Rationale | SilverScorpio.Com

Delhi Municipal Corporation asked to explain rationale behind raising mobile tower installation fee

May 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 19 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for raising charges for allowing mobile operators to install towers.

The MCD had raised the charges from Rs one lakh to Rs five lakh.

The High Court in its order restrained the MCD and asked it to file a reply within two days.

On May 13, the High Court had restrained the MCD from sealing illegal mobile phone towers in the national capital after the mobile operators challenged the decision to hike the charges.

The mobile operators had contended that the MCD’s decision was arbitrary and without any sound basis.

The MCD had started sealing of illegal mobile phone towers after the deadline for operators to apply for regularization by paying the hiked amount had expired.

The MCD had said out of 5,364 towers in the city, only 2,412 have requisite permission and the remaining 2,952 were illegal.

Earlier, the MCD had sealed over 300 illegal towers and given several deadlines to the tower operators to apply for regularization in keeping with new guidelines.

On February 9, the MCD had brought in a new policy on mobile towers. (ANI)

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Faisal Shahzad: terrorist or criminal? The debate rages on

May 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New York, May 5 (ANI): The debate over whether terrorists should be treated at par with criminals or whether they should be considered enemy combatants has erupted once again following the arrest of Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and the reading out of his Miranda rights as is constitutionally guaranteed to every criminal in US.

The White House has said that Shahzad was first grilled by law enforcement agencies in an exception to Miranda. Shahzad remained cooperative through the interrogation said officials.

However, those who believe that terrorists should not have the same entitlements as other criminals were unimpressed by this rationale.

“The Supreme Court has held there”s no constitutional obligation to give him Miranda rights,” Representative Pete King told the New York Daily News, referring to the right to remain silent and get a lawyer.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs scoffed at the idea investigators were passing up valuable intelligence. “The insinuation somehow that that is not the case,” Gibbs said.

And he mocked politicians who downplayed the fact that Shahzad is American. “Some of the comments have been curious,” Gibbs said.

“One of the comments was, ”I know he”s an American citizen, but still…” A unique viewpoint,” he countered.

King is among those who hold an opposing view, he argued that if a terror suspect is found not guilty, authorities could simply let him go.

“You can”t always be operating in a time of war on the presumption that you might be wrong, especially when you”re not inflicting any permanent harm on the guy,” King said. (ANI)

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How folic acid may help heal brain, spinal cord injuries

April 27, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 27 (ANI): In a new study, researchers have explained how folic acid may help heal brain and spinal cord injuries.

Infants born to women who do not consume enough folic acid are at an increased risk of developing neural tube defects (i.e., defects in the development of the spinal cord or brain). This is the reason underlying the recommendation that women who are pregnant take a folic acid supplement.

Now, a team of researchers, led by Bermans Iskandar, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has generated data in rodents suggesting that folic acid might also help promote healing in injured brain and spinal cord.

Specifically, the team was able to uncover a molecular pathway by which folate can promote nerve cell regeneration following injury in rodents.

In supplementary notes, Matthias Endres and Golo Kronenberg, at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, discuss how these data, together with the safety and simplicity of folate supplementation, provide a rationale for testing whether folate supplementation is beneficial for patients with spinal cord and brain trauma. (ANI)

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Possibility of catching Osama bin Laden alive simply does not exist: US Attorney General

March 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar. 17 (ANI): US Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the possibility of America catching Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden alive “simply doesn’t exist.”

“Based on the intelligence I’ve reviewed, the possibility simply does not exist. He will be killed by us or he will be killed by his own people so that he is not captured alive,” Holder said. “We know that,” the Christian Science Monitor quoted Holder as telling a House appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday.

His statement came amid a salvo of criticism by Republicans who accused the Obama administration of a lackluster approach to terrorism.

Amid hostile questioning, the attorney general also pledged that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would never be released from US custody.

He made the assertion after being asked what the administration would do if a civilian judge ordered Mohammed released.

“If that were to be the case, he would not be released. I am not qualifying it. He would not be released,” Holder said.

The comment seems to contradict the administration’s announced rationale for holding public trials for Mohammed and other terror suspects in civilian courts. (ANI)

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Deemed universities allowed to get rid of their ‘deemed’ tag

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 7 (ANI): The University Grants Commission has allowed deemed universities to eliminate ‘deemed’ from their name, and identify themselves as universities, minister of state for higher education D Purandeswari on Tuesday said.

Purandeswari told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the UGC has granted the use of term ‘University’ for such institutions.

the decision was taken following a recommendation in this regard by a committee comprising heads of UGC and All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and a former secretary of higher education.

The government has granted deemed university status to 128 institutions by June this year, including 62 in the last five years.

Tamil Nadu has the maximum 29 such institutions followed by Maharashtra (21), Karnataka (15), Delhi (11) and Uttar Pradesh (10), she said.

The increase in the number of deemed universities has attracted criticism from several quarters.

The government-appointed committee on ‘Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education’, headed by Prof Yashpal, has suggested that grant of such status be put on hold till rationale guidelines are evolved. (ANI)

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Novel targeted therapy shows promise to eliminate leukaemia stem cells

July 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 3 (ANI): A piece of research has shown that it is possible to eliminate stem cells related to human acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a notoriously treatment-resistant blood cancer, using a new targeted therapy.

Associate Professor Richard Lock, from the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia and the University of New South Wales, has revealed that the new therapeutic approach has been found to selectively attack human cancer cells grown in the lab as well as in animal models of leukaemia.

AML is a cancer of the white blood cells that has an extremely poor prognosis and does not respond well to conventional chemotherapy.

“The cellular and molecular basis for this dismal picture is unclear. However, previous research has suggested that leukaemia stem cells (LSCs) may lie at the heart of post-treatment relapse and chemoresistance,” says Lock.

LSCs are cells that can initiate AML and are critical for its long-term growth.

Lock and his colleagues exploited the fact that the molecule CD123 is expressed at very high levels on LSCs but not on normal blood cells.

The researchers created a therapeutic antibody that recognized and bound to CD123, hoping that the antibody would selectively interfere with AML-LSC survival.

When AML-LSCs from human patients were transplanted into mice treated with the antibody, called 7G3, cytokine signalling in the tumour cells was blocked.

The research team also observed that 7G3 impaired migration of the AML-LSCs to bone marrow, and activated the innate immune system of the host mouse to destroy the AML-LSCs.

They say that, overall, treatment with 7G3 substantially improved mouse survival when compared with control groups.

Lock and his colleagues are currently using a CD123-targeting antibody in phase 1 clinical trials of advanced AML. They say that there are no signs of treatment-related toxicity.

These results hold substantial promise for future cancer therapeutics.

“The recent characterization of defined populations of cancer stem cells in a range of human malignancies, as well as their relative resistance to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, supports the broad applicability of our approach and provides rationale for the progression of AML-LSC-targeted therapeutics from preclinical evaluation to clinical trials,” concludes Associate Professor Lock.

A research article on the study has been published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. (ANI)

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Magnetic therapy to treat chronic migraine developed

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 30 (ANI): A new therapy that uses magnetic pulses has shown promise in treating chronic migraine sufferers, say researchers.

The new therapy is called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.

During the study conducted in rats, the University of California, San Francisco researchers focused on understanding the mechanism of action of TMS therapy — how the treatment interacted with the brain to produce the pain-free outcomes of patients.

They identified potential opportunities to enhance treatment strategies in patients.

The study team noted that factors such as time and peak intensity of stimulation may be important components in the brain’s response to TMS.

“The data demonstrate a biological rationale for the use of TMS to treat migraine aura,” said Peter Goadsby, lead investigator of the study, professor and director of the UCSF Headache Centre.

“We found that cortical spreading depression, known as CSD and the animal correlate of migraine aura, was susceptible to TMS therapy, with the wave of neuronal excitation blocked on over 50 percent of occasions,” he added.

The study showed that migraine aura, a condition in which a variety of mostly visual sensations come before or accompany the pain of a migraine attack, responds to magnetic stimulation.

The magnetic pulses block the wave of neuronal excitation, which is a biological system through which neurons become stimulated to fire.

TMS creates a focused magnetic pulse that passes noninvasively through the skull, inducing an electric current to disrupt the abnormal brain waves believed to be associated with migraine, including CSD. CSD in humans precedes migraine with aura.

The researchers hope that the findings give neurologists a potential new treatment option for migraine sufferers unable to tolerate medication.

The findings were presented during the annual American Academy of Neurology scientific meeting in Seattle. (ANI)

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Western media, experts predict Taliban-led mayhem in Pak

April 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lahore, Apr 26 (ANI): Alarmed over thousands of Taliban militants pouring into the Swat Valley and spreading to other areas, leading US dailies have warned that Pakistan with its 176 million people and its pivotal position in the region is “more than likely to collapse into a growing civil war.”

US special envoy to the region Richard Holbrooke does not mince words: “If the situation with Pakistan continues to deteriorate, success in the region will be very elusive.”

“What we see spreading in the northwest territories of Pakistan is something new for Pakistan, and it is beginning to consume the country,” said Heritage Foundation’s Lisa Curtis.

Even while the war continues on a ‘generally botched level’ across Afghanistan, the Washington Post announced that the centre of gravity had moved to Pakistan. Now that ‘centre’ is being shaken to bits.

In February, the PPP-led Government allowed the fundamentalists to take power in Swat to apply their form of sharia law.

The government’s rationale was that this would bring peace to the troubled area. It did the exact opposite. The new, radical Swat administration has used the area as a staging ground for bringing the conflict into Punjab where half of the country’s population lives.

According to Wall Street Journal, ‘thousands’ of radical foreign Taliban have begun pouring into Swat, with Taliban training camps springing up all over.

“Two things happened,” says Ahmed Rashid.

“One, they moved out of the Tribal Areas into Swat, where they have access to Punjab. There, they linked up with radical groups who have been fighting the Indians in Kashmir… Meanwhile, the army is in some kind of denial. They say India is the greatest threat – but India is not about to capture Punjab.” (ANI)

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Drug improves health-related quality of life in nerve disease patients

April 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 25 (ANI): A new study has found that long-term treatment with Gamunex can significantly improve health-related quality of life in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

CIDP is a debilitating nerve disease that results in progressive weakness in the arms and legs, causing significant disability for many individuals.

Gamunex is the first and only FDA-approved product for the treatment of CIDP.

The researchers showed that patients who received Gamunex experienced greater improvements in physical and mental component scores compared with placebo.

“The data provide the rationale for administering maintenance doses of Gamunex every three weeks as a means of improving health-related quality of life and preventing relapse of symptoms,” said Dr Ingemar Merkie, Department of Neurology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and Spaarne Hospital Hoofddorp, the Netherlands.

“Until now, there has been no FDA-approved dosing regimen for an effective course of intravenous immune globulin therapy to reduce neuromuscular disability and improve quality of life in patients with CIDP.

“Data from this trial provide an effective regimen with Gamunex to achieve improvements,” Merkie added.

“The improvement in health-related quality of life, social participation and activity supports the use of Gamunex in patients with CIDP who have responded to it in the past. It validates the benefits of every three week infusions of Gamunex,” said Dr. Peter Donofrio, professor of Neurology and Chief, Neuromuscular Section of the Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

The study appears in journal Neurology (ANI)

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Rampant alcoholism blamed for ragging in campuses

April 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) A panel formed by the Supreme Court to probe the ragging and subsequent death of a Himachal Pradesh medical college student Monday blamed ‘rampant alcoholism’ for the spurt of ragging in educational institutions.

‘One of main reasons for violence (ragging) on the campus is rampant alcoholism, and it is recommended that that de-addiction measures be introduced in educational institutions,’ Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told a bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat.

Subramaniam made the submission quoting from the recommendations of the Raghvan Committee, which was formed earlier by the court to probe the malady.

The panel, which also included Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly, recommended a host of measures, including setting up of a hotline telephone service for the ragging victims to lodge the complaints or passing on information about ragging activities in educational campuses.

‘The union government in consultation with the University Grants Commission, Medical Council of India and All India Council for Technical Education and other similar regulatory bodies should set up a central crisis-hotline and anti-ragging database’ to be monitored by civil societies, said Subramanium, quoting the panel’s report.

The panel also stressed upon the ‘dire need’ to probe psychological aspect of the phenomena of ragging in educational institutions and sought appointment of a committee of psychologists and mental health experts for the job and to suggest remedial measures to tackle the malady.

‘There is a dire need to examine the psychological aspects of ragging, including its impact on young students and rationale behind seniors’ urge to rag and torment their juniors,’ said Subramaniam.

‘Ragging is similar to child abuse at home or at orphanages. Young men and women who are abused by their seniors under the pretext of ragging believe that the abusers are part of their extended family and automatically, in their minds, it becomes an internal family affair, and hence very rarely do students ever speak out against it,’ said the Raghvan panel report.

Pointing out that ‘substantial research has been carried out in Australia, Canada, the US and Ireland on the impact of abuse in schools, colleges and orphanages and other institutions’, the panel told the court that ‘the psychological scarring of ragging does not go away with time, but continues for many years, possibly through a person’s entire lifespan’.

The panel also doubted the sincerity of Medical Council of India’s efforts in curbing ragging in medical colleges and sought a probe into it.

It favoured entrusting a police station in-charge or the district’s superintendent of police directly liable to punitive measures for his failure to stop ragging in educational institutions within his territorial jurisdiction.

The panel made some Himachal Pradesh-specific suggestions, including appointment of a full-time hostel warden in various colleges educational institutions of the state.

It also favoured a probe into Kangra-based Rajendra Prasad Medical College and Hospital’s former principal Suresh Sankhyan’s ‘role in exacerbating ragging on campus, as well as his suitability as a faculty member and administrator’.

It was in this college that medical student Amann Kachroo had died March 8 following ragging by his four seniors. The apex court had taken note of the incident on its own.

After noting down various recommendations made by the Raghvan panel, the apex court sought the state government’s views to the suggestions and adjourned the mater for hearing on Thursday.
Indo Asian News Service

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McCain Strategist warns Republicans against becoming a ‘religious party’

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr.18 (ANI): A former top adviser to former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Steve Schmidt, has warned the Grand Old Party (GOP) against becoming a `religious party’.

Schmidt told a Washington, D.C., convention for the Log Cabin Republicans — a grassroots group for gay and lesbian Republicans, that the GOP must shift their views on gay marriage.
He also urged Republicans, in the near-term, to endorse civil unions and stop using the Bible as rationale for gay-marriage opposition.

“If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party,” Fox News quoted Schmidt, as saying.

Schmidt, whose sister is a lesbian and who supports same-sex marriage, said he understands the Republican Party probably won’t reverse its resistance to same-sex marriage anytime soon.

But he suggested that the party would be increasingly marginalized if it sustains that opposition long-term.

Schmidt predicted gay marriage would create a bigger and bigger divide between the GOP and the electorate in the years ahead. (ANI)

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Swat deal to be presented in parliament Monday

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, April 11 (IANS) A peace deal inked with the Taliban in the Swat Valley in Pakistan’s restive northwest is to be presented in parliament Monday even as a question mark hangs over whether President Asif Ali Zardari will ratify the pact.

Speaking to reporters in Multan Saturday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the Feb 16 deal to impose Sharia laws in Swat and six other districts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in return for the Taliban laying down their arms would be presented Monday in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

‘The aim is to evolve a consensual national strategy,’ Gilani said.

The peace deal between the NWFP government and Taliban-aligned Maulana Sufi Mohammad of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz e Shariah-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) seemed to be coming apart Thursday with the cleric shutting down his peace camp to protest against Zardari’s delay in acceding to the pact.

The president’s consent is necessary because the provincial government cannot amend its laws without his consent. Zardari says he will ratify the deal only if peace returns to Swat.

The Taliban says it’s the other way around: that peace can return only if Sharia laws are first in place.

On Friday, however, the TNSM said the peace deal was intact but this was predicated on Zardari’s nod, even as Sufi Muhammad refused to hold talks with a NWFP delegation that had rushed to meet him.

‘We met him (Sufi) during the Friday prayers but he did not participate in the talks,’ NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told The News.

‘The swift move by the NWFP government was aimed at salvaging the shaky peace accord,’ the newspaper noted.

In an editorial, however, The News wondered about the rationale behind the peace accord.

‘These are men who have no scruples about breaking deals, just as they have no qualms about killing people or torturing helpless women. The only way to vanquish them is through force. This is the reality of our times. Our government and armed forces must work together for this end,’ it maintained.

On his part, Zardari has been under immense pressure to turn down the deal, particularly after the emergence last week of a video depicting a 17-year-old girl publicly receiving 38 lashes over an alleged illicit relationship. Though the incident was denied, it sparked universal outrage.

The deal with the Taliban had attracted international condemnation as it was seen to be bowing to the militants.

Protracted fighting between the Pakistani security forces and the Taliban has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee Swat. Estimates vary, but human rights monitors believe that up to 800,000 of the valley’s 1.8 million people may have left.

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New report calls for fundamental changes to US nuclear war planning

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 9 (ANI): The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have released a report calling for fundamental changes to US nuclear war planning, a vital prerequisite if smaller nuclear arsenals are to be achieved.

Titled “From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence – A New Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons”, the report calls to abandon the almost five-decade-long central mission for US nuclear forces, which has been and continues to be “counterforce,” the capability for US forces to destroy an enemy’s military forces, its weapons, its command and control facilities and its key leaders.

“The current rationale for maintaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons no longer exists,” said Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the Strategic Security Program at FAS and one of the report authors.

“And to get future reductions in the number of weapons, we have to eliminate the missions they are assigned,” he added.

The nuclear mission flows from directives and guidance given by the president, through the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Strategic Command where it is implemented into elaborate war plans.

The report calls for eliminating all but one mission for nuclear forces.

“President Obama has already taken the first step by stating America’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons,” said Robert S. Norris, senior research associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council and report co-author.

“We present the radical changes needed in US policies to make disarmament a reality,” he added.

That sole mission is deterrence, narrowly defined, to mean the certain capability to retaliate if any nation was unwise enough to use nuclear weapons against the United States or certain allies.

According to Hans Kristensen, director of the FAS Nuclear Information Project and report co-author, “Under minimal deterrence, all requirements for war planners to achieve an advantage in a nuclear exchange or limit damage to ourselves will disappear, leaving only in place the most basic mission of a sure retaliatory response.” (ANI)

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Need for elite civil servant group?

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

The creation of a Senior Executive Service (SES) has been a common theme in the reform agenda of countries, which have embarked upon civil service reforms during the last three decades. The idea is to appoint a small group of civil servants into the SES from which high-level government appointments can be made.

This carefully chosen group of civil servants will be located near the apex of the executive pyramid, just below the ministers. The SES is designed to be an enclave within the civil service that receives broader opportunities, has special conditions of employment, is made accountable for rigorous standards of performance and behaviour, is paid a higher rate of remuneration and has less job security.

The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) in its tenth report has recommended that in the context of emerging challenges, there is a case for a “progressive approach to incorporation of certain features of a position- based SES model into the civil services in India”. The ARC has examined the position-based SES in Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, the UK, Netherlands and USA, which is more open because appointments to identified senior positions are made from a wider pool comprising all civil servants who are qualified to apply as well as those applicants from the private sector with relevant domain competency and experience.

Its openness is its basic strength. Although this system is more open than the career system, in practice, the bulk of appointments in the position-based system are from among career civil servants.

According to the tenth report of the ARC, in the American SES, “outsiders” fill up only 10 per cent of the positions. In Australia, recruitment to the SES from outside the Australian Public Service has ranged from 25 per cent in 1992-93 to 14 per cent in 2000-01.

The ARC has deliberated on the advantages and disadvantages of the career-based and position-based SES model for India. In India, it has been difficult not only for highly qualified persons from outside government, but also for high performers from other services to get selected for top civil service positions.

It has also been alleged that the quasi-monopolistic hold of the career civil services on senior management position breeds complacency, inhibits innovative thinking and prevents the inflow of new ideas from outside government. Such arguments constitute the rationale for the suggestion that a position-based SES type of structure may need to be considered for the Indian Civil Services.

The counter argument, however, is that the All India Services (and the IAS in particular), provide a unique link between the cutting edge at the field level and top policy making positions. This bridge between policy making and implementation, while crucial to all systems, has been of strategic significance in the Indian context, given the regional diversity of the country and was an aspect of the British administration in India which was consciously adopted by our Constitution makers.

The ARC Report after weighing all the aspects has said: “The Commission has considered this issue in all its aspects and in the context of emerging challenges and on balance feels that there is a case for a progressive approach to incorporation of certain features of a position-based SES model into the civil services in India”.

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UPA policy on terrorism, Pakistan ‘deeply flawed’, says Advani

April 2, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

The Congress-led central government’s policy on terrorism was ‘deeply flawed’, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani said here Wednesday while expressing ‘shock’ at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement about India and Pakistan jointly fighting terrorism.

‘I am shocked by the statement by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh reiterating his earlier stand that India and Pakistan should jointly fight the menace of terrorism,’ the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate told reporters.

He was responding to Manmohan Singh’s remark Tuesday on the sidelines of the civil investiture ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan. ‘I have always said that India and Pakistan have to face jointly the scourge of terrorism,’ the prime minister had said while expressing his sympathies to Pakistan over the terror attack on a police academy near Lahore.

‘This statement echoes Dr. Singh’s stand adopted after his meeting with the former Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf in Havana in September 2006 that India and Pakistan should establish a joint anti-terror mechanism,’ Advani, who is here on a two-day campaign tour, said.

‘I had personally questioned the rationale of India joining hands with a country whose government had refused to fulfill its 2004 commitment to dismantle the anti-India terror infrastructure on its territory.’

‘The fact that Pakistan itself has been the victim of home grown terrorist incidents cannot be an argument in favour of an India-Pak joint mechanism to fight terrorism,’ Advani said, describing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s policy on fighting terrorism as ‘deeply flawed’.

Pakistan, he said, had created a Frankenstein that its rulers in Islamabad were unwilling to vanquish because they know it can be used in their proxy war against India.

‘Another proof of the Congress-led UPA government’s flawed policy towards Pakistan was the prime minister’s shocking statement in October 2008 that he wanted to see the border between India and Pakistan become irrelevant.’

‘Our country has paid a heavy price because of the UPA government’s wrong neighbourhood policy, made worse by the Congress party’s policies of minorityism at home,’ the BJP leader added.

Advani, who landed here Tuesday, addressed several poll rallies in western Orissa soon after his arrival and is scheduled to address several meetings on Wednesday as well. This is his first trip to the state after the BJP’s 11-year coalition with Orissa’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) collapsed last month.

Orissa will go to the polls in two phases on April 16 and April 23 to elect 147 members to the state assembly and 21 members to the Lok Sabha. The BJP has announced it will contest all Lok Sabha and assembly seats alone.

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Advani targets government’s policy on terror

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bhubaneshwar, Apr 1 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani on Wednesday targeted Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for his statement about the need for India and Pakistan fighting militancy jointly.

Dr. Singh on Tuesday said that India and Pakistan should jointly face the scourge of terrorism.

Addressing a news conference here, Advani termed the Central Government’s policy on terrorism was “deeply flawed”.

“It’s obvious from the Prime Minister’s statement that the UPA Government’s policy of fighting terrorism has been deeply flawed. The fact that Pakistan has been the victim of home-grown terrorist incidents cannot be an argument in favour of an Indo-Pak joint mechanism to fight terrorism,” he said.

Advani, who is on a two-day election campaign tour to Orissa, questioned the logic of India joining hands with Pakistan in the fight against militancy in the backdrop of Islamabad refusing to fulfill its commitments.

“I personally question the rationale of India joining hands with a country whose government has refused to fulfill its 2004 commitment to dismantle the anti-India terror infrastructure on its territory,” Advani added.

The attacks on Mumbai sparked tensions between India and Pakistan.

New Delhi said state agencies in Pakistan were involved in the attacks and provided a dossier of what it said was evidence.

Islamabad denied this and asked for more evidence. (ANI)

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Al Qaeda founder launches frontal attack on Osama, Zawahiri

February 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Feb 21 (ANI): Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, one of al Qaeda’s founders in 1998 and a leading jihadist ideologue who functions under the pen-name ‘Dr Fadl’, has launched a fierce attack on the ideology and personal failings of Osama bin Laden, and particularly his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, who also led an Islamist insurgency in Egypt in the 1990s, has attacked the terror outfit in his book written from inside a Egyptian prison.

Dr Fadl became al-Qaeda’s intellectual figurehead 20 years ago with a crucial book setting out the rationale for global jihad against the West, The Telegraph reported.

Today, however, he believes the murder of innocent people is both contrary to Islam and a strategic error.

“Every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers,” writes Dr Fadl.

The terrorist attacks on September 11 were both immoral and counterproductive, he writes.

Dr Fadl focuses his attack in particular on Zawahiri whom he has known for 40 years. Zawahiri is a “liar” who was paid by Sudan’s intelligence service to organise terrorist attacks in Egypt in the 1990s, he writes.

Fouad Allam, who spent 26 years in the State Security Directorate, Egypt’s equivalent of MI5, said that Dr Fadl’s assault on al-Qaeda’s core leaders had been very effective, both in prison and outside.

Dr Fadl was a central figure from the very outset of Osama’s campaign and was part of the tight circle, which founded al-Qaeda in 1988 in the closing stages of the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. (ANI)

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Tax imposition may help curb alcohol abuse

January 16, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 16 (ANI): Increasing the cost of liquor by imposing taxes can significantly reduce alcohol abuse, with a new study showing that less number of people are likely to drink if the cost of alcoholic beverages is high.

“Results from over 100 separate studies reporting over 1000 distinct statistical estimates are remarkably consistent, and show without doubt that alcohol taxes and prices affect drinking,” said Alexander C. Wagenaar, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology and health policy research at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and the senior author of the study.

“When prices go down, people drink more, and when prices go up, people drink less,” he added.

Wagenaar said that using taxes to raise prices of alcoholic beverages could prove to be more effective a deterrent to drinking than law enforcement, media campaigns or school programmes.

The study has also revealed that tax or price increases affect the broad population of drinkers, including heavy drinkers as well as light drinkers, including teens as well as adults.

Dr. Frank Chaloupka, Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said: “These findings provide a strong rationale for using increases in alcoholic beverage taxes to promote public health by reducing drinking.”

The study has been published in the Addiction journal. (ANI)

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