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| 59-year-old Santosh Parhar became the oldest Indian woman skydiver with her tandem freefall jump at the Edmonton S kydive Centre |
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| US President Barack Obama says there is nothing new in the leaked documents. |
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| BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and L.K. Advani in New Delhi after paying floral tributes to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his birth anniversary. Senior BJP leaders held a meeting on the Amit Shah issue on Friday |
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| A 40-ton whale flipped into the air and smashed the mast of a 33-foot boat off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday, July 18, 2010. The couple on board was not injured, but their boat was wrecked. The whale then slid down the boat and back into the water. There are reports the boat was harassing the whale prior to the attack. |
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By Martin Petty
Tuesday's FIFA World Cup™ semi-final follows the unpredictable nature as Uruguay and Holland prepare to meet in Cape Town.
For Oscar Tabarez's Uruguay it places a return to the globe-conquering days of 1930 and 1950 within unexpected reach, while it can also be argued that Bert van Marwijk's Holland have surpassed expectations.
Uruguay, surprisingly South America's last remaining representation in the 2010 World Cup, may have won the maiden finals 80 years ago, before repeating the feat two decades later, but they are now in territory not chartered since finishing fourth in 1970.
Holland, famously finalists in 1974 and 1978, were the dark horse choice of many prior to the start of the tournament in South Africa, but it was also suspected that they would characteristically implode in a flash of in-house bickering that has undermined recent campaigns.
The fact that both sides have made it to the last four, along with Spain and Germany, therefore marks a significant achievement and sets an intriguing scene as fans get ready to gather close to Signal Hill.
There is perhaps a little more romance associated with underdog Uruguay's presence in the semi-finals, but Tabarez, who guided the nation to a round-of-16 place at Italia 90 in a previous stint in charge, is refusing to get carried away.
He has pointed to a level of expectation surrounding two-time champions which has not been satisfied over the past 40 years and he does not want the pressure to impact upon his players against a Holland team who have not lost in 24 matches.
Uruguay have earned many plaudits for the style of their football in topping Group A before defeating South Korea in the second round prior to the dramatic and controversial quarter-final elimination of Ghana, but they are still outsiders.
Tabarez's task has increased in difficulty due to the fact that influential striker Luis Suarez, having found his feet after a slow start to the competition, is suspended following his red card for the much-debated goalline handball that denied Ghana.
Defender Jorge Ciro Fucile is also ineligible, while captain Diego Lugano is an injury doubt and midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro has been ruled out of the finals due to a broken foot to place even more pressure on the shoulders of key man Diego Forlan.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to measure the strain on Van Marwijk. Is he now expected to deliver the World Cup or is he still earning praise for simply avoiding rows and bust-ups to get the Dutch to a first semi-final since 1998?
Van Marwijk's side have been criticised for lacking the characteristic Oranje, Total Football style of Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, but it cannot be argued that they are not getting the job done.
After a 100 per cent record this summer, topping Group E and beating Slovakia before stunning favourites Brazil, Holland have still not lost since a friendly against Australia in September 2008 and they are expected to stretch that statistic.
The Dutch were boosted when main striker Robin van Persie was declared fit to play against Uruguay after a scan revealed his left elbow injury was not as bad as first feared.
With defender Joris Mathijsen also available again after a knee problem, Holland no longer have any injury worries, but midfielder Nigel de Jong and defender Gregory van der Wiel are out of the game due to suspension.
http://www.espnstar.com/home/news/detail/item462971/SF:-Uruguay-vs-Netherlands-Preview/
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, left, presents India's President Pratibha Patil with the baton to launch the XIX Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games outside Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Shaun Curry, Pool)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, left, presents India's President Pratibha Patil with the baton to launch the XIX Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games outside Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Shaun Curry, Pool)
By Kuldip Nayar
CLENCHED fists in a rightist party are like outworn clothes. They neither give it a new look, nor a different entity. I imagine this is what some BJP leaders were trying to do when they stood in a row with their clenched fists to show defiance after staging a demonstration against the Congress government at Delhi.
Clenched fists are associated with radicals from the left. The BJP is associated with wooden sticks and khaki knickers, which its mentor, the RSS, has prescribed.
There is no doubt that the party has to turn a new leaf if it wants to be relevant. But it cannot do so by having its fists clenched. It has to jettison the RSS, which has been riding it like an old man on the shoulders of Sindbad the Sailor, from its back.
This means that the party has to get away from the ideology of Hindutva. It is a yesterday party, as its former ideologue Jaswant Singh said when he was ousted by the BJP. True, he is trekking back into the fold. But it does not indicate that the party is giving up its philosophy of parochialism. Nor has it clarified its stand on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, for praising whom Jaswant Singh landed in trouble.
Jaswant Singh had blamed Jawaharlal Nehru for partition, not Jinnah. The reason why the party has to clarify its stand is the hostility the BJP shows whenever the name of Qaid e Azam, founder of neighbouring Pakistan, crops up. L.K. Advani had to step down from the party leadership after he said that Jinnah was secular, while paying homage at his mausoleum at Karachi.
The issue that the BJP has to sort out is not whether Jinnah was responsible for the division of the subcontinent but whether his exhortation not to mix religion with politics is acceptable to the party. When it parades Narendra Modi of Gujarat carnage fame at the party's National Executive meeting (at Patna earlier this month), it projects the same policy of preferring religion for achieving pre-eminence in politics.
Modi has an image which projects him in the country as a protagonist of Hindu rashtra (state). He is in the midst of several cases, which implicate him for the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. When the BJP invites him to its Bihar sitting, the party gives a message that he is the party's mascot in the forthcoming state assembly election and, ultimately, in parliamentary polls.
It was obvious that the BJP was provoking state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has a secular image and who leads the coalition with the BJP but wants to convey that he is not guided by what the BJP thinks or does. Therefore, he had to cancel the dinner for BJP executive members and return the Rs.5 crore that he had received from Gujarat for flood relief in Bihar.
Following its own agenda, the BJP placed an advertisement in regional newspapers showing Modi and Nitish together on a platform. Bihar has a large Muslim population, which could not have been happy over the photo. Nitish had to act to assure the Muslims that the publication of the photo was BJP's doing. His party, Janta Dal (U), tried to paper over the differences as if it was a personality clash.
But Nitish Kumar's approach was fundamentally different. He does not think that he can live with personalities like Modi if the BJP thrusts on Bihar. Whatever is the JDU thinking, it looks that Nitish Kumar would like to go it alone when the state goes to polls. He may well pave the path for a third front, which is badly needed in the country.
The BJP is beginning to understand Nitish's long-term policy. It may, therefore, fight the state election on its own. Turning its back on Nitish, the BJP under the leadership of Nitin Gadkari, an RSS man, has made it clear that the party would rather sacrifice even an assured victory under Nitish than give up Modi, who it wants to project as its prime minister candidate in the next Lok Sabha election.
But party has gone over this exercise before and has found that Modi is not an acceptable face. Karnataka had to stop his visit when the state BJP government was contesting a by-election.
Rightist parties all over the world have been a wellspring of new ideas. Why is the BJP stuck at the same thinking since its inception? That Hinduism is in danger is not accepted by Hindus, who constitute 80% of India's population. The electorates in Pakistan or Bangladesh do not return the candidates sponsored by the Jammiat Islami, which appeals in the name of religion. In these countries also the Muslims who constitute the bulk of population do not think that Islam is in danger. Therefore, the Jammiat gets less than a two-digit figure in elections.
The BJP is still the second biggest party in parliament, and rules in some seven states. Its validity is not because it placates Hindu extremist elements but because it is considered by the voters as an alternative to the Congress. The left is still absorbed in its outmoded ideology. What do the people do? They want a viable alternative. Therefore, they turn to the BJP when they find the Congress becoming increasingly corrupt and intolerably arrogant.
Were the BJP to become a centrist party and shed its anti-Muslim image, it could provide the alternative. Why doesn't the party talk about economic programs? The Congress adopts at every party meeting an economic resolution. The BJP does not even attempt to do so.
The Conservatives in the UK were out of power for 18 years because they were seen as a bunch of right-wingers. They recovered only when they were seen adopting progressive steps. With the type of communal agenda the BJP has -- periodically there is an outcry for building the Ram temple where the Babri masjid stood before destruction -- it has little future. The mood of the country is different. It is looking forward to development.
In fact, I am surprised that Jaswant Singh is returning to the BJP without ensuring that it overcomes the tag of a yesterday party. True, his dilemma is that a politician has to have a platform to survive. But this is no basis for compromising with one's principles. Or, maybe, this is the way the politicians function.
What is being rubbed into Jaswant Singh is that his return may coincide with the return of maverick Uma Bharti. Her qualification is that she jumped into the lap of Murli Manohar Joshi with joy when the Babri masjid was being pulled down, stone by stone. I thought Jaswant Singh was a sensitive person.
Read in Urdu
Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.
Source : http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=144250
Chandigarh, July 5 (PTI) The south-west monsoon brought heavy downpour in various parts of Punjab and Haryana today, throwing normal life out of gear and bringing down mercury sharply, met officials said. The city here received around 117.8 mm of rainfall this morning, met officials said.
In Haryana, Ambala received 174.1 mm rain followed by Panchkula at 122mm, Kurukshetra (92 mm) and Karnal (89.4 mm). In Punjab, Mohali received 110 mm of rains followed by Ludhiana (66.6 mm), Ropar (66 mm) Patiala (46.8 mm) and Jalandhar (30 mm).
"The monsoon today further advanced into entire Punjab, Haryana, Union Territory Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh, due to which the region received widespread rains," Director of the Meteorological Department Surender Paul told PTI here. Last year, the monsoon had hit the region on June 30.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100705/1416/tnl-monsoon-hits-punjab-and-haryana_1.html
