THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 674, 5 - 11 JULY 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761
WAS PIZZA CHEF ONE OF THE 6 DHAKA ATTACKERS? How Faraaz Hossain refused to leave Tarishi Jain’s side and died when he could live!
DHAKA As Bangladesh tries to come to grips with the massacre at a hip cafe in Dhaka and fears rise of more attacks in the coming weeks and months, confusion about the identity of the sixth terrorist - the seventh is injured and in custody - has deepened.
The Pakistan angle remains in focus. H T Imam, political adviser to PM Sheikh Hasina, said the London central mosque was a hub of Jamaat activities, bringing together Pakistan collaborators and radicalised Bangladeshis. “ISI is one of the largest sources of funding for these
The ISIS website showed five of the attackers, but Bangladesh authorities said there were seven, six of whom were killed. One of the pictures released by authorities was of an assistant pizza chef, Saiful Choukidar, but it’s not yet clear if he was in any way connected to the terrorists. He had worked with the cafe for about a year.
organisations,” he said. He added Pakistan’s outbursts against Bangladesh during the war crimes trials “show they have not reconciled to their defeat in 1971”. Survivors of the attack, including ones allowed to leave by the terrorists, were detained by authorities for questioning for over a day. Most were released
on Monday, but according to reports here five of have been kept back for more questioning. Among those being questioned is a Canadian of Bangladesh origin who came to Dhaka a day before the attack, a person from the Feni region, a BritishBangladeshi who was apparently seen talking to the militants during the attack, and a member of the faculty of a private university where some of the attackers also studied. Investigations are concentrating on the background of the attackers and their collaborators or coconspirators. Their phone records and social media networks are being scanned. Since Bangladesh is constrained by capacity inadequacies, US and India are chipping in, say sources. The attackers came from affluent, educated families and investigators believe their social networks could hold clues. For instance, the “smiling terrorist”, Nibras Islam, the face of the Gulshan attackers as shown on the IS website, was believed to have been radicalised
recently after he went to study at Monash University in Malaysia. Among his Facebook posts is a picture of him shaking hands with actress Shraddha Kapoor, like any other star struck fan. Defying a consistent western narrative about IS taking root in
Bangladesh, specially after the Artisan Bakery attack, Sheikh Hasina’s government maintains the truth is more complex because the attackers are part of local terror networks, including Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Continued on Page 2
ISIS face their biggest threat ever The HULK: Giant 24-stone bodybuilder announces he will fight alongside Iranian military taking on Islamic State
By GARETH DAVIES A weightlifter dubbed the Iranian Hulk will take to the battlefield to fight ISIS as a volunteer soldier. Sajad Gharibi, 24, from Iran, is
said to weigh nearly 24 and a half stone and almost all of it is muscle. He announced on social media to his 127,000 followers he is joining Iranian forces fighting
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ISIS extremists occupying Syria. Gharibi puts much of his size down to genetics, but because of his frame he has had to deny ongoing rumours he is the executioner for ISIS known as The Bulldozer, according to 9 News. Little is known of the Iranian Hulk’s personal life, but ending the terrorists’ regime in war-torn Syria is said to be close to his heart. The giant man with a fierce expression has a cult following on Instagram where he posts about what he does best weightlifting. But his Instagram account doesn’t feature the type Continued on Page 2
Issue - 674 (2)
5 July - 11 July 2016
ISIS face their biggest threat ever
Continued from Page 1 of food and workout posts most weightlifters and workout obsessives share, instead it displays an array of gobsmacking topless photos of himself and unpretentious pictures of him going about his day to day life. His huge frame and bulging muscles have earned him the name of Hulk or Hercules. He can lift more than 180kg, which is more than he weighs, and competes in the powerlifting category of competitions. He has also participated in bodybuilding competitions representing his country. Since getting gaining a following on his social media
accounts, the Persian Hercules has quickly become an internet sensation as netizens express their amazement at his impressive build. He writes in Persian but uses English hashtags such as #strongman #strongbody #big #mucsles and #powerful. In his free time, Gharibi also likes to take pictures with objects that look smaller when held next to him. In one photo he sidles up to a can of Fanta orange, in another he poses with a can of Red Bull in a shop and in another he wraps his enormous arm around a normal sized friend.
Istanbul nearly a ghost town as tourists stay away
The tourists are so scarce you can hear their footsteps clattering down the empty shopping street. Nearly a week after the deadly airport bombings, it is eerily quiet in Istanbul. The magic of Turkey’s biggest city has been seducing visitors for centuries, from its array of historic mosques and palaces to its stunning views over the sparkling Bosphorus. But for people working in the once-thriving tourist trade, Tuesday’s gun and suicide bomb spree represents one more nail in the coffin for an industry already reeling from a string of attacks this year. “It’s disastrous,” said Orhan Sonmez as he stood hopelessly offering tours of the Hagia
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Sophia, the cavernous former mosque and church that is now a museum. “All my life I’ve been a tour guide. Most of us have come to a turning point where we don’t know if we can go on. It’s tragic.” Restaurants sit empty in the Sultanahmet tourist district, and five-star hotel rooms can be booked for bargain prices. In happier years the queues outside the Hagia Sophia might have stretched an hour or longer at this time of year - today you can walk straight in and share the place with just a smattering of other visitors. To add to the ghost town feel, many Istanbulites have left the city for Bayram, a nine-day nationwide holiday that began Saturday. Nineteen foreigners were among the 45 people killed at Ataturk airport by suspected Islamic State jihadists, and analysts say the attack may have been a deliberate attempt to weaken the Turkish state by hitting its tourist industry. The group had already been blamed for a January suicide blast that killed 12 German tourists in Sultanahmet, while three Israelis and an Iranian died in another on the Istiklal shopping street in March.
WAS PIZZA CHEF ONE OF THE... Continued from Page 1 Bangladesh, which are tied to Jamaat-e-Islami, Hizbut Tahrir and Pakistan’s ISI. Due to Jamaat’s close links with opposition party BNP and its leadership, particularly Tareque Rahman, Begum Khaleda Zia’s son, politics is also part of the mix. Imam accused certain British politicians of pandering to Tareque, who maintains close ties with Jamaat. All the young men who attacked the bakery on July 1 had disappeared from their homes in the past months. Nobody is clear whether there are more such men. Commenting on the security dimension, Prof Syed Munir Khasru, chairman of the think tank The Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG), said, “There are three factors working here - political, regional, and international. It will be foolish to oversimplify a complex problem by either politicising the issue or to localise a phenomena which has international dimension. The dotted lines need be connected for any security strategy to be effective.” Several theories were swirling about the night of terror. Some said the terrorists, after a bout of killing, started negotiations with the authorities for the release of a JMB ideologue, Khalid Saifullah, who had been arrested recently. One of the kitchen staff interviewed by news agencies said they had been asked to stay with their heads down. But sometime before dawn, the terrorists asked them to eat ‘sehri’, the pre-dawn meal in Ramzan. Faraaz Hossain refused to leave Tarishi’s side “Terrorists have entered the
restaurant. I am very afraid and not sure whether I will be able to come out alive. They are killing everyone here,” this is what Tarishi Jain texted her father. Tarishi hid herself along with her two friends
of their 20s, asked them the same questions. Faraaz could recite a couple of verses from Quran and was a bonafide Bangladeshi Muslim. He was allowed to go. But he refused to leave his friends
inside a toilet when heavily armed terrorists stormed into Holey Artisan in Dhaka’s tony Gulshan area. Outside the washroom, armed young men were killing off people one by one amid chants of Allahu Akbar. WE WILL ONLY KILL FOREIGNERS “Bengali people, come out. You don’t need to be so tense. We will not kill Bengalis. We will only kill foreigners,” one of the terrorists shouted. What they meant was Bengali Muslims. Their test was simple: recite verses from the Quran. Those who spoke in Bangla and could recite some verses escaped harm. Faraaz Hossain could. He too was cowering inside the washroom with Tarishi and Abinta when they were discovered by the terrorists. The terrorists made it clear: they were there for the expats and kuffar. FARAAZ REFUSED TO LEAVE WITHOUT HIS FRIENDS The ISIS-inspired terrorists, also
to die. He stayed put and was recovered the next morning, dead by the side of Tarishi Jain and Abinta Kabir. THE UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF FRIENDSHIP The three went to the American School in Dhaka. Tarishi’s dad, originally from UP’s Firozabad, has been in the textile business and he was based in Dhaka. Faraaz was from the family that owned Bangladesh’s biggest newspapers - The Daily Star (English) and Pratham Aalo (Bangla). Abinta Kabir also belonged to a prominent Dhaka family and was studying in the US like Tarishi. Tarishi Jain’s body was flown from Dhaka to Gurgaon today (July 4) where she was cremated in the Hindu way. Faraaz was buried in Dhaka according to Islamic traditions. Two friends, from two different countries, killed by hate but will live in memories of people they touched and every one who read about their story of friendship and the bravery of Faraaz Hossain.
Suicide bombers hit 3 Saudi cities including Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, killing at least four Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, killing at least four security officers in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan. The explosions targeting U.S. diplomats, Shi’ite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month. A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA. “Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet’s Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors’ cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and
the martyrdom of four of the security men,” the spokesman said. Five other officers were wounded, the statement added.
a burnt and bleeding man lying on a stretcher in a hospital. Other pictures circulating on social media showed dark smoke
A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah before detonating the device. A video sent to Reuters by a witness to the aftermath of the Medina bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with the sound of sirens in the background. A picture sent to Reuters showed
billowing from flames near the Mosque of the Prophet, originally built in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there along with his first two successors. In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shi’ite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shi’ite mosque.
Issue - 674 (3)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Issue - 674 (4)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Remembering my brother Vinny …
The absurdity of life without God! Four years ago, in order to alleviate my dad’s cancer pain during his last few days, I had to put him on a heavy dose of morphine to keep him asleep. Dad was 69 years old at the time of his death, and the society considered him relatively young candidate for dying. People reminded us of the old age sermon to accept God’s will. Then last year on June 21st, the plug had to be pulled by yours truly on his first child (first in the family) after a C-section because 440ml of his blood had leaked into mom’s blood stream depriving the child of oxygen for a few hours that resulted in the baby being born with 70 of his brain damaged. Even at that time, our family was told that it’s all within the God Almighty’s will. And I personally could only mutter these words that are engraved on my son’s grave: So small,
so sweet, so soon! Two weeks had barely gone by since we finished remembering my deceased son, Sunman on his first, and dad, on his fourth anniversary, that the family was left crestfallen by the news of my younger brother Vinny’s sudden demise abroad on a business trip. Vinny (42) had gone to Cambodia to buy a hotel business and died of a silent heart attack during his sleep in his rented hotel room on the 25th June, 2016. When my mom called me to tell me about Vinny’s unfathomable death, I was stuck on a local highway without gas. My office had left me a message asking me to call back as something bad had happened to Vinny. I checked the message after settling my gas problem and called mom
hour, every minute granted to him. The death of everyone, its location and time, as well as the way one dies are all predetermined.” SUNNY BAINS And in Vinny’s case, some well-wishers said that he had chosen his own place of death -Cambodia. the restless soul in his body sought a But some also said that his death was flight to Cambodia from where he would ‘unfortunate’ and ‘untimely’. “He was too embark on his final journey leaving his young to die!” they said. Over the past mortal body behind in the room number four years, seeing the third death in my 208, in the city of Phnom Penh. That was family, one question keeps cropping up where the flight of his free spirited heart in my head: what is the right age for a took him and decided to stop beating. And loved one to die? My wife Manisha, who to die in ones sleep due to a cardiac
only to hear that Vinny was dead. I don’t even remember what my initial thoughts were when I heard those words, but they were more like immeasurable painful sensations than any real thoughts … numbness, like the one you feel the moment after you stub your toe, or you get your finger squished in a closing door … when the pain hasn’t yet begun, but you know you will shortly be yelling in a lot of agony. This time again, our familial sorrow was branded, as usual, God’s discretion. I heard people saying that everyone has set a time, place and manner in which they die. “Really,” I said to myself. Time works against us humans. Have you ever heard of a man (woman) who has resisted ageing and death? Or, do you know anyone who will not die? This is quite unlikely! Why unlikely, because we humans have no influence over our own lives. Religious scriptures of various kinds try to convince us time and again that man himself did not decide his birth hence he has no control over his death. Another piece of evidence is man’s desperateness in the face of death. According to Quran the owner of life is the One who grants it to man. And whenever He wills, He takes it back. At this moment, there are millions of people living around the world. From this we conclude that countless people appeared and passed away since the creation of the first man on earth. They all died without exception. Death is a certain end - for people in the past as well for those currently alive. No one can avoid this inevitable end.” The Qur’an also states further: “Every self will taste death. You will be paid your wages in full on the Day of Resurrection. Anyone who is distanced from the Fire and admitted to the Garden has triumphed. The life of the world is just the enjoyment of delusion …” (Surah Al-Imran: 185) … “Just as the birth date of a man is predestined, so also is the date of his death right down to the very last second. Man rushes towards that last moment, rapidly leaving behind every
probably hasn’t yet fully recovered from our son Sunman’s death; the pain of her C-section and mental trauma that she’s been enduring ever since her son’s death, made a very innocent statement after Vinny’s death that I wish to share with my readers. Hearing the news on that fateful day she said in clear anguish, “Why can’t God create all the good people that he needs for this world once and for all, so that He neither has to give birth to
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newer people, nor does he have to take away those who were once deemed suitable for creation by Him?” My sad heart liked Manisha’s logic, but the logical mind cried out loud: “Alas, this ain’t the way this cruel world works!” This is all I can say about Vinny’s sudden and untimely demise: he was a go getter adventurer full of life all the time, wanted to explore the world and lived his life on his own terms. He went to Nicaragua to explore the possibilities of extracting gold deposits from the mines; visited Trinidad to set up a jewelry store or a motel; enjoyed the experience of setting up an Indian restaurant and a telecommunications company in Canada. He has been a Canadian citizen for the past 25 years and decided to become national of Panama last month. Not fully satisfied with all of his endeavors and not being the one to sit on his past laurels,
arrest is a strong contender in my books for best way to die … probably the most peaceful manner to pass away. Every time I have encountered the death of one of my loved ones and have inadvertently looked up at the heavens and gazed at the clouds with a shaken faith in the existence of God, an innocent question has always popped up in my mind about the purpose of life without God and this single question in turn has given rise to a myriad of other questions. Is human life meaningless without God? Without God there can be no morality left in this world because who will judge the right from the wrong? If there’s no judge then who can really give meaning to the notion of what is right and what is wrong? There could really be no good or bad deeds in God’s absence. If there’s no one watching over us for what we do in our lives, if nobody is present to punish us for the wrong and reward us for the good then human beings are free to live their lives as they please. If there are no values that we have adhere to then what would be the difference between the life of a saint or a taint (tyrant). What would be the purpose of human life without God? Is our life not totally absurd without Him? Searching for answers to my questions, I came across the writings of William Lane Craig, a Research Professor of Philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He is well known for his work as an apologist, speaker and debater. He is the author of Reasonable Faith. For the next couple of few weeks, I will be publishing some excerpts from the second chapter of his above mentioned book (Reasonable Faith), titled ‘The absurdity of life without God’. If the readers wish to participate they are encouraged to do so. If God does not exist then man and the universe both are inevitably doomed to die. Human beings, like all biological organisms, also must die. With no hope of immortality, man’s life leads only to Continued on Next Page
Issue - 674 (5)
5 July - 11 July 2016
The absurdity of life without God!
We all want things we can’t have. But what stops us from having them? Often, it’s just a matter of resources ... the price is too high or the cost too great. What about affairs of the heart? Here, too, resourcefulness may prove more valuable than wealth. Though some of your goals may seem to be out of reach but nature will certainly empower your ingenuity. You’re on fertile soil. If you plant the right kind of seeds, your emotional life may flourish. If you focus on new growth and then tend it, it will lead to a bountiful harvest. !!! When people speak of love-gods or goddesses and paint pictures to represent the epitome of appeal and attraction, whom do they have in mind? On whom are they modelling their ideal visions? On you? Or perhaps on an aspect of your personality that you sometimes display. You don’t exude a constant air of charm and seduction, which is probably just as well for the mere mortals around you. But when you choose to unleash your power, none can resist. Take care how you use it. !!! As a child I felt proud of myself when I managed not to cry. I was very young and falls and scrapes often resulted in tears. Keeping them at bay was a real achievement. As adults the number of times we cry is, hopefully, fewer than when we were toddlers, but the feelings of hurt and frustration don’t go away. We’ve just learnt to keep them walled up ... so well that sometimes we don’t know how we feel any more. If the sky brings you the chance to remember your true feelings, acting on them will sure feel very liberating. !!! ‘Opportunities are what you make of them’, so we’re
told. Which is all well and good as long as one appears. But how do you make them manifest? And what do they look like? How on earth will you recognize one? You have an instinct for good fortune. If there was an evening course on ‘the art of making something exciting out of not very much’ you’d be a great teacher. So follow your own wisdom. Though they have seemed a little scarce recently, you can spot the approaching opportunity a mile off! !!! It’s scary to fall for someone. Not only do we have to allow our hearts to be in control over our heads, we also have to risk giving up a certain amount of power and autonomy. It’s like handing over your car keys and hoping that the driver is responsible. Although joyrides can be fun, they can be nerveracking. But it’s a gamble worth taking. We can be driven to new heights and experience places we would never have seen. The open road lies before, you and the destination will be delightful. !!! Do you remember Let’s Go Fly A Kite, that lovely uplifting, inspirational song from the Mary Poppins movie? Walt Disney and his studio knew how to capture people’s imaginations. Then there was a Bollywood song along the same lines from a 1957 movie Bhabhi ‘Chali chali re patang meree chali re …’ Lyrics were of Rajendra Krishan and music was by Chitragupt. Emotionally, it is time for you to fly a kite. To embark on a lovely, carefree expedition in which you can be led by the elements. Something may have taken the wind out of your sails. It won’t be long, though, before they are full of hope again. Keep hold of that string. It will take you somewhere special.
grave. His life is but a spark in the infinite blackness, a spark that appears, flickers, flutters and dies forever. Therefore, everyone must come face-to-face with what theologian Paul Tillich has called “the threat of nonbeing.” For though I know now that I exist, that I am alive, I also know that someday I will no longer exist, that I will no longer be, that I will die. This thought is shocking and intimidating in itself: to think that the person I call ‘myself’ will cease to exist one day, and that I will be no more! I remember vividly the first time my father told me that someday I would also die. As a child, somehow, this thought of me dying had just never occurred to me. When dad told me this, I was naturally filled with fear and unbearable sadness. And though he tried to repeatedly reassure me that this was a long way off, it didn’t seem to matter to me anymore. Be it sooner or later, the undeniable fact was that I was going to die, and the thought overwhelmed me. Eventually, like all of us, I grew to simply accept this fact of my death. We all learn to live with the inevitable. As Sartre observed, several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity. And our universe, too, faces a death of its own. Scientists tell us that the universe is expanding, and the galaxies are growing farther and farther apart. As it does so, it grows colder and colder as its energy is being used up. Eventually all the stars will burn out, and all matter will collapse into dead stars and black holes. There will
be no light; there will be no heat; there will be no life; only the corpses of dead stars and galaxies, ever expanding into the endless darkness and the cold recesses of space - a
universe in ruins. This is not science fiction: This is really going to happen, unless the God of this universe - yours or mine - intervenes soon. Our universe is in dire need of a God … whether it’s Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi’s Allah in Whose name he’s not reluctant to slit innocent people’s throats or kill them with the bombs; or whether it’s Donald Trump’s Jesus Christ in Whose name he wishes to build walls and ban Muslims, or whether it’s the Jewish God with the perfect name YHWH frequently anglicized as Jehovah or Yahweh in Whose name they maim and kill the poor Palestinians. We all need a God that can save our universe from the doomsday, a God that can stop the life on this planet from ending. Not only the life of each individual person is doomed; the entire human
race and the whole edifice and accomplishments of human civilization are doomed. Like prisoners condemned to death, we all await our unavoidable execution. There is no escape. There is no hope. And what is the consequence of all this? It means that life in itself becomes absurd. It means that the life we do have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose. We will look at each of these in greater details in the upcoming weeks, but until that time I am leaving you with Mirza Ghalib’s famous poem on the very same topic but under God’s tutelage of course! koi umeed bar nahin aati, koi soorat nazar nahin aati: Ghalib in his works has frequently touched upon this theme that life is a continuous meaningless struggle that will end only when life itself ends. maut ka ek din mu’ayyan hai, neend kyun raat bhar nahi aati: Why am I so restless when I know that the end will be the same for all, irrespective of wealth, luck or actions? aage aati thi haal-e-dil pe hasee, aab kisi baat par nahi aati: Ghalib is saying that the optimism and cheerfulness of youth has given way to the anguish and the despair of the old age. jaanta hoon sawaab-etaa’at-o-zahad, par tabiyat idhar nahin aati: Ghalib is taking aim at the religious clergy that constantly preaches of religious deeds/devotion, so that they are rewarded of good life in the next life by saying he’s not in the mood
for all that although he understands its importance. hai kuch aisee hi baat jo chup hoon, warna kya baat kar nahin aati?: Ghalib reckons that it is prudent for him to not talk on religious matters as he may offend people who may ask what does a non-practicing Muslim know about religion! kyon na cheekhon ki yaad karate hain, mere awaaz gar nahin aati: The overbearing state of mine has devoid me of any respite that I could get by recalling old fond memories. daag-e-dil gar nazar nahin aata, boo bhi aye chaaraagar! nahin aati: Ghalib again questions the faith, and says that he is a tortured soul searching for answers yet the higher powers have not provided him any comfort or answers. hum wahan hain jahaan se humko bhi, kuch humari khabar nahin aati: The sadness, the sorrow has covered him to an extent that he is not able to hear his inner self. He bemoans the hopelessness of his existence where the sorrow and grief have overtaken the sense of being. marte hain aarzoo mein marne ki, maut aati hai par nahin aati: Ghalib depicts the human condition when faced with adversity or alienation that leads to a sense of despair. kaaba’a kis munh se jaaoge ‘ghalib’, sharm tumko magar nahin aati: Ghalib humbly accepts that he has not lived his life according to the faith. This is opposite to so many verses where he questions his faith and methods of the religion. In a way, he is probably mocking himself as to how he will go there and not necessarily regret his ways.
China cracks down on ‘faking news’ sourced from social media China has said online media cannot report any news sourced from social media platforms like the country’s Twitter-like platform Weibo and mobile phone app WeChat without verifying the information. China’s internet regulator is carrying out a campaign against what it calls news based on rumours or fake news, but this new rule could also be seen as tightening control over news on the internet. “It is forbidden to use hearsay to create news or use conjecture and imagination to distort the facts,” the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement. “All levels of the cyberspace administration must earnestly fulfil their management responsibility for
internet content, strengthen (and) Weibo or WeChat.” The from a report published by the supervision and investigation, CAC directive comes days after influential Chinese Academy severely probe and handle fake Xu Lin, the deputy head of the of Social Sciences, it said some 59% of fake news items in 2014 originated on Sina Weibo, while rumours on WeChat, although only accounting for 7%, were more difficult to dispel because it is a closed system.”
Impotence? and unfactual news,” it said. Official news agency Xinhua said: “All websites should bear the key responsibility to further streamline the course of reporting and publishing of news, and set up a sound internal monitoring mechanism among all mobile news portals
organisation, replaced his boss, Lu Wei, as its head. Xinhua had reported last year that “Sina Weibo is still the largest petri-dish of online rumours, but rumours on WeChat, the instant messaging service, are more difficult to dispel.” Quoting
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Issue - 674 (6)
5 July - 11 July 2016
2,000-YEAR-OLD LOST CITY FOUND? By Abigail Beall While on a helicopter flight off the coast of Tanzania, a low tide allowed a scuba diver to spot an unusuallyshaped formation in the water. Archaeologist believe what they found was an ancient sunken city, known as Rhapta which thrived 2,000 years ago. Rhapta is believed to be Africa’s first metropolis and a trading hub for tortoiseshell and metal weapons. But little is known about Rhapta’s story since its disappearance more than 1,600 years ago. . Its location has not yet been firmly identified, although there are a
number of plausible candidate sites off the coast of Tanzania. Now Alan Sutton, a scubadiver, might have come across the ancient city during a series of dives. ‘The formation was quite far in the distance and I took a photograph and then blew it up,’ Mr Sutton wrote in a blog post about the discovery. ‘After several unsuccessful attempts to find the formations due to low water visibility...we managed to find them on a spring low tide,’ Mr Sutton said. ‘What we found was far larger than expected. A series of what appear to be wide foundations ring a
Authorities say a 14-yearold boy was accidentally shot and killed by his father at a Florida gun range.
Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office says Brumby tried to remove the shell with his right hand, which was holding the gun and accidentally fired the gun at his son, who was standing directly behind him. Stephen J. Brumby, later died at a hospital. The father’s two other children were with him but were not injured. Police say they are continuing their investigation after reviewing a video of the shooting and talking to witnesses. No charges have been filed against Brumby.
Father accidentally shoots dead 14-year-old son at Florida gun range
William Brumby was firing his weapon at the High Noon Gun Range in Sarasota on Monday when a spent shell casing deflected off a nearby wall and landed inside the back of his shirt. A statement from the
large area. ‘Along the entire perimeter created by these foundations, many thousands of square and oblong blocks lie to either side. Some have fallen right off the foundation and others are still leaning against it.’ A professor of archaeology later visited the site and told MailOnline he thinks it could be the lost city. ‘I went there only on 20th of May,’ Professor Felix Chami, archaeology professor at Dar es Salaam University, Tanzania, told MailOnline. ‘Truly the ruins seem
ancient of probably Roman times.’ ‘It could be the metropolis of Rhapta as reported by Claudia Ptolemy of the 2nd century CE,’ he said. ‘We are looking for artefacts of he period probably now underwater to confirm that it is Rhapta.’ The city of Rhapta is mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy the GrecoEgyptian writer, in his work ‘Geography’, dating back to 50 AD. His text describes an account of Diogenes, a seaman on the India trade, blown off course who
visited Rhapta. A German explorer also visited Mafia Island in the early 1890s and mapped the island. The map mentions the Portuguese fort as having been washed away by the sea. ‘For several years we have been looking for the fort in this area without success,’ Mr Sutton said. ‘Its location is not questionable if one relies on the Roman document, put at Lat. 7.7 south and at the sailable river,’ added Professor Chami. ‘The ruins are now on the bay of the River known by the Romans as Rhapta bay.
‘The island on which it is attached to is Mafia also known by Ptolemy as Mafiaco.’ ‘Exactly whether this is Rhapta remains ‘a puzzle for the archaeologists to figure out,’ Mr Sutton said. ‘It seems very old and to have been extremely well constructed, in a fashion unlike the architecture of other ruins in Tanzania and doubtless the site will keep archaeologists busy for many years. ‘Without a large amount of research it is impossible to say exactly what the site is. It however appears to be a very old harbour city.’
Issue - 674 (7)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Rembrandt’s Dutch ‘Kim, Kanye’ back home after 400 years AMSTERDAM Almost four centuries after Dutch master Rembrandt painted a young married couple, their two portraits are back home in The Netherlands thanks to a unique joint 160-million euro purchase with France. Dating from 1634,
the portraits show wealthy Dutchman Marten Soolmans, 21, and his new wife Oopjen Coppit, 23, both wearing black with white lace as they mark a year of marriage. “It’s the first time that they are in public hands, and can be seen” by millions of people, the director of collections at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Taco Dibbits, told AFP. In a historic deal
in January, France and the Netherlands agreed to jointly buy the two large Rembrandt tableaux for 160 million euros ($174 million) from the French branch of the Rothschild family - one of world’s the wealthiest and most influential art collectors.
After several months on show in the Louvre in Paris, they were unveiled at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Friday ahead of an exhibition opening Saturday.The paintings have been in private hands for almost four centuries, and have belonged to the Rothschilds since 1877. Prior to going on show in the Louvre, they had only once been seen in public
in 1956.Some nine million people have already flocked to the Louvre to see the couple - dubbed by the Amsterdam museum as “the Kim Kardashian and the Kanye West of the Golden Age”.The Rijksmuseum which is hanging the portraits next to Rembrandt’s seminal work “The Night Watch” - hopes millions more will come and marvel at the pictures until the exhibition closes on October 2.To celebrate the couple’s return, entry to Saturday’s opening day will be free. Towering more than two metres (six feet) height, they almost resemble “black and white photographs,” said Dibbits, with Rembrandt creating a third dimension thanks to his use of light and shade.Marten is seen holding a leather glove in his left hand, while Oopjen’s belly is already rounded, showing she is expecting their first child.Culture Minister Jet Bussemaker told AFP the negotiations with France had been “complicated and complex”.
Eat, Pray, Divorce: Best selling author separates NEW YORK It was the romance that provided the happiest of
separating from the man whom many of you know as ‘Felipe’ - the man whom
endings to an iconic memoir that became an international bestseller and spawned a Hollywood movie starring Julia Roberts. But “Eat Pray Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert announced Friday that she was parting from her husband, Jose Nunes, with whom she fell in love at the end of a journey of self-discovery more than a decade ago. “I am
I fell in love with at the end of the ‘Eat Pray Love’ journey,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “He has been my dear companion for over 12 years, and they have been wonderful years. Our split is very amicable. Our reasons are very personal.” The couple married in 2007 and lived in Frenchtown, New Jersey about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of New
York where they ran a store. “Eat Pray Love” tells how Gilbert spent four months in Italy savoring food, four months exploring spirituality in India and then travelled to Bali, where she fell in love, following a messy divorce. Published in 2006, it has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. In 2010, she published a follow-up memoir called “Committed” which explored her ambivalent attitudes about marriage and which also became a New York Times bestseller. The 46-year-old author and novelist also saw her experiences bartending, while trying to make ends meet in New York earlier in her career, become the basis for the 2000 movie “Coyote Ugly.” Time Magazine named Gilbert one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008.
Deaths from heroin, opioid drugs in US rise sharply CHICAGO The Obama administration has emphasized the need for funding to treat opioid and heroin addiction, releasing new statistics showing explosive growth in overdose deaths.From 2010 to 2014, the number of heroin overdose deaths in the United States more than tripled, while deaths from opioid drugs such as fentanyl - which killed the singer Prince - almost doubled, according to a new report by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than car crashes. “The death and destruction connected to heroin and opioids is indeed unprecedented and horrific,” DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in a statement. “The problem is enormous and growing.”More than 16,000 died in 2014 alone from heroin and opioid drug abuse. Nearly half a million people that year were addicted to heroin. Heroin and opioid abuse are related. Addiction to an opioid drug such as Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Methadone - three
drugs most commonly involved in overdoses - can lead to heroin addiction when the prescription
is home to House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican who will play a key role in deciding the fate of
painkiller is no longer available. Officials say the phenomenon is fueling drug-related violence and crime. According to the Centers for Disease Control, heroin-related deaths have risen most acutely in the US Midwest - a region encompassing states such as Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The White House, which is asking Congress for $1.1 billion to fund treatment programs across the country, sought to underscore the crisis in the Midwest by inviting officials from Wisconsin to speak with reporters on a conference call.The state
Obama’s funding request. “We find that if we get to the individuals before they become so dependent upon this (that) they either lose their lives or turn to crime, we’re going to really, really improve the situation,” said Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city.Addicts often have trouble getting into treatment programs, according to officials, because there are too few of them.When treatment is available, patients often struggle with costs because health insurance programs offer no coverage or inadequate coverage.
Issue - 674 (8)
5 July - 11 July 2016
‘Please! Forgive me’: 911 calls capture moment Texas mom killed daughters
Authorities on Tuesday released 911 calls that capture the panic in the home of a Houston-area mother before she killed her two daughters, as well as in the home of a neighbour after the shootings.The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office released recordings of two 911 calls from Christy Sheats’ home and one from a neighbour’s home. Sheats fatally shot her two daughters before an officer killed her.The incident happened about 5pm on Friday in front of a home just outside the Houston suburb of Fulshear. The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office identified the mother as 42-year-old Sheats and her daughters as 22-year-old Taylor Sheats and 17-year-old Madison Sheats.In the first call, a woman is heard crying, “Please! Forgive me! Please! Don’t shoot!” After a scream, she cries, “Please! I’m sorry!” and “Please! Don’t point that gun at her!” Another woman is heard
saying, “I promise you, whatever you want,” before the call is disconnected.In the second call, a woman is heard saying, weakly, “She shot ‘em.”In the third call, a neighbour describes Madison and Taylor, apparently still alive, lying in the street in front of their house. The neighbour describes Sheats kneeling over her eldest daughter and shooting her dead. Madison later died at a hospital.An officer killed Sheats after she refused demands to drop her gun.A Facebook profile consistent with Sheats’ biographical details included a pro-gun post, alongside posts about how much she loved members of her family. Nehls says the two younger women had already been shot when a Fulshear police officer arrived and saw the mother with a gun in her hand, apparently preparing to shoot one of her daughters again.
California gets go-ahead to vote on legalisation of marijuana Californians are set to decide whether to make recreational marijuana use legal, as other Western states have done, after the California Secretary of State’s office said on Tuesday the issue could be put to voters in the November ballot. The proposed so-called ‘Adult Use of Marijuana Act,’ which is supported by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom among others, would allow people aged 21 and older to possess as much as an ounce of marijuana for private recreational use and permit personal cultivation of as many as six marijuana plants. “Today marks a fresh start for California, as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself,” initiative spokesman Jason Kinney said in a statement. The measure would also establish a system to license, regulate and tax sales of marijuana, while allowing city governments to exercise local control over or disallow commercial distribution within their borders. The initiative required just over 402,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot and exceeded that number on
El Nino brings sharks, other marine life to California coast Shark encounters and sightings along California’s coast are at their highest level in decades, scientists say, warning that warmer waters mean beachgoers will have to
be on the lookout for the predators all summer. The latest near-deadly encounter came in late May when a 52-year-old woman was mauled by a shark near Los Angeles, prompting beach closures for several days. Chris Lowe, director of California State University’s Long Beach Shark Lab, said there have been more sightings of great white sharks this year than in the previous 30, and that even hammerheads have been spotted along the coast. He said the El Nino weather pattern of the last two years has led to unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific, meaning the
sharks and other species are not migrating - and are moving closer to shore. “They are going to hang out near our beaches all summer,” Lowe told AFP. The high water temperatures are having an effect
on other marine life as well, with whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions increasingly spotted off the coast. Other non-indigenous marine life has also been reported, including manta rays and hundreds of thousands of red tuna crabs that washed ashore in southern California in May. Even a striped dolphin, normally found in tropical waters, was spotted in northern California this year.More worrisome are highly venomous yellow-bellied sea snakes, normally found in the tropical waters of the Pacific or Indian oceans, several of which have washed ashore in southern California.“There have been
whales staying in the area all year round rather than the usual three months,” said Elliott Hazen, of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, noting they normally migrate up to Alaska to feed and down to the warmer water off Mexico to breed.Hazen said a spike in the anchovy population was one reason three to four times more humpback whales had stayed in the Monterey Bay area in the last two years.The presence of the veritable marine menagerie along the California coast has sparked a huge uptick in business for whalewatching tour operators. “The whale-watch industry has been booming for sure, with increased sightings,” Hazen said.Meanwhile as the hot summer weather sets in and people hit the beaches, everyone is on the lookout for sharks.Authorities have even deployed drones to detect the predators. But experts point out that although the increased sightings and attacks may bring back memories of “Jaws,” which scared a generation of movie-goers out of the water, the rate of shark attacks has actually gone down per capita in recent years. “You are far more likely to die driving to the beach than from a shark,” Lowe said.
Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s office said. Secretary Alex Padilla is slated to certify the initiative on June 30.
Columbia, have gone a step further since 2012 in permitting recreational use for adults. Voters in several more states
Opinion polls show attitudes have shifted more in favour of liberalized marijuana laws since California voters defeated a recreational cannabis initiative in 2010.California led the way in legalising marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, with 22 other states and the District of Columbia following suit, although cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under US law. Voters in four states -- Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska -- plus the district of
will consider similar legislation in November as well. Opponents of liberalised marijuana laws have argued that such measures carry public safety risks and would make pot more accessible to youngsters. A new survey out last week showed however that marijuana consumption by Colorado high school students has dipped slightly since the state first permitted recreational cannabis use by adults.
Payout of $10,000 for Windows 10 update
Microsoft has agreed to pay a Californian woman $10,000 (£7,500) after an automatic Windows 10 update left her computer unusable. Teri Goldstein said her Windows 7 computer had automatically tried to update itself to Windows 10 without her permission. She said the update had made her machine unstable, leaving her unable to use it to run her business. Microsoft said it had dropped its appeal to save on legal costs.Microsoft has been aggressively pushing the latest version of its widely used operating system, which is currently available as a free download for computers running Windows 7 and 8. However, many people have chosen not to upgrade, because they are running old hardware, have
software that does not run on Windows 10, are concerned over the software’s tracking features, or simply do not want it. In February, the company bundled Windows 10 in with its security updates and made it a “recommended update”, which meant it was automatically downloaded and installed unless blocked by the user. Some people accused the company of trying to “trick” customers into installing the update. The Seattle Times reported that Ms Goldstein’s computer had “slowed to a crawl” after the update, and Microsoft customer support had not fixed the problem. “I had never heard of Windows 10. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update,” she told the newspaper.
Issue - 674 (9)
5 July - 11 July 2016
US releases figures of civilians killed by drones Washington The US on Friday released figures for the first time that showed that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in drone
strikes outside “areas of active hostilities” on President Barack Obama’s watch. These casualties, the US’ count of which is significantly lower than that estimated by nongovernmental bodies, occurred outside Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, the so-called “areas of active hostilities”. The release by the Director General of Intelligence (DNI), which oversees the US intelligence community, did not, however, give a location-specific breakdown of these numbers. But Pakistan is likely one of them, especially its northwestern parts where the US has used drones to kill terrorists such as Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last May. The US has also used drones extensively against al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia, killing 150 of them in strikes last March,
according to an announcement made by the Pentagon then. The DNI said between 2,372 and 2,581 combatants, intended targets, were killed in a total of
473 drone strikes outside “areas of active hostilities” from January 2009 to December 2015. Figures cited by non-governmental bodies are significantly higher at least 325 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 219 by New America Foundation and 212 by Long War Journal.Acknowledging these differences between its figures and those of non-governmental bodies, the DNI said the first official count is based on “poststrike methodologies that have been refined and honed over the years and that use information that is generally unavailable to non-governmental organisations”. And, it added, nongovernmental bodies sometimes count combatants as noncombatants because they do not have the kind of follow-up information available to officials.Second, US government
FBI interviews Clinton over use of private email server Washington The US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday in connection with its ongoing investigation over her use of a
private email server as secretary of state.The presumptive Democratic nominee was interviewed at the FBI headquarters in DC for over three and a half hours, a Clinton campaign aide said on background.Nick Merrill, her spokesman, said in a statement, “Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary. She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment
further on her interview.”The email controversy, which has dogged her campaign since it surfaced in a congressional committee investigation of the death of four Americans in the 2012 Benghazi, Libya attack, hit the headlines this week after an unscheduled meeting between Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, whose department is investigating her, at on tarmac at an airport in Arizona.Lynch has since said she should not have met the former president as people who have questions about how “we in the government do our business” will have “another reason to have questions and concerns”.Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, couldn’t agree more. He said the meeting had “opened up a Pandora’s box” and added it was an example of how “the special interests are controlling your government”.The probe is an unwelcome distraction for Clinton, who had just vanquished rival Bernie Sanders.
post-strike reviews based on multi-source intelligence from before, during and after the strike are unique and not available to non-governmental bodies.Third, finally, non-government counts may have been compromised “by deliberate spread of misinformation by some actors, including terrorist organizations, in local media reports”.An executive order issued by President Obama along with DNI release makes if incumbent upon the president, those who follow him, to publish these figures every year.And it also enjoins upon the government to “offer condolences, including ex gratia payments” to civilians killed in such strikes, and coordinate casualty figures with nongovernment bodies. This is “a very deliberate attempt to ensure that the architecture . . . is durable, sustainable and lasting well beyond next seven months,” a senior official said, according to Washington Post. President Obama has aggressively pursued the use of drones to hunt terrorists as an alternative to sending in forces, which he has also done as the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. “
Sunder Pichai, 3 other Indian-Americans honoured with Great Immigrants Award
Washington Indian-origin Google CEO Sunder Pichai and three other IndianAmericans are among the 42 US nationals honoured with this year’s prestigious ‘Great Immigrants: The Pride of America’ award. The other three Indian-Americans are Hari Sreenivasan, anchor and senior correspondent, PBS NewsHour, Vikram Malhotra chairman of the Americas, McKinsey & Company and Bharati Mukherjee National Book Critics Circle Awardwinning author. The annual award of the Carnegie Corporation would be presented to them at an event in New York on June 30, a statement said. For 2016, the Corporation named 42 honorees, who represent
some 30 different countries of origin, a wide range of personal immigration stories, and inspiring professional accomplishments. “These accomplished Americans are immigrants like our forefathers, who founded this nation of nations,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “They are representative of the millions of immigrants who have come to the United States for economic opportunity, education, political or religious asylum, security, or reunification with families and relatives. They, like all Americans, share a common faith in this country,” he said.Pakistani American Shaiza Rizavi partner, Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co is also among the list of awardees.
Pentagon ends ban on transgender troops in US military: Quick Facts Washington Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ended one of the last bans on service in the armed forces and announced that transgender people will be allowed to serve openly in the US military, on Thursday.“Americans who want to serve and can meet our standards should be afforded the opportunity to compete to do so,” said Carter, laying out a one-year plan to implement the change. “Our mission is to defend this country, and we don’t want barriers unrelated to a person’s qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who can best accomplish the mission, “ he added.Carter’s announcement comes despite concerns from senior military leaders that the department is moving too fast and that more time is needed to work through the changes. HERE’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW: 1.Under the new policy, by October 1, transgender troops already serving should be able to receive medical care and begin formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon’s personnel system. 2.A year from now, the military services will begin allowing transgender individuals to enlist, as long as they meet required standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. 3.Defense officials feel that the new rules didn’t include enough
specifics to guide commanders who will have to make decisions about people in their units. 4. According to Carter, a study by the RAND think tank found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves. 5. The new rules give military commanders broad flexibility,
bathrooms, housing, uniforms and fitness standards of their preferred gender only after they have legally transitioned to that identity. 8. Over the next year, the military services will develop and distribute training guidelines, medical protocols and other guidance to help commanders deal with any issues or questions about transgender troops.
noting that not all transition cases are the same. 6. Those with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who have had reconstruction surgery may be disqualified as military recruits unless a medical provider certifies that they have been clinically stable in the preferred gender for 18 months, and are free of significant impairment. And transgender troops receiving hormone therapy must have been stable on their medications for 18 months. 7.Transgender service members will be able to use the
9.Under the new policy, transgender service members would only be able to dress and live in their preferred gender when off-duty and away from their duty station. 10. Last July, Carter said he intended to rescind the ban, calling it outdated. He has long argued that the military must be more inclusive to bring in the best and brightest. 11. Rep. Mac Thornberry, RTexas, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, called the announcement another example of the administration “prioritizing politics over policy.”
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Match for Brahmin Boy, 31 yrs. old, 5’-8" tall, living in Toronto Canada as permanent resident, University graduate, working in management position in GTA Looking for pretty, educated girl from decent family. Students and visitors also welcome to contact. Caste no bar. Please send your bio-data & recent pictures to: sharmacanada@yahoo.com or call: 647-660-7791 *** 677 *** Mumbai based punjabi parents seek a suitable match for their son, born 81, 5’-11" tall, Engineering, settle in Brampton, doing business. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: sunitawasan@gmail.com or call: 647-621-1000 *** 674 *** Tonk Kashtriya Sikh family seek a professional educated match for their U.S. Citizen Son, born in 1985, 6’-2” tall, B.Sc., Diploma in Business and running his own successful business. The girl should be American/Canadian well educated with family values. Girls on work permit or from India may also be considered. Please Call : 1-661-888-5075 ***674** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daugher, 28 yrs. old, 5’-5” tall, well educated, living on work permit in Canada, doing job in her own field. The boy should be qualified. The girl’s family is well settled in USA. Doaba preffered. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: charnpreet@gmail Or Call : 734-752-6235 ***674** Ahluwalia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5’-2” tall, postgraduate (MCA), smart, family oriented, currently on 3 yrs. work permit in Canada and working as Software Engineer in a reputed company will apply for PR shortly. The boy should be Canadian Immigrant/ Citizen, professionally quflified, settled with family values. Family is well settled inCanada. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: akwalia57@gmail.com Or Call : 647-830-7567 ***674*** Wanted suitable match for well settled single Hindu Nai Canadian citizen boy, Software Engineer,Goverenment Job, 5'11" tall, 26/02/1987(Born in Punjab India), Only son . The girl should be educated, working or on Student visa. Parents Govt employees, Settled in India. Only son. Please call: 1- 709-685-5062 or send Bio Data/Pictures on Whatsapp. *** 674*** Ravidasia parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 33 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, Canadian Citizen, Working as a nurse, family oriented. The boy should be highly qualified, professionally employed.
5 July - 11 July 2016
Canadian Citizen, between 3035 yrs. of age with family values. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: charan1949@yahoo.com ***674*** Ghumar/Parjapat well reputed businessman family in Punjab, India seeks suitable match for their son, Canadian PR, 28 yrs., 6’ tall, B.com, MBA, now doing CPA, professionally well employed in Winnipeg. Girl must be tall, well educated and family oriented. Please send your biodata & recent picture to: mansingh2951@gmail.com or call: 1- 204-979-3277 or 01191-99883-67557 *** 674*** Jatt Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son 28 years old, 5’-10" tall, U.S. citizen, Master’s in Management and Leadership, Bachelor ’s in Psychology, working as Intelligence Officer in U.S. Army. The girl should be beautiful, slim, educated with good family values and down to earth. Please email recent picture and bio-data to kamaljitk09@gmail.com or call:1-732-802-9052 *** 674*** Match for Brahmin Boy, 31 yrs. old, 5’-8" tall, living in Toronto, Canada as permanent resident, University graduate, working in management position in GTA. Looking for pretty, educated girl from decent family. Students and visitors also welcome to contact. Caste no bar. Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: kamaljitk09@gmail.com or call: 1-732-802-9052 *** 674*** Suitable match for Jatt Sikh, Canadian citizen Girl , 5'-2'’ tall, 1990 born, Registered nurse in Toronto, pursuing Master’s, cleared US Nursing exam, From well reputed Deol family living in Toronto. Looking for welleducated, Jatt Sikh boy from US or Canada. Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: hjit1947@gmail.com or call: 416-986-1672 *** 674*** Looking for good looking Punjabi boy settled in Canada or America for beautiful Brahmin Daughter, Nurse , 5'-3" tall, PR in Canada , came to Canada in 2010.Well educated family settled around Chandigarh. Caste no bar.Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: pari.payal2010@gmail.com or call: 1-306-999-4513 *** 674*** Suitable match for beautiful, parjapat Sikh, Punjabi girl, (Nov 1991 born), 5’ 7’’ tall, Bachelor of Dental Surgery from India and cleared American Dental board exams in the USA, Brother working as an engineer in the USA. Family well educated and coming to US shortly as Immigrants. Caste no bar. Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: jh911688@gmail.com or
call; 1-408-609-6191 *** 674*** Saini Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their 25 yrs. old daughter, 5'-6" tall, working in California in a top MNC on H1B visa as a Software Engineer, grew up in Chandigarh (Punjab) India. The boy should be Educated and professionally employed. Call; 1925 395 3930 *** 674*** Jat Sikh Bhullar family seek a suitable match for their only son, 26 yrs. old, 6’-1” tall, B.Tech from India, Non-Drinker, lliving in India. The girl should be Canadian/ American Citizen Immigrant, educated, family oriented. Divorcee (without kids) may also be considered. Mother and sister is well settled in USA. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: simjy44@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-209-505-0018 ***674*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their 32 yrs. old, 5’11” tall son, Canadian Immigrant, BPT (India), 2 yrs. study in Canada, permanent Job in Edmonton Health services, Divorced, Isseuless. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: btg1983@hotmail.com Or Call : 647-527-7276 ***674*** Tonk Kshatriya (Sgar) parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5-5” tall, Canadian Citizen, Persuing Nursing degree from Canada, well versed in English and French language as well, beautiful and family oriented. The boy should be Canadian Citizen/ Immigrant, well educated, well settled with family values. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: saderjatinder@yahoo.com Call : 1-514-683-1458 Or 1-514625-2396 ***674** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their son, 25 yrs. old, 6’-1” tall, living n U.S.A., Master’s in Bio-Engineering. Thegirl should be beautiful, American Immigrant or Citizen, family oriented, well versed in both cultures. Caster no Bar. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: resham.rand@gmail.com Or Call : 1-510-797-7900 ***674*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, beautiful, fair complexion, M.Sc. Mathematics, B.Ed, working as a teacher in reputed private school in India. Seeking a professionally qualified match, non-alcoholic, vegetarian and turbaned from Canada/India. Brother is well settled in Canada. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: jatinderpal.17@gmail.com Call : 647-470-4125 or 647-780-2702 ***674*** Ramgahia Sikh family seek a suitable match for their son, 27 yrs. old, 5’-7 tall, Canadian
Citizen, B.Com (Canada), Working as a certified IT techinican, owns construction business too. The girl should be Canadian/American Immigrant or Citizen, beautiful, family oriented. Family is well settled in BC Canada. Girls on student visa may also be considered. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: harindersamby@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-604-537-7444 ***674** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their son, 31 yrs. old, 6-2” tall, Canadian Citizen, professionally educated, running his own successful business. The girl should be educated, beautiful, tall with family values from US/Canada. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: gurjeet_hothi@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-778-344-0303 ***674** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daughter, 1985 born, 5'-5" tall, beautiful, intelligent, well-cultured, canadian immigrant, getting citizenship this year, B.Tech (india), pg project management (canada), working in admn.dept in canada. The boy should be equally qualified, Jat Sikh, wellsettled in canada. Brother and parents well settled in USA. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: dhillonintl@yahoo.com or call: 1718-414-4618 *** 674*** Virdi Phull family seek a suitable match for their son, 29 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, Sardar Mechanical Engineer, born & raised in Canada. Preference will be given to Canadian Citizen & willing to consider PR too. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: julyshadi@gmail.com Or Call : 289-684-3919 ***674*** Jatt sikh grewal family looking for a well-educated and settled family in canada for their daughter, 25 yrs.old, 5’-4" tall, beautiful, living and working in Canada, PR applied. Parents living in Chandigarh. Call: 1- 604-6556030 or 011-91-73472-71055 *** 674*** Jatt Sikh Girl, 1987 born, 5'-8" tall, Degree from reputed university, currently working Govt. Job for State of California, excellent pay. The boy should be Well Educated, near Sacramento or willing to move Sacramento, California. Please send your education details (Complete Biodata) and recent pictures to: zaildaar85@gmail.com *** 674*** Wanted US citizen/Green card
holder boy for a Saini girl, 26 yrs. old, 5'-7" tall, BCA, MCA, now doing MS in US. The boy should be from Saini or Jatt family with well educated, at least 5'-10" tall. Call: 1- 732397-1373 *** 674*** Canadian based well reputed affluent Jat Sikh parents seeks a suitable match for their Canadian citizen daughter, very fair, extremely beautiful, 5'-7'' tall, 26 yrs. old, convent educated, BBA from Canada. The boy should be handsome, professionally qualified and belonging to a respectable family. Please send your full bio-data & recent picture and contact number to:matrimon597@gmail.com *** 674*** Well settled Jatt Sikh Mann Parents in USA Seeking a suitable match for their son, Born June '84, 6'-1" tall, US Citizen, Currently working in NYC at Govt. Job.NYC Tristate area preferred. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: gmann55@gmail.com *** 674*** Sikh Saini family seeking suitable match for their USborn, 6 ft. tall, 25 yrs. son. Masters in Biomedical Engineering and working in a medical company. The family resides in California. The girl should be educated, tall, and family oriented.USA Preferred. Please respond with recent photo and bio-data to: cheraj@msn.com or call: 1408-612-4563 *** 674*** Suitable match for beautiful, well-cultured Arora Sikh girl from a reputed family, May 87/ 5'3", MS Computer Science and MPhil Physics, working in top IT firm in California. Divorced after very brief marriage. Caste no bar, prefer match from USA/Canada. Contact: kaur.matri22@gmail.com or call: 1- 510-953-0562 *** 674*** Ramgarhia Sikh family seek a suitable match for their son, 28 yrs. old, 6’ tall, Canadian Citizen, B.Sc. Chemistry, working as a Chemical, Tecnologist, Non-smoker. The girl should be educated, Canadian, Immigrant or Citizen, beautiful, slim, family oriented. Family is well settled in Canada. Please send you bio-data and recent picture to: gsv_inc@hotmail.com Or Call : 647-309-4338 Or : 905-794-8331 ***674***
House-Keeper Wanted White House Canada in Brampton, requires a Live-in housekeeper. Hotel experience preferred but will train the suitable candidate. Must be available to stand, walk and bend for extended periods of time. Duties include making beds, dusting, cleaning bathroom, vacuuming, replenishing supplies, cooking and elderly care (1 hr. daily approx) Pls. call 647-632-3999
Issue - 674 (11)
5 July - 11 July 2016
US considers declassifying 9/11 secret documents, foreign funding in focus Washington White House and intelligence officials are deciding whether to declassify 28 pages of a congressional investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. The stillsecret chapter could answer or raise new questions about possible Saudi links to the attackers.The documents, kept in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol, contain information about possible sources of foreign support for some of the hijackers while they were in the United States. Former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., co-chairman of the joint congressional inquiry, has said the pages “point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier.” Saudi officials say there’s nothing to the allegations. Relatives of the 9/11 victims say Saudi Arabia’s relationship to al-Qaida has never been fully investigated by anyone — before or since the attacks. A look at the varying viewpoints about possible Saudi links to 9/ 11 and the missing 28 pages: The 9/11 Commission The commission, led by former Gov. Tom Kean, R-N.J., and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., was created partly to continue the work done by the bipartisan congressional inquiry, whose report minus the 28 pages came out in December 2002. “The 28 pages were based almost entirely on raw, unvetted material that
came to the FBI,” Kean and Hamilton said this year. “The material was then written up in FBI files as possible leads for further investigation. ... The congressional panel never had a chance to check out any of these leads.” They said the commission and its staff spent 18 months investigating “all the leads contained in the 28 pages, and many more.” The 567-page report was released in July 2004. The commission report stated that it found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” alQaida. “This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida.” Some critics
of the commission’s work don’t think the commission ran down every Saudi lead and say various agencies obstructed its work. Kean and Hamilton complained that various government agencies withheld relevant information. What does the CIA say? CIA Director John Brennan says the 28 pages contain preliminary information about possible Saudi links to the attackers that, at the time, had not been corroborated or checked out. He said the commission looked “very thoroughly” into allegations of Saudi government involvement and concluded that there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi senior officials individually had supported the Sept. 11
Facebook to put friends, family ahead of media WASHINGTON Facebook has said it would give friends and family more prominence on user feeds, a move that may hurt media outlets
“is to show people the stories that are most relevant to them” and that its update “helps you see more posts from your friends and family.” The
that rely on the network to draw readers. The social media giant said in a statement that the goal of the “news feed,” which appears when users log in,
move comes after the world’s biggest social network came under scrutiny over allegations by a former contractor that it was suppressing some political viewpoints in its “trending topics.”Facebook said its review found no bias, but that it would take steps to reassure users about the neutrality of the platform. Its vice president Adam Mosseri said in a blog post that an updated algorithm that determines what users see would help people find information that matters to them. “We are not in the business of
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picking which issues the world should read about,” he wrote. “We are in the business of connecting people and ideas - and matching people with the stories they find most meaningful.“Our integrity depends on being inclusive of all perspectives and viewpoints, and using ranking to connect people with the stories and sources they find the most meaningful and engaging.”Even though Facebook has emphasized it does not want to be a media provider, surveys show it has become a key source of news, even if users are drawn to the network for other reasons. A Pew Research Center survey last month found 66 percent of US Facebook users get at least some news on the platform. Global trends are similar. A survey across 26 countries by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found 51 percent of respondents indicating they use social media for news, with 12 percent using it as their main news source.
attacks. A CIA inspector general report in June 2015 also said there had been no reliable information confirming Saudi government “involvement with and financial support for terrorism prior to 9/11.” But it also said that people in the CIA’s Near East Division and Counterterrorism Center “speculated that dissident sympathizers within the government may have aided alQaida.” What do the Saudis say? Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said in Washington: “I believe that if people looked at the 28 pages and looked at the results of the investigations (into the attacks), they will come to the conclusion that these allegations are unsubstantiated, unproven and
nobody should make a big deal out of them.”“There is no there there,” Jubeir said. He noted that in 2002, Saudi Arabia called for the release of the 28 pages so the government can respond to any allegations and punish any Saudis who may have been involved in the attacks. “We cannot ... respond to blank pages,” he said. What does the FBI say? In 2015, Congress created the 9/ 11 Review Commission to look at evidence gathered in recent years. This commission interviewed key FBI personnel to identify any new information that had surfaced about 9/11. In its March 2015 report, the commission stated that “there is no new information to date that would alter the original findings of the 9/11 Commission regarding the individuals responsible for the 9/ 11 attacks or for supporting those responsible for the attacks.” The 9/11 families “What needs to be understood by anyone who looks at just these facts surrounding the Saudi connection to the 9/11 attacks and the USS Cole bombing is that the Saudis and their relationship to bin Laden and alQaida have never been fully investigated — by anyone — either before or after 9/11,” Kristen Breitweiser, a 9/11 widow and activist, wrote in a recent column.The Cole, a Navy destroyer, was bombed in 2000 while in a Yemeni port.
Issue - 674 (12)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Preventable causes will kill 69m children by 2030: Unicef UNITED NATIONS A Unicef report predicts that unless current trends in global poverty and education are addressed, by 2030 at least 69 million children under age five will die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million children will live in poverty, and 750 million women will have been married as
children. “Denying hundreds of millions of children a fair chance in life does more than threaten their futures - by fueling intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, it imperils the future of their societies,” the Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), Anthony Lake, said on the release of The State of the World’s Children, the agency’s annual flagship report.“We have a choice: Invest in these children now or allow our world to become still more unequal and divided,” he added. The report notes that significant progress has been made in saving children’s lives, getting children into school and lifting people out of poverty. Global under-five mortality rates have
been more than halved since 1990, boys and girls attend primary school in equal numbers in 129 countries, and the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide is almost half what it was in the 1990s.But this progress has been neither even nor fair, the report flags. The poorest children are twice as
likely to die before their fifth birthday and to be chronically malnourished than the richest. Across much of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, children born to mothers with no education are almost three times more likely to die before they are five than those born to mothers with a secondary education. And girls from the poorest households are twice as likely to marry as children than girls from the wealthiest households. Nowhere is the outlook grimmer than in subSaharan Africa, where at least 247 million children - or two in three - live in multidimensional poverty, deprived of what they need to survive and develop, and where nearly 60 per cent of 20-
Scottish woman named ‘Miss Hitler 2016’
LONDON A Scottish woman has been crowned “Miss Hitler 2016” in a beauty pageant organised by a neo-Nazi youth movement. National Action, a white supremacist group, said they set up the competition to raise awareness of its female supporters, who “rarely get much spotlight or recognition”. The winner, who has not been identified, appears in photographs with the lower half of her face covered. On the group’s website, she said she “didn’t want to believe that the
Jews are the enemy”, as she was “brought up to believe that they are very similar to Christians”. “Eventually the Jewish propaganda became too obvious to ignore,” she said, “and so I became involved with NA.” Asked which one person she would kill if she could “get away with it,” Miss Hitler named German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying she would put her “in one of her camps and let her pet refugees do the rest.”The Board of Deputies of British Jews has condemned the group and its pageant.
to 24-year-olds from the poorest fifth of the population have had less than four years of schooling. At current trends, the report projects, by 2030, sub-Saharan Africa will account for:- Nearly half of the 69 million children who will die before their fifth birthday from mostly preventable causes; - More than half of the 60 million children of primary school age who will still be out of school; and - 9 out of 10 children living in extreme poverty.The Unicef report goes on to note that although education plays a unique role in levelling the playing field for children, the number of children who do not attend school has increased since 2011, and a significant proportion of those who do go to school are not learning.About 124 million children today do not go to primary- and lower-secondary school, and almost two in five who do finish primary school have not learned how to read, write or do simple arithmetic.The report points to evidence that investing in the most vulnerable children can yield immediate and long-term benefits. Cash transfers, for example, have been shown to help children stay in school longer and advance to higher levels of education.On average, each additional year of education a child receives increases his or her adult earnings by about 10 per cent.
Woman nearly dies after dog licks her face
LONDON A 70-year-old British woman nearly died after contracting an infection from her greyhound’s “kisses”. The unnamed woman was speaking to a relative on the phone when she started slurring her speech, says the doctors’ magazine. The relative raised the alarm after the woman became unresponsive. Paramedics found the woman unconscious in a chair and took her to hospital. She was first thought to have suffered a seizure, as she has a history of epilepsy. However,
her symptoms grew worse over four days, with a headache, fever, chills and diarrhoea. She was found to have suffered sudden kidney failure. Blood tests showed she had become infected with a bacterium called Capnocytophaga canimorsus, which is found in the mouths of dogs and cats and can cause sepsis if transmitted to humans. The woman spent two weeks in intensive care being treated with antibiotics. Around 30 days after she was admitted to hospital, she was released and was able to return home.
Giant diamond fails to sell at auction London The biggest uncut diamond to be discovered in over a century has failed to sell at a Sotheby’s auction, but the chief executive of Lucara Diamond Corp, the company that found the gem, said there was interest from buyers in the diamond trade.Bids for the 1,109-carat, tennis ballsized stone topped out at $61 million - an amount that fell short of the undisclosed minimum reserve price. Sotheby’s had estimated that the diamond, found last November at Lucara’s mine in Botswana, would sell for more than $70 million. “The fact that the stone didn’t sell, yes, it is disappointing but it doesn’t change anything for Lucara as a company,” Lucara CEO William Lamb said in a telephone interview from London. “There is definitely demand for the stone. It is just demand from the people who we would normally sell the stone to,” he said. Shares in Vancouver-based Lucara ended down 14.5 percent at C$3.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after news of the failed sale. “The result is a disappointing one, and potentially calls into question the sale method chosen,” BMO analyst Edward Sterck said in a note to clients. The public auction route is unusual for large,
rare diamonds, which are usually offered for sale to small groups of sophisticated diamond dealers. Lucara chose the
million to $160 million in cash, we have no debt,” Lamb said.The Lesedi la Rona, which means “our light” in the Tswana
auction route, Lamb said, because it wanted to have “access to as many ultra-high net worth individuals as possible, those people who had bought very expensive items in the past.”Lucara had not yet decided what to do with the stone, he added, but possibilities include loaning it to museums to increase its exposure and to help educate the public about diamonds. “We don’t have to sell it because ... we have an exceptionally strong balance sheet. We have well over $150
language spoken in Botswana, is the world’s second-biggest gem quality diamond ever recovered, and the largest in more than a century. The biggest is the Cullinan diamond, a 3,106-carat stone found in South Africa in 1905.Lucara last month sold a 812.77 carat uncut diamond named “The Constellation,” which it found at the same Botswana mine as the Lesedi la Rona, for $63.1 million. A Dubaibased firm was the buyer, according to media reports.
Issue - 674 (13)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Helium discovery a ‘game-changer’ London Scientists have discovered a large helium gas field in
just one part of the Rift valley are enough to fill more than a million medical MRI scanners. Prof
Tanzania. With world supplies running out, the find is a “gamechanger”, say geologists at Durham and Oxford universities. Helium is used in hospitals in MRI scanners as well as in spacecraft, telescopes and radiation monitors. Until now, the precious gas has been discovered only in small quantities during oil and gas drilling. Using a new exploration approach, researchers found large quantities of helium within the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley. They say resources in
Chris Ballentine, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, said: “This is a game-changer for the future security of society’s helium needs and similar finds in the future may not be far away.” And colleague Dr Pete Barry added: ‘We can apply this same strategy to other parts of the world with a similar geological history to find new helium resources. “Helium is formed by the slow and steady radioactive decay of terrestrial rock. However, global supplies are
Micro-camera can be injected with a syringe
PARIS German engineers have created a camera no bigger than a grain of salt that could change the future of health imaging - and clandestine surveillance. Using 3-D printing, researchers from the University of Stuttgart built a three-lens camera, and fit it onto the end of an optical fibre the width of two hairs. Such technology could be used as minimally-intrusive endoscopes for exploring inside the human body, the engineers reported in the journal Nature Photonics. It could also be deployed in virtually invisible security monitors, or mini-robots with “autonomous vision”. 3-D printing - also known as additive manufacturing - makes threedimensional objects by depositing layer after layer of materials such as plastic, metal or ceramic. Due to manufacturing limitations, lenses cannot currently be made small enough for key uses in the medical field, said the team, which believe its 3-D printing
method may represent “a paradigm shift”. It took only a few hours to design, manufacture and test the tiny eye, which yielded “high optical performances and tremendous compactness,” the researchers reported.The compound lens is just 100 micrometres (0.1 millimetres or 0.004 inches) wide, and 120 micrometres with its casing. It can focus on images from a distance of 3.0 mm, and relay them over the length of a 1.7metre (5.6-foot) optical fibre to which it is attached.The “imaging system” fits comfortably inside a standard syringe needle, said the team, allowing for delivery into a human organ, or even the brain.“Endoscopic applications will allow for non-invasive and non-destructive examination of small objects in the medical as well as the industrial sector,” they wrote.The compound lense can also be printed onto image sensor other than optical fibres, such as those used in digital cameras.
running low, with warnings that supplies cannot be guaranteed in the long term. Prof Jon Gluyas, of the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University, who collaborated on the project, said the price of helium had gone up 500% in the last 15 years. “Helium is the second most abundant element in the Universe but it’s exceedingly rare on Earth,” Prof Gluyas told BBC News. “Moreover, any helium that you do find if you’re not careful, will escape, just like a party balloon it rises and rises in the atmosphere and eventually escapes the Earth’s gravity altogether. “It’s used in a whole array of key instrumentation, particularly medical MRI scanning and so on, and so we have to keep finding more.”The researchers say volcanic activity in the Rift Valley releases helium buried in ancient rocks, which rises up and becomes trapped in shallower gas fields.The amount of helium is estimated at more than 54 billion cubic feet - which could potentially meet global demand for several years. The next step is to find the best place to drill to exploit the gas and bring it to the surface.
Paris thieves steal $3.3m in luxury watches
PARIS Two safes containing luxury watches worth three million euros ($3.3 million) have been stolen from a Paris warehouse, police sources said Monday. The theft took place in the chic 8th district of the French capital, at a storage facility for luxury watchmaker Richard Mille. One of the police sources said the safes had not been attached to anything. Local residents alerted police after
noticing strange comings and goings in the area on Sunday night. The wealthier districts of Paris are home to some of the world’s top brands, making them a prime target for robbers and thieves.In May robbers with pump-action shotguns raided a Chanel boutique, a month after criminals rammed the storefront of another Chanel store with a 4x4 car, making off with several expensive handbags.
missing, with some 20,000 British forces - including soldiers from around the Commonwealth - dying on the first day, while thousands more were maimed and wounded. The battle was launched on
On the Allied side, the battle was seen as a military tragedy not only for the British, but also for their comrades in arms from Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Germany for its part suffered
July 1 as Allied forces hoped to relieve the pressure on the French, who were racking up losses in Verdun by attacking the Germans further north at the Somme. However, British troops who went over the top of their trenches on the first day were mowed down by the Germans, a scenario that would be repeated as tens of thousands died for every mile gained - a total of five for the Allies when it ended.The battle turned into a long war of attrition and came to symbolise the horrors of trench warfare and the futility of the war.
around half a million casualties. Some 20,000 people are expected to attend the various ceremonies in the Picardy region at six different memorials, according to local authorities. A night-long vigil to be attended by members of the British royal family will take place on Thursday, before the main commemoration event on Friday. Some 850 police have been deployed to secure the events, with large parts of the region to be completely blocked to traffic while they are under way.
British royals in France to remember Battle of the Somme
PARIS Britain’s royal family heads to the World War I battlefields in northern France on Thursday to mark the 100th anniversary of one of history’s bloodiest clashes, the Battle of the Somme.Beleaguered British Prime Minister David Cameron - mired in a battlefield of his own after Britain voted to leave the European Union confirmed he would attend the ceremony. French President Francois Hollande made a lastminute change to his schedule to attend and show that “beyond what is happening at a European level, the United Kingdom remains a friend with which France wants to keep a relationship,” a source close to the president told AFP. Initially, Prime Minister Manuel Valls had been put down as the highestlevel representative of the French government. Prince Charles, Prince William and his wife Kate as well as Prince Harry will also attend the ceremony as the two countries recall their joint offensive against Germany that became one of the defining events of WWI. The 141-day battle left more than a million dead, captured or
Issue - 674 (14)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Indonesian policeman to be honoured for refusing bribes
JAKARTA A member of Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt police is to be honoured for refusing to accept bribes during his 40-year career, instead scavenging garbage to supplement his meagre salary, an official said Thursday. While many countries give awards for police bravery, Indonesian authorities have decided to honour policeman Seladi, 57, after
he became a media sensation when the story of his determination not to accept kickbacks emerged.The police in Indonesia are considered one of the country’s most graft-ridden institutions. They are accused of regularly extorting bribes from the public, being involved in the drugs trade, and have been embroiled in numerous high-profile corruption cases.
But father-of-three Seladi who like many Indonesians goes by only one name insists he always refused bribes despite only earning the equivalent of about $400 a month and facing much temptation, as he worked in the department that issued driving licences in the city of Malang, on Java island. “In the driving licence department, there is a lot of temptation,” he told AFP.
Water cannon to be sold off in blow for Boris
LONDON After the collapse of his political dreams, top Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson suffered one final humiliation - the sale of three unused water cannon he bought when he was mayor of London.His replacement Sadiq Khan said he would sell them off to fund youth services in the British capital. “This shows the inability of Boris Johnson to get a good deal.... We want to get rid of them,” Khan said, complaining that the city had also had to pay storage costs. Khan said the whole deal “beggars belief”. Johnson bought the three vehicles second hand in Germany two years ago for around £200,000 to deploy them in case of rioting, even though police do not have
authorisation to use them in mainland Britain. Interior Minister Theresa May denied the permission last year and mentioned the cannon on Thursday when she declared her candidacy to replace Prime Minister David Cameron - shortly before Johnson failed to declare his own after being wrongfooted by a key ally.“Boris negotiated in Europe. I seem to remember the last time he did a deal with the Germans, he came back with three nearly new water cannon,” she said.Water cannon have only been used in Northern Ireland, not in the rest of Britain. Calls have grown for their use since London and other major British cities were hit by a week of rioting and looting in 2011.
“Many people want to give me money or gifts so they can pass their driving test. But I always refused - my parents taught me not to take bribes.” He was unable to afford his own house, meaning he had to live with his wife and children at the home of his parents-in-law. In 2004, Seladi began scavenging from garbage dumps to top up his state income, earning on average an extra $5 a day, mostly by selling on recyclable items. East Java province police spokesman Argo Yuwono said Seladi would be honoured at a ceremony on Indonesia’s national police day on Friday for not accepting bribes, and for his dedication in supporting his family by doing extra work. The spokesman did not say what exactly Seladi would receive. Indonesia was ranked 88th out of 168 countries and territories in NGO Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index last year. A number one ranking represents the least corrupt.
Lithuanian village crowns prettiest goat in annual pageant
RAMYGALA The Lithuanian village of Ramygala has held its annual beauty pageant, the top prize going to a 16month-old female goat called Demyte, or “Little Spot”. Around 500 people braved the summer heat to attend the parade in honour of the goat, a traditional symbol of the northern village. The pageant also included a marching band, dancers in fancy costumes and a “king” and “queen” presiding over ceremonies. It was the first time Demyte’s owner, 74-yearold retired veterinarian Ferdinandas Petkevicius, had won the competition after six years of trying. “The only thing we didn’t do to prepare the goat for the
pageant is we didn’t polish its nails - because we thought of it too late,” said Petkevicius, holding the leash of the winning white goat with black spots, who was decorated with two roses on its head. Six goats decorated with flowers were paraded on a red carpet before a jury comprising the local member of parliament, the head of the local school and a cucumber farmer. Several contestants stubbornly refused to walk and were instead carried by their owners. Cakes, jars of honey, books and coupons for a haircut were awarded to winners’ owners, before they walked their goats away from a by-then generously stained red carpet.
Issue 674 (15)
5 July - 11 July 2016
The Legend of Tarzan by Tatsam Mukherjee Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L Jackson, Djimon Hounsou and Jim Broadbent. Direction: David Yates Rating: 3 Stars How big does a spectacle have to be these days to be called a spectacle? That’s the first thing that comes to mind as the screen fades to black with Hozier’s Better Love in David Yates’s The Legend of Tarzan. Is it Yates’s fault that Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book turned out to be such a unanimously loved movie among diverse audiences? Probably not. One of the things that everyone praised about The Jungle Book was how the VFX breathed life in into its animals. Is that something that Tarzan can boast of? Not quite. The film opens on a promising note, as we’re introduced to a blanket of smog covering the deep forested plains of Congo. A closeup shows us a hand with a rosary wrapped around it, as it runs through a field of flowers, picking one. We’re given context about Belgian King Leopold, who had gone bankrupt trying to conquer all of Congo, only to send his trusted aide to hunt for diamonds to keep the monarch going. Leopold’s aide Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz)
trespasses into a tribal area, and gets all his men killed by warriors in an action-packed sequence where spears, knives, rifles, pistols, nothing is spared. Surrounded by more-thanable warriors, Rom cowers in fear and then punches and strangles a warrior (remember the rosary?) in one swift move. Rom, now his confident self, recognises the leader of the tribe as Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou). Mbonga shows Rom the diamonds he is after, and says he wants something in return. More specifically, someone. The ambitious Rom just asks him to ‘give a name’. There’s stunned silence between the two men, and then the screen dissolves to “The Legend of Tarzan”. You wish that the rest of the film was as terrific as this opening sequence. Alas! It isn’t, which is a shame because it has a lot going for it. With British TV veteran David Yates (a reliable name after those four Harry Potter films) at the helm, it has a splendid cast with Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L Jackson, Djimon Hounsou and Jim Broadbent. A special mention for the moving background score by Rupert Gregson-Williams, whose music elevates the sense of adventure in the film, otherwise let down by the
Shorgul by Devarsi Ghosh Cast: Jimmy Sheirgill, Ashutosh Rana, Narendra Jha, Anirudh Dave, Suha Gezen, Shashie Vermaa, Hiten Tejwani, Sanjay Suri, Eijaz Khan Direction: P Singh and Jitendra Tiwari Ratings: 3 Stars Shorgul, which its makers insist is not based on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, is a well-made “commercial” film woven around the politics of religion-based hate and bigotry that incite riots to help win elections. Here, the word “commercial” is important, because usu-
ally, with stories of these nature, which essentially serve as cautionary tales, most films go the semiarthouse, multiplex way; as we have seen in films like Firaaq, Parzania, Bombay or Mr and Mrs Iyer. While these films were effective, they did not whole-heartedly embrace the trappings of commercial cinema’s melodrama to drive home the point and sometimes, with issues as touchy as those of religion, melodrama can be an effective tool, if employed wisely. Directors P Singh and Jitendra Tiwari do that really well in Shorgul. The film is
VFX department. The Legend of Tarzan is like that cake made with some of the tastiest ingredients, only to be let down by a trashy oven. Bits and pieces taste good, but the cake never quite delivers on its promise. The standard for jaw-dropping visuals are really high these days. Which leaves those who don’t hit the mark quite exposed. With films like Avatar, Gravity, even the underrated Planet of the Apes movies, it is tough to impress the audiences these days. Making a film on the King of the Jungle, the makers should have tried harder to give the audiences the feeling of being in the middle of the action. It is also hard to understand the rampant conversion to 3D. There are filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, who have delivered magnificent visuals by staying away from the technology. The 3D doesn’t do anything to add depth to a tried-and-beaten formula of the central plot. The acting department is solid, but even they can’t rise above the mediocrity of the story. Alexander Skarsgard is impressive as the protagonist, who raises the stakes by caging the animal inside him, as the soft-spoken Lord Greystoke III. As the film moves on, the King of the Jungle unravels. Skarsgard is effective in those handto-hand combat scenes,
as he nearly makes it believable for us that he could take on a gorilla with his monster physique. Waltz tends to ace his performance with his impeccable dialogue delivery (which Tarantino exploits
set in a town in central Uttar Pradesh. Parliamentary elections are round the corner and MLA Ranjit Om (Jimmy Sheirgill, purring with silky menace) is eyeing an MP seat. To achieve that, he needs a riot. So do some other players in town, like a maulana, who is seen going from door to door, collecting ‘funds for a madrasa’ for the sake of kaum. All that is needed is a spark. The spark comes in the form of a romantic triangle, bubbling with communal tension, between Saleem (Hiten Tejwani, playing the secular Muslim role), Raghu (the boyish Anirudh Dave), and Zainab (debutant Suha Gezen), which is the film’s trickiest role, and sadly the one with
the worst casting. More on that later. The love story serves two purposes; it lets the filmmakers stage some songs to make the project more “commercial” and it serves as a catalyst for the eventual riot which is what the entire plot is centred on. Here, the film could falter if the love story seemed jarring or was not believable. But thankfully, Tejwani, Dave and Guzen are not only pleasant-looking, but also believable in their roles. If these roles were played by major actors with star wattage, the film might have ended up focussing on them and not the bigger politics surrounding them, which is rightfully the centrepiece of the film.
fully) - it’s sad that the writers couldn’t give him some memorable one-liners. Samuel L Jackson, on the other hand, delivers a performance as ‘easy as a ham sandwich.’ The film is diseased with
promise, and the story is too simplistic to be entirely involving. It falls criminally short of mesmerising the viewer. And you know what they say about the jungle... if it doesn’t get your pulse racing, what good is it?
Issue 674 (16)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Actors should use celeb status to help society says Richa Chadha Richa Chadha has launched a new campaign to raise money to provide shelter for women who have been victims of human trafficking and the actress says though it is not compulsory, film stars should support social issues. For the latest venture called A Bungalow on The Hill, Richa has joined hands with KETTO, which is a crowd funding digital platforms owned by actor Kunal Kapoor. The “Gangs of Wasseypur” actress will help raise funds for NGO Purnata which provides shelter home in suburban Mumbai where upto 15 such girls are given various forms of training including dance, vocational training and other activities. When asked if it is important for Bollywood stars to get involved with philanthropy, Richa said, “It is not compulsory but I think what happens is when you start doing it you feel so good. It is always a great feeling to contribute to the society. “When you start a normal campaign, you might not get as much attention as you would get if a celebrity is attached to it. It is because a celebrity is always in the news and limelight. We as actors can make good use of that. It has always been my intention,” the actress told PTI. Richa says she is glad to be a part of such an initiative as it is a cause she firmly believes in. “I always wanted to be part of something I believe in. I did some research about what I can do and who I can help. Then I came across this and I realised it needs urgent attention.” The actress says there is a long way
to go with the project and she is currently focused on getting people to know about this initiative and help raise as much donation as possible. “Right now we are working on making people aware about it. The thing is once we have achieved this target, I will look at next step of donations.” Richa says it is a very transparent way of making a
contribution as one can track the status of his/her donation and also check how it is being utilised. “It is more like a global project. People from any part of the world can contribute. You can track your contribution and see who has paid how much and what happens with the money.” The actress has also made a threeand-half minute promo-
“Tubelight” will be the third collaboration of
Salman and Kabir, who have earlier delivered blockbusters, “Ek Tha Tiger” in 2012 and “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”. “The shoot begins by the end of July in Ladakh,” sources added. The film, which will be Salman’s next Eid release, is a human story with a larger than life political backdrop. The film will also have the “Dabangg” star’s brother, Sohail playing his younger brother on the screen.
Not playing warrior, guide in any film says Shah Rukh Khan
tional documentary and is taking aid of her friends from Bollywood to carry the message of the campaign far and wide.
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan says that he is not playing a warrior or a guide in any film yet, as was reported based on one of his tweets. “I am a warrior,a dwarf & a guide. i am not wot i ought to, want or hope to be. i am all that & i am wot i am. My 2 bits on my upcoming roles,” he had said in the tweet. Asked about the cryptic tweet at an event for furnishing brand D’Decor, Shah Rukh said: “I have been reading, I sometimes just comment on what I read. So I was reading that I’m a warrior in Adi’s (Aditya Chopra) film, I’m a dwarf in Aanand’s (Rai) film, which I am, I’m a guide in one of the other films and a counsellor in Gauri Shinde’s film. And there were two other films that I was doing, which I am not, at this point, at least. “I’m sure that one day somebody will take me as a warrior also and also as a guide. Somebody started writing that the film is based on the wonderful classic ‘Guide’ by Dev Anand sahab and Vijay Anand sahab. But
it’s not like that. I just commented on what I am cryptically reading on Twitter. It wasn’t that I was making a comment on myself.” Shah Rukh had also shared another tweet on that day which said ‘revealing Imtiaz Ali story’ and following that up with a philosophical quote, indicating his next film with “Highway” director Imtiaz Ali. Shah Rukh’s film “Raees” was earlier slated to clash with Salman Khan’s “Sultan” on Eid. But he recently stated that the film got delayed by eight to nine months due to a leg injury he sustained during the shoot of the film. About his injury, he said: “I am working out on my leg. I’m doing some physiotherapy. I have taken time off films and every day I exercise at least one to one and half hours for the leg. Otherwise I would have had to undergo a surgery which is a long procedure, so I don’t want to do it. God willing, by the time I start Imtiaz’s film, before that I have two months, so working hard on it.”
Sunny Leone, who was last seen in One Night Stand, is fond of traveling and this is the third time the Jism 2 actor has lost her luggage. Leone was holidaying in Los Angeles and while coming to Mumbai she lost her luggage. Sunny told Deccan
Chronicle, “Losing your luggage is very disappointing and of course inconvenient. It had clothes and some money. I am thankful that the staff at the Mumbai airport helped me in tracing it. I will have my luggage with me within a few days.”
The report also stated that Sachin Tendulkar who was in the same flight also lost his luggage. On the work front, Sunny Leone will next be seen in Beiimaan Love. The makers of Beiimaan Love have released the official trailer of the film.
Why is Sunny Leone stressed these days?
Katrina Kaif will not star opposite Salman Khan in ‘Tubelight’
Actress Katrina Kaif will not be seen opposite superstar Salman Khan in director Kabir Khan’s next film. Speculations were rife that Katrina will be working with Kabir in his forthcoming film, “Tubelight” after she was spotted with him recently at a programme. “Katrina is not in the film. There will be someone else. We have not locked the actress yet,” industry sources said.
Issue 674 (17)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Lindsay Lohan is writing a life-coaching book The actress who turns 30 today is currently working on the tome, in which she will share “personal experiences in life and how to overcome obstacles”. She told a magazine: “I am in the process of writing a book, and I am very excited to share my personal experiences in life and how to overcome obstacles. I hope that my words will connect with those who need some guidance when they are in a tough place.” Lindsay, who is engaged to Russian heir Egor Tarabasov, also revealed she wants to have children, but is determined to get her movie career back on track first. She revealed, “Making more films, writing my book, starting my charity, working with children a lot. Maybe, having some of my own soon after I get some movies done first.” And despite many ups and downs, Lindsay insisted she has no regrets. She said: “I wouldn’t call things regrets, per se. I can’t turn back time. But if I could, I would have listened more to my mother and gone back home to New York earlier in life and chosen my friends more wisely.”
Anne Hathaway celebrates 10th anniversary of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway celebrated the 10th anniversary of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ on Instagram. She posted a tribute to the movie that changed her life. The 2006 comedy drama took over USD 300 million at the worldwide box office upon its release and raised Hathaway’s profile significantly, helping her transition into more adult roles. Posting a gif of Meryl Streep’s as fashion editor Miranda Priestly giving one of her trademark “That’s all” after
signing offs, Hathaway wrote, “What else can I say about the movie that changed my life? Thank you (The Devil Wears Prada) and happy 10 year anniversary!! (don¿t let this make you feel old- good style is eternal)” In the film, Hathaway starred as Andy Sachs, an aspiring journalist, with little interest in fashion, who lands a job as the junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly, the editor of the world’s biggest fashion magazine Runway.
Why Iggy Azalea dumped Nick Young Sexualising headlines irk Emma Watson Rapper Iggy Azalea has revealed that she dumped her fiance Nick Young after discovering he had
been cheating on her. Azalea announced her separation from the NBA
basketball player earlier this month and took to Twitter to write about Young’s infidelity, reports
femalefirst.co.uk. In a series of tweets, she revealed: “I broke up with
Nick because I found out he had brought other women into our home while I was away and caught them on the security footage... People in this world really are f***ed up”. Azalea, 26, has also commented on a news report that claimed that Young has got one of his lovers pregnant and this is why she called things off. The “Fancy” hitmaker says she has no knowledge of the star having a child with someone else. “I have never even been told by Nick that his baby mother is pregnant, so if this is true I’m finding out via E news... This is just like a second shot to the chest. And I feel like I don’t even know who the hell it is. I have been loving all this time,” Azalea lamented. The former duo began dating at the beginning of 2014 and got engaged in 2015.
Actress Emma Watson says she headlines sexualising her “deeply irritating”. Recently, a number of headlines paid a lot of attention to her love scenes from the
the trailer of her forthcoming political thriller “Colonia”. In an interview with The Times, she admitted they have not gone unnoticed, reports independent.co.uk. She
said: “Yes, three and half seconds of nude pictures which were not particularly risqué... It’s deeply irritating.” The “Harry Potter” star added: “I’m 26 now. I’ve been in 15 films in total and me kissing somebody else shouldn’t be risqué or horrifying, but I think that will continue for a long time. “There have been lots of advantages to being part of that franchise (‘Harry Potter’), and playing that role for a long time, but inevitably there are obstacles and that’s one of them.”
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Issue 674 (18)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Woman lives with father’s body for 5 days, serves him food Burdwan A woman was found living with the decomposed body of her father for the past five-six days in Burdwan district in West
Bengal, police said on Sunday. After a passerby reported a weird stench, police reached Panmani’s house at Muktarpaar, 50 km from the district centre, and found that she was living with her
father Panchu Soren’s decomposed body. Soren (68), a retired revenue officer, must have died 5 days ago, police said based on forensic
evidence. Police also found out that Panmani regularly served food to his dead father. Panmani reacted the same way when her mother Sukhi died around eight years ago and when her 18-year-old daughter
died three years back, the police later learnt. Panmani’s husband and two sons work elsewhere. She said her father was ill and that was why he could not eat. Police said convincing her that Soren was no more was tough. They later buried Soren’s body. No one noticed the stench as the house is in a secluded place, police said. A passerby reported the stench on?Sunday. A similar incident happened in Kolkata last year in which an 80-yearold man and his son were found living with skeletons of the former’s daughter, and two dogs for months. The incident came to light when the old man allegedly committed suicide.
China bans online media from publishing ‘unverified’ contents
Beijing China’s internet regulator, Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has banned the online media from basing news reports on social media content and directed them to verify the news before publishing it. According to a notice issued by the CAC, the
news websites have been directed to accredit the sources and are banned from fabricating stories or distorting facts. The regulatory body has also punished some major websites this year including sina.com, ifeng.com, 163.com and Tencent which have fabricated stories.
In one of the cases, a journalist from the Caijing Magazine wrote a story in February based on fabricated online content, describing a village in northeast China where the residents do not respect the elderly and women are considered as promiscuous. The story went viral.
Issue 674 (19)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Chinese woman gives birth to a baby College student slits 18-yr-old’s girl from embryo frozen 18 years ago throat in public over rejection A 45-year-old woman in China delivered a healthy baby girl using an embryo frozen 18 years ago, as per media reports.
who suffered from blocked fallopian tubes, received a series of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatments in 1990s, but failed to get pregnant.
The infant weighing 3,300 gm, was born in Jiangsu province on Monday. As per reports, the woman,
The embryo was implanted into her womb in November 2015, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. At the begin-
ning of 2015, she went back to the hospital hoping to have another try. Doctors found that she suffered from hydrosalpinx and a thin endometrium. After a surgery, she had the embryo implanted. Frozen embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius. According to the Shanghai health department, the storage life for frozen embryos should be kept within five years. “In reality, we will continue storing embryos as long as the patients ask us to do,” said a medical official. Following China formally scrapping the one-child policy, there has been an increase in the number of older women seeking fertility treatments in the country.
‘YouTubers’ outshining old-school television SAN FRANCISCO A media revolution is taking place, and most people over 35 years of age aren’t tuned in. Millennials and their successors are shunning old-school television in favor of watching what they want whenever they wish on Google-owned YouTube or other video platforms like Dailymotion or
Facebook. “Young people don’t really watch TV any more; they watch online videos that are shorter and more talent-driven,” says Fabienne Fourquet, a former executive at A&E Television and France’s Canal+ who now heads the multichannel network 2btube. “They don’t want to be Hollywood stars when they grow up, they want to be
YouTubers. There is this whole other world.” The new multichannel networks, or MCNs, are talent agents of sorts for creators of videos shared at online venues. They help creators, often referred to as YouTubers, with video production and promotion along with finding partners or sponsors in return for a percentage of revenue.
Woman journalist files complaint against singer Abhijeet after Twitter spat
Mumbai A woman journalist, Swati Chaturvedi on Sunday filed a complaint against Bollywood singer Abhijeet for allegedly using ‘foul and offensive language against her’ on Twitter. She also accused him of instigating communal disharmony by spreading false information on Twitter. Delhi Police have not filed any FIR and are likely to forward the complaint to the Mumbai Police.
DCP(South) Ishwar Singh said a complaint was received and police are looking into it. The Delhi-based journalist got into a row with singer Abhijeet on Twitter when the latter called the murder of Infosys employee S Swathi,24, as a Love Jihad and made certain remarks on Pakistan. When many other Twitter users criticized Abhijeet for giving out false information and making deroga-
tory remarks , the woman journalist took to Twitter accusing him of being ‘jealous of Pakistani singers who took his mediocre career!’ The singer, who was embroiled in a controversy over his remarks on the homeless who sleep on the streets, then got into a tiff with the journalist. The woman journalist thereafter tagged Mumbai police on Twitter demanding action against him for spreading lies about her. The Mumbai police wrote back to her asking her to lodge a formal complaint with local police. The woman told HT, “I have filed a complaint after Mumbai police advised me on Twitter. They asked me to approach Delhi police, who will forward the case to Mumbai. They have registered a Zero FIR as of now,” she said.
Hyderabad A college student allegedly hacked an 18-year-old young woman to death on Saturday afternoon in a busy street in Telangana’s Adilabad district after stalking her for months as she rejected his offer of marriage, police said. The incident comes days after an Infosys techie S Swathi was murdered in a busy Chennai neighbourhood allegedly by a man who was infatuated with her. Authorities in Bhainsa town said 21-year M Mahesh, a first-year degree college student was pressurizing his neighbour Sandhya to marry him for months but she rejected his overtures repeatedly. A few days ago, Sandhya’s mother Saroja, a widow and a beedi worker – fixed her marriage with another man but Mahesh scuttled the match, police said. Saroja complained to the police, who summoned Mahesh and
warned him against harassing the woman. A resentful Mahesh developed a grouse against Sandhya, who was out for grocery shopping when he allegedly attacked her and slit her throat in full public view, police said. “Before they could stop him, he ran away. Sandhya died on the spot,” Bhainsa deputy superintendent of police Ande Ramulu said.
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Issue 674 (20)
02', *297 %(*,16 :25. 21 56 &525( 5$0 48$'5,/$7(5$/ By SOUDHRITI BHABANI The Narendra Modi government is set to spend Rs 245 crore developing a Ramayana circuit in a bid to boost ‘spiritual’ tourism in Ayodhya. The development is expected to become a key political talking point ahead of next year’s Uttar Pradesh elections. In addition to the project in ‘temple town’ Ayodhya, the tourism ministry has identified Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot as other key areas for telling the story of the god-king Ram. After the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute, the development is likely to spark controversy. The dispute has played out in the courts for decades but remains a powerful political issue. Hard-line Hindu groups and some BJP leaders are pushing for a temple to be built at the site where activists razed (!) the 16th century mosque in 1992. “We have already identified these four cities with primary focus on the ancient city of Ayodhya,” the ministry of tourism’s assistant director general Bharati Kashyap Sharma told Mail Today. “The MoT will develop massive tourism infrastructure facilities around these religious destinations. We have also finalised the tentative cost for the project.” Asked if the tourism infrastructure would be set up around the disputed site in Ayodhya, she said, “We really need to zero in on the exact locations following UP government’s suggestion on the matter”. According to sources at the ministry, the detailed project report (DPR) was prepared in the last week of June and was also approved in-principle in Uttar Pradesh. The first meeting of a national panel on the Ramayana circuit under the Centre’s Swadesh Darshan scheme - that aims for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits - was headed by tourism and culture minister Mahesh Sharma on June 14. It was also attended by tourism secretary Vinod Zutshi as well as experts and other senior officials from the ministry where a detailed presentation was made on the subject. Tracing the religious and historical route, the project will capture the ancient time when the city of Ayodhya was founded by Manu the first man in the universe according to the Vedas - on the banks of the river Ghaghara about 9000 years ago. The city which was also said to be the capital of the solar dynasty (Suryavansh), of which Ram was the most Telangana, Hampi in Karnataka celebrated king. Mail Toady and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu has a copy of the DPR that are also likely to be added later. says it would comprise a It was also learnt that the expert state-of-the-art audiovisual committee suggested the facility depicting the life of inclusion of Chitrakoot (Madhya Ram on water-screen video Pradesh), Nashik and Nagpur projection. Outdoor (Maharashtra) and Mahendragiri landscapes would also be (Odisha) in the proposed circuit used along with outdoor during the high-level meeting. seating arrangements or The Ram gallery theme will open-air theatre. The focus on 10 different episodes dynamic audiovisual show of his life - Valmiki and Tulsi will use the latest technology Ramayan, Bala Kanda, Ayodhya with life-like images. Under Kanda, Aranya Kanda, the Ramayana circuit, 11 Kishkindha Kanda, Sundara destinations spread across Kanda, Lanka Kanda, Uttara six states had been Kanda, Lav-Kush Kanda and proposed. Ram Darbar. The destinations covered include Ayodhya, Sources said areas such as Sitamarhi, These thematic components will showcase Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot in Buxar and Darbhanga in Bihar, Jagdalpur life-size sculptures of Valmiki and Tulsidas, Uttar Pradesh for the first two phases. in Chhattisgarh, Bhadrachalam in wall-to-wall scripts, large-screen interface
depicting the differences of Valmiki and Tuslidas Ramayan and scriptures displayed on interactive screens so visitors can scroll through them and get comprehensive knowledge on the deity. The projects details also revealed that the entire hallway of the Ayodhya Kanda will be decorated like a palace with sophisticated audiovisual effects and animation so that visitors can soak in the religious mood of the place. Similarly, the entire Aranya Kanda will be jungle-based, depicting the lives of Sita, Ram and Laxman, while displaying Sita’s rasoi (kitchen) apart from an AV creation of the golden deer being hunted by Ram. “The final attraction will be in the corridors where a mechanical ‘Pushpak Viman’ will take Sita and Ravan will fight with Jatayu. This will be depicted via wall-to-wall screens in the final section of the corridor,” the project report says.
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5 July - 11 July 2016
AAP suffers corruption taint, Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar arrested in 50 crore scam
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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is hoping to repeat the success of his anticorruption crusade ahead of polls in Punjab where AAP is looking to make inroads, suffered a major blow as the CBI arrested his political aide on Monday over graft charges. CONTRACTS WORTH OVER Rs 50 CRORE It is alleged that Kejriwalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar gave undue favours to a private company, awarding contracts worth over Rs 50 crore between 2007 and 2015. These include a contract during Kumarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s post as the secretary to the Chief Minister, when he allegedly facilitated the award of Delhi Jal Board contract for enterprise resource planning to Endeavour Systems.
After probing allegations for over a year, Kumar was arrested along with four others. The CBI has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken undue benefit of over Rs 3 crore while awarding the contract. AMMUNITION TO POLITICAL PARTIES Kumarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arrest will now provide the ammunition to political parties to go after the Aam Admi Party (AAP) that has been attacking the Akali government in Punjab under Parkash Singh Badal on the issue of corruption. KEJRIWALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S IIT DAYS Kumar was not just Kejriwalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s principal
secretary but the two also enjoy a close relationship that goes back to their IIT days. Kumar, a 1989 IAS officer of UT cadre, was called along with Tarun Sharma, a Deputy Secretary in Kejriwalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, besides three other persons for questioning at the CBI headquarters this morning. After being questioned for half a day, the CBI decided to place the two officers under arrest along with a close aide of Kumar, Ashok Kumar, and owners of a private firm Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta. NO TENDERS The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year, alleging that the officer had abused his official position and given favours to a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments. The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, etc) for allegedly favouring a private company- Endeavour Systems - in bagging five contracts. "The CBI has arrested five persons, including a senior civil servant, government of Delhi, another official of Delhi government, two directors of a Delhi-based private company and a private person.
BRIBERY, ABUSE OF OFFICIAL POSITION The allegations relate to bribery and abuse of official position by the said senior civil servant and others to favour a Delhi-based private company in award of contracts of Delhi government," CBIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chief Press Information officer RK Gaur said, adding the arrested accused persons will be produced before court on Tuesday. This is the same case in which the CBI had come under scathing criticism from a court that directed it to return documents sought by the Delhi government seized during the December 15, 2015 raids on Kejriwalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. 5 MONTH PROBE The case was registered on a complaint from former Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) member Ashish Joshi to the Delhi governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) earlier last year. The complaint was forwarded to the CBI in July 2015 following which the agency registered an FIR after a five-month probe. CBI says the five contracts were allegedly awarded to Endeavour Systems when Kumar was holding various posts in the Delhi government and include a project for the development of a comprehensive management system to the firm without any tendering process.
Âś0RGL JRYHUQPHQW LV VFDUHG RI $$3¡V SRSXODULW\ LQ 3XQMDE DQG *RD¡ In yet another confrontation with the central government, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for arresting two top Delhi government officers. Terming this â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;conspiracy to paralyse Delhi governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the Narendra Modi government was rattled by the AAPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popularity in Punjab, Goa and now Gujarat. Cabinet ministers claim that they will stand by Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and so far, corruption charges against him is not established and the Centre has not furnished any documents to prove it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;CBI could not produce even a single proof in the court even to prove the authenticity of the raid. But today, they suddenly arrested Rajendra Kumar,â&#x20AC;? Sisodia said. CBI on Monday evening arrested Kumar along with four others, his office was raided on December 15 last year, reacting to which Kejriwal termed Modi as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a psychopathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Sisodia questioned the timing of his arrest saying that a conspiracy is being hatched to destabilise the whole system. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There was a successful rally of AAP in Punjab.
Punjab shows that AAP will get 100 seats out of 117. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Modiji, let me tell you, we have been elected by people of Delhi. We shall run an effective government for them despite all your attacks on us,â&#x20AC;? Sisodia said, adding that â&#x20AC;&#x153;even if you (Modi) leave only peons with us, we will work for the people of Delhi. We will not let your conspiracies to succeedâ&#x20AC;?. Deputy Chief Minister also blamed that they received an order earlier on Monday in which nine officers of the Delhi government were transferred.
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The situation in Goa is also set. AAP will win Goa as well. PM Narendra Modi-led Central government is so scared that now they are hatching conspiracies to paralyse the CMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. They (BJP) are taking revenge. They are not allowing us to work in
Delhi,â&#x20AC;? Sisodia said, adding that the Centre has never stooped to such a low level in the last 23 years. AAP accused that the Modi government cannot digest the popularity of the party ahead of polls in these three states. Senior party leader said recent survey in
Issue 674 (22)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Napoleon’s last horse to strut Fido lives forever? South Korean dog cloning clinic makes it possible his stuff after makeover PARIS Visitors to the Army Museum in Paris are being treated to the rare sight of two taxidermists at work restoring a stuffed horse the last one ridden by Napoleon Bonaparte.
recalling great victories at Jena and Eylau - he accompanied his master to exile in Elba after Napoleon’s first forced abdication in 1814. By the time Napoleon swept back to power - for 100 days - in
“Le Vizir” is a little worse for wear more than 200 years after carrying the emperor to victory against the Prussians and the Russians - not to mention being stuffed not just once, but twice. “It’s a specimen that has suffered,” was the expert, if understated, assessment of taxidermist Yveline Huguet as she worked putty into a crack in Le Vizir’s chest. The white Arabian stallion, a gift to Napoleon from an Ottoman sultan in 1802, sports a brand on his rump made up of an N topped with a crown. One of the emperor’s favourites -
France the following year after escaping from Elba, Le Vizir was old enough to retire. So, while Le Vizir also returned to France he was spared the ignominy that awaited Napoleon at Waterloo. Instead he spent his twilight years in the care of Leon de Chanlaire, an officer of the imperial stables, while Napoleon was banished to the British crown colony of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic. Chanlaire had Le Vizir stuffed shortly after the horse died at the ripe old age of 33 in 1826. But fearing that reprisals against those suspected of
ties to Napoleon would extend to the emperor’s horse, Chanlaire sold Le Vizir on to William Clark, an Englishman living in northern France. Chanlaire “had a few relationship problems with the regime of Charles X, because he was very supportive of the empire,” said Gregory Spourdos, the 36-year-old deputy curator of the Army Museum’s modern section. But Clark too feared association with the defunct empire, and he arranged for Le Vizir to be smuggled to England in 1839. Clark’s compatriot John Greaves had the stuffing taken out of Le Vizir so that the precious pelt could be packed into a trunk and escape the notice of customs officials. “By the way, it was on the advice of the English consul,” Spourdos said. Once safely across the Channel, Le Vizir could be restuffed, and he went on display at the Manchester Natural History Society in 1843. Today, his mane neatly kept out of the way with hairdressers’ clips and his modesty covered by duct tape, Le Vizir stands stoically on a raised platform as the two taxidermists go about restoring him to his former glory.
Seoul At $100,000 a head, the puppies frolicking around the fenced lawn in western Seoul don’t come cheap - but at least their owners know exactly what they are getting. The lawn belongs to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, a world leader in pet cloning that has run a thriving commercial business over the past decade catering to dog owners who want to live with their pets forever... literally. With a client list including princes, celebrities and billionaires, the foundation offers owners protection against loss and grief with a cloning service that promises the perfect replacement for a beloved pet. Since 2006, the facility has cloned nearly 800 dogs, commissioned by owners or state agencies seeking to replicate their best sniffer and rescue dogs. “These people have very a strong bond with their pets ... and cloning provides a psychological alternative to the traditional method of just letting the pet go and keeping their memory,” said Wang Jae-Woong, a researcher and spokesman for Sooam.
“With cloning, you have a chance to bring back the pets,” he said in the facility’s “care room” where each cloned puppy is kept in a glass-fronted, temperature-controlled pen
was fraudulent and riddled with ethical lapses. Hwang was given a twoyear suspended prison sentence in 2009, after being convicted of embezzlement and
and monitored by researchers around the clock. Ever since the milestone birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996, the rights and wrongs of cloning have been a topic of heated debate and Sooam Biotech has been regarded with particular suspicion because of its founder, Hwang Woo-Suk. In two articles published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005, Hwang claimed to have derived stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos, a world first. Fraudulent hero? He was lauded as a national hero in South Korea before it emerged that his research
bioethical violations. Sooam Biotech clones many animals, including cattle and pigs for medical research and breed preservation, but is best known for its commercial dog service. The process involves harvesting a mature cell from the dog to be copied and transferring its DNA to a donor egg cell that has had its own genetic material removed. The cell and the egg are “fused” with an electrical jolt, and the resulting embryo is implanted in a surrogate mother dog, which will give birth about two months later.
Issue 674 (23)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Petition seeks sedition case against Owaisi for legal help to IS suspects Merrut A petition seeking a sedition case against AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was filed in a court in Meerut even as BJP and JD(U) on Sunday demanded action against him and his immediate arrest. The petition was filed over the issue of AIMIM providing help to youths arrested by the NIA on charges of involvement in an alleged ISIS terror module. Anil Kumar Bakshi, a member of UP Bar Council, in his petition seeking registration of a case against Owaisi for alleged offences including sedition charge alleged his remarks amounted to treason and promoted terrorism. “Owaisi’s remark also shows that he is support-
ing terrorism,” he alleged. Bakshi said he filed a complaint on Saturday with additional chief judi-
prisonment for life), 117 (abetting commission of offence), 121 (waging war against the country), 121A
declaration knowing it to be false). Besides, sections 153 (promoting enmity be-
cial magistrate (ACJM) seeking filing of cases under IPC sections 114 (abetting the crime), 115 (abetment of offence punishable with death or im-
(conspiracy to commit offences punishable by section 121), 124A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny), 132 (abetment of mutiny), and 200 (using as true such
tween different groups), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 153A (act of promoting enmity between different groups),
Target IPS, IAS officers Al Qaeda tells Indian Muslims
New Delhi Chief of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Maulana Asim Umar, has asked Indian Muslims to start jihad by killing senior Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. Umar, whose original name is Sanaul Haq, was declared chief of al Qaeda’s offshoot for the Indian Subcontinent in a video released by group head Ayman al-Zawahiri in September 2014. In his statement, Umar said the state and its departments were equally responsible for the incidents against Muslims in India. “Otherwise how could anyone dare to just take knives and cut Muslims like vegetables? We say if the Indian state is not involved in the massacre of Muslims, then Muslim youth should also be given free hand, as given to Hindu mobsters during riots,” said the statement put out by SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental counter terror
group that researches and analyses terror threats. According to counter-terror officials, Umar was a native of Sambhal in UP before leaving India for Pakistan in 1999. He said Indian Muslims should follow the example of their brethren in Syria, adding that they should look at the example of Europe where one single Mujahid after another has disturbed the entire continent. “Kill senior officers
of institutions and administrative departments that get (people to) start these riots. Target IPS and IAS officers, cause them financial losses,” said the statement. Taking note of the statement, National Investigation Agency chief Sharad Kumar said, “We will analyse the statement.” The US state department designated AQIS a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ and Umar a ‘global terrorist’ only a few days ago.
504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code were also mentioned in the complaint. The hearing on the complaint will be held on July 6, said the court. Owaisi had said on Friday his party would provide legal help to the youths arrested by the NIA on charges of involvement in an alleged ISIS terror module, but asserted his party does not support terrorism. Slamming Owaisi over his decision to provide legal help to men arrested by NIA for allegedly being members of an ISIS module, the BJP accused him of “betraying” the country and sought action against him for “helping” the terror
UK man jailed for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, ‘boom’ on flight London A 38-year-old man was sentenced to 10-week in prison for chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ aboard a Birmingham-bound flight. Shehraz Sarwar’s untoward behaviour led to widespread panic among the passengers. Sarwar had repeatedly chanted Allahu Akbar and shouted ‘boom’ when the plane was about to land. His behaviour distressed several passengers on the Emirates Boeing 777 flight from Dubai on February 1. Following the incident, Sarwar a resident of Saltley area of Birmingham, was jailed for ten weeks at Birmingham Crown Court after he admitted his obnoxious behaviour. PASSENGERS WERE REDUCED TO TEARS Sources said that some of the 347 passengers burst
into tears after they got frightened by the Sarwar’s chanting followed by a turbulent landing. Sarwar had
with his behaviour and when the plane finally landed he shouted boom,” Warren said.
caused trouble from the moment he boarded the flight. He allegedly refused to put on his seat belt and was also seen throwing food. Alex Warren, prosecuting, told Telegraph that there was terrible turbulence during the flight and some passengers were very frightened. “Sarwar started chanting Allahu Akbar repeatedly and very loudly. People were getting distressed
He added that the incident left some passengers in tears while one of them confronted Sarwar before being asked to sit down by the staff. ACCUSED WAS UPSET OVER GRANDMOTHER’S DEATH “Sarwar had been upset after attending his grandmother’s funeral in Pakistan and had also not taken his medication, methadone,” said Sarwar’s lawyer Balbir Singh. Singh added that Sarwar was scared during the flight and admitted that he said ‘boom’ upon landing. “He is very sorry for his actions and realises what distress this caused to other passengers,” said Singh. “Set in the context of the current political situation, chanting Allahu Akbar over and over again while on plane had a frightening affect on some of the passengers and even reduced some to tears,” said Judge Fracis Laird QC who sentenced Sarwar to 10 weeks imprisonment.
Muslim doctor in US shot twice near mosque HOUSTON A Muslim doctor in the US was on Sunday shot at twice by some unidentified assailants here while he was on his way to a Mosque for offering morning prayers. After parking his car, the victim was waylaid by three suspects. One of the assailants whipped out his gun and shot the doctor near the Mosque, authorities said. According to Houston Police Department, the man was shot twice and was rushed to a
nearby hospital. His condition was not immediately known. Police have launched an investigation and prima facie, they suspect it to be an attempted
group. Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh demanded immediate arrest of the Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad and asked the TRS government to register a sedition case against the leader of the Hyderabad-based party. JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok also demanded that Owaisi be put behind bars. Owaisi on his part said the offer of legal help was being “blown out of proportion” and that the courts can take a view. In Hyderabad, Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh also demanded that the Centre derecognise the MIM party. “Think over it... I request the chief minister(of Telangana) to ban MIM party and book sedition case against Asaduddin and arrest him immediately,” he told reporters.
robbery, and not a hate crime. Mosque spokesperson Mohammed Imaduddin said that the victim was ambushed by three persons. Police said
there is no indication that the attack was a hate crime, but its proximity to the Mosque has made some people worried. The incident comes a day after another Muslim man was beaten outside of a Mosque in Florida. Though Houston Police said that the incident appeared to be a robbery attempt and not a hate crime, violence and threats against Muslims have increased in the months since the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
Issue 674 (24)
5 July - 11 July 2016
New projects and ideas have been gaining strength, so this might be a good time to test the waters and see if it feels right to go ahead. Romance fairly sizzles as passions intensify. You could just as easily close a lucrative deal if you put your mind to it. Balance excitement with a realistic appraisal of the facts for best results over the days ahead.
A conversation may set you thinking about the potential for romance with someone. Try to avoid obsessive thinking, as it won’t be helpful. When Mars moves into your sign on Tuesday you’ll feel energized and ready to tackle those projects that have been on the back burner. Even so, it pays to listen to your intuition over the days ahead.
You know what you want and people admire you for taking decisive action. Go about your business quietly, as this week’s influences indicate you’d do best in the background plotting your next move carefully. When it comes to socializing you’ll be very much upfront and eager to enjoy yourself wherever possible.
If you’re looking for love, this week spotlights romantic possibilities. One person may entice you with an offer you can’t refuse. Moderation should be your mantra. Have fun, but use your common sense, too. Your social life perks up as Mars zips in on Tuesday. This is a grand opportunity to expand your network of friends and have more fun.
You may be very confident that you can carry off your latest idea or project as Mercury glides into Aries on Monday. This is a good time to get the advice of others, especially if they’ve succeeded with similar plans. Where career matters are concerned, the presence of Mars in Taurus gives you staying power, meaning that you’ll be happy to work hard now.
The focus zeroes in on matters associated with finances and shared resources. Perhaps it’s time to discuss important issues with your bank or financial adviser, especially if your cash situation has been edgy lately. If you’ve been hard at work, you may be inspired to make travel plans this week - finally.
An item you’ve coveted for some time could be calling out to you. Perhaps it’s time to make that special purchase! Your love life and social life seem very upbeat this week. You may get an invitation to go on a date or to a delightful get-together. If someone comes to you with a plan or idea, check the facts before you commit.
If someone has a proposition for you, give it careful consideration. It may be a worthwhile option. In the main, this week seems to be a busy one as Mercury heads into your work zone. You’ll likely be in a fiery mood and determined to beat off the competition. This could stand you in good stead if you don’t overdo it.
This week you’ll feel more like your usual self, ready to take charge and blaze a new trail. Mars in Taurus could be the catalyst that shakes up your routine just enough to revive your enthusiasm in a plan or task. Creative activities and pleasure options call out to you, too, so dive in and have fun in whatever way suits you best.
A dating opportunity sizzles, but you’ll need to be quick to take advantage of it. You can make a lasting impression if you spread on the charm thick enough. Life at home seems rather hectic, and could involve plans for redecorating or remodeling. Don’t jump into action without planning ahead first. Leisure and pleasure options show up.
Home-based activities may appeal for the chance they afford to unwind and let go. If issues have bugged you and left you feeling tired recently, then a retreat might do you a world of good. You’ll need the peace and quiet because you’ll be busy planning, discussing key issues, and negotiating terms for much of the week.
You might have mixed feelings if you’re meeting with an old pal or ex. If you’re willing to chat, you could be pleasantly surprised at how much he or she has changed. Regarding goals and ambitions, it might be a good idea to proceed with caution until you’re certain you want to continue. A review of your priorities can help you out here.
Issue 674 (25)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Technology Facebook train employees on how to manage political bias Social media giant Facebook is training its employees to identify and check their political leanings to address the concerns over the treatment of conservative viewpoints on the social network. “Facebook plans to add a section on ‘political bias’ to its class on ‘managing bias.’ All Facebook executives and many employees have taken the class which focuses on identifying and neutralising racial, age, gender and other types of bias,” Wall Street Journal quoted Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook, as saying. Facebook wants to be a platform for an open exchange of ideas, Sandberg added. Last month, reiterating that an internal investigation revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories in its “Trending Topics” feature, Facebook is set to revamp the controversial feature in
response to a Senate inquiry into allegations of an editorial bias against conservative news organisations. While “our data analysis indicated that conservative and liberal topics are approved as trending topics at virtually identical rates, at the same time, our investigation could not fully exclude the possibility of isolated improper actions or unintentional bias in the implementation of our guidelines or policies,” said Colin Stretch, Facebook General Counsel, in a blog post. “As part of our commitment to continually improve our
products and to minimise risks where human judgment is involved, we are making a number of improvements to Trending Topics,” he added. The revamping includes an updated terminology in its guidelines to make them more clear and a refresher training for all reviewers that emphasises that content decisions may not be made on the basis of politics or ideology. “We will also have additional controls and oversight around the review team, including robust escalation procedures,” the post read.
WhatsApp users now make over 100 million calls everyday!
A report in technology website Gizmodo recently accused Facebook of an editorial bias against conservative news organisations, sparking sharp reactions from across the spectrum. “Trending Topics” was launched in 2014 to surface major conversations happening on Facebook. It appears on right-hand side on desktop as well as when you tap on the search box in the mobile app and primarily for people using Facebook in English (there are limited tests being run in Spanish and Portuguese).
The most popular instant messaging service ‘WhatsApp’ launched its voice calling feature to users worldwide in April last year. Though the feature was first introduced to WhatsApp users on Android but was later followed by iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone. The Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Thursday announced that users are making over 100 million calls daily using the app. It said, the numbers translate to over 1,100 calls a second. ‘For more than a year, people have used WhatsApp Calling to talk with friends and fam-
Facebook announced that it is shutting down Paper -- a newsreading app for iOS that provides customised news spanning politics, technology, food and other fields. The users who visited the app received a message saying the app would no longer function from July 29, The Verge reported on Friday. “Our goal with Paper was to explore new immersive, interactive design elements for reading and interacting with content on Facebook, and we learned how important these elements are in giving people an engaging experience,” the Facebook message read. Introduced in January
2014, Paper heralded a new design era at Facebook. Paper has given way to Instant Articles that will give users a better and faster reading experience -whether it is news, views or opinion pieces. “To date, we have been working with a few hundred publishers around the world to build an incredibly fast and immersive reading experience for people on Facebook,” Josh Roberts, product manager (Facebook), said in a statement recently. With Instant Articles, publishers around the world can have full control over the look of their stories as well as data and ads.
ily around the world. It’s a great way to stay in touch, especially when connecting with people in other countries, or when messages alone won’t do,’ WhatsApp said in a
blogpost. ‘Today, more than 100 million voice calls are made every day on WhatsApp - that’s over 1,100 calls a second,’ it added. WhatsApp has been adding many new features to make its platform both convenient and fun.
Facebook shuts its newsreading app ‘Paper’
Google empowers students, unveils free online educational tool
After the grand success of Google’s Chromebook, the search engine giant introduced new educational tools that improves and expands the capabilities of existing tools. With the latest update the company is launching a new suit of tools in collaboration with TES, a global digital education company used by millions of
teachers to find digital assets for classrooms. The main three tools of the new suit are Expedition app- features more than 200 virtual reality expeditions; Cast for Education- enables wireless screen sharing for Chrome users; and Quizzes in Google Forum which had auto-grading and analytic capabilities. Google is also adding three
main creative apps in Chromebook- Explain Everythinhg, Soundtrap and WeVideo to make it more educational friendly. The launch of Google’s innovative educational tools is a more creative way to engage teachers and empower students with the help of technology.
They will have the ability to bring their own directsold ads and keep 100 per cent of the revenue, and track data on the ads served through their existing ad measurement systems or they can monetise their content through the Facebook Audience Network. Additionally, the publishers can use their existing web-based analytics systems to track article traffic or use third-party providers. Despite being praised for its design, Paper has not been among the 1,500 most-downloaded apps since December 2014, according to research firm App Annie.
Issue 674 (26)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Indian-origin scientist leads team to build drones that navigate like birds
MELBOURNE Scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, are developing biologically-inspired drones that can navigate just like birds and flying insects without needing human input, radar or satellite navigation. A team at the University of Queensland in Australia is studying flying techniques that budgerigars and bees share, and applying their findings to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) control programmes. “We study how small airborne creatures such as bees and birds use their
vision to avoid collisions with obstacles, fly safely through narrow passages, control their height above the ground and more,” said Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, who is leading the research. “We then use biologicallyinspired principles to design novel vision systems and algorithms for the guidance of UAVs,” Srinivasan said. At first glance, insects and birds have very different brains in terms of size and architecture, yet the visual processing in both animals is very effective at
guiding their flight. “Bees’ brains weigh a tenth of a milligramme and carry far fewer neurons than our own brains; yet the insects are capable of navigating accurately to food sources over 10 km away from their hive,” said Srinivasan. “Birds too can perform incredible aerobatics and navigational feats. These animals are clearly using simple and elegant strategies, honed by thousands of years of evolution,” he said. The team compares the flight of bees and budgies in particular because they
are easy animals to study. “These animals are clever, can be easily trained, and possess sophisticated visual systems that are not unlike those of our own,” said Srinivasan. “The study of their behaviour could also reveal some of the basic principles of visual guidance in a number of organisms including humans,” he said. Comparing the flight behaviours of these animals using high-speed cameras will lead to drastically improved UAV guidance systems. “The biologically-inspired principles we uncover will foster a new generation of fully autonomous UAVs that do not rely on external help such as GPS (Global Positioning System) or radar,” said Srinivasan. “These UAVs could be incredibly useful for applications like surveillance, rescue operations, defence, and planetary exploration,” he said
Pakistan rejects ISI’s involvement in Dhaka attack, says charges baseless
Dhaka Pakistan on Monday rejected the allegations of ISI’s involvement in the recent Dhaka attack, in which 20 people were killed, by Bangladesh. Speaking to media, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that allegations of Pakistan’s involvement in Dhaka terrorist episode are baseless, irresponsible and provocative. “Pakistan rejects allegations of involvement in
Dhaka terrorist episode as baseless, irresponsible and provocative, said Khar. Sponsored: Launching Vaikunth Phase II in Thane @ Piramal Realty Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and IB Minister Hassanul Haq ruled out the involvement of ISIS in the Dhaka attack but indicated Pakistan government and ISI’s involevement in the henious crime.
Issue - 674 (27)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Pakistani Hindu journalist faces racism, forced to use separate utensils New Delhi A Dalit Hindu reporter working with Pakistan’s state-run news agency says he has slipped into depression after facing
discrimination from his Muslim boss.Sharing his ordeal with IANS over telephone from Karachi, Sahib Khan Oad, who works with the Associate Press of Pakistan (APP), said his agony began when his Bureau Chief and colleagues found out that he was not a Muslim but a Hindu, that too a Dalit. DRASTIC CHANGE IN SITUATIONS He said the situation in his office “drastically changed” after his religious identity became known. He alleged that Bureau Chief Parvez Aslam told him to use separate utensils for eating at his work place. Oad has now gone on indefinite leave on the advice of a doctor after suffering from depression. “I am a Khan but I
am not a Muslim,” Oad told IANS, speaking in Urdu. Oad said he was now being pressurised by his boss to retract his statement. “He wants me to
say that all such reports circulating in the media are lies,” he said, adding that Aslam had even threatened him, saying: “If you can take extreme measures, so can we.” THE DENIAL APP Karachi Bureau Chief Aslam has termed the allegations against him as “misleading” and “baseless”. He said there was “no discrimination against any minority member working at the APP on any basis, let alone religion”. He denied Oad was mistaken for a Muslim earlier due to his surname “Khan”. “As a matter of fact, all his (Oad’s) colleagues were well aware that he was a Hindu by religion but there was no discrimination against him at any stage.” He
British family treated to a night in Eiffel Tower apartment
PARIS The Eiffel Tower is a must-see for many tourists visiting Paris but for one British family this week it also became their home for the night. Michelle Stevenson won an overnight stay at the famed landmark in a contest
Impotence?
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organised by vacation rental website HomeAway in which participants were asked: “What would you do if the HomeAway Eiffel Tower apartment was all yours for a night?” The mother of two autistic sons was among four winners treated to a night in the ephemeral luxury apartment on the structure’s first floor with sweeping views of the French capital and a tour through passages closed to the public. “It was for them really because they’re fascinated by the Eiffel Tower, the structure and the lights,” Stevenson said, referring to her sons. “Being autistic, I think the lights is just the big wow factor for them...It’s just something that they’ll never do again.”
said his colleagues were under the impression that he was a Muslim since “my first and middle names sounded Islamic”. It all unravelled, according to Oad, on May 29 when he introduced one of his sons, Raj Kumar, to his colleagues who were amazed and asked him if he was a Hindu. NOT ALL ARE SAME But Oad makes it clear that his other Muslim colleagues in the APP office in Karachi have nothing against him. Indeed, the larger journalistic fraternity in Karachi, Pakistan’s port city has offered him moral support but he alleged that his boss was reluctant to accommodate him. Asked why he uses “Khan” in his name, Oad said he and many Dalit Hindus in Dadu district of Sindh province did so to avoid being routinely discriminated against in day to day life. Sindh province is home to a majority of Pakistan’s three million Hindus. In Pakistan, minorities often face threats from Muslim extremists, who are also known to abduct Hindu women. Oad was transferred to the Karachi bureau from Islamabad on April 11 this year. He said this was the first time he had faced discrimination in his five years as a journalist. Pakistan’s national media has come out in support of the father of three. Sindh Minister of Culture Sharmila Farooqui assured him “every possible help and a probe into the incident”.
Tango therapy lifts spirits of Argentine mental patients
BUENOS AIRES The shadows of barred windows make the Buenos Aires psychiatric hospital seem especially soulless, but then the syncopated beats of tango music fill the air. For a handful of residents at the Borda hospital, the daily shuffle in line for medication has given way to the sensual steps of Argentina’s classic dance.The twicemonthly class is called “We are all crazy about tango.” “People with mental illnesses tend to be passive receptors, but in tango they are transmitters,” dance teacher Laura Segade said.“We try to make the man feel like a man and see himself as one. He comes to the class as a patient and leaves as a pupil, with a smile on his face.” Borda is Argentina’s biggest public men’s psychiatric hospital. The female dance partners are tango enthusiasts from outside.Hospital psychiatrist Guillermo Honig says tango exercises patients’ creativity and body awareness. “I felt like I danced better today. I am more
relaxed,” says one patient, who identified himself as Maximiliano. He is an outpatient and attends the classes with a dozen others who are hospitalized.”I like the lyrics of tango - the nostalgia, the melancholy.” The organizer of the tango workshop, psychologist Silvana Perl, patrols the corridors of the hospital rounding up participants. Most patients resist. “I haven’t got time,” says one, waiting in line for his medication. “The workshop is an opportunity to break the hospital routine,” Perl said. “The idea is to break into the listless lives of the schizophrenic patients. Artistic commotion can awaken them and make them connect.” She returns to the canteen-dance floor with half a dozen participants who laugh and pair off with the volunteers as the music begins. “It is like any regular tango class. Everyone does their best to complete the moves. They don’t just do as they’re told, they try to learn to do it for themselves,” said dance instructor Roque Silles, 53.
have been reported in relation to either defect, it said.About 2.87 million Toyota and Lexus brand cars are being recalled over the fuel tank defect, Toyota said,
automakers have been forced to recalls millions of vehicles over various other defects.Toyota is among more than a dozen car companies involved in the
noting that some vehicles are subject to both recalls.The world’s top automaker has forecast an extra 150 billion yen ($1.46 billion) in quality-related expenses for the fiscal year ending in March 2017. Japan’s auto industry has been hammered by the Takata crisis and fuel-efficiency scandals involving Mitsubishi Motors and small-car maker Suzuki. In recent years, major Japanese
unprecedented recall of more than 100 million Takata airbags globally.Takata is facing lawsuits, investigations and huge compensation costs over a defect that can send metal and plastic shrapnel from the airbag’s inflator canister hurtling toward drivers and passengers when deployed. At least 13 people have died in accidents linked to the defect and scores more have been injured.
Toyota recalling 3.37 million vehicles over defects TOKYO Toyota said Wednesday it is recalling 3.37 million vehicles globally over a pair of defects, in the latest hit for a Japanese auto industry hit by fuel-efficiency scandals and an exploding airbag crisis.The most affected models in Toyota’s recall include its Prius hybrid, Corolla sedan, and luxury Lexus brand, with the vehicles mostly sold in Japan, North America and Europe.About half of the recalled vehicles, built between 2008 and 2012, have a problem with passenger and driver-side air bags that could see the safety device partially deploy and risk injury, Toyota said.The firm said the airbags in question are not made by Japanese auto parts giant Takata, which is embroiled in an airbag defect scandal linked to at least 13 deaths and scores of injuries globally. The other problem is tied to problems with a fuel emission control unit that could lead to cracks developing in the unit, Toyota added. “As a result of this condition, the cracks could expand over time and, eventually, fuel may leak from these cracks when the vehicle has a full tank of gas,” it said. No accidents or injuries
Issue - 674 (28)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Canadian Sikh man hailed as hero Sikh musician claims he was racially profiled at US restaurant for using turban to save drowning girl Houston A Sikh musician has claimed he was racially profiled while having lunch at a restaurant in Orlando when a “concerned citizen” called police to investigate him for carrying a “suspicious container” which just contained his bamboo flutes.Neelamjit Dhillon was having lunch in Orlando, Florida, when police responded to a call about a suspicious container at the restaurant. “A concerned citizen called the police to investigate me while having lunch because of my suspicious container. Just my bamboo flutes,” Dhillon wrote in an Instagram post about Tuesday’s incident. Dhillon who moved to the Orlando area from Los Angeles to work on Disney’s Animal Kingdom show ‘Jungle Book Alive’ as a performer and Indian music director was having a late lunch at a local restaurant with a friend. While outside on a phone call, Dhillon says a smiling and apologetic police officer approached him. “A police officer was walking
towards me, put out his hand and shook my hand, and right away he said, ‘I need to have chat with you. Can we have a discreet conversation back at your table?’” Dhillon was quoted as saying by BuzzFeed News.Confused, Dhillion complied. Back at the table, the
officer explained that someone unaffiliated with the restaurant had called police to report a suspicious man carrying a “suspicious container”. As it turned out, the suspicious container was a carrying case for his bamboo flutes -- one of the many instruments Dhillon plays professionally. Dhillon,
Canadian jailed 10 months for punching, kicking Sikh man
Toronto A 22-year-old Canadian has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for punching and kicking a Sikh man in a racially motivated attack that had drawn strong condemnation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Gabriel Royer-Tremblay, 22, was convicted for assaulting Toronto resident Supninder Singh Khehra on a street in Quebec City in March. Khehra had said at the time that Tremblay and two of his friends shouted and swore at him in French and pointed at his turban, before he was punched in the eye and kicked. 29-year-old Khehra said his turban flew off of his head during the assault. Police arrived at the scene a short time later and arrested Tremblay and another man, who was later released without charges. The incident had drawn widespread condemnation in
Canada, including from Prime Minister Trudeau, who said at the time that such “hateful acts” have “no place in Canada”. Royer-Tremblay was also convicted of several other offences, including obstructing police and methamphetamine possession. His lawyer, Benoit Labrecque, told CTV News Toronto that six months of the sentence was for the assault against Khehra, and the other four were tied to the other offences. Royer-Tremblay was also given two years’ probation on Thursday. The crown had sought a total jail term of 18 months, while Labrecque argued for a 90-day jail stint served on weekends. Khehra submitted a victim impact statement to the court that said he no longer feels safe when walking alone on the street, and is coping with a great deal of stress related to the incident. With credit for pre-trial custody, Royer-Tremblay will spend eight more months in jail.
who carries his flutes in a case designed to hold blueprints, showed the flutes to the officer, who apologised for the trouble and left.Dhillion said it was not the first time a member of his community has been judged or profiled as a possible Muslim terrorist based on his experience as a Sikh.“We always joke that we get randomly selected for security 100 per cent of the time,” Dhillon was quoted as saying. “If someone just asked a question, and if someone didn’t come to conclusions based on appearances, they might just learn something about people,” he said.“SikhAmericans, we wear these articles of faith to represent justice, equality, and tolerance for all, and these are also American values. After the tragedy in Orlando, all I know is that more that bigotry and hate will never be the solution,” Dhillon said of his experience.The incident comes months after Waris Ahluwalia, a Sikh model and actor living in New York, was prevented from boarding an AeroMexico flight because of his turban.
Toronto A quick-thinking Sikh man is being hailed as a hero in Canada after he saved a teenage girl from drowning by using his turban to pull her out of a frigid river. Avtar Hothi, a 65-year-old farmer from Kamloops, British Columbia, used his turban to save the teen who had fallen into the cold waters of North Thompson River close to his farm.Hothi and his son Paul were working at their family farm in Heffley Creek, just north of Kamloops, last Saturday when they heard cries for help. They rushed to the riverbank to see a young woman struggling to stay afloat in the strong current.“I’m very proud of him,” Paul said referring to his father. “We were trying to look around for branches, and he just sprung to action, took off his turban right away, threw it in the water and
pulled her to shore,” Paul was quoted as saying by CBC News. He said the girl was about 14 or 15-years-old. Paul said he does not know how she fell into the river, but stated that the water is very cold this time of year. “She was just in shock at the moment we pulled her out of the water. She was freezing basically.(We) quickly covered her up with a blanket to warm her up,” Paul said. His father then drove the girl back to her grandmother’s house a few minutes from their farm. “We used his turban as a rope because it would have been a lot harder just to pull someone up off shore,” Paul told The Canadian Press. He said someone brought a blanket and the frightened woman was calmed down and returned safely to relatives in a nearby home.
Sikh candidate in Aus polls targeted with ‘racist’ flyers Melbourne A Sikh politician contesting in the upcoming elections from Australia’s Greens party has been targeted with “racist flyers” which she claimed were distributed in her electorate here. Alexandra Kaur Bhathal, a candidate from Greens party for the seat of Batman, Melbourne, on Tuesday wrote on her Facebook page that a flyer was distributed in her electorate targeting her background and beliefs. “Yesterday and today a flyer has been distributed in my electorate of Batman targeting my background and beliefs. The leaflet contains vicious and racist statements about me and my heritage as a Sikh,” Bhathal said. “I was sickened and disturbed by this, as are members of the Sikh community who’ve seen the flyer, but it only adds to my resolve to keep campaigning and defend multiculturalism. This propaganda, based on misinformation, racism and hatred, will not sway me from my faith as a Sikh, a religion that stands up for the rights of all people, we are a progressive, humanist faith that believes all people are created equal and that
we must respect all religions,” she said. According to media reports, the alleged printed material claimed Bhathal supported, “Khalistan terrorist movement” to create a “racist” nation in Punjab. The flyers had a picture of Bhathal speaking at a Sikh congregation in Melbourne marked as ‘Sikh Genocide Remembrance Day’ on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots anniversary last year and it claimed that she “infiltrated the Greens to promote her hidden race agenda.” Bhathal said, “It won’t sway me from my political commitments as a Greens candidate. I have lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. This kind of racism has no place
in our politics. We cannot allow hatred to grow unchallenged.” “To the people who wrote and produced this flyer, I want to tell you that I will not be intimidated. I’m proud to stand up for what I hold most fundamental and that includes my belief that racism has no place in our country,” she asserted.
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Issue - 674 (29)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Turkish imam suspended UK drugs regulator to halt approvals for Indian clinical trials firm after ‘pieces of cucumber’ Mumbai The UK’s healthcare regulator has decided to suspended marketing approval for a widely used antibiotic that had won
clearance based on clinical trials conducted by India’s Quest Life Sciences, due to concerns over the integrity of trial data. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) might also deny other pending drug approval requests that rely on studies conducted by Quest, the UK agency said in a letter dated June 22, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The MHRA’s decision bars the sale of a generic version of erythromycin that is being sold in the UK by Dawa Ltd, a Kenyan drugmaker, an MHRA
spokesman said. The MHRA said it is in contact with the involved parties, who have the right to appeal and submit new data to prove that the drugs in question meet the required standards. The agency added that it does not believe there to be any risk to public health and that its decision to suspend marketing approval is purely a precautionary
Pak did nothing significant against terror in 15 years: writes US Congressman Washington A top US Congressman has opposed the decision of the House of Representatives to
it for free. And that’s just the way it is,” Poe said.The House of Representatives recently gave Pakistan a $200 million raise. In
increase American aid to Pakistan from USD 700 million to $900 million alleging that Pakistan continues to support terror groups that target US troops in Afghanistan.“Pakistan cannot be trusted. It has played us now for a total of $33 billion of our money since 2001,” Republican Congressman Ted Poe, chairperson of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Trade of the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote on Tuesday in an op-ed in US News.Poe’s move to retain the US aid to Pakistan to $700 million for the fiscal 2017 as for 2016 was voted down by the House of Representatives.Poe said he is disappointed by House’s decision.“For 15 years we have been asking Pakistan to go after terrorists within its own borders and for 15 years not only has Pakistan not done so in any significant way, but it has actually supported those very terrorists who kill our service men and women in Afghanistan. It is time to call it like it is,” he said. “We do not need to give Pakistan a raise to betray us. They will do
all, it was a $900 million payday for a country that to this day is supporting terrorist groups that kill US service men and women in Afghanistan, he said.“It is well known by now that Pakistan gave safe harbour to Osama bin Laden. Before he met his maker in one of the greatest US military raids ever conducted, bin Laden was living in a big house in a bustling military town in Pakistan,” he added.“Less known is that after that raid our CIA station chief in Pakistan was poisoned: Both he and the CIA suspect he was poisoned by Pakistan’s version of the CIA called the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency or ‘ISI’,” Poe wrote.“The ISI is infamous for its support for terrorists. In February 2012, a Nato report confirmed that it was supporting the Taliban and other terrorist groups with resources, sanctuary and training,” Poe said.“A year before the Nato reort, in 2011, Adm Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before Congress that “the Haqqani Network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.
measure. Quest’s President Yati Chugh told Reuters the company plans to appeal the suspension as he believes the agency relied on a two-year-old study and the following inspection report to reach its decision, and that it did not review the company’s latest quality management systems. He said Quest had significantly improved its quality systems since 2014, and would ask the MHRA to re-inspect its site, as MHRA’s move means four other drugs Quest performed trials on that are awaiting approval with the UK regulator will not be approved until the agency clears its facility. These drugs include the antibiotics doxycycline and cephalexin, and the diabetes drug metformin, on which Quest had conducted trials on behalf of UK drugmaker Strandhaven and India’s Kopran, said Chugh. Strandhaven, Kopran and Dawa did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. The MHRA’s move is the latest blow to India’s drug industry, whose reputation has been tainted in recent years as foreign regulators have criticised manufacturing standards and questioned the reliability of clinical data produced by some of the sector’s biggest names. Chennai-based Quest is a contract research firm that conducts clinical trials on generic drugs on behalf of local, as well as multinational drugmakers. Drugmakers in turn use clinical data produced by companies like Quest to seek approval to sell their drugs in various countries. Data from Quest has been used to support drug approvals in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, according to its website. The MHRA said that during an inspection of Quest’s facility in February, it found several issues with data integrity in a clinical trial Quest had conducted, including discrepancies in Quest’s patient records and instances where electrocardiogram (ECG) data of patients had been deleted or manipulated. The World Health Organisation told Quest in July last year about similar ECG data manipulation issues in another drug study. The MHRA said it believed its findings meant that the safety or wellbeing of patients had been jeopardised in the trial. “The MHRA inspectors identified a large number of issues which indicated that there were very serious concerns with many aspects of the company’s quality system,” the MHRA spokesman said, adding the problems cast “serious doubt on the integrity of any data produced.” Similar issues around data at Quest’s larger rival GVK Biosciences led to a recall of about 700 drugs across Europe last year.
found in his rectum
Ankara A 39-year-old imam in Turkey has been suspended after doctors reportedly found “pieces of cucumber” in his rectum during a checkup.The imam, who is from a Central Anatolian province, was admitted to hospital last week after suffering from severe abdominal pain and bleeding, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Friday.It was only then that doctors allegedly removed pieces of cucumber from his rectum, with the official diagnosis recorded as “bleeding in the anus and rectum and foreign object in the rectum”. The imam was discharged the following day, but word of his “bizarre mishap” made its way to the local press and he was subsequently suspended.An investigation has now been launched by the local branch of the “Religious Affairs
Directorate”, where the imam had been working before he got the boot.The region’s Chamber of Doctors, however, have criticized hospital officials for leaking information about a patient.“The imam applied to a hospital for a medical condition, it is a crime to have leaked the information of a patient,” Ardil Bayram Sahin, a member of the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors’ Human Rights Commission, said.
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19-year-old girl hacked to death for rejecting marriage proposal
New Delhi A week after Infosys techie was hacked to death in broad daylight in Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai, another similar incident have shocked the residents of Adilabad district of Telangana on Saturday. Nineteen-year-old Sandhya, a resident of Bhainsa in Adilabad district, was brutally murdered by M Mahesh (22) for allegedly rejecting his marriage proposal. Police said that Mahesh an undergraduate stayed in the same neighbourhood. Sources said that Mahesh had been harassing the girl by stalking her and asking her to accept his marriage proposal for the past few months. VICTIM HARASSED FOR OVER A YEAR According to police sources, Sandhya had been resisting his advances for over a year.
Mahesh attacked her on Saturday after known when she went out to buy groceries. Mahesh reportedly slit Sandhya’s throat following which she died on the spot. He was caught by local people and handed over to the police. “Mahesh stabbed the girl in front of her house with a knife at around 2.30 pm and later slit her throat. She died on the spot,” said Adilabad district superintendent of police Vikramjit Duggal. Duggal added that the girl’s family had arranged her marriage with another man and that she was to get married soon. Bhainsa police has booked Mahesh under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Police said further investigations into the incident are underway.
Issue - 674 (30)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Dhaka restaurant siege 20 hostages, 6 gunmen killed Dhaka Twenty hostages were killed in a siege at a cafe in Dhaka where dozens of diners were held captive by gunmen purportedly belonging to the Islamic State militant group, the Bangladesh army said on Saturday. Security forces shot dead six of the hostage-takers and one was
detained, officials said, and added two policemen were also killed in the operation. Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, director of military operations, said it was believed that foreigners were among the dead, though he did not give details. Chowdhury said they found improvised explosive devices and locally made sharp weapons inside the restaurant. “The operation is over. The
situation is completely under control,” army spokesperson Colonel Rashidul Hasan said. Thirteen hostages were rescued after security forces, another top commander said. “Three of them are foreigners. Ten locals,” Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion which
stormed the cafe, told a TV channel. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to eradicate terrorism in Bangladesh, which has seen a spate of Islamist attacks against intellectuals, gays and the minority Hindus. “It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don’t have any religion,” she said in a televised speech.
Pro-IS Twitter account warns of attack at US, Britain airports
London A pro-Islamic State (IS) Twitter account has threatened to attack Los Angeles International, John F Kennedy International and Heathrow airport as the US prepares to celebrate July 4 Independence Day weekend, the media reported on Saturday. The attacks will be carried out on planes “flying from Heathrow to the US” and warned that “there will be a device placed in either [sic] Heathrow, LAX or JFK airports,” Telegraph reported, citing the Twitter account. The terror attack warning was revealed by the Site Intelligence Group, an organisation that tracks the online activity of terrorist groups.“We all need to be vigilant to the global threat of terrorism -- in Britain we keep all aspects of aviation security
under constant review and work closely with our international partners to mitigate risks,” Transport Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon was quoted as saying. Security has already been beefed up across the US airports. The threat comes in the wake of a deadly attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport where three Islamic State suicide bombers killed 41 persons injured over 239 others. At least five persons were killed and 18 rescued as Bangladeshi forces on Saturday started an operation to free up to 40 hostages held by about eight to nine gunmen -- claimed to be affiliated to the IS militant group -- who attacked a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka late on Friday.
“People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh.” The Islamic state claimed responsibility for the Dhaka violence through its Amaq news agency through which it posted photos of dead foreigners allegedly killed in the assault. The Holy Artisan Bakery Cafe in Dhaka’s Gulshan area, which is popular with locals, diplomats and expatriates alike, was targeted on Friday night at around 9 pm local time. Armed with assault rifles, the group open fired and set off explosive devices during the assault and took an unspecified number of people hostage. The siege is the latest in a spate of attacks in Bangladesh over the past 18 months, during which militant violence has spiked despite the country’s tradition of secularism and religious tolerance. Though most have been directed on individuals, often using machetes, the raid on the restaurant was a rare instance of a more coordinated operation.Earlier on Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, 300 kms southwest of Dhaka. Both Islamic State and al Qaeda claimed responsibility for many of the killings, although local authorities say no operational links exist between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks.
Beheaded Canadian’s body dug up in southern Philippines
Toronto Philippine troops on Saturday dug up what they believe is the body of Canadian hostage Robert Hall, who was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf extremists more than two weeks ago in the south after a ransom deadline lapsed. Villagers led the troops to a hinterland near Kamuntayan village in Sulu province’s Talipao town where the militants buried Hall’s body after killing him on June 13. Hall’s head was found abandoned outside a Roman Catholic cathedral, regional military spokesperson Maj. Filemon Tan said. Chances were high that it was Hall’s body, Tan said, citing intelligence reports and help from villagers. Police forensic experts would confirm the identity, he said. Hall was kidnapped with fellow Canadian John Ridsdel, Norwegian Kjartan Sikkengstad and Filipino Marites Flor in September last year in a yachtberthing resort on Samal Island,
also in the south and taken by boat to Sulu, a predominantly Muslim and impoverished province 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of Manila.Ridsdel had also been beheaded, Sikkengstad remains in Abu Sayyaf custody and Flor has been freed. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the killings and called on other nations not to pay ransoms if their citizens are abducted to discourage the militants from carrying out more ransom kidnappings. Philippine troops have been carrying out an offensive that has killed dozens of militants in Sulu. The Abu Sayyaf, which has more than 400 armed fighters, is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist group for bombings, kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and extortion. The militants have been weakened by years of battle setbacks but remain a national security threat.
Islamic State’s Bangladesh chief believed to be from Canada Toronto The leader of the Islamic State in Bangladesh is believed to be originally from Canada and wants to use the group to carry out a two-front attack on India. As the attack on Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery was underway, Toronto-based terrorism expert Amarnath Amarasingam pointed out on Twitter that the person, identified as Tamim Chowdhury, was from Windsor city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Amarasingam had originally made the identification in the first week of June after a Hindu priest was beheaded in Bangladesh.He was quoted by Vice News as saying at the time that he suspected Chowdhury may have left Canada “shortly after harassment from the police” as he knew Ahmed Waseem and Mohammed Al Shaer, two men who travelled from Canada to Syria in 2013 to join the IS.Law enforcement agencies in Canada are believed to have been monitoring Chowdhury at that time due to his association with the two men. Nearly 180 Canadians are believed to have left the country to join extremist groups abroad.Chowdhury, using
the nom de guerre of Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, featured in an interview in the IS publication Dabiq’s 14th edition, in which he said he saw Bangladesh as a staging ground for carrying out a two-prong assault on India. Described in the as the “amir of the Khilafah’s soldiers in Bengal”, he said, “Bengal is an important region for the Khilafah and the
global jihad due to its strategic geographic position. Bengal is located on the eastern side of India, whereas Wilayat Khurasan is located on its western side.“Thus, having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush (fear and chaos) in India along with the help of the existing local mujahidin there.”Wilayat Khurasan is the name given by the IS to its
chapter for Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of India. As reported originally in Hindustan Times, he also said in the interview that the situation would continue “until the soldiers of the Khilafah are able to enter with a conventional army and completely liberate the region from the mushrikin (polytheists), after first getting rid of the ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Afghani’ regimes”.Chowdhury also said in Dabiq that “jihad in Bengal is a stepping-stone for jihad in Burma”.His hatred for minority Hindus was clear in the interview and extremists, in recent times, have carried out several attacks on the minority community, including two in the past week. Chowdhury was also critical of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia.The attackers in Dhaka slaughtered 20 hostages on Friday night before Bangladeshi troops stormed the restaurant. Two police officers also died in the exchange of fire with the attackers. Six of the attackers were killed and one was detained, while 13 hostages were rescued.
Issue - 674 (31)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Al Qaeda leader warns of ‘grave consequences’ if Boston bomber executed
Cairo Al Qaeda leader Ayman alZawahri has warned the United States of the “gravest consequences” if Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other Muslim prisoner is executed. Tsarnaev, named in a new online video message from Zawahri, was sentenced last year to death by lethal injection for the 2013 bomb attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260. “If the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any Muslim, it ... will bring America’s nationals the gravest consequences,” Zawahri said.Zawahri, who became al Qaeda’s leader after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, urged Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible, especially those whose countries had joined the “Crusaders’ Campaign led by the United States”. The veteran Egyptian-born Islamist, shown wearing white
robes and sitting in front of green velvet drapes, said the Western captives could then be exchanged for Muslim prisoners. Western powers “are criminals and they only understand the language of force”, he added. The nearly hour-long video, which included images of Tsarnaev, gave no indication of the location of Zawahri, believed to be based close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. Tsarnaev carried out the Boston bombings along with his older brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a confrontation with police soon after. No organization claimed responsibility. Tsarnaev is being held at the “Supermax” high-security prison in Florence, Colorado, while his attorneys appeal his death sentence.Legal wrangling over Tsarnaev’s fate could play out for years or even decades. Just three of the 74 people sentenced to death in the United States for federal crimes since 1998 have been executed.
New York A French citizen arrested in Paris last year over his connection with the Islamic State has told investigators that he encountered “some Indians”, Russians and
a rock concert in France,” the report said. In the transcript of his interrogation, Hame describes how, after reaching Syria last summer, he was “first housed
Hindu priest hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh Dhaka Unidentified killers on Friday hacked a Hindu temple worker to death in southwestern Bangladesh, sparking concerns that the Muslim-majority country is failing to protect its religious minorities. Shyamonando Das, a ‘sebayet’ at Sri Sri Radhamadan Gopal temple in Jhenaidah district, was killed early on Friday as he was gathering flowers to perform his morning prayers. Hasan Hafizur Rahman, the officer in-charge of the local police station, said at least three assailants came on a motorcycle and attacked Das with sharp weapons. “They fled quickly after the attack,” he told Hindustan Times by phone, quoting a witness. “He died instantly. We have recovered his body,” Rahman said. Police had no clues but said they had started an investigation. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. But officials said the latest attack was similar to previous assaults blamed on radical Islamist groups.Since 2013, some 40 people, including atheist bloggers, secular writers, members of religious minorities and foreigners, have been killed allegedly by Islamist militants. Authorities have ruled out claims by the Islamic State and Al
‘Saw some Indians’: Terror suspect narrates account of his stay in Syria
Chechens in a dormitory he was put in by the terror group after arriving in the war-torn Syria, a media report said.The New York Times, in an article about the Turkey airport terror attack, said the presence of large numbers of Russian-speaking fighters in Syria has been widely reported.It cited the account of a French citizen Reda Hame, who was arrested in Paris last August soon after returning from Syria. Hame allegedly told interrogators with France’s domestic intelligence wing that he had been recruited by the external operations arm of ISIS and “assigned to create mayhem at
inside a dormitory that had ‘a hundred people Russians, Chechens, some Chinese, one American, some Indians’,” the report said.It said since 2014, the Islamic State has been trying to mount attacks in the West through a unit described in intelligence documents as the group’s external operations branch, headed by the militant group’s spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani.In the past two years, this branch has sent at least 20 operatives, trained in Syria and mostly French speakers, to Europe and Lebanon, possibly because they could fit in more and assume a
more Western appearance, analysts said. It added that senior Russian security officials have estimated that up to 7,000 fighters from Russia and Central Asia have gone to Syria to fight, many of them joining the Islamic State. According to the International Crisis Group, up to 4,000 volunteers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had joined the militant group by the end of 2015. In Central Asian states like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the recruitment of fighters for the Islamic State has been spurred by government repression against Muslim organisations as well as widespread poverty. Last month, US-based private SITE Intelligence Group had said that ISIS had launched a new propaganda video that showed off a large group of Kalashnikovwielding jihadists allegedly from India fighting against the Syrian forces in the Homs province. The video is part of ISIS propaganda campaign on foreign fighters in their ranks, the group had said adding that the terror group’s division in Homs released the video on Indian fighters aimed at recruiting jihadists from the country to fight against the Syrian government forces.
Qaeda on the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) that they were responsible for many of the attacks.Last month, two Hindu
attacked him with sharp weapons, leaving him critically injured. Detectives said Saifullah is a
priests were killed separately in similar attacks. Meanwhile, detectives in Dhaka said on Friday they had arrested the suspected mastermind of an attempt to murder a Hindu college teacher on June 15. Pankaj Kumer Sarkar, a police sub-inspector at Demra police station in Dhaka, told reporters that Khaled Saifullah was arrested late on Thursday night. He said the man was thought to be the mastermind of the attack on mathematics teacher Ripon Chakravarty in Madaripur district. Unidentified attackers had followed the teacher while he was going home from college and
member of the banned Jamaatul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB). Other details about him were not disclosed immediately. Chakravarty survived and local residents caught one of the attackers who had travelled from Dhaka’s Uttara area. The suspect, Golam Faizullah Fahim, was a Grade XII student. He was later killed in crossfire when police took him along for a raid. Police said Fahim was a member of the banned Hizbut Tahrir and was radicalised by the group’s members. His father said Fahim went missing a few days before the June 15 attack.
Facebook asks woman named Isis to change profile name, submit proof
London In its bid to erase all traces of ISIS (also Islamic State or IS), Facebook has asked a terror group namesake to send her proof of ID to continue using the social network. Isis Thomas, a resident of Bristol in Britain, was asked to change her name after logging on to the site on June 27, RT.com reported on Saturday. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom. Thomas assumed that the social networking giant was referring to her surname. “I was on Facebook as Isis Worcester, because when I first signed up years ago I didn’t use my real name, which is Isis Thomas, because of where I worked at the time,” she told a local newspaper. “I thought it was about the
surname, so I just changed it to Isis Thomas. But that didn’t work and I realised they had a problem with me being called Isis,” she added. Facebook sent her a message saying “Isis is not allowed” as it “didn’t comply with policy”. Thomas was asked for her “proof of identity,” which she duly sent. But she fears that satisfying the social network’s criteria may take a little more. Besides innocent people, some companies too have faced problems in the past due to their names. The US-based $7.2 billion Isis Pharmaceuticals had to change its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals in December 2015. A 35-years-old US bookstore was also reportedly vandalised due to it being called Isis Books & Gifts.
Issue - 674 (32)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Another Hindu priest stabbed, critically wounded in Bangladesh Dhaka Unidentified attackers stabbed and critically wounded a Hindu priest in southwest Bangladesh Saturday, just a day after a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in an attack by suspected Islamist militants. Police said 48-year-old priest Bhabasindhu Roy of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda Temple in Satkhira district was attacked inside the temple compound as he slept.“They stabbed him in his chest and back. His condition is critical and we’re trying to send him to a hospital in Dhaka,” deputy chief of Satkhira police Atqul Haq told AFP.He said it bore the hallmarks of recent attacks on minorities by suspected Islamist militants. The attack came just hours after gunmen stormed a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital and took dozens of people hostage including several foreigners. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack Friday night on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in Dhaka’s upmarket Gulshan diplomatic quarter in which two police officers were killed. On Friday a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the western Bangladesh district of Jhenaidah.Three men on a
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motorcycle attacked Shyamananda Das as he walked along a road near the temple early in the morning, police said.
crisis, has pushed many towards extremism.Last month police arrested more than 11,000 people, including nearly 200
Last month a Hindu priest, 70year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly, was hacked to death in the same district.Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left some 50 people dead in the last three years. Victims of the attacks by suspected Islamists have included secular bloggers, gay rights activists and followers of minority religions including Hindus, Christians and Muslim Sufis and Shiites. Since April, more than a dozen people have been hacked to death amid a sharp spike in the targeted killings. Most of the recent attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State organisation or the South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, however, has blamed homegrown Islamists for the attacks. Experts say a government crackdown on opponents, including a ban on the largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami following a protracted political
suspected militants, in an antiIslamist drive criticised by the opposition and some rights groups, which said it was used as an excuse to clamp down on dissent.At least nine suspected Islamists were shot dead in what police said were gunfights. Some rights activists contradict that account and say they were extrajudicial killings. ISIS plans to attack India through its base in Bangladesh and Pakistan Islamic State has made its intentions clear of launching terror attacks in India through its base in Bangladesh and Pakistan.In an interview with the group’s online magazine Dabiq in April, Shaykh Abu Ibrahim AlHanif, ‘Amir of Khilafah in Bengal’ said that once the group
New Taliban leader tells US to end Afghan ‘occupation’ Kabul New Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada on Saturday called on the US to end its “occupation” of Afghanistan in his first message since being appointed
the militant group’s chief in May. “Admit the realities instead of useless use of force and muscle... and put an end to the occupation,” Akhundzada said in a speech on the eve of Eid-alFitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. “Our message to the American invaders and her allies is this: the Afghan Muslim people neither fear... your force nor your stratagem. They consider martyrdom in confrontation with
you as a cherished goal of their life,” Akhundzada added. “You are facing... not a group or faction but a nation. You are not going to be a winner (if Allah willing).” The message is the first by Akhundzada since his predecessor Akhtar Mansour was killed during a US drone strike in neighbouring Pakistan in May. The leader’s statement comes two days after twin Taliban bomb blasts killed at least 32 Afghan policemen and wounded 78 others on the edge of Kabul. “Our message to the supporters of the invaders is that it might have been dawned on you during the past 15 years that you are being used for realisation of American goals,” Akhundzada said, adding that “your support and siding with invaders is like the work of those abhorrent faces who in our past history supported the Britons and the Soviets,” he added.
manages to build base in Bangladesh, it will launch raids in east and west of India. FEAR AND CHAOS Shaykh asserted that Bengal( IS calls Bangladesh as Bengal)has a strategic location and building a jihadi base there will facilitate ISIS to launch guerrilla attacks in India. Bengal is located on the eastern side of India, whereas Wilayat Khurasan is located on its western side. Thus, having a strong jihad base in Bengal will facilitate performing guerrilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush (fear and chaos) in India along with the help of the existing local mujahidin there,” Hanif told Dabiq. Shaykh admitted that at present ISIS is weak, small and lack capapbilities but their soldiers are sharpening their knives for the battle with their enemies. HINDUS WAGE WAR AGAINST ISLAM In the interview, Shaykh accused Hindus of India and Bangladesh of waging war against Islam and the Muslims. “The Hindus of both Bengal and India have always been waging war against Islam and the Muslims. The only difference is that the Hindus in India show their animosity towards Islam and the Muslims openly whereas the Hindus in
Bengal do it in a more deceptive and covert manner due to them being a minority sect here,” said Shaykh. He further urged the Muslims of India and Bengal to join and perform Jihad. “I advise you to join us and perform jihad with your wealth and your lives, as it is an obligation upon every capable Muslim,” He said. INDIANS AGAINST INDIA Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency that busted the module says the rookies were in touch with a former Indian Mujahideen member who is now part of Islamic State and were plotting terror strikes and communal clashes. These arrests make it evident that ISIS is trying to mislead Indian youths and use them against India. Investigations have also revealed the group was making efforts to establish a channel of procurement of explosives and weapons, identify locations to organise terror training camps, motivate new recruits to target police officers and foreigners in India apart from carrying out terrorist activities in parts of the country. Till now, six Indians have reportedly died fighting for ISIS in Syria. According to intelligence reports, 23 Indians travelled to Syr ia to join the terror group but two have managed to return.
US adds al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent to ‘terror’ list Washington The US state department on Thursday named al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) a “foreign terrorist organisation” and designated its leader, Indiaborn Asim Umar, a “specially designated global terrorist”. These designations prohibit American citizens from dealing with both the group and its leader usually for donations and lead to forfeiture of property and assets held by them in the US. Al Qaeda chief Ayman alZawahiri announced the formation of AQIS in 2014. In a 55-minute video launching the group, Zawahiri had said it would launch jihadist activities in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Umar is formerly of Harkat-ulMujahideen, which too has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation.The 38-year-old was born as Sana-ul-Haq at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh between 1974 and 1976, and graduated from the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband in 1991. Umar later travelled to Pakistan, where he studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqania in Nowshera, a seminary dubbed as the “university of jihad” because it has produced many militant commanders. The state department said in the announcement, “AQIS claimed responsibility for the September
6, 2014 attack on a naval dockyard in Karachi, in which militants attempted to hijack a Pakistani Navy frigate. The attack left a Pakistani officer and three attackers dead, while seven sailors were wounded as
Rajib Haideer, and AKM Shafiul Islam.” The state department said, “Today’s action notifies the US public and the international community that AQIS and Umar are actively engaged in terrorism.
the militants attempted to hijack the warship. “AQIS has also claimed responsibility for the murders of activists and writers in Bangladesh, including that of US citizen Avijit Roy, US Embassy local employee Xulhaz Mannan, and of Bangladeshi nationals Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Ahmed
“Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system. Moreover, designations can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other US agencies and other governments.”
Issue - 674 (33)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Egypt Coptic priest shot dead in IS-claimed Sinai attack Cairo An Egyptian Coptic priest was on Thursday shot dead in the Sinai Peninsula where authorities are battling a jihadist insurgency, officials said, in an
attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Raphael Moussa, 46, died instantly when a man shot him in the head as he was standing next to his car in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai, said Boulos Halim, a church spokesman. The Islamic State group’s Egypt branch claimed responsibility for the murder in a statement posted on social media, accusing him of “combating Islam”. Moussa had earlier left a church where he attended mass, Halim
said. The interior ministry said the priest was gunned down after having gone to an area of ElArish with mechanics to have his car repaired.
The IS affiliate in restive Sinai has waged an insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers. It has kept up the attacks, mostly roadside bombings and ambushes, despite a massive military campaign to uproot jihadists from the peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Moussa was not the first priest killed in Arish. Mina Aboud, a fellow priest, was shot dead on July 6, 2013, three days after the military toppled
Netherlands gets first nationwide ‘Internet of Things’
THE HAGUE Dutch telecoms group KPN said Thursday that The Netherlands had become the first country in the world to implement a nationwide long range (LoRa) network for the so-called Internet of Things. Connecting everyday objects to networks, allowing them to send and receive data, is widely seen as the next major evolution of the Internet and one that may transform how many businesses operate and people live.The rollout of a low data rate (LoRa) mobile communications network is critical to connect objects as many may not be able to link up with home or work WiFi networks to gain Internet access.“As from today the KPN LoRa network is available throughout The Netherlands,” KPN said in a statement. “This makes The Netherlands the first country in the world to have a nationwide LoRa network for Internet of Things (IoT)
application.” In the initial phase, the network was rolled out in Rotterdam and The Hague in November. But it was stepped up across the country due to “substantial customer interest”, said KPN. The LoRa network is complementary to KPN’s networks for the 2G, 3G and 4G phones.KPN has already reached deals to connect some 1.5 million objects, a number which should steadily grow now that the LoRa network is available across the country.Tests are being carried out at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam - one of Europe’s busiest air hubs - for baggage handling. Meanwhile in the Utrecht rail station an experiment is under way to allow LoRa to monitor rail switches. At the port of Rotterdam depth sounders have been fitted with devices to connect them to the Internet of Things network.
Egypt’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, unleashing clashes and a crackdown on his supporters. Pro-Islamists attacked and torched dozens of churches and Christian properties a month later, after police killed hundreds of Morsi supporters in Cairo clashes. They accused the Coptic minority of supporting the overthrow of Morsi, whom the army deposed after millions of Egyptians rallied to demand his resignation. Leading Muslim clerics, as well as the opposition and the Coptic Orthodox Church, supported his overthrow after a year of divisive rule. Apart from Christians and security forces, Jihadists in Sinai have also targeted Muslims they accuse of working with the government. They have likewise attacked foreign tourists and beheaded a Croatian oil worker after abducting him near Cairo. IS claimed responsibility for last October’s bombing of a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a resort in southern Sinai, killing all 224 people on board. “The whole situation in El-Arish and North Sinai is under threat,” said Halim. “Many people (Christians) have left.”
‘Istanbul attack hallmarks of IS’ depravity’:
CIA warns of similar attacks in US
Washington The Islamic State terror group may carry out a terror attack similar to the one at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, CIA director John Brennan has said. The despicable attack at Istanbul’s international airport that killed dozens and injured several certainly bears the “hallmarks” of the Islamic State’s depravity, Brennan said in Washington on Wednesday. “We’ve seen ISIL (Islamic State) carry out and incite an array of terrorist attacks in the region, directly, indirectly and I would be surprised that ISIL is not considering carrying out these attacks in the near abroad as well as the far abroad,” he said. “And the United States, as we well know, is leading the coalition to try to destroy as much of this poison, inside of Syria and Iraq, as possible. So it would be surprising to me that ISIL is not trying to hit us, both in the region as well as in our homeland,” Brennan said while to replying to a question at the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank. “I think what you see in the propagation of their material, they have a magazine, Dabiq, that goes out that says exactly that. It exhorts individuals to do it.”“So if anybody here believes
that, you know, the US homeland is hermetically sealed and that Daesh or ISIL would not consider that, I think I would guard against that,” he added.
Brennan said global instability is one of the defining issues of the time, and its implications are hard to overstate. “As instability spreads, extremists and terrorists are finding sanctuary in ungoverned spaces. Energy supplies are being disrupted. Political reform is suffering as too many governments opt for authoritarian measures at the expense of democratic principles and respect for human rights,” the CIA official said. As many as 42 people were killed and hundreds wounded yesterday after suicide attackers armed with guns and bombs attacked Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport, apparently targeting Turkey’s crucial tourism industry. The government blamed the attack on Islamic State extremists but there was no immediate confirmation from the group.
Now Udta Kashmir! Increase in drug addicts in the Valley After Udta Punjab and Udta Haryana, it is now the turn of Udta Kashmir. Dr Arshid Hussain, consultant psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Disease Hospital Srinagar says, “There have been over 4,000 people in our OPD (out patient department) who are drug addicts. MISLED BY ONLINE INFORMATION They mostly take cannabis, available everywhere in Kashmir,” says. He adds, earlier drug addicts would take medical opioids but now the trend has changed with 75 per cent drug addicts taking cannabis. He said youngsters are coming up with articles downloaded from Google about good affects of cannabis on mood. CANNABIS: THE DRUG Earlier drug abusers would take spasmoproxyvon tablets for pain relief and then they would gradually increase the dose. “Spasmoproxyvon is a cheap drug available in the open market but drug abusers get it at higher prices from the black market so they can purchase in bulk,” says Dr Zaid Wani, associate professor at the Psychiatry Disease Hospital. He says there have been several instances where youngsters, studying in good schools of Srinagar, were found taking cannabis and
medical opioids. “The situation is grave. Deaths are occurring due to drug abuse. It’s time for the government to act,” Dr Wani said. WHY NO DEBATE? Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that law makers should have raised and debated the drug addiction issue in the
House in the month-long session that concluded on Friday. POLICE SPY PUNJAB’S MAFIA ROLE “Drug addiction in Kashmir and Jammu is taking a dangerous shape. People are coming to me urging to do something about it,” she had said. Police sources say drugs are being imported to J&K through Lakhanpur from Punjab by the Punjab drug mafia.
Issue - 674 (34)
5 July - 11 July 2016
AAP MLA booked after ‘mastermind’ names him in ‘torn Quran’ case New Delhi Ahead of Arvind Kejriwal‘s threeday visit to Punjab beginning Sunday, the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Mehrauli (South) in Delhi, Naresh Yadav, was on Saturday named in an FIR related to a recent case of alleged ‘desecration’ of the Quran. Sangrur police booked Yadav after the alleged mastermind in the case, Vijay Kumar, told the police that he had “desecrated” the Quran at the behest of Yadav, and was offered Rs 1 crore. Earlier, the police had arrested three men Vijay Kumar, Nand Kishore Goldy and Gaurav who have reportedly confessed. The police had claimed that Vijay Kumar wanted to “take revenge for Dinanagar and Pathankot terrorist attacks” and had told them he “hated Pakistan and Muslims”.Nand Kishore, who is zonal secretary of the VHP in Pathankot, along with son Gaurav, allegedly “helped” Vijay in the conspiracy. During raids in Delhi, the police had also recovered an Audi car belonging to Vijay Kumar in which more “torn pages” of the Quran were allegedly found. There was arson in Malerkotla on the night of June 24 after pages of the Quran were found dumped near a drain on Khanna road. A mob attacked and set Akali Dal
MLA Farzana Alam’s home on fire leading to communal tension. The mob also exchanged gunfire with the police, leaving several injured. Sangrur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pritpal Singh Thind told The Sunday Express that Vijay Kumar has also claimed that on June 24 before he (Kumar) left from Delhi for Malerkotla, he had a meeting with Yadav. “Vijay Kumar has claimed that in Malerkotla, he was offered Rs 1 crore for tearing pages of Quran and throwing them near a drain on Khanna Road. Their plan was also to desecrate a Hindu holy book next,” said Thind. The police added that they (the suspects) were yet to receive any money. Vijay Kumar also claimed police that Yadav had told them that the motive was to create communal tension in Punjab and instigate people against the state government. “Vijay Kumar told us that Yadav told him that AAP wants to win Punjab 2017 polls by hook or by crook. Thus, their plan was to instigate people on communal lines so that they vent their anger against SAD-BJP and Congress and vote for AAP in next polls. According to Vijay, the MLA told him that if they complete this ‘Quran task’ well, they were to be given more assignments in
UAE tells citizens to avoid national dress while abroad
DUBAI The United Arab Emirates has urged men to avoid wearing the white robes, headscarf and headband of the national dress when travelling abroad, after a businessman visiting the United States was wrestled to the ground and held as an Islamic State suspect. UAE media reported that the Emirati man was detained in Avon, Ohio, last week after a female clerk at a local hotel called 911 to report what she had described as a man affiliated to Islamic State, according to the Arabic-language al-Bayan newspaper. It only identified him by his initials.The English language The National said the receptionist at the Fairfield Inn hotel called the police after she heard the man talking on his phone in the hotel lobby. Gulf News, another UAE newspaper, published photos of the Emirati man in white robes being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed before being led away by police.In a message on
a Foreign Ministry Twitter account focusing on citizens travelling abroad, the ministry said on Saturday: “For citizens travelling outside the country, and in order to ensure their safety, we point out not to wear formal dress while travelling, especially in public places,” the message dated July 2 stated, without referring to the Avon incident.The Foreign Ministry, in a message posted on its website in Arabic and English, urged citizens to abide by the laws of countries they are visiting. It alerted women to countries in Europe whose laws prohibit wearing of face covers, also without referring to the incident in Avon.Local newspapers said Avon police released the man after they realised their mistake, but he fainted and needed hospital treatment. Al-Bayan reported that the citizen had hired a lawyer to pursue the case, saying he had received no apology from either the police or the hotel.
future,” said SSP Thind. The police have now booked Yadav under sections 109 (Punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) and 153-A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to
maintenance of harmony) of IPC. “We will be seeking an arrest warrant for Yadav from the court,” said Thind. The AAP described the action as political vendetta. Claiming that SAD-BJP in Punjab had gone “berserk”, AAP national spokesperson Sanjay Singh told The Sunday Express, “Akali DalBJP baukhla gaye hain. Inhe apni haar saaf saaf nazar aa rahi hai. Isiliye hamare MLA ko
fasaya jaa raha hai. (SAD-BJP have gone berserk. They can see their defeat clearly in the upcoming polls, so our MLA is being falsely implicated to defame AAP). It is political vendetta.”Yadav refuted all allegations, saying “I don’t know this Vijay Kumar.” “The allegations are baseless and part of a conspiracy. I do not even know details of this case yet,” claimed Yadav.
MADRID A tiger attacked and killed a zookeeper in its cage at a Spanish animal park Saturday, the local Red Cross service said. The grim discovery of the keeper’s body was made at around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) at the Terra Natura park in the southeastern coastal resort town of Benidorm. “The tiger was still in the cage with the 37-yearold keeper,” a Red Cross spokesman told AFP. Zoo staff put the animal to sleep with sedative darts after which the emergency workers were able to get in and pronounce the woman dead. There was no word on the incident from the local police. The Terra Natura in Benidorm, which is in Spain’s Alicante province, presents itself on its website as “a new generation” animal park, with a habitat area created for each of 200 species of animals.Fourquet said popular subjects include music, comedy, sports, video games, fashion and beauty. She noted that three-quarters of her viewers were younger than 34 years of age, and half were under 25. “There are very few of us old people,” Fourquet quipped. Self-described YouTuber Caroline Artiss has been a chef for 20 years, but opted out of restaurants and went to work for herself in catering in 2008. Then, a friend showed her how simple it was to make videos for YouTube. “It was just me and a tripod in my kitchen,” Artiss told AFP. “Then people starting tuning in from all over the world.” She recounted cooking her way across the United States for a multi-episode show after catching eyes at BBC America and a television network in Malaysia.
Artiss said she approaches her cooking videos from the perspective of a single mom short on money and time but needing to feed a family. She was signed on by a video network that describes itself as being tailored for a mobile generation and focused on “tastemakers” sharing passion for food and travel.“It still blows my mind,”
company specializes in technology for finding budding stars in a vast universe where anyone can post content online. “A 17-year-old in his or her own bedroom can compete with the likes of CBS and build an audience that would rival a major media company.” Keys to hit online videos include being creative and regularly posting content, according to Creech.Amateurs can outshine polished professional content with authentic connections that make viewers think of them as friends, he said.“Regular TV is about cartoons and YouTube is about real people and the games I like,” 11-year-old California boy and online video fan Henry Crawford told AFP. “Television is tomfoolery.”Paladin indexes millions of channels, providing analytics that can narrow down videos by popularity, topic, language and more. The YouTube channel with the most subscribers is that of Swedish video maker and comedian PewDiePie, who provides captivating commentary while playing video games.Hot online video trends include “unboxing,” in which people film themselves or others opening packages with unknown contents. A popular YouTube channel called Hydraulic Press features videos of things being crushed by just that piece of equipment.Amazon-owned Twitch on Friday announced that it is experimenting with a new “Social Eating” category in which people streaming broadcasts on the service socialize with viewers over meals.Traditional media companies would be wise to be worried by the trend, according to Creech.
Tiger kills keeper at Spain zoo
Artiss said. “I am coming from a single mom, living in London, struggling to pay my bills to having an opportunity to start my own TV channel in a way.” Artiss teamed with other chefs to open Gorgeous Kitchen restaurant at London Heathrow airport.She has a cookbook due out later this year and works with Youth Policy Institute to raise money to get fresh produce to low-income families. Naturally, she did a video. It can be seen online at app.mobilecause.com/ vf/YPIFRESH. An annual Vidcon gathering in Southern California has become a hot venue for YouTubers to connect with business opportunities and ecstatic fans. Some 25,000 people were reported to have attended this year’s Vidcon, which took place in June.“With the onset of digital video platforms and the fact that everyone has a smartphone in their pockets, we have democratized being a creator,” said Paladin co-founder James Creech, whose California
Issue 674 (35)
5 July - 11 July 2016
KOHLI EXUDES EXCITEMENT AT KUMBLE PARTNERSHIP “Virat Kohli is lucky to have a man of [Anil] Kumble’s undoubted strengths as his ally,” Greg Chappell, former India coach, wrote in his recent column for The Hindu. It’s something that Virat Kohli agrees with, too. “Having the experience of Anil bhai is a huge boost for team,” Kohli said, during the team’s pre-departure press conference in Bengaluru on Monday (July 4). “The bowlers have a strong support system because they have a coach who has faced those sorts of situations and won matches for the team. As batsmen, we are taking on our responsibilities.” Kumble has only started off as India coach a few days ago, but already the impact he has had on the team seems to be massive. “I can tell you the positives and the things that we already feel are benefiting us,” offered Kohli, when
asked about the difference from the previous training camps. “I have always felt that if you have yourself been in that situation and if you have executed that, you can explain it better (to the team). Because to teach the skill factor is a different thing, it is a very mechanical thing, (and)
Shikhar Dhawan wants consistency in his batting
Donning the opening batsman’s role for Team India is no easy task. With a laundry list of legendary names in its wake and shouldering the weight of expectations of over a billion fans, it’s a dangerous landmine. But it’s a role that Shikhar Dhawan has embraced with great fortitude. The stylish left-hander has been part of six overseas tours with team, but the upcoming series
against West Indies will be his first in the Caribbean Islands, a challenge for which he is leaving no stone unturned in terms of preparations. “I am excited to go to the West Indies. It is a big series and I am preparing well for it. Of course, it is going to be challenging over there,” said Dhawan. “Once I go over there and play the practice matches, I will assess what shots I can play. I will plan accordingly,” he added. The 30-year-old is keen to increase his consistency at the top of the order alongside Murali Vijay, especially with KL Rahul pushing his case for the spot. “My aim will be to be as consistent as I can in the coming season,” he said.
can become technical. But to teach and explain mindset is an entirely different skill altogether. Your mindset will only be created when in that situation, you have already done that and only then will you be able to communicate exactly what you want to say. “I think that’s a big difference - the person has achieved so much on his own and executed for the team, has won so many matches for the team, that exact mindset you can explain to the rest and can portray it. I think that has been the biggest advantage from Anil bhai coming in as coach. That was our singular motive to have him here - this is the man who has won so many matches for the Indian team, not just home but away too, more importantly. The more information we can get from
him on what skills are needed, what mental setup is needed to win Test matches, that’s the biggest help for us. He has been more than willing to speak to everyone - batsmen, fast bowlers, spinners. He has spent equal time with everyone, he has explained equally to everyone. It has been very good so far and going ahead, we are all very excited with the association,” he added. With the Indian team bound for West Indies soon, the relatively young side will need to gather all that Kumble can offer before their first Test in Antigua on July 21. The coach has already given the players specific aspects to train on, but there has also been an emphasis on communication and team bonding, something Kohli feels is very important.
Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh are my younger brothers says Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhtar has laughed off claims by Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh that he and Yuvraj Singh were once beaten by the former pacer in a hotel room in Pakistan. “I think he has made a big deal of it. Yes it did happen during 2004 when we were playing a Test in Rawalpindi. But it was nothing serious and all fun,” Akhtar clarified. “Basically we were horsing around and doing some arm wrestling and that is all but no Bhajji and Yuvi are my younger brothers no question of beating them up,” Akhtar said. Harbhajan narrated the incident during a show on an Indian television channel and his claims were highlighted by Pakistani media. Akhtar also said that any rivalry with Indian players was always on the field and not off it. “They got along well with me and used to come to my room and have dinner together. Yuvi wanted to go for sightseeing in Islamabad. We have been good friends so how can I beat them,” he remarked. Inzamam-ul-Haq who was
Pakistan s captain in the Test confirmed that such an incident had taken place in the hotel room. “But Shoaib was always very muscular and strong and even hugging him or shaking hands with him could be painful for other players,” Inzamam joked. Meanwhile, former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has warned people writing off Pakistan in the coming Test series against England to be prepared for a surprise. He also advised tainted left arm pace bowler Mohammad Aamer to remain humble on the tour and blend in with his teammates in order to sustain the pressure he will face in England playing there for the first time since the spot-fixing scandal in 2010. Aamer was among the three Pakistani players involved in the scandal and served a five-year ban for spot-fixing. “The best way for Aamer to counter is to perform on the field which I am sure he can do. But he also has to remain humble and not show attitude. He has to blend in with his teammates and win matches for them.
International Crikcet Council decision on LBW brings relief to bowlers In what comes as a major shot in the arm for bowlers, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved amendments in the leg before wicket (LBW) decisions of the umpires concerning the controversial decision review system (DRS). The decision was taken after the global governing body’s annual meeting concluded in Edinburgh on Saturday under the
chairmanship of former Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) chief Shashank Manohar. Besides that, a few major decisions were also taken. “The size of the zone inside which half the ball needs to hit for a Not Out decision to be reversed to Out will increase, changing to a zone bordered by the outside of off and leg stumps, and the bottom of the bails (formerly the centre of off and leg stumps,
and the bottom of the bails),” the ICC said in a statement. The new law will come into effect from October 1 or from the start of any series using DRS that commences just prior to this date, the ICC said. The ICC will also hold trials to check if the TV umpire can use replays to call no balls more accurately, and within seconds of the ball being delivered.
Issue 674 (36)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Decriminalise selling sex: British MPs London Amid evidence that students sell sex to pay their way through university, an influential parliamentary committee has called for change in British legislation so that soliciting is no longer an offence and brothel-keeping laws allow sex workers to share premises. In a first-of-itskind inquiry titled “Prostitution”, the Home Affairs Select Committee said it was “dismayed” by poor data on Britain’s sex industry, whereas its inquiries revealed such facts as sex workers having an average of 25 clients a week paying an average £78 per visit. Presenting an interim report on the subject, Keith Vaz, the chair of the committee, said: “Treating
soliciting as a criminal offence is having an adverse effect, and it is wrong that sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be penalised and stigmatised in this way. The criminalisation of sex workers should therefore end.” According to the committee, nearly 11% of British men aged 16 to 74 have paid for sex on at least one occasion, which equates to 2.3 million individuals. The number of sex workers in Britain is estimated to be around 72,800, with about 32,000 working in London. In England and Wales, the sale and purchase of sexual services is legal, but various related activities are criminal,
including activities linked to exploitation, such as controlling prostitution, or managing a brothel, and activities that can present
Pakistan honour killings grow more brutal as older generation challenges change Lahore Parveen Rafiq screamed from her rooftop, “I have killed my daughter. I have
saved my honour. She will never shame me again.” In the room below lay the charred body of 18-year-old Zeenat. Neighbours in the narrow alley who saw the smoke and heard screams rushed to Rafiq’s home, but the door was bolted from within. Zeenat was dead. Her mother had choked her, and while the girl was still alive she doused with kerosene and set her on fire. Zeenat’s crime was to marry a childhood friend she loved, defying her widowed mother’s pressure for an arranged marriage and, in the mind of her mother and many of her neighbours, tarnishing her family’s honour. Her death on June 8 was the latest in a series of increasingly gruesome “honour” killings in Pakistan, which has one of the highest rates of such killings in the world. In one case, a mother slit the throat of her pregnant daughter who had married a man she loved. In the city of Abbottabad, a teenage girl who helped a friend elope was tortured, injected with poison and then
strapped to the seat of a vehicle and set on fire. A jirga, or council of local elders, ordered her killing
as a message to others. The brutality and rapid succession of killings horrified many Pakistanis. The numbers of such killings have been climbing. Last year, 1,096 women and 88 men were killed in “honour” crimes in Pakistan, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In 2014, the number was 1,005 women, including 82 children, up from 869 women a year earlier. The
true numbers are believed to be higher, with many cases going unreported, activists say. Some human rights and women’s rights activists believe the rise in numbers and brutality reflects an older generation digging in against creeping change. Over the years, more women have been going to school and working outside the home, and social media have helped women raise their voices. More than 70% of Pakistan’s 180 million people are under 30, and some are challenging traditions to an unprecedented degree. “The old order of misogyny and extremism is falling apart, is really crumbling,” says Marvi Sermid, a women’s rights activist. Centuries of tradition in Pakistan tie the idea of a woman as an untouched commodity to a family’s honour. Traditions have been further strengthened by governments that often curried the support of religious hard-liners with legislation enshrining the old ways.
a public nuisance, such as buying or selling sex in public. In a submission to the committee, the National
field,” Dinanagar assistant superintendent of police Surinder Lamba said.
and 2015. There were 1,139 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in 2014, and 248 in April to June 2015 (following implementation of the Modern Slavery Act 2015). Vaz added: “The current law on brothel keeping also means sex-workers can be too afraid of prosecution to work together at the same premises, which can often compromise their safety. “The committee will evaluate a number of the alternative models as this inquiry continues, including the sex-buyers law as operated in Sweden, the full decriminalised model used in Denmark, and the legalised model used in Germany and the Netherlands.”
Guess what? Donald Trump becomes a Marvel villain
Los Angeles Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has got animated on the latest Marvel comic book. The GOP frontrunner, 70, inspired a villain named M O D A A K, which stands for “Mental Organism Designed as America’s King” as an apparent sly reference to the politician’s presidential bid, reported Ace Showbiz. M O D A A K is originally Marvel’s iconic baddie MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing). MODOK will become M O D A A K in “Spider-Gwen Annual #1” which follows Peter Parker’s one-time crush as a Spider-Woman after getting bitten by a radioactive spider. MODOK is famous for having a gigantic head. His real name is George Tarleton. He transformed him into a big-headed being after subjected to horrifying experiments. In his Trump-inspired
‘I love Pakistan’ balloon lands near Dinanagar, causes panic Gurdaspur Police recovered a balloon that bore a picture of the Pakistani flag painted along with a ‘I love Pakistan’ slogan from a field in Jhande Chak village near Dinanagar on Sunday afternoon. “A farmer, Balwinder Singh, was playing with his son in his field when he saw the balloon in his
Union of Students (NUS) cited research led by Swansea University into student sex work which found that almost 5% of students in the study had engaged in sex work at some time. The NUS explained: “Financial hardship is a principal motivating factor for students to pick up work in the sex industry. Continued efforts need to be made to locate those students who do not succeed in getting the financial support that they need within the existing administrative protocols.” In 2014–15, there were 456 prosecutions of sex workers for loitering and soliciting. An estimated 152 sex workers were murdered between 1990
The farmer immediately informed the police, which rushed to the spot. The ASP said the balloon is likely to have flown from Pakistan to India. News of the ‘Pakistani’ balloon caused a little panic in the area as three Pakistani terrorists had attacked the Dinanagar police station a year ago.
incarnation, his face resembles the Republican politian but his distinctive physical appearance remains the same. In a sneak peek, M O D A A K proclaims, “If America
will not act, M O D A A K must!” In the story, he also reportedly shouts at brown-skinned people, ordering them to get back on their feet.
Slain Pak Sikh leader’s family asks govt to honour promises
Peshawar Family members of a Pakistani Sikh politician who was gunned down in April staged a protest on Sunday demanding that the promises made by the provincial government to the victim’s kin be fulfilled. Sardar Sooran Singh, 52, special assistant to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister on minority affairs and leader of Imran Khanled Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI), was gunned down by contract killers hired by his miffed Hindu
rival after he failed to secure a ticket for elections. The protest was led by the president of All Pakistan Hindu Welfare Organisation, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chapter, Haroon Sarb Dayal, president of Sevak Sanskar Society Zahid Kumar and general secretary Rajesh Laland. The protesters requested the government to pay compensation to Singh’s family. They also demanded a government job for his widow.
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Health Artificial pancreas set to make painful diabetes jabs history by 2018 While syringes, pens, pumps and jet injectors have given diabetics options for their insulin delivery for many years now, a new device in the form of artificial pancreas could change the game within two years. The device, which monitors blood glucose in patients with type 1 diabetes and then automatically adjusts levels of insulin entering the body, is likely to be available by 2018, concluded a team of researchers. Issues such as speed of action of the forms of insulin used, reliability, convenience and accuracy of glucose monitors plus cybersecurity to protect devices from hacking, are among the issues that are being addressed. Currently available technology allows insulin pumps to deliver insulin to people
with diabetes after taking a reading or readings from glucose meters, but these two components are separate. It is the joining together of both parts into a ‘closed loop’ that makes an artificial pancreas, explain authors Roman Hovorka and Hood Thabit of the University of Cambridge, UK.
They added that in trials to date, users have been positive about how use of an artificial pancreas gives them ‘time off’ or a ‘holiday’ from their diabetes management, since the system is managing their blood sugar effectively without the need for constant monitoring by the user. One part of the clinical
need for the artificial pancreas is the variability of insulin requirements between and within individuals, on one day a person could use one third of their normal requirements, and on another 3 times what they normally would. This is dependent on the individual, their diet, their physical activity and other
factors. The combination of all these factors together places a burden on people with type 1 diabetes to constantly monitor their glucose levels, to ensure they don’t end up with too much blood sugar (hyperglycaemic) or more commonly, too little (hypoglycaemic). Both of these complications can cause significant damage to blood vessels and nerve endings, making complications such as cardiovascular problems more likely. The actual timeline to availability of the artificial pancreas, as with other medical devices, encompasses regulatory approvals with reassuring attitudes of regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is currently reviewing one proposed artificial pancreas with approval possibly as soon as 2017.
And a recent review by the UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) reported that automated closed-loop systems may be expected to appear in the (European) market by the end of 2018. They concluded: “Significant milestones moving the artificial pancreas from laboratory to free-living unsupervised home settings have been achieved in the past decade. Through inter-disciplinary collaboration, teams worldwide have accelerated progress and real-world closed-loop applications have been demonstrated. Given the challenges of beta-cell transplantation, closed-loop technologies are, with continuing innovation potential, destined to provide a viable alternative for existing insulin pump therapy and multiple daily insulin injections.”
This gene puts you at Reasons why you should add more protein to your diet! increased kidney disease risk
Proteins are essential nutrients for the human body. Every cell in the human body contains protein. We need protein to help our body repair cells and make new ones. Sources of protein include grains, legumes and nuts, as well as animal sources such as meats, dairy products, fish and eggs. Unlike fat and carbohy-
drates, the body does not store protein, hence it needs to be taken every day. A number of studies have shown that a high-protein diet aids in weight loss and metabolic health. Here are some reasons why you need to add this nutrient to your diet on daily basis. • Proteins are important for your mascular health. A
diet high in protein can help prevent muscle loss when losing weight. • Proteins boost your immune system due to the presence of beta-glucans and immunoglobulins, and thereby helping you figh off colds and flu. • A high protein diet can significantly boost metabolism and increase the amount of calories you burn. • Studies have shown that protein, including animal protein, is good for your bone health. • Protein reduces hunger and cravings, making you eat fewer calories and thus helping you to lose weight.
A new study has linked a gene, which forms part of our body’s first line of defence against infection, to an increased risk of a type of kidney disease. The University of Nottingham study found that the difference in the number of copies of the alpha-defensin genes was a major genetic factor in developing the condition IgA nephropathy, also known as Berger’s Disease. Researcher John Armour said that the observation that variation in the gene numbers for these alphadefensin genes is strongly correlated with risk of IgA nephropathy creates an interesting puzzle. He added that the data overwhelmingly support the association, but researchers still don’t understand what the connection might be between alpha-
defensins and molecular events that cause the kidney problems. The team looked at genetic variation in more than
system, our first line of defence against infection. Although the findings do not immediately suggest new therapies for the dis-
1,000 patients with IgA nephropathy, compared with more than 1,000 people without the condition, and found a significant difference in the numbers of alpha-defensin genes between the two groups. Alpha-defensins are proteins that kill bacteria as part of the innate immune
order, they will improve our chances of identifying those who are most at risk and offer a new line of investigation to understand exactly how the defensin gene copy number variants lead to kidney disease. The team is already undertaking the next stage of research to further develop our knowledge.
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A little butter a day may not harm your heart Consuming butter in limited quantities may not increase the risk of heart disease or stroke -- and it might actually be slightly protective against diabetes, finds a new study. The findings showed that patients suffering from heart problems or any related chronic diseases have no cause to worry as the increase in risk due to butter consumption was extremely small. Butter has been found as a healthier choice in com-
parison to sugar and starch-enriched food like white bread or potatoes. However, butter when spread on unhealthy foods like white bread may increase the risk of diabetes as well as cardiovascular diseases. “Our results suggest that butter should neither be demonised nor considered ‘back’ as a route to good health,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, Associate Professor at Tufts University in the US. On the other
hand, consuming margarine and cooking oils rich in healthy fats such as soybean, canola, flaxseed and extra virgin olive oils
Feeling heavy-eyed at work? Try some caffeine-less ways to avoid sleepiness
We all have felt it. That desperate need of one short nap after long working hours when it becomes nearly impossible for us to stare at our desktop. And just to combat drowsiness during office hours, we generally increase our daily dose of caffeine intake. There is no doubt that a cup of coffee or tea in the morning gives an ultimate blast of refreshment but drinking two-three cups of tea in a day is an absolute no-no for our health. So, let’s have a look on some easy yet effective methods to keep our-
selves energized all day long at office: Avoid eating carbs and protein together: Both require entirely different sets of enzymes to digest. A combination of both can lead to a lot of digestive difficulty and also waste energy that will ultimately slow down your work pace. So try to pair proteins with vegetables or carbohydrates with vegetables to satisfy your energy demand. Lighter lunch: Some carrot sticks with fruit shake or a bowl of green salad or green thick smootheis, that’s all you
need for a lighter lunch. A calorie-less lunch is the best way to keep yourself active. Stop sugar: Say bye to sugar-coated and sugar-loaded evening snacks. These contains some complex carbohydrates that takes a lot of time to digest. Try some workouts: This technique not only gives relife from drowsiness but also offers some amazing health blessings. For instance, cycling or a brisk walk for an hour activates your brain muscles and increases your concentration.
are likely to lower the risks compared to butter or refined grains. “Even though people who eat more butter generally have worse
reality using the Nintendo Wii system and the other spent the same amount of time doing simple recreational activities such as playing cards or dominoes.
Patients randomised to both groups saw a 30 per cent and 40 per cent improvement in motor performance at the end of two weeks of the intervention
stand the observed potential lower risk of diabetes, which has also been suggested in some other studies of dairy fat,” the researchers noted. The scientists conducted a study over a group of 6.5 million people from over 15 different countries. Over the total follow up period, the combined group of studies included 28,271 deaths, 9,783 cases of cardiovascular disease and 23,954 cases of new-onset Type 2 diabetes.
Fish oil during pregnancy may not shield kids from obesity An omega-3 rich diet and reduced consumption of meat that contains the so called “bad” fats during pregnancy may not offer children protection against obesity, the results of a longterm study show. Administering a special diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and low in arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid, to pregnant women neither resulted in children being slimmer nor fatter than their counterparts from the control group whose mothers had enjoyed a normal diet, the findings showed. “This special diet had no effect on the weight of the babies and toddlers,” said Professor Hans Hauner, Head of the Else-KronerFresenius Center for Nutritional Medicine at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany. Up to now, the general consensus had been that “bad” fats, especially omega-6 fatty acids, consumed during pregnancy increased the formation of infantile fat cells, while “good” omega-3 fatty acids protected the child against
Playing cards or throwing a foam ball are effective in stroke rehabilitation Activities such as playing cards and repeatedly throwing a foam ball or wad of paper into a wastepaper basket are just as effective in helping people regain strength and co-ordination following a stroke as playing virtual reality games, a new study has found. The study, published in the ‘Lancet Neurology’ journal, was based on a clinical trial conducted at 14 centres in four countries in which patients were randomised into two groups. One group received one-hour sessions of virtual
diets and lifestyles, it seemed to be pretty neutral overall,” said Laura Pimpin, Data Analyst at the UK Health Forum -- a charitable health organisation, while adding that butter was a “middle of the road” food. The study published in PLOS ONE, found mostly small or insignificant associations of each daily serving of butter with total mortality, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. “More research is needed to better under-
and four weeks after the intervention, respectively. “There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of strength, dexterity, gross motor skills, quality of life or activities of daily living. We all like technology and have the tendency to think that new technology is better than old-fashioned strategies, but sometimes that’s not the case,” said Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, scientist at St. Michael’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in Toronto.
becoming overweight. Since, in the animal model, an increased intake of omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and lactation
reduction in meat consumption from the twelfth week of pregnancy to the fourth month of lactation. The children of the cohort
coupled with a simultaneous reduction in arachidonic acids resulted in offspring with a significantly lower tendency to become overweight, the researchers investigated whether this result was translatable onto humans. Over 200 women took part in the long-term study. The study participants had an average age of 32 years and a body mass index (BMI) of 22. While half of the study group continued with a normal diet, the other half ate an omega-3 rich diet coupled with a significant
mothers were examined once a year until the age of five. “We then examined the children using three different methods: firstly we measured their skin fold thickness, then ultrasound investigations were added as these are more accurate and in one part of the cohort we also used MRS imaging to measure the fat inside the abdominal cavity,” Hauner explained. “The end result was negative: this special diet had no effect on the weight of the babies and toddlers,” Hauner noted.
Beware smokers! Excess smoking and narcotic use can cause infertility If medical experts are to be trusted, excess smoking and narcotic use can lead to infertility in both males and females. Doctors claim that cigarettes do not necessarily cause infertility, they can have an adverse effect on a couple’s ability to conceive. The problem exists in men as much as in females, the doctors said. “One should avoid using tobacco (cigarettes) and marijuana. They reduce fertility, especially by reducing sperm counts. Smoking damages sperm, making them less likely to fertilise eggs. The embryos they create are less likely to survive,” said Nupur
Gupta, associated with the Well Women Clinic.
Impotence?
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Issue 674 (39)
5 July - 11 July 2016
Waikiki Meatballs
Eggplant Croquettes
Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 2/3 cup crushed saltine cracker crumbs 1/3 cup minced onion 1 egg 1/4 cup milk 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 (15 ounce) can pineapple chunks drained, with juice reserved 1/3 cup white vinegar 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper Directions: In a large bowl, combine ground beef,
Ingredients: 2 medium eggplants, peeled and cubed 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese 1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs 2 eggs, beaten 2 tablespoons dried parsley 2 tablespoons chopped onion 1 clove garlic, minced 1 cup vegetable oil for frying 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper Directions: Place eggplant in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium-high 3 minutes. Turn eggplant over and microwave another 2 minutes. The eggplant should be tender, cook another 2 minutes if the eggplants are not tender. Drain any liquid from the eggplants and
cracker crumbs, onion, egg, milk, ginger and salt. Shape mixture by rounded tablespoonfuls into meatballs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place meatballs in skillet and cook until evenly brown, and meat is no longer pink. Drain excess fat. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, brown sugar, reserved pineapple juice, vinegar and soy sauce. Mix until smooth, then pour into the skillet with meatballs. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils, about 5 minutes. Stir in the green pepper and pineapple chunks. Heat through.
Honeyed Pork Chops Ingredients: 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 6 boneless pork chops 3 tablespoons honey 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and brown the pork chops about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer to a baking dish. In a bowl, mix the honey, water, soy sauce, onion, ginger, and pepper. Pour over the pork chops in the baking dish. Bake pork chops 1 hour in the preheated oven, to an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).
Chili Rellenos Casserole Ingredients: 2 (7 ounce) cans whole green chile peppers, drained 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded, 8 ounces Longhorn or Cheddar cheese, shredded 2 eggs, beaten 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 cup milk 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Lay half of the chilies evenly in bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the Jack and Cheddar cheeses, and cover with remaining chilies. In a bowl, mix together
the eggs, milk, and flour, and pour over the top of the chilies. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, pour tomato sauce evenly over the top, and continue baking another 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining Jack and Cheddar cheeses, and serve.
Baked Mac and Cheese
Beefy Baked Ravioli Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1/2 (25 ounce) package frozen cheese ravioli 1 (14 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese Directions: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Crumble the ground beef into a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir until no longer pink. Drain grease, then stir in the spaghetti sauce and tomatoes. Spread 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of an 11x7 inch baking dish. Arrange 1/2 of the ravioli over the sauce. Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese and 1/2 of the Monterey Jack cheese over the ravioli. Repeat layers, ending with the last of the sauce on top. Cover with aluminum
mash. Combine cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, parsley, onion, garlic and salt with the mashed eggplant. Mix well. Shape the eggplant mixture into patties. Heat oil in a large skillet. Drop eggplant patties one at a time into skillet. Fry each side of the patties until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes on each side. Patties can be frozen before frying and cooked later.
foil. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top before serving.
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup finely chopped onion 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups milk 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 (8 ounce) package elbow macaroni 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese 1 (8 ounce) package processed American cheese, cut into strips Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion for 2 minutes. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute,
stirring constantly. Stir in milk, salt, mustard and pepper; cook, stirring frequently, until mixture boils and thickens. Meanwhile, bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. To the milk mixture add the Cheddar and American cheeses; stir until cheese melts. Combine macaroni and cheese sauce in a 2 quart baking dish; mix well. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.
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