Sikh riot victims seek U.S. intervention * (IANS)
	Claiming the Indian government had failed to provide justice to them, widows of Sikh men killed during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots Friday petitioned the U.S. to intervene on their behalf.Police officials escorted five of the widows to the U.S. embassy here, where they handed over a memorandum seeking Washington's intervention in efforts to book those responsible for violence against Sikhs in 1984 following the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh guards.Earlier, police prevented some 50 members of the Widow Jatha, an organisation of the widows, from marching to the U.S. embassy.
	http://in.news.yahoo.com/031031/43/290jz.html
	Indian American founded MIT centre completes one year * (IANS/Yahoo)
	A research centre established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Indian American IT whiz Gururaj Desh Deshpande has celebrated its first anniversary, claiming successes in research and networking with the business world. The centre was launched with an initial $20 million grant in January 2002. Deshpande is the co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks."We have come a long way since the launch," says Krisztina Holly, executive director of the Deshpande Centre, "and it is truly rewarding to announce our largest grant round on our one year anniversary and reflect on the tremendous momentum and progress the centre has made. It is thrilling that we have already begun to see our sponsored projects demonstrating such success."centre awarded six grants totalling $1.3 million to support emerging technologies including medical technology, tiny technology, communications, information technology and environmental innovations.
	http://in.news.yahoo.com/031031/43/290fe.html
	Delhi, Islamabad squabble over Kashmir * (UPI/Washington Times)
	Bickering between India and Pakistan has escalated over New Delhi's claims Islamabad is stalling efforts to normalize relations, a report said Friday. New Delhi said Thursday it was disappointed Islamabad had rejected India's offer to operate a passenger bus service across the Line of Control which divides Kashmir, a state both countries claim as sovereign territory. India said this bus service would have "facilitated widening of people-to-people contacts and co-operation" but blamed Pakistan for delaying it by calling for immediate high-level talks over Kashmir, the Financial Times said.
	http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm

HEADLINES
 

STORIES
 

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The press release from the Florida attorney general's office came out at 9:40 a.m. Thursday, attached to a copy of a subpoena and bearing an explosive headline: Motel guests told ``Coloreds are not allowed in the pool.''About 40 minutes after the media was informed, the office delivered the subpoena to the man at the center of the accusation, Raj Patel. The subpoena demanded a host of records from Patel, who owns the Southern Inn in Perry, a town made infamous by claims of discrimination. Attorney General Charlie Crist said he plans to make Patel's case the first he pursues under Florida's new civil-rights law, passed by the Legislature earlier this year at Crist's urging.

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The state attorney general is investigating allegations that a black man was told by an owner of a small northern Florida motel that "coloreds" weren't allowed in the pool. Dwayne Parker was a guest at the Southern Inn and said he was denied access to the pool while visiting town for a family reunion in July, said Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist. A subpoena was issued for the owners Thursday.The owner, Raj Patel, denied that he ever barred anyone from swimming because of their color and said the incident may have been a misunderstanding. Patel, who is Indian, said it was possible he told friends of some guests they couldn't swim because they weren't registered guests. Parker was a registered, paying guest.

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A motel in this small North Florida town is being investigated because a black man said he was told "coloreds" weren't allowed in the pool, state officials said Thursday. Perry is the same town that faced protests in 2001 because another black man said he was told at a bar that he could only be served in back. Attorney General Charlie Crist issued a subpoena Thursday to the owners of the Southern Inn, where Dwayne Parker said he was denied access to the pool in July. Parker was in town for a family reunion, and according to Crist's office, was told by an owner that "coloreds aren't allowed in the pool." The owner, Raj Patel, denied he ever barred anyone from swimming because of their color and said the incident may have been a misunderstanding. Patel, who is Indian, said it was possible he told some guests they couldn't swim because they weren't registered guests.

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At the crossroads of three major highways, this small North Florida town has spent two weary years erasing the stain left by allegations of racism. It's not done yet. A South Florida man has complained to Attorney General Charlie Crist that he was kicked out of a motel swimming pool in July because "coloreds are not allowed in the pool." Crist has begun an investigation, he announced Thursday. The owner of the Southern Inn said he merely told Dwayne Parker the pool was reserved for registered guests. He said he is shocked by the allegation. "I don't discriminate against anyone," said Raj Patel, who immigrated to the United States from his native India in 1989 and displays four American flags in his lobby.

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Republican Bobby Jindal of Baton Rouge has an 11-point lead over Democrat Kathleen Blanco of Lafayette in the Louisiana gubernatorial runoff, according to an independent poll released Thursday. Jindal has 49 percent compared to Blanco's 38 percent in the poll by Verne Kennedy of Market Research Insight of Pensacola, Fla. It is the first independent survey outside the party camps showing Jindal with a clear lead that is outside the 4-point margin of error inherent in polling data. Kennedy has been polling Louisiana since the late 1960s and has a reputation for accuracy. He has polled for both Republicans and Democrats in 22 states. In Louisiana, he has been polling the gubernatorial race all year for a group of wealthy businessmen who include Jindal and Blanco contributors. He has discussed his data with both camps. The poll of 600 people who voted in the Oct. 4 election likely reflects the fact that Jindal's heavy television campaign never stopped after his 33 percent showing in the primary, during which Blanco left the airwaves almost exclusively to him while she regrouped and raised money, analysts said.

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A letter by Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is being described as "veritable election manifesto specifically aimed at the Indian-American community" by the weekly India Abroad. Dean, who leads Democratic candidates in fundraising, told the U.S.-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) that he would call upon Pakistan to clamp down on militant infiltration into Kashmir and move Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf towards domestic and civil reform. India Post, another weekly based in Fremont, Calif. said Dean also recognized and respected "the vital role that all immigrants, including Indians, have played in building the American community." He promised to end the backlogs in processing visa applications and providing for family reunifications. Dean also called for the rollback of the Patriot Act and said he would appoint an attorney general who would put an end to racial profiling. USINPAC has not endorsed anyone yet but are happy that "as a result of the Dean letter, we now have most of the other presidential candidates chasing us to get their letters to our members." Dean also made an impression on community members by ending his letter with the Indian patriotic slogan Jai Hind.

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In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards.

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A proposal by a Republican congressman to abolish all congressional ethnic caucuses has not gained much favor among his colleagues, reports Ori Nir in the Forward, a Jewish American national newspaper. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.) was ridiculed on Capitol Hill for his proposal to rescind the regulation allowing congressional members to form organizations to pursue common legislative goals. Says Tancredo, “I find it somewhat hypocritical that this Congress continues to extol the virtues of a color-blind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race.”

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Oct 30, New Delhi -- A college professor was freed from prison Thursday after a court overturned his death sentence and conviction for a 2001 attack on India's Parliament. A special anti-terrorism court had condemned Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani to death in December 2002 on the basis of police wiretaps that allegedly showed he had telephone contact with one of the convicted plotters. But the Delhi High Court said there was insufficient evidence to connect him to the Dec. 13, 2001 attack. "The trials I faced, the times I went through, have only strengthened my conviction to fight for innocent Kashmiris languishing in jails," Geelani told New Delhi Television News after being freed.

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Oct 30, Islamabad -- Pakistani authorities have arrested a British citizen on suspicion that he has links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror organization, officials said Thursday. The suspect -- identified as Tariq Mahmood -- was arrested a "couple of days ago" in Rawalpindi, a city close to Islamabad, Pakistani Interior Ministry official Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema told The Associated Press. Mahmood holds "dual British and Pakistani nationality," said Cheema, who as head of the ministry's crisis unit works with U.S. officials in anti-terror operations. Another Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mahmood first identified himself as an Arab but later told interrogators he was a British citizen. His identity is being investigated, the official said..

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Oct 31, Islamabad -- Angered over the arrest of Pakistan's top opposition leader, dozens of lawmakers disrupted parliament Friday and demonstrated outside the building to demand his immediate release from jail. Javed Hashmi, president of a 15-party opposition coalition called the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), was arrested late Wednesday for allegedly releasing a fake letter of protest purportedly from army officers against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's pro-U.S. policies. Hashmi was seized as he was leaving his official residence near parliament for a meeting with his party members. Police charged him with treason. On Thursday, a judge ordered him detained for five days to allow police to investigate the source of the letter and how it was obtained. The government alleged that Hashmi intended to incite army officers to mutiny when he displayed the unsigned letter, written on military stationary.

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Oct 30, Islamabad -- An opposition leader arrested by Pakistani police on charges of defaming the armed forces and attempting to incite mutiny appeared before a court in Islamabad and was then handed over to police for interrogation, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. Javed Hashmi, the president of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, was picked up around midnight Wednesday as he left his official residence near the parliament building. He was taken to a police station where a treason case was registered again him. Later, authorities shifted him to an unknown place. It was unclear how long the questioning would last or when Hashmi would again appear the court. Ahmed wouldn't say where Hashmi was being held.

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Oct 30, Colombo -- Sri Lanka's president praised Norway on Thursday after it summoned for consultations the top official of a European monitoring team overseeing a cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels. Tryggve Tellefsen, the Norwegian truce chief, left for Oslo on Wednesday, five days after President Chandrika Kumaratunga demanded that Norway remove him. She claimed that on Oct. 16 he had tipped the rebels off about a Sri Lankan navy plan to raid a rebel ship suspected of smuggling arms, foiling the plot. Norway said Tellefsen had been summoned for consultations as part of an inquiry into the matter, but did not say if he would be replaced.

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Oct 31, Colombo -- Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday submitted their proposal for an interim administration in Sri Lanka's war-battered northeast, a move aimed at ending the country's protracted civil war. S.P. Thalimselvan, the political chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, presented the proposal to Norway's ambassador in Sri Lanka, according to the TamilNet Web site. The document was handed to Hans Brattskar in the rebels' capital of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka, it said, without providing details of the proposal, which will be unveiled Saturday.

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Oct 31, Islamabad -- Pakistan once again called on Friday for resumption of dialogue with rival India, mainly over disputed Kashmir, despite New Delhi's refusal to do so. A foreign ministry spokesman said Pakistan would be willing to put in place all mutually agreed confidence-building measures announced by the two sides over the past week but stressed that talks be resumed immediately. "A genuine peace process would require an immediate resumption of a meaningful dialogue for the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and other issues," the spokesman said in a statement.

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Oct 31, Islamabad -- Pakistan's president will try to strengthen ties with longtime ally Beijing during his three-day state visit to China this weekend, a Foreign Ministry official said. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will meet with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, the official said on condition of anonymity. China is one of the main suppliers of defense equipment to Pakistan .

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Oct 30, Chaman -- A Pakistani border guard peers through Soviet-era binoculars across a vast, dusty plain to mountains on the horizon, looking for signs of Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas along the Afghan frontier. He and others like him are trying to do what has never been done before -- halt the free movement of people across the porous border. As part of the U.S.-led war on terror, Pakistan has built new posts, dug trenches, put up fences and bulldozed buildings in a bid to stem illegal border crossings in both directions. But Pakistan still stands accused by Afghanistan of not doing enough to stop Islamic militants launching attacks from its soil, after a wave of violence in Afghanistan blamed on the ousted Taliban militia and al Qaeda network claimed hundreds of lives.

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Oct 31, New Delhi -- "Made In India " no longer causes noses to wrinkle in East Asia's boardrooms. Although western companies are still the biggest players by far in India's three-year-old outsourcing boom, a number of heavyweights in East Asia's electronics, technology and automotive industries have recently moved parts of their operations here. And that trend, say business organizations and companies in China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, will likely rise sharply. While low labor and production costs are the main drawcard for East Asian multinationals migrating jobs here, recognition of India's potential as a technology and engineering hub is growing. Indeed, this is what attracted Samsung Electronics Co. (Q.SSE) and Toyota Motor Corp. (J.TYM) to set up product design centers in India , say officials from both companies.

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Oct 31 -- Which nation boasts more mall-shoppers than any other? Surprisingly, the answer might be India -- typically viewed as one of the most impoverished places on Earth. But with a vast middle class -- larger than the entire U.S. population -- and department stores popping up everywhere, India is becoming a nation of consumers. Its remarkable economic growth offers both joys and challenges to the world and to the nation itself. Anyone who has seen the gutter-dwellers of Delhi or Calcutta will strain to imagine India as a promising market. But with an annual growth rate often topping 6 percent -- nearly twice the global average -- and an increasingly deregulated economy, the nation is becoming a magnet for investment. Starbucks coffee shops are springing up alongside high-fashion boutiques, McDonald's restaurants (chicken burgers top the menu, we'd guess) and movie megaplexes. A bigger and richer middle class is scrambling to exchange higher incomes for all manner of goods. In just one month this year, 2 million Indians reportedly joined the nation's growing crowd of mobile-phone customers.

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              --- South Asian News, October 31, 2003 ---