Martyr Hemraj's family calls off fast after UP CM Akhilesh Yadav's visit

KHAIRAIR: Martyred soldier Hemraj's family ended their six-day-old fast on Monday after the visit of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

According to TV reports, the martyr's wife and mother agreed to end the fast after a meeting with Akhilesh.

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav met the family and promised to fulfill their demands. "We have already given Rs 25 lakh... Money is not a big thing but to support and respect the family is the duty of the government," Akhilesh said.

"The family has shown the strength to face this (tragedy). We have to stand by them. We should all support the family of Lance Naik Hemraj. We have assured that whatever demands they have made for village will be met," he told reporters.

He said the jawan's mother and wife were weak and in grief. "So this is the time to stand by the family," he said.

Hemraj's wife Dharamvati, mother Meena Devi and cousin Narender were on fast and had refused to take "even liquid" as they remained steadfast on their demand for getting back Hemraj's head, which was severed by Pakistani troops who raided Indian territory in Poonch sector on January 8.

Earlier on Monday, the family had sought a visit by Army chief Gen Bikram Singh as a precondition to end their fast.

"We are not going to call off our fast if a leader comes here and request us to do so. We want the Army chief to come here and assure us that he will get Hemraj's head back from Pakistan. Only then we will call off our fast," martyr's cousin Narendra told reporters.

The family's demands came as Army chief Gen Bikram Singh addressed a press conference in New Delhi and said the beheading of two Indian soldiers in Pakistan army attack was unacceptable.

The General said the Army understands the grief of the families of the brave soldiers who laid down their lives as they are "our families too" and they will make all attempts to ease the pain and suffering of Lance Naik Hemraj's family.

BJP president Gadkari and senior leaders Swaraj and Rajnath Singh reached Hemraj's residence, 160 kms from Delhi and 50 km from Mathura, on Monday afternoon while Congress MP Avtar Singh Badana met the family earlier in the day.

But it did little to console the family. Narender questioned the visit of politicians at the house days after the incident alleging that they were trying to capitalise on the issue.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

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Gun Control to Crowd Obama's Second Term

Jan 14, 2013 6:00am

(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Obama is putting his chips on guns.

It wasn’t an issue he campaigned on — actually, it was almost the opposite of that. It did more to grab him than he did to grab it.

But a month after the unfathomable tragedy at Sandy Hook, the president has positioned himself to take on a fight with long odds as his biggest domestic-policy initiative this side of the never-ending fiscal fights.

The valuable run-up to the inauguration — traditionally a White House’s best chance to put forward a bold new policy initiative — is being dominated by the polarizing debate over gun control. The coming fight has broad implications on virtually every other Washington priority in 2013 and beyond.

Vice President Joe Biden’s guns task force is strongly signaling recommending a robust menu of policy options, spanning executive actions and legislative initiatives. Each piece is sure to require the full force of presidential leadership to turn into action.

“The public demands we speak to it,” Biden said last week, referencing the emotions that followed a tragedy involving young children.

It may yet be a solid bet that this moment is different than past shootings. Powerful allies including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are lending their considerable political weight to the efforts, prodding action along.

Already, the fact that Washington hasn’t lost interest bodes well for a major legislative push that includes more background checks and a renewed assault weapons ban.

But the gun lobby has been explicit that it won’t be giving in. The fight will consume valuable political oxygen, perhaps all of what’s available to a reelected president whose party controls only half of Capitol Hill.

That means other ambitious subject areas — immigration reform, energy and environmental policy, a major infrastructure initiative — will have to wait. Moreover, the coming brinksmanship over spending and budget issues could further poison the chances of action, potentially grinding Washington to an effective halt.

President George W. Bush found out the hard way that political capital doesn’t last long into a second term, even if the president tries to spend it with a friendly Congress. Bush’s push for Social Security reform not only went nowhere, it helped sow the seeds of the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006.

This fight over guns has the potential to be more than that for Obama, though. After a campaign devoid of much inspiration, a passionate debate that gets to the heart of the nation’s culture may be what the recently reelected president needs.

The fight will mobilize and energize those on both sides — even if it tires everyone out before discussions begin in other areas.

But if the president walks away with something substantial, at the very time that major progress on any front is so illusory in Washington, the moment won’t have been wasted.

SHOWS: World News

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How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby

In gun lore it’s known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. On May 21, 1977, and into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association.

The rebels wore orange-blaze hunting caps. They spoke on walkie-talkies as they worked the floor of the sweltering convention hall. They suspected that the NRA leaders had turned off the air-conditioning in hopes that the rabble-rousers would lose enthusiasm.

The Old Guard was caught by surprise. The NRA officers sat up front, on a dais, observing their demise. The organization, about a century old already, was thoroughly mainstream and bipartisan, focusing on hunting, conservation and marksmanship. It taught Boy Scouts how to shoot safely. But the world had changed, and everything was more political now. The rebels saw the NRA leaders as elites who lacked the heart and conviction to fight against gun-control legislation.

And these leaders were about to cut and run: They had plans to relocate the headquarters from Washington to Colorado.

“Before Cincinnati, you had a bunch of people who wanted to turn the NRA into a sports publishing organization and get rid of guns,” recalls one of the rebels, John D. Aquilino, speaking by phone from the border city of Brownsville, Tex.

What unfolded that hot night in Cincinnati forever reoriented the NRA. And this was an event with broader national reverberations. The NRA didn’t get swept up in the culture wars of the past century so much as it helped invent them — and kept inflaming them. In the process, the NRA overcame tremendous internal tumult and existential crises, developed an astonishing grass-roots operation and became closely aligned with the Republican Party.

Today it is arguably the most powerful lobbying organization in the nation’s capital and certainly one of the most feared. There is no single secret to its success, but what liberals loathe about the NRA is a key part of its power. These are the people who say no.

They are absolutist in their interpretation of the Second Amendment. The NRA learned that controversy isn’t a problem but rather, in many cases, a solution, a motivator, a recruitment tool, an inspiration.

Gun-control legislation is the NRA’s best friend: The organization claims an influx of 100,000 new members in recent weeks in the wake of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. The NRA, already with about 4 million members, hopes that the new push by Democrats in the White House and Congress to curb gun violence will bring the membership to 5 million.

The group has learned the virtues of being a single-issue organization with a very simple take on that issue. The NRA keeps close track of friends and enemies, takes names and makes lists. In the halls of power, it works quietly behind the scenes. It uses fear when necessary to motivate supporters. The ultimate goal of gun-control advocates, the NRA claims, is confiscation and then total disarmament, leading to government tyranny.

“We must declare that there are no shades of gray in American freedom. It’s black and white, all or nothing,” Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at an NRA annual meeting in 2002, a message that the organization has reiterated at almost every opportunity since.

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Tens of thousands rally against Ma in Taiwan

TAIPEI: Tens of thousands of slogan-chanting Taiwanese took to Taipei's streets Sunday to protest at the government's economic record in one of the biggest rallies organised by the main opposition in recent years.

The march, which stretched for miles, began after Su Tseng-chang, chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, led the crowd in shouting: "People are furious at Ma".

Other slogans and banners also took aim at President Ma Ying-jeou from the China-friendly Kuomintang party, who was elected in 2008.

"Down with Ma Ying-jeou!" "Cabinet reshuffle!" the protesters chanted during the peaceful march.

The demonstrators were cordoned off by barbed wire and riot police after marching through the city centre and assembling in the square in front of the presidential office.

The opposition party claimed the turnout totalled 150,000. No police estimate was immediately available.

The trade-dependent economy contracted in the second quarter of 2012 for the first time in nearly three years, while its exports shrank for six months in a row until swinging back into positive territory in September.

The government has forecast growth of 1.13 percent for the whole of last year.

The China-sceptical opposition party also objects to controversial plans for expanded investment in local media by Taiwanese billionaire Tsai Eng-meng, who has substantial business interests in China.

Next Media, controlled by Hong Kong's vocal China critic Jimmy Lai, in November signed agreements with various buyers including Tsai to sell the Taiwan editions of Apple Daily and Next magazine, as well as Taiwan Sharp Daily and Next TV.

Concerns have been raised that the deals could create a pro-China media monopoly.

Such issues are still sensitive in Taiwan more than six decades after it split from China following a civil war. Beijing views the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, through force if necessary.

- AFP/fa

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Pakistani artistes in India on peace mission

KOLKATA: Amidst the growing tension between India and Pakistan after the brutal killing of two Indian jawans along the LoC in Kashmir, a troupe of artistes from Karachi are on a peace mission in the country to strengthen people-to-people relations.

"The tension is political in nature and the people have nothing to do with it. People from both sides of the border want peace. We want regular cultural exchanges with India and a hassle-free visa process so that we can meet each other," Pakistani theatre director Zain Ahmed told PTI here today.

He rued that whenever political tension builds up between the two countries, cultural relations are made the first hostage.

"Many barriers like delaying visa process are created so that the people of the two countries cannot meet each other," he said.

Ahmed is leading a seven-member team of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) of Karachi which presented 'Manto aur Ghalib : Ek Guftagu' at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival which ended during the day.

The play, which is replete with soulful songs and lively music, is a fictional conversation between Manto and Ghalib.

A team of 25 artistes of NAPA Repertory Theatre is scheduled to present a theatre 'Manto Rama' at the National School of Drama in New Delhi on Thursday after the other artistes from that country join.

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

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Jay Rockefeller, likely the last of a political dynasty

Uncle Nelson was vice president. Uncle Winthrop a governor. Great-grandfather Nelson a senator.

Political bloodlines, he had.

But the great American electoral dynasty that abruptly announced its end Friday, or at least signaled what looks to be a long, long pause, always evoked more. That name on the ballot — Rockefeller — meant money. It meant epic-scale success. It meant everything.

And it meant that Jay Rockefeller wasn’t ever going to be just some Democratic senator from West Virginia. Rockefeller, who said Friday that he would not seek reelection in 2014 after nearly three decades in the Senate, was always going to be the oil titan John D. Rockefeller’s great-grandson, too. One of the heirs to a legendary fortune.

“He’s proud of being a Rockefeller. He talks about his uncles and his grandfather, about that legacy. It’s an important part of who he is and how he thinks about himself,” Rockefeller’s longtime political adviser, Geoff Garin, said in an interview. “He found a way to be a Rockefeller that was about serving people.”

Dynasties like these roll across American political history. Not just Rockefellers, but Adamses and Kennedys and Bushes. A nation formed to escape power granted as a birthright still embraces power that follows the contours of a family tree. Voters even expect it, and so do political scions.

“It’s so predictable!” said Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution senior fellow emeritus and author of the book “America’s Political Dynasties.” “It’s daddy’s business and increasingly it’ll be mommy’s business, too.”

For Hess, each dynasty takes on a different aura. There were the “crafty” Roosevelts, headlined by a couple of presidents — Franklin Delano and Theodore — and his favorites, the Tafts, whose standout, William Howard, was about the “nicest” guy ever to occupy the Oval Office, in Hess’s estimation, and who also managed to become chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The Rockefellers were almost incidental dynasty builders, Hess said. “That generation — the robber barons, if you want to call them that — wasn’t interested in politics. Politics was something you could marry into.”

Indeed, John D. Rockefeller’s only son married the daughter of Nelson Aldrich, a prominent Republican senator of the late 1800s and early 1900s who wielded tremendous influence over monetary policies. Their son, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, became governor of New York and was Gerald R. Ford’s vice president. Another son, Winthrop Rockefeller, became governor of Arkansas.

“My great-grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, worked at it very, very hard. There’s an ethic in the Rockefeller family of hard work,” Jay Rockefeller wrote in an e-mail late Friday. “It’s expected that everybody work hard. And there has been a tradition of public service.”

John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV entered politics unconventionally, drawn into that sphere by his experiences as a volunteer for VISTA (the precursor of Americorps) in Emmons, W.Va., a small coal mining town. “Coming to West Virginia was life-changing for him,” Garin said. “West Virginia exposed him to a whole new world that broadened his world; and in a lot of respects it gave his career a defining purpose.”

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WoW! fund to be enhanced

SINGAPORE: The Manpower Ministry will be enhancing the Work-Life Works! (WoW!) fund this year.

Channel NewsAsia understands that the review of the fund is in its final stages.

It was set up in 2004 to encourage employers to better support their employees' need for work-life balance.

A spokesperson from the ministry told Channel NewsAsia that details of the enhancement may come together with the announcement of an improved Marriage and Parenthood package expected this month.

Good work-life balance is a key factor to help singles get married and couples have babies.

A recent survey on marriage and parenthood suggests that companies can play a part in improving the work environment.

Associate Professor Paulin Straughan, a sociologist from the National University of Singapore, believes it is important to have flexibility in the workplace.

She said: "I think if we are able to normalise flexibility in the workplace, several good things will happen. If you have an employer who looks after your needs so well, you are very unlikely to jump ship - even if times are no good and bonuses are not so high."

Flexible work arrangements include telecommuting and flexi-time, and the government provides companies incentives like the WoW! fund to introduce such work-life strategies.

Giving an update, the Manpower Ministry said so far, over 850 companies have benefited from the WoW! fund and a total of about S$15 million has been disbursed.

However, the push to improve work-life balance through flexible arrangements is progressing slowly.

A report from the MOM last month showed just over four in 10 employers said they provide such arrangements - up from 38 per cent in 2011.

Associate Professor Straughan stressed the need to encourage more trust between employers and employees, "so that we can work very hard when we are at work, finish our job, our responsibilities for the day and then come home and work hard at home and enjoy our family life".

Companies, especially the small and medium enterprises, realise this. They believe it is necessary to embrace work-life strategies as part of the company's culture.

Chan Chong Beng, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said: "In the old days, SME owners never feel comfortable if they don't see their staff but people are accepting that this is the next phase of working environment.

"Work-life balance or flexi-work should be part and parcel of the nature of employment as we move along. First, there is a labour shortage. Secondly, SMEs will have to find ways to compete and retain workers. Otherwise, they will lose out."

The Manpower Ministry is also exploring the possibility of extending the Flexi-works! scheme which expired at the end of last month.

The scheme is aimed at helping companies recruit economically inactive individuals who want to re-enter the workforce. It supports the costs of implementing flexible work arrangements.

- CNA/ir

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