<b>George's letter to Kalam, seeks govt sack on corruption issue</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->On a day when CBI filed an FIR against him in connection with alleged irregularities in a defence deal, former Defence Minister George Fernandes on Tuesday, shot off a letter to President APJ Abdul Kalam demanding dismissal of UPA government on the issue of alleged corruption citing an international anti-graft watchdog report.
<b>Referring to the report by Transparency International which rates India as the worst performer on the Bribe Payer's Index (BPI), Fernandes in his letter said this means that there is violation of the law and the Constitution by those who are holding office in the government.</b>

"There cannot be anything more demeaning for our country than being a nation that has been declared as the number one corrupt nation in the world," he said.

<b>"Please dismiss this government and order elections to relieve the country from the humility that we are presently subjected to by the corrupt establishment of the government,"</b> Fernandes said.

The BPI is based on propensities of companies from the world's 30 leading exporting countries in bribing abroad. India's has been ranked at the 30th position in BPI with a score of 4.62.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061009/wl_n...orth_dc_25

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->SEOUL (Reuters) -
North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test on Monday, North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

"Our science research section has safely and successfully conducted an underground nuclear test on October 9," it said.

It added that there was no leak or danger from the test.

South Korea's presidential Blue House said a tremor had been detected in North Korea on Monday.

It said South Korea's Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources had detected a tremor of a magnitude 3.58 to 3.7 at 0135 GMT.

Officials in neighboring Japan and China had no immediate comment on the reports.

North Korea announced last week it would test a nuclear device saying its hand was forced by what it called U.S. threats of nuclear war and economic sanctions. But it said it would not be the first to use a nuclear weapon. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<b>Assam takes sovereignty 'plebiscite' </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New Delhi: Amid the staccato of gunshots and a now-on, now-off peace process, the north-eastern state of Assam is going into a plebiscite on the question of its sovereignty -- the central demand of banned militant outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).

While the plebiscite is being held under the aegis of an NGO as an entirely private initiative, yet the move is likely to put in perspective an issue that has held the state hostage to militancy for close to three decades now.

Interestingly, last fortnight the ULFA itself had called for a debate in the public domain on the issue of Assam's independence and asked the common man's response on the issue

Now, <b>the NGO -- called Assam Public Works (APW) </b>-- has taken up the cudgels in an effort to make a meat and bones of the issue. Beginning Friday, the organisation is going to conduct this plebiscite over a period of one-and-a-half month.

"Lot of people claim the Assamese want independence from the Indian state, but there is no verifiable basis for this. We want to check out what do the Assamese people think. That's the objective behind this initiative," APW director Abhijit Sharma told ibnlive.com over phone.
<b>The organisation has deployed some 5,000 youths to conduct the plebiscite</b>, Sharma said. During this period, these youths will go door to door collecting public votes on two questions.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

DUH !!!!!!

http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/oct/05ai....&file=.htm

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Justice John Major, who's heading the Air India Inquiry, bearings for which are now in progress in Ottawa, is wondering whether racism may have played some part in the Air India tragedy.

It's 'hard not to share' an impression held by some victims' families that 'if it had been an Air Canada plane and Anglo-Saxons (on board), things would have been different,' he observed on October 4 during an exchange with Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario, who was commissioned by former Liberal Government to write a report on Air India tragedy in 2005. In his report he suggested there should be a 'focussed, policy-based inquiry' and he was of the opinion that Canadians deserve to know more about how authorities assessed the terrorism threat and handled their investigation of the crime.'

Major raised the question of racism, observing whether "...racism, conscious or unconscious, may have played a role in public and government reaction to the Air India bombing on June 23, 1985."

Even though Rae didn't make any mention of racism, either in his report or in his statement before the Commission, he did notice some 'culturally driven issues' like translation of surveillance tapes of the Sikh suspects from Punjabi to English. There were not enough people capable of doing the translation. "That's not racism... but it certainly leads to ineffective surveillance," Rae said. "It means that you can't really understand what's going on, on a snap basis."

In his statement before the Commission, Rae emphasised that "...the (unaccompanied bag from Vancouver to Toronto to New Delhi) shouldn't have been allowed on Air India plane Kanishka without a passenger and that the "...bag should never have gone past the screening system without being detected in Toronto. It's one of those tragic situations where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong and the consequences were simply disastrous for the people who were on board that flight."

Most family members have attributed racism as the factor for the Canadian government to wait 20 years before accepting Air India bombing and murdering of 329 innocent people as the Canadian tragedy, for them to take 21 years to finally appoint the public inquiry, and their unwillingness for years to meet victims families.

During the last 10 days, since the hearings commenced in Ottawa before Judge Major, dozens of family members have accused the government of racism with many of them arguing that had it been an Air Canada plane with White Canadians on board, Ottawa's reaction to the tragedy would have been different.

"The government totally neglected us," said Dr Padmini Turlapati in her testimony. She lost both her sons. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sent condolences to Rajiv Gandhi" and that was despite the fact 80 percent of passengers on board flight 182 were Indo-Canadians.

Even at Cork (Ireland) soon after the tragedy as family members started scrambling, "there was no one from the Canadian embassy there,' she pointed out.

According to various reports, the Indian Civil Service "...were informed of a possible threat and took security measures to safeguard airports, bus stations, trains, etc." in India (and) the Canadian government was informed" but with what results, Tuirlapati asked.  "At each step the system has failed us."

"The Canadian government was nowhere to be seen in Ireland," stated Lorna Kelly who lost her mother Barsa Kelly.

The Air India crime, the deliberate murder of 329 people, happened due to "...the glaring incompetence of Canadian government bodies and law enforcement" and then to add to the miseries of the families there was "ineffectual investigation and trial, the persona non-grata status that the families of the victims have had to endure have all served to punch a hole through our existence," she said.

This act of terrorism "...was planned and allowed to be executed in Canada," Kelly told Judge Major.

Bob Rae told the Commission of Inquiry that security measures in Canada would be 'different today' than what they were during June 1985.  He told Judge Major his inquiry should still find out if everything that should be done has in fact been done to upgrade the system over the last 20 years.

Judge Major will conclude hearings by May 2007 and submit his report in September.  He has no authority to reopen cases against Ajaib Singh Bagri or Ripudaman Singh Malik, as both these suspects were acquitted of all charges by British Columbia Judge Ian Josephson.

His mandate is to concentrate on security matters, on issues of anti-terrorism, transfer of money from Canada to other countries for terrorist activities, etc.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Established 1981
London School of Islamics
An Educational Trust
63 Margery Park Road London E7 9LD
Email: info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
Tel/Fax: 0208 555 2733 / 07817 112 667

An Open Letter to the British Home Secretary
The home secretary has braved a critical audience to call on Muslim parents to do more in the battle against terrorism. He asked to look for the “tell-tale signs” in their children and intervene if they suspect they are being influenced by extremists. Islam was being perverted by “fanatics” exploiting young people. These fanatics are looking to groom and brainwash children for suicide bombing. When he was the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, he never urged parents to monitor their children. Muslim parents shall be treated differently if their children show extreme tendencies compared to others of different faiths who may also harbour extreme tendencies.

Muslim parents have been worried about their children indulging in anti-social behavior, binge drinking, drug addiction, sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies and other social evils. Muslim children suffer bullying and racism in schools and outside the schools. Majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades. Muslim parents would like their children to learn Standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. Majority of Muslim youths are unemployed and even 25% of Muslim graduates are without full-time employment. Those who are lucky to be employed find bullying, discrimination and few prospects for promotion to higher positions. The number of Muslim youths in prison and mental hospitals is on the increase. The number of drug addicts is on the increase. Hundreds of overseas Muslim doctors are unemployed. Terrorism is not the issue for the Muslims. It is the creation of the West.

Muslim children are human beings with social, emotional and spiritual needs and demands. They are not just economics for the economic prosperity of the British society. They are cut off from their cultural roots and are unable to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. British schooling dislocates Muslim pupils from their cultural heritage. By the age of 16 “they are not ours, neither are they theirs”. Majority of Muslim parents wanted access to an” environment where their children can grow up with an understanding of Islam, Arabic, Urdu and other community languages. The sound knowledge of ones language would appear to help – and not hinder the acquisition of a second language and bilingual children may even have slight cognitive advantages. In British schooling, priority is given to suppress the other languages in favour of English. In fact, other languages should be fostered in addition to English.

Mastery of English language is not enough for the Muslim children. If they find that they are not welcome in a country, it is difficult to find motivation for integration and education. In the past Muslims were victim of Paki-bashing in all walks of life. The British Establishment did nothing to tackle that problem and issue. Now the young Muslim generation, well versed in English is victim of terrorism by the British Establishment and thousands of Muslim youths have been searched and arrested and are behind the bar without any charges and that make them more alienated from the British society.
Iftikhar Ahmad

Those who say Non-vegetarianism is growing - Wake Up!

<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<span style='color:red'>Americans are - slowly - turning vegetarian: Forbes</span>

Vegetarian food sales doubled since 1998, hitting $1.6 billion in 2003. The market is forecast to grow another 61 percent by 2008, according to Mintel, a global market research firm. That growth is giving an extra kick to the expanding business of organic produce and natural foods companies, and forcing mainstream food producers to scramble for a way to love veggies.

What's in the way of faster change? Meat. A recent poll found 81 percent of the consumers surveyed said "a healthy diet should include meat."

Chalk it up to U.S. consumers being a nutritional nightmare when it comes to diet and lifestyle. Studies show more than one-third of the U.S. population is trying to reduce the amount of meat in their diet. They are occasionally consuming vegetarian foods or drinks, citing health concerns like increased risk of stroke, high blood pressure and cancer as the reason for the shift. Nearly 65 percent of adults and 15 percent of children ages six to 19 are deemed overweight.

A 2001 study by the soy industry-supported United Soybean Board found that 72 percent of consumers reported having changed their eating habits because of health concerns. But many find making diet changes challenging, and they remain lukewarm about vegetarianism, with only a small percentage regularly eating vegetarian foods.

Part of the problem: myths about the dangers of a vegetarian diet. Some 66 percent said they agreed with the inaccurate statement, "vegetarian diets require added supplements," Mintel reported.

Still, market research shows that the number of consumers who lean toward some sort of <span style='color:red'>vegetarianism is increasing across all age groups. The Vegetarian Resource Group estimates that 2.8 percent of adult Americans consider themselves vegetarian</span>, up from 2.3 percent in a 2000 survey. Another 6 percent to 10 percent of the population said it was "almost vegetarian" and another 20 percent to 25 percent are "vegetarian inclined," or intentionally reducing meat in their diet, according to VRG. Predictably, women have a higher interest than men in consuming vegetarian foods and drinks, according to the Mintel survey.

The exhaustive Mintel report defined vegetarian foods as those items that directly replace animal or meat-related products, such as soy milk and textured vegetable protein.

Major companies like Kraft Foods, Kellogg, General Mills, ConAgra Foods and Dean Foods, which once resisted the trend toward meat substitutes, are now taking the shift in American diets seriously. Most have either bought natural and vegetarian food companies, or have begun offering their own lines of meat substitutes.

Kellogg purchased Worthington Foods in 1999, adding the fast-growing Morningstar Farms brand. Kraft owns Boca Foods of Madison, Wis., and Dean Foods acquired popular soy milk producer White Wave in 2002.

New product flavors, packaging and wider distribution moved vegetarian foods out of the traditional health-food specialty store and into the mass-market channel. This shift, along with a steady barrage of medical studies and changes in U.S. government labeling requirements, has led to greater consumption, lower prices and further acceptance of vegetarian foods.

Soy protein, for example, has been shown to lower cholesterol, and food companies have latched on to this fact, claiming soy reduces the risk of coronary heart disease. Not surprisingly, soy and dairy milk alternatives showed the strongest growth of vegetarian foods from 2001 to 2003, increasing 68 percent to an estimated $301 million in 2003, according to Mintel. By far the largest segment is frozen meat substitutes accounting for 73 percent of vegetarian foods sales.

<span style='color:red'>Interest in vegetarianism is highest among the youngest age groups (ages 25 to 34)</span>, according to Mintel. But their enthusiasm tends to decline over time for a number of reasons, including life-stage changes such as marriage, birth of children and new careers. As vegetarians age, they tend to regain interest in low-meat diets as a move toward healthier living.

The number of baby boomers ages 45 to 64 should increase nearly 30 percent between 2003 and 2008, helping fuel sales of meat and dairy substitutes. The baby boomer segment is showing an unprecedented interest in "food as medicine" products, including those that provide them with short- and long-term health benefits, according to research published in the 2001 HealthFocus Trend Report. The group also has tremendous spending power — $1.6 trillion — and owns 50 percent of all discretionary income.

© 2006 Forbes.com
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6008949/

Group,

Can people shed light on the subject?

-Digvijay

We all aware that Local Body Elections are due in Tamil Nadu. I have seen in my experiences that Local Bodies formed ( Ward Members and Municipal Chairmans) are mostly the people who are all from economically challenged society but who wanted to do something for the society. 100 out of 80 people who sworn as a Ward Member or Chairman are coming from families who doesn't even have enough things for their survival. Most of these people are self-depenendent and non-party winners.

But, I am wondering if I could do something for these people by educating them about what they really can achieve in the polictical environment. They should be knowing about their roles and responsibilities in the constitution.

Is anybody out here can help me in providing following informations :-

1. Any websites or books that describes about their roles and responsibilty.
2. Any websites or books that describes about how a normal people can use these government servents in proper way.
3. Any new ammendments related to this issue
and many more ..

Thanks,
Vadivel Kumar

I am eagerly looking for this information.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/27ark.htm

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In India, the first sentinel surveillance of hijras at Mumbai's Sion Hospital in 2005 gave a horrendous 49.5 per cent prevalence, which means one out of every two hijras will be dying if we don't get them medication soon.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Geneva'>Kaun Banega Next Prez
With Prez Kalam having decided very logically that he is not in the race for election for next Prez, the field is open to guess for probable candidates.

First of all, looking at the history of past Prez, Dr. Radha Krishnan and Prez stand out as they come from different backgrounds. With coalition politics having made almost permanent abode in New Delhi, the post of Prez has become all the more important.

At this time, Dr. Karan Singh seems to be eyeing for the post. He is a versatile person apart from being career politician.

Though I don't know Amitabh Bachchan is interested or not, I will suggest his name too. He stands tall among Indians to be 1st citizen of India.

My 3rd guess is that even Manmohan Singh may be candidate.

It's high time that public starts taking interest in this important post much ahead of time otherwise you may have to accept the candidate thrown up by these politicians.</span></span>