May 10 2013 Voice of Asia

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Vol. 26 No. 19 Friday, May 10, 2013 Published Weekly from Houston 713-774-5140 20 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: voiceasia@aol.com

Indian delegation attends 2013 OTC in Houston

Cong storms to power in Karnataka, BJP decimated The Congress on Wednesday made a spectacular come back in Karnataka wresting power after seven years in its old southern fortress and in the process decimated the ruling BJP whose fate was sealed by a fractious split and corruption charges.

Battered by a series of scams at the national stage, Congress put up an impressive show in the Assembly elections crossing the half-way mark of 113 seats in a House of 224 obviating the need for crutches and belying predictions.

The Congress has won 118 seats and was leading in three others, a gain of 41 seats over the elections five years ago, setting off a Chief Ministerial race into which OBC leader Siddaramaiah and Dalit leader and Central Minister Mallikarjun Kharge threw their hat.

Panelist at OTC L-R: Vivek Pandit, Sr. Director & Head, Energy, FICCI • Ken Hyatt, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for ITA, US Department of Commerce, Mr. Parvathaneni Harish, Consul General, Consulate General of India, Houston , S. K Srivastava, CMD, Oil India Ltd., former Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Govt. of India, and Shashi Shanker, Director (T&FS), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

“This is a big moment in IndiaUS energy partnership,” says Hon. P.Harish, Consul General, Consulate General of India, Houston

Panelists included: Vivek Pandit, Sr. Director & Head – Energy, FICCI, Ken Hyatt, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for ITA, US Department of Commerce, Parvathaneni Harish, Consul General, Consulate General of India, Houston, S. K Srivastava, CMD, Oil India Ltd., former Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Govt. of India and Shashi Shanker, Director (T&FS), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

In his address at the briefing, P. Harish said that, “ ..This delegation from India represents one of the largest from the Indian energy sector at the OTC in many years.” He reiterated India’s Prime Minister Manmohan

Similarly, the JD(S), which had 28 seats in the 2008 elections, has won 37 seats and was ahead in three more.

The BJP and JD(S) are locked in a neck-and-neck race for the main opposition status.

The Yeddyurappa-led Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), which ended as a spoiler for BJP, could not do much for itself as it bagged only seven seats.

Gujarat Day Anniversary Celebration

by Shobana Muratee

HOUSTON: The 2013 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston that commenced on Monday witnessed an unprecedented participation from over 110 countries with over 80,000 attendees converging at the Reliant Park, one could experience firsthand the state-of-the-art technology for offshore drilling, exploration, production and environmental protection. This year, a high level Indian delegation of over 20 members, experts in all fields in the offshore industry, are attending the OTC. Also, for the first time the 2013 OTC featured an Indian panel of experts too at the Industry Briefing on Oil and Gas Opportunities in India.

Hit by the exit of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and the image of corruption during its tenure in the first government in the south, the BJP has won 37 seats and was leading in three more. It had had won 110 seats five years ago.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Party Chief Sonia Gandhi hail the victory.

P. Harish, Consul General visits TATA Steel stall at the OTC in Houston

P. Harish, Consul General meets with organizers and delegates at the OTC Singh’s emphasis on how India must diversify its energy supplies, manage energy resources more economically and pursue rational pricing policies to this end. Also stating that sustaining rates of growth of 7-8 per cent is possible only if the growth in energy supplies is at well over 5 per cent per annum, Mr. Harish reinforced the fact that the focus must broaden to include not just basic fuel supplies and power generation capacities, but also the infrastructure required to deliver the fuel and power to consumers.

Continued on Page 4

Gujarati Samaj of Houston organizers of the event with its president Nisha Mirani on a stage set as state of Gujarat.

The much awaited “GURJAR MELA”, the grand 53rd Anniversary celebrations of Gujarat State were held on Saturday, May 4th 2013. Various programs were organized during the day by the Gujarati Samaj of Houston (GSH) in association with local dance schools.

The GURJAR MELA celebration was formally launched by Ms. Nisha

Mirani, President of GSH with her young and energetic Executive Committee, GSH Trustee Board and GSH Board of Directors.

Event coordinator Mr.Ajit Patel had done a wonderful job of arranging Sardar Patel Community Park (GSH own land) as venue for this grand event. Stage Decoration was the result of the hard work of GSH EC members

and other volunteers. Mandap Creations, touch of decoration had made the venue light up as full moon night.

Gujarat Day Exhibition was set in a double Exhibit booth by Mr Vishwadeep Barad and volunteers of Gujarati Sahitya Sarita. Gujarati Samaj of Houston was thankful of their association and support.

Continued on Page 3

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OP-ED/COMMENTS/VIEWS

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FACTS Key facts about Pakistan’s general election ISLAMABAD, May 8, 2013 (AFP) - Pakistan goes to the polls on Saturday to elect lawmakers to the lower house of parliament and four provincial assemblies.

It is the first time that a civilian government has completed a full term and handed over power through the ballot box in Pakistan’s 66-year history.

Here are some key facts about the election: CANDIDATES There are 4,670 candidates standing for 272 seats in a first-past-thepost system in the 342member lower house.

Sixty seats reserved for women and 10 for nonMuslim minorities are distributed by proportional representation based on the parties’ share of the directly elected seats.

A total of 10,955 candidates are running in elections for Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies in Punjab, Sindh in the south, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest and Baluchistan in the southwest.

Only 161 women are standing for the national assembly, 3.5 percent of the candidates.

VOTERS There are 86.2 million registered voters -- 37.6 million women and 48.6 million men.

POLLING STATIONS The Election Commission has set up around 70,000 polling stations, 40 percent of them for women, to be staffed by more than 600,000 people.

Voters must present their ID cards and their fingers are inked after voting.

HOURS OF VOTING Polls will open at 8:00 am (0300 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 5:00 pm.

Elections have been postponed in three constituencies -- two for provincial assembly seats and one for a national assembly seat -- after candidates were assassinated during the campaign.

SECURITY More than 600,000 security personnel, including 50,000 soldiers, will be deployed during the election to guard against Taliban attacks that have killed more than 100 people during the campaign.

TRIBAL AREAS Pakistan’s seven semiautonomous federally administered tribal areas elect 12 members to the national assembly.

This year is the first time that political parties have been able to contest the election in the area, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda hotbed on the Afghan border.

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ometimes, the ruling party is the opposition’s biggest benefactor. In Karnataka, the Congress returned to power with a comfortable majority on the strength of what was clearly a mandate against the Bharatiya Janata Party. All that the BJP was trying to do against the Congress at the national level, the Congress successfully did against the BJP in Karnataka. Corruption, nepotism, nongovernance, inefficiency, and instability all constituted the campaign themes in this multi-cornered contest. For this very reason, the Congress might have more lessons to learn from its victory than the BJP from its defeat. If the Karnataka Assembly election is a pointer to the national mood, it is as a verdict against corruption and non-governance, not as an endorsement of the Congress and the many scams that have unfolded under the watch of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.

Indeed, the fact that the Janata Dal (Secular) got as many seats as the BJP is an indication that the vote was primarily anti-incumbent and pro-change, and not necessarily pro-Congress.

by Kamila Shamsie

K

ARACHI, Pakistan — At the start of last week I was in the nation’s capital, Islamabad, which adjoins the country’s most populous and most powerful province, Punjab. Almost all the political talk there was about Punjab, the home province of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, where he and his Pakistan Muslim League-N (P.M.L.-N) have been holding rallies, urging supporters to vote them into power. Most analysts believe that is exactly what will happen, even though Sharif won’t have the easy ride that he might once have expected: The cricketer-turnedpolitician Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (P.T.I.) party have strong support in Punjab, and Khan has been traveling the length and breadth of the province to prove the pundits wrong.

This is as it should be in a

A stand-alone victory

Supporters of Congress celebrate in front of a counting center in Bangalore on Wednesday. The party is set to come back to power in the State. Photo: V Sreenivasa Murthy While it is true that the exit of former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa hurt the BJP badly, there was a clear away-swing from the ruling party, with the Congress being the principal gainer.

For five years, the BJP wrestled with its own internal problems, spending more time and effort on survival than on governance. After having come to power in the southern State more as a non-

democracy the week before an election.

But now I’m back in my hometown of Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, and here — as in all the provinces other than Punjab — the picture is very different.

On the morning of May 3, the day after I arrived, the daily newspaper Dawn reported that since April 11 — exactly one month before Election Day — there had been 42 attacks on campaigners and campaign offices, with 70 people killed and more than 350 injured. Two candidates standing for elections were among the fatalities.

Within hours the report was tragically out of date.

That same afternoon Sadiq Zaman Khattak, a candidate from the Awami National Party (A.N.P.), was shot and killed by gunmen, along

Dr. Arun Verma’s generous donation

FIS welcomes University of Houston’s drive to raise the $5 million needed to establish a sustainable India Studies program and as in years past, the FIS who was the initiator of the program in 2006, will continue to assist the University in reaching the goal.

FIS appreciates the dynamic leadership of the UH Chancellor and President Dr. Renu Khator, under whose leadership, the vision of then UH Chancellor and President, Dr. Jay Gogue, former Provost, Dr. John Antel, ViceChancellor for International Studies, Dr. Jerald Strickland, former Houston Mayor, Bill White and former Consul General, S.M. Gavai will sure become a reality.

FIS applauds the efforts of the current Consul General Hon. Parvathaneni

Congress alternative than as a Hindutva extremist party, the BJP got everything wrong within a few months of the 2008 election. The party appeared beholden to the Bellary mining lobby, and Mr. Yed-

The Ballot Against the Bullet with his young son, in Karachi. The following day twin blasts in a local park where the secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement (M.Q.M.) had set up an election office killed three people and injured 40.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, was quick to claim responsibility for both attacks. This was no great surprise: in December and then again in April the group had announced that it would target the country’s three major secular parties: the A.N.P., the M.Q.M. and the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (P.P.P.).

Since then, attacks on all three parties have been so sustained, and so crippling to their campaigning efforts, that these bitter, often bloody, rivals took the unprecedented step last Wednesday of issu-

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Foundation for India Studies (FIS) is elated at the news that Dr. Arun Verma has donated $100,000/- to help the India Studies program at the University of Houston following a similar donation made earlier by Dr. Durga Agarwal who is a member of FIS Advisory Board.

FIS hopes that these significant donations will inspire other philanthropists in the community to step forward with similar contributions.

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Harish to bring scholars from India to teach at the University of Houston.

With best regards, Krishna Vavilala Chairman, Foundation for India Studies Houston, TX

Sarabjit’s death It was not only Sarabjit who died on Thursday; along with him died the

hope that the ties between India and Pakistan would improve and that Islamabad would change its hostile attitude towards New Delhi. Extremists in Pakistan wanted Sarabjit to be executed in response to Ajmal Kasab’s and Afzal Guru’s execution.

But can the case of Kasab be compared with that of Sarabjit? Kasab’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks was beyond doubt while Sarabjit’s conviction was doubtful from day one.

ing a joint press statement condemning the violence and vowing to be undeterred.

They also pointed out that in Punjab “pro-Taliban parties” are continuing to campaign freely. The object of the attacks against them, they argued, was to force them out of the running and allow proTaliban forces to take over the government.

The parties that stand accused of being pro-Taliban — the P.M.L.-N and P.T.I., as well as religious parties — have continued to campaign as if none of this is happening. While the violence has prevented the A.N.P., M.Q.M. and P.P.P. from holding large rallies and relegated media coverage of them to squibs describing bombs and gunmen, the P.M.L.-N and P.T.I. are holding major gatherings, which are broadcast live on TV and make headline news.

The kindest explanation for those parties’ detachment is that although they’re

Dinesh Kumar, Delhi The death of Sarabjit Singh due to injuries inflicted by fellow prisoners in the Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, is unfortunate and condemnable. We do not know whether he actually committed the crime he was accused of. It might be a case of mistaken identity.

But as far as Pakistanis are concerned, Sarabjit was to

dyurappa was left with the difficult task of holding his flock together in the face of inducements from factions within his own party.

Clearly, the focus was on ensuring Independents and BJP legislators were kept happy with cabinet berths and official posts. In coastal Karnataka, no effort was made to curb the thuggish acts of Hindutva vigilantes. Matters came to a head when Mr. Yeddyurappa was caught in allegations of corruption, and had to step down after being indicted by the Lokayukta.

From then on began the unseemly spectacle of Mr. Yeddyurappa trying to make a puppet of his successors, first Sadananda Gowda and then Jagadish Shettar. The national leadership of the BJP, which was on an anti-corruption campaign drive against the Congress at the Centre, was at a loss in Karnataka, where its government was mired in corruption cases and scandals. For the Congress, the victory in Karnataka will be difficult to replicate, not only in other States, but also in the 2014 parliamentary election. If the Congress is not careful, Karnataka 2013 might turn out to be more of a blip than a spark. Courtesy: The Hindu distressed by what’s happening, they don’t wish to find themselves and their workers in the firing line. But cowardice in the face of terrorism shouldn’t inspire much confidence in them. And a less kind explanation calls them “appeasers,” Taliban “sympathizers” and “coldblooded opportunists.”

The Taliban themselves appear to be of two minds about the election. On the one hand, they seem to be targeting only those parties they view as enemies. On the other hand, they have been distributing — mostly in A.N.P., M.Q.M. and P.P.P. strongholds — pamphlets that say democracy itself is an infidel system and that anyone who participates in it is acting against Islam.

And so in parts of the country where the threat of more attacks on Election Day is high, no matter whom people vote for, simply by going to the polling stations they will be casting their ballots against the Pakistani Taliban.

(Courtesy: The New York Times, Global Edition).

them what Ajmal Kasab was to us. He was a foreign national sentenced to death for carrying out terror activities in Pakistan — an ‘enemy of the state.’

But still he was not hanged in secrecy; his relatives were allowed to visit him when he was seriously injured; and Pakistan has handed over his body to his family.

The manner in which the Pakistan government treated Sarabjit was, though not humane, better than what the Government of India did to Afzal Guru who was not a foreign national or an enemy but a citizen of this country. Before we accuse Pakistan, let us first set better examples.

T.V. Bipin, Kannur (From the Hindu)

VOICE OF ASIA 3

COMMUNITY VOICE OF ASIA

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Second Front Page

Friday, May 10, 2013

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Tel: 713-774-5140

Gujarat Day Anniversary Celebration with Gurjar Mela Continued from Page 1 A big kudos to Mr Charlie Patel who single handedly offered his service to GSH as Booth Coordinator. He was the key person for all those who came out to enjoy the different food and services at various booths. All the Power point presentation was done by Paresh Patel. My sincere thanks goes to Paresh Shah and Gautaum Jani for video recordings and Mili Thakkar for clinking the pictures of this grand Gurjar Mela.

Mehendi contest and Narendra Modi “look alike” competition was coordinated by Ms. Sapna Shah with help of Jaimini Patel and Smita Chawla. They also had coloring contest for two age groups. There were 20 entries for kids coloring competition and 4 entries for Mehendi competition. Colorful and artistic side of local artist talent was on display for the attendees to watch.

Ms. Rachna Patel owner of RJ Salon & Spa was the prize sponsor and judge for mehendi contest. Ms.Uma Nagarsheth was the judge for kids coloring contest. Mr.Ajit Patel was the win-

Gujarati Samaj of Houston directors and organizers of the Gurjar Mela. ported by Mass Mutual Insurance, Karat 22 Jewelers, Auto Desire.com, Bhakta Samaj of Houston, Parivar Grocers, Kohinoor Diamond, Namaskar Entertainment, Sari Sapne, Balaji Bhavan, East West International and Subway.

GSH also thanks RJ Salon and Spa, Namaste, Laxmi Sarees, Alings Hakka, Michael Angelo Restaurant, and Straw Hat Pizza for sponsoring the prizes for various contests.

ner of the Narendra Modi lookalike contest. Sincere thanks goes to Kohinoor Diamond, Shubhlaxmi Grocers for providing giveaways during the event. This event was greatly sup-

The outdoor event was organized from 6 pm to midnight. The colorful part of this grand event was a ‘Cultural Evening’ which was coordinated by Ms. Sapna Shah and Mr. Sureshbhai Patel (Darbar) with the assistance and support of local dance schools, associations and individuals. The venue was packed to

full capacity with around 1500 attendees. By 7pm there were no parking spaces available. GSH President Ms Nisha appreciated and recognized the event sponsors and volunteers. As the second part of the event; it started with musical group “Mumbai masti” with beautiful hit songs of “Garvi Gujarat.” Sunny, Alka and KK from India with their musicians had done a great job of taking all the audience back the melodies of famous Gujarati songs and thereafter Bollywood music.

Among those who attended the event were Hon.Anil Matta (Consul from Consulate General of India Office), Swapan Dhairyawan, Rajiv Bhavsar (both past ICC President), Ashvin Dave from BAPS Temple, Rasesh Dalal from VPSS Haveli, Vijay Pallod from Hindus of Greater Houston.

Also present were Past Presidents of Guajrati Samaj, religious leaders, TV Asia, leading radio station host and other community leaders.

The spectators were treated to exhilarating performances by over 60 participants. Key events of Gujarat’s

history were presented by local participants in their unique styles. The participants of different age group (4 years to 70 years) performed on various themes from pre-historic era to modern Gujarat. Master of Ceremony was a youth Dhaval Patel as “Ranglo” (Gujarati Bhavai). GSH thanks Darshak Thakkar of Krishna Sound and his team for managing stage sound and lights. Heartfelt appreciation goes to Shailesh Patel for preparing the venue. Special appreciation to BOD members Dr.Kirit Desai, Harshad Patel, Jayanti Patel and Suresh Patel, BOT members Jaimini Patel, Mukesh Patel and Prakesh Desai for attending the event. GSH President extends heartiest congratulations and sincere appreciation to her vibrant team members Ajit Patel (VP) Sapna Shah (Secretary), Smita Chawla, Sanjay Chauhan, Rakesh Shah, Haren Hingu, Kalpesh Rana, Akshay Shah, Pankaj Patel, Amrish Patel, Vrajesh Patel and Bharat Thakkar for continuous support. Great volunteers like Kirit Patel, Raju Patel and Samir

Patel (pappu) came forward to help before and after the event. The SKAI Foundation of Woodlands had displayed the Chariot at the venue and that site was a “Kodak moment” for the attendees.

In her message GSH President conveys, “From the bottom of my heart I thank you to all who have stepped forward to help us celebrate this event.

And, I cannot express enough of my gratitude and appreciation to event coordinator, venue coordinator, all our volunteers, committee members, their spouses and children, our sponsors and well wishers, as well as all our participants for giving us this opportunity to make this event a memorable occasion for all of us. Without your support, we could not have pulled this off. We humbly request you all to please continue to provide us your support and encouragement.”

For more information visit www. gujaratisamajofhouston.com or read next issue of DARPAN.

COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 4

The People’s Lawyer

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Indian delegation attends 2013 OTC in Houston

www.peopleslawyer.net Richard M. Alderman Interim Dean of the Law Center

Negative recommendation doesn’t give employee the right to sue Q. I was recently asked to give a recommendation about a former employee. The employee did not do a very good job and that is what I would like to say, but I am afraid of being sued. I have heard many stories of employers being sued because they said something negative about a former employee. What is the law?

A. There has never been a law that gives an employee the right to recover damages against an employer simply because the employer gave a negative recommendation. Liability in such cases is based on the fact that the recommendation is not just negative; it was also false and known to be false by the employer. Texas law recognizes an employer’s right to make a truthful recommendation regarding a former employee and protects employers who act in good faith. Under the law, an employer is immune from liability unless “it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that the information disclosed was known by that employer to be false at the time of the disclosure and was made with malice of in reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the information disclosed.” The bottom line is anyone can file a lawsuit, but recovering damages based on a negative recommendation is very unlikely.

Q. My husband has a small construction company. He recently did some remodeling work. While working, he fell and injured his foot. Can he collect his medical bills from the owner’s homeowner’s insurance policy?

A. First, whether a person has insurance does not change liability. Insurance simply pays claims that the insured person would have to pay. For example, if you cause an automobile accident, your automobile insurance company will pay the mount of money you owe. The question then is whether the homeowner is liable for your husband’s injuries?

Based on what you say, there is no legal basis for the homeowner to be liable for your husband’s injury. It sounds like you husband simply had an accident while working at the house. Unless the owner was negligent or in some way caused your husband to fall, the homeowner has no liability.

Because the homeowner has no responsibility, there is no basis to file a claim against the homeowner’s insurance policy. This is why it is so important that we all have medical insurance to cover our medical bills when they are caused due to illness, disease or accident.

Q. My father died. In his will he left me $25,000. What else am I entitled to? My brothers and sisters get much more than I did.

A. When a person dies with a will, the will determines how the deceased’s property is divided after death. All of the people who receive property pursuant to the will are called beneficiaries. If the will leaves one beneficiary a sum of money that is all that person is entitled to. It doesn’t matter if others receive more or less than you do. There is no law that says brothers and sisters must receive equal shares of the estate.

The only additional property you might be entitled to would be property left to you in a joint account or an account on which you were the beneficiary. For example, your father might have a life insurance policy that names you as the beneficiary. The proceeds of that policy would go directly to you and would not be part of the estate, distributed in accordance with the terms of the will.

Q. Can an employer require overtime for its employees? I have been told if I don’t work overtime, I will be fired.

A. Your relationship with your employer is just a matter of contract law. Basically, your employer proposes the terms of your employment, and you can either accept, make a counter-offer, or refuse.

Unless you have a contract or union agreement that says otherwise, the hours you work are part of this negotiation. If you refuse to accept the terms offered, the employer has the right to fire you. Of course, if you work overtime, he must pay you overtime pay.

Want to know more about your legal rights? Check out my website, www.peopleslawyer.net.

Visiting delegates attending the 2013 OTC seen with the Consul General P. Harish at his residence in Houston during a dinner reception hosted in their honor.

Continued from page 1 In the words of Tom Donilon from his address at the Launch of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy last month, Mr. Harish quoted “We have a strong interest in a world natural gas market that is well supplied, diverse, and efficiently priced. Increased U.S. and global natural gas production can enhance diversity of supply, help de-link gas prices from expensive oil indexed contracts, weaken control by traditional dominant natural gas suppliers, and encourage fuel switching from oil and coal to natural gas.

“Many of our allies have expressed interest in the potential of the United States as a global natural gas supplier.

The Department of Energy is currently reviewing at least seventeen applications to export U.S. LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. It will conduct a comprehensive review of all relevant factors to determine whether each non-FTA LNG export project is deemed to be consistent with the public interest.

“We are building on the unique diplomatic, regulatory and technical capacity of the United States to help other nations increase energy supply, build capacity and strengthen the institutions that enable international cooperation.

“As major consumers, China, India and Brazil have a common interest in healthy and more transparent markets that function efficiently and effectively.

“How the United States manages these changes to our energy economy and to our climate will be an important measure of U.S. leadership for many years to come.”

India depends on imports

for over half of its energy consumption from hydrocarbons. “This is the situation when our per capita energy consumption of hydrocarbon energy is a tenth of the global average which itself is around a quarter of the US average.

“Millions of Indians do not have access to clean energy for lighting and cooking. Our reliance on imported hydrocarbons will continue for a long time,” P. Harish pointed out.

Further, he spoke of the 20 year LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) between GAIL and Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC, subsidiary of Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P., signed in December 2011 for 3.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG. “This remains the only LNG export for which Department of Energy has provided the authorization. There are 17 pending LNG export application dockets with DoE, some of it for LNG exports to India,” he said.

“This is a big moment in India-US energy partnership. When India and the US signed the bilateral Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement a couple of years ago. It marked a strategic shift in our cooperation and was intended to ensure energy security in tune with our growing economy. The shale gas revolution here has provided another significant element to our energy cooperation through LNG exports where natural gas from US could be piped into our industries, power stations and households.”

The Industry Briefing on Oil and Gas Opportunities in India, was organized by the U.S. Commercial Service U.S. Department of Commerce; FICCI and USIBC, this event will provide am industry fo-

rum for energy opportunities in India with a focus oil and gas. Presentations were made by experts that included: Sanjay Arya, Oil & Gas Sector Specialist, U.S. Embassy, India, Manav Kanwar, Managing Director, SK Oilfield Equipment Co. Pvt Ltd., Dr. Sunil Bharati, Head - Corporate Affairs & Communication, Gajendra Singh, Executive Director (E&P), GAIL (India) Ltd., Arundhati Bhattacharya, MD&CEO, SBI Capital Markets Ltd., Shashi Shanker, Director (T&FS), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and S. K Srivastava, CMD, Oil India Ltd., former Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Govt. of India.

Earlier, Ken Hyatt, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for ITA, US Department of Commerce gave his Welcome remarks. Vivek Pandit, Sr. Director & Head – Energy, FICCI gave his opening remarks and moderated the Q & A discussions. Later, he also gave his closing remarks.

A brief presentation showcasing PETROTECH 2014 and Asia Gas Partnership Summit 2013 was also presented. The 2013 OTC concluded on Thursday, May 9.

On the evening of Sunday, May 5, the Consul General, P.Harish, hosted a dinner reception in honor of the delegates that arrived in Houston for 2013 OTC at his residence on Briar Forest in Houston.

Members of the FICCI, S. K Srivastava, CMD, Oil India Ltd., former Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Govt. of India, Ramesh Sabharwal, Member, All India Congress Committee, and leading Oil and Gas industrialist, were in attendance.

Indian American community leaders Meet with India’s political leader

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Consul Anil Matta and Ramesh Sabharwal with members of the Indian American community

H

OUSTON - On Monday, May 6th, Consul, Anil Matta facilitated an informal meeting with India’s visiting politician and leader Ramesh Sabharwal, Member, All India Congress Committee and leaders of the Indian American community in Houston over dinner at the India’s Restaurant here. Select members included India Culture Center (ICC) president PV Patel and members of the ICC, Gujarati Samaj president Nisha Mirani, industrialist Ashok Dhingra, Publisher Koshy Thomas, past Presidents ICC Swapan

Dhairyawan, Rajiv Bhavsar, Harshad Patel Shobana Muratee, and other directors.

Guest of Honor, Ramesh Sabharwal and Mrs. Sabharwal were introduced to the members after which Sabharwal spoke on various political matters concerning India’s progress and how they can be addressed including corruption. He said his vision was to change visa policies making them friendlier for the NRI’s.

He spoke strongly on how NRI should as much as they can to help children of the country they live in as much

as they think of helping the children of their motherland. Sabharwal spoke of his close relation to late Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi who he said was like a mother to him and his long association with her son late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Consul Anil Matta, has set a trend to invite Indian American community members to Meet and Greet and discuss issues one on one. The meeting was well appreciated by the guests as well as the visiting dignitary.

COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 5

Sugar Land Tutoring APPEAL Center Boosts Academic Results

C

ollege is always becoming more competitive, and now, Sugar Land has IQ Learning, an elite, independently owned tutoring center that is dedicated to preparing students to succeed at every academic level.

Led by owner Dr. Sugoto Chakravarty, IQ, located at 3685 South Hwy. 6, has the best tutors to work with students, grades 4 through 12 and to College undergraduate level. It is open seven days every week.

IQ Learning is what a tutoring place should be. Tutors work with individual students, or in small groups of 4 or less students. Such a low teacher-to-students ratio leads to highly personalized interactions between the tutors and the students.

The focus of the tutors is to raise the students’ levels so that they score to their full potential in any academic situation.

“IQ Learning has enhanced my pre-calculus skills and helped boost my confidence level,” said Uttara Thiagarajan, a Katy Seven Lakes High School junior. “I am very confident in Calculus at school now. I wish I had joined IQ Learning earlier. Mr. Sugoto is the Best!” After barely two months at IQ, Uttara scored her first 100+ in calculus at her high school in Katy. In fact, her grades/scores increased from 80 percent to 94 percent during this period.

Ninety seven percent of high school students have improved their grades from a B-/C to B+/A after 48 hours of tutoring at IQ Leaning. Those numbers were 92 percent and 95 percent for middle school and elementary school, respectively. SAT scores increased by at least 300 points for 90 percent of the students.

IQ’s philosophy is based on empowering students by building strong educational foundations and focusing on students’ success. That success leads to family satisfaction that will ultimately benefit the community, state and the nation. IQ has programs for every student, the star performers as well as those who are aspiring to reach those levels.

“The teachers at IQ Learning are very good at teaching the subjects they do,” said Hemant Sai, a student at Sugar Land Middle School. “My grades went up from just 90s to a 100 in both English and Math...that was because of the teachers.

They explained things very well. It was very interesting.”

The success has caught the attention of Fort Bend ISD leaders.

“We’ve found Sugoto at IQ Learning to be the best by far,” Amber Callahan, the former Academy Coordinator at Dulles High quoted one of the parents.

“Not only does Sugoto tutor in physics but also all levels of math and other science disciplines as well.”

Maximum success isn’t a catch phrase at IQ. It is a philosophy, and one that is proven day after day.

Students first take an Assessment test that highlights the students’ strengths and weaknesses. The students start with the fundamentals, then build their skills gradually with personally-tailored academic programs that fit their needs and goals. The programs take care that the students first become comfortable with their school curriculum and then move ahead through intense practice sessions using in-house developed course material.

IQ focuses on Math, Science and ELA (Grammar, Reading, Writing and Editing) for Elementary and Middle School students, and AP-level Math (Geometry, Algebra -1 and 2, PreCalculus, Calculus AB and BC), Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and English for high school students. All IQ courses and programs not only meet the Texas Board requirements but also exceed them.

The elementary students have the opportunity to prep for the GT (Gifted and Talented) Program Tests conducted by Texas State. IQ

Learning has produced several GT students after training at the Center.

An outstanding feature at IQ Learning is their SAT/ACT Test Prep program. A successful score on that test can lead to top-level courses, which will put them on the fast track to a good college.

The difference between a great SAT/ACT score and a good one can determine whether a student is accepted into a prestigious university and how much scholarship money that student is awarded.

IQ Learning’s Test prep involves an intense program where students learn why they’re choosing their answers.

Tutors provide thorough analysis of the student’s strengths and weaknesses, review individual practice tests with them and provide direction for their next set of practice tests and essays. IQ Learning strives to put its students ahead of the curve. For more details, visit www.iq-learning.com

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

House for Sale!

Bhoopal Reddy Bhoopal Reddy, a kind and a supportive husband and loving father of two beautiful daughters, Meghana (age 12) and Kirthi (age 3 was travelling back home when he collided with a 14 Wheeler truck which resulted in multiple injuries to his body and a savage blow to his skull. This resulted in him going into coma, pretty much instantaneously. It is reported that he was stuck inside the car for 3-4 hours before paramedics could get him out and air-lift him to the hospital. He has been in coma since then.

His wife Roja Bhoopal Reddy appeals for help.

Please visit the website www.SaveBhoopal.com for further details!!

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COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 6

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Soorya Festival Invokes A Powerful Sense of Unity Soorya Krishnamoorthy’s ‘Sangamam’ premiered in Houston May 5th

H

OUSTON - In Tamil and Malayalam, the term ‘sangamam’ describes the coming together of various platforms for a common goal. For those who attended the Soorya Festival’s premiere showcase in Houston on May 5, ‘sangamam’ was brought to life through the diverse performing art forms of India. Padmashree Dr. Soorya Krishnamoorthy, the founder-director of the Soorya Stage and Film Society, made his first visit to the United States as he presented his highly-anticipated Soorya Festival to an eager and receptive audience.

Attendees arrived from various parts of Texas to see the show, and the performance surpassed expectations.

One hour and forty-five minutes flew by as the audience was truly at the edge of their seats wanting more. The 20-artist troupe proved their passion and endurance as they performed nonstop, weaving together Bharatnatyam (Dakshina Vaidyanathan), Kathak (Sonia Gupta), Samudra Natanam (Madhu Gopinath and Vakkom Sajeev), Dhol Dholak Cholam (Manipur Dancers), Percussion (Lazer Sasi and Pathrose Jayakumar) and Vocal (Ziaya ul Haq). Powerful music by Mohammed Rafi served as the background for the performances, and all were moved by the compelling finale that brought together all the dance forms symbolizing ‘Unity in Diversity’…a true ‘Sangamam’.

The Soorya Festival is touring 15 cities throughout the United States in one month, with Texas as the first stop on the tour.

Houston-based production company Freedia Entertainment, the national promoter of

the Soorya Festival, was proud to bring the Festival for its first American tour. The Houston show held last week was hosted

by Shingari’s School of Rhythm who wanted to share this artistic delight with local cultural enthusiasts. For the event’s inauguration, there was a rare scene… the directors of nine area dance schools came together on stage to welcome and show their respect for Krishnamoorthy’s contribution to the world of performing arts. At the end of the show, he expressed his appreciation to Shingari Makkora, director of Shingari’s School of Rhythm, for starting the show on a positive note by uniting all the dance gurus of the local dance community.

“Gurus show our children the path to God,” Krishnamoorthy said during his final words, encouraging the audience to continue their support of authentic, non-commercialized artists.

Dr. Soorya Krishnamoorthy inaugurated the Houston Soorya Festival with the support and encouragement of nine of the area’s leading dance gurus.

director was named Man of the Year 2003 by the Limca Book of World Records, who also appointed Soorya as the largest cultural society of Asia. He served as the director of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation for three terms, has a member of the India National Film Award committee, the Kerala State Film Award committee, the NFDC Script Committee and the National committee for selecting Indian Panorama films. He has also been a member of the Expert Committee of the Department of Culture for the Government of India where he was instrumental in advancing the cultural policy of the country. The Soorya Festival is the longest and among the most prestigious cultural events in India, in which the finest and most accomplished artists in Indian classical dances and music participate.

A true ‘Sangamam’ of art forms came together during the Soorya Festival, including Bharatnatyam, Samudra Natanam and Kathak.

Krishnamoorthy remains the only person to have received

the highest artistic honors from three state governments: Kera-

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COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 7

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Narasimha Chaturdashi, Appearance Dr. Chopra elected to the Medical Board Day of Lord Nrsimhadev desirous of achieving immortality and thirsting for revenge for his brother Hiranyaksha’s demise (who had been killed by the Supreme Lord’s incarnation as Varaha-deva), had obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that he should not be killed by man or beast; in the day or at night; by any kind of weapon; neither on Earth nor in the sky; and neither inside nor outside the house.

bySeshadri Veeraraghavan

T

he Supreme Lord Sri Krishna, in one of the most memorable verses in the Bhagavad Gita (4.7), assures Arjuna that: yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaḿ sṛjāmy aham Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.

The Lord could not have been clearer in conveying that He is there to both deliver His devotees and to vanquish those that harass or harm them, and that He shall personally appear to do so.

In one such manifestation, He appeared as Lord Sri Nrisimha – the Man-Lion incarnation that tore the world asunder in the ferocity of the event. In this case, it was to protect His beloved devotee Prahlada from his own father, the demoniac Hiranyakashipu.

The evil Hiranyakashipu, the son of Sage Kashyapa and Diti,

After obtaining the boon, he was unstoppable and became the ruler of the worlds. He was extremely cruel and especially hostile to the devotees of the Supreme Lord Hari, and mandated that he and not Vishnu should be considered the Supreme.

Little Prahlada was a saintly child who worshiped the Supreme Lord Hari and considered Him to be the Supreme rather than his father; he also taught this to his fellow classmates, who were children of the various Asuras that worked for, or were subjects of the demon-king.

Hearing this, a highly disturbed Hirankyakashipu tried to first reason with his son, but seeing that he would not budge but instead had become even more steadfast and devoted, started plotting the death of his own son.

He ordered his ministers and henchmen to find multiple ways to kill Prahlada, such as poisoning his milk, throwing him off a cliff, placing poisonous serpents around him, burning in a pyre, among other methods. However, each time Prahlada emerged unscathed and even more purified by the ordeals.

Seeing that there was no way he could get rid of his son, Hiranyakashipu tried once again to

reason with Prahlada but to no avail. Finally, in a state of great fury, he spewed words of terrible hatred towards the Supreme Lord and asked Prahlada, “Where is your Vishnu to whom you pray so much,” to which Prahlada calmly replied, “He is everywhere; within and without; in every single atom of the universe; and in between atoms.”

Getting angrier by the minute, Hiranyakashipu pointed to a large pillar and asked his son whether Vishnu was inside the pillar, too, to which his son replied in the affirmative. This enraged him and he struck the pillar, at which moment there was a great noise as if the entire world were being torn apart.

Amazed at this turn of events, everyone watched the terrifying Man-Lion form of the Lord appear from within the broken pillar. This was Lord Nrisimha, an incarnation of the Supreme descended to protect His dear devotees from miscreants – exactly as Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita.

Lord Nrisimha attacked Hiranyakashipu and toyed with the powerful demon as if he were a mere mosquito. He dragged the demon-king to the courtyard, placed him upon His lap, and using His lightning-like nails, tore the tormentor of devotees apart.

It was twilight, and every single aspect of the boon that had been promised to Hiranyakashipu by Lord Brahma had been honored in its entirety.

The rage of the Supreme Lord Nrisimha knew no bounds, and nobody – not even His own consort Mother Lakshmi-devi, could pacify Him. The demigods, extremely fearful of the rage, fi-

nally requested Prahlada to step forward and try and pacify the Lord.

Lord Nrisimha, seeing the small, vulnerable, yet fiercely devoted frame of His dear devotee, immediately calmed down and smiled, then hearing the profoundly moving prayers of Prahlada, offered him benedictions, but he just wanted his father to be pardoned for his grievous sins, to which the Lord said: My dear Prahlāda, O most pure, O great saintly person, your father has been purified, along with twenty-one forefathers in your family. Because you were born in this family, the entire dynasty has been purified. Thus did the Lord appear to protect His dear devotee and to rid the world of the burden of the demon Hiranyakashipu.

The Nrsimha Chaturdashi festival is observed with great enthusiasm every year at the ISKCON, Hare Krishna Dham in Houston. This year the festival falls on Thursday, 23rd May – so, please mark your calendars so you don’t miss the joyful kirtans, maha-Arati, Lord Nrsimhadev pastimes and of course, the delicious prasadam feast that will comprise the festivities. We look forward to having your association in jointly celebrating the most auspicious and glorious advent of the Lord Himself. ISKCON Hare Krishna Dham located on 1320 W 34th Street, Houston TX – 77018, just off the 610 Loop close to the Heights and Galleria. For more details, please visit www.iskconhouston.org or Call 713-686-GITA (4482) Nrisimha Bhagavan ki jai!

Prahlada Maharaj ki jai!

Dr. Sachin Chopra Dr. Sachin Chopra, was recently elected to the Medical Board of St. Josephs Hospital and Nursing home. The teaching facility was founded in 1888 and is one of the oldest healthcare providers in the tri state area. The hospital has a 115 million dollar operating budget; 1200 employees; 194bed acute care hospital and a 200-bed nursing home.

Dr. Sachin Chopra is a graduate of Cornell University, New York Medical College, and NYCOM. He was awarded the prestigious “Resident of the

Year” Award at the Long Island Jewish/ North Shore Health System at Plainview; and was also honored by the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate for medical care helping the critical care and underserved populations.

Chopra thanked his family and colleagues, and said he was honored to be a part of the medical team that is dedicated to patient care. He said he was eager to bring about change, and encouraged those around him to improve the Health care system in the years to come.

Comcast’s Xfinity Launches Online Destination For Asian-Pacific Entertainment XFINITY TV Celebrates Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month with Special Entertainment Collection Philadelphia, PA – May XX, 2013 – Comcast, a global media and technology company, today announced the Xfinity Asia Internet destination (Xfinity.com/Asia), an online portal that brings together a wealth of Asian-Pacific entertainment content from a variety of sources in one, easy to navigate location. This is the first step in a larger Xfinity Asia initiative designed to expand the availability of Asian programming, VOD and tailored packages to the AsianPacific community throughout 2013. In addition, Xfinity customers will gain access to special programming across Xfinity platforms – TV, On Demand, online and on mobile devices – recognizing the Asian-Pacific cultural influence on the world of entertainment.

The Xfinity Asia website features news, blogs, and Xfinity TV programming information relevant to the Asian-Pacific community.

Content on the site includes award-winning films, documentaries, history, bios, sports, anime and music featuring Asian-Pacific entertainers, artists and historical leaders that have contributed to the news, music and history of this country and the world. Xfinity TV customers will have access to a large library of content on Xfinity On Demand, and non-subscribers also will have the opportunity to explore a range of entertainment options online. Content can be filtered by country of origin, genre and more.

“The Xfinity Asia Internet destination is the first step in providing customers much more Asian-Pacific content than ever before,” said Ruben Mendiola, vice president and general manager of Multicultural Video Services. “This will be an exciting year as we continue to expand new content and offerings for the Asian American community.”

Xfinity TV is also celebrating Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month with a special collection of entertainment choices that highlight Asian-American and Pacific Islander culture and contributions. The collection includes

movies, documentaries and biographies hand-selected by Chi-hui Yang, the curator of Cinema Asian America for Xfinity TV. Highlights of Xfinity TV’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month collection include Bollywood hits and music; HBO’s East of Main Street; Filipino entertainment and events; KPOP; K-Drama Fever; anime from Funimation; and themed history and biographies from National Geographic. In addition, Xfinity TV will offer feature films including: • Conscience and the Constitution, directed by Frank Abe • Delhi Safari, directed by Nikhil Advani • Don’t Lose Your Soul, directed by Jim Choi and Chihiro Wimbush • The Island President, directed by John Shenk • Life of Pi, directed

by Ang Lee • The Reluctant Fundamentalist, directed by Mira NairPieta • Seeking Asian Female, directed by Debbie Lum • Sushi: The Global Catch, directed by Mark Hall Comcast has had a longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion since its founding nearly 50 years ago and focuses its efforts in five key areas: diversity in governance, attracting and retaining a multicultural workforce, developing a diverse supplier base, offering a wide selection of multicultural programming, and community investment in national, regional and local diverse organizations.

About Comcast Cable Comcast Cable is the nation’s largest video, highspeed Internet and phone provider to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. Comcast has invested in technology to build an advanced network that delivers among the fastest broadband speeds, and brings customers personalized video, communications and home management offerings. Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is a global media and technology company. Visit www. comcastcorporation.com for more information.com

SOUTH ASIA

VOICE OF ASIA 8

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Pakistan campaign halts after India parliament adjourns Imran Khan fractures spine early amid fresh scandals

by Penny MacRae

by Waqar Hussain

L

NEW DELHI, (AFP) - India’s parliament was forced to adjourn early Wednesday, stalling its economic reform drive, after the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was weighed down by fresh scandals.

AHORE, Pakistan, (AFP) - Doctors said Wednesday they expect Pakistani politician Imran Khan to make a full recovery despite fracturing his spine at a campaign rally, as his party sought to capitalise on a sympathy vote.

The retired cricket star and head of the Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI) suffered several fractured vertebrae and a broken rib on Tuesday when he fell from a lift raising him onto the stage at a rally in the city of Lahore.

Medical staff have ordered the 60-year-old to remain immobile in bed, throwing into doubt the prospect that he will address in person a final rally set to wrap up his high-octane campaign for office in Saturday’s election.

The man tipped to win the polls, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, suspended campaigning on Wednesday in tribute to Khan.

His fall was the latest dramatic twist to an election campaign that has been overshadowed by a series of attacks on politicians and political parties which have killed 113 people since mid-April, according to an AFP tally.

The Pakistani Taliban have condemned the polls as unIslamic and directly threatened the outgoing secular Pakistan People’s Party and its main coalition partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party.

On Wednesday a bomb targeted a candidate from the Awami National Party (ANP), killing two people and wounding three others in the northwestern tribal district of Bajaur, a local official said.

In Peshawar, a would-be suicide bomber blew himself up after he was holed up in a house during a police operation, city police chief Liaqat Ali Khan said. Two policemen were killed in an exchange of fire.

Imran Khan head of PTI during his campaign rally.

The man had been aiming to target election rallies in the city, the police chief said.

decide accordingly,” Doctor Faisal Sultan, the head of the private Shaukat Khanum hospital, told reporters.

In another attack, unconnected to the elections, a suicide bomber killed three people and wounded 23 outside a police station in the northwestern district of Bannu, police said.

A medical report listed a series of fractures to Khan’s spine, one in his neck, another in a rib and an injury to his scalp.

In Karachi, a bomb blast injured 18 people, police and hospital officials said. Senior police official Sarfaraz Nawaz said the bomb, planted in a car, “looks like an attempt to create a scare among the people ahead of the election”.

But Sultan stressed that Khan’s spinal canal was intact and “he is in total control of all limbs and body functions”.

representatives to raise their issues”.

The derailed reform measures included one to raise the foreign investment in insurance to 49 percent from 26 percent and another to make it easier to buy land for factories to spur economic growth.

The government, rocked by repeated controversies, was put on the backfoot with two of its cabinet ministers embroiled in corruption probes.

The government also could not pass its planned landmark food security measure to supply heavily subsidized food to millions of poor.

The controversies forced parliament to adjourn two days early as an emboldened opposition said it would refuse to allow any legislative debate unless the ministers resigned.

The adjournment comes after revelations that the law minister and officials in Singh’s office meddled in a police probe into alleged illegal awards of coalfields at cut-rate prices.

The premature end to the session meant the government could not pass key economic reform bills aimed at drawing more foreign investment to spur a sharply slowing economy.

The government has also been hit by the arrest of the railway minister’s nephew for allegedly demanding a $160,000 bribe to arrange a plum promotion for a railway official.

Parliament has been repeatedly paralysed by graft scandals throughout Congress’s term, and lower house speaker Meira Kumar called the early adjournment “a betrayal of the trust of the people who elected their

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rebuked the government for interfering in the coal investigation, calling it a “sordid saga” and describing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a “caged parrot” speak-

ing “in its master’s voice”.

After denying the government ever saw a report into charges by the auditor that it may have given away $33 billion in windfall gains to firms to mine coal, the CBI’s chief then admitted top officials had altered the document.

“The heart of the report was changed on suggestions of government officials,” the court said, adding the CBI should stand up to all “pulls and pressures”.

Singh, in addition to being prime minister, was coal minister for part of the period under scrutiny, leading to opposition demands for him to also quit.

His government is still reeling from 2010 charges by the auditor that throwaway allocation of telecom spectrum may have cost the exchequer $31 billion.

Some 19 people, including a former minister, face trial over that scandal.

But the setbacks for the Congress also came on a rare day of good news for the left-leaning party that boosted its confidence ahead of 2014 national polls.

Party official Shah Mehmood Qureshi said PTI’s campaign finale -- a rally outside parliament in Islamabad -- would go ahead as planned on Thursday evening.

Aides said Khan would still address a final election rally on Thursday, even if it has to be from hospital.

“Wherever he is, in any condition, even from the ICU (intensive care unit), he will address the nation in the last moments of the campaign,” Qureshi said.

Television footage showed him flat on his back wearing a neck brace, and looking pale and groggy after his fall.

Doctors have advised at least two days’ rest but say he is in full control of his limbs and bodily functions and is expected to make a full recovery.

Saturday’s vote will be a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military. It will be the first time a civilian government has served a full term and handed over to another through the ballot box.

A television statement filmed from his bed in which Khan urged people to vote for his party has been re-released as a “paid content” advertisement for PTI.

It remains unclear whether a wave of sympathy for Khan will improve his poll prospects. Most commentators expect him to do well enough to become a strong opposition but not to form a government.

“Mr Khan has been advised bed rest for the next one or two days and after that doctors will review his condition and

Myanmar leader pledges to uphold Muslim rights YANGON, (AFP) - Myanmar’s president on Monday pledged to uphold the “fundamental rights” of Muslims in strife-torn Rakhine state, in the wake of deadly religious unrest that has spread across the country.

In a speech to the nation following the release last week of an official report into last year’s violence in western Rakhine that killed around 200 people, Thein Sein said the country should aim for “peaceful coexistence”.

“Regarding Rakhine, our government will take responsibility for upholding Muslims’ fundamental rights,” he said, adding that ethnic Rakhines, who are mainly Buddhist, “will not be neglected”.

Rakhine state remains deeply divided following major eruptions of unrest in June and October that saw mobs rampage through villages and torch thousands of homes, displacing 140,000 mainly Rohingya Muslims.

Waves of anti-Muslim unrest have spread across the country this year. Buddhist monks

have been linked to some incidents, while security forces have been accused of standing by while mosques and homes were attacked.

killed and mosques and homes destroyed in Oakkan, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Yangon, as the unrest spread closer to the country’s main city.

Thein Sein said he accepted that “there were human rights violations... because of the policies that we used formerly”, without elaborating on which measures he was referring to.

The Rakhine commission called for increased aid in Rakhine, where tens of thousands of Rohingya are trapped in squalid camps amid fears of a deepening humanitarian crisis as the monsoon season approaches.

He pledged to use his authority “to make sure that security forces fully implement measures to restore peace and the rule of law”.

But the report also recommended maintaining the segregation of the two communities while tensions remain.

Attacks against Muslims -- who make up an estimated four percent of Myanmar’s population -- have exposed deep fractures in the formerly junta-run country and cast a shadow over reforms under a quasi-civilian regime that took power two years ago.

Human Rights Watch, which has claimed the authorities were involved in ethnic cleansing in Rakhine, said the report’s call to double troop numbers there was a “potential disaster” without proper oversight.

At least 43 people were killed and thousands left homeless in March after a flare-up apparently triggered by a quarrel in a gold shop in the central town of Meiktila.

Rohingya -- considered by the United Nations to be one of the world’s most persecuted minorities -- have been rendered effectively stateless in Myanmar with few rights and scant access to public services.

A renewed bout of anti-Muslim unrest last week saw one

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WORLD/US

VOICE OF ASIA 9

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

S. Korea leader offers Every dollar must go to bridge gaps peace steps on North to Mars: NASA

by Shaun Tandon

W

ASHINGTON, May 8, 2013 (AFP) - South Korea’s president proposed small peace steps Wednesday with North Korea including a park on the tense border but said that the communist state had to give up its nuclear weapons.

A day after an air-tight show of unity with US President Barack Obama, President Park Geun-Hye vowed in an address to the US Congress that any fresh “provocations” by North Korea would be “met decisively.”

But the newly elected president also said she hoped to build trust with North Korea, saying the Demilitarized Zone on the last Cold War frontier “must live up to its name -- a zone that strengthens peace, not undermines it.”

challenges,” she said.

by Kerry Sheridan

W

The most visible symbol of cooperation between North and South Korea -- the Kaesong industrial park inside the impoverished communist side -- has been suspended amid the democratic South’s fears for its citizens’ safety.

ASHINGTON, (AFP) Setting foot on Mars by the 2030s is human destiny and a US priority, and every dollar available must be spent on bridging gaps in knowledge on how to get there, NASA’s chief said Monday.

Before her election, Park said she would pursue a policy of “trustpolitik” of stabilizing relations with North Korea. But tensions soared even before she took office, with Pyongyang carrying out its third nuclear test days ahead of her inauguration.

Addressing a conference of space experts at George Washington University, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that despite hard economic times the United States is committed to breaking new boundaries in space exploration.

In remarks apocalyptic even by North Korea’s standards, young leader Kim Jong-Un threatened nuclear war against the United States and South Korea.

“A human mission to Mars is today the ultimate destination in our solar system for humanity, and it is a priority for NASA. Our entire exploration program is aligned to support this goal,” Bolden said.

“It is with this vision in mind that I hope to work toward an international park inside the DMZ. It will be a park that sends a message of peace to all of humanity,” she said.

Friction has appeared to ebb in the past week, with a US defense official saying that North Korea moved from launch sites two mid-range Musudan missiles -- meaning, at least for now, that there would be no imminent launch.

Park said that North Korea had to respond first to build trust, telling the joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives: “As we say in Korea, it takes two hands to clap.”

Park stood by her and Obama’s insistence against offering any concessions to end the latest crisis cycle, saying South Korea “will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.”

But the South Korean leader said that she hoped to develop a broader peace initiative for Northeast Asia, where friction involving regional heavyweights China and Japan have also been on the rise.

South Korea “is backed by the might of our alliance. So long as this continues, you may rest assured -- no North Korean provocation can succeed,” she said to one of the loudest ovations from US lawmakers.

“We cannot afford to put off a multilateral dialogue process in Northeast Asia. Together, the United States and other Northeast Asian partners could start with softer issues,” she said.

Few anticipate breakthroughs with North Korea, but analysts saw Park’s approach -- a firm stance alongside the United States, but a forward-looking openness to dialogue -- as an attempt to coax Pyongyang to change.

Relations.

“There is a window for Park to take the lead with her trustpolitik initiative, and she frankly has more political space than there is here in Washington to engage in a useful discussion at this stage,” said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign

Park, the first woman leader in Northeast Asia and daughter of slain dictator Park Chung-Hee, has used the trip to show harmony with the United States on the 60th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War.

Such cooperation could focus on environmental issues and disaster relief -- and eventually involve North Korea.

“If we start where our interests overlap, then later it will be easier to find common ground on the larger

President Barack Obama has proposed a $17.7 billion dollar budget for NASA in 2014, and he supports a “vibrant and coordinated strategy for Mars exploration,” Bolden said.

Among the first steps to sending astronauts to Mars are NASA’s plans to capture and relocate an asteroid by 2025, a process that should inform future efforts to send humans into deep space, the former astronaut said.

Also, US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko have volunteered to spend one year at the International Space Station beginning in 2015 to allow doctors to assess how long-duration zero gravity exposure affects bone density, muscle mass and vision.

Currently, a rotating cast of global astronauts each spend a maximum of six months aboard the orbiting outpost.

But despite increasing interest in landing on Mars, and a newly diverse space race that involves many more countries than old Cold War foes the United States and Russia, there is plenty that experts do not know about how to reach Mars.

For instance, there is no existing space vehicle to carry people on the seven-month or longer journey there, not to mention no plan for returning people to Earth.

Medical experts are unsure what the physical ramifications would be for people who attempt to travel in high-radiation environments for such extended periods.

And just how people would survive, breathe, eat and drink on the dry, red planet are significant obstacles that have yet to be overcome.

“The US has demonstrated that we know how to get to the Moon,” Bolden said.

“What we have not demonstrated and what I think everyone in this room -- well most people in this room will concede, is that there are technological gaps to sending humans to an asteroid and to Mars,” he added.

“And so every single moment of our time and every single dollar of our assets must be dedicated to developing those technologies that allow us to go beyond low Earth orbit, beyond the Moon.”

Park later met business leaders to mark one year since a long-debated free trade agreement entered into force between South Korea and the United States.

Pointing to resilient financial markets, Park tried to reassure US com-

The United States is the only nation that has successfully sent robotic explorers to land on Mars, the most recent being Curiosity, which touched down in August 2012.

The first-of-its-kind landing demonstrated that humans have figured out how to send a one-tonne package of machinery to Mars.

But many experts believe that the size of the package needed to maintain a human habitat on Mars would weigh more like 40 tonnes. There also needs to be a suitable flight vehicle, and a type of fuel potent enough to get it there quickly.

Perhaps a precursor to a human landing on Mars would be another rover that would land at an established site, drill down and hopefully find fresh water, said John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the science mission directorate.

“That would also be the beacon that allows subsequent missions to navigate to a very precise landing,” said Grunsfeld.

The three-day conference aims to offer a forum for experts to discuss the latest technologies. It will feature discussions on astronaut health concerns Tuesday and an address by retired celebrity astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Wednesday.

“We can’t wait until the technology is available before we go and explore,” Bolden said.

“We now stand on the precipice of a second opportunity to press forward to what I think is man’s destiny, and that is to go to another planet.” panies that tensions with Pyongyang would not affect Asia’s fourth largest economy.

“No North Korean threat can undermine the Korean economy when its fundamentals are as strong as they are,” she told the US Chamber of Commerce.

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VOICE OF ASIA 11

LIFESTYLE

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Vol. 26

No. 19

by Suzanne Mustacich

B

ORDEAUX - Do those New World Cabernets and Zinfandels make your head spin?

Fed up with having to stop drinking after just one glass?

Friday, May 10, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Rising alcohol levels give wine lovers a headache

The Roca brothers, Joan, Jordi, and Josep, had already wowed critics and diners worldwide with a cutting edge technique and cooking rooted in Spanish and Catalan traditions, earning them three Michelin stars.

Wine critics and advances in winemaking techniques also shoulder some of the blame for what experts say are unbalanced wines that can cause health risks and safety issues, casting a pall over the pleasure of imbibing.

Over the last two decades, drinkers have developed a passion for fruity, aromatic wines with round, silky tannins, encouraged by high ratings from critics.

Even for growers who favour elegance over “fruit bombs”, the quest for ripe tannins has led to grapes with more sugar, which transforms during fermentation into higher alcohol levels.

“I would stress that higher alcohol levels are never our aim, but rather the logical consequence of the way we work in the vineyards today, which has evolved considerably compared to how it was 20 or more years ago,” says Christian Seely, managing director of AXA Millesime’s wine estates in France and Portugal.

A couple of decades ago, yields were twice what they are today, and very little sorting was done to select the best fruit.

The alcohol levels might have been lower, but the tannins were often unripe, requiring years of cellaring to soften.

Today vintners look for mature tannins in the grape skins and seeds -- phenolic ripeness in the industry jargon -- before the harvest, even if it means higher sugar content.

“It is important to understand that the effect of achieving more regularly greater phenolic ripeness is not just to achieve higher sugar levels and so higher potential alcohol levels, but also, crucially, riper and finer tannins,” Seely told AFP. “We choose the date of picking based on our tasting of the grapes, but also on our analyses of polyphenols and IPTs (total phenolics), which usually indicate the optimum phenolic

by Elodie CUZIN IRONA, Spain- Three brothers in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region who snatched the title for the world’s best restaurant, the Celler de Can Roca, humbly trace their inspiration to their mum’s cooking.

But it seems they have only themselves to blame as experts say that changing consumer tastes are mainly responsible for driving the trend.

“The rise in alcohol content of wine is primarily man-made,” reported a working paper by the American Association of Wine Economists in 2011.

Owners of world’s top restaurant look to mum’s cooking

G

Plenty of wine lovers around the world will have noticed their favourite tipples are getting stronger, and many of them are unhappy about the hangovers that come with increased alcohol levels.

A glass of red wine in front of the Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte vineyard in Leognan, southwestern France. —AFP (File) Photo ripeness a couple of days after the desired sugar levels,” he said.

But wine drinkers now say the alcohol levels have gone too far.

“Going from drinking two glasses of wine with 12-percent alcohol to a similar amount of wine that contains 14-percent alcohol could put you from under to over the legal limit for driving,” said Michael Apstein, a columnist, gastroenterologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

“We all enjoy wine, but we enjoy balanced wine. As soon as you get 14, 15 and 15.5 percent, you don’t have balanced wines,” added Laurent Audeguin, a selection, research and development manager at the French Vine and Wine Institute (IFV).

-- Climate change compounds problem -At the same time, there is little interest in spoiling the party with the return of thin wines with unripe tannins.

Climate change, while not the only factor, is compounding the problem.

“Global warming is a bigger and bigger concern in the industry, because every year we have higher sugar content,” Audeguin said.

“We now face erratic rainfall, and less rainfall during the growing season, mainly in the Mediterranean vineyards, so we have to find varieties well-adapted to those conditions.”

One option, says Audeguin, is to introduce grape varieties that deliver lower alcohol in hot, dry growing conditions.

With this in mind, the IFV has scoured southern Europe for likely

candidates to import into France.

Tel: 713-774-5140

But four years after now-closed Catalan restaurant El Bulli was recognised as the best in the world, their Celler de Can Roca has taken the same spot in a vote of food critics and industry leaders organised by British magazine Restaurant.

“The best restaurant in the world does not exist, each one has its own thing, so you have to look at it with a bit of per-

and $215), accompanied by wines at 55 euros and 85 euros.

But it is nestled in a working-class district of Girona just down the road from the Can Roca restaurant-bar run by their parents Josep Roca and Montserrat Fontane, both pensioners, where the brothers first learned their trade. There, a handful of staff cook up a menu of the day for just 10 euros.

“Cooking will be good if it comes from the heart. At the end of the day what my mother does is not so different from what we do,” said Joan, wearing his white chef’s tunic.

The difference between the two establishments is the “complexity”, he said.

“People come here to live experiences,” Jordi added.

“It is a cuisine that aims to pay homage to this land but which is also open to dialogue with science, technolo-

“We are selecting grape varieties from south Italy, the Greek Peloponnese islands, Spain and Portugal. We don’t breed these, we just try to import these varieties and see how they perform in France. The plan is to have some varieties authorised in France within five years,” said Audeguin.

Vintners are also experimenting with new strategies in pruning, leaf canopy management and irrigation.

In the meantime, low-alcohol wines are increasingly popular.

Domaines Auriol, based in Languedoc-Roussillon, produces So’ Light, a wine with nine-percent alcohol content that appeared on American store shelves last January.

In Britain, according to Chris Wisson, a senior drinks analyst at Mintel, the low-alcohol wine market is worth 23 million pounds ($36 million, 27 million euros) with strong growth pushed by government taxes on alcohol and health concerns.

“The rising price of wine has made people try low-alcohol wines, and there is certainly a health side to it,” said Wisson. Demand, he says, is driven primarily by women and young drinkers aged 18 to 24.

For fine-wine stalwarts, there is another option.

“Naturally if one sees a high alcohol level on the label of a bottle you need to adjust the amount you might decide to drink accordingly, but that is just common sense,” Seely said.

Common sense? Maybe. Common practice? Maybe not!

Joan Roca (R) and Josep Roca (L) kiss their mother Montserrat Fontane (C) at the restaurant in Girona on April 30, 2013 (AFP/File, Quique Garcia) spective,” said Joan Roca, the 49-yearold chef who founded Celler 26 years ago, in an interview with AFP after returning from the awards in London.

Joan has worked for the past 16 years with his brothers, 35-year-old pastry and desert chef Jordi, who is renowned for surrealist culinary creations, and 47-year-old Josep, chief sommelier in charge of a cellar of 35,000 bottles sheltering behind a facade of wooden wine crates.

The three make a “formidable team”, Restaurant magazine said.

The brothers’ restaurant, with its clean lines and large glass walls, boasts a vast kitchen where 35 cooks from around the world prepare dishes for 45 diners.

The tantalising menus on offer come in at 135 euros and 165 euros ($175

gies,” he said of El Celler’s cooking, which is famously based on perfumes.

In the kitchen, a glass apparatus containing earth from a nearby forest is extracting the “active aromas” for a dish of morel mushrooms.

Meanwhile pastry chef Jordi tastes each of his team’s plates before serving: tiny Bergamot orange macaroons, lime-scented apples, and cocoa and ginger biscuits.

On his workbench you can see flasks of the perfumes the brothers use as inspiration, including the scent Shalimar de Guerlain, which produced a tea, rose and fruity mix, and a lemon perfume, which forms the base of his star desert, Lemon Cloud, made with Bergamot orange cream, lemon and madeleine cakes. “We created it thinking of children, of the family,” Jordi said.

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LEISURE

VOICE OF ASIA 12

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Scented underpants for men, Altitude sickness? Try a mug a ‘Made in France’ special of Bolivian coca beer

by Marianne Barriaux

by Jose Arturo Cardenas

P

L

ARIS - A company that specialises in “Made in France” underwear has raised nearly 19,000 euros ($25,000) from enthusiastic investors banking on its next titillating creation -- sweet-smelling underpants for men.

A PAZ, (AFP) - A Bolivian brewer has come up with an innovative solution for quenching thirst and coping with altitude sickness: coca beer, based on the same leaf used to make cocaine.

The so-called “Indomitable” briefs will be manufactured by “Le Slip Francais”, a company set up in 2011 by 27-year-old Guillaume Gibault, who decided to bank on a trend for all things made in France to sell underwear.

Coca has only recently acquired its nefarious reputation: for millennia, people living along the Andes mountains have chewed coca leaves.

The juice from the leaves has a mild stimulant effect, easing stomach pain and helping people from the lowlands cope with altitude sickness, known locally as soroche.

“You want to change the world, you want to change things, start by changing your underpants!” the firm writes on crowdfunding website www. mymajorcompany.com, where it has already raised close to 19,000 euros.

The idea behind crowdfunding is that anyone on the Internet can contribute money to a project, in some cases in exchange for shares in a company or other rewards.

Gibault told AFP the briefs will be scented thanks to microcapsules full of homemade perfume that will be incorporated into the cotton used to make the underpants in the Lille region of northern France.

As soon as the lucky owner of the briefs moves around, the capsules will release the perfume and the scent will last up to 30 washes, he says.

“It’s quite a masculine perfume, not very strong, based on musk and pears,” he said.

Lables of “Le Slip Francais” being stitched. AFP Photo “Le Slip Francais” has become something of a success story in France, which is suffering badly from lack of competitiveness and a general perception of hostility towards business owners and entrepreneurs.

It employs five people in its Paris headquarters, and outsources the manufacture of the underwear to factories in different parts of France, including Lille and the southwestern Dordogne region.

The firm has so far sold some 20,000 of its red, white, blue and black briefs, and plans to develop its presence abroad, with Japanese people proving to be particularly enthusiastic clients.

Gibault says the company is already profitable, adding that the whole project shows “that we are capable of innovating in France”.

“Le Slip Francais” had originally intended to raise 10,000 euros for the scented briefs, but has surpassed that amount by far and could still get a lot more before a June 3 deadline it set on its crowdfunding page -- http://www.mymajorcompany.com/projects/sentez-bondu-slip#home Supporters will get a range of rewards for their donations, ranging from a key ring to becoming the face -- or body of -- the new underpants when the firm’s advertising drive begins.

Freeze your wedding memories in 3D video PRASAD JOSHI Marriages are made in heaven and celebrated on earth but are captured best in 3D. The 3D technology, confined so far to films and games, is being increasingly used to record weddings and other family functions in the city.

Affordable, these 3D family videos can be viewed using a TV and DVD player and no state-of-the-art electronic appliance is needed.

They can also be seen on computers and projected screens.

Yogesh Dhede, who pioneered the art of shooting 3D family videos in Pune, said shooting weddings and such events in 3D is new to Puneites, but is picking up.

“I have made 3D videos of

about 11 customers this year’s wedding season. All of them were initially excited to hear the concept of shooting their wedding ceremony in 3D. And, when they saw it, the joy of families was worth seeing,” he told Newsline.

While the cost of a 3D video is almost double that of 2D video, customers receive a set of both while placing orders for 3D video. They also get a set of goggles needed for 3D viewing.

“It is understood that every time it cannot be possible for families or guests to wear goggles and watch 3D videos of weddings or other function.

Therefore, we also offer 2D videos with our package. Customers get value for money even if they think they are pay-

ing more,” Yogesh said, who has spent around Rs 3 lakh on experimenting and devising the technique of 3D shoots for households.

Irfan Khan, an entrepreneur who tied the knot in October last year and had frozen the moment on 3D video, said it was an unbelievable experience to watch scenes of the marriage in 3D. “It was an enthralling experience for all of us when we watching the video for the first time. I could impress my better half and in-laws at one go,” he said.

Jyoti Pathak, who has decided to settle for nothing less than a 3D video for her elder son’s wedding, said, “It was great to hear weddings can be filmed using 3D technology.” Courtesy: Indianexpress.com)

Star Plus soap star confirmed to attend The Oak Tree Shopping Festival!

RASHI of SAATH NIBHANA SAATHIYA is confirmed to attend and shop at the Oak Tree Shopping Festival, scheduled for the weekend of May 18 and 19, 2013.

Developed by Touchdown Media, the event is being organized to boost local business and bring all that Oak Tree has to offer to the forefront and once again establish it as the

premier South Asian shopping destination. This annual 2-day extravaganza will be held in the heart of the original ‘Little India’ in Iselin NJ. “Encouraged by the astounding success last year, we are yet again bringing this festival for the people and the businesses to get a jump start on the shopping season,” says Rahul Walia, Founder of the Oak Tree Shopping Festival and CEO, Touchdown Media Inc. Featuring deep discounts and special deals at Oak Tree Road’s finest shops and restaurants, this second Annual Festival promises to draw a crowd of families from the East Coast and beyond. Merchants will offer discounts anywhere from 30% to an unprecedented 70% on clothes, jewelry, fashion along with a unique promotion on food – a Restaurant Week-

end with varied specials for the throngs of shoppers. A $5 loyalty card can be purchased at participating restaurants so customers can get FREE items at those restaurants at each visit.

Mayor of Woodbridge Township – John E. McCormac, has congratulated Touchdown Media for organizing this event and said “On behalf of Woodbridge Township we encourage the entire community to experience the Oak Tree Road Shopping Festival and to take advantage of the best “shopping” ever.”

The Oak Tree Shopping festival promises to deliver a oneof-a-kind shopping experience for its attendees. So whether you’re a regular or visiting Oak Tree Road for the first time, be sure to join the festivities at the Oak Tree Shopping Festival this May 18th and 19th!

Visitors to high mountain cities like La Paz -- located 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) above sea level -- often rest and drink coca tea to deal with soroche.

Now there is another option.

“As good Germans we love beer,” said Hamburg native Malina, who sipped her beer along with her traveling companion Timo. The friends are students in their late 20s traveling across South America.

“There are many types in Germany, but this coca beer is good because here in La Paz it helps us handle altitude sickness,” she said.

She compared the taste to Hefeweizen, a full-bodied unfiltered wheat beer from Bavaria.

Her companion agreed.

“This is a very good beer, just like that from southern Germany, but not as heavy -- and the alcohol gets to you faster,” he said.

The beer in question is called Ch’ama, or “Strength” in the Aymara language of the Lake Titicaca area natives. It is made from malt, yeast, hops and soaked coca leaves, with no additives or preservatives.

The beer is in demand among tourists “who want to try

A woman sells Ch’ama -- a beer made from soaked coca leaves -at a street market in La Paz, on May 2, 2013 (AFP, Aizar Raldes) something new,” said Alejandra Orihuela, owner of a bar named K’umara (“Healthy” in Aymara).

She said that a group of German and American tourists liked it so much they came by several times a day for their coca beer, “as if it were breakfast and lunch.”

Coca beer has been produced since 2011 by Cerveceria Vicos, a brewery based in the southeastern city of Sucre.

“This is a highly fermented white beer with five percent alcohol content, unfiltered, unpasteurized, and has the moderate aroma, color and flavor of coca leaf and hops,” Vicos owner and manager Victor Escobar told AFP. He claims the beverage is an “energizing” tonic.

Bolivia and towns just across the borders with Peru and Chile.

But what about coca leaves and that nasty illegal drug cocaine?

Cocaine is also produced by soaking coca leaves, but instead of water drug dealers use kerosene, gasoline and chemicals like hydrochloric acid and ammonia. A solution from the leaves is then filtered, refined and crystallized.

Bolivia opposes the use of cocaine, but deplores the demonization of the coca plant.

President Evo Morales, a former head of the country’s coca growers union, is a strong supporter of finding legal ways of using the plant and of rehabilitating its reputation.

To produce Ch’ama coca beer, Escobar first soaks coca leaves in water, then adds malted barley and hops until the mix reaches its proper consistency. After a 20-day fermentation process, the concoction is bottled.

Bolivia withdrew from the Vienna-based UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs last year, angry that the coca leaf was labeled an illegal drug. It was readmitted in January after winning an opt-out allowing its population to keep legally chewing the leaves.

Cerveceria Vicos is a small brewery, producing 10 hectoliters of coca beer a day.

The coca bush grows exclusively in the eastern slopes of the Andes.

Retail prices vary, but Ch’ama beer sells for up to $3.60 per bottle. It is sold in

Bolivia is the world’s third largest producer of coca leaves after Peru and Colombia.

Texting while driving?

W

ashington Forty-three per cent of US high school students admit to texting while driving - a “national epidemic” in the country according to a new study.

More than four in 10 of high school students of driving age, who were surveyed in 2011, reported texting while driving at least once in the past 30 days, according to a study to be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington.

“Texting while driving has become, in the words of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a ‘national epidemic’,” said principal investigator Alexandra Bailin, a research assistant at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York.

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the US, and using a phone while driving significantly increases the risk of accidents in this age group, AAP News, the official news magazine of The American Academy of Pediatrics, reported.

The specific act of texting while

This event will be free to attend and open to the public May 18th and May 19th, 1pm – 6pm.

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Like us on Facebook at Oak Tree Road Shopping Festival 2013.

Forty-three per cent of US high school students admit to texting while driving: study (AP) driving has been found to raise the risk of a crash by 23 times, leading many to conclude that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated.

“Although teens may be developmentally predisposed to engage in risk-taking behaviour, reducing the prevalence of texting while driving is an obvious and important way to ensure the health and safety of teen drivers, their passengers and the surrounding public,” Bailin said.

Bailin and her colleagues analysed data from the 2011 Youth Risk Behaviour Survey of 7,833 high school students who were old enough to get a driver’s license in their state.

Survey results showed that males were more likely to text while driving than females (46 per cent vs 40 per cent), and the prevalence of texting increased with age (52 per cent of those over 18 years vs 26 per cent of 15-year-olds).

(PTI)

VOICE OF ASIA 13

BOLLYWOOD MASALA

Friday, May 10, 2013

by Rupam Jain Nair

N

EW DELHI (AFP) - India’s all-powerful censor board is planning a lighter approach to Bollywood after decades chopping tens of thousands of film scenes, from onscreen kisses to violent endings.

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

India plans to relax Bollywood censorship

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Tel: 713-774-5140

Singer Shreya Ghoshal performs at London’s Royal Albert Hall

Set up by British rulers in the 1920s to block US movies with anti-colonial sentiment, the board went on to cut Indian films as much for their supposedly racy content as for their political overtones.

But as the country rapidly modernises, the government must walk the tightrope of catering to a more liberal, youthful India without angering still deeply conservative strands of society.

“The rules are old. We have to write them with a modern and honest outlook. The Indian value system has changed hence censor rules must change,” admitted R. Singh, joint secretary of the film department in New Delhi.

The government attempted to show its more open-minded approach at the recent “Cut-Uncut” festival in the capital, which screened originally censored film clips for the first time as part of Indian cinema’s centenary celebrations.

Directors such as Ramesh Sippy, who made the Hindi action blockbuster “Sholay” (Embers) in 1975, also had the chance to vent their anger at censorship culture.

Sippy said he was forced to change his film’s plotline at the insistence of the censors, who decided it was too violent.

“The board said: ‘We will tell you how to end the movie’, and I was forced to shoot the ending again. I realised that if I keep fighting, my film’s release will not be allowed.”

K. Hariharan, a critically-acclaimed filmmaker from south India, said he felt like “an anxious student waiting for his performance card” whenever censors watched his film.

He thinks it is time to disband the board, which he sees as a colonial remnant that restricts freedom of expression -- an idea that the government may slowly be agreeing with.

“This whole business of brutally chopping scenes or forcing the filmmakers to alter the climax will have to end,” said Singh, who oversees the task of issuing certificates to all Indian movies.

A more relaxed approach is already allowing filmmakers to experiment.

Aamir Khan tested the limits in 2011 with comedy “Delhi Belly”, a film that outraged conservative critics for its toilet humour and dialogue strewn with profanities, which surprisingly passed the censors uncut.

Despite protests at cinemas and even a court case on charges of obscenity and insulting religion, the movie ran to full houses and became a cult hit for its reflection of young people in modern, urban India.

Censors admit that regulating content is becoming an unwieldy job in a country of 1.2 billion, which has witnessed an explosion in its television and media industry along with growing Internet access.

In the last two decades, the country went from having two just state-run

channels to nearly 400 private ones, and filmmakers are increasingly keen to get their work on the small screen to generate more revenue.

But as censor board chief Pankaja Thakur points out, they run a greater risk of being chopped on television.

In April last year “The Dirty Picture”, a popular film about the life of a 1980s Indian soft-porn star, was stopped hours before its television premiere after two court petitions objected to its content.

It took 60 cuts before it was allowed on to the screen.

“Television is a much more mass medium than the movie halls, so we have to ensure that content on TV is suitable,” Thakur said.

The censors’ dilemma reflects a larger debate about freedom of expression in India, which is proud of its status as the world’s largest democracy but can also be quick to enact bans for fear of provoking agitation.

In 2011, northern states banned “Aarakshan” (Reservation), which tackled the thorny issue of caste quotas in government jobs and education,

because they said it “could incite civil disorder and violence”.

Southern Tamil Nadu state in January forced spy thriller “Vishwaroopam” out of cinemas after Muslim groups complained that they were portrayed negatively, until the director finally agreed to make alterations.

Objections to sex or nudity have mainly come from conservative Hindu groups who see themselves as champions of traditional Indian values -- and censors too still see their role partly as one of “moral guardianship”.

They recently decided to take a more stringent approach to the “item number” -- a sexually-charged song-anddance sequence that has come under growing fire as India debates its treatment of women after a spate of shocking sex crimes.

MUMBAI, - It is seen as a land of entrepreneurs, economic growth and huge business potential, but India appears to be failing its promising startup companies which are struggling to find investors.

While there is no lack of ideas among the country’s vast young population, funding is declining from venture capitalists and rich “angel” investors, as they are known, who are often crucial to a young firm’s success.

“Risk-taking appetite from investors is low,” said Internet entrepreneur Nameet Potnis, who is trying to address the problem by setting up Nurtured.in, a platform to connect startups with early-stage investors.

“It is easy to set up an online business in India but very difficult to do business,” he told AFP.

Singer Shreya Ghoshal performed at the London’s Royal Albert Hall, calling the experience a “dream come true”.

The 29-year-old’s concert last night was a full house with thousands of Indian in attendance.

“Thank you London for giving me this high tonight. Being able to per-

form here at the Royal Albert Hall itself was a dream come true. And you just elevated this experience of a lifetime to just another level. Thank you for being this brilliant audience,” she tweeted.

“This is the first time I haven’t felt homesick even after touring for the last 2 weeks.. I could continue. Not one bit exhausted!,” she added.

Salman Khan may tie the knot soon: Tabloid reports

Others say it is up to the filmmakers and audiences to bring about a change.

“Ours is a really difficult job,” said Thakur.

“We want to have a liberal approach and respect artistic endeavour, but at the same time we have to address the smallest possible objection.”

India’s startups lacking guardian ‘angels’

by Salil Panchal

Shreya Ghoshal

Three decades after businessman N.R. Narayana Murthy and six other Indians sat around a kitchen table and formed leading IT outsourcer Infosys, the country is yet to create a favourable business environment for new entrepreneurs.

Just five percent of thousands of Indian startups get funds from sources external to friends and family, analysts say.

It is one of the toughest countries in the world for a startup to flourish, according to a 2012 report by US-based research firm Startup Genome.

Venture capitalists invested $1.09 billion through 222 deals in 2011, but this dropped by 30 percent to $762 million through 206 deals in 2012, according to researchers at Venture Intelligence, based in southern Chennai city.

Salman Khan was seen with his mystery blonde girl in Bandra

by Sarika Sharma :

N

EW DELHI - Bollywood’s most eligible bachelor Salman Khan is soon going to enter the married men’s club.

According to a report published in Mid-Day.com the Dabangg Khan has a new girl in his life.

The report says that he was recently spotted with a blonde girl in Bandra.

The mystery girl is none other than Romanian Television actress and anThe decline could not come at a worse time for the young Indian professionals and business graduates who are risking branching out on their own, after losing or quitting lucrative jobs amid the global downturn.

India’s own economic growth slowed to an estimated 5.0 percent for the fiscal year that ended March, its slowest

chor Iulia Vantur, whom the actor has known for over two years now.

The report has it that Salman and Iulia have been spotted together almost everyday at a five-star hotel in Bandra.

Salman has, in the past, dated actresses Somy Ali, Sangeeta Bijlani, Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif but has never been public about any of his relationships. But going by this recent report, the Bodyguard actor is serious about taking his relationship to the next level. rate in a decade, but that has not deterred many youngsters from trying to turn their ideas into businesses.

Some of India’s well-established startups include Nasdaq-listed online travel firm makemytrip.com, shopping website Flipkart and digital entertainment company Hungama.

Continued on Page 14

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ENTERTAINMENT

VOICE OF ASIA 14

D

Dubai Hosts 6th Annual Malayalam Music Awards

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

never perform together again even though they all remain friends.

In an interview with AFP, he

Djurgaarden, visitors can pretend to be the fifth member of the band, appearing on stage with the foursome and record-

admitted that he had initially been lukewarm towards the idea of becoming a museum piece, and that the three others -- Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, Agnetha Faeltskog and Benny Andersson -- had reacted the same way.

“The others were like, ‘a museum, no, really?’ ... but we were all won over by the idea,” he said.

“A museum, that’s something permanent, it’ll be in the guidebooks!”

The quartet dominated the 1970s disco scene with their glitzy costumes, kitsch dance routines and catchy melodies such as “Voulez Vous”, “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo”, the song that won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and thrust the band into the international spotlight.

The group has sold some 378 million albums worldwide.

The museum was unveiled to the press on Monday and a VIP event in the evening was to be attended by Ulvaeus, Lyngstad and Andersson -- or Bjoern, Frida and Benny, as they’re better known.

Agnetha Faeltskog told Swedish television SVT recently that she will be in London promoting her latest solo album and would not attend the opening.

ing a song with them in a computer simulation.

Another room dedicated to the song “Ring, Ring” features a 1970s telephone, to which only the four band members have the phone number. They are expected to occasionally call to speak live with museum visitors.

Other rooms will feature childhood photos, the band’s costumes, replicas of their recording studio and dressing rooms, and their stylist’s worktable.

Visitors will get the inside story told “with humour and warmth. They’ll get close to the truth,” said Ulvaeus, who was married to Faeltskog.

Andersson and Lyngstad were also married.

“We also talk about daily life, life with the children, our break-up, the crises, things we haven’t talked much about, the divorces. We’ve gone beyond the happy image that we presented,” he told AFP. All the band members participated in the creation of the museum, donating items and working closely with curator Ingmarie Halling, who was the band’s stylist.

Discarding his initial scepticism, Ulvaeus has been heavily involved in the museum project, for which he is the main financier.

“I told myself: I have to do everything I can to make it as good as possible,” he explained. “This is a story worth telling!”

Yet it is one he has yet to tell his own grandchildren, including his five-year-old granddaughter.

“I think I’ll write her a little fairytale: ‘Once upon a time there was a little boy in a little town somewhere in Sweden, who received a guitar as a Christmas present when he was 11 years old...,’” he mused.

UBAI -- The 6th annual Malayalam Music Awards was held in Dubai Wonderland, on April 26th of 2013. The award show is the Grammys of the Malayalam Music industry of the Middle East. In years past, renowned playback singer Padma Shri K.J. Yesudas, Sridevi, Vidhya Balan, Karishma Kapoor and others have graced the event.

This year, Padma Shri., Lt. Col. Mohanlal did the honors of serving as the Chief Guest.

Rachel Varghese from Houston, Texas was invited as a Guest of Honor, to inaugurate the Gulf show going global.

Rachel has been instrumental as a cultural ambassador between the US and India for years in her work with non-

Chief Guest Padma Shri., Lt. Col. Mohanlal and Guest of Honor, Rachel Varghese

Chief Guest Lt. Col. Mohanlal seen with other guests at the function. profits through events. Her company, Reel Volume Promotions creates multi-media events in the US and in India. Musicians from the Malay-

alm Film industry graced the event with their talent and contributions to films.

Other Guests of Honor at the

Rachel Varghese is from Houston, Texas event included famed violinist L. Subramaniam, renowned Playback singer Kavitha Krishnamoorthy and the critically acclaimed Malayalam Film Director Blessy. The show will air soon on Asianet Television.

ABBA the Museum revives 1970s disco ‘Dancing Queen’ icons

by Camille BAS-WOHLERT STOCKHOLM, May 06, 2013 (AFP) - Sweden’s iconic disco group ABBA has no plan for a reunion, but a new Stockholm museum opening on Tuesday will offer the secondbest opportunity to experience the foursome on stage.

“In the museum you can see us together again. That I think is the closest you could ever get,” band member Bjoern Ulvaeus, a youthful-looking 68-year-old, joked in front of a group of reporters Monday.

ABBA The Museum expects to draw a quarter million visitors before the end of the year, showing that nearly 40 years after they broke onto the world music scene, the Scandinavian superstars have lost none of their lustre.

Ulvaeus stressed that the band, which split in 1983, will

This picture taken on May 6, 2013 in Stockholm shows a visitor at the world’s first permanent ABBA museum (AFP, Jonathan Nackstrand).

India’s startups lacking guardian....

Startup village” is nurturing young engineers and aims to launch 1,000 Internet and mobile firms in 10 years.

Continued from Page 13 In recent years, ventures have branched into areas as varied as pet care, gaming, restaurant guides and e-learning, and the startup bug is spreading into smaller Indian cities.

“More companies are coming up and not that much... money is being put in,” said Sampad Swain, an entrepreneur who founded “Instamojo”, which helps to sell digital downloads.

Jubin Mehta of Yourstory. in, an online site which tracks startups and entrepreneurs, said venture capitalists tend to look over 200 ideas before investing in one.

“Roughly 500 startups come up each month. And less than five percent -- only about 25 -- receive external funding,” he said.

such as Nischal Shetty’s Twitter application “justunfollow”, which has more than three million registered users including 10,000 paid customers.

Kulin Shah, an entrepreneur and former venture capitalist, said angel investors have become more demanding in the current economic climate, trying to avoid getting their money blocked in ventures for too long.

When he set it up three years ago, he generated revenues from day one despite a lack of enthusiasm from external investors.

Angels are increasingly unwilling to fund firms that are clones of foreign startups or face intense competition, such as online car rentals, car pools and best-deal ventures, Shah said.

There are a few signs of hope for budding entrepreneurs.

But too much caution can prevent investors spotting a hit,

“Angels asked me: how will you make money from this?” he said.

In southern Kochi city, a massive glass-and-metal campus called “Startup village” is nurturing young engineers and aims to launch 1,000 Internet and mobile firms in 10 years.

But some fans are hoping that Agnetha will make a surprise appearance nonetheless.

Outside the museum early Monday, a group of about 50 ABBA lovers stood around hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous foursome.

“They told us Agnetha wasn’t coming but my gut feeling is that she’ll be here,” Patricia, a 47-year-old who came from Belgium with two friends for the opening, told AFP. At the state-of-the-art fivestorey museum, located on Stockholm’s leafy island of

HEALTHY LIVING HEALTH

VOICE OF ASIA 15

Friday, May 10, 2013

Section 2

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Tel: 713-774-5140

300,000 day-old babies die each year in India: report

Pro-biotics Inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux, peptic ulcers , H. pylori infection. and many immune related illnesses such as allergies, asthma, and lupus.

those most in need.

More than half of all Indian women give birth without the help of skilled health care professionals, leading to infections and complications.

In far-flung areas, doctors and hospitals are rare and villagers often put the health of their children in the hands of poorly trained substitutes.

But even in cities such as New Delhi with relatively better healthcare facilities women are delivering at home, said Sharmila Lal, a Delhi-based gynaecologist.

“Even if hospitals are near at hand, the women are having babies at home in a highly unsafe and unhygienic environment just because of lack of awareness,” Lal added.

India accounts for 29 percent of all newborn deaths worldwide

by Abhaya Srivastava NEW DELHI, (AFP) - More than 300,000 babies die within 24 hours of being born in India each year from infections and other preventable causes, a report said Tuesday, blaming a lack of political will and funding for the crisis.

India accounts for 29 percent of all newborn deaths worldwide, according to the charity Save the Children which published the findings at the launch of its annual State of the World’s Mothers report.

The report on 186 countries showed South Asia -- which

accounts for 24 percent of the world’s population -- recording 40 percent of the world’s firstday deaths.

Bangladesh and Pakistan also have large numbers of yearly first-day deaths at 28,000 and 60,000 with chronic malnourishment of mothers one of the major factors for the fatalities in the region.

“Progress has been made, but more than 1,000 babies die every day on their first day of life from preventable causes throughout India, Pakistan and Bangladesh,” said Mike Novell, the regional director of the charity.

The charity identified three major causes of newborn deaths -- complications during birth, prematurity and infections -- and said access to lowcost, life-saving interventions could cut down the figures by as much as 75 percent.

“What is lacking is the political will and funding to deliver these solutions to all the mothers and babies who need them,” it said.

A decade of rapid economic growth has allowed India to boost spending on poor and rural communities but Save the Children said most such programmes had not benefited

Lal said India must invest in creating a pool of paramedical staff trained in childbirth to take the load off doctors “who often don’t have time or patience to explain simple lifesaving measures to expectant mothers”.

The charity said the problem of infant mortality could be addressed by closing the equity gap in a developing country like India where economic benefits have been shared unequally.

“If all newborns in India experienced the same survival rates as newborns from the richest Indian families, nearly 360,000 more babies would survive each year,” the report said.

Factors that reduce the amount of probiotics are:

David Jeyaraj, MD

T

he term “pro-biotics” refers to multiple species of bacteria and yeast that colonize the intestines. They include the lactobacilli. Bacteria Bifidum, Saccharomyces and many more . Their presence in the intestines is of much benefit to our health and well-being.

Some of the benefits of probiotics are • They conquer potentially dangerous intestinal organisms.

• Reduce the risk of infection or toxin mediated disease.

• Regulate immune responses and suppress excessive inflammation.

• Promote the integrity of the intestinal lining.

The loss of probiotics is associated with many chronic illnesses including

by Vidya Krishnan The Save the Children charity organization questioned the gains made under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)

in containing infant and maternal mortality because India has the highest incidence of maternal deaths and a 29% share of global newborn deaths.

The annual State of the World’s Mothers report found that 56,000 mothers die annually while 309,000 babies die within the first 24 hours of be-

Sex ‘superbug’ may be more infectious than AIDS

ing born in India every year.

The newborn deaths are attributed to preventable reasons such as poor hygiene and high infection rates, the report said.

The non-governmental organization has attributed the high rate of maternal and infant deaths to a lack of political will and inequity.

While India has made impressive economic growth, the benefits haven’t been shared equally, leading to a high disparity in the survival rates of the rich and the poor, the authors of the report noted.

“If all newborns in India experienced the same survival rates as newborns from the richest Indian families, nearly 360,000 more babies would survive each year,” the report said.

Experts maintain that maternal and neonatal mortality can’t be addressed by the health system alone.

Antibiotic use

•

Processed foods

•

Pollution

•

Normal aging.

Studies have shown that probiotic use results in improved hypertension, lower total cholesterol and LDL and improved insulin sensitivity.

Natural sources of probiotics include fermented vegetables including pickle, sauerkraut, kimchi and fermented dairynatural yoghurt and kefir.

I advise my paients to take a probiotic supplement such as acidophilus tablets (35 BU or higher) 3 times a day with food. This is one of the rare instances in which the artificial supplement is more effective than that found naturally in food. The reason is this: Acid in the stomach kills most organisms including probiotics and so the heavier load found in the capsules and tablet forms have a better chance of making it through.

WATER THERAPY - Part 1

India has the highest incidence of maternal deaths, finds report 56,000 mothers die in India annually, according to ‘State of the World’s Mothers’ report by Save the Children charity organization

•

Dr. Hiten Patel

Water is life Water is the most abundant element in our body. Approximately 73% of our bodies are made up water. Just as the how the earth is three quarters water so is our body, they are identical and behave in an identical way.

Water Therapy is a very ancient method of healing the body. Thousands of years back this was known as “Usha Kaal Chikitsa”.The use of water has been recognised throughout centuries in Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilisations. It is the vital medium in which all chemical reactions of the body occur. Most reactions involve the giving and taking of water. Earth is the only planet we know, which has life because of water.

We do not even realize the fact that this earth is identi-

cal to our bodies in respect of water. All the five elements of Earth are present in the body.

Like marine animals and land animals, water cells are present in the blood as well as in the organs. It is fascinating to relate different aspects of the Earth to the body.

Like the geochemical processes that occur on Earth, all the body processes occur due to enzymatic reactions and zillions of reactions that occur in our body every second are promoted by water! Most of the reactions of the body either involve taking in or giving out of water. Just like the ocean is the medium for bulk transportation, water, in the form of blood circulates nutrients and hormones both within, and between body cells.

Authors note Three years ago, after having developed a constant low fever sensation. Even after consulting doctors and complex tests, I could not be diagnosed. Then, one day I was introduced to water therapy by a friend and within a week 1 was feeling better. Today, this feverish sensation has reduced significantly and my faith on Water therapy increased.

Extracted from Health the complimentary way. www. healththecomplimentaryway. blogspot.in

Experts have warned that the bacteria’s effects could match those of AIDS. (Thinkstock) .

W

ASHINGTONDoctors are warning of a new sexually-transmitted superbug which they fear could ultimately prove to be even more deadly than AIDS. The antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhoea – now considered a superbug - was discovered in Japan two years ago.

Experts have warned that the bacteria’s effects could match those of AIDS. “This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,” said Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.

Even though nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS related causes worldwide, Christianson believes the effect of the gonorrhoea bacteria is more direct, ‘CNBC News’ reported.

screened in 2009.

“Getting gonorrhoea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days. This is very dangerous,” Christianson said.

These superbugs kill about half the people they attack, and nearly one in 20 hospital patients become infected with one, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s an emergency situation.

As time moves on, it’s getting more hazardous,” said William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.

This gonorrhoea strain, HO41, was discovered in Japan two years ago in a 31-year-old female sex worker who had been

Since it resists current antibiotic treatment, the strain has been placed in the superbug category with other resistant bacteria, such as MRSA and CRE.

Though no deaths from HO41 have been reported, efforts to combat it must continue, Smith said.

“We have to keep beating the drum on this. The potential for disaster is great,” he said.

(PTI).

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VOICE OF ASIA 16

Friday, May 10, 2013

BUSINESS

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Tel: 713-774-5140

Study puts US immigration reform cost sky high WASHINGTON, (AFP) - Immigration reform to be debated in the US Congress would add $6.3 trillion to the deficit over the long term, a conservative think tank says in a study released Monday.

The report by the Heritage Foundation was made public a day before the period opens for amendments to be proposed to a bill presented jointly by eight senators, four from each party.

The bill creates a path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million people living in the United States illegally, but under certain conditions and after a 13-year wait, during which time they will not be entitled to any government aid.

The Heritage Foundation study argued that while illegal aliens will start to pay taxes once they register legally, when they become citizens they will be net recipients of government funds.

The study said formerly illegal aliens will receive those benefits for 50 years, if one includes their retirement pension, and says their cost to government coffers will be $9.4 trillion, while they will pay $3.1 trillion in taxes.

“They would generate a lifetime fiscal deficit (total benefits minus total taxes) of $6.3 trillion,” the study said.

It is an updated version of a text whose publication in 2007

helped derail the last attempt at immigration reform in Congress.

“If amnesty is enacted, the average adult unlawful immigrant would receive $592,000 more in government benefits over the course of his remaining lifetime than he would pay in taxes,” said the report, which shuns the term immigration reform.

It added that numbers did not take into account relatives that legalized immigrants might bring over to the United States from their native countries.

Another conservative study,

by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, who opposes the reform, said that over the long term the bill will actually benefit 30 million people.

The bill, which is backed by President Barack Obama, establishes a five-year path to citizenship for young people who came to the country as children, larger entry quotas for workers with advanced degrees and for farm workers. It also creates a new category of non-skilled workers.

“Many conservatives believe that if an individual has a job and works hard, he will inevitably be a net tax contributor (paying more in taxes than he takes in benefits). In our society, this has not been true for a very long time,” said the Heritage Foundation study.

Bangladesh shuts 18 garment factories after disaster

by Shafiq Alam DHAKA, (AFP) - Bangladesh has shut down 18 garment plants to prevent a repeat of last month’s factory collapse outside Dhaka as the death toll from the disaster climbed past 800 on Wednesday.

The announcement of the closures came days after Bangladesh agreed with the International Labour Organization to give safety “the highest consideration” amid fears that Western garment firms might start sourcing goods from elsewhere.

“Sixteen factories have been closed down in Dhaka and two in Chittagong,” textiles minister Abdul Latif Siddique told reporters in the capital, adding that more plants would be shut as part of strict new measures to ensure safety.

“We’ll ensure ILO standards in terms of compliance,” said Siddique, who heads a newly created highpowered panel to inspect the impoverished country’s 4,500 garment factories in an effort to avoid fresh disasters.

“We have seen that those who claim to be the best compliant factories in Bangladesh have not fully abided by building regulations.”

The death toll from Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster hit 803 Wednesday.

Brigadier General Siddiqul Alam Sikder told AFP the stench of bodies trapped in the lower floors and under beams indicated the toll would rise as cranes and bulldozers kept clearing debris.

“We’re expecting to find some bodies because we still haven’t reached the bottom.

We’ve finished around 70 percent of the job,” Sikder said.

Workers drawn from the army and fire service wore masks to ward off the smell as they continued to pull bodies from the rubble of the nine-storey building in the town of Savar, a suburb of Dhaka.

More than 3,000 garment workers were on shift on April 24 when the Rana Plaza complex crumbled as they were turning out clothing for Western retailers such

as Britain’s Primark and the Spanish label Mango.

A total of 2,437 people were rescued from the ruins, authorities say.

Efforts to identify bodies were being hampered by their decomposition, officials said, adding that relief workers were taking DNA samples from the victims to match with relatives.

Many bodies have been found in the staircases. Panicked workers had raced to stairwells in a rush to get out of the building after hearing a loud noise but the compound collapsed within five minutes, trapping them, officials said.

The disaster was the latest in a string of deadly accidents to hit the nation’s textile industry. In November, a factory fire killed 111 garment workers.

The government at the weekend in a joint statement with the ILO and factory owners promised a labour law reform package that would allow “the right to collective bargaining” and provide for “occupational safety and health”.

A United Nations expert group Wednesday urged international clothing brands not to pull out of the country but to work together with the government, international organisations, and civil society to address working conditions.

Pavel Sulyandziga, who heads the UN working group on business and human rights, said if companies are “linked with negative impacts on human rights through their suppliers, they have the responsibility to exercise their leverage as buyers to try to effect change”.

A preliminary government investigation blamed the collapse on the vibrations of giant electricity generators and police have arrested 12 people including the complex’s owner and four garment factory owners in connection with the disaster.

Impoverished Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter and the industry accounts for more than 40 percent of its industrial workforce and 80 percent of the nation’s exports.

Indian Rupee edges lower at 54.16 on late US dollar demand The rupee today closed down by a marginal two paise at 54.16 against the US dollar due to fagend demand for the US currency on reports of defence-related payments.

“Dollar demand for defencerelated purchases kept rupee under pressure today which made its movement range bound for the day,” said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India).

However, sustained capital inflows and strong local equities helped rupee to ease some pressure, forex dealers said.

Overseas investors pumped in Rs 976.99 crore (over USD 180 million) into domestic stocks today, according to BSE provisional data.

The rupee commenced higher at 54.10 against the dollar from yesterday’s close of 54.14 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market. It moved in a range of 54.04-54.20 before settling at 54.16, a fall of two paise, due to mild dollar demand a few minutes before closing of trade. “...Globally, the Euro was seen trading above USD 1.31 levels backed by the strong economic data from Germany.

However we feel its major trend remains bearish,” said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, India Forex Advisors.

The dollar index was down by 0.25 per cent against a basket of six major global currencies as the euro rose after German industrial output rose more than expected in March.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex today rallied by 101.23 points to 19,990.18.

“Though the rupee closed in negative terrain, it was seen supported by the upcoming stake sale and foreign fund flows. The premium for the forward dollar dropped further on continued receivings by exporters.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in October moved down to 1721/2-174 paise from previous close of 176-1/2-178 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in April also dipped to 339-341

from 344-346 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at 54.1600 and for the euro at 70.9980.

The rupee improved further against pound sterling to 83.95

from Tuesday’s close of 84.11 while remained weak against the euro to 71.07 from 71.03.

It also declined against the Japanese yen to 54.70 per 100 yen from last close of 54.58.

FEATURE

VOICE OF ASIA 17

Same-sex marriage gains traction around world

by Robert MacPherson

the making.”

W

ASHINGTON, (AFP) - While in Tokyo for the city’s first Rainbow Week, Boris Dittrich could not help but notice gay pride marchers with banners demanding marriage equality in the land of the rising sun.

“I asked why and they said, ‘Well, we’ve seen what’s happening in other countries and we feel the time has come to push for this in Japan’,” said Dittrich, the well-traveled point man for LGBT issues at Human Rights Watch.

“The world has gotten so much smaller,” the former Dutch lawmaker and gay rights activist told AFP. “When things happen in one part of the world, people (in other parts) get inspired.”

Twelve years after the Netherlands broke the long-held norm that only a man and a woman can vow to love and cherish each other “till death do us part,” support for samesex marriage is gaining global momentum.

In April, three countries -Uruguay, New Zealand and France -- recognized gay marriage, bringing the total to 14 nations in North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

That’s in addition to 10 states and the US capital Washington, where a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage is due by the end of June, as well as parts of Mexico and Brazil.

“It’s like in the movies, when someone stands up in the crowd ... and then another and another,” said Renato Sabbadini, cosecretary of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association in Brussels.

“It feels very rapid, even for me as someone who’s in it,” added Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in New York. “But it’s been decades in

The trend however is by no means universal.

In some 75 countries, including most of Africa and the Middle East, homosexuality remains a crime -- and decriminalization, not marriage, is the number-one objective for LGBT campaigners.

Nigeria, for instance, is considering a law that would imprison any gays who dare marry, while Colombia’s senate is blocking a constitutional court ruling that would allow same-sex couples to marry from June.

“We are seeing (the issue of same-sex marriage) being used as a bludgeon in places where it is not a goal,” said Roberta Sklar of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York.

In places that do have marriage equality, several factors paved the way.

“The world has become urbanized, and that’s a major factor in knocking down traditional norms,” said demographer Joseph Chamie, who’s been monitoring same-sex marriage from a global perspective for years.

That in turn has prompted a rethink of what marriage means, said Chamie, co-author with Barry Mirkin in 2011 of the first major study of samesex marriage as a global phenomenon.

Another factor is a growing acceptance of sexual minorities in mass media and popular culture, as seen just last week when basketball player Jason Collins became the first US professional athlete to “come out”.

Then there’s the simple fact that more and more people personally know someone -- a friend, a colleague, a family member -- who can freely identify themselves as gay, lesbian or transsexual.

“When visible people allow

Your Horoscope (For week beginning Friday, May 10, 2013)

Hardik Vyas, Astrologer Cell : 832-298-9950

you to frame issues not in abstract terms, but in very concrete terms, then most of the population is much more advanced and willing to concede that (LGBT) people have equal rights,” Sabbadini said.

As per Indian Vedic Astrology the Moon sign is considered, in which every Rashi has control over certain letters, which are initials of your name. Whereas in Western system of Sun Sign, all the people born in one month belong to the same sign. For example, every year approximately around 21 of March to 20th April, the Sun is moving in the Aries Constellation. So all the people born in that month belong to the Sign of Aries. If you were born in between those two dates then you are a Aries born.

Local factors come into play as well.

-- ‘Resurrection of the importance of marriage’?-In Spain, Argentina and Uruguay, where memories of dictatorship remain fresh, recognition of same-sex marriage has unfolded in the wider context of human rights and democratization -- trumping resistance from the Roman Catholic Church, which still lists homosexuality as a sin.

Aries (A,L,E) 21st. March to 20 April Need to express feelings that have built up, Be careful who you direct them at. Your anger could cause misdirected, hurtful words. Discovering new places and new ideas, new can be fascinating. You can appreciate other’s style even if you don’t understand their appeal. Your personal life may move into high gear so quickly, that your head spins off its axis! Taking a chance on any personal dynamic, especially in-laws or spouse may put you ‘on the outs’ faster than you can say. Communications are essential to following through and keeping tones and meanings clear and considerate.

Taurus

Your concentration will be very strong. You may become so engrossed in your research that you can’t stop until you find the info that you seek. Your persuasiveness and conviction will put you ahead of the pack. You may find yourself in the position of rallying others to a given realization. Coming out of a poor ‘spot’ from a culmination may have you starting the week out at ‘some level of disadvantage’. Most of you who hit this one will find it unfolds in a WIDE variety of ways such as ill health, extra work, unreasonable problems, loss/setback and grief/anxiety.

“Perhaps what we are seeing is the resurrection of the importance of marriage led by those who have been unable to marry until now,” added Cherlin, who studies the state of marriage and the American family.

Time for brilliance and original ideas, Try not to be too hasty in your comments. You’ll need to push yourself hard to get back on track. It’s an excellent time to complete research that you’ve been working on. You’ll be motivated to learn underlying causes behind someone’s behavior. Your stars show a busy and demanding early week that may drain your bank account faster/more than your patience account! Health issues, fitness, medical spending and cleaning services/products appear to take the biggest bite.

Looking forward, Chamie expects marriage equality to become the norm throughout the European Union as its member states, bound together in a common market, feel pressure to align their marriage laws.

In the United States, Carey sees a few more states hopping on the bandwagon if, as LGBT activists and their allies hope, the Supreme Court rules on the side of same-sex marriage.

The danger, she said, is that wider acceptance of marriage equality will mask other serious concerns.

Thirty-one US states define marriage in their constitutions in strict heterosexual terms -and there is no federal law that clearly prevents an employer from firing a worker for being gay, married or not.

Gemini

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(K,CHH,GH) 22 May to 21 June

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 July You are trying a new approach when addressing your own personal goals. You need to relax. You’ll be more intense with the people closest to you. Deep emotions, both positive and negative are stirred up within you. Your mind is active. You’ll think and talk fast. New ideas and passionate words should be your aim. This week starts out with a full plate and a hefty financial agenda but you’ll cut through it. Almost ‘like new’ your family dynamics, cheer level or even ‘financial picture’ may change ‘over night’ in some cases. Celebrations and enjoyable gatherings with lengthy and fulfilling exchanges are likely.

Leo (M) 23 July to 23 August You are having the ability to get your plans soaring on a new path. You may not have the patience but your initiative is definitely on the upswing now. Try not to assess your self-worth on the basis of your current work. Find your self-confidence to gain more understanding of your career direction. Emotions and lengthy discussions are likely throughout the week, and it is pivotal that you do NOT. Several small issues may need more strong focus early in the week than may appear on the surface. Avoiding mistakes, gleaning out miscalculations and making sure you and anyone you deal with are ‘ON the same page at the same time’ would ALL be good ideas this week.

Virgo (P) 24 August to - 23 September You are beautifying of your surroundings in some way which is favored now. You are feeling hospitable and want to share your comfort with close friends and family. Use your ability to nurture others who need your help. You may spend more energy trying to keep everyone ‘on the same page’ calm, focused, happy or appeased than you to accomplishing for yourself this week! Hold a good ‘sit down’ family dinner so difference can be ‘aired’. Avoid allowing members to ‘get into it’; there is just too much confusion, mixed emotions and assumptions running WILD during this time.

(R,T) 24 Sept. to 23 Oct.

Personal subjects which will be the topic of discussion, in coming days. Reminiscing, remembering, daydreaming about and reflecting on the past is likely. You’ll be able to express yourself boldly and confidently. You’ll care less about others approval thus freeing yourself to act on your intuition. Don’t let the little stuff shake you and when/if you ‘put your foot down’ on an issue, stand behind it or your ‘threats’ will carry very little weight. You are likely to have some common illness or financial challenges and the dignity with which you handle them, may make a big difference on how you are treated, respected or admired by other members this week.

UMA MANTRAVADI

(713) 787-5297

(B,V,U) 21 April to 21 May

And in the United States, “gay marriage became an issue because marriage matters as a status symbol more in the US than in other wealthy countries,” said Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin.

Libra

HOUSTON LOCATION: 6200 Savoy Dr., Ste. 414 Houston, TX 77036

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

Scorpio (N,Y) 24 Oct. to 23 Nov. You are being in a philosophical mood. Your visions aren’t always practical so give them the test of time to see if they can be turned into reality. Conversations, sharing plans and ideas can be very fruitful now. You can make yourself clearly understood and also comprehend other’s concerns. Spending due to losses from not fixing needs on TIME or ‘right way the first attempt’ are likely. Going from ‘one extreme to the other’ is also a form of ‘duality’ and you may find that one ‘play out’ in your career life.

Sagittarius

(BH,F,DH,TH) 23. Nov. to 21 Dec.

You are feeling more impressionable and open. However you may feel far less precise and clear mentally. Your psychic sensitivity will be heightened. Use your wit to display your charm. You’ll come across as being quite clever once you put new energy into your groundwork for a new adventure. It is NOT going to make this an ‘easy’ week but if you hustle your duties in as quickly as possible, you can MAKE it easier on yourself.

Capricorn

(KH,J) 22 Dec. to 20 Jan.

You are helping people to see things from a better perspective. You’ll be able to settle your differences without giving up your individuality or beliefs. Communicate your ideas and insights to find others who are like-minded. Your magnetism will lead you to many new social and professional networks. You are GOING to need to focus on all the ‘small crap’ errands, basic needs, making them ‘feel’ they are heard, addressing issues even if you have NO intentions of acting/spending upon them now and being willing to show you are ‘paying close attention’ especially to in-laws or ‘needs of spouse’.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21st Jan. to 18th Feb.

This being a lively time, Past experiences will prove where your true talents lie. You’ll need to keep moving and to have exciting projects to work on. Your inventiveness can work on your behalf. Take your fresh and original ideas to the right people. You may be able to sign a lucrative contract. You may have to sink a LOT of money with a WIDE variety of needs; all practical and most necessary, especially medical and food related issues.

Pisces

(D,CH,Z) 19th Feb. to 20th March

You are giving yourself some time to be inspired, to rediscover the world of make-believe.

Reality will be back soon enough so let your imagination fly. You’ll be stimulated by new ideas. It may be a challenge to digest them all, but it’s a good time to let your mind explore all of your options. You appear ‘raring to go but may be stopped in your tracks by the lack of support coming from trusted members; don’t get mad, just make a new game plan. You sparkle in communications and for some reason ‘leverage’ is BACK in your hands and on your side bit time.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

VOICE OF ASIA 18

FRIDAY, May 10, 2013

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES & ORGANIZATIONS OF HOUSTON - call Voice of Asia 713-774-5140 Save A Mother Annual Gala Prog: Celebrating women for 5 years. Fundraising Gala on Friday, May 10, 2013 , 7 PM At Le Virage Ballroom,12126 Westheimer, #116, Houston, TX 77077. For more information please visit www.saveamother. org or call 832-264-9668.

ASIE Prog: Dinner Gala on June 14th 2013, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Sankalp Restaurant (16338 Kensington Drive, Near 59 & Hwy 6, Sugar Land, TX 77479) to Honor our Senior Members

Hare Krishna Dham (ISKCON) Prog: Everyday, 7 Aratis and bhoga offerings daily. Sunday Festival: 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Location: 1320 West 34th St, Houston, TX 77018.

Contact:281-433-1635/E-mail harekrishnadham@gmail.com Website: www.iskconhouston. org

BAPS Prog: Saturday, 13th, 8AM to 4 PM Location: 1150 Brand Rd. Stafford, TX. Contact: 281-765-2277 Web:

Sri Meenakshi Temple Prog: Location: 17130 McLean Road Pearland, TX 77584 Contact: (281) 489-0358

Arsha Vidya Bharati

Samee Mosque Prog: Friday Prayer - 1:30 PM Children’s Classes | Interfaith meeting | Location: 1333 Spears Rd, Houston, TX 77067 Imam - Mohammed Zafarullah Contact : Work: 281-875-3400 | Cell: 713-874-4363 Zafarullah_Hanjra@hotmail. com www.Alislam.org

Ashirwad - A Blessing Temple Prog: Regular prog :Sloka Classes for kids and teens.

Location: Katy, Hwy 249 & Sugar Land.

Contact: 281.995.0930/ 281.808.2159

Vedanta Society of Greater Houston Prog: Vedanta teachings Sundays at 10:30 AM Location: at 14809 Lindita Dr. Houston, TX -77083.

Website: www.vedantahouston. org

Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya Temple Temple Hrs: 9 am to noon and 5 to 9 pm.

Sri Astalaksmi puja: 7 pm.

Sri Laksmi Archana will be performed on request all day.

Location:10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77498.

Phone: 832.541.0059.

Website: www.saumyakasi.org;

Chinmaya Mission Prog: Location:10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77498.

Phone: 832.541.0059.

Website:www.chinmayahouston. org.

ISSO

Prog.:Sanskrit classes and special worship sessions for all ages Location: 2918 Renoir, Sugar Land, TX 77479 Contact: 281-606-5607 or AVB. Houston@gmail.com Web-site: https://sites.google. com/site/avbtexas/classes

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus

QR

Prog: Darshan daily from 7.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.; Aarti daily from 7.45 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Location: 10080 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478 Phone: 281-530-2565 Web:

VPSS Houston

Location VPSS Vallabh Hall, 11715 Belfort Village Dr. Houston 77031.

Contact:713-530-2900 Website:www.vpsshaveli.org

Shri Satyanarayan Sai Puja Darshan Prog: Daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Every Thursday Abhishek Location: 16338 Kensington Dr, Ste 110, Sugar Land 77479.

Phone: 713-933-8821 / 9359.

Shri Radha Krishna Temple

Shirdi Sai Jalaram Mandir

Jain Center of Houston

Prog: Location:3845 West Bellfort, St., Sugar Land, TX 77498 Website: www.babamandir.org

Prog: Location: 3905 Arc St. Houston, TX 77063 Contact: 281-606-JAIN; Email: ecjsh@jain-houston.org Website:www.jain-houston.org

Lakshmi Narayan Mandir Prog: Every Friday Satsangh from 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Bhajans and Devi Puja, Discourses.

Location: 12530 Ann Louise Road, Houston, 77086.

Phone: Contact Vishnu at (832) 309- 7181.

Hindu Temple of The Woodlands

Prog: Location:11625 Beechnut, Houston, TX 77072 Phone: 281-933-8100 Website: www.SRKT.org.

Gurdwara Sahib of SW Houston Prog: Sundays Dewan 10:00 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Langar Location:14811 Lindita Drive, Houston, TX 77083 Phone: 281-498-5200 Website: www.gurdwaraswh. com

Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple Prog: Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra Parayanam: daily 6.30 p.m. Location:10098 Synott Road. Sugar Land, TX 77478 Phone: 281- 498-2344 Website: www.ashtalakshmi.org

Hindu Worship Society Prog: Open all days except Thursdays (by appt). Regular Puja and Prasad. Sunday Service 11:30 AM to 1:30 Location: 2223 Wirtcrest Lane Houston TX 77055.

Location: 7601 S. Forest Gate Drive at Woodlands Parkway, Spring, TX 77382.

Contact: info@woodlandshindutemple.org, 832-585-0001 Website: www.woodlandshindutemple.org.

JVB Preksha Meditation Center Prog: Annual Family Camp “Understanding Joy & Sorrow” on March 29 - 31, 2013 (Good Friday Weekend) Bellville, TX. Location: 14102 Schiller Road, Houston TX 77082 Phone: 281.596.9642 Website: www.jvbhouston.org

Patanjali Yogpeeth Center Prog: Free Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun from 8 am to 9:30 am Location: Arya Samaj @Schiller Road.

Contact: 281-579-9433.

Websites: www.pyptusa.org

Prog:Satsang every Sunday evening from 5 - 7 p.m. Vedic heritage classes for kids 5-14.

Location: 16628 Kieth Harrow blvd. Houston, TX 77084 Contact: 281-499-3347/281491-4114.

Durga Bari Society

Sathya Sai Baba Centers

Prog: Sandhya Arati at 6:30 p.m.; Sunday: 9:00 a.m.- 7:00 p.m.

Location: 13944 Schiller Road.

Contact: 281-597-8100 Website:www.houstondurgabari. org

Prog: Sundays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at two locations Locations: Contact: (North) 832-418-3842 or (South) 281-788-4786.

Website:www.saicenterofhouston.org

Gayatri Pariwar of Houston

Telugu Christian Fellowship

Prog: Sundays Satsang, BalSanskar Shala, from 11am to 1pm.

Location: 5645 Hillcroft, Suite # 307, Houston, TX 77036.

Website: http://www.gayatripariwarhouston.org/ “

Prog; Every third Saturday 6:30 PM. Worship is in English Location: The Triumph Church, 10555 West Airport Boulevard, Stafford, TX 77477.

Contact:713-301-6444 Website:

Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya

Brahma Kumaris Meditation Center

Prog: Location: Chinmaya Prabha, 10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land -TX 77498.

Contact: 281.568.1690 Website: www.saumyakasi.org

Prog: Daily classes in Raja Yoga Meditation To register call or email.

Contact:832-379-8888/ Email: houston@bktexas.com Website: bktexas.com

Sri Guruvayurappan Temple

Bethesda Houston Tamil Church

Prog: Bhajans: Sat.7:00 -8:00 p.m.; Sundays 9:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m.Location: 1620 Ormandy Street, Houston, TX 77035 Contact: 713-729-8994

Prog: Sundays Worship Tamil 5:30 pm-7:00 pm. English 10:30am-12:30pm.

Location: 810 Murphy/FM 1092 suite F&G, Stafford, Tx.77477.

Contact: 281-317-7331 Website:bethesdahoustontamilc hurch.org

Govindaji Gaudiya Math

Barsana Dham Houston Chapter Prog: Satsang every Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Location: India House, 8888 West Belfort 77031 Phone: (713) 855-9818 for details Website: www.jkphouston.org Weekly Radio Program-1460 AM Saturdays 10-11 a.m.

Prog:

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