THREE ARRRESTED FOR ASSAULTING POLICEMAN Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Police have arrested three persons on Wednesday on the charge of physically assaulting a police patrol team in Kathmandum RSS reports.. Samin Pandy, Ram Pandey of Kathmandu Municipal Corporation-15 and Tika Bahadur Budhathoki of Dolakha were arrested for attacking a police patrol team last night, spokesperson of Metropolitan Police Circle, Hanumandhoka, Dhiraj Pratap Singh said. Police also recovered some sharp weapons from the accused who allegedly attacked the police team near the Bijeswari Gitamata School on Tuesday night. The incident reportedly took place as the police personnel tried to neutralize a clash that took place between two local youth groups. Two police personnel including a head constable were injured in the attack, police said. nnnn CHINA’S NEW LEADERSHIP BEING ANNOUNCED THURSDAY Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: China's ruling Communist Party unveils a new leadership line-up on Thursday to steer the world's second-largest economy for the next five years, with Vice President Xi Jinping taking over from outgoing President Hu Jintao as party chief, Reuters reports from Beijing.. The new members of the Politburo Standing Committee - the innermost circle of power in China's authoritarian government - will emerge after a closely controlled vote by the party's new 205-member central committee, which was installed at the end of a five-yearly party congress on Wednesday. Only Xi and Vice Premier Li Keqiang are certain to be on the new standing committee. Xi will take over Hu's state position in March at the annual meeting of parliament, when Li will succeed Premier Wen Jiabao. The committee is expected to be reduced to seven seats from nine to make consensus-building easier. The other preferred candidates, according to sources close to the party leadership, are North Korean-trained economist Zhang Dejiang, financial guru Wang Qishan, minister of the party's organisation department Li Yuanchao, Tianjin's party boss Zhang Gaoli, and the conservative Liu Yunshan, who has kept domestic media on a tight leash. The list of the conservative-leaning preferred candidates was drawn up by Xi, Hu and Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, the sources said. Wang, currently vice-premier in charge of economic affairs, is popular with foreign investors but seems set to lead the fight against corruption, having been elected to the party's main anti-graft body on Wednesday. Guangdong's reform-minded party boss Wang Yang, Shanghai party boss Yu Zhengsheng and Liu Yandong, the lone woman, are dark horse candidates. All eight of these people were on the list for the new central committee, the largest of the party's top decision-making bodies. Exclusion from that committee means a person cannot progress to the Politburo or the standing committee. The new leadership will emerge on Thursday morning to "meet the press" in a room in the cavernous, Soviet-style Great Hall of the People, which has been decked out in enormous red flags. Intense secrecy has also surrounded who and how many will be promoted to the Politburo, a council of 20-odd members, and the all-powerful standing committee. The composition of the two elite bodies could give clues to China's political and economic direction, especially if they end up being dominated by conservatives. Advocates of reform are pressing Xi to cut back the privileges of state-owned firms, make it easier for rural migrants to settle in cities, fix a fiscal system that encourages local governments to live off land expropriations and, above all, tether the powers of a state that they say risks suffocating growth and fanning discontent. With growing public anger and unrest over everything from corruption to environmental degradation, there may also be cautious efforts to answer calls for more political reform, though nobody seriously expects a move towards full democracy. The party could introduce experimental measures to broaden inner-party democracy - in other words, encouraging greater debate within the party - but stability remains a top concern and one-party rule will be safeguarded. Another decision to watch will be chairman of the Central Military Commission. Hu may or may not choose to stay on in that post for a year or two, as did his predecessor, Jiang. Which standing committee member gets which portfolio depends, in this hierarchical and top-down state, on the order members appear for the first time together on stage. While the first person out will be Xi, signifying his position as party leader and president-designate, the party's second-ranked position is head of the largely rubber stamp parliament, leaving the premier in third place. But portfolios of the second and third-ranked leaders are likely to be reversed, giving Li higher status, sources have said. Fourth position has historically been occupied by the head of the ceremonial advisory body to parliament, while fifth could be either vice president or propaganda tsar, sixth the executive vice premier and seventh the person in charge of fighting graft. One position almost certain to go is that held by Zhou Yongkang, the domestic security tsar, reflecting fears the role has become too powerful. Nnnn ISRAEL KILLS HAMAS LEADER IN GAZA Kathmandu, 15 Nov.:: Israel killed the military commander of the Islamist group Hamas in a missile strike on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and launched air raids across the enclave, pushing the two sides to the brink of a new war, Reuters reports .from Gaza. The attacks marked the biggest escalation between Israel and Gaza militants since a 2008-2009 conflict and came despite signs on Tuesday that neighboring Egypt had managed to broker a truce in the enclave after a five day surge of violence. Hamas said Ahmed Al-Jaabari, who ran the organization's armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam, died along with an unnamed associate when their car was blown apart by an Israeli missile. Palestinians said nine people were killed, including a seven-year-old girl. Video from Gaza showed the charred and mangled wreckage of a car belching flames, as emergency crews picked up what appeared to be body parts. Israel confirmed it had carried out the attack on Jaabari and warned that more strikes would follow. Reuters witnesses reported numerous explosions around Gaza, with Hamas security compounds and police stations among the targets. "This is an operation against terror targets of different organizations in Gaza," military spokesman Avital Leibovitch told reporters, adding that Jaabari had "a lot of blood on his hands". Immediate calls for revenge were broadcast over Hamas radio. "The occupation has opened the doors of hell," Hamas's armed wing said. Smaller groups also vowed to strike back. "Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences," Islamic Jihad said. The escalation in Gaza came in a week when Israel pounded Syrian artillery positions it said had fired into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights amid a civil war in Syria that has brought renewed instability to neighboring Lebanon. Hamas has been supported by both Syria and Iran, which Israel regards as a rising threat to its own existence due to its nuclear program. Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet said Jaabari was responsible for Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, when the militant Islamist group ousted fighters of the Fatah movement of its great rival, the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. It said Jaabari instigated the attack that led to the capture of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in a kidnap raid from Gaza in 2006. Jaabari was also the man who handed Shalit over to Israel in a prisoner exchange five years after his capture. Israel holds a general election on January 22 and conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure to respond firmly against Hamas, with residents of southern Israel complaining bitterly about repeated missile strikes Hamas has been emboldened by the rise to power in neighboring Egypt of its spiritual mentors in the Muslim Brotherhood whom it views as a "safety net". Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the 2008-2009 conflict. There was a lull in hostilities after that, but the violence has flared again in recent months and Israel has repeatedly warned of dire consequences unless Hamas and its fellow militants stopped rocket attacks. In the latest confrontation, which appeared to have ended on Tuesday, more than 115 missiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza and Israeli planes launched numerous strikes. Seven Palestinians, three of them gunmen, were killed. Eight Israeli civilians were hurt by rocket fire and four soldiers wounded by an anti-tank missile. Helped by Iran and the flourishing contraband trade through tunnels from Egypt, Gaza militias have smuggled in better weapons since the war of 2008-09, including longer-range Grad rockets and anti-tank missiles of the type they fired last week at an IDF patrol vehicle. But Gaza's estimated 35,000 Palestinian fighters are still no match for Israel's F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gunships, Merkava tanks and other modern weapons systems in the hands of a conscript force of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve. Israel's shekel fell nearly one percent to a two-month low against the dollar on Wednesday after news of the Israeli air strikes broke. nnnn