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Russia assisting Indian navy in building frigates ST PETERSBURG, Nov 5: Russia is assisting the Indian navy in a big way with three naval frigates under construction here and completion of.....more Vajpayee
says he ST PETERSBURG, Nov 5: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today said he is not an intellectual but enjoyed intellectual interaction.......more ‘Jet
passengers get WELLINGTON, Nov 5: New Zealand researchers who tested 360 passengers taking long-distance trips found eight with blood clots, it was reported today. .....more Armed
Pakistanis cross ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: Armed with rocket launchers and swords, thousands of pro-Taliban Pakistanis have crossed into Afghanistan to wage Jihad, or holy war, against the United States.....more |
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Vajpayee to be first indian PM not to stay in Kremlin MOSCOW, Nov 5: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee becomes the first Indian Prime Minister who will not stay in the Kremlin apartments in .......more US races for Governor, Mayor decided Tuesday WASHINGTON, Nov 5: Democrats hope to make major gains tomorrow in state and local elections that have been pushed out of the spotlight by ........more Sikh
Foundation WASHINGTON, Nov 5: A non-political Sikh Foundation here has announced 40 scholarships to needy and meritorious students pursuing professional....more US
ready for shoot-out if WASHINGTON, Nov 5: The United States will be prepared for a shoot-out between its marines and Pakistani troops if President Pervez Musharraf is removed........more |
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Russia assisting Indian navy in building frigates ST PETERSBURG, Nov 5: Russia is assisting the Indian navy in a big way with three naval frigates under construction here and completion of modernisation of three kilo-class submarines. While two of the submarines have already left for India, the third would set sail next week, Indian Consul General Rajiv Chandran told reporters here. The three frigates would be ready in another one-and-half years, he said. Chandran said three kilo-class submarines were here for modernisation and two had left for India after being refitted. The other would leave next week. Recalling the strong ancient cultural and modern business links between north-west Russia of which St Petersburg is the pivot, Chandran said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had visited this nearly 300-year-old city 22 years ago with the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai. He said the cooperation with St Petersburg related not to naval industry alone but to other areas as well. Chandran said parts for the Rs 13,000 crore Kundakulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu are being manufactured here in Leningrad metalic works. It is also a strong centre for manufacturing of turbines and generators. The business between Russia and India is of the volume of 380 million dollars a year, he said. (PTI) |
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Vajpayee says he is not an intellectual ST PETERSBURG, Nov 5: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today said he is not an intellectual but enjoyed intellectual interaction. "I must confess that I am not an intellectual. Yes, I used to write poetry when I was younger, but, gradually, politics began to make excessive demand on my time," he told a group of Russian intellectuals and indologists here. Nevertheless, he said he always enjoyed interacting with the pople of letters aware of the Sanskrit adage "Na Hi Jnanena Sadarshan Pavitramiha Vidyette" (there is nothing in this world that equals the purity of knowledge). (PTI) |
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‘Jet passengers get blood clots from long trip’ WELLINGTON, Nov 5: New Zealand researchers who tested 360 passengers taking long-distance trips found eight with blood clots, it was reported today. A scientist said the number was "statistically significant" and was equivalent to finding eight cases among passengers on a jumbo jet after a long flight, the New Zealand herald reported. Rodney hughes announced preliminary findings from a New Zealand study into the so-called economy class syndrome or Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in which long-distance fliers volunteered for "before and after" tests. "The figures are likely to scare more travellers into taking blood thinners, wearing support stockings and performing mid-air exercises to stop clots forming," the herald said. Of the eight sufferers, three had developed clots in their lungs that were "potentially serious", though not life-threatening and were advised to take blood-thinning drugs for three months after their flights, Hughes said. The leg clots in five other people were less serious but could also be painful. (DPA) |
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Armed Pakistanis cross into Afghanistan for Jihad ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: Armed with rocket launchers and swords, thousands of pro-Taliban Pakistanis have crossed into Afghanistan to wage Jihad, or holy war, against the United States and many more are waiting to go, a hardline Islamic party said today. Mocking Pakistan’s support for the United States war against the Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Laden, firebrand Islamic leader Maulana Sufi Mohammad has won permission from the fundamentalist militia that rules Afghanistan to send in tribesmen from Pakistan’s lawless border areas. "The convoys are going, convoys of about 1,500 people each day," Fazlullah, son of Maulana Sufi Mohammad told Reuters. No independent confirmation of the number was available but Fazlullah said the groups of Mujahideen, or holy warriors, had been flowing across the porous border since late last week. "They are taking with them all sorts of weapons, rocket launchers, Kalashinikovs, swords," said Fazlullah, whose father is in Afghanistan’s Kunar province leading Pakistanis wishing to fight alongside the taliban against the US attacks. Pakistan’s Government is opposed to its nationals going into Afghanistan illegally but is unable to stop people crossing over from the tribal areas along the frontier that have been semi-autonomous since the days of British colonial rule. Most of the crossings are taking place from Ghakhi Pass, a small border point in Bajaur agency, where a handful of security personnel lack the power to stop the holy warriors travelling into Afghanistan. Witnesses said the pro-Taliban Pakistanis were travelling by pickup truck in batches of 12 to 15 people ranging in age from 16 to 70. Almost none have military training but most are familiar with using a gun. "These convoys will continue until November 9, after which it will stop," Fazlullah said from the remote village of maidan in Malakand division in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. About 12,000 people, chanting "down with America" as they went, had entered afghanistan since November 1, he added. Pakistani officials say they expect many to slip back soon after making their show of support for the Taliban, who are from the same Pashtun ethnic group, and are snubbing the policy of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Fazlullah said thousands more volunteers, armed with a motley array of muskets and machineguns, were still camping in the border town of Lagahray, waiting to join the Jihad, under the banner of Suji Mohammad’s Tehrik Nifaze Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) or movement to impose Islamic laws. (REUTERS) |
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Vajpayee to be first indian PM not to stay in Kremlin MOSCOW, Nov 5: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee becomes the first Indian Prime Minister who will not stay in the Kremlin apartments in the course of his current Russia visit. Departing from the usual protocol, during his little less than 48-hour Moscow stay, Vajpayee will be accommodated in the presidential suite of five star Balchug-Kempinsky Hotel, situated just opposite Kremlin across the Moskva river. The Indian and Russian officials have cautioned against indulging in ‘symbolism’ of the past saying this does not in any way undermine the importance of the Indian guest. "Simply it’s comfortable in a fine hotel like kempinsky than in the Kremlin apartments and has more freedom in meeting visitors. Our President (Vladimir Putin) during his India visit also stayed at Hotel Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi and not at Rashtrapati Bhavan," a Kremlin Protocol told PTI. In the past, Balchug-Kempinsky has been a temporary home for German Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schroeder during their Moscow visit. (PTI) |
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US races for Governor, Mayor decided Tuesday WASHINGTON, Nov 5: Democrats hope to make major gains tomorrow in state and local elections that have been pushed out of the spotlight by the attacks on September 11. New Jersey and Virginia hold elections for Governor and dozens of cities across the country will choose mayors, with New York drawing the most attention. But the events of September. 11 when hijacked planes used as deadly missiles killed about 4,800 people in New York, the Washington suburbs in Virginia and Pennsylvania took much of the wind out of the political rhetoric. Candidates toned down their talk, campaigning and advertising were put on hold and fund-raising came to a virtual halt. Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, the Republican’s Gubernatorial Candidate, became a symbol of how the political world changed just as everybody else’s world changed too. Just after labor day, earley was poised to take on the democratic candidate, millionaire venture capitalist Mark Warner. Earley had a big warchest, a tax issue he thought would play with voters, probable campaign appearances by President George W Bush and the backing of the man he wanted to replace, Gov. Jim Gilmore, who also headed the National Republican Party. Then came September. 11. "As earley started to put his game plan into effect, everything got interrupted," said Brad Coker of Mason-Dixon Polling Research Inc. "The environment changed, partisan bickering was gone." Campaigning slowed down. Warner, who had jumped out in front in the polls, was able to hold on to a steady but slim, single-digit lead. And bush was taken out of personal campaigning for all Republican candidates. "Bush really isn’t in a position now to get down in the mud and wrestle," Coker said. "Bush kind of got put on the sideline by all these international events." Even in normal times, odd-numbered off-year elections like the ones in 2001 attract minimum notice and are mostly watched by political operatives as tea-leaf readings for bigger elections to come. In 1993, when Republicans took over the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey and the mayor’s chairs in New York and Los Angeles, Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour declared voters were turning against Democratic President Bill Clinton and predicted a trend toward his party. Republicans the next year won control of Congress for the first time in 50 years. There is a resemblance to those times in 2001. Democrats won back the mayor’s job in los angeles earlier this year and lead the other three races this time around. But in the political climate now, there is no crowing yet from democrats. Naturally, in no place was the political scene more disrupted that in New York city. The primaries were scheduled for Sept. 11 and had to be postponed. Then no democrat won outright and a run-off had to be held in early October before mark green, the city’s public advocate, could be declared the winner. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was barred from another term and normally the news limelight would turn to those trying to replace him. But after the attacks, Giuliani’s leadership in helping the city cope made him a local hero with unprecedented approval and support. The candidates faded from view. The lull in campaigning was a blow to the Republican candidate, Michael Bloomberg, billionaire founder of financial information services company Bloomberg LP but a political newcomer. He had planned to spend millions of his own money getting himself and his issue known. In a heavily democratic city, green has held the lead but Bloomberg, with Giuliani’s support and more than 40 million spent, has been closing the gap in the polls. Among the cities large and small that will vote for mayors tomorrow are Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Cincinnati’s Democratic Mayor Charles Luken is leading in the polls despite some anger about his handling of race riots in April. But Seattle will be electing a new mayor because its current one, Paul Schell, finished third in a September primary after voters blamed him for botching the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings that erupted in riots. (REUTERS) |
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Sikh Foundation awards 40 scholarships WASHINGTON, Nov 5: A non-political Sikh Foundation here has announced 40 scholarships to needy and meritorious students pursuing professional studies in selected North Indian Universities. The newly established Sikh Human Development Foundation said that it has launched its programme with the award of 40 scholarships to students pursuing professional studies during the current acadmeic year. Female students won over 50 per cent of the scholarships, a release from the Foundation said. (PTI) |
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US ready for shoot-out if Pak nukes fall into extremists hands WASHINGTON, Nov 5: The United States will be prepared for a shoot-out between its marines and Pakistani troops if President Pervez Musharraf is removed from power and the country’s nuclear weapons are in danger of falling into the hands of fundamentalists or Osama Bin Laden. "In case of an uprising in Pakistan or if Musharraf is overthrown by forces friendly to Taliban or Bin Laden, the 2,200 troops of the 15th marine expeditionary unit cooped up on the assault ship USS Peleliu, presumably itching for action, could be sent to safeguard Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and materials to keep them away from Laden or other terrorists, a media report said here today quoting sources. Even unassembled nuclear bomb parts could be dangerous, "a radiological weapon," a conventional explosive device used to scatter radioactive material, would be nearly as devastating as an actual nuclear bomb, producing fallout that could render an american city uninhabitable for years, newsweek said. The material, said newsweek, could come from a weapons programme or a civilian facility, such as a nuclear power plant. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are dispersed across several secret locations, and some elements of the armed forces surely would resist attempt by foreigners to take control of them. "But if it comes to that," said newsweek, "a shootout with Pakistan might be preferable to nuclear terrorism in the United States." Whether US marines would actually be needed for such a task, and whether they could pull it off, remains unclear, the weekly added. (PTI) |
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