China to allow tourism in disputed islands in S China Sea
Beijing, April 7
In a move that could exacerbate tensions with its neighbours, China has announced plans to allow tourist cruises to disputed islands in the South China Sea, also claimed by Vietnam.

Savita inquest opens today, to examine hospital care
London, April 7
The quality of care provided by the Irish hospital where Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar died after being denied an abortion is expected to be among the key factors to be examined at the inquest that opens tomorrow.

India delaying visa to Lankan envoy: Report
Colombo, April 7
Sri Laka’s newly appointed Deputy High Commissioner to India has not been able to take up the post in Chennai due to a delay by the Indian authorities in issuing him a visa, a media report claimed today.

Second leak discovered at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant
Tokyo, April 7
Radioactive water has apparently leaked from another underground storage tank at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Sunday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan on Sunday rejected nomination papers of former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf, leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar while former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf was given the approval to contest from a seat in northern Pakistan after his nomination papers from two other constituencies in the country were rejected.

Hina Rabbani Khar

Pakistan's former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar is unlikely to contest polls to Parliament next month as her father is a candidate for the National Assembly constituency that she represented earlier, according to a media report today

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehrike Insaf chairman Imran Khan, JUI Amir Maulana Fazlur Rehman and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif safely sailed through the scrutiny on Sunday.

Musharraf’s nomination papers were rejected in NA 46 (Islamabad), NA 250 (Karachi) and NA 139 (Kasur), but accepted in NA 32 (Chitral). He was accused of subversion of the Constitution and sacking judges of superior courts.

Three political parties -- PML-N, PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami -- announced that they would challenge acceptance of Muharraf in Chitral. The former President enjoys considerable support in Chitral as several development projects were started in the region during his regime.

In a TV interview on Saturday, Musharraf hinted that he would contest from Karachi and Chitral. A spokesman of his All Pakistan Muslim League said a review petition would be filed against rejections of Musharraf’s papers in the three constituencies.

In Gujjar Khan, the returning officer rejected the nomination papers of former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf. He accepted the objections raised against the premier of corruption and misuse of power.

Meanwhile, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry will take up on Monday a petition filed by former Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association president Taufiq Asif seeking Musharraf’s trial for treason.

The nomination papers of Khar's father, Ghulam Rabbani Khar, for parliamentary constituency number 177 in Punjab province have been approved by the poll authorities.

Khar was quoted by The Express Tribune as saying that she had only "applied as a covering candidate to my father".

As her father's papers had been cleared, Khar told the daily that "would be that for her political career for now".

Khar has also not applied for a parliamentary seat reserved for women on a Pakistan People's Party ticket. "That continues to be the position," she said.

Khar's father is not a graduate and rules that were in place at the time of the 2008 general election barred him from contesting polls.

Seoul, April 7
A top South Korean national security official said today that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act with its warning that it soon will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in Pyongyang. But he added that the North's clearest objective is to extract concessions from Washington and Seoul.

North Korea's warning last week followed weeks of war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the US for the ongoing joint military drills, and for their support of UN sanctions over Pyongyang's February 12 nuclear test. Many nations are deciding what to do about the notice, 
which said their diplomats' safety in Pyongyang cannot be guaranteed beginning this Wednesday.

Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang led South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff to announce today that its chairman had put off a visit to Washington. The South Korean defence minister said on Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch.

His description suggests that the missile could be the Musudan missile, capable of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 km.

Citing North Korea's suggestion that diplomats leave the country, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director said Pyongyang may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.

During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the US to offer a dialogue.

Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks which also include China, Russia and Japan that it abandoned in 2009.

Over 24 countries with embassies in North Korea have not yet announced whether they will evacuate their staff.

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said it was considering a plan to evacuate its diplomats. India also said it was monitoring events. "We have been informed about it," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry. "We are in constant touch with our embassy and are monitoring the situation. We will carefully consider all aspects and decide well in time." — AP

London, April 7
The quality of care provided by the Irish hospital where Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar died after being denied an abortion is expected to be among the key factors to be examined at the inquest that opens tomorrow.

A draft review into the 31-year-old's death was told that staff at the University College Hospital Galway attributed Savita's crucial symptoms of shivering and teeth chattering to the cold rather than to a life-threatening infection.

The report notes that at one stage "the radiator in the bedroom was not working" and a nurse went to fetch a blanket for her. But the shivering turned out to be symptoms of a serious infection taking hold in her system, which ultimately led to Savita's death last October.

Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, has highlighted the fatal tremors among a catalogue of concerns over the care given to his wife.

Savita, hailing from Karnataka, died from blood poisoning on October 28 last year after doctors refused to terminate her 17-week long pregnancy, telling her that the foetal heartbeat was still present and "this is a Catholic country".

Sources close to the hospital told the 'Irish Independent' that the use of the phrase will be "clarified" if it is raised at the inquest, in terms of who said it and the context in which it was uttered.

According to the newspaper, 16 hospital staff, including the consultants, doctors and nurses who treated her in her final days, are expected to testify at what will be the first public examination of her death. — PTI

Tokyo, April 7
Radioactive water has apparently leaked from another underground storage tank at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Sunday.

The utility, known as Tepco, said the volume of the latest leakage is believed to be small. On Saturday, it said as much as 120 tonnes of radioactive water may have leaked from another nearby storage tank.

The plant's seven storage tanks are lined with water-proof sheets meant to keep the contaminated water from leaking into the soil. The power company has faced a range of problems with leaks and with the plant's cooling system.

Tepco said on Friday that it lost the ability to cool radioactive fuel rods in one of the plant's reactors for about three hours, the second cooling system failure at the plant in three weeks.

The 9.0 earthquake that shook Japan on March 11, 2011 triggered a 15-metre tsunami that struck the Fukushima Daiichi plant and set off the chain of events that caused its reactors to start melting down. — Reuters

Boao (China), April 7
China's President Xi Jinping pledged on Sunday that change and peaceful development will power his country's economic rise and sustain growth within its borders and beyond.

Stressing that peace was pivotal for the future of the world's second biggest economy, Xi appealed to business and political leaders to use diplomacy and dialogue to resolve disputes and allow wealth to spread and solve problems. "For Asia, development is still the top question, development is still crucial for solving many problems and conflicts," Xi told a forum in Boao on the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.

"Without peace, there is no need to talk about development," Xi added, speaking to an audience of executives and foreign leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Myanmar President Thein Sein and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Painting a picture of a richer China in 2020, when the government expects average rural and urban incomes will be double 2010 levels, Xi said his country would increasingly export its wealth to its neighbours. China will import $10 trillion worth of goods a year five years from now, he said, and outbound investment will rise by a big margin.

Domestic consumption, particularly retail consumption, will also continue to expand. China imported $1.8 trillion worth of goods and services last year, up a meagre 4.3 per cent from a year ago as its economy slumped into its worst downturn in 13 years. But Xi was upbeat about the future, saying growth would follow when his government changes China's economic structure and financial system. He did not give details.

"China's economy will continue to maintain a healthy growth rate," Xi said. "We will persist with reforms and doggedly pursue the path of changing our economic ways." In contrast, an ailing global economy faces a difficult recovery fraught with risks, he said.

Xi's message of China's peaceful and inclusive rise was echoed earlier when nearly a dozen senior executives from Chinese state-owned firms met peers from top Australian banks and companies. — Reuters

London, April 7
An Indian couple from Oxford are fighting to regain custody of their five-year-old son after he was taken away by social services over allegations of abuse.

"They simply don't understand the difference between the Indian and British culture. Their style of upbringing is totally different from our culture," claims father Rajat Puri, who has been suspected by the authorities of "improper" behaviour towards his son Achintya.

"Our child is in a bad state. He has been crying and begging to be sent back home because he is scared of being shut up in a dark room every night," adds mother Shruti Beri, who insists the case has been misinterpreted by the Oxfordshire County Council.

Achintya's teachers at Bayards Hill Primary School in Oxford called in the police and social services last month after he is believed to have described his father as doing "bad things". They feared it may be a reference to sexual or other kind of abuse.

However, Beri is certain it was a reference to her husband's social drinking and smoking, which she had often described as a "bad habit" in an attempt to put her son off copying similar behaviour.

Puri, who works in an investment firm, and his software programmer wife have been fighting for the return of their child since March 6 and have even written letters to British Prime Minister David Cameron and their local MP.

Meanwhile, an emergency protection order passed by the local family court allows the parents to see their son three times a week for up to an hour. — PTI

Melbourne, April 7
US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, has laid out an ambitious plan of setting up a human colony on Mars within the next two decades.

The 83-year-old astronaut, who joined the late Neil Armstrong for a globally watched and remembered leap on the Moon in 1969, has revealed his plans to have a human colony on the Red Planet by the mid 2030s in his new book.

Having his sight set on the next big step for man: Mars, Aldrin said he wanted to inspire children to be interested in space, 'news.com.au' reported.

"We need more kids to be adventurous and curious about what's out there," he said.

"We need the next generation to be our Mars generation. I'm very passionate about getting man to Mars and starting a colony there. I've outlined my plan of how to get us there in my new book, ‘Mission to Mars’ coming out by National Geographic in May of this year," Aldrin said.

Aldrin is also starting a competition that will give Australians the chance to take a once-in-a-lifetime journey into space, the report said.

One Australian will be granted a seat aboard the Lynx spacecraft to be taken more than 100 km into space.

Commenting on how he sees space travel in 50 years’ time, Aldrin said: "We're already seeing commercial space travel become a reality and I think this will continue to grow and become less expensive as technology improves. I want to eventually see commercial flights that orbit the earth."

Asked what it takes to become an astronaut, Aldrin said one has to be "brave, enthusiastic and a team player. You also need to be mentally tough. Probably most important though is having a strong stomach! These are the exact attributes we'll be judging the Lynx contestants on when they come to space camp in Florida next year." — PTI