Thiruvananthapuram : With the summer rain playing truant and the sun blazing down like never before, Kerrala has become a furnace of sorts. The mercury has been rising and has already crossed 40 degrees Celsius in Palakkad district.

The average temperature in some districts of the state has gone up by over two degrees above the average for this time of year; Punalur witnessed 38 degrees Celsius. The state government has issued instructions that manual labourers would be given hours off work in the afternoon, when the heat was at its height.

Alappuzha district, incidentally, recorded the lowest temperature among the 14 districts of the state – at 33 degrees Celsius.

‘This is a warning sign for all of us. If we do not take note of this ‘test dose’ that nature is administering, we will face bad times. The need of the hour is to take the environment seriously and initiate measures to protect it,’ Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said.

Chandy was referring to media reports of people in the state suffering sun strokes. What began as a few isolated cases kept mounting by the day, and Friday saw about a dozen fresh cases of sunstroke.

‘There has been a shortage of rain, with just isolated showers. It is natural that temperature would rise. We expect, however, that the situation will change towards the end of the month, and more rain is expected next month,’ said director of the state office of the India Meterological Department, K. Santhosh.

With no rain, water level in the state’s dams is receding. The state is heavily dependent on dams for water and electricity, and delayed rain could cause enormous problems.

‘In neighbouring states, there are power cuts for very long hours. All what we have here is a power outage of just one hour, with 30 minutes duration each in the morning and the night. The power situation is such that there should be a power outage for six hours, but we are not going to do it as it would bring untold misery to our people,’ remarked State Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed.

Just as the heat hit headlines, the media pointed to the largesse offered by state Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan, who granted the state’s 141 legislators a brand new LCD TV as a Vishu (new year, according to local calendar) gift.

Leader of opposition V.S. Achuthanandan said Friday that he had handed back the TV, with a note to the minister that this was not the appropriate time for such a gift, given the drought scenario.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was away for two days in the United Arab Emirates, returned Saturday to make an on-the-spot assessment of relief works for the drought-affected at Pathanamthitta district. Chandy will also travel to other district headquarters in coming days.

Meanwhile, a fisherman who had returned to the shore and lay tired on the beach at Kollam said: ‘This heat is killing. I have been a fisherman for two decades, but I have never before experienced this. We can’t stay in the sea for long.’

Prayers have now begun to rise to the rain gods. People do not even want to consider what plight they might find themselves in, if the rain this year is long delayed or scarce.

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights” Gloria Steinem.

International Women’s Day  is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women’s Day is a national holiday.

Every year, 8 March is celebrated as International Women’s Day. The decision to observe an International Women’s Day happened in 1910 at the second international conference of working women held in Copenhagen.

The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues and friends with flowers and gifts. Thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. Many global corporations also acknowledge this day by running their own internal events.

Melbourne: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, will run for a Senate seat in Australia this year and his mother feels he would offer a good break from the ‘US lackeys’ in politics.

The confirmation was made by WikiLeaks on its Twitter account, though it is not clear how the whistle blower plans to go about his intentions while fighting against extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault charges. Assange’s mother, however, feels her hacker-turned activist son would be an “awesome” choice in the federal elections this year.

“In the House of Representatives we get to choose between US lackey party number one and US lackey party number two – between the major parties. So it will be great to ‘Assange’ the Senate for some Aussie oversight,” she was quoted as saying by AAP.

“He will be awesome,” she said of her 41-year-old son.

Australian-born Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since last June after Ecuador granted him refuge. UK refuses to give safe passage to Assange who fears a conspiracy to ultimately extradite him to the US where he could be tried for treason.

Assange, who rubbed Washington the wrong way by releasing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, is wanted in Sweden for questioning in connection with allegations of rape, which he denies.

He had said last year he would run as a Senate candidate under a yet-to-be-formed WikiLeaks party banner and was recruiting others to stand with him. The election is scheduled for September 14.

Assange will run on a WikiLeaks party ticket and if he is unable to take a place in Senate, the place will be filled by a running mate, WikiLeaks wrote on its Twitter account.

New Delhi: Noted physicist Yash Pal and space scientist Roddam Narasimha were on Friday chosen for this year’s Padma Vibhushan while yesteryear film actors late Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore and cricketer Rahul Dravid were selected for Padma Bhushan.

Renowned sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and painter S. Haider Raza were chosen for Padma Vibhushan as the government came out with a list of 108 Padma awardees that included actress Sridevi, actors Nana Patekar and Malayalam star Madhu of Chemmeen fame and Olympians Mary Kom, Yogeshwar Dutt and Vijay Kumar.

In all four personalities were awarded Padma Vibhushan, 24 Padma Bhushan and 80 Padma Shri. Of the awardees 24 are women, 11 belong to the category of foreigners, NRI, PIOs and posthumous.

Nobody was named for Bharat Ratna for this year too. The last awardee was late Bhimsen Joshi in 2008.

Satirist Jaspal Bhatti, who died in a road accident last year, filmmaker D. Rama Naidu, noted South Indian playback singer S. Janaki, Bharatnatyam dancer Saroja Vaidyanathan, missile scientist A. Sivathanu Pillai of BrahMos programme, industrialists Adi Godrej and R. Thyagarajan, former bureaucrat M.K. Bhan were among the 24 Padma Bhushan awardees.

Among the Padma Shri awardees are B. Jayashree (art) from Karnataka, film Director of Sholay fame Ramesh Sippy, noted Photo journalist Pablo Bartholomew, late Manju Bharat Ram (social work), Vandana Luthra (trade and commerce) and fashion designer Ritu Kumar.

Theatre artistes from Jammu and Kashmir Balwant Thakur and Rajendra Tikku and Ghulam Mohammed Saznawaz were chosen for Padma Shri.

Noted Oncologist Pramod Kumar Julka, eminent entrepreneur from Coimbatore Rajshree Pathy, Urdu Poet Nida Fazli, anthropologist and art historian from the U.S. Christopher Pinney, Urdu poet Salik Lakhnawi, who died early this month, were awarded Padma Shri.

Chairperson of Centre for Linguistics of JNU Anvita Abbi, Sanskrit writer Rama Kant Shukla, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research physicist Mustansir Barma were among the Padma Shri awardees.

SABARIMALA: Two years after a stampede killed 100 pilgrims at the famed Hindu temple here, authorities are determined to ensure that the event passes off peacefully Monday.

The ‘Makaravilaku’ day falls tomorrow (Monday) when a celestial light is seen on the horizon. Its sighting is considered auspicious.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told IANS that he was on his way to the foothills of the temple town to oversee all arrangements.

“Police are making every effort to see that the crowd control measures are in place. We will make ensure a smooth pilgrimage,” he said.

When the ‘celestial light’ appears thrice on the horizon, lakhs of devotees of Sabarimala Ayyappan are gripped by religious fervour.
The Sabarimala temple is situated on the Western Ghat ranges, four kilometres uphill from Pamba River in Pathanamthitta district in central Kerala.

The temple, which bars the entry of women who have attained puberty, is accessible only on foot from Pamba.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has edged out the Taj Mahal to become the number one in Google’s search trends for travel destinations in the country for 2012.

Munnar, a popular tourist destination in the state, is also on the list of Top 10 Indian destinations on Google’s Zeitgeist site, showing search trends from around the world.

Kerala at number one and the Taj Mahal at number two were followed by the Wagah Border (Punjab), Vaishno Devi and Amarnath (both in Jammu and Kashmir).

Kashmir came number six on the list of Top ten travel destinations under the Google search trends for 2012.

According to search trends in the travel category released by Google for this year, Munnar was number nine, followed by the Gateway of India (Mumbai).

Kerala Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar described the two listings for Kerala, including the number one spot, as a great encouragement for the state.

‘Kerala Tourism is a leader in online promotional activities for the state. We are one of the first government establishments to make use of the internet to reach out to the world,’ he said.

Google’s Zietgeist, which covers all search categories, answers the question of what the world searched for in a particular year.

WASHINGTON: Nasa today released black and white satellite images of India this Diwali night, cautioning people against the fake image in circulation in social media circles.

‘On November 12, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of southern Asia,’ Nasa said releasing a picture of India on this Diwali night.

‘The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS ‘day- night band’, which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to distinguish,’ it said.

Nasa said most of the bright areas in the imagery released by it are cities and towns in India, the country with the world’s largest Hindu population.

‘India is home to more than 1.2 billion people and has 30 cities with populations over 1 million. (For comparison, China has 62 cities with more than 1 million residents and the United States has 9),’ it said.

Cities in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan are also visible near the edges of the image.

‘An image that claims to show the region lit for Diwali has been circulating on social media websites and the Internet in recent years. In fact, it does not show what it claims. That image, based on data from the Operational Linescan System flown on US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, is a color-composite created in 2003 by NOAA scientist Chris Elvidge to highlight population growth over time,’ Nasa said.

‘In that image, white areas show city lights that were visible prior to 1992, while blue, green, and red shades indicate city lights that became visible in 1992, 1998, and 2003 respectively,’ it said.

‘In reality, any extra light produced during Diwali is so subtle that it is likely imperceptible when observed from space,’ Nasa said.

Kochi: As a tribute to Kannaki, the chaste heroine of the 5,270-line Sangam era classic, a memorial will be constructed at the village where the great Tamil poet Ilango Adigal brought her to life 16 centuries ago.

Mathilakam near here, believed to be the lost Muziris seaport of Thrikkana-Mathilakam where Adigal composed his epic Silapathikaram, will be home to Kerala’s first ever sculpture of Kannaki, to be erected as part of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012.

Kannaki, who burns down an entire city in her righteous fury, has been conferred an element of divinity through temples that are believed to be dedicated to her.

But it is the first time in Kerala that she will be represented in a sculpture as the incorruptible epitome of womanhood and women’s empowerment, said Riyas Komu, Director of Programmes of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

The Biennale is already celebrating Kannaki’s legend and its origins with a two-day Silapathikaram Festival in the village. It got underway this morning with a devotional ‘Sopana Sangeetam’ concert by young vocalist Njeralath Harigovindan and his team.

Acclaimed performance artistes Kuzhuppully Matathil Komalam Nangiaramma, Cherumanath Rugmini Nangiaramma, Kalamandalam Girija, Dr Jayanthi Nangiar and Usha Nangiar were present at the inauguration of the festival at the St Joseph’s High School grounds by Mathilakam Block Panchayat president Pushpa Sreenivasan.

The proceedings of the evening started off with a procession from Ilavanchikulam. The evening’s programmes were inaugurated by veteran music composer V Dakshinamoorthi.

Renowned artist Usha Nangiar essayed the role of Mandodari from Ramayana in a performance of Nangiar Koothu – the first time the mythological character has been portrayed in this 1,500-year-old art form.