Palash Speaks

SEZ Act not justified, says eco activist
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
British queen named fashion icon by Vogue magazine
Queen Elizabeth II of Britain has been named one of the 50 'most glamorous women' in the world by Vogue magazine, alongside big names in fashion such as Kate Moss and Claudia Schiffer.
Mangroves are best defence against cyclones: researcher
Mangroves are a natural defence against cyclones and would have helped prevent many of the deaths in the 1999 super cyclone besides having several economic uses as well, says a Delhi University researcher urging that such forests be re-established.
Thousands of fish found dead in Yamuna
Thousands of fish were found dead in the Yamuna river Monday morning, creating a near panic among fishermen and those living close to the river banks.

Microsoft signs $500-mn IPTV deal with Reliance
Microsoft has entered into a $500-million (Rs.19.7 billion) pact here Monday with Reliance Anil D. Ambani Group (RADAG) to launch Internet protocol television (IPTV) and allied services in India.
Microsoft, Reliance to offer Internet TV in India
Microsoft has announced a tie-up with Reliance Anil D. Ambani Group (RADAG) here Monday to launch Internet protocol television (IPTV) and allied services in India.

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act of 2005 has no justification, as developed countries such as the US and Japan achieved growth without resorting to the growth of SEZs, environmental campaigner Vandana Shiva said here Monday.
'There is no justification for the SEZ Act. Western European countries, the US, Japan and many other developing countries achieved growth without such a draconian, thoughtless and pro-corporate-capital legislation,' Shiva said.
'In China, which is considered to have unleashed growth, land is not transferred to corporates. It continues to vest in the state and the total number of such SEZs is only six,' she pointed out.
Shiva was addressing a gathering of hundreds of farmers who gathered at the India Gate lawns in the heart of the capital Monday to protest acquisition of land by force.
'The SEZ Act is anti-peasantry, anti-rural poor, anti-labour and anti- environment. It will also be a huge drain on the public exchequer,' Shiva said, adding that India has reached its current state of economic growth without help from SEZs.
She also said the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 should be amended in such a way that it ensures no land is acquired by the government for private companies.
'It should serve a public purpose, which should be defined to mean those purposes by which government will bring into effect the directive principles of state policy under the constitution,' said Shiva.
On the recent national rehabilitation and resettlement (R and amp;R) policy announced by the government, Shiva stated: 'The R and amp;R policy should not become an underhand way to keep the outmoded act of Land Acquisition Act of 1894 alive and give the SEZ new lease of life through the assurance that 70 percent of the total land required will have to be purchased by the company and 30 percent can be forcibly acquired for private projects by the government.'
According to the R and amp;R Policy, farmers can be made stakeholders in the company that comes up in their land if the company is listed on the bourses. On this Shiva said: 'We do not want the fate of the farmers to depend on unstable markets but on stable lands.'
'The illegal buying of agricultural land in India by foreign investors must be banned immediately. The government should issue a white paper on the land grab by foreign investors,' she demanded.
Markets end in deep red amid profit booking
The Indian stock markets closed in the negative due to profit booking in all sectors. The broader indexes held on to their gains and mid-cap and small-cap indexes outperformed the benchmark Sensex.
The benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) shut shop at 19,636 points, down by 340.30 points or 1.70 percent.
The broader S and amp;P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed at 5,847 points, down by 85.10 points or 1.43 percent.
The BSE mid-cap index was up 1 percent and BSE small-cap index was up 1.4 percent.
Cues from Asia were not very encouraging as most of the Asian markets closing in the red.
The markets remained choppy the entire day on the back of weak Asian indices in current trades. However, gains in the US markets, surging FII investments and bullish trend helped market to add gains.
However, rise in oil prices put some pressure on investor sentiments. US indices saw a late-session rally to finish modestly higher on Friday. While the Dow Jones moved up by 27 points at 13595, the Nasdaq moved up by 16 points to close at 2810.
Crude oil prices advanced further, with the Nymex light crude oil for Dec delivery gaining by $2.44 cents to close at $95.93 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December delivery gained $14.80 to settle at $808.50 an ounce.
Among the top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, adding 5.23 percent at Rs.941.80, Tata Power scaled up by 5.02 percent at Rs.1,369.85 and Hindustan Petroleum moved up by 2.95 percent at Rs.246.35.
Among the top losers on the Sensex were ONGC, which plunged 4.93 percent at Rs.1,298.85, ICICI Bank down 4.77 percent at Rs.1,269.85 and L and amp;T down by 3.97 percent at Rs.4,283.20.

White Australia, Anti-Chinese racism & Climate Genocide
Dr Gideon Polya, MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality ---

White Australia suffers from a condition called "politically correct racism (PC racism) which means that it publicly declares its detestation of racism but is nevertheless complicit in race-specific crimes against people of other ethnicities (e.g. Indigenous Iraqis, Afghans and Australian Aboriginals).
China is one of Australia's biggest trading partners and is now one of Australia's "friends" (notwithstanding 2 centuries of anti-Chinese Australian actions including 19th century massacres of Chinese gold miners and support for British violence in China; pig iron sales to Japan when it was butchering the Chinese in their millions in the 1930s; the White Australia Policy that excluded Chinese from Australia; and its support of US non-recognition of "Communist China" for a quarter of a century).
Australia has now adopted a position of "greenhouse racism" in relation to the Chinese that in 2007 amounts to a repetition of the racist Australian Government's position in 1947 that is summarized in its notorious, racist assertion: "Two Wongs do not make White".
White Australia has an horrendous record of violent racism and involvement in large-scale racist genocide that continues today, as summarized below in rough chronological order:
After the invasion in 1788 the Indigenous Aboriginal population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century due to disease, dispossession and violence. The last massacres of Indigenous Australians occurred in the 1920s.
The Aboriginal Genocide continued in the 20th century due to enforced removal of children from their mothers (0.1 million children taken in the Stolen Generations), abusive conditions (enforced slave labour often for pocket money or for unhealthy food rations) and gross denial of basic human rights.
The Aboriginal Genocide continues today through deprivation and shocking living conditions (9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably each year out of a population of 0.5 million; 90,000 Indigenous Australians have died in the 11 years of the Bush-ite Coalition Government; the Indigenous infant mortality rate is over 3 times that for White Australia; the "annual death rate" is 2.2% for Indigenous Australians and 2.4% for Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory as compared to 2.5% for Australian sheep and 0.4% (what it should be ).
White Australia continues to be actively linked to British colonialism (1.5 billion Indigenous Indian excess deaths in 2 centuries of British rule in India; 0.7 billion post-1950 excess deaths in countries partially or completely occupied by Britain as a major occupier in the post-war era; Australian involvement in post-war British colonial wars e.g. in Malaya, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan).
White Australia continues to be linked to post-war American imperialism (post-war excess deaths in US Asian Wars total 22 million; 82 million 1950-2005 excess deaths in countries partially or completely occupied by America as a major occupier in the post-war era).
White Australia is actively involved in the Bush Wars against Iraq and Afghanistan and is diplomatically and materially supportive of Apartheid Israel's war criminal violence, occupation and human rights abuses against its neighbors (the excess deaths in the Bush I plus Bush II Asian Wars involving the violent US or US surrogate occupation and devastation of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan now total 8 million; post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories now total 0.3 million, 2.0 million and 3..2 million, respectively) (for details of the above see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950": http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ).
The fundamental causes of the horrendous deaths in the Aboriginal Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide are abusive control and failure to deliver life-sustaining requisites to subject Indigenous people. Thus Indigenous Australians are horribly deprived and their medical services are funded at about half of what they should be. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the "annual total per capita medical expenditure" permitted in Occupied Iraq by the US Coalition is $135 (2004) as compared to $19 (Occupied Afghanistan), $2,560 (UK), $3,123 (Australia) and $6,096 (the US) (see "United State Terrorism. 8 million deaths & media holocaust denial": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17139/42/ ).
However White Australia is involved in what must be described as Climate Genocide. 16 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and disease; about 3.7 billion people are seriously malnourished; oil and grain prices are soaring. White Australia and Bush America are among the world's worst greenhouse gas polluters on a per capita basis (the US is the worst greenhouse polluter on an absolute basis) and neither will sign Kyoto nor constrain greenhouse gas pollution. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter.
The "annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 [carbon dioxide] pollution" in tonnes CO2/person is 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia's coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh) (see: "War on Terra" on MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15671/42/ ).
Now both the Major Parties in Australia

Calls for fight for 'real democracy' in Pakistan amid War against Terroism
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
The British government was expected Monday to review future aid to Pakistan following the declaration of a state of emergency by President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday he was determined to quit as army chief and become a civilian president, amid mounting pressure from the United States to end emergency rule and return to democracy.

Pakistan's sacked chief justice Monday appealed to citizens, especially lawyers, to continue their struggle against the imposition of emergency and fight for 'real democracy' in the country.Lawyers in different cities of Pakistan Monday staged violent protests against the imposition of emergency and removal of judges, while the Karachi stock exchange plummeted amid rumours that President Pervez Musharraf had been put under house arrest.
More worrisome for Musharraf was the 'advice' reportedly tendered by a group of European envoys for the president to leave the country due to the intensely volatile situation caused by the emergency declaration.The suggestion came as the president met some 80 envoys from across the globe to explain his reasons for imposing the emergency.Taliban militants briefly captured a third district in western Farah province, officials said Monday, raising concerns that the militants were able to extend their writ despite the presence of tens of thousands of foreign military forces.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Monday asserted he was in full control, amidst reports of his house arrest that triggered a stock market crash.
'It's a joke of the highest order,' Musharraf told a foreign reporter, even as lawyers across the country staged violent protests across the country against the emergency declared Saturday.

Over the last five years, much of the command, control and inspiration for attack planning in the UK has derived from Al Qaeda's remaining core leadership in the tribal areas of Pakistan, according to the head of Britain's intelligence service MI5.In a rare speech to the Society of Editors' annual conference in Manchester Monday titled 'Intelligence counter terrorism and trust', Jonathan Evans, the MI5 chief, said that often the planning used young British citizens to mount the actual attack.The earlier MI5 chief, Eliza Manningham-Buller, had pointed out last year that the service had identified 1600 individuals who it believed posed a direct threat to national security and public safety. The number, Evans disclosed, had now risen to 2000.He said: 'As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country. They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism.
'This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity...Over the last five years much of the command, control and inspiration for attack planning in the UK has derived from Al Qaeda's remaining core leadership in the tribal areas of Pakistan - often using young British citizens to mount the actual attack'.Evans singled out Al Qaeda and its associated groups as the 'main national security threat' faced by Britain. Al Qaeda, he said, was conducting a deliberate campaign against Britain.
The envoys reminded the president a number of countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, had condemned the draconian step and called for the immediate restoration of civilian rule in Pakistan.
'When truth is not available rumours do take place,' Adnan Rehmat, the country director for Internews agency, told IANS while commenting on rumours that Musharraf had been arrested and army vice chief General Ashfaq Kiani had taken over.
The rumour had a huge impact on Pakistan's major stock index, which plunged Monday afternoon as a result. Investors in the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) dumped shares, pulling the KSE-100 index down by 4.7 percent to 13,265.
However, Maj. Gen. Arshad Waheed, a spokesman for Inter-Services Public Relations, was quick to dispel the rumour, saying: 'Some unscrupulous elements are spreading these rumours that are baseless and unwarranted.'
In the capital, there was an undeclared curfew around the Supreme Court building, parliament house, the presidency, the prime minister's secretariat and the diplomatic enclave where several foreign missions are located.
The entire leadership of the opposition parties, except for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) remained under house arrest or were sent to different jails. PPP chief Benazir Bhutto, who had been in power-sharing talks with Musharraf, was conspicuous by her silence.
Unconfirmed reports said she was in Islamabad and met with Musharraf.
About 200 lawyers tried to stage a protest near the Supreme Court building but were baton-charged and many of them were arrested. Hundreds of lawyers are already under house arrest or detained in police stations. They include sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and about 60 other judges of the Supreme Court and the four high courts.
They had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) that was promulgated along with the emergency declaration.
Rights activists, prominent among them Pakistan Human Rights Commission chief Asma Jehangir, have also been detained.
Lahore saw the most violent protests by lawyers Monday, where police baton-charged their rally and also fired tear-gas shells. Reports said that many of the lawyers were arrested.
Some of the lawyers succeeded in getting into the Lahore High Court building and threw flower petals on rooms of the judges who have not taken oath under the PCO.
In Karachi, no lawyer was allowed to enter the Sindh High Court building while several leading lawyers including the president of the Sindh Bar Association were arrested. Those arrested included Sindh chief justice Sabihuddin Ahmed's son, who refused to take oath under PCO.
Reports said Ahmed tried to leave his house but the police prevented him from doing so. He, however, said in a statement that he was still chief justice of the Sindh High Court and all steps being taken under the garb of emergency were illegal.
'Police beat us ruthlessly when we came to the Sindh High Court building in the morning and arrested a few dozen of our colleagues,' lawyer Akhtar Hussain said.
Reports from other major cities like Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Faisalabad said that lawyers protested against the emergency and demanded immediate restoration of all judges of the Supreme Court and high courts.
Because of complete ban on electronic media, citizens were depending on hearsay and SMS services. Mobile telephone companies offering news updates also remained closed without giving any reason.
'We have closed our news service for the time being,' a Mobilink customer services representative told IANS while similar statements were made by other cellular companies.
Pakistani media miss first ODI in Guwahati
A total of 46 Pakistani journalists have been given media accreditation for the ongoing India-Pakistan cricket series but none have landed here so far, perhaps due to the state of emergency imposed in that country.
Few buyers in Pakistan for Mohali ODI tickets
Blame it on visa restrictions, emergency in Pakistan or the high price tag, but more than 100 of the 250 tickets for the India-Pakistan match here sent to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PC for sale among cricket fans there have remained unsold.
India beat Pakistan by five wickets, take 1-0 lead
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh propelled India to an emphatic five-wicket victory over Pakistan to take a lead in the first One-Day International (ODI) at the Nehru Stadium in Guahati!
Musharraf, Aziz speak at cross-purposes on elections
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Monday spoke at cross-purposes on when the country would go to the polls, reinforcing the widely held view that elections would not be conducted in January as originally scheduled.
Addressing envoys from some 80 nations, including from the US and Britain, Musharraf said that in view of the emergency he declared Saturday, parliament's tenure could be extended for one year but he would ensure that elections were held as soon as possible.
As for the emergency itself, the president said this would be lifted as soon as the situation in the country normalises - but did not set a timeline.
Foreign Secretary Riaz M. Khan and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.
DPA adds: General elections were expected to be held as scheduled next January, Aziz said Monday.
'So far there is no change in the schedule,' Aziz told reporters here.
The national assembly is being convened to meet in Islamabad Wednesday afternoon, he was cited as saying by private Network News International.
The statement came a day after Aziz said the government might postpone the polls.
'There could be some timing difference on the election schedule but we have not decided yet,' Aziz had told reporters Sunday.
'We are still deliberating. In an emergency the parliament could give itself one year extension,' he had added.
Musharraf, who took over in a bloodless military coup in 1999, partially suspended the country's constitution Saturday, curtailed civil rights and replaced top members of the judiciary who he believed would rule against his re-election Oct 6.
The move has been strongly criticised by the international community, which has urged him to restore democracy and hold fair and free elections as scheduled.
Pakistan's attorney general also said the national and provincial assemblies will be dissolved Nov 15.
The elections will be held within three months of the dissolution, he was cited as saying by Geo news channel.
Dutch aid to Pakistan suspended
Dutch Minister for Development and Cooperation Bert Koenders announced Monday a temporary halt to all financial assistance to Pakistan.

Fear and brutality inside the fiefdom of Islamist shock jock
Gen Musharraf used the violent turmoil in the Swat valley as a
reason for a state of emergency. Declan Walsh reports from Iman
Dheri, on the frontline in Pakistan's war on Islamist extremism
Monday November 5, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian .co.uk/pakistan/ Story/0,, 2205386,00. html
The tourist brochures call it the Switzerland of south Asia - a
mountain idyll of rushing turquoise rivers, snow-dusted peaks and
Pakistan's sole ski piste.
But now the Swat valley in northern Pakistan has a dark new
reputation, as the frontline in the country's faltering war on
Islamist extremism.
On Saturday General Pervez Musharraf cited surging violence in Swat -
including suicide bombings, beheadings and kidnappings - as a
justification for the imposition of emergency rule. His security
forces are battling an Islamist militia led by Maulana Fazlullah, a
radical cleric with a flair for theatrics who wants to turn Swat
into a mini Islamic fiefdom. The fight has been short but brutal,
leaving hundreds dead.
Government soldiers have rained shellfire on militant positions and
blasted hilltop bunkers with helicopter gunships. The militants have
captured territory and humiliated soldiers. A suicide fireball
engulfed a police truck, killing 21, while four security officials
were beheaded, and their remains paraded through a village
as "American spies".
The rebellion is Pakistan's first big conflict with Islamists
outside the tribal belt and underscores General Musharraf's failure
to rein in extremists despite the deployment of 100,000 troops and
billions of pounds in western, mostly American, aid.
On Saturday militants raised a jihadist flag over a police station
and released 48 government soldiers who had apparently surrendered
without a fight. "We only want Islamic law but the government will
not allow us," a militant spokesman, Sirajuddin, told the Guardian a
few days earlier at their headquarters in Imam Dheri, as a gunship
buzzed overhead. "So the only way is jihad."
"Swat is a real shock," said Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defence
analyst. "This is a tourist centre that used to be linked to the
rest of Pakistan. If it can happen there, it can spread to other
areas."
The rise of Fazlullah speaks volumes about why Pakistan is getting a
reputation as one of the world's most volatile countries. Fazlullah,
a 30-something former madrasa student, became popular as an Islamist
shock jock. Using an FM radio station broadcasting across the Swat
Valley, the cleric railed against western "evils" such as polio
vaccinations - a ploy to render Muslims impotent, he claimed - and
female education.
Helpless
Then he deployed his "Shaheen" fighters to the streets of Swat,
where they set fire to shops selling western music and Indian films,
thrashed barbers who shaved men's beards and drilled holes into a
1,300-year-old Buddhist carving. Local authorities appeared helpless
to stop the fighters, even when they took to directing traffic in
the main town, Mingora. Now half a dozen girls' schools have closed,
and a drive sponsored by the World Health Organisation to inoculate
3,500 children against polio has been suspended.
During a lull in fighting last week the Guardian slipped into
Fazlullah's newly formed "Islamic emirate" - a string of 59 hamlets
along the western bank of the river Swat. Lanky young fighters with
shoulder-length hair, curly beards and AK-47s manned makeshift
checkpoints along the main road.
Behind a maze of apricot orchards and fields was Imam Dheri, the
riverside village where Fazlullah launched his burgeoning empire.
Across the river in Mingora, Frontier Corps soldiers watched warily
from hilltop bunkers.
Fazlullah was absent but Sirajuddin gave a quick tour of nearby
houses pockmarked by the shelling. "You see, this is what our
government is doing," he said. The Islamists would keep fighting
until sharia law was imposed on Swat. "The political parties cannot
bring an Islamic system. This is not just our demand, it is the
demand of the nation."
Fazlullah's vigilantism has been helped by the ambivalence of local
and provincial authorities. Two weeks ago, just before the military
operation, the top local administrator was replaced after
accusations that he secretly helped the militants. The religious
parties that rule North-West Frontier province have been reluctant
to confront him. "Fazlullah is a sincere and dedicated leader. He
just suffers from bad advice," said Rahat Hussain, a senator of the
Jamaat Ulema Islami, a party Gen Musharraf helped to bring to power
in 2002.
Fazlullah's drive to recruit Shaheen fighters - now estimated at
4,500 - was helped by unemployment and the government's failure to
address historical grievances. Many Swat residents have never been
happy with the British-style Pakistani justice system which they
consider slow, expensive and corrupt, and prefer sharia law.
Before the fighting thousands flocked to Fazlullah's Friday sermons
in Imam Dheri. But the extent of his support is difficult to gauge.
The fighting has forced hundreds of families to flee their homes.
One refugee from Matta, a Fazlullah stronghold, estimated that only
25% of people supported him. "But due to fear, you cannot say a word
against him," said the man, who spoke anonymously.
Revolt
The Swat revolt also has al-Qaida links. Persistent reports of
fighters from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Waziristan among his ranks
suggest the battle may be part of a wider struggle by extremist
forces to destabilise northern Pakistan. The outcome has
implications for Nato forces in Afghanistan as well as for the wider
fight against global militancy. Islamists convicted of plotting to
blow up British nightclubs and shopping centres last April allegedly
received explosives training at a mountain camp close to Swat.
Fazlullah's lieutenants deny outsiders are involved. "We have nobody
from outside our own villages - absolutely no foreigners," said
Maulana Muhammad Rahim.
Across the valley in Mingora, the hotels are empty and the ski slope
is closed. "Normally this is the honeymoon season," said Zahid Khan,
head of the local hoteliers association. "But why would anyone want
to come here now?"

Pak major

Go Ahead, Start WW III
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
US President George W. Bush, facing Turkish threats of a military offensive in Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels, will assure Turkey's prime minister on Monday he is committed to helping to combat the militants.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday in voicing hope they could reach a peace agreement before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.
The radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction said Monday it was prepared to stop its near-daily rocket attacks against Israel, if that country ended its military operations in the Palestinian areas.
'We are ready to stop the rockets as a general national interest and as part of a comprehensive agreement by all the factions and when Israel stops its aggressions against the Palestinians,' said Abu Hamza, a spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's armed wing.
Abu Hamza added that his remarks were in response to an offer presented by a Palestinian faction. He declined to name the faction.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a leader in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, said Sunday that Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling Gaza, was seeking a truce with Israel in exchange for a halt in its military operations in the Strip.
Israel has in the past rejected truce offers that demanded a halt to its military operations in the West Bank as well, arguing its nightly raids there have foiled scores of suicide bombings in the past years.
Israel declared Gaza 'hostile territory' in September and tightened its closure of the Strip over the ongoing, near-daily rocket attacks, most of which are carried out by the Islamic Jihad.

Israel of America? America of Israel?!
U.S. Government and Labor Aid to Israel
Presented by Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys at the International Panel to Launch Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli War Crimes, NYC, August 30, 2006
--------------
Israel's crimes are possible only due to the U.S. aid for Israel. Here are the essential facts:
Since 1948, the U.S. government -- with full bipartisan support -- has provided Israel with at least $90 billion - which, if adjusted for inflation and interest, comes to $247 billion.
For more than thirty years, Israel has been the top recipient of U.S. government foreign aid, and in the past ten years alone, the U.S. has given Israel more than $17 billion in military aid.
As a result, U.S. weapons make up the bulk of Israel's arsenal. These include:
*364 combat aircraft, including F-16s, F-15s and A-4s.
*261 helicopters, including Cobras, Apaches, Black Hawks and Sea Stallions.
*More than 700 M-60 tanks.
*More than 6000 APCs.
*350 155mm artillery pieces.
*An unknown quantity of ordnance, including cluster bombs.
And this does not include the nuclear weapons provided to Israel by the U.S. and Britain.
In addition, Israel receives huge amounts of aid from private sources - including U.S. labor unions.
State employee retirement plans and union pension funds have as much as $5 billion invested in State of Israel Bonds.
So it's not surprising that in April 2002, while Israel butchered hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Jenin, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney spoke at a "National Solidarity Rally for Israel."
Or that the American Federation of Teachers has specifically supported Israel's attack on Lebanon. U.S. Labor Against the War, a major affiliate of United for Peace and Justice, remains silent.
It's not that the leadership of these labor organizations is unfamiliar with the realities of Zionism. Rather, their support for, and/or silence about, Israeli apartheid reflects their overall alignment with the Democratic Party and U.S. empire.
Fortunately, many labor bodies around the world have responded to Israel's recent attacks by standing with the Palestinian and Lebanese people.
These include the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the General Union of Oil Employees in Iraq, and major British trade unions. Even before the current escalation, several labor bodies in Britain, Canada and elsewhere called for divestment from Israel.
New York City Labor Against the War, which was founded in the days following 9/11, stands with these international labor bodies.
After top U.S. labor officials vocally supported Israel during the Jenin massacre, NYCLAW endorsed Palestinian self-defense, statehood and the Right of Return throughout historic Palestine; picketed the Israeli consul's speech at the AFL-CIO Executive Council; and hosted a forum for visiting Palestinian trade unionists.
Together with Al-Awda New York, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, NYCLAW is a cosponsor of Labor for Palestine .
And on August 11, we issued a statement
arguing the labor and the antiwar movement must see the wars in Lebanon and
Palestine as inseparable from U.S. wars of empire throughout the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
THE WISDOM FUND
http://www.twf. org
Antiwar.com
November 3, 2007
Go Ahead, Start WW III
by Gordon Prather
A couple of weeks ago, Russian President Putin made a historic visit to Iran, nominally to attend a summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran.
The summit, itself, resulted in a number of "milestone" agreements, including one prohibiting other countries (such as the United States) from using "in any circumstances" territory or facilities of any Caspian Sea littoral state (such as Azerbaijan) for "use of force or aggression" against another (such as Iran).
And if that message wasnt clear enough, Putin also met privately with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, declaring afterwards in a joint press conference that "Iran is an important regional and global power."
Putin also took the opportunity to tell the world that he had seen no "evidence" Director-General ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency hasnt even found an "indication" that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Therefore, Russia would go ahead and complete the IAEA Safeguarded nuclear power plant at Bushehr.
Talk about pinning the tail on Bushs donkey with a nail-gun.
But, protested Bush, who had just been told by Putin that he wouldnt even be allowed to launch a "surgical" attack much less another war of aggression against Iran from our "temporary" air base in Azerbaijan,
"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel."
(Thats a lie, of course. Ahmadinejad has never made such an announcement. )
As Bush must know, even if Ahmadinejad wanted to merely effect regime change in Israel much less destroy the country he couldnt. Irans President is not even in time of war commander-in- chief of the Iranian armed forces. Or even of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Condi-baby has just designated to be somehow involved in "nuclear proliferation. "
Of course, in time of wars declared by our Congress, our President is the commander-in- chief of our armed forces. And Bush believes or acts as if he believes our Congress has declared war on anyone Bush "determines" to be a terrorist or on any state Bush "determines" to be a supporter of terrorists.
So, quoth Bush,
"I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (the Iranians) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
Its frequently difficult sometimes impossible to make sense of Bushs pronouncements.
But apparently, Bush recently told Russian President Putin that World War III could result not because Iran allegedly has nukes with which to allegedly attack Israel, or not because Iran has the capability of making the fissile material absolutely necessary for making nukes with which to allegedly attack Israel, or not even because Iran allegedly wants to make nukes with which to allegedly attack Israel.
Taking Bush literally, all it will take for the Israelis or the United States to attack Iran, risking WWIII with the United States and Israel on one side and Russia and China on the other is some indication that some Iranians know how to make a nuke [.pdf].
Now, Putin has frequently expressed his opposition to the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons. But, Putin has repeatedly expressed his support for the "inalienable right" (guaranteed by the NPT) to the use of atomic energy by the Iranians, for peaceful purposes, to be verified by the IAEA.
The Israelis on the other hand have repeatedly expressed their outrageous view that the capability of enriching the Uranium-235 content of large amounts of natural uranium to any level is tantamount to having the capability to make a nuclear weapon.
Are they serious?
Well, back in 1981 Israel "took out" Osiraq, a French-built IAEA-safeguarded research reactor, apparently because they had concluded that Saddam Hussein expected Osiraq in lieu of the Tooth Fairy to miraculously leave a few nuclear weapons under his pillow.
Since 1991, thanks to the IAEA, the whole world has known that Saddam began his quest for nuclear weapons as a direct result of the Israeli raid on his IAEA Safeguarded research reactor.
Here are excerpts from UN Security Council Resolution 487 condemning the Israeli pre-emptive strike.
"Fully aware of the fact that Iraq has been a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since it came into force in 1970, that, in accordance with that treaty, Iraq has accepted IAEA safeguards on all its nuclear activities, and that the agency has testified that these safeguards have been satisfactorily applied to date;
"Strongly condemns the military attack by Israel in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct;
"Calls upon Israel to refrain in the future from any such acts or threats thereof;
"Further considers that the said attack constitutes a serious threat to the entire IAEA safeguards regime, which is the foundation of the non-proliferation treaty."
Now, Bush the Younger has apparently adopted the equally idiotic and outrageously inflammatory view of the Israelis about Irans IAEA Safeguarded programs.
Nevertheless, it was something of a surprise when Zogby Americas latest poll of likely voters revealed that 52 percent "would support a US military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon."
Worse still, according to Zogby, 53 percent believe it is "likely" that the United States will be "involved" in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election.
Its too bad Zogby didnt phrase the first question this way;
"Given that the IAEA continues to verify that Iran is engaged in the pursuit of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, as is their "inalienable right" as a signatory to the NPT;
o Would you support a US or Israeli strike in violation of the UN Charter against Irans IAEA Safeguarded nuclear facilities, including the nuclear power plant nearing completion by the Russians at Bushehr?
o Would you support such a strike even if it resulted in World War III, with US-Israel on one side, and Russia-China- Islam on the other?"
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"CONNECT THE DOTS" at
http://www.twf. org/News/ Y2007/1026- Sanctions. html
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November 4, 2007
The New York Times
Noun + Verb + 9/11 + Iran = Democrats Defeat?
By Frank Rich
WHEN President Bush started making noises about World War III, he only confirmed what has been a Democratic article of faith all year: Between now and Election Day he and Dick Cheney, cheered on by the mob of neocon dead-enders, are going to bomb Iran.
But what happens if President Bush does not bomb Iran? That is good news for the world, but potentially terrible news for the Democrats. If we do go to war in Iran, the election will indeed be a referendum on the results, which the Republican Party will own no matter whom it nominates for president. But if we dont, the Democratic standard-bearer will have to take a clear stand on the defining issue of the race. As we saw once again at Tuesday nights debate, the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, does not have one.
The reason so many Democrats believe war with Iran is inevitable, of course, is that the administration is so flagrantly rerunning the sales campaign that gave us Iraq. The same old scare tactic a Middle East Hitler plotting a nuclear holocaust has been recycled with a fresh arsenal of hyped, loosey-goosey intelligence and outright falsehoods that are sometimes regurgitated without corroboration by the press.
Mr. Bush has gone so far as to accuse Iran of shipping arms to its Sunni antagonists in the Taliban, a stretch Newsweek finally slapped down last week. Back in the reality-based community, it is Mr. Bush who has most conspicuously enabled the Talibans resurgence by dropping the ball as it regrouped in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Administration policy also opened the door to Irans lethal involvement in Iraq. The Iraqi unity government that our troops are dying to prop up has more allies in its Shiite counterpart in Tehran than it does in Washington.
Yet 2002 history may not literally repeat itself. Mr. Cheney doesnt necessarily rule in the post-Rumsfeld second Bush term. There are saner military minds afoot now: the defense secretary Robert Gates, the Joint Chiefs chairman Mike Mullen, the Central Command chief William Fallon. They know that a clean, surgical military strike at Iran could precipitate even more blowback than our cakewalk in Iraq. The Economist tallied up the risks of a potential Shock and Awe II this summer: Iran could fire hundreds of missiles at Israel, attack American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, organize terrorist attacks in the West or choke off tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the worlds oil windpipe.
Then theres the really bad news. Much as Iraq distracted America from the war against Al Qaeda, so a strike on Iran could ignite Pakistan, Al Qaedas thriving base and the actual central front of the war on terror. As Joe Biden said Tuesday night, if we attack Iran to stop it from obtaining a few kilograms of highly enriched uranium, we risk facilitating the fall of the teetering Musharraf government and the unleashing of Pakistans already good-to-go nuclear arsenal on Israel and India.
A full-scale regional war, chaos in the oil market, an overstretched American military pushed past the brink all to take down a little thug like Ahmadinejad (who isnt even Irans primary leader) and a state, however truculent, whose defense budget is less than 1 percent of Americas? Call me a Pollyanna, but I dont think even the Bush administration can be this crazy.
Yet there is nonetheless a method to all the mad threats of war coming out of the White House. While the saber- rattling is reckless as foreign policy, its a proven winner as election-year Republican campaign strategy. The real point may be less to intimidate Iranians than to frighten Americans. Fear, the only remaining card this administration still knows how to play, may once more give a seemingly spent G.O.P. a crack at the White House in 2008.
Whatever happens in or to Iran, the American public will be carpet-bombed by apocalyptic propaganda for the 12 months to come. Mr. Bush has nothing to lose by once again using the specter of war to pillory the Democrats as soft on national security. The question for the Democrats is whether theyll walk once more into this trap.
Youd think the same tired tactics wouldnt work again after Iraq, a debacle now soundly rejected by a lopsided majority of voters. But even a lame-duck president can effectively wield the power of the bully pulpit. From Mr. Bushs surge speech in January to Gen. David Petraeuss Congressional testimony in September, the pivot toward Iran has been relentless.
Reinforcements are arriving daily. Dan Senor, the former flack for L. Paul Bremer in Baghdad, fronted a recent Fox News special, Iran: The Ticking Bomb, a perfect accompaniment to the Rudy Giuliani campaign that is ubiquitous on that Murdoch channel. The former Bush flack Ari Fleischer is a founder of Freedoms Watch, a neocon fat-cat fund that has been spending $15 million for ads supporting the surge and is poised to up the ante for Iran war fever.
There are signs that the steady invocation of new mushroom clouds is already having an impact as it did in 2002 and 2003. A Zogby poll last month found that a majority of Americans (52 percent) now supports a pre-emptive strike on Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
In 2002 Senators Clinton, Biden, John Kerry, John Edwards and Chris Dodd all looked over their shoulders at such polls. They and the partys Congressional leaders, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt, voted for the Iraq war resolution out of the cynical calculation that it would inoculate them against charges of wussiness. Sure, they had their caveats at the time. They talked about wanting to give diplomacy the best possible opportunity (as Mr. Gephardt put it then). In her Oct. 10, 2002, speech of support for the Iraq resolution on the Senate floor, Mrs. Clinton hedged by saying, A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war.
We know how smart this strategic positioning turned out to be. Weeks later the Democrats lost the Senate.
This time around, with the exception of Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidates seem to be saying what they really believe rather than trying to play both sides against the middle. Only Mrs. Clinton voted for this falls nonbinding Kyl-Lieberman Senate resolution, designed by its hawk authors to validate Mr. Bushs Iran policy. The House isnt even going to bring up this malevolent bill because, as Nancy Pelosi has said, there has never been a declaration by a Congress before in our history that declared a piece of a countrys army to be a terrorist organization.
In 2002, the Iraq war resolution passed by 77 to 23. In 2007, Kyl-Lieberman passed by 76 to 22. No sooner did Mrs. Clinton cast her vote than she started taking heat in Iowa. Her response was to blur her stand. She abruptly signed on as the sole co- sponsor of a six-month-old (and languishing) bill introduced by the Virginia Democrat Jim Webb forbidding money for military operations in Iran without Congressional approval.
In Tuesdays debate Mrs. Clinton tried to play down her vote for Kyl-Lieberman again by incessantly repeating her belief in vigorous diplomacy as well as the same sound bite she used after her Iraq vote five years ago. I am not in favor of this rush for war, she said, but Im also not in favor of doing nothing.
Much like her now notorious effort to fudge her stand on Eliot Spitzers drivers license program for illegal immigrants, this is a profile in vacillation. And this time Mrs. Clintons straddling stood out as it didnt in 2002. Thats not because she was the only woman on stage but because she is the only Democratic candidate who has not said a firm no to Bush policy.
That leaves her in a no mans or womans land. If Mr. Bush actually does make a strike against Iran, Mrs. Clinton will be the only leading Democrat to have played a cameo role in enabling it. If he doesnt, she can no longer be arguing in the campaign crunch of fall 2008 that she is against rushing to war, because it would no longer be a rush. Her hand would be forced.
Mr. Biden got a well-deserved laugh Tuesday night when he said there are only three things in a Giuliani sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11. But a year from now, after the public has been worn down by so many months more of effective White House propaganda, Americas mayor (or any of his similarly bellicose Republican rivals) will be offering voters the clearest possible choice, however perilous, about Americas future in the world.
Potentially facing that Republican may be a Democrat who is not in favor of rushing to war in Iran but, now as in 2002, may well be in favor of walking to war. In any event, she will not have been a leader in making the strenuous case for an alternative policy that defuses rather than escalates tensions with Tehran.
Noun + verb + 9/11 also Mr. Bushs strategy in 2004, lest we forget would once again square off against a Democratic opponent who was for a pre-emptive war before being against it.
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THE WAR ON ISLAM -- Recipient Human Rights Foundation Gold Award
FREE BOOK from http://www.twf. org/Library/ woi3aL.pdf

Shattered Haven
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
We won't play like India: Muralitharan
Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has said that Sri Lanka had no intention of following India's aggressive tactics.
As many as 400 LTTE militants have been killed in encounters with government forces since last month, largely due to information provided by civilian inhabitants in embattled northern Sri Lanka, an official said here today.
While 349 tiger rebels were gunned down during October, as many as 51 LTTE militants have been killed this month, defence spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
"Besides the success of the security forces during confrontations with the Tiger rebels, the common people in northern region are also informing about the presence of the LTTE rebels who are forcing people to join the outfit to carry out attacks," he said.
"During the month of October itself, we received 29 pieces of information from the common people in the northern region on the whereabouts of the LTTE rebels that also helped US in dealing with the militants," Nanayakkara said.
Out of this, information of LTTE's presence were received nine times from Jaffna and four times from the North-West Mannar, he said.
Meanwhile, seven militants were reported killed in separate incidents at Wanni and northern Jaffna since yesterday, security sources said.
Military reports said that four LTTE militants were killed today in the Nagarkovil defence lines in Jaffna, when troops effectively neutralised an LTTE offensive advance.
Three LTTE militants were killed yesterday evening at Thampane in Vavuniya during a strike by security forces.
A soldier was killed while another sustained injuries during the confrontation, military sources said.

The funeral of S.P. Thamilselvan, political wing leader of the Tamil rebel movement, was held in northern Sri Lanka Monday as the military intensified security throughout the island to prevent possible retaliatory attacks.
Armed rebels were joined by hundreds of their cadres to take part in Thamilselvan's funeral in Kilinochchi, 370 km north of the capital.
Normal activity in the area came to a standstill and civilians were told to mourn the death of the rebel leader, who was killed last Friday in a raid by the Sri Lankan Air Force.
In the military controlled northern Jaffna peninsula and the rest of the country security was stepped up, with additional checks on vehicles and more roadblocks to prevent rebels carrying out any attacks to avenge the death of their political wing leader.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday called on all government members of parliament, including ministers, to be extra vigilant as the rebels have vowed to avenge the killing of Thamilselvan, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
He told the MPs that rebels may try to target his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is the defence secretary, or Basil Rajapaksa, who is an MP and advisor to the president, or the president himself.
'However, the Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) will try to take the life of any other member whom they consider important under these circumstances,' he was quoted as saying.
The rebels have appointed P. Nadesanthe, head of their police division, to succeed Thamilselvan, who held the position of the political wing leader for more than 10 years.
Meanwhile, Tamil rebels fired artillery shells at Omanthai, the entry point between the rebel controlled and government controlled area, 240 km north of the capital, prompting the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) representatives to withdraw from the point and forcing the army to halt movement of civilians.
Elsewhere, at least seven rebels were killed in two separate incidents in the north in confrontations with the rebels.
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake has warned that the air force will continue to track down the leaders of Tamil rebels and launch air strikes against them, the defence ministry said.

Congress slams Karunanidhi for praising slain LTTE leader
The Congress Monday slammed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for 'mourning' slain LTTE leader S.P. Thamilchelvan and reminded him that LTTE was an organisation banned in the country.
'The Congress disapproves Chief Minister Karunanidhi's mourning the death of the LTTE leader Thamilchelvan,' party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan told reporters Monday.
Karunanidhi has also invited criticism from arch rival AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha for penning a poem on the slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader, praising his courage and mental strength.
Justifying his stance, DMK chief Karunanidhi has said that the LTTE leader was a Tamil. 'As Tamil blood is running in my body also, I expressed my condolence,' he wrote in the DMK mouthpiece Murasoli.
However, the Congress leaders have not taken to it kindly, though the DMK is an important constituent of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the Congress.
'We cannot forget the action perpetrated by the LTTE that killed our great leader (former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi,' Natarajan said. LTTE militants assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
'We will not support eulogising terrorism in any form,' said Natarajan, who was also present in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991, when Gandhi was killed during an election campaign.
LTTE: Shattered Haven
Ajai Sahni
Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
[From: South Asia Intelligence Review
Volume 6, No. 17, November 5, 2007]
A process of stabilization in the East, and of attrition in the
North, has been initiated by Colombo. To the extent that its
objectives are sufficiently met, a broader military offensive in the
North will become inevitable.
South Asia Intelligence Review, August 20, 2007
With the killing of S.P. Thamilchelvan, the leader of the political
wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the de facto
number two of the organisation, Colombo has clearly declared its
intent to initiate the decisive confrontation with the rebels which
has been inevitable since the Sri Lanka Army's (SLA's) successes in
the Eastern province through July 2007. That it was the clear intent
of the Mahinda Rajapakse Government to consolidate its hold on the
East, and then move compellingly against the North had been
abundantly clear over the past months. If any doubts remained, they
would be cleared by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake' s
declaration, after the strike that neutralised Thamilchelvan,
that "Our security forces are targeting the (LTTE) hiding places and
safe houses… They will not stop the relentless pursuit of
terrorists." The Prime Minister also made it clear that the
Government was not willing to enter into another cease-fire with the
LTTE at the present stage, though a formal offer of `unconditional
talks' was made. The rebels can hardly be expected to take kindly to
such an offer under the present circumstances, and the LTTE chief,
Velupillai Prabhakaran, while mourning Thamilchelvan' s demise,
reaffirmed that the rebels would "continue to travel on our path
towards the goal with renewed determination. " Sri Lankan analyst
D.B.S. Jeyaraj notes, "He was very close to the LTTE leader. His
demise may bring about a hardening of attitude in the LTTE
hierarchy." The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance has already
threatened, "Although his death is destined to create thousands of
new Thamilchelvans who will doubtless serve our freedom struggle
with dedication, we shudder at the repercussions for peace of this
act by the Sri Lanka Government."
Thamilchelvan was killed in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) air strike
at Thiruvaiaru, a location three kilometres South of Kilinochchi, at
around 6am on November 2. Simultaneously the fighter jets also
pounded a Black Tiger camp in the East of Iranamadu. Five other LTTE
leaders, `Lieutenant Colonel' Anpumani alias Alex, `Major'
Mihuthan, `Major' Nethagy, `Lieutenant' Adchgivel and `Lieutenant'
Vahakai Kumaran were also killed in the air strike. Defence sources
claimed that Alex was the chief of LTTE's "strategic communication
division" and in charge of handling all communication activities
between its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the
other "international terrorist agents" and the targeted location was
an international communications centre and a centre for logistics,
arms procurement, fund raising and operational matters.
The LTTE Peace Secretariat had already confirmed these losses
shortly before the SLAF confirmation. Thamilchelvan was also
posthumously promoted to the self-styled rank of `Brigadier' - the
first occasion the outfit has promoted one of its leaders to this
rank. Prabhakaran also appointed P. Nadesan, a Sri Lankan police
defector who joined the Tigers and later became a member of the
Tiger peace negotiating team, currently in charge of Tamil Eelam
Police, as the new Political Head. Prabhakaran also accused
the "Sinhala nation" of having "killed our dove of peace". It is
useful, in this context, to review the career of the LTTE's `dove'.
Thamilchelvan was the outfit's main interlocutor at the last round
of peace talks with the Sri Lankan Government in October 2006 and
had emerged as the international face of the separatist group.
However, the "terrorist turned political head" (as described the
Media Centre for National Security, MCNS) lacked the negotiating
skills of his predecessor, Anton Balasingham (who died of cancer on
December 14, 2006) and was widely thought to have failed as an
interlocutor. Lakshman Kadirgamar, the late Foreign Minister of Sri
Lanka (who was assassinated by the LTTE on August 12, 2005) once
remarked, "Balasingham was the moderate of the lot. Those who have
emerged now are the hardliners." Remarkably, in an interview with
Associated Press in July 2007, Thamilchelvan had said, "(We will)
weaken the military capacity of the Government of Sri Lanka, which
will invariably end up hitting economic targets as well," – a
statement that would be difficult to associate with a `peace
interlocutor' . Thamilchelvan played a pivotal role in a number of
attacks on members of the security forces in the recent past,
including the assaults on Kilaly, Muhamalai and Nagarkovil Forward
Defence Lines (FDLs) in August 2006. According to the MCNS his
military experience commenced with deadly attacks on the Jaffna-
based Indian Peace Keeping Force and Security Forces in 1985, a few
months after he joined the LTTE. He had emerged as Prabhakaran' s
most trusted aide and was his personal bodyguard during
Prabhakaran' s visit to India in 1984, His killing is a body blow for
the LTTE's strategic plans. Thamilchelvan' s closeness to the Tiger
leader also helped him to rise in the rebel hierarchy. During the
late 1980s and early 1990s, he held various command positions in the
strategically- important Jaffna region. Many accuse him of leading a
group carrying out assassinations in that area at the time.
Thamilchelvan was the highest-ranking member of the LTTE to be
killed by SFs since the emergence of violence in the island nation
in 1983.
It is significant that the attack that neutralised Thamilchelvan was
only the second major strike to have been directed against
Kilinochchi since the resumption of hostilities in July 2006.
Colombo had tended to keep Kilinochchi outside the scope of its
military operations because of the location of the LTTE's political
headquarters there, and the concentration of civilian populations in
close proximity to the rebels administrative infrastructure. This
had conferred a measure of immunity and freedom of operation on the
LTTE leadership. However, an estimated 69 LTTE cadres were confirmed
killed following two separate aerial and artillery attacks at
Chempankundu in the Pooneryn area of Kilinochchi District on
September 25 while a rehearsal of an LTTE `Passing out Parade' was
in progress. Following specific intelligence, Air Force fighter
craft had struck the target around noon. At about 4.30 pm the same
evening, a volume of heavy artillery fire directed by ground troops
of the Army caused further losses, preventing the outfit from
proceeding with the event any further. Reports suggested that
several LTTE leaders were in attendance on the occasion.
The SLAF had, in fact, been carrying out regular attacks on targeted
LTTE locations in the Northern sector ever since its military
victory in the East, where aerial attacks had preceded the final
ground offensive. A comparative escalation can now be expected
across the North. Thus, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated,
after the November 2 attack on Kilinochchi, "This is just a message
that we know where their leaders are. I know the locations of all
the leaders, that if we want we can take them one by one, so they
must change their hideouts… When the time comes only, we take them
one by one."
There has been a continuous escalation of violence between the
Security Forces and the LTTE since the election of Mahinda Rajapakse
as President in November 2005. The military offensive in July 2006
inflicted heavy losses on the LTTE, forcing the rebels into flight
from their erstwhile Eastern strongholds, and wreaking considerable
damages in rebel capacities in the Jaffna and Wanni sectors. As of
October 31, according to the data compiled by the Institute for
Conflict Management, 4,082 LTTE cadres and 1,042 SFs have been
killed, in addition to 1,066 civilians, in a total of 6,190
fatalities, since July 2006.
With the depleted Tigers yet to be defeated finally, the Government
appears determined to carry forward its offensive operations,
rejecting any temptation to re-engage in an illusory `peace
process'. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had made Colombo's perspectives
abundantly clear on October 28, 2007, in the aftermath of the
October 22 LTTE aerial and artillery attack on Anuradhapura Air
Base, declaring that terrorism would be wiped out militarily as it
was clearly evident that the LTTE was never in search of a
politically negotiated peaceful solution to the ethnic crisis. He
added, further, "Despite the diverse interpretations of our
successes and our failures, we are far more superior than (sic) the
LTTE. This is what we had overlooked in the past and the battle was
dragging on. However, we observe now that we have broken the spine
of the LTTE. We have seized much of their arms and ammunition and
killed many of their cadres. They are being defeated even in the
Vanni. As never in the past, we have chased after many LTTE floating
weapons ships and completely destroyed them in the deep seas. We are
convinced that the LTTE is now weakened." He articulated the
Government's determination, moreover, not to "pass this ethnic
problem to the next generation."
Colombo is clearly readying for a final showdown, and the LTTE has
limited capacities to resist the state's armed forces in positional
warfare. Inevitably, its stealth and terrorist strikes against state
and civilian targets in the Sinhala heartland will escalate, and
this will bring extraordinary economic pressures to bear on the
Government. Whether this will suffice, this time around, to thwart a
tremendously augmented Sri Lanka Army and Colombo's triumphal mood,
remains to be seen.

Yes, indeed the tears are the same!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Vatican greets Hindus on Diwali
The Vatican Monday urged religious tolerance in a greeting for the Hindu festival of Diwali, which an estimated one billion followers of the world's oldest religion will celebrate on Nov 9.
Tehelka sting: NHRC decides to recommend CBI probe

New Delhi: In a setback to the Narendra Modi-led government in poll-bound Gujarat, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today decided to recommend a CBI probe into accusations made in the Tehelka sting operation on post-Godhra riots.
"The Commission has decided to direct an inquiry by the CBI into the episode in the light of accusations made in the 'Operation Kalank' on communal violence in Gujarat," a statement from the NHRC said here.
The Commission's observations comes after it viewed the tapes of programme aired by a private news channel and found the contents a "fit" case for probe by an independent agency.
"The allegations had far-reaching implications and raised vital constitutional issues which need to be promptly addressed in the interest of all," it said.
The rights panel has also directed the state government to communicate its consent for CBI probe into the authenticity of the tapes allegations to it and the Centre within two weeks.
"The authenticity of the tapes must be examined and the allegations must be investigated. The investigation must be effective and independent," the Commission said adding that "if, the investigation does not substantiate the allegations, it will help clear the air."

Indira Gandhi National Integration Award
Prof. Ram Puniyani, General Secretary, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism was awarded prestigious Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration. He shares this award along with Prof. Juzar Bandukwala.
Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, President, Congress and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh gave the award.

Centre for Study of Society and Secularism is very proud that it

Riz Defeated CPIM in JNU!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
The All-India Student Association (AISA) has grabbed all four seats in this year's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students' union poll.AISA candidate Sandeep Singh won the President post, while Sephalika grabbed the post of Vice-President, the election officer said.
Pallavi won the General Secretary post, while Mavin Alam won the Joint Secretary post, the officer added.The Student Federation of India (SFI) candidates came second in all the slots.
Khalid Abdallah, 29-year-old Sudanese student contesting the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union polls, has won the election - he is the first African student to win an election in the history of JNU.JNU went to polls on Friday with 5,500 students eligible to cast vote. This year's electiona saw a whopping 68 percent voting turnout, three percent more than last year.
"I have won the councillor post at the School of International Studies (SIS). Of the 23 candidates contesting for five councillor posts, I have won one seat," an elated Abdallah told IANS.
"Of the 600 votes, I got 192 votes. Of the five candidates who won the five posts, I stood at number three," said the M.Phil scholar.
Abdallah, who contested the election under the All India Students Association (AISA) banner, said he joined the fray to learn politics in India and restore democracy back home in Sudan.
"Like Pakistan, my country is suffering from dictatorship. People in Sudan need efficient people to restore democracy and my contest in the JNU elections is a step in that direction," he said.
"The post I won is not a high-profile one, but this is stepping stone in the direction of learning the democratic electoral process. After I return to my country, I can use my experience," he said, adding that for the last 18 years "people in Sudan have not been enjoying real democracy".
Abdallah said he has a "long way to go" but the JNU elections would help him understand Indian politics closely.
Expressing happiness over the win of Abdallah, AISA president Awadhesh said: "We are proud that an African student won the elections, defeating 18 others from India."
"He made history by becoming the first African student to win any post in a students' union polls," he said.
The posts of five councillors in the School of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University here have gone to two candidates each from the Students Federation of India and the All-India Students’ Association and one to the National Students’ Union of India.Of the 31 newly elected councillors from different schools and centres at JNU, two are independent, nine are from the Youth for Equality, seven from the SFI, six from the AISA, four from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and three from the NSUI.
NSUI satisfied
Satisfied with his party’s performance, NSUI spokesperson Kuntal Krishna said: “This is the first time that the NSUI has won seats in two major schools at JNU. In the School of International Studies, our candidate Zothanpuii got the maximum number of votes. It proves that students support the nuclear deal. We are happy that we got a foothold in JNU and are ready for a bigger role on the campus.”
Court reprimands Delhi Police in missing woman case
The Delhi High Court Monday pulled up the Delhi Police when it admitted that the pregnant wife of a slain Uttar Pradesh gangster was not in their custody and it did not know where she was.
JNU shame for SFI, blame on Nandigram
CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071105/asp/nation/story_8511345.asp
CPM leader Prakash Karat addresses a seminar on the Indo-US nuclear deal at JNU. (PTI)
New Delhi, Nov. 4: Nandigram has handed the CPM-backed Students Federation of India its worst rout in campus polls at Jawahalal Nehru University in at least a decade.
The All India Students Association (AISA), student wing of the ultra-Left CPI-ML, has for the first time won all four central panel posts after a campaign targeting the SFI’s “hypocrisy”.
“They tried to justify Nandigram in a politically aware campus like JNU’s. They suffered the consequences,” said Sandeep Singh, the new students’ union president.
The SFI, traditionally the strongest political group on the campus, failed to win even second place in two of the four central panel posts, getting pipped by the anti-quota Youth for Equality.
“This is embarrassing for us... coming behind even YFE, but we will fight back,” a senior SFI leader said.
Politics is serious business at JNU and, unlike most other campuses, student elections here are fought primarily on issues in the national limelight.
For nearly a month, student groups — most backed by some political party or the other — paint posters, prepare bills listing candidates and hold marches just as the parties themselves do in the run-up to Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Yet, academic standards and “social consciousness” are not the only reasons that draw students to the campus. Accommodation is highly subsidised by the Centre, and civil-service aspirants joining a course just for a hostel room are not uncommon.
And although some students go on to join politics professionally — like the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury did — most go job-hunting after collecting their degrees.
A senior SFI leader admitted that Nandigram was a major reason for the defeat. “Our position is that Nandigram happened because of the Trinamul Congress and the Naxalites. But yes, we obviously failed to convince people.”
When CPM cadres were killed in police firing in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh a few months ago, the SFI did not hold a protest march at JNU because of its embarrassment over Nandigram, an AISA leader said.
“We were the ones who held a march condemning the firing in Andhra.”
Voting was held for 31 councillors’ posts in the various university departments apart from those in the students’ union central panel. In addition, two students were elected to the university’s “gender sensitisation committee against sexual harassment”.
The AISA won six councillors’ posts. One, at the School of International Studies, went to Sudanese student Khalid Abdallah. Last year, American Tyler Walker Williams had won the post of vice-president, also on an AISA ticket. Abdallah is the first African to win any election at JNU.
The SFI won seven councillors’ seats and the YFE nine, all in the science departments. Four seats went to the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, three to Congress affiliate National Students Union of India and two to Independents.
AISA and SFI candidates won one seat each on the sexual harassment committee.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday interrogated a senior police officer who had said he was witness to threats from the Kolkata Police to deceased Rizwanur Rahman's friend and marriage witness Sadiq.CBI officers quizzed Inspector General of police (Enforcement Branch) Nazrul Islam at his Bhawani Bhawan office in connection with the death of graphic designer and teacher Rizwanur Rahman. Meanwhile,West Bengal police have started their probe into the unnatural death of Jatin Sarkar, a key witness in the serial killings of children and young women of Nithari village in Noida, two months after his body was fished out of a river in the state's Murshidabad district, officials said.On the other hand,An association of the Bengali community in Jharkhand has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killing of Ashish Dey, co-owner of shoe company Sreeleathers.Dey, 52, was gunned down by motorcycle-borne assailants near his home at Saket Bazaar in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand Friday.He had apparently refused to pay the Rs.30 million demanded by the extortionists, who pretended to be members if the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).On Sunday, members of the Bengali community took out silent processions in Jamshedpur to protest Dey's killing.

Nazrul Islam, who is known for his moral and upright stand against corruption and injustice, had earlier said that threats were issued to Sadiq from Kolkata Police's Lalbazar headquarters right before his eyes.
Sadiq is a witness to the legal marriage between Rizwanur and Priyanka Todi, daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi.
Krishnendu Das, a sub-inspector of the anti-rowdy section of the Detective Department of Kolkata Police, was the policeman who reportedly intimidated Sadiq when he had gone to meet Nazrul Islam to report the harassment and threats.
'I had asked Das not to act like that,' Nazrul Islam earlier said.
Das has reportedly told CBI that he acted on the orders of his seniors.
Besides the junior officers, the CBI has interrogated Indian Police Service officers Gyanwant Singh and Ajoy Kumar, both of whom allegedly acted at the behest of Ashok Todi to pressure Rizwanur to annul his marriage with Priyanka.
Rizwanur, a 30-year-old graphic designer, was found dead with his head smashed on Sep 21 by the railway tracks, barely a month after his marriage with Priyanka.
Before his death, Rizwanur had mentioned the names of Gyanwant Singh, Ajoy Kumar, Sukanta Chakraborty and Krishnendu Das as the ones who harassed him.
Todi allegedly threatened his son-in-law with dire consequences and put pressure on him through the police.
Rizwanur's death sparked public outcry forcing the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government to remove the tainted cops, including police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, who tried to defend Todi and his IPS colleagues in the case.

CBI grills eyewitness to abduction
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=175464
KOLKATA, Nov. 4: Mr Indranil Ghosh, who told a Bengali news channel last night that he had witnessed Rizwanur Rehman’s “abduction”, today claimed before CBI sleuths that one of the “abductors” Anjan Dey was the person who had allegedly murdered his brother-in-law Anup Das in 2006.
Mr Ghosh, a resident of Santoshpur near Jadavpur, was grilled by the CBI sleuths for several hours after he claimed that he was an eye-witness to the ‘abduction of Rizwanur’ and has also identified one of the ‘abductors’. Interestingly, Mr Ghosh’s claims came a few days after media had reported that two persons had written letters to the APDR claiming to have witnessed Rizwanur’s abduction.
A senior CBI official said that according to Mr Ghosh, Rizwanur who was in a taxi was abducted from near Khanna cinema around 10 a.m. on 21 September. Mr Ghosh was heading to Dakshineshwar and was waiting there for a bus when, he claimed, the incident occurred. Rizwanur was forced into a green Ambassador which then sped towards Ultadanga. Mr Ghosh said Anjan had been absconding since Anup’s murder. Police had arrested Anjan’s son who was later released on bail.
Mr Ghosh lives with his mother, wife, who is pregnant, and his father Mr Satyaranjan Ghosh, a retired Central government employee, in a flat rented by his father. A neighbour said Mr Ghosh was a garments seller with a poor income. Family quarrels over financial problems were frequent and police had to intervene to settle a dispute a few days ago. CBI joint director Mr Arun Kumar said: “We have examined him and the authenticity of his statements needs to be verified”. Asked if Mr Ghosh was trying to mislead the CBI, he said: “There are several people who are trying to mislead the CBI’’ n SNS

Daddy Cool of a Calcutta where crime is a way of life
Bad boys of Beckbagan
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071105/asp/calcutta/story_8512311.asp
Metro infiltrates the bylanes of Beckbagan to know more about some of the names that have cropped up in the Rizwanur Rahman case. To protect our sources — yes, they fear for their lives — we will not name them. But they have all been close associates of the men we are about to unmask.
Abdul Majid shot into limelight in the Rizwanur case when the CBI came calling on October 22. He led the sleuths to Imtiaz and then to Imtiaz’s brother Hasan Ali.
Known to everyone in Calcutta’s underworld — from Tollygunge to Patipukur — as “Daddy” or “Uncle”, Majid has always been Mr Cool, trusted by CPM politicians, local policemen and criminals.
Once a talented footballer, the resident of Bright Street is a popular figure for his “straightforward dealings” — even if the dealings once meant arms smuggling and now revolve around illegal construction or being the middle man for criminals and cops.
“Majid, who does not drink or smoke, is never ruffled. He lives with his wife, rides his scooter and chats with the para boys. He is unlettered and blunt,” says an associate.
The crime trail of the man with a limp, now in his early 40s, can be traced back to the start of the Nineties, when he got involved in the most lucrative business of the times — smuggling of branded arms.
He formed a formidable triangle with Nata Eliyas (the don of Darga Road) and Hidayat Khan (known as the 10th don of Jamshedpur). “With an army of smugglers and wagon-breakers, they flooded the Calcutta market with branded guns to be distributed all over eastern India,” recounts Majid’s associate.
The unholy trinity was shattered after Nata Eliyas was convicted for murder. Majid then started working in a leather unit on Darga Road and shifted his focus from smuggling to the construction boom in the Park Circus belt.
“The job is just a front. From 6pm to midnight, Majid and his friends gather on the terrace of a Shamsul Huda Road building that belongs to Midnapuria Anwar. They play cards throughout the evening and strike business deals. This is where Majid meets people,” says an associate.
Majid cashed in on his proximity with both the police and criminals by playing mediator in dubious deals. This apart, he would play a part in almost every contentious construction in the area.
Majid’s associates (Naata Eliyas apart), says a former confidant, range from the dreaded Chunna-Munna of Rajabazar to Kallu and Vinod of Tollygunge to Deepak and Hatkata Dilip of Dum Dum-Patipukur — where Rizwanur’s body was found on the tracks on September 21.
But the biggest name linked to Majid is Hasan’s. The Palm Avenue-based promoter — who was approached by the Todis to break up Priyanka and Rizwanur’s marriage — “trusts” Majid and often “turns to him” to sort things out.
It was no different on September 2, when Majid was sent to meet Rizwanur’s uncle Jalisur Rahman — Majid and Jalisur have known each other for years, being in the same para — and urge him to persuade Priyanka to return to her parents.
Though Majid hardly ever visits Hasan’s Palm Avenue address, he is always a call away for Hasanbhai.
“Majid was bindaas till the CBI probe began. But everything has changed after October 22. He has been keeping a low profile, spending a lot of time with Hasan and is even refusing to speak to some of his closest associates. For the first time in two decades, Majid knows he is in trouble,” says an associate.

Uncle and colleague questioned
A STAFF REPORTER
Rizwanur Rahman’s maternal uncle Taj Mohammad and his colleague at Arena Multimedia, Mohammad Rafique, were questioned by CBI officials on Sunday.
A team of officials, led by Zaki Ahmed, asked Taj Mohammad if Rizwanur had spoken to him about his problems. He could not provide any lead, said a CBI official.
Rafique was questioned for an hour and a half from 11am. “We found his cellphone number on Rizwanur’s phone. He had spoken to Rafique a couple of days before he died. We will not disclose what they discussed for the sake of the investigation,” said another official.
The officials said they might visit the office of Nazrul Islam, the inspector-general of police (enforcement branch). “He had heard sub-inspector Krishnendu Das threatening Rizwanur’s student Sadique,” added the official.
The CBI on Sunday also questioned Indranil Ghosh, a youth who claims to have witnessed Rizwanur’s “kidnapping” at the Khanna cinema crossing on September 21.
“We spoke to him but did not record his statement. There are many people trying to mislead our probe,” said CBI joint director Arun Kumar.

Probe begins, two months after death
- Last minutes of Nithari witness replayed
OUR CORRESPONDENT
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071105/asp/bengal/story_8512779.asp
Behrampore, Nov. 4: Murshidabad police today began probing the death of Jatin Sarkar, over two months after he died and three days after the Supreme Court rapped it for not having registered an FIR.
Jatin, a key witness in the Nithari killings case, apparently drowned in the Bhagirathi in Murshidabad on September 1, nine days before he was to depose in a Ghaziabad court.
His widow had alleged that he was killed and dumped in the river, but the police had refused to register the FIR.
Behrampore police today tried to reconstruct the drowning, like the CBI had attempted to enact Rizwanur Rahman’s death on the railway tracks in Calcutta.
The police called Sankar Sarkar, who saw Jatin being washed away about 200km from Calcutta. Sankar, 52, a neighbour of Jatin who was bathing in the river, saw him in waist-deep water.
“He was still breathing and I took him to the Behrampore Sadar Hospital. Doctors declared him dead there,” Sankar told Behrampore inspector-in-charge Dilip Ganguly.
He also told the police that he had talked to Jatin half an hour before he went to the river.
Ganguly asked Sankar to stand at the spot from where he saw Jatin. A local youth, Shasthi Haldar, was told to act as Jatin.
Ganguly asked Sankar whether Jatin smelt of alcohol. “I told the inspector that I did not smell any alcohol and that Jatin was gasping when I pulled him out of the river.”
The riverside was apparently deserted around 10.30am, when Jatin was found. “There were only a few women,” Sankar said.
“It is too early to comment,” Ganguly said.
Asked if the CBI director and two others named as co-accused in the complaint lodged by Jatin’s widow Bandana would be questioned, Ganguly said he did not know. “The law does not prohibit us from interrogating anybody in connection with a case,” he added.
Jatin, who used to pull a rickshaw in Noida, was the father of one of the Nithari victims, 19-year-old Pinki.
He sought a reinvestigation of the case in the court of the special CBI judge in Ghaziabad on April 28. At least 19 human skulls and bones were dug up from near the house of Maninder Singh Pandher in Noida in December 2006.

PM concerned over Nandigram violence

Kolkata, Nov 05: Expressing concern over violence in Nandigram, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Union Home minister Shivraj Patil to look into it urgently.
The Prime Minister communicated this to Saifuddin Choudhury, president of the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS), a constituent of a Trinamool Congress-led outfit spearheading the agitation against land acquisition.
Singh, in reply to the PDS chief`s letter about attacks on the people of Nandigram allegedly from CPI-M stronghold of Khejuri, said, ``I am concerned about the developments there and have spoken to the Home Minister to look into these urgently.`` Singh, however, did not mention about deployment of CRPF at Nandigram as sought by West Bengal government to restore peace in the trouble-torn area.
Earlier in the day, West Bengal Home Secretary P R Roy said he had no information when the Central forces would be despatched to Nandigram.
He said the CRPF would be under the state government but act independently.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has demanded that CRPF should not be put under the control of the state government.
Nandigram has been the scene of recurring clashes since January resulting in deaths, including 14 in police firing and violence on March 14 when villagers resisted the police from entering.

Riz Defeated CPIM in JNU!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
The All-India Student Association (AISA) has grabbed all four seats in this year's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students' union poll.AISA candidate Sandeep Singh won the President post, while Sephalika grabbed the post of Vice-President, the election officer said.
Pallavi won the General Secretary post, while Mavin Alam won the Joint Secretary post, the officer added.The Student Federation of India (SFI) candidates came second in all the slots.
Khalid Abdallah, 29-year-old Sudanese student contesting the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union polls, has won the election - he is the first African student to win an election in the history of JNU.JNU went to polls on Friday with 5,500 students eligible to cast vote. This year's electiona saw a whopping 68 percent voting turnout, three percent more than last year.
"I have won the councillor post at the School of International Studies (SIS). Of the 23 candidates contesting for five councillor posts, I have won one seat," an elated Abdallah told IANS.
"Of the 600 votes, I got 192 votes. Of the five candidates who won the five posts, I stood at number three," said the M.Phil scholar.
Abdallah, who contested the election under the All India Students Association (AISA) banner, said he joined the fray to learn politics in India and restore democracy back home in Sudan.
"Like Pakistan, my country is suffering from dictatorship. People in Sudan need efficient people to restore democracy and my contest in the JNU elections is a step in that direction," he said.
"The post I won is not a high-profile one, but this is stepping stone in the direction of learning the democratic electoral process. After I return to my country, I can use my experience," he said, adding that for the last 18 years "people in Sudan have not been enjoying real democracy".
Abdallah said he has a "long way to go" but the JNU elections would help him understand Indian politics closely.
Expressing happiness over the win of Abdallah, AISA president Awadhesh said: "We are proud that an African student won the elections, defeating 18 others from India."
"He made history by becoming the first African student to win any post in a students' union polls," he said.
The posts of five councillors in the School of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University here have gone to two candidates each from the Students Federation of India and the All-India Students’ Association and one to the National Students’ Union of India.Of the 31 newly elected councillors from different schools and centres at JNU, two are independent, nine are from the Youth for Equality, seven from the SFI, six from the AISA, four from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and three from the NSUI.
NSUI satisfied
Satisfied with his party’s performance, NSUI spokesperson Kuntal Krishna said: “This is the first time that the NSUI has won seats in two major schools at JNU. In the School of International Studies, our candidate Zothanpuii got the maximum number of votes. It proves that students support the nuclear deal. We are happy that we got a foothold in JNU and are ready for a bigger role on the campus.”
Court reprimands Delhi Police in missing woman case
The Delhi High Court Monday pulled up the Delhi Police when it admitted that the pregnant wife of a slain Uttar Pradesh gangster was not in their custody and it did not know where she was.
JNU shame for SFI, blame on Nandigram
CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071105/asp/nation/story_8511345.asp
CPM leader Prakash Karat addresses a seminar on the Indo-US nuclear deal at JNU. (PTI)
New Delhi, Nov. 4: Nandigram has handed the CPM-backed Students Federation of India its worst rout in campus polls at Jawahalal Nehru University in at least a decade.
The All India Students Association (AISA), student wing of the ultra-Left CPI-ML, has for the first time won all four central panel posts after a campaign targeting the SFI’s “hypocrisy”.
“They tried to justify Nandigram in a politically aware campus like JNU’s. They suffered the consequences,” said Sandeep Singh, the new students’ union president.
The SFI, traditionally the strongest political group on the campus, failed to win even second place in two of the four central panel posts, getting pipped by the anti-quota Youth for Equality.
“This is embarrassing for us... coming behind even YFE, but we will fight back,” a senior SFI leader said.
Politics is serious business at JNU and, unlike most other campuses, student elections here are fought primarily on issues in the national limelight.
For nearly a month, student groups — most backed by some political party or the other — paint posters, prepare bills listing candidates and hold marches just as the parties themselves do in the run-up to Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Yet, academic standards and “social consciousness” are not the only reasons that draw students to the campus. Accommodation is highly subsidised by the Centre, and civil-service aspirants joining a course just for a hostel room are not uncommon.
And although some students go on to join politics professionally — like the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury did — most go job-hunting after collecting their degrees.
A senior SFI leader admitted that Nandigram was a major reason for the defeat. “Our position is that Nandigram happened because of the Trinamul Congress and the Naxalites. But yes, we obviously failed to convince people.”
When CPM cadres were killed in police firing in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh a few months ago, the SFI did not hold a protest march at JNU because of its embarrassment over Nandigram, an AISA leader said.
“We were the ones who held a march condemning the firing in Andhra.”
Voting was held for 31 councillors’ posts in the various university departments apart from those in the students’ union central panel. In addition, two students were elected to the university’s “gender sensitisation committee against sexual harassment”.
The AISA won six councillors’ posts. One, at the School of International Studies, went to Sudanese student Khalid Abdallah. Last year, American Tyler Walker Williams had won the post of vice-president, also on an AISA ticket. Abdallah is the first African to win any election at JNU.
The SFI won seven councillors’ seats and the YFE nine, all in the science departments. Four seats went to the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, three to Congress affiliate National Students Union of India and two to Independents.
AISA and SFI candidates won one seat each on the sexual harassment committee.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday interrogated a senior police officer who had said he was witness to threats from the Kolkata Police to deceased Rizwanur Rahman's friend and marriage witness Sadiq.CBI officers quizzed Inspector General of police (Enforcement Branch) Nazrul Islam at his Bhawani Bhawan office in connection with the death of graphic designer and teacher Rizwanur Rahman. Meanwhile,West Bengal police have started their probe into the unnatural death of Jatin Sarkar, a key witness in the serial killings of children and young women of Nithari village in Noida, two months after his body was fished out of a river in the state's Murshidabad district, officials said.On the other hand,An association of the Bengali community in Jharkhand has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killing of Ashish Dey, co-owner of shoe company Sreeleathers.Dey, 52, was gunned down by motorcycle-borne assailants near his home at Saket Bazaar in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand Friday.He had apparently refused to pay the Rs.30 million demanded by the extortionists, who pretended to be members if the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).On Sunday, members of the Bengali community took out silent processions in Jamshedpur to protest Dey's killing.

Nazrul Islam, who is known for his moral and upright stand against corruption and injustice, had earlier said that threats were issued to Sadiq from Kolkata Police's Lalbazar headquarters right before his eyes.
Sadiq is a witness to the legal marriage betw