by M. V. Kamath
Conflicting reports have begun to appear in the media about the nature
of Indian Economy and this calls for some serious study. a new paper Mint
now being published in the country in an exclusive partnership with The
Wall Street Journal recently (May 7) carried a lead story which wondered
whether the Indian economy was moving towards a slowdown. .....
by The Pioneer
Slamming Islamabad's human rights violations in Pakistan occupied Kashmir(POK),
European Parliament's rapporteur Baroness Emma Nicholson said PoK was
actually in "chains" and Gilgit and Baltistan were actually
"black hole" in today's world. .....
by Eileen NG
Lina Joy has been disowned by her family, shunned by friends and forced
into hiding - all because she renounced Islam and embraced Christianity
in Muslim-majority Malaysia. .....
by Sify.com
A city-based cleric was arrested and some arms and ammunition were allegedly
seized from his house in Juhapura area, police said on Sunday. .....
by Joshua Rozenberg
Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to
varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding
status in Britain. .....
by The Telegraph
Vadodara police are probing whether stray incidents of violence over provocative
sketches of Prophet Mohammed were part of a larger conspiracy even as
tempers remained high in the textile city caught in a row over "obscene"
paintings. .....
by T.S. Subramanian
A natural cavern with a profusion of ancient rock art, contemporary tribal
paintings and even modern-day graffiti has been discovered near Mavadaippu
tribal village, about 7 km from the Kadamparai hydel power station in
Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district. .....
by Anuradha Raman & Debarshi Dasgupta
Not all Brahmins are successful technocrats or bureaucrats. Across the
country the poor among the upper-most Hindu caste have to eke out a miserable
existence like the rest of humanity's economically deprived. In Delhi,
Outlook caught up with sanitation workers employed by Sulabh, an NGO which
runs public toilets. .....
by The Hindustan Times
Nearly 200,000 Hindu families of Bangladesh have lost about 40,000 acres
of land and houses in the last six years, 'grabbed' by politically powerful
people, said a recently concluded study. .....
by P Neelima
With the summer holidays now in full swing, the abode of Lord Venkateswara
is teeming with pilgrims from all over the country. The rush can be gauged
from the fact that in the last one month alone-April 24 to May 23-the
temple has recorded the visit of a mindboggling 22 lakh pilgrims against
15.3 lakh for the corresponding period last year. On some days, the number
of pilgrims has topped 80,000. .....
by John Mary
Demolition man is not a moniker that sits well with Kerala's otherwise
low-profile chief minister, V.S. Achuthanandan. But riding roughshod over
criticism from detractors in his own Left Front, the CM has set out on
a virtual one-man crusade to reclaim public land from encroachers big
and small. .....
by Rohit Parihar
For 34-year-old Ganesh Das Vyas in Bikaner, life is literally twists and
turns. This agriculturist picked up the art of tying saafas from his mother
Gawra Devi. For years, she has been wrapping the traditional Rajasthani
headgear, the saafa or pagdi, for the local deity Ghanghor. Vyas and his
brothers have now adopted tying turbans as a means of livelihood, one
of the few families in the state to do so. .....
by Diwakar
Pakistan has rushed in to fish in the troubled waters of Punjab following
the raging feud between the Sikh clergy and Dera Sacha Sauda, with Babbar
Khalsa International chief Wadhawan Singh Babbar, operating from Lahore
under the ISI's patronage, seeking to stoke violence in the state. .....
by MSNBC.com
Dozens of Somali meatpacking workers who quit their jobs because they
were not given enough time off for Muslim prayers have returned to work,
but the issue could resurface as sundown inches later through the summer,
a union official said Friday. .....
by Muzamil Jaleel
The Army in Kashmir is no longer restricting its role to military operations.
The latest in its war "for hearts and minds" is the construction
and renovation of Sufi ziyarats (shrines) and mosques across the Valley.
So when the Army talks of kills, arrests and recoveries, its counter-insurgency
operations will now also include a new page in its report card .....
by Sify.com
Two Pakistani students were arrested after they allegedly removed the
turban of a Sikh student and chopped off his hair during a scuffle in
their school in a suburb here, police said. .....
by Tawfik Hamid
Islamic organizations regularly accuse non-Muslims of "Islamophobia,"
a fear and disdain for everything Islamic. On May 17, this accusation
bubbled up again as foreign ministers from the Organization of the Islamic
Conference called Islamophobia "the worst form of terrorism."
.....
by Diana West
Funny how small 26 percent sounds when it describes, for example, the
number of American voters who support the Senate's mass-amnesty, goody-bag
bill for illegal aliens. In this case, the one in four people polled by
Rasmussen this week who hope the legislation pass comes off as a minority
voice, especially when compared to the whopping 72 percent of voters who
favor border enforcement and the reduction of illegal immigration. .....
by Robert J. Miller
POPE BENEDICT XVI has apparently, sort of, admitted the truth about the
forced religious conversions of the native peoples of the New World. On
Wednesday, he acknowledged that "unjustifiable crimes" were
committed during colonial-era evangelization in the New World. .....
by Pankaj Jaiswal
Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri is a Sanskrit scholar who has lived Sanskrit
all his life. Pandit and Shastri are not secular badges to his name. They
are now an integral part of his name - earned after years of dedicated
scholarship. .....
by Rajeev Ranjan Roy
The Centre's move to get quota within quota for Dalit Christians and OBC
Muslims may face fierce opposition from within the Government. The discordant
voices have begun doing rounds in the corridors of the key Ministry dealing
with the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. .....
by The Statesman
Marxist cadres went berserk and allegedly looted tarpaulin worth Rs 6
lakh from a warehouse in the Khandaghosh police station area. .....
by Harmeet Shah Singh
A top Shia cleric from Pakistan on Thursday opposed an Indian spiritual
leader's proposal for conducting yoga classes in the Iraqi holy city of
Najaf, citing religious reasons. .....
by The Telegraph
A police team from Mumbai came under attack when it reached a Howrah village
on Monday to arrest two persons in connection with a theft at a gold jewellery
shop. Five persons, including three policemen, were injured. .....
by Kamal Davar
Mao in his masterly treatise on guerrilla warfare has succinctly stated
that "revolutionary warfare is never confined within the bounds of
military action - its purpose is to destroy an existing society and its
institutions and to replace them with a completely new structure."
.....
by The Pioneer
The UPA Government has a perverse, almost morbid, fetish for caste and
community based reservations. After disturbing social amity by pushing
through an odious law - it has since been put on hold by the Supreme Court
- that sets aside 27 per cent seats for 'socially and educationally backward
classes' (OBCs) in institutions of higher education and militates against
all tenets of equal rights, apart from making merit a punishable offence,
the Government is now toying with the idea of introducing communal quotas
under the garb of minority welfare. .....
by Sandhya Jain
The concerted nature of the attack in fact proves how orchestrated it
is. Father Jolly Nadukudiyil, who runs a school in Vadodara, threw the
first salvo, asking why "Hindu radicals" (whatever that means)
do not oppose nudity and sexually explicit scenes in some ancient paintings.
.....
by Adrian Croft
London police's anti-terrorist chief said on Tuesday it was a "sensible
assumption" that Islamist militants will strike again in Britain.
.....
by Quamar Ashraf
When falsehood is constantly repeated, it begins to sound like the truth,
since people get used to hearing it. Hiren Patel (name changed), a 19-year-old
from Ahmedabad, had heard stories that he thought were true. These were
the kind of stories Hiren was used to hearing: "The Muslims destroyed
temples in India over the centuries and finally divided the motherland."
.....
by Vijay Singh
A balmy Monday night was literally Belapur's 'night of terror' as a gang
of over 30 dacoits wearing just shorts and baniyans (vests) attacked houses
in sector 8A and 8B, which are located near the wilderness. .....
by Christopher Hitchens
They say that the past is another country, but let me tell you that it's
much more unsettling to find that the present has become another country,
too. In my lost youth I lived in Finsbury Park, a shabby area of North
London, roughly between the old Arsenal football ground and the Seven
Sisters Road. It was a working-class neighborhood, with a good number
of Irish and Cypriot immigrants. .....
by Rajiv Malik
"Hinduism is a way of life and an art of living. This is what we
are going to teach these 23 young children, many of whom are from Kashmir
and have lost their parents due to the problem of terrorism in the state.
I am sure a lot of support and help will come to this project as more
and more people become aware of the selfless and noble cause undertaken
by those who have set up Sadhna Kunj for taking care of hundreds of such
children in the times to come." .....
by Chetan Adhikari
Contrary to traditional taboo on Dalits' access to Hindu temples, two
dalits have been working as Hindu priests here for the last 15 years.
.....
by Haindava Keralam
After capturing majority of Temples in Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi region,
now the Government is focussing to capture the Temples in Malabar region.
.....
by Dr Guna Magesan
Hon. Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, inaugurated the 1st
New Zealand Hindu Conference, a historic event for the Hindu community
in New Zealand, by lighting the lamp for the auspicious beginning of the
conference on 12 May 2007 at the Hindu Heritage Centre, Auckland. .....
by Kummanam Rajashekaran
The Devaswom Ordinane, signed by the Kerala governor on February 4, has
given rise to much protests and controversy. The minister in charge of
devaswoms claimed that this ordinance protects the temples and is the
most beneficial law for devotees after the Temply Entry Proclamation.
The NSS gave its full and hearty support for the ordinance. At the same
time, the SNDP called it anti-democratic and dangerous. The Hindu Aikya
Vedi called it a temple destroying ordinance. .....
by Ramapriya Abraham
Human rights issues have the power to bring nations to their knees in
the International arena by forcing major policy changes. Evangelical groups
worldwide are abusing this issue to achieve their selfish goals by turning
human rights into a game called 'Persecution' and making it an essential
ingredient of their evangelism plan. .....
by Nitin Mahajan
Following the arrest of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) National
Vice-President Vinayak Sen on May 14, the Chhattisgarh Police today claimed
to have recovered incriminating documents from his residence after conducting
a search operation there. .....
by Rediff.com
Kerala is becoming a breeding centre for terrorists, particularly Inter
Services Intelligence activists, Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary
Indra Sena Reddy said on Monday. .....
by Hindu Jagruti
On the pretext of affecting law and order situation, Pune Municipal Corporation
(PMC) stopped the action to remove Subhan Shah durgah which is right in
the middle of the road in Ravivar Peth area. A notice was issued by the
district collector for vacating the durgah so that road-widening work
could be undertaken. The news created furor in the city and about 100
Muslims gathered near the durgah on the previous night. Later PMC decided
to stop the action. .....
by Sandhya Jain
A journalist researching how permissions were obtained for such a vast
numbers of churches found that a rough estimate at $ 5,000/church x 1,000
churches gave a turnover of $5million. One churches in 1,000 days, and
$5m turnover! There is no land cost because most churches are built illegally
on Poromboke or Mandir lands. .....
by Frank Walker
Chilling evidence has emerged that some of the state's most dangerous
prisoners have become devotees of terrorism after converting to Islam.
.....
by Shine for Jesus!
Stephanie and I are back from our trip to India! What an awesome God we
serve! Our team of 15 people had safe flights there and back (16 hours!),
and had an incredibly easy time in customs in India, which was amazing.
You see, each person brought 1 bag for personal luggage, and also a 50lb
bag filled with medications (we were a portable pharmacy!). .....
by Husain Haqqani
Recent events indicate that General Pervez Musharraf has no intention
of becoming the first ruler in Pakistani history to relinquish power without
first trying to hold on to it by all means, fair or foul. .....
by Organiser
Addressing the valedictory function of the first world conference and
festival on Indian breed cattle on April 29, Swami Raghaveshwar Bharathi
asserted that valedictory means the beginning for another work. You heard
about Shalivahana Shakhe, Vikramaditya Shakhe etc. In the same way this
day is the beginning of Gou Shakhe (cow era). We started another campaign
from today, that is for cow protection. It is an organisation for cow
protection, he said. .....
by Akhilesh Suman
A fresh round of quota controversy is in the offing. The National Commission
for Linguistic and Religious Minorities headed by Justice Ranganath Misra
has recommended quota within quota for OBC minorities and reservation
to Dalit minorities under Scheduled Caste category. .....
by Hamida
I have increasingly had doubts with the idea of a 'perfect' religion in
the face of such a vast spiritual tradition around the world which to
me often surpasses Islam, and this idea of the Quran being absolutely
'perfect'. My anger lies increasingly with the frustration I often find
in talking to Muslims and the frequent methods they use to side step things,
then at the same time turn it on me! I have been the victim a lot of subtle
pressure and bullying. .....
by The Times of India
Pakistan has received $1.8 billon as security assistance from the US for
the war against terrorism, but the weapons financed under it are "more
useful in countering India" than fighting Al Qaida and Taliban, according
to a study by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS). .....
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
After his ill-advised dismissal of the chief justice of Pakistan's supreme
court ignited a firestorm of violent protests, president Pervez Musharraf
may be banking on Islamic fanatics to create chaos in Islamabad. Many
suspect that an engineered bloodbath that leads to army intervention,
and the declaration of a national emergency, could serve as a pretext
to postpone the October 2007 elections. .....
by Anahita Mukherji
What started off as a high-scoring area of study has turned into a way
of life. When JB Petit High School, Fort, began offering yoga as an optional
100-mark subject for the ICSE board exams, not only did students score
phenomenally high marks, they also got hooked on to doing yoga long after
the exams ended. .....
by The Economic Times
The BJP on Friday came down heavily on the Manmohan Singh government for
its decision to take steps towards execution of certain Sachar committee
recommendations, claiming that the move was fraught with dangerous implications
for the country's unity and integrity. The recommendations include identification
of minority-dominated districts. .....
by C P Surendran
Recently, in Kerala, a writer and cultural activist K C Umesh Babu was
expelled from an organisation called Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangam (Progressive
Arts and Literature Society). Or PUKASA in short. PUKASA is run by artists
and intellectuals officially approved by the state CPM leadership. Normally
leadership means a collective. .....
by Ramoorthy P & V Srinivas Ram
Friday's bomb blast at Mecca Masjid was masterminded and executed from
Bangladesh with three local youth acting only as planters of the explosives,
top police sources told TOI on Saturday. .....
by Outlook
In the end, it was a letter that did him in. That's the inside story on
why P.M. Bhargava, now ex-deputy chairman of the National Knowledge Commission
(NKC), was shown the door. Sources say a particularly critical missive
he shot off to a senior PMO official is what finally sealed his case.
In it, Bhargava took exception to the presence of Americans (read friends
of chairman Sam Pitroda) at meetings of the Commission relating to education
and health. .....
by M.G. Radhakrishnan
It has all the trappings of a sensational criminal story-a high-profile
spiritual centre, rocked by allegations of murder, rape, drug abuse. The
Divine Retreat Centre (DRC) at Thrissur, Kerala-the country's largest
Christian meditation and healing institution run by the Vincentian Catholic
priests-which attracts over 10,000 people every day for its "divine"
prayer and faith-healing sessions held simultaneously in seven languages,
faces a series of stunning charges in an fir filed by a special investigation
team (SIT) of the Kerala police recently. .....
by Rohit Parihar
Many young rural women are aspiring to achieve more than just expertise
in household chores these days. Archana Jangid (36), a sociology postgraduate,
who lives in Chomu, a village near Jaipur, aspired to own a beauty parlour.
For this, she needed to undertake a course in beauty therapy which was
clearly unaffordable. .....
by Prerana Thakurdesai
Vaman Chavhan, 65, never imagined a house of his own, leave alone formal
education for his children. After all, Chavhan was a hamal, a porter/head-load
carrier, the poorest among the community of unskilled labourers. As a
daily wage labourer, earning between Rs 80 and Rs 100 per day, Chavhan
may not have otherwise hoped for security had it not been for the Hamal
Panchayat in Pune-an organisation that works for the uplift of hamals
in the city. .....
by Devyani Rao
In a country where women have long been denied their rightful due, Mina
Hosseini was among the few who chose to fight for what she believed in,
and face the consequences whatever they be. At the age of 13, her mother
married her to a man she considered suitable, fearing that if she stayed
home longer, she would eventually be married off to someone of her father's
choice - like almost 40 per cent of women in Afghanistan. .....
by Mohua Chatterjee
General Secretary of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), Ganapathy, has been elusive,
wanted in several cases across states. In his first interview since taking
over as party chief, the "Naxal commander-in-chief" dealt with
questions on a host of issues - from his party's plans for armed struggle
to its opposition to SEZs. .....
by The Indian Catholic
Christians recently joined Hindu right-wing activists in the western Indian
state of Gujarat to oppose paintings they found religiously offensive.
.....
by Naveen Nair
The Divine Retreat Centre in Kerala's Muringoor's claim to fame is that
it is the largest Catholic healing centre in the world. It's catch line:
come away by yourself to a lonely place and rest a while. .....
by Peter Foster
We foreign journalists often like to refer to India as the 'world's largest/greatest/most
inclusive democracy' when reporting on this country's politics. .....
by Prafull Goradia
The enthusiasm to celebrate the 150th year of 1857 appears to be growing.
No voice has, however, been heard that proposes a fresh review of the
uprising. .....
by J.V. Lakshmana Rao
What could have been a peaceful demonstration to draw the attention of
the visiting Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy
towards the "misuse of Hindu temple lands and funds," turned
out to be an ugly show of unwarranted muscle power by one of his NRI supporters
at the Rosemont Convention Center, the venue of a reception hosted by
ATA, TANA, and other organizations on May 6. .....
by Vivek Deshpande
Class feuds are on the rise in the Naxal ranks, according to information
revealed during the interrogation of the Left wing ultras arrested recently
in Nagpur. .....
by The Times of India
Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday slammed the US patenting authority
for granting yoga-related copyrights to American companies, saying yoga
is a part of Indian heritage. .....
by Raymond Colitt
Outraged Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday they were offended by
Pope Benedict's "arrogant and disrespectful" comments that the
Roman Catholic Church had purified them and a revival of their religions
would be a backward step. .....
by Sentinel Assam
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), while revealing the findings
of its extensive survey carried out in the border areas, said that anti-India
activities were going on in full swing in several madrassas and mosques
located along the international border in Asom and Tripura. .....
by The New Indian Express
Sabeera, a 23-year-old Muslim woman hailing from Meenchanda, will now
figure alongside film actresses Lissy and Annie for a crucial decision
she took before entering into wedlock with a Hindu man in the neighbourhood.
.....
by The Times of India
AIADMK MPs seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
press their demand for realignment of the proposed Sethusamudram shipping
canal have been kept waiting as concern that coalition partner DMK might
be miffed if he met Jayalalithaa's flock seems to be worrying the PM.
.....
by The Pioneer
In asking the University Grants Commission to "investigate"
the alleged "moral policing" at Baroda's Maharaja Sayajirao
University, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is back
to playing wilful and perverse politics. Coupled with strong protests
by CPI and CPI(M) MPs - the voluble Mr Sitaram Yechury has called it an
infringement on an individual's fundamental rights - Mr Singh's action
would indicate a strong stand against censorship of contrarianism. .....
by Coomi Kapoor
Eminent historian Ramachandra Guha admits that in researching for his
just released history of post-independent India, India after Gandhi, he
was handicapped, as were other historians before him, by the fact that
he had no access to the papers of both Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Sonia Gandhi, who is the trustee for the Family's documents has denied
everyone permission to view them. .....
by Ritu Sarin
"The bank has suffered in the past due to reckless lending because
of political interference and an obliging management, which resulted in
accumulation of highest NPAs in the industry. If the Government wants
this bank to survive, the bank should have directors who are not only
professionals but also men of integrity and not connected with local politics."
.....
by Bhavna Vij-Aurora
"However, it is not okay to stage encounters. But even they do happen,
and should not," says the former Punjab police chief. .....
by Swagata Sen
Everyone has his own version of a war. Worse, everyone has his own justification
for it. As Nandigram rises up in flames again, the locals-knowing fully
well that SEZ will not happen on their land-wonder why their men are being
killed and their women raped. And their justification is-retaliation.
.....
by Prerana Thakurdesai
One nondescript corner of Nagla Bunder in Mumbai's Thane district is abuzz
with activity as over two dozen pairs of hands give shape to Alanzo-I,
the largest wooden ship to be built in India after HMS trincomalee in
1816. In this age of sleek cruise liners, the 162 ft-by-33 ft seven-star
cruise ship will be second in size only to the 18th century's HMS Victory,
the world's oldest commissioned warship in wood that played a key role
in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. .....
by Manu Pubby
On his first visit to Siachen after taking over as Defence Minister, A
K Antony has said India and Pakistan are not anywhere close to finding
any immediate solution to the conflict that has turned the region into
the world's highest battlefield. After a visit to assess the living condition
and morale of troops at forward posts on the icy heights, Antony said
while "goody-goody talks" are on, the nation cannot forget "bitter
memories of the past with some of our neighbours". .....
by Tavleen Singh
When I was young and impressionable and growing up in Delhi in the seventies
everyone I knew was a leftist of some kind or other. There were the armchair
revolutionaries who lived out their imaginary revolutions in the dusty
corridors of Delhi's universities. There were the 'intellectuals' who
worked mostly in newspapers and were full of bombast and jargon. .....
by Ritu Sarin
Independent directors on the board of Government banks have a key role
to play: not only are they supposed to bring in expertise, their presence,
as impartial monitors, is meant to signal trust to shareholders against
corporate misgovernance. .....
by The Indian Express
Sikh militants had in 1986 threatened to kill then Canadian prime minister
Brian Mulroney and blow up the Toronto subway system, according to just
declassified documents before the Air India Inquiry Commission. .....
by Malaysia Sun
An in-depth poll of four major Muslim countries has found that in all
of them large majorities believe that undermining Islam is a key goal
of US foreign policy. .....
by Youssef Ibrahim
For decades, Saudi Arabia's ruling family has lent political and financial
support to the country's most fanatical Muslim clergy. The clergy received
money to infest the world with their vision of violent jihad; the Al Sauds
received religious support for their claims to absolute power. It has
been a good marriage - but now the jihadi chickens have come home to roost.
.....
by David Stringer
A judge sentenced five men to life in prison Monday for plotting to attack
targets in London, including a popular nightclub, power plants and shopping
mall, with bombs made from a half-ton stockpile of fertilizer. .....
by ABC News
An Interior Ministry spokesman says the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu
Ayyub al-Masri, has been killed in an internal fight between insurgents
north of Baghdad. .....
by Arabinda Ghose
During the late 1950s, Gwalior-born Yeshwant Laxman Nene had felt humiliated
when his professors at the University of Illinois in the USA, where he
was doing his Ph.D in Plant Pathology (Virology), used to taunt him saying
India did not have any record of agricultural operations in the country
during ancient days. .....
by Info-Sikh.com
Holding fierce pride in their identity, Sikhs have for decades been seen
as "off-limits" by the missionary machine but not anymore. In
a alarming trend, evangelism has begun to tread on the Sikh faith as well.
.....
by Nicholas Burns
While Iraq and Iran have dominated recent headlines, the United States
and India have quietly forged the strongest relationship the two countries
have enjoyed since India's independence in 1947. For most of the past
60 years, the Cold War and vastly differing ideological and governing
philosophies kept us, at best, fitful partners. .....
by Tarun Vijay
Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, must be a long place from India's Sanskrit
learning centres and if a "fun-filled" spoken Sanskrit residential
camp named Shraddha (devotion) for teenagers alone gets booked three months
in advance, there must be something extraordinary about it. The interesting
part is that the youth who have grown up in the US and made Sanskrit a
part of their daily lives shall teach at the camp. .....
by Yahoo.com
Nine Muslims accused of stockpiling chemicals and explosive detonators
have been ordered to stand trial on charges of planning terror attacks
in Sydney, Australian court officials said Tuesday. .....
by Ed Husain
The recent conviction of five young British Muslim men has yet again opened
the debate about how Britain, famed for its plurality and tolerance, bred
home-grown terrorists. And, more important, how do we heal the divisions
and communal disintegration in our cities that continue to serve as an
Islamist underworld in which the rhetoric of jihad and destruction goes
unchallenged? .....
by Carsten A. Holz
Academics who study China, which includes the author, habitually please
the Chinese Communist Party, sometimes consciously, and often unconsciously.
Our incentives are to conform, and we do so in numerous ways: through
the research questions we ask or don't ask, through the facts we report
or ignore, through our use of language, and through what and how we teach.
.....
by Imran Ahmed Siddiqui
Pistol in one hand and cellphone in the other, Rabiul Hasan sits under
a tree in Khejuri, barking orders to one of his lieutenants. .....
by Tom Baldwin
Home-grown British terrorists now regard themselves as part of "global
insurgency" that poses a new threat to international security, according
to an official US report published yesterday. .....
by Aqeel Hussein, Colin Freeman
Criminals in Baghdad are stealing corpses from the scenes of car bombings
and murders in order to extract "ransoms" from grieving relatives.
.....
by Robert Spencer
Has it ever happened before, in the history of the world, that almost
six years into a major conflict, half of the intelligentsia of a nation
fighting the war was not convinced that there was even a war on? Such
was the implication of a moment during Thursday's Democratic presidential
candidates' debate. .....
by Philip Johnston, Duncan Gardham
and Richard Edwards
MI5's defence that it was not aware of the threat of the July 7 bombers
was looking increasingly shaky today after it was revealed that it had
listened to a bugged conversation in which one of the suicide bombers
spoke of waging jihad. .....
by Rashmee Roshan Lall
The Pakistan cricket team's 'descent' into praying rather than playing
because of the infiltration of an other-worldly proselytising sect of
Islam called the Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ) worried their murdered coach Bob
Woolmer so much he was writing a book titled 'Inshallah', TOI has learnt.
.....
by Sandeep
EPW carries an interesting article-cum-report on the plight of Dalit Christians
(Downloadable PDF). It appears to be well-researched and replete with
historical, contemporary, and statistical data. Prakash Louis, the author,
argues that Dalit Christians have been betrayed on all counts and from
everybody including the Church. .....
by R Gopakumar
A Catholic Church-run mass communications college in Kottayam has stirred
a hornet's nest by expelling five students for making a film on homosexuality.
.....
by Irfan Husain
Fortunately for our prime minister, the Chinese are a polite people, especially
towards guests. Had they been a more crass nation, somebody might have
laughed in his face when he recently told his hosts in Beijing that Pakistan
had the ideal investment climate. .....
by Bala Chauhan
As a surgeon, it was a tough call for him to sign an undertaking that
if his patient needed blood transfusion during surgery, he would not administer
it. Instead, he would allow her to bleed to death. .....
by Mumbai Mirror
Canada was a haven for terrorists after Operation Blue Star in 1984, a
lawyer representing the families of the victims told the Air India inquiry.
.....
by Rakhi Chakrabarty
This Bangladeshi author lives in exile in Kolkata under a cloud of fatwas,
death threats, rabid criticism - and, yes, praise as well. And, her voice
continues to be as strident as ever when she says, "Here, there are
laws to protect black bucks but none to protect Muslim women against oppression."
.....
by Sonali Das
Remember qaidi No 1726 at Tihar Jail who was convicted in November last
year for the murder of his personal secretary, Shashinath Jha? Now the
same convict, former Union minister and JMM president Shibu Soren, has
not only moved back to Ranchi quietly, but has become a power centre once
again. .....
by M.S.N. Menon
Because we cannot allow the Hindus to become a minority in their own country
through conversion. Because we cannot allow ourselves to become extinct
through conversion. Why? Because we have a better record of concern for
humanity. Because our civilisation has more to offer mankind than Islam
or Christianity. Because we are committed moral beings compared to Muslims
and Christians. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
In his fascinating book *The Looming Tower*, which takes you deep into
the gloomy, cheerless and depressing world of radical Islamism, Lawrence
Wright recreates with remarkable precision the first *jihadi* strike in
modern times that signalled events leading up to 9/11 and beyond. .....
by The Times of India
A man who has reportedly admitted to helping the bombers in the July 11
serial blasts case enter India from Bangladesh was on Sunday handed over
by the West Bengal police to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and will be
brought to Mumbai in a couple of days. .....
by Faizan Ahmad
Looms run here throughout the day and shatter the calm the countryside
is otherwise known for. Studious boys of the village, therefore, move
to the outskirts where they study gas laws, colligate properties and kinetic
energy and solve binomial theorem and Pascal's triangle. And wow, many
of them crack IIT-JEE. .....
by M D Kini
Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee was partially true when he said that
'the judiciary had left citizens at the mercy of the executive during
the Emergency (TOI, April 27). It is true that the supreme court had upheld
the executive's decision to suspend the fundamental rights of people.
.....
