Australian head of state a ‘foreigner’
CANBERRA, June 23 — In a decision most people might think merely stating the obvious, Australia’s highest court today ruled that Britain is a foreign power.

Nostradamus fad sweeps Japan
TOKYO, June 23 — The end of the world, which followers of Nostradamus believe is only weeks away, has made the 16th century French astrologer the flavour of the month in Japan.

Judge sleeps as the case proceeds
JERUSALEM, June 23 — Attorneys heatedly arguing a case in an Israeli court on Monday received something of a jolt when they realised that the Judge was so unimpressed with their legal skills that he was actually fast asleep on the Bench.

Sethi barred from leaving Pak
LAHORE, June 23 — Prominent Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi, whose arrest last month caused an international outcry, said the police had barred him from leaving the country today to receive a human rights award in London.

Appeal to back India

WASHINGTON, June 23 (UNI) — Congressional International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman has urged fellow lawmakers to support the Clinton administration’s efforts aimed at “compelling Pakistan to immediately withdraw its troops” from Kashmir. In a “dear colleague” letter, jointly addressed to fellow lawmakers with Democrat Congressman Sam Gejdenson last night, he recalled how a few weeks ago, some 600 to 700 armed infiltrators crossed the Line-of-Control (LoC) in Kashmir and entered into the Indian territory.

“This recent aggression involved greater number of infiltrators and more firepower, including stinger missiles, than any other incursion in recent memory. It is reported that these infiltrators are Afghani and Pakistani terrorists associated with Osama Bin Laden and the Pakistani Harkat-ul-Mujahideen,’’ the letter added.

It said ambushing civilian highway traffic, these infiltrators had prevented supplies of food and medicine from reaching civilians living near the border in Kashmir.

They said even more alarming, however, was the strong evidence that the Pakistani Government provided the intruders with military, financial and logistical support.

Senate votes to pay UN debt

WASHINGTON, June 23 (AP) — The US Senate yesterday gave a near-unanimous approval to a legislation to pay nearly $ 1 billion of the USA’s long-standing debt to the UN, but conditioned it on a reduction in future US assessments.

Mr Richard Holbrooke, President Bill Clinton’s nominee as the UN Ambassador, immediately promised to support the lower American share and to fight for other cost-cutting changes sought by the US lawmakers.

On a 98-1 tally, the Senate approved a US State Department Bill that would reduce the maximum US share of the regular UN budget from the present 25 per cent to 20 per cent. It would also drop the US share of peace-keeping operations from 31 per cent to 25 per cent.

In exchange, the Bill would free payments of $ 819 million in the US debts to the UN over three years and forgive $ 107 million that the UN owes to the USA for a total repayment package of $ 926 million.

The UN has warned the USA that it will lose its General Assembly voting rights if at least $ 250 million of the back dues is not paid by December. The USA has been late on its payments for the past 13 years.

The overall measure, a $ 6.4 billion two-year State Department spending Bill, now goes to the House, where similar legislation in the past became snarled in an unrelated dispute over abortion. Such an entanglement looms as a possibility again this year.

The legislation also seeks to impose new conditions on the UN including a demand that the world organisation should not charge the USA interest on the arrears, should not take steps to create a standing army, should not seek to levy taxes on Americans and not seek to exercise sovereignty over the US citizens.

China begins search for next Dalai Lama

BEIJING, June 23 (PTI) — With the 14th Dalai Lama in exile in India, China has set in motion the process of identifying the next reincarnation of the Tibet’s highest religious figure, a leading Hong Kong newspaper reported today.

China fears that since the present Dalai Lama has been living in exile for 40 years, attempts would be made to foist a foreign Dalai Lama after his death, the report said, quoting a Chinese scholar who advises the Chinese Government on the Tibetan policy.

Mr Tao Changsong, Deputy Director of the Tibet Contemporary Research Centre in Lhasa, told South China Morning Post that the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama would not be chosen from among foreigners.

“Since the 14th Dalai Lama has been living in exile away from his native Tibet for 40 years, it is feared that after his death a Western boy with blue eyes and golden hair may be identified as the next reincarnation,” the paper quoted Ms Changsong as saying.

A special task force had been set up to study the issue and map out a strategy. Tibetan experts were consulted in the process, the report said.Interestingly, the official Xinhua news agency has been carrying a number of articles on Tibet in the past one week and yesterday it noted that the present Dalai Lama had fled Tibet to India in 1959 after a failed rebellion against the Chinese Government.

Mr Changsong said it was unlikely that China would allow the Dalai Lama, (65) to return home — even after his death.

“It would be very unlikely that the body of the 14th Dalai Lama would be allowed to return to Potala Palace (in Lhasa) to be preserved in a golden stupa tomb to be worshipped by the public after his death,” he said.

“In our opinion, he (the Dalai Lama) is no longer a religious leader but a politician who has spread Tibet splittism,” he said.

China said the Dalai Lama was not a religious leader but a politician in exile who has long been involved in “splitting” China and “sabotaging” national unity under the “camouflage of a religious leader”.

N. Ireland peace process in trouble

LONDON, June 23 (DPA) — The northern Ireland peace process was plunged into deepening crisis yesterday with a warning from Gerry Adams that events could soon spiral out of control and a call from David Trimble for the sacking of Northern Ireland Minister Mo Mowlam, the Times reported today.

Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein that next Wednesday’s deadline for an agreement on disarmament and the formation of an executive could not be extended, the paper said.

Gerry Adams, the leader of the pro-IRA Sinn Fein party, wrote in the Times: ‘‘there is a very real danger that events on the ground could spiral out of control.’’

Ulster Unionist leader Trimble suggested that Mowlam had become an obstacle to peace in the province, saying that one of the great difficulties in implementing the Good Friday agreement was the ‘‘widespread lack of confidence’’ in her.

Despite Unionist demands that the process could still carry on if there was no agreement by June 30, the Downing Street was quoted by the Times as saying that the deadline was absolute.

‘‘If we don’t make it, it will be serious and we will have to look at everything again. I am choosing my words with care - the deadline is absolute,’’ a spokesman for Mr Blair said.

LTTE for Mandela as facilitator for talks

COLOMBO, June 23 (PTI) — Anton Balasingham, one of the LTTE supremo V. Prabhakaran’s closest aides, will soon travel to South Africa to formally request former President Nelson Mandela to be a third-party facilitator for any peace negotiation with the Chandrika Kumaratunga government.

Balasingham, who has managed to reach London from the LTTE-held jungle bases in Sri Lanka’s northern Vanni region, will soon go to South Africa with his Australia-born wife Adele to make the request to Mr Mandela, Colombo-based newspaper The Island said today.

The LTTE’s latest desire to have talks with the Sri Lankan Government has been promoted by two South African ministers of the Indian origin who have been given key positions in President Thobo Mbeki’s Cabinet, it said quoting LTTE sources from Canada.

The two ministers — Mr Essop Pahad, Minister in charge of Mr Mbeki’s secretariat, and Mr Aziz Pahad, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs — are directly promoting the LTTE’s request for Mr Mandela’s facilitation, it said.

The newspaper said the LTTE opted for the South African facilitation hoping its stand would be better understood by Mr Mandela, who himself led a prolonged struggle against apartheid.

Australian head of state a ‘foreigner’

CANBERRA, June 23 (AP) — In a decision most people might think merely stating the obvious, Australia’s highest court today ruled that Britain is a foreign power.

The ruling stems from a case challenging the election of a politician from the Right-wing populist one Nation Party because she is a British citizen.

The Australian Constitution forbids people who owe allegiance to a foreign power from becoming lawmakers. The politician, One Nation’s Heather Hill, however, argued she was eligible because she has dual citizenship of Australia and Britain, Australia’s former colonial ruler.

The court rejected that argument, ruling Ms Hill was ineligible to stand at national elections held on October 3 last year.

The ruling is likely to strengthen a republican argument that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Australia’s official Head of State, should be dumped and Australia become a republic.

Australia’s 11.6 million voters will decide at a referendum on November 6 whether they want to make the country a republic.

Australia was established as a British penal colony when the first white settlers arrived in 1788. It has been independent since 1901, but like many commonwealth nations it still recognised the British monarch.

Australia retains a Governor-General as the Queen’s representative in Australia, but the post holds little real power and is largely ceremonial.

In today’s ruling, four of seven judges of the court decided against Ms Hill.

The three dissenting judges said the court didn’t have the power to hear the case.

Nostradamus fad sweeps Japan

TOKYO, June 23 (DPA) — The end of the world, which followers of Nostradamus believe is only weeks away, has made the 16th century French astrologer the flavour of the month in Japan.

The prospect of a pre-millennial doomsday has captured the imagination of millions of Japanese and sparked a publishing boom rivalled only by the Star Wars campaign.

Michel de Nostredame, better known by his Latin name Nostradamus, foretold that a great king named Angolmois would come to earth in July 1999. Many interpret this as meaning Armageddon is nigh, a belief apparently not uncommon in Japan.

About 20 per cent of Japanese college students give a degree of credence to the prophecies of Nostradamus, according to a recent survey by Japan’s Kokugakuin University.

The survey found that 4.6 per cent of 6,243 university and college students quizzed indicated belief in the ancient prophecies. Another 17.1 per cent believed it was “possible’’ they would come true.

Analysts say few people are seriously preparing for the end, and for most Japanese the Nostradamus boom is merely an entertaining distraction.

Nonetheless, publishing industry sources say the market for books on the topic is so large this year that any title will sell as long as it has the word “prophecy’’ on the cover.

Japan’s Research Institute for Publications said 31 new books related to Nostradamus have been published in Japan since 1998. Among them, 10 books were released since January this year.

“Publishing companies are rushing to release new books related to Nostradamus before the July deadline,’’ said Prof Nobutaka Inoue of Kokugakuin University.

Japan’s first occult boom came when Tsutomu Goto authored a book in 1974 entitled “Nostradamus” great prophecies: The Obliteration of Mankind in 1999”. Sales hit 2.5 million copies.

Analysts say the Aum Shinrikyo sect is one of numerous cults in Japan that have tweaked and fine-tuned their own dogma to accommodate Nostradamus’ prophecies.

Aum founder Shoko Asahara, whose legal name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and other cult members have been charged over the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack, which killed 12 persons and left more than 5,300 injured.

Despite a police crackdown following the gas attack, Aum’s popularity has increased lately. The group set up offices and other facilities across the country to prepare for Armageddon, which it claims will occur in early September.

Aum still has some 2,100 members, including nearly 900 who live in cult facilities at 19 locations throughout Japan, according to the police.

One man who says he may also have profited from the doomsday fear is Mr Seiichiro Nishimoto, who runs Japan’s only bomb shelter company, in Osaka.

He said since the start of the year he had received more than 300 inquiries about his underground and capsule-type shelters, which sell for 9.8 million yen ($82,000).

“I suppose it’s probably got something to do with North Korea firing a missile over Japan last year, or the Bible’s predictions of Armageddon, or the Nostradamus prediction,’’ Mr Nishimoto said.

Judge sleeps as the case proceeds

JERUSALEM, June 23 (DPA) — Attorneys heatedly arguing a case in an Israeli court on Monday received something of a jolt when they realised that the Judge was so unimpressed with their legal skills that he was actually fast asleep on the Bench.

The Yediot Aharanot daily yesterday reported, that at first the attorneys decided to do nothing, in the hope the Judge would wake soon.

When this did not happen, they asked the court recorder to wake the Judge. She refused, saying waking Judges was not a part of her job.

Left with no option, the attorneys began making loud noises like coughing, clearing their throats, even applauding.

To no avail, the sound of light snoring continued to come from the Bench. The attorneys eventually found a volunteer to wake the Judge, and the case resumed, after a 10-minute recess.

Neither the attorneys nor the Judge were available for comment.

Sethi barred from leaving Pak

LAHORE, June 23 (Reuters) — Prominent Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi, whose arrest last month caused an international outcry, said the police had barred him from leaving the country today to receive a human rights award in London.

Sethi, editor of the popular “Friday Times” newspaper, told Reuters he was not allowed to board a Pakistan International Airlines flight from the Lahore airport and that staff from The State Intelligence Bureau had seized his passport there.

He was to receive a special award for human rights journalism from the London-based human rights group “Amnesty International”, tomorrow.

“The FIA (Federal Investigation Agency police) said I cannot proceed,” Sethi said after returning home from the airport.

He said they told him that his name was on the government’s exit control list of people barred from leaving the country.

Christ in kid’s daubs
LONDON: A Welsh toddler (3) amazed onlookers at his church nursery school - when his paint daubs made a picture of Jesus, according to a published report. Little Jake Duffin’s masterpiece bears similarities to the Turin shroud as it shows the bearded face of Christ, according to the report in the Daily Mirror on Tuesday. Mum Donna, 34, said: “Jake put dollops of paint on some paper and folded it over. “The other children’s pictures came out like butterflies but his looked like Jesus. — DPA

East Timor vote
UNITED NATIONS: The UN has decided to postpone the August 8 vote on the future of East Timor in Indonesia by at least two weeks because of security concerns, UN chief Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. — PTI

WB decision on hold
WASHINGTON: The World Bank has postponed its decision on a controversial anti-poverty project in China as exiled people from Tibet argued it would harm Tibetans and other ethnic groups. The bank said on Tuesday it would consider the proposal on Thursday when its President James Wolfensohn is due back in Washington from a trip to Europe. — DPA

‘Biblesex’ website
SYDNEY: An Australian churchman on Tuesday was forced to shut down an Internet site offering Christian erotica after fellow ministers complained that his teachings on sexuality had whipped up a frenzy among the faithful. Mark Tronson said that although his “Biblesex” website was receiving thousands of visitors a rethink was in order after the furore it had ignited. — DPA

Clue on AIDS drug
WASHINGTON: Scientists reported a new clue to how to fight the AIDS virus, saying they had found a link between key proteins that the virus uses to break into the cells it infects. The scientists said they had designed a vaccine based on their findings and started testing it in animals. — Reuters

Virgins can rest easy
PHNOM PENH (Cambodia): King Norodom Sihanouk is denying rumours that royal family members have had nightmares of an evil god snatching virgins with long hair, which have sent hundreds of panicked young women to hair salons. The royal palace said in a statement on Tuesday that the rumours were an unreasonable exaggeration. News-papers report said the king or his wife, had dreamed of an evil deity demanding the lives of 3,000 long-haired virgins. The reports sent hundreds of panicked young women to hair salons to cut their locks above the shoulder and avoid being taken. — AP