theSun | TUESDAY MAY 26 2009  11

news without borders

Riots in India after

Austrian Sikh killing
CHANDIGARH (India): Two people died
in protests in the Indian state of Punjab yes-
terday and demonstrators torched vehicles
and shops after a Sikh preacher was killed in
an attack on a temple in the Austrian capital
Vienna.
Authorities imposed a curfew on parts of
Punjab and troops were deployed to violence-
hit areas after people mainly from the Dalit or
“untouchable” community protested against
the Vienna incident.
Two people were killed and eight wound-
ed in two separate incidents, Punjab chief
secretary Ramesh Inder Singh said.
One victim was shot by troops when a
crowd attacked a village police station. Pro-
testers also blocked state highways.
The riots started in reaction to news that
at least 16 people were hurt in Vienna on
Sunday when six armed men attacked two
preachers visiting from India during a temple
ceremony.
Guru Sant Rama Nand, 57, died from
bullet wounds after an emergency operation,
police said. The second, Guru Sant Niranjan
Dass, 68, is in a stable condition.
Two attackers were also shot in the fight
that ensued when worshippers overpowered
them. They are still in intensive care.
Austrian police said they did not know yet
about the motives for the attack.
“We assume that emotions escalated
because of the content of the sermon,” said
Werner Auticky, head of the Vienna anti-ter-
ror department.
Dass had preached in Vienna before and
there had been no incidents then, he said.
Three of the attackers were residents and
had previously asked for asylum in Austria,
while the identity of the other three was not
yet clear, police said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
called upon people in Punjab to maintain
peace. – Reuters

Oppostion wins Mongolian

presidential election
ULAN BATOR: Mongolia’s
opposition Democratic Party
(DP) candidate Tsakhiagiin
Elbegdorj won the presiden-
tial election, authorities said
yesterday, in an outcome
analysts said could compli-
cate a pivotal mining deal.
With virtually all polling
stations reporting, Elbegdorj
took more than 51%, while
incumbent Nambariin Enkh-
bayar of the ruling Mongolian
People’s Revolutionary Party
(MPRP) received just over
47%, the General Election
Committee said.
Enkhbayar’s quick admis-
sion of defeat, before official
results were in, helped the
young Central Asian democ-
racy avoid a repeat of the
deadly violence that followed
allegations of fraud during
tightly fought parliamentary
elections last summer.
Instead, thousands cel-
ebrated on the main square
in the capital Ulan Bator.
“The Mongolian people
have made a choice for their
rights and freedoms. Mon-
golians have made a choice
for the material wealth that
rightly belongs to them,” El-
begdorj told his supporters,
with a huge statue of Genghis
Khan, who ruled an empire
extending as far as Hungary,
serving as his backdrop.
Elbegdorj won the largely
ceremonial post on promises
of rooting out corruption and
obtaining a greater share for
individuals of the country’s
mineral wealth.
Analysts say policy-mak-
ing related to foreign involve-
ment in the economy could
become more unpredictable.
– Reuters

Man who developed Viagra Maoris on a new “super city” council.

dies at 92
WASHINGTON: Robert Furchgott, the Nobel
prize-winning scientist whose research on a
gas’s effect as a blood vessel relaxant paved
the way for revolutionary impotence treat-
ments such as Viagra, has died at age 92.
The pharmacologist died last Tuesday in the
northwestern city of Seattle, his daughter said
in Sunday’s New York Times.
Research led by Furchgott and colleagues
Louis Ignarro and Ferid Murad showed that
nitric oxide – known primarily as an air pol-
lutant from cigarettes and car engines that
contributes to smog – plays a vital role in the
human cardiovascular system and regulating
blood pressure and circulation.
The three researchers earned the Nobel
prize for physiology in 1998, with the Swed-
ish academy stressing it was the first time
scientists proved the critical effects of a gas
on biochemical functions in the human body.
The discovery of the effect of nitric oxide, a
colourless and odorless gas, on the relaxation
of blood vessels marked a key step in laboratory
company Pfizer’s development of the erectile
dysfunction drug sildenafil, which it markets
under the name Viagra.
The little blue pill was approved by the US
Food and Drug Administration in 1998 as a
treatment for erectile dysfunction and became
enormously popular, bursting perceived social
taboos of treating such a condition, with some 35
million men worldwide using the drug. – AFP
Protesters bring Auckland
to a standstill
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s biggest city,
Auckland, was brought to a halt at lunch-
time yesterday by up to 7,000 demonstra-
tors marching to protest the government’s
refusal to guarantee seats for indigenous
The new council, to be elected in No-
vember next year, will govern about one-
third of New Zealand’s total population of
4.3 million and as Auckland has the largest
population of Polynesian people, Maoris
insist they should be guaranteed a say.
Prime Minister John Key, whose
centre-right national government
came to power in November, has made
reform of the administration of Auckland,
which is currently in the hands of eight
separate councils, a priority.
The demonstrators, some holding Maori
sovereignty flags, gathered at points around
the city and marched into the central busi-
ness district, stopping at times to perform
a haka war dance. – dpa
No immunity for Aussie
accused of sex crime: WHO
MANILA: An Australian doctor working for the
World Health Organisation who was detained
for alleged child molestation in the Philippines
is not covered by diplomatic immunity, the UN
body said yesterday.
Marcus Hodge, 47, was arrested by police
earlier this month while allegedly molesting a
12-year-old boy inside a parked car in Manila’s
Makati financial district.
The WHO said in a statement that Hodge
worked as a “programme development and op-
erations officer” at its Western Pacific regional
office in Manila.
“In order to clear up any misunderstanding,
the WHO would like to point out that Dr Marcus
Hodge currently detained in Manila on charges
related to sexual offences against children does
not have diplomatic immunity,” it said.
Although the charges against Hodge do not
directly involve the organisation, the WHO said
it was prepared to “fully assist” authorities with
their investigation. – AFP