Indian dies of SARS in Singapore
11 more die in China

Bangkok, April 30
An Indian taxi driver in Singapore, who was diagnosed as having viral fever, has died of SARS, becoming the first Indian victim of the killer disease in the world.

The 43-year-old man of Indian origin, who was not identified, died 11 days ago, reports quoting Singapore’s Health Ministry said.

Initially he was thought to have died of viral fever but tests on his tissue samples indicated the presence of cornavirus (which causes SARS), the ministry said yesterday.

It said the post-mortem examination carried out on April 20 showed some damage to lungs possibly from infection. It was only after tissue samples were taken for further tests that the cornavirus (which causes SARS) was isolated.

The ministry said 15 persons, including members of the deceased’s family and friends, would be quarantined at home as a precautionary measure, even though the 10-day incubation period for the virus was over.

It said the case had gone undetected as the driver who developed fever on April 11 had apparently gone to a local general practitioner and again revisited him three days later. On the victim’s second visit, the doctor referred him to the Changi Hospital for viral fever.

As blood tests on the victim did not show anything unusual, the driver was discharged and given two days’ medical leave. The victim, however, collapsed at home on April 19 after becoming breathless and could not be revived after he was rushed to hospital.

BEIJING: The Chinese Government said on Wednesday that 11 more persons had died of SARS and another 166 were infected, taking the death toll to 159 and the number of cases to 3,460. The Health Ministry said nine of the new deaths were in Beijing, currently the hardest hit place in the world, and the city accounted for 101 of the latest cases.

PRETORIA: A 62-year-old businessman, who has been treated since April 4 as a probable SARS case in South Africa, died on Wednesday. According to the South African Radio Station, he died following heart failure. The first SARS tests were negative and the results of further tests are not yet available. The man had returned on March 27 from a trip to Asia. Agencies

India re-elected to UN rights panel

United Nations, April 30
India has been re-elected to the 53-member United Nations Commission on Human Rights from the Asian group for a three-year term, getting maximum number of 47 votes in a secret ballot.

Others elected from the group in the first round included Saudi Arabia with 45 votes, Qatar (44 votes), Bhutan (39 votes) and Nepal (39 votes).

While securing the highest number of votes, India improved its record of 42 votes in 2000 when Saudi Arabia had polled 48 votes.

Thailand, which polled 29 votes, was eliminated in the first round itself. But Indonesia and Iran were tied with 33 votes each. That necessitated a second round in which Jakarta got 31 votes defeating Tehran, which could manage only 23 votes.

North Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam, who were also candidates for the Asian seats, withdrew before from the race.

Britain, Italy and the Netherlands won from among western nations in the secret ballot in which Portugal was eliminated.

Among those re-elected was Russia from east European states without any opposition. Also elected from the region was Hungary. The USA had lost the seat on the commission 2001 after being continuously on it for 50 years, but won it back in a year later. PTI

India’s appeal on Quattrocchi rejected

Kuala Lumpur, April 30
In a major setback to India’s efforts to bring back Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi to stand trial in the Bofors case Malaysia’s highest court today rejected its request for a review of a lower court ruling dismissing its plea for his extradition.

The three-judge Bench of the Court of Appeal also quashed its earlier order asking Quattrocchi to surrender his passport.

The court upheld notice of motion field by Quattrocchi’s lawyer seeking dismissal of India’s right to appeal. The judgement was pronounced by Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad.

India, through the Malaysia Attorney-General, had moved the highest court after the high court here has rejected the plea for Quattrocchi’s extradition to India, saying that the offences alleged against him were “open to doubt”.

Quattrocchi left Kuala Lumpur for Italy even as Malaysia’s highest court on December 16, last year, had asked him to surrender his passport pending the Indian appeal against the high court ruling. PTI

Reprieve for 20,000 Indians

Dubai, April 30
Nearly 20,000 Indian overstayers in the Emirates today got a fresh reprieve as the government extended the amnesty for one more month.

“More than 20,000 Indian overstayers have availed of the amnesty till date and are in the process of leaving the country,” Indian Mission officials said.

The four-month amnesty that began in January was to expire today, but the period has been extended for another month at the last minute to enable more people avail of the general pardon for residence visa violations, a media report said.

The UAE has warned that all those who stayed back after the deadline will be deported with a permanent ban on their returning to the country and that the Interior Ministry will step up raids to detect illegal immigrants.

The one-month grace period for amnesty was prompted by requests from various embassies, particularly from Asia and in view of the sudden spurt in the number of illegals approaching the missions for outpasses to leave the country.

Some 500 applications for outpasses were received by the Indian Consulate in Dubai yesterday, marking the largest number during the last months. PTI

Indian charged with murder of her 3 kids

London, April 30
A middle-aged Indian woman pharmacist here has been charged with murdering three of her four children within weeks of their birth. The Reading Crown Court heard yesterday that 35-year-old Trupti Patel, with roots in Gujarat, suffocated Amar, 13 weeks, Jamie, 15 days, and Mia, 22 days, “against all natural instincts of a mother.”

Ms Patel, whose surviving child is eight, pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and blamed cot death for each tragedy. Post-mortem examinations on Amar, who died in 1997, and Jamie, who died in 1999, initially found no discernible cause of death.

But when Mia died in 2001, she was found to have four broken ribs, consistent with “adult hands squeezing the chest.” A review of the two other children’s deaths found that they had also been asphyxiated. PTI

3 Iraqis die in clash with US army

Dubai, April 30
American troops today shot dead three persons and injured several others in a fresh clash with Iraqi demonstrators in Fallujah town even as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his first visit to Baghdad promised to let the Iraqis form their own government.

Reports quoting witnesses and a doctor from Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad, said US soldiers riding in jeeps and armoured vehicles opened fire after children started pelting them with shoes and stones during a protest by thousands of people over a similar shooting Monday night in which 13 persons were killed.

A US military spokesmen said the troops were fired on first in both incidents, which occurred outside facilities being used by US paratroops in the town.

Mr Rumsfeld, who is on a week-long visit to the Gulf to thank the coalition troops as well as regional leaders who provided support, met top US commanders at their new base in Baghdad.

In a taped message for broadcast to the Iraqi people from a special US military plane, he said, “Iraq belongs to you. The coalition has no intention of owning or running Iraq.”

“You can form an interim government on your own, a free Iraqi government, a government of your choosing, a government that is of Iraqi design,” he said.

Mr Rumsfeld, who earlier visited southern port city of Basra, said the coalition forces would stay as long as necessary and not one day longer. PTI

Putin calls for early power transfer in Iraq

Moscow, April 30
Following talks on Iraq with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an early transfer of power to the people of the war-torn Iraq and the return of United Nations weapons inspectors there.

Both the leaders also stressed on the crucial role of the UN in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Mr Putin said it was inadmissible to put off the ceding of power in Iraq. UNI

N. Korea hints it has N-weapons

Seoul, April 30
North Korea today hinted publicly that it was developing nuclear weapons, saying US hostility had compelled it to opt for “a necessary deterrent force.” The statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesman was seen as a further indication that the Stalinist state possessed a nuclear arsenal.

“The reality requires the DPRK (North Korea) to deter the escalating US moves to stifle the DPRK with a physical force, compels it to opt for possessing a necessary deterrent force and put it into practice,” the statement said.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) appeared to hint at nuclear capability when it said the USA should scrap its nuclear weapons before such a small country as North Korea followed suit. AFP

Villagers beat 11 dacoits to death

Dhaka, April 30
Eleven dacoits were beaten to death and five seriously injured by angry villagers in Valuka province of northern Mymensingh in Bangladesh today.

The villagers caught hold of the dacoits and beat them up resulting in the death of 11 and serious injuries to five others, official reports said.

The villagers encircled the dacoits numbering 16 in the middle of the night when they entered a rich man’s house, they said.

The police rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies. The injured dacoits, some of them in a critical condition, were admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. PTI

Experts check Pak plant

Islamabad, April 30
A three-member team of international inspectors conducted an inspection of a fertiliser plant in the outskirts of Karachi to certify that it is not being used to produce chemical weapons, local daily Dawn reported today. PTI

Four dead in suicide attack

Tel Aviv, April 30
A Palestinian suicide bomber killed four persons including himself, and wounded dozens more in an attack on a cafe near the US Embassy here this morning, Israeli police chief Shlomo Aharonochki said. “The attack killed three persons and the terrorist,” he told journalists, adding that 55 persons had been wounded in the blast. AFP

GLOBAL MONITOR

Germany's wealthiest plastic surgeon and top breast implant specialist Franz Gsell (L) is seen with his wife Tatjana in this February 2001 file photo. Prosecutors have charged the young widow of plastic surgeon with planning a brutal burglary that resulted in the death of her elderly husband — the countryÆs top breast implant specialist. — Reuters Bollywood actress Aparna Sen and her daughter Konkona at the Asia Society after the screening of the movie "Mr and Mrs Iyer " in New York on Tuesday. — PTI

11 KILLED IN PAK AS BUS FALLS INTO CANAL
KARACHI: A bus packed with passengers veered off a road in southern Pakistan and plunged into a canal on Wednesday, killing 11 persons and injuring 12 others, the police said. The bus was en route from the remote town of Sangi to Shahdad Kot, 400 km east of Karachi, regional police chief Ghulam Rasool said in a telephone interview. Ten passengers died at the scene and one later died at hospital, where some of the injured were in a critical condition. AP

AMAN JUMPS TO DEATH FROM EIFFEL TOWER
PARIS: A man killed himself by leaping off the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a rare occurrence since protection barriers were installed to discourage suicides, the police said. It said the man on Tuesday climbed over the railings on the first level of the striking iron structure, 57 metres above the ground, and jumped to death, avoiding the protection barriers. The total height of the tower is 301 metres. AFP

QATARIS APPROVE CONSTITUTION
DOHA: Qataris voted overwhelmingly in favour of their first real constitution — a leap toward democratic rule in a country where the emir had held absolute power since independence from Britain in 1971. The constitution was approved in a referendum by 96.6 per cent of the voters — 68,987 to 2,145, with 274 invalid votes, Qatar’s Interior Minister Prince Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani, announced at a news conference. The draft would become Qatar’s first real constitution, replacing a 1972 “Provisional Political Order”. AP

CHINESE GETS LIFE TERM FOR BLASTS
BEIJING: A local court has sentenced to life imprisonment a daring young Chinese agricultural worker, who sought to become famous by exploding bombs at two of China’s elite universities, the state media has reported. Beijing’s first intermediate people’s court sentenced Huang Minxiang (26) to life imprisonment after being found guilty of carrying out two explosions at Qinghua (Tsinghua) and Beijing universities in February. PTI

TOP FASHION LENSMAN DIES
LITTLE ROCK, ARK: Fernand Fonssagrives, who earned fame as a fashion photographer in the 1950s and was regarded as an important figure in 20th-century photography, has died at age 92, his family said. His death last Wednesday following a brief illness was not announced until after a private funeral service in Little Rock, where Fonssagrives, a native Parisian, made his home for the past 30 years. Reuters

NORWAY GETS FIRST ROYAL BABY IN 30 YEARS
OSLO: Norway’s Princess Martha gave birth to a daughter, the Nordic nation’s first royal baby in 30 years and the first female member of the family who will escape royal sex discrimination. The baby will be called Maud Angelica and is third in line to the throne behind Crown Prince Haakon and Martha. Maud was the name of Norway’s first queen after independence from Sweden in 1905 and was a granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria. Reuters