EveryMatter

Olympic torch re-lit in Beijing

Beijing’s top Olympic official flew in with the flame

The Olympic torch has been re-lit at a lavish ceremony in Beijing, after arriving aboard a flight from Athens.

Chinese President Hu Jintao took part in the event at Tiananmen Square to welcome the torch to the city, which hosts of the 2008 Olympics in August.

Tight security was put in place at the square, amid concerns of possible anti-government protests.

Last week protesters opposed to China’s actions in Tibet clashed with police at the lighting ceremony in Greece.

On Tuesday, the torch goes to Almaty in Kazakhstan, its next stop on a tour of 20 countries before returning for the opening of the Beijing games on 8 August.

 

See map of Olympic torch relay route

Square closed

Hundreds of schoolchildren turned out at Beijing airport, waving flags as the Air China plane arrived.

Students and workers sang the Olympic slogan "One World, One Dream" and waved pom-poms.

Security was tight in the centre of Beijing, with one underground station near Tiananmen Square closed, and the square closed off to vehicles.

‘Timeless symbol’

Sunday’s formal handover was held in the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympics took place in 1896.

The route of the torch in Greece has been dogged by protests

The Chinese and Greek flags were marched in by Greek athletes to the strains of a band, before a circle of white-clad actresses dressed as ancient priestesses surrounded a podium as the torch was brought in.

Minos Kyriakou, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, passed the flame to chief Beijing organizer Liu Qi.

"The Olympic flame is the timeless symbol which stirs admiration, pride and faith [in] the Olympic ideals and values," said Mr Kyriakou.

"I hope the world community welcomes the flame and honours it".

Mr Liu pointed out that the summit of Mount Everest was on the torch’s destination list, "testifying to the great strength of the Olympic movement in marking the progress of human civilisation".

The protesters tried to unfurl a banner which said "Stop genocide in Tibet", but failed to enter the stadium or disrupt the solemn ceremony.

At least six people were arrested.

Police had warned they would confiscate all banners, signs or objects that might be thrown.

OLYMPIC TORCH ROUTE

 

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Olympic torch re-lit in Beijing

Fuck the big cold-hearted media! THIS is how you really report a story. This Iraqi blogger is right in the middle of everything and constantly updating his Blog. He describes the fights, how the U.S. army is responding and what the local people think. Plus he’s connecting all The latest happenings in a way you won’t hear from CNN, BBC and Fox!

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Arrested SIMI chief Safdar Nagori had called a meeting in Indore to finalise plans for major terror strikes across the country, police sources have said.
Another SIMI activist Ehtesham has told the police that Nagori held a series of meetings to plan the strikes.
He also organised training camps in Madhya Pradesh to raise a local terror force.
Nagori’s plan was to set up a completely indigenous jehadi outfit trained in the use of explosives and sophisticated arms.
He also wanted to create a force of fidayeens or suicide bombers.
Ehtesham, who was caught after the Mumbai train blasts, has also revealed that Nagori played a key role in the Malegaon and Mumbai train blasts.
With the Indore arrests, the police have managed to catch almost all major SIMI chiefs.
An ATS team Mumbai left for Madhya Pradesh on Thursday night to ask for his custody to probe his role in the blasts.
The Karnataka police have said that Nagori, Shibli and Adnan were involved in the foiled Hubli terror attack plot.

NDTV.com: Arrested SIMI chief planned terror strikes

Forget sails, this guy is using wave-power to cross the ocean in a custom-made boat. The boat is powered by two fins that raise and lower with the tide, which drive the propellers. On board energy is provided by solar panels and the boat is primarily made out of recycled aluminum.

read more | digg story

I
’m biased in favor of Unix and against Windows – everybody knows that except me; my perception is that I like things that work and Unix works better.

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Holi, festival of colours celebrated all over India is loosing its magnificence in metropolitan cities because of busy life and non-interactivity between peoples. Everyone get him /her jailed  inside home and watch TV or play games on computers or surf internet but don’t come out and celebrate while the villages celebrates the holi with great passion although some accidents happens but it doesn’t reduce the passion of peoples living in Indian villages for Holi. Even our popular TV channels doesn’t shows much about it except DD National.

I hope that people will come out of their busy life and interact with each others and celebrate festivals with great passion.

Happy Holi to All of You. 

The Yamuna sometimes called Jamuna or Jumna is a major river in northern India having total length of approximately 1,370 kilometers. Its source is at Yamunotri and it flows through the states of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and finally merges into River Ganga at Allahabad. Mathura, Agra and Delhi are the major cities lying on the banks of this river. In 1970-80’s Yamuna was the lifeline of Delhi has now became the most polluted water resource of the country. Increasing pollution of the Yamuna has now become an international issue and a cause of concern for environmentalists. Big industries, Factories, Peoples living in colonies, slums and rural areas everyone pollute this holy river. 18 drains of city falls into the river as it covers distance of 22 km in Delhi. City dumps its 3,296 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage in the river. A few years back when the pollution level of Yamuna increased alarmingly, the Delhi government woke up. A number of projects were launched by the government to clean the Yamuna, but till date nothing has happened. Yamnua Action Plan has not given desired results because it is not in accordance with the Master Plan for Delhi-2021. Last Year Delhi Govt. entered into agreement with Engineers India Limited to clean Yamuna. Delhi Jal Board (DJB) proposed laying down sewers along the three major drains — Najafgarh, Supplementary and Shahadra drains and also make 15 sewage treatment plants functional to prevent the waste from going into this holy river. Recently DJB accepts before the court that some lapses are have gone in past regarding cleaning of river and we all knows that most sewage treatment plants are malfunctioning or don’t have sufficient maintenance and manpower due to corruption and lack of administration. Delhi Govt said that it will be not able to clean the Yamuna before 2012 or upto 2010 Commonwealth Games but government had not considered to work 24×7 x 365 to clean the river. If cleaning work goes 24×7 x 365 the Holy River will be definitely clean before 2010.

In 1960 the famous Thames river of London was also got polluted but the river had been cleaned with excellent clean up model and now the river is a very important part of London’s beauty. We hope that the same will goes for Yamuna before 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The most important question is that can clean up drive become successful without the contribution of Delhites? In our country, India we all assumes that it is duty of government to do everything. If government agencies failed to do something, should not we take our own initiative and put our efforts to complete the project. It is almost impossible to make the Yamuna clean, till Delhites wake up. It is the prime duty of Delhites to help the government to save Yamuna. Only then Yamuna clean up drive can achieve its goal.

‘Obviously, there is need for greater involvement of citizens’ groups and volunteers

All over the world, there was a fresh reawakening about the state of rivers.

Badarpur flyover project has been mooted five years ago to de-congest National Highway – 2 (Mathura Road) at Badarpur Crossing. It is an important gateway to Delhi city and a link between Delhi, Faridabad, Mathura and Agra. Too much encroachments and traffic increase the chaos. Many attempts have been done to remove encroachments from the main crossing to increase space for traffic but to no avail because of political interference, corruption and lack of administration.

Approximately 100000 (one lakh) vehicles daily ply on this road and 45 to 50 minutes is the waiting time and goes up in night due to commercial traffic on highway. Approximately 500000 (five lacs) peoples use this road daily basis and 45 minutes wastage means 500000×45 = 22500000 minutes mean 3,75,000 hours are wasted. If we   calculate on monetary scale than 375000 * 300 (average income for one hour) = Rs. 11,25,00,000/- are wasted on daily basis. If we multiply its from 1825 days i.e 5 (five)  years the figure will be Rs. 2,05,31,25,00,000/- is wasted from our national income. In last five years the cost of construction had gone tremendously high which is clear loss to Ex-Chequer’s and also affected the nation’s prosperity. Apart from financial losses the traffic chaos on the road increase pollution heavily and also affects health of commuters.

Many of the industrial associations of Faridabad is saying that cheap land in city attracts many industrial ventures but traffic bottleneck on the approach roads stops businessmen’s and Corporate Sector to starts their project in city.

To deal with all these problems the concept of six lane flyover had been mooted which again did not visualized because of procedural and political compulsions. Flyover will start from BTPC and ends at Sec-37 Faridabad. To construct flyover first of all slip and services roads had to be constructed on both side of border by their respective state governments. National Highway Authority of India will borne the cost of flyover while state governments are responsible for ancillary works.

Now the issue had been raised in parliament also so some news are flashed that work on the flyover is expected to begin by July 2008.