Boat Accident In Tekkadi, Kerla | Tourists Including Foreign Nationals Feared Dead

At least 36 tourists drowned when a boat capsized in the Periyar lake in Kerala's Idukki district on Wednesday evening. Victims include Foreign nationals also. The death count is feared to be increased. There were around 80 people on board the double-decked fibre glass boat on a two-hour cruise inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve, around 180 km from Kochi. The toll may go up as rescue in the deep lake is tough at night.

Most tourists were from Delhi, Andhra and Karnataka. The identities of the deceased were being ascertained at various hospitals in Kumali, a hill town bordering Tamil Nadu. Over 40 people have been rescued by forest guards and natives.

Navy divers from the Southern Naval Command in Kochi have been flown in to recover bodies.

Home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who is also in charge of tourism, rushed to the accident site. "Every police station in the vicinity has been ordered to help in rescue. Forest department is also employing all its resources," he said.

The capsized boat, Jalakanyaka, belonged to Kerala Tourism Development Corporation, which operates four such boats for water safari inside the reserve. Tourists on another boat said the boat tipped when people crowded to one side for a better view of a herd of wild elephants.

Eid Celebration Accross the world | Eid 2009 Festival Photos

Muslims celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr on the first day of Shawwal-the tenth month of the Islamic calendar, with the sighting of the new crescent, following
the month of Ramzan.

Eid-ul-Fitr is a festival of joy, family reunion and thanksgiving, it being one of the two great Islamic festivals, the other being Eid-ul-Azha.

Eid-ul-Fitr's importance can be judged from the fact that Allah himself ordered the believers to celebrate it. Prophet Muhammad established the Islamic egalitarian society, free of all kinds of exploitation and corruption, and maintaining the sanctity of society was made obligatory of all believers in every age.

Shashi Tharoor and his Twitter life..

It is already a big talk among Indian media, about the twitter appearance of Shashi Tharoor. He recently crossed the one million followers in twitter, probably the first Indian celebrity to cross the milestone. His popularity on Twitter has been such that even Priyanka Chopra's followers count pales in comparison to the one lakh Tharoor has acquired.
A perfect socializer as he is, Tharoor even tweets from the car between events. His tweets reflect the earnest human being in him, who uses his wit and wisdom to say things that make people think. Be it advocating ideas or giving his take on certain issues, Tharoor has always been a pro-active twitterer. He himself admits "only writing I can find time for these days is tweeting". Shashi Tharoor truly does deserve 100,000 followers on Twitter and more.
Starting from sharing the timeline of his hectic schedule, to voicing his own introspection on myriad range of topics, Tharoor expresses it all on Twitter. He has been updating his status consistently ever since he joined the Twitter fraternity in March 2009, and he makes sure he responds to his followers answering their voluminous queries.
It is more than interesting to go through his tweets as they are a blend of intellect and subtle humour. One of his tweets read like this: "If mosquitoes had a vote I'd win every election in Kochi! Another near-sleepless night in this otherwise lovely city." When it comes to give his own opinion he does not shirk away either. He says, "I will not practice or condone corruption, but fighting it is not my principal job" in reply to a query of one of his 1,00,000 followers on Twitter.
Shashi Tharoor's 1lakh followers on Twitter reflect the bond he shares with Indians and his sheer commitment towards the twitterratti. He does not tweet with any other purpose than to inform and be in touch with his fellow people, as he himself said, "I just try to be myself and am glad so many are interested." If Shashi Tharoor ever decides to become a prime ministerial candidate for India, he'd be doing what Barack Obama did on Twitter and maybe even better.
See his profile in twitter, www.twitter.com/shashitharoor