GOOD BYE TO ANDHRA PRADESH?

There has been, for few days, hot discussion on the end of the world in 2012. Unlike in the past, when there was a fear of Skylab, the people seem to be least worried about the potential danger that was hyped by the media.

I am sure that there can’t be an end to the earth in 2012. Of course I believe that there would be an end to everything. But not so soon as believed by Mayans. I am least worried and not thinking much on 2012.

But I am sure that something is happening to Andhra Pradesh. Who has to be blamed for the state of affairs that prevalent today. When people of Telengana demanded for separate state and when some how they have succeeded to accede central government to consider their wish, it would have been very dignified for the Andhra people and Rayalaseema people to accept it and sit down for settlement deed and helped the Telengana people to have their own state. In fact it is funny and crazy to demand for United Andhra when Telengana people have no wish and no inclination for it. All this would slowly raise aversion against the people of other region.

I incidentally have no strong sense of feeling or attachment to any of the three regions. Though I am presently residing in Telengana. I am a Kannadiga, born to the parents of Kannadigas in Rayalaseema. I have no relationships either in Rayalaseema and Telengana. As I was born in Rayalaseema as my father migrated to Rayalaseema from Chikkanayakana Halli, Tumkur District after his marriage. He settled in Vayalpad, Chittoor Dist. I was born their. I born as a Telugu kid. My mother tongue became Telugu. I did not know kannada then. I studied in Vayalpad till intermediate in Telugu medium. Then I went to Mysore for my graduation and did my B.A.Ed in Regional College of Education, Mysore. During this period I had worked for one year in Karimnagar as a teacher. Then I went to Pondicherry for doing my M.A. in Pondicherry University. After completion of my PG I have worked as a TGT on contract basis in APSWRS, Sagileru, Kadapa Dist. As soon as I completed my PG, I have applied for Junior Lecturer Post to the College Service Commission. I have written the written exam immediately one month after completion of my PG. I attended the Interview after one month. Then I went to Kadapa on contract job as a teacher. I got an appointment order after completion of one and half year of service as contract teacher. I left the school and went to Medak District in search of Gajwel as it is my place of first appointment. Then I was married to a girl from Mysore as all my relatives are from Karnataka, I have to get married to a girl apparently from Karnataka. So I married and served in Gajwel for 7 years. Then I requested for transfer to Gadwal. I was transferred to Maldakal, a nearby village to Gadwal, I have been here for 4 years. Can any body tell me If I should have strong sense of identity to any of the regions. Of course I have strong attachment to Telugu and with the people who speak Telugu.

When I was in Mysore, I know how happy I used to be, not only me my classmates from Andhra Pradesh, When we accidentally hear Telugu word when we go out for shopping. We used to talk to them and help them if necessary and some times bring them to our college and get them accommodation in our college guest house with false claim that they are our relatives. Just hearing a Telugu work would tickle our sensation and we felt very happy that we have seen our own people.

The same thing I experienced even in Pondicherry. In Karnataka it was very easy to get someone who talks Telugu, but in Pondicherry it would be very difficult to find a man talking Telugu. We used to go to Mahatma Gandhi Beach and would go close to any one who looks like a telugu person. I remember an instance when along with my friends Suresh and Suman were walking along the beach on one Sunday, Suddenly we heard some one talking in Telugu. We felt as if we have gone to our home town and went to them and talked to them and went with them to show all the important places in Pondicherry. They became very close. We never bothered to know whether he is from Telengana or from Rayalaseema or from Andhra.

Such was the life I had, with strong association to Telugu. It would have been better if divided in friendly atmosphere. But now I am sure that a student who is studying now either in Pondicherry or in Mysore would enquire as soon as he hears a telugu man about his region and would care least if the person happens to be not from his own region. The feeling of Telugu man, or Telugu pride would vanish soon.

I propose to be divided if necessary only politically and not culturally and linguistically. We should continue to be telugu people even if we are divided politically. We should continue to have respect for Telugu Talli. In fact it is not Andhra Talli or Rayala seema Talli. It is Telugu Talli. All the people from all the three regions speak Telugu. Let us have Telengana Talli, Andhra Talli, and Rayala seema Talli. But let us not kill Telugu Talli. If we refuse to respect Telugu Talli It is equal to suicide of Telugu People.

Let us continue to live even after 2012 in our regions as Telugu People with respect and love for those who speak Telugu.

How Telugu got its name?

The main languages spoken in Andhra Pradesh are Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Banjara, and English followed by Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Oriya. Telugu is the principal and official language of the State. It was also referred to as `Tenugu' in the past. `Andhra' is the name given to it since the medieval times. Some argued that `Telugu' was a corruption of `Trilinga' (Sanskrit meaning three `lingas'). A general description of the land of the Telugus was made in the medieval times as `the land marked by three lingas of the three famous shrines of Draksharamam (East Godavari district), Kaleswaram (Karimnagar district) and Srisailam (Kurnool district). There are many theories in this regard. Let us examine some of them here.
Khandavalli Lakshmi Ranjanam
The word telugu probably comes from the word talaing . Since tala refers to head, talaings refers to leaders. Later this must have given rise to the words telungu and trilinga .
Godavarti Ramadasu
Some believe that the word telugu comes from the Sanskrit forms trilinga or trikalinga: Actually, the word kalinga itself is a Dravidian word. In Kui language, rice is called Kulinga. Since Kuis were mainly rice eaters, Aryans might have called them kulingas or kalingas.
Marepalli Ramachandra Shastri
In Gondi languahge, unga is form for plural. telu means white. Hence, telunga probably refers to people who are white in complexion.
Ganti Jogi Somayaji
The word ten refers to south in Proto-Dravidian. Hence tenungu refers to Southerners.
The evolution of Telugu can be traced through centuries in terms of its form as well as its function. Although culturally Telugu is close to its southern neighbours -- Tamil and Kannada -- genetically, it is closer to its northern neighbours -- Gondi, Konda, Kui, Kuvi, Pengo and Manda. There is evidence to show that these languages were freely borrowed from Telugu even from the prehistoric period whereas borrowing between Telugu and Tamil and Kannada has been mostly during the historic period, i.e., post-5th century B.C.

JOKES

A Spoonful of Salt

submitted by Alan Maley, UK

He met her at a party. She was so outstanding, all the guys were chasing after her. As for him, he felt so ordinary and nobody paid attention to him. At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but being polite, she agreed. They sat in a nice coffee shop, but he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, and thought, please, let me go home.... when suddenly he asked the waiter. "Would you please give me some salt? I'd like to put it in my coffee."

Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously; why salt? Why not sugar?” He replied,”When I was a little boy, I lived near the sea, I liked playing in the sea and the taste of the salty sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have salty coffee, I think of my childhood, think of my hometown. I miss my hometown so much, and I miss my parents who are still living there".

Tears suddenly filled his eyes. She was deeply touched by his words. A man who can reveal his homesickness, must be a man who loves home, cares about home, feels the responsibility of home. Then she also started to speak, about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family….her life. And that was the beautiful beginning of their story. Later, after their marriage, every time she made coffee for him, she put a spoonful of salt in it as she knew that was how he liked it.

40 years later, he passed away, leaving her a letter which said:
“My dearest, please forgive me. My whole Life has been based on a lie. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time. I actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt. It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that would be the start of our life together! I wanted to tell you the truth many times in but I was too afraid to do that. Now I'm dying, I’m afraid of nothing so here is the truth: I don't like salty coffee – I hate the taste… But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life!”

 

Half Cup of Tea

submitted by Cynthia Beresford, UK

Jeremy, who was a very timid young man, had one or two little manias. One of these was that he never wanted more than half a cup of tea. Mostly, though, people were too thoughtless or too generous and they always seemed to fill his cup up.
This girl he met, the daughter of friend of his mother’s, she asked him:
“ Would you like a cup of tea?”
“ Just half , if you don’t mind”
She poured him exactly half a cup.
Over the next few weeks they got to know each other better and nine months on they got engaged.
When he had timidly given her the ring she asked:
“ What was it about me that……?”
He smiled: “I asked you for half a cup of tea and you gave me what I asked for”
She blushed: “It was a terrible moment, that was all I had left in the pot…… I felt awful.”

 

 

John Smith started the day…, found on the Internet by one of the HLT Readers

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 am.

While his coffee pot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG), he put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).

After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA), he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA), he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY), filled it with GAS (FROM SAUDI ARABIA) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his computer (made in MALAYSIA ), John decided to relax for a while.

He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL), poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA.

Now he’s hoping he can get help from the US President (MADE IN KENYA).

 

 

More Things That Infants Can Teach Us on the Subject of Love

What Love means to a 4-8 year old . . ...

Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it. Touching words from the mouth of babes.

***

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:

***

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca- age 8

***

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4

***

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5

***

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

***

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4

***

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7

***

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8

***

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

***

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

***

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

Noelle - age 7

***

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6

***

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8

***

'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

***

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5

***

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Chris - age 7

***

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4

***

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4

***

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

***

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

Mark - age 6

***

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8

***

And the final one is from a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard,
climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

New Generation Vs. Old Generation.

THE MAJOR FACTORS THAT AFFECTING TEACHING ENGLISH TO THE RURAL STUDENTS

(A PAPER PRESENTED IN THE SEMINAR CONDUCTED BY ENGLISH TEACHERS FORM AT NAGARJUNASAGAR ON 7-11-2009 and 8-11-2009)

Teaching English involves four basic skills; Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Every English Teacher is aware of this fact. Yet most of the teachers ignore this and teach English like a science teacher. English is taught as a set of formulas and lists of vocabulary. Students are encouraged to memorize them though they are not understood by them. We know certainly that their memorization would not hemp them to acquire linguistic skills. Yet we do that. Why do we do that? Why is it done like that? Where is the problem? Can we change our strategies in teaching English? These are the questions that always been surrounding me.

I am trying to consolidate what has been there in my mind for all these years and present them before you so that I would get suggestions and solutions to my problems. I always felt that the theories that have been evolved for all these years on teaching English have ignored one thing that whether they would be feasible in the class room situation that are prevalent in rural areas in Telengana. The social background, the attitude towards learning, the economical background has not been dealt with in developing strategies and designing teaching material for these students. So far the experts in material production have an ideal class room in their mind while designing text book. So only I feel when it comes to the class room that we are dealing has failed to receive the text book with warmth and interest. It has always been received with a kind of aversion. The students go for made easies and test papers. I try to expose the problems I face in teaching English to my students.

I believe that the success of teaching English depends on three factors. They are 1) Teacher, 2) Student and 3) Examination. I don’t mean to say that there are only these three factors. There are in fact many factors that influence and sometimes affect the teaching of English. But I feel that these are the three factors which need our concern so as to improve the linguistic skills for our students.

TEACHER:

Teacher has major role in teaching language. As teachers of English we should never forget that we are teachers of language. Like any other language, English has to be taught. It can’t be taught through lecture method. Because acquiring language is a skill and we all agree with that. As any acquisition of skill requires practice, acquisition of English also requires practice. The English teacher ought to help the student practice the language. So there should be a dialogue between the student and the teacher. There can’t be one way dialogue so we can rule out the possibility of teaching English through lecture method. But unfortunately we still use the lecture method to teach language. Most of us not trained to teach English. We are being trained in our Post Graduation to appreciate literature. As students of literature we enjoy reading literature and also teaching literature. We teach our students how great and beautiful the poem is, how nice is the plot of the story, and how great is the characterization and what are the themes and motifs in the prescribed story. We have been doing that with great love of literature. Students also feel elated being able to understand the poem, story and the novel. In order to make our students understand better we teach all this in their mother tongue. We feel elated at the end of our teaching that we have done a great job. But that is not expected from us. We forget as soon as we read the poem of some great writer that we are language teachers. We become literature students. We go on explaining the beauty of the poem. There we are failing as an English Teacher. Our aim is to teach language, help the student to use English in his day to day life to communicate his ideas. We should enter the class with an aim to teach something that helps him to learn language and come out of the class with satisfaction that he has helped students to learn language. The poems, essays and stories should help generate situations to use language. So I request all the Lecturers in English to become teachers and also teachers of language.

STUDENT:

The students that we are teaching English have not been new to English. They have been learning English right from their III standard. They have been passing classes one after another taking a full academic year for each standard and at last came to us. But their standard in English still remained in the III standard. Who has to be blamed for this? Can we blame the student? No, certainly not. Can we blame the teacher who taught him all these years? No, certainly not. There has never been English teacher at primary or high school level until recent times. Very recently, the government has created a post called School Assistant in English. Earlier it was taught by a teacher who has learnt English as a second language in his graduation. His knowledge of English was limited to whatever that he has learnt in graduation as an II language. How can any one expect the best from him? So he taught out of compulsion and so the student passed all the classes and came to us without required input skills in language. The student in intermediate is required to read and understand poetry, prose and comprehend the passages. He is supposed to learn grammar, write letters and compositions. He came to us with not being able to read with not being able to write his name and with not being able to understand a simple and common sentence in English, with not being able to utter a simple word. We are here to teach him every thing in two years. Had we a magic wand, we could have probably taught every expected thing to him. Had he a super brain, probably he should have learnt every thing in these two years. Neither we have magic wands nor did he have super brain. So what is the student doing in these two years? What does he expect in the class room? How does he plan to learn English?

For a student learning English is to pass the exam. He never thinks that he is in the English class to learn language. He thinks that he is in the class room so that teacher gives him notes and he has to take it down and learn it by heart so that he would pass the exam. Of course not all the students think this way. If they think this way we would not have any problem. All of them would have passed and our business would have been easier. Only very few students those we grade them best would think this way. The others, they have no idea why they are in the class. They know only one thing they have passed 10^th class and came to intermediate and they should pass inter as they have passed 10^th class.

Those few students who we think are the best would expect their teacher to teach short-cut methods to answer the grammar questions. He expects the teacher to give him made easy material. He never bothers to understand the material. He steals our heart and becomes the best of our students by memorizing the material as it is. The teaching and learning language has been reduced to intellectual exercise with no practical application. Students are content with rote memorization of material that they don’t understand. Students are reduced to data banks without having a program to process the data. They are not learning a language. They are only memorizing words and idioms that they don’t know how to use.

THE EXAMINATION:

The examination was conducted to check whether the student has reached the expected level. But now a day the exam is not for the students. It has become an exam to the teacher. It has become a yard stick to test our sincerity. If the student fails, he would be given a chance to pass the exam in supplementary exam. But if we are unable to get the expected results we would immediately be suspended and if you are a contract lecturer you would be fired. Whatever the kind of student we are entrusted to us, we are supposed to get him pass. We are of course not expected to teach language, we are expected to succeed in the exam. May be for this reason the English question paper is designed in such a way that the student pass the exam.

I hope there would be no contradiction in accepting the fact that the English text book designed by English and Foreign Language University aims at improving the four basic skills of the language. The exam should be conducted to check whether the expected aims are achieved or not. But I don’t think we are doing that. Let me examine the question paper. The question paper is divided into three sections. The first section includes the paragraph questions, annotations and essay type questions. It consists of 40% of question paper. Here we are merely testing the memory of the student. The questions are asked repetitively. No question is asked to test the writing skills of the student. During valuation the examiners are asked to award marks for the content. Language and expression are least bothered about. Just if the student is able to write the answer in his own butter English, we are expected to award 40 to 50% of the marks. For annotations mere writer name and lesson name would fetch him 50% of marks. We are least bothered about the language. That is my point.

Then we have Section ‘B’. Here we have comprehension passages. They are supposed to test the reading skills of the student. The student ought to read the passage and understand it and then answer the questions. The answer itself should not be important. But the answer should convince the examiner that the student has understood the passage. We can tolerate grammatical mistakes here. Because here we are not testing his writing skills we are testing his reading skills. But usually we never find any grammatical mistake in the answers. Because the student just copies the answer from the passage just by searching the key word in the question. Only thing we do is read the answer and locate the correct phrase of the answer and underline it and award marks. The comprehension passages have become a source for the examiner to be more humane towards failing students.

The last section includes grammar and communication skills for the 1st year and Writing skills and communication skills for the 2^nd year. Grammar in the first year has been reduced to mathematical formulas. The same type of questions is asked repeatedly. The question paper doesn’t test application level grammar. The student who scores full marks in grammar would have done blunder grammatical mistakes in answering the questions in section ‘A’. The student fails to synchronize grammar with his linguistic skills. The grammar is taught as if it is a separate discipline. The student doesn’t know what is the purpose of active and passive voice, reported speech, question tags, degrees of comparison and simple compound and complex sentences. The same questions could be asked in different way so that the student needs to apply his knowledge of English. Recent DSC question paper could be best example. It was a very difficult question paper for the DSC aspirants because they are not direct questions. But most of the questions are based on the intermediate grammar. If the questions are challenging at least some of the students would learn the language.

Then we have letter writing, process writing, note-making and report writing. These questions would perfectly test the writing skills of the students. But are the examiners really testing the writing skills. Least is cared about these questions. The fastest valuation is done for these questions. We would not even care to read the full sentence. Here again we peruse the content and safely give away 50% of marks and turn the pages of the answer script in haste.

Then we have communication skills. I have many doubts in the questions. How are silent letters, missing letters, syllables and stress marking test the communication skills. Silent letters may test the reading skills I mean just reading out. Missing letters may test the spelling skills. Syllables, phonetic transcription and stress marking are supposed to be tested at higher level to the students who have already have mastered linguistic skills. But these questions seem to be included in the question paper only with a view to get better results in English.

Common Errors used to have 8% share in the question paper. It was reduced to 4%. There used to be parsing of the sentence. Long back we have removed it. Ultimately the question paper has assured the student that he doesn’t need to be more careful in learning English.

Through the revised question paper we have achieved great results. The passing percentage of the students has risen unbelievably. But remember it has diluted the standards of English. When this batch of students become primary teachers or school assistants how further it would dilute the standards of English, no one knows.

CONCLUSION:

You may feel that even I feel that my paper is very harsh. But remember truth is always harsh. I don’t say that I have been teaching differently from others. Even I am doing the same. My question is that can’t we change it. I strongly feel that no. Not that we are incapable. Our higher authorities are least bothered about the standards. We are pressurized for results. We are teaching to achieve results. The students are pressurized to pass the subject. We are encouraging them to memorize the material so that they would pass and bring no problems to us. The question paper is designed in such a way that the ultimate aim of getting results would become easier.

Here I remember Tagore’s poem “Where the mind is without fear”. He offers prayer to God to let his country awake in the place where the mind is free and where the head is held high and so on. But we teachers have no freedom in our mind; our head is held down before higher authorities. Under these conditions we have no strategies of our own to improve the linguistic skills of the students but blindly like slaves following the orders of those who have no experience in teaching profession. So I feel we would continue with what we have been doing for many more years probably to the last day of our retirement.

C. G. LAKSHMI PRASAD,

J.L.in English,

Government Junior College,

Maldakal, Mahaboobnagar Dist.

China gifted Pakistan uranium for 2 bombs Pak Nuke Scientist A Q Khan Spills The Beans

Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN

Washington: China's dirty little secret of nuclear proliferation to Pakistan, including virtually giving Islamabad two nuclear weapons on a platter while the US remained oblivious and smug, has exploded in Washington. Embarrassingly for US president Barack Obama, the disclosures come on the eve of his much-anticipated visit to Beijing.
In a letter that Khan sent to British journalist Simon Henderson, parts of which have already been made public with the latest dribble coming out ahead of Obama's visit to China next week, the Pakistani metallurgist reveals the secret.
In 1976, Pakistan's then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto approached China's supreme leader chairman Mao in his quest for the nuclear bomb. By this time, Bhutto had already invited expat Pakistani scientists, including Khan, to return home to help make the bomb to ensure that the country was never again humiliated by India the way it happened in 1971.
"Chinese experts started coming regularly to learn the whole technology" from Pakistan and Pakistani experts were dispatched to Hanzhong in central China, where they helped "put up a centrifuge plant," Khan said.
After winning Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's approval, Khan and three others flew aboard a US made Pakistani C-130 to Urumqi. Khan says they enjoyed barbecued lamb while waiting for the Chinese military to pack the small uranium bricks into lead-lined boxes, 10 single-kilogram ingots to a box for a total of 50 kgs of highly enriched uranium, for the flight back to Islamabad. "The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50 kgs enriched uranium."
By Khan's account, Pakistan did not initially use the Chinese fissile material and kept it in storage till 1985 because they had made a "few bombs"with their own material. The Pakistanis then asked Beijing if it wanted its nuclear material back. After a few days, Khan says the Chinese wrote back "that the HEU loaned earlier was now to be considered as a gift... in gratitude" for Pakistani help. The Pakistanis promptly used the Chinese material to fabricate hemispheres for two weapons and added them to Pakistan's arsenal.
"The speed of our work and our achievements surprised our worst enemies and adversaries and the West stood helplessly by to see a Third World nation mastering the most advanced nuclear technology in the shortest possible span of time," he boasts in a separate 11-page narrative.
Pak rejects report of uranium supply
Pakistan on Friday angrily rejected a US newspaper report that China provided the nuclear-armed Muslim state with weapons grade uranium for two bombs in 1982. A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry rejected the allegations in a Washington Post article as "baseless." "Pakistan strongly rejects the assertions in the article that is evidently timed to malign Pakistan and China," the spokesman said in a statement. AFP

- Times of India (14-11-2009)

Criminals as corporators? It’s your vote

Almost All Major Parties Have Candidates With Links To Crime
Mahesh Buddi | TNN

Hyderabad: It’s the first elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). But the familiar breed — candidates with criminal background — are at play again for the Nov. 23 polls. Of the total 1,310 candidates, at least 40 have criminal records.
Within the Hyderabad police commissionerate alone, of the 800 contenstants, 28 with criminal antecedents have been fielded by all major political parties. Similarly, of the 501 candidates from Cyberabad, at least a dozen have a criminal record, according to cops.
The list includes even four history-sheeters and the charges against most range from murder, attempt to murder, communal violence, extortion, criminal intimidation, assault on a public servant, rioting and trespass to minor ones like mischief.
For instance, MIM’s Rehamatnagar ward (Yousufguda) candidate Chinna Srisailam has a 20-year-old history sheet in Jubilee Hills police station with about 25 cases to his credit, including attempt to murder. “He is involved in all kinds of criminal offences but not yet convicted,” a cop said.
Yadav’s son Naveen (MIM candidate from Yousufguda ward) too has a few poll-related cases against him in the same police station as his father. There are more in the MIM list, including Samad Bin Abbas (Uppuguda), Yousuf Naquas Badi (Laitabagh), Murtuza Ali Khan (Chawni in Reinbazar area), Mir Zulfiqr Ali (Hussainialam) and Mohammed Ghouse (Shalibanda). And in keeping with fair representation to women in all categories, MIM has even fielded Farah Khan — aka “Lady Don” — from Maula Ali. She has a colourful history sheet against her in Saidabad police station.
The TDP list includes Chandrayangutta historysheeter Mohammemd Chand (Lalithabagh) charged with assault and criminal intimidation and Raju Singh (Mangalhat), who has a history sheet in Tapachabutra police station and has been charged with murder during communal clashes in 2003. Among others, Chinnaboina Rajender (Aliabad, Old City) is a former history sheeter of Shalibanda police station and Singireddy Srinivas Reddy (Saidabad) has several cases against him in Saidabad police station.
Among the candidates put up by the MBT, Saleh Bin Ahmed (Barkas) has several cases in Chadrayangutta police station, Amzadullakhan Khaled (Azapura) has cases in Dabeerpura and Chaderghat, while Hani Bin Mubaraq (Talabkatta) has cases in Bhavani Nagar.
There are no history sheeters contesting from North, East and Central Zones of the city police limits but there are 10 candidates of various parties against whom various election-related cases are registered. 10 GHMC candidates face poll-related charges
There are 10 candidates in the GHMC poll fray belonging to varius parties who are facing election-related cases. For instance, Lavanya (ward number 171 in Old Bowenpally) has cases against her for threatening people to vote for her party in the previous elections. Similar charges exist against Independent candidates P Mohan Rao (ward number 142 in Chilakalguda) and Mohammed Yousafuddin (ward number 121 in Old Bowenpally). Among such candidates fielded by the BJP are Jitendra Yadav and Ramu Yadav from Azampura area, Joshi (Gunfoundry ward), Mahaveer Prasad Thakur (Jiyaguda) and J Sahdev Yadav (Kurmaguda). All of them have cases registered for disobedience of an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant under section 188 of the IPC. CPI’s Shankar Naik (IS Sadan ward) has cases against him for staging protests and dharnas. The Independent’s category too includes history-sheeters. B R Sadanad Mudiraj (Aliabad ward) has a history sheet in Chatrinaka police station and cases against him include offences related to communal violence and also a murder in 1996. At present there are some property related cases registered against him, the police said. TNN

(from Time of India Dated 14-11-2009)