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Archives
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SOUTH ASIA NEWS |

STRING |
|
US
NEWS SOURCES - July 26&27, 2003 (Weekend) |
| TOP
STORIES |
|
* |
U.S. ambassador warns of consequences if Pakistan fails to stop
cross-border terrorism in Kashmir |
| |
July 26, New
Delhi -- The U.S. ambassador to India has warned of unspecified
consequences if Pakistan fails to end incursions by Islamic guerrillas
into the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. Ambassador Robert Blackwill
told the New Delhi Television channel that Pakistan-based terrorists
continue to cross the border despite a pledge by Pakistan's president,
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to end the problem. A so-called ``Line of Control'
divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed rivals which
both claim the entire territory and have fought two wars over it.
|
| |

|
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_ |
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030726_000042,00.html |
|
* |
Top
US military official to discuss Indian troops for Iraq during talks with
Indian officials |
| |
July 27, New
Delhi -- A top U.S. military official was to meet Indian security leaders
Monday for talks on bilateral defense cooperation and regional security,
including the possibility of New Delhi sending troops to Iraq. The
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, who is
scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Monday, was to meet India's National
Security Adviser Brajesh Misra for discussions on closer military ties
between the two countries. Myers is also scheduled to meet with his Indian
counterpart, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral Madhvendra
Singh, and Gen. N. C. Vij, the army chief. New Delhi recently rejected
Washington's request to send troops to help stabilize Iraq, after Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee failed to achieve a political consensus on
the issue. But news reports say officials from both sides continue to
explore a politically acceptable way for India to deploy forces.
|
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000947-search,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_cf10000376d44a65 |
|
* |
Pakistan, India trade artillery fire along Kashmir border; six
civilians killed |
| |
July 27,
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan -- Troops from India and Pakistan traded artillery
and mortar fire along the Kashmir border, killing six Pakistani civilians.
The dead from Sunday's skirmish, which is not uncommon in the disputed
border region, included two brothers, ages 8 and 10. Another 15 people
were wounded on Pakistan's side, said police Superintendent Raja Abdul
Razzaq. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Indian side.
The young brothers died of shrapnel wounds when an artillery shell
exploded near their home in Hajira, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of
Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir. |
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000743-search,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_8a1700016e4c0f26 |
| |
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Kashmirhtml |
| |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Pakistan%20Kashmir |
| |
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/6398026.htm |
|
* |
Fifteen wounded in grenade blast in Indian
Kashmir |
| |
July 27,
Srinagar, India -- Fifteen people were wounded in India's Jammu and
Kashmir state on Sunday when a grenade thrown by suspected Muslim rebels
at an army patrol missed the target and exploded on a crowded street,
police said. Rebel violence has continued in the disputed Himalayan region
despite India and Pakistan making efforts to improve ties. ``Militants
attacked a security patrol with a grenade at Kokernag which missed the
target and exploded on the road injuring fifteen civilians,'' a police
official told Reuters. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-kashmir-explosion.html |
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul27.html |
|
* |
Soldiers kill six suspected guerrillas in Indian-held
Kashmir |
| |
July 27,
Srinagar, India -- Indian soldiers on Sunday raided a rebel hide-out in
the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir and killed six suspected Islamic
guerrillas, while 14 people were wounded in a grenade attack elsewhere in
the disputed region, police said. Two houses in Khandpora, the village
where the rebels were allegedly hiding, were also destroyed in a fierce
six-hour gunbattle sparked by the raid, a police officer said on condition
of anonymity. There were no reports of casualties among Indian troops, the
officer said. Khandpora is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of
Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
|
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000500,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_a5e1000479fb9d70 |
| |
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-kashmir-killings,0,4112053.story |
| |
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Kashmir-Killingshtml |
| |
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/-kashmir_x.htm |
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul27.html |
|
* |
Judge frees 4th Virginia jihad suspect |
| |
July 26 --
Federal prosecutors, for the first time, yesterday tried to directly link
a member of an alleged Virginia jihad network to al Qaeda, telling a judge
that the suspect's phone number was found in the cell phone directory of a
friend authorities say admitted to being a member of the terror network.
But their efforts failed to persuade U.S. District Judge Leonie M.
Brinkema to jail the suspect, Sabri Benkahla, before trial. Instead,
Brinkema upheld a Thursday ruling by a magistrate judge and freed Benkahla
after his father agreed to put up the family's Falls Church home as bond.
He is the fourth of 11 suspects charged in the case to be released pending
trial. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul25.html |
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul25.html |
|
* |
Pakistani religious leader ends India
visit |
| |
July 26,
Islamabad -- The leader of Pakistan's main religious party returned home
after visiting India as part of an effort to improve relations between the
two countries. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Muttahida
Majlis-i-Amal, brought with him a message from India Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee, The Dawn reported. The message was handed over to
Pakistan Prime Minister Zafrullah Khan Jamali but its contents were not
disclosed. The maulana spent 10 days in India. The Dawn, an English
language newspaper in Pakistan, speculated the message contained options
for a solution to the Kashmir issue over which the two countries have
fought two wars since 1947. |
| |

|
| |
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm |
|
* |
Pakistani Islamic coalition agrees to talks with government over
political impasse |
| |
July 27,
Islamabad -- A coalition of hardline Islamic parties said it is willing to
hold talks with the government on ending a political impasse that has
blocked debate in Parliament. Another group of opposition parties, called
the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, rejected the talks. Both
opposition groups have been demanding that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
step down as chief of the armed forces and give up special powers he
decreed allowing him to dissolve Parliament and sack the prime minister.
Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless 1999 coup, has refused. The
Pakistani leader allowed democratic elections in October, but he has vowed
to stay on as president and army chief as long as he deems it is in the
best interests of the countr |
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000814-search,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_fd170005132eef46 |
|
* |
Two
elderly civilians killed in border skirmish |
| |
July 27,
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan -- Pakistani and Indian troops traded heavy
artillery and mortar fire along the disputed Kashmir border on Sunday,
killing two civilians and injuring 13 others on the Pakistan side of the
border, police said. A 65-year-old woman died in Nakial village, about 260
kilometers (156 miles) south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani
Kashmir, when a stray shell hit her home, Police Superintendent Raja Abdul
Razzaq said. The second civilian, a 70 year-old man, was also killed by an
exploding shell in Forward Kahuta area, about 160 kilometers (100 miles)
southeast of Muzaffarabad, he said. |
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000512-search,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_10cb00013dc4d5bb |
|
* |
Top
state official in India's northeast survives rebel
attack |
| |
July 27, New
Delhi -- Suspected separatist rebels ambushed the convoy of the top
elected official in India's northeastern Manipur state on Sunday, wounding
four security guards, a news report said. Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh
escaped the gunfire unhurt, the Press Trust of India news agency said,
quoting police. The security guards retaliated but the attackers escaped,
the agency said. The four wounded guards were being treated in a nearby
hospital, it said. No other details were immediately available. Manipur
police said they suspected rebels, but didn't name any specific group.
More than two dozen insurgent groups have been fighting in India's seven
northeastern states, demanding independent homelands. |
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000489,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_67420002a1da01aa |
|
* |
Bomb
rips through remote corner of northwest
Pakistan |
| |
July 27,
Peshawar, Pakistan -- A powerful bomb exploded in a remote town in
northwest Pakistan on Sunday, injuring seven people, two of them
seriously, an interior ministry official said. The homemade bomb was
detonated under a vehicle in Miran Shah belonging to the Tochi Scouts, a
local militia allied with the Pakistan army, said ministry official
Mohammed Aslam. No one was in the vehicle at the time, he said, adding
that the injured were passers by. Aslam said the bomb targeted the Tochi
Scouts, but no one claimed responsibility for it. U.S. Special Forces are
stationed in Miran Shah, 290 kilometers (170 miles) northwest of the
federal capital of Islamabad and close to the Afghan border.
|
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000539-search,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_3c3100025d6189df |
|
* |
Sri
Lanka toU.N. peacekeeper training center |
| |
July 27, Colombo
-- The Sri Lankan government plans toa training center for would-be
U.N. peacekeepers from across South Asia, a news report said Sunday. The
state-run Sunday Observer newspaper said the government had already
allocated land in central Sri Lanka for the training center, which would
start operating by June, 2004. The United Nations would provide the
instructors and funding for the training, the report said. Sri Lanka is
keen to send troops on peacekeeping operations, especially since its
efforts to end its own two-decade civil war appear to be taking root.
|
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030727_000481,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_a72a000247ab0163 |
|
* |
Afghan president invites Pakistan's Musharraf for state
visit |
| |
July 26, Kabul --
After a month in which a mob ransacked Pakistan's embassy in Afghanistan
and border clashes broke out between the two countries, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai has invited Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to visit, an
official said Saturday. Musharraf accepted the invitation during a
telephone conversation between the two heads of state on Friday, but no
date has been set for the visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad
said. ``Generally, both sides are moving toward putting relations back on
track, but that doesn't mean all the issues have been resolved,' Samad
told The Associated Press. ``We still have some pretty important issues
that have to be taken up by Pakistan and we expect some action on their
part.' |
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030726_000063,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_18f8000aea4f1158 |
|
* |
Bomb explodes outside a bank in eastern India, one person
killed |
| |
July 26, New
Delhi -- Suspected robbers exploded a bomb outside a bank in an eastern
Indian city, killing one person and wounding a police officer on Saturday,
a news report said. The unidentified assailants detonated the explosive in
an attempt to rob a man carrying cash to a branch of the Bank of Baroda in
Patna, the capital of Bihar state, the Press Trust of India news agency
quoted police as saying. The report said a passer-by was killed and a
police officer injured in the blast. It wasn't clear if the intended
victim, who was on his way to deposit cash for his company, was also
wounded. |
| |

|
| |
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030726_000032,00.html |
| |
http://www.hoovers.com/free/news/detail.xhtml?ArticleID=NR_17040000f6efcf3a |
|
* |
Pakistan shootout kills cop, two gunmen |
| |
July 27, New
Delhi -- A shootout between police and gunmen on the outskirts of the
Pakistani capital left one policeman and two assailants dead, police said
Sunday. The shootout happened late Saturday after police tried to stop the
vehicle during a routine check, police spokesman Nusrat Ali said. Gunmen
insided fire on the policemen, killing one. Police then killed two
of the gunmen, Ali said. Another two gunmen were arrested after the
vehicle screamed to a halt on the side of the road. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/nation/6393592.htm |
| |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Shooting |
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul27.html |
|
* |
Indian troops kill 16 along Kashmir
border |
| |
July 26,
Stinagar, India -- Indian soldiers killed 11 suspected Muslim rebels and
five unarmed Bangladeshis trying to sneak into the Indian-controlled part
of Kashmir yesterday, police said. Two Indian soldiers were killed. India
and Pakistani troops also pounded each other with artillery along the Line
of Control, the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and
Pakistan. No casualties were reported. Indian and Pakistani troops
routinely shell each other, but there has been a comparative lull since
April, when leaders of the two countries renewed efforts to resume talks
on Kashmir after two years of bitter relations. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/207/nation/Indian_troops_kill_16_along_Kashmir_border+.shtml |
|
* |
India denies visa to the secretary-general of Amnesty
International |
| |
July 25 New Delhi
-- The Indian government has denied a visa to the secretary-general of
Amnesty International without giving a reason, officials from the
London-based human rights group said Friday. Vijay Nagaraj, an Amnesty
official in India, confirmed on Friday that the group's secretary-general,
Irene Khan Zubeida, had been denied a visa. He said he could not comment
further. Amnesty International has written critical reports about the
conduct of Indian security forces in Kashmir and the lack of police
intervention in religious riots in Gujarat last year in which more than
1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul25.html |
|
| EDITORIALS / OP-ED |
|
* |
Johnny can't add but Suresh Venktasubramanian
can |
| |
July 27 -- The
other day I went to the Web site of Bell Labs, one of the country's
premier research outfits. I clicked at random on a research project,
Programmable Networks for Tomorrow. The scientists working on the project
were Gisli Hjalmstysson, Nikos Anerousis, Pawan Goyal, K. K. Ramakrishnan,
Jennifer Rexford, Kobus Van der Merwe, and Sneha Kumar Kasera. Clicking
again at random, this time on the Information Visualization Research
Group, the research team turned out to be John Ellson, Emden Gansner, John
Mocenigo, Stephen North, Jeffery Korn, Eleftherios Koutsofios, Bin Wei,
Shankar Krishnan, and Suresh Venktasubramanian. |
| |

|
| |
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/r/reed/03/reed072703.htm |
|
* |
Moving jobs overseas not all bad |
| |
July 27 -- Since
the U.S. recession began in March 2001, the economy has lost nearly 2.6
million jobs. These losses have continued for more than two years, and
unemployment in June stood at a nine-year high of 6.4 percent, despite the
end of the recession in November 2001. Nowhere has the pain of joblessness
been felt more acutely than in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley with the
meltdown of the technology sector. An issue that has gained a great deal
of media attention in the past several months in high-tech centers such as
Silicon Valley is the "offshoring" of information-technology jobs to
countries such as India, China, Russia, Philippines and
Vietnam. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/business/6395778.htm |
|
| BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY / DEFENSE |
|
* |
Coke's India fertilizer may be toxic |
| |
July 26, New
Delhi -- Waste from a Coca-Cola plant in India which the company provides
as fertilizer for local farmers may contain toxic chemicals. A study shows
dangerous levels of the known carcinogen cadmium have been found in the
sludge produced from the plant in the southern state of Kerala, the
British Broadcasting Corp. reported. The chemicals were traced in an
investigation by BBC Radio 4's "Face The Facts" program and prompted
scientists to call for the practice to be halted immediately.
|
| |

|
| |
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm |
|
* |
Indian employee sues Oracle, manager for alleged
harassment |
| |
July 26 -- An
Indian programmer at Oracle has sued her Indian male supervisor and the
world's No. 2 software maker for alleged sexual harassment, claiming the
man forced her into sex by telling her she needed to ``learn the art of
pleasing the American manager.'' In her complaint, the plaintiff,
identified only as ``Barbara Doe,'' accused her supervisor of exploiting
their shared background as Indians to sexually harass, assault and exploit
her. Both parties were born and educated in India. ``The facts do not
support the allegations made in the case, but it would be inappropriate to
comment further at this time,'' Oracle spokeswoman Jennifer Glass said in
a statement Friday. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/6390146.htm |
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul25.html |
|
* |
Indian drug institute uses computers to reduce animal
testing |
| |
July 26, Lucknow,
India -- India's premier drug research institute says it can reduce animal
testing by 80 percent through use of new computer programs to help check
whether a prospective medicine would be toxic to humans. The
government-run Central Drug Research Institute -- which develops and tests
most drugs produced by India's prolific pharmaceutical industry --
produced the computer software in collaboration with New Delhi-based
Invenio Biosolutions and began using it in early July, institute director
Dr. C.M. Gupta said. The software also checks whether drugs have already
been rejected or produced by other laboratories. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6389346.htm |
|
* |
Covansys' stock jumps after it sends jobs to
India |
| |
July 26 -- Shares
of information technology consultant Covansys Corp. jumped 62 percent
Friday after an analyst praised the Farmington Hills company for shifting
jobs to India. More than 1.5 millions shares changed hands, or 16 times
the usual daily average, after Robert W. Baird & Co. raised the stock
from "neutral" to "outperform." Baird analyst Timothy Byrne boosted his
target price for Covansys shares from $4 to $8. The stock jumped Friday,
Byrne said, because the restructuring moves "came more rapidly and
aggressively than expected." Covansys closed Friday at $6.09, up $2.34.
Byrne was responding to a Thursday report in which Covansys said it had
cut 200 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its U.S. workforce, to reduce costs. The
company eliminated 25 percent of the top two layers of management.
|
| |

|
| |
http://www.freep.com/money/business/cov26_20030726.htm |
|
* |
Pakistan-born agent 'proud to get into the mainstream of America,
yet still maintain her identity' |
| |
July 27 -- It
took four years for Firdaus Rahman to establish her career as a Realtor in
Mobile. Her diligence paid off when the Pakistan native was named Realtor
of the Year by her peers at the Mobile Area Association of Realtors. "I
was very surprised," said Rahman, an agent at REMAX Partners in west
Mobile. "I didn't even know my name was in" the running for the award. The
Realtor of the Year is the highest recognition that the real estate
community gives to one of its own, according to Jeff Newman, executive
director of the 1,200-member Realtors association. The honoree was
selected by her peers based on her contributions to the industry,
community and professional achievement, he said. |
| |

|
| |
http://www.al.com/business/mobileregister/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/business/.xml |
|
|
OTHER STORIES |
|
* |
At
least 175 feared dead in Bangladesh |
| |
July 27,
Chittagong, Bangladesh -- Severe storms and earthquakes wrecked havoc
across Bangladesh this weekend and at least 175 fishermen were feared dead
in raging waters. At least 20 fishing trawlers sank Sunday in the Bay of
Bengal storms, which officials said were common during the monsoon season,
the BBC reported. Eight trawlers sank on Saturday with 96 fishermen on
board, officials said. Meanwhile, in Chittagong, 135 miles south of Dhaka,
at least 20 people were injured in an earthquake Sunday, the BBC
said. |
| |
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm |
|

|
|
* |
Mother Teresa's beatification planned |
| |
July 26,
Calcutta, India -- A film festival and music concert are among the events
planned by followers of Mother Teresa when she is beatified in October.
Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who devoted her life to helping the
poor in the slums of Calcutta, died in 1997 at age 87. Her beatification
will take place at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on Oct. 19. It will be
shown live in downtown Calcutta. Thousands of her admirers, including
hundreds of nuns, are expected to watch the ceremony, which will be
followed by a music concert, organizers said recently. |
| |
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/6391447.htm |
|

|
|
* |
Trading stardom for cozy obscurity |
| |
July 27 -- Prem
Raja Mahat bustles through the lunch rush, topping off the ice water and
making cheerful small talk. He weaves between the clothed tables. He
recommends a refreshing glass of iced mango yogurt. He buses the dirty
buffet plates - in every way the consummate Charles Street restaurant
manager. It's a performance that provides a comfortable life for Mahat,
his wife and four children. But it is his other gig - headlining concerts
and singing in villages nestled atop the world's highest mountain ranges -
that makes him a favorite son in his native Nepal. Mahat, the man who just
delivered the check to a table near the kitchen, is one of Nepal's
best-loved folk singers, a musician whose melodies about love and nature
and life are as ubiquitous in his homeland as Sherpas, mountain climbers
and yaks. The Bruce Springsteen of Katmandu. |
| |
http://www.sunspot.net/entertainment/music/bal-te.md.nepal27jul27,0,4858025.story |
|

|
|
* |
Cell phone companies in India offering matchmaking
messages |
| |
July 26,
Bangalore, India -- In a country where most marriages are arranged by
parents, technology is taking over the matchmaker's job. First came
newspaper advertisements, then Web sites. Now comes a text messaging
service to help cell phone subscribers find suitable mates. But careful
not to buck tradition, the phone companies made clear the short message
service, or SMS, is primarily for parents, not the growing tribe of
teenage cell phone users. ``Parents can register the profiles of their
sons and daughters with us and ask for matching profiles,'' said Arun
Sikka, vice president for sales and marketing at RPG Cellular. ``They just
need to send an SMS to a specified number to do all
this.'' |
| |
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6389350.htm |
|

|
| |
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2013827 |
|

|
| |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul26.html |
|

|
|
* |
Indian festivals to celebrate together |
| |
July 27, Fremont
-- After three years of competing Bay Area festivals celebrating India's
independence, organizers have decided to forget past gripes and hold one
showcase event in Fremont this summer. Leaders of the three festivals of
India -- historically held in Fremont, Santa Clara and Union City --
decided this week it would be best for the Indo-American community if they
joined forces to put on the community's most significant cultural event. A
unified festival also would save money during tight financial times,
organizers said. "I think it's a good thing," said Romesh Japra, a
cardiologist who started the original festival in Fremont, now in its 11th
year. "The perception was that we were divided and split and that didn't
look good. We decided to put our personal differences aside. Will this
last forever? No one can guarantee that. But at least we're making an
effort." |
| |
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/6395511.htm |
|

|
|
* |
Making safety a top priority for
workers |
| |
July 27, New
Bedford -- A month has passed since an attack on a Hindu pizza delivery
driver, mistaken for a Muslim by young thugs with mayhem in mind, made a
hate crime in New Bedford an international news story. The men who
attacked Saurabh Bhalerao, a UMass student from India moonlighting as a
Sarducci's Pizza delivery driver, hadn't planned a hate crime. They
planned what one reporter called a "simple robbery." For those of us in
the pizza delivery business, this is no comfort at all. Robbery itself is
an ugly enough crime, even without the orgy of violence that followed that
night. The idea that the men who attacked Saurabh apparently believed that
robbing a pizza delivery driver would be profitable and an easy crime to
get away with should be a wakeup call for everyone in the pizza business.
Each week New Bedford's Domino's Pizza stores safely deliver piping hot
pizza to more than 3,000 households in and around the city. We do this 52
weeks a year, completing more than 1.5 million deliveries in the past
decade. We take safety very seriously. At our stores, robberies are nearly
as rare as winning Megabucks tickets. |
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http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/07-03/07-27-03/b02op059.htm |
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Poet's choice |
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July 27 -- The
late Reetika Vazirani ), who was found dead in Chevy Chase on
July 18 with her 2-year-old son, was born in India and raised in Maryland.
She published two books of poems, White Elephants (1996) and World Hotel
(2002), in her short life. Her poetry showed so much cosmopolitan energy
and panache, so much formal dexterity and control -- her work abounds with
sonnets, sestinas, villanelles -- that it was possible for readers to miss
its underlying sense of dislocation and homelessness. "It's me, I'm not
home," she declared jauntily in one poem, though the phrase also had a
deadly accuracy. She could be playful and even jokey, but the lightness
masked a darker rootlessness, a deeper pain. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul24.html |
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Citizen of the year |
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July 24 -- Singh
came to Houston from India to attend the University of Houston, and by the
time he graduated, he knew he had found a country in which to build a
successful business and a family. Singh has served as president of the
Fort Bend County U of H Alumni Organization and raised money for
scholarships for FBISD students to attend U of H. Also a dedicated
Rotarian, he has been president of the Astrodome Rotary Club and is
currently Assistant District Governor for District 5890. He led the
Astrodome Club to sponsor a patient through the Rotary REACT program,
which brings children from other countries to the Medical Center to
receive treatment. |
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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8603946&BRD=1914&PAG=461&dept_id=183407&rfi=6 |
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Elephants kill two Bangladeshi
villagers |
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July 26, Dhaka --
A herd of wild elephants apparently foraging for food rampaged through two
villages in northern Bangladesh, killing two people and destroying a dozen
thatched huts, according to a news report Saturday. The herd of about 25
elephants came down from the forested hills along the Bangladesh-India
border into the two villages Friday in Sherpur district, 90 miles north of
the capital Dhaka, the United News of Bangladesh said. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul26.html |
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Ogniana Ivanova and Rajpuram Sriram |
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July 27 -- The
bridegroom's mother beamed as her son was married on July 19 under a
gazebo wreathed in garlands in Sakura Park on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. Rajpuram Sriram, a native of India, had done what his mother
and his 44 cousins had not: he had chosen a "love marriage" over an
arranged one. "I always dreamt of love marriages," said the bridegroom's
mother, Vasantha Srinivasan, a 54-year-old schoolteacher in Bombay. As a
young woman, she read romantic novels by Danielle Steel and wanted to be
swept away by love. Instead, at 24, she had an arranged marriage to a man
she had known for 25 minutes, M. R. Srinivasan, now a top official of the
Reserve Bank of India, in Bombay. But she did fall in love with him --
after 15 years. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/fashion/weddings/27VOWS.html |
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Overstay of Visa Complicates Things |
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In 1995 I
petitioned for my unmarried, adult son in India to become a U.S. permanent
resident. In 2001 I became an American citizen. In 1998, my son married
and soon after had a child. Is there any way for my son's family to also
become permanent residents through my petition so they can all immigrate
to the United States together? What type of visa would they get? How long
is the wait for them to get their visas? |
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http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-g3388542jul27,0,7021150.story |
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Indian Prime Minister: Put health on
agenda |
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July 28, New
Delhi -- India's prime minister urged top policy-makers to make health
issues part of the nation's political agenda in an effort to slow the
rapid spread of HIV-AIDS. Indian Health Minister Sushma Swaraj told a
conference of political leaders and AIDS workers Saturday that clinical
trials were under way in Indian laboratories to develop an AIDS vaccine.
Swaraj said she hoped India would be the first country to develop such a
vaccine. |
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http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/nation/6396853.htm |
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http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ats-ap_health13jul27,0,6589318story |
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Indian PM seeks quick response to AIDS
crisis |
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July 26, New
Delhi -- Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called on Saturday for
an immediate response to HIV/AIDS, which has struck more than four million
people in the country, the second largest number in the world after South
Africa. "HIV/AIDS is not only a grave global challenge. It is equally a
national concern, one that demands an effective and undelayed response,"
Vajpayee told India's first conference on HIV/AIDS geared to the country's
lawmakers. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AJul26.html |
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|
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/international/asia/27INDI.html |
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--- South Asian News,
July 26&27, 2003 (Weekend) --- |
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