DATE-SHEET, CBSE SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION,2008,

DAY,DATE AND TIME SUBJECT NAME AND SUB-C

Saturday,01st March, 2008 10:30 AM

CHEMISTRY 043

OFFCE PRAC & SECT 604

MARKETING 613

STORE ACCOUNTING 618

CASH MGMT & H-KEEP 619

APPLIED PHYSICS 625

MECH. ENGINEERING 626

FABRICATN.TECH-III 631

ELECTRICAL ENGG. 637

MILK & MILK PRODS. 639

VEGETABLE CULTURE 642

B THERAPY &H DR-II 654

BIOLOGY-OPTHALMIC 657

LAB. MEDICINE 660

FUND OF NURSING II 663

RADIATION PHYSICS 666

ADVANCE FOOD PREP 675

CLOTHING CONST 686

BASIC DESIGN 687

FOOD PREPARATION 690

INDIA-TOURIST DEST 693

FOOD SCI.& HYGIENE 696

LIB. ADMN & MGMT. 702

PRIN &PRA-LIFE INS 705

POULTRY NUTR & PHY 716

Monday,03rd March, 2008 10:30 AM

FASHION STUDIES 053

Tuesday,04th March, 2008 10:30 AM

BUSINESS STUDIES 054

Wednesday,05th March, 2008 10:30 AM

HISTORY 027

Friday,07th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PHYSICS 042

STENOGRAPHY-ENG 608

STENOGRAPHY-HINDI 610

ELE.COST A/C & AUD 612

SALESMANSHIP 614

LENDING OPERATIONS 620

ENGINEERING SCI. 622

RADIO ENG.&AUD.SYS 635

M PROD TPT &M COOP 640

FLORICULTURE 643

COSMETIC CHEMISTRY 655

OPTICS 658

CLINICAL BIO-CHEM. 661

COMM. HEALTH NURII 664

RADIOGRAPHY-I GENL 667

TEXTILE SCIENCE 684

ACCOMODAT. SERVICE 691

TRAVEL TRADE MGMT 694

BUSINESS DATA PRO. 700

CLSFN.& CATLOGUING 703

COMPUTER& LIFE I A 706

POULTRY PDTS& TECH 717

Saturday,08th March, 2008 10:30 AM

POLITICAL SCIENCE 028

DATE-SHEET SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION,2008 PAGE-2

DAY,DATE AND TIME SUBJECT NAME AND SUB-C

Monday,10th March, 2008 10:30 AM

ENGLISH ELECTIVE 001

FUNCTIONAL ENGLISH 101

ENGLISH CORE 301

Tuesday,11th March, 2008 10:30 AM

DANCE-KATHAK 056

DANCE-BHARATNATYAM 057

DANCE-KUCHIPUDI 058

DANCE-ODISSI 059

DANCE-MANIPURI 060

DANCE-KATHAKALI 061

DANCE-MOHINIYATTAM 062

MULTIMEDIA & WEB T 067

Wednesday,12th March, 2008 10:30 AM

HOME SCIENCE 064

MARATHI 109

MIZO 198

Thursday,13th March, 2008 10:30 AM

ACCOUNTANCY 055

SECT PRAC & ACCNTG 605

STORE KEEPING 617

ELECT APPLIANCES 624

AUTO ENGINEERING 627

CIVIL ENGINEERING 629

FABRICATN.TECH-II 630

AC & REFRGTN-III 632

ELN.DEV.& CIRCUITS 634

D E MICROPROCESSOR 638

MICROBIOLOGY 662

RADIOGRAPHY-II SPL 668

BAKERY SCIENCE 697

TPT. SYSTEMS &MGMT 712

Friday,14th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PHILOSOPHY 040

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 066

GERMAN 120

TYPEWRITING-ENG 607

DATE-SHEET SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION,2008 PAGE-3

DAY,DATE AND TIME SUBJECT NAME AND SUB-C

Saturday,15th March, 2008 10:30 AM

BIOLOGY 044

OFF. COMMUNICATION 606

TYPEWRITING-HINDI 609

FINANCIAL ACCNTG 611

CONS BEHV & PROTCN 615

MGMT OF BANK OFFCE 621

ELECTRIC MACHINES 623

AC & REFRGTN-IV 633

TV & VIDEO SYSTEMS 636

DAIRY PLANT INSTRU 641

POST HARV TECH&PRD 644

YOGA ANATOMY &PHYS 656

OPHTHALMIC TECH. 659

MAT.&CHILD H.NURII 665

ESTB & MGMT OF FSU 677

DESG & PAT MAKING 685

DYEING & PRINTING 688

FOOD & BEV SERVICE 692

TOUR MGMT & MP PLN 695

CONFECTIONERY 698

DTP CAD & MULTIMED 701

REFERENCE SERVICE 704

POULTRY DISE & CNT 718

Monday,17th March, 2008 10:30 AM

SOCIOLOGY 039

BIOTECHNOLOGY 045

AGRICULTURE 068

Tuesday,18th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PUNJABI 104

MANIPURI 111

Wednesday,19th March, 2008 10:30 AM

URDU ELECTIVE 003

MUSIC CAR.VOCAL 031

MUSIC CAR.INS.MEL. 032

MUSIC CAR.INS.PER. 033

MUSIC HIND.VOCAL 034

MUSIC HIND.INS.MEL 035

MUSIC HIND.INS.PER 036

URDU CORE 303

Thursday,20th March, 2008 10:30 AM

MATHEMATICS 041

Monday,24th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PHYSICAL EDUCATION 048

Tuesday,25th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PAINTING 049

GRAPHICS 050

SCULPTURE 051

COMMERCIAL ART 052

Wednesday,26th March, 2008 10:30 AM

ECONOMICS 030

DATE-SHEET SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION,2008 PAGE-4

DAY,DATE AND TIME SUBJECT NAME AND SUB-C

Thursday,27th March, 2008 10:30 AM

SANSKRIT ELECTIVE 022

BENGALI 105

TAMIL 106

TELUGU 107

SINDHI 108

GUJARATI 110

MALAYALAM 112

KANNADA 115

ARABIC 116

FRENCH 118

PERSIAN 123

NEPALI 124

SANSKRIT CORE 322

Friday,28th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PSYCHOLOGY 037

I T SYSTEMS 699

Saturday,29th March, 2008 10:30 AM

HINDI ELECTIVE 002

ORIYA 113

ASSAMESE 114

TIBETAN 117

PORTUGUESE 119

RUSSIAN 121

LIMBOO 125

LEPCHA 126

BHUTIA 195

SPANISH 196

KASHMIRI 197

HINDI CORE 302

Monday,31th March, 2008 10:30 AM

INFORMATICS PRAC. 065

COMPUTER SCIENCE 083

Wednesday,02nd April, 2008 10:30 AM

GEOGRAPHY 029

ENGG. DRAWING 046

AUTOSHOP REP& PRAC 628

MEAL PLNG & SERVIC 676

DATE-SHEET, CBSE SECONDARY SCHOOL EXAMINATION,2008

DAY,DATE AND TIME SUBJECT NAME AND SUB-CODE

Saturday,01st March, 2008 10:30 AM

ELEM. OF BUSINESS 154

INTRODUCTORY I T 165

ELEM BOOK-K & ACCY 254

TYPEWRITING-ENG 354

TYPEWRITING-HINDI 454

Monday,03rd March, 2008 10:30 AM

SOCIAL SCIENCE 087

Wednesday,05th March, 2008 10:30 AM

URDU COURSE-A 003

PUNJABI 004

TAMIL 006

SINDHI 008

MARATHI 009

GUJARATI 010

MANIPURI 011

MALAYALAM 012

ORIYA 013

KANNADA 015

ARABIC 016

TIBETAN 017

FRENCH 018

PORTUGUESE 019

GERMAN 020

RUSSIAN 021

PERSIAN 023

NEPALI 024

LIMBOO 025

LEPCHA 026

BHUTIA 095

SPANISH 096

KASHMIRI 097

MIZO 098

URDU COURSE-B 303

Friday,07th March, 2008 10:30 AM

BENGALI 005

TELUGU 007

ASSAMESE 014

HOME SCIENCE 064

Tuesday,11th March, 2008 10:30 AM

MATHEMATICS 041

Friday,14th March, 2008 10:30 AM

ENGLISH COMM. 101

ENGLISH LNG & LIT. 184

Monday,17th March, 2008 10:30 AM

HINDI COURSE-A 002

HINDI COURSE-B 085

Wednesday,19th March, 2008 10:30 AM

COMM. SANSKRIT 122

Thursday,20th March, 2008 10:30 AM

MUSIC KAR.VOCAL 031

MUSIC KAR.INS.MEL. 032

MUSIC KAR.INS.PER. 033

MUSIC HIND.VOCAL 034

MUSIC HIND.INS.MEL 035

MUSIC HIND.INS.PER 036

Monday,24th March, 2008 10:30 AM

PAINTING 049

Tuesday,25th March, 2008 10:30 AM

SCIENCE-THEORY 086

SCIENCE W/O PRAC 090

Thursday,27th March, 2008 10:30 AM

SCIENCE-PRAC. SKLS 086

BENAZIR KILLED, PAK ON EDGE

SUICIDE BOMBER SHOOTS HER, BLOWS HIMSELF UP AT RALLY IN RAWALPINDI, SETS OFF WAVE OF WORRY ACROSS THE AFTER OCTOBER 18 ATTACK, SHE SAID: I know who my enemies are, even if you hide behind seven veils, I can still see your hand

Gandhi, Bhutto, Kennedy... Three families that have been synonymous with political royalty around the world for decades. These are also the three families that have been blighted by violent, bloody tragedy.
Weeks after miraculously surviving a suicide bomber’s attack in her home city of Karachi which killed 134, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a terror attack in Rawalpindi near Islamabad. Bhutto, 54, was fired upon by a gunman at close range minutes after she finished addressing an election rally. Moments later, a suicide bomber blew himself up. She was declared dead by doctors at a hospital at 6.16 pm after they had tried to resuscitate her for 35 minutes. She had bullet and shrapnel injuries in her neck and chest. At least 20 others were killed in the attack.
A close aide to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said Islamic militants were responsible for the assassination, but Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party activists blamed Musharraf’s regime, saying the government had failed to provide adequate protection for their leader who was returning home after eight years of self-imposed exile.
Thousands of angry PPP supporters hit the streets immediately, setting government establishments and vehicles on fire. Fourteen people were killed in the violence that engulfed Karachi and soon spread to Islamabad and Lahore.
The assassination came just days after Musharraf lifted a state of emergency in Pakistan, which he had used to suspend the constitution and arrest thousands of political opponents, and which he said he had imposed in part because of terrorist threats by extremists in Pakistan.
Bhutto is survived by Asif Ali Zardari, a businessman she married in 1987, and two daughters (15 and 18) and a son (19) — who flew in from Dubai within hours of her death. Her two brothers also met with violent deaths some years ago.
Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October to present herself as the answer to the nation’s troubles: a tribune of democracy in a state that has been under military rule for eight years, and the leader of the country’s largest opposition political party, founded by her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

US script gone horribly wrong

Washington never publicly affirmed that it had a role in Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan but her killing will raise questions on how far US is responsible for the developments. President Bush urged Musharraf to continue on the path to democracy to honour Bhutto’s memory, adding that the former PM knew her life was at risk when she went back to Pakistan, absolving his administration of blame. P 24 Deft politician Bhutto kept Musharraf, Pakistan guessing
Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto kept the country and its president Pervez Musharraf always guessing. One moment she was standing up to Musharraf, then seeming to accommodate him, and never quite revealing her actual intentions. In this Bhutto stirred as much distrust as hope among Pakistanis.
A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, she brought the backing of Washington and London, where she impressed with her political lineage, her considerable charm and her persona as a female Muslim leader.
But with these accomplishments, Bhutto also brought controversy, and a legacy among Pakistanis as a polarizing figure who during her two turbulent tenures as prime minister, first from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, often acted imperiously and impulsively.
She faced deep questions about her personal probity in public office, which led to corruption cases against her in Switzerland, Spain and Britain, as well as in Pakistan.
Indeed, one of Bhutto’s main objectives in seeking to return to power was to restore the reputation of her husband, who was jailed for eight years in Pakistan, said Abdullah Riar, a former colleague of Bhutto’s. She told me, ‘‘Time will prove he is the Nelson Mandela of Pakistan,’’ Riar said.
Chaos and panic followed the attack. Griefstricken PPP activists torched vehicles to vent their fury. Bhutto’s death immediately raised questions about whether the parliamentary elections scheduled for January will be held or postponed.
Fourteen people were killed in the violence that gripped the nation within hours of the news of the assassination.
Musharraf went into an emergency huddle with top government officials. An aide said no decision had been made on whether to delay the national elections.

More Reports

P AKISTANI Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack this evening as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters. The death of the charismatic former Prime Minister threw the campaign for the January 8 election into chaos and stirred fears of mass protests and a wave of violence that had already erupted by Thursday night. Pak President Pervez Musharraf blamed Islamic terrorists for the killing.

"This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said in a na- tionally televised speech. "Today, after this tragic incident, I want to express my firm re- solve ... we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out." Bhutto's death left a void at the top of her Pakistan People's Party, the largest political group in the country, and threw into turmoil U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to bring stability to this key US ally by reconciling her and Musharraf.

Speaking to reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, a tense-looking Bush condemned the killing and demanded that "those who committed this crime must be brought to justice." Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff, where they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the election, an official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. He also announced three days of mourning for Bhutto.

Next to Musharraf, Bhutto, 54, was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She was respected in the West for her lib eral outlook and determination to combat the spread of Islamic extremism, a theme she re turned to often in her campaign speeches.

As news of her death spread, supporters at the hospital in Rawalpindi smashed glass doors and stoned cars. Many chanted slogans against Musharraf, accusing him of complicity in her killing. In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as protesters set tyres on fire on the roads, torched several vehicles and burned a gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot and wounded two police officers, he said.

One man was killed in a shootout between police and protesters in Tando Allahyar, a town 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Karachi, said Mayor Kanwar Naveed. In the town of Tando Jam, protesters forced passengers to get out of a train and then set it on fire. Violence also broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and many other parts of Pakistan, where Bhutto's supporters burned banks, state-run grocery stores and private shops. Some set fire to election offices for the ruling party, according to Pakistani media.

Akhtar Zamin, home minister for the southern Sindh province, said authorities would deploy troops to stop violence if needed.

Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and leader of a rival opposition party, rushed to the hospital and addressed the crowd.

"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," he said. "Don't feel alone.

I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."

Speaking to the BBC, Sharif also questioned whether to hold the elections.

"I think perhaps none of us is inclined to think of the elections," he said. "We would have to sit down and take a very serious look at the current situation together with the People's Party and see what we have to do in the coming days."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Bhutto just hours before her death, called her a brave woman with a clear vision "for her own country, for Afghanistan and for the region - a vision of democracy and prosperity and peace."

Suspicion for the blast fell on resurgent Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban who hated Bhutto for her close ties to the US and her support for the war on terror. A local Taliban leader reportedly threatened to greet Bhutto's return to the country in October with suicide bombings.

The attacker struck as Bhutto was leaving a rally of thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

"She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans in her favor," said Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto's party who was about 10 yards away. "Then I saw a smiling Bhutto emerging from the vehicle's roof and responding to their slogans."

"Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away. That was the time when I heard a blast and fell down," Hayyat said.

At least 20 others were killed in the blast, an Associated Press reporter at the scene saw.

Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery. A doctor on the team that attended to Bhutto said she had a bullet in the back of the neck that damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head. Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. She was given an open heart massage, but the main cause of death was damage to her spinal cord, he said.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

Sen. Babar Awan, Bhutto's lawyer, said, "The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred."

Bhutto's supporters at the hospital exploded in anger, smashing the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit. Others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.

"I saw her with my own eyes sitting in a vehicle after addressing the rally. Then, I heard an explosion," said Tahir Mahmood, 55, as she sobbed. "I am in shock. I cannot believe that she is dead," he said.

Some at the hospital began chanting, "Killer, Killer, Musharraf." A few began stoning cars outside.

"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security and appropriate equipment including jammers, but they paid no heed to our requests," Malik said.

Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct 18. Her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

Bhutto was killed just a few kilometers (miles) from the scene of her father's violent death 28 years earlier. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and the founder of the party that his daughter would later lead, was executed by hanging in 1979 in Rawalpindi on charges of conspiracy to murder that supporters said was politically motivated by the then-military regime. His killing led to violent protests across the country.

As Bhutto addressed the rally Thursday, she was flanked by a massive picture of her father. Minutes later, as she drove away from the rally, the area was awash in blood.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene could see body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.

Police cordoned off the street with white and red tape, and rescue workers rushed to put victims in ambulances as people wailed nearby.

The clothing of some of the victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies. Police caps and shoes littered the asphalt.

On Thursday, hundreds of riot police had manned security checkpoints to guard the venue. It was Bhutto's first public meeting in Rawalpindi since she came back to the country.

In November, Bhutto had also planned a rally in the city, but Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears. In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army has its headquarters.

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Diana photographer offered 'dying pictures' from crash scene

A photographer offered "exclusive" pictures of the gravely-injured Princess Diana to a British tabloid newspaper for 300,000 pounds ($600,000) from the scene of the Paris car crash that killed her 10 years ago, the inquest into the death of Diana and Dodi al Fayed heard Tuesday.

Romuald Rat, a French paparazzi, rang the picture desk of the Sun newspaper in London from the Ponte d'Alma tunnel minutes after the crash, the London inquest was told.

The testimony was given via video link from Paris by Stephane Darmon, a motorcyclist who drove Rat, chasing Diana's car, on the night of Aug 31, 1997.

The inquest also heard part of a television interview with Kenneth Lennox, the Sun's former picture editor to whom the offer was made.

"I didn't waste time. I had to see these pictures, but in principle I said 'yes' to buying them," Lennox said, according to the transcript read to the inquest.

The photographs he received had "jumped off the screen" at him, Lennox said. One showed Diana sitting in the well of the back seat with her back to the open door and a trickle of blood on her face, a second depicted a doctor attending to her with a portable oxygen mask.

The pictures were not published by the Sun at the time.

DPA

Union helps ragpickers build lives - scrap by scrap

Life insurance and identity cards are not things that one associates with ragpickers in India. But that's exactly what a union in this city in Maharashtra is providing to its members who collect scrap.

Called the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), the trade union has around 7,500 members, making it one of the biggest ragpickers' unions in India. It has also devised better ways of scrap collection.

Mangal Gaikwad, a ragpicker by profession, can't stop talking about the benefits of joining KKPKP.

"As a child I would envy the children who went to school with their bags and water bottles while I had to go waste-picking," she recollects.
"Today I earn Rs. 3,000 from doorstep collection and the sale of scrap. Residents who used to frown at me while I was at the garbage bin now know my name and greet me. One of them even gave me a second-hand bicycle, which I now ride to work," Mangal told IANS.

In India, thousands of tonnes of garbage are segregated across the country every day with re-usable material finding its way to scrap markets . And behind this mammoth process are ragpickers, who go about their work without realising how much they contribute to the environment.

But unlike other ragpickers, KKPKP is changing the lives of its members.

Mangal has life insurance cover thanks to KKPKP. Her work- hours have also gone down due to which she manages to attend literacy classes. "I am now literate," she beamed.

KKPKP has a credit union whereby members deposit Rs.100 per month that comes back to them as retirement benefits. The ragpickers can also avail themselves of loans from the union.

KKPKP was registered as a cooperative more than 10 years ago and is now recognised nationally and internationally.

Mangal is treasurer of the credit cooperative and the representative for her slum. She recently bought a bigger house for Rs.65,000 from her savings and a loan from the credit cooperative.

The union has now come up with a programme to handle the city's waste better and at lesser costs.

According to Purnima Chikarmane, a KKPKP activist, Pune generates 1,500 tonnes of garbage every day. Out of this, 900 tonnes is collected by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)trucks and taken to landfill sites. In this process, the civic body spends Rs.1,500 per tonne of garbage.

The plan proposed by KKPKP called 'Swach' aims at providing a waste collector at every house at a monthly cost of Rs.10 per family. The waste collector will segregate the garbage at the doorstep itself, thus leaving hardly anything for landfill sites.

Though PMC liked the idea last year, it revoked the programme in September.

Laxmi Narayan, another KKPKP activist, alleges that the body wanted the marginal Rs.10 fee also to come to it and hence scrapped the programme.

But this hasn't stopped the union from going ahead with its plans. It hopes to implement Swach as a cooperative through funding from corporate houses.

And in five years, it envisages the cooperative as a self-sufficient body, which would outsource the work to smaller groups.

Indo-Asian News Service

Psst, want to buy a genocidal dictator's used car?

A Cambodian entry on Ebay has given the term "only one previous careful owner" a new meaning. Late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's car is up for auction, but former Khmer Rouge has advised it may not be a good buy.

Those wishing to sit in the seat once occupied by a man who orchestrated one of the worst genocides of the last century have until Tuesday to bid a minimum of $72,000 to own the car, which the owner claims propelled Pol Pot between 1975-1979.

Up to two million Cambodians died of starvation, overwork, disease, torture and execution during that period under Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea regime. Pol Pot died in 1998.

"For Sale - one classic 1973 Mercedes Benz Stretch Limousine ...previously used by one infamous owner - Pol Pot who led the Khmer Rouge during its genocidal regime," the Ebay entry reads.

It points interested parties to a clip of the vehicle's restoration, posted on YouTube in an ironic twist for a regime that systematically executed intellectuals and abolished markets and even currency in a drive to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia.

Pol Pot, his former photographer said by telephone Monday, would spin in his grave.

"Many former leaders of the regime used these cars. It is interesting a foreigner bought the car," Nhem En, whom Pol Pot once jailed but reinstated as his personal photographer, said. "The price seems very high for a very old car, though. Maybe people with this sort of money should buy a new one?"

But Pol Pot is not the only selling point, according to the owner, who did not list his name on the Ebay auction site. Hollywood star Matt Dillon also used it in the making of his cult classic movie "City of Ghosts".

Potential buyers may have to have a little faith about the vehicle's authenticity, it continued, citing the nature of Pol Pot's regime as making documentation difficult.

"The Khmer Rouge regime destroyed all official documents during their tenure as the de-facto government in Cambodia during the 1970's ... and hence no official papers for the car exist," he said.

The car has been used "for Sunday drives" since it was discovered being used to transport watermelons to market in 2001.

DPA

Red wine and green tea fight cancer, heart disease

A diet of fruits and vegetables, washed down with red wine or green tea, could help keep cancer and heart disease at bay.

That's thanks to polyphenols -- antioxidants that shut down and prevent cancerous tumours, according to new research published in the November issue of The FASEB Journal.

The research, by French scientists, describes how very high doses of polyphenols prevent cancerous tumours by cutting off the formation of new blood vessels needed for tumour growth.

Polyphenols are commonly found in red wine, fruits, vegetables and green tea.

The researchers found that relatively lower doses of polyphenols play a beneficial role in those with diseased hearts and circulatory systems by facilitating blood vessel growth, the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) reported.

The amount of polyphenols necessary for this effect was found to be the equivalent of only one glass of red wine per day or simply sticking to a healthy diet of polyphenol-rich fruits and vegetables - known as the "Mediterranean Diet".

The study adds to a growing body of research showing dose-dependent relationships for many types of commonly used compounds.

"When it comes to finding treatments for complex diseases, the answers are sometimes right there waiting to be discovered in unexpected places like the produce aisles and wine racks of the nearest store," said the Journal's editor Gerald Weissmann.

"But it takes modern science to isolate the pure compound, test it in the lab, and to go on from there to find new agents to fight disease."

Indo-Asian News Service

Soldiers and sports: a legacy that needs to be nurtured

Soon after hosting the fourth Military World Games at Hyderabad, Indian armed forces added another feather to their cap when two distance runners, both army men, R.S. Yadav and Deepchand, lean and hungry looking like most distance runners, took the top two places among domestic runners in the prestigious Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon, though overall they crossed the finishing line 16th and 17th in a field dominated by Africans.

You can't miss the point that the way our army runners are faring, it will only be saying the obvious that the country will have to look forward to its soldiers to narrow the gap in Indian and international standards.

The winner of Sunday's race, Diodone Disi, hopes it will not be long before an Indian runner figures on the podium.

For the benefit of those with short memories, it would do well to recall here the glorious contribution of our men in uniform to Indian sport.

In fact, long before the idea of the Military World Games was born, Dhyan Chand had made the army of our then British-ruled country famous worldwide with his wizardry with a hockey stick and ball.

So impressed was Germany's Fuhrer Adolf Hitler with Dhyan Chand's fabled magic in the 1936 Berlin Olympics that the story goes that he offered to straightaway elevate our humble soldier from Jhansi to the rank of a general should he decide to join the German Army!

That 1936 Olympics team had at least one other brilliant player from the army, the handsome Ali Iqtidar Shah Dara, who along with Gurmeet Singh, a 1932 Olympian, was lost to international hockey when their regiment was ordered to the World War II theatre in Malaya (now Malaysia), where the two later joined Netaji Subhas Bose's Indian National Army.

The legacy of Dhyan Chand was carried on by men like Nandy Singh, Balbir Singh, Haripal Kaushik and Hardyal Singh, to mention just a few.

For the record, the services won the Rangaswami Cup, emblematic of national hockey supremacy, at least eight times, starting 1953. No major hockey tournament of the country was complete without teams from cantonments like Ramgarh, Jalandhar, Meerut or Bangalore.

The services also contributed handsomely to other teams like football and basketball, throwing up stars like the legendary goalkeeper Peter Thangaraj and Khushi Ram, who was considered to be one of Asia's best basketball players in his day till he badly hurt his eye on court.

Footballers like Chandan Singh, centre-half of the first 1951 Asian Games gold medal-winning team, Brig. Devine Jones, Col. Puran Bahadur Thapa and others of his famous Gorkha Brigade team were some other shining stars in days when Indian football was a force to reckon with.

The services also boasted a decent cricket team under the expert leadership of Lt. Col. Hemu Adhikari, a team that featured players like Gadkari, Dani, Muddiah and Sen Gupta, all Test players.

Servicemen also dominated sports like boxing, wrestling and track and field.

The contribution of track legends like the 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh are part of folklore, not to mention others like Shriram Singh and the late marathoner Shivnath Singh.

Scan the list of athletics medal winners of those bygone times and most of them, you will find, belonged to the services.

So why the decline till Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore put the military back in the headlines of sports pages with a shooting silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens?

The answer, in a word, is the spreading insurgency and increasing border threats. The military has been called upon to do more important things than practice sport on the playgrounds of peacetime cantonments.

Still, army chiefs like Gen. S. Padmanabhan, followed by Gen J.J. Singh, thought it was time the army did its bit to stem the rot in Indian sport in general. It was time someone acted to place India on the international medals tables.

Congratulating Rathore on his Athens silver medal, Gen. J.J. Singh famously remarked that one Olympic medal was not enough. Hope his successor, Gen Deepak Kapoor, heard that.

Self-publish your book and save your time

Gone are the days when the time gap between writing a book and actually seeing it on the stands could be a couple of months to years, depending on the publisher. Now many authors are simply cutting short the process and self-publishing their book.

Debutant author Navin Pangti said since he was not eager to wait for long, he went ahead and published his book himself.

"Publishers these days have more than they can swallow. They get so many transcripts each day that it's only natural they take so long to give their opinion on a transcript," Pangti told IANS.

"Moreover, if it is a first time author, they don't take the transcript with much seriousness. I just wanted to avoid all this hassle. That's why I went right ahead and published my book 'Dhar Ke Us Paar'," Pangti told IANS.

Based in Uttarakhand, the book is a collage of pictures and 15 poems in Hindi. The language was another reason why Pangti felt that going to a publisher would mean a longer wait.

"It is a 48-page book. It was difficult editing and reviewing my own book. But I did it. After that I promoted it in all the popular networking sites like Orkut and Facebook," he said.

And the good news is that it worked. The book had many takers online and in roughly two to three months, Pangti sold over 100 copies.

In fact, poetry is a genre where self-publishing is happening quite frequently.

"My printing costs have been recovered and I have already broken even," Pangti smiled. Being a creative designer and photographer himself, he was also saved the headache of finding a different person to design the book.

For debutant author, Shubham Basu, the advantages of self-publishing were many.

"In self-publishing the advantage is that you can put forth your view without any screening. It's especially useful to those people who want to voice things that are important according to them but may not be of interest to everyone else," Basu said.

"You have the liberty to publish your virgin thoughts."

While the advantages of self-publishing are many, it has its share of shortcomings as well.

Karthika V.K., publisher and chief editor of Harper Collins, said: "The method of promoting a book online, placing orders and delivering is still at a nascent stage in India simply because here the reach of the internet is still not very wide."

Basu agreed.

"One might have to buy his way through the distribution network which can turn out to be pretty expensive because book stores will be sceptical to take up self-published books and distribute it.

"This is because when one goes through a known publisher, there is a certain amount credibility about the material," he said.

Also, in self-publishing, one needs to take care of the number of books being printed.

Shanti Das, another self-publisher, said she had to take care that not too many copies were printed as they might have ultimately got stacked away in a store room nor so little that they needed to be printed again and again.

"Thankfully, I got just the right amount of books printed - 200. My book of poems, which I marketed online, sold off that many copies," she said.

Thus, writers in India, albeit slowly, are now beginning to see the advantages of self-publishing their work, much like their Western counterparts.

"Self-publishing is a common thing in the US and Canada where people don't mind taking risks unlike here where we tend to tread only those paths which have been tried and tested before," Basu said.

"It will take some time, but it will catch up in India," Basu said.

Indo-Asian News Service

To part in style: world's first divorce fair

Forget your romantic notions about Vienna - the city of waltz music and quaint cafes. In Austria's capital two out of three marriages go down the drain. Reason enough, one enterprising businessman found, to give them a hand in splitting from their former loved ones.

Held at a city centre hotel last weekend, "New Beginning" - marketed as the world's first divorce fair - left little room for rose-tinted illusions.

One of the first stalls prospective divorcees encountered was run by biologist Susanne Haas. For 420 euros ($603), she offers paternity tests, giving 99.9-percent assurance to those doubting fathers who fear their offspring might be one of the 8-10 percent of children not fathered by the one paying the nappy bills.

About 20 exhibitors - lawyers, real estate agents or party organisers - offered advice on how to turn your "I do" into an "I am getting out of here".

Organiser Anton Barz was encouraged to set up his fair when hearing about the problems many of his acquaintances had with the logistics of a divorce. Visitors agreed that in such a painful and stressful situation it was good to get all the necessary information in one place.

After two more events in other Austrian cities, Barz plans to go global. Interest has been expressed in Germany, Switzerland, the US and South Africa.

"If you look at the statistics, it is clear that the demand is there," said Barz, who, serving both ends, also organises wedding fairs.

But if your happily-ever-after has turned into a never-ending nightmare, some help may be welcome to untie the knot.

While the few dozen singles-to-be looked a little intimidated, queuing in front of a divorce lawyer's stall or shyly approaching a marriage councillor, private investigator Christoph Jaeger was introducing his trade.

"Most of my customers want to know if and with whom they are being cheated on," he said. For $7,000 to 14,000 (5,000 to 10,000 euros), spurned wives and cuckolded husbands can get full-colour details about their beloved spouses' important business meetings or pottery classes.

Tackling the problem from a different angle, the Marriage Network, a multi-confessional Christian pro-marriage organisation, bemoans the loss of Christian values and morals.

While insisting that they were not trying to torpedo divorces, their stall was offering alternatives, "encouraging people that there are also other options besides a divorce".

One of their attempts to salvage seemingly doomed marriages is offering weekends away to rediscover one's partner - an idea that met with scepticism from at least one visitor, who insisted that she had seen quite enough of her husband, thank you very much.

However, despite claims that people today are taking marriage too lightly, a divorce is still seen as a last resort. "I want to consult a marriage counsellor, but my wife refuses to go," one middle-aged man said.

As a distraction from this grim outlook visitors could browse at stalls offering hair extensions or consult dating agencies. "Women need to change their look, to mark the change," a female visitor said.

However, despite the odds, hope has not died among those once bitten. The dating agencies' stalls were doing brisk trade.

DPA

Hockey players win hearts with 'crystal gesture'

Indian hockey players won hearts Tuesday when they presented crystal mementoes to the cricket and football teams as well as to President Pratibha Patil at a reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

Often viewed as cricketers' poor cousins, hockey coach Joachim Carvalho and the players sought to dismiss all that when they presented the crystal sticks and ball fixed on a black base, with the names of the entire team that won the Asia Cup title in Chennai last month.

Patil had invited the Asia Cup winners - along with the cricket team that won the Twenty20 World Championship and the football team that clinched the Nehru Cup - for a reception Tuesday afternoon.

The cricketers may have been the most sought after inside and outside the Durbar Hall - the venue of the reception -- but it was the hockey team, led by a down-to-earth Prabodh Tirkey, which won the day.

"It was my initiative, along with that of the players, to have the crystal mementoes made and presented today," Carvalho told IANS.

"We would have got another one made for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whom the team will call on Wednesday, had we been sure of the meeting. We will present him a hockey stick bearing the signatures of the entire team," disclosed the former India player.

Pointing to the meticulously inscribed names of the players and the support staff of the team that won the Asia Cup, Carvalho said: "We got one each made for President Patil, Sharad Pawar (cricket board president), K.P.S. Gill (hockey federation chief) and for Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (football president)."

The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) had no contribution in the making of the mementoes, confirmed an IHF official.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India also presented a souvenir to Patil, but not to others.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni presented a cricket bat bearing the signatures of all the players who were part of the Twenty20 World Championship-winning team in South Africa last month.

BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty then presented a photo album to Patil.

"The album contained photographs of the Twenty20 World Championship, and not any silverware etc," Shetty told IANS.

The Bhaichung Bhutia-led football team, which lifted the Nehru Cup in New Delhi Aug 29, was however missing. It is in Goa for a 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Lebanon.

Indo-Asian News Service

Fortune Magazine's annual conclave starts for first time in India

Fortune Magazine's annual conclave, a million-dollar event that is attended top global CEOs, economists and policymakers from across the world, started in India's capital Tuesday.

This is going to be Fortune's tenth global forum. It was held in Beijing last year.

"Where better to hold this pivotal conversation than the capital of India, a country rising to the top of the agenda for every CEO whose company has a global portfolio. Few world markets offer as much promise and potential as this emerging Asian powerhouse," a statement from the magazine said.

"The forum is globally acknowledged as it acts as a significant platform for in-depth understanding and analysis of the economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of a country that is both intriguing and contradictory," it added.

The two-day event is being held at the capital's Imperial Hotel. Some prominent speakers include Cisco's John Chambers, Dell's Michael Dell, US treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., economist Thomas L. Friedman, Sony Music's Andy Lack, Autodesk's Carol Bartz and Samsung's H.B. Lee.

The event is open solely to chairmen, presidents and CEOs of large multinational companies. The forum will discuss and debate issues related to "Mastering the Global Economy".

Indo-Asian News Service

Sobhraj's story to hit the screens after court battle

When Nepal's Supreme Court Sunday gives its verdict on a decades-old murder case that has kept Charles Sobhraj in prison since 2003, he will not just get justice but something more - new stardom.

The French national, once wanted by police of several countries for crimes targeting mostly western tourists, signed a film deal almost two years ago with three companies who will fly to Kathmandu next week to start shooting.

The film will portray Sobhraj's side of the story that mesmerised the media four years ago when he was sighted in Nepal and charged with a double murder committed in 1975.

In December 1975, when Nepal was the hub of pot-smoking hippies hoping to find nirvana in exotic lands, Kathmandu valley was shocked by the discovery of two badly burnt bodies.

The victims were American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich, and her Canadian companion Laurent Armand Carriere.

Police initially suspected Carriere had killed Bronzich and decamped with her money. However, after the discovery of his body, they concluded that unknown person(s) killed him while the suspicion for the American's murder fell on an Asiatic-looking man who was allegedly travelling on a Dutch passport.

The Bronzich case gathered steam only the following year after an Indian daily reported that Sobhraj was arrested in India and had "confessed" to travelling to Nepal earlier.

The Navbharat Times report made Nepal Police name Sobhraj as Bronzich's murderer and subsequently, when he came to Kathmandu in 2003, he was arrested and charged with the murder.

The new film, that is to be made on Sobhrja's long trial in Nepal, stay at a maximum-security prison cell and his encounter with the kingdom's judiciary, will for the first time give his version of the story.

Sobhraj maintains he did not kill Bronzich and was never convicted for murder anywhere else. His ordeal in Nepal, he says, was due to media reports, which were "biased".

"In India too, I was tried and sentenced by the media," the lean, bespectacled French national told IANS.

"And then the Supreme Court set me free. In Nepal too I was tried and sentenced by the press court," he added.

The 63-year-old, who says he came to Nepal in 2003 for the first time to explore the possibilities of making a documentary and exporting handicraft, is optimistic that the Supreme Court verdict will find him innocent.

"In Nepal, 95 percent of the cases in district courts find the accused guilty because of forced confessions and lack of expertise and experience by the judges, many of whom do not have a legal background.

"Yet they can sentence you to prison for life whereas in India, the sessions judges can't give you more than seven years," Sobhraj said.

Nepal's Supreme Court has a reputation of overturning earlier verdicts, at times against great odds, and Sobhraj feels the two judges who have been assigned his case are among the most experienced and "fair".

However, the film crew would not be able reach Kathmandu before Monday and will miss the court drama.

But after having waited for nearly four years, Sobhraj has immense patience.

"There's only one thing I want to do immediately after the verdict," he says. "I want to ring up my wife."

Indo-Asian News Service

Manmohan, Merkel flag off Indo-German Science Express

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday flagged off the Science Express -- a mobile science exhibition on a train that will visit 57 towns across India over the next seven months. It aims to kindle scientific curiosity among the Indian youth.

"Science Express will travel the length and breath of this country to propagate scientific temper. This train will build new bridges of understanding between India and Germany," Manmohan Singh said before launching the train from the Safdarjung Railway station.

"Science Express will propagate science among the youth of India and reach every state," the prime minister said.

"I am delighted to be here to celebrate with you today. This is going to be a fascinating rolling science exhibition," said a beaming Merkel.

Merkel began her official visit to India Tuesday morning with an inter-services ceremonial guard of honour at the red sandstone presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Pratibha Patil and Manmohan Singh received her.

Merkel spoke glowingly of the new warmth and strength in India-Germany relations on her first visit to India since she became chancellor over two years ago.

Merkel, who is a scientist, underlined that in a world of six billion people, she was deeply convinced that one had to make good use of all that science had to offer to ensure people lived without poverty, with prosperity and without destroying the planet.

The German government had initiated a high technology strategy concentrating on 17 important areas of science and would like to share developments of importance with India, she said.

"There is a lot we can do together with India," she stressed. The two countries will launch an Indo-German Science Centre aimed at jointly developing new technologies every day.

The white train with eight coaches, which showcases current and futuristic research in various areas -- including IT, biotechnology, health technology and systems -- has been jointly developed by German and Indian state and private entities.

Around 15 agencies from both sides collaborated to put up the exhibition in nine months.

The exhibition, which is being packaged for the first time on a train, was conceived by India's department of science and technology, Germany's federal ministry of education and research and the Max Planck Society.

Later in the day, India and Germany will sign a slew of agreements in areas ranging from trade and energy to defence and technology, cementing strategic and economic ties between one of Asia's growing economies and Europe's industrial giant.

Manmohan Singh and Merkel, who arrived here Monday night, will hold talks on a broad range of bilateral, regional and global issues including UN reforms, climate change, energy security and cooperation in the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations.

German Education and Research Minister Annette Schavan and around 30 top business leaders representing big brands like European plane maker Airbus, conglomerate Siemens, rail operator Deutsche Bahn and reinsurer Munich Re are accompanying Merkel.

Indo-Asian News Service