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Tigers attack Lankan air force choppers
Threat from Al-Qaida not going away: Obama
Italy, Switzerland to ‘redraw’ borders
NASA-Microsoft Pact |
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BBC ‘lost the plot’ on Goody coverage
Aishwarya may be new Indian Barbie
‘UK faces greater terror threat than ever before’
Let’s get it straight!
Learn English or French to be Canadian citizen
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Tigers attack Lankan air force choppers
Tamil Tigers fired surface-to-air-missiles (SAM) at two Sri Lankan Air Force Bell-212 helicopters, engaged in casualty evacuation operations in Puthukudiyirippu on Wednesday, defence sources said.
The pilots, however, managed to evade the attack by using evasive air manoeuvre. The sources said the missiles were fired from the declared ‘No Fire Zone’. PTI adds: A hideout of LTTE intelligence chief and second-in-command Pottu Amman, who is wanted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has been overrun by Sri Lankan troops, moving further into the fast-shrinking rebel territory in the northern war zone. Pottu Amman, the most wanted LTTE leader after rebel supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran, was not found in the safe house in the fringes of Mullaittivu. Troops of the 58 Division captured the hideout during counter-terrorist operations in south of Iranapalai at the Mullaittivu battlefront yesterday, the Defence Ministry said. “The safe house was used by both Pottu Amman and (his deputy) Kapil Amman, two of the most wanted leaders of the LTTE,” the ministry said. Both Pottu Amman and Prabhakaran were wanted in India for the 1991 killing of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Troops also found a jeep believed to have been used by Pottu Amman himself during subsequent search operations conducted in the area. A large amount of anti-personnel mines were also recovered in the search and clearing operations.
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Threat from Al-Qaida not going away: Obama
Washington, March 25 Obama was addressing a joint press meet yesterday with the visiting Australian Prime Minister, Kevin M Rudd, at the White House. “It is a difficult task. It’s one that requires us to stay focused. It requires effective coordinated action,” Obama said. “The threat of terrorist attacks from the Al-Qaida and their affiliates is not a threat that’s going away. We have to take it seriously,” he said. “It requires recognition that we will not just solve these problems militarily, but we’re also going to have to be much more effective diplomatically; we’re going to have to be much more effective on the development front,” Obama said. His administration is currently in the final stages of coming out with a new policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. “My expectation would be that over the next several years you are going to see a more comprehensive, focused and disciplined strategy to achieve our common goals,” he said without going into details about his new policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. —
PTI
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Italy, Switzerland to ‘redraw’ borders
London, March 25 The international border has been fixed since 1861, when Italy became a unified state. But for the past century the surface area of the glaciers has been shrinking steadily, with dramatic acceleration in the past five years. This is the area over which the national frontier passes and the two countries have now agreed to have their experts sit down together and hash out where it ought to run now, The Independent reported. Daniel Gutknecht, responsible for the co-ordination of national borders at Swiss Office of Topography, said: “The border is moving because of the warmer climate”, among other reasons. However, in Italy, the new frontier cannot be decided until Italian parliament approves a new law at the end of next month. The areas affected include famous Matterhorn mountain and the surrounding towns, popular with skiers in winter. The frontier will have to be shifted between a few metres and a hundred metres. However, no towns or communities will be forced to change countries, because the border lies 4,000 metres above sea level, well above any human habitation, the report said. —
PTI
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NASA-Microsoft Pact
New York, March 25 The joint venture will work to develop a new technology to make NASA’s content, including high-resolution images and data from Mars and the moon, available on Worldwide Telescope, Microsoft’s online virtual telescope. “Making NASA’s scientific and astronomical data more accessible to the public is a high priority for NASA, especially given the new administration’s recent emphasis on open government and transparency,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Under the agreement, NASA’s Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California, will process and host more than 100 terabytes of data, enough to fill 20,000 DVDs. Worldwide Telescope will incorporate the data and feature images sent from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The tool will also have images from a camera aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to be launched this May. — PTI
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BBC ‘lost the plot’ on Goody coverage
London, March 25 "You really lost the plot on this one. Start questioning those that are abusing power, expense-fiddling MPs, tax-avoiding corporations, hypocritical ministers. Let 'OK', 'Hello' and 'Sky ' deal with the frivolities of life. Get back to being a public service broadcaster that serves the public by addressing the issues that matter," read a message sent by a viewer which was one amongst more than 70 official complaints sent by the audience, reported Daily Mail in its online edition. BBC's website was inundated with complaints which argued that the publicly funded broadcaster should not be reporting in depth about celebrities while claiming that the death was not unexpected. — PTI
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Aishwarya may be new Indian Barbie
London, March 25 Representatives of the 35-year-old were reported to be in negotiations with Barbie’s manufacturer Mattel as it plans to give the iconic doll a Bollywood face and sell throughout India, the Daily Telegraph reported today. If the deal happens, the new Barbie will have Aishwarya’s green eyes and wear outfits created by top Indian designers. — IANS
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‘UK faces greater terror threat than ever before’
London, March 25 In a report presented before the Parliament on the state of the terror threat, home secretary Jacqui Smith last evening said: “Britain is in danger from self-starting terror networks or lone individuals motivated by an Al-Qaida-style ideology.” She said shopping centres, sports stadiums, nightclubs and cinemas could all be targeted by homegrown extremists. About 60,000 workers, including shopping centre and store managers, would be trained to tackle terror attacks. This “workers’ army” would act as a new frontline in the fight against terror. She claimed an increasing amount of chemical, nuclear biological and radiological material had become available and could fall into the hands of extremists living in Britain. Some of these substances were being sold on the Internet. The dossier, Contest Two, described the causes of extremism in this country, such as the Palestinian conflict and a lack of integration, among some Muslims. It warned the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had allowed terrorists to develop more sophisticated bombs. Fifty-two persons were killed in July 2005 when four suicide bombers targeted London’s transport network. — PTI
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Let’s get it straight!
London, March 25 Fed up with the babble, waffle and impenetrable jargon beloved of politicians and middle-managers, Britain’s local government association has drawn up a list of 200 words it wants public bodies to avoid if they are to communicate properly. Gone should be terms or phrases such as “cascading” (sending an email around), “menu of options” (choices) and “predictors of beaconicity” (?), and in comes straight talk. Instead of “transformational” just say “change”, rather than “client” use “person” and avoid the confusion created by a phrase such as “distorts spending priorities” and just admit that whatever it is “ignores people’s needs”. “Why do we have to have to have ‘coterminous, stakeholder engagement’ when we could just have ‘talk to people’ instead,” said Margaret Eaton, the chairman of the local government association (LGA). The banned words, taken from documents issued by the central government and public sector bodies, is being sent to council offices around the country to try to get everyone to be clear together, otherwise known as “consensually transparent”. British politicians have a long-held reputation for using sometimes meaningless jargon to paper over what they are really trying to say. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was fond of the word “stakeholders”, which to many just meant taxpayers. Opposition leader David Cameron has been known to talk about “community engagement”, otherwise known as getting people involved. Among the LGA’s most unpalatable phrases are “best practice” (the best way of doing something), “benchmarking” (measuring), “slippage” (delay) and “democratic legitimacy” (voted in). While some of the phrases are laughable, the LGA says there’s a serious point to simplifying language, believing that many people miss out on government services because they don’t understand what’s on offer. “Unless information is given to people to explain what help they can get during a recession, then it could well lead to more people ending up homeless or bankrupt,” said
Eaton.—Reuters
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Learn English or French to be Canadian citizen
Toronto, March 25 The immigration minister’s calls for stricter language requirements come as the federal government is looking for ways to improve its programmes. “Someone who has been here for 15 years and can’t speak English or French is basically locking themselves out of the vast majority of jobs and is isolating themselves socially. That’s a tragedy,” Kenney said at an immigration conference in Calgary on Friday. “I think we should look at ways where we can increase the requirements for linguistic competencies for immigrants and citizens,” Kenney said, adding that there were too many cases of people becoming Canadian citizens who can’t speak either French or English - despite rules in place requiring competence in either official language. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premiers are working on a framework that could create a “straightforward pathway” to foreign-credential recognition, Kenney said. While many immigration groups are pleased that work is being done to help foreign-trained workers have their credentials recognised, some expressed concern about Kenney’s musing on additional language rules. “I would like to know what the minister defines as a working knowledge of the language,” Dr Babasaheb Ubale, former commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission said. “You can have a working knowledge that enables you to go shopping and talk to a doctor, but if you want to be an engineer or a doctor yourself you need to have a much higher level of language training,” he said. Over 35,000 Indians visit Canada every year, making India the second largest source of immigration for Canada after China. — PTI
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A-bomb victims’ plea rejected £20,000 bet to seduce
Beckham Drummer Uriel Jones dead Stowaways found on plane Source: Agencies 
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