Valentine's Day and Young secular Indians

Young Indians square up to nationalists over Valentine's Day

Jeremy Page in Delh. February 14, 2009.

Young secular Indians are organising their own vigilante groups - some armed with Taekwondo moves, others with pepper spray - to protect unmarried couples from Hindu radicals looking to disrupt Valentine's Day celebrations.

For the first time, several secular groups have organised patrols across the country to combat the Hindu nationalist organisations which they accuse of trying to "Talebanise" India. The secular groups decided to act after television coverage showed activists from the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army) attacking women in a pub in the southern college town of Mangalore last month.

A 15-year-old Hindu girl from a village near the same town commited suicide on Wednesday after being attacked by Hindu radicals for being in the company of a Muslim boy.

In Delhi, a group called the Earth Saviours' Foundation is responding by sending ten teams of five vigilantes - including Taekwondo experts - to patrol the city's parks, markets and other public places. "We're sending a strong message that times have changed and women have equal rights," said Ravi Kalra, the founder of ESF, who is also head of the India Amateur Taekwondo Federation.

"Our teams will have boot polish, and anyone harassing women will have their faces blackened and be handed over to the cops," he told The Times.

The Delhi chapter of the Kashmir-based National Panthers Party is also sending out vigilantes armed with pepper spray. In Chennai - formerly Madras - one of India's leading sexologists says he hopes to attract 6,000 people to a run along the Marina sea front, where police attacked promenading young lovers last year. In Bangalore, a secular political party has organised a fleet of "love vehicles" to patrol areas such as the Cubbon Park which are often frequented by young lovers.

These are rare examples of young, secular Indians organising themselves spontaneously to stand up to the powerful Hindu nationalist movement, which wants to rid India of foreign influences. However, their plans have raised fears of violent clashes with the nationalists, who are rallying votes for their political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of national elections, due by May.

In Delhi, the Hindu nationalist youth group Bajrang Dal has sent letters to all pubs and discos warning them not to host any event promoting "obscenity and nudity". In Mumbai, the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party has told colleges not to allow any Valentine's Day events, and promised to protest against any form of "vulgarity". In Chennai, the Hindu Makkal Katchi party has warned that lovers found in public will be handed over to the police.

In Bangalore, meanwhile, the SRS has called off its plans to target unmarried couples but vowed to carry out its threat elsewhere in the southern state of Karnataka. Pramod Mutalik, the SRS leader, said his group was "protecting Indian culture" after it attacked several young Indian women in a pub in Mangalore last month.

He was arrested, but soon released on bail, prompting criticism from secular Indians of the Karnataka state government, which is run by the BJP.

Mr Mutalik then threatened to force unmarried couples seen in public on Valentine's Day either to get married or to tie "rakhis" - string bracelets - on their wrists to signify they are brother and sister. He was forced to scale back his plans after the federal Home Minister wrote to the local government warning that it would intervene if local police could not maintain law and order.

The decision was partly due to publicity generated by a Facebook group called the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women, which now has more than 30,000 members.

Nisha Susan, a 29-year-old journalist who founded the group, urged women to send pink "chaddis" - panties in Hindi - to the SRS and to celebrate Valentine's Day by going to the pub.

She told The Times that supporters from India, and as far afield as Puerto Rico, had sent more than 1,500 pairs of panties to the SRS.

Tejuswini Chowdhury, the daughter of the Minister for Women, also set up a Facebook group encouraging Indian women to go to the pub, which has attracted some 3,000 members. She had planned to take more than 100 women friends to the same pub in Mangalore that was attacked but was forced to cancel because local authorities could not guarantee their safety.

She told The Times she was now planning to take her friends to a pub in her home city of Hyderabad, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. "This is the first time I've seen people coming together with such passion in their voices," she said. "I hope the trend continues."

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5729126.ece)

New device projects web from fingertips..

MIT's 'Wear Ur World' (WUW) device puts internet literally at your fingertips

SCIENTISTS have developed a computer that lets users project the internet on to objects by waving their fingers in the air.

SCIENTISTS have developed a Minority Report -style computer, where users can project the internet on to objects by waving their fingers in the air.

The device, created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), can turn any surface into a computer touch screen.

Users can take photographs simply by framing an object with their hands or project a digital watch face on to their wrists by drawing a circle in the air with their finger.

The device, known as "Wear Ur World" or WUW, works by cobbling together a web camera, tiny projector and internet-connected smartphone into a device that can be worn like jewellery.

Tiny sensors respond to hand movements, allowing wearers to conjure internet information seemingly from the air.

"You can use this gadget to interact with data on the internet just by selecting which information you want from a screen of options," MIT researcher Patty Maes said.

"Other than letting you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in Minority Report, it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you."

By waving their hands over an airline ticket, it can let users know whether their flight is on time.

It can also recognise books and project reviews or author information from the internet.

The WUW is expected to be commercially marketable by 2011.

(http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25039973-5014239,00.html)

McCain very upset with Obama

Obama spend is generational theft - McCain

Washington. Reuters. February 14, 2009.

SENATOR John McCain said today that President Barack Obama should include Republicans in his plans sooner if he really wants their support after the bitter debate over the $787bn economic stimulus bill.

Sen McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Mr Obama, and other Republicans complained they had been left out of negotiations on the legislation by Democrats who hold majorities in both houses of Congress.

Sen McCain said the Bill was filled with non-emergency spending paid for with borrowed money that future generations will have to pay back.

"I think that the majority of people understand that this was generational theft," Sen McCain said.

The Arizona senator said many other issues coming up will require a bipartisan effort that he said has been lacking so far from Mr Obama and the Democrats.

"I hope they've learned a lesson," he said.

"I hope that they will reverse course, and sit down, negotiate from the beginning, so you're in on the takeoff, so you can be in on the landing."

Sen McCain met Mr Obama two weeks after the November 4 election and agreed that "Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington" to solve urgent challenges.

Mr Obama initially hoped for an overwhelming majority for passage of the stimulus Bill, but the debate quickly dissolved into the traditional argument in which Democrats backed a package more weighted to spending programs and Republicans advocated tax cuts.

Acknowledging scaled-down ambitions for the vote, Mr Obama on Thursday said "I hope they act in a bipartisan fashion, but no matter how they act," the legislation should help the economy.

The stimulus Bill ultimately passed the House of Representatives with no Republican support. It was expected to garner the votes of three Republican moderates in the Senate.

"No one could view this as having a scintilla of bipartisanship," said Sen McCain, who has often annoyed his own Republican colleagues by working with the opposition party.

"The message of the election was, sit down and work together. They obviously are not doing that," he said.

(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25052996-401,00.html)

Cuba's Castro has put on weight.......Recent picture

Reclusive Castro shown looking well

Agence France-Presse. February 14, 2009.

Feeling all white ... a tracksuited Fidel Castro poses with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet / Reuters

AILING former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is pictured standing, decked out in a white Adidas track suit, in new photos released after he met in Cuba with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet yesterday.

The Chilean Government released the pictures after a meeting in Havana between Mr Castro, 82 and still the head of the Cuban Communist Party, and Ms Bachelet.

In them, Mr Castro is shown standing next to Ms Bachelet but not smiling, wearing a track suit with dark trim. He was last photographed publicly in January during a visit with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner.

Ms Bachelet, whose visit to Cuba continues today said Castro was in "very good condition" following their 90-minute meeting.

"I have met with Fidel Castro, he is in very good condition, we had a long conversation for an hour and a half," Ms Bachelet said.

Her three-day visit to Cuba is the first by a Chilean leader in more than three decades.

Ms Bachelet - a doctor by training - said that Mr Castro was "very active" and was lucid. "He knew all the most important details" about a range of topics she said.
"He was very interested in topics concerning Chile, analysing information, statistics and interested in hearing about areas in which we have had success," she said.

Mr Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in July 2006 during a health crisis. Raul Castro, 77, became Cuba's president officially a year ago.

Fidel Castro has not appeared in public for the past two and a half years following major digestive or intestinal surgery.
(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25052999-401,00.html)

Obama to host Stevie Wonder at the WH

US President Barack Obama to host tribute to Motown legend Stevie Wonder

From correspondents in Washington. Agence France-Presse. February 14, 2009.

US President Barack Obama will honour Motown legend and high profile supporter Stevie Wonder later this month, in what will likely be the first major cultural event since he moved into the White House.

President Obama and wife Michelle will hold a concert in the ornate East Room of the presidential mansion in honour of singer-songwriter, who is being awarded the second annual Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement by the US Library of Congress.

The White House said the February 25 event will be recorded for broadcast the next day by US PBS public television as part of celebrations for African American History month.

Multi Grammy-award winning Wonder was a frequent presence at President Obama's campaign rallies in the 2008 election campaign, and performed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and inaugural festivities in Washington.

Obama often danced along to the Wonder hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours after he had wound up his campaign speeches.
(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25053434-1702,00.html)

Does Jacko suffer from flesh-eating bacteria?

Michael Jackson has a 'flesh-eating superbug'

From BANG Showbiz. NEWS.com.au. February 13, 2009.

Superbug ... Michael Jackson is rumoured to have picked up a disfiguring infection while having plastic surgery / AP

• Michael Jackson rumoured to have superbug
• "It could turn into a flesh-eating disease

THE latest Michael Jackson rumour to hit the tabloids has the star fighting off a potentially "flesh-eating" superbug.

The 50-year-old singer is said to have contracted the skin infection, which is resistant to traditional antibiotics, while having surgery to reconstruct his nose.

"The infection has spread throughout his face and body and is being aggressively treated by doctors," Britain's The Sun quoted a source as saying.

"There's a chance it could turn into a flesh-eating disorder where it begins to kill off his skin, so he’s being very carefully monitored."

Jackson is reportedly receiving treatment for the bug via an intravenous drip and was pictured leaving an LA clinic with inflamed and blotchy skin partly concealed beneath a surgical mask.
"It is possible that Mr Jackson has a staph infection," celebrity plastic surgeon Dr Anthony Youn said.

"In some worse cases surgeons will have to remove the infected tissue if it dies - leaving the patient needing major reconstructive surgery. It is particularly worrying if it’s on the face.”

In December, author and celebrity commentator Ian Halperin claimed Jackson had a potentially fatal lung disease.

However the singer’s spokesman dismissed the claims.

"Mr Jackson is in fine health and finalising negotiations with a major entertainment company and television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances," he said.
(http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,25048311-7484,00.html)