Aamir Khan summoned by Gujarat authorities
in Chinkara case

AHMEDABAD, Oct 29: Film star Aamir Khan has been summoned for questioning on November six by the Gujarat forest department in connection with filming the endangered chinkara, officials today said.

"We have sent a notice to Aamir Khan to be present for questioning on November 6," State Forest Minister Mangu Patel told PTI.

Forests officials are probing the case against Aamir, which dates back to the filming in Gujarat of "Lagaan" eight years ago. The chinkara is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Officials have said Aamir, the producer of "Lagaan", did not take permission from the forest department for filming the endangered animal and thus violated the Act.

Aamir and his team filmed "Lagaan" in Kutch district, where forest officials today said a preliminary probe had revealed that the producers did not take permission from the forest department to film the Chinkara.

They said even though the animals were not harmed during the shooting, the producers and some officials had violated rules in allowing the shoot.

Moreover, they pointed out, the footage was used for commercial purposes, which is a blatant violation of the Wildlife Protection Act.

"If the filming was done in connection with a documentary or wildlife film, then there was no problem," a forest official said.

Sources said some forest officials will also be questioned in connection with the case. (PTI)

Maharashtra seeks approval for another airport

MUMBAI, Oct 29: The Maharashtra Government is awaiting the civil aviation ministry’s approval for its proposal to build an airport at Kalyan near here to ease traffic congestion, a top state government official said today.

The state has forwarded a proposal to the Union ministry, seeking its nod for the proposed airport at Kalyan, 55 km from here.

"We have identified the land and sent our proposal to the Union civil aviation ministry, which is currently evaluating our proposal," the official told PTI.

The existing airport at Sahar here, the country’s busiest aviation hub, is being expanded and upgraded by a joint venture between the GVK-SA consortium and Airports Authority of India to cater to 40 million passengers and one million tonnes of cargo annually.

In the satellite city of Navi Mumbai, another airport has been conceptualised and received clearance from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The proposed airport at Kalyan, if approved by the Union ministry, will take Mumbai closer to fulfilling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s vision of turning the metropolis into a key economic hub of Asia. (PTI)

Voter ID cards to all by 2008: CEC

CHENNAI, Oct 29: The issuance of Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) throughout the country was expected to be completed by the end of 2008, Chief Election Commissioner V Gopalaswami said today.

"We expect the work on EPIC to be completed by 2008," Gopalaswami said replying to questions from reporters at the airport here on arrival enroute to Kumbakonam on a private visit.

When asked about AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa’s charge against the Election Commission had acted in favour of the ruling DMK in the recent assembly by-election, he said "an appropriate" reply had already been given by state Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta. (PTI)

Clerics dismiss Shabana’s statement,
say face should be covered

LUCKNOW, Oct 29: Even as the veil controversy in Britain refuses to die down, Muslim clerics here have sharply reacted to veteran Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi’s statement that that the Koran does not make it mandatory for a woman to cover her face.

"It has become a fashion of sorts for some Indian Muslims to criticise the teachings of the holy Koran and Hadees," Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali, a senior All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member and imam of the historic Tilewali Masjid here, told PTI.

"Some Muslims in the country think they will be considered modern only when they criticise the Koran and Hadees," he said referring to Azmi’s statement.

While in London to receive the Gandhi Foundation’s International Peace Award, the actress-turned-Rajya Sabha member had called for a debate on Muslim women wearing the veil, saying the Koran speaks about women wearing clothes to cover their modesty and that they need not cover their faces.

"The Koran has clearly instructed that women should put on veils," Firangimahali said, adding that this did not mean that they should not go to college or work and remain confined to their homes.

On the controversy over Muslim women wearing veils that was sparked by Commons’ leader Jack Straw in Britain, the maulana said asking Muslim women not to wear veils was tantamount to a "violation of their fundamental rights".

"There is pardah (veil) for Muslim men also. They should keep their eyes down and not look at women other than their wives with prurient intentions," Firangimahali said.

He said the number of rape cases in countries like Saudi Arabia, where the veil is mandatory, was "quite less" when compared to India and other nations where it is not a compulsory practice.

The senior cleric also lashed out at those who interpreted the Koran and Hadees in their own way and said the holy book termed such things as ‘Gunahe Azeem’ (the biggest sin).

Another AIMPLB member termed the entire veil controversy as "meaningless and irrelevant".

"Why is their no controversy when Christian nuns cover their body with only their faces visible?" AIMPLB working committee member S Q R Iliyasi told PTI on phone.

He said the Koran has laid down instructions for pardah but there were two opinions on whether the face should be entirely covered.

"As far as the Koran is concerned, there is no dispute that the body should be properly covered," he said, adding that in India, the women of Rajasthan covered their faces.

"In a democratic country it is the fundamental right of an individual to decide about his or her dress code," Iliyasi argued.

All India United Muslim Morcha vice-president M A Siddiqui said no one had the authority to direct someone to put on or not put on a particular type of dress. (PTI)

Cyber training lab to be Launched

BANGALORE, Oct 29: With cyber security becoming a major concern in this IT capital of the country where cyber crimes are on the rise, Bangalore will soon have its own cyber training laboratory, a joint effort of NASSCOM and the state police.

The lab, the third in the country after similar facilities in Mumbai and Pune, will impart training in digital forensics and will be unveiled next month, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Economic Offences) Sanjay Vir Singh, told PTI.

With cyber crimes increasing, "there is an urgent need to develop expertise in digital forensics and collection of digital evidence", said Singh, an official of the Corps of Detectives (COD), which is involved in the project.

The lab, which was a result of joint efforts by Nasscom and COD, will be funded to the tune of Rs 40 lakh by Canara Bank under a private-public participation scheme.

It will be headed by a project manager, appointed by NASSCOM, who will be assisted by a police officer of the rank of detective sub-inspector, Singh said.

The instructors will be chosen by NASSCOM and will mainly be drawn from software majors, technical and professional institutes and risk containment units of banks.

"The trainee strength for the three-day short duration course and six-day regular course will be 35-40," he said.

Under the short duration programme, training will be given to prosecutors, advocates, magistrates, judges and senior police officers, Singh said.

However, the six-day regular course will only be for police inspectors and deputy superintendents, he said.

The trainees will be trained to use software like ENCASE and work on DRAC (data recovery and analysis computer), which is used widely across the world, mainly in the US.

They will also work on CIBS (cyber image backup system), mainly used in Britain and Europe, Singh said.

Apart from Bangalore’s COD, this equipment is only available in the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and National Police Academy, both in Hyderabad.

"The IT Act being a new law, digital forensics requires specialised training to collect and preserve digital evidence and this is what the lab will address," Singh said. (PTI)

Couple arrested for kidnapping girl for ransom

MADURAI, Oct 29: Police have arrested a couple for allegedly kidnapping the seven-year old daughter of their family friend, from Palani, 22 kms from here, after rescuing the girl within 48 hours of lodging the complaint.

Police today said Kalimuthu and Efzi had kidnapped Jayadurga, daughter of their friend Subramani, when the girl was waiting for bus near her school.

The couple later took the girl to several places, including Pollachi, Tiruppur and Coimbatore and sought ransom for her release. Subramani, however, did not reveal the amount demanded.

The couple had threatened to kill the girl if the money was not paid.

Police located Kalimuthu at Tiruppur, by closely following his telephone calls and arrested him. His wife who managed to escape to Kodaikanal was also arrested last night, police said. (PTI)

Drug eluting stents are not dangerous, say experts

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: The world’s first totally absorbable Drug Eluting Stent (DES) for heart treatment has been proved effective, feasible and safe, according to noted interventional cardiologist Deepak Natarajan of Apollo hospital.

This was presented at the ongoing Washington Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference, he said.

"This stent would represent the best of both worlds by releasing a drug to prevent reblockage of the heart vessel and would then actually disappear in a few months to make the risk of late stent clots nonexistent", he told UNI.

The controversy over the impact of the DES was causing concern, but the stunning data presented in the recent World Cardiology conference held in Barcelona, Spain, had strongly suggested that late clots (stent thrombosis) in stents were not common.The newer class of stents are similar to Bare Metal Stents (BMS), as both were wire mesh tubes made of metal. But DES is covered with a plastic called polymer laced with a specific anti clogging drug called rapamycin or paclitaxel.

The older BMS had an unacceptable high rate of reclogging of the coronary artery and this was particularly seen in diabetics and in patients with very narrow arteries, Dr Natarajan said. The launch of DES in 2002 was seen as a major boon because these stents reduced the rate of reclogging from 25 per cent to only six per cent.

Though the newer DES lessened restenosis significantly, they delayed healing of the vessel wall.The delayed healing, largely due to fatal blood clots within the deployed stent, many months to a couple of years post following the procedure. This problem was also present with BMS but to a far lesser degree and for a shorter duration following intervention, he said.

The Washington conference on interventioanl cardiology, the largest in the world, is expected to give guidelines on the usage of pills (aspirin or clopidogrel), to prevent late stent clots. Aspirin and clopidogrel, technically termed as anti-platelet drugs, can keep blood thin enough to safeguard against the devastating clots, he said.

Registers maintained at Bern and Rotterdam cities show that only 23 per cent of patients with DES were on both these pills after a month and in fact 24 per cnt were on neither few months following stenting. More patients stay on both pills for as long as possible. If dual antiplatelet administration is persisted for a longer duration, it is better.

Very old people, however, should not be candidates for DES as they may require non heart related surgery needing stopping of blood thinners, Dr Natarajan said.Technical indications, experience and prudence should dictate selection of the right kind of stent in a patient.

"The correct step would be to steadily move ahead and not peer back to the BMS era. The reassuring news is that more recent versions of DES are constantly jumping from the drawing boards to human trials with spectacular success. Newer drugs are being tried. The plastic has been modified to melt away within a few months. Newer structural designs will allow future stents to store and deliver two different drugs simultaneously", he said.

Moreover, two new meta analysis (pooled data) presented in Washington on Friday has reassuringly resolved that there is no significant difference in stent clots between DES and BMS. This has also been given further boost by a new definition of stent clots which insists on angiographic or autopsy confirmation, Dr Natarajan said. (UNI)

An All India Writers Home to come up in rural Punjab

NEW DELHI,Oct 29: An All India Writers Home will be set up to promote research in Indian culture and heritage at the educational complex of the Jawala Memorial Trust at Sanghol village near Chandigarh.

This complex, opened by President A P J Abdul Kalam on August 17 last, consists of four professional colleges and a public school.The complex is the brainchild of Ireland-based Non Resident Indian Lord Diljit Rana, India’s honorary consul in that region of U K.

Research grants would be given to support local scholars at the Writers Home, a spokesperson of the complex said.

Aimed at integrating heritage and technology with rural regeneration, the Trust plans to make this educational complex a centre of excellence to provide world class education to the young people of Sanghol and surrounding areas. A co-ed degree college, affiliated to the University of Patiala, a management institute, a hotel and hospitality institute affiliated to the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, a teacher training college and a school are functioning in the complex at present. (UNI)

CWC may deliberate on creamy layer issue

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: With pressure mounting from the UPA allies to take a firm stand on the controversial Supreme Court verdict excluding the creamy layer in the SCs and STs from the benefit of reservation in Government jobs, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is likely to meet here shortly to consider the issue.

A Congress spokesperson told UNI that CWC, the highest policy making body of the Congress, might meet sometime next week the CWC meeting is due as it has not met for a long time, he added.

The Congress so far has been unable to formulate its stand on the apex court decision, which has also put a ceiling on quota at 50 per cent, on the plea that it will study and analyse the apex court verdict before taking a stand.

Opinions are divided in the Congress on the knotty issue of restricting the creamy layer in the SCs and STs from the benefit of quota. While one section believes that the only way out to neutralise the apex court judgement is to go in for a constitutitonal amendment. The other section is opposed to taking recourse to this option lest it should trigger off a confrontation between the legislature and the judiciary with the apex court overruling the amendment.

The Congress will also consult all its UPA allies on the matter while the Congress-led UPA Government may hold an all party meeting to come out with a solution.

Amid the Congress dilemma over the issue, DMK chief K Karunanidhi, in a letter to all the Chief Ministers, has asked them to involve their states in the issue before the Supreme Court whether the 9^{th Schedule of the Constitution could remain beyond the scrutiny of the court. (UNI)}

NACO’s Children’s Day gift to HIV positive kids

BANGALORE, Oct 29: As a Children’s Day gift to HIV positive children, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) will roll out paediatric drugs for them on November 14.

The news was expected to bring solace to hundreds of parents, whose children were on Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART), the only treatment available for people with HIV/AIDS.

There was no cure for AIDS, but ART, the multi-drug treatment, prolonged life and enhanced its quality among people living with HIV/AIDS.

To begin with, NACO had decided to provide paediatric drug formulations to 10,000 infected children in the existing 36 ART centres all over the country. The number of ART centres would be doubled shortly.

At present, the drug was administered by dividing fractions of adult formulations according to the child’s age, which might lead to under or over-dosage through human error causing resistance to the drug over a period of time.

The new formula of two paediatric three-in-one dose combination would overcome this challenge, besides the hardships being faced by parents in administering the drug.

"In Karnataka, ART Centres at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Bangalore, and KIMS, Hubli, will start providing the drug to children below 15 years, who are in clinical Stage 3. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, it was the stage where the CD-4 count was less than 15 per cent," WHO Consultant on ART Dr Sudheer Jangey told UNI.

He said that in Bangalore, the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health would be the Regional Paediatric ART Centre among the six centres of super treatment proposed to be set up in the country.

According to UNAIDS, 1,20,000 children in the country were living with the virus in 2004. The NACO had estimated that around 60,000 new infections occurred last year and according to rough estimations, around 2,50,000 Indian children were HIV positive.

Dr Jangey said the children would be screened and their CD-4 commissioned. Known HIV positive cases also need to re-investigate and confirm whether they were eligible for ART treatment according to their CD-4 count.

Children whose status was not known and parents infected with the virus would be motivated to screen their children.

"This is a big task and the State AIDS Prevention Societies have been involving NGOs, care and support centres and networks of positive people. At present, 53 NGOs are supporting the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission Centres in Karnataka. These NGOs and care and support centres will motivate pregnant women to go in for the test and have institutional deliveries," he added.

He said that if the children under ART had any complication which could not be managed by the ART centres, they would be referred to the Regional Paediatric ART Centre.

In Karnataka, 629 infected children registered in Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, KIMS, Hubli, KR Hospital, Mysore, and VIMS, Bellary, and 223 of them were taking ART.

The WHO official said the combo-medicine of three drugs was made available in a tablet per day for the child. The medicine was also available in the form of syrup, but it had to be stored in cool temperature. Not many use it as most of the HIV positive children hail from poor families.

The cost of the medicine in the open market for adults was Rs 1,200 per month, Rs 800 per month for juniors in the age group 10-14 years and Rs 600 per month for the baby dose.

NACO provided these medicines free of cost at the ART Centres after a nominal registration charge of Rs ten.

Delhi-based Naz Foundation Director Dr Suresh Upadhyay said "the dosage is very important as under-dosage or over-dosage can cause resistance to the drug. Earlier, it was a problem to find out the correct dosage, but now the new formulae available in suspension is accurate."

Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) National Advocacy Officer Asha Ramaiah, welcoming the medicine, said "it is a huge relief for mothers. Most of my friends and mothers I know were scared to administer the dosage by breaking the tablets.

Whenever, the child suffers from stomach pain or any other ailment, these mothers undergo great amount of pain and trauma thinking that it was because of the inaccuracy in the dose they administered, though it was unrelated in most cases. It will be much easier for the kids too as they will have only one tablet to take."

Ms Ramaiah, who conducted workshops and training programmes for people living with HIV/AIDS on drug adherence, warned that it was important to think of second line and third line drugs for these children who would soon grow up.

Even as the Children’s Day brought good news to HIV positive children, the country still faced a big challenge in identifying the huge number of people suffering from the deadly virus as many of the infected were not aware of their status. Hence, continuing awareness and prevention programmes remained a top priority. (UNI)

Oxford to set up first research centre outside UK in India

MUMBAI, Oct 29: Oxford University, the oldest varsity in the English speaking world, may be breaking new ground with plans to set up its first business research centre outside UK in India to study the sub-continent nation’s rapidly expanding economy.

The university will invest 10 million pounds initially to set up its first business research centre, which will study a wide span of issues in the country starting from infrastructure and education to social entrepreneurship and busines taxation, Oxford ‘SAID Business School’ Dean Prof Colin Mayer told PTI here.

"This is the first centre outside UK and will be a huge commitment as far as Oxford is concerned. There will be a study centre in Oxford that will lead the research works in India," he said.

The centre is expected to be operational by next year.

"For outsiders, the growth of India is a lesson to learn and for the country, there are a lot of challenges. We are bringing in international attention to the success of India and trying to involve the policy makers and the corporate India to address issues related to infrastructure and education in the country," Mayer said.

The Oxford’s India centre will have representatives from the business world as well as from the policy decision makers, he added.

"The policy makers and the business heads will guide the centre. We are in the process of designing the nature of advisory board of the center in India," Mayer said.

Maintaining that the country has got a lot of entrepreneurship excellence, Mayer said Oxford has plans to polish those skills.

"As the next step, we will be training the entrepreneurship talent in India. The country has got a huge managerial expertise and entrepreneurship skills," he said.

While Oxford is one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious varsities, the SAID Business School was established as recently as 1996, but is today among Europe’s fastest-growing B-schools. (PTI)

‘Pink’ October aims at spreading breast
cancer awareness worldwide

MUMBAI, Oct 29: The month of ‘Pink’ October is dedicated for spreading awareness about breast cancer by Oncologists around the world, especially HER2 (Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2) positive breast cancer.

Breast cancer is probably one of the greatest fears for women. It is the leading cause of death in women aged between 35 to 55 and the second leading cause of death in women of all ages around the world, claim statistics. It is estimated that eight to nine per cent of women develop breast cancer in their lifetime. In fact, in India, breast cancer accounts for 20 per cent of the total cancer-related diseases and is largely prevalent among urban women.

Says Dr B K Smruti, practicing Oncologist at Lilavati and Bombay Hospitals, "About 25 per cent of women suffering from breast cancer are HER2 positive."

HER2 is a gene that directs the growth of special protein in the cells in the breast making the cancerous tumour more agressive to treatment, she adds.

Research has shown that in case of women with HER2 positive breast cancer, the tumors grow faster. There is also an increased risk of spread and there are greater chances of the tumor coming back.

Compared to women with normal breast cancer (HER2 negative) HER2 positive condition reduces the life expectancy of the woman by approximately half.

The search for a cure for this deadly disease has led to the development of a breakthrough line of therapy called targeted therapy which helps combat complicated forms of the disease effectively.

Dr Smruti explained that ‘Herceptin’ is a unique biologically targeted therapy for women with HER2 positive breast cancer. It differs from traditional treatments. Cancer cells grow in an uncontrolled fashion. Herceptin stops or slows the growth of certain breast cancer cells by blocking the chemical signals they need to grow. It specifically targets the cancerous cells that overexpress the HER2 protein and blocks the tumour cell growth.

It signals the body_s immune system to kill the tumor cell and works with chemotherapy to slow the growth of the tumor, she further informed.

Since Herceptin targets mostly tumor cells that overexpress the HER2 protein, it does not affect normal healthy cells. Patients on this therapy alone may be less likely to experience the side effects, faced in other types of treatments.

The whole objective of cancer treatment is to increase the life span of a patient and enhance her quality of life, which this drug does to an extent.

Unfortunately, the only obstacle on the way of this treatment for some patients may be that it is very expensive. Dr Smruti informs that if the HER2 positive breast cancer is detected at an early stage, the treatment may have to be given up to a year costing almost a lakh of rupees per month.

If the same is detected at a later stage when the cancer has spread to other organs or has recurred then the period of treatment maybe indefinite, she adds.

But the benefits of target therapies over existing therapies is also considerable as target therapies act only on the cancerous cells, thus many side effects normally borne by cancer patients are generally not experienced by patients who are administered under this therapy. Such as hair loss (alopecia), nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite (anorexia), low white blood cell count (neutropenia), low red blood cell count (Anemia), fatigue, diarrohea or constipation, mouth sores (stomatitis or mucositis), inflammation of the esophagus

(esophagitis), fever, body aches and pains.

"Targeted therapy is helping patients minimize side effects and greatly enhance their quality of life," says Dr Smruti, "but the best protection against the diseases is awareness. Timely detection of such a life threatening condition helps towards early treatment."

Early treatment of the condition not only prevents further disease progression and complications but also gives better response rates, she adds. (UNI)