W O R L D

Gore to file last-ditch appeal
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 — Despite the severe battering he received in two courts, Democrat Al Gore today prepared to file a last-ditch appeal before the Florida Supreme Court for an immediate recount of 14,000 votes which he thinks will carry him past his Republican rival George W. Bush in the US presidential elections.

Protect Pandits from ultra attacks: Pallone
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 — A leading Congressman who has been championing the cause of Kashmiri Pandits has called on both India and Pakistan to protect the minority Hindu community in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir from continuing assaults.

39 Fiji soldiers charged with mutiny
SUVA, Dec 5 — The Fijian military today charged 39 rebel soldiers with mutiny over a failed uprising at Suva’s Queen Elizabeth barracks in November in which eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded.

Oxford asked to relax norms for Sultan’s son
LONDON, Dec 5 — The reputation of Oxford as a centre of academic excellence is being undermined by British government officials who want the university to relax its entry requirements for the son of the Sultan of Brunei.

Estrada’s mistresses to be questioned
MANILA, Dec 5 — President Joseph Estrada’s mistresses are to be called as witnesses at his forthcoming Senate corruption trial, exposing them to a “humiliating” ordeal, a prosecutor said today.

‘Kursk’ exploded, claims diver
PARKVILLE, Dec 5 — the only American on the recovery team of the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk has said the damage he saw convinced him the vessel was doomed by an explosion.

Sans bet, the British don’t care
LONDON, Dec 5 — You bet, this time it wasn’t protests but boredom that threatened to kill the Miss World contest in the UK, the bookies say! For, the contest held in London last week where Miss India Priyanka Chopra bagged the crown, drew the lowest betting ever for such an event. And you can be sure when the British don’t bet, they don’t care.

Gore to file last-ditch appeal

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 — Despite the severe battering he received in two courts, Democrat Al Gore today prepared to file a last-ditch appeal before the Florida Supreme Court for an immediate recount of 14,000 votes which he thinks will carry him past his Republican rival George W. Bush in the US presidential elections.

In a devastating blow he received late last night, the US Supreme Court vacated the Florida Supreme Court’s decision giving five extra days for hand counting disputed votes and asked the state high court for clarification — a polite way of criticising its decision.

In the other setback, a state circuit court Judge N. Sanders Sauls rejected the Vice-President’s legal arguements denying his urgent request for manual recounts in Florida and reaffirmed Texas Governor Bush’s slender state-wide victory.

“They won. We lost. We’re appealing,” Gore’s lawyer David Boies said after the Florida circuit court decision.

Mori inducts two ex-PMs in reshuffle

TOKYO, Dec 5 (Reuters) — In a move aimed at bolstering his shaky government, unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori today tapped former Premier Ryutaro Hashimoto for a post in his new Cabinet.

The surprise move is intended to boost the embattled Prime Minister’s chances of keeping his job at least until March, when the Budget for the next fiscal year is expected to be enacted.

But analysts said it would be tough to erase deep doubts about Mr Mori’s ability to lead at a critical time as the world’s second-largest economy struggles to stay on a recovery track.

“It is not clear whether the new Cabinet can make the bold shift towards fiscal and structural reforms needed to ease public doubts about the future,” said Prof Toshiro Ihori of University of Tokyo. “It depends on Mr Mori’s leadership.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda announced the new ministers.

Mr Hashimoto will become minister in charge of administrative reform, a post that puts him in charge of implementing a sweeping reform of government ministries that takes effect from January.

The outspoken, dapper Hashimoto stepped down as Prime Minister two years ago after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered a mauling in an Upper House election.

During his tenure, Mr Hashimoto raised taxes and tightened spending only to see the economy slip back into recession. He is the head of the biggest faction in the multi-group LDP.

One of Japan’s most unpopular Prime Ministers ever, Mr Mori hopes his new Cabinet will boost both his image and his chances of staying in power until an Upper House election set for July.

A prolonged Mori government would disappoint many Japanese voters, who see him as an embarrassment, and investors in Japan’s financial markets, who view him as incapable of implementing the sort of economic reforms needed to foster long-term growth and tackle a public debt already the worst among advanced nations.

The grand old man of Japanese politics, Kiichi Miyazawa, 81, retained his Finance Ministry portfolio, meaning the new Cabinet has two former Prime Ministers.

Veteran Foreign Minister Yohei Kono — sometimes tipped as a possible successor to Mr Mori — also kept his post.

As expected, LDP coalition partners — the New Komeito Party and the tiny New Conservative Party got one seat each.

But Mr Mori suffered a blow earlier when Economic Planning Agency chief Taichi Sakaiya told reporters he was sticking to his stated intention not to take a position in the new Cabinet.

Sakaiya — an author and commentator first tapped for his post by late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in 1998 — has been a powerful spokesman for the government’s economic policies.

Mr Mori, tapped by LDP barons in April for the top spot after his predecessor suffered a fatal stroke, has seen his popularity plummet after a string of verbal blunders and the resignation of two scandal-hit Cabinet ministers.

Former Defence Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, 56, — a member of Mr Hashimoto’s faction — will be the Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister, a position that effectively replaces the Economic Planning Minister.

Hakuo Yanagisawa, 65, a former finance bureaucrat who won top marks from foreign investors for his tough approach in cleaning up Japan’s banking system as the head of the Financial Reconstruction Committee, becomes the Financial Services Minister.

Protect Pandits from ultra attacks: Pallone
From Aziz Haniffa

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 — A leading Congressman who has been championing the cause of Kashmiri Pandits has called on both India and Pakistan to protect the minority Hindu community in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir from continuing assaults.

Expressing his satisfaction with Pakistan’s response to India’s month-long ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir during the Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, Congressman Frank Pallone, former co-chairman of the India Caucus, told Ms Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USA, in a letter that her government should accept India’s ceasefire call.

In another letter to Ms Lodhi, Mr Pallone praised Pakistan Foreign Secretary Inamul Haque’s weekend announcement that Pakistani troops deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir “will observe maximum restraint”.

Mr Pallone said Pakistan’s actions, along with the willingness of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the umbrella organisation of Kashmiri separatist groups, to hold talks with India, were positive signs for peace in Kashmir, but warned that there could be no peace till Hindus and Sikhs in the state continued to be victims of violence by secessionist groups.

“It’s a sad commentary that in the middle of what could be positive developments for the future of Kashmir, the Hindus and Sikhs continue to fall victims to violence. I call upon both governments to implement measures that will contain the violence against these minority groups”, Mr Pallone wrote in his letters to Ms Lodhi and Mr Naresh Chandra, India’s envoy in Washington.

He noted in particular the December 1 attack on four sleeping Hindu children between the ages of three and 15 years, who were shot and killed in a remote mountain village. “This is the third attack on Kashmiri Pandits in less than a week since India declared a ceasefire. Now that Pakistan has agreed to the ceasefire and the All-Party Hurriyat Conference may hold talks with India, these attacks should cease. Otherwise, no one will believe that Kashmir holds any future for religious toleration”, he said.

Pallone praised Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for sticking with the Ramzan ceasefire despite pressures at home. “The Prime Minister has told me many times that he cares for the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits, and understands that there will never be peace in Kashmir unless they can live in their homes without fear,” he said.

The Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF), the premier lobbying group in the USA on behalf of the Pandits, was far less sanguine than Mr Pallone and said Vajpayee’s unilateral ceasefire was an exercise in appeasement to the militant groups.

“The Indian Prime Minister’s announcement of an unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan appears to be a reconciliatory gesture towards Muslim militants”, Mr Vijay Sazawal, international coordinator for the IAKF, told India Abroad News Service.

“The Indian government, however, is ill-advised seeking a political dialogue with only Kashmir Muslims, while ignoring that Kashmir Pandits too are suffering and need to be part of the same political process”, he warned.

Mr Sazawal also complained that New Delhi’s continuing emphasis on seeking a settlement with perpetuators of terrorism and mayhem in Kashmir, while ignoring the needs and demands of the victims of terrorism, was unfortunate and unwise. — IANS

39 Fiji soldiers charged with mutiny

SUVA, Dec 5 (Reuters) — The Fijian military today charged 39 rebel soldiers with mutiny over a failed uprising at Suva’s Queen Elizabeth barracks in November in which eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded.

The soldiers from the elite Counter-Revolutionary Warfare unit will face a military court martial in February and could be sentenced to death if found guilty, army legal adviser Lieut-Col Ratu Etueni Caucau said.

“The soldiers have been given an opportunity to consult their legal advisers because of the seriousness of the extent of the penalty, especially when the form of death penalty is dictated by the military court,” he told reporters.

The soldiers could also face charges of murder, assault, damage of property and unlawful possession of weapons.

The rebel soldiers stormed the armoury and took charge of the barracks on November 2, but lost control of the compound six hours later after a gunbattle with more than 60 soldiers loyal to Fiji’s military Commander Frank Bainimarama.

Some special force soldiers are believed to be among the gunmen who took over parliament on May 19 in a coup which led to the ousting of the country’s first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry.

Ten rebel soldiers who escaped during the barracks gunfight were hunted down by the military, with the remaining giving themselves up at the barracks two weeks later.

Lieutenant-Colonel Caucau said the court martial would reveal if other key army personnel or civilians were also involved. The police is investigating claims that Fijian chiefs and former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka instigated the uprising.

Coup leader and failed businessman George Speight is on a prison island off Suva awaiting trial for treason, with a court hearing tomorrow expected to set a trial date.

Oxford asked to relax norms for Sultan’s son

LONDON, Dec 5 (IANS) — The reputation of Oxford as a centre of academic excellence is being undermined by British government officials who want the university to relax its entry requirements for the son of the Sultan of Brunei.

According to Britain’s Sunday Express newspaper, a Foreign Office official has told one of the Oxford colleges, Magdalen, that Prime Minister Tony Blair was “personally concerned” that the Sultan of Brunei’s 18-year-old son, Prince Azim, might not be accepted for a course of study.

Sunday night a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office at 10 Downing Street in London, however, said: “Any suggestion that we in any way sought to influence the college’s decision is completely false.”

Oxford and Cambridge universities have long been regarded as training grounds for the best and the brightest from all over the world. Oxford’s alumni have included the likes of late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, US President Bill Clinton and cricket legends like Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Late Indian president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a much-loved and highly respected Oxford professor.

The love affair between India’s ruling establishment and Oxford was reconfirmed last month when Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh announced a £ 1.8 million grant to Oxford to fund the first Chair of Indian Studies.

Although the Foreign Office has formally denied any attempt to influence the admission policy of Magdalen College, an anonymous college tutor was quoted by the newspaper as confirming the approach by government officials. The tutor is also quoted as saying that the college had seen a sample of Prince Azim’s work and concluded “he didn’t really have much hope of getting a place.”

“We then had an approach from an old college member now working at the Foreign Office who said that the Foreign Office was concerned that he should get in. He said the Prime Minister was personally concerned because relations were in a rather sensitive state with the Sultan of Brunei. I was astounded by the government’s hypocrisy.”

The sultan is the world’s third richest man and one of Britain’s staunchest allies. During the last sterling crisis more than a decade ago he helped the British Government by moving his vast cash assets to Britain to help shore up the falling international value of the pound.

4 LTTE rebels die as army repulses attack

COLOMBO, Dec 5 (PTI, Reuters) — The LTTE today launched an abortive attack on a key bridge guarded by the Sri Lankan army in which the rebels lost four of their cadres, an army spokesman said.

Tigers fired at the defences protecting the bridge near Thoppur in eastern Trincomalee district which was repulsed by the army. In the ensuing encounter four Tigers were killed, Brig Sanath Karunaratne said. The bridge was partially damaged, he said, adding that a soldier and a civilian suffered injuries and all four bodies had been recovered.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting erupted in northern Sri Lanka today as government troops launched a fresh offensive against the rebels.

Military officials said troops advanced down a key highway in the northern Jaffna peninsula in their first operation since rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran offered last week to talk unconditionally to the government.

Estrada’s mistresses to be questioned

MANILA, Dec 5 (AFP) — President Joseph Estrada’s mistresses are to be called as witnesses at his forthcoming Senate corruption trial, exposing them to a “humiliating” ordeal, a prosecutor said today.

Estrada left the 11-member House of Representatives prosecution team no choice after he blocked a request to inspect a number of lavish homes he allegedly built for the women, prosecutor Oscar Moreno told reporters.

The tribunal’s presiding officer, Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, ruled yesterday that a ruling on prosecutors’ bid to gather evidence from the houses would be “deferred until the appropriate time” during the trial.

Estrada’s lawyers also opposed any inspection, calling the request a propaganda stunt. The President has pleaded with the Press to leave his extended family out of his political problems.

‘Kursk’ exploded, claims diver

PARKVILLE, Dec 5 (AP) — the only American on the recovery team of the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk has said the damage he saw convinced him the vessel was doomed by an explosion.

“As far as I’m concerned it exploded,” Mr Don Degener (48) told AP from his suburban Kansas City home. “From what I saw, it was obvious it exploded.”

A Russian commission has failed to determine the cause of the disaster, saying that it was a collision with a foreign submarine or a World War II mine or an internal malfunction in the Kursk’s forward torpedo room.

Sans bet, the British don’t care

LONDON, Dec 5 (IANS) —You bet, this time it wasn’t protests but boredom that threatened to kill the Miss World contest in the UK, the bookies say!

For, the contest held in London last week where Miss India Priyanka Chopra bagged the crown, drew the lowest betting ever for such an event. And you can be sure when the British don’t bet, they don’t care.

A spokeswoman for bookmakers, William Hill, told IANS that betting hit an all-time low of£ 2,570 on the eve of the event. The bookmakers spent a lot more money researching the beauties to determine the odds.

“We will have to think whether we are going to open the books for next year’s competition,” the spokeswoman said.

The lack of interest in betting reflected very low media coverage for the event. It was broadcast live in the UK on what a columnist called the “cheap and cheerful” Channel 5. But the other main TV channels didn’t want to know and their viewers didn’t either. ITV dropped the competition in 1988, and hasn’t picked it up again.

The contest that started in 1951 in London is thus facing its second demise, having been driven out once in 1988 by a wave of feminist protest.

That protest also pushed the British media into switching off the contest.

But it all came back last year when Yukta Mookhey carried the crown. This year too, the protesters appeared, about 150 or so of them. This time too Miss India emerged victorious. Little surprise then that some tabloid newspapers dubbed the event the‘‘Miss Windia’’ contest!

In the seventies, before the event left the UK, betting over Miss World was in the region of a quarter of a million pounds or so.

Proof that betting matters is evident from other events. This year bets worth about half-a-billion pounds were placed on the football championships and an equal amount on the US presidential election. The two achieved some sort of tie in popular ratings. And of course Miss World could not hope to beat betting on the weather.

It did not help that Miss England stood hardly a chance of winning. It did not help either that the Miss England contest is now a tacky little event that few people ever hear of within the UK. Finally it didn’t help that it was held at the Millennium Dome — few in the UK want to know the Dome any more.

WORLD BRIEFS

Lanka Editor’s conviction upheld
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a newspaper Editor for defaming the President, but the journalist was out of the country monitoring elections in the West Indies. The court dismissed an appeal by Sinha Ratnatunga, Editor of the Sunday Times newspaper, against a 1997 judgement by a lower court which had given him a two-year suspended prison sentence. Ratnatunga had been charged with criminal defamation for writing suggestive remarks in a Sunday Times gossip column about President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s private life. — Reuters

Conception ‘more likely’ in spring
JERUSALEM: Research carried out at a Jerusalem hospital indicates women are more likely to conceive in the spring, Israeli doctors said. The study, at Hadassa — Ein Kerem Hospital, has found that human fertility can be influenced by the seasons. Women undergoing artificial insemination treatment were least likely to conceive in the autumn, Dr Nathan Rodshanski said. — DPA

Mars may have been land of lakes
WASHINGTON: Mars may have been a land of lakes in its earliest period, with layers of earth-like sedimentary rock that could harbour the fossils of any ancient Martian life, scientists reported. NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft captured images with its Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) of apparent sediments in craters and chasms that look very much like the earth. The images and scientific findings will be published in Friday’s Science journal. — Reuters

Man’s oldest ancestor’s fossils found
NAIROBI: A team of French and Kenyan scientists has unearthed fossilised remains of mankind’s oldest ancestor that predate previous discoveries by more than 1.5 million years. “Millennium man”, as the hominid creature has been nicknamed, was discovered in the Tugen hills of Kenya’s Baringo district on October 25 by a team from College de France in Paris and the Community Museums of Kenyan, they said on Monday.

World’s oldest man dead
OKLAHOMA CITY: A 111-year-old Oklahoma farmer recognised last May as the world’s oldest man by the Guinness Book of World Records has died in a nursing home, a spokesman for the home said on Monday. Benjamin Harrison Holocmb died peacefully in bed on Saturday as his daughter Leona Ford, 84, sat by his side, Brent Busby of the Carnegie Nursing Home said. — Reuters

Paedophile gets 40-yr jail term
SINGAPORE: A paedophile with a “wicked mind” who performed oral sex on eight young boys was sentenced to a record 40-year jail term for what the Singapore court described as “abhorrent” offences, it was reported on Tuesday. Judicial Commissioner Tay Yong Kwang said society should be protected from the likes of Adam Darsin, a 32-year-old deliveryman who lured youngsters to his flat with promises of playing video games, The Straits Times said. — DPA

Israel bans cropping of dogs’ tails, ears
JERUSALEM: The unsteady Israeli Knesset passed a law on Monday prohibiting the cropping of ears or tails of pure-bred dogs “for aesthetic reasons”. The Bill passed by a vast majority under the reasoning that the Jewish way forbids causing pain to any living being, provides a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment for offenders. Israel joins several European countries which have similar laws. — DPA

Chinese suicide bomber kills 3
BEIJING: A suicide bomber killed himself and two others after he was blocked by guards at the gate of a hotel in China’s central Hunan province, a local government official said. The man, described as a farmer, hijacked a taxi, loaded it with explosives and tried to force it to break into a hotel in Xiangxiang city on Monday morning. ‘‘He left two letters saying that he had lost all hope for his life and found no happiness so he wanted to commit suicide," the official said. — Reuters

‘Titanic’ teddy bear fetches $ 1,45,000
LONDON: A “mourning” teddy bear produced to mark the 1912 sinking of the “Titanic” has secured almost $ 1,45,000 at an auction in London. The black mohair teddy bear made by the German company Steiff, and measuring around 50 cm, fetched four times the estimate at the auction held at Christie’s in South Kensington on Monday evening. — DPA