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Blog of man identified as Dawson College gunman paints dark portrait |
An Indian origin gunman who went on a shooting rampage at a Montreal college in late September left an online journal with chilling comments and photos of himself brandishing a rifle. Kimveer Gill was the author of an online diary posted at the website vampirefreaks.com.
Gill, 25, was dressed entirely in black, wearing a trench coat and armed with a rifle when he arrived at Dawson College. One woman was shot to death and 19 people were injured, at least six of them critically, in the rampage that followed. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 48.
In his profile on vampirefreaks.com, a site devoted to Goth culture, Gill called himself "Trench" and wrote: "You will come to know him as the Angel of Death."
"Work sucks … School sucks … Life sucks … What else can I say?" he wrote. "Metal and Goth kick ass. Life is like a video game, you gotta die sometime."
A photo gallery accompanying the profile includes pictures of Gill brandishing a Beretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle.
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US hate crimes: Muslims, Sikhs worst affected |
Hindus living in the Capital of the United States were the least affected by the spate of hate crimes inflicted on South Asians following the September 11 attacks, while Sikhs and Pakistani Muslims were among the worst affected groups, a new study in the Washington D.C areas shows.
In the aftermath of the attacks, only 15 per cent Indian Hindus say they were afraid of their physical safety compared to 41 per cent Pakistani Muslims and 64 per cent Sikh respondents.
But as many as 83 per cent Sikhs respondents say they or someone they knew personally had experienced a hate crime or incident and 35 per cent Pakistani Muslims say they considered leaving the United States because of hostile atmosphere created in the aftermath of the terrorists attacks.
Eighty-six per cent of Pakistani Muslim respondents also said they became more interested in domestic and international politics and generally they felt more of a desire to participate politically.
The study was done by the Discrimination and National Security Initiative (DNSI), an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.
The report released on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington was based on interviews conducted over last two years. |
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Indian scientist chosen for Trailblazer award |
Indian scientist Mala R Chinoy has been chosen for the 2006 Science Spectrum Trailblazer award for her pioneering work in cardiopulmonary defects in newborns. Chinoy, professor of Surgery at the Penn State College of Medicine, is one of five Indian origin scientists to be honoured with the Trailblazer awards in 2006.
In 2005, she was awarded the Emerald Honours Award for career achievement by the Minorities in Research Science organisation.
The Trailblazer awards, also given by the MIRS organisation, will be presented in Baltimore on September 15.
For the past two decades, Chinoy has focussed on cardiopulmonary birth defects in the congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a condition frequently observed in newborns.
She has been working in the US since 1988 and was instrumental in developing a reproducible animal model of this human condition in 1995.
The research by Chinoy, who hails from Rajkot in Gujarat, led to the understanding that the specific time in which embryos are exposed to air pollutants inhaled by mothers resulted in cardiopulmonary defects and rendered lungs functionally defective.
The Trailblazer awards are given to scientists who are pioneers in their field and seen as outstanding Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, and African American professionals. |
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NETHERLAND AND INDIA
Natural partners in Innovation |
In novation was on everyone’s mind during the recent Dutch ministerial mission to Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. The Netherlands minister for foreign trade, Karien van Gennip, led a large delegation of companies in the field of IT, biotechnology and medical applications to look for commercial opportunities in India. The delegation also comprised representatives of chambers of commerce, investment agencies and the Eindhoven Innovation Platform in order to directly link with their counterparts in India.
Indepth meetings with minister for commerce and industry Kamal Nath, finance minister P. Chidambaram, minister of communications Dayanidhi Maran and the vice-chairman of the Planning Committee, Montek Singh Ahluwalia were held. The minister and her delegation had interesting round table meetings with FICCI and CII, as well as with academia at the Council for Scientific and Industrial.
Of course, the mission could not succeed without also seeing “the engine room of the global economy” at work. The mission visited various companies in ICT (like Satyam Technologies, in bio-technology (like the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology) and in medical applications (Apollo Hospital).
One of the absolute highlights was the showcasing of a solar boat in the port city of Chennai. Van Gennip toured the harbour at a respectable speed in this boat, powered only by sunlight. |
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