Jordan's royal couple to make first India visit

AMMAN, Nov 22: Jordan's King Abdullah II and his wife Queen Rania will make their first state visit to India at the end of November for talks with top officials and Muslim figures, a court statement said today.

During the three-day visit beginning November 30, King Abdullah II will hold talks with Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and address the council for international affairs.

He will also meet top Muslim figures as well as political leaders, among them ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, the statement said.

The monarch will also hold talks with business and trade leaders in a bid to bolster relations between the two countries and oversee the signing of four agreements to develop tourism, investment, agriculture and cultural ties. (AGENCIES)

B'desh activists clash again over election, 1 dead

DHAKA, Nov 22: Rival activists armed with home-made bombs and sticks fought for a third straight day across Bangladesh today, witnesses said, as a political crisis gripped the country ahead of January elections.

A man was fatally stabbed in Bogra town, 250 km north of the capital Dhaka, after a rally calling for the dismissal of controversial election officials, witnesses said.

Bogra is a stronghold of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, who ended her five-year term in October.

Some 40 people were hurt in the Bogra clashes and about 10 people were hurt when police used batons to disperse activists in Dhaka.

A 14-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League has enforced an indefinite transport stoppage from Monday to press demands for the dismissal of Chief Election Commissioner M A Aziz and his deputies, accusing them of bias towards the BNP.

Three people were killed and around 200 hurt in clashes between rival activists yesterday, while two died and hundreds were hurt during a four-day stoppage last week.

Under Bangladesh law, elections are conducted by a caretaker government -- in this case headed by the president.

But Hasina has alleged that Iajuddin had not yet proved his neutrality and was being dictated to by Khaleda. (AGENCIES)

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Russia keen to join SAARC as Oberver

ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: Encouraged by the improvement in relations between India and Pakistan, Russia has expressed interest to join the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in the role of an 'Observer' to expand the grouping beyond the region.

Moscow's keenness to be associated with the SAARC stems out of the positive development in Indo-Pak relations and expansion of the grouping beyond the region, the 'Dawn' quoted a Russian diplomat as saying.

"Russia has a big interest in SAARC and it is clear that it cannot remain out of the process with countries like Afghanistan joining in and Iran also making a bid for it," the diplomat said.

Moscow is seriously contemplating a bid for the Observer status but it has still to approach the SAARC chair or the Secretariat in Kathmandu, he said, adding that a decision was expected to be taken after sounding the member states, specially India, with whom it has a strategic relationship.

While there is no official confirmation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergi Lavrov, who visited Pakistan and India recently, may have discussed the matter with New Delhi.

China and the United States have already been admitted as Observers by SAARC and Iran too has evinced interest to join.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry here said the Russian Foreign Minister did not raise this topic during his visit to Pakistan. But if it did, Pakistan would welcome it, is the dominant view in the foreign policy circles here.

Pakistan had played a key role in helping Russia get the Observer status in the Organisation of Islamic Conference last year and in turn Russia helped Pakistan get the same status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. (PTI)

UAE to ink MoU with India on regualting entry of workers

DUBAI, Nov 22: United Arab Emirates will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with four countries, including India, on regulating entry of foreign workers in the Gulf state.

During his month-end visit to the Indian subcontinent, the UAE Labour Minister Ali bin Abdullah Al Kaabi will sign a MoU with the countries supplying manpower to the UAE which has a provision to put a limit on the number of foreign workers.

The MoU will put a cap on the number of wokers from each country as well as address issues of recruitment of labourers, regulating the employment procedure by incorporating welfare schemes, the minister said in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Over 80 per cent of the UAE population are workers from other countries, majority of them hailing from India.

The minister, who will visit India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will be accompanied by a large delegation of UAE-based businessmen from those countries.

The MoU aims at setting out regulations and restrictions to prevent non-compliance with international criteria on employment and entry of foreign workforce into the UAE, Al Kaabi was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency.

The MoU would develop a new system for bringing workforce into the country based on coordination between the UAE labour ministry and labour offices in the manpower supplying countries, he said.

Under the new system, the UAE government will approve and attest labour contracts electronically after the labourer is informed about the details of the contract, including his rights and duties before his arrival in the UAE, Al-Kaabi added. (PTI)

Drunken bus driver asks to continue school run

CANBERRA, Nov 22: A bus driver who was 13 times over the legal alcohol limit while driving a bus load of schoolchildren had a simple request for police who arrested him for drunken driving, an Australian court heard today.

''Can I finish my run, at least to drop these kids off?''

A country court in New South Wales state was told 50-year old David Stack had a blood alcohol level of 0.26, which is 13 times the legal limit for a bus driver, when he was stopped on November 7.

The court was told two adult passengers had alerted police after Stack's bus was speeding and swerving across the road.

Stack, who pleaded guilty to the drink-driving charge, said he regretted his actions and had apologised to the children at the time.

Now unemployed, Stack will be sentenced in February. (AGENCIES)

Blood tests debunk Brazilian's cat-puppy claim

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL, Nov 22: Brazil's cat-puppy mystery has been solved. Blood tests refute a Brazilian woman's claim that her cat had given birth to three puppies, geneticist Adil Pacheco said yesterday.

Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, from a poor neighborhood of Passo Fundo in southern Brazil, said last Friday that her cat Mimi had given birth to the three puppies as well as three kittens, which did not survive.

''People who aren't experts often imagine things,'' said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. ''All the facts contradict her.''

Pacheco, who was asked by a local newspaper to conduct a chromosome test to check the spectacular claim which gained wide media attention, said mammals sometimes nursed the young from another species.

(AGENCIES)

Nepal eyes tourism boost after peace pact

KATHMANDU, Nov 22: In Kathmandu's tourist hub of Thamel, where trekkers rub shoulders with Buddhist monks, the mood was optimistic today after a landmark peace pact to end a decade of bloody insurgency.

"With this peace deal, I am expecting a lot more tourists in 2007 than we had this year," said Ram Ghale, the owner of Ghale Trekking and Tours in Thamel, where swank coffee bars sit alongside traditional handicraft shops.

Ghale left Nepal for Japan in 2002 because his tourism business was going down the drain, but returned in 2005 and is now hopeful that the industry, crucial to Nepal's economy, has a brighter future.

"The signing of this deal has caused a lot of happiness and over the past few weeks we have had a lot of enquiries from all over the world," said Ghale.

In 1999 the Himalayan country, peppered with stunning mountains and ancient temples, welcomed around 500,000 tourists, but the rebel insurgency that intensified in 2001 saw tourist numbers plummet.

Last year, around 277,000 people visited the Himalayan nation. The figure is likely to be lower still this year, despite an influx of travellers in recent weeks arriving for the trekking season.

"I am optimistic that we are going to have a huge jump in tourist arrivals after the signing of this accord," said Narendra Bhajrachary, a hotelier and the former head of Nepal's Hotel Association.

Under the landmark peace pact inked with the government yesterday, the rebels are to enter the political mainstream and get seats in a new parliament slated to be formed before the end of the month. (AGENCIES)

Nepal's 'fierce one' takes a stab at peace

KATHMANDU, Nov 22: After 25 years underground and a decade of armed struggle across Nepal's jungles and hills, Maoist leader Prachanda has finally declared an end to his warrior ways.

His rebels are set for cabinet positions and seats in parliament, after the teacher-turned-revolutionary signed a historic peace deal with the ruling parties last evening.

The deal marks a formal end to the landlocked, impoverished Himalayan nation's civil war -- and will be a key test for a man whose nom-de-guerre means "the fierce one".

A front page editorial in today's Kathmandu Post, however, called him a "true hero".

"Without his flexibility, understanding, vision and love of the nation, the peace accord would not have been possible," it wrote.

Prachanda is still viewed by many Nepalis as a ruthless warlord -- responsible for deadly attacks and executions during the revolt that claimed at least 12,500 lives. The United States has also placed the Maoists on its list of international terrorist organisations.

But for others in Nepal, Prachanda is a hero who took up arms to improve the lives of millions in one of the world's poorest nations.

Born into a high caste but poor farming family 52 years ago, Prachanda -- whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal -- was a "brilliant" school student and gained a degree in agriculture, according to a profile in weekly news magazine Nepal. (AGENCIES)

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French team ends search for Nepal climbers

PARIS, Nov 22: A French military team sent to Nepal to help search for four French climbers missing in the Himalayas has abandoned the search and is to return home, the ministry of defence said.

In a statement late yesterday, it said that search conditions had become dangerous and a large avalanche had ended hope of finding the climbers soon.

The four -- two mountain guides and two climbers hoping to become guides -- went to climb the 5,896 metre Paldor peak north of the capital, Kathmandu, last month and were due to return on November 5. (AGENCIES)

South and North Korea to march jointly at Asiad: Report

SEOUL, Nov 22: Athletes from South and North Korea will stage a joint march at the opening and closing ceremonies for the Asian Games despite renewed tensions over the North's nuclear test, a news report said today.

The South has decided to accept the North's proposal for a joint march at next month's games in the Qatari capital Doha, Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified unification ministry official as saying.

"There was no reason to reject the proposed non-political sports exchanges, which have nothing to do with the North's nuclear test," the official told Yonhap.

Yonhap said the South would officially inform the North of its decision tomorrow. The Asian Games open on December 1.

Yang Chang-Seok, a unification ministry spokesman, told AFP- "Nothing has been decided yet. The Government will make an announcement on it soon."

The North Korean offer was made on November 11 amid heightened tensions following its missile tests in July and nuclear test on October 9.

It proposed a joint march at Doha, followed by a unified team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The two countries, still technically at war, have sent unified delegations to seven international sporting events since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge in September expressed support for a unified team for the 2008 Games. But there have been no official inter-Korean talks since the nuclear test. (AGENCIES)

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