The Sachar Committee is dismayed by the relatively low access of Muslims to bank credit. Yet, neither the government, Sachar Committee members nor intellectuals are raising an outcry against a massive drive to deny millions of Muslim women access to microcredit. This is driven not by Hindu extremists but by Muslim anjumans (community organisations) in Karnataka. Thus, a community complaining of credit deprivation is itself destroying credit to millions of Muslims — because the anjumans are male bastions and the poor borrowers are women. Ramesh Bellamkonda heads BSS Microfinance, the worst hit of several microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Karnataka. He says BSS has provided microcredit for two years in Kolar, three-and-a-half in Mysore, and eight in Ramanagaram, enjoying excellent relations with its Muslim borrowers and virtually 100% repayment. Today, repayment is down to almost zero, because of non-repayment directives by the anjumans and their goons, who threaten and even assault BSS staff. Some other MFIs say that the problem is not just Islamic. However, these explanations for loan default are partial at best, since Hindu and Christian borrowers continue to have a good repayment record.

:: via indiatimes.com

NEW YORK/LONDON: Gold surged to a record high above $1,100 an ounce on Friday as investors sought safety after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 10.2 percent in October. While doubts about an economic recovery boosted gold, other precious metals with an industrial component fell, their demand outlook dented. “Gold rallied early on the unemployment numbers being higher than expected. It fueled thoughts of additional stimulus and reinforced the concept that the Fed will not be able to raise rates any time soon,” said Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader at Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago. U.S. employers cut 190,000 jobs in October, greater than the 175,000 fewer jobs forecast, and the unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent, a 26-1/2-year high that was above average forecasts of a 9.9 percent rate.

:: via indiatimes.com

Almost a month after a high-ranking economist with the International Monetary Fund was shot in his Bethesda garage, Montgomery County police appear to know precious little about the crime. They don't think the masked assailant was out to rob Ashoka Mody, who survived the shooting. Nor do they have indications that the attack was linked to Mody's job. Evidence is so limited that police are not sure whether the shooter was a man or a woman. Hoping for help from the public, police and the victim's wife appealed Friday for anyone with information to step forward. A crime-solvers group also announced that its reward for information leading to the shooter's arrest has jumped to as much as $36,000, thanks to a $35,000 anonymous donation. "My husband is a very hardworking family man," Jyothsna Mody said. "No one can understand why anything like this could possibly have happened to him."

:: via washingtonpost.com

Aziz Ansari is funny. An actor and comedian, you may have seen Aziz on NBC’s Parks and Recreation or MTV’s Human Giant. If you haven’t seen him, see him here when he talks with Grist about his involvement with the Kyoto Protocol and what he’s doing to lessen his carbon foot- and handprints.

:: via grist.org

The two terror suspects arrested in the US for plotting to strike targets in Denmark and India spent significant time in Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks, authoritative sources have told DNA. While one of them operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until the latter part of 2008, the other suspect spent 10 days in the city just days before the terror strike last November. According to available information, David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born US citizen and one of the two arrested, ran a visa facilitation agency in Mumbai between November 2006, and July 2008. The firm, named Immigrant Law Centre, was run from AC Market, Tardeo in Mumbai.

:: via dnaindia.com

An Obama diplomat is wanted by the Lucknow police. Presently enjoying the status of an ambassador by virtue of representing the US in the United Nations Management and Reforms Committee (UNMRC), Jide Zeitlin was slapped with criminal charges like cheating and dishonestly, including delivery of property and criminal breach of trust, in case crime number 743/08 lodged with the Aliganj police station here in 2008 end.

:: via indiatimes.com

Heather Ilene Silber and Nicholas Nafis Mohamed were married Saturday evening in Boston in the Grand Ballroom of Taj Boston, a hotel. James C. Gibney, a justice of the peace in Massachusetts, performed the ceremony, which incorporated Hindu, Jewish and Muslim traditions.

:: via nytimes.com

When Ibrahim was investing in new computers to upgrade his web business, he could not have imagined being bankrupted by a government-imposed internet blackout after deadly riots between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in July. Ibrahim cannot help feeling frustrated about Hu Jintao’s recent comments about a return to normalcy in the region. "We want dignity, what is normalcy?" he asks as his friends lapse into Uighur, talking excitedly about reports of Tibetans living in India, free from the fear of persecution, free to speak against the oppression of their people "back home." "We can do more from India. We thought of Pakistan, but they have returned Uighur refugees to China. India has welcomed Tibetans and we are similar," he reasons before turning back to the heap of coffeestained notes and maps with highlighted routes into India strewn over his keyboard and table.

:: via indiatimes.com

Sri Lanka's central bank on Saturday said it has been buying gold to diversify its reserves amid volatile currency markets, days after India announced it had purchased 200 tonnes of the precious metal. A senior source close to the central bank said the gold purchases were part of moves to smooth periods of dollar volatility and the amount bought was in the neighbourhood of 5.3 tonnes as of September.

:: via google.com

Dr. Allyson Cushing Augusta and Dr. Gautam Vinay Shrikhande were married Saturday by the Rev. Steven J. Yagerman, an Episcopal priest, at Christ Church Parish in Plymouth, Mass. On Friday, Bhairava Sundaram, a Hindu priest, led a Hindu Vedic ceremony at the Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, Mass.