NEW DELHI (AFP) – New Delhi’s top official has urged Indians to “pray” for the city’s Commonwealth Games sporting venues to be completed on time, after massive delays in construction threatened the October 3 start.

In remarks broadcast Saturday, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said: “I can only pray and request the whole city and the country to pray.”

Her comments came as the deadline for completion of construction projects for the Games, already dogged by ballooning costs and allegations of rampant corruption, was pushed back yet again.

The stadiums, many still wreathed in scaffolding and waterlogged from incessant monsoon rains, will be ready at the earliest by September 10 for the Games, Dikshit said.

But India briefly cast off its worries about the Games becoming a national embarrassment for the release Saturday by Oscar-winning musician A.R. Rahman of a thumping theme song he composed for the event.

“It was a great honour composing this anthem, I hope it’s in the spirit of the Games,” Rahman, who last year became the first Indian composer to strike gold at the Oscars for his “Jai Ho” song for the movie “Slumdog Millionaire.”

But even the song’s release at a glitzy ceremony held in a New Delhi suburb was late. Games organisers had promised its unveiling in mid-August.

Sites for the Games, awarded to New Delhi in 2003, were due to be completed by August 31 — the fourth deadline to have been set after the first target of March 31 was missed.

Frenzied last-minute construction efforts have been slowed by unseasonally heavy monsoon rains and the weather office has forecast more big downpours throughout September.

“We have had rains which has never happened like this in Delhi,” Dikshit told CNN-IBN television network. “That has slowed down work.”

Asked whether the Games might have to be postponed, she replied she was desperately hoping the work would be completed on time.

“I myself go to inspect the work…I would not hope for a postponement. We are working round-the-clock. The moment rain stops, they (the workers) start working,” she said.

“I am confident by the grace of God we will be able to finish everything before October 3.”

The multi-billion-dollar Games, India’s biggest sporting festival since the Asian Games in 1982, will feature athletes from 71 nations and territories.

The delays come as New Delhi is also beset by a bad outbreak of dengue fever, blamed partly on the pools of water and piles of building refuse at the Games sites — rich mosquito breeding grounds.

While China impressed the world with its masterful Beijing Olympics, India?s preparations for the 2010 Games, meant to project the country as an emerging economic superpower, have been shambolic, handing India’s media a field day.

The Games’ Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who has been at the heart of criticism over delays and cost overruns, insisted Saturday the Games would have “the best infrastructure in the world” and that the event would be “better than the Beijing Games.”

But with just over a month to go, public sentiment is turning against the event amid allegations of fake building safety certificates, financial kickbacks and purchases of 89-dollar-toilet rolls that have shocked even those inured to tales of widespread corruption in India. — AFP

MUMBAI (AFP) – Bollywood is tackling the subject of sexual harassment in the workplace, which campaigners say is increasingly becoming an issue as traditional gender roles change in modern urban India.

“Hello Darling”, which was released on Friday, is inspired by the 1980 Hollywood comedy “Nine To Five” in which Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton seek to get even with their arrogant and sexist male boss.

The Hindi-language film — the latest to address more contemporary themes rather than the traditional Bollywood song and dance love story extravaganzas — stars Eesha Koppikhar, Celina Jaitley, Gul Panaag and Jaaved Jaffrey.

“‘Hello Darling’ gives a very serious message to society,” said Koppikhar. “There are some men in the corporate world who are always on the lookout to flirt with women.

“The film speaks about such men and how women have to be careful and deal with them.”

Sexual harassment — or “Eve teasing” as it is called in India — is a growing problem, as more women leave the home to go out to work, said Sudha Sundaraman, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association.

But she said unwanted sexual comments, contact or advances were not just confined to traditionally male-dominated offices. They also happened in the “unorganised sector”, where many women do jobs such as low-paid domestic work.

And women working often unsociable hours in so-called “sunrise” sectors such as call centres or the IT industry were vulnerable to sexual harassment or exploitation, she added.

“Attitudes are still very patriarchal,” she told AFP. “There’s a strong sense that women who are working or single in any of these institutions are somehow accessible. That also leads to sexual harassment.”

The latest available government statistics indicate that crimes against women in India are increasing, with more than 12,000 cases of sexual harassment and over 40,000 of molestation recorded in 2008.

Indian field hockey was rocked last month by claims that the male coach of the women’s national team sexually harassed an unidentified player and the side’s video analyst consorted with prostitutes while on tour.

The coach resigned, denying the charges, while the video analyst was suspended.

Sexual harassment lawsuits have also been filed against top Indian executives at the country’s second-largest software exporter Infosys and the publisher Penguin, leading to out-of-court settlements.

But most victims are thought to refrain from reporting incidents, due to the social stigma, attitudes towards complaints — and the lack of faith in available remedies.

The widely reported cases involving Infosys and Penguin were brought in the United States and Canada.

Gender equality and the right to live in dignity are enshrined in India’s constitution but the country has no specific law to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Supreme Court issued guidelines after a landmark case in 1997 for all companies to take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment as well as investigate any complaints and take appropriate action.

But the guidelines are not mandatory, said Sundaraman, who has been pushing for a law to be passed, allowing the practice to continue virtually unchecked.

In the meantime, some Indian women are fighting back at the gropers and the touchers by enrolling in self-defence classes.

“These programmes do not solve the main problem,” Kalpana Viswanath, a researcher at women’s rights group Jagori, told AFP. “Women can learn but it is the men who really need lessons on how to behave.” — AFP

The shake-up came hours after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered officials to use non-lethal measures to control the demonstrations.

However, protests by thousands of Kashmiri Muslims continued across the region after Friday prayers at mosques.

The demonstrators chanted pro-independence slogans and government forces responded with warning shots in the Soura neighborhood of Srinagar, the region’s main city, a police officer said. No injuries were immediately reported.

On Thursday night, large clashes broke out between protesters and government forces at three places in Srinagar and Sopore, a town 35 miles (55 kilometers) to the northwest, the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Government forces fired tear gas and live ammunition, and at least 16 protesters and nine police officers were injured, he said.

Kashmir police chief Farooq Ahmed and intelligence chief K. Rajendra were among a dozen top officers transferred to other positions, the state government said in a statement late Thursday.

Civil rights activists have accused Indian paramilitary soldiers and police of using excessive force. Each death caused by government forces provokes a more severe protest by rock-throwing Kashmiri Muslims.

On Thursday, the prime minister questioned the government’s crowd control tactics.

The protests in Kashmir have to be dealt with using “non-lethal, yet effective and more focused measures,” Singh said at a conference of police chiefs from various Indian states.

The last two months in the volatile Himalayan region have been reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that has killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both. Separatists reject Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and want to form a separate country or merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan. — AP

The company, majority-owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, has forecast India’s car market could more than double to five million units annually by 2015 and says it must increase supply to keep its leadership position.

“We’re preparing a project report for the third unit,” Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R.C. Bhargava said at an auto function in New Delhi, adding a final decision would be taken by the company’s board.

Maruti, which has a strong following among India’s growing middle class, is already producing at full capacity and has long waiting lists for some popular models.

It is seeking to claw back business after its market share slipped below 50 percent amid fierce competition from domestic and foreign rivals.

Bhargava estimated the cost of the proposed factory, which would be built at Maruti’s complex at Manesar in the northern state of Haryana, at 17 billion rupees (362 million dollars).

He gave no timeframe for construction of the factory, which would have a production capacity of 250,000 units.

With developed markets still in the doldrums, car makers globally are counting on India and fellow emerging market giant China to boost revenues.

India has drawn a flood of new entrants from General Motors to Ford and Renault, especially in the small car segment.

Maruti, whose strong position in India has made it Suzuki’s largest and most profitable business outside Japan, is currently setting up a second factory at its Manesar plant with an annual capacity of 300,000 units.

Its Gurgaon plant on the outskirts of New Delhi produces 700,000 units a year.

India has posted blistering car sales growth, with more than half a million cars sold in the first four months of the current fiscal year.

Car sales in India hit a record high last month on the back of soaring demand in rural areas, jumping 38 percent to 158,764, compared with 115,084 in the same month last year, according to industry figures. — AFP

KOLKATA (AFP) – Nuns, priests and slum-dwellers held a solemn mass in Kolkata on Thursday on the birth centenary of Mother Teresa, known as the “Saint of the Gutters” for her life’s work with the city’s sick and dying.

The mass, presided over by Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi, was celebrated at the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity — the order of nuns that Mother Teresa founded in the eastern Indian city 60 years ago.

A message from Pope Benedict XVI was read out at the two-hour service, which drew around 1,000 people, including scores of residents from the city’s slums which have always been the focus of the order’s work.

The chapel, decorated with flowers and candles, was so packed that hundreds had to stand outside.

“We are here to pay respect to a great soul who spent her life caring for the poor and destitute,” said schoolteacher Sumit Kothari.

Afterwards, the nuns who succeeded Mother Teresa, Sister Nirmala and the current head of the order, Sister Prema, released some white doves as a symbol of peace and compassion.

“I am confident that this year will be, for the church and the world, an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime and continues to be through the affectionate and tireless work of you, her spiritual children,” the pope’s message read.

Mother Teresa, a Nobel peace prize winner and now Roman Catholic saint-in-waiting, was born on August 26, 1910 to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje in Macedonia.

As Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she arrived in India in 1929 and two years later took her first religious vows as a nun, adopting the name under which she would achieve worldwide recognition.

In addition to Kolkata, Thursday’s anniversary was to be marked in the three neighbouring Balkan states of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo — all of which lay claim to a slice of the Mother Teresa legend.

Mother Teresa began her missionary work with the poor in Kolkata in 1948 and the teeming east Indian metropolis remained her base until her death in September 1997.

Her grave in the order’s headquarters has since become a pilgrimage site.

Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003, after being fast-tracked by the Vatican, but her elevation to sainthood is still awaiting proof of a medical miracle.

“We’re all hoping for her early sainthood,” said Sunil Lucas, West Bengal president of the Catholics International Media Organisation. “But we understand that this takes time.”

“We don’t have it yet,” Sister Prema, who took charge of the order last year, told AFP on Thursday. “Miracles depend on God, not on people. We are waiting.”

For all the reverence with which her name and memory are treated, Mother Teresa was not without her critics.

One her most vocal detractors was the British-born author Christopher Hitchens who, in a 1994 documentary called “Hell’s Angel,” accused her of being a political opportunist who failed those in her care and contributed to the misery of the poor with her strident opposition to contraception and abortion.

Questions have also been raised over the Missionaries of Charity’s finances, as well as conditions in the order’s hospices where there has been resistance to introducing modern hygiene methods.

A series of Mother Teresa’s letters published in 2007 also caused some consternation among her admirers as it became clear that she had suffered crises of faith for most of her life.

She was granted Indian citizenship in 1951 and received a state funeral after her death. — AFP

Azim Premji, chairman of the giant Wipro software company, wrote that the true cost of the Games was about six billion dollars — twice the government estimate — if all infrastructure projects were included.

“Is this drain on public funds for the greater common good?” Premji asked in a signed article for the Times of India.

“How can we forget that we could have established primary schools and health centres in tens of thousands of villages? Can we ignore this splurge the next time a malnourished child looks at us in the eye?”

Premji, rated by Forbes as the second richest Indian, has headed Wipro for more than 40 years, leading the company to international success. He is widely celebrated for his simple lifestyle and business ethics.

Premji, 65, said the Games were a “worthy endeavour” but that the expensive and chaotic preparations had come at the expense of India’s real needs.

“India needs more schools, and the existing schools need better infrastructure and more teachers,” he said.

“To not have this, and to instead spend on a grand sporting spectacle sounds like we have got our priorities wrong.”

The Games have been dogged by delayed venue construction and alleged corruption, with fears mounting that the event will not meet international standards when the opening ceremony is held on October 3. — AFP

RIM faces an August 31 deadline to give authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service.

The newspaper said the telecoms ministry has suggested every time a corporate email is sent on a BlackBerry handset through an enterprise server located in the premises of any company, a copy of this can be fed to the monitoring systems installed by all Internet service providers (ISPs) in the country.

If the solution is not acceptable to the interior ministry, the only option for the telecoms ministry would be to instruct carriers not to offer the enterprise email services on Blackberry platform, the paper said.

It cited an unnamed senior official in India’s interior ministry as saying the intelligence agency was testing the proposal.

A senior government source had said this week India would allow the messenger service to continue beyond the deadline as it had been assured access to the services, but could shut down the secure email service if access is not given by then. — Reuters

For the newspaper story, see www.economictimes.com

KINSHASA (AFP) – Suspected rebels hacked to death three Indian UN peacekeepers in their camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Indian and Congolese armies said, in an attack condemned by the UN and the Congolese government.

A further seven Indian troops were wounded in the attack on Wednesday in Kirumba, which the Indian military and local officials blamed on the Mai-Mai, a Congolese tribal militia.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings and urged Kinshasa to launch an immediate inquiry to “ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly identified and brought to justice.”

In its own statement, the 15-member Security Council “condemned in the strongest terms” the attack.

The head of the UN mission in DR Congo, Roger Meece, said it was “a very sad loss,” but added that his forces would continue their efforts to beat the threat of armed groups.

“At about 1:50 am (2350 GMT Tuesday), under the cover of darkness, the Unit?s Company Operating Base at Kirumba was approached by five innocent looking civilians,” the Indian army said in a statement.

“They asked the post for assistance. While they were engaging the guard on duty with conversation, a group of approximately 50-60 rebels — probably Mai-Mai rebel group — attacked the periphery of the post, from the surrounding jungle,” the statement said.

“This lasted for approximately five minutes. The rebels merged into the forest, taking advantage of darkness.

“In the ensuing incident, Indian troops suffered three fatal casualties and seven injured.”

General Vainqueur Mayala, commander of the 8th military region of the DR Congo army, said the motive for the attack was unclear.

“They did not use firearms, but knives and machetes, and they killed three Indians and critically injured another three,” the general told AFP by telephone from Kinshasa.

The victims all served with the United Nations’ Organisation for Stabilisation in Democratic Republic of Congo, abbreviated to MONUSCO.

“I can only reiterate the shock I felt, the sadness for the loss of our soldiers,” Meece said at his weekly press conference in Kinshasa.

“It’s a very sad loss but I can assure you that we will pursue our efforts… against the threats posed by the various armed groups, including the group which launched the attack this morning.”

In the wake of the UN calls for justice the Congolese government promised late Wednesday to submit the killers to “the law in all its rigour” and “firmly” condemned the attack.

A statement issued by communications minister and government spokesman Lambert Mende said: “Inquiries are already well under way to identify the guilty parties who will have to experience the law in all its rigour.”

Kirumba is around 140 kilometres (85 miles) north of Goma, capital of the volatile North-Kivu province.

An Indian peacekeeper was shot and killed in North-Kivu in May this year, and another was killed in a gun battle in the province in 2005.

The head city official of Kirumba, Egide Karafifi, told AFP the attackers were wearing civilian clothes, had raphia palm coverings on their heads and were singing Mai-Mai songs.

The mission, earlier known by its French acronym MONUC, has been present in DR Congo since late 1999 and its new mandate to consolidate peace runs until June 30 next year.

The Mai-Mai are just one of a number of armed groups fighting each other and the army in the east of the country. They were integrated in the Congolese army but control their own territory in Sud-Kivu province and are intent on overturning the military command in the area. — AFP

SRINAGAR, India – Indian-controlled Kashmir’s top elected official has pardoned an off-duty police officer who hurled a shoe at him during India’s independence day ceremony — an insulting act reportedly lauded by thousands of Kashmiris.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah directed officials to release Abdul Ahad Jan from prison after meeting the policeman on Tuesday, a government statement said.

“The Holy month of Ramadan teaches us to be compassionate and to forgive everyone,” Abdullah said. The Muslim month of fasting began on Aug. 12.

Jan was in a high-security gallery of top officials and ministers when he hurled the shoe during the ceremony at a soccer stadium in Srinagar on Sunday. He also threw a black flag toward Abdullah while shouting, “We want freedom.” Neither item hit Abdullah.

Jan was immediately arrested and authorities later said he was mentally unstable and had been suspended from work in May.

Top officials called the act a major security breach and suspended 15 police officials, including four officers, for lax security that allowed the officer to enter the stadium.

Thousands of people reportedly shouted pro-independence slogans in a show of support outside Jan’s house in his native village after the incident and demanded his unconditional release.

The public reaction to the stunt underscored the continuing anti-India sentiment in the predominantly Muslim region, which has been rocked by unrest since June. At least 59 people have died in the violence.

A top separatist leader dismissed Abdullah’s action as a “drama.”

“The puppet chief minister is invoking compassion and forgiveness in this (fasting) month and has suspended 15 officials for the shoe throwing incident,” said Masarat Alam in a statement.

“Have they suspended anyone for murders in Ramadan alone?” he asked, referring to the killing of Kashmiri Muslims by government forces during street protests.

The Himalayan region is divided between predominantly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, but claimed in full by both. Most people in Kashmir favor independence from India or a merger with Pakistan.

The recent unrest in Indian Kashmir is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that has so far killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.

Separatists have called for more protests and strikes during Ramadan, and the government has responded by imposing curfews, effectively shutting down the disputed region.

On Wednesday, thousands of armed police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled Srinagar and other major towns, enforcing a strict curfew, but protesters took to the streets anyway.

Residents staged protest marches across much of Kashmir and chanted “Go India! Go back” and “We want freedom.”

Most protests were peaceful, but in some places clashes broke out after security forces tried to block the marchers by firing warning shots and tear gas, said a police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media.

The protesters hurled rocks and bricks at government forces, he said.

At least 13 people were injured in the clashes, police said. — AP

LEH, India (AFP) – The deaths of six foreign trekkers in devastating flash floods have dealt a major blow to the crucial tourist industry in India’s high-altitude adventure playground of Ladakh.

The fallout from the floods which struck in peak trekking season and killed nearly 190 people has forced mountain guides in the region to relocate to Nepal in their search for clients.

“It’s been a very bad season,” said Tsering Dolkar, deputy officer at the Tourist Reception Centre in Ladakh’s main city, Leh.

“Normally we have 200 tourists per day arriving by air. Now it’s down to around 20 a day,” Dolkar said.

In 2009, nearly 80,000 tourists, including 30,000 overseas visitors, travelled to Ladakh, a Buddhist-dominated mountain desert in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir.

Tourist officials had hoped to top 100,000 arrivals this year, but that target was buried in the mudslides that swept through Leh and surrounding areas when the flash floods hit on August 5.

Before the disaster, hotel occupancy in Leh had been running at close to 100 percent. Less than two weeks later it is down below 30 percent.

Nissar Hussain, the assistant director of tourism for Indian Kashmir, said the floods, triggered by an unusually intense cloudburst, were an unprecedented phenomenon.

“I’m 55, and I’ve never seen anything like this. My father hasn’t seen anything like this and nor has my grandfather,” he told AFP.

“I’m confident it’ll never happen again. This will only have a very temporary effect”.

Since 1974, when Ladakh first opened to tourism, millions of travellers have been drawn to the region — trekkers seeking to test themselves on its 6,000-metre passes, mountain climbers and those more interested in its Buddhist culture and ancient Tibetan monasteries.

Tourism accounts for 50 percent of Ladakh’s income, which makes the economic fallout from the flooding especially harsh.

According to the Indian authorities, six foreigners were among the 189 dead, including three from France, and one each from Spain, Italy and Denmark.

Caught by the sudden floods while on a high-altitude trek, they were swept away by the force of the surging waters.

Parvez Miru, who runs a specialist trekking agency, Ladakh Eco Adventure, said the impact had been immediate with a sudden 50 percent drop in client numbers.

“It not only has an impact for me but also means the loss of jobs for my guides, assistants and my horsemen. I paid them and they decided to go back to Nepal. They do not want to stay in Leh,” Miru said.

While client lists have been savagely cut back, there are still tourists arriving in Leh, either by air, or by bus now that the main road links — damaged by the floods — have been restored.

Bermuda-based Teresa Templeman-Chatfield, who was preparing for a two-week hike through the Markha Valley — one of the most popular trekking routes — said news of the disaster had not made her cancel.

“We made a rational decision based on people here and not on the Internet,” she said, adding that any travel destination had the potential for unexpected danger.

“You can take a risk going to New York or Paris,” she said.

It is not the first time tourism has been disrupted in Ladakh.

In 1990-91, visitors were scared away by an outbreak of communal violence between the region’s Buddhist and Muslim communities. — AFP