Dawood in Forbes’ list of ten most wanted fugitives

NEW YORK, Apr 28: India’s most wanted man Dawood Ibrahim has figured in the Forbes’ first-ever list of the world’s ten most wanted fugitives which is topped by terror mastermind Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who heads D-Company, an organised crime group based in Mumbai, ranks fourth on the list.

The magazine says that though the Pakistan government denies it, the 52-year-old Ibrahim is probably in that country. He is believed to have close links to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and travels on passports from India, Yemen, Pakistan.

The son of a policeman, Dawood reputedly oversees a criminal empire involved in all sorts of international activity, including drug trafficking, counterfeiting, weapons smuggling and murder, the magazine says.

Dawood is also suspected to be behind the 1993 Mumbai blasts that killed 257 people and wounded 713, the magazine noted.

The United States has declared Dawood, who is believed to have associated with Al-Qaeda, a global terrorist and the United Nations has attempted to freeze his assets.

The magazine also points out at rumours that he has had plastic surgery to alter his appearance.

Forbes says it consulted with law enforcement agencies in the US and around the world to identify these 10.

Everyone on the list has been criminally indicted or charged, some in national jurisdictions and some by international tribunals. They all are accused of a history of committing serious crimes and are considered a dangerous menace to the world. Each of the members on the list also represent a type of criminal problem that legal institutions are grappling with in diverse jurisdictions, it says.

"What they all have in common is that whether their crimes have occurred principally at the national or international level, their crimes have been so significant that they should be pursued globally," said Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble after taking a look at the Forbes.Com list.

"With regard to the world’s most wanted criminals, it is always easy to see the tremendous local impact that their crimes have had," he said.

Most of the Forbes.Com top 10 most wanted fugitives in the world have been criminally indicted in US courts and are wanted by the US government, which has expended serious resources investigating and chasing them.

On Laden, the magazine says that the most wanted man in the world is believed to be hiding in Pakistan, perhaps in the Waziristan region.

It notes that for six years, Bin Laden has been able to evade the largest manhunt in international history by sticking to the unruly tribal areas along the Pakistan- Afghanistan border.

Others on the list include Joaquin Guzman, Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficker. Guzman has taken over the narcotics racket once dominated by Colombians like Pablo Escobar. Guzman, known as el Chapo, or shorty, heads the Sinaloa Cartel, specialising in importing cocaine from Colombia, and smuggling it into the US, often through elaborate tunnels.

The list also includes Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, the face of the modern Russian mob; Flicien Kabuga, arguably the driving force behind the Rwanda genocides; and Matteo Messina Denaro, the Italian mafia’s playboy, with a taste for Porches and Rolex watches. (PTI)

I will not quit politics under any pressure says Sheikh Hasina

DHAKA, Apr 28: Detained former Bangladesh prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has said she will not quit politics under any "pressure" and asked her partymen not to join the polls planned by the interim Government.

"I will not retire from politics under any pressure," Hasina told her lawyers yesterday on the sidelines of a hearing and informed them that was asked to quit politics.

"Everyone in the present caretaker Government that wants to keep me away from politics by filing cases must remember I won’t give up politics on anyone’s instructions," a defence counsel quoted Hasina as saying as she appeared at a makeshift court for indictment hearing in a corruption case related to fighter jet purchase for the air force during her premiership from 1996 to 2001.

The ex-premier’s comments came amid speculations that the elections planned for this year end could go ahead discarding Hasina and her arch-rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia.

However, according to newspaper reports Hasina earlier said her party should take part in the polls even she was debarred from contesting the polls.

Zia too is currently in jail to face several corruption charges as part of a massive anti-graft campaign by the interim administration installed with crucial military support following the January 11, 2007 proclamation of state of emergency. (PTI)

NRIs honoured by British minister

LONDON, Apr 28: The NRI founder of a leading public relations organisation in the UK and the Head of Group Equality and Diversity at the Home Office have been honoured by Britain for their "tireless" work to enrich society.

Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism Tony McNulty presented the trophies to Teji Singh, NRI founder of Sterling Media and Ravi Chand of the Home Office, at a function organised by the British Sikh Association here last night.

McNulty praised Sikhism and other religions for spreading love and universal brotherhood and said "values that unite us is greater than that divide us. We must not be tempted to look backward but look forward. We can either perish in hate or prosper in love," he said and acknowledged the massive contribution made by NRIs, particularly Sikhs, to the UK.

Rami Ranger, head of the British Sikh Association, described Teji Singh, as a "woman of great "substance" who broke through the "Asian-mould" and set up a leading communications group which now has high profile clients and corporate houses. He also lauded her contribution to promotion of Asian culture in Britain.

Others honoured were 97-year-old Sardar Fauja Singh, marathon runner, Bobby Grewal, Chairman, India Association, who raised 100,000 pounds for cancer and HIV/AIDS research through his charity walk from Amritsar to Kanyakumari and Ashraf Chohan, Secretary General of the Pakistan India and UK Friendship Forum.

Grewal plans to undertake another marathon walk from the Scottish parliament to the British parliament from June 4 to raise 1 million pounds for research to find a cure for bowel cancer in Britain.

Chohan, an orthopaedic surgeon here, recently contested the Assembly elections in Punjab in Pakistan and won.

Ranger, MBE, who heads the Pakistan India and UK Friendship Forum, said the British Sikh Association, in line with the teachings of Guru Gobind Singh, has taken patrons from every faith to show that religion must unite and not divide.

Lord Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh, Patron of British Sikh Association, Virendra Sharma, Labour MP, Sukhbir Singh Kapoor, Vice Chair, World Sikh Organisation and Councillor Paramjit Gill, were among others present on the occasion. (PTI)

Gene therapy improves sight in near-blind patients

LOS ANGELES/LONDON, Apr 28: Gene therapy for a rare type of inherited blindness has improved the vision of four patients who tried it, boosting hopes for the troubled field of gene repair technology, scientists said.

Two separate teams of doctors reported successes in using gene therapy to treat Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA.

LCA damages light receptors in the retina. It usually begins affecting sight in early childhood and causes total blindness by the time a patient is 30. There is no treatment.

Both teams used a common cold virus to deliver a normal version of one damaged gene that causes the disease, called RPE65, directly into the eyes of patients.

Although both trials were only testing for safety, patients reported they could see a little better afterwards, the researchers told a meeting of eye specialists in Florida and also reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr Katherine High of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and colleagues yesterday said all three of their volunteers had improved vision after the treatments.

Dr. Robin Ali of University College London and colleagues said one of their three volunteers got better.

Because the patients were adults, already had severe sight loss and received only low doses of treatment, researchers had not expected to see a benefit at all.

"This result is important for the entire field of gene therapy," said High, a former president of the American Society of Gene Therapy.

One volunteer in Ali’s trial, Steven Howarth, said he had significant improvement in night vision, allowing him to navigate a simulation of a night-time street.

"Now, my sight when it’s getting dark or it’s badly lit is definitely better. It’s a small change-but it makes a big difference to me," Howarth said in a statement.

GREAT HOPE

"The fact we see any evidence of improvement under these circumstances gives great hopes for the effectiveness of the treatment," Ali said in a telephone interview.

In High’s trial, three patients aged 19, 26 and 26, all reported better vision.

"Patients’ vision improved from detecting hand movements to reading lines on an eye chart," said Dr Albert Maguire of Children’s Hospital.

In each case, only one eye was treated, so the other eye could be used as a "control" to tell whether vision improved.

Ali and his team are working on the research with Targeted Genetics Corp, which made the genetically engineered virus. The Children’s Hospital and University of Pennsylvania team developed their own virus, called a vector, to carry the corrective gene.

The next stage of testing will involve treating children, whose eyes have deteriorated less and who have a better chance of improving, Ali said.

"We are pretty convinced that once we can do this with younger children we will be able to arrest the damage," said Targeted Genetics Chief Executive Stewart Parker.

One important thing both teams were looking for was proof the virus did not leave the eye. "It stays in there. It doesn’t go anywhere else," Parker said.

Both safety and efficacy have held back the field of gene therapy. One experiment cured two French boys with a rare immune disorder but gave them leukemia in 2002, and an Arizona teenager died in a 1999 gene therapy experiment. (AGENCIES)

Calls mount for China to temper yuan appreciation

BEIJING, Apr 28: China should keep the yuan fairly stable to anchor expectations about the currency's rate of climb, a prominent economist said in remarks published on Monday, adding to a growing tide of calls for it to rise more slowly.

But a separate government think-tank suggested that Beijing should let the yuan <CNY=CFXS> float freely, underscoring divisions in policy circles since the yuan has stabilised around 7 per dollar following several months of quickened appreciation.

Xia Bin, a researcher with the Development Research Centre, was quoted by the official China Securities Journal as saying a stronger yuan could be of only limited use in the near term in fighting inflation, which is near 12-year highs.

Meanwhile, in the absence of a developed set of foreign exchange derivatives, firms were having to combat currency risk by shortening order times, which was not conducive to the development of the export sector, Xia said.

His institute reports to the State Council, China's cabinet.

''We should take adjustment to foreign exchange policy as a key task, stabilise market expectations towards the exchange rate and give the market a relatively stable signal on the exchange rate,'' he was quoted as saying.

Xia's note of caution echoed comments by Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the economic planning agency.

Zhang said that the rising yuan was a concern for many businesses, and recommended that the government take steps to stabilise expectations.

''Some exporters don't even want to take export orders for the third quarter because they have no idea how much the yuan will appreciate,'' he told a conference over the weekend.

TOUGH TIMES

The official Xinhua news agency on Monday cited textile makers as saying at a trade fair that they were losing market share because of the yuan's appreciation.

''The price of a cotton T-shirt exported to the United States is $3.8 or $3.9 now, 10 percent higher than before,'' Xinhua quoted Kong Liang, sales director at Zhejiang Yonglong Enterprise, as saying. ''We have lost many foreign buyers.''

The People's Bank of China intervenes heavily in the currency market, buying most of the dollars flowing into China in order to control the yuan's ascent.

To help tackle inflation, the central bank sought to tamp down prices by permitting the yuan to climb at an annualised rate of about 17 percent in the first quarter.

But with clouds gathering over the export sector, the rise has virtually ground to a halt in April. The yuan marked time on Monday at 7.0028 per dollar, marking a total gain of 18 percent since China depegged the currency from the dollar in July 2005.

Fan Jianping, an economist at the State Information Centre, a think-tank under the NDRC, also said last week that Beijing should break expectations of a speedy yuan rise and stabilise the currency to avoid causing mass unemployment.

However, He Fan with the Research Center for International Finance, part of the top government think-tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, offered a radically different view.

He said in a report on Monday that China should cut the yuan loose, because otherwise there would always be an incentive for speculators to bet on a further rise.

''We think that under the current circumstances, temporarily allowing the yuan's exchange rate to float completely freely can successfully stamp out the market's one-sided expectations about the yuan's appreciation,'' He said. (AGENCES)

Are you facing a capital loss on your home?

LONDON, Apr 28: Houses bought four years ago or more are best placed to weather the property market downturn, research shows.

Personal finance website Fool.Co.Uk expects property prices to tumble 20 percent this year, taking the average British property value to 153,400 pounds from 196,000 pounds -- the same level as spring 2004 levels.

That means that, on average, people who have bought since then will be sitting on a capital loss. Not all, however, will face negative equity, as some will have taken out a mortgage of less than 100 percent or more of the purchase price.

''It is vital to differentiate between capital loss and negative equity,'' said David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.Co.Uk.

''While a capital loss is beyond the control of homeowners, mortgage borrowers can overcome negative equity by reducing the size of their outstanding mortgage compared to the value of the property.''

He added that falling house prices were not ''disastrous'', as they would narrow the gap between the value of a property and those further up the housing ladder, making up-sizing more affordable.

The West Country is most vulnerable to a property downturn, while those in Scotland and Ireland are the least so, the figures show, as prices there have more than doubled in the past four years, compared to a 20 percent increase nationally.

House prices have been falling on a monthly basis since the end of last year as the credit squeeze has exacerbated affordability pressures after a decade-long boom.

The downturn appears to be gathering pace. Halifax, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, said house prices fell last month at their fastest pace since 1992 when the country was in the grip of recession.

The Bank of England unveiled an ambitious plan this week to swap banks' hard-to-trade mortgage assets for government securities in a bid to cushion the economy from the global credit squeeze.

It has also cut interest rates three times since December. Its scope to deliver further rate cuts, however, is being limited by rising price pressures.

(AGENCIES)

Authorities probe assassination bid on Afghan President

KABUL, Apr 28: Afghan security officials today hunted for suspects in the attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai during an attack at a military parade that killed three people and underscored the fragility of his US-backed Government.

Militants also wounded eight people when they fired rockets and automatic rifles at Karzai and other dignitaries during a ceremony in Kabul yesterday to mark the mujahedeen victory over the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault, which sent Karzai and foreign ambassadors scurrying for cover. Three of the attackers were killed, the Government said, but the Taliban said additional attackers were involved.

The gunfire apparently came from a three-storey guesthouse, popular with migrant labourers, about 300 meters from the stands where Karzai was seated alongside cabinet ministers and senior diplomats, who all escaped unharmed.

Afghan troops were today deployed in parts of the city where Government officials and foreigners live, while investigators still focused on the area where the attack was launched.

About 100 people were rounded up for questioning, an Afghan intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Some of those detained have since been freed, said Defence Ministry spokesman, Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

Lawmaker Fazel Rahman Samkanai, who was about 30 meters from the president, was killed in the attack. Nasir Ahmad Latefi, a local Shiite leader, and a 10-year boy also died.

Residents said a 30-minute gunbattle broke out between security forces and gunmen holed up in the guesthouse in a neighbourhood of ruined mud brick buildings. (AGENCIES)

Austrian woman says held, abused by father 24

VIENNA, Apr 28: Austrian police have arrested a man they believe imprisoned his daughter in a windowless basement for 24 years, abused her and fathered seven children with her.

Police said the woman, identified as 42-year-old Elisabeth F, told them her father Josef had lured her into the basement of the block where they lived in the town of Amstetten in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.

Three of her children were locked up since birth in the basement of the drab, grey building along with their mother and had never seen sunlight or received any education, police said.

Authorities in Amstetten, 130 km west of Vienna, were still piecing together detais of the case, reminiscent of that of Austrian Natascha Kampusch who spent eight years locked up in a windowless cell before escaping in August 2006.

''We are faced with a crime that is incomprehensible,'' Interior Minister Guenther Platter said on Austrian television. ''Everything that has happened here goes beyond one's imagination''.

Josef, a 73-year-old electrical engineering technician by training, told investigators how to enter the basement prison through a hidden door operated by secret code, police said.

''There was a shelf with plenty of cans and containers, and behind the shelf was a door made of reinforced concrete, secured electronically and running on steel rails, and only the suspect knew the code,'' said local official Heinz Lenze.

The hideout itself was a sophisticated network of chambers with facilities for sleeping, cooking and washing, Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria, told broadcaster ORF.

WIFE UNAWARE

Josef's wife Rosemarie had been unaware of what happened to her daughter and it was assumed Elisabeth had disappeared voluntarily when her parents received a letter from her saying they should not search for her.

Elisabeth gave birth to seven children during her ordeal, one of whom died shortly after being born, police said.

Three of the younger children were brought up by Josef and his wife after they were left at the building, the first child accompanied by a note from Elisabeth saying she was unable to care for the baby herself.

Three others, including the two eldest aged 18 and 19, and the youngest, aged 5, had been locked up in the basement with their mother since birth.

The case only came to light when the oldest child became seriously ill and was taken to hospital in Amstetten. Josef said that child had also been left unconscious on his doorstep, according to media reports.

A 19-year-old girl, who was seriously ill and is still fighting for her life, was last weekend dropped off at the hospital in Amstetten.

Doctors appealed for the girl's mother, who at that time was believed to have disappeared, to come forward to provide more details about the daughter's medical history.

Josef then brought Elisabeth and her remaining two children out of the basement, telling his wife that their ''missing'' daughter had chosen to return home, police said.

''This is not a mother abandoning her child which then had to be admitted to hospital in a serious condition ... We know that she herself has been kept imprisoned by her own father for 24 years in the basement and furthermore she obviously was also subjected to sexual abuse,'' Polzer said.

After questioning and assurances that she would have no further contact with her father -- who she said abused her from the age of 11 -- Elisabeth agreed to make a ''comprehensive statement''.

''It is so horrible, I can see the house from my balcony and from my window and when I think now of who was in there, I can simply not imagine that,'' neighbour Corina Schmid told ORF.

''I spoke to (Rosemarie) at Christmas, and she told me they didn't know where the daughter was, she had simply vanished,'' neighbour Margarete Gollonitsch said as onlookers gathered in the street outside the three-storey building and investigators in white suits continued their search of the premises.

Rosemarie, as well as Elisabeth and her children were receiving psychological counselling. DNA samples of all those involved were taken and would be analysed, police said. Reuters SZ VP0505 (AGENCIES)

Vision for future: Gene test offers hope of sight

LONDON, Apr 28: A ray of hope for people with failing eyesight! For the first time, scientists have used gene therapy to safely restore vision in a teenager with a rare form of congenital blindness.

Although the patient has not achieved normal vision, the world's first gene transplant for blindness, carried out by a British team, produced an unprecedented improvement in Steven Howarth's sight.

They injected genes only into Howarth's worst-affected eye and used the lowest dose in what they claim was strictly a safety trial.

"The evidence of his improvement is compelling. It is more than we could have expected at this stage of treatment," said Prof Robin Ali, who led the team at University College of London Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

In fact, the student suffered from a genetic mutation, called Leber's congenital amaurosis which begins affecting the sight of sufferers in early childhood and eventually causes total blindness during a patient's twenties or thirties.

Currently, there is no treatment for the condition. Born with no peripheral or night vision, Howarth noticed a marked improvement after the two-hour operation. "Now, my sight when it's getting dark or it's badly lit is definitely better. It's a small change -- but it makes a big difference." (PTI)

Now, a technique to detect malaria in less than a minute

NEW YORK, Apr 28: Believe it or not, doctors will soon be able to detect malaria in less than a minute, for researchers have developed a new technique that is much faster and cheaper than the rapid diagnostic tests.

Early results indicate that it could be as effective as the rapid diagnostic tests to diagnose malaria, making it a potentially viable alternative, the ‘Biophysical Journal’ reported in its latest edition.

An international team, led by researchers at Exeter University and Coventry University, has created the technique which uses magneto-optic technology to detect haemozoin, a waste product of the malarial parasite, in the blood.

Haemozoin crystals are weakly magnetic and have a distinct rectangular form. They also exhibit optical dichroism, which means that they absorb light more strongly along their length than across their width.

When aligned by a magnetic field they behave like a weak Polaroid sheet such as used in sunglasses. This new technology takes advantage of the properties to give a precise reading of the presence of haemozoin in a blood sample.

In fact, the team has also created a device, which gives a positive or negative reading for malaria in less than a minute. The new device has a totally different approach from RDTs which use a chemical agent to detect antigens associated with the malarial parasite.

According to lead researcher Prof Dave Newman of the University of Exeter, "There is an urgent need for a new diagnostic technique for malaria, particularly in the light of global warming, which threatens to spread the disease into new parts of the world.

"The early results from our device are very promising and hugely exciting. We expect to ultimately produce a sensitive non-invasive device that will be cost effective and easy to use, making it suitable for developing countries, where the need is greatest."

The researchers are now working on a non-invasive version of the device, which with the assistance of a team from the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, they are planning to trial in Kenya later this year. (PTI)

Iran, Pak resolves issues related to IPI pipeline project

ISLAMABAD, Apr 28: Pakistan and Iran today resolved all bilateral issues related to the USD 7.5-billion gas pipeline project also involving India during talks between President Pervez Musharraf and his visiting Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The resolution of these issues paved the way for a bilateral agreement to be signed soon in Tehran on a mutually agreed date, Pakistani officials said.

Iran also agreed to provide 1,100 MW of electricity to Pakistan to help it overcome a crippling energy crisis.

During their hour-long meeting at the presidency here, Musharraf and Ahmadinejad discussed bilateral ties, issues confronting the region and the Islamic world and trilateral cooperation between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan to usher in peace and stability in the region.

Ahmadinejad made a brief official stopover in Pakistan while on his way to Sri Lanka. He is leading a high-level delegation that includes Iran’s ministers for foreign affairs, commerce and petroleum and the head of the country’s EXIM Bank.

Following a meeting at which no aides were present, Musharraf and Ahmadinejad were joined by their respective delegations.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters that the talks were positive and covered all aspects of the wide ranging relationship between the two countries.

"The two leaders said the Iran-Pakistan-India (gas pipeline) project will promote peace and friendship," Qureshi said, adding the foreign ministers of Iran and Pakistan had been asked to agree on a mutually convenient date for signing the bilateral agreement on the pipeline.

Qureshi said Musharraf and Ahmadinejad expressed satisfaction at the resolution of all issues that had delayed a final agreement on the pipeline and hoped that the project will help meet the future energy needs of Pakistan.

During talks held here last week, the petroleum ministers of India and Pakistan reached consensus on basic issues for building the IPI pipeline and said work on the project could begin next year.

Qureshi said Iran also gave a positive response to a Pakistani proposal for a gas pipeline passing through its territory along the Karakoram Highway to provide gas to China to help meet its growing industrial needs.

Ahmadinejad said Iran will provide 1,100 MW of electricity to Pakistan to help it meet its energy needs, particularly in the port of Gwadar in Balochistan province and adjoining areas. Iran currently provides 35 MW of electricity for areas along the Pakistan-Iran border.

Musharraf and Ahmadinejad also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and stressed that peace and stability is vital for the region. They reviewed bilateral economic relations and said these need to be upgraded to bring them at par with political and diplomatic ties.

Qureshi said the two countries already have a Preferential Trade Agreement and a Joint Investment Company and hoped that bilateral trade will soon touch the one-billion dollar mark.

Asked about Pakistan’s stance on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, Qureshi said: "We support Iran’s use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines."

Ahmadinejad also met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani.

Earlier, Ahmadinejad was accorded a warm welcome when he arrived here on his first visit to Pakistan. Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, also the minister-in-waiting, greeted Ahmadinejad at the airport before he was driven to the presidency for a formal welcome ceremony.

Musharraf and Gillani welcomed Ahmadinejad when he arrived at the Presidency. The national anthems of the two countries were played and a guard of honour was accorded to the Iranian President.

Ahmadinejad was introduced to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, heads of the armed forces and cabinet ministers. Ahmadinejad also introduced members of his delegation to the Pakistani leaders. (PTI)