At least five people were killed and 25 injured when a huge explosion ripped through the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's restive North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), officials said.
The blast partially demolished the building, which is located near a military base and an important government building in a high-security zone.
"According to the information I have received so far five people have been killed and 25 are injured," said the city's top civilian administrator, Sahebzada Anees.
Geo TV reported a provincial minister and a member of parliament were among the injured.
Some foreign nationals were also believed to be inside the hotel when the blast occurred.
A reporter from Geo TV said one injured victim told him that he was a French national.
A relief worker said there were some injured foreign nationals inside the building. "They are not ready to trust us. The police will come and then they will be moved to the hospital."
"I was at the mosque when the blast took place. There are many people lying in the mosque. There are also many people lying in the Marco Polo Hall," an eyewitness told the news channel. The witness said shots were also heard before the explosion.
The Pakistani military is currently engaged in a massive anti-Taliban operation in three districts of the NWFP that entered its 45th day Tuesday. The military says that some 1,350 Taliban have so far been killed in the operations, with the security forces suffering about 110 casualties.
Veteran theatre personality Habib Tanvir died here early Monday after prolonged illness, family sources said. He was 85.
Tanvir died at about 6.30 a.m. at the National Hospital, where he had been admitted about 20 days ago after developing respiratory problems.
Hospital sources said Tanvir later suffered kidney failure and his condition worsened.
The playwright's funeral will be held here Tuesday, family sources said.
Tanvir was a popular Hindi playwright, theatre director, poet and actor. He had written plays like "Agra Bazar" (1954) and "Charandas Chor" (1975). In 1959, he founded a theatre company called the Naya Theatre here.
He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shri in 1983, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002.
Tanvir was also nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha (1972-1978). His play "Charandas Chor" got him the Fringe Firsts Award at the Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982.
Photo (c) Ranjan Kamath
As the new government looks for a culture minister, the cultural fraternity is keen that it should be a person who is well grounded in the arts.
The minister should be given independent charge at the earliest, is the chorus across the fraternity.
The culture ministry may remain with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh till Congress president Sonia Gandhi picks someone of her choice, given her interest in the subject. She has done courses in art restoration and conservation and has served on various institutions such as the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.
Several names such as art historian Kapila Vatsayan and historian Jatindra Jain are doing the rounds for the post.
The government might hire the services of an expert for the job instead of a politician or appoint a cultural adviser, sources in the ruling coalition said.
"The country needs a culture minister whose background is education. Someone like (former president) A.P.J Abdul Kalam can do justice to the post because he is sensitive and knows the country and its culture. Even filmmaker Shyam Benegal, a Rajya Sabha member, will be a good choice because he is a filmmaker and a scholar," Bollywood actor and National Film Development Corp chairman Om Puri told IANS.
"We want someone who will understand the dynamic plurality of Indian culture, give it meaningful shape and carry it to the world," Lalit Kala Akademi chairperson Ashok Vajpeyi told IANS from Venice. Vajpeyi, a veteran civil servant, is a poet, critic, writer, historian and cultural administrator. He has won the Sahitya Akademi Award for poetry.
The culture department at the moment has an ad hoc head. Minister of State for Planning V. Narayanaswamy holds the additional charge of the ministry.
The post of a culture minister, ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) sources said, was "intentionally left vacant" when the list of ministers was prepared.
"But the government is keen to get a person to head the department soon because major arts and culture promotion plans are on the cards this year," a senior ministry official told IANS.
The government is also contemplating bestowing more powers on the Central Advisory Board for Culture to implement the national culture policy and coordinate functioning of various cultural institutions.
Vatsayan, a co-founder and head of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), was removed by the National Democratic Alliance government. She was rehabilitated when the UPA came to power in 2004 and is now a member of the IGNCA's advisory board.
She is also vice-chairperson of the 11-member of the culture ministry's advisory board. Vatsayan is a nominated Rajya Sabha member.
"I think Vatsayan will make a fantastic culture minister. The person to head the department should be well-rounded in the fine arts and have a certain amount of sensitivity. Had Pupul Jayakar been alive, she would have made an excellent culture minister," Bollywood-based writer, activist and former journalist Nandita Puri said.
The opposition does not favour the culture ministry remaining headless for long.
"Going by past record, I think it's important to have a culture minister to do justice to the multiplicity of Indian culture as soon as possible. Culture is an important ministry," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Brinda Karat told IANS.
Delhi University is a preferred destination for youngsters from the northeast for higher studies. But many find themselves singled out for their looks, attire and diction. For them, there is help at hand.
Student clubs, volunteers and colleges in the varsity are stepping in to ease their troubles.
"Students face problems of accommodation and discrimination. The first step - and most significant now - is to help them fill up forms and ease the admission process," Rover, a member of the Naga Students Union, told IANS.
Many such student clubs, set up by students from the northeast who are already enrolled in Delhi University and those who have set up base here, are extending help to fresh entrants in whatever way they can .
The Manipur Students Union and the Arunachal Pradesh Students Union have also emerged as support groups for students from their respective states, helping youngsters fill up admission forms and get reliable paying guest accommodation.
"Discrimination is an issue. People think we are from some different world! A lot of people need to get their history and geography right. They think we are from oriental countries like China and Japan - but we belong to the same country," said Thomas, a member of the Kuki Students Union.
The North East Support Centre helpline (9818314146/9868184939) has also been receiving a lot of complaints from female students facing eve-teasing, molestation, harassment by landlords and in some cases even sexual abuse and rape.
The helpline has been functioning since October 2007 and actively helping out students in case of discrimination. There are 49,000 seats in Delhi University.
"When students call our helpline, in some cases we help them get in touch with the police and provide them legal assistance," said Lansinglu Rongmei, an active member of North East Support Centre and lawyer.
The Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) as well as the varsity's administrative office is trying to link new students and university aspirants to senior students and teachers from the northeast.
Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, deputy dean, students welfare, told IANS: "We have set up help desks where teacher counsellors who hail from the northeastern states help out students. Our student counsellors also pitch in."
DUSU member Tejeswar Parida said, "DUSU introduces them to our members who are from the northeast so that there is no hesitation. We also keep in touch with individual organisations from these regions."
Individual colleges are also pitching in.
Sri Venkateswara College, a college in the south campus, has taken steps to make students feel at home.
"The college plans to help students from the northeast take up houses on rent. Students will also be asked to submit a report on their stay in their rented houses so that we will know if they face any kind of harassment from landlords," said Nirmal Kumar, the college's admissions convener.
"In some cases, if required, a person from the administration would be appointed for the student concerned to help him or her interactwith police," Kumar added.
Thumlity Monsang, who hails from Manipur and is a student of journalism at Kalindi College, said: "When there are attacks on Indian students in Australia, the whole country protests, but racial discrimination against us takes place within the boundaries of our country.
"We constantly have to prove that we are Indians. Why?"
A higher percentage of India's women MPs are postgraduates compared to their male counterparts and has greater chances of winning elections, suggests a new study.
As many as 32 percent of the 59 women MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha hold postgraduate and doctoral degrees as against 30 percent of male members in the lower house, it says.
The study by PRS Legislative Research, a non-profit organisation dedicated to parliamentary research, also says 10 percent of the women contestants in the April-May general elections won while the figure for men was only six percent.
The findings come at a time when Sharad Yadav, president of the Janata Dal-United, has bitterly opposed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's plans for 33 percent reservation for women in parliament.
The 15th Lok Sabha has the highest ever number of women members.
Until now, women MPs had never crossed nine percent of the total strength of the 545-member house, but now the figure is 11 percent - the highest in the history of Indian parliament.
The figure for the Rajya Sabha at the moment is 10 percent and seven percent in state assemblies.
There are more heartwarming statistics. As many as 29 percent of women MPs are less than 40 years of age, a huge jump compared to the previous Lok Sabha when the figure was 17 percent. The average age of all 59 MPs is 47, which too is lower than that of men, 54 years.
No woman is above 70 in the Lok Sabha while over seven percent of male MPs are septuagenarians.
In all, 556 women had contested the 2009 general elections. While the Congress topped the list of victorious women MPs, at 23, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came in second with 13.
However, it was the West Bengal-based Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee that fielded the highest percentage of women candidates - more than 20 percent - and 17 percent of them turned out to be winners.
Among the states with more than 20 seats in the Lok Sabha, Madhya Pradesh topped the list with 21 percent women MPs followed by West Bengal at 17 percent and Uttar Pradesh at 15 percent.
The PRS research said the percentage of women representatives in the age group of 40 to 60 has gone down. Now less than 57 percent of women fall in this category as compared to over 73 percent in 2004. But this time, women over 60 make up 13.8 percent, while it was a mere 9.8 percent in the 14th Lok Sabha.
In the previous Lok Sabha elections, there were 355 women candidates and 45 of them won, while in 1999 there were 49 victors from among 284 contestants.
If a new, tech-savvy White House is using new social networking tools - Twitter, Facebook and text messages - to spread its message, it is because media in the United States has turned to them in a big way to provide news and instant analysis.
As President Barack Obama delivered his historic address to the Muslim world Thursday, the White House's Twitter feed and Facebook page flooded the Internet with a flurry of messages. And the media was not too far behind in tweeting its thoughts.
Obama "delivered a sweeping message that was forceful and, at times, scolding", the New York Times flashed even as Obama was speaking. And tweeting from Cairo, Washington Post's staff writer Howard Schneider wrote: "Halftime analysis from the crowd: let's see how he implements it."
"Our goal is to ensure that the greatest number of people with an interest to see this - not just through newspapers and television - but can see this through Web sites," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said about the administration's aggressive strategy to work the Web to spread Obama's word.
The first tweet the White House Twittered on May 1 was not about the weather or the First Dog, Bo, but about how Americans can learn about swine flu directly by joining social networks with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Several federal government agencies have since followed the lead to jump on the social-networking bandwagon. About 30 agencies, including the White House, have joined Facebook and 25 now have YouTube channels. The Library of Congress has begun posting thousands of free historical photos on Flickr.
At present, government lawyers have drafted agreements with 10 private social-networking companies. Six other private-sector products, including iTunes, are being considered for further expansion, potentially clearing the way for easy iPod downloads of Obama administration messages.
No wonder, Twitter, Facebook and the like are emerging as new newsgathering tools even for the traditional news media with sources alerting them to brewing news and others breaking news through tweets.
Sceptics still abound about Twitter - this new fangled service that lets one send messages to "followers" - from profound thoughts about where the world is headed to your choice of breakfast cereal, all on the go.
But more and more people are turning to the new tools, from lawmakers to celebrities to journalists to the man on the street to make millions of faithful followers - and the tribe is growing.
One can publish tweets - those 140-character messages - from a computer or mobile device as the character limit allows tweets to be created and circulated via the SMS platform used by most mobile phones.
While the chattering class may be using it to exchange gossip or trivia, increasingly the social networking tool is emerging as a new information resource to bring stories that one talks about. Suddenly twiddling one's thumb has acquired a whole new dimension.
The Delhi Fire Service has declared the brand new departure terminal 1 D at the capital's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) unsafe.
According to the information accessed by IANS under the Right to Information Act (RTI), Delhi Fire Service chief R.C. Sharma has refused to provide a no-objection certificate (NOC) for terminal 1 D, citing many shortcomings during the two inspections conducted by his team in the past few months.
In his last report on May 13, Sharma cited six shortcomings. He said the ventilation system in the VIP lounge, baggage area and the office area was yet to be completed. Further, he stated, the exit route in the retail area should have a separate staircase or passage.
"In some places sprinklers are hidden in the false ceiling, which should be brought down. Some of the restaurants are under construction and are using wooden material. The wood works need to be painted with fire retardant chemicals. Necessary fire alarms or sprinkler system should be extended to these areas," Sharma noted in his report.
He further said systems at the new departure terminal could not be checked due to passenger movement and asked for arrangements to test the systems whenever possible.
But so far the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), a joint venture between the state-run Airports Authority of India and a consortium led by infrastructure major GMR, has not made any arrangements for the inspection of the systems.
In his report Sharma concluded that "terminal 1 D cannot be considered safe from the safety point of view till safety arrangements are fully completed."
Terminal 1 D, which is spread over 33,000 sq m, has replaced 1 B, the old terminal. It was opened for operations April 19. Kingfisher, Kingfisher Red and IndiGo, Jet Airways, JetLite and Spice Jet are operating from the new terminal, while GoAir, Air India and others are operating from terminal 1 A.
According to the airport officials, around 200 flights operate daily from the new departure terminal, which has been built at a cost of Rs.500 crore ($100 million). The terminal is able to handle 10 million passengers annually and is equipped with 72 check-in counters. It was inaugurated by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
The airport authorities had first invited the Delhi Fire Service officials April 8. At that time, the fire service wrote in its report that fire pumps and the fire control room were yet to be fully operational and that the sprinkler line was not charged with water at many places.
DIAL sent a report to the fire department May 4 stating that measures suggested had been complied with. The fire department again conducted an inspection and highlighted fresh shortcomings.
When asked why necessary clearance was not sought before the new terminal came into operation, DIAL spokesman Arun Arora said the terminal was absolutely safe for operations and for passengers.
"DIAL is very much alive to the required fire safety norms. We have been following all fire safety norms (domestic as well as international) for all equipment and procedures," Arora told IANS.
"All necessary documents have been submitted to the fire department and inspections have been carried out by the Delhi Fire Service officers. All observations and suggestions made by them were carried out by DIAL. The suggestions made by them during their subsequent visit to terminal 1 D are also being carried out," he added.
Arora said to ensure fail-proof fire safety DIAL has taken many initiatives.
"We have deputed 18 well trained firemen who keep patrolling all areas of the terminals - like the check-in area, airline ticketing areas and security holds. More than 50 fire hydrant outlets have been deployed inside and outside the terminal for greater safety," Arora said.
Though DIAL has been running the new terminal without fire safety clearances, the Delhi Fire Service was silent on why no action was being taken against the airport authorities. As per the powers conferred upon the fire department, it can cut electricity and water supplies to a building or even shut it down if the fire safety norms are not met.
The aftermath of devastating cyclone Aila that ravaged large parts of the West Bengal delta May 25 could cause lasting ecological damage to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, experts fear.
Environment experts and wildlife conservationists say the huge displacement caused by the cyclone may force many of the estimated 400,000 people who live among the mangrove forests, the narrow creeks and the wide rivers to enter protected forests, thereby seriously threatening one of the richest but most fragile ecosystems on earth.
"Aila has inundated the entire Sundarbans region and displaced thousands of residents in the islands. They have lost everything in the natural calamity. They are now living under the open sky with their families and children," WWF senior programme officer Subhro Sen told IANS.
Sen, along with his team works extensively in the Mousuni island, located in the western part of the Sundarbans.
"The agricultural lands and all water bodies are now filled with saline water. People who get their livelihood through vegetation, fisheries and cattle farming have landed in deep trouble. Everything has been washed away by the cyclone and the rural economy has virtually collapsed," he said.
According to Sen, the have-nots in the Sundarbans would now start entering the forest territories in search of a livelihood once the flood water recedes from the island region. This will largely disturb the Sundarbans biosphere that harbours rare animals like the estuarine crocodile, fishing cat and Gangetic dolphin.
"It will force marooned residents to depend more on forest products like honey and timber. This apart, people will also go for crab catching, fishing in the creeks and enter the restricted areas," he said, adding: "Lack of livelihood resource could also increase incidents of poaching in Sundarbans as people will be left with few options".
The alluvial archipelago called the Sundarbans, formed by 56 riverine islands, has been declared a World Heritage site by Unesco for its rich biodiversity and is home to the famous Royal Bengal Tiger.
Located in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, it is a vast area covering 4,262 sq km, including a mangrove cover of 2,125 sq km in India alone, and a larger portion in Bangladesh.
"As far as the environment and wildlife are concerned in Sundarbans, we're on the verge of another disaster just due to lack of administrative action and a disaster management plan on the part of the government," social worker Tushar Kanjilal told IANS.
Kanjilal runs a welfare organisation, Tagore Society for Rural Development, in the Sundarbans and has been working on various social and environmental projects in the deltaic zone since 1967.
"If the basic problems of Sundarbans' residents are not addressed properly, the situation will worsen further. This would also affect the environment and wildlife too. Aila is not the last disaster. I am sure there will be many other cyclonic disasters; some of them could be more intense than what we've seen this time," he said.
The Sundarbans delta, formed by the myriad branches of the Ganga, has forest tracts that reach 130 km inland from the coastline. It forms the most effective barrier against tidal surges and tsunami waves known on earth. The flip side is that the area itself is on the frontline of natural disasters.
"As an alternative, we've suggested that the state government and local bodies like panchayat and zilla parishad should encourage people to build elevated structures to save human habitations from any flood-like situation in future," Sen said, adding that the government can also promote saline paddy cultivation in that salt-water belt as a sustainable alternative.