The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Maldivian President steps down amid global pressure Male, November 15 In the face of pressure from the world community, Mohamed Waheed has stepped down as the President of Maldives on the eve of the second round of the country’s controversy-ridden presidential poll. Waheed, who took office after the first democratically elected President Mohamed Nasheed resigned under duress in February 2012, had been under pressure from India and western powers to step down after his tenure ended on November 10. Some reports suggested Waheed had left Maldives yesterday evening for a private visit to a Southeast Asian country. He had initially decided to remain in power to oversee the selection of a replacement. A run-off between Nasheed, who led the first round of the presidential polls on November 9, and his rival Abdulla Yameen is scheduled for tomorrow. The current polls mark Maldives’ third attempt to elect a new President since September. The first election on September 7 was annulled by the Supreme Court, citing the rigging of voters’ lists, while the Election Commission’s attempt to hold polls on October 19 was thwarted by the police after a Supreme Court ruling. In a televised address to the nation last night, Waheed claimed his government had refused to bow down to foreign pressure and upheld the legal framework and orders of the constitutional institutions of the country. Waheed said after working under a legal framework that constrained the powers of the President for decades, it was only patience and compromises that paved the way for an election where three candidates were competing. While the people might feel the government was weak, the country would not have arrived at the current stage if the government had not worked with patience and compromise, he said. The political scene in Maldives has been in a state of flux since Nasheed was forced to resign. India has expressed its disappoint with the postponement of run-off polls till November 16 and urged that a newly elected President of the Maldives is sworn in at the earliest. "It is also a matter concern that as the government ends its term today, no interim arrangement acceptable to all stakeholders to run the country is in place," a statement from Indian High Commission said on Monday after Waheed declared that he will stay on until his successor is sworn in. — PTI Second round of poll Today * The second round of the presidential election will take place on Saturday with the Maldives Democratic Party candidate and former President Mohamed Nasheed being the frontrunner * The current polls mark Maldives’ third attempt to elect a President since September
	386 kids rescued in child-porn bust Toronto, November 15 Nearly 350 persons, including schoolteachers, doctors and actors, have been arrested in what the Toronto police called one of the largest child porn busts they have ever seen. The police yesterday said 386 children were rescued as a result of the sweeping investigation. More than 100 persons were arrested in Canada and 76 in the US in an investigation dubbed Project Spade. Others were arrested in other countries. “It is alleged that officers seized hundreds of thousands of videos detailing horrific sexual acts against very young children, some of the worst that they have ever viewed,” Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins said. Australian Federal Police commander Glen McEwen today confirmed that 65 men had been arrested in Australia as a result of the Canadian investigation, and six Australian children had been removed from harm. The police said the children were "rescued from child exploitation" but did not give more details. Beaven-Desjardins said the investigation began with a Toronto man accused of running a company since 2005 that distributed child pornography videos. The police allege Brian Way, 42, instructed people around the world to create the videos of children ranging from 5 to 12 years of age, then distributed the videos via his company, Azov Films, to customers. — AP 11-year jail for ex- FBI agent Washington: A former FBI agent has been sentenced to over three years in prison for disclosing confidential security information about a foiled bomb plot to an AP reporter. Donald Sachtleben, who was also sentenced to eight years in prison in a child pornography case, pleaded guilty in both cases in September. — AFP
	China to relax one-child population policy Beijing, November 15 China, the world's most populous nation, will relax its controversial decades-long one-child population policy which restricted most couples to have only a single child, the ruling Communist Party announced today. China will also abolish its notorious labour camps in an effort to improve human rights, the state media reported, quoting key decisions issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC). China will implement this new policy while adhering to the basic state policy of family planning, according to the decision on major issues concerning comprehensively deepening reforms, which was approved at the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee held November 9-12 in Beijing chaired by Chinese President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping. The birth policy will be adjusted and improved step by step to promote "long-term balanced development of the population in China", it said. The China's family planning policy was first introduced in the late 1970s to rein in the surging population by limiting most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two children, if the first child was a girl. The policy was later relaxed, with its current form stipulating that both parents must be only children if they are to have a second child. Other reforms announced today include the abolition of "re-education through labour" camps. The network of camps created half a century ago holds thousands of inmates. Police panels have the power to sentence offenders to years in camps without a trial. — PTI Reform wave * Couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only child — widening the exceptions to a rule introduced in the late 1970s to control China’s population * China will also abolish its controversial "re-education through labour" system, under which police panels can sentence offenders to up to four years in camps without a trial
	Medical negligence charges dropped against Indian-origin doctor in Oz Melbourne, November 15 An Indian-origin doctor, accused of manslaughter of several patients in Australia, is likely to walk free after prosecutors today dropped all criminal medical negligence charges against him, ending his long-running legal woes. Jayant Patel, 63, did not react when he was formally discharged from the indictments in the Supreme and District courts in Brisbane. During the hearing, the Prosecutor Peter Davis said the crown would not be pursuing criminal medical negligence charges against Patel, an Indian-born US citizen, after deciding it was not in the interests of justice. The Director of Public Prosecutions cited the amount of time that had passed, the time Patel has already spent in jail, the strength of Patel's defence and the cost of litigation, more than $3 million, as factors in his decision. "In all the circumstances...I have decided that it is not in the public interest to continue the counts alleging criminal negligence against Jayant Patel," Director of Public Prosecutions Tony Moynihan said in a statement. — PTI
	Don’t turn C’wealth into punitive body: Lanka CHOGM: Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s Jaffna visit steals the spotlight from summit Colombo, November 15 With some countries like Britain and Canada seeking to bring human rights violations in the Sri Lankan war against LTTE under the scanner during the CHOGM summit, President Mahinda Rajapaksa today asked member nations not to turn the Commonwealth into a "punitive and judgemental" body and desist from introducing bilateral agendas. Meanwhile, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron today made an historic visit to Sri Lanka's former war-zone, stealing the spotlight from a Commonwealth summit. Cameron flew out shortly after Rajapaksa said in an opening speech that the Commonwealth must not be a "judgemental body" and warned his fellow leaders of trying to impose their own "bilateral agendas". "If the Commonwealth is to remain relevant to its member countries, the association must respond to the needs of its people and not turn into a punitive or judgemental body," he said in a speech ahead of the formal opening of the summit by Britain's Prince Charles. Canadian PM Stephen Harperwas the first to announce a boycott after his government said the summit was akin to "accommodating evil" while his Mauritian counterpart Navin Chandra Ramgoolam — due to host the next one — is also refusing to attend. The agenda for the three-day summit includes sessions on debt restructuring and climate change. Only hours after the CHOGM summit opened in Colombo, Cameron flew into the northern Jaffna region where some 100,000 people lost their lives in fighting between Tamil rebels and troops from the majority Sinhalese government. He is the first foreign leader to visit Jaffna since the former British colony gained independence in 1948. The three-day summit in Colombo was meant to be a chance for Rajapaksa, a Sinhalese nationalist leader who oversaw the crushing of Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, to showcase the development of his country. But after refusing to bow to demands for an independent investigation into the end of the conflict, he has been confronted by a public relations disaster. The leaders of Canada, India and Mauritius have all snubbed the meeting and Cameron has said he wants his visit to shine a spotlight on the plight of war victims. Cameron landed around 2 pm (Local time) at the Palaly airbase, around 20 km from Jaffna town, in a Sri Lankan military plane. He was then due to meet victims and survivors of the 37-year war which was one of the bloodiest in Asia. "I'm the first PM or President to go to the north of Sri Lanka since 1948. I want to shine a light on chilling events there first hand," he said on Twitter. — AFP KhurshiD on PM’s absence Washington: PM Manmohan Singh decided against attending the CHOGM summit as he was pressed by “competing sentiments” in India about outstanding issues with Sri Lanka and domestic compulsions like polls in five states, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has said. — PTI
	NASA mission envisions Mars as an ocean world Washington, November 15 Ancient Mars likely had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support oceans of liquid water, a critical ingredient for life, according to NASA NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, which launches this month and is likely to arrive at Mars in September 2014, will investigate how Mars lost its atmosphere. MAVEN will investigate the dramatic climate change that took place on Mars. That process of change has been rendered by sophisticated computer animation in a video. Today, Mars is a cold and barren desert world, with no sign of life, atleast on the surface. However, billions of years ago when the Red Planet was young, it appears to have had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support oceans of liquid water - a critical ingredient for life. The video shows as time passes, the lakes dry up or freeze, and the blue skies turn to the dusty pink and brown of today's Red Planet. Study of Mars's surface features and mineral compositions suggest that ancient Mars had a denser atmosphere and vast surface water, according to Joseph Grebowsky at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. "There are characteristic dendritic structured channels that, like on Earth, are consistent with surface erosion by water flows. The interiors of some impact craters have basins suggesting crater lakes, with many showing connecting channels consistent with water flows into and out of the crater. Small impact craters have been removed with time and larger craters show signs of erosion by water before 3.7 billion years ago," says Grebowsky. — PTI
	Special to the tribune Indian-American doctor may be nominated as Surgeon General Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington DC President Barack Obama intends to nominate an Indian-American, who is an advocate of his healthcare law, to be the nation’s top doctor. Dr Vivek Hallegere Murthy, co-founder of Doctors for America, formerly known as Doctors for Obama, will be nominated to the post of Surgeon General of the United States of America, the White House said on Thursday. Doctors for Obama, which comprised doctors and medical students, had campaigned for Obama’s election. In its new avataar, Doctors for America has been an active advocate of Obama's healthcare law. The Surgeon General acts as the government's chief spokesperson to educate the public on health issues, but has little direct role in policy-making. Dr Murthy is a hospitalist attending physician and instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. In 2011, he was appointed to serve as a member of the President’s Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. The group was created as part of Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act health reform law. The nomination comes at a time when Obama is facing criticism over the healthcare.gov federal exchange site. On Thursday, Obama addressed this criticism. “I think it's fair to say that the rollout has been rough so far,” the President said at a White House press conference. “The problems of the website have prevented too many Americans from completing the enrolment process. But there is no question that there is a real demand for quality, affordable health insurance.” Dr Murthy co-founded Visions Worldwide in 1995, a non-profit organisation focused on HIV/AIDS education in India and the United States. He received a BA from Harvard University, an MBA from Yale School of Management and an MD from Yale School of Medicine. Former Surgeon General Regina Benjamin resigned in July since when Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak has been acting Surgeon General. The Surgeon General nominee must be confirmed by the US Senate. If Dr Murthy is confirmed, he will be the first Indian-American to serve in the role of Surgeon General. In 2009, another Indian-American, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta, withdrew his name from consideration for the post of Surgeon General. Dr Gupta said at the time that his decision to opt out was because of his commitments to his family and his surgical career. Obama never formally nominated Dr Gupta for the job, but senior administration officials said he was under serious consideration.There was some speculation that he withdrew his name because of financial reasons. Had Dr Gupta taken the job he would have had to take a significant pay cut. Us’s Top Doctor * The Surgeon General nominee must be confirmed by the US Senate * If it is confirmed, Dr Vivek Hallegere Murthy will be the first Indian-American to serve in the role of Surgeon General
	CIA ‘collecting’ records of money transfers Washington, November 15 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is secretly amassing records of international money transfers into and out of the United States, including operations handled by firms like Western Union, the New York Times reported today. The CIA is acting under the same law that the NSA uses to assemble a database of Americans’ phone records, the paper said, quoting current and former US officials. This financial transactions programme is covered under the post 9/11 Patriot Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Times said. It existence suggests that Americans still do not know everything about the extent of government data collection programmes. The data does not include purely domestic transfers or bank-to-bank transactions, several officials said. But the Times quoted another official, while not acknowledging the programme, as suggesting the court imposed rules that protected the identities of any Americans from the data the CIA sees. Rather, a tie to a terrorist organisation is required before a search can be conducted, it said. And the search has to be erased after a certain number of years. Similar rules imposed by the court apply to the NSA telephone records programme. The government already collects data on large transactions under a law called the Bank Secrecy Act. The Times said several officials say other mass collection programmes have yet to come to light.— AFP International Indian of the Decade award given to Lord Paul London, November 15 Leading NRI industrialist and educationist, Lord Swraj Paul was presented with the 'International Indian of the Decade' award for his outstanding achievements in the fields of industry, education and philanthropy. Acting High Commissioner of India to the UK, Virender Paul presented the award to Lord Paul at the 20th anniversary of the publication of India Link International, a monthly magazine published from here. According to the citation, the UK-based steel and engineering multinational company Caparo founded by Lord Paul now employs some 10,000 people worldwide principally in the UK, USA and India. Lord Paul, who was made a Life Peer, that is a member of the House of Lords in 1996, donated 1 million pounds to prevent the London Zoo from closure in 1994, the citation said. "In 2008 he became the first Indian-born Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and was appointed to the Privy Council in 2009." — PTI