The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	61 New Year revellers killed in Ivory Coast stampede Abidjan, January 1 About 60 persons were crushed to death in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan overnight after a New Year's Eve fireworks display, an emergency official and state radio said on Tuesday. "There are around 60 dead and about 200 injured, this is a provisional estimate," a rescue official said, asking not to be named. He said the incident happened near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks. A Reuters correspondent said there were blood stains and abandoned shoes outside the stadium Tuesday morning, and government officials and rescue and security forces were still there. "My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?" said Assetou Toure, a cleaner. She said she did not know if her children survived. — Reuters
	Gunmen ambush car in Pak, 7 NGO workers killed Islamabad, January 1 Unidentified gunmen ambushed a car carrying workers of an NGO in Pakistan's restive northwest today, killing seven persons, including six women. The gunmen ambushed the car near the remote Sher Afzal Banda area of Swabi district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province this afternoon. The NGO workers were returning from a community centre. Six women and a man were killed in the shooting, district police chief Abdul Rashid told reporters. The driver of the car was injured. He was taken to a nearby hospital and was out of danger, Rashid said. The victims worked for the NGO Ujala that is engaged in health and education programmes. Four gunmen were involved in the attack, officials said. The police has launched a search operation but were unable to trace the attackers. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident. — PTI
	2 Indian-Americans enter US House tomorrow Washington, January 1 Indian-Americans Ami Bera and Tulsi Gabbard would be sworn in as members of the US House of Representatives later this week, much to the delight of the small but powerful community in the country. Born of immigrants from Punjab, California-based physician Bera is only the third Indian American to be a member of the US House of Representatives, while Iraq war veteran Tulsi Gabbard is the first Hindu ever to win Congressional election. "The 113th Congress will commence on January 3, 2013 with the swearing-in ceremony for newly elected Members of Congress," House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, said. The new Congress in session till January 3, 2015 will have 43 African American members (all but one in the House of Representatives), a record high number of 100 female, seven LGBT members, and one member of the Kennedy family returning to elective federal office after a brief pause from public service from the family. Bera, 47, from seventh Congressional District from California and Gabbard, 31, from Hawaii's second Congressional District, are reflective of the diversity of the new Congress. Both are from the Democratic Party of President Barack Obama. Hindus represent less than one per cent of the current US population. — PTI
	Fiscal cliff, guru among words that should retire in 2013 London, January 1 Fiscal cliff, guru and spoiler alert are among words that should be removed from the vocabulary in 2013, according to a group of US academics. Michigan’s Lake Superior State University (LSSU) have released their ‘38th Annual List of Words to be Banished from Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness’ yesterday, with fiscal cliff, guru and spoiler alert among recommended terms they think need to be retired from the daily vernacular. The full list includes 12 words, phrases and acronyms, including ‘kick the can down the road, double down, job creator/creation, passion/passionate, bucket list, trending, super food, boneless wings and guru’ with people providing explanations for why these terms are just so irksome that they just need to die, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported. The list which includes words from 2012 that just need to fall by the wayside in the New Year, is a reflection of terms frequently heard in marketing, used by news pundits and referenced in entertainment. The top entry ‘fiscal cliff’, which had the most nominations, is a timely phrase that has dominated political discourse in US as Republicans and Democrats negotiated into the eleventh hour yesterday in hopes of avoiding a financial catastrophe. In theory, the fiscal cliff has hit the US, which among other things, means across the board hike in income tax rates. "(We’ve) lost sight of the metaphor and started to think it’s a real place, like with the headline, ‘Obama, Boehner meeting on fiscal cliff,’" Barry Cochran, from Portland, wrote in his entry. "Please let this phrase fall off of a real cliff!" pleaded Randal Baker, from Seabeck, with Donna, from Johnstown, adding that hearing the word fiscal cliff, "makes me want to throw someone over a real cliff". Next in line is another often used idiom in political talk, ‘kick the can down the road’, which "typically means that someone or some group is neglecting its responsibilities", according to Mike Cloran, from Cincinnati, Ohio. Though many terms show the fatigue from the US 2012 presidential campaign, one offensive phrase came from the world of entertainment. YOLO, which stands for You Only Live Once, is an acronym frequently seen on Twitter and used by texters. The term got a thumbs down earlier this year from The Washington Post, which called it ‘the newest acronym you’ll love to hate’. The university allows people to submit offending phrases throughout the year on their website. The blacklist launched in 1975 now includes more than 800 entries. — PTI Spoiler Alert! z The list includes words from 2012 that just need to fall by the wayside in the New Year and is a reflection of terms frequently heard in marketing, used by news pundits and referenced in entertainment z The full list includes 12 words, phrases and acronyms, including ‘kick the can down the road, double down, job creator/creation, passion/passionate, trending, super food, boneless wings, spoiler alert and guru’ z "Please let this phrase fall off of a real cliff!" pleaded Randal Baker, from Seabeck, with Donna, from Johnstown, adding that hearing the word fiscal cliff, "makes me want to throw someone over a real cliff"
	FDA nod to new TB drug, first in 40 yrs Washington, January 1 The US health authorities have approved a new medicine to fight multi-drug resistant TB, the first to be approved in the country in more than four decades. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new drug Sirturo (bedaquiline) as part of combination therapy to treat adults with multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) when other alternatives are not available. TB is an infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is spread from person to person through the air and usually affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body such as the brain and kidneys. Nearly 9 million people around the world and 10,528 people in the US became sick with TB in 2011. — PTI
	Special to the tribune Son’s letter confirms enforced suicide of Nazi General Rommel Shyam Bhatia in London A revealing letter has confirmed details about the enforced suicide of a Nazi-era German general whose North Africa campaign was blocked with the help of Indian soldiers. Back in 1942-43 during the North Africa campaign, General Erwin Rommel - known as the Desert Fox - commanding the Afrika Korps celebrated a series of battle successes. Allied forces, including elements of the British Indian army, were pushed back to within 90 miles of Alexandria, thereby threatening Cairo, the Suez Canal and the sea route to India. The Germans were stopped at the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942. But they were decisively defeated at the Second Battle of Alamein in October of the same year. The rows and rows of Indian graves at Alamein are testimony to the gallantry of the Indian soldiers from the 5th, 9th and 10th Indian Infantry Divisions and the Indian 18th, 29th and 161st Infantry Brigades who died resisting the Germans. Indian casualties amounted to 3,000 from the 5th Infantry Division alone. After the North Afrika campaign, Rommel was redeployed to Greece, France and Germany, where he was implicated in the 1944 military plot to kill Hitler. In October 1944, when details of the plot were revealed, Hitler offered Rommel two choices, either to face a People’s Court or to commit suicide. Rommel chose the suicide option by biting into a cyanide capsule supplied to him by two fellow German generals who visited him at his home. The description of how he was led away to his death is contained in a letter written by his then teenage son, Manfred, who says in his recently discovered hand written account how his father “told me that he had taken leave of my mother, and that Adolph Hitler had given him the choice between taking poison or being brought before the People’s Court. Adolph Hitler had also let him know that in the event of his committing suicide, nothing was to happen to his family, the family on the contrary would be provided for… “Having said farewell to me... my father left the house in uniform, we accompanying (sic) him to the car where the general saluted him with Hail Hitler. “My father got into the car first and took a seat in the back followed by the generals... the car drove off. 15 minutes later, we had a telephone call from the general hospital that my father had been brought there by the two generals and had apparently succumbed there to an attack of cerebral apoplexy. “In my last talk with my father, he told me that he had been suspected of complicity in the 20th July, 1944 plot. “The Fuhrer, he was informed, did not wish to lower his prestige with the German people, so was offering him the chance of a voluntary death by means of a poison pill. “It would have a mortal effect within 5 seconds. In the event of his refusing, he was to be arrested immediately.” Young Rommel’s letter was part of a collection of documents that once belonged to an officer who served on the staff of British army chief Sir Bernard Montgomery (later Viscount Montgomery of Alamein). As for Manfred Rommel, now 84-year-old, he first became a civil servant before entering local politics and going on to serve as Lord Mayor of Stuttgart from 1974 till 1996. He is the recipient of honours from the French, German, Israeli and Egyptian authorities. Fatal choice General Erwin Rommel (pic) was implicated in the 1944 military plot to kill Hitler Hitler had offered the General two choices, either to face a People’s Court or to commit suicide Rommel chose the suicide option by biting into a cyanide capsule supplied to him by two fellow German generals