THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 675, 12 - 18 JULY 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761
CENTRE PLANS TO PLUG PUNJAB’S DRUG ROUTES
by Abhishek Bhalla The BJP-led Centre has planned a sweeping offensive against the thriving drug trade in poll-bound Punjab, a state where the party is in power in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The move comes ahead of next year’s Assembly elections amid allegations that corrupt politicians and police are complicit in the business that largely afflicts young men. Sources say Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a go-
ahead for the crackdown that may drive a wedge between the ruling allies in the state which has been a primary gateway for opiates smuggled from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ruling SAD has already drawn flak from political opponents for allegedly letting the drug crisis go out of hand even as it has launched a counter campaign to downplay the row. PM MODI: BUST THEM ALL According to sources, the Prime Minister’s message is loud and
clear -not to bother about political equations and crack the whip. Some high profile busts are expected in the coming months, they added, and it’s not the middlemen or small- time couriers who will be targeted, but those running international syndicates. Central agencies like the Narcotics Control Bureau and Border Security Force will be asked to carry out raids and develop information that can be used to go after the cartels.
Easy availability of drug couriers, secret tunnels, supply pipes inserted through border fences and well-knit syndicates including trans-national criminals running them from jails form part of the deep-rooted drug trafficking network , according to reports prepared by agencies. NOT JUST NARCOTICS The clampdown on peddling of traditional narcotics might not be enough as addicts are now getting lured to medicine-based Continued on Page 2
EASY TRANSIT FOR DRUGS INTO THE STATE
The Parkash Singh Badal-led Punjab government is planning stricter measures to restrict smuggling of drugs through the porous Indo-Pak border By Manjeet Sehgal Punjab is both a transit point and a market for the drugs smuggled from the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran).
While the Afghanistan heroin is smuggled from the porous IndoPakistan border, opium and poppy husk is smuggled from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh
where poppy cultivation is legal. Charas and Hashish is smuggled from Himachal Pradesh besides the synthetic drugs. Drug units located on Himachal- Punjab borders produce ICE drugs. The 553-km-long International Border with Pakistan is porous at many places which also include local rivers where fencing is missing. Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts sharing the border with Pakistan are part of the drug smuggling route which is allegedly used by the Pakistan or Afghanistan based
drug smugglers to route their consignments. The residents of villages located on the borders reportedly work as couriers for the smugglers. They get Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 to collect and forward each kilogram of heroin valued around Rs 5 crore in the international market. As farmers are given permits to grow crops near the fence at many places, they receive consignments via plastic pipes or directly thrown from the other side. Continued on Page 2
The consignments are either buried in the fields or is transported by hiding in tree trunk cavities. It remains with the local courier for some time and is then handed over to the other courier whose responsibility is to deliver the same to the one who either sends it further to New Delhi or to the local towns to sell the same in small quantities. New Delhi is the major transit point for the high-quality Afghanistan heroin. Heroin reaches New Delhi hidden in the truck tyres, tubes,
Issue - 675 (2)
12 - 18 July 2016
EASY TRANSIT FOR DRUGS... Continued from Page 1 specially designed cavities in a truck body or cars. Delhi is also a big market of drugs from where it is either smuggled to Goa, Mumbai or West Bengal. In a letter written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said that the IndoPakistan bus service served as a courier for drug smugglers, who were also found using Samjhauta Express. Badal said that the Akali Dal-BJP government has already
tightened the noose around drug peddlers by putting them behind the bars and efforts are being made to increase the vigil on the Indo-Pak border. “I have urged the Union Home Minister to treat the Indo-Pak border in the state on par with the border in J&K to enhance vigil on it to check cross-border infiltration. The state government was in the process of establishing a second line of defence along the border, but the Centre must sanction more funds to modernise the police force in the state,” Badal said.
CENTRE PLANS TO PLUG...
266 HIV+ inmates at Kapurthala jail since 2013; drug addicts’ shared syringes to blame?
Continued from Page 1 drug concoctions. Reports also suggest that heroin and opium, the two drugs smuggled from across the border, contribute to only 5 per cent of users. The development comes against the backdrop of a massive controversy around the film Udta Punjab, with the SAD-led government saying it casts the state in poor light by depicting the drug habits of its people. “In a recent meeting of home minister Rajnath Singh and other officials of the ministry with the Prime Minister, the crackdown was discussed. The PM stressed on the need for a concerted and cohesive action plan to deal with the drug problem in Punjab,” said a government official.
MENACE AND THE BLAME With Assembly elections slated to take place in the first half of next year, the BJP’s top leadership at the Centre is keen to be seen as taking a tough stand on the menace, an issue being used by the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress in a bid to make electoral inroads. The rival parties have hit out at the SAD as well as chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family for “letting” the state turn into a drug haven. The Akali Dal says it is wrong to project Punjab as a drugaddicted state and Sukhbir Singh Badal, the deputy chief minister, claims that in a population of 2.77 crore only 0.06 per cent indulged in substance abuse. The SAD government in the past
has blamed the BSF for the drug menace in Punjab as a result of the trafficking from Pakistan. On an average, over 7,000 cases were reported under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act between 2005 and 2014, making Punjab second among all the states after Uttar Pradesh, the most populous. NCB director general Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar apprised the home minister about the changing drug abuse pattern in Punjab. He revealed that the increase in street prices of opiates due to less availability as a result of intensified enforcement activities by drug law agencies is making addicts shift to pharmaceutical preparations like Tramadol, Buprenorphine, etc, an official statement said.
and Research, Chandigarh, to provide best-possible treatment to all HIV-positive inmates.” Sharing syringes, addicts falling victim? Sources said HIV is prevalent among addicts, who are mostly injection drug users (IDUs). They get the syringe by bribing a few jail officials and share the same equipment with other drug users, increasing the risk of contracting HIV infection, said sources. Kapurthala jail deputy superintendent DS Bhatti, however, claimed none of the inmates have got infected after getting lodged in the jail. “Whenever any convict or undertrial is brought to the jail, he undergoes medical tests. All those who have tested positive An Australian man who a chair broken over his back for HIV were already infected,” he filmed himself biting the before saying “beat that”. said. head off a live rat and The clip was reportedly an posting the video on attempt to create a Facebook was banned on disturbing new social media Monday from owning pets challenge. for three years and ordered He was unrepentant at the to do community service. time after a string of Matthew Maloney, known comments branding him Islamic televangelist Zakir as “Mad Matt”, was disgusting. Abdul Karim Naik charged following a raid by “All your comments are cancelled his return from RSPCA investigators after cracking me up and not one Saudi Arabia to the bizarre stunt in January, person out there will be able hometown Mumbai on which attracted hundreds of to say anything that will Monday morning, thousands of online views. make me feel bad or make triggering speculation that The 25-year-old admitted me regret what i did,” he he is dodging police after one count of animal cruelty in with three shots of vodka. He then wrote on Facebook. “Its mother allegations that his Brisbane Magistrates Court and gets punched in the face and has nature and mans gotta eat!” sermons influenced a terrorist killed in the July 1 Dhaka siege. was ordered to complete 100 In a statement released from abroad, he said no Indian hours of community service, while government agency has being slapped with the pet ban. contacted him over the Magistrate Suzette Coates White House Canada in Brampton, requires a Live-in described him as a “narcissist” allegations. housekeeper. Hotel experience preferred but will “It would be my pleasure to and he expressed remorse, train the suitable candidate. Must be available to cooperate with any official Indian although he told reporters outside stand, walk and bend for extended periods of time. government investigation agency court that his actions “weren’t Duties include making beds, dusting, cleaning for any information they might that bad”, according to the bathroom, vacuuming, replenishing supplies, cooking Australian Broadcasting require from me,” he said, and elderly care (1 hr. daily approx) Corporation. reaffirming that he “does not The video shows Maloney support terrorism or violence and Pls. call neither does he support any storming into a room, biting off the rat’s head and washing it down terrorist organisation”. As many as 266 inmates of the Kapurthala central jail have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the past three-and-a-half years. From 17 positive cases in 2013, the number of prisoners affected with HIV reached 118 in 2014, revealed data procured by the HT from the jail superintendent under the Right to Information Act, 2005. 2015 witnessed a downward trend with 92 cases surfacing in the year, but in the first four months of this year, 39 inmates have tested positive, once again ringing alarm bells. Jail minister Sohan Singh Thandal said: “I am already aware of this problem. The jail department has coordinated with specialists at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education
Australian man who bit off rat’s head barred from owning pets
Zakir Naik to leave for African tour, says no Indian agency approached him
Pre-mature Ejaculation?
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Issue - 675 (3)
12 - 18 July 2016
Issue - 675 (4)
12 - 18 July 2016
The Absurdity of Life Without God - 2 Last week, in the wake of the sudden demise of my brother Vinny on June 25th while he was holidaying in Cambodia, we started discussing the human predicament about the existence of God and the value of human life (or the lack of it) in this universe when its final destiny is only the grave. As you may recall from last week, we briefly discussed William Lane Craig’s work on the above titled subject. William Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He is known for his work as an apologist, speaker and debater and is the author of Reasonable Faith. One of the apologetic questions that contemporary Christian theology must treat in its doctrine of man is what has been called “the human predicament,” that is to say, the significance of human life in a post-theistic universe. Logically, this question ought, it seems to me, to be raised prior to and as a prelude to the question of God’s existence.
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Historical Background The apologetic for Christianity based on the human predicament is an extremely recent phenomenon, associated primarily with Francis Schaeffer. Often it is referred to as “cultural apologetics” because of its analysis of post-Christian culture. This approach constitutes an entirely different sort of apologetics than the traditional models, since it is not concerned with epistemological issues. Indeed, in a sense it does not even attempt to show in any positive sense that Christianity is true; it simply explores the disastrous consequences for human existence, society, and culture if Christianity should be false. In this respect, this approach is somewhat akin to existentialism: the precursors of this approach were also precursors of existentialism, and much of its analysis of the human predicament is drawn from the insights of twentiethcentury atheistic existentialism. Blaise Pascal One of the earliest examples of a Christian apology appealing to the human predicament is the Pensées of the French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal (162362). Having come to a personal faith in Christ in 1654, Pascal had planned to write a defense of the Christian faith entitled L’Apologie de la religion chrétienne, but he died of a debilitating disease at the age of only 39 years, leaving behind hundreds of notes for the work, which were then published posthumously as the Pensées. Pascal’s approach is thoroughly Christocentric. The Christian religion, he claims, teaches two truths: that there is a God whom men are capable of knowing, and that there is an element of corruption in men that renders them unworthy of God. Knowledge of God without knowledge of man’s wretchedness begets pride, and knowledge of man’s wretchedness without knowledge of God begets despair, but knowledge of Jesus Christ furnishes man knowledge of both simultaneously. Pascal invites us to look at the world from the Christian point of view and see if these truths are not confirmed. His Apology was evidently to comprise two divisions: in the first part he would display the misery of man without God (that man’s nature is corrupt) and in the second part the happiness of man with God (that there is a Redeemer). With regard to the latter, Pascal appeals to the evidences of miracle and especially fulfilled prophecy. In confirming the truth of man’s wretchedness Pascal seeks to unfold the
human predicament. For Pascal the human condition is an enigma. For man is at the same time miserable and yet great. On the one SUNNY BAINS hand, his misery is due principally to his uncertainty and insignificance. Writing in the tradition of be important relative to certain other the French skeptic Montaigne, Pascal events, but what’s the ultimate repeatedly emphasizes the uncertainty of significance of any of those events? If conclusions reached via reason and the everything is doomed to destruction then senses. what does it matter whether you have Apart from intuitive first principles, nothing influenced anything or not? Ultimately, it seems capable of being known with makes no difference. Mankind is thus no certainty. In particular, reason and nature more significant than a swarm of do not seem to furnish decisive evidence mosquitoes or a barnyard of pigs, for their as to whether God exists or not. As man end is all the same. The same blind looks out around him, all he sees is cosmic process that coughed them up in darkness and obscurity. Moreover, insofar the first place will eventually swallow them as his scientific knowledge is correct, all again. The contributions of the scientist man learns that he is an infinitesimal to the advance of human knowledge; the speck lost in the immensity of time and researches of the doctor to alleviate pain space. His brief life is bounded on either and suffering; the efforts of the diplomat to secure peace in the world; the sacrifices of good people everywhere to better the lot of the human race - all these come to nothing. This is the horror of the modern man: Because he ends in nothing, he is nothing. But it’s important to see that man needs more than just immortality for life to be meaningful. Mere duration of existence doesn’t make that existence meaningful. If man and the universe could exist forever, but if there is no God, their existence would still have side by eternity, his place in the universe no ultimate significance. Craig William is lost in the immeasurable infinity of writes, “I once read a science-fiction story space, and he finds himself suspended, in which an astronaut was marooned on as it were, between the infinite microcosm a barren chunk of rock lost in outer space. within and the infinite macrocosm without. He had with him two vials, one containing Uncertain and untethered, man flounders poison and the other a potion that would in his efforts to lead a meaningful and make him live forever. Realizing his happy life. His condition is characterized predicament, he gulped down the poison. by inconstancy, boredom, and anxiety. But then to his horror, he discovered he His relations with his fellow men are had swallowed the wrong vial - he had warped by self-love; society is founded drunk the potion for immortality! And that on mutual deceit. Man’s justice is fickle meant he was cursed to exist forever - a and relative, and no fixed standard of value meaningless, unending life. If God does may be found. Despite their predicament, not exist, our lives are just like that. They however, most people, incredibly, refuse could go on and on and still be utterly to seek an answer or even to think about without meaning. So it’s not just their dilemma. Instead, they lose immortality man needs if life is to be themselves in escape. ultimately significant; he needs God and No Ultimate Meaning immortality. And if God does not exist then If each individual person passes out of he has neither. Thus, if there is no God, existence when he dies then what then life itself becomes meaningless. Man ultimate meaning can be given to his life? and the universe are without ultimate Does it really matter in the end whether significance. he ever existed at all? Sure, his life may Contd. next week...
ISIS is known for staging horrific public executions but these bizarre pictures show the terrorist group attempting to portray a very different image. The photographs capture children as young as five taking part in a makeshift Jihad Olympics, believed to have been staged in the ISIS controlled city of Tal Afar, in Iraq. The terrorist group apparently begged people in the area to join in the ‘fun’ and take part in games including tug-of-war and musical chairs. Dissidents revealed that the regime is desperate to portray life as normal under ISIS in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria, according to the Daily Star. And these images, which were posted to
Twitter by Terrormonitor - a group that report on terror activity around the globe appear to show ISIS attempting to do
Now ISIS organise their very own Jihad Olympics complete with tug-of-war and musical chairs
exactly that. In the pictures, children don a selection of British football shirts as they Continued on Page 6
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12 - 18 July 2016
Theresa May will be next British PM after Andrea Leadsom withdraws
‘We are all brought up to be polite. We know, for example, that if someone doesn’t answer a question, we shouldn’t keep demanding an answer. Only journalists may do that, and they have to go to special colleges first to learn how to be rude! Yet if you just wait for something to happen, it probably won’t.’ Does this scenario ring true? My advice: ‘Somehow, you need to make yourself more of a nuisance. You can do that gently and sweetly now, but you do have to remember not to be distracted from your objective.’ !!! They say the secret of a long-term love is to remain friends. Perhaps the secret of long-term friendships is love? Love has quite a flexible definition. Perhaps it is bandied around too frequently. Does it demean the strength of feeling one feels for a partner if we also admit to a love of chocolate? And why is it that it’s so easy to admit passion for the cocoa bean, yet excruciating to proclaim so for a fellow human? Try to articulate how you feel to those closest to you. It’ll be more nourishing than the tastiest of treats. !!! When a hound picks up a scent it can be almost impossible to rein it in. It will pull hard at the leash, and strain every sinew to bound after its prey. You’ve been feeling caught up and bound by a promise you feel obliged to honor. Fortunately for you, the leash is particularly generous, or perhaps your quarry is within easy reach. And what a tasty find it will be! You are ready to cast off a restrictive yoke. With nothing to hold you back the time is right to let your creativity roam free. !!!
Many of us desire a partner to help us feel safe. Even if we feel we’re big enough and ‘ugly’ enough to handle most situations, we’re all prone to moments of insecurity. The seasoned warrior can worry about loneliness amongst the vanquished. The most committed hermit may miss the reassuring warmth of a body that is not their own. There will be a renewed focus now on what it is that you need to make you feel valued and secure. Don’t play the guessing game. Give voice to your feelings, and they will make themselves heard. !!! Imagine that koalas are geniuses with plans for world domination and the knowhow to achieve it. How could we stop them - they’ve got more opposable thumbs than us! In the great apocalyptic battle for supremacy on Earth, how are we supposed to stop a koala in its tracks? They’re simply too cuddly to attack! They’re the literal definition of disarming! The cosmos plans on giving you a big dose of charm to add to your mental acuity. The rest of us can only hope that you use your power for noble ends! !!! We all love to feel that we are being listened to. Indeed, we enjoy it so much that sometimes we imagine it is happening, even when it’s not. As long as someone appears to be paying attention - and especially if they are making all the right noises in the right places - we can easily assume that our points are communicated and our messages are being understood. Only some while later, when evidence to the contrary emerges, do we begin to doubt this. Best to be clear, you won’t regret it.
Leadsom, who has no cabinet experience, was barely known to the British public until she emerged as a prominent voice in the successful campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. She had been criticised over a newspaper interview in which she appeared to suggest that being a mother meant she had more of a stake in the country’s future than May, who has no children. Leadsom read out a statement to reporters in which she said she was pulling out of the race because a nine-week leadership campaign was highly undesirable at such a critical time. She acknowledged that May had secured overwhelming backing in a vote of Conservative members of parliament last week. “Strong leadership is needed urgently to begin the work of withdrawing from the European Union,” Leadsom said. “I have ... concluded that the interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of
a strong and well supported prime minister. I am therefore withdrawing from the leadership election and I wish Theresa May the very greatest success. I assure her of my full support.” THERESA VOWS FOR A PROSPEROUS UK May, 59, who has served as interior minister for the past
period of uncertainty, to get the economy growing strongly across all parts, to deal with Britain’s longstanding productivity problem, to create more well-paid jobs, to negotiate the best terms for Britain’s departure from the EU and to forge a new role for ourselves in the world,” May
six years, is now set to become Britain’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher. In a speech earlier on Monday she set out her vision for the economy, calling for “a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few”. “In the coming weeks I will set out (how) to take our economy through this
said. May favoured the ‘Remain’ side during last month’s referendum campaign. But she repeated her new mantra that “Brexit means Brexit”, saying there could be no second referendum and no attempt to rejoin the EU by the back door. MAY VOWS TO LEAVE EUROPEAN UNION “As prime minister, I will
make sure that we leave the European Union,” she said. “The British people were given their opportunity to vote on this... They’ve given us a very clear message, and I think we respond to that message and we do what the British people have asked us to.”The 5248 percent vote to quit the EU after 43 years of membership has shaken financial markets because the complex divorce process creates huge uncertainty for business, trade and investment. It has thrown both Britain’s major political parties into upheaval. Minutes before Leadsom’s announcement, opposition Labour lawmaker Angela Eagle said she would challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the party. Corbyn was elected last year with overwhelming support from grassroots Labour activists. He has ignored a vote of no confidence from the party’s lawmakers, saying he has a responsibility to carry out that mandate.
Violation: Infected Hundreds attend funeral inmates kept in of bullfighter gored to separate cells
death in Spain
The mobile van of the Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC), Kapurthala civil hospital, conducts HIV screening on the jail premises every Tuesday. After screening and diagnosis, those tested positive are referred to the Antiretroviral Therapy Centre (ART) centre in Jalandhar civil hospital. While claiming that special diet is being provided to the infected inmates, the jail authorities stated in writing that the patients both prisoners and undertrials are being kept in separate cells called “security wards”. As per the National Aids Control Organisation, discrimination with HIV/ AIDS patients in public as well in private places is prohibited. Sources said prisoners fear being sent to these cells and about others coming to know about their medical condition.
Hundreds of people joined family, friends and members of Spain’s bullfighting world for a funeral Mass on Monday for bullfighter Victor Barrio who was fatally gored in a bullring this past weekend. People applauded and shouted “torero, torero” as the coffin was carried from a hearse to a packed San Bartolome church in the central town of Sepulveda where Barrio lived. The 29-year-old matador died after being gored in the thigh and chest in the central city of Teruel on Saturday. The goring was broadcast live on television and news of his death stirred widespread reaction across Spain. King Felipe VI and acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed condolences. Medics were at Barrio’s side almost immediately but he died later in the bullring’s infirmary. He was the first professional matador to die during a bullfight in Spain since 21-year-old Frenchman Jose Cubero Yiyo was fatally gored in
1985 in Madrid. His wife, Raquel Sanz, was at the ring when the goring happened. In messages on her official Twitter account Sunday, Sanz thanked those who had expressed
Fernandez, said, “The words don’t come out. He was a good friend, he was a colleague, we grew up together.” Festivities in Teruel were immediately suspended following Barrio’s death, and
condolences and said, “My life has gone, I have no strength.’” Prominent members of the bullfighting world were among those attending the Mass. “Today you can see it, everybody is here, all the bullfighting world - to put our arms around a destroyed family, and to acknowledge the valour, the commitment and all the values that Victor Barrio had as a person and as a bullfighter,” matador Enrique Ponce told reporters. Fellow bullfighter and a friend of Barrio’s, Esau
Las Ventas, the Madrid bullring were he debuted in 2010, posted a heartfelt remembrance of the young bullfighter.
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1984 RIOTS: COURT GIVES FINAL CHANCE TO CBI TO COMPLETE PROBE The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was on Monday given a final extension of two months to complete its probe in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler was earlier given a clean chit. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Shivali Sharma pulled up the CBI for not taking proper steps to complete the probe, as directed by the court earlier, and made it clear that if no fruitful results are shown in two months, the agency’s superintendent of police would have to explain. The court’s direction came after the CBI prosecutor filed a status report of the ongoing probe and sought two more months to file the final report. “From perusal of the report and case file, it appears proper steps are not being taken to complete the probe as directed by the court earlier. Still, in the interest of justice and on the
asking of the investigating officer, further two months time is given to complete the probe,” the magistrate said. It also remarked that “justice delayed is justice denied and it is a fact”. During the hearing, senior advocate HS Phoolka, who was representing the complainant and a riot victim, argued that he has a right to know the status of the probe and said the CBI should be asked to give a copy of its communication with the High Commission of Canada. The court said if no fruitful results come out by September 14, the next date of hearing, the CBI will have to give a copy of its communication to complainant Lakhvinder Kaur. During the hearing, the court posed several questions, including when it was going to file the final probe report, what was the
problem in giving to the complainant a copy of its letter to the High Commission of Canada and why it has not given complete available details of one Narinder Singh, son of a key witness against Tytler, to Interpol
the ACMM asked. During the hearing, the prosecutor assured the court that the agency was taking the case seriously and effective steps were being taken. He also said the CBI was awaiting reports from the Interpol
authorities. “Why are you (CBI) not giving available Canada address of Narinder Singh to Interpol and Canadian authorities? You are not giving them complete details and you still want Interpol to help you and trace the person for you? How is it possible,”
and other authorities after which it would file the final report. Phoolka, however, contended that the CBI probe was a “total eyewash” and the agency’s joint director or director should be called to the court to answer its queries. He said on the last date of
Indian restaurants cautious over Brexit promise Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union may have upset millions, but there is cautious optimism that the crisis caused by severe shortage of chefs in the country’s 4 billion-pound curry industry will be
eased through recruitment from the Indian subcontinent. It was an explicit promise of the Vote Leave camp during the referendum campaign that leaving the EU would rescue the industry crippled by visa rules that make it difficult to hire chefs from India. Industry bodies say every week, two restaurants have been closing due to the crisis. “We hope there will be a more flexible system to
recruit chefs from abroad, but it will take at least two-three years. Also, the minister who introduced the tough restrictions – Theresa May – may be the new prime minister. So let’s wait and see”, celebrity
chef Cyrus Todiwala told HT. Visa restrictions include higher salary threshold that not many owners can afford to pay. The chef shortage has been building up over the years, affecting restaurants that offer Indian and other non-EU cuisines such as Chinese. Manoj Vasaikar, who owns three upmarket restaurants in London, said: “Besides the chefs crisis, I am also seeing a
curtailment in spend. There was uncertainty before the referendum, now it is worse. If people have less disposable income as a result of Brexit, why will they come to restaurants after it actually happens?”
Given the considerable demand in areas dominated by Indian and Asian communities, there are reports that some Indian restaurants employ illegal immigrants as chefs, inviting visits and severe penalties by immigration officers. But Mukesh Alora, who last week opened a trendy restaurant called ‘Delhi Live’ in Romford, has hired chefs with experience in Taj and
Ashoka hotels at high salaries. It is no longer easy to find the right chefs to ensure high quality food and the right experience for customers, he said. Employment minister Priti Patel, who was one of the leading Brexiteers, had called for a leave vote to “save our curry houses”. Due to what she called a “biased” immigration policy that favours EU nationals, Indian restaurants were starved of vital chef skills. “Our curry houses are becoming the victims of the uncontrolled EU immigration rules,” she had said. “By voting to leave the EU, we can take back control of our immigration policies, save our curry houses and join the rest of the world.” The David Cameron government wanted new chefs to be trained within the country, but specialist colleges and apprentice schemes in recent years have not met the requirements of the industry. Todiwala regrets the lack of funding for training initiatives.
hearing he had offered to help the investigating agency in getting information from the Canadian high commission but was turned down. The court had earlier directed the CBI to write to the Canadian high commission for information regarding the case. On December 4 last year, it directed the CBI to further probe the riots case against Tytler, saying the statement of arms dealer Abhishek Verma had revealed an active role of the Congress leader in extending “helping hand” to a witness against him. The court had also said that as the CBI had filed closure reports in the case several times, it would now monitor the probe every two months so that no aspect of the matter was left uninvestigated. The case pertains to the
riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The court’s order had come on a protest petition filed by complainant Lakhvinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was killed in the violence, challenging the CBI’s closure report exonerating Tytler. The court had noted that the Verma’s statement to the CBI, claiming that Tytler had sent key witness Surinder Singh Granthi’s son to Canada, cannot be a “sheer coincidence” and the agency should probe if the facts disclosed were true. The CBI re-investigated the case of the killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept the closure report. It has filed three closure reports in the case.
Now ISIS organise their very own Jihad Olympics complete with tug-of-war and musical chairs
Continued from Page 4 compete against each other in the miniature Olympics put on by the terrorist group. Large crowds look on and support the young competitors, who apparently got to go home with bags of sweets if they won. ISIS is more widely known for extreme acts of brutality, including public beheadings, amputating limbs and stoning people. But locals were encouraged to come and watch the unusually lighthearted spectacle, which was apparently staged in the Nineveh Province. The paper reported that older people were also encouraged to join in on the ‘fun’ but felt obliged to let the Jihadists win for fear of repercussions. The images, which appeared on Twitter this month, emerge as the Obama administration today revealed ISIS traffic
on the social media site has plunged 45 per cent in the past two years. The steep drop comes as the US and its allies have countered messages of jihadi glorification with a flood of online images about suffering and enslavement at the hands of the extremist organization. Among the images is a teddy bear with Arabic writing and messages saying ISIS ‘slaughters childhood,’ ‘kills innocence’, ‘lashes purity’ and ‘humiliates children.’ In another image, a male hand covering a female’s mouth, saying ISIS ‘deprives woman her voice’. Yet another shows a woman in a black niqab (veil), bloody tears coming from a bruised eye, and the caption: ‘Women under ISIS. Enslaved. Battered. Beaten. Humiliated. Flogged.’
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12 - 18 July 2016
Pakistani terrorists had Pathankot on their hit list for six years
New Delhi Pakistan-based terrorists had the Pathankot airbase on their hit list for at least six years, until the audacious attack in January in which six attackers and seven Indian soldiers died, revealed a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe. The strategic airbase was discussed as a possible target at a 2010 meeting in Sialkot, where jihadi and Khalistani outfits based in Pakistan had gathered for a common strategy, a senior home ministry official said.Suspected Khalistani militant Jagtar Singh Tara, who was arrested for the assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995, was reportedly present at the meeting. “Tara says Shahid Latif, one of the handlers of the Pathankot attackers, named the airbase specifically,” the official said.Tara had confided to his lawyer, Simranjit Singh, about NIA sleuths meeting
him in Chandigarh’s Burail jail as part of their postPathankot exercise to speak to imprisoned terrorists for details on Pakistan-based Jaish-eMohammad (JeM) terrorist outfit and its chief, Maulana Masood Azhar.“Two NIA officials came to meet Tara to inquire about the Pathankot attack as he had meetings with Azhar and Latif when he was in Pakistan. According to Tara, he told Latif that civilians should not be targeted. He didn’t tell me anything more than that,” Singh said.Tara had escaped from Burail jail in January 2004, digging a 104-foot tunnel along with fellow prisoners. He went to Pakistan in 2005 and remained there until moving in 2014 to Thailand, where he was caught a second time and deported to India in 2015. He has since been kept in Burail.Now, the antiterrorism agency formed after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008 has planned to make Tara a witness in
the airbase case.NIA chief Sharad Kumar, however, declined comments.Arun Chaudhary, who was with the Intelligence Bureau before retiring as the Sashastra Seema Bal chief, gave weight to Tara’s revelations.“The Pakistani spy agency, ISI, has long tried to form a joint strategy between Khalistani elements and Pakistanbased jihadi outfits to revive militancy in Punjab,” he said.“But the ground support for militancy had dried up in Punjab, making revival difficult. This is why Pakistan-based jihadi outfits had to carry out attacks in Punjab, first in Dinanagar in Gurdaspur last year and in Pathankot this year.”Latif, an old Jaish hand, was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 1993 and sent back to Pakistan in 2010 after he completed a 16-year jail term. “He immediately went back to his old work after reaching Pakistan,” an NIA official said.
Bangladesh bans controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s Peace TV Dhaka The Bangladesh government banned on Sunday broadcasting of India-based controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s
chaired the meeting said. At the meeting, attended by senior ministers and top security officials, it was also decided to monitor the sermons given during the
Peace TV channel after reports that his “provocative” speeches inspired some of the militants who carried out the country’s worst terror attack at a cafe in Dhaka. The decision to ban the Mumbai-based preacher’s ‘Peace TV Bangla’ was taken during a special meeting of Cabinet Committee on Law and Order, industry minister AAmir Hossain Amu, who
Friday prayers to check whether any provocative lectures are delivered, Amu told reporters. Naik’s speeches are believed to have inspired some of the Bangladeshi militants, who killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, at an upscale restaurant in Dhaka on July 1. The government also appealed to the Imams in the country to deliver lectures in line with real
Islamic ideology of denouncing terrorism and extremism, the minister said. Besides senior ministers, the meeting was attended by chief of police and head of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), paramilitary border guards and top officials of different security agencies. Deployment of additional security forces at export processing zone was also ordered.Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan had yesterday said that Bangladesh’s intelligence agencies were investigating the Islamic preacher Naik. “He is on our security scanner... Our intelligence agencies are investigating his activities as his lectures appeared provocative,” Khan had said.Khan said the investigators were also probing Naik’s financial transactions in Bangladesh.
IS territory shrinks 12 per cent since start of 2016 London The Islamic State group lost 12 per cent of the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria in the first half of 2016, according to an analysis by British thinktank IHS.The analysis published on Sunday says the jihadist group, which proclaimed its self-styled “caliphate” in the two countries in 2014, is continuing to lose ground after a string of setbacks last year.“In 2015, the Islamic State’s caliphate shrunk by 12,800 square kilometres to 78,000 square kilometres, a net loss of 14 per cent,” IHS said.“In the first six months of 2016, that territory shrunk again by 12 per cent. As of July 4, 2016, the Islamic State controls roughly 68,300 square kilometres in Iraq and Syria.”In Syria, IS is under pressure from regime troops backed by Russian forces, an Arab-Kurdish alliance backed by a USled coalition, and rebel forces.In Iraq, coalitionbacked security forces, working with progovernment militia groups, have dealt the jihadists series of defeats.IS forces are currently under siege
in the Syrian town of Minbej, which lies on their main supply route between Syria and Turkey.In March the jihadists were routed from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and in June from the Iraqi city of Fallujah.In 2015, the group
governance project is failing, the group is reprioritising insurgency,” he said.“We unfortunately expect an increase in mass casualty attacks and sabotage of economic infrastructure, across Iraq and Syria, and further
lost Tal Abyad, a key border post on the SyrianTurkish border, as well as the Iraqi city of Ramadi.In May the Pentagon said that IS had lost some 45 percent of the territory it held in Iraq and between 16 and 20 percent of its territory in Syria. The IHS report did not include percentages by country. IHS senior analyst Columb Strack said the losses were likely to mean IS would redouble its attempts at “mass casualty attacks”.“As the Islamic State’s caliphate shrinks and it becomes increasingly clear that its
afield, including Europe.” IS has also seen its revenues drop, from around $80 million a month in mid2015 to $56 million a month by March 2016, according to IHS.”This figure has probably continued to decrease since March by at least another 35 percent,” said Ludovico Carlino, another senior analyst at IHS.“Combined with the military setbacks on the ground, this is having an impact on the internal cohesion of the group as indicated by a marked increase in defections and desertions since January,” he added.
Issue - 675 (8)
12 - 18 July 2016
NSG commando’s sister missing after marrying ‘new IS convert’ Thiruvananthapuram It’s a predicament no mother would want to find herself in. Until last year, Bindu Kumar thought her two children were set for life as they had got into careers of their choice – the son an armyman on deputation to the National Security Guard (NSG), and the daughter studying to be a dentist. But the events of the past few months have devastated Bindu, as it becomes increasingly clear that her daughter Nimisha could be among the 20-odd people who have disappeared mysteriously from Kerala’s two districts and are now feared to have joined the Islamic State (IS) terrorist outfit. “We fear the worst. All 20 are off the radar for more than a month. Out of four messages the relatives have received, one is from Afghanistan and another from Egypt. The other two we couldn’t decode. We will be able to track their passport and visa entries by Monday. We think they are in a trouble-torn area now,” says a senior intelligence officer who did not want to be identified.Bindu is yet to come to terms with the bitter reality and does not want to embarrass her son with the latest developments.“My children were religious and patriotic. My son
wanted to be a military officer and daughter chose the medical profession. We were happy when both got the careers of their choice,” says Bindu, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram, pleading not to publish any details about her son.Her husband runs a small restaurant in the city. “Mom’s sweet daughter going to bed, sweet kisses,” this was the last message Nimisha sent to her parents on June 3. When the mother called her back the next day, Nimisha’s phone was switched off. The worried mother then contacted her daughter’s in-
laws. But they pleaded helplessness, saying the young couple (Nimisha was said to be pregnant) had told them that they were going to Sri Lanka on a pilgrimage.A bright student with a modern outlook, Nimisha got admission into a dental college in north Kerala’s Kasargode district when she was 19 years old. “During the four years of her college, we never had an inkling of any change till last November when she refused to take my calls. I rushed to the college, only to be told that she had married a Muslim youth hailing from
Palakkad,” says Bindu. The mother was later told that Nimisha had married 30-year-old Bexin Vincent, a Christian MBA graduate who took the name Eza after converting to Islam. “She used to share all her experiences in college with me. But this was a terrible shock for me,” says Bindu. Brokenhearted, she returned home to Thiruvananthapuram and sought help from a senior police officer who advised her to move a habeas corpus petition in the high court.Nimisha was produced in court in November.
But the court let her go with her husband as she had completed 18 years of age. “I was shocked to see my daughter, who loved to wear casual dresses, in full purdah (veil). I was not allowed to talk to her fearing I may change her mind. I literally begged before both,” says the distraught mother, adding later she came to know that her daughter was pregnant. Bindu somehow established contact with her later. “Once she asked whether I would accept her if she came in a burqa. I told her she was welcome,” the mother says. The last time Nimisha visited home was on May 16.During Nimisha’s last two visits, Bindu noticed that her daughter had developed an aversion towards TV programmes.“Once when I said being pregnant she should be consulting doctors regularly, she said she had once and did not believe in modern medicines any longer,” Bindu says, adding the baby is expected in September. Bindu met Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday, seeking his help to trace her missing daughter. “My tears have dried up. I can only pray now. I hope God will help me in tracing my daughter who will turn 24 next month.”
Security agencies struggle to stop online hate, mostly from Pak, over Wani death
It’s fallen they shouted: ISIS shoots down Russian helicopter in Syria, 2 pilots killed
Militants shot down a military helicopter near Palmyra in Syria, killing two Russian pilots on board, Interfax news agency said, quoting Russia’s defence ministry. HELICOPTER RAN OUT OF AMMUNITION The two men had been attacking a detachment of Islamic State fighters in the
Homs region on Friday, when the Syrian Mi-25 helicopter they were in ran out of ammunition, the ministry said, according to Interfax.“The turning helicopter was hit by militants’ gunfire from the ground and crashed in the area controlled by the Syrian government army. The crew died,” it added. IT’S FALLEN: THEY SHOUTED
Video footage published on Saturday by Islamic State’s affiliated news agency Amaq showed a helicopter being shot and crashing to the ground against cries of ‘It’s fallen, God is greatest’. Russian forces entered the conflict at the end of last year, backing the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Indian state imposes ‘fat tax’ on junk food NEW DELHI India’s peaceful tourist hotspot Kerala has become the first state in the country to impose a “fat tax” on junk food in a bid to counter rising obesity. The state’s finance minister Thomas Isaac announced a 14.5 percent tax on food including burgers, pizzas and sandwiches sold at restaurants and fast-food chains, as part of the local government’s annual budget. The government said it hopes that the move will not only generate additional revenue for
the state but also deter people from consuming junk food. “There has been an alarming trend in growth of unhealthy eating habits among Keralites
and we hope the fat tax will be a deterrent,” Rajan N Khobragade, the state’s commissioner of commercial taxes, told The Times of India newspaper. However, most highfat snacks and other fast-food items in India are still sold by largely unregulated street vendors rather than branded chains. While India has high rates of malnutrition, lifestylerelated health problems including diabetes and obesity are also major issues, particularly in cities.
New Delhi Security agencies struggled on Sunday to stop a relentless social media barrage, mostly from Pakistan, which tried to fan anti-India and pro-militancy sentiments in Kashmir Valley after the death of 22-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani .Around 250 Twitter and Facebook accounts are apparently running the hate propaganda. But Jammu and Kashmir police and central agencies have not been able to get the better of them. As one account is blocked, another one pops up. “Almost 60% of these Twitter handles and Facebook accounts are being run from Pakistan and other foreign countries,” said a senior home ministry official.Mobile phone internet service has been blocked in the curfew-bound Valley as a precaution, preventing people from accessing the WhatsApp messenger service, which had been a preferred platform for hate-mongers to spread provocative messages during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh. Internet service is usually suspended during
trouble, for instance, the Patel stir for reservation in education and jobs in Gujarat, and the violence-marred movement in Haryana for Jat quota.This is not the first time action is initiated against rouge Twitter and Facebook accounts. “We blocked around 300 accounts in the past six months,” said the official. Hostile anti-India social media posts have exacerbated the unrest in Kashmir, where 19 people have died in two days of clashes with security forces after Hizbul poster boy Wani was shot dead on Friday. Union home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and assured her all possible help.
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12 - 18 July 2016
Five of 15 Muslims missing from Kerala had converted to Islam just a year ago Five of the 15 missing Muslims from Kerala who are feared to have joined theIslamic State (IS) were Hindus and Christians who had converted to Islam about a year ago. Meanwhile, intelligence sources said one of those missing was in Afghanistan, while another was hiding in India. Among the five married couples who are missing, two were earlier Hindus or Christians.
Nimisha, alias Fathima, from a Hindu family in Thiruvananthapuram, converted to Islam while studying at a dental college in Kasaragod district in November last year. Merlin, alias Mariyam, from Kochi was a Christian who converted to Islam while working with IBM in Mumbai last year. Nimisha and Merlin were married to two brothers, Issa and Yahiya, from Palakkad who had both converted from Christianity to Islam. Their father, Vincent, filed a missing person’s complaint on Saturday.Sonia, alias Ayisha, an engineering graduate who is missing with her husband Abdul Rasheed, an engineer, and their two-year-old daughter Sara was a Christian who converted to
Islam about a year ago. Nimisha’s mother, Bindu, said her daughter first went missing from her college last November. After she filed a police complaint, Nimisha and Issa appeared before a local court. “I was shocked to see her covering her face. I was told that she had been converted to Islam by some Mujahideen group,’’ she said. Nimisha’s family moved a habeas corpus petition in the
high court in November. But the court allowed her to live with Issa. “I asked my daughter how she met Issa as he was not her classmate or friend. I was told that her seniors in college arranged the match, that they wanted a converted youth to marry a converted girl. They had become friends just four days before they started living together,’’ she said. At first, Nimisha did not contact her family. But she later got in touch, and even visited her mother in the second week of May. “After spending a few hours with the family, she left for Palakkad. Later, I was told that they were going to Sri Lanka to explore some business opportunities. I pleaded with Issa
Amritsar’s flautist crowned winner of ‘India’s Got Talent’
not to go there with my pregnant daughter, but he refused to listen. After reaching Sri Lanka, she sent me WhatsApp messages,’’ said Bindu. Jacob, the father of another missing woman, Merlin, said his daughter and Yahiya had studied together in a school in Kochi. “After graduation, my daughter got a job with IBM in Mumbai. During college, she was not in touch with Yahiya, who was then a Christian. Last year, after converting to Islam, he managed to track down her in Mumbai and converted her also,’’ he said. He said Merlin told him that they were going to Sri Lanka to address religious gatherings. “We discouraged them from going to Lanka. She was a brilliant girl. We thought she would not fall into any trap. We had warned her about this relationship. She was brainwashed. For the last three weeks, we have received no information about her,’’ he said. Sonia, whose family is from Vyttila in Kochi, was born in Bahrain, where her parents were employed. She came to Kerala for her engineering studies, during which she met Abdul Rashid, a resident of Kasaragod. According to sources, Sonia was not in touch with her family after she converted to Islam. Intelligence sources said Sonia had become a preacher, while Rashid is suspected to be the local organiser of the missing group from Kasaragod. Meanwhile, at Padanna in Kasaragod, two brothers, Dr Ijas and Shihab, an engineer, and their wives are among those missing. Their father, Abdul Rahim, told the media that if they had joined the Islamic State he would
true. The show has given me a platform to showcase my talent in front of the world and the opportunity to pursue my talent further,” Suleiman said in a statement. “Special thanks to my father and all my gurus, especially Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasiaji without whom I wouldn’t have reached this stage,” he added. Speaking about the show, Manisha Sharma, Programming Head of Colors channel said: “This season, we went beyond all previous benchmarks by including elements like the checkered floor and spotlight amongst others which helped us discover extraordinary talent.”
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday clarified that party’s National Convenor and New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on July 18 will render a day long service to show his respect for the Sikhism instead of seeking any pardon from the Sikh temporal authorities. ALL APOLOGIES Senior AAP leader and Supreme Court lawyer HS Phoolka, who performed a similar service on Sunday at Golden Temple Complex, said that Kejriwal has already apologised along with two other party leaders including Ashish Khetan after the alleged sacrilege controversy. Phoolka, who tendered his apology at Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple complex), claimed that the comparison of party’s Youth Manifesto with Guru Granth Sahib by Ashish Khetan was inadvertent. “We have already tendered apology. It was not Arvind Kejriwal but the Punjab team which made a mistake. He (Kejriwal) will visit Darbar Sahib for service only,” H S Phoolka said. Phoolka washed utensils at Guru Ram Das Langar (free kitchen) ,cleaned shoes of the visitors and
the floor as part of the apology. He offered his prayers and sought pardon from the Sikh gurus for the ‘mistake’ made by party’s leaders including Ashish Khetan. “I am a true Sikh and a faithful party worker. I came here to tender my apology for the mistakes which were unintentional,” Phoolka said. SACRILEGE CONTROVERSY While, other party leaders including Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh and State Convenor Sucha Singh Chotepur were absent, Phoolka confirmed that they will visit the complex along with Arvind Kejriwal on July 18. AAP Spokesperson Ashish Khetan while reading out party’s Youth Manifesto on July 3 in Amritsar had said that the document was as pious to them (AAP) as Bible,Quarn, Geeta or Guru Granth. Khetan has been booked under section 295A of IPC for hurting religious sentiments of Sikhs on the basis of a complaint filed by All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad. He is facing arrest as the offence is cognizable and a non-bailable
Owaisi tells IS leader Baghdadi: ‘For pain you have caused, your body will be cut into pieces’ Outspoken All India Majlis-eIttehad-ul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi was recently embroiled in a controversy over
Amritsar’s flautist, 13-year-old Suleiman has been crowned as the winner of seventh season of talent-based reality show “India’s Got Talent”. Basking in the glory of his win on Saturday, the teenager walked away with a cash prize of Rs. 50 lakh, a Maruti Suzuki Celerio car and a specially crafted trophy engraved with the signatures of show’s jury members, which comprised of celebrated names like Kirron Kher, Malaika Arora Khan and Karan Johar. Suleiman is the disciple of maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia. “Winning ‘India’s Got Talent’ is my biggest achievement as it made my father’s dream come
Kejriwal will not seek ‘pardon’ from the Sikh temporal authorities, says HS Phoolka
his statement claiming to offer legal support to five Hyderabadbased terror suspects who were arrested by the NIA on charges of being involved in an alleged ISIS terror module.He has defended his decision, saying it’s the fundamental right of every citizen to be represented in a court of law. Many have even criticised him for offering
support and called him a traitor. But with his recent comments on ISIS, Owaisi seems to have clearly
distanced himself from the terror organisation.Speaking at a rally, Owaisi said that ISIS has done the Muslim community the most damage. ”You (terrorists) caused so much pain to Muslim community that we cant even express it in words,” he said referring to ISIS fighters. He also labelled suicide bombers as
“dogs of hell fire”.He also rebuked the role played by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in demonising the Islamic world. ”For the pain you have caused to the Muslim community, your body will be cut into pieces,” said Owaisi about the ISIS leader.He also mentioned attacks in Saudi Arabia and criticised the interpretation of ‘jihad’ by the perpetrators of the attack. “If you want to do actual jihad then come teach the children of poor Muslim settlements,” he said. He also urged Muslim youth to live for Islam and not die for it.
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12 - 18 July 2016
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Ghumar/Parjapat well reputed businessman family in Punjab, India seeks suitable match for their son, Canadian PR, 28 yrs., 6’ tall, B.com, MBA, now doing CPA, professionally well employed in Winnipeg. Girl must be tall, well educated and family oriented. Please send your biodata & recent picture to: mansingh2951@gmail.com or call: 1- 204-979-3277 or 011-9199883-67557 *** 675*** Jatt Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son 28 years old, 5’-10" tall, U.S. citizen, Master’s in Management and Leadership, Bachelor’s in Psychology, working as Intelligence Officer in U.S. Army. The girl should be beautiful, slim, educated with good family values and down to earth. Please email recent picture and bio-data to kamaljitk09@gmail.com or call:1-732-802-9052 *** 675*** Suitable match for Jatt Sikh, Canadian citizen Girl , 5'-2'’ tall, 1990 born, Registered nurse in Toronto, pursuing Master’s, cleared US Nursing exam, From well reputed Deol family living in Toronto. Looking for welleducated, Jatt Sikh boy from US or Canada. Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: hjit1947@gmail.com or call: 416-986-1672 *** 675*** Brahmin parents Invite Matrimonial alliance for their daughter, Candian Immigrant 31 Yrs. old, 5'-3" Tall, Beautiful Working as a nurse. The boy should be candian/Amercian welll Settled with family values. Came to Canada in 2010.Well educated family settled around Chandigarh. Caste no bar.Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: pari.payal2010@gmail.com or call: 1-306-999-4513 *** 675*** Suitable match for beautiful, parjapat Sikh, Punjabi girl, (Nov 1991 born), 5’ 7’’ tall, Bachelor of Dental Surgery from India and cleared American Dental board exams in the USA, Brother working as an engineer in the USA. Family well educated and coming to US shortly as Immigrants. Caste no bar. Please Send your bio-data & recent picture to: jh911688@gmail.com or call; 1-408-609-6191 *** 675*** Saini Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their 25 yrs. old daughter, 5'-6" tall, working in California in a top MNC on H1B visa as a Software Engineer, grew up in Chandigarh (Punjab) India. The boy should be Educated and professionally employed. Call; 1-925 395 3930 *** 1188 *** Jat Sikh Bhullar family seek a suitable match for their only son, 26 yrs. old, 6’-1” tall, B.Tech from India, Non-Drinker, lliving in India. The girl should be Canadian/American Citizen
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31 yrs. old, 6-2” tall, Canadian Citizen, professionally educated, running his own successful business. The girl should be educated, beautiful, tall with family values from US/Canada. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: gurjeet_hothi@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-778-344-0303 ***675** Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their daughter, 1985 born, 5'-5" tall, beautiful, intelligent, well-cultured, canadian immigrant, getting citizenship this year, B.Tech (india), pg project management (canada), working in admn.dept in canada. The boy should be equally qualified, Jat Sikh, wellsettled in canada. Brother and parents well settled in USA. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: dhillonintl@yahoo.com or call: 1718-414-4618 *** 675*** Jatt sikh grewal family looking for a well-educated and settled family in canada for their daughter, 25 yrs.old, 5’-4" tall, beautiful, living and working in Canada, PR applied. Parents living in Chandigarh. Call: 1- 604655-6030 or 011-91-7347271055 *** 675*** Jatt Sikh Girl, 1987 born, 5'-8" tall, Degree from reputed university, currently working Govt. Job for State of California, excellent pay. The boy should be Well Educated, near Sacramento or willing to move Sacramento, California. Please send your education details (Complete Biodata) and recent pictures to: zaildaar85@gmail.com *** 675*** Wanted US citizen/Green card holder boy for a Saini girl, 26 yrs. old, 5'-7" tall, BCA, MCA, now doing MS in US. The boy should be from Saini or Jatt family with well educated, at least 5'-10" tall. Call: 1- 732-397-1373 *** 675*** Canadian based well reputed affluent Jat Sikh parents seeks a suitable match for their Canadian citizen daughter, very fair, extremely beautiful, 5'-7'' tall, 26 yrs. old, convent educated, BBA from Canada. The boy should be handsome, professionally qualified and belonging to a respectable family. Please send your full bio-data & recent picture and contact number to:matrimon597@gmail.com *** 675***
House-Keeper White House Canada in Brampton, requires a Live-in housekeeper. Hotel experience preferred but will train the suitable candidate. Must be available to stand, walk and bend for extended periods of time. Duties include making beds, dusting, cleaning bathroom, vacuuming, replenishing supplies, cooking and elderly care (1 hr. daily approx)
Pls. call
647-632-3999
Issue - 675 (11)
12 - 18 July 2016
Never drink whisky on the rocks • By Brad Cohen The first time I tasted Scotch whisky I was a broke student, chugging direct from a £3 bottle, lying outside my tent at the foot of Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain. It was after a meal of tinned macaroni and cheese –
can be almost overwhelming in flavour, a drink most work their way up to. The vast majority of malt comes from three major whisky-producing regions. The Highlands (roughly the northern half of Scotland) and Speyside (in the
tasted like medicine or ashtrays, it probably came from Islay. Islay whiskies get their signature flavour from smoking peat – the same vegetation that Scots have long been burning to heat their homes – in order to dry the malted barley used
that give a wine (and the grapes that make it) its unique flavour. However, it takes a connoisseur of snobbish proportions to know a wine’s exact origin from a blind taste. Even an amateur drinker would probably know in one sip whether a whisky came
don’t really mix. So for three days on Islay, I held out my thumb and was whisked away by kindly locals, travelling from the windswept shores to the warm and welcoming shelters of the island’s eight distilleries, sampling dozens of whiskies in all
whisky still too young for bottling (the unpleasant flavour highlighted how important those years in the barrel are). I also got to try a double-matured bottle (aged 16 years in bourbon barrels before being finished for a few months in sherry casks)
hardly a sophisticated sampling considering I was sipping the world’s most venerated style of whisky. I promised myself that the next time I returned to Scotland, I would drink the best the country had to offer, in great abundance and straight from the source, no matter what it took. It turns out, for me, all it took was a smile and a stiff right thumb.That first Scotch whisky I drank was a blend. Of course, I didn’t understand the difference between single malt and blended whisky until I returned to Scotland eight years later; most people still don’t. Blended whisky, which comprises more than 80% of the market, including brands like Johnnie Walker and Dewars, is a mix o¬f malt and grain whiskies that come from multiple distilleries. Single malt, which Scottish drinkers often refer to as malt rather than whisky (and never Scotch, like it’s known elsewhere around the world), is whisky created from malted barley at one distillery. Single malts aren’t necessarily always better than blends, but most of Scotland’s highest regarded and most expensive whiskies are the former. Blended whiskies are smoother and easier to drink; malt
country’s northeast) are both easily accessible from major cities, and their whiskies are relatively accessible to the malt novice, characterised by smooth, floral, often delicate flavours. Then there’s Islay, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, about 32km off the coast of Northern Ireland. As the crow flies, it’s a roughly 113km journey from Glasgow to Islay. But, unless you plan on flying into the island’s tiny airport, it’s about 2.5 hours by car from Glasgow to the hamlet of Kennacraig, and a nearly three-hour
to create whisky. The results are polarising; some purists believe the peat takes away from the true flavour of the whisky, others become addicted, perpetually searching for something peatier.The amount of peat used varies widely. Bruichladdich is the only Islay distillery known for its non-smoked whiskies. Laphroaig, on the other end of the island and the other end of the peat spectrum, unapolo getically overwhelms the palate with peat. Laphroaig’s recent “Opinions Welcome” campaign received feedback that varied from
from Islay. I’ve never tasted another drink that has more successfully bottled a place. The whisky truly tastes like Islay, distilled – of the peat bogs that cover the island, of the smoke and fire used to stay warm during a seemingly endless winter, of the salty aftertaste of the sea.Nothing about Islay is easy. The island is rugged and tempestuous; winds gusting straight from the sea are powerful and unrelenting. Clusters of white-washed buildings make up the two main villages of Bowmore and
their smoky glory. For me, distilleries are near magical places, where alchemy meets science to create something far greater than the sum of its parts. They are also museums of smells, where each room has a beautiful and distinct scent.Visiting Scottish distilleries is also an incredible deal. Between £5 and £7 generally gets you a tour of the facility and a dram (a small glass) or two of cask-strength whisky (whisky before water is added). Many distilleries also offer pricier warehouse tastings (upwards of £25 each),
ferry to Islay – and that’s if you time the trip perfectly. Many people find Islay’s whisky even less accessible than the island itself. If you’re a seasoned malt drinker, chances are you have a bottle from Islay in your liquor cabinet. If, on the other hand, you tried Scotch whisky for the first time and hated it, thought it was too smoky, or
“like chewing on a welltarred fishing boat” to “drinking the inside of an antique store”. The opinion that resonated most with me reads, “It’s like fighting a peat bog monster that is on fire, but suddenly you both pause, look in one another’s eyes and kiss.” Wine drinkers like to talk about terroir: the environmental condition, geology and geography
Port Ellen; the rest of the island is mostly inhabited by sheep and birds, and largely covered in peat. The peat bogs, which take thousands of years to form and require a perfect storm of climatic conditions, spread across the island for miles. Public transportation on the 25-mile-long island is a nightmare, and driving and visiting distilleries
giving the chance to sample rare whiskies straight from the barrel, including some whiskies that are impossible to find anywhere else and others that you may never taste again. My favourite Islay warehouse tasting was at Lagavulin, where £12 (combined with the Friends of the Classic Malts free admission) got me a sample of an eight-year old
and a 30-year malt that normally costs more than £50 a dram in a bar, if you can find it (most single malts are aged at least 10 years, and generally get more expensive with age). Speaking of bars, there is a certain protocol to ordering malt in Scotland. First, please don’t call it Scotch. It’s whisky or malt. Second, unless you want to be the subject of ridicule, don’t order your malt on the rocks. Ice numbs the tongue and melts too fast. You either drink it neat or with a drop of water to open the flavours. Drinking it on the rocks is only acceptable if you’re drinking a blended whisky or if it’s scorching outside. But the odds of the latter happening are incredibly slim. In Scotland, summer is the second most famous myth after the Loch Ness Monster. After having been to Islay – even during Brooklyn’s oppressive summer heat – I still order my malt neat.
CAUGHT
DRUNK DRIVING? CALL VICKY SINGH AT:
416-992-5489
Issue - 675 (12)
12 - 18 July 2016
Online ‘counter-attack’ sees Islamic State’s Twitter traffic plunging Washington The Islamic State’s (IS) Twitter traffic has plunged 45% in the past two years, the Obama administration says, as the US and its allies have countered messages of jihadi glorification with a flood of online images and statements about suffering and enslavement at the hands of the extremist organisation. Among the images: A teddy bear with Arabic writing and messages saying IS “slaughters childhood,” ‘‘kills innocence,” ‘‘lashes purity” or “humiliates children.” A male hand covering a female’s mouth, saying IS “deprives woman her voice.” A woman in a black niqab (veil), bloody tears coming from a bruised eye, and the caption: “Women under ISIS. Enslaved. Battered. Beaten. Humiliated. Flogged.”US officials cite the drop in Twitter traffic as a sign of progress toward eliminating propaganda they blame for inspiring attacks around the world. When the US formed an international coalition in September 2014 to fight IS, the administration outlined multiple goals: military action and cutting off foreign fighters and finances, confronting the group’s extremist ideology and stemming the militants’ growing popularity in the Arab world and beyond. The messaging element of the campaign struggled early on. Much of the anti-IS content put online was in English, limiting its effectiveness. At the time, social media networks were only
getting started with new technological approaches to the challenge of disabling accounts that were recruiting and radicalising prospective IS members. These shortcomings have been fixed, American officials believe. Memes and images depicting the group’s treatment of women, children and others are presented almost entirely in Arabic. Whereas the US previously blasted the information out itself, it disseminates messages now through Muslim governments, religious leaders, schools, youth leaders and advocacy groups with credibility in local communities. Data show the proliferation of IS propaganda decreasing. “We’re denying ISIL the ability to operate uncontested online, and we’re seeing their social media presence decline,” said Michael Lumpkin, head of the Global Engagement Centre, which coordinates the US government’s approach to fighting extremist messaging. Using an alternate acronym for the group, he said “anti-ISIL audiences are increasingly vocal on social media. This only weakens ISIL’s ability to recruit, a key aim of our messaging efforts.” Data obtained by The Associated Press show a 6-1 ratio of anti-IS content online compared with pro-IS content — an improvement from last year. When pro-IS Twitter accounts are discovered today, they have about 300 followers each. In 2014, such accounts had 1,500
followers each, according to the data.Among social networks, the administration has primarily focused on Twitter. The platform
leaders or fighters in the Middle East. These include the attackers who killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, last
has been most heavily used by IS to crowd-source supporters and potential attackers, though it also has used YouTube and Facebook. As IS emerged from al Qaeda’s shadow and began seizing cities and large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2013, pro-IS accounts started firing out tens of thousands of tweets each day, rapidly and repeatedly opening new accounts as others were suspended. The group’s enhanced use of social media quickly set it apart from al Qeida and previous jihadi militant groups. Counterterrorism and law enforcement officials have pointed to IS’ online presence for inspiring deadly attacks in Europe and the United States, including some by individuals who never had physical contact with any of its
December.The US messages attempt to undermine many of IS’ most oft-cited claims. These include the group’s supposed invincibility on the battlefield or that its caliphate is good for Muslims. American partners have flooded social media with messages highlighting the group’s territorial loses and inability to effectively govern or provide basic services to areas under its control. Although the US government has no formal arrangement with Twitter, its information campaign has dovetailed with new approaches by the company to identify and eliminate tweets supporting terrorism. Until recently, child pornography was the only abuse automatically flagged for human review on social media. Terrorist messaging is now also included
and Twitter announced earlier this year it was using a spam-fighting technology as well. Since mid-2015, the company has suspended more than 125,000 such accounts. Officials accept that the focus on Twitter may be driving some of IS’ traffic to secure message platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram. But such a shift means the group’s propaganda is reaching a smaller audience. On these networks, it is the job of intelligence and law enforcement officials to root out any clues about future terrorist activity. The Global Engagement Centre was created in May to replace a previous State Department entity for fighting IS messaging, the widely criticised Centre for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. In addition to shifting to Arabic content and proxy messengers, the new formation harmonises the online campaign with military and intelligence efforts, and uses data analytics from the private and public sector to gauge IS’ changing online tactics and what counterstrategies are working best.For measuring pro-IS versus anti-IS accounts, data analysts use several dozen search strings and hashtags. For example, #Caliphate is more likely used on pro-IS accounts. #Daesh, a pejorative acronym for the group, is primarily found on anti-IS accounts.
Osama bin Laden’s son threatens Hollande calls for military action revenge for father’s assassination: Monitor against Syrian Qaeda affiliate
Paris French President Francois Hollande called Saturday for international action against an AlQaeda affiliate in Syria, warning that the recent losses sustained by the Islamic State group could embolden other jihadist groups. “Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State) is in retreat, that is beyond dispute,” Hollande said after a meeting with the leaders of the United States, Germany, Britain, Italy and Ukraine on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Warsaw. But, Hollande added, “we must also avoid a situation whereby as Daesh becomes weaker, other groups become stronger.” Hollande singled out Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front as particularly standing to benefit from the US-led military campaign against its arch-rival the Islamic State group. Faced with a barrage of airstrikes
and ground offensives by local forces, IS has lost territory in both Syria and Iraq in recent months. “We must coordinate among ourselves to continue actions against Daesh but also... take effective action against AlNusra,” Hollande said, directing his appeal at Russia and the US. On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone call to “intensify” military coordination between their two countries in Syria. Russia had in May proposed joint air strikes with the US against jihadist targets in Syria -- a suggestion that was rebuffed by Washington. The White House reported that the two leaders, in their call this week, “confirmed their commitment to defeating ISIL (IS) and the Al-Nusra Front”.
Dubai The son of slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against theUnited States for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted online.Hamza bin Laden promised to continue the global militant group`s fight against the United States and its allies in the 21-minute speech entitled “We Are All Osama,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group.“We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Muslim lands that did
not survive your oppression,” Hamza said. “As for the revenge by the Islamic nation for Sheikh Osama, may Allah have mercy on him, it is not revenge for Osama the person but it is revenge for those who defended Islam.” Osama bin Laden was killed at his Pakistani hideout by US commandos in 2011 in a major blow to the militant group which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.Documents recovered from bin Laden`s compound and published by the United States last year alleged that his aides tried to reunite the militant leader with Hamza, who had been held under house arrest in Iran. Hamza, now in his midtwenties, was at his father`s side
in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks and spent time with him in Pakistan after the US-led invasion pushed much of al Qaeda`s senior leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution. Introduced by the organisation`s new chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message last year, Hamza provides a younger voice for the group whose ageing leaders have struggled to inspire militants around the world galvanized by Islamic State. “Hamza provides a new face for al Qaeda, one that directly connects to the group`s founder. He is an articulate and dangerous enemy,” according to Bruce Riedel of Brookings.
Issue - 675 (13)
12 - 18 July 2016
California ill-prepared for the Big One, experts say LOS ANGELES Beyond the sunshine, the palm trees and Hollywood, if there is one certainty in California, it’s that a massive earthquake will strike at some point. But when the Big One hits, a recent report says, the western state is ill-prepared and local officials as well as major businesses need to face that reality to “prevent the inevitable disaster from becoming a catastrophe.” Drafted by a group of business and policy leaders, the report identifies several key areas that need to be addressed before a quake as strong as a magnitude 8 happens, notably aging infrastructure, water supplies and the risk of catastrophic fires. One of the biggest vulnerabilities, the report states, relates to the Cajon Pass, a narrow mountain pass where the mighty San Andreas Fault intersects with key lifelines, including freeways, railway lines, gas and petroleum pipelines as well as electric lines. A major earthquake on the San Andreas, one of California’s most dangerous faults, would cut most lifelines in and out of southern California, preventing critical aid from reaching some 20 million people and hampering recov-
ery efforts, experts say. The quake would also rupture flammable pipelines, triggering explosions and fires that could burn out of control. “Anything that comes into southern California
time,” Jones, known as California’s “earthquake lady,” told AFP. She said one way to get around this dependency was to look at alternative water sources, including from con-
has to cross the San Andreas Fault to get to us - gas, electricity, water, freeways, railways,” said seismologist Lucy Jones, who acted as advisor for the Southern California Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative committee, which issued the report. “Most of the water that we get has to cross the fault to reach us but when the earthquake happens, all of the aqueducts will be broken at the same
taminated aquifers beneath the Los Angeles area that could be cleaned up, albeit at a massive cost. “The best defense against a broken aqueduct is to not need an aqueduct,” Jones said. Installing automatic shutoff valves on natural gas and petroleum gas pipelines that run near the San Andreas Fault could also help prevent major fires, according to the report. As for maintaining communication
Solar plane leaves Spain for penultimate leg of world tour
SEVILLE The Solar Impulse 2 left southern Spain on Monday on its way to Egypt for the penultimate leg of the solar-powered airplane’s landmark round-the-world journey. The experimental aircraft took off from Seville at 6:20 am (0420 GMT) for a flight that should last about 50 hours and will take it over the Mediterranean Sea. Swiss national Andre Borschberg was at the controls for the journey that will pass through through Algerian, Tunisian, Italian, Maltese and Greek airspace. Solar Impulse is to land in Cairo on Wednesday. The plane, which is no heavier than a car but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, will then set out for Abu Dhabi on the final leg of its voyage. It took off from the United Arab Emirates capi-
with the outside world once the Big One strikes and disrupts energy grids, Jones said solar power could be one answer. Also addressed in the report is the vulnerability of many homes and buildings in southern California, where local communities have yet to follow the example of the city of Los Angeles in requiring that structures that risk collapsing be retrofitted. In addition, experts say, building codes need to be reviewed to make sure that not only will structures not kill people but will remain standing and usable after a major quake. “Today, we are building in a huge financial vulnerability,” Jones said. “We are not going to kill people with these buildings but we are not going to be able to use them afterward and that’s a big deal. “For one to two percent more of the cost, we could most likely make buildings still usable.” Computer simulations by the US Geological Survey (USGS) suggest that a magnitude 7. 8 quake on the southern end of the San Andreas fault would cause shaking for some two minutes, killing at least 1,800 people, injuring 53,000 and causing $213 billion in dam-
age. The largest recorded earthquake in California was the 1857 Fort Tejon quake that ruptured the San Andreas for 225 miles (360 kilometers). Scientists say pressure and seismic energy has since furiously been building along the fault, which constitutes the boundary between two moving tectonic plates - the North American and Pacific plates. “It is inevitable that we will have a big earthquake because that pressure needs to be released,” said Robert Graves, a seismologist with the USGS. He said that given the certainty that disaster will strike, California needs to address head-on vulnerabilities to minimize the impact.
Impotence?
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Singapore to build higher in climate change fight
tal on March 9, 2015 with the aim of promoting clean, renewable energy. Solar Impulse is being flown on its 35,400kilometre (22,000-mile) trip around the world in stages, with Borschberg and his Swiss compatriot Bertrand Piccard taking turns at the controls of the singleseat plane. Applause broke out on June 23 when the aircraft touched down in Seville after its pilot, Piccard, made the first solo transatlantic
crossing of a plane with only solar power. The exhilarated 58-year-old told AFP at the time he had thought a lot about aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, during the 6,765kilometre flight. “I met him when I was 11, we were both at the Apollo 12 takeoff, and for me Lindbergh is one of these heroes who did what no one thought was possible,” Piccard said by phone. Borschberg piloted a 8,924-kilometre flight between Japan and Hawaii that lasted 118 hours, smashing the previous record for the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history. Solar Impulse typically travels at a mere 48 kilometres (36 miles) an hour, although its flight speed can double when exposed to full sunlight.
SINGAPORE Singapore will build its new airport terminal higher than the rest of the city and has constructed seawalls along much of its coastline in the fight against climate change. Changi Airport’s proposed fifth terminal will be built 5. 5 metres (18 feet) above sea level, the government said in a climate change report released at the weekend. From 2011, the government required all new reclaimed land to be at least four metres higher than the mean sea level, up from three metres previously,
the report said, and roads near coastal areas have been raised. “We are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and variability,” the report said, noting that Singapore is a low-lying tropical island. “Climate change could pose tough challenges as Changi Airport faces flood risks from more intense rainfall and rising sea levels,” the report said. It also detailed other steps the government is taking to combat climate change, including covering some 70 percent of the coastline with sea walls and rock slopes to prevent erosion.
corded. The so-called dieback where mangroves are either dead
or defoliated - was confirmed by aerial and satellite surveys and was likely to have been the result of an extended drought period, said Norm Duke, a mangrove ecologist from James Cook University. “This is what climate change looks like. You see things push the maximums or minimums. what we are looking at here is an unusually long dry
season,” Duke told AFP. “The reason that there’s dieback now is because of this drought. Droughts are normal, but not so severe, and that’s the difference,” he said. Local rangers told scientists they were seeing creatures like shellfish, which need the shade of the trees, dying and that turtles and dugongs that are dependent on the ecosystem could “be starving in a few months”, he added. Duke said researchers believe the
event took place in the semi-arid region in late November or early December last year. “The dieback occurred synchronously across 700 kilometres (434 miles) in one month,” he said, which is about the distance between Sydney and Melbourne. He added that “by all accounts, the climate is going to become more erratic, so we can expect these type of events to become more common”.
Australian mangrove die-off blamed on climate change
SYDNEY Thousands of hectares of mangroves in Australia’s remote north have died, scientists said Monday, with climate change the likely cause. Some 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres), or nine percent of the mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria, perished in just one month according to researchers from Australia’s James Cook University, the first time such an event has been re-
Issue - 675 (14)
12 - 18 July 2016
If Jihad is so pious why don’t Kashmiri separatists or their children pick up guns: Junaid Qureshi Amsterdam Reacting sharply over the killing of young Hizbul Mujahideen district commander Burhan Wani by security forces, Junaid Qureshi, son of Kashmiri separatist leaderHashim Qureshi, on Saturday said the Kashmiri youth need to understand and need to ask this question to theseseparatist leaders if Jihad is so pious then why don’t they or their children pick up guns?“All the children of these leaders are tucked away in safe environments in schools in Malaysia, America, London or India, and poor people’s sons are dying on streets and they are glorifying it. The Kashmiri youth need to understand and need to ask this question to these leaders if Jihad, if this gun is so pious why don’t you pick it up, why don’t your children pick it up? This bloodshed must stop,” said Junaid, an Amsterdam-based Human Rights activist.“A youth of Kashmir has lost his life. Many people, many youth in Kashmir, whether justified or unjustified, have a lot of resentment. They are angry, but we can see what it does when you chose violent ways to give vent to your resentment and to your anger. At the end, Burhan Wani met his
inevitable fate, he was killed. It’s sad to see Kashmiri youth dying like this,” he added. “This young boy (Wani,
22), who is just the age of my brother, could have been a doctor, an engineer, a writer, a poet, or an actor. He could have found so many other ways to give vent to his resentment, and to make an appeal for his genuine demands. But, we must understand and the Kashmiri youth must understand that picking up guns is not the way which will get us somewhere,” said Junaid, whose father had hijacked an Indian plane to Lahore in 1971. “One Burhan Wani died today, another will die tomorrow until and unless we understand that the
picking up the gun is not a way out. India has lakhs of army stationed in Kashmir. We have already picked up the gun 26 years ago,
what did we achieve? People died. This must end. This violence, this bloodshed must end,” he added.Making an appeal to the Kashmiri youth to shun violence and opt for some other civilised way to vent their resentment, Junaid said, “The youth of Kashmir must understand and their leaders should understand as well that one Kalashnikov, a hundred Kalashnikov, a thousand Kalashnikov are not going to make a difference to the Kashmir issue.” “The Kashmir issue can only be solved on the table and you have to deserve a place to
Napoleon’s last horse to strut his stuff after makeover PARIS Visitors to the Army Museum in Paris are being treated to the rare sight of two taxidermists at work restoring a stuffed horse the last one ridden by Napoleon Bonaparte. “Le Vizir” is a little worse for wear more than 200
worked putty into a crack in Le Vizir’s chest. The white Arabian stallion, a gift to Napoleon from an Ottoman sultan in 1802, sports a brand on his rump made up of an N topped with a crown.One of the emperor’s favourites recalling great victories at
years after carrying the emperor to victory against the Prussians and the Russians - not to mention being stuffed not just once, but twice. “It’s a specimen that has suffered,” was the expert, if understated, assessment of taxidermist Yveline Huguet as she
Jena and Eylau - he accompanied his master to exile in Elba after Napoleon’s first forced abdication in 1814. By the time Napoleon swept back to power - for 100 days - in France the following year after escaping from Elba, Le
Vizir was old enough to retire.So, while Le Vizir also returned to France he was spared the ignominy that awaited Napoleon at Waterloo. Instead he spent his twilight years in the care of Leon de Chanlaire, an officer of the imperial stables, while Napoleon was banished to the British crown colony of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic. Chanlaire had Le Vizir stuffed shortly after the horse died at the ripe old age of 33 in 1826. But fearing that reprisals against those suspected of ties to Napoleon would extend to the emperor’s horse, Chanlaire sold Le Vizir on to William Clark, an Englishman living in northern France. Chanlaire “had a few relationship problems with the regime of Charles X, because he was very supportive of the empire,” said Gregory Spourdos, the 36-year-old deputy curator of the Army Museum’s modern section.
get to that table, you have to have your arguments ready. You need to give vent to your resentment in some other civilised way,” he added. Wani and two other terrorists were killed in an encounter with a joint operation launched by the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jammu and Kashmir Police in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.The 22-year-old Internet-savvy Kashmiri terrorist was a resident of Dadsara village in south Kashmir’s Tral area. He left his home in 2010, days before taking the Class 10 examination to join the region’s frontline indigenous militant outfit Hizb and soon rose to become its district commander and figured in the list of most wanted militants.Wani had last month released a video warning of attacks on separate colonies for Sainiks and Kashmiri Pandits if they were set up in the Valley. The major part of the video message, however, was directed at the Jammu and Kashmir Police warning them of more attacks.
Taiwan may become the first Asian country to legalise same sex marriage
Taipei Taiwan is expected to become the first Asian country to legalise same sex marriages following a likely decision to present this proposal before a parliamentary committee, reports CNN.Taiwan has a large gay community and its annual gay pride parade is said to be the biggest in Asia.It is one of the most progressive places in Asia in terms of safeguarding and promoting LGBT rights, giving legal status to homosexuality and permitting sex change operations.“I’m sure gay marriage will be legalised soon,” said Chang (45), who runs one of Taipei’s most famous gay bars, Dalida, in the heart of the city’s gay village. With the
Liberal Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in power, expectations are high that Taiwan will become the first place in Asia to permit same sex marriage. President Tsai Ing-wen who was sworn in as Taiwan’s first female president in May this year, has repeatedly voiced her support for sexual equality and LGBT rights.However, homosexuality is still controversial with the older generation, and gay marriage is opposed by politically influential social conservative and Christian groups.Previously, a bill raised to legalize same sex marriage in 2012 failed in the parliament and Yu MeiNu, the DPP legislator who proposed the last bill, says she is preparing to try again.
Issue 675 (15)
12 - 18 July 2016
Salman Khan’s Eid release is a winner by Ananya Bhattacharya Cast: Salman Khan, Anushka Sharma, Amit Sadh, Randeep Hooda Direction: Ali Abbas Zafar Rating: 4 Stars Wrestling is about fighting what lies within. That’s what Salman Khan’s Sultan Ali Khan attempts to make people understand in the near-three hour Sultan. And it delivers the message home in style. Aakash Oberoi (Amit Sadh) is the brains behind the staggering, dying Pro Take-Down League. Sponsors want to pull out of the championship, and no one is eager to give the league another chance to survive. Faced with adversaries such as these, Aakash’s father advises him to get Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan), the man who can save the game. Aakash goes to Rewari to get Sultan back in the ring. A middle-aged, pot-bellied, half-sweater clad man is the Sultan of today. Just as Aakash gets ready to walk away, he spots Sultan single-handedly pulling a tractor out of a pothole. Aakash tries to buy Sultan with his ‘offer’ of whatever money the latter wants. Except, Sultan will never go back into the
ring. Aakash reaches Sultan’s friend, and the latter tells him the reason behind this Olympic gold medallist’s vow of not wrestling again. A heartbroken Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) is at the centre of it all; Sultan’s war that began eight years ago. Director Ali Abbas Zafar crafts an interesting and emotional tale out of the most-used tropes in the history of Hindi cinema. Even after employing every run-of-the-mill cliche in the book, Sultan doesn’t fall flat. The story entertains, largely because of the invested performances by the actors. Salman Khan’s hard work is more than visible in every frame when the man is in the wrestling pit. From the dhobi-pachhads to slamming his opponents on the ground, this desi pehelwan uses technique to flatten anyone who crosses him in the ring. And the viewer. Wolfwhistles and claps greet every minute of Salman’s time in the pit. In the akhada, Sultan is the man to watch out for. Anushka Sharma’s Aarfa is the result of months of training, and the actor nails it. Sharma turns wrestlers over with equal ease as telling a pester-
ing Sultan to bugger off. The post-NH10 Anushka Sharma is a delight to watch on screen. There are moments when she tears your heart apart with her pain; and others, when you want to cheer for her when she is in the pit. Amit Sadh, along with the rest of the supporting cast, does a commendable job of steering Sultan forward. Ali Abbas Zafar’s Sultan is a thorough crowd-pleaser. The film is a cocktail of sportsmanship, drama,
romance, patriotism... heavily spiced with the factor called Salman Khan. Salman, in large chunks of the film, is Salman. And that is probably what still works for him. The film’s emotional scenes draw that rare teary-eyed moment from you, but the real Sultan, much like its protagonist, lies inside the ring. The Haryanvi-accented dialogues from both Salman and Anushka are done well. Well enough to elicit whistles and ap-
Matthew McConaughey’s film does well to juxtapose telling of Knight’s story Directed by Gary Ross Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell Rating: 3 Stars Newton Knight was part of a little-known chapter in American Civil War, leading a disjointed army of deserters, slaves and farmers, in rebellion against the Confederate Army. Always on the sidelines, he fought not just for the right of every man to decide his destiny but also was part of the difficult reconstruction after the battle had been won but the war for uniting the nation still lay ahead. In that sense, Free State
of Jones couldn’t have come at a better time, and the film does well to juxtapose telling of Knight’s story with the trial his mixed-race descendant is fighting in the same state “85 years later”. Nobody says so much as “Black lives matter” in the film, but “every life matters” is an underlying theme. And yet, Free State of Jones does such an underwhelming job of it more interested in setting up episodes and eyecatching montages than placing them within the larger narrative of what these meant in a country in war with itself over its right to see a class of citizens as inferior. A large
part of the film, for example, happens in a watery swamp, where an amazing number of people live in a musical, dippy, happy commune. Placing McConaughey at the centre of each such episode doesn’t help, though the actor again dips into that pool of intensity that has been his hallmark recently. Not only does this near saintly portrayal of Knight in what were not just physically but morally difficult times ring false, it is also untrue as per nearly all historical accounts. There is barely one episode where the motley army that Knight puts together questions his changing goalposts —
these southern gentlemen couldn’t have all viewed their negroes as graciously as Knight would have us believe but it’s brushed under. So what started out as men and importantly women defying Confederate soldiers for robbing their farms and houses to take away food and belongings in the name of feeding and clothing their army, expands into fighting its soldiers head-on, and then into coopting the freed or runaway slaves without any major disagreements. At the height of their battle, Knight declares a ‘Free State of Jones’, in a region that encompasses his native Jones Country.
plause at the right moments. Among the main drawbacks of Sultan is its runtime. At 170 minutes, Sultan seems like two films could have been made out of it. The narrative is paced leisurely, peppered with MANY songs. The number of songs slacken the speed of the film. At the end of the day, however, Sultan is a Salman Khan film. Probably every flaw is worthy of being overseen thanks to the sheer aura of the man. The
Salman who makes people stand up and scream and shout his name right in the middle of an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) sequence. Every time Salman faces an opponent inside the ring, you want to shout ‘Sultan’ out loud. Every time he tries wooing Aarfa in his awkward ‘gaawar’ ways, you can’t help but feel for the guy. Watch Sultan for Salman Khan. Not sure if anyone would watch the film for anything else any which way.
Issue 675 (16)
12 - 18 July 2016
Long struggle before I play typical Bollywood heroine says Taapsee Pannu Taapsee Pannu, who is just two films old in the Hindi film industry, feels she needs to show versatility as an actress before becoming the quintessential Bollywood heroine. Taapsee says she currently wants to concentrate on performance-oriented roles rather than running after the cliche “cute, bubbly” characters, which are anyway dominated by bigger female stars. “Bollywood already has those quintessential girls who do love stories and play ‘sweet and cute’ kind of roles. There are so many of them who are much bigger names than me, market wise. “So, I am left with acting-oriented roles. I need to keep acting well to reach a point where I can also do those ‘happy-go-lucky’ roles and feel like a big heroine,” Taapsee told PTI in an interview. “Before that I have to do the struggle of doing variety so that people see that I am a decent actor and I look decent enough to be placed as a typical heroine.” The 28-year-old actress is happy that the upcoming list of her onscreen outings, including megastar Amitabh Bachchan-starrer “Pink”, will prove her acting credentials thanks to the diversity in characters. “‘Pink’ is an intense thriller, which is going to show the audience a different side of me as an actor. Next, I am doing a love story, then there is ‘Ghazi’, where I am playing a Bangladeshi refugee. None of the roles that I am doing now are similar to each other. Bollywood has offered me crazy variety of roles.” Talking about her experience of sharing screen space with Bachchan,
Is Anushka Sharma on everyone’s wishlist?
Taapsee says she was excited to work with him. “It was intimidating working with Mr Bachchan... I can remember the first shot with him.
It was the easiest shot you can imagine. I had to just sleep. He was sitting and talking to one of the co actors in the shot and I had to just lie down on the sofa and sleep. “I had to give so many retakes for that shot because I couldn’t keep my eyes still, they were always flickering. I was excited, not nervous.” “Ghazi”, Taapsee says, it is India’s first submarine movie, based on the true incidents of the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi, a Pakistan Submarine, by INS Rajput (D141) during the IndoPak war of 1971. “‘Ghazi’ is complete. It’s a bilingual, Telgu and Hindi. It is going to be India’s
first submarine film. Not many people know there was a subarmine in Pakisthan called Ghazi which sank in Indian waters during 1971 war. We have shot 75 per cent of the film inside a submarine.” Taapsee will next be seen in actor Prakash Raj’s Hindi directorial debut “Tadka”, which also stars Ali Fazal. The actress has worked with Raj in the past as a co-star in many Telugu films but Taapsee says she enjoyed him as
a director the most. “Prakash Raj has directed a few films in South but this is going to be his first film in Hindi as a director. He is crazy. I’ve worked with him as an actor in two films in Telugu, so this is the first time I’m working with him as a director. I think I like him as a director much more. “Probably as an actor we don’t really get to interact that much but because he is the director now I get to know a lot more about him and how he thinks.”
for coming out in the open and talking about her phase of depression. In a new social media post, she reveals what helped
her overcome the mood disorder. Being the daughter of Badminton veteran Prakash Padukone, Deepika grew up as a sportswoman herself playing till the nationals. And she went back to her sports roots, when confronted with a bout of clinical depression. In the post she
urges everyone to pick one sport, as it teaches you so much about life. It teaches you how to handle success, failure. She goes on to add, that two years ago when she had the sinking feeling, it was sport that helped her fight and survive against all odds. Previously she had spoken at length about her depression for which she had to take medication.
Deepika Padukone tells the world how she fought depression
Deepika Padukone was hailed as brave and gutsy
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Anushka Sharma is on cloud nine, as trade analysts reveal the box office collections of Sultan, which has grossed more than a 100 crores in the first three days of its release. The actor who plays the role of Aarfa, a wrestler, has seen some tremedous success working with the biggest actors and the most sought-after directors. Anuskha began her career in Rab Ne Banaa Di Jodi, with two of the biggest names in Bollywood - Shah Rukh Khan and Aditya Chopra. From there on, her performances have improved considerably alongside some really accomplished directors.
Her performance in Maneesh Sharma’s Band Baaja Baaraat was appreciated. She then went on to star in Yash Chopra’s last film Jab tak hai Jaan alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif. She starred alongside Aamir Khan in Rajkumar Hirani’s PK, which remains the highest grossing film of Bollywood with collections in excess of 300 crores. Anushka Sharma, garnering critical acclaim for her performances in Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, her own production NH10, and also the darling of independent movies Anurag Kashyap in Bombay Velvet.
Be it her plus-sized character in “Dum Laga Ke Haisha” or her current fit avatar, actress Bhumi Pednekar says she has always loved her body. She, however, adds that she feels more comfortable now. Asked if she likes her body more now, Bhumi told IANS: “I have always liked my body. Believe me when I was bigger, I wore whatever...I dressed exactly what I wear now...I would wear crop tops and skirts...So, for me it really didn’t matter.” “But health wise, I am a lot more comfortable right now.” Bhumi, who is gearing up for her second film “Manmarziyaan” starring her “Dum Laga
Ke Haisha” co-star Ayushmann Khurrana, shared that she now feels a “lot more healthy and
Have always loved my body says Bhumi Pednekar
fit”. She adds: “But as a perception on how I have perceived myself, I have always felt beautiful.
Issue 675 (17)
12 - 18 July 2016
Children are crazy says Mila Kunis Actress Mila Kunis, who is preparing to welcome her second child with actor Ashton Kutcher, says she has discovered that “children are f**king crazy”. In an interview with Glamour magazine, the actress reflected on her first pregnancy with the couple’s daughter, Wyatt Isabelle, born in October 2014, and how she got ready to have a baby, reports etonline.com. “They are also suicidal. Like, at the park, certain jungle gyms have an opening for older kids to jump out of. (Wyatt is) 19 months; she can’t jump. She just walks off it as if she is on a pirate ship,” Kunis told the magazine. “Another important thing to learn is that kids have a personality that has nothing to do with you. I have a really sweet daughter. She wants to hug all the other kids. I didn’t teach her to be sweet. It has nothing to do with me. I have realised you can control only so much,” she added. The 32-year-old actress has also learned a lot about her husband in their years together, including the look on his face when he is not telling her the truth. “We can’t bulls**t each other. I literally can’t lie to him. He can call me out on everything, and I can do the same, because there is nothing about the other person’s face that we don’t know,” Kunis explained. “We know when they are acting, thus we know when they are lying,” she added. Kunis will next be seen
in the comedy film “Bad Moms”. Directed and written by Jon Lucas
and Scott Moore, the film also stars Christina Applegate, Kristen Bell,
Kathryn Hahn, Annie Mumolo and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Mischa Barton locked in legal battle with mother
Actress Mischa Barton is locked in another bitter legal battle with her estranged mother -a year after suing her for fraud. The 30-yearold star has accused Nuala Barton, who was also her manager, for delaying the planned sale of the mansion they jointly own in Beverly Hills, California, by locking her out of the property and refusing access to potential buyers, reports dailymail.co.uk. She also accuses her mother of refusing to work with Josh Altman, a Los Angeles realtor appointed to sell the seven-bedroom, 10bathroom property, and refusing to sign off on
strong offers from potential buyers. However, Nuala has blasted her daughter’s claims as “heinous” and “false” and says that they are “estranged as a result”. Mischa, who recently appeared on “Dancing With The Stars”, previously sued her mother in 2015 accusing her of defrauding her by stealing her money. She accused Nuala of taking out massive loans against the house behind her back and turning the home into her “personal ATM”. Mischa even claimed she was then kicked out of the home by her parents who wouldn’t let her back on the property.
Beyonce ordered 1,000 pounds Christina Grimmie’s family thank fans worth of meat for her entourage
Beyoncé had £1,000 worth of meat delivered to her entourage before her concert in Manchester last week. The Hold Up hitmaker made the mighty meaty order consisting of 200 gammon steaks, 200 chicken thighs, 140 chicken supremes and 100 boneless chicken fillets with local butchers WH Frost. And fans who had purchased VIP tickets for the Formation World Tour costing around £200 were given the added bonus of six whole fillet
steaks to gnaw among them. And that’s not all, the singer’s tour rider
also demanded 12 ice-cream vans to sit backstage at the Emirates Old Trafford ground in Manchester. A source said: “Working for Beyoncé is gruelling labour but she makes sure her team is well fed. The butcher’s shop was in a bit of a panic, as the order came in last minute, but they were told it had come personally from Beyonce and had to be met before she took to the stage on Tuesday,” added the source.
touched with her joyful heart, beautiful voice and love for life and the Lord.” The family went on to thank those who had recognised the former “Voice” contestant with donations and various other tributes, and confirmed they are discussing plans to “honour” her in future.
Christina Grimmie’s family have thanked her fans for their “love and generosity”. The 22-year-old singer was gunned down by a deranged fan following a concert performance in Orlando last month and her parents Tina and Bud and brother Marcus have paid tribute to her “joyful heart and beautiful voice”, reported Us Weekly. In a
joint statement on a GoFundMe page, they said: “The outpouring of love and generosity that has been displayed to our family throughout these last few weeks has far exceeded anything we could have ever imagined. “As we have always known, Christina’s life was so very special, not only to us, but to everyone she
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Issue 675 (18)
12 - 18 July 2016
Pak’s ISI may be trying to Famous paranormal investigator Gaurav Tiwari found dead smuggle in arms via Kutch Ahmedabad Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) could be behind an arms consignment likely to be smuggled across to India through the areas surrounding the Kutch desert. Intelligence
controlled explosives devices, hand grenades and ammunition. Sources said intelligence agencies have mentioned in the alert that the consignment could be sent across the border from
department sources said this consignment could be smuggled into India in small consignments. The state’s security agencies are already on alert and senior police officials of state police are camping in Kutch to trace infiltrators if any, said a senior police official. According to intelligence department sources, the consignment consists about 75 weapons, including pistols, AK 47, remote
Pakistan in parts containing 10-12 weapons, some explosives and grenades per consignment. State police sources said the agencies informed them that there is the possibility that the consignment has reached the Pakistani side of the fence a few days ago. “It is believed the terror suspects who are supposed to use those weapons and explosives have infiltrated ahead of the
weapons consignment as is usual practice by terror outfits operating across the border. If this has happened in this case, it is a major concern for state security agencies,” said a senior intelligence department official. “Following the alert, state police is on high alert. Security agencies on the IndiaPakistan border areas in Kutch and Banaskantha are maintaining strict vigil at the fence,” said a senior state police official. Senior police sources said border villages are being combed to trace suspicious movements and villagers were asked to inform police on noticing any suspicious movements. In the last six months five Pakistani fishing boats and three Pakistani nationals have been apprehended from the land and sea border with Pakistan in Kutch.
New Delhi One of India’s most famous paranormal investigator Gaurav Tiwari was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his flat in Delhi, last Thursday. A commercial pilot turned paranormal investigator, Gaurav was was the founder CEO of the Indian Paranormal Society. Set up in 2009, the paranormal society aims to educate people and help them get rid of their fears and bust myths regarding the paranormal. It also conducts tours to believed-to-be haunted places. The 32-year-old was found dead in the bathroom of his flat in the Dwaraka locality of the city. As per his family, Gaurav was perfectly
normal and there was no reason to kill himself. Tiwari lived with his parents and wife. The family says that it was around 11 am on
As per TOI, Gaurav, who had married in January this year - had told his wife a month ago that a negative force was pulling him
Thursday when they heard a loud thud from the bathroom. They forced open the door to find him lying unconscious. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but the doctors could not resuscitate him. The initial post-mortem report suggests that a black line was found around the neck and the suspected cause of death was asphyxia.
towards it. He had said he was finding it difficult to control it despite his best efforts. However, his wife did not take it seriously thinking that her husband was depressed due to work overload. A certified Paranormal/ UFO investigator and Hypnotist, Gaurav is had visited over 6,000 `haunted’ locations and investigated hauntings.
Issue 675 (19)
12 - 18 July 2016
Silly season in US: Yes, daughter Ivanka is Nepal’s first woman chief justice takes oath of office a probable Trump running mate In around a week’s time, US Presidential candidate Donald Trump is expected to nominate a vice-presidential candidate. Although we are still far from getting news of a zeroed down nominee, the name
of Ivanka Trump seems to be floating around as the potential US Vice President. Last week on Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennesse formally withdrew his name from the list of vice-presidential nominees after spending the previous day with Trump. While the reason for his withdrawal remains unknown, in an interview with NBC News, Corker laid out clearly that Trump would find “the best running mate” in Ivanka. He further went on to support his claim by stating that Ivanka
might not possess the best qualifications for the role but that she is a “composed, brilliant, beautiful-in-every-way person.” Soon after Corker had made his remarks on Ivanka, her
brother Eric Trump went on record and said that Ivanka would be a wonderful pick as vice president given that “She’s got the beautiful looks, right? She’s got— she’s smart, she’s smart, smart, smart,”. The decision to choose one’s own blood as a running mate, is not, technically speaking, unconstitutional in US politics. However, it is definitely unheard of. Traditionally, the choice of a Vice President in the United States has been made in a
way to act a counterweight to the running Presidential candidate. For instance, when John F. Kennedy from the North was running for the position of President, he was matched up with Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas. The idea is to reach out to a wider electoral base by selecting candidates from opposite geographical or ideological fronts. If Trump ends up nominating his daughter as Vice President, it would skew the Republican ticket in favour of it appearing more like a dynastic run up to the Presidential post. Ivanka’s role in the election campaign has however been unusual in other ways too. In traditional US politics, the spouse of the Presidential candidate has always played a very important role in the campaign. In case of Donald Trump, though, this role from the very beginning was being played by his daughter, who came to be referred to by many as his unofficial campaign spouse.
US wants clarification whether Pak a friend or foe
Senior US lawmakers have called for a joint committee hearing on Tuesday, titled 'Pakistan: friend or foe in the fight against terrorism,' during which they will decide their stance on Islamabad. DOUBLE GAME The hearing held jointly by the House Subcommittees on
reports the Dawn. Republican lawmaker and Congressman Ted Poe, who has brazenly displayed his dislike for Pakistan, is the the chairman of one of the subcommittees. "This hearing will give members the opportunity to learn more about Pakistan's
Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade and Asia and the Pacific, will debate the alleged 'double game' of Pakistan and once again ask if it is Washington's friend or enemy. The meeting would determine how United States further wants to deal with Pakistan, an old ally that many in the Congress no longer trust,
longstanding ties to terrorist groups and allow for a more informed reassessment of US foreign policy priorities vis-avis Islamabad," said Poe while explaining why he had called the hearing. Former US ambassador to Afghanistan and United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad, Senior Editor Bill Roggio of Long War Journal
and Assistant Professor Tricia Bacon of American University are the three witnesses for the hearing, who have been asked to explain Pakistan and its policies to the lawmakers. ISOLATION? In a recent statement, Khalilzad had urged the United States to adopt a policy of total isolation against Islamabad and turn it into a "second North Korea" to force it to cooperate for peace in Afghanistan. "The United States has spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in aid to Pakistan since 9/11. Now, 15 years later, Pakistan's military and intelligence services are still linked to terrorist organisations and little success has been achieved in stabilising the region," said Subcommittee Head on Asia and Pacific Matt Salmon. "We must take a closer look at US goals, expectations and our aid spending in the region. In this hearing, we will discuss the administration's failed policy towards Pakistan and debate the best way forward," he said
Kathmandu Sushila Karki took charge as the first woman chief justice of Nepal’s Supreme Court on Monday, after her name was endorsed by a parliamentary panel. The 64-year-old was administered oath of office and secrecy by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari at Sheetal Niwas, the official residence of the head of the state. With Karki’s appointment, Nepal has three women in prominent positions. In October last year, Bhandari had replaced Ram Baran Yadav to become the first woman head of state. The same month, Maoist lawmaker Onsari Gharti Magar was elected unopposed as the first woman speaker of Nepal’s parliament. Karki, who was working as acting chief justice since April, had to appear before the panel to clarify about six complaints against her,
including one related to assets disproportionate to income. Her name was approved after she was able to furnish documentary evidence that absolved her of the charges. Born in 1952, Karki had begun her legal practice in 1979. She joined the Supreme Court as a temporary justice in 2009 and was made a permanent one a year later.
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Issue 675 (22)
12 - 18 July 2016
Who was the real Burhan Wani, ‘paper tiger’ or ‘Indian agent’? SRINAGAR ‘You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes’. In Kashmir, each killing is just like the matrix that enlarges, complicates and morphs into something else so quickly that it is hard to tell real from surreal. Hizbul Mujahideen (Hizb) commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani was addicted teenagers of Kashmir. But, if you asked the common man on the street even a couple of months ago who was Wani, the standard response would have been: “An Indian agent.” If you asked , you would have been told he was a “paper tiger” created by media. Last week, when news of spread, the narratives reversed instantly. The Indian state called it a successful antiterror operation and common Kashmiris propped up Wani along with the likes of JKLF’s Ashfaq Majeed Wani, an “iconic martyr” of the 1990 Kashmir militancy.
Such attitudinal somersaults perhaps prevail in all conflict zones. Indigenous violence in the pursuit of ‘azadi’ clubbed with the deep state games played by both India and Pakistan to get at each other, provide fertile ground for my-
NC remained pro-India, Butt crossed the LoC and returned to Kashmir in 1966, only to be arrested. He escaped from Srinagar prison, crossed the LoC again and, to his dismay, was detained by Pakistani authorities on charges of
added. Jaish-eMuhammed terrorist Afzal Guru’s life was mired in controversy too but he became a legendary face of ‘azadi’ following his execution. “While he was on trial, no separatist lawyer in Kashmir came forward
thologies in Kashmir. Maqbool Butt, the pioneer of the militant movement in the 1970s, for example, was jailed in Pakistan on suspicion of being an Indian spy, but in the end he was executed by India. Butt’s political activism began with the protests against the incarceration of National Conference chief Sheikh Abdullah. Though
being an Indian agent. “Later, he was released in Pakistan but many in Kashmir then believed he was a double agent,” a seasoned politician in Srinagar told the TOI. “But legends were manufactured after his hanging. He became the poster boy for the militant JKLF in the 1980s and remains part of the insurgency folklore,” he
to defend him. Most people in Kashmir believed he was an Indian mole in the Jaish cell that plotted the December 2001 Parliament attack,” a political activist who knew Guru said, adding, “In his case, the ‘collective conscience’ use of phrase by the Indian judiciary catapulted him into a messiah in Kashmir.” Back in 2007, the
Family: Dallas suspect changed after military service
DALLAS Military service changed the Dallas gunman from an extrovert into a hermit, his parents said in an interview excerpt published on Monday. Micah Johnson’s mother, Delphine Johnson, told TheBlaze website in an interview that her son wanted to be a police officer as a child. His six years in the Army Reserve, including a tour in Afghanistan, were “not what Micah thought it would be ... what he thought the military represented, it just didn’t live up to his expectations.” According to the military lawyer who represented him, Johnson was accused of sexually harassing a female soldier while deployed. His father, James Johnson said haltingly and through tears:
Pre-mature Ejaculation?
416-992-5489
“I don’t know what to say to anybody to make anything better. I didn’t see it coming.” The black 25-year-old fatally shot five officers in Thursday’s attack while hundreds of people were gathered in downtown Dallas to
again defended the decision to use the robot, saying he had “already killed us in a grave way, and officers were in surgery that didn’t make it.” “This wasn’t an ethical dilemma for me,” Brown said. “I’d do it again ... to save our
protest recent fatal police shootings, and wounded at least nine officers and two civilians. Dallas Police Chief David Brown clarified Monday where Johnson was killed with a bomb delivered by a remotecontrolled robot, saying that it happened on the second floor of El Centro College, not a parking garage as authorities previously described. Brown did not provide more details, including the locations of the negotiations that came before the bomb. The police chief
officers’ lives.”Authorities have said Johnson had plans for a larger assault, possessed enough explosive material to inflict far greater harm and kept a journal of combat tactics. Eleven officers fired at Johnson and two used an explosive device, Brown said, adding that the investigation will involve more than 170 hours of body camera footage and “countless hours” of dashcam video. “Bravery is not a strong enough word to describe what they did that day,” Brown said
of officers’ response to Thursday’s events. Surgeons at Parkland Memorial Hospital spoke Monday afternoon about treating some of the victims. Dr. Brian H. Williams, who is black, said: “It weighs on my mind constantly (that he was unable to save the officers ... It has to stop. Black men dying and being forgotten. People retaliating against the people sworn to protect us.” Dr. Alex Eastman, the director of the hospital’s trauma center who also is a deputy medical director with the city’s police department, said the shootings “rocked some guys to their core that I thought were unshakable.” Brown provided details of authorities’ negotiations with police Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying Johnson laughed at authorities, sang and at one point asked how many officers he had shot. Johnson insisted on speaking with a black negotiator and wrote “RB” and other markings in blood on the wall _ the meanings of which were unclear and being looked at by investigators, Brown said.
dove-eyed, fair-complexioned Wani was just another cricket-loving studious ‘chocolate boy’ from an educated, state-employed, well-off Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-influenced family of south Kashmir. But then the 2008 Amarnath land controversy erupted and the teenager found a cause like many others of his generation. He used to distribute propaganda leaflets on Amarnath, a police officer said, adding that he later became a small-time courier boy for Hizb, JeI’s militant wing. Until the massive outpouring of grief, mourning and protests, most locals in Kashmir believed Wani was an Indian agent, propped up to project that the new militancy in Kashmir was inspired by the Islamic State, to recruit educated boys from affluent families. “If he were a real mujahid, he would’ve been caught or killed. Why are the forces letting him post pictures and videos on Facebook when they censor most ‘azadi’ groups? He’s their guy!” a stone-pelter told TOI two months ago. At the time, the security agencies anticipated that
killing Wani could make him a bigger icon than he already was because of his social media agit prop. “He is a Facebook militant. We would rather capture him alive,” an officer in South Kashmir had told the TOI. So why was Wani killed? A counter-insurgency officer told the TOI, “For how long and to what extent can the state accommodate lawlessness. Wani and his gang were, after all, armed terrorists.” The spate of terror attacks in the last two months, especially the one on the CRPF convoy that killed eight, change the line of thinking within the security establishment. “At some point the state had to send out a tough message against this fresh wave of militancy that is attracting young educated boys from well off families,” the officer said. Another officer who studied the post-2008 militancy closely, however disagreed, “Burhan was not the militant material. I think we fell in the Pakistani trap. They led us to him to create an icon out of him for the new generation in Kashmir. They have succeeded.”
After 17 years, SC orders release of minor arrested for murder
After being jailed for 17 years, the Supreme Court today ordered the release of a minor booked for murder in 1999. The accused was convicted by a lower court in 1999 following which he was jailed. On March 23, 1999, Sundar Singh got into a family dispute in his field in Meerut. During the commotion he accidentally murdered his relative. Singh was arrested by the Meerut police on the
next of the incident. ACCUSED WAS 12YEARS-OLD WHEN HE WAS ARRESTED On June 30, 2013, the Supreme Court ordered a medical examination of Singh which proved that he was a minor when the incident took place. Singh was 12-year-old when he accidentally killed his relative. He is now 29-years-old and has been in jail for the last 17 years.
Issue 675 (23)
12 - 18 July 2016
Call to liberalize Saudi Islam draws death threats
JIDDAH For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice known abroad as the religious police serving with the front-line troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernization, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices. Some of that resembled ordinary police work: busting drug dealers and bootleggers in a country where alcohol is banned. But the men of "The Commission," as Saudis call it, spent most of their time maintaining the puritanical public norms that set Saudi Arabia apart not only from the West, but from most of the Muslim world. A key offense was ikhtilat, or unauthorized mixing between men and women. The kingdom's clerics warn that it could lead to fornication, adultery, broken homes, children born of unmarried couples and fullblown societal collapse. For years, al-Ghamdi stuck with the program
and was eventually put in charge of the commission for the region of Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Then he had a reckoning and began to question the rules. So he turned to the Quran and the stories of
pearances, he argued that much of what Saudis practiced as religion was in fact Arabian cultural practices that had been mixed up with their faith. There was no need to close shops for prayer, he said, nor to bar
own conviction, al-Ghamdi went on television with his wife, Jawahir, who smiled to the camera, her face bare and adorned with a dusting of makeup. It was like a bomb inside the kingdom's religious es-
the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, considered the exemplars of Islamic conduct. What he found was striking and life altering: There had been plenty of mixing among the first generation of Muslims, and no one had seemed to mind. So he spoke out. In articles and television ap-
women from driving, as Saudi Arabia does. At the time of the Prophet, women rode around on camels, which he said was far more provocative than veiled women piloting SUVs. He even said women had to cover only their faces if they chose to. And to demonstrate the depth of his
tablishment, threatening the social order that granted prominence to the sheikhs and made them the arbiters of right and wrong in all aspects of life. He threatened their control. Al-Ghamdi's colleagues at work refused to speak to him. Angry calls poured into his cellphone and anonymous death threats
hit him on Twitter. Prominent sheikhs took to the airwaves to denounce him as an ignorant upstart who should be punished, tried — and even tortured. For the Western visitor, Saudi Arabia is a baffling mix of modern urbanism, desert culture and the never-ending effort to adhere to a rigid interpretation of scriptures that are more than 1,000 years old. It is a kingdom flooded with oil wealth, skyscrapers, SUVs and shopping malls, where questions about how to invest money and interact with non-Muslims are answered with quotes from the Quran or stories about the Prophet Muhammad. The primacy of Islam in Saudi life has led to a huge religious sphere that extends beyond the state's official clerics. Public life is filled with celebrity sheikhs whose moves, comments and conflicts Saudis track just as Americans follow Hollywood actors. In the kingdom's hyperwired society, they compete for followers on Twitter,
US police officer fired after threatening 5-year-old girl on Facebook Washington A police officer in US’ Kansas city was fired after he threatened an AfricanAmerican woman’s fiveyear-old daughter on Facebook. Rodney Lee Wilson worked with Overland Park Police Department in Kansas, Buzzfeed reported on Monday. “We’ll see how much her life matters soon. Better be careful leaving your info open where she can be found :). Better hold
her close tonight, it’ll be the last time,” Wilson posted below LaNaydra Williams’ picture of her daughter
named India. “It was obvious that our officer did not meet the standards of professionalism for the Overland Park Police Department. Overland Park has terminated the officer, effective immediately,” read the statement from Overland Park Police Depart-
ment. The department first thought that Wilson’s Facebook account might have been hacked. But the inquiry led to the truth that it was Wilson who posted that comment. “I want to assure our community, and those outside our community, that our highest priority is the safety and welfare of the citizens of Overland Park,” Police Chief Frances Donchez Jr. was quoted as saying.
“I want to publicly apologise to those affected by our officer’s personal actions,” Donchez added. A criminal probe was underway as a result of information discovered during the course of the personnel investigation. An African-American man Philando Castile, 32, was shot by a police officer after a traffic stop in Minnesota last week, which created a furore across the US and on social media.
Facebook and Snapchat. The grand mufti, the state's highest religious official, has a regular television show, too. For Saudis, trying to navigate what is permitted, "halal," and what is not, "haram," can be challenging. So they turn to clerics for fatwas, or nonbinding religious rulings. While some may get a lot of attention as when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran called for killing author Salman Rushdie most concern the details of religious practice. Al-Ghamdi, 51, said the world of sheikhs, fatwas and the meticulous application of religion to everything had defined his life. But that world his world had frozen him out. As a new member of the commission in Jiddah, alGhamdi had felt that he found a job that was consistent with his religious convictions. Over the course of a few years, he transferred to Mecca and cycled through different positions. But he developed reservations about how the force worked. His colleagues' religious zeal sometimes led them to overreact, breaking into people's homes or humiliating detainees. "Let's say someone drank alcohol," he said. "That does not represent an attack on the religion, but they exaggerated in how they treated people." In 2005, the head of the commission for the Mecca region died and al-Ghamdi was promoted. It was a big job, with some 90 stations throughout a large, diverse area containing Islam's holiest sites. He did his best to keep up, while worrying that the commission's focus was misguided.
IndIan fIrms best, ChIna worst on transparenCy Beijing India has the most transparent companies while Chinese firms are the most opaque, according to a global anti-graft watchdog's survey released on Monday that assesses efforts by emerging market companies to fight corruption. Transparency International said the report's findings were "pathetic" and highlighted the urgent need for big multinational companies to do more to fight corruption. Indian companies trump all Indian firms dominated the top spots. Telecom company Bharti Airtel took first place with a score of 7.3 out of 10, followed by six units of conglomerate Tata and technology company
Wipro. One reason Indian companies came out on top is strict government requirements for financial disclosures, including operations in different countries. Another is that older companies such as Tata have been focusing on anti-cor-
ruption efforts for "quite a long time," said Cote-Freeman. China worst performer Thirty-seven Chinese companies were evaluated, making them the survey's biggest group, but they had the weakest overall perfor-
mance. The three companies that scored zero out of 10 were all Chinese: automaker Chery, appliance maker Galanz and auto parts maker Wanxiang Group. The list's bottom 25 spots were also dominated by Chinese
companies. "The very weak Chinese results stem from weak or nonexistent anti-corruption policies and procedures, or a clear failure to disclose them in line with international practice," Transparency International said in a press release accompanying its report. Only one Chinese company, telecom gear maker ZTE, placed in the top 25. Methodology The report covered 100 companies in 15 emerging market countries that also included Brazil, Mexico and Russia. The overall score slipped since the last Transparency In Corporate Reporting survey in 2013, falling a fraction to 3.4 out of 10, with three quarters of companies scoring less
than half. The Berlin-based watchdog warned that the failure of a vast majority of companies surveyed to operate transparently risks creating an environment for corruption to thrive both in their businesses and the countries where they operate. The weak scores are a big concern for global corruption fighting efforts, said Susan Cote-Freeman, Transparency's head of business integrity. "All these companies including the Chinese ones are expanding in other geographies and they really have to raise the bar on their anti-corruption and disclosure practices if we're going to have a level playing field and if we're going to really tackle this problem of corruption."
Issue 675 (24)
12 - 18 July 2016
This actionoriented week can bring promising results if you channel your energy into key goals and ambitions. The more willing you are to override your limitations, the more successful you can be. Tread with care on Tuesday, as a fiery combination could cause an argument or even a minor accident. This is one day when it pays to go slowly.
Feelings could be intense, yet you might keep them to yourself, which wouldn’t be such a good idea. The pressure could be explosive, especially on Tuesday, causing a bout of anger and frustration. To avoid this, it would be best to tackle issues as they arise and discuss them with those who need to know. Not only will this help create a solution but can save you a lot of stress as well.
Your social life bubbles with excitement and opportunity. The more people you meet, the more your life opens up in interesting ways. It would be best to avoid cantankerous folks or those looking for trouble on Tuesday. Keep a low profile. Mercury eases into Pisces and your career sector on Thursday, encouraging you to research your options, apply for jobs.
There’s plenty of activity in your career, kickstarting a new phase. If you’re looking for work, the presence of Mars encourages a proactive approach to getting what you want. Use creative solutions and try to stand out from the crowd and showcase your skills. Avoid impulsive moves on Tuesday, particularly when dealing with those in authority.
The desire for adventure continues to show up this week, spurring you to take up new challenges. An unexpected romantic opportunity could appear, disrupting your best-laid plans. Think very carefully about getting too involved, as it might not be in your best interests and could even have negative consequences.
Go easy regarding finances this week, as it could be all too easy to make the wrong moves. Overspending or the unwise use of funds in general could leave you struggling at a later date. If you need to talk, discuss things with a professional adviser who can help set you on the right track. Tuesday is the day to watch out for splurging and melting your plastic.
Your relationships can be very direct and honest this week. An upbeat aspect on Monday could encourage you to melt the ice concerning someone you’ve admired for some time. You’ll need to be careful and sensitive to other people’s feelings on Tuesday. Even an innocent remark could cause a spat, leaving you hurt as a result.
There’s a pleasant focus on your romance sector, paving the way for some wonderful date nights. Use your leisure time to channel your creative skills, as doing so can be very therapeutic now. You can make great strides this week where your job and career are concerned if you focus on one goal and work to achieve it.
The fun meter is set on high, with many opportunities for leisure and pleasure providing thrills and spills. Romance can also be a heady subject, bringing passion and intensity your way. There’s little chance you’ll want to make a commitment, however, which is just as well. Avoid dangerous sports or activities on Tuesday, when it’s best to keep things low-key.
It’s “all systems go” at home, with a chance that the days ahead could be fun yet disruptive. Unexpected events will mean that your best-laid plans may fall by the wayside. Avoid frustration if possible, as that will only make things worse. If you’re feeling annoyed or edgy, channel your energy into exercise or a long walk. Doing so will be calming and therapeutic.
Communication is fast paced this week. You may be busy closing deals, discussing ideas, and generally interacting with others. There’s a lot to be gained from expanding your network and meeting new people, as the lucky breaks will come rolling in. It would be to your advantage to avoid arguments on Tuesday.
An upbeat aspect on Monday can be excellent for attending interviews and meetings with a view toward getting results. Your ability to project a confident demeanor can go a long way to helping you succeed. Avoid impulsive spending on Tuesday, as it will certainly do more harm than good. Channel your energy into exercise instead, which will leave you feeling calm and centered.
Issue 675 (25)
12 - 18 July 2016
Technology We remove content if it celebrates, glorifies violence: Facebook Facing flak for temporarily removing the video of Philando Castile, an African-American who was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop last week, social media giant Facebook has said that it only removes content if it celebrates or glorifies violence, not if it’s only graphic or disturbing. The video of the whole incident was broadcast live by Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds immediately after her fiance was shot by police in his car and created a furore across the US and on social media. The video disappeared from Facebook Live after nearly one million views on social media and news websites and the social media giant said it was temporarily unavailable due to a technical glitch. However, Facebook refused to tell exactly what caused the glitch. The video, however, re-
turned to the site after about an hour with a warning labeled “disturbing”. On Saturday, Facebook explained its censorship policy for Live video “that contradicts theories that the video disappeared due to
raised questions about Facebook’s roles and responsibilities for hosting citizen journalism that could be controversial or graphic. According to Facebook’s Community Standards,
Facebook waffling on whether it should stay up, a high volume of reports of it containing violent content, a deletion by police who had taken possession of Castile’s girlfriend’s phone and Facebook account or a request from police to remove it”, technology website Techcrunch reported. The temporary removal
what is and is not allowed on the social network, like pornography to violence to hate speech, applies to Live video, photos and other videos as well. “The policy on graphic content is that Facebook does not allow and will take down content depicting violence if it’s celebrated, glorified or
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account hacked
After a series of celebrity Twitter handle hacks over the past few months, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, had his account compromised briefly on Saturday, a media report said. A group by the name of “OurMine” -- the same group that claimed credit for compromising Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s and Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s social media accounts -took credit for hacking Dorsey’s account in a tweet. “After the hackers posted a few benign video clips, a tweet went up at 2:50AM ET saying ‘Hey, its OurMine, we are testing your security’ and linking to their website. That tweet was quickly deleted,” technology website engadget.com reported. The message was linked to a short clip on entertainment network Vine. “All of the OurMine
messages posted to Dorsey’s account (which, as of 3:25AM or so appears to have been scrubbed of the hacker’s tweets), came through from Vine,” the report noted. It might be pos-
sible due to the fact that Dorsey had an old/shared password on his Vine account or somehow connected it to another service that was compromised, which could have given “OurMine” access, the report said. When clicked on the Twitter link provided by
the hackers, a message, “The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful” was returned. Also, the other link that was connected to Vine returned “The record was deleted by the user” message. This hack has added another name in the list of high-profile people whose accounts have been compromised. Recently, the group hacked the Twitter account of the microblogging site’s co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams. Soon after the news of Twitter Co-founder Evan Williams’s account hack surfaced on Thursday, another report said that hackers might have used malware to collect more than 32 million Twitter login credentials.
YouTube videos can hijack your smartphone
mocks the victim. However, violent content that is graphic or disturbing is not a violation if it’s posted to bring attention to the violence or condemn it,” the company was quoted as saying. Users can report any content, including Live videos in progress, as offensive for one of a variety of reasons, including that it depicts violence. Facebook’s Community Standards team, which operates 24/7 worldwide, reviews a content even if the content has a single report flag. The social media giant clarified that the team can review content whether it’s public or privately shared. “The volume of flags does not have bearing on whether content is or is not reviewed and a higher number of flags will not trigger an automatic take-down,” the company noted. There is no option to report content as “graphic but newsworthy,” or any other way to report that content could be disturbing and should be taken down, the report said. “Instead, Facebook asks that users report the video as violent, or with any of the other options. It will then be reviewed by team members trained to determine whether the content violates Facebook’s standards,” it added.
Nowadays, one can easily watch YouTube videos on their smartphones instead of watching it on desktop or laptop. According to researchers, a muffled voice hidden in a YouTube video can issue commands to a nearby smartphone without you even knowing it, researchers reveal. “Voice recognition has taken off quickly on phones thanks to services like Google Now and Apple’s Siri but voice software can also make it easier to hack devices,” as per Micah Sherr, professor at Georgetown University. “It might not work every time but it’s a number’s game. If a million people
Parents and schools can now actively monitor their children’s movement enroute to school and home and also within the school premises, thanks to a smartphone app that Gurgaon-based software company Evoxyz Technologies developed. The company showcased the app “Evoschool” at an event here on Saturday. The event saw a gathering of school principals and representatives where ideas for providing better and secured future for children were exchanged. “Through technology plat-
form such as Evoschool, we can empower and strengthen the country’s capability and response time to prevent and protect children from violence, exploitation, abuse and effects of conflict,” said
watch a kitten video with a secret message embedded, 10,000 of them might have their phone nearby. If 5,000 of those load a URL with malware on it, you have 5,000 smartphones under an attacker’s control,” pcworld.com quoted Sherr as saying.
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Track your child’s movement with Evoschool app
Shilpa Mahna Bhatnagar, CEO, Evoxyz Technologies. The app offers secure communication which can be monitored only by an authorised parent or guardian.
Issue 675 (26)
12 - 18 July 2016
Islamic State, JMB recruiting jobless Muslim youths for ‘jihad’ in eastern region Kolkata Handlers of terror groups like Islamic State, and JMB are recruiting unemployed youths from Muslim community in a bid to expand their networks in
border districts of West Bengal. Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has been targeting unemployed youths and the Islamic State too could be following its tactics. The recent arrest of 25year-old Mohammed Musiruddin has exposed the presence of the terror group in the state, particularly in the districts border-
ing Bangladesh including Burdwan, Murshidabad and Birbhum, a top CID official of West Bengal said on the condition of anonymity. The group has also spread its tentacles
in different pockets of the city, the official said describing the Khagragarh blast in 2014 as a clinching proof of the existence of its bases in the state. Burdwan district entered the terror map in October 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices at a rented house at Khagragarh. In fact, NIA in
its supplementary chargesheet in connection with the Khagragarh blast had claimed that JMB had been recruiting youths from the border districts of West Bengal. “Unemployed
youths are the main targets of terror groups. JMB had been doing that and the ISIS has started the same process,” the official said adding that this fact has again got a confirmation during the grilling of Musiruddin, who was part of the of recruitment network. The name of Ashique Ahmed, alias Raja, a resident of Hooghly’s Dhaniakhali, had surfaced
during an interrogation of one Abdus Sami Qasmi, who was arrested by the agency from Uttar Pradesh in February. The NIA sleuths, who had seized some documents from Ashique’s ancestral home, were initially hesitant to arrest him as he was a teenager and had no criminal record. “This is another tactic to choose someone with no criminal records but has some education. Youths are told that they do not need to come to Syria to join the war actively but can initiate their own jihad from their native places,” the officer said. The handlers, he said, communicate with their leaders mostly based either in Syria, Iraq or Bangladesh through the social media like Facebook and also via Whatsapp and other messengers. Musiruddin’s mobile phone showed calls received and made to numbers in countries like Syria, Iraq and Bangladesh, apart from the App he was using to communicate to the leaders, the officer, who is part of the probe team, said.
‘Pakka Indian ho?’: Manipuri woman alleges racism, harassment at Delhi airport
New Delhi A Manipuri woman has alleged racism and harassment at the Delhi airport by immigration officials. As per reports, Monika Khangembam was asked about her nationality by an officer at the immigration desk despite carrying a valid Indian passport. Monika wrote on Facebook on July 9 that despite telling the official about her being India, the officer kept on asking questions about her nationality. Monika wrote she felt ‘humiliated’ by the immigration officer’s behaviour. “The officer looked at my passport and said you don’t look like an Indian,” Monika wrote on Facebook. In fact, as per a report in
The Indian Express, the officer at the airport also asked the girl from the Northeast about the number of states in India and the number of states bordering her home state Manipur. “I would like the authorities to take necessary action. I am planning to write to the Ministry of External Affairs about this,” Monika told ANI news agency today. Her sister described the incident as “unfortunate”. “It’s unfortunate that my sister carrying an Indian passport was asked by the immigration officer about her nationality. Such type of treatment is unacceptable. The concerned authorities must look into it,” Monika sister told ANI.
Issue - 675 (27)
12 - 18 July 2016
With the post-Brexit spike in racism, should the Indians in the UK be worried? London Bleary-eyed and battered, I had just finished a twelve-hour overnight shift when the sun began to glare down on a new day, a new dawn. Britain’s Independence Day, some called
it. The UK had just voted to leave the European Union. Despite needing sleep, I couldn’t close my eyes. This was a huge event, it had caught many off guard and the news just wouldn’t stop. My friend came round to mill over the news. “Everyone I passed on the way here was talking about it,” he said. Later that evening, the pub was buzzing with Brexit. This was London, the one region in England that had voted to remain within the EU. While the majority who voted to leave had cried “we want our country back,” the capital’s bubble was collectively staggering around in the new dawn wondering “what has my country done?” While we had been warned of the financial uncertainty of Brexit during the campaign “Project Fear” (as it was dubbed) saw
gloomy economic predictions emanated seemingly from 10 Downing Street, the Bank of England and the City of London. But when Brexit dawned in the early hours of Friday 24 June the stories that came to proliferate
were ones of a different sort of fear. Not only financial nor economic but now racial too. I first became aware of it on the Sunday after the result when a friend of mine wrote on her Facebook page: “Yesterday someone pointed at me and shouted ‘go home’ as I was on my my bike.” There are always reports of racism in the capital, but the fact that my friend was told to “go home” was somewhat new.Video emerged later that week which appeared to show three youths shouting at Juan Jasso Jr, a US army veteran, on a tram in Manchester. Shouts of “go back to Africa” and “you dirty f****** immigrant...Get deported,” were reportedly heard. At Channel 4 News, we interviewed a young woman called Harj Sahota who experienced racism three times in one day, with one
Dallas gunman learned tactics at Texas self-defence school
Dallas The gunman who killed five police officers at a protest march used to practice military-style drills in his yard and trained at a private self-defence school that teaches special tactics, including “shooting on the move,” a manoeuvre in which an attacker
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fires and changes position before firing again.Micah Johnson, an army veteran, received instruction at the Academy of Combative Warrior Arts in the Dallas suburb of Richardson about two years ago, said the school’s founder and chief instructor, Justin J Everman. Everman’s statement was corroborated by a police report from May 8, 2015, when someone at a business a short distance away called in a report of several suspicious people in a parked SUV. The investigating officer closed the case just minutes after arriving at a strip mall. While there, the officer spoke to Johnson, who said he “had just gotten out of a class at a nearby self-defence school.”
person chanting: “We voted leave, now you can f*** off.” At the BBC, one of their journalists was called the “p” word in her hometown of Basingstoke, the first time she’d heard such an insult in 30 years. Both Jasso and Sahota believed the referendum result had contributed to their experiences, with Jasso saying Brexit had “maybe has pushed people to somehow justify that they think it’s okay now to act out in this way”.While the anecdotes were few, they were backed up by recent statistics from the National Police Chiefs’ Council: more than 3,000 hate crimes were reported between 16-30 June, a 42% increase on the same period last year. On the Saturday after the vote, hate crimes reached a peak in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 289 on a single day. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, told the House of Lords that there was a level of “poison and hatred that I cannot remember in this country for very many years. ”But these stories were a side issue to a larger whirlwind of emotions around the UK. For many, Brexit was a revolt against the political elites. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition campaigned for Remain and 52% ignored their advice.
US lottery reaches $540m for Friday drawing
Washington The jackpot for the Mega Millions lottery drawing on Friday rose to roughly $540 million, the seventh largest in US lottery history, after nobody won the grand prize earlier this week, lottery officials said. The next drawing was scheduled for Friday at 8 pm PDT. The Mega Millions game is played in 44 states, Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands. No ticket matched all of the winning numbers from Tuesday’s drawing, Mega Millions said. The odds of winning the jackpot were one in nearly 259 million as of Tuesday’s drawing. Sales of the $1 tickets fund the hefty prize, which was worth $380 million on Friday evening if a winner chooses an immediate
cash payout instead of payments over 30 years. If no one hits the jackpot on Friday, the jackpot will roll to an estimated $630 million for next Tuesday’s drawing, which amounts to the fourth-largest jackpot in U.S. history. Ticket sales typically increase as the prize grows, lottery officials said. The Mega Millions jackpot has been growing since early March, when a Washington state man snagged $157 million with a winning ticket he bought in Seattle. The current prize is the game’s biggest since December 2013, when holders of two tickets sold in California and Georgia shared a $648 million jackpot. The largest Mega Millions jackpot, worth $656 million, was sold the prior year.
US introduces bill to prevent Indian firms from hiring on H-1B, L1 visas Washington A legislation, which if passed by the Congress, would prevent Indian companies from hiring IT professionals on H-1B and L1 visas has been introduced in the House of Representatives by a bipartisan group of US lawmakers. The bill is likely to have a major impact on the revenue of the big Indian IT companies as most of these companies’ revenue model is heavily dependent on H-1B and L1 visas. The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2016 introduced by the New Jerseys Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell and Republican Dana Rohrabacher from California would prohibit firms from hiring H-1B employees if they employ more than 50 people and over 50 per cent of their staff are H-1B and L-1 visa holders. Notably, the sponsors of the bill come from the two US states having the maximum concentration of IndianAmericans. WILL THE SENATE PASS THE BILL? Before the bill is signed into law by President Barack Obama, it must pass the Senate where it is yet to be tabled. “America is producing many skilled, high-tech professionals with advanced degrees and no jobs. By in-sourcing and exploiting foreign workers,
some businesses are abusing the visa programmes and undercutting our workforce to reap the rewards,” Pascrell said. “Without the critical reforms our bill proposes, American workers
SIMILAR BILL INTRODUCED BEFORE, NOT PASSED Pascrell and Rohrabacher had introduced a similar version of this bill in 2010, which could not gain enough support in the Congress. The lawmakers said
will continue to be unfairly displaced and visa workers will continue to be mistreated - both of which are unacceptable,” he said. Noting that foreign outsourcing companies are the top users of the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes, a statement issued by the Congressmans office said over the years a number of concerns have been raised about how certain companies have been using these visa programmes, including a 2011 report from the Government Accountability Office, calling for reform.
the bill would close loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes, reduce fraud and abuse, provide protections for American workers and visa holders, require more transparency in the recruitment of foreign workers, and increase penalties on those who violate the law. It would provide more authority to the Departments of Homeland Security and Labour to investigate fraud and abuse. The American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have endorsed the bill.
Issue - 675 (28)
12 - 18 July 2016
Family of killed US journalist Marie Colvin sues Syria government
London The family of American journalist Marie Colvin, who died in Syria in 2012, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a US court, accusing the Syrian government of deliberately killing her.
Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs in 2012 while reporting on the Syrian conflict, now in its sixth year. The lawsuit, filed in Washington on Saturday said Syrian officials deliberately targeted rockets against a makeshift broadcast studio where Colvin and other reporters were living and working.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry, the target of the lawsuit, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations could not immediately be reached for comment either.
The suit alleges the attack was part of a plan orchestrated at the highest levels of the Syrian government to silence local and international media “as part of its effort to crush political opposition”. The lawsuit included as evidence a copy of an August 2011 fax which it alleges was sent from Syria’s National Security Bureau instructing security bodies to
US inmates break out of jail to save guard having heart attack
Houston A group of eight handcuffed inmates in the US state of Texas busted out of their cell and saved the life of a prison guard having a heart attack, a media report said on Sunday. The eight inmates were locked up in a holding cell at the District Courts Building in Fort Worth city when the incident happened. The only guard posted next to the cell had been cracking jokes with the inmates when he suddenly collapsed in his chair due to a cardiac arrest, New York Daily News reported. The prisoners then began shouting for help but no one was there nearby. In the meantime, one of the prisoners managed to break the cell door open and the group approached the fallen guard who had no pulse at that time. (Video: USA?today) The inmates kept screaming for help and started banging on doors in a desperate bid to get someone down to the cell.
Deputies upstairs in court heard the ruckus and rushed down, thinking they had a fight on their hands. “It never crossed my mind not to help whether he’s got a gun or a badge. If he falls down, I’m gonna help him,” inmate Nick Kelton told 11 WFAA TV station. When officers finally arrived, they locked up the inmates back into the cell and called emergency services and started performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the breathless guard in a bid to save him. Medics used a defibrillator to shock the guard, and his heart started beating again as the inmates looked on. Captain Mark Arnett said the prisoners’ breakout likely saved the guard’s life. “He could have been there 15 minutes before any other staff walked in and found him,” Arnett said.The cell’s locks have been strengthened after the inmates’ escape for a good deed, the report added.
launch military and intelligence campaigns against “those who tarnish the image of Syria in foreign media and international organisations”. Foreign governments are typically immune from US civil lawsuits, but there are exceptions for countries designated by the State Department as sponsors of terrorism. Syria is currently one of three countries on the list, with Iran and Sudan. Lawyers who have brought civil lawsuits against those governments say they typically do not respond, resulting in default judgments for plaintiffs. The bigger challenge is usually enforcing the judgments and collecting damages, says Gary Osen, a New Jersey lawyer currently suing Iran. Osen said it was usually hard to identify seizable US assets of those governments subject to terrorism suits, who often operate behind layers of intermediaries. “It could take you decades to find out they own an office building in downtown Boston or somewhere,” he said. The family’s lawsuit is seeking monetary damages but did not specify an amount.“This case is about carrying on Marie’s work,” plaintiff Cathleen Colvin, Marie Colvin’s sister, said.
Woman discovers she’s pregnant, gives birth on same day
FORT MADISON An Illinois woman says she delivered a baby girl a few hours after she found out she was 39weeks pregnant.The Hawk Eye reported that Heather Columbus of Niota, Illinois, was admitted to the Fort Madison Community Hospital in Iowa on the morning of June 26 with back pain and cramps.Columbus was given an ultrasound and a nurse informed her and her husband Michael, who had been waiting in the car, that she was 39-weeks pregnant and the back pain she had been feeling was most likely contractions. “I was completely in shock the whole time,” Columbus said.
“Heck, I’m still in shock, really. I’m still trying to process it, really. I’m waiting to wake up from it.” Columbus says she still had her menstrual cycle and never felt her baby move. That afternoon, 7-pound, 13ounce Leona Josephine Columbus was born. She was named after both parents’ grandmothers.“We named her after the two toughest women we knew,” Michael Columbus said.Columbus said their friends, families and employers have provided nearly everything they need for their newborn daughter.“It’s been amazing. They have helped out quite a bit.” Columbus said. “Everybody has.”
Wimbledon champ Serena Williams ‘saddened’ by US shootings, fears for family London Tennis star Serena Williams has said she was saddened by the gun violence and deteriorating race relations in the US, admitting she fears for the safety of her own family in the current volatile climate.The 34-year-old lifted a seventh Wimbledon title and record-equalling 22nd major on Saturday, before addressing her country’s turbulent week. Five police officers were shot dead by a black extremist in Dallas, Texas, during a march to protest against police brutality. The peaceful Dallas demonstration was one of several nationwide over the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota earlier in the week. “I have nephews that I’m thinking, Do I have to call them and tell them, Don’t go outside. If you get in your car, it might be the last time I see you,” said Williams in an emotional press conference at the All England Club.“That is something that I think is of great concern because it will be devastating. They’re very good kids.She added: “I don’t think that the answer is to continue to shoot our young black people. “Violence is not the answer. The shootings in Dallas were very sad. No one deserves to lose their life, doesn’t matter what colour they are, where they’re from. We’re all human.” Gun violence has personally
touched Williams and her family in the past.In September 2003,
star to condemn the violence. On Friday, NBA star Carmelo
her elder half-sister Yetunde Price was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Compton, the crime-plagued suburb of Los Angeles where Serena grew up. The 31-year-old worked as a personal assistant to Serena and tennis-playing sister Venus. Price was sitting in a car with her boyfriend at the time of the shooting.He escaped uninjured in the incident in which a neighbour said a dozen shots were fired. “We have to learn that we have to love one another,” added Serena.“It’s going to take a lot of education and a lot of work, I think, to get to that point. “But I think, in general, the entire situation is extremely sad, especially for someone like me. It’s something that is very painful to see happening.” Williams is the latest US sports
Anthony urged athletes to “step up” and “demand change”. Anthony, a New York Knicks forward who could win an unprecedented third men’s Olympic basketball gold medal in Rio, posted a message on social media calling for athletes to help change a system that he described as “Broken. Point blank period.”
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Issue - 675 (29)
12 - 18 July 2016
Portal to preserve WW-I Sikh soldiers’ history
London Is the world marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, hitherto unknown tales of Sikhs during The Great War (1914-18)
are being captured for the first time using the latest in mapping technology and a crowd-sourcing initiative to preserve family stories that were at risk of being lost forever. Thanks to the launch of a website empirefaithwar.com with the grant of £448,500 (Rs 4 crore) from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the remarkable contribution of Sikhs to the First World War will be placed within the wider narrative of how the first
global conflict in history pulled in men, money and material from around the world most notably for the British Empire, from India, and in particular Punjab.
“The endeavour by the UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) represents a major shift of emphasis from institutional or historian-led research and interpretation to a community-focused drive to tell a story that would otherwise remain a footnote in history,” said Amandeep Madra, the UKPHA chair. Sikhs made up nearly 20% of British Indian armed forces at the outbreak of hostilities. Indian
Ex-model wins 53 million pounds in divorce from Saudi billionaire
troops overall comprised one in every six of Britain’s wartime forces. It’s not surprising, therefore, that many Sikh families in Britain have a wartime connection but their stories --including those of turbaned Sikh cavalrymen at the Somme --have mostly remained hidden and undocumented until now. At the heart of the website is a new database that will be used to collect and share previously untold accounts of Sikh soldiers. Significantly, in order to create as complete a picture as possible of the Sikh experience of the war, the database will also include details of those alongside whom the Sikhs fought, the families that they left behind and those in the community who opposed the conflict. The results will be displayed on an interactive ‘Soldier Map’, created using Google Maps technology. Records are pinpointed to a soldier’s place of birth -inevitably somewhere in or near the undivided Punjab -- rather than to where they may have fought or died. “Crucially, this approach has the potential to generate a strong emotional pull for British Sikhs through their connections to familial villages and towns. It is hoped that by engaging with the Soldier Map, members of the public will be able to discover unknown connections to their ancestral heritage,” Madra said.
Singapore police hunt bank ‘note’ robber
Indian family killed in an accident in New York
NEW YORK In a tragic incident, a 38-yearold Indian man and his parents, who were visiting from India, were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in was hit head-on by a pickup truck being driven by a drunk driver. Chandan Gavai, and his parents Archana Gavai, 60, and Kamalnayan Gavai, 74, died when Gustave Geyer crashed into the family’s car on Yaphank Middle Island Road in Long Island late Monday night. The elder Gavais were visiting the US from India, Suffolk County police said. Geyer, who was pronounced dead at the scene, allegedly had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, CBS News reported.Both vehicles caught
fire following the collision.Chandan was pronounced dead when he was taken to the local hospital. His parents were pronounced dead at the scene.The report said Gavai was in the US on a work visa and was employed with an IT firm.
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Hot dog-eating champ tastes victory again in US contest
SI London A British court awarded a 53million pounds (Rs 460 crore) divorce settlement to a former model who had demanded 196 million pounds from her Saudi billionaire husband — including 1 million pounds a year just for clothes. Lawyers for US national Christina Estrada, 54, said the total settlement amounted to 75 million pounds, including the value of her existing assets. She had asked for 196 million pounds from 61-year-old husband Sheikh Walid Juffali but thanked the court after the ruling. “I am fully aware that the spectacular life Walid and I led was immensely fortunate and rarefied. And I fully understand how this can be perceived in the wider world,” she said in a statement. In hearings, during which she was cross-examined on her material needs, she told the court: “I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to”. She said she needed 60 million pounds for a home in London, 4.4 million pounds for a country
house in Henley-on-Thames as well as 495,000 pounds for five cars. Her clothing budget included an annual 40,000 pounds for fur coats, 109,000 pounds for haute couture dresses, and 21,000 pounds for shoes. Juffali is terminally ill with cancer and undergoing treatment in Switzerland. He divorced Estrada under Islamic law without her knowledge and married a 25-year-old Lebanese model in 2012.London is known as the divorce capital of the world and is particularly attractive for wives because awards are higher than in other parts of the world. Thousands of wealthy Chinese, Russians, Americans and Europeans, many of whom work in the City of London financial district or own property in Britain, end their marriages before English judges. Late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky reportedly paid up to 220 million pounds to his ex-wife Galina Besharova in 2011. Jamie Cooper-Hohn, the estranged wife of a London financier, was awarded 337 million pounds in 2014.
SINGAPORE Singapore police said Friday they are hunting a man who managed to steal more than $22,000 from a bank using nothing but a piece of paper. The suspect, described as caucasian, strolled into a Standard Chartered branch in an expatriate enclave of the city around lunchtime on Thursday and handed staff a note with his demands. Minutes later, he walked out of the branch with Sg$30,000 ($22,200) in cash, said a source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named. A police spokesman confirmed the robbery and said no weapon was used, but gave no details of the note’s contents. The local Straits Times newspaper said police were searching for an Australian man. Bank robberies are rare in Singapore, whose tough stance against crime and strict ban on private gun ownership have made it one of Asia’s safest cities.
NEW YORK Legendary competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut wolfed down a record 70 hot dogs - buns and all - in just 10 minutes Monday to reclaim his crown at an annual New York competition. Chestnut’s gastric feat at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island marked a return to form for the 32-year-old Californian, who saw his eightyear winning streak broken by challenger Matt “Megatoad” Stonie in 2015.This year, the 24year-old Stonie fell short, managing just 53 frankfurters to come second. The women’s contest was won for the third time by Miki Sudo, 30, who chomped down 38.5 dogs. Held by one of America’s best-known wiener purveyors, the competition supposedly dates back 100 years.It is held annually on the July 4th holiday,
and pushes America’s love of Independence Day hot dogs to a stomach-churning extreme. Competitors slide franks into their gullets while drenching the buns in water to make them easier to swallow, then wriggle around to help the meaty mouthfuls descend into their stomachs.Chestnut trains regularly, often eating between 35 to 70 wieners at a time, as well as drinking copious amounts of water to maintain his stomach’s stretchiness. He broke his own competition record of 69 hot dogs, dating back to 2013. On June 25, he managed 73.5 dogs during a qualifying round. Anyone who vomits is disqualified. Thousands come to watch the competition, broadcast by national sports network ESPN. This year’s total prize purse amounted to $40,000.
Issue - 675 (30)
12 - 18 July 2016
Coal dust kills 23,000 per year in EU PARIS Lung-penetrating dust from coalfired power plants in the European Union claims some 23,000 lives a year and racks up tens of billions
of euros in health costs, an NGO report said Tuesday. Even as the bloc shifts towards renewable sources like wind and Sun energy, coal still accounted for 18 percent of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 and a quarter of its electricity mix in 2015, said the analysis. Emissions from 257 power plants for which data was available “were associated with 22,900 premature deaths in 2013,” said the report entitled “Europe’s dark cloud: How coal-burning countries make their neighbours sick”. There are a total of 280 coalfired plants. The study was compiled by researchers from four green energy lobby groups: the Health and Environment Alliance,
the WWF, Climate Action Network Europe and Sandbag.In addition to deaths, the report blamed coal plant pollution for nearly 12,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis
and more than half-a-million asthma attacks in children in the EU in 2013.The medical treatment required, as well as reduced productivity caused by absence from work, amassed “substantial costs” of 32.4 billion to 62.3 billion euros ($36 billion to $70 billion), said the report. About 83 percent of deaths, some 19,000 in total, were blamed on inhalation of fine particulate matter, air-borne particles so small - under 2.5 micrometres in diameter - that they can enter deep into the lungs and bloodstream.“Most common causes of death connected to particulate matter exposure are strokes, heart disease, chronic lung disease or lung cancer,” said
Indo-Canadian Sikh student selected for Arctic expedition
London A 14-year-old Indo-Canadian Sikh student has been selected to take part in the prestigious “Students on Ice Arctic Expedition”, media reported. Beginning July 21, Abhayjeet Singh Sachal will travel along with a team of more than 100 high school and university students from around the world to the eastern Canadian Arctic and western Greenland, in an expedition which will continue up to August 5.Sachal was also conferred $11,900 (over Rs 8 lakh) scholarship from the US embassy for the expedition, voiceonline.com reported this week.“This expedition will allow me to explore my passion for learning about the dynamics about climate change, delve into my passion for scientific
research, and will give me an adventure of a lifetime,” Sachal, who is a Grade-10 student at Seaquam Secondary School in British Columbia, was quoted as saying. “Upon my return, I will share my knowledge with the community in order to implement the changes that we need,” Sachal added.The participants, who will be guided by a team of scientists, artists and educators, will also visit remote Arctic communities, observe wildlife, hike through Auyuittuq National Park.Students on Ice (SOI), which began nearly 16 years ago, is a foundation that educates the world’s youth about the importance of the Polar Regions. Since then more than 2,500 students and educators from 52 countries have participated in SOI’s such expeditions.
the report. It warned the particles “are transported hundreds of kilometres and across national borders, impacting the health of people both within the country of production and further afield.” The report listed the EU’s worst offenders, attributing 4,690 premature deaths to coal power stations in Poland, 2,490 to Germany, 1,660 to Romania, 1,390 to Bulgaria and 1,350 to Britain.The five countries most affected by pollution from their own as well as neighbouring countries were Germany with 3,630 deaths, Italy with 1,610, France with 1,380, Greece with 1,050, and Hungary with 700. “Air pollution is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide,” Roberto Bertollini, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative to the EU said in a statement.“Higher temperatures from climate change will exacerbate the problem. ”A similar study in the United States had attributed more than 13,000 premature deaths to coal pollution, while Indian research has blamed as many as 115,000 premature deaths and 20 million asthma cases per year on coal.In Paris last December 195 nations agreed to curb climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas in a bid to limit global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels.
Indian lawyer, Blair’s ex-employer, says Iraq war could have been avoided
London Sarosh Zaiwalla, a senior London-based lawyer who once represented Saddam Hussein and hired Tony Blair in his law firm in the 1980s, believes the 2003 invasion of Iraq could have been avoided if Blair had taken forward a peace offer mediated by him. Mumbai-origin Zaiwalla wrote to Blair on April 9, 2002, following his talks with the Saddam Hussein regime in Baghdad, where he stressed the importance of the regime accepting international norms and the rule of law. “The futility of conflict and hostile approach to the West was pointed out. I believe that after much soul searching, Iraq leadership responded amenably to my suggestions and after my return, they did send public signals of seeking rapprochement with the
West through Britain,” he wrote. “I believe Iraq would be willing to compromise and agree to resumption of weapon inspections…All of us have a duty to achieve just objectives without shedding of lives wherever possible.” However, Blair’s office replied on April 22, 2002: “Mr Blair would like to thank you for your kind offer to act as a facilitator, however, he regrets that he is unable to accept.” Zaiwalla, who has represented India and various international clients, said after the Chilcot inquiry report was released : “The second Gulf War might well have been avoided if there had been a genuine will on the part of those in power at that time to avoid the war and with it hundred and thousands of lives would not have been lost and Europe would not now be facing the refugee problem.”
Man dies, two others gored in Spanish bull-runs
MADRID A Spaniard died and two other men, including a Japanese, were gored in bull-runs in Spain on Saturday, as the San Fermin festival in the northern town of Pamplona entered its third day. The 28-year-old died after a bull’s horn pierced his lung and heart during a run in the southeastern village of Pedreguer near Valencia, a spokesman for the regional government said. The bull caught him as he was trying to help another runner in the annual event, in which a man also died last year.Many Spanish towns hold summer festivals involving bulls.San Fermin, in which bulls chase red-scarved
runners through Pamplona’s cobbled streets during nine days of events, is the most famous and attracts thousands of revellers from Spain and overseas.In Saturday’s run there, a 33-year-old Japanese man was gored in the chest and a 24-yearold Spanish man in the arm, while 12 others suffered minor injuries, the local government said on its website. The Japanese man was in a stable condition in hospital, a spokesman for the festival said. The four-minute run in Pamplona featured six bulls from the Jose Escolar ranch, one of which separated from the rest and caused panic among the
runners.The daily bull-run along an 825-metre stretch of narrow streets in Pamplona’s old town starts at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and usually lasts between three and five minutes. There are eight runs in total during the festival. Over the past century 15 people have died in Pamplona’s event, which dates back hundreds of years, according to a count on the unofficial San Fermin website. The last death was recorded in 2009. (Reporting by Eloy Alonso in PAMPLONA and Maria Vega Paul in MADRID; Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by Gareth Jones and John Stonestreet)
Issue - 675 (31)
12 - 18 July 2016
Pakistani woman accidentally suffocates lover after hiding him in trunk
Multan A Pakistani woman who was having an affair with her cousin accidentally suffocated him in a trunk after hiding him there when other relatives woke up late at night, police said Sunday. Married father Mushtaq Ahmed Baloch, 22, was having an affair with his cousin Rani Bibi, a mother of two, and came to her house at night while her family was sleeping, police said. The noise as Baloch entered the house woke up Bibi’s father- and brothers-in-law, prompting her to hide him in a large tin storage trunk in her room. She then placed a padlock on the trunk.But her in-laws came to search the room and Baloch
was forced to cry out for help as he was suffocating, police said. They did not open the trunk and he died within 15 minutes, police added. The incident took place in the suburbs of the central Pakistan town of Muzaffargarh, late Saturday night. “We have arrested Bibi’s fatherin-law and his two sons on murder charges,” local police station chief Sardar Muhammad Idrees told AFP. He said that Bibi’s husband was not at home as he had a job in the southern port city of Karachi, some 900 km (550 miles) away. Muzaffargarh district police chief of Awais Ahmed Malik confirmed the details.
Chinese national sentenced to nine years imprisonment for arms smuggling in Pak
Gilgit A Chinese national Wang Jiangquo has been sentenced to nine yearsimprisonment for trying to smuggle weapons from Pakistan to China via Khunjrab border by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Gilgit.Earlier on Thursday, the court also imposed a ban on Wang to visit Pakistan again.Gilgit Anti-Terrorism Court judge Shahbaz Khan hearing the case also asked the Punjab Inspector General of Police to take action against the arms dealer, who sold four pistols and
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hundreds of bullets to the Chinese national, reports the Nation.Wang was arrested by the Khunjrab Security Force (KSF) on May 24 from Khunjrab National Park area of Hunza district near the China-Pakistan border.A case was registered against him under the antiterrorism law after which he was shifted to Giglit for investigation. Earlier, the police said that Wang had arrived in Islamabad from China in the first week of May on a one-month visa. He then travelled by bus to Aliabad, Hunza, from where he reached Sost. In Sost, he hired a taxi and went to the Khunjrab National Park. The taxi driver informed the local police that Wang asked him to drive slowly while he took photographs. After Wang did not return, the driver got worried and informed the nearby Khunjrab Security Force checkpost officials.The officials along with policemen combed the area and found Wang near a glacier.
35-year-old maths puzzle solved, but will take 10 billion years to read
Paris An Anglo-American trio presented the prize-winning solution to a 35-year-old maths problem on Saturday, but verifying it may be a problem in itself, as reading it would take 10 billion years.“Boolean Pythagorean Triples” is not a shameful contagious disease, but a long-unsolved enigma within a field called Ramsey Theory.It was such a brainteaser that nearly 30 years ago, fabled American mathematician Roland Graham offered a cash prize to anyone who could solve it.
Stop taking stupid selfies, Croatia tells tourists
It was only $100, but still. The self-declared winners — Marijn Heule, Oliver Kullmann and Victor Marek, of the universities of Texas, Swansea and Kentucky, respectively — unveiled their proof at the international SAT 2016 conference in Bordeaux, France. By their own account, they cracked the puzzle “using Cubeand-Conquer, a hybrid satisfiability testing (SAT) method for hard problems”. As one would.But colleagues, they acknowledged, needed to see the proof in the pudding, so to speak.“Due to the general interest in this mathematical problem, our result requires a formal proof,” the numbers nutters explained in an abstract. The resulting string of symbols is equivalent to “all the digitalised
texts held by the US Library of Congress”, some 200 terabytes of data, according to the newsletter of France’s National Centre for Research.That’s two hundred thousand billion octets, for those more comfortable thinking in the base unit for digital information.The problem itself is (almost) understandable. It asks if it is possible to colour positive whole numbers (such as 1, 2 or 3) either red or blue such that no sequence of numbers that satisfy Pythagoras’ famous equation — a2 + b2 = c2 — are the same colour.If ‘a’ and ‘b’ are red, for example, then ‘c’ could be blue. But all three could not be blue or red.The proof shows that such a colouring scheme is, in fact, possible — up to the number 7,824. Beyond that, however, it doesn’t hold.
TOKYO A bunch of grapes in Japan sold for $10,900 Thursday, a record price for the variety in the fruitobsessed nation where the produce can be a huge status symbol.Seasonal fruit offerings in Japan routinely attract massive sums from buyers seeking social prestige, or from shop owners wanting to attract customers to “ooh and ahh” over the high-flying edibles. The buyer of Thursday’s bunch of about 30 Ruby Romans -- who paid about $360 per grape -showed no wrath, promising to dole out samples to a few fortunate patrons.“These are truly Ruby Roman gems,” bidder
Takamaru Konishi from western Japan told media. “We will display them at our store before giving our customers a sample taste,” he said. Even to the untrained eye, the super-sweet grapes - about as large as a ping pong ball - stand above their more affordable cousins readily available in supermarkets elsewhere in the world.The 1.1 million-yen sale kicks off the auction season for Ruby Romans in Japan. Other fruits, from apples to watermelons, can also fetch jaw-dropping sums under the hammer. Fruit is comparatively expensive in Japan and it is not unusual for a single apple to cost as much as $3.
Japan grapes fetch $10,900 at auction
ZAGREB Croatia’s mountain rescue service has urged tourists to stop putting themselves in danger taking “stupid and dangerous selfies”, after a Canadian man was almost killed falling down a 75-metre cliff. “Dear tourists, we respect you. It’s time for you to start respecting yourself. So, stop making stupid and dangerous selfies. Thank you,” the service said on Twitter. The appeal came after the young Canadian plunged off a 75-metre (250-foot) viewpoint in the Plitvice Lakes national park while trying to take the perfect selfie.The 20-year-old miraculously survived, as tree branches broke his fall, but he sustained serious injuries, police said. Last year a 54-year-old Slovak tourist was killed when she fell from a rock in the same national park, also while trying to take a photo. Tourism is a key sector of Croatia’s economy, and last year the country of 4.2 million people welcomed more than 14 million visitors, with most heading to its pristine Adriatic coast.The king of fruits in the country is the melon, which serves as a status symbol akin to a vintage wine, and is given as a high-ranking gift.
Issue - 675 (32)
12 - 18 July 2016
Old bones cast new light on Goliath’s people ASHKELON With an excavation in southern Israel unearthing a Philistine cemetery for the first time, bones of the biblical giant Goliath’s people can finally shed new light on mysteries of their culture.The cemetery’s discovery marks the “crowning achievement” of some three decades of excavations in the area, the expedition’s organisers say. Some of the site’s finds were going on display Sunday at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem. Almost three millennia since the Philistines were wiped off the face of the earth by Babylonian armies, a US archaeologist was hard at work crouched in one of their funerary chambers at the excavation in the Mediterranean city of Ashkelon. Brush in hand he delicately extracted from the sandy soil the complete skeleton of a Philistine buried with a terracotta perfume
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flask, fused to the skull with the passage of time.“This discovery is a crowning achievement, the opportunity to finally see them face to face,” said archaeologist Daniel Master, in charge of the site excavated since 1985 under the Leon Levy Expedition, affiliated with Harvard University’s Semitic Museum, among other institutions.“With these 145 corpses we hope not only to understand their funeral customs, but to collect clues in the bones to understand how they lived, to bring the Philistines to life again,” he told AFP. Bone samples taken from the site are currently undergoing DNA, radiocarbon and other tests to try to shed fresh light on the Philistines’ origin. The first graves were discovered in Ashkelon in 2013 on the site of its ancient Philistine port city, which had 13,000 inhabitants at its peak. Today the area lies in a national park popular with Israeli families from modern Ashkelon who come for a stroll along the seaside lawns and paths. Who were the Philistines? The origins of this “sea people” - a term also used to describe their Phoenician contemporaries remain a mystery. Their red-andblack pottery suggests they may have come from the Mycenaean civilisation of the Aegean. “What is certain is that they were strangers in the Semitic region,” where their presence between
14 people shot dead, including 11 of a family shot in sleep in Mexico
Mexico Gunmen killed 14 people in northeastern Mexico early on Saturday in two attacks likely sparked by gang wars in the state of Tamaulipas, the local government said. State interior minister Herminio Garza Palacios said the shootings took place in Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamualipas, a state on the Gulf of Mexico that has been mired in violence between warring drug cartels for years. 11 MEMBERS OF A FAMILY SHOT IN SLEEP In the first attack, armed men entered a house in a neighborhood near the center of Ciudad Victoria at 7 a.m. local time (1200 GMT), killing 11 members of one family. FIVE WERE MINOR Two of the dead were men and the other victims were all female,
five of them minors, the state government said. SECOND ATTACK: 3 KILLED, 4 INJURED The second shooting took place at a house further east about 45 minutes later, the government said. A man and two women were killed, and four other family members injured, Garza said. GANG WARS Federal and state forces were investigating the shootings, which were probably the result of a dispute between rival groups, Garza said. The city has been racked by infighting by factions of the Zetas drug gang, security experts say. Bordering Texas to the north, Tamaulipas has long been a major transit point for traffickers moving drugs and people into the United States. Turf wars between the Gulf Cartel and their former armed wing, the Zetas, have racked the state for years.
1200 and around 600 BC is evident on a thin coastal strip running from present-day Gaza to Tel Aviv, said Master. Traders and seafarers, they spoke a language of IndoEuropean origin, did not practice circumcision and ate pork and dog, as proven by bones and marks found on them in the ruins of the other four Philistine cities: Gaza, Gath, Ashdod and Ekron. Beyond the previously scanty archaeological record, the Philistines are known mostly from the Old Testament account given by their neighbours and bitter enemies, the ancient Israelites.The book of Samuel describes the capture by Philistine fighters of the Ark of the Covenant and the duel between their giant warrior
Goliath felled by a stone from David’s sling.From these biblical descriptions of savage marauders comes the modern usage of “philistine” to mean a person without culture or manners. A few hundred metres (yards) from the dig, at its outdoor laboratory, anthropologist and pathologist Sherry Fox told the skeletons’ story. “In their teeth, we can see that they did not have an easy life,” she said. “We see these lines that indicate a growth interruption as the teeth are forming. There were problems in childhood with either fever or malnutrition.”“We also see from their bones that they were hard workers, they practised inbreeding and they used their teeth as tools,
probably in the weaving industry,” she said softly, holding up a skull.She said they were “normal size” with no evidence of any Goliath-sized giants.Master said that, despite similar-sounding names, there is no connection between the Philistines and today’s Palestinians. “The words are similar, but not the people,” he said.“We know here in Ashkelon that these Philistines were completely destroyed by (Babylonian king) Nebuchadnezzar in December of 604 BC,” he said. “Everything that came after was very different and a very different group of people.” The 30 years of excavations at the Ashkelon cemetery come to an end this summer, when the dig will be reburied.
SAN SALVADOR Nearly one in three pregnancies in El Salvador are to girls under 19, according to a UN report released Friday that highlights social pressures in the country, which bans abortion. In 2015, 30 percent of the 83,500 pregnancies in El Salvador were to “adolescents aged between 10 and 19,” the study by the UN
Population Fund (UNFPA) said. An average of 69 girls or adolescents become pregnant each day in the country, amounting to around three pregnancies an hour, it added. Health Minister Violeta Menjivar called the figures “extremely worrying.” Some 1,500 girls aged 10 to 14 were included in the pregnancy statistics, which
“theoretically means 1,500 people raped,” she said, presenting the report in a news conference alongside UNFPA representative Hugo Gonzalez.She called for changes to laws that currently stipulate 40-year prison sentences for women who abort, even in cases of complications during pregnancy.
Teens account for 30pc of El Salvador pregnancies: UN
Issue - 675 (33)
12 - 18 July 2016
Bangladesh police blames JMB for Dhaka cafe attack Bangladesh police on Saturday blamed homegrown terror group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for the two recent terror attacks, including
the Dhaka cafe siege, and dismissed ISIS claims over the deadly assaults.“The five terrorists killed at Gulshan (cafe)
were JMB members. Police had their details and been looking for them for a while,” Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque told reporters.Twenty-two
people, including 17 foreigners, were killed in the brutal late-night attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan area of the
Snail perches on frog
An Australian tree frog appears to have made an unlikely friend, as it poses on a branch in Indonesia with a snail on its head. The pair were caught on camera in a small park in Jakarta by a photographer who documented the strange sight. The frog seemed nonplussed about its new companion, as it perched calmly on the tip of the branch.Photographer Andri Priyadi says the snail had
climbed onto the frog’s head just moments before the photographs were taken.The snail appears to be peering over the top of the frog into its eyes, and images show the ‘snail trail’ on its back. It’s not the first time Mr Priyadi has captured the curious friendship on camera - less than a year ago the 31-year-old photographer captured a similar moment between a tree frog and a snail in his garden.
World’s oldest priest says strict routine basis of long life
capital on July 1. During a joint operation, police killed six of the attackers.Six days later, militants attacked police guarding the largest Eid gathering in Bangladesh and killed three more people. Haque said the same group was responsible for both attacks. He said one of the suspects who was arrested from the site of second attack admitted that they had contact with the attackers of the Holey Artisan restaurant.Asked about the ISIS claims over the attacks, the police chief reiterated his earlier stance negating the claim. He said identical claims were made after every such assault, but “we can’t find any link as to why they do it”.Several security analysts said despite being a homegrown outfit JMB had ideological closeness with ISIS while Ansarul Islam Bangladesh (ABT), another banned Islamist outfit, was inclined to al Qaeda. “ISIS might not have directly carried out the attacks, but JMB could be operating as their local agent in Bangladesh because of its ideological inclination,” Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) president retired major general ANM Muniruzzaman told PTI. Meanwhile, a teenager who police say was a suspect in the July 1 Dhaka attack died in custody and his family said he was tortured by the security forces.Police and doctors said Zakir Hossain Shawon, a kitchen assistant in the cafe, died yesterday at a state-run hospital in the capital.His family insisted that he was a hostage. “My son is completely innocent...he was the main breadwinner (as the kitchen assistant) for the family,” father of 18-year old Shawon’s father told newsmen in Dhaka. His father Abdus Sattar demanded an investigation into his death as “his entire body carries marks of torture”.
Under suspicion, Dhaka attack survivor dies in custody after ‘torture’
A Bangladeshi teenager who police say was a suspect in last week’s deadly attack on a Dhaka cafe has died in custody, with his family insisting he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces. Zakir Hossain Shawon, 18, a kitchen assistant at the Holey Artisan Bakery, was arrested after last week’s deadly siege by suspected Islamists in which 22 people, including 18 foreigners, died. Police killed five attackers and arrested Shawon together with another man over “suspicious activities”, treating him as a suspect -- a claim vehemently rejected by his family, who claim he was taken hostage like other victims. He died in the intensive care unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital late on Friday after five days in the clinic, police and his family said. Shawon’s father Abdus Sattar demanded an investigation into his death, saying his “innocent son and the main breadwinner of his family” died due to torture. “His whole body had marks of torture. There were marks of curdled blood in many places. One of his eyes and two knees were blackened. His wrists were blackened. It seems he was hanged by ropes tied to his wrists,” Sattar told AFP. Nur Khan Liton, the head of Ain o Salish Kendra, a leading
human rights group, said there were doubts about Shawon’s involvement in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group. “IS has named five attackers and police have identified all five. And he was not among the five,” he said. “If he was treated as an associate or helper of the attacker, police must present evidence or information.” Police and military representatives denied that Shawon had been tortured in custody. “He was held because of suspicious activities. We did not have any opportunity to interrogate him since he was injured and hospitalised,” Dhaka police spokesperson Masudur Rahman told AFP. The teenager’s father said he spoke with his son hours before the July 1 carnage, when Shawon called to say he had received a bonus payment for Eid al Fitr, the largest Muslim festival. He had planned to travel home to celebrate the occasion with the family in Dhaka’s suburb. Instead his family saw him in hospital.“He could not recognise me or his mother and thought we were his brother,” the father said. “He would cry out in his sleep, pleading with someone, “Please don’t hit me. Let me go,” he added.
Bangladesh releases images of 10 suspected terrorists, alerts India
A strict daily routine is the recipe for a long life, according to the world’s oldest priest, Belgian Jacques Clemens, who will celebrate his 107th birthday on Monday.Clemens, who has also celebrated his 80th anniversary as a Catholic priest, gets up every morning at 5.30
a.m. and goes to bed at 9.00 p.m. When Clemens was about to retire at 75, his bishop asked him to remain in service until they found a successor - he only stopped holding regular church services at his parish in the southern Belgian village of Nalinnes last year.
This image shows ten terror suspects that may have sneaked into the Indian territory from Bangladesh.The Bangladesh government has sent a list of ten possible terror suspects to the government of India.It is believed that the suspects might have sneaked into the Indian territory. The entire Indian border is being alerted with the photographs and other details of the suspects. These suspects may also have involvement in the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka in which as many as 20 persons were killed after armed assailant opened fire at an upscale cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of the Bangladeshi capital. The possibility of them
carrying out further attacks is also not being ruled out.On July 7, militants attacked Bangladeshi police guarding the country’s biggest festival marking the end of
Ramzan, killing three people and wounding 14, days after Islamic State claimed the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital and warned of more violence.
Issue - 675 (34)
12 - 18 July 2016
Charlie robot new best buddy for kids with diabetes Netherlands Cheeky Ruben is just seven and learning to read. But thanks to his new knee-high buddy Charlie robot he can expertly measure his blood sugar and count carbohydrates in a glass of milk.Such skills could be lifesavers for the blonde Dutch boy diagnosed with childhood diabetes just over a year ago. Just like other kids his age, he enjoys birthday parties, riding his bike or playing video games. But these can all play havoc with his blood sugar levels, and unlike his peers, Ruben has to learn how to navigate such potential minefields while managing a disease he will have all his life. There are roughly some 6,000 children across The Netherlands with Type 1 childhood diabetes. And at least one a year dies from the disease. Now thanks to a unique collaboration between healthcare professionals, robotics engineers and academics in the Netherlands, Italy, German and Britain, families struggling to learn about the illness and manage it on a daily basis have a new life coach on their side. He’s a friendly red-and-white robot called Charlie, with arms and legs, big round eyes and speakers disguised as ears, who can talk and dance. Some 40 Dutch children have so
far been involved in the testing the first phase of a four-year EUfunded project launched in March 2015. Young patients can chat with Charlie during clinic visits currently two hospitals in The Netherlands and one in Italy are participating. And the kids have access to Charlie’s avatar twin whenever they want on their tablets and computers at home. There’s a staggering amount to learn. “A child and a parent with diabetes thinks about diabetes every 10 to 15 minutes a day,” said paediatrician Gert Jan van der Burg, medical director at the Gelderse Vallei hospital in the Dutch town of Ede. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas fails to produce the hormone insulin needed to break down sugars in the blood to convert into glucose used for energy. These can then build up to dangerous levels. The only way to control the disease is by regularly taking in insulin either through injections or a pump. Children and parents must figure out injections, blood sugar levels, carbohydrate intake, knowing how much insulin to take. Too much or too little can cause shock, seizures and even coma. “It’s a huge burden and that’s why a lot of children with diabetes also have a lot of social
PM Turnbull’s party to continue in power, declares victory in elections
problems,” Van der Burg told AFP. Parties awash with cake, or trips to kid-friendly fast food places, sports days, even an hour on a favourite video game can all send blood sugar levels soaring dangerously too high or too low. “What must you do if you are feeling hypo?” Charlie asks Ruben in one play session, referring to hypoglycemia when blood sugars are too low. Charlie can talk - in Dutch and Italian at the moment - but the questions are also written out on a tablet in front of the child, with an answer and a line “true or false?”The mini robot is currently aimed at children between the ages of seven - as they can read a little - and 13 to 14. “We’ve noticed that he is counting his
carbohydrates much more,” said Ruben’s mum, Caroline van As. Although it’s faster if she intervenes, she knows that “he has to learn, it’s his life”. “We try to live as normal a life as possible, even if we know he could suffer for it the next day.” Unlike the more common Type 2 diabetes which develops more often in adults and results from unhealthy lifestyles, the exact cause of Type 1 is unknown. Genetics play a role, but researchers believe there is also an as yet unknown environmental factor, such as possibly a slow acting virus. The $4.5 million project called Personal Assistant for a Healthy Lifestyle (PAS) is a collaborative effort between the Dutch
Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, TNO, and its Italian and German counterparts FCSR and DFKI as well as TU Delft university and Imperial College in London. It aims to develop “a specific new kind of character that supports the children to cope with the disease, to learn what the disease is, to learn what the effects are of exercising, or food for example,” said senior research scientist Mark Neerincx, from TU Delft. For children acutely aware they are different from others, Charlie also provides “social support, that helps them to express their feelings also when they feel bad... they can tell the robot and share some experiences”.
2 Indians arrested for assaulting teenage girl in Beijing hotel lift
Melbourne Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared victory at the federal election as he addressed the media following opposition leader Bill Shorten’s concession of defeat. Speaking in Sydney, the Prime Minister thanked the Australian people, his family and the Labor leader for support, reports news.com.au. “This is a great day, a great day to thank the Australian people for the decisions they have taken in this election, and to commit to them and you our absolutely unrelenting determination to ensure that this Parliament delivers good government, wise legislation, and builds on the strengths of our economy to ensure that truly our greatest days are yet ahead of us,” Prime Minister Turnbull said. “We must ensure a strong economy in years ahead. That we maintain a successful
transition from an economy fuelled by mining and construction booms. We need to ensure that Medicare and education, health services and all those vital government services are provided for andAustralians feel secure that they are provided for and guaranteed,” he added during his victory speech. Earlier this afternoon, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten conceded defeat for the Labor Party at the federal election as addressing the media in Melbourne today he said that it was clear Malcolm Turnbull would form a government. Shorten also acknowledged that he phoned Malcolm Turnbull earlier this afternoon to congratulate him for the victory. The Coalition currently has 74 of the 76 seats needed to form a majority government, with Labor trailing behind at 66.
Beijing Two Indians were arrested for allegedly assaulting a teenage Taiwanese girl inside the lift of a
10pm on Thursday in the Beijing International Hotel in the Chinese capital’s central business district where the men and the girl and
five-star hotel in Beijing early on Friday. The two Indians, who were a part of a group of tea traders travelling through Shanghai and Beijing, were arrested after the 17-yearold girl complained to hotel authorities about the incident on Thursday night. Following her complaint, the two men aged 30 and 49, were picked up by the Jianguomen Police from the same hotel early on Friday morning. The incident occurred at around
her parents were staying. The girl’s family was visiting her elder sister, a student at the prestigious Peking University. According to the girl, the men entered the lift on the 10th floor while the girl was already inside it. First, the young man and then his older companion asked to take photographs with the girl. After clicking the photographs, the younger man forcefully kissed her and the older man then did the same. As the elevator came down to
the first floor, the girl tried to rush out but was pulled back by the older man. The duo then swiped the elevator card up to the 10th floor again and the older man assaulted her. When the lift came down to the first floor again, the victim wriggled free and escaped. During the preliminary interrogation, both suspects denied the incident, saying that the girl was making up the story. But their defence crumbled when police showed them the footage from the elevator camera that corroborated the sequence of events narrated by the girl.
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12 - 18 July 2016
Euro 2016 final again proves football’s cruelty SAINT-DENIS Football is a cruel game. Sometimes even for its winners. Cruel because Cristiano Ronaldo had to watch the victory of his life — at least one of them — from the sidelines. Portugal’s name, for the first time, is now engraved on a major trophy. But one
of the enduring memories of the European Championship final will be that Ronaldo played too small
a part in the 1-0 win against France for him to deserve being anointed as world player of the year for a fourth time. Truth is, Portugal played better without him. And cruel because France lost in the very stadium that suicide bombers attacked last November. After that horror there was a
solid argument to be made that the French would have been more endearing winners, that a pick-me-up tro-
phy could have helped speed their recovery from the trauma. And also cruel because in six games before they lost their scoring touch in the all-important seventh match, the French on balance played better football at Euro 2016 than Portugal. Wales, in the semifinals, was the only team the Portuguese beat inside of 90 minutes. Against France, it took them 109 minutes for Eder to burst through Les Bleus’ defenses, with a stunning strike. Let’s also not forget that, in Portugal, Europe has a champion that didn’t win any of its group-stage games and only squeezed into the knockout stages, with just three points, thanks to the more forgiving format adopted for this expanded first tournament with 24 teams. Critics who feel that the new system’s
addition of eight teams has come at the expense of footballing quality will doubtless argue that Portugal’s victory proves them right. But, as the French themselves say, "c’est la vie" — or, as English speakers would say, "that’s football." Because football’s stubborn refusal to follow the script is what makes it so
compelling, this final again offering strong evidence of that. Who, after all, would have penned only a cameo role for Ronaldo, now the proud owner of one type of winner’s medal that Lionel Messi doesn’t have, in Portugal’s Hollywood moment? As at Euro 2004, we again saw Ronaldo cry — this time after his left knee
buckled in a scrap for the ball in the 9th minute with Dimitri Payet. Normally, the French winger tends not to bother himself with the grunt work of tackling and defending. But Payet and his teammates were combative, even borderline aggressive, in the opening half where they quickly swarmed over Portugal’s defenses.
Humanly impossible to match-up with Mohammed Shami’s reward for Sachin Tendulkar’s legacy says Virat Kohli dedication to India: Rs. 2.2 crore
Virat Kohli is geared up to lead India in the four-Test series in the West Indies but before another hectic international season got
paring with batting maestro Sachin Tendlulkar Kohli has been in sublime form over the last year. He has been piling up runs
underway, the 27-year-old once again reminded fans and the media to stop com-
across formats and his sensational run in T20s (Internationals and the In-
dian Premier League), has been phenomenal. The aggressive Delhi batsman stamped his authority as a modern-day great and has won a lot of admirers. Cricket greats and fans alike have hailed him the best in the business and even went on to compare him with Tendulkar, after he singlehandedly helped India overcome Pakistan and Australia to see the team through to the semi-finals of the ICC World Twenty20.
Zaheer Khan likely to be appointed India’s bowling coach After the appointment of Anil Kumble as Team India’s head coach, there are now reports that former pacer Zaheer Khan is likely to become the team’s bowling coach. Sources say that Kumble was hunting for an experienced candidate who can martial his bowling trips. Zaheer did an applaudable job with the youngsters in the recently concluded In-
dian Premier League (IPL) 2016 with Delhi Daredevils. India have pacers such as
Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and others at their disposal. And Zaheer’s experience and skill will help them achieve new heights in all the formats of the game. “I have no knowledge about the availability of Zaheer as the likely candidate. It is up to the BCCI to decide on the final name.
India pacer Mohammed Shami was paid over Rs 2.2 crore last month as compensation after he missed the Indian Premier League in 2015 due to a knee injury. Shami, however, played in the World Cup despite the pain. According to the BCCI’s June, 2016 payments of over Rs 25 lakh, available on bcci.tv, Shami was paid Rs 2,23,12,500 for "Loss of pay for IPL season 2015 due to injury." Shami had played in the entire World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand and in the preceding Test series in Australia with pain. He was among the leading bowlers for the country in the mega event and played a crucial role in India reaching the semi finals of the World Cup. DEDICATION REAPS HUGE REWARD The decision to play despite an injury cost him
heavily as he was unable to play in the 2015 IPL season and underwent a sur-
gery. The BCCI has now compensated the 25-yearold UP-born paceman for his dedication to the country’s cause. In the World Cup, he picked up 17 wickets in five games and was the fifthbest bowler in the compe-
tition. Shami, who later suffered a hamstring injury when India visited Australia in January this year and missed the Asia Cup T20 championship, is now in the West Indies as a member of the Virat Kohli-led squad that is to engage the hosts in a four-Test rubber. Among other details put up by the BCCI are amounts paid as match fees for officials for this year’s IPL and the list includes former Test fast bowler Javagal Srinath (Rs 26 lakh) and exKerala Ranji Trophy leg spinner K N Ananthapadmanabhan (Rs 26 lakh). Several cricket associations affiliated to the BCCI, including permanent Test centres Mumbai CA, Cricket Association of Bengal and Tamil Nadu CA, have been given varying amounts exceeding Rs 25 lakh as their dues.
Issue 675 (36)
12 - 18 July 2016
US to send 560 more troops to Iraq, says Ashton Carter BAGHDAD The United States will send an additional 560 military personnel to Iraq to assist in its fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group, visiting defence secretary Ashton Carter announced on Monday. The increase will bring the total authorized number of American forces in Iraq, most of whom are in advisory or training roles, to more than 4,600. Earlier on Monday, Carter
held talks in Baghdad on the fight against the ISIS and the strategy to recapture Iraq’s second city Mosul from the jihadists. Carter went into a meeting with Iraqi defence minister
Khalid al-Obeidi, two days after Iraq announced the recapture of a base south of Mosul seen as an important step toward the eventual battle for the city. Mosul has been under ISIS control since June 2014, when the jihadists overran large parts of Iraq, carrying out atrocities including summary execution-style killings, mass kidnappings and rape. ISIS also holds territory in
neighbouring Syria, but has lost significant ground in both countries, and Carter wants to highlight successes, even as the jihadists have struck back with devastating at-
tacks in Iraq and abroad. ISIS has carried out bloody attacks against civilians as it lost ground, including a bombing in Baghdad earlier this month that killed 292 people, one of the deadliest to ever hit the country. “I want to congratulate you all, all of you, for the success in Ramadi, Heet, Rutba, Fallujah, Makhmur and now Qayyarah, one after another,” Carter told Obeidi. The Qayyarah airbase, which Abadi announced on Saturday had been recaptured, is located 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Mosul and can serve as a launchpad for future operations to recapture the city. The ultimate goal, Carter said, was “the recapture of all of Iraqi territory by the Iraqi security forces, but of course Mosul is the biggest part of that.” US defence officials say the campaign’s first “10 plays” have been successfully completed in the US-led counter-ISIS cam-
paign in Iraq and Syria. These steps include the recapture of several important areas across the two countries, including Ramadi in Iraq and AlShadadi, a town in northeastern Syria previously considered a strategic ISIS stronghold. Carter and President Barack Obama have been criticized for the pace of the campaign, which began in autumn 2014 and got off to a slow start, particularly in war-torn Syria, where the United States had few assets on the ground to provide targeting information. The Pentagon has announced a series of measures to speed up the war, including a revised mission to train anti-ISIS rebels in northern Syria and extra advisers for Iraqi forces. Coupled with coalition air support, the results have seen the ISIS group losing roughly half its territory in Iraq and about 20 per cent of its Syria claim, the Pentagon said. But the jihadists have struck back against civil-
ians as they lost ground. On July 3, ISIS carried out the devastating bombing targeting shoppers in Baghdad that killed 292, many of whom were burned alive, sparking widespread anger among Iraqis, some of whom have accused the government of not doing enough to protect them. Four days later, the jihadists struck a Shia shrine north the capital, leaving another 40 dead. At the meeting with Obeidi, Carter offered “condolences for the bombings
that have occurred here in the Baghdad area in recent weeks.” “You have suffered greatly,” he said.
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Pak honour killing: Woman shot dead Pakistani Christian charged with by brother, his son over affair suspicion blasphemy over WhatsApp poem
In the latest case of honour killing in Pakistan, a 36year-old woman was shot dead on Monday by her brother and his son, police said. Nasreen was shot dead by Ilyas Khan and his son Qasim in Karachi’s Orangi town area as he suspected she was having an affair with a man, while her husband was working in Saudi Arabia. A senior police official said Ilyas and his son Qasim were arrested for the honour killing. Read: Pakistan honour killings grow more brutal as older generation challenges change “Illyas with the help of his son shot dead his sister-inlaw, Nasreen, who he suspected was having an affair with a man as her
husband was working in Saudi Arabia,” senior superintendent police Akhter Farooq said. He said Illyas claimed that he and his son saw a man leaving the house in Swat colony in Orangi town today. “Moments after seeing him, they fired at him. He is under treatment at the Abbasi Shaheed hospital,” he said. Killing of women relatives in the name of honour is a menace still prevalent in many parts of Pakistan. In April, police arrested a young man in Karachi’s Orangi Town for slitting his teenage sister’s throat and watching her bleed to death. Hayat Khan used a kitchen knife to murder his
17-year-old sister Sumaira after he found her talking to a man on her mobile phone at their home. In March this year, a man shot dead both his sisters in Sahiwal district in Punjab after suspecting them of having affairs. The two sisters were killed just a few days after Pakistani documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy won an Oscar for her film, “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”, which revolved around honour killings. Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005 to prevent men who kill female relatives escaping punishment by pardoning themselves as an “heir” of the victim.
A Pakistani Christian was charged with blasphemy Monday after his Muslim friend alleged he had sent a poem on WhatsApp that insulted Islam, police said. Yasir Bashir said Nadeem James had sent him a poem on the messaging app that was derogatory about the Prophet Mohammed and other holy figures. “Police have registered a case on blasphemy charges against Nadeem James and are searching for him as he has fled his home,” a local law enforcement official told AFP on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter. Another police official said that James’ relatives had been taken into “protective
custody” and that there was increased security in Christian neighbourhoods in the town of Sara-iAlmgeer, around 160
blasphemy laws including the death penalty for insulting the prophet. A Christian couple were lynched then burnt in a
kilometres (100 miles) north of Lahore, because of local tension arising from Bashir’s complaint. Such allegations can trigger beatings and mob violence in the conservative country, which has strict
kiln in Punjab in 2014 after being falsely accused of desecrating the Koran. Rights campaigners say blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal disputes in the Muslimmajority country.
A romance for the ages: 32-yr-old pan seller marries 60-yr-old widow A local panchayat in the Muzaffarpur district of north Bihar ordered a 60-year-old widow and her lover, a 32year-old pan shop owner, to get married after the unusual couple was caught in a “compromising” position. Sushil Kumar, 32, and Sushila, 60, entered into a village panchayatsanctioned wedlock to give legal sanction to what had been a long clandestine
relationship between the two neighbours. Confirming the incident, Hattha mukhiya (village head)
Sunita Kumari said the lovers were not ready to part ways despite social pressure.
Issue 675 (37)
12 - 18 July 2016
Health Is high blood pressure an emergency? If your blood pressure goes up, but you are feeling fine, chances are you will still rush to the nearest hospital emergency room, which, according to a recent study, might be a wrong move. Visits to emergency departments for patients with hypertension increased by 64 percent between 2002 and 2012 while hospitalizations for those visits declined by 28 percent. The research from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto suggests that aggressive home monitoring of blood pressure may be driving patients to emergency departments despite the lack of other emergency conditions, such asstroke. “We encourage patients to monitor their blood pressure at home if they have been diagnosed with hypertension, but not every high blood pressure read-
ing is an emergency,” said lead study author Clare Atzema. Atzema added, “Some of the increase in emergency visits is due to the aging of
our population, but we suspect that recent public education campaigns recommending home blood pressure monitoring may have inadvertently contributed to the rise in visits for hypertension.” During the study period in which visits to Ontario emergency departments for hypertension increased from 15,793 to 25,950 per year, the proportion of patients admit-
ted to the hospital as a result decreased from 9.9 percent to 7.1 percent. Among the patients whose emergency department visit ended in admission to
the hospital, the most frequent hospital diagnoses were stroke, renal failure and heart failure. The proportion of patients arriving via ambulance increased over time, from 10.7 percent to 14.3 percent. Mortality was very low: less than 1 percent of patients died within 90 days and only 4.1 percent died within 2 years. Together, hospitalizations for stroke, heart
Brisk walk may improve memory in breast cancer survivors A new study has revealed that doing moderate-to-vigorous physical exercises such as brisk walking or jogging may boosts memory in breast cancer
survivors. The findings found that physical activity reduces stress and benefits women psychologically, which in turn aids their memory. Memory problems appear to be related to the high stress load cancer survivors experience and may not be specific to chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Siobhan Phillips, Assis-
tant Professor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago said, “Our research suggests these self-reported memory problems
may be emotionally related. These women are frightened, stressed, fatigued, tapped out emotionally and have low selfconfidence, which can be very mentally taxing and can lead to perceived memory problems”. The study were published in the journal Psycho-Oncology. The researchers looked at memory and exercise in
breast cancer survivors in two study arms - one in self-reported data for 1,477 women; the other in accelerometers worn by 362 women. The findings linking improved memory to higher levels of physical activity were consistent across both groups. In the study, more physical activity was associated with higher levels of self-confidence, lower distress and less fatigue, which in turn is associated with lower levels of perceived memory impairment. Breast cancer survivors who had higher levels of moderate and vigorous physical activity - brisk walking, biking, jogging or attending an exercise class -- had fewer subjective memory problems. Subjective memory is an individual’s perception of his/her memory.
failure, acute myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, renal failure, hypertensive encephalopathy and aortic dissection were less than 1 percent at 30 days. “Stroke remains a huge killer and we do appreciate patients with hypertension being so conscientious about monitoring their readings,” noted Atzema, adding “Patients should be aware that unless their high blood pressure coincides with symptoms of a medical emergency, such as chest pain, severe headache, nausea or shortness of breath, they probably do not need to visit the ER. We of course encourage them to follow up as soon as possible with their regular physician. If there is any doubt, come to the emergency department: we would rather have you come without an emergency than stay home with one.”
New gene discovery holds potential for cancer treatment
Researchers have discovered a new gene that controls blood vessel formation -- presenting a possible new drug target for cancer and heart disease. The joint team from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) uncovered a role for the gene, Wars2, in the process of angiogenesis - a process controlling formation of a network of blood vessels that enables the body to deliver the nutrients necessary to keep the tissues and organs alive and healthy. “Using different genetic techniques, we inhibited Wars2 function in both rats and zebrafish,
and the resulting animals showed impairment of blood vessel formation within the heart and in the rest of the body,” said Mao Wang from Duke-NUS, the co-first author of the study. To confirm the involvement of Wars2 in angiogenesis, the researchers increased the effect of Wars2 and showed that blood vessel formation was enhanced. Specifically, they were able to determine that Wars2 plays an important role in supplying sufficient endothelial cells, the building blocks of blood vessels, for angiogenesis, according to the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications.
tional Prison HIV Strategy’ is being implemented in a phased manner in the country. “Earlier in the Phase-1, ‘HIV interventions in prison settings’ project was
Prisons Department to provide adequate medical care to people lodged in Jail inmates. Mahajan said that the HIV Intervention Programme for Prisons had been
launched in February this year in eight northeastern states and is now being launched for Punjab and Chandigarh prisons. A key aspect of the program is to ensure post release referrals and linkages for various HIV prevention and treatment services,” he said. Punjab’s Principal Secretary Health, Vini Mahajan said that the state’s Health Department was committed to support the
launched by NACO for eight Central Jails in Punjab. Principal Secretary-Home (Prisons) Sanjay Kumar said that more than half of the inmates living in prisons in Punjab are undertrial prisoners and they are expected to return to the community. “Hence, initiating HIV interventions in prisons will help to halt and reverse the HIV trend in the state,” he said.
India has almost 21 lakh HIV patients A Union health ministry officer has said that India has almost 21 lakh HIV positive patients and nearly 7 lakh of them are not aware of their condition. Additional Secretary, Health cum Director General NACO (National Aids Control Organisation) Navreet Singh Kang said that there was an immediate need to identify the HIV positive patients and start their treatment. Kang was here to attend a function to launch ‘HIV prevention, treatment and care programme for Punjab prisons’ on Saturday. “There are nearly 21 lakh HIV positive patients in the country and about seven lakh of them are not even aware of their HIV positive status,” Kang said. He said that the treatment and care for those living with HIV/AIDS inside prisons should be equivalent to the treatment and care available for the general population. Kang said that the ‘Na-
Issue 675 (38)
12 - 18 July 2016
Marijuana quashes brain’s response to reward over time Smoking weed may dampen the brain’s response to reward over time and put people more at risk of becoming addicted to the drug or other substances, finds a new study. The findings showed that the reward system of the brain has been ‘hijacked’ by the drug and that the users need the drug to feel reward -- or that their emotional response has been dampened. Humans are born with an innate drive to engage in behaviours that feel rewarding and give pleasure, but over time marijuana use was associated with a lower response to a monetary reward. “This means that something that would be rewarding to most people
was no longer rewarding to them,” said Mary Heitzeg, Neuroscientist and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in the US. Further, marijuana use was also found to impact the emotional functioning of the brain. Marijuana can cause effects, including problems with emotional functioning, academic problems and even structural brain changes, said the paper published in JAMA Psychiatry. And the earlier in life someone tries marijuana, the faster their transition to becoming dependent on the drug, or other substances. “Some people may believe that marijuana is not
addictive or that it’s ‘better’ than other drugs that can cause dependence,” Heitzeg said adding, “but marijuana changes your
shown that the brains of people who use a high-inducing drug repeatedly often respond more strongly when they’re shown cues
brain in a way that may change your behaviour, and where you get your sense of reward from. It affects the brain in a way that may make it more difficult to stop using it.” Previous research has
related to that drug. The increased response means that the drug has become associated in their brains with positive, rewarding feelings. And that can make it harder to stop seeking out the drug
and using it, said the researchers. “If this is true with marijuana users, it may be that the brain can drive the use of the drug, and that this use can also affect the brain,” said lead author Meghan Martz, doctoral student at the University of Michigan. For the study, the team involved 108 people in their early 20s -- the prime age for marijuana use. All had brain scans at three points over four years. Threequarters were men, and nearly all were white. While their brain was being scanned in a functional MRI scanner, they played a game that asked them to click a button when they saw a target on a
screen in front of them. Before each round, they were told they might win 20 cents, or $5 -- or that they might lose that amount, have no reward or loss. The researchers focussed on the nucleus accumbens -- the reward centres of the volunteers’ brains. When a reward is being anticipated, the cells of the nucleus accumbens usually swing into action, pumping out dopamine -a ‘pleasure chemical.’ The bigger the response, the more pleasure or thrill a person feels and the more likely they’ll be to repeat the behaviour later. However, the more the marijuana use, the smaller was the response found in nucleus accumbens over time.
Global obesity figures miss Bring physical activity to out more than half a billion your desk to stay healthy
Though official estimates say there are 600 million obese adults in the world, a new study claims that this estimate misses out more than half a billion fat people. The study warns that by ignoring the nuances, researchers under estimateadult obesity levels by over 400-500 million. Associate professors Daniel Hruschka of Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Craig Hadley of Emory University’s Department of Anthropology are developing more accurate tools by taking a closer look at the different ways that people’s bodies are built in different places around the world. Body Mass Index (BMI), a simple ratio of weight to height, is a standard front-line tool for assessing body fat and for
identifying people who are at greater risk of fatlinked diseases, like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But, since BMI relies only on height and weight, it can mistake people who are naturally
stocky and muscular as overweight. On the flip side, naturally slender individuals may be able to pack on a great deal of body fat before standard BMI cutoffs identify these slender individuals as overweight or obese. Organisations in some countries, such as Japan
and China, have begun to propose modified cutoffs for assessing obesity and obesity-linked risk that are more appropriate for more slender body builds often found in East Asia. However, there is still no clear consensus how to adjust BMI cutoffs to deal with these population differences worldwide. The researchers’ proposed solution to these biases relies on the idea of “basal slenderness.” This is the expected BMI in a population before it begins to add excess fat due to urbanisation, increasing opportunities for consumption of highcalorie foods and other changes due to modernisation. Adjusting BMI for a population’s basal slenderness gives each population a cutoff that reflects the amount of a person’s BMI that is due to body fat versus other body tissues.
You may want to increase your movement at work as a recent study has found a positive link between mood, motivation and physical activity during work and study. Researcher June J. Pilcher studied the cognitive effects of physical activity workstations and traditional desks on Clemson student volunteers. The results of the study suggest the inclusion of light physical activity during work or study has positive effects without detracting from work or study effectiveness. According to Pilcher, working in sedentary environments might not be harmful in the short term, but this type of behavior is related to long-term chronic disease and physical frailty. “We hurt ourselves by working in conditions that encourage sedentary activity,” Pilcher said, “but incorporating physical activity in a practical way in the workplace may actually improve physical and mental health without detracting from our ability to work
or study effectively.” Pilcher first looked into treadmill workstations, but their cost, size and physical demands on the user
and then completed surveys at each desk condition. Pilcher was happy to find that complex cognitive per-
detracted from their practical use in research or use in an office, school setting or home. She instead settled on the FitDesk Bike, an ergonomic, stationary bike and laptop workstation used in business and higher education. The study compared the performance of 38 students working at traditional desks and the FitDesks. Participants completed a logical reasoning task and a pattern recognition task
formance was similar and stable when using the FitDesk and the traditional desk. This suggests no drawback to the use of light physical movement while at work or study. In addition, the study found that positive effect, motivation and morale increased when using the FitDesk, but not the traditional desk. “Those findings were particularly striking to me,” Pilcher said. “Improving positive effect could mean improved problem-solving, decision-making, responsibility and creativity, all important implications for the workplace.”
Strawberries, Greek yogurt for weight loss - Are you eating them wrong? Regular exercise is key to building muscle and losing fat, but eating well and avoiding unhealthy foods are important in order to shed those extra kilos fast. But, it’s not just the food you eat, in fact the way you eat them matters when it comes to maximum fatburning! Below are a few tips on how you should be eating these foods, considered best for weight loss: Tomatoes Extremely low in calories and
high in nutrients, tomatoes have plenty of reasons that can help you lose weight and slim down. Unlike other veggies, tomatoes are more nutritious when cooked. That’s because cooking increases concentrations of lycopene, the predominant carotenoid found in tomatoes. Strawberries Who doesn’t like to bite that juicy strawberry? While the idea of eating pre-sliced
strawberries might seem easier and convenient, it’s best to eat them whole or
slice them right before eating. If you cut them much before eating, the fat-burning
vitamin content of these sweet treats can be compromised due to prolonged exposure to oxygen. Greek yogurt Yes, you’ve heard the difference between regular and Greek yogurt. But, it’s possible that you’re prabably unaware about this magical trick – water that usually settles on the top of the container – from which you can get the most of fat-burning properties.
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POLISH WHITE BORSCHT Ingredients: 2 lb. smoked kielbasa 2 tbsp. unsalted butter 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 leeks, trimmed, sliced 1 small yellow onion, sliced 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1? cubes 2 sprigs marjoram 1 bay leaf, 1 1/2 cups sour cream 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup freshly grated horseradish, Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1/4 cup roughly chopped dill 2 tbsp. chopped parsley 4 boiled eggs, cut into wedges (See How to Hard Boil Eggs) Instructions: Boil kielbasa and 8 cups water in a 6-
qt. saucepan. Reduce heat to mediumlow; cook to flavor broth, about 25 minutes. Pour liquid and kielbasa into a bowl; reserve. Return saucepan to medium heat. Add butter, garlic, leeks, and onion; cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add reserved liquid, potatoes, marjoram, and bay leaf; boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Discard marjoram and bay leaf; purée soup in a blender. Return soup to pot; bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk sour cream and flour in a bowl, add 1/2 cup soup, and whisk until smooth. Pour mixture into soup; cook, stirring, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Cut kielbasa into 1/2?-thick slices; add to soup along with horseradish, salt, and pepper. Garnish with dill, parsley, and eggs.
BANANAS FOSTER
Ingredients: 12 oz. Jerusalem artichokes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and thinly sliced 12 oz. Comté cheese, thinly sliced Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste Flour, for dusting 1 (17-oz.) box frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed 1 egg, lightly beaten Instructions: Heat oven to 325°. Line the inside of a 9" x 13" baking dish with parchment paper. Arrange artichokes and cheese together in two layers in dish, seasoning with salt and pepper between layers. Bake until artichokes are tender when pierced with the tip of a paring
knife, about 30 minutes. Let filling cool. Increase oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll puff pastry sheets until 1/3" thick. Using a 6" round cutter, cut out 6 circles, reusing scraps as needed. Divide filling between centers of circles. Fold circles in half; pinch edges to seal. Transfer pasties to a parchment paper–lined baking sheet. Brush with egg; bake until golden and crisp, about 35 minutes.
ISRAELI COUS COUS Ingredients: 2 tbsp. olive oil 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped 1 carrot, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into 1/ 2-inch pieces (fronds reserved for garnish) 1 cup Israeli cous cous 2 cups chicken stock 1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro 1/3 cup finely chopped mint 2 tbsp. store-bought or homemade ras el hanout 1 English cucumber, halved, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces Zest and juice from 2 oranges Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Instructions: Heat oil in a 4-qt. saucepan over me-
Ingredients: 8 tbsp. unsalted butter 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/4 cup banana liqueur 4 bananas, peeled and quartered 1/4 cup white rum Vanilla ice cream, for serving Instructions: Melt butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a 12" heatproof skillet over mediumhigh heat. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, 4 minutes. Add liqueur and bananas; cook, until bananas are soft and slightly caramelized, 4-6 minutes. Add rum, and using a match or lighter, ignite to flambe; cook until flame dies out. Spoon bananas and sauce over ice cream.
PRESERVED LEMONS Ingredients: 1 tsp. each coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and whole black peppercorns (or use whatever other seasonings you like) 1/4 cup kosher salt 6 lemons 2 cups fresh lemon juice 2 fresh bay leaves Instructions: Toast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and whole black peppercorns in an 8" skillet over medium-high until seeds pop, 1–2 minutes. Let cool and mix with 1/4 cup kosher salt in a bowl. Quarter 6 lemons lengthwise so that they stay attached by 1/2" at the stem ends; stuff lemons with salt mixture. Transfer lemons to a sterilized 1-qt. glass jar. Add 2 cups fresh lemon juice and 2 fresh bay leaves. Seal jar with a
ARTICHOKE AND COMTÉ PASTIES
dium-high; add garlic and shallot and cook 2 minutes, or until soft. Add carrot and fennel and cook 3 minutes more. Add cous cous and toast 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer cous cous until tender, 12-15 minutes. Stir in cilantro, mint, ras el hanout, cucumber, orange zest and juice, salt, and pepper; transfer to a serving platter and garnish with reserved fennel fronds. Serve with pan seared snapper, if you like.
SIMNEL MARZIPAN BONBONS
tight-fitting lid and set in a dark place, shaking jar every other day or so, until lemons are soft, about 1 month. Refrigerate after opening, and use within 6 months. Makes 1 quart.
Ingredients: 2 cups almond meal 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup superfine sugar 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. ground cloves 1 tsp. brandy 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice 1 tsp. honey 1/4 tsp. almond extract 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract 1 egg plus 1 yolk Blowtorch, for caramelizing Instructions: Whisk almond meal, sugars, cinnamon, and cloves in a bowl until combined; set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk brandy, lemon juice, honey, extracts, egg, and yolk until smooth. Stir
wet ingredients into dry; using your hands, knead mixture until smooth. Divide mixture into thirty-eight 1/2-oz. balls and place on a baking sheet. Using a blowtorch, torch tops of bonbons until lightly caramelized, 30 seconds to 1 minute. They can be rolled and chilled for up to 2 days before being caramelized.
Issue 675 (40)
12 - 18 July 2016
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