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Kalam suggests Indo-Swiss movement for world peace
US copter shot down in Iraq, 2 killed
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Koran ‘mishandled’, not desecrated, say US investigators
Microsoft Fellowship for two Indian-Americans
Pak sends centrifuge parts to IAEA
Woman who fled child marriage honoured in London
Canada to dispose of Kanishka debris
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Kalam suggests Indo-Swiss movement for world peace
Berne, May 27 Addressing the Federal Councillors at Salle Des Pas Perdus (Swiss Parliament), the President said the flags of the two nations conveyed a message of eternal peace not only for their own countries but also for the entire world. “It would be, therefore, appropriate for both our countries to launch an international peace movement,” Dr Kalam told the Councillors. Referring to India’s programme on poverty eradication, the President, who arrived here this morning from Geneva, said, “our GDP is growing at more than six to seven per cent per annum. Whereas economists suggest that to uplift 260 million people below the poverty line, our economy has to grow at the rate of 10 per cent per annum consistently for over a decade.” “Our industries are now expanding in several areas. I am confident that we can push ahead with double-digit growth. Indian business persons can also come to Switzerland to invest in areas creating hi-tech employment,” the President said, adding that “We should aim at a win-win situation for us.”
— PTI |
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US copter shot down in Iraq, 2 killed
Baghdad, May 27 US investigators are probing yesterday’s mishap involving a two-seater OH-58 Kiowa helicopter that crashed near Buhriz, a former Saddam stronghold, about 60 km north of Baghdad. The Iraqi authorities are preparing to launch the largest show of force since Saddam’s ouster in the capital in a bid to curb the rampant insurgency, which has killed more than 650 persons since the country’s new government was announced in April 28. More than 40,000 Iraqi policemen and soldiers, backed by American troops and air support, will set up hundreds of check points, raid houses and search vehicles as part of Operation Lightning.
— AP |
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Koran ‘mishandled’, not desecrated, say US investigators
Washington, May 27 “I’d like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet,” the general in charge of the facility, Brigadier General Jay Hood told reporters in the Pentagon yesterday. He said the detainee who mentioned that incident to FBI agents has now told authorities that he did not witness it but was only reporting what he had heard from others. Hood said his review, which is not yet complete, did find 13 incidents in which prisoners alleged mishandling of the Koran by personnel at the prison. Ten were by guards and three by interrogators. All occurred before rules had been established for the handling of the Koran at Guantanamo, he said, adding that in six of the other cases at issue was whether guards touched the Koran, but Hood said he considers those incidents resolved. The two remaining cases involve interrogators who were accused of touching or standing over a Koran.
— PTI |
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Microsoft Fellowship for two Indian-Americans
Houston, May 27 The two Indian Americans Subhash Khot and Radhika Nagpal were selected from a pool of 110 nominees representing universities across the U.S.A. Khot and Nagpal, along with three other fellows, will receive a $ 200,000 cash grant to pursue their innovative research work in computer science. The winners are also given the opportunity to explore collaborations with some of the top researchers working in their area of interest at Microsoft Research. Subhash Khot is a first-year assistant professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute
of Technology. Khot’s research tackles fundamental questions regarding
which problems can and cannot be solved quickly on a computer. The questions Khot addresses in his work often have deep connections to diverse areas in mathematics, logic, cryptography and computer science. Radhika Nagpal is a first-year assistant professor of computer science in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Her research interest is in engineering self-organizing, self-repairing systems, using inspiration from biology, and in better understanding robust collective behaviour in biological systems. The University Relations group at Microsoft Research established the New Faculty Fellowship Awards programme to identify and support exceptional first-year, second-year and third-year professors who are advancing the state of the art of computer science
research. — PTI |
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Pak sends centrifuge parts to IAEA
Islamabad, May 27 The spokesman said Pakistan was cooperating voluntarily with the IAEA to promote nuclear non-proliferation. Mr Jilani said: “Used parts of an old and discarded centrifuge, which had no bearing on our national security have been sent.” The spokesman said a team of Pakistani experts had been sent with the centrifuge parts to assist the IAEA in the analysis. “The IAEA would carry out the analysis in the presence of our experts after which the centrifuge parts would be brought back,” he added. |
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Woman who fled child marriage honoured in London
Jasvinder Sanghera ran away from home at the age of 15 to escape a forced child marriage and went into hiding for eight years for fear of reprisals from her family.
But, at the age of 24 she returned to her home town of Derby, where she put herself through university and set up a women's project from the front room of her student lodgings so that others did not have to go through such experiences alone. Ms Sanghera, 39, now an Asian Affairs Manager at the Refuge Domestic Violence Charity and a prominent women's campaigner, was on Wednesday night honoured at the Asian Women of Achievement awards ceremony at the London Hilton on Park Lane. The awards were launched six years ago by Pinky Lilani and Munir Samji to recognise all levels of achievement by Asian women in Britain, including contributions to the worlds of medicine, law, the public sector, business and the arts. Ms Sanghera, a mother of three, was joint winner with Sheetal Mehta, a former Microsoft executive who left to launch a fund to help women around the world with a charity called Global Partners. Her early experiences left her with the ambition to help other women, although she still receives threats from her family, who have disowned her, Ms Sanghera said. "I used my past as a catalyst to support other women," she said. "Sadly, I was brought up to believe that to talk about your problems would be to shame your family. That's what many Asian women still believe. It is at the heart of the majority of Asian women's experiences. "I didn't feel like a victim of forced marriage after I ran away. I felt I had betrayed my family." Among other winners was Nigat Awan, 50, from Manchester, who won the entrepreneur of the year award for her business initiatives over three decades despite suffering from cancer, motor neurone disease and temporary paralysis. She started off designing a best-selling Bay City Rollers T-shirt in her father's factory at the age of 18, and went on to set up a floristry business that sold to Interflora. She now heads the Shere Khan curry products and restaurant concern which provides sauces to supermarkets. "I had had three children and been quite ill, but I worked through all of it. I set up one of my businesses from a hospital bed after I had cancer of the thyroid. I like a challenge, it's a great way of fighting your problems," she said. Bushra Nasir, head of Plashet School for Girls in Newham, east London, who was Britain's first Muslim female secondary
head teacher, was praised for transforming her school, which has been awarded beacon status by the Department for Education and Skills. She received the professional of the year
award. — By arrangement with The Independent |
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Canada to dispose of Kanishka debris
Toronto, May 27 An RCMP spokesman said the police had been trying for months to obtain a response from the Indian government on whether it would pay for shipping the wreckage back to the country. "The wreckage belongs to the Indian government, which owns the airline," RCMP spokesman Anthony Choy told the South Asian Observer here in an interview. "It's up to them what they will do with it. We're waiting to hear from them," he said. If India did not want the wreckage, one of the options would be "to burn it", he added.
— IANS |
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