Stockholm, October 12
Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson have won the Nobel Prize in economics for their work in economic governance.

Ostrom is the first woman to win the prize since it was founded in 1968, and the fifth woman to win a Nobel award this year - a Nobel record.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited Ostrom "for her analysis of economic governance", saying her work had demonstrated how common property can be successfully managed by groups using it. Williamson, the academy said, developed a theory where business firms served as structures for conflict resolution. "Over the last three decades, these seminal contributions have advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention," the academy said.

The economics prize was the last Nobel award to be announced this year. It's not one of the original Nobel Prizes, but was created by the Swedish central bank in Alfred Nobel's memory.

Nobel Prize winners receive $1.4 million, a gold medal and diploma from the Swedish king on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Last week, American scientists Elizabeth H Blackburn, Carol W Greider and Jack W Szostak shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells. — AP

Islamabad, October 12
A suicide bomber threw himself at a passing paramilitary convoy near a crowded market, killing 41 persons and wounding 50 in Shangla district in Pakistan's Malakand division, two days after Taliban militants stormed the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Witnesses said the suicide bomber blew himself up near a security forces vehicle as it was passing through a security check post in the market at Alpuri. Most of those killed were civilian passers-by.

The attack occurred near a police station.

North-West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said 41 persons, including six security personnel, were killed in the blast. Police officials said over 50 persons, including soldiers and policemen, were injured.

“The condition of five of the injured security personnel was reported to be serious,” a local police official told a private TV channel. The official said the target of the bomber was the security convoy, but more civilians were killed as the market was very crowded at the time of the blast.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack though the Taliban has vowed to carry out more such strikes to take revenge for the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud. — PTI

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged the government to immediately demilitarise Balochistan, thereby warning of dire consequences to national solidarity if such confidence-building measures were not implemented.

Speaking to mediapersons in Quetta, HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir said the disappearance of political activists and youth remained a serious issue that must discontinue. She said an HRCP delegation that had travelled to Balochistan last week found 30 cases of “enforced disappearances”, allegedly perpetrated by state intelligence agencies after the induction of a democratic government in February 2008.

Asma said the HCRP had “ample evidence to support the allegations of the victims’ families that the perpetrators of the enforced disappearances were intelligence agencies and security forces. This has been conceded by officials and politicians in high authority”.

She said: “The military still calls the shots (in Balochistan)… the decision-making is firmly in the hands of elements that were in command before February 2008… The provincial government is not functioning in critical areas.” 

Kathmandu, October 12
Nepal's opposition Maoist chief Prachanda, currently on a week-long tour of China, had conveyed to India through a former NC lawmaker that it should not doubt his intentions as his visit was not aimed at harming its interests, a media report claimed today.

Prachanda had informed India about his China visit through a former Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker a few days before leaving for Beijing yesterday, 'Rajdhani' daily reported.

The Maoist chief and former premier had asked the NC politician to convey that his intention to visit China was not against India's interests, it claimed.

The paper said the former NC MP, who was not identified, has already returned here after paying a visit to Delhi with the message of Prachanda.

During his meeting with Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood recently, Prachanda had expressed willingness to visit India, it said.

When Prachanda last year visited China first after assuming office as Prime Minister to attend the closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics, he was forced to issue a statement to clarify that his maiden political trip as premier would be to India. — PTI

Washington, October 12
An influential US daily Monday advised the Indian government to resist pressures to test a nuclear weapon, and said it would be a huge setback for New Delhi's relations with Washington and the battle against terrorists.

“Indian nuclear scientists are trying to bully their government into testing a nuclear weapon,” the New York Times suggested in an editorial titled, “Just Say No.”

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is resisting. He must continue to resist,” it said as a nuclear test “would be a huge setback -- for India's relations with Washington, for the battle against terrorists, and for global efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons”.

“If India tests, the United States is bound by a 2008 agreement to cut off all sales of nuclear fuel and technology,” the Times said. “That would be a huge setback to India's plans to expand its nuclear power generation and its economy.”

The daily feared that “if India tests, Pakistan will decide that it has to test. That would raise tensions between the two long-time rivals, and it would further distract Islamabad and its generals from the far more important battle against the Taliban and other extremists inside their country and along their border with Afghanistan”.

The US daily wondered why K. Santhanam, a director for the 1998 test-site preparations, “waited 11 years to raise the alarm" and claim "those tests did not yield the desired results and were a ‘fizzle’”.

“We suspect that Santhanam and his colleagues are worried that if Washington finally ratifies the (test ban) treaty, India may feel compelled to sign on,” the Times surmised.

The United States too "should make clear that India has more to gain by focusing on economic growth and expanding global cooperation than on developing more nuclear weapons,” it said.

“And it should leave no doubt about how much India and the rest of the world have to lose if New Delhi makes the wrong choice,” the daily warned. — IANS