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Friday, February 29, 2008

US site sells undies with Bapu images: riled India protests

The government of India has expressed outrage over the use of images of the tricolour and national icons like Gandhi and Nehru on undergarments hawked by an American company on the Web.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the Indian embassy in Washington DC had written to the president of the company to protest, and ask that the practice be discontinued immediately.

"The matter has been followed up actively Further, the US government has also been apprised of this offensive practice of the said US company," Mukherjee said without naming the company.

While images of Indian gods and national icons have been used in an unflattering manner by Western companies in the past, it has been rare for the Indian government to get directly involved in the protest.

An online search revealed that a website called cafepress.com is selling "funky" Gandhi T-shirts and "boxer shorts" with a Bodhi tree impression. A 'Ganesha 101 tanktop' is


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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Hayden escapes, cricket in prison

Depending on how you look at it, the latest farce in India's Australian summer appears either blatantly unfair or plain ridiculous.

In a tinderbox atmosphere that had gone to within an inch of the tour being called off, Matthew Hayden - 36-year-old veteran of 94 Tests played over 14 years - launches an outrageous, offensive, and completely unprovoked attack on Harbhajan Singh, calling him "an obnoxious weed" on a radio show. Cricket Australia promises the BCCI that it would take up the matter strongly and after a pointless, three-hour hearing, lets Hayden off with a mere reprimand - not even a token fine.

A little after 11 pm local time in Melbourne, CA spokesman Philip Pope said, "The charge was laid by CA CEO James Sutherland, and Code of Conduct Commissioner Ron Beazley found Hayden guilty He upheld the charge and issued a reprimand." Section 9 of CA's Code of Behaviour deals with "detrimental public comment" and prohibits a players and officials from "making any public/media comment which is detrimental to the interests of the game".

Hayden said he had made a "light comment" in a "jocular" interview. "I maintain my innocence. My intention was not to denigrate cricket or anyone. But in the spirit of cricket, I respect and accept the decision." There was no mention of an apology to Harbhajan.

There was also no mention, from either Hayden or CA, of the big batsman poking fun at Ishant Sharma's youth, mimicking his accent,

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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ballot train

RAILWAY MINISTER Lalu Prasad flagged off the government's Election Express on Tuesday, unveiling a super-populist budget that handed out poll-year goodies to practically every section of society.

The budget slashed passenger fares for all classes of travel, upped existing discounts for students and women senior citizens, and introduced discounts for new categories of travelers like AIDS patients and national honour winners.

The cut in AC fares could eat into the business of low-cost airlines, while the reduction of non AC fares takes the railways closet at least symbolically, to a larger chunk of India's population.

The budget held general freight rates at existing levels, actually cut freight rates for petrol and diesel by 5%, and introduced several new concession schemes.

Lalu's Railways now provide probably the only service in India that has not got costlier for a full five years. And Lalu has become the first Railway Minister who never raised passenger fares.

The budget introduced a wide range of passenger amenities and facilities to make travel convenient and comfortable, especially for the aam aadmi. (See annotated illustration alongside)

Among the notable initiatives: 10 new Garib Raths or poor man's AC trains, ticket booking on mobile phones and through automatic vending machines, electronic display boards on trains and stations, and discharge-free green toilets on trains.

The railways are in fine financial health. In 2007-08, they recorded their highest-ever cash surplus (or profit): an impressive Rs 25,000 crore. The operating ratio - ratio


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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Darul fatwa against terror

One of the most influential Muslim seminaries, with followers across the world, on Monday issued a kind of fatwa, declaring terror activities as anti-Islam. The Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband also involved top clerics at a conclave in defining terrorism in the light of the Quran and Shariah.

Reading out the declaration on behalf of an aging Darul Uloom rector, Maulana Marghoobur Rahman, a member of Darul's governing body said: "King of innocents is not compatible with Islam. It is anti-Islamic."

The declaration said Darul seriously viewed allegations from intelligence agencies as well the Centre that madrasas were terror hubs. "Madrasas don't teach students to kill. They teach them to lead an Islamic life, where respect for human life is supreme," he said. The Darul declared that terror acts fell under the "shirk category of sins". According to Quran, shirk is a "sin for which there is no pardon". That the declaration was coming was first reported by HT on February 21.

The convenor of the hugely attended conclave, Jamiat U1ema-i-Hind general secretary Maulana


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Monday, February 25, 2008

Bold & brainy: Bollywood's new thought leaders

TWENTY YEARS after class got over: the three men met and hugged each other outside a movie theatre, telling each other the story they had never told anyone: all they had touched since had turned gold.

That, of course, would have been the Bollywood version of the story of director buddies Raju Hirani, Sriram Raghavan and Rajat Kapoor Hirani created Bollywood history with the "Munnabhai" films, Raghavan just joined the A-list with the cracker Johny Gaddaar, and Kapoor proved his point on his kind of film-making yet again with the just-released witty thriller Mithya.

But for almost 20 years after they studied at the Film and Television institute of India (FTII) in Pune, the reality was more like a 1970s art house movie. Armed with just their ambition and talent, they wrote scripts and planned movies and patiently heard producers say "No".

Until now - until they ran into the new Bollywood. The three friends are now among a


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Friday, February 22, 2008

Not just your drink, the bar's on the rocks

GURGAON MIGHT soon get India's first ice bar, where everything from the glasses to the decor will be made up of ice. Hoteliers are exploring the possibility of opening one after new provisions allowing it were incorporated in this year's Haryana excise policy. Ashok Sharma, deputy excise and taxation commissioner, told HT: "Hotels and restaurants already having bar licence would be allowed to open ice bars. They'll have to pay an additional annual fee of Rs 1 1akh." The temperature inside ice bars is around -5 degrees Celsius. "Guests are given special attires and shoes," he added. London, Melbourne, Stockholm, Shanghai and Dubai already have such bars. Rajneesh Malhotra of Park Plaza Hotel said, "An ice bar would be an added attraction." Sanjay Mehta of


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Thursday, February 21, 2008

CROREPATHI CRICKETERS

M.S. DHONI'S getting top billing was hardly surprising, but the price for which he sold - Rs 6 crore - certainly triggered murmurs. On a frenzied, dramatic day of cricket's first-ever auction, something Shah Rukh Khan called "addictive", the goldrush for players just wouldn't stop.

Even computer glitches at the start could not prevent this from becoming what Vijay Mallya dubbed "the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket".

Andrew Symonds, subjected to monkey chants on his last tour to India and involved in a protracted episode over alleged racist abuse by Harbhajan Singh recently found that India's IPL franchisees at least, had no problems with him. Hyderabad doled out $1.35 million (Rs 5.4 crore) to buy him. And Sanath Jayasuriya, dismissed by many as over-the hill at 38, rang in at third place with Reliance's Mumbai giving $975,000 (Rs 3.9 crore) for him.

While the some of these numbers were indeed staggering, the real surprise lay not in how costly some players were, but how others turned out to be a steal at the end of the day.

Ten players remained unsold through the eight regular rounds of auctioning - two of them, South African Loots Bosman and Australian Michael Hussey went for higher than their base price in the re-auction. Mohammad Yousuf and Ashwell Prince were withdrawn, for legal reasons and lack of demand respectively .

The IPL announced that the remaining six, Glenn McGrath, Simon Katich, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Justin Langer and Tatenda Taibu were sold for



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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

On sale today: 77 stars, for $40 million

ON WEDNESDAY, a Bollywood badshah and several captains of industry will be among those bidding hundreds of thousands of dollars for the services of 77 star cricketers in a sporting auction never seen before in India.

Auctions for eight Indian Premier League T20 teams will be held at a Mumbai five-star for 12 hours starting 11 am. Five players accorded "icon" status will not be auctioned. They will get 15 per cent more than the highest-priced player in their team. The icons are: Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai), Souray Ganguly (Kolkata), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore), Yuvraj Singh (Chandigarh) and Virender Sehwag (Delhi). Viru joined the elite group on Tuesday after all IPL franchisees agreed to Delhi team-owner GMR's request that he be made their icon.

The auction will be conducted by English auctioneer Richard Madley behind closed doors at the
Hilton Towers in Nariman Point. No one apart from icons Dravid and Ganguly (the rest are in Australia) will be allowed in. Franchisees can spend up to $5 million on their buys. Players will be contracted for three years. Based on the lines of the NBA draft, the players have been divided into eight batches for the auction. Lots A, B, C and D are made up of top-rung players. Set E has wicketkeepers, F al1rounders, G batsmen, and H bowlers. There are 25 Indians,

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Hindustan Times in Pakistan - PPP-Nawaz bonding signals post-poll axis

IN THIS city that is home to the army leadership, the very palpable social entente between supporters of the PPP and the PML's Nawaz faction on election day afforded a peep into what the future holds for a deeply tormented Pakistan.

Officially, 12 people died in polling widely expected to be bloody, though reports claimed some two dozen had been killed. Benazir Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari said PPP alone had lost 15 men.

There was no official word on the turnout at the time of going to press. Some TV channels though, were reporting 35 per cent voting.

In Rawalpindi, voting was largely peaceful. Slogans of Jiye Bhutto rent the air as boisterous supporters of both the PPP and PML (N) rode past Liaquat Bagh, where Benazir fell to a gun-bomb attack on December 27.

A short distance away young men astride open jeeps and motorcycles swathed in party flags converged at PML-Q leader - and a close aide of President Pervez Musharraf - Sheikh Rashid's Lal Haveli that has stood like an invincible political fortress since the 1985 party-less polls under Gen Zia.

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Muslim girls can nullify marriage

A GIRL has full right to choose her husband and if forced to marry against her wish, she can declare the marriage "null and void", prominent Muslim bodies and Islamic scholars have said.

Islamic scholars and clerics from several Muslim bodies share the view that a girl cannot be forced to marry The decision was taken at a meeting which was attended by members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Darul-Uloom Deoband and more than 100 prominent bodies under the banner of Islamic Fiqh Academy (IFA).

After a long discussion, over 300 participants unanimously decided that "in Islam, the girl has every right to marry the boy of her choice and her parents cannot impose their decision on her," said General Secretary of IFA Amin Usmani. It was "total injustice" to force a girl to marry a boy whom she doesn't like, the body said.

The scholars further said if a girl was forced to marry by her parents or anyone else, she can declare the marriage "null and

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Friday, February 15, 2008

WILL MISS YOU - Sunday 6 pm: Last ticket to Appu Ghar

IT HAS the shortest roller coaster in the world perhaps - the ride is over before you can say roller coaster - and the House of Horrors is more funny than scary But Appu Ghar is among things that made Delhi. And now, it's going.

The last ticket will be sold at 6 pm on Sunday and the amusement park will shut down a few hours aftel: 24 years after going into business in 1984. It's curtains for good, for now at least.

"We had requested the government for alternate land somewhere to shift the park. But it was turned down," said B.G. Krishnan, chief operating officer of Appu Ghar. "We are closing for ever"

"We grew up with Appu Ghar," said singer Palash Sen of Euphoria. "Shutting the park is especially sad in a city, which is starved of such amusement parks for children. After Chanakya, this is the second blow to Delhi's heritage."

Appu Ghar was the brainchild of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who wanted a Disneyland kind of an amusement park for Delhi. She brought this up with a man named Gian Vijeswar in Sweden in 1982. International Amusement Ltd - a company founded by

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tiger numbers sink to record low

THE TIGER population in India is at an alltime low, according to the government's tiger census report released on Tuesday It is estimated that only 1,411 tigers are now left in the wild, the report said.

The maximum estimated figure, the best scenario possible, is 1,657, which is lower than the 1,800 tigers estimated in India's first tiger census in 1960.

This is a massive fall from 2001 when the tiger population was estimated to be 3,642.

The latest figures are of all tiger reserves except those in Jharkhand, and Indravati in Chhattisgarh, where the Naxal threat prevented estimation. In Sunderbans, the estimation process is still on.

Central India, which has the large tiger population states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, has seen the maximum losses. Fifty-nine per cent of the tiger population of Madhya Pradesh and 50% of Maharashtra has been wiped out.

Tiger reserves in the south - in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh - and the Jim Corbett Park in the terai have done well, said Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

The Wildlife Institute of India blamed poaching, increasing man-animal conflict, falling prey base and habitat loss for tiger as major reasons for the huge fall in tiger population between 2001 and 2006. But Gopal said it was not too late to save the tigers. "We need to take proactive steps."

Wildlife conservationist Valmik Thapar said efforts should be initiated as soon as possible to save the big cats. "It is now time to act and save tigers from human beings. We have to

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A job you'll love to take home, straight to bed

IF YOU believe in working hard for greater job satisfaction, here's the opportunity for you. In what's being touted as "the best job on earth", condom-maker Durex wants to recruit Indian men above the age of 18 to test its "product performance".

Besides the obvious perks, there would be the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing the country and larger Asian identity a large service. For, however much sexologist may insist that size does not matter, the fact remains that Asians are less endowed than most other races. Even a 2006 ICMR study mapping Indian penis size said the international condom sizes available in India are oversized for smaller Indian men, causing slippages and breakages of the condoms.

World Health Organization experts say there are variations in penis size across ethnic groups. Men of African descent are wider and longer; Caucasians are medium, while Asians are narrower and shorter.

So if you are not embarrassed reporting to work in a piece of latex, here's a chance to prove them wrong. The selected 1,000 applicants will get a condom hamper- no texture or flavour specified with which they can get to work right away Once they have exhausted themselves testing the products, all they need to do is send the feedback and have a chance of winning iPods and gift vouchers, besides the "Grand Prize" of Rs 25,000. "Durex wants to ensure that its condoms are best meeting the needs of Indians and what better way to know this than to ask Indians first

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Monday, February 11, 2008

India's quicks fix Aussies

ON A day India became the team to have played maximum ODIs - 675, overtaking Pakistan's 674 - it was important they came up with a good performance. A win was the need of the hour also because of their claim that Australia were scared of them. And with the race on for a finals berth, a win on Sunday was going to be a perfect push in their drive towards the destination.

When Australia chose to bat on a flat surface in bright and sunny conditions, it seemed India would be staring at a big chase. That they eventually raised hopes of bagging a bonus point and then crawled to the target tells the story. The bowlers surpassed expectations but the same couldn't be said of the batsmen. This win, thus evoked mixed feelings with joy overpowering angst in the end because it was a win, that too against Australia.

There would be murmurs still that a rare chance to beat Australia with an additional point - that would have been India's had they reached the target in 40 overs was lost and this will become louder if, just if, India narrowly miss the finals. But that shouldn't be a concern at this stage because it was imperative for them to get rid of a mental block.

Saying that Australia are beatable and actually beating them is as different as rain is from sunshine, and for a team coming off a whole lot of talk on the exclusion of seniors and other controversies before that, this was a massive win. The chase wasn't entirely convincing, but the way the bowlers charged in was a sight Indians are not known to display very often.

With Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma sharing the new ball, India had a pair of fast bowlers, not mediumpacers, having a go at the batsmen. Both were steaming in at over 140 kmph, there were many nicks as well and two of them saw the back of the openers. Matthew Hayden was out off an outside edge and Adam Gilchrist was unlucky to be adjudged leg-before.

Hayden's wicket was huge because he was

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Friday, February 8, 2008

KIDNEY RACKET - KIDNEY KINGPIN CAUGHT

THE FUGITIVE kidney racket kingpin, Amit Kumar, was arrested on Thursday from a guesthouse on the Nepalese side of the border with India, the day after Hiriditstan Times said in an exclusive, front-page report that he was hiding in Nepal.
Amit was reportedly arrested from a wildlife resort in the southern town of Souraha, which is 60 km from the border with India. He is understood to have checked into the resort with an accomplice on Thursday morning. Nepalese minister of state for home affairs, Ram Kumar Choudhury, confirmed the arrest. He told a TV news channel: "He was arrested at around 5 pm and is being brought to Kathmandu."
A top government source said in New Delhi, "We will have no problem bringing him back to India."
Amit has been on the run after the police raided his hospital in Gurgaon for running an international racket in kidney transplant. Investigators have said around 500 such operations were performed at this hospital.
Amit and his associates would dupe or force poor labourers from nearby areas into 'donating' their kidneys for rich recipients from all over the world. At the time of the raid, three Greek nationals were awaiting transplants.
Investigators have long suspected that Amit may have fled the country And possibly made his way to Nepal where he had business links. Amit had reportedly been staying at the wildlife resort in Chitwan for the last two days. Police sources said, "He was possibly trying to go back into India through Bihar"
Amit was accompanied by an accomplice, Manish Singh. Witnesses said he had asked for a copy of the Nepalese English daily Himalayan Times, which had reported on the kidney racket. He had cut out that article and returned the paper This behaviour was noticed by the staff. Soon afterward, a police team landed up at the resort, and the staff alerted them to the odd guest. The hat and sunglasses that Amit was reportedly wearing could not, ultimately, protect him.
The accomplice, Manish, escaped, however The police found a bank draft for 9,36,000 euros (Rs 5.34 crore) and a massive stash of $1,45,000 (Rs 57 lakh) in cash on him, as well as some Nepalese currency. He was arrested and taken to a town called Hetauda, from where he was to be brought to Kathmandu.

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Thursday, February 7, 2008

Hindustan Times Exclusive - Kidney racket kingpin hiding in Nepal

KIDNEY RACKET kingpin Amit Kumar is in Nepal and the police there are close to arresting him. The police have also unearthed a local illegal transplant ring.

"We are hoping to arrest him soon," Upendra Aryal, SSP, Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Crime Division, told Hindustan Times. He added that the hotels he had been staying in have been identified. The police found a match of his passport number and the entries in the hotels he checked into. They also said that Kumar had received calls from three local mobile numbers.

Investigators in India have suspected for a while that Kumar may have fled the country and that Nepal would be his likely destination as he had business links in that country - basically kidney transplant deals. Kumar is the mastermind behind an international racket in illegal kidney transplants which has been operating for many years. He is accused of having forced or duped around 500 people into donating their kidneys.

Kumar's family relocated to Canada many years ago and he is reported to have told his neighbours there that he was in the process of winding up his business in India. Hindustan Times has reported exclusively on his house in Canada.

It is possible that Kumar is in Nepal looking for ways to join his family in Canada or just disappear till the heat is off. But the police in Nepal are now on his trail, and are very very close.

In fact, it could be a coincidence that the police there have also uncovered a kidney racket in the last few weeks, arresting 12 people. The kingpin of that racket is a man called Deepak Lama. He is absconding. The police said they are trying to find out if Lama had

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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Paes advises caution

INDIAN DAVIS Cup captain Leander Paes advised Sania Mirza to be carefill of the decisions she makes in her career. On Wednesday evening, Sania shocked the tennis fraternity when she said she would not play at next month's $600,00 WTA Bangalore Open fearing the outbreak of another controversy.

At the National Sports Club of India (NSCI), where the Indian Davis Cup practiced for the Asia-Oceania zone tie against Uzbekistan, Paes was philosophical in the way he reacted to Sania's decision. "Every celebrity on this planet has faced adversities in his careen" he said. "Whether he is an actor: a musician or a sportsperson, adversities are a part and parcel of the their career: "It's how dignified and honest you are. It's about how you project yourself and how you handle such situations, he said. "One must remember that the biggest pride for an athlete is playing for and in your country. "So, Sania should be extremely careful about what she decides," Paes said after

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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Raj's sena targets Bachchan home, attacks 'outsiders'

THE ASSAULT on north Indians in Mumbai continued for the second day on Monday as suspected workers of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Naynirman Sena (MNS) beat up people on the road, damaged taxis and even allegedly lobbed a bottle at superstar Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow.

A theatre showing a Bhojpuri movie was also vandalised in Thane, in what could be seen as a sign of the violence spilling into the suburbs. All this happened while the nation debated whether this could be Mumbai's chosen path to being a global city.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh asked state police chief P.S. Pasricha to conduct a high-level probe into Sunday's clashes between workers of the MNS - a splinter group of the Shiv Sena - and Samajwadi Party following Raj Thackeray's outburst against north Indians. Deshmukh also warned both parties against politicising the issue.

Trouble started on Monday around 1.30 am when two unidentified motorcycle-borne people threw a bottle at Prateeksha,

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Monday, February 4, 2008

Software engineer found murdered in car in E. Delhi

28-year-old Akash was to marry on Feb. 10

BARELY A week before his marriage, a 28-year-old software engineer was found murdered in his car on National Highway-24 in East Delhi on Sunday Police said Akash Saxena had left office for home in Gole Market on Saturday around 9 p.m. His body was found in his Maruti car on NH-24 on Sunday Police said he bore injuries to his head and mouth. They ruled out robbery as the motive as all his valuables, including a gold chain and his mobile phone, were on him. Akash was working for Abacus Software Private Lim- ited in Patparganj Industrial Area for the past two years. He was to marry on February 10. Police said a resident of Vinod Nagar saw the car parked on the roadside late on Saturday night from his house. When the man woke up on Sunday, he saw the car stm parked on the road. When he went near and opened its door, he saw Akash dead at the wheels with blood oozing from his...

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Image and Article source: Hindustan Times
Article taken from the issue: 4 Feb 2008

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