W O R L D

Thai troops clash with protesters
Soldier dead, 18 wounded
Bangkok, April 28
Thai troops fired live rounds and rubber bullets at charging anti-government protesters in a chaotic clash that killed a soldier and wounded 18 people on a congested highway in Bangkok's suburbs on Wednesday.

Amitav Ghosh wins Dan David Prize 
Jerusalem, April 28
Noted Indian author Amitav Ghosh has won the prestigious Dan David Prize for his remarkable reworking of the great tradition of the western novel in transnational terms.

Bill outlawing caste gets royal assent in UK
London, April 28
In a move that is likely to raise hackles in India, the Equalities Bill that prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste has received Royal Assent and is now an act of British parliament. India's position at international fora has always been that caste is not an aspect of race. It had succeeded in keeping caste out of the resolution adopted at the 2001 Durban conference on racism organised by the United Nations.

Prosecutors object to Rana’s plea
Chicago, April 28
Federal prosecutors here have objected to terror suspect Tahawwur Rana's demand for specific details about his involvement in Indian and Danish terror plots, saying the government has already provided "more than sufficient" information to prepare his defence for trial.

Thai troops clash with protesters
Soldier dead, 18 wounded

Amitav Ghosh wins Dan David Prize 

Jerusalem, April 28
Noted Indian author Amitav Ghosh has won the prestigious Dan David Prize for his remarkable reworking of the great tradition of the western novel in transnational terms.

The $1 million award is a joint international enterprise endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University. It is annually awarded in three different fields - archaeology, performing arts and material science - in the three-dimension time framework of past, present and future.

Ghosh, 53, is the third Indian to win the award, joining an elite league comprising of chemist CNR Rao and musician Zubin Mehta. The Indian author will be sharing the prize in the present dimension with Dr Gordon E Moore, whose Moore's Law has become the guiding principle for the semiconductor industry to deliver ever-more-powerful chips while decreasing the cost of electronics.

“Ghosh's work provides a transnational understanding of the self seen as the intersection of the many identities produced by the collision of languages and cultures; displacement and exile - lives torn between India, Burma, England and elsewhere; families torn by the violence and psychological turmoil of colonial rule and post-colonial dispossession; a globe wracked by two world wars and their ancillary bloodshed,” the jury wrote in their award conferring remarks. The above-mentioned topics have been integral to his work right from his earliest novels, The Circle of Reason (1986) and The Shadow Lines (1990). — PTI 

Bill outlawing caste gets royal assent in UK

London, April 28
In a move that is likely to raise hackles in India, the Equalities Bill that prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste has received Royal Assent and is now an act of British parliament. India's position at international fora has always been that caste is not an aspect of race. It had succeeded in keeping caste out of the resolution adopted at the 2001 Durban conference on racism organised by the United Nations.

Now termed The Equalities Act 2010, the bill specifically mentions caste under the section Race. The bill had earlier been passed by both House of Lords and the House of Commons.

It says in Part 2, Chapter 1: "A Minister of the Crown may by order-(a) amend this section so as to provide for caste to be an aspect of race; (b) amend this Act so as to provide for an exception to a provision of this Act to apply, or not to apply, to caste or to apply, or not to apply, to caste in specified circumstances."

The main provisions of the Act will come into force in October 2010, according to the Government Equalities Office.

Lekh Raj Pal of the Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance (ACDA) termed the Royal Assent as a 'historical achievement' and said the Equalities Act 2010 "has no less importance than the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833." He said: "It brings hope of some justice to the victims of caste discrimination who have until now suffered in silence.

Over the last 60 years the Asian diaspora has settled in the UK bringing their baggage of the caste system with them." He added: "For many of the nearly two million Britons of Indian origin, caste continues to exert a powerful influence over their everyday lives. — PTI

Prosecutors object to Rana’s plea

Chicago, April 28
Federal prosecutors here have objected to terror suspect Tahawwur Rana's demand for specific details about his involvement in Indian and Danish terror plots, saying the government has already provided "more than sufficient" information to prepare his defence for trial.

In a 12-page response to Rana's pre-trial motions, the government said it has provided and will continue to provide "extensive discovery" relating to Rana's conduct, including his interactions with co-defendant David Headley and his own actions taken to assist Headley in carrying out conspiracies.

"Thus, based on the adequacy of the indictment and the extensive pretrial disclosures undertaken by the government, the defendant has more than sufficient information from which to conduct his own investigation and prepare his defence. — PTI