S-a-m-e-e-r M-i-s-h-r-a. That’s how you spell success. The 13-year-old Indian American boy from West Lafayette, Indiana, won the coveted 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington on Friday night.

He correctly spelled “guerdon,” which means a reward, to win the $ 35,000 cash price that comes with $ 5,000 in additional winnings.

He battled another Indian-American, Sidharth Chand (12), of Loomfield Hills, Michigan, for the top prize. Mishra credited his parents who taught him to “always stay clam, cool and collected.”

He loves to read and is part of his school’s book club. He enjoys playing computer and video games, as well as board games. He has played the violin for four years in his school orchestra and aspires to a career as a neurosurgeon.

His sister Shruti, a three-year competitor in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, is his spelling coach. This was his fourth year in the competition, having previously tied for 98th, 14th and 16th places (2005, 2006, 2007).

Sidharth who was placed second loves math and science. He has been playing chess for six years, and plays competitive chess for his school’s team. His spelling studies include quizzing from his mother, Sunita. This was his first year of competition in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Two other Indian-Americans were among the top 10 spellers. Seventh-grader Kavya Shivashankar (12) of Olathe, Kansas, was tied for fourth place. Her father, Mirle, is her primary spelling coach. Jahnavi Iyer (14) Enola, Pennsylvania, tied for eighth place.

His main coalition partner, Asif Zardari, however, stonewalled the demand for the impeachment of the President and insisted that a dialogue was the best course to ease out Musharraf.

Kathmandu, May 31
Nepal’s ousted King Gyanendra is looking for a house and consulting astrologers to find out when to quit the palace after a special assembly abolished the monarchy, newspaper reports published on Saturday said.

A historic assembly vote on Wednesday turned Nepal into a republic and gave deposed King Gyanendra two weeks to leave the sprawling Narayanhity palace in the heart of the capital.

Gyanendra has not commented so far about the end of the 239-year-old monarchy, but state-run daily Gorkhapatra quoted a senior palace official as telling a government minister that the deposed monarch would “honour” the assembly vote.

It said Gyanendra was looking for a house as his son, Paras, and his family were living in the private home in an upmarket area in Kathmandu where the dethroned king lived before ascending the throne in 2001.

The independent daily, Naya Patrika, said 60-year-old Gyanendra did not want to leave the palace until early July when an astrological “dark” phase is due to end.

Looking to planets to resuscitate his luck, Nepal’s beleaguered former monarch Gyanendra has been advised by his astrologers not to leave the royal palace before July when an inauspicious period will end.

The 60-year-old ousted king, who has been given a 15-day notice by the government to leave the Narayanhiti palace here, is known for his penchant for consulting astrologers before making any major move.

Gyanendra has been consulting astrologers to decide the most auspicious time to leave the palace, local newspapers reported today.

The astrologers are telling Gyanendra to try and stay in the palace until the first week of July, when an astrological “dark phase” will end, the Nepalese newspaper Naya Paktrika reported.

The Maoists have threatened to remove Gyanedra by force if he does not go peacefully. — Agencies

London, May 31
More cases of international credit card fraud with links to India have come to light
in Britain, even as the authorities refused to rate the problem from Indian cities as very high.

In the latest incident, a British journalist discovered that money was withdrawn from his bank account in Chennai this week, while nearly 500 others in Bournemouth suffered the same fate.

British security officials have been grappling with card-cloning, by which card details are surreptitiously recorded during transactions at petrol pumps and supermarkets, and emailed across the globe for illegal withdrawals from ATM machines.

In the past one year, several cases have come to light when British consumers found that money was withdrawn from their accounts from Mumbai, Chennai and other parts of India. Petrol pumps have been the most vulnerable to such scams.

In Bournemouth, south England, Gavin Haines, a feature writer for the Daily Echo, a leading local newspaper, was alerted by his bank after money was withdrawn from his account in Chennai.

"I can't afford to lose £400 on a weekend. It was my only bank account at the time and they didn't have access to money. I've now got to go through the claims process," he said.

BRIEFLY

Downpour kills 64 in China
Beijing: Torrential downpours in China have now claimed 64 lives, state media reported, with flash floods destroying thousands of homes as well as bridges and large swathes of crops. The southwestern province of Guizhou was the hardest hit, with 43 persons killed in floods, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday, after a new downpour on Thursday that flooded 19 cities and counties. More than 1,30,000 persons were affected by the continuing bad weather. — AFP