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Sri Lankan President suspends Parliament till Nov 19 Colombo, Nov 4: In a major showdown with the United National Front (UNF) government, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Tuesday suspended Parliament till November 19, minutes after she sacked three top cabinet ministers "in the country's interest". The President's decision came at a time when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was in New York for a meeting with US President George W Bush today. Kumaratunga sacked Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, Interior Minister John Amaratunga and Mass Communication Minister Imtiyas Barkeer Markar "in the interest of the country's national security." The President has appointed former Inspector General of Police and party loyalist Cyril Herath as the new secretary in the Defence Ministry and Tilak Ranarajah in the Ministry of Mass Communication. The present secretary in the Interior Ministry has been asked to continue. The move will stop the government from submitting national budget, scheduled for November 12, which was likely to offer sops to public sector workers. According to reports, the President has also ordered for army deployment for the state radio and TV stations, power stations and service and police headquarters. Security has already been provided at the Government Printing Press where the gazette notification of the President's proclamations is to be published and made law. 12 injured in Varanasi communal clash Varanasi, Nov 4: At least 12 people were injured in a clash between Hindus and Muslims in Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh state. The clashes erupted on Monday when a group of Muslims stopped Hindus from renovating a temple near a Muslim mausoleum. The police resorted to cane-charge to disperse the violent crowd. Last year, a religious violence rocked Gujarat state in a wave of bloody reprisals after a Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists and burned 58 people alive. About 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in a wave of revenge killings there. Muslims and Hindus have been at loggerheads over the construction of a temple in Ayodhya ever since a frenzied Hindu mob pulled down a 16-century old mosque in December 1992. The demolition of the mosque had triggered worst religious violence in which about 3,000 people died. Muslims, who form about 12 percent of India's mainly Hindu population of more than a billion, want the mosque rebuilt as a sign of the country's secular credentials and fear the success of the temple campaign will have a domino effect elsewhere. Courts have banned religious congregations at the disputed site since then and the matter is still in the court. Prince Charles launches Bollywood film on 1857 uprising (Go To Top) Mumbai, Nov 4: Prince Charles, on a nine-day trip to India, sounded a clapperboard on Tuesday to launch the filming of a Bollywood movie on the first major Indian uprising against British rule. "Muhurat shot, take one," said Charles as he launched the period film, "The Rising", in Mumbai, the heart of India's film industry which churns about 1,000 films a year. (Deatails in News & Views, Cinema) Charles, on the penultimate day of a trip that has taken him to New Delhi and the desert cities of Jaipur and Jodhpur, also met Mumbai's legendary "dabbawallahs" or lunch-box delivery boys, known for their clockwork precision in supplying meals across the city. The heir to the British throne seemed enthralled as he quizzed the delivery men, clad in white baggy pyjamas, on the intricacies of the system, which is being used by the corporate world to teach the basics of management and planning. Nagarao Apte, a delivery man, was thrilled after meeting Charles. "I felt great that such a big man came and met us. It's our good luck and a great honour that he met us. The world will now know what the Dabbawalas are. It felt great," said Apte. Charles also attended a seminar organised by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). In an hour-long interactive session, Charles witnessed discussions on India's IT edge, based on factors such as high quality, vast resource of skilled manpower, conductive regulatory climate and world-class infrastructure. Bengal Govt
curbs on newsmen (Go
To Top) Kolkata, Nov 4: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's announcement banning the entry of mediapersons in government hospitals is a sad commentary on the Marxists' avowed trust in the freedom of the press. The real motive behind the chief minister's ban order is to prevent the media from exposing the state administration's blatant failure to provide minimum medical care to low-income group people thronging government hospitals. Instead of applying its mind on ways to stall an imminent collapse of the health care system in the state, the CPI(M)-led Left Front government has chosen the easiest way of banning reports on the hospitals. Bhattacharjee's announcement followed an organised physical attack on mediapersons at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in north Kolkata on Saturday midnight in the wake of disturbances following a patient's death. Junior doctors, mostly owing allegiance to the CPI(M), launched a totally unprovoked assault on the electronic media which had gone there to cover the disturbances. A number of mediapersons were seriously wounded after being beaten up with iron rods. Their costly cameras and other equipment were snatched and broken into pieces in front of a posse of policemen. A few policemen, who urged the rampaging junior doctors to maintain restraint, were also not spared. The attack on newsmen followed a couple of warnings from health minister Surya Kanta Mishra and Alimuddin Street mandarins that the media was crossing its 'lakshmanrekha' while reporting on the condition of state-run hospitals. Mishra had even warned mediapersons earlier "not to unnecessarily visit hospital wards and cause inconvenience to the patients." Pak, India swap fishermen (Go To Top) Karachi, Nov 4: Pakistan on Tuesday released 74 Indian fishermen while India freed 93 Pakistani fishermen. The Indian fishermen were arrested by the Maritime Security Agency six months ago for illegally fishing in Pakistani waters. They were imprisoned in a Karachi jail and were sent back to India after a ceremony at PNS Nazim here. Indian High Commission official R.B. Pundit, who attended the ceremony, said the two governments are discussing various proposals regarding the fishermen issue. The fishermen were languishing in each other's jails for violating territorial waters. PDP leader shot dead in J and K (Go To Top) Srinagar, Nov 4: People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Ghulam Mohammad Ganai was shot dead by unidentified militants in Pulwama district on Tuesday. Ganai, the zonal president of the party and a contractor by profession, was fired by terrorists when he was overseeing construction work at Tahejbagh in Pampore at around 11.30 am, official sources said. He was critically injured in the attack and rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries. The PDP is the ruling party in the state. According to the sources, the senior PDP leader, who was popularly known as Gula Bab, was on the terrorist hit list. He had been provided personal security. Pak hopes India won't go back on SAARC commitment (Go To Top) Islamabad, Nov 4: Pakistan hopes that India will not go back on its commitment to attend the January 4-6 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit to be held here. "Our understanding is that the Indians are coming and we hope that they do not go back on their commitment," the News quoted Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan as saying. Khan further said that Islamabad is confident that the summit would be held as scheduled, and confirmed that New Delhi had signaled that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would attend. Musharraf to oppose Chinese Muslim separatists (Go To Top) Hong Kong, Nov 4: Pakistan will not let terrorists, including the Muslim separatists in China's northwest, to use its territory as a terrorist camp, President Pervez Musharraf has promised China, where he is on an official visit. "Pakistan stood resolutely against terrorism and did not enable anti-China forces, including ethnic Uighurs seeking independence for China's north western Xinjiang region, to use Pakistan as a base," the News quoted Musharraf as saying in Beijing. The two sides have signed an extradition treaty according to which each country would hand over each other's criminals. Meanwhile, Musharraf vowed to oppose terrorism as well as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is banned in China. The paper also said that the two countries pledged to battle separatist Muslims campaigning for an independent Chinese homeland while inking economic deals aimed at boosting trade ties. India rapidly becoming mercury contamination dumping ground: CSE (Go To Top) New Delhi, Nov 4: India is rapidly becoming the toxic dumping ground of the world mercury because there has been no government control over the substance's import into the country, claims NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Addressing participants at a conference on Mercury Pollution here, CSE Director Sunita Narain said that with mercury imports into India increasing six-fold over the last seven years as per government statistics, the country would inevitably become "the world's dirt capital". "The world is phasing out mercury because of public health concerns and India is phasing in mercury, mindless of the enormous dangers of mercury contamination", she said. Mercury is highly toxic. Its compound, methyl mercury, is a confirmed neurotoxicant as it damages the developing brain. It is also genotoxic as mercury is known to pass through the placental barrier and the blood-brain barrier, putting the unborn at tremendous risk. It can cause severe and permanent damage to central nervous systems, lungs and kidneys, document studies from across the world.
Washington, Nov 4: Pop sensation Jennifer Lopez is on the lookout for a new stud in her life, a thoroughbred horse. The singer, who is engaged to Ben Affleck, is currently searching the market for a new four-legged friend, according to pals. ratethemusic.com reports that she's been searching the Internet and printing out pictures of the horses she likes and reportedly plans to keep her new pet at Affleck's grand estate in Savannah, Georgia. "There's a fenced-off place on the property where horses were once kept. They're going to keep it there", reveals a close pal. Artist turns J Lo's rear into a bouncy! (Go To Top) Washington, Nov 4: J-Lo seems to have a bizarre fan following! The latest to join the Lopez fan brigade is a Latina artist who has created a giant, bouncy homage to Jennifer Lopez's prized posterior. According to a report in 'New York Post', Linda Irizarry decided to offer obeisance to the singer-actress' curvaceous bottom for the upcoming L Factor gala for Hell's Kitchen's Exit Art gallery. Linda made a trampoline of stretched fabric screen-printed with an image of J-Lo pulling on her jeans and canned from behind. Irizarry is not the first one to be caught by the bombshells' rear! Other devotees include Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz and Edwin Gonzalez, who are making an 8-foot-tall statue of Lopez out of cotton candy. Madonna set to move out of Warner fold (Go To Top) Washington, Nov 4: The buzz doing the rounds is that Madonna's long association with Warner Music is all set to end. According to a report in website IMDB.com, the prima donna of pop is seeking to terminate her 11-year-old relationship with the music giant. The 'Material Girl's' own Maverick Records is supported by the giant. However, Madonna and her business partners Ronnie Dashev and Guy Oseary have expressed concern that parent company Time Warner are contemplating selling off their Music Group. A source told the 'New York Daily News': "She may think Maverick won't be worth as much with a new owner. Then there's the question of who'll get Maverick's artists." Apparently, Madonna is now considering legal action after Warners declined to renegotiate their deal. "It's going to be a nuclear lawsuit," the source was quoted as saying. Windsurfing the Pacific in 89 days, Kon-Tiki style! (Go To Top) Washington, Nov 4: Frenchwoman Raphakla le Gouvello has managed to successfully complete a remarkable journey of single- handedly windsurfing across the Pacific Ocean. Aided by the European Space Agency, Raphaela's exercise is a successful demonstration of achieving a feat using renewable energy! She used a custom-built windsurfer driven by the wind and generating electricity from the Sun to run its navigation systems, radio and mobile phone. An innovative airbag with space technology from the European launcher Ariane guaranteed Raphakla's safety in the event of a capsize. Solar cells derived from technology originally developed for European spacecraft provided electricity during the crossing. Raphakla's 8000 km journey initiated from Peru and after 89 days 7 hours and exactly 4455 nautical miles, she arrived in Tahiti on Sunday. This adventure can be compared to that of Norwegian navigator Thor Heyerdahl's movement from the coast of Peru to Polynesia aboard his Kon-Tiki balsa wood raft in 1947, crossing the Pacific in 101 days. Forty-three years old Raphakla is a veteran solo navigator and is the only woman in the world to have crossed both the Atlantic (in 2000) and the Mediterranean (in 2002) alone on a sailboard. "The Atlantic Ocean has shown me how painful it could be for a person to be alone on the ocean, stuck with no wind. The Mediterranean Sea was a provoker of strong emotions with its beauty, along with its changing mind and its sometimes vicious waves. Each time you take off to sea, you have to be prepared for new difficulties," she said. Luckily, in the end she never encountered any aggressive sharks - instead seals and barracudas sometimes escorted her. Using wind and sun instead of fossil energy sources Raphakla le Gouvello's voyage across the Pacific Ocean was completed 100% by use of wind power and solar energy - moving 8000 km without a drop of gasoline. Gouvello graduated in 1983 from the Veterinary School of Nantes and got her Master of Sciences in Aquatic Sciences and Aquaculture. She initiated windsurfing during 1976 and this has since become her passion. Among the prizes in her kitty include the distinction of being the only woman to be registered on the 24 hours race of La Baule, with 36 international competitors. A new love nest for Jude Law, Sienna Miller (Go To Top) London, Nov 4: "The Road to Perdition" hunk, Jude Law has found a new 'love bird' Sienna Miller, barely a week after his divorce from Sadie Frost. According to the Daily Express, Law is planning to move in with his 'Alfie' co-star in New York once the filming moves from England to the American city next week. They are expected to share an apartment for three weeks in a bid to allow their romance to blossom and bloom. Law and Miller are so eager to be together that they cannot even wait to go somewhere where they will be more anonymous, without the paparazzi hounding them. They will return to Britain on December 3 once they are through with the filmingof the Michael Caine remake. "Jude will also be away from the responsibility of his three children and can throw himself into his work and new romance." His ex-wife Sadie dismisses his relationship as a "silly fling". She herself is currently dating 22-year old musician Jackson Scott. -ANI |