Mizoram District Councils Demand Direct Funding

Aizawl, Feb 8 : The three autonomous district councils in Mizoram have decided to intensify its decade-long demand for direct funding from the Centre.

A joint meeting of Mara, Chakma and Lai autonomous district councils, chaired by Lai ADC Planning Development Vice-chairman Hmunhre at Lawngtlai, has recently decided to send an envoy to the state government and the Centre to make sure that their demands were met before the Parliamentary budget session.

It was highlighted during the meeting that Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and Lok Sabha MP from Mizoram C L Ruala had written recommendations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in favour of the direct funding.

''It is necessary to grant direct funding to the three district councils to solve their economic, administrative, social and political problems which they have been facing for the last 47 years,'' the Lok Sabha MP was quoted as writing in his letter.

Lal Thanhawla also wrote a letter to the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in which he claimed that without direct funding the three autonomous district councils had faced an acute financial crisis especially when the Congress party was not in power.

He also reminded Sonia Gandhi of her promise to give direct funding when she campaigned before state Assembly elections in 2008.

Last year, the Union ministry of Home Affairs mulled the proposal to give funds directly to the ADCs without routing through the state government account. MHA had also sent a letter to the state Chief Secretary Vanhela Pachuau to comment on the proposal of direct funding.

Sources said leaders of the three autonomous district councils had submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil during her visit to Aizawl in September last demanding a separate Rajya Sabha member for the three autonomous district councils.

Besides all the ADCs leaders, the meeting was attended by MLA Nirupam Chakma, former MP Hiphei and prominent politicians in the region.

'We Won't Allow This on Campus'

JNU authorities see red after media reports student's blue film being sold
A day after media reported that two former students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had shot a blue film inside a hostel,  the university authorities have initiated an inquiry into the matter.

"We will not tolerate such things inside the university complex. We already have initiated inquiry and have questioned a few persons in this connection," said HB Bohidar, chief proctor of JNU. The move came after the Procter office  received a complaint in this regard from the chief security officer of the university. 

The film was reportedly shot around six month ago by a couple of students of School of Languages. It is believed that the boy and the girl in the film, who are natives of Bihar, were provided with the equipment for  shooting  by a student of Computer Science.  When other students of the university came to know about the incident, they bashed up the boy who had 'acted' in the film .

Sex, lies and video tape: Screen shots from the film that was allegedly
made by the students of JNU.
The university officials then reportedly destroyed the CD and tried to hush up the matter. This act of university officials however came a bit late because by then the copies of the CD had already been taken out of the university. The CD has the girl watching a pornographic movie while indulging in the sexual acts that are getting recorded by a camera set on an almirah.
Meanwhile, police said that the university authorities have not informed them about the matter. "We have not received any complaint either from the girl or university," said DCP (South), HGS Dhaliwal.  Police sources say that the blue film might have been made to earn money. "It is a possibility that the gangs who run pornography racket could be behind the incident as the picture quality of the movie is fine," the sources added.

Sex clip that rocked campus

MiD Day had reported how a 23-year-old girl doing her MBA from a prestigious B-school in Noida had done a full striptease on camera for her boyfriend also from the institute who later leaked the video to fellow students over mass-circulated e-mail, two years back.
A student, requesting anonymity, had said the two were supposed to be married, but the girl had backed out. "The boy, whom the girl had trusted even with her e-mail password, logged in to her mail and sent it out to almost her entire contact list," said the student, who also had received the clip.
The video had shown the girl stripping to music for apparently a mobile camera which zooms in and out once or twice inside what seems like a regular youngster's bedroom with a laptop and a music system. Students of the institute said the girl had complained to a teacher.

Over 400 Killed in Nearly 700 Blasts in Assam

Guwahati, Feb 8 : Over 400 people have been killed in Assam in around 700 incidents of bomb blast since April 2001.

As many as 698 bomb blast incidents were reported in the state between April 1, 2001, and January 10, 2011, state Cabinet minister Rockybul Hussain said in reply to a written question in the state Assembly today.

He was replying on behalf of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who also holds the Home portfolio.
In these incidents, altogether 446 people were killed, of whom 73 were personnel of security agencies and 373 were civilians.

Another 3,652 people were injured, of whom 351 were personnel of security agencies and 3301 were civilians.

Hussain further said relief and rehabilitation as well as ex-gratia were provided to the victims and their families as per the government norms.

Manipuri Girls Caught With Yemenis in Bangalore

Mysore, Feb 8 : Abdul Mallik, 29, and his friend Mohammed Ali, 23, both from Yemen, thought they were on to a good thing when they picked up two beauticians Sctey, Remey Thang, both from Manipur, in Kammanahalli in Bangalore and kicked off their liquor-sodden drive to Mysore.

But their party ended when sub-inspector — of the Srirangapatna police station alerted his counterparts in Mysore who arrested them after a dramatic chase.

The four revellers were racing from Bangalore in a Santro when the Mandya police first tried to stop them at 2.30 am on Monday.

When they didn't heed the warning, the cops tipped off the Srirangapatna unit but they too couldn't stop the car. In Mysore, four police personnel tried to stop them near Gun House Circle but only sustained injuries. Finally, it took a mob near Bandipalya on National Highway 212 to bring them to a halt at 3.45am and also beat them black and blue.

DCP (traffic & crime) P Rajendra Prasad told TOI the Yeminis picked up the beauticians at 11 pm.
"We recovered liquor bottles from the vehicle. They were all under the influence of liquor. Abdul was treated for head injuries at JSS Hospital.

Abdul and Ali are doing MTech at the Administrative Management College on Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore and the girls were running a herbal beauty parlour in Kammanahalli. The Yeminis also live in the same area."

SI Jagadish said, "After the car zoomed past Srirangapatna, I set off in hot pursuit and also alerted the police as well as the highway patrol Jeevan Raksha Kendra personnel."

Jagadish chased them for nearly 20km before arresting them. Investigation revealed that Abdul had bought the four-wheeler from Hyder, an Iraqi national, three months ago, but hadn't changed the ownership papers.

Sinned? There's an iPhone App For You

New York: An iPhone app aimed at helping Catholics through confession and encouraging lapsed followers back to the faith has been sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the United States.

Confession: A Roman Catholic app, thought to be the first to be approved by a church authority, walks Catholics through the sacrament and contains what the company behind the program describes as a "personalized examination of conscience for each user".

"Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology," said Patrick Leinen of the three-man company Little iApps, based in South Bend, Indiana.

"Taking to heart Pope Benedict XVI's message from last years' World Communications Address, our goal with this project is to offer a digital application that is truly 'new media at the service of the word."

Pope Benedict XVI's World Communications Address on January 24 emphasized the importance of a Christian presence in the digital world.

The firm said the content of the app was developed with the help of Reverend Thomas Weinandy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Reverend Dan Scheidt, pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mishawaka, Indiana.

The app is not designed to replace going to confession but to help Catholics through the act, which generally involves admitting sins to a priest in a confessional booth. Catholics still must go to a priest for absolution.

Little iApps said Bishop Kevin Rhoades, of the Diocese of Fort Wayne in Indiana, officially authorised the app for Catholics to use.

"It has been approved by Bishop Kevin Rhoades," said Weinandy.

Leinen said the app has already aided one man in returning to the sacrament after 20 years.

"We hope many more will take advantage of this new confession resource," he added.

The app retails for $1.99.

MMS Scandal Hits JNU: 2 Students Being Probed

New Delhi: Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University is in a state of shock after a CD with lewd images of one of its female students is doing the rounds.

The CD was allegedly shot by some students from the School of Language Studies.

The students initially tried to extort money from the girl in the video but when they failed the culprits put the video out on mobile phones, on the internet and even sold it as a CD in the blue film market.

The victim has been sent home by the authorities and the police are investigating the case.

They claim that the culprits have been identified though no arrests have been made so far.

"The girl and her friend were intimately involved. Another boy allegedly shot the video. JNU is yet to verify this," said HS Dhaliwal, DCP, South zone.

AIDS Threatens 2000 Kids in Manipur

Women hide HIV status during pregnancy leading to high number of infected children

Disease danger

Imphal, Feb 8 : More than 2,000 children are infected by HIV in Manipur and the number is expected to grow.

The shocking figures were revealed today by the project director of Manipur AIDS Control Society, Pradeep Kumar Jha, during the inaugural programme of a two-day workshop funded by Unicef.

Manipur, in fact, has one of the highest number of HIV-positive people, the figure being pegged at 40,000, said Jha at the meet organised to discuss the National Policy Framework on Children Affected by HIV.

“Doctors say most of the HIV-positive pregnant women do not disclose their HIV status during the routine examinations and medical check-ups. They disclose their status only after the delivery of the child. This is a matter of concern,” the official said.

“The number of mothers passing the virus to the child is very high and preventive action needs to be taken. Pregnant mothers should disclose their status to the doctors before the delivery,” he added.

The state has drafted an AIDS policy and suggestions and recommendations will be accepted from the public, experts and those working in the field.

Today’s workshop aimed at disseminating information about the national policy framework among NGOs working in the field of HIV/AIDS and discussed specific issues dogging the state that can be included in the national document.

After the Unicef workshop is over, a similar workshop will be held for officials of the Manipur government departments to educate them on the national policy and identify the role each department can play in preventing the spread of HIV from mother to child.

Sonia Trikha, HIV/AIDS specialist of the Unicef office, New Delhi, and Upasana Varu, HIV/AIDS specialist, Unicef, Assam office, Guwahati, were also present at the workshop.

“An HIV infected child needs all the support that a normal child needs. So we should work together so that the children infected with HIV can have a normal future,” Trikha told the NGOs.

Hoping to Break Into Top-50 by The End of 2011: Somdev

New Delhi: Indian tennis' poster boy Somdev Devvarman said he is hoping to break into top-50 by the end of this year but stopped short of predicting when he would win his first singles title, which he missed last night for the second time in his career.

Somdev lost his second ATP final yesterday in the South African Open -- the first being in 2009 Chennai Open – but said the performance in Johannesburg has done a world of good to his confidence.

"It is a huge confidence-booster. But every week on the tour is different. I feel like I'm playing well and I'm hoping for more good weeks like this one, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.”

"I hope to be in the top-50 by the year end," Somdev told reporters from Johannesburg.
The sparkling performance in Johannesburg, where he ended runner-up to Kevin Anderson, gave a huge fillip to his ranking as he climbed to career-best 80.

Somdev said he was happy that sweating on the courts along with his support staff was giving him rich dividends.

"It was a really good week for me. I'm happy to see improvements in my game but there's a lot more work to put in," he said.

However, the two-time NCAA champion could not hide his disappointment of missing out of a chance for a title.

"It's obviously disappointing to lose, but I can take away a lot of positives from this week," he said.

Anderson, world number 59, was the third South African Somdev clashed with in the ATP 250 tournament. He beat Rik de Voest and Izak van der Merwe but said it was always difficult against big serving Anderson.

Somdev said giving any sort of chance to a player with the calibre of Anderson is always an invitation to trouble and that happened last night.

Somdev took the lead by winning the first set but allowed Anderson to come back. The Indian dropped his serve in the decisive third set and failed to convert break chances.

"Playing against a guy like Kevin who serves so well, getting broken is not good news. Not being able to convert the break points at that stage obviously prevented me from making a comeback," Somdev said.

"I felt I was very comfortable in the first set, obviously. But in the middle of the second set, when I lost serve there, I think that was the turning point for sure because up till that point I felt I was more comfortable.”

"I felt I had had more chances on his serve than he had on mine. Once you give a good player like Kevin (that) kind of confidence and advantage, it's always tough to come back," he said.