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| India
agrees for AIDS vaccine trial NEW DELHI,
Nov 9: India
has decided to join global efforts to develop AIDS
vaccine and after casting aside years of hesitation, has
agreed to offer sites for international vaccine
trials.......more PATNA,
Nov 9:
Barring sporadic incidents of minor clashes and smashing
of winscrens of vehicles by Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha
supporters, the dawn-to-dusk Bihar bandh called to
protest the rise in prices of essential commodities and
alleged false implication of RJD President Laloo Prasad
Yadav in the fodder scam today passed off peacefully...
...more KAKINADA,
Nov 9:
Blazing a new trail, beggars in Andhra Pradesh are
demanding the right to work......more AURANGABAD,
Nov 9: Former
Union Home Minister S B Chavan has said mid-term polls
will be held soon in the country as there was no
coordination between the allies making up the BJP led
Central Government.....more NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Mr Justice M N Venkatachaliah, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), today strongly denounced the society for its indifference to the scourge of child prostitution which was rampant in many parts of the country.......more |
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HC may
direct EOW to look into CRB group companies MUMBAI, Nov 9: The Mumbai High Court today said
it may appoint Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of city
police to inquire into the working of 132 satellite
companies.....more BHUBANESWAR,
Nov 9: Haemorrhagic
septicaemia, an infectious disease common to animals, has
during the past week claimed the lives of at least 20
deer at the Taptapani Deer Park.....more NEW
DELHI, Nov 9:
A nine-member high level Indian team led by Defence
Secretary Ajit Kumar left here today for Moscow for a
meeting of the Indo-Russian Joint Working Group
(JWG)......more DEHRA
DUN, Nov 9:
In order to utilise the available multi-disciplinary
expertise on the Himalayan region, holistic and
integrated research programmes must be initiated at
universities and institutes........more CALCUTTA, Nov 9: The curtain lifts on the fourth Calcutta film festival here tomorrow promising cineastes a feast of the best works of many Indian and International Masters. .....more NEW DELHI, Nov 9: India has been elected chairman of the the Commission for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) for a two-year term.....more |
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| India
agrees for AIDS vaccine trial NEW DELHI, Nov 9: India has decided to join global efforts to develop AIDS vaccine and after casting aside years of hesitation, has agreed to offer sites for international vaccine trials. The far-reaching decision, which still needs a formal Cabinet approval, was taken yesterday after a two-day brain storming meeting of officials from India’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme. J V R Prasad Rao, Chief of NACO, announced that a core group will soon be formed to work out details of the programme to be submitted to the Cabinet for a political decision. Rao said Government had already accepted the need for AIDS vaccine and that we have the capability to develop it with international support. Naco, with assistance from NIH and UNAIDS, plans to create an Umbrella Organization comprising a multidisciplinary team with administrative and financial independence to take up all aspects of AIDS vaccine research and trials on a mission mode. It will link Indian AIDS researches with counterparts abroad and develop a flexible plan for producing candidate vaccine and testing them, said Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, former Chief of Indian Council of Medical Research and the prime mover of the Indian vaccine initiative. An official said India will be ready to launch the trials in two years. Over 2500 people representing sex workers and those attending clinics for sexually transmitted diseases have been recruited in Pune for the trial, while another cohort of injectable drug users ar being maintained in Mainipur in Northeast India. The choice of vaccine — Indian or foreign — will be decided at the right time, said Rao, adding that we have to tread very carefully on this. India had backed out of international clinical trial nine years ago to avoid criticism that its people are being used as guineapigs. Rao said the trials, whenever held, will be done in a transparent manner after getting informed consent and that the ethical committee would involve the National Human Rights Commission headed by a retired Judge. The project will cost a lot of money but it will not be a problem, says Ramalingaswami. Money will come from NIH, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) based in New York and from the 250-million-dollar loan the World Bank is releasing to India from April 1999. According to Rao, the bank has agreed to give additional loan once India has a vaccine ready to test but it will not be involved with the vaccine trial itself. Well known AIDS researcher Anthony Fauci of NIH said his agency is in a better position to fund Indian efforts because it has increased its budget for AIDS vaccine. (PTI) |
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| Sporadic
incidents of clashes mar Bihar bandh PATNA, Nov 9: Barring sporadic incidents of minor clashes and smashing of winscrens of vehicles by Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha supporters, the dawn-to-dusk Bihar bandh called to protest the rise in prices of essential commodities and alleged false implication of RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam today passed off peacefully. Inspector-General of Police (railways) Ashis Ranjan said the movement of trains was not affected as the railways was kept out of the purview of the bandh. However, unofficial reports said RJD supporters squatted on railway tracks at Darbhanga and Pupri, affecting the movement of trains for some time. Attendance in State and Central Government offices was partially affected but banks and insurance companies transacted normal business. In Patna, lathi-wielding band supporters smashed windscreens of a few vehicles and clashed with the police this afternoon. Private bus operators suspended their services across the state as a precautionary measure, sources said. While Government schools were open with poor attendance, all private schools remained closed. A Hazaribagh report said loading and despatching of coal was affected as trucks remained off the roads. Reports said despite the party decision to exempt railways from the purview of the bandh, RJD supporters squatted on railway tracks near Darbhanga and Pupri stations stalling movement of trains and leaving several passengers stranded. In Patna, the bandh paralysed life as most shops and business establishments remained closed and very few vehicles plied on the roads. Police said bandh supporters smashed windscreens of cars. The bandh supporters led by Ramkripal Yadav, former Lok Sabha member from Patna, and Nemtullah, RJD Chief whip in the Assembly, blocked roads to enforce the bandh call. The bandh evoked partial response in Daltonganj and adjoining areas, official reports said. Twelve people, including a local RJD leadern were injured when RJD supporters trying to enforce the bandh clashed with shopkeepers. RLM president and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav had called a simultaneous 12-hour bandh in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh today after meeting detained former Chief Minister and RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav last week. However, Mulayam Singh
Yadav later withdrew the bandh call in Uttar Pradesh
following the Allahabad High Court order that the bandh
unlawful. (PTI) The beggars, at a meeting here yesterday, passed a resolution to this effect. Their spokesman Arjun Rao told that resolutions were also adopted demanding, among other things, ration cards, free medicare, house site pattas and reservation. The meeting also urged the
State Government to stop migration of beggars from other
states. (UNI) AURANGABAD, Nov 9: Former Union Home Minister S B Chavan has said mid-term polls will be held soon in the country as there was no coordination between the allies making up the BJP led Central Government. Mr Chavan was speaking to mediapersons after inaugurating the Gangapur cooperative sugar factory’s 30th crushing season near here yesterday. Mr Chavan said the Congress would emerge as a strong political party in the ensuing Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. He said, if necessary, he would participate in election campaign along with leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sharad Pawar but added I have some limitations due to old age. Mr Chavan expressed the need to give opportunities to youths in politics. Regarding the reorganisation of small states, he said, he was not opposed to the concept. However, he said the efforts are being made with political motivation, and added that a State Reorganisation Commission should be set- up for the purpose. (UNI) |
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| NHRC chairperson releases book on child prostitution NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Mr Justice M N Venkatachaliah, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), today strongly denounced the society for its indifference to the scourge of child prostitution which was rampant in many parts of the country. Releasing a study on "Child prostitution in India" undertaken by Mr Joseph Gathia of the Centre of Concern For Child Labour (CCFCL), Mr Justice Venkatachaliah described the evil practice as the worst violation of human rights. "It is a matter of shame that we do not think of child prostitution as a problem which affects the privileged members of society and we are deluding ourselves by accepting its existence as a matter of course", he said. Mr Gathia, touching upon the salient features of his book, observed that the sex trade in India revolves around Rs 40,000 crore a year and 30 per cent of this or Rs 11,000 crore is related to child prostitution. According to him, the number of children below 14 years in commercial prostitution was increasing at the rate of eight to ten per cent per annum. During the last ten years, some 30 per cent of all children forced into prostitution were below twelve years of age. More disquieting was the social sanction accorded to this shameful practice and about 60 per cent of girl children among traditional entertainer groups in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were "ushered" into the profession by their own family members, he pointed out. The demand for pre-puberty girls is increasing not only in the six metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai but also in the rural areas of certain tourist routes. Mr Gathia described the situation as acute in what he called the "pink triangle" area covering Delhi -Jaipur and Agra and certain goods transport routes like Calcutta - Siliguri - Guwahati -and Shillong and Kandhala, Rajkot - Udaipur- Jaipur and Delhi. He cited four pocket areas in the country as recruiting grounds. These are Adilabad, Kurnul and Enadi in Andhra Pradesh Dhandbad, Sahebganj, Ranchi and Purnea in Bihar Murshidabad, Nadia and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and the areas covering Madurai, Coimbatore, Belgaum and Raichur in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. According to him, 78 districts could be referred to as "high-risk zones" for the girl child in terms of prostitution. Laws were very weak in tackling the phenomenon of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Observing that the current laws in South Asian countries ignored commercial child prostitution by family, Mr Gathia underlined the need for a South Asian perspective policy without which the issue could not be successfully tackled. The ultimate responsibility, Mr Justice Venkatachaliah said, was that of civil society which comprised 98 per cent of the population and yet remained "silent onlookers of this tragic drama being enacted" everywhere. "What is needed is intense education of society so that people who indulge in such activities feel a sense of shame", he added. (UNI) |
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| HC may direct EOW to look into CRB group companies MUMBAI, Nov 9: The Mumbai High Court today said it may appoint Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of city police to inquire into the working of 132 satellite companies of CRB Capital Markets Ltd, embroiled in the multi-crore scam. Hearing a petition by investors’ Grivanes Foru (GF), Chief Justice M B Shah and Justice S Radhakrishnan said eow could also be empowered to seize the assets of these companies if it found prima facie evidence of misappropriation of public funds. IGF President Kirit Somaiya, in the petition, alleged laxity on the part of regulatory authorities such as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) eventually leading to the scam. Nitin Thakkar, counsel for CRB group of companies, submitted that he would file an affidavit disclosing details about the assets and liabilities of all the 132 companies. IGF counsels, Janak Dwarkadas and Chandu Mehta, alleged that crores of rupees were ultimately siphoned off from CRB Capital Market Ltd to Satelite companies. They urged that SEBI and RBI should be directed to inquire into the flow of funds from the parent company to its subsidiaries. The court adjourned the
matter to November 17. (PTI) |
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| Infectious disease claim 20 deer BHUBANESWAR, Nov 9: Haemorrhagic septicaemia, an infectious disease common to animals, has during the past week claimed the lives of at least 20 deer at the Taptapani Deer Park, about 110 km from here. The areas adjacent to the park had witnessed an epidemic form of the disease, and the carcasses of the cattle that fell prey to it were not disposed off properly by the people, Chief Wildlife Warden Saroj Patnaik told UNI. Instead of burying the carcasses, they dumped them on open ground. During rains, water from that area flowed in and contaminated the park area, thus affecting the deer population, Mr Patnaik said. After the outbreak of the disease, a two-member team headed by a senior veterinary officer from Nandan Kanan Zoo left for Taptapani, he disclosed. The team along with staff from the Digapahandi wildlife division vaccinated some deer of the park to prevent more deaths. Those who could not be vaccinated were given the medicine mixed with food, he added. Also, measures were being
taken to remove mud, provide parklime treatment and
cleanse the water in the park area, Mr Patnaik said and
expressed the hope that no more deer would die of the
disease. (UNI) |
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