SOUTH ASIA NEWS

US NEWS SOURCES -November 20 2002

---IN TODAY'S NEWS---

BREAKING NEWS

* Stop charities to U.S. groups funding Hindu right in India (IANS)
A group of activists Wednesday urged multinationals to stop donating to a U.S.-based charity that they said was channelling millions of dollars to Hindu rightwing groups engaged in "divisive activities" in India. Making public an exhaustive report on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) in the U.S., Biju Mathew said IDRF was created fundamentally to support the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). "Most of the IDRF funds go into activities promoting sectarian hatred," charged Mathew of a group known as "Project Saffron Dollar". He was speaking at a press conference organised by Sahmat, a left leaning socio-cultural organisation.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/021120/43/1xzm9.html

* US intelligence predicts high HIV/AIDS incidence in India (PTI)
The National Intelligence Council of the United States has reported that the number of people afflicted with HIV/AIDS in five countries, including India, would grow from the current level of 14-23 million to 50-75 million by 2010. The projections made for affected persons in India, China, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Russia by 2010 would be 20-25 million, 10-15 million, 10-15 million, 7-10 million and 5-8 million respectively, Minister of State for Health A Raja said during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/021120/20/1xzgu.html

In Pakistan, thousands gather to mourn killer executed in U.S. In other news, U.S. treasury secretary pats Pakistan for its efforts to cut funds to terrorists and is also in talks to cancel a major debt of $1 billion. Bhutan is in news as a UN team is investigating a case of sexual abuse on Bhutanese refugees in neighbouring Nepal. The editorial discusses the frequent communal clashes in India and the solution for it.

HEADLINES

TOP STORIES
Executed Pakistani hailed a hero (NY Times) (Chicago Tribune) (Washington Post) (Action News) (Sanluisobispo.com) (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) (Press Enterprise) (Las Vegas Sun) (News Day) (The State) (MSNBC)
O'Neill praises Pakistan's efforts to cut funds to terrorists (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times) (Washington Post) (MSNBC)
Pakistani parliament picks speaker (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times) (Washington Post) (CNN) (Voice of America) (ABC News) (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) (Sanluisobispo.com) (Press Enterprise) (News Observer) (News Day) (The State) (KREM. com)
Islamic allies in Pakistan fail in talks for coalition (NY Times)
Musharraf backers elected to top posts (Washington Times)
Bush administration working for major debt cancellation for Pakistan (International Information Programs, U.S) (Sanluisobispo.com) (Forbes.com)
Unclear if India parliament alert was drill, false alarm (Wall Street Journal)
India battles shame, prejudice in grim AIDS battle (Life Clinic)
Indian seeks fame by chainsmoking through his ears (Tobacco News)
Kashmir bomb kills two (CNN)
India PM against Iraqi nukes, opposes ousting Saddam (Wall Street Journal)
Delhi NGOs, cops lock horns over beggars (Global Policy Forum)
Religion a major issue in Gujarat elections (Inter Press Service)
Inaccurate arsenic test kits jeopardize water safety in Bangladesh and India (EurekAlert Science News)
U.N. investigates sexual abuse of Bhutan refugees in Nepal (NY Times) (LA Times) (Washington Post) (ABC News) (Press Enterprise) (Las Vegas Sun) (News Day) (MSNBC)

EDITORIALS / OP-ED
A proven way to end India's communal riots (International Herald Tribune)

BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY
India VSNL signs new revenue share deals with MTNL, BSNL (Wall Street Journal)
Sun, Oracle set up Indian developer lab (Wireless Week)
The live wire in Indian high tech (Business Week)

OTHER STORIES
India visits leave student with desire to impact lives (Daily Reflector)
A Joyous Parade of Sikh Pride (New York Newsday)
3 minorities accused of hate crime in attack on store clerk (Boston Globe)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STORIES

TOP STORIES

* Executed Pakistani hailed a hero
Quetta, Pakistan -- Thousands of people gathered in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday for the funeral of a Pakistani executed in the United States for killing two CIA employees, and hailed Mir Amil Kansi as an Islamic hero. The country's new national assembly, meeting for the first time this week after three years of military rule, also interrupted its proceedings on Tuesday to offer a brief prayer for Kansi.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Kasi-Funeral.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-nov19.story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ANov19.html
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/wsbtv/news/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V9458.AP-Pakistan-Kasi-F.html
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/world/4552212.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Kasi%20Funeral
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/International/Pakistan_Kasi_Funeral_36481I.shtml
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2002/nov/19/111909458.html
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-kasi-funeral1119nov19,0,4718594.story
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/4552212.htm
http://www.msnbc.com/news/837071.asp

* O'Neill praises Pakistan's efforts to cut funds to terrorists
Islamabad -- The U.S. treasury secretary on Tuesday praised Pakistani's efforts to stop the flow of money to terrorists, pledged more U.S. aid and held talks on forgiving $1 billion in debt to the United States. ''There is a major effort under way and continuing in Pakistan to go after tainted money ... finding bad people and capturing their money,'' Paul O'Neill said after meeting with Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and other economic officials in Islamabad.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20021120_001108-search,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-ONeill.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9107-2002Nov19.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA

* Pakistani parliament picks speaker
Islamabad -- In its first official act since convening over the weekend, Pakistan's parliament on Tuesday elected two lawmakers from President Pervez Musharraf's party to be speaker and deputy speaker, a powerful sign the military ruler's supporters are likely to emerge at the head of a coalition government. Lawmakers chose Chaudhry Amir Hussain, a politician loyal to Musharraf, as their speaker, and elected another pro-Musharraf legislator, Sardar Muhammad Yaqub, as deputy. Each man won by a wide margin.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB-search,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/20/international/asia/20ISLAhtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ANov19.html
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/11/19/pakistanpolitics/index.html
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=9E01884E-7320-44CC-93DF3B1D00763FFD
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20021119_294.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Politics
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/world/4558246.htm
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/International/Pakistan_Politics_36494I.shtml
http://newsobserver.com/24hour/world/story/627381p-4809673chtml
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-politics1120nov19,0,2763040.story
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/4553748.htm
http://www.krem.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D7NDGGS80.html

* Islamic allies in Pakistan fail in talks for coalition
Islamabad -- An alliance of Pakistani Islamic parties said today that its demands for a reduction in President Pervez Musharraf's powers had kept it from reaching agreement with the pro-Musharraf party on forming a governing coalition in Parliament. The six-party alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, issued a statement tonight after talks with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid broke off without an agreement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/19/international/asia/19STANhtml

* Musharraf backers elected to top posts
Islamabad -- Pakistan's parliament yesterday elected two lawmakers from President Pervez Musharraf's party to be speaker and deputy speaker, a sign the military ruler's supporters are likely to emerge at the head of a coalition government. Still, efforts to cobble together a ruling coalition have come up empty, leaving the nation without a prime minister more than five weeks after the Oct. 10 vote.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/.htm

* Bush administration working for major debt cancellation for Pakistan
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the Bush administration is working to have $1 billion in Pakistani debts cancelled, as Pakistan and the United States move toward closer cooperation in trade, investment, and steps against money laundering. "President Bush has indicated that he would seek action by the Congress in order to provide debt relief and there are no ifs, ands or conditions.
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/geog/sa&f=02111902.nsa&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/4555004.htm
http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2002/11/19/rtr798853html

* Unclear if India parliament alert was drill, false alarm
New Delhi -- Indian police imposed a security alert at Parliament for about an hour Wednesday, closing all gates after saying they had received a tip that terrorists were heading there. But TV stations reported that it was a false alarm or a police exercise, and the head of the Parliament Security Office said he didn't know whether it was real or not.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20021120_001507-search,00.html

* India battles shame, prejudice in grim AIDS battle
New Delhi -- Shame, prejudice and poverty are fueling India's HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the country risks having the largest number of people in the world infected with the disease within a few years. Already, 4 million Indians have HIV or AIDS, making it second only to South Africa, and a US intelligence report warned that could balloon to 20 million to 25 million by 2010.
http://www.lifeclinic.com/healthnews/article_view.asp?story=22920

* Indian seeks fame by chainsmoking through his ears
An Indian man has reportedly become famous for his ability to chainsmoke through his ears. Dharmendra Singh from the Rajasthan city of Bikaner smokes up to 20 cigarettes in a row, reports Asian News International. He said: "Since childhood I wanted to do something different and new. For the past one or one-and-a-half years I have tried to smoke through my ears. Now, I will try to do it with my mouth and ears together."
http://www.tobacco.org/news/108957.html

* Kashmir bomb kills two
Srinagar, India -- A massive explosion in the northern Kashmiri city of Bandipor has killed two people and wounded seven others. Police said Tuesday an officer in the paramilitary Border Security Force and a civilian died in the midday explosion that also wounded five members of the Jammu and Kashmir state police and two civilians.
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/11/19/kashmir.explosion/index.html

* India PM against Iraqi nukes, opposes ousting Saddam
New Delhi -- India's prime minister opposes any U.S.-led move to replace Saddam Hussein, but supports global demands for Iraq to give up weapons of mass destruction. "There are clouds of war hovering over Baghdad," Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a speech Tuesday. "We hope there are no more wars, that all disputes are settled through dialogue."
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20021119_001551,00.html

* Delhi NGOs, cops lock horns over beggars
New Delhi -- When 16-year-old Manoj recited his poem "Kangalistan ke kangle hum sab... (We are the beggars of this beggar nation)", all his listeners sympathised. But that was where the meeting of minds at a workshop in the Indian capital on the problems impoverished beggars face, and pose, ended. The authorities and NGOs had totally different views on tackling the situation.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/state/2002/1119beggars.htm

* Religion a major issue in Gujarat elections
New Delhi -- Nominations began Monday for the Dec. 12 elections in India's western Gujarat state, where communal issues have taken preponderance over economic development thanks largely to a violent pogrom against Muslims the state was witness to earlier this year. The state's chief minister Narendra Modi, currently in the national capital for discussions with the prime minister and leader of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Atal Bihari Vajpayee, told reporters that he would not make an election issue out of the Godhra incident that triggered the communal violence in the state.
http://www.oneworld.net/ips4/2002/11/19-1.shtml

* Inaccurate arsenic test kits jeopardize water safety in Bangladesh and India
Thousands in southern Asia could be drinking arsenic-contaminated water from wells that are falsely labeled safe, while precious good water sits untapped in wells that are wrongly marked unsafe — a dire disparity for countries where water can be more valuable than gold. A new study of wells in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, suggests the arsenic test kits used by field workers are frequently inaccurate, producing scores of incorrectly labeled wells.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-11/acs-iat111902.php

* U.N. investigates sexual abuse of Bhutan refugees in Nepal
Kathmandu -- The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday it sent a team to Nepal to investigate the sexual assault of Bhutanese refugees by aid workers. The agency has confirmed that at least 18 employees of local nongovernment agencies have assaulted refugees at camps for people who fled neighboring Bhutan.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nepal-Bhutanese-Refugees.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-nepal-bhutanese-refugees1119nov19,0,2218030.story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9666-2002Nov19.html
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20021119_900.html
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/International/Nepal_Bhutanese_Refugees_36476I.shtml
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2002/nov/19/111909288.html
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-nepal-bhutanese-refugees1119nov19,0,6109745.story
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDITORIALS / OP-ED

* A proven way to end India's communal riots
Life in the state of Bihar, where I grew up, has a justified reputation for being nasty, brutish, and short. Social and economic conditions in India do not measure up well against world averages. But for just about any criterion you care to name, from adult literacy to life expectancy, maternal mortality, caste wars and electoral violence, Bihar comes at the bottom.
http://www.iht.com/articles/77479.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY

* India VSNL signs new revenue share deals with MTNL, BSNL
New Delhi -- Indian telecommunications company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSL) Tuesday signed revenue share agreements with state-owned telecom companies Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTE) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, ending months of dispute. VSNL, an international phone calls provider which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, had been negotiating with MTNL and BSNL since March.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20021119_002028,00.html

* Sun, Oracle set up Indian developer lab
Sun Microsystems the creators of the Java software standard, has joined hands with Oracle, the leading e-business provider, to set up a developer laboratory here, that will provide Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in India, a full range of Sun hardware platforms running frontline softwares of both companies.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleId=NEa1119333.9iw&verticalID=110&vertical=Wireless+Internet

* The live wire in Indian high tech
In January, India's Wipro Ltd. landed the kind of breakthrough deal it was craving. Sony Corp. handed the company a $5 million contract to write information-technology applications for its TV and computer assembly plants in the U.S. By hiring Wipro and its army of low-cost Indian engineers, Sony expects to save 30%. "I was extremely happy with CAP Gemini," the IT consultant that previously did the work, says Vinnie Tiru, Sony's U.S. chief information officer.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_47/b3809168htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OTHER STORIES

* India visits leave student with desire to impact lives
In his first 10 visits to India, Prerak Bathia of Greenville had tried to look away from the poverty and destitution that plagued the poorest people in his parents' homeland. He had pushed it out of his mind, attempting somehow to ignore it while he visited family and friends. During his trip last December, however, he could not turn away anymore. Bathia, then an 18-year-old freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he had started looking at the world differently after the Sept. 11 attacks.
http://www.reflector.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2002/11/17/.html

* A Joyous Parade of Sikh Pride
Today is the 533rd anniversary of the birth of Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the Sikh religion, and it is being marked with a week of events that began Saturday in Richmond Hill and elsewhere in the metropolitan area. It's the second time in two years that Sikhs from the tristate area gathered in this community to pay homage to their guru.This past Saturday, several thousand men and women, wearing their bright turbans or head scarves, paraded through a steady rain in Richmond Hill to the sounds of congregants praying and bells chiming.
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition

* 3 minorities accused of hate crime in attack on store clerk
In what one defense lawyer called an unusual twist to an alleged hate crime, three young men arraigned yesterday on accusations of hurling racial epithets as they attacked a Pakistani 7-Eleven clerk over the weekend are all ethnic minorities, at least two of them born outside the United States. Because of the racially charged nature of the alleged drunken rampage in Easton, the three men face much more serious charges than they would for simple assault and battery. Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr.'s office plans to seek an indictment in Superior Court on state civil rights charges, which could result in 10-year prison terms, a spokesman said.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/324/metro/3_minorities_
accused_of_hate_crime_in_attack_on_store_clerk+.shtml

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------