“Hindu Club” in Argentina without Hindus

June 26, 2011

          There is a “Hindu Club” is Argentina and reportedly none of its associates is a Hindu.

          Founded in 1919 and located in Argentina’s capital and largest city Buenos Aires, it is a rugby union club and besides rugby for which it is famous for and is a powerhouse, it also reportedly organizes other sports like golf, tennis, hockey and soccer.

          Renowned players associated with it include Gonzalo Quesada, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Lucas Ostiglia, Hernan Senillosa, etc. Santiago Amaya is the President. It has won various national and provincial titles.

          Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, urged Hindu Club to explore the rich philosophical thought which Hinduism offered. If the Club needed any assistance in Hinduism study, he or other Hindu scholars would gladly help; Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, added.

          Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.

GSAT-8 takes to the skies

Editorial, the Hindu, May 22, 2011

India's GSAT-8 satellite has been lofted into space aboard an Ariane 5 rocket that lifted off from the European launch facility in French Guiana in equatorial South America. It is the 20th satellite designed and built indigenously by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to meet this country's requirements for space capacity in communications and broadcasting. The 3,100-kg spacecraft's 24 transponders will relay signals in radio frequencies known as the Ku-band. These transponders will be used for Direct-To-Home television broadcasts as well as to support communications using small satellite dishes known as Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs). Other Indian communication satellites that are currently operational have about 150 transponders working in various frequency bands. That capacity needs to be augmented, given that a power glitch on the INSAT-4B knocked out half its transponders last July. Two satellites, GSAT-4 and GSAT-5P, were lost in consecutive failures of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) last year. Besides, the INSAT-2E, launched 12 years ago, is nearing the end of its life. ISRO plans to launch the GSAT-12, weighing 1,400 kg, on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle this July. The GSAT-10, with 36 transponders and weighing 3,400 kg, is to be put into orbit by another Ariane 5 rocket next year. Another communication satellite will go up when the GSLV is flown again, which is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2012.

The GSAT-8 is also carrying a payload that will broadcast data to increase the accuracy and ensure the integrity of navigation based on signals from orbiting satellites of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). The resulting improvement in accuracy and reliability will allow aircraft, equipped with suitable receivers, to make precision approaches for landing at all runways in the country. Aircraft will also be able to fly more direct routes to their destination, saving time and fuel. Such space-based augmentation systems have begun functioning in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Ground stations for the Indian system, known as GAGAN (GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation), a joint effort by ISRO and the Airports Authority of India, have been put in place. After the GSAT-8's GAGAN payload becomes operational, further steps for testing the system as a whole and securing the necessary certification can start. All of India's remote sensing satellites are now launched domestically. This should be achieved in the case of communication satellites too. For that, the GSLV must be made as reliable as the PSLV and the next generation GSLV Mark-III got ready as soon as possible.

Taliban activists have done it again. In a display of their beastly behavior, they have beheaded two Sikhs, who along with a few others had been kidnapped over a month ago in the Bara tribal area in the Khyber Agency in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. Despite the recent military action by Islamabad in Swat and South Waziristan and the continuing US drone attacks targeting those associated with the Taliban, most areas in Pakistan’s tribal belt bordering Afghanistan continue to be controlled by the extremists. The Taliban, as one report has it, kidnapped a few Sikhs and then demanded Rs 30 million as ransom for their release. They reportedly killed two of their captives, Jaspal Singh and Mahal Singh, after the expiry of the deadline for the ransom payment they had given. Another report said the innocent Sikhs were done to death after their refusal to change their religion.
           Whatever the truth, the fact remains that the minorities in Pakistan are as unsafe today as they were ever. The killing of the Sikhs is bound to figure during the coming India-Pakistan talks, as External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishan said while condemning the gruesome incident. The Sikhs in particular have been victimized by the Taliban ever since the militant movement came into being at the behest of the ISI. In April last year, the Taliban razed the houses of 11 Sikh families in the Aurakzai tribal region following their refusal to pay “jizia” (the kind of tax Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb imposed on non-Muslims) in time. The Taliban had imposed “jizia” on the Sikhs in Afghanistan, too, during its brief rule in the war-ravaged country in the late nineties.
           The outrageous behavior of the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal area must be condemned by the international community as India has forcefully done. But condemnation alone is not enough. The Sikhs who are still in the Taliban’s custody must not be allowed to meet the fate of their two unfortunate brethren. The Pakistan government must be made to ensure that the persecution of the Sikhs comes to an end. Targeting of defenseless people cannot be justified on any ground.

The leader of an al Qaeda cell in Yemen has been killed in clashes with security forces, the Yemeni government said Wednesday. Abdullah al-Mehdarhad, whose name is also spelled as al-Mihdar, led a cell in the Habban region of Yemen's Shabwa province, according to 26sep.net, the Web site for the Yemeni military.
           It cited an official source in the Interior Ministry, who said the al Qaeda leader was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces. Four al Qaeda suspects were arrested in the Maifah district of the same province, the state-run SABA news agency reported.

Nigeria's ailing president has broken two months of silence to assure his countrymen that contrary to speculation he is alive and intending to return to power soon. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua this week gave his first media interview since being admitted to a hospital in Saudi Arabia in late November where he is being treated for acute pericarditis, an inflammation of tissue around the heart. His absence has created a power vacuum in Africa's most populous country, as Yar'Adua has not formally handed his presidential duties to Vice-president Goodluck Jonathan. In a phone interview with the BBC from his hospital bed Tuesday, President Yar'Adua said he was recovering from his treatment. "At the moment I'm undergoing treatment. I'm getting better from the treatment. I hope that very soon there will be tremendous progress to allow me to get back home," he said."As soon as my doctors discharge me I'll return to Nigeria to resume my duties," he added. Yar'Adua's interview coincided with demonstrations in the nation's capital, Abuja, where protesters demanded a constitutional order on his absence and "evidence about his true state of health," Voice of Nigeria reported. The Nigerian Senate is seeking also information on the president's whereabouts and health.

Gopika Sharma / January 19, 2010
Pope forgives Christmas trespasser

Pope Benedict XVI met privately on Wednesday with the woman who dragged him to the ground on Christmas Eve, the Vatican said. The pope offered forgiveness to Susanna Maiolo, 25, who jumped a barrier and dragged down the 82-year-old pontiff last month. Maiolo told the pope she was sorry about what had happened, according to a statement from the Vatican. She was detained by Vatican police and then taken to a mental institution, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said at the time. The pope was quickly helped to his feet by his aides -- prompting cheers from the crowd -- and the service resumed, Lombardi said. Maiolo is the same woman who tried to get to the pontiff on Christmas Eve 2008, Lombardi said. John Allen, senior Vatican analyst for CNN, said such security breaches aren't uncommon. "As compared to say, the president of the United States, the security membrane around the pope is pretty thin and fairly permeable," he said, citing similar past incidents, including Maiolo's previous attempt. Allen said that, generally, these disruptions are caused by people who aren't seeking real harm, but who want to be close to the pope.

Gopika Sharma / January 2, 2010
Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for attack on plane

A wing of al-Qaeda has claimed it was behind the attempt to blow up a Christmas Day transatlantic flight, saying it was in retaliation for U.S. attacks in Yemen. On an Islamist website, Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, named 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and said he coordinated with members of the group. They also said the explosives he carried on the Northwest Airlines flight were made by al-Qaeda members. The group said it provided the Nigerian suspect with a "technically advanced device," but it failed to detonate because of a technical fault, Reuters reported. Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaeda operatives in the country this month. The second one was a day before the attempted bombing of the plane as it was about to land in Detroit.

Gopika Sharma / January 2, 2010
Lessons learned from a decade of epidemics

When the last millennium came to an end, the Y2K bug was grabbing attention. As the first decade of this one neared an end, a pandemic bug was in the spotlight. In the past 10 years, fear has accompanied new viruses, including bird flu, or H5N1, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and most recently, the virus formally known as 2009 pandemic influenza A, or H1N1. But much can be learned from the decade's experience with these viruses, experts say. For public health officials, the challenge in a pandemic is to inform people about how they can protect themselves without causing panic. Worldwide, governments set up their pandemic plans based on bird flu, a highly pathogenic virus that infected a relatively small number of people, mainly in China and Southeast Asia, where it has had a case-fatality rate of about 60 per cent.
          The worst-case scenario is a virus that is both highly pathogenic and highly transmissible, meaning it causes serious disease and spreads easily from person to person. While both bird flu and SARS were highly pathogenic, neither was particularly transmissible. The opposite is the case with H1N1, which is very transmissible but is not very pathogenic, said Sir Roy Anderson, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College in London. When H1N1 first emerged in Mexico in April 2009, the fatality rate seemed about one in 100, but this turned out to be too high, since only the serious cases came to the attention of health authorities. The death rate is now estimated to be about one in many tens of thousands or perhaps one in a 100,000 — in the same ballpark as typical seasonal flu. By early fall, the news media started reporting on a much smaller fraction of people sickened with serious illness from H1N1. Another reason the case fatality rates were overestimated for H1N1, Anderson said, is that it is a difficult disease to diagnose. Influenza causes similar symptoms to cold virus, including chest secretions and a rapid rise in temperature. Problems in diagnosing H1N1 show the need for more sophisticated ways of telling if someone has been exposed, he said. The H1N1 flu pandemic also taught the importance of monitoring flu viruses for mutations that occur when someone is infected with two viruses at the same time and the viral genetic codes get jumbled.

Gopika Sharma / January 2, 2010
           125 pilot whales die on New Zealand beaches

Some 125 pilot whales died in New Zealand after getting stranded on beaches over the weekend, and vacationers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back out to sea. Rescuers monitored the survivors as they swam away from Colville Beach on North Island's Coromandel peninsula, and by Monday morning, they were reported well out to sea. Department of Conservation workers and hundreds of volunteers helped refloat the 43 whales at high tide. The volunteers covered the stranded mammals in sheets and kept them wet through the day. Meanwhile on South Island, 105 stranded long-finned pilot whales died Saturday, conservation officials confirmed on Monday. The Golden Bay biodiversity program's manager, Hans Stoffregen, said they were discovered by a tourist plane pilot and only 30 were alive when conservation workers arrived. Because the site is part of a nature reserve, the 105 whale carcasses were left to decompose where stranded, Stoffregen said. Large numbers of whales become stranded on New Zealand's beaches each summer as they pass by on their way to breeding grounds from Antarctic waters. Scientists so far have been unable to explain why whales sometimes become stranded.

Gopika Sharma / January 2, 2010
                   Pakistan suicide bombing kills 30

A suicide bombing targeting a Shia Muslim procession in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens more Monday, as Shias across the country marked the key holy day of Ashoura. Violence broke out in the aftermath of the bombing, with shots fired into the air and outraged Shias hurling stones at security forces guarding the march for their failure to prevent it. The bombing was the latest in a wave of violence to hit Pakistan since the army started taking on Islamist militants allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, with 500 people killed since October. After Monday's blast, protesters set fire to a market, two other buildings and several vehicles, smashing shops as others at the procession attempted to stop them. Police and paramilitary troops fired into the air to disperse the crowd. Television footage showed police cars and ambulances damaged, with windows smashed and doors and hoods ripped open.