MONTH THAT WAS

Age no bar-BTech@51
Jaipur: Domestic problems may have prevented him from completing his BTech way back in 1982, but 51-year old English teacher Alan Ali Khan has finally managed to get his degree after 27years. Khan, who got admission on merit in BITS, Pilani in 1977 had to discontinue his studies after seven semesters and joined as an English teacher in government service. But yearning for completing the engineering degree, Khan, in 2007, made a request to the university to re-admit him as a student. He completed his degree in Electronics Engineering by attending four semesters with the present students.

Jail, caning for attacks
A full-time national serviceman who assaulted two strangers with a metal stick, was jailed for 24 months and ordered to be given six strokes of the cane.
Daniel Tan Xiao Long, 21 pleaded guilty to striking Mr Tony Budianto Bee, 24, and Mr Kikushima Kenji, 19, in separate incidents.
Tan could have been jailed for up to 15 years, and fined or caned for the grievous hurt charge.

Canada to deport Sheikh Mujib’s assassin
Dhaka: Canada has moved to deport a former army colonel convicted of the 1975 assassination of Bangladesh’s founding president, Dhaka’s law minister said. Noor Chowdhury was among 12 men convicted in 2001 of murdering Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had led Bangladesh to independence in 1971. "Canada has rejected his request for refuge status and ordered he should be deported to Bangladesh. They seized his passport and returned it to our embassy in Ottawa," law minister Shafiq Ahmed said. Ahmed said "Chowdhury is the one who gunned down Sheikh Mujib", and witness in the case identified Chowdhury as one of the two officers who shot at the President. Bangladesh’s Supreme Court this month rejected appeals by five of the other army officers convicted of killing Sheikh Mujib, paving the way for their execution.

The disabled say yes to active living
Bangalore: Nothing is more stronger than the human spirit. Bangalore saw this come true when an overwhelming crowd of 10,000 people turned up at the Kanteerava stadium to participate in a walkathon.
The crowd comprised disabled children, who showed they are as much active as anybody else.
Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled organized the walkathon in the backdrop of World Disability Day, observed on December 3. The trust has been hosting this for the past five years.
The group walked through Cubbon Park and Hudson Circle before returning to the stadium. Later, cultural programmes were organized. G Jayaram, director of the department of welfare of the disabled and senior citizens, released the souvenir of Samarthanam Trust. "I congratulate the trust for helping the disabled," Jayaram said. Schools, colleges, corporates and organizations working for the disabled also participated. In the evening, rock band Pushing Tin and fusion music band Swaralayamurtha entertained the lively crowd. Children of Samarthanam Trust also gave a dance performance.
Perumal, principal secretary of Silk Board; B J Satyanarayana Swamy, freedom fighter; Shivram, Kannada actor, and Arundhati Chakraborty, vice president of Target International India Corporation, were present.

Brand IIT goes to the world, gets OK to set up a campus in Qatar
New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology may finally get its first offshore campus. The proposal to set up an IIT campus in Qatar has reportedly been given an initial go ahead.
To be called the International Institute of Technology, it is to be set up by all the IITs in a concerted effort. To be co-ordinated by the IIT council-the apex decision making body for all IIts-this proposed new institute is learnt to have got the first green signal from the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.
While the HRD Ministry has traditionally been opposed to IITs or IIMs venturing abroad, arguing that "elite" educational institutions must focus their energies in India alone, the new dispensation in the ministry is keen Brand India makes a mark abroad. It is learnt that the ministry has, in principle, said it has ‘no objection’ to the Qatar plan.
"To be called the International Institute of Technology, it will have the support of all the IITs. There will be a joint venture between the Indian government and the Qatar government," said an official.
IIT Qatar, when it comes up, will rub shoulders with elite institutes like Carnegie Mellon University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service that have set up branch campuses in Qatar’s Education city.
The Qatar Foundation, Chaired by the Emir’s wife, Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, has been instrumental in getting major American varsities set up centres in Education City-an educational district on the outskirts of Doha. The project aims to make oil-rich Qatar a knowledge economy by 2030.

After Trade Fair success, Tihar eyes market
New Delhi: After a "phenomenal response" to Tihar Jail’s stall in the India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan, the jail authorities are planning to move a step further and communicate with renowned companies to showcase products made by inmates in the market.
Tihar Jail spokesperson Sunil Kumar gupta said, "We are holding talks with Reebok authorities for selling Tihar products (made by inmates) at their outlets in Delhi."
According to officials, the jail’s stall in the Delhi state pavilion at the Trade Fair recorded sales of Rs 3.5 lakh this year-up from last year’s Rs 2.5 lakh.
Among items that drew crowd to the Tihar stall were handmade wooden products, shirts and food items like biscuits, cakes and namkeen made by inmates. Some of their paintings on display were also applauded by visitors.
"Besides registering a record sale of Rs 3.5 lakh this year, our stall remained crowded on most days," a senior Tihar jail official said. "Now, talented inmates in our jail should get the credit." Anil Luthra, a businessman whom Newsline met on the last day of the fair, said: "I was a little disappointed with the Delhi pavilion since it looked more like a poster exhibition.
But when I was about to make the exit, the Tihar jail stall caught my attention-I was surprised at the number of products it had, and all made by the inmates."

Headley is my half-brother
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s public relations officer acknowledged that David Coleman Headley, a terror suspect detained in the US, is his half brother but dismissed as incorrect reports that his family is related to the premier.
Public relations officer Danyal Gilani said in a statement that Indian media reports "trying to establish a relationship between Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the family of detained US terror suspect and my half-brother, Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley, is incorrect, misplaced and totally baseless."
The report is based on speculation and is intended to create "unnecessary hype", Danyal Gilani said. He said his ancestors migrated to Pakistan from Jastarwal in India’s Punjab state and Etawah in Uttar Pradesh while the premier’s family has been living in Multan "for centuries" and the two families "have no relationship with each other."
Danyal Gilani also acknowledged that the prime minister had issued a condolence message on his father Syed Saleem Gilani’s death in December last year and visited his house to offer condolences.
"This he did out of courtesy because I was working as his PRO and also because my father was a renowned broadcaster and a known personality of his time. At that time Daood (Gilani) was not in Pakistan," he said.
Danyal Gilani said he had been working as the PRO to the premier since 2005, when the post was held by Shaukat Aziz, and did not join after the current Pakistan people’s party-led government took over.
He also offered some details about his half-brother Daood, saying, "His having another name or charging his name at some stage in life has come as a surprise to me." He said he had "very little contact" with Daood since 2002, when he began living in Islamabad after passing the Civil Service examination.

China jails 5 scribes for taking bribe
Beijing: A Beijing reporter has been sent to jail for 13 years while four other journalists in Shanxi province have been awarded jail sentences for nine to 12 months for taking bribes.
The decisions come soon after another court verdict giving three years jail sentence to Chen Daojun, a freelance journalist who reported on a people’s demonstration against the establishment of a chemical plant in Sichuan. He was accused of "inciting subversion of state power."
The Beijing reporter, Guo Huaimian, worked for the prestigious newspapers, Chinese People’s Political and Consultative Conference Daily, which is run by one of the houses of the Chinese parliament. He has been given three yers jail and asked to pay a fine of 13,000 yuan.
Sources said Guo received 4,00,000 yuan from a doctor who wanted to be transferred from a country- level city hospital in Jilin province to the provincial capital Changchun. He did not deliver on his promise until he was arrested on March 2. He resigned one month before the arrest.
In Shanxi, four journalists have been sent to jail for taking bribes from a mine owner, who wanted them to suppress news of the death of a workers due to suffocation.
Another person who falsely claimed to represent the Legal Daily, a Chinese newspaper, got one year in jail over "blackmailllling".