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Pak army for peace
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Dr Kalam visits missile factory in Ukraine
Man Booker Prize for Albanian poet
Indian American boy wins spelling bee
Single Indians being denied visas
Nepalese couple weds on top of Everest
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Pak army for peace
Lahore, June 3 The Pakistan army was fully backing the peace process, the Governor, Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retd), told visiting BJP President L.K. Advani during a meeting at the Governor’s House here this morning. The retired senior army officer, considered close to the military establishment and President Pervez Musharraf, was responding to a specific query in this regard from the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. General Maqbool described Advani’s week-long visit to Pakistan as a “courageous step” and said it had reinforced the peace process between the two countries. “What you have been saying after (coming to Pakistan) sounds like new hope.” Besides stating that the demolition of the Babri mosque was the “saddest day” of his life, Mr Advani had yesterday described the Partition of the country and emergence of India and Pakistan as two independent, separate and sovereign countries as an unalterable reality. Mr Advani told the Governor that there was hope on both sides and “now it is our joint responsibility to convert this hope into confidence and resolve, so that the peace process reaches its fruition”. Both leaders stressed on the need to step up economic cooperation and cooperation in education, culture and social development between the two countries. President of the Ruling PML (Q) Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain had last night hosted a dinner in honour of the BJP chief, which was attended among others by ministers, legislators and the who’s who of Lahore. Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Illahi hosted a lunch today in honour of the visiting dignitary. Mr Advani this morning visited the historic Badshahi Mosque, built by Emperor
Aurangzeb, as also the Lahore Fort and Museum associated with Mughal and Sikh history in its vicinity while his family enjoyed the city’s Pakistani cuisine at the famous Gwalamandi Food Street till last night.
— PTI
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Dr Kalam visits missile factory in Ukraine
Dnipropetrovsk, June 3 The president accompanied by the Indian official delegation which included Brahmos CEO A S Pillai and ISRO Chairman N Madhvan Nair, interacted with scientists and other officials and was apprised of the latest projects of the company which provides turnkey developments for high-tech projects mainly dealing with space-rocket technology. The factory is one of the first companies in aerospace industry to set up the Telemetry Data Processing Centre to carry out the flight tests of strategic missiles and launch vehicles. Its launch vehicle ‘’Zenit’’, used in the global “Sea Launch” programme, is known for versatility in rendering operative multiple launch services. Kiev: President Kalam on Friday said India and Ukraine could work together in space research, nuclear power, nano science, mathematical science and information technology for the prosperity of the two nations and in the interest of global peace. “Ukraine and India have a tradition of knowledge and have civilisational strength. Through this strength we can definitely build a prosperous society. A prosperous society with civilisational strength will lead to peace. Let us commence a new journey in this planet to bring global peace,” Dr Kalam said in his address to the teaching staff and students of Kiev National T Schevchenko University here. In his interaction at the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Kalam suggested that Indian and Ukraine scientists study the respective scientific achievements and select a few areas using convergence of science and technology. These areas could include solar power generation using CNT based photovoltaic cells and the application of nano technology for CNT based bio-sensors used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Another area could be generation of nuclear power through the thorium based reactors.
— UNI
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Man Booker Prize for Albanian poet
London, June 3 The 69-year-old Kadare was chosen for the inaugural award for his body of work which includes novels like “Broken April,” “Spring Frost” and “The General of the Dead Army.” “Ismail Kadare is a writer who maps a whole culture — its history, its passion, its folklore, its politics, its disasters,” critic John Carey, who led a three-member panel of judges, said. “He is a universal writer in a tradition of story-telling that goes back to Homer,” he added. Kadare will receive a prize of $ 60,000 plus a trophy in a ceremony at Edinburgh on June 27, with an extra $ 15,000 pounds for a translator of his choice. According to a statement,
Kadare, who fled to France in 1990 as a refugee before the collapse of dictator Enver Hoxha’s Communist regime, said: “I feel deeply honoured.” “I am a writer from the Balkan fringe, a part of Europe which has long been notorious exclusively for news of human wickedness — armed conflicts, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, and so on,” he said. Eighteen
other authors were shortlisted for the honour, including the late Saul Bellow, Germany’s Gunter Grass, Czech- born Milan
Kundera, Egypt’s Naguib Mahfouz, US writers Philip Roth and John Updike, and Canada’s Margaret Atwood.
— PTI
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Indian American boy wins spelling bee
New York, June 3 After 19 gruelling rounds at the 78th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington yesterday that took him through words that most people do not even know exist, let alone spell and know the meaning of, Kashyap won the contest and $22,000 in prize money, a $5,000 scholarship and instant international fame. He beat 272 others, including three other Indian American students in the final four. Kashyap, a 13-year-old eighth grade student of Meadobrook Middle School in Poway, California, barely managed to speak and said: “It’s amazing...It’s amazing.” He said he felt “just pure happiness”. Eleven-year-old Samir Sudhir Patel, one of the last two contestants to survive even as the contest organisers began running out of words, looked with moist eyes as Kashyap lifted the glittering trophy. Patel, home-schooled as a sixth grade student Colleyville, Texas, was asked to spell “roscian” (skilled in acting). He spelt it rossian and bowed out of the contest after winning many hearts with his quick wit and sense of humour. “I am getting all the French words,” he said at one point. A straight A student, whose passion is science, Kashyap had tied for 47th in last year’s spelling bee. That, he said, “helped me to know what I should study to...like, win this thing.” After Patel left the scene it was down to Aliya Deri, 13, an eighth grade Pleasanton, California, student. Deri was done in the 18th round by “trouvaille”, meaning windfall. Kashyap recently participated in state-level Mathcounts and Science Olympiad competitions. He also represented his school in the California Geographic Bee. It was extraordinary, albeit in keeping with the recent trend, that Indian American students yet again dominated the contest. The last surviving four were Kashyap, Patel, Rajiv Terigopula and Deri. The words that Kashyap was asked to spell included cabochon, priscilla, oligopsony, sphygmomanometer, prosciutto, rideau, pompier, terete, tristachyou, schefflera, ornithorhynchous, agio, agnolotti, peccavi, ceraunograph, exsiccosis, hodiernal and appoggiatura. —IANS
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Single Indians being denied visas
London, June 3 British lawyer Fiona
Lindsley, the government’s monitor on the working of visas, has told ministers in her annual report published this week that “young, single and of marriageable age” was the standard wording used in British consulates to stop Indians and Jamaicans from visiting and studying in the country. Lindsley has called for an immediate stop to the practice, saying it is an illegal attempt to limit the opportunities for Indians and Jamaicans to meet British citizens and marry, the Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.
— IANS
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Nepalese couple weds on top of Everest
Kathmandu, June 3 There was no procession, champagne or band - only piles of snow and a breathtaking panorama for bride Moni Mulepati, 24, and groom Pem Dorjee, 23, as they exchanged their vows at the 8,850-meter summit on Monday. “We were there only for 10 minutes, just enough for us to get married and our friends to take pictures of us,” Mulepati said on Friday. The couple was part of the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition and scaled the peak with 45 other climbers. Temperatures at the summit were bitingly cold and the weather treacherous, so they had to make the ceremony quick. They briefly took off oxygen masks and donned plastic garlands while the groom put “sindhoor” on the bride’s forehead. The couple had not told their friends and relatives of their plans. They were to hold a formal wedding later in Katmandu. “We only knew they were going to climb Everest and nothing about their wedding plan. But it is fine with us,” said Mohan Mulepati, bride’s father. She is from the Newar community and he is a Sherpa - an unusual pairing in a country where most marriages are arranged by parents and people tend to stick to their castes. — AP
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