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Two killed in protest over Wullar boat tragedy
by Suhail Ahmed

       Srinagar: Curfew has been clamped in Handawara and Watlab, about six km from Srinagar after the law and order situation in these areas turned violent on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, a suspected terrorist and a civilian were killed after the Army opened retaliatory fire in self-defence. The people were reportedly protesting against the Tuesday's boat capsize in Wullar Lake of Baramulla district which claimed 22 lives. According to reports, protesters were demanding the arrest of the culprits responsible for the boat's capsize. "The protesters turned ugly mob of 500 to 600 persons carrying sticks tried to attack the Naval detachment area in Watlab after comming to know that five more bodies have been recovered on Wednesday morning, "said an army spokesman in Srinagar. As the army and police tried to control the mob, someone from the mob fired at the soldiers in which one army jawan suffered a gun shot wound, he said. Adding further the Army said that," The troops retaliated with fire and killed one terrorist and a civilian in the mob. One pistol has been recovered from the body of the terrorist and his identification is in progress. Three more persons from the mob have been taken into custody for inciting the people."

      However, locals alleged that people of the area were holding peaceful demonstrations and army personnel's without any justification opened fire on them in which two persons got killed and more than one dozen got injured. According to police sources, all the injured have been shifted to different hospitals for treatment. Meanwhile security forces have sealed off roads leading to Handawara and watlab, media persons too have not been allowed to these areas. Earlier in the day, the funeral rites of all the deceased whose bodies were recovered yesterday was performed at Handwara town. The incident took pace on Tuesday when a navy boat, carrying about 25 students of the Burning Candle High School of Handwara town in Kupwara district for a joyride, capsized in the Wullar lake at Watlab, 75 kms from Srinagar. According to defence sources, all the children, accompanied by their teacher, had requested a naval sailor to take them for a boat ride in the lake. After getting permission, they were taken for the joy ride, but the boat capsized apparently due to excess weight.

     Meanwhile, the Navy has regretted the tragedy and will hand over a cheque of Rs 20 lakh for disbursement to the bereaved families. The state government and the Indian Army have already ordered a judicial enquiry and a Court of Inquiry, respectively.

Torrential rains lash Mumbai (Go To Top)

       Mumbai: Torrential rains lashed Mumbai since Tuesday night, after striking the metropolis 10 days ahead of its expected arrival. Many persons were injured as trees were uprooted and power supply disrupted at various places, following whip-lashing rain and strong wind across the city and its suburbs. Kerala, Karnataka and most parts of Maharashtra and Goa also witnessed heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours, said Meteorological Department officials. The Met department has predicted heavy rainfall in the region within the next 48 hours. Heavy rain disrupted train service along the Konkan Railway due to water logging. Road traffic was also affected in several places in the city and other places across the state.

Free rations for rain-affected in Kerala (Go To Top)
by K.Ashik

Thiruvananthapuram: The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government on Wednesday announced two weeks' of free rations for people affected by the rains in the coastal and interior areas of the state. The state government also asked district collectors to take up relief works on a warfooting. Announcing the urgent measures after a cabinet meeting, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan told reporters here that torrential rains had so far claimed 11 lives, besides causing extensive damage to property and crops loss. The government had, on Tuesday, sanctioned Rupees six crore for emergency relief works. The collectors have been asked to provide assistance to those who had their houses damaged fully or partly due to heavy rains. The re-opening of schools had been postponed to June 5 from the normal date of June 1, since relief camps were opened mostly in school buildings across the state. The areas extensively damaged by the rains include Muvattupuzha, Cherukulam, Cherayinkiz in Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram, Kollam, Kottayam and Alappuzha.

Supersonic Brahmos cruise missile tested (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: India today successfully test-fired the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile in the deserts of Rajasthan. Today's test was carried out to evaluate the missile's user- deployment configuration. Army officials said, the test conducted by trained Army personnel, met all the mission objectives. The missile followed a predetermined trajectory at a very low altitude and detonated against the designated land target with precision. Chief of the Army Staff, General JJ Singh, Corps Commanders and other senior officers of the Army witnessed the flight. M Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, A Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive Officer, Brahmos were also present during the test.

Two jawans die rescuing officer's family (Go To Top)

       Mal Barak (Jalpaiguri): Two Army jawans drowned in Mal river while rescuing a family of an Army officer from a flash flood at Mal Barak in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Tuesday evening. Sailesh Kumar (42) and SK Poddar (28) belonged to the 113 Rajput battalion of the Indian Army. According to eye-witnesses, the incident took place when an Army officer along with his mother and wife went to see the current in Mal River. After they fell into the river, six jawans jumped into the river and rescued the family. But two of the six jawans went missing. Fire brigade personnel and jawans later recovered their bodies. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination.

Army combats bamboo flowering (Go To Top)
by Gaurav Shrivastava

        Imphal: Security forces in restive Manipur, apart from providing security to the villagers from rebels, are also helping them combat the menace of Bamboo flowering. Army men are spending tireless time in remote areas canvassing people from village to village, educating them about rats, rodents and poison. The much dreaded flowering of bamboos is being witnessed in many parts of Churachandpur district, which hitherto was a militant hub till the army cleared it. Thinghat and Thanlon sub-divisions in the district are the most affected by bamboo flowering.

      Meanwhile, ginger and turmeric have been identified as crops that would not be eaten by rodents. Using the limited resources, the battalions of 27 Sector Assam Rifles have created thirteen Community Farms of ginger and turmeric at Lamzang, Muallam, Songdo/Lungthuyl, L Munpi, Khozim, Aini, Santing, Tuilaphai, Henkot, Bukpi, Songpekmun, Mulhoichin and Pangsang villages during the month of April. Seeds of these plants were provided to self-help groups of women in each village. Bamboo after it flowers dies unless harvested soon leading to wastage of a good amount of money. Most of the bamboo, which became useless due to flowering, has been bought by army units deployed in the area to create habitat, enabling the villagers to earn some money. Throughout the misty forests of the state, wild bamboo flowers forms in unison once every 48 years. It is traditionally said that when it does, famine follows.

1929 classic shot in India shows in London  
by Mike Lockey

      London: A world premiere was recently held in Britain of a new film score performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. But it was not for a new film. Instead, it was of music written for a silent classic shot in India way back in 1929. The composer of the score is Nitin Sawhney, and the movie is Prapancha Pash - A Throw of the Dice. It is intended that there will be a succession of screenings of the film, with live orchestras, all around the world after the initial success of the performance at the Barbican Centre in the City of London. Prapancha Pash has been restored to its former glory by the British Film Institute and opens with scenes of a tiger hunt, together with a full complement of maharajas and their elephants. The film was written by an Indian, Niranjan Pal, and perhaps surprisingly, directed by a German, called Franz Osten. It is, according to Nitin Sawhney in an interview in The Guardian newspaper, "one of few surviving examples of a golden age in Indian cinema". So is this why he decided to write the music? "This was a rare opportunity to score something from the time", he said, adding that: "It's beautifully made - a cross between Chaplin and Cecil B de Mille and a Bollywood movie - and it has the resonance of the Mahabharata". Not only Nitin Sawhney himself on piano, but also musicians including a flautist from Mumbai, joined the London Symphony Orchestra for the premiere.

     Describing the score, Sawhney explained that: "It is 74 minutes of continuous music and very fast-paced, so the score has to be fluid. I've tried to hint at things that aren't spelled out by adding a layer of subtext. Music supplies a poetic base". Nitin Sawhney was born in Britain a year after his parents migrated to the UK from the Punjab. He began piano lessons at the age of five, then classical and flamenco guitar. He went on to play sitar and tabla at the local Sikh temple, even though his family is Hindu. He also took on board Punjabi folk music on trips to India and "played around with jazz and Bach" as he puts it, back at home. Quite a litany of influences then, that has led him to his present fame. And, as Stephen Hussey, who conducted the orchestra at the premiere said: "He is adept at interpreting emotion and the relationship of sound and pictures". So if there is no live performance coming to a concert hall near you, then look out for the movie at the cinema, or even on DVD because both are planned.

'Indian nurses stay longer in US hospitals' (Go To Top)

      Washington: The number of Indian nurses getting jobs in the US is increasing by the day because they are the best trained and tend to stay there longer compared to their counterparts from other countries, a senior HRD official of a leading hospital in New Mexico has said. The St Vincent Regional Medical Centre in New Mexico has decided to look for nurses in India, and two hospital workers travelled to India this month to recruit eight nurses, reported the Daily Times. "The technology in India in nursing is very similar to ours. Nurses from India tend to be the best-trained and tend to stay longer. They basically come ready to work," Barbara Roe, the hospital's vice president of human resources, told a New Mexico- based newspaper.

     Meanwhile, according to the paper, while a new Immigration Bill pending before the US Senate will remove the present limit on recruiting nurses from other countries, the American Nurses Association is opposing the provision, saying that a flood of nurse immigrants would damage the domestic work force as well as the immigrants' home countries. The Association is of the view that Congress should invest in domestic nursing programmes rather than invite other countries to solve the American nursing shortage. Most foreign nurses in this country are from the Philippines, however, an increasing number is coming from India, reported the paper. International nurse recruiting is a brisk business in the United States, and it could increase even more if the proposal in the Senate to remove the limit on the number of nurses who can immigrate to the US becomes a law. The paper also quoted a report in the New York Times last week, saying that the Philippines and India send more nurses to the US than any other countries.