Jinan/Beijing, September 22
Disgraced top Communist Party leader Bo Xilai was today sentenced to life for corruption and abuse of power by a Chinese court, which effectively ended a stiff challenge posed by pro-Maoist faction against the reform minded new leadership headed by President Xi Jinping.

Curtains came down on China’s biggest political trial for decades when the Jinan Intermediate Court in east China's Shandong province convicted the 64-year-old former Politburo member and Chongqing city Communist Party chief on all the three charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

In its judgement delivered at a packed room, the court sentenced a defiant Bo to life in prison on the graft charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power.

“Bo Xilai was a servant of the state, he abused his power, causing huge damage to the country and its people ... The circumstances were especially serious,” the court said in its judgement as a defiant Bo smiled.

A charismatic Bo, widely expected to be front runner for a top post in the once-in-a-decade leadership change of the ruling Communist Party last year, was sacked as the head of Chongqing city and removed from the party following charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power against him.

The court, which last month conducted an unprecedented “open trial” with periodic updates on microblogs for five days, also stripped the fallen politician of all political rights and ordered the confiscation of his properties.

After the sentencing, Bo was seen handcuffed, with clenched fists and flanked by two towering policemen who held him by his shoulders and forearms as he was escorted out.

Bo was convicted for bribes totalling 20.44 million yuan (about $ 3.3 million) when he was the head of Dalian city, where he carried out a vigorous modernisation drive making it one of the most high-profile port cities in the world.

The fallen politician took advantage of his position as head of Dalian party unit, Governor of northeastern Liaoning Province and commerce minister of China to seek benefits for others, the verdict said.

Bo, who vehemently denied all charges, would file an appeal against the judgement to a higher court in Shandong province whose verdict would be final, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said.

The hearing was regarded as the Communist China's most sensitive political trial after the 1981 'Gang of Four' trial involving Mao Zedong's widow Jing Qing. — PTI 

Berlin, September 22
Angela Merkel was on track to win a third term as Chancellor in a German election on Sunday after her conservatives scored their best result in decades, but it was unclear whether she could avoid being forced into a coalition with her leftist rivals.

Television exit polls showed Merkel’s conservative bloc — the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) — on 42 to 42.5 per cent, which if confirmed would be their strongest score since 1990.

That gives the conservatives an outside chance of securing an absolute majority on their own, which would be a historic success for the 59-year-old Merkel, whose steady leadership during the euro zone crisis has made her hugely popular at home. “It's a super result,” said Merkel, flashing a broad smile.

But the survival of her centre-right coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP) was in question, with the business-friendly party on 4.7 per cent, shy of the 5 per cent mark needed to remain in parliament.

Adding to the uncertainty was a new euro-sceptic party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which stood at 4.9 per cent, just a whisper below the threshold needed to enter the Bundestag.

Support for the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) stood at 26 per cent, the environmentalist Greens were on 8 per cent and the hardline Left party was at 8.5 per cent. That was good for a combined score of 42.5 per cent, roughly in line with the result of Merkel’s conservatives on their own. — Reuters

Beijing, September 22
Super typhoon Usagi, one of the strongest storms to hit Asia this year, battered China's southeastern coast, leading to the closure of schools and disruption of air traffic. The typhoon closed in on the city of Shanwei in southern China's Guangdong province.

According to the National Meteorological Center (NMC) the typhoon would make a landfall between the cities of Huilai and Huidong in Guangdong in the evening.

Frontier police in the city of Shanwei, Guangdong, have directed more than 8,000 fishing boats to return to harbour by noon to avoid strong gales.

More than 1,200 local residents in the city have been evacuated to temporary settlements.

Guangdong province, a major base for Chinese nuclear power stations, has initiated emergency response schemes to brace for the typhoon.

Four of the six power generating units at the Dayawan nuclear power base have been ordered to operate at reduced load.

Outdoor construction has been prohibited at the Yangjiang and Taishan nuclear power plants, according to the China General Nuclear Power Group, which runs the plants, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. — PTI

Tehran, September 22
President Hassan Rouhani today said Western governments must recognise Iran's right to enrich uranium in any deal to allay their concerns about its nuclear programme.

Rouhani said that should extend to "all rights of the Iranian nation, particularly nuclear rights and the right to enrich uranium on its territory within the framework of international rules".

His comments, at an annual military parade, came on the eve of his departure for the UN General Assembly in New York where he is scheduled to meet French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines.

"If they (Western governments) accept these rights, the Iranian people are a rational people, peaceful and friendly.

We stand ready to cooperate and together we can settle all the region's problems and even global ones," Rouhani said.

"The Iranian people want development and are not looking to make an atomic weapon." Iran claims the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes under the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But the UN Security Council has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on Iran for failing to heed ultimatums to suspend the sensitive activity, which Western governments suspect conceals a covert drive for a weapons capability.

Rouhani, a moderate on Iran's political scene, has made several diplomatic overtures since his election in June, and there has been speculation that he could also meet US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the General Assembly, which opens on Tuesday. — AFP

Tehran, September 22
Iran paraded 30 missiles with a nominal range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) today, the first time it had displayed so many with the theoretical capacity to hit Israeli targets.

Iran displayed 12 Sejil and 18 Ghadr missiles at the annual parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The stated range of both missiles would put not only Israel but also US bases in the Gulf within reach.

But in his speech at the parade, President Hassan Rowhani insisted the weaponry on show was for defensive purposes only.

“In the past 200 years, Iran has never attacked another country,” he said.

“Today too, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic and its leadership will never launch any aggressive action in the region.

“But they will always resist aggressors determinedly until victory.”

The Sejil was first tested in November 2008 and the Ghadr in September of the following year.

Both are two-stage missiles that use solid fuel that allows them to be moved around and launched rapidly.

The naval chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards was, meanwhile, quoted as saying that Iran has the capability to strike US warships in the Gulf.

“We have the necessary equipment to destroy American aircraft carries and warplanes in the Gulf,” the ISNA news agency quoted Admiral Ali Fadavi as saying.

Bahrain, a strategic archipelago just across the Gulf from Iran, is the home base of the US Fifth Fleet.

The elite Revolutionary Guards is in charge of protecting the strategic Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Gulf, a key gateway for the world's oil supplies. — AFP

New Delhi, September 22
"The Catcher in the Rye" author Jerome David Salinger published his last story in 1965 but kept writing continuously until his death in 2010 and five of his new books, including a manual on Vedanta, are on the way, say his biographers.

"Based on private interviews conducted over nine years, we have learned that JD Salinger approved works for publication. We were able to obtain information about a number of those books and stories...These works will begin to be published in irregular instalments starting between 2015 and 2020," write David Shields and Shane Salerno in "Salinger".

Raised in Park Avenue privilege, Salinger sought out combat, surviving five bloody battles of World War II, and out of that crucible he created "The Catcher in the Rye", which journeyed deep into his own despair and redefined post-war America.

For more than 50 years, he has been one of the most elusive figures in American history. In the course of a nine-year investigation, and especially in the three years since Salinger's death, Shields and Salerno have interviewed more than 200 people in their bid to solve the mystery of what happened to him.

Among the unpublished books is "The Family Glass", a collection of existing stories about the fictional Glass family along with five new tales.

The authors say that Salinger has also written a "manual" of Vedanta – with short stories, almost fables, woven into text; this is precisely the form of "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", which Salinger called, in 1952, "the religious book of the century". He was an adherent of Sri Ramakrishna's Advaita Vedanta Hinduism.

"Salinger's ‘manual’ is the explicit fulfilment of his stated desire to 'circulate', through his writing, the ideas of Vedanta. Further evidence of Salinger's devotion over more than half a century to Vedanta is that he donated a substantial and continuing portion of his estate to the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York and to other organisations," they write.

The third book is a novel – a World War II love story based on Salinger's complex relationship with his first wife Sylvia Welter. Then there is a novella that takes the form of a counter-intelligence agent's diary entries during World War II, culminating in the Holocaust. Finally there is a complete retooling of Salinger's unpublished 12-page 1942 story "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans". — PTI

Washington, September 22
The Arctic sea ice this year has shrunk to sixth-lowest extent on record, bringing the days of an entirely ice-free Arctic during the summer closer to reality, scientists claim.

However, Arctic sea ice melted less this summer and continued to cover a greater expanse than last year’s record minimum, researchers said.

After an unusually cold summer in the northernmost latitudes, Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its annual minimum summer extent for 2013 on September 13, the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder has reported.

Analysis of satellite data by NSIDC and NASA showed that the sea ice extent shrunk to 5.10 million sq km.

This year’s sea ice extent is substantially higher than last year’s record low minimum.

On September16, 2012, Arctic sea ice reached its smallest extent ever recorded by satellites at 3.41 million sq km. That is about half the size of the average minimum extent from 1981 to 2010.

This summer’s minimum is still the sixth lowest extent of the satellite record and is 1.12 million sq km lower than the 1981-2010 average.

The ice cap covering the Arctic Ocean shrinks and expands with the passing of the seasons, melting in the summer and refreezing during the long, frigid Arctic winter. — PTI