daily news

Israeli shelling kills 24 civilians, including two families

2009-01-05T23:11:00.000-08:00

Israel pounded Gaza from the air, sea and ground on the second full day of its ground offensive Monday, with the air force, navy and artillery backing its ground troops and their shelling killing at least 24 Palestinian civilians -- 13 of them children of two families.

A tank shell destroyed a house during fighting in Gaza City's southeastern Zaytoun neighbourhood before dawn, killing 13 members of one family, Assamouni, including the father, mother and eight children aged four to 15, hospital officials said. Ambulances were able to reach the house only after daylight, witnesses said.

A naval shell later also struck a house in western Gaza City's Beach refugee camp Monday morning, killing a father, mother and their five children, the chief of the emergency room of Gaza City's Shifa hospital, Haythem Dababish, told DPA.

In Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza city near the border with Israel, four more civilians died when a tank shell hit a mourning tent set up near the home of a paramedic killed Sunday, the town's hospital said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Israel late Monday as part of a trip to the Middle East that is to include talks in Cairo, Ramallah and Jerusalem, as international efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution continued amid the heavy fighting.

But keeping up the pressure, Israeli fighter jets meanwhile struck some 30 more targets in the coastal enclave overnight, the military said.

Israeli ground troops, which entered the strip late Saturday under the cover of darkness, have taken control of areas from which Palestinian militants have been firing rockets at southern Israel.

While thus far largely avoiding populated areas, the troops have also encircled Gaza City, under heavy fire, and cut off the north from the south of the strip by taking control of a key east-west road leading from the Karni border crossing, east of the city, toward the coast.

The troop's advance sparked heavy clashes with local Hamas fighters.

Since Israel launched its Operation 'Cast Lead' nine days ago - aimed at curbing seven years of rocket and mortar attacks against its southern towns and villages - more than 520 Palestinians have been killed and at least 2,500 injured.

Hamas, which has kept one Israeli soldier captive in Gaza since June 2005 as a bargaining chip to free Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons, has threatened to use the ground offensive to capture more Israeli soldiers. Israel Radio reported Monday that the Israeli army foiled one such attempt by Hamas fighters the previous day.

At least five Israeli soldiers were moderately injured overnight, Israel Radio reported, and an unknown number of Palestinians. One Israeli soldier was killed and some 31 injured in the fighting Sunday.

Four Israelis have also died by Palestinian rocket attacks since the Israeli operation began Dec 27.

Can India afford to remain frozen in inaction?

2008-12-30T21:48:00.000-08:00

Rajiv Dogra

Finally it is out in the open. The Indian defence minister, A.K. Antony, has said that war with Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack is not an option. And once again we find ourselves trapped in a dead end.

No one wants a war, especially a war where objectives are unclear and prospects uncertain. We should have learnt this lesson after we lined up our troops along the border like NCC cadets during Operation Parakram, which took place following the attack on the Indian parliament by terrorists Dec 13, 2001. In the end we were both unwilling and unable to cross the Rubicon. After posturing impotently we withdrew.

It is said that wise men keep the threat of an arrow leashed in the quiver, because once you've released it the arrow's potential as a threat is over. But this is exactly what we did when we called our own bluff during Operation Parakram. Now we don't even have a bluff in our quiver.

One wonders therefore what the recent hullabaloo was about.

Even as the terrorists were engaged in mayhem in Mumbai, the prime minister addressed the nation and said: 'We will go after the individuals and organisations and make sure that every perpetrator, organiser and supporter of terror, whatever his affiliation or religion may be, pays a heavy price'.

Since Pakistan will not extract that heavy price, it may be reasonable to assume that India may have had under consideration the option of direct action. Such an action, in the unlikely event that it actually happened, would have been violative of the sovereignty of another country leading possibly to a war.

So, in effect, what we are witnessing now is the formal withdrawal of our notice to make the terrorists pay a heavy price for having killed around 170 people between Nov 26 and 29.

Sadly, when the history of mayhem in Mumbai is written our inaction might be projected as vacillation and a sign that we did not have the stomach for confrontation.

Second, as any mafia don would advise, you must not permit what can only be called 'successful defiance'.

Unfortunately our inertia may be interpreted by the terrorists and their masters as confirmation that we are incapable of retaliation, emboldening them to greater dramatic action.

There was some hope that it might be different this time, that for once we will not be found running where we started from. But we were quick to expose all our cards, a daily flurry of bellicose statements and threatening rhetoric followed. But throughout, there was no sign of any concrete action against the perpetrators of terror or their masters, none at all. It will be hard to find an example elsewhere in the world where after such a wounding strike the nation remains frozen in inaction.

Instead, there were ponderous debates about the degree of instability of the civilian government of Pakistan. Sadly, we ignore the reality of politics in Pakistan. Rarely has any government there been powerful enough to stand up to the army. As Benazir Bhutto was fond of asserting, there are only two political parties in Pakistan - the PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party) and the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movemment) ; all the rest are the army's creation. What remained unsaid was that even the PPP ended up compromising with the army. The Zardari government is no different, nor any weaker than its predecessors. We will therefore do well by not indulging in worried star gazing on his government's behalf.

In so far as the army is concerned I am reminded of an incident in Karachi. Once at a dinner a young man was introduced to me. He said he had graduated from the Pakistan Naval Academy earlier that day. After I congratulated him, he asked me when the bilateral tensions would cease. I gave him the sunny side response, at which he looked surprised and said, 'What will happen to our pledge then?'

It was an inadvertent slip of tongue by a young man and he moved away quickly. Later I gathered that the pledge he was referring to is taken by every Pakistani military officer on graduation, and it is to avenge the 1971 war leading to the formation of Bangladesh.

With such mental conditioning it will be naïve to expect a change of heart. This should also explain the practised ease with which Pakistan played its cards following the terror strike. As long as the world was watching the horror unfold on TV screens, Pakistan played the role of an anguished neighbour.

Meanwhile it gained time to let global tempers cool. Later when the world leaders came calling, as they did during Operation Parakram, it had its agenda clearly chalked out. It was a mixture of threats and demands as usual. First it declared that it might withdraw its forces from the Afghan border to its eastern frontier, conveying thereby that NATO action against the Taliban could become that much more difficult. A few days later there were attacks, conveniently spread over two days, on a NATO storage depot near Peshawar which destroyed over 200 vehicles.

Meanwhile its propaganda machinery was in an overdrive drumming up the threat of war. First there was a hoax call from our foreign minister to President Zardari. Then, allegations about air incursions by the IAF (Indian Air Force) followed. All these were conveniently timed before or during a visit by Western leaders.

Once again Pakistan has succeeded in temporizing. It is unlikely that it will take any action. And it will be futile to hope that good sense will prevail.

But the fault is ours. After every terror strike Pakistan insists on receiving evidence from India. Each time we fall into the trap. Should it be our responsibility to provide evidence, when all the proof is available in Pakistan? Moreover evidence is never provided to the perpetrators of a crime.

Unfortunately, like a bad rash terrorism will not go away. But the next time we should not wait till we dig up the absolute truth. Broad facts are sufficient in this global age where the focus on an event lasts till the next breaking news. And we shouldn't expect the US to wield the sword on our behalf. The US supports a country only as long as it suits its economic and strategic objectives. Pakistan still scores higher there.

Essentially, we are alone in this battle. The world may sympathize, it may nod in approval if we take action, but it will not come forward to help if we falter. Therefore, let us not engage in knee-jerk rhetoric that takes us to the edge of the abyss. Like dead-ends, they too are dangerous.

(Rajiv Dogra is a former ambassador and the last Indian consul general in Karachi. He can be reached at ambraja@yahoo.co.uk)

why are all terrorists Muslims?

2008-12-20T01:49:00.000-08:00

Sir, why is it that all terrorists are Muslims?' Prajvi Bagga Malhotra, a Class 11 student of Modern School, asked me this question during a discussion about current events. This was a very timely, bold but sensible question and being a Muslim, I was accountable to address the curiosity in the minds of a class of 52 students.

Prajvi isn't the only one to have alluded to the Western media coined statement that all terrorists are Muslims but all Muslims are not terrorists. With so many voices stating that the religion advocates violence, Islam is today under the scanner. Not all of them can be wrong - people judge by what they see and today these terrorists speak and act violently in the name of Islam.

I told Prajvi that the guiding themes of every religion are the same. Islam too has the same theme and ideology as other religions but a few people misled some of its followers in the name of god.

26/11 (Mumbai), Kafeel in Glasgow, Mumbai blasts by the Memons and others in India, the jehadis in Kashmir, 9/11, 7/7 (London), 13/12 (Delhi), 29/10 (Delhi) and the Al Qaeda at a global level - all these make my head go down in shame.

It's so embarrassing that each time a Muslim name is found attached with the inhuman and insane acts of terrorism.

Note that jehad is the most misunderstood and misconstrued concept by our non-Muslim brethren and even Muslims. The true concept of jehad in Islam is not to be against other communities, groups or religions but to be against one's own selfish nature, vices and shortcomings within Muslim society in order to fight evil, injustice, inequity, illiteracy and ignorance. First an individual fights jehad against himself to get cleansed. After that he continues the efforts with his wife, family, locality and the whole community. This is Jehad-e-Akbar, the right meaning of jehad.

Terrorism is a political process and religion or a religious community has nothing to do with it. Neither does any religion teach to kill innocents (that is what the terrorists do) nor are the terrorists the people chosen by that religious community to undertake such ghastly acts on their behalf.

Nevertheless, an average Muslim's fears are hate crimes, difficulty in finding jobs, admissions and residential accommodation, unwanted repercussions, distrust and other such things that always get exacerbated by such incidents. Muslims also fear a backlash like the 1984 Sikh riots against them. Terrorists should not be helped in creating a rift between communities.

The Mumbai attackers did try to create a cleavage between Hindus and Muslims. However, though a tragic incident, it did have a silver lining in that it cut across religious lines and saw people uniting in their horror and outrage.

But leaders of some parties have even begun to think that any criticism of Pakistan would not be relished by this country's Muslims.

I still remember that during the last general elections in India, to appease Muslims the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) boasted of the Lahore bus and improving relations with Pakistan as one of its major achievements. It's so sad that these people still treat Indian Muslims as Pakistan's stooges.

Though all Indians know that a few terrorists do not tarnish a whole community, the government for fear of losing votes will not take the matter up with the Pakistani government seriously and will just resort to rhetoric.

It is quite clear now that Indian politicians of all shades were somehow living under an illusion that if they were to turn harsh against acts of terror, they would alienate the Muslims of this country.

When will they ever realize that by doing so they are clearly reflecting their perverted psyche of labelling all Indian Muslims as pro-Pakistanis, which is the worst abuse for any Indian Muslim.

Going soft on terror will not make Muslims happy as the perpetrators of such acts do not segregate their targets by religion. If the politicians of this country think that by shying away from taking on terrorists directly and by going soft on terror they will get kudos from Muslims, they are sadly mistaken.

The public in general has now had enough of those who exploit religious sentiment in order to gain electoral and political mileage. The recent poll results in Delhi are an indication of that.

The rider is: Let us save Islam from 'the Muslims', Hinduism from 'the Hindus', Christianity from 'the Christians', Judaism from 'the Jews' and Sikhism from 'the Sikhs' and other zealots as religion is a very personal matter and as humans, we are all same.

Over protected politicians

2008-12-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

Are we paying tax for security of our politicians or for development ....... for security of ourselves and family...... for goodwill of infrastructure. ........ ???????????? ????????? ????

Despite the numerous terror strikes in India, the budget of counter-terrorism units has come down this year while the budget for the Special Protection Group, which protects VIPs, has gone up.

Rs 180 crore of the taxpayer's money is being shelled out annually to provide Z-class security to the PM, the Gandhi family, the leader of Opposition and a handful of other VVIP's .

The focus is so squarely on VIP protection that in Delhi alone, 15,000 men of the 60,000-strong Delhi Police are busy protecting around 400 VIPs.

In the 2008-09 the budget for the elite National Security Guards, was actually cut short to Rs 158 crore, from Rs 159 crore the previous year, But the budget for the Special Protection Group, which protects VIPs, went up from Rs 117 crore in 2007-2008 to Rs 180 crore in 2008-09.

Sources say that at least 30 per cent of the VIPs getting top security don't need any and 50 per cent can do with lighter security.

Home Minister P Chidambaram may have refused a Z security cover but his predecessor Shivraj Patil had no qualms about availing it.

There are other politicians who have said no to VVIP security in the past like Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and A B Barbhan, who shunned security, at times choosing to travel in their own cars.

In the next budget hope we can see some good changes ...

Cartoon of the Day

2008-12-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

All terrorists in Mumbai attack identified

2008-12-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

Mumbai, Dec 9 (IANS) All 10 terrorists who struck at Mumbai last month have been identified, police officials said here Tuesday.

Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria released eight photographs of the terrorists and their identities in the evening.

One picture was not released since the body of the terrorist - involved in the attack at the Taj hotel - was burnt beyond recognition. His name has been given as Umar and his body was thrown down after the gun battle with the National Security Guard (NSG) commandos Nov 27.

The lone terrorist captured alive, Mohammed Ajmal Amir, was initially identified as 'Kasab,' and he quickly became the face of the Mumbai terror attacks.

His associate, now identified as Ismail Khan, was shot dead by the police near Chowpatty in south Mumbai during the early hours of Nov 27.

Ismail Khan's picture and actions were also captured on some closed circuit TVs installed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) before he escaped with Amir to the nearby Cama and Albless Hospital, then to Metro cinema hall, from there to Nariman Point and finally to Chowpatty.

The three who laid siege at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel were: Bada Abdul Rehaman, Abu Ali and Abu Soheb. The Taj operation was the longest and bloodiest of all at the 13 sites which were attacked during the terror strike.

The duo killed at Nariman House in Colaba, where they laid a bloody siege to a Jewish place of worship, necessitating airdropping of commandos, are identified as Nasir alias Abu Umer and Babar Imaran alias Abu Akasha.

The two terrorists killed in the attack at the Oberoi Trident Hotel have been identified as Fahad Ullah and Abdul Rehaman Chhota.

Further investigations are underway to get the full background details of the nine killed terrorists, their associates and probably local support.

Total terrorists 10 - nine killed, one arrested:

They are: Bada Abdul Rehaman, Abu Ali, Abu Soheb - all involved in the attack at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in south Mumbai;

Abdul Rehaman Chhota, Fahad Ullah - both involved in the attack on the Oberoi Trident Hotel at Nariman Point;

Ismail Khan - the terrorist involved in the attack at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus along with his associate Mohammed Ajmal Amir, (who was nabbed alive by the police);

Nasir alias Abu Umer and Babar Imaran alias Abu Akasha - involved in the siege at Nariman House at Colaba, where they attacked a Jewish place of worship.

Mumbai under attack

2008-11-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

Late Wednesday night, Mumbai, India found itself the target of a ferocious terrorist attack, and the situation remains unresolved even now, three days later. According to reports, upwards of 60 young men entered Mumbai in small inflatable boats on Wednesday night, carrying bags filled with weapons and ammunition, and spread out to nine locations to begin their attacks. Lobbing grenades and firing their weapons, they entered hotels, a railway station and several other buildings, killing scores and wounding even more. As of this moment, the identity of the attackers has yet to be definitively determined, though there are reports indicating some of the gunmen were Pakistani - at least nine of them have been killed, nine more arrested. As of this writing, there were a reported 151 people killed from 11 different countries - though nearly 100 were Indian. More than 300 injuries have also been reported - those numbers may yet rise as several hostage situations still exist in the city.

Onlookers stand at the site of a bomb blast in Mumbai November 26, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)

A gunman walks through the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Mumbai Mirror, Sebastian D'souza)

A man carries a victim of a gun attack away from the scene of an earlier attack at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Armed gunmen are seen in the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India's financial capital, killing people, taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege Thursday, police said.

A reporter talks on her phone as smoke is seen coming from Taj Hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from the top of the landmark Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Thursday and heavy firing could be heard, a Reuters witness said. (REUTERS/Arko Datta)
A member of the anti-terrorist squad takes a position during an engagement with suspected militants at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

Firefighters try to douse a fire at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. Indian commandos freed hostages from Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel on Thursday but battled on with gun-toting Islamist militants.

The body of a terrorist attack victim is brought in an ambulance to the St. Georges Hospital in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008. Dozens of people were still trapped or held captive Thursday.

Employees and guests of the Taj Mahal hotel, site of one of the shootouts with terrorists, are recued by firefighters as fire engulfs the top floor on late November 26, 2008.

Fire engulfs the top floor of the Taj Mahal hotel, site of one of the shootouts with terrorists in Mumbai on late November 26, 2008. (LORENZO TUGNOLI/AFP/Getty Images)

Sharda Janardhan Chitikar, left, is consoled by a relative as she grieves the death of her two children in a terrorist attack while she waits for their bodies outside St. Georges Hospital in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008.

The windows on the first floor of the Taj Mahal hotel shatter after the use of a grenade launcher in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the Taj Mahal hotel Friday afternoon, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India's financial center left people dead and the city in panic.

Schoolchildren hold candles during a vigil held in memory of the victims of Wednesday's shootings in Mumbai, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad November 27, 2008. Elite Indian commandos fought room to room battles with Islamist militants inside two luxury hotels to save scores of people trapped or taken hostage, as the country's prime minister blamed neighbouring countries. (REUTERS/Amit Dave)

A National Security Guard (NSG) commando aims towards a window after an explosion on the fourth floor of the Nariman House where suspected militants are hiding, in Mumbai November 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe)

A National Security Guard commando fires at suspected militants believed to be hiding in Nariman House, in Mumbai November 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Peter Keep)

Blackberrys dangerous for cheating husbands

2008-09-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Cheating husbands can be easily caught by a flirty text message on their Blackberry than a mark of lipstick smudged on their shirt’s collar, says a new study.

According to a survey, since men are rubbish at creating passwords, women can easily follow their partner’s electronic trail of adultery.

The survey of 100 couples found that a quarter of men used the password God or Sex and 15 per cent used 1966 — England’s World Cup winning year.

Another 22 per cent used their mum’s name.

“Three in five women I see now come with evidence,” The Sun quoted divorce lawyer Vanessa Lloyd Platt, as saying.

'Sex doc' busy writing books in jail

2008-09-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

Serving a life term for dabbling in the business of erotica, orthopaedic surgeon Dr L Prakash is busy churning out books on various subjects including a four-volume book on Mahabharata in his prison cell.

Convicted for providing pornographic pictures to websites, the 52-year-old doctor reportedly is busy writing on subjects ranging from science, adventure and his pet subject -- erotica.

Prakash was arrested in December 2001 following a complaint from a youth that he was forced to commit sexual acts with women, which were filmed and later posted on websites hosted by the doctor. He was sentenced in February this year.

G Asokan of Banana Books said that he has already published four books of Prakash -- Glimpses of Vedic Wisdom , Swiss Chocolates , Maybach Maiden , and Tangled Web Beats .

Asokan came to know of Prakash through an advocate S Namonarayanan who was imprisoned in the same jail for three days for unlawful assembly where he read Prakash's books and brought this to the notice of the publishers.

Following this the publishers had a brief meeting with Prakash when he was brought to court last June and clinched the deal.

"We will bring out his six lakh worded Mahabharata in four volumes in October and plan to publish more," he said.

Namonarayanan reportedly told Asokan that the doctor was involved in writing for hours. Recently, the Madras High Court allowed the doctor to have a personal computer.

Tips for the Male Daily Diet

2008-04-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

Just because most men don’t have to watch their girlish figures doesn’t mean that it should be a free-for-all when it comes to what you eat on a daily basis. As you get older, it gets harder and harder to undo bad eating habits so the sooner you take note of the following tips and put them into practice, your daily diet will keep you in the best shape ever.

Note that eating foods with a lot of protein will fill you up more than eating a bunch of carbohydrates. Plus, protein contains less calories, too, so start throwing in lean beef, pork, fish, eggs, nuts, beans and white-meat poultry into your daily meals. When it comes to meals in general, create and stick to a regular daily eating schedule. This will help your body adjust to burning calories and you’ll be more focused throughout the day, not to mention you’ll be less likely to gorge on snacks or suffer from hunger pangs. Eating when you can and/or skipping meals can throw your body off whack, as well as distract you mentally. Do right by your body by treating it to the right foods at the right times.

When you don’t want to deal with starving until your next major meal, you can find comfort in breaking down your eating routine to include several small meals. While it may seem like eating more would cause you to gain weight, in reality, eating smaller portions during breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as snacking on healthy items in between these meals helps you control your appetite and prevents you from overeating in one sitting. This type of eating pattern also boosts your metabolism, which means you’ll be constantly burning calories and will have a lot more energy to spare.

If you’re worried about calories, modify your meals to include more spices and less fattening condiments such as butter, sour cream and mayonnaise. This doesn’t mean you should never use these items but the key is to use them in moderation and in small amounts. No more slathering your foods in layers of butter or mayonnaise. Also try to eat a wider variety of foods to avoid getting bored with your regular meal plans. Try looking up new recipes and test your culinary expertise on the barbeque grill or on the stove. While eating, make sure to stop when you are full - don’t keep consuming food until you’re so full it hurts.

When it comes to your beverages, it’s best to make water the major drink in your life, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing. Cut out the drinks that contain a lot of calories, artificial flavors and caffeine.

As hard as it can be at times avoid the bad habit of being near starvation and then totally binging during your next meal. This can cause your body’s metabolism to slow down, resulting in your body using more of its fat storage. Skipping meals can also lead to unstable insulin and blood sugar levels.

Throwing Your Baby In The Dumpster Is Wrong

2008-04-16T01:48:00.000-07:00

MNS wants job quota for Marathis

2008-04-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Raking up once again the ‘sons of the soil’ issue, the Raj Thackeray led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has demanded 80 per cent of the jobs in private companies be reserved for the Marathi speaking habitants.

"Maharashtra Navnirman Kamgar Sena, the workers union floated by MNS, is writing letters to 45,000 industries in Maharashtra asking them to ensure 80 per cent reservation of vacancies for the Marathi residents of the state," party chief coordinator Manoj Chavan told in Mumbai on Wednesday.

He said already letters have been sent to several industries demanding job reservation for the Marathis.

The party has also written to private companies asking them to reserve 80 per cent of the jobs in their companies for the Marathi people failing which they would launch an agitation, Chavan said.

This demand is seen as yet another campaign by the MNS against the north Indians migrants who have settled in Maharashtra.

A Plane Crash Filmed from Inside the Plane | Video

2008-03-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

Look very scary.

I want to live, so I am leaving, says distraught Taslima

2008-03-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

KOLKATA: “I can’t take it any more. I will die if I continue to live like this,” Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen said yesterday in a choked voice as she announced her decision to leave India for medical treatment abroad.
“I am losing my eyesight, my heart is damaged. I have to survive. I am dying like this. I have to immediately get good treatment because I am not even getting cardiologists here,” Nasreen said over the phone from an undisclosed destination in New Delhi where she has been sheltered by the government.
“Parchina, parchina, parchina (I can’t, I can’t, I can’t),” she said, after meeting foreign ministry officials.
For her own safety, the author has been kept incognito for nearly four months in a place near New Delhi while security restrictions were imposed on her movement even in Kolkata before she was forced out of the city last year following protests.
“For seven months now, I am living like this. I cannot live like this any more,” she said.
India’s foreign ministry in mid-February extended her visa but restrictions on her movements continued as she was kept confined in a “safe house” by the government since she was shunted out of Kolkata on November 21.
“I don’t know where I am going right now and when. An airline ticket can be purchased online anytime. But I am finally leaving so that I can survive. Whatever damage has been caused has been caused. I have to get treatment now to just be alive and save the rest of me,” she said.
“I want to come back to Kolkata - my home - if I am allowed and not put in prison like this again. Right now my only concern is to live and get proper medical attention,” said Nasreen who recently spent a few days in New Delhi hospital.
“Stress and hypertension is killing me. There is already a big damage to my heart. I need to save the rest,” she said.
“My world is in Kolkata. I have not been allowed to visit the city and collect my own belongings. I hope my friends in Kolkata would help me since I am not allowed to go there,” she said.
Nasreen was living in Kolkata since 2004 after she was forced to leave Bangladesh.
She earlier said: “I am myself surprised that I am living like this. My only hope is that one day I will be able to return to Kolkata where I have set up a home over the years. But that is like hoping against hope going by the developments.
“I am pretty confused about the government’s objective. What purpose would it serve if I live like this?” she asked.
A section of intellectuals continue to mobilise support for the writer whose fearless expressions on the state of women in Muslim society and the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh antagonised clerics and governments, forcing her to live in exile and under heavy security since the 1990s.
The international community and leading Indian intellectuals are campaigning for Nasreen’s freedom and Indian citizenship for her. But the government has been unmoved so far.
Nasreen, who was recently conferred the Prix Simone de Beauvoir by the French government for her writing, was not allowed to receive the award in person from French President Nicolas Sarkozy when he visited India in January.
West Bengal’s ruling Left Front shunted out Nasreen last year after street violence in Kolkata over her extended stay in India.
Nasreen, who was already living confined in a Kolkata apartment, was taken first to Jaipur and then to New Delhi by the central government and has since been kept in a safe house.
In an earlier interview, the 45-year-old author had said impassionedly: “I am only breathing. I don’t think I am alive like you are. Can anybody live like this? It was beyond my imagination that in a secular democracy like India, such a thing could happen to a writer.”
On November 30, Nasreen had agreed to expunge controversial portions from her autobiography “Dwikhandita” (Split in Two).
Though Jyoti Basu, the patriarch of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said in December that Nasreen was welcome to return to Kolkata, the Left Front government has chosen to remain silent on her plight, keeping Muslim sentiments in mind.
In a delicate balancing act, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has promised to “shelter” Nasreen but urged her to “refrain from activities and expressions” that may hurt the sentiments of Indian people and harm relations with friendly countries. – Indo-Asian News Service

Is China's Great Wall Visible from Space?

2008-03-14T03:32:00.000-07:00

Though it stretches for some 4,500 miles, the ancient Chinese fortification is not as visible from orbit as modern desert roads

Choose a legend: The Great Wall of China is the one of the few man-made structures visible from orbit. Or, more remarkably, it's the only human artifact on Earth visible from the moon. Both are false, say astronauts and remote-sensing specialists. Although the Great Wall spans some 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers), it's constructed from materials that make it difficult to discern from space.

The unglamorous truth is that the wall is only visible from low orbit under a specific set of weather and lighting conditions. And many other structures that are less spectacular from an earthly vantage point—desert roads, for example—appear more prominent from an orbital perspective.

Misinformation about the barrier's visibility dates back decades. A 1932 Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoon claimed that the wall is "the mightiest work of man, the only one that would be visible to the human eye from the moon." The belief persisted into the Space Age. Since Neil Armstrong returned from the moon in 1969, he has been repeatedly asked whether he could see it.

His answer was relayed in a recent NASA Johnson Space Center oral history: He saw continents, lakes and splotches of white on blue. But he could not make out any man-made structures from the lunar surface, which averages a distance of 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from Earth.

So just how visible is the Great Wall from low Earth orbit, at an altitude that begins around 100 miles (160 kilometers) up? Not very. Although sections near Beijing, China's capital, have been restored for tourists, in many areas the structure is crumbling. Where it still stands, the wall's mixture of stone and clay blends into the surrounding land.

"I have spent a lot of time looking at the Earth from space, including numerous flights over China, and I never saw the wall," asserts former NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew on five space shuttle missions from 1985 to 1996. "The problem is that the human eye is most sensitive to contrast, and the color of the wall is not that different from the ground on either side of it."

Hoffman, now an aerospace engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, failed to make out the Egyptian pyramids for the same reason. But he could identify roads, airport runways and irrigation ditches simply because they stood out in their environments.

Some U.S. astronauts, notably Eugene Cernan and Ed Lu, have said they've seen the wall from low orbit. But it tends to show up only in certain lighting conditions. When the sun is low on the horizon, for example, the wall casts extended shadows that make it possible to discern its silhouette.

In 2004 American astronaut Leroy Chiao snapped a photo from the International Space Station of a swath of Inner Mongolia, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Beijing, while the sun's angle was favorable. NASA experts later confirmed that the photo appears to show the wall. But Chiao admitted that he wasn't sure what he was seeing from space.

Machines can do a better job. Low-orbit satellites have sensors that can penetrate through haze and clouds, making it easier for them to produce clear images. But, as with the naked eye, identifying the wall is hardly a guarantee.

Moderate-resolution satellites, like the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) two operating Landsat land observation satellites that orbit 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth's surface, can typically only pick up the structure under specific weather conditions, says Ronald Beck, program information specialist with the USGS's Land Remote Sensing Program. "We have satellite images where snow covers the fields near the wall and snow has been cleared on the wall, and that allows us to see the wall," Beck says. "The key is contrast."

Often, identifying the rampart in satellite images requires a degree of sleuth work. In populated areas, Beck says, USGS scientists pinpoint sections of the wall by looking for parking lots and pathways. In more remote areas, they may scan for breaks in the vegetation surrounding the structure. But those techniques are hardly foolproof; at many points, the vegetation grows up and over the wall.

For the Chinese, the wall's visibility from space has long been a point of pride. When "taikonaut" Yang Liwei, China's first man in space, returned from the 14-orbit Shenzhou 5 mission in 2003 and admitted to reporters that he had not seen the Great Wall, online forums exploded with disappointment. The Ministry of Education even moved to revise its elementary school textbooks, which had long claimed the ancient barricade was visible.

Since then, a debate has raged in China, with scholars grasping at evidence that might settle the question of how great the wall really is. Chinese Academy of the Sciences Institute of Remote Sensing Application professor Wei Chengjie, who appeared on a national television special devoted to the issue in 2006, says more research is needed. "We need to carry out more tests and improve astronaut training. Some astronauts have said that they didn't see it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. A shuttle passes by so quickly."

In the meantime, however, China's search for clarity is coming up against a modern complication. As the country industrializes and its factories belch out noxious gases, the wall further fades from view. "The biggest problem nowadays is the pall of pollution which exists over much of China," Hoffman says. "It effectively makes it impossible to see almost anything."

IPTV to be tall task for Indian telecom firms

2008-03-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, March 12: Indian telecom firms, seeking to increase revenue and stimulate demand by offering Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services, face hurdles of high costs, low broadband usage and slow speeds, company officials said.

"The interactivity in IPTV opens up a new platform for advertisers, which translates into higher revenues per user for the telecom firms," said Aksh Optifibre's managing director, Kailash Choudhari.

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam are the only companies which now offer limited IPTV services, or television or video signals over broadband.

Bharti Airtel is expected to roll-out its services shortly, while Reliance Communications Ltd in November announced a $500 million pact with Microsoft Corp for IPTV services in India.

High costs of acquisition

IOL Netcom and Aksh Optifibre are battling high costs as television broadcasters charge telecom companies much more than cable operators for programme feeds.

"We are paying through our nose - paying a big amount to the broadcasters for each territory," said IOL Director A.S.Oberai.

"Our franchisees are finding it difficult to get TV feed at the same rates which they provide to cable operators, with the result it is becoming more expensive for us," said MTNL's Executive Director, J. Gopal.

Broadcasters are looking for minimum subscriber guarantees, officials said. Any shortfall in subscribers has to be made good by the service provider, adding to costs, said Aksh's Choudhari.

Broadcasters "need to be assured of revenues before offering our content," said Ishwar Jha, CEO of Digital Media Convergence Ltd., which distributes content from Zee Entertainment and Zee News to alternate media platforms.

MTNL has now close to 3,000 subscribers in Mumbai and 5,000 on an all-India basis. "We are able to provide 50-60 connections in a day," Gopal said.

IOL and Aksh have tied up with MTNL in Mumbai and Delhi and with BSNL in other areas to provide IPTV services on the state-owned carriers' broadband network.

Low broadband usage

Another big hurdle to popularising IPTV is the low broadband penetration. TRAI figures show India's broadband subscriber base at 3.24 million at the end of January, with less than 1 million new users added between April 2007 and January 2008.

MTNL and BSNL are providing 2 mega bytes per second speed - which is theoretically good enough for video streaming. But, consumers may need a higher bandwidth of 4-8 Mbps for high definition video required to watch video-on-demand and gaming.

"It needs a good feed and last mile connectivity," said Bharti Airtel's vice-president of network services, Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar. Quality of copper also has to be good since India does not have fibre to home connectivity, he said.

Still, companies battle on in hopes of a boost in revenue as well as higher broadband usage in the country.

Strike to Paralyze Indian Airports

2008-03-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Airport workers across India threatened to strike at midnight on Tuesday, a move that could ground hundreds of commercial flights and leave tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

The threatened strike is over plans to privatize two major airports, but workers are expected to join in at 127 other state-run airports _ nearly every airport in India except New Delhi and Mumbai, the two busiest airports, which are already privately run.

S. R. Santhanam, a leader of the airport workers union, said the decision to launch an open-ended strike starting at midnight Tuesday was made after talks with the government broke down Monday.

'No talks are scheduled unless the government sends a message,' he said, adding that some 15,000 airport workers, including baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff would go on strike.

The dispute between stems from a government plan to privatize new airports in the southern cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore, a move that union says will endanger the jobs of hundreds of employees.

Airport authorities plan to shift all commercial activity from the cities' old airports to the new ones when they open in coming weeks.

Hyderabad and Bangalore are both large cities that are home to several major multinational corporations as well as scores of thriving information technology companies.

The government plans to use the old airports for disaster management and flights carrying government leaders, aviation ministry spokeswoman Moushmi Chakravarty told The Associated Press.

Chakravarty said the private operators would retain the employees. However, the unions worry that there could be future layoffs.

Subhash Goyal, chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said any strike could cost the booming aviation sector millions of dollars.

'It will have a tremendous impact on travelers,' he said.

India's airline industry has grown dramatically in recent years as rising incomes and loosened regulations put air travel within reach of millions of new customers.

In the early 1990s, Indian Airlines was the country's single carrier, but Indian authorities opened up the airways and since then about a dozen airlines have opened for business, leading to a heated competition and low prices.

In January India's aviation minister Praful Patel said that Indian carriers were expected to increase their fleet of aircraft from the current 400 to about 2,500 by 2020.

From Mar 31, pay Rs 20 for using any ATM

2008-03-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Customers will have to pay a maximum of Rs 20 for withdrawing cash from an ATM of another bank from March 31, 2008. However, balance inquiries will attract no charge with immediate effect.

The charge for cash withdrawal is only till March 31 next year, after which it will become zero. Aiming to make all ATM usage free from April 2009, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday said banks cannot charge for balance inquiries and capped the fee for cash withdrawals at Rs 20 per transaction, irrespective of the amount and the bank where the customer holds the account.

In a circular issued to all commercial banks, RBI also said that banks cannot charge their own customers for ATM usage, with immediate effect.

This is the first instance of RBI fixing tariff for the use of ATMs. So far, banks fixed such charges on their own. As charges vary from bank to bank, a customer can’t be sure of the amount he will have to pay for using an ATM of a bank other than the one in which he holds an account.

In the wake of the circular, a bank will not be able to charge more than Rs 20 for transactions carried out using the ATM card of another bank.

I am fit to play against South Africa: Sachin

2008-03-09T00:38:00.000-08:00

Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday dispelled concerns that he will not be available for the Test series against South Africa because of fitness related issues, saying he was fully fit to play the series.

"I have played the last match. As far as I am concerned I am fit. I have not said anything before on this. I will certainly play against South Africa. There is no doubt," the champion batsman said.

Tendulkar was named as the captain of the 'Mumbai Indians' team for the forthcoming Indian Premier League to be held from April 18 and also unveiled the logo of the team at a promotional event in Mumbai.

According to news reports, Tendulkar has been advised rest for two weeks by outgoing physiotherapist John Gloster at the end of the tour of Australia.

The first Test against South Africa commences in Chennai on March 26.

Hrithik roshan to pair with hot latino actress Barbara mori

2008-03-08T05:53:00.001-08:00

To be directed by ace director Anurag Basu of Gangster and Metro fame, the movie is to be shot in New Mexico, Las Vegas and Los Angeles in the U.S.A.

The producer and director have reached back India after an extensive search in the U.S.A for the leading lady. For over a month, director Anurag Basu and Rakesh Roshan have been hunting for a suitable actress from Spanish background for their upcoming film,

On their list were popular Latino actresses including Penelope Cruz. Finally they decided on Barbara Mori. She has worked in television and in a few Spanish-Mexican films.

Many girls were considered for the role including Sonam kapoor of Saawariyan fame. But she backed out due to the bold scenes required in the film.

“The girl’s role is extremely bold. Actually, we’ve decided to cast someone international because that’s the personality and profile of the leading lady in my film,” Anurag Basu, who will direct the film, was quoted as saying.

The movie also stars Kangana Raut. She is veteran of Anurag Basu’s hit movies, Gangster and Metro.

First spam felony conviction upheld: no free speech to spam

2008-03-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

Virginia's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first US felony conviction for spamming. The spammer will serve nine years in prison for sending what authorities believe to be millions of messages over a two-month period in 2003.

Jeremy Jaynes is the man who will make history. A Raleigh, North Carolina, resident who made Spamhaus' top 10 list of spammers, Jaynes was arrested in 2003 even before the CAN SPAM act was passed by Congress. Jaynes was convicted in 2005, but his lawyers appealed the conviction. This past Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld that conviction, but the vote was a narrow 4-3.

The prosecution presented evidence of over 53,000 illegal e-mails that Jaynes sent over just three days during July, 2003, but it is believed that he sent 10 million messages per day between July and August of that year. Though he is a North Carolina resident, Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the AOL servers he used for sending spam were located in Loudoun County, Virginia.

While defending Jaynes, his lawyers attempted to argue that a provision of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act violates constitutional First Amendment rights to "anonymous speech," as well as the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution. The court rejected these claims due to Jaynes' use of fake e-mail addresses, which breaks the US CAN SPAM law's condition of giving recipients a means of contacting the sender. The court also stated that his peddling of scam products and services excludes him from First Amendment rights. In effect, the court said that you can't scam people and then cry "free speech!" when hooked by the law.

While one might think that Jaynes' case should have been open and shut, Justice Elizabeth Lacy highlighted some of the reasons behind the close 4-3 verdict, along with the potential dangers of vague anti-spam legislation. In her written dissent, Lacy argued that the "unsolicited bulk electronic mail" provision of Virginia's Computer Crimes Act is "unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mail including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."

Still, the court upheld Jaynes' original 2005 sentence of three years in prison for each of the three Virginia Computer Crimes Act code violations for which he was found guilty. For those playing along at home, that's nine years in the pokey.

The lesson? Spam doesn't pay, unless you live outside the US. But that's a story for another day.

Hitachi Introduces 320 GB Mobile SATA HDDs

2008-02-29T08:53:00.001-08:00

Hitachi has announced volume shipment of new 5,400 RPM notebook hard drives with a maximum available capacity of 320GB. These drives are designed to support the multi-tasking needs of consumers and commercial users balancing mobile computing and movies, music and other digital media.

The new drives feature optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) for users requiring increased data security. Apart from these drives’ Serial ATA (SATA) interface provides a fast 3 GB/s data transfer rate, allowing the drive to be used in a wide variety of applications including mainstream computing, portable external storage devices and other computing uses. Seeking to be power-efficient, the drives only consume 1.8W of power when reading and writing and their .55W low power idle means longer battery life for more "unplugged" notebook time and a longer drive life expectancy.

"The Travelstar 5K320 addresses a growing demand for high capacity hard drives, which are at the heart of today’s notebook PCs, external storage devices, gaming consoles and other mobile computing applications," said Larry Swezey, director, Consumer and Commercial HDD, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "And when coupled with our optional Bulk Data Encryption technology, the Travelstar 5K320 offers even greater value to notebook users by helping to guard against data theft."

The Travelstar 5K320 is now shipping worldwide. The enhanced-availability version of the drive is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2008. Pricing for these products is unknown as of now.

Hitachi Introduces 320 GB Mobile SATA HDDs

2008-02-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

Top Bengal Maoist leader in police net

2008-02-25T02:06:00.000-08:00

A top Maoist leader of West Bengal has been arrested by sleuths of the state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from a railway station near here, police said Sunday.

Somen, whose real name is Himadri Sen Roy, is the state secretary of Communist Party of India-Maoist, police claimed. He was held Saturday evening and his associate Deba was also arrested simultaneously, said Rajiv Kumar, CID deputy inspector general (operations).

Somen was arrested from Hridaypur railway station in North 24 Parganas district, about 25 km from here. The Maoist leader had tried to break free but was finally captured with the help of local people and tea stall owners.

Police recognised him from his stammering, a speech disorder about which they had prior knowledge.

He would later be produced in Barasat special court, while Deba would be produced in Chandannagore court in Hooghly district.

Somen has been charged with waging war against the state and plotting the killings of several Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders and police officers of West Bengal.

A Maoist since the 1970s, the 52-year-old had been on the run for years but has never been arrested before, police said.

'This is a breakthrough in our war against the Maoists,' said Kumar, who led the team that caught Somen.

CID officers said Somen had masterminded the killing of CPI-M leaders Rabi Kar and Mahendra Mahato in Purulia, Barikul officer-in-charge Prabal Sengupta in Bankura and Bandwan Officer-incharge Nilmadhab Das in Purulia.

Reports said he had ordered the murder of CPI-M leader and school headmaster Karamchand Singh in West Midnapore's Belpahari on Feb 22.

Officers said they had received a tip-off that Somen would meet an associate on platform No.2 of Hridaypur railway station.

The Maoist leader arrived at Hridaypur station at around 5 p.m. and began talking to the associate. Immediately, two disguised CID officers approached him and struck up a conversation.

'We wanted to verify his identity. We knew Somen stammered,' an officer said. 'As soon as he began speaking, we knew we had our man.'

The two officers grabbed Somen. His associate Dilip Mandi alias Deba was chased and caught.

According to a report, in a recent article in CPI-Maoist organ Biplabi Yug, which Somen edits, the rebel leader had said his outfit had formed the front line in the Nandigram land war.

'We were in Nandigram right from the beginning,' he wrote. 'We led the movement at every step.... We were in Nandigram, we are in Nandigram and we will continue to remain in Nandigram.'

Somen, who is from Suryanagar in Khardah, North 24-Parganas, joined the Maoist Communist Centre in the '70s and later the People's War Group.

Since the CPI-Maoist was formed a few years ago, Somen has been overseeing its West Bengal operations.

Report: Nissan, Renault to build $1 billion auto plant in India

2008-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

Nissan Motor Co. and its affiliate Renault SA will build a $1.1 billion plant in India, Bloomberg News reported today.

The companies have reached an agreement with the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the project, they said today in a joint release in Chennai, the state's capital. The plant will have a capacity of 400,000 cars a year.

The factory will also help the companies, which will have equal stakes in the project, to ship cars to overseas markets. "We see India as another export base," Nissan's Executive Vice President Carlos Tavares said in the release.

The automakers are looking for sales growth in emerging markets to make up for stagnating demand in their home countries, and the dollar's decline against the yen, which undermines the value of Nissan's North American earnings.

The India car plant will make its first car by 2010 and will manufacture four models, Nissan spokeswoman Pauline Kee said in an interview in Chennai today.