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GENERAL
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United States
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 MANJU GANERIWALA has been named Virginia state treasurer. Currently deputy secretary of finance, she has become the second Indian American in
governor Timothy M. Kaine ’s administration.
The governor had named Aneesh Chopra technology secretary in his cabinet at the beginning of his administration in 2006.
Born in Akola, Maharashtra, Ganeriwala was raised in Mumbai.
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Canada
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AJIT SOMESHWAR is among 11 people appointed to an economy advisory council in recession-hit Canada.
With Canada facing a huge deficit for the first time in years and millions facing poverty, the council will advise the government in dealing with the economic crisis.
Mumbai-born Someshwar is chief executive officer of IT and risk management company CSI Consulting, based in Toronto. He is also the national convener of the Canada-India Foundation.
"In this time of unprecedented economic turmoil, I am bringing some of Canada's best minds together to find solutions and help launch a timely recovery,” said finance minister Jim Flaherty.
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South Africa
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TATUM KESHWAR, a South African model of Indian origin, was crowned Miss South Africa at a gala banquet at Sun City, Johannesburg.
It was a case of second time lucky for the 24-year-old psychology graduate who persevered after participating in the contest in 2005. She was then named Model of the Year, but did not make it to the top five after being in the top 10.
"Hope, pray and cry!" was how Keshwar described her strategy for winning the prestigious title which will now see her represent South Africa at the Miss World pageant, which will again be hosted in Johannesburg next year.
Keshwar was in the audience at the Sandton Convention Centre in Sun City when Miss India Parvathy Omanakkuttan was named the first runner-up to Miss World 2008 Kseniya Sukhinova of Russia as the two beat contestants from 110 other countries.
Keshwar said she had come to the contest to win, but said even if she had not, she would have gone back home with many memories and new friends.
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Bahrain
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THE INDIAN embassy in Bahrain announced that the new Indiroots programme will be publicised that allows citizens to trace their Indian roots. The programme that was posted on the web site has had little response thus far.
Efforts by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has received responses from some eight people who found their antecedents in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. Overseas Indians who want to trace their roots in India are required to fill an application and deposit it with the Indian embassy with a fee of Rs 20,000 ($425) and any other information that may help trace their roots back home.
Indiroot is a non government, non profit, non political organisation.
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UAE
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THE MINISTRY of Overseas Indian Affairs is to set up an international toll free number that overseas Indians can access to make complaints to or enquiries from the Government of India.
K. Mohandas, the ministry secretary, speaking in Abu Dhabi said they are in contact with international telephone companies to make the facility possible. Complaints will be forwarded to the respective embassies or state governments who will follow them up. The existing national toll free line in India receives some 1000 complaints and enquiries each month from relatives of NRIs.
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MARWARI
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Europe
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LN MITTAL’S French subsidiaries have been fined euro 302 million (Rs 2000 crore) by The Conseil de la Concurrence after a four and a half year probe into anti-competitive practices in the steel sector.
The three firms—PUM Service Acier, Arcelor Profil, and AMD Sud Ouest—are subsidiaries of Mittal’s ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company. They were each fined for being among 11 companies penalised for forming a cartel to influence prices, customers and markets in the region.
ArcelorMittal says it has rigorous global compliance programmes in place to combat anti-competitive practices.
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MALAYALI
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United States
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IN A major breakthrough, which can dramatically increase survival chances of ovarian cancer patients, Anil Sood, an Indian American scientist has identified two proteins whose presence increases the median survival rate by 11 years in patients with the disease.
A study of nearly 250 ovarian cancer patients by Sood, MD, professor in the departments of Gynecologic Oncology and Cancer Biology at MD Anderson, along with other researchers, found that woman with high levels of two proteins named Dicer and Drosha in their tumor cells had a median survival rate of 11 years. While, in patients with low levels of one or both proteins about 40 per cent of those studied had a median survival of less than three years.
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