China dissident Hu Jia to go on trial

BEIJING, Mar 18: Prominent Chinese dissident Hu Jia is to go on trial on subversion charges today, drawing denunciations from human rights advocates who called the case an attempt to stifle dissent before Beijing's Olympic Games.

A source close to Hu's family told Reuters that his wife, father and an uncle would not be allowed to attend the trial. Only his mother can do so.

Prosecutors will tell the Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court that Hu ''incited subversion of state power and the socialist system'' on the Internet and in interviews with foreign reporters, his lawyer, Li Fangping, said earlier.

Hu will insist the charges are baseless, Li said.

As China prepares to display its growing prosperity and confidence at the Olympics opening on Aug. 8, critics have said the trial shows the ruling Communist Party's desire to silence domestic critics before the Games.

''Hu Jia's case has been marked by grave rights violations from the outset,'' New York-based group Human Rights Watch said in a statement e-mailed before his trial. ''His arrest was political, the charges are political, and his trial is political.''

Chinese government officials have repeatedly said that cases such as Hu's are handled according to the law. If convicted, Hu could be jailed for up to five years.

Starting with work on behalf of rural AIDS sufferers, Hu, 34, emerged as one of the country's most vocal and active advocates of democratic rights, religious freedom and autonomy for Tibet.

A source close to the family said Hu was interrogated for six to 14 hours every night during the first month of detention.

''This deprivation of sleep and marathon interrogation is torture,'' the source told Reuters requesting anonymity for fear of repercussion.

Hu was detained by police in late December after spending more than 200 days under house arrest. His wife and their 4-month-old daughter remain under house arrest, and their telephone has been cut off.

(AGENCIES)

Hasina hearing adjourned till Mar 23

DHAKA, Mar 18: Former Bangladesh prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina's case has been adjourned by a Dhaka court till March 23, involving illegal contracts for setting up three barge-mounted power plants in Khulna, Shikalbaha and Haripur.

Judge Mohammad Firoz Alam of Special Judge's Court-1, set up on the Sangsad Bhaban premises, yesterday fixed March 23 as the next date of hearing as Ms Hasina was unable to appear in the court, the Independent reported.

Hasina was admitted to Square Hospital on March 11. Specialist doctors have advised that she should be sent abroad for appropriate medical treatment.

The court had previously adjourned the hearing for the same reason on March 13 to March 17. Other accused in the, case, among others, is former power secretary Toufique-e-Elahi Chowdhury, who was present in the court.

The former prime minister was produced before the court on March 9, when her defence lawyers first appealed for postponement of proceedings taking Hasina's medical condition into consideration.

The Anticorruption Commission filed the case with Tejgaon police on September 2, 2007 naming eight, people including Ms Hasina. The anti-graft body accused Ms Hasina and the others of being involved in the exchange of Takka three crore in bribes from Wartsila Power Development Limited Consortium's local representative and Summit Group and United Group representatives, for awarding contracts to set up three barge-mounted power plants in Khulna, Shikalbaha and Haripur.

The ACC also accused Ms Hasina of receiving a large part of the bribe money in the name of the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust during her term as prime minister.

Others accused in the case are former chairman of the Power Development Board Nooruddin Mahmud Kamal, Summit Group directors Mahmud Aziz Khan and Farid Khan, United Group directors Hasan Mahmud Raja and Abul Kalam Azad, and curator of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum Syed Siddiqur Rahman, all of whom are presently fugitive. (UNI)

Tibet rioters deadline passes, focus on China's Wen

BEIJING, Mar 18: A deadline for Tibetan rioters to hand themselves in passed today, but attention switched to China's premier, who was due to address the media after days of violence marring the run-up to Beijing's Olympic Games.

There was no word from Lhasa, Tibet's capital, of any action taken after the midnight deadline for people involved in last week's rioting to surrender to police or face harsher treatment.

Exiled representatives of Tibet in India put the death toll from last Friday's protests against Chinese rule, the most serious in the Himalayan region in nearly two decades, at 80.

But Chinese authorities said yesterday that security forces had exercised restraint in their response to the burning and looting in Lhasa, using only non-lethal weapons, and that only 13 ''innocent civilians'' had died.

The violence in Lhasa, the culmination of several days of Buddhist monk-led protests, spread over the weekend to neighbouring provinces of China with large Tibetan populations.

In Sichuan province, an ethnic Tibetan man said he knew of no fresh outbreaks of unrest since yesterday.

''Now they are bringing back stability,'' he told Reuters by telephone. ''There are so many police and People's Armed Police it will be difficult for anything to spread. I'm sure the People's Liberation Army is waiting too. In the background waiting, if the situation really gets out of hand.''

PREMIER'S NEWS CONFERENCE

Ethnic Tibetan students staged a candle-lit vigil in Beijing on Monday night, saying it was to pray for the dead. It was a small, rare show of defiance in the host city of this year's Olympic Games, where the ruling Communist Party is especially eager to prevent public shows of dissent.

The streets of China's capital were teeming with police and security personnel today, the last day of the annual session of parliament. Premier Wen Jiabao, due to hold a news conference after the annual session of parliament ends, was expected to defend his government's handling of the riots.

Western nations have called on Beijing to exercise restraint, but International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge told Reuters in Trinidad yesterday that there had ''absolutely no calls'' from governments for a boycott of August's Beijing Games.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Monday night that the unrest had been organised by followers of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhists' exiled god-king, both within Tibet and in other countries.

''It's not an ethnic issue, not a religious issue or a cultural one,'' Liu said. ''At the root, it's the fundamental problem of the Dalai clique seeking to separate Tibet from China.''

The Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy for Tibet within China but not outright independence, and he has strongly rejected the allegation that he launched the protests.

Foreign journalists are not allowed to travel to the Himalayan region of Tibet without permission.

Hong Kong's Beijing-funded Wen Wei Po newspaper, one of a handful of media allowed to send reporters to Lhasa, portrayed a picture of ethnic unity on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted Gesang, a Tibetan shopowner in Lhasa as saying he sheltered a Han Chinese tricycle driver who was being chased by a mob last Friday.

(AGENCIES)

US condemns violence against Kosovo peace force

WASHINGTON, Mar 18: The United States condemned violence against United Nations police and NATO troops in northern Kosovo and urged the Serb government to help ease tension in the area, the State Department said.

The violence in the town of Mitrovica was sparked by a UN police operation to retake a United Nations court seized three days earlier by protesting Serbs.

''The United States condemns the violence against UN and NATO personnel near the UN courthouse in Mitrovica, Kosovo,'' State Department spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday in a statement.

''We urge all communities in Kosovo to remain calm and we call on the Serbian government to denounce these acts of violence and take affirmative steps to reduce tensions.''

The rioting was the worst violence in Kosovo since the Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia on February 17. (AGENCIES)

Spacewalkers outfit Canadian robot with tools

HOUSTON, Mar 18: Two shuttle Endeavour astronauts left the International Space Station to outfit a newly installed robotic maintenance man with tools and cameras for future chores.

The robot, named Dextre, was launched in pieces and assembled during the second of five spacewalks planned during Endeavour's 12-day stay at the station.

Yesterday's outing, the mission's third, paired veteran spacewalker Richard Linnehan with rookie Robert Behnken.

''Go get 'em BamBam,'' Endeavour astronaut Michael Foreman said, using a nickname for the muscular Behnken. ''You have an appointment with Mr. Dextre.''

The duo stepped out around 7 pm EDT (0430 IST) to begin a seven-hour spacewalk.

In addition to attaching a tool belt and other accessories to the Canadian robot, the astronauts plan to install a science experiment to the outside of Europe's Columbus laboratory and stash some spare parts on the station's frame for future maintenance.

Canada provided the 209 million dollar robot to cut down on the amount of time astronauts will need to spend on risky spacewalks. With its 11-foot(3.4-metre) arms and gripper hands, Dextre adds manual dexterity and another 30 feet (9 metres) of reach to the station's robotic crane.

Earlier yesterday the Endeavour crew tested Dextre's 14 joints -- seven on each arm -- which will give the robot the ability to handle items as small as a phone book or as large as a phone booth.

The shuttle crew arrived at the station on Wednesday to install Dextre and deliver a storage room for an elaborate Japanese laboratory that is due to arrive during NASA's next shuttle mission in May.

NASA has 10 more flights planned to complete the $100 billion space station and deliver supplies before the shuttles are retired in 2010. A final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope also is scheduled for late summer.

During their fourth spacewalk on Thursday, the Endeavour crew plans to test a heat shield repair technique that NASA wants to demonstrate before sending astronauts to work on Hubble.

The Hubble repair crew will not be able to reach the space station for shelter in case their ship is too damaged to return to Earth. NASA added inspections and developed a rudimentary heat shield repair kit after losing the shuttle Columbia and seven astronauts in 2003 due to damage caused when a piece of debris hit the ship during liftoff.

(AGENCIES)

Democrats fault Bush amid financial crisis

WASHINGTON, Mar 18: Tumultuous weekend developments on Wall Street reflect the Bush administration's failure to come to grips decisively with a housing meltdown now afflicting the broader economy, contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination said.

''The news coming from Wall Street today has confirmed our fears that the financial fallout from the mortgage crisis would spill over into the wider economy,'' Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday while campaigning in Pennsylvania.

The Federal Reserve stepped in on Sunday to boost financial market liquidity by cutting an interest rate and approved a takeover of ailing Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co for a bargain-basement price of 2 dollar a share. That deal committed the Fed to fund up to 30 billion dollar of Bear Stearns' less liquid assets.

Sen Hillary Clinton, speaking to reporters after delivering a speech at George Washington University, said she wouldn't ''second guess'' what the Fed had done, especially given the seriousness of the current economic situation.

''There is no doubt in my mind that we have to have a sense of collaboration and urgency about what we must do going forward because this is not over and I think everyone recognizes that,'' Clinton said.

She said more decisive steps are needed to stem home mortgage foreclosures. ''You can not work your way out of this credit crisis unless we stabilize the home market,'' Clinton said.

Obama harshly criticised the Bush administration's efforts so far to broker a largely voluntary effort between lenders and troubled homeowners to restructure their mortgage loans to try to help as many as possible stave off foreclosure.

''After months of inaction and half-measures, the president traveled to New York last week to say that there is a danger in doing too much and implied that doing nothing would be preferable,'' Obama said.

He urged support for a proposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd for the Federal Housing Administration to play a larger role in soaking up more failing loans by offering guarantees for them.

A Republican party spokesman responded by criticizing Obama's economic policies. Obama favors middle-class tax cuts but, like Clinton, would roll back Bush's tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.

''The irony is that if Barack Obama studied history, he'd know that his tax-and-spend proposals would only hurt the economy,'' said Alex Conant, press secretary for the Republican National Committee.

Obama said he was not advocating the use of taxpayers' funds to quell the financial crisis that stems mainly from problems in so-called subprime mortgage markets.

''It's premature to start talking about taxpayer-funded bailouts,'' Obama told reporters, though he noted it was important to continue to monitor market developments.

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen John McCain last week expressed wariness about government bailouts to deal with the economy's woes.

''Bailouts always have intended consequences and unintended consequences,'' he said, noting that billions of dollars were ''wasted'' during a government-sponsored effort to help wind up insolvent savings and loan institutions in the 1980s and '90s. (AGENCIES)

Florida Democrats drop bid to stage primary re-run

MIAMI, Mar 18: Florida's Democratic Party said it would no longer push for a rerun of the state's invalid primary election to pick a presidential nominee, leaving a decision on what to do with the state's delegates entirely to the national party.

The chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, Karen Thurman, said yesterday thousands of voters had sent in messages expressing their preference after the Democratic National Committee invalidated the January 29 balloting to punish Florida for holding its primary early.

''The consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again. So we won't,'' Thurman said in a statement.

Thurman said a decision on allowing Florida's delegates to take part in the Democratic convention that will pick a nominee for the November presidential election would have to come from the national party's rules and bylaws committee. The panel is next due to meet in April.

The Democratic primaries in both Florida and Michigan were deemed invalid because both states disobeyed party directives and held their balloting earlier to have a greater say in the selection of candidates.

Florida's Republican Party also moved up its primary, prompting the national party to cut in half the number of delegates the state would be entitled to send to the national convention.

Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, won the Democratic primaries in both Florida and Michigan, although the name of her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, was not on the ballot in Michigan.

The standoff over what to do with the disputed primaries threatens to mar the Democratic convention and increase bitterness between Clinton and Obama.

Clinton has called for seating the delegates from both contests or staging the primaries again. Obama, an Illinois senator, has said he will work to find an agreeable solution, but opposes seating delegates from the unsanctioned contests.

DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said about the Florida decision: ''We will continue to work with Florida to come to a solution that's fair and within the rules.''

(AGENCIES)

Lawyers warn Musharraf's Judges to lay off parliament

ISLAMABAD, Mar 18: The leader of Pakistan's lawyers' movement threatened nationwide protests if the Supreme Court sides with President Pervez Musharraf today by stalling the new parliament's plan to reinstate judges he fired.

''The court is not competent to interfere in parliament's proceedings,'' Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer and former cabinet minister, told a news conference late yesterday.

''This would be a negation of the democratic process,'' he said on the eve of a session of the Supreme Court, believed to have been hastily called to put a stay order on parliament to prevent it passing a resolution to bring back the old judges.

Musharraf used emergency powers in November to purge the Supreme Court of judges he feared would rule his re-election unconstitutional.

Ten judges, including the chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, have been under house arrest since then, while 50 more refused to serve under Musharraf after he suspended the constitution.

Ahsan, the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was also put under house arrest, but was released on March 2. Musharraf subsequently packed the courts with judges he could rely on to strike down challenges to his re-election and validate his actions under six weeks of emergency rule.

The defeat of pro-Musharraf parties in a parliamentary election on February 18 left the president, who came to power as a general in a coup in 1999, even more isolated.

Western allies and neighbours are hoping the election will lead to a measure of stability in a nuclear-armed state already threatened from within by al Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants.

General Ashfaq Kayani, who took over as army chief from Musharraf in November, has indicated the military will remain neutral in political affairs.

US officials have in the past lauded Musharraf's value as an ally in the global ''war on terror'', but have become more circumspect since the tide turned against the Pakistani leader.

CHAUDHRY TO KEEP POWDER DRY

The judges Musharraf appointed in November represent one of the few lines of defence available to the beleaguered president.

Ahsan said he anticipated the Supreme Court would place a stay order on parliament preventing it from passing a resolution to bring about the reinstatement of the old judges, as the victors of the Feb. 18 election pledged to do this month.

Lawyers will boycott the courts the next day and begin a campaign of peaceful protests if the Supreme Court tries to block parliament, Ahsan said.

Lawyers launched a campaign of street protests last year to defend the independence of the judiciary after Musharraf first suspended Chaudhry a year ago. The Supreme Court reinstated him in July, before Musharraf resorted to emergency rule on November 3.

The new judges are also expected to say that a two-thirds majority would be needed in parliament to restore the old judges, but Ahsan said parliament should ignore the court.

Asif Ali Zardari, husband of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf deposed, said the resolution should be passed within 30 days of the National Assembly convening.

The Assembly met for the first time on Monday, starting the countdown to April 16.

Zardari's Pakistan People's Party will lead the incoming coalition, while Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), known as the PML-N, will be the second largest partner.

They have yet to settle on a prime minister, and the new government has still to be sworn in. Once it is, Chaudhry and the other judges should be released from house arrest.

There has been speculation that Chaudhry would go straight to the Supreme Court to reclaim his position, but Ahsan said that would not happen during the 30-day period.

''Even on release the chief justice will not proceed to the Supreme Court, as long as the countdown continues,'' Ahsan said. (AGENCIES)

US denies soft approach to China over Tibet

WASHINGTON, Mar 18: The Bush administration has denied the allegation that the US is pulling its punches with China over the Tibet issue because of the Communist nation's considerable economic and commercial clout.

''We are very concerned about the situation in Tibet. We continue to urge restraint on the part of the Chinese Government in terms of how it responds to these protestors,'' State Department's Deputy spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday.

He said the US had consistently called for engagement and dialogue and encouraged the Chinese Government to engage in a substantive conversation with the Dalai Lama directly or through representatives so that the issues involving Tibet can be resolved.

To drive his point home, he drew attention to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement over the weekend in which she had expressed her concern over the reports of a sharply increased police and military presence in and around Lhasa and called on the Chinese government to exercise restraint in dealing with these protests.

In reply to a question, he said, ''I know that our ambassador and our embassy (in Beijing) have spoken about this to a variety of Chinese officials and continue to be in discussions with them about this.''

'' This certainly is a subject that comes up regularly in our broad conversations with the Chinese. Again, this is an issue that's been out there for a while and that we have discussed with the Chinese over many years. So I know that the embassy has been very actively engaged in discussing this,'' Mr Casey said.

To a similar query, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, '' The administration has certainly been in touch with the Chinese, and we've called on them, as Secretary Rice did on Saturday, to exercise restraint in dealing with the protests, and we've urged an immediate end to the violence so that the people can get back to living a better life. But we're also very, we're just very concerned of the overall long-term prospects of it. So we've been in touch with them.''

(UNI)

Pilot of ship charged in bridge crash that spilled oil

SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 17: The pilot of the ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of oil after hitting the San Francisco Bay Bridge last year, was today charged by federal prosecutors with criminal negligence and breaking environmental laws.

Capt John J Cota (60), was charged in federal court here with one count each of negligently discharging a pollutant and violating a federal law against killing migratory birds.

The maximum penalty for the crime is 18 months in jail and a fine of more than USD 100,000.

The Hong Kong-registered ship spilled heavy fuel oil on November 7, 2007, resulting in deaths of about 2,000 birds including Brown Pelicans, Marbled Murrelets and Western Grebes.

The court document says, Cota failed to safely guide the container and use the ship's radar as he approached the Bay Bridge.

Further, he floundered to adequately review the proposed course with the captain, use positional fixes or verify the ship's position using official aids of navigation, throughout the voyage. (PTI)

French tumour sufferer fails to win "right to die"

PARIS, Mar 18: A woman suffering from an incurable and disfiguring cancer failed in her bid to set a legal precedent in France for patients seeking medical help to end their own lives.

A court in the eastern city of Dijon ruled that Chantal Sebire, 52, could not have a doctor help her die because it would breach both the code of medical ethics and the law, under which assisted suicide is a crime.

''Ms Sebire's request, which is understandable in human terms, cannot succeed in law,'' the court said yesterday in its ruling.

''While Ms. Sebire's physical deterioration deserves compassion, under French law the judge must reject the request.''

Although active euthanasia is illegal in France, a 2005 law allows doctors to withhold treatment with a patient's consent in certain circumstances.

Sebire, whose face is painfully bloated and distorted by the rare tumour growing in her sinuses, sought permission for assisted suicide in the hope of establishing a precedent.

The case has renewed the euthanasia debate in France. More than 2,000 doctors and nurses signed a petition last year saying they had helped patients to die and appealing for a change in the law to allow euthanasia.

Sebire's doctors say she would fall into a coma and die if she stopped taking medication to deal with the rare tumour, but she insisted on going to court to try to secure the right to an assisted suicide.

Active euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg, but French courts regularly rule against doctors who administer lethal drugs to end life, although they are usually spared prison.

Opponents of euthanasia, including the Roman Catholic Church, say the sanctity of life overrides all other factors. Many also say a right to kill patients could easily be abused.

Sebire said she may now seek an assisted suicide elsewhere. ''I simply wanted to show that I was fighting to raise awareness, and in this fight I followed the law to the end,'' she told France 5 television on Sunday.

''I now know how to obtain what I need, and if I cannot obtain it in France, I will obtain it elsewhere.'' (AGENCIES)

Barbara Walters, Israeli film get gay media awards

NEW YORK, Mar 18: Television journalist Barbara Walters was honored by the gay media watchdog group GLAAD today for her reporting on transgender children and she said the award was among the most important she had even received.

''You can forget all the Emmys,'' Walters said in accepting the award for yesterday television newsmagazine journalism at the 19th annual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards. ''This means more to me.''

The veteran television personality won for the story ''My Secret Self: A Story of Transgender Children,'' which aired on ABC's ''20/20'' and examined the lives and struggles of young children who experienced conflicted gender identity, feeling their true sex was the opposite of their physical one.

The award for outstanding film in limited release went to the Hebrew- and Arabic-language film ''The Bubble,'' distributed by Strand Releasing, about a love affair between and Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man. First Run Features' ''For the Bible Tells Me So'' was named outstanding documentary.

Honorary awards went to Judy Shepard, the mother of slain gay college student Matthew Shepard, who became an activist for gay and lesbian rights after her son's brutal murder a decade ago, and to MTV executive Brian Graden, who won the Vito Russo Award, named for the late gay activist and film historian.

BET J, an offshoot of Black Entertainment Television, was also honored, while ''60 Minutes'' shared the TV newsmagazine award with Walters for ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'' about the US military's policy on gay and lesbian servicemembers.

The awards were hosted by British talk show host Graham Norton, with guest presenters including Mariska Hargitay, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, ''American Idol'' judge Randy Jackson award-winning actor Alan Cumming.

Other honorees for coverage of gay and lesbian issues included The New York Times, magazine GQ, CNN.Com and the TV show ''Boston Legal.''

GLAAD was founded more than 20 years ago to foster positive images of the lives of gay people in the wake of sensational media reporting on AIDS and other topics. Awards will also be presented in south Florida in Los Angeles. (AGENCIES)

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