China again playing dirty game of stapled visas

Itanagar: China has begun a practice of issuing stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers it as disputed, extending its controversial 'paper visa' regime from Jammu and Kashmir to the country's remote north-eastern state.

The practice came to light when two sportsmen from Arunachal Pradesh were prevented by immigration officials from boarding a flight on Wednesday from New Delhi to Beijing since they had stapled visas issued by the Chinese Embassy on their passports. India considers as 'invalid' the stand-alone Chinese 'paper' visas given to some of its nationals and the contentious issue had figured during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Delhi last month.

Wen had said that officials of India and China should have "in-depth" discussions to resolve the differences on stapled visas issued to those hailing from J and K. He also said that China takes India's concerns on the issue seriously.

Indian Weightlifting Federation's Joint Secretary Abraham K Techi along with a weightlifter of the state were taken aback when immigration officials at New Delhi's IGI Airport stopped them and turned the two men away because of the stapled visas issued by the Chinese Embassy.

Techi and the weightlifter, who were to visit the country at the invitation of Chinese Weightlifting Association president Menguang for the January 15-17 China Weightlifting Grand Prix at Fujian province, thereafter got in touch with the Chinese Embassy.

The Chinese officials at the Embassy informed me that the 'right' visas have been issued to us, Techi told PTI.

"This is an insult and unnecessary harassment to Arunchalees," Techi said.

Reacting to the incident, Congress Lok Sabha member Takam Sanjoy said though Sino-India relations have been improving with New Delhi and Beijing taking positive steps, the border issue, China's repeated claims over Arunachal Pradesh territory and stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir were contentious issues which were hindrances.

Sanjoy said though India, particularly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took very bold steps during Wen's visit in December last year to further strengthen bilateral ties, the Chinese government had proved its policy to consolidate its claim on Arunachal territory.

China started the practice of issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir two years back. India sees this as an act amounting to questioning the state's integration with rest of the country.

In 2007, China had denied visa to senior IAS officer Ganesh Koyu who hailed from Arunachal Pradesh and was a member of 107 strong IAS officers' team on a management programme to China.

A study visit to Beijing and Shanghai, part of a programme to learn more about Chinese economic growth and policies, was cancelled at the intervention of the Prime Minister because of Beijing's refusal to grant visa to Koyu.

Earlier, Vishal Nabam, now advisor to Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, had visited China on a month-long tourist visa in 2006.

India donates $ 500,000 for the relief in St Lucia for Hurrican Tomas

Washington: India has donated USD 500,000 for the relief and rehabilitation efforts in St Lucia in the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas.

Indian Ambassador to the UN, Hardeep Singh Puri handed over a cheque to St Lucian Ambassador to the UN, Donatus Keith St Aimee in New York.

New Delhi had condoled the loss of lives and expressed solidarity with the people of Saint Lucia following the devastating effects of Hurricane Tomas.

In a response to a request from the Government of St Lucia, India had decided to make a cash donation of USD 500,000 towards assistance in recovery and rehabilitation following Hurricane Tomas, an official Indian statement said.

St Lucia and St Vincent bore the brunt of the passage of Hurricane Tomas in late October last year with the death toll in St Lucia at seven.

Six-month baby taken away on promise of film role

Coimbatore: Police are on the look out for a a woman who had taken away a 6-month old baby from their parents in Anamalai, about 70 KMs from here, on the promise of giving a role in a film, a week ago.
 

According to a complaint lodged by the mother of thebaby the woman had approached her on December 31 last year to give her baby for film shooting in Kozhinjapara in neighbouring Kerala and in return had given Rs 5,000, police sources said.

The grandfather of the baby had accompanied the woman to Kerala. As the baby and grandfather have not returned for two days, the mother lodged a complaint, polcie said.

Police said a special team had been sent to Kerala for investigation.

Apple iPhone tops US smartphone market

Now Smarphone consumer market capture is race among the big smartphone giants which attracted attention of all the smartphone business experts. Apple is still leading while Google's Android approaching it slowly.

Nielsen, a market research company, has released a report on Monday which says that Apple's iPhone operating system is still the top mobile OS in the United States. It has captured 28.6 percent of smartphone market. Second is Google's Android platform by having 25.8 percent of the market share.

On the other hand BlackBerry from Research in Motion continues on its steady decline and now able to control only 26.1 percent of the market. As you know, once BlackBerry was the leader in the smartphone trades. Last year in June, BlackBerry was far ahead of Apple and Google with 33 percent share.


Even more interesting is data that says of those buying a smartphone in the last 6 months, 40.8% bought Android phones, while iOS phones had a 26.9 percent share, RIM grabbed 19.2% of the new buyers for its Blackberry phones.

According the Nielsen report that now owning the consumer market share is tighter than it has ever been since the smartphone emerged several years ago.

It can be easily assumed that if the trends continue, it's likely Android will be in the smartphone numbers lead soon, but many analysts continue to predict Apple will remain number 1 in profitability.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal Play Tennis on Water in Doha

Doha Bay, Qatar:  It was an unusual tennis experience as the world's top two male tennis players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, played on a special water court ahead of the season opener in Qatar.

The water court had been constructed in the waters of Doha Bay.

The two are the top seeds at the Qatar Open that begins today, and will again be the players to beat during the 2011 ATP World Tour season, which comprises a total of 63 tournaments in 32 countries.

Spaniard Nadal will begin the event as top seed.

"The best of the history is here, Roger and a lot of very good players, former champions, (Nikolay) Davydenko, (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga, (Philipp) Kohlschreiber, (Ernests) Gulbis, (Viktor) Troicki - lot of very good players are here so it's going to be a really interesting hunt for sure, competitive tournament," said Nadal.

Two-time champion Federer is next in the list of eight seeded players. After beating Nadal in the 2010 season-ending World Tour Finals, Federer is excited to begin his 2011 campaign.

"Now I'm really prepared for it. The break wasn't very long, which I think in this case is quite an advantage for me because I played so well at the end, so I actually haven't lost much of my game and I feel like I'm actually playing pretty well already," Federer said.

Nadal and Federer have won 21 of the past 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

Later this month in Melbourne, Nadal will attempt to become the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam trophies at the one time, while Federer will look to add to his record haul of 16 major titles.

In 2010 Nadal won Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, where he completed a career Grand Slam, en route to finishing year-end number one for the second time.

Federer, whose strong finish to 2010 included a fifth title at the ATP World Tour Finals, will be the defending champion in Melbourne.

Nadal and Federer will, though, have plenty of competition throughout the season as world number three Novak Djokovic, world number four Andy Murray and world number five Robin Soderling continue to turn up the heat.

And plenty of interest surrounds the return from injury of 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, and the performances of players like Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer, Andy Roddick, Fernando Verdasco, Mikhail Youzhny, Jurgen Melzer, Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Estonia becomes 17th member of the euro zone

Estonia has become the 17th member of the eurozone - the first ex-Soviet state to adopt the EU single currency.

The changeover from the kroon to the euro started at midnight (2200 GMT) in the small Baltic nation of 1.3m people.

Despite market pressure on the eurozone and the Greek and Irish bail-outs this year, polls suggested most Estonians wanted the euro.

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip marked the event by withdrawing euros from a cashpoint.

"It is a small step for the eurozone and a big step for Estonia," he said, holding the euro notes.

For many Estonians, 20 years after breaking away from the Soviet Union, the euro is proof that they have fully arrived in the West, the BBC's Baltic region correspondent, Damien McGuinness, reports.

Estonia joined the EU in 2004 - one of eight former Communist countries that did so, including its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Lithuania.

Two other ex-Communist countries - Slovenia and Slovakia - are already in the eurozone.

Anxiety about prices

Estonia's government says the euro will attract foreign investors because devaluation is then ruled out.

However, poorer Estonians fear that prices will be rounded up, and that food will become even more expensive. And the prospect of having to contribute to bail-outs of richer eurozone countries is hard to stomach, our correspondent reports.

In the past year Europe's debt crisis has hit Estonia severely. The tough cuts in state spending, necessary to join the eurozone, have pushed unemployment to more than 16%.

To avoid a last-minute rush, Estonians were able to swap kroons for euros commission-free from 1 December, the AFP news agency reports.

Kroons will be used in parallel with the euro for the first half of January. Banks will swap Estonians' kroons for euros until the end of 2011 and the central bank will carry on doing so indefinitely.

The kroon has been pegged to foreign currencies from the start, first to the deutschmark and, in 2002, to the euro.

The rate of 15.65 kroons to one euro has never changed.

Anna Chapman named Russia's Woman of the Year

London: Even after being expelled from the US, undercover Russian spy Anna Chapman has been named Woman of the Year by a Russian TV station.

The state-owned Channel One honoured the 28-year-old when she appeared on its ''This Is Your Life-style'' show.

The channel dedicated a prime time slot to Chapman where she was presented with a lion cub live as a gift.

Her relatives and teachers also made appearances, and her first boyfriend even spoke of their first kiss, as her life story was told.

She revealed that she would secure her own Russian TV show in the New Year following on from a lingerie shoot for Maxim magazine in November.

However, the spy gave no secrets away about her time in London or her spying mission.

"I will never confirm whether I worked in intelligence,'' the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

She insisted that, "Loving your motherland is absolutely necessary to be happy."

Chapman even refused to condemn the Russian ''traitor'' who spilled her identify as a spy to the Americans.

"It’s not for me to judge, I wish for nothing negative to anyone, even a traitor. It’s his problem, not mine," she said.

"What happened is for the best. It’s a beginning of something great and beautiful," she added.

Andrei Malakhov, host of ''Let Them Speak'', said, "She is without exaggeration the woman of the year."