FSOC15
Social: Portugal Military Mission
Portugal to send new military mission to Lebanon

LISBON, May 28 (Xinhua/GNA) - A total of 130 Portuguese soldiers are scheduled to head for Lebanon on Wednesday for a mission as part of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Portuguese General Staff of the Armed Forces announced on Tuesday.
The military engineering staff from the Intervention Brigade under Lieutenant Colonel of Engineering Jorge Alves Caetano, are expected to stay in Lebanon until November as part of the UN aid mission to reconstruct the war-torn country.
They will replace the 141-strong Portuguese UNIFIL mission that has been in Lebanon since November and is scheduled to return home on Thursday.
GNA
EA
May 28, 2008

FSOC16
Social: Russia Allege Spy Plane
Russia hopes for truth about alleged spy plane attack

MOSCOW, May 28 (Xinhua/GNA) - Russia hopes that the truth regarding allegedly shooting down Georgia's unmanned spy plane will be established in the end, Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
The UN mission in Georgia said on Monday a Russian air force plane was responsible for shooting down the Georgian drone over Abkhazia on April 20, citing evidences of radar records and video footage.
"The Russian side has closely studied the UN report. It is noteworthy that the mission qualifies the reconnaissance missions by unmanned aircraft as military operations, and this runs counter to the Moscow agreement of 1994," the ministry was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
"The quality of the inquiries is questionable in general," the ministry said. "A whole range of conclusions in the report raises questions. We do not doubt the UN experts' professionalism, but have no confidence in the evidence provided -- video footage and some radar recordings," the ministry said.
The ministry said Georgia chose not to "risk" handing over the footage to Russia for studies and Georgian radar recordings did not correspond to Russian data.
Following the UN report, Tbilisi on Tuesday demanded that Russia apologize over the shooting down of the plane in its territory, but Moscow denied any involvement in the incident.
Speaking in Denmark on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Georgia to hand over to the UN Security Council the video tape showing a fighter jet shooting down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over Abkhazia.
Russian support for Abkhazia has been a source of tension between Moscow and Tbilisi.
Russia has been increasing troop deployment in Abkhazia since tension flared up over the shooting down of the spy plane.
Separatists in Abkhazia declared independence following bloody conflicts with Georgian government forces in the 1990s and an uneasy cease-fire is being monitored by CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Collective Peacekeeping Forces.
The peacekeeping forces, made up of Russian servicemen, were first deployed in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone in 1994.
GNA
EA
May 28, 2008

FSOC17
Social: Britain Submarine Red Sea
British submarine hits rocks in Red Sea, no casualties reported

LONDON, May 28 (Xinhua/GNA) - A nuclear-powered submarine of Britain's Royal Navy hit rocks beneath the surface of the Red Sea, but there were no casualties and the vessel has now safely surfaced, the Ministry of Defense said Tuesday.
The collision occurred Monday when the HMS Superb was diving in the northern Red Sea, the ministry said in a statement.
The Swiftsure-class attack submarine, which does not carry nuclear weapons, remains watertight and its nuclear reactor was "completely unaffected," it added.
A ministry spokesman refused to reveal the vessel's current mission in the area, which he said was being reassessed as its sonar was damaged.
An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, the ministry said.
GNA
EA
May 28, 2008

FSOC 18
SOCIAL OXFORD INDIA
Oxford ropes in Indian alumni for biggest fund-raising drive
London, May 28 (PTI/GNA) Oxford University is tapping its
Indian alumni such as Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission
Montek Singh Ahluwalia for its biggest ever fund-raising drive
to help expand and compete with top American universities.
The campaign aims to raise 1.25 billion pounds, and
begins at a high profile international event here Wednesday.
The launch event at the British Academy features the
university's chancellor Lord Chris Patten, and vice-chancellor
John Hood.
Oxonians from various fields and countries have been
roped in to raise funds that will be used to meet rising costs
and steep competition from American universities.
Apart from building a new campus and other
infrastructure, funds raised by the campaign will fund nearly
200 new fellowships.
It will also fund a major recruitment to attract the
best and brightest academics to the university.
Bolton and Quinn, the company organising the campaign,
wrote in invitations to journalists for the launch event:
"This will be the largest campaign ever to be initiated in
Europe and aims to put Oxford on a level playing field with
universities in America".
GNA
AA
28 MAY 08

FSOC 19
SOCIAL NEPAL-KING
Nepal King gets 15 days to leave palace, people throng streets

Kathmandu, May 28 (PTI/GNA) Nepal's beleaguered King was
Wednesday given 15-days' time to vacate the royal palace as
thousands of people poured into the streets and sprinkled
vermillion on each other to celebrate the country's transition
to a republic.
A large number of slogan-shouting people gathered
outside the Birendra International Convention Centre, where
the newly elected Constituent assembly will be meeting to
formally abolish the 240-year-old monarchy.
The meeting scheduled to be held at 11 am has been
postponed till 3 pm due to some "technical" difficulties".
According to Nepali Congress general secretary
Bimalendra Nidhi, last-minute discussions are going on at the
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's residence at Baluwatar
to settle key issues including outlining rights and duties of
the President and the procedure to create the post of
president through constitutional amendment.
The parties have agreed to give 15-day time to the
King to leave the palace, which will then be converted into a
national museum, Nidhi said.
Maoist chief Prachanda will be the Prime Minister of
a new coalition government after the motion to declare Nepal
republic is endorsed by Assembly.
Rallies are being held by the various political parties
across the country with the government declaring a public
holiday. People were seen smearing vermillion on each other
while young boys and girls inscribed 'Ganatantra Nepal' on
theirs faces.
Riot police have been deployed at all sensitive places
including outside the king's Narayanhiti palace by the
jittery government after a spate of blasts left five people
injured Tuesday.
GNA
AA
28 MAY 08

FSOC 20
SOCIAL INDIAN MURDER
Indian sentenced to life for murder
Dubai, May 28 (PTI/GNA) An Indian, who was found guilty of
murdering his colleague following an argument over a woman,
has been sentenced to life term in jail.
S R, 26, who was left paralysed after a car accident last
September, will be deported once he spends 25 years in prison,
the Criminal Court of First Instance here ordered.
He was found guilty of killing another Indian M S, by
stabbing him repeatedly and hitting him with a hockey stick.
The incident happened after the accused learned that M S
was also close to a Nepalese woman with whom he claimed he had
an affair. All of them were employees of a hotel here.
S R told the court that he had an argument with the
victim over the matter and it was the latter who first
attacked him with a knife.
"The deceased was the one who attacked me first...I tried
to defend myself and I had no intention of killing him," he
was quoted as saying in media reports here.
Soon after the incident he hired a car and proceeded to
Hatta area to get rid of his blood-stained clothes and knife.
On his way back, he met with a horrible accident, which left
him a quadriplegic.
GNA
AA
28 MAY 08

FSOC 21
SOCIAL CHINA-QUAKE
China working on war footing to drain "quake lakes"
Beijing, May 28 (PTI/GNA) Nearly 150,000 people, facing the
threat of flooding from a giant lake formed after the
devastating earthquake in southwest China, were evacuated as
troops and engineers worked non-stop to drain the water.
Engineers are digging a diversion channel to prevent
flooding from the Tangjiashan lake which was formed when
landslides blocked Jiangjiang river above Beichuan county,
near the epicenter of magnitude 8 quake, the deadliest in
three decades.
The threat of flooding from the quake comes even as
aftershocks continued to rumble across quake-battered areas
triggering more anxiety and fear in the temblor-weary people,
millions of whom have been rendered homeless, and adding to
pressure on authorities engaged in mammoth relief efforts.
Tangjiashan is one of the 35 lakes formed by the
quake-induced landslides and mudflows. As it is inaccessible
by road on vehicles and can only be reached by foot or air,
hundreds of troops and armed police carrying dynamite have
trekked there to blast away the barrier.
Two aftershocks in the disaster zone yesterday flattened
420,000 houses in the quake-shattered Sichuan province and
left 63 people injured, even as the official death toll
reached 67,183.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a meeting of the State
Council quake relief headquarters yestreday that handling the
"quake lakes" was the "most pressing task at present", the
state-run China Daily said.
In a telephonic talk, President Hu Jintao told Vice
Premier Hui Liangyu, who is overseeing the quake relief work,
that the relief task force must make sure that no serious
problems occur in the emergencies, state run Xinhua news
agency said.
GNA
AA
28 MAY 08