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THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 648, 5 JAN. - 11 JAN. 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761

Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh was reportedly abducted by terrorists just before the attack on Pathankot air force base

By Manjeet Sehgal Rising from the smoke and dust of buildings blown by explosives to bury the remaining terrorists in Pathankot are disconcerting questions about the unusually long time taken by the security forces to eliminate all the intruders who attacked the airbase in the early hours of Saturday.

The explanation offered by the government sources is that the heads on the ground were told by political leadership in New Delhi to avoid collateral damage and, if possible, catch any of the terrorists alive to gather evidence and those people behind the attack.

The directives had flown from an emergency meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brainstorm over the Pathankot operation and the attack on Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.

Opening of two fronts by the terrorists at the same time caught the government in a tight spot.

While there were no casualties in Mazar-i-Sharif as the Indo-Tibet Police Force (ITBP) commandos, guarding the consulate, managed to keep suicide attackers away from the building, the toll of seven in Pathankot sapped spirits in New Delhi.

By evening, it was claimed that the remaining two terrorists who were holding the fort in a Defence Security Corps (DSC)

Six Terrorists Killed, Pathankot Air Base Secured!

Orders were to catch them alive mess were killed. Sporadic gun shots were heard even late in the evening but it was claimed to be part of the mop up operation being carried out by the security forces. The National Security Guard (NSG), Indian Air Force (IAF) and army officers claimed there was no collateral damage to strategic air force assets.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the security forces had succeeded in their mission to secure assets at the air base and most of the casualties were suffered only in the early hours of the attack.

The government faced flak for rushing to declare victory against the terrorists on Saturday itself when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet colleagues Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Home Minister Rajnath Singh dropped hints about the finality of the operation by

Pakistan’s Army Chief knew about Pathankot terror attack, intelligence agencies claim

By RAHUL KANWAL The Indian political establishment has been reportedly informed at the highest levels that the Pathankot attack was carried out with the full knowledge of the Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif.

The combined inputs of commending the soldiers for killing all the four intruders.

But the emergence of two more terrorists led to another prolonged round of operation lasting more than 40 hours. Sources said there had been contact with the terrorists since 7.30 pm on Sunday.

In another interesting revelation, sources said the IAF had been tipped about the possible terrorist strike at one of its bases in Punjab resulting in

Pakistan Army chief

General Raheel Sharif

India’s intelligence agencies suggest that the Pakistan army is not fully on board with Nawaz Sharif’s efforts to forge peace with India.

At a recent meeting, Pakistan’s Army Chief General Raheel Sharif reportedly told Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif that he was free to pursue talks with PM Modi

tightening of security.

Following the alert western air command chief SB Deo was in Pathankot. When the IAF helicopters captured thermal images of suspect movement in the airbase on Saturday, counter was immediately launched with DSC personnel coming in the line of fire, some of them falling in the first contact.

IAF’s inhouse commando unit, Garud, challenged the attackers.

Corporal Gursewak Singh of Garud

if he wanted, but the Pakistan army would take no action against Pakistanbased terrorists who were operating against Indian interests. Since December 2014, Indian agencies say the ISI has been working on reviving the fortunes of the Jaish-e- Mohammed.

commando force was martyred in the gunfight.

The NSG was flown to the base as reinforcements along with the army which deployed eight columns (around 300 personnel) armed with three BMP armoured personnel carriers. Six Casspir mine resistant vehicles were also deployed. Sources said that the terrorists had entered the airbase as a single group and split later.

The conversation between the terrorists was

Continued on Page 2

intercepted in which they were heard talking about some of them falling behind the other members.

The confusion about the exact number of terrorists was attributed to the fact one of the phones used by the terrorists was not found on the four killed in the first contact. The perimeter wall (10 feet high with two feet wire mesh above it) of the Pathankot airbase is around 25 kilometers long.

It is a sprawling Continued on Page 2

Issue - 648 (2)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

Less than 1pc of PCs can run virtual reality

Orders were to catch them...

Continued from Page 1 complex with a stream passing through a section.

Sources said terrorists could have used the stream to gain entry into

the airbase and there have been cases of animals straying into the complex from this stream route.

The technical area of the airbase, where the fighter jets, attack helicopters

and missiles are kept, is fenced and segregated from the residential area and other establishments.

The terrorists were confined to the residential blocks targeting the DSC

personnel mess. The base also has two schools - a Kendriya Vidyalaya and another run by the IAF. Around 1,500 are at the base at any given point of time.

Pakistan’s Army Chief knew about Pathankot...

London Less than 1% of of the PCs expected to be in use globally in 2016 will be powerful enough to run the best virtual reality technology, graphics-chip company Nvidia has said.

It estimated just 13 million would have the required graphics capabilities in 2016, rising to 100 million by 2020.

Consumers can access VR on smartphones and consoles, but need PCs to use high-end headsets such as the Oculus Rift.

Some forecasts have suggested 2016 could be the year VR finally takes off.

VR headsets create immersive 3D environments wearers can interact with and explore.

Continued from Page 1 Over the past few years, some elements of the Jaish had merged with the Lashkar- E-Jhangvi, which had been staging attacks in Pakistan.

Indian agencies believe that the effort to revive the Jaish is part of the effort to ensure that its cadre remains committed to fighting against India and does not train its guns on Pakistan.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a Sunni supremacist and jihadist militant organisation based in Pakistan. The LeJ has

claimed responsibility for various mass casualty attacks against the Shia community in Pakistan, including multiple bombings that killed over 200 Hazara Shias in Quetta in 2013. It has also been linked to the Mominpura Graveyard attack in 1998, the abduction of Daniel Pearl in 2002, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009.

A predominantly Punjabi group, the LeJ has been labelled by Pakistani intelligence officials as one of the country’s most

virulent terrorist organisations. Indian intelligence agencies believe that the terrorists who infiltrated across the border were trained by ISI handlers and were adept at commando operations like the 26/11 attackers. The Indian government has so far not taken a firm view on whether or not to cancel the foreign secretary-level talks, which are scheduled in Islamabad on January 15. The official word is that the government is mulling all options. There is one view in government that the

talks should be deferred as this is not the right time for dialogue with Pakistan and that India should insist on a NSA-level dialogue first to discuss the Pathankot attack. The other view is that this is exactly what the masterminds of Pathankot want, and to cancel talks would be to play into the hands of those who do not want peace between India and Pakistan.

A final decision will be taken by the prime minister once the mopping up operation in Pathankot is over.

Australia pushes to Stop pointing fingers at BSF; Punjab boost crocodile exports Police must put its house in order first Little has changed in the basic narrative since July 2015 when terrorists from Pakistan were captured on CCTV camera walking confidently through a street of Gurdaspur.

Then too, the Punjab chief minister and the government washed off their hands and put the blame on BSP personnel for not having stopped infiltration at the border. Between July and December the blame game continued and today, several Indian security personnel including a Lt Colonel have been killed as a result of the attack on Pathankot airbase. The length of the International Border in Punjab is 553 km, with some stretches running through riverine areas along the banks of the Sutlej and Ravi that cannot be fenced and, hence, remain susceptible to infiltration. Only a 461km stretch of this border is fenced with 178 border outposts set up to man the border. In recent days The Tribune reported that BSF Director-General DK Pathak had said that 62 infiltration bids were foiled on the International Border in 2015 as compared to 48 in 2014. Drug smuggling in Punjab continues to be a serious matter. In 2014 the BSF had seized 361 kg of heroin and 345 kg of heroin in 2015. While border security is with BSF the hinterland comes under Punjab Police. Though there is little quarrel over the jurisdiction issue, the

two forces have not been able to work amicably in the larger interest of securing the border and the resultant

national security. Since 2010 and earlier Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has complained about border management and requested raising the number of personnel on duty. He may have a point about BSF’s border management but that does not take away from the fact that Punjab Police has faced challenges for long. However, the strength, training and readiness of state police has been well below expectations and for years there have been demands that police reforms be carried out in the state.Former policeman Prakash Singh moved a petition in the Supreme Court on police reforms and Punjab has remained one of the laggard states. The BSF last year announced a five year modernization plan to secure unfenced borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Parts of the International Border are unfenced and in many places the fence comes off when riverine area of Ravi

and Sutlej rivers flood.

Proposal to rebuild a portion after it is washed away goes through a long channel of

clearances and approvals year after year. This has now been sorted out somewhat with orders issued that any reporting of broken fencing would be attended to immediately. Issues that have been major irritants on tackling challenges on border management need to be looked into. Crossborder smuggling and narcotics: There have been reports of BSF and Punjab policemen working together in narcotics smuggling.

Denied officially by both organisations intelligence officials for long have complained about local connivance in cross-border smuggling. Last year the Punjab and Haryana High Court served notices to Central government and BSF on a bunch of petitions filed by its personnel who were named as residents of Punjab and who would not be posted on the International Border on suspicion of being involved in smuggling. Involvement of villagers in border areas:

Integral to intelligence gathering in the sensitive border areas are communities living in villages. Last year the Punjab government announced setting up of Rapid Rural Response Force whose personnel would respond in ten minutes. A good initiative that has still to see the light of the day and nothing could be more damaging than the sarpanch’s comments on TV channels that Punjab Police did not warn them about the presence of suspected terrorist or activity. Second Line of Defence: Yet again the Punjab government has stated that its police force would be the second line of defence on the border after last year’s announced modernisation plan. After July 2015 Dinanagar infiltration in Gurdaspur district and December’s Pathankot infiltration where state policemen failed to react, act and even use the local village communities, the Central government needs to do a serious rethink.

The government of India can no more rely on Punjab Police’s limited capacity and capability, assurances of Punjab government not with standing. Rashtriya Rifles could be seen as an option to provide a second line of defence along the International Border.

SYDNEY Australian officials are looking to increase the export of crocodile products in 2016, after decades of official protection to stop them being hunted to extinction have increased their numbers. Under a new Saltwater Crocodile Wildlife Trade Management Plan (WTMP), which came into effect at the start of the year, the Northern Territory’s government wants to increase the trade in crocodile products, including skins.

“Significantly, the WTMP supports the growth of industry by allowing an annual harvest ceiling of 90,000 viable eggs and 1,200 animals,” its Minister for Land Resource Management Minister Willem Westra van Holthe said in a statement. “This represents a 40 percent increase for eggs and a 100 percent rise for animals over the previous five-year plan limit.”

The eggs taken from the wild would be sent to crocodile farms for incubation, while live animals could be used for breeding or the export of

skin and other body parts.

The local government hopes to benefit more from the deadly reptile, which is rounded up in the hundreds each year to protect residents. The reptiles were considered a dangerous pest in the Northern Territory and hunted almost to extinction before being officially protected in 1971.

The population has swollen since then, posing dangers for swimmers, boaters and fishermen. More than 250 crocodiles were removed from waterways around Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, last year including a 4.25 metre-long (13.9 feet) male. “Saltwater crocodiles were removed from many parts of the territory... including Darwin Harbour, the northern suburbs as well as tidal creeks and inlets, meaning they could be anywhere at any time,” ranger Tom Nichols said.

The Australian government rejected the idea of crocodile safari hunts in 2014, with Environment Minister Greg Hunt saying they risked “cruel and inhumane” behaviour.

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Does Modi have the patience for peace!

After the Pathankot attack, an Indian intelligence agency source told the media that although only a thorough investigation by the NIA would reveal the real face behind the attack on Pathankot airbase.

“But prima facie evidence shows that the militants who carried the assault had a connection with the JeM. They carried bags with markings of executed Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. JeM had formed Afzal Guru Squad. This squad had also made an attack recently near the Line of Control in Kashmir. Dots need to be connected,” an intelligence agency source said. Intercept of calls made by the terrorists before the attack shows a connection with Pakistan and also with a few top-level functionaries of JeM, he added. “One of the call intercepts shows that a militant had spoken with Masood’s younger brother, who’s also a leader of JeM.” The sudden reactivation of Jaish-eMohammad has raised concerns among the Indian security establishment. The National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had

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even spoken up about the outfit and it was decided that the matter would be pursued with Pakistan.

Breakfast at Kabul, lunch at Lahore and dinner in New Delhi. Within just a week of the euphoria of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise pit-stop in Pakistan, there has been a terrible post script: Funeral in Pathankot. The bonhomie towards the end of the year promised by the Modi-Nawaz Sharif hug has been replaced by consternation and frustration because the India-Pakistan relation has yet again come full circle after the terror strike in Pathankot. On the cusp of the new year, there were hopes of dialogue and reconciliation; now there is just hostility and uncertainty, the two inevitable results of almost every peace initiative. In the past 18 months, Modi had tried almost everything possible to deal with Pakistan.

From inviting Sharif for his swearing-in, to coldshouldering him on the international stage and then once again extending his hand of friendship at Lahore, there isn’t much Modi had left out.

But India is once again back at the starting line.

What will happen to the thaw in IndiaPakistan bilateral relations post Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore if Pakistan’s outlawed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) is indeed behind the terror attack on the air-base at Pathankot? Nothing much will change, feel experts. The question, they say, calls for a closer look at the growing distance between JeM leader Maulana Masood Azhar and the Pakistan’s establishment, both military and civilian, in recent times.

While a clear connection between Masood — the brains behind the 2001 Parliament attack in New Delhi and the beheading of WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl — and the attack on the airbase would be established only after an NIA probe, the Indian government is not ruling out JeM’s involvement at this point. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has made this clear already. This, according to experts keeping a close eye on changing equations between terror outfits and their handlers in Pakistan, could work to India’s advantage vis-a-vis Azhar.

Alok Bansal, director, Centre for Security and Strategy, India Foundation, observed, “Though a section has claimed so, it’s not clear whether JeM is involved in Pathankot attack or not. If it is involved it’ll be better for the Indian government to pressure Pakistan government, as JeM and Masood Azhar have distanced themselves from Pakistani establishment.

Even Pakistan government may take a strong step against it, and apprehend a

few JeM members.”

Maybe in attacking India, JeM might not SUNNY BAINS have the tacit support of the Pakistani establishment unlike in the past. “Azhar fell out of favor with the intelligence will do.

ISI after his group made an assassination Unfortunately for India, even its peace bid on former President of Pakistan initiatives do not guarantee success. Soon General Pervez Musharraf. Though over after Modi’s Lahore visit, The Diplomat the past couple of years the ISI nurtured magazine had wondered if the exciting him back to relevance, now apparently and auspicious beginning could lead to the desired result, considering the paucity of options before the two countries. “The two countries have conflicting expectations of each other and different priorities.

Pakistan has long argued that the Kashmir dispute be resolved first, or at least in conjunction with other areas of mutual concern.

Regardless of who is in power, India has been and will remain unwilling to offer to Pakistan any concessions on Kashmir, even if it means foregoing the economic dividends of trade with Pakistan and transit trade through Pakistan to JeM has distanced itself and is closely Afghanistan and Central Asia. India aligning with the global terror outfit IS,” instead has remained focused on said Bansal. There are chances that the terrorism, especially since 2008 Mumbai thaw between India and Pakistan may not attack which it blamed on Pakistan-based go back to freeze mode yet, he added. banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba,” it wrote, What will Modi do now? pointing at the challenges ahead.

Fortunately, Prime Minister Narendra But, even before the two countries could Modi disappeared from Delhi for the build on the beginning, the attack on weekend, away from the media frenzy. Pathankot has put a question mark over He avoided having to make his natural the future of bilateral talks. With his party response — as in September 2014, and the RSS backing him and the following a ferocious exchange of fire on international community insisting on the LoC — which would have been of a continued diplomatic engagement, Modi tit-for-tat tone, because anything less would be tempted to continue with his would be a dilution of ‘Brand Modi’. peace agenda, hoping that it would be Instead, he issued a banal tweet about more productive than confrontation and the enemies of humanity, and to the a cold war. As strategic affairs expert delight of detractors, he tweeted the glory Ashley J. Tellis argues in an article on of yoga. Considering his macho image, rediff.com, Modi seems to have resolved such calm in the face of terrorist to sustain the engagement with Sharif’s provocation would be no mean government indefinitely because there achievement. Modi clearly wants to see was a clear realization that although the peace process with Pakistan through. Sharif’s control over his ‘Deep State’ Otherwise, the attack on Pathankot’s air meaning, the military and the force base was a good occasion to call it intelligence services, which controlled off, if he had even the slightest doubt. And among other things various terrorist the attack came just under six months proxies - was weak, Sharif’s desire for after a similar attack on a police station better ties with India ought to be nurtured in Gurdaspur: like those terrorists and rewarded. Such is the nature of attacked a bus, the Pathankot attackers India-Pakistan relations that it is always snatched a policeman’s beacon-lit car; vulnerable to the politics of last atrocity these guys also sneaked in through a - when the latest act of violence and drain; they were also heavily-armed, consequent retaliation decides the indicating they intended to fight to the direction of politics. For the moment, Modi finish. And the operation ran on into the would be relying on the euphoria of his fourth day, despite an intelligence alert ‘breakfast in Kabul and lunch in Lahore’ that occasioned the deployment of around initiative to carry forward his Pakistan 50 security personnel in Pathankot; policy. But one more funeral can change sometimes nothing less than pinpoint all that.

Volcano in Nicaragua spews gas and lava MANAGUA A volcano in Nicaragua that has been dormant for 110 years spewed gas and lava for the second time in a month. The volcano known as Momotombo in the west of the Central American country rumbled into activity before dawn, but then calmed down again, the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies said. No one living near the mountain was hurt, it said. Momotombo stands 1,297 meters high, some 40 kilometers (25

miles) from the capital Managua, separated by a large lake called Lago

Xolotlan. On December 1 the volcano belched gas and ash and then lava that poured onto uninhabited areas on the slopes of the mountain Then on Christmas Day the volcano was rattled by some 20 small earthquakes of up to 3.0 on the Richter scale, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Its last big eruption dates back to 1905. In 1980, the volcano emitted lava, but there was no eruptive explosion. In 2006 it emitted gases only.

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5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

Couple convicted for plotting London attack

Here, at the University Of Life, the classes never stop. Nor are there terms, semesters or seasonal breaks. We go straight from one challenge to another. All is well, as long as we are willing to face the learning curve. All is frustrating when we start to resent the need to adjust to new information.

The lessons are rarely on academic topics. They involve studying ourselves... and each other. A discovery in your emotional or personal life, sets the year off to an intense start. But it is not intensely difficult; it is intensely delightful. !!!

Is all in your world quite as you wish it were? Do some issues make you uncomfortable? Might things be happier if your relationship with a particular individual were easier? Are you aware of the need to compromise, yet reluctant to give away too much ground? Well that’s how life on planet Earth is for us all! As you look at your personal and emotional circumstances now, you must concede they could be worse!

What you don’t yet know, but will soon find out, is how much better they are about to get. !!!

Romantic gestures don’t need to be grand and extravagant. Often, there is something suspicious about a person going too far over the top to make a point. We may create a much better impression if we show that we are sensitive to people’s more subtle fears and feelings.

A few kind words here - or small, supportive actions there - can have more of an impact. Be aware that there is no need to climb a mountain, swim an ocean or reach for the Moon. Gently pleasing developments can arise subtly. !!!

People, it seems, have

an endless ability to annoy one another. Either they misunderstand and create complication or they understand only too well, but decide, regardless, to do what they know will cause aggravation. If we become oversensitive and let this irk us, we lose out. We must find a way to take stress in our stride, especially at a time of year like this, when we have new tensions to deal with as we adjust to changes in old habits. If you can stay calm, you will make all the progress you need. !!!

‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’ So goes the old saying. But that doesn’t mean they can’t change.

Nor does it imply that if they do change, they won’t get any better.

Improvements well worth implementing are possible. You may find, in time, that you go round in a circle or an old syndrome repeats itself, but that is no justification for inactivity. Embrace the chance to move on from the past and remember, old habits need not always die hard.

Sometimes, they can fade away gently. !!!

There are dictionaries in which we can look up the meaning of any words we may read or hear. There are special reference works to help us clarify idioms and colloquialisms.

Yet where are the guides that show how to interpret the true meaning of a silence? Or to read the correct nuance into a space between the two lines? Whilst some training in psychology can help, this is territory that needs to be navigated with the compass of common sense. The closest thing you’ve got to a good idea ... Is a good idea!

London A British couple said to be of Pakistan-origin were sentenced to life in prison yesterday, a day after being found guilty of plotting a mas-

will serve a minimum of 27 years in jail before being considered for parole. His wife Sana Ahmed Khan, who plotted to become Britain’s first woman suicide bomber, will serve

sive terror attack in London, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 2005 July 7 bombings this year.

Mohammed Rehman, who tweeted under the name “Silent Bomber”,

a minimum of 25 years behind bars.

A London court heard how the couple married in a secret ceremony because her parents did not approve of the drug-taking divorcee

Rehman.

With money from Khan, the 25year-old stockpiled chemicals needed to make a huge bomb at his family home in Reading, about an hour west of London, and even filmed himself setting off a small explosion in his back garden.

Susan Hemming, head of the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service counter-terrorism division, said: “The intention to carry out some form of terrorism attack was clear from the threatening statements made in Rehman’s tweets. It was these tweets that led to his and his wife’s arrest.”

Police began monitoring Rehman after he sent out a tweet in May, asking followers to advise him on where he should carry out a terrorist attack: “Westfield shopping centre or London underground? Any advice would be appreciated greatly.” In another tweet, he said: “Plus I don’t need an army, all I need is my explosive vest and a beautiful area full of crowded ***** like you LOL.”

Minor gang-raped to avenge poll defeat, commits suicide Lucknow A class 11 student committed suicide after she was gang-raped by two men from the same village in Mirzapur district.

Police inaction in the case is also said to be one of the reasons behind the suicide.

According to a report by the Times of India, the victim, who was daughter of a winning woman block development council (BDC) candidate, was gang-raped by her mother’s political rivals.

The girl’s relative have alleged that police inaction and refusal to register an FIR drove the girl to take the extreme step on

Friday, two days after she was raped. It was only after that the girl committed suicide, the police swung

was abducted by the two parents when she returned accused on Wednesday home. night when she was alone at home. She was dragged

into action and arrested the to the nearby fields and Cops have arrested both the two accused. raped. The girl narrated accused Pappu Bahelia Reports say that the girl whole incident to her and Bindu Bahelia.

Indonesian couple caned for being ‘too intimate’

Jakarta A young woman and a man were publically caned in Indonesia’s Aceh province for violating the Sharia law by allegedly being “too intimate” with each other.

The two university students,

Nur Elita, were caned for “khalwat” affectionate contact in front of a crowd. A crowd cheered as the young couple was struck five times each. Elita was reportedly carried by officials to an ambulance after the punishment.

Four other men were caned for “indecency and gambling”, prohibited under Islamic law.

All the victims were punished in the front yard of the Baiturrahim mosque in Banda Aceh, and one onlooker was Deputy Mayor 23-year-old Wahyudi Zainal Arifin.

Saputra and 20-year-old “Take these punishments

as a lesson. What has been done by these convicts should not be taken as an example. And I hope their canings in Meuraxa district today will be the last ever,” he said.

Aceh is the only region in

Indonesia that implements this system of Shariah law and has done so since 2003 when it was granted special autonomy. Shariah law is still implemented across the Middle East and in ISIS territories.

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5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

Will astronauts be living on moon by 2030?

London Astronauts could live in a 3Dprinted ‘village’ on the surface of the moon in as little as 15 years under plans put forward by the European Space Agency.

Officials from around the world recently discussed proposals for the first permanent base on the moon designed to replace the International Space Station. They proposed using 3D printing technology to create a series of permanent structures using the lunar soil, known as regolith, which could used to house astronauts by 2030.

This lunar village could be used as a settlement for the first humans to live in a permanent base on the moon, while also supporting new types of scientific research. The base

could also serve as a staging point to launch future missions to other planets, such as Mars.

Esa has begun to take a lead

53-yr-old Swiss billionaire Margarita pregnant with twins

GENEVA Swiss multi-billionaire businesswoman Margarita LouisDreyfus, chair of French conglomerate Louis Dreyfus Commodities and owner of the Olympique de Marseille football team, is pregnant with twins, the company said Monday. The 53year-old widow of famous French businessman Robert LouisDreyfus, is pregnant with twin girls, due in early April 2016,” Louis Dreyfus Commodities said in a statement. “She intends to continue to exercise her duties as (non-executive) chairperson until the birth, take a brief break and return to work full time in late April,” it added. Louis-Dreyfus was born in Russia, but acquired

Swiss nationality through a first marriage, before meeting Robert Louis-Dreyfus in 1988. The couple married in 1992 and had three sons, before Robert LouisDreyfus, who headed Adidas among other companies before taking over the family business, died in 2009 of leukaemia.

His widow took over the company and the football team he had acquired and is now considered one of the richest women in the world, with an amassed fortune of $7.1 billion, according to Forbes. Louis-Dreyfus’s current partner is Philipp Hildebrand, 52, the former head of Switzerland’s central bank and current vice president of US investment manager BlackRock.

role in the push to establish a base on the moon after Nasa said it does not intend to be the lead in future manned missions

lay for those who plan to tie the knot in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey.

International Space Station, which is currently orbiting the Earth. He described a vision to establish a ‘village’ on the moon with multiple countries from around the world that could serve as a base for scientific, space tourism and even mining activities on the moon. He said: ‘There is the regolith - an ideal material for making concrete. We could mould structures, such as an astronomical observatory, on the far side.’

Space exploration experts from around the world met in Noorwijk, the Netherlands, last month for the Esa-led international symposium entitled Moon 20202030: A New Era of Coordinated Human and Robotic Exploration.

They discussed new technologies that could help to support human life on the moon including new space suits, habitats and ways of producing food.

Putin preparing rat army to fight IS Moscow Vladimir Putin is preparing to unleash his latest weapon in the war against terror: an army of cyborg rats.

Russian scientists are hoping to combine the rats and their amazing noses with the latest technology, allowing them to sniff out explosives or drugs in places which are impregnable to all but the very small.

If they are successful, the rodents will be able to alert their handlers to the dangerous or illegal material before they themselves have even had time to register it.

There is only one problem: it takes three months to train a rat properly, and they only live for a year.

This means the scientists would have to ‘constantly drill whole battalions of rats to provide security forces with a new type of counter-terrorist operative’, according to the Kremlin-backed news agency Sputnik.

But the scientists, from Rostovon-Don, near the border with Ukraine, are not to be deterred, and are steaming ahead with operation ‘Next Generation Warfare’.

Three teams are currently working on the project in the Perception and Recognition

Don’t flirt or hold hands, top Turkey clerics tell soon-to-weds ISTANBUL Engaged couples should refrain from flirting, holding hands and “other behaviours that are not endorsed by Islam,” Turkey’s religious affairs agency declared Monday. Answering the question “is it appropriate for those who are engaged to be married to be able to see each other?”, the agency, known as Diyanet, set out where the limits

on the lunar surface.

Instead, the American space agency is focusing on sending humans to an asteroid and then on to the surface of Mars. However, Jan Woerner, who took over as director general of Esa in July, has said he is keen to send humans back to the moon. Speaking to Le Temps he said: ‘Abandoned by man for 43 years, it remains the only planet attainable by human missions with current technology, but remains poorly understood. ‘For scientists, if the Earth has changed massively since its formation due to vegetation and animals, the moon constitutes a silent archive of the solar system.’ He said he wanted to see a lunar base becoming the replacement to the

“There is no harm in engaged couples meeting to get to know each other, as long as they follow the rules of privacy,” it said in a statement on its website.

“But engaged couples need to refrain from flirting, living together, staying together tetea-tete in a way that could give rise to gossip, holding hands and other behaviours that are not endorsed by Islam,” it added.

Neuro-technologies Laboratory at the South Federal University, hoping to harness rats’ raptor neurons, which give the rodents

a better sense of smell than artificial devices or even dogs.

Their size gives them the added edge - potentially even allowing them to hunt out survivors following natural disasters.

Dr Dmitry Medvedev, who is heading up the team, said: ‘Unlike a dog, a rat can get through the smallest crack where it seems it couldn’t go.

‘This way it could find its way deep under rubble and by its brain activity one could understand if there are, for example, people who are still

alive, if it’s worth clearing debris here or at another place, to rescue people more quickly.’

The microchip, which give the rat the appearance of wearing a headdress, should be able to detect the rats’ physiological reaction even before the rodent has itself reacted to it. To do this, programmers are reported to be creating mathematical algorithms to study and understand the results.

These algorithms will help scientists gather data and statistics of the rats’ cerebral reactions to various smells. But before they do this, physiologists have to train the animals to identify explosives and drugs - a difficult task which has to be done in a short space of time.

‘Two to three months are needed in order to teach the animal to react to one substance while the life span of a laboratory rat is only about a year, Dr Medvedev admitted, adding: ‘We can’t use very young rats, and the old ones have already lost their sense of smell.’

Zuckerberg unveils 2016 plans for artificially intelligent butler NEW YORK Mark Zuckerberg wants to build an artificially intelligent assistant in 2016 to help run his home and assist him at work, the Facebook Inc founder and chief executive said on Sunday. Zuckerberg, who commits to a new personal challenge every year, revealed his plan in a Facebook post. “You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man,” Zuckerberg wrote, referring to an artificially intelligent butler who appears in the Marvel comic books and movies. Zuckerberg will start the project by exploring existing technology, he wrote. He will then begin teaching the technology to understand his voice so that it will learn to control

everything in his home, such as music, lights and temperature.

His plans also include teaching

the assistant to let friends into his home by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell, Zuckerberg wrote. The assistant will visualize data to support Zuckerberg at work, he wrote.

“This should be a fun intellectual challenge to code this for myself,” Zuckerberg wrote.

Issue - 648 (7)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

Molestation cases go up by 25 percent, Do not delay it, execute him: Mother of Kerala woman killed in Dubai Delhi still unsafe for its women The crime graph of the Capital has taken an upward turn consecutively for the third year. The Delhi Police registered almost 25 per cent more

registered in the Capital till November 30, 2015. In 2014, over 4,000 women filed complaints of molestation at various police stations but in

molestation cases while the number of rape cases also saw a nominal rise when compared to last year. Similarly, street crimes, heinous crimes, thefts, etc have also seen a steep rise. However, the police have a different perception and claim that the consistent increase in number of crimes against women is only because every case is being registered due to free registration of FIRs. Delhi Commissioner of Police BS Bassi on Friday heaped praises on his force while citing the example of free FIR filing.

The Delhi Police, up to November 30, 2015, has filed a total of 1,74,423 cases as against the 1,39,799 cases till the corresponding period in 2014. According to the data provided by police, 25 per cent more cases of molestation were

2015, the number rose to 5,027. Similarly, in 2014 the Capital witnessed 1,997 cases of rape but in 2015 the figure marginally increased to 2,005. In 2012, when the Nirbhaya gang rape took place, Delhi recorded 706 cases of rape.

The Capital has also witnessed a steep rise in street crimes like robbery, snatching, etc. According to the data, roads in the city have become more unsafe when compared to 2014.

Delhi saw a rise in robberies by 20 per cent, according to the police. In 2015, the police registered 9,028 cases of snatching - a 30 per cent rise when compared to 2014. The Capital also saw 6,969 cases of robbery in 2015 while the number of cases was 5,873 in 2014.

According to the commissioner, no victim

In the New Year, noted singer Adnan Sami will become an Indian citizen.

He says it’s a “New Year gift”.

Home ministry officials on Thursday said Sami will be granted citizenship on

Indian government. I am very happy today,” Sami, who is of Pakistani origin, told reporters here.

Born in Britain and hitherto a Canadian citizen, Sami has been living in India on visa since March 2001. He

Friday. The Indian citizenship was granted after he made a representation to the home ministry on May 26 requesting for it on humanitarian grounds.

“This is the New Year gift for me. I am thankful to the

was last given a visa extension in October this year.

The singer, who became a sensation in the country with hit songs like “Kabhi to nazar milao” and “Lift karaa de”, spoke to the media before leaving for

has been facing problems in filing FIRs in Delhi.

“There were a lot of hassles in registering a FIR earlier. There were many complaints that people had to pay to get a case registered. We have ensured truthful registration of FIR now,” Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had said earlier.

Meanwhile, apart from heinous crimes, cases of theft, vehicle thefts, burglary, etc have also seen a steep rise, varying from 15 to 30 percent in 2015. “We have introduced online FIR for vehicle thefts. Anyone whose car has stolen from Delhi can file a complaint from his/ her home or office.

This could be a reason of steep rise in vehicle thefts,” a joint commissioner rank officier told Mail Today. According to a senior police official, currently investigation officers are over burdened and are handling hundreds of case. This is leading to pendency of cases.

“Currently, major worries of district heads are pendency of cases and quality investigation. Even in heinous crimes, IOs are unable to devote time as they are handling hundreds of cases. Free registration has presented a problem of pendency.

This will be the biggest issue in the coming months,” a top officer of the Delhi Police said.

Singer Adnan Sami to get Indian citizenship

Mumbai airport to catch a flight to the capital on Thursday.

Sami, who is known for playing a variety of musical instruments and is a known name for his distinct voice, has always maintained that the love he has received from Indian citizens is “everything” for him.“When my first album came out, it wasn’t Bollywood.

The love that I received from people was everything and it still is everything for me. After 16 years, it is not just the land where I work, but also my home and my love,” Sami, who has sung in Bollywood movies and even for albums, had said at a conclave here earlier this year.

His last Bollywood track was “Bhar do jholi”, which featured in Salman Khan’s blockbuster “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”.

Sitting in her Thrissur house, 47-year-old Usha Dhananjayan said she cannot pardon son-in-law Atif Popere, who is set to face a firing squad in Dubai for killing her daughter Nimmy in 2013.

Early this month, Dubai High Court rejected Popere’s plea against the execution order. As per Dubai laws, once the highest court of the land rejects an appeal, only a pardon from the victim’s family can commute a death sentence to life.

“I want my message to reach them loud and clear.

Do not delay it. Execute him. Justice is all I want.

His death will not bring my daughter back. But I want this as a message to anyone who takes our daughters away,” said Usha.

Popere and Nimmy met in a Mumbai college and went on to marry in 2008.

Nimmy, then rechristened as Bushra, gave birth to a daughter. Within a few years of marriage, Popere moved to Dubai to work as a shop manager. Within two years, Bushra followed him there.

Their daughter could not adjust to Dubai’s weather and was sent to Raigad

district to live with Popere’s parents when she turned three. Popere allegedly started a relationship with another foreign national, leading to marital discord.

Former vice-chairman of Minorities Commission Abraham Mathai, who helped Usha with diplomatic procedures, said Popere had fled to

“One evening, Popere’s parents called up my son Nigil and said the couple weren’t taking calls on the landline phone. Nigil lives three hours away at another end in Dubai,” said Usha.

When Nigil went to his sister’s, he found the house locked. After a search, a body in a mortuary was identified as Bushra’s. The authorities have said she was killed on March 11.

It was only during the trial that Usha figured that Popere killed her. “They say he smothered her with a pillow while she was sleeping. She must have never seen it coming. None of us did,” she said.

India. He eventually returned to UAE and surrendered in 2013.

Popere and another person suspected in the crime had pleaded not guilty. After their conviction, the Court of Appeal rejected their appeal to commute the death sentence to life.

Their appeal before the highest court of Dubai was rejected last week.

Usha is now fighting a custody battle for her sixyear-old granddaughter, who is now in Raigad.

She recalled Bushra’s call on March 7 two years ago.

“She asked me to decorate the new house that we had bought and design a room for when she comes visiting.

Issue - 648 (8)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

‘Rat on a plane’ forces Air India flight to turn back

A “suspected rat sighting” in the cabin forced an Air India plane carrying more than 200 passengers to return to Mumbai almost three hours into a flight to London, the airline said Thursday.

Air India said it had decided to turn back the flight “keeping passenger safety in mind”, even though the rodent’s presence was not confirmed. Rats pose a serious threat to the safety of flights as they can chew through wires and damage internal controls.

“Air India gives utmost importance to safety. Our engineering team is

investigating the incident,” an airline statement said.

“A standby aircraft was made available to fly the passengers to London. The aircraft with the suspected rodent will be fumigated as per procedure in such cases of rodent sighting.”

An airline official who did not want to be named put the number of passengers at over 200. It is not the first time an Air India flight has been grounded over rodents.

In July, a plane en route to Milan had to return to Delhi after a suspected rat sighting.

India’s state carrier has not made a profit since 2007.

Attacked for opinion on WhatsApp, Muslim man gets help from strangers A week after a man’s photo studio was burned down by alleged fundamentalists in north Kerala for what was perceived as his questioning of some of Islam’s traditions, friends and well-wishers have started a crowdfunding campaign to help rebuild the studio, his only source of income.

On December 26, Rafeeq was rudely woken to the news that his studio had been torched by miscreants in Kannur district’s Thaliparambha.

The 32-year-old said the act was in retaliation to his questioning of some of Islam’s traditions, including the need for hijab, the veil that covers a woman’s head.

Rafeeq had shared his views on a WhatsApp group that was circulated.

However, the discourse soon turned into a communal issue, with Rafeeq receiving threatening calls.

“I never thought it will take such a turn. Being a democratic country, I feel

everyone has a right to air his/ her opinion. You can’t stifle one’s

citing this would be a fitting response to those who

voice like this,” he said, adding such bullying techniques would not deter him.

A Facebook group called ‘Freethinkers’ has now taken up Rafeeq’s case and is attempting to raise funds to help him rebuild his studio. The group has so far collected around Rs 5 lakh.

“I was literally on the road. Then came the good news that some people are collecting money to help me. I was really bowled over by their magnanimity,” he said,

destroyed his ` 20 lakhworth studio.

Now looking ahead, Rafeeq whose wife is in fact a devout Muslim, says he will continue to voice his opinions against what he sees as blind faith and customs.

“Personally I believe religion should help one become a good human being. But it is sad that some religions are dictating terms for believers,” Rafeeq stated.

Whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka promoted Whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who has been repeatedly transferred and grabbed headlines after he cancelled a controversial land deal involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s sonin-law Robert Vadra, was on Friday promoted to the rank of principal secretary by the Haryana government.

Though Khemka’s major penalty charge sheet was dropped on November 4, 2015, by the BJP government, paving the way for his promotion, it remains conditional due to a pending vigilance probe against him and a pending assessment of one of his performance appraisal reports (PAR).

“The promotion of Ashok Khemka shall be subject to the final assessment of his performance appraisal report for 2012-13 (Oct 15, 2012, to March 31, 2013) as per the provisions of Rule 9 of All India Services (PAR) Rules, after the submission of report by State Vigilance Bureau in inquiry number 9 of September 5, 2013,” the promotion order issued by chief secretary, DS Dhesi, read.Five other Indian Administrative Service officers of the 1991 batch were also promoted along with Khemka.

Chargesheet dropped Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had heard Khemka

out on October 6 and ordered that the charge sheet against him be dropped. The IAS officer was charge sheeted during the Congress rule in September 2013 for major penalty under Rule 8 of the All-India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules.

He was held liable for administrative misconduct for overstepping jurisdiction in passing orders to cancel the mutation of 3.5 acres of land in Gurgaon’s Shikohpur village, which was sold by Vadra to realty major DLF and indulging in public criticism of the actions and policies of the state government.

Vigilance probe Khemka is facing an inquiry by the state vigilance bureau (VB) into the alleged irregularities committed by him in the purchase of green gram seed in 2013 during his stint as the managing director of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC).The VB is probing the

alleged flouting of established norms and tendering procedures in the purchase of green gram seeds through a single bidder, Metro Hybrid Seeds (on outright purchase basis), and denying National Co-operative Consumer Federation (NCCF) and National

Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (NAFED) the supply orders on a consignment basis.

Officials said that NCCF and NAFED were denied the supply order even as they had agreed to supply requisite quantity of green gram seed at the rate of Rs 8400 per quintal on consignment basis. Instead, a short term tender was floated by HSDC inviting private seed producers without even assigning the reasons for doing so.Only one seed producer Metro Hybrid Seeds made an offer to supply the green gram seed at Rs 8,412 per quintal as against the negotiated rate of Rs

8,400 per quintal agreed by NCCF and NAFED, officials said.

In fact, the NCCF made a formal complaint in this regard to the HSDC stating that if they had been given a counter offer to supply the seed they would have done so at the rate od Rs 8,000 per quintal on consignment basis as the rates of moong seed had considerably decreased in market during March-April 2013.

The Federation also said that denying them the supply order without any intimation about the status of their tender was illegal and undue favour was shown in placing order to Metro Hybrid Seeds.

While Khemka had put a condition for NCCF and NAFED that the seed supplies should be from their own-co-producers and not through traders or middlemen no such condition was imposed for Metro Hybrid Seeds. The private seeds producer supplied about 6,600 quintals of seed after buying it from other 24 seed producers and traders.The fifty-year-old officer has been transferred at least 45 times in 22 years of his service and belongs to Kolkata. Khemka was the topper in computer science and engineering at IIT-Kharagpur in 1988 before he joined the civil services.

Hanuman Sena workers clash with ‘Kiss Street’ organisers

Activists of Hanuman Sena and members of a cultural organisation clashed in Kozhikode on Friday when the latter gathered for a ‘Kiss Street’ programme.

The clash occurred when the Sena members protested against the 10-member group, including women, of ‘Njattuvela Samskarika Pravarthaka Sangam’ who assembled near the Central Library in Kozhikode to protest against facism and intolerance.

Police dispersed the groups and booked the volunteers of the organisation.

None was injured in the clash, police said.

Cases under IPC section 160 (punishment for affray) has been registered against 16 Hanuman Sena activists. Three volunteers of the sangam, including two women, were booked under 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty).

The organisers said the ‘Kiss Street’ had no connection with the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement against moral policing conducted last year.

Issue - 648 (9)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

In a first, Islamic State, Lashkare-Taiba trade barbs over Kashmir

The global terror outfit, Islamic State, has dubbed the Pakistani Army as “apostate” and mocked the al-Qaeda’s support to militancy in Kashmir which it said was controlled by the military establishment in the neighbouring country.

The IS’ scathing attack came just days after it staged a bloody carnage in Paris which underlined the outfit’s capability to strike deep at the heart of Europe.

“In India, they (al-Qaeda) are the allies of the nationalist Kashmir factions whose advances and withdrawals are only by the order of the apostate Pakistani army,” an article in the IS mouthpiece Dabiq said in one of the harshest criticism of the alQaeda’s role in Khorasan, a region that includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and parts of northwestern and western

India.

Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-eTaiba issued a statement on Saturday denouncing the Islamic State as “a product of anti-Islamic Western countries” and said it had no role and space in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Kashmiris don’t want aid and support from an external group. They are capable enough to fight against the Indian aggression themselves,” LeT spokesperson Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi told a Srinagarbased news agency.

Though the IS has had limited presence in India till now, security agencies estimate that around two dozen people from the country have joined the outfit in Syria and Iraq.

The IS’ black flag has also appeared during anti-India demonstrations in Kashmir in recent times.

Army courts in Pak sentence nine militants to death Pakistan military courts have sentenced nine men to death for terrorism-related offences or attacks on minority Shiites, the army said on Friday.

Pakistan has hanged more than 300 people since lifting a moratorium on the death penalty in December 2014, many of them convicted in closed military courts which critics say fail to meet fair trial standards.

“Today, (the) Chief of Army Staff confirmed death sentences (were) awarded to another nine hardcore terrorists, who were involved in committing heinous offences relating to terrorism,” an army statement said.

They include Muhammad Ghauri, a Pakistani Taliban member linked to an attack on a garrison mosque in Rawalpindi which killed 38 people and injured 57 in December 2009.

Also sentenced were Harkatul Jehad-e-Islam activist Abdul Qayyum, who was linked to a car bomb suicide attack on the Inter Services Intelligence headquarters in the central city of Multan which killed seven people and wounded 72 in December 2009.Two others were linked to attacks on soldiers, while five were said to be members of the Sunni sectarian outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan who had killed five Shiites in the eastern city of Lahore. Their trials took place behind closed

Twitter mistakes Arab Spring activist for IS leader, suspends account An Arab Spring activist has accused Twitter of suspending

his account after administrators mistook him for the leader of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Iyad El-Baghdadi, who has more than 70,000 Twitter followers, said his account was suspended for about half-anhour after he was misidentified as IS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi in Indonesian newspaper Republika and the New York Post, BBC reported on Friday.

“To confuse an Arab man for the IS leader because of his very Arabic common surname is overt racism, @twitter,” read one of his initial tweets.

“My account gave you nearly

100 million twitter views this year, but you suspend me and

keep the trolls running around, @twitter,” he wrote in another tweet.

El-Baghdadi said he received a message from Twitter saying he had “violated” its rules but did not specify the offence.

The activist, who also researches radicalisation, said the company needed to be “more transparent” about why and how people are suspended.

“I don’t think a single Arab country exists that doesn’t have a family with the surname ElBaghdadi,” his another tweet read.

Arab Spring refers to the democratic uprisings that arose

independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011.

Twitter has not commented on the issue yet.

In a fresh bid to combat abusive behaviour, the micro-blogging site is also revising its rules to tackle hateful conduct which includes spreading terror messages online.

“We believe that protection from abuse and harassment is a vital part of empowering people to freely express themselves on Twitter,” Megan Cristina, director, trust and safety at Twitter, posted in a blog recently.

“The updated language emphasises that Twitter will not tolerate behaviour intended to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence another user’s voice.

As always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs but we will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse,” she posted.

Over the past year, Twitter has taken several steps to fight abuse in order to protect freedom of expression.

It has empowered users with tools for blocking, muting and reporting abusive behaviour.

doors, with no information on where or when they were held, how proceedings unfolded and scant details about their crimes.

Pakistan has been battling a

killed, leading to widespread outrage and a series of measures aimed at combating terror.

After the school attack the government ended a six-year

homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade following its decision to side with the US-led coalition against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Its troops have been engaged in a full-scale offensive against Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal districts since June 2014.

The fight gained renewed impetus following a massacre at a Peshawar school in December 2014 in which 134 children were

moratorium on executions -initially only for people convicted of terrorism but later for all capital offences.

Pakistan also amended its constitution to allow military courts to try terror suspects for a two-year period.

Supporters of the courts say cases previously dragged on for years and many suspects escaped punishment due to legal loopholes or intimidation of witnesses.

Somalia’s Islamist militant group uses Donald Trump in recruiting film

Somalia’s Islamist militant group al Shabaab has released a recruitment film in the form of a documentary about racial injustice in the United States featuring Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, SITE Monitoring reported on Saturday.

Trump, the billionaire developer, former reality TV star and Republican front runner, was shown in the 51-minute film making his December call for the United States to bar all Muslims from the country as his supporters cheered.

It was shown between two clips of militant leader Anwar alAwlaki, killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011, saying Muslims in the United States would face a choice between leaving for Islamic countries or

staying at home to fight the West.

The film was distributed on Twitter on Friday by the alKataib Media Foundation, an Islamist militant organisation, SITE reported.

Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States has been widely condemned by American politicians. It has also provoked an international uproar and led to criticism that his views could be used as propaganda by Islamist militants.

Al Shabaab, which seeks to overthrow Somalia’s Westernbacked government and impose a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, has links to the international militant group al Qaeda and has carried out attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Issue - 648 (10)

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 *** 651 *** Seeking a suitable match for a Canadian born punjabi tonk kshatriya girl, 31 yrs. old, 5'-3'' tall, diploma in accounting & professionally employed. The boy should be indian born Hindu punjabi, age between 32 to 36, tall between 5'-10" to 5'-11", attractive, athletic built, fair complexion, bachelor or master degree. Looking for a match in Punjab India or in Canada.

Vegetarian preferred. Please send your bio-data & recent pictures to: canadian.alliance@yahoo.ca *** 651 *** Well established Sikh Jatt parents seeking suitable match for beautiful 26 yrs. old daughter who is a doctor and U.S. Citizen.

Boy should be in the Medical, Engineering field or a Lawyer.

He should also be tall between 25-30 yrs. old and from a respectable Jatt Family, living in USA. Please send your biodata and Photo to: jskaur555@gmail.com ***648*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 27 year old, 5’6” tall, working as health analyst, also pursuing MBA, well versed in both cultures. The boy should be educated. Please send your recent picture & biodata to: bhajan119@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-204-668-3958 ***648*** Lubana Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 24 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, currently in Canada on work permit, Diploma in Network Technician.

The girl should be Canadian Citizen/Immigrant. Cast no bar.

Please email recent picture & bio-data to: manjeet_singh6217@yahoo.com Or Call: 905-929-2624 ***648*** Suitable match for Canadian citizen jat Sikh Gill boy, age 33 years, 6’-2" tall,Vegetarian, diploma in Civil Engineering, well settled in Toronto area living with his parents and younger brother, belongs to Ludhiana area. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: bsgill7@gmail.com or call: 647.800.9185 or 647-7400987 *** 648*** Goswami Brahmin Punjabi NRI only son, 1984 born, 5'- 8" Tall, in.BSc med., MBA, Advance course in management (Australia), Residing in Australia

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

since 2009, earning 60K Australian dollars. Parents are well settled in USA. Father is in medical field. Sisters are married in US,UK, Australia.

The girl should be educated, tall, caring, beautiful, US citizen or Green card holder. Brahmins or Khatri preferred. Call: 1-559-7659965 or 1-559-289-1945 *** 648*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter 31 yrs. old, 5-3” tall, R.N. working in her own field, beautiful, family oriented, born & raised in Vancouver. The boy should be raised in Canada, professionally employed, family oriented & from lower main land, Calary or willing to relocate.

Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: pam_johal@yahoo.ca Or Call: 1-604-780-8010 ***648*** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their son, 42 yrs. old, 5-10” tall, Canadian Citizen, Divorcee, working as a family Physician, clean shaven. The girl should be educated, between 2632 yrs. old, family oriented. The girls on sudent visa/vistor visa/ work permit can also be considered. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: gill.jay@gmail.com Or Call: 647847-7534 ***648*** Looking for a professionally qualified match from Canada/ America for Jatt Sikh Canadian PR Boy, 28 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, MBA from India, postgraduation from Canada, non-drinker and belongs to a respectable family.

Girls on student visa/work permit will also be considered. Please email recent picture & bio-data to: vir.canada@yahoo.com Or call: 647-629-2031 ***648*** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, 1986 born, 5’6” tall, Medical healthcare professional, well versed in both cultuers. Boy should be Canadian well educated and professionally employed. GTA preferred. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: jotg1738@gmail.com Or Call: 416-564-0617 ***648*** Khatri Sikh Punjabi family seek a suitable match living in U.S.A., 54 yrs. old, 5’-3" tall, widow, average built, good looking, well mannered, homely, sincere, American citizen, working, living in New Jersey. Serious enquiry only. Please respond with latest picture and bio-data to: vinderb1962@yahool.com or call:1-732-763-3399 ***648*** Jat Sikh gill parents seek a suitable match for their son, 37 yrs. old, 6’-1" tall, educated, living in india. The girl should be American/Canadian immigrant or citizen, family oriented, well versed in both cultures, family is well settled in U.S.A.. Please respond with latest picture and bio-data to:

pammigrewal15@yahoo.com or call: 1-559-871-7920 ***648*** Saini Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter well settled turbaned son, 1980 born, 5’-9” tall, born & raised in Canada, well versed in both cultures, family oriented, Charted Professional Accountant designation & Professionally Employed. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: js764299@gmail.com Or Call : 647-669-3006 ***648*** Hindu Punjabi parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 35 yrs. old, 5’-1” tall, professionally qualified and employed in Toronto, never married, well versed in both cultures and family oriented. The boy should be professionally settled with family values and willing to relocate to Toronto.

Caste no bar. Please email recent picture & bio-data to :toronto108@gmail.com or call 905-781-6919 ***648** Lubana Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 27 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, Canadian Citizen, degree in informatic security from Canada, running his own successful businees, belongs to a very good family. The girl should be suitable educated, beautiful, family oriented from Canada/America. Please email recent picture to and bio-data to : kuldipsinghshah@gmail.com Or Call : 647-710--1032 ***648** Well settled Jatt Sikh family from California, (USA) seeking a suitable match for their son, born & raised in (USA), BA from UC Berkeley, works in technology field, owns home, 37 yrs. old, 5'-7'’ tall, nondrinker, non-smoker. The girl should be educated, slim, beautiful, having traditional values, from a respectable family & willing to relocate to California (USA). No divorcees.

Please send your bio-data & recent pictures to: tsinghg77@yahoo.com *** 648*** Ravidasia parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 32 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, Canadian Citizen, professionally employed. Boy should be highly educated, professionally employed and Canadian Citizen. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: san1622002@yahoo.com ***648*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Post graduate degree in Clinical Psychology, professionally employed, well versed in born cultures can speak Punjabi as well. The boy should be well educated., professionally settled, between 28-34 yrs. of age, lower Mainland area prefered. Please Call :1-604317-7576 ***648***

Saini Sikh parents seeking a suiable match for their son, 32 yrs.old, 6’ tall, American Citizen, clean shaven, graduate, self employed, well settled family.

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Please email recent picture and bio-data to: nsgill53@gmail.com Or Call : 416-277-2392 ***648*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 34 yrs. old, 5’-9” tall, teetotaler, Bachelor in Computer Application, Working with Multinational Company (MNC IT) in India, mutually divorced after short marriage, at present in Canada on visitor visa belongs to a well settled family. The girl should be Canadian/American Immigrant/ Citizen, educated and family oriented. Brother is well settled in Canada. Boy has already applied for immigration. Please email recent picture and biodata to: soisukhdeep@gmail.com Or Call : 647-203-6979 ***648*** Jat Sikh Gill parents looking for a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 31 yrs. old, 5’-2” tall, well educated, working in her field. The boy should be Canadian, professionally qualified, clean shaven from Jat Sikh family.

Please Call : 1-604-522-4470 ***648***

Issue - 648 (11)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

Why is Pathankot on target again?

A narrow plain (just 30-km wide) lies between the Himalayas and the international border with Pakistan.

Located at the eastern edge of this plain and nestled in the foothills at an altitude of 1,090 feet is the militarily vital town of Pathankot. It is the northern-most district of Punjab that is located at the confluence of the boundaries of J&K and Himachal Pradesh.

The narrow 30-km plain is clearly India’s ‘jugular vein’- the weakest point.

India’s military prowess at Pathankot and around is tasked to ensure dominance in the topography marked by fast-flowing seasonal rivulets and jungles.

Through these 30 km pass the lone rail and road connection to J&K. The national highway connecting Jammu is the lone link across the Ravi, allowing military and civilian movement and so is the lone rail link that carries passengers to Udhampur and Katra.

The air base at Pathankot had been attacked by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the 1965 and 1971

wars. Today’s attempt by terrorists to storm the base can be counted as the third

The base also has UAVs, air defence guns and longdistance surveillance

fence’ of air fields like Adampur (Jalandhar), Halwara (Ludhiana),

attempt to target it even though it does not match the scale of the PAF attack.

“Today’s attack had the potential to cause damage to planes and helicopters at the base. Good that it was contained,” says Commodore Uday Bhaskar (retd). Besides a MiG 21 fighter jet squadron, Pathankot is home to a squadron of attack copters that fly in tandem with ground-trawling tank regiments.

radars. A town having 1.56 lakh population, Pathankot houses Mamun cantonment, which is used as a launching ground.

The Army has a divisionsome 15,000 mencomplete with artillery guns and tanks. It is also the base for a new division which is part of the upcoming 17 Mountain Strike. Pathankot remains top priority for the IAF which has otherwise formed a formidable ‘ring

Bathinda, Sirsa and Ambala in Haryana and Suratgarh in Rajasthan.

Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail (retd) of the PAFknown as an aviation historian- writes in his blog ‘aeronaut’ about the Pakistan design to damage the Pathankot runaway. “In 1971, Pathankot was singled out for two successive raids,” he says.

SN Prasad in his book ‘The India Pakistan War of 1965’, an authorised

A return gift to Narendra Modi from Nawaz Sharif?

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a surprise visit to Pakistan and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, the neighbour breached the trust of India once again.

peace talks with Pakistan, the neighbour country tests its patience at border by violating ceasefire or promoting terrorism against India. India has long maintained terror originating

When almost everyone was hoping some kind of positive progress in talks between India and Pakistan, the latter backstabbed.Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-eMohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode.Whenever India takes a step ahead to hold

from across the border should stop for the peace talks to deliver. Sadly, Pakistan deceived every time. There is no doubt that the terrorists responsible for Pathankot attack were from Pakistan. The only question is whether they have been sent by the Pakistani establishment or they have come on their own. Even if they have come on their own then the establishment might have helped them.

Otherwise it is highly impossible to cross the border undetected carrying such heavy ammunition.

“The investigation that has been carried out in the Pathankot attack till now has established the links

with Pakistan. These telephone calls placed in the public domain are very instructive because in many ways you see a pattern that you could link to either 2008 Mumbai attack or the Gurdaspur attack.

There is communication between the perpetrators and the handlers… The linkage with Pakistan is fairly credible,” Lieutenant General (Retd.)

Raj Kadyan told PE. Every time a dialogue process is started between India and Pakistan something happens. Last year when Modi and Sharif agreed to restart the dialogue process at the Ufa summit, three gunmen dressed in army uniforms attacked a police station in Gurdaspur, Punjab. The Indian government blamed Pakistan for the attack, based on Global Positioning Satellite data seized from terrorists following the encounter, which revealed that the slain militants had infiltrated through Pakistan.The GPS data unearthed the sinister plan of Pakistan, but New Delhi didn’t allow the incident alone to scuttle talks.

account from the Ministry of Defence archives says the PAF, on the intervening night of September 6 and 7, 1965, launched an unusual attempt to destroy IAF aircraft and airfield installations. Paratroopers of the Special Services Group were air-dropped at night near Pathankot, Halwara and Adampur. Of the 180 Pakistani commandos, 136 were taken prisoner, 22 killed and the rest managed to escape.

Pak phone number used to hire taxi The terrorists were in regular touch with their Pakistani handlers, who even arranged a taxi for them by calling from a mobile number of that country. Sources said the terrorists had first used a Toyota Innova on Friday and it has been found that the driver was called from a Pakistan number. Security agencies are questioning the driver and trying to find out whether he had any links with terrorists or was it a case of him not recognising a Pak number.

Sacked IAF technician to be quizzed A sacked IAF official, arrested for allegedly

sharing secret information with ISI, will be interrogated, investigators told a city court which extended his police custody till Monday. Ranjith KK, a Leading Aircraftman with IAF posted at Bathinda, was dismissed recently and later arrested. He had allegedly shared secret information with intelligence operatives suspected to be backed

by ISI after being “honeytrapped” into an espionage racket.

Gujarat on high alert The Gujarat Police have issued an alert and the security personnel have been told to take necessary steps to keep a check on suspicious activities in the wake of the terror attack in Punjab. “In the wake of today’s terror attack in Punjab, I have asked the police department and respective heads to remain alert. Based on some inputs available with us, I have ordered the police force to take all necessary steps and increase vigil across the state,” said PC Thakur, DGP.

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5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

Germany lifts alert of imminent attack by IS in Munich German police Friday lifted an alert of an imminent attack in Munich, hours after evacuating two key train stations over fears jihadists were planning a New Year suicide bomb assault.

Officials had said they were tipped off about a plot by the Islamic State group to strike at the southern German city shortly before midnight as Europe prepared to ring in the New Year in an atmosphere of unprecedented security.

European capitals have been on high alert since November when IS jihadists slaughtered 130 people in a series of gun and suicide attacks in Paris, stoking fears they could stage further attacks over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

But German investigators, acting on information from a foreign intelligence service, said they have so far failed to substantiate the threat.

“Overall I would say that the situation for Munich is as it was before this threat of attack,” Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told journalists on Friday.

Investigators had in hand the names of some of the “five to

seven” suspects allegedly planning to blow themselves up at locations including Munich’s main rail hub and Pasing station

refuted speculation that the threat was a false alarm, saying that “if there is such information, we have to act”.

in the western part of the city, he said, but have not yet found any evidence.

“We have examined data relating to these names, but at the moment, we do not know if these names are correct, whether these people exist and where they are,” he said, adding that the suspects were allegedly from Iraq and Syria.

A large deployment of 550 officers overnight has now been reduced to 100, and Andrae urged the public to “live as you did before”.

Nevertheless, the police chief

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere thanked Bavarian authorities for their action, warning in a statement that the security situation in Europe and Germany “remains serious in the New Year”.

“Security agencies continue to expect a high threat stemming from international terrorism,” he said.

Police warn via Twitter Just over an hour before the New Year, police ordered the evacuation of the two stations over a possible “terror attack”, issuing alerts via Twitter in

Saudi Arabia says 47, including Shia cleric, executed on terror charges

Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday for terrorism, mostly suspected al Qaeda members but also a prominent Shia Muslim cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, interior ministry said in a statement broadcast on state television.

The conservative Islamic kingdom, which usually executes people by public beheading, detained thousands of militant Islamists after a series of al Qaeda attacks from 2003-06 that killed hundreds, and has convicted hundreds of them.

However, it also detained hundreds of members of its Shia minority after protests from 2011-13, during which several policemen were killed

in shooting and petrol bomb attacks. Several of he Shi’ites have been sentenced to death.

Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival, Shia Iran, has warned that executing Nimr “would cost Saudi Arabia dearly”.

The Interior Ministry statement began with Koranic verses justifying the use of execution and state television showed footage of the aftermath of al Qaeda attacks in the last decade. Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh appeared on television soon after to describe the executions as just.The executions are Saudi Arabia’s first in 2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014.

several languages.

Rail services at both stations were immediately suspended and police urged the public to avoid large gatherings. Both stations later reopened at around 3:30am, but police called for vigilance.

Regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk said the suspects were seven Iraqis living in Munich who were allegedly planning to work in pairs and blow themselves up at the two stations as well in other parts of the city.

Germany had been tipped off by both US and French authorities, it said.

The alert brought an eerie silence to Munich’s busy rail hub, which over the summer made headlines for the massive turn-out of volunteers welcoming record numbers of refugees to Germany.

Police, including some in riot gear, were stationed overnight at the entrances to the station.

Revellers seeking to access the site were turned away.

Meanwhile across Europe, public celebrations went ahead as planned but under the watchful eye of thousands of police and security forces.

Belgium also targeted?

With fears of a fresh attack high, both France and Belgium scrapped the traditional New Year fireworks displays in their respective capitals, with Brussels saying it had information about an alleged jihadist plot to attack “emblematic sites” over the holiday.

Ahead of the celebrations, Belgian police carried out several raids in Brussels and the eastern city of Liege in connection with the alleged plot, with five people still in custody on Friday morning. All five deny the allegations.

Several days after the November 13 Paris attacks, German police called off an international football match at the last minute, evacuating thousands of fans from the stadium over a “serious” bomb threat.

Although an investigation was opened, no explosives were found nor arrests made.

De Maiziere who had been due to attend the match with Chancellor Angela Merkel later said the event was cancelled “to protect the population”, but did not provide specifics.

Pak officer arrested for sending 11 people to join IS in Syria A Pakistani government officer was on Thursday arrested in Lahore for allegedly sending 11 people mostly women to Syria to join Islamic State terror group.

A team comprising personnel of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and a premier intelligence agency raided the house of Federal Board of Revenue officer Mehr Hamid in Jauhar Town here and arrested him for his alleged links with IS, a senior police official said.

The agencies are investigating the suspect’s role in sending his and two other families, a total 11 people, to Syria to join the IS. “During initial interrogation, Hamid said his wife Bushra Bibi, who runs a seminary, left for Syria along with their three daughters and a son last July and joined the IS. While leaving the country, she had told him that she and children were going to visit holy places in Syria. Recently, she informed him on WhatsApp that she had joined the IS along with the children as she was impressed by the teaching of its chief Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi,” the

official said.

Police said Bushra, who had done her MPhil in Islamic Studies from the Punjab University, is

members of the women.

The CTD this week had busted a cell of the IS group in Sialkot district of Punjab and arrested

also suspected of luring one of her girl students and a teacher who along with her five children also left for Syria.

The women reported to have first reached Balochistan province and then headed towards Syria to get jihadi training.

The police had registered abduction cases in different police stations in July on the complaints of some family

eight people who were earlier members of Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawh.

The investigators said the suspects had taken an oath to “overthrow democracy and introduce Caliphate” in Pakistan through armed struggle.

Originally the suspects belonged to Jamaat-ud-Dawh, but later joined hands with the IS. They used to communicate with one another through social media and Skype to avoid arrests.

“The suspects were trying to extend their network to other parts of Punjab through recruitment. Initial investigations into the case revealed that the suspects were also involved in recruitment and collection of funds for the group,” the official said. They joined IS in Daska tehsil of Sialkot district in June this year, he said.

Pak interior minister accused of supporting terrorists

A member of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Shahida Rehmani, has accused the interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of providing support to terrorists.According to The Dawn, Rehmani, also alleged that Chaudhry Nisar was running a network of corruption through handpicked revenue officers of the Punjab government. He said that Khan keeps making statements on his progress but the ground work speaks a lot about him.

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5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

ISIS fatwa aims to settle who can have sex with female slaves Islamic State theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when “owners” of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females.

The ruling or fatwa has the force of law and appears to go beyond the Islamic State’s previous known utterances on the subject, a leading Islamic State scholar said. It sheds new light on how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old teachings to justify the sexual slavery of women in the swaths of Syria and Iraq it controls.The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by U.S. Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.

Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both.

Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as “part of a joint ownership.”

The United Nations and human

rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq.

Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

Far from trying to conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established a department of “war spoils” to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department on Monday.

In an April report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 female escapees who recounted how Islamic State fighters separated young women and girls from men and boys and older women. They were moved “in an organized and methodical fashion to various places in Iraq and Syria.” They were then sold or given as gifts and repeatedly raped or subjected to sexual violence.

DOS AND DON’TS Fatwa No. 64, dated Jan. 29, 2015, and issued by Islamic State’s Committee of Research and Fatwas, appears to codify sexual relations between IS fighters and their female captives for the first time, going further than a pamphlet issued by the group in 2014 on how to treat slaves.The fatwa starts with a

question: “Some of the brothers have committed violations in the matter of the treatment of the female slaves. These violations are not permitted by Sharia law because these rules have not been dealt with in ages. Are there any warnings pertaining to this matter?”

It then lists 15 injunctions, which in some instances go into

Islamic State’s sexual exploitation of female captives has been well documented, but a leading IS expert at Princeton University, Cole Bunzel, who has reviewed many of the group’s writings, said the fatwa went beyond what has previously been published by the militants on how to treat female slaves.

“It reveals the actual concerns of

explicit detail. For example: “If the owner of a female captive, who has a daughter suitable for intercourse, has sexual relations with the latter, he is not permitted to have intercourse with her mother and she is permanently off limits to him. Should he have intercourse with her mother then he is not permitted to have intercourse with her daughter and she is to be off limits to him.”

IS slave owners,” he said in an email.Still, he cautioned that not “everything dealt with in the fatwa is indicative of a relevant violation.

It doesn’t mean father and son were necessarily sharing a girl.

They’re at least being ‘warned’ not to. But I bet some of these violations were being committed.”

The fatwa also instructs owners

The 17-year-old girl thanks the Anti Terrorism Squad for rescuing her from the dark side, will now help cops combat extremist online propaganda of terror groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria The Anti-Terrorism Squad has had its hands full trying to counter the growing online network of terrorist groups in India.

Four men had disappeared from Malvani last month, and while two have been rescued and counselled so far, the other two continue to be on the run.

The ATS had launched a campaign to help de-radicalise youth who have fallen prey to ISIS handlers and recruiters online. The campaign has so far helped rescue 25 youth from across the state, and Islamic clerics and scholars are aiding the ATS in this initiative.

The arrest of Mohammad Sirajuddin, a manager at Indian Oil Corporation, from Jaipur on December 5, was a huge success for the ATS. His arrest led to the unravelling of several toxic chat rooms and groups on social media that were radicalising youth and urging them to join the ISIS. While screening the social media groups, the ATS discovered a 17-year-old girl from Pune, nicknamed Radical Gun, who was being coaxed to fly to Syria and attend to wounded soldiers. The teenager had a 90% score in her SSC and was pursuing medicine when

she was roped in by the social media handlers. However, the ATS was able to de-radicalise the girl and make her see the truth behind the sinister plans of the ISIS.

to Facebook, I became a part of the ISIS web group. I shed my western attire and began wearing the burkha,” she added.

“The group members kept egging me on, as I was the youngest in the group. I was online 24/7 posting and preaching.”

This was when the group urged her and offered to sponsor her medical education, so that she could attend to the wounded soldiers involved in the war in Syria.“Cops landed at my house and I was scared that I would be arrested. However, I am thankful to the ATS for rescuing me from the dark side of the ISIS. They helped me with sessions where Islamic scholars revealed the truth to me,” the 17-year-old added.“This is really a new life for me. And now I have promised the ATS that I will help them in de-radicalising youth and be part of the initiative.”

ATS campaign The ATS initiative has so far been able to rescue about 25 youth.

ACP Bhanupratap Barge said, “During the interrogation of the suspects we came to know that youngsters are brained washed and are often not aware of what they are doing. In our interaction sessions with students we share information about terror outfits, sleeper cells, their funding and operational methods. We have more than 12,000 volunteers from different colleges, who share and pass on information about suspicious movement in their area and also about missing youngsters.”

Exclusive! De-radicalised Pune teen speaks about her brainwashing by ISIS

Another youth that the ATS rescued was a Hindu engineering student, who had converted to Islam and had been teaching Arabic at Madrassas across Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The boy is now helping the ATS sift through jihadi material that is printed in Urdu and Arabic and circulated across social media.

‘They wanted me to treat war victims in Syria’ The 17-year-old girl is a lone child from an affluent family in Pune.

“Between April and August 2015, I was waiting for college to resume and whiling time online.

I came across the ISIS and my curiosity got the better of me,” the girl said.“I started reading up on why people were supporting ISIS. The information that I found was about the Dos and Don’ts about Islam. But later, as I moved

of female slaves to “show compassion towards her, be kind to her, not humiliate her, and not assign her work she is unable to perform.” An owner should also not sell her to an individual whom he knows will mistreat her.

Professor Abdel Fattah Alawari, dean of Islamic Theology at AlAzhar University, a 1,000-yearold Egyptian center for Islamic learning, said Islamic State “has nothing to do with Islam” and was deliberately misreading centuries-old verses and sayings that were originally designed to end, rather than encourage, slavery.

“Islam preaches freedom to slaves, not slavery. Slavery was the status quo when Islam came around,” he said. “Judaism, Christianity, Greek, Roman, and Persian civilizations all practiced it and took the females of their enemies as sex slaves. So Islam found this abhorrent practice and worked to gradually remove it.”

In September 2014 more than 120 Islamic scholars from around the world issued an open letter to IS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi refuting the group’s religious arguments to justify many of its actions. The scholars noted that the “reintroduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam.”

Al Qaeda reemerging amid US’ battle against ISIS and Taliban

Amid counter-terrorism efforts by the United States against ISIS and the Taliban, an old enemy of the country, Al Qaeda, seems to be reappearing as their training camps are sprouting up in Afghanistan.According to The New York Times, the recent reports of Al Qaeda reemerging seems to be forcing Pentagon and American intelligence agencies to assess whether they could again become a breeding ground for attacks on the US. Most of the handful of camps are not as big as those that Osama

Bin Laden built before the 9/11 attacks.

The scope of Al Qaeda’s deadly resilience in Afghanistan appears to have taken American and Afghan officials by surprise.

The administration has not talked much about the new challenge or its strategy for confronting the threat from Al Qaeda as it hurries to help the Afghan government confront what has been viewed as the more imminent threat, the surge in violent attacks from the Taliban, the Haqqani network and a new offshoot of ISIS.

Man who set Dawood’s car on fire now alleges receiving threat calls Swami Chakrapani Maharaj, who had set afire a car that purportedly belonged to Dawood Ibrahim in Ghaziabad, on Friday claimed that he has received death threats from the underworld don.Chakrapani, who claims allegiance to the Akhil Bharat

Hindu Mahasabha, said he got a telephone call and some SMSes from two unidentified numbers.

The callers warned that “I will be set ablaze the way I had burnt the car”, he said.He had won the car at an open auction for Rs 32,000 on December 9 in Mumbai.

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5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

THE MOST STUNNING CHURCHES AROUND THE WORLD PHARAONIC SEAL IN Churches represent the finest architectural triumphs of previous ages. At the same time, they are standing evidences of the strong faith that people have had over the centuries. We have listed a few churches around the world, bearing the best of ancient architecture, so that you get the inspiration to visit each of them at least once in your lifetime.

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

This carefully decorated chapel is best known for housing Michelangelo’s creations. On the outside, it looks like a plain rectangular brick building without any of the beauty and decorations that you might expect from such an important church. The chapel has three main levels, resembling an overflowing art gallery.

Chartres Cathedral, France This cathedral is situated

in the medieval town of Chartres, at a distance of

about 50 miles from Paris. It not only represents one of the greatest achievements in the history of architecture, it is also perfectly preserved in its original form, to the minutest details. Chartres is thus one of the very few cathedrals in the world that showcases an almost-perfect image of how it looked when it was built.

Cologne Cathedral, Germany

The cathedral is visible from almost every point of the city centre, and from many other spots around the city of Cologne. The residents still use the Cologne Cathedral as a point of orientation, and it is actually

the second highest building in the city, after the telecommunications tower.

Hard to believe, but the total area of the Cathedral measures almost 8,000 square metres, and can accommodate more than 20,000 people.

Basilica of St. John Lateran, Italy It is Rome’s oldest and most significant basilica.

the pride of the people there. The cathedral is

Being the historic city’s first church, there are a lot of things in this place that represent the best of fourth century art and architecture. One of the most prominent examples of this are the original bronze Roman doors, and colonnade.

A reliquary above the altar is said to hold the heads of Saints Paul and Peter, and the cedar table within the altar is believed to be the one used by Christ and his disciples at the Last Supper.

Apple Watch projects right time throughout the day Today, time is read at a flick of a wrist or push of a button, but our ancestors had to use a natural power source to tell time.

They designed sundials that used sunlight and shadows to display the time of day on a flat sur-

mechanisms and computerized parts in order to function properly, but Julldozer’s design consists of an empty glass jar, some nuts and bolts and a pointy bit made of plastic. Just as the earliest sundials operated, his 3D-printed model matches the shadow

face. Now, a French engineer combined the two models to make a homemade digital sundial.

‘What if we had a sundial that works like an enormous digital watch,’ said the engineer, who goes by the name Julldozer, in the instructional video on Mojoptix. There are tons of digital sundials being used all over the world and there’s even one keeping track of time on Mars.

These devices need certain

of a gnomon stick, the pointy bit, with the Earth’s rotation.

The basic concept of this DIY sundial is using the sun as the source for powering a series of analog pixels that are sequenced to precise angles.

Mathematical equations were used in placing the holes in the stick, so it can redirect sunlight into the shape of actual numbers – just like the average digital time display. Julldozer explains, if we can switch off one pixel, we can switch off

heaps of pixels. He used OpenSCAD software to develop a pattern for each individual number on the dial. It took more than a day for him to build the gnomon out of ABS plastic using a 3D printer. The finish product was a digital sundial that displays the time from 10 am to 4 pm in 20-minute increments. Julldozer explains that in order for the sundial to successfully tell time it must be placed in the correct positions. If you are located in the Northern Hemisphere make sure the device is facing north or face it south if you’re below the equator. If your sundial seems to be off, a simple twist of the gnomon to one side or the other should do the trick, according to Julldozer. The video posted on Mojoptix gives DIY-ers all the steps needed to create their own digital sundial and Julldozer is offering a full kit that includes the 3D printed components on his Etsy page.

ANCIENT COFFIN FOUND

Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Wednesday a 3,300-year-old coffin containing a signet ring bearing the name of an Egyptian pharaoh among the remains of what they believe was a local nobleman.

The discovery last month in Israel’s northern Jezreel Valley, was the first of its kind in the region in half a century and pointed to wide Egyptian influence during the late Bronze Age reign of Seti I, whose name was on the seal. The Israel Antiquities Authority said it had dated remains in the broken coffin - whose cover fragments clearly depict a human face, ears and hands - to the 13th century BC. The discovery was made last month during the digging of a gas pipeline.

Archaeologist Ron Beeri, a member of the excavation team, said the presence of

the seal suggested the remains were those of a wealthy Canaanite who may have collected taxes or performed other duties on behalf of ancient Egypt.

‘We can’t rule out the possibility that it may simply be a wealthy person who knew the Egyptian burial customs and preferred to be buried like an Egyptian, but in my opinion this possibility is less likely,’ Beeri said.

A bronze dagger and saucer, some hammered pieces of bronze and a number of clay vessels were found at the burial site, suggesting the deceased was an important figure in the local community. Seti I extended Egypt’s sphere of influence through military campaigns in what is now northern Israel and Syria, and the Jezreel Valley was a main thoroughfare.

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Pushing the Limits Director: Ericson CoreStarring Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Luke Bracey, Ray Winstone, Teresa Palmer Rating: 2 stars The 1991 Kathlyn Bigelowdirected film didn’t have to tom-tom its subversiveness. Thieves wearing masks showing maniacally grinning former presidents robbing banks? Check.

Thieves with the charisma of stars throwing up the

dents who are bleached of colour. Even thieves must center their wickedness on something as concrete as concern for the earth.

So, the gang of thieves are this time chasing eight ordeals specified by a green warrior, who given his name that is Ozaki and his beard that is thin and pointy, must be taken for a zen master of some sorts. The ordeals all involve an extreme sport of some kind, in air, water, or

cash to Mexico jungles — as an offering to earth. The largesse is always strewn from the sky, in as skewed a sense of altruism as any in this film.

If that is not enough, the film puts its cast of largely character-less actors through episodes designed to impress rather than engage. The more the actors skid, slide, swim, fly and fight as part of their “spirited” performance, the less and less concerned

image of cautious law breakers? Check. Rookie FBI agent falling completely under the spell of that charm? Check again.

Take Point Break 24 years later. It’s not just presi-

on mountain and land, which we are told is a way of saying “thank you” to the planet. At other times the gang gives away money it steals to the poor — diamonds to Mumbai slums,

you are about where they are hurting in the process.

Ramirez, standing in for Patrick Swayze from the original, doesn’t have the late actor’s natural swagger, but makes up with his

Monster Hunt CAST: Bai Baihe, Jing Boran, Jiang Wu, Elaine Jin, Wallace Chung, Eric Tsang, Sandra Ng, Tang Wei, Yao Chen DIRECTION: Raman Hui Rating: 3 stars Set in a fantasy land that looks distinctly Chinese, humans and monsters live in two different zones. The monsters themselves are divided into two groups, with some of them managing to co-habit with humans. A baby monster named Huba becomes the target of some renegade monsters, as they believe his presence can disrupt the balance of power between monsters and humans. Will the baby monster escape capture by

the evil monsters?

Monster Hunt, although an acquired taste, is an interestingly different tale told keeping various Chinese themes in mind, in addition to various sight gags, martial arts (but of

from studios in the West, this kiddie-entertainer is certainly an ambitious outing for director Hui. Although the movie is purportedly inspired by ancient Chinese fables and classics, Hui and his team give the film a distinctly modern touch, in terms of technique. There’s enough magic and fantasy in here

course) and some humour too. While the overwhelming majority of animation hits we’ve seen in the last few years have emerged

to remind one of the earliest Harry Potter movies.

The appearance and shenanigans of baby Huba himself is likely to inspire

eyes promising a world of buried pain. Bracey, who is in the Johnny Utah role, is someone’s version of Keanu Reeves. And a very

many ‘awww’ moments.

Visually, the variety of characters might cause you to lose track of things, but by and large, Hui keeps things simple, keeping in mind his primary audience here being little kids. Another point of merit is the interaction between live action and animation, which does not at all look clunky or artificial. The set pieces go allout in terms of imagination and the stunts are fairly over-the-top, in a cartoonish way. The soundtrack though, could have been toned down a little.

One grouse is the use of the word ‘monsters’ in the title. There is nothing really monster-like about these well-rendered characters.

They’re not scary-looking; in fact, they resemble inflated toys.

bad version where Reeves loses his vulnerability for a mess of long blond hair.

The failure of Point Break is in a sense the failure of

our times. We are a generation spent of causes, and fighting for own “human spirit” is no more enough.

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I don’t need a psychiatrist, I have Shah Rukh’s songs says Alia Bhatt Ever since she made her debut with Student Of The Year (2012), Alia Bhatt has been part of several hit films. As the 22-year-old prepares herself for a busy 2016, which includes two films with Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, respectively, we speak to her about her love for songs from SRK’s films, dealing with failure, and more.

Is it true that, as a kid, you used to love dancing to Shah Rukh’s songs from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)?

There used to be so many [songs that I would dance to]. I would dance to songs like ‘Yeh ladka hai deewana’ and ‘Koi mil gaya’. In fact, not many know that I even got the same haircut that Kajol sported in the film. I would also perform to some tracks from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and even to ‘Bole chudiyaan’ from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001).

You call yourself a Shah Rukh fan. Are you nervous about working with him?

I think I will die. I’ve been dancing to ‘Gerua’ (a song from SRK’s new film) in my bathroom since its release (laughs). Whenever I like a new song, I play it on loop and dance to it.

That’s my therapy. I don’t need a psychiatrist when I have SRK’s songs.

Are you completely over Shaandaar’s failure?

I don’t regret doing that film. When I signed it, I did so based on the script, and not because it was a film being made

by Vikas (Bahl; director), who directed Queen (2014). So, now if Vikas comes to me, I am not going to say, “I won’t

Shraddha Kapoor has reportedly been roped in to play lead role in Mohit Suri’s upcoming project Half Girlfriend.

According to Times Of India, Shraddha has already been signed for the film by Mohit who had recently posted pictures of himself in New York as he scouted for locations for the film. The film is an adaption of the hit novel of the same name authored by Chetan Bhagat. It will be the

third time Shraddha will be working with Mohit Suri after her two hit films Aashiqui 2 and Ek Villain.

Swara Bhaskar diagnosed with jaundice, refuses to go hospital

work with you, as we did a film together, which didn’t work.” That would be wrong on my part. I still stand by my film.

Sometimes things work out well and sometimes they don’t. But the experience will always be special.

You recently said that sometimes you feel like “dying” because of the pressure on you.

Someone asked me, “Do you feel the pressure?”

And I said, “I do, and sometimes you want to die because there is so much pressure.” Of course, it’s an exaggerated statement. I don’t mean that. What I mean is that sometimes, there’s too much pressure. But now I keep myself away from the constant pressure I was

feeling. I want to enjoy this phase of my life.

What made you realise that you needed to do something about it?

I’ve realised that this isn’t the time for me to stress about my work. I have been acting for the past three years, and I have wanted to do this since I was three. So, I should enjoy the fact that I am finally doing it.

Kriti Sanon on worKing with SuShant Singh rajput Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput’s crackling chemistry has grabbed the eyeballs ever since the first look of their untitled film came out.

The relatively newcomers have been roped in by director Dinesh Vijan for a romantic drama. And even before the shooting of the film, Kriti and Sushant have become close buddies. So much so, that the two were recently spotted at a movie date.

Even Kriti believes that

Shraddha Kapoor roped in for Mohit Suri’s Half Girlfriend?

her chemistry with Sushant is special. The Dilwale actor said after

enacting a scene from the upcoming film with Sushant, she felt they

had an instant spark.

“Dinesh asked us to do a scene from the movie. We were sitting on the sofa and did it impromptu.

There was something special, something you cant describe in words.

There was a connect, a spark, some chemistry between me and Sushant even though that was the first time we met. “So, that kind of thing coming out in the first meeting was very different and unique for all of us.

Swara Bhaskar had been shooting non-stop in Bihar for her next, Anarkali Aravali, till she recently suffered an eye injury, and had to be rushed to Delhi for treatment. Now, the actor has fallen ill again. She has been diagnosed with jaundice.

A source close to the actor says, “Only days after recovering from her eye injury and resuming work, Swara contracted jaundice.” Even though the actor has wrapped up the shoot for her film, she is still working in this condition to fulfil her other professional commitments.

“The doctor suggested that she get herself hospitalised, but as she had committed to a three-day shoot for a TV

show, she continued to work. She plans to go to Delhi again to recuperate at her family home, “ adds the source.

When Swara’s parents found out about her illness, they asked her to stop shooting immediately and rest. In fact, the actor’s mother flew down to Mumbai recently to take care of her.

When contacted, Swara said, in jest, “I guess I have had a system collapse. I have become like an old car that needs overhauling. Maybe some parts need to be changed too.” She adds, “On a serious note, I guess I have been overworking myself. In fact, the doctor said that too much stress has probably caused this. I need to take a break.”

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Emma Watson ‘can’t wait to see’ Noma Dumezweni as Hermione ‘Harry Potter’ star Emma Watson is voicing her support for Swaziland-born actress Noma Dumezweni, who is set to play Hermione Granger in the upcoming stage play ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’.

Watson, who played the “brightest witch of her age” in the “Harry Potter” films, shared her excitement on Twitter for Dumezweni, reports ew.com.

“Can’t wait to see Noma Dumezweni as Hermione on stage this year,” she wrote.

Dumezweni joins Jamie Parker as Harry Potter and Paul Thornley as Ron Weasley in the production, which picks up 19 years after the events of Deathly Hallows.

Earlier author J.K. Rowling, who developed the story with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, defended the casting of a black actress for the role of Granger.

“Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever.

White skin was never specified,” the Harry Potter author tweeted in December 2015.

Performances of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ will begin in London on June 7.

Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez says she is ‘very normal’ and will always be ‘down-to-earth’ despite her superstar status.

“There was a lot of misconceptions about me being a real diva or a problem or being very demanding and things like that. As unusual as my life is, I am very normal, I think, and down-to-earth,” said Lopez.

“I am happy to be one of the people who are breaking the mould. We can’t keep acting like we are in the 1950s. Women are strong. Women are bold. And now it is reflected in our art,” she added.

I was hospitalized for exhaustion says Kendall Jenner

Will quit Instagram when I become mother says Kylie Jenner Reality TV star Kylie Jenner says she will leave Instagram when she gives birth to her first child.

The 18-year-old “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” star, who is a lover of the photo-sharing site, admits she plans to ditch her 46.5 million followers once she gives birth to her first child, reported Female First.

“Once I have a kid, I’m not going to be on Instagram. I’ll probably delete my Instagram and just ... I don’t know, live life.”

“I would love to have a family and build a home with a farm in Malibu Canyon and just have my kids and throw away my phone, and just really, like, live my life and not do this anymore,” she said.

Police launch fresh appeal over Gwyneth Paltrow shop theft Police in New York City have launched a fresh appeal for information over a theft at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop shop last month.

The 43-year-old ‘Iron Man’ star opened her lifestyle brand’s popup store, goop market, in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle in November, and just weeks later the shop was targeted by thieves who escaped with more than USD 173,000 worth of merchandise, reported New York Daily News. Officers of the New York Police Department who are investigating the

theft have now released CCTV images of two men they want to question in connection with the in-

I am very normal and down-to-earth says Jennifer Lopez

cident, and launched a fresh appeal for information.

Security was stepped up after the theft, and the store closed its doors on Christmas Eve. Paltrow’s actress mother Blythe Danner spoke out after the incident and insisted her daughter was not too shaken up. “I called her immediately (after I heard). And she said, ‘Oh, Mom, it’s OK. It’s good publicity’,” she said. “She always has a good spin on things, and I admire her tenacity and her upbeat message.”

Reality TV star Kendall Jenner has revealed she was recently hospitalized.

The 20-year-old star took to her website and app to share her list of New Year’s resolutions, reported People magazine.

“I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. I don’t write a list down or anything, it’s definitely more of an in-my-head kind of thing. I set random goals like ‘find a boyfriend’ but it’s not legit at all, lol.”

The “Keeping up with the Kardashians” star continued to explain that she hasn’t given new goals much thought due to her busy schedule this past year.

In fact, Jenner was so busy this year she was briefly hospitalized.

“I just got so tired from work and life and everything that it freaked me out at the end of this year. I actually had to go to the hospital because I was so exhausted it was definitely a wake up call that I need to take better care of myself.”

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Dutchwoman uses Facebook to Brussels cops’ sex party probed convince thief to return purse Brussels A woman from the Netherlands managed to find the thief who stole her purse through Facebook, which allowed her to con-

tact him to return her purse along with its contents.

Hetty Ermers from Leuth village had her purse stolen with 350 euro (around $380) inside when she was Christmas shopping

in a market in Beek town.

However, surveillance cameras recorded the whole incident.

Ermers filed a police complaint and then she de-

cided to launch a campaign on Facebook to find the thief, whose face was very clear in the surveillance tapes.

Initially, Ermers asked the thief to return the purse without the money, as the

bag had other things that were of more value to her.

The woman got no answer back, so she sent another message with a clear photo of the thief, and he was forced, under pressure from his family, to return the purse as well as the money, which he will pay back in monthly installments of 10 euros, according to the Dutch News website.

Ermers told AD newspaper that the thief has several outstanding debts, adding that he took her purse because she was careless and not because he was planning to mug her. “That is no justification for what he did, but he does deserve a second chance,� Ermers said.

Brussels A group of Belgian soldiers and cops are being investigated for holding an orgy while Brussels was on lockdown following the Paris terror attacks last month.

Eight soldiers and two female police officers allegedly engaged in lewd acts at a police station in the neighborhood of Ganshoren, just north of Molenbeek, where officers were hunting for suspects in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks. Brussels was

on lockdown at the time of the alleged incident.

For two weeks in November, the Ganshoren station was transformed into a makeshift barracks for soldiers who were patrolling the streets of the Belgian capital after the government raised the threat level to four the highest level on November 21. The threat level was lowered to three on November 26.

During that time bars were told to close early, and restaurants, museums, shops, schools and the entire metro system were

shut. Police spokesman Johan Berckmans told De Morgen that 15 to 20 soldiers had been staying at the police station during the two-week period and that an internal investigation had been launched into the allegations. The Belgian army has already faced criticism over the conduct of its soldiers during the anti-terror operation. An investigation was launched after a uniformed soldier was pictured with a shopping bag while on patrol in Brussels.

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Donald Trump calls Bill Clinton a ‘great abuser’ Hilton Head Island Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has sought to assail Democrat

Hillary Clinton by calling her husband, former President Bill Clinton, “one of the great abusers of the world.” Speaking to about 2,000 supporters at a rally yesterday, Trump again invoked the ex-president’s alleged extramarital affairs and accused Bill Clinton of engag-

ing in “tremendous abuse” of women. Dismissing Hillary Clinton’s accusation that Trump himself engaged in sexism, the real estate magnate and reality TV star said: “And she wants to accuse me of things. And the husband’s one of the great abusers of the world.

Give me a break.

Give me a break.

Give me a break.”

References to Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky have rarely come up in the lead-up to the 2016 elections.

But Trump, who has developed a pattern of attacking those who cross him in ways others won’t, said yesterday that Hillary Clinton had forced his hand. A spokesman for Clinton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But deputy communications director Christina Reynolds said

Monday that Clinton “won’t be bullied” by Trump and plans to “stand up to him, as she has from the beginning of his campaign” when he insults women and other groups.Earlier this month Trump used a vulgar sexual term to describe how Hillary Clinton had been beaten by rival Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. In response, she said that Trump displayed a “penchant for sexism.”

“When she said that, I had no choice,” Trump said Wednesday. “You can’t let people push you around,” he said, adding: “We view this as war.” Bill Clinton was set to campaign on behalf of his wife in New Hampshire next week. While the front-runner among Democratic candidates in national polls, she trails rival candidate Bernie Sanders in some polls in the first-inthe-nation primary state. The Clintons and the Trumps, two New York families, had been on friendly terms for years.

Zuma asked to intervene for SA Indians held in S Arabia

Johannesburg The family of four Indian-origin South African siblings detained in Saudi Arabia for the past month without charge has appealed to President Jacob Zuma to intervene to secure their release.

According to Nazir Desai, Saudi authorities have declined to say why his sons Waliullah and Wasiullah, both lecturers in Arabic studies, and their sisters Huddah and Thembi, both students in Saudi Arabia, have been in custody for more than a month without being charged.

Desai said his children, all in their twenties, were arrested when they returned to Saudi Arabia on

November 23 after a short holiday at home. Wasa Al-Nafjan, deputy secretary at the Saudi consulate in Pretoria, would not

comment on rumours that the four were arrested because of allegations of terrorism amid speculation locally that the siblings were detained because of attempts to join IS.

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by Manjeet Sehgal Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who was released unharmed by five Jaishe-Mohammad terrorists on the night of December 31, slammed the authorities for not taking him seriously.

In an exclusive telephonic interview with Mail Today, Salwinder said it was his job to inform them about his abduction by the terrorists and had the authorities acted immediately, the terror attack could have been averted. “My duty was to share the inputs and I did that. If they did not act on time, that was their fault. The results are in front of you,� Salwinder said.

The senior cop, in his complaint given to the Narot Jaimal Singh Police station, has said he was abducted around 11.30 pm on December 31 when he was on his way back to Gurdaspur, after offering prayers at a Talur shrine.

He was signaled by some men for a lift at a curve near Kolian village. These men turned out to be the terrorists who later attacked the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. “They were in army fatigues and were carrying backpacks. They forcibly got inside my vehicle.

They first asked my friend Rajesh Kumar to sit at the back seat.

They then blindfolded me, tied my hands and slapped me hard. My cook was also in the car,�

Salwinder said.

Sources said the terrorists had earlier taken an Innova car from taxi driver Ikagar Singh who they

killed near the Kathlor bridge. But when tyres of that taxi got punctured, they abandoned it and waited at Kolian for a lift. That’s when they spotted the SP’s vehicle. When asked why he was released unharmed, Salwinder said the terrorists took him to be a commoner as he was in civil dress. “I was not in my uniform.

They thought I am a commoner.

When one of the terrorists accidentally pressed the hooter, they realised the vehicle was not an ordinary one.

Sensing trouble, they pushed me and my cook off the car at Gulpur Simbli village. I had lost consciousness. I later got to know they let Rajesh go after a while,� Salwinder explained.

Salwinder insisted he is not a suspect but a victim of circumstances. He clarified he was not under detention of any agency . He said he alerted the control room immediately after he gained consciousness.

Incidentally, Salwinder is facing five sexual harassment cases slapped by lady constables.

Police officials have said the accusations will not come in the way of Salwinder being made the prime witness in the terror attack case.

The terrorists who had kidnapped Salwinder and his companions struck the Pathankot Air Force Station in the early hours of January 2. Five terrorists have been neutralised so far and the operation to neutralise the other terrorists hiding in the base is on.

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The national capital was put on high alert in the wake of the Pathankot terror attack and intelligence inputs about a suspected terror strike by banned outfit JaishE-Mohammed, police sources said on Sunday. “Terrorist outfit Jaish-E-Mohammed is planning to carry out an attack in the city,� an intelligence source said.

Earlier, there were inputs that Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Goa and Kolkata were on the radar of some terrorists groups. In view of the inputs, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi on Sunday organised a second consecutive meeting with officials, including the heads of the bomb disposal unit and the fire department.

On Saturday, Bassi had reviewed security arrangements in the city with Delhi Police officials including special commissioners and joint

commissioners. Sources said Bassi, in Sunday’s meeting, asked officials to remain on high alert to avoid any untoward incident in the city.

He also directed officials to keep up the heightened security at the airport, railway stations, bus stands and other vital installations, the sources said.

Vigil was intensified in many areas, including popular market places, in south Delhi, central Delhi and the VIP movement zone in Lutyens’ Delhi, a police official said.

The police chief appealed to the residents to remain vigilant about any suspicious person or thing and report immediately to the police. “Citizens’ vigil against suspicious persons/objects/ activities is vital to counter terrorism. Report anything amiss (on) phone No.100 or helpline 1090,� Bassi tweeted.

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$WWDFN SODQ PDGH EHIRUH 30·V 3DNLVWDQ WULS

By AS DULAT The attack in Pathankot is extremely unfortunate in so far as whenever things look good between India and Pakistan something goes wrong.

But I am also quite confident that just because of this the peace process between the two nations will not get derailed.

Though the incident is condemnable, it

should not necessarily be linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Nawaz Sharif in Lahore.

It is quite possible that this attack in Pathankot had been planned before the Prime Minister’s Lahore visit.

It could be so that the attacks have

happened to derail the peace process as there obviously are spoilers, but what might suggest that it was planned before the visit is the fact that the terror strike has happened very quickly, within seven days.

The second reason is that in the past such attacks which were perpetrated with the intent to mar relations between the two neighbours took place when visits were planned, but this time it was not planned.

The great thing about Modi’s Lahore visit was that it took everybody by surprise and at that a pleasant one.

At the same time, I think what is of more consequence to us and what we need to look into is that why it is happening in that corridor, first Gurdaspur and now Pathankot.

Why Punjab because earlier it was happening along the Jammu border. Is it a continuation of the same or something new and fishy? It is the same corridor where it happened last time as Gurdaspur and Pathankot are close by.

Why is Punjab looking bad? Punjab always worries me.

There are various things in Punjab which have not looked so good.

There is so much talk about smuggling and drugs and criminal activities.

When Gurdaspur happened, there was a rumour that there was domestic support to the terrorists.

Even if it was a rumour, it is a disturbing rumour.

Last May, an incident happened in Gurdaspur in which some Shiv Sainiks were playing some game, an attack took place there and slogans for Khalistan were raised.

All these things interconnected or is it just coincidence? Also, the attack has proved a trend in such attacks as for the past twothree years, terrorists have shifted to targeting military and police establishments.

If one looks at Jammu and Kashmir, where there are two kinds of terrorism: one in Valley north of Pir Panjal and one in South in Jammu area.

In South Pakistani people are less, but in the Valley more local boys are there and that is a matter of worry. Some Kashmiris have told me that they are training not in Pakistan, but in the Valley.

On the other hand, we should not lend our ears to voices that say stop talking to Pakistan.

India should take up the matter with

Pakistan and the NSAs should talk about it when they meet. Here the problem is blame game of Pakistan where they would claim that the terrorists did not come from their soil which needs to stop. Cooperation is necessary and is more fruitful as was shown in 2003-04.

India has a legitimate query and we must ask them: why are these terrorists coming to India.

We also need to ask our security establishment as how could the terrorists sneak inside and how the lapse happened.

While some quarters may indulge in mudslinging and argue for stopping the peace process from both sides of the border, I got a call from Pakistan today from someone I cannot name, but who apologised for what happened today.

So voices are strong for peace to take centrestage and not get upstaged by terror.

(The writer is ex-special director of IB and ex-chief of RAW)

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Shakespeare to appear on British coins this year William Shakespeare, the Great Fire of London and the Battle of Hastings will appear on British coins this year, marking major anniversaries in the country’s his-

histories with a designs featuring a skull, a jester’s hat and a crown and dagger respectively. A £2 coin marks the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, which started in a

tory, The Royal Mint announced Friday.

The centenary of World War I and Beatrix Potter will also be commemorated on special coins marking “key moments, organisations and people that have shaped the nation,” the mint said.

Three different £2 coins will mark 400 years of Shakespeare’s literary legacy since the death of the English language’s foremost playwright in 1616.

The coins celebrate his tragedies, comedies and

bakery and destroyed much of the city. The role of the army in World War I is commemorated this year as part of a £2 coin series running through the centenary of the 19141918 conflict. The design recalls the Pals battalions, in which people from the same towns served together. The bi-metallic, round £2 coins are the biggest in regular circulation in Britain. Meanwhile, the 950th anniversary of the 1066 Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest is marked on the seven-

sided 50 pence piece.

The design shows Harold, England’s last Anglo-Saxon king, being shot in the eye with an arrow, as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. The 150th anniversary of the birth of children’s author Beatrix Potter is also celebrated on a 50 pence coin showing one of her cherished characters, Peter Rabbit. “It is always exciting to see the new year’s designs revealed, commemorating the moments that matter, and revisiting some of the great events and stories from our history,” said Anne Jessopp, director of commemorative coin at The Royal Mint.

They should begin to appear in people’s change from March, she added. The coins received the backing of The Times newspaper. “Giving monetary value to our history is an inspired and enduring way to remind us all of our heritage,” its editorial said, much more so than anniversary “mugs mass-produced in China”. The last batch of round £1 coins was minted in December.

14-year-old receives first 3-D printed nose in US A 14-year-old boy has become the first patient in the US to undergo a successful nose transplant using 3D printing technology after his face was disfigured when he fell on a live power line.

Reconstructive surgery on the human nose is not uncommon, but until now, doctors in the US had not been able to replicate and restore the body part to its full functionality.

Dallan Jennet, a 14year-old boy from the Marshall Islands, a country that lies near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, is the first patient in the US to undergo a procedure that did just that, Fox News reported. Jennet’s face became disfigured when he fell onto a live power line aged 9. Earlier this year he flew to New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, in New York City, to undergo multiple surgeries that would restore his sense of smell and taste.

“The procedure is akin to a ‘nose transplant’ in that we were able to replace the nose with a functional implant,” lead physician Tal Dagan, associate ad-

junct surgeon, said in a Mount Sinai blog post.

“This procedure may be a breakthrough in facial reconstruction because the patient will never have to deal with the standard is-

New York. To carry out the subsequent surgeries, Dagan and Dr Grigoriy Mashkevich, assistant professor of Otolaryngology, Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Sur-

sues of transplantation, such as tissue rejection or a lifetime of immunosuppressive therapies,” he said. Jennet’s first procedure, in early 2015, took place in the Marshall Islands, where doctors input expanders under the remaining skin of his nose to make room for the reconstructed body part.

Benicia, California-based nonprofit Canvasback Missions Inc, an organisation that provides health care and health education to the Pacific Islands, funded Jennet and his mother’s travel and medical expenses to

gery at Mount Sinai, collaborated with Oxford Performance Materials Inc, a Windsor, Connecticutbased 3-D printing company. The team created Jennet’s 3-D nose graft by replicating the structure of his family’s noses. For the first 16-hour operation in New York, doctors used a laser-based technology to analyze his skin. They then harvested blood vessels and tissues from the boy’s thigh, removed excess scar tissue, inserted the graft, and reconstructed the skin over the 3-D implant.

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Indian-origin cancer researcher knighted by Queen Elizabeth London An Indian-origin cancer research expert has received a Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his “influential” work on prevention and treatment of cancer in the annual New Year ’s Honours list published

here today. Harpal Singh Kumar, who is the chief executive of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), has been honoured for services to cancer research and being “hugely influential in promoting research into the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and cancer care.” “CRUK’s income and research spend are at an all-time high. Under his leadership, it has been instrumental in

pushing the government to take further measures to reduce smoking and to ban sun-beds for under-18s,” Kumar’s citation reads.

“He also chaired the Independent Cancer Taskforce and authored the NHS Cancer Strategy ‘Achieving

World Class Cancer Outcomes. A Strategy for England 2015-20’, published in July 2015,” it said.

Kumar leads this year’s honours list of Indian-origin names, covering fields of entrepreneurship, financial services and community service. “He has been instrumental in setting up the Francis Crick Institute as a world-leading centre of biomedical research and innovation,” the citation

added. Samir Desai, founder-CEO of Funding Circle, receives a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his work in the field of financial inclusion and Raminder Singh Ranger, chairman of Sun Mark Ltd, is awarded a CBE for services to business and community cohesion. Among the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) list are Kala Patel, managing director of Kiddycare Ltd Nurseries, for services to childcare business and Daljit Lally, deputy chief executive of Northumberland Country Council, for services to integrated care. A British Empire Medal has been awarded to Aatin Ashok Anadkat, managing director of Hotel Maiyango in Leicester, for services to entrepreneurship. The largest Indian-origin representation is among the list of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) which include Rekha Mehr, founder of Indian sweets inspired bakery Pistachio Rose, for services to entrepreneurship and enterprise;

Indian-Canadian assaults woman attendant; flight sent back

Toronto A New Delhi-bound Air Canada flight was today diverted back here after a 47-year-old Indian- Canadian man allegedly assaulted a woman flight attendant on board the plane while it was over the Atlantic Ocean.

Jaskaran Sidhu, who lives in Alberta, was arrested by the police upon the flight’s landing here at the Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

Flight AC6006 was then

rescheduled to take off later. Sidhu has been charged with assault causing bodily harm, endangering the safety of an aircraft and two counts of mischief, police said.

Peel Regional police said the man allegedly assaulted the flight attendant, who needed medical attention for her injuries, around 12:42 AM local time when the flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, just off the east coast.

The man was belligerent at

the time, but police arrested him without any further incident when the plane landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The flight was initially scheduled to take off earlier yesterday but poor weather prompted Air Canada to postpone the flight shortly after the plane made it to the runway. Sidhu is scheduled to appear in a Brampton, Ontiaro, court later today.

2 Australian climbers fall to their death in NZ WELLINGTON Two Australian climbers have fallen to their deaths in New Zealand’s southern alps, police said Saturday.

Stuart Jason Hollaway, 42, and his partner Dale Amanda Thistlethwaite, 35, from Melbourne, had

been travelling and climbing in New Zealand for the past month. Hollaway was a highly respected and

experienced mountain guide, police area commander Dave Gaskin said.

“His name was wellknown in climbing circles and he’s done a lot of climbing throughout New Zealand,” Gaskin told Fairfax New Zealand.

Ayesha Hazarika, chief of staff to the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, for political service. The other Indian-origins in the list include Gurmeet Kalsi, Building Services Engineer, Palace of Westminster, for parliamentary services and voluntary services to the Sikh community in Surrey.

Jayshree Mehta, president of the Bharat Hindu Samaj, for services to the community and Satpal Nahl from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for services to taxpayers and public administration. While Yasmin Mohammed Farooq Nathani, director of Shama Women’s Centre, is named for empowerment of women in Leicester; Karnail Singh Pannu is for services to the community in Windsor and Maidenhead. Mukesh Sharma, managing director of Selective Travel Management, for services to travel trade in Northern Ireland and Suresh Chandra Vashishtha for services to the community in the London Borough of Redbridge.

In total, 1,196 people have received an award in this year’s list. In addition to

the honours recipients, this year sees three new admissions to the Order of Merit, which is awarded to those who have rendered exceptionally meritorious services towards the advancement of the Arts, Learning, Literature and Science.

The award is in the personal gift from the Queen and is limited to 24 living recipients. This year it went to Iraqi-born Professor Lord Darzi for services to medicine, Professor Dame Ann Dowling for

mechanical engineering and Sir James Dyson, of the Dyson vaccum cleaner fame, for his work in industrial design.

There are 578 successful women candidates in the List, representing 48 per cent of the total, and 5.7 per cent of the successful candidates come from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The awards are presented in the name of the British monarch and published by the UK government in the London Gazette on New Year’s Eve every year.

Young brains more susceptible to thrill of smoking California Teenage smokers may be hard-wired to crave cigarettes, a new study suggests. Young brains are more susceptible to the rewarding and thrilling aspects of smoking, scientists said. Using MRI scans, they discovered that teenage brains have a different response to seeing people smoke. The findings reveal teenage smokers have heightened responses in brain regions rich in the neurotransmitter dopamine - a chemical that modulates pleasure and reward centers.

Researchers concluded teenage smokers therefore are likely to have a stronger ‘reward’ response to cigarettes.

Study co-author Dr Adriana Galvan, of the University of California Los Angeles, told Reuters: ‘We interpret these data to mean that the teen brain is more responsive to the rewarding and thrilling aspects of smoking, thus making craving more psychologically salient to them.

‘The dopamine system undergoes significant maturation during the teenage years rendering the

teen brain more reactive to rewards and perhaps more vulnerable to addictive substances.’ Scientists, including a team from University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, analyzed MRI scans taken of 39 teenagers and 39 adults.

pants if they wanted to smoke and how badly.

Only the teenage smokers appeared to have a connection between the activation of their reward and pleasure centers. But, because the study was relatively small, the researchers did

The scans were taken after the participants watched several brief video clips of actors smoking cigarettes. Nearly half of the participants were smokers. Those who reported that they were smokers also reported having more cravings when they watched the videos.

Teenage smokers reported the same levels of craving - though they have a much briefer history of smoking than the adult participants.

After the MRI scans, scientists asked the partici-

not ask participants to refrain from smoking for a set period of time. That could be an independent influence on craving, the scientists noted.

It may also be possible that because the study found teenage and adult participants to have different responses to the videos, the adults may not have identified with the images featuring young people, according to Dr Adam Leventhal, at the University of Southern California.

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It might be easy to jump to conclusions, particularly during the first half of the week.

You may not have all the information you need to make an informed decision. The move of Venus into Sagittarius and later Mercury into Aquarius can make your perspective lighter and more detached.

This in itself could be enough to help you stand back and see things as they are.

This is a week of shifts and changes, not only because the old year moves into the new but also because various planets shift into new signs. With Venus, your personal planet, edging into racy Sagittarius, you might be ready for some financial adventures. However, it helps to hedge your bets and do your research before you close a deal.

The Sun’s presence in one of the more sensitive areas of your chart could encourage you to resolve those sticky issues that may be holding you back. With perseverance you might transform an awkward situation into one that works for you. The move of Mars into Scorpio encourages you to pare down your schedule and jettison activities that no longer hold any interest.

Change is in the air this week with lovely Venus encouraging you to indulge in some pampering or a few spa sessions.

It’s a busy astrological week in other ways, too, as Mars hikes into your pleasure zone to ramp up the social scene in time for a fabulous New Year’s celebration. It’s also an opportunity to showcase some of your best skills.

The Capricorn Sun encourages you to get organized regarding work, lifestyle, and wellness issues. Your focus will also zero in on leisure and pleasure options when Venus enters Sagittarius, giving you ample opportunity to enjoy vacation time and the coming New Year’s celebrations.

With Mars jogging into your family sector, you may be ready to get rid of clutter.

Continue to expand your options and aim high as Jupiter continues in your sign.

As the focus continues on your leisure sector this week, you’ll be eager to put effort into arranging events that friends and family can enjoy. Communication efforts step up from this week, too, and you could tackle problems that have bugged you for some time.

Go easy on Tuesday. Despite your tactful ways, someone could make you frustrated or even irritated. The thing is that you or another may not be seeing things clearly, so hold back until you know the facts.

And you might be eager to get a few bargains under your belt at sale time.

However, avoid items that, while cheap, may be a bad investment.

You may be tuned in to a friend or love interest and able to pick up on their feelings. What you discover could surprise you, though. Rather than share any annoyance, opt for a heartto-heart talk. You may find everything resolves itself beautifully. You’ll feel your sex appeal increase when Mars enters your sign.

A purchase may not be as good as it seems early on, so hold fire and do a little research before you go ahead. Avoid a spat by taking the initiative and showing a willingness to compromise. There are more changes this week as Mars dances into a more secluded part of your chart, where it might encourage you to do a little spiritual housecleaning.

Inspiration could strike early on, but before you act, be sure that it syncs with the facts.

If it doesn’t, you might want to do a little more research first. The move of Venus into a more private part of your chart suggests it’s time to look into your relationship with yourself and find out what makes you tick, especially in problem areas.

You continue to move through a phase in which rest and the chance to recharge will do you a world of good. You’re also actively planning for success as Mars enters your career sector. It might be a good idea to be pickier about the projects you take on, as you’ll benefit from a break in between. As Mercury moves into your sign this weekend.

You and a friend are on the same wavelength this week, which could pave the way for collaboration or imaginative plans. You’ll benefit socially and financially by choosing a warm, friendly approach to those at work and in professional circles. Thoughts of travel and adventure could fill your mind as Mars enters Scorpio.

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Technology india’S e-commerce revenue Microsoft criticises India’s cloud policy may touch $38 bn in 2016 India’s e-commerce market is likely to touch $38 billion mark in 2016, a massive jump over the $23 billion revenues clocked by the industry in 2015, according to an Assocham study.

“Increasing internet and mobile penetration, growing acceptability of online payments and favourable demographics have provided…the unique opportunity to companies to connect with their customers,” said the study.

While the buying trends during 2015 witnessed a significant upward movement due to aggressive online discounts, rising fuel prices and wider and abundant choice will hit the e-commerce industry in 2016, it pointed out.

On the other hand, mobile commerce (m-commerce) is growing rapidly as a stable and secure supple-

ment to the e-commerce industry. Shopping online through smartphones is proving to be a game changer, and industry leaders believe that m-commerce could contribute up to 70 per cent of their total revenues.

The paper reveals that

Mumbai ranks first in online shopping followed

by Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

The study also noted that one out of three customers currently makes transactions through mobiles in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. “In 2015, 78 per cent of shop-

followed by electronic items, up 62 per cent, baby care products, up 53 per cent, beauty and personal care products at 52 per cent and home furnishings at 49 per cent.

Rapid growth of digital commerce in India is mainly due to increased

Facebook’s aggressive Free Basics campaign backfired with the telecom regulator TRAI asking respondents to its ‘Net Neutrality’ consultation paper to comment on specific issues rather than following a template provided by

sponses have been only about supporting the specific Facebook product without answering the larger issue of ‘differential pricing’ concerning Net Neutrality. Free Basics, which Facebook is promoting with double-page

put on hold in India, is now likely to finalise views on the issue of Net Neutrality

by January-end. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R S Sharma said that a record 18.27 lakh responses have been received so far, of which a large percentage are about supporting a specific product called Free Basics. Indicating that the whole consultation process could have been hijacked, Sharma said: “It is like we have asked Question X and they have given answer to the Question Y.” He said the authority has received 8.9 lakh responses supporting Free Basics where the respondents have just given their mobile number whereas 5.44 lakh comments are received through Facebook mail.

ping queries were made through mobile devices, compared to 46 per cent in 2013,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

In 2015, the highest growth rate was seen in the apparel segment, almost 69.5 per cent over last year,

Facebook Free Basics campaign backfires; TRAI asks supporters for specific replies

the social media giant.

TRAI, which extended the deadline for submission of comments till January 7 amid an intensified campaign for and against Free Basics, said a large percentage of the record number of 18.27 lakh re-

newspaper advertisements for days as also through TV, billboards and online forums, is being seen in many quarters as being against the basic principles of Net Neutrality.

TRAI, which has already ordered Free Basics to be

use of smartphones. Mobiles and mobile accessories have taken up the maximum share of the digital commerce market in India, noted the study.

Moreover, almost 45 per cent online shoppers reportedly preferred cash on delivery over credit cards (16 per cent) and debit cards (21 per cent). Only 10 per cent opted for internet banking and a scanty 7 per cent preferred cash cards, mobile wallets, and other such modes of payment.

The 18-25 years of age group has been the fastest growing age segment online with user growth being contributed by both male and female segments. The survey highlights that 38 per cent of regular shoppers are in 18-25 age group, 52 per cent in 26-35, 8 per cent in 36-45 and 2 per cent in the age group of 45-60.

Nearly 65 per cent online shoppers are male and 35 per cent female.

The products that were sold most in 2015 include mobile phones, iPad and accessories, MP3 players, digital cameras and jewellery, among others.

Microsoft has criticized the Centre’s proposal to empanel a set of cloud service providers for rendering government services, with Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman of the Indian unit of the American technology company telling ET in an

government) was very simple. Anything which is under the ambit of the RTI (Right to Information), why don’t you keep it under a public cloud?” said Pramanik. Most governments across the world have figured out use of in-

interview that smaller vendors may not have the scale and capability to run complex projects that big players such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon do.

Making a strong pitch for a policy that leverages use of public cloud infrastructure by the government, Pramanik said Microsoft is not suggesting that the entire Aadhaar database be run on its data centres since it is very critical from a security point of view, but that other non-critical projects can definitely be run through the cloud.

“Our point to them (the

frastructure that results in massive cost savings and efficiencies, said Pramanik. “It’s not rocket science anymore,” he said.

Earlier this week, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) released a request for proposal or RFP for empanelment of cloud service providers for use by departments, in addition to the National Cloud services offered by National Informatics Centre, the government’s IT arm, for their e-governance solutions.

ment. Apple also said that while it’s trying to attract minorities, “the company has no power to ensure that its recruits will accept offers.” The SEC’s division of corporation finance said in a December 11 letter that the agency didn’t agree with the company. But it’s up to Apple whether to bring the matter to a vote

at the 2016 annual meeting, which hasn’t been scheduled.

The company could decide not to include the matter in its proxy. That could bring an enforcement action by the SEC. The agency declined to comment on the possibility, and Apple didn’t respond to emails and phone calls.

Apple under pressure to improve racial diversity in senior ranks

Apple shareholders could make history next year by deciding whether the company should be forced to increase the number of non-white executives and directors, with a vote on a proposal the iPhone maker has tried to squelch.

A resolution submitted by an investor who lives in New York and London would require Apple to put more “people of colour” in such high-profile roles to increase diversity.

Apple told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it believes it doesn’t have to include the proposal in its proxy materials, contending it’s an attempt to “micromanage” recruit-

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Late Libyan dictator Gaddafi tried to get heir hitched to Vladimir Putin’s girl

Tripoli Late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi tried to

engineer a ‘political’ marriage between his second son and planned heir and

one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s daughters, a former advisor to the late Libyan dictator has claimed.

Gaddafi approached a bemused Putin to ask if one of his daughters could wed his second son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, with the aim of strengthening ties between Libya and Russia, the advisor Mohammed Abd El Motaleb al-Houni said.

“Gaddafi talked about it with Putin, proposing his son as a future son-in-law, but the Russian president was taken aback and said his

daughter did not know Saif al-Islam,” al-Houni said.

Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a NATO-backed revolt in 2011. Saif al-Islam was in July sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli in a mass trial of former regime figures widely criticised by human rights groups.

Saif al-Islam has been in custody in the Libyan mountain town of Zintan since he was caught trying to flee Libya in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution. The militia holding him has refused to hand him over.

Syrian boy Alan Kurdi’s kin take refuge in Canada Vancouver Relatives of Syrian boy Alan Kurdi whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach, sparking worldwide concern for the refugee crisis, have landed in Canada.

Mohammed Kurdi, his wife and their five children arrived in Canada as refugees on Monday, sponsored by Mohammed’s sister Tima Kurdi, who wiped away tears as she greeted her relatives at Vancouver

airport’s arrival gates.

Speaking through his Vancouver-based sister, who translated from Arabic, Mohammed Kurdi thanked Canadians and the government for making his dream come true.

“I’m happy! Very happy!” he said in English to a crowd of reporters gathered around the family. His teenage son Shergo said he was looking forward to going back to school and starting a new life.

Fire breaks out at Dubai hotel near Burj Khalifa, many injured

Dubai Fire broke out on Thursday in a luxurious hotel in Dubai where people were gathering nearby to watch the New Year’s fireworks show.

The fire broke out around 9.30 p.m. at the Address Downtown Dubai hotel, close to the world’s tallest building, the iconic Burj Khalifa, and near to the site of a planned fireworks show.

According to local media, the fire started at the 20th floor from the exterior of the hotel, and the fire control systems were perating to prevent the fire from reach-

ing the interior of the building.

About four fire-fighting teams were working to stop the fire from spreading and ensure public safety.

The Dubai Civil Defence Director said the fire will not effect Burj Khalifa New Year’s celebrations.

No casualties were reported, according to Dubai General Department of Traffic.

The hotel seems well booked, with many guests seen on their balconies as fire bridges were rushing in and the fire was spreading to the high floors.

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US gives Nasa $55 million funding to send humans to Mars WASHINGTON The Obama administration allotted $55 million to Nasa instructing them to spend the funds on a “habitation augmentation module” with an

aim to speed up work on sending humans on deep space exploration missions, including Mars.

According to Space.com, the funds will come from the Advanced Exploration Systems

programme, part of the exploration research and development line item in the budget that received $350 million in the omnibus bill.

“Nasa shall develop a prototype

deep space habitation module within the advanced exploration systems program no later than 2018,” the report stated.

In the last few months, Nasa has bolstered the development of a habitation module that

MS launches app that improves selfies

Silicon Valley Microsoft has unveiled a free app that uses machine learning to improve selfies. Dubbed ‘Microsoft Selfie’, the app will enhance colour balance, skin tone, and lighting using 13 filter options. It’s one of the company’s latest attempts to use its intelligent processing software in consumer products.

‘The app takes age, gender, skin tone, lighting, and many other variables into account,’ the firm writes on the app store. ‘It applies different models automatically and finishes enhancement with just a single click. ‘Users can transform average photos into more presentable portraits in seconds. ‘Key features of this application are noise reduction,

intelligent enhancement, automatic exposure and colour theme. The 13 filter options will clean up noise and add different themes to an image. Users also have the option to press and hold on the ‘compare’ button to see how they would look without any enhancements.While they can’t target specific areas of their face, TheNextWeb notes the app is ideal for a general overall edit. One of the app’s most impressive abilities is the ability to detect the subject’s age from a photo. It follows the creation of a website by Microsoft earlier this year, called How old do I look, which allows people to analyse any image to guess that person’s age.It even allows users to search for celebrities and see what Microsoft thinks their real ages are. The system works by analysing 27 points on the face.

Called face landmarks, they are a series of specifically detailed points on a face; typically points of face components like the pupils, canthus or nose. ’This may be hard to believe but it took a couple of developers just a day to put this whole solution together, starting with the pipeline from the web page to the Machine Learning APIs to the real time streaming analytics and real time B,’ said Microsoft.

could be tested in cislunar space (lying between the Earth and the Moon or the Moon’s orbit) in 2020s. The module could then be used for human missions to Mars.

Bigelow Aerospace company has also developed a prototype expandable module that will be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in early 2016.

According to Popular Science, it will be challenging to ensure the module is both lightweight and shields astronauts from radiation.

In a small yet significant to send astronauts to Mars, Nasa engineers have alreadly welded together the first two segments of the Orion crew module that will fly atop Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on a mission beyond the far side of the Moon.

SLS is one of the most experienced large rocket engines in the world, with more than a million seconds of ground test and flight operations time. When completed, SLS will enable astronauts to begin their journey to explore destinations far into the solar system.

MS to warn email users of suspected hacking by govts

SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it will begin warning users of its consumer services including Outlook.com email when the company suspects that a government has been trying to hack into their accounts.The policy change comes nine days after Reuters asked the company why it had decided not tell victims of a hacking campaign, discovered in 2011, that had targeted international leaders of China’s Tibetan and Uighur minorities in particular. According to two former employees of Microsoft, the company’s own experts had concluded several years ago that Chinese authorities had been behind the campaign but the

company did not pass on that information to users of its Hotmail service, which is now called Outlook.com.In its statement, Microsoft said neither it nor the US government could pinpoint the sources of the hacking attacks and that they didn’t come from a single country. The policy shift at the world’s largest software company follows similar moves since October by Internet giants Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and most recently Yahoo Inc. Google Inc pioneered the practice in 2012 and said it now alerts tens of thousands of users every few months. For two years, Microsoft has offered alerts about potential security breaches without specifying the likely suspect.

Canada, Germany and Japan but ahead of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Israel. The fastest was Luxembourg with average download speeds of 47.32 Mbps. The report said that among major providers, Cablevision Systems Corp. led with average download speeds of 60 Mbps, followed by Verizon

significant improvements in broadband speeds and quality,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement. “Faster, better broadband will unleash new innovations and new services to improve the lives of the American people.”

The report, Wheeler said, holds Internet providers “accountable.”

Communications Inc and Charter Communications Inc each with around 50 Mbps. Cox Communications Inc followed at 40 Mbps, while Comcast was about 35 Mbps.

In January, the FCC redefined benchmark broadband speeds to 25 Mbps for downloads, up from the 4 Mbps set in 2010.

“Advances in network technology are yielding

Among US states, New Jersey had the fastest average Internet download speeds at 57 Mbps, while Idaho had the lowest at about 14 Mbps, just above Ohio and Arkansas. The FCC measures Internet performance with monitoring boxes in more than 5,000 volunteer homes.

The FCC says download speeds are now much closer to advertised than in 2011.

US Internet speeds triple in 3-1/2 years WASHINGTON US Internet connection speeds have tripled over 3-1/2 years to keep up with consumer demands for streaming video and downloading content but the United States still lags many other countries. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in a report on Wednesday average download connection speeds had increased to nearly 31 megabits per second (Mbps) in September 2014 from about 10 Mbps in March 2011.

Rising Internet speeds have been driven by consumer demands for growing amounts of bandwidth to watch movies, play video games and download data.

The industry is ramping up efforts to boost speeds. Google Inc is offering up to 1,000 Mbps in nine cities, while AT&T is offering the same speed in 20 cities and plans to add 36 metro areas next year. Comcast Corp said last week it is testing its own 1,000 Mbps service in Philadelphia and by the end of 2016 will offer the service in some other areas. The FCC says video accounts for more than 60 percent of US Internet traffic, a figure that may rise to 80 percent by 2019. Still, the United States only ranks 25 out of 39 nations in 2013, according to the FCC. It said the United States was behind many countries including France,

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New year brings minimum wage Ohio mother jailed hikes for Americans in 14 states for rape of her 12

As the United States marks more than six years without an increase in the federal minimum

wage of $7.25 an hour, 14 states and several cities are moving forward with their own increases, with most set to start taking effect on Friday.California and Massachusetts are highest among the states, both increasing from $9 to $10 an hour, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. At the low end is Arkansas, where the minimum wage is increasing from $7.50 to $8. The smallest increase, a nickel, comes in South Dakota, where the hourly minimum is now $8.55.The increases come in the wake of a series of “living wage” protests across the country, including a November campaign in which thousands of protesters in 270 cities marched in support

of a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights for fast food workers. Food service workers

make up the largest group of minimum-wage earners, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With Friday’s increases, the new average minimum wage across the 14 affected states rises from $8.50 an hour to just over $9.

Several cities are going even higher. Seattle is setting a sliding hourly minimum between $10.50 and $13 on Jan. 1, and Los Angeles and San Francisco are enacting similar increases in July, en route to $15 an hour phased in over six years.

Backers say a higher minimum wage helps combat poverty, but opponents worry about the potential impact on employment and company profits.

In 2014, a Democratic-backed

Dad shoots dead three people before son wrestles gun away and kills him

A father shot dead three people before his son wrestled the gun off him and killed him in a New Year’s Eve bloodbath.

The 54-year-old suspect gunned down a 27-year-old woman, a 48-year-old man, a 54-year-old woman at a home in the suburbs of Los Angeles, police said.

Witnesses told detectives the man’s 33-year-old son then wrestled the handgun away from his father and shot him once, killing him, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department statement.Police

were called to the home in Rowland Heights around 8.30pm on Thursday night to reports of a person shot, CBS News reported.When they arrived, they found the four victims all suffering from gunshot wounds.

All were pronounced dead at the scene.The motive behind the shooting is not yet known. The weapon was recovered at the scene.The son was arrested on suspicion of his father’s murder and is being held on $1million bail, according to officials.

congressional proposal to increase the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009 to $10.10 stalled, as have subsequent efforts by President Barack Obama. More recent proposals by some lawmakers call for a federal minimum wage of up to $15 an hour.

Alan Krueger, an economics professor at Princeton University and former chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said a federal minimum wage of up to $12 an hour, phased in over five years or so, “would not have a noticeable effect on employment.” Some employers may cut jobs in response to a minimum-wage increase, Krueger said, while others may find hikes allow them to fill job vacancies and reduce turnover, lifting employment but lowering profits.

In recent years, an increasing number of states and municipalities have enacted their own wage floor policies. Currently, 29 states plus the District of Columbia and about two dozen cities and counties have their minimum wage at levels higher than the federal minimum. Many are now in the midst of multi-year phase-in plans that will ultimately take them to between $10 and $15 an hour.The 14 states where increases take effect on Friday are: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

year-old daughter

A mother has been sentenced to life in prison for the rape of her 12-year-old daughter.

Jeanie Mae Carpenter, 37, from Ohio, plead guilty to helping her boyfriend James John Kirksey, already a registered sex offender, rape the girl.A Belmont County court heard how Carpenter held down her daughter as the 32year-old man raped the girl on multiple occasions, local media reported.It is unclear how many times the child was raped, or when the sexual abuse began.Prosecutor Dan Dry said: “She reported it to a relative that mom’s boyfriend had been abusing her for the last two weeks.“Multiple counts of rape committed by the male, and at least one incident of rape where the mom of the child actually physically held the child down to

assist this male.”Carpenter was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to one count of complicity to commit rape, two counts of permitting child abuse, one count of endangering children and one count of obstructing official business.She will be eligible for parole in 20 years, and will have to register as a Tier 3 sec offender every 90 days - for the rest of her life.In November, James John Kirksey was sentenced to two life terms in prison by the same judge.

Sentencing, Judge Frank Fregiato called the case a “crime against nature”.

He added: “If a 12-year-old girl cannot trust her mother to love and protect her, who in this world can she ever trust? She certainly wouldn’t expect her mother to be assisting in the rape.”

“He was saying, ‘I can’t breathe’.

I tried to pull him up, but he said, ‘Leave me here, leave me here,’” Coronado told the Daily News.

Dashia Imperiale told WABC-TV, saying the lifts sometimes lurch up and down.

Meanwhile, a friend of the

Sources in the New York Police Department told the Associated Press that the victim was unconscious, suffering from severe body trauma, when officers arrived shortly after midnight.

“The elevators were a problem and needed to be fixed,” former Tenants Association President

victim’s, Ejiro Omenih, was absorbing the news of his death and the accounts of his lifesaving actions.

“I feel that that alone shows his character,” Omenih told WABCTV.He said Hewlett-Brown was an aspiring musician who played piano and performed hip-hop and soul.

US man saves woman from faulty lift, says ‘Happy New Year’, dies

A New York man fell to his death in a faulty elevator after pushing out a woman to safety and wishing wishing her ‘Happy New Year’, news agencies reported.

25-year-old Stephen HewettBrown, an aspiring musician, was riding an elevator in lower Manhattan, New York around midnight when it malfunctioned.

He managed to save Erudi Sanchez, 43, who lives in the building, by pushing her out of the lift onto one of the building’s floors before getting pinned between the elevator car and the shaft as he tried to escape himself, witnesses told the Daily News of New York.

“When I got into the elevator, I felt it dropping and I thought my feet would get caught in the gap but the man pushed me out and said, ‘Happy New Year,’” Sanchez told the Daily News on Friday.

Witness Manuel Coronado told that he tried to help HewettBrown but couldn’t lift him out.

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Texas driver tossed in air by tornado thought ‘I’m dead’ DALLAS The wind was whipping and debris flew around his pickup truck when Gary Tucker saw a tornado that was about to lift his vehicle about 20 feet (six meters)

off the ground and toss it like a toy. Tucker, 52, was caught in a tornado packing winds of up to 200 miles per hour (322 kph) that hit Garland, northeast of Dallas, on Saturday. The twister was part of series in the area that killed 11 people and reduced buildings to splinters. He stopped his truck, put it into park and stared down the tornado. “I

heard this ‘boom, boom, boom’ sound and then the truck started violently shaking,” he told Reuters. “Then the truck was lifted off the ground and I remember thinking ‘I’m dead’.”

Tucker, a software salesman, said he blacked out and cannot recall what happened next.

When he regained consciousness, he said the truck was laying on its side and his girlfriend in the passenger seat was dangling buckled into the seatbelt. Blood was scattered inside. Tucker and his companion had minor scrapes

Bidders vie for ‘unwanted’ $100 note

Wellington A New Zealand man has poked fun at the practice of selling unwanted Christmas presents online by auctioning a NZ$100 note to the highest bidder.

Engineer Robbie Shefford posted an advert for the cash on the Trade Me site on December 26, and it has since become the most viewed auction page of the year, Radio New Zealand reports.

Described as an “unwanted gift”, the note attracted a flurry of bids well above its actual value, with a current highest offer of NZ$180 (US$124; £83).

“Boxing Day is the day all the kids put all their unwanted Christmas presents on Trade Me to get money to buy the stuff they really wanted,” Mr Shefford tells the radio. “It’s a

bit of a joke that people are having a laugh at and that’s sort of the main thing.” The auction closes on 2 January, and he says any money he makes will be given to the Ronald McDonald House charity.

Trade Me says the winning bidder will be legally required to pay up, but that outlandish offers - including some of more than $5,000 - have been removed. Spokesman Logan Mudge says the site wants to ensure there “aren’t any shenanigans going on” in the bidding process.

“This particular seller has captured people’s imagination and he’s taking a bit of the mickey out of these unwanted gifts,” he tells Radio New Zealand. “We want to see a bit of a result for him.”

and bruises, but many on the same stretch of road had died.

After the two crawled out of the truck, Tucker said they were surrounded by about a half-dozen vehicles that had been blown off the freeway by one of the most powerful tornados to ever strike the Dallas area.A riding lawn mower that Tucker said he had seen flying through the air from a nearby apartment building landed a few feet (meters) away from the truck. “It was a very violent tornado and extremely rare to see anywhere,” said Dennis Cavanaugh, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Garland Mayor Douglas Athas said people had little warning before it came. Tucker said witnesses told him that his Toyota Tundra rolled over at least seven times after it was dropped back to the ground by the twister. The top and sides were smashed and the airbags deployed. “It looked like it had been flattened for recycling at a wrecking yard,” Tucker said. “It looked like a war zone out there,” he added. “You could smell death in the air. It made me sick to my stomach.”

Five Pakistanis arrested for an illicit entry in US: FBI

Karachi Five Pakistanis and an Afghan have been held for illegally entering the United States (US) confirmed the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Though, the six has not been suspected as terrorists but were earlier detained in Arizona in December.

They were arrested for ten days after the Dec 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, where a Pakistani-American couple had killed 14 people reports Dawn.

An FBI official told reporters that

the accused were checked through the national security databases by Joint Terrorism Task Force but their possible links to terrorism has not been proved.

An FBI spokesman told an NBC affiliate in Arizona that all six men were then placed in the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A US Customs and Border Protection official told the NBC affiliate that Pakistani and Afghan national’s make up about 0.1 per cent of border crossers at all US borders.

Bill Cosby charged with felony sexual assault in Pennsylvania London Bill Cosby was charged on Wednesday with sexually assaulting a woman after plying her with drugs and alcohol in 2004, the only criminal case against a oncebeloved entertainer whose father-figure persona has been marred by dozens of similar misconduct accusations.

A frail-looking Cosby, 78, walking with a cane and accompanied by two lawyers, appeared for his arraignment hours later at a courthouse just outside Philadelphia, where he posted a $1 million bond, turned over his passport and was ordered to avoid any contact with his accuser.

Smiling and politely thanking District Court Judge Elizabeth McHugh at the end of the brief proceeding, Cosby left the Elkins Park courthouse and was driven to a nearby police precinct to be finger-printed and booked.

He emerged from the police station 10 minutes later and was whisked away in the same black sport utility vehicle that had delivered him to the courthouse. He made no statements as a throng of reporters shouted questions at him. He is due to return to court on Jan. 14 for a preliminary hearing.

The case against Cosby was filed just before the statute of limitations deadline for criminal prosecution was due to lapse

in January. The charge stems from allegations levelled by Andrea Constand, 44, who settled a civil case against Cosby for an undisclosed sum in 2006.

“Today, after examination of all the evidence, we are able to seek justice on behalf of the victim,” Kevin Steele, the newly elected district attorney for Montgomery County, told an earlier news conference. Steele made a campaign issue of his intent to prosecute Cosby.

Constand, a former basketball team manager at Temple University in Philadelphia, Cosby’s alma mater, is one of more than 50 women who have publicly accused the star of sexually assaulting them in incidents dating back decades.

Cosby did not enter a plea in Wednesday’s case. But he and his lawyers, while acknowledging

marital infidelity on his part, have consistently denied any allegations of sexual misconduct.

His legal team issued a statement late on Wednesday calling the sexual assault charge “unjustified,” suggesting it was politically motivated and declaring Cosby “will be exonerated by a court of law.” The prosecution came as no surprise, his attorneys said, given that it followed a “hotly contested” election for district attorney in which “this case was made the focal point.” Cosby, who personified the model American family man in his long-running hit television show, was charged with aggravated indecent assault, a second-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of 5 to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

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Accosted for her hijab, woman now teaches Muslim empowerment Washington When she was 16, Rana Abdelhamid was accosted on the streets of New York by a man who tried to pull off the head scarf she wears as a symbol of her commitment to her Muslim

faith.Rather than withdraw, as she’d seen other Muslim women do, she turned her anger into a program that is now working with young Muslim women to teach them self-defense while encouraging them to become leaders and role models for others in their communities.

Abdelhamid, a graduate of Vermont’s Middlebury College who is now a student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, says the challenge facing Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular has been getting worse, especially since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.“It’s unfortunate that it’s becoming more needed and we’re getting so many calls,” said Abdelhamid, 22, who grew up in the Queens borough of New York.

Robina Niaz, the executive director of the group Turning Point for Women and Families, an organisation that works to end

domestic violence in New York’s Muslim community, said she first met Abdelhamid when she was in high school and participating in programs at the center.“Rana is a living example of what one can accomplish

when we invest in these young girls,” Niaz said. “If we believe in them, if we support them, watch their back - they need just a little bit of nudging and mentoring and they are ready.”Muslim women in several cities across the country are organising or taking self-defense classes, but Abdelhamid’s organisation, the Women’s Initiative for SelfEmpowerment, or WISE, goes beyond the physical self-defense skills to encourage the young women to become leaders and social entrepreneurs. The empowerment lessons can be as simple as showing the young women how to rent or reserve a room in a community center to tips on becoming a confident public speaker.Abdelhamid said her efforts have not been universally well received by the Muslim community.“We have had some challenges and pushback from more traditionalist members of our community who

Facebook service suspended in Egypt

Cairo A Facebook scheme to provide free internet access to people in developing nations has been suspended in Egypt. The company’s Free Basics service lets people in some countries access Facebook and some other websites without charge.

But critics of the service say it undermines the principle of net neutrality - the idea that all internet traffic should be treated equally. Facebook told the Associated Press it was working to resolve the situation. Egyptian mobile network Etisalat began offering the Free Basics service to mobile customers two months ago. It allowed people to access Facebook and other participat-

ing websites without paying for mobile data, which can be expensive in Egypt. Facebook said three million Egyptians had used the service, with a million of those going online for the first time. But critics say internet providers and mobile networks should not be offering cheaper or faster access to selected services. It is not the first time Facebook’s Free Basics service has run into trouble. In December, the telecoms regulator in India asked mobile networks to suspend the scheme in the country while it considered granting it specific approval. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg responded to critics in an editorial he wrote for the Times of India.

don’t necessarily see space for women in leadership, unfortunately,” she said. “It’s really, really disheartening because you want your allies to be within the community.” The program has grown since the first class was offered to about a dozen girls in the basement of a community center in Brooklyn.

The basic program, called Mentee Muslimah (an Arabic word for Muslim women), is a 13session summer camp attended in New York by about 50 young women of high-school age that follows a 100-page course outline Abdelhamid developed during an independent study course at Middlebury.The organisation relies heavily on donated space and volunteers, but it’s also received donations and in some cases fees are charged to people taking the program to help defray expenses. She’s in the process of setting up a formal non-profit group so WISE can have a permanent home and a budget. While an undergraduate at Vermont’s Middlebury College, Abdelhamid used a grant from the school’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship to expand her organisation. “What makes Rana really unique that we saw in her is that this is an issue that is connected to her identity and it drives her all the time,” said Heather Neuwirth, the associate director of Middlebury’s Entrepreneurship Center. “She took what could have been an experience that could have shut her down, she really realized the power in that and I think the way that she connects to others is deeply caring.”

Obama plans unilateral action to tackle gun violence in US

Washington US President Barack Obama has said that he would take unilateral action to tackle the problem of gun violence in the US.According to The Washington Post, Obama will meet US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch next week to finalise a series of new gun control measures and will announce his package of proposals.One of the proposals

includes unlicensed gun dealers to get licenses and background checks on potential buyers.

The change is aimed at occasional dealers, including some who sell online frequently or rent tables at gun shows but do not have a storefront.

Obama began examining how he could tighten the nation’s gun rules after October’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.

Female Myanmar activist jailed for Facebook post satirising army

A court in Myanmar has sentenced a female activist to six months in prison for posting a satirical comment on Facebook about the powerful military.

According to The Nation, the activist was arrested after Myanmar started its latest crackdown against free speech in the former junta-ruled country.

Chaw Sandi Tun, 25, was arrested in October after a post on her Facebook page made fun of the army.

The United States embassy has previously called for the release of Chaw Sandi Tun and Patrick Khum Jaa Lee, another activist who has been arrested over Facebook posts critical of the military.

China’s new 2-child policy law takes effect BEIJING Married couples in China will from Friday be allowed to have two children, after concerns over an ageing population and shrinking workforce ushered in an end to the country’s controversial one-child policy.

The change, which was announced in October by the ruling Communist Party, takes effect from January 1, 2016, Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency reported over the weekend. The “one child policy”, instituted in the late 1970s, restricted most couples to only a single offspring through a system of fines for violators and even forced abortions.For years, authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom and had prevented 400 million births. Rural families were allowed two children if the first was a girl, while ethnic minorities were allowed an extra offspring, leading some to dub it a “one-and-a-half child” policy.But it also led to heart-rending tales of loss for would-be parents, and prompted sex-selective abortions

or infanticide targeting girls because of a centuries-old social preference for boys. China’s

result, officials from the National Health and Family Planning Commission predicted at a

population - the world’s largest at 1.37 billion - is now ageing rapidly and has severe gender imbalances, all while the country’s workforce is shrinking.

Under the new law, married couples are now allowed to have a second child, but the legislation maintains limits on additional births. Around three million extra babies will be born each year over the next five years as a

briefing in November. This would add a total of about 30 million people to the labour force by 2050, officials said. Still, experts say the shift is likely too little, too late to address China’s looming population crisis. Others warn that many Chinese couples do not want more children, particularly given the expense, and the effects of the change remain unclear.

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Putin names United States among threats in new Russian security strategy MOSCOW A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia’s national security for the first time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years. The document, “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation”, was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year’s Eve. It replaces a 2009 version, endorsed by then- President Dmitry Medvedev, the current prime minister, which mentioned neither the United States not NATO.It says Russia has managed to heighten its role in solving global problems and international conflicts. That heightened role has caused a reaction by the West, it says.

“The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security, which has complex and interrelated nature,” the document says.

Conducting an independent policy, “both international and domestic” has caused “counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs.”

That in turn is likely to lead to “political, economical, military and informational pressure” on Russia, the document says.”

Relations between Russia and the West reached a low after Russian forces annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, after protests in Ukraine forced its pro-Moscow president to flee to Russia.

Since then, the West has accused Russia of aiding

imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Russian individuals and

insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow denies actively assisting the rebels.

The United States and the European Union have since

companies. Moscow has reacted by restricting food and other goods from the EU. The document says that the United States and the EU have

supported an “anticonstitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine”, which led to a deep divide in Ukrainian society and a military conflict.

It also names the expansion of NATO as a threat to Russia’s national security and said that the United States has expanded its network of military-biological laboratories in neighbouring to Russia countries.

The document, which serves as a basis for planning strategy related to national security by different state bodies, does not mention Syria. On Sept. 30, Russia began air strikes against antigovernment rebels opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally.

Toddler dies after swallowing battery 19-stone dad ‘suffocates six-year-old son to death while playing video games because he wouldn’t go to bed’ LONDON A toddler has died after swallowing a battery over the Christmas holidays. Two-yearold Brianna Florer was taken ill just a day after opening her presents at her grandparents home on Boxing Day.The youngster, from Oklahoma, was rushed to hospital after her skin turned blue and she began throwing up blood.Grandfather Kent Vice told Tulsa World: “On Saturday she was fine. It was a perfect Christmas. ”Doctors determined the tot had swallowed a small button battery and she was immediately transferred to another hospital for surgery.

Mr Vice told the newspaper: “They operated on her for two and a half hours, but they couldn’t stop the bleeding.

“They believed the battery (acid) ate through to her carotid artery by way of her esophagus... We had no idea when she swallowed it .”

Parents Brian and Stephanie Florer were told their daughter had most likely swallowed the battery within six days of her

death, Tulsa World reported.

A post mortem is due to take place in the next two to four months to determine the little girl’s official cause of death.

Brianna’s heartbroken family

now want to raise awareness of the danger of button batteries.

Mr Vice added: “I want to keep these things out of houses.

They are dangerous.”

The family has set up a GoFundMe page requesting $7,500 to help cover the toddler’s funeral expenses.

LONDON A 19-stone dad suffocated his young son to death while playing computer games on Christmas Eve, police say James “Rick” Dearman, 31, carried on playing games with his live-in girlfriend at the same time he was squeezing the life from his child, according to cops.

Sarasota County Sheriff’s Deputies say the dead boy’s 7year-old sibling watched the horrific incident.

In an affidavit, the surviving child said: “When dad squished him, he got dead.”

Dearman’s partner, Ashley Cole, told police they had told the two children to go to bed at 7.30pm.

Their dad allegedly became angry when the two children wouldn’t go to sleep, reports WFLA . She said Dearman told the youngsters to stand facing the wall - but he saw the six-yearold peeking.The furious dad forced the boy to lie on his side on the couch with his face against the rear cushions.He then pinned the child down using his bodyweight.Cops say

Dearman ignored the boy’s screams that he couldn’t

and rushed to boy to hospital, but he was pronounced dead.

breathe and carried on playing games.

After five minutes the child stopped moving and the couple went to the garage for a cigarette.When they returned they saw that his lips were blue and he wasn’t breathing.

Ms Cole ran back to the garage to pray while Dearman called paramedics and tried to perform CPR on his son.

The emergency services arrived

Dearman was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse.On Thursday afternoon the charge was changed to aggravated manslaughter of a child. He is currently in the Sarasota County Jail. Sheriff’s Office Captain John Walsh said: “There’s not a detective or anybody who isn’t pretty upset about this and finds it egregious and malicious, the treatment of a six-year-old child.”

The duo also dismissed plans to encourage black entrepreneurs in the five-page memo, saying they would set up “disco and drug trade”.

Letwin, now the minister for government policy in the Cabinet Office, said: “I want to make clear

that some parts of a private memo I wrote nearly 30 years ago were both badly worded and wrong. “I apologise unreservedly for any offence these comments have caused and wish to make clear that none was intended.”

A Cabinet Office spokesperson

added: “The Government at the time was proposing solutions to rebuild broken communities. We remain thoroughly committed to helping the most vulnerable and ensuring that nobody is confined by the circumstances of their birth.”

UK minister apologises for racist remarks 30 years ago LONDON British Prime Minister David Cameron’s policy chief today apologised “unreservedly” for his racist remarks made 30 years ago, blaming “bad moral attitudes” of black communities for disturbances during the 1985 riots here.

Oliver Letwin, who serves in Cameron’s Cabinet as a senior policy chief, was an adviser to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when he made the controversial remarks, days after the 1985 Broadwater Farm riot in north London.

The 1985 memo, co-written by Letwin and former Conservative party MP Vernon Hartley Booth, has been released as part of newly declassified documents in the National Archives.

It urges Thatcher to ignore claims that rioting in mainly

black inner city areas of north London in October 1985 was caused by social deprivation and racism.

They wrote: “The root of social malaise is not poor housing, or youth ‘alienation’, or the lack of a middle class.

“Lower-class, unemployed white people lived for years in appalling slums without a breakdown of public order on anything like the present scale; in the midst of the depression, people in Brixton went out, leaving their grocery money in a bag at the front door, and expecting to see groceries there when they got back.

“Riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder.”

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Expelled in 1972, Indian appointed consul-general of Uganda in UK

The wheel has turned full circle for prominent Indian-origin businessman Jaffer Kapasi, who was expelled by dictator Idi Amin from Uganda in 1972, moved to Britain, and has now been appointed by the African country as its honorary consul-general in London.

Leicester-based Kapasi, 65, has been tasked with building social, cultural, educational and trade links between Uganda and Britain. The formalities of his appointment were completed at the Uganda High Commission in London last week.

Kapasi, who said he and his family started a new life in Britain after being expelled from Uganda, recalled his India links and background to Hindustan Times: “My father was born in 1917 in a village called Jinjuda, Kathiawar, Gujarat; my mother in Mumbai 1928”.

Kapasi’s family was among

thousands of Indian-origin people who were given short notice to leave Uganda by Amin. Many settled in Leicester and have since reinvigorated local economies.

Kapasi said: “My father left India in 1930 to venture in to Uganda at the age of 13 as the family business was on the decline. He worked for my grandfather’s cousin bother’s business in Kampala to acquire business and local language skills and soon set up his own business in hardware and building materials”.

“We were expelled by dictator Idi Amin in 1972 and had to start a new life all over again. We have maintained links with India as majority of our family members have moved to Mumbai from Gujarat. Our cousins own ship breaking business in Mumbai and Bhavnagar, and steel making in Jamnagar”.

Hero soldier ‘forced to quit Britain’ after his US wife is barred from the country A hero soldier who fought in Afghanistan said he was being forced out of Britain by David Cameron.

Andrew McLaughlin’s American wife and daughter have been denied entry to the UK because of the government’s strict immigration rules on non-EU spouses.

And the 29-year-old said that left him with no choice but to quit the country to be with his family.

“I’m being forced out of my own country,” he said.

“I fought for my country and it hurts that no-one is willing to fight for me.

“I’ve no choice but to leave because I’m not going to miss out on my daughter’s life.

I feel totally let down.”

Andrew, who grew up in Warwickshire, served in the Grenadier Guards 1st battalion for four years.He was deployed to Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where more than 350 British soldiers were killed, from March to September 2012.

He married Wanda, 37, in December 2011 after meeting her on a trip to the US to visit family and friends.The Broadwater Farm riot in north London followed the death of estate resident Cynthia Jarrett, who died of heart failure after four policemen burst into her home during a raid on October 5, 1985.But Andrew’s wife and daughter were denied entry to the UK because his new job as a

Mystery as police reveal Brit found dead in Australia had ‘false name and no job - but plenty of cash’ The mystery surrounding a British man found dead in Australia has deepened further after police revealed he is NOT the man they thought he was.

The man, who officers thought

was called Paul Lachlan, was found dead in Manly, north Sydney a year ago.

His body was found in his apartment with just a medicare card and gym membership in the name of Lachlan but police have now revealed they believe this to have been a false name.

Investigators said they could find no trace of a Paul Lachlan having ever entered Australia from England in the 1990s or any evidence to support the story he told pals that he migrated to the

country from Manchester 20 years ago.

They have now concluded that no-one by the name of Paul Lachlan ever existed and the dead man had gone to

staggering lengths to hide his true identity.

It remains a secret to this day and police have revealed the man had no bank account, driver’s licence or any official documentation.

Chief Inspector Craig Wonders, New South Wales Police, told the Sydney Daily Telegraph: “It appears he paid for everything in cash as he had no credit cards or eftpos facilities that we can establish.”

Investigators said they had

discovered the dead man had not worked for several years before his death, aged 46, but despite this he still had access to cash.

Ch Insp Wonders said: “For the past six years he has been unemployed and has had no visible means of support yet he lived with a flatmate in a well-todo area of Manly.”

Police say the death is not believed to be suspicious but are pleading for help in identifying the man.

An inquest is due to begin in February and police are trying to confirm his name and details of his identity before the hearing begins.

It is also hoped next of kin can be found to make funeral arrangements.

A post on the New South Wales Police Facebook page read: “Despite extensive inquiries, police have not been able to positively identify the man.

“He was not in possession of any identification or identifying documentation and police have not been able to locate any family who can confirm his identity.

“It appears the man took significant effort to not have his name recorded by government departments, agencies or businesses.

driver pays less than the £18,600 gross annual minimum wage required to allow a foreign spouse to settle here.

The government said the

from his wife and two-year-old Gracie, for more than six months.The life-long Aston Villa fan said: “I was on the frontline and regularly encountered deadly

minimum income rule was to prevent unqualified spouses coming to the UK and becoming dependent on the state.

But now Andrew will be forced to move permanently to America.

He has already been separated

Taliban resistance.

“I lost three close friends there, including one mate I met in basic training – that sort of loss is pretty horrendous.

“What I went through out there changed me forever.”

Hacker attack blacks out BBC website Hackers brought down the BBC’s websites for several hours on Thursday in a large-scale hacking attack, the British public broadcaster reported.

“Sources within the BBC said the sites were offline thanks to what is known as a ‘distributed denial of service’ (DDOS) attack,” the BBC reported. Users trying to access BBC.com and related websites could only see an error message saying: “The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy.” The BBC press office blamed the problem on a “technical issue”. “We’re aware of a technical issue affecting the BBC website and are working to fix this now,” it said in a statement. Despite continued problems with access to the sites, it said in a later update: “The BBC website is now back up and operating normally.”

Mexico mayor assassinated one day after taking office

Several gunmen burst into the home of a newly elected Mexican mayor and shot her dead, just hours into her tenure, police have said.

Gisela Mota, 33, a left-of-center former member of Congress, was gunned down barely 24 hours after taking her oath of office on Friday in the city of Temixco, which is about 90 kilometres from the capital Mexico City.

Temixco is plagued by organised crime and rampant drug trafficking - problems the slain mayor had vowed to help clean up.Graco Ramirez, the governor of the central state of

Morelos, yesterday said that the suspected gunmen had been arrested following the killing and pledged there would be “no impunity.”

Morelos has been one of the Mexican states most affected by drug violence plaguing the country, including kidnappings and murders.

More than 100,000 people have been killed or gone missing in a nearly a decade of drug violence nationwide. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December 2012, has pledged to reduce the murders, kidnappings and extortion haunting Mexicans.

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Super-intelligence could solve climate change British child sex suspect aged 76 pictured strolling with two boys in Cambodia

Cornell In the fight against ‘wicked’ problems, computers may be humans’ best allies.

Researchers from the Human

underlying issues. They involve many interacting systems which are always changing, and the solutions have unforeseen consequences, according to the

Computation Institute and Cornell University say that the combination would create a superintelligence, and it could take on growing issues like climate change and geopolitical conflict. New technologies use crowd-sourced input and interactive tools to produce collaborative results that go beyond traditional problemsolving, they claim.

Wicked problems are those which are difficult to solve because of the complexity of the

Human Computation Institute.

By joining with computer intelligence, humans could expand upon their own abilities to create ‘multidimensional collaborative networks,’ the researchers say. This could more effectively produce solutions.In human computation systems, data are processed by a computer and also analysed by humans. Current systems of this type rely on individually completed ‘micro-tasks,’ which are later stitched together for a

Japan team to name element 113 in Asian first

A Japanese research team has been granted the right to name new element 113, the first on the periodic table to be named by Asian scientists, the team’s institute said Thursday. Japan’s Riken Institute said a team led by Kosuke Morita was awarded the rights from global scientific bodies - the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) - after successfully creating the new synthetic element three times from 2004 to 2012.

Giant squid makes rare appearance in Japanese port

TOKYO A giant squid that wandered into a Japanese port has been guided back out to sea almost a week after it was spotted, giving enthusiasts and experts a rare glimpse of the mysterious creature.The massive invertebrate, four metres (13 feet) in length, was discovered by fishermen on December 24 at a port in the city of Toyama on Japan’s northwestern coast. It was later guided by a diver into deeper seas. “Its suckers were so strong that I felt some pain,” Akinobu Kimura, who runs a dive shop in Toyama, said on TV Asahi. “Even though I was trying to let it escape (from the port), it

wrapped around my body and clung to my arm.”

A curator at the local Uozu Aquarium who visited the port and took underwater photos of the squid was surprised at its size. “It was unexpectedly beautiful, its body glowing red,” he said in footage shown on broadcaster TBS. Giant squids are sometimes caught in Japanese fishing nets, though filming a live one is rare. The giant squid, “Architeuthis” to scientists, is sometimes described as one of the last mysteries of the ocean, being part of a world so hostile to humans that it has been little explored.

final result. New technologies aim to approach wicked problems where micro-tasking alone fails, breaching the traditional limits.

While humans outperform machines in certain tasks, like pattern recognition and creative abstraction, combining the two intelligences could make for unprecedented approach to global problems. One Cornell program, YardMap.org, uses human computation to map global conservation efforts. In this interactive platform, participants can build upon each other’s work. ‘By sharing and observing practices in a map-based social network, people can begin to relate their individual efforts to the global conservation potential of living and working landscapes,’ says Janis Dickinson, Professor and Director of Citizen Science at the Cornell lab of Ornithology.

At HCI, crowd input is also being used to make research more efficient.

Cornell-based Alzheimer’s research on WeCureAlz.com is produced through an interactive tool, in which users play a game to help analyse data. ‘By enabling members of the general public to play some simple online game, we expect to reduce the time to treatment discovery from the decades to just a few years,’ says HCI director and lead author, Dr. Pietro Michelucci.

‘This gives an opportunity for anyone, including the tech-savvy generation of caregivers and early stage AD patients, to take the matter into their own hands.’

London A British man facing child sex abuse charges strolls through a notorious urban district in Cambodia with two boys in a chilling scene, the Sunday People can reveal.

The younger of the two is being hunted by police increasingly ¬worried about his safety.The small lad, in an orange T-shirt and blue shorts, gazes up at Roy Sheppard, 76, believed to be the oldest Briton ever arrested in Cambodia for suspected child sex. The ex-air traffic controller, from Leeds, holds him by the arm as ¬another young boy accompanies them in the city of Siem Reap. Sheppard, later arrested when cops swooped following a stake-out, is accused of sexually abusing kids after

luring them to his rented flat in the city with cash and gifts.

It is claimed the dad-of-two paid up to £7 for sex, gave four alleged victims bikes and collected snaps of the youngsters naked in his bath.

Sheppard was photographed with the two lads while under surveillance by investigators from a children’s charity before police moved in.

He was charged with indecent acts on three boys aged 12-15 and sent to Siem Reap provincial jail.A judge then granted his lawyer’s plea to free him on bail due to his age and ill health. His trial is expected to start in the next few months.Cambodia’s high levels of poverty and corruption make it a magnet for expatriate paedophiles.

17,000 people have been killed in Islamist group Boko Haram’s six-year quest to create an

Greatest” statue is located.

Reactions to the statue are mixed. “It is clearly wrong,”

independent state but the violence has been mainly confined to Nigeria’s Muslimmajority north.

“We think religions can exist side by side,” Onuoha said. “We hope that people can live in harmony.” Onuoha says he had a dream in 1997 to build a giant statue of Jesus. When his 68year-old mother fell seriously ill a few years ago, she made him promise that he would build a church if she survived.

He built it in Abajah, some 500 kilometres southeast of Lagos, and it is here that the “Jesus de

Emmanuel Lashiolola, a Catholic and former student in a seminary school, said. “You do not unveil Jesus Christ. I hope somebody is not trying to use the ceremony to raise money.” But priest Paul Awowole said: “Liturgically, I do not think there is anything is wrong in unveiling the statue of Jesus Christ. It is to venerate and honour Jesus Christ.” Onuoha is just counting down the days until the statue makes its official public debut. “The scaffolding is coming off as we speak,” Onuoha said. “People driving by are already stopping to have a look.”

Nigerian builds ‘biggest’ statue of Jesus in Africa

LAGOS A Nigerian businessman is set to unveil what he says is Africa’s largest statue of Jesus, describing it as a symbol of peace in a country wracked by Islamist insurgency.

Obinna Onuoha commissioned the 8.53 metre (28 foot) tall “Jesus de Greatest” statue in 2013, hiring a Chinese company to carve it out of white marble.

Standing barefoot with arms outstretched, the 40 ton statue will tower over St. Aloysius Catholic Church in the mainly Christian village of Abajah in Nigeria’s southeastern state of Imo.“It’s going to be the biggest statue of Jesus on the continent,” said Onuoha, the 43-year-old chief executive officer of an oil and gas distribution company.

“Definitely pilgrims will come.”

Around 1,000 people are expected to attend the statue’s unveiling on New Year’s Day. Onuoha said he has contacted the police just to be sure that it is not attacked or vandalised.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest country with 170 million people, is split between a more prosperous Christian south and a poor Muslim north - an uneasy balance that is sometimes a source of tension. More than

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Anguish as reprints of ‘Mein Kampf’ planned for new year BERLIN The copyright of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” expires Friday, with plans by several publishers for annotated reprints sparking fierce debate over how one of the world’s most controversial books should be treated seven decades after the defeat of the Nazis. The southern German state of Bavaria was handed the copyright of the book in 1945, when the Allies gave it the control of the main Nazi publishing house. For 70 years, it refused to allow the anti-Semitic manifesto to be republished out of respect for victims of the Nazis and to prevent incitement of hatred. But “Mein Kampf” - which means “My Struggle” - falls into the public domain on January 1, meaning that the state of Bavaria can no longer challenge reproductions or translations of the inflammatory work. For several European countries that were under Nazi occupation, including Austria and the Netherlands, the expiration of copyright will have little impact as reprints and sales of Hitler’s diatribe remain banned there. But in Germany, historians have readied an annotated version to hit the bookstores on January 8, while in neighbouring France,

publisher Fayard will go ahead with a new French version, sparking chagrin in some quarters.Some scholars argue in favour of the reprints, saying they will serve to demystify the notorious 800-page document, particularly given that the tract is freely available in many parts of the world, and just a few clicks away on the Internet.

In India and Brazil, the book is easily found, while in Japan even a manga version of the tract is available. In Turkey, more than 30,000 copies have been sold since 2004 and the book is not prohibited in the United States.

Nevertheless, opinion is split, particularly among Jewish groups, some of which want a ban maintained while others see reason in a scholarly version being made available for educational purposes.No country is as torn over the book as Germany, where all reprints have been halted since 1945 although the sale and possession of the book is not banned. Partly autobiographical, “Mein Kampf” outlines Adolf Hitler’s ideology that formed the basis for Nazism.

He wrote it in 1924 while he was imprisoned in Bavaria for treason after his failed beer hall putsch.

The book set out two ideas that

he put into practice as Germany’s leader going into World War II: annexing neighbouring countries to gain “lebensraum”, or “living space”, for Germans; and his hatred of Jews, which led to the Holocaust. Some 12.4 million copies were published in Germany until 1945, and copies can be found in academic libraries. Germany’s Jewish community leader Josef Schuster said “the despicable propaganda pamphlet ‘Mein Kampf’ should remain banned” although he did not oppose a scholarly version with explanations for educational and research purposes.

Such an annotated version is what historians at the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich (IFZ) have prepared. The IFZ version, running to 2,000 pages in two volumes including the added commentary, has been in the works since 2009 and aims to “deconstruct and put into context Hitler’s writing”. The book, to retail at 59 euros ($65) from January 8, will look at key historical questions, the institute said, including: “How were his theses conceived? What objectives did he have? And most important: which

counterarguments do we have, given our knowledge today of the countless claims, lies and assertions of Hitler?”

Education Minister Johanna Wanka has argued that such a scholarly version should be introduced to all classrooms across Germany, saying it would serve to ensure that “Hitler’s comments do not remain unchallenged”. “Pupils will have questions and it is only right that these can be addressed in classes,” she said. But Charlotte Knobloch, who is president of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, warned that even this version carries certain risks as it “contains the original text” and that it was also “in the interest of right wing militants and Islamists to spread these ideas.”To these fears, Andreas Wirshing, the IFZ’s director, argued that each passage of the original text is accompanied by

a commentary, forcing readers “to notice the commentaries and take them into account”. “Any Hitler sympathisers who might be interested in the book are better off looking elsewhere,” he said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

In neighbouring France, the president of the council of Jewish institutions, Roger Cukierman, called the planned French reprints “a disaster”. “Such horror can already be found on the Internet. What would happen if ‘Mein Kampf’ also becomes bedside reading?” he said. In Israel, where reprints have been banned, the expiration of copyright would not lift a deepseated taboo against the antiSemitic screed. Murray Greenfield, founder of Gefen Publishing, which focuses on books about Judaism and its history, said he wouldn’t publish it “even if they paid me.”

Woman who won lottery ‘Pre-historic’ animal shell found in Argentina during divorce can keep it all

CARLOS SPEGAZZINI A passer-by on Christmas Day found a meter-long shell on a riverbank in Argentina which may be from a glyptodont, a prehistoric kind of giant armadillo, experts said Tuesday.

A local man thought the black scaly shell was a dinosaur egg when he saw it lying in the mud, his wife Reina Coronel told AFP. Her husband Jose Antonio Nievas found the shell beside a stream at their farm in Carlos Spegazzini, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital Buenos Aires.

“My husband went out to the car and when he came back he said, ‘Hey, I just found an egg that looks like it came from a dinosaur,” she said. “We all laughed because we thought it was a joke.” Nievas told television channel Todo Noticias

he found the shell partly covered in mud and started to dig around it.

Various experts who saw television pictures of the object said it was likely to be a glyptodont shell. “There is no doubt that it looks like a glyptodont,” said paleontologist Alejandro Kramarz of the Bernadino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum. “The animal became extinct thousands of years ago and it is very common to find their fossils in this region,” he told AFP. Glyptodonts are the ancestors of modern armadillos. They had big round armored shells and weighed up to a ton. They lived in South America for tens of millions of years. Kramarz estimated the specimen found by Nievas was relatively young at 10,000 years.

AMSTERDAM A woman who won a 2.1 million euro ($2.3 million) lottery prize during a divorce has no obligation to share it with her ex-husband, according to a Dutch court decision published on Tuesday.

The Amsterdam District Court ruling said the couple had listed the shared assets they wished to divide at the time they filed for divorce on Oct. 20, 2014, though the divorce was not formally granted until June 2015.

The woman won the Post Code Lottery on New Year’s Day 2015. The man had argued that he and his estranged wife always played the lottery using shared household funds during their 30-year marriage, and it should be included in their divorce settlement. But the judge noted they had separated their

finances at least four years earlier when he went to live with his new girlfriend. The woman paid for the winning ticket from

hold the prize apart in its division of goods,” the written decision said. The ruling was made on Dec. 23 and published

her own bank account. “The above means that the prize won did not belong to their joint assets and that the court will

Tuesday.The judge divided up the couple’s other assets, which amounted to less than 10,000 euros in value.

Twitterati shame couple for #DubaiFire selfie Twitter users have slammed a couple who took a selfie with the burning Dubai hotel in the background and posted it on social media.According to a RT.com report, the fire that engulfed a 63-storey luxury hotel The Address Downtown on New Year’s Eve three hours before midnight was clicked and posted by many social media users with different hashtags, including #Dubaifire.However, the photo of the couple posing with a selfie with the burning building as a backdrop

sparked a storm on the microblogging site.Social media users expressed reactions like “the most inappropriate selfie ever” and “people are stupid” while reacting to the couple’s selfie.According to eyewitnesses, the fire started on the lower floor of the Address Downtown hotel from the outside and spread to the upper storeys.Officials said one person had a heart attack as a result of the smoke and the rush to get out of the building. Another person was described as being

moderately injured and 16 people were said to have suffered minor injuries.A large fireworks display later went ahead at the world’s tallest tower in Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, in front of tens of thousands of people while plumes of smoke continued to billow from the nearby hotel fire.Last year, Dubai broke the world record for the largest fireworks display on the New Year’s Eve, releasing 479,651 shells during the midnight pyrotechnic show, Gulf News reported.

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VVS Laxman’s 281 awarded the best Test innings in last 50 years Eclipsing several other great individual knocks, V V S Laxman’s masterly innings of 281 against Australia at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata has been rated as the greatest Test performance of the last 50 years.

The honour was accorded to the Hyderabad stylist’s fabulous series-turning knock after India trailed by 274 runs on the first innings, by his fellow-players, commentators and journalists in a poll published in the January issue of ESPN’s digital magazine the Cricket Monthly, a media release said.

Laxman, promoted to no.

3 after his first innings’ 59 out of a team score of 171, came up with his magical innings and also added 376 runs for the fifth wicket with Rahul Dravid (180).

In his tribute, one of seven by participants in the Test, leg spin legend Shane Warne recalls: “I was bowling in the footmarks and Laxman was hitting the same ball through cover or whipping it through midwicket. It was so hard to bowl then.”

Ricky Ponting remembers that “his work through the leg side in particular was a source of wonderment to many of us…

Ultimately we bowled for near enough to two days at him without even looking like getting him out.”

The honour was accorded to the Hyderabad stylist’s fabulous series-turning knock after India trailed by 274 runs on the first innings, by his fellow-players, commentators and journalists in a poll published in the January issue

Gayle criticized following interview with female reporter

Chris Gayle’s comments to a female reporter during an interview broadcast live on Australian television have been criticized by the head of the Big Bash League.

After scoring 41 from 15 deliveries in the Melbourne Renegades win over the Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL on Monday night, the former West Indies captain suggested to television reporter Mel McLaughlin that the pair go out for a drink.

He added, “Don’t blush,” during an awkward pause in the interview.

The comments drew heavy criticism on social media and were described by Anthony Everard, head of the BBL, as “disrespectful and simply inappropriate.”

“We’ll certainly be talking to him (Gayle) and the Renegades about it,” Everard said in a statement posted on Twitter.

“There’s just no place in the BBL, or for that matter cricket anywhere, for that sort of behaviour.”

Channel 10 head of sport David Barham was quoted by the Herald Sun newspaper as saying the network was deeply offended and was seeking an apology.

The BBL, one of a growing number of domestic Twenty20 cricket tournaments, is a TV ratings winner in Australia and drew a crowd of 80,000 for a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground over the weekend.

of ESPN’s digital magazine the Cricket Monthly, a media release said.

Laxman, promoted to no.

3 after his first innings’ 59 out of a team score of 171, came up with his magical innings and also added 376 runs for the fifth wicket with Rahul Dravid (180).

In his tribute, one of seven by participants in the Test, leg spin legend Shane Warne recalls: “I was bowling in the footmarks and Laxman was hitting the same ball through cover or whipping it through midwicket. It was so hard to bowl then.”

Ricky Ponting remembers that “his work through the leg side in particular was a source of wonderment to many of us... Ultimately we bowled for near enough to two days at him without even looking like getting him out.”

India teammate Zaheer Khan, also his room-mate, recalled how Laxman slept

on the floor through the match because of a bad back, while Andrew Leipus, the then Indian physio, revealed the full extent of Laxman’s physical challenge. The surprising and controversial part of the top 50 list is that none of Sachin Tendulkar’s 51 Test hundreds have been considered worth making the list while David Gower’s feat of scoring 72 and 28 for England in the Ashes Test at Perth has got the 32nd rank. Tendulkar, often compared with Sir Don Bradman, had scored his maiden century, 119 not

out, as a 17-year-old boy against England to rescue India at Manchester on his first tour to that country.

That has not been found worthy of finding a place nor has his 114 against Australia at Perth in bouncy and windy conditions against a top pace attack in 1992, when still in his teens, made it to the list of top 50 performances in the last fifty years.

West Indian batting great Brian Lara has the most entries in the list of 50, with four, including the No. 4: the nerveless 153 not out versus Australia in Bar-

bados in 1999.

Ian Botham, who has three entries in the 50, comes in with two in the top five: the dazzling all-round shows in the Headingley Ashes Test of 1981 (No. 2) and the Golden Jubilee Test in Bombay (now Mumbai) the previous year (No. 5).

Michael Holding’s 14 wickets against England with supreme pace on a batting track at The Oval in 1976 is at No. 3, and performances by Richard Hadlee, Bob Massie, Muttiah Muralitharan, Graham Gooch and Garry Sobers round out the top ten.

from 14 matches at an average of less than 20 (19.07). “Yuvraj Singh is a great player and the reason of releasing him is to rationalise our budget. He is in good form now and

has got back to the Indian team. But there were budgetary constraints which led to the decision. I have personally spoken to Yuvraj. There are no hard feelings,” Daredevils CEO

Hemant Dua told PTI on Thursday. In fact among existing six teams in IPL, Delhi Daredevils will be going into the February auction with a purse of Rs 36.85 to spend on salary of players.

“We have also released Angelo Mathews. So we are saving around Rs 23 crores (as Mathews was bought for Rs 7 crore),” said Dua. Some of the other prominent players to be released are Kings XI Punjab’s last year’s captain and former Aussie skipper George Bailey.

sive report submitted to the apex court, the panel suggested a top-down restruc-

turing of the board’s functioning in order to create a more professional running of the organization and thereby ensure greater transparency.

The panel proposed a new hierarchy, headed by a general body of the BCCI with subcommittees to manage the board administration(Apex

Council) and the Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC). According to the panel’s recommendations, the board’s administration should follow the company model with a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the helm, assisted by six professional managers to handle the day-to-day activities.

Delhi Daredevils release Yuvraj Singh; Sunrisers remove Ishant Delhi Daredevils predictably released veteran lefthander Yuvraj Singh from their squad while India’s pace spearhead Ishant Sharma was off-loaded by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first trading window for the upcoming 9th season of Indian Premier League (IPL).

Despite getting back to the Indian team for the T20 leg of the Australian tour, Yuvraj, who was bought for a whopping Rs 16 crore by the GMR-owned franchise, turned out to be the biggest flop with only 248 runs

Lodha panel recommends sweeping changes in BCCI administration

The Supreme Courtappointed threemember panel headed by Justice RN Lodha, on Monday (January 4), put forward sweeping recommendations regarding the governance and administration of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In a comprehen-

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Meet the twins born in two different years!

In a San Diego hospital, a woman gave birth to twins in a gap of few minutes but they are actually born in different years.

Jaelyn Valenica was born at 11:59 pm on New Year’s Eve and her younger twin Luis Valencia Jr on New year’s Day at 12:02 am to Maribel Valencia.

Jaelyn was the last baby born in San Diego County in 2015 and her brother the first baby born in the county in 2016.

According to staffers at the San Diego Kai-

ser Permanente Zion Medical Center, the twins were both 18.5 inches long. Jaelyn weighed four pounds, 15 ounces, while Luis weighed five pounds, nine ounces.

“We were actually watching the clock.

We wanted to see if we were one of the first ones,” said Luis, father of the twins.

The parents are already anticipating sibling rivalry and that Jaelyn would try to use the age card on her 3-minute younger brother.

Italy in shock over spate of childbirth deaths ROME Italy’s health minister has ordered a series of investigations after five women died in childbirth in seven days, shocking a nation with one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world.

The deaths occurred across the country between December 25 and 31. While all appear to have explicable causes, their concentration over the holiday period has raised questions over whether hospital staffing may have been a factor and also over whether older mothers-to-be are being sufficiently monitored for warning signs of potentially fatal conditions.

In the latest case, Giovanna Lazzari, 29, already a mother of two who was eight months pregnant, died on New Year’s Eve in Brescia, northern Italy, a day after coming to the clinic’s emergency unit with a high fever and symptoms of gastroenteritis, according to her partner Roberto Coppini. As her condition deteriorated, doctors attempted an emer-

gency Cesarean but were unable to save either the mother or the foetus.

“In a few hours, I lost a baby and a unique mamma.

Someone has to tell me what happened,” Coppini told reporters. “Giovanna sent me a text message

of the other four fatal cases. “We have to understand if the recommended procedures were followed or if there were organisational deficiencies,” Lorenzin said.

“The priority is identifying any errors and preventing

during the night in which she told me she had very strong pains but that the doctors were not paying any attention to her. “She would have been 30 on January 1. She was young and healthy.”

Health minister Beatrice Lorenzin has dispatched a team of experts to try and establish what happened in the Brescia clinic and three

other tragedies.” According to media reports, the tragedy in Brescia was triggered by a detachment of the placenta from the wall of the patient’s uterus. In two of the other cases, both of which resulted in still births, the mothers, aged 35 and 39, suffered cardiac arrest during labour, according to reports.

Anna Massignan, a 34-

year-old doctor from Lonigo, near Vicenza who died on Christmas Day, succumbed after an emergency Cesarean eight months into her pregnancy, reportedly following a fall at home. Her son was delivered alive but died several hours later.

The one case not being investigated concerned a 23-year-old from Foggia in southern Italy who was approaching her due date and died suddenly at home. Doctors were able to perform a post-mortem Cesarean and save her daughter.

Although the tragedies being investigated all appear to be explicable, a leading gynaecologist said some of the victims may have paid the price for inadequate screening for the risk of thrombosis or heart problems emerging during the latter stages of pregnancy.

“With preventative checks we could save so many women in the delivery room,” said Rosalba Paesano, Professor of Gynaecological Science at Rome’s La Sapienza university.

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Health Tips for enjoying a healthy sex life as you get older A healthy sex life is the most fulfilling aspect of life!

But as you age, sex isn’t the same as it was. When you were young and agile, you were open to new experiences and experimentation. But when you get older, you tend to feel discouraged by issues connected with the aging process. That’s where you go wrong! Definitely, it won’t be the same as it was but it can certainly be satisfying. Sex isn’t just for the young because sex is all about intimacy and desire and has nothing to do with age. You need to overcome the challenges of aging and enjoy sex for as long as you want. Here are a few tips that will get you through:

Communicate with your partner You should be able to communicate your thoughts, fears, and desires with your partner. Be frank with your partner and encourage them too to be open with you.

Holding back or hiding certain things will only dampen your spirits.

Be open to new ideas and experiment Just because you are growing old, doesn’t mean you can’t expand your horizons.

Be open to new ideas and discuss them freely with your partner. Don’t hesitate and put your creative mind to use. If erectile dysfunction is an issue for you, try sex with the woman on top, as hardness is less important. Try those sexual posi-

tions which are pleasurable and comfortable for both of you.

Eat right and exercise High blood pressure and cholesterol can cause the vascular problems that lead to trouble with your erections. It is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising and keeping your weight in check.

Go for psychological counseling Sexual issues such as low libido and erectile dysfunction generally crop up when men age. And unfortunately, most men link these issues with self-esteem which damages their emotional health.

In such a case, you can go for psychological counseling and freely talk about it to your psychologist.

Avoid alcohol and smoking It’s no news that both alcohol and smoking can hinder a man’s ability to achieve an erection. If you are having sexual difficulties, consider abstaining from smoking and alcohol.

Remember sex is just not about intercourse You need to broaden your definition of sex. Holding each other, gentle touching,

cuddling, kissing, and sensual massage are also ways which will fulfill you.

Try oral sex or masturbation as substitutes to intercourse.

Your doctor can help you manage chronic conditions and medications that affect your sex life. If you have trouble maintaining an erection, ask your doctor about treatments.

You need to maintain a

positive approach when it comes to these sensitive issues. Having said that, you need to be realistic too to accept the changes that your body is going through.

If you are suffering from Erectile Dysfunction, please contact SurajVanshi Dawakhana at 416-992-5489 for Ayurvedic herbal remedies. All discussions are kept strictly confidential.

Another contagious form of How to lose weight without any sweat! cancer discovered In an indication that transmissible cancer may not be as rare as generally believed, researchers have identified a second, genetically distinct variety in Tasmania devils, iconic small dog-sized carnivores that are only found

in the wild on the Australian island state of Tasmania. Scientists had earlier discovered one form of transmissible cancer in the devils that causes them facial tumours.

“The second cancer causes tumours on the face that are outwardly indistinguishable from the previously-discovered cancer,” said study first author Ruth Pye from Univer-

sity of Tasmania, Australia.

“So far it has been detected in eight devils in the south-east of Tasmania,” Pye noted.

Transmissible cancers -cancers which can spread between individuals by the

transfer of living cancer cells -- are believed to arise extremely rarely in nature.

“Until now, we have always thought that transmissible cancers arise extremely rarely in nature, but this new discovery makes us question this belief,” senior author on the study Elizabeth Murchison from University of Cambridge, noted.

In 1996, researchers observed Tasmanian devils in the north-east of the island with tumours affecting the face and mouth; soon it was discovered that these tumours were contagious between devils, spread by biting.

The cancer spreads rapidly throughout the animal’s body and the disease usually causes the death of affected animals within months of the appearance of symptoms.

The cancer has since spread through most of Tasmania and has triggered widespread devil population declines.

To date, only two other forms of transmissible cancer have been observed in nature: in dogs and in soft-shell clams.

The discovery of the second transmissible cancer in Tasmania devils began in 2014, when a devil with facial tumours was found in south-east Tasmania.

Losing weight, burning those calories, getting rid of that belly fat is something that’s on everyone’s mind. Exercising, however, is not. This is mostly because of laziness, tiredness, work purposes, etc., many people don’t find the time (or the need) to exercise.

But, they so desperately want to bid those extra kilos goodbye!

Well, seems like you can have your cake and eat it too!

Yes, you read that right!

Just making a few simple changes in your lifestyle can help you out with your weight issues.

It turns out that you don’t have to go to the gym to burn more calories and lose weight. The little things you do during the day make a big difference in your metabolism. We present to you a few tips that can help you burn those extra calories without exercising!

1. At work: If you have a sedentary job (read: sitting job) that doesn’t require you to

move out of your chair, then that could cause you major problems in the long run, where weight is concerned. Obesity, being overweight can further

coming more social. Instead of sitting, opt to stand or circle the room and talk to as many party goers as possible. Offer to help in the kitchen, take a

cause diabetes, heart problems, etc. To make your office-routine healthy, get up and move for at least 15 minutes every hour.

Take a walk to the restroom, go to the water cooler, run an errand, take the stairs instead of the elevator or do your filing from a standing rather than seated position.

2. At social events: Do you often find yourself searching for a place to sit when you go out for a social event? But now, it’s time to change that. The next time you go to a party, burn extra calories by be-

tour of the garden or greet guests at the door to stay active.

3. While relaxing: Yes, you can lose that weight while relaxing as well. You can burn extra calories by simply adding some light activity to your TV viewing and relaxation time. Fold laundry, dust furniture or sweep the floor while you watch television.

You can even do a full workout on your couch and burn up to 300 calories!

This way, you will also eat less in front of the television if your hands are busy.

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‘Chargrilled burgers preferred over crispy, fried ones’ Chargrilled burgers are preferred over the crispy, fried variety, a new survey says, a sign that Indians are getting conscious of the nutritive value of the fast food they eat.

“In the roughly four-odd months of our presence in India, we have seen that our chargrilled options have outsold the regular, crispy, deep fried burgers. We have sold 70 percent chargrilled burgers as compared to 31 percent of crispy, fried ones,” global chain Carl’s Jr said in its survey.

“At present, we are offer-

ing a menu of which 60 percent consists of chargrilled options (veg + non-veg) and 40 percent consists of regular crispy burgers. India is considered as a market predominantly skewed towards crispy/regular/fried patty burgers,” it said.

It said the restaurant market is expected to achieve a valuation of $78 billion by 2018. Present estimates put the size of the burger market at around $92 million.

Noting that industry estimates “also point out that, as a result of increased

disposable incomes, Indians are now eating out all the more as compared to earlier times”, the survey said this “brings us to a rather worrying trend”.

“Roughly 40 percent-60 percent of the urban Indian population is obese, which makes us home to the third-largest number of obese people in the world.

India surely needs healthier fast food options given that fast food makes up a sizeable chunk of eating out. When it comes to burgers, the Indian market is predominantly considered to be one for fried and

Five tips to avoid holiday weight gain!

“We also found that of the total number of customizations with regards to buns, more than 99 percent of the requests were to switch to honey wheat buns instead of seeded ones, whereas less than one percent wanted to switch to seeded buns.

Stop and enjoy Stop the pattern of not allowing yourself from eating that favorite food as it will lead to binge eating. Instead, allow yourself to eat it mindfully, sitting down and savoring each delicious bite.

Plan ahead One should always plan ahead of what they should eat as doing so will help them to keep their weight in check.

Stay active Besides having a ball during your holiday, also try to fight off the urge to skip workouts. One should make exercise a priority as it will help keep your blood sugar levels stable and to burn off some extra stress.

Make sleep a priority Quality sleep is very important as lack of it can set you up to crave more carbohydrates during the day.

Try to stick with your regular sleep times and go to bed early if possible.

Use of ultrasound in detecting breast cancer has been shown to be comparable in its sensitivity to that of mammography and should be considered when testing for the disease, according to a new study. “Where mammography is available, ultrasound should be seen as a supplemental test for women with dense breasts who do not meet high-risk criteria for screening MRI

and for high-risk women with dense breasts who are unable to tolerate MRI,” said one of the researchers Wendie Berg MageeWomens Hospital in Pittsburgh,US. While mammography is an effective method in detecting breast cancer in developed countries, it is not commonly available in less developed nations, and alternative methods, such as ultrasound, need to be tested.

adults had eaten and how much. That way, researchers could measure diet quality.

The scientists based their

herence to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The results indicated that when parents and children

For all components, a higher score indicates higher diet quality. When parents and children ate almonds, their HEI score

conclusions about improved dietary intake on participants’ scores on the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), a tool used to measure diet quality and ad-

were eating almonds, their HEI increased for total protein foods, seafood and plant proteins and fatty acids, while they ate fewer empty calories.

increased from 53.7 to 61.4.

Parents and children consumed more vitamin E and magnesium when eating almonds, Burns noted.

It is that time of the year when you say goodbye to office work for some days and plan your vacation. So, when you go out on a holiday, binging becomes a

habit. Likewise, healthy lifestyle habits takes a backseat.

Who’s is the culprit? Well, lack of any physical activity can result in weight gain

Vitamin D levels may have nothing to do with sleepless nights

while you party hard!

Here are some tips to avoid holiday weight gain: Watch what you eat It might sound funny but one should keep a track of what they have eaten throughout the day. This way of self-monitoring will make you more aware while picking up stuff. You can also avoid weight gain by ignoring fatty food.

crispy fare,” it said.

Carl’s Jr with its wide variety of chargrilled burgers, as well as the choice of a ‘green’ lettuce wrap burger, “is surely paving the path for other burger players to follow”.

“Given the emergence of healthier QSR brands such as Pita Pit or Subway, the fast food market in India is expected to soon follow the lines of the western markets by demanding better ingredient knowledge and lower calorie products,” the survey noted.

Ultrasound effective in detecting breast cancer

14 gram almonds daily can boost your health Contradicting common perception, researchers have found that low levels of vitamin D also known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’ does not cause or worsen sleep apnoea.

Sleep apnoea causes repeated awakenings and pauses in breathing during the night. Obesity appears to contribute to the adverse effects. “The link between obesity and vitamin D deficiency can be explained in a number of ways one of which is that obese individuals are less likely to be physically active thereby limiting their sun exposure,” said senior investigator Ken Kunisaki, associate professor of medicine at University of Minnesota in the US. “Although our study was not designed to

figure out why obese people have lower vitamin D levels, our results ultimately suggest that low vitamin D levels do not cause or worsen sleep apnoea,” Kunisaki said.

The study involved a cohort of 2,827 participants who were generally healthy and elderly males with an average age of 76.4 years.

“Taking additional vitamin D supplements is not likely to prevent or improve sleep apnoea,” Kunisaki said. The researchers also found no evidence to support a link between vitamin D deficiency and increased risk of sleep apnoea in nonobese study participants.

The study appeared in the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

Eating a moderate amount of almonds daily can enrich the diets of adults and young children, says a new study.

“Almonds are a good source of plant protein essential fatty acids, vitamin E and magnesium,” said one of the researchers Alyssa Burns from University of Florida in the US. For the 14-week study, the scientists gave almonds daily to 29 pairs of parents and children. Most of the adults were mothers with an average age of 35, while their children were between three and six years of age.

The children were encouraged to consume 14 grams of almond butter daily and parents were given 14 grams of almonds per day.

An online dietary recall was used to find out what

Issue 648 (39)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016

DATE BALL COOKIES

PASSION FRUIT TABBOULEH

Ingredients: 8 oz. pitted dates 3/4 cup sugar 8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 1/2 cups Rice Krispies cereal 1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom 1 cup confectioners' sugar Instructions: In a food processor, pulse the dates until a chunky paste forms. Scrape the dates into a medium skillet along with the sugar and butter and heat over medium. Cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to bubble, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the Rice Krispies, pecans, vanilla, and cardamom. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and let stand until cool enough to handle.

Ingredients: 1/2 cup fine bulgur wheat 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tsp. kosher salt 5 passion fruits 2 cups finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion Freshly ground black pepper Instructions: In a medium bowl, stir the wheat with the olive oil, salt, and 3/4 cup boiling water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the wheat stand until tender and the water is absorbed, about 35 minutes.

Uncover the wheat and stir with a fork to fluff. Cut 4 of the passion fruits in half, scoop out their pulp and seeds into the wheat, and add the parsley and red onion. Stir to combine and scrape the tabbouleh into a serving

Working quickly while the mixture is warm and with slightly wet hands, pinch off pieces of the date mixture and roll balls into 1-inch balls. Transfer the balls to a bowl with the confectioners’ sugar as you form them, shake to coat evenly, then transfer to a serving platter.

bowl and let stand for 1 hour. Scoop out the remaining passion fruit's pulp and seeds and drizzle them over the tabbouleh before serving.

CITRUS TWIST FRITTERS

VANILLA WREATH COOKIES Ingredients: 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened 1 cup (7 oz.) sugar 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped 2 cups (9 oz.) all-purpose flour 1/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature 1/2 tsp. kosher salt Instructions: Heat the oven to 350°. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla seeds until fluffy. Add flour, milk, and salt; beat on low speed until just combined.

Scrape the dough into a cloth piping bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star tip and pipe 2 1/2-inch pretzel shapes onto baking sheets. Bake until lightly golden on the bottom, about 16 minutes.

Ingredients: 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened 1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz.) sugar 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom Finely grated zest of 1 lemon Finely grated zest of 1/2 orange 2 cups (9 oz.) all-purpose flour 1/4 cup lightly beaten eggs (about 1 1/ 2 large) 2 tbsp. heavy cream 1/2 tsp. kosher salt Instructions: Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sugar, cardamom, and zests until fluffy. Add flour, beaten eggs, heavy cream, and salt; beat on low speed until combined. Knead until smooth.

MEDIANOCHE SANDWICH

WHITEFISH GUACAMOLE

Ingredients: 1 lb. pork loin Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, 2 tbsp. olive oil 4 medianoche bread, or challah 1/2 cup yellow mustard 1 lb. sliced deli ham, halved 8 slices swiss cheese, halved 4 dill pickles 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened Instructions: Heat oven to 400°. Season pork with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Place on a roasting tray and roast until a thermometer inserted reads 160°, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a cutting board to rest, about 15 minutes.

Thinly slice the pork. Halve the bread

Ingredients: 5 tbsp. minced red onion 2 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. finely chopped cilantro 1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped juice of 1 lime 1 cup smoked whitefish 1 tbsp. mayonnaise 1 1/2 tsp. adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce 1 tsp. minced chives 2 avocados, halved, pitted, peeled and roughly chopped kosher salt Instructions: In a large bowl, stir the onion, cilantro, jalapeno, and lime juice together and

lengthwise and spread the insides of each roll with 1 tablespoon mustard.

Divide the ham, pork, cheese, and pickles evenly among sandwiches. Heat half the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium. Working in batches, cook two sandwiches, pressing down on the top with a 10-inch cast iron skillet, until golden on the bottom, about 3 minutes.

Flip the sandwiches over, press with the skillet, and continue cooking until the other side is golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a cutting board and cut in half on the diagonal to serve.

Flatten dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch, and cut into 1-inch-wide strips. Cut strips on the bias into 3-inch-long diamonds, then cut a 1-inch slit in the center of each diamond and thread one end through the hole and out the other side, pulling ends apart to form a knot. Working in batches, fry the pastries in vegetable oil at 350° until golden brown and crisp, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

let stand for 5 minutes. Add the whitefish, mayonnaise, adobo sauce, chives, and avocados and stir until evenly combined. Serve the guacamole with tortilla chips.

Issue 648 (40)

5 Jan. - 11 Jan. 2016