Indian American gets jail term for possessing child porn

New York, Feb 7 (IANS) An Indian American has been sentenced to eight years in prison after he admitted that he had stored child pornography in a government computer.

Vinod G. Patel, 49, an engineer in the state transport department in New York, was sentenced Tuesday on two counts of possessing sexual performance by a child, according to reports.

He had pleaded guilty to the two counts Sept 21 last year.

"The defendant will now spend a lengthy time behind bars in which to comprehend that photos that depict sexual acts between adults and young children are in reality images of actual children who have been victimised and sexually exploited for no other purpose than to satisfy the prurient desires of sexual predators," a report in Newsday quoted Queens district attorney Richard Brown as saying in a statement.

Patel did general administration of contracts work for the state Department of Transportation office in Bayside, New York.

On March 2, 2006, a colleague of Patel discovered child pornography on a computer, Brown said.

According to the Newsday report, after obtaining a search warrant, police found in a computer folder belonging to Patel 10 files of children younger than 15 years engaged in sex acts. An 11th file allegedly showed a child younger than six years engaged in a sex act.

Though Patel himself did not engage in any of the sexual acts, he admitted having taken some of the photographs.

He resigned from his job April 4.

Indian efforts on to develop Afghan ruler Shershah's mausoleum

New Delhi, Feb 6, IRNA ,
In a bid to get the mausoleum of Afghan ruler Shershah, famed for building the Grand Trunk Road, at Sasaram in the northern Indian state of Bihar in UNESCO's list of world heritage sites, the Archaeological Survey of India is mulling a proposal to remove encroachments from the tomb complex.

According to Press Trust of India, notices would be issued to those who have made illegal structures in the buffer zone of the protected site in Rohtas district, ASI sources said in Patna.

Over 200 "illegal" structures have come up within the restricted zone of the monument, also known as the Black Pagoda, violating the Archaeological Monuments Special Repair (AMSR) Act, 1992.

"After the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, concerted efforts have been made to get monuments listed in UNESCO's list of world heritage sites but the mausoleum of the Afghan ruler could not find entry because of encroachments," the sources said.

The state government has also decided to develop the mausoleum as a tourist spot, for which the tourism department has already drawn up a master plan, they added.

Indo-Pak anti-terrorism mechanism to on Mar 6

New Delhi, Feb 7 (NNN-PTI) The India-Pakistan Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism, decided at a Summit meeting in Havana in September last, will hold its first meeting in Islamabad on March six.

The three-member Indian delegation to the talks would be led by K C Singh, Additional Secretary (International Organisations) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Breaking the chill in ties in the aftermath of July 11 Mumbai blasts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had agreed to set up a joint anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations and decided to resume stalled Foreign Secretary-level composite dialogue at the earliest.

The agreements were reached at a meeting Singh and Musharraf had on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Havana.

"They decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations," said the joint press statement after the Summit.

Inter-Palestinian dialogue starts in Mecca

Mecca, Feb 7 (Xinhua) Leaders from rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas started here Wednesday a dialogue raising hopes of an agreement that would end violence in the Palestinian territories and form a national unity government.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Ismail Haneya from the ruling Hamas movement, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal and other senior leaders from the movements of Hamas and Fatah arrived in Mecca from Saudi city of Jeddah Wednesday morning and immediately began their first session of dialogue.

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman of Hamas-led government told reporters in Mecca that the atmosphere is "positive", adding that "every one here hopes that the two sides would overcome differences and get back home with an agreement."

Last week, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz invited leaders of Hamas and Fatah movements for a national dialogue following two bloody weeks of armed fighting between the two movements, during which some 60 people had been killed and 300 wounded in the Palestinian territory, according to official hospital statistics.

A senior Fatah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Xinhua revealed that the sessions of dialogue would take place behind closed doors to stay away from media.

Meanwhile, Samir al-Masharawi, a senior Fatah movement leader said that the dialogue between Fatah and Hamas "should succeed and bring about fruitful results."

"It's Hamas movement's interests more than Fatah movement's interests to end tension and reach an agreement on a Palestinian national unity government," said al-Masharawi.

He declined to say how long the dialogue would last, or when it would end, but said "we hope that the parties would be able to overcome their differences and reach an agreement as soon as possible."

Iran accuses US of maligning her reputation

New York, Feb 7 (IANS) Iran's permanent mission to the UN said that US attempts to damage Iran's reputation and those of other countries are intended to cover up its failures in Iraq.

The mission, in a response letter Tuesday, expressed regret over an article published by The New York Times which quoted US officials as saying Iran is exacerbating tensions in Iraq, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.

The US currently resorts to disinformation and false allegations against Iran to vilify its role in developments in Iraq, the letter said.

And this is so notwithstanding the fact that Iran fully supports the new Iraqi government and has signed several trade and economic agreements with Baghdad, it said.

It went on to say that despite the accusation made by the New York Times that Iran is intensifying the crisis in Iraq, Tehran has repeatedly expressed concern over the increasing insecurity in the country and its adverse consequences on the region such as the rise in the number of Iraqi refugees.

The mission's letter reiterated Iran's stance on a united and strong Iraq, and stressed the importance of strengthening the Iraqi government to a point it would have no need for foreign forces in the country.

Iran, India agree on need to return Iran's N-case to IAEA

Tehran, Feb 7 (IANS) Iran and India voiced their united stand on the need to return Iran's peaceful nuclear case to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) here Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki attended a joint press conference with visiting Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee reports Iran's official news agency IRNA

The two foreign ministers also stressed the need to settle Iran's nuclear case peacefully and through negotiation.

Iran, India agree on need to return Iran's N-case to IAEA

Tehran, Feb 7 (IANS) Iran and India voiced their united stand on the need to return Iran's peaceful nuclear case to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) here Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki attended a joint press conference with visiting Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee reports Iran's official news agency IRNA

The two foreign ministers also stressed the need to settle Iran's nuclear case peacefully and through negotiation.

Iraq is no Vietnam

by Yevgeny Satanovsky,
U.S. allies and their opponents, American Congressmen and terrorist leaders, professional politicians and ordinary people, journalists and generals are increasingly comparing the war in Iraq with Vietnam.

They are all in the wrong. Iraq is not Vietnam.

The situation in Iraq is much worse, and the majority of parallels with the Vietnam war do not apply.The fact that in Vietnam the Americans were fighting in the jungle, whereas in Iraq they are in the desert or urban areas does not make a difference.

Nor is it manifest in the level of arms and technologies, or the changes that took place in the United States over several decades.The main difference is that war in Vietnam was not so much between the North and the South, but between the superpowers.

The U.S. was fighting the U.S.S.R., and the war reflected the rivalry of modernization models which once belonged to the same civilization. Trade and diplomacy helped alleviate the confrontation and keep it within certain limits.

The Vietnam war was part of the big game. Its rules were questionable and its consequences appalling, but the rules were still there. The war in Vietnam was not a conflict of civilizations. As distinct from Iraq, the Vietnamese did not kill each other for religious or ethnic reasons.

In Iraq, many of those that are opposing the U.S.-British coalition fanatically believe in their mission of protecting the Muslim world against crusaders. Politically correct verbiage is appropriate in Western parliaments, but not in Erbil, Basra, or Baghdad.