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Nation-wide ban on tobacoo goes up in smoke

          New Delhi: A day after India officially enforced a ban on smoking in public places, people were seen flouting the law openly raising doubts about its effectiveness. The ban is being implemented under the new anti-smoking Act, which was passed by Parliament last year. The new law besides barring smoking in buses, restaurants and trains, also prohibits mass media advertising of tobacco products except at the selling points. Violators would be fined Rs 200 if caught. Though the fine might be a detterent for the lower-strata smokers like rickshaw-pullers, labourers and coolies, it is unlikely to affect the urbane smokers, who are the largest consumers. In New Delhi, smokers and tobacco chewers dubbed the new law as ridiculous.

          "This is a very difficult task. To get people to conform to it...its very very difficult...people are addicted to it," Rajeshwar Gupta, a resident, said. "It is a good decision but despite this those who smoke will continue. They will not leave, either by flouting the law or finding a way through it, they will smoke," said Dara Singh, a tobacco kiosk owner. Moreover, previous such attempts have not yielded results due to general disregard of public health coupled with the poor enforcement.

S Rajendra Babu sworn in as new CJI (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Justice S Rajendra Babu, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, was today sworn in as the new Chief Justice of India (CJI). Babu takes over from VN Khare. President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam administered the oath of office to Justice Babu at a ceremony in the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Law and Justice Minister Arun Jaitley, Communications Minister Arun Shourie, Speaker of the dissolved Lok Sabha Manohar Joshi, all the judges of the Supreme Court and several other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

US names four Indian organizations terrorist (Go To Top)

          Washington: The United States has included India's Mao Communist Centre of India (MCCI), People's War Group(PWG), Sikh organization Babbar Khalasa International and International Sikh Youth Federation in its terrorist list. Sources here said that henceforth members of these organizations would be deported from US if found.

Pakistan is Security Council president (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: Pakistan assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council on Saturday for the month of May. According to a press release issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office here, this is the second time that Pakistan has assumed charge of this prestigious responsibility. Pakistan held its first presidency during this term in May last year. Pakistan was elected to a non-permanent seat of the Security Council in September 2002. This is Pakistan's sixth term on the council. Meanwhile, Pakistan has proposed a special meeting on May 17 on peacekeeping operations, which will be presided over by Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri.

UK to send 4,000 troops to Najaf (Go To Top)

          London: The British Government has agreed to send 4,000 troops to Iraq to take control of the Shia-dominated holy city of Najaf. According to British Defence Ministry sources, the troops will begin arriving over the next few weeks to plug the gap left by Spain's 1,432-strong military contingent in Iraq which will have left the country a month from now. Najaf is where the radical Shiite Muslim cleric, Moqtada Sadr, has established thousands of militia forces vehemently opposed to the US-led occupation of Iraq. The British force will be composed of troops from the Royal Marine Commandos, a Parachute Regiment battalion and an unidentified infantry battalion. Britain already has 7,900 soldiers, all of whom are operating in southern Iraq.

IHF jolt to Dhanraj Pillay (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Ace striker Dhanraj Pillay's hopes of playing in the Olympics suffered a jolt on Sunday with the Indian Hockey Federation virtually ruling him out of the mega event at Athens in August. Pillay was not picked in an 18-member "experimental" side to play in a four-nation tournament in Japan, starting May 13, and was not called to join a fitness camp for 12 other players at Barog. IHF chief KPS Gill said the probables for the Olympics would be picked from these 30 players but added that one or two players could be considered from outside this pool of 30. "We would see the performance of the boys in Japan and after that we will see who would join the camp. We may consider making some changes and include one or two more players from outside the 30," Gill told reporters here.

           Gill also said that the team for Olympics would be ennounced sometime in July after a four-nation tournament in Holland. Two more senior players, Baljit Singh Dhillon and Baljit Singh Saini also found themselves excluded from the pool of 30. The experimental side, announced today by Gill, would leave for Japan on May 12 and would play matches against Korea and China besides the hosts. "Japan and Korea would be sending their full-strength teams to the competition," Gill said. The IHF chief also hailed the performance of the Indian juniors in the Asia Cup in Pakistan and announced a "special award" for coach Harendra Singh who would also accompany the team to Japan. "At the moment we are the winners of the Asia Cup in all the categories - under-16, u-18, junior and senior. But now the most important thing is to try and do well in Olympics," Gill said.

          Team for Japan: Adrian D'Souza, Suraj Kantha (both goalkeepers), William Xalxo, Sandeep Singh, Jatinder Pal Singh (fullbacks), V S Vinay, Vivek Gupta, Gurbaj Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Bimal Lakra, Girish Pimpale (midfielders), Hari Prasad, Inderjeet Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Adam Sinclair, Arjun Halappa, Sandeep Michael, Birender Lakra (forwards).