INDIA: WOMEN IN THOUSANDS CONVERGE FOR ‘PONGALA’ HINDU RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala state, India Feb 27 (NNN-PTI) — The ‘Pongala’ festival, recorded as the largest religious gathering of women in a single day by the Guinness world records, is expected to draw more than 3 million women at the Aattukal Bhagavathi temple here tomorrow.

‘Last year the turn out was slightly over 2.5 million.

This time it could exceed 3 million. Every year it has been going up,’ temple secretary K P Ramachandran Nair told PTI.

‘Pongala’, which means ‘to boil over’ is a ritual of preparing a porridge of rice, sweet brown molasses, coconut gratings, nuts and raisins in fresh earthen pots on make-shift brick hearths, which women offer to Goddess Bhagavathi, seeking blessings for prosperity.

Once a small village ceremony performed on the banks of Killiyar river, the festival has become a huge gathering over the passing years like the Sabarimala pilgrimage.–NNN-PTI

LATIN AMERICA WARNED OF US COUNTER OFFENSIVE PLANS

HAVANA, Feb 27 (NNN-Prensa Latina): Argentinean intellectual Atilio Boron warned the American people and governments to be alert against the U.S. counteroffensive that sought to eliminate the leadership of the Bolivarian revolution and its guide Hugo Chávez.

In a lecture at the International Institute of Journalism disciples of the Masters in International Social and Political Studies at the University of Havana, Boron said in response to Prensa Latina that “the empire thinks that killing Chavez ends spring left in the past 10 years in Latin America. “

?Five years of historical turn in the correlation of forces to the left prevailed in the region and the label is the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is an important advance, but we have to be very vigilant. Nothing is irreversible, ?he said to Prensa Latina.

U.S. military has launched a new offensive with the strategic goal of ending 2010 without Chavez and it has a large deployment in the zone, reactivated the Fourth Fleet (covering its reach to more than 30 countries in Central and South America, and the Caribbean), in addition to the seven bases in Colombia, a country bordering Venezuela.

Washington also has enclaves in Paraguay, Peru, Curacao, and has illegally Guantanamo Bay on Cuban territory, and President Barack Obama was currently negotiating new military domains with France.

Another danger for progressive governments in the region is the presence of NATO in the Falklands, which Argentina calls for law and occupied by the United Kingdom, he said.

The context is very difficult, “he said-but we must be prepared to defend the Bolivian Revolution. The next parliamentary elections in October this year are crucial for the continuation of this process there, with a parliament with most other anti-Chavez may occur on the mainland Honduras, he added.

On the role of Cuba in the region and the theoretical thinking of Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, he added that it is of great importance.

The Latin America Program Director also Distance Education in Social Sciences, also drew Roberto Fernández Retamar (Director, Casa de las Americas, Cuba) on matters on cultural colonialism.

This kind of cultural colonialism, reaffirmed Boron, prevented the work and thinking men of the “edge of this part of the world as Simón Bolívar, who in his opinion was the most important thinker of the nineteenth century.

The intellectual, who is in Havana to participate in the XII International Meeting of Economists on Globalization and Development Problems held that the world today looks more like what Karl Marx has predicted on the theoretical predictions of the bourgeoisie.

“That’s why I defend to the death of Marx’s Marxism,” confessed the former Executive Secretary of the Latin American Social Sciences Council (CLACSO) from 1997-2006.

There is an undeniable superiority of Marxist thought, but it has not worked well in universities in the world, the theory has been divorced from practice.

Social movements with justifiable apprehension rejecting the theoretical work of the intellectuals, but the onus is on academics, he said.

“I am absolutely Leninist, there is nothing more practical than a good theory,” emphasized Professor Holder also Social and Political Theory at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires since 1986.

-NNN-PRENSA LATINA

US SAYS NO TO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO PAKISTAN

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (NNN-PTI) — The US has categorically told Pakistan that it would not get any atomic power plant or civilian nuclear deal on the lines of the one signed with India.

“The United States is working closely with Pakistan to help meet its growing needs. Nuclear power is not currently part of our discussions,” a senior Administration official told PTI.

Leaders of Pakistan, who have been pitching hard for a nuclear power plant, have been told about it recently.

The senior Administration official, preferring anonymity, said the US has also told Pakistan that there is no way that they can get a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one the Obama Administration has signed with India.

The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is specific to India only and there is no thinking going on in the Administration to create a template for it, the official said.–NNN-PTI

CENTREPIECE OF THE BUDGET IS AAM ADMI: INDIAN HOME MINISTER CHIDAMBARAM

NEW DELHI, Feb 27(NNN-PTI) — Home Minister P Chidamabaram has welcomed the allocation of Rs 30,000 crore for police in the Union Budget, calling the annual exercise a balanced effort marked by a mature assessment of the state of the economy. (One Crore: ten million)

Commending the Finance Minister for “generous allocation” for flagship social schemes, Chidambaram said the centrepiece of the budget is the “aam admi”.

“The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s budget for 2010-11 is a very balanced effort marked by a mature assessment of the state of the economy and of the measures required to sustain high and inclusive growth,” he said.

The Home Minister said allocation of Rs 30,000 crore in revenue and capital accounts is about the same level as the actual expenditure incurred in 2009-10 and, if wisely spent, should be able to cater to the needs of security.–NNN-PTI

‘RELATIVELY LITTLE SHIFT IN PAKISTAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS INDIA’

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (NNN-PTI) — Though Pakistan fears that a repeat of the Mumbai attacks could be “very dangerous” to it, there is relatively little shift in its attitude towards India which it views as a “threat”, a noted US scholar has said.

Dan Markey of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think-tank, was recently in Pakistan, where he met top officials of the country.

“We did actually have a chance to meet with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir in Islamabad. And while I can’t really characterise those discussions in detail, I can say that, across the board, there is, to my eyes, relatively little shift in Pakistani attitudes about what India represents,” Markey, a Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council, said.–NNN-PTI

INDIA TO BREAK DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH BARRIER SOON: FINANCE MINISTER

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (NNN-PTI) — Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today exuded confidence the economy would soon break the double-digit growth barrier and said the stimulus measures will not be fully withdrawn until a robust recovery is achieved.

Mukherjee, however, remained concerned over high food inflation and the ambiguous nature of recovery in exports due to the uncertainty prevailing in the developed economies.

“…I feel the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

The positives from our recent performance outweigh the negatives, so that one can hope to see the economy breaking the double-digit growth barrier in the very near future, which is essential for reducing poverty in the country,” Mukherjee said in his address to the 82nd AGM of FICCI.

The Finance Minister has partially rolled back stimulus sops in the Budget by hiking excise duties by two percentage points across the board, and enhancing tax rates on petroleum products.–NNN-PTI

INDIA: BUDGET ALLOCATES OVER 25 PC MORE FOR EDUCATION

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (NNN-PTI) — The government has increased the allocation to the education sector by over 25 per cent this year as it gears up to implement the Right To Education Act from April.

The Budget raised the total allocation for education from Rs 36,400 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 45,711 crore in 2010-11.(One Crore: ten million)

In the backdrop of the decision to implement the Right to Education Act–that aims to make primary education accessible to all children in the country–the allocation for elementary education, which was Rs 26,800 crore last year, has been increased to Rs 34,711 crore in this year.

This money includes Rs 3,675 crore earmarked under the Thirteenth Finance Commission grants for 2010-11.

The allocation for higher education has been hiked from Rs 9,600 crore last year to Rs 11,000 crore this year.–NNN-PTI

DELEGATIONS ARRIVE IN URUGUAY FOR PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION

MONTEVIDEO, Feb 27 (NNN-Prensa Latina): The first delegations to the presidential change in Uruguay on Monday, March 1, began arriving here Saturday,, but most will do Sunday, and others on the day of the event itself.

At the ceremony President Tabaré Vázquez will surrender his position to his successor, Jose Mujica, who until 2015 will follow the second consecutive administration of the leftist coalition Frente Amplio.

Mujica, a former guerrilla Tupamaro, will enter the history of this South American nation as the constitutional president number 34.

Foreign Ministry sources confirmed the attendance of President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, countries which together with Uruguay formed the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR).

Other heads of state have pledged their presence are Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Michelle Bachelet, of Chile, Álvaro Uribe of Colombia.

Similarly will the Prince of Asturias Felipe de Borbon, and Secretary of State, United States, Hillary Clinton, the latter as part of a Latin American tour that includes four other nations.

Many of the official entourage will stay at the Radisson Victoria Plaza, in the vicinity of Independence Square, where there will be the handover ceremony, but other hotels like the Sheraton delegations have confirmed reservations.

A total of 800 police will be mobilized from this Saturday in an operation that includes the Ministry of Interior, Office of the President, Municipality of Montevideo, Foreign Ministry and security and Secretariat of the next head of state.

-NNN-PRENSA LATINA

PAKISTAN: PM GILANI URGES MUSLIMS TO FOLLOW TEACHINGS OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH)

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27 (NNN-APP) — Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has said that it is duty of Muslims that as followers of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), they should make all human beings abreast of the fact that Islam stands for love, peace, compassion, humility, and tolerance.

In his message on the occasion of 12th Rabi-ul-Awal (Eid Milad-un-Nabi), he said on this day Almighty Allah sent into this world a personality who was conferred with the title of ? Rahmat-ulil-Aalamin from Allah and in whose person the whole humanity takes pride in the sense that he congregated them on a single platform.

?He imparted the people with a thought of welfare for the humanity. History is witness to the fact that people who were enemies of each other became hand in glove with each other,? he added.

He said, ?it all happened because of the charm of a personality whose birthday we are celebrating today.?

The Prime Minister extended greetings to all Muslims on the auspicious day of the birth of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon Him).

The Prime Minister said in order to maintain the real and original spirit of Prophet?s message, therein lies the onus on Muslims to preach the golden principles of love and brotherhood unequivocally.

?We should not only be well-wishers of Muslim brothers but should practice these teachings while treating the non-Muslims as well. We should make our home and our country a place of peace,? he added.
After having a peaceful society, he said, the world will adhere to the message of Islam and will find a way out of the miseries of the world by practising the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Gilani said, ?it is a befitting day to initiate this noble action, firstly turning ourselves in our homes into a visible example of the life of Prophet (PBUH) and then enabling us to spread it around the world.?

?When each one of us will sincerely become a model of the pious life of our Prophet (PBUH), our society would become an exemplary symbol of love, peace and prosperity.

?It is my sincere desire that it be so and it is our pray to Almighty Allah that our this dream become a reality (Amin),? he added.–NNN-APP

PAKISTAN: PRESIDENT FOR FOLLOWING PROPHET MUHAMMAD?S (PBUH) TEACHINGS FOR HUMANITY?S WELL-BEING

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27 (NNN-APP) — President Asif Ali Zardari has stressed the need for following the teachings of the Last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (may peace be upon him) and promote his Usswah for the well-being of humanity.

?There is a need to refrain from all the deeds that ruin human lives and values, respect and wealth because it is the basis of our religion and a source of well-being for all,? the President said in his message on Eid Milad un Nabi.

The President said Eid Milad un Nabi is a day of immense joy and happiness for entire universe and particularly for the Muslim world.

He mentioned the historic facts about humanity passing through a black era, when sinister elements ruined human values and destroyed the structure of society and civilization.

He said Hazrat Muhammad (may peace be upon him) emerged as a saviour for the entire humanity at a time when every segment of life, all aspects of civilization and the society depicted a picture of atrocities.

President Zardari said the Last Prophet through his teachings saved the people from destruction and presented a concept of rights and responsibilities for the people in a society, which if followed creates harmony, balance and justice.
He said equality and brotherhood is the significant characteristic of the message of Hazrat Muhammad (may peace be upon him) as Islam brought all Muslims together in a row.
He mentioned the teachings of the Last Prophet who said that it is not the color, creed and wealth that make the criteria of esteem and respect, but the Taqwa – abstinence from bad deeds.

The President said Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (may peace be upon him) did not just profess the religion but presented it in a practical way before the world.

He prayed that mayAllah Almighty guide everyone to follow the teachings of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (may peace be upon him.) — NNN-APP