For thousands of years, we have
believed in the divinity of Shri Krishna. For us he was a Karmayogi par
excellence who gave us action oriented philosophy of life in the form of
Bhagavad Gita. But questions have constantly haunted us as to whether Krishna
was a historical or mythical character and whether the war of Mahabharata
was actually fought. .....
Indian security agencies are concerned
that Bangladesh is fast becoming a hotbed of international terrorism. Intelligence
sources say that after 9/11, the country has become a recruiting and training
ground for global terrorists with the Bangladesh army directly involved
in these operations .....
It was already dark when our microbus
reached Netrakona town. About an hour ago, we watched the sun softened
like the yolk of an egg slowly going down over the horizon. .....
What parties don't say is almost
as important as what they say. Today the Congress finds itself in a quandary.
There is the BJP going all out to claim credit for the current spurt in
growth, while the Congress itself continues to be needlessly coy about
having actually parented India Shining. .....
A senior leader of Al Qaeda threatened
further attacks against the United States and denounced France for banning
Islamic head scarves in statements on two audiotapes broadcast by separate
Arab satellite channels on Tuesday. .....
Police interrogation of three terrorists
arrested for an abortive attempt to storm the Indira Gandhi International
Airport here has thrown up disturbing evidence of a renewed cross-border
offensive by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. .....
Teenagers of ethnic Chinese and
Indian origin are doing better in British schools than their white counterparts,
suggests data released by the government on Wednesday. .....
Six years. 1998-2004. A short span
of time in a nation's life. A person's life. And yet, these six years have
seen the re- positioning of India as never before. How has this happened?
Who was the driver? Was it a central agenda, coordinated and controlled,
or ad hoc with a great deal of luck? To understand the happenings of these
six years, it is necessary to look at what has changed. .....
Expecting Lahoris to exhibit cultured
behaviour is like asking hippos to do ballet. It is simply inconceivable.
On Friday night, at Jagjit Singh's first public concert, the Lahoris gathered
for the event, behaved atrociously throughout the hours that Jagjit continued
to sing. .....
Which ad agency made the India
Shining ads? What was the government's brief? Why didn't they settle
for India Dazzling? Prathap Suthan, national creative director, Grey Worldwide
tells all. .....
She was 16 when her kidneys failed.
A Bharatnatyam dancer since seven, Niketa Ghiya had to have a kidney transplant
and was advised by her nephrologist to give up dancing forever. The next
13 years were mired in depression and drugs as her body rejected the kidney
donated by her mother and the steroids left her disfigured and broken.
.....
What would happen if Pakistan nuked
India and used the Bombay Stock Exchange as ground zero? Or, what is the
size of the conflict economy in Pakistan and in Kashmir expressed through
the Gross Terror Product (GTP)? What are the real costs of terror? .....
Amelia Hill explores the scandal
of ceremonies that lead to marital rape and slavery for girls as young
as 12 Ayse was 14 when she was smuggled into Britain and forced to marry
her cousin. Family members turned out in large numbers to welcome her at
the illegal ceremony in a north London public hall. .....
An executive working with a multinational
bank in the twin cities and her husband allegedly killed a government clerk
who had paid the couple Rs 1.25 lakh and was demanding that they fulfil
their promise of getting a job for his son. .....
If you need a textbook illustration
of how secularist intervention can sow discord, you need only look at the
Uttar Pradesh Government's order last Thursday to declare Friday a half-day
in educational institutions. .....
There were wild scenes outside
the NSW Supreme Court yesterday when the boyfriend of a gang rape victim
screamed threats and abuse at the family of the perpetrators. .....
In another time and place, three
days before `Herach' or Shivratri, the paramount event in the religio-cultural
calendar of their community, they would have been joyously preparing for
the festivity and feasting associated with the grand day. .....
Freedom and discipline are opposites
and complementary. The purpose of defense is to protect freedom.
But is there freedom in defense? Do soldiers have freedom? No, they are
totally bound, not even allowed to move the right foot when told to put
the left foot down. Their steps are measured and they are unable to even
walk with a natural rhythm. .....
The trouble with Pakistan has always
been the arrogance of its elite, its dream of wanting the world to accept
it as on par with India. The arrogance stemmed from its deeply-felt belief
that Hindus could easily be subjugated, that they had been first under
Muslim and later British rule and that they had only to be threatened for
time to succumb. .....
Denmark has introduced new immigration
laws that will make it more difficult for Muslim clerics and other religious
leaders to enter the country. .....
One would think that Indian nobility,
with its tradition of feudal machismo, would cringe at being seen in public
as humble cooks. But Vijay Singh Bedla, 51, scion of a noble line that
started with Rana Sanga inviting the Chauhans of Uttar Pradesh to Rajasthan
as jagirdars, revels in the role. And with his wife Sugan Kumari, 42, he
travels the world setting taste buds on fire. .....
Critics of the feel-good factor
should first remember to what extent the feel-bad factor had swamped the
country in the initial decades after Independence. The Congress had shackled
the nation with its socialistic ideology, making the life of the common
man miserable. .....
My recent visit to India brought
perhaps the freshest air of my life, and it was not because compressed-natural-gas-driven
automobiles have reduced pollution in Delhi. Nor was it the company of
many non-resident Indians who can be found dwelling around the land of
their ancestors, taking or managing some of the outsourced jobs. .....
For, if Pakistan had not been "told
earlier", why then in January 2002 did the ISI whisk away two nuclear scientists
Dr Sulaiman Asad and Dr Ali Mukhtar to Myanmar? Then CIA chief George Tenet
had visited Islamabad that month to provide clinching proof that Dr Sultan
Bashiruddin Mehmood, a Sitara-e-Imtiaz awardee, headed a thriving racket
supplying nuclear knowhow to Osama-bin- Laden's Al Qaeda in 1999. .....
Brandishing their AK-47s, insurgents
are forcibly carrying away poor tribals from Tripura to work as slaves
on their farms in Bangladesh, much as Africans were carted out of their
continent by Europeans in the 17th century to work on American cotton fields.
.....
I had to attend a wedding at Patna
and managed a side trip to Nalanda. As I walked into the ruins, a huge
dark sadness descended on me. Nalanda, the greatest every Buddhist university,
with its hundreds of monks and thousands of books, was destroyed by Bakhtiyar
Khilji's Turki troops around 1200 A.D. .....
There was a Boxer rebellion in
China in the year 1900 by the Chinese people against Christian missionaries
who swarmed into the country in order to convert the poor, illiterate,
and defenseless Chinese. The rebellion was of course suppressed by the
countries that were patronizing the converting missionaries. .....
In a welcome move that comes not
from feminists but from those representing the orthodoxy, priests in a
Madhya Pradesh district have decided not to solemnise marriages where the
groom has taken dowry. .....
Airline flights into the United
States are canceled from France, Mexico and London. Armed guards are put
onto other flights coming to America. Westerners are warned to avoid Saudi
Arabia, and synagogues are bombed in Turkey and France. A package left
on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art forces the evacuation of
5,000 museumgoers. .....
Under pressure to prove his secular
credentials and keep his coalition afloat before elections, Chief Minister
Mulayam Singh Yadav has gone to another extreme. His government has ordered
all Uttar Pradesh board schools and intermediate colleges to close for
the day by noon every Friday. .....
The situation in Iraq is still
far from stable. However what we are seeing is a transformation from an
insurrection primarily aimed against US troops to the beginnings of the
battle for control of post US Iraq. .....
The Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer
Khan has been demonized in the West for selling atomic secrets and equipment
around the world, but the trade began in Europe, not Islamabad, according
to court documents and experts who monitor proliferation. .....
A great grandson of Henry Ford
is planning a sprawling religious complex at the headquarters of the global
Hare Krishna sect in West Bengal, but the project is still awaiting land
from the government. .....
Last month, as Muslims in the small
northern Italian town of Luino prepared to celebrate the annual Islamic
Eid Al-Adha, or "Feast of Sacrifice," they were met by some surprising
opposition. The feast, which requires the slaughter of rams and lambs carried
out according to Islamic tradition - meaning the animal must bleed to death
after its throat is slit - sparked outrage amongst the region's animal-rights
activists. .....
Christian organisations in Orissa
once again resorted to vitriol against Hindus and Hindu organisations for
forcefully converting their people to Hinduism. This time Kinnimul village
of Jagatsingghpur district is in focus. Eight persons including seven women
were forcefully tonsured by Hindus in the village alleged Christian organisations
seeking even intervention of Orissa Governor M.M. Rajendran. .....
The Mufti of Australia and New
Zealand, Taj Al-Din Hamed Abdallah Al-Hilali, was born in Egypt's Suhag
district in 1941. He graduated from Al-Azhar University and served as a
preacher in Egypt, Libya, and Lebanon. .....
For the ruling coalition, it couldn't
have been better timed. On Tuesday, agriculture secretary R C A Jain released
rosy estimates on food production inching ahead to "all-time highs" or
nearly as close. .....
Do you know any country where a
Hindu is prime minister, a Muslim is president and a Christian is defence
minister? An eminent scientist posed this question to a packed hall of
eager audience here yesterday. .....
Riots broke out in Godhra town
on Wednesday afternoon when the Special Investigating Team conducted a
combing operation to nab some of the key accused in the Sabarmati Express
carnage of February 27, 2002. .....
India's secular and democratic
governance and Pakistan's unstable political system and oscillation between
corrupt civilian governments and military dictatorships have been compared
by a well-known Gulf-based commentator to highlight how two scientists
involved in the development of nuclear bombs in two respective countries
fared in life. .....
Bali is the most well known of
Indonesia's 13,700 islands, and it remains the top tourist attraction in
the archipelago. One of the biggest attractions of Bali is its culture,
which despite the intrusion of the outside world has been preserved in
its unique arts and ceremonies. Denpasar, the island's largest town and
administrative center, with a population of over 370,000, is the Capital
of the island. .....
The man who started it all is flummoxed
by all the brouhaha over the government's India Shining campaign . Sure,
India has problems - poverty, crime, unemployment - but which nation doesn't,
asks Prathap Suthan, national creative director, Grey Worldwide, the ad
agency which conceptualised and delivered the campaign. .....
If reaction to Daniel Pipes' lecture
on Tuesday (2/10) was any indication, fascism is alive and well at UC Berkeley.
Pipes was invited by the Israel Action Committee and Berkeley Hillel to
speak at the college campus known for its leftist politics. .....
The dominant party in the western
German state of Hesse on Tuesday proposed legislation that would ban Muslim
civil servants from wearing headscarves, a measure that goes further than
three other states' proposals to outlaw the veil for public school teachers.
.....
A.Q. Khan got off lightly, sending
disturbing messages about US and Pakistani attitudes toward proliferation.
After setting himself up as the Wal- Mart for nuclear weapon shoppers in
Libya, Iran, North Korea, and others who have yet to be identified, Khan,
the self-proclaimed father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, has admitted
guilt as charged by Pakistani General-turned- President Pervez Musharraf.
.....
'Inculturation' is a buzz-word
in Christian missionary writings these days. The term, as Christian writers
understand it, suggests the expressing of the Christian message in a form
and idiom, culturally more acceptable to a particular target audience as
part of an overall missionary agenda. .....
President APJ Abdul Kalam on Tuesday
suggested re-establishment of a university at Nalanda, the ancient seat
of learning, dedicated to the philosophy of Buddha. .....
We came across an interesting editorial
in The New York Times about fairness and freedom to broadcast. The
way the issues have been set out is appropriate with respect to another
controversy. It relates to Hindu history, and its perversion by an
American academic. We have taken the liberty to paraphrase the editorial
to the situation in India, to bring out the stark similarities between
the two incidents. .....
We observed the Abdul Qadeer Khan
affair, the incredible story of this Pakistani nuclear scientist who delivered
over 15 years -- freely and with impunity -- his most sensitive secrets
to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Then we learned that President Musharraf
in person, after an interview from which little or nothing has been divulged,
ended up granting Khan his "pardon." .....
"The Da Vinci Code," the best-selling
novel that asserts as fact that Jesus Christ had a daughter as well as
a wife, has provoked fierce opposition from Protestants and Catholics alike.
.....
Eminent historian Romila Thapar
has an agenda and a central character in her authoritative monograph on
the high-profile temple at Somnath in Gujarat. But it is an agenda that
dare not take its name. And as for the central dramatis persona, she does
not even mention him. .....
A generation ago it would have
been inconceivable that the French legislature should expressly forbid
Muslim dress in schools, or that this issue should throw the nation into
crisis. .....
Investigators have discovered that
the nuclear weapons designs obtained by Libya through a Pakistani smuggling
network originated in China, exposing yet another link in a chain of proliferation
that stretched across the Middle East and Asia, according to government
officials and arms experts. .....
Nagalakshmi (35) wife of Pastor
Paul Murugesh (42) hanged herself unable to bear the torture and pressure
of her husband to get converted to Christianity. Paul Murugesh from
Samayanallur, running an orphanage, loved and married Nagalakshmi about
17 years ago. .....
Displaying its seriousness to act
on Dhaka's perception that 39 anti- Bangladesh camps existed in India,
the Government has launched an exercise to verify the claims. .....
Among President General Pervez
Musharraf's many winning ways is his ability to talk straight and stay
cool. This is a welcome relief from the hypocritical doublespeak of politicians.
We can therefore hope that he won't get too hot under the collar by some
candid comments from us. .....
In an exclusive interview to The
Hindu , the former Chief of the Army Staff, General S. Padmanabhan, has
thrown new light on the reasons for the failure of Operation Parakram,
the massive build-up ordered in the wake of the December 13, 2001, terrorist
attack on Parliament House. .....
While Washington has been debating
the failure to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, an extraordinary
series of revelations has confirmed that Pakistan has been guilty of some
of the worst crimes of nuclear weapons proliferation ever committed.
.....
Police sources told The Hindu that
Abdul Rashid, working as a munshi (clerk) at the Billawar police station
in Kathua district of the Jammu region, has been interrogated on his alleged
links with terrorists. Rashid is suspected to have tipped off terrorists
about police operations. .....
In the wake of growing public outrage
and mounting pressure, the Patna police finally filed an FIR against the
notorious nephew of ruling party RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and his men
on Monday in connection with the firing on three persons over an extortion
demand in the Rajabazar locality of Patna. .....
The custom of sacrificing lambs
to mark the end of the Muslim hajj has caused controversy in the rural
Prince William County town of Haymarket, where some residents say an illegal
slaughterhouse is being operated in their neighborhood. .....
General Musharraf has granted Dr.A.Q.
Khan a presidential pardon for taking all the blame for Pakistan's nuclear
proliferation activities spread over more than a decade. A few days earlier
there were reports that Khan would not go down without a fight and would
implicate high government officials including Musharraf. Several points
need to be raised. .....
Flurry in Diplomatic activity of
late has created media hype on heralding of peace in Kashmir. Whether this
hope will translate into reality is a million dollar question. In view
of the past experience and the contradictions inherent in Pakistani state
and society, as such there is little basis for optimism. .....
Preacher Benny Hinn's 'Pray for
India ' meet, scheduled to begin in the city on Friday, has raised the
hackles of not only the Catholic Church but the Vishwa Hindu Parishad as
well. .....
Shosan Suzuki, author of anti-Christian
attack pieces in the 17th century, is cited by economic historian Shichihei
Yamamoto as "the founder of Japanese capitalism." That's more than coincidence:
Shosan hated Christianity and knew that an increasingly corrupt Buddhist
priesthood could not become the centerpiece of a Japanese culture able
to turn back foreign ideas. .....
In conjunction with Wesak 2001,
BGF invited Dr Frank M. Tedesco, a well-known social activist and expert
on Korean Buddhism, to Malaysia for a series of dharma talks. He gave talks
at the Kota Kemuning Buddhist Center in Shah Alam, Buddhist Maha Vihara
in Kuala Lumpur, BGF Center in Petaling Jaya, Than Hsiang Temple in Penang,
and Jitra Buddhist Association in Jitra, Kedah. .....
Pakistan is caught in a population
explosion where the damage is irreparable and the devastation lasts a lifetime.
Maheen A. Rashdi stresses that it is about time the government began to
take this issue seriously. .....
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked
the Centre and States of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura to submit
within four weeks status reports about steps taken by them to identify
and stop illegal Bangladeshi migrants even as it was admitted that there
are at present more than 1.5 crore migrants in India. .....
It may have been the umpteenth
time that New Delhi raised the issue of mushrooming madarsas across the
Indo-Nepal border with Kathmandu, but the latter's rejoinder last week
asking what steps India had itself taken to regulate their growth on its
side of the border, had senior Union home ministry officials nonplussed.
.....
The feds suspect a Yemeni diplomat
drummed up cash for terror groups during a visit to Brooklyn mosques in
1999, an FBI agent testified yesterday. .....
A US-based company has hijacked
the trademark of Jeevani, a wonder medicine ideal for fighting fatigue,
which brought substantial financial benefit to the Kani tribals in Kerala,
who discovered it. .....
India has strongly protested to
Democrat edolphus towns for making statements in support of Khalistan in
the US house of representatives and causing the "propagandistic documents"
to be entered into the congressional records. .....
Fashions change with seasons. In
the aftermath of a newly-rekindled Indo-Pakistan bonhomie it is no longer
fashionable to get all worked up over the peccadilloes of our neighbour.
Thus, it took External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha nearly a week to
come up with India's first reaction to one of the most sensational stories
of recent times -- the drama surrounding the disclosures of the nuclear
supermarket run by Abdul Qadeer Khan from Pakistan. .....
After reading the January 26, '04,
issue of Outlook, one could be forgiven for wondering how something that's
wrong for India as a whole could be wonderful in Left Front-ruled Calcutta
(This is Cal, Katalysed). Especially as the magazine, while on the issue
of India's economic performance, has been shedding copious tears for the
80 per cent who haven't benefited. .....
There are many things about Bihar
that alarm the politically-conscious visitor but perhaps the most frightening
is that the state is visibly moving backwards. More visibly now than ever
because the rest of the country, including chronically troubled Uttar Pradesh,
is moving forwards faster and faster. .....
Arot Sheikh, a farmer of Kachkali
village in Nakashipara, was arrested today in connection with the death
of his 20-year-old daughter-in-law. Jyotsna Bibi's husband, Ator, is absconding.
.....
US Secretary of State Colin Powell
said on Friday that Washington accepted Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf's
decision to pardon nuclear scientists Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. But Mr Powell
added that he would raise the matter in talks with Musharraf in the days
to come. .....
As President Musharraf runs into
increasing flak over his handling of the A.Q. Khan affair, and more murky
details emerge about the haemorrhaging of nuclear secrets, we are left
to ponder yet again over individual greed. .....
by Anton La Guardia, Ahmed Rashid
and Alec Russell
Intelligence agencies and nuclear
inspectors are racing to close a vast international nuclear "supermarket"
that has secretly supplied Iran, Libya, North Korea and perhaps several
other countries for more than a decade. .....
Pastor Tyrone Allen's soft Southern
accent rises from a whispered exhortation to a dramatic crescendo that
makes the conference room reverberate with the words of the living Bible.
.....
At least 160 of the 650 detainees
acknowledged by the Pentagon being held at the United States military base
at Guantanamo, Cuba -- almost a quarter of the total -- are from Saudi
Arabia, a special UPI survey can reveal. .....
The call to prayer echoed over
Islamabad from a mighty mosque yesterday but the sound of Islamic devotion
brought no apparent response from the home of Pakistan's most decorated
citizen - and one of the world's most dangerous men. .....
Amid sharp divisions, the US Commission
on International Religious Freedom has recommended afresh the inclusion
of India in a list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC). Four of
the commission's nine members have strongly dissented. .....
Contradicting President Pervez
Musharraf, the State Department said Tuesday that for years it provided
Pakistani officials with evidence of a black market in nuclear technology.
Apart from general concerns, American officials turned over "pieces of
information" from time to time, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said. .....
Go on, try it. After all, 83 percent
of Japanese high school seniors got it right (though only 30 percent of
American seniors). The correct answer is (c). If you answered incorrectly,
though, keep reading - think of it as a social promotion. .....
South American-based terrorists
linked to Osama bin Laden allegedly plotted an attack on Jewish targets
in Ottawa in an effort to undermine Middle East peace talks. .....
24 Hour News 8 spent Wednesday
finding more about the scores of people who disrupted a Buddhist worship
service Tuesday night at a Grand Rapids Catholic Church. .....
Shri Ram Swaroop is dedicated to
the uplift of Bhil vanvasis of Banswara region. When he took over the project
about 13 years ago the region was fully in the vice-like grip of Christian
missionaries. But now the picture has changed all together and the missionaries
are about to pack up and leave the region. Organiser spoke to him to learn
about his experience. .....
Chairman of the 'secular' Jammu
and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Malik has now clearly crossed
the Lakshmana rekha. He has declared that if the over three lakh internally
displaced Kashmir Pandits (IDKP) sincerely wish to return to their
original habitat or the (Jhelum), they will have to accept his condition.
.....
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mayah,
a 53-year-old political scientist and human rights advocate known in his
neighborhood here as "the professor," was driving to work when eight masked
gunmen jumped in front of his car. They yanked him into the street, the
police said, and shot him nine times in front of his bodyguard and another
university lecturer. .....
A day after journalists who were
covering a press conference convened by Mysore Rural District Congress
Committee were given Rs. 500 each and a wristwatch, the President of the
Mysore district unit of the Janata Dal (Secular), G.T. Deve Gowda, called
upon journalists to boycott the Congress. .....
A raid on an Islamic school has
deepened the central government's problems in southern Thailand, provoking
a revolt among its Muslim community leaders. .....
It may have been the umpteenth
time that New Delhi raised the issue of mushrooming madarsas across the
Indo-Nepal border with Kathmandu, but the latter's rejoinder last week
asking what steps India had itself taken to regulate their growth on its
side of the border, had senior Union home ministry officials non-plussed.
.....
A Sri Lankan businessman with close
connections to Malaysia's business elite, is emerging as a central figure
in an international investigation into a clandestine network that sold
Pakistani nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, a media report
said. .....
Dr. David Bukay of Haifa University's
Political Science Department was asked on Arutz-7 today his opinion of
the growing phenomenon of Israeli-Arab terrorist cells. "It's no longer
a matter of 'wild weeds,'" he said this morning, after the sixth such cell
in a year was uncovered yesterday, "but rather a common phenomenon. .....
President Pervaiz Musharraf has
pledged that the disgraced founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme
can keep the vast wealth he accumulated selling bomb-making technology
to rogue states around the world. .....
The Governor knows it. The Patna
High Court has said it many times. The people witness it every day. The
Bihar government cannot be unaware of it either, though it prefers to look
the other way. .....
Abdul Karim Telgi has admitted
making payments to former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal
in return for favours, the Special Investigation Team has claimed. .....
Had Pakistan's military attache
to India Brigadier Akram Sahi opted for a career other than the military,
journalism would have been right up his sleeve. .....
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf
has hired Frank Howard Jr., the man who managed President George W. Bush's
election campaign in 2001, as his key lobbyist in Washington. .....
On his direct line at his plush
Colaba Causeway office, he has former police chief P S Pasricha. On his
cellphone it's a client from France looking to close a mega deal. .....
The admission this week by Dr.
Abdul Qadeer Khan that he transferred Pakistan's nuclear technology to
Iran, North Korea and Libya is a watershed event in the history of global
non- proliferation efforts. Never has nuclear technology been shared on
such a wide scale by such a poor country with such potentially disastrous
results. And no one seemed to really care too much about the whole affair.
.....
A Pakistani terrorist group which
may have recruited suspected French terrorist Willy Brigitte to attack
Australian targets is operating a cell in Australia, Attorney-General Philip
Ruddock said yesterday. .....
This week, their top nuclear scientist,
Dr AQ Khan, told the nation that he had sent nuclear weapons secrets to
Iran, Libya and North Korea, but that he had done it on his own. He was
deeply sorry for this, but he acted entirely on his own and, get this,
entirely in good faith, whatever that means. .....
Selling nuclear-weapons technology
on the black market should be a crime against humanity. But not in Pakistan,
where first it can get you rich and then, after you're caught by foreigners,
a slap on the wrist and a presidential pardon. .....
Indian priests and nuns are increasingly
in demand in Europe and the United States. But are these clergy people
working to further the church's ecumenical work on foreign shores or made
to work as 'slaves' in monasteries and nunneries? .....
The nation is catching glimpses
of some other facets of Dr A. Q. Khan's multi-dimensional personality.
It now transpires he is not only the architect of Pakistan's uranium enrichment
capability but also one of the great voodoo artists of this or the previous
century. Someone who peddled nuclear secrets and blueprints left and right,
without anyone in Pakistan's all-seeing intelligence services ever catching
him. .....
As George W Bush prepares to order
a belated probe into the intelligence fiasco that led to his fictitious
pre-war claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD),
there has emerged, in another part of the world, a story of intelligence
failure so extraordinary that it makes the Iraqi botch-up look almost benign
in comparison. .....
Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist
A.Q.Khan has implicated the country's military ruler Pervez Musharraf and
three of his predecessor army chiefs in the nuclear transgressions he has
been accused of. .....
The controversial founder of the
Pakistani nuclear weapons programme, A.Q. Khan, has confessed to the Pakistani
authorities that he transferred nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran
and Libya. Reports from Islamabad said the disclosure was made at a high-level
briefing of a select group of Pakistani journalists on Sunday. .....
Stephen Cohen, a Senior Fellow
in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC,
knows a lot about, and has a definite 'feel' for, our part of the world.
It has for long been a subject of his prolonged studies and his many writings,
his forte being South Asian security and proliferation issues. .....
The positive response from both
the Hindus and the Muslims to the Dalai Lama's appeal to resolve the Ayodhya
tangle in our age-old tradition of religious tolerance is a heartening
development. Although the Buddhist spiritual leader has set the ball rolling,
powerful men of goodwill in the Government and outside have been working
behind the scene for months to prepare the ground for a negotiated settlement
of the vexed issue. .....
They come from the US, speak with
an American accent but know everything about Indian ethics and culture.
And they are not people who are sometimes referred to unkindly as ABCD
(American born confused desis), but Americans who otherwise have no links
with India. .....
There was something shocking about
the photographs of a garlanded Abdul Qadeer Khan after Pakistan had exploded
its first nuclear bomb. The reasons for the test were obvious - arch-rival
India had detonated a similar weapon a couple of weeks before - but fêting
such a devastating device with flowers had a sinister ring. .....
Pakistan is likely to pardon without
trial the father of the country's atomic bomb even though he has confessed
to selling nuclear technology to rogue states, a senior government official
told the Telegraph yesterday. .....
Twelve days ago, a 747 aircraft
chartered by the United States government landed at Dulles Airport here
carrying a single piece of precious cargo: a small box containing warhead
designs that American officials believe were sold to Libya by the underground
network linked to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the creator of the Pakistani bomb.
.....
For long they have said Hindu Gods
were devils and any worship of Them is a heathen practice. Now Christian
zealots have outdone themselves by taking a giant leap of faith and claiming
that the various Vedic Sanskrit slogans were in praise of Jesus and not
Hindu Gods. .....
For the past three years, no matter
how monstrous the Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians, the Minneapolis
Star Tribune has consistently refused to apply the word 'terrorism.' One
of the paper's editors explained their 'evenhanded' position in February,
2002 .....
A storm has erupted at the Kolkata
book fair, not because of any literary transgression, but over three statues
made of wax that have been put on display in a mobile museum. .....
The Home Ministry, Government of
India has recently declared details offoreign funds that poured into India
for the year 2000-01. The provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation)
Act -FCRA- 1976 regulate the receipt of foreign contribution in the country.
.....
The Salvation Army of Greater New
York, long known for its network of thrift shops and shelters, has begun
an effort to reassert its evangelical roots, stressing to lay employees
that the Army's core mission is not just social services but also spreading
the Gospel. .....
This press release reads: "FOCUS
is a website ("source" above) that examines Christian evangelism in South
Asia, with a particular focus on Sri Lanka. This website was created to
function as a forum where people of all religious persuasions can communicate
with each other over the issue of evangelism. .....
Conversion has often given shelter
to those trying to justify their disproportionate property, or socially
unacceptable marriage bonds. How does it help in cases of sedition, albeit
retrospectively, will be evidenced by a decision of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of India (CBCI) to recommend beatification of an 18th century
Hindu turned Christian, Devasahayam Pillai (or Dev Sagayam Pillai). .....
Negro student demonstrations against
segregated eating facilities have raised grave questions in the South over
the future of the region's race relations. A sounding of opinion in the
affected areas showed that much more might be involved than the matter
of the Negro's right to sit at a lunch counter for a coffee break. .....
Sangh Parivar outfits in Kerala
have welcomed the recent Supreme Court verdict on appointment of non-Brahmins
as priests in temples, saying the apex court ruling ``will help reinforce
the internal unity of the Hindu society''. .....
The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple Committee
is advising kavadi bearers for the Thaipusam festival on Feb 5 to maintain
it as a religious festival and not a fun party. .....
Jim Hoagland of the Washington
Post wrote last week that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pervez Musharraf could
both be contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. I don't know if
the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Norway will receive at least one nomination
for Vajpayee and Musharraf before the February 1 deadline. .....
He could pass off for a European-six
feet plus, sandy haired, with the complexion of the mountains. His striped
trousers lend him a corporate air, but Firdous Syed, 37, is neither
European nor corporate, but a reformed Kashmiri terrorist who lived
underground for eight years as part of the militant movement, then at its
bloodiest. .....
I call myself a Sanatani Hindu,
because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and all that
goes by the name of Hindu scripture, and therefore in avataras and rebirth;
I believe in the varnashrama dharma in a sense, in my opinion strictly
Vedic but not in its presently popular crude sense; I believe in the protection
of cow . I do not disbelieve in murti puja. .....
Not many brides can say their weddings
stopped traffic. But that's exactly what happened to Mita Jain last May
as friends and family followed her fiance down State Street on their way
to the ceremony at the Palmer House Hilton. .....
In the wake of growing public outrage
and mounting pressure, the Patna police finally filed an FIR against the
notorious nephew of ruling party RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and his men
on Monday in connection with the firing on three persons over an extortion
demand in the Rajabazar locality of Patna. .....
In a significant gesture on the
eve of Eid-ul-Azha, the influential Darul Uloom school of Islamic theology
at Deoband has asked Muslims to avoid sacrificing cows on the occasion
of Baqr'id (Monday), especially in states where it is banned. .....
A 'bribe' allegation by an Iraqi
newspaper that names individuals from France, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Turkey,
China, Austria, Lebanon, Indonesia and Russia including prime ministers,
presidents' sons, churches and businessmen besides prominent Indian Congress
party leaders including leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi has stirred trouble
worldwide. .....
A Home Ministry official says most
of the NGOs who utilised the funds have not been able to make a difference
to the lives of those for whom the funds are meant. .....
The recent attack on Bhandarkar
Institute in Pune by the Sambhaji Brigade is highly condemnable. In fact
no words are enough to condemn such vandalism. Such attacks were highly
condemnable even in medieval ages. How can then such acts be justified
in 21st century? But yet we see such vandalism, taking place in our own
times and under our very nose and we feel helpless. .....
Conversion has often given shelter
to those trying to justify their disproportionate property, or socially
unacceptable marriage bonds. How does it help in cases of sedition, albeit
retrospectively, will be evidenced by a decision of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of India (CBCI) to recommend beatification of an 18th century
Hindu turned Christian, Devasahayam Pillai (or Dev Sagayam Pillai). .....
International General Secretary
of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Dr Pravin Togadia has claimed that the
VHP would not canvass for any political party in the coming general elections.
"Our job is to educate people as to where the interest of Hindus lies and
that we shall do in this election also", he said making it clear that those
political parties that neglect Hindu interest would be punished by the
Hindu society. .....
The Left Government in West Bengal
has imposed an all-time high tax on voluntary social organisations (VSOs)
this year for using its land at the Gangasagar Mela ground for distributing
food, offering free shelter and medicine to several lakhs of Hindu pilgrims
who assembled on the auspicious Makar Sankranti day to take a holy dip
at the confluence of the river Ganga and the Bay of Bengal. .....
A BEd student was stabbed to death
and three others seriously injured by the family members of a constable,
who assumed that they had teased the policeman's married daughter. The
students were trying to reason with the attackers when they were stabbed.
.....
Five months back, when she lost
her parents in the Gateway of India blast on August 25, life seemed bleak
for Bharti Yadav and her four siblings. But today, she has bounced back.
And how. .....
Curcumin, the main active ingredient
in the curry spice turmeric, has been used in India as a household anti-inflammatory
remedy for centuries. In recent years, scientists have discovered many
other possible medicinal applications, especially against some kinds of
cancers, writes Kelly Galin - Runner-up of the International Young Chemistry
Writer of the Year Competition 2003. .....
The father of Pakistan's nuclear
weapons program and a top aide had black market contacts that supplied
sensitive technology to Iran and Libya, and both have failed to account
for funds in their bank accounts, intelligence officials told The Associated
Press on Wednesday. .....
Sunday, January 25, will be the
50th death anniversary of one of the most outstanding Indians of the 20th
century, MN Roy. The story of his life is the stuff of legends. Born on
March 21, 1887 as Narendranath Bhattacharya, he became involved in the
revolutionary terrorist movement for India's independence and a close associate
of the revolutionary, Jatin Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin. .....
After the Godhra incident of February
2002, Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a widely publicized report titled, "We
Have No Orders to Save You: State Complicity and Communal Violence in Gujarat,"
published in April 30, 2002, claimed that the post-Godhra violence was
planned even before the Godhra incident occurred and the attacks on Muslims
in Gujarat were "state sponsored." .....
Taku Longkumer (a Naga gentleman
short in stature, but tall in commitment), his wife, Katie, and their three
children, are dearly loved and respected by many in the church family of
Immanuel. Since their visit to our church in October,1995, their work in
the northeast corner of India has become very real and very important to
us. .....
