London, May 5
UK’s governing Labour Party was licking its wounds today after voters sent outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair on his way with a string of stinging poll losses.

Voters delivered their final verdict on Blair ahead of his expected departure after 10 years in power.

The Labour was ousted as the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament and was left looking for a coalition partner to stay in power in the Welsh Assembly. It was also pounded in English local councils.

Though the Labour avoided the meltdown some pollsters predicted, Blair’s likely successor, finance minister Gordon Brown, is set to take over the reins amid widespread voter discontent about the war in Iraq and a series of recent scandals as evidenced in Thursday’s vote.

Brown insisted the Labour had put up a good fight but said it was prepared to take stock of voters’ views.

“To all those who came back to the Labour and to everyone throughout UK, my resolve is that we, the Labour Party will listen and we will learn as we continue to work for and serve the people of UK,” he said.

Newspapers said today the Labour’s mid-term setbacks finally livened up British politics and set the stage for a new epic duel between Brown and main opposition Conservative leader David Cameron.

“The verdict on 10 years of New Labour is now in. The story is one of under-achievement,” said The Sun newspaper of Blair’s decade in power.

Blair, who is expected to set out his departure plans next week, was nonetheless defiantly upbeat yesterday. — AFP

Islamabad, May 5
Suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry was today accorded unprecedented roadside receptions by a large number of lawyers and opposition activists in Pakistan's powerful Punjab province on his way to Lahore, posing the biggest ever political challenge for President Pervez Musharraf's regime.

Chaudhry, accompanied by his defence lawyers, set off to Lahore by road this morning to address an advocates' convention, disregarding the official warning about possible suicide bomb attacks.

During his journey, which was covered by all television channels including the state-run PTV, thousands of people greeted his convoy. Hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists held receptions for him in Rawalpindi, Rawant, Gujjat Khan, Gujaranwala, Jhelum en route to Lahore.

In Jhelum and a few other places, the police fired teargas and made several arrests to control the surging crowds. His convoy took more than 10 hours to cover the distance which normally takes less than five hours. Media reports from Lahore said 16 judges of the Lahore High Court turned up at the convention hall well before Chaudhry reached there to address it. The receptions were largely held by local bar councils, opposition parties like Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e Amal (MMA), with modest participation of general public. — PTI

Kathmandu, May 5
Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered a noted businessman, known for his close links with the royal palace, and his brother to pay back Rs 300 crore to banks and financial institutions as loan and interest.

Owners have links with royal palace

Piyush Amatya and his brother Daman B. Amatya of the Amatya Group was instructed by the court to pay back over $ 44.12 million from where they had taken loans 12 years ago, court sources said.

A division bench of the apex court issued the order settling a four-year-old dispute between the financial bodies and the business establishment.

Piyush is the owner of Amatya Enterprises, which runs a number of business houses, including Fulbari Resort, a five star de luxe hotel in tourist hub Pokhara.

The Amatya group is the biggest defaulter in the country and was under the scanner of the commission for investigation of abuse of authority (CIAA) for the past few years, according to media reports.

The group had taken loans from Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nepal Bank Limited, Employees Provident Fund, Nepal Industrial Development Corporation (NIDC) and the Agricultural Bank.

Toronto, May 5
A former intelligence official, who has stunned the Kanishka bombing inquiry with his statement that he had seen intelligence warning of an attack, has apologised to the families of the victims but ruled out quitting as Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor.

James Bartleman had on Thursday testified before the inquiry commission that he possessed intelligence that indicated an attack on the airline was imminent just days before the 1985 bombing of the Air India aircraft.

Bartleman read a brief statement to reporters yesterday, a day after he told the inquiry he waited two decades to come forward because he thought the police was acting appropriately on his information. No one could have imagined that questions surrounding the case would carry on for two decades, he said.

“I am aware of the great pain the families of the victims must be feeling as more and more revelations come out at the commission of inquiry and I am deeply sorry about that,” Bartleman said. — PTI

Baghdad, May 5
Five Iraqi police officers were shot dead and dumped in a deserted field in central Iraq, the police said today.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the five police officers, who were dressed in civilian clothes, were found last night outside the city of Beiji, the police said.

They were from the turbulent city of Ramadi.

Meanwhile, in southern Baghdad, US soldiers on a routine patrol yesterday intercepted a blue tanker truck and discovered that it had been converted into a large truck bomb, the military said.

The explosives on the truck consisted of artillery shells. These were destroyed by a team of sappers, the military said today.

In an effort to prevent further attacks on troops, US-led forces arrested suspected Shiia militants accused of smuggling powerful bomb components from Iran during a raid yesterday in Baghdad's district of Sadr City.

A US military statement said the militants were part of a “secret cell” that smuggles powerful bombs known as “explosively formed penetrators” from Iran and sends Shia fighters from Iraq for training in Iran. — AP

Kathmandu, May 5
Maoist activists affiliated with the Tharu National Liberation Front (TNLF) and the Young Communist League (YCL) vandalised and torched two government offices in Bardiya here today.

According to Shyam Bahadur Khadka, superintendent of police at Bardiya district police office, the Maoist cadres vandalised the district land revenue office and branch office of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in Guleriya, district headquarters of Bardiya.

“They destroyed a transformer, a jeep, two bicycles, computer set, some furniture and documents of the NEA branch office by setting it afire,” Khadka said.

However, details of the losses incurred have not yet been received.

Riot police resorted to lathi-charge, firing several rounds of tear gas shells into the air to disperse violent agitators. The Gulariya and Sanoshree areas of Bardiay remained tense throughout the day.

The local administration office has renewed curfew order in the Sanoshree area from 11 am this morning. Earlier, it was relaxed for six hours.