Archives

Buddhism a doorway to peace and self-control: Study (REPORT)

Red alert in Washington (REPORT)

          New York, May 22: The United Nations Security Council approved on Thursday a US-drafted resolution ending 13 years of sanctions against Iraq. The measure, adopted by a vote of 14-0 with Syria not participating, would give the United States and Britain broad powers to run Iraq and sell its oil to pay for reconstruction. Britain and Spain co-sponsored the measure with the United States. France, Germany, Russia and China. voted "Yes".

It's not Riaz, says Pak

          Islamabad, May 22: Career diplomat Riaz Mohammad Khan is unlikely to be appointed Pakistan's high commissioner to India, official sources told Dawn on Wednesday. He would not be recalled from Beijing where he was posted less than a year ago, they added.(Contd)

India says attack on American Sikh warrants strong action (Go To Top)

         New Delhi, May 22: India on Thursday reacted strongly to the attack on a Sikh immigrant in the US saying it warranted strong legal action. Avtar Chiera, a truck driver in Arizona, was seriously wounded on Monday when several white men opened fire at him allegedly shouting "Get out of our country". He was not robbed and nothing was taken from his truck either. Arizons police has said that the 52-year-old was apparently targeted for being a Sikh and that the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.

          India has urged both the American authorities and the Indian- American community to speed up the process of educating people about minorities. "The governer of Arizona has condemned the crime and the state authorities are seeking the persons who committed the crime. Our consulate-general and other officers are also in touch with the Indian American community to find ways and means to prevent occurrence of such crimes based on mistaken identity and also to publicise the nature of the minorities and the real facts that these people are from India and should not be subject to mistaken identity. I think this process of spreading this message and a strong action by the law and order authorities is definitely in order," Foreign Office spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in New Delhi.

          Chiera, a Phoenix resident, wears a turban and untrimmed beard as part of his faith. This is the second such attack on Sikhs in Arizona post-9/11. Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner, in Mesa, was shot dead a couple of days after 9/11. The alleged killer, Frank Silva Roque, was subsequently arrested and charged, but the trial is still to begin. Sikhs are often mistaken to be followers of Osama bin Laden there, because of their turbans and beards which make them resemble Arab Muslims.

12 Pak infiltrators killed in clash (Go To Top)

         Srinagar, May 22: Twelve alleged Pakistani infiltrators were killed by troops in Nowgam sector on Thursday. Troops guarding the Northern Sector noticed a group of militants sneaking into this side from PoK, according to a ministry spokesman. When challenged, they opened fire on the soldiers and hurled grenades. The troops returned the fire and 12 infiltrators were killed in the clash.

Suspected Lashkar militant killed in Delhi (Go To Top)

         New Delhi, May 22: A suspected militant belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba was shot dead here on Thursday morning. Police said that Mohammad Arif, a Pakistani national, was killed in an hour-long encounter. According to them, he had been living in Delhi for some time and had set up a base in Najafgarh area. Neeraj Kumar, Comissioner of Police (Intelligence), said Arif was killed on information given by another suspected militant arrested on Wednesday.

           "Yesterday we arrested a man called Mehboob, from whom we recovered one pistol and eight live rounds. From his interrogation, we got to know he was working for a Lashkar-e- Taiba militant whose name is Mohammad Arif and he was a Pakistani who hailed from Bahawalpur. We got to know that he had set up a base in Deenpur village in Najafgarh. So we raided this place. There was a heavy exchange of fire in which Arif was killed," Kumar said. Police said they recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the slain militant who they said planned to carry out attacks in the capital.

Delhi, Dhaka agree to open new rail links (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, May 22: India and Bangladesh have agreed to establish new rail links between the two countries. Bangladeshi Finance Minister Mohammad Saifur Rahman on Thursday said ties between Bangladesh and India would get a boost with the start of joint railway projects. Rahman, who is on his second visit to India, met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at his residence in New Delhi.

          Currently Dhaka's annual exports to India are around 50 million dollars against imports of about 1.2 billion. India has allowed duty-free access on 40 Bangladeshi goods to narrow a trade gap, which analysts say, is heavily in favour of New Delhi. A freight train between India's border post Petrapole and Bangladesh was recently re-established after a gap of over 25 years in a bid to facilitate trade. A bus service also operates between Dhaka and Calcutta and another similar service is expected to start soon between Dhaka and Agartala, capital of Tripura.

Israel gets US nod for AWACS sale to India (Go To Top)

          Washington, May 22: The United States has lifted all objections to Israel's sale of Phalcon airborne radar systems worth one billion dollars to India. It had earlier approved the deal but then asked Israel to postpone it because of rising tension between India and Pakistan. Last month India expressed "deep concern" to visiting US congressmen that it was still on hold. The Phalcon is an Israel-developed long-range early warning and control system carried in a Russian Ilyushin-76 cargo plane. It has no US content but Israel coordinates its defence sales with Washington. A similar deal with China three years ago was dropped after a US veto, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Israel and China.

          Over 500 killed in Algerian quake Algiers, May 22: More than 500 people were killed and over 5000 injured in the high intensity late night earthquake in Algeria, a press report said Thursday. Among the hardest hit was the city of Rouiba to the east of capital Algiers. The quake measured 6.7 on the Richter scale, U.S. experts said.

Chennai medicos end stir on accord (Go To Top)

          Chennai, May 22: Medical and dental students in Chennai have ended their month-long strike. The medicos were protesting against the Tamil Nadu government's decision to privatise medical education. Doctors in government hospitals also resorted to a "work-to-rule" stir for sometime, sympathizing with the interns.

          The agitation was part of an action plan announced by the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association to protest against the government's move to allow private medical colleges. The strike was called off on Wednesday following an agreement between the state government and the striking students. State Health Minister Semmalai said that the suspension of over 1,000 students announced earlier would be revoked. "Since the students called off their strike, automatically the disciplinary action taken against them will be withdrawn," he declared. The government has agreed to appoint a committee to review its decision.

Parents keep waiting for their son to return from Pak jail (Go To Top)

          Raunta village (Punjab), May 22: Parents of a Punjabi youth languishing in a Pakistani jail on Thursday urged the government to secure his release. Gurpreet Singh of Raunta village, some 45 kms from Amritsar, had gone to Greece in search of job through an illegal immigration agency. But he found himself in Pakistan after authorities in Greece pushed him to Turkey from where he was forced into Iran and then Pakistan. Since then he is in a jail in Bahawalpur. When Pakistan last week released 20 Indian prisoners, including six Sikhs, as part of confidence building measures, his father Baldev Singh was hopeful of Gurpreet's return.

          "When last week Pakistan released prisoners, we had also gone to the Wagah border. But our son was not in that list. From the letters he has written to us, we are sure that he is in Pakistan and has repeatedly asked for help," Baldev Singh said. Baldev Singh said Gurpreet had written several letters to him in which he said that Indian prisoners were subjected to inhuman treatment by the Pakistani authorities. Gurpreet's mother Sawinder Kaur, who is still hopeful of her son's return, said unscrupulous immigration agencies should not be allowed to dupe job seekers. "We were hopeful that my son will come back. But he didn't come...now we just want that government should help him come back. I don't want this should happen to anyone else. Children should not allow themselves to be misled like this," said Kaur. The Pakistani foreign ministry last week said 16 more prisoners will be released after working out logistic arrangements with Indian officials, adding most of them have already been visited by Indian officials in recent weeks after getting counsellor access to them.

          Meanwhile, Trilochan Singh, chairman of National Minorities Commission, said the prisoners would be released as soon as identification papers were sent to the Pakistani side. "After the release of these six persons, the government of India with the help of state government is trying to send all the identification papers of all those who are still in Pakistan jails. So we are now hoping that they will also be released, because the only problem it was told to us was their identification. Now that process is complete, so we hope others would be released," said Singh.

It's not Riaz, says Pak (Go To Top)

          (Contd) "Despite his competence Islamabad would not pull out Riaz Mohammad Khan from China which is the highest priority country for Pakistan as it would send a wrong message to Beijing that Islamabad was attaching more importance to another country," a highly-placed source said. Khan's name was reportedly the first on the list of candidates submitted by the foreign office to Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali. The confusion was caused by what is now being dubbed as the "accidental" mention of his name. Meanwhile, the two likely candidates in the run are Aziz Ahmad Khan, the foreign office spokesman, and Inamul Haque, former foreign minister and foreign secretary. Khan is due for retirement in three months.

Red alert in Washington (Go To Top)

          Washington, May 22: The US military quietly boosted its air defences around the capital after raising to "high" its assessment of the Al Qaeda threat of terror strikes, defence officials said Thursday. The heightened air defence posture could include deployment of Avenger surface-to-air missiles around the capital and combat air patrols over Washington and other cities, an official said. The North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), which is responsible for protecting the air space of the United States and Canada, also planned to fly F-16 fighters at low altitudes along the Potomac River and around Washington as part of an exercise.

Buddhism a doorway to peace and self-control: Study (Go To Top)

          London, May 22: Peace and tranquillity is what every individual yearns for these days. And if researchers at the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre are to be believed, Buddhists are happier than others and their religion, researchers claim, is also good for mental health. (Contd) Buddhism a doorway to peace and self-control: Study (Contd) Experiments carried out in the United States have revealed that areas of brain associated with good mood and positive feelings are more active in Buddhists, making them calmer than the rest.

          The findings, published in New Scientist magazine, say that practice of meditation can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory. Buddhists, who meditate regularly, were less likely to succumb to any sort of shock or confusion, or to lose temper. "The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek," Paul Ekman, who carried out the study, was quoted as saying by BBC.

          In a separate study, scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison used new scanning techniques to examine brain activity in a group of Buddhists. They found that area of the Buddhist's brain linked to positive emotions self-control and temperament constantly lit up and not just when they are meditating.