|
|
| German
publishers discover modern Indian writers HAMBURH, Oct 8: Arundhati Roy paved the way. Her novel "The God of Small Things" was not only a worldwide best-seller, but it also drew the attention of readers to her home country, India. There, readers are now finding out, more and more authors are to be....more Pak army to ‘hand ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: Raising hopes of revival of democracy in Pakistan ahead of the October 10 polls, the top brass of the Army has reportedly decided to hand over power to the elected Government on October 22, even as President Pervez Musharraf said the new Parliament would have authority to.....more India blames Pak UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8: India has squarely blamed Pakistan for prevailing tensions between the . ....more |
|
Bush labels
Saddam "murderous tyrant", asks him to disarm WASHINGTON, Oct 8: Branding Saddam Hussein as a "murderous tyrant" and "homicidal dictator," ......more Japanese, 2 US researchers win nobel prize in physics STOCKHOLM, Oct 8: A Japanese and two American researchers won the nobel prize in physics today for "pioneering contributions to astrophysics," including the detection of cosmic neutrinos and cosmic X-ray sources. .......more Politicians fail to get audience with Nepalese king KATHMANDU, Oct 8: Nepal’s constitutional monarch kept top political leaders waiting in vain for a meeting today even a hundreds of people took to the streets protesting his firing of the Prime Minister last week. The politicians waited for two hours for the audience with King Gyanendra to propose the name of a new leader ..........more |
 |
|
German publishers discover modern Indian writers HAMBURH, Oct 8: Arundhati Roy paved the way. Her novel "The God of Small Things" was not only a worldwide best-seller, but it also drew the attention of readers to her home country, India. There, readers are now finding out, more and more authors are to be discovered whose narrative fantasy and expressive use of the language stand out. Many of them focus on the theme of breaking with old traditions. "They are writing directly atop the fault line of the cultures," is the way Martin Spieles, spokesman for the German Book Publisher in Frankfurt, Fischer Verlag, describes modern Indian authors. Angela Volknant, an editor at the Hoffmann And Campe Publishers in Hamburg, sees "fantastic potential" in the young literary scene in India. German publishers are just now starting to discover it. Among the new novels by Indian authors appearing on the German market this autumn, Rohinton Mistry’s "Family Affairs" is already being hailed as a "masterpiece". It is a no-holds-barred family story told by mistry: in the sprawling city of Bombay, the elderly Nariman Vakeel is living a relatively carefree existence with two of his children. This changes, however, when after he falls down he needs full-time care. The older son and daughter shove the responsibility onto their youngest sister, Roxana, whose family is forced to share their tiny apartment with the grandfather. The family’s harmony breaks down and Roxana’s marriage threatens to fail under the new burdens. Mistry, who now lives in Canada, shows how incomplete human nature still is while at the same time providing an impressive document about present-day life on the subcontinent. A novel about women and for women comes from the young writer Anita Nair in Bangalore. In "Ladies Coupe", the main character Akhila, 45, is travelling alone for the first time in her life to the coast. She is fleeing the strict conventions of society and the expectations which the family poses on her as an unmarried woman. On the train, Akhila meets other women, who during the long nighttime journey tell the stories of their lives. Nair’s second novel provides deep insight into the lives of women in modern-day India, illustrating their tough battle for opportunity and the limits which are still exerted by tradition, religion and convention. The first novel of the 35-year-old Nair, "The Better Man", is also to be published in Germany next February. It is the story of an ageing man who after his retirement returns to the village of his childhood. Suddenly ghosts of the past are plaguing him: he thinks of his mother, whom his tyrannical father had rejected early on for another woman. And he finds no rest, plagued by the thought that he had not lived up to his father’s expectations. Only after becoming friends with a man in the village is the protagonist freed from the torment of the memories of his youth. As the discovery of the literary season is the debut novel of writer Hari Kunzru, "The Impressionist". Kunzru is an interesting figure as a person bridging the divide between two cultures. His mother is English, his father Indian, and he lived both cultures. The London Times has gone so far as to put Kunzru on a level with Salman Rushdie. "The Impressionist" is an historic epic novel depicting India at the turn of the 20th century, filled with stories and adventures attesting to the author’s imaginative and narrative powers. As with so many other Indian novels, this book also wrestles with the central question of identity in a culturally divided world. The Hindu-Muslim conflict in India provides the backdrop to Shashi Tharoor’s novel "Riot. A Love Story". An American woman is in love with a high-ranking Indian bureaucrat who is married, with the story providing a picture of morality in modern-day India with all its contradictions, myths and real conflicts. Finally, another debut novel, "The Stars Can Wait" by Jay Basu, has brought great praise from British critics, who called the book "beautiful and deeply sad". Basu is the son of an Indian father and Polish mother, and his novel deals with the battle for survival of a family in Nazi-occupied Poland of World War Two. Critics have praised Basu’s clear, yet lyrical prose. (DPA) |
|
Pak army to ‘hand over’ power to elected Govt on Oct 22 ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: Raising hopes of revival of democracy in Pakistan ahead of the October 10 polls, the top brass of the Army has reportedly decided to hand over power to the elected Government on October 22, even as President Pervez Musharraf said the new Parliament would have authority to amend the constitution. A meeting of the Corps Commanders of the Pakistan Army, which was presided by Musharraf yesterday at the army headquarters at Rawalpindi, decided to transfer power to an elected Government on Oct 22, soon after the constitution of the new national assembly, a media report said today. "The meeting decided that the transition of authority (from military to civilians) after the elections should take place within a week of the official announcement of poll results," `Daily Times’ quoted "sources" as saying. There is no official reaction to the story. Musharraf also told a meeting of the foreign poll observers last night that new Parliament has powers to amend the constitution "as per existing constitutional provisions", official APP newsagency reported today. His comments follow the decision of a full bench of the Supreme Court yesterday to dismiss a petition questioning the constitutional validity of the legal framework order-2002 (LFO) promulgated by Musharraf, stipulating stiff rules for the candidates to contest elections. The new rules barred two-time Prime Ministers from contesting the polls. The court said the issue of the validity of the LFO should be left to the new Parliament, to be elected after the polls. During his interaction with the foreign observers, Musharraf defended his decision to acquire powers to dismiss Parliament as well as constitution of National Security Council (NSC), with chiefs of army, navy and air force as its members, saying it was necessary for sustaining future democracy in Pakistan. He said the acquisition of powers by him as well as the constitution of NSC were "aimed at injecting sustainability to the democratic system so that it does not get derailed". According to Pakistan Election Commission, around 200 observers representing six major international organizations and over 50 countries would monitor the October 10 general elections. Observers from the European Union, Commonwealth, Asian Network for Fair and Free Election (ANFREL), International Centre for Ethnic Studies, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and transparency international have arrived to monitor the polls. The EU mission in its preliminary observations has already criticised the rules to bar former Premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from contesting the polls and questioned the legality of the constitutional amendments brought in by Musharraf. (PTI) |
|
India blames Pak for tensions between two countries UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8: India has squarely blamed Pakistan for prevailing tensions between the two countries, asserting that cross-border terrorism and failure of Islamabad to dismantle terrorist infrastructure are responsible for the present situation in South Asia. "Other underlying causes include a policy of compulsive hostility (by Pakistan), the absence of democratic governance and unwillingness of a military establishment to subject itself to civilian control," India’s United Nations ambassador V K Nambiar told the 191-member General Assembly. Only when these underlying causes are addressed that the commonalities between the nation-building interests of the people of the subcontinent can be "rediscovered and problems areas in the relationship between the countries addressed and resolved," he said. "We do not deny the severity of the political tensions that were generated in the subcontinent as a result of the mindless acts of terrorism perpetrated against important symbols of Indian democracy and nationhood," he said. The measures adopted by India, he stressed, were "deliberate but restrained as would befit a responsible democracy accountable to its people." Supporting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s exhortation to India and Pakistan to resume bilateral dialogue and to resolve differences through peaceful means, Nambiar said, "in our view, apart from being the only viable option, the bilateral route is also the route to which both countries are committed." Efforts to sidetrack this "essential premise" by Pakistan, he told the delegates, have been at the root of the "so called nuclear scare in the region a few months ago." Nambiar said efforts of some "well placed" states, as Annan put it, did contribute to a temporary easing of the overall situation based on "expressed commitment to end cross border terrorism permanently. But again, these commitments remain unimplemented or backtracked upon." Annan had described the situation in South Asia as "perilous". (PTI) |
|
Bush labels Saddam
"murderous tyrant", WASHINGTON, Oct 8: Branding Saddam Hussein as a "murderous tyrant" and "homicidal dictator," American President George W Bush has demanded that the Iraqi leader must disarm or face war by a US-led coalition. "The time for denying, deceiving and delaying has come to an end. Saddam Hussein must disarm himself - or, for the sake of peace we will lead a coalition to disarm him," Bush said in a speech in Cincinnati last night. He called upon the UN Security Council to pass a resolution requiring, among other things, the Iraqi "regime" to reveal and destroy, under UN supervision, all existing weapons of mass destruction. "To ensure that we learn the truth, the regime must allow witnesses to its illegal activities to be interviewed outside the country — and these witnesses must be free to bring their families with them so they all (will be) beyond the reach of Saddam Hussein’s terror and murder," he said. Besides, inspectors must have access to any site, at any time, without pre-clearance, without delay, without exceptions, Bush demanded. "In addition, Iraq must cease the persecution of its civilian population. It must stop all illicit trade outside the oil for food programme. It must release or account for all Gulf war personnel, including an American pilot, whose fate is still unknown," he said. Indicating that he would drop his demand for regime change if these steps are taken, Bush said "by taking these steps, and only by taking these steps, the Iraqi regime has an opportunity to avoid conflict." "Unfortunately, at least so far, we have little reason to expect it. And that is why two administrations — mine and president (Bill) Clinton’s — have stated that regime change in Iraq is the only certain means of removing a great danger to our nation," Bush said. In a call to Hussein’s Generals not to follow any orders of from their leader to use weapons of mass destruction in the event of a war, Bush warned that if they did not refuse orders to use these weapons, "they must understand that all war criminals will be pursued and punished." The evidence indicates Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons programme, he said. "Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his `Nuclear Mujahideen’— his nuclear holy warriors. "Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear programme in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminium tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons," Bush said. "If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball," he said, "it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. And if we allow that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam hussein would be in position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression." "He (Hussein) would be in a position to dominate the Middle East. He would be in a position to threaten America. And Saddam Hussein would be in a position to pass nuclear technology to terrorists," he said. Confronting the threat posed by Iraq is crucial to winning the war on terror, Bush asserted. (PTI) |
|
Japanese, 2 US researchers win nobel prize in physics STOCKHOLM, Oct 8: A Japanese and two American researchers won the nobel prize in physics today for "pioneering contributions to astrophysics," including the detection of cosmic neutrinos and cosmic X-ray sources. Raymond Davis, Jr, 87, of the University of Pennsylvania and M satoshi Koshiba, 76, of the University of Tokyo will share half the prize, worth 10 million kronor (US dollar one million), for their research into cosmic neutrinos. Riccardo Giacconi, 71, of the Associated Universities Inc in Washington, DC will get the other half for his construction of instruments needed to investigate cosmic X-ray radiation, which is absorbed in the earth’s atmosphere. The laureates used the "very smallest components of the universe to increase our understanding of the very largest," including the sun, stars, galaxies and supernovae, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation. This year’s nobel winners have "opened new windows to space," Mats Jonsson, Chairman of the Nobel Committee of Physics said. Last year, the physics award went to three scientists for the discovery of the Bose-Einstein Condensate in 1995 - the coldest piece of material to date. Americans Eric A Cornell and Carl E Wieman and German Scientist Wolfgang Ketterle created a new state of matter -an ultra-cold gas that could help scientists develop smaller and faster electronics by depositing a stream of atoms on computer circuit boards. "We are no closer to achieving the result (of fast circuit boards). It could take years," Cornell said yesterday. "Being in the limelight this past year has slowed me down a bit, but I wouldn’t say it has directly hampered the research," Cornell added. This year’s nobel awards started yesterday with the naming of Britons Sydney Brenner, 75, and John E Sulston, 60, and American H Robert Horvitz, 55, as winners of the medicine prize, selected by a committee at the Karolinska Institute. The researchers shared it for discoveries about how genes regulate organ growth and a process of programmed cell deaths that shed light on how viruses and bacteria invade human cells, including in conditions such as aids, strokes, cancer and heart attacks. The winner of the nobel prize in chemistry will be named tomorrow morning and the Bank of Sweden prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel later the same day. The literature prize winner will be announced on thursday, the Swedish Academy said today. The winner of the coveted peace prize - the only one not awarded in Sweden - will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway. The award committees make their decisions in deep secrecy and candidates are not publicly revealed for 50 years. Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who endowed the prizes left only vague guidelines for the selection committees. In his will he said the prize being revealed today should be given to those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and "shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics." (AP) |
|
Politicians fail to get audience with Nepalese king KATHMANDU, Oct 8: Nepal’s constitutional monarch kept top political leaders waiting in vain for a meeting today even a hundreds of people took to the streets protesting his firing of the Prime Minister last week. The politicians waited for two hours for the audience with King Gyanendra to propose the name of a new leader and seek inclusion in an interim Government that could conduct parliamentary elections. But a palace official said on condition of anonymity that no meeting was planned for today. The king’s aides said earlier that a new Government will be in place by Dasain, Nepal’s most popular Hindu festival, which begins on Saturday, and that elections will be held later. Nearly 2,000 people joined a protest march in the capital against the king’s decision Friday to oust Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The palace has denied it was a royal coup that would end 12 years of democratic Government. "Long live democracy. We don’t want autocracy," the demonstrators chanted as they marched near the Royal Palace gate and through the streets of Kathmandu. The demonstration was organized by All Nepal National Free Student Union, the student wing of the United Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Nepal, the second-largest political group. Gyanendra indefinitely postponed elections that were due to begin on Nov. 13 when he dismissed Deuba and disbanded the cabinet. It was the first time since the end of Nepal’s absolute monarchy in 1990 that a king has ousted an elected Government and its leader. Deuba has called the king’s move unconstitutional, but Nepal’s constitution has no provision for challenging the king’s decision in court. Today, Nepal’s political parties demanded a voice in a new Government. "When we meet the king we will demand that six parties be part of the process to form an interim Government," said Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the United Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Nepal. "Our emphasis will be to bring the derailed constitutional process back on the track," said Arjun Narsingh, a spokesman for the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the Himalayan state. The king fired Deuba and his cabinet after the Prime Minister asked the king to postpone elections by a year because of the threat of disruption by Maoist rebels. Deuba had met the king yesterday and said his newly formed party - Nepali Congress (Democratic) - will not be part of the interim Government. Deuba had caused a split in the Nepali Congress Party and was removed from the party after he asked the king earlier this year to call the elections. He later sought a postponement in the polls. Deuba had also alienated other party members over his desire to extend a national state of emergency that was imposed last November to help fight the Maoist rebels. (AFP) |
|
|
|
|
