Bangkok, December 23
Anti-government protesters today continued their campaign to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as they surrounded a sports stadium here in an unsuccessful attempt to block leaders from registering their political parties for February 2 elections.

Hundreds of protesters surrounded the Thai-Japanese stadium where political leaders were trying to register their parties to run in the polls ahead of the December 27 deadline.

Representatives of Yingluck's Puea Thai party managed to enter the stadium before it was blocked by protesters, said Prompong Nopparit, spokesman for the ruling Pheu Thai Party.

"We went into the stadium at 4am when they were asleep," Nopparit said.

The Election Commission said 35 political parties had submitted their party list applications before 8.30am today. It said nine parties entered the stadium to register their candidates and the rest registered with the Din Daeng police station.

Hundreds of protesters tried to seal the police station also and then tried to block representatives of several political parties from leaving.

Prime Minister Yingluck called the elections to diffuse tension after several weeks of violent demonstrations in the Thailand capital.

Meanwhile, opposition Democrat Party's deputy spokesman Jurit Laksanawisit said the ruling Pheu Thai Party intended to inherit Thaksin regime as it has proposed Yingluck as the No 1 party-list MP candidate.

No one can guarantee that Yingluck and her fellow party members would not vote in favour of the blanket amnesty bill if they take power after the election.

The bill paves the way for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return. Thaksin, who was ousted in 2006, is living in exile.

The Democrat Party, which has not won an elected majority in parliament in 21 years, has said it will boycott the February 2 polls called by Yingluck.

At least 1.5 lakh people joined the anti-government protests here yesterday, according to an estimate from National Security Council chief Paradorn Pattanatabut. — PTI

Singapore, December 23
Charges against three Indians for being involved in Singapore's worst riot in 40 years were withdrawn today, while seven of their remaining 25 compatriots were released on bail.

Karuppiah Thirunavukkarasu, Ganesan Ashokkumar and Anbarasan Vel Murugan were acquitted of the charges by Subordinate Courts in the December 8 Little India riot.

This brings the total number of alleged rioters who had their charges dropped to 10. Seven Indians were released on December 17 after the prosecution dropped their charges.

The three men would soon be released, a news channel reported.

The move came three days after 56 Indians and a Bangladeshi were deported from Singapore for being allegedly involved in riot in Little India, a precinct of Indian-origin businesses, eateries and pubs where most South Asian workers take their Sunday break. The trouble started after a bus killed an Indian pedestrian in Little India. — PTI

South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was at one time trained by Israel's legendary Mossad secret service, according to newly discovered documents from the Israeli state archives.

The top secret documents about the help extended to Mandela, who was an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of the Indian Independence movement, were discovered by Israeli researcher David Fachler looking at 50-year-old documents relevant to ties between South Africa and Israel.

In 1962, Mandela fled South Africa before visiting a number of countries, including Ethiopia, Algeria, Egypt and Ghana, with an aim to collect military and financial help for the African National Congress.

On October 1962, a letter sent by the Mossad to the Israeli foreign ministry in Jerusalem reveals how Mandela was trained by Mossad experts in Ethiopia shortly before he was arrested after returning home to South Africa.

The letter sent to senior members of the Israeli foreign ministry and Israel's ambassador to Ethiopia between 1962 and 1966 talks about "the Black Pimpernel", a slight variation of the reference to the fictional Scarlet Pimpernel who saved French aristocrats from the guillotine from the French revolution in the 19th century.

The Mossad letter refers to a visiting South African activist called David Mobsari who crossed the border from Rhodesia into Ethiopia where he was trained by "the Ethiopians" (code for Mossad operatives in Ethiopia) in judo, sabotage and weaponry.

"Three months ago we had discussed the case of a trainee who arrived at the embassy in Ethiopia by the name of David Mobsari who came from Rhodesia," the letter says, adding: "The aforementioned received training from the Ethiopians (a reference to Mossad agents) in judo, sabotafge and weaponry…"

It subsequently turned out following his arrest back in South Africa that the Black Pimpernel and David Mobsari were the names either used by or attributed to Mandela at the time.

The Mossad letter in the Israeli archives goes on to say, "In conversation with him, he expressed socialist worldviews and at time created the impression that he leaned towards communism."

Fachler, who received a Masters of Law degree in South Africa, has been quoted in the Israeli media as saying, "If the fact that Israel helped Mandela had been discovered in South Africa, it could have endangered the Jewish community there."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Israeli state archives has been quoted saying, "The Israeli representative in Ethiopia was not aware of Mandela's true identity. Instead, the two discussed Israel's problems in the Middle East, with Mandela displaying interest in the subject. Only after his arrest in 1962, on his return to South Africa, did Israel learn the truth."

Washington, December 23
A day before Ambassador Meera Shankar was to return home after completing her tenure in the US in the summer of 2011, her maid, without informing anyone, left her official residence on the outskirts of the city never to return.

The highly-secretive Indian Embassy here hushed up the matter from the media and is believed to have registered a formal complaint with the police and the State Department, in addition to cancelling the maid's official passport.

The woman domestic worker, who served the Ambassador quite well during her tenure of more than two years in Washington, is still untraceable and believed to be living illegally in the US.

And she is not the only Indian maid - officially called "India-Based Domestic Assistant" - to have fled from the homes of senior Indian diplomats in the past few years.

Sources familiar with such incidents told the PTI, strictly on condition of anonymity, that the number of such maids or India-Based Domestic Assistants (IBDAs) from the Indian Embassy in Washington - one of the largest Indian diplomatic missions - could be at least a dozen in the past decade.

Not only maids, but security guards brought from India too are believed to have fled, mostly towards the end of their tenure.

The Indian Embassy did not respond to the PTI's questions on the number of IBDAs currently with staff at its diplomatic posts in the US, including the embassy in Washington and consulates in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta and Chicago.

In 2012, the US issued a total of 54 A-3 visas, which are the ones for IBDAs or maids, to Indian diplomats. In all, as many as 1,141 A-3 visas were issued last year, while 749 applications were rejected.

A-3 visas are for the domestic help of diplomats and foreign officials who are in the US on A-1 and A-2 visas.

According to official figures made available to PTI by the State Department, the US issued A-3 visas for 32 Indian domestic workers in 2011, 50 in 2010, 60 in 2009, 38 in 2008, 35 in 2007, 40 in 2006, 60 in 2005, 55 in 2004 and 47 in 2003.

Over the past 10 years, the US issued more than 470 A-3 visas to Indian domestic workers. - PTI

Islamabad, December 23
Beleaguered former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's efforts to wriggle out of a treason case suffered a setback today when a court rejected his objections against the special court set up to try him.

Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan of the Islamabad High Court dismissed three pleas filed by Musharraf's lawyers against the constitution of the special court and the appointment of three judges and a state prosecutor to conduct his trial.

The special court has summoned the 70-year-old former army chief to appear before it tomorrow to face a charge of high treason for imposing emergency in 2007.

This is the first time in Pakistan's history that a former military dictator is facing trial for treason. If convicted, Musharraf could face life imprisonment or death.

Musharraf had said in a petition that he promulgated emergency as the army chief and could only be tried by a military court. He also objected to prosecutor Akram Sheikh, who has links with right wing parties and is known for his intense hatred for the former military ruler. The judge rejected all these objections, clearing the way for Musharraf's first appearance in the special court tomorrow.

Earlier in the day, the Sindh High Court rejected Musharraf's petition for lifting a foreign travel ban on him.

The court said the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction and refused to remove his name from the Interior Ministry's Exit Control List.

The court advised Musharraf's counsel to refer the matter to the government.

The government barred Musharraf from leaving Pakistan after he was arrested in four major cases, including one over the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

He has been granted bail in the four cases but his name continues to be in the Exit Control List. Musharraf came to power in 1999 by toppling a government led by current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and ruled till 2008. — PTI

Islamabad, December 23
Forty-seven per cent of 1,070 lawmakers elected to Pakistan's national and provincial assemblies earlier this year did not pay income tax and 12 per cent do not even have a National Tax Number.

Members of the National Assembly or lower house of parliament who did not pay taxes belong to all major parties, according to a media report today.

The PML-N has the lion's share with 54 parliamentarians.

Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf follows with 19 non-taxpaying MPs.

The Pakistan People's Party has 13, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam seven and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement five.

Parliamentarians whose tax declarations were contradicted by the Federal Board of Revenue include big names such as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, his party's vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, MQM parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar, The News daily reported. — PTI