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OTTOWA, CANADA, March 12, 2008: Under a multi-year agreement between Ranka Group of Companies and Wal-mart, it was announced yesterday they will sell Indian family apparel, covering a wide range of clothing in 20 Wal-mart stores across Canada.

“My life dream to promote India in Canada is fulfilled. I have been working for years to promote self esteem for Indian women and wellness for the entire family in Canada. Now the company has the opportunity with Wal-mart to create Indian garments with latest North American style that combine our design experiences with great value and innovative ideas to fulfill this dream,” said Kash Sood, president of Ranka Enterprise Inc.

“This landmark deal combines the talent and experience of our company with Wal-mart’s reach and vision. We believe this partnership will deliver extraordinary results,” Sood added.

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LONDON, UK, March 11, 2008: In a role reversal, Indians are not only meeting the shortage of priests in churches in Britain, but Christian migrants from India, particularly from Kerala, are helping boost dwindling church congregations.

One of the first Indian priests to arrive in Wales to preach Christianity was Rev Hmar Sangkhuma, from the Diocese of Mizoram in northeastern India. Mizoram has a majority Christian population that was initially converted by missionaries from Wales between 1840 and 1960.

Church sources say that attendance in churches has been progressively dwindling in various parts of Britain. The 2001 census showed that fewer than one in 10 people in Wales regularly attended church or chapel which also faces a shortage of priests.

dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

LONDON, UK, March 11, 2008: Scientists have long projected that areas will become more desertic in a warming world — from the Middle East through the European Riviera to the American Southwest, from sub-Saharan Africa to parts of Australia. But scientists have measured a rapid recent expansion of desert-like barrenness in the subtropical oceans, in places where surface waters have also been steadily warming.

Relatively plankton-free areas (and thus fish-free, harboring little life) in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans around the tropics typically cover about 20 percent of the global ocean surface, but have expanded about 15 percent since 1998, according to the new study. The change was measured by tracking color differences in sea water.

The authors of the study said the change could be temporary, given the short span of observations, but it matches a slight but steady warming trend in the affected ocean regions and also matches a pattern scientists have predicted would occur under human-caused global warming. It is not clear, however, that land and sea “deserts” are growing for the same reasons. Dr. Isaac Held, a scientist who specializes in climate modeling, said “I would advise keeping them as separate issues.”

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