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More than the governorship was up for grabs yesterday as California voters also decided whether to stop state agencies from tracking race and whether to spend billions on a crumbling infrastructure.While California often reinvents itself through ballot propositions, backers of the latest two initiatives weren't optimistic the measures would pass. Proposition 54 would ban the collection of racial information in public education, contracting and employment. Opponents have criticized it as a blow against antidiscrimination policies. Backers insist it's a leap toward a "color-blind society."The measure would be the first of its kind in the nation, but polls suggested its passage was unlikely, and even its chief proponent, Ward Connerly, quipped that last night's scheduled "victory party" would better be dubbed a wake.Proposition 53 was far less ideological.

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California voters overwhelmingly rejected a contentious ballot initiative yesterday that would have banned state and local governments from tracking race in everything from preschools to police work, according to early election returns.Opponents of Proposition 54 had criticized it as a blow against antidiscrimination policies, while backers insisted it was a leap toward a "colorblind society." With 14 percent of precincts reporting, 57 percent of voters rejected it.Voters also turned back a second initiative that would eventually steer 3 percent of each year's state budget into a fund to fix roads, bridges and sewage plants. Early returns showed 65 percent voting no.Proposition 54's defeat was expected: Even its chief proponent, Ward Connerly, quipped that last night's "victory party" would better be dubbed a wake.The proposition would have banned the collection or analysis of racial information in public education, contracting and employment.It would have been the first of its kind in the nation.

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A man convicted of killing a Sikh man because of the way he looked suffered from traumatic stress disorder triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a psychiatrist said Tuesday.The testimony came as jurors are considering whether to sentence Frank Silva Roque to death for fatally shooting Indian immigrant Balbir Singh Sodhi in front of Sodhi's Mesa gas station on Sept. 15, 2001.After killing Sodhi, Roque, 44, shot at another gas station, where the clerk was a man of Lebanese descent, and shot at the home of an Afghan family. No one else was hurt.

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The same psychiatrist who attacked a terrorism-backlash murder defendant's unsuccessful insanity defense tried to save his life Tuesday.Jurors at Maricopa County Superior Court in Mesa are expected to start deliberating this afternoon about whether Frank Roque, 44, a former Mesa machinist, will be executed for gunning down a Sikh gasoline station owner in retaliation for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.Dr. Jack Potts testified that Roque was mentally ill when he shot Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, to death in Mesa on Sept. 15, 2001, but was not so sick that he was criminally insane and unable to tell right from wrong.

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Oct 8, London -- Rich countries should end their financial support for corrupt governments and blacklist companies that get caught paying bribes abroad, a watchdog group that monitors corruption in 133 nations said Tuesday. Half of developing countries suffer from "a high level of corruption," and some wealthy nations fare little better, according to surveys of business people, academics and risk analysts by Transparency International. Bangladesh came in last, at 133, trailed by Nigeria and Haiti as the three most corrupt countries, according to the 2003 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Rated No. 1, or least corrupt, was Finland, followed by Iceland and, in a tie for third, Denmark and New Zealand. The United States was 18 on the list, tied with Ireland. "Rich countries must provide practical support to developing country governments that demonstrate the political will to curb corruption," Transparency International Chairman Peter Eigen said in a statement.

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It didn't take much convincing to get Parminder Nagra to join the cast of "ER."After the overwhelming global success of "Bend It Like Beckham," the British actress, whose family hails from the northern Indian state of Punjab, went to Hollywood for a series of meetings this summer. Nagra starred in the film as Jesminder Bhamra, the determined girl who yearns to play soccer despite the disapproval of her traditional Sikh family.One of her Hollywood appointments was with TV uber-producer John Wells ("Third Watch," "The West Wing," "ER"). Nagra, who turns 28 years old Oct. 6, assumed the session was a casual meet-and-greet.

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Pakistan is hoping to improve its relationship with the United States from one of short-term convenience to long-lasting friendship, Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said Tuesday.Jamali, who spoke to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, is on a 10-day visit to the United States. His trip followed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's visit last month. The purpose of the visits was to remind the United States of Pakistan's importance as a Muslim ally. Pakistani leaders also want to deflect skeptics who insist that the nation is harboring Taliban fighters who are attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan and that it supports extremists fighting in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

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Oct 7, Colombo -- The U.N. children's agency demanded the immediate release Tuesday of more than a dozen children abducted by Tamil Tiger rebels over the weekend to serve as soldiers in the guerrilla force. The abductions occurred even as the rebels freed 49 other children under a UNICEF program to demobilize child soldiers, UNICEF and Sri Lankan officials said. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, a European team monitoring a cease-fire in the country's 19-year civil war, said parents reported at least 15 children abducted in the eastern district of Batticaloa, three of whom were later freed. The military said it received reports of 20 child abductions, including 13 students taken Saturday from a school and a playground in Batticaloa, spokesman Col. Sumetha Perera said. "These abductions are completely unacceptable," said Ted Chaiban, the UNICEF director in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

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Oct 8, Islamabad -- Pakistan on Wednesday test fired a medium-range, nuclear-capable missile, the second such test in less than a week, the army said. The army said it successfully fired off the Hatf-4 missile, also known as the Shaheen 1, in the early morning hours. The missile has a range of 435 miles, meaning it can hit most major targets in rival India. "The test is part of the ongoing series of tests of Pakistan's indigenous missile systems," the army said in a statement, adding that: "In a spirit of confidence building Pakistan had given prior notification of the tests to its neighbors." On Friday, Pakistan shot off the short-range Hatf-3 Ghaznavi missile and promised other tests in coming days.

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Oct 7, New Delhi -- Suspected Islamic guerrillas detonated a bomb that killed three soldiers on a Kashmir highway Tuesday, as the Indian army said sophisticated technology was helping it kill the highest number of militants since Kashmir's Islamic insurgency began in 1989. But the army said militants were also using upgraded technology, including satellite phones, the Internet, e-mail and mobile phones. India has improved its satellite imagery and bought military surveillance equipment from the United States, Israel and Russia to help strengthen its defenses along the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Militants sneak across the line to stage attacks in the Indian-controlled portion. ``Infiltration from Pakistan continues, but our deployment and surveillance devices are force multipliers,' Maj. Gen. D.H. Summanwar, the army's top spokesman, told a briefing Tuesday in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

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Oct 7, New Delhi -- Pakistan is running 85 camps to train Muslim separatists before pushing them into Indian Kashmir, a senior Indian army officer said Tuesday. To prove Pakistan was training militants to fight Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, the Indian army brought out a man it said was a Pakistani national who was captured after a gun battle in a border district. "Pakistan retains the infrastructure to calibrate cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir," the officer, who did not want to be named, told Reuters. "There are 85 training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir," he said referring to the part of the disputed region controlled by Pakistan. India blames Muslim Pakistan of giving sanctuary to the rebels and says there is an annual surge of rebels infiltrating Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani side in September and October before winter snow blocks mountain passes. Pakistan denies the existence of training camps, but says it gives diplomatic support to a Kashmiri freedom struggle.

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Oct 8 -- The 24-year-old Kearny pizza deliverer who was beaten with a baseball bat 10 days ago died Monday at University Hospital in Newark, and his alleged attackers will now face felony murder charges, prosecutors said yesterday. Nabeel Siddiqui, a native of Pakistan, spent 10 days in a coma after police say the Domino's pizza employee was lured to Haxton Avenue, an upscale street in Orange, by a phony order. Authorities believe three teenagers called in the order so they could steal Siddiqui's 1995 Nissan Altima. "I have no words for this," Osman Mohammed said after learning of his friend's death. "It's just unbelievable that something like this could happen. "The reason he came here was to get an education, a nice job and have his parents move here with him," Mohammed said. "In America, that's where opportunity is. That's all he wanted to do."

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Lombard -- This is regarding the garbage collectors' strike this month. After two layoffs in the IT industry, I'm making less than I made in 1997, and I'm grateful to have it. And the job isn't even permanent. When thousands of IT jobs are shipping overseas every month, including those of friends and co-workers, it's hard to feel too much sympathy for reasonably paid workers with benefits who also have the security of knowing that they won't wake up tomorrow and be told their job is moving to India.

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              --- South Asian News, October 8, 2003 ---