World Information

Malaysia police chief, AG barred
from Anwar probe: PM
Agence France-Presse . Penang, Malaysia
The Malaysia’s police chief and the attorney-general will be excluded from an investigation against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who has been accused of sodomy, the prime minister said.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said late Saturday Musa Hassan and attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail would have no role in the case and that there was no reason to suspend them, as the opposition had called for, as they would not be involved in the probe.
‘They will not be involved at all in the case and the investigating officers will also not refer to them. Therefore, I do not see any reason why they should be suspended,’ Abdullah told reporters in the northern island state of Penang.
He said police involved in the case would also not refer to Musa or Abdul Gani during the investigation.
Anwar, a former deputy prime minister has said he was the victim of a ‘vendetta’ after spending a night in police custody last week over sodomy accusations levelled by a young male aide, a volunteer in his Keadilan party.
He said he was being targeted because of allegations he has made against Abdul Gani and Musa over his treatment during his original trial.
He has accused them of manipulating evidence in an investigation into the severe beating he received when he was in police custody at the time.
The Anti-Corruption Agency has since recorded statements from Anwar, Musa and Abdul Gani over the incident.


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Brown pledges Palestinian
aid on ME tour
Agence France-Presse . Bethlehem, West Bank
The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, pledged further economic aid to the Palestinians on a visit to the region on Sunday aimed at bolstering US-backed Middle East peace talks.
‘We have pledged 500 million dollars for economic development in Palestine over three years to 2011,’ Brown said after meeting the Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem.
‘I can announce today a further commitment of 60 million dollars, 30 million of which we will give as direct budgetary support, bringing our total support to the Palestinian Authority this year to 175 million dollars,’ he said.
In keeping with his ‘economic roadmap’ to peace, Brown pledged support for a new mortgage finance authority which he said would help to finance some 30,000 new Palestinian homes and generate up to 50,000 new jobs.
Brown – who spent 10 years as finance minister under Tony Blair, whom he succeeded as premier in June 2007 – also said that a recent international investment conference in Bethlehem had been a success and that he and Abbas had agreed that London would host a similar follow-up event later this year.
‘Palestine is open for business,’ Brown said.
Earlier Brown visited the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem and was to return to the city later on Sunday for talks with the prime minister, Ehud Olmert.
He has also been invited to address the Israeli parliament on Monday – the first time a British premier will make a speech to the Knesset.
Brown will also meet Israeli ministers and opposition figures during his trip, which follows a surprise visit on Saturday to Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Last September, Brown set out an ‘economic roadmap’ for peace in the Middle East, in which he said it was his ‘strong personal belief’ that kick-starting growth in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was crucial to establishing peace.
The report identified five building blocks: reducing public expenditure, a more stable relationship between the Palestinian and Israeli economies, a balance between short-term security and movement and access, diversification of trade links and an enhanced investment climate.
On Sunday Abbas thanked Brown for his support as he called on Israel to ease closures and halt the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.


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Thailand calls for talks,
Cambodia not optimistic
Agence France-Presse . Preah Vihear, Cambodia
Thailand said Sunday that a military standoff with Phnom Penh over disputed land should be resolved through negotiations, but a top Cambodian general said he had little faith in talks.
More than 500 Thai troops and well over 1,000 Cambodian soldiers are stationed around a small Buddhist pagoda on the slope of a mountain leading to the ruins of the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.
Top defence officials plan to meet Monday in a bid to resolve the crisis, which comes amid political tensions in both countries, and only weeks after the temple was granted World Heritage status by the UN cultural agency UNESCO.
In his weekly television address, the Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, said it would take time to resolve the dispute, but the commander of Cambodian forces in the disputed area said ongoing talks were fruitless.
‘We have very little hope about the negotiations,’ Brigadier Chea Keo said on day six of the confrontation.
‘We have only a little hope because the new Thai government has written a letter to our prime minister saying that the land they are stationed on belongs to them,’ he told reporters.
‘We’re on high alert,’ he added.
The dispute began after three Thai protesters were arrested on Tuesday for jumping a fence to reach the temple.
The standoff nearly erupted into violence late Thursday, when witnesses said troops pointed their guns at each other at the pagoda after 50 Cambodian troops entered the compound to protect food supplies for dozens of monks.
Samak said that it would take time and effort to defuse the standoff.
‘The situation at no man’s land needs negotiation,’ Samak said Sunday in his weekly address. ‘It has to be step-by-step ... They claim the area belongs to them. We claim it belongs to us.’


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Lonely life as commoner for
Nepal’s former king
Agence France-Presse . Kathmandu
With few friends coming to visit and his son and one-time heir now living in Singapore, the new life of Nepal’s ousted king as a commoner is by all accounts a lonely, meditative one.
Former king Gyanendra spends his time writing poetry, praying, surfing the internet and taking walks in the forest around the Nagarjun hunting lodge where he lives just outside the capital Kathmandu, guards and his spiritual adviser said.
‘The former king has been spending most of his time inside the bungalow,’ said a military guard at the lodge. ‘Occasionally I have seen him sitting in front of a computer or reading books. The place is quiet.’
Kanchha Shrestha, who runs a small sweet stall opposite the guarded gates of the reserve, has also noticed a lack of activity at the lodge.
‘I haven’t seen many people coming to visit except some former royal secretaries,’ said Shrestha, adding that the ex-king rarely left the premises. ‘Sometimes he leaves once a week, sometimes once in 15 days.’
Those outings are most likely to involve visits to his elderly step-mother, in her 80s, who continues to live in Narayanhiti Palace in the heart of the city.
The concubine of Gyanendra’s grandfather, in her 90s, also continues to reside at the palace, which was turned into a museum after the king’s departure last month.
Gyanendra’s new life looks set to become even quieter after his son, former crown prince Paras, left for Singapore earlier this month. The departure was followed by that of Paras’ wife and three children on Thursday.
But the former king may have taken some comfort this week as he watched the political parties that ousted him in May and ended the 240-year-old Shah monarchy fall out over their choice for a new head of state.
The three main parties had each put forward a candidate for president but a vote by assembly members on Saturday failed to produce a clear winner and end the political deadlock that has delayed the formation of a new government.
The post of president, which is expected to take on some of the ceremonial duties once carried out by the king, will largely be symbolic as the new Maoist-led government writes a fresh constitution for now republican Nepal.
There is little sympathy in Nepal for the dour-faced ex-king who was widely disliked by his former subjects, some of whom accuse him of having a hand in the 2001 palace massacre that catapulted him to the throne.
Gyanendra ascended the throne after his nephew Dipendra, then crown prince, killed most of his family, including the king and queen, in a drink- and drug-fuelled rage after being prevented from marrying the woman he loved.
The former king’s spiritual adviser said Gyanendra had weathered his losses in a stoic fashion.
‘Many people have a heart attack or go into shock if they lose their job,’ said Madhab Bhattarai, who occasionally visits the king to advise him on prayer ceremonies. ‘He lost the state but he doesn’t show any grief. From outside you can’t see any difference in his face.’


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