Rumsfeld made Condoleezza Rice cry in the White House: Book

LONDON, Sept 21: US President George W. Bush's right-hand woman Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has guided her country through the war on terror, is often described as the most unwavering woman in American politics.

But, a new book has revealed that when it comes to actually dealing with her "personal enemies" within the Bush administration, Rice is not so skilled.

In fact, according to the new biography of American Vice President Dick Cheney, titled 'Angler', Rice was once so fazed by former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that she even broke down to tears at a meeting in the White House.

The story dates back to 2004. Rice, the then National Security Adviser, tried repeatedly to organise a meeting with the most senior figures in the government to discuss setting up of military tribunals to try terrorist suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay, 'The Sunday Telegraph' reported.

Rumsfeld twice refused to attend, sending his deputy Paul Wolfowitz instead, according to the book. "He did not regard her as an equal and barely hid it. The opinions of her staff did not interest him," Pulitzer Prize winning author Barton Gellman wrote.

On finding Rumsfeld absent from a second meeting, the then CIA director George Tenet was so angry that he defied a direct order from Rice to sit down and simply marched out of the meeting, declaring: "This is bullshit."

"Something happened to Rice's face, control melting away. Her eyes welled up and her next words caught in her throat. The men in the room did not know where to look.

"'She started to cry,' said one of them. And she said -- I can't remember the exact words because I was so shaken -- something like: 'We'll talk about this again', and she turned and walked quickly out of the door," the author wrote.

However, Rice had the last laugh. Rumsfeld was fired in 2006 as Iraq descended into civil war and Guantanamo Bay became a byword for abuse of power. (PTI)

Tories plan to seek probe into allegations against Vaz

LONDON, Sept 21: Opposition Torries are planning to seek an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to look into a charge against Labour MP Keith Vaz that he had tried to influence the course of a judicial proceedings involving a controversial lawyer.

Vaz, a former minister and now chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, persuaded Virendra Sharma, the Labour MP for Ealing Southall, to intervene in a court case involving Shahrokh Mireskandari, an Iranian-born lawyer, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

In a letter to the court, Vaz had asked a High Court judge to review the case in which Mireskandari, senior partner with Dean and Dean solicitors, was on the brink of losing a long-running legal battle that could cost him 250,000 pounds.

Sharma said yesterday that when Vaz had asked him to sign the letter jointly, he had failed to disclose his previous personal dealings with Mireskandari.

"Keith’s office drafted the letter. I looked at it and signed it. I did not know this company (Dean and Dean ) and I had no knowledge that Keith Vaz knew this company," Sharma said.

The Tories are now considering asking the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate. Dominic Grieve, the shadow Home Secretary, said, "If he has used his position to intervene in a court case on behalf of a personal acquaintance - with a view to influencing the course of proceedings - it would amount to an astonishing and inappropriate attempt to interfere in the judicial process." (PTI)

Maritime business in India is booming, says Shaikh

LONDON, Sept 21: Maritime business in India is booming along with the fast developing economy, maritime administration of the Union of Comoros has said.

"The Maritime business in India has been booming. This is evident from the increased activities witnessed at the India office of the maritime administration of the Union of Comoros during the last one year," Commissioner of Maritime Affairs, Union of Comoros Akram M Shaikh told PTI.

Kshitij D Vedak has been appointed as the deputy commissioner for maritime affairs for India and the office based in Mumbai provides easy accessibility to flag for all Indian ship owners and issues provisional registration within 24 hours after submition of required documents, Shaikh said here last night.

Shaikh, hailing from Mangalore in Karnataka, has been delegated to the development and protection of the Union of Comoros ships international registry worldwide after the Merchant of Shipping Act 2001 was brought into force by the Comoros government by an ordinance in July 2001.

"The registry provides unrestricted passage to all UAE and Indian ports and most of the ports worldwide," Shaikh said.

The Comoros registration provided competitive fees and faster services, he said.

"More than 600 vessels have so far been registered under Comoros flag. Out of which around 300 vessels flagged from our Dubai office and other vessels have been flagged from our Mumbai office since its inception in 2007," he said.

"Comoros flagged vessels regularly ply on the Indian coasts," he added. (PTI)

No change in Brazil after girl raped in men’s jail

ABAETETUBA, BRAZIL, Sept 21: A 15-year-old girl arrested on petty theft charges was left for weeks in a jail cell with 21 men, who raped, tortured her and only allowed her food in exchange for sex.

Her screams could be heard from the street. Yet police refused to act, and it took a tip to the local media to finally free her.

Ten police and prison officials and two inmates face up to 20 years in jail if convicted, and a verdict in the trial is expected this month. But nearly a year after the crime, the most shocking element is how normal the girl’s plight seems to many in the sweltering river port city of 78,000 at the mouth of the Amazon where she was imprisoned.

"It was her third time in jail, the only difference was this time someone noticed," said Selma Pinheiro Serrano, a 23-year-old prostitute who knew the girl.

After the uproar of the case, the Para state governor, congressmen, and even the Brazilian president vowed to tackle the problems that caused the assault, callous, corrupt police and a jail system with few separate cells for women. The jailhouse was demolished.

Yet Para, a jungle state twice the size of France stretching inland from Brazil’s northeastern Atlantic coast, still has only six separate cells for women at its 132 jails.

Judge Clarice Maria de Andrade, who approved the girl’s imprisonment, was merely transferred to another jurisdiction without even a censure. It’s also far from clear whether the current judicial inquiry, held behind closed doors because the victim was a minor, will yield any convictions.

"It just happened to be this girl, but it could have been any one of hundreds here in this city," said Roman Catholic Bishop Flavio Giovenale, who has received death threats for speaking out against police involved in corruption and organized crime. (AGENCIES)

Bosch to supply petrol engine tech to Nano

FRANKFURT, Sept 21: German auto component maker Bosch will be supplying its latest gasoline engine technologies and security systems to Nano as it stands by the Tatas amidst the Singur crisis.

"We are committed to support Tata's Nano project. Wherever they want us to supply, we will supply our components," Bosch Ltd Managing Director V K Viswanathan told a group of visiting Indian journalists at the Automechanika 2008 here.

He said the company would be providing its petrol fuel injection system, starter motor, alternator, glow park and brake system to Nano.

Bosch would, for the first time, supply its gasoline engine parts and security systems to Nano in the country from its Naganathapura plant in Karnataka.

Currently, the company is supplying pumps, starters, alternators to diesel engines and common rail systems for Nano.

Viswanathan said Bosch was keen to be a part of Tata's success story in Nano.

"India is considered a leader in ultra low cost motor segment. We want to ensure that Tata Nano becomes a big success," he said.

When asked if Tata Motors chose to exit Singur, whether Bosch would also accompany them to other sites, Viswanathan said: "...Wherever they want us to supply, we will supply. We will go with them."

Some of the products cannot be moved everywhere, like fuel injection, which would be supplied from the company's Naganathapura plant, he added.

"... But products like brakes, where we are going to set up assembly lines in Singur, wherever they (Tatas) want us to supply, we will supply," Viswanathan said.

Asked if there would be any quality issue in Nano's engine amidst rising commodity prices as the Nano would be sold at Rs one lakh, Viswanathan said: "We have really done lot of innovation in India to develop high quality, very innovative products to go into Tata Nano. It is a high tech, high quality product with totally a different kind of features."

He, however, declined to comment on the size of the investment that the company has put in research and development of the components for Nano.

On expected revenue from supplying parts to Tata's Rs 1-lakh car, Viswanathan said, "It is too early to say... It all depends on the volumes that Tata Nano is going to achieve. We are going to wait and see how this market develops."

The company also aims to strengthen its footprint in India in gasoline systems, auto electricals and safety systems with plans to expand these businesses.

The company had earlier earmarked an investment of Rs 2,650 crore in the Indian market for a period of five years between 2005 and 2010.

"Till now we have invested about Rs 1,500 crore in common rail systems, auto electricals, gasoline systems etc. The remaining money will go into the expansion of gasoline and diesel systems, expansion of our brake systems and ABS," Viswanathan said.

About the company's future strategies for the Indian market, Viswanathan said: "I believe, we have a very strong potential in the gasoline systems because in the past we were not a big player in the gasoline systems."

The company would improve its presence in the gasoline system by acquiring some important OE (original equipment) projects, he added. (PTI)

Cell phones in pockets can lead to infertility: Expert

NEW YORK, Sept 21: An Indian American fertility expert has warned men that keeping their cell phones in pockets and belts while talking on hands-free could affect their fertility.

In a study published September 19 in the online version of Journal of Fertility and Sterility, Ashok Agarwal, lead author, says men who keep their cell phones in their pockets or clip them to their belts while using an ear piece to chat may be compromising their sperms.

In an interview with Newsweek news magazine, he rejected the suggestion that the researchers have debunked the idea that use of cell phones leads to impotence.

"That’s not true. We still have questions that haven’t been answered. And there are still more questions to ask," he said, adding that his study was designed to examine whether exposure to radio-frequency electromagnetic waves from cell phones would cause any kind of changes in human sperm.

An earlier study conducted on some 361 men, he said, had found a significant relationship between cell-phone use and sperm quality, especially among men who used mobiles for more than four hours per day. "We wanted to find out what was going on," he added.

The researchers, he said, took sperm samples from 23 healthy men, and from nine men with known fertility issues. The samples were then divided into two portions to make a control group and a test group.

"We exposed the test group sperm to a cell phone in "talk" mode with a radiation of 850 megahertz, the frequency most often used by cell phones in the US."

"We exposed the sperm for about one hour to see if there was any effect on the sperm quality in exposed and unexposed portions," he told Newsweek.

The researchers, he said, looked at several markers, including mobility, viability and cellular or molecular changes.

"There were 85 percent more free radicals generated by the exposed sperm samples in both healthy and infertile specimens versus the control group, and a 6 percent decrease in antioxidants in the exposed samples, the chemicals that fight free-radical damage", he said.

"Motility, or what proportion of sperm are moving, decreased by 7 percent, and the viability, or the percentage of sperm that is alive decreased by 11 percent.

"That was for both groups, the healthy men and men with fertility problems, as compared to a control group that had no exposure," he added.

Relying to a question, he said, the study is preliminary and the results need to be validated with a larger sample size.

"The next step is to obviously take a look at the muscles, fat and tissues that separate the testes from this exposure. We’re building a very sophisticated computer model that will mimic real-time cell-phone use.

Essentially, we want to re-create with a computer model exactly how men use their cell phones and how it may affect their fertility," he added.

"Asked where he keeps his cell phone, Agarwal replied in his pant pocket. But he does not use a hand-free device. So the phone is a standby mode."

"We’re not sure if a cell phone in standby mode could cause damage to sperm because we don’t know for sure the minimum amount of radiation that may induce damage to sperm cells. There are a host of things that we don’t know at this time, he said. (PTI)

Singapore aims to attract over 1,50,000 intl students by 2015

SINGAPORE, Sept 21: Singapore has chalked out an ambitious plan to attract over 1,50,000 international students to its universities and educational institutions by 2015.

As of now, there are currently 90,000 foreign students representing over 120 nationalities in Singapore. We want to take this number to 1,50,000 by 2015, Eileen Cher Jialin, an official of Singapore Tourism Board (STB) told reporters.

"Our vision is to develop Singapore as a compelling global hub for business, investment and talent," Jonathan Lim, Head Education of Economic Development Board (EDB) said.

"To achieve this, our mission is to create a sustainable GDP growth for Singapore with good jobs and business opportunities for its people," Lim added.

The EDB and STB together in 2003 have launched Singapore Education, a multi-government initiative to highlight the unique educational experience that expat students can get in Singapore.

Of the total students in Singapore, 75 per cent are foreigners. Indians form a major chunk of this student population.

High standards of living at reasonably affordable prices and a cosmopolitan city with traditional Asian values are some of the factors that attract students to Singapore.

There are three local autonomous universities, and 16 leading foreign tertiary institutions offering a wide range of courses.

As many as 16 foreign universities are already operating from this land of vast opportunities, and over 7,000 MNCs have set up their shops here.

India is represented by S P Jain Institute of Management, which has set up its third campus in this island nation, second being in Dubai.

While,INSEAD, France was the first international business school with a full Asian campus in 2000 here. In the same year, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, USA became the first leading US B-School to have a permanent campus in Singapore.

According to the recently released annual figures by Ministry of Manpower (MoM), the booming economy has generated over 35,400 jobs for professionals, managers, and executives in 2007, which is almost more than 20 per cent from 2006.

Professionals, especially engineers, are most sought after, while managers are the coveted ones in the financial sector, including banks.

Andrew Chau, Executive Chairman and Principal of East Asia Institute of Management (EASB), one of Singapore’s top private education organisations known for its undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Hospitality and Tourism management, said there is a need of 70,000 executives and managers in the country.

There is a need of over 26,000 qualified accounts, 20,000 logistics professionals, and over 20,000 in finance-related jobs. Over 2,500 are needed in hospitality and tourism related jobs itself, he added. (PTI)

Now, a course in casino management!........

SINGAPORE, Sept 21: Gone are the days when a degree in management necessarily meant a degree in finance or accounts. With specialisation being the order of the day, studying casino management seems to hold a lot of promise for the Gen Next who want to earn mega bucks.

The necessity of having a course in casino management arose after the Singapore Government announced setting up of two casinos in the Integrated Resorts which would be ready by next year, Andrew Chau, Executive Chairman and Principal of East Asia Institute of Management (EASB) said.

"We in Singapore believe in first building infrastructure for the sector we target growth in. It is a win-win situation for both, the professionals and the industry. While the industry grows, professionals, too go places," Ho Ee Hong, Area Director, India (Designate), Contact Singapore said.

Contact Singapore, an alliance of Singapore Economic Development Board and Ministry of Manpower, aims to attract global talent to work, invest and live in Singapore.

As a part of the Casino Operations and Management syllabus the students are taught how to ensure that the money is used properly. Management of securities, slots, are some of the other areas of focus, Andrew said.

We have roped in best of the faculty. Some are from Europe and America, specialise in subjects related to casino, he said.

The first casino management batch, a three-year degree course, started last year. As of now, over 20 students have enrolled for it.

We expect the numbers to go up soon, Andrew added.

The East Asia Institute of Management is one of Singapore’s top private education organisations known for its undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Hospitality and Tourism management, of which casino management is also a part.

The University of Wales Institute, Cardiffs (UWIC) Asia campus (in EASB in Singapore) will also run electives in casino and event managements. UWIC is the second UK institute to open campus here in a year.

In April, Queen Margaret University, Edinburg became the first UK university to set up a campus in Singapore. Both the UWIC and QMUs Asian campuses have tie-ups with EASB. (PTI)

NI21 killed in floods, landslides in Nepal....

KATHMANDU, Sept 21: At least 21 people have been killed and thousands displaced due to massive floods and landslides in four districts of western Nepal.

Twelve people were killed in Kailai district, five in Doti and two each in Gulmi and Palpa districts due to floods and landslides as incessant rains lashed the region, police said, adding two dozen others were missing.

Some 3,500 families have been displaced as hundreds of houses submerged in Kailali and neighbouring Kanchanpur districts, officials said.

More than 24 villages were inundated in Kailali district. In Kanchanpur, more than 50 per cent of villages were affected.

The rescue and rehabilitation work being carried out by the army and police has been hampered due to bad weather. (PTI)

Bin Laden a poet?..........

LONDON, Sept 21: Osama bin Laden was once a "skilled poet", a media report said today revealing a new facet of the world’s most wanted terrorist.

The elusive Al-Qaeda leader’s literary work will be published soon by an Oxford-educated academic expert in Arabic, it said.

Bin Laden’s recitals at wedding banquets and other feasts during the 1990s were recorded on tapes recovered from his compound in Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks in the US. They were studied by Prof Flagg Miller, who teaches Arabic poetry at University of California, Davis, the report said.

Miller first heard the tapes four years ago when FBI translators were scrutinising them for coded messages to sleeper cells. He identified up to 20 featuring the "distinctive monotone" of bin Laden.

"Bin Laden is a skilled poet with clever rhymes and metres, which was one reason why many people taped him and passed recordings around, like pop songs," Miller told ‘The Sunday Times’.

According to the report, the first lines of one poem read: "A youth who plunges into the smoke of war smiling stains the blades of lances red. May God not let my eye stray from the most eminent humans, lest they fall."

The verse goes on to portray bin Laden himself as a "warrior poet", whose words will lead his followers to an idyllic refuge in the Hindu Kush mountains.

"He frequently uses mountains as metaphors," Miller said. "As borders they separate Arabs from each other but mountains can also help them from the temptations of the secular world."

Extracts from the tapes will appear in the October issue of the journal Language and Communications. "They reveal Osama Bin Laden as the performer, the entertainer with an agenda," Miller was quoted as saying.

While Miller prepares to write a book analysing bin Laden’s poetry and its role in terrorism, the tapes are going to Yale University where they will be repaired and made available to scholars in 2010. (PTI)

Web problems hit release of Al-Qaeda 9/11 video ...

DUBAI, Sept 21: An Al-Qaeda video marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late due to technical problems.

The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted Al-Qaeda’s yearly celebration of its attacks on US cities in 2001.

Parts of the video-a compilation of documentary footage and messages by Al-Qaeda leaders-were aired on September 8 by Al-Jazeera television, which did not say how it obtained it.

But the full version hit websites firday, eight days after the anniversary.

On it, senior Al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu-al-Yazid vowed that Western forces in Afghanistan would face "more large-scale attacks ... Where they least expect it" and called for militants in Pakistan to step up their fight.

"In order for jihad in Afghanistan to continue and be victorious, you must stand with your Mujahideen brothers in Afghanistan and ... strike the interests of Crusader (Western) allies in Pakistan," said Abu-al-Yazid, a commander of al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.

A suicide car bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad yesterday, killing at least 40 people and starting a fire that swept through the hotel.

Al-Qaeda has marked the anniversary of September 11 in the past with releases including a tape on September 7 last year in which its leader, Osama bin Laden, appeared on video for the first time in nearly

three years, addressing the American people.

It was unclear why the websites normally favoured by Al-Qaeda had gone down. By today, the two most popular were still out of action.

TONGUE-IN-CHEEK

Some suspected they had been targeted by hackers. India’s Hindustan Times pointed the finger at intelligence websites that track militant sites on the Internet, which responded in tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Rusty Shackleford of My Pet Jawa (www.Mypetjawa.Mu.Nu <http://www.Mypetjawa.Mu.Nu>) denied his web group was behind any cyber-attack on the websites. "But if I was responsible I’d deny it," he said.

Aaron Weisburd of www.Internet-haganah.Com <http://www.Internet-haganah.Com> wrote: "The actual reasons for this are not known to me (and I would say that even if I actually knew what was going on)."

When less popular Islamist websites managed to post links to the video-which includes a "last will" recording by one of the September 11 hijackers-downloaders noted that the password given to them was wrong.

This further delayed the release and unnerved Al-Qaeda sympathisers, one of whom wrote: "May God bless you my brothers, but the password is wrong."

The video also showed Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman-al-Zawahri accusing predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Iran of taking part in a Western "crusade" against Islam.

The closure of the Sunni websites coincided with a widespread cyber attack which shut down some 300 Shi’ite sites, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said. Fars blamed this on hardline Wahhabi Sunni hackers in the United Arab Emirates.

Hackers calling themselves Group XP took responsibility for defacing the website (www.Sistani.Org <http://www.Sistani.Org>) of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s highest Shi’ite authority. The group said the Shi’ite sites were attacked for "offending Sunnis".

Visitors could push a button to see US humorist Bill Maher making fun of Sistani’s religious edicts on a television show segment posted on youtube.Com. (AGENCIES)