The first step to solving a problem is admitting you’ve got one –
`Proper sanitation will boost Indian tourism` There is a need for a hygienic environment with a well-regulated sanitisation mechanism to boost the Indian tourism industry as it has good prospects even in the face of stiff competition from neighbouring countries like Thailand and Malaysia.
It seems that fed-up tourism officials are raising a Sepia Mutiny of a different sort. Continue reading
First the Capitol building, now Bangalore? Taking a page from 9/11, Kashmiri militants may be targeting a powerhouse economic sector:
Documents seized from three members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist group killed in an encounter with police on Saturday revealed that they planned to carry out suicide attacks on software companies in Bangalore… Most of the technology companies in the city have already set up disaster recovery plans and special disaster recovery sites that could be used in the event of a terrorist attack… [ComputerWorld]There are fears that Bangalore may have become a safe haven for Naxalites, the LTTE and also terrorist organisations and that the high-profile IT companies are the soft targets. [NDTV]
A 20-member team armed with automatic weapons… was rushed to the spot. They also took along the newly acquired bullet proof Rakshak jeep which can fire teargas shells from within… One such company whose name has been found in a diary seized from the militants is Polaris. Shams apparently had visited the Polaris office last year to prepare a map of the office. [ToI]
There’s no Polaris office listed in Bangalore, so take that with the usual Times of India helping of salt.
I gotta say, it’s the height of stupidity to attack a city that quarters defense contractors. You’d only make it personal. Do ya think the next generation of weaponry would specifically be designed to jam a warhead right up their crevices? Chakde phatte, Dr. Strangelove.
With every prison blown to dust,
My enemies walk free… [Sting]
Mukhtaran Bibi’s rapists, who received approval to gang-rape from a village panchayat, were set free by judges in Multan today. In some ways this outcome is hard to believe, in other ways all too easy:
The victim of Pakistan’s most notorious rape case wept bitterly after a court in the southern city of Multan overturned the verdict against three of the four alleged rapists and two tribal elders, and quashed the death sentence against the sixth… five of the men prepared to walk free…… she has maintained the 24-hour police guard at the gate of her remote farmhouse after several death threats. She believed the threats stemmed from her refusal to entertain repeated clemency pleas from the Mastoi, who still live just 100 metres away…
… the panchayat system… has no legal standing but is still prevalent in many rural towns. Last week elders in another Punjabi village ordered that a two-year-old girl be married to a man 33 years her senior. The betrothal was in compensation for an adulterous affair committed by her uncle. [Guardian]
The wisdom of the elders indeed. Previous post here.
Update: In the herky-jerky, stop-start fashion of a desi criminal justice system, the rapists have been re-arrested (thanks, SD).
SM tipster Vipur
Andleigh (by the way, a great stand-up comedian) turns us
on to a report in the San
Jose Mercury News about the arrest of kabaddi pro — yes, you read that right,
kabaddi pro — Kuljeet Singh:
Coming home after a grueling winter season of Kabaddi matches in East India, Kuljeet Singh arrived at San Francisco International Airport two weeks ago with a suitcase full of trophies, neatly folded designer jeans and a stash of syringes and steroids in his shoes.
He got as far as customs.
Singh obviously isn’t the sharpest raider on the kabaddi circle. Everybody knows that the best way to smuggle illegal drugs into the country is by stuffing them up your ass, or ingesting a sealed bag of them. Hiding them in your shoes is so 1998.
Bollywood
actress Preity Zinta writes about a pair of year-end brushes with death in a
column for BBC
News. Her first experience came during a concert
and dance show entitled “Temptation 2004” in Colombo, Sri Lanka:
I am waiting in the left wing for my finale. The music is pulsing through the audience, and the pyrotechnics are lighting up the inky black night.
Suddenly I see a man in the front row flying to his left. Then I see Shah Rukh looking to his right and left. Then I see the dancers disappear.
What is happening?
I stepped on the stage and leaned over. I saw a pool of blood in the front rows. The security men grab us from behind and ask us to leave.
A bomb has exploded in the front rows – two people are dead, more than a dozen injured. The concert has come to a bloody end.
Since we have been having a rather contentious debate about the state of poverty in Calcutta, and whether those Kids with Cameras have been exploited, I found it relevant to throw in this little bit of celebrity gossip. Zana Briski isn’t the only woman looking out for Calcutta’s children. From Hollywood.com:
Penelope Cruz plans to follow in Angelina Jolie’s footsteps by adopting an orphan baby.
The 30-year-old Spanish beauty wants to mother one of India’s homeless children after becoming deeply attached to the country following her work with Mother Teresa’s missionaries in Calcutta four years ago.
Jolie adopted baby Maddox after a visit to a Cambodian orphanage in 2001 and plans to welcome more children into her family.
Cruz says, “I love babies. I’ve wanted to be a mother since I was a little girl.
“I’ve been to India a few times and seen a level of misery I’d only seen on the news.
Imagine this. You’re 22 & living back in da homeland. You were supposed to get married 4 yrs ago but your bride walked off on you for drinking too much. Tarnished for life, there seems to be no hope for your sexual frustration. Solution? Well, I suppose here’s one —
AHMEDABAD: In a shocking incident, a 22-year-old youth of Ahmedabad district castrated himself earlier this week to do away with the root cause of his sexual frustration! Bachu Mafabhai, a resident of Sadatpura in Detroj town, chopped off his penis with a sharp blade on Tuesday morning, which according to his own confession, was to get rid himself of the root cause of his unfulfilled sexual desires that were making life miserable for him. “I could not sleep for nights on end, I would just keep tossing and turning in bed,” Bachu, who had a broken wedding engagement four years ago, told TNN.
Good god almighty.
Local doctors managed to restore the spring in his step, as it were, and have an suggestion for our frustrated hero –
“…This fellow could have resorted to masturbation…” Dr Malodiya said.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) travelled to India this week and met with
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss a wide range of issues integral to U.S.-India
ties. From The Times of India:
Clinton, who was accompanied by US Ambassador David Mulford, met the Prime Minister at his 7, Race Course Road residence.
“It was a nice meeting and both enjoyed it,” said an aide to the Prime Minister.
“They discussed healthcare, education, India-US relations and South Asia. It was a wide-ranging discussion,” the aide said.
Clinton also held talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi:
During her an hour-long one-to-one meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the latter’s 10 Janpath residence, Clinton discussed at length about the socio-economic issues of both countries.
“Both the leaders assessed the growth of India-US ties from Clinton’s time and how far it progressed.
“They have also reviewed the socio-economic situation prevailing in the country,” sources said.
She rounded out her trip with an appearance at the India Today Conclave, where
she shared a table with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
Overall, the trip appeared to be a success, and Clinton resisted the urge to make any culturally insensitive remarks. You’ll recall that at a fundraiser in January of last year, she introduced a quote from Mohandas Gandhi by saying, “He ran a gas station down in St. Louis.” Following uproar from the Indian community, Clinton apologized, and said her remarks were “a lame attempt at humor.” Indians observed this time that Clinton was making a lame attempt to hide her ambition for the White House.
The Times of India: Hillary Clinton meets Manmohan, Sonia
Abilass Jeyarajah, a four-month-old Sri Lankan boy who was separated from
his parents by December’s tsunami, will travel to the U.S. on Sunday as
a guest of a morning news show.
First known to the world as “Baby 81,” Abilass was recently reunited with his birth parents after DNA tests confirmed their paternity. He was claimed by as many as eight other couples. From Reuters:
“Abilass is taking us to America,” his father Murugupillai told Reuters on Thursday on his way to obtain passports for the trip.
The excited father said he had never been out of the country and the baby had brought him and his wife Jenita luck. They are due to fly out on Sunday courtesy of an American television network, reportedly ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
There’s no word yet on who will conduct the interview, but co-hosts Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer shouldn’t have any trouble with precocious Abilass. They’ve both interviewed the president, so they have plenty of experience with someone who doesn’t read newspapers, has trouble swallowing food, and is largely incoherent.
ABC’s “Good Morning America” airs on weekday mornings at 7 a.m., and the interview is slated for Wednesday, March 2.
Reuters/Yahoo!: Tsunami baby goes to America
Slate Magazine carries what I am sure will one day be seen as THE seminal article, on the comparison between Rappers and Bloggers. Oh yes my friends, it turns out we are cut of the same mold:
P. Diddy gargles Cristal as his yacht sails from San Tropez to Ibiza. Atrios stares at his computer screen and ponders the effect of “increased central bank diversification out of dollar holdings.” Nelly takes in the NBA All-Star Game from the first row while gabbing on a cell phone made out of a giant shoe. InstaPundit digests the latest developments in the Dartmouth board of trustees race and takes note of an update to C-SPAN’s early morning schedule. What, do I need to draw you a Venn diagram? Rappers and bloggers they’re the same!
Those of you obsessed with external appearances may think I’m kidding. What, you ask, could those champagne-swilling, “bitch”-shouting rappers have in common with those Jolt-pounding, “read the whole thing”-writing bloggers?
For starters, both groups share a love of loose-fitting, pajama-style apparel. Still not satisfied? Bloggers and rappers are equally obsessed with social networking. Every rapper rolls with his entourage; every blogger rolls with his blog roll. Women can’t win an audience in either profession without raunching it up like Lil’ Kim or Wonkette.
Oooooh. I think despite the fact that it is only February, this could be the article of the year!