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Indo-Pak joint mechanism to be operational
Pranab winds up visit with Taxila tour
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Gandhi's relation with Saraladevi Chaudhury unravelled
B’desh Cabinet meets
Awami League to contest B’desh poll
Rice seeks to bolster Abbas
New genetic clue to Alzheimer’s Rare Siberian tigress artificially inseminated
Scientologists open centre amid jeers
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Indo-Pak joint mechanism to be operational
Cebu (Philippines), January 14 Both the countries have decided on the composition of their respective three-member teams for the Joint Mechanism. At the maiden meeting of the Joint Mechanism, India will be presenting evidence of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) involvement to Pakistan. It is understood that India will be formally sharing with Pakistan the "evidence" of the Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in July 11, 2006 Mumbai trains blasts at this meeting. The Joint Mechanism is being viewed here as a formal intelligence summit between the two countries. The two sides have so far held several intelligence summits between them, albeit on an informal scale and that too in a third country. The Joint Mechanism, on the other hand, will be held in India and Pakistan alternately.
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Pranab winds up visit with Taxila tour
Taxila, January 14 The place today had a special visitor as India’s modern-day Chanakya, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who wound up his hectic two-day stay in Pakistan with a quick round of the ruins of the ancient city and the Taxila Museum. Having concluded successful discussions with the Pakistan leadership the previous day when both sides agreed to build on the ongoing peace process, Pranab was clearly in a reflective mood as he used this visit to recall the civilisational ties between India and Pakistan, their shared history and the lessons they could learn from the past to resolve their longstanding differences. Asked about the importance of Taxila in the regional context, he said, "We share a common heritage and culture. We should use this commonality to resolve the present crisis in a spirit of understanding and amity.” He did not agree that the journey from his constituency, Jahangipur, to Taxila had been a long one. “Geographically yes, but spiritually no. We don’t live in dates of contemporary period….there is a continuity from the past to the present and if we remember this, we will be able to find a solution to the present complex problem,” he maintained. Looking relaxed after a day of exhaustive deliberations, he spent close to an hour at the world-famous Taxila museum, which houses antiquities excavated from the ancient sites, some of which date back to the second century BC. He then visited Sirkap, the second city of Taxila, founded by the Bactrian Greeks. Standing against the backdrop of the ruins, Pranab Mukherjee, who is the first Indian political leader to visit the ancient site, remarked, “Simply, it is enchanting.” The visit had provided him a glimpse of the history of the great city, he added. The ancient city, the seat of Buddhist learning from the 5th century BC to 2nd century AD, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. Located around 45 km from Islamabad, Taxila is a must see for every tourist.
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Harry to get Iraq war training
London, January 14 Although no final decision has been taken on whether Prince Charles's younger son will serve there, the course is only for soldiers who are heading for the war-torn country. It reportedly includes instruction on Iraqi Arabic, local customs and living conditions. "If a soldier's in OPTAG (Operational Training And Advisory Group) training for Iraq, then he's going, simple as that," an unnamed army source told the paper. Harry is said to be desperate to serve in Iraq. His regiment is reportedly flying out there in April. Both he and his brother Prince William, who will one day be King, are in the Blues and Royals regiment, prompting widespread speculation about whether they will join Britain's 7,000-strong force in Iraq amid safety fears. If either does end up there, they would be following the example of their uncle, Queen Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew, who flew helicopters during the Falklands War in 1982.
— AFP
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Gandhi's relation with Saraladevi Chaudhury unravelled
London, January 14 In a biography of the Father of the Nation, Rajmohan Gandhi wrote, "I wanted to capture the real man in my book, so I couldn't leave out this episode of my grandfather's life." According to a report in 'The Sunday Telegraph' today, although Gandhi's friendship with the writer - a niece of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore - was known at the time, the full extent of his relationship with the woman three years his junior has not been revealed until now. Gifted, well-informed and driven, Saraladevi was 29 when Gandhi first saw her, in 1901, conducting an orchestra as it played a song she had written for Congress, the party that eventually led India to Independence. But it was not until she was 47, and married to newspaper editor Rambhuj Dutt Chaudhuri, that Gandhi fell for her, while staying at the couple's house in Lahore, now in Pakistan. Chaudhuri was in jail for his part in the struggle against the British and soon after he arrived, Gandhi - by now dedicated to personal celibacy - wrote in a letter: "Saraladevi's company is very endearing... She looks after me very well." Within months, he was thinking of their relationship in terms of a "spiritual marriage", according to his grandson - who admits he is unsure what his grandfather meant by this. Not everyone appreciated the spiritual benefits of Gandhi's entanglement with a woman who was not his wife. His son Devadas - Rajmohan's father - urged him to pull back. — PTI
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B’desh Cabinet meets
Dhaka, January 14 Chief Adviser of the Bangladesh’s reconstituted interim government Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former central bank governor, distributed portfolios among five advisers a day after they were sworn in, an official statement said. Ahmed kept with himself the cabinet division, establishment, home affairs and the election commission secretariat. Moinul Hosein, chief editor, ‘Ittefaq’ newspaper, was given the ministries of law, housing and land. The portfolios of finance, planning, commerce and telecommunication went to Mirza Azizul Islam, a former securities and exchange commission chief. Retired Maj-Gen M A Matin, a former chief of the anti-corruption bureau, was given the charge of the ministries of communications, shipping, civil aviation and liberation war affairs.
— PTI
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Awami League to contest B’desh poll
Dhaka, January 14 The alliance had boycotted the poll, saying that the President, as head of an interim administration, was favouring its rivals. It wanted fair election, which had been set for January 22. ''We have decided to participate in the elections,'' Awami League general-secretary Abdul Jalil told Reuters in an interview. ''This present caretaker government has to go ahead with the preparation of the Election Commission, voters' list ... then we are ready to participate at any moment.''
— Reuters
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Ramallah (West Bank), January 14 Rice offered no details on how Washington would expand its involvement. Israeli officials said Rice was exploring several options, including the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, an idea rejected by Abbas. Palestinians fear such temporary borders would become final, leaving them with a truncated state. The United States wants Abbas to emerge victorious in his showdown with the ruling Hamas Islamists, a group Washington labels a terrorist entity. Hamas receives aid from Iran and other Islamist allies, and is building up its own “executive force”. Rice met Israeli ministers on Saturday. The second stage outlines a Palestinian state with provisional borders. “I have heard loud and clear the call for deeper American engagement in these processes,” Rice said. “You will have my commitment to do precisely that,” she told Abbas. — Reuters
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New genetic clue to Alzheimer’s
Chicago, January 14 In genetic studies involving 6,000 volunteers, the researchers discovered that variants of the gene SORL1 were more common in people with late-onset Alzheimer's than in healthy people of the same age. The Alzheimer's victims also had a strikingly low level of the SORL1 protein in the blood compared with healthy people - less than 50 per cent of the level seen in the healthy group. In healthy people, SORL1, which regulates the flow of amyloid precursor protein (APP) inside nerve cells in the brain, drives the protein to a part of the cell where it is recycled. But in people with the gene variants, the gene appears to drive APP to another region of the cell where it accumulates and is degraded into amyloid plaques - the abnormal sticky proteins that gum up the brain of Alzheimer's victims, said Richard Mayeux, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's disease and the Aging Brain, and one of the authors of the paper.
— AFP
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Rare Siberian tigress artificially inseminated
Beijing, January 14 Experts at the China Henghedaozi Feline Breeding Centre, the world's largest breeding base for Siberian tigers in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, said that artificial insemination, if proved successful by Saturday's test, will help avoid inbreeding and genetic degeneration among Siberian tigers. The sperms were taken from a seven-year-old healthy male tiger that has been trained to live in primitive forests. The zoologists at the breeding centre hope the tigress will become pregnant and have a healthy baby.
— PTI
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Scientologists open centre amid jeers
Berlin, January 14 The police said at least 1,500 people attended the opening of the new centre. Around 15 people assembled in front of the new building holding up banners saying "Brain-washing -- no thanks!" German politicians made known their opposition to the group's new centre yesterday, some of whom believe they will use it to attempt to influence politics, after a Scientology document claimed it wanted "access to the highest levels of the German government in Berlin." "These people are enemies of the constitution and must be put under surveillance," Bavarian Interior Minister Gunther Beckstein told a regional newspaper. "Scientology wants to win influence among economic and political decision-makers. If it is not monitored in Berlin it's disturbing." Bundestag Vice-President Wolfgang Thierse criticised.
— AFP
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Couple shot dead, beheaded 14 die in plane crash 2 UK troops killed Thailand trains collide 
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The ancient city of Taxila is well-known as a seat of great oriental cultures and Buddhist learning besides being home to a great civilisation where the
Mauryas, Greeks and Kushanas built impressive cities.
