W O R L D

2 US scientists win Nobel for Chemistry
Work on salt movement in and out of cells helps understand diseases

Stockholm, October 8 US scientists Peter Agre and Roderick Mackinnon have won this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discoveries of how salts and water are transported in and out of cells in the human body.

Peter Agre and Roderick Mackinnon

• 2 get Nobel for Economics

Arnie is Governor Washington, October 8 Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose campaign was marred by damaging allegations of sexual harassment against him and his admiration for Adolf Hitler, was today elected as California’s Governor ousting the Democratic incumbent Gray Davis in the state’s unprecedented recall election.
California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is surrounded by confetti as he celebrates his win in the California recall election at Hotel Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Tuesday. — Reuters photo

Miss International winner Goizeder Azua from Venezuela (centre) smiles with first runner-up Miss India Shonali Nagarani (left) and second runner-up Miss Finland Suvi Paivilli Hartin at the Miss International beauty pageant in Tokyo on Wednesday. — Reuters

Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal shakes hands with churchgoers as he arrives at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, on Sunday. The conservative Republican won a runoff spot in the race for Governor, pulling away from a host of veteran Democratic politicians on Saturday in an open primary. Joining Jindal is his wife, Supriya. — AP/PTI

FBI funded Hamas
Washington, October 8
US Federal Bureau of Investigation funneled money to deadly Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas at a time when President Bill Clinton was trying to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians, a media report has revealed.

Sodhi killer was under ‘stress’
New York, October 8
The man, who killed Indian immigrant Balbir Singh Sodhi four days after the September 11 terror attacks on the USA, suffered from acute stress and brief periods of psychosis following the terrorist strikes, a psychiatrist today testified before a jury.

Arafat had mild heart attack
London, October 8
Yasser Arafat suffered a mild heart attack last week, but the news was not made public for fear it would “create panic”, the Guardian newspaper reported today, quoting a close aide to the Palestinian leader.

Monks arrested for child abuse
Colombo, October 8
Two Buddhist monks and eight men were arrested in Sri Lanka today for sexually abusing 11 war orphans between the ages of nine and 13, officials said.

2 US scientists win Nobel for Chemistry
Work on salt movement in and out of cells
helps understand diseases

Stockholm, October 8
US scientists Peter Agre and Roderick Mackinnon have won this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discoveries of how salts and water are transported in and out of cells in the human body.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prestigious prize, today said their work on cell membranes was of “great importance for our understanding of many diseases’’.

“This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewards two scientists whose discoveries have clarified how salts (ions) and water are transported out of and into the cells of the body,’’ the academy said.

“The discoveries have afforded us a fundamental molecular understanding of how, for example, the kidneys recover water from primary urine and how the electrical signals in our nerve cells are generated and propagated,’’ it said.

Agre (54) from Northfield, Minnesota, works at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Mackinnon (47) grew up near Boston and works at Howard Hughes Medical institute at the Rockefeller University in New York.

The 10-million-crown $ 1.3 million Nobel Prize was founded in the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite. The prize has been awarded since 1901. — Reuters

2 get Nobel for Economics

Clive Grange      Robert Engle

Arnie is Governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger is joined by wife Maria Shriver as he celebrates his victory. — AP/PTI  photo

Washington, October 8
Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose campaign was marred by damaging allegations of sexual harassment against him and his admiration for Adolf Hitler, was today elected as California’s Governor ousting the Democratic incumbent Gray Davis in the state’s unprecedented recall election.

In a typical Hollywood ending, the 56-year-old Austrian immigrant was chosen to replace Davis, who was just 11 months into his second term.

Davis was ousted by 55 per cent of votes against 45 in polls while Schwarzenegger was chosen to replace with 40 per cent of votes against 32 for Deputy Governor Cruz Bustamante.

Reflecting a sense of anger against Davis, about 2.1 million voters chose to oust him against 1.7 million who voted against the recall.

Shortly after his election, Schwarzenegger said “I will not fail you, I will not disappoint you, and I will not let you down.”

Flanked by his wife Maria Shriver and most of the Shriver branch of the Democratic Kennedy clan, the actor thanked the voters for electing him and said “I came here with absolutely nothing and California has given me absolutely everything. And today California has given me the greatest thing of all, you have given me your trust by voting for me.”

The Hollywood hero would now be incharge of the nation’s most populated state with an economy surpassed by only five countries. He would take office as soon as the election results were certified.

The Republican candidate had promised to get the state, beset by massive budget problems and riven by deep political divisions, back on the track. — PTI

FBI funded Hamas

Washington, October 8
US Federal Bureau of Investigation funneled money to deadly Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas at a time when President Bill Clinton was trying to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians, a media report has revealed.

Funneling money to suspected Hamas figures was a sting that the FBI conducted to see if the militant group would use it for terrorist attacks, according to interviews and court documents, the report said. The sting happened when President Clinton was trying to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The counterterrorism operation in 1998 and 1999 was run out of the FBI’s Phoenix office in cooperation with Israeli intelligence and was approved by Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI officials were quoted as saying.

Several thousand dollars were sent to suspected terror supporters during the operation as the FBI tried to track the flow of cash through terror organisations, the FBI said in a rare acknowledgment of the sting that never resulted in prosecutions.

“This was done in conjunction with permission from the attorney general for an ongoing operation, and the Israeli authorities were aware of it,” the FBI said.

One of the FBI’s key operatives provided an account of the operation at a friend’s closed immigration court proceeding.

Arizona businessman Harry Ellen testified he permitted the FBI to bug his home, allowed his Muslim foundation’s activities in the Gaza Strip to be monitored by agents, arranged a peace meeting between major Palestinian activists and gained personal access to Mr Yasser Arafat.

Ellen’s FBI handler in the late 1990s was Kenneth Williams, an agent who later became famous for writing a pre-September 11 memo to the FBI headquarters warning there were Arab pilots training at US flight schools. The warning went unheeded.

Ellen, a Muslim convert, testified he was taking a trip to the Gaza Strip to bring doctors to the region in the summer of 1998 when Williams asked him to provide money to a Hamas figure.

Williams wanted “the transfer of US funds to some of the terrorist groups for violent purposes,” Ellen testified to the immigration court in a closed June, 2001, session.

At the same time, Mr Clinton and his negotiators were trying to reinvigorate stalled West Asia peace talks, an effort that culminated in the Wye Accords in October, 1998.

Mr Clinton’s National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, said in an interview that the White House wasn’t informed of the FBI activities. “We were not aware of any such operation,” Mr Berger said. — PTI

Sodhi killer was under ‘stress’
Dharam Shourie

New York, October 8
The man, who killed Indian immigrant Balbir Singh Sodhi four days after the September 11 terror attacks on the USA, suffered from acute stress and brief periods of psychosis following the terrorist strikes, a psychiatrist today testified before a jury.

The jury in Mesa, Arizona state, which had convicted 44-year-old Frank Silva Roque of first degree murder on September 30 rejecting his insanity plea, is now considering whether Roque should be sentenced to death.

Roque had fatally shot Sodhi, mistaking him for an Arab because of his flowing beard and turban and later shot at another gas station, which had a Lebanese clerk. After that he fired at the house of an Afghan family, but no one was injured in the later two firings. The psychiatrist, Dr Jack Potts, said the “horrific events” would not have occurred had there been no September 11.

During the trial, Dr Potts had testified for the prosecution and contended that it was “clearly arguable” that Roque was mentally ill. But now he said further research had convinced him that Roque’s rage fits the pattern of post-traumatic stress.

The defence had contended that the crime was not racially motivated and that Roque was insane at the time of shooting - a paranoid scizophrenic. — PTI

Arafat had mild heart attack

London, October 8
Yasser Arafat suffered a mild heart attack last week, but the news was not made public for fear it would “create panic”, the Guardian newspaper reported today, quoting a close aide to the Palestinian leader.

“Although he has had a slight heart attack, the doctors say he will make a full recovery. He is in full control. There is nothing to worry about,” the aide, who did not wish to be named, told the London-based paper.

Asked why it had not been made public at the time, the official said the news would “have created panic at a critical time when the Israelis are threatening Mr Arafat’s life”.

The Guardian reported that Israeli officials said Mr Arafat’s health was not a factor as the government considered whether or not to carry out its threat to “remove” the 74-year-old Palestinian leader, who has appeared pale in recent days.

“It would be very convenient if nature were to take its course,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Jonathan Peled, told the paper.

“But Mr Arafat is a cat with nine lives and we do not believe he has used all of them.” — AFP

Monks arrested for child abuse

Colombo, October 8
Two Buddhist monks and eight men were arrested in Sri Lanka today for sexually abusing 11 war orphans between the ages of nine and 13, officials said.

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) said it had investigated an orphanage for victims of the island’s drawn out Tamil separatist conflict and carried out the arrest after reports of systematic abuse of children there.

The NCPA said boys had been sexually abused by the two monks and eight men at the children’s home located near Colombo.

“Although children had complained to the authorities of the children’s home, no action had been taken to stop the abuse of children,” the NCPA said in a statement.

The home was established during the height of fighting between the government forces and Tamil Tigers as a haven for children whose parents and close relatives were killed by either side.— AFP

BRIEFLY

CLASSICAL MUSIC GETS DINER GOING
LONDON: Classical music played while diners are enjoying a meal makes restaurant-goers feel more affluent and encourages them to spend more, according to British research published. And having Britney Spears blasting away in the background tends to cheapen diners’ tastes to the extent of 10 per cent, the research carried out by a team from the University of Leicester found on Tuesday. The tests, carried out over three weeks, monitored the effects of classical, pop and background silence on spending. — DPA

ANOTHER QUAKE JOLTS JAPAN
TOKYO: A strong 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido early on Wednesday, the third quake to rattle the region in two days and the latest since a powerful temblor injured more than 700 persons there less than two weeks ago. There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage. —AP

FASHION PIONEER LAMBERT DEAD
NEW YORK: Eleanor Lambert, the publicist who put American designers alongside their Paris counterparts on the fashion map, died on Tuesday at age 100. She died at her Manhattan home after a brief illness, according to assistant Stephen Nix. In her decades-long career, Lambert presided over the International Best-Dressed List and helped create many of America’s most important fashion institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. — AP

MAN WITH BRAIN TUMOUR JAILED
SINGAPORE: A man suffering from an inoperable brain tumour was sentenced to 10 weeks in a Singapore jail after going on a two-month vandalism spree in housing blocks, media reports said on Wednesday. Ridzal Ahmad, 35, removed no-smoking signs, certificate holders and screws from the button fixtures at the lift lobbies in five different blocks from April to June. Originally charged with vandalism, which carries a caning punishment, the charges were reduced after his defence counsel appealed on compassionate grounds. — DPA