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WASHINGTON, Dec 19: In a televised address tothe Arab world to mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, President Bill Clinton...more Indian student wins third annual internet challenge (Excelsior E-mail service) LOS
ANGELES, Dec 19:
An 18 year old Indian high school student, won 2nd
place at the third annual international Think ....more LONDON,
Dec 19: British
Prime Minister Tony Blair today dismissed any suggestion
that President Clinton’s impeachment crisis in
Washington.....more WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The US-led military strike on Iraq....more |
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Founder of
democratic party sent to prison in China BEIJING, Dec 19 :Xu Wanping, who was among other Chinese dissidents who founded a democratic party in human province,.....more Pak’s dispute with ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said today Pakistan’s long-standing dispute with the United States over the.....more
Nawaz Sharif tightening LAHORE, Dec 19: Having tamed Pakistan’s judiciary, military and President, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has taken on media ...more Militants kill 3 Pak KARACHI,
Dec 19: The
mutilated bodies of two Pakistan Army soldiers and an air
force technician .....more COLOMBO, Dec 19 : Sri Lankan President Chandrika....more |
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Indian student wins third annual internet challenge (Excelsior E-mail service) LOS ANGELES, Dec 19: An 18 year old Indian high school student, won 2nd place at the third annual international Think quest(r) Internet Challenge at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles. An educational initiative created by Advanced Network & Services, the Think quest Internet Challenge challenged high school students from all over the world to create educational web sites and honored them with scholarships totaling more than $1.2 million. For their winning entry, The Living Africa (http://library. advanced.org/16645), Debangsu and his teammates each received 12,000 dollars in scholarship money. Having studied at The Mother's International School, New Delhi, Debangsu is currently a student at the International Community School of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, West Africa. With teammates from Holland and USA, Debangsuled a truly international team that collaborated across the Internet for 8 months to develop an in-depth web site about Africa. The resource provides a "spotlight" view of the continent with detailed coverage about its people, languages, cities, land, animals and national parks. Rich in multimedia, web surfers can choose from over a thousand pages of content and hundreds of pictures, along with maps, audio, and video clips. Further, they can interact with other users, send virtual postcards, or play an online wildlife conservation game where they travel around Africa in a quest for animal conservation. Debangsu and his teammates emerged winners from 34 finalist teams representing 18 countries which were judged by Internet Society members. The initial application pool for this year's challenge involved 2,189 teams and 5,852 students from 64 countries. These were narrowed down first to 238 semifinalist teams with 660 students and ultimately to the 34 finalists. The entry from Debangsu's team is prominently featured on the Think quest Web site (www.think quest.org/library/16645.html), where it is being viewed and used by thousands of visitors worldwide. "Working with team members from different continents over the Internet was very exciting," said Debangsu, who travelled from the Ivory Coast to India and back during the course of the contest. "It made us realize that the one constant was indeed the Internet.... We have learned to accept the limitations of the 'Net and yet push it to its limits." Debangsu had been team leader of another international team at last year's Thinkquest Internet Challenge which had won the Best of Contest award with a resource titled "Himalayas: Where Earth Meets Sky" (http://library.advanced.org/16645). "The entries from Debangsu's teams represent the pinnacle of what our challenge supports-collaboration, investigation, and innovative, hands-on learning," said Allan H. Weis, president and CEO of Advanced Network & Services Inc."We truly view our winners as the pioneers of educational and technological growth and thought in the coming millennium." At the event, awards were handed out across the content categories of Arts & Literature, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences,Sports & Health and Interdisciplinary, with additional awards for Design, Java, and Collaboration. Think quest is the largest and fastest-growing Internet-based education program in the world. Nearly 1,000 student-created Web sites have become part of its master site, which is maintained for use by educators, students, businesses, government agencies, and citizens everywhere. The most heavily trafficked educational destination on the Internet, its subject matter ranges from Mars exploration to the physics of baseball to the Himalayas. The challenge aims to encourage collaboration, leadership, critical thinking while raising students' technological prowess. |
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WASHINGTON, Dec 19: In a discovery that may lead to new drugs, researchers have identified a molecule that has a crucial role in causing asthma. Two teams of scientists experimenting independently with laboratory mice have found that a reaction triggered by a molecule called Interleukin-13, or Il13, is a primary element in causing the inflammation, restricted air flow and breathing problems of asthma. The studies appeared yesterday in the journal science. At Johns Hopkins University, researchers treated asthma-prone mice with a drug that blocks the action of Il13. When the mice were exposed to an allergen, a substance that normally caused asthma attacks, the animals developed no breathing problems. Mice not treated with the Il13 blocker, however, had the inflammation and restricted airways typical of asthma. In another study, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, applied Il13 blocker to the nasal passages of mice and then exposed the animals to an asthma-causing protein. Animals treated with the Il13 blocker had few asthma symptoms, the scientists report. The University of California team also found that another molecule, Interleukin-4, or Il4, also played a role in asthma. But, said David Corry of the University, "Il13 may be more potent." If the mouse experiments can be duplicated in humans, they could give new targets for drugs that treat asthma at the cellular level. Such drugs, in effect, would stop an asthma reaction at its source instead of treating just the symptoms of the disorder. (AP) |
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Impeachment crisis did not trigger bombings: Blair LONDON, Dec 19: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today dismissed any suggestion that President Clinton’s impeachment crisis in Washington was the trigger for the bombing campaign against Iraq. Blair, Clinton’s most forceful ally in diplomatic and military stand-offs with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, said after three nights of bombing by Britain and the United States that their military objectives were achievable. He also sprang to the defence of Richard Butler and his team of UN Weapons Inspectors, charged with the task of eliminating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, saying: The Inspectors have been constantly harassed, threatened, deceived and lied to. Blair, writing in today’s Tabloid Mirror newspaper, said the speedy decision to bomb was provoked by Butler’s report to the UN Security Council. Butler’s report was very clear and damning, Blair said. We were presented with a stark but clear choice. I utterly reject the suggestion that the timing was in any way influenced by political events in Washington, he added. In Washington, the house of representatives objections and opened its historic events on Clinton’s impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair yesterday. (REUTERS) |
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WASHINGTON, Dec 19: In a televised address tothe Arab world to mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, President Bill Clinton said today that US air strikes against Iraq were directed against the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and not the Muslim world. Our dispute is with a leader who threatens Muslims and non-Muslims alike, said Clinton in a pre-recorded message. "Saddam simply must not be allowed to threaten his neighbours or the world with nuclear arms, poision gas or biological weapons," he said. Throughout the eve of Ramadan message, Clinton took pains to indentify the Iraqi leader as the US enemy and not the Arab world, expressing cordial US sentiments towards Muslims. Let me state my deep respect for the holy month of ramadan, Clinton said. "We have the most profound admiration for Islam." The Clinton administration launched the strikes on Wednesday, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend. In the days ahead I hope all muslims will consider Americas sincere desire to work with all the people in the Middle East the build peace. US Defence Secretary William Cohen said yesterday that the US-British air campaign against Iraq may continue during Ramadan. (AP) |
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Nawaz Sharif tightening screws
of control LAHORE, Dec 19: Having tamed Pakistan’s judiciary, military and President, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has taken on media critics who are stoutly fighting for press freedom. Government authorities are tightening screws of control on anti-Government journalists, with raids on offices of the country’s largest groups of newspapers earlier this week. Four officials from the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) spent three hours in the Rawalpindi-Islamabad offices of the mass circulation Urdu-language daily ‘Jang’ and its English-language sister publication, ‘The News’, on Monday. The alleged reason was "to check newsprint quotas and store records" as stated by the additional director-general of the FIA who supervised the inspection, but the Jang Group said it was just harassment. The FIA officials also attempted to take away some of the records but were prevented by members of the newspaper union. The team left saying they were only following instructions from "the top". Although the Government spokesman denied there was a raid on Monday, even saying that "no official from any Government agency visited the newspaper", the chief of the ‘Ehtesab’ (accountability) bureau Saifur Rehman accepted responsibility for the raid in an interview on BBC. Not ruling out future action, Rehman said the authorities would continue probing "as needed". Six months ago, according to the senator, the Income Tax Department detected that the group had concealed income amounting to two billion rupees (roughly 43 million dollars). The FIA, he said, had been asked to investigate the matter, which it did by checking the book of accounts and store ledger. When asked whether the raids were connected with attempts to persuade the Jang Group not to carry a report from the London ‘Observer’ charging the Prime Minister’s family of defaulting on a loan, Mr Rehman said the allegations levelled in the report would not harm Mr Sharif. However, the Jang Group said the FIA raid was "part of the vindictive policy" that the Government has been following for "the last six months against Jang Group and other newspapers". Najam Sethi, outspoken editor of ‘Friday Times’, another English-language newspaper, has also complained of harassment by the Income Tax Department. Mir Shakilur Rehman, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Jang Group says he has been told by two senior officials close to Prime Minister Sharif to dismiss 16 journalists on his rolls. When the harassment started in July-August, the "dismissal list" carried the names of four journalists, including Maleeha Lodhi, editor of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad edition of ‘The News’ who was Pakistans’ Ambassador to the United States in the previous Benazir Bhutto Government. That list has been expanded to include three other women journalists and 12 men including Kamran Khan, editor, news investigation unit, Karachi, Mehmood Kham, editor Jang, Karachi, Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, editor Jang, Lahore, Shoaib Marghoob, editor Jang magazine, Lahore, and Marianna Babar, special correspondent in Rawalpindi. In addition, Mr Rehman has been told to keep the policies of his publications "supportive" or off controversial issues: ‘Shariat’ (so-called Islamic law), Karachi where the Government has introduced military courts, the judiciary, the Mian Brothers - (the Prime Minister’s family business, which was previously called the Ittefaq Group.) "We’ve been told that nothing adverse should be written concerning their (the Sharifs) loans, business, personal matters etc.," said Mr Rehman. "They have told us that future issues will be communicated to us as and when they turn up." He confirmed that the Jang Group was told not to print the story about the non-payment of a eleven million pound loan taken by the Prime Minister’s family, published by the London-based ‘Observer’ the day before the raid. The story has been reproduced by several other newspapers here. Other publications have also been sustaining similar pressures. In October, plainclothes officials landed up at the office of the authoritative Karachi-based monthly ‘Newsline’ demanding the home phone numbers and addresses of its correspondents. "The pressure is off for now," says editor Rehana Hakim, "at least until the next story." The husband-wife couple who run the weekly ‘The Friday Times’, Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, have for long been complaining about their phone being tapped and other harassment. "All our telephones are tapped, including the mobile (cell) phones. When we go to Islamabad, senior Government officials jokingly quote bits of our conversations to us," Mr Mohsin said. The Government’s heavy-handed tactics to control Pakistan’s independent press has unleashed widespread criticism, nationally as well as internationally, including faxes to the Prime Minister from reporters sans frontiers and the committee to protect journalists. On Tuesday, the combined opposition reacted strongly to the Government action, and walked out of the senate in sympathy with journalists who had left the press gallery in protest. (IPS) |
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Founder of democratic party sent to prison in China BEIJING, Dec 19 :Xu Wanping, who was among other Chinese dissidents who founded a democratic party in human province, has been sent to a prison work camp for three years, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for democracy and human rights said today. Earlier this month, Xu, 36, who earlier this month was convicted of disturbing the public order,was confined to a prison work camp in the South-Western city of Chongquing. He was arrested in late October with other members of the new party. The work camp sentence is one of the most severe penalties given by China’s Communist leadership to members and founders of the democratic party. The main founder of the party, Mr Xu Wenli, whom Beijing suspects of trying to overthrow the government, is scheduled to appear monday in Court. Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin, both co-founders of the party, were put on trial Thursday and are awaiting verdicts. "To arrest and try these men as subversives, when their only offence has been to advocate peaceful political change in China, flies in the face of all the commitments to human rights that the chinese government has made to the world over the last two years," the New York-based human rights watch organisation said in a statement. "The government is systematically violating the right to freedom of expression and association not only of these three, but of hundreds of others detained for related activities," said Siney Jones, the organisation’s Asia Director. (DPA) Pak’s dispute with US resolved, says Sharif ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said today Pakistan’s long-standing dispute with the United States over the purchase of 28 F-16 fighter planes has been resolved. Pakistan will get 467 million dollars from Washington, the outstanding amount of the money it paid for the fighter planes it never received. Earlier Pakistan had received 157 million dollars as partial repayment. "The F-16s issue has been a long-standing and a persistent irritant in our bilateral relations with the United States," Mr Sharif told a news conference. "For almost a whole decade now this issue has been hanging fire between the two countries because, in all these years, the US refused to give us the planes as well as our money." But that’s over now and the money will be returned, he said. "I am delighted that this issue has been satisfactorily settled," he said. Delivery of the fighter aircraft was stopped after 1990 when the United States stopped all military and humanitarian aid to Pakistan to protest its nuclear programme. The repayment of the money to Pakistan will be divided into a 327 million cash payment before the end of December and a 140 million dollars payment in wheat and other commodities over the next two years, he said. "As Pakistan must make annual purchases of wheat against cash, we deem this arrangement to be entirely satisfactory and as good as receiving cash payment," Mr Sharif said. Mr Sharif, who met US President Bill Clinton in Washington earlier this month, said "in a statesman like manner, he (Clinton) has honoured his commitment." (AP) Militants kill 3 Pak soldiers in Karachi KARACHI, Dec 19: The mutilated bodies of two Pakistan Army soldiers and an air force technician were found in the violent Southern port city of Karachi early today, police said. The three men had been kidnapped earlier. Police said the bodies showed signs of "severe torture". Last month the Government called in the Army to aid police in quelling relentless violence between rival factions of the ethnic-based Muttaheda Qaumi Movement. About 1,000 people have died this year in the factional feud. The bodies of the three men were found in an abandoned vehicle, they said. No one has taken responsibility for the killing, but police are blaming the ethnic group, MQM a former ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Government. (AP) Attack on Iraq to be over by weekend: Report WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The US-led military strike on Iraq will be concluded by the weekend, ABC television has reported quoting unnamed Pentagon sources. The report gave no further details but quoted the sources as saying that it appears that the attack will be wrapped up by then. US officials said they were mindful of the beginning and were hopefully ending the attack before the start of Ramzan, the Muslim holy month which begins this weekend. But they also insisted that while that was their goal they would not be held to any artificial timetables for completing the military strikes. (AP) Leaders of country should try to solve ethnic crisis COLOMBO, Dec 19 : Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said that the onus now lies on the part of ‘leaders of the country and others’ to take a lead at ‘some risk’ to find a way in solving the ethnic crisis. Addressing the 18th annual general meeting of the organisation of professional association here yesterday, she said. "We have done a great deal to solve this burning issue despite the threats to our lives and our political careers. We do not want to leave the situation where the future generations of Sinhalese and Tamils blame each other over the ethnic crisis." The business community has facilitated a process of dialogue for which they have the government’s full support, she said exuding confidence that better sense would prevail finally. Successive governments since independence have to take their share of the blame. "All of us have contributed to the seriousness of the problem which had been swept under the carpet. Now, it has burst in our faces," she said. The problems have gone beyond the crisis level and needs the requisite vision of the leadership and a humane outlook, for its settlement. "We have to think differently at this stage. A large number of people have now begun to realise that there is a need to formulate and fashion proposals revolving round the ethnic crisis", she said. Her remarks seem significant in the light of interest expressed by several Parliamentarians from Britain and South Africa to be ‘facilitators’ for talks between the government and the Tamil rebels. LTTE leader Velupialli Prabhakarn’s offer of initiation of peace talks has yet to receive a government response. (UNI) |
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