INDIA:SPOKEN ENGLISH CLASSES BIG HIT AMONG TIHAR PRISONERS

NEW DELHI, Jan 31 (NNN-PTI): To improve their employability or just pick up an additional skill, prisoners at the country’s largest prison, Tihar, are increasingly attending spoken English classes being conducted there.

The two-hour long tutorials being organised every day have seen an increase in the number of students as more and more are expressing their interest in learning the language.

Authorities at the Tihar prison said both male and female prisoners are coming regularly to attend these classes and taking great interest in them.

“Over time, we have seen prisoners showing their keenness to join the classes. We have great rush to manage everyday,” Tihar Prisons spokesperson Sunil Gupta said.

Interestingly, the classes are given not by language trainers but different English-speaking prisoners lodged here.

Explaining the idea behind the classes, Gupta said, “There are so many prisoners of foreign nations who know good English.

-NNN-PTI

Warm welcome for ‘Polar Girl’ Era

A WARM welcome with flowers was accorded to Brunei’s ‘Polar Girl’ yesterday as she returned to her motherland after the gruelling trek on ice to the South Pole. “I’m ecstatic to be back! Alhamdullilah,” said Dk Najibah Eradah binti Pengiran Haji Ahmad Mandi Al-Sufri or Era (Polar Girl), the first Bruneian to successfully skied 900kms .

Police must ensure results

The Commissioner of Police yesterday urged speedy action and thorough investigation into public complaints, to produce results. Those who make reports have the right to know the outcome of the cases being investigated, he emphasised. Pehin Datu Kerna Setia CP Dato Paduka Seri Zainuddin B Jalani made this call during the 2nd CP conference at .

LONDON POLICE TO VERIFY SECURITY IN HOCKEY WORLD CUP

NEW DELHI, Jan 31 (NNN-PTI) Amidst concern over terror threat to the upcoming Hockey World Cup, a special squad of the London Police will arrive here next week to check the security preparedness for the sporting event.

During its visit beginning February 10, the team will visit the hockey stadia, interact with the organisers, Delhi Police and Home Ministry officials.

The foreign security experts will be briefed about the steps being taken to have foolproof security of the players and officers of the participating foreign teams.

They will also be taken to the places where the players will be lodged and practice venues during their three-day visit.

The Hockey World Cup will see participation by 10 countries and around 400 players and delegates. It will be held in the national capital between February 28 and March 13.

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PARA-MILITARY WOMEN TO COUNTER ANTI-INDIA PROPAGANDA

NEW DELHI, Jan 31 (NNN-PTI): The government has decided to deploy newly inducted para-military women personnel along the international borders, including with Pakistan and China, to give an impetus to civic action programmes and counter anti-India propaganda.

Plans are ready to get these young women to talk to the local population and inspire them to participate in government schemes and contribute to civic works in their respective areas.

“These women recruits of BSF, ITBP and SSB have largely come from areas which are either naxal or insurgency hit.

Despite problems, they chose to work in armed forces and have made excellent careers. The government aims to communicate their success stories to the youth and others in these border areas,” a senior para-military officer said.

Apart from the Pakistan and China borders, the women personnel will be posted along the Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan borders.

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New Al-Islah Centre in Kg Kupang set for full operations soon

ANOTHER milestone for the nation’s only drug rehabilitation centre, Al-Islah, was marked yesterday as the Public Works Department (PWD) handed over the keys of the newly completed centre in Kampong Kupang to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The ceremony that took place at Al-Islah’s new administration block saw Awg Hj Suhaimi bin Hj Abdul Ghaffar, .

INDIA:37 MORE CCTVS FOR DELHI AIRPORT

NEW DELHI, Jan 31 (NNN-PTI): Keeping in mind the security needs of Commonwealth Games, the Delhi Police is planning to install 37 more CCTVs at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here to ensure better monitoring of the facility as well as its periphery.

With this, the total number of CCTVs in the IGI will rise to 559.

The domestic terminal of the IGI presently has 325 CCTVs while the international terminal has 197 — both on the city side and and air side.

“At the initiative of airport police and DIAL, the operator of Delhi airport, a network of CCTVs are installed in the airport. Thirty-seven more CCTVs are to be installed soon,” a senior police official said.

These CCTVs are likely to monitor the periphery of the airport, the official said.

-NNN-PTI

UN: DISEASE SPREADS IN QUAKE-HIT HAITI

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Haiti’s desperate earthquake survivors faced a new deadly threat Friday as the United Nations reported a rise in cases of diarrhea, measles and tetanus in squalid tent camps for victims.

A vast foreign aid effort is struggling to meet survivors’ needs 19 days after the disaster, which killed around 170,000 people and left one million homeless and short of food, water and medical attention.

And with medicine running low amid efforts to treat hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless cramped into makeshift camps, officials and aid groups are scrambling to avoid a potential public health calamity that could push the death toll higher.

“Several medical teams report a growing case load of diarrhea in the last two to three days,” World Health Organization spokesman Paul Garwood said.

“There are also reports of measles and tetanus, including in resettlement camps, which is worrisome due to the high concentration of people,” he told journalists in Geneva.

UN agencies and Haiti’s government aim to launch a vaccination campaign against measles, tetanus and diphtheria next week. Just 58 percent of Haitian infants were immunized before the quake, Garwood said.

He highlighted a “critical” need for surgeons, with an estimated 30 to 100 amputations being carried out every day in some hospitals, while supplies of anesthetics and antibiotics were also needed.

Rebuilding the western hemisphere’s poorest nation could take decades, said Edmond Mulet, the acting head of the UN mission in Haiti, whose predecessor was killed in the quake.

“I think this is going to take many more decades than only 10 years and this is an enormous backwards step in Haiti’s development. We will not have to start from zero but from below zero,” Mulet told the BBC.

An investment plan to restore Haiti?s agriculture industry and secure food production will require $700 million in international aid, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said.

The plan, designed by the Haitian government and supported by FAO and the Inter-American Institute for Agriculture Cooperation, calls for an immediate investment of $32 million to buy seeds, tools and fertilizers so Haitian farmers can start planting in March, FAO said in a statement.

Alexander Jones, FAO Emergencies Response Manager in Haiti, said the 18-month investment plan is part of the Haitian government?s efforts to rebuild the Caribbean nation.
FAO said the plan will start with the repair of a sugar refinery and the acquisition of cereal and vegetable seeds, tools and fertilizers.

The UN World Food Programme forecasts that 2 million Haitians will require regular food aid until December, at a cost of $279 million. It has delivered about 16 million meals to almost 600,000 people since the earthquake hit.

The United States is stepping up efforts to combat the potential trafficking of Haitian children separated from their families after the earthquake, the State Department said in WASHINGTON.

“The disaster in Haiti has displaced many people and separated numerous children from their families, posing great risk and higher vulnerability to human trafficking,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Thursday.

Crowley provided no specifics on the number of missing children, but the UN Children’s Fund a week ago said there have been 15 documented case of children disappearing from hospitals.

The United States was mobilizing a coordinated effort to protect vulnerable children with UNICEF, the Haitian government, the Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations, Crowley said.

Among other things, he said the United States was helping to remobilize the Haitian police’s child protection brigades, and other efforts to register unaccompanied children and reunite them with their families.

In related development, the first known group of Haitians fleeing the country by boat since the devastating earthquake has been picked up off the Turks and Caicos islands.

Authorities in the British overseas territory said it was unclear if the 122 people on the craft, which was intercepted by marine police on Wednesday, had left because of the quake or were trying to escape poverty.

The Haitians are being held in a sports complex rather than sent back. The Turks and Caicos last week suspended the deportation of illegal Haitians, saying, “Clearly it will be some time before the situation in Haiti returns to anything approaching normal.”

The Turks and Caicos Islands have about 30,000 residents, many of whom are Haitians.

The earthquake killed up to 200,000 people and left nearly a million homeless in the impoverished Caribbean country. — NNN-AGENCIES

Minister harvests paddy at Labi trial plantation

Minister of Industry and Primary Resources Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar, yesterday morning marked the success of the first phase of a pilot paddy plantation project of rice varieties from China with a harvest at the paddy field of Lot Sengkuang in .

Workshop helps participants refine daily prayers

A total of 140 participants recently completed a three-day workshop on refining the daily prayers organised by the Islamic Education and Culture, Takmir Setia All Mosque, Pekan Muara. Participants attended briefings by Dr Hj Ismuhadi bin Haji Abdullah on “Bacaan-Bacaan Dalam Solat” and “Rukun-Rukun Sembahyang” delivered by Imam Pengiran Haji Rusman bin Pengiran Haji Shahbudin. .