Beijing, March 27
Tibetan monks today embarrassed China by staging a protest and voicing their support for the Dalai Lama in front of visiting foreign reporters in Lhasa.

The protest, defying tight security, came as China took some of the Beijing-based foreign correspondents on an escorted tour of the riot-hit Lhasa, media reports said.

About 30 monks shouted pro-Tibetan slogans and in support of the Dalai Lama as journalists toured the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet’s holiest shrines.

One monk shouted, “Tibet is not free, Tibet is not free” before he started to cry, an AP journalist at the scene reported.

Foreign journalists have largely been prevented from covering the unrest, biggest since 1989. However, China yesterday allowed a group of reporters into Lhasa for a three-day escorted visit.

The visit to Lhasa is the first by foreign journalists since violent pro-independence protests erupted there two weeks ago.

China has accused the Dalai Lama of “masterminding” the protests aimed at “sabotaging” the Beijing Olympics in August.

The protests began on March 10 and developed into violent rioting in Lhasa before spreading to neighbouring regions.

China says rioters killed 20 persons. The Tibetan government-in-exile maintains that about 140 persons have been killed in a crackdown by Chinese security forces. — PTI

London, March 27
Pitching for a permanent seat for India in an expanded UN Security Council, Britain has said it is trying to break the long-standing deadlock over the reform of the world body, a cause it has championed "publicly" and "consistently".

"The Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) reaffirmed the United Kingdom's support for India's candidacy (for a permanent UNSC seat) during his speech in Delhi in January," Minister for the Middle East Kim Howells told Labour MP Ashok Kumar in the House of Commons here yesterday.

He said Britain "publicly" and "consistently" championed reform of the UN, including introduction of an enlarged UN Security Council with a permanent seat for India.

"Our mission in New York (at the UN headquarters) is trying to break the long-standing deadlock over reform, and we will continue with our efforts to persuade Governments that India should have a permanent seat on the Security Council - alongside Brazil, Japan and Germany, and that there should be representation from Africa," he said.

Howells said the UK enjoyed a strong partnership with India based on the shared values of democracy, fundamental freedoms, pluralism, rule of law and respect for human rights.

"The Prime Minister's recent visit to New Delhi strengthened that partnership by ensuring that progress was made on a range of bilateral and wider international issues.

Both sides will use the outcome of the visit to deepen further the relationship," he said.

Answering a question on Kashmir, the minister said, "It will be interesting to see how quickly the new Pakistani government take up the mantle and ensure that the peace that is thankfully now being experienced in Kashmir becomes permanent." — PTI

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who was released from detention on Monday, will undertake a countrywide trip in coming weeks to address Bar associations, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, president, Supreme Court Bar Association, told newsmen.

Aitzaz said the lawyers’ fraternity has decided to shelve plans for immediately installing Justice Chuadhry and other deposed judges. Instead it has been decided to allow parliament to fulfil its pledge to restore judges within 30 days after the formation of the government.

“We do not want to create any problem for the assembly because we have faith in its promise,” he said.

Aitzaz said Iftikhar would first go to hometown Quetta on March 31 as he has not visited it for over a year. He would stay there for a couple of days and then go to Sukkur to address the Bar. It was Sukkur from where Iftikhar began series of speeches to the Bar association in March last year after Pervez Musharraf sacked him.

He said the purpose of Iftikhar’s trip is to thank lawyers for their support to the cause of independence of judiciary. “He is not pursuing any political agenda,” he said. Lawyers and civil society activists will receive Chuadhry during his trip.

Aitzaz accused Musharraf of continuing to indulge in intrigues to block the way of restoration of judges. He warned that the lawyers would exercise their option to resume agitation if Musharraf succeeded in his designs.

Washington, March 27
Life near saturn could be a reality, as the basic ingredients of life-- water, heat, and organic materials -- have been found on the planet’s moon Enceladus.

NASA’s Cassini probe has detected conditions potentially suitable for life on the moon, as it flew through giant plumes emanating from the south pole.

“We see on Enceladus the three basic requirements for the origin of life. We see water, although it may not be liquid. We see organic compounds ... and we also have a source of heat,” Larry Esposito of the University of Colorado said.

The spacecraft found a high density of water vapour and both simple and complex organic chemicals as it passed within 50 km of Enceladus on March 12.

“Water vapour was the major constituent. There was methane present. There was carbon dioxide. There was carbon monoxide. There were simple organics and there were more complex organics,” Hunter Waite of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, told reporters.

“The composition of the plume is very much like the composition of a comet,” Waite noted. — UNI

London, March 27
Officials in the UK are examining the background of Gurinder, who was found abandoned at a London bus stop, in a bid to substantiate claims by a couple in India that he is their kidnapped son. Ganga Prasad and Bindia Devi say he is in fact their son Sintu Prasad, who was kidnapped three years ago.

The Sikh boy, who speaks only Punjabi, wandered into a health centre in Southall, west London, last week after earlier being dumped at a bus stop.

The police said he later told them he had been deserted by a white “uncle” with whom he had been living after his parents died. He had come to Britain two or three years ago. When his picture appeared on Indian television, the couple, from Aurangabad in the eastern state of Bihar, said the boy resembled their son who had been kidnapped in 2005.

Since their claim earlier this week, authorities in both countries have been working to establish the boy’s true identity.

Some reports said he may be the victim of child trafficking. On Thursday, the police in Bihar told Reuters they had sent a boy’s photograph, resembling Gurinder, and relevant background information to the Indian High Commission in London.

“He was about six when he was reported missing, we were told by his parents,” the director-general of police in Bihar, Ashish Ranjan Sinha told Reuters by telephone.

“We have sent all concerned information about the missing boy to the Indian High Commission in London.” A commission spokeswoman said they had not received the photograph and wanted to find out more about the boy.

“We are writing to the metropolitan police (to verify his identification) whilst we are trying to get his photograph,” she said. “We want to get more details about him.”

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said Gurinder was currently in care. “We are aware of the claims being made and we are looking into these at the moment,” she said. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Britons shying of tying knot
London: The proportion of British people getting married has hit an all time low since records began almost 150 years ago. The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, said in 2006, fewer than ten in every 1,000 single adults in England and Wales were married. The proportion of men and women getting married is below any level found since figures were first kept nearly 150 years ago, the report said. — UNI

UAE gets first woman judge
Dubai: The UAE has appointed its first woman judge in Abu Dhabi. Kholoud Ahmad Jua’an Al Daheri was appointed a primary judge at the Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The UAE became the second Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state to have a woman judge after Bahrain. Unlike its neighbour Saudi Arabia, women in the UAE drive cars and hold very senior positions in the government including the cabinet. — UNI

Pension scheme for expats
Dubai: The UAE government is studying a proposed draft law to bring the expatriates, who form a majority in the country, under the national pension scheme. The “Pension Savings” draft law is being studied by the General Authority for Pensions and Social Insurance (GAPSI), and aims to include all expatriates working in the UAE’s public and private sectors. At present, pensions in the private sector are provided through an end-of-service payment (gratuity). — PTI

Shakespeare goes digital
Melbourne: Wiiliam Shakespeare’s rare plays are all set to go digital as a US and British library plan to reproduce online all 75 editions of his plays printed in the quarto format before 1641. The Bodleian Library in Oxford and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC have joined forces to download their collections, building on the work of the British Library, which digitised its collection of quarto editions in 2004. — UNI

Actor Widmark passes away
New York: Hollywood actor Richard Widmark, who became an overnight star for his portrayal of a psychopathic killer in 1947 classic ‘Kiss of Death’, has died after a long illness. Widmark (93) died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut on Monday. — AFP