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Ujjal Dosanjh gets death threats from Sikh radicals
Amnesty slams UAE for
‘torturing’ Indians
B’desh lifts ban on Indian films
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Pakistan seeks access to Kasab
Taliban warns Pak media
World’s smallest 3D map
Man threatens to blow up US plane
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Ujjal Dosanjh gets death threats from Sikh radicals
Toronto, April 24 The Canadian Police is investigating threats to the Liberal MP and former British Columbia premier, who has vociferously opposed the Khalistan movement. Dosanjh has vowed to oppose “glorification of violence” and said he was not ready to go into hiding yet. “I’m concerned, not afraid,” Dosanjh, who is emerging as a secular Sikh leader, said. “The majority of the community is peace-loving, but there is a significant minority — and nobody should deny that — that actually perpetuates this hate and violence.” The Facebook page — Ujjal Dosanjh is a Sikh Traitor — includes several violent threats against the outspoken Dosanjh, who was severely beaten up in Vancouver in 1985 after speaking against religious violence. The page has had the creators’ names removed. However, some website users also pleaded for the violent threats to stop. Dosanjh was threatened in Facebook entries for denouncing what he labelled as “Sikh extremism”. “Glorification of violence... must be curbed by smart means jointly by both Canadian and Indian governments,” the Dosanjh said. “The number of people who have continued to perpetuate that kind of hatred has become smaller, but are more consistent and more sophisticated and using high-tech means to spread misinformation.” Dosanjh said the pro-Khalistan movement is all but dead in India, where Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims are learning to get along, and where a Sikh man is now Prime Minister. “But cells are active particularly in Canada and other countries with large Sikh populations,” he said. “It’s only in the diaspora where (the pro-Khalistan movement) exists,” Dosanjh said. “It was born in Canada much before 1984 and transported to India after 1984. That because we have allowed it, without challenging it. There is a significant minority here that is obsessively focused on it and it’s passing down generations, which is something reflected in the Facebook group,” he said.
— PTI
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Amnesty slams UAE for
‘torturing’ Indians
Abu Dhabi, April 24 The detainees were found guilty last month over the murder in the emirate of Sharjah and were sentenced to death. “This is a mockery of justice. These 17 men have been tortured, forced to confess and sentenced to death based on a faked video,” Amnesty’s deputy director for Middle East and North Africa Hassiba Hadj Sharaoui said. The rights group has asked the UAE authorities to probe the allegations of torture and abuse and ensure the 17 men receive a fair trial on appeal. Citing evidence provided by Indian rights group Lawyers For Human Rights International (LFHRI), the Amnesty International said: “The 17 men were beaten with clubs, given electric shocks, deprived of sleep and forced to stand on one leg for prolonged periods.” The group also condemned UAE officials for notifying the prisoners about their death sentences 16 days after the verdict was issued. The accused have lodged an appeal and which is due to be heard on May 19. The authorities in the UAE have made no comment about the allegations.
— IANS
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B’desh lifts ban on Indian films
Dhaka, April 24 Films produced by Bollywood have been banned from cinemas in Bangladesh since the country’s independence in 1972 in a bid to protect the local movie industry. “We lifted the ban to boost the cinema industry,” said Bangladesh Commerce Minister Faruk Khan. Cinema hall owners, who have been clamouring to be allowed to show Indian films, said they expected to start showing Indian films shortly. Kazi Firoz Rashid, president of Bangladesh Cinema Halls Owners Association, said the government’s decision was “the best thing to have happened” to the country’s cinemas. The number of cinema theatres has slid to 600 in 2010 from 1,600 in 2000 in the country with Bangladeshi films and soft-porn English-language films shown in movie houses failing to draw viewers. “Film enthusiasts can easily see good Indian films on cable television so why should we stop Indian films being screened in our cinemas?” Rashid said. “By contrast, the standards, scripts and production of Bangladeshi films are so stale and poor they have trouble winning hearts or making enough money,” he said. Pirated DVD copies of Bollywood movies circulate widely in Bangladesh in the absence of them being shown in cinemas and the films are hugely popular. The lifting of the ban comes amid warming relations between India and Bangladesh after ties worsened between the neighbours when an Islamist-allied government was in power in Dhaka from 2001 to 2006. “The new order scraps the ban and allows screening of Indian and other South Asian films in local cinemas provided they have English subtitles,” the government’s Film Censor Board chief Surat Kumar Sarker said. But not everyone supports the move. “Indian films will completely destroy our film industry and our culture. At least 25,000 people will be jobless,” said Masum Parvez Rubel, a leading star and a co-coordinator of a front against Indian films. — AFP
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Pakistan seeks access to Kasab Islamabad, April 24 Malik raised the issue during a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal. Indian High Commission spokesman Siddharth Zutshi confirmed the meeting but said he was not aware of the details of the discussions between Malik and Sabharwal. Official sources said Malik told the Indian envoy that Pakistani prosecutors would need to have access to Kasab once he was declared a “proclaimed offender” or fugitive by the country’s courts, as then he would become part of the trial being conducted by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court. Malik was quoted by the sources as saying that Pakistan wanted India to grant access to Kasab once his trial by a special court in Mumbai was completed. The special court in Mumbai is scheduled to deliver its verdict against Kasab and two Indians for their alleged role in the Mumbai attacks on May 3. — PTI
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Islamabad, April 24 Pakistani Taliban ‘spokesman’ Muhammad Umar issued the warning through an e-mail sent to journalists in Peshawar hours after militants attacked an Army convoy in North Waziristan tribal region, killing seven soldiers and injuring 16 others yesterday. Umar, who described himself as “a spokesman for the Taliban Media Centre” in North Waziristan, said: “Why is the media only conveying the Army’s point of view? Is this proof that the media is also working as an ally for the government and the Army? Or they are being forced to hide the truth?” “This e-mail should be considered a last warning for the media of Pakistan. If the media doesn’t stop working as an ally of the government and the Army, the Taliban would have to treat the media as they want to be treated,” he said. Umar said the media could either be with “the terrorists or the truth.” — PTI
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Washington, April 24 A team at computer giant IBM accomplished this through a new, breakthrough technique which uses a tiny, silicon tip with a sharp apex - 1,00,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil - to create patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometre at greatly reduced cost and complexity. According to the scientists, this patterning technique opens new prospects for developing nanosised objects in fields such as electronics, future chip technology, medicine, life sciences, and optoelectronics. The complete 3D map of the world measuring only 22 by 11 micrometre was “written” on a polymer. At this size, 1,000 world maps could fit on a grain of salt. It is composed of 5,00,000 pixels, each measuring 20 nm2, and was created in only 2 minutes and 23 seconds, the ‘Science and Advanced Materials’ journal reported. The core component of the new technique, which was developed by a team of IBM scientists, is a tiny, very sharp silicon tip measuring 500 nanometre in length and only a few nanometre at its apex. “Advances in nanotechnology are intimately linked to the existence of high-quality methods and tools for producing nanoscale patterns and objects on surfaces,” said physicist Dr Armin Knoll of IBM Research in Zurich. — PTI
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Man threatens to blow up US plane
Los Angeles, April 24 Stanley Dwayne Sheffield, 46, was taken into custody on Friday for allegedly interfering with crew members on a flight from Los Angeles to Tampa, Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said. Sheffield was subdued by crew members and fellow passengers after the threat. The incident prompted the Delta flight 2148 to change its route to Albuquerque in New Mexico, FBI supervisory special agent Darrin Jones was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
— IANS
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No decorative lights, Shoaib’s family told Prince Philips injured House with edible walls Quake jolts Indonesia 
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Toronto, April 24
