20 year old Beenish Tariq from Flushing, NY just hit the jackpot. From the New York Lottery website:

“I held onto the ticket for so long because I knew I wanted to get everything in order before I claimed it,” said Tariq, a finance major. “I knew right away that I would share with my family; I just didnÂ’t know how to split up $5,000,000.”

Tariq, who plans to graduate in May of 2005, said she will re-invest at least part of her prize in her continued education. “Now IÂ’ll be able to go on to get my Masters and pay for my sisterÂ’s tuition too; sheÂ’ll be a freshman next year.”

Damn, I just realized what a horrible person I am because if I had won $5 million I would have funded an insurgency on some small island nation in order to put myself in charge, instead of sharing it with my family. Beenish if you are reading this, I am VERY single.

Not much coming out of the Ashcroft run Justice Department has given me much satisfaction of late, but this announcement last week certainly deserves praise. From the Times Ledger:

The Justice Department last week filed a lawsuit against the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York City Transit Authority, charging them with discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs and other employees whose religions require them to wear head coverings.

The complaint alleges that the transportation agencies engaged in discriminatory practices by enforcing uniform policies that do not accommodate certain employees’ religious practices, according to a Department of Justice press release.

“Public employees should not have to sacrifice their religious beliefs to enjoy the same benefits of employment as their co-workers,” said R. Alexander Acosta, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. “While public employers have the authority to set reasonable dress standards, they cannot selectively apply them at the cost of civil rights.”

What were the allegations exactly?

According to the Department of Justice, the MTA and the Transit Authority began enforcing uniform policies against employees who wear turbans or head scarves in early 2002. Some employees were transferred to yard or depot jobs where they would not have contact with the public. These jobs provide diminished seniority benefits and fewer overtime opportunities. Prior to the uniform policies, Muslim and Sikh employees had been wearing head coverings without incident.

DesiTalk-NewsIndia Times provides further details as well.

I don’t know, because I don’t have a subscription to The Economist. Their online edition does however post the first paragraph of what must be a good read about the recent accusation that Indian scientists were passing nuke information on to Iran. The Economist usually gives more behind the scenes coverage than most of the press.

MIGHT Iran secretly have succeeded in winning the co-operation of both of those arch nuclear rivals, India and Pakistan? The father of Pakistan’s bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted earlier this year that he sold uranium enrichment secrets to Iran, Libya (which says it got a bomb design thrown in) and North Korea. Now the United States has fingered two senior Indian scientists…

What kind of help did India provide, and how significant is its impact? The Asia Times does give us some insight into the story:

The State Department did not detail the specific offenses by the two scientists, but officials said it involved alleged assistance to Iran’s nuclear program during the first half of 2003. Analyst Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Washington-based Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center, was quoted by news agencies as having speculated that the sanctions may relate to India’s breakthrough development of an economic way to produce tritium, a radioactive isotope used in nuclear bombs. The US and other Western countries accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear energy program as a cover to develop atomic weapons, a charge Tehran vehemently denies.

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The funeral of al-Qaeda suspect Amjad Farooqi has taken place overnight at a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

….Farooqi … [claimed that he] had been a personal guard to Osama Bin Laden and had recruited up to 400 men from his own district to fight a jihad, or holy war…. Farooqi had been wanted in connection with two assassination attempts on President Musharraf last December. Farooqi was also indicted for involvement in the kidnapping in 2002 and subsequent beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl [BBC]

Military junkies may have heard about a recent training exercise b/t a US Air Force fighter wing against the Indian Air Force. The Americans apparently got their buts whipped.

One of my favorite military blogs – Strategypage.com – has more of the backstory on what really went on (quoted in full here cuz Strategypage’s permalinks don’t work) –

October 6, 2004: More details have come out about the “losing” performance of U.S. F-15Cs (from the Alaska-based 3rd Wing) against India’s air force in the Cope India air-to-air combat exercise earlier this year. The Air Force and some members of Congress have used the “failure” to justify the need for new F/A-22 and F-35 fighters. Some are calling the results a demonstrated weakening of American air combat capabilities

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Well not yet. But it could become one if a proposed Hindu temple is erected there. That was at least one of the reasons residents tossed around before San Bernardino County protested vehemently against construction. From KTLA.com:

It was proposed as the largest Hindu temple and cultural center in Southern California, an ornate structure with the kind of religious status held by the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

But when a nonprofit Hindu organization selected Chino Hills farmland for the project, residents in this wealthy bedroom community of San Bernardino County protested vehemently, saying it would generate too much traffic, ruin the city’s rural atmosphere and become an unwanted regional attraction.

Objections also surfaced from opponents who said the project would turn Chino Hills into a “Third World city” and a haven for terrorists. One petition to stop the project said the temple would play a role in “changing the city’s demographics forever.”

Gee, I wonder if the proposed building of a large church would have caused such a reaction as well. That, I bet would have been touted as being good for the local economy. The chairman of the city’s Planning Commission, supported the Hindu project, calling it an asset to the city. “It’s a beautiful building with wonderful landscaping and water features,” he said. Still, many folks don’t like the idea.

Some of the opponents also seemed worried that the temple would draw Hindus to live in the city. “Unless you want the current demographics to look a bit like New Delhi, don’t do this,” said an e-mail dated Aug. 9, 2003. Another letter suggested Muslim extremists might blend in among Hindu worshipers, making the temple a “hiding place for terror.”

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The Chicago tribune reports on the addition of a Gandhi statue to the Chicago suburb of Skokie (where this blogger was born). In addition to simply discussing the statue they also discuss the demographics of the suburb:

Once an icon of the Jewish community, Skokie since the 1980s has become something of a north-suburban United Nations, where 80 languages are spoken in the homes of its public school students. In May, the annual Festival of Cultures drew an estimated 25,000 visitors.

And three years after Kamaria and a citizens group proposed the idea, Skokie again celebrated its rich cultural diversity by dedicating an 8-foot-tall statue of Gandhi on Saturday, the 135th anniversary of his birth.

Of course the other ethnic communities there want statues of their heroes as well:

So far, at least three groups–representing Skokie’s Korean, Filipino and Swedish ethnic communities–are toying with the idea.

“Who knows? Maybe we could find a great figure of sports,” said Jin Lee, director of the Keumsil Cultural Society, which promotes Korean-American culture. “Or [it might be] best to have a scholarly figure who did great deeds for the country.”

Might this great gesture honoring Gandhi eventually stir up a controversy in the community? At least some local politicians think so:

Michael Gelder warned fellow members on the Skokie board of trustees to consider “the quagmire we might be creating for ourselves.”

Although it might be easy for Skokie residents to agree on the worthiness of someone like Gandhi, Gelder said recently, “it strikes me that there’s very little consensus among the various ethnic groups or nationalities about [what constitutes] a great leader.”

“… One person’s liberator is another’s terrorist,” Gelder said.

I really loathe how people now so casually throw the “T-word” into every situation.

Newsweek details the growing trend of going abroad for medical care, in this case to high-tech hospitals in India:

The trend is driven in part by long waiting lists and high costs in countries like Britain and Canada. Like software outsourcing firms, Indian hospitals offer quality at Third World prices. The number of foreign patients seeking treatment in India—now 100,000—is growing by 12 percent to 15 percent a year, says the Indian Healthcare Federation.

I have heard of people increasingly combining their vacations with some type of medical procedure as well (often times cosmetic).

The private sector already sees medical tourism as an industry with tremendous potential for growth.

Travel agents, tour operators and hotels are vying to make their presence felt.

And by next year, the Indian medical industry will be ready to move into outsourcing to relieve overburdened medical institutions in Western countries, which are facing severe staff shortages.