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UK to send Gurkhas to Indonesia for relief operations

     London: Gurkhas after loyally and faithfully serving the British Empire are now set to extend their helping hand to the people badly affected in the Boxing Day earthquake that ravaged South and South East Asia. According to Ananova, the British government has as part of its aid to Indonesia offered to send in as many as 120 Gurkhas with relief effort to the affected nation. According to a release announced by 10 Downing Street, the decision to deploy the Gurkhas from the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles based in Brunei, was taken at the daily meeting of the Britain's South-East Asia emergency committee, chaired by UK Premier Tony Blair.

Fibre homes for Kerala's tsunami victims (Go To Top)

     Pune: An Indian firm has come out with portable plastic fibre houses that has the possibility of acting as life saviours during natural disasters like floods and tsunamis. A Pune-based company has in this regard come out with 22 houses to be dispatched to Kerala, which lost 176 lives in last week's tsunami attack. The state government says 400,000 families have been badly hit by the killer waves along its 500-mile coastline.

SC permits felling of trees for tsunami rehabilitation (Go To Top)

    New Delhi: The Supreme Court today relaxed the ban on the felling of trees for the speedy rehabilitation of tsunami victims in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It has allowed the administration to use timber and non-timber forest product to make houses for affected people. However, the court said, no felling will be done up to 1,000 metres from the seashore in the national park and sanctuary and the mangrove forest. The court also said, that the relaxation on felling of trees should be used only for meeting the immediate requirement of rehabilitation work,and not for any commercial purpose.

Tendulkar not to bat in tsunami charity match (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday confirmed that he would take part in the tsunami relief fund raising match but said he would not bat in the charity tie between an Asian XI and ICC XI in Melbourne on January 10. "I am definitely participating in the match. But I won't be batting in that game as advised by my doctors," the master batsman said, adding he would leave for Australia on Friday. Tendulkar said he was looking forward to the match as it gave him a great opportunity to do his bit for tsunami affected families.