W O R L D

Syria pulls out of Lebanon

Riyyak, Lebanon, April 26 Syria completes the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon on Tuesday in line with a UN resolution, ending 29 years of direct involvement in its neighbour. Syrian soldiers parade during a farewell ceremony at Riyyak military base in the Bekaa valley on Tuesday. The last Syrian soldiers and intelligence agents left Lebanon on Tuesday, ending three decades of Syria’s direct involvement in its small neighbour. — Reuters photo

Govt using state terror to crush dissent: Pak Oppn
Islamabad, April 26
Opposition parties on Monday accused the government of using state terrorism to crush political dissent and walked out in protest on the first day of a Senate session that had been requisitioned by them.

World War II veteran Bernard Cohn from the USA (right) and Russian veteran Miron Magidman (88) of Baltimore walk after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington on Monday. The veteran gathered to mark the 60th anniversary of the meeting of US and Soviet troops at the Elbe River in Germany near the end of World War II. — Reuters

Dominica’s ‘Boiling Lake’ ceases to simmer
Laudat, Dominica, April 26
Boiling Lake, this Caribbean island’s most exotic tourist lure, has ceased to simmer. For nearly four months, the volcanic crater’s usually bubbling brew has been calm, except for brief surges when water inexplicably empties then refills. 

‘Doctor Death’ doings being probed
Sydney, April 26
Australia has named a top barrister to head a commission of inquiry into India-born surgeon dubbed "Doctor Death" accused of deaths of at least 20 patients. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced that Brisbane lawyer Tony Morris has been appointed to head the commission of inquiry into Jayant Patel, who fled Australia last month after nurses raised concerns about his abilities as a doctor, the AAP news agency reported.

Putin for more autonomy to Chechnya
Moscow, April 26
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed Moscow’s willingness to grant restive province of Chechnya greater autonomy within the ambit of the Russian Constitution.

Cassini sends clues about origin of life
Pasadena (California), April 26
A close flyby of Saturn's big moon Titan by the international Cassini spacecraft revealed an upper atmosphere brimming with complex organic material, a finding that could hold clues to how life arose on Earth, scientists have said.

Remote mind reading possible
London, April 26
Researchers have discovered how to read someone’s mind by remotely measuring their brain activity and even extract information from the subject, according to the ‘New Scientist’ magazine.

Soyuz lands with three astronauts
Moscow, April 26
Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, US astronaut Leroy Chiao, and Italy’s Roberto Vittori came back to earth aboard Soyuz spacecraft early yesterday after completing a mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

Syria pulls out of Lebanon

Riyyak, Lebanon, April 26
Syria completes the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon on Tuesday in line with a UN resolution, ending 29 years of direct involvement in its neighbour. The last Syrian soldier pulled out from Lebanon after a military ceremony in the Riyyak airbase in the eastern Bekaa valley, a day after Syrian intelligence quit its headquarters in the town of Anjar, security sources said.

Syrian troops entered in 1976 to try to end Lebanon’s civil war which began in 1975. But it was not until 1990 that the Lebanese war ended, after Syrian forces fought separately with Muslim and Christian militias, Lebanese army units, Palestinian guerrillas and the Israeli army.

Pro-Syrian Lebanese officials say 12,000 Syrian soldiers were killed in Lebanon and many more wounded. Syrian military and intelligence dominated Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war and until a UN Security Council resolution last September demanded a total Syrian withdrawal. The February-14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, blamed by many Lebanese on Damascus, triggered large-scale anti-Syrian protests in Beirut and piled the pressure on Syria to quit.— Reuters

Govt using state terror to crush dissent: Pak Oppn
Raja Asghar
By arrangement with The Dawn

Islamabad, April 26
Opposition parties on Monday accused the government of using state terrorism to crush political dissent and walked out in protest on the first day of a Senate session that had been requisitioned by them. The walkout was followed by an inconclusive debate in which Opposition senators denounced three recent police actions against Opposition programmes and warned the government of ‘dire consequences’ if alleged repressive policies were continued.

Before the start of the debate the Treasury and Opposition benches joined voices to regret a recent European parliament snub to a Senate delegation because the eight-member team visiting Brussels was accompanied by a pro-Taliban Senator, Maulana Samiul Haq of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

But after the unanimous passage of a mildly-worded resolution moved by the Treasury benches, the Opposition used the incident — Maulana Haq’s detention at the Brussels airport for some time on April 19 and refusal of the European parliament to hold talks with the Pakistani delegation if he were there — to pour scorn on the government’s handling of foreign affairs.

“Some heads in the Foreign Office must roll,” Opposition leader Raza Rabbani said as he accused the Foreign Ministry of negligence and called the incident a humiliation of the whole country rather than of an individual or a delegation.

He likened the incident to the alleged humiliation of elected representatives within the country and cited the April 16 crackdown against his People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) when, according to him, even Parliament members were dragged on roads by the Punjab police to block a peaceful welcome to ex-senator Asif Ali Zardari on his return from Dubai.

Mr Rabbani, who said arrests of the PPP workers were still continuing, also protested against police action during the general strikes called by the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) on March 31 and by the MMA on April 2 before he led the token walkout.

Senator Raza Mohammad Raza of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Maulana Gul Naseeb of the MMA also complained of the use of state machinery against the opposition workers before the house was adjourned until 10.30am on Tuesday.

The unanimous Senate resolution regretted the ‘discriminatory attitude’ shown to Maulana Haq and appeared milder than a condemnation of the incident passed by the National Assembly on Thursday.

Dominica’s ‘Boiling Lake’ ceases to simmer
Carol J. Williams

Laudat, Dominica, April 26
Boiling Lake, this Caribbean island’s most exotic tourist lure, has ceased to simmer. For nearly four months, the volcanic crater’s usually bubbling brew has been calm, except for brief surges when water inexplicably empties then refills. The temperature rises and falls, sometimes hot enough to send up steam clouds, other times so tepid that adventurous visitors have dared to swim in it. The colour has varied from gray-green to alabaster and most recently black as coal.

The mysterious changes have scientists scratching their heads and hikers demurring over the seven-hour round-trip trek that many found adventurous enough without any added risks.

“The lake has stopped boiling at times in the past but what worries us about this case is that the changes are drastic and really, really fast,’’ said Nicolas Fournier, a volcanologist with the Seismic Research Unit of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago.

The 200-foot-wide lake is a crater filled by underground rivulets and rainwater and heated by volcanic gases. Since the boiling stopped in late December, the water level has fluctuated, dropping as much as 40 feet, leaving a sludgy pool of gray sediment on the bottom and a bathtub ring of mineral residue. Water normally so hot it can cook an egg in five minutes cooled to a tepid 68 degrees in January, when a party of Austrian hikers ill-advisedly ventured in.

Boiling Lake has baffled Dominicans before. In 1887, 1900, 1971 and 1988, the lake water calmed and drained away through the fumaroles that funnel heat from beneath the crusted lava lakebed. But each time, the water level and temperature returned to normal within a few weeks.

Fournier speculates that a magnitude 6.3 earthquake north of Dominica on November 21 caused the thick mineral sediment on the lake floor to shift and clog the fissures from which volcanic heat had been reaching the water. But he is at a loss to explain why the water level has been fluctuating so dramatically.

Arlington James, Dominica’s chief forestry officer, has made 10 treks to the lake since a tour group reported on Dec. 24 that it had stopped boiling and the crater was no longer covered by a steam cloud.

“People are really baffled by what the lake is doing now. It seems able to empty and refill itself very quickly,’’ said James. During an April 13 visit, the lake was nearly full and its water black from what he suspects was iron sulfide. The water temperature was up to 138 degrees Fahrenheit, twice as warm as a month earlier yet far below its usual 197 degrees, he reported.

Last year, more than 10,000 visitors trekked to Boiling Lake, the world’s second-largest such crater. The largest of these rare phenomena is a similar simmering lake in Rotorua, New Zealand.

— By arrangement with the LA Times-Washington Post

‘Doctor Death’ doings being probed

Sydney, April 26
Australia has named a top barrister to head a commission of inquiry into India-born surgeon dubbed "Doctor Death" accused of deaths of at least 20 patients. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced that Brisbane lawyer Tony Morris has been appointed to head the commission of inquiry into Jayant Patel, who fled Australia last month after nurses raised concerns about his abilities as a doctor, the AAP news agency reported.

The nurse in charge of the intensive care unit at Bundaberg hospital in Queensland where he was a surgeon for two years had spoken out about concerns that patients may have died prematurely or unecessarily because of his surgical blunders.

He did not wash his hands before some procedures. "I believe there would be more than 20 deaths," the nurse was quoted as saying by 'Morning Herald' daily.

The commission of inquiry, which will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence, will examine how Patel, a native of Jamnagar in Gujarat, was appointed, how he was allowed to practise for so long and what can be done to prevent a repeat of the situation.

Patel falsified his application for registration in Queensland, hiding the fact that he had been found guilty of gross negligence by medical authorities in the US state of Oregon.

Patients have detailed a number of botched procedures by Patel (55), including an elderly man who had a syringe left in his stomach, a woman whose urethra was accidentally severed and a 28-year-old man left impotent after the surgeon operated on him. — PTI

Putin for more autonomy to Chechnya

Moscow, April 26
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed Moscow’s willingness to grant restive province of Chechnya greater autonomy within the ambit of the Russian Constitution.

“We are ready to sign an agreement with Chechnya on division of powers between the federal and the local authorities and on providing the republic with a large degree of autonomy,” Putin said in an interview to Egyptian daily ‘Al Ahram’ ahead of his visit to Cairo tomorrow.

Moscow is engaged in a direct dialogue with the Chechen people, with the republic’s population, Putin said.

“We helped to organise the referendum there on a constitution for Chechnya. The overwhelming majority, really the absolute majority of people in Chechnya, supported this constitution. One of the constitution’s main provisions is recognition of Chechnya as part of the Russian Federation. We think that the Chechen people have made their view clear on this issue,” he said. — PTI

Cassini sends clues about origin of life

Pasadena (California), April 26
A close flyby of Saturn's big moon Titan by the international Cassini spacecraft revealed an upper atmosphere brimming with complex organic material, a finding that could hold clues to how life arose on Earth, scientists have said.

Cassini flew within 1,027 km of Titan's frozen surface on April 16 and discovered a hydrocarbon-laced upper atmosphere.

Titan's atmosphere is made up mainly of nitrogen and methane, the simplest type of hydrocarbon. But scientists were surprised to find complex organic material in the latest flyby. Because Titan is extremely cold, scientists expected the organic material to condense and rain down to the surface.

"We are beginning to appreciate the role of the upper atmosphere in the complex carbon cycle that occurs on Titan," Hunter Waite, a professor at the University of Michigan, said yesterday.

The scientists believe Titan's atmosphere may be similar to that of the primordial Earth. They believe studying it could provide clues to how life began.

The $3.3 billion Cassini mission, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997 and took seven years to reach Saturn. — AP

Remote mind reading possible

London, April 26
Researchers have discovered how to read someone’s mind by remotely measuring their brain activity and even extract information from the subject, according to the ‘New Scientist’ magazine.

The technique has so far only been used to identify visual patterns a subject can see or has chosen to focus on. However, researchers hypothesise the approach might be extended to probe a person’s awareness, focus of attention, memory and intention of movement.

It could also help doctors learn if patients, apparently in a coma, are actually conscious, the magazine reported on Monday.

Scientists have trained monkeys to move a robotic arm with the power of thought and to recreate scenes moving in front of cats by recording information directly from the feline’s neurons.

But these processes involve other procedures such as implanting electrodes into their brains to hook them up to a computer.

Now Yukiyasu Kamitani of ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, and Frank Tong of Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, have achieved similar “mind reading” feats remotely using functional MRI scanning. — Presna Latina

Soyuz lands with three astronauts

Moscow, April 26
Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, US astronaut Leroy Chiao, and Italy’s Roberto Vittori came back to earth aboard Soyuz spacecraft early yesterday after completing a mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Soyuz touched down near the Kazakh town of Arkalyk at 03.38 am, mission control officials told Russian news agencies. The spacecraft “performed a soft landing near Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned,” an official told the Itar-Tass.

The astronauts were in good health following their mission in space, mission control spokesperson Valery Lyndin said. — AFP