Dubai, March 23
A showdown between the embattled US-backed President and the opposition escalated in Yemen today as the country’s parliament dominated by supporters of Ali Abdullah Saleh approved a sweeping state of emergency giving him new powers to quash a popular uprising.

The new month-long emergency law suspended the strife torn nation’s constitution, allows media censorship, bars street protests and give security agencies overriding powers to arrests and detain suspects without judicial process.

The evoking of emergency clause was a certainty as Saleh supporters dominated the 301-member legislature but, even then the enactment came under chaotic scenes, media reports said.

The opposition lawmakers as well as dozens of members of Saleh’s own General People’s Congress stayed away from the stormy session. Later, officials said 164 members present had voted for imposing emergency.

The youth leaders leading the protest movement at Sanaa Square dismissed the latest move by President Saleh and said nothing short of his ouster was acceptable to them.

The imposition of emergency in the violence-hit nation comes amid growing confrontation between big elements of the army, tribal chiefs, lawmakers, politicians and diplomats who have joined together to demand that Saleh who has been running the country for the last 32-years stepped down.

Rival factions of the army has deployed tanks in the capital to confront Saleh’s ultra-loyal Republican Guards led by his son Ahmed.

The confrontation in the country already ripped by Shia uprising in the north and an upsurge of al-Qaeda in the south reached a boiling point after regime soldiers gunned down 52 anti-Saleh protesters in Sanaa University on Friday.

The opposition has been bolstered by Monday’s defections of three army generals. The country’s main tribal leaders, diplomats, provincial governors and newspaper editors have also joined the opposition. — PTI

Tokyo/Fukushima, March 23
High levels of radioactive iodine were detected in Tokyo’s tap water prompting government today to declare it unsafe for infants, as rising smoke from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant forced another evacuation of Japanese workers battling to restore its cooling functions.

Amid mounting concerns over food safety due to radiation leaks from the nuclear plant, Premier Naoto Kan warned people against consuming leafy vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and spinach harvested in Fukushima in Japan’s northeast rocked by the March 11 magnitude-9 quake and tsunami that left over 24,000 people dead or unaccounted for.

His warning came a day after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it would ban imports of dairy products and vegetables from areas near the crisis-hit Fukushima power plant, citing “radionuclide contamination.” The measure will cover milk, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruit from Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures, the FDA said, adding the US would not allow imports unless they are confirmed safe.

In Tokyo, the metropolitan government said radioactive iodine exceeding the limit for infants’ intake was detected in water at a purification plant, apparently due to the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima plant after the March 11 quake that is estimated to cost up to $309 billion, in what is being seen as the most expensive natural disaster in the world.

It said 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine were detected per litre of water against the limit of 100 becquerels at a water purification plant yesterday in the Kanamachi district of Katsushika Ward, Kyodo reported.

But the amount of the radioactive substance detected at the purification plant is lower than the 300-becquerel limit for people other than infants, it said.

In a survey of its three purification plants, the metropolitan government also detected 32 becquerels of the substance at a plant in Hamura in western Tokyo. However, the substance was not detected at another plant in Asaka, Saitama prefecture.

Tokyo authorities said infants in the central 23 wards, plus 5 adjacent cities, should refrain from drinking tap water, national broadcaster NHK reported. In Fukushima, the work to restore power and key cooling functions at the nuclear plant was disrupted again today after rising black smoke forced workers to evacuate. — PTI

Los Angeles, March 23
Her great beauty and grand lifestyle peppered with scandals created more twists and turns in Elizabeth Taylor's life than any Hollywood blockbuster could ever portray.

Taylor, a three-time Oscar winner, lived passionately and remained true to her larger-than-life persona to the very end, mirroring the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, whom she brought to life onscreen with Richard Burton in 1963.

Her life had enough dramas to occupy several lives - including her eight marriages (two to Burton) and seven divorces, four children, many grandchildren and more than 60 hospitalisations/operations and various trips to rehab centres.

A true representative of the swinging sixties, she was both a product and victim of a life of excess. She lived her life to the extremes and in the process went on to break many hearts and some marriages in Hollywood.

Her love affair with Burton will go down in history for being one of the most scandalous relationships. She married and divorced him twice but as she was to confess later, he was the love of her life.

The grand dame of Hollywood appeared in more than 50 films, won Oscars for her performances in 1960's 'Butterfield 8' and 1966's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and a third in 1993 for her humanitarian work.

Taylor was hospitalised for the last two months at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. She first disclosed her diagnosis of congestive heart failure in November 2004 on Twitter, which she used to keep her fans abreast of her daily routines.

Taylor's Hollywood career began at an early age and her beauty and mystique ensured that spotlights never left her alone even in her darkest moments. Taylor was born in the UK in 1932 to art dealer father and a stage actress mother.

Her family moved to Los Angeles in 1939 and a Chance screen test taken at the suggestion of a family friend launched her acting career.

She signed a contract with Universal Studios and her first film 'There's One Born Every Minute', was released in 1942. She saw her first hit two years later with MGM's 'National Velvet'. But it was a lonely life as a child star.

She was first nominated for an Oscar for her role of a southern belle in 1957's 'Raintree County', won her second nomination the very next year for her performance in the 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof'. Her third nomination came for 1959 film 'Suddenly, Last Summer'.

Taylor finally won an Oscar for her role in 1960's 'Butterfield 8', where she played a call-girl in love with a married man. However, her finest role was to come with 1966's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which brought her a second Oscar. She played a free-spirited, loud mouth, academician's wife Martha in the movie. — PTI