Indonesian presidential hopeful and the leader of the Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle (PDIP), Megawati Sukarnoputri (right), poses at Parliament House in Jakarta on Friday shortly before the swearing-in ceremony — AFP

Habibie opens MPR amidst boos JAKARTA, Oct 1 —Indonesia’s floundering President B.J. Habibie insisted on Friday that he wants reform in a speech broadcast after he was booed at a key lawmakers’ meeting. “We note that the effort of instituting and maturing democratic life still need to be improved,’’ Habibie said in the televised speech.

Congressman pleads for Sikh priest’s release
WASHNGTON, Oct 1 — A U.S. Congressman has taken up cudgels on behalf of a Sikh priest who was arrested for carrying a ceremonial “kirpan”, small sword, as ordained by him religion.

China honours top Indian scientist
BEIJING, Oct 1 — China has honoured a top Indian agricultural scientist, Dr Gurdev S. Khush for his contribution to augmenting the production of rice in the world’s most populous country.

• No differences with Sharif: Musharaf

Gunmen seize 20 embassy officials

BANGKOK, Oct 1 (Reuters, AFP) — Gunmen holed up in the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok today demanded Yangon’s military government free all political prisoners, enter into a dialogue with the Opposition and convene a democratic parliament.

In a faxed statement to Asiaworks Television Ltd in Bangkok, the group warned that if the Myanmar military government did not accede to the demands it would be fully responsible “for all consequences of this action’’.

Later, the armed group released two hostages, police and witnesses said. The two were a Thai security guard and an elderly gardener, Special branch police told newsmen.

Another police guard was released earlier in the day.

Witnesses said the two men, looking shaken but unharmed, were quickly escorted to a nearby building used by police as a temporary headquarters.

A local radio station reported that the hostage takers had demanded a 20-seat helicopter to take them and the remaining hostages to the Thai-Myanmar border.

The group, calling itself the “Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors’’, said so far it had not killed anyone and would like to talk to the Thai authorities.

“We are ready to die in action unless we get our demands,’’ it said in the fax to the television production company. “Right now we haven’t kill anyone and we didn’t oppress anyone,’’ it added, “Also we need food for the hostages’’.

The statement said the group was not connected with Myanmar dissident student organisations, the country’s Opposition or international support groups. “This action is our own movement and our own ideas,’’ it said.

The statement expressed support for a committee established last year by Myanmar’s main opposition party — the National League for Democracy — to represent a parliament elected in 1990 but never allowed to meet by the military.

The NLD, led by 1991 Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won the country’s last election by a landslide but the ruling military ignored the result. The NLD advocates non-violent political change in Myanmar.

Earlier, a dozen armed men today stormed the Myanmar Embassy compound and took at least 20 diplomats and family members hostage, the police and a diplomat at the embassy said.

Several bursts of automatic gunfire were heard from within the compound but it was unclear if anyone had been wounded.

To a burst of about 10 shots, the attackers removed the Myanmar flag from the compound flagpole and raised another flag carrying the symbol of Myanmar’s struggle for democracy — a fighting peacock.

A Thai policeman released from the siege said the attackers told him they were student dissident exiles, who use the fighting peacock as a symbol of their struggle against military rule in neighbouring Myanmar.

“They say they have eight AK-47 rifles and 20 handgrenades. They say they are holding 20 people.” The policeman, who was part of the embassy security, told reporters.

About 300 heavily armed police including members of an elite anti-terrorist squad rushed to the embassy in downtown Bangkok but were ordered to hold their fire to allow for negotiations.

A Danish man, who declined to give his name, told reporters his Malaysian wife, who was with him near the embassy when the gunmen charged in, was dragged into the compound. He was being interviewed by police who also detained a man outside the embassy, handcuffed him and questioned him. No details were available.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said he was following the situation closely. “We are still assessing the situation. I was informed that the group has not made any demands yet.’’

The policeman freed from the embassy said the attackers had told him about 12 of them had stormed the compound: “They let me out because they don’t want to have trouble with the Thai authorities,’’ he said.

A distressed Attache, Hla Hla Kyi, told newsmen earlier by telephone from a building inside the compound that the attackers were keeping embassy staff in another building.

A Myanmar government spokesman in Yangon told Reuters that the Myanmar Ambassador to Thailand, Mr Hla Maung, was not in the embassy when the gunmen stormed it at 10:50 a.m.

Congressman pleads for Sikh priest’s release
From Aziz Haniffa

WASHNGTON, Oct 1 — A U.S. Congressman has taken up cudgels on behalf of a Sikh priest who was arrested for carrying a ceremonial “kirpan”, small sword, as ordained by him religion.

Adolphus Towns, an African American legislator from New York, took to the house of Representatives floor and called for the charges to be dismissed against Gurbachan Singh Bhatia (69), who was arrested in Mentor, Ohio, on September 3. Bhatia is scheduled to appear before a municipal court on October 4.

If convicted, Bhatia, of Cleveland, could face up to six months in prison and up to $ 1,000 in fines. He is also being charged for a traffic violation which brought an officer to the scene and led to the discovery of the “kirpan”.

“America is a country where everyone enjoys religious freedom”, “Mr Towns declared and noted that “there are about 5000,000 Sikhs in this country and they have every right to practise their religion in this country”.

“Sikhs have contributed to America in many walks of life, from agriculture to medicine to law, among others”, he said. “Sikhs participated in World War I and World War II and a Sikh even served as a member of Congress in the 1960s.”

“Our constitution,” Mr Towns declared, “grants religious freedom to all. We want Sikh Americans to practise their religion without any interference, even if we have to pass special legislation allowing Sikhs to carry “kirpans.”

Sometimes law enforcement officers in this country consider a “kirpan,” a concealed weapon, and arrest the Sikh carrying a kirpan,” he noted. Mr Towns said this was exactly what had happened to Bhatia and hoped that the case against him “will be dismissed.” — IANS

And now ‘ignoble’ awards

CAMBRIDGE (Massachusetts), Oct 1 (Reuters) — In a spoof of the Nobel Prizes, the nutty professors at Harvard University yesterday honoured a group of researchers for their “ignoble’’ efforts.

In a less-than-solemn ceremony at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, the annual IG Nobel prizes were given for achievements that “cannot or should not be reproduced.’’

Coming on the same day that the Swedish Academy recognised German novelist Guenter Grass with a Nobel for literature and weeks before similar honours are to be announced for real advances in economics and the basic sciences, the IG Nobel recognised more questionable contributions.

“England has always had a reputation of really treasuring its eccentrics, and this is where it’s finally paying off,’’ said Harvard Professor Marc Abrahams, Editor of the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research and master of the evening’s ceremonies.

Bristol university researcher Len Fisher won the IG Nobel for physics for his development of the proper technique for dunking a biscuit without making a gloppy mess at the bottom of a cup of tea or coffee.

The evening’s other winners included: Dr. Arvid Vatle of Stord, Norway, who painstakingly determined which kinds of containers patients choose when submitting urine samples Hyuk-Ho Kwon of Seoul, who developed a self-perfuming business suit and Steve Penfold of York University in Toronto for his doctoral thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut shops.

The IG Nobel for peace went to Chari Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa, for their car burglar alarm which consists of a detection circuit and flame thrower.

Habibie opens MPR amidst boos

JAKARTA, Oct 1 (Reuters) —Indonesia’s floundering President B.J. Habibie insisted on Friday that he wants reform in a speech broadcast after he was booed at a key lawmakers’ meeting.

“We note that the effort of instituting and maturing democratic life still need to be improved,’’ Habibie said in the televised speech.

“Such democracy and freedom development are needed soon to consolidate democracy, democracy that upholds the supremacy of the law.’’

Mr Habibie was jeered today as new MPs were sworn in just before the country’s highest legislative body, People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), convened for a key meeting.

In his speech, Mr Habibie warned against demonstrations, saying they could hamper efforts to solve Indonesia’s massive economic problems.

“Whatever, to move the economy needs support from a stable social and political atmosphere,’’ the President said, expressing the hope that the MPR would formulate a sound strategy on the economy.

He also held out the possibility that the 1945 constitution could be revised to bring it into line with a more democratic environment.

“Our intention to improve or amend the 1945 constitution is to guarantee that the government will not become too dominant, which will hamper the development of democracy and appreciation of human rights,’’ he added.

Meanwhile, The local government was paralysed in parts of Indonesia’s troubled Aceh province today as state offices heeded a warning from separatist rebels to shut down, officials and residents said.

Thousands of government officials in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, failed to show up for work and some 500 local village leaders had resigned in the past few days because of fears of rebel violence, they added.

The Armed Free Aceh Movement issued a petition on Wednesday demanding state workers vacate their offices by October 1. The rebels did not say what would happen if the shutdown deadline was ignored, although they added ordinary people had nothing to fear.

DILI (East Timor): A UN Intervention force in ravaged East Timor today launched a new push into western parts of the territory.

“Operation Lavarack” was a decisive phase of the overall operation to restore order to the territory after a month of bloodshed and was expected to last several weeks, the International Force for East Timor said in a statement.

Japan : no danger of radiation spread

TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) — Japanese experts said today that the radiation leak from a uranium processing plant in the nation’s worst ever nuclear accident posed no danger of spreading to wider areas or affecting more people or the environment.

"We have detected no signs of radiation that could affect humans spreading further beyond the vicinity of the site of the accident," said an official of the Nuclear Safety Division at the government’s Science and Technology Agency.

He said yesterday’s accident at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, about 140 km (90 miles) Northeast of Tokyo, bore no comparison with such accidents as Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986.

The Japanese Government declared the incident "level four" on a scale of nuclear accidents, making it Japan’s worst ever and the world’s third-worst.

Level four only means, however, there has been a leak of a small amount of radioactive material outside a nuclear facility.

At least 55 persons were exposed to radiation as today, including 45 workers at the plant, three firemen and seven persons working at a nearly golf course. Two of the workers were in "critical" condition.

Atsuyuki Suzuki, a Professor at Tokyo University, said that while the number of people exposed to radiation was rising, the amount of exposure was probably small.

U.S. nuclear scientists said it appeared what had happened in Japan was far less dangerous than when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in April 1986, killing 31 persons and contaminating areas of the former Soviet Union.

PTI: Japan on Friday struggled to arrest the effects of its worst nuclear accident since Hiroshima and Nagasaki even as worried global community began monitoring whether the radiation from the Tokaimura Nuclear Reactor was spewing over to other countries.

The Japanese Government said the chain reaction had stopped at 6.15 am (245 am IST), 20 hours after the accident took place which left over 50 exposed to radiation and more than 3.2 lakh people confined to their homes.

"The nuclear fission reaction at the plant has halted, and monitoring near the facility revealed that radiation level were back to normal," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka told reporters.

With the containing of the radiation level the government lifted an advisory issued to about 313,000 residents living within 10-km radius of the plant in Tokaimura to remain indoors. However, instructions to evacuate remained in place within a radius of 350 metres of the plant.

The Japanese Prime Minister, who put off a Cabinet reshuffle scheduled on Friday, is leading a task force to handle the crisis.

Meanwhile, The USA and Russia have offered to send nuclear experts to Japan to help deal with the radiation, the Kyodo News Agency reported quoting daily Asahi Shimbun.

Japan, said Kyodo, has sought the help of USA.

"We will be doing whatever we possibly can that will be helpful to them," US President Bill Clinton has assured.

Radiation escaping into immediate atmosphere from the Tokaimura reactor that was on fire on Thursday was at one point 20,000 times the normal level.

The police, however, is investigating if the accident was a result of criminal negligence.

China honours top Indian scientist

BEIJING, Oct 1 (PTI) — China has honoured a top Indian agricultural scientist, Dr Gurdev S. Khush for his contribution to augmenting the production of rice in the world’s most populous country.

Dr Khush, principal plant breeder and head of the plant breeding, genetics and biochemistry division at the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has been helping China since 1976 to increase its rice production, research into hybrid rice varieties and training of personnel.

The Friendship Prize, China’s highest honour bestowed upon foreign experts was presented to Dr Khush, who hails from Punjab, by Chinese State Councillor Wang Zhongyu here on Wednesday at a function coinciding with the 50th anniversary of China’s founding on October 1.

“It is a great honour for me as an Indian to receive recognition from the Chinese Government,” Dr Khush told PTI commenting on the award.

No differences with Sharif: Musharaf

ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (PTI) — Pakistan Army Chief, General Pervez Musharraf has dismissed reports of differences with Premier Nawaz Sharif and rejected suggestions of a quid pro quo in the government’s sudden decision to extend his term as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC).

“I feel very comfortable with the Prime Minister,” the English daily, The Nation quoted General Musharraf as telling reporters during an informal chat at a reception here last evening.

Jail breakthrough
ANKARA: Revolts at prisons around Turkey ended on Thursday night with a breakthrough in negotiations between prisoners and the authorities, Istanbul chief prosecutor Ferzan Citici and Istanbul bar head Yucel Sayman made the announcement outside Istanbul’s Bayrampasa prison after lengthy talks with protesting inmates. — DPA

Micro-copter
BEIJING: China has developed the world’s tiniest helicopter which could be used for civilian and military purposes, the state-run Xinhua news agency has reported. The 18 mm long and five mm wide helicopter weighing 100 mg requires landing space the size of two peanuts, it claimed. – PTI

Criminal love
SAO PAULO: A lovelorn Brazilian armed robber, miserable at being separated from his girlfriend accomplice, broke out of his cell and freed her at gunpoint from another jail across town, Globo television reported on Thursday. After the double breakout Pedro Sergio da Silva took his lover of seven months, Luciana Judica, to a Sao Paulo hotel called “Romance” where they were recaptured. — Reuters

Top Marx
LONDON: Karl Marx was voted the thinker of the millennium in a poll conducted by the BBC’s news online service and published on Thursday. The father of communism just pipped scientists Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton in the poll. — Reuters

Aliens can’t drive
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s Government has announced that beginning next year it will prohibit foreign domestic helpers from driving motor vehicles. A government spokesman on Thursday said effective from January 1, 2000, the Immigration Department will only accept applications for foreign domestic helpers which prohibit the performance of all kinds of driving duties. — DPA

Acting Kazakh PM
ALMATY: Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev named Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev as Acting Prime Minister after Nurlan Balgoimbayev resigned from the helm of the government, a government spokesman said. The 46-year-old career diplomat has played a key role in Nazarbayev’s governments since becoming Foreign Minister in 1994, helping the resource-rich state build ties with the west and neighbouring China while keeping good relations with Moscow. — Reuters