I don’t think that we’ve been silent on the fact that India is a great friend of the United States and Pakistan is a great friend of the United States, and it always grieves us to see friends fighting.
I believe that there are opportunities, maybe not starting with Kashmir but starting with other issues, that Pakistan and India can be in a dialogue together and over time to try to reduce tensions and find areas of common interest. And we want to be helpful in that process, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be the mediators in that process.

In reply to Obama’s lip service, here is India’s reply to him with love:

“I don’t think that we’ve been silent on the fact that the United States is a great friend of India and Iran is a great friend of India, and it always grieves us to see friends fighting. I believe that there are opportunities, maybe not starting with the Nuclear issue but starting with other issues, that the United States and Iran can be in a dialogue together and over time to try to reduce tensions and find areas of common interest. And we want to be helpful in that process, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be the mediators in that process”

Another one:

“I don’t think that we’ve been silent on the fact that the United States is a great friend of India and Cuba is a great friend of India, and it always grieves us to see friends fighting. I believe that there are opportunities, maybe not starting with the Guantanamo but starting with other issues, that the United States and Cuba can be in a dialogue together and over time to try to reduce tensions and find areas of common interest. And we want to be helpful in that process, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be the mediators in that process”

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The Muslim community is not happy with the actor’s remark on their Prophet Mohammed in the July issue of Time N Style magazine, in which he listed the Prophet as one of the most unimpressive personalities in history.

The police has filed an FIR against the actor following a complaint registered Shahrukh, the publisher of the magazine and the writer by the Mumbai Aman Committee, a religious organisation. The case was registered under section 295-a (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religion feelings or any class by insulting its religion beliefs) and 34 (acts done by several persons with common interest) of IPC.

Shahrukh’s comment has invited wrath from the Muslim community. Farid Sheikh, President of Mumbai Aman Committee, said that they would not allow Shahrukh’s body to be buried anywhere in Maharashtra. Zarar Qureshi, secretary of the committee, also said that the actor has hurt the Muslim community by bracketed the Prophet Mohammed along with Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill.

Source: oneindia.in

According to you who is the most impressive figure in history?
There are lots of them, some negative ones like Hitler, then Napoleon,Winston Churchill and if I can call it history, then Prophet Mohammed and from recent time — Nelson Mandela. And there are the nice ones like Gandhiji and Mother Teresa.

Source: timenstyle

Guess what ? So much for the freedom of speech ! I thought exile of Taslima Nasreen was enough but no we still have fascists right in our home who denounce the freedom of expression and speech.

Where is the media now ? Where are the free speech proponents ?

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The world is never short of rogue states. Think North Korea. Burma. Sudan. And even Pakistan. Rogue states exist because they have sponsors.

For much of the 20th century, and especially before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the US and USSR backed every possible tinpot dictator in the world. Today, that chief sponsor of rogue states is China.

It backs each one of the four rogue (or near-rogue) states mentioned above. In its cynical pursuit of global hegemony, China provides succour to many unsavoury regimes as long as it can achieve its own strategic goals. These goals include finding cheap energy sources or overawing current and future rivals (Japan, Taiwan, India).

…

China has always been the biggest roadblock to India’s rise in the world, but what we know privately we have always sought to deny publicly. It all started with Nehru’s disastrous handling of foreign policy in the 1950s, which culminated in our humiliating defeat in the 1962 border war.

A vain Nehru ignored sane advice from people of the eminence of Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad and the Chinese ran circles around him all through the 1950s while they were building up their military might and subjugating Tibet.

…

Defence minister George Fernandes said that our nuclear tests were intended to redress the power asymmetry with China. He was roundly criticised for speaking the truth, but he has been proved right.

…

For the last 18 years, the Chinese have been watching with dismay as India first became a global IT power and then started growing nearly as fast as them. Businessmen may love China’s ability to give them a free run on profits (no labour laws, instant government decisions, etc), but the world gives India’s ragtag democracy a higher degree of respect than China’s centrally-driven capitalism.

Respect, though, is not enough. India’s problem is that Nehru’s ghost still hangs outside the Indian foreign ministry. We are paralysed by fear, hoping against hope that China will see reason and allow us to take our place in the sun.

Well, it won’t happen. China only recognises power, which is why it has pursued military superiority with such doggedness since the 1980s. It has opposed India formally, and behind the scenes, at every forum.

At the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group last year, China tried its best to scuttle the Indo-US deal. At the UN, China was the only country (apart from Pakistan) to steadfastly spike our dreams of permanent membership.

The Middle Kingdom is clearly the rogue state behind the clandestine transfer of nuclear and missile technology between Pakistan and North Korea. A nuclear and terror-supporting Pakistan is critical to Chinese plans to keep India bogged down in local insurgencies. A rogue North Korean state enables China to keep both South Korea and Japan off-balance.

At the Asian Development Bank, China’s was the hand that nearly stopped a loan for Arunachal Pradesh. In fact, the clearance of this loan — facilitated by India’s strong diplomatic pressure on the US, South Korea and Japan — shows that power needs to be projected when it comes to dealing with China. There is only one way to deal with China and that is by building our military, diplomatic and economic strength continuously.

Japan, South Korea and Vietnam could be our silent allies in this game, but even if the world does not want to play, we must be clear in our goals. We have to develop deterrent military and economic power to contain China and earn its respect. We have to dump the Nehruvian mindset of fooling ourselves into believing that China is a benign power. It is not.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Sri Lanka’s economy can bounce back from its weakest growth in six years and become the “Hong Kong of India” as the end of almost three decades of civil war boosts business opportunities, HSBC Private Bank said.

Decades of fighting on the Indian Ocean island shackled its $32 billion economy, which according to figures released yesterday expanded 1.5 percent last quarter from a year earlier as the global recession intensified the slowdown. Ports, retailers, apparel and tea exporters could lead a recovery after the Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated last month.

“The rebound will be spectacular,” said Arjuna Mahendran, the Singapore-based chief investment strategist for Asia at HSBC Private Bank, which oversees $494 billion in assets. “To start with, Sri Lanka’s location gives its port a natural advantage.”

Sri Lanka could benefit from its proximity to India, just as Hong Kong profits from being a trade hub to China. Sri Lanka lies just 31 kilometers (19 miles) south east of India, the world’s second-fastest-growing major economy.

Seventy percent of the volume handled by the Colombo port is trans-shipment of goods imported by India and this could be increased because Indian ports don’t have adequate depth, Mahendran said. Sri Lanka has embarked upon a plan to quadruple capacity at the Colombo port in three years.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were defeated on May 16, ending their 26-year struggle for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka. The Tigers, who controlled a third of the country at one point, fell swiftly since January as the Sri Lankan military launched an unprecedented offensive to wipe them out.

‘Lot of Potential’

“It’s something you never expected to happen when you have lived most of your life under the specter of war,” said Otara Gunewardene, who runs Odel, Sri Lanka’s biggest department store. “It’s unbelievable. I see things differently now and see a lot of potential for growth.”

Odel plans to sell a stake in the company to overseas investors and spend $20 million to add another 70,000 square feet to its flagship store in Colombo and open new outlets in other cities in the country.

“We fought terrorism and now the economic war has to be fought,” said Malik Fernando, whose family owns Dilmah Tea Co., among the best-known Ceylon tea brands in the world. “For manufacturers, the cost of doing business is very high because infrastructure, like roads and power, was neglected because of the war.”

Source: Bloomberg

Bonus:

Sri Lanka Tourism Looks to Boom After War’s End

Hoteliers big and small in Sri Lanka are getting ready to cash in on what they say is the inevitable boom around the corner after last month’s end to the nation’s bloody quarter-century-old civil conflict. Tourism in this tropical-island nation was one of the industries hit hardest by the war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

…

Source: Time

Restrictions on Colombo-Jaffna air route eased

The Civil Aviation Authority yesterday confirmed that the Defence Ministry had eased restrictions on domestic air routes between Colombo and Jaffna.

Earlier civilian air traffic used a longer route where planes had to fly over the sea instead of over land between Jaffna and Colombo to avoid LTTE controlled areas. This resulted in longer flying time and high costs.

…

Source: Dailymirror

Well…I wish to see Sri Lanka as one of the fastest growing economy. Best wishes :p

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Former US VP Dick Cheney

Here was the piece of news which spread over Internet like wildfire.

NEW YORK (Online) - Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney, which had already killed the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief of that country.The squad was headed by General Stanley McChrystal, the newly-appointed commander of US army in Afghanistan. It was disclosed by reputed US journalist Seymour Hersh while talking to an Arab TV in an interview.

It was posted on Pakistani media, The Nation on 18 May, 2009:

Seconds before Bhutto was assassinated

Later Gulf News denied it as a bogus news, 20 May 2009:

Dubai: Gulf News has dismissed as bogus a story quoting the UAE-based newspaper’s interview with US journalist Seymour Hersh about a White House conspiracy.
…
A story purportedly from Pakistan quoted Hersh as telling “an Arab TV channel” that an assassination wing—headed by former US vice president Dick Cheney—was responsible for the assassination of Pakistan former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
…
Gulf News did interview Hersh on May 12, in which the journalist dismissed Cheney’s involvement in Hariri’s assassination, however, the published interview made no reference to Bhutto.
…
the bogus story first appeared in Pakistan’s The Nation paper, which has not removed the story from its web site.
…

It looks like that every other website has taken down this news except the original source which started this bogus news i.e. Pakistani media The Nation.

Seymour Hersh

Here is Dawn news refuting the hoax, previously they too posted the same copy-paste news from The Nation:

The story regarding Hersh’s reported claim that Cheney ordered the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was published on our website among other publications. We regret the error.
…
The award-winning journalist described as ‘complete madness’ the reports that the squad headed by General Stanley McChrystal – the new commander of US army in Afghanistan – had also killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafique Al Hariri and a Lebanese army chief.
‘Vice President Cheney does not have a death squad. I have no idea who killed Mr Hariri or Ms Bhutto.  I have never said that I did have such information. I most certainly did not say any thing remotely to that effect during an interview with an Arab media outlet,’ Hersh said.
…

Conclusion, news media should behave responsibly. Such dupery can be costly and hate inciting. And remember readers, keep a tin foil hat always ready before reading such news.

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Here is the command which may help you:

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About The Album

‘Invaders Must Die’ is 40 minutes of having your head battered by future nostalgia, serotonin levels twisted by feel-good horrorcore and your synapses snapped by whiplash attitude. It’s the sound of The Prodigy mixing up genres, contorting the past and rewiring the future, ram-raiding through the tranquility of music’s status quo like a blot on the landscape of England’s dreaming.

The first thing you notice about Invaders Must Die it is how complete it sounds, a consistent collection of bangers all firing from the same cannon. The next thing you notice about Invaders Must Die is just how melodic it is. Not just melody in the vocal sense but in the heyday-of-hardcore keyboard-hookline sense. Yes, if The Prodigy have learned anything from the hugely successful live shows was that those old skool rave anthems still rock hard - and are every bit as iconic to their generation as punk was to the nation’s forty-somethings.

So Invaders Must Die is awash with references to the free party generation, thundering along like the mother of all E-rushes, all hairs tingling, spine jumping and lips buzzing. But not a retroactive arms-in-the-air, water-sharing nostalgia trip, but a set fuelled by punk’s saliva-dripping rabid snarl. Take ‘Colours’, the first tune The Prodigy recorded for this set with it’s 1992 polysynth riffing that sounds like The Stranglers’ ‘No More Heroes’ parachuted into the middle of a Castlemorton circa 1992. Or ‘Thunder’, the 21st century bastard child of the classic ‘Out of Space’.

‘Take Me To The Hospital’ finds Keith and Maxim flexing over a vintage Prodigy riff. Suitably rusted, distorted and in need of urgent medication it bites like the soundtrack to Dante’s Inferno. While the live favourite ‘World’s On Fire’ resurrects a ‘flaming’ theme and applies it to a groove straight out second album ‘Music for the Jilted Generation. ‘Omen’ and ‘Warrior’s Dance’ are both beamed straight into the moshpit from rave central, while ‘Piranha’ rips the threads from the back of 60’s garage and beats it into the filthy gutters of modern urban life.

Any old skool bonhomie floating around the riffs of this album are quickly slaughtered by ‘Run With The Wolves’ where The Prodigy’s self-assured, gang-minded campaign turns into a maniacal, nose bleeding, heads-against-the-wall warzone. With added drum-pounding energy supplied by Dave Grohl.

And finally Invaders Must Die delivers its last brilliant twist with ‘Stand Up’ a horn-led sunrise anthem that aches with the positivity of a new dawn, walking the line of a burning horizon with the swaggering look of satisfaction that only comes when you instinctively know you’ve achieved what you set out to do.

Cocky? Perhaps, but wouldn’t you be if you’d seen off all of the invaders with your most complete album yet, the first for your own record label?

Invaders Must Die is the unique sound of The Prodigy, still trespassing after all these years, walking the path they’ve created for themselves. And with that free party attitude still breaking and entering where other’s can only dream of following.

ALBUM TRACKLISTING:

1. Invaders Must Die *
2. Omen  *
3. Thunder *
4. Colours
5. Take Me To The Hospital*
6. Warrior’s Dance*
7. Run With The Wolves
8. Omen Reprise
9. World’s On Fire
10. Piranha
11. Stand Up*

* Starred tracks are recommended ones !

Source: invadersmustdie.com

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It looks like a covenant among Indian ISPs that they are forcing Fair Usage Policy one by one. Now just after few days of  Tata Indicom’s Fair Usage Policy and Airtel’s Fair Usage Policy, Reliance has done the same thing. But this one looks more sinister that the previous two. What I mean is that will people get to know about this fraud after being charged heavily unknowingly or they will willingly succumb to the emerging threat to net neutrality ? It is the first step towards crippling consumers over internet usage, later it might get worse if we simply accede to their terms. Why don’t these ISPs try to upgrade their infrastructure instead of limiting the advancement.

Read conditions at the bottom of pic

More discussion at:

Reliance Joins Fair Usage Policy ( CARTEL ? )

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