The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

S Korea violates China’s defence zone
Beijing rejects Seoul’s demand to repeal new air zone Softens stance on commercial planes

Tokyo/Seoul November 28
Japanese and South Korean military aircraft flew through disputed air space over the East China Sea without informing China, officials said today, challenging a new Chinese air defence zone that has increased regional tensions and sparked concerns of an unintended clash.

The move came after Tokyo’s close ally Washington defied China’s demand that airplanes flying through its unilaterally announced zone identify themselves to Chinese authorities, flying two unarmed B-52 bombers over the islands on Tuesday without informing Beijing. Tensions have ratcheted up since Beijing’s weekend announcement of the zone that includes the skies over islands at the heart of a feud between Japan and China, and its demand that planes flying in the area first notify the Chinese authorities.

Japan and the US have sharply criticised the move, which some experts said was aimed not only at chipping away at Tokyo’s control of the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, but also at challenging US dominance in the region.

The US does not take a position on the sovereignty of the islands, but recognises Tokyo’s administrative control and has assured Japan that the US-Japan security pact covers them. The developments are expected to dominate US Vice-President Joe Biden’s visit to Japan, China and South Korea next week.

China today rejected South Korea's demand for the repeal of the zone, but appeared to soften its demand that commercial aircraft tell its military authorities of any plans to transit the area.

Japan's two biggest airlines have already begun defying that order. “The East China Sea Air Defence Identification zone is not aimed at normal international flights. We hope that relevant countries’ airlines can proactively cooperate, so there is more order and safety for flights,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said naval ships and patrol planes had been operating in the East China Sea and would continue to do so.

“They are carrying out surveillance activity as before in the East China Sea, including the zone,” Suga said. — Reuters

No air defence zone along India-China border

Beijing: China on Thursday ruled out establishing an air defence zone along the India-China border like it recently did over the disputed islands in the East China Sea, saying such zones are created only in coastal areas beyond territorial airspace.

US questions China’s intentions

Washington: The Chinese move to establish an air defence zone not only causes friction and uncertainty, but also constitutes a unilateral change to the status quo in the region, which is already fraught. This is the message Vice-President Joe Biden would be conveying to the top Chinese leadership when he travels to Beijing next week, a top administration official said on Thursday. — PTI

Superseded, Pak army Gen quits
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Chief of Logistics Staff (CLS) Lieutenant-General Haroon Aslam, the senior-most general in the Pakistani army, on Wednesday resigned a day after he was superseded by his two juniors who were made the new Army chief and the Chairman Joint Chief of the Staff Committee.

Aslam has sent his resignation letter to Defence Ministry from the General Headquarters (GHQ), a senior government official said.

“He (Aslam) has opted for early retirement. This is an established practice,” the official said. Haroon Aslam was working as the principal staff officer (PSO) to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and was the senior-most officer after him. Lt Gen Aslam had also skipped the farewell dinner hosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday for the outgoing Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

(With PTI inputs)

Energy giant announces plan to outsource 1,400 Brit jobs to India

London, November 28
Energy giant npower has reportedly announced plans to outsource 1,400 British jobs to India, sparking outrage.

The supplier is also expected to outsource hundreds of other positions to another UK company apart from shutting down a UK call centre.

According to the Daily Express, the German company is expected to make an announcement soon amid speculation that around 2,000 jobs are under threat.

Sources said 1,400 back-office jobs will be offshored to India, while around 570 frontline positions will be transferred to another company.

Tory MP Stewart Jackson said more jobs to the United Kingdom should be encouraged as there was an adequately skilled workforce.

He said that it was disappointing that npower was not keeping jobs in the United Kingdom.

An npower spokesman said as announced earlier, npower had been undertaking a major review of sites, operations and people across the UK in a bid to improve customer service and keep costs down, at a time of external pressures on customers’ bills.

The German firm has made several cost-saving announcements after parent company RWE said 6,750 jobs would be cut across Europe, the report added. — ANI

Protesters reject Thai PM’s call for negotiations

Bangkok, November 28
Defiant Thai protesters today cut power supply to the national police headquarters, ignoring a plea by beleaguered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to end their anti-government rallies and negotiate after she emerged unscathed from a no-confidence debate.

Buoyed by her victory in Parliament, she considered an emergency decree to combat the defiance of thousands of protesters occupying ministries and government offices since Sunday in the biggest mass rallies in three years.

The protesters snapped the electricity supply to the national police headquarters, calling on the government to step down and replace it with an unelected “people's council”, a demand Yingluck said was impossible under the constitution.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Yingluck comfortably survived the no-confidence vote after lawmakers in the ruling party-dominated lower house overwhelmingly rejected the censure motion by 297-134 votes.

The censure motion was held after two days of showdown between the opposition Democrat Party and the ruling coalition led by Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party.

The opposition filed the motion alleging widespread corruption in the government and accusing Yingluck of acting as a puppet for her fugitive brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup in 2006. Yingluck denied the accusations and urged the protesters to end rallies in a televised national address after the vote.

“I propose to the protesters to stop protesting and leave government offices so the civil service can move forward,”she said. — PTI

PM survives trust vote

PM Yingluck on Thursday comfortably survived the no-confidence vote after lawmakers in the ruling party-dominated lower house overwhelmingly rejected the censure motion by 297-134 votes.

UN chief expresses concern

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised fears over attempts by Thailand’s opposition to bring down the government through worsening street protests. Ban "is concerned by the rising political tensions in Bangkok," said his spokesman Martin Nesirky on Wednesday. — AFP

US ‘spied’ on 2010 G20 summit

Toronto, November 28
Canadian authorities allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy in the country during the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario in 2010, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News reported, citing documents shared by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The national broadcaster’s website said the documents show that the NSA used the US Embassy in Ottawa as a command post for a nearly week-long spying operation while President Barack Obama and other foreign leaders were in Canada in June 2010.

The CBC reported that the documents don’t mention precise targets of the US spying operation but say that plans were “closely coordinated with the Canadian partner.”

The report yesterday did not publish the documents.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Jason MacDonald, yesterday said, “We do not comment on operational matters related to national security.” A spokeswoman for Canada's equivalent of the NSA, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, said they could not comment on the operations of Canada or its allies.

“Under the law, the CSEC does not target Canadians anywhere or any person in Canada through its foreign intelligence activities,” the spokeswoman, Lauri Sullivan, said. “The CSEC cannot ask our international partners to act in a way that circumvents Canadian laws."

“It's ... clear this spying was aimed at supporting US policy goals during a highly contentious summit," executive director Steve Anderson said. — AP

Taliban invoke Tendulkar to defend ‘martyr’ tag for militants

Sachin Tendulkar

Islamabad, November 28
The Pakistani Taliban have contended that those opposed to referring to dead militants as martyrs are like persons who do not want cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar to be praised because he is an Indian.

In a clip posted today on a video-sharing website, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid made the remarks while responding to criticism of Jamaat-e-Islam chief Munawar Hasan’s comments describing slain commander Hakimullah Mehsud as a ‘shaheed’ (martyr).

Shahid's remarks were initially mistaken by the media as a criticism of praise for Tendulkar, who recently bid farewell to international cricket. “Some people may say Tendulkar may be a very good player but don't talk about his greatness because that is against Pakistani nationhood. And these people say Misbah, even if he is a bad player, should be praised because he is a Pakistani. So those who are criticising Hasan are behaving like this,” he said.

Shahid made it clear he was using Tendulkar as an example while speaking about the media’s coverage of the controversy over the Jamaat chief’s statement describing Mehsud as a martyr. He was killed in a US drone strike. — PTI

Lanka begins civil war casualty count

Colombo, November 28
Sri Lanka, under global pressure over its human rights record, today launched a six-month census to count the number of casualties during the final phase of the brutal civil war against the LTTE in 2009.

Some 16,000 officials would gather information from 14,000 villages nationwide from today until December 20. “The government has nothing to hide. A lot of people have come out with various accusations with their own figures. We will come out with real facts,” PB Abeykoon, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration said.

Sri Lanka, since the end of the ethnic conflict four years ago, has faced accusations of ignoring international calls for accountability over alleged 40,000 civilian deaths.

Census chief DC A Gunawardena said, “The terrorist conflicts, political and any such conflicts that have occurred during 1982 and after wards are considered as internal conflicts for the purpose of this census.” — PTI

Nepali Congress stakes claim to form govt

Kathmandu, November 28
The Nepali Congress (NC), which emerged as the largest party in the Constituent Assembly polls, today staked claim to form Nepal’s new government, but said it was open to working with the CPN-UML to draft the constitution.

After the NC topped both the direct and proportionate voting systems, its president Sushil Koirala said it is natural that his party should lead the government.

He, however, told a private television channel that the NC will seek collaboration with the CPN-UML, the second largest party, and other political parties to draft the constitution.

“The constitution drafting is the most important task before us and we need to collaborate with other parties including the CPN-UML,” Koirala said.

He said he would try to forge consensus among parties to form the new government. “If consensus is not possible a majority government will be formed with the support of other political parties,” he said.

However, the issue of power-sharing figured when CPN-UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal met Koirala at his residence this evening and discussed the formation of the government, according to sources.

As no political party has got a clear majority to form a government on its own, a coalition is the only option available, analysts said. — PTI

Iran invites IAEA to visit nuclear site

Vienna, November 28
The UN atomic watchdog will probably need more money to verify the implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, its chief said today, and it would take some time to prepare for the task.

Yukiya Amano also said Iran had invited the agency to visit the Arak heavy-water production plant on December 8, the first concrete step under a new cooperation pact aimed at clarifying concerns about the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can mobilise expertise and staff from within the organisation for an increased workload in checking whether Iran is complying with the interim accord with the major powers to curb its nuclear programme, IAEA Director General Amano said.

He said, “This requires a significant amount of money and manpower ... I don't think we can cover everything by our own budget.” — Reuters

BRIEFLY

NASA to grow turnips on Moon by 2015
Washington: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is planning to grow plants and vegetables, such as turnip and basil, on the Moon, by 2015, to understand whether humans can live and work on the Earth's natural satellite. The US space agency will deposit plants, on-board a commercial lunar lander, on the Moon's surface within the next two years, NASA said. — PTI

Nepali Congress emerges as largest party in polls
Kathmandu: The Nepali Congress on Thursday emerged as the largest party in the Nepal's Constituent Assembly poll having topped in both the direct and proportionate voting systems. As the counting of votes under the proportionate voting system concluded, the Nepali Congress headed by Sushil Koirala has secured has secured 4,21,252 votes out of a total of 93,77,519 valid votes. — PTI

Malala declared Britain's most influential Asian
LonDon: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, has been named as Britain's most influential Asian by a weekly publication here. Malala was chosen for the Garavi Gujarat2 Leadership Awards 2013 on Wednesday. — PTI

Six killed, 30 injured in Syria clashes
Beirut: Rebels and loyalists clashed on two key fronts near Damascus, as a missile hit Raqa city in northern Syria early on Thursday, killing six persons and wounding 30, a monitor said. The frontline battles raged around the Qalamoun area where rebels are fighting to break a year-long siege, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. — AFP

56 women killed in Pak for giving birth to girls
Lahore: A total of 56 women have been killed in Pakistan this year for giving birth to a girl, a rights body has said. According to statistics, From January 2012 to September 2013, there were also 90 acid attacks on women, 72 cases of burning caused by other means, 491 cases of domestic violence, 344 cases of gang rape and 835 cases of violence against women in the country. — PTI

Mumbai firm buys prime diplomatic property in UK
London/Mumbai: Mumbai-based realty firm Lodha Developers have reportedly bought the iconic Macdonald House in central London, which currently houses the Canadian High Commission, for a whopping Rs 3,200 crore. In a move that could net the Canadian Government more than £250 million, estate agents Savills UK was instructed to sell the building at 1, Grosvenor Square back in September. — PTI

Indian-origin UK slave owner claimed he was Jesus
LoNdon: The Indian-origin head of an extremist Maoist sect, accused of enslaving three women in his home here for 30 years, tried to convince his British followers he was Jesus Christ, a former activist has claimed. Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, is also accused of persuading his followers to hand over thousands of pounds for the revolutionary cause. — PTI

Car bombings, attacks across Iraq kill 29
Baghdad: Three car bombs exploded at outdoor markets and on a street full of shops near Iraq’s capital, the deadliest of a series of attacks across the country that killed at least 29 persons on Thursday, officials said. Authorities said that all blasts happened in a five-minute period. — PTI