Beijing, April 18
Fresh anti-government protests erupted in western China prompting a new spate of arrests, Tibetans groups said today as Beijing faced blunt calls from prominent world leaders to “face the reality” in Tibet which had become an “international” issue.

The police assaulted monks and local residents who were demanding the release of fellow Budddhist clergy at a local market in Tongren County in Qinghai province, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

More than 100 ethnic Tibetans, including monks, were detained, the local monastery of Rongwo had been closed to visitors and overnight curfew clamped, AP reported. Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi that Beijing must face the reality that Tibetan conflict had become an international issue and it should start talks with Tibetans.

“China must face the reality, that the Tibetan conflict has become an international issue, and should do its utmost to prevent it from affecting the Beijing Olympics,” Fukuda told Yang who is in Tokyo to prepare for Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit. China insists Tibet is an internal issue.

Fakuda also asked Beijing to be more open about its recent crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet that erupted in Lhasa on March 14 coinciding with the 59th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising. European commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso also intends to “confront” China on the human rights issue when he leads a high-ranking delegation to China next week, the Commission said in Brussels adding “the recent events in Tibet are a further reason to speak about them”.

In Paris, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who had said he was ready to boycott the August 8 opening ceremony of Olympics unless China starts dialogue with the Dalai Lama, held talks with senior Chinese envoy Zhan Jinjun and discussed the violence in Tibet. — PTI

Bangkok, April 18
The troubled Olympic torch relay arrived in Thailand today, as more controversy erupted when one of the Japanese hosts dropped out in protest over China's crackdown in Tibet.

The torch, whose worldwide journey before the games in August has turned into a public relations debacle for China's leaders, made its way to the kingdom overnight from India, where many protesters were arrested.

Thai officials warned that they would deport foreigners, who tried to disrupt the relay, but unlike at several previous stops, Thailand had not made plans to shorten its leg of the flame's globe-trotting extravaganza. "The route remains as scheduled," said Gen Yuthasak Sasiprapha, president of Thailand's Olympic committee.

The torch has been dogged by protesters since it was lit in Greece last month, kicking off the countdown to the Olympic Games that China's rulers hope will showcase the nation's much-touted "peaceful rise" to power. — AFP

London, April 18
Britain’s local elections scheduled for May 1 may decide the fate of premier Gordon Brown, who was attacked by leading Labour party members, including Indian-origin Lord Meghnad Desai, for being “indecisive” and “weak”.

Noted Labour peer Desai said the party was now discussing who should replace Brown. “There have been talks on all levels about what to do about it,” he added.

Zeroing in on the idea of who will replace Brown, he said, “When or if the time comes, I think it has to be (foreign secretary) David Miliband because he has shown the maturity about the leadership and he withstood the pressure to stand against Gordon last year.”

Desai, who has never before criticised his party’s leadership, called the British premier as “indecisive” and “weak”.

Brown, who completes a year in office in June, has been criticised by many within the party for recent actions, including the decision to double the minimum rate of income tax, plans to detain terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge, and post office closures.

Lord Desai, comparing Brown’s leadership style with his predecessor Tony Blair, described Brown’s style as “porridge or haggis” while he said Tony Blair’s regime was “champagne or caviar”.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Lord Desai said Brown had come across as “solid, and may be nourishing but not actually very appetising”.

Brown has earlier also come under the line of fire from his party members. Chancellor Alistair Darling, a senior Cabinet minister, also said the Brown government needed to “sharpen up” before the local polls. — PTI

London, April 18
In what may sound as music to the ears of highly skilled Indian migrants, Britain has decided to allow such professionals to stay here as it works to implement a high court ruling against immigration rule changes with retrospective effect that could have forced them to leave.

The Home Office will not appeal against an April 8 High Court verdict that said it was “not open to the government to alter the terms and conditions” of Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) under which thousands of highly skilled employees, mostly Indians, came to Britain.

All highly skilled migrants who came here under the HSMP scheme as on November 7, 2006, when the regulation changes were made, can stay until processes are put in place to implement the judgment, the Home Office said.

Some 49,000 highly skilled people had come to Britain under the HSMP initiated in January 2002 and most of them were facing the prospect of returning home following changes in the immigrations rules brought into force by the government.

The HSMP Forum, representing the highly skilled professionals, successfully challenged the changes and won a landmark case last week.

“We are happy to take the judge’s decision as final and do not intend to waste taxpayers money with an appeal,” Lin Homer, chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, said in a communication to the HSMP Forum’s executive director Amit Kapadia.

“We are now urgently considering how to give effect to the judgment and will let you know the details as soon as we can,” he said.

“You will understand that we want to make sure that we have given these matters due consideration so that the remedies we put in place are clear and work as smoothly as possible,” Homer said.

Acknowledging the concern of many of the Forum members who are close to running out of leave to remain in the UK, Homer said: “We are no longer issuing further leave refusals to people affected by the judgment. Any HSMP migrant falling into the group affected by the judgment whose leave is about to expire can apply for an extension of leave.

“If they do so before their existing leave expires, that leave will be extended until we have made a decision on their application in the light of the judgment. This means they can stay in the country legally until processes are put in place to implement the High Court’s ruling,” he said.

Referring to appeals pending in Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, Homer said: “We are looking into what can be done with forthcoming HSMP appeals to ensure that the Court’s decision is put into effect as efficiently as possible.” “All those who were admitted to the Highly Skilled Migrants Scheme as on the November 7, 2006 will be benefited by the judicial review judgment,” Kapadia said. — PTI

Porto Rotondo (Italy), April 18
President Vladimir Putin today denied media reports he was about to marry Russian Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva. News media and internet sites had reported that Putin had secretly divorced his wife, Lyudmila, and planned to marry the 24-year-old Olympic gymnast.

“In what you said, there is not one word of truth,” Putin said when asked about the reports by a journalist at a news briefing with Italy’s Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi.

Putin (55), has cultivated a tough-guy, manly image during his eight years in the Kremlin, posing for photos aboard fighter jets, firing weapons, fighting black-belt judo and fishing bare-chested in the Siberian wilderness.

Meanwhile, the Russian tabloid Moskovsky Korrespondent today apologised for carrying a report that President Vladimir Putin is to marry a rhythmic gymnast, saying, “There is no factual base for our publication”.

The tabloid accepted that it cannot substantiate its own report on Putin’s “wedding with a famous gymnast” and apologised for the “moral pain” inflicted to the persons concerned.

In its weekend issue, the tabloid, specialising on spicy gossip about celebrities, had reported about 55-year-old Putin’s “plans” to wed former Olympic rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva (25) on June 15.

Moskovsky Korrespondent had also claimed that the Russian leader had divorced his wife Lyudmila back in February, although on March 2 they were publicly seen together at the polling station to cast their vote for the presidential election.

“In our matter only some rumours and some facts, which we presumed substantiate these rumours, were reflected. To say, there is no factual base for our publication. We accept this.

“We deeply regret if the information published in our article was found by its heroes as insulting. We apologise to all those, who consider that this story has caused them moral sufferings,” the tabloid today wrote in its front-page editorial.

Earlier, Kabayeva, a member of the State Duma (lower house of Russian Parliament), through her press spokesperson Elisaveta Ovchinnikova, had categorically denied the report and had demanded the tabloid issue a denial or face libel charges. — PTI

Kuala Lumpur, April 18
Three Indian nationals were arrested by the Malaysian authorities and held at a camp for illegal immigrants for 18 days despite having valid travel documents, a media report said here today.

The three -- K Meenakshi (52) a farmer, Sheikh Rajendran (40) a tailor and P Murugesan (24), a carpenter, alleged that some men belonging to Malaysia's voluntary immigration officials' squad, called Rela, had entered their flat on March 15 and had arrested them without allowing them to take their passports from their bags. "I was sleeping in a room when they came at 1.30am. I had a copy of the passport in my pocket and showed it to them. I kept telling them that the original was inside my bag which was in the same room. But they did not understand me," Meenakshi told the New Straits Times. No official of the Indian High Commission could be contacted as today is an Indian public holiday.

Sheikh was together with him in the room when he was also arrested. Murugesan who was nearby was also stopped by a Rela member who refused to let him get his passport from the room, the report said.

The three said they were bundled into a lorry and taken to the Semenyih camp where they spent 18 days before being rescued from there by a businessman who had heard about their plight through some other Indians.

"The conditions in the camp were bad. The food was terrible and I was so afraid to eat," Sheikh was quoted as saying. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Rare Darwin papers online
LONDON: For the first time, the first draft of Charles Darwin’s path-breaking Theory of Evolution has been made available online for free. The draft is among thousands of his private papers made accessible online. For decades these papers were only available to scholars at Cambridge University Library. But they can now be seen free by anyone around the globe at Darwin Online (<http://darwin-online.org.uk/>). The publication of Darwin’s private papers is the largest in history, totalling about 20,000 items in nearly 90,000 images. — PTI

Clever cup stirs it all
LONDON: The elegant teaspoon, considered a must for English tea parties, can soon become a thing of the past with the invention of a mug that can stir liquid by itself. The cup invented by two French designers allows liquids to be stirred without a spoon. All a drinker has to do to work the clever cup is gently swirl it. Designer Florian Dussopt, 23, said, “The cup aims at introducing a new way of drinking tea or another warm drink without using a spoon.” — UNI

Fleming’s war life created 007
LONDON: He may not have fooled death, chased and killed many a villain besides loving gorgeous women but Ian Fleming’s experiences during the Second World War led him to create James Bond’s character. The similarities between Fleming and Bond are explored in the first major exhibition on the life and work of the secret agent’s creator at the Imperial War Museum here. It has on view the rare material such as the author’s desk and chair from his Jamaican home Goldeneye, where he wrote all the Bond novels, the Telegraph reported. — UNI