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Singapore
launches SINGAPORE, July 13: A ten year study on ageing Asians will help develop health-management strategies and ways of improving the quality of life for .....more German Capital all set to BERLIN, July 13: German capital is all set to host an elephant race, which has a strong Asian flavour ......more German Capital all set to host rare elephant race BERLIN, July 13: German capital is all set to host an elephant race, which has a strong Asian flavour that has generated a great deal of excitement here. ...more SYDNEY, July 13: Good news for coffee addicts: There is no hard evidence that caffeine is bad for you......more ‘India’s nuke
programme NEW DELHI, July 13: India’s nuclear programme is no answer to its security concerns nor offers any "viable solution" in the long term perspective, a Japanese expert on internationa....more |
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Benazir raps Taliban for ISLAMABAD, July 13: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto today flayed Taliban authorities......more Taliban asked to deport ISLAMABAD, July 13: Pakistan has asked Taliban not to let its nationals receive training in Afghanistan and deport those wanted in sectarian terrorism, media reported today........more
Israel, Palestinians THURMONT, MARYLAND, July 13: Israeli and Palestinian leaders tackle key issues stalling.....more |
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Singapore launches decade-long study of ageing Asians SINGAPORE, July 13: A ten year study on ageing Asians will help develop health-management strategies and ways of improving the quality of life for the elderly, Singapore organisers said today. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the National University Hospital plans to track 1,600 people between 30 and 70 of age for a decade and examine the data as the study goes along. Victor Goh, Head of the Department’s endocrine section, said the city-state has the ability and resources to take the lead in researching ageing in the region. Poverty, he noted, has added to the burden. "The developed countries became rich before they became old," the straits times quoted Goh as saying. "Developing countries are becoming old before they become rich." The study will have an equal number of male and female participants divided into eight age groups. The total cost is expected to run as high as 4 million Singapore dollars (2.31 million US). Participants who volunteer will receive free health checks and memory and well-being tests. The initial focus is studying "what the determinants are for ageing," Goh said. "Once we understand that, then we can come up with health-management strategies." (DPA) |
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German Capital all set to host rare elephant race BERLIN, July 13: German capital is all set to host an elephant race, which has a strong Asian flavour that has generated a great deal of excitement here. The event, will take place in the city’s hoppegarten, the former race course of the - now defunct - German Democratic Republic (GDR) on Sunday. The idea was conceived by the mayor of Altlandsberg, Ravindra Gujjula, a naturalised German of Indian descent who is a doctor by profession and hails from Hyderabad. The idea of organising an elephant race for Germans, who has seen the huge friendly tuskers in zoos and parks, occurred to Gujjula at the celebrations for India’s 50th independence anniversary were being held in Germany. Altlandsberg is a small town in the Maerkisch-Oderland region near Berlin. According to the organisers, some 40,000 visitors are expected to witness the race and "demand for entrance tickets is not ebbing down". There will also be some luminaries coming from India to add glamour to the event as two royal families will be sending their representatives. Maharajah Gaj Singh of Jodhpur and Princess Yashodra Ragh Scindia of Gwalior will be coming to Berlin. "However, the elephant race is a vehicle to draw attention to the culture of India. Besides, the race also has an altruistic motive...A part of the net proceeds of the race will be donated for the benefit of children in my native town," Gujjula said. While elephant races have been commonly staged for more than a 1,000 years in many Indian cities on festive occasions, it is something of an unique thing in Europe, particularly in Berlin which despite its high grade of internationality achieved through an intense exposure to alien cultures, is still caged in its prussian past. There will be a total of six elephant races each covering a distance of some 350 metres, with three to five elephants running each time. Mahouts (elephant riders) will ride and control the elephants during the race. The event has generated a great deal of interest not only among germans but also among Asians, including Lankans, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesians and others. The animals will be borrowed from circuses. "They will have no inhibitions participating in the race before german spectators. The elephants are well-trained animals who have acquired a "perfect sense of timing," according to a spokesman of the local circus. (BERNAMA) |
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German Capital all set to host rare elephant race BERLIN, July 13: German capital is all set to host an elephant race, which has a strong Asian flavour that has generated a great deal of excitement here. The event, will take place in the city’s hoppegarten, the former race course of the - now defunct - German Democratic Republic (GDR) on Sunday. The idea was conceived by the mayor of Altlandsberg, Ravindra Gujjula, a naturalised German of Indian descent who is a doctor by profession and hails from Hyderabad. The idea of organising an elephant race for Germans, who has seen the huge friendly tuskers in zoos and parks, occurred to Gujjula at the celebrations for India’s 50th independence anniversary were being held in Germany. Altlandsberg is a small town in the Maerkisch-Oderland region near Berlin. According to the organisers, some 40,000 visitors are expected to witness the race and "demand for entrance tickets is not ebbing down". There will also be some luminaries coming from India to add glamour to the event as two royal families will be sending their representatives. Maharajah Gaj Singh of Jodhpur and Princess Yashodra Ragh Scindia of Gwalior will be coming to Berlin. "However, the elephant race is a vehicle to draw attention to the culture of India. Besides, the race also has an altruistic motive...A part of the net proceeds of the race will be donated for the benefit of children in my native town," Gujjula said. While elephant races have been commonly staged for more than a 1,000 years in many Indian cities on festive occasions, it is something of an unique thing in Europe, particularly in Berlin which despite its high grade of internationality achieved through an intense exposure to alien cultures, is still caged in its prussian past. There will be a total of six elephant races each covering a distance of some 350 metres, with three to five elephants running each time. Mahouts (elephant riders) will ride and control the elephants during the race. The event has generated a great deal of interest not only among germans but also among Asians, including Lankans, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesians and others. The animals will be borrowed from circuses. "They will have no inhibitions participating in the race before german spectators. The elephants are well-trained animals who have acquired a "perfect sense of timing," according to a spokesman of the local circus. (BERNAMA) |
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SYDNEY, July 13: Good news for coffee addicts: There is no hard evidence that caffeine is bad for you. It does not contribute to cardiovascular disease or increase blood pressure. But what a study commissioned by the Australian and New Zealand food authority did find was that caffeine does alter behaviour. The first cup of coffee in the morning gets you going. A second increased concentration, alertness and motivation. But a third cup leads to a perhaps debilitating excitement and can trigger an anxiety attack. The expert working group on the safety aspects of dietary caffeine was not of one mind on whether it was absolutely safe for children to consume caffeine. Just for the record, caffeine is the coffee bean’s natural insecticide. The cheaper robusta beans, grown mostly at lower altitudes, have more caffeine in them than the more expensive arabica beans that are grown in highland areas. Whether robusta or arabica beans are used determines the strength of the caffeine hit in a cup of coffee. Flavour doesn’t come into it. While robusta beans are light coloured and oval, arabica beans are nearer a spherical shape and are darker. If it doesn’t say on the bag or jar whether the coffee is robusta or arabica, the chances are that its the former. (AGENCIES) |
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‘India’s nuke programme is no answer to security concerns’ NEW DELHI, July 13: India’s nuclear programme is no answer to its security concerns nor offers any "viable solution" in the long term perspective, a Japanese expert on international affairs and advisor to Japanese Foreign Minister said here today even as he advocated that New Delhi’s "legitimate security concern should be taken care of". "A nuclearised India, flanked by equally nuclearised China and Pakistan, would be left in a much more precarious situation from the viewpoint of her national security and the safety of the people," Hisashi Owada, who is also president of Japan Institute of International Affairs, said delivering a talk on `the world of the 21st century and Japan-India relations’ here. Asserting that nuclear armament, as pursued by India since the multiple tests in 1998, were no answer, he said "it would seem that the Indian tests, followed by similar actions by Pakistan have brought about even greater instability in the situation". "I strongly call on my Indian friends to demonstrate a renewed determination for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and to take lead in building a viable security framework for the region," said Owada, who worked in close association with Indian representatives at United Nations. Owada, who made a strong case for growing Indo-Japan ties in the new century, however, admitted that Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was "not sufficient" to prevent recurrence of ahol holocaust as experienced by Japan. However, Owada maintained the NPT was a necessity adding "we must recognise as a fact of life that this regime to prevent further proliferation of nuclear weapon is the only viable step towards preventing the recurrence of a nuclear holocaust". He said "the element of inequality built into the treaty is to be counterbalanced and offset by the solemn obligation that nuclear weapon states have undertaken to carry out in accordance with article six of the NPT". Responding to volley of questions, he denied that Tokyo’s non-proliferation policy was guided by the fact that it had established a lasting alliance with United States and was getting a sort of protection from collaboration being undertaken by Japan along with US experts in nuclear missile defence programme was more a study based on technological aspects than anything else. "We had to start such a study because of recent missile tests conducted by North Korea," he said. (PTI) |
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Benazir raps Taliban for arresting women workers ISLAMABAD, July 13: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto today flayed Taliban authorities in Afghanistan for arresting eight women employees including US aid worker Mary Macmakin, saying the action flouted Islamic injunctions about women rights. "Islam calls upon all its followers to uphold human dignity," she said, adding "the persecution of working women by the Taliban authorities is wrong." In a statement issued by her Pakistan Peoples Party media centre here, Bhutto said Islam accords a status and respect to women equal to that of men and there is no discrimination on the basis of gender. She called upon the Taliban authorities to review their stand on women and to accord them full human rights. She also called upon the Taliban authorities to cooperate with the United Nations and the international community in building a broad-based Government in Afghanistan and in conforming to global law. (PTI) |
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Taliban asked to deport Pakistani terrorists ISLAMABAD, July 13: Pakistan has asked Taliban not to let its nationals receive training in Afghanistan and deport those wanted in sectarian terrorism, media reported today. "We have asked Taliban not to train Pakistanis there and deport those who are wanted in Pakistan in criminal cases," english daily The News quoted official sources as saying. "We will continue to talk to them and will try to bring them round to our standpoint. We are talking in plain terms and are discussing specific issues," the daily quoted sources as saying. Pakistan on its part, said a highly authoritative source, had taken effective measures to control its borders with Afghanistan to ensure that there was no movement of Pakistanis and other nationals crossing the borders without valid documents. "We want to control the borders and we are trying very hard to achieve this objective. The scouts and other law-enforcement agencies have been told to restore the sanctity of the durand line," the source said. He said the Government had also taken serious view of concerns raised by some Arab countries over reported presence of their nationals in Pakistan and action had been ordered against such elements. "Those Arabs, who are here since the Jihad days in Afghanistan, have no business to go back to their countries. Pakistan’s national interests are very dear to us and these interests will be safeguarded at all costs," the source said. "We don’t want unwanted elements to use Pakistani soil for proxy war in their countries," he said. (PTI) |
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Israel, Palestinians engage in struggle to strike peace deal THURMONT, MARYLAND, July 13: Israeli and Palestinian leaders tackle key issues stalling peace in the holy land here as US President Bill Clinton today slips out of Camp David to attend to other business. A dinner hosted by Clinton closed out yesterday’s summit events after a full day of meetings "in every conceivable configuration" between Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, White House spokesman P J Crowley said. Immediately preceding the dinner, Clinton met with Arafat during a stroll through the wooded Camp David compound followed by a meeting between the President and Palestinian negotiators, Crowley said. Only the announcement that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had cancelled a US-opposed 250-million-dollar phalcon Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACs) for China to improve its leverage at the bargaining table penetrated the wall of silence surrounding the talks. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said negotiations on the core issues dividing the two sides were well underway but refused, citing the news blackout, to answer any questions relating to their substance. "It’s been a busy day between all of the parties and there’s been real engagement today dealing with the substantive issues that define what the parties need to agree on in order to reach an overall agreement," Lockhart told reporters. He declined to say whether Washington believed any progress had been made so far. Meanwhile, an Arab member of Israel’s Parliament said in Jerusalem today that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the summit have agreed that no Jewish settlements will remain in the Gaza strip. "Not a single settler will be allowed to remain in the Gaza strip," Ahmed Tibi told the knesset in comments aired on Israeli radio. "The settlements in the region will not be dismantled, but no settlers will remain." He said the information on the secretive talks — hosted by US President Bill Clinton at Camp David, Maryland — came from a "very senior source among the delegates at the camp David negotiations". (AFP) |
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