W O R L D

Strict security prior to Bush arrival in UK
London, November 18
British security officials mounted a major security operation today ahead of the arrival of US President George Bush in London on a three-day state visit, during which he will be the guest of the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

British protesters to topple giant statue of Bush US President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush wave from the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on  Tuesday. Bush is flying to London for a four-day state visit. — Reuters photo

BRIEFLY

Indian contestant at the Miss World 2003 contest Ami Vashi poses at a Press conference in Beijing on Monday. The event would take place in South China's Sanya on December 6. — PTI

Pop star Britney Spears reacts as she holds up the plaque commemorating her as the new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Monday. Spears was honoured with the 2, 242nd star on the walk. — AP/PTI

Sri Lankan President, PM set up panel
Colombo, November 18
Amid continuing power struggle, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today held crucial talks, their second since the political crisis erupted two weeks ago, and named a panel of officials to work out a “cohabitation” arrangement on national issues.

Soldiers surrender weapons for food
Gardez (Afghanistan), November 18
Hundreds of Afghan fighters have exchanged weapons for cash, food and clothes over the past week under a UN-sponsored programme hailed by the Defence Minister as the key to improving security in Afghanistan.

Strict security prior to Bush arrival in UK

London, November 18
British security officials mounted a major security operation today ahead of the arrival of US President George Bush in London on a three-day state visit, during which he will be the guest of the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

The police radically increased their planned security operation, deploying 14,000 officers from all over the country, many more than the 5,000 originally planned. The increase came amid intelligence reports that Al-Qaida could be planning a terrorist attack.

Bush was to arrive this evening to be greeted by Prince Charles. The formal part of the Bush visit was to begin tomorrow morning with a reception from the Queen.

The police has decided to allow tens of thousands of demonstrators expected for a mass rally on Thursday — the day Bush meets Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street — to march down Whitehall to Parliament.

The war in Iraq is the main focus of objections to Bush’s visit.

Meanwhile, a lone anti-war protester dodged tight security yesterday and scaled the gates of Buckingham Palace on the eve of Bush’s visit to Britain.

The woman, wearing a fluorescent jacket, climbed the six-metre-high wrought-iron gates in front of the palace in central London and unfurled an upside-down US flag with the inscription ‘’Elizabeth Windsor and Co he’s not welcome’’.

A police spokesman declined to comment on whether the woman’s protest had breached security. — DPA, Reuters

British protesters to topple giant statue of Bush

London, November 18
British demonstrators angry at the Anglo-American policy over Iraq said they would topple a giant home-made statue of Mr George W. Bush Thursday in London’s Trafalgar Square during a protest march against his three-day state visit.

“The idea is to highlight how fake the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad was” on April 9, Ms Liz Hutchins, spokeswoman for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said.

The CND and the Stop the War Coalition yesterday gained authorisation to march through Whitehall in central London, home to government ministries and Downing Street, which houses the official residence of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Protesters also plan to march over Westminster Bridge and past Britain’s Houses of Parliament before winding on through Whitehall to Trafalgar Square where the giant 6-metre statue of President Bush will be unveiled and symbolically toppled at around 1715 (2245 IST) GMT.

Tomorrow an “alternative procession” will poke fun at the fact that President Bush, worried by the prospect of massive street protests, will not receive a royal procession that normally accompanies state visits of this kind. A magnificent horse-drawn carriage pulled by two horses and driven by staff in ceremonial costume will leave the London Eye or giant wheel at 1100 GMT (1630 IST), explained Stop the War spokeswoman Tansy Hoskins. — AFP

Sri Lankan President, PM set up panel

Colombo, November 18
Amid continuing power struggle, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today held crucial talks, their second since the political crisis erupted two weeks ago, and named a panel of officials to work out a “cohabitation” arrangement on national issues.

“The President and the Prime Minister met today at the President’s House and discussed in depth several issues on which they could work together,” said a joint statement issued after their 90-minute meeting here.

It said a “committee of officials was appointed to work out the details of future working arrangements under which the President and the Prime Minister could work together on important national issues.”

It was also decided that the two leaders “would meet again in two weeks to move the process forward,” the statement said without mentioning the troubled peace process.

The meeting between the two rival leaders came a day before Parliament was due to be recalled after Ms Kumaratunga suspended it for two weeks.

The Wickremesinghe government had been hoping to unveil its budget for next year on November 12, but the suspension of Parliament derailed those plans.

Kumaratunga’s spokesman Sarath Amunugama said they expected the budget to go ahead despite speculation that Parliament could be dissolved to clear the way for a snap election.

“Though there are lot of reports about a state of panic, the legislature will continue,” Amunugama told reporters here. “The Budget will be presented”.

Amunugama said they expected the government to increase public servants’ salaries, a key demand of Ms Kumaratunga. Her party will also take credit for concessions to the people, he said.

He said Kumaratunga’s party also decided last night to try and work out an electoral deal with the Marxist JVP, or the People’s Liberation Front. Kumaratunga’s party has been trying to enter into a pact with the JVP to topple the Wickremesinghe’s government. — PTI

Soldiers surrender weapons for food

Gardez (Afghanistan), November 18
Hundreds of Afghan fighters have exchanged weapons for cash, food and clothes over the past week under a UN-sponsored programme hailed by the Defence Minister as the key to improving security in Afghanistan.

The $ 41 million initiative, mostly funded by Japan, aims at decommissioning 100,000 battle-hardened militiamen in a step toward lasting peace and creation of a new national army and police force.

“Implementation of this programme will take Afghanistan out of its problems”, Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim said yesterday.

Soldiers paraded on a field yesterday outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan, where they surrendered weapons, ranging from rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to anti-aircraft missiles and more than 20 tanks, were put on display.

The arms were handed over during the past week by 595 Afghan fighters, said UN spokesman Jim Ocitti. A similar ceremony in October saw nearly 1,000 soldiers turn in their weapons in the northern province of Kunduz. — AP

China ready to cooperate with IAEA

Beijing, November 18
Faced with a CIA report that China continues to provide nuclear assistance to Pakistan, Beijing today offered to enforce safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency on its “peaceful” nuclear energy cooperation with its close ally Islamabad.

“The cooperation between China and Pakistan in the nuclear energy cooperation is purely for peaceful purposes and does not violate any non-proliferation obligations or China’s export controls. We are also willing to have the IAEA safeguards,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told mediapersons here.

Asked to comment on a recent report by the Central Intelligence Agency that it could not rule out links between Chinese firms and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme despite Beijing’s assurances that it would provide no such help, Mr Liu said China was not engaged in proliferation of nuclear technology. — PTI

Indians found in truckload of cabbage

Kiev, November 18
The Ukrainian authorities detained 35 illegal migrants from Asia, including from India and the Middle-East who were found underneath several tonnes of cabbage in a truck, the police said.

The police in the capital, Kiev, found the 32 men and three women from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Jordan hidden in a cramped makeshift shelter under a truckload of cabbage, said police spokesman Ihor Bolgar said.

The migrants, aged 16-25, had paid as much as US$10,000 to Ukrainian traffickers to get them to Slovakia, where they hoped to find work, Bolgar said.

They were being held at a detention centre pending repatriation. The truck’s driver fled the scene. — AP