since re-emerged after being banned from universities simply by changing their names or infiltrating and taking over previously apolitical student Islamic societies.

Among colleges where there have been problems are the London School of Economics where Omar Saeed Sheikh, who took part in the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl, was radicalised and King’s College London, where Omar Sharif, who became a suicide bomber in Israel, learnt his radical Islamism.

In a joint statement with Unison, the academic union UCU and the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students, welcomed the ‘moderate tone’ of the guidance. She expressed regret that no practical steps to promote better integration had been suggested and feared that some recommendations were ‘too open to interpretation’ running the risk that some institutions could take too hard a line.

"Furthermore, NUS fears that by focusing solely on extremism ‘in the name of Islam’ there is the potential for a racist or Islamaphobic backlash against sections of the student community,’ she said.

"This would be highly regrettable, and could have the effect of blocking channels of communication that are absolutely necessary to detection of terrorism," she said.

Some universities have already begun action to counter the risk of their students being radicalised. London Metropolitan University recently appointed Sheikh Musa Admani, a moderate imam and government adviser, to steer small numbers of students away from radical influences.

Universities UK, the umbrella group for British vice-chancellors, said yesterday that it took responsibility for civic safety seriously, but also warned that freedom of expression was also crucial to university life.

"Equally, legitimate opportunities for debate integral to the purpose of a university must not be subverted by organisations of any kind that seek to promote violence or to recruit our students to movements committed to violence," a statement said. (UNI)

FM calls for comprehensive pension reforms

MELBOURNE, Nov 18: Concerned over the problems of ageing population world over, India today wanted comprehensive pension reforms in both developed and developing countries as the challenges were similar.

"...The reform of the pension system must begin now-because it is already too late and the management of pension funds will be the most important challenge faced by financial institutions," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting here.

"Huge payment obligations stare in the face of ageing countries and half measures will not do. The alternative is fiscal stress and destabiliation of the macro-economic balance," he said.

An unfunded pension system is unmitigated disaster, Chidambaram said adding it is universally acknowledged that the ‘Pay as You Go’ system is unsustainable not even in the medium term.

"Every worker must save for his or her retirement and the government or employer may consider making a matching contribution," he said.

Thus, the contribution will be a defined one and the benefit will depend upon the manner in which accumulations are invested and the overall performance of the economy, the Finance Minister said.

Chidambaram’s remarks came even as he has been finding it difficult to implement pension reforms in the country in the face of stiff opposition from UPA partners-the Left parties. (PTI)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tatas holds parleys with Corus after CSN bid

LONDON, Nov 18: Taken by surprise by the counter offer from Brazilian steel giant CSN, Tatas are understood to have got in touch with the top brass of Anglo-Dutch company Corus for which the Indian giant had bid last month.

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata was understood to be in touch with them personally, with sources indicating that the renowned entrepreneur was here when the CSN offer was notified at the London Stock Exchange yesterday.

But no official comment was available on this development.

When contacted, Tata sources said that the B Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata Steel, which had made a 4.23 billion pound bid for Corus, was in India but did not rule out the possibility of he getting involved in the consultation process.

Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), one of the largest steelmakers in Latin America, had yesterday made an offer 475 pence a share, trumping Tata's 455 pence per share offer.

Sources said Tata Group had the option to legal recourse but did not rule out raising their bid.

The development comes ahead of the December 4 Extraordinary General Meeting of Corus, where shareholders are expected to vote on Tata's 4.23 billion pound offer. (PTI)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bush, Abe vow cooperation on NKorea, missile defense

HANOI, Nov 18: US President George W Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed today to work for "concrete results" in the North Korean nuclear crisis and accelerate cooperation on missile defenses.

The two leaders, in Vietnam for an Asia-Pacific summit, were meeting for the first time since Abe took office in September, replacing one of Bush's warmest friends on the global scene, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"We spent time talking about North Korea, and our common commitment to see that the six-party talks succeed," Bush said, referring to negotiations that group China, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea, and the United States.

"We agreed that we would take a coordinated approach to reach a final resolution of the issue and also to achieve some concrete results at an early stage," Abe said through an interpreter.

Bush said the two leaders would "continue to cooperate on ballistic missile defense," while Abe said they would "strengthen and accelerate" that effort and had directed foreign affairs and defense ministers to work together.

Bush said he had told the Prime Minister "he needs to get over to the United States quickly. I'm looking forward to hosting him."

"I'm looking forward to visiting the United States sometime next year," said Abe. (AGENCIES)

| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports |
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |