Pratibha Patil’s J&K tour Photos
President Pratibha Patil lifts a weapon recovered from militants, near Tangdhar sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, May 23, 2008.
Federer beats Murray for fifth US Open title
New York: Roger Federer Monday won his fifth consecutive US Open title and 13th Grand Slam crown, defeating British sixth seed Andy Murray 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 in an hour and 51 minutes here at Flushing Meadows.
Federer is now only one Slam away from the all-time career record of 14 of Pete Sampras of the US. He is the first man since American Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the championship five times in a row.
The victory must have come as a big relief to the Swiss who had a tough time this year and came to the US Open without a Grand Slam title for the first time.
He had lost to Novak Djokovic in the semis at the Australian Open and then was a beaten finalist to Rafael Nadal at the French Open and Wimbledon. However, the victory would not make him world number one.
Murray upsets Nadal to reach final
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sixth-seeded Andy Murray reached his first grand slam final in commanding style by upsetting world number one Rafael Nadal 6-2 7-6 4-6 6-4 at the U.S. Open on Sunday.
The shrewd Scot outplayed the Spanish left-hander in a semi-final contest that began on Saturday on the Louis Armstrong court and ended more than 24 hours later in the showpiece Arthur Ashe Stadium after being interrupted by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna.
Leading by two sets but trailing 2-3 in the third overnight, Murray lost the third set before breaking the Spaniard in the 10th game of the fourth, wrapping up the biggest victory of his career with a backhand winner.
The 21-year-old Briton will play four-times defending champion Roger Federer in Monday’s final, the Swiss maestro having beaten Serb Novak Djokovic on Saturday.
“Very relieved,” an emotional Murray said in a courtside interview on a sun-splashed, blustery afternoon after ripping 65 winners past Nadal, including 21 aces.
“To come back after yesterday when I was two sets up was obviously tough to sleep on. I’m so glad I came through.
“I thought I was playing well enough to win but I knew Nadal was going to come at me.”
Murray, who will attempt to become the first British man to win a grand slam title since Fred Perry at the 1936 U.S. Open, has a 2-1 winning record against world number two Federer.
“He’s probably the greatest player ever so to get the chance to play against him in a slam final is an honour,” said the Scot, the first Briton since Greg Rusedski in 1997 to advance to the championship match at the U.S. Open.
“But I have played well against him in the past so hopefully I can do the same again tomorrow.”
ANXIOUS MOMENT
Nadal, who broke Murray at the start of the third set before the match spilled over into a second day, survived one anxious moment in the 10th game but held serve to win the third set.
After hitting a forehand long, the Majorcan saved a break point with an ace before winning the next two points with crunching forehands to peg back Murray’s lead.
Continually pressured by Murray’s clever variations from the baseline, Nadal was forced to save seven break points in a marathon second game in the fourth set before holding serve.
Murray, understandably demoralised after losing a 15-minute game totalling 22 points, was then broken in the third after making four successive unforced errors. The last of them, a wild forehand that sailed wide, gave Nadal a 2-1 lead.
The Briton, however, broke back in the sixth, when the Spaniard hit a forehand wide, to level at 3-3 and constructed a sequence of near-perfect rallies in the 10th to again break and secure victory in three hours 30 minutes.
Nadal, the French Open and Wimbledon champion who was playing his first grand slam as world number one, had won 54 of his previous 56 matches along with eight ATP titles this year.
“I’m very happy for everything,” the Spaniard said. “Am I disappointed? Yes. But at the same time, I am happy because I did good semi-finals here. I tried my best all the tournament. He played better than me and he beat me.”
Win or lose Monday, Murray will rise to a career-high fourth when the world rankings are issued next week, a fitting move according to four-times U.S. Open singles champion John McEnroe.
“He has an incredible return of serve and some of the best hands in the business,” McEnroe said while commentating on the match for an American TV network. “I have always believed he had the potential to go a very long way.
“At the start of the tournament, I said he was the fourth-best player in the world and now the rankings will back up the statement. Let’s see if he can go higher — I think he can.”
Majority want tougher immigration policy
LONDON (Reuters) – The majority of people living in Britain, from all political and ethnic backgrounds, think too many people are settling in the country and favour tougher immigration policies, a poll showed on Monday.
According to the YouGov poll, 57 percent of adults think there should be less immigration than emigration and 28 percent favour keeping the number of people moving to Britain the same as the number leaving, so-called balanced migration.
With immigration high on the political agenda following an influx of workers from eastern Europe, a British parliamentary cross-party committee asked pressure group Migrationwatch to commission the survey on balanced migration.
According to the Office of National Statistics, more people have moved to Britain than left every year since 1993, when there was a net outflow of 1,000. The net inflow was 223,000 in 2004, 185,000 in 2005 and 191,000 in 2006.
The YouGov survey showed there was overwhelming support for lower immigration from backers of Britain’s three main political parties, as well as among black and minority ethnic respondents.
Among supporters of the ruling Labour Party, 36 percent said balanced migration was about right and 45 percent said that would still mean immigration was too high.
For Conservative voters, 23 percent supported a balanced approach while 66 percent wanted tougher limits.
Among black and minority ethnic respondents to the YouGov survey, 36 percent favoured balanced migration and 39 percent wanted tighter immigration policies.
“Balanced migration is the only policy on the table which accommodates both the needs of business and the growing concern of voters about the impact of immigration,” said Migrationwatch chairman Andrew Green, a former British diplomat who supports curbs on immigration.
BALANCED MIGRATION
The survey also showed 33 percent of the electorate would be more likely to vote for David Cameron’s opposition Conservative Party if it introduced a balanced migration policy, with only five percent less likely to support him.
Among Labour voters, 13 percent would be more inclined to vote Conservative, with 9 percent less inclined. For Liberal Democrats, 24 percent would be more likely to vote for Cameron and 8 percent less inclined.
The survey did not ask whether voters would be more inclined to vote for the Labour Party if it adopted a balanced migration policy. Migrationwatch said it opted not to pay the 300 pounds it would have cost to include the question in the poll.
“The results show not only overwhelming support but that newly arrived black and white British citizens wish to be given an opportunity of supporting a balanced migration approach at the next election,” said Labour parliamentarian Frank Field.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants insisted immigration controls were divisive.
“Denying migrants a stake in society isn’t a route to social cohesion,” said the JCWI’s chief executive Habib Rahman.
YouGov said the sample size was 2,267 adults and the survey was carried out online. Fieldwork was undertaken between August 26-27. It said the figures had been weighted and were representative of all adults in Britain.
U.S.’s Rice urges end to Western Sahara dispute
RABAT (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged a resolution of the Western Sahara dispute on Sunday, saying she saw “good ideas” for solving an impasse that has long held back north Africa’s development.
Rice, ending a regional tour that included a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli, said on a visit to staunch ally Morocco that further mediation could help end Africa’s oldest territorial disagreement.
“It is time that it be resolved,” she told reporters after talks in Rabat with Moroccan officials on issues including the decades-old dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front independence movement.
“There will be a new round of talks soon. We are going to support that round, that mediation, there are good ideas on the table and there are ways to move forward.”
“We don’t need to start over. I hope that we can move forward and get this resolved.”
The dispute over Western Sahara, which is rich in phosphates and fisheries and potentially has offshore oil, has poisoned relations between Morocco and Algeria and blocked badly-needed economic cooperation and growth in north Africa.
The issue also has divided the Security Council, with France and the United States backing Morocco but South Africa and others favouring Polisario. Washington wants Sahara’s status resolved so regional states can focus on what it sees as the more important question of combating terrorism.
U.N.-brokered mediation has failed to break a deadlock over whether the territory should be an autonomous region of Morocco, as Rabat proposes, or have a referendum of its people to decide whether or not it should be independent, as Polisario wants.
Peter Van Walsum, the mediator who led the slow-moving talks since June 2007, left his job last month after angering Polisario by making comments that appeared to favour Morocco. U.N. officials in New York have said he will be replaced.
Algeria is the principal ally of Polisario and site of its headquarters. Like many African states, Algeria opposes Moroccan control of the territory and sees it as Africa’s last colony.
COUNTER-TERROR COOPERATION
Polisario waged a low-level guerrilla war in Western Sahara from 1975 until 1991, when the United Nations brokered a truce.
On Friday Rice made the first trip by a U.S. secretary of state to Libya in 55 years, a move intended to end decades of enmity following the signing of a compensation package to cover legal claims involving victims of U.S. and Libyan bombings.
“The breakthrough in relations with Libya enables the U.S. to have a Maghreb policy,” said Rice, who is making her first tour of north Africa.
“I heard in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco as well in Libya how many challenges and opportunities there are in the region.”
Many regional commentators have said U.S. policy towards north Africa has lacked coherence, disjointed by Washington’s longstanding preoccupation with Libya.
Rice, who later left for Washington, also lauded close ties between Morocco and the United States and said: “I can think of no better way to end my trip.”
She reiterated that Washington needed close counter-terror cooperation in the region, which is periodically hit by violence blamed on al Qaeda. An estimated 125 people were killed in a surge of violence in Algeria in August in attacks by al Qaeda’s north Africa wing and clashes between the army and militants.
Asian markets soar on U.S. mortgage takeover
Asian stock markets soared Monday morning after Washington announced a bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — a move that could help bolster a shaky U.S. housing market and renew investor confidence in stock and credit markets worldwide.
Asian markets’ highs and lows have left many investors dizzy.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index was up more than 430 points, or 3.6 percent, at 12,650.27.
Seoul’s Kospi index was up 4.4 percent, Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 3.6 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 4.6 percent.
The U.S. Treasury’s decision Sunday to place the two companies, which own or guarantee about half of U.S. mortgage debt, into a conservatorship removes a big cloud that had been weighing on global markets.The news injected life into recently listless Japanese banks, with Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group both up more than 11 percent in trading Monday morning.
Nomura Holdings, Inc. jumped 9.1 percent following weekend reports that Japan’s largest brokerage group is considering buying a stake in U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Nomura has funds exceeding $1.87 billion for investment in U.S. and European financial institutions and is considering Lehman as one of its investment candidates, Nomura President Kenichi Watanabe was quoted as saying by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri.
Monday’s gains follow a dismal trading session Friday when concerns about the U.S. economy and its impact on global growth sent Asian stocks across the region plunging.
In currency trading, the dollar was up at 108.45 yen Monday morning in Asia, up from 107.72 yen late Friday.
Three China mine accidents kill 42, trap 18
Three Chinese coal mine accidents in just four days killed at least 42 people, trapped 18, and left three missing, media reported on Monday.
China’s mining industry remains the world’s deadliest amid huge demand from a booming economy, despite a government drive to close thousands of small and unsafe mines. Accidents are reported on an almost daily basis.
Flood waters trapped 24 in a coal pit in central Henan province on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency said. By Monday, only six had been rescued.
The death toll from a gas blast at a coal mine in southwest Sichuan on Friday had risen to 15, with three missing, according to a local report carried by the China News Service ( www.chinanews.com.cn ).
The accident happened just a day after an explosion at a colliery in northeastern Liaoning killed 27.
State media reported on Sunday that coal mine deaths dropped by almost a quarter in the first eight months of 2008, but did not mention the number of people killed.
A total of 3,786 coal miners died in gas blasts, flooding and other accidents last year, down 20 percent from 2006.
The Singapore brand of humour
SINGAPORE: If sitcoms are a reflection of our society, how would we define the Singapore brand of humour?
In “Parental Guidance” star Adrian Pang’s unminced words: “Crass, infantile, and reliant on the lamest forms of colloquial linguistic exaggerations. I love it!”
Alaric Tay, who stars in “The Noose”, which is returning for a second season on Tuesday, agreed. “Singapore humour revolves around our language. We like to laugh at the way we sound – whether it’s dialects or minority groups. And there’s slapstick, of course.”
Jade Seah, who plays a nerdy teacher in new sitcom “First Class”, likes the way that our sitcoms generally address “our idiosyncrasies”.
She added: “You can say, ‘Yeah, I’m like that, and it’s quite funny, what.’”
Indeed. But is this what Singaporeans really want on their TV sets? Are we satisfied with seeing repeated parodies of our shallowest attributes?
One of the creative minds who worked on our first and most successful sitcoms – “Under One Roof” and “PCK Pte Ltd” – had a few suggestions as to why our local sitcoms haven’t progressed terribly far since Gurmit Singh hung up his yellow rubber booties.
This person declined to be named because of continuing working relations with MediaCorp, and shall hereafter be referred to as “The Truth Fairy”.
The Truth Fairy offered some constructive criticism. Perhaps we’re over-relying on stereotypical characters, hammy performances, and “a tendency to stick to family sitcoms, which are safe and middle ground”.
Oh, dear. That’s not funny.
Funny, meh?
There’s no denying that we yearn to see ourselves and our society reflected humorously in our sitcoms.
As the first local sitcom, “Under One Roof” had the advantage of being able to stick to the basics: An ordinary family in an ordinary HDB flat with just the right percentage of ordinary multi-racial neighbours.
And if “Under One Roof” were about the average Singaporean, then “PCK” was about the exaggerated Singaporean – from Singlish, superstitions, and lack of social graces, to false airs and social pretensions.
“I actually love local sitcoms,” said Shaun Oon, 25, a Philosophy tutor at the National University of Singapore, in a tone that suggested that this might come as a surprise.
“I think shows like ‘PCK’ and ‘Calefare’ are funny because of the way they respond to our specific cultural context. For example, I like ‘First Class’ even if I find it unoriginal and hammy because no one else makes jokes about how silly the Co-Curricular Activities system is.”
Of course, that means you will only “get it” if you knew what a Co-Curricular Activities system was in the first place.
Mrs Anna Ng, a 29-year-old from New York who moved to Singapore three years ago when she married a Singaporean, said she rarely watches local sitcoms because she finds them difficult to relate to.
About “First Class”, she explained: “I don’t even know what’s happening on that show. There was one part where the students stood up and droned ‘good morning’ to their teacher – it was only after my husband had explained it to me that I could see the humour in it.”
In general, she added, our local sitcoms are “very, very cheesy”.
Don’t play, play
Cheesy and familiar. Is that what’s holding our sitcoms back?
The Truth Fairy offered another suggestion.
More rehearsal time might lead to more believable performances. More focus on breaking new ground with a fresh concept might also push our sitcoms up the evolution ladder of “funnyness”.
“If you tell the same joke 10 times, people will laugh the first time, they may even laugh the second time, but they will slap you the tenth time,” cautioned The Truth Fairy.
“The Noose’s” Chua Enlai raised the possibility of another possible suspect: You.
“I think the problem is that Singaporeans are a bit too scared to laugh at themselves,” said Enlai.
“For example, ‘Little Britain’ (a comedy sketch show from the BBC), which I love, is England under a microscope. But it is real. And it is tongue-in-cheek.
“Only when a comedy resonates with the audience is it really effective. There has to be a shred of truth in it. There should be some sort of self-reflection and commentary, especially when it comes to stereotypes.”
Then how, ah?
Then again, do Singaporeans really want something different when it comes to what makes them laugh?
“Calefare” and “The Noose”, although not conceptually groundbreaking, are at least pushing the boundaries of local comedy in terms of format.
But – and this may or may not come as a shock – “First Class” and “Police and Thief”, which follow a formulaic, tried-and-tested approach, are beating them in the ratings.
On a related note, has anyone else noticed how uncannily identical the opening title of “First Class” is to “Under One Roof’s”?
The Truth Fairy agreed it might be a bit of a Catch-22 situation.
Why try something different if people want the same thing?
But, at the same time, you’ve got to offer people something different to nibble on before they decide they like more than the one thing they have gotten used to.
Take a risk on shows that may take the masses a while to appreciate, suggested the Fairy, and don’t play it too safe.
Alaric agreed, but pointed out that it’s already happening. “I think local comedy-makers right now are doing a lot of exploring as to what kind of characters can be funny,” he told TODAY.
“On ‘The Noose’, we’re doing so many different characters on every episode. There are some very experimental things going on.”
It’s easy to be critical of our sitcoms, but let’s lend them our support, especially when they do make the effort.
I, for one, have a great idea for a new sitcom. It’ll be about a talking dog who wanders around MRT stations and trains meeting colourful and interesting heartland characters, and it’ll be called “Under One Woof”.
The second season of “The Noose” premieres on Tuesday at 10pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5. You can also catch “Calefare” at 8pm and “First Class” at 8.30pm on Tuesdays on Channel 5.
Philippines fears hardline Muslim rebels could resort to terror attacks
MANILA: The Philippines military fears hardline Muslim rebels could resort to terror attacks after a major flare-up of a separatist conflict in the south, the armed forces chief of staff said on Monday.
General Alexander Yano said military operations have reduced the fighting capability of two Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) factions blamed for pillaging dozens of villages across Mindanao island last month, leaving scores of civilians dead.
“They have splintered into smaller units and are evading government troops, and we anticipate that they might resort to terrorist acts or guerrilla (warfare) in small and splintered formations,” Yano told reporters.
“There are contingency situations (that) have to be anticipated and preparations have to be made, but definitely these cannot be announced,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said the fighting has been the worst in five years, and that up to a half a million people have been affected, with many forced to flee their homes.
Fighting broke out between troops and the 12,000-strong MILF on August 10 after the Supreme Court blocked a draft peace agreement intended to create a political settlement to four decades of sectarian bloodshed.
Manila has effectively suspended the peace talks and offered a 25 million-peso (535,000-dollar) bounty for three senior MILF leaders accused of leading the raids.
Hot Air Balloon Crashes Near Philadelphia, Killing 1
The Chester County Emergency Services dispatcher says the balloon crashed at 6:40 p.m. Sunday in Phoenixville, 22 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Those injured were taken to area hospitals. There was no immediate word on their conditions.
Emergency officials did not know where flight began. Several companies in the area offer recreational balloon flights.
Early lead for Zardari in Pak Prez polls
Zeenews Bureau
Islamabad, Sept 06: Ruling Pakistan People’s Party chief Asif Ali Zardari on Friday established an early lead in the country’s presidential election, securing a majority of votes cast by members of a provincial assembly, which is part of the electoral college.
The widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto secured 107 votes in the 124-member assembly of the North West Frontier Province, state-run TV reported.
Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, fielded by the PML-N party of former premier Nawaz Sharif, bagged 10 votes while Mushahid Hussain Syed, the candidate of the PML-Q, got only three votes. Four votes were rejected.
Under the complicated formula used for counting the votes cast in provincial assemblies, the 107 votes polled by Zardari will have an actual weightage of 56 votes. Only the votes cast by members of the 100-strong Senate and 342-member National Assembly, the two houses of parliament, are counted in the normal fashion.
Voting was suspended in the NWFP assembly for a while after a woman legislator showed her ballot paper to other members. The presiding officer suspended polling for some time but it resumed later.
Pakistani parliamentarians and legislators of four provincial assemblies voted in the polls that are expected to be swept by Zardari.
Zardari is set to win despite the PML-N’s decision last month to pull out of the ruling coalition as the PPP has the backing of several smaller parties and independent lawmakers.
Chief Election Commission Qazi Muhammad Farooq supervised the polling in a joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament. Voting was held simultaneously in the four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province and Balochistan.
Earlier today, Pakistan presidential election got underway with PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari emerging as a clear favourite. Polling is expected to continue from 10 a.m. to 3.00 p.m and the results to be announced thereafter.
Three candidates are contesting the election: Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and Mushahid Hussain, former chief justice and candidate for Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) party.
The voting will be held through a secret ballot. The candidate getting a simple majority would be the country’s next President for the next five years. The official verdict will come later in the evening.
Zardari appears set to sweep the Presidential poll and would be expected to tackle problems like rising militancy and economic malaise after his election. Zardari has already moved house due to fears of attempts being made on his life, nine months after Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally.
Musharraf won a new five-year term in October in a vote by the outgoing Parliament and provincial assemblies. Critics said his election was unconstitutional.
Traditionally, Presidents have been figureheads in Pakistan, with Prime Ministers holding real power. But at various times, including under Musharraf, constitutions have been amended to give the President more powers. The office retains the powers Musharraf held though all candidates have said they would strip the presidency of those powers, in particular the ability to dismiss Parliament.
Tropical Storm Hanna moves ashore at U.S. Carolinas
SALVO, N.C. (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Hanna sloshed ashore along the U.S. Atlantic Coast between the border of South and North Carolina early on Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Hanna, packing winds just shy of Category 1 hurricane strength, was forecast to move rapidly northeast along the East Coast during the weekend, bringing heavy rains and a risk of flash flooding to the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England.
Hurricane Ike, still an extremely dangerous Category 3 storm, churned in the open Atlantic toward south Florida and the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico, the center said.
Ahead of Hanna’s landfall, authorities on Friday had declared states of emergency, several North Carolina beach communities were under evacuation orders, campgrounds were shut and storm alerts were issued from Georgia to New Jersey.
The center of Hanna reached the Carolina coast at 3:20 a.m. (0720 GMT) and raced north at 21 mph (34 kph) with top winds of 70 mph (115 kph), the center said. It was expected to drench cities and communities from Washington to New York over the next few days.
Ike was far more threatening than Hanna because its top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) threatened the Gulf Coast’s nearly 4,000 offshore platforms that produce a quarter of U.S. crude oil and 15 percent of the country’s natural gas.
Ike had weakened from a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale on Friday.
The hurricane center said at 2 a.m. (0600 GMT) that Ike was spinning 330 miles (530 km) east-northeast of Grand Turk Island and was expected to sweep westward near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southern Bahamas by Sunday.
The Bahamian government sent soldiers and emergency supplies to Mayaguana and San Salvador, southern islands left short of food and water by an overdue mail boat.
“If we have heavy flooding and lose power, we could be in an uncomfortable situation,” said chief councilor Earnel Brown of the island of Mayaguana.
Some further weakening was possible but the hurricane center said Ike was expected to remain a “major” storm of Category 3 or higher.
Visitors were ordered to evacuate the Keys on Saturday and residents were ordered out beginning on Sunday.
ORDERS TO LEAVE THE COAST
Some computer models took Ike near the heavily populated Miami area in southeast Florida, where up to 1.3 million people could be ordered to leave the coast.
“It’s a lot coming at us. But we must remain vigilant, focused and calm,” Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said.
A Category 4 hurricane strike on Miami would be a huge disaster because of the billions of dollars of vulnerable real estate in low-lying islands like Miami Beach and along the coast of the Florida peninsula.
Other computer models took Ike directly over Cuba, where Hurricane Gustav inflicted damage that former President Fidel Castro compared to the aftermath of a nuclear bomb.
Tropical Storm Josephine weakened into a tropical depression far out in the Atlantic, knocking out the weakest of three storms that followed Hurricane Gustav’s rampage through the Caribbean to Louisiana.
Gustav came ashore on Monday west of New Orleans, largely sparing the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
The flurry underscored predictions for an unusually busy six-month hurricane season. An average season has 10 tropical storms, of which six strengthen into hurricanes with top sustained winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph). Josephine was already this year’s 10th, and the statistical Sept. 10 peak of the storm season still lies ahead.
Police Commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille said 495 bodies had been found in the mud-heaped port city of Gonaives, where thousands survived by climbing on rooftops. That brought the toll for all of Haiti to at least 529.
Suresh
Malaysia’s Anwar says on track to unseat government
JAKARTA: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Saturday he is on track to meet a mid-September deadline to recruit enough members of parliament to topple the government.
The opposition is confident it will secure the defection of at least 30 members from the ruling Barisan Nasional government – the number needed to unseat the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Anwar said.
Anwar, speaking to reporters in the Indonesian capital after meeting with a think tank, said he was “quite positive from the initial response from the members of parliament”.
“We have seen some very positive signs, but we have also seen the desperate acts by the government, threats and using institutions to discourage them,” he said.
Government attempts to compel members of parliament to travel overseas until after his pledged September 16 deadline to take power would not work, Anwar said.
“The only issue now is that they are going to compel members of parliament to (travel to) China or overseas until after the 16th of September, so we’ll have to deal with that. Probably we’ll meet on the 17th because they’ll come back on the 17th,” he said.
The 61-year-old leader of the three-party Pakatan Rakyat coalition declined to name or give the number of lawmakers who have pledged to defect.
Asked if he had used his two-day trip to Jakarta to meet with potential government defectors, Anwar said: “I won’t comment on that, but I will say it’s a good visit.”
Abdullah, who is facing calls from his party to quit amid plummeting popularity, has said Anwar’s push to take power will fail.
The parties of Pakatan Rakyat gained unprecedented ground against the Barisan Nasional coalition in the March general election, securing a third of parliamentary seats and five states.
Dalai Lama’s brother dies at the age of 86
NEW DELHI: Taktser Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother who advocated independence for Tibet, has died in the United States at the age of 86, a spokesman for the Tibetan spiritual leader said on Saturday.
Rinpoche – whose given name was Thupten Jigme Norbu – died late Friday at his Indiana home after being unwell for several years, R. Chhoekyapa, secretary to the Dalai Lama, told AFP.
“He passed away last night and we informed His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) this morning,” Chhoekyapa said by telephone from Dharamshala, where the exiled Tibetan leaders are.
“We are all very saddened by the passing and we have sent our condolences,” Chhoekyapa said.
News of Rinpoche’s death came less than a week after the 73-year-old Dalai Lama was released from a Mumbai hospital, where he was treated for a brief abdominal illness that stirred alarm about his health among his followers.
The Dalai Lama champions a “middle path” policy that espouses “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet, rather than the full independence that some other activists are seeking.
Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s brother, “wanted nothing but full independence for Tibet. In that, he differed from his brother,” Chhoekyapa said.
“But that did not affect his relations with his brother – we are in a free country and everyone can have their views,” he said.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule.
Rinpoche is survived by his wife Kunyang Norbu, and three sons, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.
