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developments in the region and abroad
Widespread reports of violence in second round Egypt vote
11/21/2005
DAMANHUR, Nov 20 (Agencies) : Widespread violence marred the second round of Egypt's parliamentary vote Sunday, with the opposition Muslim Brotherhood reporting one of its voters shot and killed in Alexandria.
Scores of voters and campaign workers were reported injured in polling place clashes across the nine provinces where 1,706 candidates were vying in 72 constituencies. Thugs trying to intimidate Egyptians during voting for legislative elections Sunday shot dead a man in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, witnesses and a medical source said.
Election monitoring group Sawasya and witnesses said thugs armed with knives attacked supporters of opposition candidates in other parts of the country, where voting is taking place for 144 of parliament's 444 elected seats.
India's first industrial gas turbine to hit foreign mkt
MUMBAI (Internet): India's first industrial gas turbine for cogeneration is expected to hit the US and East Asian markets in the current fiscal with an increasing demand from the small and medium business segment.
Bangalore-based TurboTech Precision Engineering Pvt Ltd, which developed the machine, is likely to sign a distribution agreement with a US firm.
Law to protect temporary workers demanded in S Korea
SEOUL, NOV 20: About 10,000 labour activists rallied in central Seoul Sunday, demanding that the government implement laws to protect temporary workers, police and labor officials said.
"We will do our best to make sure there will be legislation within this year that guarantees (temporary workers') rights," Lee Yong-duk, head of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, told the rally, according to the organisation's Web site. He warned that a general strike would be called if the government fails to act.
Sunday's rally went off peacefully with no clashes between protesters and police, police sergeant Lee Chang-woo said.
Iran terms reports on N-weapons blueprints baseless
TEHRAN: Iran sought Sunday to blunt potential international action over its contentious nuclear programmeme, labeling as baseless a UN nuclear watchdog report that it had received blueprints for building the
core of an atomic weapon.
The 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency meets Thursday and could refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. In a preparatory report, the UN agency found that Iran received the detailed designs from the network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear programmeme.
Putin arrives in Japan for talks with PM
TOKYO (AP): Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived in Japan Sunday on a business-oriented visit that is unlikely to bring any progress in settling a 60-year territorial dispute between the two nations.
Putin has warned he wouldn't discuss ceding control of the four Pacific Ocean islands located just off the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido, which were seised by the Soviet army in the closing days of the World War II.
The controversy over the four tiny, sparsely populated islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities.
Indonesia says local tests show another bird flu death, awaiting HK lab results
JAKARTA (AP): Local tests showed a 35-year-old man
died of bird flu in Indonesia, a health official said Sunday, but the results are still to be confirmed by a Hong Kong laboratory.
The man died at a private hospital Saturday in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, said a senior Health Ministry official, I Nyoman Kandun.
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