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BEIJING, Dec 21: The largest natural lake in Northern China appears doomed to dry out early next year, parched by lack of .....more
Bush announces WASHINGTON, Dec 21: US President-elect George W Bush has made some key appointments in his Cabinet by including businessman Paul ....more Time to resolve Indo-Pak WASHINGTON, Dec 21: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has listed the "border dispute".......more
Clinton lauds Vajpayee WASHINGTON, Dec 21: United States President Bill Clinton today lauded Prime Minister......more |
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Tests show
vaccine LONDON, Dec 21: Tests on mice show a vaccine can reduce behavioural defects associated with alzheimer’s disease, raising hope among scientists that a treatment for the main cause of dementia in the elderly is a step closer....more
PM describes DUBAI, Dec 21: Describing Hindi as a "live language" with remarkable flexibility, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said there is no reason why it cannot become the language of modern technology.....more Quattrocchi says KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21: An Italian businessman named in an Indian probe into a kickback scandal involving sale of Swedish Bofors artillery said he was caught in a political fight between the Indian Government and opposition Congress Party.....more NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Gold prices spurted on the bullion market today on emergence of buying.....more |
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BEIJING, Dec 21: The largest natural lake in Northern China appears doomed to dry out early next year, parched by lack of rainfall and reckless use of water by factories and farmers, a water resources official have said. The threat to the Baiyangdian lake in Hebei province has highlighted a water crisis in China so severe it threatens the country’s economic development and social stability. It will not be the first time the lake has been completely drained, although this time officials warn it can be rescued only by a massive water diversion programme now on the drawing board. Hundreds of thousands of people have grown dependent on its water for drinking, fishing and agriculture. "It will dry up again next spring if there is insufficient rainfall from now," the official with the water resources bureau in the provincial city of Baoding said yesterday. "It will directly affect the lives of people living in surrounding villages," he said. "Their daily incomes are mainly from fishing and reed products. Grain production in the lower portion of Baiyangdian will also be greatly reduced." The official declined to give his name. Nicknamed the "bright pearl of Northern China", the 360-square kilometre (135-sq mile) lake has been plundered for industrial and agricultural production and drinking water for the region’s growing population. A severe drought compounded the problem this year and the lake is unlikely to survive without a massive canal project to begin next year that will divert water from the mighty Yangtze river that meanders across Central China, the official said. "Transferring water from several nearby reservoirs can temporarily solve the water strain here, but if the current situation goes on, even the reservoirs will dry up next year," he said. "We place all our hopes in the South-to-North water transfer project," he said. Lakes reduced to dust and rivers that trickle dry before reaching the sea are emblems of a water shortage that is gripping vast areas of China . Civil unrest has erupted several times in recent months over the precious resource, including a deadly riot by villagers in July in Shandong after officials cut off water supplies from a reservoir they had used to irrigate crops. In August, six people were accidentally killed when officials in the Southern province of Guangdong blew up a water channel to prevent a neighbouring county from diverting water to a new power station. Three canal networks to bring Yangtze water to parched Northern cities are expected to be completed in 2010. The Baoding official said he was looking to the central route, which will divert water to Beijing and Hebei from the Danjiangkou reservoir in Hubei, to save Baiyangdian. (REUTERS) |
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Bush announces more appointments WASHINGTON, Dec 21: US President-elect George W Bush has made some key appointments in his Cabinet by including businessman Paul O’Neill’s as US treasury secretary and a cuban immigrant Mel Martinez as housing secretary. The appointment of aluminium executive was first of an expected slew of a long-time friends and allies Bush was expected to name in his administration. Bush’s first announcement came at the first of a number of press conferences expected yesterday at the University of Texas. "Our economy is showing warning signs of a possible slowdown," Bush said. "We must have a steady voice coming out of our administration, someone, should the economy take a downturn, who can calm people’s nerves, calm the markets, calm those who would speculate on the dollar. "And that’s why I’m naming Paul O’Neill as the secretary of treasury," Bush said. While Bush’s campaign chairman Don Evans is nominated for the key post of commerce secretary, former agriculture director Ann Veneman has been chosed as US’ first woman secretary of agriculture. Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto R Gonzales has been nominated as the White House counsel. According to Republican sources, former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton’s nomination as either Ambassador to the UN or as CIA director is also being considered. (PTI) |
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Time to resolve Indo-Pak border dispute now: CIA WASHINGTON, Dec 21: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has listed the "border dispute" between India and Pakistan as one of the prime concerns for the US leaders, requiring immediate attention "as there is still time to prepare a defence or influence an outcome." "Border dispute between India and Pakistan is among the issues which the us intelligence community would want us leaders to think about now while there is time to prepare a defence or influence an outcome," CIA director George J Tenet said in a speech in Los Angeles recently. "The long-disputed border between India and Pakistan, the scene of three major wars already, today runs between the two rivals and both have tested ballistic missiles and nuclear device," Tenet said. He said earlier the two countries were locked in confrontation with clear limits and well-understood rules but today there are fewer rules, and fewer people willing to play by them. Expressing fear that the list of states working on ballistic missiles is increasing constantly, tenet said "the list could one day reach America’s shores and include countries like Iraq, Iran and North Korea. All three are still far from friendly to the us." (PTI) |
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Clinton lauds Vajpayee for extending cease-fire WASHINGTON, Dec 21: United States President Bill Clinton today lauded Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s declaration extending the cease-fire in Jammu and Kashmir by a month and described the move as a continued commitment to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue. The US President was reacting to Mr Vajpayee’s announcement in the Lok Sabha yesterday, extending the period of ceasefire by another month. The Prime Minister had said his Government would review the position after January 26 and added that he was open to a composite dialogue process with Islamabad. Describing Mr Vajpayee’s announcement as a "step forward", Mr Clinton recalled his meetings with him both in New Delhi and Washington early this year where he had told him of his determination to pursue the course of peace in Kashmir. "I applaud the announcement as a sign of his continuing commitment to that course," Mr Clinton added. Welcoming Mr Vajpayee’s initiative and Pakistan’s withdrawal of its forces deployed along the Line of Control, the US President said these moves have raised the hopes of the world community that peace was likely in Kashmir. Reiterating his stand on Kashmir, which he had announced during his visit to New Delhi in March, Mr Clinton said he continued to believe that both India and Pakistan should reject violence and strive for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue through a dialogue. (UNI) |
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Tests show vaccine may treat alzheimer memory loss LONDON, Dec 21: Tests on mice show a vaccine can reduce behavioural defects associated with alzheimer’s disease, raising hope among scientists that a treatment for the main cause of dementia in the elderly is a step closer. Three separate studies featured in nature magazine used mice genetically engineered to mimic the disease, and for the first time established how immunisation affected the animals’ behaviour, as opposed to the chemistry of their brains. "This is significant," said Paul Chapman of the Cardiff School of Biosciences. "It’s the first demonstration that a treatment strategy can prevent cognitive loss." The research centres around hopes that a vaccine can be used to stimulate the body’s immune system to destroy the waxy plaques that build up on the brains of sufferers. Results released last year of tests on mice showed the vaccine prevented plaque build-up in younger rodents and stopped it accumulating in older animals. "The vaccination first hit the headlines in the summer of 1999 when it was found to remove plaques," said David Westaway of the University of Toronto yesterday, which performed one of the tests. "But it did not address learning and memory, which is the main clinical feature of Alzheimer’s disease. If it does not address that then it is rather irrelevant," he told Reuters. As well as raising optimism that the vaccine is as effective on behaviour as it is on reducing plaque build-up, the latest trials reinforce the theory that the plaque and dementia are in some way linked. But westaway urged caution. "There is a complication still — the relationship between plaque and learning and memory might not be a straight-line one. But I think this does give us cause for optimism. We could have done this and come away with nothing." The progress reported by two North American research teams was partly thanks to a new technique developed by scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. A statement from the university described the elaborate water test where the exit location keeps changing. When mice want to leave the water, they can rely only on their short term memories of the current location of the exit. "When you keep changing where they have to go, the mice with the elevated beta-amyloid levels get confused." Deposits of beta-amyloid peptides in the brain are the hallmark of alzheimer sufferers and of mouse models. Alzheimer disease affects millions of mainly elderly people worldwide. Symptoms include memory loss and difficulty with speaking and coordination. It affects over half the 700,000 britons suffering from dementia and an estimated four million people in the United States. By 2025 the disease is forecast to plague up to 22 million globally if no cure is found. A leader in the pharmaceutical research is Irish firm Elan Corp, which developed the vaccine used in the trials. It is conducting clinical trials with American Home Products Corp. Drugs already on the market offer only limited relief from symptoms. The Alzheimer’s Society in London welcomed the development. "This is a very exciting piece of research," it said in a statement. "If the results of this study can be replicated in humans it means the serious possibility of an intervention that could treat or even prevent dementia developing." (REUTERS) |
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PM describes Hindi as ‘live language’ DUBAI, Dec 21: Describing Hindi as a "live language" with remarkable flexibility, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said there is no reason why it cannot become the language of modern technology. "Hindi is today spoken by a large number of people and understood by an even larger number. More than any official effort to promote Hindi, the popularity of Hindi films and Indipop has contributed to the spread of this language," he said in an interview to a Jeddah-based Malayalam daily. Mr Vajpayee noted that in recent years, the cable television had also contributed to popularising hindi among non-Hindi speakers. "Sophisticated computer software has been written in Hindi, quality textbooks are available in Hindi, and Hindi is a user-friendly medium for communication between teachers and students in those places where it is the mother tongue of the people," said the Prime Minister, who himself is known for his Hindi poetry. He said, "the popularity of a language depends on its ability to absorb new usage. In that sense, Hindi is a live language that has remarkable flexibility." (UNI) |
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Quattrocchi says he is innocent KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21: An Italian businessman named in an Indian probe into a kickback scandal involving sale of Swedish Bofors artillery said he was caught in a political fight between the Indian Government and opposition Congress Party. Ottavio Quattrocchi, who lives in Malaysia, was arrested by local police over the case yesterday but later released on bail of 105,263 dollars and had to surrender his passport. He had been named by Indian investigators as one of five recipients of payments to win the 1.3 billion dollars Bofors contract in 1986. In a rare interview today, Mr Quattrocchi denied any wrongdoing and said he had never committed any crime in his life. "As far as I am concerned it is a politically motivated case," he told Reuters by telephone. "This is as old as 14 years." "I was in India for 27 years. My only fault was that I was a friend of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi," he said. "My children were friends of Rahul and Priyanka. They are of the same age, more or less." "This is a politically motivated case, fight in India between the present Government and Congress. I am caught between the two fights," Mr Quattrocchi said. The political uproar over suspected illegal payments in the Bofors arms deal contributed to the 1989 downfall of Rajiv Gandhi’s Government. Mr Gandhi, who denied any involvement, was assassinated while campaigning for 1991 parliamentary polls. India has said there were no political motives behind the arrest of the Italian businessman who was widely known to have close links to the Gandhis in the mid-80s. Mr Quattrocchi, now heading an investment and technology consultancy firm in Malaysia, denied allegations of kickbacks. "There are allegations that I have given some money. I have never done so in my life. I have never corrupted any official in any place in the world," he said. "There is no case at all." A Kuala Lumpur court has fixed January 22 as the date for the next hearing of the case. Two officers from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation have arrived in Malaysia with warrants seeking Quattrocchi’s extradition. The Indian Police said the arrest was the first step towards Mr Quattrocchi’s extradition to face trial on charges stemming from the country’s biggest arms scandal. India and Malaysia do not have an extradition treaty, but Mr Quattrocchi could still be brought to India, if the two Governments cooperated. The media-shy Italian businessman said he was enjoying his stay in Malaysia and that he still loved India. "I am calm, serene. My heart is clear. I have never committed any crime, never been in any court in my life." (REUTERS) |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Gold prices spurted on the bullion market today on emergence of buying by local stocksits after its prices made a notable jump in the international markets and closed with hefty gains. Along with the bullish trend, silver prices also picked up to display its strength. Marketmen said a steep hike in gold prices in other Asian markets mainly influenced the market sentiment. They said most of the traders felt precious metals benefitting from the global stock market tumble. Standard gold and ornaments jumped up by Rs 35 each at Rs.4560 and Rs.4410 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign held unchanged at Rs.3800 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready rose by Rs.35 at Rs.7595 per kilo and weekly delivery by Rs.30 at Rs.7620 per kilo. However, its coins were asked at last level of Rs.10,900/11,000 per 100 pieces. Following were today’s quotations: Silver ready 7595 and delivery 7620. Silver coins buyer 10,900 and seller 11,00 standard gold 4560, ornament 4410 and sovereign 3800. (PTI) |
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