BRAHMACHARI JYOTHI PALANI CHOOSES MONASTIC PATH FOR HIS LIFE
"I just finished a great Ishta Marga Samskara at Livermore temple in California. Actually, a priest from the Tennesee temple that the swamis visited last year helped with my samskara. It was very interesting. At one part of the ceremony I had to beg for rice from the priests, my mother, my father and sister and also Uncle Easan. Just want to let you know that everything is moving forward and I will be in Kauai in four days."

JIVA RAJASANKARA COMMENTS FROM BANGALORE ON MODERN MURTHIS
Happy Ganesha Chaturthi. Today is a public holiday but the silpis are working. It is funny that sculptors of Ganesha have come up with various forms. There is one Ganesha dressed like a cricket batsman ( Cap on his head with the words PESPI ). Today there is a new style, two Ganeshas rowing a boat. Two days ago, there was one baby Ganesha lying in front of a Sivalinga. Such wonderful creativity is being shown in our honoring of Ganesha during these festival days.

Carcinogen Found in Smokers' Babies
By The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) -- Scientists have known for years that smoking by pregnant women causes babies to be born smaller, sicklier, at a higher risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and -- in some cases -- even addicted to nicotine. But a new study announced Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston offers what researchers say is the first direct evidence that fetuses of women who smoke actually metabolize cancer-causing agents contained in tobacco. The study, conducted by University of Minnesota professor Stephen S. Hecht and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, examined the first urine produced by 48 German newborns. With the same equipment used to conduct sophisticated drug tests on athletes, scientists searched for traces of the chemical NNK -- nicotine-derived nitrosaminoketone -- one of the strongest cancer-causing agents found in all types of tobacco products. While researchers found no traces of NNK in newborns of non-smokers, they detected the carcinogen in 22 of 31 newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy. The pregnant women in the two-year study smoked between 5 and 25 cigarettes per day, averaging 12 cigarettes per day. Results showed that NNK crosses the placental barrier between mother and fetus, where it is then broken down by the fetus and expelled in its urine, Hecht said. ``Hopefully this will deliver the message one more time about how dangerous it is for pregnant women to smoke,'' Hecht said Sunday, a day before he was to formally present the study to the society, which represents more than 150,000 scientists worldwide.

MORE NEWS FROM THE HIMALAYAS
By The Associated Press
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Taking advantage of a brief clearing in the weather Sunday, air force helicopters flew to the site of a massive landslide in the Himalayas to carry out the bodies of nine victims buried under an avalanche of mud and boulders, local news agencies reported. Paramilitary soldiers also pulled 10 more bodies from the slush in the mountain village of Malpa, 185 miles east of New Delhi. Rocks and mud loosened by three weeks of heavy monsoon rains cascaded down mountainsides Saturday, killing at least 239 people, most of them in Malpa. Among those killed in the landslides were Protima Guari Bedi, a well-known Indian dancer who was among 60 Hindu pilgrims on a pilgrimage to a sacred lake across the Chinese border in Tibet. Her body was to be handed over to her relatives Sunday, United News of India news agency reported.

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