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Around Rs.2.1 million funds raised in Oman through a charity drive for Bihar flood victims will be channelised to the Indian state through Punarwaas, an NGO set up by film director Prakash Jha.

The Indian embassy, under whose aegis the fund raising drive was conducted by the Indian Social Club, has chosen Punarwaas, which has set up several relief camps in Bihar in the wake of last month’s devastating floods, for channelising the funds.

India’s Ambassador to Oman Anil Wadhwa handed over the cheque of Rs.2.1 million at a charity dinner in Muscat last weekend.

The charity dinner was also attended by well-known Bhojpuri actor Manoj Tiwari.

The amount included 11,000 Omani riyals (Rs.1.37 million) donated by well-known Oman-based Indian businessman and Simran group of companies chairman Ishak Jilani.

‘The recent floods which ravaged Bihar state caused horrific losses of life and property. The scope and scale of this tragedy struck an instant chord with the Indian community in Oman and they responded very well by mobilising funds,’ Wadhwa told reporters in Muscat.

On his part, Jha expressed gratitude to the expatriate Indian community in Oman for the gesture.

‘I am touched by the big-heartedness shown by the people of Muscat. I must say the experience of coming to Muscat has been unique in the sense that I am yet to experience this kind of generosity elsewhere,’ said Jha.

During the course of the charity dinner, an auction was also held for Jha’s film memorabilia, including a complete set of his movies and two sets of personally autographed posters.

Over 2.5 million people lost their homes in the floods.

Meanwhile, in Qatar, Indian Ambassador George Joseph also thanked the Indian community in that country for its contributions to Bihar flood victims.

A total of 25 community forums, four Indian schools, two professional bodies, 10 companies and 40 individuals made the donations, the Gulf Times reported.

At a meeting in Doha, the donations were formally handed over to the ambassador.

‘Within the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), perhaps it is only from Qatar that Indians sent two representatives to the flood-affected areas for studying the real situation before providing relief,’ Nilangshu Dey, president of the Bihar Flood Relief Committee, said at the meeting.

The two-member team, led by Shakil Ahmed Kakvi, president of the Indian Association of Bihar and Jharkhand, also met Minister for Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel Ram Vilas Paswan, and Bihar government and Red Cross officials during the course of the visit.

According to the report, apart from financial donations, the 420,000-strong Indian community in Qatar has sent 2,100 blankets, 1,500 dhotis, 500 saris, 400 mosquito nets, and 400 sets of clothes for children.

The relief materials were routed through the Red Cross.

Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain, scrambling to overcome Barack Obama’s lead in the polls, will assure supporters on Monday he will bounce back even though his Democratic rival is already “measuring the drapes” at the White House.

“My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them,” McCain will tell a rally in the battleground state of Virginia, according to advance excerpts obtained by Reuters, as he tries to revitalize his faltering campaign in the final stretch to the Nov. 4 election.

With the clock ticking down on his chance to narrow the gap, McCain will unveil a new stump speech that a campaign aide said would mark a “more forceful tone” by the Arizona senator in his run for the presidency.

McCain’s new rhetoric comes amid a growing sense of urgency as he and top advisers consider new economic proposals to address a deepening U.S. financial crisis sweeping markets worldwide. The list of ideas has been narrowed and the first could be rolled out later this week, the campaign source said.

McCain has been hurt by the perception of many voters that Obama would be better at handling the economic upheaval, a view so widely held that even fellow Republicans are increasingly concerned about his ability to mount a comeback.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Monday showed Obama with a 4-point lead among likely voters. A new Washington Post-ABC News survey had Obama leading McCain 53 percent to 43 percent among likely voters.

“MEASURING THE DRAPES”

Seeking to counter the impression of a campaign adrift and unfocused, McCain will try to rally supporters by mocking Obama as overconfident and insisting he has beaten the odds before.

“We have 22 days to go. We’re six points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Senator (Harry) Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq,” McCain will say.

“But they forgot to let you decide,” he will add.

“What America needs in this hour is a fighter, someone who puts all his cards on the table,” McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, will tell his audience.

Other than exhorting the Republican faithful, it remained unclear, however, whether McCain’s new stump speech will include any new specific policy ideas that some critics say have been notably lacking so far.

And McCain intends to keep up attacks on Obama’s character, the campaign source said, despite signs the tactic has not gained much traction.

The aide said in Monday’s appearances in Virginia and North Carolina, another key swing state, McCain would give the economic crisis the same attention he has in other recent speeches, despite criticism he has not focused enough on it.

The new plan under consideration would be designed to help McCain show his concern for millions of Americans seeing their savings vanish in the Wall Street meltdown.

“I think it goes along the lines that now is the time to lower tax rates for investors, capital gains tax, dividend tax rates, to make sure that we can get the economy jump-started,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of McCain’s closest supporters, said on Sunday.

The campaign source said, however, that the timing of McCain’s announcement will depend on related developments not only in the United States but also in Europe, where financial leaders are trying to coordinate efforts.

Obama has criticized McCain as being erratic on his earlier proposals for dealing with the financial turmoil, jumping from one idea to another.

A U.S. military judge has denied a request from professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for Internet access inside his Guantanamo cell, ruling he does not need it to prepare for his death penalty trial.

Judge Ralph Kohlmann, a Marine colonel, said Mohammed knew he would face prison restrictions when he chose to act as his own lawyer. His Oct. 6 ruling — which also applies to four co-defendants — was reviewed Sunday on a Pentagon Web site.

The five defendants held at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base face charges including conspiracy, hijacking and terrorism for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The government said it was providing the men with laptop computers so they could review the evidence, but prosecutors argued at a pretrial hearing last month that giving them access to the outside world would pose a severe security risk.

The five “high-value” inmates are held apart from the general detainee population in a hidden prison reserved for Guantanamo detainees transferred out of secret CIA custody.

Kohlmann also rejected the inmates’ requests for office equipment such as printers and special provisions to speak with their family members by telephone. But he ruled the men are entitled to have additional resources installed on their laptops including a legal dictionary, the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.

Three of the five defendants including Mohammed are representing themselves with Pentagon-appointed attorneys serving as standby counsel.

Venezuelan authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a student leader who helped organize protests against constitutional amendments proposed by President Hugo Chavez.

Julio Soto, a student leader at the University of Zulia, was killed Wednesday by unidentified gunmen in the western city of Maracaibo.

Local Police Chief Jose Gonzalez said he believes Soto was specifically targeted because the assailants sprayed his vehicle with gunfire and then fled without taking anything.

But Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami said federal authorities have not yet determined if the killing was a politically motivated hit.

Soto was a member of the Copei opposition party. Voters rejected Chavez’s proposed reforms in December.

Japan’s opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa presented himself Wednesday as the prime minister in waiting, pledging to slash wasteful spending and focus on people’s needs if his bloc wins looming elections.

In an address to parliament, Ozawa made a raft of policy promises including repairing the worn-out pension system, increasing the number of doctors and nurses and closing a widening gap between rich and poor.

The veteran political strategist offered a confident address from the podium at parliament, saying he would deliver a true “policy speech” after new Prime Minister Taro Aso’s combative remarks two days earlier.

“This is the first time in my 39 years as a lawmaker that I heard a prime minister’s policy speech that slandered the opposition,” said Ozawa, 66, head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

“I will give you answers to your questions by giving my policy speech,” he said without looking at Aso.

Aso took office last week with a mission to help the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party defeat the rising opposition in elections that could come as soon as next month.

The prime minister, in his own policy speech, accused the opposition of being irresponsible by blocking legislation since it won a landmark victory last year to take control of one house of parliament.

“We want quick snap elections after having sufficient debate in parliament to show which party wants what kind of policy,” Ozawa said.

“The biggest issue is whether to continue the current government which keep wasting public money by giving a free hand to the bureaucracy, or to replace it with the DPJ-led new government to make a drastic change,” he said.

Ozawa has vowed to bring in more political appointees to reduce the power of the influential bureaucracy.

He also pledged to offer more perks to Japanese who have more children to reverse a declining birthrate and to strengthen the farming and fisheries sectors.

Ozawa did not mention his opposition to a controversial naval mission in the Indian Ocean helping the US-led “war on terror” in Afghanistan. Aso has vowed to renew the deployment.

“The DPJ government will make the Japan-US alliance stronger based on an equal partnership with the United States,” Ozawa said.

The opposition last year briefly halted the Indian Ocean mission, arguing that officially pacifist Japan should not take part in “American wars.”

Ozawa, who comes from the conservative wing of his party, has supported a more assertive military policy in the past. But he says Japan should follow the United Nations and not simply rubber-stamp US policy.

Aso pressed Ozawa to answer more directly on the questions he raised in his policy address, including whether the opposition would support a supplementary budget to help Japan cope with rising fuel costs.

But Aso also criticised Ozawa for using the forum to deliver a speech and not ask questions of the prime minister as intended.

Aso, an advocate of government spending to boost the economy, later gave his strongest signal yet that he would delay elections until after he pushes through budget measures.

He said he may also propose another package to help Japan cope with the fallout of the US financial crisis.

“I believe what the general public wants is a stimulative package rather than snap elections,” Aso told reporters after the parliament session.

“Because the (economic) situation is worsening, I think people will ask for more policy packages after the supplementary budget legislation,” he said.

Rebels in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region on Tuesday rejected claims they had shot down a helicopter contracted to the UN-peacekeeping force in an incident that killed all four crew members.

Sudanese police have accused Darfur rebels of bringing down the helicopter, which crashed on Monday close to Kalma camp, a sprawling hut-city for internally displaced people which Khartoum says is an insurgent stronghold.

But rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) dismissed the claim, saying the estimated 80,000 camp residents were civilians, not fighters, and accused the government of attacking the chopper as a pretext for more raids on Kalma.

“This crime was a terrorist act that we had nothing to do with,” said Mahgoub Hussein, a London-based spokesman for the SLA-Unity faction.

“We condemn this act, and deny involvement.”

SLA-Unity is one of the rebel groups with the most supporters in Kalma camp. Other groups were not immediately contactable.

The helicopter was privately owned by a Sudanese company but was contracted by the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and was painted white, as is usual for UN aircraft.

It crashed shortly after takeoff from the South Darfur state capital Nyala on a flight to deliver two tonnes of supplies.

UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki said on Monday it was investigating the incident but could not confirm or deny rumours the helicopter was shot down.

Earlier this month the European Union condemned the Sudanese military’s use of white aircraft in Darfur, calling it a deliberate attempt to create confusion with UN planes. Sudan rejected the claims.

Rebels have also reported that white painted helicopters and fixed-wing planes have scouted their positions and warned of the potential risks if fighters begin to view white aircraft as a threat.

Kalma camp has been tense after battles with government forces last month left more than 30 people dead, including women and children.

Government forces said they were trying to crack down on armed robbers and rebel groups they accused of hiding in the tightly packed camp.

But Hussein accused the government of attacking the helicopter as a pretext for further raids against Kalma.

“The operation was planned and carried out by Sudanese military intelligence,” said Hussein.

“They want to raid the camp and force people to leave, but we warn that if they do so, we will intervene to protect the people.”

According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes in Darfur since rebels rose up against Khartoum in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 people have been killed.

Oil prices on Monday fell to near USD 103 a barrel in Asia on concern that economic growth will slow across the globe despite a tentative agreement in Washington on a USD 700 billion bailout package to stabilize the US financial system.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down USD 3.73 to USD 103.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract fell Friday USD 1.13 to settle at USD 106.89.

Congressional leaders and the White House yesterday agreed to a rescue of the ailing financial industry after lawmakers insisted on sharing spending controls with the Bush administration. The biggest US bailout in history won the tentative support of both presidential candidates and goes to the House of Representatives for a vote today.

“The bailout package reduces the chance of a complete meltdown,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “But worries on the demand side will continue to weigh on oil prices.”

The plan would give the administration broad power to use hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to purchase devalued mortgage-related assets held by cash-starved financial firms.

Congress insisted on a stronger hand in controlling the money than the White House had wanted. The government would take over huge amounts of devalued assets from beleaguered financial companies in hopes of unlocking frozen credit.

“It’s still a crisis situation,” Shum said. “The market is concerned about the depth and breadth of this global downturn.”

Prices were also pushed down by a stronger dollar.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain defended running mate Sarah Palin on Sunday, even as she contradicted his policy against talking publicly about attacking terrorist targets in Pakistan.

McCain chided Democrat Barack Obama during Friday’s presidential debate for saying publicly he supports striking terrorist targets inside Pakistan if the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to do so.

Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leaders are thought to be hiding in tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Obama has said he would support sending American troops into Pakistan to attack such high-value targets.

“You don’t say that out loud,” McCain said during the debate. “If you have to do things, you do things.”

But on Saturday, Palin said much the same thing to a customer at a Philadelphia restaurant, with the press nearby.

“If that’s what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should,” Palin said in the exchange, which was captured on video and reported by CBS News.

Palin, the governor of Alaska, energized McCain’s campaign when he chose her as a running mate just before the Republican convention. But polls show Palin’s popularity waning among some as she has struggled to answer questions about foreign policy in the few interviews she has granted to journalists.

“She was in a conversation with some young man,” McCain said during his own interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “She understands and has stated repeatedly that we’re not going to do anything except in America’s national security interest and we are not going to, quote, announce it ahead of time.”

McCain said Palin’s exchange was not an official policy statement.

“I don’t think most Americans think that that’s a definitive policy statement made by Governor Palin,” McCain said.

The current financial crisis could delay a U.S. missile shield due to be built in the Czech Republic and Poland but both U.S. presidential candidates are committed to it, the Czech foreign minister said on Friday. Asked if the U.S. economic strife could slow down the project, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, “I could imagine that there will be a slowing up but both (candidates) agree that it is all right.

“Of course, it’s up to the Americans when they build it.”

Schwarzenberg said Czech officials had been in contact with the campaigns of both presidential candidates, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, to discuss the future of the missile shield. He said a delay would be more likely if Obama wins the November 4 election.

“But basically both consider it important for the defense of the United States and the European continent,” he said.

The Czech government signed an agreement with the United States to host a radar in July and, last month, Poland agreed to host 10 missile interceptors as part of the shield. The deals still must go through the parliaments of the two countries.

The Czechs hope to get parliamentary approval of the radar pact by the end of the year.

The Bush administration wants a tracking radar system southwest of Prague as part of a plan to protect the United States and Europe against the perceived threat of missile attacks from countries such as Iran.

Moscow, at odds with Western governments over its invasion of Georgia, has said the plan is really aimed at Russia and that it would respond militarily to the deployment of U.S. missile interceptors close to its borders.

Schwarzenberg reiterated the Czech position that Russia had nothing to fear from the shield.

RUSSIA PREPARING TEST FOR WEST

The problem for Moscow, Schwarzenberg said, was not the radar or interceptors but the fact that it will be located on what had been the territory of the Warsaw Pact, the alliance of the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. This is an area where Russian leaders believe they still have a say, he said.

The Warsaw Pact included Czechoslovakia, which split in 1993 into separate Czech and Slovak republics.

The Czechs take over the rotating presidency of the European Union from France on January 1, and Schwarzenberg said he expects the Russians are preparing a test for them and the EU.

“They will find a way to test us, I have no doubt,” he said.

It was impossible to say what the test would be, though it could take the form of a reduction in oil deliveries, he said.

Schwarzenberg recalled a speech by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in 2007 at a security conference in Munich in which Putin, then Russia’s president, vowed to prevent the United States from taking over the world.

Washington dismissed the speech at the time. The Czechs and others said it was like a declaration of a new Cold War.

The Czech foreign minister said Russia’s invasion of NATO-aspirant Georgia, which Moscow wants to keep out of the alliance, showed people should have taken Putin seriously.

“This was a clearly revisionist speech. Few people understood that it was meant seriously.” Asked if people were taking Putin seriously now, he said, “At least some, yes.”

An anti-apartheid activist was elected South Africa’s president on Thursday, assuming what many believe will be a brief caretaker role after Thabo Mbeki was ousted in a power struggle within the ruling party.

South Africa’s Parliament, which elects the president from among its members and is dominated by the African National Congress, elected Kgalema Motlanthe with 269 votes to 50 for the main opposition party’s nominee.

Jacob Zuma, whose allies engineered Mbeki’s ouster, watched from the public gallery. Zuma was not eligible for the presidency because he is not a member of parliament.

Motlanthe is expected to step aside after elections next year, when Zuma was expected to become president.

When the vote results were announced, members of Parliament rose to cheer, and Motlanthe gave a two-thumbs up salute to the gallery. He was sworn in shortly afterward at the presidential office in the Parliament complex.

Later he briefly address the house in measured tones that reflected his reputation as a cool, no-nonsense politician.

“I am deeply humbled and honored by the faith and confidence that the members of this assembly have in me,” he said. Motlanthe stood, rocking slightly, as he recited the oath of office, pledging to “do justice to all.”

The festive mood at Thursday’s parliament session and swearing-in ceremony was in marked contrast to the tumultuous week in South African politics. ANC lawmakers sang anti-apartheid anthems and cheered when Motlanthe cast his vote.

Mbeki did not attend the National Assembly session and Cabinet ministers who have said they were leaving with him also were absent. Among them were the former deputy president, defense minister, intelligence and prisons ministers.

Other members of Mbeki’s team have said they would be willing to serve in the next administration.

On Saturday, the ANC ordered Mbeki to quit. Urged on by Zuma’s leftist allies, it acted after a judge threw out a corruption case against Zuma on technical grounds and said Zuma may have been a victim of Mbeki’s political machinations.

The ANC struggled to reassure South Africa and the world there was no reason to fear instability in Africa’s economic and diplomatic powerhouse.

But the situation is fragile, as was clear Tuesday when Mbeki’s office announced that 13 ministers and three deputies had resigned from the 28-member Cabinet, among them the highly respected finance minister, Trevor Manuel.

South Africa’s stocks and currency reeled. Only later did it become clear that six of those who resigned, including Manuel, had already told the ANC they were willing to serve in a new government. Manuel was expected to be named to a new Cabinet later Thursday.

Zuma is seen as owing his rise to support from labor, the South African Communist Party, and the ANC’s increasingly impatient youth wing. But Zuma has said repeatedly he does not plan a major departure from the free market policies of Mbeki and Manuel. South Africa enjoyed unprecedented growth during Mbeki’s nine-year tenure, but critics say he did too little to ensure the new wealth trickled down to the black majority.

For all the uncertainty of recent days, some South Africans say the smooth transition was a mark of the maturity of their democracy 14 years after the end of apartheid.

Muzi Sikhakhane, a Johannesburg attorney who was visiting Cape Town and among a handful of people who gathered outside parliament Thursday, said South Africans would “emerge from this stronger.”

But he added: “I hope that the new leaders are not just fighting for positions, that they are fighting in order to make our lives better.”

South Africans have been anticipating a shift from Mbeki to Zuma at least since December, when Zuma defeated the president in a party election for the ANC’s leadership.

Tony Leon, a leading member of the opposition Democratic Alliance, called the ANC ouster of Mbeki in December “brutal, but democratic,” and found reason for hope in the events following it that culminated with Thursday’s election.

“South Africa’s current uncertainty could, over time, lead to far less predictable and far more democratic political outcomes, not immediately, but certainly over time,” Leon said in a speech to university students in Cape Town Thursday.

Steve Matomane, an 18-year-old student who also was in the crowd outside Parliament, criticized the way Mbeki was ousted. But he said he did not expect much change in the way his country would be governed.

“As South Africans we don’t have to panic,” he said. “I think Mr. Zuma will do a wonderful job because he was selected by the ANC and they believe in his ability, his capability.”

About 40 people demonstrated in support of Mbeki outside Parliament Thursday. Mzoxolo Sume, a 42-year-old security guard, stood with a sign saying he believed Mbeki had been the victim of a “coup.”

“I don’t think this is in the interest in the nation,” Sume said. “It’s about the infighting within the ANC.”