Gunmen force pro-Government TV off air

BEIRUT, May 9: Gunmen loyal to Hezbollah forced the pro-Government Future News television off the air today, a senior official at the Beirut station told Reuters.

Future News is owned by Saad al-Hariri, leader of Lebanon’s US-backed Governing coalition.

"An army officer accompanied by members of Hezbollah walked into the station and told us to switch off transmission. We are off the air," said the official, declining to be identified. (AGENCIES)

NKorea turns over nuclear weapons papers

WASHINGTON, May 9: North Korea handed detailed nuclear weapons records to the United States, an important peek into the isolated regime's bombmaking past but not enough to answer criticism that the Bush administration is grasping for a disarmament deal at any cost.

The technical logs from North Korea's shuttered plutonium reactor would give outside experts a yardstick to measure whether the North is telling the truth about a bomb programme that the poor nation has agreed to trade away for economic and political rewards.

"Our top three priorities are going to be verification, verification, verification," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

A US diplomat collected the eight boxes of records during a three-day visit to Pyongyang. McCormack said getting the papers was the main reason for the trip.

Privately, State Department officials hope the approximately 18,000 secret papers will build confidence among conservative critics of the recent, relatively flexible US posture toward North Korea, an isolated dictatorship President George W Bush once termed part of an "axis of evil."

The Bush administration's comprehensive 2007 disarmament deal with the North requires some congressional approval, and Republican unease is growing.

The North is five months past a deadline to produce a complete record of its weapons programmes or an alleged side business selling nuclear know-how to other countries, and US officials announced no new deadline for the summary.

The North claims it met its obligations, but has also agreed to a new tentative deal to break the impasse. That deal would have the North acknowledge US concerns about an illicit uranium programme and alleged sale or transfer of nuclear know-how to other nations but would not require the North to spell everything out. (AGENCIES)

Hong Kong jewellery tycoon jailed for kickbacks, fraud

HONG KONG, May 9: A Hong Kong jewellery tycoon was jailed today for paying millions in illegal kickbacks to local travel agents to bring tourists to his showrooms, tax fraud and other offences.

Tse Sui-luen, 71, the billionaire founder of Tse Sui Luen (TSL) Jewellery, was jailed for three years and three months. His son, Tommy Tse, was jailed for five years on similar charges.

Tse, a former goldsmith’s apprentice who built one of Hong Kong’s largest jewellery chains, was convicted of paying illegal rebates to travel agents to herd tourists from China, Japan and Southeast Asia to his showrooms and then massively overcharging them.

The company referred to the scheme, which lasted years, as the "James Bond Project", the court heard.

TSL had dished out over HK100 million dollars (12.8 million dollars) in kickbacks to travel agents between 1996 and 2005, local media reported.

"Lying became a matter of TSL corporate policy," judge Kevin Browne said in his judgment on April 25^{th, convicting Tse of offering advantages to agents, false accounting and conspiracy to steal thousands of dollars from his own company.}

^{Before sentencing, a number of Hong Kong’s leading figures, including action film-star Jackie Chan, wrote letters urging leniency for a man they described as a hardworking entrepreneur.}

^(AGENCIES)

US turns down Pak's request for military aid

SILICON VALLEY, May 9: The United States has turned down or deferred Pakistan's request for over USD 81 million in military aid following reports that Islamabad used much of the amount to pay for heavy equipment suited for a regional conflict with India, according to a media report.

The Pentagon turned down or delayed more than USD 81 million requested by Pakistan in February following criticism that Islamabad has squandered the US funding and allowed al Qaeda to rebuild a haven in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"In private, the US officials have acknowledged that they had little oversight of Pakistan's spending," the paper said.

The US officials have said that Pakistan used much of the military aid to pay for heavy equipment suited for a regional conflict with India than for counter-insurgency operations in the frontier territories.

Pakistan has received close to a billion dollars a year since 2001 through a programme called Coalition Support Funds. The programme was set up for anti-terrorism operations along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

The newspaper quoting the report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said although the rejection represented a small portion of the nearly USD 6 billion Islamabad has received for anti-terrorism program since 2001, it marked a change in policy towards Pakistan, which has been getting American military aid without needing to show results.

Johnson, the author of the GAO report, said the agency was still examining where the military aid went and planned a more detailed account next month. (PTI)

Malaysia court allows Muslim convert to revert to Buddhism

SINGAPORE, May 9: A Malaysian Syariah High Court has allowed an application by Muslim convert to revert to Buddhism, a major landmark move following increasing disquiet among non-Muslim Malaysians, Kuala Lumpur media reported today.

The decision by Perlis Syariah Court chief judge Othman Ibrahim allowed Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah, 39, to renounce Islam and revert to her original faith Buddhism.

It is a first of its kind ruling in the country where a living Muslim convert is allowed to renounce Islam since the Syariah Court Civil Procedure (State of Penang) Enactment 2004 came into force on Jan 1, 2006, said the reports.

''From the evidence, it is clear that the plaintiff had not practised the teachings of Islam and had maintained her Buddhist faith,'' said Mr Othman in the northern Peninsular Malaysian city of Penang.

''Although this court views seriously such matters, this court has no choice but to give her the right to return to her original faith,'' added Mr Othman, declaring Siti Fatimah no longer a Muslim.

He also ordered the defendant, the state Islamic Religious Council, to cancel her certificate of conversion to Islam.

However, the Syariah Judge did not grant her application to change the religious status on her identity card from Muslim to Buddhist, saying that it did not come under the court_s jurisdiction and she had to pursue the matter with the National Registration Department.

Siti Fatimah, whose Chinese name is Tan Ean Huang, filed the application in May 2006, saying in her affidavit that she converted to Islam in July 1998 for the sake of marrying an Iranian named Ferdoun Ashanian in 1999 but had not practised its teachings.

''My husband loved me very much and I converted to marry him so that I could follow him back to Iran,'' the Star newspaper quoted her as saying.

But she said Ferdoun left her a few months after their marriage and she had no knowledge of his whereabouts.

Siti Fatimah had maintained her Buddhist leanings and prayed to deities.

Othman also ruled that Ferdoun, as the person who brought Siti Fatimah into Islam, had failed to guide her in her new faith.

A growing number of Malaysian converts are seeking to revert to their original religions, according to the reports. (UNI)

Prez declines PETA's invitation to become vegetarian

MANILA, May 9: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has declined an animal rights group's invitation to become a vegetarian to help fight hunger in her country, her spokesman said today.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals challenged Arroyo in an open letter to shun meat, saying that "adopting a vegetarian diet and publicly advocating the same would do far more than any photo op."

The PETA director for Asia-Pacific, Jason Baker, said that raising animals for food is "condemning people in the Philippines and around the world to starvation." He said food fed to animals is enough to feed half the world.

Arroyo was not persuaded to change her diet.

"The president is one who believes in freedom of choice," spokesman Ignacio Bunye told reporters. "You cannot impose on others."

Bunye said some Cabinet members are vegetarian. (AGENCIES)

British Airways takes beef off its menu

LONDON, May 9: British Airways has taken beef off its menu for economy-class passengers on most international flights in a bid to avoid offending Hindus.

The carrier, whose second-biggest long-haul market is to India, has instead switched to a fish pie or a chicken portion, citing "religious restrictions", British newspaper the ‘Daily Mail’ reported today.

"We can only serve two options and beef and pork obviously have religious restrictions. We have to try to use two meals which appeal to as many customers as possible. This summer season we are offering customers in World Traveller on most long-haul flights a choice of chicken and fish pie.

"We also look at trends from major supermarkets to see what types of meals are popular and fish pie style meals are selling well at the moment. These two meals proved popular in tasting tests and are also proving popular on board.

"We are still serving beef based meals on certain menus in First Class and Club World and are currently deciding on whether or not to use beef on the menus for World Traveller customers for the winter season," a Spokesperson for British Airways was quoted as saying.

The Hindu Council in the United Kingdom has welcomed the decision. A Spokesperson said: "The Hindu community will welcome this decision and the news it has been made partly because Hindus don’t eat beef.

"Hindus have a great deal of respect for British culture and are well integrated into the British way of life, so it’s good to see evidence of how they are literally flying the British flag by choosing British Airways.

"Hindus are tolerant of the beliefs of others and do not expect everyone to stop eating a food because they do not eat it." (PTI)

Global warming driving koalas to extinction

LONDON, May 9: Koalas are under threat as the eucalyptus leaves on which they feed are becoming toxic due to global warming, scientists warn.

Higher temperatures and increased carbon dioxide could shut their food supply, leaving them to starve to death.

Australia's most endearing species is already under threat from severe drought and loss of habitat as housing encroaches on woodland.

The research showed that the level of toxicity in the leaves of eucalyptus saplings rises, and their nutrient content falls, when they were exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide.

''What currently may be good koala habitat may well become, over a period of not so many years at the rate that carbon dioxide concentrations are rising, very marginal habitat,'' Daily Telegraph quoted Ian Hume, Professor of Biology at Sydney University as saying.

''I'm sure we'll see koalas disappearing from their current range even though we don't see any change in tree species or structure of the forests,'' he stated.

Eucalyptus leaves have so little nutritional value that the animals have to sleep for 20 hours a day to conserve energy.

The animals were also fussy eaters of Australia's more than 600 species of eucalypt trees and would only browse on the leaves of about 25.

The koalas would be unable to adapt to the greater toxicity of gum tree leaves, said Prof Hume.

Forced to descend to the ground in search of trees with more nutritious leaves, the koalas would be more vulnerable to being hit by cars and attacked by predators such as dingoes and domestic dogs.

(UNI)

Sahara dried out slowly, not abruptly: Study

OSLO, May 9: The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study that may help understanding of future climate changes.

And there are now signs of a tiny shift back towards greener conditions in parts of the Sahara, apparently because of global warming, said the lead author of the report about the desert's history published in the journal Science yesterday.

The study of ancient pollen, spores and aquatic organisms in sediments in Lake Yoa in northern Chad showed the region gradually shifted from savannah 6,000 years ago towards the arid conditions that took over about 2,700 years ago.

The findings, about one of the biggest environmental shifts of the past 10,000 years, challenge past belief based on evidence in marine sediments that a far quicker change created the world's biggest hot desert.

''The hypothesis (of a sudden shift) was astonishing but it was still taken up,'' said Stefan Kropelin of the University of Cologne in Germany, lead author of the study with scientists in Belgium, Canada, the United States, Sweden and France.

The scientists, studying the remote 3.5 sq km (1.4 sq mile) Lake Yoa, found the region had once had grasses and scattered acacia trees, ferns and herbs. The salty lake is renewed by groundwater welling up from beneath the desert.

A gradual drying, blamed on shifts in monsoon rains linked to shifts in the power of the sun, meant large amounts of dust started blowing in the region about 4,300 years ago. The Sahara now covers an area the size of the United States.

FORECASTS

Kropelin told Reuters that improved understanding of the formation of the Sahara might help climate modellers improve forecasts of what is in store from global warming, blamed by the UN Climate Panel on human emissions of greenhouse gases.

The panel says that some areas will be more vulnerable to drought, others to more storms or floods.

The Sahara got greener when temperatures rose around the end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. Warmer air can absorb more moisture from the oceans and it fell as rain far inland.

''Today I think we have the same thing going on, a global warming,'' he said. And he said there were already greener signs in a huge area with almost no reliable weather records.

''I see a clear trend to a new greening of the Sahara, a very slow one,'' he said, based on visits to some of the remotest and uninhabited parts of the desert over the past two decades.

''You go to unoccupied areas over a long time and you know there was pure sand there without a single snake or scorpion. Now you see tens of kilometres covered by grass,'' he said.

In Darfur in Sudan, where U.N. Officials say 300,000 people may have died in five years of revolt, slightly higher rainfall was more than offset by a rise in the human population to 7 million from 1 million half a century ago. People and their animals quickly eradicated any greenery.

(AGENCIES)

Kenya's nomads feel pain of food price rises

EL RAM, KENYA, May 9: It is tempting to romanticise the lifestyle of nomads in Kenya's northeast -- a land peppered with vast termite mounds which burst from rust-coloured soil like fingers pointing to the cloudless sky.

For centuries, Muslim pastoralist tribes have roamed the semi-arid wastelands, in perpetual pursuit of pasture and water, seemingly oblivious to the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia.

Despite the picture-book image, these tribes, neglected for generations by the Nairobi government and colonial administrations, are at the sharp edge of global conundrums of poverty, environmental damage and now the food price crisis.

The nomads are among the most vulnerable people in east Africa's largest economy, where per capita income is around 580 dollar. The government expects growth of 4-6 per cent this year.

In El Ram, an isolated settlement 80 km from El Wak on the Somali border, the nomads' survival is inextricably linked to fluctuations in local and global markets, and political machinations in the distant capital Nairobi.

They earn a meagre income from selling milk and, on occasion, livestock. The rise in global food prices means that, like many other Africans, their purchasing power is heavily reduced and now they cannot buy essential supplements.

The semi-nomadic residents of El Ram were also affected, albeit indirectly, by the violence that erupted after President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election in December. More than 1,200 people were killed and some 300,000 were displaced.

The crisis laid bare tensions over land and tribe. Fights over water, cattle and pasture have long plagued the remoter, lawless corners of Kenya where many pastoralists or cattle rustlers carry machine guns and other weapons.

For El Ram's residents, many of whom depend on food aid for survival during the dry season, the political crisis meant aid dried up as prices in the market soared.

''Ever since the elections and violence, there have been no food distributions by NGOs (non governmental organisations),'' said village elder Mohammed Yakub.

After the vote, trucks carrying aid relief and commercial goods from Mombasa, Kenya's port and a regional transport node, were temporarily halted for security reasons.

That caused widespread food and fuel shortages throughout east Africa -- inevitably prices shot up.

Displacement of farmers in the food-producing region of western Kenya during the planting season and forecast poor rains almost guarantee a poor harvest. Officials fear agricultural output will drop sharply this year.

Food at the market will remain beyond Yakub's means.

Perched on a rocking chair held together by fraying grain sacks, he pours milky tea from an ageing flask as his eight children play around him.

''The price for one kilogramme of posho (maize flour) is now 90 shillings (1.45 dollars). It used to be 50 -- people are starving,'' he said.

GLOBAL PREDICAMENT

Poor families worldwide spend 80 per cent of their income on food, according to the World Bank, and are particularly vulnerable to the sharp rises in global food prices.

Visiting Kenya in April, UN World Food Programme head Josette Sheeran blamed soaring global food prices on the ''perfect storm'' of lower agricultural production, weather shocks, more meat consumption in Asia, shifts to biofuel crops and the hoarding of food stocks.

In Kenya, annual inflation rose to 26.6 per cent in April from 21.8 per cent in March because of food prices.

Sharp price hikes for essential food and fuel have triggered riots and protests in African countries from Somalia in the east, through Cameroon to Senegal on the western Atlantic coast.

In El Ram, price rises have made lives already lived on the edge even more precarious.

James Odour, drought management coordinator at the Arid Lands Resource Centre in Nairobi, says pastoralists are having to sell more livestock to buy ever smaller amounts of food.

''The life of the pastoralist is now in a dilemma,'' said Abdul Sheikh, field coordinator for the Consortium of Cooperative Partners (COCOP), which distributes United Nations aid in northern Kenya.

Sheikh said many pastoralists decided to settle after the long drought of 2005, gathering together in settlements where they remained during the dry season.

But this trend has caused environmental problems as well: when nomadic herders settle near a water source, the nearby pasture is overgrazed. Such settlements are also often entirely reliant on food and water aid during the dry seasons.

Some analysts say these strains cast doubt on the survival of the pastoralists' lifestyle.

''With the increasing number of settlements, increasing population and the reduction in the number of animals - these people can't survive as pastoralists,'' Sheikh said.

Yakub gestures with his cane towards the open doorway as a gaunt cow saunters past.

''Since it rained last week, livestock have started to recover,'' he said, but added that the condition of the cattle was still very poor, making them difficult to sell.

''If we look at the worsening droughts every year, we think that our livestock and therefore our livelihood will cease to exist,'' he said.

The chirp of a Chinese-imitation Casio watch calls Yakub to prayer. In the dim light of the mud hut, he kisses the compacted red earth, warmed by his children's bare feet. (AGENCIES)

Musharraf is an old friend: Pakistani beauty queen

ISLAMABAD, May 9: Weeks after a Pakistani beauty queen said she would love to date President Pervez Musharraf, another top model has claimed that she and the former military ruler are "old friends".

Maria Mateen, who has bagged many beauty awards, said she had no desire to date Musharraf as they were "already good friends".

Mateen said when she started her modelling career, her association with Pakistan was appreciated everywhere and she earned the country a good name after representing it twice at international beauty pageants.

Denying reports that she wanted to date Musharraf, Mateen told a local TV channel that she didn't have to because she and Musharraf are "already good friends".

In a post on a pageant website, she wrote: "Going to international pageants we have found out how much Musharraf is known to all beautiful young girls, the beauty queens. Some have replied, 'Oh yes, the general man (sic)'. While others have said 'the man who rules Pakistan'.

"Everything positive... I think personally Musharraf Sahab is very good-looking. Some Pakistani politicians may not agree with these gorgeous women. You know like Benazir, all men around the world thought she was a beauty, similarly Musharraf is a hunk. He has enough charisma to have young girls going nuts," said the beauty queen's post.

Last month, reigning Miss Pakistan World Mahleej Sarkari kicked up a controversy by saying she "loved" Musharraf and wanted to "date" him.

Sarkari said she would love to date Musharraf if he asked her out. "Yes, any time...I like him a lot...," she told a news portal. She also said she thought "Mrs Musharraf would nod her head in agreement that her husband is an icon no matter what happens". (PTI)

Obama vows to ensure security of Israel

WASHINGTON, May 9: Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said the US friendship with Israel was ''unbreakable'' and vowed to ensure the security of the Jewish state if elected president.

''America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakable,'' Obama said to cheers and applause during a brief speech at a celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. ''I am absolutely convinced that our friendship between the two nations is unbreakable.''

Obama, who leads Hillary Clinton in the drawn-out fight for the Democratic nomination, gave few details of his plans for the Middle East but vowed to work to ensure a secure Israel.

''I pledge to you that I will do whatever I can in whatever capacity to not only ensure Israel's security, but also to ensure that the people of Israel may thrive and prosper and build on the enormous promise that was made 60 years ago.''

Critics have raised doubts about Obama's commitment to theJewish state, floating rumors that he was a Muslim and linking him to Louis Farrakhan, a US political figure known for his anti-Israel rhetoric.

Obama is a Christian and has denounced Farrakhan. He has vowed not to change staunch American support of Israel -- the mainstay of U.S. Middle East policy.

Obama's advisers have criticized US President George W. Bush for taking a low-profile approach during his first seven years in office and for not pushing hard to follow up on the Annapolis peace summit in November.

In the Arab world, where many view US policy as biased toward Israel, there is intense interest in whether Obama's approach to the Middle East would be different.

Some foreign policy conservatives in the United States have questioned Obama's approach on the Middle East, criticizing his call for direct talks with US foes like Iran and suggesting he would be more inclined than other presidential candidates to pressure Israel to make concessions toward the Palestinians.

Obama made no mention of any such position.

''As we celebrate six decades of independence, we know that more work remains to be done to secure a lasting peace for the children of Israel,'' said Obama, who noted that he had visited Israel in 2006 and was struck by the resolve of people who were faced with constant danger and uncertainty.

''So let us honor the independence of this great nation; let us celebrate the achievements of six decades; and let us renew the friendship between our nations, and the solemn promise to seek lasting peace and security for the people of Israel.''

Obama appeared shortly before U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Obama often jokes about revelations that he and Cheney are distantly related -- getting a laugh when he says he wished genetic tests would have discovered he was related to someone else.

(AGENCIES)