Islamabad, March 24
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has adopted the amended Kashmir Report that now underscores the importance of the UN Resolutions of 1948 and 1949 and calls for the demilitarisation of the region.

The Committee passed the report after a marathon debate. European parliamentarians are said to have proposed over 400 amendments in the report based on the objections raised by Islamabad.

The parliamentarians also said they would seek further changes to the report before it was presented to the European Parliament plenary in May, The Dawn reported.

Apart from calls for demilitarisation, the amended report recognises the aspiration of the Kashmiri people for a significantly reduced military presence on both sides of the LoC." It also seeks an end to all extra-judicial killings by the Indian Army and paramilitary forces and asks the Indian Government to allow international human rights organisations to visit Jammu and Kashmir to document and monitor the human rights situation.

The initial draft report prepared by Baroness Emma Nicholson and titled “Kashmir: Present Situation and Future Prospects" had earlier come down heavily on the human rights situation in the Pakistani side of Kashmir and had also brushed aside the need for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, calling it "wholly out of step".

This led to Pakistan and hardline Kashmiris vociferously opposing the report and demanding its amendments as it was seen as a pro-India report that sought to ignore and downplay the Kashmiris demand for freedom and their right to self-determination, besides ignoring massive human rights violations.

Only after months of intense lobbying by the Kashmir Centre EU and pressure from many members of the European Parliament did Emma Nicholson agree to the compromised amendments' that included demands like calling for an end to human rights violations and agreeing to the Kashmiris' demand for the right of self determination. — ANI

Washington, March 24
The Democratic Party today named a banker and a retired physician as new co-chairs of a forum for its Indian-American members and hoped that they would make a "tremendous impact" in helping elect a Democrat President in the 2008 elections.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Howard Dean, announced that Shekar Narasimhan of Virginia and Dr Mahinder Tak of Maryland will serve as national co-chairs of the Indo-American Leadership Council, while Sunita Gupta Leeds of Washington DC will head the Advisory Board. All three would lead the council through the 2008 election cycle.

The new co-chairs take over from current Chair Ramesh Kapur, an entrepreneuc from Boston. Under the leadership of the three, the council will "no doubt continue the great tradition begun by the outgoing chair and have a tremendous impact on helping elect a Democratic President and Democrats up and down the ballot in 2008," Dean said in a statement.

Established in 2004, the DNC Indo-American Council comprised professionals, activists and community leaders who represent the citizens of Indian descent in the country.

Narasimhan, a banker and CEO of a firm based in Dunn Loring, is the father of S R Sidarth, who was in news during last year's Congressional elections after Virginia Republican Senator George Allen made an alleged racial jibe at him.

During a rally, Allen called Sidarth, a volunteer for his opponent Democrat James Webb, a "macaca", which could mean a type of monkey. The remark sparked an outrage, leading to an apology from Allen who subsequently lost his re-election bid.

Tak is a retired physician, while Sunita Gupta Leeds is involved with a number of charities. — PTI

New York, March 24
Pepsico CEO and Chairperson-designate Indra Nooyi, astronaut Sunita Williams, novelist Salman Rushdie and community leader Swadesh Chatterjee have been honoured by weekly ‘India Abroad’ for their achievements in various fields and services to the community.

Nooyi, who now heads the second largest beverages company, had been chosen as Person of Year 2006 for her achievements in the corporate sector which has brought prestige to the community.

Accepting the award at a function hosted by ‘India Abroad’, Nooyi had spoken about the joys and challenges of belonging to two lands- India which had given her heritage and the USA where she had made her career.

The award was handed over to her last night by Raj L Gupta, chairman of Rohm and Haas, a Fortune-500 company.

Sunita Williams had been as conferred the ‘India Abroad Publisher’s Award for Excellence’. She was in space when she heard that she was being honoured. The award had been accepted on her behalf by her parents, Deepak and Bonnie Pandya from publisher Ajit Balakrishnan.

The audio-visual of her acceptance speech, which had been recorded last week, was played.

Rushdie had been awarded the first ‘India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his stellar corpus of work and encouragement to young writers.

Accepting the award, Rushdie had spoken about the challenges that a writer faces. He received the award from another eminent novelist Bharati Mukherjee, whose well known works include “The Tree Bride”, and “Leave It to Me”, and author Suketu Mehta.

Swadesh Chatterjee had been honoured with ‘Community Leader Award’ for his “unstinting efforts” in uniting an often disparate Indian-American community and uniting it in support of the Indo-American civilian nuclear deal. The award was conferred by a promising young lawmaker from Ohio, Jay Goyal.

In his acceptance speech, Chatterjee had praised the various community organisations that had rallied behind him in pushing the nuclear deal on Capitol Hill. — PTI

Mogadishu, March 24
Suspected insurgents shot down a cargo plane over Mogadishu, killing all 11 on board, during a third straight day of clashes with the Ethiopian troops propping up the Somali government.

The Belarussian plane was hit by a rocket yesterday shortly after the take off from Mogadishu airport and crashed in the Northern Karan neighbourhood, Somali government spokesman, Hussein Mohamed Muhamoud said.

“ Eleven are dead. Ten died on the spot while one in the hospital," a Red Cross-Red Crescent official, said giving the details. The Red Cross-Red Crescent, which operates at the hospital where the victims of the crash had been brought, have not specified their nationalities.

The rocket attack came as fighting erupted for a third straight day in Mogadishu. — AFP

Dubai, March 24
India has blacklisted 14 Qatari companies for not treating Indian workers properly.

Another 40 local firms have been put on Indian Embassy’s watch-list following complaints from workers about not fulfilling contractual obligations.

As and when a company is found to have improved its track record, its name would be removed from the list, Indian diplomats told an Open House in Doha yesterday.

Half-a-dozen Indians, including two maids, are languishing at detention centres for over six months, they said that the Qatari authorities are said to be tracking their sponsors to retrieve their passports.

The mission, while putting the total number of Indians held at the deportation centre by March 1 this year at 87, said the figure was down from a high of 146 in January.

There are 25 maids among the 87 Indian detainees, they said. — UNI

New York, March 24
Two diaries, written by Anna Nicole Smith, have been sold on the online auction site e-Bay for more than $5,00,000 to a German man planning to use them as the basis of a book, according to the memorabilia house that sold them.

Jeff Woolf, co-partner and auction director at Universal Rarities in Corona, California, said the diaries, from 1992 and 1994, were found a few years ago by a man cleaning out a house in Los Angeles where Smith stayed during a filming project.

He sold the diaries to a memorabilia collector who runs a shop on Hollywood boulevard, who later came forward with the diaries after the mysterious death of the former playmate in a Florida hotel on February 8 at the age of 39.

Woolf said the demand for Smith memorabilia had been overwhelming following her death so the price realised for these diaries was not that surprising. He added, “The gentleman who bought them required to be anonymous but I can tell you he is from Germany and has the intention of making a book out of them and doing some things in the publishing world.” — Reuters