Anna Hazare and Anti Corruption Drama

People are raising their voice across India against corruption, led by Anna Hazare. The government of India is completely at sea in its attempt to deal with the situation. But there is something seriously amiss in this whole scenerio.

It seems that people who are participating in this movement think that corruption is something that is perpetrated by some others who are in power or who are rich. This is partly true but not the absolute truth.

Corruption is entrencehed in the system because of people like you and me and the so called anti corruption agitators. Ask yourself a simple question; How will you respond in a situation where the easy way out is by bribe or influence (Sifarish)? Will you stand in a long queue and wait your turn, or visit a court to pay a traffic fine or would you rather hand over a 100 Rs note to the traffic cop and go home?

There are numerous situations where this choice arises; be it admissions to an educational institutions, getting a driving license, making a file move in a government office at a faster pace than others and so on...

Corruption and bribing is not something the nation and its people learnt over night. We have thousands of years old tradition of bribing our gods for favours asked. If such and such event happens or such and such problem or ailment vanishes I will donate a prasad of Rs. xyz in the temple. It is the same mind set which is carried by the common man when he visits the office of power.

Is it only the people who take bribes corrupt or the giver is equally responsible? The fact is that the petite bourgeoisie-auto rickshaw drivers, and constables, if Haryana Police Sangathan support for Jan Lok Pal's bill is any indication, and low paid government officials and assorted elements-have no idea that they are very much part of the corruption. They believe it is a disease outside them, primarily endemic to the government and its institutions, when they are active players in the drama.

The only major difference in the bills drafted by the government and Anna Hazare, apart from bringing the PM into the bill's ambit, seems to be that the government wants to set up a separate investigative agency while Anna and his team want an existing investigating agency like the CBI to report to the Lokpal committee. That would eventually mean the Lokpal evolving into a parallel power vortex, and might make Parliament redundant. In other words, the people elected by you will not have as much say as those appointed or government nominated Lokpal committee members.

As far as political parties go in India, they have clearly failed to represent the people. They do not have the interests of common man in their agenda. Their primary purpose seems to be how to keep clinging to power and make some money for their future generations rather than think of the benefit and problems faced by the masses.

The system has become such that it is virtually impossible for and outsider to find his footing in the political system without money or connection.

This movement should be more of an awakening call for the people to do a self search rather than the Political parties, which anyways seem numbed and have noy been able to come up with any proper response to this anti corruption movement.

I truly hope that this movement helps wake up the common man to stop bribing officials and seeking favors from political masters in their lives. That would be an eye opener for politicians, bureaucracy, police and the powers that be.

I ll finish this article with some tongue in cheek comments later on..cause this is too insipid for my taste.

M.S. Dhoni and Shaksi Singh Rawat engaged pictures

M.S. Dhoni the 28 year-old Indian cricket team captain got engaged to Sakshi Singh Rawat, a Kolkata girl in her early 20s. Dhoni and Shaksi got engaged at a quiet ceremony in Dehradun in Uttra Anchal 3rd July Saturday night. Dhoni's family sources in Ranchi confirmed the development.

Dhoni, chose a hill station for the simple ceremony. The Dhoni Shaksi engagement function, took place at Bhagirathi Resorts at Selaqui, about 20 km from the Dehradun.

Sakshi Singh Rawat is a 20 something,Sakshi, who studied at the Welham Girls' School in Dehradun is a 3rd year student at Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Aurangabad, and she has recently completed her training at Taj Bengal's front office.

According to people close to Shaksi she is a very pretty girl and Dhoni is lucky to have got her. She is like a little bird, chirpy and full of life and she was fairly good in studies as well as extra-curricular activities.

These are the pictures of Shaksi Singh Rawat.

The engagement ceremony of Dhoni and Shaksi took place at 6.30 pm where they exchanged rings the presence of relatives from both sides who arrived in three buses. India players Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh were among those present for the ceremony.


The couple had been seeing each other for nearly two years and they had holidayed together in Mussoorie and Dehradun last year.

According to family members of Mahendra Singh Dhoni no date for marriage has been fixed as yet but maybe the couple will tie the knot after the Australian series at home which gets over on October 24th.

Miss USA Rima Fakih Pole dancing Pictures and Video Controversy

The world goes gaga over a Lebanese-born first ever Muslim to wear the Miss USA crown. There is a slap in the face of conservatism. But is it really so! Seems the liberal west has its own moral guidelines as to how much fun a woman can have.

Yes you can walk the ramp in a bikini but you can not pole dance fully clothed.For the ignorant lot out there pole does not refer to Polish nationals ( miss USA is allowed to dance with Poles but not pole dancing).

Rima Fakih, 24 seems to have landed in trouble after news surfaced of her winning a pole dancing contest at a strip club in Detroit in 2007. They can take her crown away for this. Although she would be allowed to keep the pole and sex toys she won in the competition.

Fakih was photographed sliding up and down a stripper’s pole in a blue tank top, hot pants and high heels. Other photographs from the competition showed her wearing a bra stuffed with dollar bills

The photos were posted on the website of a Detroit-based radio show following her triumph at the beauty pageant Sunday in Las Vegas. I wonder why the sleazy radio shows are not banned for throwing up muck.

The radio show’s producers claim they have been contacted by the organisers of the Miss Universe competition requesting additional information regarding Miss Fakih’s involvement. I am sure they want to get their hands on the nude pictures of Miss USA for personal viewing.

It is not known if organisers of Miss USA were aware of Miss Fakih winning the ‘Stripper 101′ contest three years ago at a women-only striptease class at the Coliseum Gentleman’s Club. She is believed to have won a variety of prizes, including adult toys and a stripper’s pole.

Her winning the contest and the crown is a shakes the booties of both Muslims and middle class Americans. Americans must be wondering whats next; and rightly so. First son of a black Kenyan becomes US president and now a Lebanese Muslim wins the Miss USA title...

Last year’s winner Carrie Prejean was stripped off her title after it emerged she had made a sex tape. I hope they do not do the same to Miss USA Rima Fakih for dancing with a pole and winning all those sex toys. Maybe they should take away her pole as punishment for having fun or better still bomb the poles. (With my due apologies to the Poles for the pun but would the Americans know the difference!)

Swami Nityananda’s sex scandal video

After Kalki Bhagavan’s scam, Swami Nityananda’s sex scandal video has surfaced shaking the devotees faith in the religious leaders and god-men, who are treated equivalent to gods by followers. Don't make me say I told you so, but I did tell you bozos so!

The video shows Swami Nityananda and two actress Ranjitha and Ragasudha (The actresses name seems to have been added to make the news spicey, there is no confirmation on this) which are supposed to be parts of sex scandals by the Nityananda.

A video showing swamiji (we still like to add ji suffix to the name of the fun loving exalted swami as it might hurt the sentiments of fun loving people) in compromising position (compromising is putting it lightly, swami was having fun dude) with a popular Tamil actress was released by Sun News on Tuesday, Mar 2, leading to violence at the Swamiji’s ashrams.

There is doubt about the man in the video is Swami Nityanand but there is speculation as to the identity of the woman in the video. While some speculate that the actress in the video is Ragasudha, others suggest that the woman is Tamil actress Ranjita.

The video, which came as a massive shock to the godman’s followers (because he was having all the fun alone. While he made them just sit and meditate he got masturbated), has led to widespread protests (understandable when one person has all the goodies). In Coimbatore, angry followers took to streets and vandalised property,the Swami’s Ashram in Bidadi is also seeing similar scenes.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda is (WAS) a spiritual guru. He was born on January 1, 1978 in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the founder of Dhyanapeetam, a worldwide movement. The foundation has its headquarters in Bengaluru (Bangalore),India.

In 2007, he was elected chairman of the Hindu University of America, also known as the International Vedic Hindu University, an institution in the U.S. state of Florida. I wonder if they will sack him now or hire a new chairman.

Life Bliss Foundation is Nithyananda's movement (although the video shows swami enjoyed other kind of movements as well). Established in 2003, it now consists of over 1000 centers in 33 different countries. The foundation also owns Nithyananda Meditation Academies (NMAs) worldwide.

For all those looking for spiritual enlightenment I can only suggest the following: Do not follow Swami's and Godmen, Dude become a Swami or godman and con people and make money and generally have a good time.

Kalki Bhagavan and Amma Bhagawan Fraud

The gods in heaven must be smiling at the leela of their avatar's on planet earth but the followers of these self proclaimed swamis are not a happy lot. In fact most of them have got that sheepish look on their faces.

Down south the Telugu News Channel are tripping over one another exposing the so called divine swamis. First one off the blocks is Kalki Bhagavan scam or Kalki Bhagavan and Amma Bhagawan Fraud.

TV9 has aired live programs in which Vijay Kumar Naidu alias Kalki Bhagavan and Amma Bhagawan are being targeted. The allegations of land grabbing, drugs, sexual escapades are making strong rounds in the ashram.

Sri Kalki Bhagavan alias Vijay Kumar was born in Arcot district, Tamil Nadu, and at various times has also used names such as Mukteshwarand Sri Bhagavan.

Bhagavan and Amma claim to be two divine beings, or Avatars. They reside at Golden City, near Chennai, in India. Their stated mission is to bring all of humanity into the Golden Age. (They had made a good start by reaching the golden state of living by fleecing people themselves)

They claim that they will fully enlighten 64,000 people in the world. These people in a highly enlightened state of communion would transform the rest of the humanity by 2012. (Talk about chain reaction and pyramid marketing. I thought that was illegal, but who cares!)

According to them, this state of enlightenment is offered to seekers through a process known as deeksha (in other words open your wallet dumbos), which is a transfer of divine energy ( to the devotee and money to the bhagwan... fair transfer) that is said to be so powerful it has the ability to break through the concepts and conditioning of our mind .

According to an ex-devotee for the darshan of Amma’s padam the devotees pay 5000 Rupees and for Special Darshan 25,000 Rupees, They took 60,000 Rupees from each devotee for Homam. ( you can touch my feet for free if you can bear the smell and I too have god in me or so I was told..lol)

And for Foreigners (ah! how could they forget the cash cows of foreign lands who are looking for nirvana) they have 21 days package. And each devotee should pay entry fees. With the name of Amma Pooja the Kalki trust collected 240 Crores. Kalki trust is running 9 businesses, one of them is Real Estate which is running by Bhagvan’s son he earned nearly 3,000 crores with the company.

Another swami scam to follow soon. Keep up dudes.

Indo Canadian MP Ruby Dhalla in hot Movie

Who is the sexiest Indian Politician in the world? Well not Sonia Gandhi for sure. Indian-Canadian MP Ruby Dhalla is listed as the third sexiest women politicians in the world by Maxim magazine. Dhalla and British Columbia Conservative MP Nina Grewal are the first Sikh women to serve in the Canadian House of Commons.

Ruby Dhalla was an aspiring bollywood actress before she jumped into politics. She acted in a lead role in the film “Kyon Kis Liye” made in Canada. Dhalla is shown in some hot steamy scenes in the movie Kyon Kis Liye with the film’s producer and co-star Charanjit Sihra.

The 35-year-old Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, Dhalla says the scenes in the film, and distribution posters for DVDs have been “doctored” to malign her.


The film is based on the local Sukhinder Dhillon murder case in which the wife was poisoned by her husband to collect insurance money . Kyon Kis Liye was released in India and Canada without much success. But the present controvery might rake in the moolah for the producer with sale of DVD's of Kyon Kis Liye picking up.

But Dhalla has mounted a legal challenge to stop it. A 1993 Miss IndiaCanada runner-up, Dhalla claims she is being misrepresented through objectionable scenes. “...they put my face on someone else’s body , in clothes I never wore,” she told local daily Toronto Sun.

“I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am and will not be exploited by individuals.” But producer and co-star Charanjit Sihra, who owns a body shop in Hamilton, said Dhalla had given her consent in writing for the distribution of the film DVDs.

The movie producer said there was “nothing sexual” in the film (just too bad). “Her mother was there every day (during the shooting of the film)... there is no nudity, or sex(Yikes! whats all the fuss about dude),” he said.

He said, "She wanted to be in Bollywood films...she had a passion for the movie, but she's a politician now and doesn't want the DVD of the film released.'' Sihra said he had first met Dhalla in 1993 after she became a runner-up in the Miss Canada-India beauty contest.

Well we would certainly like to watch the objectionable nude and steamy scenes from movie Kyon Kis Liye. Post the link to the Video of Kyon Kis Liye please.



Just in case you are wondering who is the sexiest woman politician in the world here is a picture of Mara Carfagna, an Italian . Mara Carfagna is a Member of Chamber of Deputies (Campania 2), Minister for Equal Opportunity (Brings a smile to your face,does't it!)






















Don't we deserve some hot looking politician like her!!! I mean look at the cut outs of Adavani, Manmohan Sigh, Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Lalu Parsad....We must be voting for the wrong kinda people here. And if we had to have an imported Italian politician why couldn't we get someone like Mara Carfagna. Jago India Jago.

cuil kill google

Cuil is pronounced cool and is an old Irish word for knowledge.

This search engine has been launched by ex Google engineers and they are planning to outdo their parent and mother of all search engines " Google".

Will cuil succeed or not only time will tell. Changing net surfers habits is not such an easy task. The would-be Google rival says its service goes beyond prevailing search techniques that focus on Web links and audience traffic patterns and instead analyzes the context of each page and the concepts behind each user search request.

"Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user," Tom Costello, Cuil co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Danny Sullivan, a Web search analyst and editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, said Cuil can try to exploit complaints consumers may have with Google -- namely, that it tries to do too much, that its results favor already popular sites, and that it leans heavily on certain authoritative sites such as Wikipedia.

"The time may be right for a challenger," Sullivan says, but adds quickly: "Competing with Google is still a very daunting task, as Microsoft will tell you."

Cuil has indexed a whopping 120 billion Web pages, three times more than what they say Google now indexes, Patterson said, adding the company has spent just $5 million,

Google itself preemptively responded to Cuil's arrival with a blog post on Friday boasting of the growing scale of its own Web search operations.

Initially, Cuil is optimized for American English. Later this year, the company plans to enable Cuil users to perform searches in major European languages, Patterson said. Eventually, Cuil plans to make money by running ads alongside search results, she said, but provided no further details.

Cuil is one of a number of start-ups that are looking to introduce new technology that can change the competitive dynamics of the Web search market that Google dominates.

Although I must say that even established players like Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com -- all of whom have established quality search products -- haven't dented Google either.

So what makes Cuil worthy of special attention? There are four major areas that Cuil is putting out to distinguish itself from other services. These are:

* Big web index
* Unique relevance algorithm
* Unique results display
* Privacy

It's possible that Cuil could be a wild success that eclipses Yahoo and Microsoft and does threaten Google itself, of course. Anything's possible, only time will tell.

Banglore Blasts

The Indian tech hub and growing business center Bangalore was rocked with seven low-intensity bomb blasts on Friday afternoon killing one woman and injuring nine people. The Bangalore bomb blasts put a big question mark on the security situation in India.

Bangalore City Police Commissioner Shankar M Bidari and Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta confirmed that seven blasts shook Bangalore.

The first blast took place near Madiwala checkpost at around 1330 hrs IST with Additional Commissioner of Police, Bangalore, Gopal Hosur, confirming that a timer device was used to trigger the blasts.

All the blasts took place with 15 minutes of each other.

The crude bombs, stuffed with nuts and bolts, exploded at Madiwala, Adugodi, Nayandahalli, Pantharapalya and Vittal Mallya Road.

The woman who was killed was waiting at a bus stop in Madiwala on the Bangalore-Hosur Road while her husband and another person were seriously injured.

Police claim to have recovered gelatin sticks, mainly used in quarry operations, from one of the blast sites.

Bomb disposal squads have been rushed to the blast sites and telephone network have been jammed to stop the spread of rumours.

Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar M Bidari said, "We are monitoring the situation and request all residents to continue with their normal routine. The bomb squad and explosives experts are on the spot. We will deal with the situation."

All the injured have been taken to Mallya Hospital near Rajaram Mohan Rai circle.

Bangalore was rocked by a major terrorist attack in December, 2005 when some unidentified extremists opened fire in the Indian Institute of Science complex killing an Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi professor MC Puri.

Bomb disposal squads and forensic experts have rushed to the blast spots for investigations. Bangalore bomb blasts have scared the residents of the city and a general feeling of insecurity is prevailing. Blasts in Bangalore once again prove the deficiency of Indian intelligence and police which fail to anticipate and prevent such dastardly criminal terrorist acts.

Google to buy Digg for $200 million

Internet search leader Google has signed a letter of intent with Digg to purchase the social news site for around $200 million.

A report said the deal would be finalized within two weeks and that Digg would continue to operate as part of the Google News operation, which already runs one of the most popular news sites on the web.

In contrast to Google News, where the stories are selected by computer algorithm, Digg's news stories are submitted by users and ranked according to user approval ratings. The report said that Google was interested in using Digg's technology to help improve its search results by having users vote on their quality.

Digg was formed in 2004 by entrepreneur Kevin Rose who used a programmer he found online for $10 an hour. He paid $1,200 dollars for the domain name and $100 a month for hosting the site, which is now ranked as one of the 100 most trafficked sites on the internet.

Digg has so far raised $11.3 million in venture capital. Most of Digg's revenue comes from a three-year ad deal with google rival Microsoft, which will be terminated on a sale to Google.

Mars Pictures Sent by Phoenix Probe

The Phoenix has landed and is sending back Mars pictures to Earth.

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth.

The first Mars pictures, which the lander began taking shortly after touching down near Mars' north pole -- the end of a 422 million-mile trek -- showed a pattern of brown polygons as far as the camera could see.

The Mars Phoenix landers journey took it 296 days to cover the distance of 680 million-km (423 million-mile) from Earth .

The probe has sent back Mars photos of a flat landscape with few rocks

A Nasa spacecraft has sent back historic first Mars pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.

The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface.

It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days.

It released a parachute, used pulsed thrusters to slow to a fast walking speed, and then descended the last few metres to the Martian soil to land on three legs.


Nasa found out more about the landing when Mars pictures from the probe reached the Earth.

The first Mars images showed the "Arctic plain" where Phoenix came to rest - a region of Mars that has never been seen up close before.

Other Mars pics confirmed that the probe's solar arrays had unfurled successfully, and that it had landed safely on its legs.

Earlier Mars Pictures from NASA Probes:















Mars Photo











The intriguing Mars image captured by earlier Nasa Probe

Bank robbers Execute 8 Bank Employees

In a bizarre and inhuman criminal act, at least eight bank employees and a security guard were lined up and shot in the head on Friday in one of the bloodiest bank robberies in the Philippines.

The victims were found sprawled on the floor of a branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Cabuyao town in Laguna province, south of Manila, after the bank failed to open as scheduled at 9 a.m. and suspicious customers alerted authorities, Chief Superintendent of Police Ricardo Padilla said.

"This is the handiwork of the devil and we will not let this pass," Padilla said. "They were killed in a gangland-style execution. Each of the victims shot in the head while lined up."

Padilla said the robbers could have used silencers because residents in the area heard no gunshots coming from the bank.

He said two security guards were missing, leading authorities to suspect they were involved in the robbery. Another police officer, speaking on local radio, said there was no sign of forceful entry.

Padilla said another security guard was among the dead. It wasn't clear how much money was stolen.

Bank Vice President Edwin Ermita told The Associated Press the assailants tried to hide the body of the security guard under a tarpaulin in the rear of the bank.

Laguna provincial police chief Felipe Rojas said a vehicle owned by one of the bank employees was used by the robbers to escape. It was later recovered several miles away and will be checked for fingerprints, he said.

He said the bank employees, including two inside the open bank vault, were shot point-blank.

Empty handgun shells were recovered on the bank floor and a shotgun believed owned by the slain security guard was found outside, he said.

Bank robberies are common but rarely as bloody. Rojas said this was the worst in the country's history.

US Marine Guilty for Raping 14-year old Japanese Girl

A U.S. Marine Charged with rape and other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the alleged sexual assault of 14-year old girl in Okinawa pleaded guilty.

The U.S. Marine pleaded guilty Friday to abusive sexual contact with a child under 16, bringing to a close a criminal case that caused outrage in Japan.

The Offender Staff. Sgt. Tyrone L. Hadnott was sentenced to four years of confinement, said First Lt. Judd Wilson, a Marine spokesman in Okinawa, Japan.

The Marine Corps withdrew several other charges, including rape of a child, kidnapping and making a false official statement, Wilson said.

Japanese police arrested Hadnott in February on charges alleging that he raped a 14-year-old junior-high school student. He saw her while riding his motorcycle, offered to give her a ride and later assaulted her at a park, the police said then.

The case stirred outrage at the highest levels of the Japanese government.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda deplored the incident as "unforgivable." The Japanese Foreign Ministry lodged an official protest with the U.S. government. And Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said the offense "violates the rights of women" and that "this is a crime that we should not accept."

The Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl withdrew her allegations, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation. The Marines charged Hadnott with rape of a child, abusive sexual contact, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping.

The U.S. military presence has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiments boiled over in 1995, after three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women.

The Marine Corps said in a statement on Friday that it does not tolerate sexual assault.

"We remain committed to maintaining an environment that rejects sexual assault and attitudes that promote such behaviors," the statement said.

Freud's overweight Nude Woman for $35 Million

A picture of an overweight woman lying naked on a couch, painted by the British artist Lucian Freud, is expected to set a record for any work by a living artist when it goes up for auction Tuesday night.

Christie's auction house in New York expects the life-size 1995 portrait to sell for between $25 and $35 million.

"Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" depicts Sue Tilley, a manager of a government-run job center in London, lying on her side on a worn-out couch with nothing to hide her folds of flesh.

Christie's calls it a "bold and imposing example of the stark power of Lucian Freud's realism," depicting "the forceful and undeniable physical presence of people and things."

Tilley, now 51, told CNN she was initially embarrassed to pose naked for the artist but they soon grew comfortable in the studio -- so comfortable, in fact, that she confessed to falling asleep while posing.

"I didn't mind if he noticed," she said.

The painting challenges modern notions of beauty and elicits a reaction from everyone who sees it. That may have been precisely the aim of Freud, who told London's Tate Gallery in 2002 that he wanted his paintings to "astonish, disturb, seduce, convince."


Though some regard the painting as shocking -- ugly, even -- that is also the appeal for collectors, said Michael Hall, editor of Apollo Magazine in London.

"There's a reaction against art that's regarded as too pretty," he said.

Hall said he is not surprised at the sales expectations and thinks a more conventionally beautiful painting would not be able to fetch such a large amount.

"It's the sort of thing that everyone immediately wants to voice an opinion about," he said of the painting. "It challenges conventional taste ... and people do find that rather exciting and interesting to talk about."

Collectors may also view this as a rare chance to buy something by a prolific artist painted at the peak of his work, he said.

Freud, 85, has been described as Britain's greatest living realist painter. He is the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and came to London from Germany when he was a child.

With Tilley, Freud said he was "very aware of all kinds of spectacular things to do with her size, like amazing craters and things one's never seen before," according to the 2002 interview with the Tate. He added, "I have perhaps a predilection towards people of unusual or strange proportions, which I don't want to over-indulge."

Freud painted the portrait of Tilley over nine months in 1995. Tilley said she posed for eight hours a day, two or three days a week.

She had been introduced to the artist through a mutual friend, Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, who also posed for Freud. It was Bowery's idea for Tilley to pose for Freud, so he arranged a meeting.

Tilley knew the meeting was more of an interview for the job of Freud's muse, and she didn't find out until later -- through Bowery -- that she'd gotten the job, she said.

"Lucian just said to Leigh, 'Oh, tell Sue she can start next week," Tilley said.

Tilley still works full time at the job center in London's West End and calls her new-found fame "a bit bizarre." She laughs as she describes how she now has to arrange her schedule to accommodate media interviews.

She said she's excited to find out how much the painting will sell for, but knowing it could set a record is "a bit scary."

"It's hard to put your head around it, really," she said. "But it's all good."

Source : Melissa Gray, CNN

900 Students Buried in China Earthquake

A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. Monday, the State Seismological Bureau (SSB) said.

Nearly 900 students in southwest China's Sichuan Province were feared buried when a high school building collapsed here in the earthquake. At least four third-graders -- two boys and two girls -- were confirmed dead at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan County, parents and witnesses said.

Reporters saw a three-story school building had partially collapsed. Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help.

Grieved parents watched as five cranes were excavating at the site and an ambulance was waiting.

China's Chengdu Military Area Command has dispatched 5,000 troops and armed police to help with disaster relief work in earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County, in the southwestern Sichuan Province.

The Military Area Command sent two helicopters to Wenchuan on Monday afternoon. Armed police forces stationed in Sichuan province has dispatched 2,900 personnel, while regular army personnel made up the rest of the detachment.

Another person was killed when a water tower fell in the city of Mianyang, the news agency reported.

A provincial government spokesman said they feared more dead and injured in collapsed houses in Dujiangyan City in Wenchuan County, Xinhua reported.

The news agency also quoted a driver for the seismological bureau saying he saw "rows of houses collapsed" in Dujiangyan.

Chinese President Hu Jintao immediately ordered an all-out effort to help victims of the earthquakes, Xinhua reported. It said Premier Wen Jiabao would go there to direct the rescue work. Video See workers in Chengdu hiding under their desks during the quake.

"This is a very dangerous earthquake," said Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake has the potential to cause major damage because of its strength and proximity to major population centers, he said. In addition, the earthquake was relatively shallow, Presgrave said, and those kinds of quakes tend to do more damage near the epicenter than deeper ones.
Don't Miss

After the first quake struck Monday, the ground shook as far away as Beijing, which is 950 miles (1,528 km) from the epicenter.

Thousands of people were evacuated from Beijing high-rises immediately after the earthquake.

At least six more earthquakes -- measuring between 4.0 and 6.0 magnitudes -- happened nearby over the three hours after the initial quake at at 2:28 p.m. local time

A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said no Olympic venues were affected by the earthquake. The massive Three Gorges Dam -- roughly 400 miles east of the epicenter -- was not damaged, a spokesman said.

The earthquake was also felt in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and as far away as Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Hong Kong-based Mandarin-language channel Phoenix TV.

Tibet Freedom-A non Issue

We don't demonstrate to get the partition undone. Why should Tibet be any different?

If we, in India, are still expected to empathise with the Tibetan cause, a long 49 years after the event, then we've our thinking mixed up. In that case, why don't we demand back the homeland that Punjabis left behind in what became Pakistan in 1947 and Bengalis in its former eastern enclave? Pakistan and what's now Bangladesh were at one time their country, too, rich with all their unique traditions and cultures. Their tragedies were infinitely greater than are those of the handful of Tibetans who have found a comfortable refuge in the cool climes of Dharamsala.

We don't demonstrate to get the partition of India undone because it's a settled fact, accepted by us, by nations at large, and by history. There may still be individuals and groups who continue to dream of a Greater Bengal or a reunified India, but the Shamjhauta and Maitri Expresses show we have learnt to leave the past behind and are happy to live with our present.

Why should Tibet be different? Because there were human rights violations in Lhasa? Because Tibet was "occupied" by the Chinese? Rights violations must be condemned. But if rights abuses mean we should stop dealing with all countries where they occur, we'd be stopping to deal with almost every country in the world. And, wasn't Australia occupied by outsiders, too? Wasn't the United States? Wasn't Israel carved out of Palestinian territory? But these have become part of history now and the world has come to accept it. We should remember that China "occupied" Tibet on the same excuse we used to "occupy" Goa and Sikkim, and are now using to hold our own in Kashmir.

And what was Tibet when the Dalai Lama fled in 1959? The Potala, essentially, where he resided and held his court, and a string of monasteries. The rest of the country was plunged in a medieval state of undevelopment. The Dalai Lama fled with his riches and some 80,000 of his immediate followers. What was threatened in Tibet was only his authority and that of the lamas. His worry about the death of tradition in Tibet is exaggerated by his politics. Faith is a personal matter of those who want to be faithful and doesn't require his presence in the Potala. If the Vietnamese in socialist Vietnam or in the US can continue to practise their faith if they so desire, so can the Tibetans in Tibet or in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Switzerland, or wherever they may happen to have settled. After all, no monastery has been shut down in Lhasa and there are monasteries in Dharamsala.

The Chinese "occupation" of Tibet, therefore, can't be said to be anti-Buddhist. And it can't be reversed unless nations want to provoke a world war with China, which they don't. We must understand that. It's China's business how they want to develop Tibet. If Tibetan Chinese alone aren't enough to build the remote, undeveloped territory, almost half the size of India, what's wrong with bringing over other Chinese to help out? Why should we be persuaded by the American propaganda of a Han invasion?

The recent flare-up of Tibetan patriotism over the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi shows that there's something else we must understand. It concerns the refugees. They are our internal affair and, since we've no intention to use them as a stick against the Chinese, we must settle the matter soon.

We are bound by our word that we won't drive the refugees back into Tibet. But we can't have refugees in perpetuity. Forty-nine years is too long a time for any refugee group to make up its mind, either to move on to another refugee-friendly country — like the US, where many from Dharamsala have migrated — or to merge with the native population and earn equal democratic rights. For too long have the refugees enjoyed a charmed existence. They don't live in slums, like the refugees from Pakistan did and some still do, but in communities removed from the natives. Those born in India are entitled to Indian citizenship. Others are given certificates of identity to hold Indian jobs, take part in Indian economic activities, and travel abroad. But they won't give up their isolated existence, their separate identity, and the special government-in-exile that looks after their own affairs.

That's not fair. It was necessary for a certain period, but not anymore. It's time for New Delhi to ask the Dalai Lama and his followers to do the inevitable reckoning. India has been patient with them. Now they must return their gratefulness in kind, becoming part of the Indian polity, disbanding the government-in-exile, and accepting New Delhi's jurisdiction over their social and economic welfare. The Dalai Lama should stop misleading his followers with hopes that can no longer be fulfilled.

Source : Business-Standard,
Barun Roy: An outlived issue

Al Sharpton Arrested in NY

CIVIL rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton and at least 30 others were arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge today for stopping traffic to protest the acquittal of policemen who fired 50 shots at an unarmed black man on his wedding day.

Hundreds of protesters stopped rush-hour traffic around New York City where more arrests were expected in a civil disobedience campaign called by Mr Sharpton, who has been close to the slain man's family since the November 2006 shooting.

Last month, a state judge cleared two detectives of manslaughter and a third of reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell, 23, in a case that outraged New York's black community.

Al Sharpton, shooting survivors Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, and Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, lined up and peacefully put their hands behind their backs as police put plastic handcuffs on them. Sharpton and Bell were placed in a police vehicle.

The civil rights leader is seeking a federal civil rights probe into Bell's shooting outside a Queens nightclub. The case raised questions about police use of deadly force in minority neighborhoods.

The Justice Department, federal prosecutors and the FBI are reviewing the case and could take legal action if investigators suspect a violation of federal civil rights laws.

A decade ago Mr Al Sharpton organised similar demonstrations after four police officers who fired 41 shots were acquitted in the death of an unarmed West African man, Amadou Diallo. Dozens were arrested then, including Mr Sharpton.

Georgia Execution

A Georgia man convicted of kidnapping and killing his girlfriend was executed Tuesday. The U.S. Supreme Court had refused to stay Lynd's execution hours earlier Tuesday.

William Earl Lynd was the first inmate to die by injection since September, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the three-drug combination represented cruel and unusual punishment.

It took 17 minutes for the whole process of execution.The Georgian condemned man refused to make any last statement or accept a prayer and remained quiet and calm throughout the whole procedure.

Lynd, 53, had requested as his last meal two pepper jack BBQ burgers with crisp onions, two baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese and a large strawberry milkshake -- all from a local restaurant.

Georgia execution is the first in eight months and Georgia became the first state to resume executions since the court validated the lethal injection process last month with a ruling in a Kentucky case.

All but one of the 36 states with capital punishment use a three-drug mixture: an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a heart-stopping substance. Death penalty opponents have argued that if inmates are not given enough anesthetic, they could be conscious enough to suffer excruciating pain without being able to express it because of the paralyzer.

The court's decision in the Kentucky case prompted about a dozen states to announce they would resume executions.

In the Georgia execution case, Lynd was convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Virginia "Ginger" Moore, in Berrien County in 1988.

During the trial, prosecutors painted Moore's death as especially agonizing and lengthy.

According to trial testimony, Lynd shot Moore in the face, and she fell unconscious onto a bed. He then went outside to smoke a cigarette. Moore regained consciousness and staggered outside, where she was shot a second time and put into the trunk of her car.

After driving to a nearby farmhouse, Lynd said he heard Moore kicking inside the trunk, according to testimony. He opened the trunk and shot her a third time, this time fatally.

As the sentence was being carried out, about 20 opponents of the death penalty prayed and sang songs outside the prison, located 45 minutes south of Atlanta, said Laura Moye, chairwoman of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

"We're here to express our opposition to the state of Georgia taking human life on behalf of U.S. citizens of Georgia," she said. "We are sad and upset that our state is leading the country in resumption of executions. We think this rush to executions is irresponsible in light of the many well-documented problems that have been revealed about the death penalty."

Human rights groups have also raised the possibility that an innocent person could be put to death. They pointed to Friday's release in North Carolina of Levan "Bo" Jones, an African-American inmate who spent 14 years on death row before a judge said the evidence was faulty and overturned his murder conviction. The charges have been dropped.

Georgia prosecutors, however, maintain that the death penalty is carried out fairly in their state.

There have been 40 executions in the state since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, ruling in a Georgia case. Lynd was the 17th inmate executed by injection in the state.

In Virginia, a May 27 execution date has been set for death row inmate Kevin Green, and the state is proceeding on schedule, said David Clementson of the Virginia attorney general's office. Four executions are set in Texas for June and July; in Louisiana, former New Orleans police officer Antoinette Frank is set to die in July. If she is executed, she would be the first woman put to death in three years.

South Dakota, which has sent one inmate to death in three decades, has scheduled a lethal injection in October. Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma have said they will resume capital punishment as soon as possible.
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Nebraska is the only state that does not use lethal injection, but its use of the electric chair was ruled unconstitutional in February.

Georgia Execution again raised protests from human right groups and the argument about execution rages on.
Source: CNN

Indian Maruti's Causing World Oil Shortage

India's progress is hurting the US interests. First Indians caused a Global Food shortage in the world by just eating two square meals a day, now the US has blamed India for rising Oil prices.

Not cooking oil bozo, they are talking about fuel you put in your 20 kms/litre Maruti. Americans need this fuel for their week end getaways, fuel guzzling monster trucks, Nascar races, Bombing the world with thier figter jets.

Next time you buy Rs. 100 fuel for your battered Maruti you better think about the poor Americans suffering because of your extravagence. (Will it be too embarrasing to buy less than Rs. 100 petrol for cars?)

White House Deputy Spokesman, Scott Stanzel said many developing countries such as India or China are having greatly increased demand, which obviously is having an impact on price, the senior White House official said responding to a question on the crude oil price crossing USD 120-mark.

Stanzel also referred to President George W Bush’s remarks which have drawn a lot of flak from every section in India, saying the United States saw "higher living standards" of people there as a "good thing"(but a bad thing for US citizens).

It is heartening to know that people in developing countries now have higher and higher standards of living, he said. (he means they are actully eating food now!)

However, he apparently did not go back on Bush's point that Indian food habits were contributing to spiralling prices of commodities, which in turn, were worsening the global food crisis. (It has not become a habit yet, Indians could still go back to starving)

Three days ago, Bush had specifically took the case of Indian middle class to argue that its demand for better nutrition was a factor in pushing the global food prices up.

"There are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.(and yet the total consumption is less than the US.)

"And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up," Bush had said.(Are all Americans as dumb as Bush or was he elected to mislead the world?)

Meanwhile, the senior White House official also defended US policy on bio fuels saying it was having just a "small impact" on the rising prices of food commodities.(They need alternative fuel to keep driving their two cars per family, whats a little corn here or there, it is chicken feed.)

"There's been a lot of discussion about bio fuels and the impact that bio fuels have on increase food prices around the world. As you'll see here, over the last year, food prices have increased about 43 per cent around the world.

Mr Bush’s remarks on Indian middle class had touched off a furore in India with political parties across the spectrum making critical comments and defence minister AK Antony describing them as a “cruel joke”.

Noting that the US is importing about 12 million barrels of oil per day, Mr Stanzel said the record oil price was “another example that it’s important for the US to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy”.

After consuming most of the world's oil supply that seems like a sensible thing to do, meanwhile blame it on the Indians.

Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Disaster

Almost 4,000 people have died (latest estimates are putting the toll at 10,000) and another 3,000 remain missing in Myanmar as a result of this weekend's devastating cyclone, state media reported Monday.The storm Nargis hit Myanmar on Saturday with wind speeds reaching 190km/h (120mph).

The soaring death toll was announced as the Mayanmar's ruling military junta issued a rare appeal for international assistance in the face of an escalating humanitarian crisis.

Burma (Myanmar) suffered all around destruction and flooding due to the cyclone. Scenes of the destruction showed extensive flooding, boats lilting on their sides in Yangon harbor, roofs ripped off buildings, uprooted trees and downed power lines after cyclone Nargis battered the Irrawaddy delta with 150 mile (241 km) an hour winds throughout Friday night and Saturday morning, dumping 20 inches of rain.

A spokesman for the Red Cross said the emergency aid group was working with its Myanmar agency to provide drinking water, temporary shelters and blankets and warned that urgent action was needed to limit outbreaks of disease.

"I think one of the biggest needs right now is to stave off disease," said spokesman Eric Porterfield. "We will be helping with the distribution of clean drinking water and setting up shelters."

A state of emergency was declared Sunday across five regions: the city of Yangon, Irrawaddy, Pegu and the states of Karen and Mon. All flights to Yangon, the former capital of Burma, were canceled.

Map of Myanmar

A Look at $ 2 Billion Ambani Home

Move over Taj Mehal here comes the Ambani home. Mukesh Ambani is going to move into world's most expensive home ever built. Total cost is $ 2 Billion (Rs. 8000 crore), but I guess if your net worth is close to $50 billion you can afford a $ 2 billion house.

Like many families with the means to do so, the Ambanis wanted to build a custom home. They consulted with architecture firms Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental, based in Dallas and Los Angeles, respectively.
Plans were then drawn up for what will be the world's largest and most expensive home: a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai(incidently real estate prices in Mumbai are highest in the world) with a cost nearing $2 billion.

The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the market is the $70 million triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in the air. When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet of interior space.

The $2 Billion home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings.


In the $2 billion Ambani home, called Antilla, no two floors are alike in either plans or materials used. At the request of Nita Ambani, say the designers, if a metal, wood or crystal is part of the ninth-floor design, it shouldn't be used on the eleventh floor, for example. The idea is to blend styles and architectural elements so spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition.

Antilla's shape is based on Vaastu, an Indian tradition much like Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through the building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects.



According to the plan, the house will rise to a height of 173.12 meters, equivalent to that of a regular 60-storeyed residential building. However, Antilia will have only 27 storeys in all, which means each floor will have a ceiling considerably higher than the current average of nearly three meters.

Six floor car parking

The first six floors will be reserved for parking alone, and that too for cars belonging only to Mukesh’s family. Space for a total of 168 cars has been earmarked here.

Entertainment floor

The eighth floor will have an entertainment centre comprising a mini-theatre with a seating capacity of 50.


The Health floors

While the ninth floor will a ‘refuge’ floor - meant to be used for rescue in emergencies - two floors above that will be set aside for ‘health.’ One of these will have facilities for athletics and a swimming pool, while the other will be complete with the latest gym equipment.Local plants decorate the outdoor patio near the swimming pool and yoga studio.

For guests

There will be a two-storeyed glass-fronted apartment for the Ambani family’s guests above the health floors. One more refuge floor and one floor for mechanical works will be built on top of these apartments.

Family Floors

The four floors at the top, that will provide a view of the Arabian Sea and a superb view of the city’s skyline, will be for Mukesh, his wife Neeta, their three children and Mukesh’s mother Kokilaben.

Air space floor

According to the plan, two floors above the family’s residence will be set aside as maintenance areas, and on top of that will be an “air space floor,” which will act as a control room for helicopters landing on the helipad above.

Helipad

The plan states that three helipads are to be built on the terrace.

Ice Room

The floor also features an ice room where residents and guests can escape the Mumbai heat to a small, cooled chamber dusted by man-made snow flurries.

Gardens

For more temperate days, the family will enjoy a four-story open garden. In profile, the rebar-enforced beams form a "W" shape that supports the upper two-thirds of the building while creating an open-air atrium of gardens, flowers and lawns. Gardens, whether hanging hydroponic plants, or fixed trees, are a critical part of the building's exterior adornment but also serve a purpose: The plants act as an energy-saving device by absorbing sunlight, thus deflecting it from the living spaces and making it easier to keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter. An internal core space on the garden level contains entertaining rooms and balconies that clear the tree line and offer views of downtown Mumbai.


The 27-story skyscraper being built in Mumbai by Mukesh Ambani could be the world's largest and costliest home with a price- tag nearing two billion dollar, according to Forbes magazine.

Where possible, the designers say, whether it's for the silver railings, crystal chandeliers, woven area rugs or steel support beams, the Ambanis are using Indian companies, contractors, craftsmen and materials firms. Elements of Indian culture juxtapose newer designs. For example, the sinks in a lounge extending off the entertainment level, which features a movie theater and wine room, are shaped like ginkgo leaves (native to India) with the stem extending to the faucet to guide the water into the basin.

Now Mumbai will have a new Land mark thanks to Mukesh and Nita Ambani