The contact

THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 646, 22 DEC. - 28 DEC. 2015 PH: (905) 671 - 4761

Islamic State lost 14 per cent of its territory in 2015 London The Islamic State (IS) group lost around 14 percent of its territory in 2015, while Syria’s Kurds almost tripled the land they control, thinktank IHS Jane’s said on Monday.

The development is a blow to the group given that its aim is to capture and hold territory to expand its so-called “caliphate”, where it imposes a severe and bloody form of what it calls Islamic law. The jihadist group’s losses include the strategically important town of Tal Abyad on Syria’s border with Turkey, the Iraqi city of Tikrit, and Iraq’s Baiji refinery. Other big losses

for the group include a stretch of highway between its Syrian stronghold Raqa and Mosul in northern Iraq, complicating supply lines.

“We had already seen a negative financial impact on the Islamic State due to the loss of control of the Tal Abyad border crossing

prior to the recent intensification of air strikes against the group’s oil production capacity,” said Columb Strack, IHS senior Middle East analyst. The USbased thinktank Continued on Page 2

Mumbai to Syria: More men from Malwani have joined ISIS he had to get his name in his Aadhar card corrected.

“The same day Mohsin and Wajid left home, more men from the group also went missing,” said an ATS officer, refusing to divulge any detail about them.

“They are missing since the same afternoon and are yet to be contacted. The group had more friends who were planning to leave A day after indian newspapers broke the news about how three men from Malwani may have left to join the Islamic State, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said some more of their friends are also missing, and suspects they too have gone to join the jihadist outfit in Syria.Top sources told reporters that at least two youngsters who are friends of the three missing men haven’t returned home since December 15. The ATS

added it has stopped a third group of youngsters who were also about to leave their homes. Three Malwani-based youth are missing since October 30 and their families believe they left home to join the ISIS. Ayaz Sultan (23) left home on October 30, saying he had to go to Pune in connection with a job offer he had from a Kuwait based company.

Mohsin Sheikh (26) left home on December 15, saying he was going for a

friend’s wedding, and Wajid Sheikh (25) also left home on December 15, saying

home but were saved by the ATS team after Continued on Page 2

Rajoana attacks journalist Sandhu in jail, senior official suspended

Patiala Two officials of the Patiala central jail, including an assistant superintendent of jails, were placed under suspension on Saturday after Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is facing gallows in the Beant Singh murder case, manhandled senior journalist Kanwar Sandhu on the jail premises after Sandhu, along with controversial dismissed cop Gurmeet Singh Pinky, had gained access to the high-security prison to “interview” Rajoana.

While ADGP prisons RP Meena has ordered a factfinding probe following the incident, authorities said Pinky connived with assistant superintendent of jails Jagmel Singh to gain entry for himself and Sandhu to the jail.

When contacted, DIG prisons LS Jakhar, who is conducting the probe, said that according to preliminary information, Rajoana was to meet his sister Kamaldeep Kaur and her husband Baljit Singh on Saturday Continued on Page 2

Issue - 646 (2)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Rajoana attacks journalist Sandhu in jail...

Continued from Page 1 and the meeting time was fixed. However, during that time, other than Baljit, Sandhu and Pinky managed to enter the jail.

“Pinky said something

argument, the rest is rumour,” he said. In a Facebook post, Sandhu termed the incident as “unfortunate”, adding, “The meeting was fixed by her for today. She insisted that

Sandhu's turban fell off his head after the attack by Rajoana about wanting to meet the superintendent regarding his case at the gate and headed for the superintendent’s office.

Sandhu went to meet Rajoana. The next we came to know was that a heated argument ensued between the two and Rajoana manhandled Sandhu. The jail staff intervened and overpowered Rajoana,” said Jakhar.

Sources said that as Baljit was sitting in the waiting area and Pinky in Jagmel’s room, Sandhu met Rajoana. “Rajoana objected to Sandhu having levelled baseless allegations against him at Pinky’s behest. When Rajoana came to know that Pinky had accompanied Sandhu, he manhandled Sandhu, pushed him and punched him,” said a jail insider.

Jakhar said he had asked the officials to preserve all video recordings, as the department would investigate the episode and fix the responsibility. “The department is contemplating action against Sandhu and Pinky for trespassing into jail through unfair means, without seeking any official permission to meet an inmate. We will act as per law and the guilty will be booked for trespassing into jail,” the DIG added.

When contacted, Sandhu denied that he had been manhandled by Rajoana. “It was only a heated

I ask Gurmeet Singh Pinky to come so that he could be face to face with Rajoana. I asked Pinky, if he could. He said, fine. She said that her husband would go along with me to meet Rajoana. Her husband spoke to me on the way (to check if I was coming) and then at the jail gate. I was ushered into the jail and when I met Rajoana, her husband was also sitting there. Pinky was not with me. When I met Rajoana and the other gentleman, an argument ensued and when I noticed that Rajoana and the other person were getting violent, I tried to move away. The jail officials intervened and lest the situation gets out of hand, I moved out of the jail.

Rajoana’s sister has posted a comment on her facebook page. I posted my own comments there but these were removed. In this post, she has accused me of yellow journalism at the behest of the government. I will not join issue with her as she claims to be an honourable person. I would only say that on my journalism, I would want my work to speak for itself.

Nothing more to say. If they say that it is okay to insult or attack a person after inviting him, God Bless them. Just to say that I am fine and my nose is fine too (contrary to what PTC channel is saying)!

Meanwhile, Kamaldeep Kaur, on her Facebook

page, accused Sandhu of indulging in “yellow journalism” as part of a deep-rooted conspiracy.

She claimed that her family had approached Sandhu for Rajoana’s version on the allegations levelled against him by Pinky in his videotaped interviews to Sandhu.

“We said that Pinky be brought face to face with Rajoana. Today, Pinky and Sandhu reached the jail and entered the office near the meeting area laced with several armed gunmen. “Veerji (Rajoana) was in the meeting area behind the wire mesh when Sandhu came to meet him accompanied by a police official. Before the meeting could begin, the official asked veerji to come out to record the meeting. Veerji told the official that since they had brought him (Sandhu) here, the meeting would happen inside and not outside. The official was trying to force veerji to come out. Veerji told Sandhu that it was his duty to have taken his version before posting the videos.”

Kamaldeep has not made any mention of what happened next. She also “released” a letter written

by Rajoana on her Facebook page, which says, “Sandhu, in league with Pinky, is working at the behest of the government, and I am not answerable to him.” He said he never met Pinky, as claimed by the latter in an interview to Sandhu. An exclusive footage from the Patiala Jail reveals journalist Kanwar Sandhu being attacked.

Kanwar Sandhu is seen running out of the Jail cell with his blue turban in his hand.

The footage reveals Gurmeet Pinky did walk in with Kanwar Sandhu but wasn’t present with him while meeting Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana. Kanwar Sandhu can be seen running out of the jail cell but Pinky is now where to be seen. The video footage appears to confirm Kanwar Sandhu’s video and text accounts of what exactly happened.

The New Zealand Institute of Technical Training College, Manukau, held Convocation Ceremony for its graduates on December 10, 2015 in which 60 graduates were conferred with degrees. The ceremony was attended by the students and many dignitaries. Among the attendees were present Kulbir Singh (MD), Gurdeep Singh (CEO), Jaswinder Singh (HRM Director), Vinod Juneja (Marketing Manager), England, Losa, Bhagyesh, Gary, Popo and Sukhvir Kaur.

Mumbai to Syria: More men from Malwani have....

Continued from Page 1 the matter came up. They are currently being questioned in the matter.

All of them were in constant contact on WhatsApp and Facebook.

They used to regularly meet at a particular location in the area.”

Maharashtra ATS Chief Vivek Phansalkar told midday: “We are taking the matter very seriously and have sought the help of other agencies in the investigation. We are also probing what triggered these men to leave home.

What we know is that none of the reasons these men gave their family while leaving is correct.”

Better coordination Each city police station has a dedicated cell of

Islamic State lost 14 per cent of its...

Continued from Page 1 said the group’s territory had shrunk 12,800 square kilometres to 78,000 square km between the start of the year and December 14.

However, IS has made some high-profile gains during the year, including the historic Syrian town of Palmyra and the city centre of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province. IHS said those victories came at the expense of the group’s

northern territories, which have been fiercely contested

by Kurdish fighters. Lands under Syrian Kurdish control jumped 186 percent over the year, IHS said.

“This indicates that the Islamic State was overstretched, and also that holding Kurdish territory is considered to be of lesser importance than expelling the Syrian and Iraqi governments from traditionally Sunni lands,” Strack said. “The Kurds appear to be primarily

an obstruction to the Islamic State, rather than an objective in themselves.”

Syrian Kurdish fighters dominate a group called the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters battling jihadists in northeastern Syria that has risen in prominence in recent months. IS has also been beaten back by US-led coalition airstrikes, Iraqi forces and Syrian rebels.

Iraq’s government managed

to claw back some six percent of its territory from IS in the past year, while Iraqi Kurds regained two percent of their lands.The biggest territorial loser among the main actors in the Syrian conflict was the Syrian government, which lost 16 percent and is now left with around 30,000 square km, less than half the area controlled by IS and a fraction of Syria’s total area of about 185,000 square km.

personnel to monitor terror-related activities in their jurisdiction. But sources said there is a serious lack of coordination between these Anti-Terror Cells and the state ATS. The ATS has sent a 37-point note to the city police to improve coordination. An important point is that the local cells should prepare a list of all Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 30 missing from their areas and submit it to the ATS. A high-level inquiry has also been initiated into all missing person complaints in Malwani from January 2015. “We have gathered records from the Malwani police station and are scrutinizing them. Over 250 missing complaints were registered in Malwani police station this year, of which we are taking details of all youngsters who are missing.”

The ATS appealed to parents and relatives to keep track of the activities of their children. “Family members and relatives are closer to youngsters than us. Parents, mainly, should keep a close watch on and take care of youths.

If they find any changes in their behaviour, they should come straight to us. We will counsel them with the help of clerics and

scholars. We have done this with several youngsters in the past and our work has been appreciated by the community,” said Phansalkar.

Missing man was devout Family members of Mohsin Sheikh told midday he was a devout Muslim and the sole breadwinner. Married with two children aged 6 and 3, he has two younger brothers and four elder sisters, of whom three are married. He provided for the entire family, they said. His father Ibrahim said: “When we wanted to buy a TV, he stopped us, saying it was against Islam. Even today, we do not have a TV at home.

If his children missed namaaz, he would cut one meal for them. He had instructed us to follow the same in his absence. He was a very caring and loving person. He had no social life beyond those friends.”

Ibrahim said he knew all the three other missing men from the group. “They were always together and even prayed together at the local mosque,” he said. “But I never knew what was going on between them. I pray to Allah our children don’t fall in bad company, and that they return home at the earliest.”

Issue - 646 (3)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Issue - 646 (4)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Russian airstrikes kill innocent civilians but otherwise futile!

When peaceful anti-government demonstrations began in Syria in 2011, Shia/Alawite president Bashar al-Assad responded with a genocidal series of airstrikes on innocent Sunni civilians, using heavy weapons supplied by Russia.

This resulted in a worldwide movement of young Sunni jihadists from almost 100 countries, traveling to Syria to fight alAssad. This resulted in the creation of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), which is still benefiting from a large influx of jihadist volunteers from around the world. Now Russia is directly taking part in the war, and is substantially increasing the massacres of innocent Sunni civilians. Russia’s warplanes have added a new layer of carnage, reportedly killing at least 600 Syrian citizens, including 70 in Idlib on Sunday. In Syria’s north and in opposition-held parts of the cities of Hama and Damascus, the destruction wrought on civilian infrastructure and population centers recently is more intense than at any point

in almost five years of war.

Human Rights Watch is reporting that Russia’s massive extermination bombings have extensively used cluster bombs, whose use is considered a war crime. A cluster bomb contains dozens or hundreds of bomblets and are fired in rockets or dropped from the air. The munitions are capable of killing even long after the initial attack, especially when unexploded bomblets detonate. They aren’t militarily effective, but they cause many civilian casualties, including many women and children. However, as the US has learned in Iraq and Syria and Saudi Arabia is learning in Yemen, airstrikes alone are not enough to win a war without ground troops. Now Russia is learning the same lesson, as reports indicate that

Despite internal divisions among the European Union members, the European Council of all 28 EU member states renewed for SUNNY BAINS six more months the sanctions against Russia that were set to expire later this month. The sanctions country wants to continue its sway had been imposed last year, after the o v e r t h e m a r k e t a n d U S s h a l e Russians invaded and occupied east producers have been hit the most.

Ukraine, annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Some have gone out of business, while peninsula, and later shot down Malaysia others are struggling to hold their Airlines Flight 17 with a missile. Many ground as the Saudis continue to keep Europeans are still shocked by Russia’s up production levels. There’s Iran actions, because they have historical waiting in the wings to enter the memories of European leaders appeasing

Russia’s massive airstrikes are accomplishing little beyond the slaughter of innocent civilians.

When Russia began its airstrikes 12 weeks ago, Syria’s army was supposed to supply the ground troops that would make the airstrikes effective. But as we reported earlier this year, Syria’s army was nearing a complete collapse, which is one of the factors that led Russia to intervene. Syria had been losing one city after another, as massive desertions had crippled al-Assad’s army. The al-Assad regime is now in a desperate program to conscript new people into the army. A man from Damascus is quoted as saying that four of his friends were taken from their homes to an army base in the city early last week. “There are trucks driving around with loudspeakers ordering men and boys to join,” he said.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Syria is now in total chaos. The American-led coalition has mostly evacuated Syria since Russia intervened, but there are still many groups participating in the war - Russia, the Kurdish YPG militia, most of the important rebel groups, including radical Sunni organizations tied to Al Qaeda, such as the Nusra Front and Ahram al-Sham, Iran and Shiite Hezbollah, and ISIS.

Hitler and the Nazis with the Munich Pact (“peace in our time”), after Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army had invaded, occupied and annexed a portion of Austria (the Anschluss) on March 12, 1938.

There was internal dissension among EU nations over renewing sanctions, especially from Italy, which has traditionally close ties with Russia, which criticized Germany for having an energy deal with Russia, while other EU countries were being asked to sacrifice their national interests.

France and Bulgaria had similar objections. The sanctions renewal comes after the end of a year in which it seemed that the EU was facing one e x i s t e n t i a l c r i s i s a f t e r a n o t h e r, including Greece’s financial crisis and the massive refugee crisis.

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 :

European Union renews its sanctions against Russia for Ukraine invasion

Oil’s not well with the world economy Conflicts in the Middle East, namely in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, and Europe’s refugee crisis arising from the war against Daesh or ISIS is adding to the negative outlook. No one’s blinking as yet in this war over oil. A political battle is being played out over the business of ‘black gold’ between the West led by the United States and Opec headed by the world’s largest producer Saudi Arabia, which is bad for the global economy faced with multiple crises. The Gulf

market when sanctions are lifted, and the scenario for oil producing nations looks more gloomy next year.

On Monday, Brent crude fell to just 17 cents above $36 a barrel. This breached the post-financial crisis low it set in December 2008. Some experts predict it could drop further to $30 a barrel or less next year ‘‘before it recovers in a meaningful way’’. Others paint an even bleaker picture, and say it could fall to an abysmal low of $20 a barrel. Excess production and competition, like we mentioned earlier, are the main factors for this drop. Supplies are already at record levels. Reports say stockpiles in the US surged by 4.8 million barrels last week, another reason for the record slide in prices.

Demand could also be hit following a post-interest rate rise jump in the dollar.

This means oil will be more expensive for buyers outside the US, who could continue buying from the Saudis and other Gulf nations. China has slowed down despite the government’s best efforts, and cannot sustain its growth spurt of two decades. Conflicts in the Middle East, namely in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, and Europe’s refugee crisis arising from the war against Daesh is adding to the negative outlook. Oil’s not well with the world.

This year has been bad. 2016 could be worse.

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.

Thousands of plants cut production as Beijing smog persists BEIJING Beijing has ordered 2,100 factories to suspend or reduce production as part of its “red alert” measures to deal with smog, the government said Monday, as the city remained shrouded under toxic haze for the third consecutive day.

The Chinese capital imposed the highest tier of a four-colour smog warning system for four days starting Saturday, the second time the red alert was applied since Beijing established the pollution precaution scheme in 2013. As part of

the “emergency response plan”, 2,100 factories in the city and on its outskirts have been ordered to either stop or scale back production in an effort to cut

emissions, an official from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, who declined to be named, told AFP. The government was sending inspectors to the plants on a daily basis, she said. “[The factories] all strictly carried out the measures” as required, she added. Counts of PM2.5 harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs - were 172 micrograms per cubic metre earlier Monday, according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.

Issue - 646 (5)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Afghan forces foil attack on Indian mission in Jalalabad

Are you a little torn between what you think you ought to be feeling and what you feel you should be thinking? Oh! Have I just confused you with one of my convoluted statements? Try this instead. There is such a conflict between what’s in your head, and what’s in your heart that you are no longer sure which of the two inner voices you are listening to at any given time. Resolution can come. Peace will return.

Just stop seeking a solution that makes perfect sense. Isn’t there something right about what’s wrong?

‘A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.’ I do so love this quotation from the ancient oriental philosopher Lao Tzu. Right now, it says so much about your outlook.

Not that you are beginning a journey. You embarked on a particular process, some long while ago. Which is good … It means you have already taken several single steps, so you have less than a thousand miles still to go! Progress in your life and in your effort to attain worldly success alike, will be slow but steady.

We may do the same old thing in the same old way, over and over again, but we only have to do it once, in an unusual frame of mind, to see it in a very different light. It is not just your involvement with a particular person that is developing more depth and allowing for a happier understanding now. You are starting to gain an inspiringly fresh perspective on many aspects of life which have begun to seem empty just because they are so predictable. It turns out you have far more to celebrate than you realize.

You are not entirely riskaverse, but you prefer to have some clear idea of what you are up against and thus what your odds of success might be.

When, once in a while, life invites you to take a wild guess, a stab in the dark or a leap of faith, you become understandably unnerved. All will go well for you, but there may come a moment where you have to make a gesture of faith in someone, and you perhaps don’t feel so sure that this is safe.

Just be aware that your heart knows more than your head, and trust it!

None of us are entirely easy to get along with.

And even those of us who are endlessly affable, amenable and agreeable, may immensely annoy those who happen to have shorter fuses and grouchier dispositions.

Even the most seemingly well-matched relationships can stretch the patience of both participants. Yet they are still highly worthwhile.

Keep that in mind, and be willing to make concessions and allowances. It may not be long before you require someone to cut you some very similar slack.

Who is right? Now, don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. I’m talking here about the difference of opinion between you and you-know-who. If you are right and they are wrong, why do they have such an injured stance? If right is on their side, why are you so unwilling to concede this?

Unless, perhaps, it is quintessentially wrong to decide that right and wrong are such indisputable ideas. Must there be so much clinging to an extreme point of view now?

There can be compromise, and this can be very right indeed.

Afghan security forces have arrested a would-be suicide bomber and thwarted his plan to attack the Indian Consulate in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city, bordering Pakistan, the second such incident within a week.

Citing Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), officials today said the forces yesterday arrested the suicide bomber who was planing to attack the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.

The bomber, identified as Nasir, is a resident of Tagab district of north-eastern Kapisa province, Attaullah Ludin, a spokesman for the provincial governor, was quoted as saying by the Tolonews.

He said Nasir had recently joined the Taliban and confessed to his plot during investigations.

There was no comment from the Taliban on the incident.

Last week, security personnel arrested two ISIS terrorists who had planned to attack vehicles of the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad city.

road to target vehicles of the Indian Consulate.

The Indian Consulate is located close to the area from where the suspects were

Ata-ur-Rahman alias Hanzala and Abdullah alias Qari Ismail were arrested with a 30-KG bomb before reaching to their target, Khaama Press reported, citing a statement released

by NDS on December 14.

In a footage sent to media together with the statement

by NDS, one of the suspects identifying himself as Ata-ur-Rahman says they were told to plant the landmine on the side of the

rounded up.

When asked to comment on these arrests, External Affairs Ministry Vikas Swarup in New Delhi said that it once again shows the security situation in Afghanistan and the need to be ever-vigilant against such attempts.

In June this year, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency had arrested a group of Haqqani network militants who plotted terror

attack from Pakistan on a popular guest house in Kabul that killed 14 people, including four Indians.

The terrorists had attacked the guest house thinking Indian Ambassador Amar Sinha was present in the compound.

In May 2014, the Indian consulate in Herat was attacked by four heavilyarmed gunmen, who were subsequently killed in an encounter. India had attributed the strike to terror elements “beyond the borders” of the war-torn country.

In August 2013, a failed bombing against the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad killed nine people, including six children. No Indian officials were hurt.

The Haqqani network is blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

Islamic State radio show targets new recruits in Afghanistan Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan have taken to the airwaves to win more recruits as they try to build strength and replace the Taliban as the leading force in the Islamist insurgency in that country.

Officials have been increasingly concerned by the broadcasts, which encourage young people to find a sense of direction in the radical movement.

If the broadcasts take hold, officials fear they will feed off a growing sense of hopelessness among many inured to war and struggling to get by in an increasingly tough economic climate.

“Most of our people are jobless and this radio will encourage lots of people to join their ranks,” said Ahmad Ali Hazrat, head of the provincial council in Nangarhar.

“Now Daesh are seven Nangarhar, the eastern by reports of extreme viokilometres outside province where Islamic lence.

Jalalabad city and if the State has established its “There are many projects to defame us,” the member, identified as Jan Aqa Shafaq, said.

“Most of our young generation, these ‘lipstick young’ who shave closely and wear the kind of clothing that does not distinguish them from females, create such propaganda.”

Islamic State is a relatively new force in Afghanistan and there is government doesn’t act stronghold. It controls sev- some dispute about how soon it will expand its eral districts wrested from strong it is, how many broadcast and recruit even the Taliban, who are seek- members it commands and from Kabul,” he said, using ing to re-establish their how closely it is linked opthe term widely used for Is- hard-line Islamist regime erationally to the lamic State. after being toppled by US- movement’s main arm in The 90-minute daily Pashto led military intervention in Iraq and Syria. Security oflanguage broadcast, called 2001. ficials say many members “Voice of the Caliphate”, In one programme, an Is- are former Taliban fighters consists mainly of inter- lamic State member said who have fallen out with the views, messages and the broadcasts were to current leadership or who songs about Islamic State. counter the negative public are seeking a more extreme It can be heard in image of the group fostered form of militant activity.

Pak police uncover women-led Islamic State fundraising network Police in Pakistan’s port The attack on city of Karachi said on Monthe bus, which day they were hunting a was carrying network of women from members of the well-off families acting as city’s Shiite fundraisers for the Islamic Ismaili minority, State group, highlighting its was the first ingrowing appeal among the side Pakistan ofcountry’s middle classes. ficially claimed Raja Umar Khattab, chief of by Islamic the Counter Terrorism DeState, which partment of Sindh province, suspected financier of a has proclaimed a “caliphsaid the hunt was launched gun attack on a bus that left ate” over territory it has after police arrested the 44 people dead in May. seized in Iraq and Syria and

is seeking to expand its global reach.

Khattab said the suspect, whom he named as Adil Masood Butt and who was arrested last week, confessed to police that his wife had established a religious organisation in the city called ‘Al Zikra Academy’.

“The academy has no organisational structure or offices,” Khattab told AFP.

Issue - 646 (6)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Astronauts fix ISS’ stuck rail car CAPE CANAVERAL Two US astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Monday in a hastily planned spacewalk to move a stuck rail car before a Russian cargo ship reaches the outpost on Wednesday, NASA said.

Station commander Scott Kelly and newly arrived flight engineer Timothy Kopra were due to spend about 3.5 hours on an abbreviated spacewalk to latch the stalled car into a parking spot along the station’s exterior truss.

The car serves as a mobile base for a Canadian-built robotic crane to move rails outside the station,

a $100 billion research laboratory that files about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. The rail car jammed about 4 inches (10 cm) short of its intended latching point last Wednesday, blocked by a crew equipment cart that was left with its brake on.

Kelly and Kopra fixed the stuck rail car in 15 minutes, leaving them time to tackle work to prepare the station for new modules, said mission commentator Rob Navias from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Russia, one of 15 nations that own and operate the station,

Senator Graham quits White House race, 13 left in Republican field Senator Lindsey Graham exited the Republican presidential race on Monday saying he had hit a

wall, leaving 13 candidates still battling out for the party nomination. Graham, a national security hawk, is the fourth candidate to drop out after Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, the first Indian-American to ever run for White House.

“I was hoping not to have to make this call, but I think the time has come for me to suspend my campaign,” Graham said in a conference call with supporters.

“We’ve come to a point now where I just don’t see how we grow the campaign without getting on the main stage,” he added. “One of the biggest problems we’ve had was to get our voice on equal footing with others. This second-tier debate process has been difficult for us. I

think we’ve done well in the debates, it’s just hard to break through because the buzz doesn’t last very long.”

Graham had impressed pundits and experts with his grasp on national security issues he had pushed for more aggressive US engagement in Syria and his wit.

He took on Donald Trump early in the race calling him a “jackass” which made the frontrunner respond by giving away the senator’s mobile number at an election rally.

But Graham continued to poll low, and was confined to the undercard debates that prevented him from hitting the big league, which he complained about it in the call.

More drop-outs are likely, specially of those with plummeting poll numbers such as Mike Huckabee and those who just didn’t take off such as Rick Santorum and George Pataki.

There have been two exits from the Democratic side too Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, leaving only three in the fray, which is much smaller compared to the Republicans’.

plans to launch a new research laboratory, while the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing to install docking ports for new commercial space taxis that are slated to begin flying in 2017.

NASA usually spends months planning spacewalks, but the one that began shortly before 8 a.m.

EST (1300 GMT) was just arranged over the weekend.

Kopra arrived at the station six days ago with Britain’s first professional astronaut, Timothy Peake, and Russia’s Yuri Malenchenko. Kopra and Kelly released the brake handle during

the spacewalk, freeing up the mobile transporter, Navias said.

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress cargo ship blasted off

from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:44 a.m. EST (0844 GMT) and is due to reach the station on Wednesday.

Iranian hackers ‘targeted’ US dam WASHINGTON Iranian hackers breached the control system of a dam near New York City in 2013, an infiltration that raised concerns about the security of the country’s infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing former and current US officials.

Two people familiar with the breach told the newspaper it occurred at the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye, New York. The small structure about 20 miles from New York City is used for flood control.

The hackers gained access to the dam through a cellular modem, the Journal said, citing an unclassified Department of Homeland Security summary of the incident that did not specify the type of infrastructure.

The dam is a 20-foot-tall concrete slab across Blind Brook, about five miles from Long Island Sound. “It’s very, very small,” Rye City Manager Marcus Serrano told the newspaper. He said FBI agents

visited in 2013 to ask the city’s information-technology manager about a hacking incident.

The dam breach was difficult to pin down, and federal

of the infiltration, the Journal said.

The newspaper said the United States had more than 57,000 industrial control systems

investigators at first thought the target was a much larger dam in Oregon, the Journal said. The breach came as hackers linked to the Iranian government were attacking US bank websites after American spies damaged an Iranian nuclear facility with the Stuxnet computer worm.

It illustrated concerns about many of the old computers controlling industrial systems, and the White House was notified

connected to the Internet, citing Shodan, a search engine that catalogs each machine.

Homeland Security spokesman S.Y. Lee would not confirm the breach to Reuters. He said the department’s 24-hour cybersecurity informationsharing hub and an emergency response team coordinate responses to threats to and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure.

LA homeless brace for El Nino rainstorms LOS ANGELES As Los Angeles grapples with a huge homelessness problem, El Nino weather patterns are likely to bring torrential downpours in coming months and add to the misery of the thousands of people who sleep on the city’s streets.

“It is a crisis in LA, and I don’t think people realize the magnitude of it,” said John Kump, an outreach program manager at the charity People Assisting the Homeless (PATH).

Los Angeles’ homeless population is estimated at about 44,000, with many of them concentrated in a bleak and chaotic square-mile patch of downtown known as Skid Row. The others can be seen across the sprawling metropolis of some 10 million people, sheltering

under highway overpasses and on vacant lots in ragged tent encampments, and in cars and campers lining streets. The number of makeshift tents and vehicles used by the homeless has shot up by 85 percent in just the last two years to 9,535, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, an independent agency set up by the city and the county. Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed in September spending $100 million to combat the problem. But he stopped short of declaring a state of emergency that would lift barriers to housing people, or calling on the governor and federal government for funding.

Last month, the city council gave initial approval to a plan to shelter the homeless in public buildings

and to allow people living in cars to stay overnight in designated parking lots. But many homeless are reluctant to leave possessions and pets on the

streets in exchange for a short night of shelter. The health and meager belongings of the homeless will be even more at risk when the expected

rainstorms begin, advocates say. The last two El Ninos, in the winters of 1982-83 and 1997-98, each walloped Los Angeles with more than 30 inches (76 cm) of rain - double the amount that the city normally receives each year - according to William Patzert, a climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena. Gary Blasi, professor of law emeritus at UCLA, wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed article last month that many homeless people could die if a state of emergency is not declared that could ensure some short-term housing solutions. The homeless desperately need pallets to raise their tents off the sidewalks, he wrote, as well as heavy-duty tarpaulins, toilets, trash collection, and portable showers.

Issue - 646 (7)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Ancient human may have persisted through Ice Age MIAMI After years of studying a mysterious thigh bone from a cave in China, scientists have said they believe it represents an

to careful as it is just one bone,” said co-author professor Ji Xueping from the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in China.

ancient species of human that persisted much longer than previously thought.

The 14,000-year-old bone was uncovered in 1989 in Maludong, known as the Red Deer Cave. The trove of fossils it was initially found with went unstudied until 2012.The partial femur, though relatively young in age, looks like the bones of far older species like Homo habilis and early Homo erectus that lived more than 1.5 million years ago, said the study in PLOS ONE.“Its young age suggests the possibility that primitive-looking humans could have survived until very late in our evolution, but we need

Until now, scientists believed that the only premodern humans who survived in what is now Europe and Asia were Neanderthals and Denisovans, both of which disappeared some 40,000 years ago.

They are believed to have vanished soon after modern humans entered the region, but the new bone suggests another primitive human could have survived far longer, perhaps until the end of the last Ice Age. “The new find hints at the possibility a pre-modern species may have overlapped in time with modern humans on mainland East Asia, but the

case needs to be built up slowly with more bone discoveries,” said co-author Darren Curnoe from the University of New South Wales.

The thigh bone is small, with a thin shaft much like the bones of Homo habilis, which lived 1.5-2.8 million years ago.

The individual would have weighed only about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), which was quite small for pre-modern and Ice Age human standards.

When researchers first announced their discovery of bones in the Red Deer Cave in 2012, describing them as containing an unusual mix of modern and primitive features such as a jutting jaw, broad nose and prominent brow ridges, they were greeted with skepticism by some scientists.

The findings stoked debate over whether or not they represented a new evolutionary line. “The new discovery once again points towards at least some of the bones from Maludong representing a mysterious pre-modern species,” the research team said in a statement.

However, more work needs to be done before scientists can declare a new species of human has been found.

Waiter turns over $32,000 in cash left at Applebee’s in California LOS ANGELES An Applebee’s waiter in central California turned over $32,000 in cash that a family forgot at a table, an amount that likely comes close to his annual salary, a restaurant official said on Friday. Even as police praised him for his honesty, the 10-year employee of the restaurant chain has sought to remain anonymous and

thing to do and he didn’t want the right thing being overwhelmed by anything else,’ Hellyer said. The family left a canvas pouch stuffed with $32,000, all in hundred-dollar bills, at an Applebee’s restaurant in Fresno on Wednesday, said Fresno police spokesman Lieutenant Joe Gomez. The waiter turned the cash over to his manager after discovering

declined repeated requests to accept a reward from the family, Applebee’s area director Carrie Hellyer said. ‘He just said that he did it because it was the right

it at the family’s table, and it was picked up by a police car later in the day.

When the family called police on Thursday to report the loss, arrangements were made

for them to pick it up at the station, Gomez said.

Underscoring the waiter’s honesty, Hellyer said there was no surveillance camera in the area where the family left their money.

The $32,000 sum ‘probably exceeds or comes close’ to the waiter’s annual salary, she said. Gomez said the money was returned to the family only after a detective determined it was obtained legally. The cash came from rental properties and a Mexican restaurant the family operates in the San Francisco Bay Area town of San Jose, he said. ‘You know how some people don’t use banks, I think they’re that type of person,’ he said. The family had attempted to rent a safe deposit box at a bank on Wednesday, but one was not immediately available, he added.As a result, they had the cash with them at Applebee’s when they went there to eat and simply forgot it.

Ancient ‘Loch Ness monster’ reptiles swam like penguins WASHINGTON Plesiosaurs, marine reptiles that thrived in the world’s seas when dinosaurs ruled the land, swam much like penguins by using their flippers to “fly” underwater, scientists said on Thursday, resolving a debate that began nearly

to redress the balance of sexes, researchers said on Wednesday.

Women accounted for 13 percent of department leaders in the top US medical schools funded by the National Institutes of Health, while mustachioed men made up 19 percent,

two centuries ago.

Plesiosaurs had four large flippers, and many had remarkably long necks.

They lived from about 200 million years ago to 66 million years ago, disappearing in the same mass extinction that doomed the dinosaurs.

Men with moustaches outnumber women in top US jobs.

Men sporting moustaches are more likely than women to head medical departments in 50 leading US medical schools, highlighting a need

the US team of researchers said in a study published in The BMJ. “We want to increase the representation of women in academic medical leadership by drawing attention to sex disparities,” they said. “We chose to study moustaches ... because they are rare, and we wanted to learn if women were even rarer,” they said.

All forms of moustache were counted, including the Copstash Standard, Pencil, Handlebar and Supermario, as well as moustaches in

combination with other facial hair such as the Van Dyke, the Balbo and the Napoleon III Imperial.

Men with beards but no moustache were excluded from the count. The thickest moustache density was found in departments of psychiatry, pathology and anesthesiology. Women made up more than 20 percent of department leaders in just five specialities - obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, family medicine, and emergency medicine.

“This is a problem not only because of the strong ethical argument for equality but also for practical reasons: in business, having more women leaders has been linked with better performance,” the study said. Many employers have taken steps to reduce these gaps by adopting policies against discrimination and sexual harassment, introducing family-friendly benefits and offering paid parental leave.

But more needs to be done, including increasing flexibility in working hours and reducing unconscious bias in the hiring process, the researchers said.

Issue - 646 (8)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Sail-backed dinosaur roamed Security guard steals $5m in diamonds out of the trash Spain 125m years ago WASHINGTON Along a lush river delta in what is now northeastern Spain, a herd of dinosaurs munched on ferns and conifers similar to modernday cypresses 125 million years ago. These creatures stood out from the others in this Cretaceous Period landscape by virtue of the

unusual sail-like structure on their backs, and experts today can only hypothesize about its function. Scientists announced on Wednesday the discovery near the town of Morella in Spain’s Castellón Province of the fossil remains of a medium-sized dinosaur they named Morelladon, a four-legged herbivore that measured 6 metres (20 feet) long.Protruding from its back was a series of bony spines that

formed the sail-like structure that stood about 2 feet (60 cm) tall.

“The sail could help in heat exchange - thermoregulation focused on releasing excess body heat into the environment, like the ears of the modern-day elephants, or as a storage place for fat to be used during periods

of low food supply,” said paleontologist Fernando Escaso of the National University of Distance Education’s Evolutionary Biology Group in Spain.The structure also could have served a display role in attracting mates, Escaso added.

Escaso noted that sail-like structures appeared periodically in the evolutionary history of vertebrates, often in animal groups not closely related to one

another. Another plant-eating dinosaur called Ouranosaurus with similarities to Morelladon lived about the same time in Africa. The biggest sail-backed creature was Spinosaurus, which lived a semi-aquatic lifestyle 95 million years ago in Africa. At 50 feet long (15 metres) and 7 tons, it was the biggest dinosaur predator on record, larger even than Tyrannosaurus rex.

Millions of years before the rise of the dinosaurs, there were other sail-backed creatures including the carnivorous reptile Arizonasaurus, the amphibian Platyhystrix and the distant mammal relatives Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus. Morelladon is known from a partial skeleton including the spines, other vertebrae, pelvic bones, a thigh bone and teeth. Northeastern Spain during Morelladon’s time alternated between wet and dry periods, with strong temperature variations ranging from 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) to about 104 F (40 C).

Escaso said the main predator in the area was Baryonyx, a relative of Spinosaurus, and there were other plant-eating dinosaurs around as well as crocodilians and the flying reptiles called pterosaurs. The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

NEW YORK A security guard has been arrested for stealing $5 million in diamonds from a New York jeweler after a construction worker accidentally threw the precious stones in the trash, police said.

Wilfred Martinez was charged with the theft after police said he was caught on surveillance video from inside J Birnbach Inc, a jewelry maker located in the heart of New York’s diamond district. Jonathan Birnbach had told police last week that he kept the diamonds inside three wooden boxes in an unlocked safe for easier access and didn’t notice they were missing because he rarely handled them.

Workers renovating the interior of the business threw the boxes

out without realizing they contained diamonds, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at a press conference on Thursday. Martinez saw the boxes and took them into the bathroom, where he consolidated the diamonds into a single box before leaving with them, Boyce said.

He sold some of the diamonds to another dealer for $68,000 a “bargain price,” Boyce said.

He admitted to the theft in a statement to police after his arrest, and investigators have recovered the stones. J Birnbach specializes in highend diamonds and has created jewelry worn on red carpets from the Oscars film awards to the Emmys television awards, according to its website.

Ford to test self-driving Steep hike in H1B visa fee as Obama cars on California roads signs Omnibus spending bill into law

SAN FRANCISCO Ford on Tuesday said that it has a green light to test self-driving cars in California, and should have them on roads in the most populous US state next year.

The car maker officially enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program and will begin with self-driving Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans, it said in a release. Ford boasted having more than 100 researchers, engineers, and scientists working in its research center in the Silicon Valley city of Palo Alto.

Ford researchers, who also collaborate with universities, specialise in technologies that help cars “see” or sense what is around them and safely navigate.

“Our Palo Alto team has grown significantly this year, using

research and innovation to explore and develop future mobility solutions,” said Ford chief executive Mark Fields.

Ford announced earlier this year that it was nearing a production phase for its first self-driving vehicle, without specifying a precise timeline. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Law Vegas in January, Fields predicted fully autonomous cars would be on US roads by 2020, but declined to say whether his company would be among the first to market.

Google has been testing selfdriving cars on California roads for a while, and an array of automobile makers including Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Tesla and BMW are working on building self-driving capabilities into vehicles.

NEW YORK In what comes as a shock for the Indian IT companies, US President Barack Obama on Saturday signed Omnibus spending bill into a USD 1.8 trillion spending package. Among other things, the bill introduces a hefty USD 4,000 fee for certain categories of H-1B visa and USD 4,500 for L1 visa.IT companies will now have to pay millions of dollars while applying for H-1B visas, as they heavily rely on this work visa for highly skilled IT workers to get their work done in the US.Terming the law as highly discriminatory and punitive, the companies claim that text of the legislation has been written in such a way that such a high fee would have to be paid by only major Indian IT companies. Companies that have 50 employees and have more than 50 per cent of their US employees on H-1B and L1 visas would have to pay the new fee when the next visa application session kicks off on April 1, 2016.This year’s Congressional approved quota of 65,000 H-1B visas was filled up in first few days of the start of the application process on April 1. In fact the US government had to resort to a computerized draw of lots as it received more than quota.The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2016 signed into law by Obama,

includes a USD 1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that funds the government until September 30, 2016, as well as a USD 680 billion tax package.Not to mention

Quota and Governance Reforms is a welcome and crucial step forward that will strengthen the IMF in its role of supporting global financial stability.US Treasury

that the new law makes US aid to Pakistan more stringent by asking the secretaries of state and defense to certify that Islamabad is taking actions against terrorist networks and meeting other conditions. But the provision of a national interest waiver nullifies such conditionalities.The law also paves the way for the implementation of the long pending IMF Quota and Governance Reforms. Approved and passed by the IMF in 201O, it could not be implemented because the Congress had not passed it.IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the adoption of legislation by the US Congress to authorize the 2010

Secretary Jacob Lew said essential to this legislation are the IMF quota and governance reforms.“The IMF has promoted stability, jobs and growth for the past 70 years, and these reforms will strengthen the US leadership position in this critical institution, while putting the Fund on a strong financial footing,” he said.“Along with passage of Trade Promotion Authority and the conclusion of the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement this year, the IMF reforms reinforce the central leadership role of the United States in the global economic system and demonstrate our commitment to maintaining that position,” Lew said.

Issue - 646 (9)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Yazidi woman begs UN Security Obama urged to remove restrictions on Sikhs in US army Council to wipe out Islamic State

A prominent Sikh-American organisation has urged US President Barack Obama to allow Sikhs to serve in the American military “without restrictions”.

Obama in turn promised to look into the matter and agreed to follow up, according to the Sikh Council on Religion and Education.

The chairman of the council, Rajwant Singh, met Obama at the White House on Wednesday and pressed him to allow Sikhs in US armed forces without any restrictions.

“US President promised to look into the matter and agreed to follow up,” a media release said.

Singh and his wife were invited to the White House Holiday reception hosted by the First Family.

“You have to allow Sikhs to serve in the Army without any restriction. They are only able to serve if Pentagon gives them an exception. This needs to go. Please do not leave office without taking away this restriction against Sikhs,” Singh told the President.

“Sikhs are great warriors. I will look into it and will follow up,” the release quoted Obama as saying.

Singh also pointed out to Obama that Canada has a turban wearing Sikh as its defence minister, which the President acknowledged.

Earlier this month, in a rare exception, an active-duty Sikh combat soldier in the US army was granted a temporary religious accommodation that allowed him to grow his beard and wear a turban.

A young Yazidi woman pleaded on Wednesday for the United Nations Security Council to wipe out Islamic State after describing the torture and rape she suffered at hands of the militants, who abducted her as “war booty” and held her for three months.

“Rape was used to destroy women and girls and to guarantee that these women could never lead a normal life again,” Nadia Murad Basee Taha, 21, told the 15-member council’s first meeting on human trafficking.

“Islamic State has made Yazidi women into flesh to be trafficked in,” she said of the extremist group that has seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Taha said she was abducted in August last year from her village in Iraq and taken by bus to a building in the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, where thousands of Yazidi women and children were exchanged by militants as gifts.A few days after she was taken by a man, she said: “He forced me to get dressed and put my makeup on and then that terrible night, he did it. He forced me to serve as part of his military faction, he humiliated me every day.”She tried to flee, but was stopped by a guard.“That night he beat me.

He asked me to take my clothes off. He put me in a room with the guards and then they proceeded to commit their crime until I fainted,” she said. “I implore you,

Sikh boy jokes about bomb in backpack & spends three days in custody in Texas A 12-year-old Sikh boy, Armaan Singh Sarai, has been in the police custody for three days for cracking a joke to his classmate that he has a bomb in his

backpack, a cousin of the boy wrote in a Facebook post this week.

“A bully in class thought it would be funny to accuse him (Armaan Singh Sarai) of having a bomb, and so the principal, without any questioning, interrogation, or notification to his parents, called the police,” Sarai’s cousin Ginee Haer wrote in the post.

“They kept him behind bars for three consecutive days, before finally releasing him on Monday, December 15th,” Haer wrote in

the Facebook post that has been shared by thousands of people.

“Worried & frightened at home, his family was concerned as to

why he had not reached home right after school. They started calling every police department in the area, only to find out he was sent to a Juvenile facility,” she added.

According to media reports, police said they went to Nichols Junior High School in Dallas, Texas, after a student told a teacher that Sarai told him he was planning to blow up the school.

Sarai’s family, however, said he was framed.

“Armaan was born and raised in Texas by a loving Sikh family. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his family, watching TV, and playing video games. In his family, are his mom, dad, two sisters and a brother who love him more than life, after all he’s the baby in the family,” the post read.

“His family moved to Dallas, Texas about three to four months ago, and being the new kid wasn’t that easy for him. It made it especially hard since he isn’t able to get out much, due to a heart condition he was born with,” Haer wrote.

“The heart condition has led him to having three open heart surgeries, and he isn’t able to do a lot of extra curricular activities.

But his love from his family and friends has always been enough to keep his heart filled. His family and friends would describe to be really funny, nice, and a caring human being,” she informed.

The incident came after a Texas boy Ahmed Mohammed was recently taken away in handcuffs for bringing to his Dallas school a homemade clock that the school authorities mistook for a bomb.

get rid of Daesh (Islamic State) completely.”

Taha, who said several of her brothers were killed by Islamic State militants, eventually escaped and is now living in Germany. Visibly emotional after

Boko Haram. It warned that “certain acts associated with trafficking in persons in the context of armed conflict may constitute war crimes.”

Islamic State militants consider the Yazidis to be devil-

telling her story, the members of the U.N. Security Council applauded her courage.

The United Nations has said that Islamic State may have committed genocide in trying to wipe out the Yazidi minority and has urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.

The council said in a statement on Wednesday that it deplored people trafficking by Islamic State and other groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army and

worshippers. The Yazidi faith has elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam. Most of the Yazidi population, numbering around half a million, remains displaced in camps inside the autonomous entity in Iraq’s north known as Kurdistan.

Of around 5,000 Yazidi men and women captured by the militants in the summer of 2014, some 2,000 have managed to escape or been smuggled out of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate, activists say. The rest remain in captivity.

Sikh man’s video posted with caption ‘Flying with bin Laden’ Social media went into a frenzy after a video of an elderly Sikh man with the caption ‘flying with Bin Laden’ surfaced on YouTube.

The video was allegedly shot by a passenger on a Jet Blue flight which was flying from New York to California. The passenger, who was seated next to a Sikh man, posted a video on YouTube titled ‘Would you feel safe?’ and the caption ‘flying with Bin Laden’.

The video has garnered over 80,000 views since December 9. Over 1,000 users have disliked the video which has caused an uproar for blatant ‘discrimination’.

“I feel unsafe sitting next to ignorant white people who are prejudiced,” commented one of the users Japa Khalsa.

Others chimed in and requested “Everyone watching this video REPORT it for ‘hateful and abusive content’ the guy is triggering everyone to watch it so he can make money off of the advertisements!?”

The incident prompted the Sikh man’s daughter to flag the video on YouTube and report it to the non-governmental organisation United Sikhs . “Incidents like this are shocking... These types of incidents only weaken the

fabric of our nation.” said Jaspreet Kaur, staff attorney of United Sikhs. The elderly Sikh man, who is seen sleeping in the video, was not aware of the video until it was widely circulated online, the NGO said.

On the same day, a Gurdwara was vandalised in Los Angeles suburbs with hateful graffiti

addressed towards Islamic State, reports said.

In another incident, a photo making the rounds on Facebook earlier this month showed the former Trinity University basketball player -- the first turbaned Sikh to play in the NCAA -- with the caption: “Nobody wants to guard Muhammad, he’s too explosive.”

A friend came to his defence, saying, “Do the world a favor and educate yourself” - which got tens of thousands of likes.

Although Sikhs have been a target of “hate crimes” in the United States, community leaders fear it is a repercussion of the recent California shooting and the Paris terror attacks.

Issue - 646 (10)

Well established Sikh Jatt parents seeking suitable match for beautiful 26 yrs. old daughter who is a doctor and U.S. Citizen.

Boy should be in the Medical, Engineering field or a Lawyer. He should also be tall between 2530 yrs. old and from a respectable Jatt Family, living in USA. Please send your bio-data and Photo to: jskaur555@gmail.com ***646*** Hindu Punjabi parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 35 yrs. old, 5’-1” tall, professionally qualified and employed in Toronto, never married, well versed in both cultures and family oriented. The boy should be professionally settled with family values and willing to relocate to Toronto.

Caste no bar. Please email recent picture & bio-data to :toronto108@gmail.com or call 905-781-6919 ***646*** Ravidasia parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 32 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, Canadian Citizen, professionally employed.

Boy should be highly educated, professionally employed and Canadian Citizen. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: san1622002@yahoo.com ***646*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Post graduate degree in Clinical Psychology, professionally employed, well versed in born cultures can speak Punjabi as well. The boy should be well educated., professionally settled, between 28-34 yrs. of age, lower Mainland area prefered. Please Call :1604-317-7576 ***646*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 25 yrs. old, 5’-8” tall, Dental Surgeon in India at present in USA on visitor visa, belongs to a very well settled family. The girl should be American Citizen, beautiful and family oriented.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to: piarausa@hotmail.com Or Call: 1-662-347-9532 ***646*** Well educated Jatt sikh family seeking a suitable match for their daughter. Slim, good looking, 86 born, 5'-2" tall, holds a degree from a Canadian University, working in managerial position with well reputed company (Vancouver). Canadian citizen.

Visitor, student visa, and work permit will also be considered.

Please send your biodata and recent pictures to:jal.alliance@hotmail.com or call: 604-753-7534 *** 646*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 27 yrs. old, 5’-4” tall, Canadian Citizen, beautiful, very fair, slim, Dental Hygienist, family oriented and well versed in both cultures. The boy should be

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

handsome, Jat Sikh, Clean Shaven, professionally qualified and employed, settled businessman with good family values, preferably from GTA (Toronto). Respond with bio-data and recent picture to : Sarjeetdhugge@hotmail.com Or Call : 647-502-4220 ***646*** Jatt Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son 32 yr. old, 5'-9" tall, Canadian Citizen, working as a Civil Engineer. The girl should be well educated and family oriented, between 25-30 yrs. of age, 5’-3"- 5'-7" tall.

Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: jasmandeep.cheema@gmail.com or call: 1-604-354-0394 *** 646*** Sikh Tonk Kashtrya parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 27yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, B.Sc. Nonmedical degree, diploma in networking, working with one of the reputable companies of Toronto, non-drinker well versed in both cultures. The girl should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen, well educated, beautiful and family oriented. Please email recent picture and bio-data to : bsingh1527@yahoo.ca Or Call : 416-270-4575 Or : 1-705-9700009 ***646*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 26 yrs. old, 6’ tall, Canadian Citizen, B.Sc. Nursing degree holder, working as RN in a reputed hospital, non-drinker, non-smoker, family oriented and down to earth. The girl should be equally qualified, beautiful, simple with family values and from good family background.

GTA prefered. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: nsgill53@gmail.com Or Call : 416-277-2392 ***646*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 34 yrs. old, 5’-9” tall, teetotaler, Bachelor in Computer Application, Working with Multinational Company (MNC IT) in India, mutually divorced after short marriage, at present in Canada on visitor visa belongs to a well settled family. The girl should be Canadian/American Immigrant/Citizen, educated and family oriented. Brother is well settled in Canada. Boy has already applied for immigration.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to: soisukhdeep@gmail.com Or Call : 647-203-6979 ***646*** Jat Sikh Gill parents looking for a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 31 yrs. old, 5’-2” tall, well educated, working in her field. The boy should be Canadian, professionally qualified, clean shaven from Jat Sikh family.

Please Call : 1-604-522-4470 ***646*** Well settled Jat Sikh Gill family seeks a suitable match for their daughter, 33 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall,

College graduate with diploma in Buisness Administration and accounting. The boy should be 30-37 yrs. of age, well qualified and raised in Canada. Please Call : 905-874-0721 ***646*** 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) ***646*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents seek a suitable match for son, 26 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Bachelor in Engineering, living in India. The girl should be Canadian/ American, Immigrant or Citizen, beautiful and family oriented .

Please email recent picture and bio-data to : sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call : 647-829-5872 (Leave Message) ***646*** Amritdhari Jat Sikh Canadian student visa boy, 26 yrs. old, 5’10” tall, Civil Engineering from India seek Amritdhari Jat Sikh girl, Canadian Immigrant or Citizen, family oriented. Sister is well settled in Canada. Simple marriage. Call : 1-604-723-6162 Or : 011-91-98156-86753 ***646** Lubana Sikh parents seeking a match for their only son, age 30 year, 5’-9” tall, Canadian Citizen, clean shaven, B.Tech. software development from Canadian University, working as a software engineer and higly paid. The girl should be professsionally educated with family values and settled in Canada. Cast No bar.

Please send your bio-data and recent picture to : j.singh.developer@gmail.com Or Call : 416-627-6107 ***646*** Prajpati Sikh (Ghumiar) parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 27 yrs. old, 5’-8” tall, Canadian Immigrant, working as Rabotic technician in Megna.

The girl should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen, well educated and family oriented, girl on student visa/work permit may also be considered. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to : satwinder_sukhe@hotmail.ca Or Call : 647-782-8453 ***646*** 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 Physiotherapy, well settled in Job in Ontorio, well versed in both cultures. Thy 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 ***646*** Parents looking for Sikh Khatri

match for their Canadian Citizen, educated daughter, Oct., 1986 born, 5’-3” tall, very well employed in Govt. Job. The boy should be professionally qualified and employed. Please email recent picture and bio-data.

Early marriage Email: jpsphull@gmail.com Or Call : 905-671-3411 Or 647-7193411 ***646*** Jat Sikh Dhaliwal parents seeking a suitable match for their only son, 37 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, born and raised in Canada, Master’s degree in teaching and professionally employed. The girl should be born/raised in Canada or from India, professionally qualified. Divorced may also be considered. Girl on student visa/ visitor visa can contact to :Please Call : 1-250-477-4997 ***646*** Ramgarhia parents from Brampton, seek a match for their Canadian Citizen, graduate, 27, yrs, 5'-4'’ tall, beautiful daughter, professionally employed as Dental Assistant The boy should be , clean shaven, 5'-9'’ or taller,and well settled ,from a respectable family, from Canada only. please respond with details to gsinghb1953@ gmail.com, tel 647-677-5436 *** 646*** Jatt sikh family looking suitable match for their 33 year old, 5’2" daughter. Residing with family in USA with green card. Prefer someone of at least 30 years of age from USA, preferably California. Visitors and student visas are fine. Please send information and recent photo to: hardeepsingh1405@gmail.com or call: 1-510-551-4146 *** 646*** Ramgarhia sikh family looking a suitable match for their daughter, 25yrs. old, 5’- 8", Masters of Computer Applications (MCA) from India, Presently in New York for business purpose.caste no bar. The boy should be canadian/ US immigrant or citizen. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: satnadar@yahoo.com or call: 1718-200-9852 *** 646*** Jat Sikh Saini US citizens seeking professional alliance for their 30 Yrs/5’8"/Greencard holder fair, slim and beautiful daughter. Licensed Physical Therapist presently working in New York. Boy residing and working in NewYork preferred.Higher caste no bar. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: ts215saini@gmail.com or call: 1516-765-5004 *** 646*** Seeking professional match preferrably settled in USA or Canada, but well settled in India will be considered as well; for a beautiful very fair Rajput Sikh Girl, 38yrs, 5’4". Legally Divorced. MSc, BEd, Govt.

Teacher in Punjab. Highly educated family, settled in USA. Please send your bio-data and

recent picture to: grathore@live.in or call: 1-408677-9046 *** 646*** Looking for suitable match from USA for a slim, beautiful Nai Sikh girl, 24 yr old, 5’4", B.Sc. Nursing Degree. Girl belongs to a Gursikh educated family. Brother is settled in USA. Contact: 1805-607-0737 *** 646*** US based sister seeks a beautiful and compatible match for her 25 yrs. old, clean shaved, 5’-11" tall, clean shaven, nondrinker, well-educated (MBA) brother, working in renowned company in Chandigarh.

California girl will be given preference. Sister and Brother in law both well settled in CA.Serious inquiries only.

Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: akaur0051@hotmail.com or call: 1- 415-309-8880 *** 646*** Tank Kashtriya parents 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 your biodata and recent picture to: singhjag_@hotmail.com Or Call : 416-722-9771 ***646*** 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 professional accountant designation and professionally employed in senior management position. The boy should be well educated, with family values.

Please Call : 647-298-9665 ***646*** Hindu Brahmin parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 22 yrs. old, 5’-8” tall, completed Diploma in Hospitality from Canada, now working as Kitchen Manager in Boston Pizza, handsome, smart belongs to a reputable family. The girl should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen, family oriented. Uncle (Mama Ji) is well settled in Canada. Caste no bar.

Please Call : 647-727-2694 ***646*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 29 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Canadian Immigrant, well settled, preferred well educated, beautiful, family oriented girl from India or Canada.

Please call : 647-701-2265 ***646*** Jat sikh family in GTA seeks alliance for their Canadian born son, 25 yrs. old, 5'-10", fair, professional, engineer employed with government Looking for Canadian born girl, university graduate, slim, fair. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: jatcanadian@hotmail.com or Call: 416-938-4195 *** 646***

Issue - 646 (11)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

200-year-old fossil mystery resolved Scientists have reconstructed how an ancient reptile swam in the oceans at the time of the dinosaurs. Computer simulations suggest the plesiosaur moved through the water like a penguin, using its front limbs as paddles and back limbs for steering.

The creature’s swimming gait has been a mystery since bones of the first known specimen were dug out of a Dorset cliff 200 years ago. The plesiosaur was discovered by the fossil hunter Mary Anning in 1821.At the time even the name dinosaur had not been invented. A scientific paper unveiling Anning’s find a few years later raised the question of how the marine creature swam, given its unusual pairs of wing-like flippers. The debate has continued until today, with a computer simulation based on a Jurassic fossil specimen providing evidence in favour of penguin-like motion. Dr Adam Smith of Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, worked on the study. He explained that palaeontologists were

divided on whether the marine creature used its four limbs in a rowing action like the oars of a boat; a flight stroke similar to modern penguins and turtles; or some sort of combination of the two.

‘Our study shows the upand-down movement is more likely,’ he told BBC News. ‘That’s how turtles and penguins swim today.

‘Penguins are literally flying through the water.’ The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, is based on a computer simulation of a Jurassic fossil from Germany.

The fossil is unusual in being an almost complete skeleton with all four limbs preserved. It is smaller than many other members of the plesiosaur family, at about 3m long.The computer model shows the animal’s hind limbs provided ‘relatively weak thrust’, say

Dr Smith and coresearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US. ‘We conclude that plesiosaurs were forelimb-dominated swimmers that used their hind limbs mainly for manoeuvrability and stability,’ they report.

The plesiosaurs were predatory marine reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs. They are unique in the animal kingdom for having two pairs of large wing-like flippers.

Palaeobiology expert Dr David Martill of the University of Portsmouth said the new work suggested that in the small plesiosaur at least, the forelimbs did all the work.He said it remained to be seen if the same was true of the largest plesiosaurs, which were ferocious marine predators.

‘These beasts probably fed by twist feeding like the large crocodiles of today,’ he said. ‘If this were the case, then the hind limbs may have been used to spin the animal on its long axis.’

French climate talks chef fined for environmental crimes Michelin-starred French chef Marc Veyrat, chosen to cook for world leaders at the UN climate talks in

Savoie region, to build a botanical garden, beehives and greenhouses next to his

Paris, was on Friday served a 100,000-euro fine for destroying the forest around his Alpine restaurant.

Veyrat, who has received six Michelin stars in his career, was one of five top chefs at the COP21 meeting this month where leaders from across the globe sealed a deal to fight climate change. He has been found guilty of environmental crimes after clearing 7,000 square metres (75,000 square feet) of protected forest in the mountainous Haute-

pricy restaurant La Maison des Bois. The chef argued that he had good intentions and had created an educational site for children, but did not ask for authorisation or get a building permit, according to the prosecution.The building led to the destruction of “7,000 m2 of forest and the drying up of a wetland of nearly one hectare”, according to the charges against him.A French court ordered him to restore the wetlands within three months or

face a fine of 3,000 euros ($3,200) every day past the deadline.

Veyrat was however found not guilty of a separate charge of contravening town planning laws. “That allows Mr. Veyrat to keep his educational park for children with the botanical garden, greenhouses and apiary,” said the chef’s lawyer Nicolas Ballaloud.

He attributed the “heavy” fine to Veyrat’s “fame”.

During his court hearing Veyrat said he was “sorry for everything that has happened.” “I am not above the laws. Everyone can make mistakes, even me.” Known as much for roaming the countryside seeking wild herbs for his top-of-the-range dishes as for his trademark black hat, Veyrat has had several career setbacks.

In 2009, he stopped work, saying he could no longer bear the physical strains of the kitchen after a serious ski accident. He handed back the six Michelin stars he had won (for two separate threestar restaurants) and only in 2013 re-entered the kitchen, opening his Alpine restaurant.

Chinese buying clean air at Rs 10 per inhalation, Indians be next?

Believe it or not, people are paying through the nose to breathe clean air in China’s capital Beijing.

Vitality Air - a Canadian start-up - is selling 160gram bottles of “freshly caught mountain air”, which will last up to 150 one-second inhalations, for Rs 1,500 which works out to Rs 10 per inhalation. The start-up was founded in 2014 by Moses Lam and Troy Paquette, who started selling bottled air as a joke on shopping website E-bay.The founders trekked to Mt Rundle and Mt Cascade in Banff town in the province of Alberta, Canada, and caught “fresh mountain air” in sealed plastic bags and first sold it on E-bay for 99 cents per bag. Following their initial success, the duo later turned their idea into a full-fledged business.

They now have retail outlets in Canada, US and China. According to the company’s website, they record daily orders from China, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries.

The sale of their products has picked up in China

after Beijing, for the first time, issued a red alert for air pollution on December 7. The alert was issued after the level of PM2.5 tiny hazardous airborne particles - exceeded 900 micrograms per cubic metre in the air. “Now, we’re taking lots of preorders for our upcoming shipment. We’re getting

close to the 1,000 mark,” said Harrison Wang, director of China operations, told CNN. ‘We got the website up and running, then put Vitality Air on Taobao a Chinese website similar to eBay for online shopping – and we sold out almost instantly,’ Wang told Daily Mail.

Teenager punches Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy in face Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy would not have expected a teenager to land a punch right in the face, but it happened! PM was attending a campaign event for Sunday’s general election in his hometown Galicia when a youngster punched hard on the side of his head knocking his glasses off. This happened as he was walking through the town of Pontevedra. PM was left bruised and stunned. The teenager was arrested soon after.

Issue - 646 (12)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Buyer of guns used in California massacre charged with terrorism count The man who bought the assault rifles used by his friend in the San Bernardino massacre was charged Thursday with terrorismrelated counts for plotting an earlier attack that was aborted.

Enrique Marquez Jr., 24, was charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The charges allege he plotted with gunman Syed Rizwan Farook to launch attacks in 2011 and 2012 at a community college and a congested freeway at rush hour, but they never carried out their plans.

Marquez also was charged with illegally purchasing two assault rifles that Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used to kill 14 people at a holiday meeting of Farook’s health department coworkers on Dec. 2.

The shooters died hours later using those same firearms in a gun battle with police.

Marquez was working at a Riverside bar at the time of the shooting and is not alleged to have had a role in the attack, but prosecutors said he was linked to the killings by the guns and bomb-making materials he bought that the couple planned to detonate.

“His prior purchase of the firearms and ongoing failure to warn authorities about Farook’s intent to commit mass murder

had fatal consequences,” US Attorney Eileen Decker said.

A criminal complaint filed in US District Court charges Marquez with three counts that could bring a maximum of 35 years in federal prison.

A lengthy affidavit outlines evidence against Marquez, including statements he gave investigators over 11 days after he waived his rights to remain silent and be represented by a lawyer.

He called police hours after the attack to say his neighbor had used his gun in the shooting, using an expletive to describe Farook.

Marquez then showed up agitated at a hospital emergency room, saying he had downed nine beers and was “involved” in the shooting. He was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward.

Marquez lived next door to Farook, 28, who introduced him to Islam 10 years ago. Marquez told authorities he converted to Islam around age 16 and four years later was spending most of his time at Farook’s home, reading, listening to and watching “radical Islamic content” that included al-Qaida instructions on how to make bombs.

Four years ago, Marquez said, he and Farook planned to toss pipe bombs into the cafeteria at the community college they

Man punches woman for reclining on plane seat

A California man has been charged with assault for allegedly punching and choking a woman after she reclined her seat on a flight. Lawrence Wells, 54, of Richmond, California faces up to 10 years in prison over the October 18 incident that took place on board a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

According to the indictment, Wells assaulted the victim, identified only by her initials

M.D, choking her and punching her in the head with a closed fist shortly after the plane took off.

“Approximately 10 minutes after the flight left the ground, the captain of the aircraft declared an emergency landing and returned to Los Angeles International Airport where law enforcement ... responded to investigate the assault allegation,” the FBI said in a statement.

California mom gets life term in daughter’s microwave death A 34-year-old mother has been sentenced to life in prison in the microwave oven death of her 1month-old daughter.She was convicted of first-degree murder and assault for putting Mirabelle Thao-Lo in the microwave for up to five minutes in 2011. Prosecutors say the child had fatal thermal

injuries. Investigators found the infant’s pacifier in the microwave at their Sacramento-area home.

Yang’s attorney says her client had an epileptic seizure and didn’t know what she was doing.She has a history of seizures, but paramedics say she wasn’t disoriented when they arrived.

attended and then shoot people as they fled.

He said they also planned to toss pipe bombs on a busy section of freeway that has no

statements on the background check paperwork.

The FBI has said Farook and Malik were radicalized before they met online in 2013, but the

exits, bringing traffic to a halt and then picking off the occupants.

Marquez would shoot from a nearby hillside, targeting police, as Farook fired at drivers from the road.As part of the plan, Marquez bought two assault rifles in November 2011 and February 2012. He said he agreed to buy them because “Farook looked Middle Eastern.”

Authorities previously said Marquez had legally purchased the guns Farook and Malik used.

But the charges allege that by buying the guns for someone else, Marquez made false

court documents detail how much earlier Farook had turned down that path and plotted violence.

Marquez said he and Malik aborted their plans after authorities interrupted a terror plot in the area in November 2012 that involved four men who wanted to join al-Qaida to fight US forces overseas.

He said they didn’t see much of each other after that unraveled, though he deepened his connection with the Farook family, which also led to an immigration fraud charge against

him.

Both men were witnesses at the wedding of Farook’s brother, Raheel, to a Russian woman in 2011, according to marriage records.

Last year, Marquez married the sister of Raheel Farook’s wife.

Prosecutors said it was a sham marriage to help the Russian woman obtain US residency.

According to the affidavit accompanying the charges, Marquez was paid $200 per month for the union and said his own mother and brother didn’t know about it.

About a month before the attack, Marquez made a reference to the marriage and living “multiple lives” in a chat with a fellow Facebook user that foreshadowed the trouble he was facing before any bullets started flying.

“Involved in terrorist plots, drugs, anti-social behavior, marriage, might go to prison for fraud, etc,” according to the affidavit by FBI agent Joel Anderson.

Right after the shooting, Marquez called his mother to say he was safe but that he wouldn’t be coming home, neighbor Lorena Aguirre said.The next day, federal agents raided his mother’s house in Riverside, a city near San Bernardino that is about 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.

PIO doctor gets 30 years jail for child sex exploitation in US A 57-year-old Indian-origin pediatrician in the US has been jailed for 30 years for sexual exploitation of a child and producing child pornography.

Rakesh Punn, of New York had pleaded guilty in April last year to producing child pornography, Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said yesterday. Punn admitted that in September 2007, he sexually exploited a minor paediatric patient during a medical appointment at his home-office. Punn falsely

diagnosed the child with an illness so that he could obtain

unfettered access to her without her parents being present and then drugged and secretly photographed the girl. At sentencing, the court found that

Punn engaged in a pattern of similar conduct with other patients and enhanced his sentence accordingly. Punn awaits sentencing on state charges also related to this conduct.

He was arrested in July 2010 on preliminary charges of videotaping patients. He was initially charged with abusing three children under the guise of giving them medical treatment.

He admitted in April 2014 to sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl who was a patient in his office in Bethpage.

‘Ban Muslim’ remark benefits Trump, leads popularity charts at 39% Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s popularity rating has soared to a new height as he gained 11 points in the last one month to have his popularity at 39%.

The 69-year-old New York-based real estate tycoon gained 11% after his comment on temporary banning entry of all Muslims into the US. His nearest Republican rival Ted Cruz is at 18%, who is followed

by Marco Rubio with 11% and Ben Carson at 9%.

The Fox News which conducted the national poll said all interviews for the new poll were done since December 15 Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas.

Trump leads in another national poll released by Public Policy Polling.

According to it, Trump has support of 34% Republican voters. He is followed by Cruz with 18%, Rubio (13%) and Jeb Bush 7%.

As per RealClearPolitics.com

which maintains an average of all major national polls, Trump?s popularity rating is 33.8% which keeps him on top ahead of all Republican presidential candidates.

He is followed by Cruz with 16.6%, Rubio (12.4%), Carson (11%) and Bush (4.2%).

Issue - 646 (13)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Saudi millionaire cleared of rape after he ‘accidentally tripped and penetrated’ the woman

In a shocking and one of a kind judgment, a 46-year-old millionaire property developer has been cleared of raping a teenager after claiming he accidentally penetrated the 18year-old after he tripped and fell on her.

The girl accused Ehsan Abdulaziz of forcing himself on her while she was sleeping on the sofa in his Maida Vale flat.

She had met Abdulaziz in a fancy nightclub in August 2014 where she was with a friend who was an acquaintance of the business man.

He invited the two girls to join him at this £1,000-per-night table and offered them a ride home in his Aston Martin, the Southwark Crown Court heard.At

his house, he offered some alcohol to the women and then took the second woman into the bedroom for sex. The teenager claimed she woke up when she realized Abdulaziz was forcing himself on her. But, Abdulaziz said he accidentally fell on the younger woman when she tried seducing him and he had just gone to offer her a T-shirt to sleep in or a taxi ride home.The jury acquitted him in just 30 minutes of deliberations despite his semen and DNA being found inside the teenager’s body. The millionaire is said to have given his evidence in private by showing how the girl had put her hand behind his head to pull him towards her, because of which he fell.

The man who married Putin’s daughter and then made a fortune The wedding party dominated a ski resort nestled in the hills about an hour’s drive north of St. Petersburg. No expense was spared and everyone was sworn to secrecy. The happy couple rode in a traditional Russian sleigh drawn by three white horses, said one of the workers who described the scene to Reuters.

The bride wore a long pearl-tinted wedding dress, the groom wore a dark overcoat, said another person who attended. The newlyweds were Katerina, younger daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kirill Shamalov, son of an old friend of Putin.

Their wedding celebrations took place in February 2013, at Igora, a small ski resort that combines beauty and discretion, five people who were there told Reuters. Set amid woodland with a picturesque lake, the resort is co-owned by the family of Yuri Kovalchuk, another old friend of Putin, and a Cyprus company with undisclosed shareholders.

One person who attended the event said staff were told the bride and groom were named Kirill and Katerina, and that guests wore white scarves embroidered with the letters “K&K” in red thread. When shown a photograph of a woman known as Katerina Tikhonova, the source identified her as the bride. Tikhonova is Putin’s younger daughter, as Reuters confirmed in November.

“Guards were behind every corner, (they) didn’t let anyone

Driverless car rules perplexing Google has criticised the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in California for insisting driverless cars must have a fully licensed driver behind the wheel.

On Wednesday, the DMV published draft regulations which outline how the technology could be used on the roads. The regulations say truly driverless cars would be ‘initially excluded’ from operation. Google’s director of self-driving cars, Chris Urmson, said the move was ‘perplexing’. ‘This maintains the same old status quo and falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get

around but cannot drive,’ he wrote in his blog.

‘We’ve heard countless stories from people who need a fully selfdriving car today. People with

health conditions ranging from vision problems to multiple sclerosis to autism to epilepsy who are frustrated with their dependence on others for even simple errands.’

Google argues that driverless cars are much safer than manually driven cars, because they eliminate the human error that causes a majority of collisions.

The technology has inspired a web game by Made With

Monster Love which demonstrates the effectiveness of computer control over human intervention. Google said its vehicles had been involved in only 16 minor incidents during six years of testing, with humans in other cars to blame. ‘We’ve seen in our own testing that drivers can’t be trusted to dip in and out of the task of driving when the car is encouraging them to sit back and relax,’ said Mr Urmson.

However, the technology is still being improved and in November, one of Google’s cars was pulled over for driving too cautiously.

Some of the driverless cars Google has been testing in California do not have any manual controls such as steering wheels or pedals.

The DMV’s draft regulations would prevent residents from riding in those vehicles until their safety could be assessed in ‘subsequent regulatory packages’.

‘The draft regulations are designed to address complex questions related to vehicle safety, certification, operator responsibilities, licensing and registration, privacy, and cybersecurity,’ the DMV said. A public consultation on the draft will take place in the new year.

close to the celebration,” said a staff member at the resort, which has a luxurious spa complex.

“But we knew it was Kirill and Katerina --Putin’s daughter --

his job as a business manager and set up a company to run his personal investments.

How did such a young businessman go so far, so fast?

celebrating marriage.”

At the time of the wedding, Kirill a tall, dark-haired man with rimless glasses - was a rising star of Russian business, but still only 31. His fortunes began to skyrocket soon after his wedding to the president’s daughter, a competitive acrobatic dancer who is now helping to oversee a $1.7 billion expansion of Moscow State University.

Within 18 months, Kirill acquired a large chunk of shares in a major Russian oil and petrochemical processor called Sibur - a stake now worth an estimated $2.85 billion, based on the value of recent share deals. He also quit

A Reuters examination of Shamalov’s career shows that in the summer of 2013, months after he married Putin’s daughter, Kirill opened discussions about buying shares in Sibur from one of the president’s wealthiest friends. A year later, he was able to borrow more than $1 billion, judging by the published accounts of his investment company. The loan came from a bank headed by another longtime associate of Putin, and where Shamalov’s brother holds a senior position. The money was used to make an investment in Sibur that within months proved highly profitable for Kirill.

‘English design’ for mosques mooted in Britain Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim woman cabinet minister in Britain, has sparked off a debate on the design of mosques in the UK and has urged architects and designers to come up with a new model for Islamic places of prayer that

more closely with their surroundings.

Warsi told the daily: “The phrase that I keep coming back to, which is rooted in Islamic thinking, is that Islam is like a river that takes the colour from the bed over which is flows, the bed being the

may exclude minarets.

The new design could look ‘quintessentially English’, the Pakistani-origin Warsi has suggested. She was included in the David Cameron coalition government in 2010, but resigned in 2014, opposing the government’s policy on the Israel-Gaza conflict.A baroness, Warsi wants a new model for Islamic places of prayer as part of a drive to develop an authentically “British” brand of Islam. The Daily Telegraph reported that the new model could involve abandoning the distinctive towers from which the call to prayer is traditionally issued in an effort to blend in

country in which it is found”.

“The minaret is traditionally used somewhere where the call to prayer would be issued from the top of the minaret. If the principal reason no longer exists, with someone having to physically go up to the minaret, should we take more local cultural reference points from this country instead?” she said, adding that it was not for her to determine what the new design would look like. “I think a nod to the heritage and the culture that you find yourself in can be very helpful. I want to see an Islam which sits comfortably within Britain and a Britain that sits more at ease with Islam,” she said.

Issue - 646 (14)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Bad English teeth a myth Auction of Thatcher possessions raises $5m LONDON The sale of late British leader Margaret Thatcher’s possessions has raised $5 million, auction house Christie’s said on Tuesday.

A model of an American bald eagle given to Thatcher by close ally and former US president Ronald Reagan fetched the highest price for an individual item at $396,700 after a flurry of bidding in person, online and by phone.

The model, with the message “with best wishes from Ronald Reagan”, was sold to an online buyer and had been given a top estimated sale price of $11908 at the London auction. The former British prime minister’s famous red ministerial box was the next most expensive item, selling for $360904.

Initially expected to sell for between $4465 and $7441, auctioneer Jussi Pykkanen finalised the sale to an unidentified buyer with a bang of his hammer, to applause from the audience. The box, in which the late Conservative leader would carry confidential documents, is one of the most iconic of around 200 of Thatcher’s personal belongings offered for sale

by Christie’s. Many have been advertised online since December 3, with the sale due to end at 1500 GMT Wednesday.

Items which belonged to the “Iron Lady”, Britain’s first female prime minister, have often sold better than the clothes she wore. A sheet featuring a typed prayer attributed to St

Francis of Assisi and signed by Thatcher, which she quoted on first arriving in Downing Street in 1979, sold for $55813, despite an initial estimate of between $892 and $1339.

Her blue velvet wedding dress, valued at between £10,000 and $22325, went for $37208 to a buyer in Oman. Some 200 buyers followed the sale online and many others by telephone, including prospective bidders from Austria, South Korea,

Australia and the United States. The sale of Thatcher’s clothes revealed her “secret passion” for fashion, curator Meredith Etherington-Smith said.

Thatcher was the daughter of a seamstress and as a child she and her sister made their own clothes, she added.

“When she became the first woman prime minister, she used clothes as a way of emphasising her power,” Etherington Smith explained last week. “Every time there was a photo opportunity, she was beautifully dressed, immaculately coiffured, with a nice handbag, and she looked what she was: a powerful person.” Thatcher led the country from 1979 to 1990. She died in 2013 at the age of 87.

Global disaster costs fall in 2015 ZURICH The economic cost of disasters across the world dropped in 2015 to around $85 billion (78 billion euros) from $113 million last year, reinsurance company Swiss Re said on Friday.

accounted for $74 billion of this year’s total, it said.

The industrial disaster in Tianjin in northeastern China, where massive explosions at a hazardous goods storage firm on August 12 killed 161 people, is estimated to

Insurance companies covered $32 billion of the total, it said in its Sigma study. The 2015 figure is much below the annual average over the past decade of $192 billion, Swiss Re said. The cost of natural disasters alone

have been the year’s costliest catastrophe, with insurers covering more than $2 billion of the damage, but calculations are ongoing.

More than 3,000 people died in India and Pakistan when temperatures

soared above 48 degrees Celsius (118 F), the reinsurer said.

Among natural catastrophes, the February winter storms in the United States produced the biggest bill for insurers, costing them around $2.7 billion.

The Nepal earthquake, which killed 9,000 people and destroyed 500,000 homes had an economic cost of more than $6 billion, but insurers had to pay out just $160 million, Swiss Re said. In this year likely to be the warmest on record, heat waves caused over 5,000 deaths and lack of rainfall also caused considerable destruction by drought and fires. “The overall economic impact of these events was devastating in the areas affected,” said Kurt Karl, chief economist at Swiss Re. “Often these areas are the least equipped and have a low level of insurance penetration,” he noted.

LONDON A long-standing stereotype that English people have terrible teeth was busted on Thursday as a light-hearted study revealed that US citizens do not have better oral health than English people. English characters with yellowed and crooked smiles have long been a stock joke in US books, film and television from The Simpsons to comic spy Austin Powers, but one with little basis in fact, it found. “Contrary to popular belief, our study showed that the oral health of US citizens is not better than the English,” wrote the authors of the study, called “Austin Powers bites back”. The study found that on average out of the thousands of men and women aged 25 and over who were surveyed, US citizens had slightly more missing teeth than English people - 7.31 compared to 6.97. The team of researchers from University College London, the National University of Colombia and the Harvard School of Public Health said the misleading view “dates back at least 100 years, with toothpaste adverts extolling the

virtues of American smiles.” It found greater inequality in dental health in the United States, with rich people likely to have good teeth but poorer people much worse off, perhaps due to different access to health services.

“Those in the lowest socioeconomic position levels tended to be better

chose “In the teeth of American bias, our dentistry wins out”.

“Experts claim Yanks are wrong to mock us for having wonky or missing gnashers,” wrote The Sun. Published in the British Medical Journal, the study examined the dental data from the Adult Dental Health Survey 2009 for

off in England,” the study found. In Britain, dental care is largely provided through the publiclyfunded National Health Service, unlike in the US where dental insurance predominates.

The study was received with glee in the British press. “Smile! American teeth worse than ours” was the headline in The Times, while the Independent

England, and the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-08.

Factors analysed were the number of teeth each person was missing, how people rated their own oral health, and the impact of oral health on daily life. The study only covered teeth in England, and not other parts of the United Kingdom.

Issue 646 (15)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Shah Rukh and Kajol’s old wine in old bottle is intoxicating!

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Varun Sharma, Boman Irani, Johnny Lever Director: Rohit Shetty Rating: 3 stars Maybe it takes a Rohit Shetty to make a Dilwale tell the same story, with the same twists, and yet make it so heady that you

since it was first announced. So does Dilwale live up to the mark?

For starters, that ‘mark’ is pretty low, to begin with.

One cannot expect a mindblowing, Inception-esque script from Shetty, but that’s no dampener. The director, along with the ever dependable arms-outstretched version of Shah

don’t want the film to end.

Or maybe it takes a Shah Rukh Khan to do that and not get tired. Nor do his fans, for that matter.

Dilwale, of course, is different. Apart from everything usual that a Rohit Shetty film does, Dilwale has Kajol. Touted as the actor’s big comeback, the return of the iconic SRKKajol jodi on screen, the film has kept people waiting with bated breath ever

Rukh Khan, gives the audience the standard fare in Dilwale. With flying cars (not Scorpios, thankfully), the ladies and the laughs, the film scores high on the predictable-yet-enjoyable factor.

Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) lives in Goa with his brother Veer (Varun Dhawan), his sidekicks and friends Shakti (Mukesh Tiwari) and Anwar (Pankaj Tripathi). Veer’s friend

Sidhu (Varun Sharma) is by him through all his stints (and stunts). The brothers make a living by modifying expensive cars.

‘Brotherhood above all else’ is the mantra this coterie of men live and function by.

One fine morning, when Ishita (Kriti Sanon) hitchhikes her way into Veer’s life, the two fall in love and the inevitable happens.

Well, the boy-can’t-marrygirl diktat happens too, but right now, a flashback is what we’re talking about.

The story moves to 15 years ago, to a distant Bulgaria. Raj here is known as Kali, a dreaded Indian gangster who fires bullets at people and flies his cars with scant respect for life or anything else. Enter Meera (Kajol). The sparks fly, the cars fly, the pallus fly and the whistles in the theatre just don’t stop.

Shah Rukh and Kajol together, is, after all, something that many have waited for for long.

Soon, Kali and Meera find out that they are the Montagues and Capulets in Shetty’s no-love-lost story. And history, as they say, repeats itself with Veer and Ishita walking the same way.

As far as acting is concerned, Shah Rukh does a damn good job of being Shah Rukh. The eyes wa-

ter when they need to, the arms go wide open when they have to. He romances Kajol like Raj did Simran

Ranveer, Deepika, Priyanka shine in this epic love story Cast:Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Tanvi Azmi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Milind Soman Direction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Ratings: 4 Stars “And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes ridingRiding-ridingA highwayman comes riding, up to the old inndoor.

Over the cobbles he clat-

ters and clangs in the dark inn-yard.

He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred.

He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord’s blackeyed daughter, Bess, the landlord’s daughter, Plaiting a dark red loveknot into her long black hair.”

In 1906, Alfred Noyes wrote these lines as an ode to Bess and her Highwayman. A tale of two doomed lovers, whose death was synonymous with their union. Travel a few centuries back, and you have William Shakespeare making his

Juliet pine, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” with as much pathos as was possible.

Several centuries further back in history, or in oral legends, for that matter, you have Laila-Majnu, Heer-Ranjha; star-cross’d lovers in every culture, in every corner of the world.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani is in essence the story of Bajirao and Mastani.

The director’s ode to undying love does make you pine for that kind of an extraordinary story, which can show the thumb to the shackles of worldly trivialities. Bhansali takes a leaf out of history, and crafts it into an exquisite tale. And all the participants in this

orchestra are in tune with the conductor, despite the occasional out-of-note keys. Bajirao Mastani opens with Chhatrapati Shahu (Mahesh Manjrekar) asking nominations for the post of the Peshwa. A display of his skill and wisdom lands Bajirao (Ranveer Singh) the title.

The Peshwa’s reputation as a warrior and statesman par excellence is hardly restricted within the Maratha empire. Bajirao accompanies Mastani to her kingdom and saves Bundelkhand from the at-

tackers. In the process, the married Bajirao leaves Mastani madly in love with him. Back in Pune, Kashibai (Priyanka Chopra) welcomes her husband back home from the battle. Mastani follows suit, and lands in Pune among the other gifts from Bundelkhand. The halfMuslim, half-Rajput princess faces humiliation at the hands of Bajirao’s mother (Tanvi Azmi) and yearns for her lover. Bajirao Mastani follows the trajectory of the lovers,

in that once-upon-a-time DDLJ, and quite honestly, many people wouldn’t want more from the film.

whose fates are intertwined with each other. And behind Bajirao and Mastani, is the heartbroken Kashi, whose resigned acceptance of her fate is poignant to say the least. Bajirao Mastani doesn’t leave much room for complaint. The story sucks you in from the first frame, and stays that way till the interval. Post that, the pace slackens here and there, but overall, it is a delight.

Ranveer Singh delivers his career-best performance, leaving behind even Lootera. As the fierce-attimes, passionate-at-others Bajirao, Singh is spellbinding. The actor does need to work on his voice modulation, though. Deepika’s Mastani can kill with a look from that pair of un-kohl-ed eyes. She is as agile and consummate with the sword, as with her words.

Issue 646 (16)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

I’m conservative when it comes to relations says Deepika Padukone Deepika Padukone has been in news for her personal life as much as for her professional choices this year. If her role in Shoojit Sircar’s Piku got her appreciation, her on-screen chemistry with ex-flame Ranbir Kapoor in Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha set tongues wagging. But more than anything, it’s her relationship with rumoured boyfriend Ranveer Singh that kept her in limelight.

Deepika is rumoured to be dating her Bajirao Mastani co-star Ranveer. In the recently released film there is a love triangle, in which Deepika plays Bajirao’s (Ranveer) second wife Mastani, while Priyanka Chopra plays essays the role of the first wife.

When asked if like the film, a love triangle happens in her real life, would she fight for her love or be ok with it, she said, “You can’t be blind to the situation...it depends on whose position I am in.

“Something that happens in films is something I

Why Priyanka Chopra doesn’t need to prep for ‘Jai Gangaajal’

would not subscribe to in real life. I am traditional and conservative when it comes to relations,” Deepika told PTI. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed magnum opus shows Bajirao (Ranveer), who is already married to Kashi (Priyanka), falling in love with Mastani (Deepika).

This is for the first time that Deepika shares screen space with co-actor Priyanka. The Tamasha actor had earlier said that the Dil Dhadakne Do actor was her first friend before she made her acting debut in Bollywood.

When asked if it is possible to be friends today with other female actors, she says, “It depends...with Priyanka it is different. I have known her first as a friend and then as a colleague. I have known her longer than some of the others. It may not be possible to be best friends, but it is possible to be respectful and cordial with one another,” she said.

It’s time for Priyanka Chopra to move out of the demure Kashibai mould (in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Bajirao Mastani’) into the defiant cop avatar for Prakash Jha’s ‘Jai Gangaajal’. She’s back in the city after wrapping up the 2015 schedule of her American TV series, ‘Quantico’. On Friday evening, PeeCee had tweeted “Wrap for 2015 on the shoot of #Quantico! This almost became my routine. Can’t wait to land into my matrabhoomi n finally see #BajiraoMastani (sic).” Given that the actress plays a gritty FBI agent in the international show, she won’t need to spend much time prepping up for Jha’s film.

Clash of titans: Dilwale vs Bajirao Mastani Bollywood’s battle of the year has happened, with Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani releasing all over this past weekend.

While Shah Rukh Khanstarrer Dilwale clearly shows an edge over Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani, collections of both films have suffered owing to the clash just as the trade had feared. The domestic collection of Dilwale after Sunday stands at Rs 65.09 crore, although the film has touched the 145-crore mark if you consider its global gross.

Bajirao Mastani has managed ‘46.77 crore all over India in three days since the two films released on Friday. The film’s global weekend is around Rs 90 crore. “#Dilwale Fri 21 cr, Sat 20.09 cr, Sun 24 cr. Total: 65.09 cr India biz.

Good growth on Sunday... #BajiraoMastani is UNSTOPPABLE, SUPER word of mouth translates into SUPER biz. Fri 12.80 cr, Sat 15.52 cr, Sun 18.45 cr. Total: 46.77 cr, (sic)” tweeted trade analyst Taran Adarsh on his social media handle @taran_adarsh, about the domestic perfor-

mances of the two films.

While the industry overall is happy with the fact that

the two films have together earned ‘111.86 crore, making this nonfestive three-

day span one of the most lucrative ones ever, trade experts feel both films

could have earned 20-30 per cent more had they settled for solo slots.

The clash meant a dent in the earnings for both films.

Issue 646 (17)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Emma Roberts might quit acting in future Amber Heard’s ‘claw’ story Fans of Roberts might have to see their favourite star donning the filmmaker’s hat as the actor believes that too much of gloss and make-up on the screen has led her to re-think her career choice.

“I thought of it a lot

Scream Queen actor Emma Roberts is contemplating on leaving her acting career and joining the

directors’ bandwagon soon, as revealed by the actors’ statement in a new edition of Allure magazine.

Bar Refaeli arrested for tax evasion Supermodel Bar Rafaeli and her mother have reportedly been arrested for tax evasion.

The mother-daughter duo were detained in their home country Israel, said The Hollywood Reporter. Refaeli, 30, has been accused of doing fraud in mentioning the details about her income and residence in the tax filings. The model was living in apartments registered under her mother’s name.

She was released on bail on Thursday afternoon, but her passport has been confiscated and she is banned from leaving the country for 180 days.

during Scream Queen when every morning there’s full hair and make-up and heels and mini-dresses,” Roberts said, “And I thought, you know, I kind of want to show up to work one day and not

care what I look like. It would be nice to just slip away for a little bit.”

The 24-year-old actor has her eyes set on directing and producing films one day and has often considered quitting acting.

“I think as I get older, there might come a time when I don’t want to be in front of the camera anymore and want to be more behind the scenes: I would love to produce and maybe write,” she told the magazine.

The actor also came out in support of her younger sister Grace, who she claims had complained to Roberts about the online bullying one of her photographs faced. Roberts further recalled an incident when she was about to post a picture of the sister duo but was stopped by Grace.

“She came up to me and said, ‘Please don’t post that; people are calling me ugly on your Instagram’,” recalled Roberts. Roberts revealed that her sister’s reluctance was the inspiration for her to pose without makeup for the un-retouched Aerie campaign.

“I also wanted to show people: Yes, there is an Emma Roberts, but there is also Emma,” she said, “Not red carpet. My hair down.

Basically no make-up”, said Roberts.

Actress Amber Heard has confessed that her friends used to mock her by calling her “claw hands” while she was learning ballet routines for ‘The Danish Girl’. The 29year-old, who plays ballerina Oola alongside Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander in the pseudo-biographical drama film, discussed her strenuous ballet training for the movie while talking to chat show host James Corden on “The Late Late Show” on Wednesday, reports dailymail.co.uk. “I wanted to train for it and there were some ballet sequences that we wanted to have the option to

incorporate into the movie. I trained forever and I have two left feet.

I’m the most clutsy person in the world. I have no - what do you call it? Grace,” she said.

The actress added: “I crammed about three months of solid training in, working my way up from the floor and learning the technical aspect of ballet.

I’ve got these dances down, technically perfect.

I’m learning all the moves, but the last thing we get to are the hands. I send videos to my friends so I get encouragement and look for their support and everyone shoots back ‘What’s with the claw hands?’.”

Harrison Ford wanted his Han Solo to die in the sixth instalment Actor Harrison Ford, who has reprised his role as Han Solo in Star Wars The Force Awakens, wanted his character to be killed off in Return of the Jedi, the sixth episode of the Star Wars saga.

In a taped interview that aired on the TV show Conan, Ford explained why he wanted the smuggler to die in the original trilogy, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... I thought the best utility of the character would be for him to sacrifice himself to a high ideal and give a little bottom, a little gravitas to the enterprise, not that there wasn’t some already but I just wanted in on some part of it,” Ford revealed.

“That was at the third

occasion of filming the original three,” he added.

The Force Awakens is set 30 years after the

Battle of Endor at the end of Return of the Jedi.

But we are sure the 73year-old actor will be grateful to Star Wars creator George Lucas who thought otherwise of his character. Are you wondering, why?

Harrison Ford, who returned as an older Han Solo in the new Star Wars Episode has netted a whopping 34.7 million dollars for his role.

Ford will also receive 0.5 per cent of the film’s gross earnings, that is almost 76 times more than the newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, who were both paid 623,000 dollars each, as reported by by News.com.au.

For Disney Han Solo’s character was more important than Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Ford was required by the team to set a link between old and the new generation.

“Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were good to get, but the film could have lived without them. You couldn’t make it without Harrison Ford.”

Issue 646 (18)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

2 Indians among 3 killed in Bonjour mes amis! Eiffel Tower missile attack in Saudi Arabia joins list of monuments on Twitter Two Indians were among three persons killed when a missile fired from strifetorn Yemen struck Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border city of Najran, the third such incident this year in-

volving Indian nationals.

Two Indian expatriates along with a Saudi citizen were killed on Saturday by a missile fired across the borders with Yemen, the official the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The spokesman of the Civil

Defense Lieut Colonol Ali Al- Shahrani identified the Saudi citizen as Hamad Ali Yassin Al- Hatila, 40.

He said some people were injured in the incident and were rushed to the hospi-

tal, Saudi Gazzette reported. There was no immediate comment from the Indian embassy here on the death of two Indians.

In September, an Indian was killed and three others were injured in mortar attacks in Saudi’s Jizan

region by rebels in Yemen, known as Houthis. Just before Jizan incident, another Indian was killed and two others were injured in the same region.

Indians are the largest group of expats in the Gulf Kingdom and hundreds of them live in Jizan and Najran, the region bordering strife-torn Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting rebels Houthis since March 26. During the campaign, several Saudi border guards and soldiers have been killed in shelling from across the border.

Representatives from both sides are currently attending UN-sponsored talks in Switzerland.

At least 5,800 people have been killed and over 27,000 wounded in Yemen since March, according to the UN.

One of the tallest and most iconic structures in the world, the Eiffel Tower made its debut on Twitter on Monday evening. The Twitter handle @LaTourEiffel says it its bio “Bienvenue sur le compte officiel de la tour Eiffel! Parisienne depuis 1889.” (“Welcome to the official account of the Eiffel Tower! Parisian since 1889.”) The 324 metre-tall tower was built

by Gustave Eiffel in 1889

to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. The tower was designed in a manner to highlight the technological advancements France made in the 19th century. @LaTourEiffel’s first tweet went at 731PM (IST): “Parisienne depuis 1889, maintenant je brille aussi sur Twitter !” (“Parisian since 1889, now I am sparkling on Twitter!”.)

In the first hour, the account had 1,979 followers and counting. The colours

of Le Tricolour, the French flag, were projected onto the monument in solidarity with the 129 victims killed in the November 13 Paris attacks, following which the tower was closed off.

The Taj Mahal also made its debut on Twitter on August 15 earlier this year and regularly shares updates and pictures of the beautiful 16th century monument with its more than 23,200 followers.

Issue 646 (19)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

War-torn Iraq gets its first beauty queen since 1972 It was smoky, alcohol-free and there was no swimsuit contest, but Saturday’s party produced the first Miss Iraq in four decades and left all feeling a small victory had been won.

“Some people out there think we don’t love life,” said Humam al-Obeidi, one of the organisers, as the crowd spilled out of the Baghdad hotel ballroom where the pageant was held.

The jury chose Shaymaa Abdelrahman, a tall, greeneyed 20-year-old from Iraq’s multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk.

The decision was popular with those in attendance, especially in the back rows, where young men with hispter beards and tight blazers had been standing on their chairs shouting her name.

“I’m very happy to see Iraq going forward,” the new beauty queen told AFP as she tried to fend off a scrum of admirers hoping to clinch a selfie.

“This event was huge and put a smile on the faces of the Iraqis.”

Wearing her sash and holding her bouquet, Shaymaa Abdelrahman was fast learning her new trade, saying all the right things without ever

breaking her smile.

There was more talking than glamorous strutting during the pageant as the contestants, in high heels and evening dresses that were sleeveless but below the knee, pitched their charity projects to the jury.

The pageant was designed to meet enough international criteria to propel its winner to the next Miss Universe contest,

but some details, such as the Kalashnikov-toting guard at the door, set the event firmly in Iraq.

The winner said she would use her fame to forward educational initiatives, especially among the massive population of people who have been displaced by conflict.

One contestant said she would try to fix the Mosul dam, Iraq’s largest and reportedly in need of urgent repair work, “because it threatened the entire country.”

In the week running up to the event, the eight finalists embarked on a string of pre-pageant activities, including the visit of a camp for displaced people in Baghdad.

Speaking to AFP during a treeplanting ceremony near the

ruins of the ancient city of Babylon on Thursday, Suzan Amer, a 22-year-old from the Kurdish town of Sulaimaniyah argued that a beauty pageant was more than a mere distraction in Iraq.

“It’s my first time doing anything like this but it’s an experience I wanted to be part of. I think Iraq needs events like these,” said the young woman with ash blonde hair, bright fuscia lipstick and a rosebud tucked above her ear.

Iraq is wracked by an ongoing war against the Islamic State, the world’s most brutal jihadist organisation, and plagued by deep sectarian tensions and corruption.

But the pageant, which culminated with the jury announcing the winner as Beethoven’s Ode to Joy filled the ballroom, left participants, organisers and guests feeling that beating the gloom was part of the war effort.

“I think it is wonderful; it makes you feel things can come back to normal,” said veteran human rights activist Hana Edwar.

The last time the Miss Iraq competition was held was in 1972, when the oil-rich country was on an upward track.

Old footage of the contest available on the Internet shows Wijdan Burhan al-Din Suleimank, at a venue in Puerto Rico, introducing herself at the microphone, between India and Ireland in the speaking order.

30% Republicans support bombing fictional Agrabah in Disney’s Aladdin A poll on Friday by Public Policy Polling perfectly encapsulates the Republican presidential race so far: “30% of Republican primary voters nationally say they support bombing Agrabah.” That would be the fictional country in Aladdin.

Republican voters, urged on by the Republican candidates, are now eager to bomb anywhere that has a Muslim-sounding name regardless of whether or not it comes from a cartoon.

While the poll itself may be

amusing, it’s not exactly surprising given the cartoonish levels of tough-guy militarism that spews from the mouth of every Republican candidate as they try to one-up each other on who would start more

wars harder and quicker.

Ted Cruz has spent the last two weeks calling for a “carpet bombing” of the Middle East in an attempt to destroy Isis, saying he wants to see if” sand can glow in the dark.”

He defended this call on national television Tuesday while outright avoiding the question of whether that means he’s prepared to kill the hundreds of thousands of civilians that live in Isis’s de-facto capital of Raqqa, Syria.

IS jihadists stole ‘tens of thousands’ of blank EU passports The Islamic State group may have stolen “tens of thousands” of blank passports that it could feasibly use to smuggle its fighters into Europe as refugees, a German newspaper reported Sunday.

The Welt am Sonntag cited Western intelligence sources as saying that IS could have acquired the

travelling to Europe unchecked represents a security risk,” the head of EU border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, told Welt.

Leggeri said that passports issued in war-ravaged countries such as Syria where conditions are chaotic mean that no one can guarantee “that documents that

stolen travel documents in areas of Syria, Iraq and Libya it now controls.

The passports could be issued to would-be attackers to enter the European Union as asylum seekers, according to the report.

Moreover IS has already launched a money-spinning operation with the fake documents, selling them on the black market where they fetch up to 1,500 euros ($1,630) each, Welt said.

European authorities have repeatedly warned of the potential threat posed by refugees travelling with counterfeit documents.

The two unidentified Stade de France attackers in Paris have been tracked back to two fake Syrian passports used to enter Europe.

“The large influx of people who are

look real were actually issued by an official authority”.

Asked about the report, the German interior ministry offered a similar assessment.

“In light of the large number of entering migrants, it cannot be ruled out that among them are for example, criminals, war criminals, members of militant groups or terror organisations. or individuals with extremist views,” a spokesman told AFP. “At the same time, it cannot be ruled out that these people are carrying fake documents.”

The German government said last week that it had initially overestimated the proportion of people entering the country with fake Syrian passports, which was in fact far less than the 30 percent announced by the interior minister in September.

Issue 646 (20)

Our hands are tied. We need to go with the law Supreme Court refuses to extend juvenile Nirbhaya rapist’s detention despite plea from Delhi Commission for Women

By HARISH V NAIR The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Centre and the Delhi government for challenging the release of the juvenile convict in the December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang-rape case.

However, the apex court sought an extension of the juvenile convict’s detention solely on the ground that some more time was required to reform him and that he continued to be a threat to society.

Dismissing the petition filed by Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal against the juvenile’s release, a bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit had a stern message for both the state government and the Centre: You will not be allowed to take advantage of your failure to put a proper law in place at the right time.

The judges said that while “we shared the society’s concern”, the court could not extend the juvenile’s stay in the observation home beyond the maximum period of three years permitted by the existing Juvenile Justice Act. The juvenile, who was released from the observation home in Majnu Ka Tila on Thursday, which was three days in advance due to security reasons, was shifted to the custody of an NGO in Delhi on Sunday amid protests led by the victim’s parents.

“Everything has to be done in accordance with the law. We have to follow the law. Without legislative sanction, our hands are tied. We cannot go beyond the statute,” the judges told lawyer Guru Krishnakumar, who represented Maliwal.

The judges told the DCW: “You are also a part

of the government. Why have you not put in place a reformation policy yet?”

Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, who appeared for the Centre and supported DCW’s stand, faced the ire of the court for seeking the continued detention of the juvenile but not putting in place appropriate legislation.

“When Anand rose to back DCW and said “we support their stand”, justice Goel asked her “how can you? You have not made any law.

There has to be some legislative sanction for extending the detention period”.

Significantly, the bench opined that the juvenile too had a right to life when asked by the DCW about the interpretation of rules governing the rehabilitation of a juvenile as a provision for detention.

“You are asking us to interpret the law. But the process of interpretation cannot be by taking away somebody’s rights under the article section 21 of the Constitution (right to life and liberty),” said Justice Lalit.

The DCW told the apex court that it was not pressing to send the juvenile back to the observation home and said he may only be subjected to an independent assessment of his mental state at the NGO where he was lodged to ascertain if he has reformed and is safe to be released into the society.

The DCW also said that there was no proof the juvenile had been “reformed” and that intelligence reports had said he was being “radicalised” while in detention.

Justice Lalit then asked DCW: “Suppose the reformation takes another seven or ten years, do we have to extend the period of his detention every now and then without any legislative sanction?”

Questioning the high court’s refusal to stay the release, Maliwal’s petition said that while the government and courts are bound by the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, it is necessary to assess the mental condition of the youth in the larger public interest before his release as he is viewed as a threat to society.

It is to be noted that on Friday the Delhi HC had declined to issue orders to extend the juvenile’s stay in the observation home, noting that legal provisions under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act did not allow for detention beyond three years.

Bill may clear RS hurdle today

By Amit Agnihotri After it failed to clear the Upper House hurdle three times before, the chances of the Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill passing the Rajya Sabha test now

acid attack and murder, while treating them as adults.

The issue has come into sharp focus and has created huge public interest over the protests relating to the release

appear bright after Opposition parties changed track, seemingly under public pressure.

There was a consensus among political parties, who have agreed to debate and pass the Bill, allowing the prosecution of those over 16 years of age and accused of heinous crimes like rape,

of a juvenile convicted in the Delhi gangrape and murder case of 2012. The juvenile spent three years in a correction home.

As protests demanding the review of the law intensified, parties were forced to review their stand on the Juvenile Justice Bill.

(21)

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said his party would support the Bill if the government tabled the legislation on Tuesday.

The Congress has been disrupting proceedings of the Upper House over the alleged destabilisation of the government in Arunachal Pradesh.

Derek O’ Brien of the Trinamool Congress said the Bill needed to be debated keeping in mind the public sentiment over the issue.

Both the Congress and TMC had been demanding to refer the Bill to a parliamentary panel, saying it needed some more review.

After Congress member Digvijaya Singh asked why the government did not bring the Bill on Monday, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar pointed out that the Opposition party was the House to function.

He said the Bill had been listed three times earlier during the ongoing winter session, which will end on Wednesday.

“It’s brazen mischief by the Centre to defame Opposition and divert attention from the Arun Jaitley issue,” Azad said.

However, even if Parliament changes the law, it will not be applicable on the Delhi gang-rape case and would apply to future cases only.

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Juvenile bill in RS today, gangrape victim’s parents seek passage Parents of the December 16 gangrape victim met leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday, seeking the passage of the Juvenile Justice Bill which will allow children between 16-18 years to be tried as adults in heinous crime cases.

“We have been assured that the bill will be passed tomorrow and we believe that. Now, it is not the right time to talk about him (the juvenile convict of the gangrape case) as he is a free man and there is no law to hold him back. Our fight is not only for us but for all women and girls,” the victim’s father Badri Singh Pandey told reporters after meeting the Congress leader at the latter’s residence.

The bill is expected to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha at 2pm on Tuesday, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien tweeted. With demands for passage of the juvenile justice bill -- that seeks to treat juveniles between 16 to 18 years as adults for committing heinous crimes such as rape – intensifying both inside and outside Parliament, the Rajya Sabha on Monday decided to take up the legislation for discussion on Tuesday.

However, Congress had earlier in the day termed this move as “brazen mischief” by

the government, alleging it was to “defame parents participated in a candle light march the opposition” and divert attention from the at Jantar Mantar along with hundreds of

DDCA issue.

“Let them not do this mischief. This is a total brazen mischief on the part of the government... This is only to divert the attention of the opposition from raising other issues, about DDCA,” Azad said, adding that the Congress will support the Juvenile Justice Bill in the Upper House.

Before meeting Azad, the gangrape victim’s

youths and activists. Amid protests, the juvenile convict in the case was sent to an NGO in Delhi on Sunday.

The victim’s mother Asha Devi said notwithstanding the release of the juvenile convict on Sunday, she and her husband will continue their fight to ensure death penalty for the rest of the convicts who are currently lodged in Tihar jail.

Issue 646 (22)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

NZ approves colander hats, China to advocate one couple, two children policy flying noodle weddings Chinese lawmakers consider amending the family planning law to allow couples to have two children to counter shrinkage of the work force and an ageing population.

The draft amendment which was submitted for review came under the Communist party of China (CPC) Central Commitee which gave the green signal for uni-

versal two child rule will replace the decade long one couple one child policy. Under the current law citizens who volunteer to have only one child in their lifetime enjoy rewards while citizens who marry late and delay childbearing are entitled to longer nupital and maternity leaves. The articles were deleted in

the draft implying the new law will come into effect on January 1, 2016. The amendment will not affect the welfare enjoyed by the elderly who family abides the current family planning law,couple who have only one child or a child who is disabled or deceased. It will also not affect people who have been receiving rewards and assistance before the law was

amended. The draft also allows couples of a reproductive age to choose to adopt contraceptive methods and doesn’t force them to accept technical services and guidance for family planning. Medical institutes will also be able to employ assisted reproductive technology after being authorised based on their personal, facilities and

ethical management.

The draft states that the trade of sperm, ovum and embryo is forbidden. surrogate pregnancy is not allowed. Anyone caught would receive punishments ranging from warnings, fines and criminal penalties . Li Bin head of National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), said the CPC’s decision was made to adapt to the transition of China’s population from young to old is currently underway.

China implemented its family planning to scheme in the early 70’s to curb the surging population. Since its implementation there was reduction of population of 400 million people in China but brought other social problems such as diminishing workforce and aging population. In 2013 China relaxed its birthing rules allowing couples to have a second birth if one of the partners was an only child. One child policy was abandoned earlier this year at a CPC meeting held in October.

WELLINGTON Colander-wearing members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster could soon be legally married in New Zealand after the church was approved to hold “Pastafarian” marriage ceremonies.

Church adherents, who wear colanders on their heads, revere pirates and believe the universe was created by a flying noodle, have been recognised in New Zealand as a bone fide organisation.

Their right to nominate marriage celebrants was approved on December 10 and the church head, the “Top R’Amen”, was reported Sunday saying she had filed her application and hoped to begin conducting Pastafarian weddings next month.

The woman, who requested anonymity, earlier told Radio New Zealand it was only right that marriages in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster be recognised. “We are a bone fide church and our people do like to get married, some of them several times,” she said. “We like to have baptisms and babies and celebrations and

divorces and it’s always nice to have an official marriage celebrant to preside over these celebrations.”

The wedding feast would be pasta, “the main holy meal”, the Top R’Amen said, and the wedding dress distinctive. “The colander is the traditional headgear but if you also

Act. “I have come to the view they do uphold or promote philosophical convictions and therefore are able to nominate marriage celebrants,” he said.

Under New Zealand law, he said an organisation would be granted celebrant status as long as they can demonstrate that they are

wish to dress up as a pirate that’s also approved because of course the first people that the flying spaghetti monster created were pirates.” RegistrarGeneral Jeff Montgomery, who approved the Pastafarians right to apply to be marriage celebrants, told Radio New Zealand it was “one of the more unusual” requests he has received but they met the conditions of the Marriage

promoting some philosophical or religious convictions. “A marriage certificate won’t actually have on it that a person has been married by a particular celebrant or particular organisation,” he said. The “Flying Spaghetti Monster” movement, which developed in the United States about 10 years ago, also believes there is a good beer volcano in heaven but the beer in hell is stale.

Issue 646 (23)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Nepal climbers face ruin after quake KHUMJUNG Phurba Tashi Sherpa, the most accomplished highaltitude climber in history, holds a bucket and crowbar as he claws through the rubble of his home seven months after Nepal’s earthquake shattered the country.

Despite years of guiding wealthy foreign clients up Mount Everest, something he has done 21 times - a joint record - the 44-yearold has been left penniless.

Phurba Tashi’s predicament is shared by many Sherpas, whose homes, lodges and restaurants were destroyed in the April disaster and who complain of a slow response from the government despite billions of dollars of Western aid.

Some retired guides must return to the peaks to earn money. Others are pulling their children out of schools in Kathmandu and hotel owners are firing staff.

To make matters worse, bookings so far point to a sharp drop in foreign moun-

taineers heading for Nepal in 2016, deterred by ruined infrastructure and an economic blockade along its border with India that threatens supplies of fuel

almost 9,000 people destroyed his eight-bedroom trekking lodge, badly damaged his house and caused a deadly avalanche nine miles away on the world’s

and equipment. “Everything I worked for was destroyed in a minute,” said Phurba Tashi, standing in his village of Khumjung, a cluster of 80 stone houses perched on a plateau surrounded by breathtaking 23,000-foot (7,000-metre) mountains.

The earthquake that killed

tallest peak.

The remote villages under Everest, which prospered in recent decades thanks to the booming climbing business, suffered some of the heaviest destruction in Nepal’s deadliest disaster.

The Everest industry is in a state of upheaval following avalanches in 2014 and

Indo-Canadian community’s addiction problem mirrors Punjab drug abuse It is the most rustic of drugs. Made from crushing dried poppy pods, the powder is then dissolved in water or steeped in tea for a quick high. Called doda, its Punjabi name, it has proved to be the gateway drug to harder narcotics like heroin and cocaine, the use of which is now rife in the Indo-Canadian community in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

For nearly five years, the sale of doda remained legal and it was openly available in meat stores in the region, and became the drug of choice for many in the community, especially those in the trucking industry.

It’s also a habit that mirrors the spike in drug abuse in Punjab, where the majority of Indo-Canadians in this region trace their origin to. “That culture was brought back here,” said former Brampton City Councillor Vicky Dhillon.

This flourishing trade has increasingly seen the involvement of Indo-Canadian gangs from British Columbia on the West Coast, in trafficking the drugs. There are even

dial-for-dope hotlines. Users call the number of a dealer and wait at a predetermined street corner for delivery.

Dhillon has spearheaded a campaign against doda.

He first became involved

after hearing reports of school children getting addicted to the drug and his concern rose as the father of a school-going son. In 2010, doda was finally declared an illegal substance

by Health Canada.

But as doda vanished from the shelves, a number of addicts pursued alternate highs — heroin and . That trend has been noticed by those working in the field, such as the non-profit Punjabi Community Health Services (PCHS), which runs a de-addiction

centre in Malton, another GTA township and also has offices in Mississauga in Ontario, Calgary in Alberta and Moga in Punjab.

Sitting in his office in Brampton, PCHS CEO Baldev Mutta estimated his organisation was providing de-addiction counselling to nearly 100 clients, an increase of “about 100%” over the past five years.

It’s the only community-oriented organisation of its kind in Ontario, if not in Canada, and Mutta described the numbers they were seeing as “peanuts”.

“We’re merely scratching the surface,” he said. The devastation caused by addiction among families within the community is “huge”, Mutta said, because of how expensive such habits are, and the legal and health complications that arise from them.

With cultural barriers over disclosing addiction and the lack of mainstream solutions to what is becoming a crisis in the area, doda may be gone from here but its impact will not be forgotten in the near future.

2015 that killed 35 people, in the two most deadly incidents since climbers began ascending. In 2013, there was an unprecedented mass brawl between Sherpas and climbers that exposed deep-rooted frustrations over a lack of recognition of the risks local guides take to get foreigners up and down the fabled summit.

They want a bigger slice of Nepal’s $360 million-a-year adventure travel industry, of which Everest is the cornerstone.

Bookings to scale the world’s tallest mountain in 2016 have been a third to half lower than previous years, according to interviews with 18 of the largest climbing firms.

This would be the biggest drop since commercial climbing began on Everest in the early 1990s, and could leave hundreds of

struggling Sherpas without work.

“It has been two terrible years for Everest: we have had no summits and lots of fatalities,” said Garrett Madison, who runs Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering. The team doctor died this year on the mountain and three Sherpas working for him were killed in 2014. “It will take time to restore confidence.”

In the past, deadly accidents have done little to dent Everest’s popularity, with risk being part of the allure. But next year could be different, as threats to the industry take on a political dimension.

An economic blockade of Nepal’s border with India could disrupt expeditions and deter would-be climbers, who typically pay a non-refundable fee of $35,000 to $100,000 for a chance to scale the peak.

Nepal has been facing an acute fuel crisis for three months since protesters in the lowland south, angered

that a new constitution fails to reflect their interests, prevented supply trucks from entering from India.

This is crippling the landlocked Himalayan nation as it tries to recover from the earthquake that displaced millions in the central and eastern regions.

Mountaineering firms say the blockade threatens the climbing season because there may be a shortage of fuel to airlift equipment, operate emergency rescue flights or provide enough cooking gas cylinders to survive for two months on the mountain.

“It is a crisis at the moment. It is going to be a catastrophe if this embargo continues,” said Phil Crampton, the owner of the New York-based Altitude Junkies.

Near the warren of royal palaces and temples in central Kathmandu’s bustling old town, Gobinda Bahadur Karki, the director of Nepal’s tourism department, is more upbeat.

Netaji mystery: Kin’s claim of Bose wasn't in Russia dismissed by researchers Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephew Ashish Ray’s claim of having no information on the freedom fighter being in Soviet Russia after 1945 has been dismissed by researchers and activists. They said that the contention was not accepted by India, in spite of the Russian government refusing to accept that documents on Bose’s presence in the country existed.

They quoted a document of Ministry of External Affairs posted on Netaji’s site dated January 1996, pointing that the Russian contention was not based on the records kept in inaccessible security and intelligence-related archives.

Times of India quoted R L Narayan, the then joint secretary in charge of Ministry of Europe East Division as saying, “Papers relating to the Stalinist period (KGB archives) are kept separately and have so far not been accessed by foreign or Russian scholars”.

“Papers relating to the post-Stalin period fall into two categories: governmental and Central Committee Politburo (kept separately). The Russian foreign ministry’s note verbale suggests the disclaimer about Netaji may be based on the latter archives,” he added.

But according to Bose’s grandnephew Ray, 1990’s correspondence proved

that the leader never made it to Soviet Russia. Official records of 1996 have been released by members of London-based Netaji Subhas Foundation and Delhi-based Mission Netaji, overturning ray’s contention based on the 1991-1995 records.

out is quite different from what Mr Ray is claiming,” Anirban Mukherjee of Netaji Subhas Foundation, UK, told the newspaper.

The copies of records produced by Ray constitute “low-level communication, known as note verbale in diplomatic parlance, said

Ray’s website, ‘http: http:www.bosefiles.info’ which consists of copies of records, show “requests for information on Subhas Bose’s visit to the Soviet Union in or after 1945 were made by the Congress government of PM P V Narasimha Rao”. Ray claimed his documents showed that “Russia provided categorical official responses” to the effect that Netaji was not in Soviet Union after August 1945.

“This is a partial disclosure that distorts the real story . Documents with us show the full chain of communication between the two countries and what comes

Netaji researcher Anuj Dhar.

“It would be accept these as evidence.There have been instances when Russians gave misleading statements and eventually, came out with the truth as pressure mounted,” he said, citing the case of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who disappeared in January 1945 and suspected to be in the USSR thereafter. The Soviets came out in August 1947 with their first highlevel formal reply that a search of the records had shown “Wallenberg is not in the Soviet Union”, soon followed by persistent Swedish approaches.

Issue 646 (24)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Your sensitive, spiritual side is out in full force early this week, so pay attention to subtle nudges that could save you time and money. The New Moon encourages you to move in new circles and think about expanding your social options. There’s fun to be had if you want it. Passions will be unleashed from Thursday, putting you in a much more proactive mood.

You’re on a roll socially, with many opportunities to mix, mingle, and enjoy some fabulous evenings out. You might feel motivated to volunteer, too, particularly if others need a helping hand. It should now be easier to make headway with your career and begin to put plans into action.

Later in the week the focus shifts to spiritual matters, rest, and relaxation.

With a full house at the top of your chart, you might be in the position of having to make key decisions that could affect future plans. If you have big dreams, you're ideally placed to start manifesting them. The New Moon in Aquarius encourages you to move outside your comfort zone and challenge yourself in the process.

The New Moon in your zone of shared resources may be one of the best times for reorganizing your financial situation, or at least making a start on it. Use this opportunity to get advice and put it into action. You're also primed for adventure and embracing a learning curve. A lineup in Pisces might encourage vacation plans, whether you go abroad or stay close to home.

With Mercury now gathering pace in Aquarius, interactions settle down and become more predictable. This is a good time to sign documents, close deals, and generally get back into the swing of things.

When it comes to finances you’ll need to keep a grip on things. The Pisces focus suggests you’ll be tempted to splurge just for the sake of it, so go easy if you can.

Romantic opportunities seem particularly upbeat this week, encouraging you to add a touch of magic to an ongoing relationship or to help a new liaison blossom. You’ll also find that everyday interactions, including business meetings, benefit from your creative and inspirational input.

When Mars and Venus head into Aries you could be more impulsive.

The midweek New Moon can be helpful if you’ve been thinking of starting a business enterprise or developing your creative potential. Mercury is picking up speed, so this is the perfect time to move from research to action. Romantic opportunities look promising, with a chance to take a budding liaison to a new level of commitment.

The early part of the week can of fer tender embraces and the chance for a special date. Romance is sweet and magical, leading to the potential for a relationship that encompasses mystery and the unknown. You have a great opportunity to start on DIY projects or other plans as the cosmos lends its support.

Home life seems upbeat so long as everyone is being honest with each other. There’s a chance that this might not be the case, particularly if you sense someone isn’t telling the truth. Any dilemmas resulting from this may be short-lived when Mars and Venus move into Aries later this week.

Instead of holding back, people will be ready to tell it like it is, helping to clear the air.

This isn’t the time to be overconfident or take things for granted. Instead, it helps to bring balanced judgment to the table, particularly if your reputation is at stake. Later, indecision and a lack of facts may give way to a determination to succeed no matter what. A more dynamic mindset could work wonders as Mars and Venus enter Aries.

This week’s New Moon is the second in Aquarius this year, bringing another opportunity to forge ahead with an idea whose time has come. As Mercury gets up to speed, you’ll find your efforts are quickly rewarded. Meanwhile, continue to stay in control where finances are concerned. Cut back on items you no longer use or need, as doing so could save you a lot.

You’ll gain control of the reins as the Sun glides into your sign midweek, enabling you to forge ahead with personal plans. On the same day, the New Moon in your spiritual sector can be useful for starting practices such as meditation, yoga, or anything else that helps you feel more peaceful. Mars and Venus jog into your personal money zone, so it's time to take action.

Issue 646 (25)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Technology Now, computers can sense your anger The way you move your mouse can tell a lot of about your mood, according to a new study.

Most people can tell if you’re angry based on the way you’re acting. Professor Jeffrey Jenkins can tell if you’re angry by the way you move a computer mouse.

The BYU information systems expert says people experiencing anger (and other negative emotions - frustration, confusion and sadness) become less precise in their mouse movements and move the cursor at different speeds.

Thanks to advances in modern technology, Jenkins and his colleagues can now gather

and process enough data points from your cursor movement to measure those deviations and indicate your emotional state.

Using this technology, websites will no longer be

dumb, Jenkins said, adding that websites can go beyond just presenting information, but they can sense you. “They can un-

derstand not just what you’re providing, but what you’re feeling.”

According to his research, when users are upset or confused, the mouse no longer follows a straight or

gently curving path. Instead, movements become jagged and sudden.

Additionally, someone exhibiting negative emotions

Facebook’s Christmas gift: Book Uber cabs via Messenger ‘Transportation’

Social networking giant Facebook has an exciting Christmas gift for its users. The company has launched a new feature that lets people book cars directly from Uber using the Messenger smartphone application.

Under the new feature, people in the US can use Facebook Messenger to book an Uber cab and simultaneously alert their friends in a chat thread.

The new Uber in Messenger feature can be found by clicking on the car icon or finding “Transportation” in the three-dot “more” menu below where you write your messages.

Either of those actions will open Uber’s Request Ride option where you can add your pick up location, destination, and car type,Tech Crunch reported on Thursday. “We are just getting people used to the idea that you can message more than just people on Messenger,” Seth Rosenberg, Facebook product manager, was quoted as saying in a post.

Everyone who books a cab via Messenger “Transportation” would get a $20 Uber credit.

Earlier, WeChat, a messaging and calling app, allowed users to book cars in China.

Facebook, however,

claims that their move was not inspired by WeChat.

Meanwhile, Uber also plans to use Messenger as a test case for realtime customer service “We will start testing live support through Messenger to find out if this is the best way to start using real-time support through this,” Rahul Bijor, Uber’s head of API and strategic partnerships, was quoted as saying.

According to Facebook, there are 700 million people on Messenger.

The new feature will most likely be available in the US by Christmas.

moves a mouse slower.

Jenkins believes the greatest application of his research (and resulting technology that measures mouse movements) is that web developers will be able to adapt or fix sore points in websites that bring out negative emotions.

In other words, now the folks running the online ticket website that drives you bonkers will know exactly when you throw up your hands and scream.

Jenkins said the cursor-tracking concept can also be applied to mobile devices, where swipes and taps replace mouse movement. Although he is still in the early stages of looking at mobile devices, he is encouraged by the massive amounts of data phones and tablets are providing.

Star Wars fan? Here’s how you can add a lightsaber to your Facebook profile picture

Seems Facebook is also gripped with Star Wars fever! If you are a huge Star Wars fan too, this news is for you! To celebrate the release of the seventh Star Wars film ( Star Wars The Force Awakens ) Facebook now lets you add a bit of the Force to your profile pictures.

“Awaken the Force within by adding Finn’s lightsaber to your profile picture,” says the Facebook post of Star Wars. Depending on your loyalty, you can choose between totally-evil red and Luke’s blue.

Here’s how to add a

lightsaber to your profile picture – 1. Log into your Facebook account and follow this link, Show Your Game Face 2. Switch the drop-down from Argentine Primera Division to Star Wars, then click on one of the two Star Wars icons below to toggle between red and blue Lightsabers.

3. Use the slider below your profile picture to adjust its size to fit, or if you prefer click Change picture below to instead set a different photo as your profile image.

Twitter rolls out new feature ‘Moments’ in Britain The popular microblogging website Twitter has rolled out new feature ‘Moments’ in Britain.

The feature was launched after getting a positive response in the US. ‘Moments’ will enable the user to tweet slideshows of image and video about trending news and events.

Twitter has served users with text, photos and videos in a chronological format, allowing them to keep up with news and events.

But after realising the needs of a new user, Twitter roped in some former journalists in London and designed ‘Moments’ to make it easier for new or casual members to use the social networking site and keep up with the trending topics around the globe, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

From Tuesday, Twitter added a ‘lightning bolt’ tab at the bottom of the app.

When pressed, a curated slideshows of image and video tweets that are based around a trending

ent areas, including news, sports and entertainment to see moments about those subjects.

Some users in Britain are served with tweets focused on Tim Peake,

topic or news item are displayed.

When a user selects a topic, for example, Star Wars premiere, a series of tweets, along with images and videos around the topic are displayed.

Users can browse differ-

the first British astronaut in over 20 years to go to space.

Earlier, Twitter had rolled out features like “While you were away” recaps to cater to needs of user to keep up with trending topics.

Issue 646 (26)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Disaster on Miss Universe as Steve Harvey announces the WRONG winner Host Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner of the Miss Universe 2015 pageant on Sunday night and the crowd watched in heartbreak and horror as

the crown had to be removed from the head of one contestant and placed on another on live television.

Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez wiped away tears of joy as the $30,000 blue diamond and topaz crown was placed upon her

head and she was named Miss Universe 2015, winning the title for her country for the second year in a row.

But her glory only lasted

for two minutes. Just as Gutierrez was blowing kisses and waving to her adoring fans she was informed that it was actually Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach who had won the crown instead.

Steve Harvey strolled up

on stage, the shame already evident on his face, when he told the crowd ‘Folks, I have to apologize.’

‘The first runner-up is Colombia,’ he announced.

Miss Philippines stared wide-eyed at the audience, her lip quivering as Miss USA whispered into her ear and she realized what exactly those words meant.

‘Miss Universe 2015,’ Harvey then dramatically clarified, ‘Is Miss Philippines.’

Wurtzbach joined Gutierrez on stage as they both stared into the audience in shock. Miss Universe 2014 Paulina Vega gave her fellow countrywoman a comforting pat on the back.

‘Folks let me take control of this,’ Harvey told the sea of boos and cheers.

‘This is exactly what’s on the card,’ he then said, displaying the results on the camera. ‘I will take responsibility for this, it was my mistake,’ he continued.

‘I can show it to your right here, the first runner-up is Colombia. It’s my mistake, still a great night.

Please don’t hold it against the ladies.’

And then came for the heartbreaking moment when Miss Colombia had to bend down, allowing Vega to remove the crown and place it on Miss Philippines head instead.

The telecast then came to an abrupt stop, cutting

without credits or allowing Miss Philippines to take her first walk as Miss Universe.

Harvey immediately tweeted after the show, spelling both women’s countries wrong as he tweeted: ‘I want to apologize emphatically to Miss Philippians and Miss Columbia.

He then deleted the tweet and re-wrote it, saying he felt terrible and apologized ‘wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines’ for his ‘huge mistake’.

‘Secondly, I’d like to apologize to the viewers

at that I disappointed as well,’ he wrote in a separate tweet. ‘Again it was an honest mistake.’

‘This was a terribly honest human mistake and I am so regretful.’

‘I don’t want to take away from this amazing night and pageant. As well as the wonderful contestants. They were all amazing,’ he continued to tweet, before once again ‘emphatically’ apologizing to Gutierrez and Wurtzbach.

Social media is heavily criticizing Harvey, but he has found an unlikely ally already in Harry Styles.

Issue - 646 (27)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Each country should ‘govern’ its Internet WUZHEN Every nation should have independent authority over its own Internet, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday, telling a government-organised conference that “freedom and

order” are both necessary in cyberspace.

Rights campaigners have denounced the World Internet Conference as part of China’s push to sell its idea of “Internet sovereignty”, a concept at odds with a vision of the network as an open global resource. “We should respect the rights of individual countries to govern their own cyberspace,” Xi said in a half-hour speech opening the second forum, whose version last year was greeted with derision by activists who questioned China’s motives.

“No country should pursue cyber hegemony or interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” he added. China censors online content it deems to be politically

sensitive, while blocking some Western websites and the services of Internet giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Despite the block, participants at the conference were given

unfettered access to sites denied to the rest of the country.

The policy is one facet of Beijing’s strict limits on freedom of expression. Rights groups say it uses state security as a pretext to crack down on political dissent. “Like in the real world, freedom and order are both necessary in cyberspace: freedom is what order is meant for, and order is the guarantee for freedom,” Xi said.

“We should use moral teachings in guiding the use of the Internet,” he added, adding that China’s online presence should strive for a more positive and “uplifting” image. Amnesty International has condemned China’s use of vaguely worded laws to “arbitrarily target individuals for

solely exercising their right to freedom of expression online”.

Hundreds have been jailed on such charges. Two days before Xi took to the podium, Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most celebrated human rights lawyers, stood trial over just seven microblog posts critical of the ruling Communist Party that could earn him up to eight years behind bars.

“Under the guise of sovereignty and security, the Chinese authorities are trying to rewrite the rules of the Internet so censorship and surveillance become the norm everywhere,” said Roseann Rife, East Asia research director at Amnesty International. “This is an all-out assault on Internet freedoms,” she added.

The three-day conference in the small eastern town of Wuzhen was attended by a handful of high-profile figures from nations that have been criticised for their records on freedom of speech, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev. Senior executives of companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Apple as well as China’s largest Internet companies were also present.

Richest Britons piling up wealth faster than poorest

LONDON The richest Britons are accumulating wealth three times as fast as the poorest, according to new official data likely to heighten concerns Britain is becoming an increasingly unequal society.

For the richest tenth of British households, total wealth including pensions increased by 21 percent between 2012 and 2014. For the bottom half of all households, total wealth rose by just 7 percent during that period, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday.

As in many other countries,

inequality is a hot political topic in Britain, which is still feeling the effects from the 2008-09 recession, the worst in many decades.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party points to record levels of employment and the fastest growth among developed economies as proof that living standards are improving across the country.

But opposition parties say the poorest are shouldering the biggest burden from government plans to eliminate the deficit, largely through big cuts to welfare spending.

‘Sharif’ Nawaz asks his ministers not to speak against India

FIR against 3-year-old boy in Pak for land grabbing

Islamabad A three-year-old Pakistani boy was booked on Saturday for allegedly grabbing land and stealing property in Islamabad in one of the most bizarre cases of police faux pas in the country.

Shalimar police in Islamabad registered the case against the child for his alleged involved in the crime in sector F-10. He is accused of grabbing land of a plaza and stealing its property.

The infant’s family on Saturday approached the court to secure a bail before arrest for the toddler, Geo TV reported.

Upon seeing the matter the bench expressed its displeasure over the Islamabad police’s blunder and demanded to know from the child’s legal counsel if securing a bail was even warranted, it reported. The

counsel informed the court that since the child is nominated in the FIR, therefore bail before arrest is being sought. At this, the additional sessions judge remarked that if one institution makes a mistake should the court also keep its eyes closed.

The court has summoned the station house officer (SHO) and the investigation officer to appear before the court and explain their position. It is not for the time that a child has been booked in criminal case in Pakistan. Last year, Lahore police had booked a nine-month-old infant for attempted murder. Police is deemed as highly corrupt and inefficient in the country and still work on the pattern of colonial era laws and power meant for a country under external occupation.

Islamabad Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has stopped his ministers from giving anti-India statements so that the peace process is not hit, an official said.

A close aide to Sharif said on Friday that the ministers and senior officials had been asked not to issue any statement that could damage the peace process.

“There will be statements only that encourage the dialogue process rather than digging out the past. The PM has asked the close aides and cabinet members to promote peace,” The Nation quoted an official as saying.

He said Sharif was optimistic about better ties with India, which would benefit the whole region.

Sharif was annoyed by

statements from India that New Delhi only wanted to discuss Pakistan occupied Kashmir in talks, but understands this is not Inidan government`s policy, the official added.

Sharif, the official said, wanted to give top priority to Kashmir, terrorism and trade when the two sides discuss peace.

Another official said Sharif and the military leadership were on the same page to make peace with India.

“There is no difference of opinion and both agree that there should be no compromise on the stated position on key issues,” he added.An interaction between Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in Paris and subsequent meeting of the National Security Advisors in Bangkok set the pace for improvement in the bilateral

ties.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also visited Pakistan on December 8 to attend the Heart of Asia conference.She met Sharif and his advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the conference.It is expected that Sharif and Modi will meet again in Switzerland in January.

The two leaders will be together on January 20 to attend the 46th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos-Klosters.India`s outgoing High Commissioner to Pakistan TCA Raghavan on Thursday said the relations between the two countries were heading towards betterment.

Analysts said it was a positive development that Pakistan and India agreed to resume comprehensive dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues.

Issue - 646 (28)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Adolf Hitler only had one testicle, Stripper poles, sex toys, German historian claims condoms on display as museum

LONDON Medical records appear to confirm that Adolf Hitler really did have only one testicle. German historian Professor Peter Fleischmann claims to have discovered the

results of a medical examination on Hitler after his arrest in 1923.

The reports confirm that Hitler suffered from a birth defect known as “right-side cryptorchidism” - an undescended right testicle.

Notes written by Dr Josef Steiner Brin, the medical officer at Landsberg prison, where Hitler was taken after his unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch, state that the soon to be Fuhrer was otherwise “healthy and strong”. The records were thought to have been lost but resurfaced at an auction in Bavaria in 2010. They were quickly confiscated by the Bavarian government before being studied at Erlangen-Nuremberg University. The theory contradicts the belief that Hitler lost his testicle during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War, as well as contradicting his childhood doctor - who told American interrogators in 1943 that the Fuhrer’s genitals were normal.

Windows 10 tuned for Chinese govt SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft is forming a joint-venture in China to tailor a version of its new Windows 10 computer operating system for use by the Chinese government. “We’re announcing a new joint venture that will license, deploy, manage and optimize Windows 10 for China’s government agencies and certain state owned enterprises and provide ongoing support and services for these customers,” Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi said in an online post

Global temperatures poised for record in 2016

late Wednesday.

If the joint-venture succeeds, stateowned enterprises cleared to buy Windows 10 would include key infrastructure fields such as energy, telecommunications, and transportation, according to Mehdi.

celebrates Thai sex industry

Bangkok A museum in the Thai capital is celebrating the country’s famed sex industry with a rich display of stripper poles, condoms and sex toys.

The unique exhibition, whose entry is strictly by appointment only, also praises the the industry’s contribution to the economy.

The museum named “This is Us” is run by a 68-year-old woman called Chantawipa Apisuk.

Apisuk is pushing to decriminalise the trade so that sex workers can have equal rights.

The museum is not open to the public. On the walls of the museum are texts that describe how the Thai sex industry got a boost during the Vietnam war, when soldiers spent their recuperation weeks in the brothels of Thailand.“Once again sex workers adapted to the new

customers, learning about exchange rates, rock’n’roll, [the] meaning of army ranks, slang and providing services to young American men, some traumatised by the war, in a rush to enjoy their week before going back to the war,” one of the signs on the walls reads.

There is also a painting of a 400year-old Chinese trade ship on a wall. Wooden buckets of rice sit in front of it, the payment used for sex by sailors.

“Sex work was legal back then, and sex would cost 15 kilos of rice. That much rice costs roughly 1,050 baht today. So the price hasn’t changed,” the guardian.co.uk quoted Apisuk as saying.Some 250,000 people in Thailand work in the sex industry, accounting for about $6.4bn in annual revenue, the report said quoting Havocscope, a database of information on world black markets.

Celebrity bird rescued after Taiwan train adventure

LONDON Global temperatures in 2016 are likely to be as warm or even warmer than in 2015, which will be the warmest on record, Britain’s Met Office said on Thursday.The weather forecasters said global mean temperatures in 2016 are expected between 0.72 and 0.96 degrees Celsius above the long term (1961-1990) average of 14 degrees Celsius.

“This forecast suggests that by the end of 2016 we will have seen three record, or nearrecord years in a row for global temperatures,” Adam Scaife, head of long-range prediction at the Met Office, said in a statement. The Met Office said manmade global warming combined with an impact from

the El Nino weather phenomenon was driving the high temperatures. “The forecast is based on the key drivers of global climate, but it doesn’t include random events, such as large volcanic eruptions, which can cause a temporary cooling effect,” the Met Office said. The forecasts put global warming around half way towards the 2degree rise scientists say temperatures must be kept below to stave off the worst effects of climate change such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels. Last week negotiators from more than 190 countries signed a landmark deal in Paris with an aim to keep the rise in temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

TAIPEI A rare crane that has become a celebrity in Taiwan after getting lost on its journey from Siberia last year had to be rescued after a new misguided foray to a subway station. The beautiful white bird

had made wetlands in northern Taiwan its home for almost a year since last December, after taking a wrong turn on a migratory route from Siberia to China. Separated from its flock, locals have welcomed the young Siberian

crane - the farmer who owns the wetlands where the bird now lives has stopped using pesticides to ensure it can eat untainted food.

And it even has a security guard during daylight hours to protect it from stray dogs.

Britain’s Prince George to start at nursery LONDON Prince George will start attending nursery in Britain from early next year, royal officials announced Friday.The two-year-old son of Prince William and wife Kate is set to attend Westacre

Montessori School Nursery in Norfolk, eastern England, near the family’s home at Anmer Hall. He is due to start attending before the end of January, Kensington Palace said in a statement. As the announcement was made, a

new photograph of William, Kate, George and his sister Princess Charlotte, born in May, was released. The picture shows the whole family smiling as Kate cradles Charlotte, George stands next to her and William looks on.

Issue - 646 (29)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Cancer diagnosis without biopsy? Now possible For people with cancer or suspected cancer, the biopsy is necessary - an uncomfortable and somewhat risky procedure to extract tissue for diagnosis or analysis, NYT writes. But Stanford University researchers say they have developed an ultrasensitive method to detect and quantify circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in patients.Telltale traces of a tumor are often present in the blood.

These traces - either intact cancer cells or fragments of tumor DNA - are present in minuscule amounts, but numerous companies are now coming to market with sophisticated tests that can detect and analyze them.The method could be

used not only to diagnose many types of solid tumors using a blood sample but also to monitor treatment response, detect minimal residual disease and emerging resistance mutations to targeted therapies, “and potentially even for noninvasive cancer screening,” co–senior author Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Stanford, told Medscape Medical News.

“We set out to develop a method that overcomes two major hurdles in the circulating tumor DNA field,” said Maximilian Diehn. “First, the technique needs to be very sensitive to detect the very small amounts of tumor DNA

present in the blood.

Second, to be clinically useful it’s necessary to have a test that works off the shelf for the majority of patients with a given cancer.” The researchers describe their findings in a paper (“An ultrasensitive method for quantitating circulating tumor DNA with broad patient coverage”) published online in Nature Medicine.

The method developed by the Stanford researchers ¯ dubbed CAncer Personalized Profiling by deep Sequencing, or CAPPSeq ¯ is the first nextgeneration sequencingbased method for ctDNA analysis that achieves “both an ultra low detection limit and broad patient

coverage at a reasonable cost,” the researchers say.

“We’re trying to develop a general method to detect and measure disease burden,” added Ash Alizadeh, M.D., Ph.D., a hematologist and oncologist.

“Blood cancers like leukemias can be easier to monitor than solid tumors through ease of access to the

Vienna Orchestra returns Nazi-stolen art The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will return a valuable painting that was looted by the Nazis and given to the orchestra as a gift by a Viennese secret police official, Reuters reports.

The work, “Port-enBessin” by French neoImpressionist Paul Signac, was stolen by a German military official from a figure in the French Resistance

at the outset of the war and bestowed on the orchestra in thanks for performances for German soldiers in France in 1940, Philharmonic officials said in interviews this week. And after 74 years, the orchestra has tracked down its owner’s heirs, sending out letters notifying them on Thursday.The heirs of the painting’s late owner, Marcel Koch, will receive “Port-en-Bessin” at a ceremony this year as part of the high-profile restitution case in Austria, the orchestra said on Saturday, announcing the latest step to address its past association with Nazism. The 1883 painting was confiscated in France’s Jura region and given to the Philharmonic

after it performed in the region, the orchestra said in a statement. It is a simple oil painting, showing a sailing ship moored in a harbor, an early work by Paul Signac.

For decades it lay hidden away in a storage space of the august Vienna Philharmonic, a 172-yearold institution that is one of the cultural pillars of Europe.After over two

decades of research, an art historian commissioned by the orchestra, Sophie Lillie, finally managed to identify the painting’s origins. “We finally found one of the best experts on the planet,” Clemens Hellsberg, president of the Philharmonic, said of Sophie Lillie. “We are thrilled that this property from Vienna will be transferred to France and to the right persons. It was always a knowledge and a responsibility. It was really a moral problem.”The painting, Ms. Lillie said, belonged to Marcel Koch, the director of the Institute of European Studies in Moutaine, France, where it hung before the war. The institute, now obscure, was disbanded in 1940, and Koch, well known as

a member of the Resistance, fled to Algeria.

Koch returned to France in 1944 and a year later founded the Documentation Française, a public information agency, which he directed until 1969. He filed a claim after the war’s end with the central office of restitution in France, giving a clear description of the painting.

Between 1947 and 1949,

the restitution office published a catalog of all spoils, with the painting listed under Signac’s name in a category labeled “Seascapes and Harbors.”

Experts estimate the work is now worth about $500,000.

Koch never married and died childless in 1999.

When the orchestra finally learned last year that Koch was the owner, it decided to turn the information over to the French government, in hopes that it could find the heirs. But it never heard back from the French ambassador’s office.

Then, mere days ago, Ms. Lillie discovered who the heirs were. Neither she nor the orchestra agree to identify or describe them.

“We’re very happy that

thanks to Sophie Lillie’s efforts a breakthrough was finally achieved and we found the descendants,” Philharmonic musician and president Clemens Hellsberg said in the statement.About half the Philharmonic’s musicians were Nazi party members by 1942, four years after Hitler’s annexation of Austria.

Thirteen musicians with Jewish origins or relations were driven out of the orchestra and five died in concentration camps.

The orchestra, which was just awarded the $1 million Birgit Nilsson Prize this week for its long history of musical excellence, has drawn praise for its efforts of recent decades to illuminate that dark period in its illustrious history.

“We have tried for many years to come to grips with the Vienna Philharmonic’s past and face up to our responsibility to make good historical injustices,” Clemens Hellsberg said in a statement cited by the Austria Press Agency.

Last year the Philharmonic revoked awards it had made during Hitler’s rule to six leading Nazis.“Restitution of this painting is a special concern of ours,” Hellsberg said.Austrian Greens party member of parliament Harald Walser, who has long campaigned for more openness by the orchestra, said the Philharmonic should allow an international panel of historians to look into its Nazi-era past.“The deeper one digs into the Vienna Philharmonic’s past, the more ‘corpses’ emerge from the orchestra pit,” he said.

blood.

By developing a general method for monitoring circulating tumor DNA, we’re in effect trying to transform solid tumors into liquid tumors that can be detected and tracked more easily.”

“The vast majority of circulating DNA is from normal, noncancerous cells, even in patients with

advanced cancer,” pointed out Scott Bratman, M.D., Ph.D. “We needed a comprehensive strategy for isolating the circulating DNA from blood and detecting the rare, cancerassociated mutations. To boost the sensitivity of the technique, we optimized methods for extracting, processing and analyzing the DNA”.

UN research claims cows and cars are to blame for climate change

Agriculture hurts climate no less than energy or transport.

Producing half kilo of meat generates the same emission as driving a couple of miles, UN experts say.

However, this doesn’t mean we should stop eating meat at all.

A 225g burger requires mincing, salting, peppering and serving with onion and ketchup - this equals to emissions from driving 16 km.

Then, animals eat lots of grass and plants potential CO2 absorbers. Then comes methane emitted by ungulates. Freezers, fertilisers and other gear make things worse - so that’s the cost of your burger, says the head of the working group of The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for the climate change Mikhail Yulkin.

Yummy dinner is climate costly. In some countries, like New Zealand, livestock is the major source of

greenhouse gas emissions. The bigger population is, the more burgers is produced so those cutting on meat are somehow eco contributors, says the head of WWF Climate and Energy initiative Alexei Kokorin.

“People eat more meat than they need. A more balanced nutrition with less meat will reduce energy consumption and greenhouse emissions”.

This doesn’t mean everyone shod become vegan. Just be more sustainable, says Mikhail Yulkin.

“We will hardly give up on meat but agriculture should take into account its climate effect and try to reduce it or compensate with planting more forests and use the land sustainably.

Now farming comes third after energy and transport in the list of eco-unfriendly industries but some experts believe it also needs urge and sustainable upgrade.

Issue - 646 (30)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Loan sharks turn sex offenders 8 points on AP ‘call money’ scam The ‘call money sex’ scam has become the latest controversy to take Andhra Pradesh by storm with many high-profile businessmen and even political leaders being arrested by the state police.

The massive blackmail, extortion and sex scandal linked to “call

money” was exposed after female victims revealed that they were sexually exploited after they failed to repay their loans.

A statewide crackdown by the police over the last couple of days has led to the arrest of almost 200 moneylenders, including leaders of different political parties and their kin.

Hundreds of others have also been detained for questioning.

Here is all you need to know about the scam: What is the scam?

Under call money, loans are offered on calls at a very high interest rate ranging between 60 to 200%. A sex racket under the cover of call money was unearthed last week after a victim in Vijayawada complained to the police that the money lender sexually exploited her after she failed to pay back a loan. Some others complainants have also come forward with similar disclosures.

How does it operate?

Moneylenders deliver the loan amount to the customers against

promissory notes and cheques.

The lenders insist on pledging property documents with them and those owning property get huge loans of up to Rs 20 lakh or 30 lakh, depending on the value of their property and need.

The moneylenders also go to the borrower’s place to collect

interest regularly and make entries in a small book. If a borrower fails to pay the interest of one month, it is added to the principal amount of next month’s instalment, thus, the interest payable from next month increases.

How organised is the racket?

It is a well-organised racket which enjoys political patronage as well. The lenders even use bouncers to threaten, intimidate and extort defaulters and even grab their property. It is a totally illegal business which has been going on for decades. Anybody can get into this business with any amount of money.

Who are these money lenders?

Are they like chit fund operators, neighbourhood pawn shop owners or building mafia etc?

They are unregistered private lenders who are mostly rich businessmen from economically, socially and politically powerful section of the society. Politicians from various parties and government employees are also engaged in this business. Some

of them run unauthorised chits.

They are mostly individuals but rich people invest in their business, expecting good returns. Such investors get half of the interest amount which is collected. Pawn brokers are not involved in this business.

What kind of money is involved in the transactions?

According to a rough estimate, the money involved is over Rs 10,000 crore across Andhra Pradesh.

Do all victims belong to middleclass?

Mostly the poor and the middleclass people. The victims include petty traders, drivers, small businessmen and middle-class families who need a loan to spend on weddings, medical treatment and education. These families depend on such call money operators because banks and financial institutions evaluate their property conservatively and offer lesser amounts. A private moneylender will be ready to lend up to 100% value of the property.

Number of victims, arrests in the case.So far over 250 victims have come forward to lodge complaints.

Four have committed suicide and three others attempted to end their lives. One woman died of shock after she was evicted from her house. There are at least five cases of sexual exploitation.

Police have arrested 188 people.

Which political parties are involved in the case?

Second rung leaders of all major political parties are involved in the scam. According to official figures, out of 188 people arrested, 65 belong to opposition YSR Congress, 20 are from ruling TDP and four belong to its alliance partner BJP. Twelve from the Congress party, six from CPI, two from Lok Satta and one from CPI-M were also among those arrested.

Indian-origin woman died from heat exposure on US mountain A 48-year-old Indian-origin woman from the West Midlands region of England died from heat exhaustion while on a trekking holiday in the US, an inquest into her death has concluded.

Ravinder Takhar from Solihull had set off with her husband Jaspal

and son Aaron on a trek in Arizona in July but told them to go ahead when she felt tired.

Takhar’s family became concerned when she failed to return from the trek to Echo Canyon, near Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. Her body was later found inside the canyon by park rangers. Birmingham Coroner Louise Hunt recorded an accidental death verdict. She said: “A post-mortem examination carried out in America had concluded the

death was the result of complications from environmental heat exposure.”

Climbing the mountain was on the family’s “to do” list during their visit to Seattle and Phoenix while attending a family wedding in Vancouver, Canada.

Jaspal told the inquest how he and his wife successfully climbed the mountain with their son. But then wanted some rest but failed to return to the agreed meeting point.

A five-hour search and rescue operation ensued, which resulted in the discovery of her body in a deep ravine on the trail.

“She was a unique and amazing woman and an even better mom.

I just feel that needs sharing as I feel lucky to call her my Mama,” her son Aaron said in his funeral message.

At the time, captain Mike Billingsley of the Phoenix Fire Department, said: “This is a tragic ending to a long, hard and exhausting day. Somebody lost their mother and their wife today and it’s a hard day for everybody.”

Nurse flaps sheet, baby flung to death A new-born boy fell on the floor and died after a nurse allegedly flapped the bedsheet he was on while making the bed at MY

Hospital here.

The baby was tossed 3-4 feet in the air and suffered fatal injuries.

On Thursday night, nursing staff admitted the baby to the NICU ward due to post-de livery

complications while the mother was in the gynaecology ward.

Sources said that the nurse on duty hurriedly flapped the bedsheet without noticing the baby . The baby boy was rushed for treatment. At 4am, respiratory discomfort was reported and the baby was declared dead by 6.30am on Friday.

Family members said hospital administration tried to cover up the episode.“We were told the baby died after he suffered a fall from the bed,” said the father Surendra Rajput.Hospital superintendent Dr A D Bhatnagar said, “The death was not intentional, but an accident.”

At home of al-Qaeda’s India head, distraught father’s 20-year wait Around seven months ago, an 80-year-old man from a village in Uttar Pradesh received a chilling message from intelligence officials his son who ran away from home more than 20 years

seated outside his single-storey house at Mohalla Deepa Sarai village in Sambhal, 158 km from Delhi.The Contact reported Thursday that security agencies had confirmed that Irfan’s son

his arrest.“It’s been 20 years since this family last saw him.

For a long time, we did not know if he was dead or alive,” said Irfan.“Some years after he left home, officers from the

ago was the head of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

“They came knocking at our door once again,” said Irfan-ul-Haq,

Sanaul Haq was the chief of AQIS, based on information provided by a Cuttack-based cleric, Abdul Rehman, following

intelligence and CBI came looking for him, saying he was involved in terrorist activities. It was a harrowing time for us. We

would get scared every time there was a knock on the door.

But that died down. Then, around seven months ago, they came again to tell us that our son was alive. He was better dead for us,” said Irfan.So why did Sanaul Haq run away from home? His mother, 72-year-old Rukaiya, standing behind a curtain, has the answer.

“After completing his education from the Dar-ul-Uloom seminary at Deoband, Sanaul asked his father for Rs 80,000 to go to Saudi Arabia for further studies.

His father refused, leading to a quarrel that ended with Sanaul being slapped by his uncle for misbehaviour. My son left the house in anger and never came back. We can’t imagine how he would look like now,” she said.

Rukaiya said the family tried to trace him, initially. “We requested the police to contact my son and tell him to return home. But now that he is associated with a terror outfit, our doors are closed to him.

Being a mother, it was the toughest decision I had to take, but we cannot compromise on our principles,” she said.

Irfan says his family is wellknown in the area because his grandfather was a district magistrate, and his father the mukhiya of the village.

“During my childhood, the local police used to come to our home to discuss major issues regarding the village. Now they come to ask about my son. They came first in 1999, saying my son was linked to terror activities following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992,” he said.

Irfan today can barely walk and has lost most of his teeth. Yet, he says he’s happy that the rest of his children are doing well. “I have three sons and two daughters. He is my fourth child, after one daughter and two sons.

One son is a teacher with a private school in Moradabad and the other is working in Delhi as an engineer,” he said.

Issue - 646 (31)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Journalist held after Pak flag on Dausa house Police in Dausa, Rajasthan, have arrested a journalist under tough anti-hate laws after a “misleading” report about a “Pakistani flag” being raised in the town was published in a Hindi daily. A photojournalist and two senior editors of the newspaper too were named in the FIR. Bhuvnesh Yadav, Dausa-based reporter for Dainik Bhaskar, among the country’s most widely circulated daily newspapers, was arrested on Friday evening on charges under sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, residence, language, etc.) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts aimed at outraging religious feelings) of the IPC, police said.

Photographer Bhaskar Jainam alias Bablu, the daily’s Dausa bureau chief Rajendra Jainam, and its Jaipur-based news editor Shakti Prakash Singh were named in the FIR. The report was published in the newspaper’s December 17 edition under the headline

“Halwai Bazar mein ghar ki chhat par lehraya Pak jhanda” (A Pakistani flag is fluttering on the roof of a house in Halwai Bazar).

It described this as a “huge failure on the part of the administration”.

“The administration is busy with the chief minister’s expected visit, and is unaware of antinational activities in the city. This is also a major lapse on the part of intelligence agencies,” the report said. The report was accompanied by a picture of a flag atop a house, which had a large crescent and star on a green background, but which was clearly not the Pakistani flag.

Muslim residents of the town protested after the report appeared, saying the flag was a “religious flag” which is hoisted every year to observe the Prophet Mohammad. “We are all unhappy with the news report, and have submitted a memorandum to the SDM,” local corporator Ikram Khan said.

Police visited the house after the report appeared on December

Indian-origin mother who killed son moved to luxury prison An Indian-origin mother serving 11-year jail term in Scotland for beating to death her threeyear-old son has been shifted to a luxury jail cell after she complained about threats from other prisoners. Rosdeep Adekoya, who was convicted of killing her son Mikaeel Kular, has an ensuite shower and a

key to her own cell at Cornton Vale prison, the ‘Daily Record’ reports.

She was reportedly moved into her comfortable surroundings after complaining about threats from other prisoners.

She told guards that letters calling her a beast and a childbeater had been left outside her cell door.

Adekoya, 35, has also landed a job in the prison kitchen, which gets her out of her cell and allows her leftover food.

She will soon be cooking Christmas and New Year’s dinner for her fellow prisoners.

Adekoya beat Mikaeel to death over four days in January last year after he was sick following a family meal at a restaurant.

He had 40 injuries on his body

when he was discovered in the woods.

His mother, who has four other children, hid his remains in a suitcase behind her sister’s house in Kirkcaldy and told police he had vanished from the family home in Edinburgh.

Adekoya was in a special protection unit at Stirling jail until the start of this year. She was then moved to mix with medium and lowrisk inmates but she was reportedly targeted with threatening letters left at her cell.

Staff believe Adekoya will be safer in Wallace House because inmates there won’t want to risk their place in the unit by targeting her.

She had avoided a murder trial and the possibility of a life sentence of up to 35 years after a court accepted her guilty plea to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

Scotland’s social services had extensive contact with Adekoya and her children before she killed Mikaeel. It began after she left her kids alone in July 2012 and went drinking.

Mikaeel was put in foster care after the incident and only returned to Adekoya in August 2013. But a report by child protection officers in April this year concluded his death could not have been predicted.

17. “It is a religious flag and not a Pakistani flag as was made out by the news report. It is hoisted annually,” Dausa Kotwali SHO Devendra Pratap said. The officer said the complaint was filed by Abdul Khaleel, who was named in the report as the owner of the house on which the flag had been raised.

Khaleel said: “The irresponsible report was carried without verifying the facts or making inquiries.

The flag was raised by children in our family, aged 8-10, to observe the birth anniversary of the Prophet on December 24.

Our flag has a bit of red on the lower side, while the Pakistani flag has no red at all.”

The report, Khaleel alleged, “was carried to vitiate the communal harmony of Dausa”.

The following morning, December 18, the newspaper published another report, apparently to clarify its first report. This report, headlined “Pakistani jhanda nahin lehraya, pehchanne mein hui chook: SP”, said the crescent and star on the flag had created

“bhram” (confusion), which led to “gaflat” (inaction). It quoted district superintendent of police Yogesh Yadav as saying that it was not a Pakistani flag, and that “all aspects of this matter” were being probed.

However, the Dausa police arrested Bhuvnesh Yadav later that evening. “Following the complaint, we arrested Yadav on Friday evening,” SHO Pratap said.

News Editor Shakti Prakash Singh said, “I’ve been dragged into local politics.” Police had not approached him yet, he said. On the report, he said, “What can we do now?”

On Saturday, Dainik Bhaskar published a report on its website, accusing the SP of “goonda raj”.

It alleged that since the newspaper had repeatedly highlighted the SP’s failure to

maintain law and order in Dausa, the officer had got Khaleel to file a complaint and had the journalist arrested.

Rajasthan Editor of Dainik Bhaskar, Laxmi Prasad Pant, claimed: “This is a lapse on the part of the police. They (the police) gave wrong information to the media. Police initiated the matter, only then did we cover it. It was police who reached there first, and when it (the information) came to us, we covered it.”

SP Yogesh Yadav did not take calls. I-G, Jaipur Range, D C Jain, too was unavailable for a comment. Khaleel’s lawyer Mohammad Arif said the Dausa Chief Judicial Magistrate had refused the journalist bail, and he was now expected to file a fresh plea with the District Judge on Monday.

95 yrs later, woman becomes citizen of the country she was born in

She had lived in two countries all her life, but belonged to neither. As the 95-year-old sits alone in her new home, her blind eyes betray no emotion at the prospect of finally becoming a citizen of the country she was born in. All she says is “I finally have a home. I just wish I could see it.” Amartya Burman is one of the thousands who had decided to move to India’s Cooch Behar district from her former home at Rangpur in Bangladesh as part of the Land Boundary Agreement signed between the two nations.She is also one of the oldest. “I have been in India before. I lost my vision a few years ago… maybe five years ago. Before that I had walked to Kamakhya temple in Assam. At that time I wasn’t an Indian, neither was I a Bangladeshi,” she says.Now, she spends most of

her days indoors, seated on a mattress on the floor. “You know, when I was very young… this was all (part) of India and everyone was fighting for their country. Suddenly, I was told that we were free of the angrez (English) rule and that we were Indians staying in Pakistan. Then after 1971, we were Indians living in Bangladesh. Now, finally, we are Indians living in India. The land never changed, neither did we. But everything else kept changing,” she says.

Amartya’s story isn’t uncommon. Neither is it surprising for those who had lived in the Indo-Bangladesh enclaves or chhitmahals, marooned from political boundaries. All this ended on June 6, 2015 when the Land Boundary Agreement was ratified and the enclaves exchanged at midnight on July

31.The decision has left the 95year-old grasping at the tin walls of her home, listening curiously at the swishing of the electric fan above her a first for her. “I am here with my two sons and they’re busy with paper work.

But I know I have come home and it pains me to not be able to see,” she says. After a brief pause, she asks her younger son, Kartik “Is it very different from Bangladesh?”

The lush green fields on both sides of the border, punctuated with rivers and lakes, seem almost identical, Kartik tells his mother. After a pause, he adds, “Now, we will start existing.

Earlier, our lives weren’t important. We were like shadows. My mother lost her vision because the doctors couldn’t register her as a patient since we lived in an enclave.”

Issue - 646 (32)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Indian-origin footballer Dhanda gets Liverpool contract LIVERPOOL Yan Dhanda has become the first player of Indian heritage to sign

a professional contract with English football powerhouse Liverpool.

The England youth international recently turned 17 and has entered into a two-and-a--half-

year contract with the Anfield club, bbc.co.uk reported on Friday.He is the second British Asian with a professional contract at the top level after Swansea’s Neil Taylor.

Dhanda was born in Birmingham. He joined Liverpool’s academy in July 2013 from West Bromwich Albion club.The attacking midfielder has played for England at the Under16 and Under-17 levels and won the up-and-coming player category at the Asian Football Awards in 2013.

Culture war brews over South African golden rhino figurine

PRETORIA For years, South Africa’s apartheid government ignored the significance of a “golden rhino” figurine that provides undeniable proof of a sophisticated society existing before white men arrived. But

since the end of racist rule in 1994, the stunning object just 15 millimetres (six inches) long and more than 700 years old - has become a defining symbol of precolonial civilisation in Sou t h A f r i c a .

Described as southern Africa’s equivalent of Tutankhamun’s mask, the golden foil rhino could be displayed overseas for the first time in the British Museum at an exhibition of South African art late next year.

Indian-origin politician becomes South Africa’s finance minister JOHANNESBURG Pravin Gordhan, a widely respected Indian-origin politician, has been appointed South Africa’s new finance minister by President Jacob Zuma, becoming the third finance chief of the country in a week amid a raging economic turmoil.

Zuma sacked Nhlanhla Nene from the ministry on Wednesday and replaced him with the relatively unknown lawmaker David Rooyen, sparking a wave of criticism and financial turmoil.

The removal of Nene sent the Rand currency to record lows, sparked a sell-off in bank stocks and sent yields in local and dollardenominated debt soaring.

Credit agency Fitch downgraded South Africa on December 4 December, leaving the continent’s most sophisticated economy just one notch above junk status.

The president came under intense criticism for the manner in which he replaced Nene. The announcement was initially made with no reasons given and it was seen as ill-timed given the intense pressure on the economy. The choice of Rooyen, an ANC whip in Parliament’s standing committee of finance, was also questioned given his relative lack of experience in government.

66-year-old Gordhan’s appointment sent the Rand up almost 5 per cent on Sunday night, but failed to quell a tide of criticism of the president.

Gordhan was widely respected when he served as South Africa’s finance minister from 2009 until 2014. In a statement on Sunday, the president said that after replacing Nene he had “received many representations to reconsider my decision”.

“As a democratic government, we

strengthening the fiscal discipline and prudence” and “working with the financial sector so that its stability is preserved”, Timeslive reported.

It called for “adherence to the set expenditure ceiling while maintaining a stable trajectory of our debt portfolio, as set out in

emphasise the importance of listening to the people and to respond to their views,” Zuma said.

The presidency’s statement said Gordhan’s role would include “promoting and

the February 2015 budget”.

The statement called for “more inclusive growth and accelerated job creation while continuing the work of ensuring that our debt is stabilised over the medium term”.

Homework on Islamic faith prompts all schools to shut down in Virginia county

Pakistan Taliban reject Islamic State leader’s claim to be caliph Islamabad Pakistan’s Taliban have rejected Islamic State leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi’s claim to be the global leader of all Muslims, the movement said in a statement seen on Saturday. The Pakistani

Taliban’s statement comes after a similar rejection by the Afghan Taliban following pledges of allegiance from low-level commanders of both Islamist movements to the Middle Eastbased Islamic State (IS). Last year, IS, an al Qaeda offshoot, proclaimed its leader as “caliph” - the head of the state. AlBaghdadi aspires to establish a global caliphate with himself at its head.The latest statement from

the Pakistani Taliban comes amid speculation that the movement’s leadership, whose goal is to topple the government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif and set up a sharia state, is actually wary of IS, which is driven by different

ambitions that have little to do with South Asia.“Baghdadi is not Khalifa (caliph) because in Islam, Khalifa means that he has command over all the Muslim world, while Baghdadi has no such command; he has command over a specific people and territory,” the Pakistan Taliban said in a statement. “Baghdadi is not a Islamic Khalifa because his selection is not according to Islamic rules,” the statement

said, adding that the IS leader had little control in Muslim countries like Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban operate separately from the Afghan insurgents of the same name, but are loosely aligned with them.

Late last year, a few breakaway factions of the Pakistani Taliban declared allegiance to Islamic State and ordered militants across the region to join its campaign to set up a global Islamic caliphate. Pakistani authorities say IS has no financial ties with any Pakistani group. But there are concerns about further turmoil in the region as U.S.-led foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan, with groups like the Haqqani network and IS likely to exploit the security vacuum. The entry of Islamic State, while its numbers remain small, will also complicate Pakistan’s fight against indigenous Islamist militants fighting to overthrow the government.The Pakistani Taliban have been beset by bitter internal rivalries in the recent past, with the influential Mehsud tribal faction of the group refusing to accept the authority of Mullah Fazlullah, who came to power in late 2013.

LONDON The assignment on Islam spiraled into an angry backlash among the people which forced officials to shut down all the schools across the Augusta county in Virginia, United States.

The World geography homework at the Riverheads High School required the students to copy the religious Islamic calligraphy. It was the Shahada or the Muslim declaration of the faith in Arabic.

It translated to:”There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.”According to local newspaper, The News Leader , most parents saw the assignment as an attempt at converting their children. Angry calls began to pour in with parents who demanded the assigning

teacher Cheryl Laporte to be fired.The teacher had not asked the students to do the assignment on her own discretion, it was merely part of the syllabus in the World Geography section, reports the News Leader. The school system answered by saying that the lesson was not trying to convert anyone to Islam and that it was just a sample for practicing calligraphy. The issue sent a flutter around social media circles and sparked a heated discussion over religion and education.A student from the same school opened a group in Facebook to extend support to Cherly LaPorte, to condemn the backlash and to send out a message that there is nothing wrong about learning new things.

Issue - 646 (33)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Deported from Sudan, Tamil Nadu techie linked to Jaipur ‘IS backer’ The 23-years-old software developer from Tamil Nadu who was deported from Sudan while attempting to reach Libya to join the Islamic State, was in touch with the Indian Oil Corporation employee arrested in Jaipur last week for spreading IS propaganda, security sources told . Sources revealed that Mohammed Naseer, who was working for an IT firm in Dubai, identified IOC marketing manager Mohammed Sirajuddin by his photograph during interrogation after he was deported on December 10. A WhatsApp group called “Islam Q&A” run by a Filipino woman has emerged as a common link between the two, they added.Based on Naseer’s interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), The Indian Express has pieced together details of how the son of a Dubai-based mechanic struggled with academics even as he was drawn to jihadi ideology, his contact with IS

supporters and recruiters, and his journey to Sudan.Hailing from Thanjavur, Naseer pursued computer engineering at MNM Engineering College in Chennai between 2010 and 2014, when he started visiting a mosque run by the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, a non-political Islamic organisation. Naseer told interrogators he also attended religious lectures and began to browse the website onlinepj.com that deals with religious issues.

Sources said he also came into contact with some Nigerians who were allegedly proficient in hacking and attended a threemonth course on ethical hacking at an institute for a fee of Rs 50,000.But after Naseer failed to pass two supplementary examinations, sources said, his father, called him over to Dubai on a 90-day visa in October 2014 to search for a job. In December 2014, he joined Takmeel Global in Deira as a web developer and graphic designer on a monthly salary of 2,500 dirhams.Naseer told interrogators that he was not

happy at work and started watching videos of IS propaganda and lectures by Islamic scholars and controversial preachers such as UK-based Anjem Choudary in spare time.Around the same time, sources said, Naseer came in contact with an IS supporter operating an account using the handle “Dawlah”, who helped him join three pro-IS WhatsApp groups. One of these was “Islam Q&A” run by Karen Aisha Hamidon, who claimed to be from Manila. Also part of this group were Sirajuddin, who was arrested on December 10, a Sharjah resident named Yusha

US students battle hunger because of food stamps backlog Although a “food insecurity” problem – a lack of nutritional food – is not typically associated with US students, it has already become an alarming signal for college administrators who see more and more hungry students, especially those from lowincome families.

An

unreasonable amount of time needed to receive food stamps is seen as one of the reasons for the problem.“Almost as bad as the hunger itself is the stress that you’re going to be hungry,” said Vaughn, 22, a fifth-year student at GMU, cited by the Washington Post. “I spend more time thinking ‘How am I going to make some money so I can go eat?’ and I focus on that when I should be doing homework or studying for a test.”

Last year, after applying for the food stamp program, students would get notice of their status in either a month or two, but now there is no common waittime period. Furthermore, it has become much longer than

usual.

The recent change in the system used to apply for food stamps is seen as one of the reasons for the lag time. The food stamps request has transitioned from being an independent procedure to being combined with Medicaid, according to Sarah Wright, a

member of the advisory board for Feed the Pack.

“We had several students that were not approved in a timely manner from when their application was submitted,” she said. “Obviously, that was a tough time for those students to manage, but what was nice is that they were back-paid from the time that their applications should have been approved.” Meanwhile, tuition and living expenses are rising tremendously and students feel like they are being entrapped by the rising food insecurity problem. Monica Grey, director of programs at the College Success Foundation-District of Columbia, which helps lowincome high school students

said: “Between paying rent, paying utilities and then trying to buy food, that’s where we see the most insecurity because that’s the most flexible.”

Although no comprehensive nationwide research of student hunger has yet been carried out, some experts stress that it is rising and may exceed the national average for all age groups.A survey conducted in Oregon indicated that 59 percent of students at Western Oregon University had been recently suffering from food insecurity. The figure from a 2009 survey carried out by University of Hawaii was about 21 percent. “Campuses across the country are starting to realize that there is that sector of people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” said Nate Smith-Tyge, director of the MSU Student Food Bank.

“It’s not only a moral issue but also a curricular and academic issue.” Campus dietitian Jane Jakubczak at College Park noted that in the past two years the number of those who can’t afford proper nutrition has increased dramatically. “In the past, not everyone went to college,” Jane Jakubczak said.

“Now our society is realizing that a college degree is really essential in terms of getting anywhere in your career. A few have mentioned that they’re the first generation going to college, and that, mixed with the economy, I think it may just be that perfect storm of what’s going on.”

Kashmiri and an Indian named Salman Munabbar.

It was in August 2015 that Naseer, keen to travel to Syria to join IS, began communicating with the Twitter handle ‘Mad Mullah’, a propagandist whose profile message was: “for Hijrah (migration) to Libya, for advice”.

Assuring him accommodation, a job and food in Sudan, Mad Mullah coaxed Naseer to visit Sudan and then travel to Libya, saying he would be the first Indian IS fighter to do so. Mad Mullah emailed a visa for Sudan to Naseer, sources said.

On September 25, Naseer flew to

Khartoum on a Flydubai flight, after deleting all his IS-related e-mails, WhatsApp and Telegram accounts. In the Sudanese capital, Naseer was instructed to reach a flat that acted as an IS safe house, where two Egyptians and a Russian, Moroccan and Belgian, all in their early twenties, were already staying.Naseer also participated in a preliminary training course but was detained on October 5 after Indian agencies informed the Sudanese government about his presence there.

Ming-era cup sold for $36.05 million

A Ming Dynasty wine cup broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain in Hong Kong on Tuesday, after it was bought for $36.05 million (HK$281.24 million) by Shanghai tycoon Liu Yiqian, Sotheby’s said.

The tiny white porcelain cup, decorated with a colour painting of a rooster and a hen tending to their chicks, was made during the reign of the Chenghua Emperor between 1465 and 1487. The sale set a record for Chinese porcelain, according to the auction house, beating the HK$252.66 million ($32.58 million) paid for a gourd-shaped vase from the Qianlong period in 2010. It also far exceeded the previous world record for Ming Dynasty porcelain, which was set by a blue and white vase that fetched HK$168.66 million in 2011.

Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, described the cup as the “holy grail” of Chinese art. “There is no more legendary object in the history of Chinese porcelain. This is an object bathed in mythology,” he told reporters after the sale. “It has gone to an extraordinarily good home in Shanghai in the collection of Liu

Yiqian.” Bidding started at HK$160 million, with Liu making the winning offer by telephone after a lengthy battle among hopeful buyers. Liu, a taxi-driver turned financier now aged 50, is one of China’s wealthiest men and among the country’s new class of super-rich scouring the globe for artwork. He is worth an estimated $1.6 billion and has two museums to his name. Liu made headlines in the art world when he bought a Song-era scroll for $8.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York in September only to have it dismissed as a fake by experts. He stands by its authenticity. Liu made his first fortune speculating in Shanghai’s newly established stock market in the 1990s, but now runs a huge conglomerate active in several industries. The chicken cup represents the pinnacle of Ming-era porcelain production, according to Sotheby’s. “That period in terms of porcelain production was really the peak of material refinement,” Chow told AFP before the sale, adding that later emperors were so enamoured by the design that the chicken cup was copied extensively.

Issue - 646 (34)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Pune Muslim teen wanted to be IS suicide bomber, says ATS

A convent-educated Muslim girl radicalised by Islamic State (IS) sympathisers was mentally prepared to even serve as a suicide bomber, investigations by the Maharashtra antiterrorism squad have revealed.

The 16-year-old student of a prominent Pune college is now being questioned and deradicalised by the ATS after her name cropped up during the probe of an Indian Oil Corporation employee arrested from Rajasthan last week for alleged links with the IS. Pune ATS officer Bhanupratap Barge said the girl is now being counselled with the help of her parents and clerics.ATS sources said the teen, who was willing to travel to Syria, could reveal the radical organisation’s network of sympathisers spread across the country.Preliminary investigation has revealed that she was in connection with the IOC

employee, Mohammed Sirajuddin, and several other men from other parts of India.

Sources said the girl was drawn to the activities of IS after watching news reports about it and later gathered information from the internet and established contact through Facebook.

She came in contact with a Sri Lankan national who was suspected to be an IS operative and had already been arrested by the police there. The girl then was diverted to Sirajuddin, according to ATS sources. She kept in touch with this group formed by Sirajuddin on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The girl, who belongs to a well-to-do family, started showing symptoms such as staying alone and wearing traditional clothes, revealed her parents. “We do not believe that she would go such an extent,” her shocked parents said.

Indian Government on war footing to nip ISIS radicalisation A nationwide effort has been launched to deradicalise some of the youngsters who may have been influenced by the Islamic State ideology.

Muslim clerics, intelligentsia and leading members of the community are at the forefront of

Gujarat.

“Those with vested interests are using the Internet to poison the minds of our youth and give them a wrong impression of what is Islam, what is Islamic State and how it is trying to set up a Caliphate. They are also quoting

this initiative. Different ministries and government departments both at the Centre and states, including IT, social welfare, Home and Minorities Affairs, are also being roped in. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of State (Home) Kiren Rijiju heard the efforts being undertaken at the level of various state governments and police forces at the three-day DGPs’ meet at the Rann of Kutch in

the Holy Quran incorrectly to poison the impressionable minds of youth,” sources said. The efforts include using both cyber space and reaching out to the youth by their role models to tell them what real Islam is and how they need to ensure youngsters are not influenced by the ideology that terrorists are trying to propagate in the name of religion, sources added. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh are some of the states brain storming on the issue. “This is not just a

Hackers route Delhi firm’s cash to ‘IS accounts’ Suspected Islamic State hackers may have routed a Delhi-based firm’s payments from a London client to the

jihadist group’s bank accounts in Turkey. Delhi Police say the fraud amounting to Rs 5 crore-6 crore is the biggest in the capital this year and was possibly carried out by hacking the email account of an employee.

While police started off investigating the IS angle because the money was diverted to Turkey, their suspicion was strengthened on learning that the London client provides humanitarian aid to warhit people in Syria and refugees in countries like Turkey.

Delhi Police commissioner B S

Bassi was made aware of the fraud on Saturday and is learned to have formed a special team to crack the case. Sources said

the special cell has been put on the job. “The probe is at an initial stage. It is early to rule out the role of IS in this massive cyber heist as we are indeed probing some Turkey-based hackers who may have terror or IS links,” a top officer of Delhi Police told TOI requesting anonymity.

An FIR was being registered at an undisclosed police station at the time of filing this report on Saturday evening. The victim firm is based in south Delhi and provides consultancy and advisory services to development and social projects

in India and abroad. The client’s website states it provides relief and other assistance to people inside Syria and to refugee families in neighbouring countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

The complaint states that the Delhi firm had regularly received payments from the client (name withheld) in its account with Kotak Mahindra Bank, and when they stopped in October, it waited patiently for the sake of goodwill.

However, when it followed-up a few days ago, the client claimed it had processed some of the payments. It sent an email on Friday giving details of the accounts credited, thus alerting the firm to the fraud.

The firm’s vice-president initiated an internal inquiry with assistance from the client’s representatives. They were shocked on being informed that the Delhi firm’s senior manager had made some communications to the client requesting a change of beneficiary account numbers and had changed the remittance details. However, no trace of these communications was found on the firm’s own systems.

The firm has provided police with all the details, documents and communications connected with the client.

police matter. This is an issue where not just state governments but both the state and the centre, religious groups and leading lights of the community and society need to come together to counter the threat,’’ an official privy to discussions said.

After the main session on deradicalisation and cyber security, a sub-group of affected states will share experiences and come out with a national strategy to effectively counter the threat posed by ISIS. “So far the problem is still restricted. According to our information of the 23 Indians who went to fight for the ISIS, around 19 are still fighting,’’ an official said. The matter of grave concern is the fact that some educated youth - doctors, engineers, software professionals are being attracted to the ideology of terror for caliphate. “We are diving deeper into the reasons. Besides anger, in some cases, personal anguish in the neighbourhood or work place have influenced the youth and not necessarily the ideology of the Islamic State. This needs to be addressed very sensitively,’’ he added.

The police and the intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on cyber space and also telephone communication through WhatsApp, Viber and other chat rooms to keep abreast with the activities of those trying to radicalise the youth.

Islamic State now banned in Pakistan After denying presence of the militant Islamic State (IS) group in Pakistan, the Government has disclosed that it is among the 61 organisations that have been banned in the country.

According to the Dawn, Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rahman informed the Senate that Daesh (the Arabic acronym of IS) had been placed on the list of banned organisations on July 15.This was the only addition to the list made by the government during the last two and a half years.

The minister confirmed that ban on arms licences was relaxed to facilitate President Mamnoon

Hussain`s son and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He said the prime minister had been gifted a weapon, warranting issuance of licence. He said the

interior minister had placed ban on issuance of arms licences on June 20, 2013 and had the right to relax the ban.

To avoid ‘unwanted association’, Isis Pharma changes company name Isis Pharmaceuticals is changing its name to avoid

any unwanted association with the Islamic State, the California-based company

said on Friday.It will now be called Ionis Pharmaceuticals, setting it clearly apart from the jihadists, whose acronyms include ISIS, IS and ISIL.“We decided to change our company name because when people see or hear our name we want them to think about the life-saving medicines we are developing,” said Lynne Parshall, chief operating officer at Ionis Pharmac-euticals.

Issue 646 (35)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Brendon McCullum to retire from international cricket

Brendon McCullum, who led New Zealand through an exhilarating two years of success, will retire from international cricket in February after the two-Test series against Australia, the 34-year-old batsman said on Tuesday.

McCullum told a news conference in Christchurch that the second Test against Australia, which starts at Hagley Oval on Feb. 20, would be his 101st and last. “I’ve loved my opportunity to play for, and captain, the Black Caps, but all good things have to come to an end, and I’m just grateful for the wonderful experience of

playing for my country,” said McCullum, who has struggled with back problems for several years. The explosive batsman, who has scored 6,273 runs in 99 Tests at an average of 38.48, took charge of New Zealand in all three formats of the game at the start of 2013 after Ross Taylor was controversially dropped as skipper by coach Mike Hesson. McCullum led New Zealand unbeaten through seven Test series until the recent reverse in Australia, and to a first 50overs World Cup final last year where they were again beaten by their trans-Tasman Sea rivals.

Disappointed that I am back only in T20I squad, not for ODIs says Yuvraj Singh

Swashbuckling Indian allrounder Yuvraj Singh, who has made a comeback in India’s T20 squad for the Australia tour, is a bit disappointed with the fact that he missed the cut in the ODIs. “To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed that I am back only in the T20I squad, not for the ODIs,” Yuvi was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. However, the 34-year-old added that: “There’s happiness that I’m back after quite a while.

The disappointment is personal and I hope I’m not

misunderstood and that nothing at all is taken out of context.”

Yuvraj, who is returning to national fold after a long time, feels that conditions Down Under would be challenging but he would try to give his best. “The 20-over game isn’t easy. That said, I’m positive, for that’s the way I am. I have the confidence to try and do my best in the opportunities I get. The dressing room needs to have the belief in me. I’m sure I’ll get the support I need,” the dashing cricketer added.

Ashwin top all-rounder in ICC Test rankings, Jadeja in 5th spot India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continued his hold on the top spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) allrounder rankings, while Ravindra Jadeja stayed fifth in the latest rankings released on Monday.

Ashwin, who manages a Test batting average of 31.68 with a highest score of 124, is well above Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan in the chart.

Ashwin, who stood out with 31 wickets in four Test matches in India’s 3-0 triumph over South Africa in the home series, has also held on to his second spot in the bowling list led

by Proteas pace spear-

head Dale Steyn.

Left-arm spinner Jadeja, who picked 23 wickets in the four Tests against South Africa, is the only other Indian bowler in the

Williamson rising two places to topple England’s Joe Root from the top spot.

Williamson has become the second New Zealand batsman after Glenn

Hamilton Test against Sri Lanka, which helped the home side win the match by five wickets and the series 2-0.

India continue to be the

top-10 list. The batting list, though, is sans any Indian in the top 10, with New Zealand’s Kane

Turner to top the rankings for Test Batsmen after producing a man-of-the-match performance in the

second-best Test side behind South Africa, while Australia are a point behind in third place.

FIFA bans Blatter and Platini for eight years FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA boss Michel Platini were both banned from football for eight years on Monday for ethics violations, leaving the global game leaderless as it struggles with a swirl of corruption cases.

Blatter was fined 50,000 Swiss francs and Platini, who boycotted the ethics committee hearing as unfair, 80,000.

The pair had been suspended in October while an investigation was carried out into a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.02 million) payment that football’s global governing body made to Platini in 2011, with Blatter’s approval.

The decision means that Blatter’s 17 years at the helm of world football will end in disgrace, and spells the end of Platini’s hopes of replacing the 79-yearold in a presidential election in February.

Both men immediately denied any wrongdoing and said they would appeal to the Swiss-based Court of

Arbitration for Sport.

The Swiss, who spent four decades at FIFA, came out swinging, holding a news conference to tell reporters that he was sorry only that the president of FIFA was being treated as

standing committees.

The three-times European footballer of the year, who captained France to victory in the 1984 European Championships and helped organise the 1998 World Cup in his homeland

a “punching ball”.

“I will fight for me and I will fight for FIFA,” said Blatter, unshaven and with a sticking plaster on his cheek, but defiant.

He said FIFA’s Ethics Committee had no right to relieve him of his duties.

The committee operates independently of FIFA; its members are appointed by the FIFA Congress and cannot be members of any

before working for Blatter, called the decision a “pure masquerade”.

“It’s been rigged to tarnish my name by bodies I know well and who for me are bereft of all credibility or legitimacy,” he said in a statement.

Platini said his conscience was clear and that he would ultimately seek damages in civil proceedings. “I will fight this to the

end,” he said.

The ethics committee began after the Swiss attorney general’s office opened criminal proceedings against Blatter over the payment to Platini.

The office is also investigating FIFA’s award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals to Russia and to Qatar, a small, wealthy desert country with no real football tradition.

The Ethics Committee said it had not found evidence that the payment, made at a time when Blatter was seeking re-election, constituted a bribe, which meant the men were spared potential lifetime bans.

However, it said the transaction had lacked transparency and presented a conflict of interest.

Blatter and Platini argued that the payment followed a verbal agreement they made in 1998, and concerned Platini’s work for Blatter between 1998 and 2002.

Issue 646 (36)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Court accepts chargesheet over industrial disaster case in 2013 A Bangladesh court on Monday accepted the chargesheet by the Criminal Investigation Department in the case filed with

the country’s worst-ever industrial tragedy.

At least 1,131 people were killed when an eightstorey building, Rana Plaza on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, housing five garment factories collapsed on April 24, 2013, Xinhua reported.

Senior Judicial Magistrate

Al Amin accepted the charge sheet against 41 people along with the owner of the factory building Rana Plaza Sohel

Rana, who were charged with murder in the tragic incident.

Among the accused, Rana is the only one in custody awaiting trial, while 16 others are on bail and the remaining 24 are absconding.

An arrest warrant has been issued by the court against the 24 people who

are left unarrested and asked authorities to submit a report of compliance in this regard on January 27.

The CID submitted the charge sheet in June this year.

There were claims that the owner did not take necessary permits from relevant authorities during construction of the building.

He also assured the owners of the factories on the day of the tragedy that there was no problem despite cracks having been detected a day earlier.

The Rana Plaza building collapse revived questions about the commitments of factory owners and their global buyers to providing safe working conditions for the workers in Bangladesh's largest export sector.

‘Ordinary’ vase sold for $540,278 Beijing A vase kept on the mantelpiece of a four-bedroom suburban house has sold for $540340 - after it was found to have been made for a Chinese emperor.

The value of the 12in-high vase was discovered only after its owner died and auctioneers were called in to look over the estate.

They noticed the vase, kept above the fireplace of the Leicestershire home, had a red six-character seal mark showing that it had been made for Emperor Qianlong between 1736 and 1795. It had been valued at $44652 but sold for $44,650, with fees taking the price to $540340.

Adrian Rathbone, of auctioneers Hansons in Derbyshire, said: ‘It was

‘It is well-known that the Chinese are very keen on buying back their lost

found on the mantelpiece where it had probably stood for years with the owners looking at it without realising its true value.

heritage, much of which ended up in Britain, and the vase was purchased by an agent acting on behalf of a Chinese buyer.’

First transgender judge appointed in Canada OTTAWA A transgender magistrate was named this week to the Manitoba provincial court, becoming the first transgender judge in Canada. Kael McKenzie, a lawyer and then a crown prosecutor in Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, was named late in the week by an independent

judicial nominating committee. The daily newspaper The Globe and Mail reported that McKenzie

thus became the first openly transgender judge in Canada and the third in North America, following judges in California and Texas. The newest member of the trio called the nomination an important step forward. “For my community, I think it means a lot,” McKenzie told the public CBC News network.

Issue 646 (37)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Health Heart diseases emerge to be the biggest killer worldwide!

Heart disease and stroke were the number one and number two killers worldwide in 2013, reveals a new report.

While 31 percent of all deaths were from cardiovascular disease, with 80 percent occurring in low- and middle-income countries as of 2013, stroke accounted for 11.8 percent of all deaths, according to American Heart Association’s 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update.

“Statistics about cardiovascular disease and stroke, and particularly the metrics about death and the factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease are incredibly important,” said Mark Creager, presi-

dent, American Heart Association (AHA).

Despite the progress in reducing the number of deaths from heart disease

and stroke, the numbers are still too high, Creager said. Produced since 1958, the update is created from the most-recent data available and compiled by the AHA, the US National Institutes of

Health, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other government sources.

The study found that one

of every three deaths in the US in 2013 were from heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular disease is not only the top killer in the US, but worldwide, David Siscovick, senior vice

president for research at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City.

Hypertension, obesity and diabetes are global epidemics, he said. The update now tracks health factors and behaviours known to contribute to good cardiovascular health.

These habits include smoking status, physical activity, healthy diet, body weight, and control of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. “We need to maintain our vigor and resolve in promoting good cardiovascular health through lifestyle and recognition and treatment of risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking,” Creager said.

Five ways to burn calories while you sleep!

Can you lose weight while you sleep? Yes, you can and there’s nothing crazy about it!

This means you don’t have to necessarily avoid eating in the evening hours to lose those unwanted flab. In fact, eating the right nighttime meal can bring positive results in your weight loss plan, say experts.

Here’s how: Opt for slow digesting proteins like white meat proteins – turkey and chicken are a great options as they take time to get digested.

Try to avoid carbs before bed. Because carbs are easily stored as fat in the evening hours as metabolism begins to slow in preparation for sleep.

Add healthy fats such as nuts and nut butters while avoiding trans fats.

Drink green tea to boost your metabolism - increasing metabolism burns calories.

Studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to burn fat is to eat peppers. So include peppers in your evening meal.

Transcendental meditation lowers High fat diet can combat schizophrenia BP, heart and mortality risks Since the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the enzyme telomerase in 1984, identifying other biological molecules that lengthen or shorten the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes has been slow going.

A new Maharishi University of Management study found that the Transcendental Meditation technique and lifestyle changes both appear to stimulate genes that produce telomerase, an enzyme that’s associated with reduced blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Specifically, these approaches were found to activate two genes that code for telomerase, which adds molecules to the ends of chromosomes, or telomeres, protecting them from deteriorating.

The finding that telomerase gene expression is increased and that this is associated with a reduction in blood pressure in a high-risk population, sug-

tation technique increases telomerase gene expression and suggesting that this may contribute to the cardiovascular and aging benefits.

gests that this may be a mechanism by which stress reduction improves cardiovascular health, said coauthor Robert Schneider.

The new study examined what was happening at the level of DNA, showing that the Transcendental Medi-

Coauthor Otelio Randall of Howard University College of Medicine concluded this pilot study in African Americans suggests stress reduction and lifestyle modifications may reduce blood pressure with an increase in telomerase.

A diet high on fat but very low on carbohydrates which is generally favoured by body-builders may be effective in treating schizophrenia, new research has found.

Schizophrenia is a devastating, chronic mental illness that affects nearly one percent of people worldwide.

There is no cure and medications used to alleviate it and can produce side effects such as movement disorder, weight gain and cardiovascular disease.

The researchers discovered that feeding mice a ketogenic diet, which is high on fat but very low on carbohydrates (sugars), leads to fewer animal behaviours that resemble schizophrenia.

The ketogenic diet has been used since the 1920s to manage epilepsy in children and more re-

cently as a weight loss diet preferred by some body builders.

The diet may work by providing alternative energy sources in the form of so-

Australia.

“Most of a person’s energy would come from fat. So the diet would consist of butter, cheese, salmon, etc. Initially it would be

called ketone bodies (products of fat breakdown) and by helping to circumvent abnormally functioning cellular energy pathways in the brains of schizophrenics, said one of the researchers Zoltan Sarnyai from James Cook University in Queensland,

used in addition to medication in an in-patient setting where the patient’s diet could be controlled,” Sarnyai explained.

The study also showed mice on a ketogenic diet weigh less and have lower blood glucose levels than mice fed a normal diet.

Issue 646 (38)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

Mother’s smoking habit ups asthma risk in child by over 2 times A new study suggests that the risk of a child having asthma rise by 2.1 to 2.7 times when the mother is a smoker.

Not just this, in case if the father is a smoker, the chances of having asthma rise by 1.2-1.9 times for children who are passively exposed to cigarette smoke.

Passive smoking is known to worsen asthma symptoms in children and impair their response to inhaled steroid treatment In the study published in the current issue of Jour-

nal of Asthma, Dr Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Associate Professor, SMS Hospital, and author of the article today said that the risk of asthma increases with passive smoking.

The lead author, Dr Sheetu Singh, Assistant Professor, Institute of Respiratory Diseases, described that pollution and passive smoking cause asthma and the risk of developing the condition increases when traffic pollution level near the house is high.

She said that when heavy vehicles passed by fre-

quently or whole day on the road near the residence, the risk of getting asthma increased from 1.2 to 1.7 times.

“The traffic pollution levels were also analyzed during the study period in the same cities and it was found that the PM10 levels (which indicate the number of particles with size below 10?m) were higher than the permissible limit in all the 8 centers in which the national air quality surveillance was conducted,” Singh said.

“India was a part of the

Ways to get rid of bad breath!

You certainly would not like to have bad breath and end up embarrassed while talking to others . But, the fact is that many people have this common problem chronic halitosis, or bad breath - mostly originating from the gums and tongue.

Follow these simple tips to make your mouth feel fresh and clean while keeping

your teeth and gums healthy at the same time: • Brush your teeth twice a day to remove plaque and food debris.

• Try to floss at least once a day.

• Make sure that you brush your teeth before going to bed.

• Gently brush your tongue with your toothbrush or use

a scraper to get rid of the coating that normally forms on your tongue. Otherwise, it can be a host for smelly bacteria.

• Rinse your mouth daily using a good mouthwash that prevents bad breath.

• Ensure that you rinse your mouth after you eat anything.

• Do not smoke and avoid tobacco products as they can contribute to bad breath.

• Avoid foods that sour your breath such as onions, garlic, especially if you are going to work or see friends.

• Above all, visit your dentist regularly to maintain a good oral hygiene.

This ‘exercise hormone’ boosts your stamina Carver College of Medicine.

He said that “We don’t want to replace exercise by using this exercise factor, but if we can learn more about the mechanism it might help us to increase exercise tolerance and make it easier for people to actually exercise. And if it is easier, people may exercise more.”

A new study has revealed about the ‘exercise hormone’ that promotes physical endurance.

The study in mice shows that exercise causes muscle to release a peptide that builds the muscle’s capacity for energy production and increases physical endurance, allowing for longer and more intense exercise.

The findings establish that the peptide, called musclin, is an “exercise factor,” a hormone-like substance made by skeletal muscle in response to ex-

ercise and released into the bloodstream.

The study shows that increased levels of circulating musclin trigger a signaling cascade that improves muscle performance and promotes production of mitochondria in muscle cells.

Exercise is an extremely powerful way to improve people’s health, but unfortunately, increasing physical activity can be really difficult in many circumstances, says senior author Leonid Zingman from the University of Iowa

study conducted in over 100 countries all across the world and Jaipur was one of the centers. The Indian data were recently analyzed and published in the Journal in which 93,016 children of two age groups (5-6 years and 13-14 years) participated,” she said.

Describing the data as frightening, Dr Virendra Singh, President Indian Chest Society said that traffic pollution should be controlled by better public

transport system, banning entry of heavy traffic in the city and removing truck and bus repair shops from residential localities.

“Children should not be exposed to cigarette smoke and awareness should be generated

among parents that smoking in presence of children increases the risk of asthma,” he said.

He also claimed that this was the first Indian study documenting increased risk of asthma when either parent was a smoker.

Excessive testing on type 2 diabetes patients due to over treatment

A new University of Michigan study has revealed that the excessive of testing of type 2 diabetes patients can be linked to over treatment.

The research by American researchers revealed that over treatment can lead to harming the patient, create inefficiency and waste in the healthcare system.

They recommended that patients and doctors should question the value of routine tests. Professional societies and regulatory bodies recommend that glycated haemoglobin testing is performed once or twice a year on patients with good blood sugar control and no his-

tory of hypoglycaemia.

Nevertheless, the authors opined that the association between repeat tests and potential over treatment is concerning, particularly because of the link between intensive treatment and adverse health outcomes. These include hypoglycemia, cardiovascular problems, and death.

Lead researcher Rodney A Hayward of the University of Michigan said improvements in diabetes care are a medical success story, but increasing evidence suggests that overtly aggressive treatment is an under-appreciated problem. The results have showed that over 60 percent of patients received

many more tests than the current recommendations of one to two tests per year. In total, 54.5 percent had three to four tests over one year, and 5.8 percent of patients had five or more tests over one year. Rodney added that this latest study probably greatly underestimates the size of the over treatment problem because current guidelines have not changed since these were developed 25 years ago when diabetes complications were more common. “We have made progress in the fight against cardiovascular disease, but the battle is not won,” Creager noted.

Bid adieu to cramps during your periods Get respite from the monthly menstrual cramps by using a hot water bag on your lower abdomen and lower back, and by avoiding dairy products, meats and legumes as these can cause bloating and worsen the pain, says an expert.

Indira Ganeshan, director of capital-based Irene IVF Centre, has shared how to ease the pain: * Hot water bag on your lower abdomen and lower

back, and taking a hot shower offers instant pain relief. * Drinking teas like ginger

tea, jasmine tea and chamomile is not only anti-inflammatory, but also keeps you well hydrated

to tackle the blood loss.

Girls who have water retention can try dandelion tea. * Take supplements like vitamin B, E, C and Folates, which help in relieving the menstrual pain. * Consume a diet rich in fiber like fruits and green leafy vegetables which has high content of vitamins and anti-oxidants. An intake of Aloe Vera juice and papaya is very helpful for the cramps.

Issue 646 (39)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015

American Lasagna Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef 1 onion, chopped, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 (29 ounce) can diced tomatoes 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste 12 dry lasagna noodles 2 eggs, beaten, 1 pint part-skim ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons dried parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese Directions: In a skillet over medium heat, brown ground beef, onion and garlic; drain fat.

Mix in basil, oregano, brown sugar, 1 1/ 2 teaspoons salt, diced tomatoes and

Lime Chicken Soft Tacos tomato paste. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

Add lasagna noodles, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, or until al dente; drain. Lay noodles flat on towels, and blot dry. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, parsley and 1 teaspoon salt. Layer 1/3 of the lasagna noodles in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover noodles with 1/2 ricotta mixture, 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese and 1/3 of the sauce. Repeat. Top with remaining noodles and sauce. Sprinkle additional Parmesan cheese over the top. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

minutes. Add vinegar, lime juice, sugar, salt, pepper, green onion, garlic and oregano. Simmer for an extra 10 minutes.

Heat an iron skillet over medium heat.

Place a tortilla in the pan, warm, and turn over to heat the other side. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Serve lime chicken mixture in warm tortillas topped with tomato, lettuce, cheese and salsa.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ginger Glazed Mahi Ingredients: 3 tablespoons honey 3 tablespoons soy sauce 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root 1 clove garlic, crushed or to taste 2 teaspoons olive oil 4 (6 ounce) mahi mahi fillets salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon vegetable oil Directions: In a shallow glass dish, stir together the honey, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, ginger, garlic and olive oil. Season fish fillets with salt and pepper, and place them into the dish. If the fillets have skin on them, place them skin side down. Cover, and refrigerate for 20 minutes to marinate.

Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cubed 1/8 cup red wine vinegar 1/2 lime, juiced, 1 teaspoon white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 green onions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon dried oregano 10 (6 inch) flour tortillas 1 tomato, diced 1/4 cup shredded lettuce 1/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, 1/4 cup salsa Directions: Saute chicken in a medium saucepan over medium high heat for about 20

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove fish from the dish, and reserve marinade. Fry fish for 4 to 6 minutes on each side, turning only once, until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Remove fillets to a serving platter and keep warm. Pour reserved marinade into the skillet, and heat over medium heat until the mixture reduces to a glaze consistently. Spoon glaze over fish, and serve immediately.

Ingredients: 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 1 onion, chopped 1/2 pint sour cream 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional) 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce 1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon chili powder 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper 1 clove garlic, minced 8 (10 inch) flour tortillas 1 (12 ounce) jar taco sauce 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium, non-stick skil-

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken

Juicy Roasted Chicken

Ingredients: 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup prepared mustard 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste, and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the honey, mustard, basil, paprika, and parsley. Mix well. Pour 1/2 of this mixture over the chicken, and brush to cover.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Turn chicken pieces over and brush with

Ingredients: 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, giblets removed salt and black pepper to taste 1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste 1/2 cup margarine, divided 1 stalk celery, leaves removed Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place chicken in a roasting pan, and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Sprinkle inside and out with onion powder. Place 3 tablespoons margarine in the chicken cavity. Arrange dollops of the remaining margarine around the chicken's exterior. Cut the celery into 3 or 4 pieces, and place in the chicken cavity.

the remaining 1/2 of the honey mustard mixture. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

let over medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink and juices run clear. Drain excess fat. Cube the chicken and return it to the skillet. Add the onion, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and ground black pepper. Heat until cheese melts. Stir in salt, tomato sauce, water, chili powder, green pepper and garlic. Roll even amounts of the mixture in the tortillas. Arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Cover with taco sauce and 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (82 degrees C). Remove from heat, and baste with melted margarine and drippings.

Cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest about 30 minutes before serving.

Issue 646 (40)

22 Dec. - 28 Dec. 2015