The contact

THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 653, 9 FEB. - 15 FEB. 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761 FOLLOWING the revelations made by US-based Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley about the role of ISI officials and Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders in executing the Mumbai 26\11 attack in 2008, New Delhi will send a fresh report to Islamabad seeking action against the perpetrators who are enjoying a free run in India will the country. send a fresh New Delhi claimed that LeT operative report to Pak after Headley’s deposition to a Mumbai court Headley's revelations via video conferencing from the US will about ISI and LeT's end the ambiguity over the role of the role in 26/11 Pakistani state and non-state actors in Mumbai attacks the Mumbai attack, and take the case to its logical conclusion.

“The difference between the state and nonstate actors will come to an end after this statement. It is known that who all were involved.

Headley’s statement will lead to a logical conclusion. It will help us,” Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said.

He told the court that the same set of Pakistani terrorists attempted to attack Mumbai twice before

HEADLEY REVEALS ISI’s 26/11 SECRET in September and October, 2008 before finally striking on November 26, killing 166 people and injuring 309.

Rijiju said the fresh revelations

by Headley about his background and his working style would help the Indian investigators and prosecutors.

In his deposition before a Mumbai court, made through video conferencing from an American prison, Headley said his main contact in Lashkar-e-

Taiba was Sajid Mir, suspected to be an operative of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Headley said that he joined LeT after being influenced by its head Hafiz Saeed and took his first course with them in 2002 at Muzaffarabad.

Headley, who is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence in the US for his role in the terror attacks, also said he changed his name from Dawood Gilani

Headley had joined a course where both Hafiz Saeed (left) and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi would make anti-India

Continued on Page 2

AMERICAN ACTOR IS active in India under different SIKH & DESIGNER, WARIS names, claims Muslim body AHLUWALIA

A body representing Sufi-Sunni Muslims on Monday claimed that the Islamic State group is “active” in the country under “different names” and sought a ban on fronts representing such groups to prevent threats to national security.

The comments by the All India

Tanzeem Ulema-E-Islam (AITUI) came against the backdrop of remarks by home minister Rajnath Singh on December 27 that ISIS has not been able to “establish its roots” in the country due to family values of the Indian culture.

At its day-long ‘anti-terrorism’

conference held in New Delhi, the AITUI also made a strong pitch for “critical examination” of Islamic studies imparted across varsities in the country and sought to promote Sufi content to remove “extremist influence” on youth.

Continued on Page 2

WAS REFUSED ENTRY ON AN AEROMEXICO FLIGHT BECAUSE OF HIS TURBAN.

Continued on Page 2

Issue - 653 (2)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Headley reveals ISI’s 26/11... Scientists investigate suspected meteorite death in India

Continued from Page 1 to David Headley in 2006 so that he could enter India and set up a business.

“After I got a new passport, I disclosed it to my colleagues in LeT, of which one of them was Sajid Mir, the person with whom I was dealing with,” Headley said in his deposition.

He said that while applying for the Indian visa, he cooked up a story that he was an immigration consultant and furnished incorrect information to

protect his cover.

“I had discussed it (cover story) with Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal of ISI, and they were very happy to see my Indian visa,” he told the court.

He said he knew Major Iqbal of ISI and had met him in Lahore after one Major Ali (also from ISI) introduced him to the former.

Ujjwal Nikam, special prosecutor in the 26\11 case said: “Headley revealed that Major Iqbal trained him and he also

Waris Ahluwalia, Sikh actor, barred from Aeromexico plane because of turban

unravelled names of few LeT trainers before the court.”

Nikam said Headley had joined a leadership course where both Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-urRehman Lakhvi, the alleged masterminds of 26\11 attack, used to come and give anti-India speeches.

He also confessed that he had joined LeT after being influenced by Saeed.

Headley said that although he wanted go to Kashmir and fight Indian troops, he was told that he was too old for that.

“Lakhvi told me that they would use me for some other purpose, he said, adding it was to be more adventurous than Kashmir.”

Talking about his travel to India, the LeT operative said: “Before the first visit, (his LeT handler) Sajid Mir (also an accused in the case) gave me instructions to make a general video of Mumbai.”

CHENNAI Indian scientists are investigating whether a man was killed by a meteorite, which if confirmed would be the first recorded death from falling fragments of space rock in almost 200 years.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has said a bus driver at a college in her state was killed by the meteorite and awarded 100,000 rupees ($1,470) in compensation to his family.

“A meteorite fell within the college premises,” Jayalalithaa said. The man “sustained serious injuries and died while on the way to the hospital”.

Jayalalithaa, a former film star, left tight-lipped local officials struggling to explain the mystery blast at the engineering college that left a small crater and broke windows. The bus driver was standing on a patch of grass near the college cafeteria when he was

killed, while two gardeners and a student were injured, officials said. A dark blue stone resembling a diamond was found at the scene.

Government officials at first

found, we moved to the theory that it might be a meteorite,” said a district official who asked not be named. “It is not confirmed yet as samples need to be analysed.”

suspected the blast was caused by explosives accidentally left after building work. However, investigations found no evidence of explosive material at the site.

“When no evidence of explosive material was

A team from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics was expected to visit on Tuesday to collect samples. G. Baskar, the principal of the college in Vellore district, was working in his cabin when he heard an explosion.

IS active in India under different names...

Waris Ahluwalia, an Indianborn actor (The Darjeeling Limited, The Grand Budapest Hotel) and designer, refused to remove his turban, prompting airline security to keep him from getting on the plane.

Ahluwalia posted this to his Instagram page. In another post, Ahluwalia holds his boarding pass, which has a clearly marked “SSSS.” In airport-speak, that means “Secondary Security Screening Selectee,” which usually indicates that you’ll be screening an additional time before boarding the plane.

Ahluwalia, 41, was prepared for the extra attention but didn’t realize his turban would be a problem. He told the New York Daily News that security held him back until everyone else had boarded the 7:15 a.m. flight to New York before searching his bag, swabbing him and running their hands down the bottom of his feet. Some organizations have slammed the “SSSS” process as potentially racist or ethnically discriminatory. “I’ve had the magic four S’s before,” said Ahluwalia. “I’m really lucky on my ‘random’ selection.”

Despite the perceived mistreatment, he obeyed all

orders until security asked him to remove his turban.

“That is not something that I would do in public,” he said.

“That’s akin to asking someone to take off their clothes.”

When he explained he wouldn’t be taking his turban off in a public area and asked to be taken for private examination, airline security told him “You will not be flying Aeromexico. You will need to book another flight.

I was shaking at first,” he said. “That’s not a nice thing to be told, that you are not allowed to fly on this plane because of something you are wearing, or because of your religious beliefs.”

Ironically, Aeromexico had invited Ahluwalia to fly first class. The airline has not commented on the incident.

Ahluwalia refuses to fly with Aeromexico again unless they offer a public apology and promise to train staff on how to work with Sikhs. “The Sikh Coalition has done that with the TSA and many other airport authorities with success,” he said.

“This is a chance for growth.” Ahluwalia just starred in Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s movie Beeba Boys, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Continued from Page 1 “Terror activities are on rise in the world. We condemn it and assert the Sufi-Sunni Muslims are in no way engaged in such activities. But we want to highlight, the ISIS is active in India under different names.

“The ISIS front outfits are holding conferences and receiving funds from

Saudi Arabia and Qatar for it. We want Centre to ban all such outfits in view of national security,” AITUI president Mufti Mohammed Ashfaq Hussain Qadri told reporters.

Appealing to Sufi-Sunni Muslim youth in India against “falling prey” to extremist elements, clerics participating in

the conference insisted that the government promote Sufi content in syllabus taught as part of higher Islamic studies.

The clerics, who had gathered from different p a r ts o f t h e c o u n t r y, urged Centre to give up efforts to change minority status of educational institutions-an apparent reference to

government’s stand on AMU and Jamia Milia Islamia varsities--and instead take efforts to gain confidence of community youths.

The clerics also favoured enacting a law that will provide for capital punishment to those who insult prophets and Gods worshipped by people of any religion.

David Coleman Headley met Hafiz Saeed and Lakhvi in Pakistan MUMBAI Continuing his deposition for the second day before a special court via video conferencing, PakistaniAmerican terrorist David Coleman Headley on Tuesday admitted that he had met both Lashkar-eTaiba(LeT) commander Hafeez Saeed and then operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

Headley deposed that he had suggested to Saeed to take the US government to court for branding LeT as a terror outfit. Lakhvi said it was a good idea but it would take long and would have to be discussed with the ISI. Headley further revealed that the conspiracy to attack Mumbai was hatched at a meeting in November 2007 in Muzzafarabad where he was present along with his main contact Sajid Mir and Abu

Kahfa. He also said he had conducted a reconnaissance of Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai in 2006 and especially the convention hall as the plan

judge GA Sanap in the city civil and sessions court, via video conferencing from an undisclosed location in the US. Headley's deposition might help the

was to attack an Indian defence scientists meeting.

The plan was, however, later cancelled for various reasons.Headley also spoke about his association with former LeT colleague Abdul Rehman Pasha. He said that Pasha later joined al-Qaida.

Headley's deposition is taking place before special

prosecution's bid to nail alleged co-conspirator and handler of the terrorists, suspected LeT operative Zabihuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal. Jundal is currently the sole person under trial in the case. Executed Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab identified Jundal as his handler. Jundal is also attending the proceedings

via video conference from Arthur Road jail where he is currently lodged. His plea to be physically present for the proceedings was rejected by the court. Headley is currently jailed in the US where he is serving 35 years in prison for his role in the attacks. In January 2013, he was convicted and sentenced by a US federal court. In his first deposition on Monday, Headley had told the court that Pakistani terrorists attempted to attack Mumbai twice before the 26/11 strikes that killed 166 people but failed both times. Describing himself as a "true follower of LeT", Headley also admitted during his examination by special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam that he joined the ranks of LeT after getting "influenced and motivated" by the speeches of terrorist outfit's founder Hafiz Saeed.

Issue - 653 (3)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Issue - 653 (4)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Generation Gap Widens in Iran’s Government Iran’s nuclear deal with the West has exposed major generational political fault lines within Iran’s government. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei was making one demand after another, apparently to torpedo implementation of the agreement. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the Islamic Republic’s founders, a former president and now head of Iran’s Expediency Council, publicly disagreed with Khamenei’s orders and brushed aside Khamenei’s new demands.

Eventually, Khamenei had to back down and allow the agreement to be implemented.

Khamenei is in the generation that fought in the 1979 Great Islamic Revolution and is today in the hardest of the hardline Iranian political factions. A feature of these hardliners is that they’re using

THE CONTACT STAFF: EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sunny Bains Lt. Hon. President : Dr. (Prof.) Darshan Singh Executive Editor: Kanwaljit Kaur Bains EDITOR Vinny Bains Foreign Editor: Syed Asif Shahkar (Sweden) Sr. Assistant Editor: Prempal Bajwa Marketing Executive Vinny Bains Special Correspondents: Balkar Chatha France Financial Advisor : Sarabjit Singh Sagoo Photographer: Sandeep Brar 647 294 4948 Head Office: 2-7015 TRANMERE DRIVE, MISSISSAUGA ONTARIO CANADA L5S 1T7 For Advertisement : Call Kanwaljit 416-899-2548 Tel: 905-671-4761 TOLL FREE: 1-888-371-2548 FAX: 1888-982-2818 EMAIL: INFO@AJITWEEKLY.COM

The Contact Weekly and people associated with it are not responsible for any claims made by the advertisers and don’t endorse any product or services advertised in the Contact Weekly. Please consult your lawyer before buying/hiring/ contracting through the ads published in the newspaper. The Contact Weekly is in the business of selling space and claims made by the advertisers are not tested/ confirmed by an independent source.

similar tactics to the ones that were successful in 1979, including the very successful taking of American embassy personnel as hostages. Rafsanjani is in the same generation as Khamenei, and adheres to the same “revolutionary principles” but is considered a “moderate” or “pragmatic” because he combines these principles with a desire to modernize Iran and integrate it with the international community.

The political fault line exposed by the nuclear negotiations still exists and is worsening with a new election approaching on February 26 to elect a new Majlis (parliament) and the Assembly of Experts. There is now a vicious political battle in progress over which candidates will be permitted to run in the elections. In December, Iran’s hardline watchdog body, the Guardian Council, ruled that thousands of potential candidates, almost everyone from the moderate political factions, were to be disqualified from running in the election. The Guardian Council is under the control of Khamenei and is an unelected body of 12 Islamic jurists and hardline clerics that can veto election candidates for reasons such as lack of commitment to Islam and the constitution.

Khamenei said, “Those who don’t have faith in the clerical establishment should not be allowed to perform a duty.” The objective of the mass disqualifications seems obvious, to prevent the Majlis from implementing many reform policies favored by Rafsanjani and the current president, Hassan Rouhani. Khamenei’s remark about “those who don’t have faith in the clerical establishment” was an offensive insult to the moderates by implying that their support for political reforms might be treasonous and a religious apostasy. Unsurprisingly, this has created a firestorm in Iran with many clerics taking offense at the disqualifications. Many pointed out that Khamenei’s act was self-defeating.

Ayatollah Kazem Nourmofidi said, “Disqualification of those who believe in the Islamic Republic, Islam and the pillars of our system ... will create a deep rift between real believers of our system and the establishment.”

Grand Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastgheib, in a letter to the Guardian Council, said: “You have acknowledged the right of only 30 percent of our voters ignoring the rights of others. Don’t you think it will create a huge rift between the people and the leadership?” Even worse, there are concerns that public anger at the Khamenei and the other hardline geezers is going to trigger massive antigovernment protests. This happened in the 2009 elections, resulting in bloody massacres of peaceful protesters by Khamenei’s storm troopers. Sources say, a lot of Iranians haven’t been paid their salaries, and the Khamenei regime is ordering that they be paid the money they’re owed by February 24, two days before the election, in the hope of defusing any potential mass protests.

Iran’s historic struggle between Principlists and Reformists America in the 1960s and 1970s was one generation past the end of World War II

SUNNY BAINS

and went through a generational Awakening era with a “generation gap” that pitted the generations of war survivors (the GI and Silent generations) against those who grew up after the war (the Boomers). The result was “days of rage,” street protests, the Summer of Love, the national Democratic convention riots, the Kent

State shootings, Watergate, and regime change. Iran is now in a period one generation past the end of its last crisis war, the 1979 Great Islamic Revolution and the Iran/Iraq war that climaxed in 1988. Iran is going through a similar “generation gap,” pitting the Revolution survivors versus the generations growing up afterwards. Although there are various splinter groups in Iran’s government, they break down into three major categories: 1. The Principlists, mostly consisting of survivors of the 1979 Great Islamic Revolution, are the most hardline, demanding that society continue to adhere to the “principles” set by the 1979 Revolution.

2. The Pragmatics or Moderates are mostly in the same generation as the Principlists and adhere to Principlist concepts but wish to institute some reforms including a closer relationship with the West.

3. The Reformists, mostly consisting of younger generations that have grown up after the 1979 Revolution, are still “conservative” by the Western standards but are demanding reforms of the hardline rules including deep political reforms and even regime change. They typically fight for the same issues as American Boomers in the 1960s - greater freedom in gender issues, greater freedom of speech and protests and reluctance to engage in foreign wars.

Iran’s constitution contains a central contradiction that’s caused one political crisis after another: the assumption that elected institutions would function in harmony with the rulings handed down by religious jurists. Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, assumed that in a rightly ordered state, God’s will (as determined by the clerics) and the people’s will (as manifested through elections) would coincide. This happened during the first years of the generational Recovery era following the crisis war. But as young people with no personal memories of the war entered their teen years, anti-government protests began and had to be violently put down by bloody massacres.

The first major political defeat of the hardliners occurred in the 1997 to

replace Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as the president when the victory went to Reformist cleric Muhammad Khatami.

There were more reformer victories in the 2000 parliamentary elections, gaining more than two-thirds of the seats. In the 2004 parliamentary elections, the Guardian Council disqualified thousands of pro-reform candidates from competing for seats, just as they’re still doing in the 2016 parliamentary elections.

With the younger generations of Reformists increasingly moving into positions of power, and as the Principlists die off, the remaining hardliners have been panicking and using the Guardian Council to quash any attempts at political reforms and bloody massacres by the security police to prevent any street protests from becoming effective. Since then, the moderate Rafsanjani has led the “pragmatists” in their attempt to resolve the constitutional contradiction by reconciling the injunctions of the Islamic Revolution with the democratic norms espoused by the West. Rafsanjani has had to be careful to reject the Reformists’ demands for regime change, so as not to risk being jailed. (Rafsanjani’s son Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani was jailed last year for the crime of “inciting unrest” in 2009.)

Both Khamenei and Rafsanjani are founding members of the Islamic Republic; they both fought in the Islamic Revolution; they’re in the same generation, but they’re bitter political enemies because Rafsanjani wants to implement political reforms that Khamenei dogmatically opposes. The February 26 elections provide the backdrop for a dramatic new battle in their relationship.

Russians are killing civilians in Aleppo The 300,000 residents of the city of Aleppo, formerly the commercial hub of Syria, are being used as pawns in a deadly game that inevitably will lead to mass starvation. Syrian regime troops are encircling Aleppo with the aid of massive Russian airstrikes on civilian neighborhoods. Tens of thousands of Aleppo residents are fleeing the city, heading north, hoping to enter Turkey and from there to travel on to Europe.

However, Turkey has already taken in 2.5 million Syrians since the war began and is now blocking the border, forcing tens of thousands of refugees to mass on the border. It’s believed to be Russia’s strategy to kill as many civilians in Aleppo as possible, so that the rest will flee to Turkey leaving the city abandoned for the regime to take over. Russia would also gain the advantage of tens of thousands more refugees pouring into Europe. Turkey apparently plans to try to thwart this strategy by keeping the border closed. Some reports indicate that Turkey is providing food and medicine to the Syrians in Syria, effectively making the northern region of Syria a refugee camp. Many residents of Aleppo are remaining for now because they know that the border is closed, and they will be prevented from entering Turkey.

Issue - 653 (5)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Bengaluru Police bust international child trafficking racket, 16 arrested

Understanding is so important. Instinctively, we sense this. We feel insecure when we face something that we don’t understand. We often create explanations and justifications. They may be almost entirely fiction or fantasy, but if they comfort us, we cling to them. I mention this because the sky appears to be putting you under a little pressure. Events and circumstances are inviting you to question an old understanding of a sensitive situation. As you start to see it differently, so life will improve dramatically. !!!

We never really know what’s happening in someone else’s heart. Even if we share our deepest feelings, reveal our most private secrets and pursue a policy of full disclosure, there will be aspects of others that remain a mystery to us. We, too, will be similarly difficult to understand, no matter how hard they try. That’s as it should be. Where would life’s magic be if everything were obvious? You are currently struggling to make sense of someone.

Why are they being as they are? Soon, you will gain an inspiring insight. !!!

To get what we want in life, we must first know what we want. Often, we find out only after we have had an experience of what we don’t want! Really, if we are logical, we should be grateful for every negative event. It may be no fun, but it is teaching us something about what to aspire to (and guard against) in future. Now, don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that you are going to encounter tough time ahead. I’m saying, you have lately had enough tough time. Now things are changing for the better!

As they do, think more kindly of the past. !!!

Nobody ever does exactly what somebody else wants. There is always a compromise or trade-off.

We must put up with this if we want to get that.

That must be forgiven if this is to work. There is nothing wrong here. It’s just the way we all survive in a less-than-perfect world. Lately, you have had to adjust to a development in your personal life that has hardly matched your highest hopes. The reward for handling that as gracefully as you have managed is a significant upturn in your emotional outlook. !!!

It is never wise to wish that someone could change.

Even if they can, they can only change if they want to. Change has to come from within them. It can’t just be a response to your hope, wish, need or dream.

But if you have no power to change another, you can at least change yourself. You can make up your mind to alter a habit, break a cycle, move on from an old way of being, feeling or responding. As you’ll soon see, you can retrain yourself, and this can have a very positive impact on your personal life. !!!

We all dream of instant success and immediate gratification. We know this is rare. We appreciate the importance of working hard and being patient.

Even so, we pine for a life where we need merely snap our fingers or wave some magic wand to find our every wish has been fulfilled and our every need has been met. If it begins to look as if you have somehow been transported to such a place, enjoy living the dream. But remember, actually, you have already worked long and hard for this.

The Bengaluru Police have busted a major child trafficking racket in which 25 children (boys and girls under the age of 10) were sent to the US under false identities in the last one year. The kids were either handed over to their parents who are living in the US as illegal migrants or to childtrafficking gangs.

Cops have arrested 16 people, including, three women on Monday in connection with the racket, which spreads across Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The police managed to nab Uday Rudra Pratap Singh (44), the kingpin of the racket, from his home in Bengaluru. Gang members would pose as couples and travel to the US with a child pretending to be the parents. Once they reached the US, the child would be handed over to local contacts and the ‘couple’ would return to India. The whereabouts of the 25-30 kids, who were abducted or taken with the consent of their grandparents from Gujarat, Bihar, UP and Karnataka, are not known so far. In addition to Uday Prathap Singh, the police have arrested Michael (37), Rajesh (43), Simon (36), Kushalappa (34),

Gunashekar (42), Dominic Arul Kumar (46), Pravin (43), Joison (37), Manjunath (38), Francis, Christopher Anand, Sangeetha Prakash, Sudhir Kumar Kestur, Latha Vema Reddy,

Additional Commissioner of Police (Bengaluru-East) P Harishekaran, who headed the SIT, said.

The kingpin of the racket would identify potential ‘transporters’, men and

Bhanu Prakash and Veena Prakash, all of whom are Bengaluru residents. A few travel agents are also in the dock for supporting the racket. “About a year ago, we received information about a child trafficking ring functioning from Bengaluru and we formed a special investigation team (SIT). We collected information from the passport office, foreigner regional registration offices, travel agents and police from different states and uncovered the racket. We are interrogating the 16 members we have arrested.

Hopefully, we should be able to track down the kids,”

women, who were teamed up to behave like couples.

Then, abducted kids or kids handed over by the grandparents (whose children had entered the US illegally) would be assigned to each couple, and trained to behave like a family in Bengaluru.

The gang then prepared fresh identities for the family, including ration cards, Aadhar cards, birth certificates, voter IDs, house rent agreements etc on the basis of which the family would secure a passport in Bengaluru.

A team in Chennai would then assist the gang in procuring Non-Immigration

B1/B2 visa (business and pleasure).

“On obtaining the visa, the family (group of 4-5) would travel to the US from Chennai. The ‘parents’ would return within a week after dropping the children off. In some cases, the couple returned to India within 48 hours. But in all the cases, the children never returned. We verified the antecedents of these transporters, and none of them reside at the addresses mentioned in the passport or their documents. We are tracing transporters from all the three states,” added Harishekaran. Many of the transporters were from middle-class families from north India. Each couple was paid Rs 3 lakhs to accompany the child. In a few cases, persons impersonating either the mother or the father had not returned to India.

The police said they are investigating how the kids were convinced to travel to the US with strangers. “The gang said a few families living in the US illegally wanted to be reunited with their kids. More than 12 kids were reunited with their parents using false identities,” an officer from the SIT said.

Ancient, modern technologies to make buildings quake-proof TOKYO Shocking images of a Taiwan apartment complex felled like a tree by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake have highlighted what is needed to build a structure that can withstand seismic shocks. Like Taiwan, Japan is quake-prone it suffers about a fifth of the world’s most powerful tremors. It has used a mix of ancient and modern technologies to make its buildings increasingly quakeproof.

Lessons have been consistently learnt and building standards subsequently raised in the wake of deadly disasters such as the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which killed 6,434 people.

Special mechanisms for protecting skyscrapers: Tall buildings can be constructed to absorb shocks from an earthquake. The idea is for

the building to control the tremor rather than the other way around. Oil dampers oil-filled cylinders that work like giant shock absorbers

the March 2011 quake, not a single glass was broken in a 50th-floor restaurant.

Fresh ideas: The latest idea is to “isolate”

- are a key technology employed in Tokyo skyscrapers. When a powerful quake hits, such buildings are designed to sway like a pendulum so that the movement effectively absorbs the shockwaves. The high-rise Mori Tower in Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills development uses the technology. During

tremors, which means separating the building from the earth by measures including embedding absorbent rubber in its foundation.

“This mechanism is often applied to mid- and low-rise buildings lacking structural flexibility, such as condominiums, rather than high-rise structures,” said

Kenji Sawada, executive director of the Japan Society of Seismic Isolation. By using “seismic isolation” technologies, the scale of tremors felt in the topping structure could be greatly reduced, experts say.

Ancient knowledge: Japan has been dealing with earthquakes for centuries and technological principles from ages past are still valid - with one used in the construction of the Tokyo Skytree.

Parts of the 7th century Horyuji Buddhist temple complex in the ancient capital of Nara, including its five-storey pagoda, are the oldest wooden structures in the world.

The pagoda’s central pillar is only attached to the top storey, remaining separated from the four lower ones.

This ensures the structure will be flexible when shaken by an earthquake.

Issue - 653 (6)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Delhi Darbar

by Astha Saxena Delhi Police’s battle against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government reached the next level at the Mail Today Build India Conclave at the Taj Mansingh hotel on Monday.

Even while alleging that a law and order crisis prevailed in the Capital, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said the current structure of policing is best suited for the city. “If I was under the Delhi government, I would have been sacked by now. But how many Bhim Sain Bassis will Kejriwal sack?” he questioned and added that his job was to act on a certain merit. “If that hurts someone, what can I do?” he questioned.

Reacting to the constant tiffs between the police and the government, Bassi said like the police have been refraining from interfering with political affairs, the Delhi government cannot take control of the police. “We have to co-exist. Kejriwal will have to give me space and I will have to do the same,” the commissioner added.

Kejriwal and Bassi have been at loggerheads with the chief minister claiming that the city was not safe in the commissioner’s hands and the latter saying that he was ‘competent enough’ to ensure the safety of the citizens.

Relations between the government and the cops reached a new low after the latter raided AAP MLA and former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti’s house following a domestic violence complaint by his wife.

Around 50 officers and eight police teams were a part of the manhunt, which was launched to trace

%

KEJRIWAL NEEDS TO GIVE ME SPACE AND SO DO I )

Bharti.

“It all started when Somnath Bharti wanted our officers to enter someone’s house and raid it. We cannot perform any activity like this before doing ground-work. Bharti did not like our reply and neither did Kejriwal,” Bassi said. “The chief minister later then sat on dharna for three days,” he

added. Speaking about safety of women in the national Capital and the city being touted as the ‘rape capital’, the Delhi top cop said, “Delhi is safe. The quality of policing is better in the city now.”

“We may not be shedding crocodile tears but we are equally concerned about safety of women.

Every morning I pray to god that there should be no crime against women,” he said.

In 2012, as many as 54,000 cases of crime against women were reported and the

number rose to 1,91,000 in 2015. The Delhi Police chief claimed to have solved 85 per cent of murder cases and 50 per cent of rob-beries which took place in 2014. The number of rape cases reported from the Capital in 2013 was 1,636 while

said. “Before the Nirbhaya case, women were hesitant to come to the police station. But now, the trend has changed. Societal thinking has changed,” he said.

Expressing his view on Pakistan-sponsored terror

2,199 cases were reported in 2015. Rubbishing the allegations of Delhi being called the rape capital, Bassi highlighted how the police functioning has changed and improved for the people.

“Now every police station has a woman officer. There are help desks in every station.

In fact, we have posted young girls in PCR vans,” he

in Delhi, the top cop said the proxy war has been one of the main policies of the ISI and the Pakistani Army. “They have the intention to destabilise India. But we have the capacity to deal with it. The ISIS is like an open university offering teaching to students,” Bassi said.

Issue - 653 (7)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Man attends college with fake ID Finances in mess, Badal govt spends in Silchar, sparks terror suspicion Rs 6 cr a year on non-elected leaders

New Delhi A man who claimed he was from Bangladesh has been arrested in southern Assam’s Silchar town after attending classes in a medical college with a fake identity card.Silchar, the headquarters of Cachar district, is 343 kilometres southwest of Guwahati.Sumon Aziz Laskar, 22, attended the fourth semester class in Silchar Medical College (SMC) for four days before the college authorities discovered he was an imposter.

“The man claimed he had obtained a transfer certificate from (central Assam’s) Tezpur Medical College but

there’s no provision of inter-college transfers. We saw through his lies when he used different names to get introduced to some students,” SMC principal Shilpi Barman said.

The SMC authorities informed the police who arrested him on Saturday.

His erratic “confessions” have now sent the police on a wild goose chase.“We are searching for three of his accomplices who he claimed had come from Bangladesh. Laskar initially said he was a Bangladeshi but we found out he is an Indian from a nearby village,” Rajveer Singh, Cachar district superintendent of police, said on Sunday.

Leopard rampages through school in India, mauling six

Bangalore This is the dramatic moment a wildlife expert

was forced to fight for his life and used a pair of binoculars to defend himself

after a large male leopard went on a rampage in a school in India.

Wildlife expert Sanjay Gubbi was one of six people who was mauled by the leopard as he attempted to capture the rogue animal during its ten-hour rampage. The shocking incident took place in the Vibgyor International school in Kundalahalli in the Indian city of Bangalore, according to the News Minute.

Retired army officer’s son had no terror links, just some quirks New Delhi Counter terror officials said the son of a retired army officer who was arrested by the Goa police on February 1 on suspicions that he had radical jihadi

central agency said, requesting anonymity since he was not authorised to speak on the matter.His passport booklets have been found to be genuine, issued one

leanings does not have any terror links, sources told HT.“Sameer Sardana has around 85 email IDs, 17 SIM cards and five passports but no terror links,” an official with the

after another as additional booklets.“He is widely travelled man, a chartered accountant by profession.

He has a habit of not throwing anything, therefore he ended up

having five passport booklets and 17 SIM cards that he purchased while travelling to different locations in India and outside. As far as the 85 email IDs are concerned, Sameer has told interrogators that he created them for different work purposes,” the official added.The official added that Sameer has explained everything that he was pressed on. If he starts speaking on a topic, the officer said, “he continues for very long”.Officials suspect he is mentally unwell and exhibits signs of compulsive behaviour.

“He also looks bit selfradicalised who has downloaded a lot material and describes himself as ‘Hindu-Islamist’.

Chandigarh The cash-strapped Parkash Singh Badal government spends at least Rs 6 crore annually to pay for salaries and entitlements of a large number of leaders who have been given status equivalent to cabinet or minister of state.

This week, another Akali leader, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, was given the rank of minister of state, who joined a long list of more than 620 people who have been rehabilitated as chairpersons, vicechairpersons and members working in 32 boards, 26 corporations and 17 commissions.While such postings are common across states to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling that limits the size of a ministry to 15% of the House strength, the opposition in Punjab has pointed to the severe financial crisis to highlight the issue.Under the law, Punjab can have a maximum of 18 ministers, including CM, in the 117member assembly.

With its coffers virtually, the state government has even faced difficulty in paying salaries to its employees and has even mortgaged state-owned real estate to

raise loans from financial institutions.“Almost all chairpersons of various boards and corporations have been given the status of minister of state and are a big burden on the state coffers,” a senior cabinet minister, urging anonymity, told Hindustan Times.

Senior government functionaries admit that the actual number of people given this rank is “very big”.

Sources say more than a dozen people have been given cabinet rank during the current term of the AkaliBJP government which will face the voters next year.Former chief minister and sitting Congress MLA Rajinder Kaur Bhattal termed the government’s largesse as “criminal waste of public money”.“The state government barely manages to pay salary of employees. This is against the spirit of the law. But

that’s what ruling Akali Dal has been doing and brazenly misusing the authority,” she said.

The government, however, defended the incentives to people who have lost elections.“This is not something new or out of the way that we have done.

Previous Congress government had also accorded similar status to a battery of people. There is a precedent…and similar practice prevails in other state also. Neither it is wrong nor new,” said Parminder Singh Dhindsa, the finance minister.

Maheshinder Singh Grewal, advisor to the chief minister and a senior Akali Dal leader, too saw nothing wrong in the decisions.

“In politics winning or losing election is an entirely different thing. And it is not against the norms,” Grewal added.

Issue - 653 (8)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

No longer the brand ambassador: Snapdeal ends contract with Aamir

New Delhi Online retail major Snapdeal has decided to not renew Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s contract as brand ambassador, triggering speculation that the development was linked to the actor’s controversial comments on rising intolerance in the country last year.Khan was the face of the ‘Dil Ki Deal’ print, television and digital campaigns run by the e-commerce firm but Snapdeal decided against extending the one-year endorsement deal that ends later this month, the Economic Times reported.“It was extendable by a year but the company decided against it,” a Snapdeal executive told ET. Khan was in the eye of a storm last November after revealing that his family contemplated moving abroad in the wake of a string of violent incidents, including the mob lynching of

a Muslim man on beef consumption rumours and the burning alive of two Dalit children.

His comments ignited howls of protests on social media and elsewhere, with top political leaders criticising him and irate consumers deleting the Snapdeal app from their phones, prompting the firm to stop using advertisements featuring the actor.

Users also downvoted the app on the Google app store, using the hashtag #Appwapsi – a reference to a wave of writers, artists and filmmakers returning top government awards to protest against rising intolerance in the country.This is the second major endorsement loss for Aamir Khan. The government decided last month to not renew Khan’s contract for the flagship Incredible India campaign to promote tourism in the country.

18-year old jailed for trying to take selfie with district magistrate

New Delhi An eighteen-year old was sent to judicial custody for fourteen days in Uttar Pradesh for trying to click a selfie with the district magistrate of Bulandshahr.

Farad Ahmad was charged for “getting too close” to the DM B Chandrakala . He was arrested on Monday and released on bail on Thursday.According to reports the boy, from Kamalpur village tried to take the selfie when the DM was speaking about some local issues. In fact, despite repeated warnings, Ahmad continued to get that “perfect picture” with the

DM.Chandrakala told ANI that the boy was continuously clicking pictures, even after being told that he should take permission before taking the snaps.“The boy was continuously clicking pictures. And he was told that this should not happen without permission. It’s your camera but whatever object you are trying to capture, do you have their consent? This is shocking,” the DM said.In 2014, Chandrakala, the 2008 batch UP cadre IAS officer became famous after she publicly pulled up civic officials and contractors for sub-standard road construction.

School principal attempts to rape minor, accused is a retired Air Force personnel Gurgaon A 72-year-old principal and director of a Gurgaon-based private school, Aarsa Public School, in Ashok Vihar, was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly attempting to rape a 9-year-old minor girl on Saturday.

The shocking incident came to light after the victim refused to go school on Saturday.

When her mother asked her the reason behind her refusal, the minor narrated her ordeal.

As per the complaint registered in the sector 5 police station by the victim’s mother, the accused had called the Class 2 student to his office after the lunch hours to commit the crime.“My daughter was scared after this incident. She does not want to go school. The principal called her inside his office while he was alone and committed the crime. The accused left her in his office after committing the crime over fear of being getting caught redhanded as my daughter cried after the incident,” the victim’s mother said.“We have arrested the accused, Ram Gopal, a

retired Air Force personnel, and we are investigating the matter,” said Hawa Singh, the PRO of Gurgaon police. Meanwhile, a 44-year-old tantrik (occultist), who allegedly raped a woman and duped her of Rs 35,000 on

approached the tantrik. The tantrik allegedly took advantage of her vulnerability and persuaded her into conducting a ceremony which he claimed required the burning of an intoxicating substance.

the pretext of solving all the problems has been arrested, police said on Saturday. The accused has been identified as Sanjay Kumar, a resident of southeast Delhi’s Ambedkar Nagar area. He is married and has four children, DCP (Central) Parmaditya said.

According to the police, the complainant in the case is a resident of central Delhi who did not have a good relation with her husband apart from some other problems in life, for which she

During the ceremony, the woman fainted and when she regained her consciousness, she realised that she had been raped. The tantrik had also charged her Rs 35,000 for the ceremony, claiming that it was the solution to all her problems in life. Based on a tip off, police laid a trap in Ambedkar Nagar and Sanjay Kumar was arrested on Friday. Kumar told the police that he targeted depressed persons who came to him for solutions.

Long road home for NRIs facing 498A, advised not to enter India to prevent arrest New Delhi Kamaljeet Singh and his wife have not met their son in seven years. Charged with the nonbailable 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), their son has been legally advised to not return to India from Canada, where he now resides, to avoid arrest.

The septuagenarian couple are running from pillar to post to get justice for themselves and their son, in what they claim is a false case.Without the physical and emotional support of their son, the couple said that they have become too weak to fight the battle alone and want the legal proceedings to come to an end.

“My wife is a cancer patient and also has heart problems. We are growing old and are incapable of handling the proceedings alone.

At a time when we need our son the most, he is not with us because of the law. There is no legal remedy for us,” he said.

According to men’s rights’ activists, NRIs who have been implicated under 498A (Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act) are legally advised to not enter India to prevent arrests.

They also prefer to not fight the case to avoid frequent traveling, possibility of losing jobs and humiliation at large. While this advice may auger well with actual criminals, it makes lives of those who have been falsely implicated, more difficult. Legal experts say

that avoiding legal proceedings for long can complicate matters further.Anindya Chatterjee, an NRI based in the USA, was recently acquitted from a false case of 498A slapped on him. He runs a group called Justice2NRI

issues from the very beginning.

Within a few months of marriage she went back to India to pursue her career. After a while she started forcing me to quit my job and return to her. I told her that quitting my job would negate all

that has nearly 100 families from UK, Australia, Canada, Mexico who have all been implicated under 498A.Chatterjee was slapped with 498 A, a look out circular (LOC) was issued against him and he was also declared an absconder.

LOCs are issued to airports and various points of entry at international borders to arrest people who have been proclaimed offenders, upon an attempt to enter or to leave India.

Chatterjee chose to stay away from the legal battle for a while, but soon he realised that if he was to free himself of the false allegations, he would have to come back and fight.

“My wife and I had compatibility

the hard work I had put into my career. Eventually, I was slapped with 498A. I got to know about these charges when I came to India for work and my parents informed me about it.”

However, Chatterjee was not arrested at the airport as the LOC came into effect three days after he landed. He confronted the police and was told that he could not leave the country without permission from court.

“I lost my job in all this trouble.

The police never completely probed and accepted the charges based on my wife’s complaint. Later on, I fought the case and was eventually acquitted. I went back abroad and got a new job,” he said.

Issue - 653 (9)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

India has close to 9 lakh female sex workers

NEW DELHI India has at least 8.6 lakh female sex workers and Andhra Pradesh has the maximum 1.56 lakh practicing the trade while Delhi has nearly 61,000 of them. Karnataka and Maharashtra have third and fourth highest number of female sex workers.

In response to a RTI application filed by Delhi resident Ved Pal, the health and family ministry has said

that the estimate of female sex workers is based on a mapping study undertaken in 2009.

About 19% of the sex workers were unregistered.

“Total number of registered sex workers is 6.96 lakh as per information from state AIDS control societies. This number is based on the line listing of targeted interventions in the states and it may change as per the new registrations,” the ministry said in its reply.

Indians taken hostage by Islamic State in Iraq are alive says Sushma Swaraj The 39 Indians taken hostage by ISIS more than one-and-a-halfyears ago from Mosul in Iraq are alive, external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told their families on Sunday, based on her recent meetings with Arab and Palestinian leaders who indicated the same. Swaraj, who had sought a meeting with the families, also assured them that the government was “fully and continuously engaged” and “every possible effort” was being made to ensure their release. According to official sources, the minister told them that during a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader informed her that the “Indians are alive and made to work” in war-torn Iraq as per his government’s intelligence information.

From darkness to arc lights: Sex workers dream of silver screen NEW DELHI Rita was just 16 when she was trafficked to Kolkata’s Sonagachi area and forced into sex work.

For the past decade, she has dabbed gaudy cosmetics on her every evening, waiting for clients in the narrow bylanes that make up Asia’s largest red-light district.

But these days, she is putting on make-up for a very different dream to become a TV serial actor visiting a music teacher and taking language lessons to face the camera.

Reshmi’s story is similar. The 22year-old was forced out of school when she was in class VI because her mother was a sex worker in Basirhat, on the outskirts of the city. But she has spent every evening the past week taking spoken English and dance lessons at an NGO’s office in Sonagachi.

They aren’t alone. Hundreds of sex workers and their children are now trying to make the onceimprobable journey from darkness to the arc lights, thanks to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet project.

The scheme called Muktir Alo (Light of Freedom) aims to train sex workers and their children in acting, offering them a chance to share space with known artists on television serials and the silver screen.

The project is a part of rehabilitation package for those sex workers who are willing to leave the profession.

“The chief minister has given us the nod to go ahead with the project. We have got positive response from producers and directors of teleserials. The state

government will train sex workers and their children in acting and thereafter give them a chance to

training will be of three months.

“Didi said we have to learn English and Bengali properly.

work in showcase their talent in the small and big screens,” social welfare minister Sashi Panja told HT. “Apart from Muktir Alo, where adults have been trained in acting, we have another project Sabolombon Plus (Independent Plus) where even children can participate in television serials.

We have identified some sex workers and their children who will be part of the initiative. We are finalising the training dates and schedule,” added Panja.

During the training, project aspirants will be given a monthly stipend of Rs 2,500, apart from a daily allowance of Rs 200. The

The script contains words of both languages. We also need to speak English, so that we don’t fall behind normal girls who are opting for a profession in acting.

This is a great opportunity for me and I just cannot wait,” Reshmi told HT. Even Basanti, a 45-yearold sex worker from Bowbazar, wants to try her luck.

“I have been a resident of the red light area of Bowbazar since I was five. My sister, too, was a sex worker. There must be a role of a mother or mother-in-law for me?” Basanti asked.The project has generated tremendous enthusiasm among sex workers throughout the state.

PM pulls Akshay Kumar’s son Aarav’s ear in jest, photo goes viral

Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim wants Indians to go organic for health Chandigarh For his followers, Gurmeet Ram Rahim is a spiritual leader who evokes the veneration of a saint.

On January 24, Rahim showed that he also has an entrepreneurial side to him. The Haryana-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief launched a slew of organic products under the name MSG (Messenger of God).

The idea came after a visit to Jodhpur in Rajasthan, where he saw people exporting organic products to Germany and Japan.

“All organic products were

exported to foreign countries.

Guruji wanted Indians to experience the same stuff,” said Ajay Insan, spokesperson, MSG

All Trading Company.

It also helped that Dera Sacha Sauda fields were already producing organic grains. In fact, Ram Rahim - the brain behind the organic food chain - had been promoting farming by conducting farmer training camps. Earlier, the products produced in Dera fields were used only to serve organic food for the Dera followers. It has now hired an

agency to design and brand its products.

“We have not launched any specific marketing campaign,” says Insan. “There is hardly any need to market the products which are already in short supply. We are not able to fulfil the demand,” says Insan.

The size of demand for organic food items can be gauged from the fact that the entire stock at a Sirsa store was sold within two hours of the launch of the chain on January 24.“We have already opened a number of stores and more will be opened soon,” says Insan, adding that people are showing great interest in running the stores.A total of 150 products have already been launched under the MSG brand and plans are afoot to introduce another 250 in the near future.

The brand has three product categories, namely Organic, Premium and Standard. The products are classified on the basis of the grading of grains and fruits. “We do not use any pesticides or chemicals to grow them,” says Insan.

New Delhi A photograph posted by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen pulling his son Aarav’s ear in jest, went viral on Saturday.

Modi also laughed heartily and called Aarav a good boy. The PM was at the International Fleet Review 2016 (IFR 2016) which took off the Visakhapatnam coast on February 6.

Good dad Akshay, who is basking in appreciation of his recently released Airlift, immediately took to microblogging site Twitter to share the most joyful moment. In his tweet, the actor wrote, “Proud moment in a father’s life, when the Prime Minister pulls your

son’s ear in jest and calls him a good boy.” Wife Twinkle retweeted the picture and wrote, “When a picture is truly worth a thousand words.”

Aarav is a brown belt and has won gold medal in judo in national championship.He has completed his primary education from Ecole Mondiale World School, Juhu.

Akshay loves his son Aarav so much that he has inscribed a tattoo of his name on his back with blue ink. He always keep his son away from media and bollywood.

Acccording to reports, Aarav was noted as being the youngest person to have sponsored a village under the Light a Billion Lives campaign joined by his grandmother Dimple Kapadia.

Issue - 653 (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 *** 656*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, B.Sc. Nursing degree holder, registered nurse at present living in India The boy should be Canadian/ American Immigrant or Citizen.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to: sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call : 647-829-5872 (Leave Message) ***653*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5’ tall, B.Sc. Nursing, Registered Nurse (RN) working in India, beautiful and family oriented. The boy should be Canadian/American Immigrant or Citizen. Please email recent picture and bio data to: sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call: 647-829-5872 (Leave Message) ***653*** Down-to-earth, handsome, intelligent, family-oriented Jat Sikh boy living in US since 1998, Belongs to well-educated, humble family, 29 yrs. old, June 1986 born, 5'-10" tall, US Citizen, slim and athletic built, graduated from UCLA and working as a Mortgage Loan Officer. The girl should be educated and residing in US/Canada/UK. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: nirmalranu@yahoo.com or call: 1-559-540-4851 *** 653*** Match for Goldsmith girl, 27 yrs. old, 5'-7" tall, MBA, CMA, working as a manager financial analyst in a good company. Father is well settled business man. whole family Canadian Citizen. The boy should be well educated, well settled, Canadian Citizen, belongs to reputed family. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: sunny_kanda94@hotmail.com or Call: 647-832-8208 *** 653*** Jat Sikh Alwal family seeking matrimonial alliance for their 1984 born son, 6’-3” tall, clean shaven, Canadian immigrant, M.Com degree holder. The girl should be family oriented and educated.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to: ratwal07@gmail.com Or Call : 1-403-615-4958 ***653*** Jat Sikh family seeking USA/ Canada based match for their beautiful daughter, 27 yrs. old, 5’4” tall, well settled, born and raised in USA, Master of Science in Nursing-Nurse Practitioner/ Bachelor of Science in Nursing, well cultured in both English and

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Punjabi with tradional values (Non drinker, non smoker). The boy should be Jat Sikh and equally qualified. Please send you bio-data and recent pictures to : dhaliwal.sr85@gmail.com Or Call : 1-734-673-8388 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son, 34 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, born & raised in Canada, well settled in Job. The Girl should be beautiful, family oriented, born & raised in Canada.

Call : 1-604-671-0002 ***653*** Toronto based Jat Sikh Grewal educated family seeks professional match with Masters/ Bachelor degree (Engineer, Doctor, CGA or Lawyer) from Canada or USA for their Indian born, Canadian citizen, convent educated, Canadian university degree holder, fair complexioned daughter, born in 1977, 5'-3.5" tall, Well versed in both cultures, permanently employed with Federal Govt as a Senior Officer.

Brief marriage got annulled.

Divorcees with children please excuse. Serious inquiries only.

Respond with complete qualifications, profession, family details with recent pictures to: matrimonial13 @hotmail.com *** 653*** Required a professional Canadian match for Canada PR Arora girl, 27 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall,B.Pharmacy.

Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: aroramail2015@gmail.com or call: 011-91-94174-15590 or 01191-84270-80900 *** 653*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, born in India, raised in Canada, 29 yrs. old, 5’-8" tall, professionally employed, well versed in both cultures. The boy should be well educated, well settled, between 29-35 yrs. of age & from canada.

Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: matad5757@gmail.com or call: 1-778-895-7815. GVRD area preferred. *** 653*** Ramgarhia parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 29 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, University graduate, employed, ready to move on to next step towards marriage. For information Please Call : 289-684-3919 Or Email :julyshaadi@gmail.com ***653*** 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 : 647-721-2632 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, born

in 1986, 5’-7” tall, Master’s degree in Physiotherpy, well settled in job in Ontario, well versed in both cultures. The boy should be Canadian, well educated and professionally employed. G.T.A. preferred. Please email recent picture and bio-data to : sanjog60@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-204-881-7405 ***653*** Tonk Kashtriya prents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian Citizen daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5’3” tall, CGA, B.Com, working in govt. job. The boy should be well educated and professionally settled. Caste no bar. Toronto based family is prefered. Please send you bio-data. and recent poicture to :singhjag_@hotmail.com Or Call : 416-722-9771 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their well settled daughter, DOB 1981, 5’-6” tall, born and raised in Canada, well versed in both cultures, family oriented, chartered professionally accountant designation and professionally employed in senior management position. The boy should be well educated with family values.Boy on Student Visa/Workpermit (Well Educated) may also be considered.Please Call : 647298-9665 ***653*** Punjabi Saini family seeking a suitable match for their US Citizen, son, 1988 born, 5’-6” height, MBA graduate and working as Management Consultant. The girl should be educated and family oriented. The family is well setteld in the BAY AREA. Preference will be given to BAY AREA and Doaba region in Punjab. Please Contact : (408) 859-6555 or (408) 930-9299 ***653*** Well settled Jat Sikh Gill family seeks a suitable match for their daughter, 33 yrs.old, 5’-6” tall, College graduate with diploma in Business Administration and accounting. The boy should be 30-37 yrs. of age, well qualified and raised in Canada.

Please Call : 905-874-0721 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son, 31 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, Athletic built, Degree in Major Psychology, American Police Officer, Canadian/ American Citizen. The Girl should be beautiful, educated, family oriented & Jat Sikh. Preference will be given to Health Professional. Please send you bio-data. and recent picture to :kk532@drexel.edu Or Call : 647625-5946 Or : 905-488-7790 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents looking for a suitable match for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, 29 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Master’s degree in nursing, currently working in GTA. The boy should be well educated, professionally employed, prefered non-drinker, non-smoker, vegetarian. Malwa area prefered.Please email

recent picture and bio-data to: msbrar100@gmail.com Or Call : 416-970-7028 ***653*** Toronto based Ramgharia Gursikh parents seek M.D.match for their M.D. daughter, 31 yrs. old, 5'-3" tall, working in research in the USA, waiting residency. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: ajitsinghjhita@yahoo.ca or call: 416-274-4196 *** 653*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 31 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, born and raised in Canada, Chartered Accountant, vegetarian, nondrinker, non-smoker, clean shaven, working in GTA with family values, the girl should be from Jat Sikh family, raised in Canada, well educated, tall, beautiful and family oriented.

Malwa area prefered. Please recent picture and bio-data to :msbrar100@gmail.com Or Call : 416-970-7028 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents looking for a suitable match for their daughter, D.O.B. Dec. 1985, 5’-5”, tall, Canadian Citizen, beautiful family oriented, Diploma in buisness administration and accounting, licenced optician and working as optician. The boy should be Canadian Immigrant/ Citizen well educated, well employed from good family background. Please recent picture and bio-data to : bsingh2557@gmail.com Or Call : 416-879-2595 ***653*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, 1986 born, 5’-6” tall, Medical healthcare professional, well versied in both cultures. Boy should be Canadian, well educated and professionally employed. GTA preferred. Please send you bio-data and recent poicture to :jotg1738@gmail.com Or Call : 416-564-0617 ***653*** Parents looking for educated turbaned Khatri Sikh match for their highly educated Canadian Citizen daughter, 29 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, employed in one of the pretigeous hospital of Ontorio.

Please send you bio-data and recent poicture to : jpsphull@gmail.com Or Call : 905671-3411 Or 647-719-3411 ***653*** Canadian born Jat Sikh girl, 36 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, University graduate and professionally employed, Requires a compatible, professionally quallified match from Canada/U.S. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: rkaurcanada@gmail.com Or Call: 1-519-636-3237 ***653*** Canada PR Julaha Sikh Boy, MA English, 29 yrs. old, 5'-9" tall, looking for an educated and beautiful girl.Please contact only those who could get a match of Canada PR girl for his india living real brother, 33 yrs. old, 5'-11" tall, Double M.A., B.Ed . No cast

barriers. Marriage soon. Boy is already in India. Please Call: 011-91- 98725-94211 *** 653*** Well Respected Jat Sikh family of business owners and doctors, financially independent, living in the USA for the past 50 yrs. seeking future daughters-in-law for their two sons.

Elder 27 yrs., 6'-2" with MD/MBA from Harvard University, working in Health Care Consulting.

Younger brother 26 yrs., 6'-3", currently doing his residency with plans of taking over a large multispecialty practice in 2 yrs. Both US born and raised with down to earth values and well aware of Punjabi and English Cultures.

Interested in Jat Sikh prospects for the most part born and raised in the west only and no dowry.

Contact: balkar76@gmail.com. *** 653*** Jatt/Saini parents seek an eligible alliance for their intelligent, downto-earth and beautiful daughter, born Jan. 1984, 5'-4" tall, M.Sc. from University of Toronto and professionally employed. The boy must be clean-shaven, university graduate and professionally employed.

Serious enquiries only. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: rc.match.784@gmail.com or call: 905-792-0981 *** 653*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable alliance for their only son, divorced issue less, professionally employed as Net developer with a reputed financial group,32 yrs. old, handsome, clean shaven,6’-1" tall, non smoker, non drinker, living in GTA., well versed in both cultures.The girl should be tall, beautiful, educated and family oriented .GTA preferred.Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: angels5jabi@gmail.com *** 653*** Saini Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daughter, USA born and raised, 26 yrs. old, 5'- 3" tall, working as a business analyst and pursuing M.B.A (Graduation Summer 2016).

New York based family. The boy should be well educated & from USA only.Please send your biodata and recent pictures to: PTX3210@gmail.com *** 653*** Sikh Tonk Kashtria parents seeking a suitable match for their beautiful daughter, born and raised in Canada, 26 Yrs. old, 5’ – 4", well versed in both cultures, family orientated, graduated from University of Toronto, completed MBA with high distinction, Currently holding a well-respected job in the education field. The boy should be Canadian, welleducated and professionally employed. Caste no bar. GTA preferred. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: rajinder.kareer01@gmail.com or call: 647-407-3478 *** 653***

Issue - 653 (11)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

US drone strike kills top al Qaeda chief in south Yemen Aden A senior al Qaeda operative in Yemen with a $5 million US bounty on his head was killed Thursday in one of two

suspected American drone strikes in the wartorn country.Jalal Belaidi, alias Abu Hamza, a top commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was killed along with two guards when their vehicle was hit in the Maraqesha area of Abyan province, a relative said.A tribal source also confirmed the death of Belaidi following contact with AQAP militants in the area.The United States is the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen, home to AQAP, considered by Washington as the jihadist group’s most

dangerous affiliate.

The US State Department said Belaidi was a regional AQAP emir, responsible for multiple provinces in Yemen.It offered a $5-

million reward for information on Belaidi over his alleged involvement in plotting bomb attacks on Western diplomatic officials and facilities in the capital Sanaa in 2013.Born in Abyan, Belaidi served in the past as the leader of al Qaeda in Zinjibar, but he is said to have climbed the ranks of the jihadist group to became a top military commander. Another overnight drone strike killed six suspected members of AQAP in nearby Shabwa province, a security official said.The unmanned aircraft targeted a vehicle in Rodhoum area, killing its six passengers,

the official said.The US has kept up strikes on jihadists during months of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed Huthi rebels who control large parts of Yemen, including Sanaa.

Loyalists backed by a Saudi-led coalition have recaptured Aden, Lahj and three other southern provinces from Shiite rebels since July.

Jihadists gains Jihadists, including AQAP and the Islamic State group, have gained ground in the south, with al Qaeda fighters seizing the town of Azzan in Shabwa earlier this week.Azzan lies on the highway between Shabwa’s provincial capital Ataq and the city of Mukalla, the capital of the vast desert Hadramawt province overrun by jihadists in April.al Qaeda militants control Abyan’s provincial capital Zinjibar and the nearby town of Jaar. They move freely between Hadramawt, Shabwa and Abyan.

The US’s long-running drone campaign in Yemen dealt a blow to AQAP in June, when a strike killed the group’s leader Nasir alWuhayshi. He was replaced by AQAP military

Islamic State weaker than before, reveals latest US intelligence report Washington Islamic State has as many as 25,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, down from a previous estimate of up to 31,000, according to a US intelligence report revealed by the White House on Thursday.

US officials cited factors such as battlefield casualties and desertions to explain the roughly 20 percent decrease in fighters, and said the report showed a US-led campaign to crush Islamic State was making progress.

The new intelligence estimate “means they continue to be a substantial threat, but the potential numbers have declined,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.“ISIS has sustained significant casualties,” Earnest said.

Ground fighting efforts by coalition partners of the United States are having an effect in the conflict against Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, he said.US-backed Iraqi security forces and tribal militias and moderate opposition groups in Syria have contributed. So too has a US-led air campaign that has launched more

than 10,000 strikes against the Islamist extremists, Earnest said. Finally, international efforts are beginning to stem the flow of foreigners seeking to join the movement.

“ISIL is having more difficulty than they’ve had before in replenishing their ranks, and we have long been aware of the need of the international community to cooperate to stop the flow of foreign fighters to the region,” said Earnest.

The new intelligence report of 19,000-25,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria compares to 2014 estimates of 20,00031,000 fighters.

“The decrease reflects the combined effects of battlefield deaths, desertions, internal disciplinary actions, recruiting shortfalls, and difficulties that foreign

fighters face traveling to Syria,” said Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

Some North African jihadists who might otherwise have traveled to Syria to join Islamic State may instead have heeded calls by the movement’s leadership to head to Libya, where the Islamists are fighting to expand their grip on territory on the Mediterranean coast.

The intelligence report did not account for the Islamic State’s affiliates in South Asia, other parts of the Middle East and North Africa, where its Libyan branch is expanding.

There appear to be conflicting US estimates of the strength of the movement’s Libyan affiliate.

Defense officials put the number at some 3,000, while other US officials put it at 5,000-6,000.

Paris attacker said he entered France in a group of 90 extremists

Paris The woman who tipped police to the Islamic State commander of the November 13 attacks in Paris says he told her he entered the Paris region among a multinational group of 90 extremists still scattered in the area.

In an interview aired on Thursday by RMC television and confirmed by

her lawyer, the woman identified only as Sonia said Abdelhamid Abaaoud was proud of the attack that killed 130 people. Sonia was with Abaaoud’s female cousin when they picked him up from a deserted stretch of road outside Paris to take him to the hideout in Saint-Denis where he ultimately died.

commander Qassem alRimi.Islamists have been behind a surge in attacks on security installations and officials in Aden, which has been chosen as a temporary base for the government.On Wednesday, a suicide bomber attacked the convoy of Lahj police chief Colonel Adel alHalemi in northeastern

Aden. A guard and a 12year-old boy were killed in the car bomb while Halemi sustained light wounds, security officials said. More than 5,800 people have been killed since the coalition launched an air and ground war against the rebels in March, according to the United Nations.

Al Qaeda claims responsibility for attack on UN base in Mali Bamako Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for Friday’s deadly attack on a U.N. police base in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu, a statement monitored by the SITE Intelligence group showed on Saturday. Malian troops backed by U. N. helicopters recaptured the base in a former hotel hours after it was taken and a Malian commander and four attackers were killed. The precise number of attackers was unclear.

Militants have expanded their attacks in the region, killing 20 people in a raid on a hotel in Mali’s capital in November and 30 more in an attack in the capital of Burkina Faso last month.

“Three heroes from the knights of (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) were able to storm the Hotel Palmeraie, located in the centre of the city of Timbuktu, and which was taken as a headquarters by the forces of oppression falsely known as ‘peacekeepers’, the state-ment said.

Issue - 653 (12)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

30 sperm whales wash up, die on UK beaches

LONDON A sixth sperm whale has died on a British beach, the latest of nearly 30 to have become stranded in shallow waters on the coastline of Europe’s North Sea over the past month.As marine pathologists cut samples from the whale’s carcass on the windswept expanse of sand at low tide, scientists said it was too early to know exactly why so many whales had taken a wrong turn into the North Sea. Since mid-January, 29 sperm whales have died on beaches in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Britain. They are thought by experts to be members of the same pod, a group of young males migrating south from sub-polar waters.

“What we’ve got here is a bunch of teenagers out having a good time but taking a wrong turning into the North Sea,” said British Divers Marine Life Rescue operations manager Stephen March. “They should have gone a bit

further west and into the open Atlantic,” he told Reuters.Mass strandings of sperm whales are not uncommon in the region historically, with sightings dating back to the 16th century. In the 1760s, six of the 15 metre-long, 35ton whales swam into the river Thames before dying.

From the 19th century onwards, however, as whale hunting intensified, there were fewer such incidents.Experts said the latest beachings could be a sign of a recovery in the sperm whale population following protection measures passed in the 1980s.

The species is currently listed as “vulnerable” by nature authorities. “It is quite possible that we will see more sperm whale strandings in the North Sea in future and we will have more mass strandings if the population is recovering,” said Paul Jepson, a reader at the Institute of Zoology in London.

At Hunstanton, in eastern

England, crowds gathered to see the doomed sperm whale - the same species that inspired Herman Melville’s classic 19th century novel “Moby Dick” - while rescue workers waded in the shallows, powerless to help.

The mammals’ size makes refloating them difficult, and they suffer rapid organ failure, often dying within 24 hours.

The latest cause of death will not be determined from tissue samples for some months, and even then, the reason why the whales ended up in the North Sea may never be known, the experts said. “They just can’t get out again because it is completely the wrong habitat for them: it is far too shallow and there’s not a lot of deepsea squid for them to feed on,” Jepson said. Once the pathologists have finished with the sixth whale, which died on Thursday night, a lowloader lorry will move in to carry the carcass to a landfill site.

Obamas complain about internet problems at White House Washington In their first live interview together President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama had one major complaint about their tenure in the White House - the WiFi is terrible. While speaking to CBS’s Gayle King on Sunday, the Obamas also discussed their Super Bowl plans and life post-presidency.

King asked the couple if they had any advice for the incoming first family, asking if ‘the water pressure good? Is there WiFi? Does the toilet run in the Lincoln bedroom?’ ‘You know that whole tech thing, we’ve been trying to get that straight for the next group of folks,’ Obama answered. ‘This is an old building so there’s a lot of dead spots where the WiFi doesn’t work.’

Michelle jumped in to say that their teenage daughters are ‘just irritated’ by the WiFi issues at their home.

King and the Obamas discussed their Super Bowl plans, where Obama said they’ve hosted a party at the White House with a group of friends for the last ‘four or five years’. Michelle said she had cooked for hours preparing for the big day, but said that they ‘let Let’s Move off the table’ for a day and eat ‘regular Super Bowl food’.

‘We have wings, pizza, nachos,’ Obama said, with Michelle adding that there would be at least two sal-

ads on the food table. And they said their big football party is just like everyone else’s around the country, and that guests ‘rate the commercials’. Michelle said there are three types of game day guests at the house on Sunday. ‘We have the serious watchers,’

she discussed dance moves with Beyonce, who was performing with Coldplay and Bruno Mars at halftime.

Later in the interview, King pulled out a touching photo of the Obamas at their first inauguration in January 2009 and asked what they

she said. ‘Then there’s the outside room where all the kids are fooling around, and then there’s the champagne room. That’s where my mother sits, and you don’t actually know what’s going on (in the game) but you’re close to the champagne.’

Michelle added that she cares ‘deeply about the the halftime show. deeply’. ‘I got dressed for the halftime show,’ she said, joking that

were both thinking at the time of the photo. The photo depicts the couple standing in an elevator embracing.

‘At the first inauguration we had something like 10 balls we went to and Michelle was in heels the whole time, so I think she was thinking, “My feet really hurt,”‘ Barack joked. ‘I’m sure I was thinking, “I’m so proud of you,”‘ Michelle said.

High winds buffet Europe’s northwestern flank

Dazzling Rio carnival climax gives Brazilians reason to smile RIO DE JANEIRO Dancers strutted into the final round of the Rio Carnival’s samba championship Monday, capping a wild party that has helped Brazilians forget about Zika and other worries. The six last samba schools were preening their spectacular feather headdresses and adjusting the shining Gstrings and other tiny garments favored by lead dancers ahead of the all-night parades.

Another six rival ensembles had their turn through the night on Sunday at the climax of a Carnival season estimated to attract five million people. A champion samba school will be announced Wednesday, closing an event that calls itself “the greatest show on Earth.” Some 70,000 fans cheered, sang and shook their hips overnight Sunday to Monday in the stands of Rio’s purpose-built dancing stadium, the

Sambadrome, as competing samba schools passed in a blur of feathers, glitter and flesh.

Extraordinary floats rolled down the runway, including a giant rat representing the

helped the crowds put aside fears over the Zika virus, the economy and attempts to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.

“Despite the problems in our country, our people

10.7 percent inflation hurting ordinary Brazilians in a sickly economy. Another float in the shape of a golden football had Barcelona FC and Brazil striker Neymar’s father standing on top.

The outpouring of color, pounding drums, joyful song, and samba dancing

can’t lose their love of partying. And whatever happens in our country, it’s still the country of samba,” said Luanny Victoria, 19, before heading off to dance in a skimpy golden outfit with vast green feather wings. “People have to put those problems aside, at least for the three days of

Carnival.”

Fear of catching the Zika virus from mosquitoes has become a national obsession in Brazil after a rash of babies born to infected mothers were found to have severe brain and skull defects.

Scientists have raised the alarm level with suggestions that saliva and blood could possibly transmit the virus. US health authorities say they have confirmed a case of Zika transmission in Texas through sexual contact. But at the Rio Carnival, partygoers were determined not to let Zika spoil the fun. Many said they were using insect repellent - a seemingly sensible step with so much skin exposed at the open air event. However, there were limits to how much they were prepared to stress. “I use repellant, but the truth is that Brazilians couldn’t give a hoot about Zika.

PARIS Heavy winds buffeted Europe’s northwestern flank on Monday, forcing road closures and disrupting rail and ferry services in southern England and prompting high wave alerts in France’s Brittany region.

In Germany, meanwhile, winter storms forced carnival organisers to cancel “Rose Monday” parades in the western cities of Duesseldorf and Mainz while scaling back festivities in Cologne, the traditional home of the annual fancy dress celebrations.

Gales and heavy rain with wind speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour (155 kilometres per hour) battered southern England and Wales, with flood warnings issued in more than 50 areas.

The Environment Agency told residents that “immediate action” was required as forecasters predicted up to 40 millimetres (1.6 inches) of rain in some areas during Monday.

“We are looking to see gusts of 60-70 mph quite widely, hitting the southwest, Devon and Cornwall and moving across southern central parts towards London through the day.

It is going to be picking up towards 70 miles per hour around lunchtime in London,” said Emma Sillitoe, a weather forecaster. “We have seen 96 mph at the Needles off the Isle of Wight and gusts to 80mph are likely, especially along northern coasts of Devon and Cornwall and along the Bristol Channel as well,” she said.

Issue - 653 (13)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Parents of ‘Jihadi Jack’ Letts claim he has mental health condition and is not fighting for a terrorist group in Syria

2 puppeteers held for ‘glorifying terrorism’ in Madrid show MADRID Two puppeteers were detained in Madrid on Saturday after staging a children’s show during which they allegedly praised terrorism, judicial sources told AFP. The controversy centres around a performance on Friday, when the artists displayed a sign that read ‘Gora Alka-ETA’, a play on words that combines the ‘Gora ETA (Long Live ETA)’ chant of the banned Basque separatist group with the made-up word alka, to create a slogan that sounds like ‘Long Live Al-Qaeda’.

Judicial sources said other scenes from the puppet show also shocked the audience, including one featuring the hanging of a judge and another showing the rape of a nun. The puppeteers were on Saturday charged with ‘glorifying terrorism’ by a judge from the National Audience, which handles terror-related cases, a judicial source told AFP. Madrid’s new leftist mayor

Manuela Carmena in a statement called the puppeteers’ actions ‘offensive, completely misplaced’ and announced that the play - part of Madrid’s carnival celebrations - had been suspended.

A support group for the victims of terrorism (AVT) on Twitter said it intended to file a complaint over the show and called for Madrid’s culture councillor Celia Mayer to be sacked. The ETA group has claimed responsibility for the deaths of over 800 people over 40 years, but renounced violence in its struggle for independence four years ago.

The puppet company behind Friday’s performance, known as ‘Titeres desde abajo’ (Puppets from below), advertises itself as specialising in ‘popular theatre’ and children’s entertainment. The troupe, based in the southern city of Granada, has in the past performed at events organised by anarchist groups, according to its website.

London The parents of Jack Letts, the young British man dubbed “Jihadi Jack” after travelling to Syria, have said he is mentally ill.The 20-year-old has denied fighting for Isis but told The Independent he supports Sharia law and left the UK to “take down the Syrian government” and leave dar al kufr - the “land of disbelievers”.

His mother and father, from Oxford, have continually denied he is an extremist and insist he is carrying out humanitarian work.In an interview with Channel 4 News, they revealed Jack suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and said they fear he “won’t get out alive”.

Fighting back tears, his mother Sally Lane said: “I’d like him to come home.”

John Letts, his father, added: “I think it’ll probably end really badly, I don’t want it to end badly. He’s my first son.”They told how they were arrested on terrorism charges after attempting to send Jack money for new glasses and food.“If you know he’s in danger or can’t see straight, what parent isn’t going to try get their child a pair of glasses if he can’t see straight,” Mr Letts said.“I’m furious really. I’m very upset. I think it’s crazy that we can’t send a penny to our ill son to help him get out or to help him in any way because we’ll be seen as supporting terrorism. ”Questioned about Jack’s beliefs, the couple said he converted to Islam as a

Twitter shuts 125,000 terror accounts WASHINGTON Twitter Inc has shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Twitter has said it only takes down accounts when they are reported by other users, but said that it has increased the size of teams monitoring and responding to reports and has decreased its response time “significantly.”

Twitter’s announcement comes as many tech companies - led

by Facebook - have taken stronger steps to police controversial content online in the face of threats from legislators to force the companies to report “terrorist activity” on their sites to law enforcement. Silicon Valley has been wary of engaging with government officials, concerned about endless demands for similar action from countries around the world as well as fears about being perceived by consumers as tools of government.

The announcement was also

notable because Twitter has said little about its efforts to combat Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and similar groups even though it has been criticized for not doing enough. Islamic State,

which controls last swathes of Iraq and Syria, has heavily relied on the 300 million-person site, as well as others, to recruit fighters and propagate violent messages.Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s program on extremism, said Friday’s report showcased an “impressive number” of takedowns, but said that Twitter still appears to police extremist content in a mostly “episodic” way. Many extremists have migrated toward smaller, less monitored platforms in recent months in response to

major Silicon Valley firms stepping up their content policing, Hughes added. In January, a delegation of top national security officials met tech industry leaders from Twitter, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Google parent Alphabet Inc, but most companies, including Twitter, did not send their chief executive officers.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, called Twitter’s announcement a “very positive development,” but said more was needed.

“Addressing the use of social media by terrorists will require a sustained and cooperative effort between the technology sector, the Intelligence Community, and law enforcement,” he said. Still, Twitter said in a blog post that it has cooperated with law enforcement when appropriate. It said that it tries to strike a balance between enforcing its rules on prohibited behaviors, the needs of law enforcement and the desire by users to share their views - including offensive ones.

teenager and started learning Arabic, around the time he dropped out of school.They believe the religion helped him

coalition he called David Cameron an “evil creature” and accused allies of trying to kill all Muslims.

manage his “really severe” OCD and claimed that although he was concerned about the killing of civilians by the Syrian regime, he was not a radical.“We have directly asked him. We know he won’t lie about his religion because anything to do with his religion he thinks he’ll go straight to hell,” Ms Lane said.Jack travelled to Syria in 2014 after telling his parents he was going to study Arabic in Kuwait.In an interview via a messaging app with The Independent last month, he said he “wanted to spread the religion of Allah and to help Muslims”.

“I’m not Isis, but I believe in the Sharia,” he added. “I believe we should follow Islam how the first Muslims did.”Claiming he had seen children killed in air strikes by the US-led international

“Isis has huge mistakes, I don’t deny that, but the coalition has far worse mistakes,” Jack said.

He declined to say where exactly he was, a detail he has also not told his family, but a photo posted on his Facebook page appeared to show him at the Tabqa Dam, 25 miles from the Isis stronghold of Raqqa.

South East Counter Terrorism Command said it was investigating media reports about Jack’s activities in Syria and confirmed his parents’ arrest, without naming them.

“We can confirm a 55-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, from Oxford, were arrested on suspicion of sending money to Syria which could be used for terrorism purposes,” a statement said. They were bailed until 17 February.

IS will blow up train, announce pranksters in Manhattan subway Two pranksters sparked a scare in a Manhattan subway train after they broke into the conductor’s booth and announced on the public address system that Islamic State (IS) is “hijacking” the train and will blow it up. The startling announcement aboard the Brooklynbound R train had riders scurrying out of the train when it pulled into the next stop. The suspects also slipped off the train at the next stop.

The two mischievous pranksters, in their 20s, broke into the conductor’s booth last Thursday and announced over the loudspeaker that they were IS members set to “blow up the train”, police sources were quoted as saying by the New York Post.

Passenger Lauren Crozier, a 30year-old actor, was aboard the train heading to her home in Sunset Park when the declaration came over the

loudspeaker.

“At first there was some singing, it wasn’t really audible. Then we heard, ‘All hail ISIS!’” Crozier was quoted as saying.

“Everyone took their earbuds out and stared at each other. I’m not sure any of us thought it was a credible threat. Not after the first moment, anyway,” he said.

Crozier said the suspects making the announcement also said, “This train has been hijacked”.

She said that once the train pulled into the next station, “the whole train emptied out”.

The train was taken out of service and taken to the Jamaica Yards in Queens, where an investigation was conducted.

Issue - 653 (14)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Mystery behind Chennai actress’ headless body solved, husband arrested

Chennai Police said on Sunday they have solved the murder of aspiring actress Sasirekha whose decapitated body was found near the city about a month ago, after arresting her husband and his alleged lover.

Police said Sasirekha’s 34-year-old husband Ramesh Shankar was a struggling businessman who regularly duped aspiring artists by promising acting roles, cheating them to the tune of several lakhs.

Shankar has told the police that he assaulted and strangled her, severed her head and dumped it in a canal in suburban Kundrathur and wrapped

the body in a bed spread and abandoned it opposite an IT Park in Ramapuram.

It was with an Aadhar card and the previous complaint against Ramesh that police obtained evidence against him and arrested him and his alleged lover.

Sasirekha used to live in Chennai’s Madipakkam suburb with her parents, two sisters and an eightyear-old son from a previous marriage.

She met Shankar whose parents and previous wife committed suicide in 2011 due to financial troubles during the shoot of a film that is yet to be released.

Police also alleged Shankar would promptly take photographs of his

clients under the guise of getting them film offers, and later misuse the photos.

In August 2015, Sasirekha and Shankar registered their marriage and began living in Madipakkam.

But in a few months, Shankar walked out of the marriage and started living at Valasaravakkam, where he met Lakhiya who had moved to the city to get a chance in tinsel town.

Ramesh also acted as her guardian.In November 2015, Sasirekha filed a complaint with the Madipakkam Police, alleging Shankar was getting married for the seventh time and had cheated other women in Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Chennai. She also claimed that he had kidnapped her son.

After counselling, the couple moved to Madanandapuram near Kundrathur but Shankar continued his relationship with Lakhiya which disturbed Sasirekha who often confronted them.

Pathankot attack: 250 persons being questioned by cops, 1 held for selling SIM to Pakistani spy Pathankot police have arrested one person for selling mobile SIM card to arrested Pakistani spy Irshad Ahmed in Pathankot.

The accused has been remanded to police custody for two days.The investigation to probe the Pathankot terror attack is still on.

Irshad, who was arrested

on January 31, is being questioned by the security agencies for clicking photos

of sensitive army installations and buildings.

He hails from Saharanpur Tehsil in Punch in Jammu and Kashmir. 29-year-old spy is educated up to plus two. He was working as a labourer for a contractor which was laying cable outside Mamoon Cantt, Pathankot. He was arrested on the basis of a phone call made from Pakistan.

Azam Khan strokes controversy, says Dawood was present during Modi-Nawaz meet in Lahore Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has stroked a fresh row by saying that India’s most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim was present during PM Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting in Lahore last year.The Samajwadi Party leader, who is known for making controversial remarks, said that he has proof of Dawood’s presence at the meeting.

“Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?” Khan said.

He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister’s residence when he went

there on December 25 last. However, the government today rubbished senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan’s remarks by terming it as “false and baseless”. “There are certain statements in a section of press that prime accused in serial blasts in Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim, was also present during Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on

December 25, 2015. These statements are baseless, unfounded and totally false,” an official spokesman said reacting to Khan’s claim.

In a surprise visit, PM Narendra Modi, had made a quick stopover in Lahore in December last year, to wish his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the occasion of his birthday. The prime minister’s unscheduled stopover in Lahore to meet Sharif had surprised many.

Somali plane hit by a bomb, meant to kill all on board

Don’t think India is intolerant country, says Taslima Nasreen

A blast that punched a hole in the fuselage of a plane this week was caused by a bomb meant to kill everyone on board, Somalia’s minister for transport and aviation said on Saturday.

One passenger died and two

were injured in the explosion on the Airbus A321, operated by Somali company Daallo Airlines. It was forced to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu airport on Tuesday.

United States investigators believe the attack was carried out by Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, but there has been no comment from the organisation.

“We have confirmed that it was a bomb that exploded in the Daallo Airlines flight.

It was meant to kill all aboard,” the minister, Ali Ahmed Jamac, told a news conference.

He said authorities were pursuing suspects, without going into further detail.

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen does not feel that India is an “intolerant” country and wondered why secularists in the country were questioning only Hindu fundamentalists.

She also said that a democracy based on pseudo-secularism was not a true democracy at all.

“I don’t think India is an intolerant country. Most of the people are quite tolerant for each other’s faith, I think”, she said at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on Saturday, joining the debate over ‘intolerance’.

The author, living in exile in India after incurring the wrath of fundamentalists back home over a novel written by her in 1994, said, “The laws in the country (India) do not support intolerance. But there are so many intolerant people in the country.”

Responding to a question,

she said: “Why secularists in India were questioning only Hindu fundamentalists while leaving alone Muslim fundamentalists.” “True conflict in India was between secularism and fundamentalism, between innovation and tradition and between people who value freedom and who do not”, she said.

“All religions were antiwomen though distortions caused by fundamentalists added to it”, Nasreen said explaining her struggle against fundamentalism.

Holding that religion should be kept separated from government, she said influence of religion in lawmaking has caused “oppression” of both Hindu and Muslim women in Bangladesh. More than 150 writers of national and international repute are taking part in the four-day festival which concludes on Sunday.

Issue 653 (15)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Sunny Deol’s angry action hero will leave the audience jaded Director: Sunny Deol Cast: Sunny Deol, Soha Ali Khan, Om Puri, Narendra Jha, Nadira Babbar, Tisca Chopra, Shivam Patil, Aanchal Munjal, Rishabh Arora, Dianaa Khan.

Ratings: 4 Stars Ajay Mehra (Sunny Deol) is back.

He went to prison. He lost his sanity and his wife. But he got therapy and survived. And 25

years later, the angry vigilante with the dhai kilo ka haath has a new nemesis. This one is Raj Bansal (Narendra Jha), a business tycoon who lives in a structure reminiscent of Antilla, has a helipad, hackers, two kids including a spoiled brat of a son, a concerned mother, and owns pretty much everything in the country including the police, politicians and bureaucrats. Released by Reliance Entertainment and written and

directed by Sunny Deol, Ghayal Once Again is a reminder that sequels are always superfluous unless they are as inventive and striking as Mad Max: Fury Road.

This desi one treads on tried-andtested territory of one man vs the system and then becomes Not Without My Daughter. If you really want to watch a film about a corrupt system, see Tamil filmmaker Vetri Maaran’s realistic and riveting Visaranai.

Sunny Deol cries, screams, fights, jumps off trains, runs, falls and occasionally also attempts to act. The last one is especially hard but he is unfazed for he is the aam aadmi who runs a publication which exposes the criminals hidden behind the powerful. But things go out of control when four youungsters go to Karnala Bird sanctuary to make a documentary. When a bird flies out of the frame, they end up capturing Bansal’s hot-headed son killing activist (Om Puri). A hard drive is the reason behind chase pe chase pe chase.

Missing from the trailer is the pet dog who initially saves the lives of the youth. Soon the quartet is kidnapped by the army of Troy, head of Bansal’s security. Mr Bansal, we are guessing, doesn’t trust desi brawny bodyguards.

Nobody can stop the contumacious Ajay on his mission to extirpate Bansal and save the nation from his evil monopoly (and his overacting son), especially when he discovers that he also has his own teenage child to rescue.

Barring one well-staged chase sequence which unfolds in a mall, there is little here that gets the adrenaline going. The screenplay, written

by Deol, Shaktimaan and Sagar Pandya, instead of offering an engrossing story is more a series of action events put together.

Some of them with substandard visual effects and visible stunt doubles.

Often the film flaunts the earnestness on its cause and then progresses to become ridiculous such as when Bansal announces that the death of his son will lead to a stock market crash and investors committing suicide.

Craig Gillespie’s film is an effective choice Directed by Craig Gillespie Starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, Holliday Grainger Raitng: 4 Stars A boat going to rescue a tanker sliced into half by a rampaging sea. That’s the brief Gillespie has for this film based on a true-life such rescue carried out by the US Coast Guard, which remains, more than 60 years later, their biggest operation ever.

Gillespie fulfills it. The overarching impression one takes away from this simple tale, deploying some very familiar and very unnecessary tropes, is the task up before that Coast Guard boat and that sinking hulk of a ship. Chris Pine as the anchor of that boat and hence this film is an effective choice, a goodlooking, clean all-

American hero with the shiny eyes one can’t ignore. It’s February 1952 and Bernie (Pine) is enjoying a slow, romantic dance with his girlfriend Miriam (a much-tooperfect Grainger, who won’t show a smudge or a hair out of place through all that follows) when she drops a bombshell that

they should get married.

The point of this exercise is that Bernie is a man led by anyone whom he lets lead, including his commanding officer (a horribly underused Bana).

Bernie is also running low on confidence since having botched up a rescue sometime earlier, leading to eight deaths.

Even as Miriam is prodding Bernie on to let his superior know about their April wedding plans, the horrible storm comes, breaking apart not just one but two tankers in one night. It falls upon Bernie and three of his “crew” to go towards the rescue of the tanker Pendleton. The first

obstacle is a sandbar that their tiny boat must cross, where huge waves build up and crash down in storms like this.

Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe does a fine job of shooting those waves, with the boat a perilously vulnerable speck in their fury. Over on the other side, at the

Pendleton, not only is the ship now just half of itself, water is also rushing in from a crack in the hull. It falls upon quiet engine man Sybert (Affleck) to steer the frightened crew. His plan is to run the ship aground while trying to hold off water to give someone a chance to rescue them.

Issue 653 (16)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Excited to be back with Classical dance should Shraddha on-screen not take back seat says Aditya Roy Kapur

says Pernia Qureshi

Aditya Roy Kapoor, who was last seen romancing Shraddha Kapoor in ‘Aashiqui 2’, has now teamed up with the actress again for ‘Ok Janu’ and says this is the right film for them to come back together. “I think, it’s great people have accepted us.

I think ‘OK Janu’ is the right movie for us to come back together. I think both of us are right for these two roles.

I am very excited to be back

with Shraddha because it’s a great project for both of us to come together again,” Aditya told IANS. ‘OK Janu’ is a remake of the Tamil super hit ‘OK Kanmani’. The original, which was helmed by Mani Ratnam, featured Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menon in the lead. “OK Janu” revolves around the lives of two young lovers and depicts the issue of live-in relationships.

Fashion stylist and actress Pernia Qureshi, who is also a trained classical dancer, feels that today’s youth is not exposed to such dance forms and hence it needs to be promoted in a right way.

Ask Pernia if she is disappointed to see classical dance fading over the years and she told IANS: “It is very disappointing because no other country has the kind of heritage that we have.” “It’s just a matter exposing people towards it. Our heritage is so rich that it’s important to attract people towards it.”

“Exposure is very important especially for the youth.

Classical dance should not take a back seat. It’s so inspiring and beautiful and this art is way more interesting than ballet. It comes from my heart,” she added. Pernia, a formally trained Kuchipudi dancer, is all set to showcase her dance skill through dance recital’s in Delhi on February 12 and she is quite excited. “I will be performing classical dance forms Kathak and Kuchipudi. My performance will be for 45 to 50 minutes at a stretch,” said the actress who made her Bollywood debut with Muzaffar Ali’s “Jaanisaar”.

Anushka Sharma reveals her ‘biggest fear’

Anushka Sharma says that she fears of being in fear and wished Sonam Kapoor’s forthcoming film ‘Neerja’ a fearless run in theatres.

Anuskha took to Twitter to post a video wherein

she shared that she fears the emotion of fear itself.

“My biggest fear is fear itself. I never want to be afraid of doing something I want...”, the ‘NH10’ actress said. Captioning the video, the 27-year-old

actress posted: Here’s wishing #Neerja aka sonamakapoor a fearless run at the cinemas. #fearvsneerja.

Responding to the Tweet, Sonam who plays the protagonist in the Ram Madhvani directorial, posted: You are an artist Anushka! I truly believe we need to learn how to be fearless from you!

‘Neerja’ is a biographical film which also features actors Shabana Azmi and Shekhar Ravjiani in supporting roles. Produced

by Atul Kasbekar under the banner of Fox Star Studios, the film revolves around hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan and how a flight attendant named Neerja Bhanot saved lives of 360 on board the air crat.

Kareena Kapoor Khan feels social media is a drug that gives you a high!

Kareena Kapoor Khan is one of the few stars to keep herself away from social media. Bebo feels it is a drug that gives you a high and you can never have enough of it.

Besides, you need to have an opinion on everything. The star is happier being savvy in the real world rather than on the net!

Issue 653 (17)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Meet William Knight, the tech wizard Emma Watson is dating

Emma Watson is reportedly dating a 35year-old American Ivy League graduate William Knight, who is more commonly known as Mack and describes himself as a “tech and business entrepreneur wizard”. According to a source, “Mack is just a normal, down-to-earth guy who has nothing to do with Hollywood, and Emma loves that.” The 25-year-old Harry Potter star previously dated rugby player Matthew Janney until their relationship ended in 2014. The split was devastating for Watson, but she and Knight have been dating for the last four months, during which time he visited Watson in her home town of Oxford for New Year, reports femalefirst.co.uk. “She was left really hurt by her break-up with Matthew and it’s taken her more than a year to feel ready to start again with somebody. They’re really happy with each other and see each other whenever Emma does not have work commitments,” The Sun’s Sunday newspaper quoted a source as saying. Emma Watson, who is best known as the nerdy, witty wizard Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter film series, is currently busy with films like The Circle and Beauty And The Beast.

Supermodel Cindy Crawford reminisced that she was worried about looking “frumpy” in front of Prince Williams when he was a teenager when she visited him at Kensington Palace.

Crawford shared that she was worried about her looks when invited to the Kensington Palace by late Princess Diana, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“I was like, ‘What do I wear?’ because Diana had a teenage son and I didn’t want to be too frumpy, but this was Kensington Palace and I wanted to be invited back,” Crawford shared.

The 49-year-old was stunned when late Princess Diana, who also had younger son Prince Harry with husband Prince Charles, herself invited Crawford to visit.

“She was so lovely because she actually called my office herself.

She said, ‘Hi, it’s Princess Diana’ and my assistant was like, ‘Yeah right’. But it actually was. I was going to London to do a thing for Pepsi, so I arranged to meet them at Kensington Palace.

It was cool for me,” Hello magazine quoted the “Fair Game” actress as saying.

I wasn’t always nice to Leonardo DiCaprio says Johnny Depp

Man detained for trespassing on Taylor Swift’s property A man was detained after Los Angeles police said he was trespassing on Taylor Swift’s house on Thursday. The police said that they received a complaint of an unstable man at the property near Bel Air at about 2.45 pm.

Officers said after they arrived, the unidentified man was detained and taken for a medical evaluation. Police clarified that the man was not arrested, but taken to the hospital. They, however, could not confirm who made the call or if Swift was home

When Cindy Crawford was worried because of Prince William

at the time of the incident. There was no record of the detained man ever being on Swift’s property, and he has not been charged with a crime. He was later released. One insider saying that the male was heard yelling for the Bad Blood singer to come outside. The singer’s spokesperson said, “This is why it’s irresponsible for the media to publish the addresses or recent real estate transactions of celebrities. This, or potentially worse, is the end result.”

Johnny Depp says when making the film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” he was going through a rough time and wasn’t always very receptive to Leonardo DiCaprio, who was then 19-year-old.

Depp, 52, shared stories of working with DiCaprio during the 31st annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he was presented with the Maltin Modern Master Award for his accomplishments in the film industry.

“It was a hard time for me, that film, for some reason. I don’t know why,” Depp said.

When it came to his relationship with DiCaprio, Depp said, “I

tortured him.”

“I really did. He was always talking about these videos games, you know? I told you it was kind of a dark period. ‘No, I will not give you a drag of my cigarette while you hide from your mother again, Leo.'”

Issue 653 (18)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

British Airways ad’s viral Azhar first look: Emraan Hashmi’s birthday gift for ex-cricketer response is Fuelled by Love New Delhi The new British Airways ad Fuelled by Love has moved many to tears and the adorable grandmother seems to remind everyone of their own grandmothers.

The ad, which has gone viral and even been written

The agency, SapientNitro, came up with this idea and we developed it. But the response has simple been amazing,” he says, adding, “The CEOs and VPs of many agencies have been congratulating me. I don’t think many

about by The Wall Street Journal, has received more than 11 lakh hits on YouTube.

Masaan director Neeraj Ghaywan, who has directed the commercial, says that he had not expected this response. “It is simple baffling. We were not expecting this at all.

people from the industry have seen in as yet, however I did get a call from Anurag Kashyap.”

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the ad...

The director says that the emotional quotient of this ad is what is working it’s magic with the audience.

“I feel that emotional con-

nect goes a long way. This is why we are now coming with ads in the long format with a strong emotional narrative. Plus every child knows that a grandparent will always love you. We have used that here,” he says. Surjo Dutt, who has scripted the ad, says that since they wanted to take a real life incident, there was a lot of work which went behind making the ad. “We had strictly decided to take a real life incident. So, this meant talking to our clients, the British Airways crew and listening to their stories and incidents. Since this is inspired from a real story, it was more challenging, as we could not go away from it much,” he says.

The grandmother, played by actor Uma Tembulkar, has become quite a favourite, and Dutt says that the agency was never keen on taking a known face for the ad. “The granny was discovered by Neeraj.

From the moment we saw her, we knew it had to be her.

Mumbai Emraan Hashmi, who will be playing former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin in his upcoming biopic, has decided to surprise the latter on his birthday on Monday (February 8). The actor has shared an exclusive image from the film with HT Café, in which he resembles the cricketer from his early days.

He will share the same image with Azharuddin online, on his birthday.

An insider says, “Emraan specially shot for this photo, which is inspired by Azhar’s early days, when he made his debut as a Test cricketer in the ’80s. He wants to show this picture to the cricketer to thank him for all the help and support he has provided him, and for all that the actor has learnt from him.” The teaser of the

forthcoming film Azhar, which will give a glimpse of the world of former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, was launched by the film’s lead actor Emraan Hashmi in May, 2015.

In the teaser, the actor guides viewers through

things that describe him in the best way -- a person who believes in god; his marital status and a black spot in his career due to match-fixing allegations.

In the teaser, The Dirty Picture actor is seen walking out of the pavil-

Azharuddin’s life from being a famed cricketer to being termed a traitor.

The magic of Emraan’s voice backs the trailer, without giving a visual glimpse of the actor, whose look as Azhar was earlier revealed via a poster of the film.

While in character, Emraan tells viewers the three

ion amid a cheering crowd. The visuals segue from a happy fan moment to riots and burning of an effigy.

Directed by Tony D’Souza and produced

by Balaji Motion Pictures and MSM Motion Pictures, Azhar is slated for a worldwide release on May 13, 2016.

Issue 653 (19)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

8 lakh in 8 hours: Bengaluru chain Over 40% living with HIV in India are women snatchers have a field day

Bengaluru witnessed a chainsnatching spree worth Rs. 8 lakh on Sunday with four elderly women attacked by two motorcycle-borne men across the city.

The first incident reportedly happened early Sunday morning at 6:45 am in Yeshwantpur. A resident of Divanarapaly, the 55-year-old woman was outside her house when one of the attackers approached and robbed her Rs 2 lakh-worth gold chain, before fleeing away with his partner waiting on a bike nearby. According to a report in The Hindu , the duo are probably

the same who attacked another woman just 15 minutes later in Yelahanka. The duo approached the 62-year-old woman on the pretext of inquiring about rent. While the pillion rider engaged the woman in conversation, the bike rider snatched her 15 gram gold chain and they fled.

The third incident happened at Coffee Board Colony in Amruthahalli, where the duo snatched a 80-gram gold chain from a 65-year-old woman who was out on her morning walk.

She lost balance and fell, resulting in minor injuries, according to Deccan Herald.

The next incident happened a few hours later when the duo snatched a 65-gram gold chain from a 54-year-old woman who was on her way home in Vijayanagar.

Cases have been registered in the respective police stations and investigations are underway. Police said they are trying to find the registration number of the bikes used through the CCTV footage.

These reports come in strike contrast to a recent TOI report claiming that chain-snatching incidents have seen a considerable dip of 30 per cent in Bengaluru.

Pathankot terror attack Investigation raises doubts over number of terrorists Doubts have been raised about the number of terrorists who were involved in last month’s terror attack at

two-storey building at the airbase. Since the building was demolished, we could find only ashes which may have

Pathankot airforce base.

As per a report in Hindustan Times, the National Security Guard (NSG) had said that it had killed six militants. They had led the counter-terror operation after the terror attack.

The Daily quoted a senior home ministry official requesting anonymity as saying, “After neutralising four terrorists, the second ‘encounter’ with ‘two more terrorists’ took place on the ground floor of a

pieces of flesh from the bodies of the dead terrorists. The ashes have been sent for forensic analysis to look for human DNA.” “But the question is why not even a single shred of cloth worn by the terrorists was found in the ashes? When the bodies of terrorists would have fallen, at least the pieces of clothes on the underside should have survived. During the mopping up operation,

shreds of heavy bedclothes were found, but there were no fragments of garments like the military dresses that the other four terrorists were wearing,” he was further quoted as saying by theDaily.

More light can be thrown on the matter once results of the forensic analysis are out.

The report also said that National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the case may re-evaluate the evidence gathered.

“NIA chief Sharad Kumar may visit the Pathankot airbase next week again to have fresh look at the evidence gathered in the case by his investigators,” the official added.

Seven security personnel were killed and several others were injured when militants, suspected to owe allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-eMohammad, stormed the Pathankot air base.

In what could pose a significant challenge for India to meet its ambitious target of ending AIDS by 2030, women continue to account for more than 40% of people living with HIV infection in the country.

The share of women is crucial because of risk of transmission from pregnant women, uneducated and unaware women as well as among vulnerable groups including sex workers.

The latest HIV estimates by the

country programme manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, while there are programmes to prevent parent-to-child transmission of the virus, there is greater need to focus on women.

“There is a huge need to ramp up education and awarnessness about HIV infection among women besides upgrading the social status of women in order to empower her to make choices related to her sexual partner,” he said.

government show a 66% decline in new HIV cases in the last five years with an average of 86,000 new infections in 2015. The total number of those living with HIV is estimated at 21.17 lakh in 2015 compared with 22.26 lakh in 2007.

While two-fifth of total HIV infections are among women, children under 15 accounted for 6.54% of the total cases.

According to Nochiketa Mohanty,

Experts also say HIV testing is not prevalent among women, especially in rural areas and even among the migrating population in both urban and rural settings.

“Women do not really go out and get tested for HIV because there is social stigma and taboo attached to it. They fear getting identified socially,” Mohanty said.Over 40% living with HIV in India are women.

Issue 653 (20)

As the world prepares to deal with the outbreak, India

*/2%$/ :$5 $ Health Ministry pulls up laboratories for trying to cash in on Zika scare A day after leading pathology labs and diagnostics chains made announcements of rolling out test kits for the deadly virus, the Union Ministry of Health pulled up private players, saying they cannot cash in on a public health emergency.

The global Zika scare has put the government on alert. A day after leading pathology labs and diagnostics chains made announcements of rolling out test kits for the deadly virus, the Union Ministry of Health pulled up private players, saying they cannot cash in on a public health emergency.

Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), in the Union health ministry, said: “We called upon the private labs making such statements. In the current scenario, all the testing and research has to be done through approval of the government. No firm can cash in on a public health emergency like the Zika virus which has become a sensitive issue across the globe. The health ministry is fully equipped in research and testing of Zika. We are actively working on averting any kind of outbreak in the country.�

While Dr Lal Path Labs had reportedly said they were importing test kits for Zika, SRL Diagnostics claimed they are working on new technologies to detect the head-shrinking virus and may come up with tests soon. Quest Diagnostics and Star Imaging are also said to have made similar statements.

The private labs reportedly quoted the cost of test around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 and said the test will be available by mid-March this year.

The ministry has also summoned Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which claimed that it has world’s first Zika vaccine samples. “We have also summoned Bharat Biotech that has claimed to have the first vaccine for Zika virus in the current scenario when there is no vaccine anywhere in the world. We want to check the authenticity of the claim and why they are announcing it without informing the government,� Dr Prasad added.

Firm’s claim In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Dr Krishna Ella from Bharat Biotech said: “The company has two ZikaVac vaccine candidates in development; one is a recombinant vaccine and another inactivated vaccine that has reached the stage of pre-clinical testing in animals.�

On Friday, however, most of the private players back-tracked.

Dr Vandana Lal from Lal Path Labs said: “We don’t want to talk on this matter. We don’t have any tests for Zika virus and we are also not importing any test kits for the same. If at all we plan to do something, we will take the government’s prior permission.�

Dr BR Das, president (research and innovation) at SRL Diagnostics, too, said the lab currently has no technology for battling Zika. “We however have a robust research and development facility in place, but we will only begin something if the government asks us to. We abide by the government and will only chip into research and technology on Zika if the government tells us,� Dr Das told Mail Today.

Guidelines in place Earlier this week, the ministry had issued guidelines on Zika along with a comprehensive travel advisory. The ministry also said currently, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune have the capacity to provide laboratory diagnosis of Zika in acute febrile stage. These institutions were marked as the apex laboratories to support the investigation and for confirmation of

laboratory diagnosis. “The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will strengthen 10 additional laboratories to expand the scope of laboratory diagnosis. RT-PCR test is the standard test for the disease. As of now, there is no test available for Zika commercially. And we have not recommended any serological tests. Also, there is no vaccine or drug available to prevent or treat Zika virus disease at present,� said Dr Prasad.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on February 1, 2016. Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947. WHO has reported 22 countries and territories in Americas from where local transmission of Zika virus has been reported. The disease has the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector, a lack of immunity among population in newly affected areas and the high volume of international travel.

As of now, the disease has not been reported in India. However, the mosquito that transmits Zika, namely Aedes aegypti, that also transmits the dengue virus, is widely prevalent in India.

A majority of those infected with Zika either show no symptoms (up to 80 per cent) or just mild symptoms of fever, rash, conjunctivitis, body ache or joint pain.

=LND GHWHFWHG LQ XULQH VDOLYD WRS %UD]LOLDQ UHVHDUFKHUV

Rio de Janeiro- Brazil’s top research institute said Friday that Zika has been detected in urine and saliva, but added that there is no proof the virus can be transmitted through those fluids. “The presence of the active Zika virus has been found in saliva and urine,� Paulo Gadelha, head of the Fiocruz institute in Rio de Janeiro, told journalists. “But that does not mean there is a capacity for transmission through saliva and urine,� he added. “A series of studies will be needed to clarify that question.� Zika, which is transmitted by mosquitos, has few effects on most people, but

is believed to be responsible for serious birth defects in babies born to infected mothers. An explosion of cases across Brazil and Latin America has prompted warnings against travel by pregnant women to the region and is even raising fears that travel to the Olympics, due to be held this August in Rio, will be disrupted. Much about the virus, including whether it can be transmitted from person to person, remains unclear.

However, the World Health Organization on Thursday advised countries not to accept blood donations from people who have been in Zika-prevalent countries.

Issue 653 (21)

(21)

9 Feb. 15 Feb. 9 Feb. - 15 -Feb. 20162016

a too steps up its measures to battle the deadly virus

$*$,167 =,.$ 0RVTXLWRHV WR EH VFUHHQHG IRU =LND

81 DVNV =LND KLW QDWLRQV WR DOORZ ZRPHQ KDYH DERUWLRQV

The United Nations on Friday urged countries hit by the dangerous Zika virus to let women have access to contraception and abortion.

The UN human rights office said the South American countries now urging women to hold off getting pregnant over Zika fears had to offer them the possibility of controlling their fertility.

How can they ask these women not to become pregnant, but not offer… the possibility to stop their pregnancies?” spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told reporters.

Many of these countries are conservative Catholic and have very restrictive abortion and contraceptive laws. An exploding number of cases of Zika virus – believed to cause a condition called microcephaly in which babies are born with abnormally small heads – have prompted several countries and territories in Latin America to warn women to avoid getting pregnant.

But UN human rights chief UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said this warning meant little in countries that ban or heavily restrict access to reproductive health services like contraception and abortion. “The advice of some governments to women to delay getting pregnant ignores the reality that many women and girls simply cannot exercise control over whether or when or under what circumstances they become pregnant, especially in an environment where sexual violence is so common,” Zeid said in a statement.

“In situations where sexual violence is rampant, and sexual and reproductive health services are criminalised or simply unavailable, efforts to halt this crisis will not be enhanced by placing the focus

on advising women and girls not to become pregnant,” he said. Instead, he insisted that governments must “ensure women, men and adolescents have access to comprehensive and affordable quality sexual and reproductive health services and information, without discrimination.”

This, his office pointed out, includes contraception – including emergency contraception – maternal healthcare and safe abortion services.

In the wake of the Zika Virus disease, which has been declared a public health emergency by World Health Organization (WHO), research on mosquitoes has been scaled up in India. In a bid to avert any outbreak of the disease, Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare will catch and screen mosquitoes to check if they are infected with the virus.

“Zika virus is transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito Aedes aegypti. This is the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. We have decided that we will catch mosquitoes randomly from different areas and test them into our laboratories. Our scientists will screen mosquitoes for any possibility of Zika virus infection in India,” said Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), Union Health Ministry.

“There would be an enhanced integrated vector management.

The measures undertaken for control of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever will be augmented further. We are ensuring that states where dengue transmission is on currently due to conducive weather, such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc, should be put on stricter vigil. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will identify the research priorities and take appropriate action,” said Dr Prasad.

On similar lines, in the recent past, the ICMR scientists tested mosquitoes from different areas in Delhi to find out the intensity of

infection of the dengue virus in mosquitoes that they were spreading to humans. They attempted to figure out the virus’s Minimum Infection Rate (MIR) in mosquitoes which is directly proportional to the spread of dengue and the risk level.

Scientists caught at least 2408 adult female Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes from 18 localities in Delhi and subjected them to MIR tests. Results showed that localities with low and medium income groups showing higher MIRs were at higher risk of dengue than those representing high income groups.

Mosquitoes and their breeding sites pose a significant risk factor for Zika virus infection. Prevention and control relies on reducing mosquitoes through removal and modification of breeding sites and reducing contact between mosquitoes and people. Last week, Health Ministry issued comprehensive guidelines for Zika Virus including the vector control.

Since April 2015, an outbreak of Zika virus that began in Brazil has spread to much of South and Central America and the Caribbean. In January 2016, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) issued an alert for people travelling to regions where Zika virus transmission is currently spreading.

According to the CDC, Brazilian health authorities reported more than 3,500 microcephaly cases that were caused by the virus between October 2015 and January 2016.

Issue 653 (22)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

DM ‘turns’ clerk; finds way to get 2 years’ work done in a month

Patna Reviewing the functioning of the lower level of administration, Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Aggarwal on Sunday took to a clerk’s job and suggested method to reduce time for completing the work.

In his two-hour visit to the legal cell of the Secretariat, Aggarwal found that 375 cases of stamp refund were pending which would take about two years to dispose.

But, the DM, who was transferred to the state capital in December last, found a way out to cut short the time and suggested how the work could be done in a month, an official statement said. During the visit, the DM came

across an employee who appeared over-aged while one of her certificates, alleged to be forged, stated that she was 55 years old. Aggarwal has instructed officials to constitute a medical board to verify her age, the statement said.

Starting Sunday, the DM decided to visit different sections of district administration once a week to improve the work culture at lower level. He has also ordered Section, Block, District and Circle officers to do the same every Tuesday and review work, it said.

Aggarwal was recently awarded by the Election Commission of India for best electoral practices during his tenure as the DM of Gaya.

‘Aam aadmi’ to hone Cong ‘suit-boot’ blitz New Delhi Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi will hold review meetings on ‘aam aadmi’ schemes every three months, seeking updates from party state units on their implementation, a move to keep the focus trained on its “suit boot” campaign against the Modi government. Interestingly, Rahul has said the review could be held in a new state by turn instead of calling all state chiefs to Delhi every time. Rahul shared his idea with state presidents at the review of

MGNREGS on Friday.

Having scuttled the Centre’s changes to the land acquisition law by

painting them as designed to benefit industrialists, Congress is set to launch another campaign alleging

dilution of UPA’s “aam aadmi” schemes. While MGNREGS is an all-season anti-BJP plank, Rahul has now zeroed in on Forest Rights Act, accusing the Centre and BJP-ruled states of undercutting provisions that boosted the land rights of forest-dwellers. Sources said Rahul will visit Maharashtra, Odisha and Jharkhand and address public rallies on FRA. The three states have a vast tribal population spread over sprawling forest areas, whose fate is tied to the law.

Man strangles ex-girlfriend, hides body in his house, gets married 2 days later The charred body of a 21year-old Delhi University student was found in a ventilation shaft of the house of her estranged boyfriend, said police Sunday.

Police have arrested the man, Naveen Khatri (22), on charges of murder. He allegedly abducted and killed her two days before he married another woman, said sources.

Preliminary investigation has revealed Khatri and Aarzoo Singh, who studied in Lakshmibai College, were to marry, but it was called off around four

months ago, said police sources. Both, however, kept in touch even as Khatri’s family arranged his marriage elsewhere, added the sources. The accused has claimed Singh was pressuring Khatri to marry

her, said a senior police officer. “He allegedly abducted from her college on February 2, two days before his marriage, and strangled her with a shawl near IGI airport. He brought the body back to his house in his car’s trunk after failing to burn it, and hid it in the shaft at his house in Gurmandi locality,” added the officer. The crime came to light Saturday night after Khatri admitted during questioning he had killed her, said police. On his information, police recovered the body. “The victim’s fa-

ther, Sanjiv Chauhan, had registered a missing complaint on February 2. The victim, who was a final year student, was last seen with Khatri, who picked her up from outside the college,” said a police officer.

After their marriage was called off, both their families had decided they would not meet, but they did, added the police officer. Police are investigating if other members of Khatri’s family had a role in the crime. Khatri’s father is in jail in a murder case, said police.

Issue 653 (23)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

‘Talaq delivered through Skype, WhatsApp, SMS, email or phone valid’ New Delhi The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has said that Supreme Court’s observation calling for examining the Islamic law to do away with discriminations against Muslim women was legally not appropriate.

Senior member and spokesperson of the board, Mohammed Abdul Rahul Qureshi said to India TV, “The Supreme Court order is legally not appropriate because the Muslim law is an integral part of the religion. The right to freedom of religion is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution.”

He also said that a woman was free to do second marriage after talaq once the iddat (period of waiting) was over.

Qureshi was further quoted by the website as saying: “It is necessary to understand the concept of talaq.

After talaq, a woman is free to marry another man. After talaq, second marriage for a woman is permissible.

Talaq doesn’t mean that she can’t marry again or be locked in a room.”

On triple talaq system, he had this to say - “It will not make any difference

whether you practice triple talaq or single talaq. After the waiting period of single talaq or triple talaq, your wife is free. What is the difference? Where is the

talaq. Since there are no Islamic courts, imams can be contacted for this. Everything in Islam is governed by family and family is an institution. Each in-

recognise each other,” Qureshi said.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on February 05 permitted an intervention application by the Jamaat-e-

difference? There is no difference at all. In fact, in the triple talaq practice, if a man feels he has taken this extreme step mistakenly, he can take back his wife during the iddat (period of waiting).”

Qureshi had more to say on the matter and was quoted by the website as folllows - “If a woman wants to initiate divorce, she can approach to the Khula but talaq is only given by the man. The woman has to justify why she wants

stitution is headed by only one person. So it is obvious that that head of family will have some liberty,” he replied when pointed out that don’t you think there is a discrimination in the process.”

At the same time he pointed out that talaq delivered through social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS, email or phone calls were valid.

“A man has authority to divorce his wife. Only thing is required that two should

Ulema-Hind contending that Muslim personal law was protected by the right to freedom of religion guaranteed under constitution and there was sufficient protection for women`s rights under it.

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justice AK Sikri and Justice R Banumathi permitted the organisation of Muslim clerics to intervene in the matter relating to gender equality of Muslim women that was directed to be

Election years see 30% rise in number of Padma Shri awards New Delhi Around 30% more Padma Shri awards the fourth highest civilian honour were given in election years as compared to the average of the preceding four years, irrespective of political affiliation.

Data analysed by Factly

has also shown that in the past 16 years, awardees from Delhi and Maharashtra accounted for a third of all Padma Shri awards while Bihar had just 20 winners, less than 2% of all the awards. Seven states together accounted for 63% election years see 30% rise in number of Padma Shri awards of all Padma Shri

awardees.”While there seems to be no direct link between the electoral performance and number of awards to people from a particular state, it does seem that the greater political clout at the Centre plays a significant role in winning these awards,” Rakesh Dubbudu from

Factly said.

In election year 2004, when NDA was in office, the number of Padma Shri awardees was 74 while the average for the preceding four years was 57. In 2009, when UPA was at the Centre, 93 Padma Shri awards were given, compared to the preceding four-year average of 66. Even in 2014 (again with UPA at the helm), 101 Padma Shri

awards were given compared to the preceding four-year average of 80.

On average, the number of Padma Shri awards in 2004, 2009 and 2014 was 30% more than the average of the preceding non-election years.

States like Delhi and Maharashtra won disproportionately higher number of awards compared to the other states. Out of the 1,200odd Padma Shri awards given in the last 16 years, Delhi and Maharashtra accounted for close to a third. Add Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to the list and the percentage crosses the halfway mark.

Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh accounted for around 6% of the awardees each.

On the other hand, a state like Bihar barely had 20 winners in the last 16 years.

Arts has claimed more of these awards than any other category, followed by literature and education, medicine, science and engineering. Journalism is last in the list of number of Padma Shri awardees.

taken up a PIL by one of the benches of the top court.

Since Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi was not present during the hearing and the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has yet to take a position, the court had adjourned the matter for six weeks.

A bench of Justice Anil R Dave and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel had by their October 16, 2015 order issued notice to Rohatgi and NALSA as it directed the separate listing of a PIL addressing the question of the rights of Muslim women.

Referring to the suggestion by some lawyers that a separate PIL may be registered to go into the question of rights of Muslim women, the court had said: “We are of the view that the suggestion needs consideration in view of earlier decision of this court. The issue has also been highlighted in recent articles appearing in the press on this subject,” as per IANS. While directing a separate PIL, the court had referred to an “important issue of gender discrimination” which was not connected with the matter being

dealt by the court but was raised by some lawyers concerning the rights of Muslim women.

The court noted the submission by the lawyers which said that “inspite of guarantee of the constitution, Muslim women are subjected to discrimination. There is no safeguard against arbitrary divorce and second marriage by her husband during currency of the first marriage, resulting in denial of dignity and security to her”.

The court by its October 16 order had noted that several times the issue of safeguarding the Muslim women from arbitrary divorce had come up before the court but every time it was said that since the challenge to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 was pending before the constitution bench, there was “no reason to multiply proceedings on such an issue”.

The court`s view came in the second part of its judgment in a batch of matters on the issue whether Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, had retrospective effect.

Netaji’s Japanese interpreter confirms plane crash: UK website London A Japanese interpreter confirmed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died at a military hospital in Taipei after a plane crash in 1945, according to information released by a UK website set up to catalogue the last days of the nationalist leader.

Kazunori Kunizuka, who worked as an interpreter with Bose from 1943 to 1945, is still alive and has recorded in graphic detail in his diary the last days of Bose and his death as a result of a plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945, said the website bosefiles.Info.

The information was conveyed to the website by Noburu Okabe, London correspondent of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, who also handed over a copy of the diary to the website. Ashis Ray, Bose’s grandnephew and creator of the website, said “The diary is in Japanese.

We will get it translated and post relevant portions from it in due course”.

According to Okabe, Kanizuka is 98 years old and lives in an old people’s home in Kobe in Japan.

Okabe has met him and testified the diary unequivocally confirms Bose’s de-

mise in a Japanese military hospital in Taipei after the air tragedy.

Earlier when Ray visited Taipei, he met Yukichi Arai, son of Captain Keikichi Arai, a Japanese army officer who was one of seven survivors (of an estimated total of 14 passengers and crew, including Bose, on the flight) of

camp Colonel Habibur Rehman and Captain Arai.

All six independently submitted Bose died consequent to the crash.

Two Japanese doctors Dr Taneyoshi Yoshimi and Dr Toyoshi Tsuruta - and a Taiwanese nurse Tsan Pi Sha - who treated him at the hospital or were by his bedside when he passed away, an-

the crash. Captain Arai died in 1971. However, he, too, recorded in his diary that Bose succumbed to injuries suffered in the crash.

As per his description, soon after take-off from Taipei the Japanese bomber carrying Bose “immediately lost speed, crashed and went up in flames”. Of the seven survivors, six deposed before either the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee or the 1974 Justice G D Khosla Commission or both, including Bose’s most trusted aide de

other interpreter Juichi Nakamura (who personally knew Bose from previous visits to Taipei) and Colonel Rehman, gave eyewitness evidence of Bose’s final moments and of him breathing his last. Also, there are at least three first-hand testimonies of Bose’s cremation at Taipei as provided by Tan Ti-Ti, a Taiwanese who worked at the crematorium and personally prepared the body for the last rites, Ko Keng Yuan, a Taiwanese health official, and Colonel Rehman.

Issue 653 (24)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

There’s a shift in the air this week as home-based projects and plans give way to adventurous options and fun outings. Try to get any overdue responsibilities out of the way so you’ll have more time to explore delightful opportunities. You’ll be experiencing a pleasure peak, too, when romance, creativity, and entrepreneurial ideas vie for your attention.

A social theme sets the pace at the start of the week, although you might be involved in one or two formal events. Things should go well if it’s a business meeting or function. However, family and home affairs come into focus as the Sun and Mercury ease into Leo, and you might be doing more jobs around the home, removing clutter and entertaining family and friends.

The practicalities of sorting out fnances might occupy your attention early on.

With some clever talking you might nab a new contract or deal that’s rock solid and worth pursuing. Communication and interaction gain in importance from midweek, making this a good time to advertize goods and services and tweak your online business.

The start of the week seems productive, bringing opportunities for creative projects to gel and even a budding romance to deepen. It might involve some hard work, but it will be worth it. The midweek mark reveals a shift of focus to financial matters, when you may be tempted to indulge.

However, you can also use this phase to take stock of your creative talents.

If certain matters have seemed out of your control lately, you’ll easily regain your stride this week. You’ll feel renewed once the Sun and Mercury edge into your sign. By Thursday the wheels of your mind will be turning as you plan ahead for your next project or challenge. Venus rewinds in your financial sector from Saturday, so don't commit to big money schemes.

Social factors keep you busy early on, plus there’s a chance of collaborating with someone on an exciting project. By midweek the focus shifts to your spiritual sector, which means you’re entering a phase in which it helps to kick back and make more time to relax. It’s vital to take this opportunity to connect with your heartfelt desires and inner feelings.

If you’ve been busy lately with career goals or personal ambitions, this phase could begin to ease as more pleasurable options show up. A sociable focus can help you make progress with business affairs, too, but you’ll also enjoy the party atmosphere, along with the option for dating and romance. You’ll be in your element if you feel like getting involved in organizing an event.

Firm up decisions and take action regarding vacation plans or a golden opportunity to expand your horizons. As the focus shifts, it’s time to put yourself even more firmly in the spotlight so that others can appreciate your talents. Make a point of connecting with people who share your ambitions and you’ll find it easier to make progress.

Curb any desire to spend on impulse and instead consider investing spare cash in more profitable areas, such as property or study. Will you heed the call of adventure when the Sun and Mercury encourage you to learn from new experiences? Travel, working abroad, and the chance to expand your reach could all appeal.

Make constructive plans with others, whether for a social event or a chance to collaborate on a project. It seems you’re going to be busy no matter what you’re up to. Finances come into focus midweek, encouraging you to explore ways to make your money work harder for you. Use this opportunity to make changes that can help you pay off debt.

Monday to Wednesday are productive, with a chance to plan ahead and feel satisfied with all you’ve accomplished.

From midweek relationships and key interactions could take up more of your time. Romance, business, and social activities bring out the best in you, with new opportunities showing up the more you network and connect.

Fun outings and cultural expeditions bring pleasure and encourage you to explore talents that may have lain dormant. You may find you’re a natural at a skill that others can benefit from. Lifestyle issues become more important later this week, with fresh opportunities showing up at work. You may be eager to exercise more in order to get yourself in peak condition.

Issue 653 (25)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Technology Hackers attack 20 mln accounts on Alibaba’s Taobao shopping site Hackers in China attempted to access over 20 million active accounts on AlibabaGroup Holding Ltd`s Taobao e-commerce website using Alibaba`s

own cloud computing service, according to a state media report posted on the Internet regulator`s website.

Analysts said the report from The Paper led to the price of Alibaba`s US-listed shares falling as much as 3.7 percent in late Wednesday trade.

An Alibaba spokesman on Thursday said the company detected the attack in “the first instance”, re-

minded users to change passwords, and worked closely with the police investigation.

Chinese companies are grappling a sharp rise in

the number of cyber attacks, and cyber security experts say firms have a long way to go before defences catch up to U.S. counterparts.

In the latest case, hackers obtained a database of 99 million usernames and passwords from a number of websites, according to a separate report on a website managed by the Ministry of Public Security.

The hackers then used

Alibaba`s cloud computing platform to input the details into Taobao. Of the 99 million usernames, they found 20.59 million were also being used for Taobao ac-

counts, the ministry website said.

The hackers started inputting the details into Taobao in mid-October and were discovered in November, at which time Alibaba immediately reported the case to police, the ministry website said. The hackers have since been caught, it said.

Alibaba`s systems discovered and blocked the vast majority of log-in attempts,

Zuckerberg aims to have five billion Facebook users by 2030 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he aims to have five billion users by 2030, which means nearly 60 percent of the human race would be connected to the social network site

if his wish comes true.

Zuckerberg made the comments earlier this week during an event at the company’s new Frank

Gehry-designed headquarters designed to celebrate Facebook’s 12th anniversary Thursday, February 4, which it has dubbed Friends Day. “We want to finish con-

necting everyone, we’re going to do it in partnership with governments and different companies all over the world,”

Zuckerberg said during an event celebrating Facebook’s 12th anniversary.

Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, at the start of October 2012, Facebook had passed the monthly active users mark of one billion.

The company’s data also revealed 600 million mobile users, 140 billion friend connections since the inception of Facebook, and the median age of a user as 22 years.

On Thursday, Facebook celebrated its 12 birthday as ‘Friends Day’ by releasing several new feautures, including a new video product for its users.

according to the ministry website.

The hackers used compromised accounts to fake orders on Taobao, a practice known as “brushing” in China and used to raise sellers’ rankings, the newspaper said.

The hackers also sold accounts to be used for fraud, it said.

Alibaba`s spokesman said the hackers rented the cloud computing service, but declined to comment on security measures designed to stop the system being used for the attack.

He said they could have used any such service, and that the attack was not aided by any possible loopholes in Alibaba`s platform.

“Alibaba`s system was never breached,” the spokesman said.

The number of accounts, 20.59 million, represents about 1 out of every 20 annual active buyers on Alibaba`s China retail marketplaces.

Now, Gmail joins billion-user club

Internet search giant Google said that its email service Gmail has more than one billion monthly active users, joining the billion users club.

The announcement was made by the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai while announcing the Q4 2015 earnings.

According to The Verge, Gmail is Google’s seventh service that tops the $1 billion mark, after Search, Chrome, Android, Google Play, Maps and

YouTube.

Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google.

Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well as via POP3 or IMAP4 protocols.

Furthermore, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that its mobile messaging service WhatsApp has reached the milestone of one-billion users, with 42 billion messages being exchanged daily.

Facebook bans pages selling medical marijuana in US Social media giant Facebook has blocked dispensary pages selling cannabis for medical purposes in the US state of New Jersey, even as medical marijuana has been legalised in the state, a media report said.

“It seems high-handed to simply shut down important resources for sick patients without even saying why or giving organisations a way to ask for reconsideration,” Digital Trends quoted Peter Rosenfeld, one of the 5,668 registered patients for medical marijuana programme in New Jersey, as saying on Friday.

“What better use of a social media than having sites where parents of sick children can ask questions about medication and treatments,” Rosenfeld added.

But according to the social networking site, the

reason behind blocking these businesses is that they do “not follow the Facebook community terms and standards”.

The community standards page of Facebook con-

sociated with New Jersey dispensaries were “looking into the matter and hope to resolve it in the patients` favour as soon as possible”.

This is not the first time

tains guidelines against drug sales, but the page says nothing with regard to authorised drug vendors, which these dispensaries are.

Alex Zaleski, founder of Breakwater Wellness and Treatment Centre in Cranbury, said that both he and other officials as-

Facebook has gone too far in applying its standards. The social networking site previously came under fire for its stance on mastectomy tattoos, which were claimed to violate nudity guidelines. Its opinion on that issue, however, was quickly changed.

Issue 653 (26)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Punjab losing battle against drug addiction Chandigarh Punjab has lost the battle against drug addiction even before it has begun, a study by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has indicated. It will take more than 10 years for the state government to provide even

a single episode of treatment to addicts if it continues with the current strategies, the survey by the institute’s National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre says, painting a grim picture of the days ahead.

A single episode of treatment is a standard course of treatment ranging from a minimum of four-to-six

weeks to six months where the patient is given opioid substitution treatment (OST) that involves medication like methadone or buprenorphine to help him wean away from drugs. The study points out that Punjab does not have OSTfor the patients

as a widely available therapy on a long term basis.

“There is a huge gap in the availability of treatment services for opioid dependent individuals despite significant demand. OST is the most evidence-based treatment modality which has been endorsed by United Nations and World Health Organisation as

well as the Indian Psychiatric Society. In Punjab, less than 10% of patients have received OST ever,” says the study.The survey, commissioned by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment in August 2015, has in fact ridiculed the approach by the Punjab government, saying that it is only focused on rehabilitation centres.

“If the treatment strategies remain focused on only treatment admission to a de-addiction centre, it will take about 10 years to provide a single episode of treatment to the entire opioid dependent population in the state,” it said.

It further says that many drug dependent individuals are trying to give up but not many are receiving help from the government. “Our survey indicates that while as many as 80% of opioid dependent individuals have tried to give up, only about 35% have received any help,” it says.

Boy sexually assaulted, ‘murdered’ in private school; 3 teachers detained Ranchi Barely a few days after a boy was found dead in a water reservoir of a private school in Delhi, a similar case happened in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi. A boy student of a private school was found dead under mysterious circumstances on Friday in a private school in Ranchi after possibly being subjected to sexual abuse.

According to police, prima facie evidence suggests that the boy was sexually assaulted before being ‘killed’. The family mem-

bers of the boy have alleged that he was mur-

ternational School. His father has alleged there

dered after he was sexually assaulted.

Earlier, Delhi boy Divyansh was found dead in a water reservoir at city’s Ryan In-

were injury marks on his body including private parts and that the principal has threatened them to keep quiet over the issue.

Tolerance and intolerance was always there, says Rishi Kapoor Speaking exclusively on Aaj Tak’s Seedhi Baat, Rishi Kapoor today said he doesn’t understand what tolerance and intolerance mean.

The veteran actor says that tolerance and intolerance was always there, there is nothing new to it.

“Intolerance issue was blown out of proportion.

Why was it given so much importance”, Rishi Kapoor asked.

When asked whether Bollywood is splitting on politicial lines, the actor replied with a no and said “we are non-political, we are entertainers”.

Speaking on award wapsi, the Bobby star said that returning award won’t fix anything and that all this is being done to show up PM Narendra Modi.

On Anupam Kher’s Pak visa row “I think Anupam Kher should have been given a visa to Pakistan. But he should go there as a performer and not be political,” he said.

Issue - 653 (27)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

6th man to walk on moon, Edgar Mitchell dies Washington Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon as module pilot on the record-

setting Apollo 14 mission in 1971, has died at the age of 85, the U.S. space agency said on Friday.

Mitchell died in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the lunar landing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. The Palm Beach Post reported that he died at a hospice center after a brief illness. On his only space flight, Mitchell joined Apollo 14 commander Alan Shephard, Jr.,

the first American in space, in the lunar module Antares when it landed on Feb. 5, 1971.

Their mission was to deploy

scientific instruments and perform a communications test, as well as photograph the lunar surface and any deep space phenomena, the space agency said. Mitchell and Shephard set mission records for time of the longest distance traversed on the lunar surface, the largest payload returned from the moon, and the longest lunar stay time, at 33 hours. They were also the first to transmit color TV from the moon.

Mitchell helped collect 94 pounds

(42.6 kg) of lunar rock and soil samples. He was the sixth of 12 men to walk on the moon. In his book “The Way of the Explorer,” Mitchell wrote, “There was a sense that our presence as space travelers, and the existence of the universe itself, was not accidental but that there was an intelligent process at work.”

Mitchell retired from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Navy and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973, organized to sponsor research in the nature of consciousness. In 1984, he co-founded the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization devoted to providing an understanding of the human condition resulting from space exploration. Mitchell was born in Hereford, Texas, and held a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was selected as an astronaut in 1966. In a 1997 interview for the agency’s oral history project, Mitchell said he was drawn to space flight by President John Kennedy’s call to send astronauts to the moon.

“I’ve been devoted to that, to exploration, education, and discovery since my earliest years, and that’s what kept me going,” he said.

Deadline to claim $63m California lotto prize passes

SAN FRANCISCO A deadline to claim a $63 million lottery prize from a ticket sold last year in Southern California has passed evening without anyone stepping forward with a valid slip, officials said, although a man has sued saying his ticket is the winner.The prize would set the record as the largest unclaimed California lottery jackpot, surpassing the $28.5 million for a ticket sold in September 2003.The winning SuperLotto Plus ticket was sold last August at a 7-Eleven convenience store in the Los Angeles community of Chatsworth.“No one’s coming forward that has a winning ticket that has all the numbers on it that’s not damaged,” lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said.

On Wednesday, Brandy Milliner filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court saying he was the holder of the winning ticket.The complaint said he

furnished the ticket in question to the lottery commission, which initially responded with a congratulatory letter.But the commission wrote back in January, saying the ticket was “too damaged to be reconstructed” and as such could not be processed as the winning claim, according to the lawsuit. Milliner is suing for breach of contract and seeking the $63 million prize as well as legal fees.Lottery spokesman Russ Lopez declined comment on the lawsuit as a pending legal matter, but added: “Any time you have an unclaimed prize, people are going to come out of the woodwork and claim it’s their money. We don’t usually get it to this level, but it is $63 million.”

The unclaimed lottery money will be diverted to the state’s public school system if a determination is made after the legal battle that Milliner does not have a valid claim, Traverso said.

invented the right way to do this yet.’ Dr Nathalie Cabrol, who is leading the hunt for alien life at the Seti Institute in California

Chicago.

‘If there is life out there, intelligent life, they’ll know we’re here.’ Dr Cabrol believes

told MailOnline an advanced alien civilisation may be trying contact Earth, but we can’t detect the signals. While astronaut John Grunsfeld said last year that if aliens are out there, they already know we exist. He said an advanced alien civilisation may spot humans from afar by tracking the changes we’ve made to Earth’s environment.

‘We put atmospheric signatures that guarantee someone with a large telescope 20 light years away could detect us,’ said Grunsfeld at the Astrobiology Science Conference in

that in our lifetime we will find simple alien organisms close to Earth and a replica of our planet in another galaxy.

Nasa’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan agrees, he recently said we could find evidence of extraterrestrial life in 20 to 30 years.‘We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.’ Jeffery Newmark, interim director of heliophysics at the agency, added: ‘It’s definitely not an if, it’s a when.’

‘We are not talking about little green men,’ Stofan said. ‘We are talking about little microbes.’

Playboy launches non nude magazine in bid to If aliens visit Earth, they’ll take charge appeal to millennials

Washington The first issue of the newly revamped Playboy has gone on sale after the magazine announced it would no longer publish images of nude models.

Featuring model Sarah McDaniel, the cover picture on the latest edition is shot in an intimate, ‘selfie’ style with a message across the front in the style of messaging app Snapchat. Magazine bosses have said the main aim of the redesign is to appeal to a new generation of younger, more internet-focused readers.

McDaniel, who rose to fame through photo-sharing website Instagram, is quoted in Playboy as saying: “The idea was to look

at me from a boyfriend’s perspective.” Snapchat has been the focus of much attention from media executives, as it has the youngest users of any social media platform, with 45% of them aged between 18 and 24.

The new issue also no longer airbrushes or ‘touches-up’ the models’ pictures, according to the New York Times.

Cory Jones, Playboy’s chief content officer previously explained that the rise of internet pornography had meant nudity in magazines had decreased in importance and shock value in recent years.

He said nudity was now “passe”, but that there was still a market for more “intimate” photos.

Washington It’s said the truth is out there, but we might not like what we find if we ever uncover it.

A leading scientist involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) has said that if aliens visit our planet, they could take control thanks to their use of superior technologies. This would give them an edge and ultimately lead to them ‘making the rules’.

Astronomer and co-founder of the Seti Institute Jill Tarter told TechCrunch: ‘If they showed up on our doorstep that means they have technologies that are considerably advanced with respect to ours. ‘And because of that, they’re going to be the ones that set the rules.’

However, she explained that a species can perhaps only develop sophisticated technologies, such as the ability to travel long distances across space, if it has learned to behave in a peaceful way.

This suggests ET may be relatively friendly and cooperative - good news for humans if Earth is invaded. Seti is looking for radio waves and optical signals in the universe that could be signs of alien technology, but Dr Tarter admitted: ‘We may not have

Issue - 653 (28)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

US gun traders rush to set up new sites WASHINGTON US gun traders are setting up new websites to arrange deals after Facebook Inc barred private gun sales on its platform.

With gun rights and safety registering as a hot-button issue on the US presidential campaign

trail after several mass shootings last year, Facebook said on Friday it would no longer allow users to arrange private gun sales via the site. Reaction was swift among some Facebook gun trader groups, hundreds of which are based in the United States.

Some of them immediately began advertising other gundealing websites. In a chat room outside Facebook on the Firearms Enthusiasts Club website, users complained their gun trading groups had been deleted from Facebook and urged others to spread the word about their site.

‘I just lost Cheap Guns Minnesota which had close to 18,000 members,’ said a user by the name of ‘The Guard Dog.’ ‘So PLEASE spread the word about

this site to every group in EVERY state.’

The administrator of the Facebook group Central Florida Gun Talk changed its name to Central Florida on Monday and directed the group’s 2,055 members to another site outside

Facebook set up quickly in response to the ban. Another Facebook user posted that the gun community had ‘grown dependent on Facebook’ and the ban ‘will backfire’ by forcing gun traders to unmonitored sites where users share less information about themselves.

Facebook users contacted directly by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment. Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said in an interview that gun group administrators were notified of the new policy ahead of its enforcement.

‘We have to spend a lot of time thinking through new policies,’ she said, noting that 80 percent of Facebook’s 1.6 billion users

World’s fattest man dies after ‘drinking too many energy drinks’

Washington The world’s fattest man has died of a heart attack at the age of 38 after reportedly drinking more than six energy drinks a day.

Andres Moreno, from Ciudad Obregon in Mexico, reached a weight of over 70 stone at his heaviest.His doctor reportedly said he had been drinking more than six energy drinks a day in the three days running up to his death.As he was very obese and suffering from diabetes, such stimulate drinks could have caused “an irregular heartbeat”.

He died on Christmas Day after a heart attack and complications from peritonitis. Two months ago, Mr Moreno had undergone extreme weight-loss surgery where three quarters of his

stomach was removed. His remaining stomach was then reshaped into a tube to help prevent him from overeating.Mr Moreno had lost 19 stone naturally to reach the weight of 50 stone in preparation for the surgery. Dr Jorge Ojeda, who treated Mr Moreno, told MailOnline: “He drank more than six energy drinks a day according to his family and we believe it could be a lot more than six.”As an obese man, although he was losing weight and was starting to move, exposing yourself to a stimulant can cause an irregular heartbeat, and that or a heart attack can lead to death.”Another Mexican, 88-stone Manuel Uribe, previously held the record for the world’s fattest man.

reside outside the United States and Canada.

Bickert said Facebook will rely solely on user reports when deciding which posts, groups and accounts to delete or restrict. The company gets about a million user reports a day, she said. Bickert said Facebook’s community operations team decides whether to remove reported content including terrorist activity, cyber-bullying and nudity, in addition to private gun sales. The team works in offices around the world and has subject matter experts fluent in dozens of languages, Bickert said.

But it is challenged sometimes by having ‘a very limited picture.’ She said, ‘The context in the actual post may be unclear. It may be hard to tell what they are expressing we aren’t seeing what they’re saying offline.’ The gun policy change came as Facebook pushes further into e-commerce and underscores social media firms’ challenges in managing content to weed out violent extremists, criminals and other bad actors without being too restrictive of free speech.

The National Rifle Association declined to comment.

Given Facebook’s and Instagram’s popularity, ‘it’s really significant for them to say, ‘not on our platform,’’ said Erika Soto Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety.

Licensed gun dealers are still able to advertise firearms on Facebook that lead to sales off the network.

Big asteroid could pass near Earth next month: Nasa

CAPE CANAVERAL Nasa is monitoring a 100-foot (30-meter) wide asteroid that could make a close pass by Earth next month but has no chance of hitting it, the US space agency said on Friday.

First spotted in 2013, the asteroid could fly as close as 11,000 miles (17,700 km) from Earth on March 5, according to scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

That is roughly 1/20th the distance from Earth to the moon and about half as far as many communications satellites that ring the planet. But given uncertainty about the precise path of the asteroid, known as 2013 TX68, it also could end up as far as 9 million miles (14 million km) from Earth during its flyby.

The asteroid was visible for just three days during its last approach to Earth in 2013 before it passed into daytime skies

and could no longer be tracked.

“It will be hard to predict where to look for it,” Nasa’s Paul Chodas, who manages the agency’s Near-Earth Objects Studies office, said in a statement. Nasa said there is a one-in-250 million chance of an impact during the asteroid’s next pass on Sept. 28, 2017, though future observances are likely to reduce that probability even further. “The possibilities of collision on any of the three future flyby dates are far too small to be of any real concern,” Chodas said.

The asteroid is about twice the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. That blast shattered glass and destroyed buildings, leaving more than 1,000 injured.If an asteroid the size of 2013 TX68 passed into Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, Nasa estimates it would likewise be about twice as powerful as the Chelyabinsk blast.

Europe, including celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel, Marlon Brando and four

$60,000 a month it cost to dock the ship in the Delaware River in Philadelphia.Rodriguez said if the

US presidents. But it was decommissioned in 1969 due to the growing popularity of air travel.The SS United States has changed hands several times since then with various ideas of turning it into a casino, a cruise liner or a hospital ship, but none came to fruition. Five years ago, the empty rusty boat with peeling paint was bought by the non-profit group SS United States Conservancy.That group warned in October that the ship would have to be sold to a scrapyard unless new funds or investors came forward to cover the

feasibility study is successful, then the goal is for the renovated SS United States to begin ocean cruises again in 2018.The proposal presented Thursday would maintain some of the ship’s features of yore, such as its red smokestacks and the promenade, but it will be completely transformed to accommodate 400 luxury suites for 800 passengers.Susan Gibbs, director of the SS United States Conservancy and granddaughter of the boat’s architect, expressed her approval of the Crystal Cruises plan.

Plan aims to revive historic US ocean liner

NEW YORK A historic luxury ocean liner that has languished for decades and seemed destined for the scrap heap could again take to the seas, under a proposal in New York.Crystal Cruises announced an exclusive purchase option for the SS United States, valid for nine months and pending a feasibility study, to restore the ship to its former grandeur at an estimated cost of $700-800 million. “It will be a very challenging undertaking,” the cruise line’s CEO Edie Rodriguez said at a press conference, calling it a “monumental project” for an “important symbol of America.”

The SS United States was the fastest, most luxurious ocean liner of its day, with a capacity of 2,000 passengers who were entertained by three orchestras, two cinemas and a swimming pool. On its maiden voyage on July 3, 1952, the 990-foot (301-meter) ocean liner crossed the Atlantic in a record three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes. The record still stands.During its lifetime, the boat ferried one million passengers between the US and

Issue - 653 (29)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

US state Georgia executes its oldest death-row inmate JACKSON The US state of Georgia executed a 72-year-old man, the state’s oldest death-row inmate, early on Wednesday for the killing of a convenience store manager during a robbery decades ago.Brandon Astor Jones was pronounced dead at 12.46am (5:46 GMT) on Wednesday after an injection of barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the 1979 shooting death of suburban Atlanta store manager Roger Tackett.Jones declined to make a final statement in front of witnesses, but agreed to have a prayer read.Georgia doesn’t announce exactly when lethal injections begin, and the injection isn’t visible to observers. But the warden left the execution chamber at 12.30am (5:30 GMT), and records from past executions show the lethal drug generally begins to flow within a minute or two of the warden’s departure.

Jones was initially still with his eyes closed and then swallowed a couple of times and moved his head slightly. He opened his eyes at 12.36am (5:36 GMT) and turned his head to his left, appearing to look toward a clock hanging on the wall. Then he

closed his eyes again and took a few deep breaths before falling still.

The execution had initially been scheduled for 7pm (00:00 GMT) on Tuesday and was delayed while the US supreme court

considered appeals from Jones’ attorneys. They asked the justices to block the execution for either of two reasons: because Jones was challenging Georgia’s lethal injection secrecy law or because he said his death sentence was disproportionate to his crime.

Around 11pm (4:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the court denied the requests for a stay.

The challenge to Georgia’s strict execution secrecy law sharply divided the 11th US circuit court of appeals on Tuesday. The law classifies the identifying information of any person or entity who participates in an execution as a “confidential state

Facebook-owned WhatsApp boastsa billion users

SAN FRANCISCO Facebook-owned smartphone messaging service WhatsApp has hit the billion-user mark, according to the leading social network’s chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. “One billion people now use WhatsApp,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page.

“There are only a few services that connect more than a billion people.” Google’s free email service, Gmail, is the latest of the Internet giant’s offerings to crest the billion-user mark, chief Sundar Pichai said Monday during an earnings call.

The ranks of people using WhatsApp have more than doubled since California-based Facebook bought the service for $19 billion in late 2014, according to Zuckerberg.

“That’s nearly one-in-seven people on Earth who use

WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family,” the WhatsApp team said in a blog post.

After buying WhatsApp, Facebook made the service completely free. The next step, according to Zuckerberg, is to make it easier to use the service to communicate with businesses.

Weaving WhatsApp into exchanges between businesses and customers has the potential to create revenue opportunity for Facebook. Recent media reports have indicated that Facebook is working behind the scenes to integrate WhatsApp more snugly into the world’s leading social network by providing the ability to share information between the services.

secret”.

Jones’ lawyers argued the state’s execution method carries “a substantial risk of significant harm”, violating his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. But because of the secrecy law, they argued, they don’t have enough information to make that claim, which violates his constitutional right to due process.

Three-judge panels of the 11th circuit had already rejected similar arguments, setting a binding precedent. But because of divided opinions expressed by judges on those panels, Jones’ lawyers asked the full 11-judge court to consider their arguments. The court on Tuesday voted 6-5 to deny that review, but several judges offered strongly worded dissenting opinions.

“Today Brandon Jones will be executed, possibly in violation of the constitution. He may also be cruelly and unusually punished in the process. But if he is, we will not know until it’s too late — if ever,” wrote circuit judge Robin S Rosenbaum, adding that she believes the secrecy law denies Georgia death row inmates of their due process rights and may deprive them of their right to access to the courts.

Madoff jewellery being sold at auction

NEW YORK If Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme proved one adage correct, it might be this: all that glitters is not gold.

His jewelry, however, is another matter. The US Marshals Service on Tuesday began auctioning off several high-priced pieces of jewelry seized from Madoff and his wife, Ruth, including a diamond tennis bracelet, a gold money clip and two Patek Philippe watches.The proceeds from the auction, which ends on Feb. 19, will be added to a restitution fund for Madoff’s victims. Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to masterminding a decades-long fraud at his firm that cost investors an estimated $17 billion in lost principal. The scheme, in which Madoff used money from some investors to pay profits to others, went undetected for decades. The

minimum opening bids for the watches and the bracelet was $21,250, while the money clip, made by Tiffany & Co, started at a relatively affordable $380. The auction is being handled by Texas-based Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers and is available online. US authorities have sold numerous items in the past seized from Madoff and members of his family.In 2011, 14 pairs of Madoff’s boxer shorts sold for $200. Auctions in 2009 and 2010 netted million of dollars in total for items such as a 10.5carat diamond ring, Madoff’s New York Mets jacket and his boats.

Madoff, 77, is serving a 150-year prison sentence. Fourteen others, including Madoff’s brother Peter and several employees of the firm, have been convicted either at trial or via guilty plea in connection with the scheme.

Ancient wildebeest cousin boasted bizarre dinosaur-like trait WASHINGTON In an ancient streambed on Kenya’s Rusinga Island, scientists have unearthed fossils of a wildebeest-like creature named Rusingoryx that boasted a weird nasal structure more befitting of a dinosaur than a mammal.

Researchers said on Thursday the crescent-shaped protrusion atop the head of Rusingoryx, which roamed Africa’s savannas tens of thousands of years ago, was unlike anything on any other mammal, past or present. Instead, it resembled the head crests of a group of duckbilled dinosaurs called hadrosaurs.The hollow structure may have enabled the horned, hoofed grass-eater to produce a low trumpeting sound to communicate over long distances with others in its herd, Ohio University paleontologist Haley O’Brien said.“This structure was incredibly surprising,” O’Brien said. “To see a hollow nasal crest outside of dinosaurs and in a mammal that lived so recently is very bizarre.”

The fossils of Rusingoryx, about the size of its close cousin the wildebeest, date from about 55,000 to 75,000 years ago. Hadrosaurs with similar nasal structures, Lambeosaurus and

Corythosaurus, lived about 75 million years ago.O’Brien said the structure was an example of “convergent evolution” in which disparate organisms independently evolve similar features, like the wings of birds, bats and the extinct flying reptiles called pterosaurs, to

O’Brien said.The researchers examined six adult and juvenile Rusingoryx skulls. The bony crest, laying on the top and front of the skull, was mostly hollow inside. It contained nasal passages that followed the outside of the structure then took an S-

adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.Rusingoryx led a lifestyle similar to hadrosaurs: herbivores both likely traveling in herds. Many scientists think hadrosaurs also used their crests to communicate vocally with one another.The researchers said Rusingoryx’s nasal apparatus may have allowed it to deepen its normal vocal calls into “infrasound” levels other species may not have been able to hear.“Vocalizations can alert predators, and moving their calls into a new frequency could have made communication safer,”

shaped pathway down into the soft tissue part of the airway.

The nasal passage then sat atop of a pair of large sinuses.At least 24 Rusingoryx individuals were found at the site. University of Minnesota paleoanthropologist Kirsten Jenkins said butchered bones and stone tools there indicated humans may have caused their deaths.

Jenkins said hunters may have driven a herd into the stream for an ambush. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.

Issue - 653 (30)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

US Jewish ‘gay conversion’ therapists find safe haven in Israel Jerusalem A leading American Jewish group promoting therapy it claims can ‘convert’ homosexuals into heterosexuals was ordered to shut down in December by a New Jersey court, amid growing efforts in the US to curb the generally discredited practice.

But therapists with ties to the

shuttered group say they have found a haven for their work in Israel.Israel’s Health Ministry advises against so-called “gay conversion” or “reparative” therapy, calling it scientifically dubious and potentially dangerous, but no law limits it.

In Israel, practitioners say their services are in demand, mostly

by Orthodox Jewish men trying to reduce their same-sex attractions so they can marry women and raise a traditional family according to their conservative religious values.

Clients also include Jewish teenagers from the US and other countries who attend post-high school study programs at Orthodox seminaries in Israel.

Half of all such students attend seminaries that require youth who admit to having homosexual feelings to see reparative therapy practitioners, according to the Yeshiva Inclusion Project, a group that counsels gay prospective students.

Proponents in Israel say therapy does not “convert” clients, but

boosts self-esteem and masculinity, which they say can reduce homosexuality. In Israel, therapists say there is greater acceptance of their work than in the US.“Since there is such a strong religious presence here, and I think political correctness isn’t as prevalent . there’s more openness about it, about this kind of therapy here,” said Dr. Elan Karten, a US-trained psychologist and Orthodox Jew who has treated about 100 people with homosexual attractions since he opened his Jerusalem practice eight years ago.Some states in the US have banned such therapy for minors. JONAH, or Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, was shut for violating

France becomes the first country to pass a law prohibiting food waste by supermarkets

Washington The law which forbids supermarkets across France from discarding spoiling and unsold food, also directs the stores to sign a deal with food banks and charities so that it can be given away to the needy.

The law was passed unanimously by the French senate on Wednesday.

Now Supermarkets across France are no longer authorized to discard food nearing it’s expiry date.Since many homeless and hungry rummage through bins for food, supermarkets were in the habit of pouring bleach or locking the discarded food in

ware houses. The newly passed law prevents the stores from doing so. The law came into being after a petition was launched by anti-poverty campaigners led bycouncillor Arash Derambarsh.Thus, with the new law Supermarkets are bound to make donations to charities and food banks, failing which they face a fine of 75,000 dollars and a jail term of 2 years. Speaking to Guardian , the head of a network of food banks, Jacques Bailet said, “This battle is only just beginning. We now have to fight food waste in restaurants, bakeries, school canteens and company canteens.”

New Jersey consumer fraud laws by claiming therapy could “heal” homosexuality. An estimated 20 to 30 licensed psychologists and social workers and 50 nonlicensed therapists practice some form of conversion therapy in Israel, said Rabbi Ron Yosef of the Orthodox gay organization Hod, which calls for legislation against such therapy. Gays in Israel who contacted JONAH were referred to some of these therapists. “I’m extremely concerned,” said Chaim Levin, a former client of JONAH in the US and a plaintiff in the lawsuit against it in New Jersey. “It’s exporting hatred and junk science to Israel. People need to know.” Leading medical organizations in the US say there is no proof sexual orientation change efforts are effective, and that therapy can reinforce selfhatred, depression and selfharm. The Israel Psychological Association reached similar conclusions in a 2011 position paper, which Israel’s Health Ministry adopted in late 2014.

But the Association also endorsed a claim practitioners make, that “political correctness” likely prevents the funding and publication of studies examining the therapy’s potential effectiveness.At least four men’s support groups meet weekly in Jerusalem, said Jerusalem psychotherapist Adam Jessel, who has worked with hundreds of people looking to overcome their homosexuality. Some Israeli organizations also promote therapy.

Vietnam’s 12-hour Tet cake worth the wait

HANOI She may be edging into her nineties, but Tran Thi Tam still refuses to serve her children store-bought banh chung, the savoury rice cake prepared in a frenzy during Vietnam’s lunar new year festival known as Tet. Instead, the 89-year-old Hanoi resident and her children spend more than a day assembling the Vietnamese delicacy made of sticky rice, beans and pork wrapped in green leaves and tied with bamboo string. “Banh chung made outside the house is never good,” she insists. The wrapped cakes, which must be boiled for 12 hours before they are ready to eat, are one of several dishes prepared specially for Tet, the week-long holiday in Vietnam that sees nearly all schools and offices close. Families gather to ring in the new year - which will start on 8 February - and carry out a host of rituals, such as giving gifts and red envelops of cash, cleaning and decorating homes and firing up elaborate feasts.According to an oft-told legend, the banh chung recipe

was first prepared thousands of years ago by a Vietnamese prince who wanted to impress his father in a bid for the throne.

Pleased with the cake’s flavour and impressed with his son’s demonstration of respect, the king duly handed down his crown. Today the cakes are laid at family altars as an offering to ancestors, who are widely venerated in Vietnam - a country that is officially atheist but still steeped in Confucian social mores. It’s become increasingly common for families to buy the dish from specialty sellers instead of making them from scratch.But rumours have bubbled in recent years about commercial banh chung makers who try to speed up the lengthy preparation by dropping a battery into the boiling pot of cakes — a method that Vietnam’s state-run television warned was dangerous and ineffective in a report this week. The broadcaster urged viewers to call immediately if there is “clear evidence of any establishments using a battery to cook banh chung”.

Google AI to play live against world champion Paris Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) software will go head-to-head with the world’s highest ranked Go player Lee Sedol, the firm has said. It comes a week after the search giant announced that AlphaGo had beaten French Go champion Fan Hui. That was seen as a pivotal moment for AI, similar to IBM’s Deep Blue beating Garry Kasparov at chess. The match will take place in Seoul, South Korea, and will be live-streamed via YouTube.

Demis Hassabis, head of Google’s DeepMind lab, announced the news in a tweet.

Mr Sedol said in a statement that although AlphaGo appeared to be a strong player, he was “confident” that he could win the match. Go is widely regarded as a more complicated game than chess, because of the larger choice of moves, making it a good measure of how AI technology is developing. Computers have played Go and beaten amateurs but, before Google’s victory against the French champion, experts had predicted that it would take another 10 years until a computer could beat the world’s best Go professionals. There has

been a long tradition of AI software going head-to-head with human players.In 1996, IBM’s Deep Blue took on chess world champion

several thousand years to ancient China. Using black and white stones on a grid, players gain the upper hand by

Garry Kasparov and won, although Mr Kasparov went on to win three and draw two of the following five games. Then in 2011, IBM’s cognitive platform Watson took on the world’s best Jeopardy players, a popular American quiz show and scooped the $1m prize. Watson had access to 200 million pages of structured and unstructured content but was not connected to the internet during the game.

Go is thought to date back

surrounding their opponent’s pieces with their own. The rules are simpler than those of chess, but a player typically has a choice of 200 moves compared with about 20 in chess. There are more possible positions in Go than atoms in the universe, according to DeepMind’s team.

Go is played by more than 40 million people worldwide. It can be very difficult to determine who is winning, and many of the top human players rely on instinct.

Issue - 653 (31)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Sea turtles with tumors fill Florida hospital MARATHON The young patient writhes on the operating table, kicking its flippers. A team of medical attendants turns it over, revealing an underbelly cluttered with tumors, some as big as golf balls.

This endangered green sea turtle, about two years old and too young for the staff to know yet whether it is male or female, is infected with fibropapillomatosis, a potentially deadly disease caused by a type of herpes virus.Experts still don’t understand quite how the virus spreads, or what causes it, though some research has pointed to agricultural runoff, pollution and global warming.

As the population of green sea turtles rebounds in and around the Florida Keys, cases of fibropapillomatosis have exploded too, filling the corridors of the United States’ oldest rescue and rehab facility, known simply as the Turtle Hospital. ‘When I first started here 20 years ago, I would do six to eight of these a month,’ says veterinarian Doug Mader, as he injects a local anesthetic, then cuts off the cauliflower-like growths with a carbon dioxide laser.

‘Now we are doing six to eight a week,’ he says as the air fills with the smell of saltwater, alcohol wipes and burning

flesh.Each turtle can require several operations to remove all the tumors, which cover their necks, underbellies, and eyes, blinding them and making it hard for them to find food. Green sea turtles were first listed as endangered species in 1976, but are now nesting in record numbers - 28,000 nests counted last year in Florida, up from fewer than 500 decades ago.Their status may be changed from ‘endangered’ to merely ‘threatened’ as early as March.

While conservationists celebrate these successes, they also lament that the animals’ environment is increasingly polluted and hot, as the oceans absorb most of the warmth from human-driven climate change.

The evidence lays before Mader every day in the clinic. ‘I have this horrible feeling that as the oceans warm we are going to see more and more disease,’ he says. Nestled in a bright green motel complex connected by pebble strewn pathways, the Turtle Hospital opened its doors in 1986, taking in 12 patients in its inaugural year.Last year, it treated 173 sea turtles - 119 of them with fibropapillomatosis according to manager Bette Zirkelbach. These days, the hospital has never been busier.

Its staff of 18 and fleet of orangeand-white ambulances can be dispatched around the clock to fetch injured

Prehistoric man enjoyed roasted tortoise appetisers

JERUSALEM Prehistoric cave-dwellers enjoyed munching on tortoises roasted in their shells as an appetiser or side dish, Ran Barkai, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, said on Tuesday.

Barkai helped lead a research team who found 400,000-year-old tortoise shells and bones in a cave in Israel that showed hunter-gatherers butchered and cooked tortoises as part of a diet dominated by large animals and vegetation.Burn marks were found on the shells discovered in the Qessem cave, as well as signs they were cracked open and cut marks indicating the animal was butchered using flint knives. “Now we know they ate tortoises in a rather sophisticated way,” Barkai said.

“It would have been a supplement

- an appetiser, dessert or a side dish - to the meat and fat from large animals.”

Qessem cave was uncovered during road work in 2000 and was believed to be inhabited for about 200,000 years. The site has offered scientists a rare insight into human evolution and accounted for many research papers. Bones scattered throughout the cave have already suggested a calorie-rich prehistoric menu of horses, fallow deer and wild ox. A study last year, based on plaque found on teeth, showed the cave’s inhabitants also ate plant-based material. The latest findings by Barkai’s team, which included members from Spain and Germany, were published this week in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

turtles.Fibropapillomatosis was first documented in sea turtles in the 1930s, and is pervasive in warm waters around the world.

Zirkelbach says about half the

rescued after boat strikes, swallowed hooks, entanglements with fishing gear, and disease.It’s a spectacle that tourists pay to see. A visit to the

green sea turtles in the area are infected, and the cases are getting worse. ‘In 2012 it was rare to have a turtle coming in with tumors on both eyes. By fall of 2013 almost every turtle that came in with this virus had both eyes covered with tumors.’

After spending a year in the hospital’s pools, tumor-free, the turtles may be released.

But if the lesions get into the kidneys and lungs, there is no way to save them.These days, just one in five green sea turtles with fibropapillomatosis will make it back out to the wild, says Zirkelbach. ‘They are just too sick.’ On a typical Tuesday in January, Mader sees patient after patient, most of them

Turtle Hospital costs as much as an afternoon at the movie theatre, but offers a glimpse of real veterinary teams as they operate on sick turtles behind a plate glass window.And while the US Fish and Wildlife Service Conservation Commission issues the hospital’s permit and is supportive of the work they do, visitor cash is what pays for all the services, according to owner Richie Moretti. He says 75,000 people visited last year alone, fully funding a hospital which currently hosts more than 60 turtles and costs about $1.5 million a year to operate.

Some tumors are mysterious, like the one Mader sees on a female 80-pound (36 kilogram)

adult Kemp’s Ridley, who has a bulbous growth the size of an avocado seed near her back right flipper. She is not an eager patient. A young male attendant leans over the operating table, presses his belly against her shell and hugs her still. ‘Sshhh,’ he whispers, as he waits for the anesthetic to kick in.

Moments later, the reptile relaxes. Mader cuts off the tumor with a radio scalpel, then expertly stitches her back up. Next, the biggest patient of the day - a 190-pound (87kilogram) male loggerhead turtle that may be as old as 70, has been hit by a boat and hasn’t been eating. He shows symptoms of lockjaw, perhaps from a fishing hook stuck in his hard palate and visible on an X-ray.The team works for 45 minutes, reaching in the turtle’s mouth to extract the hook, but it’s been pushed too deeply into the soft tissue near the back of the throat.

‘Someday, I hope all fishing gear is biodegradable,’ sighs Mader. Eventually, he decides the hook will have to stay where it is. The staff will try physical therapy for the turtle’s jaw, and try to get him to eat again before releasing him. ‘It’s frustrating,’ Mader says, as the attendants roll the turtle out of the operating room. ‘You want to fix every one of them.’

Japan may change temple map icon to avoid Nazi confusion Tokyo As Japan gears up to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and caters to a surging influx of foreign visitors, the country faces a cultural dilemma: Should it stop identifying Buddhist temples on maps with the traditional “manji” symbol that is often confused with a Nazi swastika?

The symbol, from ancient Sanskrit, means happiness and prosperity. It has been used for centuries by Hindus and Buddhists, and has turned up in archaeological digs in Europe. But many Western tourists associate it with antiSemitism and the Holocaust because the emblem was adopted by Nazi Germany to try to enhance a sense of ancient lineage.The swastika in Japan which usually points counterclockwise, the reverse of the Nazi symbol - has been used for centuries in Buddhist decorations and to denote Buddhist temples on maps.At Sensoji Temple, a top tourist destination in Tokyo, a big gold “manji” emblem appears on a pair of lotus-shaped bronze ornaments, while smaller, more subtle ones decorate roof tiles.

It’s even an official emblem for Hirosaki, a city in northern Japan.

In a report released last month, a government panel at the Geospatial Information Authority proposed a three-tiered pagoda symbol to replace the swastika.

It is one of 18 suggested icons for landmarks like hospitals and convenience stores for foreignlanguage maps, part of a broader push to create user-friendly

maps for the growing number of foreign tourists, which jumped more than 40 percent last year to a record 19.7 million.

A final decision is expected in late March following a period of seeking public comment.

Japan’s main Buddhist group is nonchalant because the change doesn’t affect domestic maps and therefore likely won’t alter perceptions at home.

“We are aware that some people say the ‘manji’ symbol could remind them of the ‘hakenkreuz’ symbol, which was created much later in history,” said Ryoka Nishino, a spokesman for Japan Buddhist Federation, referring to

the “hooked cross” term often used to denote the Nazi emblem.

“Even though we have more foreign visitors, our symbol that decorates each temple will stay,” he said.Public opinion seems divided on Twitter and other social networks.Supporters for the change say it would help avoid confusion among tourists, while opponents say there is no need to change the ancient sign just to cater to foreigners.

Instead, they say, the symbol should be kept as a way to teach people about the ancient history behind it. Others point out that the “manji” symbol turns the opposite way from the Nazi symbol, so it is different.The objective is to make symbols easier to understand, said geospatial authority mapping officer Takayuki Nakamura.

“A good symbol on the map should be able to tell a visitor what it is at the first glance,” he said. “The question is whether one can easily tell it’s a temple by looking at the current symbol.”The recommendation was based on survey results collected from more than 1,000 foreigners, including embassy officials, exchange students as well as tourists.

Issue - 653 (32)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Red envelope: Chinese party hands out cash BEIJING China’s Communist Party has found a new way to court technology-savvy web users, setting phrases by President Xi Jinping as the password for electronic “red envelopes” of online cash offered ahead of the Lunar New Year.

In China, elderly family members traditionally give children red envelopes of cash, known as lucky money, during the holiday - which starts on Monday - to wish them good fortune in the coming year.

With Chinese e-commerce booming, Internet giants Tencent and Alibaba both enable users to send lucky money electronically, and the Communist Party has jumped on the bandwagon, teaming up with both the companies. A total of 300,000 yuan ($50,000) is being made available over three days on Alipay, the online payment service of Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma, one of China’s richest men. To stand a chance of collecting it, users must get a passphrase from an account owned by the ruling party’s powerful organisation department and run by the official Xinhua news agency on WeChat, Tencent’s

hugely popular instant messaging service.

Friday’s set phrase was “You will earn what you worked for,” following “As long as we persevere, dreams will come true,” on Thursday both of them from Xi’s 2016 New Year speech, repeatedly broadcast on television nationwide on December 31.

“Every effort you make will be rewarded twice as much in 2016,” the organisation department, which is in charge of Communist Party members’ promotions and demotions, said on the WeChat account on Friday. Ma’s firm was contributing to the effort, it signalled, saying that the money “had nothing to do with party membership dues” and was instead “raised by Xinhua’s website and Alipay on their own”. The statement had been read more than 100,000 times by midday. But Friday’s money was all gone within seconds of becoming available at 11am. Users were sceptical, with one poster on China’s Twitter-like Weibo describing the exercise as “weird”, adding: “Party and government agencies just need to do their own job well.”

Obama slams anti-Muslim rhetoric during first visit to US mosque Maryland President Barack Obama made his first visit to a US mosque on Wednesday, in an effort to allay the fears of Americans accustomed to pop-culture portrayals of Muslims as terrorists, and to reassure Muslim American youth about their place in the nation.

Obama, declaring that attacks on Islam were an attack on all religions, decried the “inexcusable political rhetoric” against Muslims from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates.

“We have to understand that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths,” he said at the mosque outside of Baltimore, which he said had received threats twice in the past year.

“When any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up.”

Trump, the Republican frontrunner, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States after authorities described a California couple who killed 14 people last December as radicalized Muslims inspired by Islamic State militants.

Obama’s visit was aimed at showing Americans another side of Islam. Before he spoke, Cub Scouts who attend a school run by the mosque carried the American and Maryland state flags into the prayer hall, a plain room save for a three rows of window panes, 99 in all, each depicting one of the names of Allah in Arabic.

“Think of your own church or synagogue or temple, and a mosque like this will be very familiar,” said Obama, who, following Islamic custom, took off

Ibtihaj Muhammad, a member of the U.S. fencing team who will be the first American Olympian to compete in a hijab, or head scarf, in this year’s Rio

his shoes to enter the hall. The children led the audience, with some men in prayer caps and most women in head scarves, in the Pledge of Allegiance. A man and a woman recited a verse from the Koran about tolerance and inclusion.

Obama, a Christian, outlined the tenets of Islam, and gave a brief history of Muslims in America.

He noted that founding father Thomas Jefferson specifically mentioned Muslims when he spoke about the American right to freedom of religion.

“Thomas Jefferson’s opponents tried to stir things up by suggesting he was a Muslim, so I was not the first,” said Obama, who has long been accused of secretly being a Muslim, to a roar of laugher. “I’m in good company,” he said.

Obama asked a row of Muslim American military service members to stand, as well as

Olympics.The president touched on pop-culture depictions of Muslims as terrorists. “Our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security, Obama said.Turning to extremist groups such as Islamic State and what he characterized as perverted versions of Islam portrayed by them, Obama urged regular Muslims to “show who you are. To use a little Christian expression - let your light shine.”

Later, he told a crowd of cheering children, who had packed the mosque’s gymnasium to watch his speech on large screens, that one day they too could become president.Obama urged young Muslims not to embrace a worldview that required them to choose between faith and patriotism. “You fit in here. Right here,” he said. “You’re not Muslim or American. You’re Muslim and American.”

Chinese woman becomes Menu please: Baby sea world’s luckiest passenger lion found napping in Beijing Plenty of leg room, personalised service and no crying babies or unruly fellow passengers.

That was what one lucky traveller in China experienced while flying home to Guangzhou for the New

Year holiday. Delays meant all other passengers had swapped to an earlier flight, leaving Ms Zhang to enjoy the “rockstar” trip.

Flying rather than going by train also meant she avoided huge delays which saw around 100,000 people stranded at Guangzhou station this week.

The blizzard which caused the

train chaos also caused delays to several flights in central Wuhan, including Ms Zhang’s scheduled flight CZ2833 to Guangzhou.

Most of the passengers took up the offer of an earlier flight, but

Ms Zhang chose not to, and the flight went ahead with her as the sole passenger.

She documented her “happy” experience in a post on the popular Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo.

“I felt so happy, it was a rare life experience for me and it was new. I felt like a rockstar,” she

told the BBC, adding that her family members were all mainly flying home for the holidays. She also received personalised service and attention from the flight attendants and pilot.

Her post drew hundreds of likes, shares and comments from Chinese netizens on Weibo.

“What a great way to fly, you are indeed very lucky to experience such hospitality especially at such a chaotic travelling period,” commented one Weibo user referring to the annual human “migration” which sees hundreds of millions of people travelling across the country to return home in time for the Chinese New Year.

“Sister, you are clearly the world’s luckiest passenger cherish it,” said another.

But others felt that it was “too extravagant” for an airline to be flying out chartered flights for only one passenger. “Given the Chinese New Year timing when thousands of people are getting crushed while just trying to go home, isn’t this wasteful?” remarked one Chinese netizen.

Another user felt that the airline “should have just waited” and flown more passengers back.

California restaurant

Los Angeles A hungry baby sea lion picked the best seat in the house after wandering into a beachside restaurant in San Diego.The cleaning crew of The Marine Room found the female pup on Thursday morning snoozing in a booth with a view of the ocean.

“She said, ‘Can I see the menu?’

I asked if she had a reservation,” chef Bernard Guillas joked.

Guillas’ photos, which he posted on Facebook and were widely shared, showed the little sea lion perched in the plush booth. One photo showed her resting her head on the windowsill, as if gazing out at the view. “She

seemed to think: ‘I must go back’,” the chef told AFP. Guillas, who is French and has overseen the restaurant for 21 years, said the sea lion entered through the restaurant’s back door, after making her way up from the beach alongside the building.

The restaurant called SeaWorld, which sent a team to rescue the starving wayward pup.She weighed only 20 pounds (nine kilograms), when she should be about 40 pounds, Guillas said.Climate change has been blamed for raising the temperature of the oceans and disrupting marine food chains.

Issue - 653 (33)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Thieving monkey bound, War of words over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, but status unchanged caged in Mumbai MUMBAI The captured monkey, its arms tied tightly behind its back, sits crouched over in a Mumbai residential colony trying with its teeth to untie the cord bound

around its ankles.But this primate - caught just moments ago by a professional monkey catcher in India’s commercial capital - isn’t going anywhere for a while, other than straight into a cage.The wild macaque was caged after locals said it had been causing a nuisance for over six months, including stealing food and tearing up pillows that were on sale in one of the colony’s shops.

It was one of three or four monkeys to have been tearing around the community in the

western city’s Sion area and residents recently complained to a local municipal councillor about the unwelcome guests.

Monkeys, who are revered in Hindu-majority India, often trash gardens, offices, residential rooftops and even attack people viciously for food - but are rarely subjected to such public humiliation. When locals spotted one of the primates on Friday morning they called a monkey catcher who hot-footed it to the housing block and laid a trap with fruit.

Local residents gathered round and cheered as bandages were tied around the macaque’s wrists and elbows and a rope was put around its neck.

At one point a passerby patted it on the forehead, only for the monkey to hiss aggressively before showing him a full set of sharp teeth.

Later the shackles were removed from the monkey and it was placed in the cage, where it ate grapes and looked forlornly at the crowd of staring onlookers.

London The assumption that planting new forests helps limit climate change has been challenged by a new study.Researchers found that in Europe, trees grown since 1750 have actually increased

went before. In the distant past, these forests ran wild - but in the modern world, some 85% of Europe’s trees are managed by humans. And over the past 150 years, foresters have adopted a scientific approach to woodlands

London There was a war of words between the British government and Julian Assange on Friday, with the former dismissing a UN panel’s opinion in his favour as “ridiculous” and the WikiLeaks founder calling it a “vindication” of his position in the prolonged impasse.

Prime Minister David Cameron, foreign secretary Philip Hammond and the Foreign Office were one in rejecting the opinion of the UN working group on arbitrary detention, which said Assange had been “deprived” of his liberty. He has lived in the Ecuadorean embassy since he was granted asylum in 2012.

Cameron’s spokesperson called the panel’s opinion “ridiculous”, while Hammond described Assange as a “fugitive from justice”. Assange called Britain’s response “insulting” to the UN and Hammond’s comments as beneath the dignity of a foreign secretary.Assange, 44, continues to face arrest if he steps out of the Ecuadorean embassy in central London, as Britain said it is obliged to

Wrong type of trees increases global warming

global warming. The scientists believe that replacing broadleaved species with conifers is a key reason for the negative climate impact.

Conifers like pines and spruce are generally darker and absorb more heat than species such as oak and birch. The authors believe the work has implications for current efforts to limit rising temperatures through mass tree planting. Europe’s green canopy was dramatically thinned between 1750 and 1850, when the forested area diminished by 190,000 sq km. Ironically the greater use of fossil fuels, particularly coal, slowed the timber rush, and from 1850 to the present day, Europe’s forests grew by some 386,000 sq km and now cover 10% more land than before the industrial revolution. However, the form and content of these new woods differed considerably from what

- planting faster growing, more commercially valuable trees such as a Scots pine and Norway spruce. The rapid reforestation of great swathes of Europe has generally been seen as a good thing due to the trees’ ability to soak up carbon, something that has become particularly relevant in recent decades.But the new study questions the positive impact of all these new trees on the climate.The research team reconstructed 250 years of forest management history in Europe and found that the way forests are controlled by humans can lead to far less carbon being stored than would have been the case when nature was in charge.

Removing trees in an organised fashion tends to release carbon that would otherwise remain stored in forest litter, dead wood and soil. Choosing conifers over broadleaved varieties also had

significant impacts on the albedo - the amount of solar radiation reflected back into space.

“Even well managed forests today store less carbon than their natural counterparts in 1750,” said Dr Kim Naudts who carried out the study while at the Laboratory of Climate Science and Environment in Gif-surYvette, France. Speaking to Science in Action on the BBC World Service, she said: “Due to the shift to conifer species, there was a warming over Europe of almost 0.12 degrees and that is caused because the conifers are darker and absorb more solar radiation.”The researchers say that the increase in temperature equates to 6% of the global warming attributed to the burning of fossil fuels. They say that is a significant amount and believe that similar impacts are likely in regions where the same type of afforestation has taken place.

Many governments have made planting trees a key part of their plans for dealing with climate change; China is building a “great green wall” of trees, set to cover around 400 million hectares when complete. The authors suggest the world should look carefully at both the types trees that we are planting and the ways in which they are managed. “We shouldn’t put our hopes on forests to mitigate what is an emission problem,” said Dr Naudts.“Our results indicate that in large parts of Europe, a tree planting programme would offset the emissions but it would not cool the planet, especially not if the afforestation is done with conifers.”

execute a European Arrest Warrant on behalf of Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual assault.

As the day’s developments unfolded, Twitter erupted with

completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group’s opinion.“Julian

cryptic comments from people about being “detained” in coffee shops for minutes, or in departmental store queues for some time.The Guardian called it a “publicity stunt”, and said: “WikiLeaks made its name by exposing those who ignored the rule of law. Its editor-in-chief should recognise that applies to him as well as the US government.”As a large number of international journalists gathered outside the embassy, Assange’s aides made presentations at a news conference before he appeared via Skype to make a statement.

He did not take questions, but claimed Britain is obliged to follow the UN panel’s findings.

Hammond said Assange can come out “any time he chooses” but will still have to face justice in Sweden.The Foreign Office said: “This (the UN panel’s ruling) changes nothing.

We

Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK. The opinion of the UN Working Group ignores the facts and the well-recognised protections of the British legal system. He is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy.”

It added, “An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden. As the UK is not a party to the Caracas Convention, we do not recognise ‘diplomatic asylum’.”

Scotland Yard said it will make “every effort” to arrest Assange should he leave the embassy.

After exhausting legal avenues in Britain to prevent extradition to Sweden to face the allegations of sexual assault, Assange was given asylum by Ecuador in 2012.

1st Iranian woman in space Singapore city If you ask me what my greatest dream is, I’ll probably tell you it’s going to space. It doesn’t even have to be that far out - a round trip to the International Space Station and back will do (can you tell I’m thinking small here?). Since there’s little chance of me doing that anytime soon, though, I could settle for shaking hands with someone who’s already been there.

Anousheh Ansari is a computer scientist, an entrepreneur and the first Muslim woman to go to space - not to mention the first woman to do so using her own funds. I caught up with her much closer to the ground, in Singapore, where she flew in to support the UN Women Singapore Committee for ending violence against women. Going to space was Anousheh’s lifelong dream, along with becoming an astrophysicist.

Growing up in her homeland, Iran, she would lie in her balcony and get lost in the night skies, dreaming she would one day be among the stars. “I was fascinated by the sheer mystery of space, what’s out there, what’s it like, and how I could get there,” she says. The stars

looked pretty far away in 1984, five years after the Iranian revolution, when she and her family left the country for a better life in the United States. There she studied electrical engineering and computer

science. After meeting her husband, Hamid Ansari, she went into the telecommunications business. Together, they founded telecommunications company Telecom Technologies in 1993.

To put that into context, 1993 was the year when Marc Andreessen and his team released Mosaic, the first web browser. Telecom Technologies developed a method for enabling voice communications over the internet. In 2001, it merged with IP-based voice infrastructure products company Sonus Networks, in a US$750 million deal. It was the middle of the US dotcom crash.

Issue - 653 (34)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

How an Indian-origin MP in Canada is helping Syrian refugees On December 10 last year, as the first planeload of Syrian refugees arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport and was greeted

by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the official welcoming party that accompanied him featured someone who himself had landed in Canada 43 years earlier as a refugee.

That’s Arif Virani, freshman member of Parliament from the Toronto constituency of Parkdale-High Park, who was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister for citizenship, immigration and refugees in November, and is now assisting his senior cabinet colleague in what is the most high-profile undertaking of the Trudeau regime - resettling 25,000 refugees by the end of February.“What’s nice about the specific portfolio that’s been given to me is that I’m now the parliamentary secretary to the minister while we’re in the middle of one of the biggest refugee resettlement projects that we’ve undertaken in the country’s history. I’m squarely integrated in that role and I’m sort of working with the minister directly,” Virani said in an interview at his office in Toronto.1972 was the year Ugandan dictator Idi Amin

banished those of Asian origin, mostly Indians, from the African country, and Virani’s parents,

transpired when we arrived in Montreal in 1972 has been told to me - the reception we

along with his then four-year-old sister and the toddler arrived at Montreal’s Dorval airport.

He said of his recent experience at the airport (and he’s returned since to greet more batches at the arrival hall): “It was significant for me to see so many kids, eight-months-old, ten-monthsold, a year, the exact same age I was when I arrived, and thinking about what the future holds for them. That gave me some cause to reflect on my journey.”

It’s also an assignment that is “very very significant” to his refugee parents.

“They’re extremely proud that I’m working on this project and all of my understanding of what

received, the hospitality of the people of Quebec.”

There’s also the recollection of having been housed at YMCA in Montreal, one that resonates in the current context of the Canadian government scrambling for temporary lodgings for the new immigrants.

The logistics have been challenging, most particularly

when it comes to security screening of the incoming immigrants, given the anxiety over infiltration by Islamic State elements that has been rife (and accentuated since the Paris terror attacks). Unlike those that entered Europe, the security vetting is being undertaken at the “frontend”, in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

Virani said of that multi-stage system: “We’ve ensured all of the requisite security qualifications and screens are met. People are screened initially, they then go through a 45-minute to one-hour interview.

Fingerprint analysis, iris scans and full biometric data is compiled on the individual.

“We then run all of that data through a Canadian and American database, which has more than assuaged any of the concerns of our American allies.

When they board the plane, they are checked once again. When they arrive, they are verified once

more.”It’s a fairly onerous task as 500 federal personnel have been deployed in places like Amman and Beirut and process nearly 800 daily claims.

There is hope that such measures are allaying any residual fears. “We’re making sure that security threats are not being accepted into the country,” Virani asserted.

Virani’s roots are in Ahmedabad, though he was born in Kampala.

This human rights lawyer has had the opportunity to work both in that city and New Delhi. And in recent years, those ties have strengthened since his wife is from Kanpur.

“My first son, when he was born, we took him there when he was nine-months-old and he first learnt to crawl in Kanpur at his nanima’s childhood home,” Virani said. A cricket fan, he watched some Delhi Daredevils games at the Ferozshah Kotla in 2008, the inaugural year of the Indian Premier League.

French linguistic purists have voiced online anger at the loss of one of their favourite accents the pointy little “circumflex” hat that sits on top of certain vowels.

A change in the spelling of some 2,000 French words will come into effect in new primary school textbooks being released for the start of the school year in September, the education ministry and publishers announced.

The circumflex accent will become optional for many words, as will other spelling changes which have purists rubbing their eyes - much like the effect of peeling an onion, which can now be spelled “ognon” as well as the traditional “oignon”.However the changes, which have caused uproar on French Twitter, were first approved by the prestigious guardians of the French language, the Academie Francaise, in 1990.Since then both versions have been accepted, but the new spellings only began appearing in official documents in the past few years.And the 2015 official

“bulletin on new school teaching curricula” refers to the 1990 changes as the gold standard for teaching spelling.

“What is new is a more explicit reference” to the reformed spelling in official material, said Sylvie Marce of the textbook publisher Belin. Some publishers had already made the changes.

The changes were made to fix spelling anomalies and inconsistencies, according to a website devoted to the recommended spelling, w w w. o r t h o g r a p h e - r e c o m mandee.info.

It adds hyphens, takes them away, tweaks spellings and removes the circumflex from the ‘i’ and the ‘u’ where the accent makes no change to accent or meaning.The circumflex is “one of the main causes of errors and its usage is random,” said the website. But many are not convinced.“I will continue to use the circumflex, and to judge those who don’t,” wrote one Twitter user.

The hashtag #JeSuisCircumflex (I am

circumflex), a nod to the Je Suis Charlie phrase which swept social media after a jihadist attack in January last year, went viral in France.

In other changes, “week-end”, becomes “weekend” as in English, but the word “leader” takes on a more French spelling of “leadeur” in the recommended spelling.

“This has been the official spelling in the Republic for 25 years. What is suprising is that we are surprised,” said Michel Lussault, president of the school curriculum board.

“There were strange spelling anomalies linked to historic shifts so the Academie really made sure these changes were understandable,” he said. It was not an upheaval, he added, more a “clean-up”.

When making the new spelling recommendations in 1990, the then “perpetual secretary” of the Academie Francais Maurice Druon wrote that “language is a living thing,” adding: “Work should begin again in 30 years, if not earlier.”

French purists vexed at demise of circumflex

Record 32-million-euro auction sale for 1957 Ferrari

A legendary 1950s Ferrari has fetched a world record 32 million euros ($35 million) at auction, going under the hammer in Paris. Applause broke out after the hammer came down on the bidding for the 1957 335 S Spider Scaglietti at the Artcurial auction house just off the ChampsElysees. In a sale that generated interest from around the world, the race car fetched 28 million euros plus premiums and taxes taking the overall price to just over 32 million euros.

The Spider - which beat the record set in 2014 when a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for what was the equivalent of 28.9 million euros - finished sixth in the Sebring 12 Hours race in 1957 and second in the Mille Miglia 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) road race in Italy. Thereafter the car was returned to the factory to have its engine size boosted from

3.6 to 4.1-litres - boosting power from 360 to 400 horsepower, allowing a top speed of 300 kilometres an hour (186 mph).The Ferrari enabled the Italian manufacturer to win the Constructors’ World Championship title in 1957. The identity of the purchaser of the Spider was not revealed following Friday’s deal but is US-based, according to Matthieu Lamoure, director general of Artcurial motorcars.

“Clearly, we won’t soon forget,” Lamoure told journalists after the hammer came down on the record sale, bidding having started at 20 million euros.

The sleek machine had belonged to the family collection of late French racing driver Pierre Bardinon, who died in 2012.

Legendary British driver Mike Hawthorn drove the Spider in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1957.

Issue 653 (35)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

T20 World No 1 ranking on the line as India take on Sri Lanka India will look to cement their number one status in the Twenty20 format when they begin a three-match series against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, their final work-

out on home soil before hosting the World T20.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side vaulted seven places in the T20 rankings after their recent 3-0 away series win against Australia, and will look to build on their momentum when they face the Graham Ford-coached Sri Lanka.

The series is Ford’s first assignment since returning for a second stint in

charge of the islanders last week.

After a relatively disappointing tour of Australia, India’s spin king Ravichandran Ashwin will

look to the series as an opportunity to get back in the groove ahead of the Asia Cup, which will be hosted by Bangladesh, ahead of the World T20.

Ashwin, the world’s top spinner in Test cricket, was outshone Down Under

by Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah but the conditions back home are expected to suit him well.

Dhoni is a big fan of the

lanky off-spinnner and told reporters last month that Ashwin’s dip in form was due in part to the side’s increasing reliance on him in all formats.

“He just makes my job slightly easy, especially for a consistent period of time when my fast bowlers have not done well,” Dhoni said in Australia.

“It is good to have him and I think he is a great asset to the side irrespective of the format.”

Kohli rested Star batsman Virat Kohli has been rested but India’s other big names are set to

IPL no yardstick to select players for Tests, ODIs, says MS Dhoni India’s limited overs captain captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Monday said that IPL cannot be the yardstick to pick players for the hard grind of inter-

national cricket, particularly Tests and the 50-over format.

Dhoni felt the lucrative Indian Premier League can be, at best, termed a good place to spot emerging talent. “I have always said

IPL is a platform where you found out the talent. After that you follow them in domestic circuit and see how well they are performing. In IPL you can get away with

a lot of things. But to select proper Test or 50-over cricketers on IPL performance, I don’t think would be right,” said Dhoni at a media conference here ahead of India’s opening T20 International against

Sri Lanka tomorrow.

Dhoni, who will be leading the newly formed IPL franchise team Rising Pune Super Giants in the T20 league’s ninth edition in April-May, also spoke about the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s International Stadium at Gahunje here, which will be the team’s home venue in the tournament. “The wicket here is a bit more settled now. It’s not a very big ground, it’s a decentsized ground and the straight boundaries are not very long. Though it’s a bit away from the city, the crowds come in big numbers and are also very supportive.”

Dhoni said he has other reasons to like Pune as a venue. “It has been a special ground.

feature against Sri Lanka, who are the reigning World T20 champions and could leapfrog their hosts in the rankings if they pull off a surprise victory.

Kohli has been replaced by Manish Pandey, who struck a century in the last of the ODIs in Australia but failed to make the cut for the World T20 squad that was announced on Friday.

The series could see the young Delhi all-rounder Pawan Negi handed a debut after he was surprisingly picked in the 15-man World T20 squad.

While India carry a familiar look, Sri Lanka have been forced to field a depleted side with a number of their top players staying at home.

The likes of regular T20 skipper Lasith Malinga, Test captain Angelo Mathews and premier spinner Rangana Herath are racing against time to get fit for the World T20.

India are favourites for ICC World Twenty20 says Sachin Tendulkar Former India chief and symbol Sachin Tendulkar feels that India have a good chance to win the forthcoming World T20 at home.

“We have a good chance, As far as the T20s are concerned, I surmise that the team is well balanced, With senior members joining the squad, he youngsters being there and also guys who have been around for a while…

They all as a package have performed really well,” Sachin told a television channel.

Young pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who inspired in the T20I series in Australia, earned Sachin’s commendation while he was talking on the team combination. “You see the way Bumrah bowled well and grab wickets in Australia was brilliant… And it’s additionally decent to have

somebody like Ashish Nehra back… Yuvi is also back in the squad, Harbhajan arrives… All these guys together is a considerable combination.

I would need India to go the

distance in the World T20,” Sachin said. Talking on India’s fantastic performance in the T20I series against Australia, in which Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men blanked the hosts 30, Sachin praised the effort saying that the team played “impressive” cricket.

PCB takes up bilateral India series cancellation issue with ICC The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken up the issue of cancellation of bilateral series with India last December, as per an MOU signed between the two boards in 2014 to play six bilateral series, with the ICC. An official in the board told PTI that chairman Shaharyar Khan had brought up the issue at the recent ICC board meeting in Dubai and stressed the need for boards to respect bilateral agreements.

“Shaharyar did take up this issue at the ICC meeting and pointed out that India had not played Pakistan in a bilateral series since 2007 and it had caused loss of millions of dollars to the PCB in estimated revenues,” the official said.

He said Shaharyar made the point that if the BCCI had to seek government clearance to play Pakistan in a bilateral series it should not have signed the MOU in the first place.

“He made the point that it was strange that when In-

dia can host Pakistan at home for an ICC event like the World T20 it was reluctant to play in a bilateral series and constantly kept

ries last December was also mentioned. As part of the MOU Pakistan was to host India for a series in December in the UAE but

on giving the excuse of not having government clearance,” another source said. The source said that Shaharyar had stressed that the PCB wanted good relations with the BCCI but the MOU was a legal binding document to play bilateral series and the PCB had the option of using it to seek compensation.

The role of the England and Wales cricket board president Giles Clarke in trying to set up the bilateral se-

after talks between the two boards, also involving Clarke, it was decided to have a short one-day series in Sri Lanka. “But even that proposal was not possible later on when the Indian board said it had not got government clearance,” the source said. He said Shaharyar had made the point at the meeting that the Pakistan government had always supported having bilateral cricket ties with India.

Issue 653 (36)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Hafiz Saeed warns India over Kashmir, says it would have to pay heavy price Lahore JuD chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed Friday led a march in Islamabad and his outfit across several cities, ranting on the Kashmir issue, showing defiance in the face of India asking Pakistan to “rein in” the terror group.

A day after Saeed warned of more Pathankot-style attacks, the Jamaat Ud-Dawah men took out rallies in cities like Lahore, Faisalabad,

Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Muzaffarabad to mark

‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’.

The JuD chief led the rally in Islamabad while his rela-

‘Pak-based’ groups hack IRS website New Delhi Suspected Pakistan-based groups have hacked the official web portal of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) belonging to the Income Tax department.

Officials said the website www.irsofficersonline.gov.in was hacked early Saturday and it has been rendered inaccessible since then.

They said messages were posted on the link like “Pakistan Zindabad” and “we are team Pak cyber attacker”.

The website, which acts as an official communicator between the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the I-T department field offices in the country, has put up a message saying, “We’ll be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we- ‘re performing some maintenance at the moment.”

tive Hafiz Abdur Rehman Maki addressed a big gathering in Lahore.

The ruling PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami and other political and religious parties also held rallies to express solidarity with Kashmiris.

The JuD also held several camps in Lahore which showed videos about “atrocities” in Kashmir on big screens.

Addressing a ‘Solidarity Kashmir Conference’ in Mirpur yesterday, Saeed said “Pakistan should be thankful” to Kashmiri militant leader Syed Salahuddin, who heads the United Jihad Council that had claimed responsibility for the Pathankot terror attack. “Syed Salahuddin is a great well-wisher of Pakistan. He has taken Pakistan out of trouble by accepting the responsibility of Pathankot airbase attack. Pakistan should be thankful to him,” said the founder leader of banned Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Urdu poet Nida Fazli dies at 78

New Delhi Renowned Urdu and Hindi poet Nida Fazli, 78, died in Mumbai on Monday, reports Aak Tak. Born in Delhi on October 12, 1938 and raised in Gwalior, Mukhtda Hassan Nija Fazli, wrote under the pen name Nida Fazli.

Nida loosely translates to voice while Fazli is a region in Kashmir where his ancestors hailed from before settling in Delhi. Nida completed his graduation from Gwalior College in

1957 and began writing from an early age.

Fazli is famous for his collaboration with the late ghazal singer Jagjit Singh.

Incidentally, today is also Singh’s birthday.

Some of his popular ghazals include Hosh Walon Ko (sung by Jagjit Singh), Tu Is Tarah Se Meri Zindagi Mein Shaamil Hai (sung by Manhar Udhas) and Kiska Chehra (sung by Jagjit Singh and Alka Yagnik). He has also written lyrics for films and TV.

Issue 653 (37)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Health Epilepsy drug brings hope for multiple sclerosis patients A commonly-used epilepsy drug has brought hope for multiple sclerosis sufferers as it may help prevent nerve damage.

The University College Lon-

don study found that the drug phenytoin slowed the progress of optic neuritis, a symptom leading to blurred vision, and scientists believe it could have

a similar protective effect throughout the brain.

Currently there are no neuroprotective drugs available for MS sufferers, whose nerve fibres are at-

tacked by their own immune system.

In the study, 86 people with acute optic neuritis were either given phenytoin or an inactive placebo

“dummy drug” for three months and at the end of the trial, the group who received the genuine drug had on average 30 percent less damage to the nerve fibre layer at the back of the eye.

Lead researcher Dr Raj Kapoor said that these are promising results and if the findings are confirmed by larger, Phase III trials, could lead to a new treatment that protects nerves from the damage caused both in optic neuritis and throughout the central nervous system in other attacks of MS. The findings are reported in the journal The Lancet Neurology.

Lose fat, gain muscles with diet and exercise Canadian researchers have found new dietary regimen for losing fat while gaining muscle, an oft-debated problem for those trying to manage their weight, control calories and balance protein consumption.

The study has established that it is possible to achieve both -- muscles and lose fat quickly and at the same time, the researchers, from the McMaster University in Ontatrio, Canada, said.

For the study, 40 young men underwent a month of hard exercise while cutting dietary energy they would normally require by 40 percent of what they would normally require. “These guys were in rough shape,

but that was part of the plan. We wanted to see how quickly we could get them into shape: Lose some fat, but still retain their muscle and improve their strength and fitness,” said

Stuart Phillips, a professor at McMaster. Exercise, particularly lifting weights, provides a signal for muscle to be retained even when you’re in a big calorie deficit, the research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,

revealed. However, the researchers cautioned that this regimen is not for everyone. The researchers divided their subjects into two groups. Both groups went on a low calorie diet, one with higher levels of protein than the other. The higher-protein group experienced muscle gains -- about 2.5 pounds -despite consuming insufficient energy, while the lower protein group did not add muscle. The high-protein group also lost more body fat. The results showed that the high-protein group lost about 10.5 pounds and the low protein group only eight pounds.

Mindfulness meditation improves health Much of the health benefits associated with mindfulness meditation training is due to the changes that this form of meditation causes in the brain, suggests new research.

In mindfulness meditation people make a conscious, focused practice of at-

tending to their current state and sensations.

“We have now seen that mindfulness meditation training can reduce inflammatory biomarkers in several initial studies, and this new work sheds light into what mindfulness training is doing to the

brain to produce these inflammatory health benefits,” said lead author David Creswell, associate professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US. Published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, the new study showed that

mindfulness meditation training, compared to relaxation training, reduces Interleukin-6, an inflammatory health biomarker, in

day programme.

They also provided blood samples right before the intervention began and at a four-month follow-up.

meditation program also had reduced IL-6 levels, and the changes in brain functional connectivity coupling accounted for the

high-stress, unemployed community adults.

For the randomised controlled trial, 35 job-seeking, stressed adults were exposed to either an intensive three-day mindfulness meditation retreat programme or a wellmatched relaxation retreat programme that did not have a mindfulness component. All participants completed a five-minute resting state brain scan before and after the three-

The brain scans showed that mindfulness meditation training increased the functional connectivity of the participants’ resting default mode network in areas important to attention and executive control, namely the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Participants who received the relaxation training did not show these brain changes.

The participants who completed the mindfulness

lower inflammation levels.

“We think that these brain changes provide a neurobiological marker for improved executive control and stress resilience, such that mindfulness meditation training improves your brain’s ability to help you manage stress, and these changes improve a broad range of stress-related health outcomes, such as your inflammatory health,” Creswell said.

By keeping your kitchen clean, you can stay slim Cluttered kitchens are calorie-inducing kitchens with chaotic environments likely to lead people to grab

twice as many cookies compared to those in a cleaner kitchen, finds a new study. According to researchers, when stressed out females were asked to wait in a messy

kitchen -- with newspapers on the table, dishes in the sink, and the phone ringing -- they ate twice as

many cookies compared to women in an organised kitchen. “Being in a chaotic environment and feeling out of control is bad for diet. It seems to lead people to think, ‘Everything

else is out of control, so why shouldn’t I be’,” said lead author Lenny Vartanian from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

“I suspect the same would hold with males,” Vartanian adds. For the study, conducted at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and published in Environment and Behaviour, 101 females participated with half of them waiting in a cluttered kitchen with scattered piles of papers and dirty dishes, while the other half waited in an organised kitchen. Both kitchens had bowls of cookies, crackers, and carrots.

Issue 653 (38)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

Cancer: Early warning Top five superfoods you should eat to live longer! signs you shouldn’t ignore!

Do you know eating a healthy diet can increase your lifespan? Well, a healthy diet is very important to live a long and healthy life. Besides physical activities, diet also helps at preventing chronic disease and promotes good health and longevity.

One should make sure that they eat nutrient-dense foods that strengthen the immune system and could add years to life by good health.

Here are some food items that you should eat to live longer: Green vegetables One should include lots green vegetables in their daily diet as they are rich in nutrients and super low in calories. They are good for blood vessels, promote good eyesight, and also lowers the risk for diabetes.

Beans Eating of beans is good for health as they have a sta-

bilizing effect on blood sugar and also help in preventing food cravings. The soluble fiber in the beans lowers cholesterol levels .

Onions Regular consumption of onion is good for health as it boosts our cardiovascular and immune systems and also lower the risk of gastric and prostate cancers.

Mushrooms Mushrooms are one of the most health-promoting foods because of its unique taste and contain compounds that block the production of estrogen, making them beneficial for breast cancer prevention.

Berries Berries like blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are one of the best foods that you can eat as they all are low in sugar but high in nutrients.

Regular consumption of berries lowers the risk for heart disease, diabetes

and cancers.

So, people include these food items in your daily diet to lead a long and healthy life!

We all get scared whenever we hear the word ‘C’, but the question is - are we aware of the warning signs that tell we might have cancer? You may or may not know, yet knowing the symptoms would help you reduce the risk of getting the disease.

Moreover, treatment works best when cancer is diagnosed early.

Here are some early signs and symptoms of cancer that you shouldn’t ignore: • Persistent cough • Breathlessness • Unexplained weight loss • New mole or changes to a mole • Unusual lump • Blood in vomit, urine or faeces, bleeding between

periods • Problems peeing • A sore that does not heal • Unexplained fatigue • Persistent bloating

that need to be more discreet. For instance like pancreatic cancer – this type of cancer may not show any warning signs

• Heavy night sweats • Unusual breast changes • Unexplained pain or ache • Relentless heartburn While these are some common symptoms of cancer, there are certain forms

until it has reached to an advanced stage.

So, if you spot something that isn’t normal for you or doesn’t vanish on its own, make sure that you get it checked.

Top five foods for a flat tummy!

Having a flat and toned belly is a dream for almost every woman. In order to achieve this fast, you need to adopt a waist-whittling diet plan, apart from your daily dose of exercise.

Here are some foods that will help shrink your belly quickly while maintaining a healthy metabolism: • Beans and legumes– these superfoods help build muscle and burn fat.

• Almonds– nuts contain filling protein, fiber and vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant.

Eating almonds and other nuts can help reduce cravings.

• Red peppers– Peppers are also filled with vitamin C, a nutrient needed for fat burn-

ing. Studies suggest that the beta carotene and lycopene in pepper can help in losing weight.

• Spinach– Research has

found that this green leavy vegetable can help you lose weight by curbing cravings for unhealthy foods - sweet treats and junk food.

• Apples– Low in calories, but high in hunger-satiating fiber – which help in suppressing food intake. Apples are also packed with vitamins.

5 homemade fruit packs that’ll make you glow instantly

What better way to pamper your skin than with fresh fruits that are free of toxins and not harmful to your skin? Unlike the chemical beauty treatments, seasonal fruits are cost-effective, natural and also bring a visible difference to your skin. Just use their pulp and mix it with few other ingredients to infuse fresh glow onto your face.

To aid to some more on the topic, Renowned Aesthetician & Cosmetologist and Founder-Director of Alps Beauty Clin-

ics, Ms. Bharti Taneja, shares some effective fruitpacks to make you glow from within.

Banana nourish This remedy is a boon for ladies with dry-skin. For this, beat a mashed banana and milk together so that it emerges as a thick paste.

Now, add few drops of lemon and half teaspoon of calamine powder to it – apply and wash off for a smooth-textured skin!

Regular usage will give desirable results.

Orange power Orange is as beneficial as it’s tasty! It can work a wonder-brightener for your skin in a jiffy. Start-off with this remedy by adding 2 tbsp orange juice into a spoon of fresh milk-cream – along with 1tbsp powdered fuller earth. Apply it as a face-pack until it dries and wash off to reveal fairer, suppler skin. Orange will act a perfect tanning-removal agent while the milkcream will help soothe the dryness of your skin.

Apple glow

To give glowing effect to your tired skin, apple mask plays the trick. For this, first make a paste by grinding a fresh apple and adding raw milk, milk powder and fuller earth power to it. Now whip this pack until it gains uniformity.

Apply it all over you face, relax for 15 minutes and rinse with water. The treatment softens, rejuvenates and restores its natural PH balance thus making it glow beyond anyone’s imagination.

Strawberry magic Make a paste by mixing mashed strawberry pulp with fresh cream (malai).

Now whip it and add kaolin powder. Let it sit for few minutes and apply a thin layer of this pack. Wait till it dries and wash off to reveal even-textured skin.

While strawberry will

lighten the color and tighten the texture you skin malai will nourish it from deep within.

Coconut trick This one might be the simplest of all – but is simply too effective as well. Coconut water is considered quite helpful for treating ugly blemishes and spots.

Mix 1tbsp of coco water with 2 tbsp calamine powder and few drops of honey. Slather it all over the face and let it work for few minutes. Now, rinse away and repeat every alternate day to achieve faster effect. Coconut water is rich with antioxidants and make the skin glow.

Do’s and don’ts while making and applying a fruitpack: Always make sure to grind you pack well. This will let you have the maximum

impact of your fruit as granulated packs are more likely to drip-off and take more time in drying. Make it a point to mix either calamine or kaolin powder or even powdered fuller earth, to your pack in order to give it the needed density.

This will make it easy for you to apply the pack without dripping it. Do not apply the pack around your eyes as this area is quite sensitive and might react easily. When going for any citrus fruit – make sure to mix it with two or more other ingredients – Lessen the acidic nature of such fruits. Be sure to do a patch test of the fruit-pack on a small area behind you ear – to check your skin’s sensitivity to that pack.

Apply it for 2-3 minutes and wash off and wait for 24 hours before going for it.

Issue 653 (39)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016

toasted ravioli

Shrimp and Asparagus

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons whole milk 1 egg 3/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional) 1/2 (25 ounce) package frozen cheese ravioli, thawed 3 cups vegetable oil for frying 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese 1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce Directions: Combine milk and egg in a small bowl.

Place breadcrumbs and if desired, salt in a shallow bowl. Dip ravioli in milk mixture, and coat with breadcrumbs.

In a large saucepan, heat marinara sauce over medium heat until bubbling.

Reduce the heat to simmer.

In a large heavy pan, pour oil to depth

Ingredients: 1 pound fresh asparagus 1 (16 ounce) package egg noodles 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 cup butter 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 pound medium shrimp - peeled and deveined 1 pound fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese salt and pepper to taste Directions: In a small saucepan, boil or steam asparagus in enough water to cover until tender; chop and set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to full boil, place the pasta in the pot and return to a rolling boil; cook until al dente. Drain well.

of 2 inches. Heat oil over medium heat until a small amount of breading sizzles and turns brown. Fry ravioli, a few at a time, 1 minute on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately with hot marinara sauce.

Ham and Cheese Bowties

Grilled Fish Steaks Ingredients: 1 clove garlic, minced 6 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 2 (6 ounce) fillets halibut Directions: In a stainless steel or glass bowl, combine garlic, olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and parsley.

Place the halibut filets in a shallow glass dish or a resealable plastic bag, and pour the marinade over the fish. Cover or seal and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil grate. Set grate 4 inches from the heat.

In a large saucepan, saute garlic in the olive oil over medium-low heat until the garlic is golden brown. Place butter and lemon juice in the saucepan. Heat until the butter has melted. Place the shrimp in the saucepan and cook until the shrimp turns pink. Place the mushrooms and asparagus into the saucepan, cook until mushrooms are tender. Toss the shrimp and vegetable mixture with the egg noodles and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Remove halibut filets from marinade and drain off the excess. Grill filets 5 minutes per side or until fish is done when easily flaked with a fork.

Ingredients: 8 ounces farfalle (bow tie) pasta 1/4 cup butter 1 clove garlic, minced 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard 2 1/2 cups shredded Colby cheese 4 ounces cooked ham, julienned 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Saute gar-

Chicken with Quinoa and Veggies

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients: 1 cup rinsed quinoa 2 cups chicken broth 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 garlic scapes, chopped 1 small onion, chopped 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 zucchini, diced 1 tomato, diced 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese 8 fresh basil leaves 1 tablespoon lime juice Directions: Bring the quinoa and chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan; reduce heat to a simmer and cover the pan. Simmer until the broth is absorbed, the quinoa is

Ingredients: 1 (12 ounce) package macaroni 1 egg 2 cups milk 2 tablespoons butter, melted 2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese salt and pepper to taste Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish.

In a large pot of salted water, lightly boil the macaroni for about 5 minutes until half-cooked.

Whisk the egg and milk together in a large cup. Add butter and cheese to the egg and milk. Stir well.

Place the lightly cooked macaroni in the prepared baking dish. Pour the egg

fluffy, and the white line is visible in the grain, about 12 minutes. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet; cook and stir the garlic scapes and onion until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the chicken breast strips and cook until the chicken is still slightly pink in the middle, about 5 more minutes. Remove the chicken meat and set aside.

Pour 2 more tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet and cook and stir the zucchini and tomato until the zucchini is tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Return chicken to skillet and sprinkle with feta cheese, basil leaves, and lime juice. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked and hot, about 10 more minutes. Serve over hot quinoa.

lic 30 seconds. Whisk in flour, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until smooth. Pour in milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir in mustard and Colby. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and stir in pasta and ham. Pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until bubbly and golden.

and cheese liquid over the macaroni, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stir well.

Press the mixture evenly around the baking dish.

Bake uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the top is brown.

Issue 653 (40)

9 Feb. - 15 Feb. 2016