Syria Suspended From Arab League Till It Ends Killings

CAIRO: The Arab League on Saturday suspended Syria until president Bashar al-Assad implements an Arab deal to end violence against protesters , and called for sanctions and transition talks with the opposition.

A statement, read by Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani , said the League decided "to suspend Syrian delegations' activities in Arab League meetings" if it continued to stall the Arab plan and to implement "economic and political sanctions against Syrian government."

It also called for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus, but left the decision to each Arab state. Sheikh Hamad said the decision would take effect on November 16. The statement warned that Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi would contact international organizations concerned with human rights, "including the UN" , if the bloodshed continued. It called for a meeting in Cairo with Syrian opposition groups in three days to "agree to a unified vision for the coming transitional period in Syria" . AFP

Obama praises League decision

US president Barack Obama on Saturday praised the "leadership" of the Arab League after the grouping suspended Syria in a move that deepened the Damascus government's isolation. "I applaud the important decisions taken by the Arab League, including suspension of Syria's membership," Obama said. "After the Assad regime failed to keep its commitments, the Arab League has demonstrated leadership in its effort to end the crisis and hold Syria accountable,"s he added.

EU backs Syria suspension

The European Union backed the Arab League's decision on Saturday to suspend Syria until president Bashar al-Assad implements a deal to end violence. We fully support the decisions taken by the Arab League which show the increasing isolation of the Syrian regime," a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

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Canada Introduces New 'Super Visa' For Families

MONTREAL: Canadian officials announced a new two-year, multi-entry "super visa" for parents and grandparents of immigrants settled in Canada.

The move came after wait times for sponsorship of "family class" applications had grown to an unwieldy seven years or longer.

"Without taking action, those times will continue to grow, and that is unacceptable," said Citizenship, Immigration and Multi culturalism Minister Jason Kenney in announcing the move yesterday.

"Action must be taken to cut the backlog, reduce the wait times, and ensure that the parents and grandparents program is sustainable over the long run," Kenney said.

The multiple-entry "Parent and Grandparent Super Visa" will be valid for up to 10 years, officials said, and allow applicants to remain in Canada for 24 months before needing seek visa renewal.

The new visas will begin on December 1 and will be issued, "on average, within eight weeks of the application," officials said.

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Cameron Warns Of Eurozone Doomsday

LONDON: British prime minister David Cameron on Saturday warned that the country's economy will be hit hard by further turmoil in eurozone , saying there's a big question mark over the future of the common European currency.

"If we risked spending a lot more money or giving up on our plan to get on top of our debts and our deficit, interest rates could go up, mortgage rates could go up. That would be the worst thing for family finances," PM Cameron said, adding that if UK interest rates hit Italian levels, it would be "calamitous" .

Asking Britons to "prepare for the worst" , Cameron later told BBC, "These are very worrying times. It's a very difficult time for the eurozone , there's real turbulence in the markets, real question marks over whether countries can deal with their debts and a big question mark over the future of the eurozone."

The European crisis has already impacted on India's economic growth in the current financial year, with import demands from Europe predictably slowing down. However, as the world waited with bated breath, there was hope for Europe with the Italian chamber of deputies debating a package of economic reforms which, when approved, could introduce an era of fiscal discipline in Europe's third largest economy. The Italian senate voted by 156 to two to endorse the cuts.

The rising expectation over Berlusconi's exit was, however, tempered by a warning from the head of the EU, Herman Van Rompuy, that a Eurozone split "would destroy the (European) single market" . He was responding to Cameron's remarks on the future of eurozone.

It is anticipated that the Italian reforms will cut public spending drastically and stimulate sluggish growth to stall market panic over its $2.58 trillion debt and fears of a Greek-style meltdown.

There are serious concerns in Italy that even if a Mario Monti government is formed - and Monti is a respected economist - this could be brought down within months by political infighting and an inability to push through the deeply unpopular reforms. Angela Merkel, German chancellor, is expected next week to back proposals to change treaties to allow countries to leave the euro - the common currency of 17 European countries. French and German officials have reportedly already begun discussions on how countries like Greece and Italy could be eased out of the eurozone if they refuse to cut public spending and borrowing.

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Republicans Assail Obama On Iran, Jab Pakistan

Republican White House hopefuls Saturday slammed President Barack Obama's handling of Iran and vowed a tougher line - even going to war - to stop Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons.

"If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said as the candidates opened their first foreign policy debate. "If you elect me as the next president, they will not."

But former pizza chain executive Herman Cain, running neck-and-neck with Romney in the polls, said "the only way you can stop them is through economic means," pledging tougher sanctions, and support for domestic opposition groups.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, whose support has recently surged, sided with Romney, calling "maximum covert operations" against Iran's suspect nuclear program, "including taking out their scientists" and sabotage.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN atomic watchdog, said Tuesday it had "serious concerns" based on "credible" information that Iran has "carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."

But former Republican senator Rick Santorum said the United States "should be working with Israel right now to do what they did in Syria, what they did in Iraq, which is take out that nuclear capability before the next explosion we hear in Iran is a nuclear one -- and then the world changes."

Republican Representative Ron Paul said it was "not worthwhile" to go to war to halt Iran's suspect nuclear program, and compared the heated US rhetoric against Tehran to the flawed case for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"I'm afraid what's going on right now is similar to the war propaganda that went on against Iraq. You know, they didn't have weapons of mass destruction and it was orchestrated," he warned.

Gingrich and Romney criticized Obama on Syria, saying he had done too little to help protesters there as President Bashar al-Assad's bloody crackdown on demonstrators left an estimated 3,500 people dead.

They both urged covert action in Syria.

Most of the candidates sharply criticized Pakistan, with Texas Governor Rick Perry saying he would restrict foreign aid -- which is allocated by the US Congress -- to countries that do not support American interests.

Cain said Washington's ties to Islamabad "must be reevaluated" and said "we don't know, it's not clear" whether Pakistan is friend or foe of the United States.

Cain, Republican Representative Michele Bachmann, Santorum, and Perry all said they would overturn Obama's ban on harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists widely seen as torture.

"If I was president I would be willing to use waterboarding," said Bachmann, referring to a method of simulated drowning.

Perry agreed> "I don't see it as torture," he said. "I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique," using the preferred term under Obama's predecessor George W. Bush.

However Paul bluntly declared "waterboarding is torture" and said "It's illegal under international law and under our law. It's also immoral and it's also very impractical."

Former US envoy to China Jon Huntsman sided with Paul, saying: "We diminish our standing in the world and the values that we project which include liberty, democracy, human rights, and open markets when we torture."

The Republicans also tarred Obama as an unreliable friend to staunch US ally Israel -- hoping to energize their conservative Christian base and douse his support among Jewish voters, a key bloc in heavyweight states such as Florida.

Foreign policy can define a presidency but is unlikely to decide the election: US voters are focused foremost on the sour economy.

But Romney and Gingrich also took a hawkish line on Obama's decision to order the slaying of US-born key Al-Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaqi -- agreeing it was the right thing to do -- although Paul called into question its legality.

Asked about what are seen in Washington as Beijing's unfair trade practices, Perry vowed a hard line and predicted China's communist government would "end up on the ash-heap of history" -- Republican icon Ronald Reagan's prediction about the Soviet Union.

"Like everybody else on the world stage, they have to play by the rules," said Romney, promising to seek retaliatory tariffs on Chinese goods over Beijing's alleged policy of keeping its currency -- and thus its products -- artificially cheap.

"They're stealing our jobs and we're going to stand up to China," he said.

"I don't know that this country needs a trade war with China," Huntsman shot back, saying that Washington should be reaching out to China's young people, whose aspirations for greater freedom will "take China down."

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Hindus Pledge Allegiance To Pakistan At Mass Wedding Ceremony

KARACHI: Amid attacks on Hindus in Pakistan's Sindh province, hundreds of community members here have pledged their allegiance to the country.

The pledge came at a mass wedding ceremony organised by the Pakistan Hindu Council yesterday in this financial hub which was attended by hundreds of Hindus and Muslims.

The ceremony saw 80 couples exchange wedding vows in traditional Hindu rites as prominent social worker Sattar Edhi also gave his blessings to the couples.

"I think this ceremony is the best platform for us to make it clear that all Hindus living in this country are as patriotic and nationalistic as every other Pakistani of any religion. People should not question our allegiance to Pakistan," said Mukesh Kumar, a senior official of the Pakistan Hindu Council.

The same sentiments were expressed by many other Hindus at the ceremony with Prem, one of the grooms, insisting they also wanted to see Pakistan prosper as a nation.

The Hindu community in Pakistan's southern Sindh province has been up in arms over the killing of three Hindus including doctors in Chak town near Shikarpur on Eid day and the incident has even led to President Asif Ali Zardari ordering the government machinery to probe the incident and provide justice to the victims.

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60 Himachal Pradesh School Students To Visit Nasa Centres

NEW DELHI: Nearly 60 students from a Himachal Pradesh school are scheduled to visit US space agency NASA's centres next month to study robotics and nuances involved in designing a space shuttle, an official said Sunday.

Students of Dalhousie Public School, located in Chamba district, will leave for the US Dec 9 for a 10-day visit to the NASA Space Center at Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida, principal of the school G.S. Dhillon said in a statement released here.

The selected students are from Classes 6 to 10. They will be accompanied by four teachers.

"The students will be exposed to the world of space sciences, robotics and nuances involved in designing a space shuttle," Dhillon said.

"They will be taken around NASA and will be explained how space shuttles are assembled and where astronauts are trained," he said.

The students are also scheduled to visit the Florida-based Kennedy Space Centre's shuttle landing facility to study vehicle assembly building system. The Kennedy Space Centre is a unit of NASA.

During the 10-day visit, the students will get a chance to crawl through rocket tunnels, lunch with astronauts, interact with scientists at the beating heart of NASA and visit the "Hall of Fame".

They are also scheduled to visit the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a huge pool constructed to experience weightlessness, the first step of getting the feel of being in space.

According to an official statement released here, the budding scientists would interact with NASA scientists and astronauts and learn how to make rocket ships and Mars rovers. "They will also get a chance to launch it themselves in the Rover Obstacle Course."

All the participants will be awarded certificates from the Kennedy Space Centre and souvenirs from the astronauts.

After the conclusion of the programme at the Kennedy Space Centre, the students will also have the opportunity to visit Hollywood studios, Orlando, New York.

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India Yet To Introduce Pneumonia Shots

NEW DELHI: India records the highest number of child pneumonia deaths globally, but is among the only four of the 15 countries with the highest child pneumonia death toll that is yet to introduce the newest generation of pneumoccal vaccines.

A Pneumonia progress report, 2011, released by the International Access Vaccine Centre ( IVAC) and John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health last week shows that India recorded 3.71 lakh child pneumonia deaths in 2008, but till 2010 had "not introduced" the HIB vaccine against pneumonia.

It had also not taken "any action" to introduce PCV10 and PCV - the newest-generation of pneumococcal vaccines. The report says last year alone, 10 of the 15 countries have either introduced PCV10 or PCV13, have been approved for introduction, or have applied to the GAVI Alliance for introduction support.

It is estimated that by 2013, 11 of the 15 countries will have introduced the pneumococcal vaccines in their national immunization programmes. India is among the four countries that haven't taken much action. Together, these 15 countries account for approximately 75% of the global toll of child pneumonia.

The report says in India, while 69% of children suspected to have pneumonia were taken to a health facility, only 13% were administered antibiotics.

Feeding infants only breast milk in the first six months of life is a key protection intervention highlighted in the report. Breast milk alone provides all of the essential nutrients babies need to thrive and grow. Exclusive breastfeeding has multiple positive effects, and chief among them is its ability to bolster an infant's immunity to help combat disease, protecting babies from not only pneumonia but also diarrhoea and other infections.

However, the report says that only 46% of children in India are exclusively breastfed by their mothers in the first six months, which is abysmally low.

It explains, "Pneumonia remains the leading killer of young children around the world, according to the most recent WHO estimates. Every year, pneumonia claims the lives of more than one million children before their fifth birthday - accounting for more young deaths annually than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. In the 15 focus countries alone, an additional half a million more children were vaccinated against pertussis, more than 1 million additional children were vaccinated against measles and about 155,000 more children were vaccinated against HIB pneumonia, as compared to the previous year."

It is estimated that as many as 3-4 million child deaths could be prevented by accelerating pneumococcal vaccines in all developing countries over the next decade.

"However, even more children can be saved from pneumonia if additional gains are made in the following areas "promoting exclusive breastfeeding, recognizing the signs and symptoms of pneumonia early and ensuring proper treatment with antibiotics and limiting exposure to indoor smoke," it adds.

Every four minutes, one child dies of pneumonia-causing diseases in India even before reaching their fifth birthday.

Box

Global toll count

1. India: 371, 605

2. Nigeria: 177, 212

3. Congo: 112, 655

4. Pakistan: 84, 210

5. Afghanistan: 80, 694

6. China: 62, 229

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Tainted Puducherry Minister Sacked

PUDUCHERRY: Bowing to pressure from many quarters, chief minister N Rangasamy on Saturday sacked education minister P M L Kalyanasundaram, who was accused of using a proxy to write his Class 10 supplementary examination.

Rangasamy sent an official communication to lieutenant governor Iqbal Singh on Saturday evening recommending that Kalyanasundaram be dropped from the cabinet. A first-time MLA and minister, Kalyanasundaram, besides education, also held transport portfolio. But the ugly controversy triggered by charges of impersonation ended his extremely short ministerial tenure. The 34-year-old was sworn in minister in June after Rangasamy's NR Congress formed government with the support of an independent after the assembly elections.

The lieutenant governor is right now in Punjab. Singh's private secretary S Srinivasan told TOI that he had been briefed about the development. "We forwarded the recommendation of the chief minister to Union home ministry by fax after getting the approval from the lieutenant governor," he said.

Opposition parties, including the Congress and the AIADMK, have been demanding the removal of Kalyanasundaram after he was booked by the Tamil Nadu police for allegedly using a proxy for writing the Class 10 supplementary exams. Union minister V Narayanasamy had warned that the Centre would be forced to intervene and initiate action against the Rangasamy government if it failed to remove the minister from the cabinet. The AIADMK too had urged the Centre to dismiss the Rangasamy government for attempting to protect a minister facing criminal charges while the CPI staged a series of protests demanding that the government sack Kalyanasundaram.

Kalyanasundaram, a Class 10 dropout, claimed to have appeared for the science supplementary examination on September 29, held in a private school in Tindivanam, even while preparing for a degree course through the open university. However, allegations surfaced that the minister had used a proxy to write the exam on his behalf. The suspicion strengthened when the minister, who was to appear for social sciences paper the next day, did not take the exam.

The Tamil Nadu government ordered an inquiry into the episode and the state crime branch booked the minister on October 8 under various IPC sections, including cheating and forgery. The police also filed cases against two government officials -- the examination hall supervisor P Aadhavan and office assistant M Rajni Kanth -- for connivance.

Even while denying the charges of impersonation against him, Kalyanasundaram went into hiding after the Madras high court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea on November 8. Sources in the AINRC, the breakaway group of the Congress led by Rangasamy, said the minister has decided to approach the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail. The Tamil Nadu police has intensified search to nab the minister. A Tindivanam judicial magistrate court has directed the minister to appear for enquiry on November 25.

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Controversial Bangladeshi Film To Be Released In India

KOLKATA: Victor Banerjee and Jaya Bachchan starrer 'Meherjaan', about a Bangladeshi woman's affair with a Pakistani soldier in the backdrop of the 1971 Liberation War abruptly withdrawn from theaters in the neighbouring country, will soon be released in India.

"We are looking for a distributor in India. We are also trying for a DVD release in India and Bangladesh," the film's director Rubaiyat Hossain, who has tied up with Anticlock Films owned by Sanjay Suri and Onir to sell the film in India, told PTI from Dhaka.

The film which also has Pakistani and Bangladeshi actors and depicts certain pitfalls of nationalism that create conditions to justify war, killing and violence was withdrawn from theatres in Bangladesh after a week's screening in January despite impressive box office earnings.

A section of intellectuals and freedom fighters criticised the film for allegedly distorting the country's independence war and humiliating freedom fighters and 'Biranganas' (Bangladeshi women raped by occupation Pakistani troops).

"The censor board was clearly reluctant to have any further discussions with me. The removing of 'Meherjaan' from theatres has been jointly done by the cultural and political elites and the armed forces," the debutante director said.

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Former President Apj Abdul Kalam Frisked Twice In Us

NEW DELHI: In a shocking incident, former President APJ Abdul Kalam was twice subjected to frisking at New York's JFK Airport with US security officials even taking his jacket and shoes to check for explosives.

80-year-old Kalam was in the United States in September to attend a series of events and the incident took place while he was returning home from New York on September 29.

Sources said after Kalam had taken his seat in the aircraft, officials of the JFK Airport came inside and said they wanted to check the former President once again, which was strongly protested by Air India authorities.

However, the airport authorities were adamant about searching the passengers again, the sources said, adding Kalam did not protest.

"Later, they took away his shoes and jacket much to the dissatisfaction of the Air India authorities.However, they returned them later," the sources said.

Sources close to Kalam said he doesn't give much thought to such incidents and never complains about them.

However, this time, his office informed the ministry of external affairs about the incident after he returned home.

A detailed report on the incident was prepared by Air India's director (security) S Mathur and sent to the civil aviation ministry which in turn forwarded it to the external affairs ministry in October.

"As the incident happened on the American soil, I have been informed that US security agencies are investigating it now. Such incidents should not happen," civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi told PTI.

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