1st Manipuri Gay Couple Separates; Parents Pressure Resulted Divorce

Imphal, Mar 28 : The first-ever same-sex marriage in Manipur between two men in their 20s ended in a 'divorce' two days into their wedding following stiff opposition from their families.

Sandip, the 25-year-old 'groom', and Nikhil, the 28-year-old 'bride', who exchanged marriage vows on Thursday in the presence of a modest gathering at a community hall here, decided to end their marriage late Saturday.

Their families on Saturday filed a complaint with the local police station at Singjamei, seeking help to end the marriage.

"A police official called Sandip and Nikhil to the police station and counseled them for about two hours. The two men agreed to split and call off their marriage," a family member of Sandip told IANS.

The families were opposed to the marriage after the couple decided to enter into wedlock after a six-year relationship. They maintained it would be a scar on the families as gay marriage is still a taboo in society.

"We were deeply hurt and objected to the marriage. With no options left, we approached the police. They helped us not by force, but by reasoning and convinced the duo to change their mind and split," another family member of Nikhil said requesting not to be named.

The couple were staying together after their wedding at the beauty parlor run by Nikhil.

They exchanged bouquets and rings to wed. Sandip wore a black suit for the ceremony, while Nikhil was dressed in a white gown.

Soon after the wedding on Thursday, Sandip said: "I am blessed to have Nikhil as my wife. We are indeed happy."

IANS

27 Manipuri Kids Rescued From Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu

By V Mayilvaganan

Nagapattinam, Mar 28 : Two months after nearly 100 children from Manipur and Assam were rescued from homes in Kanyakumari and Chennai, officials stumbled upon 27 Manipuri children, kept illegally at a home near Mayiladuthurai in Nagapattinam district, on Friday.

The children, between 5 and 12 years of age, were kept in a rented house at Akkur Madappuram, near Keezhayur, for the past seven months. Henry (38), who ran the home, claimed that the children, nine of them girls, were left in his custody by their parents and relatives at Bethel Development Trust, a home he ran in Manipur.

Henry told the Child Welfare Committee officials that he had decided to shift the home to Tamil Nadu due to Maoist activities in Manipur. However, he did not possess the mandatory affidavits from the parents or the relatives of the kids, said S Venkatraman, probationary officer of the state-run Social Defence Department.

The girls were sent to the reception unit run by the Social Defence Department in Tiruchi and the boys to a home in Thanjavur, Venkatraman said.
The officials came to know about the presence of the kids when they went to the home for inspection as Henry had applied for approval for the same.

185 Singers Across 12 Countries Perform

185 singers across 12 countries perform American composer Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” as a “virtual choir” made up of individual YouTube video submissions collected over the course of six months.

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Top 10 Easiest Plants to Grow from Seeds

If your green thumb looks more like a wilted brown thumb, then it might be time to scale back your garden ambitions. Don’t worry, backing off of those elaborate planting plans doesn’t mean you can’t grow a healthy variety of veggies and flowers in your backyard. Chicago Now features a list of the ten easiest plants to grow from seeds that’s perfect for chronic plant killers and for kids who may not always handle gardening with gentle tender loving care.

Check out a sampling:

• Zinnias
• Squash
• Cosmos
• Cucumbers
• Pumpkins
• Sunflowers

Full list at Chicago Now.

Sharing Profits With Tribals Way Out of Impasse?

New Delhi, Mar 28 : The Centre on Friday pleaded with the Supreme Court for vacation of its order last month stopping mining of limestone in Meghalaya and its supply to a cement plant built by a French firm at Chhatak in Bangladesh, saying it had put India’s bilateral ties with Dhaka under severe strain.

Attorney general G E Vahanvati cited several reasons — from straining of bilateral relationship, breach of solemn guarantee by India for uninterrupted supply of raw material to the cement plant, to India losing face in the international community — to drive home the gravity of the situation before the Forest Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices S H Kapadia and Aftab Alam.

But amicus curiae Harish Salve said that though he understood the problem being faced by the AG, the court could not be a party to a situation where the raw material was being mined in contravention of forest conservation law and where the profits of the mined produce was being enjoyed by a multinational company, Lafarge.

Taking cue from a tribal welfare body which has alleged that the land leased for mining was transferred in breach of rules, Salve further said the government should consider putting the entire profit earned from such supply of raw material to Bangladesh to build a fund that would be used for the welfare of the natives.

Vahanvati immediately agreed to consider the proposal and get back to the court with a response from the government on Monday, when it would be heard again.

The SC’s February 5 order turning off supply of limestone from the mines in East Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya to French cement giant Lafarge’s $255 million cement plant in Bangladesh had put India in a piquant diplomatic situation with Dhaka and Paris.

Lafarge Umuiam Mining Pvt Ltd (LUMPL) was mining the limestone quarry area spread over 100 hectares near Indo-Bangladesh border for supply of raw material to Lafarge Surma Cement Project at Chhatak in Sunamganj.

Lafarge and Spanish cement producer Cementos Mollins had set up the state-of-the-art fully integrated cement plant at Chhatak with a captive power plant of 300 mw. In 2001, the Bangladeshi high commissioner and then Indian foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh had signed an agreement for uninterrupted supply of raw material to the plant from the mines in Meghalaya.

No Serious Oppression of Minorities in Mizoram-Sangliana

Aizawl, Mar 28 : There has been no serious oppression and persecution of minorities in Mizoram, Vice-Chairman of the National Minority Commission H T Sangliana said Friday.

The lot of the minorities in Mizoram is better than that of those in other states, including neighboring Manipur where the minorities are being discriminated," Sangliana told reporters.

He said all states should have minority commissions to protect the rights of the minorities in their respective states and the Mizoram government would also have to constitute such a commission.

During his visit to Mizoram, he met representatives of different minority communities like the Chakmas and the Brus and others and also held discussions with state home minister R Lalzirliana, senior government officials and major NGOs.

HTC Evo 4G--Not 'HTC Supersonic'--Unveiled

Spring has unveiled the first 4G Android cell phone, called the HTC Evo 4G, at CTIA Wireless 2010.
Engadget calls the HTC Evo 4G 'easily the best specced phone we've ever witnessed' and 'Sprint's Android-powered knight in superphone armor.'
The Associated Press writes of the new HTC Evo 4G:

To capitalize on the network, Sprint will be releasing a large, iPhone-style smart phone called the Evo 4G, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan. The phone, showed off by CEO Dan Hesse at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, will have two cameras: a high-resolution one on the back and a low-resolution one on the front, on the same side as the screen. That's a convenient setup for video calls.
Video calls are possible - just barely - on current cellular networks, but carriers discourage them or charge extra for them because they consume a lot of wireless capacity. In addition, there aren't many phones with front-facing cameras, making it difficult to talk and capture video simultaneously.

Read the Associated Press' full coverage below. See side-by-side comparisons of the HTC Evo 4G, iPhone, and Nexus One on Engadget here, or get more details on the device on PC World.