Is Marriage An Obsolete Institution?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">By   <a href="http://www.groundreport.com/dchaitanya"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">D. Chaitanya</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Quite a good majority of urban educated and employed women believes it as ‘yes’. Women are born free, but still their freedom is shackled under the guise of marriage, through out their life. Even though the shackles of marriage were broken by the hard-core feminists long ago, it is only today majority women around the world are realizing the importance of physical freedom to them unrestrained by the institution of marriage. Today they either prefers to be single or to have only live in relationships with a view not to lose their natural freedom. Increasing education and good employment opportunities are infusing confidence among the educated women that they are no more dependents on men. They firmly believe that marriage thoroughly hinders their physical movements and restricts their freedom of thought and do not want to mortgage their unrestrained freedom of movements for the institution of marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Even in traditional societies like India, now a days certain sections of educated young women prefer dating, live in relations, or temporary physical relations for amusement, instead of being capitive in life long marriage. This is apparent if you see the ‘dating’ and ‘singles’ portals, where millions of employed urban educated women seeking relationships with men for temporary economic support or physical satisfaction. Dating and friendship are preferred over marriage, by majority such young employed women as traditional domination of men in the guise of husbands, over the women, is no more tolerated issue now a days..  The matrimonial, dating, friendship sites in India show the number of Divorcees or separated or 35+ unmarried women keeping their profiles, but they remain unmarried even after they crossed 40+ years, because, their preferences, tastes are not liked by majority men as still 90% of Indian men seek that their life-partner must be like a traditional obeying wife to the husband, in spite of her good education and employment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Indeed, candidly speaking women lose their freedom as every husband often looks her wife with suspicion, if she freely talks or interacts with any other man, in his presence or in his absence. This ‘suspicion’ is the very fundamental issue where women think that they lost their freedom with the marriage and being trampled by husband. Her mind gets grilled between respecting the traditional role as a typical wife and her values, and accepting modern thinking based on equal rights, freedom of thought and movements unrestrained by any force. In this chaos, majority educated women preferring the ‘freedom’ over the ‘marriage’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But still the hypocratic human societies are imposing the system of marriage on the women of which women are unable to come out legitimately. Any physical relationship if women established with a man, beyond marital purview, is being considered by human society and law, as illegitimate relation and on par with prostitution. This is the greatest obstacle that is forcing the women into the institution of marriage.  If chance gets several married men often enter into physical contacts with other women out of lust or for physical amusement. But, if a married women enters into physical contact with another man, she will be called as ‘characterless’ and a ‘debachee’ and she will be given up by the husband.  That hypocratic and discriminatory image what the modern women want to avoid by avoiding the very marriage itself. Without entering into the matrimonial relationship, if a woman does have any number of secret contacts she can not be questioned in general by anyone, and her freedom of life remains intact.  That freedom, infact women wanted even after the marriage, but the society is not accepting this and calling it as illegitimate. So, even today the women’s struggle for absolute freedom is going on.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Her mind and movements are being controlled in the guise of institution of marriage for which the ‘husband’ is the Ruler and wife is ruled. Now the rebellion is “why should we be ruled by the husbands”? “If we enter into the marriage we will be ruled, if we do not enter into the marriage we can not be ruled by men and our freedom remains untouched” this is the changed trend in women attitude, which is not digestible to men. Even if laws relating to equal rights, freedom etc., are enacted for physical control of the bodies, human mind and thoughts can not be controlled by the law and legal bodies. That freedom unrestrained by law or other humanly controls are being desired by the women. Therefore for majority sections of educated women institution of marriage has become outdated. They need something new institution.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Will Plato’s communism of wives works out for those sections of modern women? Surveys and debates have to be conducted by bigwigs on this topic, to minimize the psychological sufferings of women and to increase their freedom. ---<a href="http://www.groundreport.com/Lifestyle/IS-MARRIAGE-AN-OBSOLETE-INSTITUTION/2947071"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Groundreport</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /> This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Is Marriage An Obsolete Institution?

By   D. Chaitanya   Quite a good majority of urban educated and employed women believes it as ‘yes’. Women are born free, but still thei...

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US Congressman Marries Male Partner

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">U.S. Representative Barney Frank has married his longtime partner, Jim Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to enter into a same-sex marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The governor of the northeastern state of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, married the two in a ceremony late Saturday attended by some 300 guests.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Frank, a Democrat, is retiring after more than three decades in office.  He has served in the House since 1981 as an openly-gay politician.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His new 42-year-old spouse is 30 years younger than Frank. Ready owns a small handyman business.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div></div>

US Congressman Marries Male Partner

By VOA News U.S. Representative Barney Frank has married his longtime partner, Jim Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to enter ...

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INDIA: Create Casteless, Inclusive Society, Says India’s Lower House Speaker Meira

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW DELHI, India (NNN-UNI) -- Lok Sabha (Lower House) Sunday met for a special session on the 60th anniversary of its first assembly on this day in 1952, with Speaker Meira Kumar saluting the spirit of millions of the poor, workers, farmers and other faceless people of this country who have kept the portals of democracy alive by their participation. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She also made an impassioned call to the Members to work for creation of a casteless society, saying "casteism and democracy cannot go together."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the House sat for the session after the national anthem, Ms Kumar saluted the national consciousness of the citizens of this country, which has kept democracy alive. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Speaker also sought to underline that the fruits of development have to reach to the last of the poor to make this democracy meaningful. --NNN-UNI<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

INDIA: Create Casteless, Inclusive Society, Says India’s Lower House Speaker Meira

NEW DELHI, India (NNN-UNI) -- Lok Sabha (Lower House) Sunday met for a special session on the 60th anniversary of its first assembly on th...

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Ancient Mayan Artwork, Calculations Discovered

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">By Rosanne Skirble</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Provide new insights into how Mayan astronomers charted the cosmos<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The painted figure of a man — possibly a scribe who once lived in the house built by the ancient Maya — is illuminated through a doorway to the dwelling, in northeastern Guatemala.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Archeologists working among the ruins of a 9th century Mayan town in Guatemala have discovered a room filled with extraordinarily well-preserved artwork. The colorful wall paintings provide new insights into how Mayan astronomers charted the cosmos.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Xultun was the largest city in the ancient Mayan empire in Central America, where, at its height, an estimated 90,000 people lived and worked among pyramids, inscribed monuments, water reservoirs and sport fields. But by the 14th century, the Mayan civilization had collapsed and this great city fell with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 1920, Xultun was rediscovered, overgrown with vegetation. Work to map the 31 square-kilometer site and decode the myriad inscriptions on its monuments continues to this day.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Conservator Angelyn Bass cleans and stabilizes the surface of a wall of a Maya house that dates to the 9th century A.D. The figure of a man who may have been the town scribe appears on the wall to her left.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 2008, Boston University archeologist William Saturno was exploring tunnels in the Xultun ruins that had been opened by looters in the 1970s.  One day his student assistant, Max Chamberlain, discovered the entranceway - close to the surface but hidden by vegetation - to a room-like structure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Max thought he saw the remnants of paint on the walls of this fairly small Maya structure,” Saturno says.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once inside the room - part of a larger residential complex at the Xultun site - Saturno knew he was in a special place. On the opposite wall, he came face-to-face with the painting of a Mayan king, its regal colors remarkably preserved.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“[He’s wearing] this gorgeous sort of blue-green head dress, he’s holding this white scepter in his hand," Saturno says. "He’s sitting on top of this throne. He is just incredible to look at."   <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another figure painted in brilliant orange wears a white medallion and holds a small stylus in his hand - possibly the artist scribe who lived in the house, Saturno speculates.  On the other walls are more male figures in black with white loin cloths and identical head dresses with a single red feather.  And running all around, between and sometimes on top of these figures is tiny Mayan hieroglyphic script.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“There are these large numerical arrays, just columns of numbers of one after another, after another," Saturno says. "This seems to be a place where Maya scribes are at work.  They are painting and repainting texts on the walls. They are in different hands and different scales and different sizes in order to have the calculations present.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Four long numbers on the north wall of the ruined house relate to the Maya calendar and computations about the moon, sun and possibly Venus and Mars; the dates stretch some 7,000 years into the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to Saturno, the painted numbers are a version of the Mayan calendar system, one that he notes predates the Mayan astronomical tables written on bark paper books in the 14th century. The parallels were obvious once he began to do the math. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The Maya had a 260-day ceremonial calendar and a 365 solar calendar," Saturno says. "The Maya combined those two calendars to make a longer cycle of time that repeated every 52 years. But they also kept track of the motions of Venus and the motions of Mars and perhaps the motions of Mercury. And the numbers that are recorded on this wall are multiples of all of those cycles combined.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The painted room also pays tribute to the way the Maya used those calendars to synchronize human activities with the larger cycles of the moon and planets they routinely observed in the heavens. Saturno says while modern humans keep looking for endings, the Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This is the type of calculation and dissemination of knowledge that we don’t get to look at for a people for whom this type of knowledge was central to their existence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Saturno is making images of the Xultun paintings that students and scholars can access using desk-top scanners and other tools. When that work is done, Saturno plans to rebury the site, leaving it to rest where the ancient Mayan people created it.  His study of the Xultun site is featured in the journal Science and in the June issue of the National Geographic magazine.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> ---VOA News</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Ancient Mayan Artwork, Calculations Discovered

By Rosanne Skirble Provide new insights into how Mayan astronomers charted the cosmos The painted figure of a man — possibly a scribe w...

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INDIA: Urban Women Say Career Comes First

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW DELHI (NNN-Bernama): The majority of young working women in urban India are putting off plans to start a family as they put career and professional ambitions ahead of motherhood, a survey by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and India (ASSOCHAM) revealed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ambitious working women in India are not willing to give up their career for the sake of family as they are apprehensive about dealing with stress and emotional distress associated with issues of work/life balance,” ASSOCHAM’s secretary general D.S. Rawat said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The ASSOCHAM under the aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) carried out a random survey of 1,200 married, young full-time working women without children and 800 stay-at-home mothers in the 24-30 age group at urban centres of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune from March to April.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over half of married, young working women in the urban centres said they have shelved plans to start a family as career advancement and higher education is their priority and were unable to sacrifice the same to raise kids, the survey highlighted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Household chores, social commitments and other obligations make raising kids a delicate balancing act for women with successful careers,” said Rawat in a statement here Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">About 10 per cent said they work to lead a better lifestyle and need to accumulate enough wealth before they start a family and cope with rising childcare costs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A total of 200 respondents from the working women category said they have put off plans to have a baby as it would disfigure their physical appearance, while 70 of them said they are too young to be a mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, about 20 per cent of these said they have made a mutual decision with their spouse in that they would accomplish their career goals first before starting a family.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Many working women said they work primarily out of passion for their career and to hone their organisational skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The survey said about 220 respondents from this category said they have no qualms in going for the family way and becoming a mother would make them feel happier and fulfilled and are not fearful of the effect motherhood might have on their career.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of the 800 stay-at-home moms interviewed, about 25 per cent said they regretted not being able to work as they are less educated, have limited job skills and find it hard to make both ends meet due to rising cost of living.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">About 80 women said they regretted motherhood as they have lost their social identity, the survey revealed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It also said about 15 per cent said they had previously worked but quit their successful careers and had chosen a family life over their job as it was becoming a conflict of priorities. -NNN-BERNAMA<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

INDIA: Urban Women Say Career Comes First

NEW DELHI (NNN-Bernama): The majority of young working women in urban India are putting off plans to start a family as they put career an...

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Mumbai High Court: Insisting On Condoms for Sex Can't Be Grounds for Divorce

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">    </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Xinhua) -- In a unique case, the High Court in Mumbai has ruled that a wife's refusal to have sex with her husband without a condom could not be a legal ground for divorce, local media reported Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pradeep Bapat filed divorce petition before the court alleging that his wife refused to have sex with him without a condom as she was reluctant to have children because they were not financially stable.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But, a two-judge bench of the High Court rejected his divorce plea and said that his other grounds for legal separation -- a lack of cooking and cleaning skills on his wife's part -- could not be grounds for divorce.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The couple married in February 2007 and by June his wife had left their home.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"She wanted to give the child a better life. It is a mutual decision and a husband can not insist," the Times of India quoted Justice PB Majmudar as saying.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Bapat's lawyer told the court that his client wanted an educated, working woman as his wife, who would also do the housework.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"A woman is not a slave. You have put (common marital troubles) in the plea. If we construe these as cruelty, then no marriage will be safe," the court remarked.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In the ruling, the court also said couples should get to know each other before marrying, especially in the case of arranged marriages. "It is the duty of parents to consider various aspects before the actual marriage takes place," it said. -- NNN-Xinhua<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Mumbai High Court: Insisting On Condoms for Sex Can't Be Grounds for Divorce

        NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Xinhua) -- In a unique case, the High Court in Mumbai has ruled that a wife's refusal to have sex with h...

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On the Eve of the Day of Memory and Honor

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq5QqqqrtNmiNSIQqE7vB3VKQRVoDlbi6TSQOa3BIpZ_LYJVAIcRZae1kOMIUYM5ss7V__AwKGetuIZzja459JgT2J42V2VgpWCwKgw37Ns05UPH2thnmEZSXmcbbNEKC4nqhCWyW2LSM/s1600/5716.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq5QqqqrtNmiNSIQqE7vB3VKQRVoDlbi6TSQOa3BIpZ_LYJVAIcRZae1kOMIUYM5ss7V__AwKGetuIZzja459JgT2J42V2VgpWCwKgw37Ns05UPH2thnmEZSXmcbbNEKC4nqhCWyW2LSM/s320/5716.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">UzA, photos by Hursandbek Arabboyev<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Qo’chqorboy Yunusov, participant of the Second World War.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></span></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">UzA --- Qo’chqorboy Yunusov, the participant of the Second World War lives in Bo’z district of Andijan region. Especially these days, activists of his mahalla, students, apprentices and great grandchildren are visiting him a lot on the eve of the veteran’s holiday. His heart is filled with a sense of gratitude for the present a bright and happy life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“The holiday brings joy, exalts the dignity of man and calls each of us to appreciate the peace and tranquility in our land” says Q.Yunusov.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

On the Eve of the Day of Memory and Honor

UzA, photos by Hursandbek Arabboyev Qo’chqorboy Yunusov, participant of the Second World War. UzA --- Qo’chqorboy Yunusov, the parti...

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Poll: Third of Indians Say They Are ‘Suffering’

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A new poll finds one-third of Indians surveyed say they are “suffering” due to a poor quality of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">According to a Gallup survey released Monday, India's poorest and least educated are most likely to be “suffering,” while 56 percent of those surveyed were “struggling” and only 13 percent were “thriving”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The survey found the difference in the level of suffering between the most-educated Indians – at eight percent, and the least educated Indians – at 35 percent, indicates the gap between the “haves and the have-nots may actually be widening.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Gallup said improving education standards is the best way for India to reduce the level of suffering among its people.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">India has been struggling with high inflation and high interest rates that have slowed the country's economic growth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The company said the results might have been skewed because the survey was conducted before harvest time in early 2012, which meant many farmers “likely had gone without pay for several months”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The poll was conducted between Jan. 29 and March 8 of this year. The U.S.-based research company asked roughly 5,000 Indians, age 15 or older, to rate their current lives and future expectations on a scale of 0 to 10. The poll's margin of error is 1.7 percentage points. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Poll: Third of Indians Say They Are ‘Suffering’

A new poll finds one-third of Indians surveyed say they are “suffering” due to a poor quality of life. According to a Gallup survey rele...

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Indian Teenager Annuls Her Child Marriage

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ4buzlRT52srZCe_-t3PbxmNtk4VWoPIEEhpzLop5J4L0WEA-lhbs5tfDzCkhVrzf7jg9aEj1a8LVLoMfXlkOQPcihX9phi7zqMzPqhNtd_KUuDVvBT-4A4jgF2wb-oVbL-q-yoqs8kA/s1600/2012042614423344.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ4buzlRT52srZCe_-t3PbxmNtk4VWoPIEEhpzLop5J4L0WEA-lhbs5tfDzCkhVrzf7jg9aEj1a8LVLoMfXlkOQPcihX9phi7zqMzPqhNtd_KUuDVvBT-4A4jgF2wb-oVbL-q-yoqs8kA/s1600/2012042614423344.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="Section0"><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">NNN--- A young woman has had her child “marriage” legally annulled in northern Rajasthan state India on April 26 2012, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in India. Laxmi Sargara, 18, wed Rakesh when she was just one and he was three. She did not like the boy and was not ready to go ahead with her parents’ decision. After appealing to her parents, Laxmi sought help from a local non-governmental organization, the Sarathi Trust in Jodhpur city. photo courtesy ucanews--- NNN</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div>

Indian Teenager Annuls Her Child Marriage

NNN--- A young woman has had her child “marriage” legally annulled in northern Rajasthan state India on April 26 2012, in what is thought t...

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Online Tool Launched to Preserve Hmong Language

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Almost every day, Chue Her sits down at his computer, pulls out his Hmong-English dictionary and starts typing 10 to 20 words into an online translator. He hopes his contribution to Microsoft's translation project will be the key to reviving the Hmong language that he worries is disappearing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I believe if we don't have the translation to keep in the computer like this, in the future, I believe 100 percent, the Hmong language will be gone. It will die out,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This 65-year-old spoke Hmong in his native Laos, but when he moved to Fresno, California in 1982 and began a family, the preferred language for his four children and 11 grandchildren began shifting.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I am very worried right now my grandchildren do not speak Hmong,” he said. “So, I think it's a good opportunity for me to help my kids to learn.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hmong are a minority tribal people native to the mountains of southern China and Southeast Asia. They sided with the Americans during the Vietnam War, and many ended up fleeing from the Vietnam-Laos border to the United States in the 1970s. Today, about 260,000 live in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Project coordinator Phong Yang says the Hmong language has begun to disappear as more and more generations of Hmong are born and raised abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Second generation Hmong children don't learn Hmong as much anymore or don't speak Hmong as well anymore,” said Yang, who teaches the language at California State University, Fresno. “We really want to find a way to come up with some sort of interactive tool and definitely make Hmong more visible to the public, even to speakers so they could be proud of their language.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When Microsoft approached Yang last year about making Hmong the 38th language in its online translator, he knew he needed to act on the project.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We still have resources at this point for translation, but I would say within the next 15, 20 years, I mean, who knows what happens?” said Yang, who even admits his Hmong is not perfect.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By resources, he means the older generations of Hmong, like Her, who fluently speak, read and write the language.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is now an all-out, community effort to build this online tool. In order to expand the program's vocabulary, the native speakers must type in words, phrases and documents in Hmong and then provide the English translation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Microsoft Research's Will Lewis said the program uses a statistical model to translate based on the words entered into the program. Hmong is one of the first of the lesser-known languages Microsoft is rolling out as part of its translation project.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hmong for a variety of reasons kind of percolated up to the top because there was a strong involvement from the community,” Lewis explained.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yang says the community volunteers have loaded about 40,000 words into the program — a good start for what is likely to be a long process.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For volunteer Her, the time and energy is worth it. He is worried not just about the Hmong language, but about a fading culture and way of life. With a little help from technology, he hopes his history will be a part of his children's future. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Online Tool Launched to Preserve Hmong Language

Almost every day, Chue Her sits down at his computer, pulls out his Hmong-English dictionary and starts typing 10 to 20 words into an onl...

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INDIA: SC Reserves Order on Appeal against Decriminalising Gay Sex

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI): After a marathon hearing spanning over a month, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a bunch of petitions challenging the Delhi High Court verdict decriminalising gay sex among consenting adults in private.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya reserved its verdict on petitions by anti-gay right activists, social and religious organisations against the 2009 verdict of the high court, which decriminalised the gay sex.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The bench had commenced final day-to-day hearing of the case from February 15.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">During the hearing, the Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre for its “casual” approach on decriminalisation of homosexuality and had also expressed concern over Parliament not discussing such important issues and blaming judiciary instead for its “over-reach”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">While pleading for decriminalisation of gay sex, the Centre had subsequently told the court that the anti-gay law in the country had resulted from the British colonialism and the Indian society was much more tolerant towards homosexuality.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Delhi High Court had in 2009 decriminalised gay sex as provided in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and had ruled that sex between two consenting adults in private would not be an offence.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC makes gay sex a criminal offence entailing punishment up to life term.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Senior BJP leader B. P. Singhal has challenged the high court verdict in the Supreme Court saying such acts are illegal, immoral and against the ethos of Indian culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Religious organisations like All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Utkal Christian Council and Apostolic Churches Alliance too have challenged the judgment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Right, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munn Kazhagam, astrologer Suresh Kumar Kaushal and yoga guru Ramdev have also opposed the verdict.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Centre earlier had informed the apex court that there are estimated 25 lakh gay populations and about seven percent (1.75 lakh) of them are HIV-infected.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In its affidavit, filed by the Union health ministry, it said that it is planning to bring 4 lakh high-risk ‘men who have sex with men (MSM)’ under its AIDS control programme and it has already covered around 2 lakh of them. -NNN-PTI</span></div></div>

INDIA: SC Reserves Order on Appeal against Decriminalising Gay Sex

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI): After a marathon hearing spanning over a month, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a bunch of petiti...

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Greater Acceptance of Gay Sex in India: Survey

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NEW DELHI   (NNN-AGENCIES) -- There has been greater societal acceptance and decrease in police harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community after the Delhi High Court's landmark verdict of banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, a report said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The research by Haryana-based <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jindal</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Global</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Law</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> has found that the High Court's judgement passed in July 2009 on decriminalisation of gay sex led to "increased self- confidence" of LGBT members and there has been a positive impact of the verdict.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"There is a growing societal acceptance for Gay, MSM and Kothi men. Many respondents (LGBT members) stated that the societal perception of homosexuals is changing and people were treating them with respect," said the report of a research team from the Centre for Health Law, Ethics and Technology (CHLET) at the law school.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The study, first of its kind after the High Court's verdict, assumes significance as the Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petition filed by anti-gay rights groups challenging High Court's verdict of legalising gay sex.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Gay sex was earlier a offence under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code punishable up to life imprisonment but the High Court decriminalised the act among consenting adults done in private.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"It is evident from the study that decriminalization of section 377 has led to increased self-confidence and self-acceptance amongst the respondents. Some respondents also reported that they could now argue with the police since they know there is no section 377 in the law books any more," the report said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"The study reveals that police harassment has substantially reduced among MSM outreach workers," the report said, adding that media and movies also played a vital part in making LGBT acceptable to mainstream society.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A statement released by the law school said the study was conducted for over a period of six months from February to October 2011 comprising face to face interviews with 32 members of the LGBT community.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Professor C Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor of O P Jindal University noted that, "The study points towards the positive impact that the high court judgement has had through a first-hand account of those impacted directly through an empirical evaluation of the people who are affected by the judgement."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The author of the study, professor Dipika Jain of the law school, said, "It is evident from the study that there has been a positive impact on the LGBT community in Delhi and a country wide decriminalisation is bound to positively impact the lives of this community and their right to live with dignity."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The statement said that a copy of preliminary interviews was filed as a part of the intervention by the legal academics in the Supreme Court.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Kavya Kommareddy, a student researcher with the team said, "It is heartening to see the law having a real impact on the people by giving them self-confidence and a sense of empowerment and courage to fight for their rights". -- NNN-AGENCIES<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Greater Acceptance of Gay Sex in India: Survey

NEW DELHI   (NNN-AGENCIES) -- There has been greater societal acceptance and decrease in police harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and t...

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Do Women Take Too Much Initiative in Love?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">By Svetlana Kolchik<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Are men hunters no more? Is it up to women nowadays to make the first move?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">These questions popped up in my head after the latest issue of the Russian Marie Claire came out and our magazine once again turned into a large 24/7 dating agency. Traditionally, in the month of February, we run the Top Bachelors of the Year project. We publish a selection of eligible single guys' photos, along with their brief interviews, and provide a special email at which the readers could then contact the men they liked via the magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">This year, we featured fifty men, ages ranging from 21 to 45, about a third of them coming from the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> and Western Europe, and the rest from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. As always, there was no shortage of men – despite all the stereotypes, there're plenty of good unattached guys out there. The project was a huge hit: since the day the Marie Claire had hit the newsstands, we've been getting dozens of emails daily, girls writing from all over <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region> and even from abroad. Some of them are in their 20s, but most – in their 30s, elaborating in their messages about how well they'd done career-wise so far but how much they'd like to start a family now (the majority had left their cell numbers to apparently speed up the process). Most women had their photos attached, some rather risque. A few had written up to ten identical emails, asking us to forward those to different guys. Others sent actual letters sticking into the envelope a cinema ticket or a hot exhibit invitation for their preferred bachelor. “Here's my work address for a bouquet to be delivered,” one girl wrote to the guy who had mentioned in the interview that he enjoyed giving flowers to women.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">With my mailbox getting seriously overloaded with megabytes of flirty blondes, brunettes and redheads, I began to freak out. Russian females have always been regarded as strong inside, but soft and feminine on the outside. Perhaps it's one of the main reasons Western men still fancy them so much. With a project like that, aren't we undermining our femininity flair a bit, letting the girls not only choose, but chase as well? What's the incentive for a guy to pursue a girl if the prey is already out there, nearly desperate to be taken? I've heard a lot of complaints lately from women across the world about men becoming passive and lacking initiative in a relationship. And in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the country where beautiful women are so plentiful, the girls lament about the men being plain spoiled. Isn't it us, females, who're spoiling the opposite sex in the first place?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Back in the 90s, when I started going out, the celebrated The Rules Book, by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, two bored <st1:place w:st="on">Long Island</st1:place> housewives-turned bestselling authors, became my Dating Bible. The book, which sold millions of copies worldwide and is still considered one of the all-time most popular relationship manuals, called for a return to old-fashioned gender games, where males were supposed to be the hunters, period. Don't speak to a man first, don't ever call a man, never tell a man what to do and let guys do all the chasing, otherwise you go against nature and it never works, the writers insisted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">As ridiculous as they sounded, I tried following those Rules religiously for some time. Sometimes it worked, but more times it left me frustrated, and the guys - suspicious of too much scheming involved. So I kind of gave up any rules, letting the relationship evolve more like a dance, where both sides make the steps at the right place and time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I called a few of this year's bachelors to see how they felt about women initiating things in relationship. The guys I spoke to didn't seem to mind. “It's not that easy to meet a right person these days, so you do need some facilitation,” one guy said. “And, if you do get together with a girl, in the end it doesn't really matter who made the first move.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Times have evolved, and the old dating approach no longer works,” another guy mused. “Modern women just go for what they want, and I see nothing wrong with it.” This guy, a successful good-looking Western 33-year-old businessman who's worked in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:city> for about ten years, surely doesn't lack female attention here. Still, he seemed quite happy to take part in the Marie Claire bachelors issue. “It's easier than easy to find a girl in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:city>, but it's very difficult to find a relationship,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">And he's definitely right. Otherwise we wouldn't have such an easy time finding a load of singles for this project each year. It's also true that while being all too willing to find a mate, we, girls, remain quite selective when it comes to making a choice. Just as another bachelor stressed, “No matter how generous the supply, you still ought to behave like a man with a girl, otherwise you get dumped soon.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The views expressed in this column are the author’s and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">*<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Russia</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> has always been referred to as feminine and Russian women have been one of the most popular stereotypes of this nation, both positive and negative. But is this an all-male fantasy? Here is a hip, modern, professional and increasingly globalized Russian woman looking at the trends around her, both about her gender and the society at large. She talks and lets other women talk.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Svetlana Kolchik, 33, is deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Marie Claire</span><br /> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">magazine. She holds degrees from the Moscow State University Journalism Department and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has worked for Argumenty i Fakty weekly in <st1:city w:st="on">Moscow</st1:city> and USA Today in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">D.C.</st1:state></st1:place>, and contributed to RussiaProfile.org, Russian editions of Vogue, Forbes and other publications</span></div>

Do Women Take Too Much Initiative in Love?

By Svetlana Kolchik Are men hunters no more? Is it up to women nowadays to make the first move? These questions popped up in my head af...

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Hindujas to Spearhead 'Sindhu' Cultural Centres in India

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">BANGALORE</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (NNN-PTI): Noted industrialist Srichand P Hinduja has plans to spearhead establishment of cultural centres in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> on the ancient Sindhu civilisation that he believes could solve some of the problems faced by the world, particularly religious conflicts. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Speaking at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Sindhi Youth Association (SYA) here last night, Hinduja said he discussed the issue with Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who welcomed the idea. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"So we can start from Karnataka, the Sindhu cultural centre, and create similar models in other States so that through the Sindhu civilisation we can approach the whole world," the billionaire businessman said at the function, also attended by his brother Ashok P Hinduja. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Noting that Sindhis have prospered all over the world, he said, "Now, we have to see that how we can maintain our culture which is the oldest civilisation, Sindhu civilisation, as a good example for the world which can even solve the problems of the world". <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"Sindhis are one of them (Sindhu civilisation), whereas the people of the world need a civilisation of Sindhu culture," Hinduja, Trustee of Hinduja Foundation, advocated. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Jews today control the "financials of the world" and people have forgotten Sindhis, who are "talented and intelligent people," said Hinduja, whose family-owned diversified conglomerate the Hinduja Group has interests in finance, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications and manufacturing services in different parts of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"I reminded (Jews) that we are buying from them and selling to the Scottish and despite that, we are making profits," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"It’s very difficult to find anybody in the world to buy from Jews and sell to Scottish and still make profits". <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Noting that Sindhis don’t have any religion, he said they worship five elements. "If you promote that civilisation, you can imagine, we can solve the problems of the world, where religion creates new conflicts," Hinduja said. "When you worship five elements, you are above all religions". -NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Hindujas to Spearhead 'Sindhu' Cultural Centres in India

BANGALORE (NNN-PTI): Noted industrialist Srichand P Hinduja has plans to spearhead establishment of cultural centres in India on the anc...

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The Imbalance between Rich and Poor Is the Oldest and Most Fatal Ailment of All Republics

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><b><i>Vice President Inaugurates Diamond Jubilee Conference of Indian Sociological Society<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><b><i><br /> </i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><b><i><br /> </i></b></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmfG1N1nJgP-izVDJMchbWLbpSsz_a769khCHLd1NIorXKAfTNxw-OLQYcNRHSaIJa3zTcJSuBi97RyCNxEuyK8AyFG7s5xOGC2Pzvnxu7lCRiNf65bT9e217x-3MAYYfPo4uWkACGJQ/s1600/vpinauguratessoccong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmfG1N1nJgP-izVDJMchbWLbpSsz_a769khCHLd1NIorXKAfTNxw-OLQYcNRHSaIJa3zTcJSuBi97RyCNxEuyK8AyFG7s5xOGC2Pzvnxu7lCRiNf65bT9e217x-3MAYYfPo4uWkACGJQ/s640/vpinauguratessoccong.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;">The Vice President, Shri Mohd. Hamid Ansari delivering</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;">the inaugural address at the “Diamond Jubilee Conference</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;">of Indian Sociological Society”, in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Delhi</st1:place></st1:city> on December 11, 2011. Photo © PIB</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /> </div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><br /> </i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the Greek historian Plutarch had observed that “an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics”. Delivering inaugural address at the “Diamond Jubilee Conference of Indian Sociological Society” here today, he has said that all over the world one hears today the cry of the common man protesting against the exclusion of the majority from accessing the benefits of economic growth and prosperity engendered by globalization of financial markets, economies, investment flows and processes. Real incomes of the top percentile across developed and emerging countries have grown disproportionately higher, exacerbating income inequalities. It is now clear that the system that has worked so well for the top percentile has delivered far lesser returns to others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">  <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Shri Ansari has opined that this is not merely an economic phenomenon, related to income distribution and disparity of wealth. Social inequality is a reality, with differences in status, opportunity and power, and the absence of an overarching framework of social justice. It has its own impact on levels of human development. It is known that social disparities are not always congruent with economic inequality and that difference in power and status can chart through non-economic realms. Social and occupational stratification work as much to constrain opportunities and life chances of individuals as economic factors. Inequality is a problem in the long run, especially when it kills aspiration for personal and societal betterment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Addressing the conference, the Vice President said that “It is hazardous to venture into a realm that everybody claims to know but few actually do! The pitfalls for the uninitiated are evident.  <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">He further said that, as a discipline and despite its impeccable European pedigree, Sociology as an independent discipline evolved in the face of considerable skepticism. Early in the last century, Henry Ford of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Yale</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> cautioned that “those who yield to its plausible pretensions go astray”. Two decades later Read Bain of Miami University denounced sociology for its inaccuracy, indefiniteness, and terminological confusion and called sociologists as “scientific charlatans.” Similar views were expressed elsewhere too. That phase is now over. Sociology is today seen as a vital tool in understanding societies and the ongoing social changes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">  <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">The world has been transformed in the past two decades. The changes span global and national, political, economic and social order resulting in decreased salience of national sovereignty, of traditional social institutions and established patterns of political and economic activity, he said. ---PIB<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">           <o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div>

The Imbalance between Rich and Poor Is the Oldest and Most Fatal Ailment of All Republics

Vice President Inaugurates Diamond Jubilee Conference of Indian Sociological Society The Vice President, Shri Mohd. Hamid Ansari deliv...

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India: Devotee Donates 162 Diamonds to Tirupati Temple

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">CHENNAI (NNN-Bernama) --- The Tirupati temple, dubbed as the world's richest, received a surprise offering on Wednesday when staff discovered 162 diamonds in their daily collection box. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">The temple authorities found the diamonds, estimated to be worth nearly RM1million, when they were counting the daily offerings from the "hundi" (donation box). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">The unidentified devotee had dropped the diamonds, wrapped in velvet cloth, along with an authenticity certificate, reported the Hindu daily Today. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">The offering was made to the temple's Lord Venkateswara in Tirupati, located in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">The temple's executive director L.V. Subramanyam confirmed to the newspaper of the diamond offering but was unable to identify the donor. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">Millions of devotees make annual pilgrimage to the sacred, ancient temple, perched on a hill, to pay homage to its main deity, Lord Venkateswara. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">The temple's "hundi" collection alone reaches over RM400 million annually. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">Devotees are known to donate money, gold and silver to the famous temple. -- NNN-BERNAMA<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

India: Devotee Donates 162 Diamonds to Tirupati Temple

CHENNAI (NNN-Bernama) --- The Tirupati temple, dubbed as the world's richest, received a surprise offering on Wednesday when staff dis...

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'Terrorists in Love' Examines Islamic Radicals

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Book explores why some young men turn to terrorism</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">By Faiza Elmasry from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">D.C.</st1:state></st1:place></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFgBHiS7KqjVye3XgLnEj21JgydRV9z4-yL8i2hkWI53ffEyWvph898rD_wuroRuFZUNKg849YnQvJ2dKRYT_sLD6iF2lLsWZXVXVYgjPV7Zrp12oMIrAyyMEWxNQ8Ce6f_1hNo3agKm8/s1600/book%252Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFgBHiS7KqjVye3XgLnEj21JgydRV9z4-yL8i2hkWI53ffEyWvph898rD_wuroRuFZUNKg849YnQvJ2dKRYT_sLD6iF2lLsWZXVXVYgjPV7Zrp12oMIrAyyMEWxNQ8Ce6f_1hNo3agKm8/s1600/book%252Bcover.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px;">How does a young man transform from a law-abiding middle-class citizen into a terrorist? Ken Ballen, a former federal prosecutor, spent five years trying to find answers to that question.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"Terrorists in Love" examines why young people got involved in radicalism and then - for many of them - how they left.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The result is a book called, "Terrorists in Love: The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It started as a research project, says Ballen, founder and president of Terror-Free Tomorrow. When his group conducted public opinion polls across the Muslim world, Ballen traveled extensively and had a chance to meet young radicals.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“What was remarkable was how many people did open up to me," Ballen says. "They really shared their lives with me, how they got involved in radicalism and then - for many of them - how they left, which I think is almost as important as how they got first involved.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Out of 100 or so radicals he interviewed, Ballen focused on six in his book.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“You can’t pick six people and say that they represent all the motives of all radicals everywhere," he says. "They do not. But I think they were fairly representative of the different ways that people got involved in this movement.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What ties the stories together, Ballen says, is reflected in the book’s title, "Terrorists in Love."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“It tells a story of people who can’t find love, largely, and this feeling of frustration, not being able to connect with another human being on earth - they can only find love with God - propels a lot of them into radicalism.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Author Ken Ballen traveled extensively, meeting with young radicals.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of them is Abdullah Al Gilani. His story is subtitled 'Jihadi Romeo and Juliet.' The young Saudi fell in love with a woman named Mariam, but couldn’t marry her.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Her father wanted to marry her off for a handsome dowry or bride price, and he thought he could get $30,000,"<span>  </span>Ballen says. "This young man didn’t have that kind of money. The most he had was $8,000. So the father married her against her will to a man three times her age. She was humiliated and, indeed, raped by this man because she had never consented to the marriage. He was very distraught after this. He thought, ‘Well, if I go on holy war and I die, and I’m fighting for God, I can go to heaven and in heaven, I can marry my sweetheart, Mariam.’ So he went off to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ahmad Alshayea is another Saudi Jihadist who went to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The young man’s troubled relationship with his father contributed to his decision to leave his family and country, according to Ballen, who interviewed Ahmed in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Saudi Arabia</st1:place></st1:country-region> at a facility where former jihadists are rehabilitated.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ahmad Alshayea says being nursed back to health by a female US Army medic after surviving a suicide attack changed his radical views.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“This young man had never met a woman outside of his family until he went to Abu Ghreib, of all places, and was nursed back to health by an American army medic, the first woman he had ever met," Ballen says. "It opened him up in a way to Americans, to women, that he had never experienced before. It humanized him.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ahmad was captured and brought to Abu Ghreib after surviving a suicide attack. He was never told he was going on a suicide mission. He and two other jihadists were to drop off a booby-trapped tanker truck. But his companions jumped out of the vehicle just before it reached a concrete roadblock and exploded, killing eight people and severely injuring Ahmed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the book, Ballen describes Ahmed’s inner thoughts after he's taken to Abu Ghreib. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The Holy Quran told Ahmad that a martyred fighter in the way of Jihad, he would be eternally nourished in <st1:place w:st="on">Paradise</st1:place> by ‘date palms.’ Yet, instead of the sweetest 'Sukkary' ((a type of date palm)) that Grandfather said would be the food of heaven, his veins were hooked to salty water. Instead of wearing ‘robes of silk’ and reclining on ‘jeweled couches,’ as the Holy Book pledged, Ahmad lay on a stiff white bed. Missing, too, were ‘the dark-eyed, full-breasted virgins, chaste as pearls’ offered by Allah the Most High to any martyr. He hadn’t reunited with his family as promised either - his younger brother, cheriched grandfather, beloved mother. He was alone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That experience, Ballen says, gave Ahmad a new mission and he now warns people his age against following the path he chose. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Other young people profiled in Ballen’s book include Malik, a spiritual adviser of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and Zeddy, the professional Pakistani warrior who discovered that a religious Jihadi group could be just as corrupt as any other organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The author says to fight terrorism; we have to understand who these people are and how they think. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I think the change has to come from within," Ballen says. "It has to come from people who are willing to interpret their faith - whether it is Islam, Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism - in an inclusive, tolerant manner, and not as an exclusivist - kind of 'we’re right and everybody else is wrong.' A lot of people can change and a lot of people can change through dialogue. And we should expose any radical movement for what it really is, because there is a tremendous amount of corruption in it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That, Ballen says, is why he wrote "Terrorists in Love," to share with his readers the stories they seldom hear about terrorism and those who carry it out. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

'Terrorists in Love' Examines Islamic Radicals

Book explores why some young men turn to terrorism By Faiza Elmasry from Washington , D.C. How does a young man transform from a law-abidi...

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Muslim Protesters Demand End to Surveillance

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px;"><b>By </b>Peter Fedynsky from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span>   </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hundreds of Muslims staged a rally and public prayers in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">New York City</st1:city></st1:place> Friday, to protest alleged ethnic and religious profiling in their community by the city's police department.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Demonstrators gathered in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>’s <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Foley Square</st1:address></st1:street> chanting for an end to surveillance. They also held signs condemning the New York City Police Department for allegedly infiltrating mosques, spying on Muslim student groups, cataloguing Middle Eastern restaurants and compiling data on Arab cab drivers. The charges came to light in a recent investigative report by the Associated Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In a sermon at the rally during traditional Friday Muslim prayers, Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid said Muslims in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> are unapologetic about their faith and uncompromisingly American.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Our American identity is based on ideals, and principals and affirmation of truth. We affirm the American dream,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the signs at the rally said “The police watch us. Who’s watching the police?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The National Lawyers Guild does just that. A team from the non-profit federation of lawyers, legal workers, and law students came to the rally to observe interaction between the protesters and police. Guild member Bina Ahmad said government surveillance without probable cause violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She said there is no valid reason for infiltrating the Muslim community.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“We all have the right to be free and equal citizens, have the right to free speech, to be free of a police state," said Ahmad. "We have the Fourth Amendment, your right against unreasonable search and seizure. And we’re all law-abiding citizens.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An NYPD liaison with the Muslim community declined VOA’s request for comment, pointing instead to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s recent testimony at a City Council hearing about the surveillance. Kelly said the NYPD does not engage in racial profiling, but rather, “follows leads wherever those leads may take us.” One council member asked if police have ever gone to a mosque or followed a person without a specific lead. Kelly said he could not answer that definitively. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Muslim Protesters Demand End to Surveillance

By  Peter Fedynsky from  New York    Hundreds of Muslims staged a rally and public prayers in New York City Friday, to protest alleged et...

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