30 June 2006
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) The World Bank will be providing $20 million credit to help panchayats in Karnataka "effectively deliver" services like primary health, primary education, drinking water and sanitation to the people.
The loan for the Karnataka Panchayats Strengthening Project approved Thursday will "strengthen the capacity of rural local governments in the state to manage public resources and effectively deliver services...," a World Bank statement said Friday.
The credit being provided by the World Bank's concessionary lending arm International Development Association (IDA) carries a 0.75 service fee, a 10-year grace period and a maturity of 35 years.
Mostly known for its booming IT sector, Karnataka is one of the fastest developing states in India.
The state, however, faces wide disparities between urban and rural areas and between different regions.
One reason for this is the ineffective delivery system for transferring resources from centre to state, resulting in large disparities in service delivery and a failure to take local preferences into account.
"Gram panchayats have the potential to help change the lives of rural communities in India," said Michael Carter, World Bank country director for India.
"The Karnataka Panchayats Strengthening Project will improve public services and investment under the responsibility of local governments which are best suited to meet local needs and demands, and foster economic growth in disadvantaged areas."
The project will provide block grants to finance services listed in panchayat participatory plans and budgets.
The project will also increase the ability of rural people to voice their demands on local governments, in particular for the poorest and excluded people such as women, scheduled castes and tribes.
At the national level, this project is expected to have a demonstration effect as it could create a model of service delivery through rural governments that could then be replicated across other states.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) The government-run National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) Friday said it would distribute free anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to 100,000 people with HIV by 2007.
"So far the drug has been administered to over 35,000 patients and we plan to give it to 100,000 patients by early next year," NACO director general Sujata Rao told reporters.
Rao said the drug was available at 52 centres across the country and the number of centres would be increased to 100 by August.
According to a study, 36,494 patients are receiving ARV treatment in the 52 centres. With new centres coming up the number is expected to go up to 85,000.
Rao said a campaign to promote the use of condom and safe sex would be further intensified and medicines would be made more accessible in the high prevalence states of Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
A recent report published by UNAIDS declared India as the most AIDS populous country in the world with 5.7 million patients as against 5.5 million in South Africa. However, NACO, which excludes below 15 years and above 50 categories for its estimates, puts the figure at 5.2 million.
The report, however, clarified that 19 percent of the South African population was affected with the disease as against mere 0.6 percent in India.
Shimla, June 30 (IANS) At least 17 people were killed and 18 others wounded Friday when an overcrowded bus in which they were travelling fell into a gorge near a highway in Himachal Pradesh, police said.
Shimla police chief Anand Pratap Singh said the accident took place around 9 a.m. when the private bus bound for Shimla from Dhami rolled into the 150 feet deep gorge near the Shimla-Bilaspur highway, 15 km from here.
The driver apparently lost control of the 28-seater bus while trying to overtake another vehicle on a sharp turn.
The injured have been shifted to a hospital here. Eight people died on the spot while nine others succumbed to their injuries later. The driver has survived.
"It was a clear case of negligent driving. The driver was talking to someone when he lost control of the bus," alleged Jagdish Thakur, an injured passenger.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh visited the injured in the hospital and announced relief to the kin of the deceased and the injured.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) One hundred and seventy-four trains will be speeded up by one to three hours from July 1, Railway Board chairman J.P. Batra said Thursday.
"A new rationalised railway timetable will be introduced with effect from July 1. The rationalisation of the timetable has resulted in speeding up of 140 trains, which have now been made super-fast in the first phase," said Batra.
Giving the break-up, he said the journey will be reduced by one hour for 85 trains, by 60-120 minutes for 31 trains, by 120-300 minutes for 16 trains and more than 300 minutes for eight trains.
In addition, 34 mail/express trains have also been speeded up by 90 to 435 minutes.
"The railways are continuing the exercise to identify more trains for making them super-fast. Care has been taken to ensure that the trains have convenient timings at originating and terminating stations," Batra said.
The new timetable will be published in two phases with one effective from July 1 and the next on Dec 1 to facilitate a large-scale revision of the existing schedules.
In the case of 152 trains the number of coaches was being increased to 22 or 24 coaches to do away with the long waitlist and provide better service, the official said. This has meant 290 additional coaches being permanently augmented for these trains.
"Rest of the trains will be augmented during the current year as and when the longer platforms for accommodating 23/24-coach trains, watering facilities, train indication boards and other infrastructure is in place," Batra said.
Work is in progress at 550 stations identified for extension of platform length to 24 coaches.
Ahmedabad, June 30 (IANS) They are the secular icons of this communally volatile Gujarat city and activists are making sure that the 60th anniversary of martyrdom of Vasant and Rajab Saturday does not go unnoticed.
Vasanth Hegishte and Rajab Ali Lakhani, two friends and members of Sevadal, died July 1, 1946, while saving some Dalit families during communal violence in the Jamalpur area of the city.
Activists will organise various programmes across the state Saturday to commemorate the occasion.
The two are considered heroes in the area as far as signboards of municipal corporation buildings within a hundred metres of their memorial are concerned as these structures carry their names. A police post, a primary school and a health centre have also been named after them.
The memorial, surrounded by stinking public lavatories, dustbins and an open transformer, has been an occasional stop for peace activists who always look for Vasant-Rajab to convey the message of communal harmony during turbulent times.
"Vasant, Rajab are the icons for the city. Although others also made sacrifices for the cause, nobody tried to bring them into light," said Dwarika Natha Rath of Socialist Unity Centre of India.
Over the years, secular activists in the city have tried to take the stories of such martyrs to people.
A forum, Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD), which celebrates the anniversary of Vasant-Rajab's sacrifice every year, has demanded that the story of their martyrdom be included in school textbooks.
"If our government can spare some time after teaching lessons on Hitler, it should consider teaching the story of Vasant-Rajab. These heroes should be remembered as a symbol of nationalism, humanism and harmony," said Prakash N. Shah, the convenor of MSD.
MSD and other organisations have also demanded that a postal stamp be released this year, as it is the birth centenary of Vasant.
Other scheduled events are the release of a book on the duo and a calendar commemorating the anniversary, apart from discussions and seminars during the year.
"There is a lot in the city that can portray it in a positive light and the Vasant-Rajab story is obviously one that can help obliterate Ahmedabad's communal image," said Fr Francis Parmar of St Xavier's College.
Luxembourg, June 30 (DPA) Steel giant Arcelor SA's shareholders Friday cleared the way for the group's 26.9-billion-euro ($33.7-billion) merger with its larger rival Mittal Steel Co NV.
The creation of the Arcelor-Mittal group follows a five-month bitter takeover struggle and will forge a new global steel giant with a steel production that is about three times that of its nearest competitor.
Friday's shareholders' meeting was called to consider a plan pitched by Arcelor's management in May to fuse with Russian steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov's Severstal group to try to thwart Mittal's takeover moves.
At the meeting, 57.94 percent of stockholders voted down the merger with Severstal, laying the ground for Mittal's bid to succeed.
Under the merger terms with Severstal, teaming up with Arcelor requires the support of more than 50 percent of shareholders attending the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, Arcelor chairman Joseph Kinsch laid out the case for the Luxembourg-based group teaming up with Mittal saying that it had taken a five-month battle to establish the correct value of his company, which is the world's second-biggest steelmaker.
"It links two groups, which have a strong passion for steel and the vision to pursue the necessary consolidation in the steel industry," Kinsch told shareholders.
Arcelor's move to link up with Mittal followed a rebellion among Arcelor shareholders over the management's plan to link up with the Russian group.
This helped to open the way for talks between Arcelor and Mittal, the world's biggest steelmaker controlled by Indian-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.
Last weekend, Arcelor abandoned Severstal in favour of Mittal after Mittal topped up its offer for the Luxembourg-based group.
In his comments to shareholders, Kinsch said a three-way marriage between Arcelor and its two suitors would be possible but would involve risks.
Kinsch, however, expressed the hope that Severstal would remain a partner. Arcelor was required to hold Friday's shareholders' meeting under the terms of the original merger plan.
But on the eve of Friday's stockholders' meeting stock market regulators in four nations called on the Severstal group to declare its intentions with regard to Arcelor.
The build-up to the meeting had been accompanied by speculations that Severstal might improve its bid for Arcelor.
In a statement issued before the meeting Severstal declined to comment on its plans.
However, the regulators in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Spain said Mordashov should "explain his intentions towards Arcelor clearly and immediately."
Arcelor's leading shareholders, including the Franco-Polish financier Romain Zaleski and the Luxembourg government, had already fallen in behind the Mittal bid, which was launched in January.
While Zaleski holds a 7.8 percent stake in Arcelor, the Luxembourg state has a 5.6 percent holding in the company.
London-based Lakshmi Mittal's struggle to acquire Arcelor represents the latest stage in his bid to carve out a new worldwide steel empire with his company having already moved to expand dramatically in developing nations as well as Central and Eastern Europe.
After reaching agreement with Arcelor, Mittal said the new merged group would also focus on fast-moving emerging markets such as India and China.
Dhaka, June 30 (IANS) The Awami League (AL)-led opposition alliance in Bangladesh has announced a countrywide agitation Sunday to press for electoral reforms and the resignation of the chief election commissioner ahead of general election next year.
The 14-party opposition combine said it will halt road, rail and river communications across the country on July 2 to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Justice M.A. Aziz.
The opposition call comes despite sentiments expressed last week in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Assembly) that it was time to call a halt to the politics of agitations, which they said was sapping the country's economy.
Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Awami League leader Abdul Hamid agreed during the annual budget debate in parliament that it was essential to end strikes and street protests and hold talks to sort out political differences. But each put the onus on the other for it. The opposition walked out of parliament when the budget was put to vote.
International financial organisations and donor nations, besides chambers of commerce and industry and sections of the intelligentsia, have been urging all concerned in Bangladesh to end street protests.
But this has had no effect. Protests have been a recurring phenomenon in Bangladesh, whether under present Prime Minister Khaleda Zia or when her rival, Leader of Opposition and AL president Sheikh Hasina, was prime minister.
Electoral reforms refer to modalities for a caretaker government that would take charge three months before the general election, as per the constitution. However, for the past many weeks the opposition has refused to share the talks table with leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a constituent of the ruling alliance, saying they were "war criminals" who had opposed Bangladesh's opposition movement.
Daily Star said the opposition reached a broad agreement on plans to blockade highways, rail tracks and waterways. They have warned the law enforcers that there will be stiff resistance if the latter try to foil the programme.
Sheikh Hasina announced the programme after a 36-hour countrywide shutdown on June 13-14.
Cairo, June 30 (Xinhua) Osama bin Laden praised the slain leader of Iraq's Al Qaeda wing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as "the lion of holy war", according to a Website audiotape released Friday.
The 19-minute, 32-second tape shows a split-screen image with a still picture of bin Laden on one side and footage showing al-Zarqawi meeting with his subordinates on the other.
"Our Islamic nation was surprised to find its knight, the lion of jihad, the man of determination and will, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed in a shameful American raid," said the voice purportedly from bin Laden.
"We hope to god he accepts him as a martyr," he said.
The Jordanian-born militant was killed June 7 in a US air strike northeast of Baghdad.
In the message, bin Laden demanded US President George W. Bush hand over the body of al-Zarqawi to his family.
This was the fourth message put out this year by bin Laden. New video images of him have not appeared since October 2004. The authenticity of the videotape could not be immediately confirmed and US intelligence officials said tests are being conducted.
Earlier this month, Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri vowed vengeance against the US for al-Zarqawi's death.
On June 28, CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer turned to CBS reporter Bob Simon for analysis of the current Israel-Palestine crisis. What Simon offered, however, was a familiar scenario that puts the blame squarely on the Palestinian side.
As Simon put it:
We can't say how it's going to end, but there is a pattern to these Israeli-Palestinian crises which hardly ever varies. They begin with a Palestinian attack, in this case. The attack is designed to provoke a brutal Israeli response. The Israelis follow suit with that response. The response invariably radicalizes the population, makes them even more anti-Israeli, creates more suicide bombers. And the way it's going now, it looks once more like there is, at least in the Middle East, nothing new under the sun.
There's no reason why Simon's timeline of the crisis would 'begin' with the June 25 kidnapping of Israel soldier Gilad Shalit, or why that attack would be unequivocally attributed to a desire to "provoke a brutal Israeli response"�unless one wishes to erase the killings of Palestinian civilians over the past several weeks. Those deaths were mentioned by Hamas spokespeople in their statements justifying the raid, as was reported in many media outlets�including Simon's own CBS Evening News (6/25/06): "Gunmen from the armed wing of the ruling Hamas group took part in the raid, saying it was retaliation for recent Israeli air strikes that killed a top militant and 13 civilians."
If anything, what "hardly ever varies" is mainstream media's adherence to an attack-retaliation formula that overwhelmingly places the blame on the Palestinian side, though in the ongoing cycle of attacks both sides usually describe their actions as retaliatory. As FAIR noted in an April 4, 2002 Action Alert :
From the start of the Intifada in September 2000 through March 17, 2002, the three major networks' nightly news shows used some variation of the word "retaliation" ("retaliated," "will retaliate," etc.) 150 times to describe attacks in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. About 79 percent of those references were to Israeli "retaliation" against Palestinians. Only 9 percent referred to Palestinian "retaliation" against Israelis. (Approximately 12 percent were ambiguous or referred to both sides simultaneously.)
ACTION:
Contact CBS Evening News and tell them that Bob Simon's claim that a crisis in the Mideast only "begins" with attacks on Israelis does a disservice to CBS viewers�and sends the message that Palestinian lives are less important.
CONTACT:
CBS Evening News
evening@cbsnews.com
(212) 975-3247
________________________________________________________
A Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) feature
http://www.fair.org/index.php
New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) In an attempt to wrest the initiative from the Left and the opposition on the issue of rising prices, India's ruling Congress party Thursday urged the government to evolve an effective mechanism to check the spiralling prices of essential commodities.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, "reviewed the price situation and expressed its deep concern over the plight of the common man, especially the poor, who are the worst affected due to the high prices of essential commodities," Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister and CWC member, told reporters after a meeting presided over by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
A senior Congress functionary said: "Today's meeting was part of the Congress strategy to send a message to the common people that it is not only the Left parties and the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) but the Congress is also concerned over the issue of price rise."
At the same time, the CWC "took note of the various measures already taken by the government to reduce the impact of high prices of essential commodities," Mukherjee said, adding: "There is no question of dissatisfaction with the government on this issue."
A Congress leader said: "These remarks indicate that despite growing criticism by the Left parties (which support the United Progressive Alliance government) and a nationwide campaign launched by the NDA on the issue of price rise, the Congress is strongly backing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government's economic policies."
At the meeting, Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram briefed the members on the price situation, Mukherjee said.
All 20 members of the CWC, in addition to 13 special invitees, attended the meeting, he added.
The members expressed satisfaction over the measures taken by the government to ease the soupy of essential commodities. "Congress governments have controlled inflation in the past and we know how to do it," Mukherjee said.
Geneva, June 30 (IANS) The content of the Doha round of world trade talks was more important than artificial deadlines being set due to the compulsions of some countries, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said here Thursday
"We cannot compromise on the content for the sake of speed in our hurry to conclude negotiations. Nor can we make disproportionate sacrifices to conclude a deal just because of the internal deadlines of some members," Kamal Nath said.
The minister was participating in ministerial meetings of the G-20 and G-33 in agriculture and NAMA 11 (Non-Agricultural Market Access), immediately on his arrival here Thursday to attend the four-day mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), an official statement said.
Kamal Nath also cautioned against any attempt at rewriting the Hong Kong Declaration of 2005 and the July Framework of 2004, making it clear that recent proposals of a settlement entailing heavy sacrifices by developing countries in terms of market access in agriculture and industrial tariffs with only moderate offers for reduction in Domestic Support by developed countries were not acceptable.
He said India's own positions were reflected in the proposals of the G-20 and G-33 in respect of agriculture and in industrial tariffs, of NAMA 11, a group of developing countries that came together in Hong Kong.
"The core for us is the protection of the 650 millions of our farmers. Our primary aim is to ensure a fair deal for our farmers, specially when more than 70 percent of the world's farmers are in the G-20 countries", Kamal Nath said.
Participating in the NAMA 11 meeting, he said the principle of less than full reciprocity, as well as the special and differential (S&D) provisions, were of paramount importance in the industrial tariff negotiations "to fulfil the aspirations of our industry".
The mini-ministerial meeting is scheduled to discuss the modalities for negotiations in agriculture and industrial tariffs in the ongoing Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations.
Srinagar, June 30 (IANS) Eight suspected infiltrators were gunned down early Friday near the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, while a village headman was shot and five civilians were injured in a blast in other incidents in the state.
According to a senior police officer here, eight guerrillas were killed by Indian troops on the LoC in the Keran sector of north Kashmir's Kupwara district, 150 km from here.
The gunfight had begun when the eight heavily armed infiltrators tried to sneak into the Indian side Thursday night, he added.
"The group of infiltrators was challenged and asked to surrender. However, they opened heavy fire on the troops who surrounded them. In the fierce gunbattle that ended early today, eight guerrillas were gunned down by the troops," said Kupwara district police chief Vijay Kumar.
Security forces recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the site.
In another incident, guerrillas late Thursday shot dead Ghulam Ahmed Wani, a village headman at Akhal near Kangan, 40 km from here.
A posse of Rashtriya Rifles troops was also attacked at Koimoh near Kulgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, 80 km from here, Thursday evening. Five civilians were injured in the grenade blast.
Ranchi, June 30 (IANS) The Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) Friday promised the Jharkhand High court to expedite the trial of cases related to the fodder scam of 1996 in which Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is a key accused.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhayay and Justice M.M. Tiwari asked CBI director Vijay Shankar why the trials of the fodder scam cases at the special CBI courts were delayed.
Shankar told the court that there were a large number of witnesses and gathering evidence was delaying the trial. But he gave an undertaking that the agency would try to expedite the process.
"The cases are delayed due to the large number of witnesses as well as procedural aspects and not because of a deliberate attempt by CBI," Shankar told reporters here.
The high court, dissatisfied with the progress of the trial, had directed the CBI director to appear before it in May. Sharma moved the Supreme Court seeking exemption from appearance in the high court but the plea was rejected.
The multi-million-rupee scam relating to the misuse of government funds meant for fodder purchase surfaced in Bihar in 1996 when Lalu Prasad was chief minister.
Of the total 61 cases lodged in connection with the scam, 39 were transferred to Jharkhand after it was carved out of Bihar in 2000.
Lalu Prasad faces charges in five cases.
Moscow, June 30 (DPA) The Russian state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom Friday outlined plans to become the world's largest energy company as it expands its gas and oil business into China and Southeast Asia.
New acquisitions in the oil and electricity sector are expected to move the company into the top place, CEO Alexei Miller told an annual meeting of shareholders here without giving details.
With capitalisation of $225 billion, Gazprom is now the world's third largest energy company.
Last autumn it bought a 72.6 percent stake in the Sibneft oil company for $13 billion. Added to the 3 percent it already owned, this boosted Gazprom's share in Russia's oil market to more than 10 percent.
Miller Thursday had told Russian television that general cooperation agreements had been drawn up with the state oil company Rosneft, envisioning joint development of offshore deposits.
While assuring that Western markets would retain priority in exports, he told shareholders that Gazprom in the next 15 years would increasingly cater to demand from India, South Korea and above all China.
"From 2011 we will pump 68 billion cubic metres to China each year," he said.
Germany is currently the largest consumer of Russian gas, importing 40 billion cubic metres a year.
Angered at moves to prevent it from buying into the retail sector in Europe, Gazprom in April warned that if snubbed in the West it would turn to markets in the East.
President Vladimir Putin later reaffirmed Russia's commitment to servicing European customers.
Russia currently provides 44 percent of the European Union's gas and the figure is expected to rise in the coming years, despite concern in Brussels at the growing dependence on Russia.
Berlin, June 30 (DPA) Hosts Germany quashed Argentina 5-3 (4-2) in a penalty shootout in a World Cup quarterfinal match here Friday to book a semi-final berth
Ahmedabad, June 30 (IANS) Rights activists in Gujarat will launch a 15-day anti-bribery campaign July 1 to urge people to use the Right to Information Act (RTI) to get their grievances addressed instead of greasing the hands of corrupt officials.
Seminars and discussions will be held at Kochrab Ashram in Paldi area here from July 1 to 15, said Harinesh Pandya, coordinator of the Right to Information-Gujarat Initiative, an NGO.
"The objective of the campaign is to motivate citizens to use the RTI Act of 2005 to get their legitimate grievances addressed," said Pandya.
"We have over 40 trained volunteers to assist citizens from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the fifteen days," he added.
More than 48 NGOs across the state are expected to participate in the campaign, which is a part of a nation-wide drive in 45 cities in 15 states against bribery.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) India has reaffirmed its commitment to the goal of a democratic and stable Afghanistan and reiterated its determination to assist in all possible ways the country's economic reconstruction.
The pledge came during meetings Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, an official spokesman said.
Spanta met the prime minister Thursday. He met Sharma and Saran Friday. Sharma hosted a lunch for the visiting dignitary.
"During the extensive discussions with the Indian leadership, the entire gamut of India-Afghanistan bilateral relations was discussed as also regional and international issues of mutual concern," an external affairs ministry spokesman said.
"It was agreed that there would be regular foreign office consultations between India and Afghanistan," the spokesman said.
In this context, Saran will visit Kabul, he added.
"Spanta conveyed his personal condolences over the recent attacks on Indians in Afghanistan. He also took the opportunity to personally thank the prime minister for the supportive role played by India for Afghanistan's entry into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)."
Spanta briefed the Indian leaders on his visit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and to Beijing and meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"He also conveyed that President Karzai looked forward to visiting India in November for the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan," the spokesman said.
Spanta is scheduled to speak on Afghanistan's foreign policy at the Indian Council for World Affairs Saturday before leaving for home.
Berlin, June 30 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Thursday said India respects Iran's right for using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but within the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"We respect Iran's right for civilian nuclear energy for peaceful purposes within the guidelines of the IAEA," Chatterjee said at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Norbert Lammert after unveiling a bust of Mahatma Gandhi in the German parliament here.
Responding to a query on the India-Pakistan peace process, Chatterjee said it was on the right track and he was confident of its success.
"The peace process is driven by the people's urge for peace and normalcy. I am confident that it will succeed," he said.
In the delegation-level talks, the two sides discussed issues concerning trade and bilateral relations.
Chatterjee is leading a nine-member Indian parliamentary team to Germany.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Janabhaaratii, a project of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Mumbai, has started a hunt for translators to make more computing power available in five Indian languages.
"We plan to bring computing power to non-English speaking people by translating the desktop menus, help messages, files, FAQs, error messages etc., of GNU Linux System in various Indian languages," C-DAC officials said.
C-DAC, which was formerly known as the National Centre for Software Technology and is a scientific society of India's department of IT, is involved in R&D in software technology.
Announcing this through techie circles in India, C-DAC said its Janabhaaratii project is funded by the official Technology Development in Indian Language (TDIL) group in the communications and IT ministry, but is a "community-oriented Indian language initiative".
To begin with, the organisation has proposed translations in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Malayalam.
C-DAC says that through the Janabhaaratii project, it has made available live CDs for these languages "that one can use to input, edit, and display and print Indian language text easily".
A live CD is an operating system, usually containing other software too, that is stored on a bootable storing device, so the computer can be booted without using the hard drive and without installing into permanent memory. The operating system runs directly from the storing device, which could be a USB stick, a CD or a DVD.
"We would like to invite prospective translators who can contribute to this work on a payment basis. We will hold workshops to acquaint them with the work on the second Friday of every month," said C-DAC.
The company announced that it would build the translators' familiarity with Indian language text-processing on the Free Software GNU/Linux platform, teach about different kinds of translations and issues involved, and offer tools to support translations.
Janabhaaratii is working to localise Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Its plans include contributing to the community efforts in developing a software suite based on GNU/Linux and made available in Indian languages.
Its objectives include enabling wide use of Indian language computing through FLOSS systems and applications localised in Indian languages.
Janabhaaratii says it has already "made contributions" to the computing of the Maharashtra government, municipal administrators' office at Worli-Mumbai, the Maharashtra State Police Control Room and colleges or universities in Mumbai and Rajasthan and elsewhere.
C-DAC itself has been working on Indian language technologies and products for over 15 years.
It earlier came out with the INDIX2 project, which makes computing in the Free Software world work better with Indic scripts, and "gives the world a more generic approach to deal with complex scripts". Some of the fonts developed under the INDIX2 project are now also made available to public from TDIL website http://www.tdil.mit.gov.in/download/openfonts.htm
It has worked alongside groups like the IITs, IIITs, Indlinux, ankurbangla (a project for localisation of Bangla), HBCSE(TIFR), FSF India, MarathiOpenSource group and corporations like IBM.
"The project needs cooperation of language specialists, linguists, computer specialists, users, (central and state) governments, academia and many others," said C-DAC.
But not all are happy with what has been achieved so far.
"One should ask the government machinery what have they been doing with the crores of public money allocated to the TDIL project since a number of years," said a poster, identified as being from Kush, on a Free Software Foundation-India mailing list.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Measures to increase security for nearly 2,000 Indian nationals working on development projects in Afghanistan were discussed at a meeting here between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta.
The two leaders also discussed the security and political situation in the strife-torn country, officials said.
Spanta arrived here Thursday on a three-day visit, his first to India since assuming office.
Spanta will meet Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma Friday and deliver a lecture on Afghanistan's foreign policy at the Indian Council for World Affairs Saturday.
Afghan foreign ministry Senior Advisor Davood Moradayan, Director Amanullah Jayhoon and Spokesperson Sultan Ahmad Bahin are accompanying Spanta, who was earlier Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's advisor on international affairs.
India is a major contributor to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, having already pledged $550 million for the effort.
Indians working on these projects face a threat from the Taliban militia that have abducted and killed three of them in the last six months.
In April, K. Suryanarayana, an Indian telecom engineer working in southern Afghanistan, was kidnapped and killed before the authorities could respond to the kidnappers' demands.
M.R. Kutty of the Border Roads Organisation was abducted in January. His body was found three days later. A month later, Indian engineer Bharath Kumar, working with a Turkish company, was killed in a Taliban-triggered bomb explosion.
In the wake of the developments, India had sent over commandos to ensure proximate security of the Indians working on the projects there.
Nagpur, June 30 (IANS) Distraught farmers, many of who have committed suicide after failing to repay their debts, wept openly before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he toured Maharashtra's rural areas Friday and met India's other half that has gained no benefits from the country's booming economy.
Manmohan Singh was visibly shaken as many elderly farmers, the wrinkles of poverty and debt writ large on their faces, broke down and sobbed uncontrollably when the architect of economic reforms interacted with them.
"Dear brothers and sisters, after what you have told me about the difficulties that you are gong through, I understand that debt is a big problem," Singh told the audience in Amravati district.
"It will be my endeavour to sit with (Mahrasthra Chief Minister) Vilasrao Deshmukh and (Agriculture Minister) Sharad Pawar to find a solution to all your problems, many of which need to be dealt with urgently," he said.
Both Deshmukh and Pawar were with the prime minister and were equally shocked at seeing the scenes of the normally resolute farmers crying over the deaths of their loved ones and their own economic hardships.
But even as Manmohan Singh began his two-day tour of Vidarbha region Friday, another farmer reportedly killed himself bringing into sharp focus the agrarian crisis sweeping the state.
Ramdas Ganpat Bhagat, 45, consumed poison in his field Thursday evening and died in Akola district, owing to insurmountable debt he had accumulated in recent years, the police said.
Amravati is one of Maharashtra's districts hit by the triple scourge of drought, debt and.
Earlier, the prime minister addressed a gathering of farmers in Dhamangaon village, assuring them his government's support in finding a lasting solution to their woes.
At least 745 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra this year due to crop failure and growing debts. The Vidarbha region, in the east of the state, has seen more than 1,600 farmers end their lives since January 2001.
The state has, however, identified only 930 cases eligible for aid. Compensation has been disbursed in 297 cases.
Some estimates say that nearly 320,000 farmers are saddled with debt they are unable to repay.
Meanwhile, activists from the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti claimed that nine suicides had occurred the day before the prime minister's visit.
Farmers here have three primary demands - adequate availability of irrigation, loan waiver and a hiked minimum support price for cotton.
"I will also make an announcement in this regard before I leave. I was told that the means of irrigation are very poor in this region. We will focus on a special package that will tackle this problem too," the prime minister said.
"I have been informed of several other problems too - many of which need to be dealt with urgently. I will look into them too," he added.
Dubai, June 30 (IANS) Air-India and Indian are likely to increase their seat capacities from Doha in Qatar to destinations in India from early next year.
A report in the Gulf Times newspaper quoted Thiruvalloor Vinod Kumar, the outgoing Qatar country manager of Indian (formerly Indian Airlines), as saying that both Indian and Air-India would benefit greatly after their merger scheduled in March 2007.
Post-merger, the new carrier would have combined strength of 100 aircraft.
"Benefits from the merger would be manifold and both the Indian airline industry and passengers would have numerous advantages once the procedures are completed," Kumar told the newspaper.
Kumar said Indian would acquire the first of its 46 new aircraft in November this year.
He also said he has asked Indian's head office to explore the possibility of running daily services to Mumbai and Chennai once the new aircraft start arriving.
United Nations, June 30, (IANS) Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here that Iran will table its response to the P5+1 package of incentives in August.
"The response will not be sooner than August. I said Iran will offer its response in August, but did not refer to the date," said Mottaki Thursday at a press conference, the IRNA news agency reported.
Iran's top diplomat said specialised committees are studying different sections of the incentive package offered by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - US, Britain, France, Russia, China - and Germany. He said once the investigation results are out, Tehran would give a necessary response.
Mottaki said: "It is necessary to say that the response to the package in August would be possible, if questions and ambiguities are cleared."
He added that there were some questions and ambiguities concerning details of the package, which Tehran hopes would be addressed in dialogues.
The minister later said that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and the EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana would possibly meet in the first half of July.
Mottaki pointed to Iran's positive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a period of 36 years and said it indicates that Tehran has been sticking to its commitments.
"After more than 2,100-man/day inspections, a document in more than 1,000 pages on Iran's peaceful nuclear activities was sent to the IAEA, indicating not a single case of diversion," said Mottaki.
He said Iran is entitled to peaceful nuclear energy as per the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"Preventing countries' access to uranium enrichment runs against NPT. Confidence-building is a two-way road and we have taken steps towards confidence-building and now its the turn of the other party to take necessary steps."
He stressed that Iran has been acting transparently with regards to nuclear technology, and has continued cooperation with IAEA.
"Suspension of enrichment is a request running against the NPT spirit," he remarked.
Gaza, June 29 (IMI) Pre-empting a Palestinian national unity government after the anti-occupation factions initially agreed to an amended “prisoners’ document,� Israel in violation of international law kidnapped as hostages nine Palestinian cabinet ministers, 21 MPs, a number of elected mayors among at least 60 others in the West Bank and pushed its tanks and troops into northern Gaza Strip overnight Thursday in the second stage of “Operation Summer Rains,� cutting less than one million Palestinians from electricity and water supplies for months.
The AP quoted Israel’s Army Radio as saying that the kidnapped Hamas leaders might be used to trade for the captured soldier.
Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Nasseruddin Al-Shae’r was kidnapped early Thursday.
Overnight the Israeli Forces rounded up as hostages the following Palestinian cabinet ministers.
*Dr. Omar Abdul-Razeq – Minister of Finance
*Samir Abu Eisheh – Minister of Planning
*Issa Al-Ja’bari – Minister of Local Government
*Fakhri Al-Turkuman - Minister of Social Affairs
*Mohammad Al-Barghouthi – Minister of Labor
*Nasser Abdul-Jawad – Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs
*Nayef Al-Rjoub – Minister of Religious Affairs (Awqaf)
*Engineer Khaled Abu A’rafah – Minister of Jerusalem Affairs
Twenty-one members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) were also kidnapped overnight Thursday, alongside several mayors and leading Hamas suspects, including mosque preachers.
Deputy Speaker of the PLC, Ahmad Bahar, and Minister of Information of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Dr. Yousef Rizqa, in separate press conferences in Gaza, said that Israel’s kidnapping of the detainees is in violation of the Geneva conventions and the detainees are considered “hostages� and not POWs.
The 21 kidnapped PLC members join six other Palestinian MPs in the Israeli jails, notably Marwan Barghouthi who was kidnapped from the West Bank town of Ramallah in 2002.
Bahar and Rizqa called on Arab and Muslim parliamentarians to protest against the kidnapping of their Palestinian colleagues by the Israely Army and appealed to the world community and human rights organizations to intervene to free them swiftly.
Separately the Palestinian chief negotiator and lawmaker, SaebErakat, on Thursday said that Israel was planning to undermine the PNA, both presidency and government.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Wednesday the Israeli invasion of Gaza at midnight Tuesday as a “crime against humanity� and a “collective punishment� against the Palestinian people.
Israel sealed off and banned entry to and exit from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, besieging President Abbas, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and top officials of the PNA as leading anti-occupation activists went underground.
The Israeli Army pushed their tanks and troops backed by warplanes into northern Gaza Strip at dawn Thursday in the second stage of “Operation Summer Rains,� which kicked off at midnight on Tuesday in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli warplanes bombed the soccer field of the Islamic University in Gaza late Wednesday after destroying the only power plant in the strip early in the day, plunging Gaza Strip into darkness and depriving about one million Palestinians from electricity for months to come, hitting very hard not only households but also hospitals and schools.
Water supplies were also cut early Wednesday by bombing water pipelines, after destroying three bridges linking the south and north of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians in Gaza Strip are preparing for what they feared could be a long Israeli invasion, and tried despite their meager resources amid an exacerbating food and humanitarian crisis to stock up on food, candles and batteries for radios.
Israel and Palestinians must “step back from the brink� before a crisis over the capturing of an Israeli soldier spirals out of control, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement on Wednesday.
“All sides need to consider their responsibilities extremely carefully. Both sides must step back from the brink before this becomes a crisis that neither can control,� she said.
However the Press Secretary of the US White House, Tony Snow, said Wednesday that Israel has a right to defend the lives of its citizens, but should ensure “innocent civilians are not harmed� and “unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure� is avoided.
Gaza, June 30 (Xinhua) Israeli Apache attack helicopters fired two missiles at the headquarters of the Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza City.
No casualties were reported and the ministry building was empty at the time of the air strike late Thursday, said Palestinian eyewitnesses, adding that the building was set on fire and sustained severe damages.
The interior ministry is headed by senior Hamas member Saeed Siam.
Meanwhile, Israeli military planes fired another two missiles at an office in downtown Gaza City, which belonged to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, said witnesses.
Some damages were caused to the building but there was no report of any casualties.
The Israeli army has confirmed the two strikes.
On Thursday, they pressed ahead a broad ground operation into the Gaza Strip in a bid to rescue an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants Sunday.
In addition, Palestinian security sources said two missiles hit an area near the only power plant in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, causing no casualties. The power plant was destroyed in the Israeli air raid, leading to a blackout in most areas of the Gaza Strip.
The operation, launched Wednesday, is the first of its kind since Israel withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago after 38 years of occupation.
Islamabad, June 30 (IANS) A quid pro quo deal may be in the offing between President Pervez Musharraf, who wants to get re-elected to the presidency next year, and the ruling Islamist alliance in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) by amending election laws that allows only graduates to seek elections.
The Daily Times said the government is negotiating with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman on his demand for waiving the graduation condition for participation in the next elections.
In exchange, the JUI, and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the Islamist alliance that rules NWFP and has a strong presence in Balochistan, must support Musharraf's bid to get re-elected before the general election next year-end.
The newspaper said the initiative has come from the MMA and closed-door talks are to begin shortly.
If the government does not pass such an amendment, many parliamentarians could be barred from the next elections. Among them would be most MMA parliamentarians of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, and a few Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) parliamentarians.
A petition regarding the validity of Islamic seminary degrees (to treat it on a par with graduation degrees) is pending in the Supreme Court.
Significantly, MMA is simultaneously sounding the opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the emerging combine of exiled former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
But MMA's precondition is that it would be part of the larger opposition only if they promise that if they come to power they would not tamper with the Islamic laws based on Hadith, which are already part of the country's jurisprudence.
This is a condition the other opposition parties are unlikely to accept.
Incidentally, the ARD too supports removal of the graduation clause.
Quoting political sources, the newspaper said that the MMA leadership had approached the government through Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, chief of the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid) that Musharraf has blessed.
Hussain has already hinted at the removal of this "undemocratic" condition. Tariq Azeem, the PML-Q secretary and minister of state for information, has also confirmed that the government is considering its removal.
If the deal is struck, election to the presidency may be held early next year. The president and the National Assembly will simultaneously complete their constitutional tenure on Nov 14, 2007.
"The president's re-election (in uniform) is a constitutional issue because the cut-off date for him to doff his uniform is Dec 31, 2007. If he leaves it for the next parliament and provincial assemblies, which will be formed in 2008, to re-elect him, he will have to retire from the army before contesting the election," a constitutional expert who is also a treasury parliamentarian told the newspaper.
He suggested that the only option for Musharraf was to get himself re-elected (while in uniform) by the present electoral college before the cut-off date of Dec 31, 2007, after which he was required to become a civilian. "Article 41(4) of the Constitution provides that the presidential election can be held within 60 days before the term of the president expires," he explained.
By Arun Kumar, Washington, June 30 (IANS) The India-US nuclear deal was Thursday assured a virtually smooth passage in the US Congress with a ringing endorsement from a key panel of the Senate - sans any pinpricks like the one about Iran that came with the House committee's approval.
An all but unanimous 16-2 vote in the 18-member Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just two days after the 37-5 majority in the House panel, reflected the success of efforts made by all President George W. Bush's people in building a bipartisan consensus for the "historic" legislation that the White House had declared its top priority.
To that end, like their counterparts on the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives, the Senate panel's Republican Chairman Richard Lugar and leading Democrat Joseph Biden chose to bring forward an altogether new bill instead of the one they had introduced last March at the Bush administration's bidding.
During the ensuing debate lasting almost 90 minutes, senator after senator highlighted the proposal as a historic turning point in the US- Indian relationship. Opposition came from only Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats.
The committee rejected by 13-5 an amendment from Feingold to require President Bush to provide assurances that India was not taking advantage of the agreement by diverting nuclear fuel to its atomic weapons programme after Republican George Allen dubbed it a potential "deal breaker".
However, it accepted an amendment by Republican Lincoln Chafee stipulating US policy was to ensure that cooperation under the agreement did not assist India's nuclear weapons in any way.
Approval of the enabling legislation by the Senate panel made up of ten Republicans and eight Democrats paves the way for its introduction before the two houses of US Congress some time in mid-July when it reconvenes after a ten-day recess. However, before that the two panels would have to work out a common language, as the two drafts though reflecting a common intent, differ in their approaches to a legislation that both suggest would become a cornerstone for US-India relations.
Both suggest a two-step vote for the final Congressional approval. The first vote would allow the Bush administration to negotiate a formal agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with India under conditions outlined in Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954. In the second vote, the Congress would approve the so-called "123 agreement" itself.
Where the two panels differ is in the approach. While the House panel draft set out criteria that would fit only India, the Senate chose to custom tailor it for India alone with no extraneous references, bar one to Pakistan, or a litany of expectations and exhortations.
In fact, the draft specifically states that the president would keep Congressional committees informed of any material non-compliance by India of non-proliferation commitments undertaken in the July 18 joint statement of President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the separation plan presented to Indian Parliament on March 7 and May 11, 2006.
The reference to Pakistan comes in a section relating to implementation and compliance requiring the president to report on several things within 180 days of the agreement coming into force. One of these is to detail "US efforts to promote national or regional progress by India and Pakistan in disclosing, securing, capping, and reducing their fissile material", their reactions to it and the assistance that America could provide them to promote these objectives.
References there are to Iran too. Not in the bill, but in Lugar's opening statement and none too unpalatable to India. In fact, one has been used to cast an additional charge on the US Congress itself to approve a bill to implement an IAEA Additional Protocol, and broaden the scope of the India bill.
"At a time when the US is demanding that India complete and ratify an Additional Protocol as part of our civilian nuclear agreement and we are continuing to demand that Iran abide by its Additional Protocol, it is important that Congress complete its work. Continued failure to pass this bill would weaken US standing and President Bush's diplomatic leverage on these important issues," Lugar said.
Lugar and Biden thus added "an important piece of non-proliferation legislation" to the draft making it a bill "to exempt from certain requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 US exports of nuclear materials, equipment and technology to India, and to implement the US Additional Protocol."
In the second reference to Iran, Lugar suggested that "India's votes at the IAEA on the Iran issue last September and this past February demonstrate that New Delhi is able and willing to adjust its traditional foreign policies and play a constructive role on international issues."
Citing this as an example of "already seen strategic benefits from our improving relationship with India," he said the agreement can be a lasting incentive for India to abstain from further nuclear weapons tests and to cooperate closely with the United States in stopping proliferation.
Again in providing waiver authority to the president, the Lugar-Biden bill adds another determinant: that decisions in the Nuclear Suppliers Group enabling nuclear trade with India are made by consensus and consistent with its rules. The aim is to guarantee that this multilateral organization will continue to play a vital role in global non-proliferation efforts, Lugar said.
Commending the agreement as the most important strategic diplomatic initiative undertaken by President Bush, Lugar said by this he has embraced a long-term outlook that seeks to enhance the core strength of US foreign policy in a way that will give it new diplomatic options and improve global stability.
Cautioning members against bringing deal killer amendments, Lugar said the US-Indian agreement resulted from a delicately balanced negotiation. Neither side got everything it wanted. Nevertheless, the Bush administration and the Indian government came to the conclusion that the agreement was in the national security interest of both countries.
Leading Democrat co-author Biden described the deal as a milestone on a journey started by former President Bill Clinton that Bush continued and accelerated, and said no other relationship was more important for global security than the one between US and India. He asked the critics to understand that it was not an easy deal for Indian government politically, given the compulsions of a coalition and the fact that the leading opposition BJP was not particularly supportive of it.
It was to unruffle Congressional feathers that the Bush administration agreed to the two-vote process instead of its original proposal that would have allowed the 123 agreement to enter into force 90 days after submission, unless both houses of Congress voted against it and then overcame a likely presidential veto.
"In our view, this fully protects Congress' role in the process and ensures Congressional views will be taken into consideration," Lugar said to allay a widespread feeling that the Congress was being taken for granted or being reduced to a mere rubber stamp.
Washington, June 30 (Xinhua) US authorities Friday confirmed the authenticity of a latest audiotape released by Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The Central Intelligence Agency said in a statement that technical analysis had determined that the speaker in the tape was bin Laden.
The 19-minute tape was released on the Internet earlier Friday.
In his monologue, bin Laden praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top operative in Iraq who was killed June 7 in a US air strike, as a "martyr", demanding that US President George W. Bush hand over the body of al-Zarqawi to his family.
It was the fourth audio message put out this year by bin Laden, though new video images of him have not appeared since October 2004.
Earlier this month, Al Qaida's second-in-command Ayman al-Zarqawi vowed vengeance against the US for the death of Zarqawi.
Wellington, June 30 (IANS) New Zealand has included India and China in its list of preferred countries for migrant workers in areas of "absolute skill shortage".
Announcing this here Friday, New Zealand Communications Minister David Cunliffe said the country's immigration intake level would be increased to 52,000 for the next one-year period, the highest since 2001-02. In 2005-2006, it was 50,000, but was raised to 51,500 in December last year following complaints from employers about skill shortage.
The areas of "absolute skill shortage" are those that show a worldwide shortage of skilled workers with no signs of easing in the near future. These include information technology, plumbing and engineering.
According to a report in the Radio New Zealand website, Cunliffe said skilled and business immigrants were being allocated 60 percent of the new target, with family reunion and sponsored migrants accounting for 30 percent.
"More vacancies will be filled. This will help employers who continue to say skill shortages are a constraint to the growth of their businesses, and will contribute to economic growth," another report quoted Cunliffe as saying.
The workers in areas of absolute skill shortage would also get more points to qualify for residence permits, he said.
However, applicants will still have to hold recognised qualifications and meet New Zealand registration requirements in their respective occupations.
Islamabad, June 30 (IANS) Even as Pakistan's federal government is contemplating renaming the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as 'Khyber', the ruling Islamist party of the province wants to call it the 'Gate of Islam'.
The province got its name, NWFP for short, during the British era. It is sought to be named 'Khyber' after the historic pass that links Afghanistan with Pakistan, through which traders, soldiers and scholars have travelled to India down the ages.
The federal government also has a proposal to build a second airport there, giving it a cultural identity of 'Gandhara', the ancient civilisation that flourished in the region two millennia ago. The idea, officials say, is to give Pakistan "a soft image".
However, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has proposed three names - Darul Islam, Babul Islam and Islam Var - to replace the province's existing official name, the Daily Times says.
MMA members of the NWFP assembly have said they will support one of the three names when the matter is raised in the provincial assembly, which, they said, was likely to happen during the ongoing session.
Two of the proposed names are Arabic words meaning 'House of Islam' and 'Gate of Islam', while the third has been taken from the Pashtu language and means 'Door of Islam', SANA news agency said.
Islamabad, June 30 (Xinhua) Pakistan Friday announced a new liberal visa policy aimed at promoting the country as a prime destination for tourism and investment, while also making it easier for Indians to obtain visas.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, unveiling the policy at a news conference here, said the new visa regime is in line with the government policy of liberalisation and openness.
"The government wishes to show a positive image of the country where visitors from abroad are welcomed with open arms," the minister said.
He said various measures have also been taken to liberalise visa policy for India on a reciprocal basis.
Sherpao said that list "A" of nationals entitled to an easier visa facility has been expanded from 48 to 175. Pakistani missions can now grant entry visas to travellers from these countries on their own without referring the applications Islamabad.
Similarly, tourist-friendly countries have been increased from two to 23 for grant of visa on arrival, he said.
The business visa list has been increased from 58 to 69 countries, and Pakistani missions abroad would now grant visa to businessmen up to five years instead of the previous three years, according to the minister.
Special attention has also been given to the visa for journalists, which will facilitate foreign journalists based and accredited in Pakistan in accomplishing their professional duties, Sherpao said.
Islamabad, June 30 (Xinhua) Pakistan and India Friday freed 57 civilian prisoners held in each other's jails, officials said.
The exchange of prisoners took place at the Wagah check-post on the land border.
Officials said Pakistan released 19 Indian prisoners who completed their prison terms while India released 38 Pakistani prisoners.
All prisoners were identified through the consular access.
Both countries have expedited the process to release the prisoners following an agreement reached in recent secretary-level meetings between the two sides.
Pakistan and India had exchanged lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen June 15.
The two countries have also agreed to provide consular access to civilian prisoners by July 31, after which the process of their release would begin.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) N. Gopalaswami, who took over as the country's 15th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Friday, said the credibility of the poll panel has gone up after the Bihar assembly elections last year and the recently concluded assembly polls in five states.
Reacting to Left parties' criticism over the poll panel's handling of the office-of-profit controversy in recent months, Gopalaswami told reporters: "I thought otherwise. The Election Commission's credibility has gone up after the assembly polls in Bihar (last year) and assembly polls in five states (this year).
"At the end of the day, I think across the spectrum, there is approval that the elections were conducted very well. Notwithstanding very few complaints, generally the opinion is that the commission has done very well."
Gopalaswami was elevated to the top post after the tenure of his predecessor B.B. Tandon ended Thursday.
He, however, refused to entertain any specific questions on his colleague, election commissioner Navin Chawla.
Chawla has been embroiled in a legal suit over allegations that private trusts run by his family had received donations from Congress MPs, thus allegedly compromising his impartial role as an election commissioner. Opposition parties have demanded his removal from the panel.
Gopalawami said: "Today he is part of the commission. I do not think the credibility of the commission as such is questioned."
He, however, was quick to point out obliquely that the "credibility about the appointment of a particular person could have been questioned".
Commenting on whether electoral reforms should include the right to recall elected lawmakers, Gopalaswami said it was a "little difficult exercise and difficult operation".
He said the poll panel had already suggested to the government that an option of "none of the above" (candidates) could be a worthy choice for voters in future elections.
Gopalaswami's term is scheduled to end in 2009. He would conduct the next presidential and vice presidential elections and the crucial assembly polls to some states including Uttar Pradesh next year.
He would be retiring just the time the process for the next general elections get underway in 2009 - provided they are held as per the schedule.
Prior to being appointed election commissioner in 2004, Gopalaswami had worked as union home secretary.
A gold medallist in chemistry from the Delhi University, he is a 1966-batch Gujarat cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
By appointing Gopalaswami as chief election commissioner, the government has followed the seniority principle.
Gopalaswami served in the central government between 1992 and 2004 when he held the posts of home secretary and, prior to that, culture secretary and secretary general of the National Human Rights Commission.
He had also served as advisor (education) in the Planning Commission, joint secretary in the Department of Electronics, in-charge of the software development and industry promotion division, and also the head of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) Society and the SATCOMM India Society.
A member of the Delimitation Commission since 2005, Gopalaswami was also an international observer for the US presidential election of 2004 and the general election in Mauritius held in 2005.
Meanwhile, S.Y. Quraishi, who was youth affairs and sports secretary, was Thursday appointed the third election commissioner for a six-year term.
By Arun Kumar, Washington, June 30 (IANS) In endorsing the India-US nuclear deal with overwhelming majorities one after the other, two key panels of the US Congress took slightly different routes to the same destination - building a bipartisan consensus while ensuring the legislature's watchdog role.
To that end, the Republican heads of the two panels, Richard Lugar and Henry Hyde, with their respective leading Democrat partners, Joseph Biden and Tom Lantos, crafted altogether new bills, in place of the ones they had introduced last March at the Bush administration's bidding.
Both the Senate and House foreign relations panels opted for a two-step vote for the final Congressional approval. The first, waiving prohibitions to allow the Bush administration to negotiate a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement with India, and the second to approve the so-called "123 agreement" itself.
But here the similarity ends.
While the House panel's 'A Sense of Congress' section lays out conditions regarding when civil nuclear cooperation with other countries may be in order, the Senate chose to custom tailor it for India alone.
It also made no unsavoury references, like the one in the House panel bill calling "for securing India's full and active participation in US efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran", that had touched a raw nerve in India.
There were references to Iran, but only in Lugar's opening statement, and not unpalatable to India. In fact, one of these was used to exhort the US Congress itself to approve a bill to implement an IAEA Additional Protocol and thus broaden the scope of the India bill.
The House panel's 'Statement of Policy' section clarifies US policy in areas like the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the interpretation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in general and a series of goals regarding India and South Asia.
On the other hand, the Senate committee's 'Sense of the Congress' dilates on US-India relations and policy declarations involving bilateral relations, democratic values, nuclear non-proliferation regimes, fissile material production in South Asia, and support for IAEA safeguards and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. All of these concerns are reinforced by the bill's comprehensive reporting requirements.
Lugar thus described the emerging bill as one that allows US to seize an important strategic opportunity, while ensuring a strong Congressional oversight role and reinforcing the country's non-proliferation efforts - an objective the Senate committee shared with the House panel.
Srinagar, June 30 (IANS) A senior Indian Army officer and two separatist guerrillas were among the four people killed in a fierce gun battle with militants in the Jammu and Kashmir town of Bandipore.
According to police here, the incident took place when the army and the Border Security Force (BSF) jointly raided a shopping complex in Bandipore, 56 km from here, acting on specific information that militants were holed up inside.
"As the joint raiding party of the army and BSF tried to enter the complex, they came under heavy fire from the hiding militants," said a senior official.
Lt. Col Chauhan of the Indian Army who led the raid was killed in the heavy firing. Besides, two guerrillas and a civilian were also killed.
Three BSF troopers injured in the gun battle have been evacuated to hospital for treatment.
There was heavy tension in the town after the incident with shops closing down and traffic off the road as troops searched the complex.
By D.Arul Rajoo
BANGKOK, June 30 (NNN-Bernama) The newly-launched Santiparp Thai (Thai Peaceful) Party said it plans to contest between 60 and 70 parliamentary seats in the coming general election as it aims to become an alternative political voice for Thai Muslims, especially people in the southern provinces.
Party secretary-general Mukta Kila said that about 40 of the seats would be in the 14 southern provinces, including the restive border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
"Other seats will be in Bangkok where we have a large number of Muslims. We will also try to put enough candidates to fill the 100-party list, with candidates coming from many levels of the society, including imam, religious teachers and professionals," he said in an interview here Friday ahead of the party's official launch Friday night.
Mukta said the party, which was registered with the Election Commission in March, would be helmed by Sombat Tahnaprasert, a former student in Egypt who had also worked in the engineering sector in Florida, United States.
More than 1,200 people have died in violence in the southern provinces. Insurgency in the provinces erupted again in January 2004 after decades-long silence by militants fighting for independence from the central government.
Officially, there are four million Muslims in the 64-million population, of which 82 per cent are living in the south while a large Muslim population is also living in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Mukta believed that the party's 6,000 membership would grow rapidly after its launch but added that they would not accept existing leaders of other parties, including the ruling Thai Rak Thai and Democrat, which is strong in the southern provinces.
But the party would open its door to non-Muslims as well, said Mukta, a political science graduate from the Ramkhamhaeng University here.
He said the party was established by non-govermental organisations (NGO) and activists who felt that nothing much was being done by the current political parties to help the southern population.
"Being minorities in the country, Muslims are politically not strong and often have to rely on other parties. The southern conflict is a clear indication of how the local people's rights are not being protected," he said.
Mukta, who had previously established the Organisation of Peaceful Network for Southern People of Thailand (OPNet) to bring peace and help southerners, said the new party would be able to voice out grievances through the proper channel and more effectively.
But he denied allegations that the party was a nominee of TRT and that it was set up to win support from the Muslim population after the ruling party's failure to garner support in the general election in the south.
"We have nothing to do with TRT, Democrats or even the separatists. Our aim is to work within the Thai Constitution and bring peace to the southern region," he added.
In the 2005 general election, the TRT could only win one seat in the south while in the April 2 election that was boycotted by the main opposition parties, including the Democrat, re-elections were ordered in many places after TRT candidates standing alone failed to secure the required 20 per cent votes to be elected.
However, the Consitutional Court has ruled that the April 2 election is invalid. The Election Commission has now fixed Oct 15 for the new election.
TRT, Democrat and three other smaller parties are now facing dissolution for election fraud.
New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) India maintained Friday the candidature of diplomat Shashi Tharoor for the UN secretary general's job was not linked to its bid for a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council.
"Most countries accept the principle of regional rotation and according to that, it is Asia's turn. We have nominated Mr. Tharoor who is an eminently suitable candidate," Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said in a statement.
"He is an Indian national, a distinguished intellectual and understands the UN system. I do not think that anyone has any reservations on this," Sharma added.
The permanent membership of the Security Council is "unrelated" to Tharoor's candidature, the minister stated.
"We are committed to pursue our campaign for UN reforms, democratisation and expansion of the Security Council in both permanent and non-permanent categories," Sharma noted, pointing out that a G-4 resolution on the issue had been re-tabled and that India was pressing for a debate in the General Assembly on this.
"India has been actively engaging other countries, including the African Union, to mobilise support for the resolution. As of now, it is only a framework resolution but I have no doubt that when the next stage comes, India will have substantial support in the General Assembly.
"India's candidature has already been endorsed by a vast majority of countries and it enjoys an enormous amount of goodwill," Sharma maintained.
Washington, June 30 (Xinhua) The US government said it plans to sell 18 new F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan as part of an arms sale package worth up to $5 billion.
The deal was revealed in a US government's notice sent to the Congress, which will decide whether to approve the sale within 30 days. The notice said the sale is aimed to help Pakistan to modernise its arsenal.
Separately, US State Department spokesperson Julie Reside described the sale as "part of an effort to broaden our strategic partnership with Pakistan and advance our national security and foreign policy interests in South Asia".
"Pakistan is a long-term partner and major non-NATO ally," she noted.
Reside stressed that the sale is nothing to do with the nuclear partnership that the US is building with India.
She also dismissed any suggestion that the sale could contribute to an arms race in South Asia and said a dialogue between India and Pakistan has already helped reduce tensions and provided greater stability in their region.