By
B.Venkateswarlu

HYDERABAD: The city has become a hub of information technology and health services. But what is little known about this fast-growing metropolis is the fact that people of more than 90 countries live here.

Nationals of lesser known countries like Djibouti to the more familiar US are living in the city, though for different purposes. Till this June-end, as many as 18,852 people from 100 countries had flown into Hyderabad and registered themselves with the Special Branch. This number does not include those coming as tourists, who need not register with the police.

While higher studies has brought most of them here, employment, business, missionary activities, research, conferences and seminars, diplomatic duties and official meetings are other factors.

There are 32 nationals of a lesser known country like Chad, 26 from the Dominican Republic and four from Republique de Cote d’lvoire (formerly known as Ivory Coast). The highest number of foreigners is from the US (5,724), Yemen (2,181), Sudan (1,892), Somalia (982), the UK (835), Ethiopia (679), Pakistan (557), Canada (489), Oman (482) and the Philippines (378). Several factors like better educational facilities, climate, low cost of living and freedom in individual life seem to have brought so many foreigners representing a variety of countries, feels Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Amit Garg.
Police on alert

The presence of so many registered foreigners in the twin cites has kept the police on tenterhooks, especially in the backdrop of the recent terror strikes. “Our inquiries proved there is no need to worry. Except some youngsters from Nigeria, no one got involved in any criminal activity here,” Mr. Garg says.
A campus hostel is still foreign to them

Some 500 international students enrol in OU every year, but their accommodation is not taken care of.

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Proposal sent to Executive Council for approval
Site identified near Tarnaka
Students are staying in private hostels or sharing a flat
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While the number of foreign students enrolling in Osmania University is increasing every year, an exclusive accommodation for them remains a mirage. The university has been a destination for students from various African nations over the past decade.

On an average, 500 international students are enrolled in the university for various under-graduate and post-graduate programmes every year. The number touched a record 661 this year, including 484 under-graduate students, from 46 countries. Of these, 126 are female students and yet, the university management does not consider it reason enough for providing a separate hostel accommodation for them.

" We initially provide 15 days accommodation on transit basis on the campus. We have been discussing the issue with the authorities and a proposal for hostel accommodation has been sent to the Executive Council for approval," says T.L.N. Swamy, Director, Osmania University Foreign Relations Office.

For this academic year, the university has received 400 applications from foreign students, out of which, nearly 250 have been issued provisional admission letters. "We are aware of the problem and a place near Tarnaka has been proposed for the Executive council for identification. Once, the Buildings Division approves the proposal the construction will be taken up in a phased manner. If things go well, work should begin in the next six months," says University Vice-chancellor, Mohd. Suleman Siddiqi. Foreign students at present are staying in private hostels and some of them share private accommodation. "I have been living here for the past three years and sharing a flat with my friends at Secunderabad for Rs. 2,500. It would be good, if the university could provide us accommodation. It helps us stay together and closer to the university, reducing our transport expenditure," says Oscar Kashindye, a student from Tanzania

New experience: Students from Iran and Afghanistan, who have joined graduate courses in Osmania University, during an interactive programme on the campus in Hyderabad.

University Foreign Relations Office, Osmania University, organised a two-day orientation programme for newly admitted International students in the university to sensitise them about the academic and administrative aspects, apart from the precautions they have to take as foreign students.

Vice-Chancellor Mohd. Suleman Siddiqi said that the university is providing needed amenities for taking care of the requirements of international students.

He referred to the construction of hostel for international students and conduct of special convocation for the outgoing foreign students.

He called upon the students to acquire proficiency in English and competency in communication skills during their studies in India.

Registrar M. Mutha Reddy outlined the measures taken by the university for the welfare of foreign students.

He advised them to adhere to the university discipline and attendance rules and avail the maximum benefits of their stay in Hyderabad. M. Maruthi Mohan, Director, UFRO, welcomed the gathering.

He said 670 students have been admitted so far. China figures prominently as a new entrant this year.

The speakers at the orientation programme comprised Leslie Jacob, Regional Director, ICCR, P. L. Vishweshwar Rao & Prof. Umarangan of University College of Arts and Social Sciences, M.S.N. Reddy, Controller of Examinations, Prof. G. S. Rao, National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management and presentations by New India Assurance Company, City police authorities and Tourism Authorities.

By
B.Venkateswarlu

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The three Jaish-e- Mohammad militants arrested in Lucknow had Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on their target, police said on Saturday, as TV channels beamed their "confession" that they were planning to kidnap the young MP.

A senior Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force official said that "it has now become clear that the militants, trained specially in kidnapping or taking hostage a VVIP politician, had Rahul Gandhi on their target" as their aim was "very big".

"Our plan was to abduct Rahul Gandhi," one of the militants was shown as saying in the "confessional tapes" telecast by television channels.

The suspected militants claimed that they were planning the kidnapping on directions by "people in Pakistan" to secure the release of 42 prisoners.

"We were given a list (of 42 prisoners) and asked to memorise (it)," a militant said.

He said they were trained in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

The militants also "confessed" that their plan was to throw grenades and spray bullets and abduct the Congress MP.

The terrorists, all belonging to Pakistan and identified as Mohammad Abid alias Faate, Yusuf alias Faisal and Mirza Rashid Baig were arrested from the Gudumba police station area in Lucknow on Friday and a large number of sophisticated arms and ammunition and RDX seized.

By
B.Venkateswarlu
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi must prove himself if he wants to become India's prime minister, his mother Sonia Gandhi said on Friday.

Rahul's appointment last month as one of the Congress party's general secretaries has been widely read as a sign he is being groomed for the top job.

But Sonia -- the Congress president -- said Rahul's new position was not a step on the way to becoming premier, and that he would have to prove he was capable of holding high office.

"It is accurate that if you have a family whose earlier generations have been in politics it gives you a head start," Sonia told a conference organised by the Hindustan Times newspaper.

"But India is a democracy in which you have to prove yourself. You may have an advantage at the beginning but you have to work hard to prove yourself," she said as the bespectacled Rahul watched from the audience.

Sonia said perceptions that his appointment was aimed at preparing him to be prime minister like his father and grandmother before him were "not accurate at all."

Rahul, 37, follows in his father's footsteps as party general secretary and has been touted by supporters as a potential prime minister despite wooden campaigning skills and a lacklustre performance in Parliament where he has made few speeches

By
Venkateswarlu.B

A rebuilt World War II code-cracking computer developed to intercept Nazi messages lost to a desktop computer Friday in a contest to decipher an encrypted radio message.

The challenge marked the first time the Colossus machine had been used since former Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered models of the top secret computer destroyed, according to Britain’s National Museum of Computing, which organized the contest.

Churchill had feared Britain’s national security would be threatened if the state of the art computer’s technical details ever leaked out.

However, not only was Colossus beaten by a home computer, but by one in Germany.

Bonn-based software engineer Joachim Schueth deciphered the message, which was encrypted by a Nazi-era Lorenz cipher machine and transmitted by radio from Paderborn, Germany. It took him two hours Thursday, an hour and 35 minutes faster than the Colosssus. He used ham radio equipment and a computer program he wrote especially for the challenge.

Schueth paid tribute to Colossus and those who used it during WWII at the Bletchley Park code-breaking center, outside London, saying their work was important to Germans because “it helped to shorten the lifetime of the Nazi dictatorship.”

But Colossus, the world’s first programable computer, was no match for its electronic descendants, he said.

“Putting Colossus in a competition with modern computers may be a bit unfair,” Schueth wrote on his Web site.

Colossus eventually completed the challenge in three hours and 35 minutes, after overcoming difficulties intercepting the distant radio signal and repairing a blown valve.

“We’ve lost appreciation of just how hard it was to intercept signals, interpret them and put them on Colossus and run them,” said Andy Clark, director of the Bletchley Park-based computing museum.

“The past two days have brought into sharp focus just how hard they had to work,” he said.

Experts spent 14 years rebuilding the Colossus using stolen design plans and by gleaning information from those who helped create the original.

Ten Mark II Colossus machines enabled code breakers at Bletchley to decipher top-secret communications sent by the Nazi high command.

The rebuilt computer will continue to operate as the museum’s centerpiece, Clark said.