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South Korea to provide free swine flu vaccines

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Seoul, August 30:South Korea will provide free swine flu vaccines to around 9.1 million people across the country, WAM news agency reported Sunday citing officials.

At least one million medical staff, 7.5 million school children and 660,000 soldiers will be given free swine flu vaccines, an official of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) said.

Among other beneficiaries of the free vaccination programme include senior citizens, pregnant women and children below five years.

He added that others would be charged $8.03 per vaccination.

Argentina swine flu toll rises to 465

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Buenos Aires, August 30:The number of people to die of swine flu in Argentina has risen to 465, the health ministry said in a report.

Till date, 8,240 people have been infected with the influenza A (H1N1) virus, also called swine flu, in the country, the report said Friday.

Earlier in July, the health authorities had put restrictions on business and public activities in the country due to the swine flu outbreak.

The fatalities from the disease have decreased since June 26 and the most recent death was reported Aug 20, the report said.

Police crack down on Gujarat small chemical units

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Ahmedabad, August 30:A day after three people died here after consuming methyl solvent mistaking it for locally-brewed liquor, police have started a drive against small industrial units manufacturing such chemicals, officials said Sunday.

A senior crime branch official said police were identifying such small industrial units who make chemicals that are misused by bootleggers.

The official said the three people who died in Ahmedabad Saturday had not consumed illicit liquor but methanol solvent which they bought from a bootlegger.

Family, peer pressure pushing up adolescent suicides, say experts

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New Delhi, August 30:An exaggerated importance to brands, pressure to perform and peer pressure have pushed up suicide rate amongst adolescents today – a case in point being the 19-year-old student who killed herself apparently after not getting admission to a prestigious Delhi college, say psychologists and parents.

Kritika Khanna, a bright student who scored 92 percent in her Class 12 board exams, did not get admission to the sought after Lady Shri Ram college and instead had to take admission in Jesus and Mary college under Delhi University. She was apparently depressed about it.

BJP is imploding: Jaswant Singh

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New Delhi, August 30:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is “imploding”, says Jaswant Singh who feels the party he was associated with for 30 years is demonstrating “lack of confidence” with each passing day and has suddenly been “robbed of reasoning”. He also said he was “trapped” into going to Shimla for the leadership meeting that sacked him without explanation.

Maintaining he had no plans to join another political party for the moment, Jaswant Singh said the BJP was collapsing internally following the rapid sequence of events after his exit.

Sukhbir Badal’s chopper makes emergency landing in Punjab

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Ferozepur (Punjab), August 30:A helicopter carrying Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had to make an emergency landing in an open field in this Punjab district Sunday following a technical snag, officials said.

Badal was on his way to Jalalabad in the district, some 280 km from Chandigarh, when the two pilots of the Bell 230 helicopter, hired by the Punjab government from Prem Air, experienced some difficulty barely minutes before the landing at the scheduled place and had to bring it to ground immediately.

IPL turned around Cricket South Africa’s fortunes

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Johannesburg, August 30:The Indian Premier League II (IPL) hosted in South Africa earlier this year helped Cricket South Africa (CSA) record a turnaround of over 80 million rands (1 rand=US 13 cents) for the 2008-09 season after budgeting for a loss of 75.9 million rands.

Films can’t change society: Rahul Bose

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Chennai, Aug 30 (IANS) Actor-social activist Rahul Bose feels that movies can’t change society but can help make sensible people “more sensible”.

“Films have a small impact on society – it can be negative or positive. But the impact is very little. But at the same time I feel movies can make sensible people more sensible and that sense of compassion will make you a better human being,” said Rahul.

The actor, known for his powerful performances in “English August” and “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer”, was here for a campaign.

BJP expresses concern over drought, climate change

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New Delhi, August 30:Voicing concern over climate change, food shortage and poor monsoons, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that measures should be taken to improve the conditions.

“Climate change and its adverse effects on our people, agriculture and national economy are more than obvious. This year, nearly 250 districts have already been declared drought-affected. The foodgrain production may dip substantially, say by 10 per cent or so,” he said in his letter to the prime minister.

Prime Minister should worry about people, not us: BJP

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New Delhi, August 30:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should focus on the drought conditions in the country and price rise rather than worrying about its internal matters.

“Let me appeal to prime minister that instead of worrying about the BJP, let him worry about the people, the price rise and the drought,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had Saturday said in Rajasthan that infighting in the BJP was not good and stability of political parties was necessary in a democracy.

Muslim ‘Terrorists’ Manufactured by the Media

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It is not just the ‘loony’ ‘vernacular’ media, as many are given to believe, but even the ‘respectable’, ‘mainstream’, ‘national’ English-language press in India that have sedulously cultivated the notion of ‘Islamic terrorism,’ so much so that the image of Muslims in general being either terrorists or their sympathizers enjoys wide currency today.

‘I saw LeT activists exchange maps of 26/11 targets’

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Mumbai, August 28:A key witness in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case told a court Thursday he had seen two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) activists exchanging maps of various targets in the city.

Naruddin Mehboob Shaikh, a resident of Goregaon suburb in north-west Mumbai, identified Fahim Ansari as his friend and neighbour of over 30 years, and also identified Sabahuddin Shaikh as Fahim’s friend whom he had met in Nepal.

Advani knew of Kandahar, say Brajesh Mishra, Yashwant Sinha

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New Delhi, August 28:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday faced more embarrassment with Brajesh Mishra, who was national security advisor (NSA) during the party-led NDA government, as well as senior leader Yashwant Sinha asserting that L.K. Advani was aware of the decision to swap terrorists for hostages during the 1999 Indian Airlines hijack.

Mishra told CNN-IBN channel that Advani was part of the decisions taken “unanimously” by the then Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) regarding the release of militants to save 160 hostages on the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

UN welcomes US probe into alleged torture of terror suspects

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New York, August 26: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, Tuesday welcomed the appointment of a US special prosecutor to investigate the alleged torture of terrorism suspects detained after the Sep 11, 2001, attacks.

Pillay also welcomed the release by Washington of Afghan national Mohammed Jawad from the prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was captured as a teenager in 2002.

“I warmly welcome this responsible decision by the US government to open a preliminary investigation,” Pillay said in a statement.

Jaswant Singh to promote his book in Pakistan this week

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Islamabad, August 26:Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh will visit Pakistan later this week to promote his controversial book on Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Online news agency reported.

Although Singh’s visit to Pakistan has not yet been made public, he may arrive here Friday, the report said.

The former Indian external affairs minister was expelled from the BJP last week for praising Jinnah in his book “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence”, abruptly ending his three-decade-long membership with the party.

Bomb kills four US soldiers in Afghanistan

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Kabul, August 25: Four US soldiers were killed Tuesday by a bomb while on patrol in volatile southern Afghanistan, military officials said.

“They were struck while patrolling in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan,” Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said in a statement.

A US military spokesman, Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, confirmed the ISAF soldiers who died were Americans.

Over 900 births and 300 deaths in Delhi every day

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New Delhi, August 25:Delhi registers over 900 births and nearly 300 people die in the national capital every day, revealed an annual report Tuesday.

The annual report on births and deaths in Delhi-2008 was released by Delhi government’s Finance, Planning and Urban Development Minster A.K. Walia Tuesday.

“The report revealed that average number of births per day in Delhi were 915 in 2008 as against 882 in 2007 and the average number of deaths per day in Delhi was 295 in 2008 as against 277 in 2007,” an official statement said.

Power outages cost Indians Rs.30,000 crore a year

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Chennai, August 25:Indians are spending around Rs.30,000 crore every year to run their power back-up systems to escape frequent outages, according to a study by power genset maker Wartsila India.

The erratic power supply in the country has helped the power back-up equipment industry – inverters, batteries and small gensets – grow to the present size of around Rs.100,000 crore.

42 convicted in a fodder scam case

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Ranchi, August 25:A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here Tuesday convicted 42 people in a case of the multi-million rupee fodder scam.

Special CBI Judge A.S.Ansari convicted the 42 people in a case relating to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs.13.69 crore from the Gumla district treasury.

There were 52 accused in the case. However, six died during the trial, two are still absconding and two have been acquitted.

The court Tuesday awarded three years’ jail terms each to 11 of the 42 and slapped fines between Rs.50,000 and Rs.3,500,000 on them.

India for dialogue, but Pakistan yet to take action: Krishna

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New Delhi, August 24:Underlining India’s pursuit of a peaceful and stable neighbourhood, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Monday asked Pakistan to take “effective steps” to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and stressed that popular aspirations are the bedrock of New Delhi’s foreign policy.

India, Nepal pop stars team up for anti-trafficking drive

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Kathmandu, August 24:Pop stars from Nepal and India are teaming up for a series of concerts in Nepal’s main cities for an anti-trafficking campaign sponsored by MTV.

Indian crooner Sunidhi Chauhan and Nepali pop icon as well as Coke’s poster boy Nima Rumba will join local stars Kranti Ale and Nalina Chitrakar for the campaign that kicks off with a concert in Kathmandu Sep 5, the first in a series of free “MTV EXIT Live in Nepal” concerts, said a statement by the American embassy here.

Fake driving licence in Rahul Gandhi’s name

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Patna, August 24:A fake driving licence has been found in Bihar’s Saran district, issued in the name of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, officials said Monday.

The address on the licence is that of the official residence of Saran’s district magistrate. The name of Rahul Gandhi’s father is given as Rajiv Gandhi. But it carries the photograph of an unidentified youth.

“A driving licence (1847/09) in the name of Rahul Gandhi was issued by Saran district transport officer Puneeta Srivastava on May 18, 2009,” said a district official.

Delhi University student commits suicide

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New Delhi, August 24:A 22-year-old student of Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College was found hanging in her hostel room, police said Monday.

Ritveja Singh, a third year student of the college, was found hanging in her room in a private hostel in Mukherjee Nagar area in north Delhi, a police official said.

According to police, Ritveja’s body was badly decomposed and she might have died at least two days back.

Obama authorises elite interrogation team: Report

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Washington, August 24: US President Barack Obama has authorised the formation of an elite interrogation team to handle top terrorism suspects, the Washington Post reported on its website Monday, citing senior administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

The group would be based at the FBI, the chief domestic law enforcement agency. However, the Post reported, the interrogation team would operate under the oversight of the White House-based National Security Council, which reports directly to the president.