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Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

VOL 39. ISSUE 24

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FIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

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BJP decimates Congress in Gujarat civic polls

BJP government to seek trust vote again on Thursday speaker K G Bopaiah had accepted a plea by the Chief Minister and disqualified 11 BJP dissidents and 5 independent MLAs on Monday, just ahead of the trust vote in the assembly. He B S Yeddyyurappa and H R Bhardwaj had also asked passing any interim orders for police presence in the on Tuesday. assembly premises to avert Karnataka assembly any trouble and violence.

The trust vote proceedings were completed in just a few minutes and the speaker declared that Chief Minister Yeddyurappa had proved his majority by a voice vote. Opposition Congress and BJP dissidents as well as independent MLAs lodged strong protests at the way the proceedings were conducted. They alleged that the majority was with them.

Continued on page 24

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi shows victory sign

BJP has again painted all the major Gujarat cities saffron. Voters in all the six major cities in the state voted BJP to power,

with a thumping victory in Ahmedabad and Surat in particular, while the Congress was able to Continued on page 24

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The political turmoil in Karnataka witnessed a new twist on Tuesday, as Governor H R Bhardwaj reviewed his stand and asked Chief Minister B S Yeddyyurappa to take a fresh vote of confidence on Thursday in the state assembly. He termed the Monday proceedings in the assembly as a farce. In a related development, the Karnataka High Court posted further hearing in the plea of 16 disqualified MLAs on 18th without

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UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

one to one Keith Vaz MP with

Rt. Hon David Lammy MP, Member of Parliament for Tottenham What inspired you to begin your career in your chosen field?

Growing up in Tottenham I was surrounded by unemployment, poverty and riots, witnessing this first hand made me determined to do all I could to be bring change to the area and offer its people a chance to make a better life for themselves. I know how it feels to have little opportunity and I am proud to be in Westminster, making a difference to people’s lives. Widening participation in Education remains one of the main reasons why I went into politics, so being able to spend eighteen months as Higher Education Minister has fulfilled my wishes to make a difference in that area.

What are your proudest achievements?

I served as a Minister for nine years, helping to set up the National Apprenticeship Service, which doubled the number of apprenticeships in just two years as well as introducing the Graduate Talent pool which tackles the high levels of graduate unem-

ployment, especially in areas such as Tottenham.

I am proud to have been involved in making these crucial changes. I am also extremely proud of the rise in the number of young people attending University during my time as Minister as widening participation in Education remains one of my main interests in Politics.

the Dream award( Developing Real Examples and Mentors (DREAM Award to Nilesh Badiani -

As Labour is now in opposition, it is difficult to watch the new government make mistakes that are beyond our control and threaten the advancements made by the Labour Government, such as cutting University places that I worked hard to achieve.

I intend to continue representing the people of Tottenham as this is my main focus, but I also wish to influence as much policy as I can. I will stand up for their interests in Westminster, and do my best to protect them from the worst of the government’s cuts to the public services they rely on. sent the area I grew up in - the people and streets I’ve known my entire life confronting the same challenges that I faced.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

There are too many to name as I have been extremely lucky that I have had many mentors throughout my life. As far as Political influences, I admire Bernie Grant’s political conviction and

Boris Johnson praises community champion, Nilesh Badiani at London Peace Awards The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, praised the brave and selfless Londoners who volunteer their time, skills or expertise to contribute to the safety and well-being of their community.

Speaking at the London Peace Awards, which were held at City Hall to mark the London Week of Peace (19th – 26th September), the Mayor honoured Londoners of all ages, cultures and backgrounds who have demonstrated a commitment to creating peace, cohesion and positivity in the capital. The awards mirror Boris Johnson’s strong commitment to promoting volunteering across the capital and raising the aspirations of young.

The Mayor presented

And the worst?

People ■

Conservative Chairperson Sayeeda Warsi caused waves by suggesting that the Asian community was involving itself in fraudulent electoral activity. She said this was an issue in 3 inner city seats but refused to name them.

■ Paul Uppall Conservative MP is the new host for Diwali at Westminster succeeding Priti Patel who will

What are your long term goals?

What has been the biggest obstacle to your career?

I have experienced many obstacles in my political life, however possibly the biggest obstacles were those I had to overcome to become involved in politics at all.

Compared to many other colleagues with privileged backgrounds or a family history of political activism, I had to really strive for a career in politics. I grew up with as one of five children born to a single mother living in Tottenham, so party politics wasn’t exactly a typical career choice, but with the determination and support of my family and friends I have managed to do so. This makes me extremely proud to be in a position where I am able to repre-

am from Tottenham so understand the issues that go on there and I am proud to represent its people. The satisfaction of making a difference to someone’s life is hard to beat.

Kingsbury devoted himself in setting up the Sai Youth Wing when pupils would finish their spiritual and value based educational programme at 15years and graduate into the Sai Citizens Wing where young people from Hindu backgrounds are encouraged to engage with local organisations to make a difference “This award belongs to my d e d i c a t e d Volunteer team at Sai School who give up their Nilesh with Mayor Boris Johnson weekends to supa key player of Sai School port young people. I am of Harrow, a free weekend optimistic that Sai stuinstitution for children dents who have values and young people which instilled in them from a young age will be a posipromotes human and cititive force in shaping our zenship values. world.”

Nilesh who lives in

determination along with other ethnic minority politicians from his generation. It is also hard to not be impressed by Barack Obama who has already made such a difference to world politics and deserves all the praise he is given.

What is the best thing about your current role?

Like I’ve already said, the best thing about being an MP for Tottenham is that I

If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figures would you like to spend your time with and why?

I would relish the opportunity to spend time with both of my childhood heroes, Muhammad Ali and Ghandi who had an extraordinary determination to bring about monumental change, they are both such great and interesting men who I am sure would have an interesting story or two to tell.

Priti Patel

miss this year’s Celebrations. Hindu Forum Supreme Leader Arjun Vekaria JP will preside.

■ Former MP and Minister Tony McNulty announced that he will be contesting Harrow East at the next election. He did so outside the Midland Hotel in Manchester last week.

Tony McNulty

British mother forced to phone husband and beg for life A British mother was shot dead as she prayed at the graveside of a relative in Pakistan, her brothers said.

Tania Yousaf, 22, pictured, was forced by her killers to beg for her life in a phone call to her husband before she was gunned down with her parents Mohammed, 51, and Pervaz, 49, in May. The mother-of-two was shot in the legs, but managed to run for cover as the trio from Nelson, in Lancashire, were ambushed by a gang of up to eight men with machine guns.

They tracked her down after killing Mr and Mrs Yousaf and then pulled out a mobile phone and ordered her to speak to her husband.

Her brother, Asad, 25, told a daily media on Tuesday: 'They made her beg for her life and then they just shot her.

'She begged for her children and said she

needed her two little boys.'

Taxi driver Mr Yousaf and his wife and daughter stayed on as the rest of the family returned to the UK and were paying their respects at the graveyard in the village of Marain when the raiders struck.

Two of the wanted men, brothers Shiraz and

Naveed Arif, were granted pre-arrest bail soon after the murders but then failed to attend court and went on the run.

Their mother, Rahmat Bibi, has also been arrested and since bailed.

According to the Yousafs, she has openly told Pakistani media that her family was responsible and that 'only half the job has been done and the other half will be done soon'.

The killings were prompted by the marriage breakdown between Mrs Bibi’s daughter, Nabeela, to Kamar, the eldest Yousaf brother.

They lived in Nelson and had been married for 10 years before they separated last year.

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

COMMENT

UK immigration cap a black comedy It is often easier to win votes on a populist solution and then discover that you have been trapped in its coils. The Conservative Party promised to tackle the public's fears that unduly large numbers of migrants were entering Britain, and that behind them were others waiting their turn in the queue, that something drastic had to be done – and fast – if the country was to hold on to its identity. The Conservatives placed the issue near the top of their electoral agenda last May, and the ploy seemed to have worked. They won the most seats in Parliament and head a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems, to be fair, were uneasy about the Conservative strategy on immigration. The Business Secretary Vince Cable has been voicing his doubts, as have the City and British industry. They have been arguing that the movement of labour keeps step with the movement of capital. By labour is generally meant, in today's context, specialised skills in engineering and software and myriad technologies. This broader net includes the sphere of higher education, especially in the sciences, where brain power and innovation are key to excellence.

Yet the Government's cumbersome entry forms are turing away promising and distinguished scientists from outside the EU entering British universities. A number of British Nobel Laureates have made known their concerns. The case of a young Indian materials scientist, Prashant Jain, has received considerable publicity. He had finished his doctorate at Cambridge University and such was the quality of his work that he was offered a university fellowship. But the UK Border Agency intervened and put an end to his progress.

The saga ended with Dr Jain taking up an appointment with the University of Florida. Britain's loss was America's gain.

The second case involved an Indian scientist believed to be in line for a Nobel Prize in chemistry, and was even more bizarre. Professor C.N.R.Rao, 76, was invited to Cambbridge by Tony Cheetham, a professor of materials science, to spend a month each year at the university.

Professors Rao and Cheetham have collaborated in 60 papers in their specialism. But faced with 40 pages of form-filling for an entry visa, Professor Rao declined the invitation, saying he was perfectly content to remain in India. One British scientist likened the incident to “America rejecting Stephen Hawking”.

Apropos of his experience, Professor Rao explained: “It was going to be very cumbersome, and I wasn't interested on that basis. I'm very happy in India...I don't need to come to the UK. In times past a university could just invite a visiting professor – I've held posts before at Cambridge, Cardiff and Oxford. That means that no selfrespecting senior academic will come to Britain for an extended stay, unless they're prepared to fund it out of their own pockets. It's ridiculous.” So it is.

And we're all the losers.

Immigration as a subject needs a rethink at the highest levels of government. Few right thinking people would argue for anything other than well crafted immigration controls. But playing to the gallery of populism is to scaremonger, and that is hardly in the national interest. Let us be clear.

Most migrants belong to the European Union, and they are here by right as per EU rules. Non-EU entrants belong to different categories, from divided families seeking reunion – this to be decided on a case by case basis by the relevant UK authorities - and students in search of higher education. Their entry is also subject to stringent conditions.

Others wishing to enter Britain do so for business, part of the movement of capital and labour and inward investment. They address the needs of a core sector of the British economy. Finally, in a globalised world it is vital that no unnecessary obstacles be placed before universities in their endeavours to attract the best talent from around the world. Knowledge knows no territorial barriers and such exchanges do also benefit Britain.

There is much to think about and more to do before we arrive at a sensible and satisfactory solution to this vexed question.

China's inner demons Strutting around as the new superpower has its limits. A rarified section of the British media is much given to special pleading on China's behalf. Beijing's passage to membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was lubricateded by the support of the West, especially the US. Russia has waited over ten years for the same privilege and has still to gain entry into the WTO. The low value of the Chinese yuan is causing tempers to fray on Washington's Capitol Hill. Does China play by international currency rules?

Apparently not, but China is something of a special case on most matters. Beijing's application to host the 2008 Olympiad received favourable consideration courtesy the US and its close allies. But such indulgence may, belatedly, be coming to an end, as the Hanoi summit of the ten members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and such favoured outside powers as the US, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia and New Zealand, seems to show.

China's minatory tone in dealings with its neighbours has set the regional (and global) alarm bells ringing. Beijing has laid claim to the stretch of sea from Taiwan to Indonesia, it claims India's Arunachal Pradesh as its own territory on the basis that these constituted “China's core interests”and it has warned its southeast Asian neighbours that they were small, while China was big, that they depend on the Chinese market for their prosperity.

Beijing is conducting a tributary-type, 18th cen-

tury-style, diplomacy in the 21st century and for all the hype in Beijing the international community is taking its first steps to correct China's delusions of grandeur.

Not long ago, a Chinese partipant on BBC TV's Newsnight programme pooh-poohed any idea that chaotic, impoverished and starving India could ever be a credible competitor to the hallowed Middle Kingdom. Scholar and historian Frank Dikotter's magisterial work, Mao's Great Famine, reveals that 45 million Chinese perished in the Chairman's contrived holocaust between 1959-62, another few millions died during the subsequent Cultural Revolution. In short, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” has more than a passing resemblance to the National Socialism of the Third Reich.

The Nobel Peace Prize this year has been awarded to Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo who has been languishing in prison for his pro-democracy work these past ten years. His wife was permitted a visit to the jail to tell her husband of the news. Beijing has threatened Norway for daring to award the prestigious prize to, in its words, “this criminal”. Tibet's revered Dalai Lama has been reviled and abused for years. He, too, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Neither man believes in violence. Their message is one of peace, as Osama bin Laden's is one of war.

That Beijing should pursue Mr Liu and the Dalai Lama with unremitting hostility is evidence of its inner demons and gnawing insecurities. Surely what we see before us is no superpower.

Remembering the victims of 7/7 The minute's silence at the opening of the inquest, earlier this week, into the July 7 terrorist attacks in 2005 was a poignant moment for those bereaved by the 52 deaths, whose lives were wickedly cut short for no fault of theirs, except that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The inquest has suffered delay, it is expected to last another five months as witnesses are examined as due process demands. But the proceedings

are a reminder of the fragility of our existence as terrorists in the name of religious faith conduct a no-holds barred campaign of violence. They cannot be allowed to pass, for our values of tolerance and intellectual freedom and respect for the rule of law are fundamental to our lives as citizens of a free and noble country. That which is so precious to us as a nation is worthy of every sacrifice, of this there can be no doubt. In this context, the defence of the realm is the noblest of causes.

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Thought for the Week Once you embrace unpleasant news not as a negative but as evidence of a need for change, you aren't defeated by it.

You're learning from it.

- Bill Gates (1999)

Alpesh Patel’s Political Sketchbook:

The Politics of China Most people don’t understand the West’s relationship with China. So let me explain. The Chinese do engage with the West.

They own $2 trillion of US debt for a start. What does that mean? Well everytime the US Government needs money in order to buy products and make payments, it falls short because it does not get enough from tax revenues, and spends more than it receives. So it asks to borrow money.

So far China has lent the US Government more than any other Government.

What does that mean? Well, for a start it means the Chinese do not want the dollar to fall in value – because then the $2 trillion dollars it is owed would be worth less. But it also explains why gold is at record high prices – the Chinese have been buying it.

Why? Because if the price of the dollar does fall, then the price of gold rises – because it is priced in dollars. Ie you would need more dollars for the same amount of gold.

Okay, so far so good, but what about politics?

Well the Americans, who have elections in November, want the Chinese to let their currency appreciate against the dollar. That would mean Chinese imports would be more expensive and American exports cheaper. Why is this important? So that American business can export more and create jobs.

You see the Chinese peg their currency to the dollar. So at the moment if the dollar falls, so does the Chinese Yuan. And so Chinese goods and services remain cheap.

Why does this matter?

Because by artificially fixing it currency the Chinese are unfairly competing with other countries. They are pricing their exports artificially cheaper than in a free market free floating exchange rate system.

Again why does this matter? Because by having Western good relatively more expensive than Chinese ones thanks to the unbalanced artificial fixed exchange rate, Western companies cannot compete fairly on price. They have to cut even more costs – ie make people jobless.

Again, what does this have to do with politics?

The Americans and the British want the Chinese to raise their prices, ie let the Yuan appreciate as it would naturally do given the trade between China and the world. And the Americans with an election coming are willing to go to war – trade war that is by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods to make them more expensive and so US goods more cheap and more in demand.

So? Well, that’s not good politically between two nations. But, why don’t the Chinese just freely float their currency? Because they believe if their goods and services became more expensive then they would lose jobs and lead to social unrest. And a China with unrest is not something the Chinese want. But it may be something the Americans do. After all, unrest may lead to democratisation.

How does this end?

Well the Chinese are bleeding the Americans dry and causing social unrest in the US. It’s a muscle game. Whose political system will win? alpesh.patel@tradermind.com

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YOUR VOICE

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Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Respond to the council

I’ll miss AV and GS

Labour-run Brent Council are so high-handed that they recently wrote to residents telling them that they wanting to rifle through people’s rubbish, giving them barely any notice or opportunity to say they do not wish to take part.

The Council knew over a month ago when they intended to do this, but nevertheless tried to give people as little notice as possible so they could not easily “opt out” of being spied upon and having their rubbish – which might contain personal information – sifted through.

Labour are taking the same approach in supposedly “consulting” people over scrapping their weekly bin collections, while not actually telling residents what they have planned – except for one brief reference on page 60 of a 118-page document.

Nobody answering the so-called “consultation” in the Brent magazine would know they are being asked to scrap their weekly bin collection. Yet this is just what the Council intends, despite putting no reference whatsoever to it in the questionnaire they hope to use to justify their decision.

I urge readers of Asian Voice to respond to the waste consultation telling the Council exactly what they think of their weekly bin collection being scrapped. Residents can also let me know their views on removing weekly bin collections, and on the Council going through their rubbish, by e-mailing to cllr.daniel.brown@brent.gov.uk.

I shall be going away on holidays to the sunnier climes of Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar in Tanzania for the better part of the month of October. I must say that although I’ll be happy basking in the hot sun, I will sorely miss my favourite Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar while I am away. I shall miss the comprehensive coverage of the Commonwealth Games which no other daily or weekly newsletter provides in a manner that only AV & GS can! I shall miss the crossword puzzles in both. But I shall particularly miss the “Your Voice” column of Asian voice and the views expressed there-in by my fellow contributors. I am sure they too will miss my views on the current political, economical and social issues that we face from time to time. But do not despair! I shall be back in a jiffy and with a bang! I wonder if there was a way of keeping in touch while I am away.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

yours faithfully, Councillor Daniel Brown Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson

Racist remarks by Paul Henry The racist remarks made by New Zealand broadcaster Paul Henry using foul language against Sheila Dixit , has made the New Zealand Government apologise on his behalf, as the Prime Minister of New Zealand on Friday said that the entire Nation has been embarrassed by such racist remarks.

Following this disgraceful incident, New Zealand High Commissioner Rupert Holborrow in his apology said that Henry`s comments were culturally insensitive, inappropriate and vulgar and it did not represent the views of the New Zealand Government or its people.

The prompt actions of the New Zealand Government have raised very high image of the Govt in the eyes of people of the world and I request to all other Governments that when any serious mistakes are made it is better to come out and apologies to keep the good relations within all the communities of the world.

People like Henry(there are plenty) must understand the world has changed, their irresponsible actions can cause ill feeling between the people. If they want to create humour in their show then limit yourself within your own community.

Dharam Sahdev Ilford

FIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

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Dear Mr Sheth, Yes you can see us every week on www.abplgroup.com, AV & GS, eEdition. You may not get the feel of the paper in your hands, but at least you will not miss out on any coverage!

- AV

London Marathon We at World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) are writing to appeal to those who have secured their own place in the London Marathon to consider fundraising for us. It's really easy to join Team WCRF and in return we offer full support with training and nutritional advice, an essential runners kit containing your unique WCRF running vest, a fundraising pack and your own personalised online sponsorship page. WCRF also offers a pasta party the day before the race and a post-race reception with a free massage and shower to soothe away any aches or pains. Scientists estimate that about a third of the most common cancers could be prevented by following a healthy diet, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight.

So not only will taking part in the London Marathon help you get into the kind of habits that can reduce your own cancer risk. If you are interested, visit www.wcrf-uk.org/fundraising or call 0207 343 4200.

Natalie Tarrant, Senior Fundraising Manager, WCRF

Cuts – Ready Steady Go Cart before the Horse?

Great inauguration of CWG

If I were the George Osborne [Go], I would postpone the Comprehensive Spending Review [CSR = Cart] to be announced on Black Wednesday October 20th and replace it by a Comprehensive Productivity Review [CPR = Horse].

The 3-year rolling Departmental Expenditure Limit [DEL] of £387 billion plus the 1-year Annually Managed Expenditure [AME] limit of £266 billion against receipts of £496 billion means a fiscal deficit of £157 billion [13% of GDP].

The Coalition government is right that a good part of public services are over bureaucratic, over-manned and lack fraud free financial control. However, they have not yet fully understood, assessed, consulted or produced empirical evidence exactly why or where this is happening; nor have they come up with detailed costings of the all the hurriedly prepared reforms they are proposing.

Why not publish operational, efficiency, headcount, systems and productivity data [Horse] for consultation this year and agree spending plans [Cart] early next year in the national interest?

Running public services is not a race or a ready, steady, go situation. One does not want a double dip recession.

Spectacular inauguration of 2010 Commonwealth Games - New Delhi, was exhilarating, befitting India’s image. This was best among previous events hosted

by India. Considering 1000s performing artists, it would be amazing to reckon army of hidden supporting staff.

Considering expense and effort, it was wise of organisers to continue, lest public be poorer of this spectacle.

Classical dances, tree of life, yoga, vedic chants plus tableaux of chaiwalla, dabbawalla, dhobis offered succinct image of India. Yoga is taken out of shadow of religion and ushered into physical fitness. It was a relief that hip gyrating film stars and scantily clad cheer girls were excluded; also relief there was no mention of any religion, but highlighting faith and secularism.

CWG glitches were magnified due to media’s expediency and rapid spreadability vide its duty to report good, bad and ugly. But rapidity of reported glitches versus short span of time smells of scandalfixing nexus between some spy worker and scoop greedy journalists. Tonga’s players gaining weight is proof of India’s CWG pudding.

Nagindas Khajuria Via Email

Jammu and Kashmir issue

The Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Mr. Abdullah has stated in his speech last week in the state Assembly that the accession of Jammu & Kashmir to India has taken place but the state had not merged with India and hence, it cannot be placed at par with Hyderabad or Junagarh who refused to join with India.

Mr. Abdullah has clearly stated that even though Jammu & Kashmir is part of India, it is not an integral part of India and he is right in saying that Kashmir has special provisions which is not applicable to other states. For example Indians living outside Kashmir are not allowed to buy properties in Kashmir and there are restrictions for Kashmiris marrying people outside the state. Kashmiris whether it is Abdullah's or muftis consider themselves as Kashmiri Muslims and not as Indian Muslims. Kashmiris want to be part of India because of subsidy they get from Indian government. Even in United Nations greenhouse emission committee, Kashmir is stated as a separate disputed country. The time has come for India to remove special provisions under section 370 and pave way for total merger.

Arun Vaidyanathan Via Email

Commonwealth games-fantastic start After all that mess-up, who would have thought that India will have such a fantastic start of the Commonwealth games. The Opening Ceremony was outstanding. The fireworks, the drummers, the dancers, the most expensive helium balloon, the yoga-bit, the team welcome and a perfect finish by AR. Rehman's "Jai Ho"! Wow! These should have changed

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many Indian's idea towards the CWG 2010. Surprisingly enough, neither the Evening Standard nor the Metro mentioned a word this fantastic launch. Many congratulations to the Indian athletes who have achieved medals for their outstanding performance.

Devang Bhatt Harrow, London

UK EUROPE WORLD 1 Year £25 £55 £70 2 Years £45 £100 £125 £225 £300 *5 Years £110 £450 £550 *10 Years £200

Ramesh Jhalla Via Email

Halal meat controversy Although Cllr. Navin Shah AM, admirably tried to explain in AV and in local papers council’s policy on Halal meat controversy, the issue dominates headlines in local papers, as all secondary schools in Harrow have chosen caterers that serve only Halal meat. Could it be the decision of one person, the Head Teacher who makes such decisions or there is a debate and consultation?

It would not be inappropriate to ask how this could be explained when Hindus, Jains and Sikhs form the majority of the ethnic student population. Mr. Paramjit Singh Kohli of Harrow Interfaith Council has collected well in excess of 300,000 signatures over internet and thousands of signatures are pouring in every day, from all over UK. He will deliver it to No 10 Downing Street, thus making it a national issue. Rightly or wrongly, most residents blame the Council for this mess, although I believe every school choose their own independent supplier without input from the Council. As there is also a controversy about planning permission for a community centre, it is time Harrow Council seize the bull by the horn and resolve the problem before it becomes a national issue.

Bhupendra M Gandhi Via Email

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‘Smile Pinky’ too gets the Oscar Boyle says Mumbai dwarfed the statuette

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(Off Coronet Street)

Cricket crazy Indians for the first time was seen so euphoric on Monday morning, as they expected a couple of Oscars. British Indians in the UK, Dharavi slums, the shanty township of Mumbai, a village in Uttar Pradesh and almost the entire Bollywood waited in expectation, glued to their TV sets. They burst into celebrations as one by one, their heroes, the actors of the British Indian film and the music maestro, A R Rahman bagged the top awards in the world of entertainment.

British actress Kate Winslett also won the Oscar after having missed it almost five times earlier.

‘Smile Pinki’, a short documentary on a cleft-lipped Indian girl in Uttar Pradesh directed

by American director Megan Mylan, won the Oscar for the Best Documentary (Short).

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Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010 events at De Montfort Hall and the Ram Garhia centre.

Professional singers and musicians have flown in from Gujurat, in India, will perform at the two venues every night until Saturday, October 16.

In Loughborough, Navratri events are to take place until next Saturday at Loughborough Town Hall, starting at 7.30pm.

Navratri in full swing Hindus across the city and county have geared up for a nine-day festival of dancing and food. The festival of Navratri, is a family event celebrating the spirit of life, and marking the triumph of good over evil.

Two major events, organised by the Leicester Hindu Festival Council, is taking

Entrepreneur returns from Delhi

Rt Hon. Suresh Kalmadi, CWG Organising Committee Chairman With Vic Sethi

Vic Sethi (Kulvinder S. Sethi) an entrepreneur of Anand International and Daewoo International Europe from Leicester returned last week to the UK from Delhi. He was invited by the members of FICCI (Federation of India Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and Indian MPs to attend the opening of the Delhi 2010 XIX Commonwealth Games.

At the dinner Rt. Hon. Suresh Kalmadi, the CWG Organising Committee Chairman told Vic that he was very pleased to see him make it for the opening as Vic had supported them during the launch of the Baton Relay at the Buckingham Palace in London. “I am very pleased with the start and always knew everything will be fine and was sure there would be no problems, no matter what the media was reporting.�

Vic also told the FICCI members, that he would like to link them up with Leicestershire for the Special Olympics Coming to Leicester, he said he would speak to the committee members in Leicester and see if they could bring One of the multi faith, multi cultural showcase they had displayed at the opening of the CWG, as Leicester is the Most Vibrant cities of the United Kingdom where people live in harmony and peace.

This would showcase this diversity city to the people of the world and bring Leicester on the Map of the world where people of every faith and colour will be seen taking part such as Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and many more.

place at De Montfort Hall and the Ram Garhia community centre, in Ulverscroft Road, over the nine days.

Other celebrations have also been planned by communities across the city in schools and community centres, as well as in Loughborough.

Around 1,500 people a day are expected to attend the

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UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Kapil’s

KHICHADI

by Kapil Dudakia - email: kapil@abplgroup.com Price of everything, Value of nothing!

Rajan Sehgal (Chairman of IIF), HE Mr Nalin Surie, Indian High Commissioner and Hardayal S Luthra (President of IIF) at the 6th Annual Awards of India International Foundation (IIF) on Monday 20th September at the Marriott Hotel, Bath Road. HE Nalin Surie was the chief guest. The winners of the award are: Manek A S Dalal OBE in the in the field of administration, Ms Asavari Pawar in Art & Culture, Mrs Teji Singh in Business, Dr Subir Banerjee in Education, Dr Nitin Parekh in Industry, Sarosh Zaiwala in Law/Judiciary, Mr Virdee in Literature, Prof Iqbal Singh in Medicine, Prof Roxy Senior in Science, Ms Kiran Bali MBE in Social Services, Kulbir Bhaura in Sports, Roko cancer as Organisation 2009, and Sun Mark Ltd as Business House 2009. The President's award was given to balwant Grewal and Sir Mota Singh received the Pride of India award.

MKC Trust holds annual fund raising dinner and dance MKC Trust –Roko cancer campaign held its annual fund raising dinner and dance at the Radisson Blu Portman hotel in London W1 on Friday 1st October 2010.

The chief guest for the evening was Dr Vince Cable Minister for business and Innovation skills who began the nights main proceedings by lighting the lamp for awareness and early detection of cancer inspiring hope and peace for all from around the world.

The event was also attended by a host of dignitaries including Lord and Lady Sheikh, Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms M.P. Rt.Hon Keith Vaz MP and

Rt Hon Vince Cable, MP giving a speech

specialists from the field of medicine. Including, Dr Ray and Trevor Powells cancer specialists and

other dignitaries form the local community.

The evening was supported by Quest Diagnostics, a host of local businesses and Barclays Bank where funds were raised through holding a heads or tails game, a surprise gift tree and a raffle. An auction was also conducted.

In spite of the current economic climate the event was a great success and raised over 30,000 pounds.

Rt. Hon Vince Cable said "I am pleased with what the Roko cancer is doing for ethnic communities in Britain and India by launching the mobile units."

Meerabai comes to Fairfield halls, Croydon

By Anisha Patel It’s a Saturday night and about 70 people aged 11 to 65 are dressed to the nines and buzzing with excitement. Your mind might wonder to a scene of a family wedding or even Diwali dinner, but this is in fact the colourful and dazzling cast of Subrang Arts’ latest stage spectacular, Meera.

The dance and drama show, which was first performed at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls on 25th September, follows the group’s national success

with Dances of India in 2008.

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ducing a dance drama based on the life of Meerabai arose from the wealth of research that has opened myriad ideas on the interpretation of the life of this powerful lone crusader,” says Lata Desai, chairperson for Subrang Arts.

And they didn’t have any trouble getting the industry’s big players to share that vision.

Legendary music director Ashit Desai (who has worked with the

We are about to be hit by the ‘winter of discontent’ storm, as well as the spending cuts planned by the Tory coalition. These policies have begun to test their marriage of convenience, with strains already showing at ministerial level. The coalition faces one its first real tests, and more importantly, the LibDems face their ultimate nightmare scenario of being part of a Government that is doing the exact opposite to everything they have stood for over the past five decades.

The Tory plan of spinning the cuts is a master class of how you can literally get away with anything, as long as you have the media and the wealthy on your side.

The plan as it stands is to bombard the country with psychotic messages of cuts, cuts and more cuts. Once the population has become acclimatised to the severity of the cuts, in a surprise turn of events the extent of the cuts will be curtailed slightly to give the impression that all is not as bad as it could have been. The trick was to get the main stream media and the so called economic ‘gurus’ to buy into the message and prepare the public for that which they are about to receive.

As Russell Peters might say, ‘somebody’s is going to get hurt real bad.’ That somebody will in fact be a good 70 percent of the British population.

Education is an area where all parties should be very careful. There needs to be a consensus in British politics on issues as important as education, health and welfare. The constant changing of emphasis every 15 years or so does not serve the country well. The net cost being that we have now fallen back in almost every league table around the

world on many of the indicators. Get education wrong, and Great Britain will turn into a disaster zone of proportions hitherto unimagined. Linked into this equation is welfare and health, and you can see that we will have a recipe for country wide demonstrations, riots and the open abuse of the ethnic minorities. Well, someone has to be blamed for the ills in society and when the masses see no end to their misery, those who are seen as aliens will be abused, harassed and victimised.

Values in society are governed by how we care for each other, and that also includes how we are governed and the extent to which our public services underpin those core values. Education and learning represents the very cornerstone of how we as a country, and as a people, will be defined in the future.

Open goal for the BNP The BNP appears to have been given a boost by the economic downturn and the impact of the cuts to come. This has created an ideal recruitment ground for those who peddle their racist objectives by using the age old excuse of blaming anyone who is not ‘white’.

These are dangerous times as we see the rise of the far right across the length and breadth of Europe.

Just this week a football club issued warnings to the BNP and other far right groups to stay away.

Football has always been the ideal recruitment centre for those in society who can’t always discern truth from the rhetoric of the far right.

Those who under estimate the power of prejudice will pay a heavy price lest they forget lessons from our recent history. Fanning the embers of hate is never a good idea, and I would urge the Government to be very mindful of the possible adverse reaction that Pandit Ravi Shankar on various projects) collaborated with Subrang Arts to bring the show to life, with narration from Harish Bhimani (of Mahabharat fame).

Amongst the audience members was Councillor Vidhi Mohan, cabinet member for communities for the London Borough of Croydon, who said: “This exciting dance

we may witness as a result of some their policies. On this issue – we cannot afford to get it wrong.

Game of Two Halves The phrase will no doubt gain new meaning when applied to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. After an interesting start which would have been better avoided, India has managed to carry out the games in a reasonable way so far.

As I write this piece, the tally of medals for India is 73 compared with 50 in 2006. A good achievement, and still with many days left to hit that magic number of 100. Another way of looking at such achievements might be to consider the GDP of a country and compare that with medals it secures.

For example, Australia has the most and the relative cost based loosely on their GDP comes to about $7 Billion per medal. Compare that with say England at $16 Billion, Canada at $22 Billion and India at $16 Billion.

Bangladesh being the most expensive at $94 Billion. Of course these figures are eye watering, raw and subject to change as the medals tally changes over the coming days.

I mentioned a game of two halves. The first half we have witnessed and are witnessing as it unfolds in Delhi. The second half is the post games introspection that must surely happen if India is to ever learn any lessons from this disaster that was so narrowly avoided. I suspect the buck will stop at Kalmadi’s door, not because he was solely responsible for the fiasco, but because the people who made the real money cannot afford the real truth to come out.

The matter will no doubt be managed in typical Indian style. After all, you can make Khichadi in many ways in India.

drama project showcases a range of local talents from both Sutton and Croydon and builds on a rich cultural heritage.”

The troupe will be touring around the UK later this year and into 2011, with performances all over the country from Southampton and Nottingham.

For more information visit www.subrangarts.co.uk.

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Deputy head ordered out of the classroom by school A teacher who laid bare the chaos in the state education system has been ordered out of the classroom by her school.

K a t h a r i n e Birbalsingh, pictured, is facing disciplinary action for daring to speak out at the Conservative Party conference this week about the shambles in state secondaries.

The national dailies report that Miss Birbalsingh, 37, was made to work from home after other senior staff at her London academy feared her speech on last Tuesday created too much negative publicity.

Miss Birbalsingh said she was ‘devastated’ at being kept out of the classroom while she waits to hear if she is formally suspended or sacked.

The former Marxist – who was state-educated before going to Oxford University – voted Tory for the first time in this year’s general election.

A French teacher and deputy head at St Michael and All Angels Church of England Academy in Camberwell, South London, she was the surprise star at the Tory conference.

She revealed how bad behaviour and lack of dis-

cipline in schools ‘blinded by Leftist ideology’ stopped staff from teaching children.

Her intervention against a ‘broken’ system which ‘keeps poor children poor’ earned her a standing ovation. She took up her latest job a month ago and said last night that her criticisms were not aimed at her new school.

But staff felt that she had damaged the school’s reputation – an accusation that she denies.

Miss Birbalsingh said yesterday: ‘I’m devastated by this.

‘My whole life is about helping children fulfil their potential, particularly those in less privileged areas, and I love my school.

‘All I wanted to do was to highlight the barriers that stand in the way of improving education in Britain.

‘I just want this issue to be resolved and to get back to teaching again.’

However, Miss Birbalsingh did not blame the school for over-reacting.

Miss Birbalsingh was asked to ‘work from home’ for the rest of the week when she arrived at school on her return from the conference in Birmingham.

Her fate will be decided by executive head Irene Bishop and the school’s board of governors and sponsors. No one from the school could be reached for comment.

7

Tube driver plans violent jihad training mission in Afghanistan A London Underground train driver allegedly planned to travel to Afghanistan or Pakistan with the intention to take part in a 'violent jihad', a court heard.

Amir Ali, pictured, who drove trains on the Bakerloo Line for five years, allegedly purchased a plane ticket to travel to Islamabad and wrote a farewell letter to his family telling them that 'Allah and his prophet Mohammed' came first, jurors were told.

When police searched the 28-year-old's home they found pictures of him posing with weapons including two AK47 rifles and a self-loading pistol, prosecutor Duncan Penny said.

He said: 'It is no coincidence that also in his possession were various forms of extreme literature and propaganda advocating the use of violence against the non-believer or kuffar - in the name of Islam,' as reported in the Daily Mail.

The report further says that Mr Penny said that in March 2009 Ali allegedly paid cash towards a flight from Heathrow to Islamabad and planned to leave his wife and fouryear-old daughter and

three-year-old son behind.

Mr Penny also said as per the report in Daily Mail: 'When the flight was purchased, and until he decided not to travel, the defendant intended to travel to Pakistan and had the intention there, or in Afghanistan, to engage in violent jihad or to assist others to do so.

'He was to travel alone, leaving his wife and children behind him at their home in east

" #$# (&%( %'((

London.

'He had written a letter to his wife in which he instructed her and his little boy what to do after he had gone.

'In the letter he told her not to be upset or depressed with him for not being there as, he claimed, he always would remember her and his children.

'He told her to tell the children that he loved them very much but that he had to go for the sake of Allah, because Allah and his p r o p h e t Mohammed come first.'

In the letter he also asked for forgiveness from his parents and his brother and sister.

Ali, of Hampton Road, Ilford, Essex, allegedly made two other trips to Pakistan - where his grandmother grandfather lived - in 2007 and 2008.

He denies one count of preparing for acts of terrorism between April 2006 and March 2009.

The trial continues.

!

www.incredibleindia.org

8

www.abplgroup.com

Dee Katwa

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Midland Voice Contact: Dhiren on 07970 911 386 or dhiren.katwa@abplgroup.com

Are you really ready for retirement?

Black and Asian people in the UK are up to three times as likely as white people to experience poverty in retirement, a new report shows.

The report, entitled Ready for Retirement?, published this month by The Runnymede Trust, a think tank, shows that only 39 per cent of people from ethnic minority (BME) communities are saving into a private pension, compared to 53 per cent of white people. And just 65 per cent of people from BME communities will receive a state pension compared to 75 per cent of the whole population.

In addition many older people from these so-called disadvantaged

Robert Berkeley, Director, The Runnymede Trust

groups, particularly recent migrants, also face language barriers, as well as difficulties accessing information and navigating an unfamiliar and complex pensions system.

In an attempt to

Trainee pilot killed Scores of mourners turned out last Saturday to pay their final respects to Jaskinder Samra, pictured, the 21-yearold aviation enthusiast from Wolverhampton who died when her plane ran out of fuel in Tennessee in the United States. The former easyJet and British Airways air hostess had spent eight months in America learning to fly in a bid to realise her dream of flying jumbo jets. Jaskinder’s cousin, Manny Kooner, said: “She had a smile that would light up a room and was bubbly and outgoing. The family is devastated.”

Donations reaching the needy Construction work on a new community hall in Kalyanpur, a village near Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, in Gujarat, India, is in full swing, thanks to good Samaritan Pragjibhai Ladwa. I was given a site tour by granddad-of-eight Mr Ladwa, an NRI, during my visit last week. This is another addition to the many schools, orphanages, halls and shrines that Mr Ladwa has helped to build for the less fortunate over several years in and around his ancestral village with the aid of thousands of pounds received in donations from generous well-wishers, mainly UK-based. East Africanborn Mr Ladwa, 73, is renowned for his Gujarati folk and devotional songs and discourses, in particular for his traditional rhythms, a rarity nowadays. Photo: Mr Ladwa at the building site.

Plea for direct flights James Watkins, executive director of Business Voice West Midlands, an umbrella business pressure group, has written to Nalin Surie, pictured, India’s High Commissioner in London, asking him for his support on lobbying for direct flights from Birmingham to India. “Despite clear economic advantages, there is no direct service between Birmingham and the Punjab,” said Mr Watkins.

Thumbs down to sentence cut A Birmingham man who kidnapped a member of his extended family in a dispute over money has had his pleas against his sentence rejected. Kamraan Sohail Hadait, 24, of Fallows Road, Sparkbrook, was convicted of kidnap and blackmail and jailed in March this year for a total of six-and-a-half years.

address this issue, the report makes a number of recommendations which include: the government needs to continue to combat disadvantages faced by ethnic minorities, such as discrimination in the labour market; pensions information and guidance needs to be made accessible to new and disadvantaged people from BME communities; the government needs to tackle the gap resulting from selfemployed people being unable to top-up their basic rate state pension.

Runnymede director Rob Berkeley is urging the government to intervene and to do something about this. “The govern-

ment must tackle this problem, especially as the older population grows and becomes much more diverse,” he said. He said that many older people from BME communities had “earned the right to a comfortable retirement free from poverty.” Mr Berkeley’s comments were echoed by Michelle Mitchell, director of Age UK, the charity. “Despite positive reforms to pensions, the government must ensure that all members of our society are able to enjoy a wellearned and comfortable retirement,” she said. The full report is available at www.runnymedetrust.org

News in Brief Don’t blame the bankers A presentation, entitled the Credit Crunch: Don’t blame the ‘bankers’, will be delivered by private equity analyst Imran Azam at an oriental restaurant in Rotherham on October 29 from 6pm onwards. Tickets £15. Funds will go towards Pakistan Fund Appeal. For more information visit www.muslim-network.co.uk

Tories help local economy The Tory conference has given Birmingham’s ailing economy a major boost. An estimated £30 million was generated during the four days. The event earlier this month attracted 14,000 delegates and 2,000 journalists.

Care for nature Next month an international conference in Japan will examine why nature conservation is failing almost everywhere. Part of the reason, perhaps, is that those who should be addressing this issue are too often diverting their attention to justifying their existence.

Row over swimming

David – you’re hired

Muslim dad Rehan Mirza from Nottingham has threatened to take his five-year-old daughter Zeinab out of a Midland school in a row over mixed-sex swimming classes. Mr Mirza says Zeinab should not be sent to swim with boys from William Booth Primary School in Nottingham. Headteacher Andy Mattison said parents did not have the right to stop children swimming.

If you want to become a partner in a law firm it helps if you are called David – or Sarah if you are female. According to research by Moller PSF Group at Cambridge University, five per cent of some 7,000 partners in the top 50 law firms are named David. The list is certainly representative of Birmingham.

Murder rate doubles Eighteen people have been murdered in the West Midlands in just five months (Apr – Aug) this year – double the rate of last year. The figures were revealed in a new report to police authority members. High-profile cases which police have tackled this year include that of accountant Vijay Kumar Thaper, pictured, who died weeks after being attacked outside his Bloxwich home and left with broken legs. Mr Thaper, 61, died from a massive blood clot allegedly linked to the attack. Three men have since been charged with murder. Separately, Raziul Hassan, 24, was stabbed three times and died after being found by police lying on a driveway near his family home in Whitmore Reans. Twin brothers aged 17 have since been charged with murder.

Investigation into bullying The BBC has launched an urgent investigation into claims of bullying and intimidation at Midlands Today. A recent emergency meeting led to no confidence votes against acting editor Mark Hayman and head of regional programmes Cath Hearne. Staff have threatened a walkout if the alleged intimidation is not stopped. One programme director, Mel Parmer, is said to have suffered a heart attack allegedly triggered by stress. An unnamed employee said: “We all hope that this is not going to be brushed under the carpet.” BBC Midlands Today employs a total of 107 employees, of which 13 per cent are from BME communities.

Hope for jobless youth Unemployed young people aged 18 to 24 are invited to apply for one of 35 paid job placements being offered

by Midland housing group Accord. Placements are available in various departments including reception, customer service and housekeeping. To apply for a place call Kally Bhatti on 0121 568 3993 or 568 7070.

Free e-business event

Small business owners in the West Midlands are being invited to a free event which will show them how to make the internet work for their firms. The 8am – 10am event will take place on November 3 at Birmingham’s Radisson Blu. To register visit www.fpb.org or telephone 0845 6126266. Research shows a quarter of West Midlands firms do not have their own website.

On a charity mission Best of luck to Midlanders Rakesh Bodalia, Vishal Shah and Dinesh Subhra, all from business advisory firm Deloitte, who are preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, in aid of charity. The trio are among a 100-strong group hoping to raise at least £250,000 for four charities including Help for Heroes and Children with Leukaemia.

Freeze on council houses Asylum seekers in Birmingham will no longer be offered council homes. The city council has turned down a new contract with the UK Border Agency.

There are currently 30,000 people on the council’s housing waiting list and homelessness has increased by 140 per cent since January.

Shot on doorstep A 47-year-old Birmingham man was shot in the leg as he answered a knock on the door of his home in Sherbourne Road, Small Heath, last Wednesday. The offenders were described as two black men. The victim is in a stable condition in hospital.

Cockroach-infested, shopkeeper fined The owner of a Birmingham fish and chip shop, Quickfry Chippy, in Sparkbrook, which was found to be filthy and infested with cockroaches, has been fined £1,500. Mohammed Raqoob, 41, was also ordered to pay £500 costs after admitting two breaches of food hygiene regulations.

Arts and crafts fair Pam Cheema, 27, from West Bromwich has organised a vintage arts and crafts fair. The free event will take place at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall this Sunday (Oct 17) from 11am until 5pm. All invited.

Meniere’s Awareness Week This Friday will mark the end of Meniere’s Awareness Week. Meniere’s, which affects as many as ten per cent of adults in the UK, is a disorder of the inner ear. Its symptoms are vertigo, tinnitus and deafness.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Last Days To Save

10

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

First picture appears of mother stabbed to death at her luxury home Mrs Shahzad was found with stab wounds at her £600,000 six-bedroom family home on last Saturday evening.

Her 21-year-old son Usman was charged with her murder alongside a 16-year-old.

As the pair appeared in court on Tuesday, one unidentified relative led the tributes to her, speaking of her as a devoted mother.

'Assia was a loving daughter and sister and a devoted mother to her children,' the relative said.

'She was the most caring daughter that anyone could have wished for.

'She was a friend of Aylesbury and Aylesbury has lost a friend.

'She would go that extra mile to help others who needed it.'

Another family member said her father, Mohammed Nawaz, was inconsolable over the loss of his daughter.

Assia Shahzad

Usman Shahzad, 21

House where Mrs Shahzad, 40, was found stabbed

'He is screaming and crying. He is absolutely distraught.'

The mother of three,

who lived with her sons in A y l e s b u r y , Buckinghamshire, was taken to Stoke Mandeville

hospital on Saturday night after a relative raised the alarm and died shortly afterwards, at about 8pm.

The 16-year-old was also hurt during the incident and was treated for minor injuries at the same hospital. Police said they were treating the horrific incident as 'domesticrelated' rather than an honour killing.

Mrs Shahzad ran a taxi company with her estranged husband Rashad, named Lookie Travel after their disabled son. She had been separated from her husband for several years.

A second post mortem examination was being carried out on Mrs Shahzad's body yesterday but police said her injuries were 'consistent with a bladed instrument being used in the attack'.

A spokesman added: 'We have seized a number of items as part of our forensic investigation.'

'It’s not race, it's faith,’ says Muslim and Sikh interfaith project

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argued that people are far more aware of religious identities. Reflecting on the change in attitudes towards Muslims since 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings, the group discussed how the increasing

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dice in Britain, but project members said that religion now plays a more important role. Speaking from one of the most religiously diverse areas of the UK, Ealing and Southall, the group

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Discrimination against different faiths is more of a problem than racial discrimination, said members of a new interfaith project in West London.

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reassertion of faith through symbolism and dress and the rise of Islamaphobia may also be responsible for divisions within Britain’s Asian communities. “When I was growing up we were collectively known as Asians", said Sikh member of the interfaith group Ravinder Dhesi. She added: “No one ever talked about faith, but that’s changed now.”

The comments came at the second meeting of a new project, the Muslim and Sikh Media Monitoring and Response Group. The group is the first of its kind in Britain, created to bring together individuals from Ealing and Southall’s Muslim and Sikh communities.

The 10th Asian Achievers Awards will be televised on 15th October at 6pm on Venus TV and on 24th October from 6.30pm to 7.30pm at B4U.

Guilty plea for overseas child abuser A man from Watford has pleaded guilty on Friday, 8th October to a series of disturbing child abuse offences which took place in India after he callously ‘befriended’ a poor family and took advantage of their vulnerability. It is the first time in Hertfordshire that a local resident has been charged with an offence of sexually abusing a child who lives overseas.

Barry McCloud (53) travelled to Goa on a number of occasions where he sexually abused his young female victim from 2005 - 2007. At St Albans Crown Court he pleaded guilty to 20 charges, including the rape of a child under 13, sexual assault, sexual penetration, making, taking and possessing indecent images and administering a stupefying drug to his victim in order to abuse her.

The offences centre on the abuse of a girl who was interviewed by Hertfordshire police officers who, recognising the serious nature of the case, travelled to India. The investigation was supported by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), specialist teams within the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), and a non-government agency in India called Justice and Care, who work to support poverty stricken families vulnerable to abuse.

CPS District Crown Prosecutor Tamsyn Wilcox said: “Barry McCloud abused the trust of a family living in extreme poverty, in Goa. He befriended and sponsored the eldest son, and he used his position of trust to gain access to one of the younger sisters, the victim in this case.

“The CPS worked very closely with the police, SOCA and CEOP in what was a complex investigation. Through the commitment of all agencies involved it resulted to the defendant being brought before the British Courts where he pleaded guilty.

‘McCloud was charged under Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which allows prosecutors to charge a person with an offence committed abroad if they are a British citizen or resident, and the crime would be an offence in the country in which it is committed, as well as here.

‘This case sends a strong message to those British citizens or residents who think that they can sexually abuse children whilst travelling abroad and that they will never face a prosecution in England and Wales.

‘The fact that McCloud pleaded guilty also means that the young victim will not have to attend court and give evidence and that the Criminal Justice System will not have to bear the cost of a trial.’

McCloud will be sentenced later on this year.

‘Diwali Special’ Contributors Welcome Diwali is a month away. The New Year is knocking at the door waiting to bring in colours and light to our lives with fervour of joy and ever lasting happiness. Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, as every year, will be publishing the ‘Diwali Special’ Magazine for our fabulous and supportive readers like yourself.

If you think you would like to contribute to our unique Diwali issue, why don’t you write on either of the following topics: 1. One of your favourite childhood Diwali memories or 2. A particular charity you made in cash or kind to the needy or 3. Your first Diwali in the UK and how you spent it Please note that your articles MUST NOT be more than 650 words and should be emailed to AVEditorial along with your full name and contact details to aveditorial@abplgroup.com Please do not send your article via fax or post. The last day of entry is Sunday 24th October 2010.

If you have a relevant picture for your story, you can email us the scanned copy/post (only the picture). But please make sure you keep a copy of the picture and the article with yourself, as we may not be able to return the original.

- Asian Voice

11

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

The 6/7 bombers: Revealed, how terror attacks were delayed Terrorists plotting the July 7 bomb attacks had planned to unleash their wave of carnage a day earlier, it was revealed.

The deadly attacks were delayed 24 hours because the plot’s ringleader went to hospital on July 5 where she later suffered a miscarriage, an inquest into the killings was told.

At 4.35am on July 6, he sent a hurried text message to fellow conspirator Shehzad Tanweer, 22.

The text, which strongly suggests July 6 was the day for the outrage, said: ‘Having major problem.

Cannot make time. Will ring you when I get it sorted. Wait at home.’

Families of the 52 victims listened intently as lawyers told how the four Islamic extremists could have detonated their home-made bombs 24 hours earlier, claiming scores of other innocent lives.

Opening the inquest, lawyer Hugo Keith, QC, described the killings – the worst terror atrocity committed on British soil – as ‘merciless savagery’ and ‘unimaginable tidal wave of shock, misery and horror’ Londoners celebrate on July 6 2005 after it was announced that the city had won the 2012 Olympic Games. It is now known that the 7/7 bombers had been planning their attacks for this day The hearing was also told of: l Plans to kill police if intercepted, using nail bombs; l Chaotic phone calls between emergency operators as the bombs were detonated; l The gang’s intention to target other Underground stations;

$ (%*% $ .# 2 +*/ */0 4 %/ -1 (%"%! * !4,!.%!* ! +(% %0+. 3$+ /,! % (%/!/ %* ,.%2 0! ))%#. 0%+* 3 $ (%*% !(%!2!/ %* ,.+2% %*# (!# ( /!.2% ! 0$ 0 %/ $+*!/0 * 0. */, .!*0 /$! !(%!2!/ 02!!#00 !-+#0 4'1& !*'#,1 0 1'0$ !1'-, Mohammed Sidique Khan with wife Hassina

l A catalogue of missed opportunities to halt the bombers during anti-terror surveillance operations; l The failure to trace two men seen leaving the Leeds bomb factory.

The bombers killed 52 and injured more than 700 others onboard three London Underground trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square, and on a bus at Tavistock Square.

Had the bombs been detonated on July 6, the explosions would have come just hours before the announcement that London had been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.

Khan’s text message was found on a mobile phone recovered from one of the bomb sites. His wife suffered a miscarriage later on July 7.

Mr Keith said: ‘It may have been that the attack was originally planned for a different day.’ He said three of the bombers – Khan, Tanweer and 18year-old Hasib Hussain – travelled from Leeds to Luton in a rented Nissan Micra.

The fourth, Jermaine Lindsay, 19, was waiting for them at a car park at Luton Parkway railway station, where a parking attendant gave him a ticket after spotting him asleep in his Fiat Brava.

All four then caught the 07.25 Thameslink train to King’s Cross, where they entered the

Tube network, each carrying a home-made bomb concealed in a rucksack.

Mr Keith said their behaviour had aroused suspicions among other passengers, who described them as avoiding eye contact and seeming ‘happy, even euphoric’.

At 08.49 Khan, Tanweer and Lindsay detonated their bombs, in tunnels near Tube stations at Edgware Road, Aldgate and Russell Square respectively.

Hussain detonated his bomb almost an hour after the other three, onboard the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square.

Lindsay’s passport was later found, containing scribbled notes referring to Tube stations at Paddington, Bond Street, South Kensington and Westminster.

Mr Keith suggested those stations could have been their targets, but said their train had been delayed by 24 minutes, forcing them to change their plans.

As the inquest opened, the names of the 52 victims were read to the court and the coroner, former judge Lady Justice Hallett, led a minute’s silence to remember those killed.

Court officials had arranged a video-link for relatives to watch the proceedings in private. The inquest is expected to run until spring next year.

Teacher at boys' school admits having sex with two 15-year-old pupils A female teacher at a boys' school has apparently admitted having alleged sex with two 15-year-old pupils in an 'appalling abuse of trust', reports a daily media.

Hina Patel, 37, pictured, allegedly had 'full sexual intercourse' with the teenagers when she was working as a supply teacher at a school near Southport in Merseyside.

The court heard how the Birkdale high school teacher allegedly met the boys at her home in nearby Hightown over several weeks between February 1 and March 18. Headteacher Gary Loveridge told a national media that he was 'appalled' by Patel's behaviour, adding that she had come with good references from her previous schools.

She had been suspended as soon as the allegations emerged earlier this year.

Patel pleaded guilty to two charges of abusing her

position of trust by sexual misconduct at North Sefton magistrates court on Monday, reports Daily Mail.

Patrick Williamson,

defending, told the court its powers were not sufficient for sentencing Patel because she had 'full sexual intercourse' and the case will now go to Liverpool crown court.

Chairman of the bench Caroline Spencer bailed Patel on condition she did not contact the boys or any pupils from the school.

Hina Patel was recruited by Birkdale high in September last year as a cover supervisor and used to fill shortterm absences of teachers at the comprehensive, where 930 boys aged 11 to 16 study.

Described as a 'varied but demanding position', her responsibilities included setting work for pupils, behaviour management and supervision.

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12

MEDIA WATCH

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Scrutator’s They came to issue a damnation, to damn with faint praise at best, but they left singing hosannahs to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. The myriad complaints of the foreign media about living conditions in the athletes' village and much else besides were not without cause, but apprehensions of a looming disaster evaporated as India put on a spectacular show for the inauguration in front of a packed stadium.

The Delhi-based Outlook magazine (October 4) noted that doubts were dispelled, quoting Australian and British newspapers, whose criticisms were replaced with unstinting admiration with such headlines as “India has arrived” and such lines as “An ancient land opens its heart to the world;” watching the cultural extravaganza, The Guardian's man wrote: “India has arrived: spectacular ceremony opens Commonwealth Games.”

Huw Edwards who did the BBC telecast was rhapsodic.

43,000 ($970) – account for about 26,000 of the more than 400,000 two wheelers that sells each month. About 10 per cent of sales are made through the Just 4 showrooms.” Hero Honda, the world's largest twowheeler manufacturer, is an Indian-Japanese enterprise.

High-rise Mumbai A Joe Leahy-James Fontenella Khan analysis on the Mumbai property market (October 4) was an absorbing read. They start thus: “Mumbai property developer Abhishek Lodha is flanked by architects from New York as he expounds on his plan to build the the world's tallest

was key. Without good education facilities for the entire population, the city and indeed India would be cabined, cribbed and confined.

She writes: “New Delhi is sluggishly awakening to the challenge. The recent Right to Education act guarantees free education from six to 14 and mandates a maximum teacherpupil ratio of one to 30. Activists hope this will improve state schools,” whose statistics are truly awful.

“The government is slowly establishing more IITs and IIMs, and considering improvement of its tightly controlled higher education sector, including allowing foreign universities to set up

India's Krishna Poonia celebrates her discus gold medal in the Commonwealth Games

The Daily Telegraph reported: “A dazzling, colourful, high octane opening ceremony ....thrilled a sell-out crowd....as well as the athletes and officials from 71 Commonwealth countries.” The Daily Mail referred to the “display of pageantry and technical wizardry that, finally, projected the image India craved on to two billion television sets around the world.”

The Australian newspaper said: “India has won the first unofficial gold medal of the Games – the best uniform. The Indian athletes looked like royalty...the opening ceremony, classy and showy but somehow warmer and less contrived than the Beijing experience.” Enough said.

The challenge is to end the Games on an equally successful note.

Empowering India's women

heavy metal motorbikes, not generally suitable for women, drove Hero Honda to manufacture a niche product “Instead of the usual heavy metal, Pleasure is made from lightweight industrial plastic. Whereas most

Amy Kazmin's piece in the Financial Times (October 8) on the empowerment of Indian women is well worth reading.

She writes: “Nagpur's Just 4 Her is a light and airy retail space, with bright fluorescent green walls, and attentive young saleswomen....

Inside, mirrors are everywhere.... But Just 4 Her is not a fashion boutique selling stylish clothing, jewellery or typical women's accoutrements. It is one of the 20 showrooms across India dedicated to selling Hero Honda's Pleasure, a motor scooter designed for Hero Honda’s Pleasure model women – who are taking to two wheelers in ever growing numbers. It is Indian scooters are traditionally nothing short of a transformakickstart, Pleasure has an ignition revolution,” freeing many tion key. Easy to put on and take middle class women from off its parking stand, it comes in dependence on husbands or a range of colours....Hero brothers to shepherd them Honda's biggest innovation was around. to set up showrooms exclusively for women. Just 4 Her is staffed Adjusting to market entirely by young saleswomen and intended to make customers In a shrinking scooter market, feel comfortable....Pleasure with many males opting for scooters - which cost about Rs

High rise tower in Mumbai

residential tower. He hopes the 450-metre, 117 storey building planned for Mumbai's midtown area – to be known as World One - will help to propel India's financial capital to the top ranks of the world's ultra-high-rise cities, alongside New York, Hong Kong or Shanghai....World One is the most ambitious development in a new wave of supertall apartment towers springing up around Mumbai. These gated developments, a mark of India's rising economic clout, are not only changing the city's skyline but also its social fabric.”

However, all this comes at a price. The segregation of haves and have-nots deepens as mass housing for the lower middle class has yet to take off.

Meanwhile, say our scribes, “In north Mumbai, Vikas Oberoi, the head of Oberoi Realty, is building several residential towers alongside a shopping mall, a five-star hotel, schools and a hospital on an 80-acre plot.

“In central Mumbai....Vikas Kasliwal, vice-chairman of Sree Ram Urban Infrastructure, has designed what he claims is the city's greenest building. The $200 million, 320-metre tower is designed to block radiation from the city's forest of phone masts and a nearby television tower.

The octagonal building can store enough rainwater to service the complex for 12 days, it processes its own waste, and its 215-metre atrium provides ventilation for the building. Service include an indoor cricket pitch and a spa.

The best apartments will sell for about $10 million.” Phew!

Developing Delhi Amy Kazmin's full-page analysis (October 5) on what it will take to develop Delhi's human potential was insightful. Education

campuses....Companies such as the Indo-Japanese Hero Honda motocycle company, Tata Motors and Ispat Steel of India are adopting obsolete state-run vocational training centres to modernise and expand, while the government has established a National Development Corporation, with $217 million to seed private training ventures.” But the process was too slow for comfort, said critics.

Defence deals The Times of India published a Rajat Pandit report (September 30) which told of an Indo-US defence deal involving the purchase by India of Poseidon-81 long-range aircraft to patrol the seas and oceans around India's shores. The first eight aircraft, costing $2.1 billion, were ordered at the end of last year; that order had been recently supplemented by a second order for an additional four planes.

The aircraft are produced by Boeing. Apart from high-tech onboard surveillance equipment, these planes have anti-submarine and anti-ship torpedos, depth bombs and Harpoon missiles. The Poseidon-81 is a forcemultiplier for the Indian Navy.

However, this has been topped by deals with Russia involving the co-development of the top secret Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and a military transport plane, also to be co-developed by the two partners. Surprisingly – for IndoRussian military ties have long been a sore point with AngloAmerican media – The Times published a substantial report on the subject from its Moscow Correspondent, Tony Halpin (October 8).

Mr Halpin writes: “Russia

agreed a massive defence deal yesterday to sell hundreds of advanced stealth fighter jets to India. Delhi intends to buy up to 300 of Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft in a contract that is worth up to $30 billion (£19 billion), the biggest in its military history. It will also buy 45 transport aircraft as part of a joint venture to develop new aircraft with Russia, in a project worth $645 million.”

Indian Defence Minister, A.K.Antony, hosting a visit to Delhi of his Russian counterpart, Anatoli Serdyukov, said: “These are the two major projects for the next ten years, which will be a shining example of Indian-Russian co-operation.”

According to Tony Halpin, this “underscores India's determination to beef up its military capacity alongside its rising global economic influence.”

Reporting from Moscow for the Press Trust of India on the eve of the India-Russia InterGovernment talks on co-operation in defence and defence technologies (October 5),Vinay Shukla spoke to Ruslan Pukhov, Director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies and a member of the Public Advisory Board of the Russian Ministry of Defence, who accompanied Defence Minister Serdyukov on his trip to New Delhi. Mr Pukhov said: “Why shouldn't we jointly work for the development of an Indian SSBN (nuclear submarines for launching ballistic missiles)?”

He went on: “While India and Russia are jointly developing hypersonic BrahMos cruise missiles, fifth generation fighters and futuristic multi-role transport aircraft, no such project is underway with China.” He added: “You will never hear Russian officials expressing concern at the growing Chinese military might, but all of them are are well aware of its implications and very well understand that the PRC poses a potential threat to Russia's Far East and Eastern Siberia. The type of harmony and complementarity of the military-political interests Russia has with India, will never be in our relations with China. This would contradict the elementary norms of geopolitics.” said Mr Pukhov.

Indo-Japanese relationship Earlier, The Tribune newspaper, based in Chandigarh (Punjab), reported a visit to Tokyo by Mr Antony, at the head of a large delegation of senior Indian military officials and top defence scientists, for talks with Japanese ministers and senior aides.

In the context of Japan's recent spat with China, and New Delhi's fraught relationship with Beijing, the Indo-Japan talks on far-reaching military co-operation are of special significance.

They augment the robust IndoSouth Korean military and economic accord sealed recently between New Delhi and Seoul.

A significant strategic alignment is taking shape.

EDUCATION/UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

13

National Hindu Students Forum (UK)

By Miten Kana (NHSF Learning Team)

Building Bridges Through the Power of Dhun Like many cultures and religions, music plays a huge part within Hindu Dharma. Bhajans, aarti, sangeet and even entire scriptures are based around the power of music. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita, which means the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Divine Songâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, was technically sung by Lord Krsna. So powerful is the beauty of music that when it brings together people from all backgrounds, of all ages, of all creeds, it simply cannot be overlooked.

On Tuesday 14th September 2010 at 8pm, Sadhguru Sewa Samiti (SSS) begun what was a truly amazing and inspiring adventure through non-stop 108 hours of Ram Dhun. The word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Dhunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; literally means â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;tuneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, and a Ram Dhun is the singing of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Shree Ram Jay Ram Jay Jay Ramâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to

many different tunes.

The event took place at Slough Mandir. For 6 days the doors of the mandir remained open for people all across the UK to observe, take part in and feel the incredible and inspiring power of Ram Dhun. Three meals a day were provided, hand cooked by families, and not to mention the pleasant 3am chilli paneer surprise for those who were on night duties!

This wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the first time the group had organised such an event. Over the past few years, independently, they have had a 72 hour dhun, and they have also helped the National Hindu Students Forum UK (NHSF) emphatically with both a 12 hour Ram Dhun and Hanuman Chalisa in the north and central region of the UK. Each time,

their presence has encouraged the youth of today to get involved in singing, helping many students to open themselves up and really demonstrate how dhun has a place in all of our hearts. This time, it was no different. People of all generations were singing together, in fact, at one point at 4am on Saturday morning, an elderly gentleman was out-doing the youth by singing non-stop for 3 hours!

The event took 9 months to organise, and involved countless meetings, e-mails and phone calls. There was even a timetable for each member with sleeping plans and other various duties.

SSS comprises of Hindus who all have one common goal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to build bridges through the power of love.

Lord Hanuman and his army of Vaanars, through the sheer prem or love for Lord Ram, helped build the bridge to Lanka so that Lord Ram could save Sita Maa. Many of the group are aged from 15 to 30, and are ardent followers of Lord Hanuman. They come from all parts of the UK and aim to unite people from all backgrounds, which they do so with great success.

On behalf of NHSF, I would like to thank SSS for their dedication and commitment toward inspiring Hindu youth all over the UK and for selflessly supporting NHSF in all that we do. With that all I can say is: Shree Ram Jay Ram Jay Jay Ram!

Student loan repayment threshold set to rise to ÂŁ21,000 The government plans to increase the salary at which graduates in England start to repay their tuition fees from ÂŁ15,000 to ÂŁ21,000. This has emerged ahead of the long-awaited publication of Lord Browne's review of higher education funding. He is expected to recommend allowing universities to charge unlimited fees, but with measures to discourage fees of more than about ÂŁ6,000 to ÂŁ7,000.

Ministers also plan to increase grants and loans for poorer students.

The government is also considering asking all but the poorest graduates in England to pay a higher

rate of interest on their student loans.

Currently all graduates pay a low interest rate, linked to the base rate, on their tuition fee and maintenance loans.

The review, by former BP chief Lord Browne, is due to publish its recommendations on Tuesday.

But as the Liberal

Democrats campaigned in the election against fee rises - and all the party's MPs have signed a pledge to oppose them - ministers have been trying to reach a compromise that will be progressive enough to secure their backing.

The two sides are thought not to have reached a deal yet.

With a nod to this, Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters at Downing Street on Monday the issue was "very difficult" for the coalition.

He said: "Everybody has to compromise because the truth is that we all want the same thing. The work that has been done

by Vince Cable and David Willetts and others is so

good that we hope we will all be able to sign up to getting a bold and radical reform of university finance."

Ministers have moved towards charging most graduates a flat rate of interest on their loans, with only graduates on low salaries enjoying a lower rate.

The threshold for paying the money back would be raised from the current level of ÂŁ15,000 to ÂŁ21,000.

Currently graduates who took loans out after 1998 pay interest rates of 1.5% - but this was only introduced this September - the previous year it was fixed at 0% for that year. It is also expected that there would also be pressure on universities to provide more bursaries.

Hi Profile nails cost business woman thousands A Southall business woman will have to payout more than ÂŁ4,000 following an Ealing Council investigation.

Vimmy Malhotra, of Jersey Road, Hounslow, pleaded guilty at Acton Magistrates Court on Thursday, 30 September.

Malhotra was convicted after carrying out an acrylic nail treatment at her beauty shop, Hi Profile, King Street, Southall, which was not authorised by her special treatment licence. Mrs

Malhotra was fined a total of ÂŁ1,000 and ordered to pay ÂŁ3,590 to cover the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s costs.

Malhotra was prosecuted following an investigation by Ealing Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Regulatory Services team, which began in November 2009.

An undercover licensing officer posed as a customer and was given an acrylic nail treatment, which the salon was not allowed to perform.

Councillor Ranjit Dheer, cabinet member

for Safer Communities, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is another brilliant result for our licensing officers who have been working hard to ensure the beauty shops in the borough are safe and legitimate. This is the third successful prosecution in as many months. Beauty salons should be somewhere you can go to be pampered, without fear of the premises operating without a licence. We will continue to clampdown on any businesses we

believe are operating without the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s permission. â&#x20AC;?

Under the Local Authorities Act (1991) businesses have to obtain a licence from the council to provide special treatments, which include things like acrylic nail treatments, manicures and ear piercing.

The council awards licences to beauty salons that are offering treatments, by qualified professionals using safe and hygienic methods.

A GOOD START TO THE SCHOOL YEAR It has been very encouraging to see the number of enquiries that we have had at eTutors since the start of the Autumn Term.

Obviously, many parents have realised that giving their children an added advantage through tutoring is a sound investment in their future.

I am sure that we all know of a child who has been bitterly disPankaj Vekria appointed by not getting into the CEO, Etutors University of their choice â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or even worse not getting into University at all â&#x20AC;&#x201C; following the recent A level results season. The harsh reality is that Government simply does not have adequate funds to keep on growing the student base ad infinitum.

University places are going to be rationed according to the exam results achieved by applicants for places. We are all going to have to get used to this.

Now before I go any further, let me say that I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe it necessary for everyone to go to University.

There are many people who succeed in life without completing tertiary education and letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face it, with the costs of a University education likely to rise dramatically over the next few years it is worth considering the alternative options. Some degrees do not increase your chances of employment nearly as much as vocational training or an apprenticeship for example. Nonetheless, for certain professions and careers there is no alternative but to ensure that you have good exam grades if you want to get into the best universities.

I am delighted to say that the feedback that we have had from the A Level students that we were coaching this year has been great. They have all done well in their exams and are now looking forward to successful university careers. My thoughts are now turning to the next body of A level students whom we will support over the critical pre A level year. I wish them all well, knowing that they are keen to succeed and eager to learn. They and their parents have taken a very positive step in engaging a tutoring service and have already increased their chances of passing their A levels with flying colours.

Some parents may feel that their child has no need for tutoring. He or she is already at the top of their class in their school. I would urge you to consider this: in their schools, your children are competing against their local peers, when it comes to their A level results they will be competing against children from all over the UK. If your child has set his or her heart on studying Physics at Oxford or Cambridge and there are only 30 or 40 places available in any year then they will be competing against thousands of children across Britain for their place. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a scary thought. OK, not everyone has Oxbridge in their sights, but letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not forget at the next level there are only 20 Russell Universities offering your child a great university career.

For more information about tutoring please call 0845 004 7633.

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14

ART & CULTURE

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

By Spriha Srivastava

CWG 2010: Was the negativity any good?

The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony instilled a sense of pride in every Indian. But if we go back a few hours before the opening ceremony took place, the mood was different. One could sense apprehensions among many regarding the event. With so much of negativity surrounding the games and with months and months of controversies, somewhere it seemed impossible that India will be able to hold the entire event successfully.

tion by the media.”

In a recent poll by Times of India a few weeks back a majority of Indians blamed the authorities for the last minute crisis. More and more people through television, newspapers and web media showed their displeasure against the task undertaken by the games committee. A new trend in Indian democracy which many have compared with the pre-independence mass mobilisation against the British Raj seems to have

CWG 2010

During my last visit to Delhi in March this year, I remember having made a trip to the Commonwealth Games Village only to be told that work is on track and the venue will be ready way ahead of the actual event.

News reports around the world didn’t have too much to carry at that time because everything seemed to be in order. But in the past few months there seems to be a media war over the games. Even Twitter ranks CWG as one of the top ten topics that are being tweeted widely.

There has been a great deal of negativity surrounding the games with everyone suddenly calling it “waste of time and money.” The question is: where did things go wrong? Was it the mismanagement due to the multiple chains of command in India? Or was it in some way to feed the news hungry media houses? Or as many say, was it the western arrogance that drove criticism to India?

Rohit Srivastava, a Human Resource Manager from Hyderabad blames the media for creating this negativity around. “I think to some extent media has been irresponsible. Not to say that there were no shortcomings but it has all been blown out of propor-

emerged as majority of Indians blamed the authorities for the negative publicity with respect to the Commonwealth Games.

However Parijat Garg, founder of GovernIndia, a non-profit social awareness forum thinks that the negativity surrounding the games wasn’t all that bad. “I need to point out that I don’t think the negativity was bad. If they hadn’t raised such a hue and cry about the entire situation then maybe it wouldn’t have been what it turned out to be.”

The games attracted even more attention to every little detail because of the adverse publicity and too much of negativity and that kept the organising committee on its toes at the last moment. But what about the big corruption scandal that took everyone off their feet just a few months before the games started? The news reports about heavy bribery, false invoices and progress of work behind schedule generated a sense of anger and apprehension among the public. At the same time, News channels and newspapers around the world shredded the entire scandal into pieces making India look like a land of cheats and liars. The Indian government postponed an inquiry into the matter and concentrated

on the games. Parijat says, “Just because the show was good I can't condone or forget embezzlement of taxpayer’s money.”

Just today I read a news report in The Times of India which says that foreign journalists themselves feel that there has been a “negative and unfair” publicity of the Commonwealth Games.

John McKinnon, a sports columnist from Canada told an Indian news agency that overall athletes are quite happy with the “facilities in the Games Village, the food and everything.” But this doesn’t stop foreign media from pointing out glitches such as blocked lavatories, empty stands and so on. Infact a few days back when an athlete fell sick, the press blindly blamed the authority for the food quality, even though he seemed to be the only one to fall sick.

The point I am trying to make here is that to a great extent the Indian authorities are to be blamed for things like construction work lagging behind, a gigantic amount spent on the event, corrupt practices and so on.

But building up on all these issues is the bad publicity that the media – both foreign and domestic, has given to the event which in my opinion is driven by news hungry media houses and western arrogance. A thing to note is that the entire wave of negativity went down immediately at the time of the opening ceremony. Even majority of Indians who have been blaming the authority endlessly for a moment lost themselves in feeling proud and patriotic.

Once the games come to an end successfully, everyone’s eyes will be on those accused of corruption. The CWG saga is not going to end so soon. But one thing is for sure, the anger and resentment that was clearly evident in the eyes of many Indians before the games started will slowly go down as we near the end of the games.

For, we Indians tend to forget and forgive quickly.

Once the event is a success and we have enough to thump our chest and blow our own trumpet for the next 20 years, we will be chuffed. Only to be driven again by peppy and sensational coverage of our 24x7 news channels?

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at spriha@abplgroup.com

Kasavu - from God’s own country The golden bordered beauty Kasavu is a traditional Kerala sari worn by the women in south India.

They are simple yet elegant. They are usually off white edged with the foppish golden border that give a complete finish to a sari. Kasavu is the oldest remnant of the ancient form of sari which is said to be derived from the Mundun neriyathum- that were referred to as 'Sattika' in Buddhists and Jain literature.

Kasavu is a heritage passed down from one generation to another and a must trousseau in every South Indian bride's wardrobe. Each

endary Kasavu saris have earned a unique place in the heritage of of the country. This great tradition of Kasavu saris have been creating waves in the fashion world. They are worn by the famous Kasavu sari speaks of the concupiscence and ethnicity that it stuns in terms of immurement. In qualitative terms the cotton stands superior with is procured from best cotton textile industries in India. A traditional Kasavu sari has a nice combination of artistic work and design on its pallav that sets its part from other modern sari. Its rich and contrasting golden chromaticity add aesthetic grace. In India, especially in Kerala, they are worn by the women of all age.

Women in Kerala purchase them for special occasions.

There are many hands that go into the making of precious Kasavu sari. They are woven by a team of expert weavers who take atleast two to three days to weave one sari.

However it can more time depending on the design of a sari. The prises of these sari's start from RS 500 and can reach up to Rs 50,000 and above. The leg-

Bollywood celebrities and have already capture the heart of the western world. The superior outlook of the Kasavu saris, can best highlight the credulous look of the Indian women. It is during the festivals, especially Onam and Vishu, that one can see the typical Kerala dressing when the women in 'Set Saris' (white saris with borders of gold thread (Kasavu)) and blouse matching the sari border colour could be seen with men, who prefer white dhoti with kasavu borders for such occasions.

In Kerala these saris are worn for occasions like Onam and Vishu the two main festivals of Kerala.

Every Keralite girl has to have this sari as part of their wedding shopping and they a r e worn b y the

women of Kerala even during the wedding ceremonies. Kerala saris are picking up in fashion and many Bollywood heroines too are trying it out not only in flicks but trying to make it a fashion statement as well.

15

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

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Rajnikanth is not comfortable being called ‘God’ All other things apart, what Rajni can't be, is God. Agreed, that his latest film, “Robot,” has been a roaring success, that the actor has always been treated as a demigod in the South, that he has several temples in his name there. But humility surpasses it all.

Rajnikanth has expressed discomfort at being called `God'.

A simultaneous release last week that is doing good business at the box office is “Khichdi.” When Rajnikanth watched one of the promos of ‘Khichdi’ on television, he told his assistant to ask the producer of the film why his name had been used in the promo.

Rajni wanted to ensure that the promo wouldn't call him 'God'. Confirming that he received this call, J D Majethia, the producer of ‘Khichdi’ said, "I got the call.

Apparently, Rajni sir had asked his assistant to find out the exact nature of the promo. The assistant told me that Rajni sir did not like to be referred as God. I told the assistant that we all have immense respect for Rajni sir and are huge fans of his. It is both unfortunate and fortunate that our humble effort released with his film.

It is unfortunate that we had to clash our film with his although it was never planned that way; the fortunate part is that in spite of such stiff competition with ‘Robot’ and ‘Anjaana Anjaani,’ our film stood its ground and has done very good business."

Explaining that the remarks about Rajni in the promo were not derogatory, Majethia added, "The characters of the film are so stupid that they do not even recognise God when he comes in front of them.

Since they have heard so much about the temples being made for Rajnikanth, they think that Rajnikanth is God. It is a sequence on Hansa and Praful. I would have removed the scene if Rajni sir had insisted on it but it's fine now."

‘Hiss’ in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam

Hollywood director Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s Indo-US production venture “Hisss,” starring Mallika Sherawat as a snake woman along with Irrfan Khan, Jeff Douchette, Divya Dutta and Raman Trikha in important roles, is being dubbed in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam by Sri Tirumalai Tirupati Venkateswara Films.

The film will hit the marquee on October 22.

Notably, Hisss will be premiered at the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema and the Gotham Screen Film Festival & Screenplay Contest in New York.. It has cinematography by Madhu Ambat and music by Alexander.

Actor S S Chandran passes away Noted comedian and politician S S Chandran died of cardiac arrest last week. He was in Mannargudi to attend a political meeting and returned to his hotel room later in the night complaining of chest pain. Doctors were immediately called in to the hotel where they declared that he was already dead. He was 69 years old. He is survived by a son Rohit and a daughter. He was a member of parliament and a member of the AIADMK.

Even Rs 150 mn can’t entice Akki to do a film Bollywood star Akshay Kumar is known to be a professional when it comes to money but he surprised everyone by denying a lucrative offer from producer Vashu Bhagnani. The producer has reportedly offered the star a whopping amount of Rs 150 million for starring in his upcoming movie titled “Faltu.”

Bhagnani is trying all means to revive the career of his son Jackky Bhagnani.

He is following the path of veteran

filmmaker Raj Kumar Kohli, who used to cast all the leading heroes in his films to boost the career of his son Armaan Kohli. Now, Vashu is following the same path.

Akshay was offered this huge amount only to work for 10 days in Bhagnani's “Faltu,” which will star his son Jacky. But Akshay has refused to accept the offer politely saying that he is in dearth of dates now.

Well, Akshay is right because he already has so many projects i n

hand so it would have been an impossible task for him to manage all of them at the same time. He is already working on Farah Khan's “Tees Maar Khan” and hosting the Star Plus' show 'Master Chef India'.

There is buzz that initially Vashu approached Sanjay Dutt with an undisclosed amount.

But Dutt had reportedly declined it because Vashu did not sign his manager Dharam Oberoi's daughter, Neha.

Then Vashu forwarded the offer to Bollywood's 'khiladi' but his bad luck that Akshay also rejected it.

Remo will be directing the movie with Jacky as the leading hero. Vashu is trying to re-launch his son, whose debut film “Kal Kissne Dekha” was a flop last year.

Now, reports say that Vashu has deleted the character, which he wanted Sanjay or Akshay to play.

Kangana Ranaut dre to become a direc Her unconventional looks and frizzy hair landed her atypical roles in Bollywood.

Kangana Ranaut now harbours a dream of donning the director's hat and already has a script in mind. " I ' m q u i t e h a p p y w i t h how my career is moving, but in terms of the future, soon, I guess I'd like to direct a movie. I have a script in mind. Let's see where it goes," Kangana said in an interview.

She revealed her plans,

Vidya Balan says no to play Indira Gandhi Filmmaker Krishna Shah's plan to make a film on India's late prime minister Indira Gandhi is pending since the last one year.

Initially, when the movie was announced on her 92nd birth anniversary on November 19, 2009, the name of Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit was finalized to play the role of the strong leader of the country.

However, since then, many other big names have been doing the rounds. The list includes the names of leading Bollywood actresses such as Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Now, if reports are to be believed, unconventional and talented actress Vidya Balan was also approached to play the role of Indira Gandhi. But, she has reportedly denied playing the role of the most dynamic political leader of India. Vidya is currently very busy with other projects. She has already started working on director Sujoy Ghosh's new film. In this movie, the actress will be seen playing a pregnant widow seeking revenge. The theme of the movie sounds like the popular Hollywood film “Kill Bill.”

Krishna Shah has researched thoroughly on this legendary politician for the last 20 years. He has conducted several interviews with journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, military men, writers and the contemporaries of Indira Gandhi. Shah has also read many books to deliver an authentic movie on her life.

but refrained from divulging details.

The 23-year-old sailed into Bollywood with the crime-based romantic saga, "Gangster - A Love Story" (2006), where director Anurag Basu presented her as a gangster's girlfriend. The actress won accolades for her portrayal in the critically and commercially acclaimed film.

After that she again chose to play an unconventional role in "Woh Lamhe", which was filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's final goodbye to former girlfriend Parveen Babi. In the film, Kangana brilliantly portrayed the late actress' madness and despair.

Again in "Life In A... Metro", a film about big city people coping with emotional and psychological trauma, Basu presented her as a call centre executive who is in a relationship with her married boss.

With Bhandarkar's "Fashion", a dark tale about the fashion industry, she hit bull's eye. Her stupendous performance where she brings forth the miseries of an ex-ramp queen

won her a N Most of in tragic r often refer tragedy que legendary a playing grie "It's be came to th just 17 wit expect. I 'Gangster' box office. the indus chance.”

At the m is full of "Double D and "Tanu doing "Rasc Apart f trying her has herself movies "R may soon l When a looking for much work single for n

SBI CEO Rajnish Kumar and Ash open Ro

CEO State Bank of India UK Rajnish Kumar and Bollywoo Aishwarya Rai Bachchan launched the UK premiere of R biggest ever opener, at the Trocadero Cinema, Leiceste 30 September.

State Bank of India (SBI), a Fortune 500 premier banki and worldwide, was the title premiere sponsor of the Rajn ence fiction movie. The film, Robot (Endhiran in Tamil) is est film in the history of Indian cinema and has been runn across the world since its 1st October release.

Mr Kumar announced at the exclusive preview scree proud to support Robot in the UK, a movie whose record b cess is evidence of the increasing reach of Indian talent were impressed with the cutting edge cinematic special were of a calibre and ambition we are all too happy to en industry.” Aishwarya, accompanied by her equally famou star Abhishek Bachchan, introduced the big-budget movi ence. “This is a full-on commercial movie, one that as doing, with lots of songs and dances that I haven’t done in ther shared, “I always do these getting into the skin of the c so this was a full-on entertaining trip, one hell of a journ enjoy the ride viewing it.” Abhishek Bachchan, scion of th a hugely popular star took a back seat at the premiere bu film, “It's a wonderful film, it's huge, it's entertaining, and cinema stands for.”

eaming ctor

National Award. f her films have seen her roles; as a result she is red to as a modern day een, a title once given to actress Meena Kumari for ef-stricken characters. een quite a journey...I he industry when I was h no real idea of what to was fortunate that was a huge hit at the I won a lot of awards and stry gave me another

moment, Kangana's kitty light-hearted films like Dhamaal", "No Problem", Weds Manu". She is also cals", "Game" and "Tezz". from acting, she is also hand at designing. She f created clothes for the ascals" and "Tezz". She aunch her clothing line. asked whether she was r love, she said: "With so k on my plate, I'm happily now!"

bot UK premiere

od’s biggest global star Robot, Indian cinema’s r Square on Thursday

ng institution in the UK nikanth-Aishwarya scis considered the costliing to packed cinemas

ening, “We at SBI are breaking box office sucacross the globe. We effects in Robot. They courage among Indian us husband Bollywood ie to the preview audian actor I had a blast n a long time.” She furcharacter kind of roles, ey, and I’m sure you’ll he Bachchan clan and ut also spoke about the everything that Indian

Bollywood

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Mallika doesn’t want to go dare-bare Mallika Sherawat refuses to indulge in a skinfest for “ D o u b l e Dhamaal.” The B-Town bombshell, surprisingly, has reservations about her look and styling in the comic caper.

The sudden change in stance of one of the industry's boldest and sexiest actress has taken the unit unawares.

Informs a source, "Her attitude has left everyone

exasperated. It has taken not only the makers but also her co-stars by surprise. She is just not keen on going bare-dare."

Mallika maintains, "It's funny how obsessed everyone is with what I wear when all I am trying to do is, be true to the character."

The actress adds, "First, there were reports that I was in a bikini in the first shot and now, that I've turned into a sati savitri. Neither version is entirely accurate."

Director Indra Kumar and producer Ashok Thakeria had signed her for the project even though she had been missing from the B-Town scene after her 2008 flick “Maan

Gaye Mughal-e-Azam.”

She had moved to the US and made news for the promotions of her forthcoming flick “Hisss” occasionally with a python wrapped around her curves.

“Double Dhamaal” stars Sanjay Dutt, Kangna Ranaut, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aashish Chaudhry and Jaaved Jaafery. Mallika is paired with Dutt.

Buzz was that the actress had given her nod to Double Dhamaal without a discussion over her fee with the makers.

Apparently, she was delighted about being a part of the sequel and more importantly, working with Dutt.

Kareena in cold war with Saif over his kids

Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan didn't speak to each other for several days after arguing over his kids.

They later resolved their issues and now the foursome are singing: We Are Family Saif and Kareena didn't exchange a word for six days. And that's because the actor -producer wanted his ladylove to play 'mommy' to his kids with Amrita Singh Sara and Ibrahim.

The children had come over to stay with their dad, some time ago. Usually Bebo lets her beau spend quality time with his children. But as they were spending a few days at his Bandra home, the actress had to be around.

Says a source, "The couple had an argument over the subject when Kareena did not show any desire to pamper the kids. The outcome of which was that they did not talk to each for a few

days till things cooled down between them and the kids left."

Bebo, however, denies the incident and says, "It's nonsense." The source continues, "Both then decided to forget the incident and all was well again."

The couple was spotted with Sara and Ibrahim at a special screening of “Anjaana Anjaani” (ironically!) at Ketnav Studios. It looks like they have reconciled their differences and

the Kapoor girl has now decided to be around when her guy is spending time and his bachchas.

Adds the source, "Kareena often talks about how she loves to spend time with her niece Samaira. In fact at their home there are several photo frames of her sister Karisma Kapoor's daughter and her drawings, etc. But there is nothing of Sara and Ibrahim around."

Soon things might change on that front too.

Deepika bonding well with Sharmila Tagore Deepika is not denying love for Siddharth Mallaya. But she isn't admitting it either.

Tell her about the rumours and she laughs, “We all know how true such rumours are. I'm very uncomfortable about talking it. Let the press write and say what it has to.

I'm not saying anything. ” So did Siddharth lose weight on svelte Deepika's say-so?

Speaking of Sid's size Deepika sighs, “Let me put it this way. If someone decides to lose that much weight the willpower has to come from within, and not from someone else. Beyond that I wouldn't know why he lost so much weight. I never had to lose so much weight. ” She opens up when talking about her career. At the moment it's all very hushhush. But here's the inside information. A very sensitive and passionate filmmaker

known for his epic vision and grand spectacles is planning to remake Shakti Samanta's 1971 classic “Amar Prem.”

The director will cast Deepika Padukone in Sharmila Tagore role.

And Deepika is all for it.

“I think it's a great compliment. I'd love to do a film like Amar Prem. I want to do a classic Hindi-film heroine's part. That's my true calling.

I'm really looking forward to it. ” There is a special bonding between Deeepika and Sharmila Tagore who plays her mother in new-director Danish Aslam's film “Break Ke Baad.” The screen motherdaughter spend hours together.

Deepika can't keep the admiration out of her voice while speaking of the senior actress. “We had our dimples in common, and that broke the ice. She's one of the most elegant ladies I've come across.”

17

Aakrosh

An action/thriller from Big Screen Entertainer and Zee Motion Pictures, Aakrosh is a Kumar Mangat film, directed by Priyadarshan. It revolves around a lower caste guy who had gone along with his 2 friends to a village - Jhanjhar in Bihar, his native place, to watch Ramleela. These 3 students of Delhi University go missing in the dusty village.

Even after 3 months there was no clue where the young students vanished. Media and students movement all over Bihar take up the issue to trace them. It is only then that government appoints CBI officers Siddhant Chaturvedi and Pratap Kumar to find out the truth about the case. A person residing in Bihar himself, Pratap understands the intricacies of race relations in small towns like Jhanjhar. Pratap tries to use his charm and smartness to crack investigation whereas Siddhant has a very no non-sense, direct approach investigation.

It's simply a clash of personalities and ideologies.

Investigating in Jhanjhar becomes a tough task for these officers as the local police force Headed by Bhura Ram with the help of local MP's and landlords run a major branch of the Shool Sena.

Soon the effect of investigations by the duo cause mayhem in Jhanjhar, with riots, burning of houses and killing of peasants in broad daylight.

The lead cast of the film consists of Ajay Devgn, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Paresh Rawal, Urvashi Sharma, Reema Sen, Amita Pathak, Vineet Sharma and Sameera Reddy (Item Number).

Robin Bhatt has written the story and the screenplay, while dialogues are by Aditya Dhar. Irshad Kamil has penned the lyrics while Pritam Chakraborty has set the music.

Kalpana Patowary, Ajay Jhingran, Anupam Amod, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sukhwinder Singh and Javed Ali have rendered the playback.

New Hindi movies releasing this week (1) Aakrosh (3) Knock Out

(2) Baru – The Wonder Kid (4) Ramayana – The Epic

Top 5 Bollywood movies for the week No. 1 2 3 4 5

Film Last Week Total Weeks Anjaana Anjaani New 1 Robot [Hindi version] New 1 Dabangg 1 4 Khichdi - The Movie New 1 Benny and Babloo New 1

Priyanka voted most kissable Desi girl Priyanka Chopra beats competition from fellow Bollywood beauties Aishwarya Rai and Kareena Kapoor to bag the title of the most kissable star.

The 28-year-old actress who became an instant pin-up with “Dostana” topped the survey conducted by men's magazine Fantasy.

"It was a close run but Priyanka Chopra's bee-stung lips made her a perfect candidate to top this list," said the magazine about the winning candidate.

Aishwarya who is riding high with the success of Rajinikanth starrer “Robot” came second while Kareena Kapoor grabbed the third spot.

Bollywood's favourite Bengali

beauty Bipasha Basu came fourth and Katrina Kaif rounded off the top five.

Sonam Kapoor occupied the sixth spot and Mallika Sherawat was the seventh entry on the list. Deepika Padukone, Genelia D'Souza and Asin rounded off the top ten.

18

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

EU trade deal may overturn UK immigration cap

Alpesh Patel Consultant Editor Financial Voice Dear Financial Voice Reader, I expect the UK and US markets to be up about 10% more before the end of the year. That’s your stock idea for the week. But more importantly than that, I want you to understand more about the trader friend of mine I mentioned last week who has lost $2m in a very short space of time.

Here’s a spot quiz to measure your trading IQ: you have 3 doors. Behind one is a car and behind the other two a donkey. You pick, say, door one, and the host, who knows what is behind the other two doors, opens door three, which has a donkey. He then asks you if “you want to pick door number two.” Is it to your advantage to switch?

Most people get the answer wrong, reasoning it makes no difference whether or not you switch your choice. It is in fact beneficial to switch.

What’s it got to do with trading? Everything. The lack of even a rudimentary understanding of probabilities leads to poor trading decisions.

Handling probabilities are not the only area where your trading IQ may be below par. Reading corporate news is another worrying area. Try this one: you are told that a pack of cards has letters on one side and numbers on the other. Imagine that someone makes the following statement If there is a vowel on one side then there is an even number on the other. There are four cards drawn, on which A, B, 2, 3 respectively are facing up. Which cards would you need to turn over to decide if the statement is true or false?

A card problem with no relevance to trading? Try telling that to George Soros, the legendary trader.

According to him most traders would say A and 2, whereas the correct answer is A and 3.

Most get it wrong because they seek confirmation of a statement, instead of disconfirmation. (turning over 2 and finding a vowel would at best only confirm the statement, you need to turn over 3 to disconfirm and disprove it). The ability of traders to look for disconfirmation is rare and profitable argues Soros.

It relates directly to trading because other experiments too show that when traders are presented with market news their trading decisions tend to be based on merely confirming their pre-existing views. It is the ones who seek disconfirmation that are rare and profitable says Soros.

The lesson is clear, our trading IQ is improved if in reading financial news sites we look for evidence of ours pre-existing views being incorrect. Look for reasons not to buy a stock.

The ability to forecast future price ranges is central to any form of investment. Yet it is yet another area where traders’ IQ appears deficient. For instance imagine you are asked to make a range prediction such that you are 90% sure that the price of say, Vodafone, will be within that range in 12 months.

The chances are you will be wrong and the price will be outside your range – even though you were asked for 90% certainty. We know traders would get it wrong because research shows over 80% of traders wrongly forecast the price range of certain equities 12 months hence, even when asked for a range which was so wide they felt 90% sure the price would fall within it. And that’s the professionals!

Alpesh.patel@tradermind.com

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Bank of Baroda is India’s best bank for 2010 Business India magazine adjudged Bank of Baroda as the best Indian bank in 2010.

BoB is one of the oldest Indian Bank with dominant presence abroad, particularly in UK. M D Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director of BoB received the award from Kamal Nath, India’s minister for Roads and Highways at Mumbai last week. He said it would be his endeavour to create a new age bank that will meet the aspirations of customers.

Mallya said the customers are the guiding force of the bank.

BoB has also set a target to reach out to 20,000 villagers in next three years.

Kamal Nath commended the 102 year old bank for their goal to reach out, as estimates suggest that almost half of the citizens in the country are yet to get banking facilities.

Commenting on the sterling performance of public sector banks in the country during the 200809 global financial crises, Nath said India’s staterun banks proved every critic wrong during and after the crisis.

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While Britain is working hard to drastically cut down immigration of skilled workers from nonEU countries and India being one of the prominent countries to be hit, a new trade deal that the European Union is eager to strike with India will overturn David Cameron government’s efforts at limiting immigration from India.

A planned EU “free trade agreement” with India, to be signed this December, will give skilled Indian IT workers, engineers and managers easy passage into Europe in return for European companies gaining access to India's huge domestic market.

The deal has split some of the most senior figures in the Conservative-

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Liberal Democrat Coalition. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, argue that the EU-India agreement must go ahead because it is worth hundreds of millions of pounds to business. David Cameron and Theresa May, the Home Secretary, are opposed.

Cabinet talks over the deal begin next week and senior government.

The European Commission has asked for comments by the end of October from the British and other EU governments on a negotiating position that was hammered out with the Indian authorities over the summer.

India has insisted on increased mobility for its

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Britain is usually on the free-trade wing of the EU and British business is concerned that the country could instead be aligned with more protectionist countries, such as France.

David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said companies needed to have the ability to recruit skilled employees from outside Britain.

"The U.K. must maintain its position as a member state that is an advocate of free trade, and we must surrender no ground to protectionism," he said.

A Brussels study has predicted that under an EU-wide deal with India, Europe's economy would grow by pounds 3.9 billion a year.

skilled workers in return for reduced tariffs on European products and the lifting of some restrictions on businesses bidding for public procurement contracts.

Under the current EU negotiating position, Indians who are skilled professionals will be able to work in any EU country under contract.

Britain will be bound by any final EU agreement and British companies will be able to recruit in sectors such as information technology, management consultancy and engineering.

Many Conservative politicians fear the trade deal will undercut the wages of British managers and make nonsense of the promise to cap immigration from non-EU coun-

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FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

19

Property Focus Suresh Vagjiani Managing Director of Sow & Reap, a Property Investment & Financing company.

Sow & Reap - Sharing the success of Gujarat in London This week we had a marathon of presentations. The first kicking off in Blue Ginger on the 5th October where the turn out breached the capacity for the presentation hall we had hired. The venue accommodated only 50 people and now held 80, the tables had to be removed and the food was taken to the outer room, a first for them.

The second was on the 7th in Crawly where the turn out was again very strong.

The attendees were made up of many professionals and successful local business men and women.

The third was on the 10th October, on a Sunday, in the main artery of Leicester Melton Road in Swathere though the crowd was not as large as the other two events the bookings were instantaneous.

We had four confirmed bookings on the seminar date.

Normally the bookings take place the days following the seminar. The buyers are normally segregated into three. The first group are ready to buy blind, that is without seeing the plot, the second insist on seeing the plot themselves, the third send a friend or family member to have a look at the site.

We appreciate there exists a lot of nervousness in investing in India, and therefore accomodate all three group to act within their own comfort levels. The developer is fully committed to accomodate our clients for a site visit. Due to the demand we take a fully refundable despot subject to a site visit. To date no one has requested their deposit back.

In all the presentations we do we like to offer little extra, on these three occasions Rituraj Mehta, the developer of Nalsafari offered a free flight to India for any bookings at the seminar and also a 15% buy back guarantee. I doubt the second option will be taken by anyone as we expect the plots to increase by a far greater percentage.

One merely has to look at the rates of lending by Indian Banks which float around the 7-8% mark. Nobody would be borrowing for the purchase of the property unless the property increases by at least this much. The potential for cross border opportunity is massive due to the low interets rates currently offered in the UK. The other variable is the currency fluctuations. If your opinion is the pound will weaken against the rupee you will gain from both ends. First on the uplift in property and secondly on the appreciation of the Rupee. If it goes down of

Attendees at the Seminar

course it will act as a dampener to the gain made by the property. The general consensus because of the direction India is heading is the Rupee will gain in strength. As NRI’s many often go back for shopping and holidays and therefore wealth in Rupees is just as useful.

We have done many seminars featuring Nal Safari. What we are seeing now is people who have purchased previously are now bringing their friendss and family along tothe seminars also participate in the al Safari project. The interest in this development is snow balling.

Rituraj Mehta organises socials at the site every couple of months where the owners can meet one another and get to know each other. The events are done with great pomp and flair. They are themed from Arabian Nights to Traditional Raas Garba. This helps to build a community feel to the development. It is very rare for one gujarati alone simply to purchase one plot in-fact it would be an oddity. Due to the nature of this species inevitably his immediate family and friends would also purchase a plot too, they either do not want to live on their own or be left out.

It is for this reason we are seeking partners to work with Sow & Reap to arrange presentations in their local areas.

If you are interested in becoming an agent

for us please call our offices for a chat.

The above proves the appetite for investing in property is strong, with the UK market in general predicted for a shaky time it is logical fo the NRI to invest back home which just happens to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world.

The seminars are delivered not necessarily in the most professional way, nor is Rituraj a great orator, what does come across is that he is a salt of the earth builder who has put his heart into the project and has delivered on his promise to complete the development before he moves to the next one. Many of his investors stick with him from project to project, and this is what we feel counts. There are many who have slick presentations yet their delivery on the ground is poor.

Following the presentation we have a question and answer session. The one question which arises again and again is this “ Bhai, Rabari gosi jai thou?”. Rabari’s are a tribe who’s women wear colourful and intricate designed clothes and who’s men have moustaches like the ajastanis and roam often from place to places.

So basically the concern here is if

they were to overcome security and jump over the fencing and make the plot theirs what would happen? – roughly translated.

I have committed the answer to memory. Rituraj would patiently explain he has never heard this happen to anyone directly, it always seems happen to someone some knows who knows someone.

Once the plot is in your name no one can take it.

This is a story from decades ago which seems to have lodged itself in the mind of the NRI and blocked them from doing anything in India.

What has happened is this, the NRI being an NRI allows someone to live on his plot to look after the home in return for free milk. The tenant now says he needs electricity and so the NRI says if you need it you pay for it. Hence he now has a electricity contract in his name and the host carries on like this until he has a stack of papers which gives him a strong case to claim the property.

Very simply if the ownership is in doubt or could be in doubt, Banks like HDFC will not lend on this scheme. They have more to lose then you do, their exposure is far greater then yours.

It would be silly for investors to miss this and other opportunities for because of a misnomer.

So call us now to book a plot or if you wish to become an agent for Sow & Reap.

We are looking for those individuals who are particularly well networked in the community. All you have to do is bring in the people, we do all the rest. So call us now !

n Mortgages n Commercial Finance n Property Sourcing n Gujarat Properties - Sale & Resale T: 0207 706 0187 F: 0203 014 8484

E: info@sowandreap.co.uk W: www.sowandreap.co.uk

31 Southwick Street, Paddington, W2 1JQ Registered in England No. 05083823

20

financial voice

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

British - Indian Subhash Thakrar is LCCI chairman Maria Fernandes maria@abplgroup.com

The effect of the downturn on migrant workers The effect of the downturn is that work permit holders like other staff are all vulnerable to losing their jobs or having their pay cut. In the case of employees the consequences for doing so can affect their status. This article looks at two scenarios.

Temporary reduction in hours Temporary reduction to workers hours is permitted in the following circumstances: ● The employees last grant of leave was as a Tier 2 employee ● The employee is continuing to work in the same job with reduced working hours ● The reduced working hours are part of a company wide policy to avoid redundancies ● Any reduction in wages is proportionate to the reduction in hours ● The arrangements will be in place for no longer than a year ● The employer does not treat migrant workers more favourably than resident workers Previously the reduction could not be for upto 30% of the salary across the board. The new guidance appears to be more flexible than before. In terms of reductions but the reduction is only permitted for 1 year.

Cutting leave short Where sponsor licences are not renewed, with-

drawn or the business is taken over and the new employer fails to apply for a licence within 28 days, leave to remain can be curtailed for: ● 60 days or ● With immediate effect if the sponsor’s licence is withdrawn and the worker was somehow involved ● Where the remaining portion is for over 6 months Secondary employment Employees are permitted to take additional work provided that the following conditions are met: ● The position is in the same profession and at the same professional level as the work for which a certificate of sponsorship was issued ● Only 20 hours of work is permitted ● These must be outside the working hours for which the sponsorship was issued ● The employee must continue to work for the sponsor which is recorded on the Certificate of Sponsorship.

Maria Fernandes has been in practice exclusively in immigration for the past 25 years and is accredited in Immigration Law by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Fernandes Vaz is based at 87 Wembley Hill Road Wembley in Wembley and can be contacted by telephone on 020 8733 0123.

Ratan Tata to advise UK on economic priorities Govt. appoints 19 member group for business strategies Ratan Tata, the head of India’s one of the most prominent industrial and business empire of the Tata Group was appointed as a member of a 19 member advisory group for the UK government of David Cameron. Tata Group also owns reputed UK businesses of Corus Steel that is now rechristened as Tata Steel Europe, JLR, the legendary British car brands and Tetley tea.

The advisory group will assist the UK government in preparing business strategies and highlight priorities for the British economy.

Some of the other industry leaders in the council include Paul

Ratan Tata

Walsh of Diageo, Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, Justin King of Sainsbury’s, Sam Laidlaw of Centrica, Sir Michael Rake of BT and Dick Olver of BAE Systems .

Sony chairman Sir Howard Stringer and Mr Tata were believed to have been included in the list at the last moment.

Subhash T h a k r a r, one of the founding members of the Subhash A s i a n Thakrar Business Association at the London Chamer of Commerce – LCCI was recently elected chairman of LCCI at the AGM of the body last month.

The Uganda born British Indian business leader is a chartered accountant and a senior partner at Blackstone Franks, engaged in advising international corporations on conducting business in UK and cross border ventures.

Willie Walsh, British Airways chief executive was elected the President of the chamber and Subhash Thakrar will work closely with him.

Subhash Thakrar has extensive experience in India also. He is also a regular in various public and charitable activities.

Born in Uganda near Jinja, near the source of the famous Nile river, Thakrar moved to the UK and graduated from Birmingham University and later qualified as a chartered accountant.

In accepting his nomination as Chairman, Subhash said that the UK had given him much and that this was an opportunity for him to give back, something he does regularly in his various public and charitable roles including fundraising for Northwick Park Hospital and acting as a trustee for the Atlee Foundation to help deprived children.

Subhash has also taken part in long distance cycling for charities, including one from London to Paris, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Leadership Matters Keeping it in the Family – Part 2 – Not ‘What’ but ‘How’ The Bollywood film ‘Wake up Sid’ is based on the story of a boy ‘Sid’ (or Siddarth), whose father is a businessman who devotes his whole life to building a business and a better life for his family. Having struggled so much in his own life, he ensures that his only son wants for nothing.

The result is Sid grows up being spoilt and inevitably fails his exams.

The failure starts a journey for Sid during which he ‘wakes up’ and recognises his parents sacrifices and realises that he should work to make something of his life.

We all come into this world empty handed and take nothing with us when we leave. What happens in between is summed up by one word – ‘life’. Life ‘happens’ to all of us. We are born, we learn, we work, we die.

Now what if you spend the majority of your life working to achieve something, to making a positive difference in the lives of those around you only

for them to not appreciate your efforts? Many business people feel unappreciated or even betrayed when their children do not show an interest in the family business.

I have heard friends say that they want to do something more interesting; others say they just want a ‘Monday to Friday’ job which offers a better work-life balance.

These are credible reasons for wanting to do something else, but is this also a lack of appreciation of their parents who sacrificed their own pleasures to build a better life?

The key point to consider is that everyone is different and has different aspirations. While every parent wants their children to follow in their footsteps, what does this actually mean? Is it simply about kids doing what their parents did or more importantly sharing the same values? Herein is a distinction which many parents fail to make

By Amit Patel

thus giving rise to false expectations and ultimately heartache. ‘If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable each segment distinct’ (Pogrebin).

Ultimately Sid tells his father that although he has realised that he has to work hard, he doesn’t want to run the family business. His father says ‘Son, just promise me you will work hard in whatever you do’, in other words, follow in his footsteps not in ‘what’ he did, but ‘how’ he did it.

(Amit Patel has over 15 years experience in the field of Leadership and Human Resource Management).

EU strike hard on steel cartels, ArcelorMittal slapped with highest fines 16 others too fined for operating a price-fixing cartel for two decades ArcelorMittal, UK headquartered global steel giant owned by British Indian LN Mittal was last week fined more than Euro 230 mn for being a part of price fixing cartel operating in the Europe Union for almost two decades. Total fines slapped to the group of 17 steel producers amounted to more than Euro 458 mn.

Two of ArcelorMittal entities - ArcelorMittal Fontaine and ArcelorMittal Wire France had their fines raised by more than 60 per cent, as

they had been penalised twice earlier also for the same violations.

Joaquin Almunia, VicePresident of the European Commission in charge of competition, announcing the fines said, “It is amazing how such a significant number of companies abused nearly the entire European construction market for such a long time and for such a vital product. This was almost as if they were acting in a planned economy.” The Commission is the execu-

tive arm of the European Union. The Commission has fined 17 pre-stressing steel producers a total of over 458 million euro for operating a price-fixing and market-sharing cartel between January 1984 and September 2002 in all the countries that then formed the EU except the United Kingdom, Ireland and Greece, the Commission said. The companies fixed individual quotas and prices, allocated clients and exchanged sensitive commercial information.

PennyTalk makes international calls cheaper and easier Those with loved ones abroad now have a cheaper, easier way to stay in touch, thanks to a new service called PennyTalk.

Already a global success, PennyTalk offers a simple way to call overseas at incredibly low rates and with many more benefits than a pre-paid calling card.

Users set up a PennyTalk account with a quick phone call or by securely registering online. Then they top up their account with as little as £10 and can start calling abroad straight away!

With PennyTalk you can call from any phone; landline, mobile or smartphone – there’s even a free iPhone app you can download. PennyTalk works with your existing mobile or landline phone service, and with mobiles you

don’t have to do any fiddly SIM card changing.

PennyTalk offers fantastic low rates. You can call India for just 1.5p a minute, Bangladesh for 1.9p a minute and Pakistan for 4.9p a minute. At these rates, plus a 35p connection fee per call, a half-hour call to India costs just 80p! And with fantastically clear voice quality too. Mrs Ramila Patel of Harrow has been delighted with PennyTalk’s service. ‘It’s much less hassle than using cards and the rates for calling India are the lowest I’ve seen.’

With PennyTalk you’re not locked into any contract and you don’t get any annoying bills. You just top up your PennyTalk account with as much or as little as you like, as often as you like. Once

you’re set up, nothing more is ever charged to your credit or debit card unless you authorise it.

No contract means you can cancel the service at any time, and if you do, your outstanding balance is quickly refunded.

PennyTalk has got some amazing features that make it much better than a traditional calling card. For example, an ‘Auto-Recharge’ feature gives you the choice of automatically topping up your account when funds run down, so that you never run out of calling time. Users also have 24/7 access, online or over the phone, to PennyTalk’s account centre to check their call history and account balance or change calling features.

New! Unlimited Calling!

Those who frequently

call the same places can also take advantage of PennyTalk World and talk for as long as they want, as often as they want, for a single low-rate monthly fee. Unlimited calling to India is just £17.99 per month.

PennyTalk is an innovation from IDT, a global communications company that’s been providing lowcost international calling to businesses and consumers around the world for over twenty years.

Savvy customers in the US have made PennyTalk a popular choice thanks to its big savings and convenience and now the UK can take advantage of its many benefits.

For more information on cheaper international calls, please visit PennyTalk.co.uk or call 0808 168 3437

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

21

Foreign Exchange Rajesh Agrawal is the Chairman & CEO of RationalFX, Currency Specialists.

For any further information call 020 7220 8181 or e-mail info@rationalfx.com

Currency Wars The recent recession in the world’s economy initially caused the heads of the world’s economies to group together to work in unison to provide stability in the world’s financial markets. It was a concerted effort by the financial leaders to get the world back on track and to regain the confidence of the consumer in the financial systems worldwide. As time has gone on and the green shoots of recovery have started to show but the unity is now not looking as solid as it was maybe a year ago.

Everyone wants their economy to start showing improvement and it could develop into a race to show who has turned it around the quickest.

Many now believe the way to turn things around is to lower the value of their currency on the currency markets to stimulate their exports worldwide.

Many especially the US has done this in response to China not budging on the level of the price fixing of their currency. It is thought that the level of the Chinese Yuan on the fixed rate is not a true reflection of its value.

Many leaders although not wanting upset China are now calling for them to change the rate to a more acceptable level for all. It is thought that it is giv-

ing them a distinct advantage as to producing and exporting goods and that it is something that they need to address so everyone is playing on a level playing field.

They obviously are reluctant to do this as their economy is still booming but they have to be aware that that if everywhere else in the world is suffering then their exports will also be

hit. The balancing act has to be to addressed for the world to come out of recession. The recent news that the US is to implement more stimulus to aid their ailing economy has started a major sell off of the Dollar against all major pairings. This is seen by many as a strategic move by the US to devalue their currency to make exports cheaper and more competitive on the

Weekly Currencies world’s markets and the next couple of meetings by the world’s financial leaders will make interesting viewing.

The UK has also seen its currency follow suit to the Dollar on the exchanges regardless of the support of the IMF to our coalition government to how they are tackling the huge deficit left by previous government. It was also felt by many dealers and analysts that the UK would follow the US in more stimulus packages as they had done previously. This though is far from certain as it would be going against the present policies that they are enforcing. The gainer at the moment on the currency markets is the Euro as it is seeing much higher levels than it was earlier in the year of most major pairings especially the Dollar and Sterling. This is now beginning to dawn on them that this is going to really stifle any recovery that they were expecting and they are also now expected to get on the bandwagon versus China over the value of their currency. If this is the case it could cause an all out currency war causing many economies that looked like recovering to instead experiencing the dreaded double dip recession.

As of Tuesday 12th October 2010 @ 1pm GBP - INR = 70.67 USD - INR = 44.63 EUR - INR = 61.66 GBP - USD = 1.5823 GBP - EUR = 1.1453 EUR - USD = 1.3815 GBP - AED = 5.8045 GBP - CAD = 1.6056 GBP - NZD = 2.1077 GBP - AUD = 1.6149 GBP - ZAR = 10.9550 GBP - HUF = 314.15

www.rationalfx.com Information provided by RationalFX. None of the information on this page constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice. The exchange rates used are the commercial foreign exchange rates provided by RationalFX. For a live quote or to find out more about how RationalFX can help you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

22

INDIA

India wins non-permanent Security Council seat India will take a seat on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member after a gap of nearly two decades, winning the Asian seat on Tuesday with 187 of the 191 votes in the United Nations General Assembly poll.

With Kazakhstan withdrawing from the race in January, India became the sole candidate from the Asian region and its elec-

tion to the non-permanent seat had become a near certainty.

India last held a nonpermanent seat in the UN Security Council in 1992.

South Africa and Colombia also won the African and Latin American seats for a twoyear term on the powerful decision making body starting Jan 1, 2011.

Ayodhya: Hindu Mahasabha files caveat in Supreme Court Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court of India to pre-empt any ex-parte order on the Ayodhya title dispute.

In the caveat, the Hindu Mahasabha has asked the court not to pass order on any appeal against the September 30 Allahabad High Court verdict without hearing it.

The organisation has filed the caveat through its national president Swami Chakrapani.

General secretary of Hindu Mahasabha Indira Tiwari said a petition is

also likely to be filed making it clear that it was not in favour of any compromise on the issue and wants a legal solution to the whole dispute.

“We want only legal solution. We are against any type of compromise as we are in favour of constructing a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya,” she said.

She said the Hindu Mahasabha would like to achieve its objective through the cooperation of all those who were party to the suit in the high court.

Kashmir, Arunachal listed as independent entities by FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is the latest global entity to have added to controversial presentation of Indian states. FAO in a recent report has listed Jammu and Kashmir as well as Arunachal Pradesh as independent countries.

Arunachal Pradesh has been spelt as 'Arunashal' Pradesh in the

list which also shows Aksai Chin as a separate country. China holds Aksai Chin as its integral part while India says it is part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. FAO saw nothing wrong with the names of the two states figuring separately, contending that disputed areas were being treated as independent entities.

This Londoner is treated as a native of Mandvi

A host of opportunities waited for Dr Edward Simpson after he got his PhD from London School of Economics in anthropology in 1997. But he chose to fly to India and become an apprentice to a traditional shipbuilder in Mandvi, along the Kutch coast, one of the last places in the world where this craft is still practised.

Today, Simpson may be a lecturer at School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London, but he is treated as a native of Mandvi by the locals.

“As a kid, I wanted to train as a ship builder, but failed to get an apprenticeship and my parents persuaded against it.

Ultimately research brought me to Mandvi, where I worked in shipyards and learnt about these hand-crafted wooden ships that traded in the Indian Ocean,” says Simpson, who has returned to the port town for the international conference ‘Gujarat and the sea’ organised recently.

At 38, Simpson has

become one of the leading anthropologists on Gujarat having penned a number of books - ranging from the seafarers of Kutch to the 2001 earthquake. He got his perspective on the state in a unique fashion.

Simpson rented a bicycle when he first came to Gujarat and rode along the Saurashtra coast, passing by Bhavnagar, Diu, Porbandar, Veraval in the hope of finding the best place to learn traditional shipbuilding.

In the process, he met a wide range of people. “I decided to stay in Mandvi as I felt the people here had a broad political outlook because they had contact with the outside world for hundreds of years,” he says.

Recently, he edited the book ‘Idea of Gujarat’. “I want to publish it in 2010 as part of the golden jubilee year of the foundation of the state. It gives some basic facts and notions about Gujarat.”

Simpson’s latest book is also on Gujarat - ‘Society and history of Gujarat since 1800’.

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Shankaracharya of Dwarka may mediate in Ayodhya with moderate Muslim groups in the past. Another reason for his acceptability among the moderates is his distance from the Sangh Parivar.

He is also held in high regard by some Congress leaders.

Muslim activists opposing an appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati Allahabad Court decision have made it clear that Indications are that the they will negotiate only Shankaracharya might with those Hindu outfits visit the Capital shortly which have no affiliations after the October 16 meetto the VHP or RSS. ing of the Muslim Personal Though the hardliners Law Board in Lucknow. among Muslims have Swaroopanand is no already rejected negotiastranger to the Ayodhya tions as an option and affairs as he held talks

made up their minds for a protracted court battle, a major segment of activists sees in the HC decision an opportunity for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

For such activists, the Shankaracharya's presence is welcome. “Any agreement with his blessings cannot be challenged by the hardliners among Hindus either,” said a negotiator.

The new push for dialogue has the backing of the Congress which has called for negotiations as the best route. During his stay in Delhi, the Swami will discuss various options with representatives of both Hindu and Muslim outfits.

would be able to find a mutually acceptable solution outside the court.

Taking this judgement for appeal would not only postpone the resolution of this dispute for an indefinite period but also perpetuate the bitter memories of the past. This would create a permanent division between Hindus and Muslims.

Reconciliation rather than further litigation is in the mutual interest of both communities.

Dr. Anand Arya, the PRO of HSS in a press release has said, “It is an unfortunate irony that Hindus had to struggle for so long to regain the possession of one of their holiest sites. Ayodhya is to Hindus what Mecca is

to Muslims or Jerusalem to Jews. Muslims have no significance for Ayodhya except that the Mughal invader, Babur,erected a structure after destroying a magnificent temple at the site considered the birthplace of Lord Ram.This was done to perpetuate a sense of inferiority in the minds of defeated Hindu population. Logically, soon after the independence, similar to the renovation of the great Somnath temple in Gujarat, a magnificent temple befitting the glory of Lord Ram should have been constructed at his place of birth but sadly this did not happen. The dirty vote bank politics of India kept this dispute alive.”

Fortunately, the decision of High Court has given an opportunity to correct this historical mistake. Ram is not just a God Incarnate but he personifies the idealism of the ancient Indian tradition.

He was an ideal son, an ideal father and an ideal king. His rule represented an ideal kingdom. For the same reason, Mahatama Gandhi declared the ultimate aim of India's independence as the establishment of 'Ram Rajya' (Ram's Kingdom). By constructing a magnificient Ram temple at Ayodhya, India has the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to Gandhi's dream.

HSS (UK) fervently hopes and prays that this would happen.

Kiwi TV host who mocked Delhi CM resigns

Notification for expats voting issued

Moderate activists and leaders from Hindu and Muslim faith are seeking mediation of Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Dwarka peeth to thrash out the Ayodhya dispute through an out of court settlement.

According to sources, those from both communities favouring a dialogue are of the view that the stature of the Shankaracharya could lend weight to such an exercise and make it acceptable to both sides.

Some activists talked to the Swami and invited him to come to Delhi to hold talks with representatives of both Hindu and Muslim groups.

HSS UK welcomes the Ayodhya verdict HSS (Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh) UK welcomes the verdict of the High Court of Allahabad on the long standing dispute of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

It has raised new hopes of the reconciliation and harmony between Hindus and Muslims in India.

HSS (UK) hopes that both the communities would forget the bitterness of the past and start a new chapter in the harmonious relationship which is necessary for India to progress and regain its rightful place in the world. It is desirable that the saner elements in both communities would prevail and rather than dragging this dispute further in the Supreme Court, they

A New Zealand public television host resigned on Sunday after his mocking of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s name sparked a diplomatic protest. Controversial presenter Paul Henry left his post at state broadcaster Television New Zealand.

Her surname means “one who has received religious initiation” and it can be kept only by Brahmins, the highest, priestly caste among Indians. To an untrained ear, however, its pronunciation is similar to English profanity. On his “Breakfast” show two weeks ago, Henry also called Dikshit’s name “so appropriate because she’s Indian.”

On Friday, India said in a formal protest to New Zealand High Commissioner Rupert Holborow that it “strongly and unequivocally denounces the racist remarks of the journalist in question.”

Henry, regarded as a provocative “shock jock,” was initially suspended from TVNZ for his insensitive remarks in questioning whether New Zealand-born Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand, the son of Fiji Indian migrants, was “even a New Zealander” and whether his successor would “look and sound like a New Zealander.”

Henry later apologised on-air to Satyanand. On

Sunday, Henry said it was “no longer practical in the current environment for me to do the job I was employed to do. It is also difficult for Television New Zealand to get on with the business of being a first-class broadcaster as long as I remain on the staff.” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said on Sunday he did not think Henry’s comments would affect relations with India.

“People should recognise that broadcasters and commentators say things all over the world, and if we took offense to those comments all the time, we’d cease to have any diplomatic relations,” he told reporters.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi on Saturday said the gazette notification granting voting rights to non-resident Indians has been issued.

"The gazette notification to this effect is out now. Now, the Election Commission has to make the next move to include the overseas Indians in the voters list," Ravi told media persons in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala. All Indian expats in the Middle East have been advised to see that they get their names registered with the Indian embassies of their respective countries.

Nitish - Lalu not to fight Bihar polls, Rabri Devi contesting on 2 seats

While Chief minister Nitish Kumar is keeping away from contesting the polls himself, as he feels he should better concentrate on campaigning for the JD(U) – BJP combine, his arch rival Lalu Prasad Yadav is not entering the poll arena, as on the face value, he says since he is already a sitting MP. However, his wife and

former chief minister Rabri Devi will be contesting from two constituencies – Sonepur and Raghopur. The strategy seems to be that if the RJD – LJP combine of Lalu and Ram Vilas Paswan get a favourable mandate, Lalu would than fight from one of the two seats that would be vacated by Rabri Devi.

The other major party in the state, Congress seem to be loosing even before the real battle has begun. In Purnia, a group of disgruntled partymen set ablaze the main building of Congress office, Gokul Ashram on Sunday, damaging property and burning documents They were protesting against nomination of

candidates for state assembly polls.

Party workers were reportedly angry with the growing clout of a tainted party leader who was earlier with the RJD, party sources said.

They alleged six out of seven seats in Purnia district had been scooped up by candidates close to this leader.

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

INDIA

23

Gujarat to install world’s tallest statue for Sardar Patel The global tourist attraction to come up in Narmada river near Vadodara

an estimated cost of Rs. 10 billion.

Gujarat government will be developing the site as a joint venture, with private sector too pitching in with significant contribution.

It will have facilities for dining, entertainment and all aspects of tourism.

Gujarat Chief Minister also has plans to rope in NRIs to contribute to the prestigious project alongwith leading industrialists from Gujarat.

Gujarat Chief Minister last week announced that the state government would install a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the iron man and one of the tallest leaders from Gujarat in the Narmada river. It will be a 182 metre tall structure, taller than the statue of Liberty in the USA. To be installed on a spot known as ‘Sadhu Bet’, it will be a mega tourist attraction in Gujarat. It will come up at

Narendra Modi enters his 10th year in office Having already created a new record of being the longest serving Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi last week completed 9 years in office and entered the 10th year.

Aspiring to rise to the national scene, Modi has for long been trying to project himself as a leader for change and working for the growth and development of Gujarat.

Modi has also increased his popularity among the muslim voters in the state.

The BJP's first ever vic-

tory in the Kathlal assembly seat in the recently concluded bypolls being the biggest indicator. The constituency has a sizeable Muslim voter base and the BJP had never won the seat in over 50 years. Modi believes the credit for this tectonic shift should go to development.

“The past one decade has been a decade of growth.

Gujarat has scaled new heights in the past decade," said Narendra Modi.

Barring the Junagadh

Municipal Corporation that the BJP lost, Modi has led the party to hold all other civic bodies in the past decade.

Modi has focused on an inclusive growth and development model. But many feel Modi's dictatorial and confrontationist approach stands against democratic values.

Modi’s detractors may never forgive him for the 2002 riots, but there is enough evidence that Modi's popularity has increased over the past decade.

Germans to study Gandhian ideology at Gujarat Vidyapith Setting a unique example of Indo-German association, the Gujarat Vidyapith and Georg August University of Gottingen in Germany have joined hands to start a course on Gandhian ideology.

This will enable German students, who sign up for this course, to come to Gujarat for a sixmonth semester.

Registrar of the Gujarat Vidyapith said that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed recently and the course was expected to begin this year. The course could be a post-graduate degree course or a oneyear diploma.

"Whatever is the case, the students who sign up for the Gandhian ideology

course in Germany will be coming to Gujarat Vidyapith for six months and learn all about Gandhi and his values," he said.

Special arrangement were being made to involve faculty members who would converse with the students in English.

The students would also be offered short-term courses in Gandhian philosophy, Gandhian values and Gandhian way of life.

The special emphasis would be laid on non-violence which was advocated by Gandhi to be practised in personal and public life.

At present, Gujarat Vidyapith offers a course in Gandhi Darshan which is quite popular with students from the West.

Meanwhile, officials said

that the association with the German university would also entail an exchange programme where students of the sociology department of the Gujarat Vidyapith would go to Germany to study the social life practised in that country and carry out a comparative study of practices in sociology in Germany and India.

The Vidyapith officials said that this was one of the most significant associations that they had struck with an international university.

"In the past, we have routinely received inquiries from universities from US and Japan but this is one of the most significant associations to have worked out," the registrar said.

Muslim clerics from Darul Uloom Deoband last week said Kashmir is an integral part of India and asked Kashmir leaders to thrash out the issue with the India within the Indian constitution, Kashmir separatists slammed their stand and said the seminary had no locus standi.

The Kashmiri sepa-

ratists however, have welcomed Deoband’s support in the demand for the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. "We welcome that Muslims in India have raised their voice for us and sought withdrawal of AFSPA. But we do not agree with their political formulation on Kashmir,”

moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.

Challenged for the first time by the Darul Uloom Deoband and Jamiat-eUlema-e-Hind over their political stance on the state, separatists have said the remarks were understandable and on expected lines.

Deoband clerics say Kashmir integral part of India

In divine light

By Rajen Vakil

The symbology of Karma The Mahabharata is full of characters and substories. While some characters have a major role, some are smaller in nature. But the name of each character and their deeds can give us a deep insight into what we call karma. Although the subject matter of karma abounds with complex theories, elaborate commentaries, and volumes of written word, we will try to look at it in a very basic and simplistic manner.

When we talk about karma, we assume that there is a seed and through our thoughts and actions, we sow this seed in the field of what Patanjali calls the citta (pronounced chitta) or put more loosely, in the mind.

In botany, we say, a seed needs air, water and a suitable temperature to sprout. Similarly, for the seed of karma to bear fruit, there must be three factors. These are called (1) the instrumental cause (2) the material cause and (3) unawareness (or confusion) about the two.

Suppose we are walking along the road and someone pushes us and we get angry upon him and call him all kinds of names. Here the person hitting us is just the instrumental cause which comes in the form of an event in life. Anger that was already lying in the subconscious mind is the material cause; the material which in this case is the anger must first be there for such an event to occur. This anger wanted to manifest and so it looks for a suitable event which then becomes the instrumental cause.

Someone shoving us while walking thus became the instrumental cause. We justify ourselves by saying that we ‘got’ angry because someone pushed us – this is the third condition of unawareness or confusion. We only see the instrumental cause (the fact) but not the deeper cause (the nearer truth) that basic material of anger needs to be present in a potent form within our subconscious for us to get angry.

Having seen the three basic conditions, now let us try and understand how the process works.

We now know that the material cause was the anger lying in the subconscious. Now let us suppose that there are 1000 seeds of anger within us.

Someone hits us on the road; out of the 1000 seeds, one seed appears in the conscious mind and we get angry; this

seed of anger manifests (as a tree), provides fruit that in turn gives us an extra seed. Now, effectively two seeds go back to the subconscious thereby increasing the treasure of anger from 1000 to 1001. This is the basic law of karma – sow one, reap one and then reap one more.

We take the same event, but this time when that one seed of anger comes from the subconscious to the conscious, we remain aware that we are the material cause and not the person who hit us – we resolve that we will not allow the seed of anger to grow. Then that seed dies and our haul of anger in our subconscious has reduced from 1000 to 999. We have now become a little free from the law of karma.

This process where a seed is sown and grows into a tree, in turn giving a new seed is guised in many characters of the Mahabharata: 1. Kripacharya: He is the ‘rajguru’ of Hastinapura.

‘Kripa’ means sympathy or sorrow for someone.

Whenever we feel sorry for a situation or a person, we are hypnotised by the situation and cannot see the truth.

We want to feed a hungry person but we may not be doing the right thing, we may just be making him a slave of charity. So Kripa is the basic delusion or our unawareness.

2. Once we are unaware, we sow the seed.

These seeds can be of four kinds – a. Bhishma (or self love): he loved his pratigya above everything else. b.Karna (or attraction to pleasure): Duryodhana made Karna a king and Karna became his slave for life. c. Vikarna (or displeasure): He was the only son of Dhritarashtra who showed displeasure at Draupadi’s disrobing. d.Jayadratha (or lust for continuity): He always lusted for Draupadi. As soon as we have created a new seed, the desire to manifest and repeat already lies hidden within the seed.

3. At any given moment, we sow one or a combination of these seeds in the fertile soil of our minds – we used the example anger to keep things simple. Once the seed is sown, it follows

a path of repetition giving rise to a fruit with a new seed which wants to repeat further and thus makes us greater slaves of anger.

Bhurishravas is the son of Somadutta, a warrior on the side of the Kauravas.

‘Bhuri’ means repeated and ‘shravas’ means to flow – the law of karma repeatedly keeps flowing. This is the law of cause and effect and we are bound by this repetition. Today we relive the same selflove, the same vanity, the same displeasure and the same complaining we did yesterday – the flow continues.

Even though events and people are new, we are always the same – we are always just repeating yesterday.

4. Ashwathama: Comes from the word ‘sthaman’, meaning that which remains. All the seeds we keep on creating remain in a storehouse where they are ready to spring up in the fertile field of the mind at any time.

These seeds never die and so in the Mahabharata, Ashwathama never dies. Krishna takes away the jewel off his head, signifying that Krishna takes away his power. Similarly all the seeds are given fuel by desire and this desire in us never dies, but as our level of awakening and awareness rises, it becomes powerless enough not to enslave us anymore.

Patanjali calls the four seeds we sow as ‘klesha’, signified by Karna, Vikarna, Bhishma and Jayadratha in the Mahabharata. He refers to the field or basic condition of unawareness as ‘avidya’, represented in the Mahabharata by Kripacharya. The process in which the seeds grow as ‘jati, ayur, and bhoga’, characterised by Bhurishravas; meaning type - anger becomes anger, then we have to experience it and we have to give a part of our life time to it and hence, it eats our time. Patanjali says new and old seeds lie in a storehouse called as ‘ashaya’, represented by Ashwathama.

Patanjali adds that as long as this storehouse of seeds lies within us, we will always be a slave to the law of repetition.

(Edited by Chintu Gandhi)

All past articles on the Mahabharata can be accessed from http://epaper.asianvoice.com or from http://www.3stepbreath.com/mahabharata.html

24

INDIA Rahul Gandhi says RSS, SIMI are no different

Congress leader and scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi last week compared the RSS with banned outfit SIMI, as he said both have a fundamentalist ideology.

In a chat with reporters at Bhopal, Rahul asserted that the Youth Congress will not permit the hard line ideology of the RSS and SIMI as both are similar, which does not match to our secular code of belief.

When pointed out that the SIMI has been a banned outfit and had

links with terrorism while RSS did not have such track record, Rahul said both the outfits same for their hard line ideology.

Digvijay defends Rahul Congress general secretary and former CM of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh saw nothing wrong in his party’s youth icon Rahul Gandhi drawing a parallel between the radical SIMI and the RSS. An incensed BJP said Rahul had lost his mental balance. “Only a sick mind can compare RSS and SIMI. He has shown

political immaturity and engaged in unruly behaviour,’’ said BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar. He added, “The Congress knows it is not winning in MP. I can understand its frustration.

It has been losing elections of late. Rahul Gandhi’s magic is not working.”

Rahul responded saying, “They are more than welcome to call me immature but that does not subtract the fact that these organisations preach fundamentalist ideologies.’’

Robotic surgeries now available at Kidney hospital in Nadiad The Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad has become the first hospital in Gujarat to acquire the latest state-of-the-art robotic surgical system - the da Vinci Si from Intuitive Surgical, at a cost of Rs.100 million. The first surgeries were conducted there in the last week of September.

The state of the art facility will make surgeries for kidney cancer, prostate cancer, bladder less painful and ensure faster recovery for the patients. Surgeries will become more precise and

doctors will be comfortable.

“We have always been on the fore-front of bringing cutting-edge technologies for the better treatment of our patients, and the da Vinci Si system is the latest effort in making modern worldclass care available to our

patients” said Dr Mahesh Desai, managing Trustee and Medical Director of the hospital. Dr Mihir Desai, Professor of Urology and Director of Robotic Surgery at University of Southern California performed the initial cases of robotic surgery.

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Guj highways to get $350mn boost World Bank set to provide loan to improve 1,500 km road In a major boon to Gujarat’s road sector, a high-level World Bank team, visiting Gujarat last week, indicated it would provide $350 million loan to strengthen and widen 1,500 km of arterial state highways out of the state’s 6,300-km-long core road network.

The eight-member team, led by senior WB official Arnab Bandyopadhyay, told state officials that it would “go ahead” and “prepare” a techno-feasibility study, identifying the state roads they would take up.

Officials showed special interest in fwidening roads like Rajkot-Morbi, Mehsana-Vijapur, RajkotBhavnagar, AhmedabadModasa as also the eastern state highway, apart from roads connecting Mundra, Hazira, Pipavav and Magdalla ports. To be called Gujarat State Highways Project II, WB decided to take keen interest in taking up more roads, after praising Gujarat State Highways Project-I as “highly satisfactory” and “exemplary” for other states to follow.

The $550-million first phase covered 2,000 km of roads - strengthening or

widening of AhmedabadViramgam-Maliya, RajkotJamnagar, VelavadarJamnagar, Surat-Olpad, Bharuch-Dahej, MehsanaPalanpur and ShamlajiHalol - from 2001 to 2007.

The WB team, which met senior state officials also made on-the-spot inspection of state highways after monsoon in Rajkot, Morbi, Bhavnagar, Mehsana, Chanasma and Satlasana. They submitted a concrete programme to take up the new project.

While the techno-feasibility report would be ready

by March 2011, the final project clearance is expected by February 2012.

The state government had submitted a proposal for $500 million to WB to strengthen and widen 1,800 km of roads, especially because of fresh possibilities of industrialisation along the Delhi-

Mumbai Industrial Corridor project, special investment regions and special economic zones. A WB team led by institutional specialist Ernst Huming visited Gujarat in December 2009 to make preliminary inquiry about the state’s needs.

Based on its report, the WB sent its second mission last week, and took reports from the state government on the roads that can be taken up.

The WB team insisted that it would like to take up a special component on road safety, including traffic information system, licensing, patrolling, toeing and provision of equipment for all this. The WB, in its report, had found that the road safety was “unfortunately subdued largely due to lack of political and bureaucratic championship”.

BJP decimates Congress in Gujarat civic polls Continued from page 1 make the best show in Jamnagar, getting 16 of the total 57 seats.

Even others, including independents and dissidents got the best in this Saurashtra city, taking 6 seats, leaving BJP with just 35, their poorest results.

Late on Tuesday evening, as just a handful of results were pending, Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public meeting at Khanpur area in Ahmedabad, the state headquarters of the party.

He thanked the people of Gujarat, the voters in the six cities for reposing their faith in the BJP. He

claimed that atleast 30% of Muslim voters had voted for BJP, as without that much of support from them, the party could not have won 80% of the seats.

He took a dig at the Congress and said the positive campaigning and attitude of the BJP, the work that his government has done have won the polls for them, while Congress indulged only in negativisim.

In Ahmedabad, BJP won 149 of 189 seats while Congress got 37. In Surat, BJP recorded a thumping win, taking 98 out of a total of 114 seats, Congress 14. In Rajkot, another BJP stronghold

for years, the party bagged 58 of the 69, while the remaining 11 went to Congress. Bhavnagar also ensured that it was just a 2 party affair, BJP taking 41 and Congress 10 of the total 51 seats.

In Vadodara, BJP tally stood at 61 out of the total 75 seats. Congress got 11 seats.

Congress wanted the results to be put on held till the panchayat elections, a demand that was rejected by the State Election Commission.

Even as the voters gave a clear mandate for the BJP, they rejected a lot of minority candidates that were put up by the saffron party.

Karnataka in political turmoil Continued from page 1 Subsequently, late on Monday afternoon, Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj had reportedly sent a report to the central government, recommending dismissal of Yeddyurappa government and proclamation of President’s rule in the state. BJP too had lodged strong protests at the governor’s action. The party said his attitude was partial. The party also announced plans to call a meeting of all BJP chief ministers on Tuesday in Bangalore.

Later, after the twists and turns, B S Yeddyurappa said late on Tuesday evening that he is confident of having major-

Governor reviews his stand after asking for Presidential rule ity and will again go for the confidence vote on Thursday. He agreed to take the Governor’s offers after consulting the BJP leadership. BJP and the chief minister have said they have the support of 105 MLAs. On Monday, the party had asked for removal of the Governor. This will be the fourth trust vote for B S Yeddyurappa in less than 30 months.

The BJP government of B S Yeddyurappa, the first for the party in any states in South India has been in trouble for long.

The current crisis has developed after allegations

of corruption against a few ministers, including the chief minister himself and the subsequent cabinet reshuffle.

A few ministers dropped by the chief minister staged an open revolt against Yeddyurappa.

Dissident BJP as well as independent MLAs had even moved out of Karnataka and camped in Goa for a few days. All the while, B S had claimed that the majority of the MLAs are with him.

The Congress had earlier said it would not support H D Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal in any bid for chief ministership.

World

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

China fumes at Nobel Peace Prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo Beijing: The Chinese government on Friday reacted angrily at the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to dissident intellectual Liu Xiaobo, who is in jail after leading a campaign for democratic reforms.

"What he has done is contrary to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement. It might harm ties between China and Norway, he said.

The 54-year old Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he helped draft a manifesto seeking democratic reforms and rallied a large number of Chinese intellectuals to sign it. The Nobel committee has described Liu as "the foremost symbol of

Liu’s wife goes missing

Liu’s wife was expected to visit him in prison on Sunday and finally give him the news of his award, a family member said, but her whereabouts weren't known on Saturday. Police kept reporters away from the prison where Liu is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion, and the mobile phone of his wife, Liu Xia, was cut off. There was no word from the winner himself, or his wife. "She's disappeared. We're all worried about them," Liu's lawyer said.

Protestors demonstrate to free Liu Xiaobo near the China Liason Office in Hong Kong on October 8

(this) wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China".

This is the second time the Nobel Committee has rewarded a campaigner for human rights in China since it gave the peace prize to the Dalai Lama in 1989. The award given to Liu, an intellectual from the majority Han commu-

nity, is likely to pose a new political challenge to Chinese authorities both in terms of its international image and possible increase in dissident activity at home.

The Chinese foreign ministry said that the Nobel committee had acted contrary to the goals set by Alfred Nobel, the founder of the prize, by rewarding a "criminal sentenced by the Chinese judicial authorities".

Liu served two years in prison after participating in Beijing's Tiananmen Square protests by students in 1989. He later worked as a teacher in Beijing Normal University, and emerged as a campaigner for democratic rights through his writings and Internet blogs.

The Nobel committee's citation is itself a challenge to Chinese leaders in terms of their international image.

4 Oz police officers sacked over racist emails Melbourne: Heeding to India's demands of strict action against Victorian police officers involved in circulating a racist email video, Australian authorities have sacked four officers and demoted one.

After a series of attacks on Indian students in Australia, a racist e-mail scandal has broken out showing Victoria police officers joking about a video, which shows an Indian passenger on the roof of a train getting electrocuted as he touches the high-tension wires.

According to the Herald Sun, the police officers have been impli-

Harvard recruits Indian architect Washington: Adding to the ever-growing list of Indians appointed to influential positions in the United States, Rahul Mehrotra, an architect from Mumbai, has been recruited by Harvard University as Professor of Urban Design and Planning.

Mr Mehrotra, who has been actively involved in civic and urban affairs in Mumbai and served on historic conservation and environmental commissions, will also take on the role of Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University.

Announcing the appointment Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD), said, “I am especially pleased to have Rahul join our school's leadership at a time when the GSD and Harvard as a whole are strengthening their global engagement.”

He added that Mr Mehrotra's work as a teacher, practitioner, researcher, and community advocate made him exceptionally qualified to

cated for circulating a video of an Indian man getting electrocuted while sitting on top of a train and joking that it could be a way to fix Melbourne's Indian student problem.

Another five Victoria Police officers have been fined up to 3,000 dollars and placed on 12 month good behaviour bonds for taking part in the circulation of the unsavoury material.

Victoria Police said on Saturday it would resume disciplinary hearings this week into the circulation of pornographic and racist emails within the force.

Two officers quit rather

than face the secret hearings. India’s external affairs minister S M Krishna had expressed shock over the circulation of a racist email targeting Indians, and asked the Australian authorities to take strict action against the culprits.

"Implication of officers in such behavior, specially in connection with Indian community is shocking and a matter of grave concern, such attitudes have no place in any society," Krishna told reporters on Saturday.

The Indian foreign office had earlier summoned the Australian

High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, over racist emails circulated by Victorian police officers.

A strongly worded statement issued by Delhi's external affairs ministry underscored how seriously the Indian government has taken the issue.

"Such behaviour and attitudes had no place in any society. It was hoped that the Australian authorities would take necessary and effective measures to address concerns regarding the safety of all people of Indian origin in Australia," the statement said.

Governor, 15 others killed in Afghan mosque blast Kabul: Mohammad Omar, governor of northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, was killed in an explosion on Friday last, a senior govt official has said.

More than 20 people were wounded in the explosion during Friday prayers at the Shirkat mosque in Takhar province, said Gen Shah Jahan Noori, provincial police chief.

“We believe a bomb was set up in the mosque to kill the governor,” the

police chief said. Northern Takhar has been the scene of escalating violence amid intensified military operations by NATO and Afghan forces in recent days.

Sixteen militants were killed in air raids and ground fighting recently in the Darqad, Yangi Qala and Khwaja Bahawuddin districts of Takhar, said Gen. Noori. More than a dozen insurgents were wounded.

2 Indians killed in blast Two Indians were

killed in a missile attack launched by the Taliban on an Indian NGO’s office located near a US airbase in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, a media report said on Monday.

Qari Omar Haqqani, a spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban, said that the outfit had attacked the office of the Indian NGO with missiles in which three people, including two Indian workers, were killed.

Indian convicted of planting virus in US co's server Boston: An Indian computer programmer was last week convicted by a federal jury of planting a virus on Fannie Mae computer servers to destroy the US mortgage giant's data.

Rajendrasinh Babubhai Makwana, 36, of Maryland faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for December 8.

A federal jury convicted Makwana of "computer intrusion arising from the

transmission of malicious script to Fannie Mae's computer servers," US attorney for the district of Maryland Rod Rosenstein said. Makwana, a UNIX engineer who worked on Fannie Mae's network of almost 5,000 computer servers, had pleaded not guilty in January to planting the virus. He was a contractor working at Fannie Mae's Urbana, Maryland facility from 2006 to October 24, 2008.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Makwana was fired on October 24, 2008.

On October 29, 2008, a Fannie Mae senior engineer discovered a malicious script embedded in a routine programme. A subsequent analysis of the script, computer logs, Makwana's laptop and other evidence revealed that Makwana had transmitted the malicious code the day he was fired.

25

IN foCus Anoushka, Joe Wright tie the knot London: Anoushka, daughter of Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shanker has finally tied the knot with Joe Wright, a well known director of Hollywood films. The two were in love for a long time and were living together. Anoushka is also pregnant. Anoushka and Joe tied the knot on Sunday, September 26, in London. The wedding was a private affair that was attended only by close friends and relatives. Anoushka was earlier dating Delhi-based socialite Nishant Peralta. She met Joe at William Darlrymple’s house for dinner in New Delhi in March 2009. Consecutively, the couple fell in love and moved in together. They are now expecting their first child.

“Ever since they started dating, they have been inseparable,” according to a source. Joe Wright has directed films like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Atonement.”

Monkey kills a new born in Malaysia Kuala Lumpur: Monkey menace in Malaysia has cost a family the life of their new born baby. It happened recently at Seremban, 35 miles from capital Kuala Lumpur. The family appears to be of Indian origin or having their roots in Sri Lanka. The child was taken away by a macaque monkey when the mother was away from the room. Later, as the elders, searching hard for the new born were shouting, the monkey that is believed to have taken the child to the roof or a tree, dropped it, leading to death. The 26-year-old mother, identified only as Revathy, eventually found her infant lying on the ground, her face and neck badly bitten. She had suffered multiple injuries as a result of being dropped. Revathy's father-in-law, Valayutham, 70, was in the living room but he did not hear or see the macaque monkey enter the house through an open window. The family's home lies in an area surrounded by trees where a number of monkeys live. They frequently make their way onto the roofs of houses and are blamed for thefts of food.

France’s burqa ban passes last legal hurdle Paris: France's top legal authority has approved a law banning full-face veils in public, the last hurdle for the ban, which aims to protect women's rights but has been criticised as stigmatising Muslims. The Constitutional Council, which had previously warned that banning the veil may be unconstitutional, said it approved the version of the bill, which has been passed by both Houses of Parliament, after a final review. The ban, due to enter force early next year, would be unenforceable in public places of worship, where it may violate religious freedoms, the Constitutional Council said. "The ban on covering the face in public places cannot constrain the practice of religious freedom in places of worship that are open to the public," the council said in its judgment. Apart from this, the council "judged that the law conforms to the constitution," it wrote. The text makes no mention of Islam, but President Nicolas Sarkozy's government promoted the law as a means to protect women from being forced to wear Muslim full-face veils such as the burqa or the niqab. Prime Minister Francois Fillon immediately hailed the judgment as "an important decision to affirm the values of the Republic with respect for freedom of conscience and religion."

Rajapaksa to consider Fonseka release Colombo: Days after Gen Sarath Fonseka was sent to jail, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said he could consider releasing the former army chief if a plea is made by him or his family. However, Rajapaksa said he won't consider any "politically motivated" plea for Fonseka's release made by political parties. Fonseka is serving a 30-month jail term imposed by a court martial after the ruling was approved by Rajapaksa in his capacity as the commander in chief of the armed forces of Sri Lanka. He was sent to jail last week. "He (Rajapaksa) said he would only consider such a plea if made by Fonseka himself or a member of his family," the Daily Mirror newspaper reported. The president said there was a procedure laid-down for the granting of a pardon and that procedure had to be followed. He recalled that when Vijaya Kumaratunga was imprisoned on Naxalite charges in the 1980s, a plea for his release was made by his wife, it said. It may be recalled that after the Presidential elections in 1982, Kumaratunga, husband of former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga was jailed under the emergency regulations on charges of being associated with Naxalites. Fonseka wife Anoma Fonseka had recently said there were no plans to appeal for a presidential pardon, as her husband had not committed any offence. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister and Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has said Fonseka's case should not be equated with convictions for murder, rape etc and needed to be assessed differently. The UNP chief told reporters that Fonseka's case should be viewed from a different perspective.

26

Pakistan

In focus Exercise powers or step down, Gilani told Islamabad: In the face of fast deteriorating political and moral stature of Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, some of his close political aides have advised him either to assert himself as a powerful PM or step aside to save his political career and let the real culprits face the music. Sources in the ruling Pakistan People’s Party told The Nation that Gilani was quite perturbed over the prevailing situation wherein his whole political career is on stake due to the political and constitutional mess-up by the close confederates of President Zardari, but being the Chief Executive of the incumbent Government he has to face the brunt.

Sources further said that contrary to the powers delegated to him under the recently passed 18th Amendment, the role of Prime Minister has been compromised and with each passing day his say in the governmental affairs is shrinking, due to which the discontent in the Prime Minister’s camp is growing.

Pakistan importing sugar from India Islamabad: Sugar imported from India will be tested before its sale in Pakistan, said a minister who rejected the impression that Indian sugar was substandard.

Minister for labour and manpower Syed Khurshid Shah told the National Assembly that pre-shipment inspection of sugar being imported from India had been conducted and it will be again checked by the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority before being sent to the market. While rejecting the impression that Indian sugar was substandard, Shah said press reports on such allegations were a campaign by the sugar mafia.

Daily Times quoted the minister as saying that the imported sugar would be inspected and certified and only then would it be sent to the market. Shah said samples of imported sugar had been sent for analysis.

'If any adulteration is found, the responsible shall be taken to task.' The minister said sugar prices had dipped following a decision to allow its import. It was now being sold at Rs 75 as against pre-import price of Rs 80 per kg. The price could further reduce to Rs 72 per kg, he added. He also said that there was no substance in the claim that Indian sugar was being packed in Brazilian bags.

Pak warns US over cross border air strikes Islamabad: The defence forces of Pakistan are fully capable of defending the country's borders, and will use any option to this end in case of recurrence of cross-border air strikes by the US-led forces, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated in the National Assembly last week. "Apology is fine. But no more incursion in future. We do not want it to be repeated.

Pakistan and armed forces are fully capable to defend motherland," the Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying, referring to the apologies from the United States and NATO over the helicopter strikes in Pakistani territory.

"The government reserves the right to use other options in case of recurrence," he added. Responding to points of order in the National Assembly regarding ISAF forces' incursion into Pakistan, Malik said that NATO's mandate limited it to carrying out operations within Afghanistan, and any attack inside Pakistan's territory was a clear violation of it. The government knew what it had to do about NATO attacks inside Pakistan, he said, adding that the US, NATO and the CIA chief had been told the country would not tolerate the recurrence of any such act. "We have conveyed the rage of the government and people of the country to ISAF and US," he stated.

Probe ordered into killings of civilians by troops Islamabad: Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has ordered setting up of a board of inquiry after a video featuring the killing of civilians by troops emerged, a media report said on Friday last. The board will be headed by a major general and will be assisted by two to three senior officers, the Online news agency reported. General Kayani, referring to his directive on the issue of human rights and extrajudicial killings, said such violations of his orders will not be tolerated. He said it's not expected of a professional army to engage in excesses against the people whom it is trying to guard against the scourge of terrorism. Expressing his determination to take strictest possible disciplinary action against the perpetrators, if identified to be soldiers of the Pakistan Army, he stressed that the Rules of Engagement (ROE) are sacrosanct. He, however, cautioned against reaching hasty conclusions about involvement of Pakistan Army soldiers. He pointed out that in order to hide their identities, cause confusion and malign the army, the terrorists have previously been disguising themselves as Pakistan Army soldiers during a number of attacks in the past, including the attack on GHQ.

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

PPP has failed miserably, says Musharraf London: Dubbing his political detractors as "cowards," Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said that the greatest threat his country is facing today is "failure" of governance than India or Taliban.

"I would say, failure of governance is the greatest threat today," Musharraf, who has announced his return to active Pakistani politics from London where he has been living in self-imposed exile since the general election of 2008, said.

The wily commandoturned-politician said the immediate necessity on the ground in Pakistan is a "functional governance structure free of corrup-

tion".

In an interview to an Indian publication, Musharraf said the current Pakistan People's Partyled government has failed to effectively govern the country.

"The PPP government has failed to do so. Nawaz Sharif came to power twice but could not do anything productive because he is actually brainless," Musharraf said.

His remarks came amid criticism of the PPPled government for its inept handling of the catastrophic floods and corruption.

Asked if he planned to return to Pakistan, the 67year-old Musharraf said he would return as soon as

Pervez Musharraf

election was announced.

"I will return as soon as elections are announced. In the meantime, I will focus on strengthening the party from here," he said, referring to his 'All Pakistan Muslim League' which he launched here on October 1 thousands of miles away

from Pakistan.

The next general election in Pakistan is scheduled for 2013.

Musharraf also said he was not perturbed by reports that he will be facing trouble if he returned to Pakistan.

"Let them do whatever they want to. As far as I am concerned, there are no hindrances for my return when I want to. All those opposing me are cowards and are scared of my return," he said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had recently said that if Musharraf returned to Pakistan, the Supreme Court will "welcome" him as a slew of cases were pending against him.

‘Non-state actors’ want to take over country: Zardari Islamabad: Amid intense criticism of the government for its inept handling of the flood relief work, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has warned that "non-state actors" wanted to take over the country by weakening the democratic system.

It would be dangerous for the whole region if these "non-state actors" succeed in their plans, Zardari said, without identifying such elements.

However, he expressed confidence that there would be no political change in the country through undemocratic means. The President said the 2008 Mumbai attacks too were carried out by "non-state elements" and called on democratic forces in Pakistan and India to strengthen their ties to "block such inci-

Asif Ali Zardari

dents in future."

The government led by Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has been the subject of intense criticism following its inept handling of the country's economic problems and the rehabilitation of millions of people affected by floods.

Stung by speculation about a change of govern-

ment, Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have mounted a strong defence of the administration.

Zardari, in an interview to a TV news channel, said PPP governments were removed twice in the past on the basis of allegations which could not be proved so far. He said there would be a long list if he starts naming "political actors and orphans" involved in such moves against the party. Besides bringing democracy, the PPP brought good governance to the country and Prime Minister Gilani is performing well, Zardari said. He called on leaders of different political parties to play their role in strengthening the democratic system and confronting the challenges of terrorism and floods.

Interpol notice against two Pak army majors in Mumbai attack New Delhi: National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India has secured an Interpol Red Corner Notice against five accused persons, including two serving Pakistani Army Majors, for their alleged role in the Mumbai terror strike of 2008.

The Interpol issued the Red Corner Notice after securing a non-bailable warrant from the court of Additional Sessions Judge here.

The warrants were

issued on the basis of disclosures made by American national and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist David Headley, who was extensively questioned by the NIA officials in June this year.

The Red Corner Notice has been issued against Major Sameer Ali, and Major Iqbal, both serving in the Pakistani Army, Illyas Kashmiri, an LeT terrorist, Sajid Majid and Syed Abdur Rehman Hashim.

The security agencies have already secured Red Corner notice against Lashkar’s founder Hafeez Sayeed and his close aide Zaki-urRehman Lakhvi in connection with the 26/11 attacks that left over 160 people dead.

These people, according to NIA officials, had worked in close coordination with Headley in executing the nefarious plans of the Lashkar for carrying out terror strikes in Mumbai.

Musharraf has the right to enter politics: Zardari Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has a right to take part in politics, Asif Ali Zardari has stated.

During an interaction with media representatives, Zardari said that Musharraf had the right to enter politics, but he should do that in a democratic way, the Dawn reported.

The APML founder would have to follow the course "we have taken in our political struggle riddled with sacrifices," Zardari noted, adding that there was no short cut in politics. He also rubbished speculations over the future of parliament, saying that he had delegated his powers to the parliament, and it was powerful enough to protect itself.

PML-N warns of long march Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has maintained that if appointments like NAB chairman were continued to be made, they will be forced to undertake a long march. He stressed that President Asif Zardari should show some wisdom and not take such decisions.

He was addressing a public meeting after inaugurating Watan Cards programme in Khushab on Sunday.

According to him, Pakistan Muslim LeagueN opposes this decision and will continue to do so.

Pak accelerates pace of its N-weapons programme London: Pakistan has been secretly accelerating pace of its nuclear weapons programme and it has assembled 70 to 90 nuclear warheads as against India's 60 to 80, a Washington-based nuclear watchdog has claimed.

The Institute for Science and International Security has obtained satellite images showing that a row of cooling towers at Pakistan's secret

Khushab-III reactor has been completed, The Daily Telegraph reported.

This suggests the plant could begin operation within months, allowing Pakistan to increase substantially its stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium, it said.

Work at Khushab-III has forged ahead even as Pakistan struggles to cope with floods that have inflicted damage estimated

at 27 billion pounds - and amid mounting concerns over the long-term security of the country's nuclear arsenal, the report said.

Pakistan argues that its nuclear programme is necessary to counter the superior conventional forces of India, the report said.

A report, published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, estimated it had assembled 70-90

nuclear warheads to India's 60-80, and had produced, enough fissile material to make a further 90.

According to the report, the US is also disturbed by Chinese plans to build two new nuclear reactors in Pakistan, bypassing rules that bar sales of nuclear equipment to states that have not signed the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty.

East Africa

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

In focus Archbishop Desmond Tutu retires from public life

Pretoria: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who played a prominent role during South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule, is stepping down from public life, as he celebrates his 79th birthday. Ever since the country attained independence and black rule, Archbishop Tutu has since been the voice of reconciliation in a number of regional conflicts. But the Nobel Peace prize winner says he wants to spend more time with his family and watching cricket. He also says he wants to make way for a new generation of leaders. Archbishop Tutu is a man widely considered as a moral compass in South Africa, admired for his integrity and adored for his infectious laugh. As a young cleric back in the 1970s, he was a vocal critic of the apartheid regime. In the mid-1980s, when South Africa was still under white minority rule, he campaigned in the townships on one occasion famously wading into the frontline to call for calm when a mob tried to lynch a suspected undercover policeman.

Gambia introduces death for drug possession

Banjul: Drug traffickers in Gambia beware. The country has introduced harsher penalties against the crime, including execution for anyone found holding more than 250g of cocaine or heroin. Attorney General Edward Anthony Gomez said the move was aimed at curbing drug trafficking. The country has recently become a key transit point from Latin America. At least two tonnes of cocaine with a street value estimated at $1bn (about £675m) were seized in the West African nation in June, bound for Europe. "The devastating impact of these activities on the stability and development of any state cannot be overemphasised," Mr Gomez told parliament. Tthe previous penalty for the equivalent drug possession was a jail sentence of between 30 and 40 years.

Twelve foreigners are standing trial in The Gambia in connection with June's cocaine seizure. The West African coast has emerged as a popular transit point for drugs, with cartels taking advantage of the region's poverty and weak judicial systems.

Former Nigeria bank CEO Cecilia Ibru jailed

Abuja: A former CEO of Oceanic Bank in Nigeria Cecila Ibru has been sentenced to six months in prison for fraud and ordered to hand over $1.2bn (£786m) in cash and assets. He has pleaded guilty to three of 25 counts of fraud and mismanagement. She is one of a large number of executives held in connection with the near-collapse of nine banks in 2009.

The verdict is sending shockwaves through Nigeria's financial world. Mrs Ibru's sentence was the result of a settlement agreement, Judge Dan Abutu told the court in Lagos on Friday last. Her three sentences are for six months each, but will run concurrently.

This means she will spend only six months in jail.

"This is an indication that we are making progress in the war against graft in the country," Farida Waziri, who heads Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, said in a statement. The government removed Mrs Ibru along with other executives from a number of financial institutions in 2009.

Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa freed

Addis Ababa: Four months after the government’s landslide win in elections, Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa has been freed from jail.

She was one of several opposition leaders imprisoned for life after the 2005 poll. They were later pardoned, but Ms Birtukan was rearrested for violating the terms of her release. "I am very relieved," she said at her home in the capital, where crowds had gathered to welcome her. Ms Birtukan said she had been freed because she had applied for a pardon. "Prison by itself is a very horrible place, especially for me the time I spent alone," she said. "Now I am free, I am back to my family and my daughter, I am very elated." Hundreds of her supporters began cheering and singing when she arrived home in a car accompanied by her mother and young daughter.

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More than 1,000 Kenyan teachers sacked over sex abuse cases

Nairobi: More than 1,000 teachers have been sacked in Kenya for sexually abusing girls over the past two years, the authorities say.

Senior government official Ahmed Hussein said that most of the victims were aged between 12 and 15.

He said a nationwide confidential helpline set up to help victims had revealed that the problem was much more widespread than previously thought.

Most of the cases have

occurred in rural primary schools. We had over 20 girls who were pregnant and nearly half the number were actually impregnated by the teachers themselves.” "Initially we were not able to know what was happening in the country because of the poor communication, but now communication is everywhere there's mobiles across the country," Mr Hussein, from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development, said.

Last year, 600 male

teachers were dismissed and so far this year 550 teachers have lost their jobs for either kissing, touching or impregnating girls out a total teaching staff of 240,000 countrywide.

"A number of them have been taken to court, and they have been sentenced accordingly," Mr Hussein said.

Brian Weke, programme director for the Cradle, a child rights foundation in Kenya, agreed the problem was widespread.

He gave an example of a case in Nyanza province last year: "I found that in one primary school we had over 20 girls who were pregnant and nearly half the number were actually impregnated by the teachers themselves."

However, he said the officials investigating the abuse were not passing on vital information to get convictions.

"Our biggest problem is the fact that the district education officers do not report the matters to the police," Mr Weke said.

Zimbabwean women raping men for rituals London: Zimbabwean women are abducting and raping men for ritual purposes, media reports said on Saturday.

Six men have been gang-raped by women in the last 11 months in this deeply conservative society, the Scotsman reported.

Police say the figure could be much higher as the victims are often too embarrassed to report the crime. The most recent case, a 26-year-old policeman from Bulawayo was drugged and raped by three women, the official

Chronicle daily reported.

The man was offered a lift in a minibus with three female passengers.

"When he sat down, one of the passengers suddenly put a cloth saturated with a drug on his nose and he passed out," the paper said. He regained consciousness to find the three women sexually abusing him. He was eventually abandoned outside the city, minus his mobile phone and $30.

"Clues given by the victim are being followed up," said police spokesman Bekimpilo Ndlovu.

Similar attacks have been reported in Harare, Gweru and Masvingo, some of them at gunpoint.

Last month two women forced a 44-yearold to have sex with them on a mattress he had just bought in Harare and was trying to transport back home to western Karoi.

The pair had offered him a lift home, but stopped their vehicle about 80 km into their journey.

Last November, two women locked an 18year-old youth in Harare's central Roman Catholic

Church and raped him. In most cases the victims are drugged and the women use condoms. Traditional healers may have instructed the women to collect semen for use in ritual charms, social commentators suggest. "These are people who want to make money because of poverty," Gordon Chavunduka, former head of the Zimbabwe National Association of Traditional Healers told the Zimonline news agency. "It is very worrying, our society is in trouble."

Newborns detained in Kenyan hospitals Nairobi: An alarming number of Kenya's newborn children are spending their first weeks on earth as virtual prisoners in the hospitals because their mothers are too poor to pay for their delivery. A nationwide survey by the Saturday Nation this week found dozens of mothers who had been detained for months in poor conditions with their babies - in one case because the payment for the delivery bill fell short by Sh500.

In all the major hospitals visited, detained mothers were confined to

the farthest corner and may not leave the wards even to bask in the sun.

At P u m w a n i , Nairobi's largest maternity hospital, two mothers are forced to share one bed with their infants, even when there are vacant beds available, according to a human rights group which monitors the detentions.

Additionally, as "debtors" to the government hospitals, they are

served meals after everyone else, meaning that their lunch is served at 3 pm.

More traumatic are mothers held for weeks for bills arising from still births. This week alone, there were six such cases at Pumwani.

Director of Medical Services, Dr Francis Kimani, said the detaining new mothers for non-payment of bills was not a policy of his ministry.

He said it was up to

respective hospitals superintendents to waive bills for poor patients. "As far as we are concerned nobody should be detained, whether they have money or not. We have an elaborate waiver system. All they (medical superintendents) have to do is check the backgrounds of the patients to see if they can pay."

The Kenya Network of Grassroots Organisations (KENGO), a human rights group that monitors the detentions, has accused hospital superintendents of sleeping on the job.

Johannesburg: A South African court has sentenced two Indian-origin brothers, both former policemen, for up to 25 years in jail for killing four persons in a 'massacre' at a pub two years ago.

The duo was sentenced for killing Shawn Strydom, Nic Jansen van Rensburg, Rory Menzies and Bruce Edwards over an argument

said to have started when one of the men made a comment about the size of another's genitals at the pub's toilets.

Describing the killings as 'heinous', 'callous', and "nothing short of a massacre", Durban high court judge Guido Penzhorn sentenced Brian and Leon Steven to 25 and 20 years imprisonment respectively

for killing the four at the Merseyside pub. The two got additional sentences of 10 years imprisonment each for attempted murder.

The court was told that the argument had started in the toilets when someone remarked about the comparative sizes of the genitals of white and Indian men, which the brothers claimed was

intended to be racially derogatory. After a fracas in the parking lot at the pub, the two returned with firearms, broke down the pub door and shot at patrons at close range.

Penzhorn said the brothers showed no remorse, although their mother Ruth Moses said afterwards she had raised them to be "God-fearing".

Indian-origin brothers jailed for 25 years in SA

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Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Discuss current affairs like Gujarat Municipal Corporation Elections, Commonwealth Games in Delhi and British Government's deficit reduction measure with CB Patel on CB Live this week.

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ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

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is in the air TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 andRomance you will in a dilemma

trying to decide what to do. You know you must make a choice. Play it safe for things will change and the risk is not worth the headache. It is time to finalize some work matters that have gone on too long. Soon you will be in able to relax.

You have been feeling disconnected for some time and this will be the week you will finally feel a sense of grounding. If unclear about what path to take you will soon realize exactly what you must do to fulfill your plans. Financially you will implement your plans to bring in the cash.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 This is a good time re-assess your life and make important decisions to take your work to another level. There is a chance that you will meet important people who will eventually change the course of your life. An opportunity will manifest that will change your public image at work.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23 You will be spending more money for much needed home projects. You feel the time is right for renovations and this change will bring a sparkle to your mundane life. Your energy levels will be high and you will find much scope for taking fresh initiatives and getting fast results. Your communications are well lit up but you have to ensure that you do not upset people around you.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23 Expect many ups and downs with your relationships. You are very tempted to move forward in all areas of your life. Take the time to make plans as impulsive actions can cause more setbacks and frustrations. The tide of fortune continues to run strongly in your favour for some time to come.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 Good ideas will open doors to a new opportunity. You cannot let go of your future aspirations because they will manifest. Keep to your path and you will be successful. A wind of change may be in the air; attention should turn to the wider world and benefits come from broadening of horizons and mental stimuli.

Do not kid yourself that emotional problems can always be solved by material means. This only covers the cracks and does nobody any good in the end. Be prepared to confront the issues. If love has left you feeling rather dejected or cynical, it looks as though soon events will pull you out of this mood of despondency.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

You will find added scope and greater incentive to push full steam ahead with your cherished aims. You must be careful not to tread on other people's toes. This is the right time to talk things over with your loved one - especially anything that has been worrrying you or making you feel insecure. .

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

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There will be increased scope for varying your activities, widening your network of contacts. It is an excellent time for exercising your mental energies, claryfying your and other people's ideas. Love and affection fill the air with some admirers. You may run into friends and loves of your past. Relationships prosper and bloom.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19 It's a time of slow and steady progress. Of course, there are still challenging issues on both a personal and practical level. To get here you may have overcome obstacles by making important decision and choices. You will achieve a lot more, especially when you're motivated by your own desires.

You are widening your horizons and learning new information that can be applied to your work. Many creative ideas inspire you and these involve travel to set things up. Relationships look great as Venus and Mars help to enhance your personal magnetism and put you in a gregarious mood.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

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R A N E E H O T E L S

P L U N G G D R E D A R E S

A E N E A S D E N E B

S T E R N S Q E C O N O M I C

T O R A A L O N N D I N S S U S T A T E L P E R S A L L A I M M E N A S K L I T E O D I S S O L D E L L O

L E G I B L E S L A S H E S

Use 4 4’s and only 4 4’s along with any mathematical operators to make a total of 596.

Solution of 108 :

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P E A T

MINDBENDER-109

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Coast of Morocco Prefix for puncture Choice abbr.

“2001” Mainframe Keenly eager Pay for Fight venue Deep crack Bo’s number Swed. flyers Shrimp dish Piercing in tone Rich cakes Offer Clean air grp.

Bone: pref.

Dog dogger Bit of derring-do Office asst.

Poet Teasdale Heads off Picture taker, briefly

Solution of Crossword-108

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Sudoku-109 2

33 “Exodus” character 34 Org. of Rangers and Ducks 35 Atl. Coast state 37 Over in Ulm 38 Deliccy 39 Workplace safelty grp.

40 Shoshones 41 School period 44 Backs of singles 45 Cut stinger 46 Visitors 47 Song syllable 48 Old Testament book 50 Alan or Adam 51 Calvin or Rodney 52 Apporx.

56 Lolita-ish 58 Toddler 59 Tan or Smart 60 El__ campeador 61 Goddess of folly 62 Plunk starter?

63 Newspaper VIPs

Down

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Winona

C R O S S W O R D - 109 1

pass

Simon

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2 WHATZIT? - 109

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Find the familiar phrase, saying or name in this arrangement of letters.

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Solution of - 108: Twenty-four-hour service

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Solution of sudoku-108 HOW TO PLAY Each row, column and square 3x3 box is a sub-grid of 9 cells. Fill in the grid so that each subgrid contains the digits 1 to 9. Every puzzle has one solution.

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SPELLATHON - 109

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Today’s Ratings: 05-average |06-good |08-outstanding

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How many words of four or more letters can you make from the letters shown in today’s puzzle? In making a word, each letter may be used once only. Each word must contain the central letter.

There should be at least one seven-letter word. Plurals, foreign words and proper J names are not allowed. British English R G Dictionary is used as reference.

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U L G

KAKURO - 109

Solution of KAKURO - 108 20 12

Solution of Spellathon - 108

E

The numbers in the pink squares refer

Example to the sums of the digits that you must fill into the empty spaces directly below or to the right of the pink square containing the number. For instance, in the given example, the 2 boxes below 12 must contain 2 digits that add upto 12, whereas for 20, the 3 boxes places horizontally next to it must add upto 20. No zeroes are used here, only the digits one through nine.

Note: A digit cannot appear more than once in any particular digit combination.

For instance in the example, we cannot have the combination of 8+4+8 for 20.

leper, peel, peeler, peer, repel, seep, sleep, SLEEPER, spree

By Dr Anil Mehta

Eye in the sky The skyline of London changed drastically in the year 2000 with the arrival of the sightseeing wheel London Eye on the South Bank beside the old County Hall (now a leisure complex) to celebrate the millennium.

Since its opening, the millennium wheel has become the most visible and visited landmark in London, drawing thousands of tourists from far and wide. Towering over the Thames, and at 443 ft, it is the world’s largest observation wheel offering stunning panoramic views of the city.

The Eye is a truly

Author in the capsule

sengers, getting into the wheel is boarding and the actual rides are called flights. The wheel moves continuously but very slowly so that the capsules are boarded when moving. It can be halted for those requiring assistance. It takes 30 minutes for the wheel to rotate once allowing the passengers to see for about 25 miles across the capital on a clear day (weather plays a crucial role). It’s a thrilling experience to be in one of the capsules and enjoy spectacular views of the city as if the whole of London is laid out before you – from Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace and St. Paul’s Cathedral to Trafalgar Square. Flight operates every half-hour.

Keep the camera handy.

You will need it!

You meet all sorts of London Eye people in the flight. We saw one lady who kept amazing feat of design digging her head in the and construction. It took book, not peeping out of six years and expertise of the window for once. I hundreds of specialists thought it was the most from different European expensive way of reading countries to complete this a book, but then found out eye-catching project. The that she absolutely had wheel is 443 ft in diameno head for heights, but ter, and weighs 1900 had to accompany her littons. Its 80 spokes are tle lad (regulations) who made from 3.7 miles of wanted to go. cable. Two strong cables Such is the wheel’s 197 ft in length support popularity that even the whole structure from a though the prices are high concrete base behind the the queues can be very wheel. The wheel rim was long. It is advisable to floated down the Thames book in advance by in the massive quarter phone or on-line ( sections and then assemwww.ba-londoneye.com ) bled on site. The thirty and pick up the tickets at two fully enclosed highthe nearby county Hall at tech glass capsules (each least 30 minutes before holding up to 25 people) boarding time. You can are mounted on the outhire a private capsule, if side of the rim which genyou can afford it, for a tly glide the visitor up into special occasion – perthe air providing an unhaps a romantic rendezvous, wedding, or a private party.

London eye has already become a symbol of London and modern Britain, and UK’s number ‘Room’ with a view one paid-for visitor attraction. It’s also a setting for the obstructive view in all spectacular fireworks disdirections. play on the New Year’s Since the eye was Eve. At 12 o’clock midoperated by British night the night sky over Airways (now it’s part of Thames light up as hunMerlin Entertainments dreds of fireworks Group), the airport termiattached around the nology is used though we wheel go off with a bang! are going nowhere!

Sheer magic!

Visitors are called pas-

30

HEALTH WATCH

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

Vegetarianism spreading speedily in the whole world S. Mehta What is the similarity amongst Pluto, Socrates, Newton, Amitabh Bachchan, APJ Abdul & Mallika Kalam Sherawat? It’s only that all of them are total vegetarian. Now-a-days many famous people are leaving meat or mutton diet & adopting vegetarian food.

Recently, the 11th International Conference of Vegetarians was held at Murdeshwar, a place of pilgrimage, on the seaside of Karnataka. Vegetarian Organisations of the whole world took part & presented their experiences. Intelligent & sensible people have started to understand that vegetarian diet is the best if one wants to keep his/her body & mind healthy and tranquil.

The cooks of 5 star hotels in Mumbai swear that the demand for vegetarian dishes has increased greatly during last several years, so they have to change their menus constantly. As informed by the executive chef, Mr. Hemant Oberoi, of Taj Mahal Palace, the menus of vegetarian dishes have increased to over 45 per cent. Restaurant named ‘Mainland China’ is serving over 50 % of Chinese veg dishes, with continuous increase. An officer of ‘Dominos Pizza’ says that from the total orders they receive, 65% are for vegetarian dishes.

The cause of increase of meat eaters in India was the widespread misunderstanding that vegetarians remain weak while meat eaters get strong. In fact, most of the propaganda of this theory was done by

the English rulers without any scientific tests.

Dietician Dr. Shikha Sharma says that this theory has been proved wrong now. Dr. Satish Manchanda, the cardiologist of Gangaram Hospital of Delhi has proved by scientific tests that all nutrients including protein (no worry about 1st or 2nd class!) are present in vegetarian foods.

Dr. Manchanda says: “We cannot blame the English people for the propaganda of non-veg foods. They believed that there are only leaves & salad in veg. foods, which really do not provide enough nutrition. In fact Indian people’s food of dal (all pulses, including sprouted ones), roti-chappati, sabjee (all vegetables: Shak-bhaji) & rice do provide all necessary nutrients. In the opposite case, non-veg food causes osteoporosis, while excessive cholesterol weakens the heart. Veg. foods have much more fibre which help reduce cholesterol.

Vegetables also have antioxidants which push away the toxic free radicals. So many wise people are preferring veg. foods and leaving nov-veg.

Famous intelligent & sensible people of the world became vegetarian although they were born in non-veg background.

Leo Tolstoy, the great writer of Russia, George Bernard Shaw, the famous author & Albert Einstein, the top scientist were pure vegetarians. G.B. Shaw even told: “I don’t want my stomach to be graveyard of dead animals, so I am vegetarian.”

APJ Abdul Kalam, the famous scientist & former presi-

dent of India was born in Muslim family, but still has been & is pure vegetarian & is proud for that.

Intelligent people have started to accept that people get only animal behaviour by using animals for food. Medical experiments have also proved that our mind develops according to the foods we eat.

Observing the speed with which vegetarians have been increasing in the world, it seems that the 21st century will become the vegetarian century.”

Many actors of Hollywood in the west & Bollywood in India are becoming vegetarians, abandoning non-veg.

Madhavan, the superstar of South India says: “I love animals, so I can never think to kill them & eat.” The whole family of Amitabh Bachchan is pure vegetarian. The camps of Yoga -Gurus like Baba Ramdev, BKS Iyenger, Deepak Chopra & Bharat Thakur in many countries have turned many foreigners towards veg. diet.

Restaurants in America & U.K. are increasing turning as only veg. restaurants where only, tasty veg. dishes are served.

There are so many delicious dishes in the science of cooking of India that nobody needs to eat meat for only taste.

Environmentalists have started to believe that non-veg food is responsible for increase of Global Warming. An acre of land used for breeding animals for slaughter can produce only 75 kg. meat per year, but if this land is used for veg. foods, it can yield 5000 kg. of grains. In America & Canada, they grow grains to breed ani-

mals for meat such 14 kg grains when fed to an animal produce 1 kg. meat in its body.

To grow 1 kg. of wheat, 5.5 litres of water is needed, while to produce 1 kg. of meat, about 20,000 litres of water is wasted.

Non-veg lifestyle is partly responsible for shortage of grains & drinking water.

Most of the airlines serve veg. food, even Jain food.

Health experts say that eggs, chicken, mutton, fish etc. can produce cancer of stomach & intestines, cholesterol of eggs can block the arteries of heart, causing heart disease.

More fibre in grains & pulses prevents constipation & resultant diseases of digestive system. When the animals are killed in the slaughter houses, they are frightened & their blood gets poisoned. The person eating such meat & blood becomes victim of bad mentality. Even sick animals are slaughtered & eating their meat increases diseases. Many antibiotics & insecticidal drugs are given to cocks/hens etc. in poultry farms to protect them from infections.

Chicken eaters become victims of all these poisonous medicines.

Nature has constructed human body for only veg. diet. Meat eating animals have short intestines, while only humans and vegetarian animals have long intestines. Human stomach & intestines have no enzymes to digest meat properly. With evolution, man started leaving meat & adopting veg. foods. So, vegetarian diet is the best for physical, mental and spiritual health for 21st century & onwards.

Three cups of tea a day 'can protect against heart attacks' Drinking just three cups of tea a day can protect against heart attacks and stroke, claim researchers.

A new review shows regular drinking of either black or green tea can reduce the risk of heart problems by 11 per cent. It cuts the build-up of plaque in the arteries - a combination of dangerous fat and cholesterol.

The review by researchers at the University of Western Australia says the benefits of tea are largely due to the

flavonoid content, antioxidant ingredients that counteract cardiovascular disease. One cup of tea provides 150-200mg of flavonoids. In terms of the delivery of antioxidants, two cups of tea is equivalent to five portions of veg-

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etables or two apples.

The review published in the science journal Molecular Aspects of Medicine also found the flavonoid content of black tea is equal to that of green tea. Almost 80 per cent of Britons are tea drinkers. Dr Catherine Hood from the industry-backed Tea Advisory Panel said: “Compared with US studies, the cardiovascular benefits of tea are particularly strong in European studies.

This includes UK studies where most of the tea consumed is black. Plaques in the carotid artery (a marker of atherosclerosis) have been shown to be less common in both men and women who drink tea.

Bearing in mind the number of studies, including human trials, data demonstrates that flavonoids in tea can inhibit the development of atherosclerosis.

This review also highlights evidence from randomised controlled trials showing that tea consumption may improve the health of the inner lining of the blood vessels as well as evidence that tea may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and lower blood pressure.

Adding milk to tea doesn’t affect the absorption of flavonoids from tea, according to several human research trials. In addition, the antioxidant effects seen in our blood following tea consumption are similar whether or not milk is added.”

She said: “Evidence is growing that three to four cups of black tea each day is good not only for general health, but also for cardiovascular health. Given the popularity of black tea in the UK, this is good news for those who enjoy regular cups of tea.”

HEALTH WATCH DIET Walnuts, Walnut Oil, Improve Reaction to Stress A diet rich in walnuts and walnut oil may prepare the body to deal better with stress, according to a team of Penn State researchers who looked at how these foods, which contain polyunsaturated fats, influence blood pressure at rest and under stress.

Previous studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids-like the alpha linolenic acid found in walnuts and flax seeds -can reduce low density lipoproteins (LDL)- bad cholesterol. These foods may also reduce c-reactive protein and other markers of inflammation.

"People who show an exaggerated biological response to stress are at higher risk of heart disease," said Sheila G. West, associate professor of biobehavioral health.

"We wanted to find out if omega 3-fatty acids from plant sources would blunt cardiovascular responses to stress."

The researchers studied 22 healthy adults with elevated LDL cholesterol. All meals and snacks were provided during three diet periods

of six weeks each.

The researchers found that including walnuts and walnut oil in the diet lowered both resting blood pressure and blood pressure

responses to stress in the laboratory. Participants gave a speech or immersed their foot in cold water as a stressor.

Adding flax seed oil to the walnut diet did not further lower blood pressure. They report their findings in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

"This is the first study to show that walnuts and walnut oil reduce blood pressure during stress," said West. "This is important because we can't avoid all of the stressors in our daily lives. This study shows that a dietary change could help our bodies better respond to stress."

Eat chocolate and live an extra year Did you know that a couple of squares of goodquality dark chocolate contain nearly four times the antioxidants of a plum or a handful of Brussels sprouts, writes Anthea Gerrie.

Here is the latest research on the health benefits of chocolate with 70 per cent cocoa solids or higher.

Cardiovascular Research undertaken at the University of Aberdeen shows that flavanols, a form of antioxidant present in chocolate with a high cocoa mass, help prevent the activation of platelets in the blood, which contribute to heart disease.

Another study conducted in Dusseldorf and at the University of California at Davis suggests consumption of flavanols can even reverse some of the artery damage caused by smoking.

And last year Professor Carl Keen, of the University of California, reported that eating small amounts of chocolate could have as powerful an anti-clotting effect on the blood as taking aspirin.

For your brain Chocolate is one of the richest sources of magnesium, a mineral essential for brain health, according to the Journal Of Medicinal Food.

Research at Cornell University in New York also found it contains an antioxidant called epicatechin that may protect against the amyloid plaques which cause Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases.

Research at the

Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia suggests chocolate can also boost memory, attention span, reaction time and problemsolving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain.

Immunity A Japanese study published in the British Journal Of Cancer last year states that phenolics, naturally occurring antioxidants found in chocolate, boost the immune system, and another 2009 report by the Cancer Research Society of Hawaii notes that a further distinctive ingredient, procyanidins, was credited with the same effect in animal studies.

Sport worLd

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

B’desh shock Kiwis at home Lead 5 ODI series 2 – 0 after 3 matches

Hosts Bangladesh shocked New Zealand as they won the third One day international at Mirpur on Monday and thus taking a 2 – 0 unbeatable lead in the 5 match ODI series after the previous one was abandoned on Friday at the same venue due to rains. In the first match too, rains intervened to give the home team a victory via D/L method.

Winning two consecutive matches (barring the wash out) for the first time ever, the Bangladesh team came out with flying colours on Monday, as they troubled all the Kiwi batsmen and restricted them to 173 runs and not allowing them to complete even 44 overs. Later, the batsmen made it fast, as they overhauled the target

the visitors had to win both the remaining matches to draw the five-match contest.

The Kiwis lost their most potent striker, Brendon McCullum in the first over. Later, three spinners just did not allow Nathan McCullum shakes Raqibul the visitors to setHasan's hand at Mirpur on Monday tle down, reducwith 10 overs to spare, losing them to 101 runs for 7 ing just 3 wickets. wickets in the 33rd over. It All the three games took an aggressive partwere played at the Sher-enership of 72 runs Bangla Stadium in Mirpur. between Ross Taylor and The stage was set for Kyle Mills to take their Bangladesh's batsmen team to a better position, after their spinners had though 173 was still not a decimated the New defendable target.

Zealand line-up - and they The Bangladesh opendidn't disappoint, hunting ers began positively to down the meagre total of reach 35 for no loss after 173 in 40 overs, ensuring five overs, before the

lunch break. The fifty came in just 7.4 overs and not even the introduction of the ever- threatening Daniel Vettori could prevent the batsmen from scoring over five an over with relative ease. It was a day when everything was going right for them.

The century partnership between the Bangladesh openers was only the third such stand in 19 matches against New Zealand. {Brief scores: 3rd ODI – B’desh 177 for 3 (Nafees 73, Kayes 50) beat NZ 173 (Taylor 62*, 3-14) by 7 wickets. 2nd ODI – Abandoned after a complete washout. 1st ODI – B’desh 228 (Shakib 58, Mills 3-44) beat NZ 200 for 8 (McCullum 61, Shakib 4-41) by 9 runs (D/L method)}.

Visitors Zimbabwe were smashed to their second consecutive defeat in the two match T20 series on Sunday at Kimberley as the hosts South Africa won by 8 runs, though Zimbabwe came rather close as compared to the 1st match, which the home team sealed with all the authority and dominance, beating Zimbabwe by 7 wickets with more than 4 overs to spare.

The Sunday game was more absorbing as the home team smashed a

huge 194 runs in their 20 overs and Zimbabwe gave a hot chase, as they ended up just 9 runs short of what could have been a stunning victory.

JP Duminy dominated the South African innings, hammering an unbeaten 96, the highest by any SA batsman in the shortest version of the game.

Zimbabwe's openers began the chase in meek fashion, as the Powerplay overs, including three without boundaries, yielded only 45 for the loss of

its way.

Even as Zimbabwe lost, they scored their highest in T20. As in the first game, they had their bowlers to blame for the defeat. {Brief scores: 2nd T20 - SA 194 for 6 (Duminy 96*, Smith 45) beat Zim 186 for 7 (Taylor 59, Chibhabha 59, Theron 227) by 8 runs. 1st T20 SA 169 for 3 (Smith 52, Miller 36*) beat Zim 168 for 4 (Masakadza 72, Chibhabha 52, Parnell 229) by 7 wickets}.

SA smash Zimbabwe 2 – 0 in T20 series Hamilton Masakadza.

Taylor and Chibhabha, however, were only just loading their guns.

Taylor imposed himself on Johan Botha's niggardly lines by stepping out and teeing off down the ground in the seventh over.

Robin Petersen, introduced in the eighth, ran into Chibhabha who announced his intentions with a swipe over cow corner. Taylor pulled another six in the same over and the chase was on

OZ athlete couple makes it special with medals, Taj trip The special attraction and the facilities for CWG athletes and officials to make a trip to the epitome of love, visit and see the Taj Mahal in Agra has become a rage with many getting a feel of India outside the CWG village and New Delhi.

A devoted married couple, Jared and Claire Tallent of Australia, share most things in life - even Commonwealth Games medals.

"It's been an amazing

Jared, who won gold in the men's 20km walk on Saturday while also urging on his wife who took silver in the women's event.

"After all Jared and Claire Tallent the work we've put in together couple of days, so to be and to be able to stand up here and see this together there together ... it's been makes it a pretty memopretty unique and somerable experience," said thing we'll never forget.

"This is something to savour," Claire said.

"It's very exciting to get out of the room and dining hall at the village," synchronised swimmer Sarah Bombell said.

"It's great to get out and see something different."

Athletes are able to travel via a special Commonwealth Express train service set up from Delhi to Agra which can carry up to 500 passengers.

Sachin, Sehwag and Team India hog limelight in the ICC awards Steven Finn is the emerging Player of the year, Aleem Dar bags the umpire of the year trophy India raced ahead of all at the ICC awards, as Sachin Tendulkar bagged two while Sehwag, Team India and skipper M S Dhoni walked away with an honour each. The ICC awards function was held last week at Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka in India.

England pacer Steven Finn was honoured with the ‘Emerging Player of the year’ award.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has won the

ICC Cricketer of the Year Award as well as the newly introduced ‘People’s choice Award’ of the year.

He was joined by Virender Sehwag as the Test player of the year winner, while Team India was declared the Test Team of the Year.

Australia won the ODI team of the year award.

South African AB de Villiers walked away with the ODI player of the year honour.

Steven Finn, the England new comer

impressed as he took 27 wickets in the period under review. He has made his test debut as recently as March, 2010.

Pakistan Umpire Aleem Dar has won the David Shepherd Trophy for the second time consecutively after being named ICC Umpire of the Year.

West Indies great Joel Garner was inducted into ICC Hall of Fame in the ceremony.

Netherlands all-round-

er Ryan ten Doeschate has become the ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year.

M S Dhoni, the captain of the Indian team was chosen as the captain of the ICC team of the year. The team included the two Indian winners – Tendulkar and Sehwag.

Sehwag scored 1,282 Test runs at 85.46 in 10 Tests in the 12-month voting period to August.

India won six of the Tests and drew two.

31

Ugandan officials injured, hurt at the attitude

After a freak accident late on Tuesday last week, the Ugandan contingent created a bit of furore at the Commonwealth Games, as things went to diplomatic levels and even a threat of pull out. The Ugandan officials felt that the CWG OC was not giving any importance to athletes or officials of other countries except the Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada and the likes.

Later, India’s sports minister MS Gill, CWG OC chief Suresh Kalmadi and the CWG village mayor all apologised to the satisfaction of the Ugandans. The High Commissioner of Uganda in New Delhi, Ms. Nimisha Madhvani also assured that the Ugandan contingent would not pull out.

Uganda's Chef De Mission William Tumwine, Administrative Officer Iren and Press Attache Juliet were injured on Tuesday night when the official Games car they were in braked suddenly and hit the hi-tech underground sharp metal stoppers that had sprung up as they were entering the Village.

“The mayor of the Games Village (Dalbir Singh) came to us, offered a bouquet of flower and apologised for the incident on behalf of everybody. I am happy that the mayor came and consoled us,” Uganda Chef de Mission William Tumwine said.

Earlier, Uganda's Minister of State for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi demanded an apology from the Indian authorities for the incident.

Misbah is the new captain for Pak Test team Pakistan Cricket Board in a surprise decision, retained Shahid Afridi as their ODIs and T20 captain, while named Misbah-ul-Haq at the captain of the Test team to play against South Africa in UAE. Misbah was recalled to the ODIs and T20 last week. He was dropped after the T20 World Cup this year and last played a Test for Pakistan at Sydney early this year.

Former Test skipper Intikhab Alam was named as the manager of the squad for ODIs and T20 matches.

ODI & T20 squad: Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Shoaib Akhtar, Tanvir Ahmed and Zulqarnain Haider.

Test squad: Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah ul Haq (capt), Umar Akmal. Azhar Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Zulqarnain Haider, Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Wahab Riaz and Sohail Tanvir (subject to fitness).

EPL games this week Saturday, 16 October Arsenal v/s Birmingham Emirates Stadium Bolton v/s Stoke Reebok Stadium Fulham v/s Tottenham Craven Cottage Man Utd v/s West Brom Old Trafford Newcastle v/s Wigan St. James’ Park Wolverhampton v/s West Ham Molineux Aston Villa v/s Chelsea Villa Park Sunday, 17 October Everton v/s Liverpool Goodison Park Blackpool v/s Man City Bloomfield Road Monday, 18 October Blackburn v/s Sunderland Ewood Park

15:00 15:00 15:00 15:00 15:00 15:00 17:30 13:30 16:00 20:00

CWG Medals Tally (As on 12/10/10) Country Australia India England Canada South Africa Nigeria Kenya Malaysia Scotland Singapore New Zealand Samoa Jamaica Pakistan Cyprus Uganda Wales Bahamas Nauru Botswana Sri Lanka Ghana Bangladesh

Gold 64 31 30 25 12 9 8 7 6 6 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0

Silver Bronze 45 40 25 30 50 36 15 30 11 10 8 12 6 7 8 9 8 7 5 6 17 6 0 1 4 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 5 10 1 3 1 0 0 3 1 1 1 3 0 1

Total 149 86 116 70 33 29 21 24 21 17 26 4 7 5 3 2 16 5 2 4 2 4 1

32

Asian Voice - Saturday 16th October 2010

India – England in a close fight at CWG Hosts set a record of Golds, may beat England for 2nd spot

With just two more days of competition left for the Commonwealth Games, India and England are locked in a close fight to secure second spot in the overall standings, with just one gold medal being the distance between and India and England. India still has chances to win around ten more yellow medals and that is vital, as otherwise, in silver and bronze, England is way ahead of the host country.

India has been in the second spot almost throughout the competition, though England athletes have caught up with the hosts, reaching very close to upset the standings, while Canada is a far

India's Krishna Poonia celebrates her gold medal during the discus women final of the Track and Field competition of the XIX Commonwealth Games on Monday

fourth. This means India is almost assured of a third spot and a tally of 100 medals overall.

Among the gold hopes for India, in badminton Saina Nehwal who is a

Johanne Brekke of Wales winner of the bronze medal, Jen McIntosh of Scotland winner of the gold medal and Tejaswini Sawant of India winner of the silver in the 50m Prone Rifle Women Singles event on Tuesday

Sachin just 1 away of a 50 of test centuries Writes many more records, very close to the average of Don Bradman for 2010 Sachin Tendulkar is perhaps at his best at 37 years and more. He has written a couple of new records; got closer to Sir Don Bradman’s average of 99.94, just a fraction behind at 99.5 for the year 2010. The Indian maestro scored his sixth double ton in test cricket, leaving all Indian batsmen behind.

The stats would have you believe that this is the best Sachin Tendulkar has ever batted. And for once, the stats may well be right.

But they don’t tell the full tale.

At over 37 years of age, Sachin is coasting along, steadily increasing the huge gap that already exists between him and all other batsmen who have ever played the game.

On Monday,

Sachin posted test century No 49. It was his sixth in the calendar year, the most by any Indian ever.

On Sunday Sachin had passed 14,000 Test runs, taking just 12 innings to race there from 13,000 and averaging over 84 along the way — the fastest he has ever gone from one 1,000-run mark to the next.

He has already scored close to 1,200 runs and with five Tests still to go, looks good to overhaul his personal record of 1,392 runs from 16 Tests in 2002.

So what’s next? Well, there’s 15,000 Test runs to get, 50 Test centuries, 100 international centuries. All landmarks that once seemed impossible, all now seemingly within touching distance.

clear favourite to go all the way in the women's singles event is already through to the semi finals.

In the men's singles event, Chetan Anand and P Kashyap are in the last four and it would be a dream final if the two take on each other in the title clash.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have reached the semis of the women's doubles event and will be hoping for some raucus crowd support to inspire them to ultimate glory.

The men's hockey team also has an outside chance of going for gold although they have to first get past England in the semi-finals.

They will then have to hope for some magic in the final against Australia who are going to be their most likely opponents.

As far as table tennis is concerned, Achanta Sharath Kamal who is one of the favourites in the men's singles event has the company of compatriots A. Amalraj and Soumyadeep Roy who have joined him in the last eight.

Kamal and Soumyajit

Saha are also in the doubles semi finals along with countrymen Amalraj and Roy. The Indian shooters who have made their country proud with a bagful of gold medals will have another crack at gold in the form of Samaresh Jung.

Krishna Poonia makes history for India India on Monday created history by breaking the 5 2 - y e a r - o l d Commonwealth Games gold medal jinx after Krishna Poonia won the yellow metal in women’s discus throw to become the first woman from the country to win a Commowealth Games gold.

India swept the event with Harwant Kaur and national record holder Seema Antil also winning the silver and bronze respectively. Poonia's gold, which she won by throwing the discus to 61.51m, was the first gold after 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh's 440 yard race gold in the 1958 edition of the Games in Cardiff, Wales.

Harwant came up with an effort of 60.61m, a tad below her season's best of 60.66m, while national record holder Seema Antil threw the discus to a distance of 58.46m.

Earlier in the day, women rifle shooters Tejaswini Sawant and Meena Kumari grabbed the bronze in the women's 50 metres rifle prone event after logging one point less than the gold and silver medalists in the CWG which was rocked by its first dope scandal on Monday.

Punjab, Rajasthan teams ousted from IPL BCCI terminates franchise deals without notice After deciding to issue notices to the two franchisees, BCCI decided to deal directly as the new IPL governing council on Sunday, 10th October using Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta powers vested in almost certain to feature it to terminate the cononly eight teams. tracts with two teams of The announcement to the IPL – Rajasthan terminate agreements Royals and Kings XI with the two franchises Punjab with immediate came after days of hectic effect. Further, BCCI was speculation and raised furcaught in another SMS ther questions about its row, as it has been claimed implications. Though the that the BCCI boss in BCCI president Shashank waiting, N Srinivasan had Manohar said the decision sent SMSes to the other had nothing to do with IPL franchise owners to Lalit Modi both Rajasthan keep away from the conand Punjab have co-owntroversy or they will also ers who are relations of meet the same fate as the the ousted IPL chairman. two teams.

When asked about BCCI has though Kochi, Manohar said the denied that any such franchise hadn't been SMSes were sent. The scrapped because it hadn't board said it would lodge violated the agreement a complaint and would yet, but was only suffering like to find out who was from internal disputes. He behind the alleged action. said Kochi had ten days to Kochi, the new franchise resolve all problems and that was in the eye of the form a joint venture comentire IPL and BCCI pany to hold the franchise storm has got a respite, as rights otherwise it also ran the BCCI decided to first the risk of being ejected deal with the two teams from the league. that are seen to have remSunday's meeting was nants of the Lalit Modi the first for the reconstiregime. tuted governing council, The IPL chose to which had its membership invoke powers vested with reduced from 14 to eight, it to terminate a franchise and its tenure and powers contract with immediate cut. Chirayu Amin was effect at an emergency appointed the chairman of meeting of the governing body, replacing ousted council held in Mumbai chairman Lalit Modi, and last week. The notices the rest of the council seeking explanation why comprises five other memaction shouldn't be taken bers - Arun Jaitley, Ranjib again remained unsent to Biswal, Anurag Thakur, the franchises.

Ajay Shirke and Rajiv The two franchises are Shukla - and two former now considering their cricketers, Ravi Shastri options. However, as per and Mohinder Amarnath, indications from a top as honorary members.

BCCI official, IPL 4 was

Blackburn bidder tripped up

By Premen Addy Bahrain-based Indian entrepreneur, Ahsan Ali Syed, appeared to be on a roll not so long ago. He was being touted as the future owner of the English Premier League's Blackburn Football Club.

He gave interviews to the English media about his plans to restore the club's waning fortunes with his £300 million bid.

However, there's many a slip between cup and lip, and Mr Syed was ordered to close his his financial advisory company after

regulators discovered it had grown from a £53,000 business to $1.2 bill.ion in about 18 months.

In August Bahrain's Ministry of Industry and Commerce put a spanner in the works, instructing Ahsan Ali Syed to close down Western Gulf Advisory (WGA) for “violating the laws and regulations of Bahrain” after an investigation into its funding and operations. Last month WGA was granted an extension on its “period of exclusivity” to conduct due diligence on the football club.

WGA's report and accounts show it made a $92 million profit in 2009 after multiplying its assets from $64 million to $1.2 billion in a single year.

The accounts reveal that the company's success was attributable to a $1.1 billion “loan from a related party” The accounts state that his “loans are unsecured and bear no interest and do not have to be repaid for ten years.

In his chairman's address, which made no mention of the loan, Mr Syed says, “Although fortune does favour the

brave, WGA’s success has been born of active pursuit and diligent investment strategy.

A WGA spokesman accepted that the accounts are “confusing”, but said: “It is something we are working on.”

The company had better be quick, otherwise the Blackburn bid and everything associated with it will recede over the horizon. Alas, for the best laid plans of mice and men!

Blackburn, meanwhile, will soldier on, hoping for a sugar daddy somewhere along the line. Good luck, fellas.