• 100 new courts to try corrupt in Pak
• Court to hear PML petitions on Dec 6
• Harkat: second Kargil campaign after snow melts
• ‘No change’ in UK policy towards Pak

Six new planets detected
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 30 — Astronomers scanning distant stars have detected six more massive planets, five of which orbit their suns at just the right distance to support liquid water and — theoretically — life, scientists have announced.

Castro shuns Seattle
HAVANA, Nov 30 — Cuba’s President Fidel Castro has announced he was shunning a World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Seattle and accused US authorities of backing a Cuban exile “plot’’ to have him arrested on US soil.

China joins US military exercises
BEIJING, Nov 30 — The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of China has sent a missile frigate and helicopter to join the joint search and rescue exercises with the United States forces and Hong Kong officers, which commenced today.

India to buy Amur sub from Russia
WASHINGTON, Nov 30 — India will buy from Russia one ‘Amur 1650’, the fourth-generation diesel submarine worth $ 350 million and build two more under the broad bilateral technology transfer agreement between the two countries, Defense News reported.

Sharif’s brother sent to jail

KARACHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) — A Pakistani court today remanded the brother of ousted Premier Nawaz Sharif and two ex-aides in prison until Saturday when they and Mr Sharif are expected to be charged with hijacking, a hanging offence.

The anti-terrorism court rejected a prosecution demand that the three be kept in police custody for further questioning.

The allegations stem from an incident on October 12, only hours before the military led by the army chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf, overthrew the Sharif government in a bloodless coup.

Attempts had allegedly been made to divert a plane bringing General Musharraf and 200 other passengers here from Sri Lanka.

The three remanded in judicial custody are Mr Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab province until the coup, Mr Saifur Rehman, former anti-corruption czar, and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s former Principal Secretary, Saeed Mehdi.

Criminal conspiracy and attempted murder charges may also be laid, but the hijacking charge would be the most serious allegation because it can carry a death sentence.

The top prosecutor in the case, Mr Raja Qureshi, said yesterday the trial would last a maximum of seven days.

Pakistan has executed a former Prime Minister before, hanging Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979 during the regime of the last military ruler, Gen Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, on a disputed conviction of conspiring to commit political murder.

100 new courts to try corrupt in Pak

ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (AP) — The Pakistan’s army-led government will establish 100 new courts to try the corrupt and those people who have delinquent bank loans, military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf said today.

"We will recover the looted money and loans from the corrupt people and punish them for their deeds," the state-owned news agency quoted General Musharraf as saying.

"I want to tell you the truth. Corrupt people have looted this country mercilessly," he was quoted as saying. "The treasury is empty and foreign exchange reserves are declining," he said.

The new courts were being established with the exclusive purpose of bringing the corrupt to justice, he said.

Recovering bank loans and illicit wealth was one of the first promises made by General Musharraf after the military took power from the deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, accusing his administration of runaway corruption that had driven the country to economic ruin.

Already some of the country’s wealthiest have been arrested. The arrests began two weeks ago when the new administration launched a crackdown to recover nearly $ 4 billion in outstanding bank loans. Barely one-thirds of that has been recovered.

The General also introduced a tough new anti-corruption law that established the National Accountability Bureau, with sweeping powers of investigation and arrest. The same law also allowed for the establishment of special courts with the express purpose of trying the corrupt and those who have defaulted on bank loans.

The same law also bars anyone found guilty of either corruption or defaulting on a loan from participating in politics for 21 years. It also provides a jail term of up to 14 years.

The previous law provided a seven year suspension from politics and a five year jail term.

Also today Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told reporters that 5,000 people, suspected of corruption or of not repaying bank loans, had been barred from leaving Pakistan.

Court to hear PML petitions on Dec 6

ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (PTI) — The Pakistan Supreme Court will hear on Monday (Dec 6) two petitions filed by deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party challenging the military take-over and two others seeking endorsement of the Musharraf regime.

Chief Justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui after examining three petitions decided to take up the matter on December 6 and ordered issuance of notice to the Attorney-General (AG), official APP news agency reported today.

The apex court has already issued notice to the AG on the fourth petition filed by an independent lawyer.

The Chief Justice is expected to constitute a Bench this week only to hear the petitions, sources said.

Two of the petitions filed by independent lawyers have supported the military take-over by Gen Pervez Musharraf and urged the apex court to endorse his regime.

Speaker of the suspended National Assembly Ilahi Bux Soomro and 11 others have filed a joint petition on behalf of PML pleading the court to declare the military take-over as unconstitutional and illegal.

PML leader Syed Zafar Ali Shah has filed a petition separately challenging the take-over.

The extensive 90-page petition filed by the PML through the former Law Minister Khalid Anwar challenged the authority of General Musharraf to rule Pakistan and pleaded with the apex court to restore the democratically elected Sharif government.

The petition described General Musharraf as an authority, "unknown to the laws of Pakistan", arguing that the proclamation of Emergency and issuance of provisional Constitution order by the General was, "violative of the fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan".

The petition of Mr Zafar Ali Shah also challenged the army action describing it as, "immoral, illegal and unconstitutional" which amounts to, "subvert and abrogate the Constitution" and demanded the restoration of the government.

But on the other hand, Supreme Court lawyer Habib Wahabul Kheiri in his independent petition only challenged the provisional constitutional order issued by General after assuming charge as the Chief Executive saying that it was violative to the judicial independence but he endorsed the military take-over.

Syed Iqbal Haider, another independent lawyer, in his petition also supported the army take-over and has pleaded with the apex court to declare it as valid. He, however, urged the judges to take fresh oath under provisional constitutional order.

Harkat: second Kargil campaign after snow melts

ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (PTI) — A leading Pakistan-based militant outfit has announced that its "Mujahideens" would once again capture the Kargil heights immediately after the winter in another bid to "liberate Kashmir from the control of India".

"Second Kargil campaign" would be undertaken after snow melts there, Harkatul Mujahideen said, according to Urdu dailies, Pakistan and Khabrain’.

Harkatul Mujahideen, earlier known as Harkatul Ansar, changed its name after being declared as a terrorist organisation by the USA.

"Immediately after the snow melts there (Kargil) another setback would be inflicted on India," the Harkat Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khaleel was quoted as saying during a press conference in the PoK town of Hazira.

Khaleel criticised the Nawaz Sharif for withdrawing from Kargil last July and said that the deposed Prime Minister is now paying the price for that.

Another militant group Lashkar-Toiba, also involved in the Kargil incursions, threatened to spread "jehad" (holy war) all over India.

‘No change’ in UK policy towards Pak

LONDON, Nov 30 (PTI) — Britain said today it continued to oppose the Army Regime in Islamabad as “anything else would amount to giving the green signal to military coups the world over” and urged India and other countries to help establish a democratic and peaceful new state in Pakistan.

“There is no change in our policy at all. We have taken a principled stand and continue to do that in opposing the military coup,” Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain told PTI.

“To do anything else would amount to giving the green signal to military coups the world over,” Mr Hain said.

Mr Hain’s clarification came in the wake of reports attributed to him in the Sunday Telegraph that in a major policy shift, Britain was ready to begin talks with Pakistan if the military regime gave “uncompromising commitments” towards building a new democracy.

Mr Hain had condemned the military coup in Pakistan during his recent visit to India.

US diplomat detained for spying

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (Reuters, AFP) — Russia’s FSB Security Service today denied that its spy accusations against a US diplomat were a response to charges in the USA against a navy officer accused of passing secrets to Moscow.

“First and foremost, this is no kind of response,” FSB spokesman Alexander Zdanovich told NTV television in an interview. “I think that concept comes from the lexicon of the cold war period, when the tit-for-tat principle was in effect.”

The FSB said earlier today it had detained the diplomat after catching her red-handed attempting to obtain state military secrets from a Russian citizen. She had been briefly held in the presence of a US Consul and then turned over to the US Embassy.

The embassy has declined to comment, but did confirm that the diplomat, named in Russian media reports as Ms Cheri Leberknight, was an employee in the political section.

Mr Zdanovich said the operation that resulted in the diplomat’s detention was previously planned, and that the timing, the same day as an announcement in the USA that a US navy code breaker was being charged with passing secrets to Moscow, was “a coincidence”.

“We did not even know about the statements that would appear in the US Press about some kind of person who allegedly worked for the Russian side,” he said.

Earlier US military officials said a US navy Petty Officer was charged this month with giving secret US defence information to Russia in 1994.

Petty Officer Daniel King (40) was charged on one count of disclosing classified information and a second, more serious count of releasing national security information to a foreign government, said US Navy Commander Greg Smith.

King — who has served in the US navy for 18 years — is in military custody in Quantico, Virginia, awaiting a military hearing which should take place in a few weeks, Smith said. He was formally charged on November 5.

US military officials believe King gave defence-related intelligence information to Russia, but one official stressed that there is “no evidence to suggest ongoing” espionage and that King’s actions appear to have been limited to a single event in 1994.

WASHINGTON: The USA urged Russia yesterday to fulfil commitments given at the OSCE summit in Istanbul, after Moscow again ruled out OSCE mediation in the conflict in Chechnya.

“We hope and expect that Russia will live up to the agreements reached during the Istanbul summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on November 19”, State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters.

At the Istanbul summit, Moscow had said that OSCE chief, Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek would be able to visit the Caucasus region, but had ruled out foreign mediation in the Chechnya conflict as unacceptable interference in Russia’s domestic affairs.

Mr Vollebaek left Moscow late yesterday without fixing a date for an OSCE mission to the region. The Russians had apparently been offended when officials admitted earlier in the day that Mr Vollebaek had already contacted Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov over the North Caucasus crisis.

Moscow “does not need mediation to resolve this problem,” Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said bluntly during a joint press conference with Mr Vollebaek earlier yesterday.

Six new planets detected

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 30 (Reuters) — Astronomers scanning distant stars have detected six more massive planets, five of which orbit their suns at just the right distance to support liquid water and — theoretically — life, scientists have announced.

The discoveries, announced yesterday, brought to 28 the total number of so-called extrasolar planets found over the past five years as astronomers survey hundreds of stars similar to the earth’s sun for signs that they may have planets in tow.

Each set of new discoveries helps to hone scientific theories about the development of our own solar system and the possibility that earth-like planets may be found.

“Planet hunting is a lot like making wine,” said Steven Vogt of the University of California-Santa Cruz, one of the team of astronomers collecting and analysing data provided by Hawaii’s Keck I telescope, the sharpest optical telescope in the world.

“You have got to plant the grapes, you have got to be patient, and at some point they ripen and are ready for harvest,” Vogt said. “We have a lot of star systems that we have been looking at, and now are ready for harvest.”

None of the new planets unveiled yesterday are anything like the earth. Instead, they are gaseous giants ranging in size from slightly smaller to several times larger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our own solar system.

And, like Jupiter, they were seen as extremely inhospitable to life themselves — made up of swirling masses of helium and hydrogen gasses.

But five out of the six are in what astronomers call the “habitable zone” which could allow the existence of liquid water, a prerequisite for life. This makes them different from most of the extrasolar planets found before this, which have been either too hot or too cold.

“That five out of six of these things are in the habitable zones of their stars shows it is not an accident,” Vogt said, noting that planetary temperatures could range from —38° to 112° Fahrenheit (-39° to 44° Celsius).

Besides Vogt, the discovery team also included Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California-Berkeley, Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington D.C. and Kevin Apps of the University of Sussex.

Castro shuns Seattle

HAVANA, Nov 30 (Reuters) — Cuba’s President Fidel Castro has announced he was shunning a World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Seattle and accused US authorities of backing a Cuban exile “plot’’ to have him arrested on US soil.

The announcement yesterday, made in the form of a public letter to a US Democrat Congressman who had invited him to the US city, ended days of intense media speculation about the possible participation of the veteran Cuban leader in the WTO meeting.

In the letter addressed to representative Jim McDermott of Washington state, Mr Castro cited moves by extreme right-wing Cuban exiles in the USA to have him arrested by US police for “murder” once he sets foot on US territory.

He made clear that any such attempt to detain him by force in Seattle would have “inevitably” resulted in a bloody armed conflict between Cuba and the USA.

Mr Castro bluntly accused the US Government of condoning and even supporting the moves to obtain his arrest, which stemmed from a 1996 incident in which a Cuban MiG fighter shot down two small US planes, killing four Cuban exile pilots.

“Without doubt, a plot was being planned against my trip to Seattle with the support of the Department of State,” Mr Castro said in the 6-page letter, dated November 29, which was distributed to foreign correspondents in Havana.

He had been widely expected to use the major international event to denounce the long-running US economic embargo against Communist-ruled Cuba and also to proclaim his well-known opposition to the world capitalist system.

“I was certain the State Department would not grant me the visa. For that reason, I did not even bother to request it. I didn’t want to be submitted to that humiliation,” he said.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin, who said earlier that the authorities had received no visa request from the Cuban leader, declined to comment on Mr Castro’s charge that he had been discouraged from attending the event.

In his letter, the 73-year-old Cuban leader made clear he had been intending to take part in the Seattle summit and had received many requests from institutions and personalities for interviews and speaking appearances.

Meanwhile Anti-trade protesters have seized the limelight ahead of a global trade meeting in Seattle, smashing windows at a McDonald’s restaurant, marching through downtown, and putting delegates from around the world on the defensive.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting was thrown into confusion before it had even started as a security scare kept delegates and reporters out of the cavernous convention centre where it was to be held for 5-1/2 hours early yesterday.

Indian to head UN force in Sierra Leone

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 (Reuters) — Major Gen. Vijay Kumar Jetley will head a 6,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force being deployed in Sierra Leone, the United Nations said yesterday.

The 55-year-old General who has been commanding an infantry division on India’s western frontier, will take up his new duties next week.

Earlier in his career, Gen Jetley served as a sector commander in southern Iran with the U.N. Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group that monitored a cease-fire immediately after the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The Security Council voted unanimously on October 22 to establish the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to help implement a July peace accord aimed at ending a brutal eight-year civil war in the west African country.

A large part of UNAMSIL will comprise of troops from a Nigerian-led west African peacekeeping force called ECOMOG which helped restore the elected government of Sierra Leone to power in 1998 and will be responsible for security in areas where it is stationed, including around Freetown, the capital.

China joins US military exercises

BEIJING, Nov 30 (PTI) — The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of China has sent a missile frigate and helicopter to join the joint search and rescue exercises with the United States forces and Hong Kong officers, which commenced today.

Five US military aircraft, including a P3C Orion maritime surveillance plane are taking part in the four-day exercise in South China sea off the coast of Kong Kong, media reports here said.

Diplomatic analysts said the PLA’s decision to join the exercise could be a positive signal to Washington that China is willing to resume normal military contacts with it, which remained suspended after NATO planes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May last year.

Confirming Chinese military participation in the exercises, the official Xinhua news agency reported last night that the PLA Hong Kong garrison would take part in the drill at the request of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government.

PLA garrison spokesman Feng Wei said the purpose of the exercise is to familiarise the troops with the sea and air space and to enhance contact and coordination with the SAR government and concerned organisations.

It is the second time the PLA garrison is taking part in a joint exercise of this kind since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

India to buy Amur sub from Russia

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (PTI) — India will buy from Russia one ‘Amur 1650’, the fourth-generation diesel submarine worth $ 350 million and build two more under the broad bilateral technology transfer agreement between the two countries, Defense News reported.

A senior Indian navy official told the weekly that the country’s navy will place the order after an in-depth technical evaluation of the submarine type.

If a decision is made to go forward with the deal, he said, the submarine could be built in Mazagon Docks in Mumbai, under licence. The submarine will be capable of anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, mine-laying and special forces deployment, the weekly said yesterday, adding that at present, the Indian Navy’s submarine fleet includes 10 kilo class submarines four HDW class submarines and six Foxtrot class submarines.

Among the worst
LONDON: Britain’s government-funded National Health Service (NHS) is among the worst in the developed world because of lack of money and competition, according to a new report released on Monday. It has one of the worst survival rates for heart disease and cancer, the leading killers in the developed world, and spends a smaller proportion of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on its health service than most of its European neighbours. — Reuters

China’s first condom ad
BEIJING: China’s state-run television has for the first time aired public service advertisements extolling the preventative virtues of the condom against the deadly HIV virus, the official media has reported. While condoms are the leading form of birth control in China, with a wide assortment of brands available over-the-counter and provided free to employees of government firms, sexually related topics remain a taboo among the majority of the Chinese people. — DPA

Man at his own funeral
BANGKOK: Mourners took to their heels and Buddhist monks performing the last rites froze when a Thai man turned up at his own funeral, the police said on Monday. A mix-up over a tattoo led the mother of missing 26-year-old odd job labourer Suvicha Saengmanee to retrieve a partly decomposed corpse from a police station thinking it was him. The funeral, in southern Nakorn Sithammarat, was held on Sunday, only to be interrupted by the real Suvicha’s surprise return. — Reuters

Starbucks Corp sued
NEW YORK: A Canadian tourist who claims that his penis was crushed by a faulty toilet seat at a Starbucks Corp restaurant has sued the giant coffee retailer for $1.5 million, his attorney said on Monday. “Our client, Edward Skwarek, was in a seated position on the toilet when he turned to retrieve the toilet paper in the back of the seat when the seat shifted causing his penis to be caught and crushed between the seat and the bowl,’’ said Richard Robbins, the lawyer for Skwarek, 37, of Toronto. — Reuters

Party apologises
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s Labour Party, which was elected to power in Saturday’s general election, has apologised to an Auckland man after its president lowered his pants and presented his backside to him, news reports said on Tuesday. Party president Bob Harvey, an administrator admitted to the New Zealand Herald that he had carried out the act to a long-time opponent when they had an argument in the street. — DPA

15 die in accident
BEIJING: At least 15 persons were killed when their overcrowded passenger bus ran off a highway bridge and plunged 33 metres into a river in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, state media reported on Tuesday. — DPA