As my colleague Lydia Polgreen writes, the upper house of India’s Parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that would amend the Constitution to reserve a third of the seats in India’s national and state legislatures for women. Such a provision may sound extreme, but it is nothing new:

According to the Quota Project, about half of the world’s countries currently use some type of electoral quota for their national legislatures, in some cases enforced by political parties. (India has previously experimented with quotas for women in local elections.)

Still, women are underrepresented in almost every national parliament around the world, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and they are especially underrepresented in India’s. Around the world, 18.8 percent of national parliamentary positions are held by women; in India, the rate is about half that.

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In occupied Kashmir, senior leader of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi has appealed the world community to take cognisance of stepped up Indian state terrorism. Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi in.

A statement issued in Srinagar said that women had been the direct victims of Indian state terrorism as thousands of women suffered the loss of their sons, husbands and brothers in the occupied territory who got disappeared in custody.

He said that for last 20 years Indian troops had been using the Kashmiri women as a weapon of war in the occupied territory and committing serious crimes against them with impunity besides massacre of Kashmiri people.

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In occupied Kashmir, the World Women Day has no importance for the Kashmiri women as they have been the worst victims of rights violations by Indian troops in the territory for the last 63 years. Mahjabeen, a Kashmiri woman and resident of Nageen area in Srinagar, talking to the newsmen, said that thousands of women suffered the loss of their sons, husbands and brothers who disappeared in custody or martyred by the troops.

She said that she never felt the importance of the day, as it had never brought any revolution for the women of the occupied territory. “Kashmiri women remembered only the days on which the troopers had kill their sons or disappear in custody their brothers,” she added.

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When the Games began, there were lots of Canadians who weren't impressed by the hype surrounding the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Our own Josh Freed wittily called them "the UnCanadian Olympics," decrying the "U.S.-style boosterism" surrounding the Torch Relay and the opening ceremonies. Josh must have been hiding under his couch as the gigantic bear bounced into the pneumatically-sealed stadium! And how did he feel about the ice totems and the dancer flying above a prairie patchwork! And don't mention the negative reaction to "Own the Podium."

There are Canadians who prefer to see us as more reserved. They want our athletes to be gifted amateurs who win their events almost by accident and then apologize to everyone. "I'm sorry I won this event. I'm Canadian. I only came to participate. I really don't want the medal." Wanting to win, striving to win, creating a winning mentality for competition, these don't figure in this version of Canadian. Winning is American.

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The world's biggest high-tech fair opened to the public Tuesday as the IT sector sought to rebound from a terrible 2009 by wooing consumers with trendy gadgets to make life easier and more fun. "Connected Worlds" is the theme of this year's CeBIT fair, with companies aiming to showcase energy and labour-saving devices that use wireless technology to communicate with each other and with users far away.

But, as ever, the CeBIT is not all work and no play. A host of mind-boggling futuristic devices will be on display, from mobile phones that can open your front door to "silent sound" devices that measure the movements of your lips and transform them into sound.

And hot on the heels of the stunning success of James Cameron's 3D film adventure "Avatar," this year's CeBIT is definitely best viewed in three dimensions. From screens that transform two-dimensional images into three by monitoring a viewer's eye patterns to 3D Internet that allows shoppers to "try on" the latest fashions, 3D is the unofficial buzzword of this year's show.

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 India and Pakistan held their first official talks Thursday since the 2008 Mumbai siege, with both sides saying they wanted to rebuild trust shattered in that attack but acknowledging that the meeting was just a first step.

The four-hour meeting between the nuclear-armed rivals ranged from shared water resources to the status of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. But terrorism was the focus of the discussions - an emphasis Pakistan quickly made clear would only slow further talks.

Expectations were extremely low for Thursday's talks, which were seen as little more than a symbolic first meeting and which India had billed as "talks about talks." Both sides indicated little of substance had been achieved.

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The little master made a double ton in the second one day international being played against South Africa. He also made his 46TH ODI century which the most by any batsman. He also went on to be unbeaten on 200 at Gwalior.

His previous best was 186 but the Gwalior knock broke the record with 25 boundaries and three sixes. The little master already has a world record of 13, 447 runs in Test Cricket and also holds the record of most centuries in Tests. With the addition of most runs in ODI.

"We all know how talented and how passionate he is about the game, but it's incredible that at the age of 36 he is still going on, he plays the full 50 overs, runs hard and at no point during this knock did he look like he was going to throw his wicket away. But the biggest reason he gets all these records is because he respects the game tremendously." Said Aamer Sohail .

The opening match of the Hockey World Cup between India and Pakistan is a total sold out on the net as well as in New Delhi’s retail outlets and fans are complaining they are not getting tickets for the fixture.Sale of tickets for the match began on February 3. Apart from the website these are also available at select outlets of Cafe Coffee Day, Union Bank of India branches and many 24x7 convenience stores.

Shailesh Kumar, a hockey fan, has been running from one outlet to another but s failed to get a ticket so far. “I wanted to buy it online but all tickets were sold. Then I went to several outlets in south Delhi, but didn’t get lucky. I have lost hope now.”

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Throw out the proverbial hockey baby with the dirty American bathwater.Flay Martin Brodeur while you’re at it. Pillory Pronger, Bag Babock... let’s call the whole thing off. Sunday’s hockey defeat at the hands of the United States had many Canadians showing up for work Monday with a hangover, but not of the liquid inspiration.

Instead, it was like the collective wind was knocked out of a nation in a 5-3 loss. People who rarely watch hockey, never mind naming the players or their corresponding NHL clubs, suddenly became critical experts on goaltending and everything else wrong with Canadian hockey — it is “our game” after all.Let’s take a chill pill, folks.

There is plenty of hockey left. We’ll leave it to our crack sports crew to dissect all the x’s and o’s of defeat and prospects versus Germany Tuesday, but suffice to say Sunday we got beat by a red-hot goalie. That’s all. It happens.

What is amazing in the push for the podium and the incredible amount of pressure and expectation heaped upon our elite athletes is we forget where we came from; what makes us  for the most part  respected and honoured in the court of international opinion. We share. In the good ol’ days when we were beating Denmark 40-0, we drove to bring the game to the world. We offered coaching and expertise, advice and support, money and even sticks, pucks and skates.

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Pakistan's hockey team left for New Delhi on Monday for the tenth World Cup starting next week, with the one-time world champions hopeful of a comeback after years of disappointment.

An 18-man squad led by full-back Zeeshan Ashraf will play arch-rivals and hosts India on Sunday in the opening game, amid diplomatic tensions between the neighbours.

"It is a tough test for us, but we have prepared extensively and hope that by winning the World title we will revive our hockey," said Ashraf.

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