Sunday, May 31, 2009

UK’s RAF hunting down N. Korean nukes

London, May 30 (ANI): Britain has reportedly sent out a military plane equipped with a "nuke sniffer" to find out the power of the bomb tested by North Korea.

According to The Sun, the VC-10 tanker was scrambled from RAF Brize Norton, Oxon, to take air samples near the rogue state with an underwing pod.

Any fallout gathered will tell scientists what sort of nuclear material was used in Monday''''s Hiroshima-sized underground blast.

A military source said yesterday: "Once that is known, an estimate of the bomb''''s strength or ''''yield'''' can be made."

The flight crew is under strict orders not to approach any closer to the North Korean coast than 50 miles for fear of being shot down. (ANI)

lliterate Indians lured into slavery in Malaysia

allaca (Malaysia), May 30 (ANI): Thousands of illiterate Indians are falling prey to promises of a good life in Malaysia. Trapped between wanting a better life for their families and their eagerness to escape poverty, they fall victims to scams, managed by syndicates.

"They are like thugs, and they exert force to instil fear in us so that we dare not go against them," M Nadarajah, a victim said.

"Bala (Nadarajah''''s captor) and his brother would use demoralising and abusive words, slap, kick and even hit me with a stick if they were not happy with my work," he added after showing the scars on his back.

Insufficient food and rest make many of these illegal Indians ill, as they are made to work hard on estates in the region.

Some are tortured quite severely, reports the Strait Times.

People like Nadarajah are often threatened by their captors. Captors even threaten to sell their children to prevent them from escaping. (ANI)

Air Chief Marshal PV Naik takes over as new IAF chief

New Delhi, May 31 (ANI): Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik assumed office as the new chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) here on Sunday. He succeeds Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major.

The ''change of guard ceremony'' held in Air Headquarter was attended by all the Air Officers Commanding-in-chief of the seven commands of the IAF.

The new chief reviewed a ceremonial ''guard of honour'' presented to him by a contingent of air warriors at the foyers of the Air Headquarters before assuming charge.

Naik, born on July 22, 1949 in Nagpur, is a graduate of Sainik School Satara, the National Defence Academy, the Defence Services Staff College and the National Defence College.

Commissioned on June 21, 1969, he has a long distinguished career in the IAF spanning 40 years wherein he has flown all MiG-21 variants and MiG-23-BNs.

He has held many important command and staff appointments. He was commanding a MiG-21 Bis squadron at Pathankot in Punjab. He was the chief operations officer at Air Force Station Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.

He has also commanded Air Force bases in Srinagar and Bidar in Karnataka.

Apart from these, he has been a Directing Staff at the TACDE and the Air Combat Development Establishment as well as the Defence Services Staff College, as battalion commander at the National Defence Academy, Air-I of Western Air Command and air defence commander of South Western Air Command.

He is also a qualified flying instructor. He had been functioning as the Vice Chief of the Air Staff prior to taking over the Chief of Air Staff.

For distinguished service, Air Chief Marshal Naik was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) on January 26, 2003, and also appointed honorary ADC to the President in July 2007. (ANI)

Friday, May 29, 2009

Tata Motors launches 'World Truck'

Mumbai, May 29: Tata Motors, India's leading manufacturer of both heavy and light automobiles, launched a new line of trucks, named 'World Truck' here on Thursday, May 28.


The launching of the new series of trucks also marked the company's objective to bring international standard top quality trucks in the Indian market. The range, which comprises of multi-axle trucks, tractor-trailers, mixers and special application vehicles, is a bid by Tata Motors to prove itself as a global auto major.


"There will be various offerings coming from this. There will be tractors for taking higher levels of movements across high speed tracks. There will be tippers which will be meeting construction and mining requirements. So, it is an entire range of products which will be coming through this," said P M Telang, Executive Director, Tata Motors.

The company however has not mentioned the price levels of its latest models and the varied versions.

"It's about changing the way trucking happens in India and bringing it closer to the sort of levels that you see in more developed countries and rest of the world. So, it is a range of models and when you talk of range of models, there is no one price we can talk about," said R Ramakrishnan, Head of Marketing, Medium and Heavy Trucks, Tata Motors.

China set to launch its first Mars probe

New Delhi, May 29: China's first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1, is expected to be launched later in '09 according to an official of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).


The probe had passed test of the research phase, Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of SAST Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the third Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition.


Yinghuo-1 will be launched by a Russian carrier rocket, accompanied by the Russian aerocraft Phobos-Grunt.

"The Russian aerocraft is making a sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars," Zhang said.

According to Zhang, Yinghuo-1 would go into Mars orbit in 2010 after a 10-month, 380-million-kilometer journey, Zhang said.

But, unlike the Russian craft, Yinghuo-1 won't land but would only orbit and observe, he added.

The Chinese probe is 75 centimeters long, 75 cm wide and 60 cm high. It weighs 115 kilograms and was designed for a two-year life, Zhang said.

"Yinghuo" means light from firefly in Chinese.

"Yinghuo-1 is expected to discover why water disappeared from Mars and explain other environmental changes of the planet," Zhang said.

The project is China's third major space exploration plan after the manned space project and the moon exploration program.

"It was also the first time that China would explore another planet," Zhang said.

ANI

Nepal celebrates first Republic Day

Kathmandu, May 29 (ANI): Nepal''''s first Republic Day is being celebrated on Friday throughout the nation with various programmes, exactly one year after the Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a republic on May 29, 2008 ending the 240-year old monarchy.

In his message to the nation, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has urged everyone for consensus to reach the goals and conceded the first year was not very easy.

''''The chief goal for now is the completion of peace process and new constitution,'''' President Yadav said in the message. ''''The Republican set up will be strong only after we attain those goals.''''

In what can be seen as his answer to the Maoist demand for civilian supremacy, the president said civilian supremacy can be established only when the basics of democracy such as rule of law, press freedom, judicial independence, freedom of expression and human rights are reflected in each activity and behavior of the government.

Stating that in the past 60 years Nepal has seen a number of Constitutions, he hoped that the new Constitution would not be just another experiment.

Vice President Paramanda Jha, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and other political leaders have also issued messages to the nation on the occasion.

Maoist chairman Prachanda has urged for an institutional development of republicanism.

Nepal is the newest republic in the world. The 240-year long monarchy was abolished last year.

Earlier, in 2006 April, a mass uprising for nineteen days had forced the last king of Nepal, Gyanendra Shah, to give up power, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)

North Korea test fires sixth missile

Seoul, May 29: North Korea has reportedly test fired another short-range missile off the country's east coast, a South Korean news agency reported on Friday, May 29.


This accounts to the sixth missile test North Korea has carried out since Monday, May 25. Following the test-fire the country's foreign ministry released a statement saying that it will respond if the UN Security Council (UNSC) agreed any fresh sanctions over the tests.


"If the UN Security Council provokes us, our additional self-defence measures will be inevitable," the foreign ministry said in a statement. It said that any 'hostile acts' from UNSC will only mean the 'demolition of the armistice'.

On Thursday, May 28 the US and South Korean forces were placed on the second highest surveillance alert level, the joint forces announced.

A Raja vows to work on 3G; what about broadband?

New Delhi, May 29: Communications and IT Minister, Andimuthu Raja has said that apart from lowering mobile tariffs, auctioning for the 3G spectrum is on top of his priority list.


Retaining the prestigious ministry for the second consecutive term, A Raja in his interview with CNBC-TV 18 said, "Auctioning of 3G spectrum is on top of my priority list."


He said that the exercise started earlier would continue and that he aims to complete the auction in months months 'in worst case scenario'. When asked if the he saw the revenue from the auction going above the expectations considering that the markets have more or less revived, he said, "I hope so, definitely it will go up."

Apart from this the Lawyer-turned-politician's agenda consists of ensuring 'that at least in the college level, ‘a paperless governance’ should be guaranteed'.

Media reports seem to reflect that the entry of 3G and Wimax would do great things for the broadband scene in India and improve internet connectivity specially in the rural areas. However this only seems to prove that the government does not have a more concrete and feasible proposal to increase internet penetration and implementing broadband connectivity in the country.

While the government frequently releases sops but what the country ultimately has to do is sit and watch for both implementation and functioning.

Microsoft's Bing ready to take on Google

Seattle, May 29: Software giant Microsoft Corp in its latest effort to take on its rival Google Inc unveiled a new search engine called 'Bing'.


Bing, known as a 'decision engine' is the latest effort from the Seattle based software firm to earn some momentum in the search market. The site 'Bing.com' has been in development for several years. It will be available to users by next week.


"Search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search," said Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive.
A key feature of the Bing, is 'guided search', which categorises searches and attempts to get users to useful information speedily. The system also integrates with a number of other technologies, bringing news and maps straight to searchers, as well as linking in to the company's Cashback scheme, which in effect pays users a small dividend every time they buy a product through the site.

CBSE Class X results of Delhi zone are out

New Delhi, May 29: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class X board exams results were declared on Friday, May 29 in the three zones of Delhi, Guwahati and Allahabad. Girls once again outshone boys.


The overall pass percentage recorded a 1.76 pc increase from 2008. The pass percentage this year was 88.84 per cent.


The results are available in the CBSE website http://www.cbse.nic.in./. In the Ajmer, Chennai and Panchkula regions, the results had been declared on Tuesday, May 26.

In 2009 nearly as many as 8,24,421 students -3,31,922 girls and 4,73,499 boys- took the Class 10 CBSE exams in India.

Veerappa Moily assumes charge as Minister of Law and Justice

New Delhi, May 29 (ANI): Veerappa Moily assumed charge as Law and Justice Minister here on Friday.

He was welcomed by Secretary, T.K.Vishwanathan and other senior officers of the ministry.


Immediately, after assuming charge, Moily had a meeting with all senior officers of the ministry and reviewed the status of various programmes and issues relating to it. (ANI)

Virbhadra Singh assumes charge of Steel Ministry

New Delhi, May 29 (ANI): Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh assumed charge here on Friday.

He was welcomed by Steel Secretary P.K.Rastogi and other senior officers.


Talking to reporters after taking charge, he said that one of his key priorities would be to ensure that the expansion programmes of the public sector giants the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is completed in time in a cost effective fashion.

"While the capacity of SAIL will go up to 26 million tons that of RINL will go up to six million tons after the expansion. Both the expansion programmes will involve an expenditure of over Rs.70, 000 crore," he said.

He added that steel sector in India and China have recorded positive growth during the first quarter of this calendar year while the global steel production has contracted by 23 per cent during the same period.

"Another focus area will be to bring in a rational, seamless and transparent regime for allocation of raw material resources to existing and prospective steel producers," he said. He further said, the Ministry of Mines would be requested to undertake consequential amendments to Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957 to bring amendments to force.

"There is a need to restructure some of the smaller steel PSUs and for attempting mergers to capture the benefits of improved synergies. The companies under restructuring/merger mode include the Bird group of companies, the HSCL, the BRL and the SIIL," he said (ANI)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Top Billionaires Hold Secret Meeting

Gates, Winfrey, Buffett among philanthropists at gathering in New York

In a quiet meeting closed to the news media and the public, Bill Gates, David Rockefeller Sr., Oprah Winfrey and other leading philanthropists met in New York this month to discuss ways to promote efforts to solve growing social problems in America and abroad.

Together, the philanthropists in the room have committed a total of more than $72.5 billion to charitable causes since 1996, according to Chronicle of Philanthropy tallies.

The unusual event was held May 5 at Rockefeller University and was organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Among the high-profile participants were Ted Turner, Warren E. Buffett, George Soros and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Several of the people at the meeting confirmed their involvement, but declined to tell The Chronicle about what was discussed or why they gathered almost in secret.

According to a person familiar with the meeting, the wealthy philanthropists gathered to trade ideas about how to raise the level of philanthropy in the world.

According to IrishCentral.com, a Web site in New York that writes about Irish Americans and which first disclosed some of the details about the gathering, each philanthropist was given 15 minutes to talk about “how they saw the future global economic climate, the future priorities for philanthropy, and what they felt the elite group should do.”

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

What would you tell the world’s top philanthropists? Click here to post your comments and ideas.

All these philanthropists from the secret New York meeting have appeared at least once on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s ranking of America’s most-generous donors.

Other people who attended included Eli Broad, a real-estate investor, Julian H. Robertson, Jr., a hedge-fund manager, and Patty Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Gates foundation.

Tyson's daughter on life support after found hanging

Phoenix (Arizona), May 25 (ANI): Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson's four-year-old daughter was on life support and in "extremely critical condition" after she was found hanging Monday morning from a treadmill cable in her family's Phoenix home, police said.

Exodus Tyson's seven-year-old brother found her on a treadmill with her neck on a cable attached to the exercise machine, police sergeant Andy Hill said, calling it a "tragic accident."


The mother sent the boy to find the four-year-old girl who was playing in a separate room. The boy found his sister in distress and got his mother, police said.

"Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console - it's kind of a loop,"

Fox News quoted Hill as saying: "Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose, and she was obviously unable to get herself off of it."

The girl's mother took her daughter off the cable, called 911 and attempted to revive her.

Responding officers and firefighters performed CPR on the girl. She was rushed to nearby St. Joe's Hospital.

Tyson, who was in Las Vegas, flew to Phoenix immediately after learning of the accident. (ANI)

Analysis: NKorea widens threat, limits US options

WASHINGTON -North Korea's nuclear test makes it no likelier that the regime will actually launch a nuclear attack, but it adds a scary dimension to another threat: the defiant North as a facilitator of the atomic ambitions of others, potentially even terrorists.
It also presents another major security crisis for President Barack Obama, already saddled with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a nuclear problem with Iran.
Obama spoke Monday night with the president of South Korea and the prime minister of Japan, assuring both leaders that the U.S. remains committed to the defense of their nations. The White House said in a statement that Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed that the test is "a reckless violation of international law that compels action in response."
It's far from clear what diplomatic or other action the world community will take. So far, nothing they've done has worked.
At an earlier juncture of the long-running struggle to put a lid on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the administration of President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s discussed with urgency the possibility of taking military action. That seems less likely now, with the North evidently nuclear armed and the international community focused first on continuing the search for a nonmilitary solution.
Meeting in emergency session in New York, the U.N. Security Council on Monday condemned North Korea's nuclear test as a clear violation of a previous U.N. resolution banning such testing. The council said it would begin work immediately on a new legally binding resolution.
The North's announcement that it conducted its second underground test of a nuclear device drew quick condemnation across the globe, including from its big neighbor and traditional ally, China. The Obama administration, which said the North's action invited stronger, unspecified international pressure, has consistently called for Korean denuclearization but seemed not to have anticipated a deepening nuclear crisis.
Just two weeks ago, the administration's special envoy for disarmament talks with North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said during a visit to Asian capitals that "everyone is feeling relatively relaxed about where we are at this point in the process." If so, they are no longer.
Obama, appearing Monday in the White House Rose Garden, condemned the nuclear test and North Korea's subsequent test-launch of short-range missiles. He called the actions reckless and said they endanger "the people of Northeast Asia."
North Korea conducted its first atomic test in 2006 and is thought to have enough plutonium to make at least a half-dozen nuclear bombs. It also is developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, in defiance of U.N. actions.
One of the first estimates of the size of Monday's nuclear explosion came from the Russian defense ministry, which put the yield at between 10 and 20 kilotons — comparable to the U.S. bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945. But a senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared the explosive yield was much smaller, perhaps a few kilotons. The official said more technical analysis would be done in coming days.
The administration official also disclosed that North Korea notified the State Department less than one hour before the explosion that it intended to conduct a nuclear test at an unspecified time. The U.S. then notified China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, the official said.
The United States could still try to resuscitate so-called six-party talks with the North as well as work with other members of the United Nations. North Korea has vowed not to resume participation in the six-party talks with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia.
Reflecting his view that only unified international action will compel North Korea to change course, Obama said that Russia and China, as well as traditional U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, have come to the same conclusion: "North Korea will not find security and respect through threats and illegal weapons."
The Bush administration worked hard to get China, in particular, to press the North Koreans to denuclearize, and it seems likely that Obama will push equally hard with Beijing, which sided with the North Koreans against U.S. and United Nations forces during the 1950-53 Korean War. In recent years the Chinese have openly criticized the North Koreans for the nuclear arms program.
Two of the main worries about North Korea are left unsaid: Would it use a nuclear bomb to attack a neighbor or the United States? And might it continue an established pattern of selling nuclear wherewithal and missiles to foreign buyers?
Graham Allison, an assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration and now director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, said Monday that the international community regularly underestimates North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's willingness to do the unexpected.
"Could this guy believe he could sell a nuclear bomb to Osama bin Laden?" Allison asked in a phone interview. "Why not?"

UN Security Council condemns NKorea nuke test

UNITED NATIONS -The U.N. Security Council swiftly condemned North Korea's nuclear test on Monday as "a clear violation" of a 2006 resolution and said it will start work immediately on another one that could result in new sanctions against the reclusive nation.
Hours after North Korea defiantly conducted its second test, its closest allies China and Russia joined Western powers and representatives from the rest of the world on the council to voice strong opposition to the underground explosion.
After a brief emergency meeting held at Japan's request, the council demanded that North Korea abide by two previous resolutions, which among other things called for Pyongyang to abandon all nuclear weapons and return to six-party talks aimed at eliminating its nuclear program.
It also called on all other U.N. member states to abide by sanctions imposed on the North, including embargoes on arms and material that could be used in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and ship searches for banned weapons.
In an AP interview in Copenhagen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the test as a "grave violation" of council resolutions and called on the council in a statement to send "a strong and unified message" aimed at achieving the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and peace and security in the region.
Ban, who is South Korean, urged the North "to refrain from taking any actions which will deteriorate the situation."
Leaders in the United States, European Union and Russia also offered quick and pointed criticism. Even China's foreign ministry joined the chorus of disapproval, saying it "resolutely opposed" the test.
"North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community," President Barack Obama said in a statement. "North Korea's behavior increases tensions and undermines stability in Northeast Asia."
In Brussels, the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, denounced the test as a flagrant violation of Security Council resolutions.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current Security Council president, made clear in a statement that the council's condemnation was only an initial response, and that more will follow. He said it was too early to give any specifics.
"The members of the Security Council have decided to start work immediately on a Security Council resolution on this matter," he said.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the 15-member council agreed that work on the new resolution will begin Tuesday.
"What we heard today was swift, clear, unequivocal condemnation and opposition to what occurred," she said.
France's deputy U.N. ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix said France wants the new resolution to "include new sanctions ... because this behavior must have a cost and a price to pay."
Japan's U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu, a non-permanent council member, said his country was pleased that the rest of the council agreed there should be a new resolution. But he noted that sanctions imposed against three North Korean companies after Pyongyang's missile test in April obviously had no effect.
"So therefore I think we really have to think very carefully what will be an effective way to deal with this kind of behavior," he said. "We have to do something more, and the question is what is more."
Churkin was asked whether Russia viewed the nuclear test as more serious than the North's launch of a missile in April.
"This is a very rare occurrence as you know, and it goes contrary not only to resolutions of the Security Council but also the (Nuclear) Nonproliferation Treaty and the (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty," he replied. "We are one of the founding fathers — Russia is — of those documents, so we think they're extremely important in current international relations. So anything which would undermine the regimes of those two treaties is very serious and needs to have a strong response."
Before the council meeting, the five permanent veto-wielding members of the council — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — met behind closed doors for over an hour with the ambassadors of Japan and South Korea.
North Korea claimed the underground nuclear test Monday was much larger than one it conducted in 2006, which led to the first U.N. sanctions resolution. Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed an atomic explosion occurred early Monday in northeastern North Korea and estimated that its strength was similar to bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
After the council rebuked Pyongyang for its April 5 rocket liftoff, which many nations saw as a cover for testing its long-range missile technology, North Korea announced it was quitting disarmament talks and restarting its atomic facilities. The six-party talks, which began in 2003, had involved North Korea, South Korea, Russia, China, Japan, and the United States.

Preacher dies after Vienna clash

Police in Austria say one of the two Sikh preachers who were shot in a violent dispute between rival Sikh groups at a temple in Austria has died.

The preacher, Sant Rama Nand, was attacked during a religious ceremony by six men armed with knives and a pistol.

The other preacher Sant Nirajnan Das, who was among 15 other people injured in the clash, was said to be stable.

Following the incident, rival Sikh groups clashed in the Indian state of Punjab.

Indian police said protesters in the city of Jalandhar set fire to vehicles and put up roadblocks.

Witnesses said the protests appeared to be a reaction to the fight at a temple in Vienna, which reportedly began when fundamentalist Sikhs attacked the preachers, who, they believed, were disrespectful of the Sikh holy book.

The fight involved five men armed with knives and another with a pistol, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports.

Sant Rama Anand died of his wounds in hospital early Monday, a police spokesman said.

"The surgeon said at first he was satisfied with his patient's condition after an emergency operation," news agency APA quoted the spokesman as saying.

"But the patient lost consciousness and died shortly after midnight (2200 GMT)," he added.

The condition of the second preacher is reported to be stable, he said.

Police spokesman Michael Takacs said the scene was "like a battlefield". Six people have been detained, and more arrests were possible.

Everybody was praying and then it started with knives and a pistol," said eyewitness Nermal Singh.

Several hundred worshippers were at the temple at the time of the attack.

The temple is situated in Vienna-Rudolfsheim, in the 15th district of the capital.

It is estimated that fewer than 3,000 Sikhs live in Austria.

The Rudolfsheim temple is run by devotees of Shri Guru Ravidas, who founded a Sikh sect called Dera Sach Khand.

Indian unrest

Meanwhile, Sikh groups clashed violently in the city of Jalandhar in the Indian state of Punjab.

People have poured out into the streets by the thousands and have been protesting since Sunday evening here, says the BBC's Asit Jolly in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab.

The protesters set fire to vehicles and damaged government buildings.

"The whole thing has spread out of Jalandhar now, it's in all the nearby towns and a curfew has been imposed across Jalandhar city, and the latest I'm being told is that the government of Punjab has requisitioned the army to be on standby," our correspondent adds.

Cyclone Alia strength eases off

The cyclonic storm Aila hit the Indian city of Calcutta and nearby areas, killing more than 30 people, before weakening and heading north.

It uprooted a large number of trees in the city, seriously hampering traffic.

Meteorologists said the cyclone made landfall in south-western Bangladesh on Monday afternoon.

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated in Bangladesh and India to temporary shelters after wind speeds of 70km/h to 90km/h were reported.

The West Bengal state's disaster management minister Mortaza Hossain told the BBC that more than 100,000 people had become homeless.

"We have rescued more than 100,000 people and send them to safer places. We are now arranging dry food packets and drinking water pouches for them," he said.

Rescue and relief

Fierce winds, measuring 100km/h (65mph), ravaged parts of Calcutta and adjoining districts. "We were in the eye of the storm," Mr Hossain said.

The army and border guards were called out to rescue people and join the civil administration in providing relief in eight districts of the state hit by the cyclone, he said.

Twelve people died in the South 24-Pargana district that straddles the Sundarbans delta south of Calcutta.

Most deaths occurred when the cyclone flattened mud houses.

Six people died in Calcutta when huge trees uprooted by the cyclone fell on buses, cars and auto-rickshaws.

The rest of the casualties were reported from the districts of Howrah, Hooghly , Nadia , Bankura, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.

Calcutta police chief Gautam Moham Chakrabarty said teams from the municipal corporation were working to clear roads blocked by uprooted trees.

Calcutta Metro and train services were suspended after water flooded tracks in many places.

Massive tidal waves ravaged scores of coastal villages and the seaside resorts of Digha, Mandarmoni and Kanthi throughout Monday.

In Bangladesh, flooding and tidal surges hit coastal areas, with strong winds forcing the closure of the main ports of Chittagong and Mongla.

About 400,000 people were moved from five districts to cyclone shelters and schools before the storm hit, Bangladeshi officials said.

A further 300,000 people were stranded in coastal villages, they said.

Human skulls found in India pond

Authorities in northern India are digging out a pond in which hundreds of human skulls have been discovered.

The remains were found after the pond adjacent to a mortuary in the city of Aligarh dried up due to hot weather.

Around 100 skulls, several bones and two skeletons have been recovered in the past three days, police say.

Reports say the remains belong to bodies of unclaimed corpses brought to the mortuary, but police say they are not making any assumptions.

'Thousands'

"Since the place is near to mortuary and there are marks similar to post-mortem on a few skulls, so as per primary investigation we can say that this might be related to mortuary," inspector Asim Arun said.

"But we don't want to directly reach to the conclusion. We want all the investigation process to complete and all the experts to analyse it then only we can reach some conclusion," he added.

A city resident Amit Srivastava explained how the remains were discovered.

"Children were playing and came here to get their ball. A child saw a skull. He got scared and ran away. We then came here and saw that behind the jail there is not one but thousands of skulls here.

"Digging is continuing... let's see how many more will be found," he said.

The authorities say around 100 human skulls, several bones and two skeletons have been recovered so far.

They say special equipment has been brought in to dig up the area in case more remains are found.

According to Indian law, after post mortem examinations are complete, police have 72 hours to remove the remains of unclaimed bodies.

Lower level officers, morgue sweepers and some rickshaw pullers are brought in to do the job.

It is believed that somewhere along the line some of these workers may have ditched the remains in the pond and pocketed the cash meant to pay for the cremations or burials.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Chennai Region Tops in CBSE XII Exam

New Delhi, May 23 : Having achieved a remarkable overall pass percentage of 92.06, the Chennai region has finished on top in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s Class XII examination. The results for the Delhi, Guwahati and Allahabad regions were declared on Friday, while those for Ajmer, Chennai and Panchkula were announced on Wednesday.

Like last year, the Ajmer region bagged the second position with a pass percentage of 86.93, Delhi came third with 84.25, followed by Panchkula, Allahabad and Guwahati.


Girls outclass boys in all the six regions
Overall 0.09 percentage point rise in pass
In all, 637,976 candidates registered for the Class XII examination this year.

There has been an overall increase of 0.09 percentage points in the pass percentage compared to last year. The overall pass percentage is 81 this year, up from 80.91 in 2008, with girls having outclassed boys in all the six regions.

The overall pass percentage of girls is 85.94 against the boys’ 77.40.

Not surprisingly, the all-India toppers are also girls. Tannvi Aggarwal from Apeejay School in Faridabad and Mrittika Sen from Rajhans Vidyalaya in Mumbai have scored 98.4 per cent. Tannvi is a Commerce student, while Mrittika is from the Science stream.

The regular students have achieved a pass percentage of 82.69 compared with 49.72 of private/patrachar candidates.

The pass percentage for candidates from the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas was the highest among all the other institutions standing high at 94.09 compared to 92.44 per cent in 2008.

Kendriya Vidyalayas are not far behind, having secured an overall pass percentage of 91.32, marginally improving from 91 per cent last year. The Central Tibetans have done well to improve from 85.81 per cent in 2008 to 91.15 this year.

The government and private schools have bettered their performance with a pass percentage of 82.81 and 49.72 respectively. It stood at 81.96 and 37.77 in 2008.
Foreign schools

It has been a good showing by foreign schools, who have secured a pass percentage of 92.38 this year, improving from 92.15 per cent in 2008.

However, both the government-aided and independent schools have registered a decline compared to last year. The pass percentage for the former has come down to 75.68 this year from 78.61 per cent in 2008, while the independent schools have fallen from 81.68 to 80.94 this year.

As many as 3,40,876 students, including 161,139 girls, have scored 60 per cent and above. The number of girls securing 60 per cent or more has been increasing every year.

However, the pass percentage of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes has slipped this year. The pass percentage of SC candidates has fallen from 81.44 last year to 80.75 this year. The result of ST students has registered a decline from 66.04 to 64.28 per cent.

A total of 1,034 students appeared for the examinations in the disabled category, achieving a pass percentage of 88.59 improving from last year’s 86.46. Of this, 11 differently-abled candidates have scored above 90 per cent.
Merit certificates

The CBSE will this year award merit certificates to 5,248 students, including 4,348 to candidates from independent schools. The maximum certificates are for candidates from the Allahabad region (1,581), followed by Chennai (1,152) and Delhi (903).

The number of students who have secured more than 90 per cent in Class XII is 15,839 (comprising 8,059 girls), which is almost double than last year’s 8,253.

The number of candidates scoring 95 per cent and above has witnessed a three-time increase from 384 in 2008 to 1,020 (including 544 girls) this year. The maximum number of students scoring more than 90 per cent and 95 per cent are from independent schools.

Manipur State Boxing Meet

Imphal, May 23 : Out of eight title bouts in the junior boys category, Imphal West district pugilists claimed three gold medals on the third day of the State Level Boxing Championship at Khuman lampak Boxing Arena today.

Churachandpur and Imphal east districts shared two of the gold medals on offer while Bishnupur bagged one.

In E-32 group final, Ch Wilson Singh of Imphal West-A defeated Y Purnanda (IE-A) with Lakpati Singh representing IW-B out-smarting his E-40 opponent L Bikananda Singh of IE-B and T Robertson (IW-B) adding the third gold winning the E-36 final against Sh Anit Kumar (IW-A).

The Ccpur winners were M Yaiphaba Singh, who defeated Kh Maiken of Bishnupur-B in the E-38 title bout, and Ng Anand Singh (D-42) who overcame K Anandajit of IE-A.defeating IE-B’s N Bishorjit Singh in the D-38 title bout, A Luckyson Singh claimed Imphal East-A’s first gold medal before M Nongpoknganba (IE-B) added the second with victory over Y Gyandas of Thoubal-B in the D-44 class.

Bishnupur’s only gold came in the E-34 group when N Raju Singh outclassed Thoubal-B’s O naresh Kumar.

Sri Lankan army deaths revealed

Sri Lanka says more than 6,200 security personnel were killed and almost 30,000 wounded in the final three years of the war with the Tamil Tigers.

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa revealed the figures on state TV - the first such official statement.

It is thought at least 80,000 people have been killed in the 26-year war.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday to discuss the plight of about 275,000 internally displaced people.

Sri Lanka officially announced an end to the war this week, after its troops took the last segment of land held by the rebels, and said it had killed the top Tamil Tiger leadership, including its chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

'Reconciliation'

Mr Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told the state-run Independent Television Network the final phase of the operation against the rebels had begun in August 2006.

"Since then the security forces, including the army, navy, the air force, police and the civil defence force, have lost 6,261 personnel killed and 29,551 wounded," Mr Rajapaksa said.

"We made huge sacrifices for this victory."

There are no official figures for the number of Tamil Tiger rebels killed in the civil war, although estimates vary from between 15,000 and more than 22,000.

The UN says 7,000 civilians have died since January alone, although the government disputes this figure.

The focus will now shift to the resettlement of the internally displaced.

On Thursday, two visiting Indian envoys met the president and said they had been told Sri Lanka would resettle most of the displaced Tamils within six months.

The issue will be top of Mr Ban's agenda.

Aid groups complain their access to the displaced camps has been greatly restricted.

Mr Ban will visit the Manik Farm area in Vavuniya, where most of the displaced are held.

He has sent his own envoy, Vijay Nambiar, ahead of him and on Friday Mr Nambiar said there had to be a political reconciliation.

"The process of national reconciliation, we feel, must be all inclusive so that it can fully address the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils as well as other minorities," he said.

"It is important that victory becomes a victory for all Sri Lankans."

Mr Nambiar said he had flown over the conflict zone to assess it.

"We were not able to see any civilians. What was truly striking was the almost total absence of human habitation... it was almost eerie."

He would also not rule out possible investigation of war crimes.

"Where there are grave and systematic violations of international humanitarian law, these are things which should be looked at by the international community, by the United Nations," Mr Nambiar said.

UN to press for Sri Lankan access

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to press Sri Lanka to ensure unrestricted access by aid agencies to displaced people in the north of the country.

Mr Ban said more than 300,000 people who had fled the fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces were in need of food, water and sanitation.

He is the first senior world figure to visit since the government said it had ended the 26-year insurgency this week.

Mr Ban said it was extremely important to initiate talks with minority groups.

A BBC correspondent travelling with him says he will later urge the Sri Lankan government to win the peace as well as the war.

'Humbled'

On Saturday, the UN secretary-general saw at first-hand the main government-run camp for refugees at Manik Farm, near Vavuniya, where an estimated 220,000 displaced people are being held.

"I was humbled by what I saw," he told reporters afterwards.
Humanitarian agencies complain that access to the refugees has been restricted and that the distribution of aid has been hampered by a ban on vehicles from the UN and other groups.

The government says it needs more time to find any Tamil Tiger members hiding in the camps, and is suspicious of some agencies which it has accused of helping the rebels. It plans to resettle most refugees with six months.

"We will try to work hard to keep that promise realised," Mr Ban said. "They need to be resettled as soon as possible."

"There clearly seem to be some limitations in [the camp's] capacity."

Mr Ban will later fly over the conflict zone where the military declared a final victory over the Tamil Tigers, before holding talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at his residence in Kandy.
On the plane to Sri Lanka, the UN chief said his first priority would be "unimpeded access to the sites of the displaced by international, humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations."

Mr Ban said he would also appeal to Mr Rajapaksa to open political reconciliation talks between the majority Sinhalese and the Tamil minority.

"It's time for Sri Lankans to heal the wounds and unite without regards for religious and ethnic identity," he added.

Without a political settlement that gives Tamils real rights, UN officials believe the fighting will begin anew, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, who is travelling with Mr Ban.

Senior UN officials acknowledge there is a risk that Mr Ban's visit could be used by the Sri Lankan govt to give international approval to its victory, our correspondent says.

Mr Ban told the BBC this would not happen, and that he was here to convey the concern of the international community.

Sri Lanka officially announced an end to the war this week, after its troops took the last segment of land held by the rebels and had killed the Tamil Tiger leadership, including its chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

War toll

It is thought at least 80,000 people have been killed in the war.

The UN says 7,000 civilians have died since January alone, although the government disputes this figure.

At a rally before Mr Ban arrived, Mr Rajapaksa dismissed any attempt to take him to an international war crimes court.

"There are some who tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war crimes tribunals.

"I am not afraid. The strength I have is your support. I am even ready to go to the gallows on your behalf."

In the first official statement on casualties among the government forces, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said more than 6,200 security personnel were killed and almost 30,000 wounded in the final three years of the war.

There are no official figures for the number of Tamil Tiger rebels killed in the civil war, although estimates vary from between 15,000 and more than 22,000.

GOP: Alternative energy alone won't meet US needs

WASHINGTON -Democrats will increase energy costs and make the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil if they focus solely on alternative energy, the Republicans say.
In the party's weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Republicans support a more comprehensive energy plan that would increase funding for energy research, develop U.S. oil and gas resources and promote clean coal and nuclear power.
"Democrats have focused solely on what they call green jobs. Those are jobs from alternative energy. I support green jobs, but why discriminate?" Barrasso said. "American energy means American jobs, which is why I support red-white-and-blue jobs."
He said renewable energy such as wind and solar power is important, noting that Wyoming has world-class wind resources. But Barrasso said wind and solar only account for about 1 percent of U.S. electricity, far below what is needed to meet the nation's energy needs.
Barrasso also said Democrats were misguided by ruling out the use of U.S. oil in places such as the Outer Continental Shelf and Alaska.
"There's enough oil shale in the Rocky Mountain West alone to power America for the next hundred years," he said. "As a nation, we need to be more energy independent. It is a matter of energy security, as well as national security."
"As we approach this Memorial Day, it is my hope that the Democrats can work with us to develop solutions to make our energy supply clean, affordable and reliable," he said.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Peace hopes grip Sri Lankans

The national flags are out. They are decking the streets, sold in clusters on street corners, fluttering from the auto rickshaws, waved by men in a pick-up truck.

On the streets of Colombo there is jubilation and smiling faces as the firecrackers are lit.

"I'm very very happy. After 30 years we've won… victory, I suppose!" says a young woman in Pettah, an old market area near the city centre, almost in surprise.

She says she is proud of the president and intends to go home and put out flags.

Not only Sinhalese but also Tamil, Muslim and other people tell the BBC they are relieved.

For decades they had feared boarding buses or visiting temples, some said, for fear of bombs. Now they hope there will be peace.

'Pride'

There is patriotic satisfaction, too, in website postings by Sri Lankans.

"Sri Lanka Rockz," says one.

Some take pride in the military. "Every time we all are with you, our great warriors... One nation - One flag - Sri Lanka."

The army says its operations are ended, that rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead and troops now hold all of the island's territory for the first time since 1983.

Such news will have been greeted almost with disbelief by Sri Lankans, many of whom were born into war or barely remember the time before it.

"We're part of history!" says another posting. "Today is the first day of my life I'm living in a Sri Lanka where there is no war."

A taxi driver expresses the view that, with the top Tamil Tiger leaders out of the picture, bomb blasts really will become a thing of the past.

But will they?

End of the road

Some commentators have predicted that, after their military defeat, the Tigers will concentrate more on their hallmark bombing tactics - saying this will be made possible by the cells they maintain.
But one expert tells the BBC he does not accept that argument.

Maybe there will be stray cases, he says, but with so many of the top LTTE [Tamil Tigers] leaders reportedly killed by the army, he does not see what Tamils would want to kill themselves for.

After all, according to Prabhakaran's biographer MR Narayan Swamy, for the Tigers he was "their brain… their heart… their god… their soul".

Indeed, asked whether they would continue the guerrilla war, the LTTE's foreign-based international relations head, S Padmanathan, told Britain's Channel 4 television on Sunday he believed in a peaceful solution for the Tamil people.

The war started by the LTTE has left humanitarian suffering on a huge scale - including in its final stages.

Dealing with the suffering of the refugees, the wounded and the bereaved will loom high on Sri Lanka's agenda in the immediate future.
Almost a month ago, the United Nations said it feared 6,500 civilians had been killed and twice the number wounded in the war zone since January - civilians who, it alleged, were forcibly held there by the LTTE (although the rebels always denied that) and were caught in heavy crossfire.

It described more recent violence in the small rebel-controlled zone in the north-east of the country as a "bloodbath".

Doctors working in the area described hundreds of deaths and injuries at their makeshift clinics, having to abandon the facilities in the last days.

The government said it doubted their information, as they might have been speaking under LTTE pressure - but the UN trusted them as an impartial source.

Even on Monday the UN refugee agency's head in Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, said he was worried civilians might have been killed within the past 48 hours.

Ongoing grievances

Hundreds of thousands of traumatised, emaciated people have poured out of the combat zone in the past few weeks and now stay in difficult conditions in government-run camps.

The UN and humanitarian agencies will be hoping for better access to them now that the war is over.

The UN has also said it is concerned about the welfare of the doctors who are believed to have escaped the fighting but have not been heard from since.

The government says political reforms will also be on its agenda, reforms that will perhaps aim to tackle some of the grievances of Tamil citizens who, as an ethnic minority, feel discriminated against or marginalised by the state.

There have also been calls, both from within and outside the country, for a process of reconciliation and healing, and for the government to be magnanimous in victory.

One Sri Lankan exile, also posting on the web, says he is concerned that a "hunt for Tigers and traitors will continue" - reflecting on the hard line the government has often taken towards dissenting voices and those it accuses of giving comfort to the rebels.

"We shouldn't be triumphalist," a Sinhala woman, who largely supported the government's campaign against the LTTE, told the BBC.

Lalu says Congress leaders humiliating him

New Delhi, May 18 (ANI): Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad on Monday complained to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh that some Congress leaders had been humiliating him and some other coalition leaders during television debates.

Lalu gave the example of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's statement that the Congress should go it alone in the Assembly elections in the state.

"It is an insult of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar," he added.

Earlier in the meeting, Lalu and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Chief Ram Vilas Paswan complimented Manmohan Singh, saying he had done a good job in his five-year term as Prime Minister and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) would reach its pinnacle in the coming years the way it is progressing.

"The mission of the coalition is to finish the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which it has achieved in the Lok Sabha elections," Lalu added. (ANI)

Karunanidhi seeks Centre's intervention to save Lankan Tamils

Chennai, May 18 (ANI): Hours later the Sri Lankan Army claimed that it has won the final battle in a separatist conflict seen as one of the world's most intractable wars, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Monday sought Central Government's intervention to ensure the safety of those trapped in the conflict zone.

"We want the safety of the remaining Tamils and stressing this, I have spoken to Union Home minister P. Chidambaram in this regard," Karunanidhi said at a press conference here.

Prabhakaran's reported death comes shortly after soldiers stumbled upon the bodies of several key LTTE leaders, including his son Charles Anthony, who headed the group"s IT wing and was being groomed to take over his father's mantle.

The deaths sparked frenzied celebrations in the capital Colombo and large parts of the Sinhalese populated central and southern provinces as people poured out of their homes, waved national flags and distributed sweets.

Prabhakaran founded the LTTE in 1976 and built it into an awesome military machine that at one point controlled a third of Sri Lanka"s land territory and two-thirds of its coastline. (ANI)

Sri Lanka declares end of war against LTTE after killing Prabhakaran

Colombo, May 18 (ANI): Sri Lanka on Monday formally announced the end of war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after chief V Prabhakaran was shot dead while trying to flee in an ambulance from the war zone in northern Sri Lanka.

The three-decade long fight by the LTTE for a separate homeland for Tamils came to end after the death of Tamil Tigers chief.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told President Mahinda Rajpakse on Monday in a nationally televised ceremony that Sri Lanka's war against Tamil Tiger rebels has "ended successfully." We have successfully ended the war," he told the President, who is his brother and commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Sri Lankan military commanders also lined up and shook hands with him before starting closed-door talks.

The meeting came as state television and defence officials announced that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the entire rebel leadership had been killed on Monday by government troops.

According to the military, the Tamil Tigers tried to evacuate its leaders early this morning in two vehicles. Army special soldiers of 53 Division intercepted the vehicles moving north and destroyed the convoy after fierce fighting.

The military said it had found 150 bodies of LTTE cadres so far and they are in the process of identifying them.

Prabhakaran was shot dead as he tried to stage a dramatic breakout from the army encirclement, a military spokesman said.

The news of Prabhakaran's death also came along with reports of bodies of his son Charles Anthony and three other top leaders -- Pottu Amman, Soosai and Nadesan being found. (ANI)

Prabhakaran, LTTE & Ethnic Tamils; A retrospection

Here is a retrospection on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who have spend past 26 years engaged in a bitter battle for a homeland.

Colombo: It was in 1972, that 18-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran, angered by the discrimination faced by the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, set out to with just a revolver in hand to form a group to fight for Tamil cause. This group eventually morphed into Tamil Tigers or LTTE who was since then fighting for an independent Tamil land in the Sinhalese nation. More than 70,000 had lost their life in this battle for survival.

In its course of struggle LTTE bagged a new title of being a 'terrorist organisation' from 32 nations including India. It was the first group which used women in suicide attacks. Federal Bureau of Investigation claims that it was the Tamil Tigers who invented the suicide belt.

LTTE is the only terrorist outfit which has the infamous credit of assassinating two world leaders.

On Friday, May 15 the Tigers offered to 'silence' their guns after claiming that they were for peace and are stopping war at the cause of innocent trapped civilians. However the Sri Lankan army continued their mopping operation and later on Monday, May 18 claimed that Prabhakaran, the LTTE supremo and his son Charles Anthony and other key leaders of the rebel group are dead. A formal announcement is yet to come from the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Will this mark the end of Tamil struggle in island nation? Only time will say!

Who are Ethnic Tamils?

The ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka constitute about 12 pc of the population (ie of about 12 million) and are mostly concentrated in the northern and eastern party of Lanka. Most of them follow Hinduism and speak Tamil. This separates them from the Sri Lanka's majority group, the Sinhalese, who make up 74 pc of the population. They speak Sinhala and follow Buddhism.

The internal fight between the Ethnic Tamils and Sinhalese date back to the time of colonization by the British. At the time, the country was known as Ceylon. Many Sri Lankans regarded the Tamils as British collaborators and resented the preferential treatment they received.

But when Lanka won Independence in 1948 the Sinhalese majority dominated the government. It was the Tamils then who claimed they were being discriminated against in politics, employment and education. Tamil politicians began to demand separate state for Tamils called 'Tamil Eelam' since 1970. It was this period which witnessed the rise of Velupillai Prabhakaran. He soon emerged as the leader of Tamil cause.

More on Vellupillai Prabhakaran?

Operating secretly from the north-eastern part of the Island nation, Prabhakaran, remained elusive figure for years, even to many Tigers. The LTTE chief was known for wearing a cyanide capsule around his neck, 'to swallow rather than risl capture.' Same was followed by his troops. As a result, few Tigers have been captured alive.

Though Sri Lankan government describes Prabhakaran as a war criminal with disregard for civilian casualities, he is a hero for his supporters. He is wanted by Interpol on charges including terrorism and organized crime.

In 1975, three years after forming his group, Prabhakaran was accused of fatally shooting the mayor of Jaffna, his birthplace.

Prabhakaran is also accused of masterminding the killing of then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka.

Two years later, a Tigers' suicide bomber, allegedly acting under Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally.

Who are Tamil Tigers?

Unemployed youth in Tamil-dominated areas are recruited to the Tiger cadre. Tigers officially began their armed struggle in July 1983 when they killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. So far hundreds of Tamils were killed and thousands left homeless and more that 1,00,000 fled to South India, in the fierce battle between Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tigers.

The Tigers are infamous for suicide bombings, with men and women strapping on suicide vests for more than 200 attacks against Sri Lankan citizens and dozens of high-profile political leaders.

Peace Deal:

Occasionally the fighting was stopped as a result of peace accords. In 2002 the Tigers dropped their demands for a separate homeland in exchange for a power-sharing deal with the government. Norway and some other nations agreed to be the negotiators of peace deal.

However in Jan 2008, the Sri Lankan announced it was annulling the nearly six-year-old truce with the rebels, declaring that it would crush the rebels. The fighting intensified with security forces driving the rebels from their strongholds in the east and north of the country.

Rebels vowed to fight even after government ordering them to lay down arms. Thousands of civilians became homeless and were killed after being trapped in the war zone. International aid groups expressed concern that both the government and the rebels disregarded civilian safety even in no-fire zones and hospitals. Both sides blamed the other for civilian casualties and exaggerated accounts of their victories. With journalists not allowed into the battle zones, their claims could not be independently confirmed.

On Sunday, May 17 the Tamil tiger posted an 'urgent statement' on a pro-rebel website saying that the battle had reached its 'bitter end'. "We have decided to silence our guns," the statement said.

The army continued its mopping operation even after LTTE declaring 'silence'. On Monday, May 18 Sri Lanka confirmed the death of LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran. With this three decade old war came to an end in Sri Lanka

In the past, the Tigers have emerged from near-defeat. But if Prabhakaran's death is confirmed, what will be the fate of LTTE? Will the cause of Tamils be ever addressed? Or will more militant group rise from the ashes of LTTE to fight the sufferings of Tamils in Island nation or will it provide a peaceful life to the Ethnic tamils?

We must wait and watch!

New Rs 20, Rs 1,000 notes soon: RBI

Mumbai, May 18: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is all set to issue new currency notes in denominations of Rs 20 and Rs 1,000.

Other than change in the inset letter, the design of these notes to be issued now is similar in all respects to those issued earlier in Mahatma Gandhi Series says the RBI statements. All notes in these denominations issued by the RBI in the past will also continue to be legal tender.

ICSE and ISC examination results on May 20

Bangalore, May 18: CISCE aka The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations based in New Delhi, will declare the results of the 2009 ICSE and ISC examinations results on May 20 at around 11:00 hrs IST.

Students can pre-register on www.cisce.org to get their results through email or SMS. Pre-registration closes at 6 am that day.

This is the first time the CISCE is hosting results on its own website and not through any service provider.

CBSE exam results b/w May 20-29

Bangalore, May 18: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are set to announce the results of Class 10th and Class XII examinations in between May 20 and May 29.

The results will be available in CBSE official website http://www.cbse.nic.in/

Satyam to layoff 12,000 employees

Hyderabad, May 18: The fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, which is now controlled by Tech Mahindra is planning to layoff about 12,000 to 14,000 of its employees.

A formal announcement was made by the new management before senior management personnel on Thursday, May 18 on the issue of reducing manpower by up to 14,000 people.

Satyam at present has a total staff of about 40,000 employees, of which 19,000 are 'billing employees' and about 20,000 are 'non-billing employees'. Satyam sources said that those employees who are currently on the 'bench' are in danger of losing job.

Jaya Ho! Amar Singh not to resign

The curtains fell on the 15th Lok Sabha polls after introducing to the nation the resounding victory of UPA.

It's jai ho for Manmohan Singh. Its jai ho for Sonia Gandhi. Its jai ho Rahul Gandhi, for sure.

But shifting the spotlight to Samajwadi Party, it can be said that it is 'JAYA HO' for its general secy Amar Singh.

Expressing happiness at his party’s Rampur sitting MP Jaya Prada retaining her seat, the SP leader said, “Her victory is a slap on the face of those people, who indulged in cheap tactics and those who don’t respect women. I am more happy than Jaya Prada on her victory.”

Singh was indirectly referring to his party colleague Azam Khan’s anti-Jaya Prada campaign in Rampur during the run-up to the elections to the Lok Sabha.

Amar Singh threatens to quit SP

Locked in a bitter tussle with party colleague Azam Khan, SP leader Amar Singh has said earlier promised to resign from active politics after the the Lok Sabha elections . It was Amar Singh who took Jayaprada Samajwadi and gifted Rampur seat from where she was elected in 2004 and 2009.

Amar Singh is now mum on his promise. Earlier he had sited some 'kidney problems' for his decision to retire from politics. But it seems that his 'kidney problem' is now sorted out.

There is nothing shocking in and surprising in it . The politicians in India break their promises because the public here tolerates dishonesty.

But I thought Amar Singh was little different. The only difference was that he has been a little more candid about the nature of his politics. He was frank enough enough to disclose his relationship with corporate men and bollywood. "If Amitabh and Anil Ambani are my friends, why should I hide it from the world? If I play Holi with Shilpa Shetty, why should I be ashamed of it!" he said once.

The Samajwadi party leader has few compunctions of being identified with a corporate group, but the fact is that there are many more of our politicians who are also batting for specific business interests, only they will not admit as much in public.

Forget it guys ! In the muck of Indian politics, there are no Mahatmas left any more. Politics has also become one of the best industries to make money, name and fame... and what not.

Indian stock market surges on decisive vote result

Mumbai, May 18 (ANI): India's main stock market is booming after the people gave a thumping mandate in favour of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the Lok Sabha polls, dispelling fears of a fractured mandate.

The main stock market leapt by nearly 15 percent on Monday, triggering a temporary trading halt, after the ruling coalition sealed a decisive election victory that calmed fears of political uncertainty.

The Indian rupee gained by moving more than two percent to four-month highs against the dollar while the benchmark bond yields fell as the win boosted hopes a strong coalition would be able to push through economic reforms that would boost the much needed foreign investment in the country.

The investors and market analysts are upbeat and believe that the Congress-led UPA government will push the reforms needed to boost the economy in times of recession and will provide a stable government.

"I am overjoyed for the simple reason that we have been facing a lot of problems for the last two years when the market was down. The government has come with a thumping majority and the government will come up with further reforms. They will come up with banking reforms, they will come up with infrastructure benefits, and they will come up with public sector divestment. So the overall trends for the long term market are bullish, because the government will rule for five years," observed Manish Debrawal, a Market Expert.

The investors are hopeful that the Congress led UPA will now fast track the process of economic reforms without any pressure, which in turn will boost the economy.

"When in 2004 the UPA government was formed with the Left Front support, then because of the Leftists, the markets had fallen by over 800 points.

The picture is completely different in today's scenario. The new government will be without the Lefts' support. So the reform bills in the insurance, foreign direct investment and banking sector which had been blocked by the Left will now be tabled and passed in the parliament, which is very good for the overall economy and from the market point of view," opined Siddharth Kuwala, an investor. (ANI)

Gelato, a fat-free ice cream in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, May 18 (ANI): It's summer time and most of us are drawn to ice creams. And, in these calorie conscious times, many are scared of gaining weight. But people in Chandigarh have found a solution.

In Chandigarh, you can enjoy a variety of ice creams without worrying. Nik Bakers in Chandigarh have launched Gelato ice creams. The term gelato is derived from the Italian world gelare, which simply means frozen.

With Nik Bakers, those who want to skip regular ice creams and want gelatos, ice-cream sandwiches and fruity mixes, now they have an alternative in Chandigarh city.

"Before customers actually buy it, they can do a sampling. They can have all the flavors of gelato. Like there is a spoon here. They will give you a flavor to taste some.

But its price is definitely expensive because all the ingredients are made of Italian ingredients like the flavors and other ingredients, the price range can be between 400 to 500 a kilogram. I am just talking about the ingredients. Then we make ice cream with these ingredients, so as compared to the market ice creams, which you get for 100 -150 rupees per liter, this one starts from 600 rupees per liter and goes up to 1200 rupees per liter. Hence, there's a huge difference. But when you try it, you come to know why it is so expensive," said Nikhil Mittal, owner of NIK bakers.

People in Chandigarh are queuing up to savor the cold dessert that is somewhat similar to ice cream, yet different. It is made of fresh fruits, natural ingredients and skimmed dairy products.

Gelato is produced daily to ensure the product is always fresh, unlike normal ice cream, which is manufactured and stored for long periods.

That's not all, Gelato has no gelatin and is without air too.

Apart from fat-free ice creams, outlets like Nik Bakers, Giletos', and Baskin Robbins in Chandigarh offer Sorbets, that are absolutely fat free and are made from fruit pulp.

"If you compare the difference between a branded ice cream and just a normal ice cream, the difference is huge. They are smoother, more aerated and definitely the taste is better," said Jasmine, an ice cream enthusiast.

"We really enjoy having ice cream in summer. Even in winter also we enjoy it. There is no as such rule that we just take ice cream in summer. We love to have it in winters. I think that kind of thing, we can have anytime. It's a pleasure to have ice cream every time," said Ritu Bhatia, another ice cream enthusiast.

After sunset and especially after dinnertime, one can notice many people heading for a quick cool bite of it. While most often it includes a stroll down to the branded ice-cream cart at the roundabout, the other option is an ice-cream parlor.

Each summer, ice-cream manufacturers are coming up with new flavors and varieties. And to woo the customers they even organize ice-cream festivals. By Sunil Sharma (ANI)

Obama linking auto emissions and mileage standards

WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama, seeking to end a stand-off between states and the auto industry, plans to issue new national emission limits and mileage requirements for cars and trucks.
Obama plans to announce on Tuesday that he will couple pollution reduction from vehicle tailpipes with increased efficiency on the road. It would be the first time that limits on greenhouse gases were linked with federal standards for passenger cars and light trucks.
New vehicles would be 30 percent cleaner and more fuel efficient by 2016, according to officials familiar with the administration's discussions. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement had not been made.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not release details of the announcement on Monday, although he said the administration has been working with states, businesses and environmental groups on a deal.
California, 13 other states and the District of Columbia have urged the federal government to let them enact more stringent standards than the federal government's requirements. The states' regulations would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and trucks by 2016 — the benchmark Obama planned to unveil at the White House for vehicles built in model years 2011 and beyond.
The proposal is expected to coordinate two separate standards for fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, aiming for cars that achieve higher miles per gallon and have lower polluting air conditioning systems, said Roland Hwang, the vehicles policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The environmental group has discussed the upcoming changes with the White House in recent weeks, he said.
Hwang said he expected the greenhouse gas standard would be set to an equivalent of nearly 35 miles per gallon for the vehicle fleet by 2016.
A 2007 energy law requires car makers to meet at least 35 mpg by 2020, a 40 percent increase over the current standard of about 25 mpg. Passenger car requirements have remained unchanged at 27.5 mpg since 1985, drawing complaints from environmental groups that the government has been slow to push automakers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Obama's move also would effectively end litigation between states and automakers, who sought to block state-specific rules. The new federal rules would prompt automakers to drop their lawsuit. Two car companies who have been part of the litigation, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, have received billions in government loans during a dramatic downturn in car sales and weakened economy.
Auto industry executives, including GM CEO Fritz Henderson, were expected to participate in the announcement along with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, industry officials said.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat who is being considered for the Supreme Court vacancy, will be at the White House for the event, said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the event had not been announced.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, will be in Washington for the announcement, spokesman Aaron McLear said. Schwarzenegger issued a statement Monday describing the agreement as historic and one that would lead to cleaner air and greater economic security.
"California's relentless push for greenhouse gas reductions from automobiles is paying off not just for our state, but for all Americans, for our environment, for automakers and our economy," Schwarzenegger said.
A March 2008 decision prevents states from setting their own limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, but Obama has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the ruling. California officials expect the EPA to grant the state's waiver from federal rules, which would allow it to set its own emission standards.
If it is granted, California regulators have agreed to modify their standards to comply with the new federal fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas rules, according to sources at the California Environmental Protection Agency who are familiar with the agreement.
California would begin to implement its standards this year, but they wouldn't be as tough in the initial years. The proposed federal program would meet California's target of a 30 percent emissions reduction by 2016.
The EPA was already working toward establishing federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles when it made a preliminary determination in April that six greenhouse gases — four of which are released from automobiles — endanger human health and welfare.
The White House announcement will make sure efforts by states, the EPA and the Transportation Department will occur in unison, said David Bookbinder, the Sierra Club's chief climate lawyer.

Astronauts finish repairs on Hubble space telescope

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -Spacewalking astronauts completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday, leaving it more powerful than ever and able to peer even deeper into the cosmos — almost to the brink of creation. The last humans to lay hands on Hubble outfitted the observatory with another set of fresh batteries, a new sensor for precise pointing and protective covers.
That equipment, along with other improvements made over the last five days, should allow the telescope to provide dazzling views of the universe for another five to 10 years.
"This is a very important moment in human history," Hubble senior project scientist David Leckrone said in Houston. "We will rewrite the textbooks at least one more time."
It was the fifth and final spacewalk for the shuttle Atlantis crew, and the final visit by astronauts ever to Hubble.
As the spacewalk drew to a close, Hubble's chief mechanic, John Grunsfeld, accidentally bumped one of the telescope's antennas and knocked off its cap with his backpack.
"Oh, I feel terrible," he groaned.
Mission Control quickly assured the astronauts the antenna was fine.
"Sorry, Mr. Hubble, have a good voyage," Grunsfeld said after he covered up the tip.
"Consider it a goodbye kiss, John," one of his crewmates said.
The astronauts planned to set Hubble free from the shutte's cargo bay on Tuesday.
During this emotional last house call, astronauts gave Hubble two state-of-the-art science instruments and fixed two others.
The $220 million worth of new instruments should allow the telescope to gaze farther back into time — within 500 million or 600 million years of the first moments of the universe.
Prior to the repairs, Hubble was able to look back to within 800 million years.
Hubble program manager Preston Burch acknowledged that the telescope still has some original parts, but noted "in many ways it is a brand-new observatory and far, far more capable than the Hubble of 1990."
Mission Control congratulated the astronauts for successfully completing "electronic brain surgery" Monday during a spacewalk that lasted more than seven hours.
In addition to the batteries and the sensor, Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel installed steel foil sheets to protect against radiation and the extreme temperature changes of space.
It was messy work. Pieces of the old insulation broke off and floated harmlessly away.
"I was hoping to retrieve those for memories," said Grunsfeld, an astrophysicist who has spent more time working on the orbiting Hubble than anyone. He's visited Hubble twice before, and plans to use the telescope once he's back on Earth to study the moon.
As he applied the new insulation with a roller, a voice from space sang "rollin', rollin', rollin'" to the theme song from the TV show "Rawhide."
But the total 37 hours of spacewalks were by no means routine. The astronauts had some trouble removing an old camera and had to install a refurbished pair of gyroscopes after a brand-new set refused to go in.
Sunday's spacewalk was particularly exasperating: a stuck bolt almost prevented astronauts from fixing a burned-out science instrument. Brute force saved the day.
During the mission, the four spacewalkers, two per team, managed to fix two science instruments that had broken down years ago and were never meant to be tinkered with in orbit.
They also replaced a faltering science data-handling device and installed a docking ring so a robotic craft can latch on and steer the telescope into the Pacific sometime in the early 2020s.
"We pulled it off," an ecstatic Feustel said after the final spacewalk.
All told, this visit to Hubble cost more than $1 billion.
"We have a saying ... 'Science never sleeps,' and our work is just beginning,'" said Jon Morse, NASA's director of astrophysics. "And we can't wait to get out there and use Hubble for its intended purposes."
NASA hopes to crank Hubble back up by summer's end, following extensive testing of its new parts.
But already scientists have gotten more than they expected out of Hubble when it was launched in 1990 with a projected lifetime of 15 years.
Once its blurred vision was corrected in 1993 and NASA's reputation was restored, the telescope began churning out breathtaking images: among other things, stars in the throes of birth and death.
Back at the launch site, NASA maintained its vigil in case another shuttle needed to rush to the rescue. Atlantis escaped serious launch damage a week ago, but was susceptible to all the space junk in Hubble's 350-mile-high orbit. The astronauts will perform one last survey of their ship after releasing the telescope.
NASA took unprecedented steps to have Endeavour on the pad as a rescue ship, because the Atlantis astronauts have nowhere to seek shelter if they cannot return to Earth because of shuttle damage. The space station is in another, unreachable orbit.
The increased risk prompted NASA to cancel the mission five years ago in the wake of the Columbia accident. It was reinstated two years later.
With NASA's three remaining space shuttles set for retirement next year, there will no way for astronauts to return to Hubble. The new spacecraft under development will be much smaller and less of a workhorse than the shuttle, and lack a big robot arm for grabbing the telescope.
Hubble's replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be launched in 2014 by an unmanned rocket and placed in an orbit inaccessible to astronauts.
NASA officials said the farewell to Hubble would be bittersweet.
"We all recognize we've gotten almost 20 years of service out of it. And it will be cranking along there for another five years," said Burch, the program manager. "Maybe it is time to move on."

Sunday, May 17, 2009

the battle of imphal

gallery_picture22

The Battle of Imphal took place in the region around the city of Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in North-East India from March until July 1944. Japanese armies attempted to destroy the Allied forces at Imphal and invade India, but were driven back into Burma with heavy losses. Together with the simultaneous Battle of Kohima on the road by which the encircled Allied forces at Imphal were relieved, the battle was the turning point of the Burma Campaign, part of the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II.

Air Operations at Imphal By mid-1944, the Allied air forces enjoyed undisputed air supremacy over Burma. The last major effort by the Japanese Army Air Force had been over the Arakan in February and March, when they had suffered severe losses. During the Imphal and Kohima battles, they were able to make barely half a dozen significant raids. IV Corps enjoyed close air support from fighter-bombers and dive bombers. Allied fighter bombers and medium bombers shot up and bombed enemy concentrations, supply dumps, transport, roads and bridges all the way to the Chindwin river. The monsoon in no way diminished their activity. The Third Tactical Air Force (TAF) increased their sortie rate to 24,000 sorties during the worst four months of the monsoon, nearly six times the figure of the previous year’s record. However, the most important contribution to the Allied victory was made by both British and American transport aircraft. The Allies could fly men, equipment and supplies into the airstrips at Imphal (and Palel also, until the onset of the monsoon rains) so although cut off by land, the town was not without a lifeline. Allied aircraft could also parachute ammunition, rations and even drinking water to surrounded units. Several thousand mules, many shipped from the Argentine, were used to carry food ammunition, and light guns to outlying outposts, for example 17th Indian Division up the Bishenpur trail. During the siege animal fodder also had to be flown in. At the start of the battle, South East Asia Command had 76 transport aircraft (mainly C-47 Skytrain) available, but many others were dedicated to supplying the Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-Shek, or to establishing USAAF bomber bases in China, via "the hump". Not even Lord Mountbatten, the Commander-in-Chief, had the authority to commandeer any of these aircraft, but at the crisis of the battle in the middle of March he nevertheless did so, acquiring 20 C-46 Commando. He was supported by American officers at SEAC and the American China-Burma-India Theater headquarters.[9] By the end of the battle the Allied air forces had flown 19,000 tons of supplies and 12,000 men into Kohima and Imphal, and flown out 13,000 casualties and 43,000 non-combatants. War Cemetry After the war, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission set up cemetries in Imphal and Kohima to commemorate the memories of the British and the Indian soldiers who died during the Second World War.[10] Stalemate From the beginning of April, the Japanese attacked the Imphal plain from several directions: • 33rd Division attacked from the south at Bishenpur, where they cut a secondary track from Silchar into the plain. Yanagida, its commander, was already pessimistic and depressed by the failure to trap the Indian 17th Division. He had also been rattled by a garbled radio message which suggested that one of his regiments had been destroyed at Milestone 109. He therefore advanced cautiously. By doing so, he may have lost a chance to gain success while the Indian 17th Infantry Division was resting after its retreat and Bishenpur was held only by Indian 32 Brigade (from 20th Division). Mutaguchi removed him from command. • Yamamoto Force attacked the Shenam Saddle on the main road from Tamu into Imphal. The Shenam Saddle was ideal defensive terrain. Despite using heavy artillery and tanks, Yamamoto could not break through Indian 20th Division's well-sited defences. The INA's Gandhi Regiment or 2nd Guerrilla Regiment, of two battalions led by Inayat Kiyani, later joined this attack and suffered heavy casualties in the assault on Palel airfield. • 15th Division encircled Imphal from the north. Its 60 Regiment captured a British supply dump at Kangpokpi (also known as "Mission" from a church there) on the main Imphal-Dimapur road, but once again, the depot had already been emptied of food and ammunition. 51 Regiment seized the vital Nunshigum Ridge, which overlooked the main airstrip at Imphal. This was a major threat to IV Corps, and on April 13 the Indian 5th Division counter-attacked, supported by massed artillery and the M3 Lee tanks of the 3rd Carabiniers. The Japanese regiment had no anti-tank weapons, and their troops were driven from the ridge with heavy casualties. The situation At the start of 1944, the war was going against the Japanese on several fronts. They were being driven back in the central and south west Pacific. In south east Asia, they had held their lines over the preceding year, but the Allies were preparing several offensives from India and Yunnan into Burma. In particular, the town of Imphal in Manipur on the frontier with Burma was built up to be a substantial logistic base, with airfields, encampments and supply dumps. Imphal was held by the Indian IV Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Scoones. The corps was in turn part of the British Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William Slim. Because the Allies were planning to take the offensive themselves, the corps' units were thrown forward almost to the Chindwin River and widely separated, being vulnerable to being cut off. • Indian 20th Infantry Division occupied Tamu. The division was untried but well-trained. • Indian 17th Infantry Division occupied Tiddim, at the end of a long and precarious line of communication. The division, which had two brigades only, had been intermittently in action since December 1941. • Indian 23rd Infantry Division was in reserve in Imphal. It had served on the Imphal front for two years and was severely understrength as a result of endemic diseases such as malaria and typhus. • Indian 50th Parachute Brigade was north of Imphal, conducting advanced jungle training. • 254th Indian Tank Brigade was stationed in and around Imphal. Japanese plan Main article: Operation U-Go Late in 1943, the Japanese command in Burma had been reorganised. A new headquarters, Burma Area Army, was created under Lieutenant-General Masakasu Kawabe. One of its subordinate formations, responsible for the central part of the front facing Imphal and Assam, was Fifteenth Army, whose new commander was Lieutenant-General Renya Mutaguchi. From the moment he took command, Mutaguchi forcefully advocated an invasion of India. His motives for doing so appear to be complex. He had played a major part in several Japanese victories, ever since the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937 and believed it was his destiny to win the decisive battle of the war for Japan. He may also have been goaded by the first Chindit expedition, a raid behind Japanese lines launched by the British under Orde Wingate early in 1943. The Allies had widely publicised the successful aspects of Wingate's expedition while concealing their losses to disease and exhaustion, possibly misleading Mutaguchi and some of his staff as to the difficulties they would later face. Mutaguchi planned to exploit the capture of Imphal by advancing to the Brahmaputra River valley, thereby cutting the Allied supply lines to their front in northern Burma, and to the airfields supplying the Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek over "The Hump". Although the staff at Burma Area Army HQ and at Southern Expeditionary Army Group HQ had reservations over the scale of his proposed operation, they were eventually induced to support it when War Minister Hideki Tojo and Imperial Army HQ favoured attacking India. Mutaguchi intended to cut off and destroy the Allied units in their forward positions and then capture Imphal. His plan was name U-Go, or Operation C. In detail:

 gallery_picture24 gallery_picture32 gallery_picture33 grub (1) grub indiantroopsimphal_small malta-hill_small road_burma stuart-irrawady_small the 14th tank regiment's shinhoto chi-ha captured near imphal usa-c-india-0 17th 200px-imphalradio 200px-subhas_bose 300px-imphalgurkhas ariba keithel baileycatwalk (1) baileycatwalk bishenpur-recce_small gallery_picture2 gallery_picture4 gallery_picture6 gallery_picture10 gallery_picture11 gallery_picture13 gallery_picture17 (1) gallery_picture17 gallery_picture19 gallery_picture21