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Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar launch ‘British Punjabis 2010’, a 68 pages, glossy A4 size magazine. If you would like to buy a copy, please send us a cheque of £2.75.

For more information read pages 12-13.

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

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Ahmedabad, Puri celebrate Rath Yatra

245 Million Widows "In Worldwide Crisis"

Old woman dies, two injured in Puri stampede

Thousands of devotees from various parts of India and abroad descended in the Orissa town of Puri, as the devotees celebrated the festival of Rath Yatra (the journey of chariot) with great fervour. The festival was also celebrated in Ahmedabad and many other cities, towns of Gujarat.

In a minor stampede, an old woman died in Puri, while two others were injured.

Reports said that the stampede occurred when devotees jostled to participate in the festival and have a closer glimpse of

Cherie Blair, HE Ban Ki Moon and Raj Loomba, at the Widows Research Study Book presentation in the United Nations at New York

A view of the Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad on Tuesday

lord Jagannath and the other two deities as they were brought out.

In Ahmedabad, the Rath Yatra passed through the traditional routes of

the walled city amidst high security.

Continued on page 24

The first edition of a comprehensive research study laying out the global crisis of widows – ‘Invisible, Forgotten Sufferers: The Plight of Widows Around the World’- was presented to the UN Secretary General, H.E. The Hon’ble Mr. Ban Ki Moon, by the Loomba Foundation’s President, Cherie Blair, and Founder and Chairman Trustee, Raj Loomba CBE. They were joined by Shri Balbir Singh Kakar, a Trustee from India and Dr. Peter Rajsingh, a Trustee from the USA. The Research Study was commissioned by the Loomba Foundation and also calls for UN recognition of 23rd June as ‘International Widows Day.’ Continued on page 24

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

one to one Keith Vaz MP with

Neena Makadia Neena Makadia graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2008 with a degree in Law LLB and completed her LPC from BPP Law School in 2009. Most recently, she was awarded the G.C Mandal Scholarship, an internship programme designed to give graduates the opportunity to go to Delhi for three months to work at Fox Mandal Little, the largest law firm in India. Neena enjoys sports, reading and travelling abroad. She is also an advocate of charity work both in the UK and abroad.

1) You recently completed an internship with a law firm. Has this inspired you to follow a legal career?

Being given the chance to go abroad for three months and work in Delhi at Fox Mandal Little, the largest Law firm in India, was an incredible opportunity. I have always wanted to be a lawyer and the G.C Mandal Internship cemented my interest in the legal field.

2) What was the best thing about your time in Delhi?

The whole experience was absolutely amazing and it is hard to pinpoint one aspect but I have to

7) If you were Prime Minister, what one thing would you change?

I believe a greater concentration needs to be given to the job sector.

By diverting funds which are being poured into defence and nuclear power, the money should be channelled to help fund schemes and create enough jobs for graduates like myself who are the future of this country.

say being allowed to visit and sit in on cases at the different courts including the Supreme Court and High Court was definitely a highlight.

3) What are your proudest achievements?

As well as being awarded the G.C Mandal Internship, my other proudest achievement is the charity work which I carry out in Africa.

4) What advice would you give to people graduating from university now?

Be proactive by going out there and getting experience in an industry which you are interested in. Being a gradu-

ate without a job is frustrating, particularly in this job market, but showing that you have taken initiative can aid you in the long term.

Tories to focus on student internship to get young people involved in politics

By Anshul Gupta Recently The Times featured an interview with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who is the new Chairman of the Conservative Party, and was also appointed the first Asian in the Cabinet after the recent general election. She has been given the title of “Minister without Portfolio” so she does not have authority over any ministry or department in particular, but she is at liberty to “add value” as she puts it, to the work of her colleagues in other departments.

In her first interview since her appointment, she discussed the future of the ‘A-list’ candidly, and alternatives that might be proposed instead.

With this General Election the number of female Conservative MPs has risen from 18 to 49, which represents 16% of all Conservative MPs – about 1 in 6. The number of ethnic minority MPs from the Conservative Party has risen from 2 to 11. Whilst this represents a major step forward, this is still less than 4% of all Conservative MPs, and the ethnic minorities still remain sig-

Baroness Warsi

nificantly under-represented at the Parliamentary level to the great dissatisfaction of their constituent communities.

Despite this however, Baroness Warsi said she was ready to scrap the ‘Alist’ of candidates that had been introduced by David Cameron to boost the number of female and BME (black and ethnic minority)

6) Who has been the biggest influence on your life to date?

My mum, Jayshree. She has instilled in me the importance of family values and hard work which has always carried me through life so far. She is a huge inspiration to me and I can always count on her for support and advice.

candidates. The ‘A-list’ has had great success in getting such candidates selected for Parliamentary seats, but most of them were in unwinnable constituencies, so from the comparatively large numbers of women and ethnic minority candidates who were selected for seats, relatively few were actually elected to Parliament.

Instead Baroness Warsi announced that the Conservative Party would focus on other schemes such as student internships to get more young people involved in politics. She talks of moving to what some would call a ‘postracial’ age where “We need to move towards a mainstreaming of minority ethnic and religious groups.

We need to move towards a place where we don’t treat them as specific interest groups.”

The ‘A-list’ was strongly resisted by the constituencies and many felt they were being strongarmed into choosing a female or a BME candidate. This has created a great deal of resentment from the various constituency associations spread around the country,

5) What are your long term goals?

To become a lawyer in the City and eventually go on to become a Partner.

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

Mahatma Gandhi, as not only could I learn from him the important principles which he stood for but it would also be interesting to hear stories of his incredible life journey and philosophy.

People ■ Watched by one of the truly great members of the Hindu faith Morari Bapu. Lord Dolar Popat was admitted to the House of Lords. Supported by

Morari Bapu

Tory Leader Lord Strathclyde and Lord Sheikh. Also present were Lord Swraj Paul, Lord Kakkar, Lord Navnit Dholakia and Baroness Sandeep Verma, Ramesh Sachdev and Ken Popat.

■ The last Conservative ethnic minority MP to give his maiden speech Rehman Chishti did so last week during a legal debate. It was well worth waiting for. He mentioned all three of his local papers in Kent, his local football team and the Leader of his Conservative Group.

■

Yet another Ramesh Kansagra birthday party.

This weeks guests included Vinu and Sudha Bhattesa, Harish and Gita Patel, and Valerie Vaz MP.

UK milkman speaks fluent Gujarati, Bengali John ‘Jimmy’ Mather is a British milkman, but with a difference. He took it upon himself to learn the language of his customers, as they were not too good at English.

Jimmy is fluent in spoken Gujarati and Bengali, two Indian languages, as he has a lot of customers from the two states of India and Bangladesh.

A report in the Daily Express says Jimmy started his business of milk delivery in 1960.

Today, the 69 year old has many friends among his customers, as he speaks their language.

He is still fit to do his job and says he has no plans to retire, as he loves his job.

According to Jimmy, more and more Asian families settled in that Conservative Central HQ was interfering or imposing certain candidates on them, forcing them to select applicants who ticked various boxes, but were not necessarily the best performers, or the candidates of choice by a given constituency association.

Re-imposing the ‘A-list’ would be very difficult and

customers. Jimmy loves all their festivals too.

MigrationWatch UK spokesman Alp Mehmet added “Gujarati is not an easy language for a westerner to master John Jimmy Mather and this is also in the best traditions of the Blackburn, Lancashire English milkman who but they had very little or looks for the best ways to no knowledge of English. serve his customers.”

He then decided to learn Even locals have contheir language. firmed that Jimmy’s comRemembering the first mand of Gujarati and few folks he served, Bengali has built lasting Jimmy said, “They were bonds in the community. good, decent folks, but Mohammed Sufi, their English was not who has known him good. His learning the since 1974, said: “I language of his cusremember he went into tomers made things a lot somebody's house and easier. asked her what she wantHe is very popular ed. I was shocked that he and gets invitations to was speaking such fluent dozens of weddings Gujarati.” every year from his Asian would use up much of the political capital that David Cameron has with the grassroots of the party. In the past year 10% of activists, the party base, have already left the party.

Losing them is a body blow for a given constituency association, as finding willing workers who will do the hard graft is never easy. Alienating

the party base further would not be helpful and would be setting up the Conservative party for a self-inflicted wound in future elections.

This might better explain why the Baroness is not so willing to reuse the ‘A-list’ as a tool to select and then elect women and ethnic minority candidates.

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

COMMENT

Mandelson memoirs could cleanse Labour Peter Mandelson's memoirs, The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour, is not quite the picture of a new darkness, some Labour activists had feared, but it does shed light on the darker corners of the party's struggle to cling on to power even as it lost the general election last May. Labour had come second to the Tories, with the Lib Dems third, but the arithmetic made a Conservative-Lib Dem alliance more likely than a Lib Dem tie-up with a Labour government led by Gordon Brown, not the most popular of politicians. According to Lord Mandelson's revelations, Mr Brown, with the author at his side, tried desperately to persuade their Lib Dem interlocutors to agree to a coalition deal. But this wasn't on with Mr Brown still in the driving seat.

Without him the possibilities were infinite if not terribly creditworthy. The Lib Dem elder statesmen, Paddy Ashdown and David Owen, were resolutely opposed to any arrangement with Mr Brown calling the shots, while Nick Clegg and his team required no convincing that any deal with him at the helm would be as unwise as it was unworkable. Beyond them was Mr Brown's predecessor in 10 Downing Street, Tony Blair, who, Lord Mandelson reveals, was also opposed “Gordon could not stay Tony told him and me that the public would simply not accept Gordon remaining.” Mr Blair, with much wisdom, also warned: “If we act as if we've won when we have not, we'll turn the public against us.” We await Mr Blair's forthcoming memoirs with interest.

Rumour has it that Messrs Blair and Mandelson

are not on speaking terms, because the former PM resents the appearance of his erstwhile friend and colleague's book on the stands before his own. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

The attempt, however, to cobble a Labour-Lib Dem coalition was scarcely an edifying spectacle.

It has the scent of backstairs intrigue far from the public gaze. In the end it was a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition that emerged from the post-election process. It has worked well so far but the true challenges are still to come as the bitter economic chill begins to bite.

Peter Mandelson's tells of power and intrigue, of the malignity of disappointed humanity and of the triumph of those whose tasted victory. Henry Kissinger once described power as an aphrodisiac. He spoke from experience.

Lord Mandelson may well reopen old wounds in Labour, but this may be no bad thing for the party has long been corrupted with bad blood.

Time for cleansing, surely. Why not start with the source of Labour's decline and the start of Britain's Time of Trouble – incubated in Tony Blair's fateful decision to join George W.Bush and the US in the war in Iraq. Many in the present coalition government and the Opposition benches at the time lent support to this misadventure.

We must ask why. And why is its true story still not being told? Perhaps Peter Mandelson, released from the constraints of office, will oblige us. It will be a great day for British democracy if and when he puts his pen to the project.

Congratulations, South Africa South Africa, the acclaimed rainbow nation which came into its own two decades ago with the disappearance of apartheid government, hosted football's World Cup 2010. Last Sunday, the final was played out by Spain and Holland before a rapturous crowd in Johannesburg, while rapt millions watched the spectacle on their television sets and in cinemas throughout the world. Spain were the victors – the first time they have held the World Cup – while Holland, also first-time contenders, ended thrice runners-up. The football served up may not have been enthralling but the show put on by South Africa was superb.

Everything worked like a dream. South Africans from every walk of life were friendly and enthusiastic; they swallowed the disappointment of their country's early exit from the tournament with exemplary dignity and good humour and promised to do better next time round in Brazil 2014.

The South African public were hospitable; they well understood the importance of the World Cup as a showpiece; as a means to project their country's numerous assets so that more visitors would be tempted to enjoy its wild life safaris, and more investors would participate in its growing economy.

Nothing can hide South Africa's myriad problems, from aids to poor housing, high unemployment, endemic poverty and burgeoning crime. These cannot

be wished away with a magic wand. There is clearly much that remains to be done before all South Africans enjoy a better life.

The World Cup suggests a future of hope, Contrary to unwarranted fears, expressed mostly in Britain and the West, that the tournament would be derailed by the nation's problems, the month-long occasion has been a festival of joy and celebration.

South Africa walked tall and the whole continent took real pride in its achievement. FIFA should be lauded for awarding the World Cup 2010 to South Africa despite a chorus of Cassandra wails. Its judgement has been fully vindicated.

As for those who went home disappointed, they will, no doubt, learn to accept Triumph and Disaster just the same.

The postscript to what should have been a memorable occasion for the whole of Africa was blighted at the end by tragedy. The Somali al-Shabab, an Islamist terror group, bombed an Ethiopian restaurant in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and exploded two more devices at a club in the city where hundreds of people were watching the World Cup final. Reports say 74 people in all were killed in the blasts and many were injured, some seriously. Joy turned into sorrow, laughter gave way to tears.

Islands of bigotry in a thriving democracy Life consists of a multitude of paradoxes and nowhere is this truer than in America. The country's universities and research laboratories, all centres of scientific and technological excellence, are the envy of the world. America, a land of opportunity, has also received millions of immigrants from every corner of the globe, most in search of a better life, others seeking refuge from tyranny. Indians have done exceptionally well in the United States, and those who return to their Indian roots usually bring with them the best of America: enterprise, innovation, entrepreneurial skills and a capacity to face adversity and prosper.

Despite its great strengths, America also has its dark spots. Black slavery and the treatment of the country's Red Indians have shamed a nation founded on liberty and the rule of law. America's Bible belt, where much of the population are reared on Christian fundamentalism and xenophobia, is a case in point. The frontrunner in the election of state governor for South Carolina is Nikki Haley, 38, a conservative Republican state legislator, the daughter of Indian immigrants, who was Nimrata Nikki Randhawa when raised in the Sikh religion. She was baptised into the Methodist Church when she married but she doesn't actually “accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and saviour” was a charge (if it can be so

described) that dogged her throughout her primary campaign, which she happily won with ease.

Such statements are a blot on American public life. Christian evangelism is a force to reckon with in a swath of America, but it is a regressive influence which promotes creationism over evolution and denigrates the genius of Charles Darwin.

Enlightenment and reaction exist cheek by jowl in America, as they do not in Old Europe, where societies are riper and more relaxed on matters relating to religious faith and belief. But even here there are occasional lapses of taste, as when Pope Benedict XVI pronounced India to be ready for 'conversion' to Roman Catholicism. The Catholic church is yet to achieve this goal in Europe, where a variety of Protestant dispensations and the Orthodox confessions have long opposed the authority of the Church of Rome. Beyond this, large numbers of Europeans are no longer believing Christians; many seek wisdom in the insights of eastern faiths or dispense with religion altogether.

India must be allowed to remain her inimitable self, as she has for many millennia. She is the cradle of Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism; she gave birth to Buddhism and nurtured it for centuries; and she has provided generous space for Christianity, Judaism and Islam to prosper. Enough said.

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Thought for the Week

The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself.

- Dame Nellie Melba, (1861-1931)

Publication acknowledges Indian soldiers Deputy High Commissioner Asoke Mukerji has brought out a book highlighting the contribution Indian soldiers made fighting during the First World War. The publication titled 'Valour and Sacrifice' was released by the High Commissioner of India Mr Nalin Surie at the annual Chattri Memorial Service in Brighton on 13th June 2010.

Whilst the sacrifices Indian soldiers made in the World Wars is known, this is the first attempt to extensively write on the subject. It's aim is to bring about greater recognition of the hardship and dangers they had to face in fighting for the Allied cause.

The book traces the soldiers in the battlefields of France and Flanders, 1914 – 1915 and goes on to credit the first Indian soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross. It also covers Indian soldiers hospitalised around sites in British hospitals such as the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. This is accom-

panied by official photographs of wounded soldiers resting and being treated for their injuries.

The final section of the publication showcases the Indian war memorials in England, most of which are erected in Brighton and Woking. This is followed with a tribute, by acknowledging the names and ranks of all soldiers cremated at the Chattri site in Brighton. Mukerji has made a fine attempt in paying homage to our Indian brothers, and will serve to continually inform generations to come.

Former High Commissioner of India visits Asian Voice office Mr Kuldeep Nayar, former High Indian Commissioner and member of Rajya Sabha, as well as a leading Indian journalist and activist, visited the office of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar for lunch and discussions on Wednesday 7th July 2010.

Accompanied by his wife Bharti Nayar, he shared with our editorial team some of his observations on the current media industry and Indo-British diplomatic relations.

He expressed his deep disappointment about the media industry which is not morally and ethically working for the benefit of common man any more especially in countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.

While concluding the

Mr Kuldeep Nayar and his wife Mrs Bharti Nayar

discussion, he expressed that he was very impressed with the performance of the Indian High Commission in the UK, in improving the Indo-British diplomatic relations.

ASIAN VOICE is published by Asian Business Publications Ltd Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, (Off Coronet Street) London N1 6HW. Tel: 020 7749 4080 Fax: 020 7749 4081 Email: aveditorial@abplgroup.com www: abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

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Air India Direct Flight campaign a resounding success for all concerned After months of constant persuasion, signing of 15000 petitions, publishing various letters from different Councillors, MPs and dignitaries, NCGO (UK) and Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar have won the Air India direct flight campaign between London Heathrow and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, Gujarat and it is due to be restarted by October 2010. Our readers have sent the following letters congratulating and also discussing their worries with CB Patel, our Publisher and Editor and our ABPL team.

Guidance is still needed The announcement of restoration of direct flight between London and Ahmedabad by Praful Patel, the civil aviation minister of India is welcome, but I feel we need not thank him for that. In fact, we need to thank Mr. C B Patel, who spearheaded a campaign for the resumption of the flight as the Chairperson of the NCGO, UK and as a Gujarati leader too.

C B had collected thousands of petitions for the restoration of the flight.

I would like to urge the NCGO leaders and others that Gujaratis in UK and the UK Hindu community as a whole still need leadership and guidance of someone like C B Patel, though he has preferred to step aside if the organisation has some other capable candidate to takeover the top position.

I personally thank him for the time he has spent serving the NCGO and the Gujarati community of UK.

Thank you for helping the commmunity Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar and NCGO (UK), campaigned hard for five months to restore the London – Ahmedabad direct flight by Air India.

Finally, your success will lead to a facilitating journey for thousands of UK and Indian Gujaratis and others. You all deserve hearty thanks. This is a result of relentless efforts, the influence and the magic of C B Patel and his team, who guided the campaign with petitions and ensured success. All members of the well known Redbridge Gujarati Welfare Association, Illford greeted the news with a huge applause. All were happy and appreciative of the efforts by Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar aimed at helping the entire community. I am sure, this success will be a historic event and earn goodwill for the publications.

We all thank you and pray that all team members continue to take up issues for the benefit of the community.

Lalubhai Parekh Vice President, Overseas Friends of BJP and Former Chairperson, NCGO

Ms. Bhanuben M. Piparia Illford

Direct Flight facility The campaign that was initiated under the able leadership of Mr. C B Patel, with NCGO leaders and all team members of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, has finally brought the good news, of restoration of the London – Ahmedabad direct flight by Air India. It is a matter to rejoice for all elderly people, for kids and women who may be traveling alone. They will again be facilitated a lot. We thank all those who were involved with the campaign.

Ms. Ranjanbala Patel Charotar Ladies Group, Brent and Former trustee, NCGO

Congratulations for the success of direct flight campaign Mr. C B Patel and all his colleagues, congratulations for the successful campaign of restoration of the London – Ahmedabad direct flight. We were very happy to read the announcement of resumption of the flight. We feel Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice are really doing a commendable service of the community.

Aiyub Mohammed Darbar Secretary, Indian Muslim Federation, Illford

Passengers will face less hassles On Thursday, as soon as I got my favourite newspaper Gujarat Samachar, I was extremely happy to read the front page news of restoration of the London – Ahmedabad direct flight. It will bring a lot of relief to elder members of the community as well as the women. We thank Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Dinsha Patel as well as all Congress minister. Mr. C B Patel deserves a special thanks and we are sure he gets the blessings too. I feel no amount of thanks are enough for the way you initiated and run the campaign, helping the community with selfless service and motivation.

No stop over for Air India Welcoming Air India direct flight between London and Ahmedabad, however, doubt is whether this flight would be a coming from somewhere else, having a stop over in London before proceeding to Ahmedabad. If so, then those travellers having confirmed seat booking will be disappointed. It has happened at New York before. For convenience and clarification, this information needs to be confirmed too.

It would be great if it is confirmed the flight would fly between LondonAhmedabad and back without halting anywhere in between or later. Also if alcohol can be prohibited on flight, it will be helpful for some passengers. Air India must be careful about over booking too.

Prabhudas Popat Hounslow

Vithalani S London

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British Asian community is composed of various groups. It is important that our readers as well as the wider community become aware of the various components of the British Asians.

We invite all major community organisations or any knowledgeable person to send around 700 words and upto 3 photographs for a new series of articles. This service is entirely free of charge. The selection of article will be done by an independent pannel.

Please email your article and picture(s) to our Editorial team at aveditorial@abplgroup.com.

CB Patel Publisher/Editor Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar

Islam tied up with Terrorism Nurtures Illusions I wish to comment on the report which appeared in AV (19/6/2010) under the heading, “British link Islam with violence”.

Lord Adam Hafejee Patel, Indian born is a patron of the foundation “Exploration Islam in Britain.” It is also reported the intention of the said Foundation is to tackle the misunderstanding and distrust of Islam and Muslims in this country. If we Muslims are associated with extremism and so, are linked with terrorism then we should blame ourselves. Globally, we are hated and despised as a result of the horrendous and murderous activities being carried by those among us who call themselves Muslims, in fact these are the enemies of Islam therefore they cannot be termed as true Muslims.

In my opinion condemnation and Fatwas ( proclamations) in the media are not suffice to eradicate the damage done to the religion and I would like to think that despite all the efforts under taken by our leaders so far have achieved either nothing or very little in removing a blot of “ terrorist” on our community.

I therefore reckon the way forward for Lord Adam Hafejee and religious leaders as well as Muslim politicians of this country is to be practical in all their actions and to endeavour to adopt a definite policy, and advance according to the present time without sacrificing Quranic teachings.

It is to be realised that object and result of aggression is an expression of ingratitude towards this country and society which gives all aspects of life.

“Allah does not change the state of people they are in, unless they change themselves” ( Qur’an; 8:53).

A.M.A. Pira Via Email

OCI- Overseas Citizen Of India I believe Kapil Dudakia has missed a great opportunity for investigative journalism by publicly declaring his intention to apply for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) as a journalist.

His application will now obviously be dealt efficiently by a senior officer at High Commission of India in London (HCIL). When he reports his experience it will not reflect the frustration experienced by many Indian people

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

Preservation of culture The Burkha system is mostly prevalent in the Muslim countries like Persia, Arab states, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt in order to preserve the old tradition of feminine culture. I believe this Purdah system is a unique thing, and I am sure that it saves one from temptation, separation and divorce. Pure Western culture will not permit this notion of the Eastern world, as here all are free to wear and say what they like.

I think today's world is in haste. A tradition like wearing burkha cuts off an innocent soul from the chaotic world.

However, challenge does not exist in how to save bodily harm for women, if the Burkha system is removed, but in preserving a culture and heritage. I support this tradition as a safeguard to our heritage and uncertainties.

I feel the same for marriages.

Marriages should never be forced upon.

What's the rush? Cool temperament, slow decision and wide investigation is always successful and rewarding.

Ramesh V Moradabadi Southall, London

Council meetings and prayers It was indeed sad to know the Lord Mayor of Leicester has denounced Christian prayers at the beginning of council meetings. I am a Hindu and while I commend the Mayor's intention of being secular, this move has been stretched too far. I wholehearted endorse Mr Anil Bhanot's proposal of maintaining silence for a few minutes before which would allow all members to recite prayers of their individual faith in their minds.

Religion is important in today's day and age of destructive world events which leave us without hope. A simple prayer miraculously helps one to focus on the impending task and refreshes the mind. A no-prayer policy would imply an atheist attitude on the Council's part rather than impartial.

I sincerely appeal to the Lord Mayor to reconsider his decision.

Bhavesh Doshi Sheffield when dealing through bureaucratic system at HCIL. Suresh P Shah 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).

London N1 6HW

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Guiding back to Bollywood's Golden era

By Priyal Sanghavi One of the biggest actors of Hindi cinema, Dev Anand transported the audience back to golden era of 60s and 70s Bollywood in his relaxed and candid chat in London with BBC Asian Network show host Sonia Deol.

Films, his heroines and advice to youngsters- the

along with brother Chetan Anand.

With the hits came in heroines, creating sparks.

Unlike the current generation of actors, Mr Anand was remarkably open about his previous love interests. In his early days in the industry he met Suraiya, who was already a big name. “I used to travel by train while she had a

Dev Anand with Sonia

evergreen actor spoke on it in his inimitable theatrical style.

Born to a large family of nine brothers and sisters, Mr Anand wanted to pursue a masters degree in English literature but could not afford to do so.

The teenager Dev had to trek 26 miles to Amritsar city from hometown Gurdaspur to buy medicines for his sick mother. A shopkeeper while serving him a cold drink glanced at his forehead and proclaimed that he would be a big man. “I dismissed the prediction as it sounded very far fetched. Today if I see that shopkeeper I am going to bring him to Mumbai.”

Without informing his successful lawyer father, Mr Anand left his small town for the city of dreams, Mumbai to be an actor in Indian cinema. He got his first big break with Ashok Kumar's Ziddi which was a hit and the actor never looked back.

Within two years the actor launched his production house Navketan Films

Lincoln Limousine. We were committed to each other but politics interfered in our relationship.

She was a Muslim and me being Hindu, I was not allowed by her family to marry her. I was left heartbroken. I still remember her beauty and the wonderful big jewels she wore.”

One of the highest points in his career remains the search of a brother for his hippie sister in 'Hare Ram Hare Krishna'. The film marked the debut of Bollywood diva Zeenat Aman. Mr Anand spoke on how no actress was ready to be cast as his sister. “At a party, I saw Zeenat. She was the reigning beauty queen and I think she knew I was looking for a lead.

She walked upto me, took a puff from her cigarette and offered me one. I took it and she lit it for and I knew I had found my lead.

Next day she auditioned and she was in.” There were also rumours of their romantic involvement doing the rounds. They remained good friends for

three years during which Mr Anand cast her in Hira Panna and was even thinking of doing a third film with her. “I realised that she had gone to Raj Kapoor for an audition for Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Later at a party I could feel the chemistry between them. I thanked the host and left and haven't looked back.

You can't afford to be hung up on your anguish.”

To the delight of the audience, he recited dialogues from his classic movie Guide.

He was equally forthcoming speaking about his heroines.

He says, “I knew Waheeda from her first day in the industry. She was innocent and always accompanied by her mom.

Geeta Bali was a typical Punjabi- largehearted and rustic.

Madhubala was very giggly while Nutan was very withdrawn. You know something always kept bothering her.”

Mr Anand was present along with son and daughter. After making 38 films, he screened an exclusive three minute footage from his new movie Chargesheet out this Diwali. The audience largely consisted of loyal fans and lovers of Indian cinema were delighted. The actor was more than happy to chat with each of them and urged them to read his autobiography Romancing with Life.

One fan asked him about cinema of today. The actor replied: “That era is as great as the current one.

But this generation has television and internet which has maddened it. A few people have the monopoly over giving breaks in the industry to debutants.

Instead of one there are 45 stars in each movie. I never did that. I have always been the only star!”

Payback time for tax crooks A West Midlands couple who cheated the tax system and profited by around £1m from their criminal activities have been ordered to repay £752,303 from the proceeds of their crimes or serve a total of six years in prison. They defrauded HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of an estimated £100,000 in tax credits and £254,545 in income tax as well as being involved in money laundering.

Zadia Parveen and Mohammed Shabir were sentenced earlier this year after HMRC criminal investigators discovered the couple had made false claims for tax credits and failed to declare earnings

from a taxi business and private tutoring. The couple used the cash to buy a house for £480,000 and invested £500,000 in income bonds.

Adrian Farley, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said: “The couple supported their millionaire lifestyle by stealing a great deal of public money and were motivated purely by greed.

“We are determined to bring to justice the criminals behind this type of fraud and to take away the proceeds of their crime. We would like anyone with information regarding tax evasion and fraud to contact the Customs Hotline on 0800

59 5000 or email customs.hotline@hmrc.gsi.g ov.uk “ Parveen claimed over £100,000 in tax credits over a six year period, between 2002 and 2008.

She gave false information about childcare costs, household income and stated she was not living with her husband.

She also failed to declare her income from private tutoring of an estimated £135,972.

Her husband, Mohammed Shabir, was in fact living with her and had been working as a self employed taxi driver but failed to declare his income paying no taxes for at least fourteen years of an estimated £118,573.

Kapil’s

KHICHADI

by Kapil Dudakia - email: kapil@abplgroup.com Balle Balle I was invited to a special event to mark the launch of a unique publication entitled, ‘British Punjabis’ that was organised by CB Patel and the ABPL Group. Typical of the diversity of people of Indian origin, is it not wonderful to see a Gujarati who publishes a Gujarati weekly and Asian Voice to become the first to launch a publication that celebrates the achievements of the Punjabis.

There is great synergy between these two communities given that they championed the art of successful emigration out of India to all parts of the world.

So ‘Balle Balle’ seemed like an appropriate sentiment to be expressed but did you know that there is a similar expression in Spain as well? They say, ‘Baile

Baile’ meaning ‘Dance Dance’. How fantastic is that – to see two cultures divided by oceans, thousands of miles apart, totally different languages and culture – yet, they still come up with similar expressions that define joy.

I was also struck by the tag line, ‘Friendly, Faithful and Fierce’. If you were to ask a 100 people how they would describe Punjabis, I suspect almost all of them would agree with the sentiments expressed in the tag line. The Punjabis have a history of being good friends. They show us the meaning of being faithful. However, cross

them and one will learn the meaning of ‘fierce’ also. The lions of Bharat Varsh are to be commended for the way in which they live life to the full and become good citizens of the country in which they reside.

The natural bond b e t w e e n Gujarat and Punjab is of course historical and nothing new. On Baisakhi day (March,30 of A.D.1699), Guru Gobind Singh Sahib called a big meeting at K e s g a r h Sahib near the City of Anandpur Sahib and asked for a volunteer to give his head for Dharma. On that day five stood up and offered their heads. One of the ‘Panch Pyare’ as they are known affectionately was Bhai Mohkam Chand, a washerman from Dwarka (Gujarat State). Lest we forget the spirit of Bharat Varsh that unites us all.

Daggers drawn As it is usual at such events, a number of prominent people gave speeches.

Some were interesting; others probably more for the photo opportunity than their content, but for me two people came as close as one can to a duel. Avatar Lit of Sunrise radio made an impassioned speech in which he raised the issue of those in public service who tended to change their ways as soon as they got into a position of power.

Referring of course to those who get into politics by saying one thing, but suddenly seem to covert to the status quo and end up ignoring the plight of their own people. All too often some of them end up doing anything just to make sure that they get their honour.

Baroness Sandip Verma who is the Minister for International Development, Equalities and Women seemed to take this rather too personally and gave a rebuttal. She rightly pointed out that amongst the few who do make it; there are some who try to do their best under very trying circumstances. She went on to say that within our community there seems to be this inexhaustible appetite to bring people down at the first opportunity. Pointing out that would it not be great if like some other communi-

ties, we also worked hard to help and support people from our community who manage to get onto the first few rungs of the political ladder.

Of course both are correct and what seems like diametrically opposite positions are probably more in alignment then one might give credit. It is essential that as a community we stand by and champion those from our community who work hard to get to the top in politics. It is equally true that the covenant between the community and those who aspire for such positions is honoured – when they do make it, they should not forget their roots and their responsibilities to the whole community. This is a two way street and it is for us to find the gems from our community and support them in their endeavours to play the game of politics. There will always be those who will care but for themselves, however, can we as a community become so short sighted that we allow these rogue elements to undermine our aspirations? We need people like Avatar Lit to expose those who are two faced.

However, we also need people like Baroness Verma to ensure that Government creates the opportunities that allow

people of calibre to rise regardless of their background.

For the new government it is imperative that the profile of Indians in the UK rises swiftly. The failings of the Labour Party are clear – after more than a decade they just did not get it and reneged on their responsibilities.

Failure to recognise the strategic importance of our community will leave any government open to accusations that whilst it wants a proactive relationship with India, that it fails to treat people of Indian origin with the respect they deserve?

David Cameron has set his stall out and I know he is getting advice from several individuals from the Indian community. He will have to ensure that the advice he secures is from people who are not afraid to tell him both the good, and the not so popular about his potential policies towards India.

A good friend is one who tells you not what you want to hear, but that which is in your interest. Two months on – the new Government has many challenges and many opportunities.

How it traverses the path will determine its success as well as whether it remains in power with the trust of the people.

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Five quit Lords over non-dom tax status Five members of the House of Lords are quitting the chamber after being forced to choose between their Upper House privileges and their non-domicile tax status.

The peers, including a major Conservative funder and a former party treasurer, had faced a deadline to relinquish their status as non-domiciles, under which they pay no British tax on their worldwide income.

Lord Laidlaw, a businessman based in Monaco who has given £4 million to the Tory party; Lord McAlpine, a former Tory treasurer; and Lord Bagri, a former chairman of the London Metal Exchange, have all stepped down.

The fourth to leave is Baroness Dunn, former deputy chair of HSBC. In her letter to the clerk of the Lords, she wrote that she had been living and working in Hong Kong, her birthplace, when offered a peerage in 1990.

The other peer stepping down is the architect Norman Foster, who was elevated to the peerage in

1999 and sits as a crossbencher. Lord Foster of Thames Bank, whose designs include the Gherkin in the City of London, has previously refused to answer questions about his tax status, but spends much of his time in St Moritz.

There have been questions over some wealthy peers who are members of the House of Lords but are non-domiciled for tax purposes.

The departing peers have all written to Michael Pownall, the Clerk of the Parliaments, to give up their membership. They will retain their titles.

The move comes after a requirement in this year’s Constitutional Reform and Governance Act for peers to pay tax on their worldwide earnings.

A three-month period during which they could instead permanently exclude themselves from the Lords expires today.

Under British tax rules, a non-doms must spend no more than 183 days of a tax year in Britain.

A guide with difference Divia and Joel Cadbury

It takes one to know one, is the old saying, so one hopes that Divia Cadbury, founder of Zuma, one of the most successful restaurants in London, will prove the adage still holds. She has teamed up with Fay Maschler, long-serving restaurant critic of the Evening Standard newspaper, to create Page One, a guide to the capital’s best eateries, reports The Sunday Times.

The founders of Page One, who also include Divia’s leisure entrepreneur husband Joel Cadbury and journalist Simon Davis, argue that their ven-

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Airline bomb plotters sentenced to life in prison Three men have been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of plotting to kill hundreds of people in a terrorist attack.

Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman, who were recruited by the ring leader of an al Qaeda-inspired plot to detonate home-made liquid bombs on transatlantic jets, were told they would serve minimum terms of 20 years.

Mr Justice Holroyde told Woolwich Crown Court that the men intended to kill "an uncertain but potentially large number of innocent men, women and children".

Mastermind Abdulla Ahmed Ali had developed a home-made hydrogen peroxide bomb which could be disguised as a soft drink to be carried through security and assembled afterwards.

Along with another man, he was found guilty of his role in the airline plot last year.

Ali recruited friends and associates to act as suicide bombers as they recorded martyrdom videos at a flat in Walthamstow, east London, and singled out seven transatlantic flights which departed within two and a half hours of each other as targets.

Mr Justice Holroyde said the men sentenced today were "foot

The verdicts bring to an end a sprawling series of trials following an August 2006 operation to smash the largest terrorist plot ever discovered in Britain.

The police and MI5 inquiry would eventually cost more than £30 million and led to wide scale Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Ibrahim Savant and unpopular restrictions on soldiers" and did not know their carrying fluid on aircraft. intended targets and took no part in If successful, the explosions its planning or in assembling the could have exceeded the carnage of explosives. the September 11 attacks.

But he said: "Each of you agreed Mr Justice Holroyde said the to join with others in this conspiramen's faith had been corrupted, cy with each of you intending that saying: "I accept that each of you you would kill members of the genwere recruited by Ali and by all I eral public and yourselves by acting have heard and read in this case, I as a suicide bomber." accept he was a very powerful perHe added: "In furtherance of sonality. that conspiracy, each of you recordSavant, 29, of Stoke ed a suicide video in which you Newington, Khan, 29, of described yourself as being blessed Walthamstow, and Zaman, 26, also by the opportunity to take part in of Walthamstow, showed no emothat mission." tion as they were sent down.

The trio were cleared by a jury All three had denied a charge of of their role in targeting aircraft but conspiracy to murder. found guilty at a retrial of plotting mass murder.

Primary school headmaster earns more than £276,000

ture will be different than the other such guides.

Web-based and continually updated, members will receive recommendations for the best 100 restaurants -10 in each of 10 categories - at any one time. The list will evolve as the fortunes of the chosen establishments wax and wane.

The Sunday Times adds that the membership of this website will set you back £100 a year. For that, the authors will let you know what you should order, who to ask for, where to sit and the best time of day to visit.

Mark Elms, who runs an inner city primary school in south London, allegedly received £70,000 more than the headmaster of Eton College.

The sum was made up through his basic salary, back-dated pay and by helping other schools.

He is one of around 100 head teachers to earn more than David Cameron's salary of £147,000.

Meanwhile the average primary head teacher earns around £55,000 per year. As teachers and teaching assistants face a pay freeze unions described his wage as "outrageous".

The GMB union said that 11 head teachers in London earned more than £150,000, with some receiving a generous pay increase despite the recession.

Mr Elms is headmaster of Tidemill Primary School in Lewisham which has more than 335 pupils.

Officials at Lewisham council have since been

Valin, the head of Southfields Community College in Wandsworth, South London, allegedly received a pay rise of £20,594 in 2009/10, taking her salary to £198,406, and her total remuneration package to £226,381.

issued with "formal confidential advice" on how to set pay for headteachers.

Mr Elms was paid £231,400 with a further £45,123 in pension contributions. A survey by the GMB of head teachers' pay found that Jacqueline

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Dee Katwa

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

Sexual orientation, a factor in forced marriage Almost one in five men who are forced into marriages in the UK are living in the West Midlands, new findings reveal.

Figures released by the government’s Forced Marriage Unit has revealed that London is the only city in the UK where more men are forced to marry. Nearly 20 per cent of complaints are made in the West Midlands and overall complaints about forced marriages increased by 65 per cent last year to 220, from 134 in 2008.

The majority of the victims are linked to Pakistan and some of the victims have been forced to marry women “because they are gay or bisexual, or their families suspect that they are,” according to Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone. She added: “This kind of abuse must not be tolerated.”

Echoing this, James Brokenshire, Home

Office Minister for Crime Prevention, said: “Forced marriage is a form of domestic abuse and will not be tolerated.”

According to Jonathan Finney, Head of External Affairs at Stonewall, sexual orientation is a factor that can directly contribute to situations of forced marriage. He said: “Unfortunately this is often overlooked by service providers. Training and guidance for officials should be sensitive to the fact that some men and women forced into marriages may be lesbian or gay and help them provide appropriate support.”

The Forced Marriage Unit is a joint initiative between the Foreign Office and the Home Office. Male and female victims of forced mar-

riage, or others acting on their behalf, can apply for a Forced Marriage Protection Order. An order can be used to prevent someone being forced into marriage or to protect a person where a marriage has already

taken place. People can be arrested if they do not comply with the orders.

Since coming into force in November 2008, over 150 orders have been taken out. London had 28

cases of male forced marriage, with the West Midlands second with 18.

For details call 020 7008 0151 or email fmu@fco.gov.uk There are an estimated 55 per cent of British Muslims married to first cousins. British Pakistani children make up onethird of birth defects registered in Britain, despite making up only three per cent of all UK births.

Ironically, wedded couples in Birmingham are the most blissful in England, according to a survey by dating website eHarmony.co.uk. Tying the knot has made 73 per cent of married Midlanders happy – compared with 70 per cent nationally. The most happy in the whole of the UK were Scottish husbands and wives with 78 per cent saying they were happier since tying the knot.

Yajay, 21, stabbed to death The mother of a murder victim in Birmingham had dreamt for a daughter-in-law. Instead, she awaits the hearse which will bring the dead body of her only son whose tragic and untimely death has left the whole family “broken, torn and bleeding internally.”

Yajay Sudra died on his doorstep after being stabbed on his way home from work last Friday at around 11.20pm. He was just 21. Yajay, from Marsh Lane, Erdington, Birmingham, was attacked after finishing his late shift at WHSmith at Birmingham Airport.

His mother, who heard his screams, found him slumped on her doorstep when she opened the front door. Paramedics tried to save the victim but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Yajay

Killed: Yajay Sudra

is believed to have been stabbed near the junction of Marsh Lane and Shelley Road before staggering for about 100 yards to get home. The post mortem revealed that he died as a result of a single stab wound to the heart. Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Paul Joyce has vowed to bring Yajay’s killer to justice. He said: “From our enquiries we

Tribute to Teachers Young Hindus will showcase their talent and pay tribute to their mentors at an annual event in Birmingham this Sunday (July 18). The youngsters, all aged under ten, from the Radhe Krishna Balagokulam, the local kids arm of national charity Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, will perform activities reflecting the rich cultural heritage of India. Volunteer Jashoda Devlia said: “Our kids are the future. Unless we teach them about our roots, our forefathers, integration with, and respect for all, we risk diluting the strength and power of our Hindu faith.” The free event, Guru Puja Utsav, will take place at the Coronation Youth Centre in Solihull (B90 1AE) from 10.30am onwards. All welcome. To find out more email josh@devlia.com

believe that Jay was the victim of an attempted robbery, with the most tragic of consequences. At some point, Jay was stabbed with a knife in the chest. The attacker fled and Jay managed to stagger home.” Known as Jay, he was one of three children and had two sisters.

On Monday this week West Midlands Police released a statement from Yajay’s family. The statement said: “Jay had everything going for him and would do his best to make everyone happy – especially his mum. He was down to earth, with a great sense of humour, willing to help anyone at any time. Jay loved to play the guitar at every opportunity and was extremely talented. He was really into his music but was also into photography, tennis and loved to sing.” It added: “After the loss of

his father recently, Jay had to mature very quickly and looked after everyone including his mum and nephews and nieces, who all adored him and looked up to him.” Yajay had been to university where he studied graphic design.

In concluding, the statement said: “As a family we appeal to anyone who knows anything about his murder to come forward and contact the police or if it was you, please give yourself up.” In a separate incident, a father-of-two died after being stabbed during a brawl when a group of drinkers from a pub clashed with a wedding party in Bilston, Wolverhampton. He was named locally as Thomas Berry, aged 34. Anyone with information should contact West Midlands Police on 0345 113 5000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

News in Brief ISKCON Rathayatra The annual Hindu festival of chariots, Rathayatra, will take place in Victoria Square, Birmingham city centre, next Sunday (Jul 25). The colourful celebration, now in its tenth year, will begin with a vibrant procession at 12.30pm. Free event, all welcome. For more details contact Nisha Patel on 07876 692331 or visit www.iskconbirmingham.org

Cop caught on camera A Birmingham policeman caught on camera shopping at a supermarket after leaving his patrol car parked on double yellow lines outside could face misconduct proceedings. The incident, which happened at the Tesco Express store in the city centre last Monday, is being investigated by West Midlands Police.

Photo: Birmingham Mail

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New course The University of Northampton is to launch its first degree programme in India. It will run a master’s programme in international environmental management at the University of Madras, Chennai.

Switch off mobile, Sir Birmingham MP John Hemming (Lib Dem Yardley) was left red-faced after his mobile phone went off in the middle of an important debate in the House of Commons. The mortified politician, pictured, was quick to seek an apology by offering to make a donation to charity. Every penny counts, as they say.

Red card for fraudster Black Country businessman Balbir Baden has been remanded on bail after admitting a £270,000 fraud committed over a 13-year period. At Wolverhampton Crown Court, Baden, 57, of Blakenhall, pleaded guilty to failing to pay income tax between 1982 and 2003.

He will be sentenced on July 28.

New female police chief Jane Sawyers has been appointed new Assistant Chief Constable at Staffordshire Police Authority. Her role will include responsibility for forensics, force intelligence, counter terrorism and serious and organised crime. The mother-of-three, aged 45, pictured, has served in every division of the force in a variety of ranks since joining the force in 1984.

Low confidence in trade

Promoting cohesion through reading

Businesses in the Midlands are less confident about growth prospects than most UK firms, new research shows. In the Midlands, 31.8 per cent of businesses are confident their companies will grow over the next 12 months, compared to 47 per cent across the country, according to Yorkshire Bank’s latest business confidence survey.

A cultural programme to celebrate 60 years since India became a Republic brought together leading ambassadors from the Indian community in the West Midlands at an event in Birmingham last Sunday. The event, which included poetry recitals, speeches, presentations and live patriotic music, was held at the Indian Embassy in Hockley, which hosted the function in partnership with Gitanjali Multilingual Literary Circle.

GMLC was founded in 1995 by Dr Krishna Kumar, who remains deeply committed to the non-profit organisation’s mission, to promote cohesion and better understanding between all faiths and communities through literature.

Trading standards officers in Birmingham have seized 20,000 counterfeit goods including fantasy flashing fans, sunglasses and condoms worth nearly £400,000 from two city outlets. The premises, in Hockley, were being used by Sandeep Arora, director of Idea Impex Ltd, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

Arora, 35, from Yeading, Middlesex, claimed his manager bought the fake goods while he was in China on business. Arora was sentenced to 20 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to do 80 hours unpaid work.

Fake items seized

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

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ART & CULTURE

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Routes to Solidarity

By Spriha Srivastava

Kerala comes to South Bank Ever since I was a kid I had a fascination for the South Indian culture. I have always found it to be very different from the North Indian setting but still a striking resemblance in many ways. It is like a unique culture in itself and owing to India’s multi faceted society, we see diversity in attire, language, cuisine across the country. I have been to the southern part of India only twice – one as a ten month old when I could hardly understand the world around me and second was too short a trip to enjoy the beauty of the place.

Little did I know that Kerala, my favourite destination in the near future, will come looking for me in London. A two day carnival focussing on the Indian State of Kerala was exhibited at the South Bank along the Thames River last week.

The event consisted of every aspect of Kerala that can come to your

mind – Kathakali, Ayurveda, cuisine, handicrafts and much more.

Before going forward, I will give you a little outline of Kerala that is located in south-western part of India. The state is bordered by Karnataka to the north, Tamil Nadu to the south and Lakshadweep Sea towards the west. The capital of Kerala is Thiruvananthpuram and Malayalam is the dominant language. The State also known as “God’s own country” is a very popular destination for tourists from all over the world.

The two day carnival that took place on 7th8th July at South Bank in Waterloo was flagged off

by Mark Shand of the Elephant Family who engineered the entire Elephant Parade in order to create awareness with

Mark Shand with the dancers at Kerala Carnival

regards to Asian elephant conservation. Organised

by UK’s leading multicultural specialist Here&Now365, supported by Bank of Baroda and partnered with many leading groups – Sony E n t e r t a i n m e n t Television, Incredible India, Kerala – God’s Own country, South bank and Think London, the festival was attended by highly respected personalities such as Smt. P K Sreemanthi Teacher – Minister for Health and

Social Welfare, Govt. Of Kerala, Richard Barnes, Deputy Mayor of London and other prominent members from the British Parliament and Greater London Authority.

The event was a huge success not only because of the presence of prominent guests but also because it truly brought the essence of one of the most popular tourist destinations based in southern India to London.

Londoners filled their bellies with dosa sambhar and vadas and quenched their thirsts with coconut water.

Some even got beauty treatments and ayurvedic massages done; bought handicrafts for their homes. And all this was done not by spending hundreds of pounds on air tickets but on simply taking a bus to South Bank centre.

The organisers were extremely helpful and that made it easier for people to feel at home.

When I reached the venue, I could hear some traditional music but could not understand the words as the song was sung in Malayalam but the experience was extremely enjoyable.

There were traditional Kathakali dancers who lit the event on fire with their enthusiasm and passion while performing. I noticed that the crowd attending the carnival did not consist of only Indians; a great number of British and European viewers enjoyed the carnival.

I spoke to a French couple who were standing near the stage for a very long time looking at the Kathakali performance.

I asked them what they thought of the event and the boy said, “Till now it was Turkey on our minds for our wedding holiday but now we know that it’s Kerala. It looks like heaven.”

Well, indeed it does and thanks to the organisers for bringing it to London. In today’s world when everything is commercialised and tourism is a huge sector, one needs to know the art of branding and marketing a particular product. In this case, it was a holiday destination. But I must say that a great job was done not only from the business point of view but also from an aesthetic point of view.

The only thing however I missed was idly sambhar and I will request the organisers to remember that the next time they plan a south Indian carnival.

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at spriha@abplgroup.com

Besides fighting injustice overseas, leading antipoverty agency Oxfam is also busy tackling similar challenges that lie much closer to home here in the UK. In particular it recognises the plight of many Asian women, especially in the north of England.

Oxfam's Routes to Solidarity programme aims to improve the lives of Asian women in Britain who are so often the victim of not just poverty but sexism and racism.

Around two-thirds of England’s ethnic minority population live in the most deprived local authority areas, and a massive 63 per cent of Pakistani and Bangladeshi children live in low-income households- more than double the proportion of their white counterparts.

Asian women are also four times more likely to be unemployed.

Although it has been committed to ending poverty in the UK since 1996, Oxfam has been working to address this silent suffering for the past six years. In 2004, as part of its Race Equality Programme, it set up a project dedicated to improving the lives of ethnic minorities and of Asian women in particular by establishing individual and group mentoring, sponsoring support networks and forums, as well as organising events and seminars.

This is being done in collaboration with many local partners, such as South Manchester Law Centre, Roshni Sheffield Asian Women’s Resource Centre and the Fawcett Society.

Previously starved of the cash they need to operate effectively, many of these local groups are now thriving with the grants that

Oxfam, supported by the Department of Communities and Local Government, is giving them.

Shamshad Shah recently took part in Voice of Solidarity training, she started work on a Northumberland-based project ‘Migration Matters’ which aims to encourage community cohesion and address the impact of migration on local services in Northumberland.

“Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) women

are the missing voice from the decision-making processes that affect their lives, their families and their communities. My learning with Routes to Solidarity has shown me that personal is political.

Our experiences need to shape policy and reduce the marginalisation of BME women. To believe you can is the first step in anyone’s journey in achieving their dreams and aspirations." said Shamshad.

Recent Oxfam-sponsored conferences and meetings have addressed a myriad of issuesincluding domestic violence, arranged marriages, mental health disorders and povertybefore audiences ranging from newly-arrived Chinese immigrants, many not speaking any English, and Somali Muslims to African and

Jonaid Jilani

Asian residents who have lived in this country all their lives.

A typical example of an organisation that has benefited strongly from its support from Route to Solidarity is the Saheli Asian Women’s Project, based in Manchester.

Oxfam works closely with Saheli, supporting women who are victims of domestic violence but who are not entitled to welfare support - even if married to British nationals- because they have been in this country for less than two years.

Oxfam has not only helped and supported these women but also completed detailed studies of their plight, using their experiences to draw up a report that recommends the abolition of the two-year ‘no recourse to publics funds’ rule and highlights the urgent need to address the issue of domestic violence in some Asian communities.

For more information about Oxfam and its India project or to donate please call 0300 200 1242

P&G Professional Launches Nationwide ‘Kitchen’s Top Talent’ Contest Do you work in a restaurant or takeaway kitchen and have talents that go beyond cooking and washing up? If so, you could win one of three £1000 cash prizes by entering www.kitchenstoptalent.com! Perhaps in your spare time you’re proud of your smooth dance moves or enjoy a spot of juggling. Or maybe you do great impressions of famous celebrities or entertain your colleagues with your singing. Whatever your talent, P&G Professional has the contest for all wannabe stars Hederol’s “Kitchen’s Top Talent” campaign.

The competition offers three members of the hospitality industry the chance to win £1000 each by submitting video clips of them performing their top talent. Videos can be captured by mobile phone, camcorder or digital camera and uploaded straight to the Kitchen’s Top Talent website (www.kitchenstoptalent.com).

Restaurants have until 23 July to enter their clips, after which the website will be open for public voting. The winners will be chosen by members of the public who will be invited to vote for their most memorable video clip – mean-

ing funny clips will have just as much chance as serious competitors to win!

Hederol will provide participating restaurants with business promotional toolkits to allow them to drum up support and create publicity in their community. The overall winner will also have their very own Hederol Road Show, an exciting event which takes place at the establishment where they work to showcase their talent in their local community.

For further information on P&G Professional, please visit www.pgprof.com.

EDUCATION / COUNCIL

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Palatial two-storey house may be pulled down by Council When Wajid Hussain lodged a planning application to build a double garage at his £1million home, he told neighbours he wanted somewhere to house his collection of luxury cars, reports a national daily.

So they were more than a little surprised when the finished building was unveiled - and turned out to be a palatial two-storey house.

Daily Mail writes that boasting a basement, a ground floor and a first floor with skylights, the property even has french windows instead of garage doors. It is believed to have three bedrooms and a dining kitchen.

Now Mr Hussain, 35, may be forced to bulldoze it after council planners stepped in.

A three-day public inquiry heard he was given planning permission by Leeds council in 2007 to build a double garage with an upstairs granny flat in the upmarket conservation area of Roundhay.

After the stand-alone home was completed he applied for amended retrospective planning permission, saying there were 17 people in his extended family and extra rooms were needed near his existing sixbedroom home.

However the application was refused and last August council officials ordered him to demolish the property.

They said the building was 'an obtrusive and incongruous development' that failed to reflect the characteristics of surrounding homes.

When Mr Hussain appealed against the order, they launched a public inquiry to give residents a chance to air their views.

Neighbour Dr Harriet Carlyle,

45, who lives immediately behind the property, told the national daily, 'Initially this was meant to be a garage and a granny flat for his parents but it was clear from quite an early stage that there were different plans.

'The building is clearly now a standalone family home.

'It's not the worst thing to look at but is not what Mr Hussain said it would be.

'Even when the council enforcement officers came round they just kept on building.

'There was never meant to be a basement and then they dug a big hole in the ground. The patio windows at the front of the house were meant to be garage doors. It is cheeky.

'Mr Hussain said he wanted to build the garage to house his collection of luxury cars and now they are all parked in his driveway.'

Anne Spice, of the Gledhow Valley Conservation Area Group, told the hearing, as reported by Daily Mail: 'If this development is

allowed to remain, it would suggest a precedent that no one needs recognise local or national planning legislation.

'Will people be able to build as they want, regardless of conservation area status?

'The impact on our historic environment which gives a sense of distinctiveness to Leeds will be lost.'

But barrister Giles Cannock, representing Mr Hussain, argued that any planning issues could be resolved without the need to pull the entire building down.

He said: 'If planning permission is granted, conditions could be made to make the building acceptable.

'The concerns of the authority do not justify the total demolition of the building.'

The independent inquiry will decide if a council enforcement notice and decision to refuse retrospective planning permission will stand. A decision is expected at a later date.

One hundred firefighters battle inferno at a 15-storey tower block Up to 100 firefighters battled a dramatic blaze in the top floors of a residential tower block.

The entire roof of the building was engulfed by fierce flames and thick black smoke could be seen billowing into the sky from several miles away.

It was unclear what sparked the early evening blaze in the 15-storey building - although emergency services said there had been no reported casualties.

Smoke and flames could be seen pouring out from four storeys at the top of the building on last Monday as 100 firefighters from around south west London and Surrey fought the blaze The fire started shortly after 4.45pm in the tower block on the Cambridge Road Estate in Kingston, Surrey.

Namrata Kulkarni, who lives in Cambridge Road, told a national daily, 'There was a lot of smoke and flames. It was fright-

11

Ministers will have to bring down the language barrier Thousands of foreign students with little English will be able to enter Britain on education visas after a legal challenge to new restrictions.

Ministers were urgently seeking to close a breach in tighter immigration controls last week after a High Court judge ruled that they had been improperly introduced.

The changes made by the Labour Government in March meant that overseas students had to have an intermediate standard of English, rather than elementary, before they could come to Britain to learn the language for longer than six months.

The change was introduced to address concerns over bogus colleges and visa scams that allowed women to bring dependent husbands. But it was challenged by language schools who successfully argued that changes in immigration guidance had not been

backed up by alterations in the rules agreed in Parliament.

Ministers now face having to reintroduce the changes to close the loophole to new entrants — as well as those denied residency permits. Tony Milns, chief executive of English UK, which brought the case, said: “This judgment upholds our basic case that the Home Secretary was wrong to introduce a substantive change ... without laying that change before Parliament.”

English UK said the ruling had saved “more than 3,000 jobs and over £600 million a year in foreign earnings”.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are carefully considering this judgment.

This Government is committed to undertake a review into the student tier of the points-based system in its entirety later this year to ensure that every student who comes to the UK is genuine.”

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies celebrates its thirteenth birthday The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) celebrated its thirteenth birthday at its annual Board of Governors Dinner on Monday 28 June at the Oxford Town Hall with guest speaker, Mr Dixit Joshi, Managing Director and Head of European Equities at Barclays Capital.

The OCHS centre has grown from humble beginnings in a suburban house to become one of the world’s leading Hindu Studies centres building bridges

between academia, tradition, business, and government.

Mr Joshi, who is an active philanthropist and also a leading member of the OCHS Endowment Campaign, told a national daily: "I truly believe that the Centre has made a formidable contribution to Hindu studies, and their relevance to the modern world, over the last 13 years. And with our support will continue to enrich understanding of the Hindu traditions for many years to come."

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ening and really horrible to see.

'I just hope everyone is out.'

Residents were evacuated and taken to nearby Piper community hall, according to Kingston Borough Council.

A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade revealed it had 27 fire

appliances and around 100 firefighters on the scene.

Fire engines had been sent from Kingston, New Malden, Surbiton, Twickenham, Heston and surrounding areas.

A spokesman said: 'We understand it has been fully evacuated.'

The 1960s block is

owned by the council and includes council flats and privately owned properties, he added.

A council spokesman said: 'We are only in the first hour or so, so we have made initial preparations on the basis that some people will be out of the building and in need of some rest.

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12

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

British Punjabis 2010

British Punjabis 2010 By Maninder Kaur

The evening of July 8th 2010 saw Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar launch a one of it's kind project at Cavendish Banqueting Suite, London. The special magazine issue, 'British Punjabis 2010' was launched with the crème de la crème of the Punjabi community.

Amongst the high profile names, Baroness Sandip Verma, Minister for International Development and Equalities and Women was the Chief Guest for the occasion, while Deputy High Commissioner for India, Shri Rajesh N Prasad presided over the events of the evening.

From 6.30pm esteemed guests graced their presence, adding to the buzzing atmosphere of the evening. The event was opened by compere Nikki Bhogal, who called on to stage Shri Rajesh N Prasad, Baroness Verma, Jagdish Chander (Director of India Tourist Office UK), Mrs Tarlochan Suri (wife of Mr Ranbir Suri founder of British Asian Conservative Link) and Mr CB Patel (Publisher and Editor of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar) to light the ceremonial lamp, followed by Sikh and Hindu prayers.

The 68 page glossy magazine was formally launched by Shri Rajesh N Prasad and Baroness Verma. It is one of the most comprehensive compilations on British Punjabis. It traces the history of Punjab and subsequent migration of Punjabis to UK, right from ancient Indus Valley civilisation to the modern-day Southall. It also profiles current Punjabi icons from all walks of life such as public figures Sir Mota Singh and Paul Uppal, business barons Joginder Sanger, Surinder Arora and Nat Puri. It even features the new generation such as Kulveer Ranger and artists-The Singh Twins, who proudly wear

L - R: Mr C B Patel (Publisher/Editor Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice), Mr Jagdish Chander (Director for India Tourist Office UK), Mrs Tarlochan Suri (wife of Mr Ranbir Suri Chairman of British Asian Conservative Link), His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad (Deputy High Commissioner for India), Baroness Sandip Verma (Minister for International Development and Minister for Equalities and Women in House of Lords) in the Deep Ceremony for the Launch of "British Punjabis 2010"

their Punjabi identity on their sleeves.

With many successful Punjabis in the audience, a few selected names took to the stage to represent

International Limited opened the speeches, talking about Punjabis in banking. This was followed by Ranbir Suri on politics, Avtar Lit (Owner

Raj Loomba then gave a touching speech about his personal journey in setting up the Loomba foundation, which cares for widows around India. A renowned Bengali jourGuest List for “British Punjabis 2010” nalist, Mr Ashis Ray Baroness Sandip Verma: Chief Guest for launch of “British (President of Indian Punjabis 2010” Journalist Association) His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad (Deputy High spoke on the print Commissioner for India): Event was presided by His media. He also added Excellency how the spirit of Mr Jagdish Chander: Director for India Tourist Office 'Indianess' is bigger Mr S R Sharma: Managing Director for Punjab National Bank than any communal Lord Daljit Rana: House of Lords feeling in Britain, as the Mr Ranbir Suri: Chairman for British Asian Conservative Link evening witnessed a Dr Gurdip S. Gujral: President for International Punjabi history in the making- a Society European Divisio Gujarati launching a Mr Chander Goyal: Far Fillimore Care Homes Ltd magazine for the Mr Raj Loomba: Founder and Chairman of “The Loomba Punjabis.

Foundation” The evening then Mr Krishan Bhatiya: Independent Journalist turned to Honey Dance Mr N S Shergill: Editor, Indians Abroad Academy for a enerMr & Mrs Ram Jaggi: Moon Travels getic Bhangra Mr Paul Riat: Lotus Worldwide Bollywood dance which Mr Ashis Ray: President, Indian Journalist Association lit the pristine white Dr Avtar Litt: Chairman of Litt Corporation banqueting hall with Mr & Mrs H S Luther: The Mortgage Power the sounds of the Mr Kuldeep and Mr Paul: Kool Cakes Punjab.

Mr Manjit Mr Dak Patel: London SAM Singh from Amar radio Mr Rajen Sehgal: Skylords Travels PLC kept up the spirits with Mr Hiren Patel: Seven Home and Away a passionate and upliftMahendra Gohil: Hari Om Holidays ing speech in Punjabi, Mr Manuram: Bhagwanji and Sons highlighting the sacriMrs Ritu Sethi: Sethi Partnership Solicitors fices Punjabis have J S Sacher: Asian Who’s Who made through history.

Nick Parmar: Premier House Banqueting CB Patel then folMr Manjit Gehdu: Amar Radio lowed with a short Mr Rami Ranger: Sunmark Ltd speech, regretfully Debarshi Pandit: Sony TV informing that editor in Miss Shalini Bhargava: Anderson Ross Solicitors chief Virendra Sharma Mr T S Sahani: President for Punjabi Society of Brit Ilse was unable to attend Mr Vinod Thakrar: Louhana - Hon Secretary the event due to his Mr Chamanlal Chaman: Punjab Radio parliamentary obligaMr Sathi Ludhiyanvi: Sunrise Radio tions, and proceeded to announce the upcoming of Sunrise Radio) on elecPunjabis in prominent magazine special 'British tronic media, Gurdip professions.

Mr S R Tamils.'

He thanked Gujral (President of Sharma, Managing everyone for their presInternational Director of Punjab Punjabi ence in supporting the National Bank Society) on business. Mr

L - R: Mr Chander Goyal (Far Fillimore Care Homes Ltd) , Mr Romy Nayar( Holiday Mood), Vikas Puri (Academic College) and L. George(ABPL Group)

L - R: Mr Akbar Lakhani (Cavendish Banqueting), Waitering Staff, His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad (Deputy High Commissioner for India) and Extreme Right MR Jiten Gokani (Exquisite Events UK)

L - R: Mr C B Patel (Publisher and Editor for Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice), His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad (Deputy High Commissioner for India) and Miss Nikki Bhogal (Master of Ceremony) inaugurating "British Punjabis 2010" A4 size Glossy Magazine

launch of British Punjabis magazine.

Chief guest Baroness Verma followed with an inspiring speech who whilst accredited the successes of the Punjabi community, drew on issues yet to be addressed.

“We actually have very little voice politically, because when one Punjabi gets up to do something, very often instead of supporting that Punjabi we tend to say, why should he or she succeed and I get left behind?

United is the way we succeed. If we don't because we get envious of other people's success, I'm sorry to say, we will stay outside of the main system.”

Baroness Verma then closed her speech thanking her 'brother' CB Patel, and expressing their shared mission. “Our mission is to make sure that everybody understands that whether they are from the Punjabi community or Gujarati community, they are from one community that originates from the greatest land on earth.”

Jagdish Chander, followed with a short but effective speech expressing his thanks for a lovely evening and congratulating CB on the launch of the British Punjabis magazine. The speeches of the evening came to a close with Shri Rajesh N Prasad. “The people from the Punjab are one lot of people who dare to experiment and innovate, they have moved from

their homeland to other parts of the world to seek a new life. The association of people of the Punjab to the UK conveys our independence. This evening is a fine tribute to arguably two of the most enterprising communities in the UK today of Indian origin.”

Finally Project coordinator of British Punjabis 2010, Nikhil Gor gave a vote of thanks to guests and all those who contributed to the magazine and organisation of the event.

Nikhil also announced the prestigious 2010 Asian Achievers Awards, which will be held on Thursday 30th September at the Wembley stadium.

While the formal proceedings had ended, the event went on as a traditional vegeterian Punjabi buffet was served and guests mingled for the remainder of the evening.

Mr Sathiji and Chamanlalji entertained the guests with Punjabi poetry and Shayris, while the guests enjoyed the dinner and readings of 'British Punjabis 2010.'

The event was a stupendous success, broadcast live on Amar radio and photographed by Raj D. Bakrania. Coverage of the evening will also be shown on B4U very soon.

It was a fine tribute to the Punjabis throughout history as well as those who have built on those strong foundations today.

Audience during the launch of "British Punjabis 2010" A4 size Glossy Magazine

British Punjabis 2010

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

13

A Glorious Launch Maninder Kaur, during Sikh prayer (ABPL Group)

Miss Nikki Bhogal (Master of Ceremony)

Mr S R Sharma (Punjab National Bank)

Mrs Dipika Desai during Hindu Prayer

Mr Ranbir Suri (Chairman of BACL)

Dr Avtar Lit - (Founder and Chairman for Litt Corporation)

Mr Raj Loomba (Founder and Chairman of "The Loomba Foundation")

Dr Gurdip S. Gujral (President International Punjabi Society European Division)

Chief Guest Honorable Baroness Sandip Verma

Mr Manjit Gehdu Amar Radio

Mr Jagdish Chander (Director for India Tourist Office UK)

His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad (Deputy High Commissioner for India)

L - R: Dr Gurdip S. Gujral, Mr Ranbir S. Suri, His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad, Dr. N K Madan Managing Director IIFC, Mr S R Sharma, Mr Jagdish Chander, Mr Raj Loomba, Baroness Sandip Verma

Dr Jagdish Patel, Mrs Jayshree Shah

L - R: Kishore Parmar(ABPL Group), Mrs Kartik Sehgal (Skylord Travel Plc), Chamanlal Chamam, Sarbjit Singh Gupta (Duncan Lewis Solicitors), Rajan Sehga (Skylord Travel Plc), Jatinder Kaur and Mohan Singh Bharaj (Duncan Lewis Solicitors)

Mr Tej Mehta & Mr Nirav Mehta (Aum Pvt Ltd)

L - R: Mr C J Rabheru, Mr Surendra Patel (Bharati Vidya Bhavan), Mr C B Patel, Mr Anshul Gupta, Mr Kapil Dudakia

Editor in Chief - Mr Virendra Sharma MP Members of Editorial Board Mr K N Malik - Former Chairman of Indian Journalist Association and Eminent Media Person.

Cllr Jagdish Sharma - Leader of London Borough of Hounslow.

Cllr Ranjit Dheer - Deputy Leader of London Borough of Ealing.

Mr Krishan Bhatiya - An experience Journalist and Writer.

Mr N S Shergill - Editor - Indians Abroad - International Directory of Punjabi NRIs Dr Vidya Sagar Anand - D.Litt, FRAS, FRSA, FOID, FABI, Freeman of the City of London.

Mr Ashis Ray (President for Indian Journalist Association)

Nikhil Gor (Project Coordinator for "British Punjabis 2010")

L - R: Sunny Ahuja, Manjit Gehdu(Amar Radio), Dr Rami Ranger(Sun Mark Ltd) & Mr N S Shergill (Indians Abroad)

L - R: Baroness Sandip Verma with Mr Krishan Bhatia (Member of Editorial Board)

Mr Vijay Saggar and Miss Puja Saggar of Shreem Events Ltd

L - R: Mr Anaal Dalal ( B4U), Mr Harshad Kothari (SAS Consultancy) , Mr Dak Patel (London SAM College), Mrs Alka Shah (ABPL Group) Performance from Honey Dance Academy

His Excellency Shri Rajesh N Prasad (Deputy High Commissioner for India) garlanded by Miss Mansi Jigar Shah

Baroness Sandip Verma Garlanded by Mrs Kokila Patel (ABPL Group)

Mr Jagdish Chander Garlanded by Mrs Jyotsna Shah (ABPL Group)

14

MEDIA WATCH

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Scrutator’s Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a rare combination of goodness and greatness, paid this warm tribute to another of the world's good and great - the Dalai Lama – in the The Daily Telegraph (July 6): “Today, I celebrate the 75th birthday of my great friend Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. My sadness is that in Tibet people face grave consequences if they join me in celebrating the birthday of this man whom they hold so dear.

They cannot openly pray for his long life or burn incense to mark his birthday, as is traditional; nor can they display a photograph of him.

Monks and nuns are forced Dalai Lama to denounce him or face measures ranging from fines to expulsion from their monastery or nunnery. All these restrictions are terrible violations of freedom of religion. I join Free Tibet in asking the Chinese government to stop preventing the veneration of a man who is such an example to us all. The people of Tibet may not be able to read my words today, but my wish is that they know that we stand in solidarity with them.”

And so say all of us. The Dalai Lama is a light unto the nations.

Sino-Pak nuclear axis Far away in another continent, the well known author and journalist Selig Harrison, wrote in the Boston Globe (June 29): “With one hand, Pakistan scoops up its multiplying millions in US aid. With another, it buys nuclear reactors from China that will give it the capability to add 24 nuclear weapons per year to its estimated existing arsenal of 70 to 90. The Obama administration.... has soft-pedalled its opposition to Islamabad's $2.4 billion, USsubsidised purchase of two 635

because the Pakistan Army fears that he would expose the role played by high-level military officers in colluding with him and in profiting from what he did. Several confidantes of Khan have told me that he is ready to name names. In their study of the Khan scandal, Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark [their tome is entitled Deception] concluded that Khan was the 'fall guy. This covert trade in doomsday technology was not the work of one man, but the foreign policy of a nation and supervised by Pakistan's ruling military clique.'....Nevertheless, Beijing argues, Pakistan should be given an 'exception' for the Chasma reactors because India was given one two years ago.”

Special pleader

Abdul Qadeer Khan

megawatt reactors from Beijing for its plutonium production complex at Chasma. But precisely because Islamist forces are expanding, the United States should refocus on the growing danger that Islamist sympathisers in the armed forces and their intelligence agencies will once again make Pakistan a nuclear rogue state.

“It was only six years ago that Pakistan's nuclear czar, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was arrested for running a global nuclear Walmart that enabled Iran, North Korea, and Libya to start their nuclear programmes. The CIA and the International Atomic Energy Authority are still barred from questioning him

Justifying the Sino-Pakistan deal, Anatole Lieven, formerly of The Times, and now a fellow in the war studies department of Kings College in London, told Russian Television that this signalled Pakistan's drift away from Washington into a closer embrace with Beijing. Mr Lieven, long a special pleader for Islamabad, must either be a fool or a knave. Selig Harrison again: “Pakistan's economic solvency rests largely on US financial support. In addition to earmarked economic and military aid and US-backed International Monetary Fund credits, US aid has included $10.5 billion in cash payments to the armed forces that are nominally to reimburse counter-terrorism activities but go into the general budget and can be diverted without US oversight to other uses.

Pakistan's foreign debt is nearing $15 billion, and it is only because a US orchestrated aid consortium keeps rescheduling the debt that Pakistan remains afloat economically.”

Suggested ultimatum Bit between his teeth, Mr Harrison concludes: “The United States should aggressively seek China's expulsion from the Nuclear Suppliers Group unless it cancels the Chasma deal. It should condition new aid to Pakistan on the termination of nuclear purchases from China, unfettered access to Khan, the full disclosure of hitherto-suppressed details of his nuclear transfers and the removal of his collaborators from Army positions related to nuclear security.” Whew!

Mr Harrison thundered: “Pakistan poses many dangers to the United States, notably its aid to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and the use of its territory for the training of would-be suicide bombers. But the greatest of all is that fissile material will be smuggled out of its nuclear facilities by undetected Islamist sympathisers and that a future leadership infiltrated by Islamists will risk a nuclear Armageddon in Mumbai or Washington.”

Our scribe omitted to mention China's role in Khan's clandestine commerce, including the transfer to Islamabad of a tested nuclear weapon from its own arsenal in May 1990. No other nuclear power has ever done anything so brazenly irresponsible.

warfare. Some 25 airfields for frontline jet aircraft have been built in Arunachal Pradesh on the northeast frontier.

Naval version of LCA The Hindu newspaper (July 7) reported the roll-out of the naval version of India's naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facility in Bangalore, where the plane was designed. Defence Minister A.K.Antony described this as a 'memorable' milestone and urged the project team to conduct the first test flight in the shortest possible time. The LCAs should be ready for induction with the arrival of India's first indigenously built aircraft

2000 and the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft. Describing Astra as a futuristic weapon, DRDO scientists said it could targets at supersonic speed (mach 1.2 or 1.4).

The first Astra test was successfully conducted on January 11.

Satellites launched In what The Times of India described as a “textbook launch, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) .....placed into orbit remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2B and four other satellites ....Visibly relieved scientists, headed by ISRO Chairman Dr K.Radhakrishnan, cheered as the PSLV soared into the skies....Cartosat-2B carries a

PSLV Satellite Launched

India responds A state of India's size and population has to protect its own security – surely an axiom of statecraft. According to a TNN agency report (July 2), India had set in motion the largest-ever upgrade of its military capabilities along its Himalayan border with China. India's Defence Ministry had reportedly mooted the creation of a Mountain Strike Corps and two Independent Brigades. This corps would be India's fourth and the only one designed for offensive operations in mountainous terrain. The Indian Army is presently engaged in raising two mountain divisions, but these are separate from the measures outlined for further upgrade.

A more substantial report from Rahul Datta in The Pioneer (June 29) begins thus: “In an unprecedented move.....the Government has issued a directive in writing to the armed forces to enhance their military capabilities vis-a-vis [China]....Asking the armed forces to prepare themselves [for] simultaneous wars on the eastern and western fronts with China and Pakistan respectively, Defence Minister A.K.Antony has directed the chiefs of Army, Navy and the Air Force to rapidly modernise and upgrade their weapon systems for operational preparedness.....The Government has also removed the 10-year cap on recruitment and permitted the Army to go for fresh intakes.”

The Defence Ministry had cleared the way for the purchase of armaments such as lightweight howitzers, which are appropriate for high altitude

carrier in 2015.

Addressing reporters, Mr Antony said: “A chain of 46 radars for coastal surveillance will be ready soon.” Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Nirmal Verma, said the LCA induction would give the Navy a “multidimensional force capability.”

Astra missile test-fired NDTV online (July 5) reported the night trial of India's beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air Astra missile. The test-firing took place at the Integrated Test Range complex of Chandipur, some 15 kilometres from Balasore in Orissa.

The single stage, solid fuelled Astra is believed to be more sophisticated than contemporary BVR systems and is capable of engaging and destroying highly maneuverable supersonic aerial targets, according to sources in the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).

The 3.8 metre-long missile can carry a warhead with 15 kilogrammes of explosive. It will be integrated with the IAF's Sukhoi 30MKI, MiG29, Mirage

panchromatic camera....capable of imaging a swath of 9.6 kilometres with a resolution of 0.8 metres.” (July 12) Apart from the 694-kilogramme Cartosat 2B, the PSLV carried four other satellites: “the 116kg Alsat-A of Algeria; a 6.5kg nano satellite named NLS 6.1 AISSAT-1 of the Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto, Canada; a 1kg nano satellite NLS 6.2 TISAT-1 built by by the University of Applied Sciences of Switzerland; and a tiny satellite built by 35 students of seven engineering colleges in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Studsat was the centre of attraction as the students had designed and built this pico satellite with an imaging camera and had employed several frontline technologies.” (The Hindu, July 12) “It has been a wonderful experience. ISRO has made the country proud,” said Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was present at the launch. ISRO Chairman K.Radhakrishnan said: “We had an excellent flight.... The entire ISRO team is behind the success.”

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Leicester Voice

Do you have any comments, news or photographs about Leicester? If you do, please send them to Leicester Voice at

leicester@abplgroup.com

Business saavy student named Young Entrepreneur of the Year Ratnesh Bakhai scooped the coveted Entrepreneur of the Year award at the National Enterprise Academy (NEA) graduation ceremony today. The award, which is designed to recognise outstanding young talent emerging from the National Enterprise Academy, was presented to Ratnesh by leading British entrepreneur and NEA founder Peter Jones.

Nineteen year-old Ratnesh, from Leicester, was selected as one the Academy’s stand-out entrepreneurial talents after securing the support of both fellow students and tutors. Tutors evaluated and scored each student based on their performance during key business and enterprise challenges throughout the academic year. Whilst students scored each other’s entrepreneurial capabilities against a strict criteria of Golden Business Rules set by the Academy’s founder Peter Jones.

Over the past year, trainee entrepreneur

Ratnesh successfully completed the NEA’s groundbreaking curriculum which included: innovative business challenges set by leading UK corporations; entrepreneurial master classes led by reallife entrepreneurs; as well as an extended monthlong business placement.

Having successfully completed the NEA’s unique enterprise programme, Ratnesh graduated alongside the class of 2010 in a gala ceremony held at Manchester City Football Club on Friday July 9th.

Peter Jones CBE, founder of the NEA, said: “It’s evident from Ratnesh’s achievements during his time at the National Enterprise Academy that he’s definitely one to watch for the future. His drive, passion and creativity earned him the respect of his peers as well as the Academy’s tutors and for that I applaud him.

“What often sets the best in business apart from the merely mediocre

three at Sanjiri Mouldings.

The Border Agency officers sealed all exits to the building around midday on Wednesday before interviewing the workers and checking identity documents.

In total, 31 people were questioned.

All of the illegal workers – 11 men and one woman – were Indian nationals.

Following the arrests,

Peter Jones presenting his award to Ratnesh

is the right mindset. It’s about having a positive attitude and adopting a can do approach. When you look at Ratnesh and his performance at the Academy, it’s obvious he

possesses these essential qualities.”

To find out more information or apply for fulltime courses starting in September 2010 go to www.thenea.org

UK Border Agency officers searched 10 houses in the city to find identity documents to use as evidence to send all 12 back to India.

Since the raid, 10 have been released on bail and the other two are being kept in custody.

Each business could be fined up to £10,000 per illegal worker if they fail to prove they carried out proper checks before

employing the illegal workers.

A spokesman for Sanjri Mouldings told the Leicester Mercury: "I've not heard anything about what the fines will be. We had six employees before the raid and now we have three. But we're still open for business. Obviously I had no idea the three people were illegal workers and I did not expect the raid."

Grieving parents were 'let down' by hospital staff looking after baby A grieving couple say they were let down and misled by hospital staff looking after their premature baby boy. Martin and Dharmista Harkisan-Hall's six-day-old son Devan died at Leicester General Hospital's neo-natal unit last December. He had been born seven weeks premature.

At his inquest last week, it emerged that in the 30 minutes during which doctors believe he died, one nursery nurse was left in charge of eight premature babies.

National guidelines state that there should have been two. Evidence of the drop in staffing levels only came to the attention of the family and coroner Catherine Mason for the first time during yesterday's Leicester Town Hall

inquest.

However, it emerged the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust had been aware of the shortfall after an internal investigation last December.

After the hearing, Mr and Mrs Harkisan-Hall, from the West End, Leicester, said: "We put our trust in the NHS and they let us down. We just wanted to bring Devan home for Christmas. Instead, we had to bury him."

The couple said they had asked the trust repeatedly about staffing levels on the day their son died but were told there had not been an issue.

During the inquest, the court heard that Devan was fed and changed at 1.30am on December 12.

However, at 4am he was found lifeless in his bed.

Foster couple awarded A fostering couple have won an award for their hard work.

Harvinder and Sukhchan Paik, of Leicester, have been fostering for five years. They picked up an award from Progress Care Solutions, an independent fostering agency.

Bal Dhanoa, managing director of Progress Care Solutions, said: "Harvinder

and Sukhchan won the award for their care of two siblings and overcoming complex family issues. They work effectively with other professionals and are dedicated to the needs of the children placed with them."

The Paiks were among five winners who were honoured at a ceremony at Birmingham's Botanical Gardens.

Buddhists oppose plans for research lab

Illegal workers found at firms which face fines of up to £120,000 Two companies could face fines of up to £120,000 after illegal immigrants were caught working there

by Government officials.

A team from the UK Border Agency discovered the workers following raids at Rewalk Clothing and Sanjiri Mouldings, both in Linden Street, Spinney Hills, Leicester.

Nine foreign workers were found to be working at Rewalk Clothing, and

15

The nursery nurse, who discovered him, said in the 20-30 minutes before she found him she was solely responsible for all the babies.

Last week, Sister Geraldine HanrahanSmith, the senior member of staff on duty, was asked

by Mrs Mason: "Why did you allow an unsafe environment to be created by knowing, and allowing, two members of staff to go for their breaks at the same time?"

Sister Hanrahan-Smith said: "I did not intentionally create an unsafe environment. The staff were only two rooms away if we needed anybody and, during that 20 minutes, I was in and out to see if the staff nurses needed help."

However, the coroner said the trust had been

aware of the shortfall in staff but that detail was left out of Sister HanrahanSmith's medical notes, as well as from evidence she gave to police, and a written statement.

In a statement, Jane Porter, head of midwifery at Leicester's hospitals, said: "It's clear we will never know whether Devan's death could have been avoided had this not happened. Nevertheless, this overlap should not have occurred and we are extremely sorry that it did."

Buddhists held a demonstration against a proposed laboratory at Leicester University where drugs will be tested on animals.

A dozen members of the Order of Amida Buddha, based in Narborough, gathered at the Clock Tower, last Wednesday, for a silent procession through the city.

Their destination was the university's centre for medical research, in Lancaster Road, where they tied flowers to the gates and chanted Buddhist meditations.

The group is opposing plans to build a £15 million medical research lab testing drugs on animals.

The demonstration was organised by order

members Simon Williams and Susthama Kim. Simon Williams said: "The Buddhist approach to life is about compassion for all living beings. Our demonstration was a way of signaling our opposition to this lab and a time to mourn and take pity on all animals who have died and who are suffering."

Planning permission for the site was given by Leicester City Council in April and it should be open next year.

Two injured in 'racially motivated' attacks in city centre Scenes-of-crimes officers cordoned off the scene of the attacks, in Horsefair Street, Leicester, where two teenagers were hurt.

Two men needed hospital treatment for head injuries after what police believe was a racially motivated attack.

The assault, which officers described as "serious", took place at about 2.45am last Friday in Horsefair Street, in the city centre.

Three teenagers have been arrested in connection with the incident but police suspect more people may have been involved in the fight.

An area of the street outside the Bank of India and Londis remained cordoned off by police until last Friday evening while forensics teams inspected the scene. Blood was visible underneath a protective sheet and scenes-ofcrime investigators had placed numbered cones inside the cordon.

Jehanzeb Khan, who runs the Londis shop, said forensics teams were already inspecting the scene when he arrived at work at 6.30am. "My shop window has been smashed

as a result of this fight and I can't open up. You can clearly see blood so it must have been pretty bad. It's shocking that people can act like this."

Both of the injured men are 19 years old. One was discharged from Leicester Royal Infirmary last Friday morning, while the other, who had slightly more serious injuries, was released in the afternoon.

A police spokesman said they believed the attack to be racially motivated. However, they would not confirm the races of the victims.

Craig Sheron, 23, from Braunstone, said: "People have been saying all kinds of things. It's awful. You can see the blood still and that's with the police trying to cover it up. It could be much worse."

Detective Inspector Tony Yarwood, from the city's Serious Crime Team, said "This was a nasty attack on these two victims. This is something that Leicestershire Constabulary will not tolerate."

Anyone with information should contact police on 0116 222 2222.

16

financial voice

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Europe could soon be trading in BSE Sensex Nifty to debut in the USA, has cross listing agreement with CME After the agreement between rival National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in March this year, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is in talks with Deutsche Borse AG that operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to enable European investors to invest in Sensex derivatives. The two bodies are likely to strike a deal that would make it possible for trading in Sensex futures and options for European investors. It would be for the first time that BSE sensex will be traded outside India.

Frankfurt Stock

Exchange is Europe's biggest exchange in terms of market valuation.

The average daily turnover in futures and option market in India is close to Rs 1 lakh crore and NSE has the monopoly in the segment.

In March, the Chicago Mercantile and NSE tied up for cross listing arrangement for index futures. Under the deal, NSE's benchmark Nifty will be available for trade in the US from this month.

The NSE will also provide trading in futures contracts of S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), two of the world's most influen-

tial market indices--for which CME holds the license.

BSE is Asia's oldest stock exchange. Its constituent Sensex, constituted in 1986, has the top 30 companies in terms of market value, which accounts for about 50 per cent of the market capitalisation of the exchange.

In February-March 2007, Deutsche Borse AG and Singapore Exchange Ltd acquired 4.98 per cent each of BSE's shares at the time when the exchange was demutualised.

Currently, six foreign investors hold 25.65 per cent of BSE and five Indian institutions hold 12 per cent.

Amul reign as no. 1 in Asia Pacific continues India’s cooperative dairy major Amul’s reign as the no. 1 Indian brand in the Asia Pacific region continued for the second year on a trot, a list of top 1000 brands released by ‘Media Magazine’ has revealed.

A release by Amul last week said it is also ranked as no. 1 dairy brand, ahead of leading food and dairy brands of the Asia Pacific region like Kraft, Dutch Lady, Dumex, Walls, Anchor, Magnolia and Everyday.

The magazine survey has ranked Amul as the 73rd best brand in its ranking of Top 1,000 brands of Asia-Pacific based on a consumer sur-

It’s Only a Game Now that the World Cup is over, we can all get back to worrying about normal things such as rail strikes, the price of petrol and how long the summer will last. During the tournament, whether we liked it or not, we were all subjected to the usual barrage of opinion and 'expert' analysis from the media about everything from the England kit being covered in sewage to French players going on strike.

Perhaps most intriguing of all was watching Fabio Capello’s fall from saviour to failure in the space of a week. Was England’s failure totally his fault? After all, the players are the ones on the pitch and they are the ones who didn’t perform.

However it was Capello’s steadfastness to his methods which came in for criticism. Come what may, he did not waiver from his strategy and tactics, even in the face of defeat.

Was this his strength or his weakness?

Indian support for AfDB study on projects

vey conducted in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Amul's ranking has

jumped from 83rd in 2009 to 73rd this year, an official at Amul said adding "there is no other 'Indian' brand in the list of Top 1,000 brands ahead of Amul."

African Development Bank, the tunis based bank will receive a donation support of US$6.7 million to fund studies of development projects in the continent. A senior official of the Indian finance ministry recently disclosed that India has committed the support. The three year programme starts from 1st January 2011. AfDB said they aim to study projects in the transport sector, particularly in the field of railways. Other fields for studies include telecommunications and higher education.

French Rail wagon maker bought by TWL of India IGF Industries – AFR acquired for Rs. 117 million One of the leading private rail wagon manufacturers of India, Titagarh Wagons announced on Monday this week that the company has successfully bid for the takeover of a French wagon maker, IGF Industries-Arbel Fauvet Rail (AFR) for around Rs 117 million (Euros 2 million).

Chairman of TWL, J P Chowdhury, giving the details said they have

acquired all the assets, patents, brand and business of AFR, but no liabilities of the French company. For TWL, it is the first acquisition overseas.

Apart from the acquisition cost of Euros 2 mn, TWL will invest upto Euro 13 mn in the French company. TWL bought AFR through a subsidiary registered in France. AFL had gone into liquidation and a French commercial court

appointed process executed the sale.

A Russian company did offer a higher and better offer, but their bid was late, as by that time, the court had already accepted the TWL bid.

TWL has no plans to import AFR made wagons in India, but will continue to sell the French products in their existing market of Europe and Africa.

TWL would also

explore other Middle East markets for the AFR wagons. The Indian parent company has, instead plans to exports components to the French company.

TWL will retain 80 employees of 226 employees of AFR. It expected to turn around the acquired company by scaling up production at the plant at Douai in northern France to 1,000 wagons a year.

While the UK economy growth for the first quarter this year continued as per estimates, the trade deficit widened more than expected in May, latest official data showed last week.

The growth in the economy for the first three months of this year was very much as previously estimated. The Office for National Statistics left first-quarter GDP growth unrevised at 0.3 percent.

Trade deficit for May however scaled a two year high to £8.1 bn, which was £7.4 bn as per the revised details for April, 2010.

Analysts had estimated for a £6.8 bn trade deficit in May. The ONS data showed that imports increased 2.4 percent in May from April to reach £29.5 bn - the highest since July 2008, while exports grew only 0.2 percent to £21.5 bn.

0.3 pc economic growth in Q1 As part of a major annual revision revision of previous quarters' GDP data, the ONS said UK economy contracted by 6.4 percent between the second quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009, more than the 6.2 percent previously thought, and wiping an extra £2 bn off the economy.

Separate data showed that services output fell by

0.3 percent in April, in line with private sector surveys that had shown disruption from Iceland's volcanic ash cloud. The ONS also released first-quarter current account data, which showed that Britain's deficit with the rest of the world widened to £9.628 bn in the last three months of 2009, more than twice as much as expected and compared with a surplus of £ 521 mn in Q4 2009.

UK economy grows, trade deficit widens

The famous lawyer, Lois Nizer once said, “I know of no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds”. An example is Churchill’s single minded stubbornness not to surrender even in the face of total annihilation that motivated a nation to rise to victory. Had Churchill wavered, defeat would have been swift and permanent.

On the other hand, the French writer, Simone de Beauvoir states, “In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid.” Due to damaging publicity as an unhealthy and unscrupulous company, McDonalds decided that they had to change their image. They decided to portray themselves as healthier by introducing healthier options on their menu and more ethical by supporting charities in third world countries in which they operated.

There are times when a leader has to rethink

By Amit Patel

their strategy, when plans need to be revised and tactics altered.

From both instances we can see that sometimes it is better to persevere and at other times it may be wiser to make adjustments. The challenge is to know when to do which. To realise long term objectives, one should stand firm to one’s principles and beliefs. To achieve short term goals, one should be flexible in their approach. Was Capello truly determined or just really stubborn? Time will tell. If he succeeds, England will be victorious. If he fails, He will be vilified. Regardless of the outcome, we must all remember, ‘it’s only a game’.

Apex court orders PGF to return investors’ money Chandigarh based company not registered with regulator Sebi PGFL, a Chandigarh based company has been asked to return the investment money it had collected from public under investment schemes, as nothing is known about the business of the company and it is also not registered with regulator ‘Sebi’.

PGFL was banned to accept investments in 2002 after Sebi found that the company has not got the mandatory registration, but was running investment schemes. In 2008, the regulator also learned that the company had not returned the investors’ money.

Following that, PGF and their directors were banned by the regulator of

having access to stock markets for 10 years. A second investment scheme of the company was also stopped by Sebi.

PGFL had challenged the upholding of Sebi imposed ban by the Securities Appellate Tribunal. It was during the hearing of this challenge that the apex court ordered PGFL to return the money of investors.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said the company will return the money to investors. "You should pay to the investors... The investors would come and prove their claim and you should pay," said the Bench.

Two Tata firms on the Fortune 500 list Six other Indian companies also find place Two prominent companies of the Indian global corporate conglomerate – The Tata group – Tata Steel and Tata Motors alongwith with six other Indian companies have made it to the Fortune 500 list.

ArcelorMittal is also included.

Tata Motors and Tata Steel have presence in UK too, as they own JLR and Corus Steel. The league of 500 elite companies for 2010 is topped by U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores, followed by Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, in that order.

The other Indian companies on the list are: Bharat Petroleum

Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), ONGC and the State Bank of India (SBI).

Tata Motors has made an entry into the list for the first time this year, while seven other Indian entities, were part of the list in the previous year. The list also features Citigroup, ArcelorMittal, Pepsico and Motorola, led by people with Indian roots.

IOC has the highest rank of 125 among the Indian companies, followed by RIL at the 175th spot, SBI (282), BPCL (307), HPCL (354), Tata Steel (410), ONGC (413) and Tata Motors (442).

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

17

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

Risen from the dead There is the Mews deal which I have spoken about in previous articles which was not an easy to begin with. It was brought to us by the bankrupted owner although it was in the hands of the receiver, who we suspected correctly had his own people lined up for the deal.

The receiver was supposed to act for the owner but it is appointed by the mortgagee.

To recapitulate - we were going to enter the deal as mortgagees in order to circumvent the receiver. Our lawyer explained the mechanics. Two days before we were about to redeem the loan the deal was snatched mercilessly from our grasp.

The reason was it had been exchanged by someone else before we were due to complete.

When contracts are exchanged, normally a 10% deposit is put across to the seller’s solicitor, and this sale becomes legally binding. Hence it is hard to believe that someone would put down such a large sum of money and not be in a position to complete.

The background was very convoluted to begin with. It all started when I meet a Jewish property developer who in the course of his dealings amassed a property portfolio worth £90million. This was at the height of the property bubble and now he is bankrupt. He was in the middle of a few developments in prime sites around London when he was threatened with bankruptcy from a seller whose deal he exchanged upon but failed to complete due to lack of funding. He thought he would save them the trouble and instead bankrupted himself.

The properties we were interested in are a row of four freehold mews houses with an end value of £3m and a purchase price of £1.5m with a refurbishment cost of £350,000. The properties were in the hands of the receivers; not wanting to approach the receivers we decided the safest route to ensure we get these properties would be to come in as mortgagees.

This means we would act in the same way as a bank and the person whom owns the property would be paying everything back to his lenders and taking us on as his new lenders. He would simply be remortgaging.

Hence we do not have to make an offer for the property through the receiver nor will we be paying any stamp duty as this is not a purchase. This was the way we came up with to circumvent the receiver and to only pay for the property what was owned on it and no premium. We felt it would attract a premium due to its location of only 10 seconds away from Paddington Station.

However the lender opted to instead use it to offset another development they had also lent money on to the same borrower. The lender had taken cross guarantees. The other site had more variables as it is a block of flats without planning permission and not as lucrative as the mews houses. So any loss in selling the other site would be offset on the gains on the mews houses. Otherwise, if sold, the lender would not be allowed to keep the extra gains and would have to disperse them to the relevant creditors.

into the auction and have a sure sale.

The property was put in to the auction for the 10th June since, due to its location, the property attracted al lot of interest.

Due to one particularly stubborn individual the property sold for more than we had hoped.

The reason being we had done months of due diligence on the site and knew the former owner had many meetings with him and as it was his baby he knew every single thing regarding the site. No one else as far as I knew had access to this type of

This borrower likes to do things back to front. So typically he converts properties and then applies for planning permission and fights it through to the end. The property in question was a HMO in West Hampstead which had been converted from a single house to seven flats. He then decided to apply for the planning. The council declined the application on the grounds it was a HMO and they wished to keep it as such to meet the needs of the borough. He appealed on the appeal, it was discovered it actually had been granted permission to have three flats and that this planning had been loosely implemented. Therefore it was not a HMO and had never been one. So the planning officer held it was indeed three flats.

This property had now been sold separately from the mews houses and achieved a high price, enough to cover its debt.

The above deal has now been stripped from the original mews deal as it has been sold and completed and now it’s just the mews houses for sale in isolation which always was the original and preferred option.

After the property mews site had been exchanged and failed to complete, the lenders decided that the only way to get shoot of the property for sure was to put it

information as the property was only partly completed. There are many variables with a partially completed site. Potentially it can cost more than building from ground upwards. As the current build work could be deficient and not according to planning control which was a particularly sensitive issue in this case as the site is above a train track. The site had also been left exposed and therefore the current work could now be in a dilapidated state. The cost could be increased by having to demolish the existing site first.

Apart from this bidder no one else was really bidding. That does not mean there was no interest, to the contrary. Many like to stay under cover in the auctions as there is no purpose to putting your hand up if the price has gone above what you are prepared to pay for it.

We eventually purchased the property for £1.65m. It was higher than we anticipated but still a very good deal. Central London located lots will always attract attention. The reason is that it has been bullet proof even through the last few years. Many simply throw their money into Central London property market with out discrimination. They like to grow their flowers were they can water them as opposed to investing abroad, and in the

UK there is nothing like the growth and resilience of Central London. For investors who have tasted the robustness of this market it becomes very difficult to go elsewhere. Nowhere will you have such short void periods for rental, aggressive capital growth and resilience to adverse economic conditions.

The property was bought in a company, a SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle), which was done for tax purpose. This means that a company was set up to hold the property solely and do nothing else.

If the site was sold, it would be the company being sold and not the property, hence the stamp duty of 5% would not be payable as ordinarily would be in the purchase of a property.

This is a cleaner route of owning this site. If we had gone in as mortgages and sold the property cheaply or had very unfair terms for the borrower, then we would have always have had the threat of being sued on our heads.

It was not all bad, as the amount owed to the bank had decreased by £170,000 thanks to the poor fellow who exchanged on the property and could not complete.

On top of this, the property originally was attached to another property via cross guarantees which had been stripped since our initial interest in the deal.

The excess amount above what was owed to the bank will go to the trustees in bankruptcy which will go towards discharging the debt owed by the former owner and thereby decrease his liability.

In effect it will go back to him as these are his debts.

The plan is to complete the properties at an anticipated cost of £350-£400,000, and then to split the titles and refinance the properties individually. An estimate of each Mews house is £750,000 so all four properties will have an end value of £3m combined. A 70% refinance will release £2.1m out. This means most of the money injected into the deal will come out again.

The properties will produced an income over what is paid to the mortgage company and they will rise in value; I estimate about 10% per annum which is not unheard of for properties in this location.

This means roughly £300,000 per annum in capital growth.

We purchased this site having spent over eight months looking at this deal. In that time the deal changed its shape many times and we adapted to it. This deal really came back from the dead. The property exchanged and we thought we had lost it for sure. It is rare someone will put down 10% which in this case was £170,000 and then not be in a position to complete, but this is exactly what happened.

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

18

fInAncIAl voice

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Tata Motors beat Hyundai in India Auto giant climbs to no. 2 spot as passenger vehicle maker As Tata Motors saw the Sanand plant for their wonder small car Nano starting operations last month, the company beat Hyundai to the no. 2 spot as manufacturers of passenger vehicles in India.

Maruti Suzuki retains no.

1 spot.

Auto companies reported robust sales numbers in June, backed by strong demand for new models and comfortable financing rates. The country's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki saw sales in the domestic market going up 18% year-on-year at 72812 units. The company said it was closed for 6 days in June for a planned maintenance shutdown of the facilities.

But the action was for the second spot as Tata Motors moved ahead of Hyundai in terms of sales.

And as anticipated this edge was given by Nano.

Helped by 7704 units sold

by Nano in June, passenger vehicle volumes of Tata Motors were up 63% at 27811 units, a few hundred units more than Hyundai's 27366 units (up 19%). However, this is not the first time that Tata Motors has done this.

While numbers of a single month cannot be the final verdict on the ranking in the Indian passenger vehicle market, it is believed that Nano numbers could see Tata Motors score higher than Hyundai quite regularly.

Others who saw demand remain strong was General Motors and Ford, both of whom are going strong on the back of new small cars they have launched. GM's Beat

compact and Ford's Figo have ensured that the companies have a strong tempo in the domestic market.

Toyota and Mercedes were also among companies whose numbers remained strong in the month. Toyota, that is again opening bookings for its Fortuner SUV after clearing backlog, saw numbers going up 41.5% in June, while for Mercedes, the growth was a big 94%.

However, volumes were down for utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra as well as Honda. Mahindra's UV sales fell 4% in June and the company said it had an annual shutdown in the first week of June.

ADAG is Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s third most valued business house The solution of disputes with brother Mukesh Ambani seems to have helped Anil Ambani and his ADAG companies in a big way. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's market valuation soared 14% in June quarter, the most among India's top five business houses, making it the third most valued group in the country.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADAG's market capitalisation was at Rs 1,42,380 crore for the three-month period ended June 30, 2010, higher by about 14 per cent compared to March quarter.

The seven listed companies of the Anil Ambani Group, led by Reliance Power and RCom, made their investors wealthier

by Rs 16,969 crore.

Big brother Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd, however, maintains its numero uno position with a total M-cap of Rs 3,57,902 crore at the end of June quarter.

Reliance pack shares have been rising since the warring siblings called a truce on May 23.

"After the Ambani brothers agreed to cancel all existing non-compete

pacts, shares of their firms have surged as both the groups can expand their business in different verticals and capitulate on their existing synergies, which in turn will benefit shareholders," said a leading analyst. The Tata Group companies listed on the stock exchanges include Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Power.

Interestingly, except Ambani Groups, all other business houses saw erosion in their M-cap, the analysis shows.

NRI Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Sterlite (Vedanta) Group ranks

fourth. The group's M-cap stands at Rs 131,522 crore, down 20 per cent as against Rs 164,490 crore of March quarter.

The June quarter was a turbulent period for metal sector and all the four listed firms of Sterlite group saw erosion in valuation.

Sterlite Industries lost 20 per cent, Hindustan Zinc 19 per cent and Sesa Goa 25 per cent.

Bharti Group ranks fifth though its valuation eroded by 16 per cent.

Significantly, during the June 2010 quarter, stock market benchmark Sensex rose just about 1%.

Obama approves Exim loan guarantees for Reliance After requests by leaders, US President Barack Obama gave a go ahead for the US Exim Bank to offer loan guarantees worth US$ 600 million for suppliers of mining equipment to a Reliance power project in India.

The prospects of loss of new jobs to be created may have forced Barack Obama to step in and ensure Anil Ambani's Reliance Power got the funding that it needed.

The announcement would help preserve 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin and 13 other states.

The loan guarantees are for US made mining equipment that Reliance Power has contracted to purchase from Bucyrus

Coal India Ltd. (CIL), the government of India owned company engaged in mining of coal is likely to mobilise money from investors in India. Reports suggest the company will come out with an IPO in October, 2010. Govt. of India aims to sell 10% of the shares in the miner.

Knowledgeable sources indicated that CIL

International, a Milwaukee, Wisconsinbased company.

The sales agreement was contingent upon the Indian company receiving United States ExportImport Bank-supported financing.

"I'm glad that the US Export-Import Bank reversed its decision and extended loan guarantees

to Bucyrus International, Inc," said Congressman Jim S e n s e n b r e n n e r, who is the R a n k i n g Republican on the House Select Committee on E n e r g y Independence and Global Warming.

Sensenbrenner had sought Obama's intervention on reversing the Bank's decision.

Several US lawmakers too had written a letter to the Exim Bank, saying that such a decision would kill about 1,000 jobs in the US. In a phone conversation with Bucyrus CEO

Tim Sullivan, Fred Hochberg, Chairman of Export-Import Bank, confirmed that the Bank now has sufficient additional information, including a broader understanding of Reliance Power's development of other renewable power generation facilities, to approve this application from an environmental perspective, the company said in a statement.

"We are very pleased with the decision of the US Export-Import Bank to change course and support this project. This is great news for Bucyrus, but more importantly it is great news to be keeping this work in the US and providing job opportunities across 13 states.

will enter the market in later half of October. The 10 per cent disinvestment will see the government raising Rs 12,000- 15,000 crore. The blue-print of the IPO was reportedly finalised at a meeting between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal last week.

Coal India, the largest

global coal miner, sells the dry fuel 50 per cent cheaper at around USD 25 a tonne than the prices prevailing in the international market.

Initially, the IPO was planned in AugustSeptember, but it was delayed due to opposition from trade unions and political parties.

The government is sell-

ing 10 per cent of its stake in CIL disinvestment. It currently holds 100 per cent equity in the coal major. CIL had earlier said it will issue over 63 crore shares in the IPO. The Union Cabinet had last month approved to disinvest 10 per cent of the government's holding in CIL. The Centre holds 100% equity in the company.

Coal India to mobilise Rs. 150 bn in October IPO

Vikram Pandit wins Euronext Banker of the Year award A year ago, his job was at stake. Last week, the CEO of Citigroup, India-born Vikram Pandit won the Banker of the Year award of the Euronext magazine.

He is honoured for having executed one of the biggest and most complex bank restructuring tasks.

Under his stewardship, CitiBank has returned to profits.

Apart from the top honours, Citi won 12 more awards at a gala event held in London, including best investment

bank in India, Citigroup said in a release issued here.

"By focusing on being a bank dedicated solely to serving its clients and taking advantage of our unique global footprint, we have put all the elements in place for longterm profitability and success," Pandit said.

The Nagpur-born Pandit has been at the helm of Citi since 2007 during which the bank saw difficult days because of the global slowdown.

FDI in multi-brand retail likely soon in India India is now comtemplating to allow Foreign Direct Investment in retail sales for the multi-brand format. Politically though, this could be a potential bombshell. The move though is seen as a push forward for the economic reforms agenda of the present UPA government.

Even as the decontrol of petroleum product prices by the government has met with strong opposition, the Commerce and Industry Ministry has made a strong case for opening up retail with a discussion paper inviting the views of various stakeholders.

If this reform goes through it could provide a big opportunity to multinational retailers like WalMart, Tesco, Carrefour and Woolsworth to enter the Indian market.

At present, the government allows 51 per cent FDI in single-brand retailing and 100 per cent in wholesale trade, but FDI in multi-brand retail is prohibited.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has said in its discussion paper that the move will not only help farmers and consumers earn more but also help in keeping a check on prices.

Oberoi Hotels top globally, in Asia too Ranthambhore is no. 1 globally, 4 hotels on top in Asia Oberoi Vanyavilas Hotel in Ranthambhore, the tiger reserve in Rajasthan, India has been ranked global no. 1 by Travel + Leisure magazine. Three other hotels of the group in India enjoy top spots in Asia for the year 2010 rankings.

The other hotels include Amarvilas Hotel in Agra, Rajvilas Hotel in Jaipur and Udaivilas Hotel in Udaipur. They have been ranked fifth, 13th and 15th place, respectively, among the world's best hotels for 2010.

These Oberoi properties have also bagged the

top four slots in Asia.

"I am extremely proud that our four Oberoi hotels have been ranked first, second, third and fourth in Asia. I am delighted The Oberoi Vanyavilas has been ranked the best in the world and our four group (hotels) have been ranked amongst the 15 best in the world," The Oberoi Group Chairman P R S Oberoi said.

The rankings are based on the characteristics of rooms and facilities, location, service, restaurants, food and value, among other criteria.

Invest for a Life in the US The United States of America, often referred to as the land of opportunity, has been taking in immigrants at the rate of more than one million every year for over a century.

Unfortunately, because it is so popular, it has become progressively harder to secure a visa for those who wish to live and work there on a permanent basis.

Most visas are either difficult to obtain or unsuitable, because they need to be reapplied for, which carries risks. Noone wants to emigrate

only to lose their visa after a year or so.

The most popular choice, for those in a position to invest $500,000, is the EB-5 investment visa.

In 2003 the US Government reintroduced the Regional Center program. Investments into an approved Regional Center qualify an investor, spouse and all children under 21 to Green Cards (Permanent Residency).

Citizenship can be obtained after 5 years.

For information, visit eb5-visa.net.

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

19

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

What Price for a Greener World?

With scientists worldwide telling us the we need to act now to save the planet world leaders are now getting together to come up with a solution.

The biggest problem is if this can afford to happen while coming out of the biggest recession that the financial work has ever seen.

It is fine for the leaders of the world's biggest economies making pledges for the future to save the earth but can they actually back up these promises? We have seen many economies come under closer scrutiny through these difficult times and politicianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promises have been proved to not add up economically. Who would have thought that the new hope for the democracy as a unit in Europe, we could come so close to failing this year, even though the ECB head Jean Claude Trichet had painted a sound economic picture of the Euro's economy during the recent financial crisis.

With countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain almost publically admitting that their respective countries are bankrupt. The US and UK had probably been more transparent during these times and although there had been a

lot of finger pointing from certain quarters there are signs of recovery. In the UK for example to new coalition government have reacted swiftly to cut a lot of the spending that had been promised by the previous government. This is because in their view that you are unable to throw money at things that you don't have. The same could be said when it comes to combating greener

issues worldwide. It is ok the biggest economies promising to do things to save the planet but can they actually afford them. If there is no money in the kitty for current living how can you find funds for future survival?

President Obama has been very public in his opinions of concerns over how the world's financial markets are run and his dislike of the fat cats tak-

ing too much profit but without these markets being on an even keel, where are the funds going to come from for the saviors of the planet. It is going to cost fortunes to implement the changes that are predicted to be needed.

Cuts in gases caused by industry in major nations such as US and China are fine in theory but how are they going to fill the void in income generated by what those emissions produce. If manufacturing worldwide is going to have to have a decline then funds have got to be generated elsewhere. Greener gases are fine in theory as well but the funding for new methods of energy is huge and the big question with the world's financial markets still in recession is can we all afford it. The world needs to start to show real signs of improvement and growth start getting back to levels that we were experiencing maybe five years ago before we can realistically afford the pledged funds to implement the changes for greener issues. It looks as if it could be a long haul back for all the major nations but hopefully it will be achieved sooner rather than later.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 13th July 2010 @ 2pm GBP - INR = 70.56 USD - INR = 46.81 EUR - INR = 58.88 GBP - USD = 1.5092 GBP - EUR = 1.1992 EUR - USD = 1.2585 GBP - AED = 5.5475 GBP - CAD = 1.5592 GBP - NZD = 2.1207 GBP - AUD = 1.7267 GBP - ZAR = 11.44 GBP - HUF = 333.38

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.

20

garammasala

Asian Voice Saturday 17th July 2010

I will soon follow SRK on Twitter, says Aamir Akshara Hassan to make her debut in films Akshara Hassan, daughter of Kamal Hassan and Sarika, is gearing up to mark her debut in films. The high profile lass is getting lots of offers from the filmmakers, but the actress is waiting for the right script to showcase her talent.

Akshara, younger sister of talented Shruti Hassan, is currently assisting Bollywood filmmaker Rahul Dholakia and reading a number of scripts and will make her debut as soon as a script clicks with her.

The actress is in no hurry and is desiring to get a strong foundation before jumping into the acting field. Sources says that she might opt Bollywood instead of Kollywood.

about the revelry among the three Khans in Bollywood but Aamir, who decided to join twitter at Bachchan's behest, said he was still learning the tricks of the microblogging website.

"It is only a short time since I joined

twitter. I am yet to follow many people but I will start doing it slowly...even Shah Rukh," the 45-year-old star said.

He also congratulated Bachchan for returning as the host of “Kaun Banega Crorepati.”

He said he was yet to see nephew Imran Khan's film “I Hate

Luv Storys.”

According to Aamir, who launched Imran with his production “Jaane Tu Yaa Jaane Naa,” he does not meddle with the newcomer's choices.

"I think Imran is a very intelligent person.

I believe that you learn by doing and making mistakes," he said.

Imran, Karan join hands once again

After the encouraging and positive response to his latest release 'I Hate Luv Storys' , Imran Khan is back in business. The actor has finally found that one hit that was eluding him for a while now and it has come courtesy this romcom from the Dharma Productions banner.

Even as 'I Hate Luv Storys' continues to run to

Shammu turns glamorous!

many movies, Shammu (of After doing a girl-next-door act in is all set to reveal her glam) fame i iyos Kanchivaram and Math is currently busy with orous avatar soon. The actress ” yilu.

“Ma ure vent n Prakashraj’s productio ed as a homely girl and otyp stere was I , aram chiv Kan r “Afte k with a particular image. a village belle. I didn’t want to get stuc irony that I never really an I’m a modern girl in real life, but it’s reen. Unless I do not onsc one play to had the opportunity experiment with my roles, there is a big risk of being branded with a particular tag. And I do not want to fall into the trap,” she said to a leading English daily.

“In my forthcoming film Nellu, I play a college student from a rich and arrogant family. But in Mayilu set in a village backdrop, I play a village belle who falls in love with a Kodangi. These roles are quite challenging and I do want to take up such assignments once in a while. I’m now eagerly awaiting the release of both these films,” she added.

Shammu is all set to make her Malayalam and Telugu debuts soon!

Ezham Arivu: The seventh sense!

A.R. Murugadoss’s next project with Suriya and Shruti Haasan, Ezhaam Arivu (which means seventh sense), is said to be a neverseen-before story, loosely based on Leonardo Di Caprico’s yet-torelease Hollywood flick Inception.

Inception is a sci-fi action thriller which revolves around a skilled thief who is an expert in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable.

Ezhaam Arivu is produced

by Udhayanidhi Stalin under his

New to Twitter, Aamir Khan is slowly getting into its groove and following A m i t a b h Bachchan and Salman Khan on the microblogging site but is yet to add 'good friend' Shah Rukh Khan to the list.

A lot has been said

Red Giants Production banner.

Ravi K. Chandran handles the camera and Harris Jayaraj will be the music director. Shruti Haasan will reportedly sing all her songs in the film. The latest buzz is that the film will have only three characters: Suriya, Shruti Haasan and a new villain from Hollywood.

packed houses, Karan Johar has already gone ahead and signed Imran for yet another film. The film in question will be directed by debutant director Shakun Batra who has worked as an assistant director on films like 'Rock On' and 'Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na'. Meanwhile, the buzz is that Kareena Kapoor may come on board as the female lead for this project.

If that happens then it will indeed be a casting coup of sorts.

Imran, who has always confessed to being a huge fan of Bebo, will surely be super excited at the prospect of working with her that too in a Karan Johar production.

Arjun Rampal’s new look exposed

In the last few months, Arjun Rampal has made all public appearances with his head covered.

Even at the premiere of his film “Raajneeti,” he kept his pate concealed.

This was done to keep his “Ra.One” look hidden before the release of the film in which

Mykonos, was shot by an onlooker. Here he is seen without his bandana, exposing his shaven scalp.

Rampal shaved his head for the character's look. He is staying at the Greek island with wife Mehr and daughters Mahikaa and Myra. He seems to have grown some hair in the last one month.

he plays a baddie.

However, the actor who is presently holidaying at

Hrithik to enter Madame Tussauds museum soon Leading Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan will be the next Indian star to feature in the world-famous Madame Tussauds London attraction.

“We are hoping to secure a ‘sitting’ with Mr Roshan and our sculptors in the next few weeks so the figure is ready to join our popular

Bollywood area at the beginning of next year”, confirmed Liz Edwards, spokeswoman for Madame Tussauds London.

Hrithik’s figure will join our other leading Bollywood actors including Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

Australian actress Emma Brown to act in Bollywood movies Australian actress Emma Brown Garrett, who has already debuted in Indian movies with Bengali film “Shukno Lanka,” has to turn blonde for her Bollywood debut movies.

Emma will be seen in Rohan Sippy’s movie “Dum Maaro Dum,” which stars Abhishek Bachchan.

She will star opposite Sunny Deol in “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” which also stars veteran actor Dharmendra.

The actress has learned to speak in Hindi for her love of Indian cinema. Emma is very careful about keeping her age secret.

She said, “The Bengali film industry discovered me first and offered me a good ground before I ventured into Bollywood.”

Garrett added, “In ‘Dum Maro Dum,’ I speak Russian and bad English but I speak in Hindi while acting in “Yamla Pagla Deewana, where I play Sunny’s wife.”

Her debut Bengali film “Shukno Lanka” was released last week, which was directed by Gaurav Pandey and stars Debashree Roy and Sabyasachi

C h a k r a b o r t y.

Mumbai Mantra Media Ltd and the Moxie Group co-produced the movie.

T h i s Australian brunette was a big fan of her costar Mithun Chakraborty before meeting him on the sets of the film.

On her Indian venture, Emma said, “I, along with my husband decided to work in India and now it has been two years in this country. He is running a financial business and I tried to utilize my acting skills and it clicked. We have almost settled down here.”

She added, “Just after two weeks of arriving here, I

appointed an agent and impressed the director Gaurav Pandey with my audition. Being a huge Mithunda fan, we used to watch his movies ‘Disco Dancer’ and ‘Hum Paanch.’

About her training for entering Bollywood, the actress said, “In Mumbai, I had a Punjabi guru, who taught me Urdu and Hindi from the very beginning. I can speak a little Hindi now and can read and write as well. I watch a lot of Hindi movies and try to pick from there.”

Emma is very happy to get the opportunity to work with Bollywood veterans like Mithun Chakraborty and Dharmendra, who have already passed decades in the industry.

bollykats

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

21

Bipasha is scared to fly in small aircraft Bipasha Basu is a nervous flier. Like most people who fear flying, she avoids being on small aircraft, which are more susceptible to air turbulence.

Recently, the actress was to fly back to Mumbai from Diu after completing Priyadarshan's “Aakrosh,” and her co-star Ajay Devgn convinced her to accompany him on a small chartered flight.

There is a regular 64seater direct flight from Diu to Mumbai but it takes four hours and takes a detour via Porbander.

Ajay decided to return to the city sooner by chartering a flight, and flying directly with five other members of the cast and crew.

Never again...

T h e six-seater

Lamhaa

A film by Rahul Dholakia, the man who made Parzania on Gujarat riots of 2002, ‘Lamhaa’ looks at the Kashmir problem with a new perspective. It’s an action flick.

Once known as a paradise on earth, Kashmir is now a playground for blood thirsty militants. A company is generating millions of unaccountable dollars that benefit all powers - from politicians and leaders to bureaucrats in the Indian and Pakistani intelligence. From high ranking army and police officers to the militants and their supporters, everyone gets a piece of the pie.

The Military Intelligence gets a whiff of a plot that is likely to disrupt and possibly paralyze Kashmir. Vikram is sent to investigate this highly confidential mission assuming the identity of Gul Jehangir. The same day that he lands in the valley, Haji, a top separatist leader, survives a blast. Is there a connection between the blast and the operation?

To solve this conundrum, Vikram teams up with Aziza, Haji's young, aggressive and outspoken protégé. The intensity of their beliefs and their will to survive against all odds creates a special bond between them. They embark together on a journey full of intrigue, suspicion, betrayal and danger, to uncover the truth.

What seems like a routine investigation ends up being an operation that will change the perspectives and ideologies of both Vikram and Aziza as it exposes the dirty secrets of a state's fight for freedom, the corrupt nexus of politicians, intelligence, militancy and the crucification of idealistic and passionate people. In such a scenario, are the bullet and the bomb the only solution?

Produced by Bunty and Jaspreet Walia under the banner of G S Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Rahul Dholakia, the director has also penned the screenplay of the film. Ashwath Bhatt has written the dialogues.

The lead Star Cast of the film consists Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Kunal Kapoor, Shernaz Patel, Aman Verma, Yashpal Sharma, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Vipin Sharma, Yuri Suri, Anupam Kher and Mahesh Manjrekar.

Mithoon has scored the music while Sayeed Qadri and Amitabh Varma have penned the lyrics.

Chinmaye, Kshitij Tarey, Arun Daga, Mohd Irfan, Dr. Palash Sen, Mika Singh and Mithoon have rendered the playback.

New Hindi movies releasing this week 1. Lamhaa 2. Udaan 3. Tere Bin Laden

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

I Hate LUV Storys Raajneeti Raavan Krantiveer

No. Last Week New 1 2 1

Total weeks 1 5 3 2

Cessna had them back in the city in an hour. Says producer Kumar Mangat, "Robin Bhatt, Priyadarshan, Reema Sen and George were also on the same flight." Even though they saved 90 minutes of flying time, Bips doesn't want to repeat the experience.

The actress says, "When AJ asked me to fly with him, I was reluctant.

I have a fear of small flights and have avoided them for nine years. I didn't want to take the normal flight as it takes more time so I said yes. Also, I didn't want to sound like a freak when everyone else was being so brave."

The actress continues, "You have to crawl into the aircraft. But Ajay pacified me by saying that he, too, is claustrophobic and that I would feel better after some time if I relaxed.

After we took off, we ran into rough weather and were thrown around in our seats like potatoes in a sack. I have been reading about plane crashes for a while now and panicked."

The rest of the people on the flight, however, remained unperturbed.

"Ajay, Reema and George were laughing and joking about the plane crashing while Priyan slept."

The actress learnt the Gayatri Mantra last year and she kept chanting it to calm her nerves. Bips adds, "It just popped into my mind. I think I must have chanted it at least 3,000 times on that flight.

Fortunately, the plane landed safely. I hate fly-

ing; especially in the monsoons when the weather gets choppy. Initially, Ajay and Reema were trying to scare me but when she saw how terrified I was, she asked Ajay to stop joking."

Sonam receives international offers After her Dad's globe trotting, daughter plans to follow suit. Anil Kapoor made quite an impression post “ S l u m d o g Millionaire” and now daughter Sonam Kapoor has caught the eye of Ben Stiller. While in LA Anil met Ben Stiller to discuss ideas for a joint pro-

Release of Barbara’s movie in India delayed

Barbara Mori's Spanish flick “La mujer de mi hermano” (My Brother's Wife) was to have an Indian release (a dubbed version in Hindi) in June, a month after the release of “Kites.” With “Kites” failing miserably at the BO, the film's release has now been indefinitely delayed.

A source reveals, "Everyone expected Kites to be a huge hit, so plans were already in place to release some of her Spanish work in Hindi.

However, after the Hrithik-starrer tanked, producer Jayantilal Gada, who has bought the rights to release the film in India, wants to wait before the memories of ‘Kites’ fades away and then release the MBW as an independent product."

“La Mujer” is being distributed by Boney Kapoor and has already been dubbed in both Hindi and English for release. However, Boney has decided not to rush the Mori-starrer just yet.

duction company, that's when Anil told him about his co-production Aisha.

When Stiller saw the film, he immediately called up Anil expressing his desire to cast Sonam for his film titled “30 Minutes Or Less.” Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Danny Mc Bride, Stiller wanted Sonam to play the role of Kate in the film.

But things look difficult due to Miss Kapoor's prior commitments. She is already in the midst of “Mausam” and “Thank

You” while she promotes “Aisha.”

Possibilities are still being worked out so that Sonam can do the film.

While dates are being jostled with that one, Sonam received another offer from Edoardo Ponti (Son of Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti) who has announced his project Das to be made in India. But Sonam plans to give her full attention to projects that she has currently committed to.

22

InDIA

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Yoga guru’s movement against corruption to be launched from Dwarka The yoga guru of India who has a global following, Baba Ramdev has announced the launching of his movement against corruption from next month. He has decided that the ‘Bharat Swabhiman Janjagriti Yatra’ will be start on the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna – Janmashtami festival, from Dwarka in Gujarat, Lord’s place after he left Mathura.

Baba Ramdev has said his nation wide movement is aimed at restoration of national pride.

Jaideep Arya, a spokesman for the yatra said, “The main objective of this drive is to instil a

sense of national pride among citizens of this country and sensitise them to the evil of corruption in governance, achieve self-reliance in agriculture and cottage industry of villages.”

In its first phase, the yatra will cover 300 dis-

tricts across the country including those in Gujarat. On the inaugural day of the yatra at Dwarka temple, Baba Ramdev will conduct yoga camp from 5am to 7.30 am, apart from addressing a taluka and village level general meeting in the afternoon.

Baba Ramdev has selected 100 villages across the country where he will be visiting personally during the drive.

“Apart from Dwarka, he is also scheduled to make a day-long visit to Junagadh in September, when he will conduct a camp,” said Patanjali Yog Samiti president Mahesh Mehta.

Trust wants demat accounts in the name of Hindu deities Matter before Bombay High Court as NSDL refuses permission In an interesting litigation, a Sangli based religious trust has approached the Bombay High Court to get approval for opening demat accounts in the name of five Hindu deities after NSDL (National Securities Depository Ltd.) refused permission for the same. The trust has contended that if the

Income Tax authorities can issue PAN cards, the NSDL should not have problems in allowing opening of demat accounts in the name of Lord Ganesh, C h i n t a m a n e s h w a rd e v, Chintamaneshwaridevi, Suryanarayandev and Laxminarayandev.

Ganpati Panchayatam Sansthan, the trust is run

by the former Royal family of Sangli, the Patwardhan family. They got the pan card in the name of the deities in 2008.

The trust has stated in the petition that various High Courts and the Supreme Court have given decision in different cases, allowing Hindu deities to acquire property.

Coventry University ties up with NID of Ahmedabad

Sajjan Kumar, 4 others charged for murder, rioting Anti-Sikh riots case trial to commence from 23 August

Coventry University, UK, an institution of repute in the field of automotive design and engineering and NID, Ahmedabad have signed an MoU for collaboration. The tie up was formalised during the recent visit of Pradyuman Vyas, director of NID to UK. Vyas was awarded with an honorary Master of Arts (MA) degree by University of Creative Arts (UCA) in recognition of his contribution to design and education. He was awarded with the degree at UCA Farnham's graduation ceremony on June 29 at Guildford Cathedral.

Congress leader and former union minister Sajjan Kumar and 4 others will now face a trial in the criminal case against for their role in the 1984 antiSikh riots in Delhi.

Last week, additional sessions judge Sunita Gupta found prima facie evidence against all the accused. Charges have been framed them for violence in Sultanpuri area in the Indian capital in which six people were killed.

Brahmanand Gupta, Peru, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash are the other accused, facing charges of

A young woman from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, studying medicine in Turkmenistan gave birth to a baby on plane as she was coming back home.

She tried to disown the child, tried to flee leaving behind the newborn in the toilet of the aircraft. She was though arrested by the police last week.

Amritsar airport police said Amandeep Kaur Mann left the child in the toilet of the plane and tried to flee at the Rajasansi international airport. The newborn was

recovered by the plane crew and taken to a hospital in Amritsar.

Amandeep is a medical student of a college in Turkmenistan and had boarded the flight from its capital Ashgabat.

"While in the flight, Mann was very disturbed and she was rushing to the toilet very frequently.

Some co-passengers and the aircraft staff also inquired about her health," a police official said.

"But after the plane landed, she immediately

Sajjan Kumar

murder, rioting, spreading enmity between two communities.

The case will now move ahead with recording of statements of witnesses from August 23.

Hoshiarpur woman gave birth on plane, tried to disown child got down and tried to flee but was apprehended by the airport police. The aircraft crew was shocked to hear the baby crying in the toilet," he added.

Police said that initially Amandeep refused to admit that she had given birth to the child but broke down and confessed during interrogation. A case has been filed against her.

Both the woman and her baby were admitted to a hospital and doctors said their condition was normal.

In divine light

By Rajen Vakil

Akshaya Patra, the source of unlimited energy Today, we will take up the story that takes place after the five Pandavas had been exiled to the forest. The whole city of Hastinapura was in the streets bidding farewell as the Pandavas were leaving for their exile to the forests of ‘Kamyaka Vana’. The Brahmins of Hastinapura did not leave the Pandavas at the city gates but followed them into the forest; they all stayed at a place called ‘Pramanavta’ for the first night. The next morning, Yudhisthira requested the Brahmins to go back to the city and lead their normal lives, which they refused to. He was in a dilemma as to how to feed them.

A great rishi called Shaunaka came to Yudhisthira’s help. He asked Yudhisthira to make Dhomya, a Brahmin, his official priest and take his advice whenever needed.

Yudhisthira asked Dhomya how he could feed the Brahmins.

Dhomya advised Yudhisthira to meditate upon Surya, the Sun God, who would solve his problem. Yudhisthira meditates upon Surya, who is pleased with him and appears. Surya gives him a copper vessel (akshaya patra) and says that as long as Draupadi did not finish eating, that vessel would always remain full of food, and that he could then feed everyone from this vessel.

Surya then says “It is my energy that is responsible for all organic life upon earth, which is a combination of Surya, Chandra, Prithvi and Jala. My rays fall upon water, which rises as vapour to become clouds and then falls as rain again, bringing life to the plant kingdom, which in turn feeds all organic life.” He adds “Chandra, the moon, absorbs my energy and returns it to the earth in the form of aushadhi (medicine); all medicinal and herbal qualities present in all of plant and animal life is because the moon has taken my energy and recycled it back to earth.

My energy is very hot and it burns, the moon acts as a counterweight and balances my energy.”

Yudhisthira was then able to feed everyone with the aid of this vessel (akshaya patra) throughout the twelve years of their exile. The Pandavas took care that Draupadi

ate only after every person had had their fill of food.

The five Pandavas represent the five centres within us, namely intellectual, emotional, instinctive, moving, and sex centre. Yudhisthira is the intellectual centre whereas the Brahmins represent the higher qualities of this centre. For the higher qualities to work within us, certain finer energies must be generated in the bodybrain system. The earth takes in energy from the sun for a period of six months, which we can call as breathing in or ‘Uttarayana’ and breathes out energy for another six months, which is ‘Dakshinayana’.

When the earth is breathing in energy, the solar prana in the earth’s atmosphere is always fresh and contains that special substance that ignites the higher qualities of the intellectual centre. It is in the later six months that the earth is devoid of the fresh solar prana. All great masters knew how to take in solar energy directly from the sun without the earth as an intermediary so the higher qualities of the intellectual centre would always remain alive within them.

Jesus wanted to teach his disciples this technique. He went into the Gardens of Gethsemane to pray that this energy be passed on to his disciples but when he came back, his disciples were still sleeping. This shows that they were not in the correct state to receive this energy and hence, he could not pass it on to them.

The Pandavas first go into ‘Kamyaka Vana’, which represents the areas of our unconscious mind or our desires.

Yudhisthira makes Dhomya, which means mist (or fog) his chief priest. When the student tries to take his attention from the physical body into the unconscious mind, he encounters a curtain of mist (or fog) that does not allow him to see beyond; he has to go through this mist to enter into the deeper areas of his mind. In many systems, this curtain of mist is known as the etheric body.

Yudhisthira then meditates upon Surya; this represents the technique of providing the solar

energy directly to the intellectual centre to perform higher functions.

Every disciple needs this energy to hold the states of higher consciousness within oneself.

We relate to the world through the five senses; what comes in through the five senses is interpreted by the five centres and as a result we form thoughts, emotions, perform actions, and so on.

The energy that is needed to decode the input through the five centres is known as psychic energy. This is the very basic energy that we need in order to perform all functions of life. Many times, while sightseeing (over a period of time), one sees that no new impressions are taken and everything then seems the same.

This is an example of lack of psychic energy.

Similarly, while reading a book, after a point of time, we cannot register anything and the reading becomes a mere mechanical action.

Each centre in the body has two small energy hubs, which provide the body with psychic energy. Usually, it takes about 45 minutes for one hub to be depleted of this energy. That is also the reason why most periods in schools used to be of 45 minutes each. A small break would follow so that the intellectual centre then could connect to another energy hub (of that centre’s two hubs) to gain energy. In the meantime, the energy centre refuels the hub that was exhausted of its energy.

Then comes a time when both the energy hubs are completely exhausted and we cannot perform the act we want to.

Within all of us, there is also a higher unlimited source of energy, called Surya, or in this story represented by the ‘akshaya patra’. The Guru teaches the student to connect to this higher source so there is an unlimited amount of energy available to the student to walk on the spiritual path.

(Edited by Chintu Gandhi. Illustration by Siddharth Ramanuj.)

The author is in the U.K. to provide practical yoga (through rhythmic breathing) sessions and talks up to the 19th of August. These will be free to attend. For details, please email 3srb@live.com or call Chintu on 079 04981705

23

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Bihar child prodigy is an IIT-B professor at 22 Patna-born child prodigy Dr Tathagat Tulsi has taken up a job as professor at Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay at the age of 22. Tulsi is possibly the youngest Assistant Professor at IIT. He will join the IIT faculty at Powai in Mumbai next week and teach Physics.

IIT Bombay sent his appointment letter on June 30 in which IIT Bombay Director Professor Devang V Khakar informed Tulsi that the institute's Board of Governors had offered him assistant professorship on contract at the Department of Physics.

Opposition MLAs in Karnataka wear helmets, stay overnight in the Assembly

22 dead, thousands trapped in Punjab floods

Chief Minister Yedyurappa firmly refuses CBI inquiry on the illegal mining issue With the aim of mounting pressure on the BJP government, MLAs and MLCs of opposition Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) spent Monday night in the assembly building. Earlier in the day, they came to the assembly wearing helmets, a symbolic way of expressing fear of physical assault by the BJP members.

The opposition is demanding that the state government hand over the case of illegal mining to CBI, something that chief

ombudsman, N Santosh Hegde.

Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge had resigned from as Lokayukta on June 23.

Before that, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari had both met Hegde personal-

minister Yediyurappa firmly refused even on Tuesday.

Last week, on Friday, the Karnataka Assembly came dangerously close to violence as the government took on the Opposition over the controversial resignation of the state's 'Lokayukta' or

ly to request him to withdraw his resignation.

He did that nearly 10 days after resigning, attributing his change of heart to a phone call from BJP leader LK Advani.

While announcing his resignation, Hegde said he was upset with the government's lack of support in preventing corruption in public administration. He had also highlighted the government's attempts to sabotage the work of officials who were trying to expose illegal mining in the state.

69% reservations in Tamil Nadu to continue for a year Supreme Court asks state commission to justify, provide data As Tamil Nadu is to go to assembly polls in less than a year, DMK led state government heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday. The Supreme Court of India decided that 69% reservations for admissions in educational institutions and government jobs in the state will continue for

one year.

Giving the interim ruling on a batch of petitions, the bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia and two other judges said during the period of one year, the state backward class commission will have to take a fresh look at the issue. Tamil Nadu govern-

ment will also have to provide quantifiable data in support of the present quota rules, which allow 69% reservations. This is against the norm of a maximum of 50% reservations, as settled by the Apex court itself. Tamil Nadu was asked to submit quantifiable data in support of

UP minister seriously injured in bomb blast Uttar Pradesh Minister Nand Gopal Gupta "Nandi,” his personal security officer and a local media persons were seriously injured in a bomb explosion inside his residence in Allahabad, police said. There was confusion about the death of a person in the blast. Now the police confirmed that the person died in the blast.

The incident took place at around 11 am when 36year-old Gupta, Minister for Institutional Finance, Stamp and Judicial Tax, was leaving his residence for a local temple, Deputy Inspector General Police Brij Bhushan said. The explosion was apparently caused by a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle parked near the minister's vehicle,

UN appoints Indian as Force Commander in Congo Lieutenant General Chander Prakash has been appointed the Force Commander for the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.

Lt Gen Prakash, who is currently in-charge of India's UN peacekeeping operations at the Ministry of Defence, has served his country during a distinguished military career spanning some thirtyseven years.

He will succeed Lt Gen Babacar Gaye of Senegal.

Lt Gen Prakash trained at India's National Defence and Military Academies prior to being commissioned into the artillery branch of the Indian Armed forces in 1973.

he said.

While, condition of Gupta, admitted to a hospital, was stated to be out of danger, local journalist Vijay Pratap Singh and the minister's security officer were seriously injured in the blast, Bhushan said.

Meanwhile, Police arrested five supporters of a rival SP leader in connection with the incident.

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reservation exceeding 50 per cent for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

The Tamil Nadu Backward Class Commission will study the quota introduced in Tamil Nadu and see if it is justified.

The flood situation in Punjab and Haryana worsened on Monday as fresh rains pounded the two states as well as other parts of North India. The death toll is estimated at 33 in the two neighbouring states. Punjab and Haryana blame each other for their plight.

Heavy rains, floods and breach in the embankments of rivers, canals have caused huge damage to life and property in atleast six districts of Punjab last week.

Atleast 22 people were killed and thousands

were trapped in flood waters. Farmers too were hit badly as the sowing operations carried out by them recently were all rendered useless after the floods.

While Patiala and Sangrur districts were the affected most, Ferozepur, Moga and Mansa too were on alert. As on Saturday last week, 30 breaches along the river Ghaggar have flooded six districts - SAS Nagar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Sangrur and Mansa.

24

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Modi is research scholar's topic of study Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi has become a subject of an academic research. A young lawyer, Mehul Choksi, who is pursuing his PhD, is doing research on Leadership in governance: A case study of Narendra Modi'. For 32-year-old Mehul Choksi, Modi is a youthful and energetic leader with innovative thoughts.

PSLV launches 5 satellites simultaneously The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLVC15) on Monday put five satellites in their precise orbit, unequivocally demonstrating its reliability and robustness.

It was a flawless mission all the way, with the ignition and separation of the rocket's four stages taking place on time, the heat-shield protecting the satellites falling off on schedule and the satellites flying out of the fourth stage at a velocity of 27,000 km an hour. The on-board computers worked perfectly. This was the 16 consecutive successful fight of the PSLV. ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan called it “an excellent launch.” The mission went off “extremely well, as expected.”

Choksi is a practising lawyer at the district and sessions court for the past eight years. I t was a tough job for him to convince the panel of expert examiners at Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) during the 45-minute long viva session in December 2009 for his PhD research work on Modi.

Dandi, 3 villages declared eco-sensitive zone Dandi, one of the most important landmarks of India’s freedom struggle, was last week declared an ecosensitive zone by Indian minister of forest and environment Jairam Ramesh.

The minister made the declaration in the presence of chairman of Dandi Memorial Committee Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the coastal town.

Apart from Dandi, three villages surrounding Dandi will also be covered under the Environment Protection Act, 1980, he said.

Any new industries that want to set up base at Dandi will now have to function under the Act’s purview. A local monitoring committee comprising locals from Dandi, Matwad, Onjal and Samapar villages of Jalapore taluka of Navsari

district will be set up to monitor the procedures.

“Maintenance of the ecosensitive zone will be the responsibility of this committee,” Ramesh said.

The villages have a population of 20,000 in all. The eco-friendly development of the region will complete in couple of years’ time.

In another important development, the environment minister said that the Gulf of Kutch too will be declared an eco-sensitive zone soon.

“We might have come late, but now that we have arrived we will do our best to preserve the rightful importance of Dandi,” Ramesh said on the occasion. He also added that this initiative should have been taken up a lot earlier, but “better late than never” is the catch phrase

in the case of Dandi. As part of the project, an environment friendly ‘smarak’ (memorial) of Gandhiji will also come up.

Ramesh said that development of Dandi is a national programme and that there is no politics involved. In this endeavour, both the state and Indian governments are together.

Linking Gandhiji with nature and environment, Gopal Krishna Gandhi said, “Our aim is to see Dandi as an internationally promoted ecological centre. Gandhi was always linked to nature and environment. While developing this historic place, we have to look for ecological gains. We can achieve this objective by establishing bioshield steps and making the Dandi beach totally pollution-free.”

Militants target soccer fans in Uganda, 76 killed Authorities say one Indian national among dead or injured Nairobi: Bombings targeting football fans in the Ugandan capital Kampala killed at least 76 people and left scores of others injured, officials said on Monday. One Indian was among the dead or injured but the officials refused to give details about the incident.

Radical Islamic alShabaab militia in Somalia has claimed responsibility for the Sunday bombings, chief of police Kale Kaihura said.

'We have been suspecting that these people could be planning something like this,' Kaihura told the New Vision newspaper.

Police spoke of two bomb blasts, one in an Ethiopian restaurant and another at the Kyadondo Rugby Club which was hosting a crowd of football

Continued from page 1 The book presentation was followed by a dinner to mark the 6th anniversary of International Widows Day, which was held at the Delegates Dining Room at the United Nations, and was attended by 27 UN P e r m a n e n t Representatives, including H.E. Ambassador Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.

The Loomba Foundation, an UN accredited global NGO, also organised events on 23rd June 2010 in the UK, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Syria, Kenya

An injured man is carried on a stretcher in Kampala on Monday

fans who had gathered to watch the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands.

Unexploded bomb vest found, 4 arrested Meanwhile, investigators found an unexploded suicide vest with ball bearings in a disco hall in Kampala, suggesting that militants had planned a

third bombing, officials said on Tuesday. Four foreign suspects were arrested in connection with the find.

The vest contained ball bearings, as did the bombs that exploded on Sunday.

Officials believe suicide bombers took part in the twin blasts during the World Cup final.

"What we found here is consistent with what we found on both scenes of crime. And so this is a very significant lead in our investigation," Kaihura said.

Four people were arrested in connection with the discovery of the unexploded vest, said Edward Ochom, the director of criminal investigations. He said the four were not Ugandan but would not say their nationalities. Kale hinted that Somali nationals could be among those arrested.

Kaihura said a Ugandan militant group the Allied Democratic Forces - may also have played a role in the attack.

Like al-Shabab, the ADF is primarily a Muslim radical group.

For Canadian immigration, Punjab woman marries father, son In a desperate bid to get Canadian immigration, a woman from Punjab conned a millionaire father as well as his son into marrying her. But her plans seem to have gone awry with not only the NRI father-son duo but also the Chandigarh police now looking for her.

Cases against her include cheating two men in marriage, getting a fake passport made with forged documents and even involvement in a murder case in Uttar Pradesh. Chandigarh Police's operations cell officials do not rule out her links with terrorists either.

The 'mystery' of the woman, Priya Inder Kaur, has baffled the father-son duo and Chandigarh police as not much is known about her. The woman is on the run after dumping them and eloping with yet another man.

Kaur married NRI Rajinder Singh Mann, aged around 60 years, in 2001 after staying in his house in Chandigarh as a tenant for a few months. "She thought that being an NRI, I would take her to Canada. But when I told her that I had no plans of going back to Canada soon, she started behaving weirdly and finally divorced me in February 2002," Mann said. Mann did not hear from Kaur for over two years after that.

In 2004, she came to his house again. Since Mann was not at home, she met his son, Rajan Mann, born from the marriage to his Canadian wife. On learning that Rajan was a Canadian citizen, Kaur befriended him over the next few weeks and married him.

When Mann came to know of his son's marriage to Kaur and told his son about the earlier marriage, Rajan was shocked and divorced her. Having lodged a complaint of cheating and forgery against Kaur, Mann and his son came to know that she had even approached the Canadian embassy in New Delhi to work out her immigration to Canada as Rajan's wife.

Ahmedabad, Puri celebrate Rath Yatra

Muslim leaders welcome Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad on Tuesday

Continued from page 1 It may be recalled that in late sixties and after that in the late eighties, communal violence had gripped the city and parts of the state to marr the Rath Yatra festival.

245 Million Widows ‘In Worldwide Crisis’ and South Africa to mark the 6th International Widows Day and raise awareness of the more than 245 million widows worldwide – victims of HIV/AIDS, ethnic cleansing, armed conflict and extreme poverty, - and over 500 million dependent and adult children of widows who are caught in a vicious cycle of disease, forced servitude, homelessness and violence.

“The plight of widows as an ostracised and disenfranchised group is a human rights catastrophe,” said Cherie Blair, “On one level, there are the humanitarian problems of abject poverty and widespread violence

against women and children. But on another, it’s about the rights and the role of women in certain societies, where their marginalisation and dehumanisation create environments that perpetuate abuse.”

“There are few resources in the world available to help widows achieve a safer, more comfortable existence and to promote equality and justice. The United Nations declaring 23rd June as International Widows Day, would make great strides towards developing these resources,” Raj Loomba added.

Raj and his wife Veena Loomba established the

Loomba Foundation in 1997, in the memory of Raj’s mother, who became a widow in the Punjab in India in 1954. She had never received any formal schooling herself but succeeded in educating her seven young children singlehandedly.

The UN accredited, the Loomba Foundation is a registered charity in the UK, USA and India, which is supported by Cherie Blair, as President and Sir Richard Branson, as Patron-in-Chief. Over the foundation’s thirteen years it has helped thousands of widows and their children in South Asia and across Africa.

The Loomba

Foundation is providing education to over 3,000 children of poor widows throughout India. As part of the global work, the Foundation’s Aid Projects are developed and delivered with partner organisations, including Sir Richard Branson’s charity Virgin Unite in South Africa, HRH the Prince of Wales’s charity Youth Business International in Uganda, Kenya, Nepal, Bangladesh, Syria and Sri Lanka, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in Malawi and Kenya and Oxfam GB and the Rwandan Government in Rwanda.

The Foundation is campaigning for UN

Bust since nineties, communal harmony has ensured that no untoward incidents happen during the festival. Every year, muslim leaders and leading citizens of Ahmedabad welcome the Rath Yatra in a show of brotherhood.

recognition of 23rd June as International Widows Day, which was launched at the House of Lords in London in 2005. This date is significant as it was on this day that Raj’s mother, Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba, became a widow in 1954.

Cherie Blair, Raj Loomba, and the Loomba Foundation hope that “Invisible and Forgotten Sufferers: The Plight of Poor Widows around the World” will provide the United Nations with the moral urgency it needs to declare June 23rd International Widows Day so these women and children can receive the aid they so badly need.

25

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Indian govt planning give voting rights to expats London: Indian government is planning to provide voting rights to Indian expatriates and steps are being taken to make it a reality, Law and Justice Minister Veerappa Moily has said.

"The Law ministry has initiated a scheme to provide voting rights to Indian expatriates and it will become a reality soon," Moily told members of the Indian Overseas Congress (UK)

London recently.

Replying to a representation made by D L Kalhan, President of the Indian Overseas Congress, at the Indian Gymkhana here that the expatriates demand for right to vote in India was pending for long, the Law Minister said "necessary legislation for that purpose would be enacted soon."

Enterprising Gujarat says it for Punjab in London The following article appeared in the Times of India about our British Punjabis magazine launched on Thursday 8th July 2010.

A magazine focussed on Punjab and Punjabis, published by a Gujarati at a launch function presided over by a Bihari. How much better can it get in terms of displaying unity in diversity? The making of modern India!

On Thursday night, a group that brings out Gujarat Samachar, a weekly, in Britain unveiled the first issue of a monthly, British Punjabis. At a banqueting hall in north London, there were welcome refreshments on a hot and humid evening, followed by dinner, not to mention a plethora of speeches, quite typical of Indian functions, which lack a sense of editing!

But disappointingly, for a celebration of the birth of a periodical on Punjab, there was no chicken butter masala or chicken tikka masala – the latter virtually the national dish in the United Kingdom.

The speeches lauded Punjab’s great achievements from its gurus to the sacrifice of its soldiers in the British cause to its entrepreneurship.

The oratory included highlighting the "greatness" of Hindu and Sikh religions.

None, though, spoke of the valour, heroism and selflessness of Punjabis in the freedom struggle, their role in India’s Green Revolution, Punjab’s marvellous hockey players who once dominated the world and the fact that the maiden test hundred for India was scored by a Punjabi - Lala Amarnath.

Indeed, Baroness Verma, a government spokesperson in the House of Lords, lamented the lack of a voice for Hindus and Sikhs in British public life. An Amritsar-born Sikh married to a Hindu, she, rather astonishingly, declared that while Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a cabinet minister in prime minister David Cameron government, looked after Pakistani interests, she took care of Hindu and Sikh interests.

An indigenous Briton hardly ever discusses in public his or her Christian roots. Most are disinterested about religion, as they should be, in a 21st century cosmos. It sounded as if Verma and Warsi, despite both being Conservatives, were at loggerheads on Indo-Pak issues. Cameron will surely shudder to be apprised of the sectarianism being practiced by his colleagues of sub-continental descent.

A sobering influence, though, was the summing up by India’s new Deputy High Commissioner in the UK, Rajesh Prasad, who presided over the function and diplomatically reminded the audience: "India has always been accepting of people of different cultures. Indians have never believed in a clash or conflict amongst civilisations or cultures."

He added that the event was an example of "one very successful and thriving community (Gujaratis) recognizing the success and achievement of another (Punjabis)".

The Victim Psychology

By Nitin Mehta MBE A copy of the article- 'The Victim Psychology (Should caste discrimination become a law in the UK?)' was sent to Rt.Hon. Theresa May, Home Minister and Minister for women and equalities. The article was also sent to R t . H o n . L y n n Featherstone, junior minister for equality.In response a letter was received from the government Equalities office. The letter says that the concerns raised in the article have been noted. It further says that following extensive debates in both houses the Government accepted an amendment adding a power to section 9 of the equalities bill. This would allow Ministers to amend the definition of race in order to provide protection from caste discrimination and harassment in the areas covered by the act.

These are employment, provision of goods, facilities and services, disposal and management of premises, education, associations and in the exercise of public functions. The Government has commissioned the National Institute of Economic and and Social Research (NIESR) to carry out research to explore if caste

discrimination and harassment is taking place in Great Britain in the areas covered by discrimination legislation. I contacted NIESR and enquired if they had contacted many Hindu organisations. They said they had contacted the Hindu Council, Hindu Forum and some other organisations. While they wanted to talk to everyone they were keen to speak to those who felt they were the victims of caste discrimination! They were also researching caste discrimination amongst Sikhs and Christians.

NIESR's findings will be published in the near future. Looking at the areas of possible discrimination mentioned above it is pretty clear that there is no way caste discrimination can occur here in UK. Amongst the thousands of Hindu employers, never have we heard of anyone discriminated on caste grounds. In the provision of goods no one discriminates because you are dealing in money and money has no caste or colour! Even Karl Marx said as much! In the disposal and management of premises again no one in their right mind would turn away a potential buyer with cash in his pocket! In the field of edu-

cation one fails to understand how anyone could discriminate on caste grounds. Hindus do not own many schools neither are they in positions of power anywhere to discriminate. No one is barred from Hindu temples.

It is obvious that while the Hindu community was blissfully unwilling and unprepared to address the activity of the caste lobby, it has managed to convince people in power that they are victims of caste discrimination. Most of the examples given by 'victims' are anecdotal instances of being refused to be served in a shop or similar gripes.

This government or any other government cannot legislate on such flimsy grounds. There are already quite robust anti discriminatory laws in place in this country. The new government is keen to scrap unnecessary and irrelevant laws and I sincerely hope that it will do the right thing here. On the other hand if the government does legislate to outlaw caste discrimination it will change nothing on the ground. This country has given everybody an equal opportunity to succeed.

Portraying yourself as a victim sometimes hides your weaknesses and failures!

As for the new publication, its creator CB Patel aptly remarked, "It will get better in the months and years ahead." Its cover predictably had a picture of the Golden Temple. Its contents, though, were entirely essays and eulogies. The product is unusual in that it’s in English, unlike most print offerings to the British Punjabi community.

A majority who migrated from Punjab to Britain seemingly did not have a penchant for reading in English. But the generations born and brought up here, perhaps, are. They will, however, expect quality, masala and coverage about themselves to be interested. They might also not be inclined towards being narrowly typecast as Punjabis.

Strength is in numbers!

And a broader mentality rather than a desire to be the representative of Hindus or Sikhs could lend them a better prospect of making it in public life.

Chairperson of Canadian Human Rights Tribunal visiting London London: Shirish P. Chotalia, Q.C. was appointed Chairperson of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal from November 2, 2009.

Ms. Chotalia obtained her Bachelor of Arts in 1983, her Bachelor of Laws in 1986 and her Master of Laws in 1991 from the University of Alberta.

She was admitted to the Bar of Alberta in 1987.

Ms. Chotalia practiced with the law firm of Pundit & Chotalia LLP in the areas of immigration, human rights and employment litigation.

She successfully litigated many high profile cases.

She was a Commissioner with the Alberta Human Rights Commission from 1989 to 1993, an adjudicator with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal from 1999 to 2005 and served as an elected Bencher, Law Society of Alberta, from 2008 until her appointment to the Tribunal.

Ms. Chotalia was an instructor at the University of Alberta's

Shirish P. Chotalia

Law Faculty since 1995, intermittently, teaching courses in Human Rights Law as well as Terrorism and the Law, and was also appointed as a Special Advocate in 2008 to address terrorism cases. She has written several books and many articles about human rights law and immigration law. Other professional service included Chair of the Canadian Bar Association Immigration Section, Northern Alberta, and Member, Selection Advisory Board of Canada. Ms. Chotalia speaks several languages including French, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.

Shirish chotalia is visiting London this week. She can be contacted on 07957 694909

26

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Sunita Williams to go to space expeditions again Washington: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams has been selected to be on the crew for one of the four new International Space Station crews. NASA and its international partners, the Russia Federal Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), have assigned these crews. Other NASA astronauts include Joe Acaba, Sunita Williams

and Kevin Ford. Williams will fill in as flight engineer for Expedition 32 in May 2012, and station commander for Expedition 33.

Selected by NASA in 1998, Williams has clocked over 2,770 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. Williams' first space expedition occurred in 2006, where she was launched to the ISS aboard the shuttle Discovery.

Bangladesh High Court bans â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fatwaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;!

Dhaka: In a landmark verdict, the Bangladesh High Court has ruled as criminal offence handing down punishments like caning or beating women in the name of "fatwa" or Islamic decrees. "Any person who issues or executes such an extra-judicial penalty must be punished for committing a criminal offence," said a two-member bench comprising Judges Syed Mahmud Hossain and Gobinda Chandra Tagore.

The bench said infliction of brutal punishment, including caning, whipping and beating in local salish or arbitration by persons devoid of judicial authority constitutes violation of the constitutional rights. The

court particularly directed the authorities concerned to take punitive action against the people involved in enforcing "fatwa" against women. The verdict came on writ filed by several rights groups.

The court ordered the government, law enforcers and local government bodies, especially the municipalities and union councils, to take immediate measures against issuance or execution of extra-judicial penalties alongside providing the victims with security and protection.

The verdict came nearly a year after preliminary hearing on when the court issued a rule asking the government and the police

chief in particular to explain their failure to act in time and to comply with their legal and constitutional duties in taking effective measures to prevent the imposition and execution of extra-legal penalties.

In its verdict, the court asked the government to frame and adopt guidelines and orders for all the authorities concerned to report any information on the occurrence or likely occurrence of any such incident of extra-judicial penalties by any people or bodies in the name of arbitration, mediation and conciliation or fatwa.

Earlier in 2001, another High Court bench comprising judges' Golam

Rabbani and Nazmun Ara Sultana delivered a verdict declaring issuance and execution of any fatwa illegal and punishable under the Penal Code.

An appeal was, however, preferred against the 2001 verdict and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the verdict in the same year. The appeal is still pending with the Appellate Division. The leading rights groups filed the writ on public interest on the basis of newspaper reports and investigations by the petitioners into violence inflicted on women in the name of fatwa by local religious leaders and powerful corners.

Fasting Lankan minister quits to protest UN war crimes inquiry Ban recalls resident coordinator to New York for consultations

Colombo: A cabinet minister on hunger strike to protest a UN inquiry into alleged human rights abuses at the end of Sri Lanka's civil war tendered his resignation from the government on Friday last, his spokesman said.

Construction and Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa has vowed on Thursday not to eat until the UN investigation into reports of abuses by government Wimal Weerawansa troops against Tamil rebels was withdrawn.

Protesters submitted a petition to the Russian embassy, urging Moscow to ask the UN to abandon its investigation. Crowds gathered outside the UN's offices in Sri Lanka, blocking workers' access and prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to recall the local UN head. "In light of the evolving situation, he is recalling the UN resident coordinator, Neil Buhne, to New York for consultations," Ban's spokesman said.

The demonstrations were launched

by Weerawansa, who also leads the National People's Front, a member of the ruling coalition.

The main coalition party, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's 2010 Freedom Alliance, called on Friday for restraint. #/, 79,:;0.06<: :0(5 */0,=,9: >(9+: 0: /6:;,+ ,=,9@ @,(9 )@ $ A: 3,(+05. 5,>: >,,230,: "There should be a diplomatic approach to resolve the problems with :0(5 %60*, (5+ <1(9(; "(4(*/(9 ;6 /656<9 90;0:/ :0(5: 7(9 ,?*,33,5*, - ;/,9, 0: :64,65, the UN than having street protests," @6< 256> >/6 /(: )962,5 )6<5+(90,: (5+ +,:,9=,: 9,*6.50;065 -69 ;/,09 <508<, *65;90)<;065 ;6 Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena ;/, *644<50;@ (5+ ;/, 5(;065 ;/,5 73,(:, 56405(;, ;/,4 -69 65, 6- ;/, (>(9+: 30:;,+ ),36> said. The protests drew more outright criticism from the opposition, who (2, :<9, ;/(; @6< -033 05 ;/0: (7730*(;065 -694 (5+ :,5+ 0; ),-69, ;/ <.<:; )@ 76:; -(? 69 ,4(03 ;6 argued they could hamper the UN's 9 ,69., #,3 (?

4(03 .,69., ()73.96<7 *64 - @6< (9, :,5+05. 0; )@ 76:; development work in the country. ;/, (++9,:: 0: 9 ,69., 96<7 (94( '6.( 6<:, 6?;65 (92,; 65+65 & Ban appointed a three-member panel last month to advise him on the Sri Lankan government's accountability for its actions in the last months of the 26-year civil war.

3(;05<4 >(9+ -69 <:05,:: ,9:65 6- ;/, ',(9 63+ >(9+ -69 '6<5. 5;9,79,5,<9 6- ;/, ',(9 Thousands of civilians were report+) $ )) ()%$ - % ) )+ )) $ , (/ ) $) % * %+$ $*( &( $ +( - * &(%, $ *( ! ( %( % %& ( * $ edly killed as government forces closed -%( $ $ #%$)*( * $+ $ & )) %$ %( )% " ))+ ) )+ )) +" +) $ )) +)* "%/() in on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil 63+ >(9+ -69 96-,::065(3 6- ;/, ',(9 63+ >(9+ -69 */0,=,4,5; 05 ,+0( 9;: (5+ <3;<9, Eelam in the north of the country before (% )) %$ ") $ $/ " - % , ) " * %# %$ - % ) # # (! $ &( $* $ defeating them in May 2009. *) % * ( %) $ &(% )) %$ (% )* # $ # (* $ +"*+( Both the government and Tamil 63+ &64,5 6- ;/, ',(9 63+ >(9+ -69 <:05,:: 05 644<50;@ rebels were accused of war crimes and $ ( % $ * %$ $ %$%+( % -%# $ - % ) +) $ )) %+) * * ) # #%$)*( " %$*( +* %$ *% other abuses during the civil war. # ) $ $* # (! $ $/ %) $ " %##+$ */ Meanwhile, the UN confirmed that 63+ >(9+ -69 "769;: ,9:65(30;@ 6- ;/, ',(9 63+ >(9+ -69 $50-694,+ (5+ 0=03 ",9=0*,: the UN Development Programme's - ( %( . "" $ $ )&%(*) +*)* $ $ , # $* $ +$ %(# %( , " ) (, ) %( (UNDP's) regional centre in Colombo is 63+ >(9+ -69 */0,=,4,5; 05 644<50;@ ",9=0*, %$*( +* %$ *% * %##+$ */ * (%+ $/ % * %, ) (, ) to be shifted to its other Asia-Pacific $ ( % $ * %$ % $/ $ , + "0) ) (, *% %##+$ */ regional centre in Bangkok.

There were no plans to move or close other UN offices in Colombo, including Unicef and UNDP country (4, 6- 56405,, offices, which were targeted by the demonstrators.

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Court martial also continues as his lawyers have challenged that Colombo: Sri Lanka's former Army chief was charged on Monday in a civilian court with conspiring against the state with the support of 10 military officers, a court official said. It is the first time charges have been filed in a civilian court against General Sarath Fonseka, who became an opposition presidential candidate after leading the military campaign that last year ended Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war against Tamil separatist rebels.

Fonseka is already facing a court martial on the same charges, but there has been a strong international campaign that he should be tried in a civilian court. The decision to try him in a military court has been challenged by his lawyers.

27

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

UN turns down Pak's appeal to reopen probe into Benazir's death New York: The United Nations (UN) has rejected Pakistan's appeal to reopen its probe into the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto saying that the work has been "completed". Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on June 23, raising objections over several aspects of the report of

the UN commission, including the panel's observations implying a nexus between the Pakistan Army and the Taliban. "We're working on the reply," Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN chief, said in response to a question about Ban's reaction to the letter written by Qureshi. Haq, however, pointed out that Ban was of the view that "the work of the Commission is complete."

Zardari pushes for N-deal during China visit IN foCus Beijing: Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari was in China last week and held discussions Chinese premier Wen Jiabo. The six-day trip that Zardari made, along with his two daughters, saw the two countries sign six agreements on agriculture, healthcare, justice, media, economy and technology.

But these were just the trimmings.

The real deal that Zardari sought to push through was to seek a nuclear deal with China.

The China National Nuclear Corporation recently announced that China would set up two power reactors in Pakistan.

It was is not just nuclear assistance that Zardari wants from China.

He wants Beijing to partner Islamabad in fighting terrorism as well. China Central Television quoted

Asif Ali Zardari flanked by his daughters, shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing on July 7

him as saying, "China and Pakistan are both victims of terrorism ...To strengthen Sino-Pakistani anti-terrorism cooperation and strike at terrorism, separatism and religious extremism is in the fundamental interests of both nations."

Xinhua reports, "Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of ChinaPakistan diplomatic relations. Wen said China is

willing to take the opportunity of the 60th anniversary to propel bilateral relations to a new stage."

Rules out handing over "non-state" 26/11 perpetrators to India Zardari has, meanwhile, ruled out handing over the accused in Mumbai terror attack "non state actors" to India. He remains only "hopeful" of bringing the perpetrators, who wrecked the relation-

ship between both countries, to justice.

In an interview to a television channel on the last day of his visit to China, Zardari said that the 26/11 perpetrators could not be handed over to India as there was no extradition treaty between the two neighbours.

Sino-Pak ties not directed at anyone Amid concerns voiced

by India over China’s plans to have a rail link with Pakistan through the Karakoram ranges, Beijing said the Sino-Pak “strategic” partnership was not aimed at targeting any third country.

“China and Pakistan are strategic partners enjoying profound traditional friendship. We have shared deepening cooperation across the board,” Foreign office spokesman Qin Gang said.

Hindus attacked after a boy drinks water at mosque Islamabad: Several Hindus were attacked and forced out of their homes in Pakistan's southern Sindh province after a boy of the community drank water from a cooler outside a mosque.

About 60 Hindu men, women and children were recently forced to abandon their homes at Memon Goth in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, after influential tribesmen of the area objected to the boy drinking water.

102 killed in suicide bomb attack Islamabad: The death toll from a suicide attack in a volatile border region of Pakistan climbed to 102 on Saturday, showing the militants' continued ability to stage deadly strikes despite losing ground in army offensives.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack in Mohmand, a Pashtun region on the northwestern border with Afghanistan, where security forces have stepped up operations against militants in recent months.

Friday's attack is the deadliest in recent times.

"All hell broke loose when my son, Dinesh drank water from a cooler outside a mosque. Upon seeing him do that, the people of the area started beating him up," a Hindu man named Meerumal told The News daily.

"Later, around 150 tribesmen attacked us, injuring seven of our people who were taken to the Jinnah Hospital," he said.

The Hindus have taken refuge in a cattle pen but now about 400

Hindu families have been warned that they must leave the area. "Our people are even scared of going out of their houses.

We are also putting up with living in the filthy cattle pen because we cannot go home for fear of being killed," said Heera, who was injured in the attack by tribesmen.

"A trivial incident led to riots between the people in the area. As both communities happened to be illiterate, the matter

just flared up," said the chief of Memon Goth police station.

However, the police officer dismissed claims that the Hindus in the area didn’t have security and insisted the minority community could go back to their homes any time they wanted.

Sindh's Minority Affairs Minister Mohan Lal has assured the Hindu community that it would receive full government protection.

Jehadis hold anti-India rally in Islamabad Islamabad: Accusing Indian forces for killings of civilians and human rights violations, Kashmiri leaders of political and jihadi backgrounds held a protest rally in Islamabad last week.

The rally was addressed by Syed Salahuddin, commander of the Muttahida Jihad Council and other leaders of Hurriyat conference and Jamat-i-Islami. The participants of the rally were holding placards and banners and raised antiIndia slogans.

Syed Salahuddin condemned Pakistan’s government for extending warm welcome to the

Indian home minister P Chidambaram during his recent visit to Pakistan.

"Pakistan’s continuous efforts for friendship with India are not less than putting salt on the wounds of Kashmiri people.

Pakistan is undermining the love of the people of Kashmir," he remarked.

Salahuddin said that Kashmiris consider Pakistan as their lawful representative to raise the issue of Kashmir on all national and international forums.

"Pakistan’s government must reassure that it will not compromise over the cause of Kashmir," he demanded.

Kashmiri people have been struggling for their cause of self-determination for the last 64 years and this struggle will not go in waste, he said.

Salahuddin said that Kashmir was recognized by the United Nations as a disputed territory, whose status is yet to be determined by its people. He said that Jammu and Kashmir was the world’s largest military concentration, where Indian forces kill one to 10 civilians regularly.

"India must be persuaded to put an end to gross human rights violations by its forces in Kashmir," Salahuddin said.

Plot to kill Zardari foiled Islamabad: Six suspects arrested for alleged links to several major terror attacks in Pakistan were planning to assassinate President Asif Ali Zardari and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, a media report claimed last week. During interrogation, the suspects told investigators that they were planning to attack Zardari at the Governor House during his upcoming visit to Lahore, an unnamed security official was quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper. The suspects said that they had collected explosives to blow up the Governor House to assassinate the president, the official said. The suspects revealed that they wanted to target Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and chief minister Shahbaz Sharif as well, the official said. Police found a detailed map of the Governor House in Lahore among documents seized from the suspects.

Govt asked to respond to Lakhvi's bail plea Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of seven suspects charged with planning and facilitating the Mumbai attacks on Tuesday asked the government to respond to LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi's bail plea by July 17. Lakhvi, the operations chief of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, had filed an application for bail during the last hearing of the Mumbai attack case on July 10. Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan took up the application on Tuesday. The judge directed the government to file its response to Lakhvi's application by July 17, when the court will take up the matter again.

Lakhvi's lawyer Khwaja Sultan said that his client has sought bail due to the inordinate delay in the trial. He contended that no solid evidence had been presented against Lakhvi in the 19 months that he had been in custody. The trial of the seven suspects has been mired in controversy and delays over the past few months.

23 Taliban militants killed in fresh offensive Peshawar: Pakistani fighter jets last week pounded militant hideouts in the volatile Orakzai tribal region in the country's northwest, killing 23 Taliban fighters and injuring over 20 others, officials said. The jets bombarded the militant positions during two air strikes. Officials said the jets struck targets in Dalai, Kandai and Zorando Kalay areas of Orakzai Agency, which borders Afghanistan. Seven hideouts located in strongholds of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan were destroyed in the shelling.

Questions on family planning embarrass Pakistanis Islamabad: Unplanned pregnancies are on the rise in Pakistan with the number of abortions coming up to 900,000 cases every year, even as the majority of Pakistani people say they feel embarrassed to ask questions on family planning. The Pakistan government had started a special campaign of 'Two children, happy family' almost two decades ago so that everyone in the country could have sufficient food, water, education, healthcare, social welfare and job opportunities. It also launched a family planning project by appointing women healthcare 'visitors' in every village to advise women on how to avoid unplanned pregnancy. The ministry of population has also been carrying out different campaigns through electronic and print media, teaching people on how to avoid unplanned childbirth.

Pakistan, whose population was less than 50 million in the 1960s, now has become the world's sixth largest populated country with 180 million people, according to data provided by the Family Planning Association of Pakistan.

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UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

This week on CB Live, Jyotsnaben shah will speak to Nilesh Solanki - Project Coordinator of The Hindu Experience who is bringing together various organisations to host this pioneering event on 25th July 2010 in Kingsbury and drama artist/comedian star Mr Bhanubhai Pandya

Sneh Joshi - 020 8518 5500

If you do not have a tv, go to www.tvunetworks.com and watch CB Live on TVU Player Channel 75203

To ask questions please call on: 020 8963 1001

For more information e-mail: cblive_matv@yahoo.co.uk

Don't miss !!!

Only on CB Live - MATV Sky 793 - Thursday 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Zee Network marks its 15th year in the UK with the launch of Zee Café Zee Network, the leading South Asian TV Network in the world, announced the launch of its fifth channel, Zee Café in the UK. At a time when others are struggling to survive in this highly competitive market, Zee has upped the stakes considerably in a bid to attract subscribers.

At 21:10 this evening Zee will reveal, Zee Café – Entertainment Beyond Boundaries, with a roadblock on all Zee Network channels in the UK. Zee has identified the need-gaps in today’s market and has aggressively addressed them in Zee Café.

With the plethora of channels and programmes aimed at women, the South Asian men have been a long neglected target audience. With a combination of live and exclusive international cricket tournaments, news, current affairs and business shows, Zee Café will capture the male imagination.

Zee Café will also feature programmes for the substantial Bangladeshi community in the UK. Zee Café will feature the most popular shows from Zee Bangla, which is the No 1 Bangla channel in Bangladesh. In fact, the channel is so popular with Bengalis that those living in Singapore and Malaysia are lobbying their respective governments for the

channel to be aired in those countries. In the UK Zee Café will give the Bangladeshi audience access to the best in genre shows like Agni Pariksha, Devdas, Kohna and Dance Bangla Dance.

Additionally, Zee Café will feature some of the best Marathi language programming from Zee’s toprated Marathi channel, Zee Marathi. The UK’s Marathi speaking community can also expect to see popular shows such as, Kunku, Kulvudu and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi, exclusively on Zee Café.

All regional fiction shows will be sub-titled in English to extend its appeal to all viewers. With such variety, Zee Café guarantees a stimulating mix of programmes which will appeal to the entire South Asian diaspora – a mix that cannot be found elsewhere.

Zee Café is due to start broadcasting on Thursday 15th July 2010 on Sky. For the first three days after launch, 15th -18th July, the channel will be free to air to showcase its content. In keeping with the promise of live international cricket, the launch will be followed by live and exclusive coverage of the Sri Lanka and India Test Series starting on Sunday 18th July, with three exciting test series setting off an entire season of cricket.

Editor: CB Patel Associate Editor: Anne Hoose Deputy Editor: Rupanjana Dutta Tel: 020 7749 4098 - Email: rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com Senior News Editor: Dhiren Katwa Chief Financial Officer: Surendra Patel Tel: 020 7749 4093 - Mobile: 07875 229 220 Email: surendra.patel@abplgroup.com Accounts Executive: Akshay Desai Tel: 020 7749 4087 Email:accounts@abplgroup.com Advertising Managers: Alka Shah Tel: 020 7749 4002 - Mobile: 07944 151 893 Email: alka.shah@abplgroup.com Kishor Parmar Tel: 020 7749 4095 - Mobile: 07875 229 088 Email: kishor.parmar@abplgroup.com Advertising Sales Executive: Rovin John Goerge - Email: rovin.george@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 219 Nikhil Gor - Email: nikhil.gor@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4009 - Mobile: 07875 229 200 Business Development Managers: Urja Patel - Email: urja.patel@abplgroup.com Liji George Tel: 020 7749 4013 - Email: george@abplgroup.com Design and Layout: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Tel: 020 7749 4086 Email: graphics@abplgroup.com Customer Service: Saroj Patel Tel: 020 7749 4080 - Email: support@abplgroup.com (BPO) AB Publication (India) Pvt. Ltd. 207 Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad Tel: +9179 2646 Fax: +9179 6061

The prevailing cosmic pattern packs a powerful punch early this week. Having such potent energies, make you feel positive and confident in whatever you do. This is not the time to hold back or underestimate your potential if you wish to further an important aim.

Some of you will try to get away from the routine chores.

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

Coming Events l Anandmurti Gurumaa in UK, Meditation Retreat 2010. 16th July to 21st July at Oldswinford Hospital School, Stourbridge, DY8 1QX. For further details, contact Mr A K Basra – 07977 201 226 or email: infouk@gurumaa.com l Art Exhibit: “The Great Indian Desert.” 20th 30th July 2010 at The Nehru Centre London, 8 South Audley Street, W1K 1HF. For further details email: nehrucentre.org.uk/www.hcilondon.in l India and Pakistan: Enemies forever? A public discussion on Monday 19th July 2010 at Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Room, Westminster Hall, House of Commons. For further details email: ritapayne@hotmail.com or Tel: 07834 845 240 l “Mahadevbhai” on Saturday 17th July 2010. 6 – 7.30pm at The Bhavan Centre, 4a Castletown Road, London, W14 9HE. For more details contact Surendrabhai Patel on 020 8205 6124 l Naz Choudhury and Flex FX on Dragon's Den. Televised at 9pm on BBC 2 and at 10pm BBC HD, Wednesday 14th July. For further details contact: naz@flexfxproductions.com

To advertise in Asian Voice call 020 7749 4085

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 This week seems to be jam-packed with activity. The powerful Venus and Mars factor in your solar 5th house not only encourages amorous attachment but will bring luck and recognition to those involved in artistic endeavours and entertainments - this is a great time of opportunity.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22 Strengthen close ties of affection, sort out emotional differences and proffer the olive branch to your loved one. You often sabotage your emotional interests by keeping too much inside.

However, your inner pressure builds up and manifests as irrational moods that others find hard to understand.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

The opening up of a more diverse social life is a point in favour of romantic attachments. The need to push ahead with personal interests and to assert yourself will take precedence over everything else for some time to come. The general pattern of things continues on a progressive and buoyant theme.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23 You will be pleased to see that your social life livens up during this week. It is as if a lucky twist of events and something unexpected that will provide you with a key to your heart's desire.

There is a definite expansive trend where money is concerned, so do not be surprised if this turns out be a time of and lucky breaks.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23 Your inborn drive to push ahead receives an added impetus during this week. Your energy levels will be high and you will find much scope for taking fresh initiatives and getting fast results - something that always makes you feel good.

Your communications are well lit up but do not upset people around you.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 Don't get over- anxious if you feel that you're being kept in the dark.

You will probably find that worries have been unfounded. Although you may be faced with a difficult decision concerning your career or employment, this is not the time to hide. Don't waste time if you can improve matters.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 Your urge towards greater freedom and independence is very strongly accentuated. In intimate affairs, the prospect appears entirely favourable. In work matters you can expect a progressive phase. Efforts to bring about desirable changes in your working life are more likely to be positive.

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SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 You can expect a sustained and quite hectic flow of visitors to contribute greatly to a very buoyant atmosphere. If you are ambitious, this promises to be an important time in your life. You are likely to get the lucky breaks and reach a wider audience no matter what your aims.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

It's time when experience will enable you to enrich your inner mind and personality. You are moving into a new phase of life which will bring wider scope for developing your unique qualities and talents.

You are likely to move around more than usual. Life will become very lively and there will be a lot of social interactions.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19 Don't take short-cuts in legal or official matters. It will be only too easy to feel exasperated by bureaucracy but you won't be doing yourself any favours if you lose your cool. This is a fine time for you to get away from the mundane realities of life and relax. Some of you will probably go abroad.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

You can expect a lively and varied time ahead. Communications will be free and easy, making this an excellent time to deal with important matters. Also, you'll find that people you meet, perhaps especially newcomers, will be a stimulating influence and may encourage you to dabble in new.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

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Adriatic seapoet Seed covering Batting posture Up to the patellae Omnispective Paginated Sounds Cricket segments Big book “The Lion King” Character

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13 1992 U.S. Open winner 14 Randomly piled 21 Delineated 24 1997 Nicolas Cage Movie 26 Gregg user 29 Wallop 31 Abutting 33 Cleanch 35 One from Germany 37 Carefully planned and executed performance 38 Medical implement 39 Of plant seeds 40 Shackle 42 Califormia city 43 Rigby of song 44 Lumberyard employees 47 Isolated mountain 51 Plant pest 52 Aircraft surveillance acronym 54 Swedish ship that sank on maiden vouage 56 First-rate 59 Price ceiling 61 Ignited

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Words: Serve, fiats, stands, pelvis.

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WHATZIT? - 96

Answer: To rule one’s anger is well; to prevent it is still better.

Find the familiar phrase, saying or name in this arrangement of letters.

sPELLATHON -96 I L

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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 names are not allowed. British English Dictionary is used as reference.

solution of spellathon - 95 : boom, BOOMING, moon 20

LOOP THE LOOP - 59

MINDBENDER - 96 What expression is represented here? Run, Hit, Jump = Volume Level 9, Dictionary = Volume Level 2

solution of 95 :

5Minutes, In 24 hours, the cold tap could fill 240 baths and the plug could drain 48 baths. Thaerefore, in 24 hours, we have 96 + 240 - 48 baths full= 288 baths.

Therefore each bath would take 5 minutes to fill.

sudoku-96 6

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Example

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Sollution-95: Burst into tears

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KAKURO - 96

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Rules Connect adjacent dots with vertical or horizontal lines, creating a single loop.

(Fig A).

Crossovers or branches are not allowed 2 2 3 (As shown by dotted lines in Fig B).

2 3 1 Numbers in the puzzle indicate the 1 2 number of lines that should 3 2 3 surround it, while empty cells may 0 3 1 be surrounded by any number of 3 2 3 3 2 lines.

You can’t draw lines arround zeroes.

Each puzzle has just one unique solution.

How to begin: Example (Fig A) - Begin with the zero next to 3. Since no lines can be drawn around zero, mark crosses around it, as shown. Now there is a cross in one space around 3. So we know the three lines of 3 can only be drawn in the remaining three spaces. Next these lines can only be extended in one direction each. Continue, using the same Solution of LTL No. 58 logic. x x x Hints: Keep elimix x 3 2 3 3 3 nating possibilix x x x ties by marking 3 0 x x x x crosses in x x x x spaces between 2 x 2 x dots where a line x x x x isn’t possible, x 2 x 1 x x 2 2 i.e., if you have x x x x x already completx 2 1x ed required lines x x x x x or where a line x x 3 3 2 1 extension may x x x x create a branch x x 1 x x 2 3 or cause a deadx end (Fig B)

Today’s Ratings: 10-average | 12-good | 14-outstanding

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The numbers in the pink squares refer 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.

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solution of KAKURO - 95

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solution of sudoku-95 HOW TO PLAY Each row, column and square 3x3 box is a subgrid of 9 cells. Fill in the grid so that each sub-grid contains the digits 1 to 9.

Every puzzle has one solution.

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.

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www.abplgroup.com

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

Mango Pachadi Ingredients

Herbal cure for sinus Sinus if it enters your system once is bound to keep coming back, so to keep it at bay,. Herbal remedies for sinus have been used successfully for centuries. They are safe and easy to use and have no ill side effects that most medications have.

• 1 large raw mango • 1/2 cup coconut gratings, fresh • 8 gren chillies, minced • A pinch of hing (asoefetida) dissolved in 2-3 tsp water

• 4 tsps salad oil • 1/2 tsp red chilli powder • Salt to taste For seasoning • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds • 1 sprig curry leaves

Licorice The root of this herb helps reduce inflammation and stimulates the immune system to fight sinus infections. There are two types of licorice products. Be sure to take licorice capsules that boost the immune system.

• 1-2 tsp oil for seasoning Method • Grate the mango and set aside.

• Crush together the coconut, green chillies and salt.

• Make the dressing by combining the green chillies, salt, red chilli powder, salad oil and coconut.

• Mix the dressing with the grated mango.

• Season with mustard and curry leaves.

that relieve pain. Take in capsule form, according to directions.

Lemon balm Lemon balm is helpful in fighting off

Eucalyptus This is a fragrant herb that soothes sore throats. It also has antiseptic prop-

Vaangi Baath Ingredients

viruses and bacteria. Steep the dried leaves for 10 minutes in hot water.

Strain and drink the tea warm. Alternatively, lemon balm tea can be used as a gargle. erties and can help shrink swollen tissues such as swollen sinus passages. It is readily available in throat lozenges, which are a convenient way to take it.

You can also drink eucalyptus tea.

Vitamins Vitamin C and zinc can help to

Peppermint The anti-inflammatory properties of peppermint help to calm mucous mem-

lessen the duration of colds as well as to keep the symptoms down.

Many sinus infections come from lingering colds. By fighting a cold early, you can help stave off a sinus infection.

Take supplements in the form of capsule or lozenge during cold season and especially with the onset of any symptoms. branes. You may drink peppermint tea or steep the peppermint and breathe in the steam. The scent of peppermint when inhaled helps to ease your breathing.

Ginger Ginger has long been known to relieve and p r e v e n t headaches. It is antiinflammatory and contains substances

Foods high in antioxidants help to build the immune system and prevent infections in the first place.

Some of these foods include blueberries, artichokes, red beans, cranberries and pomegranates.

• 1 long purple brinjal(eggplant), cut into large pieces • 1 1/2 cup raw rice, washed and cooked such that the grains of rice remain seperate • 5 red chillies • 6 peppercorns • 1/2 tsp turmeric • 4 tbsp ghee(clarified butter) • 4 cloves • Salt to taste • 1 tsp urad dal • 1" cinammon • 1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds • 2 green chillies • 1 tsp channa dal • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds • 1 tsp oil for frying the masala • 1/2 cup sour buttermilk or 2 tsp lemon juice Method • Fry in the 1 tsp oil 4 out of 5 red chillies, turmeric,cloves,

cinammon, cumin, coriander and peppercorns.

• Powder them using a coffee grinder and set aside.

• Heat the ghee in a pan and add the mustard seeds, red chilli, green chillies, urad dal and channa dal.

• When the seasoning is almost done, add the

• • • • • •

Kaju Barfi

brinjal pieces and fry till the brinjal is done.

Now add the buttermilk and mix well.

Add the powdered masala and mix.

Add salt to taste.

Bring to a boil and remove.

Mix this with the cooked rice and heat through.

Serve hot.

Ingredients • • • • •

150 gm cashewnuts 400 gm sugar elaichi powdered silver foil (optional) 500 gm khoya

Method • Dry grind the cashew • Mix khoya (grated) and sugar • Heat in a heavy pan, stirring continuously.

• Once the sugar dissolves, add the cashew (powdered)

and elaichi • Cooking, constantly stir till soft lump is formed and does not

stick to sides • Roll on a flat surface to desired thickness and apply silver foil.

Sport world

Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

England referee Webb booed, slammed What should have been an experience and a memory to savour for a life time turned into a bloodbath for Englishman Howard Webb, who was the referee for the FIFA World Cup 2010 final showdown between Spain and Netherlands. It was a world records of thirteen yellow cards and to top it all, Heitinga had to march out after he was shown a red for his second fowl.

In the 57th minute when Webb pulled out the seventh yellow card of match to book the Dutch defender John Heitinga, he set a new record of the highest players ever booked in World Cup finals. A total of thirteen players were booked while

the 14th card banished Heitinga from the match.

Webb heard the sample of what was to follow, when he was treated with loud booing by the Dutch fans at Soccer City when he went to collect his medal after the match.

Other voices of resentment and anger towards the Englishman followed soon from the Dutch camp.

"I don't think the referee controlled the match well," complained Bert van Marwijk.

"Both sides committed fouls. That may be regrettable for a final," he added.

The final between Spain and Netherlands was anything but the 'beautiful game' that the

Howard Webb

world sees in football. The flurry of yellow cards indicated the brute force with which the Dutch attacked the Spanish to hold them off. But the Spaniards walked off victors with style and poise.

Netherlands ace winger Arjen Robben has also spoken out against Webb.

Arguing that Spain

defender Carles Puyol should have been sent off with 10 minutes from time, Robben said, "When I got my second chance, the referee should have given us a free kick and Puyol a (second) yellow card. He gave the advantage, but there was none as I could hardly move and the goalkeeper (Iker Casillas) was too close already.

"As a player, you always want to go on and especially 10 minutes before time in a World Cup final when you are heading towards the goal."

"When you play in a World Cup final, you also need a world-class referee," the Oranje player added.

Sangakkara wants UDRS mandatory ICC should pay for the latest technology

Kumar Sangakkara, the skipper of the Sri Lankan team is unhappy that India has refused the use of Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) for the forthcoming series.

He wants the ICC to step in and make the use of UDRS compulsory for all Test series. He also felt that the ICC should be prepared to pay for the use of technology, as the broadcasters may not be prepared to spend extra money after having already paid huge amounts to win their rights. Sophisticated tools like Hot Spot, necessary for the UDRS are very costly.

"I was under the impression that the ICC

Kumar Sangakkara

has set the standards on this by saying that everyone should use the DRS system," Sangakkara said, suggesting he was not aware of the results of the latest discussion on UDRS at the ICC's annual conference.

The ICC's directive,

too, was as ambiguous as the body's role is in international cricket.

"The role that ICC has to play here is to make sure that all boards are bound to have the DRS," Sangakkara said, "Rather than when one side refuses, the other side can't enforce the DRS, as is under the current playing conditions.

MS Dhoni explained his side's decision with what has been a genuine concern with the UDRS: why challenge decisions when the best available technology is not being used? "DRS is still not a 100 % correct system," Dhoni said. "We have seen that, in spite of having the DRS, not everything goes

correct. Most of the teams have played a series under the DRS, so it is important now to come up with a foolproof plan. See what exactly works. In a batpad scenario, Hot Spot really works, it is close to over 98 % correct. Even on LBW decisions, we need to have something like that."

Which brings us to the present conundrum: Several broadcasters pushed themselves to the commercial brink to secure telecast rights, and they obviously hadn't budgeted for the extra cost to make the UDRS successful. Which is what makes the ICC's role important, because essentially the DRS is its baby.

Sulieman Benn again in trouble

ICC slaps suspension for barging in SA dressing room After trouble with his captain, West Indies spinner Sulieman Benn has landed into trouble with the ICC, as he barged into the dressing room of the South African team during the recently concluded series at home. Benn also had a verbal altercation with the South African players in the lunch break during the third test match in Barbados.

Benn has been pleaded guilty to a Level 2 breach of the ICC code after

admitting to behaviour that was “contrary to the spirit of the game.”

ICC Match Referee Jeff Crowe ordered Ben to undergo a ban of one Test match or two ODIs or two T20Is, whichever comes first.

The incident took place during the lunch interval on the third day of the Test when Benn inappropriately and without invitation entered the South Africa team dressing room in Kensington

Sulieman Benn

Oval and provoked some South Africa players and team management, which resulted in a heated exchange of aggressive

remarks.

"Whatever had gone on before Sulieman entered the Proteas` dressing room, while helping to explain his behaviour, cannot justify it," said Crowe, alluding to an earlier onfield spat involving South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn.

In the same match, Steyn was fined 100 per cent of his match fee after being found guilty of spitting in the direction of Benn.

After marriage, the endorsement bonanza for Dhoni Indian cricket captain outscores Sachin with a 2 year Rs. 2 bn deal Mahindra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian cricket team, it seems loves to live a life in T20 style – fast.

After his engagement and wedding two weeks ago, Dhoni has now signed up an endorsement deal with a new company. The Rs. 2 billion deal for two years takes him ahead of even Sachin Tendulkar, till the other day, the highest paid Indian sports person.

Dhoni has now become the most expensive Indian sportsman.

MS Dhoni with his wife Sakshi Rawat

Sachin Tendulkar had the tag to his name with a Rs. 1.8 billion 3 year deal.

Dhoni has signed the deal with two companies -

Rhiti Sports management, owned by Arun Pandey and Mindscapes, owned by Pratik Sen. The companies, through a joint venture, will manage Dhoni's long list of endorsements and brand associations, corporate profile, patents and digital rights, images, visibility on social networking sites and merchandise.

Rhiti Sports also manages cricketers RP Singh and Harbhajan Singh.

Dhoni charges up to Rs 60 million an endorsement a year and is associated with 22 brands such as PepsiCo, Reebok, Aircel, Godrej and Hersheys.

Dhoni earned $10 million last year, which made him top a list of the world's highest-grossing cricketers, said a Forbes magazine report. He earned $8 million from endorsements, said the report, adding that his campaigns were 45% more expensive than other players.

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Bell fractures left foot, out of tests against Pak His come back in the England has been in trouble, as Ian Bell suffered a fracture in his left foot during the second One Day International against Bangladesh in Bristol last weekend.

ECB chief medical officer Nick Peirce said Bell underwent a routine operation on the injured foot. He is ruled out from playing against the touring Pakistani team in the Ian Bell forthcoming test series.

Bell's absence from the Test side could mean another opportunity for Eoin Morgan who was expected to make way after his two games against Bangladesh with Paul Collingwood set to slot back into the middle order.

Munaf to replace Sreesanth in Sri Lanka Indian pace attack is in trouble even before the test series in Sri Lanka has got underway. Zaheer Khan had already been ruled out due to his shoulder injury, while S Sreesanth flew in with the team, but could not even play a single game. He was found to be have torn ligament in his left knee, Munaf Patel needing 3 to 4 weeks rest.

Sreesanth will now fly back to India. Munaf Patel will replace him.

India – Sri Lanka test series kicks off from Sunday, 18th July at Galle.

Octopus Paul retires The German animal, octopus Paul is to retire from making predictions following his World Cup success, his owners say. Paul will go back to his old job "making children laugh", a spokeswoman for the German aquarium said. The octopus correctly predicted the outcomes of all seven of Germany's games plus the Spain-Netherlands final.

As a reward, aquarium staff presented him with his very own replica World Cup trophy garnished with his favourite food - mussels.

Tanja Munzig, of the Sea Life Aquarium in the western German city of Oberhausen, said they had received offers for Paul but he was not for sale.

"There are a lot of offers for Paul from betting offices and other areas. One thing is clear: Paul is staying with us," she said. She added he would now "step back from the official oracle business". The twoyear-old cephalopod became a worldwide celebrity.

Seemingly unimpressed with his star status, Paul at first ignored the golden trophy - adorned with three mussels - placed in his tank. But after several minutes he finally picked off a mussel and devoured it in front of TV cameras.

Spain add World Cup to the European title The Spanish were unable to exploit the resulting free-kick but Iniesta, finally, ensured they got what they deserved.

The Spanish captain, goalkeeper Iker Casillas was voted the best custodian of the World Cup. He even celebrated the victory with a kiss to his girlfriend, tv reporter Carbonera, giving a live interview.

Spain had the distinction of having set the record of the lowest goals scored for a World Cup winner, with just 8 goals scored in 7 games.

The captain of the runners-up team, the Netherlands, Van Bronckhorst announced retirement to his 14 year career with a loss in the finals, a sad end.

The Spanish team were given a heros welcome at home on Monday.

Continued from Page 32

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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th July 2010

England beat B’desh 2 – 1 in ODI series Visitors surprise England at Bristol by 5 runs

After a surprise and shock 5 run victory for visitors Bangladesh at Bristol on Saturday, England almost avenged on Monday at Edgbaston to beat the rivals with a huge margin of 144 runs. Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott slammed huge tons to help England pile up a score of 347 runs, losing six wickets.

For Bangladesh, the target was almost beyond reach, as they folded up 203 runs in 45 overs.

Strauss and Trott produced the highest partnership in England's one-day history, surpassing the 226 that Strauss and Andrew Flintoff recorded against West Indies at Lord's in 2004.

England also equalled another record, as they won fourth series on a trot.

After the 250 runs record second wicket partnership by Strauss – Trott, Ravi

Ravi Bopara was gifted a couple of easy wickets as Bangladesh capitulated at Edgbaston on Monday

Bopara ruthlessly hammered Bangladesh bowlers for 45 runs in just 16 balls.

Bangladesh were never in the hunt, as they lost their key batsmen, both the openers by the 5th over. Even after that, they continued to lose wickets regularly and in the 19th over, they were 86 for 5.

England too had their share of problems. Bopara also was a success with his bowling, as he captured 4 Bangladesh wickets for 38 runs. England’s second-

wicket pair of Strauss and Trott left nothing to chance as they batted in tandem for exactly 40 overs of the innings.

Strauss was the star performer with 154 from 140 balls, his fourth ODI hundred and his highest too.

Trott missed a ton in Bristol, but he ensured that he doesn’t repeat the same mist a k e again, as he scored 110 from

121 balls.

Mashrafe Mortaza's bowling figures of 10-2-31-3 were outstanding, as he was the only Bangladeshi to keep a lid on England’s aggression. If Mortaza put brakes, Shafiul Islam was belted for the most, as he gave away 97 runs in nine overs, though he too got two England wickets.

In contrast, it was a late order revival for Bangladesh that helped them cross the 200 run mark. {Brief scores: 3rd ODI - Eng 347 for 6 (Strauss 154, Trott 110) beat B’desh 203 (Mahmudullah 42, Bopara 4-38) by 147 runs.

2nd ODI – B’desh 236 for 7 (Kayes 76, Shahzad 341) beat Eng 231 (Trott 94, Shafiul 2-38) by 5 runs. 1st ODI - Eng 251 for 4 (Bell 84*, Strauss 50) beat B’desh 250 for 9 (Raqibul 76, Siddique 51) by 6 wickets}.

Mueller bags double honour; Forlan gets Golden Ball Golden Boot and Best Young Player award for the German Germany midfielder Thomas Mueller has won the Golden Boot award for top scorer at the World Cup and was also named best young player of the tournament, while Uruguay striker Diego Forlan was awarded the Golden Ball as the World Cup's best player.

Forlan was voted the most outstanding player of the tournament by accredited media after leading his team to the semifinals.

Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands narrowly lost to Forlan. The Uruguay player got 23.4 percent of the votes to 21.8 percent for the Dutchman. Spain striker David Villa was third with 16.9 percent of the votes.

Mueller was one of four players to finish on five goals, but won by virtue of his three assists, two more than his nearest rivals- Spain`s David Villa and Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands, who each had one assist.

Mueller, 20, has spearheaded a new generation of players

The Netherlands miss for the third time, captain hangs the boots Reduced to a ten men team, the Netherlands failed to win the Football World Cup in their third appearance in the finals, as Spain took the trophy in their first attempt.

Andres Iniesta scored the only goal of an enthralling final against the Netherlands four minutes

from the end of extra-time on Sunday. Spain are the reigning European champions too.

Just as it seemed a third World Cup final was destined to be settled by a penalty shoot-out, the Barcelona midfielder found himself in space in the Dutch box and ham-

mered an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

The Dutch side had hoped to eradicate memories of the country's defeats in the 1974 and 1978 finals.

"It's incredible," said Iniesta. "What a joy especially when you see how

we won it.

"There aren't the words to describe what I am feeling. After my goal, I thought about my family and all the people who I love. But the victory is the fruit of a lot of work."

The red card that had looked inevitable all evening was finally issued

at the start of the second period of extra-time, when Heitinga left Webb with no choice but to give him a second booking for pulling back Iniesta as he chased a pass from Xavi that would have sent him clear in the box.

Continued on Page 31

Thomas Mueller

that include Mesut Oezil, Sami Khedira, Jerome Boateng and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in a German team that finished third.

Mueller first gave notice of his huge potential during last season`s UEFA Champions League as Bayern made it all the way to the final. It was his first full season at the Bavarian giants and he ended up scoring 19 times in 52 appearances.

He is a fast, composed and technically gifted attacking midfielder or second striker who scores and creates goals.

Mueller, who made his full international debut against Argentina in a friendly in March, is a product of a systematic and extensive German youth programme which began 10 years ago after Germany crashed out of the 2000 European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands.

All Bundesliga clubs were mandated to have their own junior training centres, while the DFB developed centres of excellence and talentspotting programmes across the country.

The results have been outstanding - Germany were under-19 European champions in 2008, and then won the under-17 and under-21 European titles last year. Before that, Germany had gone 16 years without a European title at junior level.