Fw: Inttranews articles for Ravi Kumar

California, USA (BizBen): Well established interpreting and translating service with stable income and even higher income potential. Book of business built in! Seller willing to provide training and consultation during transition. Seller will also assist new owner in procuring new government contracts which can significantly boost income. Seller states gross income for 2007 was 1.4 million based on contracts obtained from door-door and referrals alone. Seller says there is even higher income potential with a bit of marketing. Business can be run as home based. This will be an ideal acquisition for someone already in the business who wants to expand book of business and increase current income.

For more information, please visit:
www.bizben.com/listings/124425.php

EU: Proposal to make patent translation affordable using an automated, central translation service

London, UK (Mondaq (registration required): The EU working document proposes two alternative solutions. The first is for a "flexible" Community patent: applicants would be able to decide which languages to file claim translations in. The resultant patent would only be enforceable in those member states with the official languages of the translations. Businesses could therefore decide patent-by-patent how to trade off geographical coverage against translation costs. The second proposal is to make translation into all official languages affordable by use of a low cost, mainly automated, central translation service. It is further suggested that automated translations could be "made available to any interested party by a simple click via the website of the central service concerned".

For more information, please visit:
www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=60974

Current events

Iraqi interpreter killed in attack near Fallujah

Baghdad, Iraq (LA Times): Six U.S. Marines were injured and their Iraqi interpreter was killed Friday when a roadside bomb struck their patrol near Fallujah, the military said. There was at least one other explosion in the city during the day, underscoring fears that Sunni Arab militants loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq may be attempting to stage a comeback in their former stronghold.

For more information, please visit:
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq24-2008may24,0,6976787.story

Interpreting

CPJ urges Egypt to free jailed interpreter

Cairo, Egypt (CPJ): The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly protests the continued detention without charge of Mohammed Salah Ahmed Maree, an Egyptian media worker seized by Egyptian authorities while covering riots last month in the northern industrial city of Mahalla al-Kubra.

For more information, please visit:
www.cpj.org/protests/08ltrs/mideast/egypt23may08pl.html

Delhi High Court dismisses accused's plea for new interpreter

New Delhi, India (PTI): The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of a Turkey national, facing prosecution in the multi-crore rupee urea scam, seeking a change in the interpreter provided to him for trial court proceedings.

For more information, please visit:
www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=573966

Afghanistan: Male interpreters refuse to talk to women

Kandahar, Afghanistan (Canada): Almost all Afghan interpreters are men and the ensuing conversations take place on the other side of walls, both figurative and literal. "The male interpreter will sit behind a door, a wall or sit with his back to the women in the room or even covering himself with a cloth and interpret that way," Uetz said. "It makes things very awkward." Sometimes the male interpreter won't talk to women, said Master Bombardier Jennifer Mason, who works in the Panjwaii district. When they do, the cliché of 'lost in translation' applies. Afghan women will be guarded for fear of crossing cultural lines. More female interpreters are needed. In Kandahar City, Uetz has worked with the lone female resource available to Canadian Forces.

For more information, please visit:
www.canada.com/story.html?id=75e2b2c3-f4b7-4b32-b6dc-df6156634ac4

Scotland: Justice system compromised by unqualified interpreters

Glasgow, Scotland 'Sunday Herald): The Scottish Court Service and Crown Office are allowing foreign students without the industry benchmark Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) to work, through approved agencies, as interpreters in cases ranging from custody disputes to serious assaults, including an alleged rape. The rising number of migrants appearing before the court has led to a greater need for foreign-language speakers. Interpreters working without the qualification - described by the Chartered Institute of Linguists as "indispensable" - are being used to plug the shortfall.

For more information, please visit:
www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2295799.0.justice_system_compromised_by_unqualified_interpreters.php

Iraqi interpreters maimed during U.S. combat missions refused high-tech prosthetics

Baghdad, Iraq (Denver Post): He accompanied soldiers on more than 200 combat missions, coaxing suspicious Iraqis, forging alliances and — beyond his interpreter duties — regularly taking up arms to fight alongside U.S. troops. When a roadside bomb in a 2006 ambush blew off his legs, al-Bayati kept firing at his unit's attackers until he lost consciousness. Today, al-Bayati wonders why nobody — neither the government nor its contractors — is assuming long-term responsibility for him and hundreds of other seriously wounded interpreters who served the United States in Iraq.

For more information, please visit:
origin.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9365560

Western Australia: No funds allocated to establish an interpreter service

Perth, Australia (ABC): The Western Australian Government has confirmed no funds have been allocated to establish an interpreter service in WA and says it will now hand the issue to the Federal Government. In November 2006, Attorney-General Jim McGinty promised to inject resources into Aboriginal interpreter services, acknowledging that Indigenous people were not adequately represented in courts. […] Mr McGinty says an application for money to establish an interpreting service was rejected by the State Treasury.

For more information, please visit:
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/26/2255424.htm?site=northwestwa

UK: Spending on interpreters has quadrupled since 2002

London, UK (Times): Arresting and processing a British suspect takes four to five hours. “With a foreign national you may have to bring in an interpreter and have documents translated – that clogs everything up,” Spence said. “As a result, it can take an officer the whole shift plus overtime to get it done. That means you don’t have your policemen out on the streets doing what they were four years ago.” Cambridgeshire’s spending on interpreters has quadrupled since 2002 to £1m a year.

For more information, please visit:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3998967.ece

Health Foundation funds training for interpreters of medical conversations for refugees

New York, USA (Democrat and Chronicle): The first set of dollars doled out by one of Rochester's wealthiest private foundations funded about a dozen fitness and nutrition programs aimed at driving down childhood obesity, providing vaccinations for thousands of teens, training translators how to interpret medical conversations for refugees, offering home health services for the deaf and evaluating the city's new lead-paint ordinance. The Greater Rochester Health Foundation had distributed $8.2 million by the end of 2007, according to a report released last week during a showcase of more than 30 local agencies that have received grants.

For more information, please visit:
www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/NEWS01/805250353/1002/NEWS

Iraqi interpreter killed

Fallujah, Iraq (CNN): Seven U.S. Marines were wounded by a roadside bomb that also wounded two Iraqi police officers and killed a civilian interpreter in the Anbar province city of Fallujah Friday morning, according to the U.S. military.

For more information, please visit:
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/23/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Washington: Police required to have qualified interpreters on call at all times

Washington, USA (Boston Globe): The gap between an English-speaking city government and an overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking population has grown so wide that the federal government has stepped in to mandate that the city bridge the divide. Following a Civil Rights Act complaint filed by a legal aid group, the US Department of Justice worked with the city and its police department to develop a language assistance plan. Adopted in March, the plan is unique in Washington and is seen as a bellwether for cities with similar demographics. It requires Mattawa to employ at least one bilingual employee during regular business hours and to make vital information available in Spanish as well as English. It also requires the police to have qualified interpreters on call at all times.

For more information, please visit:
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/25/community_must_bridge_language_divide

Minnesota: Budget cuts hit court interpreters

Minnesota, USA (Daily News): The Minnesota Legislature finished the 2008 session last week with a resounding reduction to several state programs as a way to handle a $935 million deficit without raising taxes. […] Juror payments may be reduced and mandated services such as translators and psychological evaluations will be cut, said Sue Dosal, state court administrator.

For more information, please visit:
www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2008/05/25/news/00lead.txt

Iowa: Court translators give voice to due process

Iowa, USA (Gazette): Court translators uphold the constitutional rights of defendants who otherwise wouldn't understand their legal rights or be able to aid in their own defenses. "The job is interesting and beautiful when you see that person's eyes light up and they know," Carrie Lilley of Boston said. Translators are "performance artists," Xavier Keogh of St. Petersburg, Fla., said.

For more information, please visit:
gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080523/NEWS/339817739

Sign language

A day in the life of… June Backer

Florida, USA (Palm Beach Post): Not all eyes were on Barack Obama at the BankAtlantic Center rally in Sunrise Friday. Some people focused on June Backer's hands. Backer is their ears and voice, whether at a funeral or a wedding, at a concert or the emergency room. Her 11-year-old company, Nationwide Interpreter Resource Inc., grew out of her Boca Raton home. Today it has more than 60 sign language interpreters providing services from Miami to Port St. Lucie.

For more information, please visit:
www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/south/epaper/2008/05/24/s1c_bocasigner_0525.html

Technology

Microsoft close to introducing an Internet web site translation service

On The Web (Arc): In a side conversation, the Microsoft manager that built this demo argued the translation technology is maturing very rapidly. For example, Microsoft is getting very close to introducing an Internet web site translation service, where you can hit a Microsoft icon and get a real-time translation of a site written in a foreign language to your language, with the translation, though not perfect, being very good

For more information, please visit:
www.arcweb.com/_layouts/DocsTreeCopyUtil.aspx?Use=id&Action=dispform&ItemId=10&ListId=%7BBF75F643-CC59-4F02-9BB0-04BC8C80B85F%7D&WebId=%7B2240FC4B-A5E4-4C63-A9FC-0CEDC572C8EA%7D&SiteId=40f21e65-391a-41f9-b87a-14fff918ba69

Terminology

Boston University researchers developing Sign Language video dictionary

Massachusetts, USA (Telegram): Even though Joan Nash has been using American Sign Language for most of her life and has made a career of teaching deaf and hearing impaired children, she is sometimes stumped when she encounters a sign she has never seen. She can't just look it up in a dictionary. At least not yet. Nash, a doctoral student at Boston University, is part of a team working on an interactive video project that would allow someone to demonstrate a sign in front of a camera, and have a computer program interpret and explain its meaning.

For more information, please visit:
www.telegram.com/article/20080524/APN/805240936

Translation

FBI lacks Arabic translators

Washington, USA (World Tribune): The FBI lacks agents fluent in Arabic and must undergo a review of its counter-insurgency program, a top official testified. Bassem Youssef, a chief in the FBI's Communications Analysis Unit, said the agency has refused to hire or train agents fluent in Arabic.

For more information, please visit:
www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/ss_terror0165_05_23.asp

Somalia: Peacekeepers accused of setting up arms trading network through translators

Mogadishu, Somali (BBC): Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia have been selling arms to insurgents, a United Nations report says. The report, by the UN monitoring group on the Somali arms embargo, says Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen are also breaking the embargo. It cites one incident in which a group of Ugandan soldiers allegedly received $80,000 for a transaction. Some peacekeepers are accused of setting up an arms trading network through translators.

For more information, please visit:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7417435.stm

Pakistan: science textbooks to be translated into Urdu

Lucknow, Pakistan (IANS): The Urdu language has long been associated with poetry and literature in India. But now it will also be a medium of learning science in schools and madrassas, thanks to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). AMU has decided to translate science textbooks prescribed by various education boards of the country - like the CBSE, ICSE and the Uttar Pradesh board - into Urdu.

For more information, please visit:
www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/science-textbooks-to-be-available-in-urdu_10052155.html

Iranian translators should observe guild’s rights

Tehran, Iran (MNA): Although Iran has not signed the international copyright treaties yet, Iranian translators should observe the rights of the translators’ guild, Vida Eslamieh told MNA. The translator of Harry Potter series further described the concurrent existence of 16 different translations of Harry Potter in Iran as a “catastrophe”.

For more information, please visit:
www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=688347

Translation and free speech in Thailand

Hong Kong, China (UPI): For those in Thailand who have long been privy to hundreds of private conversations, public heated discussions, leaked intelligence and unspoken yet accepted social practices -- generally through language proficiency -- for those who have learned to “think like a Thai” and forget general cultural references, the ability to use peripheral vision in thought, speech and action is diminished. An example one often experiences among professional Thai translators is their reluctance to translate material from English to Thai or Thai to English that places Thailand, Thai culture or Thai society in a harshly critical light.

For more information, please visit:
upiasiaonline.com/Society_Culture/2008/05/23/the_price_of_speech_in_thailand/1363

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