At a glance

The move was expected to be formally ratified by the General Assembly.The Security Council8217;s President, Malaysian Ambassador Agam Hasmy,welcomed the newest UN member. 8220;On behalf of the members of the Security Council, I wish to extend my congratulations to the Kingdom of Tonga on this historic occasion,8221; Hasmy said.

In June, the Security Council admitted two other small South Pacific states, Nauru and Kiribati. China had threatened to block the admission of Tonga because of its ties with Taiwan but abstained from the vote in the 15-member council.

Oxford dictionary calls for contribution of new words

LONDON: The Oxford English Dictionary appealed for readers to contribute new words to its next version 120 years after the first editor made a similar appeal.

The first installment of the updated dictionary will appear on-line in March 2000, and the work will be completed by 2010.

8220;Murray8217;s appeal8221;, named after John Murray, the original editor of the dictionary, is being relaunched more than a century after his initial call to the English-speaking and reading public in 1879.

With the help it received from people of allages and walks of life, the first dictionary edition was published in 1928. Murray himself died in 1915, aged 78, having completed up work to the letter T8217;. The dictionary was last updated in 1989.

Claimant for half a million gets 100 pounds instead

LONDON: A man claiming 5,00,000 pounds compensation from the police for unlawful arrest was awarded just 100 pounds on Wednesday when a jury decided that the only impropriety shown by the investigating officers was that they had used two of his tea bags without permission.

In a two-week civil action in a court at Bournemouth, southern England, clinical psychologist Ian Anderson had claimed unlawful arrest against the officers investigating the planting of a bomb outside an office in a nearby town. The doctor, now resident in California, was claiming 5,00,000 pounds for loss of earnings caused by the trauma of his arrest and smaller claims for damaging property.

But after Judge Richard Bond ruled his arrest was lawful, a jury decided that the onlyimpropriety during the inquiry was when the policemen used two tea bags without the owner8217;s permission.

Now the credibility of the case, which took six-and-a-half years to come to court, is being questioned after it emerged that the 2,50,000-pound court bill will be paid from public funds.

Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Croft, who led the bomb probe, said, 8220;It was a mega-claim for 5,00,000 pounds and it has been reduced to the price of a tea bag. As a taxpayer it grieves me to think of the amount of money that was spent on The case. Two witnesses were brought over from America and spent less than five minutes each in the witness box. It seems a farce8221;.

Susi, the Swiss kangaroo, makes a dash for freedom

LUCERNE: Police were on the lookout on Wednesday for Susi the kangaroo who slipped out of her cage at a park in Emmen, near Lucerne in central Switzerland.

Aged two-and-a-half years, the small wallaby left behind her playmate an older, male kangaroo when she made her dash for freedom,officials said. Though police did not consider her dangerous, they urged the public not to try to corner Susi without expert help.

In August 1996, a kangaroo with a Swiss circus had fled before being captured in an Alpine pasture a month later.

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