Home » 2010 » April (Page 16)

Kerala initiates signature campaign for using elephants in temple festivals

Thrissur (Kerala), Apr 30 : Scores of elephant-lovers and owners in Kerala are undertaking the task of collecting one million signatures on a petition to save the centuries-old tradition of parading caparisoned elephants during temple festivals, following a demand for a ban from animal protection agencies. The main objective behind the campaign is to collect as many signatures as possible and send them to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and state Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, for consideration before taking any decisions to ban the presence of elephants during the temple festivals.

Marine conservationists identifies first whale shark off Gujarat coast

Veraval (Gujarat), Apr 30 :India has begun to contribute to global whale shark research, with marine researchers identifying the first off the Gujarat Coast. The shark was labelled as I-001 and is India’s first entry to the global database on whale sharks reported and identified from over 40 countries. The global database is managed by the ECOCEAN.

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Hurriyat leader Geelani in custody for violating house arrest

Srinagar, Apr 30 : All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Sayyed Ali Shah Geelani was taken into custody by Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday afternoon for violating house arrest norms. Geelani was placed under house arrest following his call to march on the UN office in the city. The hardline faction of the APHC had given call for the march in protest against the Delhi Court’s verdict on the 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast case, which sentenced three of the accused to death.

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Masters programme in Geoinformatics in Kashmir University finds many takers

Srinagar, Apr 30 : With the threat of global warming growing, a newly introduced course, Geoinformatics, is attracting the attention of youth in Jammu and Kashmir. The Kashmir University (KU) has introduced a Masters programme in Geoinformatics, a frontier field of Science, at the Department of Geology and Geophysics from the academic session 2010-11. The KU also started the PG Diploma in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) in the year 2004.

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Alive or dead, snow leopardess remains main attraction at Nainital Zoo

Nainital, Apr 30 : Whether alive or dead, a snow leopardess remains one of the main attractions of the G B Pant High Altitude Zoo in Nainital. Rani, the snow leopardess, died last week at the zoo, but her body is being preserved using taxidermy techniques. “This snow leopardess was the main attraction of the zoo for years, and it is also a very rare animal which is only found in snowy regions.

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Brit kids feel safer in mum’s taxi than when dad is behind the wheel!

Melbourne, April 30 : Most British children prefer being in mum’s taxi than when dad is behind the wheel, says a survey. The British Guild of Experienced Motorists survey found that a lot of children feel their fathers drive too fast. Apparently, six out of 10 children aged five to 16 are happier and more relaxed when their mother is driving.

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Pak in list of US panel’s list of 13 violators of religious freedom

Washington, Apr.30 : A US governmental panel has included Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China in a list of 13 countries that have seriously violated religious freedoms. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, described the countries where religious freedom is endangered as ‘hot spots’, and called upon the US Government to take steps to improve conditions in those nations. “It is a small but critically important point of intersection of foreign policy, national security and international religious freedom standards,” the report stated.

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Navy ship sinking might affect six-party talks: South Korea

Seoul, Apr. 30 : The South Korean Government said that a mysterious sinking of its naval warship last month might affect chances of reopening the stalled six-party talks.I can’t say the incident is directly related to the future of the six-party talks. But now that the state of affairs surrounding the Korean peninsula is affected by the incident, (the government) might need to review future process of the six-party talks in relation to the current situations,” Xinhua quoted Kim Young-sun, Seoul’s foreign ministry spokesman, as saying at a news briefing on Thursday.

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Jindal declares emergency as Louisiana oil slick set to be ‘worse than Exxon Valdez’

New York, Apr 30: Louisiana’s Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency after oil spilling from America’s Deepwater Horizon rig is threatening to dwarf the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. A leaking pipeline is spewing out 210,000 gallons a day into the Gulf of Mexico – five times more than first thought. Experts fear the spillage will eventually be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, as the slick off the coast near New Orleans is already 100 miles long and 45 miles across.

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