Aussie panel to address Indian concerns - India

India is looking to a top panel set up by Australia to address the concerns of Indian students, who have been targets of spate of attacks there, the External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Saturday.
"The high-level Group must have been now formed and I will have to get updated from our High Commission as to what happened at the first meeting of the Group which is suppose to address the concern of Indian students in Australia," Krishna told PTI in an interview. He said "We will have to give it a try, how that works." The Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith had assured Krishna here on Wednesday that a high-level working group would be set up by the federal government and the government of Victoria state to study the spate of attacks on Indians in that country.
Asked to comment on the outcome of the one-day London conference on Afghanistan, Krishna said "the conference, attended by over 60 Foreign Ministers, has served a very useful purpose for international community to understand various aspects involved with reference to Afghanistan". "I think, preparatory to this conference, all countries who were invited, have tried to formulate their own positions vs-a-vs the emerging trends in Afghanistan," he said.
Krishna said the british prime minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband "set the tone by going public in conveying to all those who mattered that India’s participation was necessary because the entire neighborhood is going to be affected by whatever happens in Afghanistan". "I presume the Prime Minister going public is to share great concern equally with India about fighting the terror of al-Qaeda and Taliban," he said. "India feels the conference has provided us a platform," the Foreign Minister underlined.  

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Municipality bypolls: UDF wins all three seats - Kottayam

29.01.2010 - UDF retained all three wards for which elections were held. The winners are K.G. Sheeja (ward 3), N.B. Narayanan Nair (ward 7) and Asha Abhilash (ward 31st).

Elections were to these wards because councellors Chellamma Thambi, S. Jayakrishnan and Latha Thengumpathra were disqualified by the Election Commission evoking the anti-defection law.

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Congress brings various NRK groups under one umbrella

The Kerala unit of the Congress has formed the Overseas Indian Cultural Congress (OICC) as the first step in bringing the various non-resident Indians of the state under one umbrella.
The OICC, comprising various organisations based outside the country pertaining to Non Resident Keralites (NRKs) will have its first meeting here Friday.
State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala had made several trips to various Middle East countries to unite the various cultural groups. It was decided to hold a two-day meeting of representatives from various organisations from these countries.
State Congress party secretary Mannar Abdul Latheef, who is the organiser of the meet, said 250 delegates from various Middle East countries, the US and Germany will take part in the first meeting Friday.
'This is the first time that the Congress is taking the lead to form a cohesive organisation which will function under a common by-law and a proper organisational structure for all the units in the various countries. Among the various issues that will  come for discussion in the two day meeting would be the efforts to see that the combined might of the NRKs is channelised for the development of our state,' said Latheef. 
Those who will lead the various sessions include union ministers Vayalar Ravi and Mukul Wasnik, besides state Congress leaders K. Karunakaran, Chennithala and Oommen Chandy.
The session would also include a talk by S. Irudayarajan, who heads the Migration Unit at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram.
Leading NRKs who won the Pravasi Bharatiya and Padma Awards will be felicitated on the second day of the meeting.
Once the OICC formally comes into shape, its representatives would be made invited members in the state executive of the Congress.
Currently, there are more than two million NRKs who are settled outside the country, of which a giant majority is in the Middle East and over the years, their contributions as remittances, which have crossed Rs.25,000 crore, now comprise about 20 per cent of the state's net domestic product and 30 percent more than the state's annual receipts.  

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HC asks govt to take immediate decision on bus fare hike

29.01.10 - The High Court has directed the state government to take an immediate decision on the bus fare hike and said that it cannot interfere on this issue. The Division Bench comprising acting chief justice Kiran Joseph and Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan said that the court would again interfere only if there is any discrepancy involved in the fare hike. The court ruled this while hearing the plea against the bus fare hike

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Solar Eclipse in Kerala - 15.01.2010

Solar eclipse, whose visibility was long and clear in Kerala, turned out to be a "solar festival" not only for scientists but also for the people at large.
A large number of people including children turned up to witness the rare spectacle of the century across the state where special arrangements were made for viewing the celestial phenomenon.
The eclipse started becoming visible here and the adjoining areas at 11.30 am. Leading scientific institutions including Science and Technology Museum, various colleges and schools made special arrangements for viewing the eclipse, for which glasses and filters were distributed.
"The enthusiasm of common people and students show the growing interest of the society in science. It is a positive sign," Dr Babu Jopseh, physicist and former Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology, said. The event also turned out to be an occasion to dispel the superstitious belief attached to solar eclipse for centuries.
Experts and teachers in many paces explained to the gathering the scientific aspects of the rare event. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, a major facility of ISRO, is conducting comprehensive tests of data obtained from the eclipse as the insight on ions thrown up by the event is said to be important for space science.

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'3 Idiots' faux pas

Rajkumar Hirani’s well-made "3 Idiots" is on record-breaking spree at the box office. But there is a small slip in this thoroughly entertaining cinematic journey -- TV actress Mona Singh’s character is first called Poonam and then Mona a few scenes later.

Mona, who plays Kareena Kapoor’s elder sister in the movie, is first referred to as Poonam by her screen dad Boman Irani. However, Poonam becomes Mona in the dramatic sequence that follows where Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and R. Madhavan deliver a baby with Kareena’s help through a web camera.

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India will launch first manned spaceship in 2013

12.10.2010 - India would launch its first manned space flights by sending two astronauts in an orbit in a Russian spaceship in 2013, according to reports. For this, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is to finance the acquisition of a Soyuz spaceship and train its astronauts by a Russian commander.

The Russian cosmonaut would lead the two-member crew on an independent space flight lasting several days, ’Voice of Russia’ radio reported.
Quoting deputy chief of Russian space agency (Roskosmos) Vitaly Davidov the radio said the flight of Indian astronauts would not involve a mission to the International Space Station.

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Shibu Soren kept key portfolios like home and mines with himself

Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren kept key portfolios like home and mines with himself as he Tuesday allocated portfolios to the ministers - three days after he expanded his cabinet. Soren has kept a charge of 14 departments with himself. Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Raghubar Das has been allocated six departments including finance, urban development and energy, while the other Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto (All Jharkhand Students Union) has been allocated four departments including road construction, forests and environment.

The allocation of portfolios was delayed as alliance partners were scrambling for key ministries.
Though Soren, who was sworn-in on Dec 30 and won the trust vote Jan 7, denied that there is any problem, sources in the JMM said the BJP and the AJSU were trying to get the rural development, energy, home, health and other major ministries for themselves.
A party insider said the AJSU was particularly angling for home. Soren had agreed to some of their demands but was against giving home to Mahto.

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Hockey players served with 24-hour deadline - 11.01.2010

Indian hockey players were on Monday served with a 24-hour deadline to resume practice or face disciplinary action as the entire squad began an indefinite boycott of the World Cup preparatory camp over a payment dispute. 

Peeved by the fresh strike, Hockey India, the game's governing body, threatened to crack the whip by warning the players to return to the camp by Tuesday evening but the players seemed to be in no mood to relent till their demands were met.
A top HI source said that the players have been given a 24-hour deadline to return to the camp or face disciplinary action but senior player Prabhjot Singh, who has been appointed by his teammates as their representative for the negotiations, said they had not received any such ultimatum. 

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INDIANS IN AUSTRALIA - Racism - Failure to check attacks will strain ties

10.01.2010 -With an Indian student killed and another set ablaze in Melbourne in the last 10 days, India Monday asked Australia to probe the incidents urgently and warned Canberra that failure to address the issue will cast "a shadow" over bilateral ties.
Echoing the "deep concern" here over the continuing attacks on Indians, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna conveyed the need for urgent action when his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith telephoned him Monday afternoon.
"I spoke to the foreign minister of Australia. I have drawn his attention to the increasing assaults, some of them fatal, on Indian students," Krishna told reporters here.

"I have requested him to expedite the investigations so that the culprits can be brought to justice," Krishna added.
Alluding to the outrage in India and in parliament over the continuing attacks on Indian students, Krishna emphasised to Smith that the "non-redressal of this vital issue will cast a shadow on our otherwise excellent bilateral relations," the external affairs ministry said here.
Krishna urged that the Australian government immediately ensure that the concerned state police authorities deal with investigations with sensitivity and a sense of urgency, the ministry said after the two foreign ministers had spoken.
"He (Krishna) reiterated the need for immediate corrective measures, pointing out that the issue had consistently figured in our parliament," the ministry said.
Reminding Canberra that the attacks were continuing despite repeated assurances, Krishna also sought an update on the status of the probe into the killing of Nitin Garg, a 21-year-old Indian student, over a week ago, and the latest incident in which another Indian was attacked and set ablaze.
Jaspreet Singh, a 29-year-old Indian, was attacked and set on fire by four unidentified men at Essendon in Melbourne while he was parking his car shortly before 2.00 a.m Saturday. 

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Iranian woman made call to Paul Muthoot's phone: kerala police

The call to Paul M. George’s phone after his death was made by an Iranian woman, police told the High Court Monday.
The revelation of the police comes after Paul’s father had said in his petition that the two phone calls that have come to his phone after his death had not been probed.
The police have told the court that it was Sarah Ann Maria, an Iranian citizen, who has made the call and that Paul and the woman were close friends. The police have said that the two had been in constant contact with each other through phone.
Police have also said that the goonda leader Om Prakash and Paul were close friends. 

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Navya Nair gets married Full videos

Navya Nair marries Santosh N Menon, a business executive based out of Mumbai.

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