MAKE ROOM FOR JESUS, exhorts Bishop Barreto

OLD GOA, Dec 3: Bishop of Sindhudurg Allwyn Barreto today urged the large feast day congregation to make room for Jesus in their hearts, just as Goencho Saib St Francis Xavier did centuries ago. Delivering his 20-minute homily in English and Konkani at the solemn pontifical high mass to mark the annual feast of St Francis Xavier, the Siolim-born Bishop Barretto reminded the congregation of over 10,000 devotees that St Xavier's life-long dream was to achieve greatness on earth. "But a change of heart was brought about in him by St Ignatius and he later came to Goa," said Bishop Barreto. (H)
 

SEA HARRIER LANDS PILOT TO DEATH

DABOLIM, Dec 5: In a tragic accident, a 30-year-old naval pilot was charred to death when his single-seater fighter plane crashed outside the Dabolim airport today. At 11.32 am, the deceased, pilot LT Commdr HPS Pannu, took off on a British-made sea Harrier on a sortie, when it went out of control, rammed through the 2.5 metre-high boundary wall, flew across a road, which is around around eight metres below, and crashed around 150 metres away on fallow land, bursting into flames. However, on the road below there was a miraculous escape for the passengers of an unidentified Santro car, which had just crossed the ill-fated plane's path, a few second before. (GT)
 

Tuskers are back!

PERNEM, Dec 6: Wild elephants have struck terror yet again in Pernem taluka. A herd of four elephants are reported to have entered three villages in Dhargal constituency, destroying plantations and terrorising villagers. Farmers from Kadshi-Mopa told Herald that the elephants entered from Phakit Pato, a small village on the Goa-Maharashtra border on December 4 and destroyed the coconut plantations of our farmers of Kadshi.
 

Vision document for Goa

PANJIM: The Knowledge Commission will soon prepare a vision document for Goa and it will serve as the template for discussions on education in the state, informed its chairman Peter Roland D'Souza. He was speaking at an interaction organised by the Goa Union of Journalists at its office premises yesterday. (GT)
 

Mopa gets murkier...now Khalap threatens Rane

PANJIM, Dec 5: The tussle over Mopa as the site for the international airport in Goa hots up in the Congress camp with former Union Minister for Law and elected executive member of the Pradesh Congress Committee, Ramakant Khalap threatening to topple the Rane government if it succumbs to pressures from Lok Sabha MP Churchill Alemao. Mr Khalap alleged that Churchill Alemao's outbursts against the international airport at Mopa are laced with sinister motives. According to Khalap, Alemao was responsible for the imposition of a language script not familiar to the people resulting in the gaining of a momentum favouring the Roman script. (H)
 

Goan Dreams and Penguin Kisses

She's a real-life hometown hero, a fiercely loyal daughter of Verna who studied entirely in Goan schools before heading off in pursuit of scientific excellence. Here, we're taking down the bright lights of IFFI and turning into the peak of high season. Meanwhile, Dr Helga do Rosario Gomes who is aboard an icebreaking ship near Antarctica, surrounded by giant ice floes and penguins, and the apparatus of a world-class scientific expedition. She corresponded with us by e-mail, you can get exciting updates from her illustrated online diary (or blog) at www.goantoantarctica.blogspot.com (VM de Malar, Herald)