Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood, announced in the middle of his visit to help revive peace negotiations.
Israel’s refusal to stop settlement building despite US urging has been a major obstacle to a resumption of the talks, and the announcement put Biden in an uncomfortable position ahead of a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units, Biden said in a statement. He said the blueprint for Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel, “undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.” The Palestinians had dropped a demand that Israel freeze settlement building and agreed to up to four months of indirect negotiations after receiving Arab League endorsement last week. Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who heads a religious party in Netanyahu’s governing coalition and is responsible for the plan’s announcement, described its timing as happenstance.

NEW DELHI: The head of India’s Congress party said on Tuesday its ruling coalition was intact, despite a key ally breaking ranks to abstain as a bill to reserve a third of parliamentary seats for women was passed by the upper house.

Already under fire over issues such as food inflation and a proposed hike in fuel prices, the government has been hit by two days of turmoil trying to push through the legislation.

While the Congress-led coalition still has a majority, the stand-off may give the government less breathing room over key pending economic legislation.

Sonia Gandhi, seen as the country’s most influential politician, was asked by reporters whether she was confident in the stability of the government.

“I think so. One can never tell. I am not not an astrologer. I wish our former partners remained with us,” she said, according to the Press Trust of India.

The bill was passed in an evening vote after a raucous day in the upper house of parliament, but it still needs the approval of the lower house.

“It is a historic occasion, which calls for celebration,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the upper house where the bill was supported by a majority of opposition parties.

Two regional parties pulled their support on Monday, and on Tuesday the Trinamool Congress party, one the government’s most influential allies, abstained to protest at Congress’ handling of the bill and said it would do the same in the lower house.

The Trinamool Congress party, whose leader, Mamata Banerjee, is the railways minister, said Congress had not properly consulted its ally on pushing through the bill in the upper house in the face of strong opposition from some regional parties.

Detractors say the legislation will be passed at the expense of other disenfranchised minorities such as Muslims, or benefit women already in privileged classes.

Trinamool faces an election in its stronghold state of West Bengal next year where about 20 percent of voters are Muslims.

The women’s bill is a test for Congress, which sees the quota as a cornerstone of its election-winning platform of inclusive growth, but which might lose some political capital needed to push economic reforms and maintain high growth.

The bill, which was first introduced in 1996, is intended to speed up women’s empowerment in a country where women lag far behind on many social and health indicators. Women lawmakers and activists shouted “we have made it” outside parliament.

Seven lawmakers were suspended on Tuesday and physically evicted from the house, and the sessions adjourned several times as those against the bill besieged the speaker of the house to shout slogans and stall the debate.

INDIA NEW DELHI: Socialist lawmakers forced India’s parliament to adjourn twice Tuesday as they tried for a second day to block passage of a historic bill to increase the number of female lawmakers across the country.

On Monday, angry legislators in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, rushed to the chairman’s seat as he presided over the session, tore up copies of the bill and tried to grab his microphone.

The house suspended seven lawmakers on Tuesday because of their behavior the day before, but they refused to leave the chamber, again stalling debate on the proposal and forcing parliament to adjourn twice.

The bill to reserve one-third of legislative seats for women has faced strong opposition since it was first proposed more than a decade ago, with many political leaders worried that their male-dominated parties would lose seats.

The proposal is an attempt to correct some of the historical gender disparities in India, where women receive less education than men and are weighed down by illiteracy, poverty and low social status.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the leader of a socialist group, said Tuesday a portion of the women’s quota should be set aside for minorities and lower castes, which have been socially and economically disadvantaged as well.

However, the main opposition parties, including right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and communist groups, already have announced their support for the legislation proposed by the ruling Congress Party.

The bill would raise the number of female lawmakers in the 545-seat lower house to 181 from the current 59. It would nearly quadruple the number of women in the 250-seat upper house. The bill would also apply to state legislatures.

Contending that dialogue was the only way forward with Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the decision to hold foreign-secretary level talks was a “calculated” one but there can be no meaningful discussion till terror from Pakistan is ended.
Denying that he had sought mediation by Saudi Arabia, he asserted in the Lok Sabha that all problems with Pakistan can be resolved bilaterally if it adopted a “reasonable” attitude in dealing with terror elements which target India.
“Our policy towards Pakistan is consistent, cautious and realistic,” Singh said replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to Parliament during which he lambasted the opposition BJP for spreading disinformation.
He specifically rebutted charges levelled by senior BJP leader L K Advani that the government was talking to Pakistan under US pressure.
Underlining the need for keeping communication channels with Pakistan from breaking down, he said the scope of any “miscalculation can only worsen in an environment of no contact.”
To buttress his point, he said the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union, even at the height of the Cold War had kept communication channels open.
Referring to the recent Foreign Secretary-level talks, Singh said it was not a “sudden” decision but a “calculated” one. He pointed out that he had earlier offered to resume talks on humanitarian issues.

Rangapanchami occurs a few days later on a Panchami (fifth day of the full moon), marking the end of festival celebrations involving colours. Rangpanchami2010 sms collection @ Rangpanchamisms. Many asked this question, What is the purpose of HOLI festival? Holy called the Festival of Colors, is a spring festival celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and others. It is primarily observed in India.Rangpanchami festival is a continuation of the Holifestival and is observed mainly in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and some parts of North India. The festival is observed five days after Holi Dhuleti.In locations connected to the god Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi, which lasts here to up to sixteen days.

Karnataka Budget 09 10, Refuting the Opposition charges, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today claimed the state’s economy was on a sound path, despite adverse economic situation in the country.

Participating in the discussion over motion of thanks to Governor in the floor of the Assembly here, the Chief Minister said Karnataka was one of the few states in the country in terms of performance in resource mobilisation.

Stating that resource mobilisation was expected to cross the last year’s mark, Mr Yeddyurappa said even the RBI study report had lauded the government’s efforts on the matter.

Uptu Result 2010, Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) Results for the Final Year for UPTU has been announced today.
Government of Uttar Pradesh startsd UPTU on 8th May 2010. It is the biggest technical university in Asia. UPTU has 317 Colleges under it.
FINAL YEAR RESULTS

uptu.ac.in You can view the results at http://www.uptu.ac.in/.

Political campaign for by election of NA-123 gained momentum and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif accused President Zardari of betrayal.
Addressing a public meeting in NA-123 constituency as part of PML-N’s by-election campaign, Nawaz Sharif complained that the government could have done a number of things in the last two years interest of the country and national but failed to do so.
Nawaz pointed that “The generals betrayed their profession and army in the past.” Sharif also called for returning to the people their looted wealth, claiming that the corrupt people will ultimately meet their fate.

Electricity theft was reported during the public meeting lead by PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif. Hundreds of blubs were lightened up using illegal means. The meeting that lasted for three hours was held at a farm house near Engineering University GT Road.
The farm house is the ownership of Mian Mujhtaja Sujha, who is also a defaulter of WAPDA. He has not paid his electricity bills for the last eleven months.

The head of the army has warned that British troops are facing a crisis of deteriorating morale on the home front that risks undermining the war in Afghanistan.
In a confidential draft memo prepared for ministers, General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff (CGS), said that recent cuts to the defence budget are having a “cumulative and corrosive effect on our soldiers and their families”.
Cuts to housing, shortages of training equipment and even the cancellation of sports events between soldiers’ tours of duty were making them and their families feel “undervalued”, the army chief wrote.
The leaked memo will be seized on by the Tories as opening a new front in the tussle between army chiefs and ministers over the politically sensitive issue of defence cuts.
It echoes the row last year when Richards’s predecessor, General Sir Richard Dannatt, stepped down after speaking out about equipment shortages as well as poor pay and conditions. It later emerged that government figures had tried to smear him over his expenses.
A senior military commander emphasised yesterday that it was not Richards’s intention to criticise ministers: “He’s not whingeing. He’s simply trying to flag up what he believes is a vital issue that needs their urgent attention.”
In the memo to the defence board, which comprises ministers and service chiefs, Richards shifts the focus of criticism from the war effort in Afghanistan to the treatment of troops on their return home.
While there had been “significant progress” on the front line, Richards said, the treatment of soldiers when they returned for 24 months between tours is so poor that it is threatening to undermine the war effort.
Marked “restricted”, the memo reports a summary of an internal “poll” of 5,000 soldiers and their families at units in Britain, Germany and Cyprus over the past four months.
The survey was discussed at the executive committee of the army board this month. Its results appear to be so alarming that Richards decided to alert ministers to its key findings. “My greatest concern … is the deteriorating experience of soldiers and their families … between tours which, the [survey] team reports, is disaffecting attitudes, damaging morale and risks undermining our ability to sustain the campaign . . .” he wrote.
“We need our soldiers to be ready, mentally and physically, to endure repeated tours in Afghanistan, in a harsh environment, with the real prospect of significant casualties each time. “To maintain the necessary morale and cohesion, they must see tangible signs between tours that they and their families are valued.”

President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.
The Act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government’s ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security. Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will: _Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones. _Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.
_Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group. Obama’s signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure. The Senate also approved the measure, with privacy protections cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote super majority to pass them.
Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.