News India-Times

Worldwide, CPJ found 64 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2007-up from 56 last year-and it is investigating another 22 deaths to determine whether they were work-related.

CPJ has recorded only one year with a higher death toll: 1994, when 66 journalists were killed, many in conflicts in Algeria, Bosnia, and Rwanda.

For the fifth straight year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press. Its 31 victims account for nearly half of the 2007 toll.

Most of the victims were targeted and murdered, such as Washington Post reporter Salih Saif Aldin, who died in Baghdad from a single gunshot wound to the head. In all, 24 deaths in Iraq were murders and seven occurred in combat-related crossfire.

Unidentified gunmen, suicide bombers, and U.S. military activity all posed fatal risks for Iraqi journalists. All but one of 31 journalists killed were Iraqi nationals.

They worked mainly for local media, although nine worked for international news organizations such as The New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, and The Associated Press.

The 2007 toll in Iraq is consistent with that of 2006, when 32 journalists died.

Twelve media support workers, such as bodyguards and drivers, also died in Iraq. Since the beginning of the war in March 2003, 124 journalists and 49 media workers have been killed, making it the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history. More than one-third worked for international news organizations.

Somalia was the second-deadliest country for the media in 2007, with seven journalist deaths. "Horrific violence in Iraq overshadowed the increasingly deteriorating environment for the media in Somalia," said Simon.

"Journalists reporting in Somalia face great risks every day."

Labels: iraq, journalists, media, pakistan, reports death rate, somalia, srilanka

# posted by PressMart Team @ 1:45 AM 0 Comments

Labels: Christmas, Christmas Tree, New York, Rockefeller, xmastree

# posted by PressMart Team @ 9:52 PM 1 Comments

Lee will star in ‘Victory', a film on cricket to be produced by Vivek Aggarwal and Ajit Pal.

Starring alongside Lee is Australian cricketing great Allan Border and fellow Australian cricketers Mike Hussey and Jason Gillespie.

"I am excited to be making my Bollywood debut in 'Victory' and I am hopeful playing the role of a cricketer will come naturally to me!" said Lee, 31, who earlier this year released ‘You're The One For Me', a duet with Asha Bhonsle.

The shooting of the film is scheduled to commence in Australia in January 2008 during the India-Australia cricket series and will feature more than 20 current and recent cricket stars from around the globe .

International cricket stars include Simon Jones and Saj Mahmood from England and New Zealand's Craig McMillan, Daryl Tuffey, Nathan Astle and Martin Crowe.

To read the complete article click here..
To read the complete e-paper click here: www.newsindia-times.com
Image and Article source: News India Times
Article taken from the issue: 14 Dec, 2007

Labels: Australian cricketer, Bollywood film, Brett Lee, Paceman, Victory

# posted by PressMart Team @ 2:19 AM 0 Comments

Washington's invitation to India to participate at Annapolis is seen by most analysts as yet another sign the United States considers New Delhi as a major emerging global geopolitical and economic power that should be part of global solutions to endemic conflicts. The Bush administration's initiative to relaunch peace efforts was attended by nearly 50 countries including a representative from Pakistan.

"India is ready to play its due role in this collective endeavor to strengthen the forces of peace and stability in the region," asserted Kapil Sibal, India's Minister of Science, Technology and Ocean Development, who led a delegation that included Ambassador Gharekhan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Special Envoy for West Asia.

Sibal drew attention to the millennia long relations between the Middle East and India, noting that "West Asia" was part of India's neighborhood. He pointed to India support for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and India's early recognition of the State of Palestine in 1988, as well as its full diplomatic and "close" relations with Israel since 1992.

To read the complete article click here..
To read the complete e-paper click here: www.newsindia-times.com
Image and Article source: News India times
Article taken from the issue: 7 Dec, 2007

# posted by PressMart Team @ 1:12 AM 0 Comments

The award, "for exceptional contribution in developing indigenous system and telecommunications infrastructure in India", was presented to the noted technocrat by Nim Cheung, the president of the IEEE Communications Society, at an event on November 27.

Credited with having laid the foundation for and ushered India's technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s, Pitroda accepted the award "on behalf of thousands and thousands of Indian engineers and scientists who have worked hard for the benefit of all the professionals".

A leading campaigner to help bridge the digital divide, Pitroda headed six technology missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy and oilseeds during his tenure as advisor to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s. He was also the founder and first chairman of India's Telecom Commission.

To read the complete article click here..
To read the complete article e-paper click here: www.newsindia-times.com
Image and Article source: News India Times
Article taken from the issue: 5 Dec, 2007

# posted by PressMart Team @ 3:11 AM 0 Comments

Prime Minister Stephen Harper invited India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to visit Canada, an invitation Singh accepted at their one-on-one meeting on Nov. 24, in Kampala, Uganda. Harper praised India's frontline role in the development and reconstruction of Afghanistan but reiterated Canada's position that New Delhi should put more pressure on the Burmese junta to abide by human rights.

"Both leaders expressed pleasure at the opportunity to meet and Prime Minister Harper extended an invitation to the Indian Prime Minister to visit Canada, which the latter said he would be delighted to accept given his personal links to Canada, including a university scholarship in his name," a read-out from the Prime Minister's office said.

The meeting took place in Kampala, Uganda on the edges of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting where Indian High Commissioner Kamlesh Sharma (formerly India's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York) was confirmed as Commonwealth Secretary General.

"Reflecting the diverse nature of Canada India relations, Prime Minister Harper and Prime Minister Singh had a warm discussion of a broad range of issues," the Harper communications office said in a release after the meeting.

According to news reports, the two also talked about Pakistan. But the Harper-Singh read-out on the Kampala meeting makes no mention of that.

To read the complete article click here...
To read the complete e-paper click here: www.newsindia-times.com

Image and Article source: News India Times
Article taken from the issue: 7 Dec, 2007

Labels: Canada, india, Manmohan Singh, New Delhi, Prime Minister, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Stephen Harper

# posted by PressMart Team @ 2:21 AM 0 Comments

What about writing?

It was believed until recently that writing originated in Egypt and Babylon.

Wrong.

A piece of pottery dug from an early stratum of Harappa, one of the two of the world's earliest cities (the other is Mohenjodaro) in the Indus Valley in present day Pakistan, has markings that are clearly not haphazard scratches, not bird's feet or impression of twigs, but were purposely by intelligent humans to signify something.

It is 5,500 years old, and the first preserved record of communication.

The discovery of this specimen of writing was reported by Richard Meadow of Harvard University and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer of the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Meadow, who is the director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project (HARP), told BBC in a report broadcast in 1999 that the Harappan inscriptions found may predate all other known writing. The BBC report caused a flutter in archeological dovecotes.

An Australian scholar and poet, Peter Knobel, waxed so far as to rhetorically ask: "Maybe the world's first book is a piece of pottery?"

Untril 1998, it was commonly accepted that the oldest writing might have come from Egypt.

Clay tablets containing primitive words were uncovered in southern Egypt at the tomb of a king named Scorpion.

They were carbon-dated to 3300-3200 B.C.. This is about the same time, or slightly earlier than the primitive writing developed by the Sumerians of the Mesopotamian civilization in around 3,100 B.C., Meadow told BBC News Online in the report which upset the chronology of writing accepted by scholars around the world since archeologists traveling with Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt discovered the Rosetta Stone.

To read the complete article click here..
To read the complete e-paper click here: www.newsindia-times.com
Image and article source: News India Times
Article taken from the issue: 7 Dec, 2007

Labels: clay tablet, egypt, harappa, Harvard University, Mesopotamian civilization, Napoleon Bonaparte, Rosetta Stone, University of Wisconsin Madison

# posted by PressMart Team @ 1:59 AM 0 Comments