Spark Spot

Tourism is the best way to know more information about various places on the globe and at the same time it is more entertaining. There is no wonder that almost all the people in the world loves tourism. It is quite interesting that a new tourists survey results displayed that Japanese tourists are the best in the world.

The survey was conducted online travel company Expedia, hoteliers voted on categories including behaviour, spending habits, fashion sense and willingness to try and speak the local language.The Japanese retained the top prize, with hoteliers worldwide naming them the world’s best tourists, ahead of the British and Canadians. Japanese tourists were also ranked the quietest and most polite, as well as the cleanest and least likely to complain.

In the survey, around 4500 hoteliers across the globe rated Australians travellers the sixth best among the 27 nationalities surveyed in the second annual global Best Tourist Survey. Australians tourists were complimented for being sparing in their complaints (third place), being polite (fourth place), and for their willingness to speak the local language and their good behaviour (fifth place in both categories).

The French were the worst tourists, according to hoteliers, who voted them the most frugal and meanest tippers. They were also deemed the most impolite tourists. The only criticism given to Australians was that they were perceived as loud travellers, according to the survey, which ranked them the fourth noisiest behind the Spanish, Italians and Americans.

I am a  great fan of Roger Federer and i would like share his tremendous victory that created new records in the tennis books.  He is really an artistic player. Roger Federer, the popular tennis maestro from switzerland,  beat highly talented American Andy Roddick 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14 in a marathon Wimbledon’s men’s singles final on Sunday and won 15th grandslam title.

With American Pete Sampras, the only other man to win 14 slams, watching intently from the Royal Box, Federer kept his nose in front in a nerve-racking decider and clinched victory after over four hours when Roddick dropped serve for the only time in the match at 14-15 when he mishit a forehand.

Federer was stretched to the limit in an unforgettable duel of enery-sapping tension, losing the first set and then trailing 6-2 in the second set tiebreak before digging himself out of trouble to win six consecutive points and level the match. He could make no headway on the Roddick serve but remained solid on his own delivery to win the third set on another tiebreak.

Let us congratulate the champion Roger Federer on his tremendous victory and the excited federer said humbly that he still has a long way to go.

World bank cuts economic forecasts? Japan’s  survey showed less pessimism at big Japanese manufacturing firms in the three months to June. Meanwhile German business sentiment rose to a seven-month high in June although analysts said plenty of risks remained given that expectations fueled the rise in sentiment.

Despite initial signs of a weakening in the pace of economic decline, policymakers must remain alert, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said. “While there are first signs that the pace of economic weakening is decelerating, we must remain alert. We are in uncharted waters, and there are still risks of a sudden emergence of unexpected financial turbulence,” he said.

Trichet’s caution chimed with that of Angel Gurria, the head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “We see a very difficult 2009, with negative growth in the OECD area. Unemployment problems are going to continue to linger,” he told Reuters television in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Paris.

Adding to those wary comments, the World Bank said prospects for the global economy remain “unusually uncertain” as it cut 2009 growth forecasts for most economies.

Governments around the world have borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars to fight the worst economic crisis in decades, providing incentives for businesses and consumers to spend and embarking on big infrastructure programs to create jobs and stimulate activity.

They should stick to spending programs to reignite growth because their economies are still weak in spite of signs that the worst of the crisis may be past, World Bank Chief Economist Justin Lin said in an interview with Reuters. Lin also said he was concerned about rising borrowing costs and weak external financing conditions for the emerging economies of Europe and Central Asia.

Like the ECB, the U.S. Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to record low levels and used unorthodox means to pump more money into the system.

The Fed’s interest rate setting committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and economists polled by Reuters see no chance that the Fed will raise its benchmark short-term interest rate from the current level near zero. The Fed is also seen unlikely to ramp up its purchases of U.S. government and mortgage-linked debt as investor focus shifts to inflation on evidence that the economy is stabilizing.

The current hot news is that NASA has postponed the launch of  Endeavour space shuttle after engineers failed to fix a hydrogen leak during fueling.  Endeavour is to make a 16-day visit to the International Space Station to complete the assembly of the $1 billion Japanese Kibo research facility.

Today’s takeoff from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, was canceled at 1:55 a.m. local time because of the leak in a system that vents excess hydrogen as the shuttle’s external fuel tank is being filled with more than 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Engineers still don’t know the cause of the leak, which is no larger than a pinhole. “It’s very small, but it’s something we have to be concerned about,” Scolese said via video conference from Kennedy.  The spacecraft’s June 13 launch was postponed because of a leak in the same system, which carries the excess hydrogen gas away from the launch pad to an area where it can be safely burned off.

The shuttle can’t take off between June 22 and July 10, when the orbit of the space station would expose the spacecraft to too much sunlight and overheat the vessel’s systems. In March, the launch of the shuttle Discovery was postponed after technicians found a leaky valve in the same system. That mission, which went ahead March 15 to March 28, had already been delayed several times so engineers could test valves that help deliver hydrogen to the engines at the correct pressure.

NASA is scheduled to launch the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite from Cape Canaveral at 5:12 p.m. local time tomorrow. That mission, which will survey the lunar surface and seek traces of water as part of a longer-term plan to return American astronauts to the moon, had already been delayed a day because of the postponement of the Endeavour launch.

Bangladesh has ordered high security across the country amid fears of possible attacks by Islamists or criminal gangs. The alert comes as the south Asian country prepares to put on trial later this month dozens of people alleged to have committed war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence.

Security officials also fear a backlash following the recent arrest of three close associates of underworld don Daud Ibrahim. They confessed to a judicial magistrate of having run a clandestine criminal network for Daud.

One of the detainees told police that about 100 Daud agents were active in Bangladesh, an overwhelmingly Muslim country of more than 140 million people and already facing militancy by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) and other outlawed groups. The JMB is blamed for a series of bomb attacks in 2005 that killed dozens of people, including lawyers, judges and police in 2005. Police and intelligence officials say they have been regrouping since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office in January.

The key challenge facing India’s new ruling coalition is to maintain a strong growth rate, which has suffered in the face of the global financial crisis. “We have to observe that uncertainty in the world is still very high and we cannot ignore the fact that we are more integrated to the world than we used to be,” Rakesh Mohan told reporters.

The Central Bank expects the economy to expand about 6 percent in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, lower from the previous year’s estimate of 6.5-6.7 percent. In the previous three fiscal years, Asia’s third largest economy grew at 9 percent or more. Mohan said while India’s economy would continue to do well, expectations have to be realistic as the country cannot decouple with the rest of the world.

The government and the central bank have taken aggressive steps to revive the economy after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year hurt sentiment across the world and depressed demand.

The list of Ministers formed by the Congress party leader Soniya Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Dr. Manmohan Singh – Prime Minister and also in-charge of the Ministries/Departments not

Shri Pranab Mukherjee – Minister of Finance.

Shri Sharad Pawar – Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

Shri A.K. Antony – Minister of Defence.

Shri P. Chidambaram – Minister of Home Affairs.

Km. Mamata Banerjee – Minister of Railways.

Shri S.M. Krishna – Minister of External Affairs.

Shri Virbhadra Singh – Minister of Steel

Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh – Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad – Minister of Health and Family Welfare

Shri Sushilkumar Shinde – Minister of Power

Shri M. Veerappa Moily -   Minister of Law and Justice

Dr. Farooq Abdullah – Minister of New and Renewable Energy

Shri S. Jaipal Reddy -  Minister of Urban Development

Shri Kamal Nath – Minister of Road Transport and Highways

Shri Vayalar Ravi -  Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs

Shri Dayanidhi Maran – Minister of Textiles

Shri A. Raja – Minister of Communications and Information Technology

Shri Murli Deora – Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas

Smt. Ambika Soni – Minister of Information and Broadcasting

Shri Mallikarjun Kharge – Minister of Labour and Employment

Shri Kapil Sibal – Minister of Human Resource Development

Shri B.K. Handique – Minister of Mines and Minister of Development of North Eastern Region

Shri Anand Sharma – Minister of Commerce and Industry

Shri C.P. Joshi – Minister of Rural Development and Minister of Panchayati Raj

Shri Subodh Kant Sahay – Minister of Food Processing Industries

Dr. M.S. Gill – Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports

Shri G.K. Vasan – Minister of Shipping

Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal – Minister of Parliamentary Affairs

Shri Mukul Wasnik – Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment

Shri Kantilal Bhuria – Minister of Tribal Affairs

Shri M.K. Alagiri – Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers

Kumari Selja – Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Minister of Tourism

US President Barack Obama told that it would be very difficult to push a major health care overhaul through Congress. But the president says he really thinks “the stars may be aligned” and that a deal can get done if everyone involved works in a spirit of compromise, rather than rigid ideology.

Obama tells C-SPAN in an interview airing Saturday that he’s “absolutely committed” to keeping the process moving forward — to find ways to cut costs, increase efficiency and make sure families can get health care coverage without bankrupting them. Obama says changing the health care system will cost a lot of money upfront — but in the long run end up saving lots of money.

President Barack Obama says it’s going to be very difficult to push a major health care overhaul through Congress. But the president says he really thinks “the stars may be aligned” and that a deal can get done if everyone involved works in a spirit of compromise, rather than rigid ideology.

Obama tells C-SPAN in an interview airing Saturday that he’s “absolutely committed” to keeping the process moving forward — to find ways to cut costs, increase efficiency and make sure families can get health care coverage without bankrupting them.

Even now some of the people believe that LTTE Chief Prabhakaran is alive. Although the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that Prabhakaran founded has been virtually destroyed, its overseas adherents refuse to believe that the legendary rebel leader was killed in Sri Lanka May 18.

While reams of obituaries have been written the world over about the man who almost broke up Sri Lanka, LTTE functionaries in the West are dubbing Colombo’s claims of killing the elusive Prabhakaran as fantasy. And many seem to genuinely believe this – or at least doubt Colombo’s version of his final hours.

Leading the propaganda of the LTTE or what remains of it in foreign countries is its international wing leader S. Pathmanathan who made his first statement May 19, a day after Prabhakaran’s death was announced.
‘I wish to inform the global Tamil community… that our beloved leader is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people,’ the pro-LTTE website Tamil Net quoted him as saying.

Apparently realising that Pathmanathan’s words are not having the desired effect, a member of the LTTE intelligence wing has now ‘categorically denied’ that Prabhakaran was dead. He accused Colombo and its military establishment of spreading ‘rumours’.

According to Sri Lanka, Prabhakaran, founder leader of the LTTE, was killed following heavy fighting with the military which trapped him close to a lagoon in Mullaitivu district in the island’s north. He was reportedly with 18 of his bodyguards when he was cut down, with a single bullet in the front of the head that blew off the upper portion of his head.

Thousands of his Tamil supporters, particularly in the West, insist that Prabhakaran had broken the army cordon at the last moment and that photos and television footage showing him dead were doctored. But diplomats and security agencies around the world firmly believe that Prabhakaran has been slain although speculation persists as to how and when he breathed his last.

A Western diplomat based in Colombo told IANS over telephone: ‘We are in no doubt about Prabhakaran’s fate. He is dead and gone.’ Tamil sources in London, where the Tigers have enjoyed wide support among the Tamils, say the LTTE is finding it difficult to come to terms with the reality that Prabhakaran is no more.

Asian Highway pact is to signed by Bangladesh,  shedding its suspicion that the route devised by a UN body would allow neighbouring India a transport ‘corridor’ to its northeastern region. Discussions began Thursday as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has decided to change the official line set by the previous government of Khaleda Zia.

Bangladesh had failed to meet the deadline set by the UN for Dec 31, 2005, to sign the international pact for a highway that would connect Bulgaria in Europe to Bangkok in southeast Asia.

The Zia government had opposed the routes determined by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) on the ground that India would get undue advantage. It had proposed alternative routes specifying that no route should be a thoroughfare for Indian goods.

The present government will not miss the chance to join the highway network, the minister said prior to beginning consultations.Dhaka wants to settle the issue before the upcoming meeting on the Asian Highway network Sep 4, 2009, in Bangkok.

Rahmatullah, a former director of the UN, told New Age that the plea for changes in the routes would be effective if the country ratifies the treaty in time.There are three proposed routes. Two are main routes which connect India and Bangladesh. The third one  connecting India, Bangladesh and Myanmar is described as a regional route.

The previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat government wanted the third one to be the main route as it would bolster the country’s much cherished ‘Look East Policy’ and expedite economic cooperation with Myanmar, China, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The BNP, now in opposition, believes that the ‘Look East Policy’ will not materialise if the existing proposal of the Asian Highway routes is accepted. The UN ESCAP, however, insisted on ratification of the treaty before Bangladesh places proposals for any change of routes.The Asian Highway network, which will stretch for 141,000 kilometres and cross 32 Asian countries after completion, is also linked with Europe. So far 28 Asian countries have ratified the agreement, according to UN ESCAP.