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US Sikhs protest attack on girl
Truck driver arrested for
wearing ‘kirpan’
Manekshaw was a legendary soldier: Obama
Combating Taliban |
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Indian back in Pak jail after official Zim not for Kenya-style coalition
Pentagon fears attack on Iran by Israel: Report
55 abducted Frontier Corps personnel freed in Pak
9/11 canine hero to be cloned
Prince Paras leaves
for Singapore
French army chief resigns after firing incident
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US Sikhs protest attack on girl
New York, July 1 Gurprit Kaur’s hair was cut by a fellow student on June 9 in a school in Flushing in Queens suburb of New York City, five days after one Jagmohan Singh Premi was punched on the face in another school by a fellow student who was trying to remove his turban. The Sikh Coalition, which spearheaded the protest and organised the march yesterday, says its survey has found that more than 60 per cent Sikh students in 400 city public schools face harassment or are subjected to violence because of their faith. A fellow student told Gurprit that a portion of her braided hair had been cut off. Gurprit did not notice while her hair was being cut from behind. Gurprit’s school, it added, conducted an investigation and within hours told her that one of her classmates had admitted to cutting her hair. School officials say the accused student was immediately suspended. The coalition alleged that Gurprit’s brother had also been harassed with the perpetrator making fun of his turban. In May, a student at another Queens school had his turban removed and his hair cut off. The community leaders have met the education officials seeking action to ensure that such incidents do not happen. Officials have said they are taking steps, including the sensitisation of other students to their faith.
— PTI
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Truck driver arrested for
wearing ‘kirpan’
New York, July 1 The incident occurred on June 18 while 47-year-old Sachdev Singh was passing through security at the Connecticut State Superior Court, the group, United Sikhs, said. Apart from arresting him for wearing “kirpan”, the court marshals “forcibly” removed his turban, it claimed. Singh, the group said, was wearing his approximately 5-inch-long kirpan under his clothing, as many Sikhs do, and stated to security officers on three different occasions before entering the metal detector that he had “a religious symbol” under his clothes. The marshals did not inquire about the religious symbol and asked him to deposit his cellphone and camera with one of them. When Singh passed under the metal detectors, he was promptly arrested and both his kirpan and turban were stripped away from him forcibly, the United Sikhs said. After about an hour of questioning, Singh’s handcuffs were removed, he was allowed to re-tie his turban and then was placed under arrest for “carrying a dangerous weapon.” Singh, United Sikhs said, was taken to jail where he was fingerprinted and his turban was once again forcibly removed. “It was a great shock that state marshals handling security of a court of law would treat me in this manner,” said Singh, who was released from jail after he posted bail. “I am concerned this incident will adversely affect my citizenship status, as I am applying for naturalisation, and I am upset that my rights were so unlawfully cast aside in a courthouse, of all places.”
— PTI
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Manekshaw was a legendary soldier: Obama
Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, on Monday offered his “deep condolences to the people of India” on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw's death. In comments issued on a day his campaign was busy disowning comments from another decorated serviceman - Wesley Clark, a retired four-star general - Obama described Manekshaw as a “legendary soldier, a patriot, and an inspiration to his fellow citizens.” Obama added: “Field Marshal Manekshaw provided an example of personal bravery, self-sacrifice, and steadfast devotion to duty that began before India's Independence, and will deservedly be remembered far into the future.” Over the weekend, Clark, an Obama supporter, questioned presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain's qualifications to be President. But Obama's campaign promptly distanced itself from Clark's comments. Obama, during a speech about patriotism, said that "for those who have fought under the flag of this nation -- for the young veterans I meet when I visit Walter Reed (a Washington-area hospital for veterans); for those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country -- no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary. And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides.”
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Sharif against use of force
Tells US not to intervene Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad Former Prime Minister and chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday told the visiting US assistant secretary of state, Rishard Boucher, that his party stands for a drastic review of Musharraf's policy of Pakistan's participation in the war against terror. “We want to resolve the problem of militancy in the tribal areas through political means, including dialogue, rather than brute use of forces against our own people,” Sharif was quoted by party leaders as having told Boucher, who called on him at his farmhouse in the outskirts of Lahore. He said Pakistan's involvement in the war on terror should serve its best national interest without engulfing the country in another spell of suicide bombing. Senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Sharif also expressed reservations over the current Khyber Agency operation by security forces, saying his party was not consulted despite being the second-biggest partner in the PPP-led coalition. In an apparent reference to US involvement in Pakistani politics, Sharif said Pakistan’s internal issues had to be settled internally and its friends could at best facilitate their resolution instead of intervention. He described President Musharraf as the biggest impediment in the smooth functioning of the new democratic dispensation. Similarly, he was the main hurdle in the restoration of judges he had arbitrarily deposed after imposing emergency on November 3, Sharif said. Nisar said though Boucher did not fully agree with this formulation, he made it clear that the US wanted the newly elected Parliament to succeed. “We want to initiate a new era of our bilateral relations and cooperation,” Boucher was quoted by Nisar as having told Sharif. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, former federal minister Khawaja Asif and Nisar assisted Nawaz Sharif during the meeting that lasted over 90 minutes. Earlier in Islamabad, Boucher met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Prime Minister's adviser on interior affairs Rehman Malik, and national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani.
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Indian back in Pak jail after official goof-up
Islamabad, July 1 Prakash (51) was set free from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore this morning. The interior ministry yesterday ordered his release after he completed his 10-year jail term. Jail officials took Prakash to the Wagah border to hand him over to the Indian authorities, which refused to accept him, Dawn News channel reported. He was then sent back to Kot Lakhpat jail. Prakash was quoted by Dawn News as saying that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad did not send his documents to the Indian authorities at Wagah and he was thus being returned to the jail. Officials at the High Commission said they had not been officially informed by the Pakistani authorities about Prakash's release. As a result, travel documents had not been prepared or provided to Prakash, they said.
— PTI
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Zim not for Kenya-style coalition
Sharmel-Sheikh (Egypt), July 1 “Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way. The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Not at all,” Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba told journalists at an African Union summit in Egypt. “The way out is a way defined by the Zimbabwe people, free from outside interference, and that is exactly what will resolve the matter,” he said.
— Reuters
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Pentagon fears attack on Iran by Israel: Report
New York, July 1 "There is an ‘increasing likelihood’ that Israel will carry out such an attack, a move that may prompt Iranian retaliation against, not just Israel, but against the US as well," a senior Pentagon official was quoted as saying by the ABC television network. The widely held view among Pentagon officials,it said, was that an Israeli attack would do only temporary damage to Iran's nuclear programme but it would cause major problems in the region and beyond, prompting a wave of attacks on the US interests in Iraq, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. The officials, ABC News said, have identified two "red lines" that could trigger an Israeli offensive. The first is, when Iran's Natanz nuclear facility produces enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon. According to the latest US and Israeli intelligence assessments, that is likely to happen sometime in 2009, and could happen by the end of this year,it added. “The red line is not when they get to that point, but before they get to that point,” the official was quoted as saying. — PTI
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55 abducted Frontier Corps personnel freed in Pak
Islamabad, July 1 Shia Turi tribesmen abducted 55 Frontier Corps personnel in the Piwar area of Kurram Agency yesterday. Turi tribal elder Ali Akbar said they had mistaken the paramilitary personnel for members of the rival Suni Mengal tribe. Hundreds of people have died in sectarian clashes between Turi and Mengal tribesmen in Kurram Agency since last year. Fresh clashes recently erupted in the semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Akbar said his men had taken the Frontier Corps personnel hostage because there were reports of Mengal tribesmen moving about in the area wearing paramilitary uniforms. The Frontier Corps convoy was on its way from a base in Parachinar, the main town of Kurram Agency, to Tari Mengal on the frontier when the Turi tribesmen blocked the main road and captured the paramilitary personnel. The local political administration then sent a jirga to the area to secure the release of the abducted personnel.
— PTI
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9/11 canine hero to be cloned
Washington, July 1 Trakr, a German shepherd who lives with his owner James Symington in Los Angeles, was picked by BioArts International as the most “clone-worthy” canine in a competition offering an owner a free chance to replicate their pet.
Symington said he and Trakr were among the first search and rescue teams to arrive at Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, and were responsible for locating the last human survivor under about 9m of debris. Now aged 15, the dog no longer has use of his back legs due to a degenerative neurological disorder. According to
BioArts, experts believe the condition may be linked to exposure to toxic smoke at the World Trade Center site. “Trakr means the world to me,” Symington said. “To know that part of him is going to live on is just beyond words. It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received.” In the next month, BioArts said it would transport a sample of Trakr’s DNA to the South Korean lab of its partner, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, and the clone could be ready by the end of this year.
— AFP
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Prince Paras leaves
for Singapore
Kathmandu,
July 1 In the afternoon, Paras, flanked by
brother-in-law Raj Bahadur Singh and two security guards, reached the
Tribhuvan International Airport to depart for Singapore. It was his
first public appearance following the Constituent Assembly’s meeting
on May 28 in which it was decided to dethrone his father Gyanendra
Shah. According to media reports, Paras moved to Singapore in search of
a good school for his three children - Purnika, Kritika and Hridayendra.
Immediately after the country held the Constituent Assembly election on
April 10, Paras had stopped sending Last year, a
group of students had pelted stones on a vehicle in which Paras’
children were going to their aunt’s home in the capital. His wife,
Himani, will leave for Singapore soon. Sources said Paras would return
to Kathmandu once his family is settled in there.
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French army chief resigns after firing incident
Paris, July 1 President Nicolas Sarkozy had pledged to react rapidly and severely and to seek explanations from the army. “The President, the head of the armies, has accepted the resignation presented by army General Bruno Cuche, head of the land army,” said a statement from Sarkozy’s office. Cuche answers to a higher-ranking officer in charge of the overall armed forces. Sarkozy is the ultimate head of the armed forces in France. The incident occurred during a military show by the Third Marine Parachute regiment, open to the public in the southern French town of Carcassonne. The soldier has been questioned by police. The wounded were mostly members of the public who had been watching the soldiers simulate an attack and included a three-year-old boy who was hit in the heart and arm.
— Reuters
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Pamela auctions car for $65,000 donation Rajasthan luxury tents at Glastonbury fest Alain Le Roy appointed head of UN peacekeeping force Indian Consulate to outsource services in Saudi Arabia World War I veteran dead 
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