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been upended by the knock of the khaki-clad postal worker armed with a telegram.
• Families used them to announce births and deaths, the government used them to post job openings, young lovers sent them to tell their folks that they had eloped.
• No longer.
• On Monday, the state-run telecommunications company will send its final telegram, closing down a service that fast became a relic in an age of email, reliable landlines and ubiquitous cellphones.
• The fact that the telegram survived this long is a testament to how deeply woven it is into the fabric of Indian society. In much of the rest of the world, telegrams long ago were relegated to novelty services used by people who wanted to indulge in a bit of nostalgia.
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• BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- Shouting "No surrender!" and singing anti-Catholic songs, Protestant hardliners across Northern Ireland burned midnight bonfires topped with Irish flags and prepared to parade past Catholic areas Friday in an annual test for the British territory's peace process.
• Northern Ireland leaders appealed for calm and police braced for trouble on "the Twelfth," an annual sectarian holiday that always inflames tensions with the Catholic minority. At least two Protestants were arrested during bottle-throwing skirmishes with police near the scene of several Belfast bonfires early Friday.
• The police commander, Chief Constable Matt Baggott, took the unusual step of importing 630 police officers from England and Scotland to beef up his own 7,000-member force. The officers have already received Northern Ireland-specific riot training as part of their deployment last month to provide security for the Group of Eight summit of world leaders.
• Baggott said the reinforcements would help deter trouble when the major British Protestant brotherhood, the Orange Order, mounts 550 parades in commemoration of a 17th century military victory over Irish Catholics. He said 43 parades would pass near potentially hostile Catholic areas.
• "Violence is not inevitable," said his deputy overseeing the police operation in Belfast, Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr.
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