The Marines in a recent "cultural awareness" class scribbled careful notes as the instructor coached them on do's and don'ts when talking to villagers in Afghanistan: Don't start by firing off questions, do break the ice by playing with the children, don't let your interpreter hijack the conversation.

And one more thing: "If you have a ponytail," said Marina Kielpinski, the instructor, "let it go out the back of your helmet so people can see you're a woman."

These are not your mother's Marines here in the rugged California chaparral of Camp Pendleton, where 40 young women are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in one of the more forward-leaning experiments of the US military.

Next month they will begin work as members of the first full-time "female engagement teams," the military's name for four- and five-member units that will accompany men on patrols in Helmand province to try to win over the rural Afghan women who are culturally off-limits to outside men. The teams, which are to meet with the Afghan women in their homes, assess their need for aid and gather intelligence, are part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's campaign for Afghan hearts and minds. His officers say that you cannot gain the trust of the Afghan population if you only talk to half of it.

"We know we can make a difference," said Capt. Emily Naslund, 26, the team's executive officer. Like the other 39 women, Naslund volunteered for the program and radiates exuberance, but she is not naive about the frustrations and dangers ahead. Half of the women have been deployed before, most to Iraq.

"We all know that what you expect is not usually what it's going to end up being," said Sgt. Melissa Hernandez, 35, who signed on because she wanted something different than her office job at Camp Victory, the US military headquarters in Baghdad.

As envisioned, the teams will work like US politicians who campaign door to door and learn what voters care about. A team is to arrive in a village, seek permission from the male elder to speak with the women, settle into a compound, hand out school supplies and medicine, drink tea, make conversation and, ideally, get information about the village, local grievances and the Taliban.

Whatever the outcome, the teams reflect how much the military has adapted over nine years of war, not only in the way it fights but to the shifting gender roles within its ranks. Women make up only 6 percent of the Marine Corps, which cultivates an image as the most testosterone-fueled service, and they are still officially barred from combat branches like the infantry.

But in a bureaucratic sleight of hand, used by both the Army and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan when women have been needed for critical jobs like bomb disposal or intelligence, the female engagement teams are to be "attached" to all-male infantry units within the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force - a source of pride and excitement for them.

"When I heard about this, I said, 'Oh, that's it, let's go,' " said Cpl. Vanessa Jones, 25.

The idea for the teams grew out of the "Lioness" program in Iraq, which used female Marines to search Iraqi women at checkpoints. Over the past year in Afghanistan, the Army and Marines have assembled ad hoc female engagement teams, but the women were hastily pulled from work as cooks or engineers.

The women at Pendleton are among the first to be trained exclusively for the mission. "Every Marine wants to go outside the wire," said Cpl. Michele Greco-Lucchina, 22, referring to assignments off the base. "We all join for different reasons, but that's the basis for being a Marine."

The women said they were not looking for combat and would work in areas largely cleared of militants. But in a war with no front lines, and to be prepared for ambushes and snipers, they have taken an extended combat-training refresher course.

On patrols, the women will carry M-4 rifles, which are shorter and more maneuverable than the military's standard M-16s, but once inside an Afghan compound, and with Marine guards posted outside, they have been instructed, assuming they feel safe, to remove their rifles and take off their intimidating "battle rattle" of helmets and body armor.

They have also been told to be sensitive to local custom and to wear head scarves under their helmets or, if that is too hot and unwieldy, to keep the scarves around their necks and use them to cover their heads once their helmets are off inside.

Marines who have worked with the ad hoc teams in Afghanistan said that rural Afghan women, rarely seen by outsiders, had more influence in their villages than male commanders might think, and that the Afghan women's good will could make Afghans, both men and women, less suspicious of U.S. troops.

Capt. Matt Pottinger, an intelligence officer based in the capital, Kabul, who helped create and train the first engagement team in Afghanistan, recently wrote that when one of the teams visited a village in southern Afghanistan, a gray-bearded man opened his home to the women by saying, "Your men come to fight, but we know the women are here to help."

The man also sheepishly admitted, Pottinger wrote in Small Wars Journal, an online publication, that the women were "good for my old eyes."

Rural Afghan women, who meet at wells and pass news about the village, are often repositories of information about a district's social fabric, power brokers and militants, all crucial data for U.S. forces. On some occasions, Pottinger said in an e-mail message, women have provided information about specific insurgents and the makers of bombs.

As part of their conversations with Afghan women, the Marines are to ask basic questions, including what is the most difficult problem facing the village. The answers will go into a database to guide the military and aid workers. As Kielpinski, the instructor, told the Marines, "If the population has told you that their biggest problem is irrigation and your unit does something about it, that's a huge success."

For now, the Marines remain apprehensive about the unknowns they will encounter. Capt. Claire Henry, 27, the commander of the team, said she worried, like any officer, about her responsibilities to the women working under her. "You're about to take Marines into harm's way," she said, "and at the end of the day you want to make sure you give them the right training and that they're physically and mentally prepared for it."  
 

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Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday ruled out "any recent specific inputs" of threat to Vaishno Devi cave shrine from militants but said elaborate security arrangements have been made to protect the shrine.

"Threats have always remained for the holy shrine. As such, we do not have any recent specific input," Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jammu Zone, Ashok Kumar Gupta told reporters.

Replying to questions over the threat to the shrine in view of the statement made by government in Parliament recently, the IGP said, "Let me make a request. It is a sensitive issue, which was perhaps blown out of proportion."

It may be recalled that on March 2 in a written reply to a query whether Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu is one of the targets on the radar of terrorists, Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran had said, "Central security agencies have furnished inputs based on intelligence intercepts to that effect. It is not in public interest to disclose these facts."

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had sent advisories to the state government to prepare appropriate security plans in order to secure and protect the religious place.

"But that does not mean having said so we will or we are planning to lower guards. Absolutely not," Kumar said in reply to a question.

He further said that a series of meetings have taken place to further strengthen the security of the shrine.     
 

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Legendary painter M F Husain, who was recently granted Qatari citizenship, has surrendered his Indian passport to the country's mission in Doha, a media report said on Monday.

95-year-old Husain, revered by many as India's Picasso, yesterday went to the country's mission in Doha and surrendered his Indian passport, the Gulf Times reported. (Husain to NDTV: The govt did its job, I'm doing mine)

Husain, who has been living in self-imposed exile for nearly four years following a spate of cases in India over his controversial paintings of Hindu goddesses, had accepted Qatar's offer and would no longer be an Indian, his son Owais Husain told PTI recently. (Read: Husain accepts Qatari nationality offer, says his son)

India does not recognise dual citizenship. So, "in such a situation, surrendering passport by the person concerned is mandatory and Husain has only done that," an Indian Embassy official was quoted as saying by the paper.

The artist has also applied for the Overseas Citizen of India card, the mission sources said, adding the embassy has facilitated all requirements for him to obtain the OCI card.

He also had a nearly two-hour meeting with Indian Ambassador in Qatar Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, the sources said.

Husain, who shuttles between Dubai and London, went in exile after a hate campaign was launched against him in 2006 over his controversial paintings.

Several cases were filed against him by people protesting his portrayal of Hindu goddesses in the nude. His house was attacked and art works vandalised by fundamentalists in India.

Indian government has described Husain as "pride of India" and said it was willing to provide security to him.

"There is no case against M F Husain. Supreme Court has quashed all the cases against him," Home Secretary G K Pillai had recently said. He said the government was ready to provide security to the artist if he planned to return.

"He (Husain) is the pride of India," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had said, adding, "I would like him to feel safe and secure in India".

After handing over his passport, Husain said though he was giving up the Indian citizenship he would continue to be known as an Indian and he was only proud about that.

Husain said he was returning the Indian passport as dual citizenship was not allowed by both India and Qatar.

"Citizenship and passport were a matter of a piece of paper. Accepting Qatar citizenship would not mean that I would cease to be an Indian or artist of India. Remaining an Indian would be my birthright and there are millions in India who still love me," Husain was quoted as saying by the Gulf edition of Malayalam daily Madhyamam.

India is a country with rich cultural heritage and only minuscule minuscule minority ignorant of its liberal traditions who had made a hue and cry over my pictures, said Husain.

"Art is universal and something that transcends all artificial boundaries. I am just a living being in the universe created by God. I will have a small patch of land on the earth when I die. Where I am going to be buried on this earth is not a problem that affects me," he said.

Asked if his acceptance of Qatari citizenship was a ploy to overcome income tax problems in India, Husain said he was a person who paid income tax in India for his paintings sold in Singapore for Rs 25 crore.
 

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The Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night was one enormous Hollywood stimulus package. Not one host but two, 10 Best Picture nominations instead of five, two tributes to dead film luminaries and even an unexplained homage to the horror film, a genre that is very much alive. (Of course, the costly Avatar, with the biggest worldwide grosses of all time, was the ultimate public works project: WPA in 3-D.)

As with Washington, there was some waste and abuse, notably the opening dance number - Neil Patrick Harris and a troupe of Las Vegas-style dancers - that was meant to suggest opulent old-fashioned showbiz-as-usual, and mostly tested the clock and attention spans.

As hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did an updated Catskills routine, but were at their best when snubbing George Clooney and mocking the most distinguished nominees. "Oh look, there's that damn Helen Mirren," Martin said, pointing at the audience. "That's Dame Helen Mirren," Baldwin explained.

Mostly, everything about the night was designed as a repudiation of last year's recession-tainted show, which cut back on film clips and featured Hugh Jackman as a one-man singing, dancing, announcing buddy-can-you-spare-a-dime master of ceremonies.

This was a supersized celebration of film - an effort to crown crowd-pleasing blockbusters as well as art-house favorites - anything to speed up the recovery.

Anything less than success would be a particularly stinging failure for ABC. Despite, or more likely because of, the atomization of entertainment via cable, the Internet and Web sites and social media like YouTube and Twitter, so called event television has new allure. Ratings for the Oympics, the Super Bowl and even other awards shows like the Grammys were up this year.

The Oscars should receive a similar boost. But the producers didn't make it easy for the audience. For all the talk of cutting back on technical awards to show snippets of all 10 nominated films, there was a highlight reel from the governors' awards dinner and even a quick glimpse of the science and technical awards ceremony.

All that put winners under stricter-than-usual limits for acceptance speeches. (Christoph Waltz, who spoke four languages in Inglourious Basterds and won the Best Supporting Actor Award, barely had time to thank colleagues in one of them.)

The 45-second brevity rule not only cut back on lists of names, but it also pushed out false modesty and weepy humility.

Mo'Nique, dry-eyed and feisty as she accepted her Supporting Actress Oscar for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," praised the academy for showing "that it can be about the performance and not the politics," and thanked Hattie McDaniel and her lawyer.

Sandy Powell, who won her third costume design Oscar, this time for The Young Victoria, was downright saucy, saying drily, "I already have two of these."

Young Hollywood was represented by the likes of Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron, as well as a lyrical break-dancers' ballet that was anything but hip. Those gestures to youth were mostly lip-service; everything about the evening, from the monochromatic chiffon ball gowns to the skits and loving evocations of Hollywood classics, was veined with nostalgia.

There was a mournful elegy - James Taylor sang In My Life by the Beatles - to stars who died in 2009, from Jean Simmons to Brittany Murphy.

The director John Hughes got his own separate tribute that reunited onstage stars of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club with those from other Hughes teen movies: a Denny's Grand Slam version of The Breakfast Club.

And all of that was preceded by Barbara Walters' valedictory pre-Oscar special. The special, ending a tradition that stretches back almost 30 years, was mostly a misty look at an era before "Access Hollywood," TMZ and celebrity Twitter pages when movie stars were so distant and elusive that a pre-Oscar interview was considered "special."

Walters proved that she had mastered the art of rapid extraction, taking only minutes to coax out of Mo'Nique details about incest, adultery (not a "deal-breaker") and why she doesn't shave her legs.
That left room for a montage of clips of everyone she has interviewed, including an aged Bette Davis ("I am just too much"), Audrey Hepburn, Cher, Robert Mitchum, Tom Cruise, Liz Taylor, John Travolta and many others). Sandra Bullock was clowning around when she turned the tables and asked her interviewer what she would like to have in five years that she doesn't have now. She looked taken aback when Walters replied, "Time."

The Oscars were fine, but they would have been better if they had taken up a little less of it.
 

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One person was killed and 11 others injured when a stampede broke out at the Kalina ground in Mumbai on Monday where a police recruitment drive was being held.

Thousands of youth from various parts of the state were waiting outside the ground to take part in the recruitment drive for 3,600 vacant posts of police constables, police said.

As soon as the gates of the ground opened, the youth rushed in. They jumped over barricades set up on the ground and several of them fell on each other during the melee, leaving one dead and 11 others injured.

Additional Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta has been asked to probe the incident. 
 

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K G Balakrishnan at National Consultation on Access to Justice, Relief and rehabilitation of Rape Victims in New Delhi, PTI Photo
 
Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan said on Sunday "due regard" should be given to the wishes of a rape victim if she chooses to marry the rapist or have the baby conceived from the crime.

"Due regard must be given to their personal autonomy since in some cases the victim may choose to marry the perpetrator or choose to give birth to a child conceived through forced intercourse," he said in his address at 'National Consultation on Access to Justice, Relief and Rehabilitation of Rape Victims' here.

In a word of caution, Balakrishnan said "judges, lawyers and social activists should also ensure that they do not take an overtly paternalistic approach when they have to make decisions for the welfare of rape victims. 
 

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Giving an online dimension to its anti-dowry campaign, the Nilambur village panchayat in Malappuram district has launched a matrimonial website for those willing to marry without taking or giving dowry.
  
A collaborative venture of the panchayat and women's rights NGO Mahila Samakhya Society, the website is exclusively meant to promote dowry-free marriages.
   
Anybody from any corner of the world can log on to www.dowryfreemarriage.com register their name and upload their profile free of cost.
   
Apart from helping find partners, the site also provides a platform to hold discussions on issues like dowry, marriage customs, gender justice and matrimonial property rights.
   
It will also serve as a window to form interactive online communities of people sharing similar views on it, said Panchayat president Aryadan Shoukath.
 
"It is our attempt to enlist more people to our campaign. As websites are global media capable of spreading socially relevant messages worldwide, we have opted that," Shoukat, also a film producer and scriptwriter, told PTI.
   
Since the project was announced, 1635 people have already registered. Their profiles can be uploaded just after the official launch of the site this week by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, Shoukath said.

Shoukath said those living in Kerala, as also those working in India or residing abroad can register details on the site and choose partners with the help of panchayat authorities.
   
But it's not easy to log in and access details of brides or grooms. Queries will be passed on to registered families to ascertain if they were genuine or not. "We want to make sure our site is not misused. It is our responsibility to protect addresses and personal details of members registering in to and keep them safe and secure," he said.
  
Those wishing to register are given a code, based on which a password is sent to their mobile number, using which they can register. Civic authorities will verify whether the application is genuine and if found worthy, links are established, he said.

It also offers a glimpse of marriage customs in various countries and a photo gallery on events at Nilambur village.

A Muslim dominated village civic unit, Nilambur has a total population of around 50,000 of whom 20659 are men, as per the 2001 census. Though Muslims constitute the majority community, the village has a sizeable Hindu and Christian population.
 
Shoukath said till a year back when the campaign was launched, Nilambur was one among hundreds of villages in the state where the practice of dowry was rampant.
 
Civic authorities realised how serious the situation was when they conducted a survey with the society to find out the reach of a housing scheme. They found many families, especially from the poor and lower-middle rungs, did not even have a house to stay in. Houses they had before were sold or mortgaged to meet wedding expenses of their daughters.

"There were cases of families spending huge sums...close to Rs two crore for weddings of their daughters", Shoukat said.

Another grim aspect was that when a family fell into debt by conducting marriages of daughters, the boys were made the scapegoats to bail out their parents, married off at a very young age by accepting dowry.
It was this bleak social picture that inspired the panchayat and the Society to jointly launch a campaign to make the village dowry-free, Shoukat said.
 
Though the panchayat's administration is in the hands of Congress, all political parties have offered support. People cutting across religion and castes have also supported it.
 
Awareness classes, personality management camps, self employment schemes, counselling programme and career guidance sessions have been held to make the young self-reliant.
 
We have been able to achieve our goals to some extent in a short span. Not only Muslims, but Hindus and Christians are also participating actively in the initiative, he said.

Shoukath said the panchayat plans to conduct mass dowry free marriages in May 2010. The response to the programme has been really encouraging and 807 men and 678 women have registered so far to participate in it, he said.

All 22 Muslim Mahal Committees (micro level community councils) and leaders of other communities have offered total support to the campaign.
 
To consolidate support from all communities, the panchayat also plans a series of lectures by spiritual leaders, focusing on the need to free society from dowry, he said.
 

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After batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan is the latest to face the Shiv Sena ire for saying that Mumbai belongs to all.

"Saying that migrants will continue to come to Mumbai is akin to betrayal of Maharashtra," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' here on Saturday.

The Governor had said yesterday that "anybody can live in Mumbai. Only Mumbai can compete with itself. The rich, middle class and the poor co-exist here".

In an informal interaction with media persons, his first since taking over the gubernatorial post, he said though civic and infrastructure facilities needed to be upgraded in the megapolis, migration from other parts of the country cannot be curbed.

Terming Governors who reside in the sprawling Raj Bhawan by the Arabian Sea here as "Congress pensioners", Thackeray said, "Raj Bhawan has lost touch with people's sentiments, thats why you say such things."

"Had Sankaranarayanan been the Governor of Karnataka, would he have dared to say let hordes of migrants come to Bengaluru," Thackeray, who has earlier targeted Tendulkar and Ambani over their 'Mumbai belongs to all' remarks, said.

"Mumbai has been made into a dharamshala. The only way to stop the influx of migrants is to start a permit system to impose curbs on those coming here," Thackeray said.
 

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Washington, March 6 (IANS) The landmark India-US civil nuclear deal has not complicated efforts to achieve universalisation of the Additional Protocol for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards as a condition for nuclear supply, according to a top aide of President Barack Obama.

'I can't say that that, in and of itself, has complicated efforts to achieve universal adherence to the additional protocol,' Susan Burk, Obama's special representative for nuclear non-proliferation, told Arms Control Today, the journal of the Arms Control Association.

To facilitate the India-US nuclear deal the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in 2008 agreed to allow civil nuclear trade with India even though it doesn't allow comprehensive IAEA safeguards covering all of its nuclear facilities.

But the issue of the US-Indian deal and the broader India deal does get raised by countries in discussing obligations they need to assume and responsibility under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), she said in an interview on the 40th anniversary of the NPT that entered into force on March 5, 1970.

'Yes. It gets raised frequently in NPT discussions, and our response is that it was seen as a way to bring India closer to the non-proliferation norm, to an agreement that would in the end bring more of their facilities under safeguards,' Burk said. 'That was the motivation. But it does come up frequently in discussions.'

Burk said in the interview that key challenges to the NPT include 'North Korea's withdrawal from the treaty and Iran's [nuclear] programme.'

But she also pointed to 'an improved atmosphere' that is 'very positive, in large part due to the United States' embrace of multilateral diplomacy in a very significant way, and also because of the disarmament proposals that the United States and President Obama have put forward. So I think we're in a good position.'

On the question of whether the May 3-28 NPT review conference will agree to a final document, Burk said 'I would have to say personally it would be very positive if we could agree on a statement, a forward-looking statement.'

'We are prepared to work very hard with our NPT partners to see what we can do on that. But we think we ought to be striving for quality, not quantity,' she said. Perhaps if we go for something brief and concise but specific, we might be able to be successful. But success can be defined in other ways as well.'

The overarching goal of the conference will be to 'revalidate the importance of the treaty for international and regional security and stability,' Burk said.
 

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Speaking at the Women's Leadership Summit 2010 on Inclusive Growth and Empowering Women of Rural India, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday, "We are moving towards one third reservation for women in Parliament and state legislators."

"Our government is committed to social and economic empowerment of women," he added.

It's one of the most controversial bills to ever enter parliament.

Now, a split within the ranks of its strongest critics brings hope and it appears the Women's Reservation Bill that guarantees 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies will become a reality.

Over the years, this bill has had its supporters and detractors.

The Congress, the BJP and the CPM have openly argued in favour of it, while the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal United have famously fought against it.

But now Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has reportedly shifted from the party line and backed the Bill.

Responding to the Union government's decision to table it on Monday in the Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued a whip asking MPs to be present and vote in favour of the bill. (Read: Congress, BJP issue whip for Women's Reservation Bill)

At the same time Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday met the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and asked him not to table the bill. He instead demanded an all-party meet. The bill would be a disaster, said the RJD chief. (Watch: Lalu on women's bill)

The first test is in Rajya Sabha, where the bill needs support of 2/3rd MPs. That is 163 MPs in favour of the bill, out of 245. The bill has assured support of 160 MPs. (Read: Women's quota: The numbers game)

The opponents, who have managed to stall it for 13 years, are few. So, a lot depends on fence sitters. The government is nervous. Members of Parliament (MPs) like Sumitra Mahajan have seen the first draft and the first skirmish over Women's Quota Bill way back in 1996. They know that the battle has just begun.
 
Rajya Sabha rules say:

# Constitutional amendments cannot be passed in a din, the House has to be in order

# Any one member can ask for division and delay the passing of the bill

This is what happened in May 2008. The Law Minister was shielded by MPs as papers were torn in the Rajya Sabha. The no din rule favours the opponents. And they are promising a ruckus.

Huddang hoga. kisi bhi tarah se pass nahin hone denge, says Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

But then the Rajya Sabha will be the start of a long haul. After the Rajya Sabha, the government will need 2/3 MPs in favour of the bill in the Lok Sabha too. The Opposition has a chance to stall in Lok Sabha.

Then 15 states need to ratify with a 2/3rd majority. The Congress, BJP and Left parties rule in 18 states. That may take a long time.

"It has been around for 13 years. It's long overdue. We will table the bill," says Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily.

For 13 years minority has succeeded in defeating the majority on the quota bill. But now the government is ignoring the obstacles to set the ball rolling. But one-third reservation for women is still a long road ahead. 

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