The

THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 686, 27 SEPT. - 3 OCT., 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761

Hindu Trump Card Prez hopeful praises role of Hindu community in US; will hold coalition rally next month

REPUBLICAN presidential nominee Donald Trump has praised Hindu community’s “fantastic” contributions to world civilisation and American culture.

Trump (70), also confirmed that he would be addressing an Indian-American event in New Jersey next month, the proceeds of which will benefit global victims of Islamic terror. “The Hindu community has made fantastic contributions to world civilisation and to American culture and we look forward to celebrating our

shared values of free enterprise, hard work, family values, and a strong American foreign policy,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

He issued a short 24-second video message inviting IndianAmericans to attend the “incredible” event on October 15.

“Hello everyone, it is my pleasure to invite you to a Republican Hindu Coalition rally at the PNC Arts Center in New Jersey. I am very much looking forward to speaking to thousands of Indian-Americans

and others about making America great again. I look forward to seeing everybody there. It would be an incredible evening,” Mr. Trump said in his video message. According to the Trump Campaign, the all-day event brings together top actors, dancers, and singers from Bollywood, Hindu spiritual and civic leaders for a celebration of Hindu culture and

heritage. “The proceeds of the event will benefit global victims of Islamic terror,” the campaign said, adding that the event christened ‘Humanity United Against Terror ’ has been organised by Republican Hindu Coalition, which is founded and headed by Indian American Shalli Kumar from Illinois.

Trump’s decision is seen as an attempt to woo the small but

powerful IndianAmerican community who can play a key role in some of the battle ground States like Virginia if the race is close. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has held and attended a series of fund raisers organised

by Indian Americans across the country including at their homes.

But those are all closed door events away from public glare.

AAP raids into BJP votebank in Punjab Kejtiwal targets biz community, promises end of inspector raj

Jalandhar Business community of Punjab, which used to be the conventional urban votebank of BJP, is now being selectively targeted by the Aam Aadmi Party. Despite being strictly advised by his doctors to not speak and travel, after he underwent a surgery recently, New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday, reached Jalandhar to address the convention of state’s businessmen.

However, Kejriwal faced protests in Amritsar and Jalandhar from Mahila Congress activists who wore black badges and waved

black flags while chanting ‘Kejriwal Go Back’ slogans.

They also blocked the GT road holding ‘Anti Aurat Party’ and ‘Aam Aashiqi Party’ placards.

“AAP leaders are facing serious allegations, which include exploitation of women. The person who has failed to deliver in Delhi will do the same in Punjab. We will not

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allow him to ruin Punjab,” a Jalandhar Mahila Congress protester said. Nevertheless, hitting out at the Union government, Kejriwal said the government was out to harass the traders by raiding their business establishments and shops.

“We are called a probusinessman government in Delhi. I think the tax slabs

should be businessman-friendly.

Lower the slab, the higher will be the returns,” Kejriwal said. He said that the raids conducted to unearth illegal money and tax evasion often benefit inspectors than the government, which should be stopped immediately. “Tax raids are an eyewash and the method is being exploited by inspectors to harass the

traders. We will abolish this the ‘Raid Raj’,” Kejriwal assured the members of business community. This is not the first time that Kejriwal has tried to woo the business community of the state. He has also addressed groups of industrialists in Ludhiana and Khanna.

The business community has demanded more tickets for its leaders in lieu of support to AAP. Later Kejriwal also visited a Dera near Beas to seek support from its followers.

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Issue - 686 (2)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Former spy ‘German James Bond’ goes on trial over tax evasion

Berlin Germany’s former top spy, Werner Mauss, went on trial Monday accused of hiding millions of euros from authorities.

The 76-year-old dubbed “the German James Bond” had often been sent on classified operations abroad, but his secret financial dealings are now under scrutiny. He risks up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of shortchanging the state out of a total of 14.45 million euros ($16 million) in taxes from 2002 to 2013. Prosecutors are accusing Mauss of placing large sums of undeclared funds in offshore accounts, including in the Bahamas, national news agency DPA said.Investigators first got on his trail after one of his aliases was found among names of UBS account holders found on a CD which the state of North-Rhine Westphalia had purchased from a whistleblower, according to

business daily Handelsblatt and Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Mauss had allegedly failed to declare an account that he holds with the Luxembourg subsidiary of UBS. His name subsequently also emerged in relation to several shell companies listed in the socalled Panama Papers — leaked documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that exposed the murky offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous.

Mauss has rejected any inkling of wrongdoing, saying the mailbox business fronts were set up to channel funds used in relation to hostage freeing operations.

During the trial, the court will seek to clear up if the account is linked to such “humanitarian action” or if it was simply an account created to hold illicit income.

Pulling a rip cord over North Korea WONSAN When he booked his tour, Swiss lawyer Rafael Studer hadn’t seriously considered the option of jumping out of a Russianmade helicopter at 2,000 meters strapped to a North Korean soldier.

“It wasn’t really part of the plan,” the 27-year-old admitted after landing his tandem parachute jump at North Korea’s first aviation show held in the eastern port city of Wonsan.

The two-day festival was part of efforts by the sanctions-strapped and diplomatically isolated country to boost hard-currency tourism in the Wonsan region.

Coming just weeks after the North conducted its fifth nuclear test, triggering global condemnation and the threat of fresh sanctions, the show drew several hundred foreign aviation enthusiasts who paid for brief flights in Soviet-era aircraft.

So it was that Studer found himself half-hanging out the door of a Mil Mi-8 helicopter, 2,000 metres above the newlyrenovated and upgraded Wonsan airport, strapped to a North Korean military parachutist.

“There was a ‘what the hell am I doing moment’ and then we jumped. Terrifying at first, but then surprisingly enjoyable,” he said.

Studer landed gently, unlike Dutch flight instructor Niels Linthout, who landed barefoot -

“I lost my flip-flops” - and face down underneath his tandem partner, much to the amusement of the large crowd.

A number of foreign professional skydivers took part in the show, including American Douglas Jaques, a 68-year-old veteran of more than 11,400 jumps.

The US State Department strongly advises US citizens against travelling to North Korea in any capacity, citing a “serious risk of arrest and long-term detention.”

In March this year, an American student Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years hard labour for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel.

Jacques said the travel advisory had given him “pause for thought” but the prospect of skydiving “in the most exotic location I could think of” had proved too shiny a lure. “It’s like the warning on a

drug label,” he said of the State Department warning. “They have to cover the worst-case scenario.”

Jacques and fellow pro-skydiver Klaus Renz from Germany said the equipment used by the North Korean parachutists was generally high quality.

“The canopy designs are copies, but they’re good copies,” said Renz. “They seem very well organised.”

Later in the day, a tour of air force fighter jets on the airport runway saw North Korean officials jostling for a photo-op with the country’s two first women fighter pilots, Rim Sol and Jo Kum-Hyang, as they posed with an ageing MiG-21.

The two women shot to national fame last year when leader Kim Jong-Un dubbed them “flowers of the sky” after watching one of their training sessions.

Tokyo A passenger spotted a python curled around the armrest of another passenger’s seat on a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen “bullet” train, forcing the train to make an unscheduled stop. No one was injured in the incident Monday.

The train’s operator, JR Tokai, said the passenger sitting in the reserved seat was unaware that

the python was wrapped around the armrest for about 50 minutes until the person behind him saw it and notified a conductor.

The super-express train made an unscheduled stop at Hamamatsu station and railway police removed the snake in about a minute.

It said the train left the station and arrived in Hiroshima, its destination, on time.

Despite anti-India sentiment, rush Python wrapped around armrest halts Japanese ‘bullet’ train for police jobs in Kashmir

Ganderbal Farooq* holds a grudge against Indian security forces for the rights violations they allegedly commit in the Valley, but he was seen standing in queue at the district police lines on Monday morning. The 20year-old Ganderbal resident has applied for the post of a special police officer (SPO) with the state lawenforcement agency.

“Unemployment is the main reason I have applied for this position,” says Farooq, who has a graduation degree in arts. He has an older sister, a younger brother and elderly parents, and he bears the responsibility of supporting them.

“The Azaadi movement has its own place, and the harsh realities of life have their own,” says Farooq.The government had floated advertisements for recruitment to the post of SPO, a temporary position in the police force with a starting salary of Rs 5,000. According to official figures, at least 26,000 youngsters have applied for jobs in the Kashmir police force.

In the first phase of the fitness test held on Monday, applicants from Ganderbal and Tullamulla tehsils were summoned for document verification and a physical examination.

A senior police officer

overseeing the test admitted that while many of the applicants were said to have participated in antigovernment protests over the last few months, such people would

be disqualified through a rigorous verification process.

In the queue was a post-graduate degree holder from IGNOU, who went on to explain why thousands applied for the job of SPO even though pro-secessionist sentiments are widespread among the Valley’s youth population. “There are many here who fought for the Azaadi movement, and they are well aware of the atrocities committed.

However, at the same time, they need to support their families. The state government has not done too well at providing employment

to the Kashmiri youth,” he says.

As the applicants stand in queue to submit their documents, a cameraman tries to take a photograph. But the youngsters immediately hide their faces behind their files.

Why? They feel that if their images are published in newspapers, harassment by anti-India protesters in their localities may soon follow. The applicants don’t speak much to reporters either. Kashmiri policemen walk a tight rope, attacked by militants and despised by civilians. “Yes, there is a threat to our safety. Even this morning, I came with my file tucked inside my jacket. This job would require me to take on my own people, but how else can I support my family?” asks another applicant.

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Issue - 686 (3)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Issue - 686 (4)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Sidhu-led Awaaz-e-Punjab open to talks with AAP and Congress Chandigarh After announcing that Awaaz-ePunjab will not split the anti-incumbency vote and give the ruling Badals another shot at power by forming a party, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu is open to talks with both the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

All four members of the forum Sidhu, former Olympian Pargat Singh and independent MLAs Simarjeet and Balwinder Bains met at the former Rajya Sabha member’s residence in Delhi on Sunday night. While Sidhu had made it clear last week that he was against forming a fourth front as it could benefit the Badals, Bains brothers and Pargat are learnt to have prevailed on him that

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the forum should not be averse to talks even with the Congress.

Clearing the air on their next move, Simarjeet said Pargat was in touch with rebel AAP leaders Sucha Singh Chhotepur and Dr Dharamvira Gandhi to urge them not to form the fourth front.

Awaaz-e-Punjab has opted not to support the party Chhotepur has announced to float and the fourth front Gandhi is trying to cobble together against the SAD-BJP, Congress and AAP. “Our agenda is to uproot the mafia raj of the Badals from Punjab. The antiincumbency vote in Punjab will be divided between the Congress and AAP. We are open to talks with both the parties and will support the one which is ready to accept a common minimum programme

for Punjab. Both the Congress and AAP have credible faces who want to work for the betterment of Punjab,” Simarjeet said.

The forum has decided to chalk out a common programme in two weeks before bringing it on the negotiating table. When contacted, Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh said the party was open to talks with Awaaz-e-Punjab.

“But it is for them to come up with what they want from us. The Congress is doing well on its own. But if their common programme fits into our plan, we will welcome them. After all, Pargat and Sidhu both have Congress in their DNA owing to long association of their families with the party,” Amarinder told HT. The AAP, however, is now divided on Sidhu. While leaders, including Sukhpal

Khaira, have openly welcomed truck with Awaaz-e-Punjab, its MP Bhagwant Mann had said the AAP cannot forge alliances.

Refusing to comment on Bains’ statement, AAP Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh said: “I have no idea about Sidhu’s next step. But his not forming the fourth front is in Punjab’s interest.”

Both the Congress and AAP privately claim the forum is trying to strike a bargain and have failed to get a “rousing” response as claimed by Sidhu, something Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal has been claiming. But many see Sidhu’s professional commitments Sony TV has in a statement last week has said Sidhu was not quitting The Kapil Sharma Show health issues and court cases too as reasons behind his political manoeuvres.

Congress, not Captain!

Navjot Sidhu (Sept 21): ”We will not divide the anti incumbency vote bank which could indirectly benefit the corroborative and collusive BadalAmarinder nexus which has plundered Punjab in the last 15 years.”

Simarjeet Bains (Sept 26), on Sidhu’s earlier statement on Amarinder, “The Congress has also had some great leaders such as Sardar Patel. We are willing to talk to the party for Badal-mukt Punjab.”

Capt Amarinder (Sept 26): ”Can they disassociate me from the Congress, or will I be sacked by my party president?

They are just upping the ante. This won’t work.”

Islamabad Pakistan’s central bank has directed all banks to freeze accounts with millions of rupees linked to 2,021 individuals under an anti-terror law though the move will not affect anti-India groups such as the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD).

The action was taken against individuals listed in the Fourth Schedule of the AntiTerrorism Act, which permits the seizure or freezing of funds and assets of a proscribed person.

Some prominent names on the list are Maulvi Abdul Aziz (Lal Masjid), Mohsin Najfi (Shia leader), Maulvi Ahmed Ludhianvi, Pariyal Shah, Maulvi Kabir, Aurang-zeb Farooqi (all Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat), Allama Maqsood Domki (Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen), Sibtain Shirazi, Mirza Ali, Sheikh Nayyar (all Tehreek-iJafria Pakistan), Ramzan Mengal (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi), and Shahid Bikik (Lyari Aman Committee).

This list, however, does not include Kashmir-centric groups such as the JuD, Lashkar-e-Taiba and similar entities.

The list of 2,021 individuals mostly leaders and office-bearers of sectarian groups was sent to all banks by the State Bank of Pakistan. Surprisingly, the list includes some people who have died.

“It is sad the government has used different criteria to segregate terror groups,” said social activist Jibran Nasir, adding that the government is focusing on sectarian organisations at home and

leaving aside those that export terror.

The government can list an individual as a proscribed person in the Fourth Schedule of the anti-terror law if he is suspected of involvement in terrorism or is an activist of an organisation kept under observation.

The list sent to the banks does not include the names of all individuals listed in the Fourth Schedule. Senior counter-terror officials said the complete list may have between 6,500 and 8,000 names. It is not clear what criteria were used to draw up the list forwarded to the banks. Despite being a public document, the Fourth Schedule has never been published in its entirety by the government.

The media reported this was the first time

that authorities have ordered that freezing of such a large number of bank accounts on suspicion of links to terrorism. The financial aspect of terrorism has so far received little attention in Pakistan. The latest move follows criticism that not enough was being done to squelch such financing.

Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies director Amir Rana said he was not optimistic about the effectiveness of the move. “The freeze order focuses on the leadership of the sectarian groups, while hardcore terrorists are absent from the list.” he said. “Accounts of individuals have been frozen, whereas no action has been taken against accounts of banned groups.”

Pakistan to freeze assets of terror suspects, no action on JuD leaders

Issue - 686 (5)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Snapchat introduces videocatching sunglasses SAN FRANCISCO Vanishing message service Snapchat announced Saturday it will launch a line of videocatching sunglasses, a spin on Glass eyewear abandoned by Google more than a year ago.

The California-based company, which also announced it is changing its name to Snap Inc., said in an online post that its Spectacles will be “available soon,” with media reports pegging the price at $130 a pair.

“We’ve been working for the past few years to develop a totally new type of camera,” said the post by Team Snap.

“Spectacles are sunglasses with an integrated video camera that makes it easy to create Memories.”

Snap earlier this year added a way to save images as “Memories,” a shift for a service know for messages that disappear after being

viewed.

Spectacles were billed as having one of the smallest wireless cameras in the world, capable of capturing a day’s worth of “Snaps” on a single charge.

The sunglasses connect to Snap software wirelessly using Bluetooth or wifi connections.

Spectacles cameras take video from the perspective of wearers, boast a 115-

degree field of view, and capture snippets of video intended for sharing at the service.

“Imagine one of your favorite memories,” Snap said.

“What if you could go back and see that memory the way you experienced it?

That’s why we built Spectacles.”

Snap estimates it has more than 100 million users globally of the service for sending videos, images and text messages which vanish

Kapil Sharma housed in trouble!

Police in Oshiwara record a number of construction violations in his flat Mumbai Just two weeks ago, the Mumbai Police had filed a first information report under against small-screen comedian kapil Sharma for making illegal alterations to his apartment in Oshiwara in Mumbai. The police from the area even conducted a ‘panchnama’ on his house on Thursday .

The comedian resides in a ninth-floor flat at DLH Enclave in Oshiwara.The police have asked Kapil Sharma to pay a visit so that they can record his statement.

The cops have summoned Sharma in the week that begins today so they can record his statement. The cops along with members of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had started the ‘panchnama’ early in the day and on reaching his flat found that he was not there. However, his house help opened the door and allowed the authorities to inspect the flat.

However, on inspection, the authorities found that Kapila Sharma has made significant alterations to his apartment, some of which even went against construction rules. At

many places inside Kapil Sharma’s flat, the police found that rooms had been pulled down to increase space. The kitchen and the hall had been significantly altered. A wall had also been pulled down to enlarge the bedroom.The police also found that Kapil Sharma had covered nearly half of the refugee area with unauthorised extensions to his flat, which is a severe violation of construction rules. In total, nearly three walls were torn down and the room sizes were altered. The Mumbai police also video graphed tKapil Sharma’s apartment and preserved the evidence for future reference. According to a report in the Times of India, Senior inspector Subhash Khanvilkar of Oshiwara police station has said, “We have called Kapil Sharma to record his

statement. Once we have that we will submit a complete report.”Sharma had been called for interrogation earlier but he told the police officials that he was in Malaysia and would be returning this week.

There is also another complaint against Kapil Sharma by the revenue department for allegedly destroying mangroves while proceeding with the construction in hisVersovaa bungalow. The entire series of actions against Kapil Sharma began when in a national attention-grabbing tweet Sharma tweeted out that BMC officials were demanding a Rs 5-lakh bribe from him, despite the fact that he paid crores in taxes.

What made the tweet more viral was the fact that Kapil Sharma inadvertently tagged the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in his tweet.

after being viewed. Some reports say it generates 10 billion video views per day.

Google in January of last year halted sales of its Internet-linked eyewear Glass, which became available in the United States in early 2014.

The technology titan put the brakes on an “explorer” program that let people interested in dabbling with Glass - hotly anticipated by some, mocked by others - buy eyewear for $1,500 apiece.

The Glass test program was later expanded to Britain, but no general consumer version was released.

Glass connected to the internet using wifi hot spots or, more typically, by being wirelessly tethered to mobile phones.

Google Glass had been hit with criticism due to concerns about privacy since the devices were capable of capturing pictures and video.

‘If India goes to war with Pakistan, both Punjabs will bear brunt’

Muktsar Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday called for restraint and spoke against a war between India and Pakistan in light of the terrorist attack in Uri (J&K). Speaking on the sidelines of a sangat darshan (public meet) in his constituency Lambi in Muktsar district, Badal asked Pakistan to refrain from pushing India to war, saying that in such an event east and west Punjab on either side of the international border would suffer the most.“Punjab on both sides of the border will have to bear the brunt in case a war takes place between India and Pakistan,” he said. On the Indus water treaty, Badal

said the government of India would take a decision in the interest of the country and aim at protecting its integrity.

War bad for border people, but need limited retaliation: Amarinder Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh said in Amritsar on Monday that a war between India and Pakistan will only lead to suffering for those living near the border on both sides. “But attacks such as Uri need a firm reply.” In an informal chat with the media after meeting families of the school-bus-accident victims, Amarinder said: “Border people suffer the worst during armed hostilities. That’s why, I insist on limited retaliation.”

MNS threatens Pakistani actors: Has Fawad Khan secretly left India?

New Delhi Pakistani actor Fawad Khan has reportedly left India, and stalled plans to get back anytime soon, after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) threatened to beat up Pakistani actors if they didn’t leave India by Sunday (September 25).

The threat comes in the wake of the recent terror attack in Uri, J&K, in which 18 Indian troops were killed. Although Mumbai Police promised protection to Pakistani artists in the city, looks like they don’t want to take any chances.

Bollywood divided on sending Pakistani actors home Our source reveals that Fawad, who was in India until recently, flew out to Pakistan. MNS has particularly targeted Fawad’s upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, claiming that they wouldn’t allow the release of the film, slated for Diwali.

While the film’s producer Karan Johar had already announced earlier that Fawad won’t be promoting the film, the actor’s

required here as he has finished all his work on the film. He went beack to Pakistan as his wife is due to deliver their second child in September,” said a source from Johar’s production house, not wishing to be named.

Sources however reveal that Fawad is now planning to extend his stay in absence may still raise Pakistan until the situation questions. “Fawad was not is under control.

Actors Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber separate after 11 years together

Angeles Just like that, another Hollywood couple bites the dust! Actors Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber are splitting up after 11 years together, the couple said in a statement on Monday.

Watts, 47, and Schreiber, 48, said that “the best way forward for us as a family is to separate as a couple.”

“It is with great love, respect and friendship in our hearts that we look forward to raising our children together

and exploring this new phase of our relationship,” they said, asking for privacy for their two young sons.

Their separation follows on the heels of Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s sudden divorce announcement last week. Australian actress Watts, who has been nominated or two Oscars, and Schreiber, the star of Ray Donovan have been involved since 2005 and have never been married.

Issue - 686 (6)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Forget dues or we won’t return passport: Saudi Arabia firm tells unpaid foreign workers Foreign working staff at Saudi Arabia construction firm United Seemac have appealed for help as they continue to work despite unpaid salaries and expired work permits. Middle Eastern Eye reported that the firm has said that they will be given back their passports and allowed to leave the country on the condition that they forget the dues owed to them.

HUNDREDS STRANDED, COMPANY SAYS PASSPORTS WILL BE RETURNED IF DUES FORGOTTEN Hundreds of stranded employees from India, Pakistan and the Phillipines had submitted a request for their passports on September 9. They were told on Sunday that their application would be accepted only if they sign papers saying that the company does not owe them any money.

According to Middle Eastern Eye, a database compiled by a Pakistani employee revealed that over 500 workers have not been paid for a minimum of six months, while some have gone 20 months without receiving wages. Unable to buy food and living in squalid conditions, forgoing their dues is not an option for these workers, whose families depend on them.

COLLAPSE IN OIL REVENUES SPELL DOOM FOR SAUDI ECONOMY The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing a financial crisis due to the plummetting of oil revenues that make up 80 percent of government income. The huge budget deficit of $98 bn in 2015 led to the cancellation or suspension of many of Saudi Arabia’s construction projects.

Middle Eastern Eye quotes United Seemac as citing non-payment by the government for completed contract work

as the reason for not paying the workers their dues. Workers say that neither the Saudi government nor their embassies have made much effort to bring them out of their desperate situation.

WORKERS RISK IMPRISONMENT DUE TO EXPIRED WORK PERMITS The workers are further in a fix as their work permits (known locally as iqamas) have expired and the company has not paid to renew them. In such a scenario, they risk being jailed or deported. Neither

being able to return home, nor being able to seek alternative employment, these workers are reduced to slaves. Middle Eastern Eye claims that although some of the workers have found jobs in other companies, United Seemac is not returning their passports and allowing them to transfer to another sponsor, as stipulated by Saudi Arabia’s employment sponsorship system, known as kafala.

The trapped workers had approached a labour court, but have found no recourse there either, as they have little money to fight a legal battle.

NO RELIEF FROM SAUDI GOVERNMENT OR THEIR EMBASSIES Middle Eastern Eye said that cumulatively, India, Pakistan and the Philippines have over 30,000 citizens trapped in the country. Officials of these countries have visited Saudi Arabia and are in the process of trying to resolve the situation of Bin Ladin and Oger employees, but those working at smaller firms like United Seemac are largely overlooked.

In this desperate situation, the workers say that they may be forced to take more drastic measures that put them in danger of being jailed.

Pakistan TV host hospitalised after 4 Indian women stopped fan offered her poisoned ice cream from boarding Samjhauta Express in Pak

Karachi It seems the spate of attacks on women in Pakistan seems never-ending. The latest victim is Sana Faisal, a television host was reportedly poisoned by a fan on Sunday. Sana hosted the program

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‘Khufia’ on Abb Takk a Pakistan-based Urdu news channel. Sources said that she was approached by a minor ‘fan’ on Sunday. The boy asked Sana to pose for a selfie and later took her autograph. The boy later gave an ice cream to the host which she ate.

She was rushed to Ziauddin Hospital after she complained of discomfort. Police sources said that her health condition is now stable.

POLICE FILES FIR Following the incident the police station officer at Hyderi Market area of Karachi filed an FIR. The police said that Sana went to Peshawari Ice cream store in North Nazimabad with her husband on Sunday night. A boy about 15 years of age had approached her with the ice cream.

According to the police, she complained of sickness on her way home and had to be taken to the hospital.

Sana’s statement was recorded at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where she was shifted from Ziauddin Hospital.

Lahore Pakistan Railways authorities on Monday stopped four Indian women passengers from boarding the Delhi-bound Samjhauta Express here allegedly over “incomplete” travel documents.

security. The authorities were “extra cautious” about the security today in the wake of the ongoing tension between Pakistan and India.

Passenger coaches were thoroughly searched and about 25 commandos were

“The authorities say our travel documents are incomplete,” one of the affected women passengers said wiping her tears.

She said her family members were waiting for her in India.

The women protested at the Wagah railway station against Pakistan Railways authorities for not allowing them to board the train, which runs between New Delhi and Lahore twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

A railway official, however, said the women could travel to India next on Thursday after completing their travel documents.Samjhauta Express carrying more than 100 Pakistani and 84 Indian citizens left for New Delhi amid high

among security officials deployed at the Wagah railway station.

On Sunday, India had conveyed to Pakistan that the train was expected to be delayed due to “internal matter” pertaining to labour.

Today, the train left Lahore for India as per schedule.

Samjhauta Express was started in 1976 between India and Pakistan.

Issue - 686 (7)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

‘Pulling along’ in a man’s world: Manipuri transgender to represent Meet Delhi’s female rickshaw puller India at international beauty pageant New Delhi Now you see her, now you don’t. Amid the sea of rickshaw pullers haggling with passengers, there is a good chance you might miss this lone, unassuming woman trudging along with her cycle rickshaw.But as she gracefully brings the vehicle to a halt, it’s hard not to notice her -- with her

appears to be in her 30s.

“It’s been one-and-a-half months since I took to driving the cycle rickshaw,” she adds.Many of Ranju’s friends work as maids in the vicinity, but this was not an option she had.“Employers these days have become very careful; they want their servants to be properly verified. But I have no

striking features and artificial jhumkas adorning her ears.Meet Ranju Devi, mother of three, who holds her own in a profession almost completely dominated by men.Ranju became a cycle rickshaw puller in order to supplement her family income.“My husband is a rickshaw puller but alcoholism did him in. He used to spend most of his time with the bottle, hardly bringing any money home and spending whatever he earned on more liquor. One day, I decided to take matters into my hands and do something to feed my children,” says Devi, who

identity proof -- be it an Aadhaar card or any other document, leaving me with very few choices,” says this native of Samastipur, Bihar.

Devi largely operates in and around the Dwarka sector-10 metro station.

Being a woman doing a man’s job has its ups and downs, she says.

“I do get stray comments and remarks from men here and there, but I have not faced much harassment, to be honest.

They mostly mind their own business, and I, mine,” she says.

On whether she faces physical challenges doing her job given her slight

frame, she says: “Yes, it is a job that requires you to be physically tough which is why I have to be choosy with my passengers. I prefer ‘single sawari’ but if it has been a rough day, I somehow pull myself together and accept whatever comes my way. Even the passengers are a bit hesitant about my capabilities but I manage to find a few every day and bring home some money.”

Devi earns anywhere between Rs 125 and Rs 150 a day, out of which she pays Rs 50 to the owner of her rickshaw.“What I am left with is hardly anything to support a family of five but at least, I can ensure that my children – aged 5, 3 and 1 – eat at least one meal a day. Thankfully, my husband has no objection to my pulling a rickshaw,” she says.Devi calls herself “too poor” to have any aspirations.

“I have a huge tumour on my neck and I hope I can earn enough to go to a hospital and get it removed. I want to put my children in school as well,” she sums up her life goals.“Also, I hope more women join this profession; I feel very lonely waiting for passengers while the other rickshawwallahs chat and joke among themselves,” she adds, as an afterthought.

Pregnant Dalit woman, others beaten for refusing to clear cow carcass

Ahmedabad Gujarat’s Banaskantha district after they refused to dispose of a cow carcass on Saturday.Six people were arrested under the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, police said.

According to the FIR lodged by Nilesh Ranwasia, a group of around 10 people from Darbar community attacked his family including his pregnant wife Sangeeta on Friday night after the family refused to dispose of the carcass.Six people, including Sangeeta and two other women, sustained injuries.While

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Sangeeta was admitted to Palanpur civil hospital, Nilesh and others who had minor injuries were discharged after first aid, police said. Police immediately rushed to the village and within hours arrested the accused, Banaskantha superintendent of police Neeraj Badgujar said.The arrested persons were identified as Batawarsinh Chauhan (26), Maknusinh Chauhan (21), Yogisinh Chauhan (25), Bavarsinh Chauhan (45), Dilvirsinh Chauhan (23) and Naredrasinh Chauhan (23).As tension prevailed in the village, police tightened security and intensified patrolling, Badgujar said.“We have provided protection to the Dalit families in the village and are doing our best to maintain peace and harmony among various communities,” he said.Protests had roiled Gujarat recently after some Dalit youths were beaten up at Una by cow vigilantes.

Guwahati Bishesh Huirem from Imphal will be the first transgender from the region to represent the country at this year’s Miss International Queen to be held at Pattaya in Thailand in November.The contest is prestigious for transgender women from across the world. This year, 30 finalists have been selected to take the mantle from last year’s winner Trixie Maristela, from Philippines.Though other Indian transgender women have participated in the past in the contest, held since 2004, no one has been able to bring home the crown till date.

A popular model and actress in her state, the 26year-old is busy preparing for the pageant with special diets and taking tips from professionals on how to beat the 29 other contestants.“I am not representing my state or region, but my country.

Therefore, I will give my best and hopefully win the crown,” she told Hindustan Times over the phone from Imphal.A trained apparel designer, Bishesh runs her own beauty salon in Imphal besides acting in movies and Sumang Leela, Manipur’s traditional mobile

theatre where men sometimes perform roles of women. Beauty contests aren’t new for Bishesh as she has been taking part in them since her school days. “I knew I was different when I was just 7-8 years old as I would feel uncomfortable going to a boys toilet. But it was difficult to convince my parents that I am a transgender,” she said.

operation. Bishesh hopes her participation in the Miss International Queen contest will change peoples’ outlook towards transgenders, many of whom still face discrimination in her state.

Earlier this month, Bishesh and another transgender friend were manhandled by security personnel of a minister.

Following widespread outrage, they

Her father, a civil servant who is also a popular actor in Manipur, wanted Bishesh to pursue her studies instead of focusing on acting and beauty contests. She decided to do both.“I promised to fulfill my parents dream by completing my studies.

Once I did that, I chose to pursue my own goals.”

She is undergoing hormone therapy to look more feminine, but has no plans to undergo a sex change

later apologized to her.

Besides Bishesh, three other beauty queens from the Northeast are set to represent India at contests abroad.Pradarishni Chatterjee from Assam will take part at the Miss World 2016 in the United States this December. Imlibenla Wati from Nagaland will participate in Miss Asia Pacific World in China and Rewati Chettri from Assam at Miss International 2016 in South Korea.

Issue - 686 (8)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Work on sex life of rats, life as a badger honored at Ig Nobel Prizes New York Scientific research into how polyester pants affect the sex life of rats, what it’s like for a human to live like a badger and how different the world looks when viewed through your legs was honored at this year’s Ig Nobel spoof awards.

The group also took a dig at Volkswagen AG, lauding it in chemistry for engineering its vehicles to produce fewer emissions “whenever the cars are being tested.”

The prizes will be awarded for a 26th straight year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday by a group of actual Nobel Prize winners, and are intended to honour accomplishments in science and humanities that make one laugh, then think. “The prizes are for something pretty unusual,” said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and host of the awards. “Almost any other kind

of award is for the best or worst.

Best or worst is irrelevant to us.” {mosimage}Timeliness is also of limited consideration: The Ig Nobel Reproduction Prize went to the late Ahmed Shafik of Egypt, who died in 2007, for a 1993 paper documenting that rats who wore polyester or polyester-cotton blend pants were less sexually active than those who wore cotton or wool pants or conformed to rat norms and wore no garments of any kind.

The paper suggested that “electrostatic fields” created by polyester pants could play a role in impotence. “We have never heard of anybody else who carefully spent time examining what happens sexually to rats if you put pants on them,” Abrahams said. Two Britons split this year’s Biology Ig Nobel.

Oxford University fellow Charles Foster, was honored for his book “Being a Beast”, chronicling his experiments in living as a badger,

No exceptions to cosmetics animal testing ban: Top EU court

BRUSSELS The EU’s top court on Wednesday ruled that there can be no exceptions to a ban on animal testing by cosmetics manufacturers in the bloc. The case arose in Britain after three companies sought to market cosmetics that were developed for sale in China and Japan using animal tests outside the European Union. The European Court of Justice said EU law bars any cosmetic product containing ingredients which have been tested on animals, wherever that may occur. “The Court states next that EU law makes no distinction depending on where the animal testing

was carried out,” the Luxembourg-based ECJ said in a statement. The law aims to promote the use of alternative methods to meet consumer safety standards and that “objective would be seriously compromised if the prohibitions... could be circumvented by carrying out the animal testing in third countries,” it said. The European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFCI), which brought the case, had argued that the companies did not break the law since the animal testing had been carried out to comply with regulations in third countries.

including digging a den to sleep in and eating worms. {mosimage}Countryman Thomas Thwaites’ work was in a similar vein; he built a set of prosthetic leg extensions to try living like a goat in Switzerland.

Japan’s Atsuki Higashiyama and

Kohei Adachi were granted the Perception Ig Nobel for a paper on how objects look different when one bends over and views them through one’s legs.

Volkswagen’s award was more ignominious, going to the company for equipping its vehicles

After split, London’s Madame Tussauds separates Jolie, Pitt wax figures LONDON London’s Madame Tussauds museum said on Wednesday it had separated its wax figure replicas of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt after the Hollywood power couple announced their split. Jolie’s attorney said on Tuesday the actress had filed for divorce from Pitt, her romantic partner since 2005 and husband of two years. “We reacted quickly to yesterday’s news of the separation of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and their plans to divorce by mirroring the separation in the attraction,” a Madame Tussauds spokesperson said.

“The couple’s wax figures, which were launched in 2013, have been split up and are now

featured at a respectful distance from each other. Angelina is keeping Nicole Kidman

Pakistan’s Kashmir policy and are a ‘big hurdle’ in freedom movement of Kashmiris.“To express solidarity with Kashmiris, the Pakistani government should be ordered to put immediate ban on exhibition of Indian movies across the country,” it pleaded. It also said Indian organisations were threatening Pakistani actors to leave India after the Uri attack and the Pakistani government should respond to India in a firm manner and ban its movies.

company and Brad Pitt is with his several time co-star Morgan Freeman.”

Justin Bieber attacked in club

aggressively shoved him, but Bieber was quickly removed from the area by a woman in a German Beer Wench outfit. “The man was trying, but failing, to get Justin’s attention all night and once they came face-to-face he decided to lunge at the singer,” said a source from the nightclub.

Ban on Indian movies in Pakistan Lahore Another petition filed by Siddiqui in the Lahore high court sought a ban on the exhibition of Indian movies in the country till resolution of the Kashmir issue. The petition alleged that Indian forces are committing atrocities in Kashmir and the Pakistan government has allowed Indian movies to be exhibited in local cinemas and the act is hurting the sentiments of Kashmiris and Pakistanis. It said the Indian movies are opposed to

with a “defeat device”, which activated the emission controls of an engine undergoing government tests & deactivated them afterward. VW has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to address US environmental, state and owner claims.

CHARGED

Munich Singer Justin Bieber was attacked in a club here by an unknown man. The incident took

place on Friday night, reports tmz.com. The 22-year-old was leaving Heart nightclub in the German city when a man

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Issue - 686 (9)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

AAP to tap NRI support for Punjab, Goa poll campaigns New Delhi Come October, thousands of non-resident Indian (NRI) volunteers of the Aam Aadmi

Party (AAP) will plunge themselves into a routine of making calls on behalf of the party to potential voters in Goa and Punjab for a few hours every day.After registering a huge success with its NRI-calling programme in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections, AAP is once again tapping its support base spread over at least a dozen countries worldwide to canvas for the party and secure funds for fighting the assembly elections in the two states. As much as 22% of the party’s election funding comes from other countries.As Goa and Punjab will go to the polls in early 2017, the party plans to re-launch the programme from the first week of October. “We will make more than 60 lakh calls till the start of the elections,” Sreekant Kocherlakota, secretary of AAP’s US chapter, told HT over the phone from Los Angeles.

The Delhi assembly elections had seen over 10.8 lakh calls being made from the US alone, with nearly 2,400 of the total

callers dialling more than 50 numbers a day.

At present, AAP has nine overseas chapters in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Qatar, UK, UAE and Italy. “We already have volunteers in Germany, the Philippines and Malaysia. We will formally launch our chapters in these countries before the Punjab and Goa elections,” said an AAP leader involved in the party’s overseas expansion.

The Italy chapter organised meetings with AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal when he visited Rome on September 4.

Surrounded by supporters, he recorded a video message announcing his decision to take charge of the affairs in Punjab in the wake of state convenor Sucha Singh Chhottepur’s dismissal last month. “Kejriwal’s message was recorded amid chants of support from Punjabis

at the gathering. It helped assuage the feelings of supporters back home, who were feeling disheartened due to Sucha Singh’s exit and the allegations he subsequently made,” a party leader from Punjab said. Chhottepur had alleged that AAP leaders from Delhi were trying to sideline Punjabis.

Last week, the US chapter organised public meetings with the party’s new Punjab convenor – actor Gurpreet Ghuggi – in various cities across the country.

“We have enlisted 10,000 volunteers for the NRI-calling programme. As soon as our volunteers get off work in the evening, they will start calling voters, answering their queries, and telling them about AAP,” says Kocherlakota. While 3,000 volunteers will call voters in Goa, the rest will be used to further the party’s Punjab campaign.

NRI calling: How it’s done - The NRI volunteer logs into the calling interface created by the AAP IT team in Delhi through his phone or computer. At any point of time, he is connected to one of the 10,000 phone numbers of voters in the database. The system hides the number to keep the data secure from hacker attacks. The age, name and gender of the voter is flashed through the call for better connect.

- The volunteer identifies himself and the place he is calling from.

- He asks the call receiver who he will support.

‘Kala Chashma’ writer-cop on a roll: Sequel out soon, a song on Punjab police ready too

Jalandhar Till a couple of weeks ago, hardly anyone knew that head constable Amrik Singh Sheraof the Punjab police originally wrote ’Kala Chashma’, the Punjabi song featured in the Bollywood movie ‘Baar Baar Dekho’. Now, he is not only basking in the limelight brought in by media reports, but is ready with a song on the police force.

It goes, ‘Sari duniya to disdi alag bai, khaki vardi nal banni lal pagg bai’ (Standing out from the rest of the world, khaki uniform topped with a red turban”! The

police department in Kapurthala, where he is posted, has given him an appreciation letter, confirmed senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajinder Singh. Shera hopes to get monetary help to record the song.

He has also been getting calls from music companies from India and abroad, he said. “A second part of ‘Kala Chashma’ will soon be released by the Englandbased company that released the original song,” he added.

He has also got printed visiting cards that identify him as an ‘international artist’.

While India looks hawkish on Balochistan, Sikh leader pins hope in Pakistan for Khalistan

Pregnant nurse assault: Shiromani Akali Dal leader, son arrested Moga Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Paramjeet Singh and his son Gurjeet Singh, accused in the assault of a pregnant nurse in

team and nabbed both the accused,” Jaspal Singh said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann is expected to visit the nurse’s

Baghapurana village of Moga, the video of which led to widespread outrage, were arrested by the police on Saturday. The duo was arrested from the Rajeana village bus stand in Baghapurana.

Baghapurana deputy superintendent of police Jaspal Singh said the police were conducting raids to nab the accused and on Saturday, at around 3 pm, they got tip-off that the sarpanch and his family were roaming near the bus stand.

“We immediately sent the police

house in the evening.

The father-son had assaulted the five-month pregnant nurse, Ramandeep Kaur, at Gupta Hospital after she reportedly asked them to wait for the discharge formalities of a villager.

“He (Paramjeet) started abusing me, saying ‘tu mainu jaandi nahin, main Akali sarpanch haan’ (You don’t know me. I am an Akali sarpanch),” she stated in her first-information report (FIR). “After that, Gurjeet pushed me and, when I tried to resist,

he and his son thrashed me. I received internal injuries,” she stated. A security-camera video of the assault made it to social media.Police booked the duo under sections 451 (house trespass to commit an offence), 323 (punishment for causing hurt voluntarily), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), and 34 (common intent in crime) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Opposition parties have decried the ruling SAD over the case and there are demands for not only his sacking by the party but also an apology by Akali MP and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who runs a campaign named ‘Nanhi Chhaan’ for women empowerment.

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Islamabad Secessionist Sikh leader Dr Amarjit Singh has demanded the intervention of Pakistan to create Khalistan out of the Indian state of Punjab. According to Amarjit Singh, Khalistan could has turned into a reality if the Pakistani leadership in 1984 would had taken carefully calculated steps. He further opined that Sikhs in India are still feeling oppressed under the Indian regime, and are eagerly awaiting to fulfill their agenda of creating a separate Khalistan.

The contentious claims by Amarjit Singh were made during his interview with Daily Pakistan.

Not only did Amarjit Singh accused India of infringing the rights of Sikh community, he also validated the Pakistani claims that human rights are being violated in Kashmir Valley. The Khalistani ideologue accused India of unleashing brutal oppression against the people of Kashmir since they are struggling for their right of selfdetermination. He further indicated that the Uri terror attack could be a false flag operation to deflect attention of

the international community from the current situation in the Valley.

To validate his allegations, Amarjit recalled the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Anantnag in 2000, days before the arrival of the then US President Bill Clinton. India had blamed Pakistan-based antiIndia jihad outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba for the gruesome terror assault.

Amarjit claimed that the Khalistani movement began immediately after the independence, but was peaceful in nature. He quoted the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as saying, “I have no objection that if brave Sikhs of Punjab are given a province in the north so that they are also able to experience the glow of freedom.”

Relying on the statements of Nehru, Amarjit asserted that Sikhs should be given the right to self-determination in India. He further added that Sikh youth were forced to launch an armed insurgency struggle in 1980s due to their suppression with an iron fist by Indian regime. Recalling ‘Operation Woodrose’, Amarjit claimed that Sikh individuals were allegedly abducted by Indian forces and murdered.

Issue - 686 (10)

Punjabi Sikh parents seek a match for their Canadian born & raised, clean shaven son, 33 yrs. old, 6’-1" tall, handsome, Doctor M.D., completed internal Medicine residency & fellowship (Specialization), now working as a specialist in G.T.A. The girl should be resident Doctor/M.D. or Physician, Born & raised in Canada from Ontario, beautiful atleast 5’-6" tall with family values. Please send your biodata and recent picture to: sm9058@hotmail.com ***682*** Saini Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance from the GTA for their slim, fair, beautiful, 5’2"/’83 born daughter, born, raised, educated in Canada, Bachelors in Business Management, and employed in the Finance division of a reputable Canadian company.

The boy should be clean shaven, born, raised and educated in Canada & professionally employed.

Please email sub2405@gmail.com or call 416-741-0777 *** 680*** Well settled Press Reporter in Canada, age 50+, 6’ tall, B.Sc., M.A.B.Ed, Post graduate diploma in journalisim, retired as Prinicpal from India, earning good pension, wife expired in 2010.

Looking for a life partner between 45-55, family oriented, must hae Master’s degree, Ph.d or having experience in journalism, prefered Pakistani West Punjabi.

Two daughter’s married and well settled in Canada. Owns property in India. Divorced may also be considred.Please Call : 647-821-7170 ***680*** Hindu Pujabi Khatri parents looking for a suitable match for their daughter, 39 yrs., 5’-5” tall, working as Administrative Manager in a reputed concern in India, widow (Two sons 15 and 12 yrs.) The boy should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen and family oriented. Parents and two real brothers are very well settled in Milton (Canada) for the last 16 yrs. Caste no bar. PleaseCall : 647-892-6498 Or : 289-878-9285 ***680*** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 33 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Canadian Citizen, Post graduate, employed in one of the reputed banks of Canada, divorced after a brief marriage (no kids). The boy should be Canadian Citizen, Jat Sikh, well educated and professionally employed. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: gill.roop@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-604-615-4316 Or : 1-778-9547274 ***680** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 29 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Diploma in Hair dressing from Australia, beautiful, family oriented from a good family background, living in India and managing Canadian family

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

business in India and Africa, widw (one daughter). The boy should be Canadian/American, Immigrant/Citizen, well educated, settled with family values. Whole family is well settled in Canada.

Respond with family details to:dsahsi@gmail.com Or Call : 1-604-618-5834 ***680*** Well settled Jat Sikh parents seeking professionally qualified Jat Sikh match from U.S.A. or willing to relocate in U.S.A. for their daughter, 36 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, American Citizen, Graduated, Currently Working as Human Resource Information Systerm “HIRS” Analyst with well known Health Care Organisation in Bay Areas, California. Please send your biodata and recent picture to: wss4279@gmail.com Or Call : 1-408-657-7644 ***680*** Sikh Khatri parents seek a suitable match for their teetotaler, US Citizen son, 28 yrs. old, 5’4’’ tall, master’s degree in engineering from a top US university, working at a private company in New York area. The girl should be family oriented, educated, beautiful, preferably residing in US. Please send your biodata & recent pictures to: chhabra.harjitsingh59@gmail.com or call: 1- 347- 921-1453 *** 680*** Punjabi Brahman Doctor parents seek a suitable match beautiful girl for their son, 28 yrs. old, 6’ tall, doctor in punjab. The girl should be beautiful, preferably from medical line. The boy wants to settle his own business in Ontario. Any upper caste also welcome. Younger brother software engineer is in Ottawa and relatives are well settled in Ontario & Quebec. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to:ishan247@yahoo.co.in or call: or call: 011-91- 91987-2614118 *** 680*** Jat Sikh educated family seek a suitable match for their American citizen daughter, 31 yrs. old (born in 1985), 5'-3" tall, well settled in job. Boy preferred to be in USA or have a work permit.Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: bobby21_52@yahoo.com or call: 1- 209-629-3506 *** 680*** Suitable match for Jassal boy, 26 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, clean shaven, B.Pharma, Own Business in India. The girl should be Canadian Immigrant or Citizen. Parents Currently in Canada on visitor visa. The boy’s two sisters are well settled in Canada. Caste No Bar. Please Call : 416-540-0080 ***680*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Mangleek son, 25 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, Canadian Immigrant, Bachelor in IT, well settled. The girl should be Canadian/American, Immigrant/ Citizen, educated with family values atleast 5’-5” tall. First preference goes to Chandigarh,

Mohali and Patiala. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: barren44@gmail.com Or Call : 1-206-229-3330 ***680*** Jat Sikh Gill family seeks a suitable match for their daughter, 33 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, College graduate with diploma in Business Administration and Accounting. The boy should be 33-37 yrs. of age, well qualified and raised in Canada. Please Call : 905-874-0721 ***680*** Tonk Kshatriya Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian Citizen daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, B.Com, CGA, Working with the government.

The boy should be Canadian Citizen or PR, equally qualified, well settled in job in Toronto or surrounding area. Preferebly clean shaven. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: singhjag_@hotmail.com Or Call : 416-722-9771 ***680*** Looking for suitable match for 34 yrs. old, Canadian born male, 5’5” tall, with athletic built, minor physical disability, however fully independent and capable. The girl should be from Canada/ America only. Divorced may also be considred. Please Call : 1604-722-0279 Or : 1-604-525-8062 ***680*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5’-2.5” tall, American Citizen, Registered Nurse (RN).

The boy should be professionally educated. Seattle (USA), Malwa (India) prefered. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: rurkaps08@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-206-391-8477 ***680*** Saraswat Brahmin family seek a suitable match for their son, 28 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, M.Tech.

Mechanical, College Professor in India. The girl should be educated, American/Canadian Immigrant or Citizen. Uncle is well settled in U.S.A. Caste No Bar. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: ashokkumar1955@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-408-960-9190 ***680*** Well settled Ramgarhia Sikh family seeks a professionally qualified match from Canada for their beautiful, fair daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, Architect, P.R. Applied, based at Hyderabad India. Father retired Army Major & Businessman.

Please respond with bio-data and recent picture to: gurubani97@hotmail.com Or Call : 647-669-7997 ***680*** Punjabi Brahmin family seek a suitable match for their son, 28 yrs. old, 6’ tall, M.S. (Artho Doctor), working in Govt. Hospital in India as a surgeon, wants to settle his own Business in Canada. The girl should be from Medical Profession, beautiful, Canadian Immigrant/Citizen atleast 5’-6” tall or above. Caste

No Bar. Brother & Close relatives are well settled in Canada. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: mehta_tarun@yahoo.com Or Call : 647-282-9503 Or : 647-347-3685 ***680*** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daughter, 33 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, U.S.A. born, beautiful, Degree in Accounting & Finance, working in her own field, family oriented. The boy should be atleast 6’ tall, handsome, equally educated, preferably from Bay Area. The boy on HI Visa can be considred. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: balwindersaran2560@gmail.com Or Call : 1-408-849-1525 ***680*** Sikh Khatri parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 32 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, teetotaller, working as software consultant in Wisconsin on H1B Visa. Green Card is in process. Looking for a family oriented educated girl.Please respond with bio-data and recent picture to: rktsp4554@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-414-552-7913 ***680*** Sharma family seek a suitable match for their son, 34 yrs. old, 5'-8'’ tall, fair, Masters degree in business and technology from University of Waterloo, Masters in computers applications from India, Canadian immigrant (PR), working as an I.T engineer in Tata Consultancy services / BMO in Toronto. The girl should be Canadian/American immigrant/ Citizen, well educated/qualified.

The girl on student visa or work visa can also contact. Caste no bar. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: aseemsharma27@gmail.com *** 680*** Punjabi Sikh parents seeking a match for their Canadian born & raised, clean shaven son, 33 yrs. old, 6’-1” tall, handsome, Doctor M.D., completed internal Medicine residency & fellowship (Specialization), now working as a specialist in G.T.A. The girl should be resident Doctor/M.D. or Physician. Born & raised in Canada from Ontario, beautiful atleast 5’-6” tall with family values.

Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: sm9058@ hotmail.com ***680*** Khatri parents seeking a suitable match for their daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5’-2” tall, Amrican Citizen, professionally settled (Doctor) in her job. The boy should be American Citizen, well educated

and well settled in job. Please Call : 1-347-251-9112 ***680** Prajapat parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter 25 yrs. old, 5’-2” tall, B.Sc. Nursing degree holder, working in govt. job in India, beautiful, family oriented.

The boy should be American Citizen, educated and from a good family background. Close relatives well settled in America. Please Call : 1-916-505-8907 Or : 011-9195929-25551 ***680*** Saini parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daugher, 28 yrs. old, 5’-2” tall, beautiful, family oriented American Citizen, Master’s degree in Computer information systems and working in IT Deptt. The boy should be well educated, professionally employed with family values from California or willing to relocate to California. Doaba area prefered.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to: saini.bayarea@gmail.com Or Call : 1-408-338-7681 ***680*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their beautiful daugher, 25 yrs. old, working as RN in Seattle (USA), completed BSN in Nursing. The boy should be born in Canada/Ameriaka, well educated, professionally (Doctor, Dentist) employed and with moderate family values from BC only. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: madamk1940@gmail.com Or Call: 1-778-564-5300 ***680*** Arora Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daugher, 34 yrs. old, 5’-4” tall, B.A. B.Ed., M.B.A., Certification in beautician, beautiful, family oriented, living in India. The boy should be American Citizen/Green Card holder, educated, well settled, non-drinker in America.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to: kumarsonia660@gmail.com Or Call: 1-408-476-0721 ***680*** Sikh Saini family seeking suitable match for their US-born son, 25 yrs. old, 6' tall, Masters in Biomedical Engineering and working in a medical company.

The family resides in California USA. The girl should be educated, tall, family oriented. The family resides in California. USA Preferred. Please send your biodata & recent picture to: cheraj@msn.com or call: 1-408612 4563 *** 680***

Lady Helper White House Canada in Brampton, requires a Live-in lady helper. Hotel experience preferred but will train the suitable candidate. Must be available to stand, walk and bend for extended periods of time. Duties include making beds, dusting, cleaning bathroom, vacuuming, replenishing supplies, cooking and elderly care (1 hr. daily approx)

Pls. call

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Issue - 686 (11)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Torn pages of ‘bir’ found in canal

Jalandhar Tension gripped the city after torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found floating in a canal near Sher Singh Colony on the Jalandhar-Kala Sanghian road this morning.

The incident came to light when a local resident, Shamsher Singh, spotted the torn pages and raised the alarm. A number of Sikh youths gathered at the spot and jumped into the canal

to retrieve the pages.Sources said around 200 pages of the holy book were recovered. They said the youths also found a page from the Hindu holy book, Gita.

Demanding the arrest of the miscreants for hurting the sentiments of the Sikh community, members of the Sikh Talmel Committee sat on a dharna at Kapurthala Chowk, resulting in traffic chaos.

Congress leader Sushil Rinku

Phone on fire, panic in plane New Delhi A high-end Samsung smartphone, Galaxy Note 2, caught fire inside a Chennaibound IndiGo aircraft on Friday, creating a scare among 175 passengers. The incident prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ask all airlines to ban the use

of this series of smartphones inside planes even as he summoned company officials on Monday. The fire was reported inside the IndiGo aircraft, coming from Singapore, at the Chennai airport. Passengers noticed the smoke and alerted the cabin crew. The airline said the aircraft made a normal landing.

Proud 82-year-old mother among pallbearers, carries brave son’s coffin in Pathankot

Pathankot A heart-wrenching visual that showed a proud mother carry her son’s coffin will bring you to tears and will rip your heart like never before. An 82-year-old woman from Pathankot in Punjab shouldered the coffin of her son, Havildar Madan Lal Sharma and walked three kilometers to the cremation ground. Sharma was killed in an encounter in Nowgam, Kashmir on September 21 as the Indian Army foiled two infiltration bids in the two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir. In

wake of the Uri terror attack, tensions escalated along the Line of Control (LoC) after four militants attacked the Uri Army base in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18. The Indian Army had beefed up the security and had stepped up vigil along the International border. Havildar Sharma was cremated with full military honours in his native Gharota village of Pathankot on Thursday.Thousands of people had gathered to witness the funeral of the braveheart. Havildar Sharma’s mother, Dharmo Devi (82), was among the pallbearers was who walked almost 3 km with the coffin from her house to the cremation ground.

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and BJP leader Robin Sampla too joined the protest.Senior police officers, including AS Power, ADCP, HS Mander, ADCP, RPS Sandhu, ADCP and SHOs of various police stations, reached the spot. The police have begun the investigations and are looking for CCTV footage to identify the miscreants.

The protesters have put up tents at the Kapurthala Chowk and set up community kitchen to serve langar. The dharna by Sikh organisations started at 11 am and was still on till the filing of this report.Power said a case against unknown persons had been registered and the police were trying to identify the culprits.Kanwarpal Singh of the Dal Khalsa said a series of sacrilege incidents were reported in September last year and now it started again. He alleged that the culprits were not being caught due to the failure of the government.

France says it stands with India in fight against terror

NEW DELHI Days after the Uri attack, France on Friday said it stands with India in the fight against terrorism and expressed resolve to strengthen counterterror cooperation with it. The French position was conveyed by its Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to Prime Minister Narendra Modiwhen he called on him here.During the meeting, Le Drian expressed condolences for the victims of the cross-border terrorist attack in Uri on September 18, a PMO statement said.He expressed resolve to strengthen bilateral counter- terrorism cooperation with India and said France stands with it in the fight against terrorism, the statement added.

Le Drian briefed the Prime Minister on the current status of bilateral defence cooperation.

Modi welcomed the signing of the inter-governmental agreement on purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft from France earlier in the day, and called for its speedy and timely implementation. India and France signed the Euro 7.87billion (Rs 59,000 crore approx) deal for 35 Rafale fighter jets, equipped with latest missiles and weapon system besides multiple India- specific modifications.The agreement was signed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Le Drian 16-months after Modi announced India’s plans to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in flyaway condition during his trip to France.

Lisbon A Portuguese man spent 43 years in a wheelchair because of a mistaken medical diagnosis, finally re-learning to walk only in his fifties, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

When Rufino Borrego was 13, he was diagnosed by a Lisbon hospital as having incurable muscular dystrophy, the Jornal de Noticias reported.

After that he used a wheelchair to get around for more than four decades -- until a neurologist realised in 2010 that he in fact suffered from a different disease that weakens the muscles, myasthenia.

The rare disease can be treated simply by taking asthma medication -- and just a year after his new diagnosis, Borrego was able to walk for the first time to his usual neighbourhood cafe.

“We thought it was a miracle,” Manuel Melao, owner of the cafe

in Alandroal, southeast Portugal, told the newspaper.

Now aged 61, Borrego is able to live a normal life, requiring only two physiotherapy sessions a year.

He insists he harbours no illfeelings against the hospital that made the original diagnosis, acknowledging that myasthenia was almost unknown in the medical profession in the 1960s.

“I just want to make use of my life,” he said.

Man spends 43 years in wheelchair on wrong diagnosis

Now, SAD enters school politics Malout The SAD’s student wing Students’ Organisation of India (SOI) has started appointing college students as the chairman, president and vicepresident of schools.

Malout MLA Harpreet Singh, accompanied by SOI district president Lovepreet Singh ‘Lappi Ennakkhera’, recently presented a siropa (robe of honour) to certain boys while appointing them chairman, president and vice-president of schools in Malout. Speaking over the phone, Harpreet said, “Youngsters must come forward in politics. Other parties, too, should set up school units.”

He added, “The students given the posts of SOI’s school wing are studying in colleges. They will only visit the schools, make the students aware of the works done by the state government and the SAD. The school students will not be asked to join SOI.” Shubhmandeep Singh ‘Gaggu’ confirmed his appointment as the SOI schools’ president of Malout.

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Issue - 686 (12)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

UN chief Ban lauds India’s decision Jordanian writer shot dead over anti-Islam cartoon to ratify Paris climate deal United Nations UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday lauded India for its “swift action” over the decision to ratify the Paris pact on climate change, saying he is looking forward to receiving New Delhi’s instrument of accession.

“The Secretary-General has made clear his hopes for the ratification of the Paris Agreement by a large number of states as early as possible, so he would be pleased by swift action by India. He looks forward to receiving India’s instrument of accession,” UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced in Kerala that India would ratify the Paris climate deal made in Paris last year on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Earlier this month, the US and China, the world’s two largest emitters, formally joined the Paris agreement, which was adopted by 195 parties to the UN

Framework Convention on Climate Change last December in Paris.The agreement calls on countries to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and

investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

Specifically, it seeks to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their

Unable to bear expenses couple sells daughter for Rs 650

instruments of ratification or acceptance with the SecretaryGeneral.A total of 60 countries so far have deposited their instruments of ratification for the agreement, representing more than 47.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Ban said this week that since more than 55 countries have formally joined the Paris Agreement on climate change, a critical threshold has been crossed that will help bring into force the landmark pact that seeks to put the world on a path towards low-carbon growth and a more sustainable future.“I am confident that, by the time I leave office, the Paris Agreement will have entered into force,” the UN chief has said.“This will be a major achievement for multilateralism,” he said.India, which along with the US and China is among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, has maintained that the burden of fighting climate change cannot be put on the shoulders of the poor after decades of industrial development by the rich nations. It has announced plans to quadruple its renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 as part of the government’s plan to supply electricity to every household.

India seeks to add 100 gigawatts of photo-voltaic capacity, 60 gigawatts of wind power, 10 gigawatts of biomass and five gigawatts of hydro projects.

Amman A gunman shot dead Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar on Sunday outside the court where he was to stand trial on charges of contempt of religion after sharing on social media a caricature seen as insulting Islam, witnesses and state media said. The gunman was arrested at the scene. A security source said he was a 39year-old Muslim preacher in a mosque in the capital. Hattar, a Christian and a anti-Islamist

activist who was a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was arrested last month after he shared a caricature that depicted a bearded man in heaven smoking in bed with women and asking God to bring him wine and cashews. In the cartoon, the man also asks God to clear his dishes and put a door on his tent and knock before entering.Many conservative Muslim Jordanians considered Hattar's move offensive and against their religion.

Warplanes pound Aleppo, scores trapped Amman Warplanes bombed a strategic camp on the northern edge of Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government and rebel forces battled for control of the city in a Russian-backed offensive that appears to have buried any hope for diplomacy. The United Nations Security Council will discuss the sharp escalation in violence since a ceasefire collapsed last week.

But the rebels said any peace process would be futile unless "scorched earth bombing" by Russian-backed government forces stopped immediately.

Capturing the rebel-held half of Syria's largest city, where more than 250,000 civilians are trapped, would be the biggest victory of the civil war for President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

US lawmaker accuses Pak of ruling through jihadist extremism Agartala (Tripura) In what highlights the sorry state of affairs in the backward areas of Tripura, a tribal couple in remote Dhalai district sold their girl child as they were unable to bear the expenses of the infant.

The family belongs to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.

The child was sold for Rs 650.

Expressing grave concern over the incident, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Sudip Roy Barman said the tribal sections are living mainly in the interior areas and are dying due to lack of food, adding that these incidents are hardly flashed by the media as the government cover them up.

Barman said there was an incident in Gandacherra area day before yesterday where a child was sold, adding a child was sold by the parents earlier in Kamalpur area in the same district.

He said the poverty-ridden couple had sold the girl child to earn their livelihood.

“A child was sold by the parents to earn their livelihood and this is a sorry state of affairs. Though the parents have been arrested, the kid hasn't yet been recovered.

The people are dying because of poverty. This government is in such a callous mood that they are least bothered…rather they are busy trying to suppress these

facts and figures,” Barman said.

According to an official report on September 18 last, a two-yearold girl child was handed-over by her parents Harita Tripura (mother) and Charan Tripura (step father) to one Rita Chakma.

This incident comes just days after another tribal couple from Gandachera subdivision of Dhalai district had sold their child.

Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Gandachera Bhaskar Das Gupta said, "The child was handed-over with mutual consent and on humanitarian ground for education purpose."

The SDM had met the tribal couple along with Jhutan Jamatia, the officer-in-charge of local police station, and inquired about the incident.

He said that the child was traced and recovered from Abhoynagar area of Agartala, around 180 km from the village and handed over to her parents.

It may be recalled that a similar incident was reported from Khowai district's Munda Basti ADC (Autonomous District Council) village in the month of July last year where a tribal couple said that they were compelled to sell their newlyborn child for Rs 4,500 as they were unable to bear the cost of the kid.

Washington Alleging that Pakistan is using jihadist extremism to administer and is bent upon extinguishing other cultures in the country, a top US lawmaker has warned Islamabad that it might be headed for 1971-like partition soon if it continues to do so.

“Those who think that they can keep Pakistan together by attacking and extinguishing other cultures with jihadist extremism should go visit Dhaka,” Congressman Brad Sherman, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia and the Pacific said at an event on Sunday.In his address to the Sindhi Foundation, he said the successive Pakistani governments, in particular the current one, has systematically tried to attack the rich cultural heritage of Sindhi.Sherman was felicitated by the Washingtonbased Sindhi Foundation for his efforts in protecting Sindhi language and people.It is using government machinery to “extinguish” the rich Sindhi language and culture, the Congressman said.

“If Islamabad thinks that the way to establish and retain its territorial integrity by slowly or quickly trying to extinguish the cultures of the nations that

Pakistan has unified together, well they should look at Bangladesh,” Sherman said.

President of Karachi-based Sindh United Party Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah claimed that religious extremism prevails today in Pakistan because of its

Pakistan,” Shah said.

Unnecessary involvement in the internal affairs of neighboring countries has created security problems in the region, he added.

“We believe that Pakistan should maintain good relations with all its neighboring countries,

“two-nation theory”.

“When it is being claimed by the State that it is Muslim state and the rule of Islam is the fundamental instrument of the state affairs than the peace and harmony in the region will be always under threat,” he said.

“We demand from the world community to support the secular, national and real democratic forces in Pakistan for their autonomous national identity in the federation of

particularly Afghanistan and India through non-interference in their internal affairs,” Shah said.

This will reduce the tension on border and defence budget, he said, adding the funds so saved shall be spent on the development of the country to bring peace, progress and prosperity.Sherman alleged the government of Pakistan is using jihadist extremism as a tool to find excuse for slow development and corruption in the country.

Issue - 686 (13)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Happy face: Missing pet dog found at UK airport after 8 months London A dog in the UK, who was missing from home for eight months, was reunited with his owner after he was found wandering around an airport terminal.

Airport staff called police when they discovered Diesel wandering around Terminal 1 of Manchester Aiport in England last week.Two police community support officers (PCSOs)

chased after the pooch and managed to capture him, despite one of the officers falling over in the process, the Manchester Evening News reported.Luckily, the dog, was microchipped and police were able to trace the

owner, a woman living in Salford.The distance between Manchester Airport and Salford is about 25 kilometre.His owner rushed to the airport to collect him and has taken the canine

Pak-born actor sacked from TV?show for racist tweets against Indians

back to his home. “We don’t know how he got there to be honest. It looks like he escaped from their garden eight months ago,” Sergeant Steven Jameson, from Greater Manchester Police’s Airport team, said.“They are not based near the airport.

He was presumed lost or otherwise,” he added.“He is the friendliest, daftest, sweetest dog and we all loved having him here.

Our job allows us to deal with a variety of situations but this is definitely a first and it’s a tale we will never forget,” Jameson added.

“We have no idea how Diesel got here, maybe he wanted a nice holiday away, but we currently have no leads as to what he’s been up to for the last eight months,” he said.

“I am so pleased we found his family. His owner was in complete shock when we called her and she couldn’t stop crying and it was lovely to see them reunited.” It remains a mystery as to where Diesel has been for eight months and how he came to be the airport, but police said he appeared to be in good health. The puppy went missing after he escaped from his owner’s garden in February. Airport police have said the incident stresses the importance of having dogs microchipped.

UK seizes passport of Syrian activist at Assad’s request

London The British authorities have confiscated the passport of a prominent Syrian activist and critic of President Bashar alAssad at the request of the Syrian government, effectively preventing her from travelling and blocking her work.Zaina Erhaim, an award-winning journalist and campaigner based in Turkey, had her passport taken away by the United Kingdom’s border officials when she landed at Heathrow airport in London, reports the Guardian.After more than an hour of questioning, they told Erhaim that the document had been reported stolen.

The complaint came from the government she has been campaigning against for years.“I expect to be harassed inside my country. I know that if I went home I would be killed, but now I find that Assad’s arm can even reach to the UK. This is a dictator

pursuing a journalist,” said Erahim.A receipt that Erhaim was given for the passport states: “Document reported as stolen.”Erhaim had previously used the passport without problems to travel to the UK in April, when she collected the Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Journalism award for her work. She had also travelled on it without any problems across Europe.She also has an older Syrian passport that she can use to return to Turkey, because it is still valid. But because it has no pages left for visas or immigration stamps - the reason she got the new document - she will effectively be unable to leave Turkey again.The home office said that Britain had to comply with the request because passports are the legal property of the government that issues them.

Saeed will challenge the verdict in the intra-court.In the petition Saeed said India had been “committing atrocities on Kashmiris and violating the UN resolutions”.He alleged that Indian forces were killing innocent Kashmiris and had ruined their daily life.Saeed, who carries a 10 million-dollar bounty on his head, further said India also did not give Kashmiris their right to selfdetermination.

Dogar in his arguments said “(former prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru had taken the Kashmir dispute to the UN Security Council and announced that if Kashmiris wanted to go with Pakistan then India would not send its army to Kashmir, however, the Indian government later betrayed its undertaking”.

Citing different judgements, Dogar said if an issue involves public interest the court can interfere in political and foreign

issues.

Criticising the verdict, Dogar said the single bench in its dismissal order did not notice that the appellant was seeking enforcement of fundamental right to live with peace and security and without fear of another war with India. “It is the duty of superior courts to practically enforce the provisions of a fundamental right and issue directions to this effect,” he said.

Pak court quashes Hafiz Saeed’s plea to raise Kashmir issue at UN

London A prominent television channel has sacked Pakistan-origin actor Marc Anwar from one of Britain’s most popular television soaps Coronation Street for posting tweets that were “racially offensive” against Indians.

ITV said Anwar, 45, who joined the world’s longest-running TV soap opera in February 2014 as a member of the serial’s first Muslim family, would not be returning to the show “with immediate effect”.Screenshots of tweets by Anwar, who plays Sharif Nazir in the series, were first posted by the Sunday Mirror.They referred to events in Jammu and Kashmir and also called for Pakistani actors to stop working in India.In a statement, ITV said: “We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar.“We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to Coronation Street with immediate effect.” “Indians killing our Kashmir brothers and sisters,” he wrote in one of the tweets. He called Indians “b*****ds” and used other insulting terms. His character will still appear in scenes that have already been filmed for upcoming episodes.The

actor has appeared in Hollywood films including “Captain Phillips” and “51st State”.Famed for its cobbled streets and wistful bigband theme tune, “Coronation Street”, which began in 1960, became the longest-running soap opera of the world in 2010.

Set in a fictional suburb of Manchester in northwest England, it remains one of Britain’s most-watched programmes with around eight million viewers. It has also been syndicated in dozens of countries around the world.

Lahore The Lahore high court has dismissed a writ petition by Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed seeking to direct the Pakistan government to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council and other international fora.

Chief justice Syed Mansoor Ali dismissed the petition, observing “the matter raised by the petitioner is not justifiable before the court and falls within the domain of politics”.

The court announced the verdict on Friday which it had reserved last month after hearing arguments from Saeed’s counsel A K Dogar.Dogar said

Stephen Hawking warns against seeking out aliens London British physicist Stephen Hawking has warned against

announcing our presence to any alien civilisations, especially to those more technologically advanced than humans.Our first contact from an advanced civilisation could be equivalent to when Native Americans first

encountered Christopher Columbus and things “didn’t turn out so well”, Hawking said in a new online film.The film, “Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places”, takes viewers to five significant locations across the cosmos, on his spacecraft - the SS Hawking.

In the film, Hawking performs a hypothetical flyby of Gliese 832c, a potentially habitable exoplanet located 16 light years away.“One day we might receive a signal from a planet like Gliese 832c, but we should be wary of answering back,” he said.

“They will be vastly more powerful

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Issue - 686 (14)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Trump says he’ll do more for women as president than Clinton Roanoke Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tried to make the case that he'd do more to help women from the White House than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, a

lifelong champion of women's rights who would become the nation's first female president. "My opponent likes to say that for decades she's been fighting for women, that she's been fighting for children. Why, then, are 70 million American women and children living in poverty or on the brink of poverty in our country?"

Trump asked a rally crowd in Roanoke. "For years she's been doing this and she's done nothing."

The appeal came hours after Trump threatened on Twitter to invite a woman who'd had an affair with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to sit

in the first row at Monday's presidential debate. The Clinton campaign had invited Mark Cuban, a fellow billionaire and Trump’s rival, to the debate."If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor

fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!" Trump said.Trump's campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday, and it remained unclear whether Flowers would actually attend.

Clinton's campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri responded: "Hillary Clinton plans on using the debate to discuss the issues that make a difference in people's lives". She added: "It's not surprising that Donald Trump has chosen a different path."Trump has been criticised throughout the campaign for crass

comments he has made about women in the past, including insults about their physical appearance.

Clinton's campaign has tried to capitalise on those comments, including with a new add that features images of adolescent girls looking at their reflections as audio of Trump's comments play.The tweet on Saturday underscored the challenges Trump faces as he attempts to close his deficit among female voters, whom polls show favour Clinton by significant margins.Trump had all but ignored issues like child care and maternity leave until the Republican National Convention when his daughter, Ivanka, suddenly said her father would work to provide affordable childcare for women.

Clinton, on the other hand, released a policy a year ago and has spent much of her life advocating for women and girls.

After graduating from law school, Clinton worked for the Children's Defense Fund.She also co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families early in her career and delivered a seminal speech as first lady declaring that "women's rights are human rights."

Newborn declared dead by doctors starts crying during burial

Dhaka A newborn baby girl in Bangladesh, who was declared dead by doctors, started crying while being buried, media reports said on?Sunday. Galiba Hayat, the first child of district cricket team player Najmul Huda and his advocate wife Naznin Akhter, was born on Thursday in Faridpur, about 140 kms from the Bangladeshi capital. Two hours after her birth, doctors at the hospital pronounced her dead after which she was taken to a graveyard for burial, bdnews24 reported.The caretaker of the graveyard

asked her relatives to return on Friday morning for the burial. The baby spent the night in a carton at the graveyard. However, just when all the formalities were completed for her burial, she began crying.

She was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital from where doctors referred her to Dhaka.

The baby’s grandfather Abdul Kalam said, “Doctors had referred her to Dhaka on Thursday itself but we could not do so owing to financial condition. “On Saturday, a person who is unwilling to reveal his identity, expressed his desire to

bear the cost of her treatment and arranged for her to be taken to Dhaka’s Square Hospital for treatment by helicopter,” he said.

“The newborn is in a serious condition as she was born 24 weeks into the pregnancy and weighs 700 grams. So she was sent for intensive care treatment to Dhaka. If she gets good care, good results may be expected,” Faridpur Sadar Hospital Head of Paediatrics Dr Khondokar Mohamed Abdullah said.

After the news spread, people turned out in large numbers to wish the baby a speedy recovery.

ISRO's PSLV SCATSAT-1 launched from Sriharikota

Sriharikota PSLV C-35, carrying India's SCATSAT-1 meant for ocean and weather studies and seven other satellites, including from the US and Canada, on Monday lifted off from the spaceport here.

Besides SCATSAT-1, the 44.4 metre tall ISRO's workhorse PSLV rocket is carrying two Indian university satellites, three from Algeria and one each from the US and Canada.

For the first time in its mission, the PSLV will launch its payloads in two different orbits. There will be two Fourth Stage Engine restarts for this purpose PSLV C-35 took off from the Satish Dhawan Space

Centre here, about 110 km from Chennai, at 9.12 am.

SCATSAT-1, the primary satellite, is meant for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking.

It is a "continuity" mission for the Ku-band scatterometer payload carried by SCATSAT-1, which has enhanced features compared to a similar one carried by Oceansat-2 satellite in 2009, ISRO said.

The two academic satellites are PRATHAM, from IIT, Bombay, and PISAT, from BES University, Bengaluru and its consortium.

While PRATHAM's objective is to estimate Total Electron Count,

PISAT's mission is to design and develop a nanosatellite for remote sensing applications.

The foreign satellites onboard the PSLV are ALSAT-1B, ALSAT-2B and ALSAT-1N (all from Algeria) and Pathfinder-1 and NLS19, from USA and Canada, respectively.

The total weight of all the eight satellites onboard PSLV C35 is about 675 kg, ISRO said.

SCATSAT-1 weighs 371 kg.

While SCATSAT-1 will be released first into a 730 km Polar Sunsynchronous Orbit (SSO) after about 17 minutes, the rest will be injected into a lower orbit of 689 km after around two hours.

Issue 686 (15)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

PLAYS OUT OF TUNE

BANJO is meant to be Riteish Deshmukh’s psychedelic shot at solo stardom. It is pitched as a musical with Vishal and Shekhar’s chaalu songs playing on your mind as long as they last, but the film loses focus of what genre it belongs to soon enough.

Banjo is also National Award-winning Marathi director Ravi Jadhav’s Bollywood test by fire. Clearly, Jadhav is not ready for the big game yet. Beyond those creative demands, the film is about setting up a saleable package within a budget that Riteish’s limited stardom can realise. Everything about it is, therefore, woven around its hero. Although the trailers were designed stylishly, setting up something unusual was never quite on the minds of the film’s makers.

Riteish

Deshmukh’s bid to impress as a mohalle ka goon is soaked in Bachchan effect.

He plays Taraat the tapori, but he is actually a two-in-one package. When he is not collecting hafta or fisting baddies as per filmi norms, he is banjo ka Bachchan. He struts around with Big B swagger and spews a few explosive oneliners before strumming the banjo with a blade at Gan-pati pooja mandaps. Taraat dreams of being a great musician someday. The banjo, no prizes for guessing, is a clichéd symbol of his aspiration, beyond the dreary slumside existence. The fact stumps you why such a jaded script needs three writers (Kapil Sawant, Nikhil Mehrotra, Ravi Jadhav). Ageold masala gets the familiar firangi whiff with the entry of

Vinayak Chakravorty By

Banjo Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Nargis Fakhri, Dharmesh Yelande, Mohan Kapoor Direction: Ravi Jadhav

Nargis Fakhri into the broth.

She is hotshot DJ Christina, and she arrives in Mumbai from New York in search of what else a few exotic notes.

Christina, of course, will find more than just music in Taraat. What is a Bollywood potboiler without the standard mush quotient, after all. Banjo is hackneyed fare, trying to cross Grease with Rock On!! with

Out on DVD Housefull 3 Cast: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Lisa Haydon, Boman Irani Direction: Sajid-Farhad THE third film of the Housefull series rehashes formula of the first two, and tries regaling with similar jokes about some silly people caught in a spot inside a large house.

Although the characters this time are new, the sequel is hardly as funny as the last two.

Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandez return in this sequel, though playing different characters than the last time. Briefly, the story is about three men

Rockstar but managing to reach nowhere.

The melodrama and sporadic humour created through plastic characters and situations fail to sustain interest. Musicals often

suffer from that sort of a mess, but they are normally redeemed by good music.

The biggest bane of Banjo is its score composed by Vishal and Shekhar; lyrics

by Amitabh Bhattacharya) is not good enough to salvage the overall mediocre show. For all the noise that goes on, you do not carry home a single number. The actors suffer

owing to the hyperdramatics they are made to play out, in overthe-top roles. Riteish and Nargis look too posey in the mush sequences. Not much of their chemistry appears real. The balance cast — mostly talented actor drawn from the Marathi industry fails to leave impact in weakly-penned roles. Banjo is quite out of tune.

(Akshay, Riteish and Abhishek Bachchan) who are in love with three sisters (Jacqueline, Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakhri). To win over their stingy father (Boman Irani), the three lovers must pretend to be physically disabled.

There is a lame twist in this basic plot involving Jackie Shroff.

The Jungle Book Cast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Russell Peters Direction: Jon Favreau UNDOUBTEDLY the most enjoyable mainstream fare coming out of Hollywood this year so far, Jon Favreau’s latest is at the same time a triumph of good filmmaking and

the right mix of live action and animation. The film traces the origins of Mowgli using The Jungle Book tales of Rudyard Kipling and his early growing up years in the jungle with the wolf pack, Bagheera and Baloo the bear.

It narrates Mowgli’s final showdown with the vile Shere Khan with aplomb.

— Vinayak Chakravorty

Issue 686 (16)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Rumour swith Tiger do not affect Disha Patani

Actress Disha Patani has laughed off rumours of dating actor Tiger Shroff, saying she is an antisocial person who does not get affected by the such talks about her personal life.The actress featured with the Baaghi

star in a music video earlier this year. Gossip mills have been abuzz for a long time that the duo are dating each other.When asked if the spotlight on her personal life bothers her, Disha told PTI, “No. I think I am very

anti-social. I don’t have newspapers in my house.

I have a news application which only gives me important news, no Bollywood. So even if there is some report about me, I don’t know.” “I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me at all. I think everybody’s making money. It is something that people like to read. It is superficial but people want to read about somebody’s life,” she said.The 21-year-old actress, however, does not feel bitter about this and feels fortunate that there are people wanting to know more about her.”I think I am lucky enough to be getting this chance also that people want to know about me. I don’t want to complain over it. I am in the happy-ok-zone.

I am fine because somebody’s opinion can’t

Kanganaan inspiration to many:Tamannaah

Actress Tamannaah Bhatia is a huge fan of Kangana Ranaut, and says the Queen star has become an inspiration to a lot of women.”I am a huge fan of Kangana Ranaut, not only for her acting. Everybody knows she is a proficient actor.

As a woman, she has worked on herself and turned out to be an inspiration for a lot of women. Even in terms of fashion, the way she carries herself is amazing,” said Tamannaah.At the recent unveiling of the title track of Tutak Tutak Tutiya, Kangana had said that she is a big fan of

Tamannaah who stars in the film. Reacting to the comment, Tamannaah said: “She is strong and outspoken. I always watch her interviews as I love to listen to her point of view.I think it was a very sweet gesture... what she said about me.”What was most challenging for her in the film? She said: “I found the role very interesting as my character has two opposite images.

One is a village girl and another is a glamorous one. The crucial thing for me was to crack the look. I was given references of (actress) Revathi ma’am’s old films.

The process of shooting was pretty crazy. It is made in three languages, so we had to take

the shots three times in different languages. Even in the dance sequences, the lip-sync was changed thrice. In that way, the film was really challenging,” she added.Talking about the film’s cast, she said: “The casting is quite unusual. Me, Sonu (Sood) and Prabhudheva in lead roles...”Asked about superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s voiceover in the film, the actress said it is because of Sonu’s goodwill that his friends agreed to do guest appearances.

become my reality.” Disha says even Tiger is not bothered by such reports as he focuses more on making his craft better.”We both are very similar and that is the reason why we are good friends. I don’t think he reads newspapers... He is so focused. He wakes up early, goes for gymnastic, whole day till 7-8’o clock he is working on himself.”He has this agenda in life, ‘Everyday I want to become better than what I was yesterday.’ He is a different guy, so, I don’t think it affects him at all.”

Post their music video “Befikra”, there were several reports that Disha will team up with Tiger for his upcoming film Munna Michael. The actress, however, denied signing any film with the actor.Disha is currently awaiting her Bollywood debut in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story. She stars in the film as the romantic interest of Sushant Singh Rajput, who plays the titular role. Directed by Neeraj Pandey, the film is scheduled to release on September 30.

Kareena goes on a lunch date with Tusshar, Aftab

Actors Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tusshar Kapoor and Aftab Shivdasani along with his wife Nin Dusanj were snapped post their lunch meet a restaurant in Mumbai on Friday.The mommy-tobe looked, who recently mentioned that she has cravings for chatpata food more like chole-bhature and chat, looked radiant in red kurta and black pants.

If younger, I might have thought of relocating to a different country: Irrfan Actor Irrfan has had a successful stint in Bollywood and has taken his talent to the next level by bagging some Hollywood projects as well. However, the actor feels doing films in the West has been an added advantage yet his home is where his heart belongs to.

“My people are here (India) and so are my

stories. Today, small and unconventional films are redefining cinema in India and I’m happy to be part of this brave and new world. Hollywood is just a bonus,” says Irrfan, who will soon share screen space with actor Tom Hanks in an upcoming Hollywood project.

The 49-year-old actor, who has been part of Bollywood films such as Paan Singh

Tomar (2012), The Lunchbox (2013) and Piku (2015), reveals that he has got plenty of opportunities to relocate to the US, but he doesn’t wish to do so.

“I keep getting interesting offers. If I was younger, I might have thought of relocating to a different country but I never really felt like leaving India,” he adds.

Issue 686 (17)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt divorce: He hires Charlie Sheen’s divorce lawyer Hollywood star Brad Pitt has hired the family law attorney, who represented Heather Locklear and Charlie Sheen, as he prepares for a divorce and custody battle with Angelina Jolie.

Lance Spiegel will represent the actor after joining his legal team on Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The top Beverly Hills attorney will join Pitt’s Hollywood lawyer Alan Hergott to do battle with Jolie and her legal representative Laura Wasser, in what could be a very messy divorce.

Spiegel, 70, also represented actress Eva Longoria in her split from basketball star Tony Parker, and the late

Michael Jackson, among other high-profile clients.

Jolie, 40, filed for divorce on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences.

Her legal team also includes Hollywood attorney Robert Offer, who has already spoken to the media on his client’s behalf. Confirming the divorce news, Offer revealed the actress had filed for “dissolution of

marriage”, adding the decision was made for “the health of the family”.

“She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time,” Offer added in a statement.

Pitt released his own statement which read, “I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids. I kindly ask the press

to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.”

Meanwhile, FBI agents are reportedly stepping in to take charge of an alleged child abuse investigation surrounding Pitt, 52.

It was initially reported officials from the Los Angeles Police Department and LA County Department of Children and Family Services were looking into the alleged incident, which took place on a private jet last week, days before Jolie filed her papers to end her two-year marriage.

The DCFS investigation is still said to be ongoing, but an LAPD spokesman has made it clear detectives are not involved and do not have an open case on the actor.

CHUBBY KATE WAS BULLIED IN SCHOOL Actor Kate Winslet (above) says she was bullied at school for being overweight. The 40-year-old, best known for her role in Titanic (1997) said she got the revenge on her bullies by living her present life, Female First. "I was kind of bullied when I was younger, actually at school. For being chubby, you know... I had girls who were envious of me because I was acting a little bit as a teenager," Winslet said.

"This (being happy) is my revenge. Right here, this lovely career I have been blessed with. I have healthy children. You know, I have a really happy life and, to me, it's like, 'Well, look at me now girls!'" she added.

Emma Watson slammed online Pamela Anderson wants to be a professional erotica writer now for "boring, whining" UN speech

Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, Emma Watson (right) made a respectable call for gender equality in a recent speech at 'He For She' campaign in New York but a UK tabloid daily took it as a means to make fun of the 26year-old actor.

In a clip from The Sun newspaper, (which was captured by Louise Ridley and posted on Twitter), the writer, Rod Liddle, condemns Watson for her "boring, whining, leftie, PC crap," adding that it was something "all actresses do if we are stupid enough to give

Gina Rodriguez hates being Photoshopped

Actor Gina Rodriguez (right) says she would rather have all her "flaws" on display than have her curves and birthmark

edited away.

"This day and age of Photoshopping and transforming oneself and filtering and filtering and filtering, it really feels good when a photo can capture my heart, my body, my spirit, without having to gloss over it. Let me keep my curves, my birthmark.

I want to look like myself...," she said.

The 32-year-old said people will keep saying, 'You are not good enough' but one should not pay attention to naysayers.

them the chance," reports E! Online.

The 56-year-old English journalist, in the message, suggests that Emma, best known for her role in Harry Potter films, should "stick to telling the rules of Quidditch or how to turn someone into a frog."

He also says he does not understand "why we take her so seriously."

He For She is a solidarity campaign for gender equality initiated

by UN Women.

Its goal is to engage men and boys as agents of change for the achievement of gender equality by encouraging them to take action against negative inequalities faced by women and girls.

Actor Pamela Anderson says she wants to write erotic short stories as she thinks she is good at it.

The 49-year-old Baywatch star, who recently slammed pornography claiming it damages the society, said she would love to make a career in writing erotic fiction, reported FemaleFirst.

“I’ve always wanted to write erotic short stories.

People tell me I should.

Everyone says I’m a pretty good sexy storyteller,” she said.

The former Playboy playmate also revealed that posing nude for magazines allowed her to overcome horrible experiences from her past and to take ownership of her own life

and body again.

“I flipped the script. I really did. I was trying to take the power back from my life and things which had happened to me in the past. I felt really out of control and felt, not like a victim, but that I wasn’t in charge.

When I started posing for Playboy and doing

things in LA, I realised I was living my own life. It was really empowering for me to be that girl. I was always so painfully shy and when I could break through that, it was just like freedom.

Then you couldn’t stop me from walking down the street naked,” she added.

Daniel Radcliffe isn’t interested in reprising his Harry Potter role just yet Pottermania may be alive and well thanks to upcoming Harry Potter spinoff film Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and a hit London play, but actor Daniel Radcliffe says he has no interest in revisiting his role as the boy wizard.

Asked about speculation that there could be a movie version of the London play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Radcliffe, 27, said no-one had contacted him about a new film.

“Nobody has said anything to me about ... revitalising the

films, so I don’t know,” Radcliffe told Reuters in London on Friday.

“It’s not something I think I’d be interested in, and also if they do it now I feel they should just cast the people from the play,” said Radcliffe, who was just 11 years old when he was cast as Potter.

Radcliffe was in London to open a three-day entertainment festival of films and family activities, including screenings of his two most recent indie movies Swiss Army Man and Imperium.

Issue 686 (18)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

‘Artists should not be soft targets in India-Pak battle’

FILMMAKER Karan Johar says his heart bleeds for the lives lost in the Uri terror attack and he understands the anger in the country but boycotting artistes from Pakistan is no solution to terrorism. Johar’s comment comes after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena threatened Pakistani artistes like Fawad

Khan and Mahira Khan to leave India, failing which the shooting of their films would be stalled.

Fawad stars in Johar’s upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which is scheduled to release this Diwali.

“I understand the anger and the anguish that surround us and I empathise, my heart bleeds for the lost lives. There is nothing that can justify this terrible feeling of terror. Then you are faced in a situation such as this (asking for ban on Pak artistes). If this was truly a solution, one would take

it,” the director told a news channel. “But this is not a solution. I don’t believe it is. The larger forces have to come together and sort the situation and this cannot be banning talent or art.” The 44-year-old filmmaker said he feels ‘vulnerable’ while speaking about it publicly. “I feel vulnerable and scared while even saying this. I completely feel the pain and anger. If my film is targeted because of this, it will make me exceptionally sad because my intent was to put out a product out of love and nothing else.” When asked how he will deal with these threats, Johar said, “I don’t know... I beseech everyone to look at it holistically and understand the situation, that there is a larger situation here and it has nothing to do with banning talent. Let’s look at it from a larger perspective and find the answer.” The director said sometimes creative people feel so frustrated that they just want

to “fold hands and say leave us alone”. “I am not somebody who can find the answer. I am nobody in that scheme of things. I am just a filmmaker, telling a love story. “Today I feel, I am a vulnerable soft target. I have faced it, felt the repercussions of it in the past and I have constantly combated that.

“Sometimes, you just want to fold your hands and say, ‘We are a creative industry. Please leave us alone. We make

movies, we spread love. There are millions in the world, in our country who are happy with the work we do, allow us that...’ I think we should not be those soft targets anymore. “We don’t matter in the scheme of things but we can make things happier and better,” he said.

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Issue 686 (19)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Killed for blasphemy: Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar pays the price for ridiculing ‘sex with Islamic hoors’, ‘wine in heaven’ Amman Prominent Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar, belonging to the minority Christian community, was killed on Sunday outside the court in Amman, where he was about to be tried in case of fueling religious hatred. Hattar was shot to death by a fundamentalist Muslim, identified as Riyad Ismail Abdullah. The gunman was subsequently arrested by the Jordanian police. The assailant was found in an orthodox Islamic robe. He had recently returned to Jordan from Saudi Arabia, where he went for the Hajj pilgrimage. The murder of Hattar in broad daylight by the Islamist brings to light the lack of intellectual freedom for minorities and atheists in the Muslim-dominated secular nation.

Hattar was arrested in the past

month for sharing a cartoon on social media which showed a jihadi smoking with two hoors (virgin angels) in bed, while Allah keeps waiting for him at the window. The cartoon further showed the jihadi ordering Allah to bring him two cups of wine, and instructing archangel Gabriel to bring cashew nuts for him. The jihadi also commands Allah to remove the dirty plates from the room.

Defending the cartoon, Hattar said that he did not criticise the supreme God, Allah, but only attempted to highlight the pervertish imagination of the heaven as per Islamists, who kill innocents in the name of religion. “I am mocking the terrorists and their conception of hell and heaven,” Hattar said in a written statement before his death. As per hardline

BEIJING The world’s largest radio telescope began operating in southwestern China Sunday, a project Beijing says will help humanity search for alien life.

The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), nestled between hills in the mountainous region of Guizhou, began working around noon, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Built at a cost of 1.2 billion yuan ($180 million), the telescope dwarfs the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico as the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, with twice the sensitivity and a reflector as large as 30 football fields, it said.

FAST will use its vast dish, made up of 4,450 panels, to search for signs of intelligent life, and to observe distant pulsars - tiny, rapidly spinning neutron stars believed to be the products of supernova explosions.

China sees its ambitious military-run, multi-billion-dollar space programme as symbolising the country’s progress. It plans a permanent

orbiting space station by 2020 and eventually a manned mission to the moon.

Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated the launch, with reports Sunday that he had sent a congratulatory letter to the scientists and engineers who contributed to its creation.

preachers, those who injdulge in jihad, would be gifted 72 hoors in the heaven, with joy of sex increasing with every additional intercourse. The preachers also claim that men in heaven would have sexual drive 100 times more stronger than those on earth.

The hoors are described as young, magnificent and extremely beautiful eternal

World’s largest radio telescope starts operating

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The telescope represents a leap forward for China’s astronomical capabilities and will be one of several “world-class” telescope projects launched in the next decade, said Yan Jun, head of China’s National Astronomical Observation (NAO), according to Xinhua. In a test run before the launch, FAST detected electromagnetic waves emitted by a pulsar more than 1,300 light-years away, state media reported an NAO researcher as saying. Earlier Xinhua cited Wu Xiangping, director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, as saying that the telescope’s high degree of sensitivity “will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy”.

Experts have been hunting for alien intelligence for six decades, pointing radio telescopes at stars in the hope of discovering signals from other civilisations, but have not yet found any evidence.

Last month a “strong signal”

detected by a Russian telescope searching for extraterrestrial signals stirred interest among scientists, but experts said it was far too early to make conclusions about its origin.

But the new FAST telescope could “lead to discoveries beyond our wildest imagination,” Douglas Vakoch, president of METI, a group seeking to send messages to space in search of alien life, told Xinhua.

Construction of FAST began in 2011, and local officials relocated nearly 10,000 people living within five kilometres (three miles) to create a quieter environment for monitoring. Cell phones in the area must be powered off to maintain radio silence.

In the past China has relocated hundreds of thousands of people to make way for large infrastructure projects such as dams and canals.

The area surrounding the telescope is remote and relatively poor. State media said it was chosen because there are no major towns nearby.

The villagers will be compensated with cash or housing. The budget for relocation is 1.8 billion yuan ($270 million), it was reported, more than the cost of constructing the telescope.

China has poured money into big-ticket science and technology projects as it seeks to become a high-tech leader, but despite some gains the country’s scientific output still lags behind.

At the beginning of this month, reports said 600 apartments had been built so far with the funds.

beings, who would outmatch every woman in the world. Apart from the hoors, the dwellers of this heaven would also be provided with ‘streams of wine’.

Similar to Hattar, several liberals have ridiculed these lucrative promises of heaven, as they violate the principles of Islam which are applicable on believing Muslims on earth.

Hattar’s murder makes one reminisce the assassination of Avijit Roy, the Bangladeshi atheist blogger who was hacked to death by Islamists in Dhaka.

Roy’s murder kicked off the spree of the religious executions in Bangladesh, with a total of 48 people being killed

by Islamists over the past two years.

Some among the deceased are also Muslims, who challenged the theocratic narrative and attempted to promote secularism.

Along with Bangladesh, Jordan is one of the few Muslimdominated nations which has

adopted secularism, rather than choosing theocracy as the state policy. Led by monarch King Abdullah, Jordan’s constitution provides various safeguards to Christians, Jews and other minorities. The freedom of religion and thought is categorically protected as per law. However, the popular public sentiment is lately favouring towards theocracy. Despite Jordanian King’s commitment before the United Nations that his nation is attempting to ward off all forms of extremism, the country has failed in preventing the popular public sentiment in the nation turning towards radical Islam.

Jordan continues to remain the biggest source of jihadists, who are travelling across to Syria to join the Islamic State or al-Nusra Front. In 2015, nearly 2,000 Jordanians joined Sunni terror outfits fighting in Syria and Iraq.

According to Jordanian civil society, Hattar, the slain writer, repeatedly stood up against fanaticism, and often took an anti-establishment stance.

Although, he was arrested in August this year for sharing a cartoon on Facebook which was allegedly blasphemous in nature, he had spent time behind the bars on previous occasions too. In the 1970s’, Hattar as a young activist took part in various anti-government protests. For criticising the monarch, he was jailed on numerous occasions.

Issue 686 (20)

Smugglers use local aides who are good swimmers an

AMID claims that enhanced vigil on the India-Bangladesh border has brought down cattle smuggling by 99 per cent in last one year, the organised malaise continues to flourish, Mail Today investigations have found. Bangladeshi cattle markets, known as ‘khattals’, are brimming with cows and oxen from India that travel thousands of kilometers, including water routes, on the sly. Traders at these markets admit that demand for Indian beef is high and the scaling down of smuggling activity has only served to push the prices up. “There is a slump in the volume after the (Narendra) Modi government came to power, but cows and oxen still reach here from villages of Haryana, Rajasthan and even Maharashtra,” said Mohammed Rehan, who works at Gabtole, one of the biggest cattle market of Bangladesh, a 13km drive from Capital Dhaka. “On an average, around 3,000 cattle make it to Gabtole daily from India and Nepal. The prices have now gone up due to higher risk and bribe rates.” Depending on its health and specie, a cow can fetch 3,000 to 45,000 takas in Bangladesh. Bigger cow species from Haryana and Rajasthan are sold at a premium.

During festival time, such as Eid, the prices could move into one to two lakh takas. Traders at Gabtole told MAIL TODAY that the cattle are first transported in trucks via UP, Bihar and Jharkhand to enter into border destinations of West Bengal and Assam. From the two border-states, the smugglers use water routes from villages to cross over. The commonlyused water routes are in rivers Kalindi, Ichhamati, Raimangal and Hariabhanga of Bangladesh. The cows are first kept in remote villages and bound one after another by a long

iron-chain. At night these are herded in water by ‘Rakhals’, young local aides who are good swimmers and know their way even in the dark. For facilitating a pair of cow, a Rakhal gets the equivalent of Rs 3,000. The BSF and BGB have also identified many of these “cattle corridors” which include Khulna, Kustia, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Mymensing, Sylhet, Comilla and Chittagong. However, there are always new routes are discovered by the smugglers. “The business of cattle (smuggling) has been going on since Bangladesh was East Pakistan. Cows come from India, Nepal and Bhutan legally or illegally,” said Nadeem Khan, a trader at Gabtole, before he is advised by others against drawing “undue attention”. Similar stories were recounted by traders at the Paikgachi cattle market, located between Satkhir and Jessore. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the traders said rise in demand for beef has made smuggling even more lucrative.

“Only the smugglers are making more money,” said one of the traders.

Defence expert Maj Gen (Rtd) PK Sehgal told Mail Today the cattle smuggling on IndoBangladesh border was worth $8 to 10 billion but after strict instructions by Narendra Modi government, the smuggling has come down. “But it still contin ues to be worth at least $5 billion

Cows hurled over fences in vide Dhaka A RECENT video showing of a pair of cows being thrown over the barbed wire fence along the BangladeshIndia border has gone viral online.

Images show cows being strung by their necks to a makeshift crane.

Smaller to medium cows are pulled over a tall barbed fence, with a crowd of smugglers gathered on either side.

That’s just one of the ways how these poor animals are trafficked from India into Bangladesh. Although the video does not appear to be recent, it shows the callous and inhuman ways cows are smuggled over the border fence. The clip has been viewed by 1.5 lakh people. It was also telecast on Bangladeshi news channels. Retired Major General PK Sehgal says, “You can see how the cattle is pushed over the fence. The video shows how, unfortunately, the

smuggling has been done with the aid of those who are expected to guard the border.” Director General of Border Guard Bangladesh, Major General Aziz Ahmed denied all theories of connivance. “If you tell me

there is connivance betw smugglers from India Bangladesh, I will agree. But is no connivance from the fo However there are pockets whic not fenced,” he said.

dollars. The cattle are pushed in, unfortunately many times in connivance of the force guarding the border.” This is in sharp contrast of the claims made by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) that smuggling on the border has come down by 99% as compared to the

previous year. The BSF, over the last five months, has plugged some of the vulnerable patches of the 4,096km border by not only increasing troop strength but also new vehicles and a fresh fleet of attack motorboats to patrol riverine areas.

The seizure of cattle by BSF in South Bengal frontier also known as the cattle corridor of India, reflects the trend. In 2014, it was 1,21,887, in 2015 1,51,402, and till August-end this year it has been 1,18,711. “GI pipes have been welded to existing metal fence as a defence against cattle smugglers,” said a top officer in BSF. However, smugglers either manage to either cut wires or use unique techniques like makeshift wooden cranes to lift the cattle. On

Sunday, BSF guards killed year-old cattle smuggler, B Islam, for allegedly trying to over near northern Kurh area’s Roumari Upazila. Th another set of cattle which better prices now. Police guards often catch cattle tha either moved into Banglade were abandoned by the smu for the fear of being caught. “ cattle go to the auction block Subash Chowdhry, a local jou with a Bangladeshi daily at b district of Satkhira said. “Chit and Dhaka traders used to ge at a marginal price earlier. B increased demand now en that they fetch good price government departments.”

21

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

nd know their way in dark to herd animals across a river * WHAT MEASURES HAVE THE BANGLADESH FORCES TAKEN TO COUNTER CATTLE SMUGGLING? At the outset I want to tell you and the Indians, I want to get rid of cattle smuggling. Bangladesh does not want Indian cattle. But we too have limitations. We share fifth largest border in the world with India and it is very porous. . We don’t have link road and border fencing while the Indian side has good roads. Even if I order my soldiers to stand hand in hand at the borders, we still cannot stop cattle smuggling. * HOW DO CATTLE SMUGGLERS CROSS THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER DESPITE TWO FORCES GUARDING IT 24X7?

The cattle come in thousands through the many rivers Bangladesh shares with India.

We cannot just stop it. We have certain areas where there is riverine and in some others there is no fence so cattle comes in. BGB and BSF do regular patrolling. But where there is no fence, is our weak point. * MANY CATTLE SMUGGLERS HAVE BEEN GUNNED DOWN BY BSF. WHY IS THIS A CONCERN FOR BANGLADESH? We are more concerned about killings at the border. We are not only one responsible. The cattle come from India. Our concern is our citizens getting

Pellet guns feared more than the bullet

eo

etween and ut there forces. hich are

d a 35Bahrul to cross rhigram There is ch fetch ce and hat have desh or mugglers . “These ck,” said ournalist t border hittigong get them But the ensures ces for

killed because of this. It gives opportunity to vested interest to create a wedge between two forces. The killings are very high, and though it has come down from previous years, it is still very high. * IS THERE A CONCERN THAT CATTLE SMUGGLERS COULD BE HAND IN GLOVE WITH TERRORISTS CLOSE TO THE BORDER AREAS? That is right, not only do the cattle which move across borders but also smugglers. It gives very good scope for terrorist to go across the border.

This is another reason why Bangladesh supports india in curbing cattle smuggling. It will help bringing down cattle smuggling and keeping terror at bay. As told to Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu

The BSF has three floating border outposts and is looking to acquire six more.

FLOATING border out posts (FBOP) have given the Border Security Force a strategic edge in fighting cow smugglers by manning the difficult terrains of the massive mangrove, Sunderbans. BSF officials said as the forces upped the ante against smugglers, they were forced to look for new routes. And the mangrove surrounded by rivers and dense forests gave them the perfect cover. Guarding the Sunderbans forest is a mammoth task with 11,000 sq km area shared between India and Bangladesh.

Mridual Sonowal, DIG, BSF, Kolkata, said, “Besides protecting the Sundarbans and checking infiltration and smuggling, the FBOPs give us a strategic edge. They greatly enhance manoeuvrability and access and enable us to effectively man the riverine border.” The FBOPs helped the BSF seize 20 cows from a boat earlier this month.

“Sunderbans is a trade route,

FLOATING OUTPOSTS TO GUARD BORDERS but this is one of the first time we have siezed cattle. It means the cattle smugglers are now looking for new routes. With this discovery, we have asked the BSF water wing to keep a special check on this new modus operandi,” BSF Deputy Inspector General RPS Jaswal said.

The BSF has has deployed three FBOPs ¬ Sagar, Durga and Kamakhya ¬ maintaining a strong presence on the boundary. It is also looking to acquire at least six more. They will be armed with modern surveillance equipment and high tech communication systems, a satellite reciever, better navigation system.

Dhaka THE pellet gun may have earned notoriety because of its use by the security forces during the ongoing unrest in Kashmir Valley, but the same non-lethal guns are also a feared weapon at the eastern border of the country, especially as a deterrent to cow smugglers.

The pellet guns, called the pump action gun (PAG), have been used

by BSF in the eastern border, especially in the cattle corridor, since March 2011, as a non lethal weapon. The nonlethal weapons are used in addition to the regular, standard weapons of the BSF, namely the INSAS rifles. India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has been under physical attacks from smugglers. The cow-traffickers are part of welloiled counterintelligence network . They avoid detection by the BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh ( BGB) on either side of Indo Bangladesh International Border. “There are ‘linemen’ whose task is to keep tabs on troop movement. Then there are ‘transporters’ who ensure that cattle go across the border, from what appears to be a clear cut modus operandi of the smugglers. But once identified, the smugglers attack the BSF” said a senior officer in the BSF. “The

cattle smugglers dread the pump action gun. They are effectively being used in the eastern border,” the officer added. However, Director General of the Border Guard Bangladesh, Major General Aziz Ahmed says, the number of injuries and deaths caused by the use of force are far too high and this is a concern for the country. “I cannot suggest BSF what weapons to use, but the number of deaths continue to remain high.

And this is a concern for us.” He further added, “we have advised people not to indulge in cattle smuggling. But we feel, these people also have the right to live.

We feel the law of the land must take its course. We are against

use of lethal weapons, an issue we have repeatedly raised with the Indian government.” In 2014, number of criminals and smugglers injured at borders stood at 1517, and in 2015, it stood at 2385. Till August end this year, the figure stood at 1465. In contrast, the injuries by lethal weapon stood at 71 in 2014, 150 in 2015 and 96 by August end 2016. On Sunday, BSF guards killed a 35- year-old cattle smuggler, Bahrul Islam, for allegedly trying to cross over near northern Kurhigram area’s Roumari Upazila. BSF officials said the smugglers manage to find new routes due to the large porous border, but cattle smuggling has been restricted to a large extent.

Issue 686 (22)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Patanjali founder gatecrashes Forbes list of world’s richest, elbowing out e-commerce wizards Bansals

BALKRISHNA FLIPS KART

YOGA guru Ramdev’s close aide Acharya Balkrishna has come a long way since 1995 when he and his mentor approached authorities to get Patanjali registered as an organisation. The two men had Rs 3,500 in their pockets while the officials demanded a fee of Rs 13, 000. The duo borrowed Rs 5,000 each from two friends to fill the gap. Twenty-one years later, Balkrishna has stormed into India’s richest 100 club with a $2.5 billion net worth based on his 97% stake in the fastgrowing Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, while e-tailer Flipkart’s cofounders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal lost out.

Balkrishna on Thursday made his debut on the annual Forbes list of India’s 100 richest people at the 48th position. The Bansals who were ranked 86th last year with a net worth of $1.3 billion have missed the boat this year with a dip in their company’s valuation. The Flipkart co-founders did not offer any comment on the matter.

10%

is the increase in the combined networth of India’s 100 richest

97%

Balkrishna’s stake in Patanjali is valued at ‘25,000 crore

Balkrishna is among six newcomers on the list that was topped for the ninth consecutive year by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.

Asked to comment on start-ups like Flipkart, Balkrishna told Mail Today, “I don’t know about start-ups…I don’t know what this list means. I only know one thing that even with an unlisted company like ours, we have achieved a spot in global rankings like the one issued by this business magazine. I dedicate it to the 20 crore consumers of Patanjali products. Both Flipkart and Patanjali are new businesses but with contrasting styles of functioning. While Flipkart is a modern-day technologydriven company providing a purely trading platform, Patanjali draws on traditional Indian knowledge to produce goods for the market. “Whatever we have achieved is without making any compromise with a twopronged strategy to give the right price to farmers and sell the goods at an affordable price to consumers,” Balkrishna said.

Forbes said the combined networth of India’s 100 wealthiest is $381 billion (nearly Rs 25.5 lakh crore), a rise of

10% from $345 billion in 2015.

Patanjali has grown into a company with annual turnover over `5,000 crore and is targeting a `10,000- crore turnover for next year.

Balkrishna points out that now Patanjali is a talking point at malls and showrooms in big cities as well as in kirana shops in small towns. Such is the demand of Patnjali, he says, “that we are not able to provide enough supply…we have to increase our production levels this year.” But will there be a change in his lifestyle to complement his new-found fortune? “No way,” says Balkrishna. “I have been a yogi and a sadhu, who wears a pair of slippers and mostly travels by road… I will continue living that way.” So what next after feeding Indians? “We will feed the cows,” he says. At a time when gau-rakshaks are grabbing headlines, is Patnjali walking a path to prove a political point? “No,” says Balkrishna. “We are working to improve the breeding of Indian cows to tap the dairy potential and for that we are now getting into cattle feed production in a big way.’’ India’s potential in

dairy is huge and such is the demand that it easily outstrips the supply, said Balkrishna, indicating that his company is ready to take on global dairy giants planning to enter the market. Despite being a 97% shareholder in Patanjali and worth `25,000 crore, he gives all the credit to Ramdev. “It is all his vision,’’ he said. “I am only the executing officer.” Though Ramdev holds no shares in the company, he is its de facto brand ambassador, while Balkrishna runs operations, Forbes said. Patnajali’s growing empire has a few immediate agendas – establish a Vedic education system with a blend of ancient traditional curriculum and spirituality. The other is mass cultivation of herbal products. Giving a glimpse of the swadeshi manufacturers eating into the profits of multi-national food and consumer giants in the country, the Patanjali hinted at an “allout war against the foreign brands”. He says, “First Gandhiji did it in the freedom movement. Then we read this in gurukul classes that MNCs only benefit their own countries.

The time has come to pack them off.”

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

THE ART BEHIND STRIPPING TATTOO fans displayed their intricate and colourful body art, while others got fresh inkings, at the International London Tattoo Convention today. More than 400 international tattoo artists practised their skills in public during the three-day event, which also featured entertainers and rock bands taking to the stage. As tattoo machines hummed, body art fans stretched themselves across tables, stripped to their underwear and in some cases took almost all their clothes off to get new designs etched on their bodies. Some were adding to the huge numbers they already have, with some super keen fans covered in different tattoos from head to toe.

Organisers expect some 20,000 people to visit the convention the 12th such annual event at Tobacco Dock in Wapping before it closes on Sunday.

Haqqani network commanders involved in Afghanistan Police convoy attack killed

Kabul At least six members of the Haqqani network, including two senior commanders, involved in a brutal suicide attack on the convoy of Afghan Police cadets in June have been killed during an operation in Afghanistan’s central Maidan Wardak province. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) in a statement said that the Haqqani network commanders identified as Mullah Mahmood and Azizullah were killed during a special night operation conducted by the intelligence operatives, reports the Khaama Press. The NDS said several light and heavy weapons were also seized during the operation.

At least six members of the Haqqani

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network, including two senior commanders, involved in a brutal suicide attack on the convoy of Afghan Police cadets in June have been killed during an operation in Afghanistan’s central Maidan Wardak province. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) in a statement said that the Haqqani network commanders identified as Mullah Mahmood and Azizullah were killed during a special night operation conducted by the intelligence operatives, reports the Khaama Press. The NDS said several light and heavy weapons were also seized during the operation. Earlier on June 30th, more than 30 police cadets lost their lives in a coordinated suicide attack in the outskirts of Kabul city. A suicide bomber targeted the convoy of the police cadets as they were on their way from the neighbouring Wardak province and another suicide bomber rammed into the convoy minutes after the first blast as several people had gathered to help the victims of the incident.

Suspect in Pippa Middleton royal photo hack bailed by UK police London A suspected hacker was bailed by British police following reports that 3,000 photographs had been stolen from Pippa Middleton, sister-in-law of Prince William, and were up for sale. The pictures were reported by The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers to have been stolen from Middleton’s iCloud account and included shots of her sister Kate, plus her and

Northamptonshire on suspicion of a Computer Misuse Act offence. Detectives received a report on Friday regarding the alleged hacking of a personal iCloud account, police said, without naming Middleton as the victim.

Pippa Middleton, 33, is the younger sister of Kate and found fame after acting as bridesmaid at the 2011 royal wedding. She is engaged to hedge fund

William’s children Prince George, three, and Princess Charlotte, one. The Sun said it had been asked for USD 65,000 for the shots, after someone contacted the newspaper via the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp. London’s Metropolitan Police said on yesterday a 35-year-old man arrested a day earlier had been released on bail, to return to a police station in the British capital in late November. Police said the suspect, whom they did not name, was arrested in the central English county of

boss James Matthews and the couple are expected to marry next year. The allegedly hacked photos also reportedly included shots of her own wedding preparations. William and Kate and their two children started an eight-day tour of western Canada on Saturday.

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

There is an important inner change that challenges you to be courageous enough to take responsibility for who you are and to live your truth this week. You decide to take control of personal and professional situations and be a master of your own destiny.

You are likely to rebel against any represion or conditioning, not because you want to fight against anything or anybody but because you discover your true nature and are determined to live in accordance with it. You may invite some opposition but it does not last long as you are clear and cool about your priorities.

Avoid being lazy as temporary gain or success needs to be followed up with hard work and dedication! A restless feeling passes when you meditate in silence and centre within. A prized job or special relationship may have finished, let go and make a new beginning as something greater or better is waiting for you. You are past the point of return and have to go forward to be liberated anyway. Drop impossible goals and ambitions but flower as yourself with your gifts and abilities. Don’t indulge your moods this week. You may surprise yourself and another person with your clarity and resolve.

You can expect financial gain and personal glory as you achieve difficult goals and stand up to stiff competition to win your battles. Partnerships or collaborations prove to be gainful. You are respected for expressing your feelings honestly in relationships and opinions frankly in professional situations. You recover from any illness that may have been dogging you for some time. Sudden developments and unexpected happenings cannot be ruled out this week. A brief vacation is on the cards! Beware of arrogance and vanity when you bask in your glory. Children and family play significant roles in your life at this point.

A more relaxed and creative atmosphere at work encourages progress and growth this week. You are able to actualise some of your potential in the field of art, theatre, music or media. It’s a good time to make changes to bring fresh energy and ambience. Your social life is enviable as you make new connections and meet interesting personalities. As you start a new venture you are surrounded by creative people with original concepts, beware of losing sight of your own goals. Start afresh with a new, positive attitude when things get heavy or confused in personal relationships.

You control personal and professional situations with dynamic energy and balance. Love and romance are on the cards as personal relationships flower into lasting commitments. You are daring with new, original ideas without fear of rejection. Beware of superficial friends and theatrical people. You may invite media exposure as you conduct a successful event. It is important to value true family ties and genuine friends as they support you through good and bad times. A young, faithless and domineering woman may try to interfere in partnerships. You welcome something wonderful waiting for you.

Love in personal relationships and stability in business collaborations is regained as you come to terms and make peaceful resolutions. Celebrations are planned with the family and an outing is most enjoyable.

Opinions differ and mental conflicts are ignited but love and friendship are strong enough to bring about peace and understanding. You cannot depend on a new work associate as he vacillates and delays decisions. You are stronger after swimming through troubled waters. When you are in a dilemma and don’t know which path to chose, listen to your heart and intuition.

Love, happiness and fulfillment in personal relationships is on the cards this week. You celebrate and share happy times and hospitality with friends, family and loved ones. You can trust your heart and intuition about people and situations at this point. You may indulge in a luxury and disregard your budget totally. Children and parents are loving and caring but also demand time and attention. You grow to love without expectations or demands and bring a higher quality to all your relationships. Warm friendships keep you snug and comfortable. Inner silence brings trust and balance inside and outside.

You express yourself creatively and make a difference in important projects this week. You interact with and make an impact on people in your social and business circles! You work well with people and handle difficult professional situations brilliantly.

Many a conflict can be resolved through mediation and discussion. News, views and visitors can be expected from overseas. You are likely to hear from old friends and long lost family members. Stop and go inwards during a busy day to revitalize your energy and gain perspective. Personal relationships are romantic and exciting.

You are generous and giving in family situations this week.

There is intensity and passion in personal relationships. You can say more than you mean to friends and take on more than you can handle in the work area, be aware! This is a good time to tackle difficult tasks that need your expertise, experience, time and energy as you understand and manage situations admirably.

Conserve energy and finances for important projects and priorities. Relaxed evenings with family and friends are rejuvenating. An older man can be selfish and bigoted, avoid dealing with him. Parents may need your assistance - be available.

The Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh ‘Trinity’ or ‘Creation’ bring success and resolution after a period of struggle in all aspects of life this week. You are able to establish a foundation to grow and expand, on many levels.

You realise hopes for family and children as they do you proud. You are noble and giving to friends and family. Personal relationships are loyal and supportive. You can count on two people in the work area to share your burden and help you move ahead progressively. Keep away from an arrogant and conceited person. This is a good time to spend in natural surroundings and feel rejuvenated.

You can abandon yourself to pleasure and desire but need to keep an eye on balance and over indulgence this week.

Professional success is blended with anxiety as important changes are on the cards. You stand up for values, justice and fair play in the work area when you see discrimination against friends or associates. A loved one can be highly emotional and moody. You are ready to take a distance and watch the emotional drama taking place inside and outside you without getting caught up with it. This turning in and meditating quality gives you freedom and a sense of peace.

You make a lasting impact in personal and professional encounters this week. You are received well in social and business circles while launching a new project. A young man close to you is ready to embark on an independent journey that brings him success and fame. You are just and noble towards a cause and generous with loved ones. Your lightness and sense of humour take you smoothly through complicated situations that could otherwise get heavy and serious. You achieve targets with a dynamic and single-pointed approach this week. Beware of emotional over reactions.

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Technology Yahoo confirms 500 million accounts stolen; may be biggest data breach ever Washington In what may be the largest-ever cyber breach, Yahoo on Thursday confirmed that hackers stole information from at least 500 million user accounts.

The internet company said that the information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014, what it claimed was as a “statesponsored” attack.

“The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers,” Yahoo’s Chief Information Security Officer Bob Lord said in a statement.

However, an ongoing investigation into the hack suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank

account information, according to Lord.

Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the affected system, he added.

The investigation has found that the attacker is no longer in Yahoo’s network. The internet giant said that it is working with law enforcement.

Early on Thursday Recode reported that Yahoo was set to confirm a major data breach impacting hundreds of millions of users.

Shuman Ghosemajumder, Chief Technology Officer of Shape Security, warns that the shockwaves from

the breach could be felt far beyond Yahoo.

Yahoo is asking affected users to change passwords, and recommending anyone who hasn’t done so since 2014 take the same action as a precaution.

“Most stories will focus on Yahoo users, but the damage there appears to have been done months ago, and Yahoo will simply reset all their passwords so no further damage can be done,” he said, in a statement emailed to FoxNews.com.

Cybercriminals, he explained, could use advanced automated tools to discover where

users have used those same passwords on other sites.

The breach could also impact Yahoo’s $4.8 billion sale of its core business to Verizon.

“Merger and acquisition deals always carry some level of risk - companies inherit each other’s problems such as pending lawsuits, poorly manufactured products or regulatory violations,” explained Steven Grossman, VP of strategy and enablement for cyber security specialist Bay Dynamics, in an email to FoxNews.com.

“Cyber-related problems are also on that list, yet, even as more companies continue to fall victim to data breaches, cyber risk is not as high a priority as it should be.”

Yahoo said that it along with other companies have launched programs to detect and notify users when a company strongly suspects that a statesponsored actor has targeted an account.

Twitter moving closer to sale: possible suitors Salesforce, Google

Washington Twitter Inc is moving closer to a sale and has received expressions of interest, CNBC reported on Friday, sending the microblogger‘s shares up more than 19 percent in their biggest gain in over two years. CNBC, citing unnamed sources, said possible suitors include Alphabet‘s Google and Salesforce.com. No sale is imminent.

Twitter, Salesforce and Alphabet could not be reached immediately for comment. Salesforce shares fell more than 3 percent, while Alphabet dipped around 0.25 percent. Twitter has been a near-constant focus of

takeover speculation amid persistently disappointing sales and user engagement. In its most recent quarterly report, it posted its slowest revenue growth since going public in 2013 and issued a lackluster outlook. As rivals such as Facebook‘s Instagram and privately held Snapchat gain traction with advertisers and social media users, investors have questioned how long Twitter could persist as a stand-alone company.

Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company as chief executive in 2015, but his plan for reviving Twitter is at best seen as unfinished.

Some shocking details about Zuckerberg gives away $95 million Facebook shares in charity mobile phone data connectivity!

New Delhi Just when you are desperate to book a cab through app-based service provider, or you would like to download or upload an important audio or video clip, the data connectivity on your phone refuses to act!

Whether on those desperate calls or so many other times, you may have noticed that the data/internet connection on your phone is merely

enabling you to view or send emails or instant messages, and no more.

Are you being cheated by your data service provider? For example: when we checked the 3G data service being offered

by Vodafone on a mobile connection, we got shocking results! Packet loss of up to 80 to 90 percent was recorded, with download speed of 0.03 mbps and upload speed of 0 mbps, while

showing network delay of 3522 ms. So, it is time you also check and verify what your mobile data provider is claiming to be offering you?

Here is how you can do it: Telecom regulatory authority has launched an app MySpeed( TRAI) for users to check the speed of the internet on their smartphones.

The app is available for download on Mobile Seva app store and can check the 3G or 4G connectivity offered by the telecom service providers.

The app also offers an option to send the speed report collected from your phone to be directly sent to TRAI and keep them apprised of the internet speeds throughout India.

San Francisco In the first gesture to fulfil his pledge that he and his wife made last year,Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has sold $95 million of the social networking giant‘s shares.

According to a US regulatory filing, The Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and CZI Holdings LLC sold Facebook shares worth $95 million before taxes, Forbes reported on Saturday.

“The sales likely netted more than $85 million after capital gains taxes, the report added.

The couple plans to give away no more than $1 billion worth of stock each year through 2018.

Last December, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to

donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares about $45 billion to advance human potential and promote equality for children.

Declaring the “Chan Zuckerberg Initiative” as they welcomed their first girl Maxima Chan Zuckerberg, the couple said they have created a new foundation that would initially focus on “personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong

communities”.

“As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation,” they posted in a 2,200-word letter to their new-born daughter on Facebook.

“We will give 99 percent of our Facebook shares during our lives to advance this mission.

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Paris to get its own nudist park

Paris A NEW plan has been proposed to give nudists in Paris a dedicated spot where they can strip off in public. The Green Party of Paris is announce proposals for a designated nudist park during a meeting at the Paris city council on Monday. The exact location for the nudist hangout has not been confirmed but some nudists have been sharing their ideas.

Jacques Frimont, vice president of the Association for the Promotion of Naturism in Liberty, proposed a designated area at the Daumesnil lake in Bois de Vincennes in the east of the city. This is the same lake the government plans to transform into a public swimming zone by 2019. Nudist groups in the city have complained of the pressure of overcrowding on existing nudist facilities in the city. The group’s members have had to hire out other spots such as bowling alleys, archery clubs and restaurants.

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Most bizarre beauty trends revealed CONSUMING 16,000 calories a day doesn’t seem like the road to beautification for most people, but in western Africa it is. A new infographic reveals some of the oddest beauty rituals in the world with being ‘super-sized’ considered the height of desirability in some parts. In China, leg stretching and foot binding were both popular antics until they were banned as long legs and tiny tootsies were considered the ultimate symbol of power.

Another beautifying practice that is no longer allowed is the tradition of wearing wooden nose plugs, according to the infographic, which was created by beautyflash.co.uk.

Women of the Apatani tribe in India originally started wearing large plugs in their noses to make them unattractive and prevent them from being abducted, but the custom soon turned into a popular trend.

Although some bizarre beautifying trends have died out, a whole new breed of rituals have

cropped up. Eye widening is becoming increasingly popular in South Korea, with many people believing rounder eyes are more beautiful. The procedure, called Epicanthoplasty, involves cutting the outer edges of the eyes to make the rounder and wider.

Also in Asia, skin-lightening or bleaching is a common practice.

It is also popular in Africa and the Middle East. Taking pain to another level, in Indonesia some

tribe members sharpen their teeth, while in Africa, tribal women willingly scar themselves as a sign of strength. In Kenya the Maasai people stretch their earlobes, believing the more they stretch them the more beautiful they will become. Similarly in other parts of Africa, some tribes

stretch their bottom lips using a clay plate in order to define their beauty. The larger the lip plate, the more beautiful a woman is considered. Over in northern Thailand neck stretching is still practiced, with women wearing brass coils around their necks in a bid to

appear more elegant. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the Maoris consider facial tattoos as the ultimate sign of rank and status.

Issue - 686 (27)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

‘Islamist countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran underbelly of inspiring terror groups’

‘Islamist countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran underbelly of inspiring terror groups’

Washington Islamist identity of states like Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is the “underbelly” inspiring terror outfits like ISIS, Hamas, Al Qaeda, and Hezbollah, US lawmakers have been told by a American Islamic forum leader.

“Political movements and the Islamist identity of states like the Islamic Republic of Iran or the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or the Wahabism of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the underbelly inspiring the militant movements like ISIS, Hamas, Al Qaeda, and Hizballah,” M Zuhdi Jasser, president of Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum For Democracy, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.

Jasser said it is as “equally foolhardy” in counter- terrorism and counter-radicalisation work to refuse to acknowledge the role of political Islam in the threat as

it is to “villainise” the whole of Islam and all Muslims.counterradicalisation work to refuse to acknowledge the role of political Islam in the threat as it is to “villainise” the whole of Islam and all Muslims.

“However, those Islamist governments exploit the militancy of jihadists in order to dictate the ruling form of Islam,” he said yesterday in his testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency, which organised a hearing on radical Islamist terror. The lawmakers expressed concern over the mushrooming growth of terrorist organisations.

Congressman Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the Congressional subcommittee said events of the past few days remind how threat from radical Islamic terrorism is changing and how difficult it is

Islamic State releases new video featuring 5 Dhaka cafe attackers

to detect it and prevent it as well.

“In my view, we still have not dealt effectively with some of the root causes. We have not effectively dealt with the ideology that radicalises people here and around the world.

“It is essential, moving forward, that we not just try to muddle through, contain, try to prevent a catastrophe, but that we have a strategy that will be successful in dealing with the threat as it is evolving,” he said.

Ranking Member Adam Smith said post 9/11, America pulled together all the different elements of US power, and allies, with the intelligence, law enforcement, military and built a very

sophisticated operations centre and tracked al-Qaeda, first, of course, in Afghanistan, then into Pakistan, and Yemen, and elsewhere and has done a successful job of taking out their leadership and then minimising their ability to move forward.

“What we have not been successful at is turning back the ideology. And that is where other groups have popped up, and whether it’s al-Qaeda or ISIL or Ansar al-Sharia, or any of... Boko Haram, dozens of different groups that adhere to this nihilistic, violent death ideology.

That ideology has, quite honestly, spread since 9/11. There are more people adhering to it now

than there were then,” he said.

“And that is the great threat, and that is what we have seen in Europe and here as people not directly affiliated with al-Qaeda or ISIL or any of these other groups, by simply pledging allegiance and going off and committing violent acts in their name,” Smith said.

Asking how to turn back that ideology, Smith said this is particularly important for America to work with the Muslim world on ways to promote the more peaceful brand of Islam that the overwhelming majority of people in that religion adhere to and work with them to defeat the ideology. “That is a challenge because this is what (al-Qaeda founder) Osama bin Laden wanted. He wanted a war of civilisations.

He wanted the West versus Islam. And every time we take a look at this, and cast a broad net and cast aspersions against the entire Islamic religion, we only empower al-Qaeda and ISIL and their message,” he said, using another acronym for the ISIS.

War crimes tribunal sought against Islamic State detainees

Dhaka The Islamic State (IS) has released a new video featuring the five Dhaka cafe attackers who justified the July 1 terror siege and criticised Bangladesh’s democratic system and political leadership. In the 15-minute video message released on Friday night, both in Bangla and Arabic, the terrorist group called on jihadis to launch armed attacks on “atheists, apostates and crusaders” as revenge for the “persecution” of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria and elsewhere.

The five terrorists in the video came down heavily on Islamic scholars for resisting Muslims from joining the armed jihad of the IS, the Dhaka Tribune reported. The video was first released by the official IS media channel, Arabic Nashir, on Telegram. Earlier in the day, IS’ Bangla media At-Tamkin made

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an announcement on its website that they would release a video produced by the “Bilad al-Bengal media office”. Bilad, in this context, means province or region.

The video, believed to have been recorded sometime before the Gulshan attack, was released less than a month after the law enforcers killed the attack’s mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury or Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif on August 27.

The attackers - Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, Shafiqul Islam Uzzal and Meer Saameh Mubasser - were killed in a commando operation on July 2 after they attacked the upscale cafe in the diplomatic enclave of Dhaka, claiming the lives of 22 persons, mostly foreigners.

Police launched a crackdown on militants after the two terror attacks -- Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen (July 1) and Sholakia Eid congregation (July 7) -- and have so far killed at least 31 members of the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has links to the IS.The government maintains there is no organisational base of IS in Bangladesh, and that the attacks were carried out by a faction of banned militant group Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Washington War crimes investigators collecting evidence of the Islamic State group’s elaborate operation to kidnap thousands of women as sex slaves say they have a case to try IS leaders with crimes against humanity but cannot get the global backing to bring current detainees before an international tribunal. Two years after the IS group’s onslaught in northern Iraq, the investigators, as well as U.S. diplomats, say the Obama administration has done little to pursue prosecution of the crimes that Secretary of State John Kerry has called genocide. Current and former State Department officials say that an attempt in late 2014 to have a legal finding of genocide was blocked by the Defense Department, setting back efforts to prosecute IS members suspected of committing war crimes. “The West looks to the United States for leadership in the Middle East, and the focus of this administration has been elsewhere in every respect,” Bill Wiley, the head of the independent investigative group, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, told The Associated Press.

Officials in Washington say that the Defense Department and ultimately the administration were concerned that court trials would distract from the military campaign. But the diplomats say that justice is essential in a region whose religious minorities have been terrorized. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity

because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

The US has no legal obligation to take on the genocide of the Yazidis, but President Barack Obama has said that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.”

including those against the Yazidi minority group. They have built a case implicating the entire IS command structure in a plot to kidnap Yazidi women and girls and establish a sex slave market.

The plan was executed by an organized bureaucracy, from the temporary sorting facilities _ including a prison, schools and

Stephen Rapp, who stepped down as the administration’s ambassador at large for war crimes last year, says the administration should have moved early to help secure evidence of IS atrocities and push for the creation of special Iraqi courts to try war crimes.

“The priority for the U.S. government is to win the war against the Islamic State and destroy them,” Rapp said. “It’s been profoundly disappointing, because the idea of accountability has been such a low priority.”Rapp is now the chairman of the advisory board of the commission, whose investigators in Iraq work with the Kurdish regional government to formally document the IS crimes,

a curtained ballroom where the Yazidis were divided by age and willingness to convert to Islam _ to the waiting buses that would haul them by the dozens across the border to Raqqa. The Islamic State group’s Shariah courts soon stepped in, to settle contract disputes and ensure that its finance hierarchy got its cut of the sex-slave proceeds.

“You have members of IS who were engaged in ensuring that this system continued and that it functioned well,” said Chris Engels, the American lawyer who is leading the commission’s legal investigation. Without a legal documentation of their identities from the top down, many could “slide into refugee streams” and disappear, he said.

Issue - 686 (28)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

US portrays suspect in NY bombing as jihadist who praised Osama bin Laden Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged the Afghan-born man suspected of weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey with 10 counts including use of weapons of mass destruction, portraying him as a jihadist who

begged for martyrdom and praised Osama bin Laden.

The suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, bought bomb components on eBay, made a video of himself testing out homemade explosives, and kept a journal expressing outrage at the US “slaughter” of mujahideen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine, federal officials allege.

“Inshallah (God willing), the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death to your oppression,” Rahami, who came to the United States at age 7,

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wrote in a journal he was carrying when arrested.Rahami was apprehended on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a shootout with police that left him with multiple gunshot wounds.

He was listed in critical but

stable condition on Tuesday, and police had not yet been able to interview him in depth, New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.Federal prosecutors from separate districts in New York and New Jersey charged him with four and six counts respectively.In addition to leaving the bomb that exploded on Saturday evening in the Manhattan district of Chelsea that wounded 31 people, they allege he planted a pipe bomb on the New Jersey shore that injured no one when it exploded on Saturday morning.

He also is accused of planting another pressure-cooker bomb in Chelsea that failed to explode, and multiple devices at a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

One of those exploded as a bomb squad robot attempted to defuse it.

ACT OF TERRORISM The charging documents and accompanying sworn statements from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents offer the first official explanation of what

Man arrested before Nov 2015 Paris attacks admits to smuggling weapons

Berlin A Montenegrin man has admitted to smuggling firearms and explosives into Germany days before last year’s attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

German prosecutors allege the 51-year-old who was caught near the Austrian-German border must have known from the type and number of weapons that they would be used for an attack. But the Munich regional court has said there isn’t sufficient

evidence to prove that claim.

Germany informed France that the man’s satellite navigation device contained an address in Paris before the November 13 attacks.

A lawyer for the man told the court Friday his client wasn’t aware of the purpose of the weapons. The court had offered him a sentence of upto four years and three months if he pleaded guilty to weapons smuggling.

they believe to be the bomber’s motive.As the charges were made public, the White House for the first time said it appeared the attacks were an act of terrorism. Earlier in the investigation, officials had withheld such an assessment until they could discern a motive.

“It does appear this was an act of terrorism,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a press briefing in New York City.At least one victim in the Chelsea blast was knocked unconscious and another hospitalized to remove ball bearings from her body, metal fragmentation from her ear and wood shards from her neck, the charging documents say.

Surveillance video from the bomb scenes and fingerprints on unexploded devices also point to Rahami, according to the documents.The three counts of using weapons of mass destruction, one from New York and two from New Jersey, each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.In addition to the federal charges, New Jersey state prosecutors from Union County have charged Rahami with five counts of attempted firstdegree murder for firing at police officers and two second-degree weapons counts.

India attacks Pakistani camps, jihadis only in Bollywood films: JeM chief Masood Azhar

New Delhi Amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of an attack on an Indian Army base in Uri, Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad took a dig at the Indian military and political leadership. Notably, India has blamed Jaish-eMohammad terrorists for the recent attack in Uri and the one took place in Pathankot earlier this year.

The JeM has released an audio of Maulana Masood Azhar on its online mouthpiece Rangonoor in which the chief is heard saying `India’s heroism is restricted to Bollywood films’.

The audio and its Urdu script was posted on Rangonoor website on September 19, under the pen

name Saadi believed to be JeM chief Azhar’s writing alias, reports DNA.In a 9.41minute audio news bulletin titled ‘The real fountainhead of Power’, Azhar said: “The heroes of its Bollywood movies who are afraid of their own shadows, portray India as invincible and Pakistan as a weak nation.

These heroes who are full of gas but in their movies they attack Pakistan, they come here to destroy camps and take away the Mujaheedins. Not a single bullet touches them, but their one shot kills scores of Mujaheedins.’’

The JeM chief, however, did not claim any responsibility for the Uri attack.India has successfully isolated Pakistan at international forums.

Hacker who leaked details of 1,300 people to Islamic State gets 20 yrs in jail Virginia A computer hacker who helped the Islamic State by providing names of more than 1,000 US government and military workers as potential targets was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday.

The sentence was much higher than the 6-year term sought by defence lawyers, who argued that their client, Ardit Ferizi, meant no real harm and is not a true supporter of the Islamic State.“He was a nonsensical, misguided teenager who did not know what he was doing,” said public defender Elizabeth Mullin.

“He has never embraced ISIL’s ideology.”Ferizi, 20, a native of Kosovo who was arrested last year in Malaysia, is the first person convicted in the US of both computer hacking and terrorism charges. He admitted hacking a private company and pulling out the names, email passwords and phone numbers of about 1,300 people with .gov and .mil addresses. The Islamic State published the names with a threat to attack.At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Ferizi struggled to explain why he did it when asked directly by US district judge Leonie Brinkema for an explanation. He said that it all happened very quickly.“I feel so bad for what I did,” he said in Albanian-accented English. “I am very sorry for what I did, making people feel scared.”

Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of 25 years.

“The defendant’s conduct has indefinitely put the lives of 1,300 military members and government workers at risk,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Van Grack.He disputed the idea

victims, who said she has an easily identifiable name and is now nervous when she interacts with Muslims, something she feels guilty about. And Van Grack cited another terror case in northern Virginia, in which the defendant, Haris Qamar,

that Ferizi’s crime was a whim.

Before turning over the names to the “Islamic State Hacking Division” las year, he operated a website devoted to propagating the Islamic State’s propaganda.

In online conversations, Ferizi defended the Islamic State, and when he gave the 1,300 identities to the Islamic State, he knew he was putting them in would-be terrorists’ crosshairs, Van Grack said.“This was a hit list. The point was to find these individuals and hit them, to ‘strike at their necks,’” Van Grack said, mimicking the language the Islamic state used when it published the names.Van Grack quoted a letter from one of the

allegedly staked out two of the addresses of people in the list who lived near him in the town of Burke.Mullin countered that nobody on the list has actually been harmed, and said that much of the information Ferizi helped disseminate was publicly available anyway.Court papers describe a difficult life for Ferizi, who was nominally raised as a Muslim and was just 4 years old when NATO airstrikes forced Serbian forces to withdraw from the territory, which subsequently became independent. Ferizi’s uncle was murdered and his father was kidnapped during the war, according to letters written

by Ferizi’s family.

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Using money, jihad dreams and religious guilt, IS recruiter cast net across India New Delhi An online recruiter who is at the centre of Islamic State (IS) recruitment plots in India used a combination of tactics to lure Indian youths into the terrorist organisation’s network including prospects of travelling to Syria,

finances, mobile phones, literature and religious guilt online chats of the recruiter with some of the youths arrested in India have revealed.The recruiter, Shafi Armar alias Shafi alias Yusuf al Hindi, 29, a former resident of Bhatkal in Karnataka, who is reported to be in Syria according to a recent NIA chargesheet on a nationwide IS recruitment plot, helped two Hyderabad youths travel to Syria in 2015, provided bombmaking documents to at least three others, and was in touch with around 300 Indian youths online between 2014 and 2016, the NIA’s probe into the IS plot has

revealed.As many as 20 people were arrested from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Delhi and other places in January this year for links to the IS in separate cases by the NIA. Investigations of the communications of the arrested

men have shown that many of them were in touch with Shafi Armar a former Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative who claimed to be the India media chief of the IS via secure online messaging platforms like Skype, Trillian, Surespot and Telegram.

The online chats provide insights into the modus operandi of the recruiter, who worked for a while with the al-Qaeda and Taliban on the Af-Pak border before heading to Syria around 2015.

In December 2015, Shafi Armar had a lengthy online discussion on the Trillian messaging service with two youths he had appointed to leadership positions in the IS

Pope says journalism based on fearmongering, gossip is form of ‘terrorism’

affiliate Junood-ul-Khalifa-al-Hind in India. The discussion among Mohammed Nafees Khan, 21, from Hyderabad, Mudabbir Shaikh, 33, from Mumbai, and Armar was about finances of the group, and Armar told the youths about his frugal existence on the Af-Pak border in 2013-14. At one point, Mohammed Nafees Khan, who was using a ‘qasret.sahen’ Trillian ID, asked Armar, who was using the Trillian ID ‘farooq309’: “us wqt AQ is juden the na aap?

(Were you associated with the al-Qaeda then?)”Armar (farooq309) replied, “aq se bhi the T ke saat bhi, phir aq se aqeede aur manhaj he mamilem mai ikthilaf ho gaya. (We were associated with the al-Qaeda and the Taliban but later we broke ties with the al-Qaeda over some issues.)”The NIA investigations have revealed that Nafees was introduced to Shafi Armar on Trillian as Gumnaambhai alias Yusuf by one Rizwan alias Khalid from Uttar Pradesh, who was arrested in January in Mumbai in a separate case for alleged recruitment of youths for the IS. Armar began to slowly radicalise Nafees by sending him IS literature, and later asked him to travel around India to meet dozens of youths that Armar had contacted online.

Nafees, according to the NIA, told a Hyderabad associate, Obedullah Khan, 33, that there were 300 Indians wanting to join the IS. He also claimed that he was in touch with top leaders of the IS who wanted to set up a base in India, according to the NIA chargesheet.

Cops surround Sikh man as callers report ‘Muslim with sword’

New York In a case of alleged racial profiling in US, police surrounded a Sikh man carrying a kirpan after getting calls about an apparent Muslim walking around a shopping centre with a ‘large knife’ or ‘sword’.Harpreet Singh Khalsa, 33, said he was the victim of racial profiling in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, but police stated that those who called in their concerns did the right thing.

Police in Bethlehem Township, Northampton County, received multiple calls about an apparent ‘Muslim man’ walking around the Bethlehem Square Shopping Center with a “large knife” or “sword”.

Multiple officers responded to find Khalsa sitting inside a van parked in the fire lane.“The cops surrounded me and told me to put my hands on my head,” Khalsa was quoted as saying by WFMZ-TV.Khalsa, visiting from Maryland, was not carrying a large knife or sword.

He was wearing a kirpan one of the five articles of the Sikh

faith.Khalsa said he was scared having so many officers around him.“Embarrassed, humiliated, ashamed, for even bothering to come to Bethlehem,” Khalsa said.Given recent attacks in New York and Minnesota, officers said people are on higher alert.

“People are a little sensitive to things that are unusual,” said Captain Greg Gottschall, Bethlehem Township Police Department.“They did the right thing. They called for us to come and check it out,” he was quoted as saying. However, Khalsa said he was racially profiled and misunderstood.

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911 transcript: Orlando club gunman said US must stop Syria bombing

London ournalism based on gossip or rumors is a form of “terrorism” and media that stereotype entire populations or foment fear of migrants are acting destructively, Pope Francis said on Thursday.

SEEKING THE TRUTH Francis, who made his comments in an address to leaders of Italy’s national journalists’ guild, said reporters had to go the extra mile to seek the truth, particularly in an age of round-the-clock news coverage.

Spreading rumors is an example of “terrorism, of how you can kill a person with your tongue”, he said. “This is even more true for journalists because their voice can reach everyone and this is a very powerful weapon.”

ITALIAN JOURNALISM In Italy, a number of newspapers are highly politicized and are regularly used to discredit those with differing political views, sometimes reporting unsubstantiated rumors about

their private lives. In 2009 several media outlets owned by the family of then-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi came under fire from the journalists’ guild over stories questioning the trustworthiness of a magistrate who had ruled against a company owned by the Berlusconi family.

The stories were filled with insinuations about the way he dressed, including the color of his socks, and the way he took walks in the park.

A WEAPON OF DESTRUCTION Francis, who has often strongly defended the rights of refugees and migrants, said journalism should not be used as a “weapon of destruction against persons and even entire peoples”.

“Neither should it foment fear before events like forced migration from war or from hunger,” he added. Last year, the right-wing newspaper Libero headlined its story on the Paris attacks that killed about 130

New York The gunman responsible for the worst mass shooting in US history told a police negotiator during a standoff at an Orlando nightclub that the United States needed to stop bombing Syria and Iraq, according to a transcript of the phone conversation released on Friday.

Omar Mateen identified himself to a 911 operator as the shooter at the Pulse nightclub about a half hour after the massacre started and he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.“I want to let you know I’m in Orlando and I did the shooting,” he said.When a police negotiator called him back about a dozen minutes later, Mateen told the negotiator he needed to stop the US airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. A U led coalition has targeted Islamic State militants with airstrikes in those two countries.“They are killing a lot of innocent people,” said Mateen, a New York-born son of an Afghan immigrant. “What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there? You get what I’m saying?”Mateen also compared himself to Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev,

according to the transcripts.

Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded at the marathon’s finish line in 2013.

“My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston

transcripts of three conversations Mateen had with police negotiators, after fighting with media groups seeking their release. A hearing is being held today on the litigation between the city and two dozen media groups,

Marathon,” Mateen said. “So, now it’s my turn, OK?” Mateen told the negotiator that he had fasted and prayed all day since it was the Muslim holiday, Ramadan.

Mateen also told the police negotiator that he had planted bombs in a vehicle outside the gay nightclub. Mateen’s statement ended up being false, but police officers took the threat seriously at the time.This week, the city of Orlando has made public dozens of 911 calls, as well as the

including The Associated Press.

The June 12 nightclub attack claimed 49 lives and seriously injured 53 others.The media groups had argued that the release of the more than 600 records would help the public evaluate the police response to the massacre.The city had said the records were exempt from the state’s public records law, both because they were part of an investigation and because some were graphic calls of patrons being shot and killed.

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Indian-Americans launch White House Indian printer named petition to declare Pak sponsor of terror in US mail fraud racket Washington The Indian-American community in the US has launched a White House petition to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, days after a bill in this regard was tabled in the US

Congress by two powerful lawmakers.

“This petition is important to the people of United States of America, India and many other countries which are continuously affected by Pakistan sponsored terrorism,” the petition started on Tuesday said.

It requires at least 1,00,000 signatures to qualify for a response from the Obama Administration.An initiative of US President Barack Obama, “We the People”, the online petition

service at the White House website provides a window to American citizens to campaign before the administration on a particular issue.

The move comes after Congressman Ted Poe,

Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, introduced H R 6069, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act in the House of Representatives.The bill has been sent to House Foreign Affairs Committee for necessary action.Simultaneously the US India Political Action Committee on Friday launched a nationwide effort to canvass Indian Americans to get their local

US Elections: Donald Trump campaign to spend $140 million more on ads

Washington Donald Trump’s campaign is planning for what it says will amount to $140 million worth of advertising from now until Election Day. The total, if executed, would include $100 million in television airtime and $40 million worth of digital ads, according to senior communications adviser Jason Miller. The plan represents a dramatic expansion for the billionaire businessman, who has repeatedly bragged in recent weeks about how much less he’s spent thaN Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Through this week, the Trump campaign has spent just $22 million on ads during the general election, according to Kantar Media’s political advertising tracker.

That’s dramatically less than Clinton, who has spent more

than $140 million on general election ads so far. The Trump campaign is targeting key battleground states like Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with Michigan, Maine, New Mexico, Wisconsin and others. Miller says about $40 million of the ads will play on national TV. Clinton’s ad reservations going forward total about $11 million per week, but she can add to those buys at any time. The new Trump plan would average to about $16 million per week; Miller says the first $15 million ad buy was made Friday. The new spending represents a total higher than the campaign’s current cash-on-hand.

Trump’s campaign had about $50 million in the bank as of Sept. 1, but in a news release earlier this month the campaign said it had $97 million in cash when including his joint accounts with Republican Party allies.

The campaign also has continued to experience strong fundraising online this month, campaign aides said.

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legislators’ support to H R 6069.

“It is time we stop paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is, a state sponsor of terrorism,” Congressman Ted Poe said after introducing the bill in the US House of Representatives.“Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the United States for years. From harboring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the War on Terror. And it’s not America’s,” Poe claimed.

If passed, the bill will require the US President to issue a report within 90 days of passage detailing whether or not Pakistan has provided support for international terrorism, he said.

“Thirty days after that, the Secretary of State must issue a follow-up report containing either a determination that Pakistan is state sponsor of terrorism or a detailed justification as to why Pakistan does not meet the legal criteria for designation,” he added.

Calling it a untrustworthy ally of America, Poe said for years Pakistan has been aiding and abetting the enemies of the US. “These are not enemies who simply profess to hate us.

Washington US authorities have named an Indian printer in a multi-country mailing scam that targeted the elderly and vulnerable by offering them millions of dollars in cash prize or reward in return for a small processing fee.

The scheme, similar to the advance fee scam run out of Nigeria for years, was operated by people based all over the world, and individuals and companies targeted by investigators came from Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands, the US and India. According to the complaint filed in a US court on Friday, “fraudulent direct mailers create letters falsely claiming that the recipient has won, or will soon win, cash or valuable prizes, or otherwise will come into good fortune.” But in order to receive the sum, the recipient

is required to send across a small amount of money as taxes or processing fee.

“The letters appear to come from legitimate sources, typically on official-looking letterhead, and even though they are in reality identical form letters - the letters appear to be personally addressed. Some solicitations even use fonts that appear to be handwritten.”

These letters were allegedly printed by Mail Order Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. (MOSI), a company based in India with principals, Dharti Desai, 49, of New York County and Mumbai, India, and Mehul Desai, also of Mumbai.

The complaint alleged MOSI was involved in this business since at least 2005 and “shipped at least 24.5 million solicitation packets to the United States”.

Two Indian-Americans win prestigious ‘genius grants’ Washington It’s called the “Genius Grant” and each award comes with $625,000, no strings attached.

But no, you can’t apply for it, or have a well-connected uncle enter you for it.

Those being considered have no inkling and when the call comes, they are always surprised.

Manu Prakash, who was among the 23 winners announced on Thursday, almost didn’t answer the phone. The India-born Stanford biologist was handling his four-month old twins then. “I was very sleep deprived when the phone rang,” he told Stanford, the university’s in-house magazine.

But he did answer, eventually.

Prakash was one of two Indiaborn men among the MacArthur Fellowship awardees for 2016.

Subhash Khot, a computer scientist from New York University, was the second. They are both from the Indian Institutes of Technology — Prakash from Kanpur and Khot from Mumbai.

There is a third India-linked winner this year — Bill Thies, an American working at a Microsoft lab in Bengaluru.

The John D and Katherine T MacArthur Foundation, which has offices in India, awards an unrestricted number of fellowships every year to people who have shown “exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances”.

Past winners with an India

connection include writers Ved Mehta and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, poet and scholar AK Ramanujam, classical musician Ali Akbar Khan and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer.

Nominees, drawn from a wide variety of fields, are brought to

and ecological surveillance”.

He has used tiny air bubbles travelling through “microfluidic channels”, such as water, to create a basic computer. And perhaps because he grew up in India, he tries to create things that are affordable, such as a

the foundation’s notice by a changing pool of nominators who remain anonymous, as do evaluators and selectors.

Applications and “unsolicited” nominations are not accepted.

Prakash will never know how he got selected but there’s no question he deserves the fellowship. He is a physical biologist and inventor, the foundation said, who has used his “expertise in soft-matter physics to illuminate often easy to observe but hard to explain phenomena in biological and physical contexts and to invent solutions to difficult problems in global health, science education,

Foldscope, a lightweight optical microscope built using origami that costs less than a dollar.

Khot is a theoretical computer scientist who studies, in simple terms, what computers can do and what they can’t. His research is bolstering a sobering realisation among computer scientists that there are a lot of computational problems that can’t be solved fast.

“As computers come to drive ever more aspects of our lives, greater understanding of the limitations of computing is increasingly important,” said the foundation Thies, who went to MIT, is also a computer scientist.

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Mumbai-born man who instructed gangrape ‘like a coach’ lands in US jail Washington Cecil Burrows came to the US when he was 12, and lonely and isolated he fell in with a gang of criminals, setting off on a road that would take him to jail and eventually, when he is out, back

to Mumbai, where he was born.

Burrows, 23 was sentenced to 18 months in jail by a court in Montgomery, a county in Maryland abutting Washington DC, for his role in the gang-rape of a nearly comatose woman in a townhouse nearly four years ago in 2012. He had played the role of a “coach”, issuing instructions. “Hold her down,” he was heard saying in a 35-minute audio recording played in the court, according to The Washington Post, on Thursday, “Cecil, he like a coach,” said one

of the assailants. Burrows had recorded the assault, which had taken place at his house. But his role would be discovered two years later, when one of the convicted men gave him away, telling detectives he was at home

then and not away.Burrows had told the police earlier he had stepped out to get beer when the woman, who was either drunk or had been drugged, was assaulted.The recording, only audio, was found on his computer.“On the recording,” detectives wrote in court papers, the Post reported, “a female can be heard crying out and asking for them to stop. . About six minutes into the recording, a male voice can be heard remarking that she is sitting there like she is dead, then one

Facebook apologises for overstating key ad metric

CALIFORNIA Facebook Inc on Friday apologized for an error in the way it measured a key metric of video viewership that significantly amplified users’ viewing times on its platform.

The social media giant had said a few weeks ago that a metric for average user time on videos was artificially inflated as it only counted videos viewed for over three seconds.

At the time, Facebook had said that the “discrepancy” did not impact advertising billings and introduced newer metrics to replace the previous method.

Facebook has made a significant strides into video, which has attracted significant advertising interest and has benefited from the shift in advertising spending towards the internet and other mobile platforms. Revenue from advertising was the biggest driver to company’s total revenue in the latest quarter, surging 63 percent

to $6.24 billion.

“While this is only one of the many metrics marketers look at, we take any mistake seriously,” David Fischer, vice president of business and marketing partnership at Facebook, said in a post on Friday.

“This could pose a serious blow to Facebook’s video proposition, which has had so much of momentum over the last two years,” said Sarah Wood, coCEO of ad tech company Unruly, which is owned by News Corp.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. (http://on.wsj.com/ 2cH0W7L) Publicis Groupe SA’s advertising unit was informed by Facebook that the earlier method likely overestimated average time spent watching videos by between 60 percent and 80 percent, according to the WSJ report.

Shares of Facebook closed down 1.6 percent at $127.96 on Friday.

subject asks in a louder voice, ‘Are you alive? Hello?’ “Burrows could be heard giving instructions, asking at one point, “Who’s next?”Burrows was born in Mumbai, according to his attorney cited by the Post. His father left the family when was two, and when he was four, his mother emigrated to the United States.Burrows and his younger sister moved in with grandparents, then wth relatives living in a slum, said the Post, not naming it.Burrows and his sister came to Montgomery County when he was 12, and feeling “lonely” and isolated, he was soon moving around with a gang. “I felt a sense of love, connection and belonging in a way I never felt before,” he said court on Thursday. “I also knew that to challenge them was to risk getting kicked out violently.”

Burrows is a lawful permanent resident of the US, but not a citizen yet, and will be deported to India after he completes his sentence, which together with time already served will be three years.

6-year-old Indian chef on The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Los Angeles YouTube sensation and young chef Nihal Raj, also known as Kicha, showcased his cookery skills on the popular American chat show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”.Kicha, who hails from Kochi, found fame after starting KichaTube HD channel on the video-sharing site. Till now he has featured in 33 videos. Launched in January last year, the channel now has over 6,000 subscribers.

While introducing him on the show, DeGeneres said: “Well, if you have ever wondered why

Ellen hasn’t had an adorable sixyear-old chef from India, then today is your day. Please welcome Kicha.” Raj seemed to be having a lot of “fun” during his maiden visit to the US as when the host asked him about his experience, he said: “It’s been fun.” On the show, which was aired in the US on Friday, Kicha told DeGeneres how to make Puttua traditional Kerala breakfast dish.

After eating the dish, DeGeneres appreciated Kicha and said: “It’s very delicious.”

Nasa’s black female mathematicians hit the big screen WASHINGTON During the era of US racial segregation, a handful of black female mathematicians managed to break social barriers and propel the US space agency to new heights - and soon their story will be a major motion picture.This remarkable story has been told in the book “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly, which was published in September.

The movie comes out in January, starring Taraji P. Henson - known for her role in the TV series “Empire” and for her Oscar nomination in the 2008 film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - and Octavia Spencer, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2011 film “The Help.”Some of the female mathematicians worked with the author’s father, an engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, a southern US state where racial segregation was the norm.Shetterly, herself an AfricanAmerican, was born in 1969, and remembers the women as “normal” middle-class types, the mothers of friends who serve peanut butter sandwiches to kids.The mathematicians provided pivotal contributions to the US space program, starting in the 1940s through to the 1960s, when the nation first sent men to orbit and then walk on the Moon.It was not until Shetterly’s husband heard about the women, during a visit with Shetterly’s father, that she realized their story could - and should - be written in book form.“My husband was like, ‘Wait a minute, I cannot believe this. How can nobody knows the story’?” she recalled in an interview with AFP.The heroines of the story are Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson.The US

involvement in World War II in 1941 opened the door to them, Shetterly said.The country needed engineers and scientists to come up with new

technologies to help planes fly higher and faster.But segregation was still a reality. There were dozens of African-Americans, both male and female, working as mathematicians and physicists for the US space program, even as they were forced to use separate bathrooms from whites, and were barred from the same restaurants and schools frequented by whites.The black women mathematicians at the center of “Hidden Figures” were nicknamed “colored computers,” working apart from the rest of the math unit in the west wing of the Langley Research Center.

By the end of the war, there were around 25 black women and two white managers in the unit.

Soon however there was a new war, as the Cold War broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union.The USSR launched its first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, raising the stakes for the United States in the space

race.By 1958 NASA was formed, gathering all the nation’s space activities, and the Langley Research Center was in charge of the Mercury project, the first US manned space program.It was then that the black mathematicians were integrated with the rest of NASA and tasked with making complex calculations about rocket launches.In 1959, Katherine Johnson - played in the movie by Henson - and a white colleague were the first to calculate the parameters of the first suborbital flight in 1961 of astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

They also calculated John Glenn’s course, as the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.According to the book, in 1962, Glenn asked that Johnson herself re-check the figures one last time before he embarked on the mission.Johnson’s math talents later helped determine the trajectory of the Apollo 11 flight that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969.The women in the story are among about 80 black female mathematicians who worked for the US space program from 1943 to 1980 - a time period that saw about 1,000 women employed there, far fewer than the number of men.

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Issue - 686 (32)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Thousands of people march Obama lauds self-driving cars’ huge potential against same-sex marriage Mexico City Tens of thousands of people marched through Mexico City on Saturday in opposition to

President Enrique Pena Nieto’s push to legalize same-sex marriage.Organizers of the National Front for the Family estimated at least 215,000 people participated, and while that number could not be immediately confirmed, it was clearly one of the largest protest marches in

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Mexico in recent years.

New Zealand Steady As Rain Ruins Final Session Dressed mainly in white and

carrying white balloons, the marchers held banners warning against same-sex marriage and demanding parents’ right to control sex education in schools.

“We are not against anybody’s (sexual) identity,” said Abraham Ledesma, an evangelical pastor who traveled from the border city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, to participate in Saturday’s march.

“What we are against is the government imposition … of trying to impose gender ideology in education. As religious leaders, we don’t want to be forced to marry same-sex couples and call it marriage.” Others carried signs saying “an adopted child deserves a mother and a father.” On the other side of a police barricade separating the two sides at

Petitions in Pak court want country to ban voting machines, movies from India

Lahore A petition has been filed in the Lahore high court, seeking an order for Pakistan election commission to not acquire electronic voting or biometric machines from an Indian company.

In a writ petition filed on behalf of a citizen, advocate Azhar Siddique said the Pakistan Election Commission (ECP) opened bidding to acquire the electronic voting machines (EVMs) since it intended to hold the next general election on biometric system.

“Three Indian companies - Indra Kamra, Reliance and Morpho have also submitted their bids and ECP is likely to approve bids of the Indian companies and

choose one of them. It will be dangerous for Pakistan’s security if electronic voting and thumb impression machines are purchased from Indian companies,” the petitioner said.

He argued that the electronic voting system should not be acquired from any Indian company for security concerns and appealed the court to stop the ECP from acquiring the system from the Indian company. The court will fix the date for hearing next week, a court official said. An ECP spokesperson, however, said no Indian company has been shortlisted for the project so far.

“The biometric machines will be acquired after security clearance,” he said.

Mexico’s Independence Monument, a far smaller crowd of same-sex marriage supporters _ perhaps a couple hundred _ listened to music and speeches.

“They may be the majority,” said Felipe Quiroz, a gay activist and school teacher. “But just because they are the majority, doesn’t mean they can take rights away from minorities. That would lead us to a dark period, to fundamentalism.”

Many saw the massive march as the Roman Catholic church flexing its political muscle in a country where about 80 percent of people identify as nominally Catholic. In May, Pena Nieto proposed legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It is currently legal only in some places such as Mexico City, the northern state of Coahuila and Quintana Roo state on the Caribbean coast.

But in June, Pena Nieto’s party suffered unprecedented losses in midterm governorship elections, and his party has since put the proposal on the back burner in Congress.

Activists say opposition to samesex marriage played a role.

Jose Medrano, a university professor, came to Saturday’s march from the northern state of Chihuahua, where the ruling party lost the governorship in June to the conservative, pro-Catholic National Action party.

“We may have influenced this, because the proposal (for samesex marriage) was presented just a few weeks before the elections, and a lot of people were against it,” said Medrano.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama gave an enthusiastic endorsement to self-driving vehicles that, when safe, could prove “transformative,” in an opinion piece published Monday.

“Right now, too many people die on our roads - 35,200 last year alone - with 94 percent of those the result of human error or choice,” Obama wrote in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“Automated vehicles have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives each year. And right now, for too many senior citizens and Americans with disabilities, driving isn’t an option. Automated vehicles could change their lives,” he stressed.

Obama’s endorsement of the technological shift came the same day the United States unveiled a sweeping new regulatory framework for the unexpectedly rapid onset of self-driving automobile technology, just days after Uber broke ground with its first driverless taxis.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the federal government intends to set the safety standards for cars of the future where no human is involved in the driving, even while individual states still regulate cars with humans behind the wheel.

Announcing a 15-point safety assessment for driverless car systems, Foxx stressed that the government wants to work with developers - which include most large automakers as well as tech giants like Uber and Alphabet (Google) - without stifling their efforts. Obama underscored in his op-ed piece that the government’s role ensuring safety is key. “If a self-driving car isn’t safe, we have the authority to pull it off the road,” he wrote.

“We won’t hesitate to protect the American public’s safety.” But “in the seven-and-a-half years of my presidency, self-driving cars have gone from sci-fi fantasy to an emerging reality with the potential to transform the way we live.”

2,000-year-old skeleton found at Mediterranean shipwreck PARIS Archeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old human skeleton at the same Mediterranean shipwreck that yielded the most sophisticated piece of technology, a clockwork, to survive Antiquity, Nature reported Monday. If DNA can be prised from the remains, found on August 31 off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera, it may reveal clues as to the skeleton’s identity, the science journal said. The surprisingly well-preserved bones - including a partial skull, two arm bones, several ribs and two femurs - could also unlock secrets about the famous firstcentury BC merchant ship which probably foundered during a storm. The Greek government has yet to give permission for DNA testing. The skeleton is a rare find.The bodies of shipwreck victims are usually swept away or eaten by fish, and rarely survive decades, much less centuries.“We don’t know of anything else like it,” Brendan Foley, an underwater archeologist at Woodshole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and co-director

of the excavation, told Nature.

A first look suggests that the skeletal remains come from a young man, according to

recovery could reveal hair and eye colour, as well as ancestry and geographic origin, he added.

The wreck, sitting in nearly 50

Hannes Schroeder, an expert in ancient DNA analysis from Denmark Museum of Natural History.

“It doesn’t look like bones that are 2,000 years old,” he told Nature.Schroeder was especially pleased at the recovery of the petrous bones located behind the ear - that tend to preserve DNA better than other parts of the skeleton or teeth.“If there’s any DNA, then from what we know, it’ll be there,” he told Nature.DNA

metres (165 feet) of water, was first discovered by sponge divers in 1900, and is widely believed to be the first ever investigated by archeologists. The prize find was the so-called Antikythera Mechanism, a device from the 2nd-century BC, which is sometimes called the world’s oldest computer. The highly complex device is composed of some 40 bronze cogs and gears and was used by the ancient Greeks to track the cycles of the solar system.

Issue - 686 (33)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Oxford ranked world’s top university First test of driverless LONDON The University of Oxford, the oldest university in the Englishspeaking world and feeder for the British elite, has topped a global education ranking for the first time, but its vice-chancellor

risk to our success” by making it harder to attract top academic staff and plug them into research projects.

Brexit risks driving away students, staff and funding, Oxford’s vice-chancellor,

warned that Brexit could damage its long-term prospects.

Oxford knocked the leader for the last five years, California Institute of Technology, into second place in the Times Higher Education’s global league table, which also saw Chinese universities climb rapidly. Oxford, which educated four of the last six British prime ministers, ousted its U.S. rival after its research funding rose 10 percent and overall funding rose to 1.4 billion pounds ($1.83 billion), while the impact of its research increased, said Phil Baty, editor of the rankings.

But Baty said Britain’s exit from the European Union “is a serious

Professor Louise Richardson, told BBC radio.Richardson said rival universities had stepped up efforts to poach the 17 percent of Oxford’s faculty who are EU citizens, and whose status in Britain was no longer guaranteed following the June 23 vote.

“There are many universities in the world that would be thrilled to have them and who are approaching them and asking if they would return to their universities instead,” she said.

The government had also offered no reassurance that it would replace around 67 million pounds a year it receives from the European Research Council

Swraj Paul announces new fund in UK

London Prominent industrialist Swraj Paul on Friday announced the setting up of a new £400,000 fund to contribute to the economic development of Wolverhampton and the west Midlands region.

Paul, who is also chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, made the announcement during his speech at the graduation ceremony. Paul’s Caparo Group has major investments in the region and has been closely involved with the university over the years.

He said: “Another exciting project which I am proud to be able to share with you today is the university’s involvement in the development of a Caparo Innovation Centre Investment Fund.” “This is a £400,000 technology investment fund, which will be a great opportunity for university researchers and will

be extremely positive for the economic development of the region, through the support it will provide to new companies specialising in the science and technology sectors.”

Paul, 85, said the idea for the venture was initiated during his time studying at the MIT. “I hope will act as an exemplar in how new innovation and technological development can help drive business development and growth; particularly at a time when there is so much uncertainty arising from the recent EU Referendum decision.”

“My company Caparo and the University have had a longstanding tradition of collaboration and I am delighted and proud that this partnership will continue to flourish and provide benefits for the local economy,” he told the gathering.

to fund its work, she said.

“To be honest we’re really quite worried about it.”

While Oxford, the University of Cambridge and London’s Imperial College make the top 10 along with ETH Zurich, the list is dominated by U.S. universities.

Stanford University is ranked third, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology fifth, Harvard sixth, Princeton seventh and the University of California, Berkeley and University of Chicago at tenth equal.

Cambridge was ranked fourth, Imperial eighth and ETH Zurich ninth.But St Andrews university in Scotland and Sheffield university fell out of the top 100.

In Europe, Germany and the Netherlands were the third and fourth best performers, with 41 and 13 universities respectively in the top 200.Southern European countries such as Spain and Italy did less well due to underfunding and problems recruiting good staff, Baty said.More broadly, the rankings showed institutions in Asia had made progress with two new Asian universities - the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology - now in the 100 and another four joining the top 200.

Peking University rose to 29th place from 42, and Tsinghua ranked 35, up from 47th last year.

minibus in Paris

PARIS The French capital’s transport authority will on Saturday carry out its first test of a driverless minibus, in the hope that regular routes for the hi-tech vehicles will be up and running within two years.

The electric-powered driverless EZ10 minibus, able to carry up to 12 passengers, has already been tested on closed circuits in Japan, Singapore and California and in a road test in Helsinki.One of the self-driving shuttle buses, made by French hi-tech firm Easymile, will on Saturday run along a special circuit in Paris on a pedestrianised street near the

River Seine. The bus will travel at 25 kilometres (15 miles) an hour and for RATP, the transport authority for the Paris region, it is the start of a series of tests.

The second test, to be held in the French capital before the end of the year, will see the EZ10 running between two major transport hubs, the Lyon and Austerlitz train stations.

“The autonomous vehicle presents an opportunity for new services notably in less densely populated areas,” RATP president Elisabeth Borne said in a statement.

The east-central French town of Lyon carried out its own test on a driverless minibus this month.

Saudi pilot triggers false hijack alarm in Philippines MANILA A pilot of a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight accidentally pressed a hijack alarm, triggering a major security response at Manila airport on Tuesday, authorities said.

Police isolated and surrounded the Saudia flight after it landed on Tuesday afternoon just after one of its pilots released a distress signal indicating a hijack incident was underway, the Philippine aviation authority said in a statement.

Hundreds of passengers aboard the Boeing 777 flight from the Red Sea city of Jeddah were forced to remain on the plane for more than two hours, but were let off about 5:00pm (0900 GMT) after it was confirmed there was no threat.

“Situation is normal. It was alleged that the pilot pressed the emergency light of the aircraft unintentionally,” Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde told reporters.

In Saudi Arabia, an airline spokesman also told AFP there was no security threat. “False alarm for hijack for Flight 872,” the spokesman said.

The aviation authority statement said the distress signal pressed by the pilot alerted authorities “that a hijacking incident is on progress on board”.

“Immediately the flight was given priority landing by airport

authorities... and was directed to park on the remote bay and isolated for security procedures,” the statement said. “Apparently the pilot committed an error activating the 7500 squawking signal,” the statement said,

on the plane.

“When we saw the armed men we thought, what’s the problem.

We wanted to know what was happening,” Majud told ABSCBN television network.

But she said the atmosphere

referring to the hijack alarm.

It said an investigation would still be needed to confirm why the distress signal was pressed.

“Appropriate penalties and sanctions will be imposed on the erring pilot if the result is indeed a human error,” it said.

There were 410 passengers on board, plus four pilots and 17 crew members, airport general manager Ed Monreal told reporters.

Many of them were returning from the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. One of the passengers, Aida Majud, said they were not told why they were being kept

was calm, with some speculating President Rodrigo Duterte had come to the airport to welcome back the pilgrims and that the armed men surrounding the plane were his security personnel.

Majud said passengers had to undergo body checks after getting off the plane to ensure no one was carrying weapons.

Airport officials said there were no major disruptions to aviation traffic, with planes continuing to land and take off, because the Saudia aircraft had been kept at an isolated area. The carrier is known as Saudia.

Issue - 686 (34)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Men pulled from crevasse on Australia’s Uluru SYDNEY Three young men stuck in a crevasse on Australian tourist attraction Uluru, the world’s

largest monolith, were lowered to safety in a difficult, late-night rescue operation, authorities said Tuesday.

Rescuers battled strong winds and abseiled 320 metres (1,049 feet) to reach the stranded Australians, all aged 22, after they wandered off a well-worn path while climbing the iconic symbol of the Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, Monday.

The men climbed down steep slopes towards the bottom of the giant red rock but then got stuck, Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services spokeswoman Nicole Ogilvie told AFP.“They were lucky there were no injuries,” Ogilvie said, adding that a Taiwanese tourist was badly injured last year after falling

into a narrow gap when he left the official route.“You just don’t know how bad it can get when you actually veer off the path.”

Rescue workers were flown by helicopter to the top of Uluru to start the complex process of extracting the trio after police confirmed they were uninjured and had enough water.

“Due to the fading light and lack of anchors, the rescue effort was slow and methodical,” emergency service volunteer Alan Leahy said in a statement.

“We abseiled about 320 metres to the stranded men. There were very strong winds that kept on tangling the rope,” Leahy added.

Rescue workers reached the men about 11.30 pm (1400 GMT Monday) and moved them one at a time to the base of the rock, a process that took several hours.

The seven rescuers only had

Russia jails space engineer for 7 years for selling state secrets to China

Moscow Russia sentenced an elderly decorated space engineer and university instructor to seven years in prison for state treason, an official said on Friday.

A spokesman for Moscow City Court told AFP that the entire case against Vladimir Lapygin was “top secret”.

“The verdict was pronounced on September 6,” he said.

Russian media said Lapygin is in his late 70s and spent months under house arrest after his initial

detention in May 2015. He was reportedly accused of giving Russian secrets to China.

Russian agencies said Lapygin taught at Moscow’s Bauman State Technical Institute.

Information on the university’s page suggested he advised graduate students in the mechanical engineering department.

Lapygin is also an employee of Tsniimash, the Central Research Institute of Machine Building, which develops rockets and is administered by the Roscosmos space agency. In 2014, he received a medal for his contributions to Russia’s economy and defence capabilities.

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head torches to guide them to the men as darkness fell, the emergency service’s southern regional manager Claire Barker said.“Where they were situated was very steep and we couldn’t get them to climb up from where they were, they were actually stuck,” Barker told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“So our guys had to start from the top of the rock to where they were and pluck them off, now while that sounds very easy, it’s actually very arduous and very difficult.”

Uluru - a giant red rock that rises 348 metres (1,148 feet) above the desert and which has a circumference of 9.4 kilometres at its base - is surrounded by thousands of square kilometres of desolate Outback in central Australia.

It forms a key part of Aboriginal creation mythology and is also a World Heritage site.

Climbing the rock is seen by many tourists as a must-do on their visit to Australia. But they do so against the wishes of traditional Aboriginal owners the Anangu, to whom the site is sacred.Tackling Uluru’s sandstone slopes is not an easy exercise and there have been several deaths on the rock over the years. More than 250,000 people visit Uluru each year, according to government agency Parks Australia.

Elderly Canadian couple whose separation broke thousands of hearts reunited in the same care home

Vancouver Two days ago, Canadian octogenarians Anita and Wolfram shared a tender kiss at a care home inVancouver.

That may seem like nothing to write home about if you consider that they’ve been married for 62 years.But when you learn that until Friday, the couple had to endure the pain of living in care homes located half an hour apart for several months, it becomes clear just how much that kiss a kiss of reunion - meant to them.

Last month, a photograph showing Anita and Wolfram crying because they couldn’t live in the same facility broke thousands of hearts across the world. The photographer - who was none other than their granddaughter Ashley Bartyik called it “the saddest photo” she’d even taken.But on Saturday, she sounded far more cheerful when she wrote on her Facebook page: “Wolfram has finally been moved to the same facility as Anita at the residence at Morgan Heights. The reunion saw tears of joy for all involved.

They can now be under the same roof for their remaining years, and we couldn’t be more grateful.”

Wolfram and Anita married four months after they met in Germany in 1954. In January, Wolfram was moved to a care home so he could receive treatment for dementia and other health complications (he was also diagnosed with lymphoma last month). After Anita was also put in another care home four months later, their family had to drive her to her husband’s assisted living facility several times a week.Tasleem Juma, a spokeswoman for Fraser Health (the health authority which runs the facility Wolfram has moved into) had said last month that work would be done to cater both Anita’s and Wolfram’s care needs, and that Wolfram needed more care than his wife.On Sunday, their granddaughter thanked Fraser Health for her their “reunion,” and added that her family would “continue to advocate for” other couples from British Columbia who were “waiting to be together.”

China aquarium refuses to deliver sad bear Pizza to UK BEIJING A Chinese aquarium holding a forlorn-looking polar bear named Pizza said Tuesday it has “no need” for foreign interference, after activists offered to move the animal to a British zoo. Animals Asia, a Hong Kong-based organisation, created a petition calling for the closure of the Grandview aquarium in the Chinese city of Guangzhou that attracted half a million signatures. Photos of Pizza shared widely on social media show the bear lying listlessly on the ground in a gloomy, windowless room while visitors crowd around taking photos on their cell phones. Activists said the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in England had offered to adopt Pizza on condition that he was not replaced by another polar bear, adding the zoo would not pay for the animal due to “fear that any funds could be used to buy more animals”.

But the zoo declined to comment or confirm the offer while the aquarium operator said no one had contacted him about taking the bear, adding they “have no need for foreign organisations to get involved”.

“Yorkshire Wildlife Park has not contacted us,” said the general manager of the aquarium, a man

surnamed Fan who refused to give his full name.

“We are a legally compliant aquarium, run according to

Animals Asia, Dave Neale, said in a statement that the aquarium “have the chance to put their mistake right” and end the crush

Chinese standards and protecting animal rights. In the future we will strengthen the protection of animal rights and welfare,” he added.

The cost of transferring the large, living carnivore nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) from Guangzhou to Doncaster, England “will be raised if the offer is accepted”, Animals Asia said.

The activists said they are now pushing for a meeting with the aquarium in hopes of getting a response to their offer, adding they will draw up a bill if officials agree to have Pizza delivered.

The animal welfare director of

of negative media attention.

The group has been publicising Pizza’s plight since the beginning of the year.

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Virat Kohli & Co register comprehensive 197 run win in 500th Test

Kanpur Indian cricket team made their 500th Test memorable as they thrashed New Zealand by 197 runs in the opening Test of the three-match series played at Green Park.

R Ashwin, who has been in brilliant form in the last few years, was once again India’s hero as he claimed another fivewicket haul.

Chasing an impossible 434-run target, Kiwis were bowled out for

236 in 87.3 overs on the final day of the opening Test.

Resuming on 93/4, New Zealand were off to a good start in the first session where Mitchell Santer and Luke Ronchi, two unbeaten batsmen on Day 4 continued to frustrate the Indian team with a brilliant fifth-wicket stand. Both the batsmen played some delightful strokes and India had to wait for quite some time for the first breakthrough in the morning session.

It came in the 58th over of the innings when Ronchi (80) perished while trying to hit Ravindra Jadeja for a six. He played against the spin and holed one towards point which was easily caught by Ashwin.

The wicket also ended the 102run stand for the fifth wicket.

Mohammed Shami then provided two quick breakthroughs when he dismissed BJ Watling (18) and Mark Craig (1) in consecutive overs. After lunch, Ashwin claimed the remaining three wickets, including the wicket of Santner(71), and also completed yet another tenwicket haul.

India now lead the three-match series 1-0.

Ravindra Jadeja, who picked six wickets and scored valuable 92 runs, was adjudged Man of the Match. The second Test is scheduled to be played from September 30 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa have already exited the I-League, while former league winners Dempo FC are also expected to follow suit.

Goel said both he as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi were keen on promoting football and other sports in the country.

He added that the U-17 tournament, which will be held parallel to the BRICS Summit, will strengthen the ties between the member states.

“We should encourage such games between member states as that will increase bonding and create a warm atmosphere between the people of those countries,” Goel said.

Legendary former West Indies captain Vivian Richards has thrown his support behind the expansion of cricket to nontraditional nations.

The 64-year-old, the symbol of West Indies cricket supremacy during the late 1970s and 80s, said many Asians and the West Indians were now residing in countries like the United States which did not have a rich cricket legacy and it was therefore important that the game was pushed into such markets, reports bdnews24.com.

“The influence of Asians like Indians and Pakistanis is huge in cricket. Despite leaving their country, they want to be part of cricket,” he said, currently in Dubai working as a TV media analyst for the ongoing West Indies-Pakistan series.

“So folks from these countries who live in this part of the world have brought cricket culture here and in the process cricket has spread its wings.”

He added: “Cricket should reach countries which have no cricketing tradition. There are folks from all over the world who love cricket living in America. They have been missing the game after they left

Future of tennis Zverev stuns Wawrinka to win maiden AATP TP title London US Open champion Stan Wawrinka came up short against rising German star Alexander Zverev in the Saint Petersburg Open final on Sunday, the teenager claiming his maiden ATP title 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Zverev, the 19-year-old Monte Carlo resident, came into the final full of confidence and broke the Swiss top seed’s serve twice for a one-set lead in 39 minutes.

In the second set, world number three Wawrinka, who has won 11 of his previous ATP finals, also broke twice to level at oneset all after one hour, 22 minutes on court.

Wawrinka, 31, broke early in the deciding set but the 27-ranked

Zverev broke back twice to close out his win in two hours, 23 minutes.

“I’m full of emotions! I just couldn’t have chosen a better place to win my maiden title,” said Zverev, who has Russian origins, at the hardcourt of Sibur Arena.

“It was really hard when I was trailing 3-0 in the deciding set but I forced myself to keep on fighting. And now I’m really happy with my win.”

Will speak to AIFF on clubs Viv Richards backs expansion of pulling out of I-League, says cricket to non-traditional nations Sports Minister Vijay Goel

New Delhi Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Monday expressed unhappiness over the top football clubs of the country leaving the I-League and promised to speak to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to look into the matter.

Talking on the sidelines of the unveiling of the BRICS U-17 football tournament logo in Panaji, Goel said, “I will speak to those from the federation and ask them to find a resolution to the problem. He was asked if he was concerned about the exodus of top-flight teams from the Ileague, following the emergence of Indian Super League (ISL).

Top teams from Goa like the

home.”

“If it can be brought to America in a big way, there is going to be a wide clientele especially as far as Twenty20 is concerned.”

Only last month, the West Indies and India made history when they played a two-match Twenty20 International series at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, United States. It represented the first time the two nations had played a bilateral series in North America. Richards, who never lost a Test series as captain, is also widely considered the most dominant batsman of his era. He

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plundered 8540 runs in 121 Tests at an average of 50 and 6721 runs from 187 One-Day Internationals at an average of 47. He was at the forefront of the limited overs revolution, helping the West Indies to win the first two 50overs World Cups, and emerged as one of the drawing cards for one-day cricket during the 80s. Richards, who played several One-Days in Sharjah during his time, said the entire United Arab Emirates had been pivotal to cricket development. “I have been impressed on coming back to the UAE to see not just that stadium in Sharjah but two more in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. For me, Emirates have become sort of huge as far as cricket is concerned,” he pointed out.

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27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Bengal man Musa, now being grilled by NIA, is an ominous symbol of a new kind of terrorism sneaking into the country

CONFESSIONS OF ISIS’ INDIAN LONEWOLF New Delhi and Dhaka MOHAMMAD Masiuddin was a travelling terrorist till authorities arrested him two months ago. Better known as Musa, the 25- year-old from West Bengal’s Birbhum district emerged as the face of trans-national, trans-organisational jihad, which is the newest threat to India’s security even as the country fights Pakistansponsored terrorism on the western borders. The man in the National Investigation Agency’s custody had two handlers— ISIS India head Shafi Armar who’s now based in Syria, and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen member Abu Suleman, a Bangladeshi national and a wanted terrorist. Musa had moved from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu where he worked at a shop in Tirupur. Like many ISIS recruits, he got radicalised online. A terror plan in mind, he recced his carefully chosen targets

in J&K and West Bengal.

But what surprised even the NIA was when he appeared in a YouTube video, raising the ISIS flag in downtown Srinagar.

India has the world’s thirdlargest Muslim population at nearly 175 million but only a handful of them have joined the West Asian group. However, JMB, which is aspiring to set up a Bangladeshi

Caliphate, has been active in India and has set up base in states like West Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam.

Analysts say growing radicalisation in the neighbouring country has made it a hotbed for ISIS-inspired extremists who could spill over to India or weave alliances to carry out attacks. Musa is the Indian face of ISIS JMB, an ominous symbol of new kind of terrorism. He travelled to Kokata and Srinagar to recce targets on instructions from Shafi Armar alias Yusuf Al Hindi who asked him to hit foreign nationals from the United States, UK, Canada and Israel.

Armar started off as a member of the banned militant outfit Indian Mujahideen. In early 2009, he fled to Pakistan with a few of its topranking members – including Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal.

He later left IM to join ISIS and is involved in

recruiting and luring Indian youth. Musa told NIA and Bangladeshi interrogators who visited Kolkata to question him this month that Abu Suleman was his handler for JMB. Even as a siege unfolded on July 1 at a Dhaka cafe that shook the world, India watched with bated breath as Rapid Action Bangladesh (RAB) forces dealt with one of the deadliest terror attacks there. The key link to the strike emerging from India was not just Indian televangelist Zakir Naik who is under the home ministry scanner, but also the links to the JMB wing owing allegiance to ISIS. Soon after the attack, Suleman, a wanted man, was suspected to have slipped into West Bengal. He had earlier visited India twice, raising alarm bells in the security establishment.

When asked by Suleman to join JMB full-time, Musa simply said, “I have a family.” In India, Suleman attempted to set up a JMB module with the help of Musa, who was then working in Tirpur.

Musa’s journey to the JMB-ISIS module began in June 2015, when he liked a Facebook page of ISIS Bangladesh from the id Sabilillahkhan.

He was instantly contacted by Suleman, also known as Jihadi John.

Musa had Rs 60,000 in his bank account, money he had saved by selling a small property. He used his own money to travel to both Bengal and Kashmir. He took the long route to Srinagar, reaching till Jammu by train and then taking a bus. Musa then visited Kolkata where he reportedly bought a 13-inch machete. He then boarded the Visva Bharati passenger train from Howrah and left for his hometown in Birbhum. Acting on specific intelligence by the NIA, he was picked up by GRP and Burdwan police.

Issue 686 (37)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Health 7 most common reasons why your hair is falling out!

New Delhi Almost everyone experiences some type of hair loss as they age. But not all hair loss is the same; it could be due to several reasons, including hormonal changes, heredity, medications or some serious underlying conditions.

Hair loss is considered normal when you lose up to 100 hairs a day, but when this limit is crossed and a person has excessive hair shedding it may be a sign of more serious condition that needs an evaluation by a medical doctor and treatment. Here are some common reasons why your hair is falling out: Stress Both physical and emotional stress can cause hair loss. Intense physical stress such as childbirth, surgery, etc,

can result in hair loss for several months after delivery. Also, extreme mental stress and anxiety can contribute to hair loss.

Hormonal changes Hormonal changes, which take place as a result of various conditions, including pregnancy, childbirth or the onset of menopause can cause temporary hair loss.

Besides, man can also lose hair as their hormonal composition changes with age.

Thyroid disorders Perhaps, hair loss is a

common side effect of thyroid disorders. Both hypothyroidism (too little thyroid hormone) and hyperthyroidism (too much) can cause hair to fall out. Treating the thyroid disorder can help the hair grow back.

Lupus Thinning hair is often one of the first signs of lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes thinning of the hair on your scalp. Some people may experience thinning of the beard, eyebrows, eyelashes, and other body hair.

Medical conditions A long-term illness, such as cancer, liver disease or inflammatory bowel disease can lead to hair thinning. Also, skin conditions such as psoriasis and dermatitis can interfere with hair growth.

Medications Drugs used for cancer, arthritis, depression, heart problems, high blood pressure and birth control may cause hair loss.

Genetics Hereditary - pattern baldness - a natural condition caused by some combination of genetics, hormone levels and the aging process -is the most common cause of hair loss. Although, this hereditary condition usually occurs in both male and female, it is most common in men and can begin as early as puberty.

Try these home remedies to treat high blood pressure!

New Delhi High blood pressure is a chronic medical condition which boost the risk of developing many health related problems like heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.

People get to know that they have high blood pressure is by getting it measured by a professional. But, one can treat their high blood pressure without any medication with the help of natural remedies.

Here are some home remedies to treat high blood pressure: Garlic Include garlic in your daily diet if you want to treat your high blood

pressure because it acts as a natural medicine and helps in lowering cholesterol. It also keeps the blood pressure in check.

Onion and honey Start having a cup of onion juice with two table spoon of honey daily to lower your blood pressure.

Carrot Drink a glass of carrot and spinach juice twice a day to lower your blood pressure.

Beet root Beet root juice is also helps in lowering your blood pressure. SO, drink this healthy juice twice a day to treat high blood pressure.

Want to get rid of Talking to a nurse may persuade acne? Eat these foods! smokers to quit smoking

New York Talking to a trained nurse might help smokers to quit smoking, a study has found.The research shows that selfreported quit rates increased when nurses and other staff members were trained to coach patients on how to stop smoking.”Hospitalisation is the perfect time to help people quit. They are more motivated and nurses can explain how smoking harms their health, including slowing healing,” said Sonia Duffy, Professor at The Ohio State University in the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.The study looked at the quit rates of 1,528 patients,

who were discharged from the hospital after six months. Those who had been treated met with a nurse who had undergone a one-hour training on how to help people quit smoking.Six months after release, 16.5 per cent of the smokers from the intervention hospitals said they did quit, compared to 5.7 per cent from other hospitals. The researchers also looked at lab-confirmed quit rates based on urine tests and found a twofold difference among patients from intervention hospitals, but that data was not considered statistically significant.

According to the study, many smokers, even those who plan to quit, start smoking the minute they leave the hospital. Getting them started with a quitting plan while they are admitted to hospitals boosts their chances of success.”I hope hospital administrators will look beyond telephone quit lines to help people. Nurses have the greatest access to patients, they have relationships with patients and they can relate the benefits of quitting to the patient’s medical condition,” Duffy added.

New Delhi Nobody likes to have ugly acne marks and unwanted dark spots on their face. Acne is a common skin problem that occurs when oil and dead skin cells clog up your pores.It can pop up any time and its causes are many. It could be a genetic problem or hormonal or constipation or simply lifestyle issues. But one can simple prevent and cure acne by eating the right and healthy foods. Here are some foods that will help to get rid of acne: Spinach If you want to get of acne then include lots of green veggies like spinach in your daily diet. Being rich in chlorophyll, spinach

helps cleanse bacteria and toxins from the digestive tract and blood stream. The green veggie is also rich in Vitamin A that acts as an anti-acne agent.

Turmeric Turmeric helps in curing acne as it fights inflammation and brightens the appearance of the skin. It also acts as a natural remedy against internal bacteria and

toxins that lead to acne.

Carrots Eat lots of carrots along with a healthy diet to get rid of acne as they are rich in Vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene that work against it.

Salmon Salmon helps in getting rid of acne as it contains high amount of omega 3 fats, protein that boosts collagen in the skin and helps fight inflammation.

Issue 686 (38)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

Obese and lean children have different gut bacteria

New York Children and teenagers who are obese have different microorganisms living in their digestive tract than those who are lean, according to a new study. The study finds gut microbiota or gut flora is closely related to fat distribution in children and teenagers.

“Our findings show children and teenagers with obesity have a different composition of gut flora than lean youth,” said Nicola Santoro, Researcher at the Yale University in Connecticut, US. “This suggests that targeted modifications to the specific species composing the human microbiota could be developed and could help to prevent or treat earlyonset obesity in the

future,” said Santoro.

The study examined gut microbiota and weight in 84 children and teenagers, who were between seven and 20 years old. The participants included 27 obese, 35 severely obese, seven overweight and 15 with normal weight.

The researchers analysed the participants’ gut microbiota and performed an MRI to measure body fat partitioning. They also tested blood samples and reviewed their three-day food diary.They found eight groups of gut microbiota that were linked to the amount of fat in the body.

Four of the microbial communities were seen flourishing in children and teens with obesity as compared to their normalweight counterparts.

Smaller amounts of the

other four microbial groups were found in participants, who were obese compared to children and teenagers of normal weight.

The gut microbiota found in youth, who were obese, tended to be more efficient at digesting carbohydrates than those found in teenagers and children’s gut from normal weight category.

In addition, the children with obesity had higher levels of short chain fatty acids in the blood than those of normal weight.

The study found short chain fatty acids — produced by some gut bacteria — to be associated with the production of fat in the liver.

“Our research suggests that short chain fatty acids can be converted to fat within the liver and then accumulate in the fat tissue,” said Santoro. The researchers said this association could signal that children with certain gut bacteria face a longterm risk of developing obesity. The study was published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Parent-child bonds may affect your midlife health New York Growing up in a well-off home can benefit a child’s physical health, but lack of good relationship with parents, or the presence of abuse, may affect health, as well as well-being during mid-life, a study has found.

“Good parent-child bonds may be necessary to enforce eating, sleeping and activity routines,” said researcher Assistant Professor Matthew A. Andersson at Baylor University in Texas, US. The study found that if the parent-child relationships are strained or abusive, meals may be less coordinated among the family, and children are more likely to eat sugary or high-fat foods as snacks, even in place of proper meals.

Sleep and activity routines could also become irregular, keeping children from developing healthy lifestyles and social and emotional skills necessary for successful ageing.

On the other hand, good parent-child bonds in

economically disadvantaged homes, might promote health, but do not seem to lessen the negative impact of low socioeconomic status as the children age, Andersson said.

Parents with less education and fewer financial advantages are more apt to threaten or force obedience rather than have constructive dialogue, and that may lessen warm relations.

In addition, disease rates or inflammation among those children when they become adults have been linked strongly to abuse, mistreatment or lower levels of parental warmth.

“Without adequate parentchild relationship quality to match, socio-economic advantage during childhood may not offer much protection against

major chronic disease as children become adults and reach middle age,” Andersson stated.

In the study, good health at mid-life was defined as being free from 28 possible conditions — cancer, circulatory or respiratory disease, endocrine diseases, nervous system diseases, infectious and parasitic diseases, skin and digestive disease and musculoskeletal conditions.

For the study, the team analysed data on disease or poor health of middleaged adults. They surveyed 2,746 respondents aged 25 to 75 in 1995 about their childhood treatment by parents.

Surveys were conducted again nearly 10 years later, with 1,692 of the individuals taking part.

New test to predict the exact duration an How depression is linked to avanced ovarian cancer patient would live diabetes during pregnancy

London A new computer test has been developed that is helping doctors to accurately predict the survival span of women suffering from advanced ovarian cancer. The test, developed by experts at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, highlighted a ‘staggering’ difference between those patients who would live for five years or more and those who would die before that, reports Daily Mail. It examines the cell ‘ecosystem’ around secondary tumors, in other parts of the body, once cancer has spread from the ovaries.

The test gives a score

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according to whether the tumor spread is in one dominant cell type, or its more diverse cell population containing

immune or connective tissue cells.Scientists found that survival rates of women with high score were far more than those of women with a low score. Just 9 percent of women with a high score survived five years from diagnosis, compared with 42 per cent of those whose cancer spread were dominated by one

cell type. Doctors said the test will help in identifying those women, who have the most lifethreatening type of cancer

and who urgently need the most aggressive treatment.

About 7,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year in the UK and the disease kills about 4,000 women a year.

Symptoms can be vague and include feeling bloated or full, irregular periods or bleeding, tummy or back pain and passing urine more often than normal.

Pain during sex and constipation are other

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possible signs.

Researcher Yinyin Yuan said, “We used to think of tumors as simply a collection of cancer cells but we now know that they are often complex ecosystems made up of different types of healthy cell, too. Our study has revealed that diverse cell populations at the sites of cancer spread are a clinically important feature of particularly aggressive ovarian cancers.”

Adding, “We have developed a new test to assess the diversity of metastatic sites and use it to predict a woman’s chances of surviving their disease.” “More work is needed to refine our test and move it into the clinic but, in future, it could be used to identify women with especially aggressive ovarian cancers so they can be treated with the best possible therapies available on the NHS or through clinical trials,” said Yuan. Research on the test involved 61 women with 192 secondary tumours.

New York Depression in early pregnancy more than doubles the risk of gestational diabetes, which, in turn, increases risk of postpartum depression six weeks after giving birth, says a study.Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes occurring only in pregnancy and, if untreated, may cause serious health problems for mother and infant.”Our data suggest that depression and gestational diabetes may occur together,” said study first author Stefanie Hinkle from US National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).”Until we learn more, physicians may want to consider observing pregnant women with depressive symptoms for signs of gestational diabetes.

They also may want to monitor women who have had gestational diabetes for signs of postpartum depression,” Hinkle noted.Although obesity is known to increase the risk for gestational diabetes, the likelihood of gestational diabetes was higher for nonobese women reporting depression than for obese women with depression, the study found.The researchers analysed pregnancy records from the NICHD Fetal Growth StudiesSingleton Cohort, which tracked the progress of thousands of pregnancies, to understand the patterns of fetal growth.

Issue 686 (39)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016

INDIAN LAMB CURRY IN A BREAD BOWL (BUNNY CHOW)

Bunny chow, a hollowed out bread bowl with a spicy, meaty curried filling, is as delightfully messy as it sounds. You can eat every last morsel of this version from Hollywood Bets in Durban, including the curry-soaked bread from the bottom and sides.

Ingredients 6 large cloves peeled garlic One 3-inch piece peeled fresh ginger 1 /4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. canola or olive oil 2 large white onions, chopped (about 3 cups) 4 bay leaves 2 small cinnamon sticks 1 tbsp. ground turmeric 1 /4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. garam masala 3 medium tomatoes, chopped (2 cups) 2 1 / 4 lb. boneless mutton or lamb

shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes 2 tbsp. kosher salt 3 medium russet potatoes (1 3/4 lb.), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes Leaves from 12 sprigs fresh cilantro One 1-pound loaf unsliced white bread, cut crosswise into quarters Instructions In a small food processor or mortar and pestle, add the garlic and ginger and pulse or pound until a paste forms. Set aside.

In a large (8-quart) Dutch oven or heavybottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the onions, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and turmeric and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garam masala and 1/ cup of the garlic-ginger paste (reserve 4 any remaining paste for another use); cook for a few seconds, stirring to prevent the spices from burning. Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer; let cook for 5 minutes. Add the mutton and salt, stirring to coat the meat in the sauce and distribute the seasoning. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Stir in the potatoes and 2 cups water; bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, until the meat is tender and potatoes are soft, about 40 minutes.

To serve, cut out most of the center of each bread quarter and reserve it whole, making sure to leave some bread at the base of each. Divide among 4 plates and fill the bread bowls with the curry mixture. Garnish with the cilantro, and top or serve with the reserved bread pieces.

THE ORIGINAL AUTHENTIC NACHOS 1

A balance of pickly, salty, cheesy, and crisp, this recipe inspired by the original developed by Ignacio Anaya in a Mexican border town proves that simple is preferable when it comes to nachos.

When deep-frying your own tortillas, look for soft tortillas made with all corn (and no flour) for the crunchiest results.

Ingredients Vegetable oil, for frying 10 soft corn tortillas, cut in half Kosher salt 1 /4 cups refried black beans 1 medium shallot or 1D 4 red onion, minced 1 / 2 cup shredded orange cheddar cheese (1 1/2 oz.)

1 / 2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (1 1/2 oz.)

/2 cup crumbled queso fresco or Cotija cheese 20 pickled jalapeño slices, or to taste Instructions Set a paper-towel-lined tray next to the stove. In a large, high-rimmed skillet, add enough vegetable oil to reach 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Set over high heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 350°. Working in batches as needed to avoid overcrowding, add the tortillas and fry, turning once, until crisp but not browned, about 30 seconds on each side. Remove, transfer to the prepared tray, and season with salt.

Meanwhile, preheat the broiler. On a large baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper, place the chips in a single layer. Spread each chip with a thin layer of refried beans and sprinkle them with half of the shallot. Top with the cheddar and Jack cheeses, then the queso fresco. Garnish with the pickled jalapeños and the remaining shallot.

Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and broil until the cheeses are just melted and the chips are lightly singed on the edges, about 5–7 minutes (watch closely to avoid burning).

Transfer to a platter if desired, and serve immediately.

CHINESE RED-BRAISED PORK BELLY WITH EGGS Two types of soy sauce and a touch of sugar give this dish beloved throughout China its signature glossiness and a deep red-brown tint. Serve the tender pork belly morsels and boiled eggs with a light vegetable, like bok choy.

Ingredients 6 eggs 1 spring onion, white part only 3 / 4 oz. ginger (about a 2-inch piece) 1 3/4 lb. pork belly, skin on if desired 1 tbsp. canola or vegetable oil 1 star anise 1 cinnamon stick 3 tbsp. Shoaling wine 3 cups hot water or stock 2 tbsp. light soy sauce 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. dark soy sauce 3 tbsp. superfine sugar or 1 1/2 oz. rock sugar Cooked white rice, for serving Instructions In a small saucepan, add the eggs and enough water to cover by 1 inch; bring to a rapid boil and let cook 2 minutes.

Remove and let the eggs rest in the water for 10 minutes. Let cool, then shell. In each egg, make 6–8 shallow slashes lengthwise to allow the flavors of the stew to enter.

Smack the spring onion and ginger gently with the flat side of a cleaver or a rolling pin to loosen their fibers.

In a medium saucepan, add the pork and enough water to cover; bring to boil, then let boil 5 minutes. Drain and rinse the pork with cold water. When cool enough to handle, cut into 1-inch cubes.

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over high heat. Add the ginger, onion, star anise, and cinnamon and stir-fry briefly until aromatic (about 2 minutes). Add the pork and cook until the meat is faintly golden and some of the fat is rendering, 1–2 minutes. Splash the Shaoxing wine around the edges of the pan. Add the eggs, water or stock, light soy sauce, 2 teaspoons dark soy

sauce, and the sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer; cover and let cook 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour into a bowl, let cool, then chill until the fat congeals (a few hours or overnight). Remove and skim away any fat that has settled on the surface. Pour the meat and liquid back into a wok, then boil, stirring constantly, to reduce the sauce by half, 10–15 minutes.

Discard the ginger, spring onion, and whole spices. Stir in the remaining 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce.

Shortly before serving, bring back to a boil over high heat and reduce the sauce to about 1 inch of dark, sleek gravy. Transfer to a rimmed serving dish. Serve with rice.

FREEKEH PILAF WITH SUMAC Freekeh sun-dried and roasted unripe wheat berries is a popular grain in Mediterranean cuisines, and has a mildly smoky flavor and pleasant chew. Here, chef Mehmet Gürs of Istanbul’s Mikla cooks it pilaf-style and spices it with sumac, a bright red spice that lends color and a lemony zing to anything it hits.

Ingredients 1 /2 cup olive oil 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped 1 1 / 2 cups whole (not cracked) freekah 2 / 3 cup canned tomato purée 2 vine-ripe tomatoes, cored, peeled, and finely chopped 1 tsp. sumac, plus more to garnish Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Instructions

In a 4-qt. saucepan, heat the olive oil over mediumhigh. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about 6 minutes. Add the freekeh and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 5 minutes.

Pour in the tomato purée, vine-ripe tomatoes, and 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat

to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, covered, until the freekeh is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the sumac, and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the pilaf into a bowl and sprinkle with more sumac before serving.

Issue 686 (40)

27 Sept. - 3 Oct., 2016