THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 658, 15 MARCH - 21 MARCH 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761
‘LET’S STUMP TRUMP’ US Indians detest the immigrant wall which Trump is keen to build by Maneesh Pandey Even as US presidential hopeful Donald Trump continues to prove he’s a force to reckon with, the Republican frontrunner faces stiff opposition from a small, but powerful ethnic community - the Indian-Americans. Azamgarh-born entrepreneur and philanthropist Frank Islam doesn’t mince words when he says: “Trump is the ugly face of America, which the world doesn’t want to see... He is not America.” Many members of the community who are contributing to the coming election as backroom strategists are in the opposite camp and want Trump to lose. From political advisers to media strategists, backstage directors to fundraisers, from those in their early 30s to the ones in their mid40s, Indian-Americans are participating in full force in this election. According to recent poll surveys, 72 per cent of IndianAmerican voters are with the Democrats. And if Trump becomes the face of the Republicans, the number will go up. Indian-Americans say they want to bring down the wall against immigrants which Trump “desires to build as President”. Trump’s comments against minorities, including Muslims and Sikhs, and the way Continued on Page 20
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Syria is like the Indian republic, says Grand Mufti Hassoun Accusing America, France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia of lobbying against Syrian interests in the Geneva peace talks, Syria’s Grand Mufti Dr Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun in an exclusive interview with India Today said the ISIS, or Daesh as it has come to be called, were killing people for money at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. While the leader extolled India for its secular polity, he also pointed that Syria was being targeted as it was “much like the Indian republic”, “the only country in the Arab region which has 25 different sects” and the “first secular country in the Middle East”. Hassoun, whose son was among those killed by the Daesh, also claimed that Syria was “not fighting ISIS as the terror group had been spawned off from several
countries. “We are fighting against 100 different countries. I would like you to know where the Daesh is. It is in Torabora and Pakistan. They have trained them and were supporting them and gave them all facilities. And they have set them free,” said the Grand Mufti. “They are manufactured by the USA in Afghanistan and the Taliban is one part of them. There is the Saudi school of thinking, which is spreading throughout the world in the name of Islam, which is the main power that directs them where to go and how to move,” claimed Hassoun. Hassoun suggested that war in Syria was neither a “regime problem” nor a “sectarian or religious problem”, rather it was just “power struggle in the
Middle East”. Non-aligned “Syria always refused to be with one side engaged with the other. The prime minister of Turkey has visited Syria five times just to convince Syrian leadership to allow parties to be based on religious thinking to exist in Syria, but our leadership has always refused this. The prince of Qatar came and he told us ‘You have to find the way, you have to go to the American interests; you have to do the American interests’. We have always refused. We were always with Jawaharlal Nehru’s way and that of Indira Gandhi: to be with the non-aligned movement; to make peace in the Middle East region as India is doing now,” the Grand Mufti said.
Himself a victim of ISIS, Hassoun said he had pardoned the killers of his son. “The atomic energy scientist, technological scientist and of course the religious scholars were attacked in Syria and one of them was my own son. I met the person who has committed this crime and asked him: ‘Why did you target my son, he has not raised weapon against you, we are part of you, we are one of you’. He said: “We got an order, a direct order from Saudi Arabia, from Turkey to attack either Hazarat Mufti himself or one of his family or his son, and they paid us individually $1,000 each.” Hails Indians Hassoun lauded Indians to have proved themselves in all walks of life in foreign countries, he also advised
the country not to be “misused” by the West. “That’s why I came to India to tell the Indian people that you are a wonderful people. The Indian people in Europe, in USA are proving themselves to be a very intellectual and intelligent people. Don’t let the West misuse India to make it a poorer country. Take care of your own country,” he said. Speaking on the Paris attacks, the Grand Mufti of Syria said the international agencies claimed that there were Syrians among the attackers but after investigations it turned out that they were Belgian and French. “They were born there in Belgium and France but they studied is Saudi Arabia. That’s why I asked Indian brothers to pay attention. Gandhi made
this land of peace and try not to tear it apart. I will always support the Gandhi way of life.” Asked about the ongoing peace talks, Hassoun said: “We are a country with a free will. There is no one to decide for us. We are independent, sovereign country. We decide for ourselves. After a five years of war, the UN, three months back, agreed that the final world with this problem is the Syrian people’s vote, but the ambition of Syrian people should be executed. Don’t you see what they have done in Somalia, Libya, Iraq and Yemen? They want to do the same with Syria. They want to decide for the people as if the people have no decision-making powers.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was instructing his armed forces to start pulling out of Syria, over five months after he ordered the launch of a military operation that shored up his ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “I believe that the task put before the defence ministry and Russian armed forces has, on the whole, been fulfilled,” Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with his defence and foreign ministers at which he announced the withdrawal, starting on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had telephoned Assad to inform him of the Russian decision. The move was announced on the day United Nationsbrokered talks between the warring sides in Syria resumed in Geneva. Putin ordered an intensification of Russia’s diplomatic efforts to achieve a peace deal to end the civil war in Syria, that has dragged on for five years, killed thousands of people and displaced millions, many of them seeking refuge in Europe. But the Russian leader signalled Moscow would
keep a military presence: he did not give a deadline for the completion of the withdrawal and said Russian forces would stay on at the port of Tartous
capability to launch them, from the base in Latakia province. Through its intervention in Syria, Putin has restored Russia status as a major
returns. Russian officials have said it is unrealistic to try to restore Assad’s control over all of Syria and the time had come to negotiate a peace.
forces have been able to achieve a fundamental turnaround in the fight against international terrorism and have taken the initiative in almost all
and at the Hmeymim air base in Syria’s Latakia province, from which Russia has launched most of its air strikes. Questions remained about the practical implications of Putin’s announcement. It was not clear if Russian air strikes would stop. Russia will retain the
international player capable of exerting its influence far from its borders, and forced the United States to reckon with Moscow’s interests. But there was also a recognition in Moscow that pressing ahead any further with the military operation would produce diminishing
“Fundamental turnaround” “The effective work of our military created the conditions for the start of the peace process,” Putin said at the Kremlin meeting. “With the participation of the Russian military ... the Syrian armed forces and patriotic Syrian
respects,” Putin said. “I am therefore ordering the defence minister, from tomorrow, to start the withdrawal of the main part of our military contingent from the Syrian Arab Republic.” By signalling the start of a withdrawal, Russia is likely to soothe tense relations with the
United States, which has accused the Kremlin of inflaming the Syrian conflict and pursuing its own narrow interests. “I think we did it to show the Americans that we do not have military ambitions and don’t need unnecessary wars,” said Ivan Konovalov, director of the Center for Strategic Trend Studies in Moscow. “They have been accusing us of all kinds of things and this is a good way of showing them they are wrong.” Russia has said it was in Syria to fight Islamist terror groups, but a large part of its air strikes were on anti-Assad groups which Washington and its allies designate as moderate opposition groups. Opposition fighters have alleged that Russia had combat troops on the ground fighting anti-Assad forces, but the Kremlin has never acknowledged this and so it was unclear if such forces would be covered by the withdrawal. Putin said the naval base at Tartous and the Hmeymim air base “will function as they did previously. They must be reliably protected from land, sea and air”.
Putin orders start of Russian forces’ withdrawal from Syria
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Fear Is Easy, Friendship takes work!
In the last few days, America’s electoral campaign took a dangerous turn towards outright violence, one that threatens to irreparably tarnish the image of the United States internally and abroad. Despite going on NBC’s Meet the Press and saying that he doesn’t accept responsibility and that he does not condone violence “in any shape”, the blame lies squarely with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who has a history of encouraging his supporters to forcefully remove protesters from his events. However, the latest outbreak of violence in Chicago sets a new tone in American politics, one for which many Americans is unprecedented in the modern United States. For example, on Twitter, Trump has out-rightly threatened to pit his supporters against those of Bernie Sanders, whom he blames for the violence in Chicago. “Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!” he tweeted. Although ardent Trump supporters are unlikely to be bothered, such incidents
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are forcing many, less-extreme elements of the Republican Party to publicly voice their opinion that, when given the option between Trump or their Democratic rivals, they could not support him. Republican contender John Kasich, for example, has noted that Trump has created “a toxic environment” which would make it “extremely difficult” to support him if he becomes the Republican candidate in the general election. During a campaign rally in Florida, another Republican hopeful, Marco Rubio, went as far as to say, “Do we really want to live in a country where Americans hate each other?” He’s right. More than the petty, childish insults or the circus-like atmosphere of the elections so far, such images go far beyond that. This week I am presenting to you an article written by a Amanda Terkel, Senior Political Reporter, The Huffington Post, titled ‘Justin Trudeau Cautions Political Leaders On Dealing With Voter Anger.’ Amanda’s article almost continues from where I left this column last week. She wirtes: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the type of leader that makes many progressives think about moving north these days. He’s a selfproclaimed feminist with a substantive policy agenda who talks about how government can achieve remarkable progress for its citizens if only people work together. In other words, he’s the opposite of Donald Trump. “No progressive movement can succeed if it doesn’t embrace the fundamental truth that diversity is strength. ... The optimism and the generosity that we see in our communities on both sides of the border — that’s what we need to focus on. You see, fear is easy. Friendship? Friendship takes work,” Trudeau said Friday. The United States isn’t the only place
where frustrated voters have looked for change. Rightwing movements SUNNY BAINS across the globe have taken advantage of people’s economic anxieties and “And unfortunately, we’ve gotten a certain insecurities. And Canada has not been amount of growth, but people are immune to these trends. Former Prime wondering, ‘Well, we supported those Minister Stephen Harper, a member of the agendas, but where are the fruits of that Conservative Party, stoked Islamophobic agenda to me? How come the growth that fears during his time in office. Trudeau has created tremendous prosperity for the tried to argue Friday during a speech in wealthiest hasn’t lifted the middle class at all?’ And there’s a danger that people will start pulling away their support for policies that stimulate and create growth if we don’t figure out a way of including them in the prosperity that was created by that growth,” Trudeau said. The prime minister said that during the 2015 Canadian elections, the Conservative Party tried to play into this anger through nasty - but effective - “Rovian politics,” referring to the underhanded tactics made famous by Karl Rove, the former aide to President George W. Bush. Trudeau said he made the decision downtown Washington that it’s possible to forgo that sort of campaigning - a move to counter those tactics - and still win that brought skepticism from many public office. It was a message that the progressive who said he just couldn’t win progressive crowd, brought together by without pushing back. “I said, ‘No, it’s not the Center for American Progress and that we’re not going to respond, but we’re Canada 2020, was no doubt reassured going to respond in the right way. And what to hear. I heard from Canadians across the country “First of all, you have to understand, if is, we don’t like negative attacks. But they there’s a rise of people being angry and work. ... (W)e found that indeed, perhaps being willing to point fingers at others for Canadians had grown cynical over politics, their problems, you can’t just tell them but they’d also grown very tired of having they’re wrong,” he said. “You have to look to be cynical about politics. And at why is that anxiety there?” Trudeau presenting a strong, inclusive fearless argued that people feel like they made a view of the future in the face of negative deal with the governments of the past few attacks was really really important.” decades: We will support your pro-growth Trudeau was in Washington last week policies, and that rewards will help not for a state visit with President Barack only society but also us as individuals. Obama.
4 detained for Dalit youth’s murder Police on Monday detained four of the suspects accused of hacking to death a young Dalit man who married an upper caste girl, who herself narrowly survived the brutal assault in a Tamil Nadu town. Political parties denounced the chilling murder of V Sankar in Udumalaipettai town in Tirupur district on Sunday afternoon and what they said was the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Sankar had married Kausalya, 19, who is from the politically influential Thevar community, eight months ago. CCTV visuals showed about six men attack Sankar, a third year engineering student, with sickles and machetes when he and Kausalya were walking on a crowded street. The killers apparently came on two motorcycles and appeared to have been shadowing the couple. Before escaping, the killers also thrashed the young woman, leaving her badly wounded. But she miraculously survived. Sankar bled to death on his way to a hospital. The attack was witnessed by scores of people, many of whom stood frozen by terror. Others fled the scene, police officials said. Speaking from her hospital bed, a dazed Kausalya blamed her own family for the cold-blooded murder.
Her father C. Gopalasamy surrendered in a court, saying he was scared and not because he was involved with the killing in any way. He was remanded in judicial custody till March 21 and taken to the Central Jail in Madurai. Sankar’s family said he and his wife had just finished shopping when they were
targeted. Police said Kausalya’s family was unhappy over her marriage outside the caste. Kausalya told a Tamil news channel that she would be able to identify the killers. She said she and her husband were threatened earlier too by a few men. She blamed her parents for the murder. Velu Samy, the distraught father of Sankar, alleged that Kausalya was abducted by her parents once and locked up in their house. It was only after a police case was filed
that she was allowed to return to her husband. He said Sankar and Kausalya used to get frequent death threats. Velu Samy said he had felt that his son would be eventually accepted by the girl’s family. “But that did not happen. We have lost him.” Police detained four suspects for the murder. Kausalya had reportedly recognised two of her attackers from the photographs and videos shown to her. Police and the administration had a tough time persuading Sankar’s family to take his body for cremation after the post-mortem examination on Monday afternoon. The angry family and other Dalits protested against what they said was police inaction vis-a-vis the killers. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has, meanwhile, sought the response of the Tamil Nadu government within a fortnight over the murder. Political parties preparing for assembly elections in Tamil Nadu in May condemned the incident but mostly chose not to harp on the caste issue. Dalit and Left groups have vowed to hold protests across the state this week. The Thevar community to which the young woman belonged is closely aligned with Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK party.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Rare Buddha sculptures sold at French auction for over 6m euros BORDEAUX 600,000 euros. A set of three Buddha The three seated Budsculptures from the 15thdhas were offered for century Ming dynasty sale along with other went under the hammer in pieces from a private colFrance for more than 6.2 lection originating in million euros, over 10 China and Tibet between times the estimated sale 1910 and 1925, the aucprice, the auction house tion house in Bordeaux, said, in a flourishing marsouthwestern France, ket for Chinese art. said. An Asian collector “These works of great rarsnapped up the three ity aroused much interest gilded bronze pieces, expected to fetch be- from... international colwhich had initially been tween 400,000 and lectors including many
Do we want to be loved? Or do we want to be understood? Is there not some risk that if we attain the latter, we may compromise our ability to attain the former? People are complicated. What if we form an attraction to each other based mainly on projection and assumption? If so, the more facts we find out, the more we may have to replace our romantic fantasies with dull truths. Happily now, the more you discover about someone, the more you appreciate them - and the same will be true for them about you. !!! The closer we get to someone, the greater the risk that we may cramp their style. Expectation, not love, is to blame for this. Expectation, though, comes from familiarity which, though it can also sometimes come from hate, is a side-effect of love, too. When we give each other freedom and let someone explore without fear of running into boundaries that we are silently, imposing on them, we break chains of tradition and allow the bright, inspiring growth of emotional discovery. That delight awaits you. !!! Situations test our patience. Conversations often test it too. We don’t, though, need anything or anyone to test our strength. We do that to ourselves. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if we hardly ever stop. That’s probably why we feel so tired so often. In what way might you be failing to live up to your own standards? The only thing you need to apologize to yourself about, is your own tendency to make yourself feel inadequate! Treat yourself better, and the world will treat you better too. !!! If you have been blessed by an inspiring idea or an exciting vision, don’t you owe it to yourself to explore this? Whilst your natural caution will encourage you to keep experimentation within safe limits, common sense reminds you that a small amount of risk is inevitable in any progressive venture. Pride is a much more expendable resource than money and there is really no shame in being able to say, ‘I gave it my best shot.’ You can change something that you once feared would never alter. !!! We are not always ‘there for one another’ in quite the same way as romantic novelists would have us imagine. Our loyalties often become unexpectedly challenged by developments that cause us to wonder, ‘why do I expect this from that person when they so often seem to disappoint me?’ Yet isn’t all that, in turn, a reflection of the way in which we allow ourselves to expect the impossible of each other? A relationship hardly matches the textbook definition of ‘comforting’. Yet it has its own magic. !!! Who wants a perfect love life? Who truly aspires to a state of idyllic emotional coexistence? We all know not to be so silly. Our dreams are to comfort us while we are sleeping and, perhaps, to cheer us up when we are awake yet sad. Yet if we seek to turn them into realities, we compromise them and, in the process, destabilize ourselves. Dare you now reach for the fulfilment of what many might call an unrealistic aspiration? This may just be the wisest move you can possibly make for the good of your heart.
Chinese,” it said. “They were acquired for a sum of 6,292,000 euros ($6.9 million) by an Asian collector who was present at the auction,” it added. In June 2015, an 18th-century Chinese scroll attributed to the painter Gu Quan sold for 5.5 million euros at Christie’s in Paris. In April 2013, a 17th-century painting on Chinese silk was sold by Briscadieu for 3.3 million euros.
Typo in Chinese official media calls President Xi China’s last leader Chinese state news agency was left red-faced after it referred to President Xi Jinping as “China’s last leader”, an apparent copy editing error which forced the rest of the official media to issue a correction to undo the damage. Xinhua itself had to issue a correction to the copy which had by then been widely reused, and asked outlets to change the reference to Xi as “China’s top leader”, BBC reported today. In the end, many outlets simply removed yesterdays article in its entirety. The two phrases in Chinese language are just one character different, but are
pronounced very differently, it said. The gaffe came as a surprise as it has occurred in the midst of increasing controls over the official media since Xi took over power in 2013. As the 62-year-old consolidated his power base by holding the Presidency, head of the ruling Communist Party of China and the military, the official media has been projecting Xi as the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong, highlighting his massive campaign against corruption. Thousands of officials including senior leaders
were punished in the antigraft campaign. Similar typos in the past have had serious
party - accidentally reported Xi’s “resignation” (ci zhi) instead of “speech” (zhi ci) during his tour of
consequences for the journalists involved. In December, four journalists were suspended after the China News Service - also controlled by the ruling
Africa. Censorship and arrests of journalists are on the rise and in 2015, China put 29 journalists behind bars, for a variety of alleged offences, the report said.
Forbes’ Napoleon collection goes under hammer Paris US billionaire and francophile Christopher Forbes’ collection of artifacts from the life of Napoleon III and Napoleon Bonaparte’s wedding certificate went under the hammer over the weekend, drawing numerous buyers and museums, French auction house Osenat said Sunday. “Ninety-nine percent” of the collection which included some 1,300 letters and manuscripts, and more than 500 paintings - sold during the two-day auction, Osenat said. “Forty lots were purchased or pre-empted” by museums, including the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the neighbouring National Museum of the Legion of Honour and the National Archives. The French government has a “right of pre-emption”
enabling it to purchase items that it deems should remain in France. The certificate from Napoleon Bonaparte’s secret religious wedding to Josephine in
coronation. Among other notable pieces up for sale included a painting of the Empress Eugenie surrounded by her ladies in waiting, which sold for
1804 sold for 32,500 euros ($35,700). The document is signed and sealed by Cardinal Joseph Fesch, who presided over the clandestine wedding that took place at the behest of Pope Pius VII as a condition for his presence at Napoleon’s grandiose
161,400 euros. The two large portraits of Napoleon III and the empress by German painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter went for 96,205 euros. The personal belongings of the imperial family were also up for auction, with
court dress worn by Napoleon III selling for 9,756 euros. Forbes, a frequent presence at exclusive auctions, could have sold the collection in New York or London, but instead chose the Osenat auction house which specialises in France’s First and Second Empires. Osenat is based in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, the seat of French monarchs from the medieval Louis VII to Napoleon III, who reigned from 1852 to 1870. A total estimated value of the collection and individual items has not been given. Forbes, who maintains a chateau in Normandy and founded the American Friends of the Louvre, developed his passion for Napoleon III after his father offered him a portrait of the emperor when he was 16.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Orangutan population up but threats remain New York There are more Sumatran orangutans in the wild than previously thought, according to a new survey. The latest estimate puts the population at about 14,600 - more than twice the previous figure, based on a survey of nests where the apes sleep. Ecologists say the rise is not due to population growth but because some apes were missed in past surveys. The species remains at serious threat from poaching and loss of forests, they report in Science Advances. Orangutans are the world's largest tree-climbing mammal - and Asia's only great ape. They were once found across South East Asia, but today are confined to two islands, Borneo and Sumatra. Their forest habitat is rapidly disappearing, putting their future
in jeopardy. Until now, the total Sumatran orangutan population was put at 6,600 individuals, based on data from 2004. In the new survey in 2015, orangutans were found in unexpected places, including at higher altitudes in the mountains,
forests recovering from logging and areas west of the Toba Lake that had not been previously examined. An international team of scientists says that while there are evidently more Sumatran orangutans remaining in the wild than once thought, the species
remains under serious threat. It is very important that these findings are not interpreted as suggesting that numbers have increased, nor that their range has expanded, the group reports. ‘The known current range is now 17,797 sq km (6,871 sq miles), roughly 2.56 times larger,’ said a team led by Serge Wich, professor of primate biology at Liverpool John Moores University. ‘Since 2004, Sumatran orangutan numbers have undoubtedly declined, and they continue to do so at an alarming rate because of ongoing deforestation and poaching/ persecution,’ they wrote in Science Advances. Prof Wich thinks it is good news that there are more of the apes in Sumatra, but says conservation efforts must continue. ‘The overall finding that
there are more orangutans certainly is positive because it is always good to have more of a critically endangered species,’ he told BBC News. But he warned: ‘The threats to the forest are as real as ever and the predictions we make in the paper for the future indicate that in all the scenarios we considered there will be continuing decreases in orangutan numbers over the coming years.’ The survey was carried out by counting the nests orangutans build to sleep in at night and rest in during the day. From that, an estimate of population size was made. The orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra are regarded as separate species. There are thought to be around 54,000 orangutans in Borneo.
February smashes global temperature record: NASA Syrian conflict produced 2.4 million child refugees
According to new NASA data, a combination of strong El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and human-caused warming drove temperatures in February this year to levels never seen before since records began in 1880. The data states that February had a global average surface temperature of 1.35 degrees Celsius above the 1951 to 1980 average. The 1.35-degree Celsius temperature anomaly in February beat the previous record high departure from average for any month seen in January this year. Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) tweeted the temperature analysis. “Normally I don’t comment on individual months, but last month
was special,” Schmidt wrote in his tweet last week. According to NASA, the global average surface temperature
during January was 1.14 degrees Celsius above average compared to the 1951 to 1980 average. This means that temperatures in February this year had the largest departure from average of any month in NASA’s records since
1880, ‘Mashable’ reported. The previous warmest February was in 1998, which was also a year with an extremely strong El Nino, NASA said. However, in an important indication of how far humancaused global warming has shifted the baseline state of the planet’s climate, February this year came out 0.846 degrees Celsius warmer than February 1998, despite the similar intensity of the El Nino events in both years In fact, studies indicate that with the highest levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere in all of human history, global average temperatures may now be higher than any time since at least 4,000 years ago.
Scrolling down disturbing photos and videos of the numerous people who died in the Syrian civil war, or the millions of people who got displaced and became refugees, will show you the sad state of affairs. But, this revelation by UNICEF will tell you gravity of the situation! Syria’s five-year-old conflict has created 2.4 million child refugees and children as young as seven have been recruited as fighters. According to a report, “No Place
for Children”, more than 8 million children in Syria and neighbouring countries need humanitarian assistance. A large number of people living under siege or are hard-to-reach, at least two million of those are children which includes 200,000 of them living under siege. The international response plan for Syria is majorly underfunded. Cases of starvation have been reported this year and nearly 400 children were killed in 2015.
for people living with dementia. “If you leave these people alone they will be going down very quickly. So these people need
can play with children. The project is still in the early development stage and no prototype is available yet. The child robot would be able to respond to questions, display emotions and recognize people. Aside from being a social companion, the child robot could supervise unattended children and inform a parent or nanny if something went wrong, Thalmann said. There are plans to program the child robot to speak different languages so that it can serve as an educational tool for children, she said. “A child has toys but they are usually passive. This robot will be an active toy which interacts with the child,” said Thalmann. “It will be able to remember what the child likes.”
First case of Zika virus Human-like robot may one detected in Philippines day care for dementia patients
Manila An American woman was infected with the Zika virus while visiting the Philippines, health department officials said Sunday, the first case detected in the country for several years. Health Secretary Janette Garin said the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) had informed her that a US resident who stayed in the Philippines for four weeks in January had apparently developed symptoms in her last week before returning to America.
SINGAPORE With her brown hair, soft skin and expressive face, Nadine is a new brand of human-like robot that could one day, scientists hope, be used as a personal assistant or care provider for the elderly. The 1.7-metre tall Nadine was created in the likeness of its maker, Nadia Thalmann, a visiting professor and director of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University’s Institute of Media Innovation who has spent three decades researching into virtual humans. Nadine’s software allows the robot to express a range of emotions and recall a previous conversation. Nadine is not commercially available, but Thalmann predicted robots could one day be used as companions
to always be in interaction,” Thalmann said, adding Nadine could provide conversation, tell a story or play a simple game. Thalmann and her team are also working on emotive robots that
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Drought cost South African farmers $1 billion JOHANNESBURG South Africa’s agriculture sector lost a billion dollars over the past year due to the worst drought in a century, the government announced on Tuesday. Poor rain saw the agriculture sector contract by 14 percent, according to the latest figures from StatsSA. The drought “resulted in losses worth 16 billion rand ($1 billion) across the sector,” an official statement said. The continent’s most advanced economy grew by an annualised 0.6 percent in the last quarter of 2015. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund predict that South Africa’s economic growth will be less than one percent in 2016.Shortages resulting from the drought will see
South Africa, the regional food basket, importing at least four million tonnes of the local staple maize. Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana said the country will need to import up to six million tonnes of food to avert hunger at home and meet its contractual export obligations to neighbouring countries.
The severe drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon has also affected most of the countries in the region, some of which traditionally rely on South Africa for food imports. The government has set aside 502 million rand ($32 million)to deliver water and refurbish boreholes in some of the driest parts of the country.
My virginity will change my future, vows South African student South Africa Thubelihle Dlodlo would not have made it to university in South Africa this year as her family could not afford the fees, but virginity brought her a lifeline.
out of university due to poverty, but now will continue her studies. Even at 32, she has delayed having sex. “There is no limit for us as maidens,” Sithole said. “We are going to get the
As long as she remains a virgin, her tuition and boarding fees will be paid by her hometown municipality until the completion of her bachelor’s degree in education at a Pretoria university. The 18-year-old secured a bursary or grant that rewards “maidens” in an attempt to curb teenage pregnancies and the rampant spread of HIV/ AIDS in Uthukela district, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the coastal city of Durban.“This bursary is so important because it will change my future. I can conquer the world,” said Dlodlo, wearing a green-andyellow miniskirt and multicoloured necklace beads.The size of the grants varies, but can be worth several thousand dollars a year.A fellow recipient, Bongiwe Sithole, would also have dropped
bursary (whether we)... pass with distinction or not. “With your body, with your virginity, we get the bursary.” Halfway through her fouryear teaching diploma, she is the oldest of the 16 beneficiaries of the grants. One of the conditions, however, is to undergo virginity tests, conducted by elderly women. Rights activists are in an uproar over the idea of virginity tests, let alone the procedure itself, which they consider demeaning. But the Uthukela authorities are unfazed. “The main reason behind introducing the bursary is that... in our district we have got a very high rate of teenage pregnancies, and a lot of young people are infected by HIV and AIDS,” mayor Dudu Mazibuko told AFP. Up to half of the population between the ages of 15 and 49 in the
district is infected with HIV and AIDS, according to municipal statistics. Idea from ‘maidens’ The number of teenagers giving birth in South Africa is high -- with around 25% of girls becoming pregnant by the age of 19, according to statistics cited by the fact-checking organisation Africa Check. “To find young girls that are able to abstain -- for us that is an encouragement and we saw it fit that we encourage them by giving bursaries,” said Mazibuko.She said the idea was mooted by the “maidens” themselves, who complained that they were not recognised, while their peers who fall pregnant get “rewarded” by the government with child support grants. But gender and women’s rights activists strongly oppose the scholarship scheme.Bathabile Dlamin, the ruling African National Congress women’s league chairwoman and minister of social development, slammed virginity testing as a “patently harmful practice steeped in patriarchal practices that serve to oppress women”. The Commission for Gender Equality’s chairman Mfanozelwe Shozi said the bursary scheme “looks very discriminatory” and violates the constitution because it comes with the “conditionality” that the girls must be virgins. And there appears to be no evidence of its impact on the HIV health crisis.
India is 2nd largest source country for migrants in Canada Toronto India has emerged as the second largest source country for permanent residents (PRs) in Canada, accounting for more than 38,000 or 15% of the total, according to the latest government data. The Annual Report on Immigration tabled in Parliament showed a spike in the number of PRs from India. The latest data for the year 2014 showed an increase of more than 5,000 PRs from India as compared to the figure for the previous year. India in second only to the Philippines as a source country for PRs. It has remained among the top three source countries, along with the Philippines and China, for several years.The report further stated that Canada will allow in almost 20,000 more immigrants this year than the number that was planned for 2015. This is the first immigration plan from the new Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship John McCallum stated: “Canada is a country that was built in large part thanks to generous immigration
programs and the entrepreneurial spirit of those who have chosen to make Canada their home. “It is crucial that the
(refugees and spouses and parents), one either has to reduce the size of the other piece of pie (economic class) or increase the overall
government of Canada’s programs and initiatives continue to adapt to Canada’s and the world’s changing needs, as they have throughout our history.”The government plans on reducing the qualifying period for citizenship from residency for four out of six years to three out of five.While the focus of recent Canadian immigration policy has been on Syrian refugees, there was concern that this would adversely impact the number of immigrants from other categories. However, this has been allayed by the report, as Toronto-based immigration lawyer Ravi Jain said, “If one is going to make some parts of the pie bigger
size of the pie itself. “The government has chosen to increase the overall size of the pie.” The plan also emphasises on family reunification and moving “towards granting immediate permanent residency to new spouses entering Canada, thereby eliminating the conditional two-year waiting period”, according to the report. Jain said, “I am delighted that many of my Indian clients will hopefully no longer have to wait years to sponsor their spouses. Many of my clients have been waiting for many years for their parents to obtain permanent residence and it seems processing time could come down here as well.”
Issue - 658 (8)
15 March - 21 March 2016
South African teen finds suspected piece of missing MH370 plane
JOHANNESBURG A South African teenager has found debris which will be sent to Australia for testing as part of the investigation into the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines plane two years ago, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said on Friday. Liam Lotter, 18, told South Africa’s East Coast radio he found the piece of debris on a beach in Mozambique while on holiday in December and his family took it back to their home in South Africa. He said that after a suspected part of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was found in Mozambique last week his family made the connection with his find. That white, metre-long chunk of metal is being tested by officials in Australia, with help from
Malaysian authorities and representatives of manufacturer Boeing Co. South African authorities plan to hand over the debris found by Lotter to the same Australian team. “We are arranging for collection of the part, which will then be sent to Australia as they are the ones appointed by Malaysia to identify parts found,” SACAA spokesman Kabelo Ledwaba told Reuters. Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board, shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean. A piece of the plane’s wing was washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in July 2015.
China’s restrictions on online content come into effect Beijing A year-old government rule is the reason why online publications with foreign investment will have to seek permission from Chinese authorities before publishing content on the internet from Thursday.State media quoted a newspaper affiliated to China’s top media watchdog as saying that a government “catalogue” had banned foreign investment in online publications.An anonymous official from China’s media regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), told the newspaper affiliated to it that the watchdog was following rules laid down in the Catalogue for the Guidance of Industries for Foreign Investment, which “specifically puts foreign investment in online publishing on the blacklist”.To publish, online content providers will have to knock on the doors of SAPPRFT first from now on. Industries on the list include books, newspapers and magazines, digital publications and audiovisual products, the official said.“Joint ventures between Chinese and foreign firms should first seek the approval of the SAPPRFT before publishing content online, including text, photos,
Iran MP sued over ‘no donkeys, no women in parliament’ rant Tehran Iranian women deputies are suing a conservative male colleague, Nader Ghazipour, after he declared in a video that parliament was no place for
“donkeys and women”. Ghazipour’s comments during an election campaign meeting last month have gone viral on social media. “Parliament is not a place for foxes, donkeys and women,” he proclaims before a cheering crowd in the video ahead of the February 26 polls. If you elect women, “they (men colleagues) might do things to
them and disgrace you”, he said. Ghazipour was elected in Orumiyeh, in a Turkish-speaking province near the border with Turkey. Women MPs along with a
number of men have filed complaints with Iran’s prosecutor general, parliament’s supervision committee and house speaker Ali Larijani, a leading woman deputy, Fatemeh Rahbar, told state news agency IRNA. “There has been an accusation against women, and Mr Ghazipour must be held responsible,” she said.
Ghazipour had sent an apology through mediators, but the plaintiffs “won’t withdraw their lawsuit”, Rahbar said. “His words have gone public through the media and gone viral inside and outside Iran. He should come out” and explain himself. Ghazipour’s comments were “an insult not only to women but to the entire parliament”, Rahbar, herself a member of the conservative camp in Iranian politics, told the reformist daily Shargh. Faced with the threat of lawsuits, Ghazipour has said he was not referring to women in the Islamic republic’s parliament or to female candidates in his own constituency. “I didn’t mean all women. There were two ladies running from our city in this election. You can ask them my opinion of women,” he told the KhabarOnline website. “If elections were held again right now, I would win twice as many votes,” Ghazipour said on a defiant note. According to media reports, unknown assailants beat up the journalist who posted the video, Hamed Atayi, on the street last week in front of his wife and child.
games and animation,” state-run Global Times newspaper reported about the rule that came into effect
The regulations, according to the newspaper, added that “online content publishers
on Thursday. The catalogue was jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the commerce ministry in 2015 but the rules were notified on February 4. “The clarification comes after China released a new regulation on February 4 that prohibits foreign businesses from publishing online content,” the newspaper said.“Moreover, the official from the SAPPRFT stressed that online publishing service providers within the People’s Republic of China must have their servers and storage equipment located in the Chinese mainland,” the article said.Local experts said the rule is being implemented to protect and preserve Chinese culture and ideology.But it is also seen as the latest effort by the government to restrict and control information circulated on the internet in China.
should ‘promote core socialist values’ and spread morals that improve the quality of the nation and promote economic development”.Even online game service providers who allow people to download or play games online are required to get SAPPRFT’s approval, the newspaper said. “There was tough regulation of anything online before and they shut down anything they thought disrupts social order. But a lot of what might have been common practices before are being put into legislation so China can argue it’s operating under the rule of law,” Paul Gillis, visiting professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, told The Independent newspaper last month when news of the new regulation emerged.
4 men injured after being shot at Muslim cemetery in Canada
Toronto The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said four men were shot at a Muslim cemetery just outside of Calgary on Friday afternoon. Sgt Jack Poitras said the shooting happened near Cochrane and the injured people were being treated at Calgary hospitals. A police spokesperson at the scene said all suffered non-lifethreatening injuries. Police said there was a funeral at the cemetery and a group of people remained at the site following the service. Poitras said it appears the shooting involved people who were in the group. Zouheir Osman, who is in charge of the cemetery, said a service for a 21-year-old man was taking place before the shooting. He said he left shortly
before the shots were fired. Osman said he didn’t believe the shooting had anything to do with the man being remembered at the funeral. However, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy said he spoke with two people who attended the funeral and they suspect the shooting was gangrelated. “It did not seem to be a hate crime,” Soharwardy said. “It looks like it was a turf war or gang war or some type of revenge.” The funeral was for a Pakistani man named Hamza Nazir, said Soharwardy, who knows the family. He said he doesn’t know the cause of the young man’s death. Despite police assuring the public there was no danger, a heavily armed police tactical team remained outside the Calgary Foothills Hospital on Friday evening.
Issue - 658 (9)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Chinese couple sell their baby daughter for a mere iPhone
Beijing In a shocking incident, a Chinese couple allegedly sold their 18-day-old baby daughter for $3530 to buy an iPhone. A Duan, father of the child, from Fujian Province in country’s southeast found a buyer for his 18-day-old child on the social media site QQ, who paid $3530 (23,000 Yuan) for the baby, state-run People’s Daily online reported. The man allegedly intended to buy an iPhone and a motorbike with the funds. The mother, called Xiao Mei, reportedly worked many parttime jobs while the father spent his most of time in internet cafes. The couple met at work back in 2013 and, after plans for their marriage were shelved with neither party meeting the legal
age, their child was born following an unwanted pregnancy. Both parents were 19 at the time and being short of money and finding his newborn daughter to be a financial burden, A Duan eagerly took up the opportunity to traffic her off in order to buy the material possessions he desired. Mei had fled from Tong’an after the baby was sold, but was tracked down by police investigating the illegal sale. “I myself was adopted, and may people in my hometown send their kids to other people to raise them. I really didn’t know that it was illegal,” Mei said. Mei has received a two-and-ahalf year suspended sentence and A Duan was given three years in jail, the report said.
$100 million stolen from Bangladesh Bank Dhaka Bangladesh’s central bank has confirmed that its account at the US Federal Reserve Bank was hacked and over $100 million stolen from foreign reserve. A Bangladesh Bank spokesman confirmed the theft yesterday amid media uproar after sources in the central bank hinted that unknown hackers had stolen $101 million of which $ 81 million entered the Philippines and the rest went to Sri Lanka to be used in casino business.“They ordered transfers out of a Federal Reserve Bank of New York account held by Bangladesh Bank,” said central bank spokesman Subhankar Saha. He said hackers had breached the security system of the bank in early February and stole credentials for payment transfers, in one of the biggest bank thefts in history.The hackers had sent 35 advices to the US Federal Bank but only 5 of those were complied with until the theft was unearthed, he added.Bangladesh Bank officials said while $ 81 million of the stolen amount entered the Philippine banking system on February 5 and several layers of subsequent transactions made their way out into Hong
Church action on paedophile priests tarnishes Pope’s 3-yr report car Vatican City Many words, little action -- three years after Pope Francis’ election, victims of priest sex
abuse are bitter and disappointed, accusing the Church of having failed to punish guilty clerics and end a culture of complacency on the issue. The recent Australian Royal Commission hearings of Vatican number three George Pell and a preliminary criminal probe into accusations that Lyon’s archbishop, Philippe Barbarin, covered up for a paedophile priest has put the question of Church complicity in abuse back at the top of the Vatican agenda.Francis came to power promising a crackdown on coverups and a zero tolerance approach to abuse itself.But victims still feel they are not been listened to, that bishops are still
failing to hand criminal priests over to the appropriate authorities and that a conspiracy of silence remains the order of the day,
right up to the top of the Vatican hierarchy. The growing discontent with Francis’ record on ridding the Church of the taint of paedophilia is in sharp contrast with how he has performed in other areas. As he prepares to celebrate Sunday’s third anniversary of his election, the Argentinian pontiff boasts genuine star status around the world thanks to his charismatic, simple style, his defence of the world’s poor and efforts to reform the Church and bring it closer to ordinary believers.But despite an encouraging start, Francis has failed to definitively draw a line under decades of abuse that ruined the lives of thousands of
young Catholics and tarnished the Church’s standing in the eyes of believers and society. Francis has made it clear bishops who cover up for abusers have no place in the Church and has put in place legal structures enabling paedophile priests to be tried under Vatican law. He also established his own advisory panel on the issue. But the panel is now disintegrating, with one prominent member -- Peter Saunders -- recently telling AFP he felt betrayed by Francis and that he had been tricked into taking part in “a whitewashing exercise”. Francis won plaudits for meeting with victims in Rome and in Philadelphia during last year’s visit to the United States. But recently, he has come under fire for declining to repeat the gesture in Mexico or for the group that travelled from Australia to listen to Pell give evidence to the Royal Commission.With the Oscarwinning film “Spotlight” further increasing public awareness of the abuse issue, “there is a real risk of this issue becoming the thorn in the foot of this papacy,” said Marco Politi, one of Francis’ biographers and a Vatican expert.Politi said the “decisive test” of whether the Vatican hierarchy was serious about addressing the problem was whether Church authorities were willing to hand priests over to criminal authorities.
Kong, the rest $ 20 million ended up in Sri Lanka. They said the thieves thereafter took an attempt to launder a
officials to the Philippines to demand the return of the funds. The US Federal Bank responded to the hacking, saying there
further $ 870 million through the same channel, but their plan was foiled after an American bank recalled the transfer order. “The American bank contacted us when they got their antimoney laundering alert to confirm if the pay order actually came from us. We straightaway replied in the negative and so the payment was stopped,” Saha said.Cyber security experts said the perpetrators of heist had deep knowledge of the institution’s internal workings which they might have gained by spying on bank workers. The bank said they launched a massive investigation into the theft and expected the amount to be returned while unconfirmed reports said the central bank sent its two
was no evidence that its systems were compromised in the cyber attack, according to international media reports. The bank said they followed normal procedures when responding to requests that appeared to be from Bangladesh Bank, which were made and authenticated over Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). A Chinese-Filipino businessman was the mastermind of the theft who had moved the funds to three casinos, where they were converted into chips for betting at the gaming tables, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The chips were then converted back into cash and remitted to accounts in Hong Kong soon after by him.
Drunk British man tries to open flight emergency door
London In a bizarre incident, a drunk British passenger tried to open a plane’s door at 30,000 feet, forcing the flight to make emergency landing at an airport in France. The 180-seat Airbus A320, easyJet flight was travelling from Marrakech, Morocco to Gatwick in London, on Monday when it was forced to divert to France, 650 miles away from its final destination and land in Bordeaux, after a drunk man allegedly tried to open the plane’s door at 30,000 ft causing panic on board, The Daily Mirror reported. The man is reportedly believed to be in his 30’s. Witnesses say the man began downing spirits
from duty free as soon as he boarded the flight. Following take-off he allegedly became rowdy, getting out of his seat and marching up and down the aisles of the plane. When the man’s girlfriend tried to intervene he then allegedly pushed her. Witnesses claim he continued with his rowdy behaviour going up to the aircraft’s emergency door as fearful passengers attempted to intervene to restrain him. After landing in Bordeaux– Mérignac Airport, French police rushed on to the plane blowing whistles and arrested him. “Such incidents are rare. We take them very seriously and always push for prosecution,” easyJet spokesman said.
Issue - 658 (10)
Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, D.O.B. 1989, 5’-3” tall, Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from York University, currently working for Peel School Education Board. The boy should be Jat Sikh born or raised in Canada, professionally educated and settled with family values. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: harjione@hotmail.com Or Call : 647-778-7619 ***660*** Punjabi Sikh parents seek a match for their Canadian born and raised, clean shaven son, 32 yrs. old, 6’-1" tall, handsome, Doctor MD, finished internal Medicine, residency and now doing followship (Specialization). The girl should be resident doctor (MD) or Physician, born and raised in Canada and from Ontario, beautiful, atleast 5’-5" tall with family values. Please send your bio-data & recent picture: sm9058@hotmail.com ***659*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 26 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, Mechanaical Engineer in India, belongs to a very good family. The girl should be Canadian/ American, Citizen/Immigrant, educatged, and family oriented. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call : 647-829-5872 (Leave Message) ***658*** Jat Sikh Gill parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 27 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, M.C.A., Bio-data administration degree holder, working in MNC (America) in India, beautiful, slim with family values. The boy should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen, educated, settled and family oriented. Please Call : 011-3463204-8994 Or : 011-91-9810174388 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 24 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, diploma in Computer and Network from Humber College, now on work permit and working as a Computer Network technician, handsome, clean shaven, vegetarian, nonsmoker/non-drinker. The girl should be Canadian Immigrant/ Citizen with family values. Parents govt. employees in India. Only sister married and well settled in Canada Please email recent picture and biodata to: nav_t@hotmail.com Or Call : 647-531-4760 ***658*** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daughter, 27 years old, 5’-6” tall, Canadian Citizen, MBA professionally employed. The boy should be raised in Canada, educated and professionally employed.
15 March - 21 March 2016
Please Call after 4 P.M. and Weekand any time. 647-6076723 ***658*** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5’ tall, B.Sc. Nursing, Registered Nurse (RN), Working in India, beautiful and family oriented. The boy should Canadian/ American Immigrant or Citizen. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call : 647-829-5872 (Leave Message) ***658*** Hindu Punjabi parents seek a suitable match for their son, 46 yrs. (look much younger), 5’10” tall, Canadian Citizen, P.hd, lecturer in Canadian University, divorced, vegetarion. The girl should be betwen 28-35 yrs. of age, Hindu, Vegetarian and family oriented. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: akgupta03@yahoo.ca Or Call : 905-320-6570 ***658*** Prajapat (Ghumar) Sikh parents invite suitable matrimonial alliance for their handsome son, 28 yrs. old, 6’ tall, working as pharmacy technician in a hospital. The boy is US Citizen with family values. The girl should be beautiful, well cultured with family values. Please send your bio-data & recent picture: sidhuinderdeep@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-510-965-8785 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 29 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, born and raised in Canada, well versed in both cultures and professionally employed. The family very well settled in Kitchecher Waterloo Ontario. Please Call :1-519-222-2673 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son, 34 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, born and raised in Canada, well settled in job. The girl should be beautiful, family oriented, born and raised in Canada. Please Call :1-604-671-0002 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their well settled daughter, D.O.B. 1981, 5’-6” tall, born and raised in Canada, well versed in both cultures, family oriented, chartered professionally employed in senior management position. The boy should be well educated with family values. Boy on student Visa/Work permit (well educated) may also be considered. Please Call: 647298-9665 ***658*** Tonk Kashtrya parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, born and raised in U.S., 26 yrs. old, 5’-1” tall, postgraduate in Public Health, well versed in both cultures. The boy should be well educated, professionally
settled with family values. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: rajjassil@gmail.com ***658*** Ramgarhia parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 29 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, University graduate, employed, ready to move on to next step towards marriage. Please email recent picture and biodata to: julyshaadi@gmail.com Or Call: 289-684-3919 ***658*** Punjabi Sikh parents seek a match for their Canadian born and raised, clean shaven son, 32 yrs. old, 6’-1" tall, handsome, Doctor MD, finished internal Medicine residency and now doing followship (Specialization). The girl should be resident doctor (MD) or Physician, born and raised in Canada and from Ontario, beautiful, atleast 5’-5" tall with family values. Please send your bio-data & recent picture: sm9058@hotmail.com ***658*** Lubana Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 27 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, Canadian Citizen, degree in informatic security from Canada, running his own successful businees, belongs to a very good family. The girl should be suitable educated, beautiful, family oriented from Canada/America. Please email recent picture to and biodata to : kuldipsinghshah@gmail.com Or Call : 647-721-2632 ***658*** Professionally qualified match for Jat Sikh, Canadian Citizen boy, highly educated, clean shaven, well settled, 40 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, issueless divorcee. Please respond with recent pictures and bio-data to: match7479@gmail.com ***658*** Arora Sikh Parents seeking a suitable match for their Daughter, 24 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall, born and raised in Canada, well versed in both cultures, working as a Registered Nurse. The boy should be born in Canada, living preferably in Vancouver (Lower Mainland), well educated, professionally employed, wears turban, no trimming, vegetarian, nondrinker. Caste No Bar. Call: 1- 604-308-2908 *** 658*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suiable match for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, 1986 born, 5-6” tall, Medical health care professionall, well versed in both cultures. Boy should be Canadian, well educated and professionally employed. GTA prefered. Please send your recent picture and biodata to: jotg1738@gmail.com Or Call : 416-564-0617 ***658*** Jat Sikh modern family seek a suitable match for their son, European brought up 32 yrs.
old, 6’ tall, handsome, MSc. in Business Studies, major in Accounting and finance. The girl should be Canadian immigrant/citizen, educated, family oriented, with strong cultures route. Sister is well settled in Canada. Please send your bio-data & recent picture:bspandher 20@gmail.com Please Call : 1-778-867-4101 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a match for their Canadian born Son, 34 yrs. old, 6’-2” tall, University educated, professionally employed, well paid manager. The girl should be University educated, beautiful with family values. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: tormgr13@gmail.com Or Call : 416-708-1392 ***658*** Ramgarhia Sikh well educated seek a suitable match for their only son, living in Canada, 30 yrs. old, 6’ tall, well educated, handsome, Non-drinker, sweet natured, doing good job. The girl shold be Canadian/ American Immigrant or Citizen, educated, sweet natured, family oriented. Widow or divorcee can also be considered. Caste no bar. Please send your bio-data & recent picture: jkhanjra51@gmail.com Or Call : 1-209-752-8454 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, born and raised in Canada, 30 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Masters in Clinical Psychology, professionally employed, well versed in both cultures. The boy should be well educated, professionally settled between 28-34 yrs. of age. Mainland area prefered. Please Call : 1-604-317-7576 ***658*** Nai Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 35 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, turbaned, B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering, working as a Warehouse Executive in Escorts (India) also running family business, family is well settled in India. The girl should be American/ Canadian, Citizen/Immigrant educated with family values. Sister is well settled in Canada. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: kkris1109@rogers.com Or Call :416-451-8176 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents invite 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 Call : 778-344-0303 ***658*** Kamboj Sikh parents seek a suiable match for their son, 41 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall, Canadian
Citizen, Divorcee, having 8 yrs. old son. The girl should be family oriented, residing in Canada/America/U.K. Please send your bio-data & recent picture: jammu75@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-778-772-4407 ***658*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son age 38 yrs., 6 feet tall, engineering and MBA degree from Canadian University, Divorced. The girl should be beautiful, family oriented and from respectful family. Please Call : 905-2753047 ***658*** Jatt Sikh Brar family seek a suitable match for their son, 28 yrs. old, 5'-9" tall, two degrees from UBC, professionally employed. The girl should be educated, beautiful, under 26 yrs. of age and well versed in both cultures. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: rbrar1987@gmail.com or call: 1-604 557 9070 ***658*** Hindu Medical Parents Kayastha Boy, 35 yrs. old, 5'6" tall,135 lb., Canadian Citizen, Very Handsome, Medical Doctor Montreal based General Practician/ Urgent Care Physician, flexible to relocate GTA. The g i r l s h o u l d b e v e r y f a i r, beautiful, doctor or other professional. Caste No Bar. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: shubhkalyan108@gmail.com *** 658*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian citizen son, 26 yrs. old, 6’-2" tall, clean- shaven, handsome, Non- drinker, Diploma in HVAC- BCIT, Transit Operator- Coast Mountain Bus CompanyVancouver. The Girl should be Jat Sikh , Canadian Citizen/ Permanent Resident, not more than 26 yrs. old, beautiful, professionally employed, preferably from Vancouver or BC area. Please send your biodata & recent picture to: gbala9999@gmail.com or call: 1-604 312 0526 *** 658*** Match for Hindu/Sikh Ramgharia Dhiman Girl, 30 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall, B.Sc., M.Sc. in Nursing, Vegetarian, Holds US visitor Visa. Caste No Bar. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: rupajagdev85@gmail.com or Call: 1-484-557-7706 or 01191-96460-12412 *** 658*** Match for Hindu/Sikh Ramgharia Dhiman Clean shaven boy, 31 yrs. old, 5'-11" tall, M.S. in Engineering/MBA in IT from US, Vegetarian, Working in US on H1B. visa. Caste No Bar. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: rupajagdev85@gmail.com or Call: 1-484-557-7706 or 01191-96460-12412 *** 658***
Issue - 658 (11)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Bangladeshi tycoon with $12 bn UN aims for Syria talks to produce roadmap, no ‘Plan B’ but war in Swiss bank faces graft charges Dhaka Controversial Bangladeshi tycoon Moosa bin Shamsher is facing
If convicted, Shamser could face up to three years in jail and a fine for one charge, and three to
charges of hiding information on his wealth and earning money beyond his known sources of income after he informed an anti-corruption watchdog that he has $12 billion in a Swiss bank. On Thursday, a case was filed in Dhaka against Shamsher, who is known to have a vast and shady network in many countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, as an alleged broker in defence purchases. Mir Jainul Abedin Shibly, a director of the AntiCorruption Commission, filed the case accusing Shamsher of providing false information about his wealth and failing to clarify how he accumulated so much wealth.
10 years in jail and confiscation of his wealth for the other. He did not react to the charges. Shamsher has been questioned by the commission several times in recent months after he allegedly failed to explain his position to investigators. In a “wealth statement” submitted to the commission on June 7, 2015, Shamser said he had $12 billion in a Swiss bank. He said he had deposited ornaments worth about $90 million in the bank’s vault. He also said he owned about 1,200 bighas of land near Dhaka. Shamsher allegedly failed to explain how he had amassed this wealth.
The probe against Shamsher began in 2014 after Business Asia magazine ran a story that provided details of his wealth. Officials said Shamsher claimed he earned the money legally through business over the past four decades. The businessman explained to officials that the $12 billion now frozen in the Swiss bank had come from deals for the purchase of arms by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Pakistan. His company DATCO is involved in exporting farm and industry workers from Bangladesh to the Middle East. But officials were not satisfied with his clarifications. Shamsher, who usually uses the term “Prince” before his name, was once the subject of a cover story in The Sunday Telegraph of London. He has been in the limelight for his lavish lifestyle.He became an issue during the 1997 general election in Britain as he reportedly offered the Labour Party and Tony Blair £5 million as a campaign donation. The party rejected the offer.
Israeli Holocaust survivor, born in 1903, is now the world’s oldest man
Jeruslem Yisrael Kristal survived two world wars and the Holocaust but doesn’t consider himself particularly remarkable, despite being named the world’s oldest living man today at age 112. The Israeli was born in what is now Poland on September 15, 1903, three months before the Wright brothers’ first powered and controlled aeroplane flight. He lived there after the First World War until the Nazi occupation in World War II, when he was eventually sent to the Auschwitz concentration
camp. Kristal survived and moved to Israel, where he has lived for over six decades. Guinness World Records confirmed today he was now considered the world’s oldest living man, but Kristal remained modest. “I don’t know the secret for long life. I believe that everything is determined from above and we shall never know the reasons why,” he said in a statement today. “There have been smarter, stronger and better looking men than me who are no longer alive.” His daughter Shula
Koperstoch was more excited. “It’s a privilege (to have reached this age) and I’m very happy and he’s happy too. It’s really a privilege,” she told AFP. Marco Frigatti, Head of Records for Guinness, said, “Kristal’s achievement is remarkable — he can teach us all an important lesson about the value of life and how to stretch the limits of human longevity.” The oldest living woman, at 116 years old, is Susannah Mushatt Jones, of the United States, who was born on July 6, 1899.
Syria faces a moment of truth, U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Monday as he opened the first of three rounds of peace talks envisaged to negotiate a “clear roadmap” for a future Syria. Saying there was no “plan B” but a return to war, de Mistura asked to hear from all sides but said he would have no hesitation in calling in the big powers, led by the United States and Russia, if the talks get bogged down. “If during these talks and in the next rounds we will see no notice of any willingness to negotiate... we will bring the issue back to those who have influence, and that is the Russian Federation, the USA... and to the Security Council,” he told a news conference. The talks are the first to be held in more than two years and come amid an unprecedented cessation in hostilities sponsored by Washington and Moscow and accepted by President Bashar al-Assad’s government and most of his foes. The truce, the first of its kind in a 5 year-old war that has killed 250,000 people, has sharply
reduced the fighting over the past two weeks, giving rise to hope that this diplomatic initiative will succeed where all previous efforts failed. The cessation was agreed after de Mistura called off a previous attempt to
disagree fundamentally on what that means, including whether the president must leave power. The first round of talks will end around March 24, followed by a break of 710 days, then a second round of at least two weeks
convene talks last month. The talks must focus on political transition, which is the “mother of all issues”, de Mistura said, while separate taskforces would keep tackling humanitarian issues and the cessation of hostilities. “As far as I know, the only Plan B available is return to war, and to even worse war than we had so far.” All sides attending the talks have committed to a political transition that will follow the war, but Assad and his opponents
before another recess and a third round. “By then we believe we should have at least a clear roadmap. I’m not saying agreement, but a clear roadmap because that’s what Syria is expecting from all of us.” De Mistura did not mention whether Kurdish leaders would be involved for the first time, but said that the “proximity” format of indirect talks gave him flexibility to hear as many voices as possible, and all Syrians should be given a chance.
Issue - 658 (12)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Two chemical attacks by Islamic State kill child, wound 600 Baghdad The Islamic State group has launched two chemical attacks near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing a threeyear-old girl, wounding some 600 people and causing hundreds more to flee, Iraqi officials said Saturday. Security and hospital officials say the latest attack took place early Saturday in the small town of Taza, which was also struck by a barrage of rockets carrying chemicals three days earlier. “There is fear and panic among the women and children,” said Adel Hussein, a local official in Taza. “They’re calling for the central government to save them.” Hussein said a German and an American forensics team arrived in the area to test
for the presence of chemical agents.The wounded are suffering from infected burns, suffocation and dehydration, said Helmi Hamdi, a nurse at the Taza hospital. He said eight people were transferred to Baghdad for treatment. US and Iraqi officials said US special forces captured the head of the IS unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq. The US-led coalition said the chemicals IS has so far used include chlorine and a low-grade sulfur mustard which is not very potent. “It’s a legitimate threat. It’s not a high threat. We’re not, frankly, losing too much sleep over it,” US Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters Friday. The coalition began targeting IS’ chemical weapons infrastructure
PoK continues to be terrorist launching pad, say exiled leaders Geneva Exiled leaders from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan have blamed Pakistan for sheltering terrorists and using its soil as a launching
pad for terrorists. “On the one side, Pakistan says it is fighting a war against terrorism, but on other side, LeT terrorists are roaming freely and extremists are rallying every day, the Jaish-e-Mohammad is operating, and the Jihad Council, the outfit which has claimed (responsibility for) the Pathankot attack, these are all benefitted by the state,” Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Secretary General of United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP) told ANI. “There are certain Talibani leaders who have the backing of the Pakistan government. So, this is not the right way to fight against terrorism that you adopt the policy of pick and choose, he added. “In our region (PoK), the terrorist infrastructure is still intact and we always say that this region has been used as a launching pad for terrorist activities. I firmly believe that terrorists will not make Kashmir free,” he further said. Kashmiri and others were speaking at an event of “Human Rights and Terrorism” on the sidelines of the ongoing 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “In Gilgit Baltistan all black laws are being enforced, the anti-
terrorist courts and military courts are acting against the political activists and leaders,” Chairman of Gilgit Baltistan Thinkers Forum, Col. (Retired) Wajahat Hasan Mirza said. The leader, who is now living in living in exile, also pointed out that establishing military courts in disputed territory of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan is a clear violation of UNCIP resolutions on Kashmir. The activists further voiced their dissent for the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and blamed Pakistan for using the law against secular, civil society activists and nationalist political workers who have been struggling for their fundamental human rights. “Recently, a case has been registered under anti terrorist act against a nine-year-old, Zoaib Ullah, in Giglit-Baltistan. We urge upon the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to stop political victimisation and immediate release all the political prisoners facing sedition charges,” Nasir Aziz Khan, spokesperson of United Kashmir People’s National Party said.
with airstrikes and special operations raids two months ago, Iraqi intelligence officials and a Western security official in Baghdad told the AP. Airstrikes are targeting laboratories and equipment, and further special forces raids targeting chemical weapons experts are planned, the officials
said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. The extremist group is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research made up of Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs under Saddam Hussein as well as foreign experts.
The group is believed to have created limited amounts of mustard gas. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when IS was launching attacks there in August 2015. There have been other unverified reports of IS using chemical agents on battlefields in Syria and Iraq.
IS using birth control to keep supply of sex slaves Washington The Islamic State is using several forms of contraception to maintain its supply of sex slaves, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing interviews with more than three dozen Yazidi women who escaped from the militant group. The New York Times reported that Islamic State used “oral and injectable contraception, and sometimes both” to ensure that the women did not become pregnant and could be passed among the fighters. “In at least one case, a woman was forced to have an abortion in order to make her available for sex, and others were pressured to do so,” the paper said. Islamic State militants consider the Yazidis to be devilworshippers. The Yazidi faith has elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam. Most of the Yazidi population, numbering around half a million, remains displaced in camps inside the autonomous entity in Iraq’s north known as Kurdistan. Until late last year, some 5,000
Yazidi men and women were captured by the militants in the summer of 2014. Of those, around 2,000 had managed to
clinic, said that number was much lower than expected, according to the newspaper. The United Nations and human
escape or been smuggled out of Islamic State’s selfproclaimed caliphate, activists said.The New York Times, citing a gynecologist who carried out the examinations, said that out of the more than 700 Yazidi rape victims who had gone to a United Nations-backed clinic in Iraq, only five percent had become pregnant during their enslavement. Dr Nezar Ismet Taib, head of the ministry of health directorate in Dohuk which oversees the
rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves. Far from trying to conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established a department of “war spoils” to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department on Monday.
Two teenagers face terror charges in Paris Paris Two teenage girls have been arrested and presented to an anti-terrorism judge suspected of plotting an attack against a Paris concert hall. According to reports, the girls aged 17 and 15, were arrested on Wednesday by counterterrorism agents as part of an investigation for criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist enterprise that had been opened a day before, the Paris prosecutors office confirmed Associated Press,
reports the Guardian. The prosecutors also said that both the girls are now facing preliminary charges of criminal association linked to terrorism. Early investigations indicate that the girls’ project appears to have still been in the thinking stage as no weapon or explosives were found said prosecutors. The prosecutors have requested that the youngest girl be placed in temporary custody and the other under judicial control. The arrests come months after
brutal attacks at Bataclan concert hall and other locations
in Paris, which claimed 130 people and left several injured.
Issue - 658 (13)
15 March - 21 March 2016
The new ‘punk rock’: More French teenage girls joining IS than boys Paris In France, more teenage girls than boys are drawn to joining Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, a high-ranking anti-terrorist
official told AFP this week. “Among minors, females are over-represented to a proportion of 55%” of those interested in making the journey, or who have already done so, the French source said on condition of anonymity.Like young girls across Europe who dream of reaching Syria -- and often leave their unsuspecting families shocked when they do run away -- these girls are not just dreaming of becoming meek socalled “jihadi brides”.While marriage to a jihadist fighter is their likely fate, the girls are as attracted by violence as their male counterparts, said sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar, who has interviewed many radicalised
French teenagers of both sexes. “Previously, violence was almost exclusively a male phenomenon (but) this generation has a different outlook,” Khosrokhavar
said.“I have spoken to many who say: ‘My ideal is Kouachi’” -- the surname of the brothers who killed 12 people in an attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in January last year.“They don’t want to be his wife, or his girlfriend: their dream is to be Kouachi himself.” However the complex road to radicalisation, during the fraught teenage years, has many sides to it, and one does have to do with sexual attraction. Khosrokhavar said many of these girls were tired of the “immature young boys” around them in the West. “There is a new cult of heroism, of virility. The young jihadist becomes a masculine ideal for these teenagers... it is an anti-
US-led coalition captures IS ‘emir of chemical weapons’ in air strikes
Washington The US-led coalition carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon has said, acting on crucial information from a captured senior insurgent. The successful multiple bombings came as a result of intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said on Thursday, confirming the name of the IS group operative said to be a chemical weapons expert for the extremists. His capture by US special forces in February -- Dawud was transferred on Thursday into Iraqi custody after interrogation -appears to be a major boon in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, and Cook said it had yielded almost immediate results.Cook described Dawud
as “ISIL’s emir of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing.” “His capture removed a key ISIL leader from the battlefield, and provided the coalition with important information about ISIL’s chemical weapons capabilities,” Cook said, using an alternative acronym for the IS extremists. “Through Dawud, the coalition learned details about ISIL’s chemical weapon facilities and production, as well as the people involved.“The information has resulted in multiple coalition airstrikes that have disrupted and degraded ISIL’s ability to produce chemical weapons and will continue to inform our operations in the future.”On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Jeff Davis declined to confirm that US forces had captured an IS chemical weapons expert.
feminist post-feminism: that is, they want a man with traditional masculine virtues.” ‘It is like punk rock’ British researcher Erin Marie Saltman, author of “Till Martyrdom do us Part”, a report on the role of women in Islamic State, says many of these girls are also drawn to the humanitarian arguments of recruiters. “It would be wrong to consider these women just jihadi brides - their reasons for going over are much more diverse.” Saltman, of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said many girls truly believed the Muslim population was being persecuted and they were part of an effort to “create security and a future for Muslims around the world.” “It is almost like a sub-culture. It’s like punk rock, it’s against the system to be joining this deviant movement,” Saltman said. “So although we see it as a very conservative, chauvinistic, oppressive movement, this is actually being interpreted by people involved in it as being like an underground social movement. And that appeals, of course, to teenagers.” Saltman’s report says more than 550 women are believed to be among an estimated 4,000 Western foreign fighters with Islamic State.
ISIS planning terror attacks on Britain, says national head of counter-terrorism
London Mark Rowley, the national head of counter-terrorism, has said the Islamic State wants to inflict an enormous and spectacular terrorist atrocity on Britain and may have trained people to carry out the attacks. Speaking at a press conference, Rowley said the nature of the threat from ISIS, which he calls Daesh, was changing. “In recent months, we’ve seen a broadening of that, much more plans to attack western lifestyle. Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader. And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we’ve seen foiled to date,” the Guardian quoted him as saying. Rowley, a Metropolitan Police
Assistant Commissioner, asserted that they still want to kill soldiers or the police and now posed a real danger of attacking western lifestyle targets. The police in the region have stepped up vigilance since the Paris attacks in November last year in which many were killed. He said that the ISIS targeted those people as recruits with mental illness, to such extend that that one counter-terrorism unit was now working with a trained psychologist. He also pressed that the number of women and teenagers being drawn were increasing. There were a record 339 arrests under counter-terrorism laws in 2015, 77 percent of which were British nationals, 14 percent were female and 13 percent were aged 20 and under, according to reports.
Docs with details on 22,000 Islamic State members leaked to news channel
London Tens of thousands of documents containing the names, addresses, phone numbers and family contacts of jihadis who joined the Islamic State group have been given to the UK’s Sky News, the broadcaster said on Wednesday. Sky reported that a disillusioned former member had handed over the documents on a memory stick that had been stolen from the head of the group’s internal security police. The documents are forms that IS recruits had to fill out in order to be accepted into the organisation, and contain information on nationals from 51
countries, the broadcaster reported.“Sky News has informed the authorities about the haul,” the news channel wrote on its website. No comment was immediately available from Britain’s interior or foreign ministries. Some of the documents reportedly contain the information of previously unknown jihadis in northern Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as North Africa and the Middle East, it said. “This could be a massive development,” Chris Phillips, managing director of counter terrorism consultancy International Protect and Prepare
Security Office, told AFP. “It shows how Isis is vulnerable to its own people turning against them... The potential for security services identifying unknown terrorists is greatly enhanced,” he said, using another term for IS. He added that the leak could inspire others to turn against the group, that the documents could be used in future prosecutions, and that they could help stop a flow of volunteers travelling to join IS from Europe and the US. “Understanding how people have travelled and who recruited them, is a key opportunity to reduce those leaving in the future,” Phillips said.
Issue - 658 (14)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Syria war left more than 270,000 dead, 4.7 million refugees
Syria’s war has killed more than a quarter of a million people, uprooted over half the population and left much of the country in ruins since it erupted five years ago. The fighting has left more than 270,000 people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which relies on a large network of doctors and activist sources across the country. Among those killed are around 80,000 civilians, including 13,500 children. Far more people are feared dead, however, with an unknown number killed in detention at the hands of the government, rebels or jihadists.UN investigators in February accused the regime of “extermination” in its jails and detention centres. Handicap International, a French nongovernmental organisation, said earlier this month that one million people had been wounded in the war. And a Syrian aid group in January denounced the incessant bombing of medical
US air force veteran guilty of trying to join Islamic State A US air force veteran was convicted on Wednesday of terrorism charges for attempting to join the Islamic State group and die a martyr, the first verdict from more than 70 cases the government has brought against Americans accused of trying to support the jihadist group. An anonymous jury began deliberations on Tuesday afternoon in the case against 48-year-old Tairod Pugh. He was convicted of attempting to provide material support to terrorists and obstruction of an official proceeding. “I think he’s sad,” Pugh’s attorney, Eric Creizman, said as he left the courthouse. “I feel bad for his family.” “Right now it’s just disappointing,” he said
facilities in the country, where it said 177 hospitals had been destroyed and nearly 700 health workers killed since 2011. In January, the United Nations said that 13.5 million people out of a preconflict population of 23 million had been forced from their homes. The charity Save the Children said this month that at least 250,000 children are living under siege, with many forced to eat animal feed or leaves to survive.An estimated 480,000 people are living under siege, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. About 4.7 million Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries.“It is the biggest population of refugees for a single conflict in a generation,” Antonio Guterres, then chief of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said in 2015. Most of the refugees are in neighbouring countries, notably Turkey, which has become the biggest host country with more than 2.7 million on its soil, according to UNHCR.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that Islamic State’s military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to contradict US officials who said he was likely killed in a US air strike. The US officials said on Tuesday that Abu Omar alShishani, also known as Omar the Chechen and described by the Pentagon as the group’s “minister of war”, was targeted near the
Congressional hearing. The US is encouraged by some signs from Kabul and Islamabad that point towards a renewed effort at improving AfghanistanPakistan relations, and Pakistani support for the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, Austin said yesterday.“The Pakistan military continues to play a visible role in efforts to reduce safe havens in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while at the same time actively countering VEOs, including AQ, Tehrik- e-Taliban Pakistan, and the newly-emerged
ISIL-KP,” he said.“During the most recent fighting season, we saw increased collaboration among Afghan and Pakistani military leadership. Commanders at the corps level have met multiple times and continue their efforts to increase interoperability between the forces. “Both countries’ military leaders are working to secure a bilateral border standard operating procedure,” Austin said. Noting that US-Pakistan military-to-military relationship remains stable, he said key contributing factors are the American security assistance and the Coalition Support Fund. “In December 2015, we participated in the Defence Consultative Group, a component of the USPakistan Strategic Dialogue, which focused on future initiatives that will help sustain US-Pakistan bilateral defence cooperation on shared security interests,” Austin added.
points, 180 jihadist propaganda videos, including footage of an Islamic State prisoner
circumstantial.” Prosecutors said Pugh was stopped at a Turkish airport in January 2015 carrying a laptop with information on TurkeySyria border crossing
beheading, and a letter declaring: “I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States.”During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors
Islamic State commander still alive, badly wounded: Syria Observatory
Pakistan needs to take decisive action against Haqqani network: US
Terming Haqqani network as the greatest threat to the US forces in Afghanistan, a top American general has said it is time for Pakistan to “take decisive action” against this Pakistanbased terror group. “We need Pakistan to take decisive actions against the Haqqani Network (HQN). The Pakistanis are uniquely positioned to counter the HQN, which remains the greatest threat to our forces and to stability in Afghanistan long-term,” Commander of US Central Command General Lloyd J Austin told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee at a
of the verdict. “This was an interesting case in that there was no direct evidence — everything was
town of al-Shadadi in Syria. Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said he had
been badly wounded but not killed and had been moved to Islamic State’s base of operations in Raqqa for treatment. “He did not die,” said Abdulrahman. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it gathers its information from all sides in the conflict.
materials found on Pugh’s computer and cited a letter Pugh wrote to his wife saying, in part: “There is only two possible outcomes for me: Victory or martyr.” Prosecutors said he flew there so he could find a route into Syria and join the Islamic State group. He was forced by authorities to turn back and was arrested soon after his return on a flight to New York City. Pugh was in the air force from 1986 to 1990, when he was trained to install and maintain aircraft engines and navigation and weapons systems. During closing arguments, Creizman insisted Pugh had no ill intent when he went to Turkey a month after losing his job as an aviation mechanic and telling his supervisor to stop “talking to me like I’m an idiot”. He said Pugh had hoped to move to the Middle East with his wife. He said his client was feeling small and inconsequential when he started researching the rise of the Islamic State group in the summer of 2014, impressed that Muslims somewhere were trying to establish a country and wouldn’t “back down from anything.”
Issue 658
(15)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Love Punjab Star cast: Amrinder Gill, Sargun Mehta Dubey, Yograj Singh, Nirmal Rishi, Manvir Johal, Binnu Dhillon, Rana Ranbir, Amberdeep Singh, Hardeep Gill, Harj Nagra and others Director: Rajiv Dhingra Rating: 3 Stars Pargat (Amrinder Gill) and Jessica (Sargun Mehta) are a couple who are going through separation for various reasons. They to-
gether have a son named Manveer (Manveer Johal) who has his own set of problems in school where he faces racism and discrimination issues. Manveer goes into deep depression and on the recommendation of the doctor, his parents decide to take him to Punjab to show his roots, culture and ancestral village. Jessica somehow manages to convince her father in law, Brar Sarpanch (Yograj Singh) to show Manveer the Punjab he’s dreamt of – A clean,
drug free Punjab. Will Manvir Love Punjab? Will Punjab bring the love back between Pargat and Jessica? Well find out after you watch the film. Here’s our analysis. At the onset, it may sound and look very easy to bring back a successful team (Angrej, 2015), but real challenge lies in transforming the new film into a goldmine at the box-office. Director Rajiv Dhingra makes his directorial debut
with Love Punjab. He’s been entrusted with a very big responsibility of making this film titled ‘Love Punjab’ which deals with various aspects – Child Psychology, Separation, Common Issues in Punjab – Corruption, Drug Addiction, Child Equality and the script which he chose to depict these problems ain’t a tragedy or slow art house cinema but mainstream commercial ‘RomCom’. Right from the word go (read ‘first frame), the film’s
writer Amberdeep Singh successfully hits the right cords. Amberdeep who is at the helm of things in the writing department is now a seasoned campaigner when it comes to flawless screenplays. No forceful scenes, no unwanted songs, smoothly moving screenplay with no hiccups and glitches, punchpacked dialogues. What else do you expect from a big film? The story revolves around a couple and their child. People always ask for something different from punjabi filmmakers and here’s a writer who has now given you 2 back-2-back really different from the league and yet entertaining films. Rajiv Dhingra, who marks his directorial debut with this film has done a lot of television as a director before. He seems to be in the hangover of television in some of the scenes. But he’s flawless in the other ones. I felt that Dhingra let go off some scenes which could have turned into classical moments in the Canada schedule which happened to be the entire 1st half. But when the film shifts to Punjab, believe it or not Dhingra is a different person all together. Maybe he got a bundle of talented actors to play with instead of just 4 in Canada. (Interesting fact – Punjab portion was shot before the Canada portion). As far as the performances
are concerned, Amrinder Gill seems to be in a different league all together. 8 years back, when he made his debut with Munde U.K. De, I personally never thought that Amrinder could act this brilliant one day. But he’s proved me and so many others wrong twice in 8 months time. He was brilliant all together but especially in the argument scene at lawyer’s office he was just too good. Sargun Mehta who won our (read ‘my’) heart(s) with her portrayal of Dhan Kaur in Angrej has won the same heart again. I wonder how she just comes to Punjab, delivers a power-packed performance and goes back to her regular TV life in Mumbai. This is just like the phenomenon called ‘Eat-Sleep-Repeat’ happening with Sargun. Amrinder and Sargun’s chemistry in the film was simply iconic. Manvir Johal as Young Manvir was fantastic in the film. I hope he doesn’t get over-utilised in films now. Coming to the supporting cast, Yograj Singh and Nirmal Rishi were just absolutely amazing with their characters. In some scenes, their chemistry was way better than the lead pair ’s chemistry. Maybe I haven’t seen them in this much significant roles as this one in recent times. There were 3 guest appearances in this film – Rana Ranbir (2 scenes), Amberdeep Singh (3/4 scenes), Binnu Dhillon (4/ 5 scenes). All of them had the same job – to make
you laugh and they do it with ease, especially Binnu Dhillon. As soon as he comes on screen people laugh as they see his face. Rest of the support cast comprises of Hardeep Gill, Harby Sangha, Harj Nagra, Gurinder Makna and others. All of the support cast fit into their roles well. One or two here and there did not fit but who cares? Hardeep Gill was wasted here. The actor of his potential shall be doing bigger roles and not 2-3 scene roles. Harj Nagra as Zora had a forgettable onscreen debut. Coming to music, no prizes for guessing who the music composer was. 3 mainstream releases this year and just one name for music – Jatinder Shah.
He’s such a busy man, I wonder does he even remember which song he composes for which film? Here Shaan Wakhri was the best of the lot followed by Heerey, Des (Ranjit Bawa), Goriyan Bahvan, Akhiyan De Taare. Basically the whole 7 track album is a complete package. My review will not be complete if I do not mention Naveen Misser’s cinematography. He was just brilliant at his job. I loved his work. Overall, Love Punjab is an entertaining gem. Brilliant performances, superb and new story, power packed dialogues (hell lots of punches), foot tapping music. Isn’t this much package enough a reason to watch this film? If Yes, go watch it then!
Himesh Reshammiya is a mopey gangster in this listless love story Director: Shawn Arranha Cast: Himesh Reshammiya, Farah Karimi, Shekhar Kapur, Kabir Bedi, Naserruddin Shah, Monica Dogra Ratings: 1 Star Himesh Reshammiya’s largely self-funded experiments in front of the screen have seen him live out his fantasies. In Teraa Surroor, Reshammiya, unlike his sardonic 1960s actor of The Xpose, is a sulking gangster. Simply put he is
no fun. He is in the picturesque Dublin but all he does is lean against whatever he can find and peers into oblivion or walk among crowds and look like he could do with a hug. That’s because Dublin has imprisoned his bae Tara, who unknown to her was trafficking drugs. At 1 hour 46 minutes Teraa Surroor is shorter than most Hindi features but it is such a drag because sentences often are repeated both in Hindi and English, everything is spelt out by Raghu
the narrator and director Shawn Arranha believes that this wafer-thin, “very lethal” love story will seem opulent and stylish if it was presented in slo-mo. Teraa Surroor is Himesh telling the world that he can be a gangster with swag and a one-man army like his mentor Salman Khan. Desperately missing is the charisma. He has built a body which he flaunts by wearing vests when everyone else seems to have a jacket on in Dublin. He holds a gun as if he is pro-
moting some piece of jewellery. Even when he walks, he wants one to know that he has made an effort to make himself stand out from the crowd. If Raghu intends to be conspicuous, then he isn’t doing a good job. Raghu comes to Dublin to get Tara out of prison and to find some chap called Anirudh Brahmin, whose only claim to fame is that he is perhaps Bollywood’s first multi -instrumentalist villain. Raghu Romeo has some people to help him in his noble endeavour.
Issue 658
(16)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Sidharth is close friend of mine and will always be says Alia Bhatt Alia Bhatt has time and again been linked with actor Sidharth Malhotra, but the actress says he is just a “close friend”. The 22-year-old actress and Sidharth made debut together with Karan Johar’s “Student of the Year” and reports of their romance have been surfacing since quite some time. Sidharth is close friend of mine and will always be: Alia Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt However such rumours does not affect Alia as she will continue sharing the bond she has with the 31-yearold actor. “I have made it very clear that he (Sidharth) is a very close friend of mine and shall remain as such,” Alia told PTI. The actress was in the
city along with Fawad Khan and Sidharth to promote their upcoming film “Kapoor & Sons” and said she was happy to see the “Ek Villain” actor playing a lighter character. “I was very happy for him that he was improvising to play the lighter role. I have seen this side of an intense and brooding type and not seen him playing a lighter role. I think it is a new take on his career, for sure,” she said. The film is about a dysfunctional family and the “Highway” actress said Rishi Kapoor, who plays the grandfather, is the force which brings everyone together. His desire to have a family picture binds the family. “Kapoor & Sons” has been directed by Shakun Batra and praising the helmer, Alia said he is a director of this generation and his treatment of the story is new. “Shakun represents the voice of today’s perspective of relationships. He has treated the subject of relationships differently,” she said.
Hope Salman and SRK will do film together says Karan Johar Filmmaker Karan Johar today expressed hope that superstars Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan will do a film together in future. Both the Khans recently buried their hatchets after a long spell of cold war. “I think everybody should hope that Salman Khan and
Shah Rukh Khan do a film together. The show happens. I hope one day we will be an audience to great cinema with Salman and Shah Rukh in a film,” Johar told reporters here when asked about bringing the ‘Dabangg’ star and SRK together on “Koffee with Karan”.
Children’s films not given encouragement in industry says Jimmy Sheirgill
Actor Jimmy Sheirgill says the Indian film industry does not encourage movies made for children and that it is important to support such films to help them relate to important issues. “I’m supporting a children’s film. We need to promote it as much as we can because we see that usually children’s films are not given that much encouragement in our industry,” said Jimmy. “People should support such films, especially a film which gives a very big message,” said the actor who was present here at a college festival on Friday to promote his film ‘Shortut Safari.’ ‘Shortcut Safari’ is a non-animated film featuring kids who set off on a school trip to a national park but lose their way into
the forest. They face real wildlife and real dangers there. Jimmy, who plays an important role in the film, said that “it is completely a kids’ film and they are the heroes”. “The film’s central theme is based on environment. It is very important that children are made aware about issues like global warming. If we try to teach them about such issues in a serious way, then perhaps they might not show that much interest,” he said. “You make an adventurous film with an enjoyable story and children can relate to it, and in that, somehow you convey your thoughts about environment,” the actor noted. Last year, Jimmy was seen in ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’.
‘NH10’ clocks one, Anushka Sharma to start ‘Phillauri’ It has been a year since the release of Anushka Sharma’s debut production ‘NH10’ and the actress’ next production venture ‘Phillauri’ is
ready to go on floors next month. “‘NH10’ completes a year today. The journey was a tough one but so rewarding too. Thanks to an amazing cast and crew who made it possible and you all,” tweeted Anushka on Sunday. ‘NH10’, a thriller, was directed by Navdeep Singh and starred Neil
Bhoopalam with Anushka. Co-produced by Phantom Films and Eros International, the hard-hitting and intense movie revolves around a young couple whose road trip goes awry after an encounter with a group of violent criminals.
The ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ actress is now working towards ‘Phillauri’, a romantic film, which she will co-produce and star in. “And it’s so gratifying that we at Clean Slate Films start another production in one year after NH10 with Phillauri this April,” she wrote. The 27-year-old actress is co-producing the film with Fox Star Studios.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Don’t miss Tom Holland’s Spider-Man
Proud to see India’s representation in Hollywood says Freida Pinto There has been a positive influx of Indian talents in Hollywood projects and actress Freida Pinto, who was catapulted to fame after Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, says she is proud to see her country getting representation and recognition globally. Actors like Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Irrfan and Nimrat Kaur have bagged roles in international projects, thanks to the changing content be it in televison or films in the west. Freida has lauded the trend and said she is looking forward to seeing many more actors from the country find a footing in Hollywood in the coming years. “I definitely feel so proud that our country is getting recognition and representation. They are all being seen as global actors. But there is more to come and that is all I can think of,” Freida told PTI. The 31-year-old actress criticised the categorisation of the roles of Indian actors in international projects as small or big as she feels the fact that they managed to get into the bustling, crowded LA-based film industry is incredible. “I understand the sentiment when people say ‘chota role play kiya hain’. That is very convenient to say. The fact that someone has actually got through the door is enormous in itself. What a massive lottery game it is to be in the film industry. Let us not separate the two,” she said. The actress herself has played non-lead roles in many films and says every small contribution by any performer helps the film and must be taken into consideration. “Not all actors started off playing lead roles. Every little contribution by any actor has to be absolutely taken into consideration. You have to account for it.
It does not matter how big or small the role is.” In her eight-year-long career, Freida has worked with the likes of Woody Allen, Danny Boyle, Michael Winterbottom, Tarsem Singh and Terrence Malick in “Knights Of Cup”, which released in the US this Friday. Freida says everyday there is a constant need for validation, but she has learned not to chase after projects and does not regret things which she had to let go off. “I don’t think I would have done anything differently because I am still going on. There are many things like first of all the constant need for validation and expectation, awards and money as well. “Earlier, I used to think I wish I could pick that (role) but I have stopped doing that now. Everyone gets what they deserve. I believe everything happens in the right place at the right time. At the end of it you have to work hard.” In her latest release “Knights Of Cup”, Freida has worked under the direction of Mallik, who rarely makes public appearances and the actress says when she asked the director about it he said he was too shy. “I remember at the film’s premiere the actors were there. It is so interesting to see that the guy who makes all these films and he does not talk about them. He told me, ‘I am very shy’. He is very humble. It is incredible.” For Freida it was a double treat she not just got a chance to meet a man who is a “raresighting” but also bagged an opportunity to be a part of this beautiful journey. “The process of filmmaking is so much more important to him than just the end product. When you do his film, each actor has a uniquely beautiful experience. I
have learnt so much from the film. It was a brilliant experience and I am grateful for it,” she said. Talking about her character Helen in the film, Freida says she plays a combination of a model, singer dancer and eventually a yogi, opposite Christian Bale’s Rick. Her on-screen persona is akin to her real-life situation, which is currently going through a transi-
Lindsay Lohan turned Harry Styles down Lindsay Lohan has revealed that One Direction member Harry Styles once turned up at her hotel room for some fun but she politely asked him to leave because she didn’t recognise him. “I didn’t know it was him,” Lohan revealed, adding that she didn’t even recognise Styles, who was dressed in a suit and a pair of boots, reports aceshobwiz.com. “He was in a suit. I said, ‘Well, you are very good-looking can I help you?’ That was it,” Lohan was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper. Although Styles mentioned his first name, Lohan didn’t permit him to enter her room. She then politely closed the door on him. “He was like, ‘I’m Harry. Gavin and Michael sent me here.’ I was in bed. I was like, ‘I’m going to bed but it was nice to meet you,’“ she added. The actor explained that Styles knocked on her door at 2 a.m., when she had just come back from a meeting, so she was pretty tired at that time.
tion. “I am not just a model. My character is a singer, dancer then she becomes a yogi. It is a combination of different things. It is quite like what is happening in my own life. This girl and her life is in a state of transition. It is constantly moving from one point to another.”
Iconic Marvel Comics character Spider-Man has made his first appearance in the larger Marvel comic book universe in the second trailer for the upcoming Captain America Civil War. In February 2015, Sony Pictures, who hold the cinematic rights to the web-slinging superhero, and Marvel Studios reached an agreement for the character to appear in the Walt Disney Avengers franchise as well as a 2017 stand-alone movie under Sony. Then, in June of 2015, Marvel Studios announced that little known English actor Tom Holland had been picked to play the alter ego of Peter Parker, who has previously been brought to life by actors Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. The character appears at the end of the trailer released on Thursday wrenching Captain America’s shield off him and then saying “Hey, everyone.” Spider-Man isn’t the only new Marvel Comics’ character to make a prominent appearance in the trailer.
Reese Witherspoon’s ‘Legally Blonde’ chihuahua dies
Reese Witherspoon is mourning the loss of her “Legally Blonde” chihuahua co-star Moonie. The dog starred alongside Witherspoon as Bruiser Woods in the 2001 film. He passed away on Thursday at the age of 18. “With a sad heart, I have to let all the #LegallyBlonde fans know that Bruiser Woods (also known as Moonie) passed away yesterday,” Witherspoon
wrote on Instagram. “He was a sweet little Chihuahua who was very loved. I will never forget all the days we spent together ... I’m sure his tail is wagging in the sky. Sending love to his trainer, the wonderful @tailsticks #RIPBruiser.” Moonie was a rescue dog before shooting to fame in the movie as the pampered pup, who was always dressed in pink.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Scepticism over future of Wild bear kills three people Modi-Sikh talks in London in India before being shot
London Leading figures who participated in Sikh-related talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in London in November last year have turned sceptical about his
London meeting, told Hindustan Times on Sunday that “the main organisations (supporting the talks) are still sceptical about Modi’s intentions”. He said further talks
ability to deliver promises due to follow-up talks lacking clarity and political representation. The London meeting with Modi was described as a “major breakthrough after 31 years of standoff” between overseas Sikhs and the Indian state. National security adviser Ajit Doval was asked at the talks to carry forward the dialogue. Jasdev Singh Rai, the chief interlocutor in the
will depend on the promised release of political prisoners. During a meeting in January, Rai was told by Doval that the process to release 42 political prisoners – including Davinderpal Singh Bhuller – had been initiated. Doval also suggested periodic meetings in Delhi with delegation of Sikhs from across the world. Rai said: “The release of political prisoners will go
some way to reduce that scepticism. The process of the talks is still with bureaucrats. There is no heavyweight politician involved on behalf of the Prime Minister.” “Further, there is no clarity on what and who the government wishes to talk to. Is it with the Sikh community in general or with the worldwide Sikh political organisations who have been at the forefront of the tensions between India and Sikhs?” Rai, director of the Sikh Human Rights Group, said if the ‘main organisations’ were not at the table, the talks may not achieve the desired outcome since the issues are “political rather than everyday NRI matters”. “The statement by the Prime Minister in London referred to an entirely different context of worldwide Sikh dispute with India. That is why a political involvement may be beneficial”, Rai said.
NEW DELHI A bear killed two villagers and a wildlife officer sent to tranquilise it before being shot dead in a forest in central India, police said Sunday. The sloth bear mauled the villagers late on Saturday, sparking a police hunt for the beast after fearful locals in Chhattisgarh state demanded its capture. Police shot and killed the female bear after it also fatally attacked the wildlife official who had been sent to trap and tranquilise it, said Rajesh Kukareja, deputy police chief of Mahasamund district. “The bear was very aggressive and killed the officer at the spot.
We had no option but to shoot it,” Kukareja told AFP. “It was on a rampage, attacking everyone,” he said. Tribal villagers found the bodies
India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan but shrinking habitats and rampant poaching have reduced their numbers, according to the
of the two men after they failed to return from a trip to the forest to pick edible flowers, triggering a search for them. Mahasamund is home to numerous animal species, including hundreds of black sloth bears, according to its website. Sloth bears are found in
International Union for Conservation of Nature. The IUCN has put them on its red list of threatened species and their total estimated population is 20,000. They can grow up to 1.8 metres (six feet) in length and weigh up to 140 kilograms (310 pounds).
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15 March - 21 March 2016
‘27% of all Muslims are Child deaths help JuD make inroads into Hindu-majority Pakistan region militant’ says Donald Trump Islamabad A Hindu-majority region of Pakistan’s Sindh province has witnessed the death of 143 children from causes such as malnutrition in little more than four months, and the government’s apathy has allowed groups such as the JuD to make inroads in the area.
Tharparkar district of Sindh, which borders India’s Rajasthan state, is considered one of Pakistan’s most backward areas. It is also home to thousands of divided families whose members live on both sides of the border. In February, health officials of the Sindh government confirmed the death of 143 children aged up to five years in Tharparkar because of malnutrition and other causes since October. Most of them were from families that live in the desert, earning their livelihood through agriculture. Residents have seen their food stocks dwindle and their cattle die during droughts in the past three
years. Local journalists who interviewed villagers and elected representatives of local bodies have reported more than 190 children have died since January. However, this figure could not be independently verified. Given the harsh conditions and government apathy, the
region has seen a surge in infant deaths over the past two years, civil society activists said. The deaths are mostly caused by malnutrition and the number is rising, they said. Help, if any, is coming from the most unlikely sources. Organisations such as the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, named by the US as a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, have set up camps and established their footprint in the area. They have provided medical help to people, dug wells in dry areas and even started informal schools. “They don’t ask who you are…whether Hindu or Muslim. They just help us,” said a villager who was interviewed by a local newspaper.
Lal Malhi, the local MP, said: “It is a hard place to survive but what we have seen is that people have lived here for hundreds of years without such a high number of children perishing.” Malhi, who is also a businessman, was elected to parliament on a ticket of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf party. He is an exception as most MPs in the region come from slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. The PPP has been in power in Sindh for more than a decade but has faced considerable criticism for its governance in recent months. When news of infant deaths first surfaced in 2015, chief minister Qaim Ali Shah dismissed the reports as media propaganda. Local press club official Kapil Dev said the situation is going from bad to worse. “We are seeing almost no help from hospitals or doctors. Many come to Umerkot or Mithi for treatment and end up getting none at all.” The deaths have now become a subject of national politics. The PPP insists the deaths are exaggerated. The provincial government has accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N party, which heads the federal government, of trying to benefit from these deaths. Qaim Ali Shah recently said that “thousands died in Punjab of dengue but we did not exploit this.
Chemical weapons used 161 times in five-year Syria war New York As Syria marks five years of civil war this month, a new report claims that chemical weapons have been used at least 161 times through the end of 2015 and caused 1,491
more than 1,700 workers at over 100 medical centres in Syria, says the list is based primarily on the reports of medical personnel who have treated victims, aided by NGOs and other local
deaths. It says such attacks are increasing, with a high of at least 69 attacks last year, and 14,581 people have been injured. The Syrian American Medical Society says its report released Monday is the most comprehensive listing of chemical weapons attacks in Syria so far. The US-based non profit, which supports
sources. The organisation is asking the 15-member UN Security Council and the international community to quickly identify perpetrators and hold them accountable through the International Criminal Court or other means. Much of the report’s documentation has been shared with the global chemical watchdog, the Orga-
nization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Syria’s government has been repeatedly accused by the United States and other Western countries of using chemical weapons on its own people, even after the Security Council in 2013 ordered the elimination of its chemical weapons program following an attack in a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds of civilians. The council last year condemned the use of toxic chemicals like chlorine after growing reports of barrel bombs filled with chlorine gas being dropped on oppositionheld areas. Chlorine is widely available and not officially considered a warfare agent but its use as a weapon is illegal. The new report notes at least 60 deaths from chlorine attacks. The report also says 77% of the chemical weapons attacks it documented occurred after the Security Council’s order in 2013, and 36% occurred after the council condemned the use of chlorine last year.
Washington Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Sunday claimed that more than one-fourth of all Muslims are “very militant”, the latest in a long line of controversial statements made by the tycoon. “It’s (militant Muslims) 27%, could be 35%, would go to war, the hatred is tremendous,” Trump told US news channel Fox News Sunday when told that only 100,000 of the 1.6 billion global Muslim population support jihad. “You’re saying that out of 1.5 billion, 100,000, let me tell you, whoever did that survey was about as wrong as you can get,” Trump said. “Why don’t you take a look at the Pew poll that came out very recently or fairly recently, where I think the number... it’s something like 27% are really very militant about going after things.” “And you’ll have to look at it. They did a very strong study. Let’s see what it says. But it’s a very significant number. It’s not 100,000 people, I can tell you that. It’s a ridiculous number,” he claimed. The 69-year-old reality show star and billionaire has continued with
his anti-Muslim rhetoric, stoking controversies one after another and drawing flak from the world over including his party rivals. Sunday’s remarks come days after Trump said thinks “Islam hates us” and asserted that those having hatred against the US cannot be allowed to enter the country. He made headlines in December when he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”. In his remarks on Sunday, he said “It would be easier for me to say, “Oh, no, everybody loves us.” But there’s something going on. There’s a big problem. And radical Islamic terrorism is taking place all over the world.” “You look at what happened in Paris, you look at what happened in California recently with the 14 people killed by co-workers, by people where they gave ‘em baby showers and then they walk in and they kill ‘em, they shoot ‘em. They had no guns, they had no weapons. They had no nothing. They shot them. They killed them all,” he argued.
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,1',$1 %$&.5220 *8586 7$.( %$77/( 72 '21$/' 75803 Continued from Page 1 a Sikh protester was thrown out at one of his rallies, have not gone down well with the Indian-American community. Rising Indians Trump is the talking point wherever members of the community meet. Community members have realised that their representation in the US political offices is not at par with the status they have attained in such a short span of time. Barring South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Congressman Ami Bera, not many names come to mind of American politicians with Indian origin. “This is the time to expand community roles in the political process,’’ says entrepreneur, philanthropist and IIT-Kharagpur alumni Vinod Gupta, who like Frank Islam, is close to the Clintons. As their roles are getting more defined in the run-up to the US election, IndianAmericans are uniting against Trump’s ‘tyranny’ to safeguard their identity as “immigrants who built America”. Says Gupta: “Indians are getting recognised more in different important positions as backroom strategists in this electoral battle.’’ The Chanakyas Not all desi strategists are against Trump, though. The recent Republican onslaught against Hillary Clinton was based on sound research done by Raj Shah, the Research Director at the Republican National Committee, whose only expertise is to dig
out “anything against the Clintons”. He is currently running the “Republican Campaign against Clinton and Sanders”. But they are in a minority. Almost 80 per cent Indian-Americans were found to be on the Democrat side. Many like Neera Tanden and Shefali Razdan Duggal are getting involved as “shadows” behind Hillary Clinton. The young Huma Abedin, for instance, is Clinton’s media and communication adviser. Fund raising comes naturally to most of them, as they have a wide donor network. Islam has already raised half-a-million dollars for Hillary’s campaign in this election. Their goal: Do whatever it takes to make Trump lose!
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32// 326,7,21 Frank Islam This Azamgarh-born entrepreneur and philanthropist from Uttar Pradesh is known as the “man with a 16-bedroom mansion” among his Indian-American community. A recipient of Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for international service in 2015, Islam is committed to creating sustainable opportunities in America. A Clinton insider
since 2005, he has been entrusted with fund raising and rallying public support for the Democratic campaign. A popular figure among the IndianAmericans, including the 2,00,000 Indian Muslims, Islam has raised more than half-a-million dollar in fundraising and about four dozen meetings in places like Virginia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Hampshire.
Shefali Razdan Duggal The US media refers to her as “a powerful woman with influence.” A Kashmiri Pandit known for her proximity to President Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, her presence in the upper echelons of American politics is steadily on the rise. However, what endears her to many is her love for South Asian community, which cuts across political affiliations. “I think that a person, whether
Democrat/Republican/ Independent, as long as engaged with the political process, is helpful to South Asians in the US,” she says. “I have been working in politics completely on a volunteer basis. I love it and am very grateful for the opportunity to be involved, in some small way,” says Duggal. She is also a presidential appointee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Neera Tanden She is arguably the closest to Hillary Clinton from the Indian American circle. A former policy adviser to the Democratic nominee, this 45-year-old is the president and chief executive of the Centre for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organisation. In her private time she campaigns for
her “mentor, friend and former boss.” Their association goes back to the days when Hillary was the First Lady in the White House in 1997. Tanden was named the “most influential Woman in Washington” by National Journal. “I know that if Hillary becomes the President, she will look for talent from all parts of American society” she says.
Nathan Naidu He is the master strategist behind Republican dark horse and Ohio Governor John Kasich. A full-time employee with the Mission Society, a not-for-profit organisation in Atlanta, 30-yearold Naidu was born and brought up in the US. “I have been associated with Kasich since 2010 and this is my third elections with him,’’ Naidu told Mail Today. A
graduate in Telecom and Films Naidu says Kasich is admired both within and outside the Republican party. “He (Kasich) has a very positive attitude unlike Trump, who is full of himself during public meetings,” says Naidu. “He (Kasich) touches the issues most Americans want to discuss economy, job growth and how to keep America safe,” he adds.
Vinod Gupta For IIT Kharagpur alumni and Uttar Pradesh-born Vinod Gupta, aka Vin to his friends, the Clintons are his closest chums. Gupta’s association with the Clintons lasts over two decades and he is determined to put Hillary in the White House. “The whole, family is behind them (Clintons). We are getting more support for the Hillary
campaign from both the IndianAmerican community as well as from South Asians.” Though he is not directly involved in any election campaign for the Clintons, Gupta has been a generous contributor to the Clinton Foundation with his philanthropic grants. “She is most qualified to be a president,” says Gupta about Hillary.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Restaurant owner bans all bankers Airlander 10 is the world’s because he was turned down for a loan largest aircraft - but nobody can take it seriously
It has everything you could ever want in an impressive air liner - it’s big, powerful and (most importantly) can stay in the air. But the Airlander 10, which holds the very nice title of world’s largest aircraft, is being mercilessly mocked on Twitter by people who think it looks a bit like a... well, you can make your own minds up. The huge craft is a hybrid air vehicle being developed in the UK. It’s the length of a football pitch
and as high as six double decker buses - an impressive feat for engineering. But it’s the startling resemblance to Kim Kardashian’s derrière that’s capturing the imagination of the masses. Chris Daniels, of Hybrid Air Vehicles who make the Airlander 10, said: “Its shape makes it aerodynamic. The carbon fibre airship can also fly for five days without refuelling and stay floating, unmanned, for three weeks. It can work
in extreme temperatures and hover above the ground, making it perfect for humanitarian work too. Chief test pilot Dave Burns says it’s a dream to steer. He said: “You can fly it around like a glider. It’s not going to fall out of the sky because it’s not heavy.” Well, we’re impressed - but it seems the designers have still got a way to go before Twitter stops seeing a giant bum.
Paris A restaurant owner in Paris has banned all bankers from his gourmet eatery because he was turned down for a loan for £55,000. Alexandre Callet, 30, says his ‘reasonable requests’ to borrow money to open a second restaurant were repeatedly rejected by banks who ‘treated him like a dog’. The refusal by banks to help him explains why so many French businesses are moving to London, Mr Callet said. He has now placed a board outside his restaurant Les Ecuries de Richlieu reading: “Dogs welcome, bankers banned (unless they pay an entry fee of •70,000)”. He said his establishment in the leafy Paris suburb of Reuil-Malmaison was profitable, had film stars as customers and was named in the prestigious Michelin guide. He said: “I believe in reciprocity. I had to respond. If you hit me, I’ll hit you. As soon as I see a banker that I recognize I won’t let them
enter my restaurant. They have treated me like a dog, so I have denied them access.” Callet says he felt humiliated of because he was only asking the banks for a loan of 70,000 euros,
tion of the shameful way business owners are treated in France. I have never had financial problems and yet I find myself in this situation. Bankers are not doing their job. France has problems un-
which was ‘nothing’ compared to last year’s turnover 300,000 euros. He added: “This is not just a kebab shop. My restaurant is in the Michelin guide and film stars come in here. A lot of bankers who turned me down know me. They come in here.” He was also turned down for a loan 20 times seven years ago, before one bank agreed to lend him money to open his first restaurant. He said: “The way banks have treated me is a reflec-
derstanding this. That’s why London has become the sixth French city. This is the problem with French socialism. We have more civil servants than anywhere in the world, we have a social welfare system that has a bigger budget than the American defence budget.”There’s the 35hour week. There is globalisation, yet our businesses are completely blocked. We can’t breathe. I have yet to turn away a banker, but I will the moment I spot one.”
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Turning New York trash into treasure NEW YORK For 30 years, sanitation worker Nelson Molina kept New York clean - and in the process found beauty in other people’s garbage, rescuing enough condemned items to fill a warehouse. On the second floor of a sanitation truck depot in East Harlem, he has amassed an astonishing collection of thousands of objects once chucked in the bin but now lovingly cleaned and restored. Walk to the back of the depot, climb a small, steep staircase and you find yourself in an enormous space that at first sight might appear to be a flea market. But none of these items are on sale, although some could fetch a pretty penny. Molina values his collection at $160,000 and calls it “Treasures in the Trash.” Skis stand next to a Native American children’s
play tent. There is a stained glass window and a memorabilia tie from the hit show “Baywatch.”
apartments. To walk the collection is to retrace 30 years of life in East Harlem in intimate detail from the
Bellew, a retired New Yorker on a scheduled tour. The premises are not open
There are dozens of photos and pictures, dated portraits of unknown people perhaps thrown out because of limited space in cramped New York
majority Hispanic area, where Molina was born and still lives today. “It’s really well done. You can see the evolution of the neighborhood,” said Martin
to the public, but visits are occasionally organized. “I call that a museum but it’s not officially a museum,” says Molina, a man of slim build who retired in
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s a toilet bowl MELBOURNE Thousands of people Sunday lined the banks of an Australian river to watch home-made flying devices take to the air in a quirky competition, with some contestants dressed as a toilet bowl and a space shuttle. The charity Birdman Rally held at Melbourne’s Yarra River involved participants flying homemade gliders without mechanical assistance. The contestants jumped off a fourmetre (13.1-feet) high platform above the river, staying in the air for as long as possible before crashing into the water. Several of the 12 competitors turned up in colourful and bizarre costumes, including a man flying a bird made from balloons, another dressed as a shooting
star and a woman holding a giant paper mache towel bowl. But it was Michael Paul - who has taken part
I just love building a plane that you try to fly it’s a bit of a childhood dream,” Paul said,
in the event every year since 2005 and had before Sunday won it nine times - flying a more conventional-looking glider who covered the longest distance to take out the contest. “I seem to be the one to beat on the longest-distance flying aspect, I am a pilot, but it’s not about that,
Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported. Paul, who reportedly reached 17 metres before his inevitable crash into the river, had also raised more than Aus$12,000 (US$9,075) in honour of his brother Lucas, who has multiple sclerosis, the newspaper added.
only be eligible for the optional practical training (OPT) program. The new rule comes into effect from May 10, 2016,
and seven months longer than the previous 17-month rule. The extension has been made to widen the window of time to match
rules prohibit workers from taking home anything they pick up on the streets but not from keeping objects at the work place. Molina has spread out his collection with the utmost fastidiousness. Objects are grouped together thematically and lined up on tables: African statuettes, action toy dolls and typewriters. Molina, something of a handyman, has mended broken objects and repaired electrical parts to bring back to life a Santa Claus and an artificial fountain. His favorite piece? It’s a heavy Star of David sculpted from metal recovered from the site of the Twin Towers in remembrance of a victim of the 9/11 attacks. Now retired, Molina still comes to the depot twice a week to look after his items, which he insists belong to the warehouse.
UK to deport non-EU workers earning less than 35,000 pounds London The British Government in a new set of rules has said that non-European Union (EU) residents, who earn less than 35,000 British pounds a year, will be deported. The new rules, which come into effect from April 6, will mean that all skilled workers from outside the EU who have been living here for less than 10 years will need to earn at least £35,000 a year to settle permanently in the UK. However, certain jobs like nursing are exempt from the regulation. A petition to repeal the new regulations has been signed by 100,000 British citizens and was even discussed in the parliament, but the government insists the new regulations are fair and added that the people
New US visa rule extends stay for international students New York The United States has changed rules for student visas by which international students will now be eligible to stay for three years after finishing their degrees for training potentially leading to employment. Students earning degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from accredited higher education institutes and employed by employers participating in E-Verify will
2015 after 34 years at the sanitation department. “I’ve been a picker since I’m nine years old,” said Molina, now in his 60s, who says he inherited the habit from his mother who never threw anything away. “She’s 83 years old,” he said. For Christmas, he buys her tool boxes, pliers and a drill to help her make things. “She’s still into it,” Molina added. In a city that each day produces 12,000 tons of waste and where the mayor has vowed to stop sending garbage to landfills by 2030, Molina had to work hard. At first, he kept his finds in a corner of the depot. Then he took over a hall and then the entire second floor when 15 years ago it was deemed too fragile to withstand the heavy weight of sanitation trucks. Sanitation department
fresh graduates with employers looking for skilled talented workers. The students previously had to apply for an H-1B, given by lottery and capped at 65,000 with 20,000 reserved for those with advanced degrees. As per the new rule, a STEM OPT student would not replace a full-or parttime, temporary or permanent US worker and that the salary offered would be commensurate to the American workers.
have been given many years to prepare. “In the past it has been too easy for some businesses to bring in workers from overseas rather than to take the long-term decision to train our workforce here at home,” the guardian
equivalent to the median pay of the UK population in skilled jobs,” the Guardian quoted the British Home Office statement as saying. To enter or stay in the UK as a skilled worker, nonEU migrants must have a
quoted a British Home Office spokesman as saying. The Home Office in its impact assessment estimated that the new salary threshold will cost the British economy between 181m pounds and 171m pounds while other organisations cited a much higher amount of 761m pounds. The British Government even admitted that the new measures will effect on reducing net immigration. “We do not believe there should be an automatic link between coming to work in the UK temporarily and staying permanently. The 35,000 threshold was set following advice from the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent advisory body consisting of expert labour market economists, and was
Tier 2 visa and to qualify for that one must have been offered a job in the UK and have held at least 945 pounds in the bank account for 90 days. The job a migrant is offered must pay at least 20,800 pounds, although the British government is currently considering a recommendation to raise the amount to 30,000 pounds. This threshold is not met by certain occupations. Individuals must pay 200 pounds per year as a healthcare surcharge, should be able to prove knowledge in English language and must get a certificate of sponsorship from the employer. The non-EU migrants are only permitted to remain in the UK on Tier 2 visas for a maximum of six years.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
You’ll start this week feeling passionate about your goals and plans for the future. And this kind of energy coursing through you gives you the right attitude to make a success of things. In addition, knowing the right people and connecting with the right groups can help your cause immeasurably. Put some time and effort into networking regularly.
You might be more conscious of money matters, especially where shared resources and joint finances are concerned. This week’s lineup encourages some serious thought about how you can cut back on waste, increase your savings, or use any spare money to pay off debts. Meanwhile, this is as good a time as any to consider your career.
A financial decision may be needed early in the month, or at least a chance to talk things through with someone who can set you on the right path. Your mind is also on the adventures you can have. You’re eager to expand your horizons and get involved in opportunities that are a bit of a stretch. You’ll welcome challenges that bring new experiences.
Saturn’s move into Sagittarius suggests you’re going to have a busy time ahead. Part of this may be your desire to get ahead, so you may be putting a lot of pressure on yourself to succeed. Knowing how to pace yourself so you don’t burn out too quickly could be a lesson worth learning. When it comes to joint finances and banking issues.
Let yourself be guided by the wisdom of others. A few quick questions to the right person could put you on track to success in no time. Relationships in general are good, with an opportunity to expand your social circle and network with folks on your wavelength. However, you may be more circumspect when it comes to dating and creative expression.
Romance looks fairly intense, with opportunities to take a new relationship to the next level of commitment. However, don’t be tempted to manipulate a situation to suit you. It’s important to give your love interest the space and time to make a decision. If you do, you may find things move along swimmingly.
The presence of Saturn in your communication sector suggests that writing, speaking, and marketing could be a big part of your life for the foreseeable future. This could be an exciting time when you develop a writing or Internet business with serious clout. Lay the foundation now and the future could be very sunny. Meanwhile, romantic opportunities look excellent.
You may be relieved that Saturn has left your sign. However, its presence in your personal finance zone suggests it’s time to get down to business. This can be an ideal time to increase your income by starting an enterprise that could blossom over the weeks and months ahead. You’ll need to work hard to get it off the ground.
You may feel anchored to certain responsibilities as Saturn moves more deeply into your sign, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’ve been dreaming about goals and plans, you now have the motivation to bring them to life. On another note, a lively energy in your communication sector makes this a great time to expand your social circle.
The current alignment encourages you to take a detached look at your life to see what’s working and what isn’t. The things you’re enthusiastic about and motivated to do are the ones to focus on. If any part of your life seems like drudgery, it may have passed its “sell by” date. Perhaps you’ve extracted as much from this experience as you can.
You’re still in a natural phase in which it’s time to recharge your batteries. However, you’re also eager to start new plans and projects. For the time being, try to find balance between the two so you can make the most of promising opportunities. Your social life continues to look lively, although you may be targeting certain likeminded people or groups.
If you’re undecided about a job or the direction your career is taking, the presence of Saturn in Sagittarius will help focus your attention. It’s time to think seriously about where you’re going and what you want to achieve. It’s best to have a plan in place even if you do change aspects of it further down the line.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Technology Google joins Facebook’s ‘Open Compute Project’ to power data centres New York Search engine giant Google and the social networking website have teamed up to give Facebook’s “Open Compute Project” a new push that works to change the way data centres are designed and operated across the world. Five years ago, Facebook started leading an effort called the “Open Compute Project”. Data centres power the internet. They are the nervous system that allows all kinds of services to run -including Facebook. “Today, Google joined the ‘Open Compute Project’. Google has always built some of the best infrastructure in the industry, so this is strong symbolic move that our open model of development is the best way forward for everyone,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post
on Thursday. “Until five years ago, the largest technology companies all designed their data
centres and computing infrastructure in secret. They viewed this technology as a competitive advantage to beat others in the industry,” he added. Facebook realised that if it opened up its designs and shared its progress with the industry, the world will make faster progress together. “By working together, we’d produce more efficient de-
signs that would save energy, protect the environment and build better infrastructure for our commu-
nity,” the 31-year-old Facebook founder posted. It has worked. So far, we’ve saved billions of dollars in energy and efficiency improvements. “Open Compute now brings together hundreds of companies and thousands of engineers to make progress together even faster,” he noted. According to wired.com, Google was the first com-
Twitter can help gauge damage by natural disasters in real time By looking at Twitter data, it is possible to determine the damage caused by a natural disaster in just a few hours, say researchers who analysed Twitter activ-
”Given that citizens were turning to these platforms for communication and information related to the disaster, we established a strong correlation between
ity before, during and after Hurricane Sandy which caused severe damage in the US four years back. Hurricane Sandy caused more damage than any other storm in US history, with an economic impact in the region of $50,000 million. Hundreds of millions of geolocated tweets making reference to this topic were collected from 50 metropolitan areas in the US.
the route of the hurricane and activity on social networks,” said Esteban Moro Egido from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, found that Twitter is useful for the management, realtime monitoring and even prediction of the economic impact that disasters like Hurricane Sandy can have. The team also had scien-
tists from the National Information Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) and the University of California in San Diego. The main findings were obtained when the data relating to Twitter activity was examined alongside data relating to both the levels of aid granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and insurance claims. The team found that there is a correlation between the mean per capita of social network activity and economic damage per capita caused by these disasters in the areas where such activity occurs. Furthermore, researchers verified the results obtained from Hurricane Sandy and were able to demonstrate that the same dynamic also occurs in the case of floods, storms and tornadoes.
pany to rethink data centre design for the modern age. “With the ‘Open Compute Project’, Facebook aimed to create a whole community of companies that would freely share their data centre designs, hoping to accelerate the evolution of Internet hardware and, thanks to the economies of scale, drive down the cost of this hardware,” the report added. According to Zuckerberg, over the next decade, they are going to build experiences that rely more on technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR). “These will require a lot more computing power, and through efforts like Open Compute Project, we’re developing a global infrastructure to enable everyone to enjoy them,” he said.
Facebook building dictionary of slang terms?
Social media giant Facebook is reportedly working on a software that will be capable of building a dictionary of slang terms used on the social networking website. The software will scan for unique words used in Facebook posts and comments, and determine if these words have a particular meaning among a small group of people, The Verge reported. According to the patent filing, “The software will look for the repeated use of particular words among users who share certain attributes, like language and
location. Once the software has determined that a neologism isn’t yet largely associated with a particular definition, it will add the word to a glossary of terms.” If a word starts shrinking in popularity, it would be removed. Words could also be added to the glossary based on user polls. The patent filing also mentioned the possibility of an interface that would allow users to add, remove, and edit words in the dictionary, however, the glossary thing is just a concept and Facebook may never build it.
how those policies might need to change in response to this new information. The book’s authors conducted a two-year study that analyzed more than 20
reports, but only when a machine’s user opted in to provide the data. Trojans, followed by viruses and worms, posed the principal threats to machines in the United
billion automatically generated reports, collected from 4 million machines per year worldwide. The researchers based their rankings, in part, on the number of machines attacked in a given country and the number of times each machine was attacked. Machines using Symantec anti-virus software automatically generated these
States. However, misleading software (i.e., fake antivirus programs and disk cleanup utilities) is far more prevalent in the U.S. compared with other nations that have a similar gross domestic product. These results suggest that U.S. efforts to reduce cyberthreats should focus on education to recognize and avoid misleading software.
India among nations most vulnerable to cyberattacks
India is among the countries most vulnerable to cyberattacks, according to a new report. Data-mining experts from the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech recently co-authored a book that ranked the vulnerability of 44 nations to cyberattacks. Lead author V.S. Subrahmanian discussed this research on Wednesday, March 9 at a panel discussion hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C. The United States ranked 11th safest, while several Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Finland) ranked the safest. China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea ranked among the most vulnerable. Subrahmanian noted that the goal was to characterize how vulnerable different countries were, identify their current cybersecurity policies and determine
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Cow urine being sold with food in London convenience stores London Cow urine is being sold alongside food in convenience stores in the UK despite environment experts warning against the practice, according to a media report here.
Plastic bottles filled with cow urine, and marked “for religious purposes”, were found in several London stores which also sold food, the BBC’s Asian Network has claimed. The liquid has a large demand in South Asian Hindu community who use it for vari-
ous religious ceremonies - although it is illegal to sell it for human consumption in England, it said. Known as ‘gau mutra’, it was found in several shops, which also sold food. In one shop urine
bottles were displayed under a shelf of naan bread. However, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, an independent body representing environmental health concerns, has warned against its sale with food. One worker in a Greenwich
shop said: “Hindus come buy it for religious reasons, if a baby is born it may be used during a religious ceremony for good luck.” A Hare Krishna temple in Watford, Bhaktivedanta Manor, has a dairy farm which also produces the urine for worshippers. Managing director Gauri Das said the temple had been selling cow urine since the early 70s. “I don’t sell it [the urine] for human consumption. It is down to the worshipper to do what they want with it.” A Foods Standards Agency (FSA) spokesperson said although it is illegal to sell the urine for human consumption, when applied externally it would not be considered food – although it could be subject to other legislation. A Greenwich Borough Council spokesperson said: “Non-food products of animal origin are strictly regulated to prevent consumers from being exposed to harmful diseases. We are not aware of any particular premises in the borough where this product is on sale but will investigate immediately.”
Train station cat is promoted to senior pest controller role and given hi-viz jacket A station cat has seen her fame go global this week as she’s been featured in newspapers in East Asia. The interest in Felix has grown since she was promoted to the resident senior pest controller at Huddersfield Railway Station. The black and white moggy has her own Facebook page and, since the announcement, her followers have more than doubled, with swathes of adoring international fans posting on her wall. Facebook follower Nina Yan Hsin Kuo messaged Felix to say: “Taiwan [sic] newspaper brought me here”, while Shelina Koster from the Netherlands posted to say she had found Felix after seeing her appear in the Dutch media. Felix has also had messages from people in China, Afghanistan, Scot-
land, New Zealand and various states in America, as well as from people all across the UK including London, Surrey and Coventry, reports the Huddersfield Examiner. Martha Gonzalez from Brownsville, Texas, posted
your promotion and wants a badge of her own now.” Felix said: “I’m totally bewitched! Fantastic stuff who’d have thought cats were so popular on the Internet?!” The feline featured in the Examiner after she was
on Felix’s Facebook saying she had a cat called Kitty who was an administrative assistant at Mueller Co. She said: “Kitty came to Mueller being a kitten herself and now she is a 12 yrs (sic) old employee with 11 years of seniority. Kitty is very proud and happy of
promoted to senior pest controller, and was given a high-vis jacket and special name tag. Felix was brought to the station five years ago as a kitten to keep the platforms free of mice and pidgeons, and has since won over hearts of staff and commuters alike.
Issue - 658 (27)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Record leap in carbon dioxide seen in 2015
Washington The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased at a record pace last year, US government scientists reported, raising new concern about one of the top greenhouse gases and the effects of global warming. The measurement came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. “The annual growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide... jumped by 3.05 parts per million during 2015, the largest year-toyear increase in 56 years of research,” said a NOAA statement. Last year also
marked the fourth consecutive year that CO2 grew more than two parts per million. As of February, the average global atmospheric CO2 level was 402.59 parts per million. This is a significant rise over preindustrial times. Prior to 1800, atmospheric CO2 averaged about 280 ppm. “Carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “It’s explosive compared to natural processes.” NOAA said the jump in CO2 is partially due to the weather phenomenon known as
Bristol Palin, Dakota Meyer get joint custody of baby girl
Washington Bristol Palin and Dakota Meyer‘s custody battle has come to an end with an Alaskan judge granting the joint custody. The judge ruled that the former couple would share interim joint legal and physical custody of their daughter Sailor Grace, reports E! Online. Palin previously requested that Meyer should only receive reasonable visitations and no overnight
stays, but the judge said it would be in the baby’s best interest to have equal access to both the parents. Meyer will make the trip to Alaska from Kentucky twice a month and stay for four days on each visit. His visits are set to start this month, but sleepovers won’t commence until May. Sailor was born in December, seven months after Palin and Meyer called off their engagement.
El Nino, which warms some parts of the world’s oceans and causes unusual precipitation and drought patterns. The rest of the growth is driven by continued high emissions from fossil fuel consumption, said NOAA. The last time a similar jump in CO2 was observed was in 1998, also a strong El Nino year. ”The impact of El Nino on CO2 concentrations is a natural and relatively short-lived phenomenon,” said a statement by World Meterological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “But the main long-term driver is greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. We have the power and responsibility to cut these,” he added. “This should serve as a wake-up call to governments about the need to sign the Paris Climate Agreement and to take urgent action to make the cuts in CO2 emissions necessary to keep global temperature rises to well below 2 degrees Celsius.”
Man beats woman to death mistaking her for a ghost Ranchi A man mistook a woman to be a ghost and beat her to death in Nansol village in East Singhbhum district, police said. The woman, Jodha Singh (45), died of head injuries after Ahaliya Singh (47) hit her with a stick. He admitted to his crime and was arrested. Police said villagers saw Ahaliya sitting near the body and crying. “He gave himself up to villagers and accepted that he hit Jodha with a thick stick several times mistaking her for a ghost. He was arrested immediately and the stick was recovered from the spot,” said Birendra Toppo, in-charge of Nansol police station, around 145km south of Ranchi. Ahaliya told police that he knew Jodha who belonged to nearby Khokro village where his in-laws
Post.Srinivasan, who has been called Obama’s “Supreme Court nominee in waiting”, had emerged as a top contender within hours of the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Post’s report, based on conversations with those involved in the vetting process, is the first indication that he is indeed in contention, among the president’s first candidates. If appointed, and confirmed, Srinivasan, 49, will become the SC’s first Indian-American, first Asian-American and, as pointed
police. Jodha had come to Nansol to visit her widowed sister-in-law. Toppo said, “Ahaliya said Jodha fell to the ground in the first blow. He repeatedly hit her fracturing her head. She died on the spot form bleeding.” Ahaliya said he realised his mistake when he switched on his torchlight. On September 8 last year, villagers at Namkom in Ranchi district had thrashed a mentally ill youth after mistaking for a ghost.
First uterus transplant in US has failed Washington Lindsey, who received the first uterus transplant in the United States, with her husband and doctors at a news... Read More The first uterus transplant in the United States has failed, and the organ was surgically removed Tuesday, officials at the Cleveland Clinic said on Wednesday.The recipient, a 26year-old woman, suddenly developed a serious complication on Tuesday, according to Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the clinic. She did not specify the nature of the problem but said the uterus was being analyzed by pathologists to determine what went wrong. The transplant, which used a uterus from woman in her 30s who had died suddenly, was performed on February 24. It was the first of 10 uterine transplants planned by the clinic, in an experimental program meant to enable women without a uterus to become pregnant and give birth. In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the clinic said it would continue that effort. “The study, which has been planned to include 10 women, is still ongoing with a
commitment to the advancement of medical research to provide an additional option for women and their
there were no signs of it. In its statement announcing the failure, the clinic said, “While this has been difficult for both
families,” the clinic said. The failure occurred only a day after the clinic held a news conference to describe what had seemed to be a successful transplant, with remarks from members of the surgical team and a brief appearance by the patient, who asked to be identified only as Lindsey. In an interview after the session, the lead surgeon, Dr Andreas G Tzakis, said that Lindsey had already undergone one biopsy to check for rejection and that
the patient and the medical team, Lindsey is doing well and recovering.” Lindsey, who was born without a uterus, also released a statement. “I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude towards all of my doctors,” she said. “They acted very quickly to ensure my health and safety. Unfortunately I did lose the uterus to complications. However, I am doing okay and appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts.” Doctors at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have performed nine uterus transplants, resulting in five births. Two of the nine transplants failed during the first year after the surgery and had to be removed. Three other medical centers in the United States are planning to perform uterus transplants on an experimental basis: Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
India-born Srinivasan finds place in Obama’s probable SC judge list Florida Indian-born Sri Srinivasan, a judge in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is among three nominees shortlisted by President Barack Obama for a vacancy in the Supreme Court bench, according to a report. Two others on the list are Merrick Garland, chief judge from the same of court as Srinivasan, and Paul Watford, a judge in the California-based court of appeals, according to Washington
stayed. “I was walking home through a lonely and dark area. Jodha called me from behind. I throught a ghost had called out. I took a thick branch lying on the ground and hit her,” he told
out by the Post, the first Hindu judge. Whoever gets nod eventually faces the prospect of an extremely hostile and messy confirmation process as Republicans want Obama to leave the vacancy for the next president to fill.They control the
senate, which must confirm the nomination, and they have said they have no intention of ever starting the process, leave alone going through with it.But activists and liberal outfits are stepping up efforts to mount pressure on Republicans to yield. “Crucial questions regarding the civil liberties and religious freedoms of citizens of the United States sit before the Supreme Court,” the South Asian Bar Association of North America said in a statement on Friday.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
15-year-old girl gets $6 million birthday celebration New York From the entertainment by Pitbull and Nick Jonas, to the services of a celebrity make-up artist, to the $6 million price tag, this was no ordinary 15th birthday celebration. Texan teen Maya Henry’s Quinceañera was, in fact, more extraordinary than almost any other birthday party thrown for a girl her age. Held across a 55,000 square foot space in San Antonio, which was decorated with 30foot tall cherry trees in full blossom, walls of roses, fountains, a ‘garden room’ and a ballroom with butterflies suspended from the ceiling, the lavish setting of the birthday bash was really just the beginning of the decadence. The birthday girl herself was wearing a bespoke Rolando Santana dress and make-up by Patrick Ta, who has also worked with the Kardashians, and her photographer was Donna Newman, who has also worked with Matt Damon and First Lady Michelle Obama. Maya’s father, lawyer Thomas J Henry, and her mother Azteca, hired the services of New York social event planner David Monn and a team of 150 event planners to organize the party at the purpose-built venue. Attended by 600 guests, the event went off without a hitch, with the birthday girl expressing her joy
at how well the party had gone and how grateful she was that her parents were able to organize such an incredible bash for her. Delivering her verdict on the party, she said: ’It was an amazing night, one I will never forget. I am so thankful to everyone who attended and to my amazing parents, who literally made my dreams come true.’ Maya posted pictures from the event on her Instagram of herself with Pitbull, family friend Nick and Patrick thanking them for their services. She wrote: ‘Thank you @nickjonas for performing at my party thank you @rolando_santana and @ports1961womenswear for my dresses and also thank you @patrickta for the make-up!’ According to one Instagram user, who claimed to be working at the party, the family arrived in a police escort with nine Rolls Royces. Accompanying a video of Pitbull performing, Rileyromz wrote: ‘I was helping at a millionaire event last night. Lawyer got #Pitbull and #NickJonas for 15 years old daughter ’s birthday party. ‘Family came in police escort with nine Rolls Royces.
Gourmet food everywhere. Unbelievable. But I saw famous people in person!’ Meanwhile Maya’s uncle Chris Crawford wrote on his Instagram page, alongside an image of Maya, her parents and her
grandparents: ‘My beautiful mother, niece, sister, and brother-in-law as the cake was rolled out for my niece’s quinceanera. Was such a beautiful night and a total blast!’ Chris also shared an image of himself posing alongside Indiana Pacers center Ian Mahinmi, who shared his own picture of himself and the birthday girl on Instagram,
wishing Maya a very happy birthday. But while to many, the party was incredibly starstudded, Maya, who has more than 18,000 followers on Instagram, is no stranger to spending time with high-profile celebrities. She frequently posts photographs of herself with stars including One Direction, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, and even Hillary Clinton whom she has met on more than one occasion, most recently at a campaign event in New York, where she hung out both with the presidential candidate, and with Katy Perry, who performed at the rally. Maya, who campaigns for Hillary Clinton for ‘Teens for Hillary’, shared several images from the event on her Instagram account, in which she was seen posing for selfies with Katy and Hillary, while sporting one of the politician’s T-shirts. Her Instagram account also documents other aspects of her incredibly lavish lifestyle, including luxury vacations, trips in private jets, and even intimate dinners at home in her family’s sprawling mansion. Maya, who is a high school freshman, is a regular on the
Texas Tennis Championship circuit. Her father said: ‘Maya is a smart, driven, outstanding young woman. She has already worked so hard to get where she is with her studies, tennis and activism. ‘Her mother and I wanted to give her an unforgettable night to mark her transition into young adulthood. We are so excited to see what the future holds for Maya.’ Thomas runs his own personal injury law firm, which is based out of Texas but serves clients across the country, employing more than 60 attorneys. On its website, the company is described as ‘one of the biggest plaintiff’s firms in Texas’. Founded by Germanborn Thomas in 1993, the company now boasts offices in Corpus Christi, Texas, Downtown Houston, San Antonio and Austin, however Thomas has been practicing for more than a quarter of a century. On his website, he states that his firm has grown from ‘the premier auto, trucking, and onthe-job injury firm in Texas to becoming a nationally-recognized personal injury practice’. Born in Germany in 1962, the son of Frank and Florence Henry spent his early years on a Kansas farm following his father’s military retirement, but later went on to study at St Mary’s Law School, graduating in 1988.
Indian-origin dean of US varsity US teen gets 2-year probation accused of sexual harassment for attacking Sikh-American
Miami Beach Sujit Choudhury, the Indian American dean of the University of California’s Berkeley law school, has been slapped with a sexual harassment suit by a former executive assistant. Choudhury, 45, has proceeded on indefinite leave of absence, the university said. The law school is considered one of the most prestigious in the US, and he was appointed dean in 2014. The former assistant, Tyann Sorrell, said in her complaint Choudhury made unwanted sexual advances between September 2014 and March 2015 that included kisses and bear hugs.Choudhry was reported to the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, which found in July 2015 he had violated sexual harassment policies. The university said in a redacted version of the report released on Wednesday, “The Respondent admitted to the following conduct towards the Complainant: hugged
her; kissed her on the cheek; touched her shoulders and arms from behind while she sat at her desk; squeezed her arms while he passed by her desk and held her hands to his waist.” University provost Claude M Steele said in a statement he cut Choudhry’s salary as dean by 10% after an investigation and required him to engage in counselling at his own expense and instructed him to apologise. Sorrell was given a fully paid administrative leave. “I believed that a combination of disciplinary actions, monitoring of his behaviour and formal training would be an appropriate and effective response, and would produce the necessary changes in his behaviour,” the provost said.Before joining Berkeley, Choudhury was the Cecilia Goetz Professor of Law at New York University. He finished his BSc in Biology from McGill University in 1992, followed by a BA (with first-class honours) in Law from the University of Oxford’s University College in 1994.
New York A US teenager has been sentenced to two years’ probation for brutally assaulting a Sikh-American man last year. The teen has also been charged with hate crime for calling the victim a “terrorist” and “bin Laden”, and has been ordered to perform community service for the Sikh community. The 17-year-old, whose name was not released, had pleaded guilty in December last year to hitting Inderjit Singh Mukker, 53, of Darien, Illinois in a traffic altercation on September 8, just days before the fourteenth 9/11 anniversary. DuPage County State’s attorney Robert Berlin announced on Wednesday that the Willowbrook teen has been sentenced to two years of probation by the juvenile court. Besides probation, he was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, part of which must be serving the Sikh community, pay over $4,800 in restitution and undergo counselling as deemed necessary by the Probation Department. “My office has zero tolerance for crimes based on hatred or prejudices. Not only have the defendant’s outrageous actions on September 8, taken an emotional, physical and even financial toll on Mukker that continues to this very day, his
actions also have shaken the entire community,” Berlin said. Berlin said the defendant in this case learned that any attack motivated in whole or in part by a pre-conceived bias against
stitches. Police located the defendant, who had fled the scene, at his home. When officers attempted to arrest him, he had resisted and even punched a police
another individual is a serious crime that carries serious consequences. Mukker and the defendant were involved in a “road rage” incident instigated by the defendant yelling racial slurs at Mukker, including “Terrorist, go back to your country, Bin Laden!”, a police investigation had found. The defendant repeatedly punched Mukker in the face as he sat in his vehicle. Mukker lost consciousness, bled profusely and suffered a fractured cheekbone and a laceration to his cheek. Upon their arrival, police had found Mukker in the front driver’s seat of his vehicle. He received six
officer in the face. Advocacy group The Sikh Coalition said ever since Mukker was “viciously assaulted”, there has been a “meteoric rise” in hate crimes against Sikh-Americans as xenophobic political speech has increased. “Charging the assailant with a hate crime is an important step towards addressing the broader epidemic. We hope that the 200 hours of community service are spent with the SikhAmerican community in an effort to further educate people about the community, Sikh Coalition legal director Harsimran Kaur said.
Issue - 658 (29)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Computer wins series against Go champion SEOUL A Google-developed computer programme won its best-of-five match-up with a South Korean Go grandmaster on Saturday, taking an unassailable 3-0 lead to score a major victory for a new style of “intuitive” artificial intelligence (AI). The programme, AlphaGo, took a little over four hours to secure its third consecutive win over Lee Se-Dol -- one of the ancient game’s greatest modern players with 18 international titles to his name. Lee, who has topped the world ranking for much of the past decade and had predicted an easy victory when accepting the AlphaGo challenge, now finds himself fighting to avoid a whitewash in the two remaining dead rubbers on Sunday and Tuesday. “I don’t know what to say, but I think I have to express my apologies first,” a crestfallen Lee told a post-game press conference.“I apologise for being unable to satisfy a lot of people’s expectations. I kind of felt
powerless,” Lee said, acknowledging that he had “misjudged” the computer programme’s abilities. “Yes, I do have extensive experience in playing the game of Go, but there was never a case where I was under this much pressure and I was incapable of overcoming it,” he added. For AlphaGo’s creators, Google DeepMind, victory went way beyond the $1.0 million
Global volatility shaking up worldwide living costs
dollar prize money, to prove that AI has far more to offer than superhuman number-crunching. “To be honest, we are a bit stunned and speechless,” said a smiling DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, who stressed that Lee’s defeat in Seoul should not be seen as a loss for humanity. “Because the methods we have used to build AlphaGo are general purpose, our hope is that in the long-run we will be able to use these techniques for many other problems,” Hassabis said.
recall a year as volatile as 2015,” said Jon Copestake, an EIU survey editor. “Falling commodity prices have created deflationary pressures in some countries, but in others, currency weakness caused by these falls has led to spiralling inflation,” he added. Singapore retains the top spot in the list thanks chiefly to the eyewatering cost of owning a car in the city state - with Zurich and Hong Kong tied in second place. Hong Kong’s currency peg to the US dollar was propelling the former British colony up the rankings, the EIU said, with the value of the greenback pushing New York into the top 10 and to its highest place since 2002. Asian cities tended to be the priciest locations for general grocery shopping, with Seoul the most expensive for everyday food, while recreation and entertainment was a big drain for European locations. Resource-backed currencies like the Australian dollar also weakened because of lower commodities demand from China, edging cities like Sydney and Melbourne out of this year’s top 10 list.
in AI -- something resembling human reasoning based on a variety of inputs and, crucially, self-learning. In the case of Go, Google developers realised a more “human-like” approach would win over brute computing power. The 3,000-year-old Chinese board game involves two players alternately laying black and white stones on a chequerboard-like grid of 19 lines by 19 lines. The winner is the player who manages to seal off more territory. AlphaGo uses two sets of “deep neural networks” that allow it to crunch data in a more humanlike fashion -- dumping millions of potential moves that human players would instinctively know were pointless. It also employs algorithms that allow it to learn and improve from matchplay experience. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who was in Seoul to witness AlphaGo’s victory, said watching great Go players was like “watching a thing of beauty.” “I’m very excited we’ve been able to instill this kind of beauty in a computer,” Brin said.
Man in wheelchair robs Croatian bank ZAGREB A Croatian man in a wheelchair robbed a bank after passers-by helped him to enter the premises, local media reported Friday. “I have a bomb!” shouted the 35year-old disabled man to shocked employees in a branch of Austria’s Erste Bank in downtown Zagreb, before forcing them to hand over the cash, the Vecernji list newspaper reported. The crime occurred on
Singapore Yo-yoing currencies, spiralling inflation and plunging commodity costs are shaking up the rankings of the world’s most expensive cities, an annual survey said Thursday, with Tokyo sliding and Shanghai shooting up. Political uncertainty and global economic volatility have upended the list of pricey places, according to a cost of living index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Only eight cities of the 133 surveyed have seen their ranking position remain unchanged in the last 12 months,” the EIU said. Perennially-expensive Japan - whose capital was the planet’s costliest city for much of the last two decades - has dropped against global peers, thanks to a much weaker yen. Tokyo - in 11th place globally is now only as expensive as Shanghai, where rising prices are hitting consumers in the pocket. The collapse of the Brazillian Real has sent the relative cost of living in Rio De Janeiro down 52 places to 113th — making it half as costly as New York. “In nearly 17 years of working on this survey I can’t
Applications might range from making phones smarter to “helping scientists solve some of some of the world’s biggest challenges in health care and other areas,” he added. Previously, the most famous AI victory to date came in 1997 when the IBM-developed supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov, the then-world class chess champion, in its second attempt. But a true mastery of Go, which has more possible move configurations than there are atoms in the universe, had long been considered the exclusive province of humans -- until now. AlphaGo’s creators had described Go as the “Mt Everest” of AI, citing the complexity of the game, which requires a degree of creativity and intuition to prevail over an opponent.AlphaGo first came to prominence with a 5-0 drubbing of European champion Fan Hui last October, but it had been expected to struggle against 33year-old Lee. Creating “general” or multi-purpose, rather than “narrow”, task-specific intelligence, is the ultimate goal
Wednesday evening only a few seconds after the man had politely thanked passers-by for
helping him to enter the bank in his wheelchair, the paper said. After employees handed over 50,000 kunas (6,600 euros, $7,300) the robber wheeled himself to a nearby taxi station where a cab driver helped him get into the car and put his wheelchair in the trunk. Unaware of his client’s recent activities, the drive took the man towards the northern town of Bjelovar, where he was eventually arrested.
Russian religious leaders condemn ruling on unconsented organ removal Moscow Russian Jewish and Christian leaders protested on Friday over a constitutional court ruling legalising the removal of organs for transplant without the consent of relatives. “We understand that organs are needed for transplants, but taking them against the will of relatives and loved ones is inconceivable,” Russian news agencies quoted chief Rabbi Berl Lazar as saying. “God gave man a certain number of organs. A person returning to God has to return this body as it was received,” he said. A senior cleric from Russian Orthodox Church, which enjoys close relations with the state, said Russia should instead introduce a opt-in organ donation system like those in the United States and some other Western countries. “The Russian Orthodox Church could... support the idea of voluntary (organ) donation in our country,” Dmitry Pershin, the chairman of the missionary commission at Moscow’s
Diocesan Council, told RIA Novosti state news agency. “There are no obstacles to this
Friday, saying he had not yet read through the ruling. The constitutional court’s ruling
in the Christian tradition,” Pershin added.The Russian Constitutional Court this week published a ruling that it is legal to remove organs from a deceased person’s body without the consent of relatives. Russian law works on the presumption that a person has given consent to having their organs removed unless they stated otherwise while alive. The deputy head of Russia’s Council of Muftis, Rushan Abbyasov, declined to comment when contacted by AFP on
came in response to a lawsuit filed by the mother of Moscow student Alina Sablina who died in a car crash in January 2014. The mother sought moral compensation after she discovered doctors had removed some of her deceased daughter’s organs. Russia carries out very few organ transplants compared with Western countries. Doctors carried out fewer than 2,000 organ transplants in 2015, Rossiiskaya Gazeta government daily wrote.
Issue - 658 (30)
15 March - 21 March 2016
I’m an Indian to the core, don’t make me the villain says Vijay Mallya
Vijay Mallya wants to return to India but fears the time isn’t right as his words may be twisted in spite of his “best intensions” following his Rs 9,000 crore loan default, the liquor baron told . In an email interview with the British newspaper Sunday Guardian, the tycoon said he left India due to a “personal visit with a friend” and appeared to shift the blame of the massive loan default to the banks. “There was a lookout notice issued against me last year. But I didn’t “escape”. Why am I being portrayed as a criminal
now?” he said. The tycoon -- who triggered outrage for leaving India in spite of a CBI probe and Supreme Court proceedings against his alleged financial misconduct – is known for his flashy lifestyle and often billed himself as “The King of Good Times”. But his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines defaulted on a Rs 900 crore loan, allegedly in collusion with IDBI bank employees, triggering a CBI probe and a case by the Enforcement Directorate. “Loan defaults are a business
Indian statues seized before auction in New York
Subhash Kapoor, a former Manhattan gallery owner, is the subject of an international investigation into allegations that he ran one of the biggest antiquities smuggling operations ever uncovered in the US. He has denied wrongdoing and is awaiting trial in India on charges of plundering archaeological sites and conspiring with black market traders to send illicitly-obtained artifacts overseas. According to the ongoing investigation, the Rishbhanata sculpture appears to have been sold to London-based Brandon Lynch Ltd between 2006 and 2007. The Revanta panel, according to images provided by the source dealer, appeared to have contained an “orphan fragment” - a piece perfectly broken off to be sold by the smugglers after the sale of the main part of the sculpture. The federal agents, working with prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, were assisted in their effort by an informant who had previously pleaded guilty to possessing stolen property and is now helping investigators track the looted items.Investigators say that many works that Kapoor handled had been stolen.
Agents have seized thousands of items valued at more than $100 million from his storage spaces in the city, including bronze and sandstone statues believed to have been looted from temples in India. Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R Vance, Jr said that “with high demand from all corners of the globe, collectors must be certain of provenance before purchasing”. Jennifer Ferguson, a Christie’s spokeswoman, said that the company was cooperating with the investigation and had been told by the authorities that evidence indicating the works were stolen “was not publicly available”. “This is one of the difficulties the art market faces in vetting antiquities, which is why Christie’s very much values building strong relationships with and between countries of origin, law enforcement, archaeologists, and the collecting community,” she added. American and Indian investigators say their evidence includes emails, databases, bank records, shipping forms and testimony from some former Kapoor associates. Prosecutors in Manhattan have said they hope to extradite Kapoor to face additional charges.
matter. When the banks give out loans, they know the risk involved. They decide, we don’t. Our own business was flourishing, but plummeted suddenly,” he said. “Don’t make me the villain. I have the best intentions. I’m quiet because I fear my words will be twisted like of others.” Last week, a consortium of 17 banks approached the Supreme Court SC to bar Mallya from leaving India, worried about the fate of their loans worth thousands of crores. The court issued a notice to Mallya, seeking his personal appearance in the SC and impounding his passport, but by then, he had left India. “I am an Indian to the core. Of course I want to return. But I’m not sure I’ll get a fair chance to present my side. I’ve already
been branded as criminal. I do not feel the time is right. I feel passions are high,” he told Sunday Guardian. “People need to think rationally. They need to understand that business, whether large or small, has risks involved. But I hope that I return one day. India has given me everything. It made me Vijay Mallya.” A debt-recovery tribunal order has barred him from touching the Rs 515 crore he received from liquor giant Diageo as settlement but the British company has said it already paid Mallya Rs 269 crore. Banks owed money by Kingfisher Airlines have demanded “first right” to the Diageo cash, arguing that they were left with unpaid debts worth Rs 9,000 crore when the company collapsed more than
three years ago. But a combative Mallya didn’t back down, hitting out at the media and saying he didn’t do anything wrong. “Most of the big media houses are running a whole lot of lies about me. Speculations rule the papers. TV channels claim to have information about me from their sources. It’s a big agenda that some people are pushing against me. I am being victimized,” he said. “And if people are doubting the integrity of bank employees, then why point the finger at me?” The development comes at a time when India’s banking sector, dominated by about twodozen state-run lenders, has been bruised by its highest badloan ratio in years as lagging economic growth hit companies’ abilities to service debt.
Global ranking: Hyderabad is best Indian city to live in Hyderabad is ranked the top Indian city in the quality of living ranking for the second consecutive year, as per Mercer’s Quality of Living Report 2016. The city has slipped one rank from last year to 139, due to increased power disruptions and extreme weather situations, particularly in May 2015. At that time, extreme heat caused approximately 2,000 deaths nationwide. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were particularly affected, with more than 1,700 deaths recorded. Other Indian cities rank much lower with Pune slotted at 144. The survey highlights that Indian cities haven’t made much progress on the quality of living scale, scoring the same as last year. Over time, cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai have emerged as cities of choice due to factors such as lower crime rate, lesser air pollution and improved options for international and reputable English-speaking schools. Both Hyderabad and Pune rank higher for quality of living than the country’s more traditional business centres, Mumbai and New Delhi ranked at 152 and 161, respectively. Globally, Vienna has been rated as the city with the best quality of living for the third consecutive time, followed by Zurich (2), Auckland (3), and Munich (4). Vancouver (5) is North America’s highest ranking city, and Singapore is the highest ranking Asian city, holding 26th place. Despite recent security issues, social unrest and concern about the region’s economic outlook, European cities continue to offer some of the world’s highest quality of living. Safety, in particular, is a key factor for multinationals to consider when sending expatriate workers, both because it raises
concerns about the expat’s personal safety and because it has a significant impact on the cost of global compensation programmes. Mercer’s Quality of Living surveys provide data and recommendations for over 450 cities worldwide. This year’s ranking includes 230 of these cities. The parameters taken into
remains its highest ranked city, whereas Dhaka (214) is the lowest. Following Singapore in South-East Asia is Kuala Lumpur (86). Other key cities include Bangkok (129), Manila (136), and Jakarta (142). In the Pacific, New Zealand and Australian cities are some of the highest-ranked cities globally, with Auckland in 3rd,
account for the survey include political and social environment, medical care and health considerations, public services, recreation facilities and natural environment among others. Mercer’s survey also identifies the personal safety ranking for the full list of cities. It is based on internal stability, crime figure levels, performance of local law enforcement, and the home country’s relationship with other countries. Luxembourg tops the personal safety list and is followed by Bern, Helsinki, and Zurich – all tied in second place. Baghdad (230) and Damascus (229) are the world’s least safe cities according to the ranking. The safest Indian cities are Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru – all ranked 113, 121 and 123, respectively. The global scenario Asia-Pacific Asia has considerable variation in quality of living, according to Mercer’s Quality of Living Report 2016. In 26th place, Singapore
Sydney in 10th, Wellington in 12th, and Melbourne in 16th place. Europe :Despite economic uncertainties, Western European cities are among those with highest quality of living worldwide. They fill seven places in the top-10 list. Vienna continues to lead the ranking and has done so in the last seven published rankings. It is followed by Zurich (2), Munich (4), Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Geneva (8), and Copenhagen (9). The lowest ranking cities in Europe are Kiev (176), Tirana (179), and Minsk (190). Americas : Quality of Living remains high in North America, where Canadian cities dominate the top of the list. Vancouver (5) is the highest ranking city, followed by Toronto (15) and Ottawa (17). In the United States, San Francisco (28) ranks highest for quality of living, followed by Boston (34), Honolulu (35), Chicago (43), and New York City (44).
Issue - 658 (31)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Buddhist monk mistaken for Muslim, attacked in US
San Francisco In a hate-fuelled attack, a 66year-old Buddhist monk was assaulted in the US with the attacker apparently mistaking him for a Muslim. Kozen Sampson, the monk, said he was attacked during a visit to Hood River in Oregon state. The brown robe-clad Sampson’s car door was kicked into his head by a man who abused him and then fled on foot, according to the Hood River Police Department. Police described the assailant as a white male with brown hair. Investigators are probing the incident that took place on February 29 as a possible hate crime. Sampson told the New York Daily News he suffered a small cut, some memory loss and was “stunned for a minute or two” after the man attacked him on his trip to take his dogs to obedience training. “I know that that was an angry thought that this person had, but Muslims have to deal with this every day,” said Sampson.
“Could you imagine living with such anger? Our hope is that we can find a way that people can release this anger and fear,” he said. “It’s really not about me. It’s about loving kindness and taking care of all of our people,” Sampson said. He said the man, who seemingly thought he was Muslim based on his clothing, attacked him for no reason. “I pulled over, someone ran up and yelled. I turned around, they kicked the door, hit me in the side of the face and knocked my head into the frame of the car,” Sampson was quoted as saying by KATU-TV. He said the man also abused Muslims. But instead of anger and hatred towards that man, Sampson said he only feels forgiveness and compassion. “I don’t know the Islamic faith well, but I do know that Muslims are our brothers and sisters and I would encourage everyone to just take a hard look at how supportive are you of all God’s children,” Sampson said.
US boy, four, accidentally shoots gun-loving mom Miami A four-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother in the back, leaving the passionately pro-gun woman badly wounded and facing possible charges, Florida officials said Wednesday. Staunch gun advocate Jamie Gilt, 31, who just a day earlier had boasted online about her toddler’s shooting prowess, was cruising down a major thoroughfare with her son in the back when he shot her on Tuesday. The bullet went through the seat cushion. “Our investigation has revealed that the firearm was legally owned by the victim and the child came to possess the firearm without the victim’s knowledge,” Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Gilt, who is in a stable condition, was so badly wounded that police detectives have been unable to interview her from her hospital bed. But they warned that she could face police action after they work out exactly how the boy - who was unharmed and is now with relatives - got his hands on the gun. The weapon was a .45-caliber handgun the boy found on the floor of the pickup truck, NBC News said, citing police. The
As anti-Islam tone rises in US, Muslim women learn self-defense Washington Some 20 women in Islamic hijab worried by rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States watched on a recent night as their self-defense instructor showed them how to punch a would-be attacker. “Kiai!”
shouted Rana Abdelhamid, an Egyptian-American with a black belt in shotokan karate, as she demonstrated the blow. “I’m fighting - Kiai! That’s how loud I want you to be,” Abdelhamid, a Muslim human rights activist and native of Queens, New York, told the group.The women followed her lead, some shouting the martial
arts cry louder than others. The workshops launched by Abdelhamid for women are among a number of similar classes around the United States that have sprung up as Muslims perceive themselves to be under increasing threat.
The feeling has intensified with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call in December to ban Muslims from entering the country. “You can be attacked at any point. You can be pushed off ... of a subway ledge,” said Abdelhamid. She added that headscarves and the hijab can sometimes turn Muslim women
into targets. One of the women in the class, Kristin Garrity Sekerci, an American convert to Islam, said she wanted to be able to defend herself if she were attacked. “You stand out. It’s not fair, but it’s the reality. And you have to equip yourself to be able to face that,” said Garrity Sekerci, who works with the Islamophobiatracking Bridge Initiative at Washington’s Georgetown University. Muslim advocacy groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) say anti-Muslim bias crimes in the United States have tripled since attacks by Islamic militants in Paris in November and shootings by Muslim extremists in San Bernardino, California, in December. About 80 percent of the victims in such incidents are women, CAIR officials say.“There really is a need for Muslim women to protect themselves in this society,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.The Bridge Initiative says Muslims in the United States are five times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than they were before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
mother and boy were on their way to pick up a horse, said police, who rushed to Gilt’s aid after a police officer slowed to
check why the vehicle had stopped. Gilt, of Jacksonville, Florida promptly told police that her son, who has not been named, had accidentally shot her. “Florida statute makes it a misdemeanor for a person to store or leave, on a premise under his or her control, a loaded firearm in such a manner that it is likely a child can gain access to the firearm,” said the statement. “Due to her medical condition, detectives have not been able to interview the victim and any
decision on the filing of criminal charges will not come until after we speak with the victim.” What appears to be Gilt on Facebook shows she is a passionate supporter of the right to bear arms, including pictures of her with weapons and with a cowboy hat perched on her head. On Monday she concluded a discussion on Facebook about possessing weapons for self-defense by boasting: “Even my 4year-old gets jacked up to target shoot the .22.” The incident shines another damning spotlight on America’s gun culture and Facebook users wasted little time in ridiculing Gilt. One of her two Facebook pages - a community page called “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense” - has a profile picture of Gilt with a long gun, black cowboy hat and staring intently into the camera. “Model mom - not!,” wrote one Facebook user commenting on the photo. Another added: “Please don’t have anymore children.” “For your sake, I’m glad your son doesn’t have better aim,” said another user. Both Facebook pages later appeared to have been taken down as Gilt’s notoriety grew.
Ex-Putin aide died in US hotel of head injuries WASHINGTON A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin found dead in a Washington hotel suffered blunt force injuries to the head, not a heart attack as initially claimed, the US capital’s chief medical examiner said.Mikhail Lesin, 57, a former press minister accused of curtailing media freedoms in Putin’s Russia, also suffered injuries to his neck, torso and upper and lower extremities, the chief medical examiner said.Putin’s spokesman said in response today that the Kremlin expected the United States to provide “detailed official information” about Lesin’s murky death on November 5. The official findings -- made public more than four months after his death -- contradict previous Russian state media reports, citing his family, that said Lesin died of a heart attack. They also would appear to indicate that he was killed.The New York Times said Lesin’s injuries were the result of “some sort of altercation” that took place before he returned to the Dupont Circle Hotel where he was staying.Lesin’s sudden death triggered a host of conspiracy theories in Russia, but Washington police
cautioned it was too early to jump to conclusions and stressed that the medical examiner had concluded that the manner of death was “undetermined.”“We cannot definitively state that foul play
was a factor as that would be speculation at this point in the investigation,” said police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck, adding that the investigation was ongoing. Lesin helped launch the Russian Englishlanguage television network RT and allegedly amassed millions of dollars in assets in Europe and the United States while working for the government, including USD 28 million in real estate in Los Angeles. Moscow, whose relations with Washington have plummeted over Ukraine and Syria, voiced irritation at the handling of the case. “We have not received any detailed information through the channels established to deal with these situations,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
Issue - 658 (32)
15 March - 21 March 2016
Indian-origin journalist heckled by Trump’s supporters during rally
Chicago An Indian-origin journalist with a major US television network was heckled by Donald Trump’s supporters and briefly detained by police during a protest at the Republican presidential frontrunner’s campaign rally, media reports said.CBS News reporter Sopan Deb was detained by police while covering the protest that broke out last night following the cancellation of Trump’s rally in Chicago.Deb was covering the clash between protesters and the Republican front-runner’s supporters when he was detained, the news organisation said.“Deb was filming video of a man whose face was bloody and laying on the ground near police at the time of his arrest,” according to a ‘CBS This Morning’ report. Deb alleged that he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed without notice or warning, the CBS news reported.Illinois State Police charged Deb with resisting arrest though the network reported that neither his video, nor that of a nearby film crew, showed any sign of resistance.“I have never seen anything like what I am witnessing in my life,” Deb
tweeted after the incident. Deb, who has been covering Trump’s campaign ever since he announced his presidential run last June, said “A Trump supporter just asked me at Reno event if I was taking pictures for ISIS. When I looked shocked, he said, ‘yeah, I am talking to you’.” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions.Trump cancelled his campaign rally citing security concerns after hundreds of people gathered at the arena to protest against his ‘politics of hatred’ and scuffled with his supporters in the largest-ever demonstration against the Republican presidential front-runner.Of late journalists have been at receiving end at the Trump campaign.Foreign journalists have been made totally out of bound while the domestic media are put inside an enclosure at all his rallies and are not allowed to move out of that.In the last few weeks, several journalists have been scuffled by security agents and Trump’s supporters.The developments forced the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) to issue a rare statement.
Woman hid child in bag on Paris flight
Paris A woman who flew into Paris from Istanbul this week was found to have hidden a four-yearold girl in a bag on the plane, Air France said Wednesday. The airline said the child, travelling without a ticket, was discovered on board the flight on Monday night “hidden inside a bag”. A source at Charles de Gaulle Airport said the woman was a resident of France who was in the process of adopting the child who was from Haiti. “She was apparently in the transit zone in Istanbul, and had crossed the customs checkpoint with the child, when
she was prevented from boarding a flight with her,” said the source. The woman then “decided to hide the child in a bag to get aboard another flight, after buying a new ticket. “Once on board, she placed the child at her feet, under a blanket, but the girl needed to go to the toilet and was noticed by other passengers,” the source added. Air France said it notified French authorities and the woman was taken into custody upon landing, but prosecutors decided not to press charges. She and the girl were however being held at the airport while authorities investigate the case.
Record 1,300 rhinos poached in Africa in 2015 Geneva More than 1,300 rhinos were poached in Africa last year, a record since 2008 when South Africa banned trade in rhino horns, leading conservation body IUCN said on Wednesday. “The number of African rhinos killed by poachers has increased for the sixth year in a row with at least 1,338 rhinos killed by poachers across Africa in 2015,” the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a statement. “This is the highest level since the current crisis began to emerge in 2008,” the Switzerland-based body said. The slaughter has been driven by demand for their horn in countries such as China and Vietnam, where they are prized for their purported medicinal properties. The horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails, but it is sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer and other diseases. Trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an international treaty created in 1973 to protect wildlife against over-exploitation,
and ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. But it was only banned in 2008 in South Africa,which is said to be home to 20,000 rhinos or 80
supplied by sophisticated transnational organised crime networks, the IUCN said. They are sold for about $60,000 a kilo on the black market, making it more expensive than cocaine. “The extensive poaching for the
percent of the world’s rhino population. IUCN Director General Inger Andersen said despite stepped up surveillance by field rangers risking their lives daily there had been “alarming increases in poaching over the past year in other vitally important range states, such as Namibia and Zimbabwe” both of which adjoin South Africa. Demand for rhino horn from South East Asia is being illegally
illegal trade in horn continues to undermine the rhino conservation successes made in Africa over the last two decades,” said IUCN expert Mike Knight. On the plus side, poaching in Kenya decreased over the past two years and went down for the first time in South Africa in 2015. According to experts, there were between 19,000 and 21,000 white rhinos in Africa last year and between 5,000 and 5,500 black ones.
Berlin Toshiba has shown off the latest generation of its Chihira robot at a trade fair in Berlin. The machine - which is designed to look as human-like as possible - has had the German language added to its repertoire. The firm also told the BBC that it upgraded the machine’s control system to make its movements smoother.However, one expert suggested the realistic appearance might not be best suited to Western audiences. Prof Noel Sharkey - a roboticist at the University of Sheffield said he thought the machine still fell “clearly on this side of the uncanny valley”. The term refers to the fact that many people feel increasingly uncomfortable the closer a robot gets to appearing like a human being, so long as the two remain distinguishable. Toshiba brought the Chihira Kanae droid to the ITB travel expo to highlight what it hopes could become a viable product for the tourism industry. The machine has been installed at an information desk where it responds to attendees’ verbal questions about the conference. “We have improved the software and the hardware to [improve] the air pressure system,” explained Hitoshi Tokuda, chief specialist at Toshiba’s research and development centre. “If the air pressure is unstable, her movements become affected by vibrations. So, if the air flow
is very precisely controlled, her movements are smoother.” Like its predecessors, Chihira Kanae can also interpret and respond to requests in English, Japanese and Chinese, as well as using sign language.“It can be combined with any kind of language processing system, so we can make her speak many other languages as well,”
awkward.”“As a robot, it is very good but it still has that slight look of a psycho killer,” he commented. He added that there was a growing cultural split in opinions about what androids should look like.“In surveys between Japan and the US, it seems that the Japanese really want robots that are indistinguishable from humans,
added Mr Tokuda.“We have created Chihira Kanae to have a human-like appearance as people, particularly the older generation, find this look more welcoming and approachable. “This is particularly important as, in addition to her work in the tourism and service industries, Chirhira Kanae will be used in the health sector to care for older people. “We have also found that people prefer speaking to a human-like communication android as they can ask their questions as many times as they need, without feeling embarrassed or
while in the US and the West in general, people would rather know it’s a robot that they are dealing with.“Personally, I would always prefer to know that I am dealing with a robot rather than being deceived by a machine. It is a matter of trust.” A contrast to Toshiba’s approach is a new collaboration between IBM and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.They are using a robot to provide guests at one of Hilton’s Virginia properties with information about local attractions. The machine uses IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence software to make its recommendations.
Toshiba’s robot is designed to be more human-like
Issue - 658 (33)
15 March - 21 March 2016
South Sudan allowed soldiers to rape civilians in civil war says UN report London According to a UN report, South Sudanese government allowed its soldiers and militias to rape women in lieu of wages, torture and murder suspected opponents and deliberately displace as many people as possible during the country’s civil war. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a harrowing document on Friday; six months after accounts emerged revealing the systematic abduction and abuse of thousands of women and girls during the conflict. The reports revealed the atrocities committed by both sides since the war broke out in December 2013 and warned that many of those may amount to war crimes or crimes against
humanity, adding that most of the civilian casualties were the result of deliberately targeted attacks rather than combat operations. While the report found that all sides had committed “serious violations and abuses”, it was unequivocal in asserting that “the government appears to be responsible for the gross and systematic human rights violations”. The UN recorded more than 1,300 reports of rape in Unity state alone, an oil-rich area in the north of the country that has seen some of the worst violence of the conflict from April to September last year. It added that the opposition forces in 2014 harried towns in the area, turning churches, mosques and hospitals into veritable traps for civilians.
Antarctic blue whales belong to three populations
The civilians were deliberately targeted again ever after the forces scattered in 2015 in the face of an offensive waged by
raped and abducted women and girls as a form of payment. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human
government troops in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The report noted that the prevalence of rape suggested that its use had become “an acceptable practice by SPLA soldiers and affiliated armed militias”. Its assessment team was told that youth militias who carry out attacks with the SPLA had an agreement - “do what you can and take what you can”. The report said that Most of the youth therefore also raided cattle, stole personal property,
Rights said that while South Sudan was one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world, the situation was struggling to attract international attention reports the Guardian. “The scale and types of sexual violence - primarily by government SPLA forces and affiliated militia - are described in searing, devastating detail, as is the almost casual, yet calculated, attitude of those slaughtering civilians and destroying property and
livelihoods. However, the quantity of rapes and gangrapes described in the report must only be a snapshot of the real total,” Guardian quoted him as saying. Meanwhile the government flatly rejected suggestions that SPLA soldiers have been involved in the human rights abuses detailed in the report. “We condemn in the strongest terms possible any crimes committed against civilians,” Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for President, Salva Kiir, reports the Guardian. Ateny, said that the atrocities may have been carried out by militias wearing SPLA uniforms and insisted that government troops operated under strict rules of engagement that prohibit the targeting of civilians. South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, has been in conflict since December 2013, when President Kiir accused Riek Machar, his former vicepresident of plotting a coup. The fight tore the country apart along sectarian lines, pitting supporters of Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against those backing Machar, an ethnic Nuer. At least 50,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million further displaced in the past two years.
New British parents judged at work Sydney Antarctic blue whales, the largest creatures on the planet, likely belong to three populations that feed alongside each other but breed in separate oceans, according to Australian-led research published Wednesday. Using the largest data set ever obtained from the critically endangered subspecies, the study in the Scientific Reports journal seeks to shed light on blue whale populations to aid their conservation. “We found genetic evidence that there are three groups of Antarctic blue whales that likely represent three populations,” the study’s lead author Catherine Attard, a biological sciences lecturer at South Australia’s Flinders University, told AFP. “We suspect that each population migrates north to breed in a different ocean basin.” Relatively little is known about the Antarctic blue whale, even though they are the biggest animal in the world and can grow to more than 30 metres (100 feet) in length. Attard said the animals fed on krill in Antarctica in the southern hemisphere summer, but exactly where they headed to next was a mystery. She said they likely migrated north to the South Pacific, South Atlantic and Indian oceans to breed as the southern hemisphere winter approached.
The idea that the whales split up to breed has been around since the 1960s, and Attard said it was possible that calves learned their migratory routes from their mothers. But she said satellite tracking now needed to be done to confirm the majestic animals’ migratory routes and breeding grounds. Knowing the number and distribution of populations would help prevent biodiversity loss, the study noted. Antarctic blue whale numbers were drastically reduced due to whaling in the past, with only an estimated 360 left in the world in the 1970s when they were last hunted. Attard said current estimates were that there were “several thousand” of the huge creatures, but they remained surrounded by mystery given the difficulty of studying them in the harsh and remote Antarctica and their wide-roaming nature. “It’s quite amazing that they are the biggest animal and we don’t know much about them,” she said. The Antarctic blue whale, which is known for its deep resonating song, can weigh up to 180 tonnes and is said to have a heart as big as a small car. The latest study used genetic samples obtained between 1990 and 2009, as part of research approved by the International Whaling Commission.
LONDON If you’re a new mother in Britain returning to work after having a baby here’s some news for you: almost half your colleagues will think that you’ve become less committed to your job, according to a survey published on Tuesday. However, if you’re a new father, a baby comes with a bonus, as many of your peers will likely think your commitment to work has actually increased, said the poll by the Fawcett Society, a campaign group promoting women’s rights in the labour market. The news gets even worse for women who become mothers before the age of 33, who, according to analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Britain’s largest union group - earn 15 percent less than their female colleagues who haven’t had children. “The motherhood penalty and daddy bonus are still a strong feature of our workplaces,” Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This drives inequality and forces women and men into traditional male breadwinner, female carer roles.”
According to the Fawcett Society survey, 46 percent of people in Britain believe women become less committed to their job after having a baby, compared to 11 percent who think the same is true for men. Meanwhile, 29 percent of people
“The lack of flexibility and pressure on dads at work means women are still doing the bulk of the caring and the work around childcare,” Smethers said. “(...) until we start to see a more equal sharing of care we won’t achieve equality at work and we won’t
believe new fathers become more committed to work, compared to just 8 percent who believe new mothers become more committed. The poll showed discrepancies in how men and women see their share of childcare, with men almost twice as likely as women to believe that tasks such as making sure children do their homework or washing children’s clothes were shared equally.
close the pay gap.” The survey also showed that both men and women lie to their bosses in order to spend time caring for their children. Four in 10 fathers said they were not getting enough leave time to care for their children and 38 percent said they resorted to lying to their bosses in order to spend time with their kids, compared to 28 percent of women who said they lied.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Rome embraces Oval diamond to fetch history’s wiliest beast $35m in Hong Kong sale
Hong Kong A 10.10 carat vivid blue diamond is expected to set the record for the most expensive piece of jewellery sold at auction in Asia despite an ongoing growth slowdown in China’s economy, Sotheby’s said Friday. The “De Beers Millennium Jewel 4” is expected to fetch between $30 million and $35 million at the April 5 sale in Hong Kong, and
is described by the auction house as the largest oval blue diamond ever to appear at auction and “internally flawless”. The diamond, which is slightly larger than an almond in size, came from South Africa’s Cullinan Mine and was one of 12 displayed at London’s Millennium Dome to mark the year 2000. “There are no more than a dozen
Europe’s rarest seabird faces extinction
or so blue diamonds of fancy vivid colour and over 10 carats in the world, so they are very, very rare,” Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman for Asia Quek Chin Yeow told AFP. The sale will come five months after the 12.03-carat “Blue Moon of Josephine” was bought for a record $48 million in Geneva by an Asian property tycoon — a further sign the jewellery auction market remains strong despite slowing Chinese growth. The world’s second-largest economy expanded 6.9 percent in 2015, the worst performance in a quarter of a century and a far cry from years of double-digit increases. “Of course people are concerned about the China slowdown” Quek said, but added that sales of rare items seem to be largely unaffected by growth numbers. “It’s the rarity and the collectability of these wonderful objects. When they come to the market, they will have strong interest from all over the world,” Quek said, adding that the location of the upcoming sale was a sign of confidence in the Asian market. The previous record for a diamond sold in Hong Kong was set in 2013, with the sale of a 118-carat white diamond for $30.6 million.
Rome They were Indiana Jones’s most feared nemeses and scared off would-be Medusa fanciers. Throughout history, snakes have represented peril, betrayal and sex, and now they are taking centre stage in a new Italian exhibition. Luxury jeweller Bulgari has teemed up with Rome’s city hall for “SerpentiForm”, which will run until April 10 in a Neoclassical palace which once housed the political headquarters of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Serpentinspired jewels are on show alongside sculptures, paintings and even film costumes - like the creations worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film “Cleopatra”, in homage to the Egyptian pharaoh who tradition has it committed suicide by persuading a venomous snake to bite her.“This is the first exhibition in the world dedicated to the snake that brings together so many works of various media,” Bulgari’s CEO Jean-Christophe
Babin said, adding that the brand had “always been inspired” by the scaly reptile. While in some cultures snakes historically represented fertility shedding their skin in a symbol of rebirth they are more often than not depicted as untrustworthy.The show hopes to capture the seductive talents of serpents like the one who persuaded Eve to eat forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, or Lord Voldemort’s fork-tongued pet in “Harry Potter”. The exhibition is taking place at the Palazzo Braschi, a former papal palace located close to one of Rome’s best-known squares, Piazza Navona.Constructed at the end of the 18th Century, the palace was was sold to the new Italian state in 1871 and later used as Mussolini’s headquarters. After World War II it temporarily became home to hundreds of refugees who reportedly damaged the building’s frescoes by lighting fires to keep warm.
New Zealand has actively pursued the permanent return of its own indigenous artefacts -
Kamana’opono Crabbe from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs said. Cook was on a voyage seeking
such as mummified Maori heads - from museums around the world. The handover took place at a ceremony at Te Papa featuring Hawaiian and New Zealand Maori indigenous rituals. “I’m grateful to witness the return of these cultural heirlooms it is a cause for celebration and it will be a source of inspiration, reflection and discussion,”
the fabled Northwest Passage and decided to spend the winter in Hawaii, according to an account in the State Library of New South Wales.When his expedition first arrived in Kealakekua Bay it was greeted warmly and Kalani’opu’u gave Cook the royal garments. But tensions soon arose and Cook was killed in a skirmish with the islanders on February 14, 1779.
Captain Cook’s Hawaiian gifts returned after 237 years London Europe’s rarest seabird will be extinct within 60 years, according to a new analysis. Urgent action is needed to stop the Balearic sheerwater being drowned in fishing lines and nets, say scientists. The bird breeds in the Balearic Islands, sometimes stopping off in British waters as it migrates north. Research shows the global population is not sustainable in the long term. There are about 3,000 breeding pairs left. The main threat to the bird is becoming entangled in fishing gear, according to findings published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Other risks include hunting by the likes of cats and other small mammals. Prof Tim Guilford of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford is coresearcher on the study. He told BBC News: “The survival of adults from one year to the next and especially of
young adults is much lower than we thought. “The species is unsustainable - it is on the road to extinction.” Estimates suggest about half of deaths in adult birds are due to accidental capture in fishing lines and nets. Fishing on the seabed is a particular risk as birds can become entangled and drown when lines are immersed, say researchers in the UK and Spain. Changes such as setting fishing gear at night when the bird does not dive “could make a massive difference”, said Prof Guilford. “The science shows just how serious the problem is, but also that there is a technically simple solution - the setting of demersal long-lines at night,” he added. The Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) is one of the rarest seabirds in the world. The seabird is classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of species. It breeds on cliffs and small islets and lays only one egg.
Wellington Traditional Hawaiian garments gifted to Captain James Cook before he was killed in the islands more than two centuries ago were handed back to indigenous people of the US Pacific state Friday at a ceremony in Wellington. Described as “priceless” by New Zealand’s national museum Te Papa, the mahiole (feathered helmet) and ‘ahu ‘ula (feathered cloak) were given to Cook in 1779 during the famous British explorer’s last voyage. Such items were normally reserved for royalty - with the feathers of 20,000 birds needed for the cloak alone- a mark of Hawaiian chief Kalani’opu’u’s esteem for Cook. Te Papa said they came to New Zealand via a circuitous route, passing through the hands of various British collectors before they were bequeathed to Wellington’s Dominion Museum in 1912. Talks about returning them to Hawaii began in 2013, culminating in an agreement to give them to Honolulu’s Bishop Museum, technically on a longterm loan of at least 10 years.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Important not to get carried away says Kohli India batsman Virat Kohli insisted on Monday (March 14) that his side cannot afford to get carried away on the back of their recent performances in Twenty20 cricket ahead of their World T20 opener against New Zealand in Nagpur. “It’s important to not get carried away, staying calm is important. We obviously are our own favourites, but it’s important to focus game by game,” he said. “The whole feel and vibe of such a big tournament is different from a bilateral. Our biggest strength will be
to not look at it as a new tournament but to keep our momentum going. At home, people come to you and say ‘we must win; we expect and understand that playing in India,” he added. Kohli spoke about handling pressure in front of the home crowd in a world tournament, something that he had to do as a youngster in the 2011 World Cup which India won. Five years later, the likes of Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah will be experiencing something similar. “I had anxiety in 2011 to establish myself, so it might be the case with
Malinga flies to India; still recovering from ‘bone bruise’
Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga, who has been under an injury cloud, has finally flown to India for the World T20. The rest of his team-mates are already in the country, but Malinga had to stay behind to undergo treatment on his left knee. He is still doubtful for Sri Lanka’s opening game, though, against Afghanistan on March 17. Malinga described his injury as a “bone bruise”. Doctors say it occurs as a result of sustaining forceful impacts while playing sports. In the case of a bowler like Malinga, his left knee supports his entire body weight during his delivery stride. “This is a bone injury that cannot be operated or treated medically. I am having only some injections [not pain killers] to make it heal. The only remedy for it is rest,” Malinga
said at the airport in Colombo on Sunday. “I will practice in the next few days with the team and see how my knee is taking up the pressure. If I don’t feel any pain I will play in the opening match, but if not it is a decision for the selectors to make.” Malinga has been nursing this injury since last December. He missed the two-match series against New Zealand, came back for the Asia Cup in his designated role as Twenty20 captain, but was sidelined immediately after a matchwinning display against UAE. In fact, Malinga has played only five of Sri Lanka’s 13 T20Is since the start of 2015, in a very scattered manner: one match in May, one in July, one in August, two in November and his final game was in February 2016.
players like Pandya and Bumrah, but they are very confident,” the 27-year-old said. “I see a big stage as an opportunity rather than pressure.” He remained coy when asked about the possibility of including Mohammed Shami in the lineup against New Zealand. “Shami has done really well whenever he has played regularly for us, we all were waiting for him to come back. It’s difficult to change a combination that has worked for you so well, but then you have to asses the situation and conditions before selecting an XI. The cap-
tain and team management will sit down and decide.” He revealed that the top order’s success in recent times was down to the clarity they have in their roles. “Dhawan’s role is to go out and take on
the bowlers; I and Rohit try to assess the situation and play accordingly.” Even though India have won 10 out of their last 11 T20 matches, Kohli believes that tougher challenges lie ahead in the
global tournament. “Your skill and concentration is tested the most in T20s...We are pretty confident having won 10 of last 11 games, but this is going to be far more challenging.”
little secret that Virat Kohli is the most popular cricketer in their women’s team although her personal favourite is Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“There are couple of names. If I just talk about my players, I think Virat Kohli is the favourite cricketer. Personally, Dhoni is my favourite player because he had led India. He has handled himself well on and off the field. He has transformed a team of juniors into an effective unit,” the captain in Sana came out. She has decided to relinquish captaincy post World T20 and wants to personally supervise a smooth change of guard by continuing as an ordinary team member before calling time on her illustrious career. Sana is quick to dismiss the notion that there will be any void once she leaves the game.
Virat Kohli is the favourite in Pakistan women’s team, says captain Sana Mir In the past 11 years, Sana Mir has done her bit to change the perception about women’s cricket in Pakistan and as she prepares to hand over the leadership baton, there is a pleasing sense of satisfaction about her on and off the field achievement in the game. The 30-year-old said how cricket is considered as a medium of women’s empowerment in Pakistan. “Yes, we have come a long way. It is considered as a medium for women’s empowerment in Pakistan. Now girls want to take up cricket. This team has done a lot to change the perception. There were times it was difficult for women’s cricket in Pakistan but now parents come
up and tell me that they want their daughters to play cricket,” Sana told reporters at a media conference, in Chennai on Sunday. Mir did let out a
Afridi served legal notice over ‘love for India’ statement Shahid Afridi was on Monday dragged to court for “committing treason” and “hurting sentiments” of Pakistanis, a day after his statement that the national cricket team was “loved more in India” than in Pakistan. A senior lawyer served a legal notice on the 36-year-old Pakistan cricket captain for his statement in India on Sunday ahead of the World T20 tournament. “I have served a legal notice on
Shahid Afridi and ‘de facto’ chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board Najam Sethi for their love for India over
Pakistan. I have also written to PCB Chairman Shahryar Khan to launch an inquiry into the statement of Afridi in India,” said advocate Azhar Saddique said while sharing the contents of the legal notice said. “Afridi has let down the whole Pakistani nation for expressing more love for
India than Pakistan. In fact he has committed treason. Now who will ensure that Pakistani team will play against India in Kolkata in T20 match to win,” said Saddique. At a press conference in Kolkata, Afridi had said, “I’ve not enjoyed playing anywhere as much as I have in India. I am in the last stage of my career and I can say that the love I have got in India is something that I will always remember.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Unlucky in love, elephant damages 15 cars in southern China
Beijing After losing out on his love interest, a wild elephant has turned his attention to cars. The elephant wandered out of a nature reserve in southern China on Friday following a failed courtship and started playing with cars parked along a highway, slightly damaging more than a dozen vehicles, authorities said. The government of Xishuangbanna prefecture said that the animal had recently lost to another male elephant in a battle
for the affections of a female, and that his temperament was moody. Staff at the nature reserve thought the animal might have become playful at the sight of the cars, the government said in a posting on its social media account. The elephant did not hurt any of the tourists who had crowded the area during the Lunar New Year holiday, and who were very excited to see the elephant, the government said. The animal’s public appearance lasted about 20 minutes before
he returned to the nature reserve. “The tourists were quite excited to see a real wild elephant, and they were using their cellphones to take photos and videos,” the government said. “Even the owners of some damaged cars found the experience to be thrilling and very interesting, although their cars got scraped.” The owners of the 15 cars that were damaged by the elephant will be compensated, the government said.
Drunk father abandons two-year-old son in car park at night London A callous father who got so drunk he abandoned his two-year-old son in a car park late at night has been jailed for six months. Neil Schofield, 35, was found collapsed from drink on the ground next to his son’s pushchair in a car park in the rain by an alarmed member of the public who called the police. By the time officers arrived there was no sign of Schofield but they found the child alone and in a cold and wet state. They waited an hour to see if the father would return. In the meantime Schofield staggered home and - forgetting where he had left his son - ‘screamed’ at his partner demanding to know where their child was. Schofield, from
Weymouth, Dorset, then went in search of his son and turned up to the Wyke Smugglers pub at midnight “in a distressed state”.
Dorchester Crown Court. The court heard Schofield, of no fixed abode, had been drinking heavily after heading out at 11am with his son
Police were called to find Schofield was ‘extremely emotional and aggressive’, and asked officers: “Have you found my son?” Judge Jonathan Fuller said the dad’s actions would “strike anyone with horror” as he sentenced him for child cruelty charges
on August 19 last year for the Weymouth Carnival day. Prosecutor Richard Tutt said: “The point that she (the paediatrcian) makes is that he was cold and wet when he was found and as a result of that was at risk of profound hypothermia and dehydration.”
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Health Here’s how brown fat may Stay in school, take stairs to slow down brain’s ageing clock help stave off diabetes
A team of researchers has found that a special type of fat that probably evolved to help keep our ancestors warm on cold hunting mornings may also be important in protecting against diabetes. Researchers at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research measured brown fat activity and blood glucose continuously in real time in study participants, and found that individuals with more brown fat had smaller fluctuations in blood sugar. Their findings open new avenues for diabetes therapies that target brown fat.
The incidence of type 2 diabetes, which is characterised by high blood sugar, is reaching epidemic proportions worldwide. There is a need for new insights into how blood sugar levels can be controlled, beyond mechanisms actioned by currently available therapies. Now, researchers at Garvan have shown that brown fat may help to minimise fluctuations in blood sugar (blood glucose) concentration in adults. Researcher Paul Lee said that it looks like the more brown fat one has, the
more influence it has on blood glucose, adding that the findings indicate that brown fat might act as a glucose buffer, lessening the variation in blood glucose and potentially diminishing metabolic stresses that could increase the risk of diabetes. The research team studied a group of 15 healthy adults over 12 hours. They found that blood glucose levels and heat production by brown fat were closely related, tracking together over time. The work is published in the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism.
Taking the stairs not only helps you keep your body strong and healthy, but also helps you keep your brain young, according to a recent study. The Concordia University study also showed that education also can significantly help slow down the ticking of the grey-matter ageing clock. Researchers led by Jason Steffener show that the more flights of stairs a person climbs and the more years of school a person completes, the “younger” their brain physically appears. The researchers found that brain age decreases by 0.95 years for each year of education, and by 0.58 years for every daily flight of stairs climbed, i.e., the stairs between two consecutive floors in a building. There already exist many ‘Take the stairs’ campaigns in office environments and public transportation centres, says Steffener, adding that this study shows that these campaigns should also be expanded for older adults, so that they can work to
keep their brains young. This study shows that education and physical activity affect the difference between a physiological prediction of age and chronological age and that people can actively do something
adults can and already do at least once a day, unlike vigorous forms of physical activity, noted Steffener. This is encouraging because it demonstrates that a simple thing like climbing stairs
to help their brains stay young, he added. In comparison to many other forms of physical activity, taking the stairs is something most older
has great potential as an intervention tool to promote brain health. The study is published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
Kidney failures have doubled in last 15 years in India
Why daylight saving time can be bad for your health Daylight saving time is Sunday, and losing sleep after clocks “spring forward” an hour could be more than just an annoyance. This small time shift can significantly raise the risk of healthrelated issues. A recent study found that the overall rate for stroke was 8% higher in the two days after daylight saving time. Cancer victims were 25% more likely to have a stroke during that time, and people older than 65 were 20% more likely to have a stroke. The researchers, based in Finland, compared the rate of stroke in more than 3,000 people hospitalized
the week after a daylight saving time shift to the rate of stroke in more than 11,000 people hospitalized two weeks before or after the week of transition. “Stroke risk is highest in the morning hours,” Dr. Jori Ruuskanen, study author from the University of Turku, said in an email.
“Previous studies have also shown that the disruption of the circadian clock due to other reasons (e.g. due to rotating shift work) and sleep fragmentation are associated with an increased risk of stroke. However, we did not know whether stroke risk is affected by DST transitions.
What is common in these situations is the disturbed sleep cycle, while the immediate mechanisms for the increased risk are unknown at the moment. Daylight saving time is a small change, Ruuskanen said, but it affects whole nations twice a year. Ruuskanen said the risk drops off in the days after the transition because our bodies and circadian clocks gradually adapt. He and his fellow researchers will present their findings in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in April.
If health experts are to be believed, the number of Indians suffering from kidney failures has doubled in the last one and a half decade. The number of Indians suffering from various types of kidney ailments and undergoing dialysis has seen a rapid rise of 10 %. Doctors have also mentioned that the citizens of India are more susceptible to chronic kidney diseases and therefore, they should take extra precautions. An approximate estimation of 75,000 patients has been
made who are on dialysis and the number is only growing each day. Diabetes is believed to be the most common cause for kidney failures and with it’s exponential growth, the number of kidney patients is likely to rise. The health ministry has also jumped in and admitted that it is a serious concern for the country. They have also thought about setting up 2,000 new dialysis centres within next couple of years to address the problem.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Iron-rich foods may limit green tea’s health benefits Green tea and spinach might sound like a healthy combination, but it is not. A new study has revealed that iron-rich foods strip the drink of its antioxidant powers. Green tea is touted for its many health benefits as a powerful antioxidant, but experiments in a laboratory mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease suggest that consuming green tea along with dietary iron may actually lessen green tea’s benefits. Study author Matam
Vijay-Kumar of the Penn State University said, “If you drink green tea after an iron-rich meal, the main compound in the tea will bind to the iron. When that occurs, the green tea loses its potential as an antioxidant. In order to get the benefits of green tea, it may be best to not consume it with iron-rich foods.” Iron-rich foods include red meat and dark leafy greens, such as kale and spinach. According to Vijay-Kumar, the same re-
sults also apply to iron supplements. The team found that EGCG, the main compound in green tea, potently inhibits myeloperoxidase, a proinflammatory enzyme released by white blood cells during inflammation. Inactivation of myeloperoxidase by EGCG may be beneficial in mitigating IBD flareups. But when EGCG and iron are consumed simultaneously, iron-bound EGCG loses its ability to inhibit myeloperoxidase.
Adding to this complexity, they found that EGCG can also be inactivated by a host protein, which is highly abundant in inflam-
matory conditions. “The benefit of green tea depends on the bioavailability of its active components,” said first au-
thor Beng San Yeoh, adding “It is not only a matter of what we eat, but also when we eat and what else we eat with it.”
A little ballet, meditation How Zika virus causes fetal brain defects can make us wiser Wisdom is often linked with age, but not all elders are wise. So, what makes a person wise? A new study confirms the
meditation is associated with wisdom is good to confirm, but the finding that the practice of ballet is associated with increased
we’re already investigating further,” Williams said. This includes ongoing studies with adult practitioners of ballet, as well as among
age-old conception that meditation is associated with wisdom. Surprisingly, it also concludes that somatic (physical) practices such as classical ballet might lead to increased wisdom. The University of Florida’s Monika Ardelt said that “As far as I know this is the first study to be published that looks at the relationship between meditation or ballet and increased wisdom. That
wisdom is fascinating. I’m not going to rush out and sign up for ballet, but I think this study will lead to more research on this question.” The researchers included ballet in the study, “not expecting to find that it was associated with wisdom, but rather for comparison purposes,” said lead author Patrick B. Williams. “The link between ballet and wisdom is mysterious to us and something that
novices training at Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet. Williams wants to track novices and seasoned practitioners of both meditation and ballet for months and years to see whether the association holds up over time. The published research was groundbreaking because science has overlooked somatic practices as a possible path to wisdom, Williams said.
A team of researchers examining the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, a condition where a child is born with an abnormally small head as a result of incomplete brain development, has discovered that the virus is capable of quickly infecting and harming developing fetal brain cells. This Florida State University study is the first major finding that shows that these critical cells are a target of the virus and also negatively affected by it. Lead author Hengli Tang said that they’re trying to fill the knowledge gap between infection and the neurological defects, adding “This research is the very first step in that, but it’s answering a critical question. It enables us to focus the research. Now you can be studying the virus in the right cell type, screening your drugs on the right cell type and studying the biology of the right cell type.” Tang, along with researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Emory Univer-
sity, found that the virus, which was discovered in 1947, directly targets a cell type called human embryonic cortical neural progenitors in as little as three days after being exposed to the virus.
lems, and that the virus is directly interfering with cell growth and function. Some of the cells died after being infected. Researcher Guo-Li Ming said that potentially, this could explain why there is
They also discovered that these infected cells replicate the Zika virus, posing potential treatment prob-
a link to microcephaly, but there is a lot more work needed to show the direct causal effect.
‘Miracle’ cells could cure blindness
Here’s how to keep your kidney health in check! On March 10 every year, World Kidney Day is observed and this year is no different. In 2016, it has become even more essential to raise awareness about this organ keeping in mind the rapid elevation in kidney diseases. The steps that are taken to keep the kidneys healthy help the rest of the body too. So, become aware and take necessary precautions before you fall into the trap of the kidney ailment. Here are some tips on how you
can keep your kidney health in check: Consume foods that are healthy for your heart like fresh fruits and
vegetables,whole grains and low-fat dairy foods. Limit your alcohol consumption and if you are a smoker, quit the butt as
early as you can. Refrain from eating fatty foods and ensure that you keep a check on your weight. Lessen the amount of salt that you consume on daily basis and also become more physically active. Control your blood glucose level, manage your blood pressure and also keep a check on your cholestrol level. Make sure that you get your urine and blood checked for kidney diseases.
It’s the most common cause of blindness in the Western world and there is no cure. At least not yet. Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) affects around 15 million people in the U.S. alone, and globally up to 30 million. For most victims, vitamins and pain relief are the best treatment available. But Professor Pete Coffey of University College London is pioneering a new therapy that could stop the disease in its tracks, and restore vision to the blind, through the London Project
to Cure Blindness. AMD kills the eye’s Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE), a layer of cells that support and nourish the eye’s vision center, the macula, which then also gradually dies. Victims experience a black spot in their vision that grows outward, while they lose the ability to read and recognize familiar faces. Coffey has spent the past eight years creating and refining his treatment to restore vision and on August 11, 2015, the first patient received it.
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15 March - 21 March 2016
Ultimate Bran Muffins
Creamy Asparagus Pasta
Ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup wheat germ 2 3/4 cups wheat bran 2/3 cup oat bran 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 tablespoon barley malt flour 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 2/3 cup honey 1 1/4 cups reduced-fat milk 1 cup low-fat plain yogurt 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup raisins Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, mix whole wheat flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, oat bran,
baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, and barley malt flour. In a separate medium bowl, thoroughly blend oil, honey, milk, yogurt, and eggs. Gradually fold milk mixture into the whole wheat flour mixture until moistened. Fold in the raisins. Spoon into the prepared muffin pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Ingredients: 1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces 2 tablespoons butter 1 clove garlic, minced 1 pint light cream 1 pound linguine pasta 1 lemon, juiced Directions: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Boil asparagus for 3 to 4 minutes; drain. In a large saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Saute garlic and asparagus for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the cream and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water and transfer to a serving dish. to a boil. Add linguine and cook for 8 Stir lemon juice into asparagus mixture; to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain pour mixture over pasta.
spicy roasted edamame
Marinated Pork Roast
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans), thawed 2 teaspoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1/4 teaspoon dried basil 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin 1/8 teaspoon paprika 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place the thawed edamame into a mixing bowl, drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with chili powder, basil, onion powder, cumin, paprika, and pepper. Toss until the edamame are evenly coated with the oil and
Ingredients: 1 (4 pound) pork roast 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons cider vinegar 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder 1 teaspoon lemon pepper 1/2 teaspoon celery salt 1 clove garlic, minced Directions: Prepare grill for indirect heat. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the Worcestershire sauce, honey, vinegar, mustard seed, mustard powder, lemon pepper, celery salt, and garlic; seal, and mix ingredients. Place the roast in the plastic bag, press air out of bag,
spices. Spread into a 9x13 inch glass baking dish in a single layer. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven until the beans begin to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir once halfway through cooking.
Pumpkin Curry with Lentils and Apples
fideo
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 (8 ounce) package fideo pasta 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 1/2 cups water Directions: Heat oil in a saucepan over mediumhigh heat. Add the fideo, and fry until browned. Pour in half of the can of tomato sauce, and 1 cup of the water. Season with cumin, garlic salt and chili powder, and stir to blend. Bring to a boil, and cook until the liquid has almost evaporated. Stir in the remaining tomato sauce and water. Cover, and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the
and seal. Marinate for 2 hours in the refrigerator, turning the roast occasionally to help coat while marinating. Lightly oil grill grate. Place roast on grill, and discard marinade. Cover, and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until internal temperature is 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).
fideo is tender, and the sauce has thickened.
Ingredients: 1 cup red lentils 1 cup brown lentils 8 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 large onion, diced, 2 tomatoes, cored and chopped, 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder, or to taste, 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 2 cups peeled, cubed (1-inch), seeded pumpkin, 2 potatoes, unpeeled and chopped, 2 carrots, peeled and diced 2 cups packed fresh spinach, chopped 1 Granny Smith apple, unpeeled, cored and diced Directions: Place the red and brown lentils in a pan with the water and turmeric. Cook over
medium-low heat until tender, about 45 minutes. Drain, reserving 2 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid. Meanwhile, heat the canola oil in a large, deep pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until tender and transparent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and garlic; cook 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Mix in the curry powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and cloves. Add the cooked lentils, reserved cooking liquid, pumpkin, potatoes, and carrots. Cover, and cook over medium-low heat until the vegetables are tender, 35 to 45 minutes. Stir in the spinach and apple. Cook until the pumpkin can be easily pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes more. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Issue 658 (40)
15 March - 21 March 2016