15 February 2007
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) A $5-billion initiative for development of infrastructure in India was launched here Thursday to finance new and ongoing projects in areas like power, airports, ports and roads.
The initiative is a joint effort of the Infrastructure Development Finance Co. (IDFC), Citigroup Inc, India Infrastructure Finance Co and Blackstone Group Holdings.
"The plan is to deploy about $2 billion in equity capital and $3 billion in long-term debt financing with maturities over 10 years," an official statement said, after the pact was signed in the presence of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
As per government estimates, India will need some $320 billion over the next five to six years in infrastructure development and a sizeable amount is projected to be generated by the private sector.
"This is an important milestone in our search for innovative solutions to meet the challenges of funding the development of India's burgeoning infrastructure sector," Chidambaram said.
The three organisations will together invest $250 million in the project, while the balance is expected to come from reputable international investors as well as selected domestic institutional investors, officials said.
"This sets a new benchmark for collaboration among a domestic partner with deep domain knowledge in infrastructure, foreign funding institutions with wide reach in global financial markets and the Government of India," IDFC chairman Deepak Parekh said.
According to Cigi's chairman Charles Prince, the initiative has been the outcome of a request from the Indian government on the basis of the recommendations of the Indo-US CEO Forum that was set up by the two governments last year.
Bhopal, Feb 15 (IANS) In the wake of a controversy over the Madhya Pradesh government's recommendation of 'surya namaskar' - a warm-up yoga exercise - in schools, yoga guru Baba Ramdev Thursday claimed that the exercise was a form of complete workout without any religious connection that could also cure cancer.
Ramdev, who is here to conduct a five-day yoga camp, that started Thursday, told reporters: "Out of some 500 cancer patients who came to me for treatment of cancer, 350 have been completely cured".
"A patient's internal capacity could be enhanced through yoga to an extent where he or she could successfully battle disease like AIDS," he said, adding that controlled clinical trials were being conducted to assess the effects of yoga on AIDS.
"But instead of cooperating with the research work that was of vital importance, medical fraternity has been trying to discourage it," he regretted.
"If anyone asks for a proof of my claims about the cure of diseases like cancer by way of yoga through official channels, I will be happy to provide it."
Treatment of hypertension, heart problem, high blood pressure and control of diabetes too was possible through yoga workouts, he added.
Taipei, Feb 15 (DPA) Small as it is, a mosquito has triggered a gun battle among a group of youngsters in Taiwan, leaving three injured and five arrested by police, a newspaper said Thursday.
On Tuesday evening, eight friends in their 20s in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan, went to the Asali Bar for a party and stayed until the early hours of Wednesday, the Apple Daily reported.
As they were singing and drinking, Jung Tsai noticed that Huang Wei-ting had fallen asleep on a sofa and there was a mosquito on Huang's face. To prevent the mosquito from biting Huang, Jung Tsai slapped Huang on his face, waking up Huang, the paper said.
Huang, awake and angry, asked Huang why he had hit him. Huang, with a coy smile, said: "I was just trying to swap a mosquito."
In Taiwan Chinese, "I will swap that mosquito for you" is sometimes meant as a pretext for slapping another person's face, though often as a joke.
Huang, believing Jung Tsai was playing that joke on him, jumped up from the sofa and hit Huang, triggering a brawl as all the men in the group were on Jung Tsai's side. Huang went home to fetch a pistol and returned to the bar with two friends to seek revenge.
Huang opened fire but missed Jung Tsai, who seized the pistol and, together with his friends, beat up Huang and his two friends with fists and wine bottles.
The brawl left three injured and five arrested by police. The five face charges including attempted murder, which carries a minimum 10-year sentence, and illegal possession of firearms.
Lucknow, Feb 15 (IANS) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati Thursday claimed that the Supreme Court had disqualified all 37 legislators of her party who had switched loyalties to help Mulayam Singh Yadav cobble up majority to form a government in Uttar Pradesh in 2003.
Taking a cue from Wednesday's judgement, which allowed the party's Special Leave Petition (SLP), Mayawati demanded immediate dismissal of the Samajwadi Party government and imposition of the president's rule in the state.
The BSP also sent a formal memorandum in this regard to Governor T.V. Rajeshwar.
Addressing a press conference here in the evening, Mayawati claimed that the court had simply marked different dates for bringing into effect the disqualification of two sets of legislators.
"While 13 MLAs were to be disqualified with effect from Aug 28, 2003, the disqualification of 24 others came into effect from Sep 6, 2003," she said.
Meanwhile, seven of the 13 disqualified legislators, who were occupying ministerial berths in the state cabinet, submitted their resignations in the evening.
"The fact that the 13 BSP MLAs were disqualified with retrospective effect from Aug 28, 2003 had made it clear that the split in the BSP on that date itself was illegal," Mayawati said.
"And since it was the support of the BSP defectors that gave Mulayam the necessary strength to elicit an invitation to form his government in August 2003, the very formation of the government turns out to be illegal," she added.
BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra, who had argued the case both in the Allahabad High Court as well as the apex court, said: "Since very inception of the government stands invalidated, all policy decisions taken during the regime also deserved to be nullified."
The memorandum signed by another BSP general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya, urged the governor to order recovery of all salaries and perquisites drawn by the ministers in the government.
The memorandum added that Yadav was not entitled to prove his majority on the floor of state assembly as could have been done in the light of the Supreme Court's earlier judgement in the case involving S.R. Bommai.
"It is not a case like Bommai, where some of the members of the ruling party were switching sides. In this case the very formation of the government depended on the strength of the defectors who now stood disqualified by the Supreme Court," the memorandum said.
The Congress party too had made a similar plea before the governor Wednesday.
By Faraz Ahmad,
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The resignation of Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting M.H. Ambareesh from the government as well as the Lok Sabha to register Karnataka's protest over the Cauvery waters tribunal judgement is unlikely to be accepted.
Ambareesh had faxed the letter Wednesday to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Bangalore.
Sources in the government pointed out that unless the prime minister is anxious to get rid of Ambareesh, there is no urgency for him to react to a faxed letter, primarily addressed to Sonia Gandhi asking her to forward it to the prime minister as well as the speaker.
Prime minister's media adviser Sanjaya Baru said, "I don't know", when asked if apart from a faxed message any letter had been received by the Prime Minister's Office. He declined to comment if the prime minister would react to the resignation letter.
Also, a clear procedure is laid out for resigning from parliament, said an official of the Lok Sabha secretariat. Any member wishing to quit has to personally meet the speaker with a written request and verbally inform him that he was doing so of his own volition and not under duress.
However, Ambareesh 's secretarial staff in Delhi maintained that he had no immediate plans to leave Bangalore and come to Delhi. And till he meets Somnath Chatterjee, the speaker "cannot take notice of such faxed messages", explained the Lok Sabha official.
Pointing out recent instances, he said the speaker had immediately accepted the resignation from the Lok Sabha of Sonia Gandhi last year over a controversy on holding an 'office of profit', and most recently of Shiv Sena MP Subodh Mohite.
On the other hand, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, who resigned after being convicted for his involvement in the death of a person after a road accident, initially avoided personally meeting the speaker and ascribed extraneous reasons for resigning in a letter. The speaker did not accept it till Sidhu revised it and personally met Chatterjee.
Ambareesh, a Lok Sabha member from Mandya, Karnataka is not new to the procedure. In October 2002 too, he had sent a letter to Sonia Gandhi that he was resigning from the Lok Sabha over the Cauvery water dispute and requested her to forward it to then speaker Manohar Joshi. But nothing came of it.
Hyderabad, Feb 15 (IANS) Elections to the revived 90-member Andhra Pradesh legislative council will be held March 17.
The election process got underway Thursday with Governor Rameshwar Thakur issuing the notification.
Elections will be held for eight graduates' constituencies, eight teachers' constituencies and 28 local authorities' constituencies. Besides, members of the legislative assembly will elect 31 members.
Polls to three local bodies constituencies were postponed on technical grounds. The governor will nominate remaining 12 members to the House.
The council will be convened on March 30, when the governor will address a joint session of the council and the assembly.
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Act, 2005 was passed on Nov 1, 2006, paving the way for constitution of a new legislative council.
The council was abolished two decades ago by former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao for being a burden on the public exchequer.
Rama Rao, better known as NTR and founder of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), had termed the council as a platform to rehabilitate the politically unemployed.
The Congress party, which returned to power in 2004 after a gap of nearly a decade, favours a bicameral legislature and its leaders point out that states like Maharashtra and Karnataka have continued with legislative councils.
Constituted in July 1958, the council can have a maximum of 98 members, as under the constitution the total strength of the legislative council should not exceed one-third of the strength of the assembly.
However, the last council had only 90 members and the revived house will also have the same number.
Expenses for the council will be Rs.40 million a year.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday refused to stay the Kerala High Court judgement quashing a ban imposed on the sale of Coca Cola in the State.
A bench of Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice Altamas Kabir, however, issued notice to Coca Cola and Pepsi on Kerala government's special leave petition challenging the Sept 22, 2006 judgement of the high court, which quashed the ban imposed by the government.
The high court had quashed the ban saying that the State government had no power to impose the ban on the manufacture and sale of soft drinks under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and Rules.
Kerala in its special leave petition said that food-borne diseases took a major toll on health. It said, "thousands of people fall ill and many die as a result of consumption of unsafe food. The availability of safe food improves the health of the people and is a basic human right."
The gvernment's petition said "the report of the Centre for Science and Environment was considered by the government of Kerala in detail and it was felt that an emergent situation has arisen for banning temporarily the manufacture and sale of Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola in the state to protect the public from the health hazards arising out of the consumption of these pesticide contaminated soft drinks."
It said, "The studies conducted by various experts reveal that the consumption of pesticide along with the soft drinks will affect the immune, endocrine and developing nervous system more particularly in children and pregnant women. The subsequent test conducted by the public analyst of the State government also shows that Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola contained Chlorpyrifos and Cabarl much above the prescribed limit."
The state government contended that it had all the powers under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954 and the Rules to ban the manufacture and sale of an article for a temporary period. This emergent action of the state was necessitated to protect human health, which was a paramount duty of the government.
The high court judgment that the state had no power to continue the ban was not sustainable when the public analyst tested the products positive to the pesticide, the government petition said, and sought quashing of the impugned judgement and an interim stay of its operation.
Hyderabad, Feb 15 (IANS) Apollo Group of Hospitals, Asia's largest integrated private healthcare provider, has joined hands with Hayel Saeed Anam Group (HSA) of the Middle East to bring super-specialty healthcare system to Yemen.
The two groups signed the partnership agreement to operate the tertiary care hospital in Taiz, Yemen, said a statement by Apollo Group here.
Shawki Ahmed Hayel, executive director of HSA Group, and also the honorary deputy governor of Taiz State in Yemen and Prathap C Reddy, founder chairman, Apollo Group of Hospitals signed the agreement.
HAS is one the largest business groups in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The state-of-the-art hospital will offer super specialty services including cardio thoracic surgeries, hip and knee replacements, neuro surgeries and other high-end services. The hospital will also have a comprehensive emergency and trauma network covering the entire country.
The 160-bed hospital, spread across 200,000 square feet, is built in compliance with international hospital quality standards.
Apollo will provide the operational expertise and will also be responsible for quality accreditation, training and development, establishing systems and protocols for clinical and managerial functions.
London, Feb 15 (DPA) British band Artic Monkeys and US group The Killers took away the most music honours at the Brit Awards in London.
The indie band Artic Monkeys won in the best British group and best British album. The Killers took accolades in the best international group and best international album categories.
Artic Monkeys members did not attend the ceremony for the second year and accepted the awards via videos featuring them dressed as characters from "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Village People", the BBC reported Wednesday.
Sydney, Feb 15 (DPA) The Qantas stewardess accused by fellow air crew members of having sex with British actor Ralph Fiennes aboard a flight from Australia to India is resigned to losing her job, news reports said Thursday.
Lisa Robertson, 38, issued a statement denying the accusations, but admitted spending "a short period of time" in a business-class toilet with the 45-year-old star of the 1996 film "The English Patient".
Robertson, a former police officer and Great Barrier Reef diving instructor, has been suspended without pay over the Jan 24 incident.
Her father, Graham Roberson, told a Sydney radio station that his daughter was not expecting to be reinstated. "She probably knows she's going to lose it," Robertson said. "I couldn't imagine her doing it up in the plane," he added. "You've got other staff there and customers."
He was highly critical of colleagues who reported her toilet tryst to management.
Celebrity management agents say a woman the tabloids have dubbed "Ralph's mile-high hostie" could earn big money selling her story. But agent Max Markson said a prerequisite for a paid interview would be a confession that she had sex with Fiennes, who also played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films.
DPA
For clarifications
New Delhi, Feb 15 (Indianmuslims.info) All India Muslim Backward Front (AIMBF) will field its candidates on all seats in the forthcoming elections of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to ensure participation of Muslims belonging to backward classes in government and administration and counter the injustices being done to them by political parties, revealed AIMBF president and MP Ali Anwar at a meeting held here Wednesday.
Extending his thanks to the representatives of all 34 backward castes for registering their presence in the meeting despite the rains, Mr Anwar said if all the backward people thus remain together on one platform, the day is not far when they will enjoy their share in power and administration.
A team for the Delhi chapter of the Front was also formed with Haji Islam Qamar Salmani as its president. While Muhammad Shahid Siddiqui, Sharif Ahmad Darzi, Hafeez Ahmad Hawari, Mushtaq Maneri, Bilal Shabghamrasi, Haneef Naqsh, Qamrul Hasan Saifi, Haji Rafeeq Ahmad Ansari, were Muhammad Akram Mansoori declared its vice-presidents. Dr MH Ghazali, Abdur Rahman Malik, Dr Seema Husain Meyeo were named general secretaries; Subbu Khan Abbasi, Muhammad Iqbal Ansari, Muhammad Rashid Darzi, Laeeq Ahmad, Sultan Ahmad Abbasi, Ishaq Ahmad Idrisi, Jaleel Ahmad Salmani, and Rushsana Saifi were named secretaries; Fakhruddin Saifi will be treasurer and Ali Hasan Saifi media incharge.
Hamburg, Feb 15 (DPA) Werder Bremen hammered 10-man Ajax Amsterdam 3-0 to take a giant step towards the fourth round in the UEFA Cup football competition.
Per Mertesacker, Naldo and Torsten Frings scored second-half goals against the former European champions Ajax, who lost Olaf Lindenbergh in the 24th minute on a second bookable offence Wednesday.
Ajax, who were lucky that Naldo and Diego were denied further goals by the crossbar and post, respectively, now need a miracle in the third round return leg next week to turn the tie around against the 1992 Cup Winners' Cup champions.
"We put Ajax under pressure that they had to resort to fouls and lost a man. We were very patient and could have easily scored more goals. But this is a very good result," said Bremen sports director Klaus Allofs.
The 1988 UEFA Cup champions Bayer Leverkusen also won for Germany, but their narrow 3-2 over Blackburn Rovers leaves the English opponents well-positioned as well.
Bernd Schneider scored with a stunning back-heel flick for a 3-1 lead, but a late short-range strike from Shabani Nonda revived Rovers' hopes ahead of the second leg at Ewood Park.
"Nonda's strike was a very important goal for us. At 3-1 it would have been far more difficult in the second leg. But the second goal gives us a real chance," said Rovers manager Mark Hughes.
Elsewhere, Hapoel Tel Aviv shocked Glasgow Rangers 2-1 and Maccabi Haifa got a valuable 0-0 draw at 2005 champions CSKA Moscow (who played their home game in southern Russian Vladikavkaz due to cold weather in Moscow) on a good night for the clubs from Israel.
Salim Toama curled home a free kick for Hapoel on the stroke of halftime, Nacho Novo levelled for Rangers in the 52nd but Baruch Dago clinched victory for the hosts from short range with 14 minutes left.
Girondins Bordeaux were held 0-0 by Spain's Osasuna but Paris St Germain won 1-0 at AEK Athens from Sammy Traore's header in first-half stoppage time and a third French club, Nancy, got a valuable 1-1 at Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk.
Newly hired Marc-Antoine Fortune gave Nancy the lead in the 81st but that was cancelled out three minutes later by a volley from Darijo Srna. Shakhtar lost Anatoliy Tymoschuk over a second bookable offence in injury time.
Turkish interest in the competition could well be over even though Fenerbahce fought from 3-1 down to a 3-3 draw with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar.
The Dutch turned a 1-1 deadlock into a 3-1 lead in Istanbul within 60 seconds from Nourdin Boukhari and Julian Jenner in the 62nd and 63rd, respectively but the hosts reclaimed their pride from Tuncay Sanli in the 67th and Tumer Metin's second of the night in the 75th.
A total 10 matches were scheduled for Wednesday and five more for Thursday.
English side Tottenham Hotspur have a third-round bye as their scheduled opponents Feyenoord Rotterdam were kicked out of the competition after their fans rioted at group match in Nancy.
Italian club Livorno were ordered to play Espanyol Barcelona behind closed doors Wednesday due to new Italian stadium safety measures in the wake of the death of a policeman during riots at a league match 10 days ago.
Haripal (West Bengal), Feb 15 (IANS) In his first ever political rally near Singur, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Thursday affirmed that the controversial Tata Motors small car project would come up at the site chosen, "come what may".
"Say with me that you want the industry in Singur," the chief minister exhorted from the dais at Haripal, near Singur, in Hooghly district and got a resounding "yes" from a huge gathering of party workers.
A day after the Calcutta High Court reprimanded his government for imposing prohibitory orders under Section 144 at Singur, Bhattacharya told about 100,000 people attending the rally that West Bengal would be a frontrunner in industry and every district would have industrial units.
"Factory, factory and factory. We want factory. We want industry for all the school, college and university pass-outs. But we will move ahead taking the poor along. There are people who are in fear but we promise to protect them," he said.
"The opposition is trying to create a feeling that all would be lost. But I assure you that we will progress with the poor. The poor would be taken care of by our farmers' wing," Bhattacharya said but without spelling out a proper rehabilitation plan.
He said industry would need only 100,000 acres of the total 13.5 million acres of land in the state.
The chief minister said the state was already a frontrunner in agriculture and hence industry should be the buzzword.
The rally, earlier scheduled to be held at Singur, was shifted outside the Singur police station area after the government refused Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee permission to hold her rally there.
Bhattacharya said imposition of Section 144 was to counter the violence unleashed by the opposition parties and would be lifted if the acts of violence and burning of Tata Motors fencing stopped.
Singur, about 40 km from here in Hooghly district, has been chosen by Tata Motors for its small car project over 997 acres of land, triggering a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by civil society groups and parties like Trinamool Congress.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday charge-sheeted former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for financial bungling worth Rs 1.75 crore in the Taj Heriage Corridor case.
The premier investigative agency submitted the charge sheet, detailing various pieces of evidence adduced by it in its probe against the former Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, in a Lucknow court.
Asked what report the CBI had submitted to the court, CBI Joint Director N. R Vasan, heading the team to probe the financial bungling by the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, her various Cabinet colleagues and bureaucrats, told IANS, "We have followed the instruction of the Supreme Court."
On being asked again, what report it was, Vasan said "it's the final report under section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)."
Former Additional Session Judge Presm Kuma, however, explained that investigation report submitted by an investigative agency under the provisions of 173 CrPC happens to be the chargessheet. "tis also often called final report."
Vasan added, "the CBI has submitted its final report to the court, seeking prosecution of all the accused named therin."
Other CBI officials said the agency had filed all the material and documents, including the investigation report, in the case.
The Lucknow court, subsequently, directed the CBI to seek sanction of prosecution against Mayawati and four others, who included former state Environment Minister Nassemuddin Siddqi, former state Environment Secretary R.K. Sharma, under-secretary Rajendra Prasad, additional general manager of NBCC Mahendra Sharma and owner of Ishrako Construction company Kamal Radu.
Once the CBI procures sanction for prosecution of Mayawati and others, the court would take cognisance of the charge sheet and begin its trial.
The CBI filed the chargesheet complying with Supreme Court directions. The apex court had earlier quashed CBI's closure report against Mayawati in the case.
The investigating agency had come in for severe criticism from the court on November 27 last year for taking legal opinion despite the fact that the entire investigating team favoured Mayawati's prosecution.
Mumbai, Feb 15 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday asked the special court probing the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts to award maximum sentences to the 100 guilty, including death for 44 convicted for criminal conspiracy to commit murder and terror acts.
The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) judge Pramod Kode Thursday began hearing arguments for quantum of sentencing amid heavy police deployment within and outside the court premises housed in the high-security Arthur Road Jail.
Opening arguments were by CBI counsel N. Natarajan, who has flown in from Delhi. The CBI, which sought maximum punishment for the accused, concluded its arguments Thursday itself and defence counsel would present their case Feb 23.
The 100 found guilty for their involvement in the March 12, 1993 blasts - in which 257 people were killed - have been divided into three categories.
The first category comprises 47 held guilty under the stringent TADA for criminal conspiracy and all those who planted the bombs at the 12 locations. The CBI demanded death for 44 in this category and life imprisonment for three - a woman and two who are sick.
The second category consists of the 44 held guilty for committing preparatory acts and for facilitating terror acts before the bombings, including weapons training and smuggling of arms, ammunitions and explosives.
While asking for life imprisonment for all 44, the CBI left the case of two women amongst them to the court to decide.
"The third category includes nine accused guilty under the Arms Act for illegal possession of weapons and the Customs Act for allowing illegal entry and transportation of arms and RDX smuggled into the country by the blast masterminds," said CBI counsel and special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.
The investigating agency said four of those convicted under the Arms Act be given the maximum sentence of 10 years. The other five, guilty under the Customs Act, should be given three years, counsel said.
Amongst those guilty under the Arms Act is actor Sanjay Dutt, who has been given time till Feb 20 to surrender to the court.
"Submissions regarding the punishment for Sanjay Dutt and the guilty Memon family members are already over," Nikam explained.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Citing National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan's remarks at a security meet in Munich, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday assailed the government for "soft-pedalling" on countering terrorism.
The NSA had only reaffirmed the BJP's stand on manipulation of Indian stock exchanges to fund terrorist groups through fictitious transactions, said BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
He was referring to Narayanan's address to the 43rd Conference on Security Policy last week, attended by prominent international representatives and heads of state.
Charging that the Manmohan Singh government had no comprehensive approach to counter terrorism, the BJP cited Narayanan's statement that Pakistan's "official agencies" were pumping millions of dollars for militancy in India along with placement of funds by using underground and parallel banking system.
"This affirms that the system of intelligence collection and assimilation has virtually collapsed," said Rudy.
"The statement by the NSA that terrorist groups are involved in legitimate business enterprises like restaurants, real estate and shipping shows the helplessness of the government to counter camouflaged financial transactions," said the BJP spokesman.
He, however, added: "What intrigues most is the action of the NSA to go on a foreign land and pour his heart out on the dismal security situation in India about which he has preferred to keep quiet back home."
By Sudeshna Sarkar,
Kathmandu, Feb 15 (IANS) Fresh clashes broke out in Kathmandu Thursday as ethnic groups began enforcing a shutdown in the capital as well as neighbouring districts of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur to pressure the government into conceding their demands for greater representation.
Pasang Sherpa, president of Nepal Adivasi Janajati Mahasangh, the federation of nearly 60 ethnic groups that has called the general strike, said one of its senior leaders, Ram Bahadur Thapa Magar, had been seriously hurt in police action and had to be admitted to hospital.
Unwary schoolchildren and office-goers, who did not know about the closure due to bad weather and prolonged power outages Wednesday, found themselves in the lurch as protesters began erecting obstructions on roads to stop traffic.
Shops and markets that had opened in the morning began hastily downing their shutters as the first demonstrations hit the roads. There were reports that some vehicles were pelted with stones and vandalised.
Sherpa accused the security forces of instigating violence.
"We want our protests to be peaceful," he said. "But policemen began attacking us and passing vehicles to make it look like our work."
Nepal's original indigenous tribes and those that are grossly backward due to government negligence are demanding a series of autonomous states for different communities as well as electoral representation on the basis of communities.
The Mahasangh began protests before the new constitution was promulgated, asking the government to make amendments to ensure proper secularism.
The protesters include communities that earlier supported the Maoist guerrillas but left them with the grievance that the rebels had simply exploited them.
The Tharu community, who lost over 700 people while taking part in the Maoists' People's War, now feel let down by the rebels. One of the most disadvantaged communities, the Tharus, were turned into bonded slaves by migrants and though the government abolished the system, continue to sell their children.
The protesters also include the Tamangs, a Buddhist community that has been victims of traffickers who sell Nepali girls and women to India's brothels.
Besides the Kathmandu valley bandh, the Tharu community has also called a shutdown in all the southern districts Thursday.
From Sunday, the protesters have called five more general strikes in Nepal's five regions. Finally, on Feb 28, they have called for a Nepal shutdown.
Haripal (West Bengal), Feb 15 (IANS) In his first political rally near ground zero at Singur, a combative West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Thursday pledged that the controversial Tata Motors car project would come up at the chosen site "come what may".
"Say with me that you want the industry in Singur," the chief minister exhorted from the dais at Haripal, near Singur, in Hooghly district and got a resounding "yes" from a huge gathering of workers belonging to this Communist Party of India (Marxist).
A day after the Calcutta High Court reprimanded his government for orders prohibiting assembly of large gatherings at Singur, Bhattacharya told about 100,000 people attending the rally that West Bengal would be a frontrunner in industry and every district would have industrial units.
"Factory, factory and factory. We want factory. We want industry for all the school, college and university pass-outs. But we will move ahead taking the poor along. There are people who are in fear but we promise to protect them," he thundered.
"The opposition is trying to create a feeling that all would be lost. But I assure you that we will progress with the poor. The poor would be taken care of by our farmers' wing," Bhattacharya said but without spelling out a proper rehabilitation plan.
He said industry would need only 100,000 acres of the total 13.5 million acres of land in the state.
The chief minister said the state was already a frontrunner in agriculture but henceforth industry should be the buzzword.
The rally, earlier scheduled to be held at Singur, was shifted outside the Singur police station area after the government refused Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee permission to hold her rally there.
Bhattacharya said imposition of prohibitory orders was to counter the violence unleashed by the opposition parties and would be lifted if the acts of violence and burning of Tata Motors fencing stopped.
Singur, about 40 km from here in Hooghly district, has been chosen by Tata Motors for its small car factory to be built over 997 acres of land, triggering a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by civil society groups and parties like the Trinamool Congress.
By Syed Zarir Hussain,
Guwahati, Feb 15 (IANS) The AK-47 wielding commando team of the Assam Police, hooded with balaclavas, were at their wits' end Thursday as a seemingly unending stream of spectators queued up for entry into the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, one of the main venues of the 33rd National Games.
With the weather bright and sunny, sport enthusiasts started thronging the stadium since early morning to see the athletes in action - from swimming to boxing, and other track and field events.
"I am overwhelmed by the crowd response. The athletes told me they are all very happy with the conduct of the Games so far," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told IANS as he waved to a big crowd at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium.
At least 5,000 people were queuing outside the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex with star swimmers Rehan Poncha and Richa Sharma and local mermaid Fariha Zaman scheduled to perform in several final events.
"We don't care who wins or loses. We are here to be part of this mega event," said Monimala Baruah Kashyap, a doctor in Guwahati, who came with her two daughters.
The commandos and volunteers were finding it difficult to control the crowd with almost all galleries packed to capacity in the swimming complex.
"This is simply unbelievable to see the enthusiasm of the crowd here," Lalit K. Bhanot, secretary Amateur Athletic Federation of India, said.
"Guwahati can now easily hold any international level sports meet with the available infrastructure and other facilities."
Enthused by words of appreciation, the chief minister said Assam would definitely bid to host important sports events.
"We shall definitely host international meets and the South Asian Games could be one of them," Gogoi said.
The Assam government has also decided to raise a corpus of Rs.100 million aimed at promoting sports and maintaining the existing facilities in the state.
"The idea is to create a sports movement in the state," Pradyut Bordoloi, chairman of the Games' media and publicity committee who is also Assam's power and industry minister, said.
The mood upbeat as Assam is performing well above expectations, while the other northeastern state of Manipur is leading the medal table on the seventh day of the 10-day Games.
"We are very happy indeed with our overall performance so far," Manipur's chef de mission Th Joy Kumar told IANS.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Delhi High Court Thursday directed private broadcaster Nimbus Communication Ltd to give live feed to the state-owned Doordarshan for the Feb 17 India-Sri Lanka one-day international at Vishakhapatnam.
A division bench comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice J.P. Singh issued the direction to Nimbus, which owns Neo Sports, when it approached the court in response to the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati's notice seeking live and clean feed of the Feb 17 Vishakhapatnam cricket match for Doordarshan.
Issued under the provision of recently promulgated Sports Broadcasting (mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance, 2007, the notice threatened Nimbus to cancel its licence under the provisions of the ordinance if the NEO Sports owner failed in live-feeding Doordarshan.
Last year Nimbus had won an exclusive four-year telecast right from the Board of Control for Cricket in India of cricket matches in India, Bangladesh and the Middle East for $612 million. Doordarshan, on the other hand, has the right to telecast all domestic cricket matches.
Additionally, the Feb 1 ordinance makes its mandatory for private channels to share their live and clean feed for sporting events of national importance with Doordarshan and All India Radio.
In response to the government notice, Nimbus counsel Gopal Jain approached the court seeking protection from the alleged threat from the government.
Nimbus has expressed its willingness to give live feed to Doordarshan, if the government desists from taking any punitive action against it. The government, in its notice, had given Thursday as the deadline for the private broadcaster to respond.
After the government gave an undertaking that it would not take any action, the court subsequently directed the former against taking any decision or action till March 9, the next date of hearing.
It also issued notices to the central government and Prasar Bharati on a petition filed by Nimbus challenging the ordinance, which makes it mandatory for the private broadcaster to share live feed with Prasar Bharati.
Islamabad, Feb 15 (IANS) Pakistan's Supreme Court has asked national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to explain why it is forcing its air hostesses to go on leave or retiring them at 45 because of their age and "dull and poor appearance".
The apex court took notice of the cabin crew's complaint that the corporation subjected them to "derogatory and insulting treatment". They were being asked to go on forced leave for "biased and absolutely meaningless reasons".
Elucidating, the complainants said the basis of their retirement included "dull and poor appearance, scars on face, gap in the front teeth and the age factor affecting looks".
Deputy Attorney-General Nahida Mehboob Ellahi told Dawn newspaper that 98 women cabin crew members, through a complaint signed by six staff members, had invited the attention of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to the alleged discriminatory attitude towards them.
The complainants have pleaded before the court to direct the PIA to withdraw the "insulting remarks" as well as the letters of forced retirement and call the women to immediately join their duties.
They also complained that while they were being pushed out of their jobs at 45, in violation of earlier court rulings, the PIA was filling up the vacancies with crew from Japan, Thailand, Kenya, Russia and Greece.
The foreign women are paid $5,000, compared to Rs.15,000-20,000 ($1=Pak Rupees 60 approx) being paid to the Pakistani crew.
A majority of the foreign crew, they alleged, could not communicate in English and were thus unsuitable for the job.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Sixteen years after the registartion of the Jain Hawala case allegedly involving many top politicians, a Delhi Court has said that there was enough evidence against prime accused J.K jain and his employee S.K. Jain to prosecute them under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) for owning foreign exchange without the permission the Reserve Bank of India.
In an extensive order recently, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Kamini Lau said there was enough evidence to prosecute the two Jains for FERA violations. She fixed March 19, 2007 for framing of charges against the two accused.
The case of FERA violations against Jain of the Jain Hawala case fame, which had rocked the country during the P.V. Narshimha Rao regime, had been pending at trial stage since the raid by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the residential premises of S.K. Jain on May 3, 1991.
The case was transferred to the Enforcement Directorate(ED) in 1995 as the accused were involved in possession of a large amount of foreign currency including US dollars and British pounds.
Counsel Navin Matta appearing for the Enforcement Directorate told the court that the accused did not give any document from the RBI to justify the possession of the foreign exchange.
During the interrogation accused J.K. Jain reportedly said that the foreign exchange belonged to his employer S.K. Jain.
The prosecution had examined four witnesses during the trial to prove that the foreign currencies were illegally owned by the accused through hawala route.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Delhi government to place before it the notification making it mandatory for the public schools, built on subsidised public land, to set aside 20 percent of their seats for poor students.
A bench of Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice H.R. Malhotra directed the government counsel to place the notification before the court before the next hearing April 16 to enable it study the same.
Some public schools had approached the court on Jan 31 challenging the notification contending that the same could not be implemented in its present form.
The court earlier had directed the government to implement the provisions in the lease deeds with the schools by forcing them to admit at least 20 per cent students under the freeship quota.
The Delhi lieutenant-governor has notified the state government's October 2006 order to private schools built on subsidised public land to reserve 20 percent of their seats for poor students and also waive their fees.
The court was apprised of the notification of the government's order in January 2007 by the government counsel, who submitted that students from the nursery level to Class XII would benefit from it.
The court on Sep 13, 2005, had issued a stern warning to 106 private unaided public schools built on the government land to provide 20 percent seats to the poor students.
The Delhi Development Authority and the state government had allotted subsidised land to 361 schools.
Patna, Feb 15 (IANS) A Dalit schoolgirl was gang-raped and murdered in a Bihar village, police here said Thursday.
The incident took place Wednesday in Kaurandihri tola in Bhojpur district, 60 km from here.
Police said the girl was gangraped and her throat slit.
A police complaint has been lodged against five people of same village on the basis of her mother's statement.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Nearly 5.5 percent of Delhi's population - 830,000 people - are above the age of 60, according to an official survey released Thursday.
The report, "Morbidity, Healthcare and condition of Aged persons in Delhi", prepared by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the state revealed that around 24,935 people were living alone.
"Out of 830,000 aged persons about 3 percent were living alone, 14.45 percent (102,000) with spouse only, 52 percent (431,000) with spouse and children, 27.6 percent (229,000) were living without spouse but with children and 2.87 percent (23,850) with other relations," said Delhi Finance and Planning Minister A.K. Walia after releasing the report here Thursday evening.
The sex ratio among the aged people is 874 female per 1,000 male. The dependency ratio in the urban area of Delhi is 8.1 as compared to 9.4 at the national level.
However, in the rural area of Delhi old age dependency is 13.4 as compared to 11.1 at the national level. The average number of aged people per household in Delhi is 0.3.
The survey reveals that about 40 percent of the married sons are residing separately in the same building where their aged parents are residing alone or with spouse.
However, 29 percent sons or daughters were living separately while another 29 percent children of the aged people here were living outside Delhi.
Out of the 830,000 aged people, about 55 percent (454,000) are fully dependent on others for economic support, 8 percent were partially dependent and 37 percent (308,000) were not economically dependent on others.
Out of the total aged persons, 1.96 percent (16,229) were confined to bed and 3.29 percent (27,330) were confined to home.
Walia said the survey also reveals that about 92 percent of the total boys and 90 percent of the total girls in the age group of 0-4 years were given immunisation. The percentage of total children immunised was 91 percent.
Guwahati, Feb 15 (IANS) Delhi scooped up double gold medals from the tennis event in the 33rd National Games here Thursday
In the men's final, Delhi thrashed Tamil Nadu 2-0 and defended the title they had won in the last edition of the Games at Hyderabad in 2002 and then breezed past West Bengal with a similar scoreline in the women's summit clash.
The unfinished men's second singles, halted by the heavy rains Wednesday, resumed with Delhi's Divij Sharan ahead 2-1 against Kamala Kannan in the opening set, and was over after a one-hour-and-55-minute-action on court one at the Chachal tennis complex in the morning with the former winning 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).
Navdeep Singh put Delhi ahead Wednesday by getting the better of V.M. Ranjith of Tamil Nadu in the first singles 6-4, 7-5.
Tamil Nadu men finished with a silver for the second time on the trot. The losing semi-finalists, Maharashtra and West Bengal, were given the bronze.
In the women's title clash, Delhi's Vishika Chetry carved out a 6-4, 6-2 win over Shivika Burman before Parul Goswami humbled Ragini Vimal with an identical match scoreline in the second singles.
The Bengal girls, who had stunned Maharashtra in the semi-final, could hardly put up a fight and had to be content with the silver. Maharashtra and Karnataka took the bronze medals.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) People in Delhi are healthier. The morbidity rate in the Indian capital is 17 per thousand people as compared to 99 at the national level, a government study said Thursday.
The report - Morbidity, Healthcare and condition of Aged persons in Delhi - prepared by the directorate of economics and statistics of the state revealed that the proportion of ailing persons in Delhi is the lowest among all the states.
"The morbidity rate in Delhi was estimated at 17 per thousand people as compared to 99 at the national level, 107 in Punjab, 87 in Haryana, 72 in Rajasthan, 108 in Uttar Pradesh," said Delhi Finance and Planning Minister A.K. Walia after releasing the report here Thursday evening.
Walia said morbidity in Delhi in the age group of 0-14 years was 18 per thousand and 9 in the age group of 15-29 years, 12 in the age group of 30-44 years, 29 in the age group of 45-59 years and 53 in the age group of 60 years and above.
The percentage of persons reported ill in Delhi reduced from 3.1 percent in 1995-96 to 1.7 percent during 2004. However, at the national level, the percentage of people reported ill increased from 4.1 percent to 9.9 percent during the corresponding period, the report underlined.
The survey reveals that in 18 percent of the total outdoor cases, treatment was taken from the government hospitals and the average expenditure for each case on treatment was Rs.545.
Total number of cases of hospitalisation was estimated at 253,000. The rate of hospitalisation in the case of male is 16 per thousand and in the case of female, 17 per thousand.
Out of 253,000 people, 119,000 were hospitalised in government-run hospitals and 134,000 in private hospitals.
In public hospitals, 89 percent were admitted in free wards and remaining in paying general wards or special wards. Whereas, in private hospitals, only 3 percent were in free wards and the remaining were in paying wards.
The average duration of stay in hospitals in a year was 10 days. The maximum cases of hospitalisation was due to heart disease (12.4 percent) followed by 9.7 percent due to accident, 9.5 percent due to fever of unknown origin, 8.3 percent due to diarrhoea, 6.1 percent due to kidney, 4.6 percent due to cancer, 3.9 percent due to hypertension and 2.4 percent due to neurological problems.
Walia also disclosed that the average total expenditure per hospitalisation in government-run hospitals was Rs.8,161 compared to Rs.33,779 in private hospitals. However, at the national level, average expenditure per hospitalisation in government hospitals was Rs.3,410 and in private hospitals Rs.8,738.
Dubai, Feb 15 (IANS) Swashbuckling batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni climbed to the third spot while Sachin Tendulkar slipped to the 19th in the International Cricket Council (ICC) one-day international rankings released here Thursday.
Dhoni, who gained thanks to his unbeaten 67 in the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Margoa Wednesday, is now only one rating point behind Ricky Ponting, who has 780 rating points, said ICC.
If Dhoni displays another solid performance in the fourth and final ODI in Visakhapatnam Saturday, he could overtake the Australian captain.
Like Dhoni, captain Rahul Dravid and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also climbed one place each to be 13th (704) and 12th (664 points) in the batsmen's and bowlers' rankings respectively.
Dhoni now has 779 rating points in the list headed by Australia's Mike Hussey with 810 points.
While Tendulkar now has 669 points, Yuvraj Singh maintained his 20th place with 660 points.
In the top places in the bowlers' list, the only other Indian is pacer Ajit Agarkar who has gone down two places to be 17th with 630 points.
South African fast bowler Shaun Pollock, who took five for 23 in the Johannesburg one-dayer against Pakistan Wednesday, heads the table with 920 points. He also leads the all-rounders' list with 483 points.
Only five bowlers on ODI history have passed the magic 900-point mark.
Batsmen's rankings:
1 Mike Hussey (Australia) 810 rating points
2 Ricky Ponting (Australia) 780
3 Mahendra Dhoni (India) 779
4 Kevin Pietersen (England) 767
5 Andrew Symonds (Australia) 748
6 K. Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 747
7 Chris Gayle (West Indies) 741
8 Mohammed Yousuf (Pakistan) 731
9 Adam Gilchrist (Australia) 723
10 Graeme Smith (South Africa) 718
Bowlers:
1 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 920 rating points
2 Glenn McGrath (Australia) 792
3 Makhaya Ntini (South Africa) 746
4 Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) 738
5 Brett Lee (Australia) 736
6 Nathan Bracken (Australia) 734
7 Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) 730
8 M. Muralidaran (Sri Lanka) 720
9 Ian Bradshaw (West Indies) 701
10 Shane Bond (New Zealand) 684
All-rounders:
1 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 483 rating points
2 Chris Gayle (West Indies) 422
3 Andrew Flintoff (England) 397
4 S.T. Jayasuriya (Sri Lnaka) 367
5 Jacques Kallis (South Africa) 365
Bhuj (Gujarat), Feb 15 (IANS) The education system at the primary and middle school levels has to be changed to inject creativity and human values among children, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said here Thursday.
Kalam, who was interacting with school children here, said each student should pass out with a diploma or certificate in entrepreneurship that would lead to creation of large number of employment generators.
"Education is not just teaching and learning lessons. It has to be concerned about building human values along with knowledge," Kalam said after narrating how he imbibed human values from his father and primary school teacher.
The president called for change in the educational system.
"Education system in the primary and middle school level has to be changed to inject creativity among the children. At the school and college level, in addition to conventional courses the education system should train the student on entrepreneurial development programme.
"The students while passing out should be equipped with a diploma or certificate in entrepreneurship. This will enable creation of large number of employment generators rather than employment seekers," he said while replying to a question by a student.
Asked when Indian astronauts would be able to travel to space, the president said: "The year 2014 and before 2025. I visualize 2014; India launching a manned space mission with two astronauts into low earth orbit and recovered after planned orbits in the Bay of Bengal. It is a beautiful site to see the two Indian astronauts coming jubilantly towards the shore."
President Kalam was here to present the Presidential Standard, a rare honour, to two squadrons of the Indian Air Force - the Bhuj-based MIG-21 and Chandigarh-based AN-32.
Indo-Asian News Service
For clarifications
Brussels, Feb 15 (IANS) The European Union and India enjoy a "healthy, growing and dynamic relationship based on a commonality of values and strong mutual interests", says Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European commissioner for external relations and European neighbourhood policy, who visits India this week.
The EU, she said, is looking forward to increased cooperation with India on global and regional challenges of common concern. These include energy security, climate change, trade liberalisation, non-proliferation, UN reforms, promotion of human rights and democracy, fight against terrorism and peace and regional integration in South Asia.
"The strong commitment of India and of the EU to a rule-based international order and effective multilateralism makes them natural interlocutors on most of these issues," Ferrero-Waldner told INEP ahead of her departure for New Delhi.
"Yet it is true that we probably need to further enhance the visibility of the EU in India," said the soft-spoken commissioner who is a former foreign minister of Austria.
"I hope that cultural cooperation, civil society exchanges and the further development of EU programmes such as the India Window of Erasmus Mundus granting scholarships for Indian students in Europe, will help further promote mutual understanding and visibility."
During her four-day visit to India, she is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath to discuss the implementation of the EU-India Joint Action Plan, common challenges and areas of closer cooperation.
"We are very satisfied with the positive dynamics in the development of our relations since the launch of our Strategic Partnership in 2004. The implementation of our Joint Action Plan is proceeding well, and progress is made towards the negotiation of a broad-based trade and investment agreement - we hope to engage in formal negotiations rapidly," she said.
The EU is committed to supporting all efforts aimed at promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity in South Asia, in particular in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
"We hope to intensify consultations with India to address such situations of common concern. India's engagement in Afghanistan is very impressive and we look forward to good cooperation on the ground.
"Given its ancient historical links with Iran, we would be greatly interested in India's views on the Iranian nuclear issue."
Replying to a question on visa difficulties faced by Indian professionals travelling to Europe, she said: "I understand it's of great interest to India - we also have some areas of great interest for European businesses in services and so we will have important discussions on this topic to see where the balance lies."
She noted that there were no restrictions for Indian citizens or businesspeople to travel to the EU, but they do need a visa to enter EU member states.
On bilateral trade and investment negotiations, Ferrero-Waldner said they had made good progress and the negotiation mandate proposed by the Commission was currently being discussed with the member states - "and we hope to engage in formal negotiations rapidly".
Referring to EU-India cooperation in the European satellite navigation project Galileo, she said it was an important aspect of the bilateral ties.
"We remain fully committed to ensuring India's participation in the Galileo programme. All 27 member states need to give their national authorisations to allow for the formal signature of the EU-India co-operation agreement on Galileo, which is unfortunately taking time. We are confident that the agreement will be signed in the course of this year."
The commissioner said EU and India, which both tragically have faced terrorism, hold regular consultations on terrorism.
The EU had listed a number of groups operating in India out of Europe as terrorist organisations, she noted.
"We are also pleased to work with India within the UN, as the only global forum in the fight against terrorism, towards the adoption of the UN Comprehensive Convention of Terrorism," she said.
Since the last EU-India Summit in October in Helsinki, five European commissioners have visited India to take forward specific aspects of bilateral cooperation. The European commissioner for agriculture will visit India next month.
The next EU-India Summit, to be held in New Delhi next November, should provide a good opportunity to increase the profile of the strategic partnership between the two sides, added Ferrero-Waldner.
Wellington, Feb 15 (DPA) A fire broke out Thursday on a Japanese whaling fleet ship in the Southern Ocean Thursday, spilling 1,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and chemicals into the sea and raising fears of a major environmental disaster in the pristine environment of the Antarctic.
Most of the 160 crew on the 8,000-tonne Nisshin Maru were evacuated onto three of the fleet's other ships, leaving about 20 on board to fight the blaze, which apparently took one life.
New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter told the Newstalk ZB radio network that the biggest danger was from the ship's fuel oil and chemicals leaking into the sea.
The Nisshin Maru was reportedly about 100 nautical miles off the Antarctic coast, and Carter said an oil spill would be devastating to the frozen continent's environment.
Carter said he had contacted Australia, the US and Britain, which all have bases in Antarctica, and they agreed to help if called upon to deal with a spill.
Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for Japan's whaling industry, told Radio New Zealand that the fire, which occurred in a processing room and spread quickly, had been put out and all the crew were safe except for one man who is missing.
Carter said the Japanese had primary responsibility for the distressed ship but it was in waters where New Zealand was liable for search and rescue operations under an international agreement.
Radio New Zealand quoted Maritime New Zealand spokesman Steve Corbett as saying the cause of the fire was unknown. Sea conditions in the area were calm and there was no danger of the ship sinking, he said.
A spokesman for Carter said the fire was not connected with protests this week by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society against Japanese whaling fleet activities.
On Monday, the Sea Shepherd ship Robert Hunter and the Japanese boat Kaiko Maru were damaged in the Southern Ocean after a collision that both sides blamed on the other. The society's campaign ended Wednesday, when its two protest boats left the area, reportedly for Australia, because they were running out of fuel.
Another protest ship, Esperanza, owned by the Greenpeace environmental organization, is reportedly still in southern waters.
Raipur, Feb 15 (IANS) A trooper was killed while defusing a bomb while three members of the Chhattisgarh government backed civil militia movement Salwa Judum were gunned down in overnight clashes with Maoists, police said Thursday.
Police have arrested 11 Maoist militants, including five women insurgents, in a stepped up offensive in Dornapal in the violence wracked Dantewada district since Wednesday afternoon.
"A CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) constable was killed and another cop injured seriously when a tiffin bomb went off during defusing process Wednesday night in a forested stretch of Dantewada," said Bastar Range Inspector General R.K. Vij.
In the other incident, militants shot dead three Salwa Judum activists in Bijapur area.
Salwa Judum (Campaign for Peace) was launched in June 2005 to wipe out leftist insurgents holding sway in Bastar region for past three decades.
Maoists, who launched a violent movement in 1967 from a West Bengal village, claim to fight for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.
Chhattisgarh is one of the worst Maoist hit 13 Indian states, accounting for 48 percent casualties of 749 Maoist-violence related deaths in India in 2006, says the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR).
Hong Kong, Feb 15 (DPA) Gay people are 60 percent more likely than heterosexuals to suffer domestic violence at the hands of their partners, a Hong Kong survey said Thursday.
Sixteen per cent of gay people are beaten up by their partners, compared with 9.6 percent of heterosexual people in comparable surveys, the study by a coalition of gay-rights groups found.
A third of gay people questioned said they suffered some form of domestic abuse, with many complaining of verbal abuse and threats, according to the study based on interviews with 236 people.
Among the most common forms of non-physical abuse reported by interviewees were threats to disclose a partner's sexual preferences to parents, friends or employers.
However, social-welfare groups in the city of 6.8 million are not equipped to deal with gay people suffering from abuse and ignored appeals for help from victims, the coalition complained.
Homosexuality remains largely taboo in the conservative former British colony, and many gay men and lesbians keep their sexual orientation secret.
Bangkok, Feb 15 (DPA) A German national charged with raping a minor in Thailand was found dead in his prison cell in what was believed to be a suicide, police said Thursday.
The body of Helmut Nehls, 64, was found Wednesday at a prison in the north-eastern city of Udon Thani with his wrists slashed and a sock stuffed down his throat, police Captain Jirapong Singhasuriya said.
He was believed to have died from suffocation, rather than loss of blood because the slashes to his wrists, inflicted with the jagged edge of a toilet bowl, were not deep, police said.
"We are sure this was a suicide because no one could get in to his cell, and the key to his cell was with the supervisor, not the lower officers," Jirapong said.
"Nehls had requested a solitary cell because he was suffering stress and was being bothered by the other prisoners," Jirapong said.
Thai police arrested Nehls, who is from Zeppernick in the eastern German state of Sachsen-Anhalt, on Feb 10 on charges of raping and abducting a minor. He was arrested in a rented house in Udon Thani, 450 km northeast of Bangkok, with a 12-year-old girl.
Police found pornographic videos and a digital movie camera containing a clip of the young girl doing a striptease.
If he had been found guilty of raping a minor, Nehls faced 10 to 20 years in prison.
Nehls, a former computer technician, had been visiting Thailand on a regular basis for the past 15 years and was fluent in the language, police said.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (Indianmuslims.info) United News of India (UNI), one of the largest news agencies in Asia launched in March 1961, in a Urdu release issued Wednesday, came out with an interesting story on how the letters of the renowned Urdu poet Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib record the social upheaval and circumstances prevailing in and around 1857. The release marked the birthday of Mirza Ghalib.
The agency says Ghalib was one of those who had witnessed the first war of independence in 1857, its failure and the chaos and destruction wreaking havoc then in the lanes and streets, havelis and houses in Delhi. He had seen with his own naked eyes the hapless Delhiites migrating from the city, being killed, maimed and exiled.
When the city was turned all into ruins following the attacks and invasions targeted against the innocent citizens by the British invaders, Mirza Ghalib stood shattered with the loneliness, helplessness and all that which came with the 1857 upheaval, the release said.
The popular poet has portrayed the circumstances prevailing then in his letters written in his typically matchless style, and while writing these letters he adopted a distinguished pattern, the release said adding that the history of Urdu prose cannot be complete without Ghalib’s letters, the collections of which are prescribed in the Urdu courses of different universities.
Ghalib breathed his last in 1869 but as long as he lived he could not forget the memories of Delhi’s past; his letters bear evidence to this fact.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Warning that the unchecked growth of cars are contributing heavily towards energy and environment insecurity, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Thursday said India must increase taxes on all cars.
"India is in the grip of an impending energy crisis as we are consuming more oil than ever before and the growing transport sector is guzzling a lot of this," said a new CSE study on fuel economy in the transport sector.
The report, released Thursday here, said the 2007-08 union budget must address this "linkage between vehicles and energy insecurity".
The report underlines that private vehicles account for 62 percent of diesel consumption in the transport sector. More and more vehicle manufacturers are introducing diesel variants.
The transport sector is the single biggest user of oil and oil products using up around 30 percent of the total consumption in the country.
"If the numbers and usage of cars grow unchecked and the government fails to introduce fuel economy standards to make them more fuel-efficient, India will hurtle towards a serious energy crisis," said the report, adding that since 2001, the union budget has lowered taxes on cars successively resulting in a phenomenal increase in car numbers.
Anumita Roychoudhury, associate director, CSE and the team leader of the study, said industry estimates suggest that car sales crossed the one million mark in just 11 months in 2006.
"With economic growth there has been a steady shift towards bigger cars. While the share of the smallest cars with 800 cc engine have dropped from 21 percent in 2001 to 11 percent in 2004, the sales of mid-size cars has grown from 12 percent in 2001-02 to 17 percent in 2004-05. The share of bigger cars is also increasing steadily," she said.
The report suggests that with this growing number, the pollution is increasing phenomenally.
"Carmakers make tall claims about the fuel efficiency of their products, but there is almost no official data or a certification system to back them. While a large number of countries have begun to enforce fuel economy standards for vehicles, India is shying away," it stresses.
The report suggests Finance Minister P. Chidambaram should enforce mandatory fuel economy standards. "Fiscal policies targeted at energy efficiency should be linked to fuel economy of vehicles and promotion of advanced technologies like hybrid electric vehicles.
"Raise taxes on all cars, but maintain a differential in favour of small cars and fuel-efficient vehicles. Our regulations will have to push the industry to produce the most fuel and emissions-efficient vehicles," it added.
The study emphasises that India should discourage diesel cars without efficiency and clean emissions standards. The car industry is pushing diesel cars in the name of fuel-efficiency, but these cars are several times more polluting than petrol cars.
India's most popular small diesel car is more than 20 to 30 percent less fuel-efficient and 50 percent more polluting than its counterparts in Europe.
The study further adds that while cess should be imposed on diesel cars, incentives must be there for efficient public transport system.
"We must introduce fuel economy standards and mandate a roadmap for the future. Many countries, including China, have introduced such measures primarily for energy and environmental security," Roychoudhury said.
Sydney, Feb 15 (IANS) Eating food high in carbohydrates, especially four hours before bedtime, could make you sleep quicker, says a new study.
Chin Moi Chow and colleagues at the University of Sydney studied 12 healthy men who were 18-35 years old.
The men tried three varieties of cooked rice in their meals - plain rice, long-grain rice and jasmine rice - with steamed vegetables in tomato puree. Jasmine rice has a high glycemic index - a ranking system for carbohydrates based on their effect on blood glucose levels. Plain and long-grain rice have lower glycemic index, reported the online edition of health magazine WebMD.
The researchers found that higher carbohydrates raised two brain chemicals involved in sleep, tryptophan and serotonin levels, making people sleepier, according to the Australian study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Foods with high carbohydrates quickly raise blood sugar and may hasten sleep, especially when eaten four hours before bedtime, the researchers report. Adding protein to the meal might change the results, Chow's team noted.
Chandigarh, Feb 15 (IANS) The heftiest penalty under the Right to Information (RTI) Act was imposed in Punjab Thursday when a government official was asked to deposit a fine of Rs.50,000 for failing to provide desired information to a citizen.
Manjit Singh, who works with in Punjab Housefed - the state federation of cooperative house building societies - as project officer and public information officer, was asked to deposit the penalty within 10 days.
If the officer fails to deposit the penalty, it would be deducted from his salary, state information commissioner P.K. Verma ordered.
Under the RTI Act, the maximum penalty that can be levied is Rs.25,000. But in this case, the officer was levied two fines of Rs.25,000 each for failing to provide information to a person within the time stipulated in the law.
Malkiat Singh had filed two separate applications seeking some information. Manjit Singh ignored both applications without assigning any reason. The delay was 126 days in one case and 173 days in another.
When the applicant approached the commission, the officer did not bother to appear before it. Following this, the commission imposed two penalties of Rs 25,000 each on the officer. It also recommended disciplinary action against the officer by his department.
Mumbai, Feb 15 (IANS) Hutch-Essar Thursday said it was slashing its roaming tariffs by up to 56 percent as per the instructions of the telecom watchdog.
The fourth largest mobile service operator also removed monthly rentals and security deposits, based on the directive issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) last month.
Hutch users will now pay only Rs.1.75 for incoming calls depending on the roaming distance, a Hutch statement here said.
Outgoing local calls will now be Rs.1.40 per minute, while long-distance subscribers trunk dial (STD) calls will cost Rs.2.40 per minute. There will be no change in cost for ISD rates and SMS or GPRS usage, it added.
By Faraz Ahmad,
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Delhi's master plan for 2021 gives relief to not only traders - for whom the threat of sealing is off - but also millions of others. And Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy says categorically that he is not "apologetic", notwithstanding allegations of vote bank politics.
Strongly defending the much discussed master plan for Delhi (MPD) that lays out the guidelines for the Indian capital over the next 14 years, the minister said: "I am not apologetic about this large-scale relief to the people. I can't ignore ground reality and the Indian democratic state cannot be so tyrannical as to demolish or close down or tamper with 90 percent dwelling units."
The document, notified by Reddy on Feb 7, regularises 1,543 unauthorised colonies and also makes major concessions for commercial establishments in residential areas - the focal point of the sealing operations that led to several traders' strikes last year.
"Traders were not the only people agitated about the situation in Delhi. Residents have also been given relief. Many residents in walled city special enclaves, pre-1962 colonies and small colonies have been helped in much larger numbers than traders," Reddy told IANS in an interview.
He said all the traders were not rich. "It is important to note that of the more than 600,000 shopkeepers (affected by the new master plan), only about 50,000 can be categorised as upper middle class. The other 500,000 and more are those who use their small houses as shops. These include people like the dhobi, the tailor or the cycle repairer... all come in this category."
The minister denied that the government's exercise of amending the master plan was aimed at circumventing the Supreme Court's directive to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to demolish or seal unauthorised premises.
"There is no basis for such criticism. This (the master plan) has been in the offing for long. If that were to be my motive I would have done this six months ago when people were on the streets against the sealing drive. In fact, the sealing drive continued without being halted by me or anyone."
Reddy also insisted that his government was not guided by impending elections to the MCD in amending the master plan.
"I can honestly say there was no vote bank politics in the MPD. We dealt with each group based on harmonious mix of ground realities and town planning norms. A master plan for 15 years is not prepared to win one MCD election. This was not the consideration at all."
According to the minister, his government had done more for the poor and slum-dwellers than for affluent sections of society.
The government's latest steps to regularise 1,500 colonies, he said, had not only given protection but also titles to three million people living in the localities.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Indian government, battling a galloping inflation, Thursday said it was cutting the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs.2 and Re.1 a litre respectively, aided by the decline in international crude oil prices.
The move followed some high-level talks Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had over the past week with ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh were reportedly in favour of ensuring that since global crude prices had dropped, the burden on the common person should be eased to whatever extent possible, especially since inflation had risen to new peaks.
The reduction was to take effect midnight Thursday, with Deora indicating further cuts in the coming weeks. "The finance ministry will decide the reduction of customs and excise duties in crude oil," he said.
Petrol will now cost Rs.42.85 a litre in the national capital while diesel will retail for Rs.30.25 - in line with an IANS report last week. In June 2006, the government had hiked the prices of the two fuels by Rs.4 and Rs.2, respectively.
The decision has also left consumers happy.
"I have a budget of Rs.2,500 per month for petrol. Now, I'll be able to drive a little more," said Moses Phillip, who works as a sales engineer in an electrical and electronics company.
"On Sundays, when I would ask my husband to take me out, high petrol cost was an excuse he would normally use. Now that there is some reprieve, I hope he doesn't find some other alibi to deny my kids and I some weekend outings," said Swapna Gupta, a homemaker in east Delhi.
Thursday's decision also followed some tight monetary policy measures taken in the past weeks by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) where the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the repurchase rate on government securities were hiked.
According to petroleum ministry officials, while the cut in prices of diesel will mean a loss of Rs.2-Rs.2.5 a litre on diesel, the revised rate for petrol will mean a no-profit-no-loss exercise.
"The burden of this price reduction will be met partly by the revenue inflows and partly through oil bonds that have already been approved," Deora told a press conference here.
He said out of Rs.283 billion worth of bonds approved earlier, Rs.191.5 billion had already been issued.
"We have kept our promise that if international crude oil prices come down, we will bring down retail prices. In fact, we hope to bring it down further to June 2006 levels," Deora said.
In June 2006, when the last price increase was announced, the Indian oil basket was at $67 per barrel, which jumped to $75 by August. But since then there has been a consistent dip in the Indian basket pricing, down to $52 per barrel in recent weeks.
On the other hand, the annual rate of inflation based on the official wholesale price index moved up to 6.73 percent for the week ended Feb 3, from a level of 3.98 percent a year ago.
The petroleum ministry had done a study based on the refinery transfer price in the second week of January, which called for a cut of Rs.3.60 per litre in petrol, and Re.0.36 in diesel in the capital.
But officials said that even at the current global crude price of $56 per barrel, state-run oil marketing firms were incurring heavy under-recoveries on subsidised kerosene and cooking gas.
Islamabad, Feb 15 (IANS) Pakistan Thursday termed a World Bank-appointed neutral expert's verdict on the Baglihar hydropower project in India's Jammu and Kashmir as a "major victory" and added that it will not allow India to control shared water resources, Online news agency reported.
In a policy statement in the National Assembly, Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Jatoi said the expert's ruling on the Baghliar dam was a major victory for Pakistan.
On Monday, Raymond Lafitte, a Swiss national and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, handed over his final report on the project to Indian and Pakistani diplomats in Berne, Switzerland.
According to the verdict, India will now have to reduce the dam's height, originally proposed to be 144.5 metres, by one and a half metres.
Lafitte, the neutral expert appointed since the two neighbours signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960, was selected by the World Bank - the third party in the treaty - on April 20, 2005 to resolve differences between India and Pakistan over the Baglihar project.
Pakistan had opposed the hydroelectric project on the ground that it will divert water away from its territory and approached the World Bank Jan 15, 2005.
Jatoi said that Pakistan took the matter to the World Bank after several rounds of talks with India on this issue for 12 years had failed.
He said the neutral expert asked India to change its design of the dam and also that the free board regarding level of the stored water should be reduced to 3 metres from 4.4 metres.
"It is a major victory for us and has made Pakistan's case stronger. With this decision, the control of the water would not rest with India," Jatoi said.
India too has interpreted the expert's verdict to claim victory. "The neutral expert's Final Determination confirms that India's design has been compliant with the basic principles of the Indus Waters Treaty," India's ministry of water resources has said.
Jatoi said: "We also have objections on the Kishan Ganga Dam and India has now not only changed its design but also stopped the construction work, which is another victory."
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) India and Italy Thursday signed three agreements in diverse areas including counter-terrorism and launched a forum of business leaders to step up bilateral trade and investment, but could not arrive at a consensus over reforms of the UN Security Council.
In a boost to India's quest for global civil nuclear cooperation, Italy, a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, agreed to discuss the need to adopt "forward looking approaches to enhance international civil nuclear cooperation under appropriate International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards".
Three agreements were signed in the areas of counter-terrorism, cultural exchange for the period 2007-2009 and renewable energy cooperation in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi who is here on an official visit leading an over 300-member business delegation.
A memorandum of understanding on setting up a joint working group on combating international terrorism and trans-national crime was signed by Indian envoy Rajiv Dogra and his Italian counterpart Antonio Armellini.
Responding to Manmohan Singh's request, Prodi also supported India's efforts to launch early negotiations on a broad-based trade and investment agreement between India and the 25-nation European Union (EU) - the largest trading partner of New Delhi.
"You can count on my support to start these negotiations quickly," Prodi told reporters at a joint press conference with Manmohan Singh.
Describing Prodi as a "friend of India", Manmohan Singh spoke about "steadily increasing" ties between the two countries in different areas including trade, defence, culture and science and technology, higher education and research and space.
"Italian strengths in design and technology can be combined with India's manufacturing competencies and human resource skills," he said while underlining "strong complementarities" between the two economies.
Prodi spoke enthusiastically about "a new era in India-Italy relations" and said the two countries will work together on bilateral and multilateral issues, including the reform of the Security Council.
Reacting to a question on Italy's position on India's claim for a permanent place in the Security Council, Prodi said that the countries had the "same goal" to adapt the Security Council to contemporary realities but "differences" remained on the approach to reforms.
Italy is opposed to the G-4 grouping comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil due to its rivalry with Germany and also because it also aspires for a seat in the Security Council.
A CEOs forum of business leaders of the two countries held its first meeting here and submitted its recommendations for increasing bilateral trade and investment to the two leaders.
Guwahati, Feb 15 (IANS) Manipur are still sitting atop the points table with 44 gold though Services with 43 gold medals narrowed the gap at the end of the seventh day of the 33rd National Games here Thursday while Delhi swimmer Richa Mishra picked up her eighth gold.
Services with a total medal haul of 110 have surpassed Manipur that have 86 medals and can topple the northeast state from the top position. Hosts Assam have also surpassed the leaders in respect to the total medal haul with 96 but are in the third place with 25 gold. Delhi is fourth with 62 medals including 21 gold.
The seventh day of the Games was also the concluding day of the track and field events and Kerala athletes lived up to their reputation by winning seven medals at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Complex at the Sarusajai Sports Complex.
Kerala added five gold medals to take the tally to 12 gold. They also bagged two silver and a bronze.
The gold medals came from, Preeja Sreedharan, who picked up her third gold from the women's 5,000 metres event, Sajeesh Joseph in the men's 800m and Vijala Prapatta in the women's event. The fourth gold came from the men's relay team in the 4x400m event while the fifth one was picked up by the 4x100m men's team.
Preeja was in her elements as she raced to win the third gold in 17:1.79 seconds and was followed by Maharashtra's Madhuri Gurnule (17:2.20 secs). The bronze went to Jharkhand's Preethi Rao, who clocked 17:2.83secs.
In the men's 800m, both the gold and the silver went to Kerala, with Joseph finishing the line first in 1:50.94secs and he was followed teammate Rajeev Ramesan, who won the silver in 1:51.19secs. Services' C. Hamza won the bronze in 1:51.56secs.
Vijala pocketed the gold in 2:11.77 secs and was followed by West Bengal's Sutapa Das (2:13.14secs) and Jhuma Khatun (2:14.21secs) who won the silver and the bronze respectively.
The men's relay team won the 4x400 relay race in 3:12.01secs to win the gold ahead of Punjab (3:12.57secs) that won the silver. The Services team picked up the bronze in 3:12.91secs. In the men's 4x100m events, Kerala raced in 41.07secs to bag the gold and were followed by Tamil Nadu (41.17secs) and Andhra Pradesh (41.31secs) respectively.
Delhi girl Richa Mishra scooped up double gold medals in swimming Thursday and took her tally of the yellow metal to eight.
She won the women's 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley at the Dr Zakir Hussain Sports Complex.
In the 400m freestyle, Richa failed to better her own record of 4:35.11secs set in 2002 in Hyderabad, but managed the gold in 4:37.60secs. Maharashtra picked up both the silver and the bronze with Surabhi Tirpe finishing second in 4:37.89secs and Arti Ghorpade ending third in 4:46.45secs.
Richa also failed to break her record of 2:28.56secs in the 200m individual medley also set in Hyderabad, and clinched the gold in 2:28.95secs. The silver went to Karnataka's Pooja Alva (2:35.05secs) and Surabhi (2:37.15secs) won the bronze.
Karnataka swimmers also were in fine form as in the men's 50m backstroke event they finished one-two with Rehan Poncha pocketing the gold in 28.58secs and was followed by Sandeep Nangaranthal in the second place with a timing of 28.8secs. Tamil Nadu's Balakrishna Badrinath won the bronze in 28.96secs.
In the men's 400m freestyle, Maharastra's Veerdhaval Khade bagged the gold after he clocked 4:7.17secs. Karnataka finished second and third with Rohit Havaldar clocking 4:9.82secs to win the silver and was followed by Poncha (4:11.64secs).
Karnataka also picked up the gold in women's 50m backstroke event with Shikha Tandon, who set a new national record of 31.86secs erasing the mark of 32.07secs also set by her in 2002.
Assam had something to cheer for as their little mermaid Fariha Zaman won the silver in 34.34secs, followed by Lekha Kamath of Maharshtra who won the bronze after timing 33.38secs.
Poncha also picked up his second gold medal in the day from the men's 200m individual medley event with a timing of 2:11.78secs and set a new national record by bettering Abhijit J.'s mark of 2:11.79secs set in 2002. Khade (2:13.76) picked up the silver while Poncha's teammate Abhishek V. won the bronze in 2:16.82secs.
Sanjeev Rajput of Services raked up his second gold medal in the Games by winning the men's 50m free rifle three position event.
Andhra pradesh Arjuna awardee Gagan Narang, who won the gold in the World Cup in China last year, disappointed as he finished sixth with a total of 1231.5 points.
Rajput, a Navy man, shot a total of 1,244.8 in three positions (prone, kneel and standing) at the 4th Assam Police Battalion shooting range in Kahilipara. Raj Kumar of Madhya Pradesh bagged the silver with 1,239.8 points while the bronze also went to Services' Sushil Ghaley, who shot 1,238.1 points.
In women's 10m air pistol event, Annu Raj Singh of Uttar Pradesh bagged the gold after she shot 481.8 points while Sonia Rana of Himachal Pradesh won the silver with 480.2 points. The bronze went to Haryana's Shweta Chaudhary who tallied 477 points.
Delhi scooped up double gold medals from the tennis event. In the men's final, Delhi thrashed Tamil Nadu 2-0 and defended the title they had won in the last edition of the Games at Hyderabad in 2002 and then breezed past West Bengal with a similar scoreline in the women's summit clash.
New York, Feb 15 (IANS) An Indian American professor's project on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could revolutionise healthcare by providing a more accurate tool for diagnosing cancer and other illnesses.
Naresh Dalal, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the Florida State University (FSU) and a graduate of Panjab University, conducted experiments with other researchers from the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology that uncovered unique properties in a molecular magnet - properties that could significantly increase the resolution of MRIs, according to the FSU website.
Their paper on the "Efficacy of the single-molecule magnet Fe8 for magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent over a broad range of concentration" was published in the current issue of Polyhedron, a prestigious science journal.
"There are continual efforts to enhance the level of image clarity found in today's MRI devices," Dalal said. "MRIs utilise injectable dyes, but those in current use, while easy to manufacture, offer a relatively low contrast. Our experiments show that a class of materials known as single-molecule magnets might produce greater contrast in medical imaging, meaning MRIs would be much more accurate."
Working at the FSU and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Dalal and another FSU researcher, chemistry graduate teaching assistant Vasanth Ramachandran, were able to synthesise a substance known as Fe8 that is one of the strongest magnets known.
"Fe8 is a molecule made up of eight iron ions that form a tight molecular bond," Dalal said. "It has a powerful magnetic field, which is obviously important in generating a very clear image with an MRI device. What's more, Fe8 is non-toxic and water-soluble, making it safe for injection into the body."
Molecular magnets such as Fe8 hold great potential for other applications as well, he said.
Dalal graduated from Panjab University in 1962 and later, in 1971, did his doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Indian Army chief, Gen J.J. Singh, paid a two-day visit to the Maldives for discussions on issues like training its armed forces personnel and conducting joint exercises.
"The visit assumes special significance in the light of increasing defence cooperation between the two countries," a defence ministry release said of Gen. Singh's four-day visit that concluded Thursday.
Singh "discussed issues of mutual concern such as training of Maldivian Armed Forces personnel in various fields and conduct of joint exercises," the release added.
Singh called on Maldives President Maumoom Gayyoom Tuesday during which they discussed the historic close friendly relations existing between the two countries and ways to enhance these relations in the years ahead.
"The president highlighted the fact that the relations between the Maldives and India had been at a very high level for the past four decades. He thanked the Indian Government for the generous assistance being extended to strengthen the defence capability of the Maldives," a posting on Gayyoom's official website said.
"Noting that the government of India had offered support and assistance in every hour of national need for the Maldives, the president thanked the Indian government for the rapid response by the Indian Army and Navy on the third of November 1988 to fend off an attack by terrorists," it added.
Singh also called on Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed and Defence Minister Ismail Shafeeu. He also visited the newly established Maldives National Defence Forces Training Centre.
Singh's visit was part of a series of high-level exchanges between the two countries.
Last month, Indian Home Secretary V.K. Duggal had visited the Maldives to discuss counter terrorism measures in the wake of intelligence agencies cautioning of the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba's plans to use uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean as bases for strikes against vital installations along the Indian coastline.
In April 2006, then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee had visited the Maldives to hand over to its National Security Service a fast patrol boat, the INS Tillanchang, and another vessel, the INS Darshak, to conduct hydrology studies.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Corps of Signals, the "information warriors" of the Indian Army, celebrated its 96th Corps Day Thursday.
To mark the occasion, Lt. Gen. S.P. Sree Kumar, the Signals Officer-in-Chief laid a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate memorial here that commemorates armed forces personnel who have laid down their lives in operations since World War I.
The Corps of Signals has progressed by leaps and bounds since its inception in 1911 and has always kept pace with the modern day cutting edge and emerging technologies to ensure electronic and information superiority and security for the Indian Army, a defence ministry release said.
The corps has ushered in networks in the role of being a catalyst for the army's march towards Network Centric Warfare capability.
"Be it peace, war, counter-insurgency or disaster relief, the Corps of Signals is omnipresent. (It now) plans to consolidate the networks so as to create a robust, flexible, survivable and state-of-the-art information structure to meet the challenges of transition," the release added.
With diligence, foresight and sheer perseverance, the Corps of Signals is today poised at a very important juncture.
A number of projects that include Army Wide Area Network (AWAN), ASCON Phase 3, Large VSAT and the Mobile Cellular Communication System (MCCS), have been commissioned in the recent past.
"The credit for doing yeoman service in establishing and manning state-of-the-art information structure in extremely harsh, inhospitable and challenging weather and terrain conditions goes to the young and brave officers, junior commissioned officers and men (of the corps)," the release said.
Sydney, Feb 15 (IANS) An Indian couple thought they were set for life when they invested their entire life savings in a development project.
But almost four years later, Jim and Sarbjit Singh from Billinudgel, a town in New South Wales (NSW), are still fighting a bitter court battle to get their $132,000 back after the company they trusted went belly-up in October 2004.
In 2003, Sarbjit was approached by a colleague about an investment opportunity in a proposed $8 million retirement village at Coomera, on the Gold Coast, promoted by Reserve Concierge, a company registered with the Australian and Securities Investment Commission, according to Northern Star newspaper.
Excited by the investment prospect, the couple invested all their hard earned money in the company. Soon after, they became suspicious and contacted the Gold Coast City Council to inquire about the development application for the retirement village, only to be told it had lapsed some time ago.
The couple along with few other investors then tried contacting Mr Yeo, one of the directors of the company, only to be told that he did not want to discuss what had happened to the retirement village project.
For many investors it soon became evident it was a lost cause, but the Indian couple refused to give up and approached the court for help.
In court this week Singh asked Yeo if he would go to mediation. But Yeo declined any mediation and proceeded with his application for an apprehended violence order (AVO) taken out against Singh. An AVO is a court order taken out by a person who fears violence or harassment from their harasser.
The AVO hearing is set for later this month and if Yeo is successful, Singh's case may hit rough weather.
Vancouver, Feb 15 (IANS) More than a year after an Indo-Canadian man was brutally stabbed to death, his family has issued a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his murderers.
On Wednesday, Bobby Atwal's family held a news conference at Richmond's police headquarters to make a public appeal for help, offering the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible.
The body of 22-year-old Atwal was found by workers on the banks of the Fraser River under the Queensborough Bridge in New Westminster in January 2006, according to reports.
"The family has been devastated. It has been more than a year and the mother, father, sister, uncle, everybody is so distressed. You can tell just from the physical appearance the way they have been affected by this tragedy," Balwant Sanghera, a family friend and community activist said at a press meet.
Investigators said they do have several suspects under scanner, but don't have enough information to bring them in for questioning.
"Clearly, in a lot of these communities, not just Indo-Canadian communities, there is a code of silence," said Dale Carr of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
"Sometimes money moves people to come forward and say what's on their mind," he added.
Atwal's mother, Dalbir Atwal, cried as she spoke in Punjabi about the last time she saw her son leave the home with two friends.
The police are also investigating whether the Indo-Canadian youth was involved in drugs-related activities.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday assured that the government was adopting a "multi-pronged strategy" to control soaring inflation and hinted that India may open up retail sector in future if its economy continued to grow at the rate of 8 to 9 percent over the next few years.
"We have a multi-pronged strategy to deal with inflation. The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has already taken some monetary steps to tighten the flow of money," Manmohan Singh said here Thursday.
"The government has already cut down prices of petroleum and diesel. You will see the results in a few days," he replied to a query at a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
Inflation jumped to a record 6.73 percent during the week ended Feb 3 compared to 6.58 percent for the previous week.
"There are problems about (foreign direct investment in) the retail sector. There are initial fears, but if our economy continues to grow at the rate of 8 to 9 percent, we will create more and more jobs," Manmohan Singh said.
"This will create more elbow space for opening more sectors. As our economy grows, we will open up our economy and liberalise further," he said.
"India is a well-functioning economy growing at the rate of 8-9 percent. It is our ambition to achieve a growth rate of 10 percent," the prime minister stressed.
Raipur, Feb 15 (IANS) Chhattisgarh has suspended a jail superintendent for blocking the government's transfer order and resorting to back door attempts to reverse it, an official statement said Thursday.
"Shyamraj Singh, who was suspended with immediate effect, has been transferred from Raipur Central jail to Durg Jail. His base will be at Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar district, during suspension period," it added.
"The official has not only deliberately refused to accept the new postings but resorted to several unwelcome measures to block the government's transfer order," the release said.
The government reiterated that it would take strong actions against dozens of police officials who were transferred to the Maoist-infested Bastar region in recent months but have been refusing to follow the government order.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has decided that it is better to ignore its senior leader George Fernandes' diatribe against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
"Why do you want me to be a dictator?" party president Sharad Yadav told reporters in a lighter vein here Thursday, when asked about the veteran leader's comments, calling Nitish Kumar a dictator.
"I can only say that it is not fair on his part to talk like this. He is very much in the party (JD-U). He was with us in this long struggle (against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad).
"This is a democratic party and everyone has a right to express his views. There is no restriction on anyone meeting the chief minister," a visibly embarrassed Yadav said.
Visiting his constituency Muzaffarpur Wednesday, Fernandes had told reporters: "Nitish Kumar is a dictator. He was a dictator and he will be a dictator."
Asked about the chief minister's style of functioning, he had said he would not say much about the government headed by Nitish Kumar. "I am waiting for the right time to open my mouth about the functioning and performance of this government."
Fernandes, still the convenor of the country's main opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), appears to be getting ready to part company with JD-U and rejoin his Samata Paty that has been revived, say party insiders.
Hyderabad, Feb 15 (IANS) The main accused in the sensational murder of television newsreader Lakshmi Sujata on Feb 10 in Vijayawada was arrested in Bangalore early Thursday.
G. Chandrasekhar alias Chandu, 26, a makeup man and a colleague of Sujata, was arrested by Bangalore police and was being taken to Vijayawada, said the city's police commissioner C.V. Anand.
It was jealousy that allegedly led to the murder of 24-year-old B. Lakshmi Sujata, a newsreader for private television channel Teja, who was found dead in a pool of blood in a lodge in Vijayawada on Saturday.
Investigations revealed that Sujata was friendly with Chandu, who thought she was in love with him. He used to buy costly gifts for her and spent huge amounts of money on her. However, she befriended others when she joined the FM radio station of the same channel as a RJ six months ago.
She reportedly started ignoring Chandu's calls, which enraged him, said a police official.
Last week when Sujata had gone to her native Gudivada town near Vijayawada, he phoned her and offered to give Rs.50,000 as she was in need of money. Chandu and his roommate Ravi, a barber by profession, reached Vijayawada and checked in a lodge. Sujata, who told her family that she was returning to Hyderabad, checked into the same lodge.
Ravi, who was picked up in Guntur Wednesday, told police that Chandu raped her after mixing intoxicants in her food and even asked him to do the same in retribution. The duo then gagged her mouth and stabbed her repeatedly. They had increased the volume of the television set to drown her cries for help.
After committing the crime, Ravi went to Tenali while Chandu returned to Hyderabad and attended duty for two days before going underground.
Ranchi, Feb 15 (IANS) Jharkhand is planning to introduce two varieties of special silk saris in the market to promote large-scale production of tussar.
The two varieties, Anjana and Swarnarekha, are likely to hit the markets in May, said K.K Dutta, managing director of Jharkhand Silk Textile and Handicraft Corporation Limited (JSTHCL).
The saris will be a joint venture of JSTHCL and the Kharsawa Development Board. Tussar silk, procured from a fully-matured worm, is cultivated on a large-scale in Kharsawa district of Kuchai locality.
"The saris will be like Baluchari saris of Bankura district of West Bengal. The tribal people are being involved in the production of Anjana and Swarnarekha saris," said Dutta Wednesday.
The saris will also come with traditional prints depicting tribal dances, and tribal musical instruments, reflecting the state's culture. The market price of each sari would be around Rs.2,500-3,500.
The state produces around 100 metric tonnes of silk.
The Central Silk Board is providing financial aid to Jharkhand to increase its silk production. In the next five years, the board is to provide more than Rs.3 billion to boost silk production in the state.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 15 (IANS) Octogenarian former Congress leader K. Karunakaran declared Thursday that a new front would take shape in Kerala ahead of the next general elections and also did not rule out returning to the Congress party.
"You wait and see, in politics nothing can be ruled out. At the appropriate time appropriate decisions would be taken," said the 88-year-old veteran and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader.
Asked if he shares the same opinion of son K. Muraleedharan, who said there was no question of returning to the Congress, Karunakaran said he was not aware of his son having said that.
"In politics there is nothing called a closed chapter. Politics is nothing but making opportunistic decisions at the correct time," said the four-time former Kerala chief minister at a press conference.
"In Kerala there are two political fronts and there are parties who are willing to join hands to form a new front. This will happen before the next parliamentary polls," he said.
Asked if he expects these disgruntled political parties from the rival fronts to join him to form a third front, he replied with a smile: "If I call (them), certainly, many would join me."
To a question on if he still considered himself as a force in Kerala politics, he extended his right arm, saying: "If you have a doubt come and feel my arm, I do have the necessary power."
Karunakaran had formed his own party after breaking away with the Congress in May 2005. Last year he merged his party with the NCP led by union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar.
He denied reports that Pawar was trying to return to the Congress.
"I have not seen him for long and I don't think he would do the mistake. And if he does then it would be clear that he has not learnt from his past mistake," shot back the veteran whose political stock is at its lowest at the moment.
Guwahati, Feb 15 (IANS) Kerala athletes Thursday won seven medals, including four gold, on the final day of the track and field events of the 33rd National Games here, taking their total medals haul to 12.
They also won two silvers and a bronze in the track and field event Thursday at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Complex at the Sarusajai Sports Complex.
The gold medals came from Preeja Sreedharan, who picked up her third gold in the women's 5,000m event, Sajeesh Joseph in the men's 800m and Vijala Prapatta in the women's event. The fourth gold came from the men's relay team in the 4x400m event.
Preeja won the race in 17:1.79 secs and was followed by Maharashtra's Madhuri Gurnule, who won the silver in 17:2.20secs. The bronze went to Jharkhand's Preethi Rao, who clocked 17:2.83secs.
In the men's 800m, both the gold and the silver went to Kerala, with Joseph finishing in 1:50.94secs, followed by teammate Rajeev Ramesan, who won the silver in 1: 51.19secs. C. Hamza from Services won the bronze in 1:51.56secs.
Vijala pocketed the gold medal in 2:11.77secs and was followed by West Bengal's Sutapa Das (2:13.14secs) and Jhuma Khatun (2:14.21secs) who won the silver and the bronze respectively.
The men's relay team won the 4x400 relay race in 3:12.01secs to win the gold ahead of Punjab (3:12.57secs), who won the silver. The Services team picked up the bronze in 3: 12.91secs.
The Services team also swept all the three medals on offer in the men's marathon event. Benning. L clinched the gold in 2hrs:17mins:32secs. Satya Prakash won the silver after he and Vikram Singh clocked 2hrs:20mins:38secs.
In the men's 500m, Jharkhand picked up the gold and bronze with Sunil Kumar finishing first in 14:17.47secs and Kashinath Ashwale emerging third in 14:18.86secs. Services' Surender Singh clinched the silver in 14:17.93secs.
Services also finished one-two in the men's triple jump event as Alex Thomas bagged the gold with a leap of 16.45m while his teammate Bibu Matthew won the silver after a jump of 16.32secs. The bronze went to Kerala's Ranjit. M also with 16.32secs. But Matthew was awarded the silver as he achieved the distance in less attempts as that of Ranjit.
Jharkhand's Sahana Kumari won the gold in the women's high jump after she covered a height of 1.73m. Karnataka's Kavya Muthanna and West Bengal 's Sushmita Singha Roy both crossed 1.70m but the former was awarded the silver as she achieved the mark in fewer attempt.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) A delegation of Kerala leaders Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to voice their concern over a proposed railway division in Tamil Nadu, which they feared would affect development of Palakkad division.
Lalu Prasad assured the delegation, which included MPs from the state and Kerala Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Vijayakumar, that he would call a meeting of the chief ministers of the two states to resolve the issue.
"We told the minister that we did not have any problem in the creation of a Salem division, but it should not be at the cost of the Palakkad division," Vijayakumar told reporters.
The delegation appealed to the prime minister to create a separate railway zone for Kerala, comprising Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and some parts of Konkan.
Singapore, Feb 15 (IANS) French cosmetic giant L'Oreal is actively looking to buy an Indian ayurvedic skincare brand.
"We would be interested in buying an Indian ayurvedic brand to bring the Indian vision of beauty to the world," Chief Executive Jean-Paul Agon told the Wall Street Journal Thursday.
The next three to five years would be a period of major growth for the French firm in India, he added.
He said L'Oreal's strategy would be to use its new Indian purchase as a launching pad to introduce ayurvedic products all over the world.
Ayurveda is a traditional Hindu system of medicine and ayurvedic skincare products use herbs and minerals, which is believed to have therapeutic benefits.
Mumbai/New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) The Indian mobile telephone user stands to benefit after leading operators - Airtel, Hutch-Essar, Reliance Communications and state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) - Thursday announced slashing of their national roaming tariffs.
The companies have also done away with monthly rentals and security deposits for the roaming facility, that is, using the mobile phone in a circle outside one's own, based on the directive issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) last month.
In a country where over 6 million mobile subscribers are added every month, this move comes as a big relief and is expected to boost the growth of the sector.
With reduction in national roaming tariffs by up to 56 percent, almost 33 million subscribers of Airtel and 23 million users of Hutch-Essar stand to benefit.
Just as Airtel, Hutch users will now pay up to only Rs.1.75 for incoming calls depending on the roaming distance.
Outgoing local calls will now be charged Rs.1.40 per minute, while long-distance subscribers trunk dial (STD) calls will cost Rs.2.40 per minute. There will be no change in ISD rates and SMS or GPRS usage.
Subscribers using MTNL's cellphone service will now be charged Rs.1.40 per minute, down from Rs.1.50, for roaming.
The roaming incoming call charge has been reduced from Rs.2.50 per minute to Rs.l.75 per minute, it said in a statement.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications (RCOM) has done away with rental on roaming on post-paid connections and lowered it by 44 percent for pre-paid connections.
By Arun Kumar,
Washington, Feb 15 (IANS) Two Indian scientists have stressed the urgent need to update design standards to construct adequate and safe industrial facilities, dams, and community buildings in earthquake-prone peninsular India.
The seismic hazard associated with some major urban areas, such as Mumbai, is higher than the standard design specification now used to build earthquake-resistant structures there, they say in a paper published in the February issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA).
"The results of this paper imply that the level of seismic safety of structures designed based on current standards is lower than its desired level," states co-author Ravi Sinha, Ph.D., professor of civil engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai.
As earthquakes in stable continental regions lack sufficient understanding to prepare local populations for future seismic activity, Sinha and Kishor Jaiswal, also at IIT, focused their research on peninsular India, which is an old and stable continental plate and home to more than 400 million people, as stable continental regions are areas away from the boundaries between tectonic plates but still are threatened by infrequent earthquakes that can create strong shaking. Because the large earthquakes are infrequent, they are difficult to study.
The Central and Eastern United States is also considered a stable continental plate and has experienced strong earthquakes. The 1811-1812 New Madrid, Missouri earthquakes, for example, were of a magnitude greater than 7.
To estimate the devastating consequences of potential earthquakes, scientists continually re-evaluate hazard assessments for an area. Based on these assessments, governments modify codes for construction of structures, such as dams, industrial buildings, and homes. Design codes based on outdated assessments could increase the risk of heavy damage by seismic activity.
Sinha and Jaiswal conducted a hazard assessment for the region that looks at a variety of information regarding seismic activity in the region, using a probabilistic framework.
The authors noted an apparent increase in seismic activity due to better seismological instrumentation to record earthquakes. The increase in seismic activity requires a closer consideration of construction standards.
Sinha and Jaiswal explain that their work is "useful in specifying design level for upgrading and retrofitting major structures such as dams and industrial facilities to the desired level of seismic safety."
Kuala Lumpur, Feb 15 (DPA) A Malaysian buffalo was put through a DNA test after two feuding farmers both claimed ownership of the animal, a news report said Thursday.
The six-month-old animal had been the object of a tussle between Zulkifli Setapa and Isa Muhamad since December -- when Isa claimed that his neighbour had stolen the animal.
Both men finally decided this month to put the buffalo through a DNA test conducted by the Animal Services Department in the northern state of Kelantan.
"The test results show that the buffalo belongs to Zulkifli," state department director Idris Kadir was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Berita Harian newspaper.
Department officers conducted the test, using blood and hair samples from the contested animal and other buffaloes belonging to the two men, he said. Both farmers agreed to share the 500-ringgit ($143) cost of conducting the test.
The buffalo, which is worth about 1,500 ringgit, was immediately returned to Zulkifli.
New York, Feb 15 (IANS) Men who've had a sterilisation surgery may face increased risk of developing a certain form of dementia, a disorder characterised by a general loss of intellectual abilities.
Researchers in Illinois say such men may develop a neurological condition called primary progressive aphasia, or PPA, reported the health portal News Medical.
Led by Sandra Weintraub at Northwestern University, the study surveyed 47 men between the ages of 55 and 80 with PPA, a rare type of dementia, being treated at Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center.
They also studied 57 men who did not have the disorder. The researchers found that of those with primary progressive aphasia, 40 percent had undergone a vasectomy, compared to 16 percent of the others.
Those with PPA had developed the condition an average of four years earlier than the others.
The researchers say preliminary data also linked vasectomies to another form of dementia involving behavioural changes -- where it was found that among 30 men with frontotemporal dementia more than a third had undergone a vasectomy.
Weintraub recognises that the research involved a small number of people but says a larger national study is planned in order to establish whether the findings hold up.
Nagercoil (Tamil Nadu), Feb 15 (IANS) Social activist Medha Patkar Thursday joined around 2,000 people in a daylong fast near the Koodankulam nuclear plant to protest the setting up of six Russian-made nuclear reactors.
The reactors would pose a serious threat to the safety of the people here as well as those in neighbouring districts, the protesters told reporters.
"We also fear that buildings near the nuclear complex will displace local residents and the expansion will take our land," said Ganesan, an activist with an NGO.
Villagers also organised a 'public hearing' to express their opposition to the Koodankulam reactors I and II and the additional ones (III, IV, V, and VI) planned on this campus of the Department of Atomic Energy near Nagercoil town, about 1,000 km south of Chennai.
Protest leaders S.P. Udayakumar, Lal Mohan, and Y. David complained that the state police and crime branch officials had been harassing them since Feb 12 regarding Patkar's participation in the agitation.
"The government was very worried about Patkar coming to Koodankulam and joining our protest. It is hard for a democracy to stomach popular participation in protests to stop Koodankulam from becoming a nuclear keg," Udayakumar told IANS.
Patkar, a leader of the Naramda Bachao Andolan protesting a mega dam project in western India, has in recent times joined hands with a number of people's movements against industrialisation.
Fishing communities, environmentalists and residents in the coastal districts of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin have been protesting the setting up of six Russia-made VVER nuclear power plants that will produce 6,000 MW of power.
Two Indian-made fast breeder plants of 400 MW each, a reprocessing plant and a strategic facility, are also planned at the Koodankulam campus.
The local communities are alarmed at the plan to take water from the Pechiparai irrigation dam in Kanyakumari district, as indicated in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the Koodankulam site.
Farmers and fishers, along with the Kanyakumari District Water Resources Protection Federation