South Asia facing severe terrorist problem: PC

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said the South Asian Region is facing severe terrorist problems, and urged all the nations for 'complete cooperation' in fighting the menace.


He was speaking at third SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Interior/Home Ministers meeting recently held here.

"We can all undoubtedly agree that the South Asian region is faced with a serious security situation. The increasing threat of terrorism poses a major challenge to the maintenance of peace and security and adversely affects economic development in our region." said Chidambaram.

'Unfair to say Pakistan has not done enough'

"It is only with the fullest cooperation among our countries that we will be in a position to effectively tackle the grave threat of terrorism in our region" he said.

Chidambaram asked other members of this region for 'complete sharing' of terrorists and planned terrorist activities.

"We also need to cooperate with each other in sharing information on potential terrorists and planned acts of terrorism, and all other forms of criminal activity, in order to create a more secure environment." he said.

He asked for implementation of a regional convention for the sharing of evidence among member states as well for confiscating funds meant for criminal and terrorist act.
"The 16th Summit recognized the value of the proposed UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism and called for its early conclusion. I would urge all Member States to work together to implement this directive by our Heads of State and Government to ensure the early conclusion of the Convention on International Terrorism." said he.

PC further said: "India will be pleased to host a meeting of the High Level Group of Eminent Experts to Strengthen SAARC Anti-Terrorism Mechanism as recommended in the SAARC Ministerial Declaration on Cooperation in Combating Terrorism. We propose to hold this meeting in New Delhi in January 2011".

South Asia facing severe terrorist problem: PC

A Cricket Dispute Leads to a Twitter Win in India

A year ago, Twitter wasn't on the radar screen for most Indians, let alone their PC screens. In the last few months, though, that's changed, and more than 2.3 million people on the Subcontinent tweet and Twitter away their time. That's nothing compared with the U.S., where some 22 million use the microblogging site. But it's a big leap forward, or backward, depending on how you look at it.

What changed? It appears that a heated cricket controversy, playing out in the arena of social media, may have something to do with it. The drama started in February, when Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League, was accused of playing favorites in selling new cricket franchises and awarding broadcast rights. Pointing the finger was Shashi Tharoor, a member of Parliament and Foreign Ministry official. He has 774,000 followers on Twitter, more than any other tweeter in India. Tharoor forced the issue online, Modi tweeted his denials —as well as a few accusations of his own—and suddenly the dispute blasted its way into newspapers and onto TV, carrying the Twitter brand name along with it.

Now the government is investigating Modi. Tharoor, facing questions about how a close friend got a piece of a cricket team, has been forced to resign from the Foreign Ministry, though he denies any wrongdoing. And Twitter suddenly has the attention of the second-most-populous nation on earth (or a little piece of it). Twitter page views in India jumped to 45 million in March, up from 26 million in December, a 73 percent increase. Over the same period there was a 21 percent increase in the U.S., according to researcher comScore (SCOR).

Bollywood megastarlet and cricket team owner Shilpa Shetty recently tweeted that Modi has "Made India Proud," and then asked her 48,000 followers to help her choose an outfit for a party. Sachin Tendulkar, India's most popular cricket player, joined Twitter on May 4. On his first day, he sent 11 tweets along the lines of: "Got stitches removed and the dr feels it will take more time to recover. Will keep you posted on this." At last count, he had 280,000 followers.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_21/b4179036009524.htm