An open support to gay right!

LONDON. Kuly:' lens of thousands of’people converged In London Sunday for a gay pride festival being attended for the first time by Britain's first openly homosexual government minister, reports Reuter.

In a show of support for the annual event, new Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair sent his National Heritage Minister — gay MP Chris Smith — to represent him at a march through central London followed by a pop concert.

Smith and fellow gay Labour MP Stephen Twigg were due to address an expected 300,000 people at the rally.

The new prime minister has re-affirmed his commitment to gay and lesbiEin rights, the 60.000 people at their march in central London will be cheering, not jerring, as they pass Downing Street." said a spokesman for the gay pride festival.

Thousands of gays and lesbians from as far afield as Brazil and the United States thronged the streets, blowing whistles, dancing to samba bands and uressed in outrageous costumes.

Orchid festival

ITANAGAR: For the first time an international orchid festival will be held in the country with Arunachal Pradesh, home to over 500 species, playing host, reports PTI.

The Orchid Society of Arunachal (OSA) will hold the festival here in February next coinciding with the week-long celebration of Arunachal Pradesh statehood festival.

An OSA release here Sunday said the orchid festival would highlight the potential of orchid growing as a commercial activity. The north-east is the storehouse of entrepreneurs to interact with the national and International agencies who deal with orchid cut-flowers and related business activities.

A meeting of the OSA in Itanagar recently decided to Invite participants from countries like Australia. New Zealand. Malaysia. Singapore. Thailand. Japan. Sri Lanka. Bangladesh. USA and other European countries, the release said.

Opiumless poppy

NEW DELHI: This may be disheartening for opium-addicts worldover. but scientists at Lucknow have achieved a breakthrough in developing an "opiumless" poppy that has got all non-narcotic properties, reports PTI.

"Sujata." as named for the new opium variety, is not only completely free from both opium and opium-alkaloids. but it is also a perfect non-narcotic crop for seeds (khus khus) and seed oil. a spokesman of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) told PTI here Sunday.

This breakthrough, which CSIR scientists claim to be the first in the world, has been achieved by a team of researchers led by Dr JR Sharma at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) at Lucknow, the spokesman said.