Five-star Taj resort in Abu Dhabi

DUBAI, May 4: UAE's leading property developer Aldar has signed an exclusive agreement with Indian hotel giant the Taj group to develop a five-star, 500-room luxury resort hotel on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island.

The hotel will be branded as Taj Palace Hotel on the lines of the elegant, original palaces hotels of the Taj and will have facilities and services to match the exceptional location.

The agreement was signed by Paul Bell, managing director, Aldar Hotels and Hospitality, and Raymond N Bickson, managing director and CEO of The Indian Hotels Company Limited, which owns and operates 79 Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces worldwide.

The signing took place on the opening day of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai yesterday, which included a Summit on India highlighting prime Indian investment deals and projects being undertaken in the subcontinent.

"Aligning with leading internationally recognised hospitality brands is part of Aldar's strategy to bring high quality investment opportunities to our developments. This agreement signifies Aldar's commitment to bring world-class players to our market, and to Abu Dhabi," said Ronald Stephen Barrott, CEO of Aldar Properties.

Bickson said the UAE is part of a strategic group of countries in the Gulf region where the leisure and hospitality sector is growing exponentially. (PTI)

Beckham 'too much for fathers to live up to'

LONDON, May 4: Celebrities like David Beckham are giving a tough time to British dads who are finding it too much to live up to the high standards set by the rich and the famous as "ideal" fathers.

A survey has found that fathers are feeling pressured to have an "unrealistic" lifestyle similar to that of Beckham with keeping fit, dressing well and making a lot of money, and this has left many men frustrated at their own relationships.

The poll of 4,000 fathers by the 'Netmums.Com' portal found that, because of this, a third of them were unsure if they would stay with their partner for good.

More than 40 per cent of the respondents claimed they suffered a male version of post-natal depression, with over half feeling deprived of the time they used to spend with friends as mothers were increasingly demanding breaks from children in the evenings and weekends.

According to the survey, the headache of family finances tops the list of factors which put fathers under pressure, at 74 per cent. Forty-five per cent of fathers complained about lack of sleep, and 41 per cent lack of sex.

The main cause of arguments with partners is money (21 per cent), followed by the other person feeling unappreciated (14 per cent) and household chores (10 per cent), it revealed.

"In the past the male and female parenting roles have been very clearly defined, but we are now seeing increasing numbers of parents both opting to work. There are also fewer stay-at-home mums, meaning the role boundaries are blurring.

"It's vital that for a successful relationship you are both provided with the time and space to be an individual as well as a parent and that you take time out to realise the positives in your partner," Sally Russell, the Director of Netmums.Com, was quoted by 'The Sunday Telegraph' as saying. (PTI)

Microsoft withdraws bid to acquire Yahoo

NEW YORK/SILICON VALLEY, May 4: Software giant Microsoft has abandoned its three-month old bid to buy Yahoo after the two failed to agree on acceptable price.

Microsoft had offered USD 47.5 billion, which translated into USD 33 per share but Yahoo wanted USD 57 billion (USD 37 a share). Initially, the software giant in February had offered USD 44.6 billion or USD 31 a share but raised the offer as the negotiations proceeded.

Microsoft announced its decision to withdraw after talks between its Chief Executive Steven A Ballmer and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in Seattle failed to produce an agreement yesterday.

Microsoft had made an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo so as to compete with Google search engine.

Ballmer, in a letter to Yang, pointed out that Microsoft had already raised its bid by about USD 5 billion and despite its best efforts, Yahoo has not "moved towards accepting our offer".

"After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal," Ballmer said.

Meanwhile, Yahoo dismissed Microsoft's unsolicited bid as a "distraction".

"With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximise our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users," Yang said in a statement. (PTI)

Staines widow honoured by Gulf writers

DUBAI, May 4: Gladys Staines, the widow of Australian missionary Graham Staines who was killed in Orissa, was honoured by the Gulf Malayalee Christian Writers Forum in Sharjah.

Graham Stuart Staines was burnt to death while he was sleeping with his two sons Timothy (6) and Philip (10) in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa on January 1999.

Staines had been working among the tribal poor and especially with leprosy patients since 1965.

"Life has been very different since my family was killed," said Staines, who now lives in Australia with daughter Esther.

"God has enabled me to forgive. The people at Grandstand Memorial Hospital have become like family to us. You share your experiences with them. It feels more like home than Australia."

Gladys said she only left India for her daughter's education.

She resumed visiting Orissa in 2006 and explained her journey of forgiveness as one of healing. "It's like the dry, parched land in the Australian drought. Forgiveness heals a broken heart."

Each time she returns to Orissa, she visits the family home and the graves. But most important to Gladys is seeing the rest of her adopted family. (PTI)

Lord Khalid Hameed receives Pride of India award

LONDON, May 4:India-born Lord Khalid Hameed was felicitated with the Pride of India award for 2007 for his contributions to medicine and inter-faith activities.

The acting High Commissioner of India, Asoke Mukerji presented the award, instituted by The India International Federation at its fourth award function here this weekend.

The distinguished gathering at the occasion included NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul, Deputy Leader of Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord Navnit Dholakia, Lord Mohammed Sheikh, Gurdip S Gujral, CBE and Viscount Slim, OBE, and Madhav Chandra, Minister (Political) in the Indian High Commission.

Lord Hameed is the chairman of Alpha Hospitals and former Chief Executive of the Cromwell Hospital.

Other recipients of the award included NRI entrepreneur Rami Ranger, MBE, who is founder of Sun Oil Ltd for his services to Industry, Chief Inspector Parm Sandhu, the first Asian woman to rise to this position and actress Ayesha Dharkar for Best Artistic contribution.

Ayesha, daughter of Indian journalist Anil Dharkar, won three national awards in India for her much acclaimed film, "The Terrorist".

Lord Sheikh was honoured for his outstanding achievement in business, while Anant B Parekh, the youngest Professor of Medicine in Oxford University, was chosen for the award in the category of medicine.

C B Patel, publisher of Asian Voice, won the Literature and Media award and Ritu Sethi, founder of The Sethi Partnership, a solicitors' firm, bagged the award in law category. (PTI)

Robotic bugs set to invade battlefield

LONDON, May 4: Imagine robotic insects tracking down enemy fighters in rugged mountain terrains, carrying out explosions and identifying nuclear or biological weapons.

It may seem like science fiction but could soon be a reality, for scientists are developing a series of electronic spiders, snakes and other insects that might become the latest tools for British and American troops to spot enemies.

Prototypes small enough to sit on a fingertip have already been created, including a fly that weighs less than an ounce and has a wingspan of 1.18 inches. Lightweight carbon joints allow the robot to mimic the movements of a real fly.

According to Steve Scalera, Programme Manager for the project at British defence giant BAE Systems, "We're trying to harness nature's designs. Evolution has done a fabulous job of producing extremely efficient and capable systems.

"We're building a collection of miniature robots that can explore complex terrain we wouldn't normally be able to approach because it is too dangerous.

"This might mean exploring buildings or caves looking for people inside, searching for dangerous items like munitions, chemical, biological or nuclear substances that might be there." (PTI)

New model of Earth's interior 'clarifies' mantle motion

NEW YORK, May 4: Scientists at Arizona State University have developed a new model of the Earth's interior which they claim pulls past information and hypothesis into a coherent story to clarify mantle motion.

"The past may be two or three years there have been a lot of papers in Science and Nature about the deep mantle from seismologists and mineral physicists and it is getting really confusing as there are contradictions among the papers.

"But we've discovered that there's a single framework that is compatible with all these different findings," team leader Prof Ed Garnero said.

In their study, the Arizona team painted a story for a chemically complex inner earth, a model that sharply contrasts the heavily relied upon paradigm of the past few decades that the mantle is all one thing and well mixed.

The original model was composed of simple concentric spheres representing the core, mantle and crust -- but the inner Earth isn't that simple.

Earth is made up of several layers. Its skin, the crust, extends to a depth of about 40 kilometres. Below the crust is the mantle area, which continues to roughly halfway to the centre of Earth.

The mantle is the thick layer of silicate rock surrounding the dense, iron-nickel core, and it is subdivided into the upper and lower mantle, extending to a depth of about 2,900 kilometres. (PTI)

Villagers made to suffer for not voting Maoists

KATHMANDU, May 4: People of an eastern Nepali village are facing the brunt of Maoists who have allegedly snapped the water supply to the area since the villagers did not vote for the former rebels in the Constituent Assembly polls.

Maoists have cut the water supply pipe to Angna village since April 23 for not voting them in the polls.

They have allegedly cut the pipe at Dhukure area badly affecting the life of 62 households in the village.

The former rebels have been making the residents walk for three hours to fetch water, CPN-UML senior standing committee member Jhalanath Khanal said.

In both the constituencies, Maoists were defeated by CPN-UML candidates.

Reports have been pouring from different parts of the country where the Maoists have allegedly continued their intimidation, beating and threatening of the cadres belonging to Nepali Congress and CPN-UML for not voting the Maoist candidates. (PTI)

Haneef will be under police surveillance if he returns to Oz

MELBOURNE, May 4: Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef, wrongly accused of terror links, will be under 24-hour police surveillance if he returns to Australia.

Australian Federal Police is continuing its investigation into the case that has so far cost taxpayers almost USD8 million nine months after charges against Haneef, 27, were dropped.

However, at a judicial inquiry in the case which started on Thursday it was revealed that Haneef would face 24-hour federal police surveillance if he returned to give evidence, the Courier Mail reported.

In the continuing fallout of the controversial case, Peter Russo, Haneef’s lawyer who successfully defended the Bangalore medico, has split with his legal partners.

Russo attributed it to a "political" clash with partners of Brisbane firm Ryan and Bosscher the state’s biggest criminal law practice, the Mail said.

Russo, a defence specialist, gained worldwide recognition after steering Haneef to freedom after he was arrested at Brisbane Airport on July 2 last year as he was about to fly home to India.

Haneef was charged with recklessly helping a terrorist organisation after his SIM card was allegedly found with a cousin linked to the failed UK car bombings. The charges were dropped after he spent three weeks in detention but the government revoked his work visa on "character grounds".

The Australian judiciary quashed the Government directive and his visa was restored.

Russo said that the high-profile case meant "I wasn’t really politically aligned with the firm any more".

"I don’t believe they would agree with everything I say or do with Mohammed.

"I wanted to have a bit more freedom with what I did, and when you are in a partnership you are super-conscious of that," Russo was quoted as saying

But partner Brendan Ryan blamed the rift on Russo taking the spotlight and denied a political feud. He claimed his staff weren’t given any credit for helping Russo.

"I don’t say this out of sour grapes, but no lawyer can do the job a client requires without ample assistance from support staff," Ryan said.

"I was disappointed that he didn’t make more of the people in the firm who assisted him," Ryan said.

Russo said his role in securing Haneef’s release had attracted plenty of unwanted attention, including "hate e-mails".

But on the plus side "a lot of people ring up and say, ‘We want you to do for us what you did for (Dr Haneef)’ ".

"A terrorist didn’t get away. There was no ‘terrorist’ to start with. It was an over-reaction to an event that occurred a long way from here," Russo said.

Russo is hoping to arrange for Haneef’s return to Australia to appear at the inquiry despite federal police plans to put him under surveillance should he return. (PTI)

Iraq war behind US economic crisis: Book

NEW DELHI, May Are wars good for economy? The idea which gained prominence during the World War II has proved to be wrong in the case of US war in Iraq, says a new book.

Today, no serious economist holds the view that war is good for the economy. Since the Iraq war began, oil prices have gone from about $25 a barrel at the outset to more than $90 and are rising still higher.

In America, the war has hurt the economy in other ways, the question being not whether the economy has been weakened by the war. The question is only by how much, say Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and Linda Bilmes in their book ‘The Three Trillion Dollar War’.

Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000. Bilmes is a lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

The authors say many people around the world, not just in the Middle East believe the US Government went to war because it wanted to get its hands on Iraqi oil.

‘We aren’t going to discuss their arguments here. It is enough to say that if America went to war in the hope of securing cheap oil, we failed miserably. We did, however, succeed in making the oil companies richer. Exxon-Mobile and other oil companies have been among the few real beneficiaries of the war, as their profits and share prices have soared,’ they say. Meanwhile, the economy as a whole has paid a high price, the book says.

Oil prices started to soar just as the war began and the longer it has dragged on, the higher prices have gone. "This certainly suggests that the war has something to do with the rising prices," the book says.

The authors say the futures markets- which summarise what buyers and sellers of oil contracts think prices will be in a year or more- provide some insight. Before the war, they thought prices would remain in the range that they had been, $20 to $30, for the next several years.

Futures markets work on the basis of ‘business as usual,’ that is, they assume nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen. The war in Iraq was the most notable out of the ordinary event at the time prices began to rise and it is hard to identify any other disruption that could be given credit for changes in demand and supply, especially in 2003 and 2004.

Now ‘business as usual’ means that the turmoil that the Iraq war let loose will continue, and futures markets are betting that prices will remain high for the next several years, the book says. "We conclude, accordingly, that a significant proportion of the increase in the price of oil resulted from the war", the authors say.

By now it is clear that the US invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake. Nearly 4000 US troops have been killed and more than 58,000 wounded. One hundred thousand soldiers have returned from the war suffering serious mental health disorders. Miserable though Saddam Hussain’s regime was, life is actually worse for Iraqi people now.

The war has turned out to be hugely costly in both blood and treasure. "We estimate that the total budgetary and economic cost to the US will turn out to be around three trillion dollars. Five years after it invaded the country America is still finding way how to exit. The US and Iraq have been the biggest losers in the war but many other countries have incurred heavy costs, the authors say.

The Iraq war has contributed to a ‘clash of Civilisations’, a perception that there is a new crusade against Islam. Many in the Middle East see an American strategy of sowing dissensions between Sunnis and Shiites as part of a grander strategy in this ‘new crusade’, the book says.

"Regardless of the factual basis for such beliefs, the Iraq war has intensified feelings of animosity which are likely to be a source of conflict for years in the future, the book says.

The rhetoric about a global coalition notwithstanding, the war in Iraq has been largely an American venture, with some political cover provided by UK. Opposition to the war was so strong among the populations of many of these allies that it has played a role in unseating the Governments in Italy, P oland and Australia.

By 2007, the US was providing 94 per cent of the troops; at least eighteen countries had withdrawn their troops; and Britain had already begun major cutbacks. Increasingly the ‘coalition of the willing’ was becoming a ‘coalition of one’, the authors say.

On global peace and security, the authors say the dream of the US invaders was to create a stable, prosperous and democratic Middle East. "But America’s intervention in Iraq is laying the foundation for precisely the opposite result- and the consequences of America’s Iraqi venture for global peace and security extend beyond the Middle East. It has helped feed extremism throughout the Islamic world and beyond, the authors say.

Also, for the first time in the history of modern Iraq, the country now has a religiously inclined Government that will make the taste of national reconciliation and forming a unified Government all the more difficult, they say. (PTI)

Sikhs in Pakistan want their say in Govt

LAHORE, May 4: Pakistan’s minority Sikh community seeks representation in the Government, saying it will help ease its social and political problems.

"The Sikhs’ problems could be solved if the community is given representation in the Government or if a Sikh is appointed an adviser to the prime minister," said Swaran Singh, candidate for the post of president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.

He suggested that an adviser to the prime minister should be appointed to attract Sikhs from other countries to invest in Pakistan. Christians and Hindus have representations in the Government, but Sikhs have yet to reach the national or provincial assemblies, he said.

There are about 12,000 Sikhs in Pakistan who have been facing several social and political problems.

Singh said every community has its own problems and its representatives take them up, but the Sikhs of Pakistan have been ignored so far.

"Christians and Hindus do not have any idea about the problems faced by Sikhs," he told the Daily Times.

He said many Sikh youths were deprived of quality higher education because they did not have any scholarship quota in the Higher Education Commission.

While Christian and Hindu widows receive Rs 5,000 a month as financial aid from the Government, Sikh widows are not given such assistance, he pointed out. (PTI)

Hindu temple used as auto repair workshop

KARACHI, May 4: Once famous for its beautiful architecture, the century-old Ratan Talha Hindu temple in this Pakistani port city is now being used as an auto repair workshop.

The Auqaf department, an autonomous body which generates revenue from the Waqf properties through collection of rents/lease money, leased the historic temple, located on Ratan Street, to a private party that converted the shrine into an automobile workshop.

Abdul Qayum, the workshop’s owner has converted the temple’s main worship area into a storeroom and has restricted local Hindus from visiting it for worship.

The temple is spread over an acre with two-storey buildings, built for pundits and guests, surrounding it on three sides. A courtyard for public gatherings is located in the centre, and on one side is a worship area made of iron bars.

Qayum said he had leased the temple two decades ago and had no knowledge of it being a shrine as there were no statues of Gods and Goddesses when he received it from the Auqaf department. He also claimed that he had not restricted anyone from visiting the temple.

"The Auqaf department has allowed private parties to insult the temple by converting it into a workshop. There is no gate at the main entrance and wild animals entering the temple upset us the most," Maharaj, general secretary of the Sindh Hindu Council said.

The Council has repeatedly contacted Auqaf officials for taking possession of the temple for renovation work but this has been refused, he was quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Times’.

"The workshop’s owner has taken over the ‘dharamshala’ for which he pays only a few hundred rupees to the Auqaf department as rent," former Sindh Hindu Council minority legislator Bheery Mal Balani said.

"Auqaf officials sold the 14 shops in the temple and kept a small plot of land for the temple that is also used by the workshop," he said. (PTI)