THAILAND: The family of a British man given a life sentence in Thailand for drugs offences welcomed him home after his conviction was quashed. 

There were emotional scenes at London’s Heathrow Airport as Jody Aggett was greeted by his five-year-old son, Ryan, his parents, Lorna and Tony, and his twin sister, Tammy. Mr Aggett’s Thai girlfriend, Ramphia Lo, gave birth in jail after she was sentenced alongside Mr Aggett following their arrest in 2001.

The couple decided to send Ryan home to his grandparents in Swindon, Wiltshire, and Tuesday was only the second time that the little boy has met his father.

Mr Aggett was jailed for life in 2003 after his sentence was commuted from the death penalty originally imposed.

He had been staying above a travel agent’s in Bangkok with Ramphia Lo, known in the family as Kristin, when they were both arrested. Mr Aggett’s parents said the couple were allowed to stay rent-free if they opened and closed the shop each day but the agency’s owner, unbeknown to them, was manufacturing Ecstasy in the building.

The couple were advised to plead guilty but refused and his family have been campaigning, along with Fair Trials Abroad, for their release for six years.

On Tuesday, Mrs Aggett said she would be welcoming her son home by “surrounding him with lots of family love” as well as a barbecue, beloved in her native South Africa, and an ice-cold beer.

“Jody has been our strength throughout all of this and Ryan has been such a great comfort because every time I saw him I saw a little bit of Jody and Kristin.”

She said she would “always admire and love” Kristin for allowing the little boy to be sent to the UK.

Mr Aggett, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, looked tired and drawn after his long flight. He told waiting reporters that he had never expected to see freedom: “In that court I was expecting the same sentence again.”

THAILAND: Rebels in southern Thailand are prepared to continue their armed struggle for an independent Muslim homeland for up to another five years before they contemplate talks with Bangkok, a leading rights group revealed yesterday.

In a 104-page report on the Muslim- majority region where at least 2,400 people have been killed in the past four years, Human Rights Watch said the BRN-Coordinate group that appears to mastermind the unrest had more than 7,000 “youth members.”

The New York-based agency said it made rare contact with members of the BRN-Coordinate, which has never made its aims public, and was told the group had “no plans to give up the armed struggle for Pattani Darulsalam.”

Pattani is the name of the independent sultanate annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand a century ago. Darulsalam means “peaceful state” in Malay, the language spoken by 80 percent of people in Thailand’s south along the Malaysian border.

Along with Narathiwat and Yala, Pattani is one of the three Thai provinces racked by the daily shootings, bombings, machete attacks and beheadings that started with a well- organized raid on an army barracks in January 2004.

Human Right Watch said the rebels, who have shown no desire to hook up with international militant groups such as Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda so far, were preparing for the long haul.

“They believe that at least three to five more years of the kind of violence that has taken place since 2004 is necessary before they are in a strong enough position to come into public view and participate in any kind of political process,” Human Rights Watch said.

The far south has always been distinct from the rest of Thailand, despite efforts by various military governments in the 1950s and 1960s to import Thai language, culture and religion.

Separatist rebels waged a low-level guerrilla war in the densely forested region throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but their campaign petered out in the 1990s under a more conciliatory, democratic government in Bangkok.

Violence flared anew in 2004 after then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a former policeman, dismantled the Southern Border Province Peace- Building Administration, an army-run organization that included civilians and Muslim religious leaders, and put police in charge of security.

Thaksin’s decision to flood the region with 30,000 troops and police further alienated the population, especially after 78 Muslim men arrested after a protest died of suffocation in army custody.

Srisompob Jitpiromsri, an academic at the south’s Prince of Songkhla University, said he had contacted militants through third parties and been told the plan was to inflict a death toll in the tens of thousands before negotiations start.

“One or two thousand deaths is just the beginning,” he said recently.

“Once you have more than 20,000 people dead, you have more bargaining power for independence. They want independence. They will not compromise on this goal.”

INDIA – India blamed Islamic militants based in Pakistan and Bangladesh for twin bombings that killed at least 42 people in the south, and a top government official acknowledged that his country was struggling to stop terror attacks. 

“Our country is so big that even if we have the information that something is planned we do not know where or when,” Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.

He did not say if authorities had any advance warning of Saturday’s blasts, which killed 42 people in Hyderabad. They were the latest in a series of deadly bombings in India in the last two years that have killed hundreds in India’s capital, its financial center and Hinduism’s holiest city, among other cities.

Officials blame the attacks on foreign militants with ties to Pakistan or Bangladesh, saying the extremists want to foment tension between India’s Hindu majority and its Muslim minority.

The argument has been used even when the victims were Muslim, as was the case in the May bombings of a historic mosque in Hyderabad that 11 killed people.

Authorities have provided little evidence linking Islamic militants to the blasts, and many Muslims here blame Hindu extremists.

With the investigation into the latest bombings — which targeted areas frequented by both Hindus and Muslims — just getting under way Sunday, officials were again pointing the finger at foreign Islamic militants.

“Available information points to the involvement of terrorist organizations based in Bangladesh and Pakistan,” Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located, told reporters after an emergency state Cabinet meeting.

Reddy did not name the groups or provide proof, saying “it is not possible to divulge all this information.”

However, Indian media reports, quoting unnamed security officials, said the Bangladesh-based Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami group was behind the attack. Harkatul, which wants to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh, has been known to attack non-Bangladeshi targets, including Western diplomats.

Bangladesh condemned Saturday’s bombings and rejected the allegation that Bangladeshi groups were involved.

Pakistan also reacted angrily to Reddy’s comments, characterizing them as an “irresponsible” knee-jerk reaction.

“They have been making these allegations and nothing ever came out of those allegations and yet they continue maligning Pakistan,” said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.

“Only the Indians have this kind of some supernatural powers that as soon as some terrorist act takes place they know how it happened and who is responsible,” she told The Associated Press in Islamabad.

Indian officials have blamed other bombings over the past two years on Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of the Pure, an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan that has fought India forces in New Delhi’s part of contested Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim Himalayan region.

We condemn the attacks,” U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Sunday. “India has shown great resolve and courage in the face of extremist threats. We continue to stand by the Indian people in the fight against terror.”

Much of India’s Hindu-Muslim animosity is rooted in disputes over Kashmir, divided between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both countries. More than a dozen Islamic insurgent groups are fighting for Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan.

More than 80 percent of India’s 1.1 billion people are Hindu and 13 percent are Muslim. But in Hyderabad, Muslims make up 40 percent of the population of 7 million.

INDIA: A string of blasts tore through the Indian city of Hyderabad late Saturday, killing at least 36 people and injuring 60 in what officials called a terrorist attack.

Three explosions rocked a packed auditorium where a laser show was under way in an amusement park jammed with weekend crowds, while two others ripped through a busy street eatery minutes later, police said.

“To be precise, a total of five explosive devices were used. We now have at least 36 people killed and 60 people injured,” Balwinder Singh, Hyderabad police chief, told reporters.

At least 15 of the injured were in serious condition, officials said, as police chief Singh said a sixth bomb was recovered from a cinema theatre and defused.

Federal Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said the explosions in the city, which has a large Muslim population and is considered communally sensitive, were the handiwork of “some terrorist group.”

“One terrorist group or the other, which is bent on destroying the unity of the country, is certainly involved in the blasts in Hyderabad,” Jaiswal said.

About 40 percent of Hyderabad’s 6.5 million population is Muslim.

Saturday’s explosions came three months after 11 people were killed in a bombing at the city’s famed 17th-century Mecca Mosque. Police have still not named any group or individual as suspects for the mosque blasts.

Ten days ago, when India was celebrating the 60th anniversary on August 15 of its independence, authorities stepped up security across the country after new threats by Al-Qaeda and separatist rebels.

Police chiefs said then that, while there was nothing specific, they were taking the terror threat very seriously.

The Hyderabad city administrator said Saturday that police “already have some leads” but did not elaborate.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajshekhar Reddy called on “everyone to be calm.”

“Bomb blasts are the cruelest acts against humanity. The perpetrators of such an act could have no religion, ideological or national identity. They at best could be described as traitors of humanity,” said Reddy.

Dismembered limbs, clothes and shoes of people watching the laser show in Lumbini Park lay scattered on the ground and there were pools of blood where victims had fallen.

“People were running away, some who were hurt had blood streaming from their bodies,” a private security guard said.

Injured people were rushed to hospital in three-wheel scooters and cars.

The chief minister said about 500 people were in the auditorium at the time of the explosion.

The federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he would visit Hyderabad on Sunday.

Explosive experts visited the blast sites to collect samples of materials used, while police evacuated the areas where the explosions occurred.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and expressed his deep concern.

India has suffered a series of recent terrorist attacks.

In July 2006, seven bomb blasts ripped through financial hub Mumbai’s rail network killing some 186 people.

“We’re seeing a pattern of attacks every two to three months somewhere or other in the country on soft targets,” said Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management.

“They appear to be linked to what we call Pakistan-backed Islamic terrorist groups.”

The Mumbai attack was blamed on militants seeking to upset a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan and provoke Hindu-Muslim violence.

India has frequently accused Islamic militant groups fighting its rule in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir of being behind attacks. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both nuclear rivals claim the region in full.

The neighbours have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory where at least 42,000 people have been killed in the separatist revolt since 1989.
Pakistan denies any involvement in attacks on Indian soil.

JAPAN: A Taiwanese China Airlines plane has been forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in Japan after running low on fuel, airport officials say. 

The jet was on its way from Taipei to Nagoya when its pilots requested a landing at Kansai, in western Japan. 
 
There were no reports of injuries to passengers or crew. 
 
The incident comes two days after a China Airlines plane exploded in a fireball shortly after landing on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa. 
 
The plane, which had taken off from Taipei with more than 160 people on board, was forced to circle the airport in Chubu. A spokesman for China Airlines said the main reason the plane had to make an unscheduled stop at Kansai airport was that it had been told that the runway at Nagoya had been closed after a bird became stuck in the engine of another jet.
 
He said the plane waited until the pilots were told that the runway was open and then continued on to Nagoya. 

Earlier reports said the plane had been forced to land because it had run out of fuel. 
 
In Monday’s incident at Naha airport all 165 people on board survived, with some escaping just seconds before the plane exploded. 
 
Aviation officials from the US and Taiwan have been examining the wreckage for clues as to why the plane burst into flames, and are reported to be focusing on the possibility of a fuel leak from one of the engines.-
AFT

BURMA: Burma’s military regime has arrested at least nine leaders of a pro-democracy group which had staged a rare protest against massive fuel price hikes, an activist group said Wednesday.

The Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma said in a release that virtually the entire leadership of the 88 Generation Students was taken to a detention center in Yangon.

Five university students and three members of another activist group were also arrested in separate sweeps by the authorities, the release said.

Members of the 88 Generation Students were at the forefront of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and were given lengthy prison terms after the rebellion was brutally suppressed by the military.

The arrests at midnight Tuesday came two days after the group led more than 400 people in a protest march through Yangon against the doubling of fuel prices on Aug. 15.

Those reportedly arrested included Min Ko Naing, one of Myanmar’s most prominent activists, Mya Aye, Pyone Cho and Yin Htun.

Three members of the Myanmar Development Committee, which had called for a nationwide protest against the sudden hikes, were also arrested along with five university students who were putting up posters demanding the reduction of prices on fuel and basic commodities.

Rumors circulated in Yangon that a nationwide protest against the hikes would be staged Wednesday.

Security in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, has been tightened since Monday.

Tension was also reported among teachers and students at schools and universities, traditional centers of protest, with some parents saying they would not send their children to school on Wednesday in light of the rumors.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been widely criticized for its human rights violations including the continued house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The country has been under military control since 1962.

THAILAND: Thailand’s voters have approved an army-drafted constitution but a hefty “No” vote suggests December’s general election will be messy, with ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra still a potent political force. 

With 98 percent of votes counted on Monday in Thailand’s first referendum, the Election Commission said about 57 percent of people had accepted the charter, designed to prevent a repeat of Thaksin’s powerful single-party style of government.

However, 41 percent rejected it, sending a signal to the generals who removed the telecoms billionaire in a coup last September they will struggle to control the make-up of the next administration.

Roughly 25 million of the 45 million electorate cast their ballots, a 56 percent turnout.

Having pressed for a “Yes” vote, the army-appointed post-coup government had been hoping for at least a 60 percent turn-out for what will be the 18th charter in 75 years of on-off democracy.

After early exit polls indicated overall approval — a result that was never really in question — Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said elections would “definitely be held at the end of the year”. Dec. 16 or Dec. 23 are the most likely dates.

Thaksin, 58, has been in exile in Britain since the coup and spent Sunday afternoon watching his newly acquired soccer club, Manchester City, beat Manchester United 1-0 in a match that generated as much interest back home as the referendum.
Many Thais, especially those in Bangkok, appeared motivated to vote by a desire to see an end to the turmoil that has reigned since Thaksin’s family sold control of the telecoms empire he founded to Singapore for a tax-free $1.9 billion in January 2006.

Analysts said investors would also be relieved there had been no major upset, although the smaller-than-expected margin of victory for the “Yes” camp suggested the election would be closely fought, messy — and dirty.

“This is telling the junta that they are going to have trouble at an election and that could mean all kinds of attempts to influence the result — and that’s worrying,” Bangkok-based political analyst Chris Baker said.

Even though Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party has been disbanded and 111 top members barred from politics, its leaders hope the mass rural support that twice swept it to power will rally to a new party under a new flag.

Voter breakdowns showed a 62 percent “No” in the Thaksin heartlands of the northeast, suggesting the army’s campaign to discredit him and his dissolved party has failed.

Analysts say the charter is designed to restore rule by the elites challenged by Thaksin, son of an ethnic Chinese silk merchant, and rekindle the “managed democracy” of the 1980s under ex-army chief Prem Tinsulanonda — now the King’s top adviser and seen by the Thaksin camp as the coup mastermind.

Human rights groups have criticised the poll as a sham, given that nearly half of Thailand’s 76 provinces remain under martial law and that a “No” vote would have allowed the army to impose any one of the previous 17 constitutions.

A full official result was expected later on Monday.

ASIA: Dengue fever is raging across Southeast Asia, prompting the World Health Organization to warn that the region could face the worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in nearly a decade.

The disease, sometimes called the “bone breaker” illness because of the excruciating joint pain it causes, has flared across the region from ultramodern Singapore to poor Vietnam. There are four different types of dengue, and none have a cure or vaccine.

Cambodia is currently one of the most worrisome spots, where the disease has attacked about 25,000 people and killed nearly 300 children under age 15 so far this year. That’s about three times more than the number of cases for all of 2005, according to WHO.

Sick children have overwhelmed ill-equipped hospitals there, forcing babies burning up with fever to wait for beds outside with IV drips attached to their arms.

The last major outbreak to hit Southeast Asia was in 1998, when about 350,000 cases were reported region wide, including nearly 1,500 deaths. Indonesia and Thailand were not included in that tally.

John Ehrenberg, WHO’s regional adviser on vector borne diseases, said it could potentially reach that level again this year.

“It looks like it might be a bad year,” he said. “I think we’re in the building-up stage, but it could very well peak by August or September.”

Malaysia has seen a 50 percent jump in cases this year over the same period in 2006, with more than 1,000 patients admitted every week for the past month and 56 deaths recorded through June, according to Health Ministry figures.

In Indonesia, more than 100,000 infections have been reported this year, including 1,100 deaths. That compares to 114,000 cases and the same number of fatalities for all of 2006, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official who predicted the number will hit 200,000 by year’s end.

More than a dozen children infected with dengue filled beds in Jakarta’s Tarakan Hospital. Some had IV drips in their hands while others had tubes coming from their noses.

Muhammad Wildan, 5, was hospitalized last week and remained in critical condition due to internal bleeding. Doctors said he’s lucky his family did not wait any longer to bring him in.

“It did not come to us that it was dengue,” said Padmi Sari, the boy’s grandmother. “We thought it was just a common fever.”

Singapore, known for its spotless streets and cutting-edge health facilities, has also not escaped dengue this year. The government has reported nearly 5,000 cases and at least three deaths. Early rains also caused a surge in cases in Thailand with more than 20,000 cases reported through June, including 17 deaths, officials said.

In Vietnam, which also typically logs a high number of annual cases, health officials have seen a 40 percent increase over last year reporting more than 33,000 infections this year and 32 deaths.

In addition to joint pain, rashes, nausea, severe headaches and high fever that typically accompany the disease, patients stricken with a more serious form, called dengue hemorrhagic fever, can experience internal bleeding, liver enlargement and circulatory shut down.

“You don’t want to have people staying at home and starting to bleed,” Ehrenberg said. “By the time they go to the hospital they’re in shock and they will die.”

The disease is not nearly as lethal as malaria, which kills more than 1 million people annually. But WHO estimates dengue infects up to 50 million people every year worldwide, mostly in Asia and Latin America. About a half million of those cases are severe, and some 19,000 deaths were recorded in 2002.

“We always think next year it will get better, but we always find next year it gets worse,” said Kroeger Axel, a dengue research coordinator at the WHO in Geneva. “There’s a very clear upward trend.”

He said outbreaks run in cycles, occurring roughly every four years. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant pools of water ranging from flower pots to old tires, and residents across the region are urged to avoid letting water collect near houses.

THAILAND: A new constitution for Thailand that is to usher in December general elections and end military rule was approved by millions of voters in a nationwide referendum on Sunday, according to two exit polls. 

Approval of the charter, the country’s 18th in the last three-quarters of a century, was widely expected.
 
A Suan Dusit Institute poll, released shortly after balloting ended, showed that 68 percent of voters approved the new constitution, while an ABAC poll indicated more than 70 percent said yes.
 
The approval means the generals who have been in power for the past 11 months are bound to hold general elections in December.
 
A “no” vote would have delayed the polls and allowed the military to pick any of the country’s previous constitutions and make it the law of the land.
 
Defenders of the charter concede it is imperfect, but argue it is the best way out of the political stalemate that led the military to seize power last Sept. 19 amid growing unrest over alleged corruption and abuse of power by then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, now in self-exile in Britain.
 
Critics say the 186-page constitution, which emphasizes checks and balances at the expense of participatory democracy, perpetuates the behind-the-scenes power the military has wielded in Thailand for decades.
 
A number of voters appeared to ignore the content of the document, focusing instead on either the election or the coup-makers.
 
“I voted for the constitution because I want the general election to be held this year,” said Chucheep Onkoksung, a government official, at one of Bangkok’s polling stations.
 
Samran Kalawin, casting ballots with four members of her family, said, “We voted no because we hate the military coup.”
 
Thailand has been administered since the bloodless coup under an interim constitution that keeps the military — through its Council for National Security — in control behind the veneer of temporary civilian rule. The government is headed by ex-army chief Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, who made no comment after casting his vote.
 
Opponents also complain the referendum itself is flawed because a rejection of the military-approved proposal means the generals will then be free to impose a constitution without further consultation with the voters.
 
The government said it expects 60-70 percent of eligible voters to cast their ballots. The turnout at many Bangkok polling stations was heavy.
 
More than 26,000 soldiers, police and militia were on alert across the four southernmost provinces to protect some 2,600 polling stations against insurgent strikes, army spokesman Col. Akara Thirote said.
 
Violence in the south has taken the lives of more than 2,400 people in nearly four years of almost daily attacks by separatist rebels.
 
Soldiers in Narathiwat province arrived at polling stations in full battle gear as helicopters clattered overhead.
 
A homemade, remote-controlled bomb injured a soldier and several civilians in the province, but Akara said the incident did not appear related to the referendum.
 
“The general situation is rather calm today compared to the daily attacks of the insurgents,” he said.

THAILAND: Internet law experts and webmasters have lashed out at the government’s illegal blocking of websites and the use of threats and intimidation tactics against webmasters. 

Paiboon Amornpinyokiart, an internet and IT law expert, said nowhere in the controversial Cyber Crime Act — which was pushed through by the military-appointed government and took effect on July 19 — does it say the government has the authority to freely block websites. The law says any move to block a website must be backed by a court order.
 
He said the Information and Communications Technology Ministry (ICT) had to first seek court orders if it wanted to block any “undesirable” websites. The Cyber Crime Act was passed through the National Legislative Assembly along with a number of other controversial bills this year, despite grave concerns raised by local and international human and media rights groups.
 
The president of the Thai Webmasters Association, Poramate Minsiri, said most of the content of the new law had been altered during the deliberation in parliament and was acceptable to him.
 
But, he said, the unchecked blocking of websites by the government without court approval was now a major problem.
 
Webmasters have received phone threats and other various forms of intimidation from officials criticising content on their websites and threatening to ban them, he said. Mr Poramate also said the officials intimidating them had refused to reveal their names.
 
He said webmasters had provided software programs such as Ultrasurf to internet users to reverse the blocking but had then been told off by the ICT for distributing the programs.
 
Mr Poramate said ICT officials should carefully study the scope of their authority permitted under the new computer crime law and alter their actions accordingly.
 
Chiranuch Premchaiporn of www.prachathai.com, a website providing information on social and political issues, said the government’s rush to issue media-related laws shortly after the Sept 19 coup was grossly inappropriate.
 
The draft Radio and Television Broadcasting Bill, currently being deliberated, has also drawn widespread criticism for the heavy punishments it will impose on radio and television operators who operate without state permission.
 
She said community radio operators would be badly affected by the draft bill as most operate without licenses.

THAILAND: Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont called on Thais to vote on Sunday in a referendum on a military-drafted constitution that will limit the powers of politicians but lead to elections by the end of the year. 

“This is a critical transition for Thailand, so I would like to ask people to go out and vote,” Surayud said in a television interview on Saturday, nearly a year after elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a bloodless coup.
 
“This is another test for democracy and I hope we will pass this test,” he said.
 
The country’s voters are likely to approve the draft, despite many reservations, in hope of ending more than 18 months of political turmoil that has crimped economic growth.
 
The referendum requires a simple 50 percent majority to pass a constitution which would take power from politicians and hand it to bureaucrats and judges.
 
It was designed to prevent the re-emergence of a strong, single-party government like Thaksin’s, and means a return to the constantly collapsing coalitions of the early 1990s, political analysts say.
 
A majority vote against the draft would leave power in the hands of the military to pick one of Thailand’s previous 17 constitutions, revise it and promulgate it within 30 days.
 
Coup council chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Friday that if the draft charter were rejected at the referendum, it would take him “a couple of days” to pick his favorite constitution and make some amendments.
 
“It would definitely take less than 30 days to promulgate another constitution, if I had to pick one,” Sonthi said. 
 
Many people, despite objections to parts of the draft, are thought likely to vote for it to avoid that unknown and get to elections that would produce a parliament which could amend it.
 
Analysts say the draft would put the country back in the era of “managed democracy” of the 1980s under ex-army chief Prem Tinsulanonda, now chief royal adviser and seen by the Thaksin camp as the coup mastermind.
 
Few believe an anti-charter campaign — spearheaded by supporters of Thaksin, now in exile in London, but including some foes — can succeed in voting it down.
 
But a low turnout would be an embarrassment for the generals and, as in most Thai elections, allegations of vote buying and strong-arm tactics are flying.
 
The military council behind the coup and the government it appointed are striving to get at least 60 percent of the 45 million voters to cast ballots, arguing the new charter would provide an “ethical” and “legitimate” democracy.
 
Coup leaders have enlisted 400,000 military personnel to persuade people to back the draft charter, branded by Thaksin — for whom the Supreme Court has issued an arrest warrant on corruption charges — as “fruit of the poisonous tree”.
 
The Interior Ministry has instructed governors of all 76 provinces to order 80,000 village chiefs to get as many people as possible to the polling booths and awards will be given to the governors whose province have the highest turnouts.
 
Opponents of the draft, who deny the charges, are accused of paying people to vote “No” or stay at home.
 
Election officials expect to have a preliminary result of the referendum late on Sunday and an official result on Monday.

TAIWAN: Typhoon Sepat pounded Taiwan on Saturday, bringing powerful winds and torrential rains that disrupted electricity, air and rail traffic and forced many buildings to shut. 

The Central Weather Bureau said the typhoon made landfall on the east coast, packing winds of 155 kilometres (96 miles) per hour. 
 
With a radius of 250 kilometres, the typhoon was centred some 70 kilometres southwest of Hualien at 8:30 am (0030 GMT), the bureau said. 
 
It disrupted electricity supplies to more than 70,000 households and forced the evacuation of around 1,600 people in mountain villages, according to the National Fire Agency which coordinates rescue efforts. 
 
Television footage showed powerful winds lifting off roofs, uprooting trees and electricity poles and destroying crops in eastern and northern parts of the island. 
 
All domestic flights are suspended while China Airlines and the carrier EVA Airways cancelled seven and 11 international flights, respectively. 
 
Nineteen planes belonging to Taiwanese airlines were evacuated to the Subic Bay international airport in the northern Philippines on Friday to take them out of the typhoon’s path. 
 
Rail services were also affected, with all trains called off in the morning and the high-speed bullet train not due to re-open until the evening. 
 
Ferries between Taiwan’s Kinmen island and the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Chuanzhou are suspended. 
 
“Sepat’s impact will be the strongest on Saturday morning before it moves away from the island, but its intensity has been reduced,” said Lu Kuo-chen, from the weather bureau’s forecast centre. 
 
The typhoon is due to hit the coast of the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian early Sunday. 
 
Local media said a truck plummeted into a 50-metre deep valley in Hualien, killing one person and injuring a second. 
 
Meanwhile, ten Vietnamese women who have been detained at a facility in the eastern county of Ilan for violating immigration laws escaped on Friday, apparently taking advantage of the bad weather, immigration officials said. 
 
One was apprehended and police were tracking the rest. 
 
The weather bureau warned residents across Taiwan to remain on their guard and to avoid coastal activities, and there have also been mudslide alerts. 
 
Some 4,300 Chinese fishermen were seeking shelter in Taiwanese harbours, according to the National Fire Agency. 
 
Typhoon Sepat is evoking painful memories of Typhoon Bilis which hit the island in 2000, killing 11 people and causing huge damage to agriculture.

TOKYO : Asian stocks reeled from another huge sell-off Friday with Tokyo plunging by the most in over seven years as panicky investors dumped shares to escape the snowballing credit crisis.

Heavy selling on Asia’s largest bourse quickly spread across the entire region with major markets down more than five percent as investors scrambled to exit the market fearing further heavy losses.

Japanese share prices closed with a massive 5.42 percent loss, suffering the biggest one-day point drop since April 2000.

Around Asia, stock markets also plunged as investors remained extremely nervous that more bad news might emerge from US credit markets.

For Asian markets the main worry is that foreign investment funds will be forced to further offload shares to cover losses in securities backed by US sub-prime mortgages to risky borrowers, or to stash funds in more stable bonds.

Hong Kong share prices were down 6.0 percent in afternoon trade before rebounding to close 1.4 percent lower.

Singapore tumbled more than 5.0 percent as investors fretted that problems in the US mortgage sector could spark a full-blown credit crunch.

It also bounced back on bargain hunting and ended 0.68 percent lower.

Seoul closed down 3.1 percent, Shanghai finished down 2.28 percent, Mumbai was off 1.5 percent, Kuala Lumpur fell 1.3 percent, Manila ended two percent lower, Sydney was down 0.70 percent and Wellington was off 1.63 percent.

Only Bangkok bucked the trend at 1.03 percent up amid hopes voters will support a new constitution at Sunday’s referendum.

ASIA: Bruised Asian stock markets suffered another drubbing on Friday, spiraling ever lower as panicky investors continued to dump shares with no end in sight to the recent turmoil on global markets. 

An early rally on some markets quickly fizzled out as Tokyo set the region up for another nasty fall, with Japanese shares briefly down over four percent by early afternoon as a stronger yen pummeled exporters.
 
Investors fled “the crashing stock markets and headed to the safer bond market,” said Akihiko Inoue, a strategist at Mizuho Investors Securities.
 
Hong Kong slumped 3.30 percent, sliding below the key 20,000 points level, while Singapore tumbled 3.4 percent as investors fretted that problems rippling out of the US mortgage sector could spark a full-blown credit crunch.
 
“It’s hard to believe that all the skeletons are out of the closet,” said Eric Betts, an equity strategist at Nomura Securities in Sydney.
 
“Some of these (firms’ problems) will only come to light if their lenders pull the plug on them or force them to come clean,” he added.
 
For Asian markets the main worry is that foreign investment funds will be forced to further offload shares to cover losses in securities backed by US sub prime mortgages to risky borrowers, or to stash funds in more stable bonds.
 
Overnight on Wall Street, US shares fell deep into the red again before recovering much of the losses to close slightly lower after another extremely volatile day, while the London market tumbled by over four percent.
 
In Tokyo a stronger yen dimmed prospects for Japanese exporters’ future earnings, while uncertainty about whether the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates next week kept investors on edge.
 
An unraveling of risky “carry trades” that have allowed investors to binge on cheap Japanese credit to invest in fast-growing Asian stock markets appeared to be taking a heavy toll around the region.
 
The yen shot higher against other major currencies as players scrambled to unwind risky positions and send funds back to Japan.
 
Around the region markets were buckling again under heavy selling.
 
Singapore lost 3.44 percent, Mumbai was down 1.63 percent, Shanghai slipped 0.71 percent, Bangkok declined 1.03 percent while Kuala Lumpur fell 2.5 percent and Manila ended two percent lower.
 
Seoul dipped 0.3 percent after plunging nearly seven percent Thursday — its biggest ever one-day point decline. Sydney dipped 0.6 percent.
 
“It is too early to say that the bout of correction is completely wrapped up,” said Woori Investment & Securities analyst Kang Hyun-Cheol in Seoul.
 
The Australian and Japanese central banks injected extra liquidity into the banking system again Friday to try to calm markets but the focus of investors remained on events overseas.
 
Overnight on Wall Street the Dow Jones index ended lower for a sixth straight day, but pared back steep losses to end down 0.12 percent as the market tried to find a bottom.
 
The stock gauge had pitched to a more than 10 percent loss from its record intra-day trading peak of 14,021.95 on July 17 after American investors received a double dose of bad news tied to the housing market. 
 
The US government reported that new home construction dived to a 10-year low in July, and Countrywide Financial — America’s leading mortgage lender — said it had tapped an 11.5-billion-dollar credit line to boost its finances. 
 
European stock markets took another dive Thursday, led by London where the FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down 4.10 percent, its biggest fall since March 12, 2003, shortly before the outbreak of the Iraq war.

INDIA: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s independence-day speech yesterday should come as a huge disappointment to investors. 

The country’s 60th anniversary of independence from Britain was a perfect opportunity for Singh to make up for lost time and announce bold, new economic freedoms, something that his government has shied away from granting the people in the three years that it has been in power.

He missed the chance.

Singh uttered the word “reform” — India’s official shorthand for all plans that seek to modernize the economy and loosen state controls — just once in his speech, and that too in the context of fixing university education.

By contrast, Singh’s predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had used the word 13 times in 2000.

The only tangible takeaway for investors from Singh’s uninspiring address is that his government already has the 2009 polls on its mind.

Why else would the prime minister of the world’s second- fastest-growing major economy celebrate a proud and unique moment in the nation’s history with a lament that included as many as 15 references to poverty?

One hates to be a cynic, but a simple analysis of independence-day speeches seems to suggest that concern for the plight of the downtrodden follows a cyclical pattern in India.

It rises when general elections are near and ebbs once they are out of the way.

Gloomy Speech

On the six occasions Vajpayee had addressed the nation from the historic Red Fort in Delhi, he used the words “poverty” and “poor” a combined 27 times. Out of these, as many as 24 mentions occurred in the three independence-day speeches immediately preceding the May 2004 election, which he lost.

Singh isn’t taking any chances.

“Even after years of development and rising growth rates, why have we not been able to banish mass poverty and provide employment to all?” Singh asked his countrymen yesterday, adding that the purpose of his rhetorical question was “not to make you feel dispirited, but to enthuse you to march forward.”

It isn’t the people of India who need to be prodded into action; it’s the politicians that need to wake up. Almost everyone outside of the political and administrative establishment is already marching forward as best they can.

The creative solutions invented by people to make a living are visible on every street corner, though they may not always make for a pretty picture.

State-Sponsored Penury

In smaller towns of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, it’s common to find pushcart vendors who will replace — even repair — your soiled, torn currency note for a fee. They call themselves “money exchangers.”

Why do the people of India have to be engaged in such desperate, hopeless businesses 60 years after the end of colonial exploitation? Why can’t the world’s biggest democracy, which has done an incredible job of nation-building, find better uses for its people’s enterprise?

Official estimates suggest that between 22 percent and 28 percent of Indians live below the poverty line, which is defined as per-capita consumption expenditure of about 40 U.S. cents a day in urban areas.

While the ratio of poor people in the population has steadily declined for three decades, there’s no denying that 28 percent of 1 billion people translates into a huge challenge.

It’s not that Indians have chosen to live a life of penury; impecuniousness has been thrust on them by an uncaring state that isn’t even now willing to give them the freedoms they need to find a job or run a business.

Endless Wait

Take the country’s overly restrictive labor laws, which discourage hiring by making it extremely difficult and expensive to fire workers. As a result, a majority of workers have to toil in informal, extralegal businesses where they have no rights.

Based on a survey of about 2,000 retail stores across India, World Bank economist Mohammad Amin recently concluded that scrapping the country’s rigid labor laws would boost employment by 22 percent for an average store.

With retailers employing 9 percent of the workforce, the gains in employment would surely be significant for the economy as a whole. Yet, a plan to amend the labor laws has awaited political consensus since 2001.

Similarly, large-format global retailers are being prevented from investing directly in Indian stores, out of a misplaced concern for the small local shopkeeper, curtailing yet another opportunity for employment creation and economic growth.

Finance Suffers

Change is perhaps the slowest in the financial sector, where the opportunity for India is probably the largest.

Insurance, pensions and banking remain heavily state-owned, state-controlled and, therefore, tiny compared with what an economy the size of India’s really needs.

A committee established by the government has come up with a bold road map for turning Mumbai into an international financial center. The least Singh could do was to endorse the strategy in his speech so that it would be taken seriously as part of the executive’s political agenda.

But then, in his speech, Singh even forgot to claim credit for what may well become the single-biggest victory of his political career: the recently concluded civilian nuclear agreement with the U.S. That deal may be getting the Indian prime minister brickbats from politicians of all hues, but it’s also winning him praise from businessmen who are impatient for an end to the country’s acute shortage of electric power.

If only Singh had strived for a great speech, instead of a safe one.

Commentary by Andy Mukherjee in Singapore

THAILAND: Members of Thailand’s former ruling party put on a show of force on Wednesday by attracting at least 10,000 people to a central Bangkok plaza to protest against the proposed post-coup constitution. 

The rally was organised by the People Power party, whose profile has grown recently after 300 members of Thai Rak Thai (TRT) – the party formed by ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra – joined them.

Thousands of Thaksin supporters clad in shirts declaring “We Vote No” cheered as speakers slammed the junta which seized power in a putsch last year.

The speakers also urged people to vote down a new military-backed charter that goes to the public vote on Sunday.

“The junta ousted the elected government. This means they don’t respect people. How can they write the constitution?” said Sudarat Keyurathan, who was a deputy TRT leader until the party was banned in May.

“This is reason enough to say no to this constitution,” she told the crowd at Sanam Luang plaza, which enthusiastically chanted Thaksin’s name.

The military says the new charter will clear the way for elections by the end of the year, but opponents fear it will provide ways for the army to maintain an influence over government through powerful appointees.

Campaigning is tilted heavily in the government’s favour, with half the country under martial law since the coup and a new law threatening prison for anyone convicted of obstructing the referendum.

One protester said she was there because she disagreed with many articles in the new charter.

“The junta are bandits who tore up the people’s constitution,” said 63-year-old retiree Suwanan, who gave one name only.

“How can they say they will give democracy to us, because there is no democracy among bandits,” she told AFP.

Fellow demonstrators held up signs imploring “Thaksin Come Back”, “Junta Get Out”, and “We cannot accept this constitution”.

Bangkok police major general Manit Wongsomboon estimated the crowd at more than 10,000 people, while organisers said up to 100,000 had turned out. Police said there were no reports of violence at the rally.

Tensions have been high since late July, when 100 anti-coup protesters were injured in clashes with police in the first violence since the coup in September 2006. There was a light police presence on Wednesday night.

Thai Rak Thai was dissolved by a military-appointed court in May for election fraud.

But more than 300 top members, including 160 former parliamentarians, agreed to join the People Power party, enabling them to run in polls the military has promised to hold by year’s end. – AFP

CEBU CITY: A tourism industry executive said the Philippines could become the top tropical destination in Asia by marketing the country through Cebu, which has a flourishing tourism industry.

“It’s easier to market the Philippines through Cebu,” said Angel Ramos Bognot, president of the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies Philippines.

Bognot said Cebu is the “vortex” of Philippine tourism and luring more foreign tourists through the province will not be difficult given its positive reputation in the international market.

“It’s like selling infant’s milk formula. You only tell them one thing good about the product like it boosts brain development and it sells,” Bognot said.

“Cebu is indeed a world class destination. It’s a tourism magnet,” she added.

She said growth in tourism-related developments—such as the entry of international hotel operators, increase in the volume of foreign visitors and additional flights to and from Cebu—only proves interest among travelers and businessmen in Cebu is growing.

She said it would be easier for tour operators to create inter­island linkages and tourism packages because of Cebu’s strategic location to the rest of the country.

Neighboring provinces like Bohol, Negros Oriental, Pala­wan, Samar and Leyte are already benefiting from the spill over of tourists from Cebu.

“If Manila is for business, Cebu is for leisure,” Bognot said.

THAILAND: Quality office space in Bangkok is the cheapest in Asia now that the average rent declined quarter-on-quarter for the first time since 2000, according to the international property consultancy CB Richard Ellis. 

The average rent for prime office space in Bangkok’s central business district is slightly more than 740 baht (US$22) per square metre per month, compared with the equivalent of 2,000 baht in Singapore, 1,480 baht in Ho Chi Minh City and 4,500 baht in Tokyo.

International Financial Centre Tower 2, the highest building in Hong Kong, has attained a record rental of about 7,400 baht.

Nithipat Tongpun, director and head of office and retail services at CBRE Thailand, said the slowing economy was expected to push rental rates in Bangkok even lower in the near term.

The company projects that the downward pressure on rental rates could further increase at the end of the year when new grade-A supply enters the market. There are 520,000 sq m of new supply in the pipeline from 2007 to 2009, or about 173,000 sq m a year.

However, the situation could reverse if business confidence is restored, when new demand would exceed increased supply.

Mr Nithipat said demand had fallen because of a weak domestic economy and uncertainty involving the proposed amendments to the Foreign Business Act to control foreign investment in the services sector.

Many overseas companies have delayed expansion and there has been limited new foreign investment in the services sector.

”This has resulted in occupied offices falling dramatically. New net take-up of office space fell by more than 30% in the first quarter on a year-on-year basis, the lowest quarterly take-up since 2000.”

THAILAND: Senior Thai judges issued arrest warrants for the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife yesterday on the grounds that they sought to evade corruption charges over a multi-million dollar land deal.

The former leader, who recently acquired Manchester City football club for £81.6m, was deposed in a bloodless coup in September while he was abroad. He has since been living in exile in London and failed to appear before a hearing scheduled to begin yesterday.

The nine-judge panel of Thailand’s supreme court ordered the telecoms billionaire and his wife, Pojaman, to be produced before the court at the next hearing scheduled for September 25. Prosecutors said afterwards that if Mr Thaksin failed to appear by the new deadline then extradition proceedings would be considered.

However, an extradition request to British authorities would have virtually no hope of success. British law has no charge equivalent to that which Mr Thaksin, 57, is facing under Thai legislation. Foreign governments are also usually reluctant to extradite former heads of state where there are suspicions of political persecution.

The couple are accused of being involved in a $22m land deal to buy a prime piece of Bangkok real estate in 2003 while Mr Thaksin was prime minister, in contravention of laws barring serving officials and politicians engaging in business with state enterprises.

In the wake of the coup, an “assets examination committee” established by the military-appointed government investigated the purchase of land from an arm of the Bank of Thailand at an auction in which other bidders dropped out.

If convicted, Mr Thaksin faces up to 10 years in jail. The committee is demanding the purchase be set aside, the land returned and the money confiscated.

The former prime minister’s lawyer, Pichit Cheunban, argued that because of the political uncertainty in Thailand it was not safe for his client to return, though his wife has travelled in and out of the country often and is currently in London.

The lawyer argued that Mr Thaksin’s reappearance in Thailand would merely destabilise the fragile political situation ahead of elections that the coup leaders have pledged by December.

He added that it would be impossible for Mr Thaksin to receive a fair trial while the junta was still in control and urged that the case be postponed until next year, or until at least a month after the elections.

“I have talked with my two clients and we agree that the best timing for them to return to fight the case is after the election,” Mr Pichit said after the ruling. “We reiterate that the current situation is still not good for their safety and we have no desire to see disunity in the country.”

In his initial reaction to the Thai court’s decision, Mr Thaksin gave a non-committal response to the Associated Press.

“I am aware of the decision in Thailand,” he said in a statement. “I shall consult with my legal advisers and make an announcement in due course.”

The army chief, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who led the coup, said Mr Thaksin’s safety would be guaranteed if he returned, directly contradicting an earlier statement that the former premier might be at risk from his enemies.

“The [National Security Council] has to be responsible and the government has to ask the police to take care of it with the military playing a supporting role,” he said. “There should not be any problem for him to return. Everything has gone in accordance with the Assets Examination Committee and court process.”

Since June, almost $2bn of Mr Thaksin’s assets have been frozen in Thai bank accounts. The tycoon was already a wealthy businessman before he secured two terms in office between 2001 and 2006. But the tax-free sale of his telecoms empire to the Singapore government’s investment arm in 2006 sparked mass street protests that led to his eventual downfall.

The Thai military, which justified its takeover on the grounds that Mr Thaksin was corrupt, vilified the former prime minister, but took almost eight months to bring the first charges against him.

INDIA: The 2006 estimates released by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), supported by UNAIDS and WHO, indicate that national adult HIV prevalence in India is approximately 0.36%.

As part of its continuing effort to know its epidemic better, the Indian Government has greatly expanded and improved its surveillance system in recent years and increased the population groups covered. In 2006, the government created 400 new sentinel surveillance sites and facilitated National Family Health Survey-3, which is a population based survey.

Launching the third phase of the National Programme, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare said, “Revision of estimates based on more data and improved methodology marks a significant improvement in systems and capabilities to monitor the spread of HIV, a sign of the progress we have made in understanding the epidemic better. This is welcome progress. Unfortunately, the new figures still point towards a serious epidemic with the potential to trigger off if the prevention efforts identified in the NACP III are not scaled up rapidly and implemented in the desired manner. We must remember that India has nearly 301 lakh people living with HIV. These are people facing stigma, discrimination and irrational prejudice everyday of their lives and need all our support and understanding.” The Minister called upon his colleagues in the medical profession and civil society organizations to fight stigma and discrimination.

Resulting from a more robust and enhanced methodology, the revised estimates will be used to improve planning for prevention, care and treatment efforts. “While it is good news that the total number of HIV infections is lower than previously thought, we cannot be complacent. The steady and slow spread of the HIV infection is a worrying factor. The better understanding of India’s epidemic has certainly enabled us to have more focused HIV prevention and treatment strategies and more effective deployment of resources,” said Mr. Naresh Dayal, Secretary Health and Chair of the National AIDS Control Board.

The new methods developed for the revised estimates has also been used to “back-calculate” the prevalence for years since 2002 based on the new set of assumptions and measures. These figures allow a fair comparison of year-on-year trends in HIVprevalence. They show an epidemic that is stable overtime with marginal decline in 2006.

Commenting on the new estimates and guarding against their misinterpretation, Sujatha Rao, Additional Secretary and Director General, National AIDS Control Organization said, “The calculation of figures for several years, using the new model helps us understand that the new lower estimates do not mean a sharp decline in the epidemic.” Cautioning against an easing off the momentum of the HIV response she added, “Using a similar methodology led to downward revision in estimates in some countries such as Zambia and Rwanda. We will convince all stakeholders to stay energized and to retain the hard-fought gains of the last decade”

Showing confidence in the commitment of the Indian leadership, Dr. Denis Broun, UNAIDS Country Coordinator said, “The trends evident from the latest estimates validate India’s national AIDS strategy. Taking encouragement from the new lower estimates the national authorities should increase the strength of their HIV programmes. We must scale-up efforts to reach universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment. Though the proportion of people living with HIV is lower than previously estimated, India’s epidemic continues to be substantial in numbers. Despite the lower prevalence estimate the cost of prevention efforts required to control the epidemic remains the same.”

WHO Representative, Dr. Salim Habayeb commended the vision of the Government of India in the last 15 years for addressing the HIV epidemic. He also commended the efforts of the states, civil society, partner agencies as well as the valuable role of the media in facilitating the creation of an enabling environment. “The HIV burden remains substantial. India’s efforts, especially those in prevention, are noteworthy and should be further scaled up along with provision of Universal Access to treatment for those who need it.”

HIV prevalence shows signs of slight decline among general population

While overall, the HIV epidemic shows a stable trend in the recent years, there is variation between states and population groups. The good news is that in Tamil Nadu and other southern states with high HIV burden where effective interventions have been in place for several years, HIV prevalence has begun to decline or stabilize.

New pockets of high HIV prevalence identified

HIV continues to emerge in new areas. The 2006 surveillance data has identified selected pockets of high prevalence in the northern states. There are 29 districts with high prevalence, particularly in the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan and Bihar.

HIV prevalence continues to be high among vulnerable groups

The 2006 surveillance figures show an increase in HIV infection among several groups at higher risk of HIV infection such as people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men. The HIV positivity among Injecting Drug Users (IDU) has been found to be significantly high in metro cities of Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh. Besides, the states of Orissa, Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala also show high prevalence among IDUs.

While data does suggest that HIV prevalence levels are declining among sex workers in the southern states, overall prevalence levels among this group continue to be high, necessitating a scaling up of focused prevention efforts among these groups.

“Only by controlling the epidemic among the vulnerable groups can the dynamic of the epidemic be broken,” said Sujatha Rao, Additional Secretary and Director General, NACO.

Regulatory Authority on Safe Blood being established

Underscoring the priorities, the Minister of Health called for the need for strong measures to regulate the blood collection and distribution system in the country to make it world class. He stated that the Ministry of Health is establishing a regulatory authority which will regulate access to safe blood at affordable prices.

WHO Southeast Asia